Describing it as "sparse plotting and actor-driven characterization" is exactly right. I do appreciate that it's Ridley's style and a conscious choice to skim over certain things.

I'm glad that Clair isn't just a helpless or innocent victim. Nicholas does plenty wrong, but they are both so self-centered, they can only see and care about what they individually want.

Seriously as in "it's terrible that people believe that" or seriously as in "I don't believe there are people in the world that actually believe that"? I definitely think that mindset is out there, but it's amazing that some people relate their struggles to maintain wealth with other people's struggles just to…

This show always takes on a little more than it can - or needs to - in any single season. Last year, the sexual assault story and private school politics were more than enough to generate 10 great TV episodes. But then they also added a public school principal story and a school shooting of the season villain, which…

Although the look on Nicholas Coates' face after the nanny spoke to him in French at rocket speed for practically a full minute. And people say this show isn't funny…

I think there should be room for both this kind of drama and the more dark humor drama of "Breaking Bad" and "The Americans." Frankly, a lot of what passes for dark humor and humor in general in some dramas feels like a crutch or a fall back, because other aspects of the show aren't good enough on their own. (Not BB…

Isaac's an interesting character. Or was, I should say. I think he used violence as a way to get a sense of power and control. It makes him feel like a big man on campus, especially when he's being challenged (a la Teo and Coy, just before he beat the stuffing out of him). He probably had been wanting to beat his…

Isaac has definitely been soft on Coy at certain times, but why is it that the automatic assumption is that it's sexual? Given all the conflicting things in Isaac's life and the fact that he doesn't seem as inherently cruel as his brother, there are a lot of explanations other that the immediate soap opera-y "HE IS…

So, your position is that Isaac was interested in Coy for sex and that's it?

From an investigative article in the NYT on drug use among farm workers:

Conspicuous absence of reason? How about they were desperate for workers and Coy was living on the streets and seemed like an easy target? There are several scenes where the writers emphasize the constant pressure of getting super cheap labor. One of the earliest scenes shows a head honcho telling a group, with…

But if you go back and watch previous seasons, you'll see that one guy calling another guy a bitch is THE go-to insult for Ridley's "tough" male characters. He's even said that in interviews, because he feels like the guys they are writing feel like the worst thing in the world is to have their masculinity insulted…

Can't Isaac have other reasons to be interested in Coy, other than repressed homosexuality? I mean, come on folks. He's got a brother he's trying to live up to, he's surrounded by endless brutality, he's surrounded by racism and economic inequality, he's serving basically as the "house slave" on the plantation, and…

In season 1, there were a couple of stories that were really over before the end of the season, but the show kept those stories in every episode until the end, even though there was not much left to say. It stretched them out too far, needlessly it felt like. I like the idea of ending some stories now and starting…

The ratings on this site are ridiculously low. Last season was the same.

Ditto on the accent as a southerner myself. :)

I can see the logic in why he chose the storylines he did, but a successul storyline is also one that engages. The Kimara story makes logical sense in the script but it's not engaging me, whereas Luis' story is doing both.

I agree re: newlyweds. And they wouldn't necessarily have to be young. If this were a second and/or late marriage for one or both, it would be a little more convincing.

I think the answer re: Kimara is 'no.' She seems to want the love of a baby, but she is already so fatigued by her real life, that I suspect she has created the idea in her mind that a baby will allow her to escape that. In real life, a baby adds more complications, not less.

In my opinion, the crime is how we, as a society, are willing to exploit the most vulnerable members of our society for our own pleasures, whether that be cheap consumer goods, personal profits, etc. Ridley is just showing the different ways in which that happens every day.