saw the premier. i dont know what i'm looking for out of it personally nor can i explain why it didnt carry the same kind of weight as say goodfellas or mean streets did upon viewing (to me).
Dont get me wrong, i liked it and enjoyed it, but i wasnt blown away by it, there's something awkward abotu it that i cannot put my finger on and explain. i guess i need to think about it some more, maybe watch the episode a few more times.
i'd be interested to hear others chiming in on it for sure.
EDIT: reading some reviews now and everyone is giving it glowing praises. lots of (obvious) comparisons to gangs of new york in terms of style etc. i dont know what im missing. prolly just need to watch it again.
Probably would be best to just be patient and not think of it as viewing a 2 hour feature. Think of it for the long haul. This is going to take a while. Like I said, if I had to judge The Wire solely off the first episode...
That was the main thing that threw me off course out of everything last night - that song sticks out like a sore thumb. Thought the show was pretty damn good, otherwise.
Only other thing that had me a little concerned was Buscemi -- b/c while I love him, I don't consider him the toughest guy -- which is what the character seems to be, however he's not. But then, he slammed dude's face in the side of the roulette table, and I started feeling better about things.
saw the premier. i dont know what i'm looking for out of it personally nor can i explain why it didnt carry the same kind of weight as say goodfellas or mean streets did upon viewing (to me).
Dont get me wrong, i liked it and enjoyed it, but i wasnt blown away by it, there's something awkward abotu it that i cannot put my finger on and explain. i guess i need to think about it some more, maybe watch the episode a few more times.
i'd be interested to hear others chiming in on it for sure.
EDIT: reading some reviews now and everyone is giving it glowing praises. lots of (obvious) comparisons to gangs of new york in terms of style etc. i dont know what im missing. prolly just need to watch it again.
Probably would be best to just be patient and not think of it as viewing a 2 hour feature. Think of it for the long haul. This is going to take a while. Like I said, if I had to judge The Wire solely off the first episode...
Nah i definitely agreed with what you said about the wire, it sort of ramped up slowly... has a lot to introduce. not sure why but i really exptected the show to come out outta the corner hard as fusk. i guess thats the why behind the whole godfather homage that comes in at the close of the episode perhaps?
i'm definietly gonna go home later and watch it again on demand or something and am going to watch teh future episodes.
i think rockadelic made a good comment that i wasnt quite able to verbalize regarding the character development maybe not being as good as it could have been. hopefully this will improve with coming episodes.
I really dislike this 'getting into it' phase (that must last for at least 3 episodes). It's so tiring, knowing it might just be hammy rubbish. And the set-ups are always so heavy-handed. I understand it's not easy but still, I think I enjoyed it.
Arnold Rothstein fixed the 1919 World Series, helped by the shitty pay Comiskey gave his incredibly great White Sox team.
Hopefully this show is good, haven't seen it yet, was excited to hear about it. First episodes are usually awkward.
I'm a big Steve Buscemi fan but the first episode was meh.
The key to these types of shows is having great characters(See Sopranos).
I'm gonna give Boardwalk a few weeks but I didn't see the great character potential last night.
couldn't disagree more. i bought into many of the characters and am looking forward to learning more about them. i thought Michael Pitts' "Jimmy" and Nucky stood out (as characters). was stoked to see the dude from A Serious Man as Rothstein, he's a good actor.
ps> Dabney Coleman was looking ROUGH
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smoking_robot said:
lots of (obvious) comparisons to gangs of new york in terms of style etc. i dont know what im missing.
I wouldn't consider a comparison to Gangs of New York to be a positive review.
That said, I liked the pilot. It set a lot of things into motion without endless exposition, and really in TV the producers and writers are the auteurs so this speaks well for their craft in episodes to come. Scorsese's contribution as a director was fairly subdued for him, my wife thought there was a disappointing lack of tracking shots, even though they were in there just not so long to call attention to themselves. The only director touch that brought me out of the episode positively or negatively is that I could have lived without the episode opening and closing with an iris wipe.
It's hard to judge a show just based upon the first episode. The Wire wasn't obviously good until the sixth episode or so, whereas the Mad Men pilot was way better than most of the first season.
Sepinawall has a pretty clear summary of the pilot, in case you might of missed something. I certainly had a hard time keeping the Chicago guys straight from the New York guys, but I'm sure the divisions will become clearer over the course of the season.
At least they got the Paz de la Huerta nude scene in right at the top of the series. Is her character supposed to have an accent? I couldn't tell.
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thrope said:
ps> Dabney Coleman was looking ROUGH
Wow, I didn't even realize it was him until I read the reviews afterward. Crazy.
Really? I was amped to see his name in the credits as I didn't know he was part of the cast, so since I'd been looking for him, I knew it was him off the bat. If it's not make-up, still think he's looking quite alright, considering he's 78.
Cool to see the "This is England" guy as Al Capone...
He was also in Gangs of New York and played Baby Face Nelson in Public Enemies.
I will always think of him as Tommy in Snatch.
Speaking about This is England. Any brits know if that This Is England '86 series has come on yet? And is it any good?
I liked the first Eps. Looking forward to watching more of B.E.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
DOR said:
Speaking about This is England. Any brits know if that This Is England '86 series has come on yet? And is it any good?
It's been running for a couple of weeks now. I kind of have mixed feelings about it so far - it's much more whimsical than the movie, which I loved, but lacks its emotional and political heft. It's more of an ensemble piece, focusing less on Shaun and giving more screen time to the everyday lives of the other characters from the movie, Combo aside (who's clearly no longer around although it hasn't been explained why). Normally, I like Shane Meadows' approach to depicting English working-class life, because he takes the stories away from the city and sets them in places you usually see depicted very differently in British film/TV drama. Even when he darks it right out, such as in the magnificent Dead Man's Shoes (best British film of the last ten years, easily), that darkness is offset by all these beautiful scenes of rural calm in the East Midlands countryside. Some of these aspects and themes are present in This Is England '86 - similar settings, similar undercurrents of domestic evil - but it hasn't really caught fire yet.
Speaking about This is England. Any brits know if that This Is England '86 series has come on yet? And is it any good?
It's been running for a couple of weeks now. I kind of have mixed feelings about it so far - it's much more whimsical than the movie, which I loved, but lacks its emotional and political heft. It's more of an ensemble piece, focusing less on Shaun and giving more screen time to the everyday lives of the other characters from the movie, Combo aside (who's clearly no longer around although it hasn't been explained why). Normally, I like Shane Meadows' approach to depicting English working-class life, because he takes the stories away from the city and sets them in places you usually see depicted very differently in British film/TV drama. Even when he darks it right out, such as in the magnificent Dead Man's Shoes (best British film of the last ten years, easily), that darkness is offset by all these beautiful scenes of rural calm in the East Midlands countryside. Some of these aspects and themes are present in This Is England '86 - similar settings, similar undercurrents of domestic evil - but it hasn't really caught fire yet.
Yeah pretty much what Doc said. Without the skinhead aspect it's all felt a bit unfocused and seems content to tread down the tried and tested Grim Up North with jokes path that Channel 4 has been milking for years with shows like Shameless. Maybe it'll come good before the end but at the moment, considering they have characters already rounded out by a movie, everything feels very 2 dimensional and a bit lazy.
I didn't think the opener was mind blowing, but I liked the story and the look of the sets. I would agree with Cosmo that it'll probably take a couple episodes to really kick in.
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DOR said:
The_Hook_Up said:
Cool to see the "This is England" guy as Al Capone...
He was also in Gangs of New York and played Baby Face Nelson in Public Enemies.
I will always think of him as Tommy in Snatch.
Keeping it HBO related, I instantly thought of Sgt. Ranney from Band of Brothers.
Saw it yesterday - granted, the pilot is the only one Scorsese will direct, it was an hour and twelve minutes and probably more lavishly produced than other episodes will be but COT DAMN - it was good. I was expecting a tv show and got a movie basically. Left no doubt in my mind i'll be enjoying this show.
Love the way nucky is being set up to be squeezed from all sides - the feds, the ny mob, chicago mob and from within his own ranks. You can see the shitstorm brewing. Buscemi was great and will have no problem carrying this. There's a lot of depth to his persona already with the childhood issues, the goodguy/badguy and baby dilemmas of the character being set up nicely.
I love the timeperiod and setting anyway and thought it was great to see the portrayal of the rothstein/salvatore luciano and capone figures, in their prime and seemingly historically accurate. Good stuff. Im psyched.
Not me. I think it's coming into its own. The sniper storyline was dope. Michael Pitt is good in his role. Max Cansella and his crew are great...hope they will be featured more in the final eps of the season.
It has one of the worst opening sequences I've seen in a long time. When Buscemi walks back on the beach, he walks like a doddering old man, who should have a hanky on his head, not some badass gangland boss.
Yeah, but he's not a gangster. He's the party boss that runs the political machine in Atlantic City.
He's not a hoodlum or a hardman, but of coarse he's a gangster. Well racketeer is probably more suitable.
Apart from the political side of his job, his income come mainly from organized crime; extortion, bootlegging, gambling and prostitution.
Comments
Probably would be best to just be patient and not think of it as viewing a 2 hour feature. Think of it for the long haul. This is going to take a while. Like I said, if I had to judge The Wire solely off the first episode...
That was the main thing that threw me off course out of everything last night - that song sticks out like a sore thumb. Thought the show was pretty damn good, otherwise.
Only other thing that had me a little concerned was Buscemi -- b/c while I love him, I don't consider him the toughest guy -- which is what the character seems to be, however he's not. But then, he slammed dude's face in the side of the roulette table, and I started feeling better about things.
Nah i definitely agreed with what you said about the wire, it sort of ramped up slowly... has a lot to introduce. not sure why but i really exptected the show to come out outta the corner hard as fusk. i guess thats the why behind the whole godfather homage that comes in at the close of the episode perhaps?
i'm definietly gonna go home later and watch it again on demand or something and am going to watch teh future episodes.
i think rockadelic made a good comment that i wasnt quite able to verbalize regarding the character development maybe not being as good as it could have been. hopefully this will improve with coming episodes.
I really dislike this 'getting into it' phase (that must last for at least 3 episodes). It's so tiring, knowing it might just be hammy rubbish. And the set-ups are always so heavy-handed. I understand it's not easy but still, I think I enjoyed it.
Hopefully this show is good, haven't seen it yet, was excited to hear about it. First episodes are usually awkward.
couldn't disagree more. i bought into many of the characters and am looking forward to learning more about them. i thought Michael Pitts' "Jimmy" and Nucky stood out (as characters). was stoked to see the dude from A Serious Man as Rothstein, he's a good actor.
ps> Dabney Coleman was looking ROUGH
I wouldn't consider a comparison to Gangs of New York to be a positive review.
That said, I liked the pilot. It set a lot of things into motion without endless exposition, and really in TV the producers and writers are the auteurs so this speaks well for their craft in episodes to come. Scorsese's contribution as a director was fairly subdued for him, my wife thought there was a disappointing lack of tracking shots, even though they were in there just not so long to call attention to themselves. The only director touch that brought me out of the episode positively or negatively is that I could have lived without the episode opening and closing with an iris wipe.
It's hard to judge a show just based upon the first episode. The Wire wasn't obviously good until the sixth episode or so, whereas the Mad Men pilot was way better than most of the first season.
Sepinawall has a pretty clear summary of the pilot, in case you might of missed something. I certainly had a hard time keeping the Chicago guys straight from the New York guys, but I'm sure the divisions will become clearer over the course of the season.
At least they got the Paz de la Huerta nude scene in right at the top of the series. Is her character supposed to have an accent? I couldn't tell.
Wow, I didn't even realize it was him until I read the reviews afterward. Crazy.
He was also in Gangs of New York and played Baby Face Nelson in Public Enemies.
I will always think of him as Tommy in Snatch.
Speaking about This is England. Any brits know if that This Is England '86 series has come on yet? And is it any good?
I liked the first Eps. Looking forward to watching more of B.E.
It's been running for a couple of weeks now. I kind of have mixed feelings about it so far - it's much more whimsical than the movie, which I loved, but lacks its emotional and political heft. It's more of an ensemble piece, focusing less on Shaun and giving more screen time to the everyday lives of the other characters from the movie, Combo aside (who's clearly no longer around although it hasn't been explained why). Normally, I like Shane Meadows' approach to depicting English working-class life, because he takes the stories away from the city and sets them in places you usually see depicted very differently in British film/TV drama. Even when he darks it right out, such as in the magnificent Dead Man's Shoes (best British film of the last ten years, easily), that darkness is offset by all these beautiful scenes of rural calm in the East Midlands countryside. Some of these aspects and themes are present in This Is England '86 - similar settings, similar undercurrents of domestic evil - but it hasn't really caught fire yet.
Yeah pretty much what Doc said. Without the skinhead aspect it's all felt a bit unfocused and seems content to tread down the tried and tested Grim Up North with jokes path that Channel 4 has been milking for years with shows like Shameless. Maybe it'll come good before the end but at the moment, considering they have characters already rounded out by a movie, everything feels very 2 dimensional and a bit lazy.
Keeping it HBO related, I instantly thought of Sgt. Ranney from Band of Brothers.
Saw it yesterday - granted, the pilot is the only one Scorsese will direct, it was an hour and twelve minutes and probably more lavishly produced than other episodes will be but COT DAMN - it was good. I was expecting a tv show and got a movie basically. Left no doubt in my mind i'll be enjoying this show.
Love the way nucky is being set up to be squeezed from all sides - the feds, the ny mob, chicago mob and from within his own ranks. You can see the shitstorm brewing. Buscemi was great and will have no problem carrying this. There's a lot of depth to his persona already with the childhood issues, the goodguy/badguy and baby dilemmas of the character being set up nicely.
I love the timeperiod and setting anyway and thought it was great to see the portrayal of the rothstein/salvatore luciano and capone figures, in their prime and seemingly historically accurate. Good stuff. Im psyched.
Meyer Lansky finally made his entrance
Buscemi is owning the hell out of this - best thing on tv right now
whats reallytreal?
i want to give it a chance but cannot afford to be disapointed
Great show!
It's slow moving...
That being said it is not the Sopranos or The Wire.
I'm a fan of Prohibition-era films/history, so I got to give it up. Buscemi deserves an Emmy.
Hatters can hatt.
Not me. I think it's coming into its own. The sniper storyline was dope. Michael Pitt is good in his role. Max Cansella and his crew are great...hope they will be featured more in the final eps of the season.
That said I'm enjoying it immensely.
Apart from the political side of his job, his income come mainly from organized crime; extortion, bootlegging, gambling and prostitution.