Hard News: The Munter and the Munted
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Van doing his nut at the guy who called him a pig, then the dawning realisation when Munter patiently explains WHY the guy called him a pig wins as best comic moment on television this year.
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Van definitely had the best lines. I rated "I've already got the car and the hat!" whilst elaborating his hairbrained jailbreak idea as the funniest, although the visual humor of the car chase did actually put out longer. It did seem rather silly that a villain would flee to a carpark at the very end of the Te Atatu peninsular, and then try to run for it (where to? Was he going to swim across to Pt Chev?) and even sillier that he wouldn't be able to drag off a Toyota Getz (or whatever it was), and dumbest of all that he would yell "Fuck you pig" and do a huge burnout right in front of a cop, but that was all part of the fun.
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when Munter patiently explains WHY the guy called him a pig wins as best comic moment on television this year.
Not at all, the toaster scene was much funnier.
However, I felt gamed. Nobody died, what the fuck, are you being clever or something? This had better not be a Lost-style final season. And seeing John Campbell made me groan, especially when they tried to make him "funny and shit".
This should've been a grab-you-by-the-nuts episode and I felt it was much more of a pat-on-the-head one. I thought they were going somewhere with the whole "the Wests are now persona non grata" but even that fell flat instead of being a sense of community isolation (them against the world).
Overall: B-
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Van doing his nut at the guy who called him a pig, then the dawning realisation when Munter patiently explains WHY the guy called him a pig wins as best comic moment on television this year.
There's some serious pop culture DNA there with Grant Bowler playing the werewolf leader of a biker gang (charmingly names The Fuck You Crew) who draws the line at being called 'Cooter' -- despite the fact that's his name. Perhaps I need to grow up, but there's something amusing about stark naked white trash standing on their offended dignity.
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However, I felt gamed. Nobody died, what the fuck, are you being clever or something?
I think you'll find Detective Gerard was pretty goddamn dead by the end of it.
I quite liked the way they played with that: right up to the first shot of Pascalle looking like she might be in a coffin. And then we see Aaron Spiller trying to look at her boobies. I LOLd.
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It did seem rather silly that a villain would flee to a carpark at the very end of the Te Atatu peninsular, and then try to run for it (where to? Was he going to swim across to Pt Chev?)
I was just there on my bike a few days ago. Some young people were having a joint. So, points for realism.
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It did seem rather silly that a villain would flee to a carpark at the very end of the Te Atatu peninsular, and then try to run for it (where to? Was he going to swim across to Pt Chev?)
To be fair, and boringly prosaic, I'm sure there's all kinds of sound reasons why you want to do high speed stunt driving and pyrotechnics in a fairly isolated yet accessible location.
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Their stoner spots have a ring of authenticity about them. I hadn't noticed before that their tool van is a Bongo too. LOLZ.
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Can't remember if it was already mentioned, but Loretta's blog has another angle on the demise of Gerard.
There’s an image of me, running out of the house, looking over the balcony. I see Pascalle, and for some unknown reason she’s lying in the garden – and I’m thinking WTF? And then I see there’s blood on her.
And I see Mum – she’s kinda fallen back on the stairs, and she’s sort of holding her ear – I guess because one of the gunshots had just whistled past it. And she’s looking – confused, is the best word. And she looks up at me, for just a second, before these cops appear from nowhere and just, sort of, engulf her.
And I have no idea what the fuck just happened, until I step right up to the handrail, and I look down and there’s Gerard, lying on his back, there’s a gun on the ground beside him and there’s blood just pissing out his neck. And suddenly there are people all over him too, trying to stop the blood.
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So, points for realism.
Or real pointillism?
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However, I felt gamed. Nobody died, what the fuck, are you being clever or something?
Okay, I'll admit I had a moment of this - three bullets fired, perhaps not sufficient dramatic pay-off.
But. Aurora died. Tama died. We've done death and we've done grief and we've done it on a broad canvas. They've had space to have entirely human reactions. It's not about plot, it's about character.
So, with Pascalle still alive and being her excrutiating self, we know that Cheryl's not trying to expiate any responsibility for the death of her daughter. That what she's doing may not be all about Gerard, but partially about Tama, makes it cloudy and complicated enough without adding in anything else.
So the issue really is, were those trailers that implied Cheryl was dead so strongly that we all came to believe that Pascalle was dead taking too big a gamble - generating buzz at the risk of pissing us off?
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They didn't even come near to pissing me off, although I realise other people responded differently.
I kinda figured they were toying with us.
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They didn't even come near to pissing me off, although I realise other people responded differently.
I kinda figured they were toying with us.
Anyway, what's the point of promos -- to deliver eyeballs to the product, and it's not exactly hard when you've got a fake blood splattered cliff hanger to play with.
All things considered, I'd have to say mission accomplished.
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Sheree Greegan. In the hospital. With the poisoned drip. Has anyone got hospital?
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She might be aNNOYing but she's not a MURDerer.
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Sheree Greegan. In the hospital. With the poisoned drip. Has anyone got hospital?
Damn, I've got hospital. What's this crap you gave me? Aaron Spiller? Hah, ready to play. Spiller, in the Bongo, with a Rusty Nail.
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Spiller, in the Bongo, with a Rusty Nail.
Jethro Tull, in the Mini, with a Spiller PNA Sample.
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Well that was a fascinating episode, arguably the bleakest season opener the series has produced yet- which means, as strong as it was, it does raise slight concerns- I always felt season four trailed off near the end because the range of emotions became a tad too monotone, too much focusing on the double-crossing, not a lot on the frivolous and keenly observed.
Season Five got the balance right, largely because even at its most menacing, there was something instrincally hilarious about Van's thwarted efforts at being an informant- which soon, of course, went to custard in the worst way.
Is it wrong that the episode made me want to hot-wire a community constable vehicle, though? That whole sequence was superbly directed and played, right down to the puncline of Van getting offended at being called a Pig, and then realising why he was called that.
All told, a pretty striking opening gambit, with a twist that was brilliantly managed. The challenge for them now is making sure the pacing is absolutely right as they get closer to the finishing line.
As an aside, I remember re-watching a couple of the season one episodes on DVD the other day, and what struck me is how ropey the production values were to subsequent seasons. You could actually see the joints at times, the digital video was wobbly, as was the sound. And I'm pretty sure the performances seemed more hesitant too. They really shot up after the second season, and it seemed to coincide with the moment where they got the characters figured out as well.
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Hi Jolisa/Islander
A bit late on the reply but: you can in fact watch both Jewel’s Darl and Universal Drive in full, for free, on NZ On Screen.
Also Jolisa: note we make a special mention of who the writers are in the synopses for both dramas (and in the credits) ...
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