Twin Peaks Season 3 spreads the heartbreak of Laura’s loss all across the country, in one form or another. But at the end of the main action of the episode, the Log Lady calls Deputy Sheriff Hawk again. Hinting that the secrets of “the dream of time and space … that which is and is not” will soon come out, she speaks of a different force. 

“The Truman brothers are true men,” she tells Hawk. “They are your brothers. And the others, the good ones who have been with you. Now the circle is almost complete.” She also insists “Laura is the one” in the same episode where Gordon Cole sees her materialize in front of him. That can’t be a coincidence. Heartbreak is everywhere, but there are still people out there trying to mend what was broken, hanging on to hope as the fabric of reality frays. 

I reviewed the tenth episode of Twin Peaks Season 3 for Pop Heist. (Gift link!)

No, if Lanterns is to be saved it’s by John Stewart coming into his own. I want to see him reject the superhero-as-supervillain origin story assigned to him first by his parents, then by Lianna, then by Hal. If he’s going to be a Green Lantern, let it be on his own terms. Even if they replace him in the end — and if you’ve seen Superman, you have some hints as to whether they do or don’t — isn’t that better than just being a good little soldier all your life? As John tells Lianna, both he and Hal chased that ring so long, him to take it and Hal to keep it, that they lost sight of why they wanted it in the first place. John is the one who gets his sight back. 

I reviewed a complex episode of Lanterns with wild highs and lows for Decider.

What’s the funniest line from the season finale — and it’s clearly a season finale, not a series finale, at least not if Ryan Murphy and Bret Easton Ellis get what they want — of FX’s The Shards?

Is it Liz Schaffer wailing “There’s a serial killer targeting the glamorous!”

Is it Robert Mallory patronizingly telling Bret, “You’re struggling with your sexuality, and from what I’ve read — Death in Venice, among other things — that’s some really heavy shit.”

Is it Terry Schaffer dismissing his ambitious assistant Steven Reinhardt by saying, “You look like a prostitute businesswoman on a spaceship.”

Or is it Thom Wright, on his knees in the middle of Hamburger Hamlet following a disastrous attempt to propose to his (ex-)girlfriend Susan, watching her get dragged away by her friend Debbie, plaintively calling after them: “Think about it?”

Of course, if your sense of humor leans in another direction, you can pick just about any bit of Bret Easton Ellis, Boy Detective’s molasses-thick hard-boiled narration: “One of the most intimate ways to kill someone is to push them from a great height.” “That fateful night, before the most terrifying event of her life occurred, Susan went to bed feeling what she hadn’t felt for months: peace.” 

Or my personal favorite, the troll to end all trolls: Capping off the entire season with a shot of the entire cast in a police station interrogation room, with the cops announcing someone in that room is a killer, accompanied by Bret saying “And that’s when things really got crazy.” These crazy sons of bitches really went and did the This is just the beginning thing at the end of the season. You have to admire the chutzpah!

I reviewed the season finale of The Shards for Decider.

When Eddie learns that Freddy has betrayed the family, their mother Sabrina begs him not to kill his own brother. Eddie honors his mother’s wishes…but there are some fates worse than death. Back in Season 1, Freddy said that Eddie was the right man to run the family’s drug empire, since he possesses a killer instinct honed in the army that Freddy himself lacks. This guy was simply not cut out to dismember a beloved friend with a chainsaw. You can practically see his mind snap in real time.

It all comes back to Mr. Johnston’s repeated references to the orb and the scepter wielded by kings, representing forgiveness and judgement. Eddie has figured out how to balance the two, at least in the very twisted way that both kings and gangsters wield their power — and the whole point of The Gentlemen is that aristocrats and criminals are one and the same. Long live the king. 

I did a quick little SEO “Ending Explained” piece on The Gentlemen Season 2. I always have fun writing these.

Disease remains a constant presence in this season of Twin Peaks. So do money troubles: The Detectives Fusco commiserate over how expensive it is to get a taillight fixed, even taking the time to check out the replacement before arresting Ike the Spike. Andy and Lucy’s sweet “Gift of the Magi” routine is about a chair that costs under $200 with shipping. But people can’t afford to be loose with their money. Just look at the Hornes: Sylvia is shouting for a home aide when Johnny has his accident. Home aides are not cheap, even for the Hornes. Years later, The Pitt would earn well-deserved praise for its depiction of the ugly, crash-strewn intersection of money, health, and happiness in America. Mark Frost and David Lynch knew it too.

I reviewed episode 9 of Twin Peaks Season 3 for Pop Heist. (Gift link!)

For the second season in a row, The Gentlemen ends on Eddie at his most ruthless and remorseless — a far cry from the man who kept himself up thinking of that poor accountant. Guy Ritchie and Matthew Read’s script, once again ably directed by Eran Creevy, could have concluded the season on any number of notes, from triumph to tragedy; they chose “this guy is a cold-blooded bastard,” and for that they should be commended.

You can extend that commendation up and down the season, a darker, richer, more spectacular outing than the already strong Season 1. It’s still a fun British gangster romp, but it’s got way more in its head than some bloke’s bullets. The Gentlemen was always a good show. Now, it’s A Good Show.

I reviewed the season finale of The Gentlemen for Decider.

This episode of Netflix’s The Gentlemen is wall-to-wall action — a crescendo of dead-of-night tension and suspense that ends in a river of blood. Naturally, I’m going to start by talking about an intimate character moment.

Early on in the episode, before the agents of…whoever engage the mostly civilian members of the Horniman family and household in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Lady Sabrina’s son-in-law Nanny appears to pull rank on Geoffrey in a rather snobbish way. Either not detecting how close Geoff is to the family or not particularly caring, he shoos him out of the house back to his own cottage so that the real family members can relax on their own. It’s an uncharacteristically ugly moment from Nanny, whose primary characteristic besides his impeccable manners is being a big sweetheart.

(Nanny’s race does not appear to be something the show is going to bring up, and that’s probably for the best. The Gentlemen has been so good about its grasp always exceeding its reach, not the other way around.)

But later on, I think we find out the real reason why he gave Geoff the high hat. Left alone with the gamekeeper during the siege — Nanny, an old army buddy of Eddie’s, can more than hold his own in a firefight as it turns out —  Nanny tells Geoff he knows he’s his baby’s real grandfather. His only question is why he never told him, when he kept giving him opportunities to do so. No one ever says as much, but it seems Nanny excluded Geoff because he felt excluded by Geoff.

A deft bit of character work between two supporting players I never expected to have much of a moment together, in the middle of 40 minutes of action. That’s how it’s done.

I reviewed episode 7 of The Gentlemen Season 2 for Decider.

Last week’s episode of Lanterns went way off course, but this week’s is back on track. No heavy-handed flashbacks that needlessly complicate the relationship between Hal Jordan and John Stewart. No awkwardly shoehorning vital points about race in America into a level of emotional abuse that would normally qualify as a supervillain origin story, not a superhero’s. (An early scene in this episode in which John is forced to smile his way through a nasty interaction with a couple of rednecks at a gun shop makes a similar point more effectively than turning his mother into Mommie Dearest.)

I reviewed this week’s Lanterns for Decider.

Whoever is responsible, they at least wait until after the wedding to do their killing. The gala itself is beautiful, with everyone dressed to the nines: Benedetta Porcaroli’s sheer party dress literally made my jaw drop, and Joely Richardson, Jasmine Blackborow, and Kaya Scodelario all look sensational as well. (By now you know full well how good Theo James looks all dressed up.) 

I reviewed episode six of The Gentlemen Season 2 for Decider.

Now this is an hour of television that’s successful by any metric. Given the marvelous title “A Suburban A-Road on the Outskirts of Basingstoke” by the location where Lord Edward Horniman finds his salvation — more on that in a moment — this installment of Netflix’s The Gentlemen is the show’s best, I think. 

I reviewed episode 5 of The Gentlemen Season 2 for Decider.

There are two things really worth emphasizing in this episode. The first is how nice it looks. Taking over from creator and co-writer Guy Ritchie, director Eran Creevy displays an eye for striking color and framing. My favorite sequence in the whole episode is just Lord Hawthorne (god rest ye, merry gentleman) in ceremonial red, literally hiding his face in the wardrobe as he calls her with his crisis of conscience, while Eddie and Joe verbally spar in silhouette in a hallway lit in cold blue. Elsewhere, Susie and Bella converse in a crimson-lit multi-mirrored room that wouldn’t look out of place in Suspiria or The Neon Demon.

I reviewed episode 4 of The Gentlemen Season 2 for Decider.

On the opposite side of the ledger from Troy is Juliette. The show has smartly selected a storyline for her final act, one that will push her two most compelling characteristics to their limits. By taking on Silo 1, she has gone from criminal to dissident to rebel to revolutionary, the apotheosis of her endearingly defiant spirit. The question of how to pull it off — how to get there undetected, how to take down its defenses, how to take out its leadership caste, how to shut down the Safeguards for good — will meanwhile push her problem-solving skills to their absolute limit. This is exactly what you want from this character.

And this episode, a series high point, is exactly what I wanted from this show. The savagery that starts the episode is hard to watch but absolutely necessary, a reminder that the exciting sci-fi dystopia is built on a mountain of corpses, with a billionaire technocracy allied with a radical and egomaniacal right-wing politician deciding who lives and who dies. This is a very real story playing out across our all too real world at this very moment.

I reviewed the season finale of Silo for Decider.

“Once you stop taking responsibility for your own actions, it’s very hard to go back.” Lord Eddie is talking to Susie Glass about his time in the military when he drops this little nugget. She interprets it as a shot at her willingness to follow her daddy Bobby’s orders. I interpret it as an indictment of this charming man, issued by the man himself. He’s decided he has no choice but to do the bad things he does, which means he can choose to do anything he wants.

I reviewed episode three of The Gentlemen season two for Decider.

I’m surprised how much mileage actor Theo James has been able to get out of this core contradiction. He keeps Eddie suspended somewhere in the grey zone between “likeable guy,” “decent person,” and “good character,” which is right where you want the handsome, slightly amoral antihero of your comedic crime drama to live.

I reviewed episode 2 of The Gentlemen Season 2 for Decider.

Genre entertainment of modest ambition that overdelivers on the execution: They don’t make ’em like Netflix’s The Gentlemen anymore. Not often, anyway. Its effervescently violent story of a posh duke turned weed kingpin — it’s Downton Abbey meets Breaking Bad — is played mostly for laughs, but with a welcome hard edge when it needs one. What really distinguishes it is the screwball-level zip of the wittily profane dialogue from creator Guy Ritchie and showrunner Matthew Read, which Ritchie’s surprisingly restrained direction helps its fine cast deliver in style. The thing moves like some earl’s Alfa Romeo.

I’m covering The Gentlemen Season 2 for Decider, starting with my review of the season premiere. Woo!

Well, that was a slapper of an episode, wasn’t it? With only one episode remaining now, FX’s The Shards has established some pretty serious candidates for the secret identity of the serial killer called the Trawler, while also digging deep into the way the characters’ extravagant wealth and privilege is a sort of rot that eats away at family, friendship, business, and romance with equal voraciousness. And it remains fun as hell to watch.

I reviewed this week’s The Shards for Decider.

Under any other circumstances heaping superlatives on an episode of television like I’m about to do would be overdoing it. With “Part 8,” I don’t know if I’ll even hit the floor of where those superlatives should be. This is a masterpiece, one of one, unparalleled on television before or since. David Lynch and Mark Frost constructed a cathedral for Hell. 

I reviewed episode 8 of Twin Peaks Season 3 for Pop Heist. It’s the best television episode of all time. (Gift link!)

Three episodes in, and already HBO’s Lanterns needs its creative batteries recharged. That’s not a great sign. With its clichéd alien visitor, preposterous origin story, and domineering mother who’s somehow more cartoonish a character than the pink guy named Sinestro, this flashback-heavy episode feels like a major misstep. 

I reviewed this week’s not good Lanterns for Decider.

Why are they in the Silos? Why can’t they leave? Why can’t the Silos communicate with each other? Why is there a genocidal Safeguard in place? Why would the sainted Founders do any of this if they really cared? Why?

Based on the events of the Before Times material, in which nefarious forces set off a nuclear explosion and force everyone into the Silos forever, I have a feeling we’re about to find out. At the very least, we’ll get a big enough chunk of the information to make the still-missing pieces a tantalizing lure for the fourth and final season of the show. Either way, it’s tremendously satisfying to see both our heroes and our villains, whoever they wind up being in the end, getting so close to their respective finish lines. We’re on the verge of finding out Why, the only question worth asking.

I reviewed this week’s episode of Silo for Decider.

Despite the episode’s cruelty — some of it comedic, like the sight of the homecoming queen in cuffs; some of it horrific, like Matt’s awful fate — there are some surprising displays of tenderness. Susan really seems to treasure the opportunity to turn the now drab and dour Rhonda into someone who commands attention once again. (“You’re gonna be able to have sex with anyone you want!” Debbie enthuses when she sees the results of the makeover. “Anyone in the band, at least!”)

Bret, meanwhile, rigs the election so that Debbie has a decent showing, knowing how much the appreciation of others means to her now that her reputation as “a frivolous and spiteful clown” has seemingly been cemented. He doesn’t fix it so she wins, just so she won’t be upset. It’s a decent thing to do, and it shows that despite all his delusions of grandeur, Bret’s heart is in the right place. I just hope his brain catches up.

I reviewed the second of this week’s two episodes of The Shards for Decider.