topbroker
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2006
- Messages
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Thanks to the miracle of DVDs (and Netflix!), I have a number of complete television series in progress -- although in some cases, the completion of my viewing depends upon all the seasons being issued, which is seldom a foregone conclusion.
I also can vacillate on whether I'm going to commit to a series. I watched the first episode of HBO's Spanish language serial killer series Epitafios the other night, for example, and I'm not sure I'm going to go the distance. Plus: the Buenos Aires setting (there's a city that fascinates me!). Minus: it seemed sort of sub-David Fincher. So I don't know. It was a library borrow so I have no sunk investment.
I'm also not sure whether I'm going to continue with Big Love (after viewing the first two episodes). It's well acted to be sure, but my problem is I just don't get it. My thinking was well captured by a poster at the Internet Movie Database:
One thing I don't get and I don't think is adequately explained is why would someone want more than one wife. The financial and other burdens are enormous, as the show illustrates. There are allusions to religious reasons, but that's about as far as it goes.
What is the upside? What would compel someone to do this? What is the motivation? What is the motivation for these women to enter into such an arrangement? These things go largely unexplored. What sane person would say I would like to buy three houses all in a row, make them a compound, have three wives (and then find three women willing to do this), have a bus load of children, and then spend most of my life trying to cover this up??
Someone who loves this show can explain to me why I shouldn't give up on it.
I have an especially warm relation to The Sopranos not because I am enamored of the mob lifestyle, but because I grew up in the area of northern New Jersey it (very accurately) depicts -- and because it is clearly at masterpiece level. Two nights ago I watched the twelfth and penultimate episode of the first season, "Isabella," and was mesmerized by it as I usually am. This episode has a particularly audacious "twist." There is also a scene between James Gandolfini and Lorraine Bracco in a parked car that is so heartbreakingly good, it in itself justifies the entire medium of television despite all the drivel the medium has perpetrated.
Series currently in progress:
The Sopranos
The Wild Wild West
Hill Street Blues
All Creatures Great and Small
Northern Exposure
Hawaii Five-O
Nero Wolfe
The Untouchables
Guilty pleasure in progress:
The Time Tunnel (I was a kid when this was first on; it made an impact and got me interested in history)
Completed viewings:
Upstairs Downstairs
Six Feet Under
(Two very great shows.)
Looking forward to starting:
St. Elsewhere
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (glad this is finally out)
The Avengers
Deadwood
Mad Men
Picket Fences
Oz
The Wire
Planned re-viewing:
Twin Peaks
I also can vacillate on whether I'm going to commit to a series. I watched the first episode of HBO's Spanish language serial killer series Epitafios the other night, for example, and I'm not sure I'm going to go the distance. Plus: the Buenos Aires setting (there's a city that fascinates me!). Minus: it seemed sort of sub-David Fincher. So I don't know. It was a library borrow so I have no sunk investment.
I'm also not sure whether I'm going to continue with Big Love (after viewing the first two episodes). It's well acted to be sure, but my problem is I just don't get it. My thinking was well captured by a poster at the Internet Movie Database:
One thing I don't get and I don't think is adequately explained is why would someone want more than one wife. The financial and other burdens are enormous, as the show illustrates. There are allusions to religious reasons, but that's about as far as it goes.
What is the upside? What would compel someone to do this? What is the motivation? What is the motivation for these women to enter into such an arrangement? These things go largely unexplored. What sane person would say I would like to buy three houses all in a row, make them a compound, have three wives (and then find three women willing to do this), have a bus load of children, and then spend most of my life trying to cover this up??
Someone who loves this show can explain to me why I shouldn't give up on it.
I have an especially warm relation to The Sopranos not because I am enamored of the mob lifestyle, but because I grew up in the area of northern New Jersey it (very accurately) depicts -- and because it is clearly at masterpiece level. Two nights ago I watched the twelfth and penultimate episode of the first season, "Isabella," and was mesmerized by it as I usually am. This episode has a particularly audacious "twist." There is also a scene between James Gandolfini and Lorraine Bracco in a parked car that is so heartbreakingly good, it in itself justifies the entire medium of television despite all the drivel the medium has perpetrated.
Series currently in progress:
The Sopranos
The Wild Wild West
Hill Street Blues
All Creatures Great and Small
Northern Exposure
Hawaii Five-O
Nero Wolfe
The Untouchables
Guilty pleasure in progress:
The Time Tunnel (I was a kid when this was first on; it made an impact and got me interested in history)
Completed viewings:
Upstairs Downstairs
Six Feet Under
(Two very great shows.)
Looking forward to starting:
St. Elsewhere
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (glad this is finally out)
The Avengers
Deadwood
Mad Men
Picket Fences
Oz
The Wire
Planned re-viewing:
Twin Peaks
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