Got so soapy


Spoilers:

This show started out so strong in Season One. About halfway through, it started to get convoluted and heavy handed, and just seemed so "Melrose Place" to me. What was with that daytime soap stalker plot (and it did seem like he was just about to cheat with her if his beeper hadn't gone off)? You could tell the writers were trying to stretch stuff out.

Then Season Two with the Timothy Olyphant character. It felt so forced and contrived and just soapy. Who is sleeping with who. Who's back-stabbing who.

I'm sure that writing television is extremely difficult. Writers can come up with the best of premises, but they need fillers no matter what, in order to make a show stretch out for several seasons. It is the VERY RARE show (The Wire might be the only one I know of) that can make a show last without turning it into a soap. I couldn't get past Season Two (most of which I fast forwarded and read the plot on Wikipedia), and then just read the rest. Once you make the main character into a murderer, you're in soap land.

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Your analysis is way off.

A shame you gave up on it so soon and didn't allow it to unfold at its own pace. The entire series is brilliant, start to finish. You got hung up on such a minor element of the story.

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I think that the "stalker" in season 1 was supposed to be a red herring for David's murder. Presenting us with another person with motive to have killed him.

As for Wes (Timothy Olyphant), I think his character helped Ellen not completely shut down after David and he actually plays a big role in tying up a big plot point in Season 3

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It's a crazy soap opera that goes all over the place. Reminds me of 24.

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You're right, it was a little soapy – but that's part of its quality, I think. It sounds like the show just isn't your type.

Please excuse typos/funny wording; I use speech-recognition that doesn't always recognize!

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