Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



I'm thoroughly enjoying the season so far because everyone's acting at peak performance, editing is close to perfection, and writing is more about the entertainment and pathos than it is about accuracy and realism. The plot is, unfortunately, a toss-up so far because of how little importance anything seems to have and Olyphant only being given 3 solid scenes in the first 3 episodes, ala 1 of those episodes, is a little disappointing so I'm hoping we get more of him. Does anyone have a guess as to what this season's supernatural element is/will be?

For some reason Season 3's "she's invisible to sensors" thing makes me think either Olyphant's "deafness" or the dirty cop's OCD is somehow going to be it, though neither is truly out of the norm just yet.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Milo and POTUS posted:

There was a figment in the road at the end of the first episode. I suspect it's amphetamine psychosis
Oh I completely forgot about that! That is it, of course.

Mameluke posted:

I like little Mike Milligan, he is a good kid
Ha yeah I was telling my friend the same thing. That's gotta be him.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Oct 9, 2020

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Although the specter at the end of the first episode was the hint, this episode certainly makes it clearer what the supernatural force is. The Snowman, they call him, and he's sensed by the Roulette women. I wonder what his deal will be.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 04:04 on Oct 13, 2020

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



So... did Orietta make the apple pie with ipecac on purpose or by accident?

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



HppyCmpr posted:

On purpose, she stated the girl was going to be her new project and now we know she is a prolific serial killer.
She does not seem to be too fond of the family by the way she speaks as well, the whole "I couldn't see you in the dark hallway" is not really a pleasant thing to say.
My problem with this is that the whole family would've eaten the pie... and the ipecac wouldn't have necessarily led to anything more than a night of rest. Whatever's going on, it'll hopefully make more sense later.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Haven't watched the latest but just wanted to say that I'm very glad the "previously on" is just "antecedently" for the season and not being swapped with other thesaurus words the way Legion was.
Edit: Okay watched it... sad that there was so little Death Nurse. I'm starting to feel a little bit of a lurch now that we're on ep 5 and this is as far as we've gotten but hopefully with that episode ender things pick up in the second half of the season.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Oct 21, 2020

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Connellingus posted:

Was Antoon Dumini (the guy who almost shot Satchel but decided against it before being killed by Rabbi Milligan in Episode 6) prominently featured in any previous episodes? I can see him in the cast list for other episodes, but didn't recognize him. I thought his story arc and performance in the most recent episode had strong elements of tragic irony, but might have hit harder if we had seen more of him earlier on.
Yes, he's always been at the side of Josto, who has been on the lenient side of things compared to Gaetano, making Antoon seem a likely candidate to not want to start a war. As such, it made complete sense for him to be as withdrawn as he got when he was told to take the ride and his death is that much more impactful as a move against Josto. I know not everyone can keep track of all these characters but I've been pretty diligent so the moments worked on me as they were intended. However, the fact that folks have complained about too many characters to keep track of makes me believe that this season probably suffers from The Noah Hawley Effect.

The Noah Hawley Effect is something I discovered happens to every show Noah Hawley worked on after Season 2 of Fargo (though I have zero proof that it wasn't also in effect for S1 and 2 of Fargo) which is that he develops his shows in such a way that they are exponentially better if you watch them in a marathon fashion (1 or more episodes per day) rather than on a weekly basis. I can't explain it but every time I've held off watching his shows (S1/2 of Fargo, S1 of Legion) it's been an absolute blast to watch but every time I watch them as they air (S3 of Fargo, S2/3 of Legion) I'm met with a bit of disappointment over my viewing.

S4 so far is probably the best of the weekly viewing of Noah Hawley I've experienced but it has yet to meet the enjoyment of the marathoned viewings I've had.
Also, I think if you can't stand Gaetano's cartoonish villainy, I have to assume you didn't enjoy Mike Milligan or Dodd from S2 because they're just as cartoony.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 11:47 on Nov 2, 2020

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Do not even ask posted:

I'll have to rewatch the entire season when it finishes to confirm my theory is right but the child-swapping "tradition" being a load of bullshit that was just made up so an Irish pedophile could get his jollies off abusing his enemy's kid was not something I saw coming
Oh my god not only that but it would explain why he was offed by his own son as well. Completely explains it. drat.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



I'm in the camp that this season is better than 3 but worse than 1 and 2 because 1 and 2 were just absolute genius and season 3 had nobody I really cared about other than the drumssassin. That said, I think this season's biggest weakness is something you can trace to early seasons of Game of Thrones. Despite all the cast and characters GoT employed, it managed to have at least 4 very good seasons. The reason for this is because you'd never go longer than 2 episodes without getting some kind of plot movement out of every single character and storyline. It was really decently paced and spread evenly. This season of Fargo either leaves characters alone for too long, practically making us forget names and backstories, or just has no story to tell for many of the characters so when we do get back to them, there's nothing to tell other than "character is hitting head against wall." Part of me wonders if this season would've been better at double the length so that characters could get more fleshing out and have compelling storylines or if the season would've been better at half the length so we could view it more as a mini-series where we never had to know the characters on a personal level but we can get all their plotlines moving at a decent pace.

... or this is just more proof of the Noah Hawley effect and it's a great season to marathon.

In any case, it's still entertaining to watch. There are plenty of fantastic scenes that stand on their own, which is the norm for the Fargo series and Noah Hawley. And of course this latest episode keeps up the tradition of having 1 stand-out thematic episode and it was very good. The weakness is merely in the over-arching construction of the show and that's better than just being complete trash.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Nov 17, 2020

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Milo and POTUS posted:

What's a drumsassin

The assassin who always gets his own drums.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



ShakeZula posted:

Well it was better to me than S3 (which I stopped watching after a few episodes), but never got close to 1 or 2. Rock had a couple of decent speeches but ultimately felt miscast.

I think "disjointed" really is the best word to describe the season. A lot of really interesting and well-done pieces, amounting to a whole lot of nothing.
100% exactly how I feel.
Tack on the fact that they under-utilized Olyphant.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



I'm really enjoying these first two episodes so far but have 3 stupid problems I'll throw into spoilers since folks are probably just starting up on it:

1: If this is 2019, why is it a problem that the sheriff deleted the photo from the cop's phone? She has a department she reports to... just ask them to SMS the photo again. Seems like an incredibly silly contrivance that she just doesn't have the photo anymore because this dillweed deleted it off her local drive.
2: I really appreciated that whatever Dorothy was spreading across the entrance of the gas station was an un-fired Chekov's Gun (entertainment too often requires everything set up to be activated in some way so seeing a precaution going unneeded is nicely immersive) but... what was it exactly and how was it going to help her at all? I'm just confused about that. I thought it was oil that she'd set on fire or some kind of liquid that would make the guy slip as he entered but without the trap activating, I don't know what the point of it was.
3: 2 episodes in and no pointless paranormal activity. I wonder if Hawley decided to finally do away with it after it being so useless in Season 4?

I love that the daughter is just fully supportive of her parents and doesn't let grandma ruin her day. I've wanted more good Jennifer Jason Leigh since Hateful 8 and I'm feasting now. (Twin Peaks just wasn't enough!)

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Nov 23, 2023

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



ruddiger posted:

She was pouring motor oil and yeah, it was to make the guy slip but it just didn’t work. The prophetic dream reminded me of Raising Arizona and the lady cop’s husband reminded me of Brad Pitt’s character in Burn After Reading.
Haha yeah he gave me extreme "not surviving this season" vibes.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



eighty-four merc posted:

Seemed like he might have slipped when she attacked him with the shovel. IDK though. It happened really fast and I couldn’t tell one way or the other when I watched live
Nah, I was so busy trying to figure out if I was a bad TV watcher that I overanalyzed the scene re-watching. As far as the direction and cinematography communicates, the hitman is simply too good to fall for a trick like slipping at the entrance. When Dorothy hits him with a shovel, nothing is telegraphed that the reason he falls is because of the oil. It is 100% the impact of the shovel on his head.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



CBJSprague24 posted:

Hard to believe Jennifer Jason Leigh, mother of a teenager in this show, is 61.
Huh? She's the grandmother of the teenager.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:

My favorite Jennifer Jason Leigh performance was The Hudsucker Proxy, which happens to be my favorite Coen Brothers movie. She does a very similar accent in that movie and in Fargo season 5, the "Transatlantic" accent actors used to do, which sounds "old-timey" to our ears.
Thank you for reminding me I need to rewatch that film. The last time I did, it was airing on Comedy Central some 20-odd years ago.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Mr. Funny Pants posted:

Regarding Jennifer Jason Leigh, for god's sake, is Fast Times at Ridgemont High not nearly as well known as I thought it was?
Known, sure. Seen, less so.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Mr. Funny Pants posted:

Apparently. I thought it was one of those movies that even younger people today had a decent familiarity with. I'm old, so of course it's a staple.
We're in the era where 20-somethings haven't seen The Matrix because it came out before they were born. We are old.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Very glad my note about no supernatural elements is not only wrong but also completely blown out of the drat water.
As much as I love the use of Smack My Bitch Up it's a shame that they had to chop it up so drat much. However, it's not often you'll hear it in media and have the entirety of the central vocals presented. Well done.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



I'm curious what delayed it considering the strikes only just ended. Did they really only have a couple weeks worth of work left to do or did something else delay it? Or was it delayed so the actors could advertise it before airing?
Edit: Looked it up, yeah, it was strike-related. The show got shelved when it was supposed to be out in September. I have to assume it got shelved so they could have Hamm go on talk shows for it.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Nov 30, 2023

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Turpitude posted:

The last episode was entertaining but nothing actually happened. It was entirely build up for whatever is going to go down in the next one.
Yeah as Prodigy played toward the end I thought to myself "oh they're gonna cliffhanger this and I'm gonna be right about watching anything Noah Hawley makes on a weekly basis" and then I was.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Caesar Saladin posted:

If you look closely, you can see the nipples are definitely stick on nipples.

I definitely didn't look closely though, no way I would do that.
Yeah it got pretty obvious when the lady started playin with 'em and they did not move normal.

CatstropheWaitress posted:

Deputy dipshit is put in charge of a raid on Dots home, is possibly showing up there as is possibly Munch.
FYI Munch is inside the Sheriff's home.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 11:15 on Dec 5, 2023

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Accidental double post.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Fun episode. Only real problems are Dot failing to get a grip on that gun and emptying the whole mag into the wall and redneck guy saying "gently caress it" before trying to shoot. It's all forgivable as "heat of the moment" stuff but when I'm watching a TV show these things stick out to me.

Loved all the speeches. The debt speech, the king speech, and the waste of skin speech. Fargo writing is top notch tonight!

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



I was kind of hoping that Dot going in to see Wayne meant we'd be left with Mom talking to the cop and sussing out what Dot's been up to, with some movement on their plot. Still, though, the scene we did get really made me feel for Wayne... the dumbass...

David Rysdahl as Wayne gives me some kinda vibes... I can't quite place. It might be Mr. Green from Clue or Brad Majors in Rocky Horror. Maybe Rick Moranis's character in Ghostbusters... Anyone else get reminded of someone specific?

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Dec 6, 2023

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



uber_stoat posted:

Dot probably doesn't want to merk someone in front of her family. in addition it would complicate her probably doomed attempts to hang on to her Normal life.
I'm not really convinced of this considering all the guns she wanted to have.

Turpitude posted:

yeah he is very rick moranis from ghost busters or little shop of horrors
Little Shop of Horrors, absolutely!

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 23:18 on Dec 6, 2023

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



JJL needs to just have her own show where she gets to be a badass 24/7. What an insanely amazingly good scene. You really gotta love any form of entertainment that builds up a horrible person then makes you cheer for them.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



CHaKKaWaKka posted:

This was so good.

I'm loving this season so far. I just rewatched all of season 2 inbetween two episodes of season 5 and I miss the insane split screens they did in season 2 but I'm otherwise fully engaged. I love how Danish Graves looks like he finds everything that's been going on very distasteful
Yeah Dave Foley is really killing it with this character. I'm beginning to see Danish Graves instead of Dave Foley With An Eye patch now, so he's really on his A-Game here. If there was anything to nitpick about with this season it's that they seem to be using Hamm as much as they used Olyphant in Season 4, not enough. But I can't really find myself caring enough about that because everyone else is doing such a drat good job and, really, I'll take more JJL than Hamm at this point and I feel like I'm getting it so who am I to complain? The real nitpick is I just wish the episodes were longer, I always feel like I didn't get enough every time an episode ends!

My heart melted when Dorothy said "I love you too" when she picks up Wayne. It's really hard to know what mental faculties he really has here but... it felt so sweet.

"Poop came out!"
"Oooo!"

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 22:22 on Dec 13, 2023

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



CatstropheWaitress posted:

Looking forward to if the Mother-in-Law changes her tone to Dorthy now that she knows the backstory. She's worried about her son foremost, but knowing who she was fleeing from and why might make her more inclined to help. Game see's game kind of thing. Or not.
I think it's very important that the blended "previously on" for this episode included JJL saying "she's a wolf in sheep's clothing, we keep her close for now" as it does indicate JJL could go either way on supporting her. Building up her defensible side in the same episode via the discussion with the bankers before her discussion with Roy, while additionally admitting (something the character does not do) that she was fond of her granddaughter in spite of her previously commenting on her "boyishness," was a great way to sledgehammer home the idea that she actually shares priorities with Dorothy. This is now something that JJL understands (to a point, she doesn't know Roy's reach quite yet) but Dorothy does not. We may come to find that if Dorothy explained her Roy situation with JJL, the entire season could have been avoided.

Yeah, Fargo definitely feels like it's back.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Wafflecopper posted:

I always skip those things, whether it's for a season or just the next ep
I skip them as well but I often wonder how much a showrunner thinks about those things when crafting their show. I like to believe they don't think about them at all and some editor has to deal with that later on but considering how often I've heard of shows completely misrepresenting their upcoming episodes via those previews, I can't help but think some folks have them in mind as they create the show.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



limp dick calvin posted:

I like the Columbo intros that make it seem he’s gonna get murdered
Oh my god I remember this. That classic music playing, Columbo opening a door with a surprised look on his face, someone shooting a gun. I only ever saw this stuff in my grade school years, can't remember a lick of it, and I still feel like that's half the show's openings.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



gently caress me what a good episode. I was girding for annoyance after they literally put Trump on the TV (a move that made Mr. Robot turn into a poo poo show) but the way it was used for this show ended up being more "yeah that's about right" instead of "tee hee we put Trump in our show." I've wondered what Wayne's father is like and seeing that he's just a drunk manchild explains exactly how Wayne got the way he did. It took until the "how we're alike" speech to realize why they held off showing him for so long. I was actually clapping when Lorraine said, "come work for me." I'm such a sucker for that poo poo. Finally, the extreme whiplash of laughing at the bank guy getting Lorraine's phone call to her cold, dead stare at the camera cutting to black actually made me emotional. What a finely directed scene. This season is just so good I'm really hoping it wraps up appropriately well.

I think my only complaint is the CGI'd bullet hole in the back of the guy's head. It's mis-shaded so it looks bad in the dark.

Thing I'll take away from this season and never forget: The way Munch approaches wonder boy.
https://i.imgur.com/aVo8uUB.mp4

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



CatstropheWaitress posted:

Dot might win, but Fargo has a wonky karma. Generally points towards the heroes, but wobbles. Thinking Bilbo's wife in the first season, Swango's fate in the third. Hope she does.
There's still some slight "they got themselves into their fate" karma for both of those, with Bilbo's wife being a power-sucker and Swango helping with blackmail (I will be honest that I forget so much of Season 3 there's probably more Swango did). Not that either of those deserve the punishments they received but Fargo is, if anything, not about squeaky clean characters. Dot's case is defensible because her collateral damage is mainly just Wayne, everyone else had it coming in their own Fargo-esque way. Poor Wayne, though. The only thing he failed at was understanding his wife... who pretty much forced him into the situation in the first place. Plus, let's face it, this TV show isn't going to show us imagery of a beaten woman, cut to black with text about calling help centers if you're suffering abuse, then end on having Dot somehow "lose." If anything, that last shot cemented for me that she's safe and I now have very little expectation of her coming out of this poorly.

I'm really super curious how golf husband is gonna end. In some way I want Indira to do it but there's no way Fargo would have the primary cop go darkside like that.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 12:25 on Dec 23, 2023

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Open Source Idiom posted:

I don't see the sympathy people have for Lorraine, I must admit.
I don't think I've seen a single person sympathize with Lorraine. We can cheer for her when she does a good thing but I don't think anyone's absolving her from the evil she commits.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Between the FBI, Lorraine's security detail, and Roy's militia, I expect something crazy to happen as some combination of those three square off.

New episode just hit so I'm spoiler tagging: I leapt out of my chair with excitement when I accidentally mis-identified Linda as being played by Rhea Seehorn. Episode is dark as gently caress, possibly a little too dark for my entertainment tastes, but the sense of dread I got at the very end - as soon as the nurse said they got Dot's husband - was incredibly palpable. The fact it basically took a deus ex machina of sorts to come to this point kinda blows and the quick cut between CGI car crash to practical effect stunt fall felt like it could've been done better. I'm very thankful this and the previous episode were not both cut in half and mixed together for "we're missing the main character for an entire episode" reasons. Both definitely needed their time to breath and it worked out well.

One thing that's super confusing me: Dot fell asleep in the diner and then went to find the letter from Linda with Camp Utopia on it. Since she dreamt all of that up, it means we still have no idea what her actual plan was. And now we'll probably never know. That's... annoying.


Next episode can't hit soon enough.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Dec 27, 2023

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Open Source Idiom posted:

random "that's capitalism!" car dealer guy who spent way too long underlining themes. Yeah, we got what was going on guys, you can be less broad.
This one gets a pass for me because if it was any shorter, I would've thought the guy gave up way too quickly. Its length might be worse for TV reasons but for immersion reasons it stuck the landing for me.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



ChesterJT posted:

Why wouldn't that still have been her plan?
I forgot to respond to this but in her dream she goes to the windmill, finds a postcard saying "I'm sorry -Linda" with Linda's location on it on the back. Which means her actual, awake plan was "go to a windmill and hope for a secret message to be there." That's a pretty lovely plan, which is why I don't think that would "still have been her plan." Mind you, I like the consideration that perhaps she wasn't "dreaming" but was instead "visiting the afterlife" to reconcile with the person she believes started her awful journey, so I am in no way trying to say I dislike the framing the show is using... I just simply wonder what her real plan was since that postcard is very likely non-existent. Never mind the how/why she knows to check under the windmill for a secret message from Linda.

And just to reiterate, I'm not trying to poorly watch TV here. I really enjoy the dreamlike nature of finding a secret message and following it to a retreat and fighting your inner demons with puppets to successfully communicate to the audience your horrible backstory. I'm just idly wondering out loud.

Also wanna add that complicating the Gator character like this really is saddening because he's definitely going to bite it before the show is over. Either that or he does Roy in in a moment of pre-death clarity like Darth Vader throwing Palpatine in a pit.

DaveKap fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Dec 28, 2023

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Open Source Idiom posted:

I figured she fell asleep at the wheel and the entire episode was a dream, like one of those dreams where you dream about waking up but you're still asleep. Helped me understand the random truck bit a bit better too, since it's not a random truck ploughing into a bunch of strangers, it's Dot's mind rationalising a head on collision.

I dunno if it ultimately matters much though.
I actually went back to re-check what the nurse said because I thought this same thing. It makes a lot more sense than a truck randomly plowing into a pit stop. The nurse simply says "you bumped your head" and "nobody else was brought in" so the possibility exists (why wouldn't the truck driver be brought in?) but the problem is this leaves "she fell asleep at the wheel" in a really odd spot of revelation for a weeklong break. Then I reference the "Noah Hawley stuff is better binged" thing I don't stop talking about (sorry!) and yeah, she probably fell asleep at the wheel and woke up in her dream from another dream.

Or we're just over-analyzing and this is simply the weakpoint of the season that doesn't matter because it's just being used as a transition.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Yeah it feels way more Fargo-y that Linda's dead and Dot's dreamland was pure wish fulfilment because nobody's ever had her back.
Which is gonna make it all the sweeter/sourer when she does/n't discover Lorraine has her back.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Hughmoris posted:

I've been avoiding the thread for fear of spoilers but how is this new season? Comparable to seasons 1 and 2?
100% yes

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply