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Goliath Starring Billy Bob Thornton: An Impressionistic Review
LINKS:
Soref.TV website
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Twitter
A brief update on my personal status. An introduction to Goliath Season 1, and a character study of Billy McBride, as he rolls out of bed, stumbles out into perfect Santa Monica weather, opportunistically grabs a handful of fries from a discarded food tray, steals the sports section from someone's newspaper, and manages to step in dog droppings on his short walk over to the bar next door to begin his day.
We point out that rather than being a fictional motel and dive bar created for the show, the Ocean Lodge and Chez Jay are in fact a very real part of the Santa Monica landscape. We then sidebar into a brief review of Southern California beach culture's evolution from beatnik to Baywatch; we discuss the Gidget phenomenon, the elevation of L.A. surf culture, how Goliath represents a callback to a simpler if grittier Westside, and to what extent Billy McBride is the reincarnation of Jim Rockford and Fletch.
Also mentioned: The role Three's Company played in making the beaches of Santa Monica famous.
We then bear witness to Billy McBride's bad relationships with women, his poor parenting skills, and his failure as a lawyer.
We get introduced to the character of Patty Solis-Papagian, the cutthroat law firm of Cooperman McBride, and more of Billy McBride's backstory.
We revisit Billy McBride at Chez Jay, this time in nighttime mode, watching him struggle for alpha male status with a stray dog in the parking lot, behave like a barfly inside Chez Jay, and still somehow appear charming to women.
After more Jim Rockford comparisons, we introduce the character of Donald Cooperman, Billy McBride's onetime law partner, and now arch-nemesis, played by William Hurt as you've never seen him before.
We sidebar onto the subject of parking lots and their prominent if unsung place in L.A. lifestyles. We bring it back home to Billy's convertible getting slimed with fish guts in the Chez Jay parking lot, and to a quasi-comically choreographed water ballet involving two Penske rental trucks, several pallets of paperwork, and a very angry Patty Solis-Papagian in the parking lot of the Ocean Lodge motel.
We revisit the life and times of Raymond Chandler and Chandler's semi-mythological detective noir version of Santa Monica, known as Bay City, based on a time and place when gambling boats operated 24/7 in international waters just off the Santa Monica pier, and did a brisk business.
We bring it all back home by visiting another L.A. institution: Traffic on the freeway, and how it may or may not play into the creative process of the L.A. screenwriter.
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By David Soref - SorefTVLINKS:
Soref.TV website
Facebook
Twitter
A brief update on my personal status. An introduction to Goliath Season 1, and a character study of Billy McBride, as he rolls out of bed, stumbles out into perfect Santa Monica weather, opportunistically grabs a handful of fries from a discarded food tray, steals the sports section from someone's newspaper, and manages to step in dog droppings on his short walk over to the bar next door to begin his day.
We point out that rather than being a fictional motel and dive bar created for the show, the Ocean Lodge and Chez Jay are in fact a very real part of the Santa Monica landscape. We then sidebar into a brief review of Southern California beach culture's evolution from beatnik to Baywatch; we discuss the Gidget phenomenon, the elevation of L.A. surf culture, how Goliath represents a callback to a simpler if grittier Westside, and to what extent Billy McBride is the reincarnation of Jim Rockford and Fletch.
Also mentioned: The role Three's Company played in making the beaches of Santa Monica famous.
We then bear witness to Billy McBride's bad relationships with women, his poor parenting skills, and his failure as a lawyer.
We get introduced to the character of Patty Solis-Papagian, the cutthroat law firm of Cooperman McBride, and more of Billy McBride's backstory.
We revisit Billy McBride at Chez Jay, this time in nighttime mode, watching him struggle for alpha male status with a stray dog in the parking lot, behave like a barfly inside Chez Jay, and still somehow appear charming to women.
After more Jim Rockford comparisons, we introduce the character of Donald Cooperman, Billy McBride's onetime law partner, and now arch-nemesis, played by William Hurt as you've never seen him before.
We sidebar onto the subject of parking lots and their prominent if unsung place in L.A. lifestyles. We bring it back home to Billy's convertible getting slimed with fish guts in the Chez Jay parking lot, and to a quasi-comically choreographed water ballet involving two Penske rental trucks, several pallets of paperwork, and a very angry Patty Solis-Papagian in the parking lot of the Ocean Lodge motel.
We revisit the life and times of Raymond Chandler and Chandler's semi-mythological detective noir version of Santa Monica, known as Bay City, based on a time and place when gambling boats operated 24/7 in international waters just off the Santa Monica pier, and did a brisk business.
We bring it all back home by visiting another L.A. institution: Traffic on the freeway, and how it may or may not play into the creative process of the L.A. screenwriter.