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The Bastard Executioner - Kurt Sutter takes on Medieval Times - S1 - Tuesdays on FX

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C

Cornballer

Member
dead souls said:
I'm expecting 90 minute episodes every damn week. Sutter clearly has no idea how to restrain himself and Landgraf/FX clearly won't.
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Tonight's premiere runs 6 minutes past the hour, and it was originally 20 minutes longer before it was cut down. Next week's episode is a 50 minute episode (without commercials), so that'll run past the top of the hour, as well.
 
C

Conor_Fool

Banned
Hmm.. The last time I watched a show on live TV was GoT season 5, and even that was through the HBO Go app. I may actually check this out, if even just giving it 30 mins or so to catch my attention.

Always thought SoA looked pretty bad but my brother and my dad were obsessed.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Conor_Fool said:
I may actually check this out, if even just giving it 30 mins or so to catch my attention.
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Note that a number of the reviews said that it doesn't really get going until the last 10-20 minutes of the pilot whereas a few others lamented that it never really piqued their interest.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
- Onion A|V Club review
By the end of the third installment, Executioner has begun to find a rhythm, or at least demonstrate what its episodic storytelling looks like. But getting there requires committing to a two-hour pilot that shouldn’t be nearly as dull as it is given the amount of blood spilled. Unlike Thrones, which offers multiple paths into the story through sheer overpopulation, Executioner requires an investment in Brattle and his quest for vengeance. Jones is appealing enough, and excels at communicating Brattle’s world-weariness, but his downtrodden expressions may too often mirror those of the audience. To riff on Tina Turner, we don’t need another anti-hero. But for those viewers with room in their lives for a character like Brattle and a show like Executioner, they could do worse. But not far worse.

Grade: B-
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- Pittsburgh Post Gazette review:
Because it’s set in such an alien world and jumps around a lot introducing its myriad characters of assorted social classes while also setting in motion multiple plots, “The Bastard Executioner” gets off to a messy start. (When press notes offer more details on the many bearded and long-haired look-alike characters than the show itself, you know there’s too much going on in a series, and clarity has been sacrificed.) But “Bastard Executioner” improves as it goes. The question is whether viewers will stick with it.
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- RogerEbert.com review:
After three episodes, this show is on a razor’s edge. It could easily tip into a parody of itself, as the writing isn’t strong enough to get us through long passages of dialogue like in “Game of Thrones”. And it needs to stop taking itself so seriously. Have some fun with it. Nod to your fans. Bring in Jimmy Smits for a cameo if you have to (he came in at just the right time to inject some life into “Sons of Anarchy” when it needed it). Loosen it up. Even Shakespeare had some fun every now and then.
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C

Cornballer

Member
- Warming Glow review:
The early part of the premiere is a slog, with too much exposition and not enough intrigue, except for the disorientating first scene. It’s bewildering, but The Bastard Executioner is at its best when it’s weird, and should be more often. Otherwise, it’s just stuffy language and familiar sets.

The final 30 minutes are stronger, with a clearer focus (and a nifty last shot), but will non-Sons fans even make it that far? They should, because there’s enough in TBX to not write it off completely. Kurt Sutter is a volatile and passionate man. For this show to succeed, he needs to embrace that side of his personality, without resorting to been-there-seen-that carnage.
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- The Atlantic review
It isn't all bloodletting; there’s dialogue in faux-old-timey lingo laying out palace intrigue and explorations of Middle Ages Christianity. But with visibly second-tier production values, The Bastard Executioner feels a bit more like people playing dress up than the best works in its genre should. The only characters to not fall into cliched dichotomies of rag-tag rebels and power-mad gentry are the women—a mystic of unclear purpose and unclear accent, played by Katey Sagal, and a demure but calculating baroness, played with quiet intelligence by Flora Spencer-Longhurst. Outside of them, the intrigue factor is low; while Thrones’s first episode offered a buffet of engaging personalities, here, you’re not that curious about anyone’s backstories. For now, the entertainment value of the show is one of the oldest and darkest there is.
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- Slant Magazine review
It's a convoluted, preposterous setup, and like Sutter's other works, The Bastard Executioner is embarrassingly self-serious in it's fetishizing of the horrors of rebellion and the constant brooding expression of unending masculine grief. 1 out of 4 stars
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- The Guardian review:
Should you watch this show? Though it may sound like I’m giving The Bastard Executioner a bad review, I’m really not. It looks spectacular, there are several great performances, and the overly complicated set up could really pay off for those who invest their time in the show. I just don’t think it’s for everyone, and you probably already know whether or not you’re a person who would enjoy such an endeavor. The show has great potential and, come season three, I may wish I had stuck with it. But there’s so much on TV right now, I’m going to save my time for things that are truly different that I love. Right now, this isn’t one of those.
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C

Cornballer

Member
- Matt Zoller Seitz's review for NY Mag:
At times the tone evokes the bloody Norse warrior fable Valhalla Rising, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Mads Mikkelsen, that was also Too Much in a lot of ways, but was so assured that its self-importance became grimly funny and ultimately engrossing. Executioner's first three episodes never rise to that level of knowing delirium, so you're stuck watching a series that recycles R-rated swords-and-sandals clichés while constantly insisting on its shocking realism.
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T

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Ninja Scooter said:
Wait Katey Segal is in this? Does she do a British accent? That alone might be worth watching.
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Why would she? This show's setting predates the so-called British accent by around 500 years.
Then again they always have Romans using it... /barf
 
C

Cornballer

Member
Dan said:
You guys, you don't have to do this to yourselves. Landgraf won't come after you for ignoring an FX drama.
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I might need an intervention at some point. Anyway, this train wreck is about to depart the station. I'll take a look later tonight.
 
F

Fuzzy

I would bang a hot farmer!
I just tuned in to get a taste to see if I'd watch the whole thing and the camera work is killing me. I can't take 5 minutes of this shit.
 
D

Deified Data

Banned
Absolutely painful. Every Sutter trope checked off the list.
  • Arbitrary sex scene in the first five minutes
  • Obligatory gay joke
  • "Just one of the guys" minority character
  • Villain made more villainous by being gay
  • Katey Sagal
  • Cameo by Sutter himself as a dark, mysterious character
  • "Shocking" violence that only serves to desensitize the audience

...the list goes on.
 
M

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Well crap. I am not familiar with Sutter (never watched Sons of Anarchy) but that sounds pretty goddamn lame (except Katey Sagal, why is that bad? I only know her from Futurama lol).
 
D

Deified Data

Banned
Morrigan Stark said:
Well crap. I am not familiar with Sutter (never watched Sons of Anarchy) but that sounds pretty goddamn lame (except Katey Sagal, why is that bad? I only know her from Futurama lol).
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Katey's great.

Thing is, they're married and he insists on shoehorning her where she doesn't belong. Her accent in Executioner is horrid.

Honestly I finished Sons because I'd already invested so much time into it, but my patience for Sutter's style has worn thin. Dude needs a filter.
 
F

Freezasaurus

Member
I didn't hate it. I'm interested to see where the plotline with the main character's new adoptive family goes. But this is far far away from the better medieval-themed shows out there.
 
B

bodyofanamerican

Member
Cornballer said:
- Variety: ‘Bastard Executioner’s’ Stephen Moyer on the Joy of Playing Evil Characters
- Zap2It: Stephen Moyer interview
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I can't get over how much Moyer is apparently Stephen Dillane/Stannis's doppelgänger.

bastard-executioner-stephen-moyer.jpg
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game_of_thrones_stannis.jpg
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Vert boil

Vert boil

Member
Twas okay. Needs to more bloody going forward.

Any quibbles I have can be explained by it being the pilot/not being historically accurate. Demographic make-up, sets looking like sets, it being too clean. They tried with the teeth but the mank needs to be universal.

TheOddOne said:
random post
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balls8pq8a.gif
 
B

Bleepey

Member
Deified Data said:
Absolutely painful. Every Sutter trope checked off the list.
  • Arbitrary sex scene in the first five minutes
  • Obligatory gay joke
  • "Just one of the guys" minority character
    [*]Villain made more villainous by being gay
  • Katey Sagal
  • Cameo by Sutter himself as a dark, mysterious character
  • "Shocking" violence that only serves to desensitize the audience

...the list goes on.
Click to expand...

Who was that in SOA?
 
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