The Prodigal Son Returns , Let's Have A Drink! : All Episodes Talk

[madam magpie]

My feeling is that the dad was an abuser, his dad was an abuser, and Danny became an abuser as a result. There was also a history of addiction. Mom was an enabler, and the other kids were doing their best to keep their family together. Plus, each sibling's experience growing up in that family was different, and how each viewed Danny, Dad, and Sarah was different. It was never the other kids' responsibility to protect Danny from their father; it was Mom's. And once Danny became an adult, his choices and actions became his own and his responsibility alone. The siblings, however, never overcame their desire to protect their family.

None of this is especially unique, which is why, for me, the murder was ridiculous. That a cycle of addiction, abuse, and fallout continues to haunt this family makes total sense and is interesting to me. That's what I really liked about the show. I'd like to see them all cope, successfully or not. That the siblings kill their brother/cover up the murder comes off as soapy to me.

[ladders]

Just wanted to say that, for me, the true villain of the piece was Robert Rayburn.  His actions set virtually everything in motion.  Had he been a good father to his son, to support him in such a traumatic moment (of what was obviously an accident) instead of beating him and ostracizing him, who knows what Danny might have made of himself, or what path he might have taken in life.  The over-the-top deification of such a clearly flawed man bugged me from the outset and only continued as the story went on.

 

I don't feel as convicted about Robert, but the public image of Robert is an interesting topic.  With the introduction of John to the Sheriff position, this theme will continue.  It seems as though John's conflicted about doing what it takes to protect his image.  Some terrible people get great respect and admiration - situations where the truth will actually diminish the image might recur and need to be addressed.  Lots for John to deal with internally - great acting in the last few episodes showing us how the shock of these events took hold.

[Shangrilala]

Did we ever learn what Danny wrote in the toast?

 

I think Danny's anger wasn't just about how the abuse was handled, but how he was treated for the rest of his life.  Not only did his family not protect him, including his own mother, but, as he said in the scene on the beach, he was then forced to beg, fight, claw his way through life.  In his mind, they made him who he was, they destroyed his chance at any type of normal, happy life.  Now, that said, yes, Danny is an adult, who is ultimately responsible for his own actions, but he was hardly a responsible human being.  But when there is so much self-loathing, it would have been virtually impossible for him to have "risen above" his circumstances, so to speak.

 

I'm really fascinated by the character of Sally Rayburn.  There is, of course, her ultimate crime.  She did not protect her son.  She did not help him feel safe in his own home.  She did not stand up to the man that blamed and abused him (I'm assuming that the abuse did not end with the attack after Sarah's death, but continued in verbal and emotional form for a long time after).  She did not comfort her daughter who was so distraught about her parents fighting.  Why?  What was going on with her, who was she, to not offer those things to her children?  What else went on in that house during those years that would have prevented that?  How controlling was Robert, was she scared of him during that time?  If she was leaving her husband anyway, came home to her daughter dead and her son badly beaten, why did she go back?  I think there's a lot more to learn about the character of Sally Rayburn. 

[BigBlueMastiff]

Shangrilala, I am still curious about that toast, too, as well as Sally's motivations. She said she ran away from home to be with Robert. It sounds like her way to deal with difficult situations is flight. She doesn't think about consequences. She also seemed jealous of Sarah's relationship with Robert. Don't want to think there was more there than we saw, but it seemed to be one reason she didn't take to Sarah. Also allowing her oldest son to comfort her obviously distraught daughter, so Sally could finish packing or whatever, speaks volumes. There is a lot of clear favoritism by both parents towards their children that definitely affected the family dynamic.It's sick to think a mother would be jealous of her own child, but Sally clearly has issues.

[JBC344]

Shangrilala, I am still curious about that toast, too, as well as Sally's motivations. She said she ran away from home to be with Robert. It sounds like her way to deal with difficult situations is flight. She doesn't think about consequences. She also seemed jealous of Sarah's relationship with Robert. Don't want to think there was more there than we saw, but it seemed to be one reason she didn't take to Sarah. Also allowing her oldest son to comfort her obviously distraught daughter, so Sally could finish packing or whatever, speaks volumes. There is a lot of clear favoritism by both parents towards their children that definitely affected the family dynamic.It's sick to think a mother would be jealous of her own child, but Sally clearly has issues.

Interesting, I never got the impression that Sally was jealous of Sarah or Sarah and Robert's bond.  I was actually thinking it was the other way around in that Sally didn't want to face Sarah because it might of stopped her from leaving Robert. 

 

But I would love to see season 2 explore more of Sally's perspective.  I think season 1 sort of laid the ground work on the family especially the sibling relationships, but I would love to get more of Sally's perspective.

[Shangrilala]

I never got the impression that Sally was jealous of the bond, either.  That's interesting, where did you pick that up?

 

For a lot of the season, I wondered about the point of Sally.  She was portrayed as a straight-forward devoted wife and mother, kind of helpless.  We saw that Robert had the mean streak.  We saw that Sally had little to do with business decisions on the Inn.  We saw that Robert disregarded Sally's feelings in wanting Danny back with the family.  We saw that she didn't argue with Robert that he had removed Danny from the will.  In many ways, it set things up that Robert controlled everything, was this powerful and well-respected man in the community, but in private life there were some things going on that were pretty horrible. 

 

But along the way there are little signs that wasn't quite the case.  I'm wondering if Danny was right:  Was Sally the worst one of them all?  Was she the one who was ultimately the most selfish, the cruelest, but in her "quiet" way? 

 

Sally made the choices that were best for her, even in the worst times for her family.  That level of selfishness, especially in the context of the tragedies suffered by the family, is a cruelty in it's own way.

[JBC344]

I never got the impression that Sally was jealous of the bond, either.  That's interesting, where did you pick that up?

 

For a lot of the season, I wondered about the point of Sally.  She was portrayed as a straight-forward devoted wife and mother, kind of helpless.  We saw that Robert had the mean streak.  We saw that Sally had little to do with business decisions on the Inn.  We saw that Robert disregarded Sally's feelings in wanting Danny back with the family.  We saw that she didn't argue with Robert that he had removed Danny from the will.  In many ways, it set things up that Robert controlled everything, was this powerful and well-respected man in the community, but in private life there were some things going on that were pretty horrible. 

 

But along the way there are little signs that wasn't quite the case.  I'm wondering if Danny was right:  Was Sally the worst one of them all?  Was she the one who was ultimately the most selfish, the cruelest, but in her "quiet" way? 

 

Sally made the choices that were best for her, even in the worst times for her family.  That level of selfishness, especially in the context of the tragedies suffered by the family, is a cruelty in it's own way.

I think that Sally might of been caught up in the ideal that she had the perfect life and been fiercely protective of it.  From what she has revealed neither her nor Robert came from loving beginnings.  To get to the point where they are respected, wealthy, pillars of the community probably influenced Sally's decision to either not leave Robert sooner, and to eventually stay with him after Sarah's death.  The image of the "perfect family" wasn't going to be tarnished by headlines of her leaving Robert or Robert's beating of Danny.

 

It's sort of a strange turn of events in the sense that Sarah's death most likely influenced Sally to stay with Robert, and once she made that decision she had to protect their image, which in turn put her at opposition to protecting Danny and drawing a line in the sand with her and Robert on one side and Danny on the other.

 

What I also found interesting is Danny's level of cruelty to Meg.  One on hand it is very strange for Danny to put Meg in the same category as John in turn of blame considering she is so much younger than him. Usually older brothers have much more of a softer side for their younger sister.  It is sort of like all those feelings sort of died with Sarah.  With John, Danny seems to oscillate between love and hate, with Kevin you can understand their issues since he is the most like Robert, but I feel like his cruelty to Meg is sort of a weird counter balance to his devotion to Sarah.  The scene where Danny tells Meg that Sarah was the beloved daughter and Meg could never compete, no matter how much she strived for attention, while possibly true, was an incredibly evil thing to say.

Edited April 2, 2015 by JBC344

[Guest]

I hated Danny and was glad to see him killed but I didn't really buy it that Boy Scout John had been pushed far enough to actually do it in the way he did.  I know that was the point of the 'get on your knees and beg' stuff, and threatening Jane, but it still didn't seem like enough.  I mean, just days before, John couldn't even let Danny get taken down on drug charges.  It takes minutes to drown someone.  You have a lot of time to chill out and think about what you're doing.  

 

Not a bad show, though.  I'd probably watch another season just for the cast and setting.  I wonder if Linda C. is out, with Meg moving away.

[missy jo]

I think Danny initially came back trying to genuinely reconcile with his family but since he was initially held at arm's length, renewed his bitterness toward the rest of the Rayburns and he was forced into illegal activities to get money he desperately needed.  I think the final straw for Danny was either when even after he saved his father, his dad still wanted him gone or when he found out he had been cut out of the will and Meg didn't change it.  That clearly deeply hurt Danny and I think that, combined with the lies John told him pushed him over the edge.  The real tragedy is even though Danny had opportunities after that to go legit, his decades of bitterness and guilt consistently got the better of him.  What Danny did to the family was messed up, but I can see why he did it.  They refused to forgive him for Sarah's death for decades and he couldn't forgive them (or himself really) for their decades of rejection and lack of support.

 

 

I had so much sympathy for Danny in the beginning, but I was confused as to whether bringing down the family business was a "long con" or one that he had in mind from the start. There were certainly a lot of mitigating events that could have lead him to change his original intentions. It's hard to believe he got on the bus with a plan to frame them for drug trafficking!

 

I'm not sure how there can be a second season without Danny, although I loved the series and would like to see more of it!

 

Shout-out to chaos theory and Shangrilala for great comments, too.

[Megan]

Sally and Danny's relationship was creepy. She felt guilty about the abuse, his life, but they way they related to each other was very flirty. Not very monther-son at all.

[DeLurker]

I loved this. Took me a few eps to get used to the pacing because TV has taught me things need to keep popping, but once I settled into the groove it was nice. Slow burn indeed.

I can muster some understanding for all the kids, there's even a wee residual sympathy for Danny. Ma and Pa Rayburn though? Nada.

Not sure how they make Danny 2 into a S2 big bad. Putting a lot of weight on young shoulders to go head to head with this cast or morph it into the M.C. (Monroe County) by shifting to the youngsters. And that sounds awful.

I think it is awesome that each of these actors took on roles where the audience would not necessarily view them favorably nor sympathetically. It was well written stuff but could easily have been a big fail in the hands of lesser talent.

[missy jo]

I finally saw a commercial today for this show. Maybe they're realizing it will catch on if they promote it.

[DeLurker]

About Meg's clothes: totally inappropriate for a lawyer but remember, Florida. really. I live here (not the Keys) and while the show exaggerated more than a little bit in some stereotypes, inappropriate attire can happen.

Plus, Meg has never worked anywhere else but the Keys.  It's fair to say that professional attire standards in So Florida may not meet standards in other parts of the country, but what flies in the Keys is going to be several notches below So Fl standards.  I think Meg's skirt in NYC illustrated how out of sync she would be in a place like that.

 

It was very emotional when John killed Danny.  Danny was still smiling even as they were fighting.  Then all the foreshadowing of John's high blood pressure and we got John collapsing.  The siblings have to deal with the body.  It was well done.

 

Danny was just so creepy.  I was always expecting him to pop up behind them in the house at night. 

Watching the last few eps had my blood pressure up and I almost started having chest pains right along with John.  No wonder I normally stick to more stuff-n-fluff tv!

 

And I so expected Danny to jump up again or for this to be another dream sequence.

 

Danny reminds me of a Texas joke I heard once.  A man is charged with murder and goes before the judge.  He's asked if he killed the decease and he says yes, but he needed killin'.

Edited April 13, 2015 by DeLurker

[Fen]

I just watched the whole thing in a little over a fortnight and thought it was brilliant.  I've been nagging everyone I know to watch it.

 

Highlights:

 

I went from sympathising with Danny in the first half or so of the season, to seriously despising him by the end.  He went from family screw-up with problems in his past to a properly malevolent figure.  The slow change in his character was fascinating to watch. 

 

You're also constantly asked to question how much grace Danny's past buys him.  I think what put an end to my sympathy was his attitude towards his siblings' statements on the tape.  He continually expressed rage and frustration because he feels he was ostracised for the mistake he made when he was a child.  And then proceeds to persecute his brothers and sister for a mistake they made when they were children.  There's no reflection to him, and no reasoning with him. 

 

I really enjoyed Linda Cardellini in this, although why Meg squandered her relationship with the all-round lovely Marco is inexplicable.

 

As an ensemble cast, I thought everyone was terrific. 

 

Random Questions and Observations:

 

Did anyone have an authentic Florida accent?  The siblings all sounded like they spoke a little differently to me, although as a Brit it's hard for me to distinguish between accents.

 

How does anyone get anything done in that weather, let alone dragging corpses around?  It looked horrendously hot and humid.

 

Sally and Danny's relationship was creepy. She felt guilty about the abuse, his life, but they way they related to each other was very flirty. Not very monther-son at all.

 

Thank goodness - I thought it was just me.  The scene where they're sitting on the porch together, and she comments that she always did this with his father?  Squick.  Oedipal stuff a go-go.  I wasn't all too keen on Danny's interactions with his niece, either, and could see why John's wife wanted that stopped early on.

[DeLurker]

Random Questions and Observations:

 

Did anyone have an authentic Florida accent?  The siblings all sounded like they spoke a little differently to me, although as a Brit it's hard for me to distinguish between accents.

 

How does anyone get anything done in that weather, let alone dragging corpses around?  It looked horrendously hot and humid.

 

 

I grew up in South Florida and lived there until  I was about 30, so these responses are based on my experiences.

 

Authentic Florida Accent:  There really isn't one in my experience.  The majority of people in Florida are from somewhere else and they bring their accents with them.  While their's soften over time, it typically does not go away completely.  If you grow up there or spend you spend enough time there, you start out with whatever your parents sound like and pick up a hodge-podge mess of everyone else's through your friends/neighbors/schools.   The majority of people there don't have the Deep South accent you associate with Georgia.  The closest thing I can think of as an indigenous accent would be the Cracker, but that is typically found in more northern Florida and/or in more rural areas (and none showed up in this series).  The closest thing I have heard to what I was used to growing up was Sawyer on Lost.  The most distinctive commonality I can think of is that we're slow talkers. 

 

And the Florida Keys is whole different ballgame.  The Keys are full of people who are from somewhere else - some running away and some just dropping out of life (and some very accomplished lives at that). 

 

Heat and Humidity:  It's the norm if you are from there.  Granted in the Keys you are surrounded by water which helps.

[Nena]

I originally put this on as background while I was doing other things, and autoplay is probably the only reason I went past episode 2.  I am glad it grew on me.  Someone else mentioned it earlier, but I did get the impression in the end that Danny's real revenge had evolved to John killing him and having to live with being the one who killed a sibling.  I still didn't completely dislike Danny by the end, because I had to save some for John.  He's so busy crowning himself the White Knight of the family, he doesn't see any of the things that were his direct responsibility.  I also found it disturbing that while the family would hold Danny accountable for so much as sneezing out of turn, Kevin seemed to have a lifetime free pass to drive drunk, be abusive, physically assault people, and his cop brother didn't even raise an eyebrow.  Neither did his lawyer sister, who thought nothing of stalking a former client to an AA meeting to browbeat him, but has no issue at all with her brother's constant drunken rages.

 

That's something else that needs to be explored in the second season.  He was a terrified little kid in the Potts interview, when exactly did he turn into a raging, abusive asshole?

 

I do have to say, this show is not a shining tourist ad for the Keys.  Not talking about the drugs and dead bodies floating everywhere, but the more subtle things.  I think there was a complaint about the weather in just about every episode, mostly from people who live there and should be used to it.  The bit early on where John is worried about the dog, because a gator ate the neighbor's cat, also not screaming, "visit and relax."  Everyone seems to drive drunk all the time, without a second thought.  All that was missing was a hurricane.  Maybe they can get to that in season 2...

[marys1000]

On mobile so ill just say i wonder whete and how they filmed. I love hearing the birds in the background. Common nighthawks at night......one thing that has stuck out is that while everyone geys sweaty there has not been one mosqiito. Seems unrealistic and i dont know how theyve done it.

[DeLurker]

There were a couple mosquito smacks but not many.

By the ocean, there'll be enough breeze to keep skeeters away, but sitting outside or on the deck you would get eaten alive. The scenes filmed in the mangroves? A mosquito buffet!

I 'm sure they slathered on bug repellent and did whatever they could to minimize the mosquitos, but it would be a losing battle.

Between the heat and bugs, plus filming in the mangroves the cast and crew were troopers.

[LateJuliet]

Sissy Spacek should only be shot from the mid-line up, never from below.  Her nose is disturbing.

 

I loved the show.  I tuned in for Kyle and he was as excellent as I expected but the revelation was Ben Mendelsohn.  Powerhouse performance.  The narrative arc of the character for us to see him as kind of a fuck up then going thru a redemptive phase before descending into the kind of guy who ruminates obsessively over a 25 yo tape of his sibling throwing him under the bus and just wants to burn them all down is in the writing.  But the creation of a character who is at once sympathetic and repulsive, pathetic and menacing, compelling and creepy was all on Mendelsohn.  I can't imagine this character being as well done, with all of those layers and all that depth, by someone else.  I'll definitely be watching for more from him.

 

I didn't mind the slow pace, I actually liked it.  For me this was the kind of show I didn't truly binge...I'd watch an episode or two, walk away and think about it for a few days, then go back for more.  That said, I'd have been happier if they just left this as a limited run and ended it.  I don't need Danny 2.0 and I don't need the fall out (both legal and emotional) from the murder.  I can write my own and be perfectly happy with that.  I'll be back for S2 anyway.

Edited April 26, 2015 by LateJuliet

[Kerrey92]

Color me as someone who loved this too.  I am deeply in love with Kyle Chandler so having him in the lead didn't hurt.  I hope it gets recognized by the Emmy people for Ben Mendelsohn, who's great.

 

My only beef was him listening to those stupid tapes over and over.  They lied when they were 14, 10 and 7.  Get over it.  

[leighdear]

I watched the entire series over the weekend and enjoyed it immensely. Most of it rings very true in the behaviors of the locals and the cast.  I was impressed.  And I loved bad guy Lowery being Glenn Moreshower ( Hey Secret Service agent Aaron Pierce and Chad Clarke!)  I wonder if he & Kyle reminisced about FNL.

 

Most fun for me was watching them hanging out in the Whistle Stop.  My boyfriend & I go down to the Keys at least twice a year & have been in the Whistle many times.  Last year we ended up accidentally crashing a wedding reception there!

 

My few criticisms are fairly superficial.  I usually like Linda Cardellini, but thought she looked very thin and a bit haggard.  She looked so much better in Mad Men with a few extra pounds and lighter hair.  That super-dark shade does her no favors. 

 

I was really ready for Danny to die, I'll admit. 

[ribboninthesky1]

I felt sympathy for teenage Danny, but adult Danny was manipulative from the beginning.  Between getting off at an earlier bus stop, not answering John's calls, and then just showing up at the Inn - I think he was setting himself up to continue the awkward dynamic with the others.  And this was just episode one.  Also, the fact that he wanted John to talk to Robert about coming home when he's a 40-something adult immediately raised my hackles.  Granted, no one in that family actually talked about anything until the end of the season, and even then, it wasn't much. But Danny spent a lot of time during the season affronted about what one person or the other couldn't/wouldn't say directly to him.   

 

I was kind of surprised that Sarah's death was largely preventable.  I thought it would be something like they were all on the boat together, and she accidentally fell in. Danny was young, but certainly old enough to know better than to let her get in the water alone (and this is beyond taking her out in the first place).  I didn't understand why HE wouldn't have gone after her necklace.  It's not like she impulsively jumped in. If I recall, she was shown wearing some gear when she jumped in.  So that had to take several seconds - enough time for Danny to stop her.  It doesn't mean that he deserved to be beaten for it, but I think her death was more a series of poor choices and mistakes than an accident.  It didn't make me sympathetic to adult Danny in the least.

 

And while I wasn't a fan of Sally, I was sympathetic to her leaving at the time.  Granted, disaster followed, but I feel like parents, especially mothers, are held to some impossible standard of always being emotionally available to their children.  Five children, running an inn, and dealing with the asshole that was Robert (who even beyond the highlighted physical abuse towards Danny was probably even more of an ass as a young man) - sometimes you just need a break.  We'll never know if she would have stayed away, but I got where she was coming from in that moment.  My sympathy is confined to the day she left, though.  She clearly stuck her head in the sand upon her return, and never dealt with anything.  A less emotionally fragile and co-dependent woman probably would have left Robert as soon as the kids were grown.

 

I think Danny and Robert didn't realize that Danny was just Robert in a different life. Right down to their bond with Sara.  I think Danny's words to Meg were as much about what HE thought of her compared to Sarah as Robert's.  Danny always blaming John for "not being there" on the boat when Sara drowned was just like Robert blaming Danny. I don't care that he died, but I wished he would have left or been murdered another way so that John and Meg could have lived their lives.  Kevin was awfully sanctimonious for one who was slightly less of a fuck-up.    

 

Overall, it was okay.  I'm not interested in season two.  There were some really interesting scenes and characters, but the whole of it was missing something.  It was beautifully shot - Key Largo was its own character. 

[MarysWetBar]

I think i caught something in the second last episode that will come back to bite them in the ass. When john and danny are sitting on the log talking, john pulls the seahorse necklace out of his pocket and puts it on the log when he starts getting angry. I think that may come back in season two.

[dubbel zout]

I loved the noir sensibility of the show. The Keys looked magical and sinister at the same time. Great job by the production designer and cinematographer.

 

The inn was on Islamorada, and I assume the kids lived in the same area.

 

At the Inn, Danny complained about his paychecks and never cashed them,

 

Why didn't anyone say anything about that? It's one thing not to promptly cash one or two checks, but there were at least six in his glove compartment. And he was sending the cash he made from Eric O'Bannon to himself in Miami, so I don't quite get what was going on there. If he owed people up there money, why wasn't he sending it directly to them?

 

I found Danny a pretty interesting character. No one in the family could quite let go of what happened, with tragic results for everyone. It's also clear they never talked about anything—it was all kept bottled up. No wonder John had high blood pressure.

 

I agree that John and Diana should have given their kids a better reason to stay away from Danny than "because we said so." I get they wanted to protect the kids from what he was doing, but the kids are teenagers and could be told something. Though Janey seems to be in the rebellious stage, so she probably would have hung out with him no matter what. And told him what her parents told her. That said, what Danny did with her to rile up John was astoundingly cruel. That was where things turned for me. Don't use someone's kid to get back at them.

 

I imagine we'll see Danny in flashbacks in season two. I can't see not taking advantage of Ben Mendelsohn just because his character is dead.

Edited May 31, 2015 by dubbel zout

[peggy06]

I liked the series overall, with a few reservations. I watched one episode per night except when I got to Episode 9, then I binged a few. Watched the last episode on its own. All the while I watched, I never thought it was boring or too slow. It had a languorous pace that, IMO, was befitting both the setting and the premise of an old tragedy reaching out to affect the present.

 

The cast was very good, the location was wonderful, even the title sequence and theme song were great. My reservations are to do with the structure and, most importantly, the motivation. I thought the flash-forwards were unnecessary and distracting. I get that they were teasers, but I personally didn't need teasers to keep watching. This is the MO for the series creators, and was used even more extensively in Damages. For me, a little goes a long way. I'm trying to imagine the last episode if I had not known Danny was going to die, and John was going to put him on a boat and set it on fire. I can't help thinking it would have had more impact.

 

As for motivation, the story hinges on those tapes where the Rayburn kids lie about how Danny got hurt. That's the point where Danny became dangerously unhinged. The more he listened to them, the worse he got. And yet, there was nothing that damning in those interviews. He knew about the cover story, because he told it himself at the hospital. Why is he so flabbergasted that the younger kids were instructed to do the same? If he thought someone was going to stand up for him, why bother lying about it himself, when his lie would be exposed by someone else telling the truth? I know from the plot and dialogue that the show intends for this to be credible motivation - Det. Potts makes a point of getting the tapes to Danny, because Danny deserves to hear them; Sally reveals that she told the kids to lie, and it's treated like it's supposed to be a shocking twist; and of course Danny is shown listening to an interview, then doing the dirty to that sibling. I dunno, it just didn't jell as far as I was concerned. It didn't justify his rage or his need for revenge. 

 

Of course, Danny was already planning to disrupt things the first time he came back. He had his toast all written - the papers that, when Sally found them, made her say "He hates me, my baby hates me." So it wasn't going to be a nice toast. He was going to embarrass his parents in front of all their guests. I don't think there was ever any intention to become part of the family, but rather, to use them for what he could get out of it. And maybe his demons were pushing him, too. That's the wild card with Danny. The demons are real. The hallucinations of Sarah: He actually talked to her, it's wasn't all in his head. Isn't this a sign of mental illness?

 

The legal stuff being so sloppy is regrettable, but I was able to go along for the ride. There were instances of the Idiot Plot (tm Roger Ebert), where a simple conversation would have prevented a big problem. As several noted, John and Diana should have been more explicit with their kids about why they were not to hang out with Danny. (Although, the way Janey was written, she'd have gone off and blabbed it all to Danny.) It was weird for me that they weren't embarrassed or creeped out by him, anyway. He looked disheveled and acted odd. I was able to go along, but the failure to communicate thing always infuriates me.

 

A lot was implied (mostly by Danny) about his life after Sarah died. It might have helped if that had been shown. Was he kicked out of the house? Denied opportunities? He came from a well-off family, and was smart, so why did he have to claw and beg his way through life? Are we talking emotional unavailability here? Or did he have a rebellious streak/bent for trouble that led to him making the wrong choices? I can't actually see this being explored in another season, because he's dead now. There's no need to revisit it. The focus is likely going to turn to John trying not to get arrested, and to stay free of scandal, and various parties trying to find out what really happened to Danny (cops, Det. Potts/Sally, Danny's son).

 

I'm not all that intrigued by these potential plot lines, but I will probably give S2 a chance. If only for the fabulous location, like taking a mini vacation.

Edited August 13, 2015 by peggy06

[Shermie]

I think many people have a Danny in their lives, or at least know of one. Someone who has all sorts of opportunities, but squanders them for no good reason. Someone who is driven by grudges and past grievances, real or imagined, big or small. Someone who chooses the wrong path again and again, when it's obvious to anyone on the outside looking in what would be a better way to go. Someone who is mired in resentment, authentic or not, that drives their every thought and action. Someone who is bogged down by substance abuse and a bad choice of cohorts.

Lots of people endure worse childhoods, worse tragedies, than Danny and turn out fine.

The series was brilliant and deserves the award noms it has received so far. The languorous pace was perfect for peeling away the layers, bit by bit, as well as the laidback setting. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with a second season.

[Inquisitionist]

Does anyone else find the over-use of "fuck" by virtually every character jarring and/or annoying?  This doesn't strike me as the way people concerned about their family image talk, even amongst themselves.  It feels gratuitous on the writers' part -- we have the characters say it a lot because we can.  Enough already!

[Xcptnl]

The swearing does not bother me.  If I were in their shoes I would be screaming fuck all the time. 

[Captanne]

Nope, didn't bother me at all.  We say "fuck" all the time.

[lovinbob]

I say "fuck" plenty but it does strike me as overkill. I once had a writing professor who warned us that overuse of profanity becomes a distraction in writing, and I tend to agree. Shows like this have made me consider my own speech patterns. "Fuck" used to be a strong word that was used sparingly, for emphasis. Now it's ubiquitous and it's lost all its bite. I find that to be true of this show. 

[MsJamieDornan]

1 hour ago, lovinbob said:

"Fuck" used to be a strong word that was used sparingly, for emphasis. Now it's ubiquitous and it's lost all its bite. I find that to be true of this show. 

Exactly ! When it's used as much as they use it, the emphasis and meaning is gone.

[Captanne]

The comedian Lenny Bruce used to make that very argument (in the 1960s) when they kept picking him up for using profanity in his standup routines.  The more you use a word, the less power or meaning it has.  He was using that idea in his defense for using the words a lot.  He argued that, because he used fuck and shit and the like in his monologues so much, they lost their literal meaning and merely became exclamations.

The courts disagreed with him.  LOL

" His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon,"

[DrSparkles]

On ‎3‎/‎29‎/‎2015 at 0:36 PM, madam magpie said:

As for the clothes, I've never been to Key West, but I grew up in Hawaii, so bikini tops, flip-flops, and t-shirts as standard attire seemed pretty on point for an island setting to me. And they also did a great job capturing that look so many people who live on islands have where they've all gotten too much sun and probably drink too many cocktails and everyone's always sweaty.

I watched 2 episodes Saturday night, and all but the last 2 yesterday :)  Binge indeed :)  This ^ is so true, your damn makeup doesn't stay on, you always look a little unkempt. And didn't Meg have her own practice? She can wear what she wants, but yeah pretty casual!

One time when John was yelling at Janey I LOL'd and said "Go to your room Julie!!!" His accent was still TX to me, and anytime Jacinda had to raise her voice, all I heard was aussie. Good on that real world'er tho!! She's still stunning. I can't WAIT to watch the last 2 tonight (had to stop last night for season finale of GoT).

[WearyTraveler]

Sooo, can we talk about the finale of season 2 yet?  I'm dying over here!

[MsJamieDornan]

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Sooo, can we talk about the finale of season 2 yet?  I'm dying over here!

Go to the actual episode thread and talk away...

[WearyTraveler]

5 hours ago, MsJamieDornan said:

Go to the actual episode thread and talk away...

There are no season 2 episode threads!

[MsJamieDornan]

On 7/4/2016 at 5:22 AM, WearyTraveler said:

There are no season 2 episode threads!

Yes there are. All 10 !

[Captanne]

[bilgistic]

I've been trying to figure out the siblings' ages. I have the following, based on what they revealed throughout season 1 mostly (the "testimony" after Sarah's death, which was in November 1983). Can anyone help fill in the rest?

Danny: ?
John: 1969
Sarah: 1973
Kevin: ?
Megan: 1976

[Armchair Critic]

I think all the siblings looked older than their age, but it is refreshing to see people who are aging naturally on tv.

[MaryPatShelby]

On 8/12/2015 at 10:18 PM, peggy06 said:

Why is he so flabbergasted that the younger kids were instructed to do the same? If he thought someone was going to stand up for him, why bother lying about it himself, when his lie would be exposed by someone else telling the truth? I know from the plot and dialogue that the show intends for this to be credible motivation....

EXACTLY! I thought I was the only that thought this!  Danny lied about what happened - he told the same "car accident" story that the other kids did.  If he wanted so badly for the truth to be told, why didn't he just tell it, instead of expecting his younger (what was Meg at the time, 7?) siblings to do it?  To me, while I loved the show, I agree that this was not credible motivation when Danny had gone along with the lie himself for the next several decades.

t

[MsJamieDornan]

On 8/13/2015 at 0:58 PM, Shermie said:

I think many people have a Danny in their lives, or at least know of one. Someone who has all sorts of opportunities, but squanders them for no good reason. Someone who is driven by grudges and past grievances, real or imagined, big or small. Someone who chooses the wrong path again and again, when it's obvious to anyone on the outside looking in what would be a better way to go. Someone who is mired in resentment, authentic or not, that drives their every thought and action. Someone who is bogged down by substance abuse and a bad choice of cohorts.

You're right, we all have someone like him in our lives and that why I have no sympathy for him. They are always looking for the easiest way out of things. And always think they are the smartest person in the room.

[Kerrey92]

Just finished and have some questions about season 3, the final:

1)  What was going in with Diana in the beginning of the show?  It seemed as if she had something really off like she had a mental break or something the way John's family was talking about her/treating her and then all of sudden she was okay?

2)  Kevin's wife and the GPS...really?  That was dumb.  Kevin was such a piece of shit character and I so wanted him to get caught, until he was getting away and then I was okay with it.

3)  Mamma Rayburn's flip flop on Roy was confusing as well.  They show alluded to them colluding for something bigger.  I thought Sally was going to be a master mind in the drug operation or something, but instead she was maybe the worst mom ever.  Really?  Blaming John for tearing her?

4)  What the hell was purpose of the Ozzie Delvecchio character?  I actually said "thank God" when he shot himself.  He offered nothing to the season.

5)  Why did the older sherrif/cop let John off or not believe him?  He suspected him all along, got the confession and then was all, "see ya, I'm off to Boston?"  What's that?

[peggy06]

1 hour ago, Kerrey92 said:

Just finished and have some questions about season 3, the final.

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1)  What was going in with Diana in the beginning of the show?  It seemed as if she had something really off like she had a mental break or something the way John's family was talking about her/treating her and then all of sudden she was okay?

TBH, I don't remember this. She and John separated after S2, so maybe they were treating her differently because of that?

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2)  Kevin's wife and the GPS...really?  That was dumb.  Kevin was such a piece of shit character and I so wanted him to get caught, until he was getting away and then I was okay with it.

I was happy he got caught, and her too. She apparently had no problem with her husband running drugs as long as he was honest with her about it. No problem with him having killed Marco. Yeah, they both deserve what's coming to them.

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3)  Mamma Rayburn's flip flop on Roy was confusing as well.  They show alluded to them colluding for something bigger.  I thought Sally was going to be a master mind in the drug operation or something, but instead she was maybe the worst mom ever.  Really?  Blaming John for tearing her?

I think they were alluding to the sale of the Inn. Sally went to him because she thought he might know a potential buyer. They did flip-flop a lot on her attitude toward Roy, though.

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4)  What the hell was purpose of the Ozzie Delvecchio character?  I actually said "thank God" when he shot himself.  He offered nothing to the season.

Here's an interview with John Leguizamo that explains what happened with Ozzy. The TL;DR is that he was supposed to be in a big storyline in S3, along with Eve (Nolan's mother). Because of the series being cut short, she never even appeared, and Leguizamo was told that Ozzy was going to be killed off.  He felt suicide was more in keeping with the character, so they rewrote his story to include brain trauma from the beating in Episode 1, culminating in his suicide.

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5)  Why did the older sherrif/cop let John off or not believe him?  He suspected him all along, got the confession and then was all, "see ya, I'm off to Boston?"  What's that?

Some people think he was just ready to get out of town for his new job, and didn't want this case staying open and keeping him there. Others think Aguirre genuinely didn't believe John and put it all down to stress, lack of sleep, being "too responsible." The first one is probably correct, but I like the second one. It's a kind of ironic twist that John comes clean and he can't even get relief - because nobody will believe straight-arrow, Boy Scout John Rayburn could do all that. John will never escape, never get closure.  In a way, even Kevin's better off.

Edited June 4, 2017 by peggy06
Spelling

[DoubleUTeeEff]

On 6/4/2017 at 5:23 PM, peggy06 said:

The first one is probably correct, but I like the second one. It's a kind of ironic twist that John comes clean and he can't even get relief - because nobody will believe straight-arrow, Boy Scout John Rayburn could do all that. John will never escape, never get closure.  In a way, even Kevin's better off.

I think it's the second one. None of the Rayburn children can escape the destiny that Sally laid out for John and Kevin in her birth speech. Danny is the "lost" one, so he can never go straight. Kevin is the "weak" one so he kills to save himself and he can't help but run away when facing his crimes. Of course, he gets caught anyway because he's too weak to go on his own, too weak to sacrifice only himself. Instead he brings his wife and child with him and Belle leaves the GPS on the phone. Meg is the invisible, ignored, forgotten one. She is literally living under a different name. Sarah is the doomed one and John is the "good" one. He can't be anything other than good. No one even believes anything else. He's stuck with it no matter what he does.

Edited June 6, 2017 by DoubleUTeeEff