S03.E02: The Principle of Restricted Choice

[MisterBluxom]

1 hour ago, kieyra said:

(Not sure if you know, due to the phrasing you use, but BrainDead was cancelled. The showrunners have moved onto a new show, The Good Fight, which is a spinoff of The Good Wife.)

That said, I agree it would suck if the actress received some sort of stigma for that scene (which seems possible given the nicknames people insist on using in the thread). And unfortunately, it was a pretty dumb scene obviously intended to be "edgy". 

Hey Kieyra,

I appreciate very much the sentiments you expressed. Thanks for the info about Braindead. The tampon was a pretty stupid thing for the show runners to do. Surely they could have done something similar without actually showing the tampon and making half the audience puke. It bothers me because there was just no need to do that. They could have gotten their point across in many different ways. But overall, I'm just happy that MEW is working and is killing it in S3 of Fargo. I hope we will find big entertainment in this season.

Edited April 29, 2017 by MissBluxom

[Ohwell]

2 hours ago, kieyra said:

That said, I agree it would suck if the actress received some sort of stigma for that scene (which seems possible given the nicknames people insist on using in the thread). And unfortunately, it was a pretty dumb scene obviously intended to be "edgy". 

It really was a dumb move on the writers' part to have her do that scene.  I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone in the universe for never having seen or heard of her before this show, and she might run the risk of forever being known to some of us, as the Tampon Actress.  Just, ugh.  That was gross and unnecessary.   

[Razzberry]

Winstead has been one of the highlights for me, and whoever does her costuming.  That mangy-looking fur from ep.1 deserves its own Emmy!

[Ohwell]

I did like her (hopefully, fake) fur jacket though.

[Razzberry]

This is the first I've seen her.  I have seen Carrie Coon and really like her in The Leftovers and Gone Girl, but here I think she's been miscast.     For starters she's too small and thin to be believable as a cop, imo.   She's not even attempting an accent, even a bad one. The cop & family has always been the heart of the show, but something just isn't working.  Hopefully that may change.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Razzberry

[cpcathy]

I thought she was great in Gone Girl, in fact, everyone in that film was excellent, even Affleck. Here, yes, I agree something is missing with the family aspect. If she's the heart of the show, ala Hank and Lou and Betsy (and Molly), then it's not working, we are being told that, not shown it by anything we see on the screen.

[scrb]

There were some questions about how smart small town people would be, especially those who talk with funny accents.

When it came down to it, the cops in these small towns were amazingly competent, working the case like the best big city homicide detectives.

Gloria is obviously very smart and competent.  But you'd think she'd recognize how useful a computer would be or if she didn't want to use it herself, she'd have someone else look things up for her.  She also struggled with her phone, which was a smart phone?

It's one thing for that old lawyer to be computer-phobic but at least he tried, even if it led to his death.

 

The other thing which has to be asked.  The smartest ones in small towns can't wait to leave for the big city, because they would recognize how limiting small towns can be.

Molly Solverson followed her father into becoming sheriff but she's smart enough to have pursued something else, outside of the small town.  I don't recall exactly how Lou ended up a cop in a small town.  Gloria's background hasn't been drawn out yet, especially why she chose to be a cop, stay in a small town.

[Mrs Shibbles]

13 hours ago, MissBluxom said:

She is absolutely amazing. I will try to watch everything I can get my hands on in which she appears.

She is pretty awesome in 10 Cloverfield Lane.

[MisterBluxom]

41 minutes ago, Mrs Shibbles said:

She is pretty awesome in 10 Cloverfield Lane.

Oh. Thank you. I missed that one. But not for long!

[MisterBluxom]

5 hours ago, Razzberry said:

This is the first I've seen her.  I have seen Carrie Coon and really like her in The Leftovers and Gone Girl, but here I think she's been miscast.     For starters she's too small and thin to be believable as a cop, imo.   She's not even attempting an accent, even a bad one. The cop & family has always been the heart of the show, but something just isn't working.  Hopefully that may change.

I saw two lady cops today in a patrol car. The driver barely came up to the steering wheel (in height). The passanger was much shorter - hardly even visible.

I think there are laws now that force police departments to hire people of all shapes and sizes and genders and races, etc. There are many good arguments that the most important aspect of police work is almost entirely up to the brain and only rarely is a large man required to beat on an average sized criminal.

Edited April 29, 2017 by MissBluxom

[ALenore]

I have a feeling that Gloria's mistrust of computers will wind up being an advantage at some point.  The bad guys seem to have a shitload of computers, and probably evil computer hackers working for them.  I'm guessing that the police computers will get infected by some sort of virus and Gloria will be able to find information needed because it's on hardcopy, not on computer.  

[SoothingDave]

On 4/27/2017 at 1:43 PM, Bannon said:

David Thewlis

This is the same actor who played Knox Harrington in The Big Lebowski.  Never would have guessed that.  

[tennisgurl]

Interesting that Ennis appeared out of nowhere to join Gloria's family in 1980, just one year after the Sioux Falls Massacre. Coincidence? I'm interested in hearing more about his possible double life and how that might tie into the main story. Maybe he, as a writer/comic artist, had something to do with the stamp the brothers are trying to get/keep?

I still have absolutely no idea what is going on, but I think I'm still interesting in what's going on. I loved the second season so much, that I went into this already feeling like I wouldn't like this season quite as much, so I guess my expectations are somewhat lower, but I'm still willing to give this season some time to find its footing. Its not bad right now or anything, just lacking in focus.

I actually really liked the parking lot kill, in a successful building of suspense that quickly erupts into violence. It didn't go on for too long, like some Fargo criminal scenes do. I mean, I know that all people in the Fargo universe have a biological need to go on random tangents about philosophy/history/anything before they do anything ever, and we saw that here too, but it was a more understandable ramble than others. I also always appreciate it when the soundtrack reminds us about the nation of origin of the characters on the screen. Whenever I go abroad, I walk about playing The Star Spangled Banner, just to avoid confusion.  

Don't get to hear Gogol Bordello very much on my TV. That was pretty cool. I don't know what it means, but its cool.

Gloria not using computers in her police station in 2010 is the weirdest thing we have seen so far. And that includes the threatening message left with period blood. There's not wanting to overuse technology, especially in a small town, and then there's being an unnecessary luddite.

[Bretley]

I really don't think we "know" that Vargas's enforcer Yuri is meant to be the same Yuri discussed in the opening scene of Ep. 1. German Yuri had rented an apartment, had a girlfriend/wife, and was allegedly murdering people in 1988, so he would have been what, minimum 18-ish? Which would make him, at the very least, 40 in 2010.  No way is Minnesota Yuri in his 40s.

[shapeshifter]

5 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Interesting that Ennis appeared out of nowhere to join Gloria's family in 1980, just one year after the Sioux Falls Massacre. Coincidence? I'm interested in hearing more about his possible double life and how that might tie into the main story. Maybe he, as a writer/comic artist, had something to do with the stamp the brothers are trying to get/keep? . . .

Gloria not using computers in her police station in 2010 is the weirdest thing we have seen so far. And that includes the threatening message left with period blood. There's not wanting to overuse technology, especially in a small town, and then there's being an unnecessary luddite.

I've been thinking about what others have mentioned about Gloria not being able to activate the door sensor with her body, not being heard on the cell phone, and now not finding computers worthwhile to set up, as all pointing to something different about Gloria. Now, after reading @tennisgurl's bit above about how Gloria's stepfather "appeared out of nowhere" —and I thing someone else mentioned that he appeared around the same time as the spacecrafts allegedly did— I'm wondering if he was paranoid about aliens, and went a step beyond tin foil hats and gave himself, Gloria, and her mother some sort of electromagnetic blocking implants.

If so, I also think @ALenore is onto something here:

7 hours ago, ALenore said:

I have a feeling that Gloria's mistrust of computers will wind up being an advantage at some point.  The bad guys seem to have a shitload of computers, and probably evil computer hackers working for them.  I'm guessing that the police computers will get infected by some sort of virus and Gloria will be able to find information needed because it's on hardcopy, not on computer.  

[bikebrh]

This is the first I've seen her.  I have seen Carrie Coon and really like her in The Leftovers and Gone Girl, but here I think she's been miscast.     For starters she's too small and thin to be believable as a cop, imo.   She's not even attempting an accent, even a bad one. The cop & family has always been the heart of the show, but something just isn't working.  Hopefully that may change.

I've seen thinner and smaller lady cops than her. There's more to being a cop than being physically menacing.

[MisterBluxom]

37 minutes ago, bikebrh said:

I've seen thinner and smaller lady cops than her. There's more to being a cop than being physically menacing.

Yes indeed!

There is all the graft and kickbacks and racism and corruption and lying on the witness stand too!

(Just j/k. I know that goes on to some degree in some police forces. But I've also met many fine human beings who are police officers.). 

I'd just love to find a way to know just what the national averages are wrt good cop vs bad cop.

[ALenore]

I was a lot less bothered by what Nikki Swargo did with the tampon than by that fact that she's a sociopath.  She actually thinks that because the guy Maurice killed was old,  no one would care about his death.  He didn't just die, he was murdered, in a particularly cruel manner.  Nikki doesn't seem to realize that the police would definitely want to find the murdered (even if the victim wasn't a cop's stepfather.  

She's also clearly goading  Ray to hate his brother, I think only for her own amusement. She's planning to get whatever she can from Ray, then move on to someone else.  

[Ohwell]

27 minutes ago, ALenore said:

I was a lot less bothered by what Nikki Swargo did with the tampon than by that fact that she's a sociopath.

Oh, for sure.  That, too. 

[Razzberry]

8 hours ago, bikebrh said:

I've seen thinner and smaller lady cops than her. There's more to being a cop than being physically menacing.

A friend of mine didn't make the cut because I believe there were minimums of 5'7" and 140 lbs.  if I'm not mistaken. That vary by location, though.  

[PeggyB]

On re-watch the main thing I really noticed that I hadn't the first time was at the beginning. "This is a true story." This was across Gloria's (Carrie Coon) face (specifically her chin) and the word "true" disappeared, one second later "This is a" disappeared only leaving "story." for a brief second. After all of the comments about her inability to trip automatic door sensors I thought it interesting and maybe alluding to her lack of kinetic energy.

[Chaos Theory]

I could see height  and weight requirements for city and even large town police.  However this is a small town that didn't even have a proper police station.  My guess is the requirements are different for small towns where houses don't lock the doors at night.

My one issue with the show is with Varga blackmailing Emmit so completely.  Taking over his office is one thing but alluding to murder and outright telling him he would be rich but only on paper might be a mistake.  Fear only works for so long and a better idea would to make Emmit really rich.  It would make him culpable beyond using his company and override fear with greed.

Edited April 30, 2017 by Chaos Theory

[seacliffsal]

I am so not engaged in the stories so far.  I loved both Season one and season two, but have not connected with any of the actors so far.  Grossed out by the tampon scene.  I am willing to give in another shot next week though, but as I didn't even watch the second episode until last night (Saturday) and I would watch the first two seasons as soon as possible and often more than once, I'm not that hopeful about loving this season. 

[WearyTraveler]

Soooooo, fess up!  Who has Googled V.M. Varga?

[Ohwell]

39 minutes ago, WearyTraveler said:

Soooooo, fess up!  Who has Googled V.M. Varga?

No way!  Nope.  Not ever. : ) 

[J-Man]

Quote

That item she picked up as protection in the house did seem indeed to be the same award in the old newspaper photo. Somebody called that last week; good catch.

The Hugo Award also looks exactly like the gearshift on the truck the two henchmen drove into the parking lot. There were a couple of closeups of it that had to have been placed there for some reason.

Several people have wondered why Emmit (and Sy) haven't commented on the victim having the Stussy surname, but I wonder why Ray hasn't either. I mean I know he understands why he became a victim because of the shared surname, but he hasn't speculated on whether he might be related.

The bad guy's name is clearly VARGA. But the closed-captioning keeps referring to him as VARGAS, which is undoubtedly a more common surname.

[Bort]

I would imagine that Ray and Emmitt are aware of who their immediate family is and that this dead guy named Stussy isn't related -- or if so, rather distantly. I don't think they'd really concern themselves about the fate of a distant relative they didn't know. I know I wouldn't. It would be too father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate for me.

[Portia]

20 hours ago, PeggyB said:

On re-watch the main thing I really noticed that I hadn't the first time was at the beginning. "This is a true story." This was across Gloria's (Carrie Coon) face (specifically her chin) and the word "true" disappeared, one second later "This is a" disappeared only leaving "story." for a brief second. After all of the comments about her inability to trip automatic door sensors I thought it interesting and maybe alluding to her lack of kinetic energy.

I'm pretty sure that the the fade-out effect is the same at the beginning of every episode. I have a bunch of episodes on my DVR, so I'll try to remember and check it tonight.

I see bloody murders and mangled/dismembered body parts on TV on a pretty regular basis--including on this show--so I find it kind of amusing that a bloody tampon is what so many people consider "too far."  For that matter, I've heard of many real-life occasions of people "sending a message" with human excrement.  They're both beyond gross, but as organic calling cards go, I personally consider the tampon the less revolting one. 

I also can't imagine that one scene somehow ruining M. E. Winstead's career.  I know there's such a thing as typecasting, but actors act. I think they make a living because people are generally able to differentiate the actor from the role.

[cpcathy]

17 hours ago, WearyTraveler said:

Soooooo, fess up!  Who has Googled V.M. Varga?

LOL, my husband did, it's just photos of Thewlis as the character, thank God!

[Ohwell]

3 hours ago, Portia said:

I see bloody murders and mangled/dismembered body parts on TV on a pretty regular basis--including on this show--so I find it kind of amusing that a bloody tampon is what so many people consider "too far."  For that matter, I've heard of many real-life occasions of people "sending a message" with human excrement.  They're both beyond gross, but as organic calling cards go, I personally consider the tampon the less revolting one. 

But there was no need for her to leave that kind of message; after all, it's not like he harmed or killed someone (at least not yet).  Personally, what I'd like to happen is that he keeps the tampon in a plastic baggie, eventually catches up with her, stuffs it in her mouth and tapes her mouth shut with duct tape.  Maybe she'll think twice about doing something like that again.

[annzeepark914]

20 hours ago, WearyTraveler said:

Soooooo, fess up!  Who has Googled V.M. Varga?

Not googlin' anybody ever again. Geeze laweeze.  Season 3 does not have the fun amidst the murderous mayhem like the first two seasons.

[PeggyB]

Glad it was dark and I was trying to stay awake. I thought it was feces. o.0 (Made sure not to look the second time I watched. lol)

[annzeepark914]

One more grouse:  the OTT accents, especially of Sy (complete with those dumb half started then stopped sentences), are getting on my last nerve.  Somebody has gotten obnoxiously carried away with the whole Fargo thing and just might be ruining a good thing.

[festivus]

Hmm. I guess I've seen so much gross stuff on TV that the tampon scene just made me say eww and then I moved on. I love MEW I just watched her in Mercy Street. I loved season 1, LOVED season 2, but this season is boring me so far. The only fun I'm having is that every time MEW is on I'm imagining her playing Stephanie Plum. She'd be great. 

[Razzberry]

On 4/30/2017 at 7:28 PM, J-Man said:

The Hugo Award also looks exactly like the gearshift on the truck the two henchmen drove into the parking lot. There were a couple of closeups of it that had to have been placed there for some reason.

Yeah, I was wondering why they focused on that gearshift.  Good catch.

[SunnyBeBe]

Does anyone know who the girl was in the photo shown in the beginning?  The lady police chief was looking through her step father's books that were in that box.  There was also a photograph of a woman?  Was that from the box too?  Who was it?  She appears to be an actress that I have seen before.  

[car54]

Ha!  There is a VM Varga site and it looks exactly like the one on the show.  There are redditors who are all askeered of clicking, just like us.

I wonder when Ray is going to realize Nikki is a psycho.   The way she went from zero to 60 immediately and came up with the plan to push the AC out of the window to kill Maurice, the fact that she is living in a place that she rented under another name (Hello, you are her parole officer!) and the whole tampon thing would make me afraid of her if I was him.

[lazylou]

On ‎5‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 6:37 PM, annzeepark914 said:

One more grouse:  the OTT accents, especially of Sy (complete with those dumb half started then stopped sentences), are getting on my last nerve.  Somebody has gotten obnoxiously carried away with the whole Fargo thing and just might be ruining a good thing.

 

I agree.  I think the show this season is going amuck.  Suddenly all these North Country people are being made to look like total idiots.  In some cases, the accents seem overdone to me, and some of the mistakes are a little too over the top.  Maybe I can suspend disbelief that a high and none too bright druggie might murder the wrong person in the wrong town when all he was supposed to do was to steal a stamp, but I have a lot of trouble  with some of the other little laughs at small towns here.  1) the police station in the library?  Not in any small town I know...most small towns these days have plentiful empty store fronts available.  2) a 34 year old who is more comfortable with a telex machine than a computer?  How long has it been since telex machines were in common use?  not even in rural Minnesota, I will bet, have they been seen in twenty years.  Plus, it is much easier to use a computer than a telex.   3) Why is someone from the county sheriff's office taking over a town police station? These would seem to be two different jurisdictions. Who in a town police station would have ordered computers and not  unpacked them?  It is not as though there is any real bureaucracy involved in a small town.  Not to mention the premise that anyone would borrow $1 million from a completely unknown source.  Obviously, all these people are supposed to be stupid.  Not only stupid, but unable to handle their Hummers in an icy parking lot.  I laughed at the scene...but hey!  People who drive year after year on icy surfaces get pretty good at handling their vehicles.  So, I call BS on this season.

[roughing it]

16 hours ago, lazylou said:

3) Why is someone from the county sheriff's office taking over a town police station? These would seem to be two different jurisdictions.

We have a neighboring small town whose police department seriously f-ed up on quite a few occasions.  The town council fired them and contracted with the sheriff's office to take over jurisdiction.

[Rockstar99435]

On 4/28/2017 at 8:36 PM, Ottis said:

I'm enjoying the season, except for the fact that everyone seems pretty dim.

Ugh. Everyone is so dumb. Everyone. Usually the show/movie has a least one smart character who has to deal with all the dumb people while trying to solve the case. It's making it hard for me to watch. The worst was Gloria. In any other season, she would be the dumbass cop that our hero had to put up with while trying to figure out what's going on. She not only didn't even unpack the computers (that were mostly likely paid for with everyone's taxes), but she seemed genuinely suprised by the fact that no one has been receiving any of her telefax messages. So she's been sending requests to other police stations for months? years? and getting no reply and never thought to look into that and figure out what's going on? Dumbest Fargo character ever. 

On 4/30/2017 at 1:21 PM, Chaos Theory said:

My one issue with the show is with Varga blackmailing Emmit so completely.  Taking over his office is one thing but alluding to murder and outright telling him he would be rich but only on paper might be a mistake.  Fear only works for so long and a better idea would to make Emmit really rich.  It would make him culpable beyond using his company and override fear with greed.

Yeah, I don't understand why Emmit and Sy are rolling over on this. Unless I missed something, it's not illegal to accept a loan from a private citizen. So why don't they go to the cops or (given how stupid Gloria is) the FBI and say, "Hey, these guys are threatening/extorting/murdering us in order to use our business to launder their illegal money. Would you like to set up a sting operation to arrest them and send them to prison for a very, very long time? Great!"

Nikki was my only hope for a character that isn't "needs to be supervised at all times" levels of stupid and then she did the whole tampon thing. Ugh. (To be fair, it's not that I thought it was too gross. I actually thought she wrote the message with her own poop until they showed the tampon in the desk drawer, which to me was a thousand times worse. I just think she should've been smart enough not to leave her DNA all over a crime scene>) 

[Ottis]

On 5/1/2017 at 9:39 AM, Portia said:

I see bloody murders and mangled/dismembered body parts on TV on a pretty regular basis--including on this show--so I find it kind of amusing that a bloody tampon is what so many people consider "too far."  For that matter, I've heard of many real-life occasions of people "sending a message" with human excrement.  They're both beyond gross, but as organic calling cards go, I personally consider the tampon the less revolting one.

Agree. The act didn't bother me, other than wondering how much blood she would have used to write that sentence so clearly. She would have used the tampon like a pen and an ink well, I imagine. Like others, I was more bothered by the fact that's about as DNA-y as DNA can get. So, duh? 

18 hours ago, lazylou said:

2) a 34 year old who is more comfortable with a telex machine than a computer?  How long has it been since telex machines were in common use?

I'm over 50, and I'm not even sure what a telex is. I googled it. I think we had one in the company I worked for in the mid-80s. Maybe.

11 minutes ago, Rockstar99435 said:

Yeah, I don't understand why Emmit and Sy are rolling over on this. Unless I missed something, it's not illegal to accept a loan from a private citizen. So why don't they go to the cops or (given how stupid Gloria is) the FBI and say, "Hey, these guys are threatening/extorting/murdering us in order to use our business to launder their illegal money. Would you like to set up a sting operation to arrest them and send them to prison for a very, very long time? Great!"

I just realized that I had already assumed that Emmit and Sy are going to first try to investigate Vargas to see what they are dealing with, before deciding what to do about it. I don't know why I think that. The level of police expertise available in their town is questionable. I suppose they could call DC directly, but they strike me as being unsure how to do so. That or they have, in fact, been involved in legal activities we haven't seen, yet, and that keeps them from calling the fuzz.

[lazylou]

58 minutes ago, Rockstar99435 said:

Yeah, I don't understand why Emmit and Sy are rolling over on this. Unless I missed something, it's not illegal to accepta loan from a private citizen. So why don't they go to the cops or (given how stupid Gloria is) the FBI and say, "Hey, these guys are threatening/extorting/murdering us in order to use our business to launder their illegal money. Would you like to set up a sting operation to arrest them and send them to prison for a very, very long time? Great!"

They did go to their lawyer...seems he ought to have sent them to the Feds or the cops, as suggested. I am having trouble suspending disbelief, as mentioned earlier.

Thanks, roughing it, for explaining the town cop shop takeover by the sheriff.  This definitely makes sense, especially given the utter incompetence of the two we have met,  and ptobably the sheriff ordered the computers, a point I probably missed.  

Are we supposed to believe that Nikki has chosen dim Ray as her duplicate bridge partner?  really?  And to the earlier post that suggested it is easy to cheat at bridge...duplicate bridge...Guess Nikki has developed an elaborate system of hand signals or facial expressions or something, because the whole system of duplicate bridge competitions has worked to eliminate cheating.  Plus, hard to see what Nikki is going to gain other than master's points and bragging rights there in Minnesota.  

[Shriekingeel]

On 4/30/2017 at 0:22 PM, Razzberry said:

A friend of mine didn't make the cut because I believe there were minimums of 5'7" and 140 lbs.  if I'm not mistaken. That vary by location, though.

Tiny Marge Gunderson would never have made the cut in that department. 

[bmacknz]

On 4/27/2017 at 2:25 PM, KaleyFirefly said:

Those kind of people drive me nuts. It's 2017 -- learn how to use a computer, dammit!

Actually, it's 2010..., No?

[mansonlamps]

On 4/29/2017 at 3:55 PM, MissBluxom said:

I saw two lady cops today in a patrol car. The driver barely came up to the steering wheel (in height). The passanger was much shorter - hardly even visible.

I think there are laws now that force police departments to hire people of all shapes and sizes and genders and races, etc. There are many good arguments that the most important aspect of police work is almost entirely up to the brain and only rarely is a large man required to beat on an average sized criminal.

At the huge risk of being politically incorrect God forbid, if I was in a situation where I was being physically threatened, this would not be the duo that would make me feel comforted if they showed up.  As far as being detectives or leaders is a different story.

[Portia]

On 4/30/2017 at 2:15 PM, PeggyB said:

On re-watch the main thing I really noticed that I hadn't the first time was at the beginning. "This is a true story." This was across Gloria's (Carrie Coon) face (specifically her chin) and the word "true" disappeared, one second later "This is a" disappeared only leaving "story." for a brief second. After all of the comments about her inability to trip automatic door sensors I thought it interesting and maybe alluding to her lack of kinetic energy.

 

On 5/1/2017 at 10:39 AM, Portia said:

I'm pretty sure that the the fade-out effect is the same at the beginning of every episode. I have a bunch of episodes on my DVR, so I'll try to remember and check it tonight.

I finally remembered to check out the "true story" captions at the beginning of the episodes. Every episode of season 3 has followed the pattern described by PEGGYB. "This is a true story" appears in white block letters; then "true" disappears; then "This is a" disappears, leaving only the word "story."  

In Season 1, the same white letters were used, but the fade-out effect was different.  The entire sentence appeared, and then all the words except "true" disappeared.  

In Season 2, the font was different, and the text appeared letter by letter as if being typed by a typewriter.  But then all the words except "true" disappeared.  

[Dowel Jones]

On 4/30/2017 at 9:22 AM, Razzberry said:

A friend of mine didn't make the cut because I believe there were minimums of 5'7" and 140 lbs.  if I'm not mistaken.

Dragnet devoted a significant part of an episode one time to this very issue.  Joe and Bill were at a community meeting and were taken to task by a shorter male for his rejection from the PD exam process.  Friday quite calmly insisted that having taller policemen (read, white males) presented more authority than other groups of people.

[Ellaria]

On 4/29/2017 at 9:11 PM, tennisgurl said:

Interesting that Ennis appeared out of nowhere to join Gloria's family in 1980, just one year after the Sioux Falls Massacre. Coincidence? I'm interested in hearing more about his possible double life and how that might tie into the main story. Maybe he, as a writer/comic artist, had something to do with the stamp the brothers are trying to get/keep?

I still have absolutely no idea what is going on, but I think I'm still interesting in what's going on. I loved the second season so much, that I went into this already feeling like I wouldn't like this season quite as much, so I guess my expectations are somewhat lower, but I'm still willing to give this season some time to find its footing. Its not bad right now or anything, just lacking in focus.

Love the speculation about Ennis. Perhaps it isn't a coincidence that his interest in science fiction drew him to an area that had been "reportedly" visited by a space ship. 

My love for the second season has tempered my enthusiasm for this season. However, it is still early and I will be along for the ride, regardless. 

On 4/29/2017 at 7:15 PM, ALenore said:

I have a feeling that Gloria's mistrust of computers will wind up being an advantage at some point.  The bad guys seem to have a shitload of computers, and probably evil computer hackers working for them.  I'm guessing that the police computers will get infected by some sort of virus and Gloria will be able to find information needed because it's on hardcopy, not on computer.  

That's a great guess. I hope you are right because her references to a telex in 2010 is a bit odd. In fact, much of it doesn't quite feel like 2010, even for small town America. 

On 4/30/2017 at 10:43 PM, kariyaki said:

I would imagine that Ray and Emmitt are aware of who their immediate family is and that this dead guy named Stussy isn't related -- or if so, rather distantly. I don't think they'd really concern themselves about the fate of a distant relative they didn't know. I know I wouldn't. It would be too father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate for me.

I understand your point and I wouldn't expect them to look into it further. Frankly, Ray and Emmitt have much bigger problems to concern themselves with. However, I found it odd that Emmitt would take the time to mention the inhumanity of Ennis' murder to Sy and not even bother to comment on the fact that the last name of the murder victim was the same as his.

Nonetheless, someone - Gloria maybe - may soon notice that Ennis Stussy from Eden Valley is very similar to Emmitt Stussy from Eden Prairie. And that could eventually point her towards how/why the murder was committed.

[John Potts]

It did strike me that the two brothers are not so different from each other: each seem to have big dreams but are vague about achieving it. Clearly Ray is the less successful, convincing himself that if he'd just got those stamps that he would have been a rich man. But while Emmit may be more successful, even his success seems more chimerical than it appears. Nobody takes out a loan from somebody without (apparently) asking any questions about where it came from or the terms under which it's offered. I would not be at all surprised to learn he's done a few more dodgy deals to keep himself afloat - which might well explain why he's so reluctant to go to the police (or FBI) about a guy who shows up ordering him around with veiled (and not so veiled) threats. And when you add Nikki into the mix, it's clear that neither Stussy brother is really in control.

On ‎27‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 4:08 AM, AimingforYoko said:

The ol' message written in menstrual blood, complete with used tampon left at the scene

I don't know what it says about me as a viewer (or possibly a man) that I find that far more squicky than throwing a guy off a car park. Murder seems more comfortable viewing than menstruation?

On ‎27‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 5:14 PM, AzureOwl said:

I think Nikki's problem is that she is smarter than average, but nowhere near as smart as she thinks she is.

Absolutely. While I can imagine that the world's top bridge players can make money, she doesn't strike me as the world's greatest player. She doesn't even strike me as somebody who has a "foolproof" method of cheating at Bridge. I also suspect she may have a rather darker past than we've been told so far - she leapt to murder within a minute, which suggests she has rather sociopathic tendencies.

On ‎27‎/‎04‎/‎2017 at 2:52 PM, kariyaki said:

Not wanting to use computers at home is fine. Not wanting to use them when your job depends on it makes no sense at all.

I agree - it's all very well to not like computers, but it presumably means she can't run fingerprints or number plates (at least not against national databases). Similarly, nobody nationally can ask her if they've seen somebody that (say) looks like David Thewliss (with worse teeth) because he's wanted on charges of murder, extortion or whatever. It's not surprising that her office is being absorbed by the local county (I think?), even if (given previous seasons I expect her to crack the case in the end.

[cleo]

So nothing could beat the perfection of season 2 but I'm having a hard time getting into this. 

Obviously I'm slow to get to it. The characters seem old/done before not that interesting except the girlfriend. Parking lot business is just a boring context and Vargas is unpleasant to watch. I get that he's supposed to be, but it just makes me want to ff through his scenes. 

Only ep 2 so I'm hanging in, but I recall alot of complaints when this first came out. We'll see how it goes.