The show has tried to pivot itself from season 1, which was a nudity filled drama with more than a bit of comedy sidetracks. This season is just serious people doing serious stuff with serious stories all the god damn time and it's not a great transition.
The main characters have all made a shift to being outright unpleasant to be around. It's also that, yes they're in a maximum security prison now, but almost all the characters we follow were still minimum security inmates for a reason, and yet now are talking about planning shit you would be a bit surprised to see in Oz.
It's also like the show wants the audience to forget that they saw the last season. This season had so much "you fucked me over, you bitch!" or "you lied about the riot!" Especially Taystee. Her story was following the theme of "the truth has to get out!" and while yes, the truth of what happened isn't as harsh as what she was charged with - she didn't kill piscatella, the truth also isn't much in her favour either. Also - Red. Red is just an atrocious wreck of a asshole, and it's not particularly believable how she got there and her blaming others for what happened the prior season just falls super short when you sat and watched the last season.
I think this season would have worked a lot better if they had completely skipped last season, letting the audience only know what happened in the riot through peoples recollections of it, and it definitely seems like the show doesn't want you to remember it.
It's just ugh. The characters weren't good people back in season 1, but I still liked most of them. Now it's just like, Nicky and Sophia are great, the others are all shit shows.
I hope that piper getting out in the finale means that the least interesting character in the show gets less screen time.
I don't really trust this show to tell a decent story in a prison. I 100% don't trust this show to tell a decent story in an immigration detention center without making up some horrid bullshit about how violent immigrants actually are.
I don't feel quite as strongly about it as you do but I definitely agree with all of your points. I also don't like how a lot of their best characters lost screen time or are basically entirely out (RIP Big Boo) and I get that it's probably because those actors have gone on to bigger and better things but still.
Also also I had some real problems with the structure of the season. It seemed like it took fucking forever for any plot to get going and they took too long establishing new characters that I don't have any reason to care about and they spent a ton of time and energy on the two gang boss sisters, only to unceremoniously kill them off in the last episode. I guess I don't understand the point of the season and where it's going next, if it is the immigration thing then I'm probably out too.
One thing I did like about the season myself were Carol and Barb.
Mainly the fact that the series hasn't really had characters like them on the show. The big reveal of why they ended up in Max was a real "holy shit" moment.
It was generally minimum security prison stuff, so sure you would get antagonist characters who weren't afraid to thug around the prison threatening to kill someone, but Carol and Barb we're I believe the first time you got a glimpse at how truly psychotically, unrepentantly evil some people can be, and that there's a reason some people exist in Max. I'm just disappointed that they got so little utilization before they were simply offed, though the way it happened was amusingly fitting.
I mostly agree, they hinted at great charcters then killed them.
Old carol and barb were good, young barb was okay, but holy hell did I not like young carol's actress. Anytime she did anything I felt very strongly "okay, this is someone trying very hard to play a character and utterly failing.
I've always thought the (extremely good) Mad Men pilot was very clearly aping the structure of The Shield's pilot: introduce us to a charasmatic lead. Show that he can be a bit of a jerk, but get us involved in his world, and then smack us over the head by showing exactly how much of a shitlord he really is in the final shot.
The Shield does this in a fashion so complete and perfect that it might never truly be replicated.
"He's a cop on the edge, his heart's in the right place, he bends the rules to ensure justice happens just kidding he's the monster and shame on you for condoning him up to this point."
And then they spend up to season 5 making sure you're totally cool with it and brushing Terry's death under the rug and then boom, Kavenaugh. There to rub the viewer's face in it. It's great.
I love the Shield.
And even then, in the second to last episode of the show, they just start throwing kidney punches at everyone who still believed there was a redemption in the cards for Mackey.
"Look at this fucker. Look at what he'll do to save his own skin. Listen to all the horrible shit he's done, and he doesn't even feel bad about it. Fuck Vic Mackey and fuck you for rooting for him."
I need to watch The Shield again.
I just did earlier this year.
I had just planned to do season 1, then watch something I'd not seen before. But I kept wanting to do another episode here and there. And then oops, I'm done with season 2 well, only on weekends oops, I'm at season 5 and you can't fucking stop THERE.
I love The Wire and it's a must bigger picture show than The Shield but...but The Shield is far more high octane so much so that when it slows down, it makes the weight of things hang even more. It's what makes the penulitmate and finale so damn perfect is it finally stopped to let everything and everyone stew in a way that felt so utterly earned in a way I've seen very few shows achieve.
The show has tried to pivot itself from season 1, which was a nudity filled drama with more than a bit of comedy sidetracks. This season is just serious people doing serious stuff with serious stories all the god damn time and it's not a great transition.
The main characters have all made a shift to being outright unpleasant to be around. It's also that, yes they're in a maximum security prison now, but almost all the characters we follow were still minimum security inmates for a reason, and yet now are talking about planning shit you would be a bit surprised to see in Oz.
It's also like the show wants the audience to forget that they saw the last season. This season had so much "you fucked me over, you bitch!" or "you lied about the riot!" Especially Taystee. Her story was following the theme of "the truth has to get out!" and while yes, the truth of what happened isn't as harsh as what she was charged with - she didn't kill piscatella, the truth also isn't much in her favour either. Also - Red. Red is just an atrocious wreck of a asshole, and it's not particularly believable how she got there and her blaming others for what happened the prior season just falls super short when you sat and watched the last season.
I think this season would have worked a lot better if they had completely skipped last season, letting the audience only know what happened in the riot through peoples recollections of it, and it definitely seems like the show doesn't want you to remember it.
It's just ugh. The characters weren't good people back in season 1, but I still liked most of them. Now it's just like, Nicky and Sophia are great, the others are all shit shows.
I hope that piper getting out in the finale means that the least interesting character in the show gets less screen time.
I don't really trust this show to tell a decent story in a prison. I 100% don't trust this show to tell a decent story in an immigration detention center without making up some horrid bullshit about how violent immigrants actually are.
I don't feel quite as strongly about it as you do but I definitely agree with all of your points. I also don't like how a lot of their best characters lost screen time or are basically entirely out (RIP Big Boo) and I get that it's probably because those actors have gone on to bigger and better things but still.
Also also I had some real problems with the structure of the season. It seemed like it took fucking forever for any plot to get going and they took too long establishing new characters that I don't have any reason to care about and they spent a ton of time and energy on the two gang boss sisters, only to unceremoniously kill them off in the last episode. I guess I don't understand the point of the season and where it's going next, if it is the immigration thing then I'm probably out too.
One thing I did like about the season myself were Carol and Barb.
Mainly the fact that the series hasn't really had characters like them on the show. The big reveal of why they ended up in Max was a real "holy shit" moment.
It was generally minimum security prison stuff, so sure you would get antagonist characters who weren't afraid to thug around the prison threatening to kill someone, but Carol and Barb we're I believe the first time you got a glimpse at how truly psychotically, unrepentantly evil some people can be, and that there's a reason some people exist in Max. I'm just disappointed that they got so little utilization before they were simply offed, though the way it happened was amusingly fitting.
I mostly agree, they hinted at great charcters then killed them.
Old carol and barb were good, young barb was okay, but holy hell did I not like young carol's actress. Anytime she did anything I felt very strongly "okay, this is someone trying very hard to play a character and utterly failing.
I thought the older actors were good, I thought the younger ones were awful cartoons and contrasting those sections to the courtroom stuff with Taystee was insane tonal whiplash. The season has at least two different shows inside it, a heightened drama full of charactures and a realistic show that's at least sort of grounded in current events, and I know which one I like better.
The stuff with the rapist prison guard too way too long to uncomfortably resolve and I had zero interest in Caputo and his relationship with that awful woman.
Fuck, I had a lot more problems with this season than I'd realized.
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GustavFriend of GoatsSomewhere in the OzarksRegistered Userregular
I like the idea of some motherfucker in the midst of total societal breakdown as caused by hordes of cannibal corpses is sharpening his means of brutal self defence out in the open and is like "I'm bored" and puts on blaring headphones
I peaced out of Riverdale when it came out of the gate with the statuatory rape of Archie
The show never did a good job of presenting it as being as fucked up as it ought to have, and it really sank it for me
+1
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Shortytouching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered Userregular
I generally liked the first season, but the second has been a real slog
Sophia and I gave it up in favor of New Girl and I doubt we'll get back to it
+1
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SnicketysnickThe Greatest Hype Man inWesterosRegistered Userregular
The second series definitely felt a lot more meandering, it could definitely have been saved by moving a couple of parts around to save undercutting a bunch of late-run reveals, but eh we'll have to see if the next one can course correct. I'm pretty curious how Sabrina will turn out and if it's good, if it'll end up doing an Arrowverse style crossover. Or a crossover with the Arrowverse for bonus points. Sabrina and Constantine comparing notes might be quite fun for a one off Legends episode...
Also GLOW got renewed for a third run as well, so hurrah.
Shortytouching the meatIntergalactic Cool CourtRegistered Userregular
edited August 2018
I will check out Sabrina but I suspect it will wind up a real version of Witchita
Shorty on
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Librarian's ghostLibrarian, Ghostbuster, and TimSporkRegistered Userregular
edited August 2018
Ducktales continuing to be the best
Everything was going bad and Donald started talking but no one could understand him. Gyro got fed up and put a digital voice box in Donald and suddenly he sounded like Don Cheadle. Like for real since Cheadle did the voice.
Donald then lays out this intricate plan of attack with a badass rousing speech and I had this moment of awe. For the first time ever in a cartoon, Donald Duck became the character he was in the old Carl Barks comics I read as a kid.
Also a Cape Suzette brochure with the Sea Duck front and center on it! Launchpad having another Darkwing Duck figure that says "Lets get dangerous" Then he tried fighting shadows on nose of the plane while singing the Darkwing Duck Theme song.
And then at the very very end when the POV switches to the moon where Huey, Louie, and Dewey's mom has been stranded, the music plays a tiny bit of the fucking NES Ducktales Moon level theme!
Raijin QuickfootI'm your Huckleberry YOU'RE NO DAISYRegistered User, ClubPAregular
Yes, season 2 of Riverdale suffered from having more episodes. The middle turned into a hell of a slog.
It definitely picked up by the end. However
MAJOR END OF SEASON SPOILERS
The reveal of Hal as the Black Hood felt weak. Also, the way they just quickly wrapped up the second black hood was dumb. It ended up being a nothing part of the story. Like they wrote it in at the last second but didn't really know what to do with it so let's just make it Tall Boy I guess.
I'm curious to see where they go with American Vandal 2
The thing about that first season that made it really special to me is that it wasn't just jokes. It followed the structure of true crime stuff to a T, including giving you lots of conflicting leads and information to try and solve the case, plus it really had a huge bummer of an ending
I'm curious to see where they go with American Vandal 2
The thing about that first season that made it really special to me is that it wasn't just jokes. It followed the structure of true crime stuff to a T, including giving you lots of conflicting leads and information to try and solve the case, plus it really had a huge bummer of an ending
I hope they keep that stuff
I don't see how they can, they've raised the stakes so much it's more like an episode of South Park than anything grounded in reality.
Season 5 of Bojack Horseman and Season 2 of American Vandal are coming out on the same day, September 14th, and also have pretty similar audiences, so Netflix: good at scheduling!
I haven't finished the previous season of Bojack
Maybe it was actually getting to be a little too much or maybe I just wasn't in a good place for it, I don't know
I haven't finished the previous season of Bojack
Maybe it was actually getting to be a little too much or maybe I just wasn't in a good place for it, I don't know
Its more than okay to take a break that is some dark stuff
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
A bit better than where they started. The whole theme of the show is "depression sticks with you and will keep trying to drag you down. Change is possible but it's messy and incremental". It's a show with a positive trajectory, just a very slow-moving one with a lot of backslides and false starts.
I'm curious to see where they go with American Vandal 2
The thing about that first season that made it really special to me is that it wasn't just jokes. It followed the structure of true crime stuff to a T, including giving you lots of conflicting leads and information to try and solve the case, plus it really had a huge bummer of an ending
I hope they keep that stuff
I don't see how they can, they've raised the stakes so much it's more like an episode of South Park than anything grounded in reality.
One of the only interviews they've done about S2 had one of the co-creators saying they were incredibly aware of how vital the dramatic and genuinely compelling mystery components are and have no plans on dropping them in favor of more jokes.
Also
the initial teaser and casting details point towards a big theme of this season being privilege and how some students can get away with anything because of either their status as a superstar athlete or their rich parents, which is a pretty smart thing to tackle
+2
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GustavFriend of GoatsSomewhere in the OzarksRegistered Userregular
I still remained stunned at how good American Vandal was. I totally expected a FunnyOrDie short stretched to infinity, and man was it not that.
Starting to think Better Call Saul is just a straight-up better experience if you haven't seen Breaking Bad
all these cameos are getting distracting, and I wish I could watch it without knowing they're callbacks and could just be stuff
I think mostly Saul does a good job of avoiding prequel problems but yeah, everytime there's a new cameo it always feels on the nose to me. "Hey, long-time viewer! Remember THIS guy???"
Starting to think Better Call Saul is just a straight-up better experience if you haven't seen Breaking Bad
all these cameos are getting distracting, and I wish I could watch it without knowing they're callbacks and could just be stuff
I think mostly Saul does a good job of avoiding prequel problems but yeah, everytime there's a new cameo it always feels on the nose to me. "Hey, long-time viewer! Remember THIS guy???"
And I know it’s because Vince Gilligan & Co. have this gosh golly gee shucks wouldn’t it be swell to get the band back together vibe, it’s the reason the show even exists
But I would like them to show more restraint than they’re doing, you can hang out with these people without putting them in the show
Posts
Old carol and barb were good, young barb was okay, but holy hell did I not like young carol's actress. Anytime she did anything I felt very strongly "okay, this is someone trying very hard to play a character and utterly failing.
I just did earlier this year.
I had just planned to do season 1, then watch something I'd not seen before. But I kept wanting to do another episode here and there. And then oops, I'm done with season 2 well, only on weekends oops, I'm at season 5 and you can't fucking stop THERE.
I love The Wire and it's a must bigger picture show than The Shield but...but The Shield is far more high octane so much so that when it slows down, it makes the weight of things hang even more. It's what makes the penulitmate and finale so damn perfect is it finally stopped to let everything and everyone stew in a way that felt so utterly earned in a way I've seen very few shows achieve.
The stuff with the rapist prison guard too way too long to uncomfortably resolve and I had zero interest in Caputo and his relationship with that awful woman.
Fuck, I had a lot more problems with this season than I'd realized.
Archie fondling a pistol and some comic books while "Bad Man" plays is some of the best fucking camp I've seen in a while.
I like the idea of some motherfucker in the midst of total societal breakdown as caused by hordes of cannibal corpses is sharpening his means of brutal self defence out in the open and is like "I'm bored" and puts on blaring headphones
riverdale friggin' rules
The show never did a good job of presenting it as being as fucked up as it ought to have, and it really sank it for me
Sophia and I gave it up in favor of New Girl and I doubt we'll get back to it
Also GLOW got renewed for a third run as well, so hurrah.
D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
Donald then lays out this intricate plan of attack with a badass rousing speech and I had this moment of awe. For the first time ever in a cartoon, Donald Duck became the character he was in the old Carl Barks comics I read as a kid.
Also a Cape Suzette brochure with the Sea Duck front and center on it! Launchpad having another Darkwing Duck figure that says "Lets get dangerous" Then he tried fighting shadows on nose of the plane while singing the Darkwing Duck Theme song.
And then at the very very end when the POV switches to the moon where Huey, Louie, and Dewey's mom has been stranded, the music plays a tiny bit of the fucking NES Ducktales Moon level theme!
Season 2 of American Vandal is tackling a new school and a new case
THE TURD BURGLAR
It definitely picked up by the end. However
MAJOR END OF SEASON SPOILERS
The thing about that first season that made it really special to me is that it wasn't just jokes. It followed the structure of true crime stuff to a T, including giving you lots of conflicting leads and information to try and solve the case, plus it really had a huge bummer of an ending
I hope they keep that stuff
Maybe it was actually getting to be a little too much or maybe I just wasn't in a good place for it, I don't know
Its more than okay to take a break that is some dark stuff
3 episodes of bojack was too much for me
I can't imagine where they're at at this point
A bit better than where they started. The whole theme of the show is "depression sticks with you and will keep trying to drag you down. Change is possible but it's messy and incremental". It's a show with a positive trajectory, just a very slow-moving one with a lot of backslides and false starts.
all these cameos are getting distracting, and I wish I could watch it without knowing they're callbacks and could just be stuff
Also
I love it so much
Dillon was sketched so damned well
He sucked, a lot, like some teens do, but he self destructed under pressure he didn't ask for in an extremely well done way
I am still incredibly impressed
I think mostly Saul does a good job of avoiding prequel problems but yeah, everytime there's a new cameo it always feels on the nose to me. "Hey, long-time viewer! Remember THIS guy???"
Yeah. I didn't mind it until the one last night. but I never liked that character much.
And I know it’s because Vince Gilligan & Co. have this gosh golly gee shucks wouldn’t it be swell to get the band back together vibe, it’s the reason the show even exists
But I would like them to show more restraint than they’re doing, you can hang out with these people without putting them in the show