Loggia 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.

It was a lot of things -- quirky, warm, compassionate, weirdly comical at times, but sort of like People of Earth in the way it showed people's connectedness and sense of community. I'm heartbroken that it was cancelled.

This was such a lovely show with gentle soul. It's such s shame to have been cancelled after an outstanding second season.

I'm hoping that hulu will pick it up for two / three more seasons.

If not Hulu, then Amazon or NetFlix. Somebody needs to pick this up.

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.

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.