bobbyjoe

I’ve been skipping this season for this very reason. Just saw the clips and it looks even more nightmarish with that creepy jack-in-the-box outfit than I’d even imagined. It’s going to be hard to shake the image of Nicole and Jenny happily dancing along with all this. I have a new respect for Ken, though: the irony here is that this time the show’s resident clown is the voice of sanity. ETA- I just saw that apparently one of the judge’s guesses for Space Bunny was Buju Banton? Good god. Let’s hope not. Pretty much the only way for the show to go lower than it did tonight would be for them to bring on a performer infamous for singing about killing gay people. Even thinking about that makes me feel sick— was that supposed to be a “fun” guess? What is wrong with this show?

This episode to me was perfection and exactly why I love this show. Brian Tyree Henry does comic frustration better than almost anybody, and the scenes with Wiley (the kid with the guitar) were hilariously weird. It just felt like everybody was at the top of their game. This is one I'd put up there with some of the classic episodes from seasons 1 and 2.

Dear Carolyn, I don’t think this season’s showrunners have any idea what they’re doing. They just killed me with a pizza cutter for cryin’ out loud. How about you just— I dunno— call up somebody and have Villanelle killed so we can just go ahead and end this terrible season? XXOO, Konstantin

This whole season makes me feel insulted as a viewer. I’m just going to pretend that the show ended at the bridge last season and allowed the audience to make up their own minds about what happens to Eve and Villanelle (because I guarantee even some of the most casual viewers could have come up with a better storyline than whatever the hell this season was). Worst finale since the original Dexter.

You’re not missing much, and I say this as someone who is a big fan of Mamet’s early plays. As you saw on Maher’s show, it’s like Mamet’s brains and talents fell out of his head a decade or so ago; I don’t know what happened. A few years ago I went to see one of Mamet’s new plays on Broadway— it starred Al Pacino, and I absolutely love Al Pacino. Pacino did his best, but the play— phew! It is literally the worst play I’ve ever seen on Broadway and I’ve seen a lot of Broadway plays. And not because of politics— it was just really, really a big lazy mess. A college freshman could have written a better play. So I don’t know how Mamet ended up where he is today, but its like something thoroughly rotted his brain, and not just politically.

Frankly, the way this season has been going I could see Ru announcing at next week’s reunion that they’re all back in the competition and every single queen this season is the winner.

I have to be totally honest: I don’t know how I feel if it turns out this season keeps mixing in anthology episodes instead of keeping the focus on our main characters. It probably wouldn’t bug me if we hadn’t had to wait sooooooo long for the show to come back, but I do want to see our main crew. One of the great things about Atlanta is that its been able to use our main characters in creative and fun ways to both give us absurd humor and social commentary through them. Last week’s episode is a good example of that. Even the weirdest episodes, like Teddy Perkins, had connections back to our main characters. If they keep stepping outside the characters, though, it’s going to start feeling like they’re losing interest and would rather be doing a spin-off anthology show. One detour into a “special episode” (like the season premiere) is one thing— and I didn’t think tonight’s episode was bad— but if this is going to be a regular thing this season, I dunno. Maybe I’m just a little burned out on anthologies.

Did anyone else hope that when Ms. Cobel started saying to Helly “I’m going to torture you all” she’d also add “and no more deviled egg parties for you!”

But it turns out Irv, of all people, is the one on the outside who’s been doing the most investigation and research and obviously has an axe to grind against Lumon. He has several of our people mapped; he has those lists… And the revelation that Irv is apparently a decorated vet— I was fascinated with his story. Not what I expected from him. Maybe the reason he’s been the main one seeing the black goo visions inside is because his outie knows a lot more about the real danger Lumon poses. On the same note, I hope Christopher Walken will be in season 2– when Irv shows up at his door and snaps back into his outie personality, maybe he'll draw outie Burt into helping investigate the conspiracy.

I don’t know how they’ve managed it, but this season has been such a jumbled mess I simultaneously feel like the finale has way too much to tie up and not nearly enough. The “way too much” is all this vague, rambling, and needlessly convoluted stuff about the Twelve, and the “not nearly enough” is that they frustratingly didn’t build at all very well to any satisfying climax to Eve and Villanelle’s relationship. I should be feeling “ohmigod I can’t stand having to wait a week until I see how this all ends,” but instead I’m feeling “meh.”

I’m sorry, but Bosco did not win that challenge. I’d have put Bosco toward the middle: Angeria, Camden, and Willow clearly stood out on top, both in performance and the runway. I’m not sure why Bosco got the win, unless it was some weird attempt to justify the gold candy bar last episode. Camden looked freaking absolutely amazing and beautiful on the runway. And just like Ru sometimes has a queen like Jorgeous who he obviously favors and way over-inflates, he usually has another queen who is really good but who he barely gives the time of day. Camden seems to fit that role for Ru this season— it took her forever to finally win, and while people like Ross note how good Camden is, Ru usually treats her like “you were fine. Anyway, next contestant…” It drives me crazy. On another note, I have a theory: I think that Daya is actually identical twins, one good and one evil. The good Daya appears on stage and is actually talented (she deserved the LSFYL win), but the second she leaves the stage the evil Daya pushes her into a broom closet and locks her up, and then spends every waking moment whining about everything and obnoxiously criticizing the other queens. That’s the only explanation. There is no other. 🙂

Yeah, I’ve kind of lost the thread of exactly what’s happening or why. Particularly as we get so close to the end. It’s like, now Villanelle’s cavorting on an island with another assassin, because… uhhh… ? It almost feels like MadLibs, like: “next week, Eve __disguises herself as a robot__ to hunt the twelve; while Carolyn yells at a _street mime_; and Villanelle _takes a ride on a zeppelin_” I’d be like, okay, and go along with it, but I’d still be scratching my head a little

So happy for Lady Camden!. Credit where credit is due: I absolutely despise Daya back-stage and in her talking heads, but on-stage and on the runway she was good tonight (loved the KISS outfit). Again, the editing and the producer’s rigging was so obvious that my husband announced thirty minutes into the show (and we were watching it on first airing): “Bosco and Jorgeous in the bottom two, Bosco gets eliminated but has the golden chocolate bar” and was exactly right. C’mon producers and editors say it with me now: less predictability please! Thank god that damned chocolate bar is gone. If Ru pulls some “shantay you both stay” bullshit next episode I may throw my television set through the window.

The strangest storyline of the season is Watson, the bald servant in the Russell household. He’s played by the great Michael Cerveris of Broadway (like Sweeney Todd) and television (like Fringe) fame, so there would seem to be a reason for casting such a strong actor in the role. But his storyline goes nowhere and is never explained. We see him hanging around outside someone’s house on one episode; going up to her door on another episode and asking her if she remembers him; then when Flora McNeil is announced at the ball in the finale it’s the woman he was watching and he gives her a furtive look. That’s it. There’s no real explanation. Out of this great big cast we tend to get at least some explanation of all of their stories, but Watson remains a mystery. Did: A) I miss something; B) some scenes that better explained this storyline were left on the cutting room floor; or C) Julian Fellowes simply forgot about developing or even explaining this storyline?

This is exactly where I am right now and shows what a disastrous decision that particular choice was. Even if they edited it out, unless they fess up to it being edited out, there’s always going to be the expectation that person might still be there. It seems like they're just making some terrible decisions this season, and that was only one of them. Also, reading about who’s been revealed so far, including tonight, it really sounds like a “who cares” season. None of those sound like particularly fun or exciting reveals. Maybe the show desperately needs a new casting agency?