Quote:
Originally Posted by lonely_but_rich
That was some good television right there. Nuni losing his mind over some weird guy he worked with not trying to maximize viewer numbers or whatever is pretty entertaining as well.
lol on both accounts. One, that was not good television largely due to how long the sequence was. Two, I'm actually rooting for the guy to succeed, and am not trying to have him maximize viewers. His viewers were maximized last year, and that low viewership still gave him good results. Now, he appears to be actively trying to turn off nearly every viewer watching the show (I have a good sample size that its biggest fans will have screennames that end in "zak", not sure how he tapped into that crowd). Some people are into watching the most polarizing stuff they can find, you're one of them.
With each week, i think it can't get worse from an accessibility standpoint. But each week there is something new, and this was that on 10. We're in the YouTube generation. The average YouTube video probably has around 2 or 3 minutes before it's clicked away from by most people, no matter how good it is. The core audience of this show is that exact generation. You're going to tell me they want to watch a 17 minute lame azz comedy parody with a straight face? If so, come on. Unfortunately, this is like taking a nuclear warhead and dropping it on his foot. This show has practically zero dramatic tension, because of stuff like this. Some people on this forum don't get the difference between letting a show be itself (Hannibal season 2), and just completely giving up editorial responsibility (Hannibal season 3, Mr. Robot) to make a show/story tight. What you're seeing is probably similar to what a Stephen King book would look like without editing. If you're okay with that, good on you, but you are in an extreme minority. It's almost like the show is above criticism for you, and I'm sorry to say there is a lot to criticize in the last several weeks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zikzak
Sure it can. They could make it straightforward thriller that appeals to the lowest common denominator and strip away everything that makes it unique and interesting. Networks do that all the time. If that's the only way we get a Season 3, I'd prefer to not have one.
I think you know that's not at all what I meant. You're gonna get a season 3, because this show was nominated for an Emmy for best drama series (it would be unprecedented for a show to get canceled right after a nomination, though Sam appears to like to break all kinds of molds after he steals what he wants from them). What that season is going to be is anyone's guess. I always assumed USA was going all in with Sam this season to let him spread his wings, but I don't think anyone could have anticipated what we're seeing. There is no editorial pen or knife being wielded over there (if there actually is, lol).
What essentially happened at the beginning of that episode was the equivalent (sorry for dumbing it down for the masses) of having a complex and dark movie jarringly put in a 17 minute cheesy cartoon parody right after the conclusion of the most dramatic moment. A "joke" I frequently make after watching dark movies is "I can't wait to see the outtakes after the credits". This was that "joke" realized times 100 (short dose good, long dose bad). Anyone who was on board with the idea with any sense of editorial pen or knife would have loved that idea as a pre-title cold open type of thing with the exact same message. As a 17 minute, oh we gotta protect poor wittle Ewwiot's brain from pain (while dropping a few future plot point bits), it was basically masturbatory filmmaking that could have gotten the same point across in basically 3 or 4 minutes. I seriously was beginning to think they ran out of money and this was their way out, but discounted that because the episode's run time was fairly close to the same length an hour long show would have been without that 17 minute sequence added.