Lodge 49

It's hard to describe Lodge 49 without giving too much away. There are no scary monsters or much in the way of violence or action scenes.Just a really good slow burn 'alternative' drama with decent acting and characters that really makes you want to find out what happens next, both in terms of plot and also character development. I found myself liking and caring about all the main characters in the story. The description makes the show look like science fiction or fantasy, but the fantasy elements are quite subdued. Something weird may or may not be going on in the background but the show is mostly about the characters and what happens in their lives. I wouldn't have expected to like it as much as I did based on the description. Now I'm waiting for season 2.

Jim Gavin's sadly truncated characterful odyssey Lodge 49 is a really beautiful bit of television - a grandly eclectic musical score (their music supervisor was the editor of Shindig! Magazine), a magnificent cast and some truly bold set pieces make it one of the more interesting shows of the era but it is inconsistent. Tonally it's something akin to a Coen brothers' approximation of the allegorical "John From Cincinnati"- with semi-mythical coincidences and strange occurrences mingling with everyday drama and human pain.

There are some really strong moments here but the pacing can drift into the glacial and the fundamental issue with portraying groups of people who meander through life looking for meaning is that this listlessness also seeps into the episodes themselves. Looking back across the two seasons it's sometimes hard to see the justification for whole chunks of it, but when it does coalesce into something it can be legitimately breathtaking.

The backbone of the show is the "knight and squire" relationship between Jennings & Russell - the evergreen latter now making well-deserved waves in the Marvel omniverse. The whole cast is glorious though from the magnetically listless Sonya Cassidy to David "Knifeman" Pasquesi's starry-eyed apothecary to the magnificent Bruce Campbell and the deeply underrated Adam Godley. There's a strange existential melancholy to a prematurely cancelled show - a public story perennially unfinished - that sort of works for Lodge 49 and the Lynx lodge and its cultish trappings will stay with me for a long time.

It is possible you need to be in the right place in your life to enjoy this show(or the wrong one perhaps). While it has funny moments, Lodge 49 isn't a comedy. Drama isn't quite right either. The show very differently touches on loneliness ahs that lost feeling life gives you sometimes.

I actually downloaded these episodes, and watched the entire first season in one night. Truly flawed but likeable characters, weird events, and touching moments.

Only reason I took away one star was for season 1 ending, the last maybe two minutes, bleh. The rest of the season, great fresh story !

I really didn't know quite what to make of this after watching the pilot but then as I watched the following episodes I got hooked. The "plot" is never less than opaque but somehow that doesn't seem to matter. Well made, shot and with some very decent acting this program draws you into the lives of a group of disparate people who for one reason or another are drawn to Lodge 49. Is it about freemasonry? Not really although there is the silly regalia they wear and there are "mysteries" but there seems no emphasis on doing good works or that membership entails giving fellow members a leg up. The habitues of the Lodge are all missing something in their lives that they find in the fellowship of the Lodge. These people are not in the top echelons of society and their jobs if they have them are less than fulfilling so the Lodge provides a sense of community and friendship that the outside world does not give them. If you get past the first episode you come to like most of the characters and become involved in the minutiae of their lives. I found it charming and entertaining and there are some genuinely laugh out loud moments. I hope the series will get a 2nd season.

Watching this show pulls you into a world of drab mediocrity. It's characters are funny and complex. There is an element of suspense and mystery that keeps up interest. But the characters are the story. It has the kind of humor that makes you feel you are there with the characters when they crack you up without doing anything particularly outrageous. Great timing. Good gags. Subtle absurdity. The dingy atmosphere of many scenes enhances the profundity of some of the dialogue. Great writing and delivery by the cast.