10/11/13
View Logs: Low Winter Sun S1 Finale
Episodes 9: Ann ArborEpisode 10: Surrender
Unlike the Breaking Bad finale view log this one is going to be very short because I'm pissed. Honestly I haven't been this mad since The Killing's finale. But in many ways this finale is worse than The Killing's Season 3 finale because atleast with The Killing it utilized all the elements it established earlier in the show. Episode 9 of the 2 parter finale was just awful. I mean awful.
First off... did you know Frank still had a thing for his ex-wife? Yeah neither did I. This episode, where Frank goes after his ex-wife, was just so random. At first I thought Frank and gone crazy at some random person's house. But nope. He has an ex-wife. And apparently she hates his guts for many things that we never saw on screen.
Then... Frank goes suicidal... Where did this come from? Frank mopes and broods a lot sure. But when was he ever... suicidal? This character moment just comes out of nowhere. Also I have to comment on what must be one of the stupidest scenes out of the entire show. Alright alright, quick recap of it.
- Frank wants to withdraw all his money but his bank won't allow such a transaction that's that heavy.
- Frank demands that he be allowed to do it and rants about how he's been a customer for 16 years.
- The manager has to come out and calm Frank down.
- Frank demands to ask the manager who his name is.
- She doesn't know.
- Frank flips out.
It's too goddamm simplified and direct. Sometimes being simple and direct is a good thing. In this case it isn't. Why would Frank assume that every employee there at the bank would know his name? Also how is it the manager's fault for not knowing who Frank's name is? Maybe she just recently transferred from another branch? Maybe she's only been working there for a few years and got fast tracked into being a manager? Maybe she's a temp and the real manager had to leave on a business trip?
See what I mean by this scene not working? It's just dumb. The most basic amount of logic and critical thinking can destroy this scene apart and good fiction is supposed to get better from critical afterthought... not worse.
Oh and character wise, the development gets even worse. Ok... so Frank starts going nuts about how "everyone is corrupted" and starts actually calling the families of the victims of the scheme Joe Geddes is involved in. Again... showing that Frank has his own idea of justice. So what does he do in the final episode? Suddenly go along with covering up the corruption of the department! He even had to look into the face of a mother who's son was killed and lie straight to her face about the true nature of his death.
Why is there a sudden turn in Frank's character? From this entire finale Frank went from a suicidal emo crying to his ex, to an almost Rorschach like vigilante, to finally being another Joe Geddes (which... btw Joe was never really supposed to be this kind of character to begin with...) Why?! Why?! Why did this happen? I'm so confused!
Also, Frank isn't the only character that gets screwed. Skilos dies... like... nothing... yeah so much for this character. Damon Callis eventually dies; so his character never had an arc and Maya Callis ends up pining for him after he dies... so... she also never had an arc! What was the entire point of this plotline? Goddammit this is like The Killing's Seward plotline. These characters just go through the motion before they die.
Also, the chief never really amounted to much, Boyd has a few good scenes that also doesn't really go anywhere, and Dani never went anywhere either. Seriously, it's like Chris Mundy just took a checklist to all these characters and worked to find a way to end them off without completing an arc! That's it. I'm done defending this show. This show is horrible. I've wanted to believe that it's one of those shows that takes a while to get great or even good. The Wire's a very slow start, Boardwalk Empire's first few episodes aren't very good, and even The Sopranos can be a little boring at first. But Low Winter Sun just fails completely at it's ambitions to be the next Breaking Bad. No chance in hell.
Finally, I'd like to end off this view log with a quite from a review I found online: "What made very similar shows like The Shield so successful, though, was that they were raising the bar for quality storytelling in television by introducing moral dilemmas for leading characters, rather than using a lead character’s recognition of moral ambiguity as a tool to escape the basic need to tell a good story like Low Winter Sun." Indeed, Low Winter Sun is the epitome of the modern trend of dark and grim antihero stories being dark and grim for the sake of following great stories. When really it should have focused on telling a good story at first. This isn't the 80s anymore. Anti-heroes actually isn't really that new of a thing. Low Winter Sun's biggest creative mistake was assuming that it's anti-hero story about a decaying Detroit was good enough to make for a strong story. This show is probably about two decades too late. And even then it'll still be pretty junk. I'm sorry AMC... but this and The Killing are two very big duds in a field of amazing fiction. You'll have to do better with your next shows. Just cancel this and don't make the same mistake again.
