NBC's The Slap — Page 5

Can someone tell me what accent Blythe Danner was trying to use? It sounded like "late Lauren Bacall."

I'm sorry to keep harping on it, but the Australian production is light years ahead of the US one. Melissa George must be thinking "Why did I commit to this sh*t?"

I'm getting tired of Baitz' cutesy New York references. "We get delivery from the 2nd Avenue Deli." Well smell you!

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IMO, this Manolis episode was plotted better than the Australian version. The Aussie version had them going to a funeral and it went on too long.

However, I still don't like the dialogue. Manolis whining about global warming just sounds like a mouthpiece for all of Baitz' personal causes. I bet the gay episode will be nothing but an advertisement for gay marriage.

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Predictably, as one of the more vocal champion here, I thought the episode was expert. Start with the radical notion of seeing an hour dominated by characters over 50 (over 65) at 8 p.m., surely part of what many will dub "NBC's death wish." But cynicism aside about the show's abject failure in the ratings, it was a particularly well written episode for my (out of the target demographic) money, the centerpiece the brief, sharp theatrical scene in the restaurant, in which Baitz put all of the conflicting POVs and stakes literally on the table, framed by a savvy use of the old world Godfather-like patriarchal cultural. Watching the myriad but squirming responses to Nouri (riveting -- have we found our ZORBA?) as the brooding Quinto found his ray of hope was riveting. As was the penultimate scene visiting the dying relative from the old country, played for great emotion but no easy sentimentality. As one would expect: Brian Cox was superb. And in Newton's big scene with him, we learned a great deal, and felt the shifting sands under her character's feet. She was also good, as were the others, Maria Tucci moving as the dry-eyed, pragmatic matriarch, so different from the pushy presence in the public party scenes, a difference appreciated and duly noted in the writing, too.

Well, we've gotten 4 episodes; with NBC dare to give us all 8? With a 13% drop week to week? Last week .07? Jeesh, the HONEY IN VEGAS of primetime! If anything, I'm more of a fan. Some of the most original storytelling I've seen in a while.

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Updated On: 3/6/15 at 06:49 AM

On a positive note, though a truly weak one: in ratings/demos it went back up from .07 to .08, which they're calling a "14%" rise. It's pitiful, but it didn't fall.

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Yep. It actually plays like a 10 p.m. show anyway. I just enjoyed it at 8, since I seldom watch much TV and it was something early.

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What happens to those loyal to it from the beginning? Will they even know it moved? Sort of like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Why bother?

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I admit, I really did enjoy this episode--and for the first time have stopped mentally comparing each one with the Aussie equivalent (which I freely admit has been my problem and not the show's.)

I think the time change is only for the good--as Auggie says, it plays like a 10pm network drama, anyway. I assume NBC will stick with the complete series. We never were going toget a second season anyway (unless, I guess, the show had become a zeitgeist phenomenon in which case I'm sure the network would have tried to find a way to stretch it,) and NBC doesn't have much to air instead of it right now...

NBC should have made a bold move and gone back to the 1970s model. They should have broadcast the show as a mini-series, shown two episodes per night Monday through Thursday, all in one week. They could have really built a momentum with the story, rather than dragging it out over eight weeks. Unfortunately, this show was never advertised as "Must see tv." They're trying to get people talking about it on Twitter, but they never generated any excitement for it.

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I rewatched the pilot (cabin fever, more snow days) and learned things I'd missed. The show might've benefitted from the episodes playing closer together, so we could mentally access points that intersect subtly, within a smaller window. Yet the story proper is rather slow moving, not one driven by a single or even double protagonist pushing toward one goal achievement, catharsis, resolution. This is a mosaic, with pieces assembled in a seemingly random order so that a Rashomon effect can be part of the viewers' journey.

It actually makes sense to let us dip in, even if it makes demands on audiences that prime time (too) seldom attempts; even serialized cable tends to have more drive. The emotional suspense surrounding the fallout is muted. Revisiting the pilot, I see how various individual character problems are persuasively tied to the intersecting crises at the birthday party. For much of prime time audience, bigger stakes -- life and death, apocalyptic catastrophe -- seem more the melodramatic norm. This show is about lives on the cusp of ruin with a small "r", big enough stuff to most of us, but not the biggest. Its subtly -- its look at small, quotidian disappointments probably like those in our own lives -- may be its downfall on American TV.

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Updated On: 3/14/15 at 06:43 AM

Auggie27, Did you give up on this? I only watched minutes here and there during the run. While changing channels last night, it caught my attention. I didn't know much of what was happening, but the young actor playing Ritchie greatly impressed me. I hope he has some success in his future. It ended up being the finale last night. Seemed kind of anticlimactic and I wasn't even a regular watcher.

Ultimately, I fully agree with Stage Door Sally. I found the last two episodes especially compelling, with the surprises character-dictated rather than melodramatic or externally plot-driven, and all of the characters deepened. I also appreciated, starting with episode 2, as noted many times in this thread, the way the series took us outside the initial emotional incident into the crises and quotidian details of individual lives, yet always tethered the overall movement of the story to the pending legal action trajectory. It trusted the audience (all ten of us -- actually 3.4 million) to stay with it, and as we did, we found much to invest in. It ended with a flat rating, but on an evening when everything else went down.

I also noticed that NBC didn't waste a second slapping shots of Jesus on the cross atop the final images to promo the upcoming seasonal Biblical stuff. It was bizarre, but typical. All we needed was 15 seconds of a held, screen filloing shot (not asking for empty screen) to absorb the ending, but good luck with that in 2015. Among the great acting work: Alma Cuervo as the Judge, her final words especially effective. Yet to a player, the cast was superb, one of the best assembled in prime time. I hope it's not forgotten at awards season.

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Updated On: 4/3/15 at 02:39 PM

As someone who has been defending the show all along, I take it all back after that dishwater of a final episode. Auggie, while the earlier episodes may have show how small ripples have big consequences, the final episode proved they have no consequences at all.

At least they could have let Richie kill himself. THAT would have been shown trivial events leading to a big and unexpected impact.

I suppose Baitz' next project will be a rewrite of OEDIPUS in which Oedipus and Jocasta negotiate shared child custody.