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.
Well, we’re finally at my last End of Year installment: The Top 25 films of 2013. Thanks for reading along, and yes, I do know it’s already the middle of February.
25. THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE: A marked improvement over the first installment is carried by the brilliant performance of Jennifer Lawrence.
24. BLUE JASMINE: In a surprisingly hard-hitting film, Woody Allen crafts a small tale of heartbreak and unfulfillment anchored by Cate Blanchett’s performance.
23. ALL IS LOST: It’s just Robert Redford and a boat, and the film still manages to be intense and exciting; Redford’s fantastic, as is the direction.
Shameless, you’re wrecking me.
This is one of the best, if not the best, episodes this show has ever produced, and it brings with it a whirlwind of emotions. If you’re looking for an example of a showcase for the cast, it doesn’t get any better than this; absolute perfection.
Is there no ceiling this show can’t reach?
After last week’s thrilling, intense final sequence, I didn’t expect the show to match that quality immediately following it. Well, here I am, impressed by the way this week’s episode manages to completely subvert our expectations and transition into a new phase of the show, with both poise and ease.
The fact that people are reporting on this and the fact that I feel like I need to write this article shows how far society is from accepting gays. It’s sad, really. We’re all human beings and we all have our own ways of living, and it makes me angry that we can’t respect others’ privacy.
However, thank you, Ellen Page, for coming out as gay. We still live in a world that is full of intolerance, full of ignorance, full of hate. We still live in a world with a countless number of kids who are too afraid to come out and be who they are. We still live in a world where people look down on other human beings just because of their sexual orientation.
Why is Lucas Hood in Banshee?
That’s the question that gets asked repeatedly in tonight’s episode, one filled to the brim with nice action, character moments, and pure entertainment. It’s a basic Banshee episode–pitting Hood against a foe–but it doesn’t lose the character work done in last week’s “The Truth About Unicorns”.
Well, we’re back for another season of political intrigue and backstabbing. It’s House of Cards season 2.
I’ll be honest: I’d be the first person to express my dislike for much of season 1, as I thought it was tedious, a bit pretentious, and full of extraneous characters and plots I just had no interest in. “Chapter 14”, though, seems to hit the ground (literally) running, delivering a more tightly-plotted episode that, even considering the show still has its problems, is genuinely entertaining.
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