Brief spoilers for last night's "The Beast" coming up just as soon as I get some prison ink...I'm still waiting for this show to rise up to the level of Patrick Swayze's performance, and it's still not coming close. The case of the week was slightly less predictable than the one from episode two, but it gave way too much of the episode's screentime to Travis Fimmel and barely dealt with the larger question of whether Barker's dirty and in what way.
Also, from a more superficial standpoint, I prefer seeing (but not living in) Chicago in winter rather than the warm climate that we've reached by this point in the production. Still lots of cool architecture, but not quite as distinctive without tons of snow on the ground.
I'm in for a little while, still, because shows like this can take a while to find themselves, but I keep having to recalibrate my hopes downward.
What did everybody else think?
My view of crime shows will unfortunately always be a bit warped because of "The Wire," but here's my big problem I'm having with The Beast. Crime shows that try to distill everything down into an hour, in my estimation, have to have some sort of levity, too. You can't be gritty and also try to get me to believe everything works out this nicely. Swayze just walks into a bar and, boom, he's infiltrated a criminal organization all the way to the top. I'm still watching, but last night I watched more because The Office/30 Rock were repeats.
ReplyDeleteI'm liking it so far. Last night avoided some of the predictable traps well enough.
ReplyDeleteSwayze just walks into a bar and, boom, he's infiltrated a criminal organization all the way to the top.
Not really. (Spoilers) Both guys he tried to con figured him out, right? It's only because he overpowers the first one and robs the new girls from the second one that he keeps ahead of them.
This show is just a little too self-serious for me. Swayze does a fine job, but his partner annoys the crap out of me, and all the cliche lines and BS bad-assery are just way over the top. For me, dawg.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to agree with you, Alan, about the show not being able to match The Swayze's performance. I'm the biggest Road House fan and love his acting on The Beast. But, damn, his partner really should have stuck to modelling. Thanfully we have D'Angelo Barksdale and Kern Little kicking around and the dude who looks like Bonnie "Prince" Billy has a great mustache. I've come to terms with the show not being that good and don't think it will but as long as I get to keep watching The Swayze do his thing, I'm sticking around.
ReplyDeleteI like Fimmel's character a little more than you Alan, but I agree the show still has not fund a groove yet. I would like to see them focus more on Chicago's crime scene, they have a lot unique gangs that are well known. I would rather see that kind of stuff than these generic criminals.
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