#13: TOO LATE, TOO EARLY

The Divide, A Most Wanted Man, Snowpiercer, timing the reviews of TV shows (re-reviewing The Leftovers, etc.).

Paul and Elgin talk about

• The Divide, created by Richard LaGravenese and Tony Goldwyn. How does this new WE tv drama — which opens with a working-class white man about to be executed for killing a well-to-do black family over a decade ago — handle the things that divide America, such as race, class, gender, and generation? Does this ambitious show, which AMC did not pick up back in 2012, actually make the cut in 2014?
• A Most Wanted Man, directed by Anton Corbijn and based on a novel by John le Carré. Is the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final lead performance, as a German spy, compelling enough to keep the audience engaged in this rather talky tale of post-9/11 espionage? Does PSH’s work in this film add to the legacy of the actor who left us too soon?
• Bong Joon-Ho’s Snowpiercer, released in South Korea in 2013 and an art house and VOD hit in America this year. What does this allegorical, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi film starring Captain America himself (Chris Evans) tell us about today’s global economy? Is the film too on the nose with its plebs in the desolate back carts and 1 percenters in the luxurious front carts? What might its ending imply? (Yep, here we go again spoilin’.)
• Timing the reviews of TV shows. When reviewing a show, how do TV critics balance the need to be relevant and timely with the desire to give a program more time to find its legs? That is, how many episodes are typically needed to strike the right balance between these two pulls? We re-review a few shows, including HBO’s The Leftovers, whose Guilty Remnant remain a point of disagreement but whose non-Garvey-centered episodes help build positive consensus.

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