Volume 5: The Fool

TOTDY is a pretentious, self-indulgent, narcissistic,navel-gazing, misogynistic, slow-moving mess that does look great but offers nothing in the way of plot, character development, nuance, real tension or, indeed, meaning. It's what happens when a studio (Amazon Prime) just hands out money to a self-professed auteur without any restrictions. So far, so bad.

Episode 5: You're still here? Well, if you are (Chances are slim, I know), THIS is the best episode of TOTDY. While all the familiar pretentious trappings are firmly in place, there's even some kind of plot here. Sort of. Also, the funniest scene in the entire show (which involves Barry Manilow's Mandy - you'll understand once you've seen it) lies ahead, and you even get to see a decent stretch of plot that wasn't show in monochrome bore-o-vision. It's scant compensation for wasting 13 hours of time you'll never get back. I know. But it's SOMETHING.

There's something hilariously ironic about an extended car chase scene that dominates the latter half of this episode. You'll laugh out loud. Trust me.

Breathtaking one, reminds Mad Max, the best of Breaking Bad era and a snippet of Lynch's Lost Highway.

I don't know what I just watched, but I loved every second of it. It was the best episode yet. A little problem, though: I'm in a state of confusion based on the ending. Everything else was great, mind you, including it; the ending is just of more recent memory, which in turn, spreads that confusion that was only based around it, on the episode as a whole, inadvertently.

Everyone knows who runs the pron empire... and it is certainly not the groups depicted here. Refn is a duplicitous coward. Another limited hangout after all that glacial pacing.

This is such a frustrating series. Up to this point, there have been great highs and nearly unwatchable lows. And this trend continues right after this one. But I'm confident in calling this episode a masterpiece, and easily the best thing Refn has done since Drive. It's everything you could ask for from this director; style, brutality, absurd humor and beautifully designed shots are all on full display. There's great tension within the two brothers' warehouse that culminates in one of the best car chase sequences I've ever experienced. Can't forget to mention the absolutely jaw-dropping start of this episode. Truly disgusting stuff that is so effective in making you hate the antagonists instantly. I'd highly recommend skipping ahead to this episode and pretending this is just a 70-minute film. Then afterwards, have no shame in not continuing to watch the rest of the series since it comes nowhere close to this level of quality.