Amazon Prime Is GOLIATH the new(ish) DAMAGES?

[Willie Oleson]

Is has that same whistle-blower vibe and also an over-the-top villain played by William Hurt. His character is described as someone who is "very good at hating".

You know, I had this in my watch list although I didn't think I'd actually find the time to watch it. Therefore I decided to sample a part of the first episode in the last 10 minutes before I went to bed, assuming I would become disinterested enough to remove it from my watchlist - as it happened with several other series and movies.
But this smug sense of upcoming relief backfired when I found myself increasingly intrigued by this bitchy legal drama with twis'n turns. I'm kinda angry because it upsets my series schedule, but I don't know how to stop. And the second episode was even better.
Well...

 

[Willie Oleson]

If season 1 was DAMAGES then season 2 was OZARK meets NIP/TUCK.
It's brutal, nasty and outrageously addictive, and it has lots of fascinating characters.

Roll on season 3.

 

[Willie Oleson]

GOLIATH has reinvented itself again for its third season, and this time it goes full on TWIN PEAKS.
So far I've only watched the first 4 episodes and I wonder how it all comes together, if it does at all. Regardless, I love it for what it is.

I'm beginning to think this may be one of Amazon's best original in-house productions.
Unlike their more high-profile blockbuster copycats (e.g. the popular quasi-medieval elfs & dragons shows) GOLIATH marches to beat of its own drum which could explain why it's kinda overlooked,
Season 3 features Dennis Quaid in the fabulous role of almond tycoon Wade Blackwood, while his mysterious sister Diana played by Amy Brenneman runs her Almond Health Empire.
But the most PEAKS-y character is played by black actor Shamier Anderson, Diana's right-head and son - well, he calls her "Mama" which isn't necessarily a biological thing.
Indian hocus pocus and violent crows, and Audrey Horne dies in a freaky vineyard accident.

The other 23 people who have watched this series seem to hate season 3, I'm going to consider that a good sign.

 

[Willie Oleson]

The tone of season 4 is very noir, with cloak-and-dagger meetings in rainy Chinatown and watching through windows and whatnot.
I'm feeling a little bit down now that it's ended because it felt like such a unique show.

 

[Willie Oleson]

I'm feeling a little bit down now that it's ended because it felt like such a unique show.

And now that I've binge-rewatched it I'm disappointed again that it's finished. Nina Arianda was even more entertaining than Billy Bob Thornton.
I think it was in the early or mid-2000s that people started to say "TV is the new cinema" and that certainly applies to Goliath. Every episode is like a mini-movie, and even the psychedelic imagery in season 4 has its own kind of narrative.
Of course it's also got the courtroom clichés like the eleventh-hour victories and the judge saying stuff like "tread carefully, counsellor. I'm watching you!"
The anti-Big Pharma speech is a bit on the nose because the story speaks for itself. It's also typical that the irritated and impatient judge (because these movie judges are always irritated and impatient) didn't feel compelled to interrupt him.

I need to continue with something equally fresh and exciting so maybe I'm going to buy the first season of DEXTER RESURRECTION. Oh my god, new episodes of Dexter!! Yes yes I want it now.

 

[Toni]

And now that I've binge-rewatched it I'm disappointed again that it's finished. Nina Arianda was even more entertaining than Billy Bob Thornton.
I think it was in the early or mid-2000s that people started to say "TV is the new cinema" and that certainly applies to Goliath. Every episode is like a mini-movie, and even the psychedelic imagery in season 4 has its own kind of narrative.
Of course it's also got the courtroom clichés like the eleventh-hour victories and the judge saying stuff like "tread carefully, counsellor. I'm watching you!"
The anti-Big Pharma speech is a bit on the nose because the story speaks for itself. It's also typical that the irritated and impatient judge (because these movie judges are always irritated and impatient) didn't feel compelled to interrupt him.

I need to continue with something equally fresh and exciting so maybe I'm going to buy the first season of DEXTER RESURRECTION. Oh my god, new episodes of Dexter!! Yes yes I want it now.

Dexter Resurrection is like season 10 of Dallas redone to please all of us fans. They clearly learned from their past mistakes, and Michael C. Hall is on top form. Shame the Academy for not giving them any nominations!

 

[Willie Oleson]

They clearly learned from their past mistakes

I don't recall any mistakes, all I know is that the finale of the first series polarised the fanbase (I was in the "like it" camp).
I'm watching episode 4 of RESURRECTION right now and it's sort of like listening to Modern Talking's Back For Good album that was produced 11 years after their split-up in 1987.
The only reason for that reunion album was to get more of the same and it was kind of disappointing to get exactly that, and at the same time it was disappointing that the sound was a little different and therefore not as good as the originals.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't, and damned if you try - that's the Modern Talking Syndrome.

I loved Dexter NEW BLOOD because it filled the gap in Dexter's life and then it showed us "what happened next" including the dramatic return of Dexter's son Harrison.
In RESURRECTION, everything and everybody has moved to New York and the first thing to notice is that there's no sense of place, which is an ironic thing to say about one of the most cinematic cities in the world.
It's just that the Miami Police Department (and Iron Lake in the sequel) felt like communities that belonged to Dexter, and his nightly boat trips to get rid of the bodies added a lot of atmosphere to the episodes.

DEXTER was always two things:
1. to build a case against the serial killer and then deal with it
2. to be a step ahead of his Miami Police colleagues and pull the wool over their eyes while he was doing his own thing (this was always super-unbelievable because the only way to achieve all that was to be awake 24/7, but I didn't care).

So, New York Dexter starts with a boring serial killer (which has already been taken care of), Angel Batista on his trail which is kinda old hat considering everything that's already happened (including his guest role in New Blood) and Harrison's trouble with the police because he killed a drug-date-rapist.
Harrison believes his father is dead and that's why Dexter doesn't reach out to him. As it happened to Debra Morgan, Dexter tries to manipulate Harrison's life in a positive way and make sure he won't get hurt. He's there to protect his son and they won't let you forget it because he mentions it every five minutes.
All in all, I'm not very impressed with the current goings-on but maybe the Serial Killer Club is going to change that.

Soaps, mafia stories and even sci-fi series have that natural, never-ending theme about them, but DEXTER has always been a novelty and maybe that's why it looks so tired and dated now. And yet, and yet...I couldn't resist.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Dexter Resurrection is like season 10 of Dallas redone to please all of us fans.

maybe that's why it looks so tired and dated now.

Alright, this warrant a follow-up, I guess.

The series picks up the pace in episode 6 and then it snowballs to a suspenseful, twisty and satisfying finale.
And that Stayin' Alive dance sequence was SO much better than it deserved to be.
All's well that ends well and I'm enjoying the good aftertaste, but I won't change my mind about the meandering feel of most of this first season of RESURRECTION.
There was way too much filler and some episodes felt like three hours. Consequently, I had to take a few naps between episodes.
When a series has only 10 episodes then I will accept a dud or a staller but most of it just needs to be good.

To be honest, I don't remember exactly what the original DEXTER episodes/seasons looked like, but it was always about that community of familiar characters I mentioned before. RESURRECTION is about a bunch of weirdos in New York and there's hardly anything surprising about it. Also, we're not really following the serial killer villains and there's not much at stake in that regard. The Gemini Killer was a nice surprise, though.
The imaginary conversations with the Conscience Character combined with Dexter's solo thought-bubbles feels a bit like overkill.
Enough of the guidance and explanations. Do something.

One of the Detectives who needs to deal with the Morgan shenanigans is played by Dominic Fumusa who also played my favourite character in season 2 of GOLIATH.
In that story he played Detective Keith Roman, a violent and corrupt policeman who regretted getting involved with the big bad scheme. It was a tense kind of misery and I wish he had been given more screen time.
Jack Alcott is very well cast as Dexter's son Harrison, he looks like he's constantly on the verge of tears but he's never overshadowed by his father.
He's the most sexualised character in the series and I'm not sure if that looks weird or hot. He's 30 years old, btw.

Weihnachten Mit Harrison. All that's missing is a candle and some branches.