Another look at a divide within the soul of this community -- specifically in how it treats the sick. On the one hand you have guys like Al and Cy and the other businessmen of the town, who are mostly concerned with quelling any panic so as not to hurt any business. There's no really empathy or sympathy from them, or if there is, it's buried down deep. They have interests, and those interests would be hurt by a smallpox outbreak running through Deadwood. So they pool their money, send folks out to get a vaccine, and work with the local media to downplay the severity of the threat.
And on the other hand you have the Doctor Cochran, Calamity Jane, and the reverend who actually want to see these people treated. The doctor is content to play the game as much as he needs to in order to keep himself solvent and allowed to do his job in the midst of all this muck, but at the end of the day, he's committed to treating the sick, and all his dealings with Al, Cy, and other, are a means to that end. Jane is in mourning, back on the bottle, and yet you see in the way she looks at that little girl, and in the way she dives on board to helping in the pest tent, that she too cares about these people, and isn't going to let her grief rob her of her spirit. And the reverend, odd duck though he may seem, is equally committed to caring for the sick, regardless of the risks or even of his own afflictions, which may have been spurred by spending time in the graveyard with coughing newspapermen and god knows what else. These folks get little or nothing out of treating the ill--their interests aren't aligned toward it the way the businessmen of the town are--but they're still there to take care of it.
The episode trots out a few more of this little dichotomies. Al and E.B. want to incapacitate Alma so that they can pursue their business interest, namely getting her to sell her gold claim back to them. They don't care what subtrefuge they have to use to do it; it's all in the game. But Trixie has been where Alma is, clouded by a laudanum stupor and (presumably) having some major lapse that made her want to climb out of it, and even though it goes directly against her interest, particularly with the cruel hand of Swearingen waiting for, she wants to help this ill woman get better, nursing her through the withdrawal and coaching her through Al's deceptions.
And last but not least, we have Bullock wanting to give his native american attacker a proper burial, whereas Charlie scoffs at it as more kindness than the fallen warrior would have shown them, but eventually cooperates and helps Seth to send him out the way he'd want to go. "Plague" draws a sharp line between what people are inclined or required to do and what they choose to do even when they don't have to. The smallpox outbreak itself is the biggest example, and the one that reaches the furthest through the community, but in actions big and small, the episode teases out how different people in this town have moral compasses and principles that may lead them to similar places, but for very different reasons.
(Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that this was the funniest episode of Deadwood so far. There were so many great one-liners, from Jane especially.)
Just wow! What an amazing episode! Unleash the Dragon!
Since it's mid-season finale, this show has greatly improved. A lot of stuff going on: the Dragon reveal, the Arclight namedrop, Dinah going all ruthless on Black Siren, the bomb plot finally ending (thank God), heartbreaking Cayden James backstory and Quentin full on Black Siren redemption.
But first things first. I'm seriously in love with that final scene. It was just brilliant. The acting, the cinematography, that low-angle shot, the final execution, everything was just perfect. Richard Dragon's final line was the cherry on the top.
"Well, you were always talking about how much you miss your son. In case you didn't know, I'm the one who had him killed. Tell your boy I said hello". That was not only savage but also ruthless as hell. I just love him. That right there is the darkness this show needs. That Richard Dragon reveal was just fantastic. That final scene Gabe me the goosebumps. The freaking chills. That last shot, that's how you reveal a villain.
However, one of my favourite lined was "And this city.. oh, this city... it's primed for a takeover. You see, guys like you never understand these things. Why destroy a city when you could take it over?" that was so well-acted and executed. I loved how Kirk played it.
I'm at the verge of seeing a flashback and automatically knowing it means death's ahead. However, this might be the only time I genuinely cared about Cayden James. Michael Emerson really boosted the character with his acting in this episode. He was beyond amazing. The scene where the ARGUS's minions took Cayden and he couldn't watch his son playing was heartbreaking. I felt sorry for him. Not to mention when they told him he died. I loved the change in his attitude towards his family. He really wanted to make things right with his son and when he was about to do it, his son died. Man, that's just sad.
I'm so happy with the bomb plotline finally coming to an end. It was really tiresome for that storyline to come back and forth during the last couple of episodes.
The whole Dinah stuff was great. She was totally ruthless and vengeance-driven. I liked that she didn't even hesitate and if someone gets in her way that's just collateral damage. I loved seeing her going the dark road. She's kinda be owing everything she hated out of anger and pain. Love that. At first I loved team Newbies but now I'm sort of hating it. I love Rene but the past few episodes his character has lost that spark that I loved so much. And if I hear him saying "This doesn't change anything, hoss", I swear I'm gonna explode.
There was just something that I didn't particularly enjoy, and that was the whole "let's force William into the storyline". I know that this season is all about family, bla, bla, bla, but I hate this kid drama and I thought we left it behind when William accepted that Oliver needs to be the Green Arrow. Apparently not! I have no freaking idea how a kid would think that going directly to where the guy who wants to blow up the city was a good idea. I get that he'd be with his dad and all, but you're kinda just getting on his way.
I'm on board on the Black Siren's redemption train. I just hope that when it happens she doesn't lose the snark that characterizes her. Her snark just gives me life so I just hope they don't get rid of her and bring just Laurel back, but a mixture of them. She was amazing in this episode, really showing that she's fed up with everything and doesn't give a fuck. I loved that scene when she "confessed" because she was just tired. Katie Cassidy played it so well. I just love her sarcastic attitude and I really think she hates herself little bit and she doesn't want to show mercy because she knows she's weak inside and if she shows how afraid she really is, she wont be able to face life itself. I loved how calm she was when she blew everyone and then walked off like nothing happened.
I get that Quentin is kinds traumatized after watching her two daughters die (more than once), and I wouldn't blame him. After all he's gone through quite a lot, so I get his attitude. But he really weirded me out in that scene when he cuffed Black Siren to his car and just drove away. He went full on Misery. He's like, "you're gonna be like my Laurel whether you want it or not, so you'd better want because if you don't, I'll make you".
There was another thing that felt weird. Alena's presence ft weird somehow. At first I thought she was in the episodes an excuse because of the flashbacks, but it seems like she's staying. I watched the episode when it first aired and I might not be recalling it perfectly, but to me, she was just wandering around doing just nothing. She didn't quite help advancing the plot. It might be that the writers are just bringing her slowly into the story but I just don't like her, at least not yet. Let's see how it all evolves.
Arrow awesomeness. The episode felt so S1-S2 like. I love this brutal dark Arrow. I'm gonna miss Slade so damn much. Flashbacks helped to fill the gaps and get a better understanding of Slade's motivations. Once again, Manu proved that he's the best Slade Wilson ever. This guy is a legend and deserves his own show.
The Slade-Joe stuff was fantastic. hñJoe is a godamn psychopath! I love him! He slit someone's throat when he was what, 12-13 years old? And how devastated Slade looked after that. I got a bit nostalgic with the flashbacks. Seeing Shado again was lovely, even if she was only as a Mirakuru-driven ghost. Slade's slowly descent into madness was so well done. It was great to know how he spent those years after Lian Yu. The bamboo sticks scene with Oliver will always be one of my favourites and seeing it again while he trained Joe was a great touch. I'm expecting William to get targeted by Joe any time soon.
"Oliver Queen is alive". Not gonna lie. Laughed harder than I care to admit. I missed that line so damn much, lol.
Seeing Oliver straight up murdering like 12 dudes just made me realize how much I need him to go back to the field. While in last episode Slade was particularly brutal, it was Ollie's time in this one and he delivered. He went full on John Wick. I need Slade and Oliver going on beast mode. Nonstop slaughter. Btw, I loved the shadow on Ollie's eye in the "eye for an eye" scene. Another bamboozle made in Slade. Classic.
On the bright side, Slade's plotting wasn't wrapped up so there's a chance we get to see him. Plus Grant! That got me so excited.
I was so so excited for Richard Dragon. He got little to do but I loved his presence. He sold it to me with that villainous voice. That and his mannerisms sold it for me. I love Kirk's performance. He reminded me of Chase in his chat with Dig.
I'm glad John finally told them and it was nice that everyone supported him. I really loved the ending shot of Dig's hand trembling over the GA suit.
What can you do when it comes to predictability? For a good show, it shouldn't matter if you know the destination; what matters is how the series gets you there. And Friday Night Lights is a good show, filled with good performances and nice moments along the way to the end of an ambitious season. The problem is that the inevitability of those end-points left me feeling cold in places.
Nowhere is that truer than with Tim's story. I had it in my head that Tim was going to take the rap for Billy, thus helping him to be the father that the two of them never had, since he let Billy "be a dad for a day," and displayed the kind of happiness and pride that invariably means bad things are a'coming on a television show that needs conflict and drama. It's still a touching moment when Billy tears up to hear Tim's plan and the two of them hug, but all of the hemming and hawing about it before hand doesn't land as well as it ought to since it's obvious where Billy's grief about having to leaving his son and Tim's usual terse smolder is headed.
The puzzling thing about Tim's story is Becky railing against him for "betraying" her. The whole Becky character has been one big misfire, and this is no exception, with her being mad at Tim for practically no reason. I'm not sure how Tim being arrested for running a chop shop affects or even involves her, but whatever. It's par for the course for this frustrating character.
But not every new character is a dud. Some have been roaring successes. The way the episode resolves the Jess-Vince-Landry love triangle worked quite well for me. Everyone is very mature about it. Jess doesn't pussyfoot around about her feelings for Vince; Landry is professional enough by understandably sore at both of them, and Vince shows both joy and guilt about it. It's a very tasteful alternative to the Tim-Lyla-Street nonsense from Season 1. And it puts Landry in position to need a win.
And he gets it! Look, the set up was too perfect and too obvious for the game against the Panthers to end up anyway other than it did. You don't spend three episodes pumping up Landry's doubt about whether he can make a long field goal without him coming in at the last minute to make the game-winning kick. You don't have Vince question whether he can give Coach what he wants, and what Vince intuits Eric Taylor needs, without having the most striking addition to FNL come through in the end for his coach and his team. You even get a nice moment for Luke, who gets the rare apology and explanation from Coach, continues to play good soldier, and gets a nice moment in the sun (er...stadium light) to get his piece of the big win. Yes, some of the oomph is taken away from the seeming foregone conclusion of the Lions making a big comeback in scrappy fashion (though the show gets a little cred and a little legitimacy for the possibility that they come up short after how last season ended), but I still held my breath when Landry's kick was in the air, and that's not nothing.
The only resolution that really didn't work for me was Tami's. I like that Tami got to the moment of truth, and couldn't deliver her phony apology. Tami is a woman of principle, and I appreciate her sticking to her guns and standing up for what she believes in despite public pressure to the contrary. What I don't like is how the episode basically cushions the consequences of that difficult choice. It's believable that Tami wouldn't want a protracted lawsuit that would cost the school thousands of dollars and it's believable that she'd want an opportunity to still provide support to the kids of Dillon, but her parlaying this whole mess into a counseling job at East Dillon just reeks of convenient plotting. I would much rather have seen Tami have to deal with administrative leave and being removed as principal and having to actually suffer for her beliefs rather than softening the edges of this storyline by giving her a soft landing at her husband's school. Giving characters tough choices often makes for great TV, but weakening the impact of that decision makes it feel empty.
But we do get much more meaningful closure with Matt and Landry and Matt and Julie. It's nice to see Matt taken to task by his friend and paramour over the somewhat callous way he just bailed without telling or speaking to them, but it's also nice to see them reconcile. Matt's final scene being him sitting next to Landry is a nice touch, and I missed the pairs repartee. And the scene with Julie and Matt was even better, from the comedy and sweetness of it (Julie ribbing Matt for him calling their spot special because "it's where you deflowered me?" shouldn't be as funny as it is, but Aimee Teegarden's delivery and Matt's blase response were hilarious), and the realness and sadness of Julie deciding that she needs to live her own life apart from Matt's decisions. It's a touching, affecting break up from the best and most lived-in relationship on this show short of Eric and Tami.
Overall, it's not a superlative finale, firmly behind the heartbreak of S3, and the glory of S1, though probably better than the abrupt limbo of S2. It provides a great deal of resolution in meaningful ways, but the clear end points for all of it rob those conclusions of some of their power. Still generally well executed stuff, and an interesting new direction for the show in a unique, semi-uneven, but ultimately successful season.
Story time:
Once upon a time, Castle was my favorite show. I discovered it two years ago, and I loved everything about it. The writing. The characters. Castle and Beckett's dynamic. The way they balanced comedy and drama. It was perfect: well-acted, surprising, charming, funny, but also dark and intense when it needed to be. It was everything you could possibly want from a TV series. People say that when two main characters get together, it ruins the show because apparently established relationships are not interesting to the viewers. But in Castle and Beckett's case, it worked. It really did.
Until they decided to make Castle disappear on his wedding day in season 6 finale. That was the first time I was genuinely disappointed with the show, but I kept watching because I still loved it.
Season 7 was noticeably more forgettable than the previous ones, but it had enough good moments for me to feel somewhat satisfied. We got the wedding, they tied up the 3XK storyline (which, in hindsight, were the last two truly good episodes of Castle ever). Although Andrew Marlowe wasn't the showrunner anymore, he stuck around as a writer, and it was obvious that as long as he was there, he kept the show from going completely downhill.
And then the new showrunners took over in season 8 and destroyed everything that Castle had once been.
Season 8 was an insult to the audience. There's no other way to put it. The writing was mediocre at best and straight-up awful most of the time. Separating Castle and Beckett was unbelievably stupid. None of the new characters were likeable. Stana Katic had too little screen time, and Castle's PI business became the focus of the show. I wish I had something nice to say about this season, but there's nothing. All I feel is bitterness, and I can't imagine how people who have been watching the show since 2009 must feel. I stopped watching this trainwreck when I heard that they'd fired Stana, but I came back for the finale after they announced the cancellation. I was relieved. I hoped the show would end with some dignity. Which it didn't, but at least Beckett's alive, so I'll take it. If they'd got rid of the last shooting and made the epilogue longer, it would've been fine. But they very clearly wanted to show that they intended to kill Beckett before the series got cancelled. It was like one last slap from the writers to the audience.
I don't know if the rumors about Stana and Nathan hating each other are true. All I know is that those two seem like really nice people if their interviews and panels are anything to go by. Especially Stana has always struck me as a classy, lovely person. They appeared to be thick as thieves during their PaleyFest panel in 2012, and then, at the same event in 2013, they weren't even sitting next to each other. I can't imagine what happened between them, and we'll probably never know. But one way or another, their relationship off-screen didn't have anything to do with Castle's long-overdue cancellation. Low ratings and backlash from fans after the showrunners tried to make Beckett-less season 9 happen did.
If I decide to rewatch the show in the future (and I probably will because seasons 1-6 really were excellent, and season 7 still had some of that flair left), I'll be sure to skip the abomination that was season 8 entirely. The ending of season 7 was a better and more satisfying series finale anyway.
Goodbye, Castle. I won't miss you in the fall, and I'm sad that it had to end like this, but you were incredible once. And that's how I want to remember you.
It's easy to take Matt Saracen for granted on Friday Night Lights. Zach Gilford is consistently good, but not in a showy way. His performance feels very true to the life of a West Texas teenager, full of mumbles and dryly comic asides and rarely coming with the big speeches or flashy moments that look like Emmy-reel material. In some ways, it's the greatest success an actor can have -- they blend so seamlessly into their role that it ceases to feel like a performance and more like you're just watching a character live and act, to the point that you neglect to notice the effort and skill that goes into producing something so effortless.
But in "The Son," we spend the bulk of our time with Matt Saracen, watching as he processes his father's death in various stages, and suddenly, all that understated realness comes to the fore in a manner that absolutely blows you away. I'm hard-pressed to think of a better depiction of the complicated feelings of grief and resentment that come from a young man losing a father he never quite found common ground with. The episode explores Matt's sorrow, his numbness, his anger, his frustration, and a little bit of peace through this difficult time, and it's the best showcase for a character and actor that we've seen grow quite a bit over the past four and a half seasons.
"The Son" lets you see Matt's detachment at all of this. When everyone shows up for his wake, so many people are trying to comfort him, so many are trying to give him support, and yet he's clearly having a difficult time accepting it, or even feeling it, given his conflicted feelings about his father. Matt describes himself as doing nothing but sitting in a chair for an hour and saying thank you, and it's a great representation of the difficulty of the logistics of grief, of giving yourself time to process death while having to fulfill the duties of the bereaved -- accepting condolences, putting on a brave face where possible (his "are you serious" response to the McCoys showing up was great), and walking through the part as much as possible. There are details to be taken care of that are necessary, but which get in the way of just feeling what's happening.
One of those is making funeral arrangements, and in one of the better non-Matt moments, Tami steps in to stand up to the funeral director after Matt just can't take it anymore. It's a nice moment for Tami, who as Julie delightfully puts it, is "built for crisis," and a reminder that for however much we've seen Matt mature over the years, he is still a young man who is scrambling to find his footing in the world amidst all the responsibilities his father left him with.
Some of the show's best moments have taken place with a handful of players on that football field, drinking beers and showing the camaraderie that has developed among the gladiators of the community. But this time, when Landry and the Riggins Bros. take Matt out to try to take his mind off things, it turns into one of the rawest moments in the history of the series. Matt admits that he hates his dad, that he feels his dad used the army as an excuse to neglect Loraine, drive away Shelby, and leave Matt in the mess of having to put his dreams on hold. With these feelings, Matt is supposed to stand in front of his family and friends and eulogize his father, a father he has unfinished business with, and as Matt laments, he'll never have a chance to work through those feelings with the man who spurred them.
It's also difficult because Matt feels like he doesn't really know his father. When a recruiter talks about how his father was a practical joker, Matt's half convinced that he's talking about the wrong guy. Matt is expected to stand in public and say goodbye to a man he never really knew. He tries to allay his concerns by seeing his father's body, but his reaction to what he sees, his inability to eat and the tears in his eyes that drive home the finality and horror in what he's witnessing, show that he's only rattled further. He comes to the Taylors and in their way, each member of the family is there for him.
And when it comes time to give the eulogy that's been gnawing at Matt for the bulk of the episode, Matt does something to help him get through it -- he tries to understand his dad. He tells a story of a humorous moment in a family shopping trip, and acknowledges that there's a facets of his dad, like his humorous side, that he rarely saw, and others, like his devotion to the army, that he didn't really understand. But despite that, he seems to accept that his dad had his reasons. Matt's life was hard without his father -- Henry's absence made things much more difficult for him in many areas of his life -- but his father saw it as a calling and an important mission, and even if Matt doesn't get how that could be more important than their family, he at least seems to find some peace with it.
There's other events going on at the margins of "The Son." Vince feels himself pulled between his potential as a car thief and his potential as a role model giving speeches to little kids. Luke turns away from the now cartoonishly sniveling J.D. McCoy and company. Riggins is impacted by seeing what Matt's going through, but it comes out in more nonsense with annoying Becky. Lyla makes a brief appearance at Matt's funeral (Why would she fly in it for it? Have we ever seen her have a single conversation with Matt?) And in a sweet scene, Julie and Coach share a tearful embrace that illustrates how this experience has made her realize the fragility of life too.
But the star of the show is Matt. At its best, Friday Night Lights succeeds by balancing its cheesier plot side with its fly-on-the-wall realism, and nowhere is that better realized here. Zach Gilford gives an incredible performance, with tears, frustration, hurt, and comfort that create as stunning a recreation of a young man experiencing the loss of his father as one could imagine. This is a series that thrives on emotional truth, a genuineness to the characters and their reactions to these events. The death of Henry Saracen, a complicated man who leaves a complicated legacy for his only son, is a pretty massive event, and Matt Saracen (and Zach Gilford) respond with an incredible realness to the severity and complexity of it. As Matt shovels the dirt onto his father's grave, we understand the tumult within this young man, who has been so good and so put upon for so long, moving on and making peace with it all. That's a big beat to play, but it works, and offers the best and most affecting episode of the series so far.
5.9/10. Ugh, this is not a show with either the subtlety or the dexterity to take on an issue like race. It'd be naive to think that this sort of thing wouldn't come up in a small Texas town, but the way it's handled is so hamfisted that you can't help but roll your eyes at the predictable bluntness of everything. Of course it's the jerk coach who says something racist and proceeds to act like an unrepentent jerk the rest of the way. Of course racial tensions that have basically been untouched since the pilot boil over with teenager spitting hackneyed talking points at one another. Of course Tami has a "why can't we all just get along" break down when her forum doesn't go well. This is an issue well-worth tackling, the show just does it in the most After School Special way imaginable.
The one exception to this is, of course, Brian who (give or take his mom) has unexpectedly emerged as arguably the most complex and interesting character on the show. The story of an evil racist coach is a hacky one, but the story of a young black man who's enjoyed a certain amount of privilege given his talents realizing that he still faces certain prejudices and bigotry that his fame and success have insulated him from is a fascinating one. The way he slowly starts to see the way he and the other African American members of the Dillon community are affected by these attitudes in ways large and small, after initially writing them off is far, far more interesting than the clunky racial commentary the episode presents elsewhere. As always, Brian's mom is a strong presence and makes a great impression with her no-nonsense style, and Waverly is still a bit uninspired in her continued role as Brian's magic personal growth charm, but the growth itself is done very well. Him leading the protest at the end feels like a bit too much too fast in terms of his development and awakening to these issue, but I'm willing to chalk it up to having to tell a unified story and do a full arc in 45 minutes.
But hey, apart from all the heavy racial stuff, the powder puff game was actually pretty fun! It worked well as something light in contrast to the serious subject matter of the rest of the episode, and everything from the soft-spoken Matt trying to coach, to Julie's bitterness, to Coach's frustrating-turned-excitement and enthusiasm when he realizes Julie's playing QB, were a lot of fun. Again, the whole Matt-Julie fight can coast to some degree on the charm and talent of the actors involved, but it's more bog standard teen drama conflict stuff, as is Tyra's jealousy and animosity for the girl who represents everything she's not.
That ties into Tyra's realization that her mom's likely sleeping with Buddy, which I assume will go somewhere eventually, but for now it's just a predictable turn.
And Jason's being Jason again. I give the show credit for at least seeming to question whether he's being selfish here. His difficulties going back to school are pretty hack-y in how they try to show it's difficult for him to be disabled and still want to feel normal, but the more time he spends with Sassy Wheelchair Friend, the less I'm interested in his story. Again, him not caring about Lyla's wants or wishes is a solid idea for a storyline, but the way they do it falls flat. With any luck, Jason graduates at the end of the season and goes to China and we never have to hear from him again.
Overall, it's not the best episode of the show. Brian's part of the episode is superlative, and the powerpuff stuff is fun (Landry warning off Coach especially) and entertaining if slight, but the bulk of the racism stuff is handled very clumsily, and the less time spent on Jason at this point, the better.
5.7/10. There's a worthwhile idea here -- the double standard when it comes to women, especially young women, and sex as opposed to their male counterparts. The problem is that the heart of the story -- Lyla getting blowback from her sleeping with Tim, centers on the three worst actors on the show. Lyla in particularly always seems insincere, so it's hard to muster up much sympathy for her when you don't believe the tears or Tim's marble-mouthed inspirational dialogue or Jason Street's Dawson's Creek-esque anger. It also doesn't help that we did see Tim ostracized in similar terms last week, only to show that it was resolved through a very contrived and rushed setup of him playing through injury. So the whole basis for the double standard, at least in this particular instance, feels pretty weak given how perfunctory the show's response to Riggins's side of things was. The idea of a a young girl being disproportionately judged and punished by her peers for something sexual is fruitful territory for what is, at least partially, a high school drama, but this was a weak exploration of it that wasn't helped by the acting.
The Coach/Julie/Matt stuff was a little better, if only because those character and the actor who portray them are better. But at the end of the day, the story was still a high class version of a Full House story. The disapproving dad, the pushback from the daughter, the mom who says papa's overreacting, and the nervous boyfriend trying to please all parties is just such a giant cliche. The complication that Matt's girlfriend's dad is also his coach adds a wrinkle to it, but that also just makes the arms race between Coach and Julie feel a little more contrived. The individual moments are generally amusing just because everyone involved sells it, but it all has to overcome the cheesy nature of the storyline.
Smash's story is probably the best, just because he's one of the most interesting characters on the show, and watching him try to back water from his playboy ways in the face of a girl he's actually trying to impress for once is an interesting look for him. I'm not sure what his date's deal is (jail? rehab? some trauma in Africa?), but I like the idea that both parties have a secret that they're not totally forthright about, but they're feeling each other out and able to tell what's going on to some degree. Things move a little fast, and there's some cliches here too, but the actors have some good chemistry and that helps things work.
Overall, a weaker effort, but with some good elements.
