#1.) Beautiful - The acting, cinematography, audio, writing is gorgeous. Dude, I literally was crying in this episode.
It tells an incredibly compelling story that goes through various characters and eventually falls into a simplistic idea: rivalry, tribalism, me vs. you. But, what falls in the middle, is Bobby. Bobby, RZA, is an incredibly written and acted character that, even in the first episode, has the entire audience rooting for him. His impact in the story allows this fleshed out idea of us vs them to be told in a different way: through understanding. the story doesn't depict one side as the protagonists whereas the audience feels a need to be hateful towards the antagonists, and the story ALSO doesn't depict an equal share of time between both sides, allotting emotional currency to build up equally for both sides. Instead, Bobby's character builds up the story to have us rooting for the downfall of the entire system already built up in the first episode. We desire, because of him, to rid this world in the screen of gang violence, and align ourselves with Bobby's solution: music. This grows and allows this story to be told in a different way than it has been before.
#2.) Confusing - it's so deeply hard to keep track of who aligns with who and whose relationship is with who. The downside of having such a well-liked and acquainted protagonist is discovering everyone else's relationship to each other and why. This was and is the difficulty for me now, even after viewing both episodes that were out at the time. I enjoy it, and I'm making an active effort to discern the relationships between the characters, however with so much going on, so many people interacting, and having a protagonist in the midst/yet still on the outside (watch the show and you'll get it) of every situation and conflict, confusion can't help but happen.
#2.) Confusing - it's so deeply hard to keep track of who aligns with who and whose relationship is with who. The downside of having such a well-liked and acquainted protagonist is discovering everyone else's relationship to each other and why. This was and is the difficulty for me now, even after viewing both episodes that were out at the time. I enjoy it, and I'm making an active effort to discern the relationships between the characters, however with so much going on, so many people interacting, and having a protagonist in the midst/yet still on the outside (watch the show and you'll get it) of every situation and conflict, confusion can't help but happen.
