Leave a comment

Re: I Use the Icon of Boys With Daddy Issues too...Me too chatchien June 12 2010, 11:54:33 UTC
I couldn't believe Arlo would use Raylan that way. He's all about self-preservation and there's no room for anything else.

I just watched the fifth episode where Arlo is introduced breaking and entering and wielding a baseball bat like Thor's Hammer. And the episode is called The Lord of War and Thunder. It is beautifully done. Arlo appears to be a Pagan God who is as fickle and as mighty and indifferent to conventional human values as any Trickster. It's almost a child's eye view of Arlo, as the child Raylan must have been.

And as frightening as Arlo must have been to Raylan as a child, there are the jail house and hospital scenes where Arlo is charming everyone with his stories and jokes. I loved Raylan's reaction when he approaches his father in the jail and in the hospital. Raylan reels and then steadies himself and his eyes go wide with fright. The old man can still frighten the man, Raylan, and make his heart race with the trepidation of facing him.

This relationship between Raylan and Arlo is going to be a fascinating ride on this show. As bad as Arlo is, he left his mark---of mental illness and heart disease on Raylan. And how perfect is it to connect Arlo with heart disease? Arlo didn't stay in the mines to get black lung disease; but he developed black heart disease. Keep this up show.

It's nice to see a show that doesn't follow the usual plot devices. A lot of strong women in this show--flawed, but strong.

It is so refreshing when a show respects its women characters as people and not as plot devices to make the hero heroic or sexy. I know Elmore Leonard, from the few of his many books that I have read, writes strong and interesting and flawed women characters who do what they do because of who they are.

And I was looking at the list of writers on this show over at IMBD. They are all men that I can tell. These are men writing such good women characters. Hmmm, some feminist ideals from the women who raised them must have taken with these writer boys. ;-)

I went to a Q&A with the producer/writer Graham Yost, Elmore Leonard, Timothy and Walton and at least Yost is honest: he has no idea what they're going to do in S2 and he played it by ear in S1

You go to all the Best Places and Meet All the Cool Kids. You would have partied at Studio 54 every night in the 1970s (it was the seventies, wasn't it? I'm thinking of The Last Days of Disco).

I want to see how they handle Boyd. He was a good counter-point to Raylan in Season One and I really liked Boyd's ambiguity, it mirrored Arlo's. It would be such a contrast to someone like Art in Raylan's life. Art is always dependable and he is what he is, no disguises. He is the Head Marshal in town. Whereas Boyd could be another version of Arlo or not. Boyd is intelligent and uses his intelligence to rise above himself and think outside his comforts. Arlo was intelligent enough to get himself out of the mines, but couldn't rise above a life of meaness and petty crimes.

Oh, this could be so good. I'm glad that Boyd is back. He has such potential to reflect well on Raylan.

I'm going to read those two stories about Raylan Givens that Mr. Leonard wrote. I've got my request in at the library.

I loved that ABFAB paired the tall Miss Gaffney with the short con man fromThe Young Ones. Another fan of The Young Ones!!!!!!!! I loved Ric Mayal and his pretentious posturings about the distant and oppressed masses. He was every Left Cliché. Whatever happened to him and that Hippie Guy? That show was The Muppets run amok and gone chaotic on an acid trip.

Thank you for that link on Mr. Goggins. I never watched The Shield, so until this show, I was unfamiliar with him. He is a prize winning Hog Caller! Haha! And Boyd's little dance in the church when he was testifying as to Jesus's Righteous Love! Mr. Goggins was so right with that! He knows the culture and he has got that lean and wiry look that so many of those Good ole Boys have.

Reply


Leave a comment

Up