Recap: Vinyl ‘E.A.B.’
“Because, man, when Vinyl sucks, it really sucks. But when it doesn’t suck… it doesn’t suck. Read that back as early 70s Iggy Pop, it’s a better line that way.”
“Because, man, when Vinyl sucks, it really sucks. But when it doesn’t suck… it doesn’t suck. Read that back as early 70s Iggy Pop, it’s a better line that way.”
“However much we’ve laughed at the characters in the preceding episodes, ‘Manna from Heaven’ focuses on understanding why they act as they do.”
“‘The Panic in Central Park’ is a richly realized half hour of television, maybe the best episode in the history of a show that’s had some awfully good ones.”
“Is there any point to Richie being an asshole? Is Richie even a character? What is it about Richie Finestra as a protagonist that requires this story be set in the early 70s?”
“Even if the focus on the jurors in ‘A Jury in Jail’ misfires, there’s more than enough territory left to explore as The People v. O.J. Simpson comes to a close.”
“I know I say this every week, but it must be said again: this is such a good season of Girls.”
“‘Cyclone’ is the most trying episode of Vinyl yet for anyone less than fascinated with Bobby Cannavale’s Richie Finestra”
“American Crime Story has done an impressive job of imbuing well-known facts with enough intrigue to make them play like gripping fiction, and ‘Conspiracy Theories’ is no exception.”
“There was a return this week, in grand fashion, of Horrible Coke Faces.”
“As tempting as it’d be to focus solely on the sexism in the trial, ‘Marcia, Marcia, Marcia’ ultimately works best as an episode due to its unwillingness to forget about race.”
“Damn, this season of Girls is good.”
“This week’s Vinyl was actually good! Pop some champagne! Cut up some lines of coke on the desk! Cue the orgy!”
“‘The Race Card’ succeeds, perhaps better than any other episode in the strong season, by refusing to shy away from the hypocrisy prevalent on both sides of the O.J. case.”
“The series may not be as wild and crazy as its earlier and edgier self, but the even strain continues to fit neatly with the theme of maturation.”
“The thing about Vinyl is that, if it was good, the series would be a lot more fun to watch.”
“Racism is, of course, the defining issue of discrimination in the O.J. case, but the show never lets us forget the misogyny which also haunts its characters.”
“With the series and its central quartet now nearing a more fulsome sense of adulthood, the great delight in Season Five’s debut is in how thoroughly it revels in being a television show.”
“The pilot’s structure resembled a vinyl record by being circular. The follow-up resembles one because there’s a hole in the middle.”
“Trying to divine the future of a series from its pilot is a fool’s errand, and even more so when so much of the show’s appeal as yet rests in the ‘in nomini patris, et filis, et cinema sancta amen’ passion of its director, the cinema’s most charismatic priest.”
“Amidst the personal turmoil, the racial context of American Crime Story comes through even stronger in “The Run of His Life,” building on the insinuation of the Rodney King opening of the premiere.”