Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 6: “No Mo’ Mojo”

SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard
Season 2, Episode 6: “No Mo’ Mojo”
Directed by Tim Southam
Written by Nick Damici & Jim Mickle

* For a recap & review of the penultimate episode, “Pie a la Mojo” – click here
The finale of Season 2 opens, years ago, as a boy – little BB with the red shoes – is chased into the old church, past that familiar gate. Someone grabs him and smashes a rock into his head. The man removes the gate, takes the kid, then at the lake tosses him in tied to the thing. Others watch on, then they leave, disappearing into the mist. Are they spirits? Watching on as history is repeated and repeated?
I have a feeling we’re soon going to learn more in this last episode.
Pic 1A Hap and Leonard (James Purefoy & Michael K. Williams) reminisce on religion’s “strong medicine” v. its “strong poison” in relation to Rev. Fitzgerald (Dohn Norwood), his insane murders. A devastating thing for their East Texas town to wallow in, as the church holds a ceremony for all the boys lost. Everybody’s there, from Sheriff Valentine Otis (Brian Dennehy) to Florida Grange (Tiffany Mack), Dt. Hanson (Cranston Johnson), and many more. The greasy, insincere Sheriff takes the pulpit, shelling out verbal sympathy for the families. Blah, blah, blah. And certainly our heroic pair get no thanks or recognition for their role in, essentially, solving the case on their own. Best of all, in this scene we get to watch Hap and Leonard do their BEST buddy comedy routine, with a lot of pitch perfect dialogue.
Hap: “I ain‘t never been more proud to be an atheist than I am today”
Leonard: “Amen to that”
Stella and the other mothers who lost their boys do know the truth, that the eponymous duo are the ones who actually figured out what happened, giving them all closure. Sadly, Hap still has one worry – that Hanson and Ms. Grange are getting together. Likewise, Leonard comes home to find Raoul, who’s tracked down Ivan’s (Olaniyan Thurmon) father; the kid is going home. And much as our man tries to pretend like he’s hard, Leonard is going to miss him; their bonding over Huck Finn and his adventures was sweet. Also, I’d love to see Raoul and Leonard get back together. They’re good.
AND POOR MEEMAW! I miss her. In her wake, Florida and others are left reeling with the news of the reverend, a man who pulled the wool over all their eyes. Left without Meemaw’s wisdom to get through it all.
Florida drops a bomb on Hap: “I always saw myself with a black man.” This is a gut punch. Whoa. Poor fella.
Hap’s got other things in mind, though. After seeing a curious number of angel figurines at Meemaw’s place while he and Florida pack everything up. Across the way, Leonard hears Chester speak to him from somewhere else, saying that the work isn’t done. Hap and Leonard now believe that BB was killed by someone other than the reverend. And I’m pretty sure we all know that someone was Sheriff Valentine Otis, who’s receiving a visit from Dt. Hanson about those red shoes and the very same line of questioning as our duo have on their minds.

Hap and Leonard get talking to Hanson’s partner Charlie Blank (Douglas M. Griffin). He’s reluctant to say much, after his trouble from shooting TJ. But they’re further on their journey now. Towards the truth. They’ve got their eye on the big bad sheriff. Only he’s got his eye on them, too. He’s much too craft. Then, at the diner, they notice the waitress Miriam has a chain: it reads BB.
The boys go see Miriam at home. They show her the BB chain, which shocks her. Such a sad thing to watch, especially when she’s been serving that old bastard every day at the diner. All that’s left is what Hap and Leonard will do, while they try to figure out how to handle Valentine, and when’s the best time for that. Not only is the history of BB with them, the history of the deaths of their fathers, covered up and forgotten is at their backs.
Leonard: “Things change, Hap. People don‘t.”
They lay what they know at Valentine’s feet. They want to know the truth, about everything. He acts nonchalant about the entire thing. A revelation comes: BB was Valentine’s son, he wears the same chain with the initials around his neck. The mystery thickens. “That boy was the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me,” he explains, and how he couldn’t claim the kid because of the “colour of his skin.” Then they reveal that Fitzgerald never killed BB, which disturbs him terribly.

And who killed him? Just as it’s revealed, we see Judge Beau Otis walk in. He’s visibly upset by the talk. We know now, it was the rightful son upset over the illegitimate child his father had with a black woman who killed the boy. WHOA! Holy fuck, did not see this coming. Great suspense and mystery in the writing led to this moment. The father knocks his son into an empty pool nearby, splitting his head open wide. A sort of strange, bittersweet moment as Hap and Leonard watch the man who killed their fathers die at the hands of his own.
In the meantime, Hap his dad’s old repair truck fixed up with the nice, fresh decal on the side for Bud Collins’ business. He and Leonard head out for a drive, where they bring the old gate back to the church and put it in place again. Full circle, as the two put it.
Leonard: “Y‘know, in the end, it‘s always me and you.”
Hap: “Just like the Lone Ranger and Tonto”
Leonard: “Yeah, well… c‘mon Tonto.”
And as they leave the church, the spirits of those who died there, the boys, those taken by the KK, and sweet Meemaw, they appear again in their rightful places, able to move on from the darkness.

Pic 4C An amazing Season 2! With a distressing, dark cap at the end where we see a tree with a noose in it, and in the yard a woman finishes putting KKK linens on the line. OH, baby. Give Joe Lansdale, Nick Damici, Jim Mickle & Co. the greenlight, SundanceTV! We need a Season 3. Pronto. With plenty of mojo.
Pic 4D

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Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 5: “Pie a la Mojo”

SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard
Season 2, Episode 5: “Pie a la Mojo”
Directed by Tim Southam
Written by Joe R. Lansdale

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Bad Mojo” – click here
* For a recap & review of the Season 2 finale, “No Mo’ Mojo” – click here
Hap and Leonard (James Purefoy/Michael K. Williams) have found the carnival at the end of the Idaho-like bus route. They see the ghost of Chester, we see them as boys. And the old man tells them, once and for all: “Finish this.”
Florida Grange (Tiffany Mack) is dealing with Detective Hanson (Cranston Johnson) and it isn’t all roses, either. At the same time, Hap and Leonard are staking out at Meemaw’s (Irma P. Hall) place where she looks after young Ivan (Olaniyan Thurmon), who’s not entirely loving being shut in. Lord knows I love me some Meemaw! Ms. Hall is a treasure, and you can see her having fun playing the role. In other news, TJ (Kelvin Brown) helps our boys sneak out of the house under Sneed’s (Evan Gamble) nose.
TJ: “Nobody expects the retard”
And now, Hap and Leonard get themselves labourer jobs with the carnival to go undercover, to try rooting out the killer of those boys. Is it all so simple? Well they run into an old friend, the flexible and fun Judy Punch (Bonnie Morgan); she’s too “old for the pole” nowadays, so, carnival it is!
Pic 1A Our titular heroes are on the constant lookout for any clues as to who killed the boys. Everything is suspicious, from behaviour to tattoos to look; anything could mean danger. Leonard drops a nice Ray Bradbury reference calling a tattooed carny serving food The Illustrated Man. They ask Judy if there are any noticeable candidates, and she suggests a few possibles giving them something to chew on. She also gets her hands on employee files for Hap, as well as hopes he’ll put a couple hands on her, too. Instead, he clings to responsibility. To do right by the missing, murdered boys that have piled up over the years. Somehow, despite her wonderful abilities, he refuses. Now that’s some strength, especially for ole Hap.
Judy: “I may not be as limber as I used to be, but I can still do more with six inches than a monkey can with a hundred feet of grapevine.”
Then there’s Leonard, searching the trailer of the tattooed guy. Turns out he’s a big bear of a man in the bedroom, ready to play. And those tattoos, they’re for sobriety. Poor Leonard barely makes it out alive, away from the sexual tyrannosaurus.
Back at Meemaw’s, Ivan is bored out of his mind. Can’t stand reading. Though she tries to show him the joy of it, that it helps you live a life inside the pages without having to always go out, letting you get into the trouble with Huck Finn without having to get into the trouble yourself. But the kid isn’t down for that.
Hanson and his partner follow Florida to a garage, where she finds her own way inside. Where Hap and Leonard have been putting up their investigation links, the pictures of the boys, everything they’ve discovered so far. Leading the detectives right to it all. And y’know what they think immediately. Moreover, Sneed tracks them to the carnival, so an APB is out, as Ivan happens to stroll in. Another boy in danger.
In Judy’s trailer Hap and Leonard look over the employees, but the latter’s not sure they can take on an investigation of this size, just the two of them. Police are likely better equipped, yes; do they care as much? Doubt that. Regardless, the cops are already there, searching them out. As is Florida, trying to find them first. She finds Hap, and Leonard tries to get the Reverend Fitzgerald (Dohn Norwood) to get his group of kids out of there in case something bad goes down. After all, it’s the “third Saturday of every October” and tonight is that night.
This whole sequence is edited to perfection, taking us from Hap to Florida, to them together, to Leonard. Hap and Leonard writer Joe R. Lansdale’s (who wrote this episode) daughter is in this episode, too; we see her now and then. But this sequence is so well done, executed with expert directing and writing in combination.
Best part – Leonard saves Hap from arrest on the back of a horse! So Texas, so awesome.
When they get out to the crypt, they find TJ there. With Ivan in the car. The big man says he’s “making angels” and that he put Ivan to sleep. Shit. A shotgun cocks in the background, then out comes the Reverend Fitzgerald. He and TJ were doing God’s work, supposedly. WHOA! I actually wondered if this was the case, the reverend that is – I didn’t see TJ coming – but dismissed it, and this surprised the hell out of me.
Rather than go down like that, Hap and Leonard get the jump on Fitzgerald. Then TJ joins in the fight. The boys break out into a brawl, as Leonard kicks the shit out of the (un)holy man with some of that military training. Before much else happens the cops arrive, to find the rev with a shotgun trained on the boys. Nothing more can be said before Fitzgerald turns the gun on himself and blows his face off. Poor TJ wanders out into things, as well. And Hanson’s partner fires on in him preemptively. Brutal stuff. At least Ivan’s not dead!
Now the corpses of those 13 boys in the crypt are uncovered, what Hap and Leonard had been finding out on their own is given credence instead of them getting blamed. Heroes who won’t get any credit, most likely.

Only thing is, someone has to tell Meemaw the truth. Hanson comes to do it, but Leonard offers. So it’ll be easier from someone she knows personally. Oh, just thinking of it breaks my heart. She takes it on herself, believing it her fault. She did all she could do for the boy, the rev turned him bad, manipulated him. “I thought if I just loved him hard enough…” she tries explaining to Leonard. Meemaw believes the devil followed her after that church was burned by the KKK all those years ago. Bless his heart, Leonard tries convincing her that’s not the case. And she does make a good point about the transformative power of love – Chester changed Leonard, Florida changed Hap.
Then we’re given another blow. Meemaw, as if done with life, gives up and dies right there in front of the pair. Like all of life’s unfairness toppling around us, in the background while they lament Judge Beaut Otis celebrates re-election. Nasty stuff.

God damn you, Joe Lansdale! For making me cry tonight. Bastard (I actually love you, man). What an episode. Didn’t think the series could get any better, and then it tops my expectations. “No Mo’ Mojo” is next, the Season 2 finale. SundanceTV better give us another season or I’ll riot.

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Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 4: “Bad Mojo”

SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard
Season 2, Episode 4: “Bad Mojo”
Directed by Abe Sylvia
Written by Abe Sylvia & Ione Lloyd

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Holy Mojo” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Pie a la Mojo” – click here
A young Hap and Leonard are at the fair. Even back then Hap was in love with Florida, though worried he wasn’t good enough. And the pair loved one another, Hap and Leonard, even then. Unafraid to show their affection for each other. In the garage, present day, Hap (James Purefoy) wakes to find Sneed (Evan Gamble) and a few other cops there to arrest him. Now he’s in a cell across from Leonard (Michael K. Williams), in for the arson he committed. Hap’s in for kidnapping Judge Beau Otis, whom he recently discovered is epileptic; wonder if that’ll come into play again down the road, or if it had anything to do with his killing of their fathers. Hmm.
Pic 1A Sheriff Valentine (Brian Dennehy) has a talk with Hap about whether he’s a “troublemaker.” He does not want any trouble with his brother; he is poised to be the new county judge. So it’s either leave things alone with Beau and go home, both he and Leonard, or else it’ll look grim. And no more digging around where neither of them belong. Some rough talk. In an interrogation, Leonard’s dealing with Dt. Hanson (Cranston Johnson) and his racist partner, neither of them being too friendly. As always, Mr. Pine won’t do the dance, not for a black cop or a white cop or anyone else that wants him to tell lies about himself.
Leonard: “And we ain‘t no brothers. Slack or no slack.”
At least he’s out of jail, and Hap, too. Neither of them immediately see a way forward. It’s all over, so Hap heads out to work and Leonard goes to check on Ivan (Olaniyan Thurmon). They did their best. That’s all they can do, right?
Florida (Tiffany Mack) has an awkward meeting with Hap at the diner after she didn’t show up for his and Leonard’s arrest. It wasn’t hooking up that made her stay away, it’s the fact they’re constantly in trouble and poking around in some dangerous business. What I love about this episode so far is that Hap seems to be having some strange daydreams, from hooking up with Florida to the Village People. Over with Meemaw (Irma P. Hall), Leonard and Ivan get closer. Then Leonard notices the picture of the church on her mantle, where the gate stood. A troubling thought. It was long ago, when Meemaw was a girl. She tried putting out the far the Klansmen set, burning her arms. Such a sad thing to see when she tells Leonard of what happened that day.

Dt. Hanson is looking at the child’s body in the morgue. His partner Charlie is worried that he’ll be caught “tampering” but it’s only the fact he knows there’s more afoot. Hanson pushes on, he’s starting to feel there is more than meets the eye. Suddenly, Sheriff Valentine arrives, as the detectives hide. The old man is there to visit the body. He has the shoes. Holy fuck. And with the detectives watching on unseen he puts the little red shoes right in the body bag, signing off forms for the medical examiner. Washing his hands of the situation, the body off for cremation. Or so he thinks. There is no way Hanson will let this sit on his conscience, at least not forever.
I love how, using the same line of dialogue, Hap and Leonard both figure out the gate is from a church. It’s just excellent writing, and they each deliver the line is such different yet similar ways that the respective scenes are perfect. Hap does a bit more investigating, trying to figure out if the church he’s located is the one where the gate stood years ago. During a charity boxing event at the church, he gets in on a boxing match and things get heated in front of Florida and the audience as Hap and the pastor throw fists. Ultimately the white boy goes down, not without a decent fight.
Meanwhile, Leonard’s tracking down information on the church. And he’s haunted by the ghost of his uncle Chester, as well as Illium Moon.

Leonard: “Goddamn peckerheads all think alike”
Hap: “I thought it was great minds”
Leonard: “In your case, peckerheads.”
The pair are getting closer and closer, finding their way to where Old Hope church used to stand. All that’s left are the bricks of the foundation, nothing much standing. Then they fall right through an old, broken floor. Through the basement they find coffins labelled with years. Inside, more children. Disturbing, to say the least. Now the boys have got themselves a handful; way more than that, two arm loads. They set themselves up an investigation, connecting dates, names of the missing boys. An elaborate puzzle they’ve got to put together, because it looks as if whoever’s been taking those boys and killing them isn’t done with whatever they’d planned.
Hanson and his partner are distraught over what they’ve seen. Although it’s the former who’s more interested in actually digging out the truth. Not just that they’re in the dark, struggling for clues. Hap and Leonard are further ahead in their investigation than the actual police force. A great testament to the lack of care put into missing black children; we think it’s bad today, it was even worse in the ’80s.

Hap and Leonard are trailed by the police on the latest leg of their adventure. They pop in to see Stella at the salon. She’s sly, as are the other ladies sitting around getting their hair done. Great moment as Stella tells the cops to find her missing son while they’re so concerned with tracking down the pair. Then the other mothers show up. Hap and Leonard are the only ones looking for the missing boys.
Love the sequence set to Johnny Cash’s “Wayfaring Stranger” as the pair ride a bus, all the young black boys and girls around them. What would otherwise be a beautiful sequence of all the smiling faces, the youthful innocence, is a tragic sight; seeing Hap especially look at them is like a gut punch, knowing any one of them could go missing and barely anyone would flinch as is the case with BB and the others. Haunting sequence, one of the best in the series as a whole.
Pic 4D

Arriving at a carnival, now knowing part of their map of the missing boys links to the busses and Idaho, Hap and Leonard have more to go on. BB’s little body has been cremated, but the shoes aren’t gone yet.
The next episode is “Pie a la Mojo” and it looks intense! Pumped to see what goes on next in this stellar adaptation of Joe R. Lansdale’s characters and novels.

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Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 3: “Holy Mojo”

SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard
Season 2, Episode 3: “Holy Mojo”
Directed by Abe Sylvia
Written by John Wirth

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “Ticking Mojo” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Bad Mojo” – click here
Some little black boys and girls play near a graveyard, some hide and seek. Off in the distance are hooded Klansmen on their way towards the church. The children are rushed into a basement, as the white hoods march closer with gas and ropes fashioned into nooses. But one little girl doesn’t make it down, witnessing the burning of her church, the hanging of a groundskeeper. A brutal, vicious moment. She continues to count for hide and seek; better than watching.
Pic 1A Present day, we see Hap (James Purefoy) and Leonard (Michael K. Williams) on their way up to Moon’s cabin, talking about Florida Grange (Tiffany Mack). When they arrive, they find a van in the river with Moon inside, dead. Now the pair worry for what happens to Leonard. Hap wants to move the body, though his trusty buddy tells him: “That‘s bad mojo.” The chemistry between Purefoy and Williams is so charming and undeniable, they’re perfect as Joe R. Lansdale’s eponymous characters. Instead of reporting anything to the police the boys sink the van further in the river, to keep on with their own investigation. They also stumble upon the steel gate to which the child under Chester’s house was tied; where the hands remain.
Florida goes to talk with Judge Beau Otis (John McConnell) about recusing himself from the Pine case. She uses the information about Hap and Leonard’s fathers against him, though he acts high and mighty, refusing to bend. She pulls a nice little power move before leaving, eating one of his fries.
At home, Hap goes over clues in the case, putting together all the evidence he can gather. Looking over maps, newspaper articles. Meanwhile, Leonard looks after Ivan (Olaniyan Thurmon), cooking for him and trying to imbue the boy with a sense of personal responsibility. He then gets a visit from Detective Hanson (Cranston Johnson) with a warrant to search the place. Ivan takes off, tossing the secret box he holds onto Melton’s (Sedale Threatt Jr) roof. Hmm.

Florida wants the boys to talk to Moon, so Hap’s got to do some covering. Wonder if it’ll take long before the truth comes out. Time being, “dirty old man” Hap can’t keep his eyes off Ms. Grange. She has her hands full with the case, butting heads with Dt. Hanson over Officer Sneed (Evan Gamble) lurking around after assaulting Leonard. Worse than that Sneed spied Ivan tossing that box. Can’t imagine where that’ll lead; someplace nasty.
One good thing – Hap and Leonard find Ivan stowed away in the truck, and he says he knows where the gate came from, he can take them there. One bad thing? Hanson and Florida go to find Moon, and the detective comes across evidence suggesting he’s nowhere to be found. Uh oh.
That good thing, it ain’t so good when Hap and Leonard end up somewhere they shouldn’t be, and a group of neighbourhood women surround the boys. They want them to hand over Ivan. Afterwards, they go to see Stella (Shirlene King), the lady in charge. When they tell her about investigating the disappearance of all those boys, she’s got information that may help – the gate came from a church – and it’s possible her boy was one of the boys taken.
Leonard: “Ain‘t no runnin‘ from your shadow”
Judge Otis shows up at the gas station where Hap works. For a fill-up, and a talk about Leonard. A sassy talk, especially for a man who’s a judge and killed a couple people while driving drunk. For that, Hap cuts up some equipment under the guy’s hood and lets him go on.

Stopping at a store, Leonard comes back outside to find Ivan gone. And a cheap cigar left behind smoking. Sneed? I’d bet on it.
Broke down on the road, Judge Otis is met by Hap in the tow truck. He busts out one of the guy’s windows, then forces him into the woods. He tells the Judge a story about an old man and the dog he loved, a bad, sour dog. One day a kid was bitten by the dog, right in the chest, in the heart. Before Hap can bash the Judge’s head in, he nearly has a heart attack. He leaves the man in the woods to run off eventually.
At a diner, Sheriff Valentine Otis (Brian Dennehy), father of Beau, has a talk with Florida. About jobs, who’s doing them well, who isn’t, on top of what’s been going on in their little East Texas town. Looks like the Otis family are a gang of alcoholics, a running familial trait. Not only that, they love making threats. “Be careful,” Sheriff Valentine warns Florida before heading out.
And Leonard, he goes to see Sneed. Catches him in the bath. Just so happens Leonard brought a bit of salt, a radio; to get the conductivity going for when he tosses the thing in – except the unsuspecting officer doesn’t realise it’s a battery-powered radio. He also grabs a handful of Sneed’s balls, squeezing, looking for info about Ivan. Sneed gives up information about Melton, which is where he brought the boy. Leonard goes to Melton’s, finding Ivan shot up with drugs by the nasty dealer and his friends; he brings the kid to Meemaw (Irma P. Hall) then goes to clean up the neighbourhood.
Pic 4A

Florida goes to tell Hap he needs to lay off Judge Otis, or else Leonard’s ending up behind bars. She wants him to be honest, about everything. He reveals that Moon is dead, though she knew. And a bit of honesty goes a long way to getting the two together, which Hap was leaning for since he met Florida.
While they get down, Leonard gets busy. As in molotov cocktail busy, tossing some fire into Melton’s place and watching it burn. On the roof, the box burns, too; what was in it exactly? We’ll never know, likely. Something to incriminate Leonard, and luckily Ivan chose not to leave it at Chester’s for anyone to find.
What’s most interesting? Meemaw has a photo on her mantle. One of a church, and standing in front of it is the gate to which that child’s body was tied. This is the church we saw those Klansmen attack in the opening scene. BOOM!

What a stellar followup to the second episode. Just awesome adapted writing, the characters are so vivid and intriguing. Purefoy, Williams, Mack, everyone is doing a fine job with the performances. Can’t wait for “Bad Mojo” next week! What do you think the boys will get up to? And can Florida help Leonard avoid the slammer?

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Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 2: “Ticking Mojo”

SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard
Season 2, Episode 2: “Ticking Mojo”
Directed by Maurice Marable
Written by Abe Sylvia

* For a recap & review of the Season 2 premiere, “Mucho Mojo” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Holy Mojo” – click here
Young Ivan (Olaniyan Thurmon) wakes in the bed at Leonard’s (Michael K. Williams) place, a bit disoriented and rightfully scared. Then he runs into the old man from the van. He chases the boy, but Ivan gets the jump on him. The old man finds something hidden in a vent on the wall, like an old lunchbox.
Ivan escapes then waits in the weeds for a chance to run. Only he can’t once a bag is thrown over his head and he’s whisked off.
Pic 1A Leonard’s in jail, of course. Fingered in a lineup by Melton (Sedale Threatt Jr), who got pissed on last time by Mr. Pine. He meets with his attorney Florida Grange (Tiffany Mack) and Hap (James Purefoy). Things don’t look great. They’re okay, for now. Except he’s got to ride out the weekend in jail. The police are also flooded with lots of black women, looking for their missing children, wanting to know more about the investigation. Heartbreaking and tragic.
Florida and Hap try to rally the mothers, all of them knowing the police aren’t doing anything for the missing kids. So it’s another case of Hap being placed in a position to help; both the community and his best friend Leonard. However, the mothers all reveal that Chester Pine came to them in a suspicious way, every last one remembering his name. Very troubling. We discover Chester put Florida through law school. Huh! Then again, as she notes: “That‘s what they do.” As in those who prey on children.
One of the officers interviews Leonard, along with a sac of oranges, a hammer, some books. Old torture techniques. In the meantime, Hap tries to get in to see his buddy with some Nilla wafers. He’s too drunk. And Leonard takes a hard beating before Detective Hanson (Cranston Johnson) stops the psychopath cop.
At a black church Hap shows up to sit with Florida, stopping the congregation in their tracks. She refuses, so Meemaw lets him have a seat in her pew. Hilarious to see him clap with no rhythm next to all those happy, celebrating black worshippers. Reverend Fitzgerald (Dohn Norwood) preaches about the sheriff’s department not helping. And right then Sheriff Valentine (Brian Dennehy) strolls in to take the pulpit. He and Judge Beaut Otis stand up there together, Valentine talks about trying build bridges, blah, blah, blah. Nobody’s buying it; not the congregation, not Hap, either.
Meemaw (pointing to Hap): “You see that man standin‘ there? That is the only white man I like.”
Otis: “What about Jesus?”
Meemaw: “Jesus wasn’t white”
In his cell, Leonard gets a visit from a creepy old man. Is he the man from the van? He does some voodoo stuff, sprinkling a line of salt in front of the cell. He hands over a book. One about cowboys, from Leonard’s childhood. Inside are hollowed out pages containing a chicken’s foot. Next day is court. No bail for Leonard and a trial in six weeks. Judge Otis is definitely one of the racists running things behind the scenes in East Texas.
The bombshell? Otis is the one who ran down Mr. Collins and Mr. Pine on that dark, rainy road. Holy fuck. Hap now has something he can hold over the judge’s head to get Leonard out on bail.

With Leonard out, Florida and Hap try to get him laying low. He isn’t happy. Worse still, he doesn’t like that they’re leaning towards Chester being involved in some shady shit. Either way the truth is coming out. Whether it’s a truth Leonard can handle dealing with is another story. But he packs up and gets ready. Meanwhile, Raoul is worried about Ivan. This leads Leonard to discovering his broken cowboy that’s been there since he was 9; the one Ivan smashed on the man’s head. This and the pennies on the windowsill, a chicken foot hanging from the ceiling, all leads them to a man named Elia Moon – the eerie old man, who also spends quite a deal of time near children.
Off go our two brave self-made detectives. They find a shack up in the woods, booby trapped, the entire place covered in dead animals and skins. They stumble onto the old man hiding in a closet. He’s been waiting. An odd duck, though seemingly harmless. He says Chester was actually trying to figure out the mystery of the missing boys before he died.
At the same time, it’s revealed Melton is the one holding Ivan. And he wants the boy to hide something at Chester’s house.

Over at home Leonard sees Ivan is back, acting like nothing’s wrong. Later, Raoul also reveals to Leonard he’s been seeing somebody. Upstairs, the kid a box Melton gave him: is there incriminating evidence inside? I’d bet on it.
Hap gives an alibi for Leonard in 1986. They were seeing a Howard Hawks double feature: The Big Sleep and Red River. Or y’know, that’s what he says. “Devotion” as Florida puts it.
Back at Elia’s place the old man is worried about “bad mojo” in the air, as all his hung up beer bottles start falling from their strings and smashing all over the ground. An omen? It sends Elia off in a rush. He sees a vision of a little black boy, covered in blood. Right before he drives into the river. Another blow to the case for Leonard.

Just a perfect followup to the first episode in Season 2! SO MUCH MOJO.
Bring it on, baby. Give me more.

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Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 1: “Mucho Mojo”

SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard
Season 2, Episode 1: “Mucho Mojo”
Directed by Maurice Marable
Written by Nick Damici & Jim Mickle

* For a recap & review of the Season 1 finale, “Eskimos” – click here
* For a recap & review of the next episode, “Ticking Mojo” – click here
Pic 1A There’s a dark secret buried, one that Hap Collins (James Purefoy) and Leonard Pine (Michael K. Williams) will soon stumble upon. This season we open on someone disposing of a young person’s body, tying them, then dumping their corpse in a lake. Terrible things go on unseen. But it doesn’t take long for them to emerge for all to see.
Back again to the world of the ever fantastic Joe Lansdale!
Hap’s picked up the remains of Trudy; ash in a box. And while he loved her, that’s one less giant mess in his life. Everything for him is messy, from relationships to his piece of shit car door. He gets by for now working as a mechanic. In other news, Leonard’s at home getting a hard back massage from his boyfriend Raoul. He’s got problems with neighbours, too. Nothing that a cane can’t stop, or a bit of piss in the face. What I love about Leonard is he’s gay and black in the late ’80s, so there are bound to be more situations that arise from that, living in the South and all. A little later, he steps through a floorboard in his dead uncle’s old place: now he’s found the secrets long ago covered up, forgotten about.

Leonard: “The dead don‘t give a shit about what happen to ‘em – they‘re dead.”
The two friends go digging under Chester’s floorboards more, inspecting the skeleton they’ve found. It’s a child, a small one. Same sneakers as the one dragged from the lake. Now Leonard wonders if his uncle knew, especially considering how long Chester lived there and how decomposed the body is currently. So, what next?
A kid runs off with Trudy’s ashes, sending Hap and Leonard on a chase. Then the box gets tossed into a garbage truck driving past. Instead of letting it get away, Leonard stops the truck to get Trudy back.
The boys alert the police to the body under Chester’s house, which marks the place as a crime scene. But you just know them two are gonna get up to something soon enough. The old lady across the street doesn’t believe Chester had anything to do with the body, though the police – Detective Hanson (Cranston Johnson) in particular – are investigating with suspicion. And someone in a van lurks around the neighbourhood. Very likely the one responsible for that body’s existence.
Leonard talks with Dt. Hanson at the precinct, as Hap talks with another detective. Some uncomfortable conversation comes up when Hanson says “you people” enjoy little kids; he means homosexuals. Nasty. Likewise, Hap faces scrutiny about his status as a conscientious objector during Vietnam, all the mess they got into with Trudy and the rest of her friends. After all that they discover there were no feet or hands or sneakers on the body. Was this the work of the man in the van? Hmm. Either way, a lawyer named Florida Grange (Tiffany Mack) arrives to help the boys in their predicament.
Florida: “Don‘t underestimate me ‘cause I‘m beautiful, Mr. Collins.”

I love watching Hap watch Leonard and Florida pass the hot sauce between each other, putting a load on their food. Such a perfect look, as he tries to get himself a taste and they just keep on shaking the bottle.
After food they start picking through the mystery in their neighbourhood. Meemaw across the street offers what little help she can. Hap and Leonard keep an eye on Chester’s place from hers, and they also have a heart to heart about Trudy. In the morning they meet Reverend Fitzgerald (Dohn Norwood), who does a bit of preaching, though neither Hap nor Leonard are too interested in religion. He talks about Sodom and Gomorrah, fittingly foolish with a proud gay man at the table.
When Leonard goes over to check on his house, he finds Ivan (Olaniyan Thurmon), the kid who stole the ashes. He’s nearly dead from an overdose. Unable to locate the kid’s parents, Raoul convinces Leonard to take care of the boy for now in their place, to which he very reluctantly agrees.
One of the detectives goes to meet Hap at the garage where he works. He wants to know more about the sneakers they saw on the body. On top of that he’s suspicious of Leonard being a “darkie” and all. And you know are man doesn’t approve of that shit, so he dismisses the detective rather fast.

Trying to dump Trudy’s ashes off a bridge, Hap drops the box in the river. Like the man he is he goes in after it diligently. Then he scatters them onto the water around him, soaking in Trudy, and strangely happy.
At home, Leonard puts Ivan to bed. When he takes the boys shoes off he sees his name written on them, similar to the BB on the red sneakers. Suspicious? Or nothing at all? Either way, right now Leonard’s being taken in by police. Great, now Hap’s going to have to get his ass in gear while his friend is locked up behind bars.
And outside the house sits the man in the van, watching. Who is he?

What a spectacular start to Season 2! Love, love, love this series. Lansdale’s writing, his characters, the atmosphere, it is all palpable in the adaptation by Damici and Mickle.

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The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 8: “The Call of the Wild”

HBO’s The Night Of
Season 1, Episode 8: “The Call of the Wild”
Directed by Steven Zaillian
Written by Richard Price & Zaillian

* For a review of the previous episode, “Ordinary Death” – click here
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Detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp) is going through the motions. He watches security footage of the night in question, over and over. He watches Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed) pick up Andrea Cornish (Sofia Black D’Elia). He keeps the crime scene photos nearby. He’s meant to be retiring and yet can’t let any of this go. He notices, in the security footage, that Andrea looks behind her, as if watching for somebody. Her eyes widened. Box knows there is something else going on behind those eyes, so he wonders.
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In court, Trevor Williams (J.D. Williams) is on the stand. Chandra Kapoor (Amara Karan) grills him on the lie he told, about being alone on that night. He’s not exactly a credible witness. District Attorney Helen Weiss (Jeannie Berlin) opts not to ask any questions, probably for the best. But then Duane Reade (Charlie Hudson III), the other man with Trevor the night of the murder, is put on the stand, too. Well, Chandra dives on in to get more information. It works. Seems that Duane’s M.O. is to find the weapon of choice for his crimes while inside the victim’s home. Doesn’t look good for Mr. Reade. Except Weiss asks no questions to him, either. John Stone (John Turturro) thinks Chandra’s doing a splendid job, so he heads out. She later gets the hearse driver, the creepy misogynist, on the stand. He does his best to make himself credible, yet Chandra pokes holes in his explanations. The whole scene is very eerie.
Meanwhile, John still has eyes on Don Taylor (Paul Sparks), Andrea’s stepfather. He brings a subpoena for Don, to appear in court on the stand. Plus he makes sure the sly dude knows there’ll be no more threats, or else a guy “from New Jersey” – one of John’s clients – will be paying him a visit. Next day on the stand, Don reels off a story about Andrea being an addict, her mother, as well. The details of their relationship come out while Chandra prods about the will, so on. Not looking good for ole Don. Not looking good for several people. I also worry about Weiss, she seems so tricky. Biding her time, not cross examining. What’s her plan?
There’s so much mystery, though. It’s why I love this series so god damn much. Don is implicated, as is Duane, even Trevor to an extent. And you know what, even Naz is still slightly suspicious simply because of his secretive past of violence that he let nobody know of, as well as his history of selling Adderall to fellow students.

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And then there’s Box, tracking down more security footage that they never bothered to find before. Andrea argues with a man, heated and intense. She leaves him standing alone on a street corner, before the man then follows behind her a little ways. This sends the detective on a journey.
Naz has all but become a junkie while waiting in Rikers Island for the nightmare to be over. He scrapes out every last balloon and package he can to get a tiny little bump, to keep him straight. At that very same time, Chandra wants to call him to the stand. Stone doesn’t want that to happen. She really feels the court will need to hear from him. So, against John’s wishes, she asks Naz about it, whether he can handle going up there. With one little gesture he lets her know he’ll need some “help” and that means getting him clean, or who knows what. Detox is the best option, although they may not have that time.
So off Chandra goes to get condoms. Then she goes to find the other ingredients to help her client as best she can. On the corner, recorded by cameras, she buys drugs. The ethical boundaries of this case have effectively disappeared. But when your client can barely make it through the day without the lingering effects of withdrawal, what do you do? You smuggle drugs into jail. Sort of embarrassing to see a good woman like her have to do that, the look on her face is one of shame. There’s obviously no length to which she won’t go for Naz, to help him out.
On the stand, he’s bright and clear eyed. John isn’t happy to see him up there, but Chandra goes ahead with her questions. He describes the night of Andrea’s murder, finding her in the bed dead. Once Helen Weiss gets up, she opens up the discussion of Naz marking up and selling drugs to people at school. Then she dives into information about Andrea. This gets to Naz talking about when he went back to get his keys, breaking the window, taking the knife, none of which makes him look good. At all. “I knew how it looked,” he tells Weiss and the court when asked why he did such a thing. Mostly what goes down is Helen drags Naz through the mud by making him seem inconsistent, or at the very least irresponsible for not having bothered to call 911 even though he was supposedly of sound enough mind to run off with evidence from the scene. A terrible idea to have Nasir up there in front of the court. Stone knows it, and he tells Chandra: “You just convicted him.”

Helen: “Did you kill her?”
Naz: “I don‘t know”
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Along with the hope of Nasir going free is that of the cat going free. John brings it back to the shelter, likely to be put down eventually. A tragic, sad turn of events in the metaphorical sense. He’s given up. Simultaneously, Naz embraces the prison life further, getting tattooed from the neck on down. Everyone acts like there’s no longer any hope.
However, hope may reside in unlikely places. Box is sleeping at the station, he can’t let go. He knows there is another explanation lying beneath what sits at the surface. Letting this case go without completing all the good leg work isn’t something he’s willing to do. Nor should he, as he and the others were probably too quick to jump all over Naz’s guilt.
Dt. Box tracks the man in the video with Andrea. He finds it’s Ray Halle (Paulo Costanzo), the one Stone talked to awhile back. He was also a victim of violence some time ago. Because he beat up a prostitute. So it all leads to the detective questioning Ray a little about that evening when Andrea got murdered. Another viable suspect emerges late in the game. Very intriguing stuff.
At Rikers, Freddy Knight (Michael K. Williams) and Naz play cards. A new inmate arrives and the young Muslim goes to talk with him. His name is Terry (Charles Brice), and Naz hopes to bring him into the Knight Gang. He’s been indoctrinated. Nasir doesn’t even need to be led into the whole thing. Sad to watch.
Box goes to see the D.A. He’s worried about $300K that disappeared from Andrea’s finances. He talks about Halle, the lies he told, his meeting with Andrea. There’s also a picture of him at 3 AM tossing out some garbage bag in an empty street. “We‘ve got more on the kid,” she tells Dennis. The look in his eyes is disappointment. Helen doesn’t want to admit she’s wrong. At what price? A young man’s life.

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On his doorstep, Stone finds an envelope; inside is a disc. It’s been sent from Freddy. It shows Chandra kissing Naz in the cell when they spoke awhile back. Needless to say, John is not a happy camper. Regardless, he brings it to Naz and suggests there could be a retrial if they divulge what Chandra did. Only that means she most likely loses her career in the process. Still, any means necessary to escape the prison system’s lure.
The video of Chandra and Nasir is brought to Judge Roth (Glenn Fleshler). What happens is that John is put up as the lead defence lawyer. He must give the closing argument. “This is clearly grounds for a mistrial,” Stone exclaims again unhappy with the outcome of things raining down on his head. But the Judge sees through it as a tactic. It’s all up to him at this point.
Weiss does her best to give a big final push. She likens the lost time in Naz’s memory to an FBI classified document being redacted: “Self preservation,” she tells the jury. Everyone in the court notices Dt. Box get up in the middle of her statement and leave. Quite telling.
In the midst of stress, John takes a bleach bath trying to get rid of the itch in his skin. Later in court, he gives his closing statement with his skin absolutely destroyed, gloves on his hands, the whole nine yards. But Stone talks about the first time he met Naz, the look of the kid, and how different he is from the regular clients which he takes on. Furthermore, John makes a good case for how Naz has decided to survive in Rikers, looking the way he does. He lays out the “rush to judgement” against his client, how people were caught up in a flood of his guilt, as it seemed then. His speech is heavy, important, sensible. Beautiful, even. His eyes tear up near the end where he pleads with the jury not to ruin the rest of his client’s young life.
Now it’s all in the jury’s hands.
John goes back to trying to fix his skin. Chandra starts to think about moving on. At Rikers, Freddy talks to Naz about what happens if the verdict comes out guilty. The former boxer talks about prison not being so bad while Naz is around: “You smell like innocence.” He feels it’s a source of pride, to be alongside the young Muslim. To have a person with him who isn’t like everyone else is refreshing. Not a nice situation to live forever, though. Especially seeing as how the drugs have all but taken over Naz’s life.

The jury finally returns. They’ve deadlocked; six to six votes, no change ahead. So Judge Roth dismisses the jury, wondering what D.A. Weiss would like to do. She opts not to prosecute any further. “You‘re free,” says John turning to Naz. An unexpected yet happy finish for Mr. Khan and his family, Dt. Box sees it so, as well.
Nasir has to pack up and get moving for his release. He doesn’t get to see Freddy before leaving. Probably because the one time boxer doesn’t want to have to say goodbye to a friend. Either way, out goes the young Muslim, back into the real world sporting his jailhouse tattoos. He does get one parting gift from Knight: Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. On the outside, his father waits with open arms to take his son back home. Back at their place, the Khans try getting back to normal, all at the dinner table together and eating happily. Yet until someone else has been caught and prosecuted, the Muslim community judges him, staring. Worse, he’s still fighting addiction, which won’t ever go away. And he’s left for a lifetime with memories of that night with Andrea.
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Stone: “Everyone‘s got a cross to bear, Naz. Pardon the expression. Fuck ‘em all. Live your life.”
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A perfect ending comes when we see that John has taken the cat back in, or we hear it in the background, anyway. He’s been renewed with hope. Then the cat traipses through the apartment, free from its locked room. John has certainly changed to a degree.
Also, like a real trial often we’re not privy to who really did the deed. Maybe Halle will get prosecuted. Maybe it’s actually Don. We’ll never know. Often too true to reality.
What a great finish to this first season. Lots of poignant little moments to take in, and I can’t wait to go back for a re-watch soon enough. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. A great set of eight episodes.

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The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 7: “Ordinary Death”

HBO’s The Night Of
Season 1, Episode 7: “Ordinary Death”
Directed by Steven Zaillian
Teleplay by Richard Price & Zaillian

* For a review of the previous episode, “Samson and Delilah” – click here
* For a review of the finale, “The Call of the Wild” – click here
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Detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp) is at the scene of another homicide; one that bears a striking resemblance to the murder of Andrea Cornish.
In court, Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed) has to see the pictures of Andrea’s bloody, desecrated body along with everyone else. District Attorney Helen Weiss (Jeannie Berlin) does her best to steer the evidence where she hopes the jury will see it go. Her Medical Examiner pal, Dr. Chester, repeats the line he’d been working on the last time we saw him. Once Chandra Kapoor (Amara Karan) gets at the doc things start slipping. The whole testimony on his part does not look good after she pokes holes in both what he’s said, as well as his reputation. She is a sly lawyer in her own right, even compared to Weiss.
Meanwhile, John Stone (John Turturro) has become honed in on Don Taylor (Paul Sparks), stepfather to Andrea. He’s keeping a close eye on the guy. Especially after Chandra, in court, makes clear the wounds on Andrea’s corpse look like a crime of passion; a personal one. And though we don’t know everything, Naz did not know Andrea before that night.
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Sadly it’s Safar Khan (Poorna Jagannathan) who suffers most, it seems. She is torn up having to see the pictures of the supposed crime Naz committed. She seems adrift, alone even within her own family. Salim (Peyman Moaadi) isn’t having any better of a time. He finds himself an object of derision in his own community, as other Muslims don’t look pleased with his family bringing shame on them all. Worse still, his own business partners Tariq (Mohammad Bakri) and Yusuf (Nabil Elouahabi) are essentially turning their backs on him. They’ve blamed Naz for bringing shame “on all of us,” they tell him. “You are the father of a killer,” says Tariq. Now that is brutal. I like that the series shows the good and the bad of the Muslim community. While trying to show the positive aspects, they also don’t shy from showing how within their own communities there’s so much of this type of thing; guilty before proven innocent.
Lots of anger being thrown at the Khans, from graffiti poised towards the community in general right down to rocks tossed through their windows.
All the while Stone keeps his eye on Don as he woos women for their money. Plus, Johnny gets to keep his feet moving since they’re no longer wracked by the bubonic plague. He’s got all sorts of information rolling in on Don. He even gets in contact with an older woman that was once romantically involved with him. She actually had to call the police because he strangled her. A bit of money and then the Don problem went away. So he’s got himself a history of nastiness.

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A witness for the prosecution tells the court he bought Adderall off Naz at school. Turns out the young Muslim had customers. He has secrets in his past. Not so innocent after all. But a murderer? Nah.
With his feet fixed, John’s already got a new rash started on his neck. In other news, his family – what’s left of it – is falling apart. One thing gets better, another gets worse. The tragic life of a Greek-like figure, that Stone.
At Rikers, Naz is getting along well enough. At least he’s not doing sexual favours like Petey (Aaron Moten) whose mother smuggles in the drugs that Naz takes in for Freddy Knight (Michael K. Williams). Then again, having to swallow drug balloons from a strange woman’s vagina isn’t exactly glorified behaviour. Especially considering Naz does it now without hesitating, not a single choke. Similar to how his behaviour is described in court, by a man on the witness stand testifying about Naz’s incident of violence years ago nearly killing another student.
And yet again, another secret. A second act of violence, not known by the defence. Naz threw a full Coke can at someone’s head and busted him up good. Hearing this in open court like that rocks Chandra. Her idea of Nasir seems to constantly be changing.
Poor Salim and Safar. They’re giving up everything to pay for their son’s defence. They pawn off jewellery, anything possible just to keep their boy with a lawyer. What’s sad is that Safar is really beginning to doubt the illusions of her son; they’re becoming just that, a mirage.
Finally, Don confronts John. He does so in fairly violent fashion, though not enough to freak anybody out, other than Stone. A threat’s been made. Easy to see that Andrea’s stepfather might have more rage in him than anybody knows.

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In court once more, Dt. Box is on the stand. He is a pretty rational, sensible talking man. He doesn’t beat around the bush, even as Chandra gives him a proper going over.
Alone together, Naz and Chandra talk. He wonders why she defends him, lamenting that his father is the only one who believes him. Not even his mother. There’s an air of sexual tension, and then Chandra leans in to kiss Naz. Images of the night Andrea died flash, her and Naz embracing. Ah. No good for their professional relationship, that’s for damn sure. This can only complicate things further.
Chandra has Dr. Katz (Chip Zien) on the stand. He talks about a missing knife from a set found in the brownstone. He also testifies that the wounds on Naz’s hand were not from stabbing. That it came from a game of five finger fillet (though she incorrectly calls it mumblety-pegs). Katz pokes a lot of holes in the evidence of the prosecution, as best he can. Remember that odd picture he took in the apartment? Well, he’s got an answer for that one, too. Smart chap. Weiss gets hold of him then to try poking her own holes, such as attempting to link Naz and O.J. Simpson in a snide remark. She goes at him head-on. Admirable. But clearly she’s only trying to sneak one past the goal post.

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John finds the picture of Naz’s inhaler. He wonders what happened to it, then the young Muslim tells him about Box having given it to him that night in the holding cell. So John goes to see the retiring detective, along with a subpoena.
Quickly, Stone and Chandra have him back on the stand. She asks him about the interviews, witnesses, all sorts of things. She eventually brings into question Box’s mishandling of the inhaler. He willingly admits to having given it to Naz. Chandra spins it to look as if Box took the inhaler from the evidence in order to ensure their narrative fit; can’t stab someone 22 times and take hits off your puffer, right? Box does his best to deflect. However, there’s no guarantee this won’t reflect badly on him, or the prosecution.
Back at Rikers, Naz finds Petey dead in the shower. He cut his wrists to pieces, to not suffer the sexual abuse any longer. That’s terrifying tragic. Naz looks on in desperate sadness. In Freddy’s cell, the big man doesn’t know about the real reason for the kid dying. And the rapist, he sits there trying to keep Naz silent. Even sadder.
In private, Naz confides in Freddy the reality of Petey’s suicide. This precipitates a shiv being made. The rest, you can guess. Criminal justice within the criminal justice system.
What about the real justice?

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Another fine episode from HBO’s excellent series. One last episode left! Its title is, fittingly from Jack London, “The Call of The Wild” – will the truth all come out? You can be sure of it.

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The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 6: “Samson and Delilah”

HBO’s The Night Of
Season 1, Episode 6: “Samson and Delilah”
Directed by Steven Zaillian
Teleplay by Richard Price & Zaillian

* For a review of the previous episode, “The Season of the Witch” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “Ordinary Death” – click here
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Mr. Stone (John Turturro) is doing his best to take care of the cat, still. Despite his terrible allergies. He keeps the cat locked in the room, cleans out its litter and feeds it through opening the door quick, tossing everything in. But why does he do it? Because it’s the right thing to do. Similar with how he’s starting to feel about Nasir ‘Naz’ Khan (Riz Ahmed), whose own concerns mount by the day, sitting at Rikers Island with Freddy Knight (Michael K. Williams) and watching the top dog prisoner prepare then smoke some drugs. At least now, after the favour he did for Freddy, Naz can call his parents; he has a cellphone, courtesy of Knight.
What more is to come from their relationship?
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Safar Khan (Poorna Jagannathan) and her husband Salim (Peyman Moaadi) are in dire straits financially. Without her husband, Safar is out trying to find work. She’s a tough woman, I hope we get to see more of her character. At the same time, Detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp) is digging into the Facebook account of Naz. He starts to see maybe a side of the young Muslim which may not be good for the prosecution. Or, are there deeper secrets to Nasir we’ll soon find out?
Well, D.A. Helen Weiss (Jeannie Berlin), she’s busy trying to make the drug intake of Naz look proper for their version of the story. As her unlikely competition, Jackie Stone, is busy juggling his life and that of Naz alongside the horror story of his feet. I love that we get a ton of Stone’s character amongst everything else, but further than just that his feet are representative of the mindset in which he’s lived so long, to the detriment of his health while pursuing case after case trying to chase the all-American glorious dollar.
All this time, Naz is in prison falling farther into the lifestyle. Even has himself some knuckle tattoos.
We can’t forget Chandra Kapoor (Amara Karan); another of my favourite characters. She watches video footage of Naz at a gas station the night of the murder. A man in a hearse stops, though doesn’t get any gas, and then leaves when Naz does, too. Hmm. Now that is suspicious right there. Leave it to Chandra. I have a feeling she’s the most underestimated of the entire crew of lawyers in the series. Once she tracks down the hearse driver he’s full of eeriness, lots of misogyny and the like. When he mentions some biblical verse, this is where I imagine Samson and Delilah comes in, giving us our title.

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John drinks a bit of strange powder the Asian doctor gave him. Another supposed cure. It’s amazing he can even keep his head on straight. A terrified Chandra shows up at his door, though. She has a Bible with her. She talks about Samson and Delilah, reading verse for John. “That‘s what he thinks of women,” she tells John re: the hearse driving mortician. Could this man have anything to do with the case, or merely a red herring?
Back to Rikers, Naz is constantly doing push-ups, always honing his image. First, push-ups. Then, tattoos. What comes next is anybody’s guess. Paralleled with Naz figuratively and literally pumping up his image is Box flicking through his past. What the detective begins unravelling is there’s a rage underlying the identity of Nasir Khan; he was involved in an altercation at school where he nearly paralysed another student, luckily only breaking an arm. But there’s a temper in Naz we’re not exactly seeing outwardly just yet, only in glimpses.
But what I wonder now is: could Naz actually have killed Andrea? Is there a chance? Because we never actually saw what happened. We assume Trevor Williams (J.D. Williams) and his buddy may have done something. However, at this point the doubt is creeping in. Perhaps that’s what Richard Price is aiming for. To plant the seed, let it grow. Except never sure, until the end, where it’s headed. Love, love, love it.
Also, the jury is being sorted out. Yet we’re privy to a real view of the selection, as a group of people up for the “honour” of doing their citizen duty fall asleep watching a video introducing them to the process.
John and Chandra are beginning to see that Naz has a problem with the truth. Afterwards, the young Muslim explains himself to Chandra. He talks about post-9/11, the hate to which he was subjected because of his skin and his religion, the fights and the beatings. This is what led to his fight with the boy at school. He challenges Chandra’s view of him, wondering if she believes he’s capable of having killed Andrea. Little flashes of the night come back in pieces to Naz. I can’t imagine what else he might remember down the line.
One thing’s for sure – the state has piles of evidence against Nasir at their disposal. They’re fitting to bury him under anything and everything they can.
I love how suspenseful and tense much of this series has been. This episode in particular is so well edited, scored, shot, paced, that all of the suspense is at the forefront reeling us in tight. When Salim arrives at Chandra’s door, delivering food, we’re almost as surprised as she. I half expected it to be the unsettling mortician hearse driver. A wonderfully put together sequence.

We’re on the verge of the trial, which is poised to be possibly the most intense and interesting portion of Season 1. What I dig most in this episode is that John has finally beaten the foot pain. His feet, at least right now, are cured. He’s able to actually wear a pair of shoes for the first time in so long. He looks professional, for once, and this will hopefully give him a bit of an edge, finally without pain and not worrying about the zombified flesh at his toes.
Moreover, Freddy proves to be looking out consistently for his friend Naz. He offers a white shirt and black tie, although the young man refuses. In court, Stone then has to switch his own shirt over for Naz to wear; another stroke of honesty for Mr. Knight. Interesting.
But on we go, into the opening statements and ready to see the court proceedings at the trial of Nasir Khan. “This case isn‘t about Andrea‘s life, it‘s about her death,” Weiss explains to the jury. Afterwards, Chandra gives a poignant, brief opening statement that makes her look pretty strong. A good start. Things will get rough, as the trial wears on and the ugly truths and dark corners are brought into the light.
When Naz is back home, in prison, Freddy bonds with him some more. About himself. He talks about why he’s in Rikers instead of another place, leading to the discovery that Freddy has a couple “bodies on” him. Worse, he leads Naz into smoking some drugs – what I imagine is heroin – and this is the beginning of further trouble in Khan’s life. So, whereas Freddy seems to have his best interests in mind when it comes to Naz’s court appearances, he’s not always looking out for him like he should.

In court, Naz watches the video of him getting pulled over by the police on that fateful night. One of the officers is on the stand giving her statement, if not a bit hyperbolic. The knife is discussed, as well as the fact Naz tried to run. Doesn’t look good when the video of the station is shown where Naz attempts breaking free from the cops surrounding him.
Naz, a.k.a Sinbad – which is what he has tattooed across his knuckles now – discovers more about the prison life than he had hoped. He sees one of Freddy’s crew getting a blowjob from another young inmate who recently came in, the one whose mother helped smuggle the drugs in last episode. Following this event, Naz calls Chandra. Far as he falls into the mitt of Freddy, there’s still shock when he sees what’s happening around him. So he talks to her for comfort, if only for a minute. Even the cell is more of him becoming further criminal, as he gets money for letting others use it; more criminality, all the time.
Next day in the shower, Freddy’s boy puts a blade to Naz, right at the neck, and threatens him over the blowjob he witnessed. Great, more and more issues each passing day.
On the outside, Johnny’s mind is constantly working. He wonders how Andrea afforded to live in such an expensive brownstone apartment. He starts to dig into the records, finding an Evelyn Cornish – deceased – linked to the place. Finally, Stone has tracked down the guy he snapped a picture of arguing with Andrea’s stepfather Don Taylor (Paul Sparks) at the funeral, a chartered personal accountant named Ray Halle. This gives us a better idea of Don.
And it muddies the waters. Seems like Naz really ended up in the middle of a life that was burning all around Andrea. No telling anymore exactly what the story is, as Naz, Don, everybody has a secret they’re keeping, just as it is in real life.
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What a powerful episode, all around. This series is just fascinating, from writing up to the visual aesthetic and overall execution. Next episode is “Ordinary Death” and I’m looking forward to another big heap of revelation.

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The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 5: “The Season of the Witch”

HBO’s The Night Of
Season 1, Episode 5: “The Season of the Witch”
Directed by Steven Zaillian
Teleplay by Richard Price & Zaillian

* For a review of the previous episode, “The Art of War” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “Samson and Delilah” – click here
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John Stone (John Turturro) just wants his feet to get better. To the point of getting a UV light and shades, letting them bake under the rays for a while. At the very same time he’s juggling all the other aspects of his life. He talks to a class that includes his son, although nobody is able to really grasp his place in the legal world. His son is proud of him, to a certain degree, not happy with the treatment the class gives his father. Nice to see the family life of Stone. Gives us a dichotomy from which to work concerning his character, his ambitions, and so on.
Up in Rikers Island, Freddy Knight (Michael K. Williams) is taking care of Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed), getting him into a proper cell and looking out for his well-being. What exactly is the price, though?
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We get to see more of a character I enjoy plenty, Chandra Kapoor (Amara Karan). She goes to see Stone about possibly helping. She’s got to not only haggle with him, but also witness his foot ritual. He manages to get an extra $10K out of her to take part. Meanwhile, D.A. Helen Weiss (Jeannie Berlin) has her troops in getting their case together. Detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp) is there along with a team of lawyers. They try to suss out what the defence may use against them. Back and forth we’re privy to each side attempting to pick apart the whole murder, the night in question, everything possible.
I love Chandra because the writing allows for this racial perspective; one which obviously includes Naz and his race, his religion. This opens up a lot of interesting things.
There are problems with the Khan family on the outside. Salim (Peyman Moaadi) is being pressured by his partners Tariq and Yusuf (Mohammad Bakri & Nabil Elouahabi) to press charges against his own son. All in order to recoup the cost of the taxi they’re now missing because of the trial. This is putting poor Salim in an awful place.
In jail, Naz is keeping himself fit, doing push-ups in his cell. He’s called out by guard Tino (Lord Jamar) to go meet Freddy in the showers. They’ve got Calvin Hart (Ashley Thomas) at their mercy for what he did to the young Muslim. When Naz is goaded, he eventually kicks the shit out of Calvin already lying bleeding on the floor. Already the prison system is changing Nasir, if only slightly. I mean, we’d all probably do the same thing given the situation, what that man tried to do to him. Still, the point of Richard Price’s writing is to see how the prison system is a jungle in and of itself, and how exactly it affects those within it.
All the while Dt. Box puts together a timeline for Weiss on the locations of Naz throughout the night of the murder.
What you need to pay attention to most is the filmmaking here. The close-up shots of Box marking off a map of the city cut with the actual instances of Naz moving through the city itself are magnificent. This is why HBO and many of the writers the network attracts are top notch. Because this is a simple sequence, yet it’s beautifully executed and effective.

Stone is changing, too. It isn’t just Nasir. We see that more every episode. He finally goes back to get the cat from Andrea’s place, the one he brought to the pound. He’s allergic, though still insists on saving it: “Better than the gas chamber,” he mumbles to himself. This is more than a basic little quirky plot point. It is the idea that Stone can’t let go; not of the cat, not of Naz. And gradually he’s becoming altruistic rather than totally selfish. Not entirely, just little by little.
And Freddy, he sees something in Naz. The young man sleeps away, and up in the hospital Calvin suffers from his injuries. There’s definitely rage in Naz. Not long after he shaves his head to get that prison look going. Seeing the jail life ahead of Naz is a bit tragic. He’s slowly falling into things, hanging out with Freddy and his crew smoking weed, playing chess, eating Happy Meals from McDonalds.
Weiss is beginning to weed out witnesses. Trevor Williams (J.D. Williams) is so effortlessly shown as childish, both in how he answers questions and the way he’s brought a cookie and some milk in during the interview. I hope we’ll see more of him because we all know there’s a greasiness behind his motives.
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At a restaurant, Stone starts investigating a few things himself. He tracks down a guy named Cutty (Joe Egender) who was contacted by Andrea the night of her murder; she got some ecstasy and ketamine off him. Mostly, John pokes around trying to stir something, anything up. Afterwards he’s with Chandra having a look through the crime scene. They have pictures taken everywhere, of every last little thing. In the blood spattered bedroom, Chandra is silently shocked at the mess. They make sure to document each inch of the apartment. The tiniest details can crack a case wide open. When their man Dr. Katz (Chip Zien) comes across a possible clue, it’s all the better. Likewise, Weiss is trying to make her case. But we start seeing how the law and justice aren’t always working for the greater good. With a Medical Examiner, she begins coaxing out the proper story the way she wants it told. Tricky, tricky.
The hubris of being in Freddy’s care is starting to make Naz a little cocky. He’s already feeling the benefit, but perhaps a bit too much. Well, now Naz is figuring out there isn’t exactly no price for protection. He’s got to swallow some drugs, get them in for Freddy from a woman who’ll be hiding them… you know where.

The toxicology report comes back. Everyone’s surprised about amphetamines in Naz’s system that night. Chandra is particularly surprised, not enjoying having been lied to, supposedly. He’s the “good boy” everyone imagined. Simultaneously, Naz is behind bars trying to learn how to swallow drugs using grapes. When John and Chandra go to see their boy, he’s not happy to hear they don’t believe him. Turns out Adderall is what Naz lied to them about; he took it for purposes of studying. The whole time John is asking about Naz’s story, the young Muslim reluctantly swallows the drugs to bring Freddy. John isn’t stupid. He recognises what is going on and cautions his client. Things are getting pretty god damn dangerous right now for poor Nasir. He gets the drugs in, even if he has a bit of trouble passing them.
What John and Chandra do get is the revelation of a second man with Trevor Williams when he ran into Naz and Andrea. So this sends Stone out to talk with the man. He puts a bit of fear into Trevor about perjury, hoping to determine who the second man was that evening. We find a sliver of honesty: the second man’s name is Duane Reid. Further putting John on a search throughout the streets. He comes across Duane in the back of a supermarket, then plants the seeds: “I‘m his lawyer,” John tells him in regards to Trevor. Of course the guy takes off. Now, this arms the lawyer with bit more of an idea about whether Naz might be innocent after all.
Only John is too eager, putting him in harm’s way after Duane runs and he gives chase. Hopefully nothing bad happens. However, just like the stubbornness of John with his feet, the stubborn nature of how investigates his latest case may prove detrimental to his health if he doesn’t slow down.
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Just a downright gripping episode. One of my favourites so far in the series. Such great storytelling combined with wonderful filmmaking technique. All around outstanding!
Next episode is “Samson and Delilah” – can’t wait to see how the significance of that title comes into play.

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The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 4: “The Art of War”

HBO’s The Night Of
Season 1, Episode 4: “The Art of War”
Directed by James Marsh
Written by Richard Price

* For a review of the previous episode, “A Dark Crate” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “The Season of the Witch” – click here
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Nasir ‘Naz’ Khan (Riz Ahmed) is finding that things are getting pretty rough at Rikers Island. The burning of his bunk makes clear, there are worse things to come. Like a declaration of intent.
At home, John Stone (John Turturro) is getting his ankles covered with Crisco, wrapped up in Saran. Headed to the jailhouse, as usual. Representing killers. Yet you can see there’s a sense of loss, something missing in him. There’s something clear and different about the people he usually represents and the young Muslim man in jail for murder/rape.
And at their home, Salim and Safar Khan (Peyman Moaadi & Poorna Jagannathan) have the media just about crashing down their door.
Their son Naz is having the worst time, obviously. He’s discovered that there are completely different rules for surviving on the inside than the outside. You’ve got to look but “not look” someone in the eyes. You have to constantly be on your guard and pumping up your masculinity. If not, you’re “fair game.”
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Detective Dennis Box (Bill Camp) runs into Stone, as the latter is out trying to get a beat on what may or may not have happened at Andrea Cornish’s (Sofia Black D’Elia) house. Of course Box dismisses the sly lawyer. But Stone winds up seeing Don Taylor (Paul Sparks), stepfather to the deceased, lose his cool with another man at the girl’s funeral. So, he snaps a little video.
What I like is that it looks as if we’re starting to head towards a kind of redemption song for Jacky, I think. He’s now got further doubts about Naz’s guilt. He wants to know the truth, maybe for the first time. Instead of gunning for a big pay day. Morality’s tricky like that. It can make even some of the worst types change their minds. John isn’t terrible, though he is shady. Let’s hope that changes.
There are other troubles for the Khan family. Salim and Safar are finding their other son, Hasan (Syam Lafi), is discriminated against at school because of what’s going on. This is where the writing of Richard Price excels. Because he gets into the repercussions, the far-reaching consequences of when someone is in jail for murder and their family is left behind in the wake. Great depth to the story they’re telling.
Stone runs across a rehab facility linked to a picture from Andrea’s phone. He winds up talking to a guy named Edgar (Max Casella) willing to cough up information for a price. I guess if there’s any way John hopes to get ahead, cash is king.
Naz is getting schooled in jail by Calvin Hart (Ashley Thomas) on how to live by the code of the criminal behind bars. At the same time, I wonder what’s going to happen with Freddy Knight (Michael K. Williams); he keeps a watchful eye over the young Muslim. What exactly is Freddy’s interesting there? I feel like he’s a good guy, while the others – the vultures – soar around Nasir.
On the side, John brings what he got from Edgar to Chandra (Amara Karan), employee to Alison Crowe (Glenne Headly) now handling the Khan case. I suppose Stone isn’t changing too much. Not yet. He’s charging $500 for the information; a markup on what he paid Edgar.
Heading out on a prison transport, Naz gets a new, different coloured jumpsuit to put on. Courtesy of Freddy. Now, that’s interesting. Any meaning to that? I’m better there is, absolutely.
At the courthouse, the Khans are all but terrorised heading inside, as Box heads in relatively left alone, and John eats a hot dog in obscurity. Alison is busy readying Naz for his first appearance – she gives similar advice to that of Calvin, in that he should make eye contact, but not full-on. Intriguing little point that parallels nicely. Moreover, Alison says she’s glad they didn’t put him in an orange jumpsuit. Looks like ole Freddy’s a guardian angel after all, or so it seems. Better than that Alison proves herself worthy of taking on such a tough case. She drops “9/11 profiling” and “media pressure” and dances all over the place. Still, it doesn’t do anything for bail. So in Rikers he stays.
We also see the Khans struggling, as if they’re being suppressed, even by Alison. Salim wants to address people at the press conference, but it isn’t even entertained.

Back in Rikers, someone cuts Naz walking through a corridor, blindly slicing his arm. A little later he goes to see Freddy. The former boxer and the young man chat. Naz wants to know: “Why me?” This prompts a story from Freddy, about his pride, his accomplishments. He is very proud of having graduated high school, keeping his diploma on in a frame right there in his cell. They go on to talk about books – Sun Tzu’s The Art of War and The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon, Jack London and his novel The Call of the Wild. Most of all, they bond. It isn’t every single day an educated, real person walks through the gates of prison – like a “care package” for Freddy’s own brain. He wants to help Naz survive his stay.
I can only wonder what this will bring between Nasir and Calvin, who isn’t exactly impressed with Freddy and his high profile prison status. Not to mention Calvin is quite a vicious cat in his own right.
There’s also trouble around the city. People are lashing out at anybody, Sikh, Muslim, and using anti-Arab slurs. This is pressuring D.A. Helen Weiss (Jeannie Berlin) to try and get the Khan case settled quick. Yikes.
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In the Rikers gym, Freddy brings a decent sized guy in to box with him. This is actually a way for Freddy to size the man up about a possible cellphone business being run without his permission. All ending in a good, hard beating at the hands of the former boxer. Further serves as a bit of a lesson to Naz, seeing what happens to people who cross the man himself.
Poor Stone is out searching for an end to his skin pain. A doctor prescribes him a heavy dose of testosterone to fix his issues. The guy’s stuck in an epidermal hell.
At the same time, D.A. Weiss is trying to suss out a deal with Alison. They throw different charges about, terms, sentences, as if a young man’s life is not on the line. Alison starts bringing the deals to Naz. He isn’t looking to plead out. He knows he’s innocent. Also, he wonders why Chandra isn’t around. Maybe he’s slowly understanding that Alison isn’t all she appears either. Let’s face it – lawyers have records, they don’t like to lose. But when Naz gets back to his bunk he finds a note from Freddy: TAKE THE DEAL. Nobody’s exactly thrilled. The Khans don’t like to hear that their boy will plead guilty just to get a reduced sentence. That will forever tarnish him, and them, too.
At the courthouse, Chandra goes in to talk with Naz. She explains things about how pleas work, deals, so on. He appreciates being talked to “like a person.” However, this woman is the only one talking truth to him. She advises that if he believes in his innocence, the deal is not worth taking. And this is setting up the fight we’re ready to see, Naz does not feel right letting things go this way. Stone even thinks he should take the deal, mostly out of a lost sense of youth, I think. Everybody, except the parents and secretly Chandra, wants the deal.
But when the chips come down, Naz can almost remember the night in question. Just not quite. He won’t make up murdering Andrea. He can’t. Simply because it isn’t true. When Alison confronts her client, he tells her to quit. She does.
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Now Chandra is the main attorney. No more pro-bono work for the firm. Quite a change.
Once Naz gets back to jail, Calvin eventually tosses a nasty mix of water and other things onto his arm, burning him up. Yeah, we know where the snakes are lurking. And you can be sure that Naz will start calling in Freddy favours at this point. Only thing that’s for sure: Rikers is about to get fucking intense.
“Say the words to me, Nasir,” Freddy asks. And with that, he does say them. What comes next is sure to be rough.
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What a spectacular episode. All around. There’s a lot going on and I’m interested to see how Price juggles all the various plots and stories happening. Great mix of emotions happening. Next is “The Season of the Witch” – hoping for more wild stuff. Willing to bet we can count on that.

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The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 3: “A Dark Crate”

HBO’s The Night Of
Season 1, Episode 3: “A Dark Crate”
Directed by Steven Zaillian
Written by Richard Price

* For a review of the previous episode, “Subtle Beast” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “The Art of War” – click here
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Nasir Khan (Riz Ahmed) is heading into Rikers Island. You can tell from the look on his face there’s a terror lurking in him. He doesn’t outright express it, but even the woman admitting him can see it.
Meanwhile, Detective Box (Bill Camp) is talking with the two officers – Maldonado (Joshua Bitton) and Wiggins (Afton Williamson) – who picked Naz up. They’re starting to get to the heart of the case. Box reminds them the most important thing is making sure the court and the jury, the judge, they see that Naz could possibly have committed that horrendous murder. Not to get caught up in things like who threw up at the scene of the crime, as Maldonado seems so concerned.
What I love most about John Stone (John Turturro) is that he’s a completely laid back person, even in his lawyer-ing. He takes a talk with anybody he can, whether that’s in a bathroom or someplace else. He soon makes his way over to the Khan place, to level with Salim and Safar Khan (Peyman Moaadi/Poorna Jagannathan) about what “can be done” and what can’t exactly be done, the prices. All that type of stuff. Problem is the Khans don’t believe, at all, that their son could’ve committed murder. At the same time, ole Jack doesn’t worry about that end. He’s only worried about doing his thing. However, the Khans cannot afford $60-70K for a lawyer. Part of me thinks that Stone is a little bit of a hustler.
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In Rikers, there’s a criminal named Freddy (Michael K. Williams), a former boxer. He’s afforded certain privileges. He has a television, a decent one for the jailhouse, a bunch of cellphones at his disposal, posters on the wall, pictures. Also, he gets a bit of sex, too. He passes Naz and a strange glance happens between the two. Meanwhile, young Naz is seeing first hand a life he’d never thought would be in front of him. Quite a culture shock. A social devastation. The danger posed to those innocent people, and non-violent offenders, when exposed to a jail with men who are serving life (and some without any chance of parole) is absolutely horrific. The fact that we as a society allow those situations where young men are preyed upon, a few of them like Naz even completely innocent, is disgusting. Although the cracks in the justice system are inherently deep and wide.
Johnny Stone goes over to see Helen (Jeannie Berlin) at the District Attorney’s office. Just before she was ragging on him for being a nightcrawler at the precinct, trawling for cases, and here she is congratulating him, saying she was SO glad to hear he’s taking the Khan case. The dual faces of friends and colleagues in the justice system are just as nasty as any of its faults. Stone tries getting to work, even if Helen is a hard-nosed legal opponent.
In other news, Salim is finding himself troubled over his missing cab, as he tries to figure out how he’ll pay for his son’s defence. At the very same time there’s someone watching, snapping photos.
Naz gets a bit of helpful advice from a man in the bunk next to him. He starts understanding exactly what sort of environment in which he finds himself. A scary one.
The Khans go to see their boy. Their experience is similar, in that they’ve come to know this world completely other to them. They’re not used to such a place, and yet everyone else around them seems in a complete flow, as if second nature. For Safar in particular, the process is upsetting, degrading even. When they see Naz he tells them the truth about his night with Andrea Cornish (Sofia Black D’Elia), how he found her dead, bloody. “I didn‘t kill her,” he tries to assure them: “I‘m so sorry I did this to you.”
That’s my evidence, right there – he’s more concerned for what it has done to them than what is happening to him.

In jail, men hear about Naz’s supposed crimes. At that very same time, Alison Crowe (Glenne Headly) notices the mention of his religion as Muslim. And Jack Stone gets his mouth running on camera while Alison tracks down the address of the “Khan kid killer” family.
That night some prisoners come to see Naz. They ask about whether he raped that woman, to which he obviously replies no. A guard shows up and scares them off. Right as Naz receives a pair of sneakers from Freddy. Y’know, for “traction.” Something he’ll need in the showers, in the halls. Anywhere somebody might come for him. The tension and suspense during the brief scene where Naz showers is unbelievable. I thought, knowing HBO, it might come to a different conclusion. Still, my whole body was tightened the entire time.
And Salim, he’s getting more difficulty over the cab. They may never get it back, as it’s now evidence in a crime. Well, supposedly. By bringing charges against Naz they can likely get restitution, or the car back. Something possibly. Salim would never do that. Different story for his partners in the cab company. Funniest part? The cop they talk to about it hands over Stone’s card.
Speaking of Stone, he’s lubing his feet and ankles up with Crisco, sealing them in Saran wrap to help them heal. The irony in his situation, like that of a tragic literary figure, is that by being the type of lawyer he is, scrambling for any case that means a bit of cash, Stone is not only never reaching his capabilities (face it, he can be a good lawyer), he’s further not helping his own health; all those long hours, not willing to take time and let his feet heal, he’s completely disregarding himself to make a living. Typical of many lawyers, even the most honest kind. Many of whom are struggling in ways quite similar to Jacky Boy. Later, he goes to the crime scene with an officer escort. He comes across the cat, even feeds it. This sort of gets to him a little in some way. Very interesting little moment to include.
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Alison hopes to steal the case from Stone. Not that she is totally out of line, as there’s a certain aspect to John which seeks out the easy, sure-shot cases where he can plead out, never see much court time, if any at all, and get his fee. With Crowe in the mix, she seems ready to fight. She’s even brought along a woman named Chandra (Amara Karan) whose similar background to the Khans helps ease things along. But is Alison in it solely for justice? Seems so. Just not totally sure yet.
Back with Stone, he goes to meetings for others with awful skin problems. A bunch of men with the same types of incurable rashes, et cetera. There is a real sad side to John. I love to learn more about him each episode, just as much as Naz, too.
When Stone goes to see Naz he isn’t aware of what’s been going on. Naz fills him in about Crowe, to his dismay.
What sort of fire will all this light under Stone, if any? He at least goes to see Alison, only to receive news from Chandra that her boss is gone. What Stone does now is try to show Chandra how she was a “prop” to be used, all to steal his client from under him. Sort of true, though, right?
Back in jail, Naz is summoned by Freddy to his cell. Ominous. A guard named Tino (Lord Jamar) leads the young Muslim in, as Freddy lies smoking in bed. Now, we uncover why exactly Freddy’s so interested in him. He warns about the Nation of Islam, how they’re jealous of true born Muslims like Naz. “You‘re a celebrity in here,” he tells the kid. And not in a good way. He tells Naz about the OTHER judicial system, the sort carried out behind bars, by the prisoners themselves. Judge, jury, execution. Things for Mr. Khan aren’t looking so hot.
Except now he’s got an ally in Freddy. Or, does he? Time will tell. “It‘s up to you,” says Freddy.
We see that Stone takes the cat from Andrea’s place over to a shelter. Part of his character comes out, as he’s reluctant to leave the cat. He’d take it if he weren’t allergic. While the shelter attendant takes the feline to its 10 day home, possibly its tomb, Jack watches as the dogs all start to bark. A great editing moment has us cut to Naz in the jailhouse, the cat amongst the hounds. Other inmates light his bed on fire, threatening his life. Freddy watches on. Will Naz take his help? If so, what’s the price?
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This fucking show, man. This show is unreal! What a great series. HBO and BBC have done some nice stuff together. The next episode is titled “The Art of War” and I’m wondering if we’ll see something more vicious while Naz tries to survive behind the bars of Rikers Island.

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Hap and Leonard – Season 1, Episode 6: “Eskimos”

SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard
Season 1, Episode 6: “Eskimos”
Directed by Jim Mickle
Written by Jim Mickle

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “War” – click here
* For a recap & review of the Season 2 premiere, “Mucho Mojo” – click here
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The finale has arrived, and after Trudy (Christina Hendricks) abandoned Hap and Leonard (James Purefoy/Michael K. Williams), they were left with the vengeful Soldier (Jimmi Simpson) who still mourns his dead lover, Angel (Pollyanna McIntosh).
In the aftermath, Leonard’s place is covered in police tape, and Hap laments to the dog: “I miss him, too.”
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We flash back to their precarious situation at the end of the previous episode. Outside, Jimmi is killing the dogs, taunting Hap and Leonard inside. The episode flashes to after it all again, as Hap starts to take down all the boards over the windows, trying to put everything back in its place. He’s sporting injuries from the shootout. Obviously, Hap is now safe from Soldier. But what exactly’s happened in the meantime?
At a literal and figurative crossroads, Trudy sits in the van. Over at the house Soldier keeps on taunting, especially about Trudy, mocking Hap for having trusted her too many times. The title of the episode, “Eskimos”, comes from a conversation about how Eskimos supposedly share women, so on. A nice anecdote. Then, from nowhere, Angel reappears. Not dead at all. In fact, she proceeds to kick the absolute shit out of Hap and Leonard. At least until the latter snaps her neck. Well now, Soldier’s really upset.

Hap: “Guns, huh? Who needs guns?” (Soldier shoots him in the arm)
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Amazingly enough, Trudy does come back. She drives right through the side of Leonard’s house, crashing into Soldier, saving the two pals. At least for the moment.
In an impressive scene, Hap holds a gun on Soldier but refuses to pull the trigger. He is thoroughly a non-violent man, only when pushed to the brink. And still, Trudy pulls the trigger herself. So there’s a juxtaposition between the two lovers, as Hap is tough but doesn’t always take the hard road out, whereas Trudy usually takes the hard road everywhere.
In the bloody moments following the showdown, Trudy reveals to Hap she drowned the bird in the sink. It reminded her of their relationship, her failures. She says “I love you“, only both Hap and Leonard are passed out in the backseat. Ah, their love is always complicated by something new. Meanwhile, Trudy passes out behind the wheel and they casually roll into a ditch coming to a full stop.

In hospital, Hap wakes to a vision of Trudy, who bids goodbye. She walks down the hall with the old Hap, the long haired hippy Hap, the one with too much optimism, before having to go to jail and figure out the harshest bits of lie. A sign that the old Hap is definitely dead. And Trudy, too.
Cut back to that rainy night when little Hap and his father stopped in the rain to help the black man and his boy. Here, we see the unifying moment between young Hap and young Leonard. That night their fathers were both killed, after a car crashed into them on the wet road.
Back to their present day, Leonard wakes up to Hap sitting by him at the hospital. They’d been out several days. The two of them ruminate on their relationship, Leonard talks of the war. However, things feel fractured, and it’s possible this has forever altered their relationship. Also, Hap ends up being questioned by FBI and local law enforcement. They want to know about the job Howard and Trudy enlisted him for, as well as Leonard, and all about the car in the river, so forth. Turns out Angel and Soldier were on the radar awhile. But as for Hap Collins, he’s in the clear currently.

Hap sets out to find the hidden goods himself. Mostly, he finds old sentimentality, and a little bit of dog shit. Leading him to a ton of money jammed into the dog food. Stacks of bills inside; lots chewed, some no worse for the wear.
What I love about this series is the emotional aspect. Joe R. Lansdale writes great crime fiction, but writes even better characters within that framework. He gets into Southern Gothic at times, even a bit of a take on the hardboiled detective genre. Above all else, he is a crafty writer whose characters, particularly those of Hap and Leonard, leap off the page. Here, they are adapted incredibly well, and especially Hap is a touching, complex character. Purefoy gives a wonderful performance, nuanced, and brings out the best in Hap. So watching him cobble together all the cash, for Leonard, for the Children’s Trust Fund, it is a real class act type sequence. Because we really recognize the goodness in Hap here, despite him getting wrapped up in ridiculous schemes such as the one Howard and Trudy had going.
More than that, we see another scene of young Hap, who witnesses the police covering up the drunk driving deaths, blaming it on young Leonard’s father being a “coon” and all. So not only is there a bond between the two boys, there’s further evidence as to why Hap became the man he is now. A beautiful and sad scene all at once.

Three months down the road. Hap’s back to working in the rose field, drinking Silver Spurs by the handful at night, smoking his pipe. Then up turns Leonard, healthy, if not a little banged up. He’s got to attend the funeral of his uncle. Regardless of the rift between them, Leonard cares for the man, seemingly always did. And good ole Hap accompanies his friend to the burial. Whatever had come between them before, the wildness of the things in which they got involved, it’s now lightening, but that’s always been clear – these two are friends for life, and even if something gets in their way briefly it would have to be a life altering event for them to completely split apart.
Hap remarks how life is not like Leave It to Beaver, there isn’t always closure and things don’t always cauterize at the end of an episode, to provide relief, so it all can start fresh next time. Ironically, this is the case. For the moment, anyways. Because after Hap turns out the light stating “No more drama for a while,” below Uncle Chester’s house, buried under the floorboards, is the skeleton of a small child. What sort of misadventure will this bring in Season 2? This opens the setup for Lansdale’s novel Mucho Mojo from the Hap and Leonard series, a dark bit of subject matter, too.

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Let’s root hard that SundanceTV does the right thing and gives this a renewal. Lansdale deserves it, as do Hap and Leonard because there’s so much more to explore with them – their relationship, their world and its landscape – and many stories to be told! A great, fun, and at times wild season.

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Hap and Leonard – Season 1, Episode 5: “War”

SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard
Season 1, Episode 5: “War”
Directed by Jim Mickle
Teleplay by Nick Damici

* For a review of the previous episode, “Trudy” – click here
* For a review of the Season 1 finale, “Eskimos” – click here
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The penultimate Season 1 episode of SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard starts out after the betrayal in the previous chapter, on the part of Angel (Pollyanna McIntosh) and Soldier (Jimmi Simpson) with the greasy Paco (Neil Sandilands).
But we step back in time, to when Hap Collins (James Purefoy) was a little boy, and the racism in Marvel Creek is alive and thriving. A minstrel show is put off, as people crack up laughing and enjoy it, far too much. We see little Hap and his father driving, when they notice a black man on the road with car troubles. Then the worst looks like it’s about to happen.
Cut back to the 1980s again. Angel and Soldier, with Paco alongside, have Hap, Leonard (Michael K. Williams), Trudy (Christina Hendricks) in tow. So what kind of madness will we see this time around? Surely Hap and Leonard aren’t going down without a fight.

Naturally, Trudy is disgusted by Paco, having been an intricate part of their team before. He’s a man of his own, though. Meanwhile, Leonard tells Hap: “If you see a chance, don‘t you hesitate.” For the time being, they go along to get along. They start digging up the money from their little treasure hunt. And poor Leonard’s the one designated to do the shoveling. Typical.
Except, down in the dirt there’s no money. Just an empty box. Turns out Trudy moved the cash somewhere else. Soldier takes her aside for a little heart to heart, though, she’s one tough cookie.
Love the dialogue. Not only does it keep in the spirit of Joe Lansdale, it’s just solid television writing, and keeps the scenes moving along at a nice, spirited pace. There’s wit, there’s profundity at times, others it can even be silly as hell. Dig it all around.
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Soldier: “The biggest balls in this room are swingin‘ from a cooch, I gotta love that.”
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With only Trudy holding the whereabouts, things might get to looking ugly. Well, not until Soldier’s had himself a nice meal of french toast a la Angel. A set of handcuffs Leonard uses in bed end up chaining him and Hap down; nice little touch there, especially his mouthy response to Paco.
But the situation is starting to get scary. Soldier is a psychotic, as is his partner/lover in crime. The headstrong Trudy will not reveal where the money’s hidden, despite Hap trying to convince her otherwise. “Who are you, Joan of Arc?” sighs Soldier. This may lead her somewhere dark and disturbing. My favourite scene so far comes when Soldier throws on some VCMG, “Spock” to be exact, and starts dancing. Right before Angel reappears with a toolbox. Lots of interesting things to use. Nothing really works on Trudy, though. Even a semi-crucifixion. Until Howard suggests they put some pain on Hap, that’ll get her mouth jawing.

Soldier: “I figured you more of a Soul Man”
Leonard: “Country got soul”

Finally, Hap reveals he’s pretty sure where Trudy put the cash – he’d seen something on her shoes which gave her away. What’s most interesting in this scene is the bond, again, between Hap and Leonard. It’s stronger than the one between Hap and Trudy, even as lovers. Because Leonard stopped Howard from bashing Hap’s face in. Then when Leonard faced a bullet, Hap stopped it all. He could’ve really stopped things when Trudy got that nail in the hand. Yet he didn’t. He saved that card for Leonard.
Ole Howard bites the dust. I knew somebody had to. But the chaos goes on. Hap’s busy leading Soldier to the right spot. Can they slip themselves out of this mess?
At the dog pens, Hap goes in to try digging out the money. Then they throw a plan into action, as does Trudy, stabbing Paco through the eye after hauling her hand off the table and using the nail in self-defense. Everything goes wild. Hap and Leonard run off, though, the latter takes a bullet. Trudy manages to do Paco in. But Angel and Soldier are still lurking about, just as ready as ever to do more damage.

Hap and Leonard go back for Trudy, holing up in the house. Outside, Soldier removes an arrow from Angel’s neck, one Hap gave her. And so Soldier watches as she fades away, whispering sweet nothings to her; a tender relationship for two maniacs, all the same. Will this only serve to make Soldier more crazy?
Right now, Leonard’s bleeding out quick, and Hap decides running is their best option. Well, Hap plans on carrying Leonard, but still – high tailing it is their only shot.
The plan gets interrupted by Soldier. And then Trudy leaves, fast as she can. Alone. Another double cross in the books for this Southern femme fatale. How are Hap and Leonard about to squeeze out of this one?

The final Season 1 episode, “Eskimos”, comes out next week. Stay with me, folks. Loving this Lansdale adaptation to the fullest!

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Hap and Leonard – Season 1, Episode 4: “Trudy”

SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard
Season 1, Episode 4: “Trudy”
Directed by Nick Gomez
Teleplay by Nick Damici & Jim Mickle

* For a review of the previous episode, “The Dive” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “War” – click here
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After the end of last episode, Hap Collins (James Purefoy) and Leonard Pine (Michael K. Williams) find themselves taken hostage by Howard (Bill Sage) and his gang. Of course, Trudy Fawst (Christina Hendricks) and lets it all happen.
We watch Trudy take it all in. Heavy. She thinks about years ago, life before. The bird in a cage comes from Trudy here, as she tries to let one out into the wild: “It‘s time to be a bird.” Instead this turns into us seeing a bit of a sadistic side to her come out. When the bird won’t fly away, Trudy opts to drown it instead. Yikes. The look in her eyes says so much.
Out in the living room, Hap and Leonard on their knees get an explanation about Howard needing to “appropriate” their share of the money because there wasn’t enough left after the moldy portion. A potent word from Trudy – “sacrifice” – referring to Leonard and Hap giving up their share for Howard, Trudy and the crew. When Hap knows all about sacrifice.
The greasy crew, including Chub (Jeff Pope) and Paco (Neil Sandilands), hold Hap and Leonard at gunpoint. Hap digs a hole for them to bury the money, considering the police presence nearby. Best is when Leonard stands tall against the barrage of weaponry pointed towards him, and refuses to fill the hole in with the money; shows how he does not let anyone walk over him.

Later, Hap and Leonard end up getting Chub to talk. He gives up the plan for them to buy cocaine. That’s their plan for “sustainable income” in order to do a “Robin Hood” scheme; “to beat the system,” preaches Howard. Lots of great dialogue here in this sequence, as Hap and Leonard both give the gang a talking to, as well as take the piss at the same time. They up duct taped on the porch, bitching at each other in their unique way. Again, as I’ve said plenty already, Purefoy and Williams do such a perfect job with the characters, they really give Joe R. Lansdale’s writing justice in the sense that they make these two friends seem so believable, so natural together. You wouldn’t know but they’d actually been friends for most of their lives. Further gives authenticity to the writing, as their relationship makes everything else flow so organically.
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Leonard: “Nice girlfriend you got there. Got more faces than a diamond.”
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We get a deep look in Trudy during this episode; as if you didn’t know already with the title. But there are a frequent glimpses behind the mask, both frightening and also human. In the series’ current timeline, Trudy wrestles with her actions, and flashes back to the last time she really worked Hap over. I mean, she isn’t a monster. She’s a human, she is a lover. But there’s a certain amount of con artist in her, too. And ruthlessness. Yet she does question Howard: “Is this who we are?”
Chub also reveals his softer nature. While Paco’s a stone cold bad ass, Chub regrets how things went down. Further fueling the fire, Leonard tells him they don’t respect him, and says he’s just a “walking talking porkchop” in their eyes, which makes me laugh but makes me pity Chub at the same time. He refuses to acknowledge the group doesn’t particularly cherish him.
I dig the flashbacks in the series to this point. They’re never overly long, though, this episode dives a bit deeper than any yet. Still, they’re filmed in a slightly different grain, they have a dreamy feel. In this episode particularly, Trudy narrates us through some of the flashback, giving us some expository stuff but in a nice snippet-like way. They really do come off as pieces of memories.

Hap and Trudy have it out a bit, as the former sits with Leonard asleep on his shoulder, both duct taped to one another still. Trudy is going for broke on this latest scheme, following Howard – “Even if it means this?” asks Hap. So who knows what’s next for the unshakeable duo.
In the morning, Leonard decides they should just get up and go, glider on their back and everything. So they do. While Chub sleeps, they manage to get up and start heading towards the wood. They argue and bitch and get a good ways before Paco’s there, right behind them. Good effort, fellas. More duct tape for them both.
Then everyone’s packed in the van. Trudy and Howard decided on their own to only give a “deposit” for their cocaine deal, which drives Paco wild. And who are they meeting exactly? Why it’s Angel (Pollyanna McIntosh), and the maniacal Soldier (Jimmi Simpson). Certainly not going to be any trouble, right?
Things start getting brutal once Soldier calls Leonard a “nigger“, over and over, and Chub does not like that. He gets mouthy, not making anybody happy. And then Paco blows his brains out. Soldier and Angel take control of things, and Howard is devastated. It was all a fuck over. Paco did them in dirty. I knew something had to happen either way. Problem is they never brought all that money, so y’know, now they’ve got to go get that so Soldier and Angel don’t splatter everyone’s brains around the room.

Soldier: “Shhhhh. I do like to hear myself as I‘m speaking.”

On the way in the van, Soldier gets crude, wondering who Trudy is with currently. He figures it’s whoever has the “biggest ankle spanker“, which he determines is Leonard. Of course it comes out he’s gay and more of Leonard being a straight up bad ass. All sorts of focus on Trudy, taking her down a few notches. Then there’s more of Soldier getting naughty, talking about Angel, their sexual relationship. Finally, Trudy defends herself a bit and says she won’t give Soldier “the satisfaction of being scared“, which makes things incredibly tense. Even worse when the cops are parked on the road where they’re all headed. “I love cops,” says Soldier with an odd look in his eyes.
Soldier does a good song and dance until Paco pulls his crossbow and pops a cop. This starts a massacre, as they finish off the other one, and Angel shoots a few more “essential” rounds into the already dead one. This horrifies everyone in the van, naturally. Hap and Leonard are along for a very dangerous ride.

Extremely excited for the next chapter, the penultimate “War” again directed by Jim Mickle. Stay tuned with me, fellow fans. It’s getting dark and dirty now.

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Hap and Leonard – Season 1, Episode 3: “The Dive”

SundanceTV’s Hap and Leonard
Season 1, Episode 3: “The Dive”
Directed by Nick Gomez
Written by E.L. Katz

* For a review of the previous episode, “The Bottoms” – click here
* For a review of the next episode, “Trudy” – click here
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A new chapter in the stories of Hap Collins (James Purefoy) and Leonard Pine (Michael K. Williams).
After “The Bottoms”, we now find Hap and Trudy Fawst (Christina Hendricks) still laying next to the water. A flashback shows us when Hap was getting served papers for dodging the draft. Cut to Howard (Bill Sage), Chub (Jeff Pope) and Paco (Neil Sandilands) discovering them laying there together. When Hap finally comes to things aren’t too awkward.
Meanwhile, Leonard wakes up after a night with his man, who’s busy making breakfast for them both. I fucking love Leonard. He loves hot sauce as much as I do.

Leonard: “Yeah I like spice. Can‘t taste unless it lights my ass on fire.”

Part of why I love Hap in particular is because he doesn’t buy into the 1960s hippy bullshit. Not after taking it hard for believing in all of that stuff when Vietnam was calling. But still, he is a rebel. Despite not digging on the peace and love and “fighting against the man“-type stuff, Hap is on the other side. He’s just a part of the middle class. He’s not, as Karl Marx might say, part of the lumpenproletariat such as somebody like Howard. Hap is all proletariat. He and Leonard come together so perfectly because of their similar situations in life, despite race. Yet Hap’s love for Trudy buys him into the current plan.
Great little conversation between Leonard and his boyfriend Raoul (Enrique Murciano). The latter talks a bit about hoping George Bush will be better than “that actor” Reagan. Even though Leonard believes him to have been a “damn good” one. Joe Lansdale’s writing shows here with the portrayal of Leonard, as the adaptation gives us a great look into the normal life of a gay couple at home. It isn’t pigeonholed and cliched. It’s simply two dudes, in love, conflicted, and all that stuff.
But it’s Hap and Leonard whose relationship shines through most. For the time being, Leonard isn’t sure about the “hippie scavenger hunt” while his partner wants answers soon. “A mull takes as long as a mull takes,” explains Leonard.
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The desperate nature of Hap is always present. Even after a phone call, he checks the money slot in case of quarters. The reality of a character is always interesting, and Hap is real. He’s a broke, and broken in senses, type of a man. Always struggling to stay afloat, like so many of us (myself including). Part of that is honourable because he makes it work, no matter the odds. Part of that also leads him down the garden path. Right now he’s following Trudy down a path Howard is breaking in. Who knows where that’s headed.
A song on the radio takes Hap back through time. We get glimpses of Hap with Trudy. “Ain‘t a time machine, Hap,” says Leonard, warning of nostalgia. Then they have a hilarious little moment over the radio. Their comedic charm together is unreal, leaves me insatiable because they feel like such good friends.
Soon we follow a woman home from the gas station where Hap and Leonard stopped. She arrives home to find her door open, blaming it on herself. Uh oh. We know where this is headed, right? She comes across Soldier (Jimmi Simpson) and Angel (Pollyanna McIntosh) and this ends terribly; for her. These two are wildly psychopathic.

On the river, Hap and Leonard get things ready for their adventure. They set up some gator bait, as Leonard goes diving. What a wild time. “The world don‘t run on fairy dust,” says Leonard, as they talk about the plans of Howard and his gang of hippies.
Below the water Hap comes across some human remains, including a mask; the damn car! Then in a bit of excited fright he gets stuck. When Leonard spots a gator in the water things get tense. Meanwhile, Hap dreams of Trudy, back before he went to jail, her promises, her talk of how noble it is to do what he’s done, what he’ll do. Luckily Leonard hauls Hap out of the water and to safety.
News of the woman murdered earlier hits the news. But nobody worries, because for now Angel and Soldier do their nefarious deeds unbeknownst to Paco, who they’re apparently headed towards.
Back to the lake with gear goes the Scooby Gang along with Hap and Leonard. The two pals head under the water once again, together this time and using lots more equipment. But up above some law enforcement patrols the river, putting everyone in lock down briefly, as Howard and the others lay low. Regardless, Hap and Leonard scoop up the contents of the sunken car, and everyone leaves in high spirits. Only on the road home they find police waiting. All because of Prescott Jones (Jay Potter). So the gang recedes into the night instead of crashing at Howard’s place.

At Leonard’s house, they check out the findings from the river. Drinks and weed are broken out. A celebration. Some Nila cookies. “Crack a window,” Leonard shouts: “Smell like Woodstock in here.” Everyone has a good time, though, Leonard isn’t all that thrilled about hosting the get-together. His whiskey’s being drank, his table needs protection from the old mud caked cases from the car. Love the idiosyncrasies of his personality.
And just as much we get the personality of Hap, especially in this episode. The bits of his past come amazingly subtle with the short cuts to those flashbacks, as he goes in to jail sporting an American flag dress shirt they painted up and everything. The acting of Purefoy allows those memories to resonate in the moments we watch him in the current timeline while he connects with Trudy again. Their connection’s marred by his inability to connect with the ideology she’s about nowadays, and has always been. He’s changed, she hasn’t, and that doesn’t allow him what he wants: “I just want to be with you,” Hap tells Trudy. Not enough for her, apparently.
In the kitchen, Howard and Paco discover one of the cases of money is rotten. All the bills, or most of them, soaked and moldy. Then Hap and Leonard find themselves on the end of guns – Chub, Howard, and Paco are taking all the money left. That’s their decision now after doing little to no work. I knew something had to happen.

What’ll come next in the wild tales of Hap and Leonard? Find out wtih me next in the episode titled “Trudy”, which hopefully will give us more on the lady herself. Surely there’s going to be excitement either way. And hopefully, finally, Soldier and Angel will meet the gang.

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THE PURGE: ANARCHY Further Envisions POTUS Trump’s Domestic Policies on Crime

The Purge: Anarchy. 2014. Directed & Written by James DeMonaco.
Starring Frank Grillo, Carmen Ejogo, Zach Gilford, Kiele Sanchez, Zoë Soul, Justina Machado, John Beasley, Jack Conley, Noel Gugliemi, Castulo Guerra, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Edwin Hodge. Blumhouse Productions.
Rated 14A. 103 minutes.
Action/Horror/Thriller

★★★★

My favourite thing about the fact The Purge: Anarchy exists is that there is room for exploration within the speculative universe that the film/its predecessor inhabits.
There are a lot of social issues in both these films, especially the sequel. Because what we’re seeing in Anarchy here is a group of stories which represent the wide reach of social consequences that enacting an event such as The Purge might cause. It would mean so many different things to so many different people, of all kinds, of all mindsets and sensibilities, of all mental states.
People want to continually try and say that The Purge as a concept would never happen, a government would not allow it. THESE FILMS TAKE PLACE IN A WORLD WHERE AMERICA HAS BECOME A FULL-FLEDGED TOTALITARIAN REGIME! If you don’t understand that and you can’t recognize what that means, then you probably shouldn’t be judging the film because you think “This would never happen”, and you might not want to keep talking about it. Because this is not meant to happen in our reality, this is speculative fiction, it’s a horror-thriller within a fictional near future in America.
So strap in, have some fun. Stop being so serious all the time….
RELEASE. THE. BEAST.
The Purge: Anarchy takes place on the verge of the annual Purge event, March 21st in 2023.
Several stories are happening at once. Everyone counts down to Purge time.
On one end of town, Eva Sanchez (Carmen Ejogo) and her daughter Cali Sanchez (Zoë Soul) lived with Eva’s sick father, Rico (John Beasley).
Then there are Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez), a couple who’ve clearly hit rough times, and they end up stranded with car trouble just as the event begins to come down upon the city.
All the while, Leo “Sarge” Barnes (Frank Grillo) has a personal tragedy which drives him. He has all kinds of weaponry, a car made to sustain damage throughout The Purge, and there’s obviously someone, or some people, that he seems to be looking for; his bedroom wall has pictures plastered over it.
Once the murder on the streets begins, including the viciously callous Big Daddy (Jack Conley), Sarge and the others end up coming together as the violence escalates to epic proportions, and they’re all forced to trust one another. At least for a little while.
SPOILERS AHEAD.
SURPRISE, MOTHAFUCKA.
The part of the plot that scares me most is the angle with Papa Rico (John Beasley) because it speaks to social consequences of a different kind than just simply racially motivated, and now sanctioned one night a year in March, murder. Here, we have a man selling himself to a bunch of sick white folk who want to have their Purge in a perceived civilized, more quaint and special manner, and above SAFELY because they’re true cowards who want the thrill without the risk; a celebratory bit of Purging, if you will, dressed to the nines with champagne on-hand.
It’s sick, and it is also something you can imagine happening – brave, brave people sacrificing themselves in such a manner in order to afford better lives for their family members, offering themselves up on the one night a year murder is legal just to help out with the bills and the rent, all because they’re old, or they’re sick, or they just simply don’t want to live in a sick America that has descended into madness.
Great, effective part to the plot that I find highly disturbing in its own right.
Then you’ve got Sarge (Frank Grillo) whose motivation to Purge is not like so many of the other maniacs out looking for a sick thrill every March 21st. No, Sarge heads out in the dark of night for the Purge because he has a vendetta, he needs revenge. He isn’t looking for innocents to kill, or perceived ‘scum of society’ (as the fresh young whites in the first film were out doing). He’s got a score to settle. Plus, he’s got the gear and the firepower to make sure the job gets done, and gets done damn well.
I think Grillo is a talented actor. He might not have the extreme range of some others, but he has a lot of heart. I really do think he’s good in this role. Also, the character itself I dig because it shows a whole other angle to the entire Purge that we didn’t get to see in the first film. So to have a guy like Grillo play Sarge worked; he didn’t need to act to any Shakespearean level, he just had to give it some guts, which panned out perfectly. Grillo is a physical dude and that helped for this performance.
There’s a genuinely good level of action in this one that the first doesn’t reach. Not to say that’s a problem for the original, but I like that there’s some more excitement here. The premise of The Purge here is bigger in scope, involving more of the city, more people, instead of the more confined location in the first film.
Not only that, I found things truly terrifying. I mean, in The Purge there’s a degree of safety for awhile until things get going and people start to break into James Sandin’s home. Here, there’s just chaos and madness in the streets. Seeing some of the masked people in the streets wandering about with machetes, guns, all sorts of weapons – it’s chilling at times. Imagine getting caught trying to get home and then The Purge comes down on you; what would you do? Run like fucking hell. I like the tension involved in trying to imagine what it would be like on that one night out in those streets. It’d be like a nightmare come to life.
I thought there was some appropriately twisted stuff in this movie.
One part that disturbed me was while Sarge (Frank Grillo) leads his rag-tag group around, they come across that woman with a megaphone just screaming absolute nonsense and firing off an assault rifle; corpses are littered across the street down below. Cracking scene that shows little glimpses into the world of others in this world of The Purge and the New Founding Fathers.
There are some excellent scenes like this, which take us further into the universe started in the first film, a creepily crazed vision of America from writer/director James DeMonaco.
A great bit is where a Wall Street banker type is strung up with a sign on him, bloodied, chains around his wrists and ankles – he robbed someone’s pensions, put some people in the poorhouse. You can see how so many would eventually start using The Purge to exact their brand of social justice, whatever flavour it might come in.
It’s funny – I see some complains about how Sarge was being prompted to reveal more about himself. What’s the problem there? Even while these people are willing to follow the man because he obviously can handle himself, don’t you think you’d want to know why this guy was out on the night of The Purge? I would. Might not keep pressing too much, yet still, he could’ve been leading them anywhere. I think it’s only natural someone would push to try and figure out who the hell this guy is, or was – because clearly he’s a changed man from who he’d been.
Plus, I mean… character development? I’m not saying The Purge: Anarchy is a perfect film, by any definition of the term. I just think people want to give it too hard of a time when it’s got a lot to offer.
All in all, this is another 4 out of 5 star film for me personally. I love what this sequel brings to the table; it ups the ante, it makes things more wide and completes The Purge universe where the New Founding Fathers have taken control of society, wiping out the poor essentially. There are some not-so-great things here – usually I’m a fan of Michael K. Williams, but I don’t like this role. I thought the film could’ve done without that part. Perhaps it could’ve waited for the third film, round out a trilogy with a story centred on groups trying to eliminate The Purge and the totalitarian regime headed by the New Founding Fathers. Here, this was a plot that sort of gets lost in the mix. Good stuff, just didn’t work fully here.
There are great scenes here, some of action, some of horror with viciousness and that thriller element. Fits in with some good modern horror movies. I can’t say everything works the way it should, but I feel there’s enough here to make The Purge: Anarchy a worthy sequel to a nice little surprisingly fun film. Judge on your own. I do think there are social issues this movie explores, along with its predecessor. People will continue to pass these off as silly movies, though, they are much more than that. Even better, they’re fun, they’re entertainment, and if you let yourself you can enjoy them a good deal.

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A Place for Long Form Film & Horror Essays

Tag Archives: Michael K. Williams

Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 6: “No Mo’ Mojo”

Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 5: “Pie a la Mojo”

Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 4: “Bad Mojo”

Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 3: “Holy Mojo”

Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 2: “Ticking Mojo”

Hap and Leonard – Season 2, Episode 1: “Mucho Mojo”

The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 8: “The Call of the Wild”

The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 7: “Ordinary Death”

The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 6: “Samson and Delilah”

The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 5: “The Season of the Witch”

The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 4: “The Art of War”

The Night Of – Season 1, Episode 3: “A Dark Crate”

Hap and Leonard – Season 1, Episode 6: “Eskimos”

Hap and Leonard – Season 1, Episode 5: “War”

Hap and Leonard – Season 1, Episode 4: “Trudy”

Hap and Leonard – Season 1, Episode 3: “The Dive”

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DEATH TO VIDEODROME - LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!

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DEATH TO VIDEODROME - LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!

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DEATH TO VIDEODROME - LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!

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DEATH TO VIDEODROME - LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!

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DEATH TO VIDEODROME - LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!

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DEATH TO VIDEODROME - LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!

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DEATH TO VIDEODROME - LONG LIVE THE NEW FLESH!

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