Philaflava.com ::

I have no idea why I stuck this show out. Seriously. There's no reason.

Pizzo should really be taken to court for ripping off of James Ellroy in such obvious ways. And if you are going to shamelessly rip someone off, you should at least do it well. This season was just a sad example of a average writer, trying to ape his heroes style and failing miserably. How can he get away with it?

Finale was the only episode of the entire season that gave me actual anxiety. Vaughn rules. Farrell fails. Both of their characters behaved inexplicably retarded here.

For all its serious flaws, I still enjoyed watching this season. I even heard an old guy at a family bbq in NJ say he liked it better than the first season. Did not engage him in discussion. Fucking Jersey.

2nd half definitely was better and kind of redeemed the show. For as long as this took to produce, it really had way to many flaws. Maybe he gets it together for the next run.

I gotta think they do a complete overhaul next time around. This season has been pretty widely disliked by fans. I bet they actually do a lot better with whatever season 3 is (assuming that happens).

This shit was the absolute worst. Fucking dreadful.

Would be a riot, and after this season it seems possible/plausible, if they did S3 without Pizza. He's probably smart/douchy enough to make sure the show is contractually obligated include him somehow, but maybe they can just pay him the producer royalties or whatever without letting him touch the thing. I'm kinda hoping that's how it goes actually, he confirmed himself to be a detriment to the franchise definitively this season.

battlecatmeowstab212 wrote:This shit was the absolute worst. Fucking dreadful.

I fully agree, but I know I'll watch another season if it happens.

I'm sorry, I'm really confused with that ending. Are they like a lesbian parenting couple with an autistic nanny? I seriously don't get it.

Faggots.

As hacky as the final was, you can't deny it was a bit of an adrenaline rush. The final quarter of the series was very watchable, and dare I say somewhat enjoyable? Doesn't excuse some of the most ridiculous scenes or the clusterfuck plot-line, but it wasn't horrible. Let's not act like the finale in the first season wasn't hacky at the end either.

Yeah the last episodes were definitely better. I'm kinda disappointed they didn't explore the mystical and occult themes more though, like Pizza originally promised when he said the show would be about the 'occult history of the US transportation system'. Instead he ditched that so he could allegedly focus more on 'character development' but that isn't his forte.

yeah, it would have been interesting with more of a focus on the whole meditation retreat, bohemian grove, weird psychotherapist/plastic surgeon type characters and ideas. that therapist guy and bezzerides' father were some of the more compelling characters/actors and they got sidelined. also i thought the mayor's pimp son was charismatic in that one scene where he switched accents. they could have used him more as a slimy, suave, underworld villain type with increased screen time. totally didn't make sense that he was voted mayor in the finale, that's just dumb.

I think if they stuck Pizza in a writers room, instead of allowing some of his terrible ideas and lines to go unchecked might be a good thing.

I thought it was hilarious how the women of the show seemed to telepathically know when their boyfriends died.

djjeffresh wrote: totally didn't make sense that he was voted mayor in the finale, that's just dumb.

nah, that's legit, actually one of the few things that worked well imo (although I wouldlve liked more screen time devoted to it too) it's mentioned several times that this family has been running Vinci like a dynasty for a few generations, and this is a pretty classic succession scenario - the prince secures his own power base, gets rid of his father who is now in the way and falling out of touch, and becomes the next king

Philaflava wrote:As hacky as the final was, you can't deny it was a bit of an adrenaline rush. The final quarter of the series was very watchable, and dare I say somewhat enjoyable? Doesn't excuse some of the most ridiculous scenes or the clusterfuck plot-line, but it wasn't horrible. Let's not act like the finale in the first season wasn't hacky at the end either.

But the final quarter did the cheap Dexter thing where the last 5-10 minutes created this artificial tension to get you to turn into the next episode while the first 45 contained one or two arguments with yelling between characters you haven't seen yell at each other to simulate actual dramatic moments.

The series' highlight for me (outside the action) was the scooby doo sex party, which was probably the cheapest and yet best built moment of tension in all eight episodes. Nothing else really touched it.

Highlight of the season was easily Ferrel Telling that kid he's chop his moms head of and fuck his dad in the ass with it on their front lawn. Nothing even came close to that.

better tits and ass in season 1

and better plot, acting, dialogue, story, direction, etc etc etc

Blockhead wrote:Highlight of the season was easily Ferrel Telling that kid he's chop his moms head of and fuck his dad in the ass with it on their front lawn. Nothing even came close to that.

Forgot about that, probably because it was casually referenced once in an offhand comment the following episode and then never brought up again.

What an awful show.

drizzle wrote:

djjeffresh wrote: totally didn't make sense that he was voted mayor in the finale, that's just dumb.

nah, that's legit, actually one of the few things that worked well imo (although I wouldlve liked more screen time devoted to it too) it's mentioned several times that this family has been running Vinci like a dynasty for a few generations, and this is a pretty classic succession scenario - the prince secures his own power base, gets rid of his father who is now in the way and falling out of touch, and becomes the next king

ok, i guess. on a related note, i found this:

I'm so disappointed. This show basically gave me blue balls.

Like all, I was so excited for this season even knowing who the cast was. I even forgave a lot of nonsense in the beginning(as proven by my previous post in this threadl

360 wrote:This show basically gave me blue balls.

Did it feel like blue balls in your heart?

Kace wrote:

360 wrote:This show basically gave me blue balls.

Did it feel like blue balls in your heart?

just heard that this guy was played by rocker rick springfield

You didn't happen to hear the same rumor I did? Ray Velcoro was actually played by Colin Farrell. Shit is cray.

the way frank and colin went out was highly disappointing. The finale wasn't terrible but it left you feeling unsatisfied. it's tough to follow season 1 and the critics will bitch because that's what they do, but the season was good, not great but definitely worth watching

capable_keL wrote:the way frank and colin went out was highly disappointing. The finale wasn't terrible but it left you feeling unsatisfied. it's tough to follow season 1 and the critics will bitch because that's what they do, but the season was good, not great but definitely worth watching

What was good about this season?

there was actually a ton of good ideas in this season, but it was unfortunately buried under a bigger pile of bad ideas and shitty execution

i keep wondering how far into the script, and maybe even the shooting, they got before nixing out the 'occult history of california' roadways thing. a lot of this shit makes more sense with it in mind as an intended goal, and you can see signifiers of it all over the early episodes - the skeleton and book at Caspere's house, the bird mask and the ritualistic way Caspere was killed etc... even the constant floating shots of intertwined highways are suggestive of that direction, and are very possibly a reference to the shots of powerlines in Twin Peaks (which were eventually given a specific plot significance in Fire Walk With Me).... and by extension, how much of the dumb convolution of the plot as we saw it was a result of trying to cover the holes left by the occult idea and add new elements to make up for it

capable_keL wrote:the way frank and colin went out was highly disappointing. The finale wasn't terrible but it left you feeling unsatisfied. it's tough to follow season 1 and the critics will bitch because that's what they do, but the season was good, not great but definitely worth watching

everyone is entitled to their opinion, but i think the critics bitched about this season because the season was lackluster in almost every possible way... and when you compare it to last season it looks even worse

imagine if season 2 aired before season 1... i would have been done after 2 episodes

all that said, im on board for season 3 if it happens... but ONLY off the strength of the first season

s1 - some of the best dramatic TV of all time... especially the directing and acting
s2 - i cant think of 1 thing they did exceptionally well...