There’s another angle to being a critic: You provide interesting context, insight, or observations, so that the viewer might better appreciate what they’re seeing.  That’s in play here.

I love movies that give me something interesting visually—I’m not much of an advocate for austerity in film style—but I do think this goes beyond the realm of personal taste (I mean, to the extent that any of this can go beyond the realm of personal taste) and into the visual presentation making the movie feel more…

It was a bit too dim at times, a recurring issue with HBO. They also pump their audio with a way too aggressive compression filter, which jacks up the ambient noise in quiet scenes and suppresses loud scenes. This filter is even on the 5.1 digital audio. I hate it so much I wait until the show appears on demand, as…

Lighting is terrible in TV now. Everyone wants to do scenes at night, but they always look like shit on our TVs. In real life, trying to see things in the dark sucks, so unless the director is specifically trying to convey a lack of sight as part of the story they need to stop.  

Watching it on my computer with the brightness at the highest setting, I too had trouble seeing certain things. I needed to watch the last scene twice to understand that it was Judd Crawford who’d been hung.

Your TV. 

I’d check your TV. I thought they did a great job lighting. Regina in all of that black.

I have a feeling that we’re going to be getting into that later in the season. Something doesn’t smell right with this police force. 

Double agent(s) feels like a very believable future plot point

It’s interesting, this is very close to our America, but it isn’t. It’s a Looking Glass/funhouse mirror America that we can use to glean some capital-t Truth from.

There are as many Black officers on the local police force as white, and it seems the only people oppressed are the racists. That could be problematic down the line, but early on, it feels like a set-up for a potential plot flip mid-season. For now, there’s plenty to mull over already woven into the series.

Of Bats And Men.

There’s still a world of punctuation to consider. “Batman!” “Batman?” “Bat, man”.

If Paul Dano is the Riddler, can Daniel Day Lewis be the Penguin? Really want to see his method for that.

To me, this is a show where all characters are assholes, but I can’t stop watching, and there has to be one asshole who I’m rooting for.  Glad it was Kendall this time.

What does Shiv get from Tom? Well...

Let’s all keep burying her and Aunt Becky so we don’t have to think about larger problems, including all the other idiots involved in this scheme, or people getting away with much larger con jobs on a national stage!

Danette, thank you for a great season! What a finale! I loved every second of it and can only pray that AMC grants a Season 3 to wrap it all up (I think this could be the greatest “Only 3 seasons” show in history). Liz is Connie’s Squire!! The closing moments make it so clear, as well as Liz being a part of the Lodge…

Roman defending Gerri from being made the sacrificial lamb is as close as anyone in that family will ever get to standing up in public and declaring their love for someone.  Like, come on, Rome, just ask her out already.

I think the most important thing to note when trying to figure out Shiv & Tom’s relationship is that of all the men Shiv interacts with - and she moves around in a lot of male-dominated circles - Tom is maybe the only one who has the same high estimation of Shiv that she has of herself.