Lights Out: "Pilot"

Since Rocky (and its unnecessary sequels) telling original stories about boxing has become vary challenging. Yet despite this limitation, boxing stories are still being told, and some of the very well indeed. This is because that at the heart of boxing stories is the fight, the pure, unadulterated struggle of a singular man against any number of forces. The successful boxing stories are the ones that tap deep into this vein. And in this regard, Lights Out is quite good.

The struggle here, at least for now, is not in the ring, against some athlete. It is post-boxing life, as out hero Patrick Leary seeks to provide for his family after leaving the sport that he loves to save them from emotional turmoil. The promotional opportunities are running dry, and every investment opportunity is going belly up. (Kudos to Lights Out for depicting Patrick as struggling, but not utterly incompetent. The ring may be his place of glory, but he does have other marketable skills.)

Here I would like to return to the cold open, the arresting scene where we are presented with a bloody Patrick, the shit completely beaten out of him. The implied violence here is enough to carry this vingette, as we spend more time outside the ring than in. There is a slow reveal to this plot point, one which shows us that much like other issues of the show, Patrick's loss in the ring and subsequent decision to quit are not quite as black and white as they first appear.

But perhaps Lights Out's greatest strength lies in the scenes that take place outside of the ring; this is smart, as it seems this will be where we will spend the majority of the time. There is a sort of charm, a bit of happiness to combat all of the shit that Patrick faces in his life. This is ultimately key; if we were led to believe that Patrick hated his life utterly, it would be hard to cheer for him, hard to buy the turmoil that returning to boxing will ultimately bring down upon him.

Unfortunately, not all of the forces that Patrick is struggling against are entertaining in equal measure. The impending illness angle (here Alzheimer's) is one that has been done many times before, and here it gets slight treatment, which plants worry that it will be brought up again only as a plot contrivance, not as a source of true emotional drama. I also wonder about Patrick's dad, and if his presence will help or hinder the story as a whole; there wasn't enough here to make a true assessment.

However, some of the other boxing tropes are treated with a lighter hand. I like how Patrick's repressed anger is just expressed as regret for giving up the sport. He himself truly believes on some level that it was the right thing to do, and we can see he does have moral qualms about resorting to violence. The closing montage drove this point home deftly, as Patrick's words to his daughter are floated over two separate instance of violence that Patrick undertakes for the sake of his family. This moral struggle will hopefully reap large dividends in the future.

Next week, I will delve deeper into the story, and how well it applies to the approach to boxing stories the show appear to be taking.

For now, what did everybody else think?


Additional Thoughts: 

- Patrick's little speech at the dentist's dinner table edged way too close to misogyny for my taste

- Is his wife supposed to be British, or is that just the fault of the actress?

- Did you catch the promos for Justified's second season? Hell Yeah.

- And for Archer? Fuck Yeah!