Reviews

I generally enjoyed the show and it was ground-breaking in many ways. It covers the lives of three generations of women in a family and how neuroses travel through those generations. The main character Sam is an artist and tends toward stream-of-consciousness in her relationship to the world. The grandmother is stiff, proper and British. The daughters are a mix of the two and kind of angry most of the time.

This is not a sitcom. It doesn't go for cheap laughs, it's more natural and the humor flows from human foibles and frustrations. I was worried that the series would be affected by the (deserved) cancellation of Louis C. K., but Pamela Adlon did a fine job of carrying on. She essentially plays herself given the similarities between her and worklife of the characters she plays.

Now to the title of my review. The penultimate season should have been the last. It wrapped up really nicely and I thought that was the satisfying end. Unfortunately, it came back for a hot mess of episodes. Many of the supporting actors had evidently moved on to other projects and were not together for many episodes. The stream-of-conciousness factor took over, leading to a directionless melange of ideas and narratives. In the last episode there was an attempt to wrap it all up in a sunny bow that belied the nature of everything that went before. The final couple minutes were a stab at being inspirational but rang hollow and were really cliched.

It took me a while to get through the last season, which I did more out of curiosity than interest. Too many series go on longer than they should and this is one of them.

This is not a review as much as a comment. I give it 9 stars and just wish it could be released to digital video. I guess Schrader has disowned it, but for many people it resonates. Like 'therectangle' wrote, it's a people movie with people who live for rock and roll, people who live on the edge of rock and roll, and people who consider it the devil's music. That's what I want to comment on.

Going back to the early days of Little Richard, Elvis and Jerry lee Lewis - all these giants struggled with the interplay between Christian morals and their need to give expression to their demons. This central element of rock and roll is represented in the Joan Jett character who struggles to escape from the horror(as we eventually learn) of her religious upbringing. Rather than capture it as a spiritual quest, Schrader plays it out as a very real emotional drama with her mother and parish priest. It works because of the scenes between Jett and the brilliant Gena Rowlands. It's not a sub-plot. It's central to the story of rock and roll and what makes this movie one of, if not the best, rock movies. It's not about stardom, it's about the heart and soul of those who are called to play this stuff.