anthony-d-kelly

Christina Ricci and Jenny Lewis carry this entire ill-conceived series on the backs of their respective (massive) talents, but that doesn't mean they can make it good.

The truth is, this series is lurid, it's grim, it's unreasonably mean (every character has the meanest possible reaction to every plot development, constantly) and totally contrived. It is also *far* too interested in the sex lives of all of our characters when that really has nothing to do with the central mysteries playing out at a glacial pace across the season except make them even slower.

This should have been a one-season limited series, not truly having enough meat on its narrative bones to sustain interest much longer than that.

If you insist on watching this show, I recommend taking a metaphorical shower after every episode - personally, I would watch something with adults behaving reasonably and treating each other with a baseline element of respect. This crap can rot your brain if you live in it too long.

Shrill is great in a lot of ways, in particular the rock solid foundation that is the cast. I was drawn in initially by my fandom for Aidy Bryant but became a fan of a lot of the other supporting actors. It's inclusive and eye opening and even ground breaking in some very real ways.

*HOWEVER*. As a series that is ostensibly meant to be binged, it can be a massive slog to get through. The 30 minute episodes awkwardly push the structure of the, er, prestige sitcom(?) and end up padding their runtime with what seem like riffing sessions. It sucked a lot of energy out of the show for me and made it ultimately feel more like a grind than a pleasure for a lot of it.

I honestly can't explain it but The Deuce is somehow my favorite television show of all time. It doesn't have the suspense of a Breaking Bad, the CG dragons of a Game of Thrones, or the cultural relevance of The Wire. But the combination of mood, writing, music (oh, that Blondie track), set design, lighting, and most especially acting, keeps it in a league entirely of its own.