But you equate "brutally honest" with one-dimensional. As a General Hospital junky for more years than I'd like to admit, I know, chapter and verse, where you are coming from. But so does John Ridley, who sometimes plays against the very stereotypes in which his audience (you and me, apparently) is steeped. Isn't…

I see your point about the mothers and children finally identifying with nature instead of with celebrity. Think about the children on the way to the ice follies with their mothers in the car, listening to Fleetwood Mac, or Trivia night in the finale: Here I feel the force of a writer/director's insight that what…

What about a SAG award for best ensemble cast?

Collider ran an interview with Vallée, in which he says he will not make a sequel, for the reason you give above: He wanted to work with the adaptation by giving it a proper beginning, middle, and an end.

As an actor, Alexander Skarsgård honed the skill of being thoroughly menacing in the feature film "The Legend of Tarzan" (our new secretary of the U.S. treasury is one of its producers). What's menacing is the total physicality of the threat, in which the attacker's face is a mask, but his eyes and the rest of his…

When Perry goes into wheedle and persuade mode, the part of the classic con, where the con man acts like you are the only one who can fix his vulnerability, is on full display. Celeste is the only one who can give him time and space to fix himself so he no longer is compelled to hurt her. Throughout Perry complains…

I like your post. In the scene in which one of the boys in the home talks to Shay, about her taking photos, I found myself picking up on the way he was trying to be funny, the way he knew about how to attract a girl by being amusing and disarm her, but in a nice, even a lovable way. And I thought, he could be Teo. …

Another nonverbal message was conveyed by how deliriously happy the children were in the concluding scene, playing on the beach with their mothers watching them, not their nannies. I haven't read the book, so I do not know if this tension existed in the text. I could not help but think that better than having a…

De gustibus non est disputandum

In dramatic theory, every protagonist by definition demands a foil, and it must be a foil of suitable magnitude: a weak foil leaves the powerful protagonist with nothing to do. In American Crime this season, Kimara's intense desire to mother a child has its suitable opposite in the motherless children who are her…

You are onto something with "endearing." Madeline is just trying so hard to get along.

Here's the point where we agree: I've seen many series ruined by showrunners working harder to get the series renewed than they do to make the series worthwhile.

Thanks for your reply, all of it. Really. But I might ask, just conversationally, if Ridley's ambition in taking on social problems of such broad scope and currency might guarantee that almost any entry into this subject matter is bound to seem "disjointed." Surely he realizes how complicated the issues are which he…

What is the "American crime" this season? Is it slavery, the captivity and mistreatment of migrants caught up in an economy that abuses them even though they seek it out? That beating at the end (or did Coy and Isaac just put on a show?) demonstrates what happens when large groups of people adrift from their cultures…

"Papa Was a Rolling Stone" by . . . (wait for it) . . . the Temptations. Like Sade, it is retro cool, though it predates Sade (the female singer, not the Marquis de). I like the way the credits role simply, with white letters over a solid black background, so the entire emphasis is on listening to the music track,…

All con men act like there is something only you can do for them, which they desperately need. It's the "clap for Tinker Bell!" syndrome. You get to help the impossibly handsome, scary strong, super smart hero-in-his-own-eyes deal with his lovable, soft, and sickly sweet vulnerability: Lucky you. Alexander…

Well said. Note that Sade is actually retro cool.

You are welcome. We'll all have to stick together, because I think this season is going to become harder and harder to watch with any complacency or objectivity.

Very interested in your observation that, as a social worker, Kimara has "certain ethical obligations to Shae." Last year, the failure of psychological parents (teachers, school administrators, therapists) as stand-ins for failed or failing biological parents emerged as an important theme: I compared Season 2 to…

You are the one saying give all the men all the credit. I'm the one saying, let's widen the pool of applicants and the pool of those who land the plums in the entertainment industry: Men aren't the only ones who qualify.