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Man, everybody's going on about Jamal being Not-Uday Hussein, but he can equally be Not-Maher al-Assad! Here's hoping he gets both his legs blown up sometime soon. Anyway, yeah, not sure if I'm feeling the show as a whole. Ever since "House of Saddam" I thought that the premise could be pretty cool if not presented in a hamfisted way, but even though we're only two episodes in, the whole thing seems really undeveloped. Barry's family is pretty much a snoozefest when not actively annoying, the rest of the family drama is pretty half-baked, Barry goes from "get me out of here, this place is crazy hosed up and my relatives are nuts" to ~~the family's gotta stick together~~ in a heartbeat. All of that would be fine if the setting was more interesting, but so far it doesn't seem like they're going for a particularly nuanced or detailed depiction of middle east politics. I'll give it one more episode to see if some shady intrigue makes it more interesting, but I just don't think a bunch of family drama will manage to catch my attention all the way to the season finale. By the way, the season finale is going to be Barry shooting Jamal after Jamal finds out Barry has been boning his wife. e: 50% chance that Barry starts boning sort-of-evil sister-in-law after his wife sees him fleeing an assassination attempt and breaks down crying "what are you running away from????" SexyBlindfold fucked around with this message at 08:06 on Jul 2, 2014 |
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Jul 2, 2014 08:03
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I think my main problem with the show is that nobody's likable, both in the "interesting character/fun to look at" and the "decent person I can identify with" sense. Maybe it's just me, but it's a problem I see in most shows with a ~gritty~ setting. I mean, Jamal's kind of too over the top to work (other characters could bounce off him well, but you can't expect the audience to feel bad for Super-Rapist's daddy issues), Barry's dad never really gave a particularly patriarchal vibe in the couple of scenes we saw (plus his old man makeup was really bad), Barry's mom is A Bad And Boring Person, Molly hasn't had a believable/non-stupid line in two episodes, Barry's kids are either one-dimensional or barely get screentime, Jamal's wife is Bad At Acting, and Barry himself manages to sell some scenes, but I'm just not seeing a lot of moral conflict in his decisions. At least, the conflict isn't "being a despotic dictator and mass murderer is bad and I'm trying to be good" but rather "being a despotic dictator and mass murderer is hard work and I don't need that poo poo on my plate now so I wanna bail". At this point, the only characters we've come to know who aren't annoying or flat out assholes are Barry's chubby nephew (plus wife, I guess) and Journalist Guy (plus daughter?). The first seems like a pretty minor character (who's probably an rear end in a top hat anyway) and I don't know how much can we spend focusing on the second since he's detached from the rest of the major characters, unless Barry brings him aboard as an adviser or whatever. So yeah, like I said before and like others have said, I'm watching the next episode because the premise still has potential, but I don't have very high hopes for it.
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Jul 2, 2014 17:19
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Xoidanor posted:Yeah I don't really understand what people don't find entertaining about the show in general either. The family is currently unbearable I can see the tale of a tyrant rising to power having potential in the manner it's currently told. I think most people picked this show because the premise of some guy becoming dictator of a country is interesting, but in order for such a story to connect in any level with the audience, we either have to: 1. care about the guy. 2. care about the country. So far, the show hasn't really managed either.
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Jul 6, 2014 00:10
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