The Booth at the End

This has been a fantastic show! Twenty minutes flies by as you watch individuals come to seek out their hearts desire by making deals with a creature that could as likely be an angel as a devil. Tasks and deals begin to intertwine and form a cosmic game of chess, but the man in the booth at the end is merely keeping score.

Not only is this an engrossing series, but a masterful accomplishment of screen writing. The entire show is filmed from a booth in a diner. If someone had simply told me about this show I'd be convinced it couldn't work, but the concept of storytelling is given new life in this small screen format. Each contracted party returns to the diner to update the scorer of their progress and through their updates we learn how deals have gone horribly wrong or transformed into unforeseen joy. I cannot recommend this enough. I hope for more.

...if so, that's some of the best news I've heard about TV this year.

Every now and then (and it's more thin-on-the-ground than not), there's a show which comes along that meets and exceeds all expectations. This is one of them.

Absolutely David Lynch-ian in its construction, "The Booth At The End" is that rare piece of television which makes you *think*.

In the event you've not seen it, the show revolves around The Man in the Booth; an enigmatic fellow with a well-worn leather-bound notebook; from it, he extracts 'deals' to be done with the patrons who seek him out. Each patron wants something. The Man gives them a task. Completion guarantees fulfillment.

Or something.

This is the best piece of allegoric TV since 'Twin Peaks'. Do yourself a favor. See this.

And remember that the pastrami sandwich is quite good....

I was intrigued right from the start. The writing and performances are really top notch. It's a shame it wasn't extended but then could they have sustained the imagination and quality?

I was a bit apprehensive before watching this; I'm not a fan of watching TV on the web so I waited for the entire set of 'webisodes' to be broadcast on FX. I must say I have been rewarded with one of the most thought provoking and challenging TV programmes in quite some time. Xander Berkeley has been perfectly cast as 'The Man' his performance is truly exceptional as are all the supporting actors. I had assumed that part of the script had been improvised due to the naturalistic way the performances are delivered, I am assured that this is not the case. There is no action as all the 'tasks' are only spoken of in retrospect or the moral challenge the person asking faces. Is 'The Man' God or is he the Devil ? As the series progresses you flip between one or the other. A series that is well worth watching and hopefully we will get a series 2; however, the moral of this story is : be careful what you wish for...

It's so rare to find a series that is not predictable on some level. Something about even the way this show is shot and the quality and sparseness of the audio seems different than most shows. I love not knowing... I have my theories but it's not really clear to me who the main character is or where he comes from or if he's even mortal and who he works for or if he's more in control than he claims or WHAT. I did not at first expect the overlap between some of the various story-lines, so there was a growing pattern emerging as we (viewers) get deeper into it. The fact that some characters end up having desires that are in direct opposition means that only one can succeed unless one changes what it is that s/he wants, and that makes it even more intriguing. I love that it all takes place in the diner and what happens outside that confined world is only revealed through verbal accounts of the characters - proving that you don't need to see explosions or shoot-outs to make a program work if the premise is interesting enough. I really hope there will be further seasons, and that the story will be fully realized.