Yikes hoya, that is not the way to go after the best character on the show by far.

That is, possibly, not a positive for the show.

hoya with some takes

Also how you gonna roll into some journalist's apartment, beat him up, and then the story dies. That makes literally no sense.

It was the first of a series.. Presumably this was to stop future pieces, out of fear of worse than a beating.

I have concerns for the series, but VINCE or COLIN aren't one of them.

And kudos to you for knowing cities in Los Angeles County.

Hoya it's possible to make anything sound stupid when you phrase things the stupidest way possible. Get a brain, you moran.

I mean, I don't know. Could go two ways. Perhaps you beat up the dude and steal his laptop and notes, and that means ALL HIS EVIDENCE IS GONE and ALL HIS WRITING IS GONE and he can NEVER POSSIBLY GET IT BACK, and you therefore stopped the pieces. Or, on the other hand, perhaps beating up an investigative journalist and jacking his notes, etc., is a pretty good way to generate MOAR NEWZ about a Vinci investigative journalist getting jumped in his home for doing investigative journalism about Vinci.

Seems legit.

Think I was pretty fair.

Eh, at the very least introducing Ani with a somewhat clouded discussion of her sexual preferences and having her freak out at sex workers later on should at least spark something in your mind that they're not just making a hot woman talk about ****ing to get off. There was a lot of sexual dysfunction in this episode and we already know that a woman that apparently has some issues in that area is going to be working with a dude who has his own issues in the area.

I mean yeah if none of this gets woven into the plot in a relevant way and it's revealed to just be gratuitous by the end of the season then those scenes will be very laughable, but for now it's whatever to just lay into them.

Hoya's post reads like he's getting worked by all the things the show did to work people. When a show had a first season as good as TDs was, shouldn't you be willing to give the creators a little credit when you see something obviously dumb? Like maybe it's the characters that are dumb and not the plotting. Maybe we don't have a clear picture of what's going on. There's a reason we didn't see what happened in the apartment.

From some of the reviews I've read, my guess is that the McAdams stuff is mostly supposed to suggest she has a more typically male approach to sex and that a lot of her story is going to be how a woman works in this very masculine world. That's the odd shot of the full men's locker room and her changing alone. (and her paternal approach to her sister)

The paternity question, when the other donor would have be the guy who raped her, seems like one that's reasonable to elicit a response from a drunk with anger issues. He's paying the lawyer in cash because it's money from Vince that he can't deposit I assume.

Thought TD had an amazing premiere. Really looking forward to the rest of the season.

Exactly

lolled at this

serious hot takes tho.

i didn't tink it was great but i also didnt think it was that bad, lol.

Actually, a lot of the notable scenes were in Ventura County (Ani is a Ventura County Sheriff and the rock at the end is by Point Mugu (Camarillo / Oxnard)).

Perhaps my takes are overly hot, I'll rewatch.

if you hated it that much why the hell would you rewatch it!?!?!

It's possible that I was in a judgmental mood or something. I don't generally disagree with the approximate consensus on what is good / bad in here.

It's also possible I'll come back with increased hotness of takes, I'll attempt to not be annoying in that case.

your takes and criticisms are fine Hoya
the show looks like it'll be alright, but nothing special
worse than S1 mostly because MM & Woody are around

and it'll probably be the best thing in their summer Sunday block, both Ballers & The Brink were pretty meh

At least the lawyer was portrayed well. Stupid and clueless about people yet willing to take that sweet cash.

ootv is so painfully bad

i did just find out that ricky on ballers is denzel washington's son.

+1 to Hoya's judgement being pretty much on point

I think your takes were reasonable and enhanced the discussion.

I very much hope dids is wrong about the show "working" viewers, as that was pretty much what happened with s1 finale and why it was a disaster. I don't want to be worked.

But I agree with dids that maybe the plotting isn't dumb, but the characters are. We shall see.

That's disappointing. I thought he did a pretty horrible job.

I'm using "working" in the sense where the emotional response/frustration at the characters you're having to the characters is intentional. Not suggesting they're deliberately misleading the audience.

I think the S1 finale was less than it could have been because of the stupid slasher movie stuff. Not sure what exactly kc is suggesting, but I do think a lot of people more into solving TV shows (the Lostifiication of TV) than watching them misread a ton.

Biggest concern with Ballers is that The Rock's supporting cast don't seem to have any comedic or acting chops. Not even the unintentionally funny/bad drama/turtle chops.

The only one who seemed decent was Ricky's agent.

Also, best line of the week was "if it drives, flies, floats, or ****s...lease it"