His facial expressions and demeanor when his just looking at something, or in the background are incredible.
Don't mind the crime-drama cliche, because the entire show is pastiche of different crime genres.
Printable View
His facial expressions and demeanor when his just looking at something, or in the background are incredible.
Don't mind the crime-drama cliche, because the entire show is pastiche of different crime genres.
He's also the His name was Robert Paulsen guy from Fight Club.
I hear the Mamet-esque-ness you speak of in that bar scene, maybe my least favorite scene in the episode next to his date with the anti-establishment woman, but nobody does Mamet-esque dialogue well unless they're Mamet. It was not done well, and the actors are not up to snuff, especially the guy who plays Holden (awful, stupid name btw) who really seems like he just walked off the street. He sucked, and dragged everyone else down with him.
I feel like you’re watching a different show from what I did.
Holden is freaking incredible, and the way his character progresses and kind of degenerates through the season is brilliant.
BTK is there as a refutation of everything the FBI does, because the show includes several implicit criticism of "Behavioral Sciences." I really like this aspect of it.
BTK killed people over a 30 year span and repeatedly dared the cops to catch him. They couldn't. Guys like BTK, Son of Sam, and Joel Rifkin weren't brought to justice because of police work or profiles. They were caught because of parking tickets and traffic stops---ie, dumb mistakes on the part of the killer.
I think the whole feet-tickler thing ties into the same criticism. Holden goes to talk to school kids about psychotic tendencies, like setting fires and hurting animals. He still thinks there's a way to predict killers and never considers the ethics or legality of his viewpoints (there's a short hop from basic forensics and criminal profiles to Stasi-like databases of the general population).
Then he gets frustrated at small, insignificant behaviors that are awkward but not illegal, at social friction that has no obvious solution. His training, education, and fieldwork are meaningless. What happens doesn't satisfy him and doesn't feel like justice to the audience.
The entire subplot portrays a low-stakes drama that illustrates a much larger, thornier problem.
I liked that aspect, too, that this is essentially a serial killer show that criticizes the mechanics of serial killer fiction. One can even say that it's the exact opposite of Wisdom of the Crowd.
There’s also the idea that Holden and Bill’s work is all in trying to establish patterns of early behaviour in order to develop preventative measures.
But BTK’s life was completely normal. No horrible childhood, no rap sheet up to that point. He would never have been picked up by their methods. His existence is an anomaly.
Do you guys thing Holden actually saw the [], or was it his paranoia creeping in?
That last episode was something else.
Yeah, he saw.
The show never did anything to make it seem like characters would hallucinations would have effect to the audience. He saw him.
I don't know. I think the show definitely plays with his reliability with his breakdown and his auditory episode in the last episode. I wondered about his mental state after that, especially with the way he became a complete asshole as the series went on.
I'm just gonna repeat everyone else here: give the guy playing Ed Kemper all the awards.
Felt sure they would do something to resolve Principal Tickle-Feet's subplot, especially given the blink-and-you'll-miss-it attention paid to his use of the word "covenant," which felt like it was going to lead to grooming/abuse couched in religion.
Also, I watched this and then first season of True Detective right afterwards, which was an interesting transition to say the least. My god, TD is just glacial by comparison, but handily a better show overall.
On to episode 5. I don't find this show all too intriguing or tense, but it's well made, I like the 70's setting a lot and Tench and Ford are a fun team.
That being said, I'm waiting for something to happen, a hook of some kind. There's a certain rut to how things play out. They get in the car, start driving, meet some wackjobs, and one can always count on Tench lighting up a cigarette.
Finished this last night. Absolutely awesome. Love all the little Fincher-isms. Back in the days of Fight Club and Panic Room it's amazing how few of us realized that he was discovering a style that was uniquely his own and it's one he applies equally to an expensive blockbuster with big stars and to this low-key show about criminal investigation.
Anyway, the characters are great (love that Trench functions as an enabler but also an anchor to Holden's most outrageous ideas) and the structure of the episodes was kind of novel, specially how they end on dramatic moments that are not necessarily cliffhangers.
By the way, []