On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 11:43 AM, 'Dave Sikula' via TVorNotTV < [email protected]> wrote:
> Beyond the opaque incoherence of Season 2, my quick take on why it was so > bad was that, last year, Harrelson and McConnnaughey are good enough actors > and Cary Fukunaga a good enough director that they all realized they were > working on a piece of pulpy cheese and approached it from that direction, > making it all seem to work. (That it didn't really is beside the point.) > This season, although most of the actors were good enough (despite the > reliance on non-Americans - and seriously, did Farrell become more southern > every week accidentally or on purpose?), they all believed the press and > took the whole thing deadly seriously, which killed it. > Okay - so this is the start of the conversation I am looking for (someplace, if not here). I don't think I agree with your analysis that they took it more seriously than last year, though there may be something in that just because both of the lead actors from S1 carry with them an undertone of hyperbole or satire, even in dramatic roles where it is completely unintended and unwarranted (though I agree in the case of TD:S1 this worked well). But what I am interested in is this claim that somehow S2 was more "opaquely incoherent" than S1. Perhaps that conversation is not possible without more spoilers than would be appropriate here; but my point is specifically that this is not an accurate description. In fact, I think the plot from S1 was significantly more opaque and incoherent than S2. I think I could adequately summarize the S2 main plot (What was the initial crime, who committed it and why) in one or two direct sentences, while trying the same for S1 would be far more challenging (though a better and more concise writer than I might be able to do it). Just to beat this dead horse a bit more, I was bitching about this out loud earlier today to some people, and someone gave me what seemed like a pretty good hypothesis: S1 got a lot of internet buzz. Lots of people who never watched S1 (most of whom probably correctly judged initially that this was not their cup of tea, but now wanted to see what they had been missing) decided to watch S2. When they did not like it, they assumed that they would have loved S1 (since all the cool kids did) and that the reason they did not like S2 was because it stank. In reality, this kind of show is just not their style, and they probably would not have liked S1 either. Of course, that does not rule out that some people (like, apparently, our Dave here) did really like S1, but hated S2. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
