S02.E05: All You'll Be Eating is Cannibals

[Drogo]

Temporarily flush with cash, Frankie is tapped by Candy to be a co-producer on Red Hot. Lori eyes a plum role in the film, but still feels the burden of being under C.C.'s yoke. With Rudy's blessing, Big Mike and Black Frankie hit a gambling house in the Bronx. Bobby finds himself stigmatized at home and at the Hi-Hat after a surprise raid overseen by Alston. Paul encounters resistance to his elaborate renovation plans. Out of rehab, Shay is convinced to move in with a nurturing Irene. As she and Abby deliver on their promise to provide medical care to sex workers, Ashley decides to confront her past...and doesn't blink.

[numbnut]

Good episode. I'm proud of Ashley for standing her ground with C.C. but poking the bear may backfire and cause her demise. I also don't think it's smart for Candy to cast Lori when C.C. is still running her life -- she could get stuck without a lead actress halfway through filming. Abby still annoys me. What happened to Bobby's health problem? Something needs to make a dent in his ego. When did Big Mike turn into an antagonist with a trans lover? Did I miss something?

[Traveller519]

Definitely the best episode of the second season so far in my opinion. This is the Sirmon I know, constantly building through the season.

Earlier in the season I had said that the women's stories were the strength of the show. They still are, but I am all here for the "Larry Brown acting career" show. But then the show really spun that by exploring CC and the other pimps reminding us what Larry's background is an that perhaps the sympathetic character he's developing isn't totally worthwhile. The episode worked really well to twist the emotionality.

I really want to start referring to the "girls" by their birth names to respect their characters. Ashley will officially be Dorothy for me now. I'm not sure on Candy/Eileen as she appears to still embrace the persona in her new career.

[BingeyKohan]

I saw Maggie Gyllenhaal at The New Yorker Festival this weekend and she seemed to use Candy exclusively in speaking about her. Agree this was the best of the season. My prediction (no spoilers, I have no idea really): Somehow Frankie getting involved in the movie (and inadvertently bringing the mob element with him) will lead to a moral dilemma for a Candy. She’ll come to a crossroads where she’ll see an opportunity to have C.C. killed. Good for Lori for sure, and the movie too. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

I am all here for the "Larry Brown acting career" show.

I am too, especially if that means he'll no longer be pimping. 1977 is in the waning years of the blaxploitation film era otherwise I think he probably could've done okay as a bit player in those. As it is, maybe he can hooked in with the people who cast the Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee movies, or move out to LA and take his chances. He'd better do it fast though because he's not so young anymore.

[Mindthinkr]

My hat is off to the set designer and prop master. I saw a white pack of Kool cigarettes on the table during the scene where the girls were discussing how Larry needs to take more interest in being a pimp and less in being a porn star. After many years it was changed to a green or blue pack which it remains to this day. I know this because someone in my family smoked them. Seeing them was nostalgic to me. I like that when possible, they try to get the small details correct. 

[Rinaldo]

16 hours ago, Traveller519 said:

I am all here for the "Larry Brown acting career" show.

Me too. I loved him for not only being absorbed in watching Blue Collar but repeating and rehearsing Yaphet Kotto's dialogue afterwards. (He must have sat through at least two showings to do that -- which was possible at that time.) I want to see more of this, and more of him (in every sense).

Also appropriate was the brief bit of Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago that we saw (long before it was transformed into About Last Night).

They're so good about film and drama references for the period, and, as @Mindthinkr said, props and design, that I wish they could avoid the occasional anachronism in dialogue that sticks out. One example is the reference to "tweaking" a script -- a figurative sense of the verb that belongs to the last 20 years or thereabouts. (I suppose the defense would be that someone could have spontaneously decided to use it metaphorically with no precedent, but it does obtrude.) But this sort of thing can be the hardest to manage consistently.

[txhorns79]

Quote

One example is the reference to "tweaking" a script -- a figurative sense of the verb that belongs to the last 20 years or thereabouts. (I suppose the defense would be that someone could have spontaneously decided to use it metaphorically with no precedent, but it does obtrude.) But this sort of thing can be the hardest to manage consistently.

At least according to dictionary.com, they state that the word has been in use with that type of meaning since at least the 1960s. 

[Rinaldo]

I was going by my experience, but I'll concede the point to dictionary.com. (There were other idioms -- not many -- used in a way I found anachronistic, but I can't recall what they were, so I'll just figure the writers thought about this before I did.)

[slippity slack]

20 hours ago, numbnut said:

I'm proud of Ashley for standing her ground with C.C. but poking the bear may backfire and cause her demise. I also don't think it's smart for Candy to cast Lori when C.C. is still running her life -- she could get stuck without a lead actress halfway through filming.

Agreed! It seems like there might be big confrontations coming--CC seems on the verge of losing it over either Ashley or Lori. Hope they get the better of him. Lori's speech about being owned by CC was quite moving but Candy didn't seem very sympathetic--she just wanted to use it for her movie.

 

20 hours ago, numbnut said:

When did Big Mike turn into an antagonist with a trans lover? Did I miss something?

Yes, that seemed to come out of the blue!

5 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

My hat is off to the set designer and prop master.

They do an amazing job with the street scenes--the people, the sounds, the trash everywhere. I've lived in NY since the 80's and they really capture the feel of those times.

[txhorns79]

Quote

Lori's speech about being owned by CC was quite moving but Candy didn't seem very sympathetic--she just wanted to use it for her movie.

Think of it this way, Candy has been hooking since what, the late 50s?  She's probably heard variations of Lori's speech multiple times to the point where it is no longer particularly meaningful to her.  Also, she isn't there to be Lori's confidant, or to help Lori escape CC, she's there to cast a film.  

I felt like I caught something just watching Paul in that quasi-abandoned sex warehouse.  I also get who Paul wants to appeal to with his club, but I feel like it's going to end up a huge flop because I don't think there is a huge demand for what he is selling.       

[Moxie Cat]

40 minutes ago, slippity slack said:

Lori's speech about being owned by CC was quite moving but Candy didn't seem very sympathetic--she just wanted to use it for her movie.

Idk... I interpreted that as Candy being very careful as to how to respond - she wanted Lori and didn't know if she was just going to storm out. I thought Lori's meltdown dovetailed nicely with Dorothy's issues with CC. I think it's hard to understand how these guys are in their heads. Hoping that Darlene gets an easier out with Larry as he gets more into acting. And speaking of that:

Spoiler

So excited for next week! Obviously Larry was going to be the wolf, but I am excited to watch them run around New York filming the movie too.

I like Abby, but how did she not know after 8 years that the Hi-Hat was funded by mob money or Vince's relationship with Pipilo? Heck, Paul knows!

[TheNewJanBrady]

1 hour ago, slippity slack said:

When did Big Mike turn into an antagonist with a trans lover? Did I miss something

I find I do not care about this part of the show at all. Already too many characters and plots going on.

[yellowjacket]

On 10/8/2018 at 8:37 PM, txhorns79 said:

 

I felt like I caught something just watching Paul in that quasi-abandoned sex warehouse.  I also get who Paul wants to appeal to with his club, but I feel like it's going to end up a huge flop because I don't think there is a huge demand for what he is selling.       

I was young and running around NYC then. There was a giant, growing market for what Paul was selling.  And that wasn't an abandoned warehouse, that was the piers along 11th avenue which were gay enclaves for over a decade.  When Paul walked up to the entrance, he would have run into 20 hustlers, not one. 

I think Paul is going to be a big success, until the Kaposi's sarcoma shows up.  I like that they are including this story.

[Mindthinkr]

Every time I see a notification that one of you has responded I read it as “All You’ll Be Eating is Cannabis” lol