Hap & Leonard

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JamesF
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2010 1:36 pm

Hap & Leonard

#1 Post by JamesF » Mon Mar 14, 2016 12:03 pm

Airing on SundanceTV and available on Amazon Instant Video here in the UK, Jim Mickle and Nick Damici (Mulberry St, Stake Land, We Are What We Are) follow their breakthrough Joe Lansdale adaptation Cold In July with a new show adapting Lansdale's popular series of books featuring the titular characters. Great cast, including Michael K Williams, James Purefoy, Christina Hendricks, Bill Sage and Jimmi Simpson. Two episodes in and it's looking very promising so far - fun, Justified-style, sweaty and occasionally very violent Southern-fried hijinx. A bit slight so far, but with the potential to really impress later. Anyone else following it?

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flyonthewall2983
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
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Re: TV of 2016

#2 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Mon Mar 14, 2016 12:49 pm

Hap and Leonard looks promising, but honestly I didn't like Cold in July all that much. This looks much more fun though.

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jazzo
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 12:02 am

Re: TV of 2016

#3 Post by jazzo » Mon Mar 14, 2016 9:27 pm

I've been a fan of Lansdale for over two decades now, and in that time, I now find that I'm losing my taste for his writing. And just to be upfront about it, it's not his writing that has changed (which is part of the problem), it's my tastes.

There are things I still enjoy about his work, like the modest nature of his backwoods mysteries, but the constant smart-assery of his characters, and the excruciating pages of their "witty" banter (all in the same voice), is almost unbearable to me, as is his reliance on juvenile toilet/sexual humour. It was interesting 25 years ago to 20 year-old me, but now it feels like an exhausted and well-trodden formula.

And I know that my next criticism is being levelled at the very nature of a reoccurring character mystery book series, but the sheer number of violent skirmishes and coincidences that Hap and Leonard find themselves in just to propel the plots of their eight novels forward has stretched my suspension of disbelief way beyond its breaking point.

Three episodes in, the show, Hap and Leonard, seems to be a very literal adaptation of the book Savage Season, and it captures the same quirky tone as the novel, so in that regard, it's successful. But I am who I am now, and I find it even more irritating realized on screen.

I like James Purefoy as an actor, and I love Michael "Omar Back" Williams, but spouting the wisecracks and folky wisdom of Hap and Leonard, they just come off as assholes.

I agree the series is trying to fill Justified's amiable boots, but even that show wore out its welcome for me about midway through its run. And none of the characters in H&L have the affability of a Raylan Givens, Boyd Crowder, or any of its colourful supporting characters, which often made the blandness of Justified much more palatable.

So, I guess I'm saying that Joe Lansdale is no Elmore Leonard, or even diluted Elmore Leonard for that matter, although at one time I definitely (if not naively) thought he was.

And, finally, I think have yet to actually enjoy a film by Nick Damici and Jim Mickle. Their intentions are good, and they are definitely trying to fill a void with the projects they develop, but their execution of the offbeat is just as riddled with cliché as any mainstream studio system offering, and in the end they seem, at least to me, to be nothing more than indie hacks, and undeserved of the auteur status they have acquired, at least amongst the horror/mystery community, who (like superhero fans), don't really have the most discerning of taste.

Their films never quite gel. Something like Blue Ruin? Now that fucker gels. Mud gels. In fact, both those films seem to be better versions of Lansdale-type stories than Lansdale's stories.

Anyway, my two cents.

I sound like such a fucking curmudgeon, so on a more positive not, Jonathan Glazer's Birth is, after seven viewings, still my favourite film of the last fifteen years. I know, right?
Last edited by jazzo on Tue Mar 15, 2016 8:17 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Cold Bishop
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 9:45 pm
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Re: TV of 2016

#4 Post by Cold Bishop » Tue Mar 15, 2016 6:38 am

I, on the other hand, still have fond memories of the series, and always thought it would make a great series (especially in the wake of Justified*). Yet somehow today is the first I'm hearing about this!

*Although the series I wish the most to get this treatment would be Chester Himes's Harlem novels: with the right creative team, it could be the perfect meeting point between Deadwood, Fargo, and The Wire.

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