criterionforum.org

Finally watching this on Netflix. Into the third season just now. Don't know if it's been discussed here before, but I like it. It's interesting to see all the things we take for granted being these major discoveries to these characters in this time.

I don't think I've been as charmed by a supporting character so consistently as I have by Toby Huss' character. I'm really only familiar with Artie and some of his voice-over work, but I've seen a few interviews with him and I can see how he brings his own character to Bosworth.

One of the better series I was following back then.

I have yet to get past the first season, but I always tell myself one of these days I’ll finish it, especially since I hear it gets a lot better as it goes along. I think I’ve just had my fill of asshole characters, though it’s a testament to Lee Pace’s range that I believe him as much here as in Pushing Daisies where he plays the opposite. I will say that the show’s soundtrack is incredible and shames every retro-set movie and film about the 80s by delivering non-obvious bangers one after the other

I connected with this show quite strongly, in that Kerry Bishe’s character, especially in the first season, was very similar to my own mother at the exact same time period, in an occupational sense. And then yeah, it progressively gets better all the way through, up to the last half of the final season which floored me emotionally and has stuck with me ever since.

I watched the entire show about a year ago, based on all the "best show nobody watched" raves and it does indeed get better. Season 2 improves things by shifting the attention from the cliched Lee Pace character to its two female leads and then the last two seasons are genuinely great. The fourth season also put me through the wringer, they knew this would be the last season and they capped it off with a satisfying end.

The last 2 seasons are about as strong as tv gets, for me. It can be a bit of a slog to get there. The first couple of seasons certainly have their good moments, but I don't know of a show which took longer to find its feet and become something so compelling. Grateful we got 4 seasons though, a bonus for an under watched show with such a clunky title.

Finished it today. Heavy recommendation for the 2nd and 3rd seasons. But I prefer the first to the last overall, though it had some incredible moments.

The addition of Anna Chlumsky's character alone makes season 4 the best one for me, she gets the most heartbreaking moment in the entire series.

Indeed. I'm not usually crazy about when a final season throws in a new character, but the way her's comes in and out was really handled well.

As for what I didn't like...

Spoiler

I actually liked the time-jump to 1990 towards the end of S3, but kind of wish the show stayed in the 80's. Wasn't crazy about the family drama with the teenage girls either. Then again touching on the birth of the internet and how many upstarts came and went in the mid-90's was a perfect dramatic foil to wrap things up.

Question: are we to believe that Carol Kane's character in the last episode was Pace's guy's mother?

I loved this show from the outset in spite of its lifting Mad Men's blueprint pretty heavily. Pace is a great choice for the enigmatic, charismatic and conflicted Don Draper type and he carries the show when it needs it. And this is also the show that gave us Scoot McNairy. Another question:

Spoiler

what was the company Bishe has an idea for in the last episode?

Leaving Netflix December 13th for AMC+.