For anyone enjoying Madeleine Sami as Archie, highest recommendation to check out Deadloch on Amazon Prime. Its original pitch was “funny Broadchurch”...and it somehow accomplishes that. Watch with subtitles on, the Australian accents are thick!
Roger Ebert once said that he doesn't read every book but he regularly checks out book reviews. The same his true for me television. I don't have the time/interest to watch-a-long with everything that Episodic Medium covers; but, I'll usually read just about everything you guys post.
One of the things I really enjoy about this show is the way it balances moving through plot while never missing out on character development. For a show that breezes through plot points that could last other show's a season or more it would be really easy to miss character moments or just skip over them for the sake of time. That they manages to accomplish so much in around 30 minutes while still being hilarious is the truly incredible part.
With the strange release schedule I am going to be eternally behind. I watched the 3 episodes over the course of 5 days. I agree they do go together and I admit the show is better when Stede and Ed are onscreen together. So it was with great relief to see that final scene. I did enjoy Zhang Yi Sao so hopefully we’ll see more of her later in the season. I was completely won over by this show last month and so far I think Season 2 is equally good.
Les, thanks, as always, for these reviews. Reading your Season 1 reviews reminded me of all the great lines and bits that cracked me up from Season 1, but then got less and less frequent as the season went on. That trend continued with these three episodes, where I laughed out loud maybe once?
I think the show is great at whatever it tries to do, and it's not incumbent on a show to immediately reveal the sort of show it is. I just know I'm fading a little, having come for "pirate romantic comedy" (Darby! Post-Ragnarok Taika!) and less for "half-hour yearning romance." Again, that's not on the show, but I think the conversation around this idea is an interesting one.
Thanks Jake! I agree the tonal shift is pretty noticeable from the S1 to S2 premieres. It’s reminding me of BoJack Horseman in that regard, where once it found its darker tone it kept to it pretty consistently, though it had more episodes per season to play with and take broader swings as a balance. I’m hoping now that they’ve gotten the crew back together, things will be a bit lighter.
I would agree the show has definitely gotten darker from Season 1, but I still found myself regularly laughing at the show. Obviously, humor is incredibly subjective, but even reading some call out lines at the end of this review made me chuckle thinking back to the episode itself. I definitely see where you are coming from Jake, but at least from my perspective the show is doing a fairly decent job of balancing the tormented yearning romance with the comedy bits.
I'm glad it's still working for you! The more alone I am on this, the happier I'll be. Selfishly, I felt like E4 & E5 got back to a "better" balance, for me at least...
For anyone enjoying Madeleine Sami as Archie, highest recommendation to check out Deadloch on Amazon Prime. Its original pitch was “funny Broadchurch”...and it somehow accomplishes that. Watch with subtitles on, the Australian accents are thick!
I’ll have to check it out! I was interested how the move to NZ would open up the show’s casting.
Roger Ebert once said that he doesn't read every book but he regularly checks out book reviews. The same his true for me television. I don't have the time/interest to watch-a-long with everything that Episodic Medium covers; but, I'll usually read just about everything you guys post.
Here's the Ebert quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdXr09vWbLw
One of the things I really enjoy about this show is the way it balances moving through plot while never missing out on character development. For a show that breezes through plot points that could last other show's a season or more it would be really easy to miss character moments or just skip over them for the sake of time. That they manages to accomplish so much in around 30 minutes while still being hilarious is the truly incredible part.
With the strange release schedule I am going to be eternally behind. I watched the 3 episodes over the course of 5 days. I agree they do go together and I admit the show is better when Stede and Ed are onscreen together. So it was with great relief to see that final scene. I did enjoy Zhang Yi Sao so hopefully we’ll see more of her later in the season. I was completely won over by this show last month and so far I think Season 2 is equally good.
Les, thanks, as always, for these reviews. Reading your Season 1 reviews reminded me of all the great lines and bits that cracked me up from Season 1, but then got less and less frequent as the season went on. That trend continued with these three episodes, where I laughed out loud maybe once?
I think the show is great at whatever it tries to do, and it's not incumbent on a show to immediately reveal the sort of show it is. I just know I'm fading a little, having come for "pirate romantic comedy" (Darby! Post-Ragnarok Taika!) and less for "half-hour yearning romance." Again, that's not on the show, but I think the conversation around this idea is an interesting one.
Thanks Jake! I agree the tonal shift is pretty noticeable from the S1 to S2 premieres. It’s reminding me of BoJack Horseman in that regard, where once it found its darker tone it kept to it pretty consistently, though it had more episodes per season to play with and take broader swings as a balance. I’m hoping now that they’ve gotten the crew back together, things will be a bit lighter.
I would agree the show has definitely gotten darker from Season 1, but I still found myself regularly laughing at the show. Obviously, humor is incredibly subjective, but even reading some call out lines at the end of this review made me chuckle thinking back to the episode itself. I definitely see where you are coming from Jake, but at least from my perspective the show is doing a fairly decent job of balancing the tormented yearning romance with the comedy bits.
Definitely still thought these three were funny, though my sense of humor is darker than most. :)
Ahh! My bad, thought I was replying to Jake!😓 I think you and I are on the same page when it comes to that darker humor for sure!
I'm glad it's still working for you! The more alone I am on this, the happier I'll be. Selfishly, I felt like E4 & E5 got back to a "better" balance, for me at least...
That reminds me that I still need to watch BoJack!