Review: Boss S01

It seems I tend to write mostly about negatives in this blog, and if I do write about the positives of a thing it's usually because they inspired me to some idea which I thought was interesting. I'm actually quite okay with this, except...

Neither of this applies to Boss. There aren't any significant flaws that I feel are worth complaining about (shock!). While I intensely enjoyed the experience of watching Season 1, and can't wait for the next season, I find myself at a bit of a loss at describing exactly what is so great about it. But it is great. The greatness is not underrated- currently the Metacritic score is 78, and the user score is 7.7. I would have been happier with something like 85 or 90, but it's not a huge deal. I started this blog in the first place because I thought I had something to say that wasn't really said- and while I didn't really make a detailed survey of Boss's reviews, from what I've seen, most of what I thought should be said, was, and is said.

I suppose I liked the characters, even though they are all corrupt, vile scum. It was interesting how the justification for their evil-ness was not ham-fistedly shoved in my face, nor was it ignored. I don't know a damn thing about what politicians are really like, granted, but they seemed real enough. The correspondence to reality aside, I was not irritated by any nagging "But why does he simply not do that!?" type questions.

It's a bit weird, really. Everyone in this show is a despicable, contemptible asshole. I think some were meant to be "sympathetic"- in that they aren't explicitly and deliberately conniving jerks who rub their hands wıth glee in anticipation of their future exploits as jerks. I still hated those "not-deliberate-jerks"; perhaps in part because they were the good guys but they didn't win, and I didn't like that, admittedly. But even so, they were also cowards, or weak-willed, or stupid, or delusional. While unlike the "villains" of the show I was somewhat sorry to see them get screwed, they always "brought it upon themselves" in a sense. The funny thing is, sometimes they only brought things upon themselves because they really had no choice, or they were simply unaware of certain crucial facts which changed everything... Yeah, I liked the story, too. I guess it's sort of the thing that TvTropes would call a Thirty Xanatos Pileup- everyone is constantly scheming and the schemes inevitably overlap and collide.

It's not just that everyone is a chessmaster character, though. That's another thing I liked- they're just reasonably intelligent people as you would expect from those in their station, and they are understandably doing the best they can to look after themselves. It all rather makes sense.

The story, similarly, is enjoyable to follow as it constantly casts characters in very different lights from episode to episode. The finale's "big reveal", in particular, was incredible to watch.

I liked the stylistic aspects of it, too. For one, the dialogue was lovely. It was perhaps somewhat fantastical compared to what such people would sound like in real life, but who cares? It was wordy, it was fancy, it was elegantly convoluted, it was half-poetry, especially during the monologues, and I loved every bit of it. It was interesting, unique and fresh. I didn't feel like I was being fed lines from some big book of stock TV-series lines. They weren't probably weren't very original when judged by actual literature standards, but for a modern, mainstream TV-series? The dialogue in Boss blew me away.

The music was also perfect. For others it may have been just good, perhaps, but when I heard Erik Satie playing not once, not twice, but three times, I was already in love with the show as far as the music is concerned. There were plenty of slow, tense scenes with characters sitting in silence, and the minimalist piano score worked great for me in those.

Boss is basically a story about a corrupt (he's not exactly corrupt in the sense of being a cartoon kleptomaniac embezzling politician- but just like everyone else, he's not above ignoring ethics when his career is at stake, and it often is) Chicago mayor (played by Frasier!) trying to hold on to his power. It's a series where half the characters are magnificent bastards, and the other half, just bastards. You hate all of them, but there's this morbid fascination with which one will screw over which one next, and how they will all get out of the most recent trainwreck.

Yes, thematically, it's about corruption, unrestrained ambition driving underhanded measures, but also grim determination. "You survive one day at a time." the characters keep reiterating, and it actually works. It's very interesting to watch it work, too. Not just because the plot is interesting, and the characters are interesting, but because the whole spectacle is so polished and sleek in its rendering.

Score: 5/5

Review: Ringer - First season, (first 6 episodes): I've had it with this shit.

Harsh?

Well, it would seem in my earlier post I rather over-estimated the potential of this.  I don't want to go into every detail, since honestly there aren't many interesting things you can say about how bad it is.

Basically, the show started out "okay, could get interesting if they don't mess it up". They did mess it up. Every episode became progressively worse. After 6, I threw the towel. Whatever. I don't care. I felt that I should produce some closure, though, since I essentially gave a thumbs up to the pilot.

So let's recap: What made this interesting?

1. Sarah Michelle Gellar being sad and battered.
2. Sarah Michelle Gellar playing herself and her twin sister.
3. Classic twin impersonator plot, plus there's a bonus: She's on the run, so she has to keep things secret from everyone, making her struggle a very personal and private one.

How did they fuck it up?

1. Sarah Michelle Gellar is not often sad and battered. She's not often anything! She just goes through the motions of living her life, and it's a boring life even by the standards of real-world lives. She has boring conversations with her boring friends, she gets in boring petty arguments with her boring step-daughter... At least 95% of what she does is tiresome and unnecessary.
2. The pilot starts off the two twins with distinct personalities. Bridget is resigned, obliging and good-hearted while Siobhan is aggressive, driven and malicious. The difference rapidly evaporates, as Bridget's selfless kindness becomes muted and Siobhan becomes incompetent and uninspired. With Siobhan on the other side of the world, the characters interact very little, so there goes one of the two major opportunities this kind of twin plot gives you.
3. Siobhan is in Europe, doing... something. It hasn't really affected Bridget much, as of Ep.6 So we get two concurrent storylines, both boring and pointless, with no relation to each other. It's like constantly flipping between two shows, when neither one is interesting. Bridget makes no effort to deal with her life, she just lies there and takes it, letting herself be swept along by the current. Other big twin plot opportunity, also wasted.
4. Nothing happens, and nothing is going to happen. It's clear the writers have no clue where the plot will go, and are making it up as they go along. They are not doing it well. Any hint of actual plot development is fastidiously avoided; it's just filler and stalling the main plot line. And I don't think they're ever gonna stop stalling.

Basically, they had a great idea for a show, and then they went and didn't develop that idea in any way whatsoever. And because in terms of characters, style, writing or whatever else you could imagine the series is so bankrupt of notability, I am left with no reason to watch it. I don't care about Siobhan's idiot husband, or his slut co-worker¹, or the imbecilic friend², or the douche bag husband of the friend, or what must be the least intimidating crime boss in history³, or the idiot FBI agent⁴. All I want is to see Bridget gradually learn how to think on her feet and learn to impersonate a sister she discover she barely knows- and we get none of that! Just petty drama.

It didn't have enormous potential, but it had enough, and all of it went to waste. Even if it did get many orders of magnitude better, I can't fathom how the damage that has been done can ever be contained.

Score: 1/5

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¹: What a pointless character. The only thing she adds to the thing is that nostalgia moment about the second season of Dexter!
²: In their defense, they did kill off Gemma in Ep6. But who cares, at that stage?
³: He's not big. He's not scary. He's not smart. He's not powerful. He looks like a hobo and talks like a fool. We only ever see him command maybe 5 henchmen, and manage one shabby strip club. At one point, he decides to torture a guy to find Bridget: The best he can come up with is to give him really good Heroin over and over. Not like, overdose or anything. They just let the guy have a couple of awesome trips. You see, he's a recovered addict, so somehow this is supposed to make him lose all semblance of common sense and do anything for more drugs. Guys, drug addiction does not work that way!
⁴: The above "torture" thing happens in a basement which is literally a bare concrete room with one simple table and two simple chairs in it. When police come to search the basement, the idiot criminals leave drug paraphernalia just lying on the floor, in clear sight. The enormous police/FBI search team fail to notice. Idiots.

Review: Ringer - Pilot

You know what? I don't hate it. Sure, the hooker with a heart of gold thing is kinda old, and it's a ridiculously convoluted twins switch places, hilarity ensues plot, but the principal twin is a broken, beaten, frightened Sarah Michelle Gellar trying her darnedest to survive in the web of promiscuity and deceit that her asshole sister left for her, and it REALLY gets me off.

I'm gonna enjoy watching her deal with Henry, Andrew, her pregnancy, and everything else, I think. There's plenty I'd change:

• The idea of her being dropped clueless in a situation and having to figure everything out without ever letting anyone suspect she's clueless really appeals to me. It's a shame they didn't include some montage of digging through diaries or just "remind me, what was I thinking about again?" moments, and attempts to concoct a fake accident so she can claim amnesia. Seems this sort of thing wouldn't quite fall in the scope of this, but I guess we'll see.
• The boat scene, especially the first one was so awkward. Was it an actual boat? It looked like a rocking set piece in front of a screen. It was jarring.
• The bit with her talking to the sponsor with music constantly cutting in, it was really awkward. They could have at least paced it better.
• What's with SMG easily beating up a huge, professional criminal? I didn't realize she was still a vampire slayer.
• There were quite a few scenes of SMG having an emotional moment with SMG, which were a bit odd. Now, not to disparage her ability, but I'm sure the weird setup makes acting at least a tiny bit more tricky, so I imagine this will be one of the most challenging aspects of it. They also seemed very similar at first, which, granted, they are, being twins. But with the pilot's conclusion, I think we glimpsed the potential of Bridget and Siobhan being vastly different people, and if their personalities continue to diverge in future episodes, we might be in for a delicious contrast.

Overall, it was certainly watchable. I wouldn't rave over it to everyone, as I would for, oh, Dexter's earlier seasons or Breaking Bad for instance. There's just some nebulous aspect of this that I feel you either "get" or don't, which creates much of the appeal.

Score: 3/5