| |
|
Alan Ball On Season Three:
"Season three, thematically, is all about choices," he says. "The implication being that on some level, Nate chose the reality that he ends up in at the end of episode one. Now that's taking all kinds of metaphysical and theological liberties, all in the name of poetic license. When you're called upon to make a choice in your life, in your personal life, doing the right thing is not always the easiest thing to do and it doesn't always reward you as much as other choices might."
He continues, "Sometimes being a moral person and doing what is right actually makes your life more difficult. When you do make a choice, you're saying no to a lot of other choices, and that's what we try to focus on...the dilemmas that creates for our characters and the scrapes they get in because of that and how it makes their life ridiculous and absurd and messy and funny, and also better and richer an equal part of the time as well. And how it's just never simple. You know, life just continues to get more and more complex for these people."
For those of you who haven't seen it yet, I'll spoil it for you. Nate spends the first twenty minutes of the episode walking through almost a dozen possible realities, each one a seperate room of his house. It's kind of an Invisibles meets the Black Lodge kind of feel and it's an amazing, and effective, sequence. All of the show's trademark strangeness focused into a powerful statement about free will, choices, and (get this) alternate realities.
There's much belly-aching already about the first episode (Sopranos Season Four Style), as Nate has ended up in the least exciting situation for himself. Never ones to let a season actually play out before judging it all out of proportion, everyone's pretty much dismissed it outright. Some have even speculated that the whole season (or at least the first few episodes) will be revealed as yet another vision in Nate's head. I thought briefly of this, and its hinted at severely with lots of deja vu, but I don't think that's what'll happen. Thanks to errant sperm, Nate's stuck with a wife who idolized him dangerously for eight or so years when they were friends in Seattle and now she's pretty much pinned him into marriage. There's a look on his face when sees the reality in which he and Brenda ended up together with a child, a happiness, that you know will never be replicated in this real world he's ended up in. But, hey, that's, literally, life. Oh, and he also caught his mom internally monologuing out loud while feeding his baby about how Nate was an accident. There is then much musing on what the hell the point of any of this randomness that is life really has.
Anyone think they'll come up with a solid answer for us?
I picked up the first season box set trepidatiously, as it's twice the price of most TV boxes and half the size with thirteen episodes, but if any show was worth it, it's this one. Seeing just the first two episodes I was reminded, above all, that this show displays the best performances on television bar none. A world where Michael fucking Chicken (Chiklis! Whoops! Genre City spoilers!) beats Peter Krause out for an Emmy award, EVER, is an alternate reality I am desperately interested in escaping. Not to mention Lauren Ambrose, who I don't think was ever even nominated and, sadly, I think her best material may be behind her. When she was stumbling through Season One, decimated by her father's death in ways she would never admit, every episode was revelation. Now she's fucking a The-Guy-From-Audioslave wannabe. Oh, well, I'm sure it'll turn out interesting, to say the least. Maybe Gabe'll come back and totally shoot him. |
|
|
