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Patriot

Started by HMS Beanspiller, April 09, 2017, 09:59:07 PM

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Anyone else caught this on Amazon? Fantastically dark comedy drama about an undercover CIA officer with a slightly Wes Anderson vibe (in a good way). Thought it was wonderful with some very memorable characters.

Small Man Big Horse

I hadn't heard of it before but thanks for the heads up, will definitely check it out.

Small Man Big Horse

Just watched the first episode now and really enjoyed it, so thank you again for mentioning it. It's definitely a quirky thing, what with the mix of spy antics, dark humour and
Spoiler alert
folk singing
[close]
, but the mix works well and I can't wait to see how it all plays out. Plus it's great to see Terry O'Quinn in something decent again too.

Sal Vicuso

Quote from: HMS Beanspiller on April 09, 2017, 09:59:07 PM
Anyone else caught this on Amazon? Fantastically dark comedy drama about an undercover CIA officer with a slightly Wes Anderson vibe (in a good way). Thought it was wonderful with some very memorable characters.

Have you seen it all? Does it stay this good? Because the first episode was really fucking good, think I may have found my new favourite show

Yes it does, though I wasn't so keen on the final episode. It's certainly the best show I've seen this year, it deserves to get some traction but it probably won't as it's so nicely underplayed.

Sal Vicuso

Right well cheers for the heads-up, probably would never have looked at this otherwise.

Neomod

Up to episode five and it's enjoyable stuff. As well as Anderson there's a definite ‎Martin McDonagh influence. Took me a while to warm to the lead but the ensemble cast is great.

Sal Vicuso

Quote from: Neomod on April 12, 2017, 11:49:27 PM
Up to episode five and it's enjoyable stuff. As well as Anderson there's a definite ‎Martin McDonagh influence. Took me a while to warm to the lead but the ensemble cast is great.

The supporting cast is huge, to the point that I am having trouble following all of the different intersecting plotlines even though overarching story seems to be moving at quite a slow pace. Loving all the stuff with the brain-damaged Asian chap and his therapist.

rjd2

I was able to keep on top of it pretty comfortably. Its a lovely show, highly recommended.

What a wonderful show, very poignant, but funny too. It's become a personal favourite.

phantom_power

Quote from: HMS Beanspiller on April 10, 2017, 09:48:17 PM
Yes it does, though I wasn't so keen on the final episode. It's certainly the best show I've seen this year, it deserves to get some traction but it probably won't as it's so nicely underplayed.

Have you seen Legion? That has pretty much set the high bar for TV shows for me at the moment

Dex Sawash

I wish this would be broadcast and strung out for a few months with discussions along the way.

Zetetic

#12
Someone (who despite feeling memorable, I can't actually remember) mentioned this recently elsewhere on CaB and so prompted me to start watching it.

At this point - 3 episodes in: It's better than alright, but it's not as good as it should be.

It feels like there's a lot of stylistic choices that aren't quite coherent and connected enough to the feeling it's trying to produce and story it's trying to tell. The tonal shifts, the pacing and non-linearity, the use of characters reflecting on the past, the use of nonsense jargon - it's both been very pleasing but a little hollow so far. Like someone didn't quite have either a complete vision or a complete grip on how to tie it together.

Another work where the opening titles promise something a little more than it delivers.


It's good enough to make me want to see if it'll pleasantly surprise me yet.

(This should have been in Comedy Chat, right?)

Dex Sawash


rjd2

November the second season supposedly. Clearly a huge priority for Amazon with so specific date as of yet though.

rasta-spouse

Watched this recently. The lead character is so depressed it started getting *me* down.

But it's funny, deeply plotted and has some nice creative flourishes that you don't see so often with tv. Like with all spy things I love realism and detail, but I guess this doesn't need that because it's kind of set in an absurd universe.

Nextflix's Maniac (I've only watched one episode) seems tonally to be a very similar fare, a depressed guy wondering around having menial, muted conversations. Is Wes Anderson the main reference point for this kind of thing?

rjd2


Mister Six

Wayhey! Although the stuff with Dennis's fingers looks a bit much.

rjd2

Not exactly a lot about season 2 to whet the appetite, but have managed to find one review.

https://thefilmera.com/2018/10/31/patriot-season-two/

Excited~!

chveik

if you arent already aware of this, season 2 is avalaible on netflix (and on the usual illegal sites of course)

it's still good, check it out!

Neomod

Quote from: chveik on November 10, 2018, 10:21:50 PM
if you arent already aware of this, season 2 is avalaible on netflix (and on the usual illegal sites of course)

it's still good, check it out!

Amazon Prime I think.

chveik

Quote from: Neomod on November 10, 2018, 11:50:59 PM
Amazon Prime I think.

sorry, my mistake

Something is annoying me though. Why did they cast american actors to play the french characters? It's stupid (same for Killing Eve).

chveik

i've watched all the episodes now, it's quite bad actually. don't bother, you will be disappointed.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Most of the newly introduced French characters are actually played for once by French actors, rather than American or Canadian actors, as these productions tend to do. The only major character who's supposed to speak French but is played by a non-French actor is Agathe, as the actress is obviously Swedish. Her French is fine but her delivery is much flatter than what a native French speaker would do.

The whole season was shot in Paris, and it shows, even if there are many continuity mistakes with the métro and the trains. I guess there must be new tax cuts for foreign productions or some kind of coordination office at the city hall that eases this kind of things, as Mission:Impossible - Fallout and the first episode of The Romanoffs also used Paris extensively this year.. Anyway, it's less weird than using Prague as a stand-in for both Luxembourg and sometimes Brussels, as they did in the first season. Luxembourg City is a rather dull town, architecturally speaking, with just a ton of bridges, but little else in common otherwise with Prague.

I'm halfway through it, so I won't make definitive conclusions at this point, but it looks to me that they know they will be canceled after that. Remember that there was a big change at Amazon Studios last year. They would produce quite a few prestige but fringe shows in the hope of getting a new Transparent or Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, the kind of stuff that plays well at the Emmys. Then they ousted the main executives, Roy Price and Joe Lewis and decided to go in a more mainstream direction, with the Tolkien show for instance, to compete directly with Netflix. Patriot was definitely renewed before the change of executives but produced while the new management was already in place. And it looks like the main supporter for Patriot at Amazon, Morgan Wandell, had been moved to head of international in October 2016 (even before the first season was released).

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/behind-amazon-studios-executive-purge-as-new-details-emerge-1053579

So, it's very strange to see these production values (shooting in Paris isn't exactly cheap, and they must have paid a hefty sum for music clearances) and the gross stuff like the scene with the Luxembourg cops at the police station urinals, that might have not tested well with audiences (or casting directors)... As if they thought they don't stand a chance with the new Amazon executives anyway and decided to do whatever they wanted, as the show would be buried anyway as a leftover from the old regime.

That said, the long take for the grocery's robbery, coupled to the narration in song, was very impressive.

Dex Sawash

Just got re- started on second season, am liking it so far.

Paging SMBH
Just wanted to call attention to a penis scene in s02 ep04 about 15-20 minutes in that is really great.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Dex Sawash on January 30, 2019, 06:16:29 PM
Just got re- started on second season, am liking it so far.

Paging SMBH
Just wanted to call attention to a penis scene in s02 ep04 about 15-20 minutes in that is really great.

Intriguing. I never did finish season 1 so it might be a while before I see it though.

brat-sampson

Just wanted to pour some more praise on this after starting it this week after Harmontown had the showrunner on late last year* but it took me until early Feb to actually listen to that ep. Dan seemed keen enough on it and told enough interesting moments from it, and the creator did a really great job of selling himself naturally as somebody whose stuff I'd like to see.

True story.

I love the atmosphere, the attention to what seem at first like bit-part characters, the weird sense of humour that sometimes leaves doubt as to if that was actually meant to be a joke. The scene with the bosses speech about piping cracked me up, even though I fully believe those could all be real terms. I must say that, living in Prague, having it used to frame Brussels, Antwerp, Luxembourg etc is almost a bit at this point. Considering it's used as an establishing shot before like a < 10 second scene of someone cycling or looking at a briefcase, i'm choosing to see it as one, and hope to see it represent a few other cities before the end of the run. Like, 1 is just standard Hollywood. 2 is pushing it. 3? That's when it gets actually funny.

I get the Wes Anderson similarities, but usually don't like Wes, while I'm really enjoying this. Definitely a show that would've gone below my radar completely though, which is a shame, as now of course I want it to do really well.

*it's this episode if you're interested.

St_Eddie

David Suchet still makes for the best Patriot, in my opinion.