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Is Anyone Else Watching The Second Season?

posted 5 years ago by R_Kane (15828)
7 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS I think it’s even more involving than the first. The Mary Louise character, played by Streep, is the most loathsome antagonist I’ve encountered in a very long time, up there with Joffrey and Ramsey. I’ve always found Streep to be a very mechanical, calculating actress, so she is perfect in the role of a manipulative and emotionally dull mother of monsters. Renata is even less likable this season as her money vanishes and her “perfect” world crumbles. Is there any husband on this show who is likable? Indeed, aside from the kids and the psychotherapist and Bonnie, is there a character of any gender who is even admirable, let alone likable? I mean, tonight we learned that Jane’s cute beau is a snitch for the cops, out to get the goods on the Monterey Five, and that Bonnie’s peace/love Mommy is a child abuser.

[–] bohemianroxie (2478) 5 years ago

I'm as surprised as anyone that I find this batch of entitled, privileged characters so enthralling to watch even on this second season..And, yes...Mary Louise..is one one of the most despicable characters that comes to mind outside of the psychopathic Joffrey's and Ramsey's. She has fine tuned passive aggressive into a major skill set and one can't help but feel some sympathy for the late Perry. Was he a bad seed she helped flourish or another victim she nurtured by micro manipulating his every weakness?

I'm not surprised about Bonnie's Mom..She seemed so overbearing to her grown daughter that she had to be making up for something.
Isn't Jane likable? Her beau is one piece of crap if he was really going to have sex as a snitch knowing her vulnerability.. And these's Celeste...She has everything going for her but seems so weak and fragile..What sort of Lawyer was she anyway?
Was Ed so snide and arrogant last season? I can't remember..
Nathan just seems like a man child with Bonnie the more mature one..
Renata is so narcissistic that it would take a death to get her friended..and Madeline's not much better but more histrionic. These 2 are so high maintenance that they can be draining.

But still no match for Mary Louise.

Can everything be resolved in just a few episodes or are they going for another season?

[–] R_Kane (15828) 5 years ago

I forgot about Jane and Celeste. Thank you. Isn’t it interesting that the 2 people damaged by Perry have what may be the brightest spirits? Like you, I wonder how they’re going to wrap this all up in 2 more episodes. I think the acting and writing are terrific. This may make me a terrible person, but I was glad when Perry’s 3 sons laid into the bully. He was asking for it; but the larger point to me was the manifest fraternal bond between the 3 boys. It warmed my heart.

As I think about it, I like Celeste a lot. She has enormous strength. Kidman is tantamount to brilliant in the role. And you, my friend, wrote exceedingly well.

[–] sslssg (34333) 5 years ago

Ed is the one character who irks me most I think. He wasn't such a jerk in the book, well in the book there wasn't a Joseph story line either so I guess there's that.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 5 years ago

I am watching the Kill Me episode for the 2nd time right now, and I just realized something: Ed is a passive-aggressive sadist (which may be a redundancy) just like Mary Louise. That side of him didn’t really come out last season, except for during his conflicts with Nathan then, and now, because Maddy hadn’t hurt and angered him. He knows he is betrayed this season, and he’s going to make Maddy pay. I’m watching the scene between he and Maddy where he explains the choices he perceived for himself when he learned of her affair: to walk out the door with his dignity, or to stay (and be a sadistic, destructive asshat). He overlooked another choice: to stay (and repair their marriage together). He made the weakest, most selfish choice. I learned long ago that every couple has conflicts. What matters is not IF you fight, because you inevitably will, it’s HOW you fight. You can fight with anger and cruelty, leading to destruction, regrets, and decisions that can never be un-done, or you can fight with kindness, caring and commitment and resolve your differences, strengthen your marriage and create even more intimacy between the two of you. Ed and Mary Louise both fight like the little kids we saw in the episode’s bullying incident.

Apropos of your observation about narrative elements not in the source novel: I am very glad to see that the novel’s author participated in creating this season’s narrative. Would that the same had been true of Game Of Thrones.

Maybe Ed leaves Maddy and marries Mary Louise. . . ?

[–] joi2049 (5562) 5 years ago

you can fight with kindness, caring and commitment and resolve your differences, strengthen your marriage

The problem with what you've said is ED has also agreed to go to MARRIAGE COUNCELING sessions with Maddy, and he also agreed to go to that other GROUP ENCOUNTER session (where people were hugging each other that Maddy also apologized for taking him to).

So he has made efforts to deal with the issues between them due to her cheating on him.

And in the PREVIEW CLIP it also looks like the wife of the guy Maddy had the affair with is going to try to SEDUCE Ed again (because she also seemed to be FLIRTING with him in the Grocery Store).

But at the same time she was doing it, she also didn't seem to be that interested in him. Which also makes one suspect that maybe her hubby is putting her up to doing it, especially since we also see him sitting there watching when she does it again in the BAR setting.

Maybe she's just using ED as a way to try to make her husband jealous??? And maybe the Affair Maddy had was for the same reason??? Perhaps she was also feeling NEGLECTED by ED which made her vulnerable to the attention of the other guy???

It's also strange that we see Maddy and Ed in the THERAPY session with the same SHRINK that Celeste uses, but then haven't seen them having any more sessions with her.

What I suspect is ED is going to go BALISTIC when he finds out Maddy was the one who told the others to LIE about how PERRY DIED and accuse HER of being manipulative LIKE MARY LOUISE.

Then her FORMER HUSBAND will probably also accuse her of the SAME thing when he finds out she's the reason why his wife's been giving him the COLD SHOULDER.

And RENATA also reminds one of Mary Louise as well due to the way she has the DISCO PARTY and PRETENDS everything is OK when it's NOT OK, just like Mary Louise PRETENDS PERRY was a PERFECT SON when that was also NOT the case.

And BONNIE also accused her father of PRETENDING to have PROTECTED her from her mother.

Which is like the way MADDY PRETENDS to be PROTECTING BONNIE from the COPS and then IGNORES her for the MOST PART.

[–] joi2049 (5562) 5 years ago

ED and MADDY CONTINUED: PART 2:

And maybe a part of the reason why MADDY IGNORES Bonnie is because of the way she was ANGRY at the way her oldest daughter moved in with Bonnie and her former husband.

So when BONNIE begins to behave like she has PTSD, and she no longer showers Maddy's daughter with attention anymore, Maddy is probably also happy to have her daughter move back in with her again.

Which means if she HELPS Bonnie and she gets better, that might also mean her daughter would chose to move back in with Bonnie again (because Maddy and her daughter are also still fighting with each other about her going to college).

So Maddy appears to be the one who is more LIKE Mary Louise than ED.

But she's also more SUBTLE about it, and isn't as IN YOUR FACE about it.

And we also saw MADDY NEGLECTING ED last season each time he kept trying to get her ATTENTION (like the time he was dressed up in the ELVIS COSTUME and sang to her).

So Ed's also just giving MADDY a dose of the same medicine that she dished out to him last season.

[–] joi2049 (5562) 5 years ago

Can everything be resolved in just a few episodes or are they going for another season?

Read an article that said it's HIGHLY UNLIKELY they'll have another season of the show due to the way each of the ACTRESSES are so busy and already have other commitments to do other shows (like NICOLE who will also be in another HBO SHOW that's coming up).

So the problem is trying to work around all of their other WORK SCHEDULES.

But the person who is responsible also said they haven't completely ruled out doing another season of this show.

Just that it will be complicated to do to so.

The MAIN PROBLEM with these people is the way they seem to be way too involved with each other. Bonnie's mother said something about how FAMILIES were ALL UP in each other's FACE because that's what families do.

But FRIENDS and FAMILIY members should also have BORDER LINES that one doesn't CROSS OVER, and all of them have been CROSSING LINES that probably shouldn't have been crossed.

Bonnie's hubby keeps BUGGING ED, for example, and asking him to do things he shouldn't be asking him to do. When he asked him to TALK to BONNIE for him, for instance, that was also a NO NO (due to the way ED is married to MADDY who would see that as being a BETRAYAL of her due to the way it would feel like ED was taking Bonnie's side against her in regards to her oldest daughter living with Bonnie).

So that's an example of the way that Bonnie's hubby keeps CROSSING a BOUNDARY by always BUGGING ED to do something for him that puts ED into the MIDDLE of something that he has no business getting mixed up in (because it also puts him at odds with Maddy if he does what her former hubby wants him to do).

Anyhow, If Bonnie and Maddy's X hubby don't move away, probably the best thing Maddy and Ed can do is move away to another different town where Maddy's X won't keep bugging Ed.

And if Mary Louise won't leave town, then Jane and Celeste should probably also do the same thing as a way to keep Mary Louise from bugging them.

And we also already know RENATA will be moving out of her house.

So my guess would be the way the show RESOVLES things is with these people no longer living there in the same town anymore where they're UP in the FACE of each other all of the time.