I've been keeping up with two shows that have some similarities, and similar problems.
Fargo is a new season of the highly stylized series that grew out of the successful movie of some years ago. As typical, it is set in the frozen north of Minnesota and North Dakota. Conflicting groups of evil people, motivated by either greed or pride or some other deadly sin, mesh into a web of destructive behavior with a clever protagonist just trying to survive having been fated into the shenanigans.
Fall of the House of Usher is loosely (very, very loosely) based on Edgar Allen Poe writings. The Usher's in this case are a family whose success came about from the discovery and sale of an opioid that has caused a horrible epidemic, a rather blatant ripped-from-the-headlines effort. And now the family is apparently suffering for it in truly gruesome ways.
Both of these shows are very skillfully done. They maintain a tricky tonal balance which says a lot, tone being a key dark art in film and video. The cinematography is compelling. Pacing is solid. The acting is excellent. Plots are coherent. Just overall great quality productions.
The problem is both these shows indulge in episodes of infantile moralizing. In …Usher there is constant scolding about how if instead of profiting from the opioid, they just spend money on charitable causes they could solve the world's problems, and the only survivor of the horrors ends up doing good by starting a charity. These are the beliefs of a child.
In Fargo, we are presented with a hyperbolic strawman of a libertarian as one of the bad guys. Then, in the middle of this sharp and entertaining show, he gets into an extended exchange with another antagonist and takes a righteous beatdown from arguments worthy of a Reddit comments section warrior. Honestly, it's adolescent level snark.
It's jarring, in both these cases. You are cruising along in these series, enjoying the quality and appreciating the thoughtfulness and obvious talent behind them, then suddenly you are hit with a dose of inanity. It really just makes you second guess your affinity for the show. I guess it just goes to verify the well-known notion that politics makes you stupid.
In contrast, the other show I've been binging accepts its own stupidity. That's harsh. I should say, it has no ambitions other than to entertain its target audience. Season two of Reacher is what it is and that's all that it is.
Reacher is pure formula. A stoic, loner hero connects with some companions from his past the exact revenge for the murder of their friends. Two seconds thought will rip any plot developments to shreds. So you don't give it any thought. It's fantasy. It's a superhero film without the cape. You enjoy the action and camaraderie and knowing that the good guys will win in the end. Same reason millions have read the Reacher books.
I couldn't take a steady diet of this, but it's nice to have a simple and purely unpretentious show like this now and then.
