I liked the first season or two of SFU, but last year it just got to be too much. Every episode has all these heavy painful things that are just too unpleasant to watch. With most of the HBO/SHO original series, I watch each ep at least twice to catch all the little details. But not SFU. I just can’t take it.
The real turning point for me was “That’s My Dog,” the episode in which David is abducted by the psycho. ::shudder::
I still watch, because the acting and writing are good. But I don’t look forward to it the way I do The Wire (my top favorite), Deadwood, The Sopranos, etc. The best thing about it is that it reminds me how boring and normal my family is.
(BTW, I felt the same way about Huff on Showtime by the end of its first season. Every character was experiencing major life crises simultaneously. It was just too much.)
For what its worth from a non-LA resident, but occasional visitor to that part of LA, the place where the wedding took place did look to be the Palos Verde Peninsula (home of the ex-Marineland) to me.
They look to be setting up some ugliness with Billy in the future. With George the vegetable and late Mrs. Nate Fisher dropping in to insult the bride on her wedding day, it doesn’t look like this season will be any “brighter” than that last one.
I loved the writing and delivery of that bit. Not verbatim, but close:
“Mine cost $200 an eighth.”
“Well then let’s smoke that.”
Such a natural response, if one is a smoker.
There was another exchange late in the episode I wanted to mention. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I liked it almost as much as the KGB exchange. (kind green bud…not mentioned, but obviously implied.)
On preview, I’m starting to remember. It was when the bride was getting verbally attacked by the ghost. Something about being a fuckrag or slut causing bad things to happen, and the bride muttering something about not seeing a connection. I’m remembering/describing this extremely poorly, but I thought that conversation was excellent.
I only started watching last season, and found the ghosts too gimmicky for my taste back then, but this epi has softened my opinion of them.
Interestingly, I find I don’t really care about the backstory I missed, but in a good way. Normally, if I come into a show in midrun, I get very annoyed at any backstory knowledge gaps, and it bugs the shit out of me. In SFU, it doesn’t bother me in the least. I may or may not check out the earlier seasons at some point, but not having seen them in no way detracts from the pleasant melancholy of watching these trainwrecks circle the drain.
No wait, now I remember. While I did like the dressing down from the ghost, the line that stuck with me (or not) was the bride saying that it was only natural that her perfect day involved having her baby leaking out of her.
I think that was some sort of leftover thing from Brenda watching the video of Nate and Lisa’s wedding. What’s-her-name, the movie producer (Catherine O’Hara’s character) made some snarky comment about slapping a coat of fresh white primer on a bride and she looks good as new. No matter how slutty and trashy she is, all brides look good on their wedding day… something like that.
I think Brenda was thinking people maybe thought that about her, or thought Lisa would have thought it about her.
The interiors (what they showed of them) looked like The Catalina Room.
I agree that this show has too much sadness in it. In the first season they had fun with it; but later seasons seem to have too much hardcore drama. Having such things happening to all of the characters may (or may not) reflect real life, but to cram it all into an hour is soul-crushing. I’ll still keep watching, though.
Yeah, you’d think at some point someone would have something good happen to them without something horrible following soon after! Even for a family that messed up!
The photo on your link does indeed look like the place in the show. I was only there the one time for Shayna and Spiny Norman’s wedding. Nice place, and a wonderful view. In the show, I kept trying to see the old dolphin tank. (They never got it in the shot.) As for rates, I don’t know.
I have a question about that scene for the longtime fans. Did that wedding actually happen on the show, or was it backstory from before the pilot?
I ask because I got the distinct impression that the O’Hara character didn’t actually make the over-the-top slut comment at the wedding on the tape, but that Brenda’s delusional mind projected that statement onto the tape as a realiztion of one of her worst fears.
Well, the wedding didn’t happen before the pilot. I think in the timeline it comes between series 2 and 3. And (although I could be wrong about this) I don’t think we had seen any part of it before. Claire’s video in this week’s ep was the first time, IIRC.
No, we’d never seen any of the wedding video from Nate & Lisa’s wedding before. One season ended with Nate having his surgery and Brenda leaving (driving off in her car) after they broke up. Maya had been born but was still an infant. IIRC, the white fade-out was with that “beeeeep” that accompanies someone dying in surgery and we got the placard that said “Nathaniel Fisher, Jr., 1963-2003” (or whatever the correct dates were).
The next season started off with Nate having the weird dreams of slightly different Fisher families (no Claire, a sister with a different name, him and Brenda married with a couple of kids), a weird scenario of him and his father playing chess with other dead people, David teaching a stroke-stricken Nate to talk again - then we got the placard of Nate’s death date with the “2003” fading out, and it cut to a present day barbeque, six months later, and Nate and Lisa were married.
The entire set-up on the COTW was interesting. I just knew that something was going to happen. At 1st I thought it would be her dad as a result of her leveling, but then the antique fireplace got in the way…
It ws like, “Hey, this is 6FU - we can’t have any healing around here”
I enjoyed the interplay between Brenda and Lisa - but then, I always liked the dead talking to the living. I felt like it gave some insight into Brenda, who for the most part tends to annoy me.
I felt really sorry for Ruth - George was a flake, and now he’s little more than another child for her to care for.
I find it hard to care about David because he’s been such a weenie for so long. Criminy, man, grow a spine! Keith deserves better.
Claire and Billy can’t be a good thing.
I just want to smack Nate. But then, I usually do. I also want to smack Vanessa. She and Rico need to get to a counselor and work things out. They were the only stable people on the show!
So, which characters will die before the season is over? Will we go full circle and have Ruth bury another husband?
Did anybody catch the TV Guide article about the new season? Talk about unboxed spoilers! Luckily, unlike every other show, I don’t mind being spoiled for this one, and it’s similar to how I don’t mind not having the backstory. My enjoyment is much more mood-driven than plot-driven.
Anyway, just thought I’d mention how, since I read that article, I already basically know what happens to everybody, so avoid it if you don’t want spoilers.
Wasn’t the wedding scene filmed at a church in Pasadena…All Saints if I remember correctly. At least the exterior shots of the church.
It certainly was a cheery episode. And what is it with Gay guys suddenly all wanting to adopt? Same thing is happening in Queer As Folk…I’m Gay and I can count on zero fingers the grand total of Gay couples I know who have adopted children. Is this some new trend I am missing?
It was nice to see that Brenda’s mother finally came through and said something to cheer up her daughter…about how a lot of people had miscarried before having perfectly healthy children.
The only spoiler I know is that Kal Pennwho played Kumar in the film Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle has been signed to be a major character in this last season.
