UncleTantra Reviews

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Great movie, if you have a low IQ and no standards

[1/10 · 16 July 2023]

This is definitely a film aimed directly at an audience of illiterate comic book fans and delayed adolescents who use non-stop action to convince themselves that they're actually able to think.

Fortunately I didn't pay to see it. That would have been out of the question, because Tom Cruise is in it, and I just don't support cultists. But for those who aren't quite as discriminating, you might actually like this movie. After all, *somebody* spent.$291 million to make it, figuring that there would be brain-dead idiots out there willing to watch it.

Truth be told, there are a couple of attractive women in the movie, and that made it possible for me to keep it running in the background while I did other things. Other than that, I honestly can't think of any reason to recommend this movie unless you're one of Tom Cruise's fellow Scientology cultists and *need* to watch it so they don't kick you out of the cult and list you as a Suppressive.

There. Now I've finally written enough words to meet the minimum requirements for IMDB. Now to send it off to see whether they'll actually publish it.

Anna (II) (2019)

It's official -- Luc Besson is over the hill

[1/10 · 19 September 2022]

It's really sad when a once-excellent director not only can't think of anything new to make movies about, but actually *remakes* his previous films in an attempt to still appear relevant. Hopefully this stinker will put the final nail in his coffin, so that we don't have to suffer the endless sequels this film was obviously supposed to spin off.

It's really sad when a once-excellent director not only can't think of anything new to make movies about, but actually *remakes* his previous films in an attempt to still appear relevant. Hopefully this stinker will put the final nail in his coffin, so that we don't have to suffer the endless sequels this film was obviously supposed to spin off.

The Last Duel (2021)

152 minutes of badly-mansplained history

[2/10 · 30 November 2021]

Ridley Scott thinks this film was a failure at the box office because of phones. He's wrong. It's a failure because he managed to make a long, boring movie from a long, boring script mansplained together by two Boston Bros (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck), who clearly wanted to be patted on the back for writing something "sensitive" about the plight of women 'way back in the past, back when you could write about such stuff without having to worry about it affecting the bottom line of your movie.

It left me pondering *not* the mysteries of Me, Too but greater questions, like "Why oh why is Adam Driver a movie star?" or "How can Ben Affleck become even ickier than usual, simply by 'going blond'?" or "Which is a greater failing, Matt Damon's inability to grow facial hair, or his inability to act?" The only thing that enabled me to get through the movie was Jodie Comer.

The Blacklist: Nachalo (2021) Season 8, Episode 21

Worst. TV. Writing. Ever.

[1/10 · 17 June 2021]

EVER.

I found myself embarrassed for the actors who had to read the lines.

I'm done. If there is a season 9, I won't be watching. Hell, I might not even watch episode S08E22.

The Blacklist: The Protean (No. 36) (2021) Season 8, Episode 18

The perils of "living for revenge," as demonstrated by two characters

[9/10 · 22 May 2021]

For the Liz defenders here, please explain to me the difference between the mental state exemplified by Townsend and the mental state exemplified by Liz. As far as I can tell, the only difference is that Townsend has been trapped in that mental state many years longer than Liz has.

In Buddhist thought, one of the most destructive of the "negative emotions" is the desire for vengeance. "Living for revenge" isn't really living. It turns you ugly. Think Liz as the "Before" photo, and Townsend as HER "After" photo, if she continues along the same path she's currently pursuing. I, for one, hope that she comes to her senses. It used to be a pleasant experience to watch her scenes in this series...before she turned ugly, that is. Now it isn't.

The Nevers: True (2021) Season 1, Episode 6

A Tour de Force

[10/10 · 17 May 2021]

OK, this is the episode that proves that "The Nevers" is in the same ballpark of great TV as "Firefly" and "Dollhouse."

Love, Death & Robots (2019– )

I despair for the youth of the world

[1/10 · 16 May 2021]

This series is so mind-numbingly mediocre that I find myself wondering whether it was made by people who have been raised on video games and comic books and who never learned to read. NONE of these stories would have been accepted for publication back in the Golden Age of science fiction. Their authors would have been laughed out the door and told never to submit anything ever again.

The Nevers: Pilot (2021) Season 1, Episode 1

Welcome back, Joss

[8/10 · 12 April 2021]

Color me a fan, right from the first episode. So many characters, and not a single one of them uninteresting.

The first five episodes were filmed in July and August of 2019, before the necessity of post-Covid production rules, so they could "film large," with big sets and big crowds. So the first episode is a bit of a showoff display of Steampunk Sorcery, and I loved it.

I know it's not fashionable to still love Joss Whedon now that he's joined the ranks of men who have been accused of being...well...men, and thus being either consciously or unconsciously abusive in work situations in which they're the boss. But I'm a writer, so I still love his unique way of writing dialogue. I knew I was "in good hands" when I heard this early scene, as the women (and one male doctor) of the Touched debate what to do now that they have been openly attacked. Amalia is the effective leader; Penance is her #2, and she's kinda the MacGiver of the group, creating cool steampunk inventions:

Amalia: "We need to bolster our security. All entrances, windows bolted or blocked." Penance: "I could rig up a few surprises, as well. Nothing lethal, but very discouraging." Amalia: "Everyone signs in and out. Time and destination. No one goes out alone or after dark." Mrs. Haplisch: "I've been showing the girls a bit of scrapping." Amalia: "You'll show them all." Penance: "But not using their 'turns'." Mrs Haplisch: "Well, there's plenty you can do with what's at hand. It's about confidence, as my mum used to say, if you can look a man in the eye, you can stab him in it." Amalia: "Smart woman." Penance: "But also, don't do that."

It was Penance's "But also, don't do that" that grabbed me, made me laugh out loud, and made me thankful that Joss has finally stopped wasting his talents on comic book material written by other people.

No more details, because that would spoil it. Definitely stick around after the episode for a what-to-expect-in-the-series trailer, and a very fascinating making-of clip of what it was like to film the opera scene.

Two thumbs up, here. Accompanied by a big sigh of relief that finally I have at least *one* TV series to actually look forward to for the next six weeks of lockdown.

Tenet (2020)

"Tenet" -- the Christopher Nolan is a total dick review

[2/10 · 9 September 2020]

I just finished watching Christopher Nolan's "Tenet." Color me not impressed. If you want my honest opinion, the film strikes me as a monumental 300-million-dollar ego trip, one that may have even been intentionally designed to kill its audiences.

I mean, think about it. The film's villain, Sator, knows that he's dying, so he engineers a multi-temporal plot to use future tech to take everyone else on the planet with him. This villain, played by Kenneth Branagh, is so warped and humorless that he's actually looking forward to this.

Now think about the film itself. It's two and a half hours of utter humorlessness, so confusing that it almost *requires* multiple viewings, just to figure out WTF is going on. So what does Christopher Nolan DO with this film, when he finally finishes it? He releases it *only* in theaters. During a pandemic. To audiences who are going to find it so confusing that they'll have to go *back* to those theaters over and over to figure it out, in the process potentially exposing themselves to a fatal virus every time they do.

I'm tempted to think that in the five years it purportedly took Nolan to complete this movie, he turned into his own villain, and is now consciously or subconsciously trying to kill his own audiences, while ensuring that they have as little fun watching the movie as humanly possible.

That's my theory, and I'm stickin' with it. 🙂

I *get* it. The dude loves James Bond movies. He's been wanting for years to make his own. But, being the egomaniac he is, he couldn't be content with just making an everyday James Bond movie. Noooooo. He had to make one that would make people think, "My, how clever Christopher Nolan is." So he made the film as *serious* and as twisty-turny and as incomprehensible as he possibly could.

Color me not impressed by how clever he is. Sure, the action scenes are neat, almost all of them done in real life and in real time, as opposed to with CGI. And sure, the film is *almost* worth watching just for the opportunity to see 6'2" Elizabeth Debicki walk across the screen in high heels. 🙂 But now that it's over, I find myself thinking not about how clever Christopher Nolan is, but about what a total dick he is.

I mean, what's up with creating a film that almost requires Cliff Notes to explain it, and that is no fun even *when* you understand it, and then on top of that forcing audiences to go to a theater during a pandemic to see it, and thus possibly die? I'm telling you...total dick.

Makes me glad I pirated the film and watched it at home. That way I get to live, write bad reviews like this one, distribute them widely, and possibly keep a few people from seeing it, thus keeping them alive.

Heck, the way I see it, I'm more of a James Bond hero than Nolan's protagonist is. 🙂

Adman (2019)

Why can't full-length movies be this good?

[10/10 · 27 September 2019]

An entire love story, told brilliantly in 30-second commercials. Compared to the full-length films I've seen lately, this one made me laugh more, cringe more (the first half of the Point Anchor commercial), and cry more than any I've seen lately. I will be first in line to see anything that Ben Callner creates in the future.

Years and Years (2019)

Bloody brilliant

[10/10 · 30 June 2019]

"Years and Years" is "near future" SciFi, set in Britain in the years 2019-2032. And what makes it so effective (and affecting) is that it's *scathing* political and social commentary, masquerading as a traditional British family drama/comedy.

It's what happens to a normal, pretty everyday British family as the world around them crumbles, with events such as Donald Trump dropping a nuclear weapon on an artificial Chinese island a couple of days before he leaves office, followed by *not* leaving office, and sticking around to continue running things, with Pence as his puppet.

And that's just what happens in the first episode, and not the scariest part. Back in England, a mouthy, know-nothing politician (played by Emma Thompson) is appealing to the same people who created Brexit and is on her way to becoming Prime Minister, and she's scarier than Trump is.

This is a high-quality production, with the kind of top-flight actors a collaboration between BBC and HBO can buy. And as I said in my title, I think it's bloody brilliant, one of the best things I've seen on TV this year. In the UK, critics are already talking about BAFTAs, their counterpart of Emmys.

What it's NOT is "light viewing." You *feel* the struggles of this family as they try to make sense of a world that no longer makes sense. They're a lot like your family. That's what makes the events these people are trying to live through horrific -- you're trying to live through them, too.

Two thumbs up, and I'd give it more if I had more hands.

Mindhunter (2017–2019)

Complete waste of time

[1/10 · 14 October 2017]

The biggest mystery to be resolved about this series is how anyone could have taken a subject as potentially fascinating and tension-provoking as tracking serial killers and turned it into this dull, plodding mess. Bad acting, bad writing, and above all bad direction, which one would not normally associate with the name David Fincher. I kept waiting for something -- ANYTHING -- to happen, but it never did.

The Circle (I) (2017)

Dumber than a bucket of hammers

[2/10 · 10 July 2017]

Good science fiction allows us to extrapolate from today's trends and hopefully prevent some of the negative consequences of them. This is NOT good science fiction. It's not good on any level. The big names involved with it -- Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega -- should have known better, just from reading the script. The fact that they didn't reflects badly on them.

Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019)

The best episode of TV in decades is 13 hours long

[10/10 · 19 June 2017]

The "rules" of creating a TV series are pretty clear, given television's "track record." For example, if you've had a *remarkably* successful four-season run, and chalked up some of the best reviews in history, well, based on history, what most series do at this point is "jump the shark" completely and create a season SO bad that hardly anyone cares or notices when they announce that it was the last one ever, and claim "We intended it that way...yeah, that's the ticket!" Jenji Kohan didn't do that with "Orange Is The New Black." Yes, she and her incredible team of writers ended season 4 with a bit of a cliff-hanger -- an ill-conceived riot breaks out in the minimum-security women's prison in which the series is set, and the season ends just as one of the prisoners picks up the gun that a dim-witted guard had snuck in and then dropped -- in spite of regulations saying no guard should ever bring a gun into the prison -- and holds it on him. Fade to red, and the season ends.

So, again based on TV history, we all know what to expect next. The writers will clear up all the questions left hanging in the air by the cliff-hanger in the first half of the first episode of season 5, and then they'll move back to Business As Usual and the same old same old and hope for the best.

Jenji Kohan and company didn't do that. They let the riot go on for three days and made the *entire season* about what happens during those three days.

With a lesser cast and a lesser team of writers, this would have been a disaster. Suffice it to say that instead they created 13 of the best hours of television I've ever seen in my life. We've had four years to get to know many of these characters, but in season 5 we get to know them and see them as fellow human beings in ways we didn't think were possible. OITNB, season 5 is a veritable maelstrom of emotions -- everything from humor to tragedy to pathos and back to humor again, and with more than a few dashes of social commentary thrown in. And what is arguably the best cast on television pulled it off perfectly.

I can't pretend to know what the creators of this fine series were *thinking* as they took a chance this big, but it might have had something to do with the following bit of dialogue in the finale: -- "So was it worth it? The riot?" -- "We can't know that yet. Maybe they'll still meet some of our demands. And maybe some Grandma in Kansas will read an article about this, and she'll see us as people instead of criminals. And then maybe she'll tell all her Grandma friends, and then they'll tell their kids, and then they'll tell their grandkids. I mean, isn't that how change really happens? Through Midwestern Grandmas having epiphanies? Maybe that will have made all of this worth it." I can't help but think that this speech is coming directly from the writers, explaining their motivation for making this series.

I have said for years that if one were to select the 25 best performances by actresses on television in a given year, for the last four years 5 of them would be from Tatiana Maslany in "Orphan Black," and at least 15 of the rest would be from the cast of "Orange Is The New Black." This year there may not be room for five other contenders from other shows.

Iron Fist (2017–2018)

Loathsome -- if you watch this you'll lose 50 IQ points

[1/10 · 22 March 2017]

This is beyond question the worst-written, most ill-conceived series I've ever been forced (because I agreed to review it for another publication) to watch. There are SO many things wrong with it I hardly know where to start, but because people who watched Netflix's "Daredevil" may be tempted to watch this just hoping for a little martial arts eye-candy, don't be deceived. "Get Smart" or the original "The Man From UNCLE" had better martial arts choreography. This is arguably the *worst* martial arts movie ever made.

Which is appropriate in a way, because the dumb action is accompanied by even dumber dialogue. It is difficult for me to even *conceive* of who it was who was stupid enough to write this trash. The only people I can conceive of being dumber than the writers and producers of "Iron Fist" are the IMDb users who gave this piece of trash good reviews -- they must have the lowest standards on the planet.

Big Little Lies (2017–2019)

If no one else is going to say it, I will...

[1/10 · 15 March 2017]

I feel as if I have to take a shower after forcing myself to watch the first episode of this dreadful piece of crap. SO many horrible, loathsome characters, SO much entitlement, SO little self-awareness. I look at some of the reviews here, and it seems to me they must be written by people with similar characteristics. It's the only thing that explains the high ratings. I think I get it -- the producers of this dumpster fire actually think that we'll be so dazzled by the pretty scenery and the "big stars" that we'll keep watching until after a few episodes they finally reveal who got killed and maybe in the last episode they reveal whodunnit. But WHO CARES how pretty the scenery is -- it's filmed in one of the richest, most entitled communities in America ferchrissakes -- of course it's pretty. WHO CARES if they're "big stars" when they're portraying people this shallow and this despicable? There is simply no possibility that I can tolerate these people that long. I leave the solving of this particular mystery to those who can stomach the characters.

Too Late (I) (2015)

Remarkiably effective effort from Someone To Watch (Dennis Hauck)

[8/10 · 30 December 2016]

I freely admit to having watched this film primarily because of Dichen Lachmann and Natalie Zea (who I'll see in anything), but it had a great deal more to offer than I was expecting.

Yes, Hauck steals freely from Quentin Tarantino when it comes to mixed-up timelines, and steals even more from the genre of L.A. Noir, but it has its own charms. It also has some really ballsy experiments, such as shooting each of the five acts in one single take (on 35mm film, which must have been a real bitch to pull off given the changing lighting conditions).

Good performances from a wide range of actors clearly pitching in and having a good time with a small Indie film in between better-paying gigs. Plus, there are some genuinely touching moments, the kind that make you (or at least made me) go back and re-watch a couple of early scenes at the end to see them at the end, after the context of them has been to some extent explained.

I like that the song "Down With Mary" has been short-listed for the Original Song Oscar this year. That shows that this film got more attention than might be expected for a supposed low-budget Indie flick. I look forward to Hauck's next effort.

Passengers (I) (2016)

People who 'didn't like the ending' weren't paying attention

[9/10 · 28 December 2016]

"Passengers" is not intellectual scifi. As some have described it, thinking they were being insulting, it's "just a love story in space." But if you suspend disbelief and just go with it, it's actually a pretty good love story in space. It reminds me of some of the great classic scifi of the 1950s and 1960s, many of which, if you'll remember, were also "just" love stories in space.

The visuals were excellent, verging on stunningly beautiful. I read on the Trivia page that there was a time when Keanu Reeves was attached to this film to play the lead. He had to drop out, for some unspecified reason. Good. He would have ruined it. Chris Pratt, on the other hand, brought a truly human touch to being a human stranded in space. And although I am not always a fan (I *loathed* "Joy"), I thought Jennifer Lawrence was tremendous as well.

As for the ending, well in my opinion it was perfect. Each of them got what they set out looking for.

Roadies: Friends and Family (2016) Season 1, Episode 5

OK, I'll say it...the first episode that's a masterpiece

[10/10 · 25 July 2016]

What is NOT to like about this episode of "Roadies?" It just *nails* the title, "Friends and Family," and how that manifests in the road crew of a rock 'n roll band.

I have to admit to loving so many moments from this episode. Bill invoking the holy essence of Led Zep while giving his morning circle jerk sermon. The Mike Finger character, who if you can't identify with him, you've clearly never "gotten" a rock 'n roll band. The setup to present Janine's back story, which sends Bill off on an odyssey to find Gram Parsons' old Nudie jacket, which in turn results in him having a cool "making amends" moment with his ex. Reg trying to figure out who Mike Finger is at the airport. Reg meeting Janine in front of the auditorium.

Especially the last moment. The character of Janine just ate the screen, from moment one. I could not take my eyes off of her. This love-at-first-sight reaction caused me to look her up on the IMDb and discover that the person who played her was Joy Williams, one half of a Grammy-winning duo called The Civil Wars, whose music I happen to love. I Googled further, and discovered interviews in which Joy talks about first meeting Cameron Crowe on Twitter, and then, when she met him in real life, having him tell her that she should be an actress. Joy laughed that off, but Cameron obviously didn't, and as far as we can tell, wrote the character of Janine FOR Joy Williams. Brilliant. A star is born.

Joy (I) (2015)

Terrible, terrible, terrible film

[4/10 · 28 December 2015]

Sorry to rain on the JLaw parade that seems to be going on out there among her fans, but this movie strikes me as if the director realized that all he'd have to do to create a film that would make a bunch of cash at the box office is point a camera at Jennifer Lawrence. He wouldn't need a script, he wouldn't need believable characters, and he certainly wouldn't need to do very much in terms of direction. Unfortunately, that seems to be exactly the approach he took to making the movie.

I found the first third of the film almost unwatchable. As a filmmaker, you know you're in trouble (or you *should* know, anyway) that when the intentionally-horrible soap opera characters in your intentionally-horrible soap-opera-within-the-soap-opera are more interesting and more sympathetic than your main characters that you're in deep trouble. The second third of the movie wasn't much better -- more soap opera family drama queenery. *Nothing* of any interest happened for me until about the 1 hour 37 minute mark. Sorry, but in a 1 hour and 53 minute movie, that's just WAY too long to wait to see if it's actually going to turn into a movie. BIG "thumbs down."

Minority Report (2015)

Soulless and not likely to last

[12 August 2015]

Set 10 years after the events of the movie, the Precrime division has been abolished and the three precogs have been set free, but hidden away from society. Arthur, Agatha, and Dash still sense crimes before they are committed, but are not permitted to do anything about it. So Dash goes vigilante and tries to do it on his own.

Without Tom Cruise and the other big stars of the original film, this series looks like a one-season wonder, if that. It's wooden and devoid of interesting characters, which in a way is good because the actors they've chosen wouldn't be capable of portraying interesting characters. The series seems aimed at adolescent gamers who see a bunch of future-computer special effects and go Wow! and never ask for anything more. Like good writing or characterization.

Thumbs down.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Clearly, comic books really DO lower people's intelligence

[2/10 · 6 May 2015]

Please bear in mind that the person writing this is a BIG fan of Joss Whedon's earlier work in TV and movies. It's the fact that I really AM such a fan that made going to see "Avengers: Age of Ultron" so upsetting.

I managed to sit through the whole film, but just barely. Instead of the "Wow! Look at that!" I was supposed to feel, all I felt was sadness that one of the best storytellers of our age had sunk so low. "Ultron" was 141 minutes of Biff! Zap! Pow! Boom! Zoom! CGI madness, punctuated with a few lines that clearly were intended to be funny but only could have been considered so by pimply-faced 14-year-olds whose standards for comic one-liners had been set by Beavis and Butthead.

In other words, I hated it. I wish Joss would wake up from his comic book-induced stupor and remember how to write characters and plots again. "Buffy" used to cost $1.1 million per episode. "Firefly" used to cost $2 million per episode. And they were great.

"Ultron" cost over $2 million PER MINUTE of running time, and it's crap.

There is a lesson here. When Joss is working with his own ideas, it doesn't take huge amounts of money to create wonderful entertainment. When he is working with other people's comic book ideas, it doesn't matter how much money the producers throw at it -- it's comic book-mentality crap.

Stop making crap, Joss. Tell the guys at Marvel to keep their money and keep their mediocre plots and characters. Come back to making entertainment based on your own ideas.

House of Cards (2013–2018)

Season 3 is hideously disappointing

[2/10 · 1 March 2015]

The show degenerated into a soap opera, and one with characters who are so consistently icky and so consistently...uh...consistent that I found myself not only uninterested in them, but unable to care what they were doing or what happened to them.

The whole thing just made me sad that in a few months I have to watch this whole scenario play itself out in real life, with characters just as icky. The American political scene is so corrupt and so beyond redemption that making a soap opera like this one out of it reveals only how boring it's all become.

Save your money and watch the original British series. The characters aren't any less icky, but ant least they're more interesting.

Calvary (2014)

The underrated virtue

[10/10 · 30 June 2014]

It is somehow appropriate that one of the best films I have seen since Martin McDonagh's "In Bruges" is by his brother, John Michael McDonagh. John showed promise with his film "The Guard," but with this film he takes his place in the pantheon of immortal Irish black humorist-philosophers alongside his brother.

What if you were a Catholic priest, and one of your flock told you during confession that he was going to kill you in a week? Not because you were a bad priest, but because you were a good one. He means it, and you know he means it. He gives you the week to get your affairs in order.

And what if the priest were played by the same Irish national treasure who played the lead in both of the two other aforementioned films, Brendan Gleeson. What if his efforts were supported by the likes of Kelly Reilly, Chris O'Dowd, Aidan Gillen, M. Emmet Walsh and a host of great Irish/English actors? And what if the results were really, really, really good, verging on magnificent? Then you'd have "Calvary."

Hannibal: Kaiseki (2014) Season 2, Episode 1

In Media Res

[2 March 2014]

Note that there are spoilers here, but you'll see all of them in the first ten minutes anyway, so caveat emptor.

We find ourselves in an upscale, beautifully-appointed kitchen, where an elegant dinner is being prepared by an impeccably-dressed host. We see the host's knife slicing the raw main dish, and then arranging it into a presentation that can legitimately be called art. He walks across the room and serves it to his guest, who is seated at the dining table, and they exchange words.

Host: This course is called ryukozuki -- seasonal sashimi, sea urchin, water clam, and squid. Guest: What a beautiful presentation, Doctor. Host: Kaiseki - a Japanese artform that honors the taste and aesthetic of what we eat. Guest: Well, I almost feel guilty about eating it. Host: I never feel guilty eating anything. Guest: Hmmmm...I can't quite place the fish...

This would have been a cool "season opener" in itself, and a very funny one, given that the host in this scene is Dr. Hannibal Lecter, and you can't always tell what he'll be serving with the Chianti. :-)

But what makes this scene more powerful is that it wasn't the first scene. It was the second. The first was a type of flashforward known as In Media Res, a technique that dates at least back to Homer, and was discussed by Aristotle. In the real first scene, we're in the same kitchen, and a similarly elegant dinner is being prepared for the same guest by the same host. The host uses the same precision with his knife as he slices the main course, but doesn't get to the presentation stage because then his guest enters the room, they exchange glances, each of them seemingly realizing the same thing at the same time, and all hell breaks loose. (Details deleted) The screen goes black, and a title appears, saying "Twelve weeks earlier." Then we see the scene I describe above.

Very effective technique. It worked for Homer, in "The Iliad," it worked for "Breaking Bad," and it works for the season opener of "Hannibal." Something is going to happen during that twelve weeks (coincidentally enough the length of the season) that explains to us how the dinner scene we see second morphs into the one we saw first.

The third and forth scenes take an opposite -- or perhaps the same -- structure. In scene three we see Will Graham during on of his rare off-work moments. He's standing in a river in his waders, fly-fishing. He looks up, and on the bank of the river he sees a magnificent deer. We see the awe and reverence on his face as Will gazes at the deer. Cut to scene four, and the same face, staring at us from behind bars. Will is now in jail, charged with being the very serial killer he is chasing. So is scene three a flashback to the past, or a flashforward to the future? Guess we'll have to watch twelve weeks of television to find out. Since this was one of the best 40 minutes of television I've seen in a long time, I have no problem with that...