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Originally Posted by Baby Lee
Has anyone made it through Patriot? I've started it 3-4 times now and it still hasn't grabbed me. I've only made 2 1/2 episodes, and am wondering when/if the genius hits. I've heard people rave about it and am willing to be patient if there's a point when it starts coming together. I've had stuff I loved that started slow before. But I'd hate to spend 2 whole seasons with the same level of engagement I have thus far.
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Getting close to finishing off the first season and I need to revise.
It's still a tough show to get into the rhythms of, but that's because it's got its own peculiar structure that reveals itself bit by bit.
It's very dry, but in places witheringly funny. But weirdly it's often funny in ways that aren't objectively funny. Instead wistful, sad, bewildering, even pathetic, it just builds and builds on itself until you find yourself shaking your head and muttering 'how much more? . . . '
You've got to pay attention, and you have to suspend disbelief often, but it's payoffs aren't to be found in other stories.
Basically, it's the story of a guy who is the son of a 'deep state' mucky-muck who does all the legwork for his dad's international missions. It involves him going undercover and doing dirty deeds, kind of a depressed blue-collar version of James Bond.
His dad has a plan to fund an opposition candidate in Iran to stop nuclear proliferation. The son has to secure a job at a hydro-engineering firm in Milwaukee in order to transfer funds on a business trip. Things go wrong, people die and the money ends up on its way to an Iranian nuclear scientist instead.
First season is all about recovering the money and avoiding the investigation into the deaths while maintaining cover as an engineer, and it's all cat and mouse, and bigger cat and bigger mouse, mice chasing mice and cats chasing cats, very carefully orchestrated to make the son's job more and more difficult and more and more stressful.
Has interesting things to say about stoicism, depression and doggedness.
Gotta give a thumbs up.