"Well it’s funny you mention Walter White because for me what happened with him was a revelation of who he really was, whereas with Jimmy--we’re kind of killing Jimmy, you know, and so it is inherently a different story and a more tragic one." - Gennifer Hutchinson
I'm going through old podcasts (this is s3 in review?) and I never heard this before, and now I'm screaming sobbing throwing up (:
i've listened to the podcasts but have no memory of this? ouch. :( it's true, though, that they're sort of inverse journeys. layers of walt get peeled away as he plunges further into that darkness of the soul...it's growth, decay, then transformation. he becomes more and more adept at being heisenberg because the choices he makes reveal that part of him. jimmy isn't being excavated, he's being buried, little by little the remnants of jimmy's self are layered over with the persona of saul, that slow spiritual loss. walt felt quite a lot of his heisenberg actions were an increase in power, but saul is far more inert and empty for jimmy to inhabit, even if he lies to himself and thinks it's better and all he's worth being, and all he's comfortable being.
i said the other day that i have always seen the end of brba as him dying as walter white, the human being, not as heisenberg, the construct, so what would be a really fulfilling parallel to make here would be for saul, the shell, to fall away, in his finding a path to live as jimmy mcgill.
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Oops, two "not as great as usual" episodes in a row to end this first season, it's really sad for me who was hoping so much that i could rate the whole season 10/10.
I know 6 ouf of 8 episodes that are worth a 10 is a high score, it's just that i wanted to love them all the same way. Also i don't like to write less passionate reviews for this show that became so clearly a favourite of mine.
It's a less enthusiastic review because in my view the plot and the characters broke once more the rules of continuity and consistency that have guided the series until episode 6.
To be clear, episode 8 has a logic, the one started in episode 6. The problem is the three episodes work well together, but not well with the rest of the series in my view. Based in this observation, the theory that started to take form in my mind since episode 6 is that the show has been rewritten in some parts.
By that, i mean, based on various clues (dialogues + interviews of the cast and producers) that the entirety of the series was written before they started filming. But after filming 2 episodes, the production had to stop because of the Covid. During this time, the showrunners looked at what had been filmed and made the terrible (in my view) decision to change completely some characters arcs, which had ripple effects on the rest of the show. They couldn't rewrite themselves all the episodes or ask the original writers to do it (it would have been too much work to redo), so they fixed here and there the most glaring inconsistencies their changes have created, until episode 6 where the eruption of Mt Doom, changed completely the balance of of the series. It opened a window seized by the showrunners to reconfigure the plotlines and the relationships, breaking some relations and replacing them forcibly by new ones.
And the conclusion for me after episode 8 is that the new characters development and the new plots (Halbrand as Sauron, Elendil's reduced arc, Arondir's absence of arc after episode 6) are nowhere as powerful and exciting that the initial plan, as i imagine it.
But conveniently, this dichotomy works well to build this review. Thus let's go for two parts:
a review of episode 8 cut in multiple parts because i have lot of feelings and thoughts to explore and with which to make peace,
a theory on what i think the final could have been if the series didn't changed its direction during episode 6, had stayed on the same path that was has been suggested since episode 1 (it's another post that will come soon.
On episode 8 (Part 1)
I feel that rating this episode as high as i rated the rest of the season until episode 6 wouldn't be fair, though it was overall solid and enjoyable, even brilliant in some parts, because its 3 sub-plots did not benefit of the same quality of writing, and the gap between them ranges from excellent to disappointing (in my opinion).
What created the general impression of an episode, despite all, compelling to watch is the attention given to the visuals.
The director Wayne Che Yip, the director of photography, the two editors, the special effects and the vfx coordinators did an outstanding job of filling every image with impressive amount of details, wonder and symbolism (the phantasmagoric/dreamlike presence of water in the scenes where Sauron tried to influence Galadriel's mind, the disturbing use of the pattern of the eye and its shape, and the endless eyes contacts to narrate Sauron's obsession for control, the spooky and yet strangely poetic destruction of the Mystics).
So much that they managed to compensate partially a script that was lacking tension, suffered of too many omissions specifically in the subplots taking place in Nùmenor (and its ships) and Eregion.
Gandalf Th Istar, the Harfoots and the Mystics
EDIT: i had to cross out a lot of parts of my review because after publishing this post i read an interview of the main writer of the episode Gennifer Hutchinson, in which she explained that the quote about following his nose doesn't mean that the wizard is Gandalf, that it's an old saying that many people use.
I presume it's a rights issue that stops the producers from including Gandalf, but i still think it's a very low trick. Hutchison knew that everyone would be expecting Gandalf with this line made famous by the films, when the show will return (2 years of wait!), but not only it's not him, she also still kept us in the dark about the wizard's identity after a complete season spent questioning his intentions, his name and his powers! She's taking us for fools and i really don't like it.
It's the best part of the episode without surprise: it's the only sub-plot that in my theory hasn't been at all affected by the changes made by the probable rewriting of the season. From episode 1 to episode 8, it was a model of intelligent writing: constant in quality and well balanced between the twists/mysteries and the characters development.
In other circumstances i would say that Daniel Weyman stole the show and ran away with it since basically the first episode, but it's not really what he did. It a was collective work, in which he made acting choices that could have totally been Ian McKellen's choices, followed his steps in a way that confirmed he was the perfect actor to play "young" Gandalf. Instead of outshining the Harfoots cast with his charisma, his ambiguity and subtle expressions of emotions, he shared the stage with them. Which lead them to become together the most fun, compelling and emotionally rewarding team of the show, a teamwork that goes hand to hand with the plot and its description of the superb victory of Gandalf The Istar and the Harfoots on the Mystics.
For once the script helped them a lot: it was a perfect balance between the intensity of the threat represented by the Mystics and the courageous defense of the Harfoots, between the small roles given to each Harfoot in the plan to rescue Gandalf The Istar and the final spectacular conclusion of the fight, when the magician took the matter in his own hands. I loved that it was the death threat hanging over his loyal friends that fully reactivated his powers. It's completely in line with his personality.
The CGI of the progressive destruction of The Mystics were so well done, so reminiscent of the aesthetic of the LOTR films! It was unique like the image of the giant moth exploding when the Dweller died, and at the same time a direct reference to the visuals of the most spectral villains of the films: from the Nazgûls to the Barrow Wights.
I'm amazed at the fact that the Harfoots literally sent away Nori because she kept dreaming of adventures and wanting to be special, bringing the attention of strangers that caused all sort of troubles for them, and yet it was the right way to start her adventures with Gandalf The Istar. It didn't diminish either my love for all the scenes of the Brandyfoot family, Poppy and all their community saying goodbye to Nori. I enjoyed them knowing than when she will return, most of them might be dead.
At least, it's logically what should happen : there's no reason for Nori's story to be more happy than anyone else in a world where evil has raised to dominate all forms of life. Gandalf's words full of promises on having an adventure are an evidence by themselves, it didn't end that good for Bilbo - who was just lucky that Gollum was caught and tortured in his place, and who still got infected by the evil of the One ring - and Frodo who dreamt all his life to follow his uncle's path but had no real choice in leaving his home and whose "adventure" turned into a nightmare of madness and death. They were saved only because of the gift granted by the Elves whom offered them a new life in Valinor.
But the series seems to follow the steps of the films while avoiding to repeat the same twists, so maybe she'll come back unscarred and thrilled by her time with Gandalf the Istar (actually it would also explain why he took Bilbo on a adventure with him, it worked well the first time for Nori and him, making him confident that Hobbits can survive everything). Or maybe she will come back scarred and everyone else especially Poppy and Marigold would have been right from the start (because this magician is really not Gandalf and might fail in his mission).
My regrets:
That The Mystics have been killed! They were such good villains that i would have kept them alive, send them to Sauron precisely at the end of the episode when he returned to Mordor, so that they swear allegiance to the new dark king. In the next season, i would have given them the opportunity to fight and defeat Adar and his children/orcs, in order to impose their master's domination on his new kingdom. With an extension of their powers and some additional development of their backstories, they could certainly have brought a lot of fun to season 2 before the arrival of the Nazgûls….
The death of Sadoc Burrows was an absurd, infuriating and disappointing twist. Not only they killed a poc character, but it was absolutely not necessary: why him more than Largo (not that i want to lose him, it's just an example) ? We don't know. it looked like an adult of the group had to go and so they picked him. His death wasn't logical or earned (unlike Ontamo's death) - he was stabbed but it could have been easily written to be a superficial wound - nor emotional: the way he just sit on a rock and watched the sun rising while pretending that dying wasn't so hard, was stupid (it's not like he was dying of old age, he was wounded in a violent fight!); and the others Harfoots were allowed one minute of tears and then moved on (reducing them at some quirky funny little pets not the full formed persons they are). Maybe the writers thought the characters should keep all the intense emotions for Nori's departure from her family and the group? I wish there was somewhere an interview of the actor to explain what happened….
This sub-plot had a lot of thrilling fighting scenes and heartbreaking separations, but didn't resolve the questions related to Gandalf the Istar. We still don't know why he lost his memory, or how the Valar who sent him, knew that evil was going to rise again, while Sauron himself was hiding his identity and had no plan to return immediately (Galadriel and Adar forced his hand). How the Mystics knew that an istar was coming as the same time as their master Sauron? Why did they think that he was made prisoner and by who? Only the location represented by the map has started to reveal itself. Let's hope season 2 does a better job at advancing this plot.
Part 2 on Nùmenor (ships and island) is next.
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