Baptiste - General Discussion

[sempervivum]

1 hour ago, 12catcrazy said:

At first I thought that maybe we were watching an Owl Creek Bridge type of thing.

Yeah, I couldn't imagine he survived a brutal beating and then stabbing. But he's the Magic Gimp- old and quite disabled, but can chase a fit guy half his age through a strange woods in the dark and defeat him. I like shows where old folks use their wits to come out on top (Major Crimes, New Tricks, etc) but using their bodies-unless they're maybe Bruce Willis-is unconvincing, to put it mildly.

But the worst part was the fact that the Big Bad's nefarious scheme (that we've been waiting to hear about all season) was to beat the young foreigner to death with a bunch of wrenches, etc, that would have immigrant fingerprints on them. Somehow this would ignite the hatred of the Hungarians, who would turn on/turn out the immigrant hordes? Yet when an innocent foreign girl (Laura) was stabbed to death in her home by a drugged-up immigrant, it didn't rouse the Hungarians to do anything at all, afaik. Stupid and illogical. 

Didn't understand showing us the Agostins deciding to try IVF again. I guess the guy putting on the Gomorrah mask plus the fact that Agostin was gloating about her good poll numbers is supposed to tell us the anti-immigrant hate isn't dead?

Also, minor nitpicks: why isn't Fiona in a powered wheelchair? Surely she can afford one. Also, has anyone ever tried to rip a section off their blouse (to use as a tourniquet)? It's impossible with bare hands. Also, there wasn't even much blood on Will's leg wound, so why would she assume he was bleeding to death? Also, what was she planning on doing if Baptiste didn't make it out of the woods- she's tipped her wheelchair over at the bottom of the stairs and has no hope of getting back to the car to potentially get Will to a hospital. 

Despite all this grumbling, I was mildly pleased to see that Baptiste got himself together and has a chance of renewing his marriage. His granddaughter is adorable, too.

[sinycalone]

You can help me, too.  So....there really was no 2nd Muslim terrorist attack planned.  In fact, there was no 1st Muslim terrorist attack.  It was staged by the anti-immigrant crowd to enrage Hungarians, and to incite them to act against all immigrants.  Alex never was sucked into a Muslim extremist group.  Gomorrah's goal was simply to increase into right-wing paranoia against Muslims, etc.  Am I right?

[12catcrazy]

19 minutes ago, sinycalone said:

You can help me, too.  So....there really was no 2nd Muslim terrorist attack planned.  In fact, there was no 1st Muslim terrorist attack.  It was staged by the anti-immigrant crowd to enrage Hungarians, and to incite them to act against all immigrants.  Alex never was sucked into a Muslim extremist group.  Gomorrah's goal was simply to increase into right-wing paranoia against Muslims, etc.  Am I right?

Yes.  It was all a way for the right-wingers to fan the flames against the Muslim immigrants and to turn the public against them.  

[raven]

7 hours ago, sempervivum said:

But the worst part was the fact that the Big Bad's nefarious scheme (that we've been waiting to hear about all season) was to beat the young foreigner to death with a bunch of wrenches, etc, that would have immigrant fingerprints on them.

I couldn't believe this was the plan.  When Will was gathering the items, I was thinking he was putting together a bomb and choosing the items because they would do a lot of damage - have them packed around the bomb, I mean.  Boards with nails and wrenches flying around would be pretty awful. I was even more sure when Juszt told that one man (with the blanket) to go inside - the bomb would go off inside for maximum impact.   Then we see Will banging on the pipe in the bathroom and I have no idea what he was doing, when originally I thought he was planting items for the bomb.  Or maybe he was breaking out a section of pipe?

Agree that Baptiste should not have been able to take Juszt.  I kept waiting for the police to find them and help.  Speaking of which, so the officer who fired Zsófia is not a terrible person, I guess?  Just pals with the politician?

7 hours ago, sempervivum said:

Also, what was she planning on doing if Baptiste didn't make it out of the woods- she's tipped her wheelchair over at the bottom of the stairs and has no hope of getting back to the car to potentially get Will to a hospital. 

I didn't have an issue with this - to her, he was dying so she would do whatever she could to get him breathing again.  Either Juszt would return and kill them both or the police would show up - she knew Julien had been leaving messages for Zsófia.

I'm not sure the time frame from the Baptistes discovering their daughter's body but I thought the granddaughter was in a crib.  I didn't think it was a long enough time for her to be as old as she was here but I could be misremembering  That scene was cute and I liked that we ended with Julien and Celia talking again.

I also liked Emma telling Julien "bring her something else" when he said he only brings Celia pain.

I really like the character work, though STOP with the Julien action hero stuff; I like that the lives of these people are messy with no easy answers or solutions. 

I didn't think S1 stuck the landing either but I would watch another season, though there currently are no plans for one.

 

[bigmag]

I did not understand the purpose of the banging on the plumbing with the wrench either.  I also thought he was trying to make a place to plant a bomb.  Anybody figure out what that was about?

 

[aghst]

I thought as he saw his life passing by, while bleeding out in the forest, this was going to be how they finally got Baptiste to try to solve cases, stop butting in.

But it's suppose to be some kind of epiphany which made him open to taking Emma's advice, clean up his life and try again with Celia -- though if they had Emma and Julien get it on, after all the intense things they went through together, the way she nagged him out of his stupor to try to get back into the case, it would have been credible too.

This is suppose to be it for Baptiste the intrepid retired cop helping people but it's not inconceivable that he takes up more cases.  Like a smoker who quit cold turkey, he's bound to have relapses?

Over the course of 2 seasons of The Missing and these 2 seasons of Baptiste, he's gotten more and more hands-on, not just solving cases but actually getting involved in putting the bad guys away.  In The Missing, he was this terminal cancer guy and he wanted to help people in the months he had left.

I checked the credits and all 16 episodes of The Missing and all 12 episodes of Baptiste were written by Harry and Jack Williams.  So it's not like some different creative people behind the scenes reimagined the character and the show.

I wonder when they first came up with the character whether they planned all along to make him a terminal cancer case at first and then fully recovered but crippled and charging into physical confrontations with criminals.

One reason he had to go after Andras himself, he felt an urgency, a kind of ticking time bomb scenario that he was desperate to stop.  Another reason is that the local police were not at all sympathetic to his activities.  Still though, as soon as they spotted Andras, they should have called the cops first.  The cops may have ignored them but at least try to get the authorities involved.

All Andras had to do was keep running, Baptiste wasn't going to catch him.  Or better yet, just jump into his car and speed away.  I think Emma would have made Julien look around for Will rather than chase after Andras.

Baptiste the show tried to recapture the agony of the parents of the missing children in The Missing.  I don't think it quite rose to that level of intense heartbreak though.  The Chambers losing their daughter and the family disintegrating, no longer being so close, is meant to try to convey a similar parental or familial pain.  Yet it just didn't feel the same.

May have to watch The Missing again, followed by Baptiste.

[HerkyJerky]

13 hours ago, sempervivum said:

Yeah, I couldn't imagine he survived a brutal beating and then stabbing

I told my Mom, "Doesn't anybody die on this show?" Don't forget Baptiste bashing Juszt in the head with a rock several times.  I thought they were both goners!👣

[DonnaMae]

This was such a confusing season.  So, who was Gomorrah?  How did Emma get her wheelchair out of the back seat and get in it without help?  

[SnapHappy]

Yeah, I'm good with no more seasons.  I lost interest about half-way through the episode, but couldn't be bothered to turn it off. 

Didn't care he got back with Celia, and she wants him to stay for a drink?  He's a raging alcoholic!  Emma does what now? Goes where?  Does she work in any capacity? How is she paying for Will's hospitalization in a foreign country?

I kept waiting for a decent payoff, but it never happened.

There's so much hand-waving required to buy that, I could achieve flight.  

[howiveaddict]

My Nit pick. Emma doing CPR while Will laid on his side would be totally ineffective.  You need the back on a hard surface to do compress the chest adequately.  

Also, bad guy would be on a vent too after having his head bashed in with a rock.  Not sitting in a jail cell with barely a scar.

Also, how did Emma get her wheel chair out of the car?  

Who was the guy putting on the Gomorrah mask at the end?

So many questions and so unbelievable, you would think this was a US made drama.

[aghst]

Batiste had brought the wheelchair with the door open for Emma and then he started chasing Andras.

So Emma may have unfolded it and got on it herself.

But I doubt only those last steps were the only places that wheelchair couldn't access.

 

the guy who put on the mask was the wannabe who was harassing Zsofia's father and then Zsofia beat him up with his own skateboard.

 

 

 

[WatchrTina]

Well I binged the last few episodes after having watched the prior episodes earlier in the year.  That mode of watching did not help but frankly I think I would have been just as confused if I had watched the whole thing in one go.

All the points I would have made about confusion and plot holes were already made above.  The format (switching back-and-forth between two time frames) made the show difficult to follow and felt like a gimmick rather than a clever narrative technique for keeping the viewer in the dark as to the complicity of the two young Brits.

The one son who suddenly started speaking again confused the hell out of me since I had forgotten that his muteness was a relatively new phenomenon and that it was a self-indulgent affectation he had adopted following the death of his sister rather than a real psychological affliction brought on by trauma.  Geeze I hated that character by the end.  He ends the show in a coma, right?  Good.  Stay there.

If there is another season of Baptiste I doubt if I will watch.

[seacliffsal]

I just binged all of the episodes and am glad that others seem as confused about some of the plot as I.  I am not a fan of back and forth time narratives (really dislike them in books as well as t.v./movies).  I kind of feel they are cheap gimmicks and that the story would not hold up if told in a linear/chronological manner.  The first season was able to hold suspense/interest without the constant back and forth.  I did realize that Baptiste's beard was there to help me keep track of when things were happening (oh, and Emma's wheelchair and hair styles also helped), but I kind of lose track when having to focus so much.

I never watching The Missing, but after reading everyone's comments about it (compared to Baptiste I will look for it).

[meep.meep]

I think The Missing is better than Baptiste, but that may be just me.  Be warned though, the back and forth in time is a feature of both series.  If it bugs you, this might not be the thing for you.

[ichbin]

On 11/22/2021 at 12:00 PM, sempervivum said:

Yeah, I couldn't imagine he survived a brutal beating and then stabbing. But he's the Magic Gimp- old and quite disabled, but can chase a fit guy half his age through a strange woods in the dark and defeat him. I

My eyes hit the ceiling every time Super Baptiste took off.  Most of the time it looks like he is struggling to walk down a hallway, then all of a sudden he can chase down and take on a young person with no infirmities.  Out of all the series, I can say I enjoyed this one the least.  

 

On 12/21/2021 at 11:09 AM, meep.meep said:

I think The Missing is better than Baptiste, but that may be just me.

You're not alone.  

On 10/20/2021 at 11:50 AM, DonnaMae said:

 He works free as a detective?  Is Baptiste independently wealthy?

Honestly, I think that is the main question I have come away with.  Who is paying for his travel, food, and accommodations?  Where is his luggage?  We are surely not supposed to assume he is constantly camping out in hotel lobbies.

[dcalley]

On 11/21/2021 at 11:24 AM, Nialla said:

It's so annoying, especially when it's obvious what they're blurring out. Literally blurring, in the case of subtitles for the French and Hungarian.

PBS is a broadcast network that has to follow FCC guidelines, and F-bombs are a no-no. However, that made me wonder if the streaming service is censored too. Anyone watching it that way?

I watched on the PBS app on Roku and it was censored.