Escape at Dannemora - Showtime Mini Series - US Pace (**Spoilers**)

Agent Coulson

All 8 episodes directed by Ben Stiller...

Starring Patricia Arquette, Paul Dano, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Imperioli & Bonnie Hunt.

Escape at Dannemora is based on the headline-making true story of a 2015 prison break in upstate New York, which spawned a massive manhunt for two convicted murderers who were aided in their escape by a married female prison employee with whom they both became sexually entangled

The Black Oil

Limited series about the 2015 prison escape in upstate New York. Couple of familiar faces in there, directed by Ben Stiller. Starts on Nov 18th.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtV-qWIXD9w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b7CSQqf3Bc

Basq

8 part series on Showtime with a stellar cast including Paul Dano, Benicio del Toro and Patricia Arquette and directed by Ben Stiller.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVbOjP1Ziec

Few reviews I've seen indicate it's quite decent.

Mr E

Threads merged.

Basq

Whoops.. sorry.. should have searched!

Agent Coulson

Decent opening episode completely stolen by Arquette who if she keeps it up for the 8 episodes will clean up at awards season.

bemak

Agent Coulson wrote:

Decent opening episode completely stolen by Arquette who if she keeps it up for the 8 episodes will clean up at awards season.

Agreed! Looks promising in fairness to it

kearneybobs

Watched the first episode of this. Very good.
Del Toro is brilliant, as expected.

JP Liz V1

It starts on Sky Atlantic on New Year’s Day (Tuesday January 1st) at 9pm

Frank O. Pinion

I watched the first five episodes yesterday, thought it was pretty good. Went to watch the sixth episode today...

Ugh, the dreaded penultimate flashback episode. We're suppose to be in the "golden age of television", but why, why, why, does every "prestigious" cable/streaming series follow the similar format of "episode 1-big cliffhanger episode-flashback episode-season finale". So many series do it nowadays (usually Netflix shows), and it's very tedious.

Also, 3 posts in this thread mention it being an 8-part series, but from what I can find online, it's seems it's 7-parts, with the finale this coming Sunday running 98 minutes.

Agent Coulson

That was a very enjoyable mini series the cast were great and Stiller did a great job directing the whole thing.


I can see this winning big during awards season coming up.

Unearthly

Is the last episode out there Coulson?

Agent Coulson

It's a double episode this week.

cozar

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

I watched the first five episodes yesterday, thought it was pretty good. Went to watch the sixth episode today...

Ugh, the dreaded penultimate flashback episode. We're suppose to be in the "golden age of television", but why, why, why, does every "prestigious" cable/streaming series follow the similar format of "episode 1-big cliffhanger episode-flashback episode-season finale". So many series do it nowadays (usually Netflix shows), and it's very tedious.

Also, 3 posts in this thread mention it being an 8-part series, but from what I can find online, it's seems it's 7-parts, with the finale this coming Sunday running 98 minutes.

I think in this case it was to show how vicious these killers were. it was a hard watch.

Unearthly

Overall it was a good watch. Just reading about the real life case, the show is quite accurate in that regards but I see the real life Joyce Mitchell is not happy with Ben Stiller and denies she ever had sex with the 2 lads :pac:

Tipsy McSwagger

Great series. The reason for the flashback episode is to show the viewer how much of a scumbag they all are, apart from Lyle who’s the best.

Frank O. Pinion

cozar wrote: »

I think in this case it was to show how vicious these killers were. it was a hard watch.

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Great series. The reason for the flashback episode is to show the viewer how much of a scumbag they all are, apart from Lyle who’s the best.

I get the reason for it in this instance, but I was pointing out (if you watch many modern TV series, you'll notice it too), so many other series do it in their seasons nowadays. Always near the end of the season, and it's usually feels like filler or padding out a season. If this was the only show that did it, I wouldn't have even mentioned it. DareDevil, Ozark, etc.

Tipsy McSwagger

Frank O. Pinion wrote: »

I get the reason for it in this instance, but I was pointing out (if you watch many modern TV series, you'll notice it too), so many other series do it in their seasons nowadays. Always near the end of the season, and it's usually feels like filler or padding out a season. If this was the only show that did it, I wouldn't have even mentioned it. DareDevil, Ozark, etc.

But this wasn’t a padded out episode at all. The viewer was rooting for the prisoners up to this episode. After viewing it you understand that these are two scumbags and so is Tilly. Even the start of the episode you are tricked into thinking the cop was going to run into the escaped prisoners, but then it reveals that it’s a flashback episode which was really smart. By the way Stiller’s direction of the series was brilliant.

Frank O. Pinion

Smart? That was a simple fakeout, that many modern shows do. Not original at all.

Mushy

Really liked the series. My only complaint was we didn't get to see the initial reaction to the guards finding out they had escaped!

Tipsy McSwagger

Mushy wrote: »

Really liked the series. My only complaint was we didn't get to see the initial reaction to the guards finding out they had escaped!

It would have been a fakeout.

Mushy

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

It would have been a fakeout.

Can't be doing that now

GalwayGrrrrrl

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

But this wasn’t a padded out episode at all. The viewer was rooting for the prisoners up to this episode. After viewing it you understand that these are two scumbags and so is Tilly. Even the start of the episode you are tricked into thinking the cop was going to run into the escaped prisoners, but then it reveals that it’s a flashback episode which was really smart. By the way Stiller’s direction of the series was brilliant.

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one tricked into thinking episode 6 is set during the night of the escape. I was genuinely shocked when it said the date at the end of the first segment and felt that it was well crafted to give the surprise. I was listening to real crime profile podcast and they implied that the viewer knows immediately that episode 6 is a flashback. I thought I’d missed something!

Though the series as a whole was a bit slow to get going but by the end I really enjoyed it. The styling, music, episode 6 shift in opinion and the acting were all excellent.

Scott Tenorman

Finished this tonight, it’s very good. Pacing was a bit slow at the start would be the only complaint.

Arquette was excellent as was Dano (as he has been in everything I have seen him in)

ronnie3585

I finished it at the weekend and it's easily one of my favourite shows of the past 12 months.

Arquette, Del Toro Dano and Eric Lange gave stellar performances. I really enjoyed Stiller's direction style, particularly episode 6. It completely jarred the flow of the season up to that point, when one could have been forgiven for having a little bit of sympathy towards the main protagonists - but that all evaporated after ep6.

I also like that he kept in the closing scene of ep4 when Matt says to Tilly - "DOOON'T TELL ANYONE", kind of gave some insight to the monster that he was.

Nigel Fairservice

I'm 2 episodes in and enjoying it so far. Looking forward to what's coming. Paul Dano is always dependable in anything I've seen him in. Tilly is a character I love to hate. It was great seeing Bob Ross' Joy of Painting appear for a split second on one of the cell tvs!

Nigel Fairservice

I finished the show tonight. It was an excellent watch. I found the pacing ok. I like the slow burners. The flashback episode was very well done and completely underscored what kind of people Tilly, Matt and Sweat were...in case there were any doubts. Great performance all round, especially Arquette. She brought a great sense of Tilly's immaturity to the role. The actor that played Lyle was great as well. He was about the only person I had any sympathy for in the end.

Standman

Enjoyed that. Thought it was great how the penultimate episode punished us for sympathising with the main characters, although I'm not sure the flashback needed to take up an entire episode.

I still kind of liked inmate Sweat in the end though. Did he fire the first shots at the cop or just run him over? Wasn't sure.
Was interesting to see Benicio del Toro's character go from a revered OG who has this air of wisdom about him to just a impulsive nutcase once he escapes.

Also, what a choice of line delivery here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdhYT0j-mHU

Loved it! Came out of nowhere and hints at what a psycho he really is.

Keplar240B

Mad_maxx

Arquetes performance was incredible, the way it takes so long to realise what a loathsome charecter she is.