NBC's The Slap- Page 5

[Auggie27]

Posted: 2/27/15 at 7:48am

Well, though I'm bumping this thread up, I know well that we are only a handful, we loyal followers of this tanking show, which may well be gone by next week. So says at least one blog. I noticed the promos stopped during the morning hours yesterday. When it appeared last night at 8, it was without any drumbeat.

And last night's episode was quite wonderful. Uma Thurman's finest hour on film, for my money. She and Blythe Danner as her mother were terrific in scenes that absolutely eschewed sentimentality. What I like most about the Anouk character: She is a grown-up. She is flawed, conflicted, erratic, and yet in every way an adult woman. I appreciated the ways they made last night a turning point in her life. I won't say more, because this is a show that will pick up viewers in many subsequent venues, fewer in primetime, clearly.

Hoping we are back next week, but it wouldn't surprise me if NBC pulls the plug, or at least dumps it on Saturday night. It's in prime locale, and not delivering. And to me, it's one of the best things to watch right now.

Updated On: 2/27/15 at 07:48 AM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/27/15 at 10:19am

Can someone tell me what accent Blythe Danner was trying to use? It sounded like "late Lauren Bacall."

I'm sorry to keep harping on it, but the Australian production is light years ahead of the US one. Melissa George must be thinking "Why did I commit to this sh*t?"

I'm getting tired of Baitz' cutesy New York references. "We get delivery from the 2nd Avenue Deli." Well smell you!

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 3/1/15 at 1:11am

^ The show is set in NYC. What references would you prefer Baitz to make? "I'll meet you at the Ivy for lunch?"

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 9:05pm

IMO, this Manolis episode was plotted better than the Australian version. The Aussie version had them going to a funeral and it went on too long.

However, I still don't like the dialogue. Manolis whining about global warming just sounds like a mouthpiece for all of Baitz' personal causes. I bet the gay episode will be nothing but an advertisement for gay marriage.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/5/15 at 9:33pm

…and the air was just sucked out of the room.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/6/15 at 6:49am

Predictably, as one of the more vocal champion here, I thought the episode was expert. Start with the radical notion of seeing an hour dominated by characters over 50 (over 65) at 8 p.m., surely part of what many will dub "NBC's death wish." But cynicism aside about the show's abject failure in the ratings, it was a particularly well written episode for my (out of the target demographic) money, the centerpiece the brief, sharp theatrical scene in the restaurant, in which Baitz put all of the conflicting POVs and stakes literally on the table, framed by a savvy use of the old world Godfather-like patriarchal cultural. Watching the myriad but squirming responses to Nouri (riveting -- have we found our ZORBA?) as the brooding Quinto found his ray of hope was riveting. As was the penultimate scene visiting the dying relative from the old country, played for great emotion but no easy sentimentality. As one would expect: Brian Cox was superb. And in Newton's big scene with him, we learned a great deal, and felt the shifting sands under her character's feet. She was also good, as were the others, Maria Tucci moving as the dry-eyed, pragmatic matriarch, so different from the pushy presence in the public party scenes, a difference appreciated and duly noted in the writing, too.

Well, we've gotten 4 episodes; with NBC dare to give us all 8? With a 13% drop week to week? Last week .07? Jeesh, the HONEY IN VEGAS of primetime! If anything, I'm more of a fan. Some of the most original storytelling I've seen in a while.

Updated On: 3/6/15 at 06:49 AM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 3/6/15 at 11:40pm

I'm still with Auggie on THE SLAP.

Auggies, when viewership is finally down to just you and me, what "share" will that be?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 6:00am

On a positive note, though a truly weak one: in ratings/demos it went back up from .07 to .08, which they're calling a "14%" rise. It's pitiful, but it didn't fall.

[Stage Door Sally]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 10:23am

The time's been changed to 10 p.m. Better than cancelling it.
The Slap time change Updated On: 3/7/15 at 10:23 AM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 11:06am

Yep. It actually plays like a 10 p.m. show anyway. I just enjoyed it at 8, since I seldom watch much TV and it was something early.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 1:18pm

Do they think changing the time slot is going to bring in more viewers? Does anyone really want to tune in to a miniseries half way through?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 4:15pm

What happens to those loyal to it from the beginning? Will they even know it moved? Sort of like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Why bother?

[SNAFU]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 6:57pm

SIGH, Because Roxy, perhaps the network realized that the demographic they were aiming at would tune in at a time when that demographic tunes in. Same thing happened with 30 Rock (which changed not only time slots BUT days it was shown) and look how that turned out!

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 7:00pm

I admit, I really did enjoy this episode--and for the first time have stopped mentally comparing each one with the Aussie equivalent (which I freely admit has been my problem and not the show's.)

I think the time change is only for the good--as Auggie says, it plays like a 10pm network drama, anyway. I assume NBC will stick with the complete series. We never were going toget a second season anyway (unless, I guess, the show had become a zeitgeist phenomenon in which case I'm sure the network would have tried to find a way to stretch it,) and NBC doesn't have much to air instead of it right now...

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 8:42pm

It never dawned on me until late last week how steep the competition has been at 8 (I'm not a big viewer at that hour these days.) It seemed a very odd programming choice for a February launch. Weeknights, the 8 p.m. demographic is historically very loyal, and seldom give up sitcoms, or even in its fading glory, "Idol," or any of the stalwart primetime behemoths. It would be easy to read even more failure into this beleaguered miniseries, based on the handful of bad decisions re: where to put it and which season.

It dawned on me that it might've done well in the summer, one of those limited series as an alternative to the reruns. The new counter-programming trend in June and July now offers new material. Admittedly sci-fi or high concept/younger demo pitched fare is more the norm than domestic drama. At 10 the show will likely not flourish, but I will be curious to see if it holds its own or goes up marginally.

Updated On: 3/7/15 at 08:42 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 9:23pm

NBC should have made a bold move and gone back to the 1970s model. They should have broadcast the show as a mini-series, shown two episodes per night Monday through Thursday, all in one week. They could have really built a momentum with the story, rather than dragging it out over eight weeks. Unfortunately, this show was never advertised as "Must see tv." They're trying to get people talking about it on Twitter, but they never generated any excitement for it.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/7/15 at 9:31pm

Actually, I think playing it over a week or so, would have been smart--and could have driven up any positive word of mouth. I also agree with Auggie that it would have made more sense in the Summer. I now in the current network climate, more importance is given to programming year round, but new shows that start on network tv in the late Winter/early Spring have yet to catch on.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/9/15 at 6:43am

I rewatched the pilot (cabin fever, more snow days) and learned things I'd missed. The show might've benefitted from the episodes playing closer together, so we could mentally access points that intersect subtly, within a smaller window. Yet the story proper is rather slow moving, not one driven by a single or even double protagonist pushing toward one goal achievement, catharsis, resolution. This is a mosaic, with pieces assembled in a seemingly random order so that a Rashomon effect can be part of the viewers' journey.

It actually makes sense to let us dip in, even if it makes demands on audiences that prime time (too) seldom attempts; even serialized cable tends to have more drive. The emotional suspense surrounding the fallout is muted. Revisiting the pilot, I see how various individual character problems are persuasively tied to the intersecting crises at the birthday party. For much of prime time audience, bigger stakes -- life and death, apocalyptic catastrophe -- seem more the melodramatic norm. This show is about lives on the cusp of ruin with a small "r", big enough stuff to most of us, but not the biggest. Its subtly -- its look at small, quotidian disappointments probably like those in our own lives -- may be its downfall on American TV.

Updated On: 3/14/15 at 06:43 AM

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/14/15 at 12:36pm

Falling, not gaining at 10. By .02. Perhaps not a surprise. The 10 p.m. audience wasn't watching it at 8. 3 episodes left, but NBC clearly made the wrong call with season/time of year and time slot. The show was incredibly well promoted, made into an event. Yet the time periods, 8 and 10, have devoted followers elsewhere. A limited series like this would've been ideal up against summer re-runs, as some of us noted earlier. This means the next project that's pitched with any of these components will be, well, slapped down. I daresay this will become an infamous ratings flop used as a yardstick to measure less predictable fare.

For what it's worth, I still find the show highly compelling. The last one was my least favorite (Connie's back story) but still a deserving piece of the puzzle. And the final 15 minutes about Connie's father managed to wring unexpected tears. But then, I'm rooting for the storytelling here.

Updated On: 3/14/15 at 12:36 PM

[ArtMan]

Posted: 4/3/15 at 7:16am

Auggie27,  Did you give up on this?  I only watched minutes here and there during the run.  While changing channels last night, it caught my attention.  I didn't know much of what was happening, but the young actor playing Ritchie greatly impressed me. I hope he has some success in his future.  It ended up being the finale last night.  Seemed kind of anticlimactic and I wasn't even a regular watcher.

[Stage Door Sally]

Posted: 4/3/15 at 10:28am

Overall I enjoyed the series. The first episode was bad, but it improved over time, and the finale was heartbreaking and heartwarming. The actor who played Richie was terrific.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/3/15 at 2:39pm

Ultimately, I fully agree with Stage Door Sally.  I found the last two episodes especially compelling, with the surprises character-dictated rather than melodramatic or externally plot-driven, and all of the characters deepened.  I also appreciated, starting with episode 2, as noted many times in this thread, the way the series took us outside the initial emotional incident into the crises and quotidian details of individual lives, yet always tethered the overall movement of the story to the pending legal action trajectory.  It trusted the audience (all ten of us -- actually 3.4 million) to stay with it, and as we did, we found much to invest in.  It ended with a flat rating, but on an evening when everything else went down.

 I also noticed that NBC didn't waste a second slapping shots of Jesus on the cross atop the final images to promo the upcoming seasonal Biblical stuff.  It was bizarre, but typical.  All we needed was 15 seconds of a held, screen filloing shot (not asking for empty screen) to absorb the ending, but good luck with that in 2015.  Among the great acting work: Alma Cuervo as the Judge, her final words especially effective.  Yet to a player, the cast was superb, one of the best assembled in prime time.  I hope it's not forgotten at awards season.   

Updated On: 4/3/15 at 02:39 PM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 4/3/15 at 3:19pm

The ending was a bit of a letdown but all in all it was something to watch. Not great but not bad.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 4/4/15 at 9:24pm

As someone who has been defending the show all along, I take it all back after that dishwater of a final episode. Auggie, while the earlier episodes may have show how small ripples have big consequences, the final episode proved they have no consequences at all.

At least they could have let Richie kill himself. THAT would have been shown trivial events leading to a big and unexpected impact.

I suppose Baitz' next project will be a rewrite of OEDIPUS in which Oedipus and Jocasta negotiate shared child custody.

 

 

[The Glenbuck Laird]

Posted: 4/5/15 at 4:48am

"I'm sorry to keep harping on it, but the Australian production is light years ahead of the US one. Melissa George must be thinking "Why did I commit to this sh*t?"

 Wasn't Melissa George in Home and Away for three years? Doesn't sound like she is that choosy when selecting roles