lister1911

This film is a mess. With unlikeable characters, nonsensical plot devices, and numerous unanswered questions, I was rooting against all these idiotic people. Julia Roberts plays one of the most grating protagonists I've seen on screen in a long time, Amanda Sandford, and the movie strongly hints at her being a racist, but Ethan Hawke's character, Clay, is equally bad; he's a shallow wimp too terrified of his own shadow to help strangers in need. Their kids are annoying, and don't act like children would in this scenario, especially the daughter. Mahershala Ali's character, GH, is the only one that I liked. His daughter Ruth, played by Myha'la, who incidentally enjoys rocking hairy armpits, is also a racist on par with Amanda in that regard, though Ruth just outright states it without any of Amanda's inuendo. Kevin Bacon makes an appearance as a sort of redneck prepper who lives in the Hamptons (or wherever this supposedly takes place), so yeah.

With bad characters comes the most convoluted apocalypse narrative you might imagine. Is it war, terrorism, a climate catastrophe, magnetic pole shift, aliens, the supernatural, zombies? Yes. And no. The "story" hints at all of these (well, except the zombies), but in doing so completely destroys believability, unless of course the answer is all of them, which makes no sense as some of these are typically mutually exclusive. I'll stay away from spoilers, but just watch the whole animal angle, and you'll see what I mean.

The combo of crummy story and horrible characters is not one I'd biggie size, and yet this movie represents two hours and twenty minutes of frustrating cinema that's not even good enough to be on the value menu. I should have skipped it, but like a dope I did it anyway, because it was 'free' on Netflix. It just wasn't worth it.

I never read the books, so I'm coming at this based solely on the series, but where Picket was a damaged man in the first series, in this second season he's becoming a pathetic pushover. And just when I thought the writers couldn't tear him down any further, he's now apparently impotent. Picket's character is being so badly written, that it's getting harder to even like or root for him this season. I don't know if this is how Joe is portrayed in the books, but I'm guessing they wouldn't have been popular enough to become a series if he was. The same is happening to Nate, to a lesser degree, with the absolutely annoying character of Cricket, a person who seems utterly oblivious to the danger around her or Nate's repeated efforts to keep her safe, her constant whining notwithstanding.

Aside from these two characters, plot holes abound, along with people making silly decisions that really stretch credulity. And then there are the repeated assaults against Picket, physical beatings, guns in the face, all the way up to attempted murder, with zero repercussions or consequences. It's all treated like nothing more than an insult, which is exactly what it is to the audience. There's a lot more, but I don't care enough to waste anymore time on this show. I'll finish the season with two episodes left, mainly because I'm a completionist, but I'm not excited about it. At all.

Man, I hate lazy writing. Here we have a 19 year old, playing a 14 year old, who's supposed to be an 8 year old. Is it beyond the capabilities of these writers/show runners to not insult their audience? For a show that I've watched an embarrassing number of times, why do I have to suspend disbelief to this degree to enjoy this new Justified? Why not simply place the episode into the future? Or make this girl an adopted daughter, or a niece, or a runaway, or anything but a 14 year old Willa when everyone knows she should only be 8 years old? It's annoying and insulting, but pretty typical of how Hollywood treats the fans these days.