#jumping among scenes is jarring and not everybody is into it no matter what purpose it may serve

[roominthecastle]

Well I knew you'd have some beautiful words to describe what I feel ;) I really did love all the quiet personal stories, it's just the change in pacing gave me a pause, but yes, not for a second did any of it fall short. There aren't many shows with such carefully made characters, are there? (Actually, are there? I'd say WW s1 and my personal fave poi, but there are still fingers on one hand. Need recs). And about John, the way he so stoicly receives all the blows but his eyes... I love pain...

oh I understand ;) They kinda split every core group dynamic into smaller, sometimes intersecting threads this season, which is probably why it all feels a bit all over the place, and I’m not saying there’s no downside to this, but I’m glad I could help a little, anon (as for recs, if you haven’t tried Fringe yet, you should. also Penny Dreadful, The Americans, Better Call Saul, The Last Kingdom, and Black Sails - quality character work in each of those).

And Rufus Sewell sure has one of the toughest jobs on this show - him and Joel de la Fuente. I *love* his portrayal of Kido so much, esp bc he has less screentime to work with, so mad respect for making me feel things other than anger & morbid curiosity. Making a ruthless Nazi officer and the head of the Kenpeitai look human and occasionally sympathetic despite all the atrocities we can witness them commit is no small feat. Great characters, superb actors. I don’t know where Smith’s story is headed but Abendsen was def trying to sway him by reminding him of the time he fought against the very ppl he now serves, so I hope they continue down that path next season. His back is against a wall now, so they must show him another way out if they want to flip him (the films & the fact that only “good guys” have managed to travel successfully to the place his son is still alive & happy may be just the way). I also hope we can see more shading on Kido bc this season was very good in that regard, too. I think it says a lot how a show handles its baddies and this one is A+++++ all around.

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Still same anon here, sorry. Just remembered one thing that really annoyed me. Way too many 30-60 seconds scenes, jumping around incessantly. Made my head spin. Did they change the crew or something, do you know?

I’m not at all well-informed when it comes to behind-the-scenes stuff like that, but my best guess rn is that maybe this was done to try and visually connect those many threads I mentioned above. There are many moving parts in play now and they all affect each other either directly or indirectly. a favorite example of mine is when they juxtapose Frank’s secret bar mitzvah where he’s surrounded by friends/family who are willing to die for each other w/ Smith’s grand celebratory appointment to Reichsmarschall where he’s surrounded by ppl who will eradicate him & his family the second he wavers. There’s a lot of symbolism packed into this “one moment slicing into the other” image which can only be done via quickly jumping back and forth.