S01.E03: This Is Real

[LakeGal]

I continue to dislike Tommy.  Jamie & Angie.  Is James really so stupid he stands and kisses her in the street where everyone can see?  I suppose they have to have Angela fall completely for James.  Then she will be torn when she realizes the truth.  She will have to try and protect him and not expose him to the task force.

 

We all knew the baby was going to choke on that silly key chain.   

[Brooklynista]

I'm trying way too hard to keep up with this. I'm forcing myself to watch it on the dvr and struggling to pay attention.

I'm bored by these people. There's no character here I believe. Maybe it's the acting? Maybe it's the plot/dialogue? I dunno. Tasha is boring, old girlfriend love interest is boring, Tommy bugs, 50 cent as limo driver's dad, huh?

I'm hanging on to this like Im doing with Haves and Have Nots. It's losing me.

It's sad but I gauge what I'm going to watch based on activity on the boards. Kinda quiet here. I'll give it the rest of the season.

[yeswedo]

 

The club's future becomes jeopardized. The rift between Ghost and Tasha over the nightclub widens. Ghost is reminded that pursuing Angela - and a legit life - could endanger his family.

 

 

[wanderingstar]

It's a shame this show is so boring because Omari Hardwick is a genuinely charming and engaging screen presence.

[Bill C.]

I'll grant the charm, myself, but that distance he plays James with (to varying degrees versus the other characters, least of all Angie) still bugs.

 

This episode, compared to the first two, was almost pleasantly low-key if nothing else.  It reinforced that Tasha and Tommy are both completely happy with "the life" and not happy with James' Michael Corleone dream of getting out clean, which goes back to that  Sugar Hill analogy I made about the pilot (and makes them both that much less sympathetic).  It reinforced that Angie, bland as she often is, is pretty much only kept from fully embracing her inner power bitch by her reawakened feelings for Jamie.  It didn't need to reinforce that Tommy is a charmless, raging Sonny Corleone-wannabe (perhaps by design?)...but it did it anyway.  OTOH, with the character credited as Pink Sneakers still in play and apparently calling shots, the possibility that somebody wanted to start a gang war might be the best thing so far about the drug-trade storyline next to Frankie.

[Brooklynista]

I miss Stringer Bell.

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Tommy screams 8 Mile to me. Does Angela know Jamie's married?

[wanderingstar]

Tommy screams 8 Mile to me.

 

 

All the other characters bore me, but Tommy makes me angry because he is such a walking, talking cliche.

Edited June 26, 2014 by Gillian Rosh

[ribboninthesky1]

I'm trying way too hard to keep up with this. I'm forcing myself to watch it on the dvr and struggling to pay attention.

I'm bored by these people. There's no character here I believe. Maybe it's the acting? Maybe it's the plot/dialogue? I dunno.

 

I think it's a combination.  Wishful thinking on my part, but I feel like the actor playing Julio would have been a better match as the childhood friend of James. Or maybe even the club manager.  Because as it is, I have no idea why James and Tommy are friends, particularly given how dumb he is.  I also don't get the sense that Tommy has taken a sudden sadistic turn.  Not to mention, the Tommy actor is hilariously bad.

 

The show is trying really hard to sell me on Angela and James, but all I see is Tasha supporting James, while he's trying to live a double life, even to the potential detriment of their children.  I know I'm supposed to think poorly of her because she ain't all about James' dream, is mean to the club manager and other people, and flirts shamelessly with Fiddy's son.  But she's also the mother of James' children, and clearly just wants to be her husband's partner.  I don't like her, necessarily, but I get it.  And I really can't believe that, in all of their interactions, neither James or Angela has asked if the other is involved with someone? Angela's never wondered what he did before he opened the club? Really?

 

Ultimately, I don't really care about James trying to go legit, and the conflict therein.  That's really what the show is about, and all can I think is, "Dude, you had twenty or so years to go legit, and how hard have you tried?"   After 3 episodes, I think I'm out.

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Joseph Siroka has made the rounds on cable TV. He was Margaret's

abusive hubby on Boardwalk Empire. Also played a skinhead on Banshee and True Detective.

[ribboninthesky1]

Hopefully he was more convincing in those roles.  Not buying what he's selling in this one.

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Hopefully he was more convincing in those roles.  Not buying what he's selling in this one.

 

        I'd say his best work of the three, was on Banshee.  

 

       On Power, the way Tommy is written does him no favors.

[ihartcoffee]

I'd say his best work of the three, was on Banshee.  

 

       On Power, the way Tommy is written does him no favors.

I find him strange looking too. He reminds me of a male version of Kate Blanchet, and not in a good way.

[MrsRafaelBarba]

I find him strange looking too. He reminds me of a male version of Kate Blanchet, and not in a good way.

 

 

         He has an oddly shaped head.

[wanderingstar]

This show hurts my brain. When Tommy and his henchman were torturing that guy, did it never occur to them that he'd die? Ugh! I hate when these supposed-to-be-tough-as-nails criminals are stupid.

[Easyspreestep]

Angela bugged me with her speach of having to do everything for herself. She clearly is a user and is using the FBI agent to get what she wants in terms of her career and it just bugged me that she mentions to Jamie that no one has bought her anything. Angie knows he is now well off and that dialogue just screamed, I want you to buy me things. It's just the way she mentions the bracelet and the way she uses the FBI guy makes me not like her.

All of a sudden Tasha is not good enough for Jamie, because he wants more, well maybe if you had been honest all along both Tommy and Tasha would not be put off by your sudden changes. Also can Tommy stop saying "real business with his Boston accent. It annoys me because the character is suppose to be New York raised, so the Boston accent really bothers me.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Easyspreestep

[ribboninthesky1]

Yeah, it's clear that James has never bothered to have a conversation with Tasha about what he wants.  He told Angela as a teenager that he wanted a night club, yet he never managed to talk to his own wife about it? And that half-assed conversation in his office isn't a discussion.  Because he explained it like it was about fear (no old drug dealers), which explained Tasha's response.  I mean, how do you marry and have children with someone who you've only revealed one side to? I know it happens, but that makes him less sympathetic, not more. 

 

And beyond that - you haven't thought of some kind of exit strategy after all these years? You just thought you'd open up a club and, despite signing on as a principal distributor with a major dealer like Lobos, slide right out of the game? I mean, I know nothing about the business, but it certainly doesn't seem that simple. Even IF Tommy was cool with it, I'm fairly sure Lobos would have some issues with his retirement.  

 

That said, I suspect talking to Tommy is like talking to a brick wall. I wouldn't be surprised if Tommy ends up betraying James with Lobos.  Matter of fact, I initially thought it was Tommy, not Ruiz (?), responsible for sabotaging their operation.

[Mozelle]

I think it's a combination.  Wishful thinking on my part, but I feel like the actor playing Julio would have been a better match as the childhood friend of James. Or maybe even the club manager.  Because as it is, I have no idea why James and Tommy are friends, particularly given how dumb he is.  I also don't get the sense that Tommy has taken a sudden sadistic turn.  Not to mention, the Tommy actor is hilariously bad.

 

The show is trying really hard to sell me on Angela and James, but all I see is Tasha supporting James, while he's trying to live a double life, even to the potential detriment of their children.  I know I'm supposed to think poorly of her because she ain't all about James' dream, is mean to the club manager and other people, and flirts shamelessly with Fiddy's son.  But she's also the mother of James' children, and clearly just wants to be her husband's partner.  I don't like her, necessarily, but I get it.  And I really can't believe that, in all of their interactions, neither James or Angela has asked if the other is involved with someone? Angela's never wondered what he did before he opened the club? Really?

 

Ultimately, I don't really care about James trying to go legit, and the conflict therein.  That's really what the show is about, and all can I think is, "Dude, you had twenty or so years to go legit, and how hard have you tried?"   After 3 episodes, I think I'm out.

 

All of this. I got caught up on the episodes this evening because one of my friends talked up this show so much last week when we were out. She was really into the Angela-Jamie relationship, and the way she explained the Tasha-Jamie marriage made me be like, "Oh, no! Homegirl is tripping. No wonder he's trying to get back with the old girlfriend." Now that I'm three episosdes in, all I keep thinking when I recall the conversation with my friend is "Girl, bye." Angela ran into a dude she hasn't seen for nearly two decades and it looks like she's not even interested in whether the man got married or had kids or did both in the interim. I'm supposed to think that she's winning? Because she's rekindled something with Jamie? I'm not a Tasha fan, but I can certainly see why she'd be upset about the way James keeps her out of the loop on certain things. She's been "ride or die" for the entire time they've been together, but somehow his...thing...with Angela is what I'm expected to root for?

 

Angela bugged me with her speach of having to do everything for herself. She clearly is a user and is using the FBI agent to get what she wants in terms of her career and it just bugged me that she mentions to Jamie that no one has bought her anything. Angie knows he is now well off and that dialogue just screamed, I want you to buy me things. It's just the way she mentions the bracelet and the way she uses the FBI guy makes me not like her.

All of a sudden Tasha is not good enough for Jamie, because he wants more, well maybe if you had been honest all along both Tommy and Tasha would not be put off by your sudden changes. Also can Tommy stop saying "real business with his Boston accent. It annoys me because the character is suppose to be New York raised, so the Boston accent really bothers me.

 

The actor is actually from Chicago.

 

On another note, have they covered up all but the really large tattoo that Omari has? In the first episode I was looking like a confused puppy, head all cocked to the side. I know on Being Mary Jane, the man is covered in tats, but on this show, they're all but disappeared.