S04.E02: Portrait of the Artist

[Door County Cherry]

Quote

Joe leans on his skills--and a student's insights--to catch his stalker.  An art show offers a gallery of suspects, revealing more than the eye can see. 

 

[rhiamon]

Phew! The Cap of Invisibility is back, I worried for a minute.

[Anela]

It's been so long since I've been in England, I can't remember if "sporting jacket" was an English thing. I thought it was an American thing. 

[Lebanna]

2 hours ago, Anela said:

It's been so long since I've been in England, I can't remember if "sporting jacket" was an English thing. I thought it was an American thing. 

Yes, that phrase sounded weird and jumped out at me. ‘Sports jacket/coat’ would have sounded more normal in the UK. 
 

‘Sporting jacket’ sounds like it’s a very even-handed garment that doesn’t cheat when it plays cricket with its trouser friends and always buys them a round after the match even when it doesn’t win.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Lebanna

[Chaos Theory]

Of course, Joe doesn’t like whodunits of course Joe is in a whodunit.

Nadia is going to be something in the plot.  Possibly one of Joe’s victims or maybe someone he “saves”.    Loved her being the one to school Joe on the genre.

Watching Joe play texting games with whoever is stalking him is all kinds of entertaining.  

One of the best conceits of the season (so far) is that Joe inadvertently becomes friends with the blue bloods while black out drunk at a party he didn’t want to go to in the first place and had to maintain the illusion of friends with people he secretly loathes to try to figure out who dumped a dead body in his flat.

Awww Joe likes the meta-cat paintings. 

And Malcolm Is becoming less a douchebag and more the good guy who got himself murdered by a friend with a secret.   

My current guess for Malcolm’s murderer is Rhys and Nadia.

Edited February 10, 2023 by Chaos Theory

[BlueSkies]

Karma perhaps in a way?  Someone beating Joe at his own game 

[BlueSkies]

Oh yeah how again does Joe's stalker get in his apartment?  What's he keep the doors unlocked 😅

[SunnyBeBe]

7 minutes ago, BlueSkies said:

Oh yeah how again does Joe's stalker get in his apartment?  What's he keep the doors unlocked 😅

Are doorbell cameras illegal in England?  Lol

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, SunnyBeBe said:

Are doorbell cameras illegal in England?  Lol

Like Joe would care!

[SunnyBeBe]

It’s just that Joe didn’t seem to consider there’s likely video footage available or that could be available to see who’s been around.  You don’t have to keep looking around in such mystery.  The police should know this too.  Should be footage that shows if a person ever left a certain neighborhood.  🙄

Edited February 12, 2023 by SunnyBeBe

[dubbel zout]

From what I've seen on British police procedurals, there's a lot of CCTV in London, so the police should be able to access that footage, but then again, this show isn't about how the police figure out what's going on.

[SunnyBeBe]

I’m not sure if I’m remembering correctly, but has Joe always looked so deadpanned?  It’s his standard expression.  No matter what…..it’s annoying, imo. 

[seacliffsal]

1 hour ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I’m not sure if I’m remembering correctly, but has Joe always looked so deadpanned?  It’s his standard expression.  No matter what…..it’s annoying, imo. 

I think the beard emphasizes it as we don't see the bottom half of his face so there's more focus on just his eyes (which should be deadpan as he's, well, Joe).

[Paloma]

On 2/9/2023 at 7:20 PM, Chaos Theory said:

Nadia is going to be something in the plot.  Possibly one of Joe’s victims or maybe someone he “saves”.

I'm hoping she does not become a victim. Even though she's not a child and there's not a big age difference between them, the dynamic between her and Joe reminds me of his caring relationship with the neighbor's kid from the first season (I think) and the younger sister of the landlord or super at Joe's apartment complex in California (second season?). (I can't remember either one's name.)

[dubbel zout]

I hope Nadia doesn't become a victim because there's no reason for her unless they want to ramp up the body count. I don't see Joe killing her—he knows she works hard, she's smart, she's been unwittingly helpful to him, but so far she doesn't seem like a threat. For all of his sociopathic tendencies, Joe doesn't kill willy-nilly.

[Blakeston]

6 hours ago, SunnyBeBe said:

I’m not sure if I’m remembering correctly, but has Joe always looked so deadpanned?  It’s his standard expression.  No matter what…..it’s annoying, imo. 

I think he was significantly more bright-eyed in season one, when he was completely infatuated with Beck. He's a lot more hardened now.

 

[Spartan Girl]

It’s kind of hard NOT to root for the stalker. Joe deserves a dose of his own medicine.

Call me crazy, but is the bodyguard Alfred on Gotham?!

Edited February 12, 2023 by Spartan Girl

[dubbel zout]

39 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Call me crazy, but is the bodyguard Alfred on Gotham?!

Yes! Sean Pertwee!

[LavenderSunset]

So far, this season is boring me and I can't remember who all of these new characters are!

[BaskingsharkGTX]

This is incredibly slow, very... weird (Adam's, uh, fetish - WTF?), quite poorly written and extremely unrealistic. As someone who, by bizarre life coincidences*, has been around Beck-ish UES/UWS NYC wannabe-intellectual-writer-snobs, rich crunchy California hippies (Colorado but same difference), tech bros and their families and posh London It-Girls and Boys, You skewered the first 3 just right but nobody in England behaves or talks like this.  

Also, Joe is being incredibly dim. There are FAR more things for him to go on like which of this lot can speak French for starters! Or who would be able to get the body into his place or who would be able to research him?

When Simon was murdered, the continuity around Joe seeing Kate with the Police on the gallery steps, then being able to get ahead of them somehow and see Simon's body, then presumably escape before they got there was atrocious. And why aren't the Police interviewing everybody who was in attendance?

I quite liked S2, mostly because of James Scully/Forty (plus "Anavrin" will never not be funny) but held off watching S3 for a while because it sounded meh. In the event, it was OK, but S4 is really low quality so far.

*No, I am not Joe. 

 

Edited February 14, 2023 by BaskingsharkGTX

[JenE4]

So, per Nadia’s rules of Who Dunnit, we know that the actual murderer/stalker is someone we don’t yet suspect and that likely every episode will focus on a different character as the suspect, ending with that suspect being the next victim. Thus far, we know that Malcom was stalking/blackmailing his girlfriend’s friends, but there is apparently another stalker in the group who seems to have Joe’s “vigilante justice” streak. Though Nadia tells us the only motives are sex, money, or revenge, we know that Joe has killed out of a perverted sense of justice and protection, which I guess can fall under the umbrella of revenge, but a slightly different motive. I think our new killer is Joe 2.0. Or, I guess Love was Joe 2.0, so this person is Joe 3.0. Rather than killing Malcolm because Malcolm was blackmailing him first, the additional murder of Simon now broadens the category of motive to that “vigilante justice.” They didn’t like that Malcolm was blackmailing his acquaintances, and they also don’t like that Simon was taking advantage of the underprivileged for his own vanity and fame. This whole lot of them are preoccupied with vanity and fame, so I anticipate several other murders in a similar vein. I think the most likely suspects are the “outsiders” so Rhys, Nadia, and the security guard who shook down Joe. However, they plus Adam and Phoebe are the characters we know best so far, so they just might be the next victims, and the other “Frienemies” will emerge over the season. Though, it does seem like Joe might get romantically involved (with or without her consent!) with Kate and/or Nadia, and that would fit the formula of the show for that person to be the switcharoo stalker. I’m also curious if/how Marianne will play into this. Did they decide to just drop the Marianne/Paris storyline and go in a different direction and that’s why they kind of shoe-horned in the switch to London, or is she still a character in play? Could it be that Love somehow managed to survive, too, or the red-headed ex whose relationship happened before the action of the series, or the sisters, or anyone else who managed to survive the last 3 seasons? I’m not ruling out someone who knows exactly who Joe was from the start and is fucking with him—and Joe is the true target of the motive of revenge.

Edited February 16, 2023 by JenE4

[tennisgurl]

I'm not an expert on London security or anything, but isn't London famously heavily monitored? Shouldn't that be affecting this mystery more? I guess Joe doesn't have to hide as much because no one knows there has been a murder, but you would think that someone would have caught someone lugging a corpse around. 

Of course Joe thinks that murder mysteries are trite and is horrified that he has a stalker. Joe, for as much as he goes on about how much smarter he is than everyone else, has always utterly lacked self awareness. 

Love that Joe fell instantly in love with that cat picture, he looked as entranced by that cat as he usually does while stalking his latest obsession. 

[Unclejosh]

Yeah this show requires a heavy dose of suspension of disbelief with regards to police procedures and today's cameras and surveillance technology especially in London. Basically you are on a camera somewhere from the second you leave your residence (even inside in some places) until you return.  

I just treat this and all shows like this as an alternate universe where our real world stuff doesn't always apply. Otherwise it would drive me mad. Any fictional show is not in our real world so getting hung up on real world stuff makes viewing harder. IMO of course.

YMMV.

 

[SunnyBeBe]

4 hours ago, Unclejosh said:

Yeah this show requires a heavy dose of suspension of disbelief with regards to police procedures and today's cameras and surveillance technology especially in London. Basically you are on a camera somewhere from the second you leave your residence (even inside in some places) until you return.  

I just treat this and all shows like this as an alternate universe where our real world stuff doesn't always apply. Otherwise it would drive me mad. Any fictional show is not in our real world so getting hung up on real world stuff makes viewing harder. IMO of course.

YMMV.

 

It irritates me, so imo, if you are producing a show where there’s little regard for modern technology, you need to have it occur prior to the invention.  Joe could have existed in the 1960-1980 time line.  

[Snow Fairy]

On 2/12/2023 at 9:23 PM, Paloma said:

I'm hoping she does not become a victim. Even though she's not a child and there's not a big age difference between them, the dynamic between her and Joe reminds me of his caring relationship with the neighbor's kid from the first season (I think) and the younger sister of the landlord or super at Joe's apartment complex in California (second season?). (I can't remember either one's name.)

Yes, I got the same vibe from the relationship. And the last season we also had Joe's baby, again someone innocent and there, but not directly in the drama

[dubbel zout]

Well, to be fair, Joe's baby was a useless boy. What else could Joe do but leave him with a neighbor?

[Kirkydee]

My opinion will be in the minority, but why the fuss at this time over surveillance and cameras?  Nobody knows Malcolm is missing let alone dead.  Simon's murder is fresh and they've barely scratched the surface of the investigation.  As for Joe lugging Malcolm's body being caught on some camera, just because there ARE cameras doesn't mean there is somebody constantly monitoring said cameras.