[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.
This was great!
The writing, acting, directing, photography, and sound design were all top notch. I'm normally not much for crime dramas, but I thoroughly enjoyed this. I liked how it required some engagement by the viewer in order to piece the story together. At the same time, the limited number of characters helps keep the story-telling concise and efficient. The story turns out to be quite simple in the end, and that's a plus in my book. Others might have tied themselves into a knot trying to be clever, creating all kinds of inconcistencies and plot holes along the way, but in this show the cleverness of the writers comes through via the characters. Very well done. And I loved the camera-work; really pretty and pretty inventive.
Oh, and is that Rian plinking away on the banjo?
Very unpredictable turn of events. Let's see what else this one's got brewing.
Well American crime shows are usually a hit or a miss and the fact that "subvert expectations" Johnson is involved was not really a selling point after the most recent "Knives Out", but I really like Natasha Lyonne and Benjamin Bratt so I gave it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised with a very solid pilot episode.
The acting was good but with those actors it would have been very weird if it wasn't.
The dialogue was organic and flowed fast enough that you'll probably going to discover new angles on a rewatch.
The story was intelligent enough to keep you involved all the way through. The deduction wasn't far fetched and reminded me off Elementary.
I've only watched one episode so far but I'm hooked.
The likelihood of a woman of colour trusting her white boss to "do the right thing" when it concerns a high roller is just not believable. What is believable is that two white men would write and direct it and believe it.
yassified Columbo where everybody walks around explaining themself
They had me at the opening titles. And then they kept me for the whole episode. This really is the direct descendant of Columbo and The Rockford Files.
Fantastic series premiere. It’s good enough to last awhile, I’m all-in.
Do yourself a favor and watch this show.
Natasha Lyonne is fun but the premise is weak and the writing is lazy and derivative.
It was quite predictable throughout.
A ton of discrepancies, the beer is as clear as water, the metal gate detects when there's no metal somehow etc.. A bit messy of a pilot episode, hopefully the next episodes get better. There is some potential but it's quite generic so far and very predictable.
The series doesn't seem that bad but come on Peacock, do be another Netflix, get your shit together
Have been released in Sweden 15/9-2023, Two first episodes, then they Will be released on weekly basis on fridays in Sweden on Skyshowtime
so so so subversive /sarcasm
National treasure, Natasha Lyonne, is just that IMO because, like John Wayne, Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, Zooey Deschanel, among others, she has found a way to basically play the same character in everything she does, yet, (and this is the brilliant part) still find a way to make said character different and engaging, instead of predictable and repetitive. No easy task indeed. Thespian kudos achieved.
That having been said, here, she is doing her "Russian Doll" thing, however this time she is "a human lie detector", in that she can look at someone she is talking to or looking at, and, through tics, tells, or some other normally imperceptible means, suss out that they are being less than honest. The thing is, that like many with these types of "savant syndromes", what she gains by being able to read people in this ONE aspect, she seems to have lost as far as being able to "read the room", thus, her mouth runs ahead of her in situations before her brain catches up to the fact that she hasn't read the situation THROUGH, as far as what the consequences of her "spilling the tea" might have, on herself, or others.
Thus, in this opening episode she manages to open a can of worms after a friend of hers is killed, that, snowballs into gunshot wounds and a suicide that enrages a powerful mob boss who is now hell bent on her slow torturous demise, which sends her on the lam, and, now we have a series!
Well acted in this opening episode with Benjamin Bratt and Adrian Brody providing the appropriate, if at times Keystone menace, as well as the usual Natasha Lyonne style cast of misfits and castoffs to fill out her immediate world. I'm happy to tag along, and see where this goes.
Shout by Michael RaymondVIP 3BlockedParent2023-01-28T17:10:04Z
Knives Out + Columbo + Love Boat = this show !! Pretty excellent show with a huge star studded guest cast and some snappy writing . I think Rian Johnson is the new Agatha Christie