Grid Effect

Well, its been a week since I last watched this episode, so other than general plot threads, nothing is really fresh. Well just resort to some segregated paragraphs for the sake of coherence.

-The Tyra-Landry murder plot continues to deter, if not dominate our attention from the rest of the remarkably brilliant series. Them jarring back and forth at one another really isn’t doing much for me. Though I did thoroughly enjoy how Landry capped off his “I love you” confession to her, because its been blatantly obvious to the viewer and to the parties involved for well over eight months now. Still, this looming story needs to have some sort of resolution other than some sick, tawdry, murder-induced fucking. I’m reminded of Larry David’s explanation of why Cheryl was so attracted to him after he tipped the host at a restaurant to skip the wait, “Because it’s criminal, and women are attracted to criminals”. Honestly, they might as well have just gone down the river, found the guy’s decaying body that Landry beat to death with a pipe, and used it as a prop. Because I’m seeing virtually nothing redeemable about what’s transpired so far, so they might as well push those FCC boundaries, U-Turn style.

-Out of nowhere, Buddy Garrity is a central player on this show. It probably has something to do with being a drunken mess, either way, his presence is always welcome. There probably isn’t enough Buddy’s on this series to accurately depict one of these small Texas towns, but he has enough stage presence to compensate for the deficit. I like how Riggins seems to sympathize with him more than anyone, since he probably sees his future-self in the old slouch.

Oh yeah, Street was in this episode and might hightail it down to Mexico for some shady stem-cell procedure. That’s the guy from Murderball.

-Julie is essentially detestable right now. She dumps her boyfriend to make a play for a guy that I’m sure would get the chair should he do anything untoward with her. Then wallows about the decision. Maybe since I’ve never understood the typical female response to such scenarios, I couldn’t possibly understand it now. But are they trying to make me empathize with her? Because, I can save the writers the carpel-tunnel risk: it’s never going to happen. Oh well, at least Matt’s now going to sleep with his maid. I’m sure that won’t bother her at all.

-Absolutely loved the Coach Taylor subplot. The fact he’s always reduced to overly-simplistic talking points (”Because I’m your father”, “This is all a big joke to you”, etc.), but manages to lead by example is carried by the writing and the acting, if it was any other series it would come off as a cliche. That kid he was transporting was like Smash 2.1, or, better yet, Voodoo.

-And the final part of the Taylor Trinity, Tami, is about one too many glasses of wine away from hurting herself or somebody else. When things come to a head here, I hope they keep it within the first season perspective. If she ends up murdering that science teacher that’s attempting to fill her shoes, then stuffs his body into Riggins locker, pinning him with the homicide, then we’ll know the show has veered off course.

The way all these stories relate to each other is magnificent. Like Landry’s inability to vent towards Saracen or Tami’s depression being withheld from her daughter. When going back and reading through what I just wrote, it would seem all these characters are isolated and the stories self-contained. In a manner of speaking, the former is occasionally true, but the latter is anything but.

That’s it for the week that was, if I manage to hit my parlays this weekend I should have enough functioning digits to write out a Curb review on Monday.