The Morning After: On a Scale of One to Tin

At this point, consider me one of the disagreeing scifi contingent. I can't wait to see part 2 tonight. Heck, I'll even miss Dirty Jobs on Tuesday if tonight's installment is as good as last night's was. I always thought Oz was too pretty and simple - this is the kind of Oz I could get into.

Time for a mini-FNL watch:

I'm going to agree with Alan Sepinwall (see the link on James' blogroll) here, slightly: this episode had a lot of great parts, but they didn't add up completely to a greater whole.

Clear highlights were obviously Riggins' "apology" to the team (can it be any clearer that this scene was the writers at their best, clearly in tune with how guys on a football team would approach that type of situation?); Smash's recruting visit fiasco and Saracen's perfectly deadpan "Was it Cabo in your pants?" line upon picking him up the next day; Jesse Plemons' nuanced work as guilt-ridden Landry; Aimee Teergarten's amazing rage in Julie's confrontation of her mother; and, of course, Connie Britton - if FNL gets cancelled, the line of executives vying for her talents on new shows is going to snake around her agent's office for blocks.

But certain other aspects didn't add up. I don't buy entirely Tami confronting Julie's English teacher like that without closing the door (I buy her doing it and also not telling Coach about it, but not her doing it publicly - she's too smart for that). I don't buy Saracen listening to Smash's romantic advice (he'd probably break up in a more honorable way...but I do, strangely, buy him and the nurse, which puts me in the minority). I definitely don't believe the police would assist Tyra's attacker's brother in meeting with Tyra, and then allow them to meet without some type of supervision.

But most importantly, I missed the Dillon community in this episode. Where is the outrage of the town over the defending state champion's disappointing season (especially with so many key pieces back for another year)? Where is the effect of Dillon's all encompassing obsession on Coach and Tami? Those were the scenes that really drew me into FNL last season - a family and marriage stronger than the irrational (to many of us) pressure of the outside community. I want to see my Taylor family standing strong (albeit tenuously so, most of the time), in their interesting position as Dillon's greatest source of pride and also the source of Dillon's wrath when football turns to losing.

Oh, also: Dexter was fantastic last night, and the final two episodes of the season couldn't possibly be packed with more drama and action than what they've been set up for...

Meh...it was okay. I wasn't particularly impressed. It's not something I will stay up late to watch nor give up Heroes for.

Lt. Compton was a little flat for me. Maybe he shoulda been thinking about ole Gonorrhea getting his leg blown off in the Ardennes again. Mrs. Elf seemed flat and a little like she didn't really understand the character or the setting.

The Cowardly Lion was the worst I think.

While I thought Tin Man was seriously flawed (structurally, especially...a re-imagining of this nature requires a lot more backstory) it was still watchable -- and I'll watch the second part to see where it goes.

(of course, James has the advantage of having seen all three parts before panning it, I assume...so I'm not expecting much)

@p_luk: I did watch all three nights, though I must admit I didn't like it much from the get-go: my big problems were with the dialogue (such as Neal McDonough's hard-boiled cop talk) and the performances they managed to get out of actors I ordinarily like. Only Alan Cumming came off well here, I thought. (I even have fond memories of Robertson as Claire in Beverly Hills 90210, but she plays the most boringly Disney evil queen here, with some shades of mommy/daddy issues as a sop to modern psychology.)

I have to agree with you James. My most fun was guessing that the actor who played Zero was Leoben from Galactica. And I'm sorry but Zoey Deschanel's acting was sooo wooden. I think my television started sprouting twigs. I loved Alan Cummings though. He was great!

Wow. I actually liked Robertson's performance (sure she channelling Snow White's nemisis, but she seems to be doing so consciously). And I felt bad for Cummings -- its the first time I've ever seen him not be excellent in something. He probably got the script, and loved it... then wasn't given the chance to give the performance he could have.

(Indeed, if I didn't know better, I'd say that they were showing us the rehersals, rather than the performances -- its not so much the dialogue as the lack of wholly rounded characters.)