"It's essentially a six hour lecture on zoning regulations" - David Simon's Show Me A Hero

he takes overacting to a level I didn't think possible.

Did you watch that footage of the real Sussman upthread? He's dead-on!

he overacts on the walking dead and in fury (which he's still good in)...what he's doing here isn't overacting like at all

isaac & molina are so good in this

i liked these pts 3/4 more than 1/2, more bureaucratic that's my vibe

everyone who missed it go watch hbo miniseries olive kitteridge - cholodenko, jenkins, mcdormand etc btw

first impression: i wish this was more like this thread title makes it out to be, a six-hour lecture on zoning regulations. i watched the first episode and every time he wanted to show that politicians were arguing they would all just shout over each other incomprehensibly, shot of oscar isaac looking unsure of what to do, someone bangs gavel... like ok

you can watch local public access if you're after the acual 6 hour zoning meetings

i really like this, even with some of the hammier elements.

molina as spallone too, damn what a shitlord that character is. molina kills it

also sidebar: marvelling at how oscar isaac can wear the ugliest clothes with the worst hair & mustache & still be 100% eyes-turned-into-hearts

I feel like the hair/makeup/costumes in this are a little bit school playish, can't quite put my finger on why.

Keener is by far the most obvious victim there

I think this is wonderful, but it'd be great if even just one of the residents were a fraction as developed as the politicians. Or maybe they could have cut a few of the residents to consolidate screen time and give the others beefier storylines? The 47-year-old woman with eye problems aside, they all come across more like wet blankets than real people in need

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_8Q7xbQSDU

there were like 57 springsteen montages in eps 3 and 4! "secret garden" was an odd choice.

i also wish the project residents were given more depth, but this

The 47-year-old woman with eye problems aside, they all come across more like wet blankets than real people in need

― Evan R, Tuesday, August 25, 2015 12:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

does not seem true to me. for one thing i kind of hate the teenage girl who got pregnant and then her boyfriend got arrested. she's a p fucking realistic teenager afaic.

also the dominican mom running onto the plane chute thingy to greet her kids!

yeah i kinda like the ppl

i also really love that they're all women. contrasts with all the white men in the council chambers deciding their fates

for one thing i kind of hate the teenage girl who got pregnant and then her boyfriend got arrested. she's a p fucking realistic teenager afaic.

yea i like this plotline

did you guys catch Namond from the Wire as the bored caseworker for the crack mom? took me a minute

i really like that character, even though the crack turn felt a bit paint by numbers. but her relationship with her boyfriend before he died was so cute & real, and that scene with her dad buying her groceries was so sad

OMG YES NAMOND! i had a really intense i know that kid reaction to that actor's face and then when i realized it was namond i kind of flipped the fuck out. wire season four kids, man. i feel like they're real.

yeah the junkie mom storyline is heartbreaking. i get really vocal when she's onscreen, like call your dad! or the scene when he finds the drugs at her house i was yelling, "take her with you!"

also i liked the scene between the dominican mom and her boss's wife

yeah dominican mom gets to me, such a rough life

and she looks like coco from fame <3

finally got to ep 3 and def think it's getting better

goddamnit I knew right away it was a bad idea to leak the poll numbers!

I was psyched to hear a snatch of Rollin With Kid n Play in one of the project scenes

kid w/ poodle lady scene was v nice

so sad. Nay is the cutest

y'all spot Orlando from the wire?

I feel like aside from actors there has kinda been some wire fan bait in this show -- the pager in the opening sequence, and then "re-up" and "fucked up the count" turning up early in the first ep. I don't know if that's some kind of hackneyed, meta statement about the game not changing from place to place and time to time, but it's dumb.

...i think the pager is bc its the 80s and the slang is because that slang (maybe not reup specifically but definitely "the count") is bc its the 80s

Lotta hackneyed dialogue in the final two. Felt especially lecture-y. Still liked the series overall, but my wife and I were giving each other "we get it" looks all through the episode.

i havent read the book, but i get the impression that the story a book is able to tell--the level of detail and digression and backstory--makes for a much richer experience than the condensed, yes rather lecture-y but even worse sorta dramatically inert, narrative television show that this became.

I don't like Paul Haggis but I also think the story just doesn't make great drama without a lot of license being taken, and I do think they do a good job of trying to stick to a fair and factual retelling of what happened. The project character narratives get a little more interesting than they start out, but still have a b-level TV movie feel to them. Telling the story of a housing ordinance is kind of a novel idea, but telling the story of the struggles of certain poor and working class people as a mere vehicle for showing what the purpose of the housing was is kind of flat. Immigrant mother not sure whether it's better here or back in DR, daughter from good parents struggling with drug addiction to disappointment of dad, etc., all stories told many times, not that they can't be told richly, like any one of the characters could be the subject of a well-done movie, but here they don't develop too far beyond being types.

I enjoy the way each successive mayor gets elected by promising the same thing and then gets voted out for failing to deliver the same promised thing (I haven't watched the end yet, but Spallone was also a one-term mayor for the same reason as his predecessors).

this was outstanding

I watched pt 5 last night, will finish pt 6 tonight

Guys, I know it's a bit heavy handed & corny in places but I love this. I loved the lottery and the bus ride to see the new houses & just...idk....these pencil sketches of people's lives, it's really moving

When the crack mom starts her first tenant's meeting with her dream of daycare and the young woman goes in hard about her drain being clogged and she just dies a little on the spot...it was so small but it just felt so true & real

and the blind woman "look what you've done with your meddling"

these pencil sketches of people's lives, it's really moving

otm

finished it yday...ultimately think it's pretty great, possibly the best non-wire david simon project altho neck and neck w/ generation kill for that honor

VG idk if you know historically what the ending is but if not, steel yrself its rough

(i didnt know bc i was six weeks to six years old during the 87-93 time span of this series, deliberately avoided wikipedia-ing)

i already knew going in :(

9/11 happens at the end

unorthodox rezoning technique

it's what happens when the liberals win, truly tragic

thats what reagan warned us about isnt it, shit

Also Omar shows up, and then dies.

Then Longo has several councilmen killed off, dissolves the municipal government, and crowns himself emperor, presiding over 30 years of darkness.

nulty faked the whole thing

this is still sitting on my dvr but there was a good men in blazers w/ simon this week

great final ep but ughhhhhhh so sad

wasicsko's sobbing breakdown :/

i thought for a moment they wouldnt show it but then

i cried for 20 solid minutes

yeah it was rough :(

Slayed me.

can we get Oscar an Emmy plz thx