I came to this as a staunch fan of the show, albeit with growing unease over series 2. Where it was originally engaging, interesting, dramatic and always borne through by its particular aesthetic character, as series 2 got under way it became clear that the writers were giving up on character development and interactions that went anywhere. I'd anticipated this episode with the hope that it would reach back into all that and give form to it, but by literally the last episode of the series I wasn't holding out much hope. In any case it threw that out in spectacular fashion.
No motivation needs to exist for the actions of any character at this point, at least that's clearly the writers' position. This is an orgy of superficial aesthetic action. More than that, it's bereft of meaning - I note people talking about how intense and complex and amazing the dialogue and performance are... while not one interaction or statement from any character's lips bears any meaning whatsoever. The writers have become so obsessed with cryptic, supposedly poetic language that it becomes disconnected from anything meaningful and kills all drama. Just because it sounds like poetry doesn't mean it is, and in this instance the inconsequential and, frankly, boringly repetitive dross coming from the mouths of the characters is the end of poetry, the end of drama and the complete dearth of any kind of meaning.
There's an often noted tendency to think that things that are terribly complex and obscure must be terribly clever - usually, I suggest, the opposite is true. This was a sad manifestation of the emperor's new clothes, and I suppose we have to expect more of the same in season 3. It might be worth seeing, for the sake of curiosity, but I suspect this has gone irretrievably far up its own orifice.
No motivation needs to exist for the actions of any character at this point, at least that's clearly the writers' position. This is an orgy of superficial aesthetic action. More than that, it's bereft of meaning - I note people talking about how intense and complex and amazing the dialogue and performance are... while not one interaction or statement from any character's lips bears any meaning whatsoever. The writers have become so obsessed with cryptic, supposedly poetic language that it becomes disconnected from anything meaningful and kills all drama. Just because it sounds like poetry doesn't mean it is, and in this instance the inconsequential and, frankly, boringly repetitive dross coming from the mouths of the characters is the end of poetry, the end of drama and the complete dearth of any kind of meaning.
There's an often noted tendency to think that things that are terribly complex and obscure must be terribly clever - usually, I suggest, the opposite is true. This was a sad manifestation of the emperor's new clothes, and I suppose we have to expect more of the same in season 3. It might be worth seeing, for the sake of curiosity, but I suspect this has gone irretrievably far up its own orifice.