S02.E04: The Pool

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Mike increases pressure on Evelyn to honor her side of the deal before another unexpected event at tent city. Bunny worries Mike has lost control. Mariam attempts an act of good will.

Dropping Sunday, February 5, 2023.

[mledawn]

Overall impression of this week: meh.
Also, where tf is Rebecca, Mike? That woman puts up with too much anyway.

[dwmarch]

I agree, not the best episode this week. It was mostly characters going to each other to ask for things they asked for last week. Except now it's urgent and everybody is mad.

Poor Skinny Pete. He finally gets out of Albuquerque and settles down and ends up getting himself murdered by Russian gangsters. We get to see that several of his fingers were removed so I guess he continued negotiating?

Mike's mom could have done a bit more prep work before talking to the juveniles. What I got from her lesson was "if you live to be as old as I am, you'll be filled with gratitude when someone mugs you and only takes your money."

I guess we'll see next week but why play hot potato with the bearer bonds? The pawn shop guy had the right idea. Build a bonfire, make the problem go away. But it looks like Mike has an idea for flushing Milo out. Hey Mike, have you tried looking for him at that giant Russian church?

 

[Moviesnob]

OH MY GOD we got a resolution to the "Did Milo mean to send MIke after the bus?" question. And damn, poor Pete. I'm guessing that by sending his wife home, Mike sent her to her death. 

This season doesn't feel as fluid as season one. Mike is losing more control as the season goes on; I hope he gets his family out, though I'm sure his mom will refuse to go.

I am NOT happy about Rebecca being missing. Does someone already have her? 

Kyle has a point; he could help Mike with his full waiting room. I hope he gets more of a storyline than nagging at Mike. A lot of repetition this episode from the past week.

[Orbert]

Yeah, this episode was not the most riveting.  That last scene, though.  Shit is really gonna hit the fan now (finally).

I felt sorry for Pete.  How did he end up going to the club and asking for Joseph?  Did his "friend" at the pawn shop send him there?

[Ottis]

This show royally pisses me off. Mike the Fixer can't control anything, why does anyone listen to him? His mother is in some sort of serenity coma that is boring as all get out. His brother is a screw up. And now it has become predictable ... the moment we saw kids in line for a pool, I knew what the kids would find and where.

For a show to be good, it needs someone you want to win even if sometimes that someone is an antihero. That's what I thought Mike was going to be, but he's just ineffective and impotent. And the show doesn't even work as a study of our prison system, because the prisons are just another setting, never fleshed out or described in any way that says anything.

Not sure I can watch the rest of this season. It's meaningless.

9 hours ago, Orbert said:

I felt sorry for Pete.  How did he end up going to the club and asking for Joseph?  Did his "friend" at the pawn shop send him there?

Yes, and everyone who sent him there, including Iris, told him he shouldn't go there. That was the only interesting part of this ep, that Joseph was so extreme. Which made Mile beating him last week even more implausible.

[Chaos Theory]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:45 PM, Ottis said:

This show royally pisses me off. Mike the Fixer can't control anything, why does anyone listen to him? 

That is part of the problem.  No one is listening to Mike when it matters.  Mike warned the cops not to make that deal with the inmates last season when they wanted the meth cook to be killed but they did anyway and then broke their end of the deal when they got annoyed that they had to actually pay up which lead to the riots.   Now they aren’t listening to Mike when he comes up with a way to fix the problem that keeps the federal government out of their town.   Bunny and the others were put in prison on trumped up charges and are now even more powerful (because the inside runs the outside) then before and only Mike understands how dangerous that is if they feel like they have been lied to.     The reason Mike has been ineffectual is because no one has been listening to him this season.

They haven’t even been pretending to. 

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Chaos Theory

[mledawn]

I think there was a Behind the Scenes after season 1 where they do talking heads with the actors and creators. At one point Hugh Dillon (Ian and co-creater) points out that Mike is trying to tell a bunch of people (in jobs who are in those jobs because they get to tell other people what to do and don't like being told what to do) what to do. This is the crux of the mayhem.

[Orbert]

We aren't given a timeline or anything, but at the start of the series, Mitch is the mayor and Mike is something like his right-hand man.  From the few scenes we see, we get the impression that they do a lot of things together and coordinate their efforts.  Then Mitch is killed and Mike becomes the new mayor.  But it makes sense that the other groups wouldn't immediately recognize that and any rep he has is from the days when Mitch and Mike ran things together.  Also, Mike isn't used to being the one calling the shots; he was primary consultant at best.  So not only is he trying to run things by himself, but he doesn't have Mitch or anyone else to advise him.  He's gonna make mistakes.

But overall I agree with Chaos Theory.  Mike has been mostly correct about most things, but the other groups don't listen.  Some do.  Ian seems to always have his back.  Ed tried, but his hands were often tied.

[Ottis]

9 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

That is part of the problem.  No one is listening to Mike when it matters.

My point is, does anyone ever listen to Mike? Because we haven't seen it. Which undercuts the entire premise of this show, and is why I ask, what is the point? The show needs to give us examples of Mike being cleverly effective. Unlike Tony Soprano, he also needs to generally follow laws, unless we are supposed to view him as a criminal... and if THAT is true, then he can't own the high ground he needs own in order to run around shouting at people that they need to listen to him or bad things will happen to others.

[Ottis]

5 hours ago, Orbert said:

He's gonna make mistakes.

But overall I agree with Chaos Theory.  Mike has been mostly correct about most things, but the other groups don't listen.  Some do.  Ian seems to always have his back.  Ed tried, but his hands were often tied.

So you're saying Mike has been ineffective, and we agree. CAN he be effective? It doesn't appear so.  Based on what we have seen occur on the show, everyone would be better off finding another fixer and getting rid of Mike, and that shouldn't be the main conclusion in a show based on Mike, should it? 

[jabRI]

Agree with everyone here, I liked the first season but this second season is confusing, and no one I care about.