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Rectify “The Future” Review (3×05)

7 Aug

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“What’s there to miss?”

“The future.”

Since the beginning of the series, these characters have been in a bit of a standstill, caught in the shadow of the past and uncertain about what the future holds. At the same time, though, the rest of the world hasn’t slowed down along with them, and as stated in this episode, “time gets away from you as you get older.” There’s a palpable sense of frustration throughout the show, frustration that years and years have been spent to try to resolve a case, disappointment that certain things haven’t been experienced and accomplished and tried. And yet, even amidst the dark times, this show can also be one of the most optimistic on television (as I’ve said many times before).

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Mr. Robot “eps1.6_v1ew-s0urce.flv” Review (1×07)

5 Aug

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“Find someone to be your honest self with. Bullshit.”

There’s no doubt that we hide a lot from the outside world, that we close ourselves off to an extent in hopes of presenting a likable front to the people around us. This hour is an examination of those hidden secrets, those private moments that we hope others will never find, and it’s all represented physically by the imagined signs the AllSafe employees are wearing (certainly another interesting visual for a series that never seems to run out of them). What I’d also like to point out, though, is the following question posed by Elliot: “Would people really want to see?” It might be interesting for a bit to know everyone’s deepest secrets, but this is far from the stuff that gossipers like to waste their time talking about. This is humanity, and it can be ugly.

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True Detective “Black Maps and Motel Rooms” Review (2×07)

2 Aug

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“Black Maps and Motel Rooms” is the most riveting hour of the season so far, one that snaps into focus exactly why we were taken through certain stories over the past six episodes. It doesn’t quite forgive all of the pacing problems of the season, but it certainly ramps things up all on its own, setting up what will hopefully be a fantastic season finale next week. There are still quite a few things to wrap up plot-wise, but at this point in the story, the characters are at their most interesting because they’re at their most desperate, their most cornered. They’re at a fork in the road, and they have to decide whether to “follow the rules” or to attempt to get out. “Don’t fight what you can’t change” and “stick to what you know” might be easy statements to buy into, but maybe they were put onto Earth for something more than that. Maybe, in perhaps the bleakest hour of the season so far, we can also find the most understanding of who these people are, of who they were meant to be.

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Hannibal “And the Woman Clothed with the Sun…” Review (3×09)

1 Aug

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“Like you, Will, he needs a family to escape what’s inside of him.” 

These Hannibal families are far from your conventional television families, but what this episode wants to make clear is that these are still relationships built on love and need and connection. Whether we’re talking about Will-Molly or Hannibal-Abigail or Margot-Alana or Will-Hannibal or even Dolarhyde-Reba, the one constant always seems to be the need for some type of family, some type of connection. And as Hannibal mentions to Abigail: “Every family loves differently. Every love is unique.” Even if your form of love consists of some nice throat-slashing and stabbing and murderous intent, there’s still familial instinct to be found beneath the blood.

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Strike Back: Legacy Episode 1 Review

31 Jul

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“Violence is not the answer. Violence can never solve the differences we have.”

It’s telling that this statement by Ambassador Robin Foster is intercut with a violent shootout, with people dying all around as he delivers a bomb-filled package to the North Koreans. It’s part of a sequence that’s frustratingly devoid of logic–he’s really just walking through the embassy with a package that nobody bothers to check, and Locke doesn’t mention that there’s a bomb?–but it also strikes at the main theme of the episode: the inevitable intersection between family and work.

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Rectify “Girl Jesus” Review (3×04)

30 Jul

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“You have to bend to this life, Daniel. It does not bend to you.”

Rectify has been using the “fix the kitchen” metaphor to reflect the lives of its characters, to highlight just how broken and in need of repair many of these relationships are (also, Humpty Dumpty metaphors). Ted’s kitchen-fixing journey seems to be a never-ending project, one that lingers at the back of his mind at every second, and there’s no question that the tension has been mounting between him and Janet over it. What makes this show so layered and nuanced, however, is the fact that it delves deeply into both the “broken” and “in need of repair” parts. Yes, these characters have experienced disappointment and pain and neglect, but little by little, they might just be able to make something out of the kitchen. Progress may be slow-moving, but that’s just how life can be sometimes. It’s more of a “crooked path” than a “straight line”, as Amantha and Jon discuss during their scene together.

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Mr. Robot “eps1.5_br4ve-trave1er.asf” Review (1×06)

29 Jul

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“This is a zero sum game.”

At this point in the story, many characters feel like they have to make a decision, like they have to change something and move forward; yet, they’re still caught in a middle ground of sorts, in a state of indecision as they face their challenges head on. Angela, for example, is all about her plan to “change the world”, but she doesn’t really do much when she heads over to Terry Colby’s house. Tyrell’s been making moves to become CTO, but after he’s ripped apart by Scott Knowles, he ends up throwing a hissy fit in his kitchen and worries about “overstepping” (his wife states that he’s “spinning out of control”). Elliot grapples with his “flight or fight” response throughout the episode, and he mentions early on that he really should get on picking one of them. The problem, of course, is that it’s just not that easy to ‘pick one’, and that’s a prevalent idea across the show as a whole. Is life really “better when [we’re] numb?” Do we choose to be numb?

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True Detective “Church in Ruins” Review (2×06)

26 Jul

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“That’s what pain does. It shows you what was on the inside. And inside of you is pure gold.”

The world of True Detective season two is a bleak one, to say the least. It’s dark and corrupt and suffocating, and it grabs ahold of you from the beginning, never letting go as you attempt to move toward a brighter future. There are glimmers of hope and optimism here and there, but those are just rest stops along the way as you get caught in the same cycles over and over again. “I would’ve been different,” Ray tells Frank in a scene reminiscent of those earlier bar conversations. He is, of course, talking about the fact that he killed the wrong guy all those years ago, and we can see the pent-up frustration about to blow here. But as he points a gun at Frank from under the table, the response he gets is about the “lies people tell themselves”, about “excuses”. He hates the fact that he got screwed over by Frank, but he just continues the cycle by making another deal. It’s easy to say what would’ve been, but this season has been intent on highlighting the idea that expectations don’t mesh with reality.

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Hannibal “The Great Red Dragon” Review (3×08)

25 Jul

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Note: Because I won’t be at home to post this later tonight, the review is being published early. Full spoilers follow.

“Dear Will: We have all found a new life, but our old ones hover in the shadows.”

Will Graham has a wife, a kid, and a bunch of lovable dogs now in his new life. He’s been living cannibal-free for three years, and we see him doing pretty well as the beautiful barks of those dogs pierce the chilly air. And yet, even as those furry creatures prance around in the gorgeous snow, there’s no doubt that the influence of Hannibal Lecter–that the influence of his old life–still lingers over him. He knows what’s going on with the recent murders, and it’s actually Hannibal’s warning to him that primarily motivates him to return to the Jack Crawford Party. Yes, Jack and Molly are there to urge him to help out, but in the end, Will burning the letter–which warns him about the madness awaiting behind Jack’s open door–is essentially a statement from him to his ex-boyfriend.

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Rectify “Sown with Salt” Review (3×03)

24 Jul

 

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“You can go anywhere.”

This is what Jon tells Daniel during a flashback scene midway through “Sown with Salt”. It’s a gorgeous scene all around, but it’s also one that offers up hope for a future that ultimately never comes, one that both emphasizes the show’s fascination with the world’s opportunities and underscores the static nature of life in Paulie. I’ve always maintained that this show is much more optimistic than it might seem at first, but there’s no doubt that it also gives us both sides of the coin, mixing them together into a wonderful exploration of all facets of life.

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