The Affair

Sunday Plot Driver
Homeland and Boardwalk Empire returned to their fall spots, Boardwalk for the final time.  And while still fun to watch, the shows are more plot driven than ever.  That's great, and I don't miss an episode but from my perspective, it doesn't make for terribly interesting writing.  It's why I find it fun to vomit 1,000 words on a largely wordless three minute sequence in Game of Thrones and why the often plot-less or minimally plotted Mad Men is so easy to talk and speculate about.  Getting into the characters, their motivations, their points of view, their subtleties or passive aggressive actions or digs at other characters is what is fun to me.  It's why Boardwalk's plot driven third season was its worst while the character heavy fourth season was its best.  And to talk about Homeland and Boardwalk right now is to simply recap the days events.

Showtime kept running a commercial featuring Dominic West of Jimmy McNulty fame.  As I was in the process of rewatching the whole series of The Wire (because that's how I spend my time) I figured I'd give this show I never heard of a shot.

Literary Devices
Immediately after watching "-30-", I watched the pilot from The Affair.  If nothing else, I was pretty happy to see McNulty having a tet-e-tete with none other than Bill Rawls, only this time Rawls sipped an expensive wine on his estate overlooking the beach, passive aggressively taking digs at his son-in-law rather than bearing down on him as an angry acting police commissioner.

In a sentence, the show tells the story of an affair between a novelist/public school teacher (Noah) with a wife and kids, and a married waitress (Allison) whose child passed away.   It was apparent from the ad flashbacks would play a part.  I like flashbacks.  I like non-linear storytelling in the right hands.  Let's do this.

Halfway through the show, the show takes a twist on another literary device, point of view.  The first rendezvous between Noah and Allison is chronicled from Noah's point of view...the journey he and his family takes to their summer home where he first encounters Allison waiting tables at the restaurant.  But then it rewinds and tells us Allison's point of view for the same time period.  The first two episodes have followed this format, as each part is told in past tense to an as yet unnamed man by the respective leads.

Already we have questions:

Who is the man they are speaking to?
It could be a cop.  It could be a PI.  It could be someone from an insurance company investigating a claim on as yet unspecified event that affected both Noah and Allision.  He is a man of some kind of authority, but through two episodes he's not betrayed any conclusive evidence

Who was killed?
We find out in the second episode it's related to someone's death, a male.  But we have no idea who that is yet.  

Will the show stay with this format?
They could easily introduce other POV characters, though at this point there does not seem to be a need.  They could also flip the order at some point and show Allison's story in Part 1, followed by Noah's.

Because we're seeing events as they were viewed and are being interpreted by each of the main characters, we are not necessarily seeing the unvarnished truth.  Whether to soften their own actions, whether they incorrectly perceived an event, or whether they sincerely do not accurately remember how events occurred is foggy.  Is one telling the truth?  Is the other?  Does it lie in the middle?  Are both completely off base?

The unreliable narrator looms large in this story and is quite possibly my favorite device of all.  True Detective schooled everyone on its use.  While many will remember the unbroken six minute shot, I define the show as Rust and Marty's accounts to the cops completely diverges from what we see in the flashbacks.

Compare and Contrast
It would be easy to make a list of the differences in their accounts.  But it's more interesting to look for the subtext in those differences and wonder why they are different.

For example, Noah runs into Allison at a farmer's market where she is selling jam.  It is the first time they've met since the restaurant.

In Noah's account he buys one jar for $12 for his kid.  In Allison's she sells him five jars for $8 each totaling $40.  Noah admits he bought the jam.  However, his motivation for buying it is to please his kid who wants to eat it.  He remembers the price is high, $12.  He probably does not remember the exact amount because that would be a strange thing to remember.  Instead he remembers vaguely that it was high and $12 seems like a lot.  In reality it probably ballooned a bit in his mind, focusing more on the ridiculousness of paying that much for jam at all.  Throughout the transaction, Allison is standoffish and refuses his offer to keep the change from his $20 bill.

Allison remembers herself acting friendlier and recalls her jam sales partner commenting that Noah is showing a strong interest in one of them.  She could have insert that in there to strengthen her argument that Noah is the initiator, or she could specifically remember her friend saying that.  She remembers Noah buying multiple jars of jam, as if buying more jam would buy him more goodwill with Allison.  As the vendor, she probably correctly remembers the price of each unit ($8), but we don't know if Noah sincerely is being more forward with her or if she is trying to downplay her own role or it is some third, fourth or fifth version in the multiverse where she sincerely believes her perception of the event but a third party would view it completely differently. 

What they agree on is that Noah bought some jam and Allison was not actively engaging him, at least at that point.

Other details may seem relatively minor, like Noah's wife's dress color at the party, but are perhaps wrought with symbolism or tell us something about the POV character we haven't figured out yet.

Allison's child
We don't know yet how he died.  If we've been given foreshadowing (or backshadowing?) some possibilities include

1. drowning - Allison can't swim
2. choking  - Noah's son at the restaurant.  In her version, she knows exactly what to do to dislodge the obstruction.  Perhaps she learned after her son passed because that was how it happened.
3. broken neck or asphyxiation - based on the pre-car trip events

We also know that Allison lost her son in a public way.  She's recognized by Noah's mother in law as someone from the newspaper, related to the boys death.  That seems to point toward an accident, rather than a sickness.  Not only that but Allison is constantly reminded of her son by well-intentioned but grief inducing acquaintances.  All anyone seems to want to talk to her about is her dead son.   Allison has not been able to accept her son's death in the way her husband has.  Perhaps Coles grief is more manageable because he doesn't have everyone in his face about it constantly.

The Affair
With two well acted, interesting and sympathetic characters, a realistic supporting cast, an element of mystery, told through fun and dexterously handled literary devices and obviously well thought out writing make this the show I'm looking forward to on Sundays. 

The Wire: Season Five

I recently rewatched the entire series of The Wire, so I thought it was a good time to update my thoughts on the final season.  They haven't changed.  In fact it is "now more than ever" that Season Five was arguably a success and definitely in line with the preceding four seasons.  With new or newly edited text in red, I am trying to get on paper 

1. why the season was a success, 
2. how it aligned with the show to that date and 
3. what caused the (unjust) negative reaction.
   

I remember a lot of complaints about The Wire: Season Five when it was airing.  While I think at least some of that was typical "I watched it back when it was good" feeling of longtime fans, as the show was finally starting to pick up steam in the mainstream.

Personally, I liked it and disagree that the show sunk to an unwatchable quality reserved for lesser shows.  Here's why:

Season Five started with one hand behind it's back.  While Season One and Season Four* included thirteen episodes, and Season Two and Season Three included twelve, HBO renewed The Wire for only ten episodes in Season Five.  While "-30-", the season/series finale ran over 90 minutes, this is still provided only about 80 or 87 percent of the storytelling time previous seasons had, leading to some compressed plotting particularly noticeable as McNulty's serial killer takes shape.  For the show that perfected the contemporary novelistic season plotting, this is a major blow.

On the most recent watching, I think the finale needed 90 minutes regardless, in order to tell the stories of that episode as well as tie off the season and series.  Being down three whole episodes, or 180 minutes, or however many scenes that is, had a huge effect on the plotting, but also the character development, perhaps even more so.  A reasonable complaint about the Stanfield crew is that they are one dimensional and lack the shades of gray the Barkesdale organization had.  Marlo would never provide $15,000 to a boxing gym, let alone to a boxing gym run by someone who parted his employ.  The missing pieces from these episodes mostly occur on the front end, and then have the effect of weakening the payoffs and turning early items into caricatures when they try to make due with what they have. 

McNulty jumps to 11 in the second episode when he flies off the handle and starts messing with the crime scene to create his serial killer.  Such a drastic action would normally take place later in the season (Hamsterdam) with more set up.  McNulty is not the only guy at 11.  The police force is decimated by draconian budget cuts and Carcetti is more asshole-ish than ever both to his staff and in his policies.    The near riot in Carver's briefing comes off as cartoonish, but necessary to quickly establish the dire nature that the budget cuts have caused, necessitating McNulty's drunken stupor into serial killerdom.  Even McNulty's demeanor is exaggerated for effect, drinking in public more than ever and using a snarl as his regular speaking voice.  As bad as the police department has been in the preceeding four seasons, it is at it's absolute worst now.  And Simon has no time at all to show that.  

Think of the journey it takes to get to what the season is known as.  

1. Valchek is upset at a stain glass window donation by Sobotka, which results in a petty attempt to investigate him.  This ends with solving a dozen prostitute murders and major crimes zeroing in on an international drug conspiracy.
2. Hamsterdam isn't functioning until the season's sixth episode.
3. The boys spend the summer exploding pee balloons on themselves.  School doesn't even start until episode three. By Christmas the boys are all completely separated from their original homes and lives. 

In short, the cause > effect > effect > effect > unintended consequence > detour > uintended consequence, etc is not allowed to happen organically.

A few moments allow us to see what composes a true newspaperman.  Gus lives, eats and sleeps the paper so much he wakes up in a sweat worried about transposing numbers.  It tells us about his character.  If Simon made a mistake, it was to not include more of the "show don't tell" examples like this, rather than simply have some of the reporters wax nostalgic about their love for the old days.  There's a time and place for that (Frank Sobotka) but we have to see and learn more first so we're invested in those monologues.  But again, time is a factor and it may have simply been a calculation to hurry up and get the information at us.  

Some of those monologues took place in bars and it brings to mind the fact that a lot of this season is simply conversations taking place in bars.  It is jarring even after a three season McNulty bender.  You have the newspaper folks, you have the former Major Crimes crew plus Bunk, Gus meeting Lt. Mello, Lester meeting Clay multiples times.  

I wonder if this was an intentional budget-related decision. 

Anyways, the other way to establish Gus' character was to line up validators.  Other editors and reports look to Gus and echo his concerns.  We don't get to learn much about the validators which weakens their effect unfortunately, but again this is a casualty of losing three whole episodes.  

That said, I did enjoy the copy editors who never moved from their ancient computers and sat there like Oracles, dispensing vocabulary and sentence structure lessons.  One dimensional characters can not only be entertaining but are also necessary.  If everyone on television was as fleshed out as Tony Soprano, then we'd never get anywhere, plotwise.

Not only did Season Five tell a compressed season five story, but it had the responsibility of wrapping up storylines from previous seasons.  Some were still able to be done with a single scene as with Namond's debate.  

But the serial killer storyline was completely unbelievable!

More unbelievable than a police commander effectively legalizing drugs?  I do not believe the point of the serial killer was to create a serial killer but to illustrate the state of journalism and comment on anonymous sourcing.  At least there are real life instances they can point to for that one (including reporting on a serial killer sniper in the DC area). 

For some reason, critics are able to suspend their disbelief in cases where Simon uses dramatic license, like in Season Two when the state attorney's office lets Frank Sobotka out of their sight and vulnerable to violence (because they aren't as familiar with procedures within the state's attorney's office) but scream bloody murder if the screen doesn't reflect every day of their life in journalism, exactly. 

It is a mistake to label this as the "Newspaper Season"

Focusing only on the newspaper aspect of Season Five sells it short.  In fact, the newspaper plays a smaller part in the season than any of the other seasonally added aspects of Balitmore (Port, City Hall, Public Schools).  The Sun is there almost as an extension of the police department in order to divert resources (and show the problems associated with that).  As a bonus, we see some of the dysfunction in the Sun that speaks to why we're all so ignorant of this sort of thing.  Specifically, it's shown through a "teach to the test" attitude that we saw with the public schools and a corruption that we see in City Hall and the Department.

However, the lack of volume paid to the Sun doesn't allow it to be the headliner.  It plays a part roughly equal to the part the Department played in Season Four, ancillary to several stories, but not the major story itself.  

Instead, the Marlo/Jimmy & Freamon show is the biggest story.  It throws back to Season One, but now armed with what we know from Season One it does not need to be as dense.  

Second is Carcetti's ascent to the statehouse which received due attention.

Bubble's road to recovery is the one positive thing to take away from the season, perhaps the series.  A seemingly small, but in reality huge, victory is gained when he ascends the stairs in the final montage.  I think many people believed Simon viewed himself as the Gus character, but it's my sense that he felt more in tune with Fletcher, the young reporter who spent time with Bubbles and learned his story.  Bubbles was in real life one of Simon's sources and when he passed, Simon wrote his obituary.

The story that receives the least attention but could have had miles more was the State's Attorney/Clay Davis trial.  If the Sun showed us why we don't hear about these things, the trial showed us why the bad guys don't go to jail.  The dysfunction is apparent immediately when Bond leaves the "headshot" on the field, prosecutes the case himself for the profile, and loses handily after Clay plays not just the race card but the "whole deck."  We saw a lot of the trial but could have been even more informed if we had seen Bond bungle the preparation.  Not only that but the prosecutor's office and courts have been a source of ire for McNulty-ilk, upset about how everyone wants a clean record so they can become a judge.  We only saw the state's attorney in conference rooms when a case was brought to them, or in the halls preparing to go into court, but seeing some inner turmoil from Bond's shop would have made for a good story, especially considering they already had Rhonnie established as a character. 

 "You have to listen to the notes she's not playing" **

I think Lisa Simpson sums up the season in that single sentence.  We've spent four seasons watching bureaucratic and institutional dysfunction, not to mention out and out corruption, in the police force, labor unions, political arenas and public schools.  Why is this the first we're hearing about it?  Why is this the first we are seeing the incompetence demonstrated and explained?  David Simon, the show's creator and executive producer, posits the answer by adding the newsroom storyline: the state of journalism is a mess and fails to focus on important aspects of real life because they are populated by journalists with little experience and led by those who prefer to focus on winning awards.  They go about winning awards by following a proven formula of reporting, not unlike Season Four showing the fundamental flaws of "teaching to the test" when the kids are preparing for their standardized testing.

 

The best novels and televisions shows "show and don't tell" but it's even more difficult to show the absence of a positive, which if I viewed the show correctly (and there is a correct way)*** was the goal.  While the systemic problems shown in the other storylines continue, the newspaper has other priorities than shed on a light on these, never more apparent when they decided to de-prioritize reporting Prop Joe's murder.  It is a subtle, quick moment which encapsulates the entire newsroom storyline.

The unreporting of Prop Joe and Omar are two examples of why the stories being told in The Wire are not being reported in real life.  A third example speaks about race more broadly when a story about race relations within the University of Maryland faculty starts to form.  However, the story is spiked before it's ever written based on the executive editor's relationship with the dean at UM.  Their association is obviously a conflict of interest which should result in the opposite effect (Whiting removing himself from the story) but instead shows the larger picture of how the Sun is being steered.  In mainstream media, race is discussed when Obama is elected president, or when a cop shoots another kid, but lacks any serious day to day examination of why inequality still exists at the level it does today, socially, economically and legally.  No one wants to discuss it, least of all Whiting, who is one of the gatekeepers that could change that.  

Speaking of things no one wants to talk about: heart disease is the biggest killer in America and we really don't care.  But one person gets Ebola and it's all day every channel.  A sensational story of a biting, sexual, serial killer of homeless people garners more attention and resources than anything else happening in the city.  This despite the fact that it is fake.  Meanwhile, someone is actually killing dozens of people (just by the murder, think of how many people are killed or having their lives ruined by the drugs themselves) and it registers a zero.  Heart disease is killing everyone and all we can care about is Ebola which is barely a thing.

This harkens back to something the show started with: there is no federal interest in drug crime and the city's ills because we are too busy fighting the Terror.  When McNulty visits Special Agent Fitz in Season One, he learns that Fitz has all these cool toys to fight drug dealers, but is being reassigned to the Terror as soon as he winds down his current case.  In fact, the whole Bureau is being reassigned to fight the Terror with counterTerror.  The FBI's shift in its mandate to become primarily about counterterrorism is as jarring as when J. Edgar first started introducing wire taps and such to catch the bad guys.  

* Season Four's finale "Final Grades" ran 78 minutes because they needed 18 more minutes in that season to finish stabbing us in the heart/crotch

** From "Lisa the Simpson" where Lisa comments on how to listen to jazz

*** Simon later clarified what he was saying.  It's pretty interesting no matter what you think about it.  Also his thoughts on blogging and oh my god I started a tv blog!

Fall 2014 Predictions

With all the new fall shows debuting now or in the near future, here are some predictions on what will last and what will be cancelled considering the premise, cast and network. 

Cancelled before Christmas
Selfie - edit, cancelled
A to Z, finishing first half season but cancelled
Manhattan Love Stor, edit, cancelled basically immediately
Marry Me
There's a chance one of the four can succeed in the post-HIMYM era, trying to fill that void.  A to Z appears to be to HIMYM what Flash Forward was to Lost, where it attempts to address one complaint about a hit show (lack of resolution), but fails to account for any of the elements that made successful.  Selfie has a chance to become an extremely dated-I-can't-believe-2014-was-like-that in just a few years.

While romantic comedies, none of which are likely to be as good as You're the Worst, populate the 2014 landscape, noticeably absent are the Friends clones.  Happy Endings,  Perfect Couples, and other that haven't lasted.  I guess they are giving up on those.

Bad Judge, finishing first half season but cancelled
Bad Santa was great.  Bad Teacher was not good.  I don't see Bad Judge bucking the trend.

State of Affairs
No.

Cancelled After Christmas, Before Season Finale
Madam Secretary, edit, given a surprising full season pick up
Commander-in-Chief without the firepower.  A tall woman attains a new position in the federal government, unexpectedly, and is going to do things her way, against the grain.  I see this having a following but ultimately a hiatus or a timeslot change will keep the viewership down.  There's too much on cable for this to gain a following.

Finishing Season One, Cancelled Before Two
Utopia - edit whoops, cancelled only 2 months into a full year season
Reality imports are always a good bet.  However on the surface this one seems to be more about collaboration than conflict.  In that, I mean that collaboration is the goal for the utopian society and there will be conflict on the way, rather than making conflict/choosing a winner the ultimate goal.  The success may lie in the casting because while on some reality shows the reckless or unstable or unreasonable or incompetent make for good television, it may simply be frustrating to watch a group operate at a low capacity.  It would be much more interesting to watch two competent groups compete for control and influence rather than have a few competents try to stave off a few village idiots. 

Bringing it back may rely on how expensive this was to produce.  But they won't bring it back if it has only middling success. 

Gracepoint
Fox is moving more to a cable model in terms of ordering shows.  It makes sense that Fox, the youngest and most cable-y of the networks would be the first to do this, especially with a only two hour primetime schedule each night.  That said, Gracepoint is a closed end ten episode series where detectives investigate a murder.  It appears to be in the vein of True Detective, Twin Peaks, The Following, The Killing, etc.  It's also taking a page from the FX shows Fargo and American Horror Story with what appears to be an anthology format.

This show could return, perhaps in a different form.  Perhaps with a different cast.  Being only ten episodes and closed ended means it will be easy to catch up on if buzz around the show let's us know it's something we should spend our time on.  Regardless of quality, the series will finish its run this fall. 

Returning in Fall 2015
We have two shows that speak to the CBS brand and two that speak to ABC's brand.  All will succeed.
Scorpion, picked up to fill full first season (currently #2 new show)
Big Bang, Hawaii Five O, A Team, blah blah blah.  I expect a lot of magical computer hacking by this crew, followed by hitting the enhance button on the computer, all with one unattainably hot girl hanging around the group.  Six years on CBS for this show.

NCIS: New Orleans, picked up to fill full first season (currently #1 new show)
They wouldn't have ordered this if their research didn't show they could have success with it.  CCH Pounder is a great actress, so it's only sad that she'll be on here because it means she's less likely to be on something else like The Shield or Sons of Anarchy for a while.  Four seasons on CBS.

How to Get Away With Murder, picked up to fill full first season
Grey's Anatomy is still on television.  Scandal is popular enough to be in the zeitgeist.  Murder looks like it even has a few aspects of Damages that will appeal to some typical cable viewers.  I could see this lasting a few years and then surprising a lot of those cable viewers as something they like to watch in spades when it rains.

Blackish, edit, picked up to fill full first season
ABC's current hallmark are minority casts and family sitcoms.  Blackish fits easily into a night with The Middle, The Goldbergs and Modern Family meaning that even if Blackish doesn't succeed, it can fill out the line up and make Wednesday a 20 years later version of TGIF.  Or as Andy Bernard would say: "Man, TGI Wednesday. Gonna go home, get my beer on, get my LOST on". 

But in all sincerity it seems like a pretty funny show and you have to trust the brainchild of Larry Wilmore.

Gotham, edit, ordered episodes to fill full first season
The number one seed coming into the Fall.  Most likely to top the ratings and critical success.  Expectations are high.  Which could be its biggest weakness

Wild Card
Mulaney could wind up running for ten years or ten episodes.  I honestly have nothing to add on predicting its success, but nothing would particularly surprise me. 
edit, on the brink of cancellation, reducing episodes

"The Good Listener" & "What Jesus Said" - Boardwalk Empire

Episode 5-02 and 5-03

Much like Game of Thrones, there are many characters, stories and locations, which means it often takes pairs of episodes to check in with characters.  This episode touched on several Sirs-Not-Appearing from last week as they are often wont to do.  Game of Thrones will go so far as to use the same director for 2-3 episodes in a row, which is rare for a television drama.

Signs of the Times
So we check in on Chicago and Eli and Van Alden are not getting a ton of respect from their Capone overlords.  We're starting to see a lot more fedoras on people, noticeable as the men remove their hats in the elevator.  

When this series began, the country was still feeling the Great War, about to recoil into an isolationist shell with the election of Warren G. Harding and lots of drinking.  World War II is still ten years away but feeling the Great Depression taking hold as well as the rise of Roosevelt makes you think about the people who live through those thirty years.  Had Jimmy survived, he may have been young enough to rejoin the Army and fight in two world wars.  And I highly suggest reading that obit. 

Speaking of Roosevelt, we hear what would be his campaign song.  This is timed perfectly with PBS' new Ken Burns series released last week, "The Roosevelts".  It is worth every minute of the seven parts and fourteen hours it takes to watch.  

The song plays during the call between Nucky and Sally and she can hear it over the phone in the background from his radio, so they pause and listen to it...one in Jersey and one in Cuba.  To think it was late in the first season we heard the first commercial radio broadcast reporting election results.  The crowd gathered in the theater to listen to a radio that was placed up by a microphone.  The world has gotten a lot smaller in five seasons.

Whiskeys and Scotches

• Had to chuckle at the feather in Eli's face, which reminded me of people with giant backpacks on the subway
• Line of the night - "Why must there always be pandemonium?!"  Van Alden delivers it in his Van Alden way.  This may surpass his "Take care and God bless" telephone farewell to his wife.  
• The actor playing the commodore has the timbre of his voice down perfectly for these flashbacks.  I wonder if the original actor recorded the lines for the new actor, like Kathryn Joosten did for Kristen Nelson's flashback scenes in "Two Cathedrals"
• Chalky brawls with his accomplice and kills him, much like his time with Purvis

Can't Be Half a Gangster
Jimmy posed the question to Nucky a lifetime ago about what he wanted to be.  Nucky eventually answered by shooting him in the face.  But he eventually removed himself from public office and took on more of an emeritus role, collecting residuals on the boardwalk empire he created.  His self consciousness with Joe Kennedy, who comes from a similar background and carries himself with more legitimacy, is palpable.  He mirrors Joe's tetotaling in an attempt to build some common trust, but eventually only finds contempt from the man who, after see the club and its patrons and getting to know Nucky a bit more, responds with "What are you?" to Nucky's "Those men are gangsters."  

So Nucky wonders, has he accomplished anything?  Just in time for Margaret to return.  The relieved and pleased look says it all.

Golden Days for Boys and Girls - Boardwalk Empire

Episode 5-01

Eight episodes and a seven year jump. That is how Boardwalk Empire is wrapping things up after its strongest season and strongest episode.  Showrunner Terrence Winter says this is simply the show wrapping up Nucky's story, which even if HBO did suggest they bring it to a close, is probably true.  That said, HBO has a history of splitting the difference on shows, giving them a few final hours to close shop rather than cancel it out right, but still not ordering a full season.  It leaves the reputation of HBO as a story friendly vehicle intact, as well as allowing the showrunner to save face and put together a coda.  It is interesting though that the show is not continuing in the direction of Season Four which placed Nucky in an emeritus position while the real action was in Harlem.

The jump means we miss out on Arnold Rothstein, one of the more compelling characters in the show.  At the end of last season it looked as though he was going to intersect with Margaret as she slowly came back into the picture, but sadly we will not get to see that.

That said, I don't see how Margaret comes back into the fold.  She may simply live her own life, and it's perfectly fine if that's the context we see her in.   Don Draper rarely sees his ex-wife as they move further and further away from their 1963 separation/divorce.  Maybe the most accurate thing to do is to move on.  Reading Difficult Men, the author makes a point about television showing the mundane:

more about life simply happening, much the way it actually does, tough truths included
first wives becomes small distant chapters of a person's life.

The events of the flashback take place a few years after Deadwood is set, with present day roughly when Mad Men flashbacks are set.  We need some sort of timeline:

1. Deadwood
2. Nucky's flashbacks
3. Downton Abbey
4. Boardwalk Empire - main
5. Mad Men flashbacks
6. Mad Men - main

Chalky's Story
This doesn't seem to amount to much more than a treasure hunt at the moment, which makes it seem like they couldn't think of anything for Chalky to do.  Unless this has some serious character development, which will be difficult after his story last year, or plays a major role in another story (also hard to see) this could be the biggest miss since Gyp.

The story starts off like most romantic comedies where two people who are opposites ostensibly cannot stand each other, until they are thrown into a situation where they find themselves together.

Rum and Whiskey

• Nucky's father sounds a lot like Bill the Butcher, who sounds a lot like
• Meyer Landsky is hanging out in 1931 Cuba, laying ground for 1950s Hyman Roth in Godfather II.
• At several points a calm beat sets up a burst of violence including Mr. Connors suicide, Nucky's dad hitting him and the assassination attempt in Havana

Historical events

• The Crash is referenced a few times, but the full weight of it doesn't seem to be felt yet
• Joe the Boss Masseria assassination sets up the five families in New York
• Elliot Ness' crack down
• Joe Kennedy making a fortune

Sir Not Appearing in this Film

• Gillian
• All of Chicago
• Capone
• Eli
• Van Alden
• Narcisse

 Bright honor and labor and truth to your neighbor

The Good Times Are Killing Me - The Leftovers

The Leftovers took a detour after episode eight's Plot Twist City to a completely different setting and dynamic between our characters.  And it suffered none for it, having established itself as a show much more character driven than plot driven, and much more about human relationships than mythology.

Having strung five "whoa" episodes in a row coinciding with their renewal, there's a lot to be excited about.

What did we learn today?

• A root cause analysis shows that The Departure was but the tipping point in Kevin and Laurie's marriage, rather than the source of the split
• The Guilty Remnant, or some form of it, pre-dates The Departure, or at least gets going immediately
• Who Neil is and what's in the bag
• Why Nora's paper towels were just so
• Exploding manhole covers are no joke, people.

Kevin's smoking

A microcosm of the dishonesty in their marriage, we know right away we're in flashback when Kevin sneaks a cigarette.  He goes to certain lengths to hide his habit*, stashing a pack under a mailbox**, smoking in the woods***, and using mouthwash (1).

* Which Laurie doesn't care about, per se.  She cares about his lying about it.  Or maybe she's lying about that....
** Which we saw Tommy do something similar in service to Wayne
 *** Fire hazard!

Jill's on to him.  Later in the day he smokes out in the open when at work, though not bothering to cover his tracks (2).  Laurie picks up on it at this point.  By the episodes third act, he is smoking outside his house (3) with friends and family around in a way that his father points out is "asking to get caught."  Kevin's nihilism towards his marriage at that point, exemplified by his decreasing desire to put up the facade of quitting, leads to his fun times with the conference attendee.

"Hey, opposite...is opposite!" *
Several characters are in diametrically opposite positions, compared with where they stand at the end of Episode Eight.

Patti is a broken shell, verbally abused by, we assume, her husband.  Paranoid* and meek, she finishes her story the stern cult leader who doesn't necessarily build her community by charisma but by stoic and firm leadership.

Laurie is a successful therapist of some kind, present in her children's lives.  It kills her to not attend Jill's science fair, and she clearly has a rapport with Tommy.  Giving up the wordly possessions, her practice which she probably built for years and her connection with her children is quite a sacrifice.  I'd have guessed most GR members fit a sterotypical profile of cult members, impressionable, with little to lose.  But Laurie does not fit that mold. 

Grandpa Garvey is large and in charge of the Mapleton police force.  A pillar of the community, he's honored with an award and with a party by his friends and loving family.  Deeper though, he's telling Kevin how he's nothing special and simply meant for this simple life.  FutureGrandpaGarvey has something different to say about that, with NatGeo props.

Tommy invested in school at least to the point that he is still enrolled.  He's close enough with his dad that he can call him to get him out of an arrest, not to mention that his dad will resort to fisticuffs in defense of his son.  Compare this with his going incommunicado from his family while deifying Wayne as some sort of father figure/savior up to the point he rejects him. 

Dogs are cute and sweet and adorable and such a good boy!  Until after The Departure when they're viscous, feral and scary.  Kevin's stance on dogs changes.  At least Kevin Durden's stance on dogs changed. 

One constant though is that deer, crazy as ever, invading your space.  It seems at least three of the people it crossed paths with departed, Nora's daughter, the kid with Downs Syndrome, and Kevin's lady.

*"You're gonna show me my clothes?"
** Is is paranoia if someone actually is out to get you?

Trials and Tribulations
Every. Simpsons. Ever. aired "Hurricane Neddy" on Sunday where Ned Flander's house is destroyed in a storm.  The only home in all of Springfield destroyed in the storm.  This despite his selflessness and general clean living*.  He mentions Job, but Rev. Lovejoy calls him melodramatic.

The Leftovers has brought Job hard and heavy, particularly Episode Three, which focused on Matthew.  There's also a Faustian element to things, or even King Midas, where unintentional consequences reign from what a character believes they want.  Particularly one family where Matthew craves attention and is given leukemia, or Nora seeking accomplishment and freedom, and being relieved of her family.

* "I even kept kosher to be on the safe side"


Next Week (Two weeks actually) and Some Jibberish
"The Prodigal Son Returns"  Is it Tommy?  Is is Kevin, to Pops?  Is it Laurie's baby?

I theorize that it's Tommy (given the "prodigal" part), with nothing left on the road and no one to turn to, he comes home.  Tommy (younger son/sinners) would be accepted back by Kevin (as the father/God does) despite what he did (spent his inheritance/sinned).  It makes you wonder if the Departed are that toll that God is leveraging against mankind, rather than send his son again to die for the sins of man, he exacts the toll, a tax practically, of 2 percent.  Which means tithes can't really justify 10 percent anymore.

Maybe the Departed return?  But that wouldn't fit with the parable, as they would be returned by God/the father rather than returning to him.  Also, where would they return from?  Hell?  At least that's where Kevin's friend said she was going...right before she Departed.

Cornering the Market - The Leftovers

Is it strange that I wondered about the business model for Nora's salesman-friend's business?  They are catering to a very specific population.  If 6 billion people are on Earth and 2 percent vanished then that's 120,000,000 possible sales.  But if your product costs $40,000 then only a small portion of the vanished's families can afford your product.

The company would have to branch out into other ways of making people want to bury their loved one's likeness.  Like if they are a regular missing person.  But then you have a whole different problem about convincing them to close the book on the missing person.  Burn victims?  People killed in natural disasters or plane crashes?  War heroes who dont come home?

I suppose this company could plan to make a lot of sales its first few years but they have to plan for it leveling off.  One thing they could do is try to get families who are spread out across the country to have multiple memorials.  Of course, buying a plane ticket is much cheaper than one of these dolls.

Basically, the partners in this business better get together and figure out how they can use this technology for something else or they are simply going to run out of customers.

Hmmmm.....