There was a majesty to the first episode of Empire Falls. It was as if the producers knew that they had Carte Blanche to make a faithful adaptation of the source novel.
This continues in the second episode and it is clear that somewhere along the line Miles Roby is going to snap.
Miles shows anger. He beats Walt in an arm wrestle. He gets in a fight with Jimmy Minty. All because Francine Whiting places obstacles in his plans to open up a bar with his ex mother in law.
Miles looks to be forever tied with Francine and the town of Empire Falls. The memories of his mother's affair with Francine's husband Charlie. His mother's death, Charlie's suicide. It all makes it look like that Miles is on a leash.
There were rapid changes of gears with the finale. I really did think that the climax was too sudden and too quick. It was like the producers realised that they needed to wrap it all up in the allotted time. Somehow it did not flow organically with what went before.
Another part of the storyline which is from the novel is the school shooting. It looked oddly unconvincing to me. Unfortunately school shootings seem to be a part of American life and the novel came out after the Columbine high school incident.
The sub plot with the emotionally disturbed John Voss looked more like a reaction to Columbine. It might had worked better if the school jock and bully Zack Minty was the shooter.
This continues in the second episode and it is clear that somewhere along the line Miles Roby is going to snap.
Miles shows anger. He beats Walt in an arm wrestle. He gets in a fight with Jimmy Minty. All because Francine Whiting places obstacles in his plans to open up a bar with his ex mother in law.
Miles looks to be forever tied with Francine and the town of Empire Falls. The memories of his mother's affair with Francine's husband Charlie. His mother's death, Charlie's suicide. It all makes it look like that Miles is on a leash.
There were rapid changes of gears with the finale. I really did think that the climax was too sudden and too quick. It was like the producers realised that they needed to wrap it all up in the allotted time. Somehow it did not flow organically with what went before.
Another part of the storyline which is from the novel is the school shooting. It looked oddly unconvincing to me. Unfortunately school shootings seem to be a part of American life and the novel came out after the Columbine high school incident.
The sub plot with the emotionally disturbed John Voss looked more like a reaction to Columbine. It might had worked better if the school jock and bully Zack Minty was the shooter.
