Maximona

Yeah, previous TGW seasons were far more subtle. My BF -- whenever I've tried to get him to watch the show with me -- tells me that no man watches this show, that it is a "women's show" (whatever that's supposed to mean.) Which would put it up against really unsubtle shows like "Scandal" and "Nashville." So maybe the showrunners are trying to make TGW more like those shows in hopes of courting the designated demographic. Dunno. I basically watch it for Alan Cummings, so as long as they stash him in a couple of scenes every week, I'm happy.

The Elspeth subplot and moving back to the old LG office made this the worst episode of a so far surprisingly strong season, so far as I'm concerned. Elspeth's charm as a minor character was that she just straddled that over-the-top line enough so that I actually wondered whether having a wacked out, distracted manner might be a brilliant legal strategy of sorts. Not any more. And the move to the old LG office made me think that Alicia will win the AG race, hence making the firm's location absolutely irrelevant since she won't be there. I have no idea why religion is touted as Such a Big Deal in American elections. Most Americans, of course, don't vote! There are always signs on highways when you go from one state into another, but on back country roads that skirt state borders, there aren't always places to turn around.

I'm betting it's the grandfather that dies. I suspect that neither Noah or Allison't accounts would turn out to overlap more than 40 percent with what we laughingly refer to as objective reality, but that's why I like the show. It's a great device for getting way inside the two protagonists' minds, and I feel like I'm in way deeper than I am in other TV shows I watch, I'm actually seeing things through their eyes. The selective misrememberings are like Rorschach blots for their respective personalities.

I watched the scenes in the hospital twice. I didn't <U>see</U> Alison steal meds -- I saw her taking bandages. She <U>cut</U> herself at the beach. Far more interesting narrative choice to make Alison a cutter rather than a junkie. I like this show a lot. The Roshomon-like dual narratives are really well done, I think -- Noah's feature a porn star Alison; Alison's feature a dreamy, romance novel Noah. The reality is a considerably more banal middle ground, which viewers may or may not ever see. The Schrodinger effect in action. I find Noah's wife totally unsympathetic. Spoiled rich girl unwilling to live on whatever Noah makes as salary. In real life, I suspect a man in this situation would send the wife and kids off to the wife's parents and refuse to go himself. Then he could have an affair with a nice hipster girl he picks up on the subway! There is a <U>huge</U> disconnect between the natives and the tourists in Montauk, and I think the show does a really good job of portraying that.

That's my thought, too. Violent TV doesn't necessarily turn me off if it services plot and/or characterization. In this episode, it just seemed... gratuitous. And not very well filmed. That's one problem this show has had from the start: really bad production values. I don't think Kurt Sutter or any of the directors has a good visual imagination. The characters interested me the first couple of seasons, but by now they're all pretty one-dimensional. I'm thinkin' it's time to stick a fork in my SOA-watching experience.