Wasn't really any meat on the bone for that character as currently written. Perhaps it was a larger role before?

A preliminary guess: the "I can help line" line from the fictional droid is a metaphor for the individual in any given lifetime trying to figure out what their piece in the greater cosmic puzzle is. It's an individual's answer to the larger existential questions of "What am I doing here?" and "What is the meaning of…

I caught that one immediately as well. Pourquoi - one of the exceedingly few things I remember from my failed high school experiment with French. Nice play on words!

Agreed, but even so. Why ask for such a shockingly low amount of money at all? If I were writing this scene, I'd have simply had Varga respond "will that be cash, or check?" Presumably right before Meemo put one in her brain pan. In other words, it goes to whether or not she's smart enough to be in this game at all at…

Here's an idea: how about the fact that as a major subtext of this season has been global capitalism vs the small/common man, the major reason for episode three was simply to illustrate that a popular dramatic work of fiction could take time out from the purely formulaic and efficient plot work of A=>B=>C to actually…

Haven't heard anyone else mention it, but Nikki's extortion demand of $2M sounded shockingly low for 2010, especially given all the crap she'd endured up to that point.

Varga is the embodiment of the sin of gluttony, which he disguises with bulimia. The metaphor is extended to his entire life, as he gluttonously gobbles up money, corporations, and people as well. In a larger sense still, he's a stand-in for global capitalism itself, and it's ravenous, gluttonous, nature: the hunger…

When your life is over, all that's left are the stories of your existence. Depending on who's recounting them, are they true, are they false, and who's to say which is which? "The Truth" of course lies within the individual, who, for all we know, might not be any closer to wisdom after his/her life is over than they…

The Bowling Alley is definitely the after world IMO. The whole run through the forest scene is nothing more than a combination reality/allegory scene in my opinion. The events are "real," and yet they're allegorical for a higher truth at the same time. Just as the Coen's suggest in ALL their movies IMO. Scenes always…

Uri's entrance into the bowling alley asking for napkins to stanch the bleeding from his missing ear is also clearly a call back to Fargo the movie's Steve Buscemi character (Carl Showaltwer) after his pivotal parking lot showdown with Wade Gustafson.

Too add, Marilyn, Emmit's secretary, bears a remarkable fawning Asian resemblance to Season One's Lester's Linda. As does Emmit's wide-eyed looks in response to the many Ray cues he sees when he returns to his office compare to Lester's many befuddled expressions. Great work here! There's a subconscious deja vu aspect…

A couple of things. When Nikki first sits down at the bar in the bowling alley, the barkeep asks her "You want shoes?", which, intentionally I think, comes out sounding like"You want Jews?" I haven't read so far that anyone else caught that. Also, when Nikki and Mr Wrench first enter the forest she's clearly having a…

I've kept up with this show out of a morbid mix of curiosity and boredom the past few years in spite of its meandering and seemingly pointless story line, which unfortunately seems to be a trend in our increasingly "multi-everything" world. I can't say that the experience has been especially rewarding.

Can't wait for another season of this quirky classic. I remember initially sitting the first season out thinking it would be a pale ripoff of the movie. Wow was I wrong about that! Best show on TV, bar none!

Odd show. Seems to confuse mystery for profundity at times, when mostly it's just confused. I enjoyed the first few episodes where it still seemed like it might be going somewhere interesting, or at least different. Instead, it quickly degenerated into standard hackneyed TV tropes: power games between boring…

Just watched the finale of this show again in reruns. Really nice sendoff to what was a very enjoyable show.

This was actually a decent episode to watch streaming. Actual run time: 68 minutes (61.8%), TV time on Sundance: 110 minutes, Commercial Time: 42 minutes (39.8%). So watching live, fully 4 minutes out of 10 were wasted watching commercial BS, often in the most irritating fashion imaginable (short snippets in and out…

Excellent review! The reviewer caught all the disappointments that I did. LOTS of padding in this episode, not least of which were the commercial interruptions, which were simply intolerable this week. I gave up on it half way through after 15 minutes of programming and 30 minutes of commercials. Simply unwatchable.…

I watched the episode on my computer and listened through my admittedly tinny little computer speakers. I'll watch it again tonight on the TV, but I didn't notice any of your complaints even with the volume turned way up. I have noticed that the pacing has picked up dramatically this year though, understandable I…

Nominations seem totally beside the point to me. This show exists as its own genre, so it almost seems demeaning to make fit into any kind of 'best of' list with other shows. Maybe they need to hand out Rectify or Ray McKinnon Awards in the wake of this show?