There’s nothing wrong with moron hick criminals as characters - only that the full assembly felt very Elmore Leonard pulp cartoon.
And that’s OK - there’s a place for that. It just contrasts sharply with the otherwise gritty tone of the show.
Yeah, I see what you are saying. Pretty sure with any show I want to like, I can still be let down, but I am a lot less analytical and cut them a bunch of slack. When its something I know is going to be crap (all of my wife’s shows for example) I pick the hell out of it.
Not really fair, but it is what it is. :)
This is the second time you’ve said this, and I still have no idea why you think it’s a bad thing.
I don’t!
I grew up reading Leonard and Hiaasen. The zany caricaturism is pretty central to the Leonard thing. I’m good with that. (I did say I liked it.)
It’s probably more an issue of density. I think maybe with a book it’s easier to digest these characters gradually; become accustomed to one nut through a chapter or two before you get another couple dropped on you.
Getting rushed by all of them in the first half-hour of the pilot might make all the difference. As the series goes on, assuming we’ll get a chance to grow familiar with the stable, this will probably be less of an issue.
Ever catch that Fisher Stevens Key West show? It was as though every other word in the pitch was ‘offbeat’.
I didn’t think the show was gritty really. It felt about on the same level as Burn Notice (obviously riffing on a different set of tropes). I mean, Raylan is already an awfully romanticized concept for the main character. And the rest of the show I’d call closer to a dark comedy than anything else. Which is fine by me.
I don’t know, man: one guy shot and killed by a borderline-renegade Marshal, one guy executed from behind by a friend, three shot and wounded - all with gore - a wife gleefully recalling killing her husband and later demonstrating the bloodstain, neo-Nazis, hate speech, a ‘church’ bombing, recalling a dude getting a stick of dynamite taped inside his mouth - that’s some grim stuff altogether. Even putting aside the language I can’t see it in the Burn Notice charts, or I have more to catch up on there than I had realized. I’d say much closer to Sons on the grit reading.
I like that the commercial/trailer was a completely different scene than any that were in the pilot. I kept looking for it to be in there based on the time of day in the commercial and trying to match it with the story line of the pilot episode. Can’t decide if it was shot specifically for the commercial or if it was a deleted scene that was changed as the story line changed.
That smile when he comes around the corner with the shotgun…I wanted more of that. The shot down the barrel of the gun at Olyphant did not, however, look like the type of shot that would fit once the show got started.
I never ever re-watch shows, but I may just watch it again this weekend if I get a chance.
Personally I thought that scene was funny. The guy is spinning this elaborate line of mildly affronted bullshit and the clock just keeps ticking down down down, and they both know he’s armed and is going to go for the shot, and it’s this old timey standoff in the middle of…well, a scene from Burn Notice.
one guy executed from behind by a friend
A guy we didn’t know and had no investment in, or sympathy for given he was a white supremacist, and the whole scene just sets up that he was legit, turning his shooting into a joke. I mean “Didn’t you trust him? Or didn’t you like him?” “Mostly the second…also, I’m gonna need a ride.”
a wife gleefully recalling killing her husband and later demonstrating the bloodstain
Again, hilarious. She’s sassy and happy, her SOB husband is dead, she can flirt with Raylan, and Lysol is the finest cleaner!
neo-Nazis, hate speech
The dumbest, doofiest neo nazis ever, with Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dee and the guy with the absurd nonsense about the Jews, mocked within the show itself, who really just likes blowing things up.
a ‘church’ bombing,
The church being mostly a ganja distributor, no one hurt, and the pastor played by Doug E Doug, your go-to guy for heavy duty racewar angst plots?
recalling a dude getting a stick of dynamite taped inside his mouth - that’s some grim stuff altogether.
That was the only legitimately dark thing on the show.
Even putting aside the language I can’t see it in the Burn Notice charts, or I have more to catch up on there than I had realized. I’d say much closer to Sons on the grit reading.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has salty language, it’s still a comedy. The only difference I see with Justified vs Burn Notice is that the heroes in Justified still shoot people, which they mostly avoid on Burn Notice. Otherwise, I stick to it being a dark comedy.
Enjoyed this a lot. Some of the overall story was admittedly ridiculous, but the writing was clever. “These ain’t movie actors.” Fucking hilarious.
I hope this just improves with time, it has a decent potential.
“Goddamn woman, you only shoot people when they’re eatin’ supper!”
Walton Goggins fucking nailed that line. I hope as the series goes on he gets a acting showpiece like he did with the Shield.
Man, I ain’t saying they’re not going for dark comedy - just that it has a pretty thick mix of grit in there.
I’d also label Always Sunny as grittier than Burn Notice, so we might just be working around an abstraction of definitions. But Burn Notice is a pretty lighthearted show. Things generally wrap up pretty neatly for the good guys, the orphanage gets all of its money back, and even the bad guys rarely get killed. How can that be comparable?
That smile is really disturbing. Got flashbacks of Chet from Weird Science.
Seems to me like it was shot specifically for the commercial, to give an impression of character. Though reflecting on it now it somewhat undercuts the villain’s guile as presented in the show. He seemed like more of Olyphant’s equal in the actual show.
Really need to check out The Shield. I’d had the impression it was a thickheaded cop show, but that impression has gradually eroded.
I caught this last night in a re-run and really liked it. I like how Raylen feels a little put-upon about being punished for his “justified” shooting in Miami when he really shouldn’t have, as a lawman, issued the ultimatum in the first place.
I laughed out loud when he slammed that little nazi’s head into the steering wheel just as the guy was trying to issue a threat.
I loved that he actually does reflect ‘what would I have done if he hadn’t drawn’ - which seemed rather convenient at the time.
I can’t tell if you are saying “like Elmore Leonard” here or not, but it is Elmore Leonard.
Yep.
And did you notice that his boss has a Tombstone poster that says “Shootout at the OK Corral” at the top? In this show, the OK Corral is a dinner table with a nice meal.
You are in for a hell of a show.
My TV time has been significantly curtailed in the last 5+ years and my wife had a death grip on the TiVo so I missed everything. As a result, no The Wire, no THe Shield and no Burn Notice. If only I had an unlimited supply of cash to buy up the seasons/serieseses.
I’d recently started The Wire and was digging it so much I had to stop so I could catch my girlfriend up on it.
Didn’t expect The Shield featured as much nuance.
Man I loved that show for the one season it was on. Another casualty of the FOX follies.