When last we saw the fine folks at The Republic of Doyle, Mal was having a heart attack, Nicky was having another break from reality and threatening to move away, Dez and Tinny were being annoying, Sgt Bennett was conflicted and Jake was heading off to the Duke to have a pint and listen to Ron Hynes after helping his brother Christian escape from the police and a possible murder charge.
So where are we now?
Well, Mal is fine, maybe. Nicky sadly reneged on her promise to leave but seems marginally less crazy, Dez and Tinny are still annoying, Sgt Bennett is conflicted and Jake gets punched in the face twice and in the balls once all before the commercial break. Oh, and the punches to the face were at the Duke, while getting a pint.
So pretty much business as normal.
Christian? Who is this Christian you speak of?
It's six month later, but really, not much as changed. Which is fine and all. Frustratingly, the show also hasn't made the kind of leap I was hoping. The first season of any show, especially one with a shortened season like the one Doyle had, makes it hard to adjust when you see problems that need to be fixed. So I kind of hoped in the second season we might see some of those things....smoothed out. Less Nicky, Tinny and Dez (although I know Dez has his own bizarre cultish following). More Walter, and more of Jake and Mal interacting with each other. They are, as I constantly harped on last season, the best part of the show.
There's a two minute segment when they're breaking into a suspect's house that is about as perfect a couple of minutes as the show has done so far. Just note perfect on their whole relationship. Give me more of that every week and I'm a happy man.
The rest of the show was hit and miss. The mystery of the week was....odd. The whole kidnapping/video thrills thing was a bit weird and didn't work, although the bit with the gun at the end was amusing. Although I'm unsurprised to see the quality of guest actors remains the same. Thank god for Gordon Pinsent next week. The loan sharks thing was amusing, but went nowhere. I'm guessing it'll show up again over the next few weeks, but it was oddly handled.
And Jake in his undies....oh well, something for the ladies to dream about tonight I guess. I look forward to equal time with Sgt. Bennett in the coming weeks.
The show's raw potential is still there. The last 30 minutes were measurably better than the last 30 minutes. That Nicky is not listed in the credits gives me hope that they're reducing her role to be more like Walter's - that of a reoccurring supporting character. And she might work like that rather than trying to wedge a "Nicky is crazy and Jake doesn't know what to do" subplot into every episode. Although more Water would be a good thing. The bit with Jake, Walter and the....woman at the bar was pretty priceless.
This is a touch rambling, but this is what we can learn from the first episode - that the producers clearly looked at the first season and decided that not much needed to be changed. Based on the success of the show, I can see their point. It's a good show, but it could be better. As always, I hope it gets there.
Although give it credit, at least the one liners are still there.
"More pills, less salt beef."
"It'll be a nice change from chicken wings stuffed with ham."
"I don't want you to die. Sue me." "You should be writing greeting cards."
"I listen. I just have a problem with the obeying part."
"What happened to go trouting and having a few beers."
And a few others I forgot to jot down.
We'll see how it goes, I guess. Although I guess it would be hoping for too much for Tinny to go to London, Dez follow her, they have their own spin-off show that I can then not watch.
Last Five
1. Cemetery Jill - Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
2. Drive my car (live) - Paul McCartney
3. Whatever's left - Snow Patrol
4. Traffic - Lloyd Cole
5. End of empire - Sam Roberts
7 comments:
Flipping channels the other night, I happened across, and watched about 90 seconds of, The Recruit.
Which made me realize why I don't like Republic of Doyle: buddy there is trying too hard to be some kind of low-rent Colin Farrell.
Fairly spot on review. The first half of the episode was completely predictable. I knew within two seconds of meeting this client(s) that they were getting kidnapped for the thrill of it, rather than because any of the nonsense that the woman was initially claiming. I was starting to get annoyed at just how predictable it was, until they finally through in the twist at around the half-way mark.
(The thing with Bennett and the mayor was fairly obvious, too, given that she was standing two-feet away from him during his speech, in a dress, and didn't appear to be part of the security detail.)
I was also quite surprised that no one seems to give a shit about Christian. Oh, that other Doyle boy? Yeah, he disappeared one day and so we gave up looking for him. His family doesn't seem to care either.
I do hope that they'll touch on that story line again later on, because it seems to have been wrapped up a little too nicely. Then again, they literally put Christian on a bus, so maybe he's never coming back and will never be mentioned again.
Overall, it was a pretty standard episode of Doyle but, as the season premiere, it felt weak.
well first off the heading of your comment is just downright degrading."Townie Bastard". If i had the negative comments coming out of my mouth like you do about a show i would just NOT watch it. Is there anything about the show you did like or do you just have a bad taste in your mouth from being turned down to try for premier. I guess it is my turn for comments then but before i do i just have to say this...WTG ROD...Jake keep up the parts with little clothes..NOW...MR CABANA....maybe if you knew anything about politics and even learned to speak without stuttering like you didn't know what to say you might have gotten somewhere. You are not even a newfoundlander for petes sake you are a misplaced mainlander.You put yourself out there and it seems you do not have a clue about what you are doing. Then to get stupid and sooky and then make accusations that are unfounded. All i can say is good luck with that and better luck next time.I am sure as soon as you read this you will delete it because you don't have the balls like we newfs do to keep it there. Snook will sum it all up tonight on the news.
Anon 4:29 cracks me up. I hope he comes back. What fun!
I know. It's been awhile since I've had an anonymous crazy person. I was beginning to get jealous of all the ones you got Megan.
Considering I'm one of the few people who says critical things about the show online, I'm surprised I don't attract more of it, to be honest.
the reason why you're the only one who writes negative things is because outside of Newfoundland nobody really gives enough of a shit to talk about it. if the show wasn't on after Dragon's Den it wouldn't get anybody watching at all. as it is it manages to hold on to not even 50% of the Dragons audience.
rick mercer is a hit. doyle is a welfare project.
The funny thing is that you're not THAT critical. You're actually more positive than negative. It should be a compliment to watch the show and think seriously about what worked and what didn't work.
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