Graceland
It took me a few episodes to get into Graceland (would it kill them to enunciate all the characters names loudly, clearly, and preferably five or six times in episode one?), but I’ve just finished episode seven now, and YOU GUYS. I AM SO HOOKED.
And also I would never never never be an undercover anything. Having to keep track of so many lies to so many people and know that you are creating some of the deepest and most intimate relationships of your life on a foundation of sand? JUST NO.
But no wonder the disparate FBI, DEA, and customs agents grow so attached to Graceland, the beachfront house where they live: this is the one place where they can be themselves.
More or less. Assuming they are not Briggs, because Briggs is playing them all LIKE FIDDLES, and most of all Mike. Mike, Briggs is playing like a frickin’ one-man band. For instance, I would lay money that Briggs’ story about his drug addiction is a fabrication. Forcibly hooked on heroin by drug dealers who kidnapped him and shot him up for two weeks straight, at which point they let him go and Briggs heroically kicked the habit without any help from anyone and without anyone noticing? I mean really.
But it’s perfectly concocted to appeal to Mike, who clearly wants a hero to worship. Doubtless Briggs was sitting there thinking “Really? The kid is really falling for this?” as Mike lapped up the story. He probably had something a little grottier (and perhaps a little closer to the truth) up his sleeve in case Mike seemed doubtful about it, but no, Mike bought it hook, line, and sinker, and took it to his FBI handler who wants him to investigate Briggs, too. “We shouldn’t be investigating him, we should help him!” indeed.
And the handler is just standing there with this look on his face like, “Oh my God, this kid has totally drunk the kool-aid. I will pretend to humor his delusion that Briggs is heroically struggling against an addiction foisted upon him by drug dealers, and meanwhile scramble to think of a way to salvage my operation now that the supposed whiz kid is totally on Briggs’ side.”
But! I don’t think that Briggs is wholly bad. Or at least, I hope he’s not, because hitherto Briggs has tried so hard to look after his fellow agents in Graceland, and I would hate to think it’s all entirely insincerely. If he’s secretly a drug kingpin, I bet he’s deluded himself into believing that he’ll be able to use this drug kingpinnery to bring down the bad guys.
So yeah, that’s my theory now. Briggs is in way over his head, skimming heroin off his drug busts as part of a huge scheme to nab tons of drug dealers by masquerading as one of them. He is simultaneously utterly morally compromised and clearly needs to be kicked out of the FBI (and Graceland) post haste, but also is a good guy so it will be utterly tragic and everyone will weep, weep when he goes. It seems very much in keeping with their law-of-unintended-consequences theme.
(And speaking of the law of unintended consequences, I was so sad when Whistler died. The show did a good job making him likable despite the fact that he’s such a sad sack - because he loves Charlie so much, and he’s so dependent on her - and oh, Charlie, the demands of her job always interfering with the fact that she really does like and want to help him -
I really hope the guilt doesn’t crush her into descending into heroin addiction, because that ALSO would be so sad. Save her, members of Graceland! Save her! I feel like it could go either way right now. I’ll just have to wait and see.
And in conclusion, when entwashian says I should watch a show, clearly I should always listen.
And also I would never never never be an undercover anything. Having to keep track of so many lies to so many people and know that you are creating some of the deepest and most intimate relationships of your life on a foundation of sand? JUST NO.
But no wonder the disparate FBI, DEA, and customs agents grow so attached to Graceland, the beachfront house where they live: this is the one place where they can be themselves.
More or less. Assuming they are not Briggs, because Briggs is playing them all LIKE FIDDLES, and most of all Mike. Mike, Briggs is playing like a frickin’ one-man band. For instance, I would lay money that Briggs’ story about his drug addiction is a fabrication. Forcibly hooked on heroin by drug dealers who kidnapped him and shot him up for two weeks straight, at which point they let him go and Briggs heroically kicked the habit without any help from anyone and without anyone noticing? I mean really.
But it’s perfectly concocted to appeal to Mike, who clearly wants a hero to worship. Doubtless Briggs was sitting there thinking “Really? The kid is really falling for this?” as Mike lapped up the story. He probably had something a little grottier (and perhaps a little closer to the truth) up his sleeve in case Mike seemed doubtful about it, but no, Mike bought it hook, line, and sinker, and took it to his FBI handler who wants him to investigate Briggs, too. “We shouldn’t be investigating him, we should help him!” indeed.
And the handler is just standing there with this look on his face like, “Oh my God, this kid has totally drunk the kool-aid. I will pretend to humor his delusion that Briggs is heroically struggling against an addiction foisted upon him by drug dealers, and meanwhile scramble to think of a way to salvage my operation now that the supposed whiz kid is totally on Briggs’ side.”
But! I don’t think that Briggs is wholly bad. Or at least, I hope he’s not, because hitherto Briggs has tried so hard to look after his fellow agents in Graceland, and I would hate to think it’s all entirely insincerely. If he’s secretly a drug kingpin, I bet he’s deluded himself into believing that he’ll be able to use this drug kingpinnery to bring down the bad guys.
So yeah, that’s my theory now. Briggs is in way over his head, skimming heroin off his drug busts as part of a huge scheme to nab tons of drug dealers by masquerading as one of them. He is simultaneously utterly morally compromised and clearly needs to be kicked out of the FBI (and Graceland) post haste, but also is a good guy so it will be utterly tragic and everyone will weep, weep when he goes. It seems very much in keeping with their law-of-unintended-consequences theme.
(And speaking of the law of unintended consequences, I was so sad when Whistler died. The show did a good job making him likable despite the fact that he’s such a sad sack - because he loves Charlie so much, and he’s so dependent on her - and oh, Charlie, the demands of her job always interfering with the fact that she really does like and want to help him -
I really hope the guilt doesn’t crush her into descending into heroin addiction, because that ALSO would be so sad. Save her, members of Graceland! Save her! I feel like it could go either way right now. I’ll just have to wait and see.
And in conclusion, when entwashian says I should watch a show, clearly I should always listen.