Thoughts on A Prayer for Mad Sweeney?
I thought it was pretty polished personally.
shareI was a bit disappointed in that Mad Sweeney is my favorite so I thought an episode about him would, ya know, be more about him. Maybe I'm a bit daft, but what was the point of telling Essie's story? What did that reinforce in the character of Sweeney or what led him to where he is?
Was having Emily Browning used for Essie for fun? Or was it to show that she as Laura and Mad Sweeney are somehow already connected from past lives? I didn't think it was a bad episode or anything, but I'm trying to put the dots together here. Enlighten me people, haha!
Yeah, it didn't have much to do with the main story.
shareI don't know whether it will turn out that Essie and Laura are related, but this is just like in the previous episodes, where it was shown how various gods were brought to America by the believers. And it shows that Sweeney was good to those who believed in him and respected him, that he's not just a twitching madman.
shareI suppose it could be seen as an expansion of that theme, "Coming to America," that works as a reading. I just wish it would've had more to do with him than her....not that it was devoid of any characterization of him, but seemed like a missed opportunity there.
I suppose his whole thing about how there was no magic anymore tells you how he ended up the way he did sort of. After following some believers to the New World, slowly the belief in him eroded there and he was left to find another way to live. I wonder, aside from Essie and Laura perhaps being related, if she was the last one around there to really have faith in him.
Yes, but the whole manner of portraying how the gods came to America was through the story about the believers and it was the same with Sweeney.
shareI think they used Emily Browning for Essie, to show that Mad Sweeney (ugh, I hate his name) might have some sympathy for her (and he did put the coin back in her body). So to create a connection of sorts. And I think the Essie's story was to show that Sweeney wasn't always an out-for-himself prick. He did used to help people. And then there were no more people who wanted his help. That's my take on it anyway.
But again we're stopping and starting with the flow of the show. Another Emily Browning centered episode. Again we forget Shadow (who I assume is the main character), and the war. I just can't figure out what I'm supposed to be concentrating my focus on...
I did like it most maybe out of all of them, though. Maybe due to the almost complete lack of that annoying jazzy music. They should've just given them 13 episodes to start things off, so that these detours don't feel like wasted time so much (to me at least they do).
Using Browning was an interesting choice, indeed.....even if it served to kind of muddy up the point of what they were getting at seeing as people have interpreted it different ways.
I also don't think I needed to be told Mad Sweeney wasn't all bad (as I'm sure many didn't either), I already had figured that so maybe I just wish they had moved past that and onto something more compelling like his origin story. One of the best things about TV these days is that its characters are much more layered and nuanced therefore deserving of something more than just a simple examination of whether they're wholly good or bad, but....maybe that's just the TV dork in me, haha.
As for who should be the focus, while we started out with Shadow who obviously leads the pack, I think as it goes on it has and is going to become more so an ensemble really where everyone gets their own spotlights and attention throughout. Considering they're already racking up a lot of characters, I wouldn't be surprised to have many episodes where Shadow and his story line isn't present, except for the fact that they all intertwine in some way.
It seems more and more common that first seasons are doing shorter than even 10 episodes now, which feels like a bit too short. I'm thankful we've scaled back on the atrocious 22+ episode model, but 10-13 always feels like a good, rounded number of episodes to tell a fully explored story, so I wouldn't have minded see them do that either, but oh well. Let's see what these last two episodes bring!
Hey, at least we're talking about the contents of the show for once. So in that sense, it was a good choice IMO. The episode did bring some development to the Sweeney character, and showed us that Mr Wednesday is responsible for Laura's death (if I got that right). It looks like Sweeney's little road trip with Laura is making him reexamine things. That's a step in the right direction.
The Brits have been doing great with 6 episodes for ages. So I do think this season should've been tighter in the storytelling department with only 8 episodes. You (general you) can't excuse it with it being an adaptation, or having a shorter season. The Handmaid's Tale (10 eps.) just wrapped up, and they had an amazing season, I thought. Even managed to add stuff. So I don't know what went wrong here. A miscalculation maybe?
I wouldn't mind having a bigger focus on an ensemble, but I guess we'll have to wait for season 2 for any improvements now.
P.S.: It feels like I'm doing a lot of ranting with this show, so you'll have to excuse me for that.
Yeah, I was surprised to see he and Mr. Wednesday were behind Laura's accident. So, does that mean Mr. Wednesday had his eyes set on Shadow for a while?
You're right, the Brits do much shorter seasons for some shows, but when they do that the concession they give viewers for taking years to do so is that the episodes are longer, pretty much every episode is a film. I don't think that is an ideal model all the time, I guess it just depends on the material and the schedule of those involved. I think AG has too much content to do that, there's just too much to cram in!
And no worries about ranting! Clearly I am not immune to that myself 😉
That's the impression I got. And that Media seemed very interested in Shadow as well. So I suppose that Shadow has a much bigger role to play in all this, beyond being a bodyguard and stumbling into something bigger by accident (and really, does a God need a bodyguard?). So, yeah, I guess Mr Wednesday's had Shadow in his sights for a while, and killing Laura was some sort of catalyst. The man does have a plan!
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