Reviews

I really disliked the First Episode, but I stuck with it because I assumed that it had to get better. Not only did not improve, but it actually got worse. Much, much worse. I cannot recall the last time that an episode of television made me this mad. Mad at the writers, the actors, the producers and most of all, at myself for sticking with this through the entire hour. It's the middle of 2023 and I thought that we would be beyond the level of misogyny displayed here. Out right verbal and physical torture and sexual belittlement of young women (girls in some instances) without consequence. There is nothing sexy about the way "The Weeknd" (soon to be know as "Career-End") treats his harem, and the "erotic" scenes in which he appears are mind-numbingly horrid. I am not sure who is being tortured here, Jocelyn or the audience.

And then there is the cavalier treatment of mental illness, all for the personal gain of the agents, managers, music producers and hangers-on. This is Brittany Spears/Lindsay Lohan stuff of 10 years ago. Again, we are way past that. Or at least, should be. The writing is vile, the acting horrific, and the subject matter cringeworthy. One more hour of this and the career suicide of everyone associated with this project will be complete. I already have an indelibly bad opinion of Abel Tesfaye and cannot imagine supporting anything that he does for the rest of his "career." Hank Azaria must have lost a very large sum of money at the track or casino to agree to participate in this mess. And I have usually enjoyed the quirky characters played by Jane Adams (loved her in "Hung") but here, I can't get past the vileness of character. Maybe it is a "blessing" for an actor to be able to stretch in a role like this, but at some point, good judgment must prevail. Lots of actors turned down roles in the "50 Shades" movies and probably "Caligula" too. Jane should have known better. I cannot imagine a more uncomfortable hour of TV being produced in the remainder of my lifetime. I'm Out!

It wasn't hard to figure out the ending if you buy into the King Lear parallels. But it is hard to find any sympathy for the Roy heirs. I won't give away the ending but there are only two choices. They either wrestle away control of Waystar from the Board and GoJo...and live lives of unimaginable wealth, or they fail in their quest at which point they sell their shares in the company and have nothing more to do with it...in which case they live lives of unimaginable wealth. Probably each with their own private island. The way the story set up this season, other than emotional turmoil, there is no negative financial outcome possible. They stay rich no matter what. My rating is based on some clever writing and great acting performances. But the story itself ended the only way it could-with the Roy's all being wealthy.

There was one major flaw in the plot that needs to be addressed. Again, without giving away the ending, The vote to finalize or scuttle the sale of Waystar to GoJo is tied with one voter left to cast their vote. That person held all the cards, and given the ruthlessness that played itself out over 4 seasons, it stands to reason that the person with the last and final vote would have called a "time out" and started making phone calls or having sidebar conversations. To Lukas: "I will vote to approve the sale, but only if you agree to..." And to Kendall: "I will vote to block the sale but only if you agree to..." Had this happened, the ending would have been very, very different for certain of the characters. I am not at all sure why the writers neglected to consider that the person with the tie-breaking vote would not have used their leverage right to the very end. The final scenes show this character quite despondent and not at all fulfilled, and this could have ended quite differently if that person had stayed true to form.

This episode treads very close into "Black Mirror" territory, which is not a bad thing, but it is a fairly wide detour from what had become a fairly formulaic series. I still have an issue with the fact that while the series is based on Charlie having an extraordinary ability to detect lies, her real talent seems to be one of supernatural observation skills. Here, she figures out what is going on not so much by catching someone in a lie but instead by picking up on clues that are more in line with what Sherlock Holmes or the FBI would notice and piece together. All that said, the story is clever, well-acted and features an absolutely top-notch, star studded cast. Too soon to tell if this is the direction the rest of the season (or future seasons) will take. If so, the series will likely attract more of a "Black Mirror" crowd and less of a "Columbo re-boot" crowd. I, for one, am on board.

For those who are bashing the ending of the story and blaming HBO and David Kelly, don't you realize that this was based on the book "You Should Have Known"? The killer in the show is the same as in the book. (I won't spoil it here.) Pretty unfair to find fault with a teleplay that follows the book. While there were variances from the book, the large plot lines stayed faithful and that should be seen as a positive.

I think that the people panning this episode don't appreciate that the Netflix series G.L.O.W. is a fictionalized history of an actual series and that the original series was presented in exactly the way this episode unfolded. There is a documentary on Netflix that provides great insights into the original series. Watch it and then go back and re-watch this episode and you will understand why this episode is both necessary and spot on. Ninotchka=Zoya. Little Egypt=Little Beruit. And Americana? Isn't it obvious?