Agreed. Hate feeling like I'm getting purposely fooled all the time. 

Pizzolatto has shot that down, much to my relief. I’m tired of unreliable narrators at the moment.

Me too when I saw the photo on HBO Go I thought they got Billy Bob for this season.

November 7, 1980 was just three days after the presidential election.

As good as Matt Damon playing Jim Rockford?

Eh, I think Katherine Waterston was great in Inherent Vice as an alluring femme fatale who doesn’t have that much underneath her.

I picked up on that latent racism too. I thought that was a great touch. Just the way you would expect that situation to play out, people unsure if they have to submit to this guy’s authority. And it also adds a layer to his 2015 answer of “no” when the TV lady asked if he thought racism played a part in marginalizing…

Mahershala Ali is tall but not crazy tall, he’s just over 6-foot. Dorff is pretty short (although not by Hollywood standards, where wee little men abound).

It’s only two episodes but this is a perfect example of how the same aesthetic, mood, and themes can be great to replicate as long as you have a good and compelling story. I don’t care if it “feels” like season 1 as long as it’s good and not a carbon copy.

Yes, almost immediately. We’re watching memories, which are unreliable for anyone, mores so for someone with what seems to be early stage Alzheimer's.

In stills, I definitely kept getting a Billy Bob Thornton vibe, though he’s much shorter (or is Mahershala really tall?)

She’s usually miscast. She often plays someone more glamorous and mysterious than she is...I’ve heard she is good on stage. I usually like her sister Grace Gummer more but her role in Mr. Robot is awful, she’s a kind of fanboy’s attempt to reimagine Kojak and Columbo minus any sense of reality. Kind of like Katherine…

Wayne screams unreliable narrator to me. Anyone else get that?

THAT’S who Stephen Dorff reminded me of! I kept thinking he looked a lot like some other, older actor, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

I noticed that too and thought it was really subtle and well-done. There was probably still a lot of blatant racism in 1980, but it was the smaller, less obvious stuff (I live in Louisiana, and believe me that hasn’t gone away) that was more aggravating to deal with, precisely because it was so ingrained and not even…

two thoughts:

I think I’ve only seen Mamie Gummer in the second season of Manhattan, so I’m not sure what roles she usually gets. I do sometimes have trouble keeping track of which Gummer sister is which.

I thought the racism was pretty present already. Like when Hays and West first speak with the father, Tom. Even though Hays was driving the questions, Tom was looking and answering them to West, and just turn his head back to Hays. As though just to make sure he was listening. And when Hays yelled out for the cops to…

Now here’s hoping they don’t kill off Ali partway through and replace him with another character.

I liked these two episodes. Marhershala Ali makes them. The cinematography is gorgeous. Too much reliance on the music to set the eerie tone.