so, this is the new hbo show, the one milch lost interest in deadwood for. most critics have savaged it. partly for this reason, and partly because i wasn’t ready to go straight from the sopranos finale to a new show, i didn’t watch it on sunday, but caught it tonight on the repeat. i understand critics get 3 episodes of shows/series to write their preview-reviews and maybe the next two are pretty bad, but i quite liked the premiere and don’t really understand why it was trashed in the particular ways it was: a common theme was that the show is a mishmash of genres that don’t come together. well, it does veer towards self-conscious weirdness, and most of the acting is pretty bad–the exceptions are whoever the guy is who plays the title character, al bundy, luis guzman, and stanford from sex in the city–but i thought it pulled off the surf-scifi-noir thing quite well. the writing is generally decent, though some lines sounded like the actors were auditioning for twin peaks. it held my interest more than the first episode of deadwood had. i’m signed on for at least another 3 episodes. i don’t know if there’s a whole lot to be said about it at this point. jeff? anyone else watching?
and i enjoyed the second episode as well. it seems very much set in twin peaks territory but while the overall plot arc holds some mysteries, this episode at least did not hold very many surprises. not the greatest show ever but why on earth did/do so many critics hate this so much?
also, nice to see some familiar faces from deadwood.
i am sorry to report that this show has turned into utter shit. a lot of rebecca de mornay related screeching, overly calculated weirdness, horrible writing, almost as worse acting*. but i’m trapped until the origins of john are revealed. seriously, did i mention how cringe-inducing the dialogue is? i could barely sit through the most recent episode. oh, won’t hbo cancel this and put me out of my misery? surely, they could do 5 seasons of lucky louie for the price of one episode of this shit. i am never watching a david milch series again.
*not everyone though. dayton callie is as good here as he was in deadwood (most of the cast of which has shown up here, including wu). and al bundy is amazing. who knew that the stars of married with children and major dad would turn out to be such great actors? if nothing else, milch has given us that.
thank the lord! it’s been cancelled–i have been released from my captivity.
Yes, it’s hard to disagree, but the freaky episode where John kept dozing off and popping up in unusual places (not to mention the very strange proceedings at the hotel in the episode’s final minutes) was wonderfully, surreally strange. I thought the show attempted to get at the way childhood trauma (particularly incidents of sexual abuse) can shape/distort lives. I also liked the way the show set out to release so many of its characters from their own personal visions of hell. Still, while I don’t loathe it as much as Arnab, it is hard to argue for the show’s survival. As much as De Mornay overacted and as poorly as the surfer boy attempted to act, I did like Ed O’Neil, Brian Van Holt’s Butchie, and Austin Nichols’ John (to name a few); and when the show managed to make an impact (visually or narratively) it did so with brio.
the other guy who was very good here was the guy who played shaun’s doctor–he was also hearst’s creepy enforcer/surveyor in deadwood, and excellent there too. i was quite shocked to discover recently that before he showed up in that role in the second season of deadwood he’d also played the drunk who shot hickock in the first season. maybe i’m the only one who didn’t know–but that’s because i always submit completely to the magic of television.