“You’re both under arrest, because you’re a fugitive…and you’re a dick.”
Justified can still bring the humor, but while this line is, for me, the funniest of the episode, it also encapsulates all of the problems of “Whistle Past the Graveyard”. There’s an ambivalence here that’s creeping throughout the show, and this episode in particular stumbles a bit in that department.
“My life’s been a circle of violence and degradation, long as I can remember. I’m ready to tie it off.”
So, we’re back to the idea of time being a flat circle. We’re now at the beginning of our story, back to the beginning of our case and the first leads we encountered. We’re now simultaneously sliding toward the end, and my, what a ride has it been.
ELLEN COLD OPEN: Well, we’re back after an extended hiatus, and we’re treated to a lazy, meandering cold open that features Parsons doing an awful Johnny Weir impression and myriad lame jokes; at least Kate McKinnon is mildly entertaining. Not a very good way to kick off the night. GRADE: C
MONOLOGUE: “I’m not that guy. I’m not that guy.” Uh, cool? Understandably, Parsons goes off about Sheldon Cooper, but he doesn’t really bring anything to the table that suggests he isn’t. You can tell he’s a bit nervous, though, and the whole thing is very shaky. GRADE: C-
At what cost?
That’s the question that’s constantly asked in “Evil for Evil”, quite possibly the best episode of Banshee this season. It’s an hour of genuinely hard-hitting emotion that’s simultaneously thrilling and heartbreaking.
This right here is art.
Season 1 of Hannibal burst onto the scene with an operatic, intense, and beautiful thirteen episodes that transcended our expectations, and it’s back and better than it was before. When we last left off, the roles of Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham had been switched, leaving Will behind bars and Lecter to take his place in the real world; now, Fuller’s exploring the various nuances and complexities behind the inversion, and it’s some fantastic television.
Community is fundamentally a comedy, but that comedy is rooted in a deeper understanding of our characters; yes, these people are attending a community college and all feel varying levels of unfulfillment. There’s a time in which they all have to stand back and take stock of who they are, and this episode explores that idea in depth.
The wigs are back!
In all seriousness, though…the wigs are back. In fact, Fields and Weisberg kick season 2 off with a sequence in which Philip kills a few people–innocent bystander included–gets his wig ripped off, and seems shaken as he drives away. This is the mark of a man who’s become increasingly hardened by the job, and the rest of the episode deals with who exactly our characters are.
Justified is always going to be an endlessly watchable show, delivering crackling wit, tension, and sharp dialogue throughout each episode. That’s the case this week: although the episode isn’t up to par with the rest of the season, it still contains, simply speaking, pure fun.
“If you ever get the opportunity, you should kill yourself.”
What a quintessentially Rust Cohle line. It’s honest, horrific, and and chilling, and it’s one of many in yet another fantastic episode of True Detective. Although “Haunted Houses” serves as a palate cleanser of sorts–what with tying up loose ends and all–it still delivers some engaging character work.
Lucas Hood and Kai Proctor have been on a collision course all season, and tonight’s episode of Banshee sets up an impending showdown in the final three episodes of season 2.
It’s nice to see the show returning to its roots, and the key thing to recognize is that it’s only doing so after shaking up the formula a bit. The first half of the current season still delivered the violence and the sex, but everything seemed to be rooted in character, more contemplative and melancholy.
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