S01.E05: I Break Things

[Scarlett45]

Quote

Cora makes an effort to put the past in the past, but an accidental encounter makes it difficult for her to do so. Stella gets some unpleasant news.

Air Date: June 3, 2022. 

[DiabLOL]

Cora’s son is so adorable. Why is he always wearing a huge thick shawl collar around his neck?

[AngieBee1]

As much as I don't believe there is an actual sea creature, I just don't see how next week's final episode will resolve the Essex storyline. Are they going to find Naomi whether dead or alive? Can Will knock some sense into the community or will he just leave them all to his hysteria? Unless they're going to devote ten minutes to it because we still have to contend with Stella's health, Cora and Will's relationship, I assume Luke's inability to be a surgeon due to his hand injury and Martha's split from Cora.

I was rooting for Luke to not be a knob and just be satisfied with being Cora's friend. Hated his heel turn and revelation that all he's done for her was just to garner her affection versus just being a good person.

[blackwing]

On 6/3/2022 at 6:17 PM, AngieBee1 said:

As much as I don't believe there is an actual sea creature, I just don't see how next week's final episode will resolve the Essex storyline. Are they going to find Naomi whether dead or alive? Can Will knock some sense into the community or will he just leave them all to his hysteria? Unless they're going to devote ten minutes to it because we still have to contend with Stella's health, Cora and Will's relationship, I assume Luke's inability to be a surgeon due to his hand injury and Martha's split from Cora.

I was rooting for Luke to not be a knob and just be satisfied with being Cora's friend. Hated his heel turn and revelation that all he's done for her was just to garner her affection versus just being a good person.

Agree with all of this.  I just don’t see how they can resolve all of the open plot lines in one episode, which makes it seem obvious they were always planning for multiple seasons.  Unfortunately, I’m not sure if I see myself returning.  This show moves too slowly and I am not really liking any of the characters. 
 

I truly cannot stand the Luke Garrett character.  Of course Cora has no interest in him, her husband just died and moreover, she’s about 15 years older than him.  What makes him think that she would want to marry him?  Has she ever given any indication to him that she viewed him as anything other than a friend?   His jealousy of Will made him even more unattractive.  We are obviously supposed to care that his sad wandering in the subway tunnels led to his hand being injured which will affect his work… but not me.  I think he deserves everything he is going to get and I wished he had been killed.

I am still not liking any of the characters except some small amount of sympathy for Will.   I want to like Stella but I don’t understand why she’s just giving up.  And I  especially don’t understand what motivates  Cora.  What is it about her that is making two men and one woman want her badly?  I don’t see anything special about her at all.

[Scarlett45]

I have no idea how this will end. 
 

While I don’t think Luke is a sadist like Cora’s husband, he’s a MEAN drunk. Even if Cora wanted to marry again, nope. I did feel awful for him when the thief sliced his hand up. He never should’ve said anything, but in the moment it was all instinct. 
 

Martha does need to move on- there’s nothing wrong with her wanting more out of life. She took a job as a lady’s maid because it was the best option at the time, but if she can earn a living doing something she’s passionate about, that’s much better than serving Cora and Frankie’s needs. 

[Scarlett45]

On 6/5/2022 at 1:33 AM, blackwing said:

I am still not liking any of the characters except some small amount of sympathy for Will.   I want to like Stella but I don’t understand why she’s just giving up.  And I  especially don’t understand what motivates  Cora.  What is it about her that is making two men and one woman want her badly?  I don’t see anything special about her at all.

 

I think with Cora it might be her emotional unavailability that’s so alluring. Martha makes sense to me, Martha was able to provide her the emotional intimacy and companionship she wasn’t getting with her sadistic husband- and it was probably easy to convince herself that if the husband was gone Cora would appreciate Martha the way she wanted. 

Luke is a broke doctor looking for someone to fund his ambitions. Cora is smart, and he can talk to her- I don’t believe he loves her, I think he saw her as an easy mark that he wouldn’t hate being married to. It’s a bunch of misogyny, how dare she not want him, how dare she lead him on, she should be GRATEFUL (dude she’s the one with money she doesn’t need you!).

Will I don’t get- at all. We barely saw them interact!

[Kiss my mutt]

I’m barely hanging on here and am underwhelmed with this series. The love affair is not particularly smoldering or have any real build up. It’s like Bam, let’s spend long hours alone, openly moon for each other in front of the wife and make love out in the open. Very unlikely, especially with the town’s vicar and it would have been more clandestine. 
I had hoped the serpent would have been less symbolic and there was more evidence that it was real and her character had more direction. I keep thinking she killed her husband to get away, and thought there might be a story there and there’d be more direct accusations of her being a witch as more occurrences linked to the serpent were encountered. 
This should have been so much better. One episode to go but I’m fighting it. 

[Scarlett45]

31 minutes ago, Kiss my mutt said:

I’m barely hanging on here and am underwhelmed with this series. The love affair is not particularly smoldering or have any real build up. It’s like Bam, let’s spend long hours alone, openly moon for each other in front of the wife and make love out in the open. Very unlikely, especially with the town’s vicar and it would have been more clandestine. 
I had hoped the serpent would have been less symbolic and there was more evidence that it was real and her character had more direction. I keep thinking she killed her husband to get away, and thought there might be a story there and there’d be more direct accusations of her being a witch as more occurrences linked to the serpent were encountered. 
This should have been so much better. One episode to go but I’m fighting it. 

I know what you mean. The book was supposed to be acclaimed, and maybe it was great but this story isn't moving me. There was POTENTIAL, I mean, I could see how a woman stuck in an abusive marriage would be so relieved at freedom with the POS died, and then had an emotional affair with a married guy with a sick wife. I could even see how a young Dr who respects her intellect might intrigue her, I could even see how her Lady's Maid (who was actually a lesbian or queer) may have legit feelings for her and be jealous.

But this......its like the outline is there but someone forgot to fill in the color.

[DiabLOL]

I love anything Victorian era, crypto creatures (especially lochness monster  and their cousins) so I am really disappointed by many things here. I don’t want to hear “slow burn” anymore, who has the patience and time to risk a dud? The writing is terrible. I had also hoped the monster would be real. 

The vicar marsh-fucked Cora BEFORE he even knew his wife was dying! Great guy! Am I supposed to give a shit about him?  ETA: he was so busy pining after Cora he didn’t even notice his wife was coughing up blood and generally unwell?!

They could have had a good storyline with a queer Victorian era maid but they can’t seem to really commit to much with her. 

At first I liked the surgeon and thought he was a good time but he suddenly turned into a total creep.

I keep comparing how people in this show behave sexually with the people in Gilded Age. Just stuff like Cora sleeping with her maid and the surgeon coming by to hang out with them for days etc etc.

I’m not sure how they’re going to wrap this up in the one remaining ep whatever it is they’re even supposed to wrap up. I can’t imagine there will be a second season.

Edited June 6, 2022 by DiabLOL
more Vicar hate

[Kiss my mutt]

Thanks for the reassurance I’m not alone here and after seeing it had been nominated for an Emmy I was thinking I lacked enough sophistication to “get” this, but perhaps there isn’t much to get! A brief off topic, I also watched another female lead series on Apple, The Shining Girls, and thought it was better but it too really felt drawn out and lacking after the first few episodes,  I don’t have any plans on watching season two of either of these if there is one. I need to go check out the TSG thread and read up on how others liked that one. 

[Scarlett45]

1 hour ago, Kiss my mutt said:

Thanks for the reassurance I’m not alone here and after seeing it had been nominated for an Emmy I was thinking I lacked enough sophistication to “get” this, but perhaps there isn’t much to get! A brief off topic, I also watched another female lead series on Apple, The Shining Girls, and thought it was better but it too really felt drawn out and lacking after the first few episodes,  I don’t have any plans on watching season two of either of these if there is one. I need to go check out the TSG thread and read up on how others liked that one. 

What what an EMMY???

[Kiss my mutt]

Right? Lol

I read it here https://www.primetimer.com/features/is-hulu-poised-to-dominate-the-emmys-limited-series-categories

There’s no way they’ll win up against all of that competition, thankfully. I guess anything with Clare Danes gets nominated. 

[MaggieG]

I actually liked the banter between Luke and Martha. Especially when he asks her if he was any good. 

[blackwing]

17 hours ago, Kiss my mutt said:

I’m barely hanging on here and am underwhelmed with this series. The love affair is not particularly smoldering or have any real build up. It’s like Bam, let’s spend long hours alone, openly moon for each other in front of the wife and make love out in the open. Very unlikely, especially with the town’s vicar and it would have been more clandestine. 
I had hoped the serpent would have been less symbolic and there was more evidence that it was real and her character had more direction. I keep thinking she killed her husband to get away, and thought there might be a story there and there’d be more direct accusations of her being a witch as more occurrences linked to the serpent were encountered. 
This should have been so much better. One episode to go but I’m fighting it. 

16 hours ago, Scarlett45 said:

I know what you mean. The book was supposed to be acclaimed, and maybe it was great but this story isn't moving me. There was POTENTIAL, I mean, I could see how a woman stuck in an abusive marriage would be so relieved at freedom with the POS died, and then had an emotional affair with a married guy with a sick wife. I could even see how a young Dr who respects her intellect might intrigue her, I could even see how her Lady's Maid (who was actually a lesbian or queer) may have legit feelings for her and be jealous.

But this......its like the outline is there but someone forgot to fill in the color.

Agree with both.  This show is such a chore to watch.  My complaint since the very first episode has been that I feel like I got dropped into the middle of something and that I am missing a bunch of notes/information that the producers are assuming I already know.

14 hours ago, Kiss my mutt said:

Thanks for the reassurance I’m not alone here and after seeing it had been nominated for an Emmy I was thinking I lacked enough sophistication to “get” this, but perhaps there isn’t much to get!

Nominations haven't been announced yet.  I wouldn't be surprised if Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston get nominations, because the Limited Series Category is often used now to nominate "name" actors particularly those who normally work in movies.  But this show is so undeserving of a Best Limited Series nomination, but who knows.  Maybe critics are loving it.

[ferjy]

On 6/6/2022 at 5:59 PM, Scarlett45 said:

But this......its like the outline is there but someone forgot to fill in the color.

Exactly. There’s a lot of nothing in this when it could have been great. Tom Hiddleston is wasted on this. He has nothing to do, just walking around looking constantly constipated. Poor guy is probably wondering what went wrong with the script. 

[ferjy]

On 6/3/2022 at 7:17 PM, AngieBee1 said:

I was rooting for Luke to not be a knob and just be satisfied with being Cora's friend. Hated his heel turn and revelation that all he's done for her was just to garner her affection versus just being a good person.

Yeah, that was a twist, and not done well at all. We were fed the story that they were good friends, then suddenly he’s in love with her? They sure don’t bother to develop characters or relationships in this, do they.

[ferjy]

On 6/6/2022 at 6:33 PM, DiabLOL said:

At first I liked the surgeon and thought he was a good time

I did too. I think Frank Dillane is really good in the role. He looked familiar but I’m sure I’ve never seen him before. I think I’m seeing his father in him (Stephen Dillane of GoT fame; sorry if it’s been mentioned already, I’m only now tuning into the threads). I think he has a bright future ahead of him. 

[DiabLOL]

25 minutes ago, ferjy said:

I did too. I think Frank Dillane is really good in the role. He looked familiar but I’m sure I’ve never seen him before. I think I’m seeing his father in him (Stephen Dillane of GoT fame; sorry if it’s been mentioned already, I’m only now tuning into the threads). I think he has a bright future ahead of him. 

I keep meaning to figure out where I’d seem him before. 

[Red Fields]

Fear of the Walking Dead.