Show Me A Hero - New HBO David Simon Mini-Series

4,135 Views | 35 Replies | Last: 8 yr ago by Bunk Moreland
Sex Panther
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AG
Haven't seen much on this, but I know there are plenty of David Simon fans on the board. Starts tonight and airs over the next three weeks.




"A six-part series depicting the housing desegregation fight in the 1980s and 1990s that tore the city of Yonkers and its political leadership apart and resulted in more than a decade of political trauma and racial divisiveness"

Has a great cast headlined by the always fantastic Oscar Isaac portraying the youngest mayor in America at the center of the divide. He gets in over his head when he spends the city's entire budget on a winter sports complex called "Ice Town."

PatAg
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Sounds boring.
PatAg
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Also, excellent Parks and Rec reference.
Bunk Moreland
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Beek excited about this for a while. Finishing part 1 now. Very well done. Deciding on if I should save part 2 for tomorrow night or not.

The political side definitely has a Wire feel. Also Levy and brother mouzone have made appearances and I'm sure other guys I'm overlooking from that series.

Plus, tons of other great casts as well.
COOL LASER FALCON
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I liked it. Lots of groundwork being laid in these first two eps, I think it could be really great by the end of it.
israeliag
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quote:
Haven't seen much on this, but I know there are plenty of David Simon fans on the board. Starts tonight and airs over the next three weeks.




"A six-part series depicting the housing desegregation fight in the 1980s and 1990s that tore the city of Yonkers and its political leadership apart and resulted in more than a decade of political trauma and racial divisiveness"

Has a great cast headlined by the always fantastic Oscar Isaac portraying the youngest mayor in America at the center of the divide. He gets in over his head when he spends the city's entire budget on a winter sports complex called "Ice Town."



Clever

dave94
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quote:
Beek excited about this for a while. Finishing part 1 now. Very well done. Deciding on if I should save part 2 for tomorrow night or not.

The political side definitely has a Wire feel. Also Levy and brother mouzone have made appearances and I'm sure other guys I'm overlooking from that series.

Plus, tons of other great casts as well.


The guy who played Orlando had a bit part as the head of the NAACP, minus the awesome hairdo from the Wire.
OldArmy71
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I have enjoyed the first two episodes. Oscar Isaac is doing a great job, as is everyone else. He acts and speaks like a young Al Pacino. I did not recognize Peter Riegert for quite a while.

I guess the title tells us where this is heading. Scott Fitzgerald said this in a letter or in one of his notebooks, I forget which:


quote:
Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy.

Bunk Moreland
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Russell Dalrymple is doing fantastic as the judge.

Really enjoying this one so far.
OldArmy71
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The judge is Bob Balaban.
Bunk Moreland
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Like I said...Russell Dalrymple.
OldArmy71
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Ah, sorry.
Sex Panther
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First two episodes were great. Not sure who I sympathize with more at this point...

I will be pretty let down if neither Bunk or Lester Freamon show up. Pretty sure they are contractually obligated to be in anything Simon related.
dave94
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This is just such high quality all around. The topic could seem uninteresting on the surface but I was glued to every scene in the council chamber the whole time.

Great acting and production value. It sure seemed like the show was shot in 1986.
gomerschlep
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The first two parts were great, I am in. Nice to se HBO come out with something as high-quality as I expect from them.
Max Power
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Season 3 of True Detective should cast Oscar Isaac right now if they bring it back, he's become one of my favorite actors. Inside Llewan Davis, A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina, and coming soon with Star Wars and X-Men Apocalypse. Show Me a Hero is outstanding so far, really enjoying it.
Bunk Moreland
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quote:
Season 3 of True Detective should cast Oscar Isaac right now if they bring it back, he's become one of my favorite actors. Inside Llewan Davis, A Most Violent Year, Ex Machina, and coming soon with Star Wars and X-Men Apocalypse. Show Me a Hero is outstanding so far, really enjoying it.


Yeah... Pretty safe to say after this year Isaac has outgrown a role on TD. He could do it if he wanted, but there's not much upside for him and he'd cost too much most likely.

Dude is now entering 2016 as the leading American actor for the next decade, with Pratt filling the same type of role but maybe in the more comedic films
Sex Panther
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Anyone enjoying this should watch A Most Violent Year starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. I watched it last night and it was great.
Bunk Moreland
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quote:
Anyone enjoying this should watch A Most Violent Year starring Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. I watched it last night and it was great.


It is good. Slow burn but very well done.

Also, Jessica Chastain might be the current #1 on my "not 'hot' but beautiful" celeb I want the most list.
Bunk Moreland
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Kima Greggs' girlfriend with a role..Simon continuing to cast former people he had worked with. Really enjoying this mini series
dave94
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And Namond was the woman's social worker. And brother Mouzone was her father!
dave94
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And yes, I'm really enjoying this.
Sex Panther
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quote:
And Namond was the woman's social worker. And brother Mouzone was her father!

That was Namond!? Good catch...


Look for a Wire star in the next two episodes...
dave94
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Saw the preview so I got spoiled.
SwaggerCopter
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I have to admit I was skeptical, because a housing battle doesn't sound too exciting, but the show is pretty great.
OldArmy71
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Very moving ending, astonishingly well-acted by Oscar Isaac (and everyone, for that matter). Might have been a bit long overall and some choppy editing, but what I liked as much as anything was what seemed to be pretty honest and fair treatment all around: the police were actually helpful, some of the residents were problematic, and so on.

And while it is true (according to the series) that the mayor paid a price for his stand in favor of the housing, he was also someone driven by personal demons and someone who just was not a very loyal or nice person--in other words, he was someone who did the right thing but was, like most people, a complicated person and not a saint.
Sex Panther
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Great little series. Oscar Isaac was fantastic as was pretty much everyone else. Catherine Keener really did a great job as well.



quote:
but what I liked as much as anything was what seemed to be pretty honest and fair treatment all around: the police were actually helpful, some of the residents were problematic, and so on.


This is the beauty of David Simon. I never feel like he's really pushing an agenda. He just tells real-life stories and how they truly are. There isn't really a right or a wrong side. America is complicated and problematic on all fronts. If anything he helps you understand where someone you may have trouble relating to is coming from.


quote:
And while it is true (according to the series) that the mayor paid a price for his stand in favor of the housing, he was also someone driven by personal demons and someone who just was not a very loyal or nice person--in other words, he was someone who did the right thing but was, like most people, a complicated person and not a saint.

Was definitely a tragic and sad ending for Wasicsko, but you are right, he was not a saint. He was a victim of his own poor decisions as much as circumstance.


And if anyone is interested, here's some footage of an actual council meeting featured in the series. Gets pretty heated... Wasicsko doesn't come off quite as timid as he did in the show.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/watch-actual-footage-on-which-hbo-series-show-me-a-hero-is-based/
COOL LASER FALCON
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I thought it was really good. I read that Wasiscko thought that his phones were bugged and his car was being tracked as a part of the embezzling investigation (everything I could find said he wasn't even a target). I agree he was reaping his own harvest, but that makes me wonder many of those seeds were sown after he had been broken psychologically.

It came together better than I thought it would, but I still didn't really care about a lot of the tenant story lines. I think that probably could have been better told if they picked just one or two of them and really focused on it.
Bunk Moreland
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Really really well done. But that's not surprising given the team behind it.

There were some fantastic performances in the series.

Oscar Isaac is just fantastic.

Catherine Keener was just unreal and deserves an Emmy no doubt.

The girls who played Carmen and Doreen were also great.

Even though I knew the ending, I thought it was well done.

Honestly, as weird as it is, and even knowing it was a factual biopic, I sort of just assumed they used the tenant stories as fictional to provide context(mixed accounts based off factual stories sort of like how the wire was at times) , so I was really pleased to see they were all real people and lives based off factual events.
gomerschlep
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I finally watched the final two parts...

I'm not going to lie, and I know I'll probably look like an idiot for admitting this, but I thought this was fictional until the last 3 minutes. Holy ****.

WES2006AG
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just finished this last night and couldn't have enjoyed it more. HBO needs to get all the content it can from this team.

Also, I had no idea that this was going to end the way it did. Guess I just thought Wasisco would make it back to be vindicated amongst the Yonkers residents. Guess real life came into play though.
tylercsbn9
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Watching part 2 now.

I assume since it is Simon they don't end part 6 with the consequences of a judge legislating from the bench and the impact of this on Yonkers? The white flight. The crap schools. The increased crime.

Probably a perfect example of what will happen in some suburbs areas is Castro and the HUD get what they want.
Bunk Moreland
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Watching part 2 now.

I assume since it is Simon they don't end part 6 with the consequences of a judge legislating from the bench and the impact of this on Yonkers? The white flight. The crap schools. The increased crime.

Probably a perfect example of what will happen in some suburbs areas is Castro and the HUD get what they want.

well

1) watch the show

2) what do you mean "since it's Simon" (other than your implied 'he's a liberal' stance it appears you want to go with, and if it's that, expand please

3) This isn't a case of a judge legislating from the bench. This was a years long battle that Yonkers had lost, and still refused to comply with the ruling.
tylercsbn9
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quote:
2) what do you mean "since it's Simon" (other than your implied 'he's a liberal' stance it appears you want to go with, and if it's that, expand please
I assume he won't show the negative impacts of the federal judge forcing public housing in a certain area. I assume he'll just hold up the 3 or 4 side characters as positive impacts while ignoring the far reaching impacts of forced public housing in to middle and upper class areas.
Bunk Moreland
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He's going to present the story as it pertained to Yonkers. He isn't going to end the show with republican talking points about forced public housing in middle/upper class(read: white) areas and give stats out for everyone.

It's a history piece, and Simon has always done a great job at looking at a part of society in a specific area and kept it local to the area. That being said, if you sit back and watch, I think you'll see that he doesn't give "forced public housing" a completely rosey "this is how we achieve Utiopia!" view at all.
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