In the fourth episode of\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>, THIS SHOW HAS TRANSFORMED SO MUCH IN JUST FOUR EPISODES. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For mental illness.<\/b><\/p>\n
So, this show is something. Look, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go into\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u201c even after the last episode! \u00e2\u20ac\u201c expected one big serialized narrative. Nor did I expect dangerous heists or murder conspiracies or THE ENTIRE LAST TEN MINUTES OF THIS EPISODE. Just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 what?? ? WHAT IS THIS SHOW? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what I thought it was, and goddamn, that is so exciting.<\/p>\n
Steph<\/b><\/p>\n
SO. SO THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S WHO IS LIVING IN HANK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ATTIC. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fustercluck\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give us a whole lot of details about Hank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sister, though what we do learn of her is from dialogue clues. She graduated from MIT, she was hospitalized for her mental illness at some point, and then, a month or so prior to the events of this episode, she checked herself out and began to hide in Hank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s place. (Both of them, I should add.) The bulk of this episode follows Hank and Britt, though, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m hoping that Steph is developed beyond being a plot twist. I admit that it was nice seeing Hank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s affectionate side come out once Steph was caught; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear he adores her a lot.<\/p>\n
But what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s her story? What role will she play in the unfolding saga of this show? Is she more than just the mentally ill character?<\/p>\n
Lindus<\/b><\/p>\n
I had assumed that\u00c2\u00a0Terriers\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>would, more or less, follow a case-of-the-week format with some overarching storylines here and there. Technically, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not far from what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting, since there IS a singular case here. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that it started out as a wacky joke: Lindus wanted Hank and Britt to steal a quarter million dollars. FROM HIMSELF. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the kind of bizarre twist on the genre that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d already come to expect from\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I thought this would largely be a funny episode.<\/p>\n
Yet the writers find a way to raise the stakes consistently and believably, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still in awe of how the show has become about a much bigger mystery than I anticipated. Lindus is not a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d guy by any means, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re meant to assume that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a scumbag that everything out of his mouth is a lie. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reasonable! So when he claimed that he did not kill Mickey and that he was part of some vast \u00e2\u20ac\u0153conspiracy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d regarding his hotel development project, I just wrote him off.<\/p>\n
The script then slowly confirms practically everything that Lindus said: that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some sort of shadowy organization determined to keep the development going. That Mickey saw something so dangerous that he was killed off. That literally\u00c2\u00a0nothing<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened since this show started has been a coincidence at all. Now, the writers\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0balance humor, suspense, and a dark edge to the story, and I appreciate that. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fustercluck\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is funny for the opening scene and then jarringly turns into something else. The heist itself is pretty amusing, at least until it becomes SUPER UNNERVING AND SCARY. Hell, even the Lindus chase sequence is funny in a way, at least in the sense that Hank and Britt really aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that good at their jobs.<\/p>\n
In that sense, I admire that\u00c2\u00a0Terriers<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is not about experts. Oh, Hank and Britt are good at being unassuming, and they each have their own skills that they bring to the job. But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re such deeply flawed people. Hank often can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t concentrate when his concentration is what Britt needs. (Actually, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen a pattern of Hank thinking purely of himself right when Britt needs him most, too.) And while we understand the desire they have to learn what those development papers were, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re kind of responsible for Lindus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they? They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take him to the hospital, they abandon him in the bathroom when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly slipping into unconsciousness, and they barely escape Mark\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s suspicion. In essence, they fly by the seat of their pants\u00c2\u00a0constantly<\/i>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like the only mode they thrive in, you know?<\/p>\n
My god, this is a huge disaster. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a dead body in Hank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bathtub! OF THE GUY THEY KIDNAPPED IN FRONT OF HIS WIFE. How the hell are they going to get out of this???<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fustercluck\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/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 fourth episode of\u00c2\u00a0Terriers, THIS SHOW HAS TRANSFORMED SO MUCH IN JUST FOUR EPISODES. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Terriers.\u00c2\u00a0<\/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-5725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terriers","tag-mark-watches-terriers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5725"}],"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":"