Author: Movie Lists Man

In storytelling everything has a purpose, everything has meaning. Back in Season Two of The Walking Dead, the search for Sophia isn’t just about a group of people looking for a little girl, it’s about a group of people trying to decide what’s important to them. If someone falls behind do we just leave them, or do we risk the survival of the group for a single person?

So when (Season Five spoiler?) Beth died, I was unsettled not only by her death, but by the manner in which her character arc leading up to her death had been structured. Because I think it was poetic and a little sadistic. Here’s why.

1. Beth was a minor character until Season Four

Up until Season Four, Beth doesn’t really do much. She tries to commit suicide in Season Two and she is often the one taking care of Judith in Season Four, but there isn’t a lot there in terms of actual screen time, or effect on other characters, or the direction of the story.

 

2. They define Beth in tandem with Daryl, everyone’s favourite character next to Glenn

When we start to learn more about Beth and watch her grow as a character, it is in connection to Daryl who is one of the more popular characters on the show.

When Beth and Daryl escape the prison, Daryl has given up on anything past pure survival. He ignores Beth’s pleas to search for other survivors from the attack on the prison, they merely survive together in silence.

Gradually, Beth encourages Daryl to start living. By having her rejuvenate one of our favourite characters, we start to like Beth more.

 

3. Beth is the pure one. The pretty one.

Beth wasn’t a fighter. She sang hymns. She took care of Judith.

She has a very pretty face, which an audience is instinctively drawn to.

These are important things to consider. This is the kind of character that gets captured; that gets killed. Her death is symbolically a loss of innocence.

 

4. They spent a lot of time building Beth up.

Beth went from being a character with only a few qualities and little background to someone who was defined and growing each episode. When Beth was prisoner in that hospital, we spent several episodes largely focussing on just her; rooting for her to escape.

This is as much time as was spent on Maggie and Glenn trying to get back to each other and demonstrates a strong dedication to a storyline.

Walking Dead does a pretty good job of being economical with its storytelling. It shows you only what you need in order to understand the story they’re telling you, which is why they take that time and distance when Maggie and Glenn are separated, so that when they reunite you feel the breadth of that time apart and you’re as thankful as they are.

 

5. Poetry and sadism

Good poetry is designed to make you feel how the author intends. It’s a difficult thing to convey in only a few words, but it’s also difficult to convey over a series of television episodes with multiple themes and plotlines and actors.

And I believe that Beth’s death was poetic in the sense that, the show spent several episodes reforging her as a symbol of hope and then killed her just as she was about to be saved.

So why do this? All the previous deaths, Lori, Hershel, even the girls have their own purpose for the story that was being told at the time. Lori’s death is a turning point for Rick and Carl, Hershel is the death of reason, and the girls is more for character development for Tyrese and Carol.

I think Beth’s death is a specific manipulation to make us feel as helpless and hopeless as the characters in the story do. As if to say, “we’ve killed a lot of people, but now we want to kill something that matters.” And that’s hope. Like the hope that Beth brought to Daryl. The hope that Beth could be rescued and that Daryl could save her. That even in this world, hope can be protected and saved. That we can start to believe in a future for our characters. And the with Beth’s death the show creators are saying: “Hope is dead.”

For the majority of The Bachelor this season, I couldn’t figure out who Ben would pick. He seemed to pursue Lauren B. pretty openly, but when Ben told JoJo he loved her and her composure dissolved, there was a moment of genuine emotion that bubbled out of her that was endearing. And I think this moment was a gateway to a more open, genuine JoJo who’s relationship with Ben matched the enthusiasm she was creating.

So I started to believe. I became so sure about Team JoJo I didn’t even consider Team Lauren. And while I know that the final episode was heavily edited to make JoJo seem like a legitimate choice and that The Bachelor may be no more real than pro wrestling, part of the power of Hulkamania is THAT YOU BELIEVE.

So to watch JoJo come out of that helicopter first was devastating. Manipulated as I was, everything I’d seen of JoJo and Ben together made more sense to me. Here’s why I think Ben chose the wrong partner.

1. Lauren is very single note.

I’m pretty sure this is just because she’s on TV, but Lauren has this certain tone she uses with Ben when she’s talking with him alone. She talks slowly, like she’s rehearsing in her head before she speaks. And it comes out like the voice you use when you’re talking to an angry customer: Calm, non-threatening, devoid of emotion. She isn’t monotone in her interviews so I’m sure she’s not like this all the time, but this is the tone Ben probably hears a lot of the time when he’s talking to her (because the cameras don’t go off). So like, how do you find that attractive? It’s like listening to a man try to talk himself out of a lie. It’s painful.

She’ll say, “I kind of want to get my pilot’s license,” and, “I feel like Ben is my person. I’m in love with Ben,” in the same tone. As though they were things of equal emotional value.

She also doesn’t waiver much from smiling and “staying positive.” Ben comments on this. “I don’t know what the hard times look like with Lauren.” No, you wouldn’t. Good luck with that, buddy.

 

2. Ben’s justifications for loving Lauren seem nebulous, his reasons for loving JoJo seem ideal.

I suspect despite Ben’s political demeanor and charisma, he might not be very good at describing emotion, or how emotion feels. That’s fair. We can’t all be poets. But when people ask him about Lauren he’s vague. “I just can’t picture my life without her,” he’ll say. OK, but you still have to live with her for the rest of your life. I’d hope there’s more justification than that.

Or when Lauren’s sister is asking Ben about Lauren, Ben says, “There’s something about your sister I can’t put words to. I feel really lucky.” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN.

When people ask Ben about JoJo he says, “I am more myself around JoJo than I am around any other woman in my life.” That sounds perfect. Wouldn’t you want someone that brings the best out in you?

I guess not.

 

3. Ben talks to JoJo when something is wrong

On the Isle of Pigs group date there is an awkward vibe because six women are going after the same guy (and Ben is chasing after Lauren), and Ben goes to JoJo to talk about it. He tells her, “of anybody else here — you get it. You get that it’s awkward and you get that it’s hard … you get that group dates are awkward when people pull me away I have to talk in front of everybody else.” They discuss and resolve the awkwardness together and feel better about it because of that.

Later that episode, Ben has to talk to Lauren about some accusation another girl made in the house and Lauren just freezes. She can’t speak to it, she can’t wrap her head around it. NICE ONE, LAUREN.

Ben is more honest with JoJo. I knew in the preview for the final episode that Ben was talking to JoJo on that bathroom floor (admitting he loved the other woman) because JoJo is the only one who can get Ben to open up. Seems like a great foundation for conflict resolution in the future, right!? OH WELL.

 

4. You gotta look at the Moms.

The Bachelor doesn’t usually get my full attention, but when the Bachelor’s Mom is on the screen I watch her carefully. These Mothers aren’t prepped to be on TV and they know their child well. Possibly the best. So a Mother’s reaction to the women the Bachelor brings home might tell you more than the rest of the show can.

Watch Ben’s Mom with Lauren. First question Ben’s Mom asks Lauren, “Have you seen the side of Ben where he’s his own worst critic?” She’s looking for a woman that is going to take of her son. Lauren goes, “I have a little bit … How could I most help him as a partner?” And the Mom goes, “You have to commit to the fact that, ‘you are the one I want to walk through the hard times with.'” Lauren goes, “I think I’m ready to do that.” To which the Mom replies, “are you?” She doubts Lauren can be that person for Ben. So do I, Momma.

Then JoJo sits down with Ben’s Mom. And what does JoJo talk about? How Ben makes her feel safe. The Mom goes, “it’s interesting that you would say that, that you would use the word ‘safe’ because he said the same thing about you. He [said] you are always the first to just bring him to that calm place, that safe place, and in the meantime though have great fun and laugh and it sounds like you do that too.” And then Ben’s Mom beams at JoJo. That’s what she wants for her son. That’s what we all want. A partner. Someone to share all the good times and bad, and JoJo was that for Ben and he threw it all away.

I recently started watching The Walking Dead. One of the things I really enjoy about the show is the internal chaos within the group, while there is external chaos all around them. The key to any good story is conflict and if our heroes are fighting with each and the walkers at the same time, it’s a great way to keep out interest.

And the character who excels at internal conflict is Shane, and here’s why:

1. He often does the right thing the wrong way

Even if Shane has good intentions, he invariably doesn’t care how he does something, just as long as it gets done. Like when he stops Ed from hitting his wife, he nearly beats him to death. Stopping Ed is a good thing, beating the man mercilessly is not. Or when he lies to Lori (who is out searching for Rick at night). Shane tells her Rick is back at the camp when he isn’t, because Shane wants to keep her safe. And, of course, the ultimate, freeing all the walkers from the barn and mowing them down in front of Hershel (who believes they can be cured) just to prove a point. Shane’s right, those people can’t be cured, but when you’re a guest at somebody’s home diplomacy matters.

And every time Shane does something like this he creates conflict between himself and everyone around him and I LOVE IT.

 

2. He’s too valuable and too reasonable to abandon

Shane isn’t like Merle; he can play well with others, he just frequently chooses not to. He was also kinda-sorta the guy in charge of the camp before Rick showed up, so people look to him for leadership.

Also, as far as most of the group knows, he isn’t crazy so he can be reasoned with. So after Shane and Rick try to kill each other, Rick has a conversation with him and thinks everything is going to be OK.

Shane is also good at killing walkers, so from a practical standpoint it’s difficult to justify expelling him from the group because they need him.

All this means that every time Shane does something bad, there are plenty of justifications to keep him around, which means Shane can do a lot of bad things without consequences. This makes him dangerous and exciting to watch.

 

3. He constantly disagrees with Rick

Rick wants the group to hunt for Sophia? Shane wants the group to give up and move on. Rick wants to go back and help Merle, Shane doesn’t want the group to split up. Rick wants to release their captive alive and away from their camp, Shane wants to kill him.

It’s almost like Shane disagrees with every one of Rick’s ideas and the unfortunate thing is Shane’s ideas are often more ruthless, more survival oriented, but safer. Having Rick, Glen, and Daryl around when the walkers attacked might have been better. Killing a guy who is part of a heavily armed group of pillagers is safer than letting him go.

The more Shane disagrees with Rick, the more tension it adds to the show.

 

4. Priorities

Shane has three simple rules:

1. Survival matters
2. Lori matters
3. Carl matters

Everything and everybody else be damned. He keeps telling Rick, “the world isn’t like it was,” and while that’s true there are a lot of things outside the box of Shane’s priorities. Even though he’s in a group of people, none of those people ultimately matter to Shane, which means he could do anything to any one of them, at any time, and that is an exciting possibility to have around.

 

5. He’s fun

Shane is like a time bomb that gets to explode over and over. He has the strength and ability to see all of his convictions through and he sees no reason why he shouldn’t. he provides so much yelling and acting without thinking, it’s wonderful television. Everyone loves Daryl and Glen, but when you have a story of people that have to work together in close quarters and are stuck with each other, it’s more interesting to watch a hot head creating conflict, than it is to watch someone being reasonable.

Would Daryl, Glen, Hershel, Carol, Tyreese, or Maggie beat a man senseless? (I guess they might, people change quickly and I’m only on Season Four, but let’s call this an educated guess). Would any of them throw open the barn doors like Shane did and let those walkers out? Disagree with, and yell at Rick at every turn?

The key to keeping any show interesting is conflict and in The Walking Dead, the more potential for internal struggle, the better. When Shane was around there was always the possibility for an argument, a fight, a disagreement, an amoral decision made for survival reasons, a dissolution of diplomacy — pure anarchy. He’s the worst guy to keep around and that makes him the BEST guy to keep around for the show.

For years my Mom has been saying that The Good Wife is the best show on television. My Mom knows her TV, so I promised myself one day I would check it out.

Momma was right.

The Good Wife might have the most compelling storytelling style I’ve seen. In a lot of shows you’re able to look away from the screen from time to time: Send a text, maybe grab a snack. You might miss “something,” but not necessarily anything you won’t be told later. This is not the case with The Good Wife. Not only does each scene have critical information, but every scene is brief, filled with multiple layers of tension, and it doesn’t repeat itself. The Good Wife is one of those shows that starts and says, “I’m going to start running and I don’t care if you get left behind — keep up.”

So I sat down and analyzed an episode from Season One to figure out why The Good Wife was so good at creating compelling television, and how it was doing it.

Note: If you haven’t started watching The Good Wife yet, I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers, but you’ll need some details for context. Don’t worry, you won’t have time to think about these “spoilers” while you’re watching; you’ll be too busy.

The Good Wife begins with Peter Florrick (Chris Noth), a State Attorney, admitting in a press conference that he’s had an affair and that he’s resigning from office. He is subsequently arrested for suspected misuse of his position as State Attorney. The first season of the show is about the aftermath of this event, particularly in how Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies) attempts to rebuild her and her children’s lives. Because Alicia was a housewife while her husband was in office, she’s forced to return to work as a lawyer, but due to her long hiatus she starts as a Junior Associate at a law firm. She has an apartment where she lives with her two teenage children, Zach Florrick (Graham Phillips) and Grace Florrick (Makenzie Vega), with her Mother-in-Law, Jackie (Mary Beth Peil) watching the kids. The episode I analyzed was Episode 15: Bang, where Peter has been granted an appeal to his case and allowed to leave prison and return to the apartment under house arrest.

Here are five things I noticed that helps the show achieve it’s tension.

1. Almost Every Scene has Characters with Ambivalent or Conflicting Attitudes

This is the beginning of the episode. There are four characters, Jackie (the Mother-in-Law), Alicia (The Good Wife), and her two children, Grace and Zach. They have just been discussing Peter’s return home. What’s interesting about this scene is every single character feels differently about this event and we get to watch them all react to the discussion differently. Jackie thinks her son is the Golden Boy who can do no wrong and thinks it’s great he’s coming home. Alicia is a complex person and has mixed feelings. Grace loves her Father, but has been mad at him since the arrest. Zach appears to be supportive, but he’s complicated and independent; his feelings aren’t clear either.

Within 20 seconds there’s a knock at the door. It’s Peter. Suddenly the person they were all discussing, worrying about, and having conflicting feelings about is back in their lives and isn’t going anywhere.

 

2. The Show Frequently Introduces Characters in Scenes to Change the Social Dynamics and Add Conflict

When Peter shows up at the door, he’s accompanied by a Police Officer who is there to explain the rules of the house arrest to the family and to put on the anklet. Now the viewer has to consider new relationships in the scene, not just between Peter and each previous character, but all those characters together AND while being watched by a police officer. And the characters don’t tell us how they feel, we have to interpret it based on what they show us.

 

3. The Good Wife Shows, it Doesn’t Tell

One of the cardinal rules of storytelling is “show don’t tell.” It’s more interesting for the viewer to infer something from observation than it is to be told something. For example, instead of having a character tell us they are scared, it’s more interesting to see him huddled in a corner, hugging themselves and trembling. The Good Wife is devoted to showing, not telling.

Take Grace’s reaction to Peter in this scene. Peter has just embraced Zach and with his arm around his son, there’s his daughter, who won’t even approach him. Her one arm is positioned protectively over the other. In a weak voice she tells her Father, “we baked you a cake.” Peter asks, “would that be an upside-down, Pineapple Cake?” Then Grace’s eyes well up and she runs into her Daddy’s arms. This tells us exactly what we need to know about how Grace is feeling: Even though she’s anxious about Peter being there and probably still angry with him, she’s still Daddy’s Little Girl. And she’s reminded of this by the mention of a cake that presumably has some importance in the family. And we aren’t even told the cake has some kind of family history! We don’t need to be told, Grace’s reaction makes the association obvious. And all this has happened within one minute and fiften seconds of run time.

 

4. Short Scenes

Very few of the scenes in the show are longer than three minutes. Most are under two. That’s why you can’t look away from the show: If you were gone for thirty seconds, you might miss an entire scene.

The Good Wife utilizes this to build further tension. Typically the central conflict of each episode is a court case. One of the ways you build tension in movies and television is to cut from from one scene to another, and then back again. This works best if the first scene establishes a conflict for you to worry about, then takes you away from it before that conflict is resolved. This way, even though you’re in another scene you’re still worrying about the first conflict because you haven’t seen it resolved yet. So by having brief scenes in the court room and then quickly shifting to other scenes, we’re continuously invested in how the court scene will get resolved.

5. The Show Expects you to Pay Attention

The Good Wife transitions quickly from scene to scene without much transitional explanation.

In CSI they’ll learn a piece of information, one character will say it out loud, and then another character will repeat that information in how it applies to the case before cutting to commercial.

After the police officer explains the rules of house arrest to the family and we see our first moment of Alicia and Peter alone together, we are transitioned immediately into a court case where we initially don’t know who Alicia’s firm is defending, what the details of the case are, or what we’re supposed to pay attention to. We are simply begin the scene with a police officer on the stand giving testimony. We do, however, recognize characters so we have to watch the scene and look where the lawyers from Alicia’s firm are sitting, and listen to the testimony to piece together the details. The show doesn’t waste time telling you what the case is about before it begins, it expects you to figure it out for yourself.

In an age where television loves to hold your hand and tell you what we’re doing and where we’re going, it feels good to be treated like an adult.

 

6. Adversity Between Characters

The Good Wife frequently fills a scene with people who either disagree, or flat out don’t like each other. In this episode, Peter, his lawyer Daniel (Joe Morton), and his repuation manager Kya (Francie Swift) are meeting with a campaign strategist, Eli Gold (Alan Cumming).

To give some background, since Peter has been home there’s been a beeping he can’t find. He calls Daniel and Kya to start strategizing his return to office and in the next scene we see Daniel and Kya looking around ineffectively for the beeping sound.

So when Eli finally joins them in a later scene they begin discussing reputation. Peter says, “Eli, look, considering your reputation, I think we’re gonna have to talk about a few ground rules. Your mind tends toward expletives. You’re a classically trained pianist, and you require Saturdays off.”

And then Eli turns to Kya and says, “Who told you about Saturdays, shiksa Bambi over there?”

Immedielty animosity is created between two characters in the room. Peter continues, “I’ve also been told that in a street fight, you’re the man.” And then Eli turns around and fixes the beeping sound that no one else could find, which tells the viewer: Eli is indeed the man who solves problems.

It’s a brilliant way to show us who Eli is while creating tension amongst characters and introducing a new source of conflict for the show, all within a scene under two minutes.

Unbelievable as this may sound, this is level at which every single scene in The Good Wife operates. While other shows focus on hitting one or two home runs a season, The Good Wife is trying to do it every single episode and (so far) it is succeeding.

Recently I watched the Fast and Furious series in chronological order (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 3, credits for 6, 7). While I love the Fast and Furious movies I frequently just return to my favourites (the ones at the bottom of this list). And when I do, sometimes the characters will reference something or someone I’m a little fuzzy about, so I thought watching them this way would help clarify the series’s history. And it did. It also made it painfully clear that some of the movies were a lot of fun and some where not. While I don’t typically like to write ranking lists, I’m going to brave it this one time. Here goes:

7. 2 Fast 2 Furious

Recently a friend admitted to me he hadn’t seen the earlier Fast and Furious movies. I told him, “you don’t really need to see the second one,” and I feel that’s accurate.

2 Fast 2 Furious features Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker) pulled in by the government to infiltrate a drug organization by posing as an expert wheelman. Brian demands that he get some help from a former childhood friend, Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson). They’re also working with an already-under cover agent, Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes)

The problem with the movie is that it’s trying too hard to be fun. Believe it or not, there’s a subtle art to the tone of a Fast and Furious movie: You can have over-the-top fun, but not in a cartoony way. You might think of Fast and Furious movies as brainless blockbuster entertainment, but they respect themselves.

I’m wondering if director John Singleton thought the series was a joke. There’s an awful lot of animated blur added to the car races when the drivers use their NOS and there are far too many cartoon-style close-ups on a driver’s eyes widening when something unexpected is about to happen. Even the colour palette for the film is so wild and bold, like clown colours.

There are some decent stunts and races (and plenty of them), some laughs, and a somewhat coherent story, but somehow the movies never escapes the impression that it is a joke.

 

6. Fast & Furious

Fast & Furious is the fourth installment in the series and is a return to a more Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel)-centric story. Dom and his crew are still performing complex, high speed vehicle heists (this time for fuel tankers), but disbands the crew because he feels they’re getting too high on wanted lists. Meanwhile, Brian is working as an FBI agent trying to track down druglord Arturo Braga and has Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) infiltrate their organization. When Letty is found murdered, Dom wants revenge and he and O’Connor kinda-sorta work together, posing as expert wheelman, while really just trying to locate and capture Braga and find out who killed Letty.

The plot is not all that disimilar from 2 Fast 2 Furious, the main difference is the tone. Fast & Furious is about the revenge of a lost one and that’s not very fun. It’s grim.

 

5. Furious 7

This is highest earning Fast and Furious movie, which likely means it is one of the most popular movies, so giving it this position on the list (especially considering the classy send-off for Paul Walker) will not be popular.

Hear me out.

Furious 7 is about Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) seeking revenge on Dom and his crew for hospitalizing his younger brother, Owen Shaw, in Fast & Furious 6. “Kinda.” It’s also about the Turetto crew helping out a covert ops group led by Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) acquire a tracking tool called “God’s Eye” which can find anybody anywhere. And it’s also about saying goodbye to the late Paul Walker.

The best thing about Vin Diesel movies is their focus. They’re not going to win any Oscars for Best Picture, but they have decent storytelling fundamentals while staying entertaining. The more complicated you make the story, the harder it is to follow and the more difficult it is care about all the little bits. So when you have our heroes chasing this God’s Eye so they can help find Deckard Shaw with it, and Shaw chases them everywhere they go, interspersed with meaningful, but out of place moments where Paul Walker’s fatherhood and life are discussed, it’s hard to stay focussed on what the characters are doing and why they’re doing it.

It’s just too big, too convoluted.

 

4. Fast & Furious 6

Fast & Furious 6 has a beautiful self-awareness to what the Fast and Furious movies have become. It admits, “Yea, our stunts are getting a little crazy, but you know what? We’re going to make them a little crazier and we’re going to have fun doing it.”

The movie takes the same crew from Fast Five (but replaces the bickering Spanish brothers with Gina Carano) who are hired by Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) to take down a rival crew. Then it filters that mission with the series-long dedication to family by also being about saving Letty from the rival crew (and herself) because, while she survived, she seems to have lost her memory.

It’s a great two-pronged approach to a Fast and Furious story because no matter what crazy stunt they try there’s a reason and emotion for it. “How did we end up driving a car through the front of a jumbo jet? Well, we were trying to stop Shaw and protect family.”

 

3. Fast Five

A strong argument could be made that Fast Five is the best of the series. It’s well-paced, entirely focussed on having fun, introduced perhaps the best character to come to the Fast and Furious series (Hobbs), established a successful crew / heist focus, and finally figures out how to use each character effectively.

While on the run from law enforcement, Brian, Mia, and Dom involve themselves in a car heist that gets the attention of DSS Agent Hobbs who brings a specialist team to apprehend them. Instead of running, Dom decides to rob the biggest gangster in all of Rio and calls in former favourites from the series to help him do it.

It’s one of those rare cases where you take a group of actors, put them all together, and the chemistry just works. Roman and Tej, Hobbs and Turetto, Han and Giselle. This is where the Fast and Furious group became a true family. Salute mi familia.

 

2. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift

I’ll admit that I’m unreasonably biased toward this film. I’m a huge fan of the anime Initial D, which is about street racing and drifting on Japanese mountains. So when this movie came out I was predisposed to liking it.

Tokyo Drift is about as stand alone as it gets. None of the previous cast (save a cameo by Vin Diesel) returns. It’s a story about Sean (Lucas Black) who gets sent to Japan because he keeps getting in trouble street racing. First thing he does when he arrives in Japan is get into a race with someone named “Drift King” who has ties to the Yakuza. Sean is taken in by Han (who people liked so much that producers altered the timeline of the rest of the movies) who helps teach him how to drift and encourages his races and conflict with the Drift King.

This movie taught me a lesson about how to appreciate movies. Technically this is a spoiler, but the movie isn’t that deep so it probably won’t bother you. At the end of the film, Han is dead thanks to D.K., and his entire crew is thinking of disbanding. Sean thinks of a solution and finally decides to take responsibility for the destruction he keeps creating. He will go to the Yakuza bosses and ask to race D.K.; loser leaves town for good.

This makes no sense. From the Yakuza’s perspective, everything is fine. Sure D.K. made quite a public mess by killing Han, but Han was stealing from them so that’s probably OK. The Yakuza bosses don’t really know or care who Sean is. Why agree to Sean’s request?

Because that’s the conclusion to the movie we want to see and it shouldn’t matter how they get there. So why get mad at it?

Thank you for the lesson, Tokyo Drift.

 

1. The Fast and the Furious

This is as close to a traditional story structure as we get in the series. It’s where everything begins. Brian O’Connor is an undercover agent trying to figure out which crew of racers is responsible for $6 million worth of truck heists. While infilatrating the street racing world with the Turetto crew, Brian’s loyalty to law enforcement wavers the more he spends time with the family and the more he develops feelings for Mia.

Structure-wise, this is the best movie. Heists aren’t just entertaining, they’re involving. The film’s climax features Dom, Brian and crew trying to save one of their own who’s tied to a truck. But there are legitimate stakes and a tension to the scene. All the other chase sequences in the series may be flashier, more entertaining, or even more dangerous, but this one feels the scariest — and we don’t even like the guy they’re trying to save!

There’s also a character-building scene with Dom where he tells Brian about his Father and the car that killed him.

That’s my dad. He was coming up in the pro-stock circuit. Last race of the season, he was coming into the final turn when a driver named Kenny Linder tapped his bumper and put him into the wall at a hundred and twenty miles an hour. I watched my father burn to death. I can still remember him screaming. The people who were there said my father died long before the tanks blew. They said it was me that was screaming.

We also get to see Brian struggle between duty and a genuine desire to be accepted by Dom. He’s in love with their world, but can’t be honest with himself about it.

You don’t get this kind of heart or character anywhere else in the series. And while it might not be as fun as Fast Five, it feels the most geniune, the most legitimate — the most alive.