Black Maps and Motel Rooms

But I could not let the other write ups about how this is the best one in S2 stand. It's incoherent and rushed. They lost the tread of the whole paper thin plot here in an attempt to tie things up. But they introduce new characters, suddenly boost obscure plot points to the forefront and throw various characters for no clear reason. Look, it's simple. If you're doing Raymond Chandler then do Raymond Chandler. Don't make it so baroque. Keep the story clean and sparse. Guy's dirty partner dies and maybe ripped him off someone else ripped HIM off. Toss in a few me Fatale or two but tie them into the main plot don't create a whole separate story that was used as a crutch to bring in one of three main characters only to throw it away. Don't toss in personal details about another main character that's entirely superfluous to the story. Don't create a backstop you for a main character that's not important not used and doesn't lead anywhere.

Like I said it's simple. The fulcrum of the whole story is the first dead guy. Everything leads to that conclusion not 5 different ones. It doesn't matter if the story is advanced through a good guy, a bad guy or an anti hero.

All the reviews of this Ep are enamored that after nearly an entire season of slow moving fumbling, THIS is the moment where it falls together. But it doesn't. It tosses everything into the air. It's not a coming together it's an overly complex setup for what would be, in true Raymond Chandler style, the last 15 minutes of the movie. In thus case that 15 minutes is obviously more than an hour.

I swear to God I had to rewind certain parts of this episode over and over again to try to comprehend how insanely confusing this whole mystery is. I honestly thought I was following along with the plot perfectly well until I reached this episode. there's so many people involved in the conspiracy that it overreached at times due to how wide this thing spreads-almost every single person in the show is involved in one way or another, and it can be a bit much. Don't get me wrong-I still loved it, but damn if it didn't make me feel dumb at times. let's see how they wrap this all up. I wonder if anybody is even going to make it out alive.

I think this episode was SO GOOD!

Everything felt so right. So many pieces were brought together! The acting, directing, writing, everything was on pair with the first season! A little too late? Maybe. Did it happen nonetheless? Yes. But you cannot deny the greatness of this episode. The dystopic feeling throughout the whole episode were fantastic.

To sum it up: the first 3 episodes of this season were too slow, too incoherent and it's obvious Justin Lin has ruined the directing in the first two episodes. (face it, it's obvious he has)

But since episode 4 everything has been so good! Episode 5,6 and now 7 has been, to be honest, a fantastic experience to watch. I've enjoyed it so much! I'm extremely anxious to see the season finale. (which to our luck will be 90 minutes)

Give credit where credit is due. This episode: 9.5/10.

If you are wondering why they don't make any good shows anymore, it's because of the people who glorify garbage like this giving it 9s and 10s when it's a 3 or 4 on its best day. I know many of these reviews are written by people who are paid to write them but still, it's beyond ridiculous to rate this episode anywhere near this high.

Bad writing, bad acting, bad editing, the whole thing feels like watching a high school play or some college student's filming project but definitely not a high budget HBO. This is what happens when HBO cuts budgets of its shows and puts all their budget into marketing and paying people to write praises for their garbage like what you see here.

The story is impossible to follow with 100 different characters and 100 different stories going on all at once while none of the stories are sufficiently explained. You are just supposed to "have faith" but the season fails to deliver in every aspect.

This episode starts to unveil the scope of everything and you slowly realize just how deep in trouble our characters are!

This episode throws a lot of information at you, and if you don't or haven't paid attention, its gonna seem very confusing at times! It takes a lot of effort to piece together the many layers of corruption and to understand how it all began!

The last part of the episode was another tense sequence with a shocking outcome! You can feel that this is the penultimate episode and I have no idea if things are about to go from bad to worse!

Season 2 is finally starting to entertain and suck you in!