Longmire

The preview trailers for this season look really good.

I’ve just been a Netflix watcher so I’m a season behind. While I enjoy it overall the per capita murder rate this remote Wyoming county seems to have seems a little much. They need stories but the early S2 episodes I’ve watched all seem to start with Longmire and Vic finding finding a dead body in the first 5 minutes.

It’s completely unrealistic in this regard; don’t expect it to change.

LOL as are all procedurals, hell if CSI were based in reality Vegas would be a ghost town! I wish I had known about this when it started, I missed season 1 and this looks like a show I would like. Im recording this season and Ill have to catch up on the rest of it somehow, before I watch it,

Well, “big city” procedurals are better off in this regard. There’s still some suspension of disbelief, but in larger populations the violent crime rate goes up so there’s some nod to logic. Longmire is set in a fictional Wyoming county with like twelve thousand people living in it.

So, first episode impressions? This has been one of my most (only) anticipated TV show returns of the year. As it turns out, it was everything that is annoying or bad about the series and the characters all rolled up in one episode. In fact, other than being happy about it’s return, I can’t think anything redeeming. Spoilers!

The White Warrior

-Walt sewing Branch up with fishing line? Weird but OK.
-The chase scene with Mathias and Henry. Couldn’t he pass him without playing chicken?
-Walt going back to the office and not telling anyone Branch was shot? What?
-Starbuck acting like latent_love_interest_01 in the face of Henry’s arrest and Branch’s shooting? Weak
-If Gerald McRaney was any more one-dimensional they would need to lay him on the floor and have everyone look down to talk to him.
-Peyote feather from Jacob’s office stuffed in the wound under ab muscle? Whaaaaa
-The light in the gym on Jacob Nighthorse as he talks about his faith? Come on.
-Mathias being Chief of Obstacles and Dicks at every turn forever? Its good in small doses but that was like 5 times in one episode.
-Branch’s latent wife beater comes out, as he comes down from major surgery and being drugged. I don’t mind the scene except for: “You aren’t going to tell anyone about that, are you?”
-The doctor telling Walt he should have been a med student. At least it wasn’t Aramaic, I guess.
-Obvious setup and then head-fake at the end, sure to be corrected in the next couple of episodes, with the one talking White Warrior and Walt’s lecturing of Branch made right, since Middle Scowling Dude is obviously going to be made up to look like David Bridges to make Branch seem cray-zee.

Now, a lot of this stuff may by typical Longmire but this fell flat, seemed cheesy, was over the top, etc. to such a degree and in such proximity that I just couldn’t get past it. It may be my least favorite episode. It may get better when you can binge watch it and go right to episode 2, where hopefully the characters spend less time acting like Longmire caricatures and the story moves along. And after being so disappointed with this past Justified season, I had such high hopes. Here’s to it getting better.

The S2 opener was a bit weird as well, and felt very disjointed from the previous episode and the rest of the season. This just felt like a lot of filler… then again, well, at least it wasn’t a find-the-killer-of-the-week type of thing. It did continue (briefly) a lot of plots set in motion. As a standalone, yeah, not great.

— Alan

You know, you are right about the S2 opener; I thought a lot about that when I was watching this episode. With the S2 opener, Walt was the only one acting strange and at least by the end we seemed to be back in normal Longmire territory with a positive finish. This may just be an unannounced two-parter with extra cheese.

For the curious, the second episode was much more typical Longmire fare: crime of the week, with dashes of season arc. I can do without any main character going to jail for a long while now, though. Not the best TV I have ever seen but still good and watchable.

Well the season is now over, and it took a few twists before it got to the end. It would suck for Branch to go through all of that just to kill him off again, though frankly in this season he was completely annoying. I also don’t quite understand how the evolved the plot over the last season and a half to be Walt & Vic. As far as I could tell they really didn’t push it at all until near the end of season 2 when Walt’s-then-girlfriend starts yapping about Vic… it’s just weird how they just seem to really be pushing and pushing that agenda, though thankfully so far nothing has really happened. Aside from Vic getting the divorce.

— Alan

Not sure what else they could do with Branch, considering that by episode’s end he’d racked up armed robbery, grand theft auto, and about a zillion other charges. Very much in character, though - once he got his teeth into something, he never let go, no matter where the trail went.

Agreed that the Walt-Vic thing has seemed painfully forced all year. Honestly, the whole bit with Vic’s marriage felt awkward, with the husband character being written inconsistently and not very well. Ditto the Ferg bit; it would have been nice to see his character growth rewarded, instead of immediately being rolled back.

I just finished watching the finale. I actually liked the season overall; once it got started, it was back to the show’s normal kind of range. I was really shocked they only went 10 episodes as well. I don’t know what they do with Branch/Dad/Jacob should they make a season 4, which I am assuming they will, although it is written such that they could ride off into the sunset as it stands, though. Does anyone know how it did ratings-wise, if they are considering bringing it back again?

I saw reference to the fact that after Season 2 the show wasn’t re-newed until November so kind of expect the same thing this year. I could have sworn that after the first few episodes of this season the show was doing relatively well.

— Alan

Did I misinterpret the very end last night?

Branch was shown as having grabbed red shotgun shells earlier. The shell that bounced on the ground at the end was red. There also appeared to be yellow shells as well. That to me suggests his dad was using yellow shells (likely a different gauge shotgun?). It seems to me that despite his father’s attempt to lull him, and then momentarily distract him with the clay pigeon, Branch shot his father in what will easily qualify as self defense.

Both of them were using red shells. Both of them had one shell loaded into their shotguns at the pull of the clay pigeon, so my reading is that it could have gone either way.

I read the same thing and went back and watched again. Branch ejected red, his father ejected red and yellow. He very deliberately puts a red cartridge back in his belt pouch, though, which you see him fiddle with as they talk. After he sits down, you clearly see his gun (or at least the over barrel) is now loaded. It’s ambiguous who shoots but its very unambiguously cliffhanger/renewal fodder.

Man I hope this gets renewed. One of my favorite shows on TV. I really wish Walt would start recognizing Ferg a bit more.

I had to LOL at my wife’s distress after this ended last night (we watched off DVR). This is the second season in a row where the cliffhanger ending revolved around Branch possibly being dead. The writers certainly know who most of the women tune in to watch! =)

I thought this was a good season with a lot of depth. Linking Walt’s wife, Branch, Nighthorse, Henry, Hector, David Bridges, the former reservation sheriff and some of the other minor characters all together into one big plotline was really well done.

…and A&E has cancelled Longmire. The production studio, Warner Horizon, has said it will shop it around immediately. I could see Netflix or even Amazon picking this up easily.

— Alan

Wow. Is A&E shooting themselves in the foot? The article says Longmire was their most successful show behind only Duck Dynasty. Even with the drop in viewers for Season Three it still averaged nearly 5 million viewers weekly, which is a good amount for a scripted cable drama.

There has to be another network out there that looks at 5 million viewers and says “yes please”.