Apologies for the pun ... your reviewer could not resist.
To be clear -- I was a fan last year, I am a fan this year, I will stick with the show and I will recommend the show.
But, also to be clear, the show has changed.
What I think happened is this: the creators Cantwell and Rogers were likely "on fire" (another pun, sorry) when they pitched the show originally, and further "ablaze" when the show was green-lighted last year.
Every minute of every episode last year had an energy which was palpable. It was as though the producers, not sure if the series would find an audience, or become popular, or get picked up for a second year, wanted to cram as much as they could into the original production.
And it showed. Boy did it show. The first year of HACF was mesmerizing. Most shows take years to reach the level of energy that this show delivered in its first few episodes.
So here we are in Season 2 ... and what changed? I think (this is what reviewers do, they speculate ... and good reviewers get it right) everyone had a big sitdown, and the tone of the meeting was "We have an unexpected hit on our hands .. so what do we do now...? And the answer was obvious. Go the BREAKING BAD route. Slow the pace, punch up the characters, develop a long arc, and an extra long arc, so that if we end up with a 5 year hit, we know where we are headed.
That's what I think happened. It is still a great show. It is simply not the SAME show.
And I am still a fan.
To be clear -- I was a fan last year, I am a fan this year, I will stick with the show and I will recommend the show.
But, also to be clear, the show has changed.
What I think happened is this: the creators Cantwell and Rogers were likely "on fire" (another pun, sorry) when they pitched the show originally, and further "ablaze" when the show was green-lighted last year.
Every minute of every episode last year had an energy which was palpable. It was as though the producers, not sure if the series would find an audience, or become popular, or get picked up for a second year, wanted to cram as much as they could into the original production.
And it showed. Boy did it show. The first year of HACF was mesmerizing. Most shows take years to reach the level of energy that this show delivered in its first few episodes.
So here we are in Season 2 ... and what changed? I think (this is what reviewers do, they speculate ... and good reviewers get it right) everyone had a big sitdown, and the tone of the meeting was "We have an unexpected hit on our hands .. so what do we do now...? And the answer was obvious. Go the BREAKING BAD route. Slow the pace, punch up the characters, develop a long arc, and an extra long arc, so that if we end up with a 5 year hit, we know where we are headed.
That's what I think happened. It is still a great show. It is simply not the SAME show.
And I am still a fan.
