This series is replete with conversations in which no one is listening to the other. Each one seems to lack the capacity to understand the other's experience. Everyone appears to be members of the Lack of Empathy Institute. This real life disconnection contrasts with the deeper sense of interconnection from dreams, visions, synchronous events. Maybe the surface and the depth will come together at some point.
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@John: The conversations suffer, I think, from the show's determination to portray certain "types" -- and the reaction of other "types" to them. Everyone so self-consciously plays his or her role in this didactic play that no one is really listening to anyone else. Navid is the most natural character on the show and appears also to be one of the most honest and self-aware about who he is. Audrey, on the other hand, is so patently un-empathetic that her professional persona is a lie.
It isn't clear whether Ball is sympathizing with these people as they fumble toward meaning and inclusion or making fun of them. Or both. Or whether is aim is something more metaphysical, in which case he has very little time to tie it all up. In any case, the show has lacked the warmth of believable characters and a coherent narrative focus. I'll watch the last episode but won't be back next season -- if there is one.
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It is VERY clear Ball is sympathizing with his characters.
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I had my doubts about this show at first, and I'm still not convinced that it knows where it's going -- but it is fascinating anyway. The exposure of white-privaledge micro-aggressions alone is eye opening, even if it's a little heavy handed. And this is the most complicated and multi-dimensional I've seen yet of Holly Hunter -- love her work in this.
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Here's my take: pretentious soap opera with otherwise good actors thinking they're in some sort of profound comment on humanity. I can forgive the younger cast: they need the job and exposure, but Holly Hunter? Really? Shouldn't she know better?
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I disliked Ashley's career choice and deception but am warming up to her. The racism and microaggressions she encounters elicit more sympathy from me than the predictable boo-hoo relationship issues of her other family members
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Don't forget that Farid's wife alluded in an earlier episode to him possibly having a mental illness. She suggested that his obsession with Ramon's game might be him going down the rabbit hole. The question then becomes whether they are actually connected or is this just the human propensity to seek deeper meaning in coincidence.
Also, Ashley's character needs some happy. There will be plenty of seasons, hopefully, to unpack the multitudinous miseries of black women (though the writers do a good job of representing. Having had some of her incidents happen to me, I feel like I'm being gas lighted (gas lit?) right along side her.)
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Just finished rewatching "True Blood" for the 3rd time. Having barely gotten thru 2 episodes of this heavy handed cliche I kept wondering where did the Alan Ball of "True Blood" and "American Beauty" go?
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I'm fascinated by the show but really appreciate the reviews. They really help me pull together the shows narrative. I'm not spiritual myself but appreciate what the show is proposing. I'm upset these shows are so short and 'we' have to wait a year to remember the plot line. I have a feeling 'we' will be left at the end with a lot of lose ends.
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Ah ="the Butterfly Effect" - where disparaging ideas/concepts might be reconciled. This with the Passing of Stephen Hawking and his Equation of the Entropy of a Black Hole. This Equation (Not repeated here) combined elements of Thermodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, and Gravitation. Seemingly Different Aspects of Physics. Maybe H&N is just a "Thought Experiment" on the part of Professor Hawking?
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Kristen and Navid are adorable together? Ugh, Kristen is the most annoying of all the show's characters and seems oblivious to Navid's attention. They'll never match the chemistry that Ramon and Henry had. Speaking of them, it's ironic that Ramon looks more like he's homeless than Henry. Finally, remember when Henry warned Ramon in the first few minutes of the first episode, "You wouldn't know what to do with me?" Well, that certainly came to pass.
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I don't see any romantic potential or chemistry between Navid and Kristen. They are social outsiders who have found a kind of understanding with each other. In the emotional minefield of high school, these alliances can run deep, even if the threads holding them together are fragile and temporal.
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This show seems to be moving in the reverse order of a typically successful series: it gets less interesting and more annoying as it progresses. So here are my hopes for the next episodes: Ramon starts brushing his hair and Audrey leaves town for an extended trip with Buc, thereby eliminating two of the most grating personalities.
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It is not at all clear to me where the writers are going with this story, or what point, if any, they are trying to make. But that's part of its appeal -- I don't know what's coming next. It's a fascinating unfolding drama which keeps getting more interestingly stranger. Love it.
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I don’t think resolution of mystery is what the show is going for.
I think that it is dealing with existence in the wake of unimaginable uncertainty.
Death, Beauty, naked male bodies, American Modernity, and now Trump: this is the oeuvre of Alan Ball.
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@Michael Gallo: I agree. Although Ball's approach to racial and social issues in this show has been heavy-handed, his real aim may be to ask, How does one go on? Not only in the face of uncertainty and chaos but in the wake of inconsolable loss and pain? I wouldn't be at all surprised if the mystery at the core of the story -- the shared memories and the significance of 11:11 (the marks on both Farid's and Ramon's mothers' cheeks) -- remains unresolved.
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I really like the show, and am a HUGE Alan Ball fan, but he IS heavy handed in this show so far. Could have used some subtlety. But I'm still very interested.
All interesting points, and the convergence of Farid's and Ramon's memories/dreams seems to suggest a kind of Jungian collective unconscious.
So Audrey -- the smug founder and seller of the Empathy Initiative, a conflict-resolution program to help people understand the point of view of others -- refuses to listen to her husband's explanation of his behavior and advises Ramon not to speak with Henry, whom he loves but hastily threw out. Whatever you may think about Greg's actions or Henry's back story, the irony is pretty satisfying.
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