Jump to content

American Rust


RPM

Recommended Posts

The trailers looked promising and after watching Jeff Daniels on Colbert last night I checked it out. Looks damn good so far. Rural Western PA Police Chief with PTSD investigates a murder that his married girlfriend's (Maura Tierney) son may or may not be a suspect. On Showtime.

 

Edited by RPM
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, The Ace of Aces said:

His performance in God of Carnage and To Kill A Mockingbird was shockingly good.

Watch the whole Colbert interview. He's going back on Broadway with TKAM to help kickstart the theater industry. They were hit incredibly hard with the shutdown.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good to hear.  I loved "The Son", wife read American Rust and I've been meaning to get around to it.  I don't read much fiction but will probably cheat and watch this Jeff Daniels work instead.  Meyer's a fascinating cat.  He was living here in Austin during the AMC production and then stuck around for awhile.  Lost touch with him but if he still gives talks at UT every now and again.  Go if you can and offer him whiskey and just listen.  He has a fascinating gift for retroactive worldview even though his own life was not what you'd expect from a man who communicate painful grit the way he does.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, the series was good but not as great as it could have been...I suppose.  

Acting was good, writing was obviously stellar.  Not sure if was the adaptation or the production palate...but something did kinda fall a tad flat.  We watched it all the way through it was released on AMC...but I don't think I'd be remotely tempted to go back and binge it again on streaming.  But the book is just the embodiment of engrossing.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, RPM said:

Watch the whole Colbert interview. He's going back on Broadway with TKAM to help kickstart the theater industry. They were hit incredibly hard with the shutdown.

We ended up going to the opening show of Hadestown that reopened Broadway. We are fortunate to (in normal years) see 20-30 shows. TKAM was very well done. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
So…anyone still actually watching this show?

Daniels is turning in great performances week after week, but it’s kinda feeling like a knock-off of Mare of Easttown.

Not a knockoff of Mare. It stands on its own.

Plot has been predictable but the performances have all been really good.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/31/2021 at 10:09 PM, RPM said:

Great episode, season finale next week. "I know what has to be done."

Ominous foreshadowing...

Spoiler

I predict a tragedy in 3 parts: 1) Del gives in to his blood lust and murders the drug dealer. 2) Billy is murdered by the Aryans. 3) Isaac returns to Buell to confess to killing Novick, but he is too late to prevent 1 and 2. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They left a lot of loose ends. I hope there’s a season 2. Just about every character in the show made one shitty decision after another. Hard to fathom that the attractive daughter would throw away a potentially successful legal career and a nice husband to go back to her shitty hometown to take care of her grumpy father and screw her loser old boyfriend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spoiler

So if this guy is so cautious living out in the woods to put out bear traps, then why doesn't he have a few dogs?  Who lives in the country without at least one dog?     

 

Also, why did he have to hotwire the Buick in the parking lot, but used the key outside the bar?     

And yes, a lot of loose ends.   You have the Pittsburg angle, the NYC angle, the union angle, the drug angle, the aryan angle, the abusive ex angle.  A veritable smorgasbord of things to flesh out, lol.    

I would guess the girl ran because the dad had turned from wonder dad to ogre.  So she left it all behind, but came back due to some loyalty to some of the people in her past.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The storylines weren't perfect but at least they didn't follow the expected path. Off the top of my head, I think everyone ended Season 1 in a bad situation. Even the deputy cop, who was the closest to following a straight and narrow path, was in a bad way because he suspects what his boss just did.

One criticism that that they didn't really make me care for or like some of the major characters like Lee, Billy or Isaac.  

Loved how the deadbeat ex-husband showed the chief what a fool the chief was.

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

38 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

The storylines weren't perfect but at least they didn't follow the expected path. Off the top of my head, I think everyone ended Season 1 in a bad situation. Even the deputy cop, who was the closest to following a straight and narrow path, was in a bad way because he suspects what his boss just did.

One criticism that that they didn't really make me care for or like some of the major characters like Lee, Billy or Isaac.  

Loved how the deadbeat ex-husband showed the chief what a fool the chief was.

That's a good point.  It's uniquely written from that standpoint.  Hadn't really thought about it, but now I am thinking maybe that's part of the storyline.   It's not like you dislike them profusely, but each has their flaws to keep them from being embraceable.  

I would have thought by the title and the fact it's a Daniels' vehicle, there would be more focus on the decline of fly over America, but other than the union issue that's been pretty quiet.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just started this, so I have only lightly skimmed the posts other than the Jeff Daniels adoration, with which I am in full agreement.  Moira Kelly is pretty reliable, also.

I am a bit of a fool for W. Pa. as a backdrop.  The coal and steel history is fascinating, and the abandoned mills are picturesque along with the landscape.  This area reminds me a lot of the area where Out of the Furnace was filmed and I think it very close by if not some of the same.

I'm two eps in and enjoying it, but a little frustrated by the slow character revelation/development.  But I guess that's keeping me interested, as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, it's based on a book, does the book tie it up?

Lord knows there have been a number of book-based shows that go on past the book but  . . . .

To a certain extent, the whole show themed off of the desperation and despair of middle America, and ultimately the uncertainty.  The end of this season certainly leaves that in place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I just finished up the book, after also reading The Son.  Enough differences that the book is not spoiled and neither is the show.

Given that it's book-based, and the show, for all its differences, ended approximately where the book did, I'm not surprised.  They probably would have fucked it up, anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months 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...