Unforgiven is one of, if not, my favorite Western of all time, and a big part of that love is the performance of Gene Hackman as the main villain of the film. Although he was the self-appointed sheriff of Big Whiskey, Wyoming, Little Bill was sadistic and one of the worst examples of a person seen on screen. And he was marvelous!
Dobby (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1)
TV or Movie: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Actor: Toby Jones
Time of Death: November 19, 2010
Cause of Death: fatally stabbed by a silver knife thrown by Bellatrix Lestrange
I was not a fan of Dobby at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but the little house-elf won me over, and gave some of the more emotional moments of the Harry Potter franchise. When he fell over, stabbed by Bellatrix Lestrange, it was a shocking moment that I did not see coming.
Episode 7 of VisionQuest was a spectacular tour de force for Paul Bettany. People forget that Paul Bettany is a tremendous actor. He absolutely reminded people tonight.
Vision had to go into himself to find the source code, the sixth key (surprise Jocasta) preventing her from opening up the cask of her family, where the nanotech was stored.
I had guessed that JIM would be the client who hired Paladin, but that turned out to be inaccurate. However, JIM was going to play a major role, as he was inside Vision, and, also played by Paul Bettany, had an amazing scene opposite himself. JIM was able to finally get Vision to accept that he was a sum of all the parts and that Tommy was actually his son.
When Vision mentioned Wanda, it was remarkably powerful and emotional.
The reveal of the Client, someone being played by James Spader, was a wonderful reveal. I am not sure how that worked, but I think it is an intriguing answer. I am excited about seeing the story play out in next week’s finale.
I am concerned that FRIDAY just bit the big one in the last few moments because of Ultron. I hope that is not the case, but it did not look promising. It also looked like Paladin got blown up. I hope he was able to escape as well considering how cool he turned out.
I loved that we finally had the mention of Billy. Vision mentioned him and finally showed Tommy the WandaVision highlights, which would show him that he had a brother. Intriguingly, Vision still believes that Billy is dead. I am hoping that we get a guest appearance of Agatha and Billy next week… maybe in a post credit.
I was so invested tonight, and it was heavily because of Paul Bettany. There was less from James Spader than previous weeks, and this episode was highlighting the chops of Paul Bettany and the remarkable character of Vision.
Next week, we have a finale that could make this one of the best Marvel series on Disney +.
It is Election Day! I voted early this morning as the rain pounded down. The polls opened in Iowa at 7 AM and I walked through the door and was the first voter of my district. It is important to do your duty at the ballot box.
This is the second Comic Cavalcade of the week this week. I wanted to write a post on my anniversary so I split the pile into halves. I have considered doing this more recently, but I am not sure I plan on doing this regularly. It is a “we’ll see” moment.
Comic of the Week
The Naked Truth #1
I got these books in the mail yesterday from the Kickstarter campaign that I supported. This one is signed by Keith Champagne and I got several other covers as well including an homage to Dark Knight Returns and Spider-Man #1 (Todd McFarlane).
It was a fun issue with a character whose super powers only activate when she is naked. I enjoyed this book and not just because of boobies.
Books This Week:
Absolute Batman #25. “Straw Man” Written by Scott Snyder with art by Nick Dragotta. Cover art was done by Nick Dragotta & Frank Martin. The 25th issue of Absolute Batman brings the Joker front and center and the other Batman villains, who were all like Bruce Wayne friends, are trying to stop Bruce from being Batman. There is a cool wrap-around cover on the book.
Batman-Bad Seeds: Sunrise #1. Written by Matt Fraction & G. Willow Wilson with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli & Cliff Rathburn. Cover art was done by Giuseppe Camuncoli, Cliff Rathburn and Tomeu Morey. The Bad Seeds storyline wrapped up in this issue, and I really enjoyed the conclusion. I found much of the middle of this arc to be a little wanting, but this finale was satisfying.
Batman-Bad Seeds: Gotham General #1. “Sine Qua Non” Written by Greg Rucka with art by Rosa Ekedal & Steve Lieber. Cover art was done by Rosa Ekedal. This felt like they threw HBO Max’s The Pitt into the middle of the Bad Seeds storyline. I did like this story better than some of the other crossover issues from the Bad Seeds arc.
Thor #802. “Fire From Heaven.” Written by Al Ewing with art by Pasqual Ferry. Cover art was done by Alex Ross. Sigurd Jarlson is falling. He is falling through the Sigurd Jarlson plummets wingless through the floating angel cities of Heven after falling from Hel. An angel flew by, but did not want to help Sigurd because she did not want Thor back alive. Some quick hammer action helped save Sigurd, and impressed the angel.
Dead Acre: Black Badge #4. Written by Cullen Bunn and art by Riley Brown. Cover art was done by Riley Brown & Fares Maese. This wrapped up this series. The murder mystery in Dead Acre and closes out the Hellmouth storyline. It does seem that there will be a second series featuring James Crowley.
Justice League Unlimited #24. “Superdeterminism” and “The Way Forward” Written by Mark Waid (1st) and Nicole Maines (2nd) with art by Dan Mora (1st) and Fico Ossio (2nd). Cover art was done by Dan Mora. The Justice League is working big time right now, and seeing these characters working together that you do not normally see.
X.XXXI #1. Written and cover art by Ken Mesnard with pencils by Gabe Pena. This was weird, because I grabbed this off the stands at In This Issue, and, when I looked at it, I saw ads inside the book from 2020. It wasn’t in CLZ (although it is there now) and Todd could not find it on eBay. The story was fine, but not much of anything special. Still was interesting.
Absolute Wonder Woman #25. “Heretic Part 3 of 5” Written by Kelly Thompson with art by Hayden Sherman. Cover art was done by Hayden Sherman & Jordie Bellaire. Diana and the Cheetah are facing off. It seems like all of the Absolute heroes main villains are old friends. I am not sure where this one is going, but Cheetah is truly bad ass.
Rocketeer: Infiltrator #4. Written by Gabriel Hardman and art and cover art by Dean Kotz. The movie and Nazi action finished up with the Rocketeer. This has been a fun series. I like the character of the Rocketeer, even though I have not purchased a lot of Rocketeer comics before. This might make me want to see other versions of the character moving forward.
Fort Psycho #3. Written by Matt Kindt with art and cover art by Brian Hurtt. “As bodies begin to pile up from unexplained attacks, Jason ventures deeper into the jungle and forms an alliance with an old friend who suggests their mission is a cover for something much bigger.” It is a cool cover to go with a fun series so far.
Spider-Man/Hulk: Fire and Brimstone #3. “Chapter Three: Abandon Hope” Written by Kevin Smith & Andy McElfresh with art by R.B. Silva. Cover art was done by R.B. Silva & Federico Blee. Well, this one has been up and down for me. Issue one was not my favorite and then I thought issue two was excellent. So now, issue three felt lackluster for me. I am not sure why it has been so inconsistent for me, but I wonder if next issue will rock.
The Big Shakedown #2. Written by Jordan Blum & Tim Seeley with art by Scott Koblish. Detective Ester Blanco is an interesting new character and goes through some awesome things during the second issue of this Dark Horse series. It feels as if big things are about to happen here.
Justice League: The Dark Realm Special #1. Written, drawn and cover art by Dan Mora. I knew practically nothing about the character Cadejos, who is the main focus of this book. I have to say that I enjoyed this book quite a bit and a big part was because of Cadejos. I also enjoyed the way the book handled the Big Three and fanboy Golden Frog. I found that to be a funny interaction.
The Punisher #9. “Big Guns, Part 4 of 4” Written by Benjamin Percy with art by Jose Luis Soares. Cover art was done by David Marquez & GURU-eFX. The crossover with Deadpool closes up in this issue and, they toss Bullseye into it as well. Some villain named Black Hole does not end well for him.
Other books this week: Conan the Barbarian #36, All In Saga: Darkseid vs. The World #1, Predator Versus Planet of the Apes #4, Tomb of Apocalypse #3 and Terminal #3-4.
Quick Hits: This week saw the release of Hello Darkness #26, with some of the most consistent horror comic stories that you are going to find. The two covers I grabbed were also great, one by regular Jenny Frison and the main cover was Rebeca Puebla. I am not sure how I felt of Gambit Gone #2. The art was just not something that appealed to me. Beast of Boriken #3 came out from Dark Horse. I found this one to be more compelling than the first couple of issues were. Innards #5 ended with a happy ending, which was sweet as could be. Bad Idea released Tankers vs. Ancient Aliens #5 this week. It is another book that I have not loved as much as I did early. Black Tower: The Raven Conspiracy #2 & #3 were read this week. #2 has been in a “too read” pile recently. AVX: Alien vs. X-Men #2 continued through the Marvel imprint, 20th Century Studios comics. Fixation #2 showed us more trouble on the movie set for the poor super fan. Bishop #5 wrapped up the future/past story with Bishop, kind of, ending on the same place where he was at the beginning.
Time of Death: Agatha All Along E7 “Death’s Hand in Mine”
Cause of Death: Falling
Lilia Calderu was one of the coven of witches recruited by Agatha Harkness to travel down the Witches’ Road. Of course, that was all BS as Agatha was only trying to steal her power. But Lilia saw through the con and did travel down the Witches’ Road. Lilia was played by Broadway legend Patti LuPone and her focus episode is one of the best episodes of Marvel television ever. The writing of this character was a stand out of an awesome program.
One of the breakthrough stories on daytime TV, Stone Cates, a young and popular character on General Hospital, contracted full blown AIDS through a previous partner who had used intravenous drugs. Stone’s battle with AIDS was one of the most tragic events on the soap opera. He passed the disease to his girlfriend Robin Scorpio, although it was passed when Robin came in contact with Stone’s blood during a shooting. Stone became one of the sudster’s most memorable losses.
Seven episodes into this first season and so much has gone down.
The mysteries of the town are loading up. I feel like I need to start writing on the walls.
For a couple of episodes I wondered why they dropped the plot point of Victor digging the graves as he was doing at the end of episode 4. Boy, did they pay that one off.
Strange things going on. How can there be electricity in these houses without cords with wires in them? What a weird detail. Plus, does digging a giant hole in your basement lead to that answer?
I never guessed that Father Rudra Khatri would be killed this quickly in the series considering he seemed to be a vital role.
Sarah, Victor and Jade feel different from others in the town. They all have some kind of contact or delusions happening to them… way more than anyone else. Jade is such a douchebag so far though that I wish it were anyone else but him. However, I do believe that he is a vital piece to this puzzle.
Where do these monsters come from at night. They seem to be just normal people, who turn deadly. I was yelling at Kevin as he was letting the girl in to make out with. That dumb f**k deserved what he got, but, because of his stupidity, a bunch of others got killed as well. He did not deserve the good name of ‘Kevin.’
Then, as if Boyd does not have enough troubles, Parkinson’s Disease? Geez.
I am curious about who these people were that they wound up stuck in this town. I wonder if we will eventually get flashbacks to them prior getting trapped in this place.
This absolutely reminds me of an amalgam of LOST and The Walking Dead. From has been tense and scary as well as thoroughly riveting.
I am not done reading the load of comics from this week, but I really wanted to do a Comic Cavalcade because this is my anniversary for collecting comics.
I began in 5th grade, which, if I counted correctly, it would be 47 years. I spent a night staying over night at my friend Jeff Wagner’s house for Halloween. After we had trick or treated, we spent the night reading some of his comics. He had been collecting and he had a “folder” at Comic World in Dubuque. We read some Avengers and X-Men books, from the classic runs. I decided the next day that I would also begin collecting, by setting up a folder at Comic World. My dad worked at John Deere’s in Dubuque for years, so I had him pick up the folder every month.
Of course, I had been reading comics for my entire life. I had comics in the crib, literally. It was destiny.
I am going to do a second Comic Cavalcade either Monday or Tuesday to get the rest of the comics done. I have considered doing two Comic Cavalcade a week because of the number of books I have, but I have not made that decision yet. This is a special post because of my anniversary.
Because of that, I am saving the Comic of the Week for #228. However, we are doing a special pick for this special post.
Comic of All Time
Amazing Spider-Man #248
Now, trying to decide on one comic over the last 47 years is an impossible feat. So when I decided to do this, I decided that the first book that came to mind would be the book I choose.
That book is Amazing Spider-Man #248, which is only because of the back-up story, “The Kid Who Collected Spider-Man.”
It is one of the best comic stories I have ever read. It was beautiful, painful, sad, poignant. I remember the first time I read this story and thinking “Why is Spidey telling this kid all these answers?” When he pulled off his mask and reveal himself as Peter Parker, I was shocked. The final panel of the book was just crushing. I love this comic.
Some Books this Week:
Fantastic Four #18. “Magneto’s Body” Written by Ryan North with art by Vincenzo Carratù. Cover art was done by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado. The Fantastic Four resumes their efforts to save Magneto by going into his body. The loss of memory of the foursome was a really fun little tidbit of this issue. It gives Johnny some love here, showing that he is more than just the blonde womanizer that he was portrayed as for years.
X-Men #40. “A Blade.” Written by Jed MacKay with art by Lucas Werneck. Cover art was done by Tony S. Daniel & Jay David Ramos. This issue has an interesting discussion between Cyclops and Kwannon, with some insight into why Cyclops made her the second in command. Magneto is back too, seemingly at full strength.
Heard #1. Written by Alex George Pickering with art and cover art by Joe Bocardo (Bronze Medalist). This new book from Keenspot was a very strong issue. It featured a boy who is on the Autism spectrum and the struggles of the parents to deal with this. The father takes the boy into the woods on a camping trip and bad things start to happen. I have a friend whose child is on the spectrum and I can see him in that story. I am curious to see where this one goes.
Groo: The Prophecy #3. Written by Sergio Aragones & Mark Evanier and illustrated by Sergio Aragones. I am wearing my new Groo t-shirt today, which is coincidental, but I do love me some Groo. This mini-series has taken that well used trope of Groo scaring people around him and turned it on its ear. Now, Groo is facing a prophecy of death from someone who never fails with the predictions. Groo can be a bit repetitive at times so the alteration makes me feel good.
Feral #27. “Chapter 27: Territorial” Written by Tony Fleecs with art and cover A art by Trish Forstner & Tone Rodriguez. Variant cover B art was done by Trish Forstner, Allen Passalaqua, and Tony Fleecs (Silver Medalist). Elsie is alone and in the woods. She comes across some wild cats that are not too interested in having Elsie around. The sickness has spread to humans and there is a scene at the end of this issue that is downright disturbing. bad things are happening.
Daredevil #8. “City Without Fear Part 1” Written by Stephanie Phillips with art and cover art by Lee Garbett (Gold Medalist). Mister Fear joins the story in Daredevil and this version of Mister Fear is the scariest version I think I have ever seen. He feels like a horrendous serial killer, much like the first run of Muse did in this title. Daredevil facing this type of villain works for me.
Universal Monsters: The Bride of Frankenstein #1. Written by Kelly Thompson with art and cover A art by Mattia De Iulis. Cover B art was done by Joshua Middleton and Cover J foil art was done by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau. We get the story of the Bride of Frankenstein despite the fact that she only appears in the original movie for like 5 minutes. I love these Universal Monster books from Image and this one feels like another winner.
Amazing Spider-Man #1002. Written by Joe Kelly and art by Pepe Larraz. Cover art was done by Pepe Larraz & Marte Gracia. Peter taps into a new level of Spider-Sense to do battle with his cousin, Cormac, aka Ravage. They continue to fight over Aunt May and Peter gives Cormac a beating, though he has to leave May in place for now. I am still not sure how I feel about this arc. I kind of wish this was more personal and less super hero.
The Dogsitter #4. Written by Jamie S. Rich and illustrated by Megan Levens. Cover art was done by Megan Lewis and Nick Filardi. Gemma persists in her fling with Neal, even after Neal went on an overseas trip with Portia. The reunion between Gemma and Neal might be leading to them being caught. I have surprisingly been enjoying this romantic comic from Ignition Press.
Amazing Venom #2. Written by Jordan Morris with art by Luke Ross. Cover art was done by Stefano Caselli & Federico Blee. I was considering not getting this series, but I do like Fred Myers, the former Boomerang. The first issue did not blow me away, but it wasn’t that bad either. I decided to give this one at least another issue to woo me. Issue #2 was considerably more engaging for me than issue #1. The whole Fred/Johnny Storm relationship was unexpectedly fun. I will probably try #3 as well, but I have not committed to anything permanent.
Punisher vs. Amazing Spider-Man #4. Written by Dan Abnett and art by Alvaro Lopez. Cover art was done by Jonas Scharf & Alex Guimaraes. The distance between Spidey and Frank maintains to grow as the pair have their own methods that conflict like crazy. Frank is able to defeat Spidey (which I am never a believer in) because Spidey was conflicted on his feelings for Frank.
Void Rivals #35. Written by Robert Kirkman with art by Conor Hughes. Cover art was done by Lorenzo De Felici. We get more Rom, more action among the group of heroes and others, and Proximus, who reveals himself as Solila’s brother. Oh, drama.
Crimes Against Nature #2. “A Couple of Bad Bananas” Written by Eliot Rahal with art and cover art by Mattia Monaco. Dr. Groedan and Amigo are having their own troubles. Specifically, Amigo having bitten the head off of a mobster that had come to attack them. How is he getting out of this? You’ll see.
The Department of Truth #39. “Chapter 24: My Country Tis of Thee” Written by James Tynion IV with art and cover art by Martin Simmonds. Synopsis: “Lee’s new Department of Truth (DoT) is under heavy pressure, squeezed between Cole Turner’s White Hat on one side and Martin Barker’s Black Hat on the other, while trying to navigate a chaotic government bureaucracy” Meanwhile, poor Bob…
Dispatched #4. Written by B. Clay Moore and art by Daniel Gete. Cover art was done by Daniel Gete & Lee Loughridge. Morgan is still involved deeply in this Die Hard-inspired story. We get a little more background on the mysterious delivery driver who is taking out the villains one by one.
Flash #38. “The Speed Was Power and the Speed Was Joy- Part VIII.” Written by Ryan North and illustrated and cover art by Gavin Guidry. The Flash is facing all kinds of trouble. Not only from the Justice League, who are confronting him over his new powers, but also from the powers too, as Red Tornado tells Wally that using the Speed Force the way he was is killing him. This went from the JL being paranoid to Wally being out of control real quickly.
Mister Nemo #4. Written by Mark London with art by Alden Kaye. Cover art was done by Duncan Rouleau. Nemo discovered a former Unity Ultima outpost. On this outpost, there is a madman after secrets of a lost future. That madman sent some missiles toward the Nautilus. This started a new arc for Mister Nemo, which has been an entertaining book so far.
Showdown #5. Written by Dave Wielgosz and illustrated by Tadd Galusha. Cover art was done by Steve Lieber & Dillon Snook. Here it is. The final showdown between Trish Sullivan and Harvey Marlowe. This series has been building up to this climatic showdown for the first four issues and this one will finally resolve the conflict between the two of them… probably.
That Texas Blood: Hell Comes to Allison Ranch #2. Written by Chris Condon with art and cover art by Jacob Phillips. The brutal showdown at Allison Ranch starts off with Joe Bob and Willy facing undeniable odds, but with little hope for backup. Meanwhile, the book heads over to see the troubles of Travis Terrill as well. I have been a big fan of That Texas Blood and Chris Condon’s writing style. This keeps the thrills up.
Denver #3. Written by Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray with art by Pier Brito. Cover art was done by Amanda Connor. This is the third and final issue for this mini-series. It felt as if it were done very quickly as I am not even sure that I could tell you about the main characters. The cool concept carries this book for the three issues, but I would have liked more than three to really delve into the characters more.
Captain America #16. “Hell’s Angel, Part 5” Written by Chip Zdarsky and art by Valerio Schiti. Cover art was done by Valerio Schiti & Romulo Fajardo Jr. Well, the wildest twist has happened. Dr. Doom, who has been fighting alongside Cap and the others in Hell, has succeeded in overthrowing Mephisto (who escaped… it was actually more of a deal with Mephisto and Doom) and now Doom is the leader of Hell. By the way, at the end, Doom releases all the contracts between anyone and Mephisto and we get a single panel of Spider-Man. Could this mean that the “One More Day” storyline has now been tossed out? If so, maybe Peter and Mary Jane have a chance to reunite and fix one of the biggest errors Marvel has ever made. If so, thanks Doom. Appreciate it.
Other books: Ghost Pepper #16, Lost Fantasy #13.
Quick Hits: I don’t have any of the books to put here as I still have a bunch to read. However, I did purchase a couple of sets at Comic World the other day, which I can mention in this section. First one was X-Men: Deadly Genesis #1-6. Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Trevor Hairsine, this deals with a team of X-Men that Xavier had recruited prior to recruiting the iconic team from Giant Sized X-Men #1. I hope to read that series during a Daily Read sometime over the next several months. The second mini-series set I grabbed was Super Skrull #1-4 which came in the Annihilation story arc. Javier Grillo-Marxuach wrote the series and it was drawn by Gregory Titus. I had never heard of either, but the cover art, by Gabrielle Dell’Otto was sensational.
Denny Crane’s wedding highlighted the first of these two episodes. Denny cheated on his new wife Bev at the wedding, in the coat check room. Ironically, that is where Denny and Bev first had sex.
The “divorce” is the heart of the episode “…There’s Fire.” Denny had a piece of dirt on Bev that allowed him to settle the divorce without Bev getting half of everything.
Denny returned to all his glory in the next episode taking a case of a man who caused an intruder to be electrocuted by setting up booby traps at this house.
Shirley has a problem in Shock and Oww!” as some tasteful nudes of her came out after a photographer she once had a fling with died. Shirley needed to recruit Alan, and he accepted with joy.
Paul’s daughter returned, and Paul worried that she was back on drugs. Paul asked Brad to find out the truth in whatever way he could. Paul ended up searching her bathroom and finding a needle. This led to a dramatic showdown.
Season two has been very consistent and fun, with some solid stories to be told by the lawyers at Crane, Poole, and Schmidt.
I wrapped up two Linda Cardellini TV shows in the same day. I finished “DTF St. Louis” in the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, and then I watched episode 8 of Crystal Lake on Peacock.
The finale of the series really nailed it, bringing the backstory to an exceptional conclusion. Episode seven was indeed Pam telling Lee and Briana about her life before Crystal Lake and she told them about the attack on her by the people from Bellflower, and the subsequent events following it.
Lee took her to the station, promising to protect her, but not doing a very good job of it. Elias and his men from Bellflower showed up and kicked off a violent showdown at the police station. Lee was wounded, but Dorf came through big time. The one thing about the finale was that we did not revisit Lee and it left his fate up in the air. I am not sure if the character appeared in the Friday the 13th movie or not.
The ending of Crystal Lake was great, with Jason making his appearance known and saving Pam from Elias. The crushing of Elias’s head was especially gruesome.
And Linda Cardellini’s final lines of the episode were perfectly unbalanced and crazed. I believed her psychosis completely, and Cardellini delivered them with a wild unabandon.
This show has done a great job of making me interested in rewatching the Friday the 13th movie. That is obviously a huge success.
After an up-and-down season, I had been feeling momentum building over the last few episodes. I was excited about the story, and then I watched this mess.
The first thing that happened was they retconned the ending of episode 12, and Cordelia and Queenie are just back alive again. This was after the Devil killed his old form in the bed when it reached 99.9 years old…just short of the 100 years they had waited for. Why? Not sure why?
Then Ben and Madison were in bed and, oops, the condom broke. Oh, she’s pregnant. The baby grows inside her in seconds and then she gives birth. The baby seems to be stillborn, but Satan showed up to save the baby.
Then, Mallory goes into the timeline to try and discover a way to beat Satan. It was so melodramatic and Cordelia begged her not to go. Then Mallory was back after a couple of commericial breaks.
The ending came out of nowhere as Ben sacrificed himself to help Cordelia and Mallory to imprison Satan in the Last Supper painting as Judas.
How can you spend 12 episodes building to a finale and still have it feel rushed?
I thought this was so anti-climactic that it truly disappointed me. I was looking forward to this episode after the last several, but this was just a waste of time. Very disappointed.
“No One’s Normal. It Just Looks That Way from Across the Street”
I finished the series this morning on the Sunday Morning Sidewalk, and it gave me all kinds of emotional feels.
What I was dreading came to pass. Floyd himself had spiked his Bloody Mary drink with the full bottle of the medication Amphezyne in it. This was not a murder, but a suicide.
The show does an admirable job of setting everything up. I believe that Floyd had been suffering from depression for some time. I believe that he has a difficult life and that his own self-image played a massive role in the end of his life.
I just have a hard time believing that Floyd would kill himself. I understand that depression is an insidious thing and that it can lead terrible situations. I just have a difficult time believing that Floyd would take that choice. He knew how important he was in Clark’s life, and he had told him that he was there for him…only to kill himself?
I told myself that it was going to be a tragic scene with Richard, who the episode had been setting up as our latest suspect. He had rode the bicycle to school for his first day and had a great day. He was so happy when he got home, and the new stuff that Carol had bought him went great as well. It was when he discovered the DTF St. Louis website on Floyd’s computer that led to a freak out.
Richard saw Floyd and Clark in their whitey-tighty underwear dance, making the assumption that they were having an affair. Richard could not comprehend the depth to that conversation between friends. I thought maybe Richard would have gone back and blasted Floyd and that is what broke the camel’s back. However, Richard just approached the window, made eye contact with Floyd and then turned away in disgust. Floyd pounded on the window and gave Richard the “I love you” ASL gesture, which Richard misinterpreted as “rock on.”
But Floyd did not know that Richard misunderstood him and I find it hard to accept that Floyd would kill himself with the issues between Richard unresolved.
Maybe that is what the series is saying. I learned to love the character of Floyd Smernitch over these seven episodes, with the heartfelt portrayal from David Harbour, that I can’t accept that the character would feel flawed enough that he couldn’t see the tragedy suicide would be. That I could only see the man whom is so caring and loving, but a man who was damaged beyond what he could possibly repair.
In the end, Clark was left very much alone, with his wife and kids gone, Floyd dead, and the affair with Carol, that had led to much of this, over. The final scene of Clark sitting alone on his swing set was heartbreaking.
Then, with Carol, most of the season was spent showing that she was an unlikeable character who appeared very selfish, only for the finale to completely switch that up. She went from being a prime suspect to just a loving mother who was trying to do her best for her family.
The episode is amazingly poignant, beautifully written and shot, with some fantastic acting. I don’t want to suggest that my difficulty accepting the result of the show meant that this was not exceptional TV. I found this episode thoroughly enthralling and deeply tragic. It is a sad end, but one that has all kinds of vitality. David Harbour absolutely deserved the Emmy Award that he received. The limited series received seven Emmy awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Linda Cardellini and Best Supporting Actor for Harbour.
Starting next week, the next show for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk will be Amazon Prime’s Carrie.
Cause of Death: suffocating while laughing by accidentally overdosing on nitrous oxide
Orin Scrivello, D.D.S. was one of the worst characters around, on purpose. The story needed someone to get chopped up and fed to a hungry plant, and Orin fit the bill perfectly. “The Dentist” is a highlight song in the Little Shop musical and Steve Martin brings the perfect level of ham to the role.
