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Hap and Leonard - SundanceTV's darkly comic swamp noir


AncalagonTheBlack

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Yeah, I've never read the novels and was assuming that ending shot was in one of them. I preferred the penultimate more than the finale, which drew out the denouement in order for the episode to fit in the allotted time slot. I did however, appreciate finally getting the origin of Hap and Leonard's friendship. The accident was already known, but it was nice finally seeing how it played out.

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10 hours ago, Astromech said:

Yeah, I've never read the novels and was assuming that ending shot was in one of them.

I looked it up, it's a tease for the next season based on book two :) 

10 hours ago, Astromech said:

 The accident was already known, but it was nice finally seeing how it played out.

I liked the sharing of the candy bar. However I feel like that flashback was more concerned with setting up next seasons big bad, who is surely going to be Beau Otis :) 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just watched this. Good stuff. I do have to agree that the final episode was a letdown though. For the most part, the resolutely non-episodic structuring was laudable for me- it's basically a three-act story over a season, just as much as something like True Detective - but they really did need to manage the pacing so that either the entire final showdown fit into episode 5, letting 6 just get on with the wind-down - something I've never been opposed to, although a whole hour of wind-down on a six episode show is a lot- or stretched things a little earlier so that more of it was in the final episode, for example so that 5 ended when Soldier discovered the box was empty. As it was, there was just enough conflict left that it was unsatisfying and they had to manufacture a bit extra to fill it out. And the deliberate vagueness over who died and who didn't was awkward as fuck.


Episodes 4 and particularly 5 were really good though. In fact the entire sequence of Soldier trying to find out where the money is was one of the better scenes I can remember watching on TV in recent years, very Tarantino-esque in the way the tension builds and tips from moment to moment. Also very impressive in how the threat and actuality of violence doesn't overwhelm the characters in it. Just really, really well written, directed and acted. The show as a whole was quite impressive anyway, but that part was different class. If the whole thing was that level we'd be looking at a classic, but obviously that's an ask.

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  • 3 months later...

I've read several of the novels, but haven't read most of the Hap & Leonard short stories, are there any Hap & Leonard fans who could possibly answer a question:  (Not really a spoiler) Does Leonard ever catch up with the boat usher guy who purposefully gave them the wrong departure time in Captains Courageous?

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  • 5 months later...
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  • 4 months later...

It's a real shame. The show was just hitting its stride, getting into the strongest material. It was so well done. But... we got three beautiful seasons, at least. 

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