hincandenza

Oof... I almost rage quit during this one, if they had somehow made the Violet marriage stick; I legitimately thought they would do that, and have the ensuing episodes being them treated in squalor while he spent all their fortune. On the one hand, plus for making the obvious outcome be unexpected, but on the negative side this show had better have some rays of light or I'll give up. That it's sort of off-kilter and the adults are all idiots who don't listen is fine, since that fits these kinds of young adult stories, but there's only so far they can push that before I can't take how absurdly obtuse all the "well-meaning" adults are and how the kids never seem to just blurt out specific details to save themselves- for example, why did Klaus not just show his bruise to Mr. Poe, or explain it to Justice Strauss when they were alone in her library for several minutes. I get that it's called "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and the 4th-wall breaking narration repeatedly warns of this, but generally when used it's assumed to be a somewhat tongue-in-cheek way of heightening the melodrama. There's nothing redeeming about just gutpunching the audience over and over like the third season of "Lost"; that's the behavior of a teenage internet troll or Damon Lindelof. I can tolerate if the season is basically "absurdist abuse horror story of the week" so long as they keeping getting out of it without any real damage, and if they have some times when Olaf fails miserably and the kids see some genuine (if temporary) joy. I suspect I'll be disappointed, though... I was intrigued by the trailers but could end up more frustrated by this show than were all those people who hated "The OA".

Just finished this first episode. I never read the books, and although I saw and vaguely recall mildly enjoying the film a few years back, I don't recall anything about it. That said, I really enjoyed the look and feel of this- that whole whimsical, surreal, fairy-tale lens of a Tim Burton in his prime- and the dialogue as well as NPH's scenery chewing (this show must have been his dream role). On execution, at least through one episode, it's beautifully done. However, I'm legitimately worried I should take the show's meta- warnings seriously. I just wonder if this turns into a bleak and relentless retelling of one pitiless misfortune after another and at the end you're left exhausted without any catharsis. I've seen and can recall too many impossibly horrible real life stories in the news about children who suffer incomprehensible levels of neglect and abuse, and even with the broad surreal elements I found myself feeling at moments a little emotionally raw during this first episode.

I mentioned this just now in the "Gang in other roles" thread, but Jimmi Simpson/Liam McPoyle had/has a major leading role in the HBO show "Westworld" (which was excellent). Nice to see the actor progress from cameos and one-episode appearances to something pretty significant.

I'm sure you all know this, but in the interest of completionism Liam McPoyle/Jimmi Simpson had/has a major role in the HBO show "Westworld" (probably the reason he didn't/couldn't appear in the season 11 "Trial of the Century" episode).

Total aside, but I recently watched the show "White Rabbit Project" on Netflix, which is a spinoff of "Mythbusters" starring Grant, Tory, and Kari. In one episode on modern nuisances called "Tech We Love To Hate", they talk about those ubiquitous chirping/beeping noises and it's apparently because when we first started making electronic devices, the simplest- i.e., cheapest- mechanism of a piezoelectric sound makes for a perfect sine wave: a "beep". They went on to point out that since we have become (usually) so good at tuning these out, and they are so hard to tell where they are coming from, some uses such as the "truck backing up" sound is being replaced by more sophisticated ones that make white noise. It's both less grating, and much easier to pinpoint, as they demonstrate with a blindfolded test. They quit with a few seconds left, thinking they'd have to stay there after the bet ended, which doesn't make a damn bit of sense. Yeah, the ending didn't make any sense, which is odd because usually the writing is usually a bit tighter. We clearly saw the rest of the gang saying "3... 2... 1..." and then cut. They literally couldn't have left the door in time to lose the bet, and even if they did they technically stayed there the whole month at that point, since standing on your porch isn't "leaving". At worst, they either tear up the check having won the bet, or they sublet the place and use that cash to pad their rent on a place in city. But since this show is nothing if not a meta-joke about sitcom cliches, they kind of had to have it all fall apart somehow. It was kind of "Brewster's Millions" meets "The Burbs", although with Dennis and Mac as the crazy neighbors in the cul de sac; the overall plot is so common in movies/TV of the suburban hidden suffering with the burned out "husband" and nagging but isolated "wife". However, there's another movie that I think is a more intentional reference. The increasingly aggressive fighting between the unhappily married couple- including the wife serving up the beloved pet- surely is at least partly a riff on the movie "War of the Roses", directed by and starring... Danny DeVito: That last parenthetical has me joining @qtpye in stubbornly believing the dog simply ran away and is now happily chasing bunny rabbits on a farm in upstate New York. :)

Well, he figures he's only got a few years left, so he's gonna get real weird with it...

Dennis model didn't seem sound, it's classic Dennis: he tries to mimic/imitate success through only the most superficial methods, then (as a sociopath) becomes increasingly angry that other people aren't doing exactly what he expects. He's an amazing, terrifying character; you could slap him in a horror film and do the same line readings as in this show, and it would be legitimately unnerving. That sequence where he insists the two women smile for the pictures (while Kaitlin Olsen is looking like a battered captive woman on the edge of the photos) was hilarious in context and awful without. So, basically every episode of IASIP... They did explain why the dwarf (that is the correct term?) was there; he'd actually been stealing wallets from Paddy's for years and hiding out in the bar to not get caught... and they happened to catch him thanks to Charlie's paint-drinking insanity and glue traps.

I'm kind of intrigued by Alice/Olivia Taylor Dudley, because for the first few episodes I was thinking "I swear this woman looks familiar" and it wasn't until I looked it up I realized she was one of the original group that did the amazing "5 Second Films". I used to keep up with their site back in the day, and she was great in those- and not just for her absurd good looks and figure- but as much as I'm happy she's springboarded into a real acting career, I haven't really enjoyed her in this show. The thing is, I'm not sure if it's because of the acting, or the character herself, as I've not read the books. For example, when we find out she was from a hedonistic hippie upbringing, the sort of virgin-sheltered-princess vibe she'd had seemed totally misplaced- but I don't know if that's an acting choice on her part, or how the character is meant to be from the source. I was slow to warm to Quentin as well, but once the show made clear he was more Neville Longbottom than Harry Potter, his sad-sack beta-geek persona worked for me. But Alice is a total Mary Sue: beautiful, privileged, super smart, best magician at the school, etc, etc, and it's hard to enjoy that as a character especially when they seem so "broken bird" without good reason.

I really enjoyed this season, including the brutal reveal about Plover a few episodes back, and this rather grisly finale (including the gross but kind of cool bluntness about Ember's faun-god semen). People who called this Hogwarts: College pretty much nailed what I had naively assumed this would be, and why it sat in my queue for a week before I gave it a chance, and ended up binging it in like 3 days. It was tough to watch at times, but the intentional trope-busting (like Quentin agreeing that Alice was a better choice, or countless lines of realistic dialogue) made this a stand-out show. Lot of good thoughts on this, but one thing I just can't agree with is that Julia is in any way right/correct/justified with her betrayal. Trauma or no, the decision to effectively kill Quentin and his friends isn't some moral "trolley problem" between the Brakebills people and the Free Traders. For starters, Jane changing this time loop to prevent Julia from going to Brakebills actually seemed to have worked to get them thiiiis || close to beating the terrible decades-long tyranny of The Beast... right up until Julia fucked it all up. However, in NO way, shape or form is Jane's decision responsible for Julia's friends being killed by the loosed god. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. I'm honestly a little creeped out that people are drawing that connection. For starters, Julia wouldn't have even been in rehab to meet Richard if she'd handled her rejection like a freaking adult, instead of spiraling downwards after a series of bad choices she made for herself. Besides, if Reynard was targeting her for being special snowflake, he'd have found her anyway- he's a minor god and the show has made it clear how powerful even they are compared to even gifted magicians. He'd have put those visions in her head any time she left Brakebills to go into the city, and the same outcome would have occurred. On the other hand, if she was just wrong place, wrong time then it'd have been someone else- maybe Kady?- who'd be targeted by Reynard as the lone survivor/rape victim/whatever else his plan is. By this forum's logic, then Julia is now morally on the hook for whatever other woman was raped 39 times in the other timelines while Julia partied it up at Brakebills. You see this line of thinking from characters in a lot of shows, where some small sin or choice is conflated with the actions of a truly evil character, as if Jane is responsible for The Beast, or Reynard. It's simply not true: profoundly evil characters are wholly to blame for their actions, not otherwise decent people simply trying to stop them. Yeah, that last part is really baffling me; the Beast is basically a super magician who's been drinking uncut china-white Magic for decades. What leverage does Julia have that the first moment she even blinks, he won't just insta-kill her, toss the knife into a giant pit, and then go back to terrorizing everyone and closing off Fillory forever? Great plan, Julia. That's the fun and horrible thing about looping/parallel timelines. But I agree that Martin followed them in the phone booth; just as they cross the street the camera switched angles to watch them through a car window, implying the camera was a different character watching them. I know! I mean, bird in the hand, but you kill the Beast, then you focus on Reynard, with time to carefully plan like they did the assault on The Beast. Because you'll a) have a magical knife that kills magical beings, b) the help of these people who are now seasoned veterans of battling the mightiest foe, and c) you can bring little cakes to Ember when you free him. See, maybe the god Ember- having been brought treats and freed from his decades/centuries-long prison- will be helpful in showing you how you can take down Reynard by explaining how the Beast did it to him. There is no reason to keep the Beast alive; Julia apparently got trained in the same CIA schools that thought bringing the worst Nazis of WW2 over as intelligence assets was a good idea. Actually, in that vein what Julia did was like a GI in 1943 somehow sneaking into Hitler's office, putting a knife to his throat... and then saying "Please come help me kill Stalin!" Worse, even, since at least Hitler would have a reason to help kill Stalin, whereas I doubt The Beast even cares about Reynard running loose in our world. Um, because the "one person" she partnered up with is unquestionably, monstrously evil and has a body count already far higher than Reynard or even Julia herself? Reynard being awful doesn't suddenly make the Beast a forgettable nuisance! I'm not willing to give her any benefit of the doubt she has some complex, 5th-dimensional genius plan: she's acting entirely on emotion and trauma right now, and up until Ember removed her mental patch she was 100% part of the current plan. And while the recently exposed trauma may make her impulsive and deadly actions understandable, it's not forgivable. She's done the worst thing anyone on this show has done outside of The Beast and Reynard, imperiling not only more innocent people in the Scooby Gang, but the countless people in Fillory, plus all travelers, plus any other magical beings/people who The Beast might still have targeted before closing off Fillory forever. I do agree with you that she as a character is more the special-snowflake trope that Q wanted to be; clearly there were anvils all season that she's meant for something much more (how quickly she learns spells, the praise of the comatose woman, the idea that she'll create a "new" kind of magic). It contrasts nicely with the great trope-inverting move to have Quentin recognize this cliche and defer to a far better magician in Alice. I completely agree with your entire post (which I trimmed a little in quoting), and I think the recognition that Julia is subtly/subconsciously doing the cliche "Chosen One" hero thing to the point of hurting people is really interesting- because as you say, her arc is the mirror opposite of Quentin, who grew to realize over time that while magic is real, it's just another technology and doesn't absolve you of tough choices. And as you point out, it's not clear the writers are on the same page; although the Julia character has had some epiphanies that she is to blame, she keeps making the same mistakes on a bigger deadlier scale each time. If The Beast didn't exist in the show, she'd be the number one villain in an "I Am Legend" kind of way: sure she's the hero, and yet causes the most harm. And yeah... this was a good show, and I eagerly await season 2.

I've just finished binge watching this show over the last few days- I didn't know it even existed until I stumbled across it on Netflix, and was surprised how much I enjoyed it (and happily finished with only two weeks until season 2 premieres!). Largely, because of lines of dialogue like this one you point out; people talking like actual people, including saying the word fuck, or calling someone out on their bullshit. I can't think how many times I've been watching a show where character A has betrayed some important/acted against the protagonists' interests for what were childish, petty, personal reasons and character B didn't bluntly point out that their little adolescent melodrama means fuck-all in the current circumstances (usually doing the commiserating "I'm sorry I hurt you!"), and as a viewer I got really annoyed. Here, Quentin said exactly what I would have which is "Jesus, do you not see that this is a matter of life and death that you're treating this like you ate some of my dorm room snack stash?" The whole season was like that, where the characters (mostly) behave in sane, realistic ways and ask questions/say things that aren't just bad dialogue forced into place to fit some pre-ordained narrative. I agree with your whole post; Brakebills is kind of staid and literally "old school", but there's no evidence they are misogynistic. As for Julia, she made all her own issues out of thin cloth. She was a Yale graduate with a promising future who threw it away because of magic; she wasn't owed anything by either Brakebills or Quentin. While Quentin could have been more sympathetic when he got in and she didn't, he otherwise has his own life to focus on and doesn't owe her much of anything, childhood besties or no. Julia's overreaction and vicious reprisals (as you note, using magic to mindfuck a guy who recently left a voluntary facility because he thought he was crazy for believing in magic) were not unlike the Penny book thing. Penny the bully reacted to basically his own hatred of Quentin for something Quentin can't even control (that Penny can read his thoughts) by going to 11 on the "Stupid, fucked up moves that only hurt every person at the school", when he would have already known that the book would be useful in dealing with The Beast. Quentin isn't perfect, but his sins are of the small, normal variety of everyone's early 20's, while Penny and Julia have done things that outright endanger (or kill) multiple people... and didn't have the decency to feel even a little remorse.

Oh cool, so I'm not the only person to see "The Almighty Johnsons" and it wasn't just hallucinated in some fever dream of mine? That is really good to know! Actually, joking aside, I rather enjoyed that show in spite of the goofy mythos and questionable plotlines/motivations and it demonstrates what I was saying earlier about a show being tolerable if it doesn't take itself too seriously. It was a weird, quirky, low-budget show but had smoking hot New Zealanders and some bawdy comedy. I binged watched three seasons in like a week and a half when it was on Netflix. :)

You know, I'm glad you're enjoying it, and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise! Honestly, I agree with every poster here... but I'm still watching, although it's not so much appointment television as it is "Eh, nothing else is catching my eye, but I see Hulu has the new episode ready". In my many years of watching TV, I've hate-watched plenty of shows, where the final seasons were a constant struggle simply out of completionism; shows like "Dexter" or "Weeds" (maybe it's a Showtime thing?) I was outright loathing. There are also shows I've given up on, such as "Once Upon a Time", not because I hated them, but just had gotten tired of the constant retcon and in particular the bizarre morality (loathsomely evil people can be "redeemed" and still do evil things, while good people are always prevented from even survival-level violence because that's bad, and their souls are eternally tarnished), and the plots bored me. Grimm, oddly enough, would be guilty of all of these things, except... well, it doesn't really take itself seriously, so I don't either. Shows like Dexter or Weeds want to seem like they are Art, they are Serious, they are Important... and fail miserably. It's the Uncanny Valley of "art": if you strive to make some deep Oscar-bait film, and miss, you'll invoke more hatred in almost but not quite reaching the mark than if you are dumb stoner comedy that doesn't pretend to be anything else. I can easily watch dumb/bad shows if they catch me in the right mood- hell, before I grew too old for it, I won't admit how many seasons of Trailer Park Boys I watched as they came out- and aren't clearly trying to convince me that if I don't like it, I'm a dullard who doesn't "get" their profound stories and symbolism. Nah... Grimm has become a dumb show, and sloppy as hell in its continuity, and the acting for, uh, certain individuals is uncomfortably bad (beyond laughable, you start to feel bad that certain actors are not noticeably improving). But the good parts are still fun: Monroe and Rosalee are always welcome on my TV, the occasional tongue in cheek humor is fun, DG and the supporting cast are mostly enjoyable, and Portland continues to be pretty. So I watch, not loving it, but not hating it like I have with other shows. And I'm glad it's ending, and I know it won't have some great wrap-up or answer all sorts of questions or even end in a way that makes sense. But I still enjoyed it as a casual ride over the past few years. I wanted to trim this before quoting, but I liked every single thing you wrote too much to cut it up, so I'll just try to add my own thoughts succinctly: I do miss the first season(s), when the police procedural was notably rock-solid for a supposedly paranormal show. People acted and talked like people, police work was methodical, boring and deliberate, and it made those Thomas Kincaide style episodes- that showed off the natural beauty of Portland with the color saturation turned up to 11- really fun and different. But you're absolutely right: every mis-step in the plotline, or the behavior of people, has the effect of detracting from the supernatural elements. We've been so far gone from the episode of the week with real police work- instead of Grimms and others hiding yet another ludicrously high body count Wesen incident- that it's hard to remember when the Wesen world seemed exciting and new and dangerous. That won't change in the few remaining episodes, but this episode did showcase more of that sloppy "This is not how any of this works!" writing that has marked the show's downturn from "quirky but fun show" to "continuity trainwreck that's really only fun if you stop caring and maybe get a little high".

Call me crazy but I.... ended up rather liking this, and how it ended. It wasn't perfect, not by a loooong shot, and had some big plots holes and dire need for retcon. That said, it really was more of an extended art film than setting up some multi-season cash cow, and I was intrigued enough through the first couple of episodes to stick with it. I've wasted far more time on far worse shows, after all! Still... it was at end not a sci-fi spectacle but a human show. To me one subtext of this series was a look at our media consumption habits, along with our cynicism/lack of faith in anything. This will seem an odd comparison, but Prairie is almost like Jodie Foster's character at the end of "Contact": she's had an experience, and maybe has been in touch with something, but there isn't the evidence and thus it's a story about faith as well as science (whooshing sounds off Saturn!). Had that movie been filmed as a story-within-a-story campfire retelling like "The OA", would it have been less of a classic because the movie wasn't making it unambiguously clear that what happened did happen? I think- to me- the show seemed to have a lot to say in an oblique way about our relationship to media- a demand for binge watching, pat answers, and satisfying resolutions, and for media to stand in as proxies for lived experiences and philosophy. In talking to a few of my friends who've seen this show, it' interesting how polarizing the show is: when people aren't liking it, they're really disliking it and even seem betrayed. I called it earlier that she'd turn out to be basically delusional, and that I'd be okay with that if it was handled decently, which I think it was. I mean, sure, we could have gotten the show where it's unambiguous that Prairie and the others are angels, a 5-faced diety poking through the divine to our earthly plane so we may sense and experience the infinity of lives. We could have gotten those Khatun galaxy room shots and been told this was the undeniable truth in-show, and by season 3 we'd have Hap as villain-turned-ally to go to war with Khatunland while allied with the crystal skull aliens from the last Indiana Jones movie. It could have spelled out more explicitly that Hap represented humankind's own tendency to not only cruelty and dehumanization, but to cutting ourselves off from the divine and as the sheriff's wife put it "trapping angels". I mean, I think the point there is that if you do believe in a soul, then in many ways our every day treatment of ourselves and others is functioning the same as Hap's treatment of those prisoners; stuck on this mortal plane, engaged in pointless distractions while time ticks away, and having lost a sense of connection to something bigger (granted, I'm a diehard athiest, but I still like such stories!). There is enough there to plausibly support any of the three many intrerpretations: Prairie was completely crazy but was healing (until she snapped again and ran off to get herself shot); Prairie was crazy but knowingly if not maliciously spinning a tall tale (hence the books); Prairie was genuinely in touch with something divine/supernatural (but still also mentally ill). That the show didn't focus on resolving that can be a knock on the show- but I'd consider it more a fatal flaw when in a show like "Lost" or the like with a multiyear commitment, than an 8-episode art piece that stands on its own with minimal time commitment. I don't think the point of the show is "Angels are real, we all live eternally, and Prairie totally moved to the next dimension", since the "truth" of such things in our TV shows- like in Prairie's stories in the attic- is meaningless. Even if the show made it clear her story was 100% true, it wouldn't change a damn thing in our actual, real lives- not in shared media experiences, but in the physical present of our living bodies.

Yeah, from the wikipedia description I don't think I could watch that, but it sounds like a very similar vein as Hap. That adds to the show's oddness: long stretches of the bleakness of their captive state, and then stretches of New Agey hopefulness and belief in an afterlife.

Somehow I missed the Omega/Alpha thing, but yeah it definitely feels like this is the two creators way of crafting an ad hoc occult philosophy. Which I personally find kind of fun, but then I have a soft spot for puzzles and ARGs. As for the Netflix stuff... that's how I'm reading it, and it seems completely intentional. I don't think it's solely about that, but the commentary on media consumption is increasingly obvious.

Oh, they're completely batshit insane. But that's kind of what I like: they are like the Leonard Lake and Charles Ng of Unit 731, two monsters who somehow found each other. God, this show is so creepy; the way those two so nonchalantly talk about their research, ugh... and yet a teeny tiny part of me can't help but admit that in the show's universe (or multiverse), the research Hap is doing could literally be called the most important in the history of human kind. So twisted... I'm not prepared (yet) to condemn the narrative elements Prairie in theory couldn't know, or the slowness of the attic troupe, at least until I see how it wraps up. It could- and likely will, I'm guessing- be a trainwreck of an unsatisfying finish. But I also think I'm keying on a meta/theosophical vibe about this show I really enjoy, that's working for me on a level I can't articulate yet. As bizarre as it's becoming in that mine, if they really were experiencing the things they were, I'd probably stick to the dance routines as well: escape from Hap is nice, but The last scene of this episode, where Buck's dad shuts the door and the (oddly short) episode ends with the two blue lines instead of blue circle (because he's broken the circle of whatever ritual is going on), totally added a few dashes of "John from Cincinnati" into the show for me. John was all about 01, and here the OA = away = O / \ seems cut from the same cloth. If the show is serving as a metaphor/morality tale about our relationship with culture and media, and our inability to see different ways of living (or to seek escapism in movies, tv shows, and video games), it could still work. We will see!

This pretty much encapsulates my feelings. I'm getting vibes from other quirky shows such as "Sense8" and "John From Cincinnati" (in particular how OA = Away = O (whole) and / \ (broken)), and 6 episodes in as I comment I'm worried about the home stretch.... which isn't promising as you say, from the comments by people who have finished. But so far, I'm still enjoying it, even though it is much creepier than I'd have imagined. There are definitely plotholes about Prairie's story or her reluctance to use the FBI, and truthfully there still has been nothing in the "real world" of the show where she's telling this story to the people in the attic, that has confirmed her increasingly fantastic tale. We the "real" audience have seen things that suggest they are in touch with the supernatural, but those are just flashbacks from Prairie's narrating we're "imagining with our eyes closed" just like the high school group. I agree the long drawn out process of storytelling seems like something they'd have pushed against days ago, but I guess the arbitrary limit is her one hour of walk time allowed per day. As I've said before, that makes this show to me act as a meditation on the entire Netflix/media consumption culture, and observation I made in episode 1 with that odd placement of opening credits. Still, only two episodes left; at worst, I wasted a few hours on an odd show that at least tried to be different (I struggled through season 1 of Sense8, and wasn't able to get 10 minutes into the Christmas special before I realized I couldn't take the clumsy dialogue and acting any more). At best, it resonates with me more than other viewers here.

I'm actually enjoying this (finished ep 6 last night, commenting today before I finish). At this point this show is like "Room" meets "Sense8" meets "Flatliners" meets "John From Cincinnati", among others. It's also very meta to me; I keep seeing scenes and dialogue that seem more like an artist commenting on the artist/audience relationship than strictly being necessary in the scene. I agree with Sakura12 that they've all gone a bit mad so we can forgive their sideways escape plans (3 years of dying on purpose?!), although I chuckled when the big reveal was that the experiments were to kill them and revive them, since that was bleedingly obvious by episode 2. When Buck mentioned having figured that out and Steve was like "Bullshit!" I wonder if that was a sly nod to the audience, where some people are the type to just sort of watch a show, while others follow each episode by writing hundreds of words and reading thousands on some web forum to analyze... well, shit. :) As an aside, can we basically call this a horror TV show at this point? When I first saw this show on Netflix and watched the trailer, I didn't know what to expect; I figured there'd be special powers, and government agents chasing her, etc. But... no. This episode (4) was the one that finally made me realize "Holy shit this show is really, really creepy". If you spend even a moment imagining Hap as an actual person, it's just completely horrible to conceive of this kind of torture. It's like some dark twisted Neil Gaiman fractured fairy tale, or snippet from Sandman, where these angels are held captive by the scientist, shackled from leaving the earthly plane. Jason Isaacs is increasingly freaking me out with his portrayal of Hap; it's like watching the stories I've only (sparingly) read about the kind of hellish experiments Axis "scientists" would do in Germany and Japan during WW2. I'm sure those monsters, like Hap, were just pursuing science in what was to them a rote, methodical job. <shiver>

This episode is as far as I've watched so far (just started yesterday, and got through this one before bed). I'm still intrigued, but I really hope we aren't just going to get gut-punch escape failures from the unkillable psycho for another 5 episodes. From the trailer, I figured it'd be a mix of "The Room" and "Stranger Things". As much as I know I couldn't kill another person as a general rule... in a case like that I also know I and most people would have zero problem or hesitation killing him through whatever means are necessary. Their whole letter sending plan was pretty lousy too, including the ring and the stunning inability to catch a slow moving envelope (the stream is 6" wide, just stick both arms in there for chrissakes!); but I guess that at least seems more reasonable that these people would psychologically break after 1+ years and get obsessed like Homer did. I also hope we'll get more explanation as to what draw Prairie has for these people, since she hasn't actually done anything to merit special attention other than come back... yet they have shown up late at night, multiple nights in a row, to listen to her tell stories without knowing what the ending will be. I thought at least in the first or second episode she'd do something magical/supernatural that they'd be like "Whoa!" and realize they're basically committed to seeing it through. As a metaphor for the Netflix experience, it's great; in-show, it makes little sense. I guess maybe all their home lives are so devoid of meaning and connection, that they need to supplement it with companionship with the other misfits and this storyteller in an abandoned attic... a sort of "Prairie home companion" if you will. :) Hey thanks, that's my time- you've been a great audience, be sure to tip your veal and remember to try the waitress! I wondered another thing about the teacher. In addition to the questionable nature of attending these meetings at all (whatever her motivation, it's not clear why she has come to believe Prairie can offer anything to her in dealing with the grief of her brother's death), in this episode she heard that violent irredeemable psychopath Steve is not only still drug dealing at this very house, but is selling illegal testosterone supplements to a still-developing young teenage transgirl (I'm assuming Michelle/Buck is ~15 as she's in high school). That's not just irresponsible like weed or ecstasy, but potentially seriously harmful! Might want to mention that to someone more responsible, teach. :) To be fair, that house is in a part of the neighborhood that never got developed, and I imagine that by now the neighbors who can even see the house would expect it's where the teenagers go to drink and think little of it.

Ah, that's his name! I hadn't looked him up, but (admittedly, I was smoking a little electric pot while watching) I kept thinking he was some weird hybrid between Don Draper and Timothy Dalton that my brain couldn't process as one or the other. He is fantastic so far; believably creepy not through scenery chewing over-the-top but through that sort of not-quite-right bluntness. He plays Hap like he's utterly incapable of even imagining the pain and suffering of his captives, which to me is far more chilling than overt antagonism or cliche "psycho" ranting and raving. As to how he found Prairie: HAP mentions that people who have NDEs some back with gifts, including apparently a greater gift for beautiful things such as the singing, etc. It's still a huge stretch that her violin playing would be so extraordinary he could not only hear it as exceptional where no one else was particularly impressed, but hear it through ear plugs from apparently a level below in the subway! Fantastically put! I had a brief Egoyan phase some years ago in the late 90's (along with Denys Arcand), and there is a similar... pensiveness, maybe? The scholarship kid really gives me that vibe as an Egoyan character, with his non-confrontational opposition/reluctance in these participations like the "I imagine with my eyes open" line. The show is striking an interesting mood and look, and I think if they handle it right I'll be equally fine with Prairie having some true connection to the after life, as with her just being a genuinely mentally ill woman. There would be a certain bravery to actually have that be the whole big secret- in this age of super-mysterious shows and mysterious powers and supernatural phenomenon around every corner- to have this end up as a miniseries about the impact of mental illness on the life of a person and their family. No afterlife, no magical goings on, just a tragic story about a poor young girl/woman and the eternal cruelty of people. One thing that I find odd is that the teacher is willingly showing up to these late night meetings, with multiple of her students. I get that she underwent a loss herself, but Prairie's whole "cold reading" spiel as the fake Winchell step-mom in episode 1 was dismissed once the parents/teacher began talking, and I don't understand why the teacher is still hanging around. If she had some genuine life-changing spiritual experience with Prairie that can override her professional awareness of how inappropriate this is, they haven't done a good job of making that clear.

Just started watching yesterday and got through the third episode before bed last night, but wanted to come in and start commenting before I finish the series (which I'm hoping as I type this doesn't become disappointing in the back half). I'm still intrigued through 3 episodes, but almost gave up halfway through this one until things started speeding up with the Prairie/Nina back story. The into/return from the afterlife sequence was quite lovely, and 3 episodes in I wish there was more of that sort of fantastical look and feel. I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet the really, really odd placement of credits so late in the episode, just after Prairie begins her story in the attic. I actually rewound a bit wondering if somehow the episode had gotten edited wrong, or if these were closing credits, or if it was some weird originally-aired-on-TV two-parter edited into one episode, or if it had simply slipped into episode 2 without me noticing. Then I realized two things: That gimmick was a really cool meta/4th wall callout to both Netflix and the growing art of storytelling in our lives in general: the in-show characters were sitting back and listening to the story the same way we are in our own homes, as if Prairie's life is a new Netflix original they're binging, night after night. That has to have been a record for the absolute latest in an episode that an opening credits sequence has occurred. I've seen shows that go ~10 minutes in, but never more than an hour in, and with like 10 minutes to go in the show.

Yeah, the funny thing is country music used to be all about that stuff: the poverty and desperation and heartbreak of Appalachia or the rural life. You don't have to look any further than this season's multiple cameos by Dolly Parton. It's the cynical pop-infused country that most people say they can't stand, with the incessant references to small-town "monolithic" cliches. I'm reminded of Bo Burnham's great country song bit in his last stand-up show: or this mash-up from a couple of years ago showing how identical and interchangeable radio country is (including our own Blake Shelton!):

Lol, between stealing food with Taylor and the almost obscene number of hefty food reward challenges this season, I'm surprised if Jay even lost weight this season. :) I actually thought Ken might have a chance at FTC, if only from the multiple key II wins (in looking back at season results for a different post, we've been getting lopsided wins for a long while, and one of the last close votes was Yul over Ozzy, 5-4; people do sometimes vote for someone who simply stayed alive against odds, like blue collar Mike a few seasons ago), but I think the Adam story was just the rolling stone that started the avalanche; the weird Will vote meltdown didn't help as it likely convinced everyone Ken was just not any good at the game itself. I can respect his decision to axe David just before the final tribal, although I'm not a fan of people who talk about loyalty in a game designed to break it; he had to have known for weeks that he was eventually going to go against David, so I wish he'd just owned it in FTC like Jay did with Michaela, rather than a "... but my daughter is always my tightest alliance!". No kidding, everyone who is on the show has tighter alliances with family and loved ones than with the strangers they met a month ago.

That's exactly what I was thinking! Michelle was a great Ponderosa matriarch, but was terrible with those haircuts! :) I also agree that when Jay went out, I like Jay couldn't help but admire the game play of an effective fake idol- and it would have been another notch in David's FTC speech. When Jay and then David went out, just as many of us said over the last few weeks it felt like the game would have no deserving winner left with those two gone. Adam was right in the last episode during the Jay vote-off that on top of everything else, David was articulate enough ("this is why he's dangerous at FTC!") to make great FTC speeches and be aware of his own moves to sell them. Excepting maybe Jay, he had the best Outwit/Outplay/Outlast scenario, and I don't think he had negative feelings among the jury because they always respected his gameplay and maneuvering. He hustled, schemed, plotted, and manipulated from day 1, and since that is the game as much as being likeable, he certainly would have been a deserving winner. I know it'll not happen because it's a competition, but just once I'd like to see the final three choose themselves: imagine a conversation where Adam, Jay, and David all agree "Fuck it, I'd rather lose to either of you at FTC than someone else, I'll take my chances" and push for a power final three to get rid of the goats. It seems to me like it's been a long while since there has been a remotely close vote in the FTC, and as often as not seems to be a unanimous vote. Bring back a final two, or do something to make more 4-3-3 type votes.

Just coming here to say that I too grew to appreciate Jay so much more as the season wore on- once he ditched/lost his early alliance mates- and his reaction at the fake idol and being voted out cinched it. The thing I respect the most about Survivor players is when they know it's a game: they can appreciate the game play, and don't take or make things too personal. Jay- and David, when he went out- exemplified that, even though both certainly knew that if either had made it to the end, they'd have won 10-0 over any two of Hannah, Ken, or Adam. I wouldn't be sad to see Jay back again, which is something I'd not have said in the first few weeks of this season.