hoops-53436

We liked season 1, well done with some decent characters. Season 2 started slow, but we gave it a chance. Wow, extra slow moving, no likable characters (Lifetime does a better job of developing characters)o and a plot that was a little more than disconnected from reality. ^ extra slow moving episodes and then cram all the action into the final episode. By episode 6 it had gotten to the point that we were hoping the asteroid would land on the White Lotus and put all the characters (and us) out of our misery.

We heard that HBO had reupped for a season 3 and we thought "it HAS to get better." Sadly, we were wrong. Mike White evidently has become so self-absorbed in his 'notoriety' that he thinks we have nothing to do but spend hours watching poor writing, poor character development, and the slowest moving plot yet. (They should have done "White Lotus Madagascar" at least then the sloths would look like fast moving animals.) We won't waste our time with S3 E2 or any thereafter.

Wow. Where to start is a challenge. Let's start with acting- the lead actress was well below average- cardboard like- no emotion. The 'park ranger' also was sophomoric. I found myself laughing at everything he said and did. The actors who played Chris and Rachel were better, we felt like the actress who played Rachel should have had the lead role and the actress who played the lead should have had the Rachel role.

The writing was sooooo lacking. Let's talk first about the lack of reality in the injury situations. Chris falls 100 feet onto solid rock and miraculously walks away a few minutes later. Guess it was only a flesh wound. Rachel gets shot through the abdomen and after laying- bleeding out- for most of a day, patches herself with a first aid kit and not only walks away but builds a fire and then is able to walk away with Shae as they escape the park ranger. Wow. In the land of make believe I guess anything is possible.

Now let's think a minute about Shae's response to her baby daddy being missing in the desert as night approaches. She says they should go to Larry's house to see what ideas he might have. But first, she says, she needs to stop by her house and clean up. So she takes a leisurely shower while the park ranger goes through her underwear. After the shower they go to Larry's house where he grills steaks for all of them (that seems to be the only idea Larry comes up with during the movie.) While having steak and drinking beer, they don't come up with anything in the way of a plan. And Shae would probably have shown more emotion if it were her dog that was lost in the desert.

I was tickled as I read the two reviews that gave the movie 10/10 ratings. They sounded too stock and too glowing to have been real. When I looked them up it was the first review either one of them had ever posted on IMDB. It could be coincidence, but methinks I smell a rat.

This film was a selection on a flight last week. I am stunned that there has only been one review of this movie. At first blush the movie is about songs that have been sung by the Native American tribes from SE Oklahoma. It is that....and so much more. There is the disappearance of the film director's grandfather; the tie in with the trail of tears; and the awful way America treated the Native Americans. It was chilling to hear Alvin Deer speak about American Christians bringing the gospel and committing genocide at the same time. Also chilling was hearing Nelson speak about the soldiers on the trail of tears raping young Native American girls and no one could stop them.

The talk of heaven and the new land is reminiscent of Negro spirituals and the focus on heaven. Hope for the hopeless.

The question is 'have we learned anything about the treatment of other people?'