drive off the road into a ditch during the last 2 eps. Shifting into the silly Munchausen stuff, and then the pat ending, after all that nuanced build up, is really disappointing.
shareThe Munchhausen stuff was charged man, I thought it was great. Maybe it has to do with your own experiences or something, but to realize that your own Mom killed your sister? Its something that she'd known all along but had never admitted to herself...until she did, and I don't know...that was way impactful IMO.
But you're right about all the nuanced build-up...the flashbacks and roundabout delivery we sat through made that ending a little hard to swallow.
Why is the Munchausen stuff silly? It perfectly explains the actions of the different characters... I like that they base the premise on a known mental illness and the consequence of living in such an environment...
shareThere's nothing wrong with the idea per se. It's how it's introduced and used here. I'd say the same if in the penultimate episode you suddenly introduce a flashback to a previously unseen male friend of Adora's who abused Camile. You should be able to look back from the start and see clues that this would logically follow. Rather they depict Amma as the most robust, strong-willed, wild child who leaves at will and roller skates all over town at any hour of day or night. She's never sick aside from her own partying. She's not Marian the meek and she pushes things further than even a young Camile. And they spent so much time setting up the extreme scuttlebutt in this town, yet Amma's litany of various ailments (including a feeding tube?!) have escaped suspicion until that moment? The chief knew about the illnesses and the nurse's story already. What convinced this guy, who has a special relationship with Adora, to change his mind now? A convergence on that house, in that way, b/c her friends said she was sick, and b/c the detective was worried that Camile didn't come to the door, did not follow. Camile and he just had a falling out. Maybe she just didn't want to talk to him. And it's not like the husband would be unaware of Camile's distinctive car staring the detective in the face. And Camile letting herself be poisoned too, as a strategy to help Amma, is even more implausible. This ending was executed in an extremely clumsy way, imo.
shareI didn't have as much of a problem with it as you, but I get what you're saying. I guess I look at it like Adora had learned from her previous daughter's death and was "smarter" about it with Amma. She kicked it into gear when she saw Amma bonding with Camille and was worried about losing her. They all converged on the house because Camille's boss came into town after their unsettling phone conversation. I do agree that the whole thing wasn't very subtle considering how the previous 6 episodes had unfolded.
shareI'm glad you brought this up. Why wouldn't Adora just wait until Camile is gone? She already told Alan that she needs to go. They already arrested the brother for the murders. So why blatantly poison Amma to that extent before Camile goes back to STL? If Adora's aware of what she's doing, she'd be on hiatus while Camile is around. But if she's unaware and ill herself, she never would've stopped, and most likely would've been caught long ago. And I still feel that the depiction of the dynamic between Adora and Amma up to that point doesn't go with the outcome. Amma was the manipulator, who had her mother on a string, rather than the other way around.
And I understand that Camile's editor was worried about her but what would her comments to him mean to either the chief or the detective at that point? She's the bad apple, and hardly the reliable witness from the chief's POV. They wouldn't lead a quasi-raid against Adora based on a Camile theory provided by her boss. The chief had deferred to Adora throughout but then suddenly changes? And the boss is allowed to enter the home along with the police?
And yes, the last didn't fit the prior hours of this series. The approach was so slow, detailed and nuanced -- but the landing came with an abrupt and crude thud that didn't follow from the interesting characterization and story we were provided.
It’s like the show runners out-of-the-blue realized they’d run out of time and had to wrap everything up. The pacing shifted from a pleasant drive in the countryside on a Sunday afternoon to the Indy 500. The editor busting in at the last moment to save the day was a ham-fisted Deus Ex Machina, which I translate into English as “the bunny rabbit out of the hat.” The Munhausen’s-by-proxy was potentially fascinating, but they ran out of time and just said, “Fuck it.” As for the pacing and epilepsy-incident-inducing editing, there’s an old saying: “If you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance, baffle ‘em with bullshit.” Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson deserved better. So did we.
shareI agree for the most part -- but some blame has to go to the source material as well. But yes, anything could've been plopped in at the end if you're going to disregard the basic tenets of good drama. Nearly every actor deserved better writing at the end. Clarkson was suddenly reduced to a one note Adora floating around with her concoction bottle and spoon.
shareClearly, the source material was wanting. HBO made a bad choice of material, but not of actresses.
shareI do not mind the pacing goin up when we reach the conclusion... I feel the the tense buildup only makes the ending stronger... Why do we need the end drawn out? I felt all the hints were there througout the show which explains the characters actions... So that the answers comes quick at the end is fine by me...
shareAmma was robust (but her wild life, late nights etc. was still in her mind not something her mother knew about... even though Adore probably did) but Amma also craved the care of her mother througout the show... So to me this is not strange that she accepts her mothers care... she even killed the other girls bacause she felt they were stealing her mothers attention... and again these characters (Amma, Adora & Camille) were all mentally ill... so you can not expect them to make rational decisions all the time... Adora (as someone already mentioned) felt threatened by Camille and Amma's relationship and this probably accelerated Amma's sickness because Adora was giving her to much "poisen" and this was not something new... We were told that Amma had become almost immune to rat poisen so this has been going on througout her childhood... And it of course didn't stop because Camilla arrived... Also Camille accepting Adore's threatment also makes sense to me... she of course does it to help Amma escape... but also to afflict pain to herself which she has been doing her entire life... Again these are not rational decisions... but a decision made by a person who is mentally ill...
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