Jump to content

Goliath (Amazon Prime)


RD3

Recommended Posts

I don't see a thread devoted to this series but it's talked about on the amazon thread.

I watched Season 1 a couple of months ago and just finished S2 last night. S2 has a ton of holes and plot line head scratchers. I still enjoyed it tho.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

here's what i wrote on the amazon thread:

apologies in advance, this is gonna be long and shitty, because binge'd over the weekend...

 

i thought it had occasional decent moments, but really uneven writing, lack of proper story setup, an absence of necessary character development, and in my opinion, a pretty unsatisfying resolution.  no significant twists either, which it really needed (any 8 episode binge type show needs some twists and turns).  a lot of unnecessary weirdness that wasn't properly explained or paid off.

bbt is fine, because that's who he is, but this season wasn't as much about him, as the case was settled in episode 5 (i think?).  zero courtroom shit, which is where he's awesome (and his character used to be the man).  mcbride seemed to be onto what was happening pretty quickly, it was just about how to get it resolved.  his move is typically just to show up sitting at someone's house.  seems like eventually that would get you disbarred, but whatevs.

it really boiled down to a terrible story foundation.  bunch of people got involved with the cartel and got in over their heads, and shit went bad for them.  something i've seen dozens of times.  oh, and literally the entire season was setup by one single event - the blonde kid pissed off david cross, and "had to go".  so they set him up to get hit, and have it look like collateral damage in a gang related killing.  that way they can set up the 16 year old brother. 

so, um, what exactly did the blonde kid do that was so bad, other than not being punctual?  whatever it was, it didn't make much sense.  anyone who betrayed the cartel got limbs removed.  why not do that to the blonde kid?  nope, instead we're gonna set up a 16 year old.  nobody ever looked into this blonde kid, his background, his cell phone records, why he was at that guy's house to begin with - zero.  

instead, they made it the world against the 16 year old in a really sloppy case - no murder weapon, no fingerprints, we never even hear from the one eyeball witness - the only reason it kept going forward was because literally every single person about to testify got killed right before they were going to testify because of incompetence from law enforcement.

and none of it made sense anyway, because the 16 year old didn't know shit, and certainly wouldn't have started shit on the outside.  if he gets out of prison, all they have is the real killer, who was already dead (and he's the first and only person they actually needed to kill).  no other ties to the cartel, to wyatt, or to the mayor.  i mean shit, cartels i would assume have loose ends like that all the time.  either way, the mayor would've been able to tell them to back off, or the cop could've helped.  but no, they kept forcing the explanation that the 16 year old was everything, and as long as he went down for it or died, everyone was safe. 

there was also such a lack of character setup or development.  we know wyatt is rich, and danny is...well we don't know anything about him except he gets nervous and likes fast food.  for a while i couldn't tell who worked for who, other than he was just " best friends" with the cop.  and david cross, again, no background or depth, just his voice and a silly wig.  little explanation of the locker drops as well, just that creepy valet who stares at the lockers and waits for tips.  it was like i watched every other episode of a show that was well constructed.

also i don't know what was going on in episode 7 (the hostage episode) but there was virtually no payoff from that, and it was terrible and frustrating to watch, especially in a penultimate episode of a season.  i get that people drink too much and blackout, but that can't be the answer to everything weird that happens that they don't feel like explaining.  "who are you, where am i, and how did i get here?"  "wow, you don't remember shit from last night, huh.  just sit the fuck down."  ok cool, that should satisfy me for 40 minutes of tv viewing.

sidenote - the 7th episode was 1:07 and the finale was 41 minutes.  that's a red fucking flag if ever there's been one.

in the end, hardly any bad guys get what's coming to them.  some of them die at the hands of other bad guys.  one (cross) goes to jail, presumably because he can't roll over on anyone else.  bad shit happened to weirdo wyatt, at the hands of another bad guy - but that was super telegraphed.  it got to the point where even my wife could predict what would happen at every turn.  that's not a good thing.  oh, and i thought for sure when down at gabriel's house in mexico, mcbride would see the hook hand guy, remember his daughter's story, and put two and two together, but he doesn't, and nothing ever comes from that whole situation.

and the plot/shot choices/angles tried way too hard at times to be breaking bad, but this ain't that.

d+ or c- at best.  i wouldn't waste your time.  and i enjoyed season 1 and generally like lawyer shows.  this season was not a lawyer show.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spoiler

Season 2...

Crazy. I still am confused why a billionaire real estate developer who built half of downtown LA needed drug money?

Also that 2nd to last episode was crazy. I'm not sure why they needed it that long and complicated when it didn't develop the story nor the characters.

And after he got double-crossed by Claudia and the drug dealer, why did he go back to the Mexican village? How dumb is McBride?  He didn't bring any muscle?  Just him and Patty knocking on the door of a Mexican cartel kingpins house???

And of course the ending had no conclusions. Obviously S3 will have to be a continuation.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

You only need to know two words about Goliath.  Tania Raymonde.

1234

 

1118full-tania-raymonde.jpg

 

and a spoiler....

 

Spoiler

I kept thinking the FBI would be all over that shit after the cop family was done in.  Yeah, it had a lot of holes in it. 

 

Edited by pyrohornIII
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just finished it and I didn’t really know what I watched.  Was it meant to be a David Lynch style show or was it ruined in editing?  Confusing.    There’s a few storylines that seemed to be forgotten about or end without much payoff.  At best, I hope it’s a setup for a season 2B coming out soon.  

I was a big fan of season 1 and kept waiting for this season to come out.  Disappointment.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, lateshow said:

I guess I'm in the minority as I enjoyed it. Not as good as season 1.  It was weird, though. 

Spoiler

I actually enjoyed the hostage episode.  The audience was almost as much in the dark as Billy.  We knew more about Gabriel and Marisol but we had no idea how, why, where he was.  How in the world did that group of people get together?   And it was quite the escape plan with the knife, boiling water and running through some space alien parade in some pueblo.  

I did think that Billy going back into Mexico to confront people was unrealistic.  Balls of steel if he wasn't worried that it could turn out worse than before.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/25/2018 at 6:35 PM, pyrohornIII said:

1234

 

1118full-tania-raymonde.jpg

 

and a spoiler....

 

  Hide contents

I kept thinking the FBI would be all over that shit after the cop family was done in.  Yeah, it had a lot of holes in it. 

 

She is so good looking. But, in Goliath S2, she did some really stupid stuff that got people hurt. Couldn’t keep her mouth shut and definitely couldn’t keep secrets.

I didn’t care for Season 2. Too weird, plus I did not like the way it ended. And I agree Billy Bob going back to Mexico and that house was just dumb.

I hope they have a Season 3 though, so they can make up for Season 2. Season 1 was terrific. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just finished season 2 and I am really confused and let down. There was a lot of weird shit in this season that just seemed out of place and over the top. Episode 7 was a large waste of time and a big miss. Season 3 better step up and give us some closure on all this shit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wonder if there was more writing or scenes filmed but they wanted to cap episodes at 8.   I never fully understood who was the fast food eating  guy that seemed to fill the gap between the developer and cop.   At first I thought he was a cop as well but maybe he worked in real estate?  I don’t know.   

Sad part is that season 2 may kill the series.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I liked Season 1 but there were many flaws with it as well.  They never could really give a good explanation on why they didn't settle with the kid, who's father was killed.  If you recall, Patty wanted to settle for 20K in the first episode, and the general counsel was offering closer to $1M by the time the judge got involved in the negotiations.   Then the general counsel learned from the CEO why they couldn't settle.   The vague explanation was that all settlements had to be communicated to the defense dept.   But they didn't seem to mind an open trial where former employee, expert testimony demonstrated how they were breaking the law.  The defense dept wouldn't care about that?    And they didn't mind hiding illegal weapons testing from the defense dept as well.  

I get that McBride wanted to attack his old partner/law firm, but why wasn't Patty accepting the deal.  She was named guardian of the kid in relation to the lawsuit.   She could have fired McBride if she wanted to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

so is anyone going to answer my original question of what the blonde kid did that was so horrible?  i mean, it kinda started the whole stupid story and was never properly explained.


He wasn’t punctual.

Why the hell would a drug cartel still need to kill the kid in jail after killing all the witnesses?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Go Pokes said:

 


He wasn’t punctual.

Why the hell would a drug cartel still need to kill the kid in jail after killing all the witnesses?

 

once they deported (then murdered) the actual killer, they were totally in the clear.  no idea why they did anything after that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/4/2018 at 1:16 PM, PDP said:

Liked both seasons but also did not over analyze them.  Just enjoyed

i didn't over-analyze anything.  i didn't enjoy a season of television, and explained why on this board.  i'm not dissecting narrative structure and character arcs over here.  bad television is bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...
  • 8 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...