A Disappointment

Jeff Daniels is making the rounds of the talk shows, promoting his Netflix series, A Man In Full.  We were intrigued.

We loved him in The Newsroom.  Tom Wolfe, one of my.   favorite authors when I was young, wrote the book on which the series is based.  We were looking for a new show to binge on.  It seemed like a sure thing.

It was not.

The background music is relentless.  It's not bad music.  I don't mind it in small doses.  But it's always there, announcing its presence with authority, the lyrics telling me how to feel. 

The plot isn't deep enough to need that much help.  

There are story lines to support Diane Lane and Lucy Liu and a fine supporting cast of actors of color.  I bet that you, too, could create a mini-series with a mogul who's a bad father on his second marriage and a business in trouble; a young black man who's involved in an incident with a white cop; some unsavory politicians and sniveling underlings; and very supportive women in almost-powerful jobs.

Everything that you expect to happen will happen.  Everything you expect to be said will be said.  The furnishings and modes of transportation will be over the top, elegant in an I Have Too Much Money way.  The parts that made you squirm the last time you saw this will make you squirm this time, too.  

Have I made my point?  There was nothing new, interesting, provocative, or unexpected in the two episodes we watched in full.  We let Netflix roll into the third episode.  When the credits began after the opening musical assault, we each said the same thing: Do you really want to watch this anymore?

TBG defaulted to basketball and I to my book.  Wiser choices, indeed.