Past Purges
The Bridge "The Acorn"
I'm finding this show hard to write about because I don't fully understanding what is happening. Each of the stories right now exists on the fringe of the other stories. The bank offers the first convergence of them with Benjamin's suicide bringing Marco and Sonya and Daniel and Adriana together.
The reporters come to Benjamin about the money laundering. Realizing that he doesn't have much time before the police, or worse, the cartel gets him, Benjamin decides to off himself. Why he opted to go outside and scar the sign holder is something I cannot explain. You have to feel bad for any guy who is called an asshole in the final words he ever hears. I share Daniel's opinion, personally: "All I'm saying is blowing your brains out at work is a rookie move. You know, have the decency to kill yourself in your own bathtub. Grab a handful of pills, a fifth of Stoli, and throw in a little Capt. Beefheart and you enjoy the ride." Based on Marco's talk with Daniel and Adiana, I don't expect them to work together from here. It looks more like a momentary overlap.
Meanwhile, Charlotte and Ray are hiding poorly from the cartel after last week's "heist", Eleanor is making backroom deals with Fausto to see some caged man, and Marco is struggling with his allegiances. I'll admit, I spend most of the scenes with the Spanish subtitles reading, so I didn't realize until now that the Internal Affairs guy and the CEO were different people. This certainly makes Marco's situation a lot less hopeless and it really is a matter of time before he lets Sonya in on it. Hopefully, things will start to tie together more in the coming weeks. While I don't think everything has to be tied together, at some point you wonder why these stories are all on the same show if they are so different.
Married "The Getaway"
This week was about two couple who needed to remember that they work in their own specific way. Russ and Lina are tired of each other. If one thing has been made clear in these first three episodes, it's that. They love each other but that's almost beside the point. The rest of life has beaten them down. The episode begins with them nipping their biggest problem in the bud, so to speak, with Russ preparing for a vasectomy. As sitcom tropes demand, Russ is not pleased with the idea and Lina holds the pain of pregnancy over him. However she's not dense to the psychological effects of this on Russ, so they plan a romantic getaway. As further sitcom tropes demand, they get a room next to a younger, mirror couple who have no sexual problems, unlike Russ and Lina, who are rather pathetic in their attempts to have sex. Over time, we see the kinks in the young couple's armor and our leads bond over recognizing that they were that young and stupid one day, although Lina points out to Russ, "Baby, you're still that dumb".
Meanwhile, one of the defining characteristics of Jess so far is that she's married to an old man. We get to meet the old man this week and he's played by none other than TV's Paul Reiser. It starts off looking very bad. Jess has been sexting with the neighbor who looks to have run out on his wife. The wife confronts Jess about this. Together, the wife, Jess, and Reiser sext the husband in an attempt to get a response. It's all painfully awkward and confusing because Reiser is completely relaxed throughout the whole thing. By the end, it's all resolved with a simple "I know who I married" from him.
Both couples don't function in the traditional sense. Russ and Lina bicker constantly and Jess freely invites the advances of other men. Then again, neither couple is in danger of splitting up (partly because, well, what's the name of the show). Russ and Lina thrive on the fact that they know the other person will put up with all their worst habits. Jess and her husband are secure in what they have, so even something like a little sexting isn't a threat. I still don't know if I like this show, but it is doing a good job following through with the mission statement, that marriage isn't supposed to be simple or pretty.
You're the Worst "Keys Open Doors"
I've had to change my expectations for this series a couple times already. The first episode went out of it's way to make Jimmy and Gretchen the worst people. The second episode uncomfortably inserted scenes to remind us that they are supposed to be the worst. This episode didn't really have any of that. They are a legit couple at this point. Neither fully understands what that means, but they genuinely seem to like each other and barely put up a fight about what this is becoming. The Key issue is a legitimate concern, given that they haven't been dating that long, regardless of how comfortable they already are. I can't blame Jimmy for wanting to snoop in her phone, because that's just human nature. This is the second week in a row in which Gretchen is purposely leaving Jimmy in the dark, so it's starting to seem more like "He's the worst, and she's just bad enough to not find someone better". This isn't necessarily a bad thing because I do like Gretchen and Jimmy. Edgar is growing on me and Lindsay has potential. Once they settle on a tone for the series, I see myself really enjoying it.
Girl Meets World "Girl Meets the Truth"
This show is always going to be too broad for my taste. That's the nature of the beast. What it doesn't have to do is try too hard and this episode tried WAY too hard.
The episode begins in the middle of a Romeo and Juliet performance that Farkle takes over as a way to get a kiss with Riley [and Maya]. He's cast as a spear carrier, so he already should know that he's not that great at this acting thing. Then, because Riley omits telling him that he was bad, he forsakes everything else to be an actor, burning bridges with the Chess and Chemistry clubs along the way. That's an awful lot of delusion to credit only to Riley.
Then there's Maya and the locket. We need way more context to know why Riley is pressing Maya so hard about it. Maya has a mom too who could but her stuff, doesn't she? Even when Maya breaks and admits that she took it from a lost and found after waiting months to see if it got claimed that sounded like a legit excuse. It's not the moral quandary that Riley makes it out to be. Having the family be at the train station at the end, literally standing in the locket picture formation was laying it on too thick.
Speaking of laying it on too thick, Corey should know better about the chicken. That was clearly a story written so they could come up with a parallel to Riley's. Some things that bothered me about that include: Topanga never even bothered to explain that chicken (which leads me to believe she made it badly on purpose), why it would take Corey that long to figure out what was really angering Topanga, and, most importantly, when Topanga can even find time to cook, given her job as a lawyer who I'm certain brings in the money to pay for most of the apartment.
Moving beyond the "too much" discussion, I have some more basic logistical issues. Lucas and Riley were in a production of Romeo & Juliet for the school (bravo for them, by the way). I assume they practiced beforehand. Wouldn't there have been a kiss then? Farkle interrupts the actual performance where Lucas cedes the kiss to him. Did the kiss never happen in the play? I don't understand how Farkle's chin kiss is Riley's first kiss. It doesn't make sense to me.
As a whole, this episode was lazier in the way prior episodes haven't been. Hopefully we can move back to easy sentiment and simple jokes for next week.
Halt and Catch Fire "1984"
This is a show about three people: a salesman, a technician, and a programmer.
No...a motivator, a creator, and an artist.
No...the past, the present, and the future.
Sure. Let's go with that.
Joe is IBM. Despite all his cunning and craft, his big idea, his dream, is nothing more than an IBM clone in a pretty package. Gordon has his pulse on what computers are in 1984. He made the best machine he could with the available technology of at the time. Cameron has always seen what's next, and even if she fails, it will be because she's thinking too far ahead, not behind.
The finale (of the season and probably the series) shifts everything forward to reflect their roles. Joe can't stand the thought of being the "old guard" and would rather watch it all burn than accept it. Now that the Giant is a success, Gordon can already see that he's becoming a thing of the past, starring blankly after being asked the dreaded and inevitable question: "What's next?". Cameron is watching the future become a reality, starting Mutiny and bringing the impossible to the forefront. Symbolically, it's a satisfying end to this chapter. I only wish that the truth of the situation would've been addressed along with the symbolism.
None of this would've happened without Joe. Without him Gordon would be a miserable failure still and Cameron would be listless and disgusted by the world. Those are facts. No, Joe isn't the greatest personnel guy. He talks down to people and isn't afraid to humiliate them. He pushes everyone and demands success. There wouldn't be a show without him. Gordon learns to accept what Joe is, and while we don't get to see his immediate reaction to torching the first shipment, I'm sure it wasn't more than "that sounds like Joe". I'm more troubled by Cameron's response. She's never played the part of the rebellious daughter to Joe more than when she told him off. I understand that her "pure artistry" was ignored in a nuts and bolts decision. She can't be that dense and then a couple scenes later have the foresight to need Donna to keep Mutiny from imploding. It makes me look forward to the first time she has to make a hard decision in her job.
I'm not sure that I ever got a handle on what this show is, and from the treatment of the characters in the finale, I don't think the showrunners did either. This is too quick to be tearing the team apart. The show didn't come together until two episodes ago when they went into full caper mode and used their individual skills to finally release the Giant. The best part of this episode was seeing Gordon and Joe team up on Cardiff to keep the operation running. They don't all have to be tortured all the time. Just because the characters are on Mad Men doesn't mean they need to here. On a story level, this was a satisfying ending. On a character level is was anything but.
