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I'm sure I'll get jumped on for "defending Netflix omg you're such a shill" but, I thought the last two eps were fine. Slow but not straight up garbage which is a hyperbolic ass take.
The problem with that:
Did you not remember that in Hill House
That was a manifestation of guilt and the guy probably wasn't even dead.
With that context and the way she was reacting to it (actively covering mirrors, but otherwise avoiding acknowledgement and not acting as if it was a threat to her) I had it pegged as not actually a ghost from episode one.
I mostly thought that she would have been driving the car that killed him, from the reflection in his glasses.
Sure, but that was a whole other series.
I'm not saying they didn't handle it. I'm just saying they didn't handle it well. I think if you have to look at the previous, completely unrelated series, for context then it's not great story-telling.
That's only a problem if you think:
They are completely unrelated to the Lady in the Lake and the ghost story as a whole.
I think maybe Hill House was an aberration and Flanagan isn't a good writer. He definitely has some vision and is a good director, but might be better if he stuck to directing, maybe producing, and possibly "Story By" credits. There's a lot I like in all of his works that I've seen, but there's enough with the writing that doesn't work that it tarnishes the rest.
I've been liking it, but it feels very different.
I think its doing the opposite point of view this season, Fargo is usually someones regular life that is invaded/creeped into by organized crime. And this season seems to be wholy organized crime that is creeped into by regular life. Maybe its because of cast, the last season kind of started pushing more in this direction I guess.
Beyond that, the slow boil is there, but much more in the regular context of a mob story.
Current episode:
Is there more to the relationship of the irish kid and the head of the family? Or is it just that they know they can trust each other because of the assassination attempt? Sitting and having a strategy meeting felt quick. The way he spoke to him too felt very....strong? And he's clearly manipulating the boss.
re: Bly
Yes, this is the problem with them.
There is a way to make this sort of allegory work in a supernatural context. See: The Babadook. But it requires a more deft blurring of the lines between the real and the spiritual than what Bly did.
It actually would've been kind of neat if they had given them an actually supernatural bent, and there had been something about Bly that caused your regrets to manifest as ghosts, or something. Instead it's just "Viola haunts the place, oh and also these two characters feel bad about some stuff for unrelated reasons."
I would lose the reasoning for why Dani wanted to remove herself from the world with all of its many reminders of her fiance (i.e. her guilt) and why Uncle Henry doesn't want to go to Bly, because he got his brother and lover killed over his lovechild (i.e. his guilt).
They add to the main theme because it gets them to/from Bly and it involves the characters that are still at/from Bly's past?
I could get not liking their implementation or thinking that their appearances were "jump scarey", but to pretend like they're like a superfluous addition is just plain wrong?
Like are you also mad at the soldier ghost because he added nothing to the story and just lives there? Or any of the extra ghosts? They don't do anything.
So then, what is lost by communicating these regrets in other ways that don't muddy up the narrative in a misleading way? Nothing. Unless the point was to make you think these were actual hauntings to score cheap scare points.
Ultimately, it felt to me like the scene in a horror movie where you hear creepy noises outside, and the guy goes to check it out, and then a cat jumps out. It's kind of a cheap way to get a scare, but whatever, it was like ten seconds of screen time, that's fine. But this is like if they spent half the movie building up the scary noises developed an entire subplot around the noises and then you find out it's just a cat. And like... why did you waste all this effort on that?
As to the soldier ghosts or the kid, I'm not "mad" about it, but I don't think the show gained anything but runtime by showing you the origin story for literally every ghost in the house. "Viola killed a bunch of people and their spirits are trapped" is the only explanation you need, and I think it actually makes it less effective when they have to spell out everything.
Tl;dr: This show turned every iota of subtext into text, and every bit of implication into... umm... plication... and it suffered for it.
Googling looking for season 2 told me there was already a season 2 and a 3 on the way. I did not know this!
Have you seen season 2 and does it hold up to season 1? @Banzai5150 ? Thinking About starting this up soon. Especially since bly mannor seems to be getting negative thoughts in this thread.
Just to write some additional thoughts:
Dani:
1. Fiance she doesn't want to marry.
2. Fiance dies, she is wracked by guilt that she sees in every mirror. This is a spooky scary show so her guilt is actually shown on screen. I would rather this than Dani occasionally just sobbing on the floor due to overwhelming emotion while somber music plays.
3. She flees to Bly Manor hoping to escape that guilt (no distractions) > injects Dani into main storyline.
4. She resolves her guilt by coming to terms with it with the help of Bly family + Jamie.
5. End of side-story > continue living in main storyline.
Uncle Henry:
1. Love affair.
2. Caught in love affair + love child.
3. Death of love affair + brother.
4. Guilt prevents him from visiting Bly and causes him to embrace drinking to either forget or just get through the guilt. His guilt is physically manifested but could easily just be interpreted as his internal voice. This is a spooky scary show so showing his dark twin is a fun twist on that. I would rather this than him just sitting in his office drinking while somber music plays.
5. He is instigated by his own guilt to overcome it and be injected into the main storyline at a crucial point > dies > survives for the rest of main storyline.
On balance, I didn't HATE the show. The aesthetic was great, i loved the set design, the actors did really well, and I was totally on board through episode 7. Even at the end, I'm still glad I watched it. But while I understand (I think) what they were trying to do, I just don't think they pulled it off.
I did generally really dislike the narration, though. It rarely added anything, and it was often super clunky and distracted from the action. Especially in the penultimate episode. I honestly don't think the story needed a framing device, but if you're going to have one, it needs to be handled more gracefully.
I know where you're coming from, I just don't think it really works all that elegantly.
Ultimately, I'm fine with what they did in the story. I just think they whiffed on a couple of opportunities to craft a really elegant narrative that incorporated everything we saw over the course of the show.
To be honest I forgot there was a season 2 as I felt that the first season ended pretty well and couldn’t figure out how to make a season 2.
I'm really curious where they're going with Leland and what his backstory is. Is this guy actually a demon, or is this a mortal man who somehow became so obsessed with encouraging evil for its own sake that he became a psychologist just to learn how to make children grow into evil people?
EDIT:
Boy: "What next?"
Leland: "You need a community. Here's an online community on 8chan. They call themselves the Incel Army. They share your feelings about women and want to put them into action."
Boy: "What action?"
Leland: "They want men to act like men. I've gotten you a temporary invitation into their circle. They have some interesting ideas."
Boy: "Cool. Thanks."
We watched it and I thought it was ok in a "boy people sure are assholes, aren't they?" kinda way.
My main criticism for that flick is the narration. The narration was not only not necessary, it actually detracts from the story! The ending shot of the film would have been WAY more affecting if the dopey narrator wasn't talking over the whole thing. I don't think the narrator added anything to the story that wasn't already obvious on screen, and I kinda felt like I was being talked down to.
It's like: "Do you see? He's real upset now! Can you tell? Well let me tell you, he was real upset in this moment"
I know, dad, thanks. I can see emotions.
Not necessarily police procedurals, adjacent stuff like Leverage is good too.
I'm running dry on TV for the 'half-watched background noise that's still entertaining' when I'm playing something that doesn't demand my full attention and thus need to keep the ADHD alt-tabbing at bay.
Away was actually not too bad. The space side of the story was compelling at the very least. I could've definitely done without the Earth side of the story though.
Obviously clearing her schedule for a surprise cameo in Cobra Kai.
They're just saving everyone the hassle of going to youtube for the inevitable 3 million videos, "BLY ENDING EXPLAINED!".
I enjoyed Away relative to the other near-future-space-exploration-sci-fi series that have come out in recent years. More of a story than the weird quasi-docu-drama-thing that is the Mars series. No bizarre religious tangents like whatever those two series that came out almost simultaneously a few years ago took. The human drama angles of Away varied between 'meh' (seriously, you couldn't put together a 6 person crew who don't all hate one another and the commander?) and 'why is any of this even here' (anything involving people on Earth). I was looking forward to watching them fumble their way through a second season but I guess I'm not surprised it's canceled.
God I hate those videos, especially for shit that absolutely did not in anyway need an explanation. Like I've seen that for the fucking Boys. THE BOYS! There is nothing complicated in the boys narrative!
pleasepaypreacher.net
I hate that shit
Rosebud being his sled is literally the opposite of the point. The whole movie is about how you can't sum up a person's life in a single word and trying is stupid.
https://www.justwatch.com/ca/tv-show/evil
Looks like CBS All Access or buying it from Apple.
I simultaneously hate that these videos exist and hate that for some people they are necessary.
I thought the movie was about how being rich fucking ruled and solves all your problems. You know, like Scarface.
At the risk of being Old Man Yells At Cloud, I think they exist for the benefit of people who are too busy watching 40 minute youtube videos on their phone while "watching" a TV show/movie and so have no idea what just happened. So now they can watch a youtube video of clips of the thing they nominally just watched while they nominally watch something else.
I am still making my way through The Expanse so I never gave it a fair shot either.
I'm on episode 8:
The one thing I don't like about the show is the uncertainty about demons being real etc. I mean, its pretty obvious that its going to be supernatural. Why do we keep having this constant 'well, it could be psychiatric...' ? I mean, if you're going down that road, you will never prove anything. And every time she says, 'well, this behavior has been described in psychiatry' it's like duh, if it was possession, how would the psychiatrists have described it before? Once you start believing in possession, then you have to call into question all the previous diagnoses.
I feel attacked
A hit dog will holla as they say.
Here Tobes let me get you a youtube to explain that turn of phrase.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Please provide in 5 minute chunks in a playlist to watch on smoke breaks
Turnofphrasesins coming right up!
pleasepaypreacher.net