Nicolas Winding Refn's ‘Too Old To Die Young’ series for Amazon Studios

[KevTravels]

I couldn't finish episode 1. Tooo slow!

how do future episodes turn out? is it worth trying again?

 

[Persona]

The 2nd episode was the slowest and kind of a lull in the series, in hindsight I did like it for the setup of the characters and the whole jesus/yartiza side of things. But it wasn't the most engaging of the bunch. For me things started improving very much in episode 3 (though episode 1 is great imo). I'd plod on and get halfway through 3, if you're still not feeling it throughout the third episode i'd just cut your losses and watch something else.

Thanks!

I'm definitely going to give it another go when I have a chance, Refn has that much cache with me because of how much I love Drive (and I appreciate some of his other movies while not exactly loving them).

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I'm enjoying this so far, but I get why most people wouldn't. It's really slow, but something about this show still has me hooked. Maybe it's because of how much I'm actually loving the style and direction of the show, but considering it's Refn that shouldn't be much of a surprise.

 

[Closerframe]

I've given this show too many chances. I'm now on the third episode and I'm bored to death. Refn's style doesn't translate well to a limited series--especially since almost every episode is the length of a short film.

 

[Persona]

yeah, I think maybe I could handle the pace better if certain scenes were just cut out and they made the episodes closer to an hour or something.

again, I like a lot of slow cinema, but a lot of that is about trying to immerse you in a feeling of authenticity and/or getting at something thematically. I feel like there is a lot of surface subtext and artifice in this show, and maybe that's the point, that juxtaposition with the slow cinema style, but basically the only thing I'm thinking/feeling when I'm watching these scenes is "when is this shot going to stop?" or "when are we getting to the next scene?" or "when is something going to happen that I even care about?"

I loved Twin Peaks: The Return so much. Basically one of my favorite things. It's weird to see another show take a somewhat similar approach to mood and pace (while still very much its own thing) and it is very well made with a great cast and a director who has made at least one great film and yet I feel so opposite about it.

maybe that's more on me, because I have seen some impassioned and intelligent defenses of the show popping up. one way or the other, it is definitely divisive.

 

[hellblazer103]

Spoiler

So Miles Teller's character starts off as a psychopathic corrupt cop statutory raping scumbag, and he meets some raggedy ****ing guy and magically gains a conscience by the 4th episode? Yeah I kinda don't buy that...

Still trying to push through. The 3rd and 4th episodes are a bit better than the first two ****ing snoozefests at least, but the writing is still just kinda nonsensical. Lots of style but maybe not much substance

Also, they lied. Not every episode is 90 minutes. The 3rd clocked in at an hour and 16 minutes, and this 4th ep is an hour and 3. They dun got us y'all

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I finally finished this last night, and while I did thoroughly enjoy it overall it definitely had problems. Pacing is probably the biggest one, but like hellblazer said above a lot of the character arcs didn't make much sense either, especially Miles Teller's character. He was a pos from the beginning, and then all of the sudden he starts to have some kind of conscious. Yeah I don't buy it either, but it didn't necessarily ruin the show for me. I still thought the stuff with him, the cops and John Hawkes's character was the most interesting and compelling aspect of the show even if it didn't come together in the most satisfying way. The cartel stuff was pretty intriguing at first too, but then it just got really weird and how it ended wasn't all that satisfying either. I liked the Yaritza character, but the turn with Jesus towards the end was just straight up bizarre, and what the hell ever happened to the Miguel character? Like seriously it seemed like they were setting something up with his character and all of the sudden he just disappears? I mean did I miss something or is that something they are going to address in a Season 2?

 

[hellblazer103]

Welp... Finished it.


I'm somewhere between "this was awesome, I love weird dark ****" and "this was some drawn out, pointless, nonsensical , fake-deep, pretentious ****ing bull**** " . Lots of subplots that went nowhere (but it seems style and "surrealism" were far more important to Refn and co. than the plot anyways), lots of drawn out scenes that go soooo PAINFULLY slow that I find myself skipping it just a TEENY bit, but also lots of interesting themes/symbolism, amazing style, solid cinematography, great performances (Baldwin genuinely made me uncomfortable every single time he was onscreen, which was clearly the intention) and even occasionally some funny moments in between all this neon-lit bleakness, the times you were made to feel unnerved were extremely effective, and the score is just phenomenal, of course.

And I want Yaritza to step on me.

 

[OfficerK]

I wish they came out with this on disc or for purchase. I don't like the idea of having to re sub to amazon any time I wanna rewatch this whether it's the whole thing or an individual epsiode. Also cause it's streaming they could alter these episodes at any time to be different and that concerns me. I'm pretty happy with what I watched and I want it to go right into my blu ray collection with Drive/OGF and the rest of Refns stuff.