Christmas, Again (2014) *** I was certain before I hit play that I had watched this movie sometime in the past couple of years, but it isn't on any of my past holiday movie lists. A sad and lonely Christmas tree salesman is back another year at the same NYC tree lot, but this time with some emotional pain in tow. What I really like about this movie is how it presented the story arc of his heartbreak, the use of silence, expressions, and gestures to get emotion across. That's the result of good a acting-directing combo. By the way, this film is a rare positive result of the same writer and director. I have to also give props for the good use of Arabian Dance from The Nutcracker.It sets the perfect tone for this story.
Production: It was a low-budget indie as opposed to a low-budget cheesy movie.
Suspension of belief: Low
Tropes/sub-genres: Character living through sadness from a pre-movie incident
A Christmas To Remember (2015) * “Featuring” Robin Givens who makes a short appearance towards the end of the movie, A Christmas To Remember was only worth watching because it is so-bad-it's-funny-to-watch-with-a-friend as I did with my best friend. Actually, I think we may have fast forwarded through this one. It was difficult to watch even while laughing. My main complaint was that the technical skills to make a film were lacking by these filmmakers. None of the characters were mic'd nor did there seem to be any reliable audio capture equipment around because the sound was terrible. The camera was shaky and the lighting and filtering changed with almost every single cut. I know a trained camera operator was no where nearby, because composing and framing a shot was not on anyone's mind. Creatively, the story was all over the place. It looked like it was going to be a Hatfields vs McCoys situation with two rival families that would be brought together by the love of the family heads, but then all of the stories of each of the children were brought to light. And each family had at least five members. There was no way to successfully hash out and resolve at least 10 different stories. Bad production, incomplete stories, terrible personal styling. For a good laugh, read my best friend's review here: Dante Rants
Production: Limbo contest winners low
Suspension of belief: Mountain high
Tropes: Rival families... anything else is unclear
Diversity: Reverse! This was a Black cast with one white supporting character
Paranormal: No, but it would have helped the plot
Clownish character: I plead the 5th
Production Co: Atlanta Dream Team Productions
How'd you watch it: Amazon
London Mitchell's Christmas (2019) * This most certainly was not a holiday romance movie, but it was so bad I kept watching anyway. Everything in this movie was too long. It needed a serious editor, because this easily could have been cut from 1:40 to 30 minutes. I watched this movie twice: Once by myself, fast forwarding through each excessive conversation. Then another time with my bestie over the phone, as we synced scenes and I guided him through the highlights. Considering the plot, it's hard to believe that such a self-absorbed and despicable person could get everyone he treated so poorly to forgive, forget and love him just because he has cancer. Read my bestie's review here: Dante Rants
Production value: Mid-low. They skimped on writing and editing
Suspension of belief: High!
Tropes: A very modified Scrooge trope
Diversity: This film has an all-black cast
Paranormal: None
Clownish character: London Mitchell was a joke, but I don't think you could really call him a clown.
I definitely watched holiday movies with a different mindset during this past holiday season. It was 2020. No explanation needed. So, let's jump right in.
Patterns I noticed this year
I ended up watching a lot of the same tropes: Ambitious career persons, return to home town and lovable father figure characters. Multiples times these tropes crossed paths in the same movie. Also, I'm going to try and fit everything into three posts:
The Good and the Okay
The Bad and the Unfinished
The Not-Romantic
The Good and the Okay
Feast of the Seven Fishes (2019) **** Feast of Seven Fishes is a holiday comedy with feel-good moments along the same lines of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and The Family Stone. The basic plot follows a few days in the life of a young man, Tony, and a young woman, Beth, who stumble upon a little romance and spend a couple of life-changing days together. I fell in love, just like Beth does, with the very hilarious, loving, and Italian Olviera family. The casting was perfect and featured some Sopranos alum, which gave the family scenes an authentic, rather than stereotypical feel. I am smitten with Skyler Gisondo who I saw previously in Booksmart!
Production Co: Allegheny Image Factory, Witty Michaels Entertainment
How'd you watch it: Hoopla
Holiday Heist (2019) **** A family-owned jewelry store is being cased by a guy who needs to make some quick money to pay back the local crime boss. He gets hired on by the patriarch and ends up genuinely caring for the family and falling for one of its members. Cute colorful Christmas romance with just the right amount of cheese, just right production, even the music was enjoyable. If this movie was given a bigger marketing budget and maybe featured one big name actor, this might have been successful in theaters.
Tropes/sub-genres: Enemies to lovers; You're boyfriend ain't right for you
Diversity: Pretty much everyone was a person of color.
Production Co: Mar Vista
How'd you watch it: Hoopla
Christmas a la Mode (2019) **** This was a nice refreshing story about a dairy farm/creamery on the verge of going under until the two sisters/owners have a fire lit under them with the threat (or hope) of a sale. An agent representing a dairy conglomerate that is putting an offer on the farm turns out to be handsome, charming and rooting for the farmer sister to succeed in keeping the farm. The lead actor’s American accent started to fail and I’m proud to say I guessed he was Australian.
Production: There were definitely on location at a working farm. I'm sad to say there was no smell-o-vision during the creamery scenes, dammit.
Tropes/sub-genres: Family rivalry; Enemies to lovers; Save the business
Diversity: Nope.
Production Co: H9 Films, Moody Independent
How'd you watch it: Hoopla
Last Christmas (2019) *** Last Christmas Stars Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as a flawed and wreckless young woman named Kate who keeps on messing up and messing with the lives of her close friends and family. She bumps into odd, but nice guy, Tom, played by Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) and keeps on bumping into him, until it becomes a thing. There's romance, a little speculative fiction, sage advice, self-discovery and a Christmas paegent rounding out this holiday movie. Yes! Wham!'s song, Last Christmas, is featured throughout the movie, and the whole soundtrack was chock-full of George Michael inspiration. Last Christmas was entertaining.
Production: This came out of a major studio, and you can tell no expense was spared although the home scenes looked comfy and authentic.
Suspension of belief: Medium – unlikely premise
Tropes/Sub-Genres: Odd Couple; Supernatural Romantic Comedy; Flawed character reaches rock bottom; Self-actualization/realization
Diversity: Yes!
Production Co: Universal Pictures
How'd you watch it: Checked out the DVD from the library
Picture a Perfect Christmas (2019) *** Stars Hallmark regular, Merritt Patterson (Christmas at the Palace, A Royal Winter), as an ambitious photographer who returns to her home town for some needed time with her grandmother. She meets nana's neighbor, played by Jon Cor, and his nephew and you guessed it... sparks start to fly. Will the photographer be able to have a career and insta-family in the end? I was able to finish this pleasant film, but it didn't stand out in any way.
Production: It was Hallmark production that didn't require lavish sets or costumes, so it looked good.
Suspension of belief: Low, probably because it was so predictable
Tropes/Sub-Genres: Ambitious career person vs love; Return to home town; Father figure character standing in for a kid's real parent(s); Woman falls for loving father figure and child aka insta-family
Diversity: One supporting character of color
Production Co: Front Street Pictures, Hallmark Channel
How'd you watch it: Checked out the DVD from the library
Rent an Elf (2018) *** A Christmas-loving entrepreneur who runs a holiday event planning business is hired by a single dad to help create a special Christmas for his son who is going through a post-divorce rough patch. Want to see the whole movie? Watch the one minute and 48 seconds trailer: Same as a couple of the other three star *** films on this list, there was really nothing that hooked my heartstrings in this movie, but it wasn't bad. The cast did feature Sean Patrick Thomas from Save the Last Dance. Playing his mother was Debbi Morgan, a major soap star who is also well-known for Eve's Bayou.
Production: Visually this movie looked like a well-budgeted-basic Hallmark or Mar Vista, so it looked good.
Suspension of belief: Low, probably because it was so predictable
Tropes/Sub-Genres: Woman falls for loving father figure and child aka insta-family; Wreckless ex schemes to get ex back
Diversity: About half of the main characters are of color
Production Co: The Asylum
How'd you watch it: Amazon, but it was also on Ion Channel's Sunday marathons.
The Rooftop Christmas Tree (2016) *** Michelle Morgan (Heartland) plays a lawyer who returns to her hometown in hopes of scaling back her life from the big city, but instead, the first case she takes on is her neighbor vs the town. Tim Reid (WKRP In Cincinnati), the lawyer's hermit neighbor, is being cited for his mysterious practice of putting a Christmas tree on his roof. Will the lawyer be able to win her neighbor's case? Will the mystery of the rooftop tree be solved? For some reason, Michelle Morgan does a lot of over the shoulder talking (You know when you start talking about someone with your back to the door, then that person walks in and hears you talking about them?) as Lou on Heartland and surprisingly also in this movie, too. The biggest issue I had withThe Rooftop Christmas Tree is how quickly everything happened. I don't think this movie depicted a full week of life in this town, but the romantic leads were about ready to move in and get a Christmas tree together by the end. The story had surprising and heartfelt subplots and that was pleasing.
Production: It had an authentic small town feel to it.
Suspension of belief: High. Everything happened way too fast. Even the court and legal procedures went into warp speed. And, the main character's parents looked to be about her same age.
Tropes/sub-genres: Return to hometown; Enemies to lovers; Mysterious neighbor aka Boo Radley
Diversity: A bit. One central character and one subsequent character.
Production Co: Johnson Production Group
How'd you watch it: Amazon
A Majestic Christmas (2018) *** Another ambitious woman, an architect, is assigned a project to revamp her hometown's nostalgia-filled theater. The theater's new owner and her new client, comes off like your average gentrifying developer, but it turns out he has a heart. Sparks are flying! A Majestic Christmas features a colorful cast with interesting characters. Even with all those positives, the sparks didn't fly for me. There was something missing that I can't put my finger on. Maybe I'll like it better next year. Starring Jerrika Hinton (Grey's Anatomy, A Christmas Kiss). Christian Vincent, the actor who plays the developer, plays it really cheesy.
Production: Hallmark makes it rain on a set.
Suspension of belief: Medium
Tropes/sub-genres: Return to home town; Ambitious character struggling with career or following their heart; Gentrification
Tropes/sub-genres: Ambitious career person vs love; Investigator falls for subject of investigation
Diversity: The main characters are people of color and there are colorful people generously sprinkled throughout.
Production Co: Lifetime, Neshama Entertainment
How'd you watch it: Hoopla
Sweet Mountain Christmas (2019) *** A country-music star who has lost her way finds herself snowed in by a freak storm which stretches out for days what was meant to be a quick trip to visit her family. During her stay, she revisits the past, finds inspiration in her hometown, and maybe even love.
Production: Lifetime funds good productions, so overall it looked good, but I thought the sets and locations were a little too nice for a small one-road-in-and-out town.
Tropes/sub-genres: Return to hometown; Self-actualization/realization; Ambitious character struggling with career or following their heart; Gentrification;High school sweethearts/old flames reunite
Diversity: A drop or two.
Production Co: Lifetime, Lighthouse Pictures, Brightlight Pictures
How'd you watch it: Hoopla
Christmas In Mississippi (2017) *** An ambitious photographer (Another one?) returns to her hometown for the holidays in good ol' Mississippi. She ends up reluctantly rekindling the cut-too-soon relationship with her high school sweetheart, who is the project manager for the town's holiday light show and the caregiver of his nephew. Everything ties up neatly in the end, which I have criticized in some movies, but in Christmas in Mississippi it works because the love story starts long before the movie starts, which makes the expedited falling in love make sense. Also the plotline doesn't stray too far from the core story and they both share the same passions: Love of their home town and respective familes. Added bonus is that holiday romances don't often get a chance to feature a real place and tackle real issues, such as the Gulfport's post-Katrina recovery.
Production: Sets and styling were Gulfport authentic
Suspension of belief: Medium
Tropes/sub-genres: Father figure character standing in for a kid's real parent(s); Return to home town; Ambitious career person vs love; High school sweethearts reunite
Diversity: Color in the supporting cast
Paranormal: Is that Kris Kringle?
Clownish character: No
Production Co: Lifetime; Active Entertainment
How'd you watch it: Amazon
Christmas at the Plaza (2019) *** Christmas at the Plaza started off pretty exciting for me: A historian is hired to curate a historical installation about Christmas throughout the years at The Plaza Hotel. She is is teamed up with the very cute and personable professional Christmas decorator. Unfortunately, the writing forewent usage of any interesting plots/subplots. They missed the most the obvious, which was to have the historian show why studying history is important since one of her issues was that her profession is so under appreciated. Instead, they took the easy trope-route to the end.
Production: Location was set at The Plaza, so beautifully authentic.
Suspension of belief: Medium
Tropes/sub-genres: Modified enemies-to-lovers; You're boyfriend ain't right for you
Diversity: Just a sprinkling in the supporting cast
Production Co: Hallmark
How'd you watch it: DVD checked out from the library
A Christmas In Royal Fashion (2018) *** Rewatching this I noticed something: the audience is supposed to hate the evil boss, but if one of your employees impersonates you, wears your clothes and risks an important account, you’d fire them too.
Christmas Sitters (2020) *** An ambitious career woman (Ha!) is asked to babysit her old friends's kids while she is stuck in Europe. The career woman is doing an awkward job until the friend's brother-in-law makes a surprise appearance. He is the fun to her serious, but they both prove that they are skilled and flawed in their babysitting tasks.
Tropes/sub-genres: Opposites attract; Ambitious career woman; Rolling stone man; Family stuck somewhere due to unforeseen circumstances (Home-Alone-alike)
Diversity: Main characters are colorful
How'd you watch it: Ion Channel's holiday movie marathon
Christmas Together (2020) *** To get away and to figure out her life, an artist take a trip to a town called Tinsel, where she rents a house from a widowed father and his daughter. Vivica Fox shows up as the Christmasy-Cupid of a neighbor. Simple, but cute.
Tropes/sub-genres: You're boyfriend ain't right for you; Woman falls for loving father (figure) and child aka insta-family
Diversity: Main characters are colorful
How'd you watch it: Ion Channel's holiday movie marathon
Beaus of Holly (2020) *** I was expecting something different here, but I guess two men interested in one woman is enough for a 90-minute film. A control-freak plans the perfect romantic holiday getaway for her and her boyfriend, including a proposal. Instead of saying “yes,”he breaks up with her and leaves. She decides to stay and try to enjoy her plans, which didn't include falling for the concierge or having to figure out what she wants when the ex shows back up.
Tropes/sub-genres: You're boyfriend ain't right for you; Love triangle; Opposites attract; Control freak learns to relax
Diversity: Some of the main characters and supporting characters are colorful
How'd you watch it: Ion Channel's holiday movie marathon
Operation Christmas Drop (2020) *** A senator's aide is sent to a military base in the South Pacific to assess it for possible closure. Her escort turns out to be a philanthropic officer who cares about the indigenous people and his fellow soldiers. Cute story that exhibits the Christmas spirit on a tropical island, but no real chemistry builds between the main characters.
Brittany Runs a Marathon was basically an after school special about a late-twenty-something who is too fat and behind on her adulting game. She decides to get her stuff together, and ultimately run a marathon. Along the way she exposes herself and her lifestyle to the garish light of day. Her one friend is terribly unsupportive and Brittany herself did not take things seriously making for some painful to watch scenes. Then she starts to meet some better people, when those good people start to get close she effectively pushes them away. Things really turn around only after she has a turn-your-life-around-on-a-dime pep talk by a wise and insightful black person.
I'll give costuming and styling a round of applause. They made her skin looked terrible and I can’t tell if actress, Jillian Bell was padded or not so she looked genuine and I mean that in a non-insulty way. After about 15 minutes, I wanted to stop it and watch something else. I didn't like it, but something about miserable people is engaging so I trudged on. Certain aspects of Brittany's life hit home with me and I was so entertained by the scenes that included Utkarsh Ambudkar. Damn movie got me in the end. I got caught up in the motivational build-up and shed a tear or two when she falters during the marathon.
Mini rant: I'm upset and should start a hunger strike at the lack of notoriety allowed for Utkarsh Ambudkar. I remember how awesome and cute he was in Pitch Perfect and that his brief, but spectacular appearance in Blindspotting made for a great flashback sequence. I was sad when after watching Brittany Runs a Marathon on Amazon, I looked at the information page to learn more about the cast, and neither his name nor picture showed up. Same thing on the Pitch Perfect Amazon information page. How disappointing. Enjoy this Brief But Spectacular video of him being him.
I'll give Brittany Runs a Marathon three stars*** on the fun end of the scale. It was okay. I don't necessarily need or want to watch it again, but it wasn't all bad.
Big Love starts out great. I binged
season 1 and 2 easily. It is a fast-paced, intricately plotted,
character-driven show about faith and relationships in a world full
of secrets covered by shiny, righteous smiles. Each show is
high-drama and hopeful at the same time with a large cast of
likeable, flawed and sympathetic characters. But along with DoctorBlake Mysteries, The Mentalist, and so many other shows and films,
the central character of Big Love, Bill, is what I have come to call
the Lucky Reckless Man.
As with all shows that have this Lucky
Reckless Man trope, Bill is surrounded by amazing people with dynamic
stories and that's what keeps me coming back for more. By season 3
and definitely in season 4 it becomes more obvious how horrible and
selfish Bill is. He puts everyone close to him in physical, spiritual
and emotional danger with his schemes stacked upon shaky schemes.
Like a stupid superhero, he reveals his plans to his adversaries then
believes that his faith will make things happen. And it does. He
either has dumb luck or an eyes-half-shut Heavenly Father.
My favorite episode is season 3,
episode 6, Come, Ye Saints, where the Henrickson family goes on a
Mormon pilgrimage, visiting sacred landmarks along the way. Bill is
shocked because he finally stops his scheming long enough to take a
good look at his family only to see how unhappy they are. All the
while other issues rise up like the angel Moroni.
I hate that I wrote a paragraph about
how horrible Bill is, but the show and the other awesome characters
wouldn't be if it weren't for him and his scheming, so I'll continue
to re-watch until the end of the season, which if I can remember
correctly, is very fulfilling. Bye, Bill.
This fall into Fun because I will probably watch it again, and it gets three stars ***. Geez.
I rewatched this on Amazon.
Beatriz at Dinner is an unhurried, character-focused, bleak drama about a holistic health
practitioner who is invited to stay for her employer’s business dinner because her car broke down at the employer’s house. I watched it on Amazon.
My reaction during the movie:
I knew what was going to happen as soon as she tried to start her car. The whole time my stomach is just wrenching. I keep saying Why? Why did you invite her to dinner? Why did she decide to stay? Why did she cut off of the maitre’d? Why is she still drinking? Why did they not call AAA? Why did she leave the bedroom? What the hell?!
My thoughts after:
Beatriz At Dinner made me think of Mother, which was completely unrealistic, yet a commentary on realistic society. Whereas BAD (Yeah. It does spell bad) is completely realistic and trying to explore social classes and cultural bias, but is unable to fulfill that intended subject matter because there is not one likable character in this movie, not even the main character. BAD turned out to be a movie about what not to do. Do not NOT take care of your car. Do not invite a friendly service person to your very important business dinner. Do not cut off the maitre’d announcing the menu. Do not insult and throw a phone at one of the invited guests.
I found that Beatriz spent so much time trying to be this pure, vegan, healing, soulful person, that she didn’t realize how selfish she was acting during the dinner and if this movie was any indication, maybe throughout her life. She violated people’s space by giving everyone a full-body hug. She was rude to the main guest at dinner. She was inconsiderate of her so-called-friend, who invited her to stay.
I listened to the Filmweek segment about this movie and I’m apparently way off from the critics. They thought this film was great and the acting by John Lithgow and Salma Hayek was amazing. Apparently, they saw it right after the inauguration of Donald Trump, so they though Lithgow’s character was quite similar and the movie was an “allegory of the Trump era.” It seems like they saw Beatriz as a representative for the downtrodden, which again, I would have agreed with if she was only likable. I saw one trailer that made her look as intrusive as the Brady Bunch’s Alice. Then I saw another trailer that made John Lithgow’s character to be the embodiment of evil.
I also noticed two actors from the horrible, yet addictive show, Transparent in this movie. A show about a family full of unlikeable people.
It turns out the director and writer have worked together twice before. I only know about The Good Girl (2002) that okay movie with Jennifer Anniston and Jake Gyllenhaal and Enlightened, which I never watched on HBO.
On the Nitpix scale, this movie falls into the Not Fun zone. On my scale it gets two stars**.
Next day addendum: From her behavior it is clear that Beatriz was experiencing a mental breakdown that started during the massage scene. If you can relate to Beatriz and need to talk to someone, please call the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI):
800-950-NAMI, Mon - Fri 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM EST or find help in a crisis by texting NAMI to 741741.
I'm pretty sure The Sopranos is myfavorite TV show. It is the TV show my brain craves to watch the
most, and every episode I've seen (all of them) are valuable. The
past week or so, I've been re-watching season 3 and dogonnit, if it
isn't chock full of the best Soprano moments!
* To start the whole season off, there's
the FBI's effort to bug the Soprano house. The coordinated effort is
soundtracked with the Peter Gunn spy theme mashed with Sting and the
Police Every Breath You Take.
* After Dr. Melfi's horrible rape, the
moment she realizes she has the power to have her rapist taken care
of, but she decides not to use it.
* After AJ and friends break in and
vandalize their school pool house, the Newark Police's super
detective work with pizza forensics. The camera and editing in this
scene is pure and beautiful comedy. Click here to watch.
* The Big Mouth Billy Bass gift and
related dream sequences.
* Paulie and Christopher get lost in the
wintery southern New Jersey woods. This is top quality acting people. Click here to watch.
As I said, this is one of, if not my #1 favorite TV show, so it gets five stars*****.
I re-watched The Sopranos Season 3 thanks to my Amazon Prime subscription.
The first episode is just an exploration of how self-centered and entitled Maura (Jeffrey Tambor) really is as she finds herself wandering up and down the aisles of the Slauson Swap Meet. I hate her and I was so happy to see her carted off to a County hospital on a 5150. I cheered and I kept watching.
I hate this entire family, but the way they bounce off of and crash into the other people in their lives is so enthralling. How can they be such horrible people and attract such interesting and loving human beings? Its the side characters that make this season and the flashbacks to the post-Berlin storyline.
I’m giving Transparent Season 3 three stars*** because I don’t see myself watching this over again on purpose, but I did find it to be entertaining and well done TV.
Transparent is an Amazon original so I watched it on Amazon
I'm trying really hard not to include any details or spoilers in this ode to Fortitude. I think everyone deserves a chance to stumble upon it with little to no knowledge about the show and enjoy it all the better. This trail doesn't give anything away either:
If the X-Files and Fargo met at a bar, got drunk and had sex, then their one-night-stand child would be named Fortitude!
This show amazingly takes you on a roller coaster ride of plot lines and vectors, twists and turns, from mystery, to small town drama, to National Geographic, to science fiction. All of that and this show managed to keep me on the edge of my seat wanting more.
Fortitude is the craziest show I've ever seen and I loved it! I don't think they can make a second season, but considering the ending there is a possibility they will try.
I'm sure I could watch it again and still enjoy it, therefore I'm giving Fortitude four stars with one in reserve ****(*) for being utterly engaging and entertaining. The last star is on hold until I can enjoy this a second time, hopefully with an unsuspecting viewing partner or group.
I CAN'T WAIT TO TALK WITH SOMEONE ABOUT THIS SHOW!
When you get to the bottom of it, Blood Ties is a movie about brotherhood, regret and redemption. The movie starts out like a out of
control fire hose spraying all kinds of plot lines and character
stubs all over the place. The production of the first half created a staccato feeling and didn't give the audience a
chance to really get to know the characters or story. Unfortunately,
due to poor character development, you don't really get a good sense
of why Chris (Clive Owen's character) jumps into the deep end of
crime after only a couple of set-backs in trying to succeed in a
non-criminal line of work. You also miss out on why Zoe Saldana's
character all of a sudden changes her mind about Frank (Billy
Crudup's character). Finally, about
halfway through the film, what I'm supposed to care about comes
through. It felt like the director was swapped out mid-shoot.
And accents all over the place! Clive Owen can
never really tuck that accent between his legs and the French
speakers, Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, couldn't cover
themselves either.
I'm giving Blood Ties three stars ***
because it wasn't bad, especially if you can hang out past the mid
point and I wouldn't be opposed to watching it again, but I will
probably never seek it out on my own.
What started off as a strange, but intriguing pilot, blossomed into a perfect full season. No moment wasted, no superfluous lines, no unnecessary characters: Hand of God is great TV. It was a perfect season, from my point of view and I would watch it over and over, again.
Synopsis:A very powerful, but selfish, contemptible, bought-with-the-right-price judge comes to believe that he is anointed by God after his son nearly succeeds at committing suicide. But something is showing him that things aren't as simple as they may seem and that he has to do something to right the wrongs.
Don't read beyond this point if you haven't seen the show yet.
Crystal was almost always wearing black or dark clothes and Tessie was almost always wearing white. Even Tessie's house was decorated with white, but in the scene when her son/brother decides to leave, she's wearing black pants with a white top, and the dining room was mostly white, but the bottom of the table was black as if illustrating Tessie's underlying dark past/ darkness.
Almost the whole show until the last two episodes, I thought Josh had something to do with PJ's suicide and possibly even Jocelyn's rape. That video was a major plot twist and I was totally off! Well done, writers. Well done.
I'm giving this five stars ***** because I now list this in my favorites and I think Hand of God is an all-around exceptional TV show that, like fine wine grows better and better with each viewing.
