Finally got to see the last episode in its entirety and it was kind of predictable. Overall, I thought this year's story was better, but the characters in last year's story were more compelling. My only qualification on the story being better this year is that there were more red herrings than a Communist seafood store. Like I said in an earlier post, a lot of superfluous characters and angles. I would argue that the whole Woodrugh storyline wasn't needed to tell the story (although Taylor Kitsch did a good job with the character). One can argue that added to the intrigue in the classic noir sense and I can appreciate that angle. It was kind of an Occam's Razor story in that all the complexity gets blown away in the end and, in the end, it becomes a really basic story. For Frank and Ray, it just becomes a recognition of their just fate and they accept it. Did it come from the bargain they struck years ago or was it simply in their core natures? I guess that's for the tradgedians to determine.
A lot of folks didn't like Vince Vaughn's character, but I found Frank to be interesting. I used to bartend in a place that had more than a few petty offender wanna-be-big-guy types and Vaughn's portrayal reminded me of some of these guys. They dress it up a bit and spout some street "philosophy," but underneath it all, they are never going to be tough enough to handle the criminal equivalent of big league pitching.
Rachel McAdams showed a range that should serve her career quite well and outside of his portrayal of a country/western pretty boy in Crazy Heart, I can't think of the last time I found Colin Farrell's work disappointing.
