Comments | themonkeytwin: "Justified", pilot episodes, and the element of surpri-

themonkeytwin

"Justified", pilot episodes, and the element of surpri-

Apr 27, 2010 15:42

Watched the Justified pilot a few days ago. There’d been some buzz about it I’d noticed, and, well, Timothy Olyphant is the kind of actor I would tune in just for himself. I wanted to like it. I did like it. It was enjoyable. It just wasn’t all that interesting.

( Surprise! Not really. (very mildly spoilery for )

musetastic: tv/episode, musetastic: character stuff, category: ... huh, justified, storyworks, category: whelmed, curmudgeonly tendencies

Comments 2

fleurlb June 16 2010, 15:38:06 UTC

Very interesting points. I'm also very interested in stories and how to tell them, so I found your analysis thought-provoking and relevant. You hit a lot of points that I felt but couldn't quite articulate. (And, I loved your Sophie and Eliot story, so I've gone ahead and added you to my flist. I think you're someone I could enjoy talking to/geeking out about these sorts of things. :))

So, I'm curious, since SPN and Leverage also two of my favourite shows - what were the two things that surprised you in those pilots.

I'm also big into Sons of Anarchy, but I think I watch despite the criminal underbelly thing, not because of it. Kurt Sutter has an MFA and spent a couple of years deconstructing plays and that work definitely shines through his show running and screenwriting. Man knows how to tell a story, which why I keep watching, hoping I'll learn something.

themonkeytwin June 16 2010, 17:54:10 UTC

Oh, Sons of Anarchy is definitely well written. If I had more time to watch stuff, I might consider investing the time in getting past the criminal thing, because I'm sure I'd get a decent return. And Jax is already an intriguing protagonist. But it's just too much to wade through for it to be an easily enjoyable watch.

And yay for geeking out about story! I'm totally there. It's about all I do around here. :)

Hm, SPN and Leverage.... I'll try to be concise. (Not one of my strengths!) But explaining surprise also requires explaining context, so. (And, naturally, they were both conversations that did it.)

In Leverage, it was fun and and all, but kind of just slicking along on that Ocean's 11 heist-charm thing (which is fine by me), when suddenly along came this quiet little moment between Nate and Eliot at the pool table. This fairly stock muscle character was making all these on-point insights into the complex, hard-to-read lead man. He even gets him to relax enough to talk about his dead son, who's been his hot-button the whole ( ... )