In the second episode of\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>, Hank and Britt make one bad decision after another. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>.<\/p>\n
This is an interesting show, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grabbed just quite yet. Indeed, for the first half of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dog and Pony\u00e2\u20ac\u009d felt like the show was going through the motions. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get a sense for a direction or a point. But I like to think that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a patient TV consumer; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m perfectly willing to see why this show has been recommended to me for so long and why people love it.<\/p>\n
As it stands, it took this episode getting to the point where Denham shot his own brother before I felt like it had settled into something thrilling. There, the writers take Britt and Hank into a much more surreal place than the fairly straightforward (and doomed) attempt to catch Montell. Still, this is a story made up of bad decisions.\u00c2\u00a0Really<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0bad decisions. Right from the start, Hank thinks it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great idea to pursue buying his old house so that his wife won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sell it. Life then throws approximately forty thousand roadblocks and obstacles in his way, and Hank, that tenacious fool that he is, fights his way past every single one of them.<\/p>\n
Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discuss that, as I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good framework to analyze this story.<\/p>\n
The Check:\u00c2\u00a0<\/b>Gone is the $30,000 from Lindus because, in a beautiful stroke of luck, the OBPD must use it as evidence. Oh, and Lindus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assets are all frozen, too. Why is this bad? Because now, Hank has no money to complete the transfer of the house to himself. So how can he get thousands of dollars by the end of the day?<\/p>\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the next obstacle:<\/p>\n
Catch a fugitive and claim the reward.\u00c2\u00a0<\/b>A quick solution, right? Oh my god, NO. A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD IDEA. Not only do Hank and Britt threaten an innocent fortune teller in order to goad Montell out of hiding, they technically commit\u00c2\u00a0another<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0crime in the process. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter if they were pretending to threaten that woman; THEY STILL DID. To make matters worse, neither one is prepared for the tremendous beatdown they receive from Montell when their bait totally works. Oh my god, that guy was like a human brick, I swear.<\/p>\n
So, even after their plan fails, and after they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re brought down to the police station, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re left with no money and no plan to get more. You would think anyone else would stop. BUT NOT THESE TWO.<\/p>\n
Denham<\/b><\/p>\n
I now understand why the show is called\u00c2\u00a0Terriers!<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0The kind of unrelenting determination that Britt and Hank show is hilariously obvious now. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let up. Unfortunately, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not always to their benefit, and the first half of this episode demonstrates that to us. Britt and Hank get their asses handed to them by Montell, but what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fun about how the story is designed is that it leads them down an unexpected path. Just like the massive corruption they found in Lindus, they discover from Montell that his half-brother was his co-conspirator for a huge robbery at the Del Mar racetracks. OH, DEL MAR. SO MUCH TO ANSWER FOR. If you haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen the video for this episode, I spoke about the pain of getting caught on an LA to San Diego Amtrak and coincidentally ending up on it during a race day. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S THE WORST. So much spilled alcohol, so many rich people or people\u00c2\u00a0pretending<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0to be rich. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a nightmare.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the only reason I mentioned that is because I do love the little peeks into Southern California life that are a little too real for me. The main point, though, is that through sheer dogged determination (get it???), these men seem to find good fortune. Granted, that involves setting up a meeting betwen Denham and Montell where DENHAM SHOOTS HIS OWN BROTHER, but you know what? Even\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0ends up being a good thing. The absolute best part of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dog and Pony\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the set of scenes where Montell is stitched u by Katie and then willingly tied to her bed. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the strangest hostage situations I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s precisely why I suddenly felt like the episode had gotten a lot better. When\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0goes for the strange, it works really well!<\/p>\n
In the end, Denham is set-up, another case is solved, Britt and Hank make $15,000, and Britt comes up with a solution to him and his wife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dog problems. (WINSTON!) Yet as much contentment as Britt gets, Hank gets very little of it. He might own his home again, but at what cost? He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem happy at all in that final scene, and despite the advice of everyone around him, he still thinks that being in that place is a good idea. Is it? Or is he desperate for something else? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the answer to that, but I know that in the title of this show, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a humor and a tragedy. Hank might be tenacious and stubborn, but sometimes, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a good thing.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dog and Pony\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99.<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards.<\/b> In the second episode of\u00c2\u00a0Terriers, Hank and Britt make one bad decision after another. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Terriers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[659],"tags":[660],"class_list":["post-5702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terriers","tag-mark-watches-terriers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I\u00c2\u00a0will be at numerous conventions in 2016! Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"