4 Responses to “Episode 15: Secret Combinations”

1. aaron Says:
   May 1st, 2009 at 3:47 PM

   Yea! I believe in these actors. They really achieve some very nice moments on occasion. Obviously it doesn’t work all the time but I attribute those problems to weak dialogue and lack of time, cause I think if the actors and director had more time I really feel these actors would be able to give us more. The main parts I liked. I enjoyed the parallel scene where they were watching the play, and I liked how they were looking at the art afterwords in awkward silence. I laughed at that. And then, in the doorstep scene, I thought there were some good moments. some nice discoveries from the actors. then some other things I didn’t like, but Im just gonna be positive today.

2. Chocolate Pie Says:
   May 1st, 2009 at 4:35 PM

   I really like the budding relationship with Claire and Jeremiah, but anytime this show talks about serious spiritual things it gets really awkward and/or too on-the-nose. The conversation with the roommate was unbelievable and glib. I’m sorry, but if a roommate told me that God told them to murder someone (even a bad person), I wouldn’t just go “He really told you? That’s cool, let me set you up with someone on a date tonight.” It was so casual that it makes me suspect the roommate is somehow in on the whole thing. But it mostly just comes off as unrealistic.

   I think the episodes are fun, and I like the relationships a lot, I just think the uses of serious spiritual subject matter were not very well thought-out. I would NOT show this episode to a non-religious person. Talking so casually about murder and God making them do it feeds a very unwanted stereo-type about people of faith.

3. aea Says:
   May 3rd, 2009 at 6:36 PM

   Okay, Okay. I get it. You nailed your point. If we can put Shakespeare in BOM times, we can certainly put BOM in Latter-day times. We can (and should) “liken the scriptures.” I’m glad this series is doing that, even if it’s not a flawless attempt, I feel certain it is a brave step in the right direction for Mormon cinema. So well played, Jeremiah-ites. You are pioneers of a sort. And I doubt it’s going to be a quick and easy trek to digital (or cinematic) Zion. At least the wheels are rolling.

   That being said, let’s be patient. I know it’s not perfect. I do have my criticisms with Jer3miah (that I plan to word as constructively as possible at the end of the series). But let’s not hasten to assemble all of the pieces of the “big picture” – we don’t have all of them yet (especially me – I haven’t even stepped digital foot onto davenportpapers and who knows what additional story there is to be found there). And it’s because we don’t have all the information that the show is able to sustain its audience, and even become mildly addictive (it consistently keeps me guessing, speculating, and seems to continue drawing in viewers – haters and lovers alike. That’s some kind of testament).

   Point being, not everything has been laid out for us explicitly, though plenty has been implied to remind us that we don’t have all the information. For example, we don’t know the nature of the conversation between Porter and Jeremiah at the end of episode 8- it has yet to be revealed to the audience. However, from what was implied by an ending like that, well, I’m guessing there’s something in that conversation that could justify Porter’s response when Jeremiah confides that he killed the man. I respect the view that it’s unrealistic/glib. The scene does seem a little, let’s say, hurried. But moreso it’s refreshing that a scene like that actually reads so, unaffected, simple. No sweeping music, no mawkish dialogue – it would have been easy to go there. I actually would like to see MORE of this restraint in Jer3miah. It feels MORE real to me.

   And as far as the spirituality being a forethought or afterthought, (this comment has been made on various episodes and I’m finally getting around to addressing it), I think it is THE singular, driving-thought of all of this. There is overt religious content in every single episode – it’s the bread and butter of the series. To say the filmmakers carelessly threw it in at the last minute doesn’t give them due credit. I mean, look at the title – The Book of Jer3miah. No, couldn’t be religious. No way.

4. PCP Says:
   May 16th, 2009 at 10:00 AM

   The murder confession scene was way too weird.

   I killed him a guy. God told me to.

   OK, let’s go up on campus and hang out.

   Really?

   I’d be saying, “My roommate is Dan Lafferty!”

   I like the Jeremiah/Claire stuff mostly. (She’s so much better than the unbelievable reporter chick.) But her immediate offense that Jeremiah isn’t screeching for joy over Shakespeare in BOM times was so Molly Mormon stereotype. She doesn’t even know if she’ll like it because she hasn’t SEEN it. How about acting like people who can think?