I really liked how the first episode of Carrie started out, with the montage of students giving wildly contradictory descriptions of Carrie White. It sets the series up nicely as we all know what we are building to and this started it off well.
The new Sunday Morning Sidewalk series is Carrie, an adaptation of the iconic Stephen King book/movie, from Mike Flanagan.
The first episode showed me that teenage girls truly are the worst. I am guessing that some of these girl characters who would wind up taunting and bullying Carrie are going to be given more depth during the series. Until then, I hated some of these girl who were cruel just to be cruel. Chris Hargensen especially was downright wicked who was mean simply because she did not get breakfast. Yes, there is more there, but it is an excuse.
Summer H. Howell played Carrie and she is immediately compelling and relatable.
Samantha Sloyan as Carrie’s mother Margaret White has huge shoes to fill, as Piper Laurie was an Academy Award nominee for the movie. Sloyan showed more love to Carrie than I remember from the movie.
The first episode brought us the bloody period scene from the movie, and it was just as horrific as it was then.
I have not read the Stephen King novel, so I wonder if some of the other things that this show featured was included in that. Either way, I really enjoyed the set-up of the first episode, the use of blocking technique during the story, and the way the show does not pretend like none of the audience does not know the end result.
I am looking forward to the remainder of this series.
“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.
The penultimate episode of this HBO Max limited series opens up what might be the final resolution to the murder of Floyd Smernitch. I’m not sure how I feel about it.
Clark’s story explained the Tiger Tiger bit as he revealed that Clark had set up the whole Tiger Tiger thing, hoping to pull Floyd out of his funk over the failed sexual encounter Floyd tried to have with Carol. Carol had told Floyd that she discovered that she did not him on top of her.. that she felt like squirming out from under him. It was a brutal moment that affected Floyd deeply.
I am worried that I am not going to love this series finale next week. They are implying that Floyd may have given himself the overdose of the drug Amphezyne, and I am not sure that I can see him committing suicide even with what the show has done to him. He just feels like someone who loves life more than that. Plus, I am not sure if he would do that to Richard.
Yet, I am not sure that someone out of the blue would be better. It feels that Carol being the killer is more acceptable to me than either of those other outcomes.
Yet it really feels like they are setting this up to say that Floyd makes this choice, not only after Carol told him about the squirming, but the perceived betrayal of Clark with the Denny’s Plan.
I wonder if the restaurant Denny’s paid money to be in this episode, and, if they did, did they know what it was going to be used for?
There seems to be three prevailing theories in my head about DTF St. Louis.
One: Carol killed Floyd by upping the dose of amphezyne, a deadly combination with the blood thinners Floyd was taking.
Two: Floyd accidentally overdosed himself with the amphezyne.
Three: Floyd could not be a better person, even if he is a little kinky.
Looking at three first, we got even more examples of Floyd being just the best guy ever. He saved the blind teenager from falling into the pool. He spotted him out the window while he was watching Carol and Clark in the motel room.
Oh, when we thought last week that Floyd had “caught” them, it turned out that he had approached them and asked to watch.
Looking at number one, Carol sure looks suspicious. She lied to the police about the bike. She acted like she had no clue about the life insurance. She asked what would happen if Floyd took too much amphezyne. She sure is acting guilty.
I do not believe that Carol killed him, but there is definitely something going on with her. She does not seem like a grieving widow.
Theory two: Could Floyd have done something to himself? Suicide in some manner? Has something happened between what we have seen and the death to make him hopeless? Clark told his lawyer that he stopped telling the police the story because the rest would hurt Floyd. What did that mean?
There are only two more episodes remaining, with the final coming on November 1st.
I can see why David Harbour won an Emmy for this role.
He is spectacular.
The rap with Jason Bateman about passing the M-F life insurance physical is one of the best scenes I have seen all year long. It only made Floyd’s death all the more sad.
We see the progression of how Floyd achieved the life insurance that could be a motive for murder. We also get Detectives Homer and Plumb discovering the existence of the life insurance.
The more we learn about this show, the sadder it becomes because it is totally the relationship between Floyd and Clark that carries the weight of the show. Things seemed to be looking up for Floyd thanks to Clark, so I wonder how things went off the path. Floyd told Clark that he was ready to be done with DTF St. Louis, but his death was connected to the site.
I am no closer to the answer of the murder yet, as we have three more episodes to go.
I mean, the character of Floyd, as brilliantly played by David Harbour, is one of the best character/people on TV. Everything about him was awesome, personality wise.
That all came through during the interrogation between Clark and Detective Plumb and Homer, after Plumb discovered that Carol had lied about the Go Getter drink.
The way Clark spoke about Floyd was as loving as you could and the descriptions of the way Floyd handled his life, from his step-son to a chance encounter, was so above board that one wonders why anyone would want him dead.
This episode revealed that Floyd was not a closeted gay. He had misinterpreted a picture on the DTF St. Louis site as a woman (didn’t have his spectacles on) when it was a picture of David Bowie, and his chance encounter with a man. Floyd lets him kiss him in the parking lot to avoid hurting the man’s feelings, even though he was not into him in that way.
This episode spent a chunk of time setting up Carol as the obvious suspect in the murder. Since it is episode three, I think she is also a red herring. We saw Carol riding one of the recumbent bikes like Clark does, plus she spent a bunch of time trying to get Clark to help her get life insurance for Floyd.
There is no doubt after this episode that Clark did not kill Floyd. The key that the police showed him clammed him up. I think it probably leads to some life insurance that would point the finger at Carol, and Clark was trying to protect her. I have a suspicion that he believes she killed Floyd.
Their sex life encounters… weird.
By the way, the gymnastics routine from Floyd on the hostile architecture was epic. Floyd was really out of breath after it. Is that a clue?
I am intrigued with this case, and I really want to know what happened to the wonderful Floyd.
The other thing we see this week is how awesome David Harbour is at freestyle rap dance.
This episode revealed to us the background of the affair between Clark and Carol, and it is bizarre. Carol absolutely pursued Clark and was the driving force behind their affair. And she sat on his face while she responded to texts.
The interviews by Detective Homer with Clark were unbelievably uncomfortable. Of course, it was designed that way.
The episode was designed to load on Clark as the suspect. He does not deny the charge at any time during the episode until the end when she was on the phone.
Carol truly seems to be a solid suspects as well. She is absolutely manipulative with the situation and with the police. Detective Plumb does some great detecting during this episode too.
I hadn’t considered any other options than Clark or Carol, until the very end of the episode when I suddenly had another suspect- Clark’s wife, Eimy. Her motive might be messed up a bit, but she did have access to the same things Clark did.
I love how the narrative is being spread around time.
I am intrigued into the mystery of the murder, and I think we have got much more coming with it.
An Emmy winning limited series from HBO Max is the next show for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk and I am a little disappointed. Not with the show, I thought it was a compelling and gripping first episode that I am excited to continue. I am disappointed because I knew the premise of the show before I watched episode one.
I knew that there would be a surprising murder in episode one… truthfully, it was what attracted me to the show… but I really wish I had not known this fact because the surprise would have been monumental.
We got some hints at the non-linear storytelling techniques in the first episode as we did see David Harbour’s character Floyd Smernitch in flashbacks after his body had been discovered dead. I do enjoy the non-linear structure as the use of flashbacks can help tell the story extremely effectively.
Jason Bateman’s weatherman character Clark Forrest feels like the classic red herring, as he was arrested in the first episode. Linda Cardellini, who was Floyd’s wife, Carol, was purposefully made to look sinister at times in the episode.
It’s really early to try to make a judgment on whom the killer is, because there could be any number of factors that played into it that we do not know yet. The manner in which Floyd was killed does seem to limit the number of possibilities.
I love a good mystery and a major character being offed in the first episode is great. It reminded me of when Laura Palmer was found wrapped in plastic, though I do not expect any sort of weirdness like I got in Twin Peaks in DTF St. Louis.
I do love the dynamic between Richard Jennings (who played Detective Donoghue Homer) and Joy Sunday (who played Detective Jodie Plumb). They will be a fun pair to follow as the facts of the case are laid out before the audience.
Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini and David Harbour are awesome actors that I love in just about everything I have seen them in, so I expect this seven-episode limited series to be a fantastic ride. It already dropped a bunch of shocking reveals that I can’t wait to see play out.
The finale of Black Bird on Apple TV + was satisfying. It was also sad. I had been cautious to look at any reports about the case, since this is based on a true story of Jimmy Keene and Larry Hall, so I would not know how it turned out. This episode saw Larry draw a map and carve a little bird for each of the girls that he murdered. He sent the map to his brother. I was not sure the reasoning behind that, but Jimmy was able to get a look at the map.
Sadly, the map was not specific enough for Jimmy to get any details outside of a general location and, in the end, none of the girl’s bodies had been recovered.
The final scene between Jimmy and Larry was powerful, as Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser just knocked this scene out of the park. Jimmy tried to convince Larry to let the parents of the victims know where their daughters were buried and Larry did not understand why he would do that. You could see Jimmy slowly reaching the point of breaking from the horrors that Larry was laying out in front of him.
Watching Larry’s face as his evil continued to shine out was a frightening occurrence and showed what kind of actor Paul Walter Hauser could be.
In a fictional tale, ,they would have found the graves of the victims, but, with the true story, those remain a mystery.
I am very pleased with the way Jimmy Keene’s life played out both on screen and in real life. The show added “boxed text” at the end to give us some falling action for this story, including what happened to Jimmy, to his father, Larry and Larry’s brother Gary.
The strength of this series was absolutely the performances of its two lead stars, both who had been nominated for Emmy Awards with Hauser winning Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series.
Next week, we start a new series for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. I decided to watch another limited series that won some Emmys, this time on HBO Max entitled DFT St. Louis featuring Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, and David Harbour.
The penultimate episode of Black Bird was something else. I have to say that Paul Walter Hauser’s dialogue today gave me chills. His description of his time with the girl Jessica, who we see in flashbacks and who is narrating sections of the episode, was absolutely frightening and made me feel the darkness surrounding Larry. It was a remarkable performance.
I can understand the tears coming from Jimmy at the end of the episode.
It also feels as if the noose is tightening around Jimmy, as it seemed as if more people were eyeballing him, wondering about Jimmy’s turth.
We spent time with Detectives Miller and MacCauley as they continued their investigation into Larry’s crime. They were able to find Jessica’s bike that was a prized possession, and they had a witness to swear that Larry had given it to her. Apparently, that was not enough to prevent the appeal.
There is definitely a feeling that everyone is racing against a clock. I am concerned for Jimmy’s well being as it feels as if more of the convicts are catching on to what is happening.
The scene with Larry and his psychiatrist was powerful too. It gave us a new look at Larry and how he was feeling at that time. When the psychiatrist had taken over Jimmy’s appointment and tried to get him to think about the mental health of her clients. I thought that was horrendous of her. Why does Larry seem to build such support from some of the authority?
I really wanted to keep watching the final episode, but I shut it off. Next week, the final episode of Black Bird has to be something else.
What a great hour of television episode four of Black Bird was. There were two or three times when it literally gave me chills. Paul Walter Hauser was outstanding as Larry, reflecting back upon his childhood with Jimmy.
Both men had terrible childhoods, even though Jimmy’s started out looking great. Playing catch with his father in the park, looking forward to a great life, even to the NFL. It would not be.
The dialogue of this episode was outstanding and did so much of the heavy lifting for these two characters. Hauser’s delivery was spot on and I totally bought him as a unbalanced serial killer. However, there were so many moments where you almost related to or wanted to like Larry. Every time it got too close to feeling for him, Hauser would deliver a line that shocked you right back into the knowledge that this guy is a vicious killer.
The flashbacks were very effective, especially the ones with Larry. I was not as much of a fan of Jimmy’s flashbacks, especially with the time where his mother’s new boyfriend broke Jimmy’s ribs. The actor they cast for that young Jimmy just did not feel like someone who would grow into Taron Egerton. That pulled me out of that scene which does a lot to inform us on the man Jimmy would become and how he would think of women.
This dialogue-heavy episode followed on opening where there was a prison riot that was exceptionally violent. Larry had told Jimmy that it was “Riot Quiet” around the prison, foreshadowing the events of the violence. The riot led to Larry being placed in charge of the clean-up crew in the cafeteria section of the prison, where the main part of the riot took place. Larry showed his capabilities of cleaning, showing how knowledgeable he was in the area. He clearly knew how to remove blood stains and the such.
Again, every time you thought maybe Larry wasn’t as horrible as you thought, suddenly he was saying something or making a gesture that reminded you how evil this guy was.
Two more episodes of this compelling drama and I am anxious to find out what happens. I am trying to ignore my inclinations to look up the true story and see how things played out in real life. I am curious, but I am dedicating myself to no spoilers.
Jimmy made his first contact with Larry in this episode that saw everything else on the edge for the informant.
Jimmy’s father showed up to see him and flashed his old badge for some favors from the guards, unwittingly blowing his cover. One guard in particular, Mr. Carter, who blackmailed Jimmy for 10 grand or else he would tell everyone that Jimmy was here as a snitch.
Jimmy was summoned to the in prison Italian Mafia Don, and he waded through that issue too. Oh, it was the real life Mafia head Vincent “the Chin” Gigante played by Tony Amendola. He wants Jimmy to play boccie with him.
The main course of this week’s episode was the dialogue between Jimmy and Larry. There was a scene between them that absolutely was frightening. Both Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser were tremendous in their roles and in this moment. The tension built by the face of Hauser and his chilling words was amazing.
It had an impact on Jimmy too. When Jimmy told Agent McCauley about Carter, she told him they would get him out of prison. He should go into isolation until they could get the paperwork done. McCauley was having doubts about the case, afraid that Larry was just a sad and sick serial confessor, or that they would never be able to get the goods on him.
When asked what would happen to Larry if Jimmy went into isolation, McCauley answered that the judge could find the confession coerced and let him out into the world.
Jimmy had already seen the evil in Larry, convinced he was guilty. Jimmy insisted that he would stay and get the info. It was an unselfish turn for the drug dealer, because he knew allowing Larry out would be way worse than anything else.
I’m in on this show, and I am excited to see what is going to come down next. I didn’t realize that Jimmy’s father was being played by Ray Liotta, and that this was his final role before his death.
Episode two of Black Bird on Apple TV + is the next step on the Sunday Morning Sidewalk.
The thing that sticks out to me most in this episode is the manner in which they tell this story in different time frames, and how they all kind of come together by the end of episode two. There were flashbacks back to Greg Kinnear investigating as Brian Miller, tying to get Larry Hall, played by Paul Walter Hauser, to confess to the killing. By the end of the episode, Larry is in jail and staring across to James Keene, played by Taron Egerton, in another cell.
Interestingly enough, my guess is that we will not have any more flashback sections of the story since it was used just to show how this all was set up. I might be wrong on that, but that is the way it feels.
The whole confession scene with Larry was haunting. Paul Walter Hauser does an amazing job here as he is able to maintain the slight uncertainty about this character. I can see why the people in Larry’s life believed in him.
With our next Sunday Morning Sidewalk show, we dive into the world of Apple TV +. There are so many top quality shows on Apple that you can easily miss something. Black Bird is a good example.
I started the first of six episodes of this limited series this morning.
Jimmy Keene was a drug dealer who gets caught and sent to prison for a ten years sentence. The FBI approached him with an offer for him to switch prisons to get close to another inmate, Larry Hall, who was accused of killing 14 women, in an attempt to find out info about where a body is buried.
This is a true crime story.
The story is also told through flashbacks to before the deaths. We see Greg Kinnear playing Detective Brian Miller, who was investigating some of Larry’s victims. I really liked the flashback scenes, but the interview scene with Greg, Larry and the other cops was strange because I just could not get a grasp on the other cops. They seemed like they were actively trying to help out Larry by trying to convince Brian that Larry was just a serial confessor who was full of crap.
Pau Walter Hauser has some big time sideburns, or as the show says ‘burnsides.’ Hauser’s initial scenes were great, and I feel like he is going to rock this show.
After the pilot episode, I think this one is going to be an awesome entry to the Sunday Morning Sidewalk.
So the Sunday Morning Sidewalk comes to the end of yet another show, this one Netflix’s The Boroughs. This eight-episode series from the Duffer Brothers was a lot of fun and was a show that, each week, I wanted to keep watching.
One of the ideas that I dreaded was that, since Netflix canceled the show, it would wind up with a cliffhanger that would never be resolved. I am happy to say that, although there was a little mystery centered around Sam in the last few moments of the show, the main story of the show is wrapped up and will serve as a sufficient finale to the show.
However, the finale felt a little rushed to me. I think it could have easily been spread out to a ninth episode without having too much trouble, because a lot was packed into this ending.
In the end, it was a satisfying conclusion that was able to wrap up the stories well and left our characters in a positive situation.
The ending sequence in the cave with mother, Sam and Blaine was okay, but I am just not sure what was going on. Why did Mother explode? How did Sam survive it? Did he? These are questions that linger, but does not ruin the finale for me.
The cast of the show was wonderful and the main strength of The Boroughs.
With that, the Sunday Morning Sidewalk finishes another series. Next week, we will begin the Apple TV + series Black Bird, a six-episode mini series.
