With all the fuss rightfully devoted to the “Game of Thrones” premiere, and the season’s second episode of “Mad Men,” two other notable Sunday night shows aired without as much fanfare. The first, “The Killing,” returned after a disastrous first season finale (defended by Damon Lindelof and rebutted here), and as expected, its viewership dropped, although not as precipitously as I’d have imagined. The premiere drew 1.8 million viewers, down from the 2.7 million that tuned in to the premiere episode last season, but if you take into account the re-air later in the night, 2.5 million viewers watched. It was down, but not dramatically. There were enough of us who harbored a lot of resentment, but still tuned in out of curiosity. The verdict: It’s still a bad show, but there was something about the season two premiere that owned its badness. It gained some self-awareness, and kind of just shot the s–t out of the entire first season. SPOILERS: Belko shot Richmond, then Belko shot himself; Richmond is paralyzed; we find out that Richmond’s wife committed suicide; Linden and Holder are pulled apart by a dirty cop, less interested in implicating Richmond because he thinks he killed Rosie and more interested in implicating him to destroy his mayoral campaign; Mitch (Rosie’s Mom) left; and Stan went to the mob to find and murder Rosie’s killer. Oh, and out of f—ing nowhere, Rosie’s backpack — WITH A PERFECTLY PRESERVED BLOODY HANDPRINT — shows up, and the investigation basically restarts from scratch, only wiser in the knowledge that Rosie was a call girl. END SPOILERS
In other words, it was bats–t. But in its own kind of way, farfetched and ridiculous enough to be compelling. Not enough to bring back those on the fence, to be sure, but watchable in a train-wreck kind of way. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. To quell your own morbid curiosity, at the end of the season, I promise to clue you all in on the killer and motive.
“Shameless” also ended its second season, grabbing a solid 1.45 million viewers, and 2 million including the re-air. Of the four dramas that aired on Sunday night — “Game of Thrones,” “Mad Men,” “The Killing” and “Shameless” — the latter, although not the better overall show, was actually my favorite single episode of the night. It was dark, heart-wrenching, and gut-punching, but it ended on a sweet, satisfying note with what looks like — and I hope — (SPOILER) the dismissal of Karen’s character from the series. She never did redeem herself, either; she remained a bitch until the bitter end. I admit, too, that it was fun seeing Jenna Elfman as a lesbian nutcase.
If you don’t watch “Shameless,” I recommend it as great summer viewing when the television schedule slows down (or when it arrives on Netflix).
(Source: Chicago Tribune)
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Dustin, why do you hate (American) horses?
Wait, did I miss the fact that Richmond’s wife killed herself? He tried to kill himself, but I thought she died in a car crash because he wanted to stay at some political event and she went home alone.
Basically my opinion of the show is: Meh. I think the problem is the showrunner lacks subtlety and the ability to plan anything (at least coherently). It seems like it’s causing the writing team to be allowed to move towards something, then they have to back off simply because it’s too early in the season for that to be the answer.
It’s like a season-long episode of House and Richmond is standing in for Lupus. Except on House they solve the goddamn thing by the end.
Damn I didn’t even realize that was Jenna Elf-man. That’s what I get for routinely avoiding bad TV. Shameless is starting to lose me. I get that TV shows are supposed to have an element that goes beyond reality, that’s what makes them entertaining. But I don’t buy that the Gallaghers have so much love for each other that it transcends their father’s neglect, theft, etc. I mean, Frank was kicking his ginger kid’s ass and all Fiona offers up is a weak, “Ok break it up guys.” But drive Frank to Canada and dump him there and then see how pissed off Fiona can get. Thank God for hot Brazilians. Also, I don’t buy that any 17 year old kid would be that stoked to take care of the mentally disabled offspring of another kid while dealing with the more evil reincarnation of that biyatch from “The Last Picture Show”.
Lip wanted the kid because he wanted Karen.
That and he didn’t want any kid to have to grow up like he did. Maybe my hatred for Karen’s character is just spilling over. She was hot last season, the ratio of evil to nudity was like 100-1 this season.
Shameless was awesome. I felt the Karen situation was spot on, she acted like a true bitchy teenager with 70k in the bank.
Californication’s finale pissed me off as they usually do. The show is supposed to be a comedy. They neatly wrapped up supporting characters’ lives, but not the main character? How many holes is Hank going to have to dig out of that he didn’t create?
I was a big defender of the first season, but about 30 minutes into that first season 2 episode of the Killing I’m just out.
Here’s my biggest gripe:
The reason we felt emotionally invested in the first season (plus the reason why everyone was so pissed) was because we liked/felt responsible for/wanted closure for Rosie – you know the girl that the show is supposed to be about?
Now here we are in Season 2, we’re too far removed from the victim of the crime, who all we heard in the first 15 minutes was “by the way Mr. Larson, your daughter, the girl who got killed? Yeah she was an escort”.
Now it’s not about “let’s find the killer for this poor innocent girl” and instead we’re just jumping from shitty self-motivated character to shitty self-motivated character. Pathos has been replaced by plot devices and cliffhangers.
Seriously, did they even show a picture of Rosie in that 2 hour premier?
Fuck “The Killing”
“The Killing” has a meandering storyline, seemingly endless red herrings, and two main characters who frankly are terrible a their jobs. Think about it. During the first season and the second season premiere – how many times did they have to apologize to the family for pursuing, arresting the wrong person? Their incompetence also leads to people being killed, brutalized or injured. And Linden is a terrible mother. There really isn’t much to like about either of the main characters. It’s okay if you’re not sympathetic, but neither of them really have any redeeming qualities. This show just isn’t very compelling. It doesn’t have much of anything to offer.
Strangely, I have similar complaints about “Walking Dead”. Following a bunch of morons on a meandering, pointless journey that doesn’t seem to be headed anywhere (10 episodes set on a farm?).
Along with “The Walking Dead”, this show is officially dead to me. What is going on at AMC? With the exception of “Mad Men” they seem to have a ‘reverse midas touch’ for original programming.
I like how no one even bothers to mention “Hell on Wheels”.
warrenbishop, you are my eagle spirit. Agreed.
Have you read anything about how actual police department fuck things up?
I think my excitement about Game of Thrones probably had a kind of spill-over effect, but I really loved the finales of Shameless and Californication. Those were both great shows, I thought, and I was very happy to see Shameless’s Karen go away. I can’t say I expect it to be permanent, but I do think there’s a chance. If I were Laura Slade Wiggins, I might not really relish the idea of reprising that character after she became such a monster this season. Though I don’t know if she’s got enough work lined up to not need Shameless anymore.
Yeh, the Killing is just background noise now. I still record it because I have the DVR room and can record 4 things at a time, but if it went away I wouldn’t care.