[8.3/10] Great start to the season, and one that's helping to fill the Better Call Saul-shaped hole in my heart with all its desert imagery and crime drama. I love the vibes here. You can tell Rian Johnson and company are going for a seventies throwback vibe, which works with the mystery material. The non-linear storytelling and small time thugs angle plays like a self-conscious Tarantino homage (which aligns with the Pulp Fiction shout out and the fact that we never get to find out what exactly was on Mr. Cane’s computer.) And there’s the talky, wry, clockwork mystery vibe to the whole thing that Johnson himself regularly brings to the table.
Natasha Lyonne is great as Charlie, the down-on-her-luck cocktail waitress with a gift for detecting someone’s lies. It’s the sort of humane, hardscrabble, but eccentric individual with an extraordinary gift that Johnson’s shown a talent for writing before. (See: the protagonist of Knives Out). Lyonne completely lives the character, making this lovable weirdo seem real and endearing despite what an outsized character she is. There’s an improvisational, loyal, decency to Charlie that makes her fun to spend time with.
The plot is strong too. This is a mystery episode with no mystery, since the audience sees what happens from the jump. But the fun is in watching Charlie use her gift to steadily unravel what happened to her good friend who was brutally murdered by her bosses, at the same time she gets caught up in Sterling the Casino manager’s byzantine scheme to cheat one of the casino’s “whales.”
The whale plot is a distraction, just a reason for Charlie to get involved in the proceedings. But the way she starts piecing together things amiss, from her best friend’s supposed killer holding the murder weapon with his non-dominant hand, to news footage that confirms he didn’t have the gun when he was “escorted” out of the casino and so couldn't have used it to kill his wife. The clues are there, and when Charlie dredges up the evidence, it feels earned.
There’s also some good thematic and character work. Adrien Brody breathes great life into Sterling, the Casino manager who’s given the job as a make-right from a father who considers him a fuck-up and whom he wants to prove wrong. There’s some thematic resonance with Charlie trying to get justice for Nataie, after Charlie slated herself for seeing problems in the world but never doing anything to fix them, whereas Natalie took a stand upon witnessing an injustice and lost her life for it. Even the “hit him where it hurts” reversal has some good resonance given the setup and payoff of it.
I’m less enamored with the storytelling engine of Charlie going on the run while her old boss sends his goon to chase her after his son commits suicide in the aftermath of her play. But this is going for an old school vibe, so I suppose I can live with the conceit.
Overall though, this is another win for Rian Johnson, full of style and character that don’t detract from the sharp writing and organic fun and wry sensibility he manages to inject into almost all of his projects.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-01-31T02:27:33Z
[8.3/10] Great start to the season, and one that's helping to fill the Better Call Saul-shaped hole in my heart with all its desert imagery and crime drama. I love the vibes here. You can tell Rian Johnson and company are going for a seventies throwback vibe, which works with the mystery material. The non-linear storytelling and small time thugs angle plays like a self-conscious Tarantino homage (which aligns with the Pulp Fiction shout out and the fact that we never get to find out what exactly was on Mr. Cane’s computer.) And there’s the talky, wry, clockwork mystery vibe to the whole thing that Johnson himself regularly brings to the table.
Natasha Lyonne is great as Charlie, the down-on-her-luck cocktail waitress with a gift for detecting someone’s lies. It’s the sort of humane, hardscrabble, but eccentric individual with an extraordinary gift that Johnson’s shown a talent for writing before. (See: the protagonist of Knives Out). Lyonne completely lives the character, making this lovable weirdo seem real and endearing despite what an outsized character she is. There’s an improvisational, loyal, decency to Charlie that makes her fun to spend time with.
The plot is strong too. This is a mystery episode with no mystery, since the audience sees what happens from the jump. But the fun is in watching Charlie use her gift to steadily unravel what happened to her good friend who was brutally murdered by her bosses, at the same time she gets caught up in Sterling the Casino manager’s byzantine scheme to cheat one of the casino’s “whales.”
The whale plot is a distraction, just a reason for Charlie to get involved in the proceedings. But the way she starts piecing together things amiss, from her best friend’s supposed killer holding the murder weapon with his non-dominant hand, to news footage that confirms he didn’t have the gun when he was “escorted” out of the casino and so couldn't have used it to kill his wife. The clues are there, and when Charlie dredges up the evidence, it feels earned.
There’s also some good thematic and character work. Adrien Brody breathes great life into Sterling, the Casino manager who’s given the job as a make-right from a father who considers him a fuck-up and whom he wants to prove wrong. There’s some thematic resonance with Charlie trying to get justice for Nataie, after Charlie slated herself for seeing problems in the world but never doing anything to fix them, whereas Natalie took a stand upon witnessing an injustice and lost her life for it. Even the “hit him where it hurts” reversal has some good resonance given the setup and payoff of it.
I’m less enamored with the storytelling engine of Charlie going on the run while her old boss sends his goon to chase her after his son commits suicide in the aftermath of her play. But this is going for an old school vibe, so I suppose I can live with the conceit.
Overall though, this is another win for Rian Johnson, full of style and character that don’t detract from the sharp writing and organic fun and wry sensibility he manages to inject into almost all of his projects.