Falling Down The

As someone who’s watched all of 24 at least twice, I’ve been streaming Rabbit/Hole, whose most superficial difference is a lack of yelling “damn it” in favor of being able instead to yell “shit” and “fuck”.

Only three episodes have streamed, so I can’t say anything overall here, but there are two things worth noting which, while not being spoilers for content, are spoilers for structure and tone.

First, it was disappointing to find that the third episode did not adhere to a pattern set by the first two, in which the very last scenes undercut or undo something we’d previously been shown. (What’s more: the first episode actually spends most of its time establishing the show’s premise only than literally to blow it up.) In effect, the show itself was revealed to be something of an unreliable narrator.

The fact that the third episode did not do this again surprised me, because I found it to be something of a hilarious hook, and I don’t know why you’d do it twice in a row only to not do it again.

Second, while the show technically is tonally broad, its presentation is not. By which I mean there are story beats or bits of business that vary from the straight thriller but are directed and acted in precisely the same straight-thriller tone as the rest of it.

For example, there’s a fight sequence in the third episode in which Sutherland gets hit in the nuts (I can’t recall if it’s a punch, kick, or headbutt) and he mutter-exclaims, “Who does that? in exactly the same tone and delivery as every other part of the scene, and in fact every other part of every other scene.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything quite like either of these approaches.