One More on the Telly: Page 220 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

One More on the Telly

Qwiss

Burnwinter Matsson is great. Skarsgard is such perfect casting too. Charisma, menace and pathetic desperation all in one small guest role.

Burnwinter

Qwiss One of the refined pleasures of Alexander Skarsgård as an actor (somewhat true of his TRUE BLOOD character too, though I never finished that show) is that he's irritatingly physically perfect and handsome—with adherence to all the dreariest conventions of beauty—from the outset, so when he plays some flawed arsehole it's all grimly accentuated by a factor. I find it funny they've got him playing a character whose personal life sounds like Armie Hammer's, though …

Daz

I've been binging it over the past couple of weeks and am now up to date with the latest season. It really has been a great show full of fantastic (yet horrid) characters, complex and evolving relationships, well crafted dialogue and sharp humour. Definitely one of the best and most consistent series I've seen. I will be very interested to see where it goes over the last episodes and how it ends.

Daz

Burnwinter yeah I agree with this take entirely. Curious to know a bit more about what you mean by 'violent' though?

Burnwinter

Daz Curious to know a bit more about what you mean by 'violent' though?

Well, it's hilariously interpersonally violent (in that expanded sense of "violence" beloved of humanities postgraduates and dickheads like me). I remember thinking during the birthday party episode (season three, no spoilers) "wow, this is the most densely vicious hour of drama I can recall, something utterly horrible has been said or done pretty much once a minute" …

QuincyAbeyie

Gazza M glad they did before the merger. The best action choreography on TV by far (especially after Gareth Evans left Gangs of London).

Daz

Burnwinter yeah gotcha. The other related thing that stands out to me is just how relentless and consuming their competition and performativity is. Like you never get the sense that they can ever really relax or enjoy the moment, despite ( or perhapsa because of) their extreme material and societal privileges. Even when they're at swank parties, lounging on super yachts or attending opulent corporate retreats, they remain consumed by the power game.
A clear theme of the show is obviously a basic one about extreme wealth not equalling happiness.

Qwiss

Burnwinter yeah thats it. And there is always an underlying menace with him too, going right back to True Blood. I thought his character in Big Little Lies was absolutely perfect as well. He just plays that handsome, charming near ideal man with a terrible underlying, usually violent, character flaw so perfectly.

Burnwinter

Qwiss Come to think of it, all four (is that all?) of the Skarsgårds who act do their impression of "menacing charm" better than any other emotion. Their Christmas Eves must be pretty scary.

Daz

Qwiss Don't forget Tarzan too

QuincyAbeyie

Daz that's the worst movie I've ever watched in the cinema.

QuincyAbeyie

Succession going from strength to strength, although I

obviously wished that Ken's presentation would be an absolute clusterfuck. Nice subverting of my expectations though.
You know, one thing trash CW shows etc. do all the time is to change which characters you're rooting for, because they just make them act out of character whenever they feel like it. Succession does the same without having them act out of character, and it's really refreshing. After the season 2's finale I wanted Kendall to actually accomplish something, then I was sad because it all just petered out in season 3
-> then happy because the siblings got together, then sad because Logan tricked all of them
-> and now that he's out of the way I just want Kendall and Roman to fuck up badly because they're so useless.!<

Edit: Don't do paragraph breaks inside spoiler tags.

Burnwinter

Yeah I hear last episode has been judged the worst of the season, but it was excellent despite that. Slightly slower pace of conflicts and twists, but with a nice swoop from Kendall getting fucked over to Kendall triumphant. I've always been a "Team Kendall" viewer of the show and it was oddly satisfying that he got to have his one pure moment of victory swimming out alone into the ocean, finally have done the one thing he has always been obsessed with—kicked arse and destroyed his enemies as Waystar CEO.

I'm equally certain that by the time the show ends Kendall will have been horribly crushed at least once, and we'll have had it demonstrated that wanting to be CEO of Waystar is an incredibly foolhardy notion, but still …

Qwiss

Burnwinter I don't think that was the worst of the season at all. Really great episode where everyone got some great moments.

Roman losing the plot and firing everyone was great. They are all little pieces of their father and maybe together they could potentially be as good at being a ruthless business arsehole but they can't work together and that's what'll take them down. Or maybe it wont, this shows not always that predictable.

I'm really starting to despise Tom too. I never liked him that much even though he's probably the funniest character on the show but he's certainly the most shallow and self serving and thats saying something. And he's always being horrible to Greg who's the only person on the show to ever show even the slightest hint of humanity in the face of the awful shit they get up to.

Oh and the ending, wasn't there an episode I think last season, maybe the one before where theres a lot of stuff hinting at Kendalls death and possible suicide that has him floating drunk in the pool sort of like a dead body. Thought the end of this was calling back to that. I know the suicide stuff has been hinted at all along but I wonder if it has more to with the guy dying in the river coming back to haunt him.

Burnwinter

Qwiss

Talked about it a bit up thread but I don't think there can be doubt that Kendall's big moment and his GATTACA style existential beach swim were intended to make us feel like his plot armour may be gone. Likely a red herring: giving Kendall some sort of Hamletesque tragic fate to end the show isn't inventive enough, and it grants the Roys a special status which has never been the point.

I reckon we'll see a bit of Stewie and Sandy, the Pierces coming back into the mix as part of a Fall of the House of Roy plotline that starts off with some big tragedy or hammer blow, a moment of catharsis, but deviates into utter cynicism.

I can imagine the final scenes including Matsson walking into the big office at ATN after some creepy act, then taking a call from the President to shore up that relationship ...

Big Willie

Just finished watching Sons of Anarchy. Pretty decent show although some of the high stakes stuff from season 4 or 5 onwards seemed very OTT. Enjoyable watch regardless.

RocktheCasbah

Very late to it, but started watching Fringe last night. It's like the X Files but with a bigger budget, nice to see Anna Torv heading something up and Lance Reddick (RIP) doing Lance Reddick things. Definitely intrigued enough to keep going.

Asterix

RocktheCasbah if you like Anna try to find an Aussie show from last year called The Newsreader. She's great in it.

Burnwinter

Latest SUCCESSION was quite brutal, definitely cutting the comedy in favour of harsh reality. No idea how they'll end it now though—I feel like it might be a bit of a fizzer actually.

RocktheCasbah

Burnwinter finished watching it about half hour ago and Jo and I have barely spoken to each other since. It was almost a horror movie...

Daz

Burnwinter for me that episode was an intentional reminder that every character is an absolute shit bag of a human.

QuincyAbeyie

Burnwinter No idea how they'll end it now though—I feel like it might be a bit of a fizzer actually.

I thought the same thing at the time, but after this week's episode I've changed my mind again.

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