So here we are. After four weeks of wondering just when Lights would finally be able to get back in the ring, we get our answer. So why doesn't it feel satisfying?
Because boxing, it turns out, is a dirty business, perhaps dirtier than when Lights left it, and it threatens to destroy the lives of those who get caught up in it. Take Johnny. He was a man scrambling to make ends meet, and he sold Lights out. (Wordplay!) When Lights finds out, he fires Johnny and tries to make it out on his own, setting up his own fights.
Take Barry. In order to have fights his way (Barry has a sense for the dramatic) he has Jo-Jo and his glass hands beaten to a pulp. He wants Lights so badly, he offers him a purse well beyond the scope of a fight of this caliber.
Take Brennan. He was the one who informed Barry of Lights plans to stake out his comeback on his own. Why? We don't know.
Or take Lights. Lights is a moral guy, one who wants to do the best for his family above all else, but as he admits to Teresa in a moving closing scene, he also wants to fight. He also so badly wants to keep secret his ailment from Teresa, that he morally blackmails his daughter, looming over her in a scary fashion.
The episode was perhaps more formless than the premise would suggest; most people might expect it to have been more driven by Lights' return to the ring. Yet Lights has yet to win and his problems are far from over, and it is those problems that drive the episode. Yet this episode keeps piling them on, as it is suggested that Lights' boxing will exacerbate his ailment, Brennan is obviously working some large angle against Light's, and then of course there's the divorce. Or was it a separation? Either way it hit Lights hard, and this is obviously going to send him on a self-destructive spiral.
But what do we have to gain from this? In short, everything. These past four episodes have been mostly set up, and they have suffered for it. They have been good, but never as good as it feels that they could be. But with all of these problems now in the air, the drama can kick in, and there were hopefully be some beautifully dark moments coming up.
But even better, some of the elements that don't work should disappear in the future. Teresa the nag was back this week, after two episodes in which she was humanized. The effect wasn't helped tonight when compared with Daniella's own objections to her father's return to the ring. Whereas Teresa's objections seem selfish – she wants stability in the home, she wants to be able to focus on her career – Daniella is only worried about her father's health. The upshot of all of this is that the scene when Teresa calls for a break is perhaps not as moving as it should be. If it had come at the end of either of the last two episodes, I would have been sad. As is, I'm mostly glad that there won't be such a naysayer in Light's corner.
In my review of the pilot I likened Lights Out to a boxing movie. To carry that analogy further, we can think of the first five episodes as a sort of prologue, and the next seven are going to be the meaty part of the story. I can't wait to get my teeth into them.
What did everybody else think?
Additional Thoughts:
Okay, how creepy was the cold open? I never expected this show to give me chills, but there they were
I couldn't really find a place to put this in the review, but that scene between Teresa and Pop was just heartbreaking and beautiful. Props to Stacy Keach.
“Mom's already a wreck. I would hate to have to tell her.” Is it possible to be caring and conniving at the same time?
Hey, no shots of bare male ass this week! Hooray!
No comments:
Post a Comment