Rectify - Season 2 (Spoilers)

Cafe Society
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I’m going to start a new thread now that Season 2 has been on Netflix for a while.

My thoughts on the show overall:

I think this show is brilliant. At times I feel like Young (as Daniel) perfectly embodies the containment of a prison cell even though he’s out in the wide world- Daniel has not yet reconciled physically being free and still lives within that psychological space- it feels palpable.

My friend commented that she wasn’t sure she liked Amantha, who was such a pain in the ass. I replied that he probably never would have been released if not for that pain in the ass.

I think the mom and sister play a nice contrast against Ted, Ted Jr, and the youngest boy. The difference between being directly (genetically, psychologically, experientially) related to a convict on death row, and being on the outside of that experience. Both Amantha and the mom show their own symptoms from that experience: Amantha is a touchy pain in the ass, and the mom has worked hard to become invisible.

My favorite scenes of all were with Kerwin. “Because I know you, because I know you, because I know you.” I bawled like a little baby at that in S1 and at the scene with them in the field with the statue in S2.

Was the goat man real? Did anybody notice that when he dropped off Daniel at the tire store, before they got there they were pulling a trailer with goats, and when he pulled away there was no trailer? Maybe just a continuity error, but I felt like that made him imaginary. But then where did he get the money? I guess I never figured that out.

Even at the end of S2, I feel like I don’t know if he did it or not. I get caught up emotionally in shows like this, so I may have missed something, but I couldn’t decide if the verbal battle between the Senator and him was a kind of reenactment of the coercion of his original confession, or whether he was allowing himself to be truthful under the guise of a strategically false plea deal.

I love to dislike Ted Jr. He is an immature, emotionally manipulative husband and Tawny needed to get the hell away from him, one way or the other.

I like the growing pains Daniel experiences in S2. He’s trying to figure out how to be. He’s too easily influenced toward bad choices (the trip to find George and resulting drug binge) just like his teenage self. But he has the capacity for maturity as well. It will be interesting to see it unfold- I feel like he could easily get pulled into a life of bad choices (just like a kid) if he doesn’t get a grip on himself at some point.

I love the connection between Daniel and Tawny, but I wonder how it will play out.

This show is all character. I love the pace.

What does everybody else think?

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Wow! Had to search for a Rectify thread and found this orphan!
Don’t have long to post right now but Mrs Macau and I watched the s3 finale last night and wondered why this show doesn’t get the props it deserves. Brilliant ending.
Hey xanthous, you’re not alone!

MiM

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It really is a great show. Such good acting and writing. Daniel is such a tragic characters and the story was heartbreaking so much of the time. The family relationships–sometimes good and sometimes bad–were some of the best depictions of family I’ve ever seen on television. The series finale (end of season 4) aired back in December. They knew it was the final season, so there is some closure–of a sort–in the end.

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Yeah, the finale had that “Let’s wrap up it up and make it end happily while ignoring all the other stuff the show built on.” quality.

Dan’l remains too much of an enigma. I miss Tawney.

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I don’t agree. I thought the whole of the last season was about how each of them changed and integrated their experiences as opposed to trying to rectify them.
My only minor issue was the deus ex machina of the life-changing amount of money dropping out of the sky for the tire (sic) and rim business.
But as is often said, YMMV.
I do agree with missing Tawney though.

MiM