Welcome to a feature called "Writing Blind." In this series, I will be writing about seasons of television that I watched in the past year or so, but failed to write about at the time. I call it writing blind, because I will be sharing my thoughts months after I have already finished the season. This is both because I want to write about these seasons, but don't have the time to re-watch them and because it is a challenge to hopefully improve my writing.
The writer's strike could have not come at a worse time creatively for Supernatural. Normally, I think Supernatural can get by and maybe even benefit from airing less than 22 episodes per season. But the second season ended as quite the set-up for an amazing third season. Dean had just sold his soul to bring Sam back to life and over 100 demons escaped from hell.
So a few natural developments occur as a result of this: Sam deals with the fact that he should be dead, Dean prepares for his life to end in one year, and they both try to find a way to get Dean out of his deal. In addition, they need to try and kill the demons who escaped from hell. This is a lot to deal with and I'm sure the writers wanted to space it out accordingly. But then after 12 episodes, the writer's strike happened, interrupting their story. They were able to finish four more episodes for the third season once the strike happened, but the end result makes this season feel rushed.
This season introduces several new characters, who unfortunately were limited by the budget in how the series could use them. Sterling K Brown (making a name for himself currently on The People vs. OJ Simpson as Christopher Darden) was supposed to appear in more episodes, but due to another commitment, only appeared in two. Nonetheless, he features a darker side of what Sam and Dean do. He kills at any cost anything that is not human. Thus, he is dedicated to killing Sam, because he is supposed to be dead.
I really liked Sterling K Brown in this role and am very much not surprised at how he's killing it for American Crime Story. It's disappointing that he couldn't be in more episodes, as he provides a moral counterpart to what the two brothers do. Ultimately, he's clearly set up as a season-long adversary in his first appearance, it just didn't work out. It adds to the rushed feeling of this season when he dies in his second appearance. He would have been an interesting villain and turning him into a vampire was sort of an easy out for the brothers to kill him.
It also introduces another character who I think the writers wanted to keep, but again budget reasons meant they needed to drop her character for the next season. Lauren Cohen plays a thief who steals supernatural elements for a profit. She's basically like a spy who will sell anything to the highest bidder, no matter what the bidder will do. This presents a natural problem for the brothers, as the item in question is usually evil. I guess the writers were really interested in making characters who present big problems for Sam and Dean, but who they couldn't really kill because they weren't demons or explicitly evil.
Apparently, the studio was interested in Supernatural making their stakes more epic for the third season, which creator Eric Kripke warned would mean they'd need a bigger budget. The studio allowed it, but the first episode went way over budget, so the studio backed down. Thus, they were forced to make an epic story, but were extremely limited on the budget. This leads to the writers still figuring out what to do in the first few episodes as they needed to deal with those two conflicting things.
Nonetheless, Kripke believes that the season started hitting its stride on its eighth episode and I think I'd have to agree with him. The eight episode is "A Very Supernatural Christmas" which is an unusually sweet episode as the brothers decide whether to celebrate Christmas, with Sam decorating the motel room at the end, wanting to celebrate it. Of course, it also features a creepy demonic couple so it's not all sweet.
"Dream a Little Dream of Me" puts Bobby (the great Jim Beaver) in peril as he's in a dream that he can't get out of and will eventually kill him. The dream puts you in your worst nightmare and makes you face your worst fear. This leads to Dean confronting the fact that he is not ready to die yet, even as his time appears to approaching. "Mystery Spot" is maybe one the greatest Supernatural episodes ever as Sam has to constantly watch Dean die in a Groundhog Day type episode.
The midseason finale - the last episode before the strike - "Jus in Bello" has the brothers searching for the Colt that Bela (Cohen) stole from them in the last episode. But she tips off recurring character FBI agent Victor Henrikson, who is determined to catch them. But they got bigger issues as they are locked in a cell, with a demon running around killing people and possessing them, and no weapons. So they need to convince Henrikson they are really demon hunters and then try and save everyone in the police station. It's a great setup for an episode.
This season also introduces the bumbling idiots who make "Ghostfacers," an endless source of comedy from Ben Edlund. The last two episodes feature Sam and Dean trying to find the Colt that can kill anything and trying to save Dean before his time runs out. Since this is a television show, we suspect Dean isn't going to hell, but woe and behold, the season ends with him in hell for a lifetime of misery. It's a hell of a cliffhanger, one that the show would have to necessarily back down from.
I didn't find a way to add in Ruby, the demon who reveals that demons are simply humans who have lost their soul in hell. But Ruby still remembers being a human so she's not quite the same as most demons - who you can kill free of conscience because they are pure evil. She is wonderfully acted by Katie Cassidy. I don't know why they couldn't get Cassidy back for the fourth season, but I sure wish they had because her replacement is dreadful. Alas, a conversation for the next season.
Everything about this season felt rushed to me even though it didn't necessarily hamper my enjoyment of it. I spent most of the first few episodes wondering how they were going to wrap up so much plot in less episodes and the later episodes thinking they could have done more with the premise they had set up. But they were stuck by a limited budget, a grand idea, and a strike-shortened season, so they did the best they could.
Grade - B+
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Monday, March 28, 2016
UnReal S1 Review
Does this show sound like it would be good? A fictional behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of a reality dating show and the producers who manipulate people to get the results they want. Reality dating shows are both an easy target and well-worn comedic territory at this point. Making it a drama doesn't inherently seem that interesting either. Did I mention it airs on the Lifetime network?
As unlikely as it sounds, UnReal is a good show. It's not great, but it's much better than I anticipated and much better than it has any right to be. I assume UnReal might be the type of show better enjoyed by people not into reality dating shows - or reality shows in general. For one thing, the verisimilitude of the show is not too high. It's not a huge issue in enjoying the show, but I strongly suspect it's not altogether close to how reality TV works in real life. Some reality show TV watchers may care about that. For another thing, well, it's clearly an indictment on reality dating shows (and basically any reality show that involves producers probably making a not unsubstantial impact on how characters act)
In that vein, UnReal is best understood as a character study. The protagonist of the story, Rachel, is a highly effective and manipulative producer. She is exceptionally good at her job, but she still has a thing called a conscience. Being good at manipulating people to do what you want to make good television and having a conscience aren't things that go together that well. The central mystery behind Rachel is she hates what her job makes her do, but she also she likes being really good at her job.
She's not completely irredeemable. She broke down on the last season of "Everlasting" (the name of the show within the show) which led to her being broke, about to be kicked out of her rent-sharing apartment, and with nowhere to go. With no money, she is incentivized by cash bonuses to produce results such as pushing some of the girls - unknowingly - into being villains for the sake of the show. "The know what they signed up for" is a common refrain of the producers of the show - it must have been said about 10 times throughout the season - but it is pretty clear they don't. They are cut off from the world, fed lines by a producer that may or may not be true (and said producers tend to be clever about it - in ideal circumstances, the girls have no idea they are being manipulated), and they kind of just have to hope that they aren't portrayed badly.
Rachel's boss, Quinn, is a walking contradiction of sorts. She is very cynical about love and seems willing to do just about anything to get ratings. She's ruthless and cold. But she also clearly believes in the idea of love, because of her relationship with Chet. She also seems to look out for her own. She gives Rachel a second chance, although she basically blackmails her, but she truly believes she knows what's best for her.
Among the contestants, only a few stand out. In fact, the competition isn't even the point for most of the episodes. There is no suspense as to who will be cut until the very later episodes, not because we know who will be cut, but because the show doesn't even pretend to care about cutting the nameless women who exit every episode. Anna, played by Johanna Brady (Quantico), is pretty clearly going to be one of the last ones standing early on in the show. The Everlasting producers aim to make her a villain - and villains as I understand reality dating shows are guaranteed a certain number of weeks - despite the fact that she is extremely sweet and one of the nicest characters on the show.
There's also Faith, who is at first a stereotypical country bumpkin, who is frankly great for television. One of the false notes of the show is that the producers constantly wanted to get her off the show, because... they thought she acted like a man and was "unattractive." (The characters are despicable enough that I'm going to give the show the benefit of the doubt here and assume this is a commentary on what TV considers unattractive) It was a false note, because it seems like they would love her brand of awkwardness and country slang, which would probably lead to clips of them making fun of her (which they do.)
There's also Grace, played by Nathalie Kelly (best known for, um, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift before this), who quickly gets painted as a "slut." ("Sluts get cut" is another thing the producers say a few times, which I'm pretty sure is definitely not true.) There's Mary, who plays the role of desperate single mother (God I hope that's not really a thing, but it seems like it would be a thing) Lastly, they pay lip service to racism on the show that inspired this one, but then they don't give either of the two black characters on their show anything interesting to do. One of them is happy to be the "Omarosa" of the season, because she's just in it for the attention, and the other is there to complain about the absurdity of how this is a waste of her time, all the while the show is wasting the actress' time giving her nothing to do.
They all vie for the attention, love, and hopeful marriage to Adam Cromwell. Cromwell is English royalty, but he's on the show to rehabilitate his image. He's also there to prove to his father that he doesn't need him. So he pretty much matches the cynicism and fakeness of the producers as it's clear he isn't interested in finding true love
One of the main storylines of the first season is the "love triangle" of Adam, Rachel, and The Blandest (Jeremy). The Adam-Rachel part works just fine, based off the chemistry of Freddie Stroma, and Shirri Appleby. But Jeremy sucks so much as a character. He's the blandest bland of bland that ever blanded. He also doesn't seem like a nice guy at all and he's kind of portrayed as the "nice" safe choice for Rachel. He and Rachel have the history and they sure aren't convincing. Appleby is otherwise fantastic so I can only assume that it's Josh Kelly's fault. He starts off the season with a fiancee, and I'll never see a more fitting term than Blonde Extra #1.
As I said before, this is a character study and with any character study, you watch it because the actors and the writers have crafted such well-realized characters. (The best example is Mad Men.) There are essentially three complex characters that make the show worth watching: Rachel, Quinn, and Adam. I've never seen Appleby in anything before this, but she sure seems perfectly cast. Similarly, Constance Zimmer is captivating every minute she's on screen as Quinn. Those two immediately seem to get into their characters, whereas it takes longer to get accustomed to Stroma, but he sure grew on me as the season went on.
Like I said before, I don't think this show is great. There are too many dead weights as characters. It sometimes feels like the show is manipulating me like the producers are manipulating the contestants. It tended to go a little too far at certain points in darkness. There's also a fine line between sympathetic characters with serious flaws to characters who you have no interest in being invested in because their actions are too terrible - and they may have gone on the wrong side of that line in this season. But overall, it's a strong first season with great performances. Better yet, I am excited to see what they can do in season two, because the potential is there for it to become a great show.
Grade - B
As unlikely as it sounds, UnReal is a good show. It's not great, but it's much better than I anticipated and much better than it has any right to be. I assume UnReal might be the type of show better enjoyed by people not into reality dating shows - or reality shows in general. For one thing, the verisimilitude of the show is not too high. It's not a huge issue in enjoying the show, but I strongly suspect it's not altogether close to how reality TV works in real life. Some reality show TV watchers may care about that. For another thing, well, it's clearly an indictment on reality dating shows (and basically any reality show that involves producers probably making a not unsubstantial impact on how characters act)
In that vein, UnReal is best understood as a character study. The protagonist of the story, Rachel, is a highly effective and manipulative producer. She is exceptionally good at her job, but she still has a thing called a conscience. Being good at manipulating people to do what you want to make good television and having a conscience aren't things that go together that well. The central mystery behind Rachel is she hates what her job makes her do, but she also she likes being really good at her job.
She's not completely irredeemable. She broke down on the last season of "Everlasting" (the name of the show within the show) which led to her being broke, about to be kicked out of her rent-sharing apartment, and with nowhere to go. With no money, she is incentivized by cash bonuses to produce results such as pushing some of the girls - unknowingly - into being villains for the sake of the show. "The know what they signed up for" is a common refrain of the producers of the show - it must have been said about 10 times throughout the season - but it is pretty clear they don't. They are cut off from the world, fed lines by a producer that may or may not be true (and said producers tend to be clever about it - in ideal circumstances, the girls have no idea they are being manipulated), and they kind of just have to hope that they aren't portrayed badly.
Rachel's boss, Quinn, is a walking contradiction of sorts. She is very cynical about love and seems willing to do just about anything to get ratings. She's ruthless and cold. But she also clearly believes in the idea of love, because of her relationship with Chet. She also seems to look out for her own. She gives Rachel a second chance, although she basically blackmails her, but she truly believes she knows what's best for her.
Among the contestants, only a few stand out. In fact, the competition isn't even the point for most of the episodes. There is no suspense as to who will be cut until the very later episodes, not because we know who will be cut, but because the show doesn't even pretend to care about cutting the nameless women who exit every episode. Anna, played by Johanna Brady (Quantico), is pretty clearly going to be one of the last ones standing early on in the show. The Everlasting producers aim to make her a villain - and villains as I understand reality dating shows are guaranteed a certain number of weeks - despite the fact that she is extremely sweet and one of the nicest characters on the show.
There's also Faith, who is at first a stereotypical country bumpkin, who is frankly great for television. One of the false notes of the show is that the producers constantly wanted to get her off the show, because... they thought she acted like a man and was "unattractive." (The characters are despicable enough that I'm going to give the show the benefit of the doubt here and assume this is a commentary on what TV considers unattractive) It was a false note, because it seems like they would love her brand of awkwardness and country slang, which would probably lead to clips of them making fun of her (which they do.)
There's also Grace, played by Nathalie Kelly (best known for, um, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift before this), who quickly gets painted as a "slut." ("Sluts get cut" is another thing the producers say a few times, which I'm pretty sure is definitely not true.) There's Mary, who plays the role of desperate single mother (God I hope that's not really a thing, but it seems like it would be a thing) Lastly, they pay lip service to racism on the show that inspired this one, but then they don't give either of the two black characters on their show anything interesting to do. One of them is happy to be the "Omarosa" of the season, because she's just in it for the attention, and the other is there to complain about the absurdity of how this is a waste of her time, all the while the show is wasting the actress' time giving her nothing to do.
They all vie for the attention, love, and hopeful marriage to Adam Cromwell. Cromwell is English royalty, but he's on the show to rehabilitate his image. He's also there to prove to his father that he doesn't need him. So he pretty much matches the cynicism and fakeness of the producers as it's clear he isn't interested in finding true love
One of the main storylines of the first season is the "love triangle" of Adam, Rachel, and The Blandest (Jeremy). The Adam-Rachel part works just fine, based off the chemistry of Freddie Stroma, and Shirri Appleby. But Jeremy sucks so much as a character. He's the blandest bland of bland that ever blanded. He also doesn't seem like a nice guy at all and he's kind of portrayed as the "nice" safe choice for Rachel. He and Rachel have the history and they sure aren't convincing. Appleby is otherwise fantastic so I can only assume that it's Josh Kelly's fault. He starts off the season with a fiancee, and I'll never see a more fitting term than Blonde Extra #1.
As I said before, this is a character study and with any character study, you watch it because the actors and the writers have crafted such well-realized characters. (The best example is Mad Men.) There are essentially three complex characters that make the show worth watching: Rachel, Quinn, and Adam. I've never seen Appleby in anything before this, but she sure seems perfectly cast. Similarly, Constance Zimmer is captivating every minute she's on screen as Quinn. Those two immediately seem to get into their characters, whereas it takes longer to get accustomed to Stroma, but he sure grew on me as the season went on.
Like I said before, I don't think this show is great. There are too many dead weights as characters. It sometimes feels like the show is manipulating me like the producers are manipulating the contestants. It tended to go a little too far at certain points in darkness. There's also a fine line between sympathetic characters with serious flaws to characters who you have no interest in being invested in because their actions are too terrible - and they may have gone on the wrong side of that line in this season. But overall, it's a strong first season with great performances. Better yet, I am excited to see what they can do in season two, because the potential is there for it to become a great show.
Grade - B
Sunday, March 27, 2016
Daredevil Season 2 Review
I have a confession to make: I remember very little about season one of Daredevil. I don't know how quick that season jolted out of my memory, but it definitely was gone by November when I was considering my top ten dramas of the year. I ended up writing about 20 shows and Daredevil didn't even get a mention. Its Netflix counterpart, Jessica Jones, got a mention because I remembered it, although I couldn't honestly tell you which show was better because - again - I didn't remember the first season of Daredevil at all.
The second season is less a cohesive season and more a series of mini-arcs. For example, the first four episodes are about the Punisher, the next four are about Elektra, the rest about The Hand and Black Sky. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the basic framework of the season. I don't remember a lot about the first season, but I do know that the entire season was pretty focused on Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdock.
It's hard to make Charlie Cox unlikable. He's an effortlessly charismatic performer. With that said, I felt like Matt Murdock was pretty unlikable for most of this season. Probably due to my fatigue at superheroes in general, I just find his moralizing tiring. When you watch a superhero who has a code of not killing, one of the things you just have to accept is that they "know" how not to kill someone when they are literally bashing their skulls and kicking their ass. That's not to mention the probable long-term brain damage more than a few of the guys he fights are facing going forward. You just kind of have to put that part out of your brain or it will drive you nuts.
Still though man... he basically spends this whole season telling both the Punisher and Elektra not to kill and it's just not really a debate I'm interested in at all. There's just certain moments where it stretches credulity. There are scenes where both characters' lives are threatened by multiple people and instead of fighting the bad guys, Daredevil decides it is better to make sure the one helping him doesn't kill the bad guys. It defuses the tension because the bad guys are so incompetent that they can't even beat two superheroes who are fighting each other.
Speaking of the Punisher and Elektra, both characters are unqualified successes. Jon Berthal surprised the hell out of me with his portrayal - Shane on Walking Dead should not go on his acting resume though I don't think that was his fault. Elodie Yung as Elektra is captivating whose chemistry with Cox allows for their mutual attraction and backstory to be believable. (That said, I had a major problem with one of their last scenes of the season of which I will not talk about because most of you haven't finished.)
The binge-nature of watching Daredevil comes at a curse at times. The Matt-Karen romance suffers from this. When a new episode airs every week and not all at once, it's not that atypical for a TV relationship to only last three episodes. But here it's jarring how quickly they break up. Plus, the show ended it in the worst way. Karen has been shown to be a reasonable, thoughtful woman. She walks in on Matt with a woman in his bed, but there was also an old blind man there and I feel like that's going to raise some questions. Matt wasn't even in a compromising position. But she assumes the worst, because the plot needed it to happen and that romance felt like filler and pointless.
While I was never a huge fan of Matt's constant sermonizing to the Punisher about how he shouldn't kill, it at least kind of worked in a way where I imagine I'm on a lonely island with that opinion. But it came off worse when he did the same to Elektra. It was like a rehash of his conversations with the Punisher except this time it's a man telling a woman he knows what's best for her.
If there was a rule that there can never be too many ninjas, Daredevil breaks that rule and then breaks it again. It just lowered the stakes when he and Elektra could fight 10 ninjas at once. Then they did again the next episode. Then they did it again. And again. And about two more times. And about five times in the last episode. So many ninjas.
Another curse of the binge-watch? Holy crap did Black Sky make absolutely no sense to me. What is Black Sky? Why is important? Why does it matter? What power do you hold? The purposeful mystery of the Black Sky unfortunately was too much. You need to answer some questions. We need to know why it's a big deal. Why were they trying to kill Elektra before, but then later in the season, they started not trying to kill her even though both times they presumably knew she was the Black Sky? If she can just tell The Hand what to do, why doesn't she just become Black Sky and make them good? Seriously I don't get it! And Stick is so well-acted by Scott Glenn, that nobody notices how much a mess his character motivations are. He wants her to make Daredevil kill for some reason, but then he wants to kill her because she's Black Sky but he's known that all his life, except later he doesn't want to kill her even though nothing has changed.
I'm being more negative on this review than I am on the season, but just bare with me for a little more negativity. Foggy: he's another character where I feel like I'm supposed to be on his side, but he just comes across as so smug and superior. Also I feel like the show wants me to think he's some fantastic lawyer, but here's the evidence this season: one decent opening statement and making Samantha Reyes look foolish on multiple occasions. But Reyes does nothing smart at all this season and seems dumb so that latter part isn't really an accomplishment. Also, I don't think Karen is a very good writer (lol at her getting a writing job for a reputable newspaper with presumably no degree, no experience and no material), although her investigative skills are great.
On to the bright sides of this season, there are a few fights that live up to the hallway fight of season one. The staircase fight and the prison"fight" both shine and if you've seen both, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. In fact, those fights are so good and so well-filmed, that the fights in the last climactic episode come as a bit of a letdown.
Also, and I've mentioned this already, but pretty much everyone seems perfectly cast. Whatever my problems with this season, none of it is due to the actors. I've already praised Cox, Bernthal, and Yung, but it's easy to forget how good Deborah Ann Woll is in this. She doesn't have a showy part or get to kick ass like the others, but she consistently kills with her performance. Also Vincent D'Onorfio comes in, dominates his scenes, and makes you wish he was in more episodes. Maybe season 3?
Anyway, I feel like I'm just going to have to accept that these superhero series are going to have plot holes, questionable character decisions to further the plot, and things that make no damn sense if you think about it for too long. With the exception of characters making decisions that seem out of character, I'm willing to accept most of these things. Daredevil's second season is ultimately guilty of being too ambition. It juggled 1) the central hero's moral conflict with killing due to his Catholic faith 2) two vigilantes who have no qualms with killing 3) an ancient, evil cult ninja organization 4) a conspiracy by the DA against the murder of Frank Castle's family (a good example of how dumb Reyes is) and 5) a law firm that is for people who have nowhere else to turn. That's too much.
Grade (Man I have even less idea of what to grade this than normal so don't be mad at the grade): B
The second season is less a cohesive season and more a series of mini-arcs. For example, the first four episodes are about the Punisher, the next four are about Elektra, the rest about The Hand and Black Sky. It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the basic framework of the season. I don't remember a lot about the first season, but I do know that the entire season was pretty focused on Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdock.
It's hard to make Charlie Cox unlikable. He's an effortlessly charismatic performer. With that said, I felt like Matt Murdock was pretty unlikable for most of this season. Probably due to my fatigue at superheroes in general, I just find his moralizing tiring. When you watch a superhero who has a code of not killing, one of the things you just have to accept is that they "know" how not to kill someone when they are literally bashing their skulls and kicking their ass. That's not to mention the probable long-term brain damage more than a few of the guys he fights are facing going forward. You just kind of have to put that part out of your brain or it will drive you nuts.
Still though man... he basically spends this whole season telling both the Punisher and Elektra not to kill and it's just not really a debate I'm interested in at all. There's just certain moments where it stretches credulity. There are scenes where both characters' lives are threatened by multiple people and instead of fighting the bad guys, Daredevil decides it is better to make sure the one helping him doesn't kill the bad guys. It defuses the tension because the bad guys are so incompetent that they can't even beat two superheroes who are fighting each other.
Speaking of the Punisher and Elektra, both characters are unqualified successes. Jon Berthal surprised the hell out of me with his portrayal - Shane on Walking Dead should not go on his acting resume though I don't think that was his fault. Elodie Yung as Elektra is captivating whose chemistry with Cox allows for their mutual attraction and backstory to be believable. (That said, I had a major problem with one of their last scenes of the season of which I will not talk about because most of you haven't finished.)
The binge-nature of watching Daredevil comes at a curse at times. The Matt-Karen romance suffers from this. When a new episode airs every week and not all at once, it's not that atypical for a TV relationship to only last three episodes. But here it's jarring how quickly they break up. Plus, the show ended it in the worst way. Karen has been shown to be a reasonable, thoughtful woman. She walks in on Matt with a woman in his bed, but there was also an old blind man there and I feel like that's going to raise some questions. Matt wasn't even in a compromising position. But she assumes the worst, because the plot needed it to happen and that romance felt like filler and pointless.
While I was never a huge fan of Matt's constant sermonizing to the Punisher about how he shouldn't kill, it at least kind of worked in a way where I imagine I'm on a lonely island with that opinion. But it came off worse when he did the same to Elektra. It was like a rehash of his conversations with the Punisher except this time it's a man telling a woman he knows what's best for her.
If there was a rule that there can never be too many ninjas, Daredevil breaks that rule and then breaks it again. It just lowered the stakes when he and Elektra could fight 10 ninjas at once. Then they did again the next episode. Then they did it again. And again. And about two more times. And about five times in the last episode. So many ninjas.
Another curse of the binge-watch? Holy crap did Black Sky make absolutely no sense to me. What is Black Sky? Why is important? Why does it matter? What power do you hold? The purposeful mystery of the Black Sky unfortunately was too much. You need to answer some questions. We need to know why it's a big deal. Why were they trying to kill Elektra before, but then later in the season, they started not trying to kill her even though both times they presumably knew she was the Black Sky? If she can just tell The Hand what to do, why doesn't she just become Black Sky and make them good? Seriously I don't get it! And Stick is so well-acted by Scott Glenn, that nobody notices how much a mess his character motivations are. He wants her to make Daredevil kill for some reason, but then he wants to kill her because she's Black Sky but he's known that all his life, except later he doesn't want to kill her even though nothing has changed.
I'm being more negative on this review than I am on the season, but just bare with me for a little more negativity. Foggy: he's another character where I feel like I'm supposed to be on his side, but he just comes across as so smug and superior. Also I feel like the show wants me to think he's some fantastic lawyer, but here's the evidence this season: one decent opening statement and making Samantha Reyes look foolish on multiple occasions. But Reyes does nothing smart at all this season and seems dumb so that latter part isn't really an accomplishment. Also, I don't think Karen is a very good writer (lol at her getting a writing job for a reputable newspaper with presumably no degree, no experience and no material), although her investigative skills are great.
On to the bright sides of this season, there are a few fights that live up to the hallway fight of season one. The staircase fight and the prison"fight" both shine and if you've seen both, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about. In fact, those fights are so good and so well-filmed, that the fights in the last climactic episode come as a bit of a letdown.
Also, and I've mentioned this already, but pretty much everyone seems perfectly cast. Whatever my problems with this season, none of it is due to the actors. I've already praised Cox, Bernthal, and Yung, but it's easy to forget how good Deborah Ann Woll is in this. She doesn't have a showy part or get to kick ass like the others, but she consistently kills with her performance. Also Vincent D'Onorfio comes in, dominates his scenes, and makes you wish he was in more episodes. Maybe season 3?
Anyway, I feel like I'm just going to have to accept that these superhero series are going to have plot holes, questionable character decisions to further the plot, and things that make no damn sense if you think about it for too long. With the exception of characters making decisions that seem out of character, I'm willing to accept most of these things. Daredevil's second season is ultimately guilty of being too ambition. It juggled 1) the central hero's moral conflict with killing due to his Catholic faith 2) two vigilantes who have no qualms with killing 3) an ancient, evil cult ninja organization 4) a conspiracy by the DA against the murder of Frank Castle's family (a good example of how dumb Reyes is) and 5) a law firm that is for people who have nowhere else to turn. That's too much.
Grade (Man I have even less idea of what to grade this than normal so don't be mad at the grade): B
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Writing Blind: Oz S3
Welcome to a feature called "Writing Blind." In this series, I will be writing about seasons of television that I watched in the past year or so, but failed to write about at the time. I call it writing blind, because I will be sharing my thoughts months after I have already finished the season. This is both because I want to write about these seasons, but don't have the time to re-watch them and because it is a challenge to hopefully improve my writing.
Oz was a revolutionary show for its time. I'm not sure there's a better example of a show whose impact vastly exceeds its quality. This was the first HBO drama. This set the stage for every other prestige HBO drama. I don't want to heap too much credit on Oz, because it's likely that the HBO brass were very dedicated to having a brand of making quality television early on in their process, but it's one thing for that to be a goal and it's another thing to make it happen.
Oz is a show reliant on shocks. It's not very character-based. It's schizophrenic, impatient, constantly trying to keep your attention. Season three is a case of diminishing returns. It's essentially a soap opera, except people stay dead when they are killed. It's an entertaining soap opera and about ten times more violent than any soap opera I've ever heard of, but the more I think about it, the more the comparison makes sense to me.
Oz must have been ridiculously well-praised at its time. First off, there weren't many options for good television in 1997-1998. There were some shows, but if you just compare it to now, well... it doesn't compare at all. Anyway, I bring that up because I noticed three directors that piqued my interest: Chazz Palmenteri, Steve Buscemi, and Matt Dillon. That's right, those three directed three of the eight episodes. This show must have had some serious critical buzz for those three guys to want to work on the show.
Anyway, on to the meat of the season, I'm having trouble actually getting to the plot and the characters, because essentially, if you've seen season one, you've seen season three. I don't know if I'd necessarily recommend for you to skip seasons two and three, but if you're interested in the history of television and don't really want to commit yourself to a bunch of episodes, you'll get the general vibe of Oz just from the first season.
Anyway, this season features Miguel Alvarez mostly locked up in solitary. Long-term this wasn't a very good idea. He's one of the more interesting and better acted people on the show (You've probably seen Kirk Acevedo in Band of Brothers). And he is seemingly stuck in solitary forever. You can't really do much with characters in solitary. For season three, it's not as much of an issue. He struggles with depression, not being fond of solitary, and this allows Oz to reveal that prisoners aren't really properly treated if they have depression. I'm sure most people do not give a single shit if prisoners with mental illness aren't treated for it, but the theoretical goal of prison is rehabilitation so you'd think that'd be a top priority. Gloria Nathan represents the best version of a doctor, fully committed to the patient's well-being, and her fight with cost-cutting measures is shown throughout the season.
Adebisi, while well-played by Adewale Akkinuoye-Agbaje, is a pretty good example of diminishing returns. I don't know if its the writing or what, but it truly seems like they have nowhere else to go for this character. He's manipulative, devious, and predictable at this point. Same thing with the rivalry between Schillinger and Beecher. At this point, it's implausible neither of these guys are dead yet. So they start killing each other's family members and we don't know them, so we don't really feel the impact. There's no real threat in these stories - which is an odd thing to say when family members of two of the most prominent characters are threatened - but since we do not care about them, we do not care when they are killed.
This season marks the introduction of Claire Howell, one of my least favorite characters on this show. She's poorly acted, she's abrasive, she coerces inmates into sex, and she's just not redeemable in any way. There's a way to make this character work, but I just don't think the actress is good enough to pull it off. Edie Falco is much better as the representative C.O. character. Speaking of guards, the new head of the C.O.s is Sean Murphy, which is a welcome addition if for nothing else than for the fact I like Robert Clohessy as an actor. He doesn't really get much to do, but again Clohessy does good work.
Also introduced in this season is Clayton Hughes, played by future Wire regular Seth Gillam. Gillam is great in The Wire. He's not great in this. He didn't stand a chance as his character SUCKS. He gives Adebisi a gun at the end of the season and this is completely at odds with how his character originally acted in the first episode. That's nothing new to Oz though.
As for the last two characters I'll talk about, Kareem Said goes through a crisis of faith this season. He "falls in love" with Patricia Ross, a defendant in his case against the state. As you can see, I am not buying that they fell in love, but Eamonn Walker tries to sell the hell out of it. It also features the unusual partnership of Said and Beecher by the end of the season. It's pretty natural too for this show, although I wish it last longer. (That's a complaint for next season). Lastly, I still don't really like Tim McManus, and I think the show wants me to like him. He has a sexual harassment thing against him and I kind of rooted for him to get fired so he could leave the show.
I could break down every character and every stupid storyline, but I overall enjoyed this season. JK Simmons, Lee Tergesen, Christopher Meloni and Dean Winters are just plain fun to watch. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that Sister Peter Marie questions her faith based off her attraction and the manipulation by Keller. This shouldn't work but the two actors are Meloni and Rita Moreno and the could successfully make a drama about paint drying entertaining.
This show has the oddest mix of great actors and godawful actors that it's jarring. It's basically a show designed to be judged on a scene by scene basis, not on an episode basis or even a season basis. Oz is still pretty good in season three, something that clearly changes by the next season so obviously they did something better and different in this season. I couldn't tell you what though. So if you have the time, I'd still give this season a watch.
Grade - B
Monday, March 21, 2016
Rewind: The X-Files S6
When I started this series, I expected to immediately like it. I had high expectations for the show and I thought I would have no trouble getting into the show. I also weirdly expected a small peak that the show would only reach for a couple seasons, and gradually declining years until it became unwatchable. As you've probably gathered, this is not at all what happened to me. The high expectations made the first season a disappointment - it has one of the better season-long storylines and a few good episodes, but that's pretty much it. That initial disappointment kept me at arm's length from loving the show for longer than it otherwise would have - although I'm only now seeing this in hindsight.
Anyway, my other "problem" with truly getting into The X-Files is that I was fully aware of the mythology before I started. By that I mean, I knew it wasn't really going anywhere and would ultimately stop making sense or just start getting stupid. While this did lead to not being frustrated at all when the mythology got that way, it also meant I pretty much never got invested in any early season mythology. Welcome to the only show where I infinitely prefer the standalone episodes to their serialization.
So here I am in season six and the show's been mostly churning out 20 or so quality episodes each year for the past five years (with the exception of the fifth season, which had less episodes due to the movie). So I didn't really expect to gain an appreciation for the show in its supposed decline years. But my opinion of the show is much higher than it was in the second season or third season, perhaps because there are very few shows that remain good in its sixth season. It's clear the show is starting to run out of ideas, but they are responding to this by being creative and experimenting with ideas.
The mythology is never less important than the sixth season, which I certainly am not going to complain about. The show also took some backlash for two developments and I'm not sure how related they are to each other: season six tries to be funny for like six episodes in a row (it seems that long at least) and the production moved to California because David Duchovny didn't like Vancouver (this is at least what I've read so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
Despite the brighter colors and the shift in tone at points, you can't really say the show is that much worse than before. It's probably not better than the 2-4 seasons, but during the fifth season, they were so clearly focused on the movie that it led to an inconsistent season with some rather high points. The sixth season, whatever flaws you may give it, is a fairly consistent season at the very least. "Milagro" is about the only really bad episode in the season, but to be fair wow did I hate that episode. Thanks for wasting John Hawkes guys!
However, the best episodes of the sixth season tend to have one or two flaws preventing it from really matching the best episodes of the previous years. "Triangle" is a lot of fun, but it makes no damn sense. "Tithonus" is basically Vince Gilligan's attempt at writing Darin Morgan, and while he's a great writer, it's no "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose." Not many things are, but it kind of invites the comparison and can't help but pale in comparison. "Arcadia" is another fun episode, but the monster is fairly bland, dragging it down a bit. "The Unnatural" is mostly a great episode because Jesse L. Martin is fantastic and it's kind of pointless to write down the flaws since those are also what makes it kind of endearing.
There's also "Drive," the episode that brought Bryan Cranston to Vince Gilligan. Cranston is pretty much as good as advertised and you can definitely see how he convinced Gilligan to cast him in Breaking Bad. "Monday" is the X-Files Groundhog Day episode (does every long-running genre series eventually have this type of episode? I saw a Star Trek: Next Generation episode like this, but it aired before Groundhog Day. It's basically the perfect format for TV). I don't think I have ever not liked a Groundhog Day episode before, but I'm sure a bad one exists somewhere.
"Field Trip" is maybe my favorite episode of the season (oh look Vince Gilligan had a hand in that. Shocker). "Three of Kind" is a perhaps unexpected an dunnecessary sequel to the Lone Gunmen episode from the fifth season and probably falls apart if you think about it, but I had a lot of fun watching it. Lastly, "Dreamland" has no business being a two-parter, but its got Michael McKean and he's always great. I keep naming episodes I liked, but there's a lot of them. (Last one: "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" is great if nothing else for the performances by Lily Tomlin and Edward Asner.)
Are there X-Files fans who are mythology-driven and those who only want the standalone episodes? The mythology probably sheds more light on the character of the two leads than the other episodes so they had their use in the beginning seasons. But still... I think I can count on one hand the number of mythology episodes that seemed useful. (My impression is that I didn't really love those episodes even in the early seasons, but that could be just because I don't remember them at all. Seriously these episodes do not stick in my brain like other episodes do for some reason.)
The sixth season was much better than I ever expected. Besides season three, it might even feature the most good to great episodes. (Though looking at my past grades, season four might have something to say about that.) If I decide to rewatch the series and limit it to my most enjoyable or favorite episodes, this very well might have the most episodes on that list. You'd think five seasons and a movie would diminish the writers' capacity for new ideas, but you can't really tell by the quality of these episodes.
Grade - A-
Anyway, my other "problem" with truly getting into The X-Files is that I was fully aware of the mythology before I started. By that I mean, I knew it wasn't really going anywhere and would ultimately stop making sense or just start getting stupid. While this did lead to not being frustrated at all when the mythology got that way, it also meant I pretty much never got invested in any early season mythology. Welcome to the only show where I infinitely prefer the standalone episodes to their serialization.
So here I am in season six and the show's been mostly churning out 20 or so quality episodes each year for the past five years (with the exception of the fifth season, which had less episodes due to the movie). So I didn't really expect to gain an appreciation for the show in its supposed decline years. But my opinion of the show is much higher than it was in the second season or third season, perhaps because there are very few shows that remain good in its sixth season. It's clear the show is starting to run out of ideas, but they are responding to this by being creative and experimenting with ideas.
The mythology is never less important than the sixth season, which I certainly am not going to complain about. The show also took some backlash for two developments and I'm not sure how related they are to each other: season six tries to be funny for like six episodes in a row (it seems that long at least) and the production moved to California because David Duchovny didn't like Vancouver (this is at least what I've read so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong).
Despite the brighter colors and the shift in tone at points, you can't really say the show is that much worse than before. It's probably not better than the 2-4 seasons, but during the fifth season, they were so clearly focused on the movie that it led to an inconsistent season with some rather high points. The sixth season, whatever flaws you may give it, is a fairly consistent season at the very least. "Milagro" is about the only really bad episode in the season, but to be fair wow did I hate that episode. Thanks for wasting John Hawkes guys!
However, the best episodes of the sixth season tend to have one or two flaws preventing it from really matching the best episodes of the previous years. "Triangle" is a lot of fun, but it makes no damn sense. "Tithonus" is basically Vince Gilligan's attempt at writing Darin Morgan, and while he's a great writer, it's no "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose." Not many things are, but it kind of invites the comparison and can't help but pale in comparison. "Arcadia" is another fun episode, but the monster is fairly bland, dragging it down a bit. "The Unnatural" is mostly a great episode because Jesse L. Martin is fantastic and it's kind of pointless to write down the flaws since those are also what makes it kind of endearing.
There's also "Drive," the episode that brought Bryan Cranston to Vince Gilligan. Cranston is pretty much as good as advertised and you can definitely see how he convinced Gilligan to cast him in Breaking Bad. "Monday" is the X-Files Groundhog Day episode (does every long-running genre series eventually have this type of episode? I saw a Star Trek: Next Generation episode like this, but it aired before Groundhog Day. It's basically the perfect format for TV). I don't think I have ever not liked a Groundhog Day episode before, but I'm sure a bad one exists somewhere.
"Field Trip" is maybe my favorite episode of the season (oh look Vince Gilligan had a hand in that. Shocker). "Three of Kind" is a perhaps unexpected an dunnecessary sequel to the Lone Gunmen episode from the fifth season and probably falls apart if you think about it, but I had a lot of fun watching it. Lastly, "Dreamland" has no business being a two-parter, but its got Michael McKean and he's always great. I keep naming episodes I liked, but there's a lot of them. (Last one: "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" is great if nothing else for the performances by Lily Tomlin and Edward Asner.)
Are there X-Files fans who are mythology-driven and those who only want the standalone episodes? The mythology probably sheds more light on the character of the two leads than the other episodes so they had their use in the beginning seasons. But still... I think I can count on one hand the number of mythology episodes that seemed useful. (My impression is that I didn't really love those episodes even in the early seasons, but that could be just because I don't remember them at all. Seriously these episodes do not stick in my brain like other episodes do for some reason.)
The sixth season was much better than I ever expected. Besides season three, it might even feature the most good to great episodes. (Though looking at my past grades, season four might have something to say about that.) If I decide to rewatch the series and limit it to my most enjoyable or favorite episodes, this very well might have the most episodes on that list. You'd think five seasons and a movie would diminish the writers' capacity for new ideas, but you can't really tell by the quality of these episodes.
Grade - A-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)