MovieChat Forums > Slings and Arrows (2003) Discussion > Season Three Was Not as Good as Seasons ...

Season Three Was Not as Good as Seasons One and Two (spoilers)


I recognize some people will disagree, but I felt Season Three just was not as good as the first two seasons. The bottom line for me was that the character of Charles was a profoundly unsympathetic character in that he was so unpleasant to his fellow actors and he betrayed the trust that Geoffrey had in him by not disclosing that he was dying and was in no shape to do a demanding role like Lear.

Those facts made it impossible for me to believe that Geoffrey and the rest of the actors would rally around Charles to stage a lame production of the play that hardly anyone would see and certainly not pay for to make Charles happy.

I know theater people are different but I don't think they're so different that they'd be willing to do all of that for someone who ruined a major production that they depended on for employment. For me at least, it was not believable and a let down.

Another (minor) gripe was that the show depicted all the actors who were doing the musical as morons and/or shallow drug taking airheads. I'm sure that real life actors in that specialty did not appreciate that depiction.

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Or alternatively Season Three was a glorious culmination. All of your points in paragraphs one and two echo the plot's roots in King Lear. Lear is an obnoxious egomaniac with the mind of a child who unbelievably compels the compassion of the intelligent insightful people by whom he is surrounded. So much so that his mistreated daughter abandons a perfectly good kingdom, his deeply insightful jester disappears from grief (and sticking by his side) and his best adviser risks his life to stay with him and help him despite being outright rejected by him. Also his dumbest advisor has his eyes stabbed out (and professes to be willing to die) for succouring him. Sounds precisely the same to me.

I agree that the satire of the counterplot was a bit OTT, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. And they did make some real points about some of the vacuous musicals that take the world by storm these days.

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