Michael "Omar" Kenneth "Little" Williams, Steve Buscemi, and ehhhhh Michael Pitt in Martin Scorsese's BOARDWALK EMPIRE

Brian Jonestown Massacre gets some $$$$

― Stockhausen's Helicopter Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Thursday, October 21, 2010 6:17 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

is that who that is

hate the credits but <3 the tune

have been kinda shocked by some of the violence. capone with the shotgun & g-man guttin the blown open guy both stuck around in my head longer than i would have liked.

I'm digging how the storytelling is very straightforward and unpretentious.

― A brownish area with points (chap), Monday, October 25, 2010 4:04 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark

yeah im really digging that the shots are in focus and the actors remembered their lines

The sex scenes in this are ridiculous.

I love it when they show people boning in the middle of a scene-establishing pan.

it is v violent yeah, pearl getting her face cut was a bit "oh jaysus" as well

that and a certain pool cue scene in sons of anarchy s2 filled my wincing quota for the week

thinking of omar's lynching story and the cunny story this week: in both cases, two of three lines in i am bored, i can see the punchline but i feel like i've got to sit through another minute of "aria" writing to get to it, i don't believe the other character's reaction, and i'm thinking about the writer not the show. it's shitty writing that ruins suspension of disbelief. i don't have a problem with speeches in drama per se. maybe these two just sucked.

did michael pitt have one to the his prostitute gf last week too? i don't remember that one bothering me. maybe it was just those two.

i liked the omar story...i agree it was obvious where it was going but it still felt real to me.

thinking of omar's lynching story and the cunny story this week: in both cases, two of three lines in i am bored, i can see the punchline but i feel like i've got to sit through another minute of "aria" writing to get to it, i don't believe the other character's reaction, and i'm thinking about the writer not the show. it's shitty writing that ruins suspension of disbelief. i don't have a problem with speeches in drama per se. maybe these two just sucked.

otm. i feel like the people singing halleluias over Chalky's monologue were watching a different show than me (probably The Wire).

Every episode I've seen I always get thrown by the close-up of Buscemi in the title sequence:

http://imgur.com/0HpE6.jpg

Sure I can't be the only one. It's like he's CGI or something.

i don't believe the other character's reaction,

agree w/ this re: the omar story, but still liked it

michael pitt's 1 was bad cuz the acting was shitty imo

thinking of omar's lynching story and the cunny story this week: in both cases, two of three lines in i am bored

that should have read "two or three lines"

remind me what the michael pitt one was about? maybe that one sucked too.

otm. i feel like the people singing halleluias over Chalky's monologue were watching a different show than me (probably The Wire).

maybe i'm misremembering, but i don't remember the wire having many big set piece anecdotes? or do you just mean people saw omar and got confused into thinking it was good?

The Chalky monologue was great.

Chalky's speech did bore me, I was hoping they would do something interesting with that setup but it went exactly where I expected. I don't have a problem with speeches or storytelling, and it's possible that people used the exemplum in everyday speech more often back then, but it just has to be a little more interesting... for instance I liked Rothstein's story about the guy who swallowed billiard balls (I wondered if it was a reference to Frank Norris's McTeague, later adopted by Erich von Stroheim as Greed, which is the kind of movie that seems like a possible stylistic influence or antecedent to this show - anyway, there's a weird scene in it where a couple of guys have a contest to see who can fit more billiard balls in their mouth)

the michael pitt 1 was his memory of going out on a boat owned by some dude his mom was dating on the 4th of july when he was a kid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zweq4ZabNd8

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwn

i think part of the point with chalky was that the klansman knew the punchline too. which isn't to say you couldn't suffer too, just because the dialogue was weak.

i completely lost track of pitt's story to the prostitute about being on a boat or whatever halfway through, and it didn't seem worth a rewind

totally didn't believe the klansman's reaction.

paz's reaction was even less plausible though.

feel like they told those two actors that the speech they were about to hear was impressive and they should act accordingly.

not quite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhwsks02qRw

but getting there

le clip oscar

Honestly, the entire subplot with Chalky and the Klan felt like something designed to flatter modern sensibilities.

Paz's reaction in re: Schroeder's speech worked for me though, because she reacted with impatience to a speech that was designed to wrest away control of the conversation and also provide a sick burn - it's not like her jaw dropped and eyes bugged out, she was just like 'whatever' IIRC

Honestly, the entire subplot with Chalky and the Klan felt like something designed to flatter modern sensibilities.

boom.

yup. oh no there goes omar!!

thinking of omar's lynching story and the cunny story this week: in both cases, two of three lines in i am bored, i can see the punchline but i feel like i've got to sit through another minute of "aria" writing to get to it, i don't believe the other character's reaction, and i'm thinking about the writer not the show. it's shitty writing that ruins suspension of disbelief. i don't have a problem with speeches in drama per se. maybe these two just sucked.

― caek, Friday, October 29, 2010 4:01 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yes! completely otm

these speeches try s0 hard and fail

also abe rothstein's poolball story

paz's reaction was even less plausible though.

paz is kind of a performance art interloper on the show, i think

'Read over your compositions, and where ever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.'

Paz de la Huerta is basically playing a parody of Paz de la Huerta.

those stories feel like FMV computer game cut scenes/end of level transitions from the 90s. designed to impress, but don't belong.

Pretty much agree with the criticism of the monologues/speeches; look to Breaking Bad for a show that does those well, and not in a self-conscious "oh, here's a big speech" way.

I actually fell asleep during Chalky's monologue. Glad I didn't for Margaret's this week though: BURN

lol at the phantom of the opera joke

hahah, this show does love the monologue "set-pieces". at least they kept my attention this week.

the gratuitous softcore shoehorned into every episode is kind of getting insulting.

i agree why the need for a sex scene in every episode. more killing less boob.

more sexy murders imo

This show is the ultimate embodiment of post-Wire/Deadwood HBO IMO - impressive on the surface, but naggingly safe/conventional. (Mind you I've not seen the last few eps.)

what other shows embody that?

the gratuitous softcore shoehorned into every episode is kind of getting insulting.

Yeah, last night's was particularly insulting.

mostly post-s2 Big Love, Hung, Treme (in that case, gutsy form vs. predictable content). Entourage is just sort of crappy. I do like In Treatment and Eastbound and Down.

That being said, Game of Thrones is a pretty ballsy endeavor.

the 22 minute lighter hbo stuff seems to have been fine-v.good for the past few years. the big ticket drama not so much.

Yeah that's fair. They've been overtaken by AMC and F/X pretty handily since their flagship shows ended.

It's almost as if making great television is difficult!

although i did like the introduction of Meyer Lansky.

and richard harrow...

yes, making great (anything) is hard, that doesn't mean the strategies behind trying (and/or failing) to make it happen are beyond discussion. xxp

No, I hear you, it's just that this has been a common lament about HBO for a few years now, and I've gotten to feel that when the state of things is such that you have multiple amazing, risk-taking shows on at the same time then, y'know... they probably kinda lucked out to an extent. If they could have better shows on the air, they probably would (Mad Men aside). Or maybe they really are playing it safer, I dunno.

I think it's possible to "play it safe" and still make consistently great TV, though - F/X'a programming isn't terribly diverse, as it's evenly divided between gritty/semi-gritty hourlongs and ridiculous half-hour comedy (aside from Louie, which is a true original IMO), most of which aren't terribly adventurous but are very entertaining. (I wholeheartedly like seven of their eight running shows, and I'll allow that Rescue Me has some great moments)

HBO seems to play it safe in a different way, where new shows feel like pale echoes of past successes. Hopefully their next batch (Luck / Thrones) will buck the trend.

Yeah I think I agree with you actually.