MIDNIGHT REVIEWS A Man in Full Episodes 4–6 Review
Midnight Reviews features reviews and thought pieces written and edited by a parent, at night, after bedtime.
A Man in Full Episodes 4–6
Series created by: David E. Kelley
Featuring: Jeff Daniels, Diane Lane, Tom Pelphrey, Aml Ameen
Synopsis: Charlie Croker (Daniels) stares down the barrel of a metaphorical gun as he faces financial ruin. However, hope, for him at least, comes in the form of a dubious deal offered by the current mayor, Wes Jordan (William Jackson Harper). Meanwhile, Roger White (Ameen) continues his legal defence of Conrad Hensley (Jon Michael Hill), while Raymond Peepgrass (Pelphrey) enters into a tricky relationship with Martha Croker (Lane).
Review: From the look of that synopsis, there’s a lot going on in the second half of A Man in Full. The show manages to complete the balancing act of making sure plots don’t get muddied and at no point is it ever confusing. Unfortunately, this is one of the few positives of a show that sidelines interesting characters and has a wholly unsatisfactory ending.
The main issue is that, just like in the first batch of episodes, none of the myriad storylines or characters ever really get explored. It would’ve been more interesting, more entertaining, a lot more satisfying, if just one or two of the stories were played out, yes, in Full. Instead we get shallow storytelling with wild shifts in tone.
Never achieves anything remotely like commentary, or satire, or even silliness.
As predicted, Diane Lane fortunately has a bit more to do but the feeling can’t be escaped that she has been a tad wasted here. That is the prevalent feeling throughout the entire show, in fact: wasted opportunities. Here we have the story of someone who is not immoral, but who is certainly taken over at some point by pride, so much so that he literally builds a skyscraper in tribute to himself. This thought-out, planned-out monument to hubris is what kick starts the events of the show. And yet A Man in Full never achieves anything remotely like commentary, or satire, or even silliness.
In the end it becomes a morality tale, but it doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be until the very end. It isn’t until we’re knee deep in its conclusion, where Conrad’s story and Roger’s story and Charlie’s story and Raymond’s story all play out, that this tone is really used. The final ten minutes could’ve worked brilliantly, if the rest of the show had been a dark slapstick comedy. But it’s so different from what came before. The show ends with the question: “Are they really ending it like that?”
Tying everything into a neat little bow and giving everyone what they deserve, relatively speaking, also happens to result in a rushed ending. Roger, whose story ably set up yet another man built up by his own pride and knocked down a little by failing to keep Conrad out of prison, doesn’t continue on this fine trajectory the show set up for him. Instead, everything works out fine after a couple of scenes where he and people around him are a little bit sad. No struggle, not really. Just another wasted opportunity.
Raymond Peepgrass, a character so well named that whichever writer came up with it deserves an award, is an under-nourished tree that bares similar fruit. The moral ambiguity of his actions, the point in his life where he started feeling the way he does, the limits to which he will go, are never remotely explored. All he is, is a terrible person attempting to emulate and eclipse another terrible person. But then, I guess that’s the point of him.
The hope is that viewers of A Man in Full realise neither Raymond nor Charlie should be seen as the hero of the story, but this is made blindingly obvious anyway. Even when Charlie tries to reset his course and does the right thing, he is too far gone to be saved and the show doesn’t stop kicking him even in the final few frames. One of the few positive aspects of the show, along with the aforementioned clarity in storytelling and the performances every actor gives. And Bill Camp is barely around, which is a real shame.
Matthew D. Smith likes to overshare his views on movies and TV shows whenever and wherever he can. Indulge him, and follow him on Twitter or listen to the podcast he co-hosts with Leslie Wai.
