I watched the first season of Longmire when it came out. It was pretty good. Kind of had a simmered-down Elmore Leonard feeling vibe: an #HONORABLEMAN whose #COREPRINCIPLES of #HEROICALTRUISM and #INDIVIDUALDIGNITY faced #DAILYCHALLENGES in a #CHANGINGWORLD. The classic western setting, but instead of the environment and the natives being the obstacles that stood in the way of his #MANIFESTDESTINY, those were now his allies in a war against the true enemy of natural man: the cell phone.
But starting with the ending of the Branch sub-branch of the tale, the show began to feel like it was being written by Donald Kaufman, with “I still have time to make another son” standing in for “We’re going to have to kill him.” The thoughtful, satisfying human stories that made Absaroka a comforting place to visit were tossed out he window and replaced with cheezee teevee cleechés and eva’durs. At the exact midpoint of the series arc, Walt’s character changed from the #STRONGSILENT#WISEMAN whose grounded and thoughtful relationship with #THETRUTH enabled him to #SEETHROUGHTHEBULLSHIT that clouded the vision of those around him, into a shortsighted easily manipulated paranoid fool who was blinded to the things that everyone else, audience included, figured out long before he did.
The final straw–among many, many egregious plot holes and lazy tropes–a straw I saw coming like the opening scene of Lawrence of Arabia–was Vic and Walt’s NO NO NO NO NO ICKY ICKY ICKY coupling starting at about 20 minutes before the end of the entire series. The vast chasm of non-chemistry yawning between these two characters makes the Grand Canyon seem like a sidewalk crack. Just, nononononononooooooo.
So I’m paused, over a bucket, at T minus 15:07, while perma-duckface Katee Sackhoff creepily traces the scars on Robert Taylor (no, not that Robert Taylor; “Agent Jones” Robert Taylor)'s leatherback carapace. More like she’s worrying a scab than caressing a lover. (I literally shuddered when I typed that word.)
So should I finish it? Or hold onto my stomach contents for a little while longer?
Go ahead and finish it. No more ickies as I remember. You’ve already identified all of them and suffered through them.
Do do do read all of his books. They do not veer from what you enjoyed in the first season and give you more time with and flesh out the interesting characters much better. TV dumbed it all down and ‘commercialized’ the stories greatly to be appealing to lower common denominators. I think you be glad you did.
Consider reading CJ Box’s series about his western game warden Joe Pickett character also. Sounds to me like you might enjoy him too.
Heh. We’re only into season 2 (Q: Does the election thing run through all of the seasons? GOD I HOPE SO! )
You do a good job of illustrating the simplistic tropes. Don’t forget the #OVERACTING! At times the show almost (just barely, dances right up to the line) seems like a spoof.
I definitely had no interest in seeing Vic and Longmire paired up, but I also couldn’t muster up any desire to rail against a union that was so joylessly preordained. All I could do is be thankful I wouldn’t have to see the relationship progress.
I liked Longmire although I agree the Vic and Walt relationship was all wrong. I thought the show always hated Vic. There was an early episode where Vic (and Branch) enter a strip club in some kind of frontier town. To gain the respect of Branch and assert her authority to the wild and lawless patrons… Vic jumps on stage and strips! She only has to (seductively) remove her shirt and the near criminal wild bunch immediately start talking to the cops!
Anyway I came here to note I find it astonishing someone could watch 62 and two thirds epsiodes of an hour long show… And then even consider not watching the final 20 minutes.
I have no real opinion on whether you should finish the last 15 min of the show.
I just logged into say, as someone who only vaguely paid attention as spouse was watching the series, that your summation is EXCELLENT and gave me quite a few chuckles.
Finally finished this on Netxflix, and doesn’t seem worth a new thread.
No way Walt and Vic should have gotten it on. That Vic was attracted to him was clear throughout, but I always thought that Walt looked to her like another daughter. Just ick. Other than that, we liked it overall.
Otherwise, I hope you watched the last 15 minutes. Thought they did a good job of closing out the series.
The Walt/Vic romance is handled much, much better in the books. It’s believable and well developed over several books. The books are worth reading, even if you have seen all the series.
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