I’m not sure this goes in “deprogramming” or here, but a fellow… survivor? and I finally managed to get together and watch the last episode of Horace and Pete. You know, Louis CK’s vanity project prior to the vanity project film that aped Woody Allen? The first half of the episode was a devastatingly on point depiction of life with an abusive father. It reverberated back through the rest of the series and retroactively made the previous episodes feel hollowed out, but in a good way. Here’s a scene (trigger warning: realistic depiction of an abusive family dynamic):
There’s worse too. You get the impression that Louis CK is a survivor as well. We had to pause for a breather at the intermission.
The second half devastating in a different way, really cements the fact that the show is a tragedy.
Probably not cool to watch his stuff so soon after the accusations, but I’d paid for it beforehand and here’s a thread to talk about what we’ve watched that we thought was important and this was one show I thought was important.
I’m not sure what people have going on in life where they have to act like this. Like there’s no joy in life, just a constant beatdown that you have to pass on to your family because you don’t know how to deal with it. Toxic masculinity makes this seem normal and acceptable.
I could go on. This was my life too growing up.
I believe he was. When he was young, his parents split up and he moved to the United States with his mother. I’ve gotten the impression from a lot of his work that his dad was really messed up emotionally.
I’m sure it was passed on from father to son… a rich history, as one of the characters says early on in the show[1]. Later on in the episode, you meet Grandpa and realize that it’s entirely in the realm of possibility that he was worse than Dad. It’s part of the genius of the show… you watch it to the end and realize that the heritage, the generations that went into the building and maintenance of the pub carries this awful weight. It’s been forever (OK, almost a year) since I watched Episode One where the scenes are laid out and you learn about the history of Horace and Pete’s, but even without rewatching, what I remember of it gives me the chills… stuff that seemed funny and “cranky ol’ Grandpa” seem much more sinister now.
[1]I met my Dad’s dad and… yeah… I got the impression he was worse than mine. Just generations of patriarchy weighing down the next. If I ever have kids (not likely) I feel like I’d be walking on eggshells all the time just to try and stop my self from perpetuating it.
I often wonder how different my siblings and I would be, if my father had been raised by his (thoughtful, generous, soft spoken) father rather than his (violent, mean, abusive) step-father. I think generational effects of abuse is most of the reason 3 out of the 4 of us will never have children.
Sorry for the derail. And now, back to your regularly scheduled program.
My roommate and I hit a moment of Marvel fatigue this summer and skipped it in favor of streaming. It’s a fun movie, hit all the “Spiderman’ just a kid” vibes. Birdman II stole the show, though.
I love how he’s bitching about rich people making all this money doing shady shit and my roomie and I, simultaneously, start yelling at his character on the teevee.
On lighter fare, started watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. I’m not sure that the fifties were like this, but it’s an effervescent, light series to take me through the dark months when The Good Place is off the air…
I was really disappointed by the last season, but okay the rest of the show. Then I watched this (Warning: LONG):
Now, some of it isn’t fair (the canon Holmes stories are just as guilty of having Holmes pull the solution directly out of his ass without giving the audience/reader a chance to solve it themselves as the show is).
I just read that Tom Holland wants to be cast as James Bond.
Wouldn’t that be kind of cool? Like Bond as a youth, being tested and selected for HMSS, and stopping some calamity about to happen?
Jesus, who’s got two hours to watch this guy complain? I’d much rather be watching the very worst episode of Sherlock.
Can a Cliff’s Notes summary be found anywhere? I’d love to know what it is that bugs him so much, but I am nowhere near bored enough to sit and watch his screed for that long.
I haven’t watched series 4 yet, but I unreservedly loved all the rest of the episodes.
Did you end up getting it for him? I found it astonishingly good. But it can be an emotional rollercoaster. I found myself with soggy cheeks on four separate occasions at least.
In other news…
Nobody here seems to have mentioned Godless yet. My wife and I are loving it. I’d watch it just because it’s a Western, but the more I read about it, the more I figured she’d like it, so we started watching it last week. We’ve seen four of the seven episodes so far, and it’s sooo good. Reminiscent of Deadwood without the pretension, and the occasional moment of gratudity is pretty funny. Plus, who knew Lady Mary Crawley shoots first and asks questions later, and also digs her own well by hand?
