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2014 RANDOM TV THOUGHTS


RIPPA

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Holy crap was TRUE BLOOD a chore to sit through tonight.  It's just so juvenile.  It used to be fun juvenile, but now it's just embarrassing.

 

I was embarrassed by the shitty Penthouse letter sex scenes.  I was embarrassed by the show's seeming belief that I'm super invested in these various relationships that mean nothing.  I was embarrassed, for the first time ever, by Pam's act.  I was embarrassed that they killed a major character off and I was like "Fine, cool, get on with it then."

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I actually kinda wonder what it was like for you to watch TRUE DETECTIVE months later, outside of the initial run when much of the internet conversation was centered around insane theories about Cthulhu and Elder Gods. Were you aware that was even a thing?

Of course, afterwards, I was kinda wishing those people had been right.

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I held off on watching True Detective because based on what everyone posted on fb about it I got the sense it was one of those shows with a bunch of pseudointellectual hogwash as a script that people watched in order to feel smarter about themselves.  Finally I gave in and binged on it a month or so after it was done and was really glad I did.  While the dialogue is a bit pretentious at times there's more good than bad going on.  Aside from the killer being a bit of a letdown, the ending didn't bother me but I was kind of hoping that they would at least allude to some sort of supernatural elements possibly being in play even though everything was eventually explained logically.  I don't know if anyone else here (WSJ maybe) has read any of the Charlie Parker novels by John Connelly but it reminded me a lot of those.

 

Orphan Black was another show I got into fairly recently and I agree with those who say it's a weak show being held up by an extremely strong performance.  When you look past the gimmick the weaknesses of the show really get put on display.  There are also way too many episodes that feel like something out of a wacky sitcom (Alison and Sarah pretending to be one another).  It's one of those shows where I'm really not that interested in watching it any more, but at the same time I want to find out what happens.

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There are some really cringe inducing lines in True Detective. Realistically, any time Cohle talks about his world view, it comes across like something an undergrad who just discovered Camus and clove cigarettes would say and not the views of a man who has seen so much death and bleakness. I think the further we get from those first few (admittedly awesome) episodes, the more the show will be viewed as excessively juvenile; multiple characters expressing the same voice and view, obvious homage to influences on the writer, blatant plagiarism of other shows, and a completely unsatisfactory ending.

As an aside, is there anyone who doesn't think the ending would've been better if the King in Yellow had turned out to be Ernest P. Worrell like the 'How Did This Get Made?' people suggested? Your ending really sucks if it can be improved by Ernest showing up.

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There are some really cringe inducing lines in True Detective. Realistically, any time Cohle talks about his world view, it comes across like something an undergrad who just discovered Camus and clove cigarettes would say and not the views of a man who has seen so much death and bleakness. I think the further we get from those first few (admittedly awesome) episodes, the more the show will be viewed as excessively juvenile; multiple characters expressing the same voice and view, obvious homage to influences on the writer, blatant plagiarism of other shows, and a completely unsatisfactory ending.

As an aside, is there anyone who doesn't think the ending would've been better if the King in Yellow had turned out to be Ernest P. Worrell like the 'How Did This Get Made?' people suggested? Your ending really sucks if it can be improved by Ernest showing up.

 

The thing is.  There was something there once you make the decision that he's not really being honest with himself or that he's not as brilliant a philosopher as he thinks he is.  For awhile I was frustrated that he seemed to stop half way through the logical outcome toward existentialism without getting to the end part.  Like, he never got to the part of where - if nothing matters and all is chaos, then the only sane response is in fact to try and make your little part of it as habitable and unpainful as possible, even to embrace stupid distractions and silly pleasures.

 

But at some point I decided that it was better to see him as not getting there because he couldn't.  That, yes, that is the only sane reaction..to try and put off "The Real" or the darkness and be in denial until it catches up with you and you can't anymore.  And Rust had seen too much to have the luxury of going back into denial, so he lashes out at everyone else who still has that luxury while envying them for that.  But he has no real revelations to offer anyone.

 

But it lost me when it kept trying to convince me of his savant-like philosophical vision instead of pushing that idea that he's just full of shit in his own way.  He was too brilliant, and then also too physically adept and so everything kept tilting in his direction too much for that reading to hold up.

 

Someone somewhere wrote that if they wanted to change Rust's view at the end, to redeem him...his redemption should have been that fight with Childress.  When Childress holds him up, grasping the hilt of the knife he's buried into Rust's gut and Rust leans back and closes his eyes...that if had really believed his philosophy, he would have been fine with closing his eyes and dying.  That holding on and continuing to fight long enough to stop the bad man, that coming back...that action betrayed his true belief system...betrayed that he was lying to himself the whole time, that he really believed he had a debt, which implies moral order, which implies something outside of his stated beliefs of pure pessimism. 

 

But they had to add more words after that and give him a heaven dream, and have him spell it all out for us again.  Goddammit.  LET US DO TAHAT PART!!!!  

 

 

I actually kinda wonder what it was like for you to watch TRUE DETECTIVE months later, outside of the initial run when much of the internet conversation was centered around insane theories about Cthulhu and Elder Gods. Were you aware that was even a thing?

Of course, afterwards, I was kinda wishing those people had been right.

 

I had read just enough about the show to know to look for that stuff, and to look up the references I didn't know along the way while avoiding spoilers.  I think if I had watched with everyone else and had gotten caught up in all that I would have been pretty pissed at how little it all mattered either to the crime itself or to the solution they found.

 

What I didn't pick up on was the hinting at stuff with Marty's daughter.  Man, that is some cheap tricks right there.  That's dirty pool.  I'd like to explain it as somehow the idea that in real life you never get the full picture, and a guy like Marty may never actually realize if his own family was impacted by this because as he always said himself "I can't see what's happening right in front of me."  I think I'll just pretend that...it also helps with the total abandoning of all the Tuttle stuff.

 

I also hadn't read all the Pizzolatto interview where he said the show was going to completely overturn all the crime drama cliches.  Holy shit did it ever not do that!  Like, on a bullshit scale of 1 to HOLYSHITTHISISAHUGEAMOUNTOFBULLSHIT, it scores an eleventy billion.

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Maybe that moment of fight calls attention to the contradiction that, as he presented himself at least, he shouldn't have been hunting him at all.  What difference does it make what some sentient meat does to some other sentient meat?

 

You could make the case that "the hunt" was his own unique form of distraction.  That might explain why he was so eager to jump back into the danger of undercover work....like he was really excited about that.

 

But you could also argue that he was so eager because of his over-riding death wish, something he had at least paid lip-service to.  If that's the case, then the results of this hunt or that one wouldn't matter.  "The hunt" was just a way to achieve death.  So why fight it?  Habit?

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I think the best show on your list is probably Top of the Lake, although the ending is a bit lackluster (not unlike Broadchurch, actually). I would even go so far as to say that Peter Mullan puts in a better performance than anyone else on the list.

 

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Had Deadwood got a final series to wrap everything up it would probably be the greatest TV show ever made and I say that as one of those tedious twonks that bores everyone banging on about how good The Wire and Breaking Bad is.

 

I remember hearing Ian McShane was in it and thinking 'fucking Lovejoy?!' About 3.2 seconds after seeing him as Swearengen I had completely forgotten dude ever dealt antiques. Might be the most charismatic performance ever on TV.

 

It's not really like something like Banshee which you can burn through and which is gloriously proud of its trashiness and I can see why some would find it slow at times but, nah, just watch it.

 

Plus, from your input in the Game of Thrones thread, as a proponent of cunt, you'll get even more cunt for your buck from Deadwood.

 

Watch Fargo too though, it's only 10 episodes and it's great.

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I can't accept that lead acting makes shit writing look like a billion dollars. There's a balance there. I do agree that the everyone is a philosopher stuff got a little out of hand at times but there was a lot of attention to detail and little Easter eggs throughout the season that you are not giving them credit for. There were millions of people captivated by this story. The acting was incredible but I also thought the material was there..

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I can't accept that lead acting makes shit writing look like a billion dollars. There's a balance there. I do agree that the everyone is a philosopher stuff got a little out of hand at times but there was a lot of attention to detail and little Easter eggs throughout the season that you are not giving them credit for. There were millions of people captivated by this story. The acting was incredible but I also thought the material was there..

I think there's a case to be made that a great many of those people were captivated by a story other than the one it turned out Pizzolatto was telling.

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If it was on another network I would give Brooklyn Taxi an over/under of 4 episodes. But NBC seems to stick with crap shows a bit longer than other networks.

I really wish they would develop new shows that aren't police/medical related. They'll cancel Dracula in a minute, but green light a dozen more of the same old crap.

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I know it's a few pages old but I have to talk about Law and Order.

I think my favorite thing on television is when the defense attorney always pulls some sort of procedural/jurisdictional stunt. McCoy always makes a shocked arched-eyebrow when that docket gets placed in his hand and this insane outrage as he cites case laws. There are literally probably some episodes where 8-12 minutes of screen time is devoted to screaming about state appeals court verdicts. I have no idea how in any way this is entertaining yet I think I've seen every episode.

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I love how easily that same cocked eyebrow and ridiculous argument always earns a search warrant:

 

"Counselor, this is a nice theory, but there's no cause here."

 

"Judge, if the criminals were easy to catch we wouldn't need this building...

 

eyebrow..

 

"Fine, you got your warrant."

 

...WHAT????

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The only thing that supplants Vulcan logic is McCoy logic. Obviously an ancestor of Bones. That's right, L&O and Star Trek are in the same canon, I declare it.

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I also love his general indignation/shock if a defense attorney files a motion to suppress evidence or something along those lines. Isn't that what defense attorneys are supposed to do, dude? Fight for their client to beat whatever charges they're hit with? Why does this draw anger and/or surprise?

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The only thing that supplants Vulcan logic is McCoy logic. Obviously an ancestor of Bones. That's right, L&O and Star Trek are in the same canon, I declare it.

 

They're both in the Tommy Westphall-verse.

 

Does Snowglobeverse interact with Munchverse? 

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The only thing that supplants Vulcan logic is McCoy logic. Obviously an ancestor of Bones. That's right, L&O and Star Trek are in the same canon, I declare it.

 

They're both in the Tommy Westphall-verse.

 

Does Snowglobeverse interact with Munchverse? 

 

 

It's all the same.  Munch is the main connecting agent.

 

http://thetommywestphall.wordpress.com/

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I also love his general indignation/shock if a defense attorney files a motion to suppress evidence or something along those lines. Isn't that what defense attorneys are supposed to do, dude? Fight for their client to beat whatever charges they're hit with? Why does this draw anger and/or surprise?

 

One thing I always wondered about with cop shows/movies is when certain departments/agencies argue over who gets to work a case. Does that really happen? I have to think that it's closer to the way The Wire portrayed it where they didn't want to catch a bunch of cases (especially difficult ones) b/c it would mess up their stats.

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