MarkMel
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2003
- Messages
- 2,020
So far another good HBO show. A detective/whodoneit.
One and a half episodes in and I'm hooked!
One and a half episodes in and I'm hooked!
People do dumb things when they're scared. Like actually consider unqualified a-holes for high office because they talk tough.
But a quick question. Is this worth watching? Fell behind and never got started. Keep it or zap it and clear up DVR space?
Depends on what you are looking for. I think a lot of people saw excellent performances, but glaringly unmet expectations.
In the age post-CSI, post Law and Order, heck post-Matlock, we have expectations of competence and dogged investigation with resources and procedures galore, followed by impassioned advocacy, perhaps even a last minute reveal, out of our criminal procedurals.
This is a story more about how life and human limitations impinge on our ideals of justice. The system is uncaring. The investigators get lazy. The attorneys weigh their prospects. The accused and their supporters flag in their optimism. Opportunities are missed and optics get blurred. The stresses of advocating for the innocence, and concomitant right to freedom with the presumption of said innocence weighs on the advocates resulting in fractures and bad decisions.
It's a messy story with a lot of holes [but the holes are part of the story]. However, there's a verisimilitude that runs through it nonetheless. More importantly, you'll see a number of [often subtle] things about criminal justice that don't get attention or haven't been presented quite this way before.
Is it perfect? No. Does it jibe with our usual narrative? No. Is it worth it? Overall, I think so.
For me the point was no one wins and life isn't fair. We're shown a justice system this isn't perfect (oh brother, it's not perfect), a defendant who's heart isn't as pure as the driven snow, a prison system that must rival Russia's gulag. That last thing bothered me the most. We should be putting people in prison for their crimes and striving to release people who are better than when they went in, but we aren't. As for the justice system, the lesson from the story is that for the prosecution, winning is more important than justice.I enjoyed it but it did not live up to the promise of the premiere which was by far the best ep of the series. It could have been a lot better and I questioned all along what the point was. After the finale, I'm still not sure I know, but maybe just seeing what happened was enough.
Not even following my own advice, looks like I accidentally missed the last episode. I hope it repeats somewhere or I can get it online. Seven episodes all ready to go for a nice binge viewing and I somehow screw up #8
I'm cursed or maybe if a mini-series has the word "Night" in it, I'm not allowed to watch. Goofed up the final episode of "The Night Manager" and now this one. Ugh........