S01.E07: Part VII

[Palomar]

I just don't understand the character of Cora at all.  Even before THE night when everything happened, she always just seemed to walk around in a daze, pretty much allowing everyone else (parents, sister, JB) to dictate her life as if she didn't have a say in anything.  I don't understand how she would allow someone like JB to humiliate her with his other girls, taking any drug he told her to take, doing anything he asked. She didn't even seem in love with him. And talk about bad judgment....ultimately she had no regard for her sister.  I can see perhaps taking her to a bar for her birthday, but even that could have been a fatal decision.  To then bring her to JD's house where she knew there were drugs, orgies, and losers hanging around and that her sister would go for anything and then just leave her by herself is unbelievable.  Frankie at least seemed half-way decent but should have known better than to have sex with a girl who was so sick she could barely walk by herself.   

The biggest puzzle is what they did with Phoebe afterwards (at the every least how did she explain the crushed ribs if she did live) and why if there were unusual circumstance in her death (then or later) why no one would look into Cora's involvement in that when investigating Frankie's murder and her background. 

[LoveLeigh]

2 hours ago, Palomar said:

I just don't understand the character of Cora at all. The biggest puzzle is ....

The whole series really makes no sense at all. It is poorly written. It is almost impossible to connect the dots. I am unable to understand how they will tie this whole thing up in tomorrow's episode because they took 7 episodes to drag out the whole thing and provided no substantial clues until now. 

I mean really. To end episode 6 with the silly cliffhanger:  "I remember now" tells you that this is a real amateurish production. And contrary to popular belief, Jessica Biel will get no nominations for this crap in the style of "Flowers in the Attic."

The female detective was totally obnoxious every time she said "Frankie" and Maddie." She licked her chops way too much and seemed inept. 

Edited September 19, 2017 by DakotaLavender
typos

[jrlr]

22 minutes ago, DakotaLavender said:

The whole series really makes no sense at all. It is poorly written. It is almost impossible to connect the dots. I am unable to understand how they wil tie this whole thing up in tomorrow's episode because they tool 7 episodes to drag out the whole thing and provided no substantial clues until now. 

I mean really. To end episode 6 with the silly cliffhanger:  "I remember now" tells you that this is a real amateurish production. And contrary to popular belief, Jessica Biel will get no nominations for this crap in the style of "Flowers in the Attic."

The female detective was totally obnoxious every time she said "Frankie" and Maddie." She licked her chops way too much and seemed inept. 

Two thumbs up for everything in your post!   The writing is awful and Biel has one expression no matter what insanity is happening around her.    I've been hanging in just to see how they wrap a million loose ends up, but I suspect I've been wasting my time.

[diebartdie]

Well one silver lining is that if there is a season 2, it wont have anything to do with any of the characters from season 1, this is supposed to be an anthology series.

[Monie]

I have never watched a show with so many unlikable characters!! Glad it is almost over. I do want to finish it out.

[eXiled]

22 hours ago, jrlr said:

Two thumbs up for everything in your post!   The writing is awful and Biel has one expression no matter what insanity is happening around her.    I've been hanging in just to see how they wrap a million loose ends up, but I suspect I've been wasting my time.

I thought it was just me. She has absolutely no range. It's bizarre. Is she supposed to be dazed? Traumatized? Tired? Bored?

Watching this silly ill-written mess has me feeling all of the above. But I'm a glutton, so I'm riding it out!

Edited September 20, 2017 by eXiled

[TattleTeeny]

I just read a Facebook comment thread about this show, and someone actually asked, "Who here has read the book? Is it longer than the movie?" WTF does that even mean?! Of course, this thread was also full of people who think it would de darn clever if Cora wakes up on the beach to find that this was all a dream, so...

Edited September 20, 2017 by TattleTeeny

[slothgirl]

On 9/19/2017 at 1:47 PM, Palomar said:

I just don't understand the character of Cora at all.  Even before THE night when everything happened, she always just seemed to walk around in a daze, pretty much allowing everyone else (parents, sister, JB) to dictate her life as if she didn't have a say in anything.  I don't understand how she would allow someone like JB to humiliate her with his other girls, taking any drug he told her to take, doing anything he asked. She didn't even seem in love with him. And talk about bad judgment....ultimately she had no regard for her sister.  I can see perhaps taking her to a bar for her birthday, but even that could have been a fatal decision.  To then bring her to JD's house where she knew there were drugs, orgies, and losers hanging around and that her sister would go for anything and then just leave her by herself is unbelievable.  Frankie at least seemed half-way decent but should have known better than to have sex with a girl who was so sick she could barely walk by herself.   

The biggest puzzle is what they did with Phoebe afterwards (at the every least how did she explain the crushed ribs if she did live) and why if there were unusual circumstance in her death (then or later) why no one would look into Cora's involvement in that when investigating Frankie's murder and her background. 

I can believe that someone so controlled, abused, and demeaned by her mother from an early age would be emotionally flat/numb and easily controlled by others (including her "helpless" sister, remember). Survivors of abuse can have a "flat affect". The problem is that the actress is trying so hard to give us "flat affect", that she's not giving us anything else.  In order to tell the story and make a complex character, the performer needs to let us into the inner world SOMEHOW even if all the emotions are stunted. Small nuances of expression or body language. SOMETHING... ANYTHING. If it is played as completely flat as it appears to the average person in casual real life interaction with someone like Cora, it just looks like bad acting. Biel needed to be cheating on the flatness here and there to show us what was going on in her head. The writers sure weren't going to help out with that.

She didn't take her sister to JD's house. They went to that fancy hotel/country club/whatever. She had no way to know there would be an orgy or squatters (the squatter being the most like-able person present actually, and I'm including both Cora and Phoebe herself in that comparison). If she were smart instead of drifting along, she would have guessed that there would be more drugs or maybe she didn't care.. who knows? Like I say, we got NO insight into Cora's mental process. She did try to get her sister to go home. In the long run, her sister isn't a child (despite looking 12) and is considerably more worldly and self-actualized that Cora. She manipulated Cora at every turn, but somehow you expect Cora to suddenly take charge of the situation? ANY situation? Not gonna happen. She didn't even step up to the plate in her own defense until Ambrose went to bat for her.

This could have been a really interesting character study. Instead they went for manipulative suspense and titillating hints at sexual deviance. The actress isn't skilled enough to add the character study element to the weak writing. Pretty much every character (likable or not) is more developed than Cora, including Abrose' dominatrix, and any extras who walked through the background of the scene in the bar!

[Iguessnot]

It's been a weird ride but I'm looking forward to the finale. There were a lot of revelations in this episode but it's hard to imagine how much of could assist Cora. Recollected memories don't make court worthy facts and as I mentioned earlier, many of the immediate players are dead. Whose body is that? what happened to Cora before rehab? Does the mom have further involvement? What about Ambrose? Who killed JD? It seems like there are too many issues to deal with.  But for an 8 episode series, I can hold out.