Tag: godless

TV

Godless

I’ve been looking forward to the new western Netflix series Godless for some time now. The series was created and the first episode written and directed by Scott Frank who’s had a hand in such films as Out of Sight, Minority Report and Logan. And the reexamination of the western in TV series have already produced some interesting series like Westworld already. However, I’m not sure if it was its pace of story or the story in general, but Godless never connected with me.

There’s quite a few storylines going on in Godless and that’s one of its faults. There’s the story of outlaw Frank Griffin (Jeff Daniels) and his gang terrorizing the southwest robbing, killing and raping anyone they meet. Young Roy Goode ( Jack O’Connell) who stole from Griffin and is now on the run from him. Goode being shot and having to recuperate on a ranch owned by Alice Fletcher (Michelle Dockery). And a town full of mostly women who’s husbands were all killed in a mining accident that if Griffin every found would certainly attack.

And that’s not saying anything about a sheriff who everyone calls a “coward” or the marshal hunting Griffin’s gang who can’t find anyone to help him since anyone who’s ever gone up against him has wound up dead.

Reading what I’ve just written I’d say Godless sounds like one heck of an interesting series, and it may become that. But even with everything going on the first episode the show felt extremely slow. Like at one point I paused the episode thinking that about 50 minutes had passed to find I was only 20 into it. And then later on I paused it thinking that surly there must only be a few more minutes to go when there was still a good 20 minutes left.

It doesn’t help matters that several elements of the story are, shall we say, fantastical. Which, done in moderation is fine, but here they just add up to a bit of a mess. There’s the town with nearly no men since apparently every man was down in the mine standing in the same area and was killed when disaster struck. There’s also Griffin, who’s arm is so badly shot that it’s amputated 19th century style. Yet he’s able to get back on a horse and ride his gang out of town a few days later after having major surgery with major loss of blood in a time when at best it would take several weeks to recover, if that was even possible since most would have died after such a surgery. There’s also a few members of Griffin’s gang who are caught, almost lynched before Griffin and the rest of the gang ride to the rescue and, get this, lynches the entire town. Apparently in the old west this was the one town on the frontier that wasn’t armed and didn’t know how to fight back.

Godless is the kind of series where a line like, “The sons’a bitches lynched the damned mob!” Is delivered with a straight face.

Godless is so over the top in certain aspects that it wouldn’t surprise me that if part of it lies within the confines of Westworld. At least that would explain some of those fantastical elements. Otherwise I’m not quite sure what to think about Godless.

Random Zombie Movies/TV Observation

Yesterday I watched the 2016 movie Cell based on the Stephen King book of the same name. In that movie a weird pulse sent through cell and other mobile devices causes anyone who’s exposed to it to turn into mindless murder machines. The movie’s not great, but it’s not bad either. It got me thinking about all the odd things that I’ve noticed in various zombie films/TV series over the years.

Did you ever notice…

• There aren’t too many, if any, zombies UNDER the age of 18. And according to the US census about 24% of all people living in the US are under 18. So where are those missing millions of zombies?
• There aren’t too many, if any, zombies OVER the age 60 which is about 11% of the population.
• Most zombies can walk. Sure, there are a few of them now and again who are missing legs and have to crawl, but for the most part zombies who should be falling more and more apart with every step instead are completely mobile.
• In a world where about 75% of the people need some sort of vision correction zombies are the exception and all have perfect, 20/20 vision and never miss even the tiniest detail.
• Most zombies wear both long sleeved shirts and pants. Depending on what time of year the apocalypse happened, or especially what part of the country it’s taking place in, you’d assume at least some zombies would be sporting shorts and some would certainly be wearing short-sleeved shirts. Or no shirts at all.

The Reading & Watch List

• ‘The Good Place’ Renewed for Season 3 at NBC
• Robot From ‘Forbidden Planet’ Breaks Auction Records
• The Secret Lives of China’s Art Factory Workers
• Mindhunter VFX Breakdown
• Russian Special Forces drill with live ammunition
• First Interstellar Asteroid Wows Scientists

Cool Movie Poster of the Week