Quote:
Originally Posted by Everytime
River is pretty good on netflix
Very good I say!
I watched this over the weekend and first of all (serious rambling and ratings ahead you have now been warned) outstanding acting throughout especially from Skarsgaard in the lead but from virtually everyone else also.
It's wonderfully slow placed, moody and dark in its storytelling and in investigating the crime-mystery itself, and that without getting too caught up in typical crime-genre conventions and whodunnit mechanisms which for all I know could have made those story elements more smooth or polished but more than that (and not taking away from that) it's about looking into the emotional depth of these characters and their stories and I should say before I paint some false picture of doom, all gloom and pure grief that it's very often with more than a hint (in Skarsgaard's face and delivery for starters) of great (dark) humor. I laughed out loud many times and overall this series while thankfully striving to achieve actual art and appeal to the adult mind its creative choices and directions big and small are made to work brilliantly I think culminating in the inspired ending to great effect.
So yeah getting topical and in clear danger of needlessly putting them up against each other because most people will like Fargo more (and many would like both) but I actually like River better than Fargo and they're tough to compare of course, very different and I only bring it up because Fargo is what everyone everywhere is talking positive about, and this is very much a taste issue but after the previous episode (ep 7) I reached an unexpected point I guess creeping up on me where currently closing in on 20 hours of Fargo the tv show became too many empty calories.
I'm entertained of course + acknowledge what strongly seems like zero missteps or false notes being played throughout and very possibly a strong Fargo finish will interject away at that
felt emptiness and I guess actually make me care about these, admittingly fun figures, but I don't know, nothing seems to truly be at stake (anymore?) with these characters, it's drowned in something else, and too much of what takes place is mostly just well polished bs (Coen inspired bs - it's not a disaster and fun to play with) without any real edge or dare I say Coen-depth.
It's not that I don't think that it has been a perfectly fine show, plenty creative too but it has suddenly left me full of empty and so far at least, I don't think it's 9/10, 10/10 or near any GOAT discussion.
Fargo s.2 so far: 7/10
River: 8/10
Thinking of some others tv series, I guess that River is a little bit the best things from something like Top of the Lake and Happy Valley + some nordic noir thrown in (but done better!). Basically a combination of these without the lesser parts.
Among the writer Abi Morgan's works it was also interesting to see the film Shame there and while the Skarsgaard and Fassbender characters are very much not alike the maturity and depth of the character study and their different stories are excellently done.
Finally now that I'm here and well underway I like rating things so here are other somewhat recent shows that I've watched:
Fargo s1 7.5/10
Show Me a Hero 6/10
True Detective s1: 8.5/10
True Detective s2: 7.5/10
Game of Thrones 6.5/10
Hannibal s1 and 2: 6/10
Halt and Catch Fire s1: 7.5/10
The Americans 7.5/10
Better Call Saul 7.5/10
The Jinx 8/10
Daredevil 5.5/10
Jessica Jones 5 eps in: 4.5/10
Happy Valley 6/10
Top of the Lake 7/10
The Fall s1: 3.5/10
Sherlock 8/10
Mad Men (I stopped after season 4 for some reason): 8.5/10
I should say (if some of those seem very harsh) that I rate tv and movies together so for an example (and in comparison) they're up against the likes of Vertigo 10/10, Rushmore 9.5/10, Fish Tank 9/10, Gone Girl 8.5/10, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 8/10, Frank 7.5/10, Interstellar 7/10, Edge of Tomorrow 6/10, Stoker 2/10, A Million Ways to die in the West 1/10!
Last edited by Bjørn; 11-29-2015 at 09:24 PM.