(no subject)

[proximoception]

So far I really like the Vox format - kind of a difference splitter between news and Wikipedia.

And in some ways another step toward what I assume will complete civilizaton: Socratic computer programs.

Comments

[grashupfer.livejournal.com]

Did you delete a post about TV? I was going to ask you about Swearingen.

[proximoception.livejournal.com]

Not really sure what to make of him yet, but he's held my interest. McShane started as his Sexy Beast character basically. Now c. episode 9 they seem to be doing something Hobbesian with him, where he's slowly becoming soft and legit as the path of least resistance for dealing with the people settling down around him who he forgot to kill when he had the chance. They're making the other pimp dude even more evil as Swearengen gets defanged so as to still have villainy. Plus all the nice people are befriending each other now.

It's a strange show, and I don't understand why no one admits it at least begins as a very bad one. I guess it won them over with the NC 17 elements back before all that got old? But it just sucked - those ridiculous "You're all right" "No, you're all right" moments between protagonist pairs, the underwater-slow substance abuse, murder and illness subplots, the lack of non-programmatic elements. Presently it reminds me a little of a bizarre British inversion of Survivor I caught an episode of around the same time Deadwood came out, where every week a new person is added to a group of island castaways and has to cooperate with them. The new guy that week tried to betray people and form conspiratorial alliances, confusingly, and everyone got mad at him, made him eat by himself. But then after a couple days they let him back and everyone was fine. It had no conflict and I never watched it again but it was quite heartening. Going in a Smurf Village direction is going to be highly difficult, if that's really what they're doing, since they'll need to keep recontriving conflicts that feel like legitimate speed bumps or it really will all end up as lumber.

[grashupfer.livejournal.com]

Yeah you're dead on. I found Al utterly engrossing though. I probably wrote about him when I was watching it. I found his ability to talk to everybody in their own lingo isolated him leaving him in so many scenes talking in his own voice to no listening ear. He had no Horatio.