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Freed Roger wrote:Into season 3 of Handmaid's tale and the implausibility is getting burdensome.
I'm vested so I guess I keep watching and being depressed

I think it's just inherently very implausible and it's hard to maintain that over 3+ seasons. It's a world where - even ignoring everything else - men have taken sports away from themselves, so it's not going to stand up to a lot of scrutiny. Just have to take the fictional world as it is. Women could easily be repressed in this way, but no way would men agree to making themselves so miserable.

I'd say the third season does get better and more hopeful as it goes, which was sorely needed for it to stay watchable.

ghostrunner wrote:

Freed Roger wrote:Into season 3 of Handmaid's tale and the implausibility is getting burdensome.

I think it's just inherently very implausible and it's hard to maintain that over 3+ seasons. It's a world where - even ignoring everything else - men have taken sports away from themselves, so it's not going to stand up to a lot of scrutiny. Just have to take the fictional world as it is. Women could easily be repressed in this way, but no way would men agree to making themselves so miserable.
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The implausible world I'm generally ok with - they stay within their constraints, save for the timeline. For example, the pre-Gilead world,wasn't that long ago. Thus Hannah has only aged a precious few years, but the storyline makes it seem like Gilead has been established for decades with it's principles and rules. There was an Offred before June.

The characters are doing more and more things that seem out of character for me. I know, they intentionally display the duality of peoples personalities -how people can be incredibly cruel, and also kind at times. The climactic jams in story, they resort to thin plot conveniences to get them out of it.

The Nick character's ability to move freely in the story line doesn't make sense. He's a weak link in the acting IMO. He can bang the commander's handmaid and everybody knows it, as long as he opens car doors for them. Sure, they are supposed to have leverages in this authoritarian society, but his superpowers don't make sense to me. What happened to him at that house (before the baby was born)?

bailed on handmaids tale in the 3rd season...became too much of a slog.

The Righteous Gemstones is probably the best thing Danny McBride/Jody Hill/David Gordon Green have done. It was remarkable. The Outback scene last night with Edi Patterson and Tim Baltz (iO Chicago represent!) had me crying laughing.

And Succession is even better. The finale was a 10, just perfect television from start to finish. There were probably four 9.5s in this season--the hunting trip, the one where they try to woo the liberals, the one with the safe room, last week with the Congressional hearings--and this one was even better. One of the best seasons of TV in a long time, Jeremy Strong should get an acting Emmy he was fantastic all season, and it probably had more laugh-out-loud funny moments than even Gemstones.

Really good combo on HBO the last couple months, I'm going to miss both.

the first time i saw tim baltz was when he performed with stephen fry and showed him the weiner circle on "stephen fry in america" when he was in chicago. i remember the first time i saw him in a show, "better call saul" i think, i was like "that's the dude that showed stephen around in chicago"

Gemstones really was fantastic. Of course I'll watch a second season, but the first ended so nicely, it almost feels like a perfectly encapsulated work, and it's risky to disturb that.

Jocephus wrote:the first time i saw tim baltz was when he performed with stephen fry and showed him the weiner circle on "stephen fry in america" when he was in chicago. i remember the first time i saw him in a show, "better call saul" i think, i was like "that's the dude that showed stephen around in chicago"

He was one of those guys when he was playing improv in Chicago (he was on Bullet Lounge, a legendary Harold team with Klepper for quite a while) that all the students would go to the shows with their notebooks, making notes on everything Baltz did. He's brilliant.

Caught up on Succession and the main pleasure I get out of it is that every character eats [expletive] at some point. It is funny though and I unfortunately like a couple of the characters. Season finale wasn’t hard to see coming, though it irks me a bit when characters have been planning things behind the scenes and the plans really only worked because of things they had no control over. Vikings is a slightly pulpier show and it pulled that two seasons in a row and I was out.

ghostrunner wrote:Season finale wasn’t hard to see coming, though it irks me a bit when characters have been planning things behind the scenes and the plans really only worked because of things they had no control over.

I disagree completely...

Sure, Kendall and Greg had been hanging out/he obv told him about the documents he had at some point, but Kendall would never had acted on that. If they voted to have someone else take the fall, Kendall keeps his mouth shut. In fact, once Kendall has to take the fall, he still would have kept his mouth shut. his dad loves him only when he's broken, and I think Kendall would have just gone right along and been broken and had his dad's love/gladly taken the fall...

but when he asked his dad if he could have done it/been CEO, and he said nope, you're not a killer...that right there and then, is when Kendall decided to act.

cardsfantx wrote:

ghostrunner wrote:Season finale wasn’t hard to see coming, though it irks me a bit when characters have been planning things behind the scenes and the plans really only worked because of things they had no control over.

I disagree completely...

Sure, Kendall and Greg had been hanging out/he obv told him about the documents he had at some point, but Kendall would never had acted on that. If they voted to have someone else take the fall, Kendall keeps his mouth shut. In fact, once Kendall has to take the fall, he still would have kept his mouth shut. his dad loves him only when he's broken, and I think Kendall would have just gone right along and been broken and had his dad's love/gladly taken the fall...

but when he asked his dad if he could have done it/been CEO, and he said nope, you're not a killer...that right there and then, is when Kendall decided to act.

If that's what they intended, I didn't read it that way. I didn't see that light come on. For one, I don't know why Kendall would think that's new information from Logan. Logan seems openly contemptuous and critical of everyone, but it seemed clear he had no confidence in him. If he felt Kendall was a good successor then why hadn't he named him again? It wasn't just that though. I felt the decision to pull the rug out last season would have communicated that and it's in the way Logan treats him.

There's still some things we're not privy to and/or had to go right. Ken has to be chosen, which didn't ring true to me. Greg has to go along with it - when did that meeting happen and what was the pretense for Greg going with Kendall anyway? Greg has to have held on to the documents, and has to agree to the plan which seems like it'd be dicey since he just turned down his inheritance. We've seen Greg agonize about everything, but he seems cool as a cucumber at the very end.

My assumption was this had been in motion or at least prepared in case circumstances were right. Neither really makes sense to me though.