Pretty much exactly this ^
lol I was about to post that tweet.
It is a dark comedy and satire, but it also works as a drama. And I donāt think you can really see the satire in the first few episodes, itās very restrained and subtle. Also, as it draws you more into the show you become more and more invested in and identifying with the shithead rich boy characters, so the satire kind of becomes blurred as you forgive them for their rich asshole tendencies because now theyāre real people youāre invested in.
Which, holy shit, thatās what the function of the Cousin Greg character kind of is, and heās taking the exact same journey with us.
Agreed. Add cop-worship cringe to your adjective bank.
It doesnāt get better, it is what it is. I donāt get the shield love itf tbh.
Four episodes is definitely too early to get the sense of what makes it great, although you do get a couple great acting moments from Walton Goggins and a couple of early signs of the extreme moral decisions the characters will take.
iām on episode 8, and it didnāt get any better
I mean I think I mostly agreeā¦except that most viewers were rooting for Walt. His face is on freakāin t-shirts.
Itās probably just not for you then.
The problem is that the violence and corruption of the main characters is presented as a problematic outlier, instead of being the totally normal cop behavior that it is irl.
Wat
Iām midway through season 3 which is the Shane/gf season, still loving this shit.
I think one thing that can trip people up on The Shield is that there arenāt really any clear moral judgments made on the characters-- ultimately, their fates are appropriate but they bring them on themselves, and thereās not a lot about the show in the meantime to tell you that these are Bad Guys. (I mean, besides their actions-- I mean that the show doesnāt stage or frame characters to tell you these are good guys or bad guys. You might even buy Vicās bullshit for a good long while.) And the show is really good at twisting your sympathies, getting you invested in the Strike Teamās shenanigans even though those shenanigans are obviously corrupt. (The fifth episode of the first season is a great early example of this.)
Itās hard to tell people what makes a tragedy great, because the ending and sequence of events is so important to that. (Nobody would remember MacBeth if it ended with MacBeth killing Duncan and ruling as king, etc.) A big part of what makes the show great is that thereās a relentless sense of action and consequence-- the Strike Team does crooked things, tries to get out of the consequences of those things, then their actions there cause more consequences, etc. Of course the Strike Team is going to get away with a lot of crooked shit early on; thatās what gives them the confidence to launch some of their more brazen schemes, and itās what keeps them trying to dig their way out without coming clean, and thatās what eventually causes it all to collapse on them.
Just binged the first three seasons of The Handmaidās Tale only to find out Season Four drops tomorrow.
I am a sucker for being emotionally manipulated, and man did that show ever do a number on me.
It was good enough to watch. I wouldnāt recommend it except real fantasy world fans.
The world building is there. SAB tv show lacks the panache that GRRM wrote into GOT, that carried over into the tv show.
I havenāt read the SAB books, so canāt judge if the series or the adaptation is at fault. Very little of the world is explored. GOT tv skipped a lot, but sexposition and character building sufficed to make a good show. (until they ran out of source material)
Yeah, when we got Hulu for $2 a month last year, The Handmaidās Tale was one of our first binges. Itās really fantastic. One thing they do really well is fill you with dread and hopelessness. In most āhow is the main character going to get out of this placeā type shows, you can come up with ideas as to how the main character is going to get out of this place. In this show, itās really hard to come up with anything.
And wow, finished whatās been released of Pen15 (season and a half) and I canāt say enough about how great it is. Just incredible writing and acting. As I said before, it starts as a hilarious cringe comedy, and while it keeps lots of that, it really explores deeper emotions as it goes on.
fwiw I had the same thing described in the tweet happen to me but slightly slower so you may try a bit longerā¦
The whole of s1 I thought the show was ok but pointless, the middle of s2 i was hooked and when it ended I had severe withdrawal. I just finished a s2 rewatch which I almost never do especially given Iāve only watched it like a year agoā¦
(I havenāt yet rewatched s1, but there is one critical element which I find great in s2 which is not present in s1 btw)
It is so dark. The score and sound design play a big part.
And then, when they roll out a cheesy moment of hope and positivity Iām a sitting duck. Iāve cried a ton watching this show.
Not sure if it needs a spoiler since it was a long time ago for most (yesterday for me) but:
When the kids arrive in Canada at the end of Season 3 Ep 13 I already had a low weep going. But then when the dad volunteer sees his daughter and she sees himā¦the floodgates opened.
Iāll put it in my queue, havenāt read the books but 99% of my reading is fantasy so Iām probably the target demo