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AAA DOLFAN posted:Who is this random guy with the Austrian accent A Tyler Durden from the past, what a surprise! Given how telegraphed it was from SCENE loving ONE I honestly expected a better reveal at the end - pretty much that the guy had actually been there! I'm enjoying this show but man, that was an obnoxious narrative device for a really obvious plot. It didn't help that this week Richie had no charisma to balance his coked-up assholery. JethroMcB fucked around with this message at 03:35 on Mar 21, 2016 |
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Mar 21, 2016 03:31
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TheRationalRedditor posted:Exactly, the very first time I was like "oh this microscope LP is neat". And then it gives way to vibrating cocaine and stock b&w in AfterEffects filtervision for 2 fuckin minutes. Seriously, it's longer than GoT's intro without a memorable, triumphantly tuneful theme to justify any of it I love the opening sequence but I think I go through "HBO Intro Stockholm Syndrome" with every show they put on - Boardwalk, Treme, Luck, both seasons of Leftovers - where I'm cold on the intro at first but eventually I come around on it and I look forward to watching the whole thing. And really, at this point, Vinyl's opening is the best part of the show! I was really enjoying this episode until the reveal started, then I said "gently caress YOU!" and fast-forwarded until I saw, yeah, Richie's still a piece of poo poo. I just can't fathom where they're taking this...it's like the writer's room read the litany of thinkpieces about how every "prestige" drama is built around a white male anti-hero and they took that as some kind of challenge. I hate Richie! I don't want to see this rear end in a top hat get a redemption story! At this point all I want to do is see his coked-up rear end fall through a glass table and die at the end of the season, and HBO to pull a "whoops we sobered up and looked at these ratings and we're cancelling the renewal on this show" like they did for The Brink.
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Mar 29, 2016 02:00
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TheRationalRedditor posted:There's nothing wrong with a protagonist being a selfish piece of poo poo in good drama, it's a huge part of what made 'The Sopranos' so masterful. Vinyl's problem is that Richie's story is nowhere near interesting enough to justify what a loathsome hunk of garbage he is, and there is no sign yet of any room for revelatory growth or potential that's worth getting invested in. This is a bad place to be 7 episodes deep into a season of 10 Exactly. Tony was a multifaceted character, and Gandolfini's performance kept you guessing as to whether he hated his own actions or reveled in them; you'd at the very least see him realize how he'd hurt someone, whether he felt remorse for it or not. Richie meanwhile is just a caricature of a coke fiend who keeps screwing over everybody in his life without really realizing it, much less even internalizing it - he left his partners high and dry without warning, mistreated his wife and drove her away with children in tow, but all he cares about is how it affects him in that moment. There's no moment of clarity for Richie, no humanity for him, it's just assign blame and do another line. Bulky Bartokomous posted:Wait, what? HBO renewed The Brink last July, about halfway through the initial run of episodes. Fast forward three months, and suddenly word hits the trades that the show would not be going forward with a second season. It was a very odd (and very rare) about-face for HBO, especially since the show was doing decent ratings. Better ratings than Vinyl's doing, by a long shot.
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Mar 29, 2016 05:06
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Binary Logic posted:I like how happy everyone was that their new label was launched by a singer who had OD'ed on heroin and had to be revived by the CEO injecting him with cocaine. Yay! Well Zak and the other, ill defined partner with the blonde moustache didn't seem thrilled by it, and Richie seemed hurt by their cool reaction. "Guys, I started a sublabel for our floundering real label, with a band we can't even promote on the radio! We gotta spraypaint cusses on the walls like a buncha middle schoolers to celebrate this momentous, huge victory!" What a lovely, stupid show. I hope the first thing the new showrunner does is eliminate the entire stupid murder/mob storyline. Second thing would be to get Richie out of the show, but I'm guessing Canavale's contract won't allow that.
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Apr 19, 2016 13:09
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savinhill posted:That article said the second season was supposed to be a reboot, anyone know anything about this? I think they just meant in terms of Scott Burns replacing Terence Winter as the showrunner and other changes on the production side of things, not in terms of actual content. They probably would've also had to spend a boatload on marketing to revitalize interest. Anyhow, this is good news, I'm glad it's dead.
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Jun 23, 2016 02:46
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The Alibi Records launch party rages into the night, with middle aged shitheap Richie Finnestra leading the charge to spraypaint all the biggest cusses on the walls. In time, the guests fall away to continue their own parties at proto-CBGB's or Max's Kansas City or any number of other namedropped venues. The White Mailroom Kid who is busy appropriating Black dance music to single-handedly create Disco winds up hanging out with an acquaintance at a CBS Radio building in Midtown when he says "This would make a great nightclub venue...'The STUDIO on 54th'..." and he looks directly into the camera. Juno Temple goes home with John Nastybits and watches him overdose for a second time in 24 hours. He dies. She realizes maybe this world isn't so glamorous and goes back to her ill-defined aristocratic family to live a life of luxury. Richie keeps his own party going in his office, doing fat rails of coke well into the night. He decides to celebrate sunrise with a line that runs the length of the receptionist desk. He takes it down and shouts out some Nasty Bits lyrics before grabbing his chest and falling down dead from a massive coronary. Zak and the Partner With the Moustache come in a few hours later to find RIchie dead in the lobby. They hug, crying, and Zak says "Finally, we're free." Richie's wife is more than happy to turn control of the company over to the other partners; she will sell as soon as it is profitable or they can find a buyer. They set about undoing all the damage Richie caused. Alibi Records is immediately shuttered, and the Nasty Bits' stock is destroyed. The records that did make it to retail distribution find no audience, are promptly moved to the discount bin and are ultimately forgotten. The album does gain some mythical cachet through the years, going on to become a collector's item decades later, but only as a curiosity for vinyl completionists. Music blogs pick up on its cult status and review it only to savage the actual music - Pitchfork's review ends with "A lot of Change the loving Channel's legendary story has to do with the fact that the lead singer died on the day of the album's release. A typical rock and roll sob story, but if this is all that he had to offer I'm glad he's dead." American Century's remaining execs manage to turn the label around, relying heavily on compilations and rereleases. They're not artistic pioneers, but they do run a solid business. A few years later Polygram comes around again and offers them another deal. This time, without Richie around to sink the whole thing, the sale goes through and everybody gets paid handsomely.
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Jun 23, 2016 16:02
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TheRationalRedditor posted:I was digging the zinger-filled first half but then it seemed to turn into earnest "happy ending" fanfiction for the homestretch, haha What can I say, there were parts of the show I really liked. If the personal adventures of Richie Finnestra weren't front and center for every episode, the show would've been a perfectly watchable (but yeah, kinda crappy) workplace drama. And speaking of fanfic happy endings - Lester starts singing again with his "damaged" voice and critics/white kids go crazy for his "unique" sound, his career takes off. They really never sold me on the "Uniquely talented blues guitarist with an insanely raspy voice couldn't be a performer" stuff.
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Jun 23, 2016 23:38
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:Ray Romano was awesome and I won't hear otherwise. He was surprisingly great. I wish the show had been about Zak's life and his struggle with supporting character Richie, who would just blow through episodes causing problems.
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Jun 26, 2016 21:35
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