Season One Discussion

[Meredith Quill]

Your Season 1 Topic!

[queenbee9b]

I streamed the whole thing on Saturday (yes, I am aware I have no life) and I have really mixed feeling about it. Overall, I thought it was good, there was some things I can't tell if I was just my imagination.  Like in the episode where Dory quits her job, stops investigating, and thinks she might have a new job with the mentoring woman, the scenes seemed to be shot to look brighter (maybe to make it seem like she was more hopeful?).  

I know there is a lot of discussion about whether there is a season 2 or not.  I think you leave it where it is (otherwise, isn't just season 1 of HTGAWM? 

[candall]

I don't have streaming--I watched the two 30-minute episodes on Friday night.  But it was so disjointed and chopped up, I'm not even sure how much they showed.  It seemed like about 20 minutes on the first one and less on the second.  The second episode had a promo for another show--Good Behavior--that was longer than what they showed of Search Party, after all the other commercials.  Then Search Party cut off early.  Weird.

I think the characters are funky and interesting enough--who hasn't been upset and desperately wished someone would just STOP with the comforting hugs and platitudes?  LOL 

But I'm not going to fight with TBS to show it to me, if they don't want to.

[7-Zark-7]

I saw all the episodes and would love to discuss it, but I wouldn't want to spoil anything for those who aren't caught up. I'll just say that I really loved the ending and thought it elevated the whole series.

[Muffyn]

I'm with you 7-Zark-7.  I'm going to add a thread to discuss the ending of the season so we can discuss it without spoiling anyone who hasn't finished watching it yet. 

I found the show really enjoyable.  I watched it  in  two marathon sessions.  I think it held up well  to a marathon.  The characters were quirky  without being totally unrealistic.  I loved the cancer reveal and how his friends stuck  with him even though he's an ass.  It's not like he wasn't already an ass.  They knew that, so  why not?   

[queenbee9b]

I think this is hard because it is an all season 1 discussion. I don't know how we can do that with spoiling people?  Maybe they feel there isn't enough interest for individual episode threads because it was made available all at once? 

[kat165]

I really enjoyed this until the ending which was such a letdown. I was able to watch only 2 eps at a time and so it took me awhile to get through it. Then our On Demand had ep 1-3, skipped 4 and moved to 5 so I watched ep 4 out of order which was annoying. Do you guys know who decides when an episode is put On Demand? The station or the cable company? I'm still waiting for the latest ep of Good Behavior and today it's been a week.

I found the main character, Dory, very engaging.

[Muffyn]

On ‎12‎/‎6‎/‎2016 at 6:44 AM, queenbee9b said:

I think this is hard because it is an all season 1 discussion. I don't know how we can do that with spoiling people?  Maybe they feel there isn't enough interest for individual episode threads because it was made available all at once? 

Sorry, I requested one thread because I didn't think we would get enough interest for multiple threads.  Then, with the holidays, the threads didn't get created until after the whole season was shown. 

[sasha206]

On 12/6/2016 at 5:30 PM, kat165 said:

I really enjoyed this until the ending which was such a letdown. I was able to watch only 2 eps at a time and so it took me awhile to get through it. Then our On Demand had ep 1-3, skipped 4 and moved to 5 so I watched ep 4 out of order which was annoying. Do you guys know who decides when an episode is put On Demand? The station or the cable company? I'm still waiting for the latest ep of Good Behavior and today it's been a week.

I found the main character, Dory, very engaging.

It wasn't until I rewatched it that I thought it was actually a good ending paricularly with the self-absorption of Chantal.  

However, there was one thing that bugged me the whole time:  How does Dory, whose job was some sort of personal assistant, and her live-in lover afford such a a spacious apartment in NYC?

[MeloraH]

On 12/10/2016 at 11:03 PM, sasha206 said:

However, there was one thing that bugged me the whole time:  How does Dory, whose job was some sort of personal assistant, and her live-in lover afford such a a spacious apartment in NYC?

I figured it was some combination of being hard to shoot in a small space and his parents having money so maybe it's like an "investment property" for them.

[zxy556575]

On 12/6/2016 at 5:30 PM, kat165 said:

I found the main character, Dory, very engaging.

I only watched two episodes and while I liked Dory, her friends and boyfriend were so annoying that it made the show hard to sit through. Maybe they get redeemed at the end, but I can't hang in long enough to find out.

[kat165]

Nah, none of them get redeemed, lordonia. :) They're just as obnoxious/self-involved at the end as they are in the beginning.

[SlovakPrincess]

I'm only four episodes in, but I'm really enjoying it.  

Am I the only one who really gets a kick out of Drew?  I laughed so hard when he lost it and threw the milkshake at Julian in Episode 2.    

I like Dory, but Julian is so right that she's creepily fixating on Chantal as a distraction, rather than actually ever caring about Chantal as a person.  Love seeing Alia Shawkut in her own series!  Her reaction when Chantal's sister caught her creeping around the upstairs of the family home (and putting on what she thought was Chantal's sweater) was priceless.

The Portia and Elliot actors are pretty perfect in their roles, too.  

This is the most fun show I've found in a long time!

[sasha206]

15 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

I'm only four episodes in, but I'm really enjoying it.  

Am I the only one who really gets a kick out of Drew?  I laughed so hard when he lost it and threw the milkshake at Julian in Episode 2.    

I like Dory, but Julian is so right that she's creepily fixating on Chantal as a distraction, rather than actually ever caring about Chantal as a person.  Love seeing Alia Shawkut in her own series!  Her reaction when Chantal's sister caught her creeping around the upstairs of the family home (and putting on what she thought was EChantal's sweater) was priceless.

The Portia and Elliot actors are pretty perfect in their roles, too.  

This is the most fun show I've found in a long time!

I loved the milkshake throwing and then running!  I love the actor playing Elliott.  He eats up every scene!

[tenativelyyours]

On 12/12/2016 at 0:41 PM, lordonia said:

I only watched two episodes and while I liked Dory, her friends and boyfriend were so annoying that it made the show hard to sit through. Maybe they get redeemed at the end, but I can't hang in long enough to find out.

I got through to the end, but other than the nuances of Dory the rest were too ridiculous to really let me get invested in any of them.  Portia flirts with being more than a flat trope, particularly one scene where she really puts Elliot in his place, but goes back to being overly ridiculous again.  The acting by the other three leads borders on shrill or blah.  Though the milkshake scene was one of the best.

For a dark comic turn, the show just never fully delivers.  The scene with Chantal's mother was so bad and so telegraphed a mile away.  Parker Posey's character started out funny and interesting and so was the stern self-involved guru.  But again, the character falls apart too quickly into predictable Parker Posey quirkiness to the point that it robbed her scenes at the party of any real engagement for me.  So maybe it was the directing that was the problem, trying to be too many things at once. 

I did like how the character of her boss came through though and I'm not really a fan of Taylor.  But here she worked. 

Had the show managed to deliver characters that weren't so over the top and more like Dory, I would have found it rather good and the ending would have had the punch it deserved.  Instead I was just glad I did not have to watch unbelievable, implausible shrill hamfisted acting especially by the Elliot character.  He was such a trope that I actually wondered if I should be offended and not just incredibly annoyed every time he appeared on my screen.

Overall it felt like that student project the head of the film dept makes your university film society squeeze into the schedule; you watch it wondering what you were missing and then after graduation you find out a few latter. the student and dept head were having an affair.

[MeloraH]

On 12/12/2016 at 10:21 PM, SlovakPrincess said:

Am I the only one who really gets a kick out of Drew?  I laughed so hard when he lost it and threw the milkshake at Julian in Episode 2.    

I think he's the only one who I found more likable at the end than at the beginning, but that's a pretty low hurdle to clear.

Also, apparently Jason Mantzoukas was approached to be in this and I was just wondering who he was supposed to play. I would love for it to have been Keith but I feel like cult member is the more likely choice...

[SlackerInc]

I've only seen the pilot, so I'm not really reading most of this (I wish there were individual episode threads!).  I just wanted to say I LOVE this so much, and I want to be reassured that the sexual "technique" of the main character's boyfriend (if that's what he is: he's really tall, and seems to live with her) is not a real thing!  Good lord.

[Negritude]

All episode discussion sheesh...I tweeted that I originally thought the show was gonna be some angsty, disaffected millennial bullshit and was pleasantly surprised by it and two of the show's producers liked my tweet lol.

I was only somewhat familiar with the main actress who plays Dory as I was only a casual Arrested Development viewer, but I really enjoyed her here. I loved that she wore the same outfits and that tweed coat over and over throughout the series. I thought that was a nice touch since people do wear things more than once IRL.

The 2 blonde friends grated at first and then grew on me and the fake cancer storyline was hilarious.

The episode with Parker Posey and the cult when they were having dinner and the cult leader (from the band TV on the Radio?) told that girl that she gave him the worst BJ he ever had was spit take worthy.

The ending was just like "Oh SHIT" all the way through. Can't wait to see where they go from there. Hopefully there's a season 2.

[backformore]

This is the absolute best show to binge watch the day after Christmas while eating leftovers.

[Milburn Stone]

Really enjoyed the show. Love all the actors. For some reason, found myself hoping to see John Reynolds ("Drew") in something else down the road. I mean, I'll watch all of them in whatever else they do, but that actor to me had the most potential for being really interesting in a different way from the way he was interesting in this.

[methodwriter85]

On 12/31/2016 at 0:23 AM, Milburn Stone said:

Really enjoyed the show. Love all the actors. For some reason, found myself hoping to see John Reynolds ("Drew") in something else down the road. I mean, I'll watch all of them in whatever else they do, but that actor to me had the most potential for being really interesting in a different way from the way he was interesting in this.

Drew has a small role as a deputy on Stranger Things. Almost unrecognizable. I found him oddly attractive with his 1990's computer nerd aesthetic.

[kinky]

I finished watching the first season yesterday. Even though I never thought much of the show, it kept me interested enough to always want to watch another episode. But that ending was incredibly disappointing and frustrating... It made me feel like the title of the show should have been "The MacGuffin Show". Self-absorption goes through the roof on this show (and yeah, I know it's on purpose, but still). 

I don't have high hopes for the already announced second season, but I'll probably watch it only to see what the MacGuffin will be, then. 

Edited March 13, 2017 by kinky

[mmecorday]

If this has been addressed elsewhere, I apologize, but I have a question -- what was the $7000 check for that Dory found in Bellow & Hare's trash?

[KaleyFirefly]

On 9/19/2017 at 11:41 AM, mmecorday said:

If this has been addressed elsewhere, I apologize, but I have a question -- what was the $7000 check for that Dory found in Bellow & Hare's trash?

I was wondering that too. I don't think they ever explained it, and it had seemed like a big clue.

[Jextella]

On 12/26/2016 at 4:50 PM, backformore said:

This is the absolute best show to binge watch the day after Christmas while eating leftovers.

I'm a year late to the party.  I needed some background tv to get me through so boring work projects and I saw an ad and the IMDB ratings were high so I gave it a go.  I'm not done with season 1 yet, but I've read the posts and know what to expect.  So far I really like the show.  It's just the right amount of everything for how I "watch" it - which is basically to skim the surface while I get other things done.  Nothing ever gets too deep - even the clues - so I don't really feel like I'm missing much and still move along with the story.

   

On 1/1/2017 at 1:29 PM, methodwriter85 said:

Drew has a small role as a deputy on Stranger Things. Almost unrecognizable. I found him oddly attractive with his 1990's computer nerd aesthetic.

I thought Drew is also appealling on Search Party.