Just finished the first episode. Holy shit. I had no idea Lithgow was in this. Bridges AND Lithgow being badasses at each other? Yes!
Episode 3 was very good. VERY GOOD.
All 3 episodes have been fantastic so far.
I wonder what country they’re filming in to get those Afghanistan shots? That place is so gorgeous. That first flashback shot in Episode 1 that framed the horseman coming from those mountains? My god.
What really sealed the deal for me for this show is the date in Episode 2. How absorbing was that date? And that cliffhanger ending for Episode 2? That’s how you do a cliffhanger.
Then Episode 3 had the reveal that I’d been waiting for. I knew they would reveal the daughter eventually, I just… I was still taken aback.
The writers are giving these actors some amazing monologues. And the actors are delivering.
Right? I had to look it up because it looked too good to be CG, and it also seemed as if there was an attempt at local architecture. But based on glancing at the first hit for a Google search, it looks like it’s basically shot around Palm Springs. There’s some filming in England, but I’m guessing that’s sound stages. So my guess is it’s shot in southern California, but with CG as needed. If that’s the case, they did a good job.
-Tom
The direction is really top-notch, too. I love how it lets things happen in the background. It’s not as showy as the stuff Bill Hader was doing in the last season of Barry, but it has a similar quality of just letting the camera observe rather than integrating it into the action. It’s a way of making the violence seem weirdly matter-of-fact.
-Tom
Yes! Love the long focus shots w/ just enough bokeh to fool you for a moment into thinking it’s “just” another portrait closeup of a character, but then there’s movement in the background that’s the showing you where the action, literally, is going to unfold in a moment. Wonderful building of tension that way. Twice now there’s been “OH SHIT! He’s not alone!” moments that then delivered on the promise.
Exactly. The casual way we see another figure appear, out of focus, inside the house, through the window, while Amy Brenneman is sitting in her car, entirely preoccupied with something else. We, the audience, are shut out from what’s going on with the main character. Incredibly suspenseful. We’re like the dogs, aware that something is going on and desperate to participate, but at the mercy of some simple mechanism keeping us locked out.
-Tom
Yesss, it’s the kind of story reveal/ plot progression I like.
Yay.
Awe yeah…
Watched all 3 episodes back-to–back, because really, I couldn’t not do it that way. I’m thankful there weren’t more episodes up yet, or I’d have had to watch those as well.
And I’m hooked in hard. Fantastic.
If I get my wife to watch this and a dog ends up getting killed, I’ll be in the…um, doghouse. So somebody keep me posted. We have a backlog of other things to get through, but this sounds interesting.
No dogs killed up to this point (through Episode 3). Is that a spoiler? I’d better spoiler tag it, just in case.
My girlfriend watched it with me, and she was concerned about it as well.
Another good episode (#4), the flashbacks are just as enjoyable as the present day story.
Zoe taking some risks at the end of this episode, a very nice twist.
Was half and half on whether I’d keep watching this show before that last scene.
It felt weird that the protagonist kidnapped his new lover by force and that she (and seemingly the show itself) were accepting of it really quickly. Her maintaining that he’s an asshole and striking back is great – maybe the show’s setting up a parallel and will eventually show he did the same thing to his ex wife? Before this it felt like we were getting too rosy a portrayal of this maniac who hated the Russians so much that he joined the Taliban.
I always recognize that bar in the Millennium Biltmore hotel. So many TV shows and movies have been filmed there.
My perception was that she didn’t accept it. She was absolutely livid, and was only cooperating because she thought that she was (for the time being) helpless and without options. That is, until she answered the phone.
You know how this starts out with Jeff in his room on the bed, and then the bathroom scene? I had a dream I was there in the darkened room with him. Was so creepy.
Noooooo, you can’t put Dave and Carol in a dog hotel! Take them with you or I’ll ragequit the show!
-Tom