My prolonged journey through The Sopranos is nearing its end, so here's the first half of its sixth and final season. The show continues its streak of excellence, although its tough to say anything that happens this season is all that important to whatever series-long story is being told. The closest thing to a "game-changing" moment happens in the first episode when Tony is shot by someone he trusts, and goes into a coma for a few episodes. These were probably the best episodes of the season, featuring Tony's family preparing for the grieving process, the mob preparing for the next steps after the potential death of the boss, and some extended dream sequences for Tony- something the show has always done well. After he finally wakes up, the rest of Tony's season has him wavering between treating every day as a blessing, or reverting to his old ways. The other highlight of the season for me featured Vito's secret homosexual lifestyle finally being revealed to everyone; once this happens he hastily splits for New Hampshire, wondering what he could possibly do to fix things back at home; I'll leave out how this ends, but it's heartbreaking to watch and made for the more compelling scenes in the back half of the season. There's only a few episodes left in the series and it sounds like the action and plot will likely pick up in the final season, so I should finally finish this off this year!
In between the behemoths of true-crime that were Serial and Making A Murderer came HBO's foray into the genre, The Jinx. The Jinx is a bit different from those two series, where the hook is that there's a good chance an innocent man is behind bars- The Jinx is all about the completely bizarre millionaire Robert Durst and all of the mysterious deaths that seem to follow him around, and the likelihood that he's actually the murderer. While I know The Jinx enthralled its many fans when it first aired, I unfortunately had the (completely insane) ending spoiled long before I got around to watching, so a good portion of the series underwhelmed me as I was just waiting for that ridiculous ending to finally happen. That finale lived up to the hype, but I feel like the rest of the series doesn't quite unless you were watching it as it aired.
The first season of The Affair varied pretty wildly in quality, and it was hard to put my finger on what the show was trying to be. At first glance, it's a soapy drama with a great cast showing the build-up to a summer affair between Noah (Dominic West) and Alison (Ruth Wilson), and the toll it takes on their respective spouses- Helen (Maura Tierney) and Cole (Joshua Jackson). However, the first episode pulls a bit of a surprise narrative trick halfway through, and while I'll leave out what it was (I actually knew what it was already but forgot, and it still caught me by surprise) but it's an important factor in how you watch the show- almost like how central the flashbacks were in Lost. It gives you a better sense of who these characters are and provides a nice framing device for the whole season, often elevating the series to "elite tv" status. Sometimes however this narrative device would backfire and the show would drag, or just feel like a glorified Lifetime movie, especially towards the end of the season when the story felt particularly rushed. Still though the good usually outweighs the bad, and the show is entertaining for the most part, so I'll stick with it.
And hey, here's season two! The hit-or-miss quality stuck around in season two as the show grew more ambitious, doubling down on its storytelling gimmick. At times it was more pulpy than ever, focusing heavily on a "whodunnit" murder case from season one, and yet the show often excelled with its subtler moments of character development more than the times it tries to burn through story or provide shocking plot twists. One of my favorite moments of this season was just twenty minutes or so of Noah talking with a therapist, trying to work through his complicated feelings for both Alison and Helen. I'm not really sure where the show will go from here though; I liked it more when it was a show about awful rich people in a rich town in the summer making poor decisions; watching the endless fall-out from those decisions can make for a tough binge watch.
A bit more from Showtime. Masters of Sex is the dramatized version of some true events, focusing on Dr. William Masters and Virginia Johnson, two pioneers in the scientific study of sex. What the show posits is that up until the 1950's, scientists had been exhaustively studying the procreative aspects of sex, but very little on the recreational activity- why does it make people feel good? What exactly causes an orgasm? Stuff like that. In the fifties, this is all very controversial stuff- Michael Sheen's Masters is an extremely well-respected obstetrician, but when he tries to focus his work on the study of sex in general, most dismiss it as meaningless smut, unworthy of his brilliant mind. Joining him is Lizzy Caplan as Johnson, the female half of the duo- untrained in any actual scientific background, but able to communicate with test subjects in a way that Masters never could. Sheen and Caplan have excellent chemistry, and a large portion of the first season focuses on the difficulties that the two face trying to keep a platonic relationship while watching so much sex. It's good! This feels a bit like a spiritual successor to Mad Men- late-fifties/early-sixties setting, a troubled marriage, office politics, a man who's the best at his field of work. It's not quite Mad Men level- a few Masters of Sex scenes are a little on-the-nose where Mad Men was always more subtle, but it definitely does scratch a similar itch.
The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret: Season 2
It's been a long time since I watched the first season of Todd Margaret, back in 2009 when it first aired; I always planned to watch its second and final season, figuring there was no rush, and then out of nowhere IFC brought the show back for a third that aired back in Mid-January. Time to catch up! For those who don't know, the title here really tells you everything- David Cross stars as Todd Margaret, a guy who just can't help but tell lie on top of lie and make horrible decisions with wacky and terrible consequences. The first season featured him getting sent to London, working for a company that may not actually exist, selling energy drinks. It goes far worse than you could imagine. Todd Margaret's an extremely dark and cringe-worthy comedy, and the inclusion of Cross and Will Arnett makes it feel just a bit like Arrested Development- full of callback gags, convoluted plots, international incidents, and characters who thrive off of hating each other. So hey, I guess there's two spiritual successors to two of the greatest shows of all time! I wouldn't say the second season is any better or worse than the first- honestly, the show might have worked even better combining them into one 12-episode season, but that's just not how British tv works. The thing is though, season two ends pretty definitively, so I have no idea how the third season is going to work. We'll see, probably in February.
It's been a long time since I watched the first season of Todd Margaret, back in 2009 when it first aired; I always planned to watch its second and final season, figuring there was no rush, and then out of nowhere IFC brought the show back for a third that aired back in Mid-January. Time to catch up! For those who don't know, the title here really tells you everything- David Cross stars as Todd Margaret, a guy who just can't help but tell lie on top of lie and make horrible decisions with wacky and terrible consequences. The first season featured him getting sent to London, working for a company that may not actually exist, selling energy drinks. It goes far worse than you could imagine. Todd Margaret's an extremely dark and cringe-worthy comedy, and the inclusion of Cross and Will Arnett makes it feel just a bit like Arrested Development- full of callback gags, convoluted plots, international incidents, and characters who thrive off of hating each other. So hey, I guess there's two spiritual successors to two of the greatest shows of all time! I wouldn't say the second season is any better or worse than the first- honestly, the show might have worked even better combining them into one 12-episode season, but that's just not how British tv works. The thing is though, season two ends pretty definitively, so I have no idea how the third season is going to work. We'll see, probably in February.
I share your sentiments on The Sopranos: Season 6A. The weird purgatory-like scenes following Tony's near death were a highlight of the series, and I also liked Vito's tragic arc. (A lot of people didn't!) Maybe the most important running theme in 6A is that Tony, nearly killed, pulls an "It's a Wonderful Life" and tries to be a better person. His attempts to change and improve will linger on into Season 6B where it becomes apparent that one of David Chase's prevailing sentiments is "nobody changes." Even Meadow, AJ, and Carmella all get to illustrate this in their own ways. It's dark! And awesome. I really loved Season 6B.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like we're in agreement on The Affair overall, though I may have liked the second season a bit more than you. Seriously, where does Season 3 go?
Masters of Sex is something I've heard good things about, but not great things, especially after the first season. It's on my radar, but I'd be curious to see how you like Season 2 and 3 before I jump in.
Todd Margaret is something we should just talk about. You're right that the first two seasons function best as a twelve-episode arc, so I wonder how well it worked for you with six years off in between. Let me know when you start Season 3 - that one's probably the most complex and easily the most absurd.