MovieChat Forums > Good Behavior (2016) Discussion > Enjoying it more than I wish

Enjoying it more than I wish

posted 8 years ago by Wood-20
1 reply | jump to latest

I really wanted to dislike this show, simply because I don't really need any additional series to add to my list. I dismissed the first episode as just an oddity, with nothing really seeming very realistic or moving. It came across as a very messy production with a lack of focus.

But I begrudgingly continued to watch, and surprisingly, all the the complaints about the first episode I had are the reason I keep watching. I don't know if the messy direction of the series is intentional, or just masterfully unintentional, but I went from dreading watching another episode after the pilot, to watching with anticipation about what is going to happen next after the 4th episode. Maybe it's the lead actor who plays her character in an intriguing way, but I want to see more of her, and what and where she will end up doing next. The hometown visit was weird and sloppy and wonderful.

I really don't think the relationship with her parole officer is working thus far, and as yet I don't really see a need for that character. But it's good that the focus of the series is on Letty, rather than putting the assassin nonsense in the foreground.

I've no idea how this got commissioned to series, but I hope it continues impressing.

[–] kenny-164 8 years ago

Wood,

I may have liked this show more from the beginning than you, but like you I find the rather atypical way the show is developing to be dragging me in more than I expected. The development through the first three episodes felt kind of like establishing the dynamic between the two main characters, and secondarily the rest of the continuing cast. You know the allusions to backstories, that sort of thing as well. Then we get to the fourth episode, and at first I was confused what was happening to the show it was so different. How come Letty was not on another bender? The whole high school reunion thing could have been so clichéd. But instead, the way they really had it go, was like wow.

Part of it is the mix of the humor with the real downbeat pathology of what is happening to Letty, the forces arrayed against her, some obviously of her own making. How can they keep that up? Michelle Dockery is a big part of the answer to that, but even with her talent much will depend on the writing. I hope they can pull it off.

As for the parole officer, I could be wrong depending on where it goes from here. But I think he serves not so much as a kind of Greek chorus role, although there is some of that. But more as a character who not only serves to witness what Letty is going through but to actually debate what she should be like in her own mix of striving for the good but also being pulled not so much to the evil as.... well that's the thing. What is that which is countering the desire to do what others expect of and want from her?

Anyway, yes a fascinating show. I wonder if it will be renewed for another season.