[Sundance Channel] Rectify

I was really satisfied with how that all wrapped up. The fourth season wasn’t strictly necessary, if you read post mortems with McKinnon, but it was as powerful as anything else in the series run. In that final episode I shed 1.5 tears every scene for like 5 scenes running right in the middle. It was weird, getting choked up and then seeing a commercial break for luxury sedans.

Anyway! I’m also excited to see what McKinnon has coming up next. This probably plumbed all his personal material pretty well, but I think he’s strong enough to keep making great stuff.

Though I am a little worried that this cast won’t get as much exercise going forward. I know the Lethal Weapon reboot is doing pretty well, but I can’t imagine it’s using Clayne Crawford to full advantage. Ditto for Abigail Spencer in the time travel show.

I paid 0 attention to either show, but knowing they are in it is enough to get me to check them out.

Who would have thought that a quiet, low-key show with no explosions or “watercooler moments” would surpass The Sporanos, Breaking Bad, or The Prisoner as the best television ever.

Not might be -it just is.

Just finished the finale. It was beautiful, this really is just brilliantly written and crafted show. I am sad it is over but glad it is over so well.

It was a beautiful show, so special, something that doesn’t come around often. I really miss it but did like the way it ended.

Because this featured so prominently in the top 100 TV shows of the Internet Age I’m watching it now. Just started.

For whoever it was that said this show was “slow paced” like Better Caul Saul, jesus christ, not even close. I mean episode one season one ends with… and then episode two, that scene on the golf course?

Sure, this is languid and southern-fried and Southern Gothic Noir, as appropriate for its story and setting, but … shit is going down.

Same for me, wumpus. The emotional content is so powerful that I never felt it was slow – burned through seasons one and two over the course of a few days. Hope you enjoy the rest of it, Rectify’s special to me and I like when it catches on with others.

Just started season 4. There is indeed something remarkable about this series. I don’t know that I would put it in my personal top 10, but it’s very well done and worth seeing. It’s like a certain weird deep fried southern dish you could only get and properly enjoy in Georgia. I dunno, fried okra and grits?

Fair warning, a good part of the emotional weight of the show is carried by the capital punishment angle. A guy spends 20 years on death row, and as you’d expect, it’s tough to come back from that. Lots of flashbacks. But that’s the only predictable (sort of) part of it.

Most surprising for me: the emotional center of the show is so equally and powerfully distributed among all the characters. The storyline with Teddy and Tawny alone is deeper than the entire narrative arc of other shows. I don’t even like these characters, but I’m unavoidably drawn to these complex portraits of who they are and where they are going.

Overall this is the kind of TV series that Faukner would have penned, if he could have. Families, man! How the f**k do they work?

I just watched the complete series and reallllly enjoyed the experience. It’s unique.

Tawny is an especially complex character. As the token religious fanatic, I was really annoyed by her in the beginning, but as the series went on and she became more complex, I found I liked her more and more.

What’s great is the way it defies stereotypes - especially with the sheriff and Teddy.

Just finished season three. What a remarkable hidden gem this show turned out to be. Almost every character defies expectations and generates compassion and understanding. Loved the brevity of seasons one and three, and felt that two felt a little tedious at ten episodes. I really am happy with where the story ended up at the end of season three and I think that I will take a little break before plowing into season four. Glad to read that people were happy with it though. It would be a shame to have it go off the rails now.

It does stick the landing in season 4. Mercy.

After finishing the whole series, I jumped right back in and started watching again with my wife. Lots of nice details are planted early on that I didn’t appreciate the first time through. Especially with how the characters evolve and defy expectations… it’s not unlike The Wire in that way.

Hands down, zero doubt.

Best. Series. Ever.