S02.E01: The Brownout

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Peter and Sam travel to a prestigious private high school in Bellevue, Washington, to document the story of a filthy vandal called the "Turd Burglar."

 

[MyrnaMinkoff]

Disappointed. This felt much more like a mockumentary than the first season. A lot of the students’ talking heads felt straight out of Parks n Rec or something- too self-aware, knowing commentary. One of the first gals in particular really grated - “I wore tights that day. I...wish I hadn’t.” Come on. 

[Jade Foxx]

Just watched first ep. I’m excited about this second round of lunacy!

(too bad I was eating at the time) ?

[fountain]

I didn’t mind it. It was kind of gross the brownout event but I thought they still kept up the faux seriousness of a true crime story. I thought the first season read as a mockumentary too, a good one like the ones that Eugene Levy was in - a dog show one, some kind of band one, etc. where you really buy into the concept/subject matter as ridiculous as it is.

[Miles]

They really upped the stakes on this one. Really interested to see where it goes. If this keeps up, by season 4 they'll actually investigate a murder.

[HunterHunted]

If only Ma Anand Sheela had discovered the laxative effects of sugar alcohols, she might not have tried to poison thousands of people with salmonella on salads and salad dressing to keep them from voting. Lemonade. All she needed was lemonade and massive amounts of sugar substitutes. Sugar alcohols were discovered 140 years before her bioterrorism.

Edited September 18, 2018 by HunterHunted

[nb360]

I don’t know if I can watch a season about poop. Also, there are real health implications to this crime, whereas in the first season, no one was physically harmed.

[Jade Foxx]

20 hours ago, nb360 said:

 

I don’t know if I can watch a season about poop

 

Oh it’s challenging, indeed. But worth the watch, I think...

[formerlyfreedom]

I kept myself busy doing other things to avoid *ahem* some scenes.

Spoiler

It's a lot but the season is well worth working around!

[Daltrey]

I'll keep watching but it hasn't hooked me from the start the way season one did. Now that the new character introductions are out of the way, Sam and Peter need to take center stage because Kevin McClain is nowhere near as compelling or amusing a character as Dylan Maxwell was. Also, there's not much that makes me squeamish but this, for some reason, was a little too gross...I think it was because the testimonials and cut in footage went on so long. I was like "ok, I get it, enough with all the shitting."  Speaking of the cut in footage, were those supposed to be reenactments?; I can't imagine a school having that many cameras installed, let alone cameras at all. One other thing that bothered me was the "two other crimes". Were they the exact same, just at different school functions? That felt tacked on at the last minute, given that no other details or circumstances were mentioned, compared to the first event detailing how some people had altered their normal routine or that some people were away that day, etc. Hopefully it's addressed in subsequent episodes.

[Portia]

18 hours ago, Daltrey said:

 Now that the new character introductions are out of the way, Sam and Peter need to take center stage because Kevin McClain is nowhere near as compelling or amusing a character as Dylan Maxwell was.

Personally, I find Kevin very compelling and believable. The poor kid is just one giant defense mechanism.  I feel for him, but that doesn't mean he's not also annoying as hell.  Gah, I know that kid.

18 hours ago, Daltrey said:

One other thing that bothered me was the "two other crimes". Were they the exact same, just at different school functions? That felt tacked on at the last minute, given that no other details or circumstances were mentioned, compared to the first event detailing how some people had altered their normal routine or that some people were away that day, etc. Hopefully it's addressed in subsequent episodes.

I think the brief mention of two other crimes was meant to tease you into watching episode 2, but it caught me off-balance, too. 

Spoiler

Never fear, it will be addressed very quickly. 

Edited September 20, 2018 by saoirse
Added spoiler tag

[Daltrey]

16 hours ago, Portia said:

Personally, I find Kevin very compelling and believable. The poor kid is just one giant defense mechanism.  I feel for him, but that doesn't mean he's not also annoying as hell.  Gah, I know that kid.

I think the brief mention of two other crimes was meant to tease you into watching episode 2, but it caught me off-balance, too. 

  Reveal hidden contents

Never fear, it will be addressed very quickly. 

Ha Ha, Yeah. I ended up binging it all in one night. Have to say, Kevin did grow on me. They had me guessing the whole way through and the ultimate reveal was a nice twist. I didn't expect any of that at all.

[Portia]

7 hours ago, Daltrey said:

Ha Ha, Yeah. I ended up binging it all in one night. Have to say, Kevin did grow on me. They had me guessing the whole way through and the ultimate reveal was a nice twist. I didn't expect any of that at all.

Ooh, I'm excited to hear that! I don't think we'll get to finish until the weekend.

[methodwriter85]

On 9/20/2018 at 5:35 AM, Daltrey said:

Personally, I find Kevin very compelling and believable. The poor kid is just one giant defense mechanism.  I feel for him, but that doesn't mean he's not also annoying as hell.  Gah, I know that kid.

There are times where I WAS Kevin. When you can't really fit in, it's a lot easier to just embrace it and be the freak instead. I thought he was pretty relatable in that aspect.

[iMonrey]

I knew next to nothing about this show and binge-watched Season 1 in two days then started in on this season.

They actually had me fooled for a minute there into thinking Sam and Peter were real teens, and that Season 1 was a real documentary they made for Vimeo which was then picked up by Netflix. The "before and after" clips of the first season had me going. Then I had to remind myself that some of the participants were recognizable actors. Talk about meta.

Anyway . . . I have to say that this first episode didn't really grab me the way the Season 1 premier, and the pooping was really gross. I'm four episodes in now, and it does get better, but I think overall it's still not as good as the first season.

Also, there are more recognizable actors in this one than in the first season, and that kind of spoils the illusion of reality a bit.

[Daltrey]

4 hours ago, iMonrey said:

this first episode didn't really grab me the way the Season 1 premier, and the pooping was really gross. I'm four episodes in now, and it does get better, but I think overall it's still not as good as the first season.

I had watched the first season back when it came out and loved it, so I was pretty happy when this dropped. I have to agree about the first episode, not nearly as good and it really was pretty gross. I waited a couple of days before going back to it and ended up binging the rest of the season that day. It does get better and where it ends up was really interesting; it takes a nice twist that I never would have guessed. It has a different tone than season one, I think, less comedic and a little more dark but I ended up really enjoying it. It's too bad Netflix has cancelled it in their slow move to having only fully owned content. Apparently the producers are shopping it around, hopefully they find a home.