Note: this will contain spoilers, so read no further if you haven’t watched the series yet. It will also contain negative opinions on some issues, so if the show was everything you ever wished for... this isn’t for you and I don’t want to upset you. Just enjoy the GIFs (which betray my biases) and skip the rest.
I really, really wanted to like Snatch. Honest I did. I keenly anticipated it from the moment it was announced, despite my not being a huge fan of Guy Richie or the film version. The previews made the show look energetic and fun and most of the actors are consistently good, and playing types of characters they’re not necessarily known for, which I always appreciate. Also, fans of the other actors, Luke Pasqualino and Rupert Grint in particular, were very kind and helpful in providing news, BTS video and rare photos as the series filmed, and were-- mostly-- good about not posting spoilers without a warning.
So it saddens me to report I found the show more annoying than involving. A large part of that is due to the slipshod writing, underwritten characterization and reliance on jarring edits and often “WTF?!” character motivations and action that made it difficult for me to care about the protagonists (or even perceive them as protagonists, really... let’s say The Young Pretty People The Writers Clearly Wanted Us To Like.)
Mostly I’m upset Marc Warren’s considerable talents were wasted on such a grand scale. So much could have been made of Bob Fink in the hands of a more creative writing staff... every week on Fargo and Better Call Saul, to name just two current examples, corrupt cops and wannabe gangsters (who are often the same characters) have rich, unpredictable storylines which give talented actors a broad canvas on which to showcase their talents and play off one another. But the Fink charter is merely insulted by everyone in his orbit from the beginning (which, frankly, just made me sympathize with him), marginalized in most of the plot and never given enough to do.
I suspect Ed Westwick fans are also somewhat frustrated that Westwick, who was front and center in most of the promotion, was too easily dispensed with in episode four, and that most of his colorful momements were actually given away the commercials.
I'm still baffled by Marc’s treatment in that promotion. His name was literally never mentioned once by other actors or by the show’s Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds, though he’s the closest thing to a main antagonist the show has. (Photos of his character appeared, but Marc was never named.) Did Marc want to avoid being part of the publicity? Was it some sort of misguided decision by the marketing staff because Marc is relatively unknown here, or even because a handful of people keep whining about how much they disliked his character on The Good Wife? I just don’t get it. I’d like some answers about this.
But the promotional absurdities wouldn’t matter if Marc had been given a decent role to play, and he was shorted in that department too... Fink could have been a great villain or a great tragic character, but, despite some great acting moments from Marc, he wasn’t allowed to be either. The character is bullied, deceived and marginalized by both his gangster friends and corrupt police associates, yet the writing kept implying he deserved this without ever providing proof.
Then there was the Vic Hill character, who the writers clearly intended to be charming, but I saw only a thuggish man-child who continuously jeopardizes his family and bullies his perceived underlings. I hated him from the beginning and he only got worse. Dougray Scott’s hammily overdone performance didn’t help matters. I was on Bob’s side pretty much from the start... if only the writers had a clue about nuance and a willingness to challenge their audience or divide it, but... no. There was no character depth to speak of anywhere.
As for the young leads... the old kiddie ganster musical Bugsy Malone kept popping into my head. i couldn’t take them seriously as adults despite the fact these actors are in their late 20s-early 30s and more than capable of playing bona fide adults if they’d been given a decent script. Instead they were given hoary paint-by-numbers plot cliches cribbed from every gangster movie since the 1920s, padded out by clumsily-executed heist sequences and flashbacks that played like music videos.
In some ways it seemed like the series had two or three episodes worth of material, and the rest was filler, leading to a number of pointless tangents and inexplicable actions. The backstory about the gold was goofy at best, and nice coincidence about it resurfacing exactly when and where Albert, Charlie et al were planning to hijack Sonny’s cash (in an identical truck, no less). The show is full of such cartoonish improbabilities, though none delivered with the verve of an actual cartoon.
There are repetitive flashback’s of Vic’s original heist (yeah, let’s show Bob getting heaped with more abuse... ), loony side-stories filling in for character development (ie Billy’s whole backstory... what a wasted opportunity that was. Though Lucien Laviscount did a great job with the few subtle dialogue moments he got between having to beat people up and listen to crazy yarns about his parents), repetitive scenes of Charlie getting impaired in various ways, an out-of-nowhere love triangle that seems to be there just to divide the main group, female characters who have too little to do in general except be feisty and supportive (or, in the case of Dwyer, feisty and cuntish)... I get the sense the scripts were all written in the weekend before filming began, and that no one really scrutinized them closely.
Yes, I’m a Marc Warren fan and am biased. And I knew going in that he was probably playing an antagonist and that he’d get iced in the final episode... I’m used to all of that. Pretty much every actor I’ve ever admired from Lon Chaney Sr onward got typecast as villains or outsiders and got killed onscreen more times than Steve Buscemi does throughout the Coen Brothers’ oeuvre. I don’t have a problem with that. Conventional heroes and the squarejaws who play them bore me. I love complicated characters and character actors who seek out such roles.
But I don't appreciate youth-obsessed deck-stacking, treating bullies as heroes, and writing which both wants our protagonists to be “bad-ass” or at least risk-taking, yet continuously lets them off the hook, either through miraculous escapes or through having the older characters or one-note side characters take bullets for them or do the dirty work. Full disclosure: I haven’t bothered with the last two episodes because I was so disgusted with what went down in episode 8. I’m pretty sure the Young Pretty People prevailed and that Albert redeemed the sins of his father and finally said something nice to Charlie according to schedule. I can’t say I really care.
As in The Musketeers, Marc played a bullied, mistreated character who I couldn’t help but care about, both because Marc is such an exquisite actor even in marginal roles, and because I tend to side with complicated or oppressed characters, not with self-described “heroes”. In both shows, despite being the nominal villain, his character was shunted to the sidelines for too much of the duration, then suddenly given a lot of screentime just before being ganged up on and killed off. So yeah, the worst kind of deja vu... in The Musketeers at least Rochefort had some fun or powerful moments, and I understood that the show’s episodic structure hindered a more nuanced character through-line.
But Snatch has no such excuses. Also: couldn’t Bob and Charlie have had a sustained sequence or conversation without annoying cutaways to more trivial matters, like Vic torturing Charlie’s butler (which was played for laughs! God how I hated Vic...)? And why did Bob keep leaving the apartment? Apart from more plot-padding I mean? Why didn’t Bob shoot Vic when he had the chance? Because he really should have. Why was the whole tiresome side trip to America necessary, given how easily Billy got the diamonds back? Much of the plot strains on like that, making no sense.
The Snatch showrunners keep comparing their efforts to Fargo, Noah Hawley’s brilliant offshoot of the Coens’ film (of all their films, really)... they need to stop doing this. It does them no favors and it makes me pine for Marc to get cast on Hawley’s show (or anything by Vince Gilligan) instead. Yes, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, because the writers on those shows know something about ambiguity, character development, unpredictable plotting, creative musical cues, and, most essentially, how to hire great character actors and write roles worthy of them, then give them room to breathe onscreen. Hawley or Gilligan would’ve known what to do with Bob Fink. They could’ve done for Marc what they’ve done for Giancarlo Esposito, Bryan Cranston, Jonathan Banks, Bokeem Woodbine, Alison Tolman... even established stars like Ewen McGregor and Billy Bob Thornton have shown new capabilities on Fargo. I would donate my left kidney to see Marc on one of those shows, whereas if the Snatch crew had created Breaking Bad... I'm sure Walter White would’ve been killed off in season one while the balance of the show went on to document the hijinks of Badger and Skinny Pete.
I know I’ve gone on long enough, but I'm still bitter. ;) Marc Warren has really scaled back his acting commitments in recent years. I have no idea why, whether his priorities now lie elsewhere (and it’s none of my business to guess where), or whether he’s just not getting the calibre of role he’d like... if Snatch and Audible “Audio dramas” are the best he’s being offered, it must be very frustrating, but I don't want to judge his choices when I have no idea why they were made. Marc rarely gives interviews these days. He has said in the past that Mad Dogs arose from the poor quality of roles offered him at that time. If he and his actor friends wanted to crowdfund something along those lines I would do everything in my power to promote that or help. If Marc simply wants to focus his attentions elsewhere and not act so often, that’s perfectly within his rights as well. Of course he owes me nothing. I hope that when he appears at Birmingham’s Collectormania fancon to do signings next month (June 3) he’ll give us a hint of some kind. (Don’t worry, Marc, I won’t be there... I only do the fangirl thing from a distance.)
Anyhow... with Marc doing so few projects lately, it’s incredibly frustrating to wait months for something like Snatch, that so consistently fails to deliver. Marc does the best he can and has some great moments in spite of the limits he’s working under. As I’ve said, there was the potential for a great, messy, complicated character there. He deserved so much better.
Marc Warren non-spoilery moments from an early scene in Snatch episode 2
First off, should acknowledge Marc’s 50th birthday and thank him for being my completely unwitting (God I hope so anyhow) Muse and inspiration for the past year and a half of so.
Had thought of a more elaborate tribute earlier this morning in my full-on giddy state after watching this episode. Marc couldn’t be more entertaining, even with a somewhat limited character. (Can these writers/producers please give him a role where he’s not literally being insulted by everyone else from the moment he walks onscreen? That’s juvenile deck-stacking. You create classic protagonists and adversaries by letting audiences follow their actions and think for themselves how they’ll respond. Pet peeve in The Musketeers and this... many other shows featuring great character actors too.) But... it’s a fun show and it’s already a challenge rationing episodes out and not binging.
Every moment Marc has in episode 2 is completely GIFable (he’s not in episode 1 at all, but you need to watch that to follow the plot. Marc’s character appears immediately in episode 2.) I’m trying to avoid any plot spoilers so I’m sticking to one scene (which was shared in photo form in promos). He’s not onscreen as much as I’d like but steals his scenes without really trying, with some classic film japery I suspect is improvised. (I would love to see most of Marc’s best roles in script form just to see how much he’s added to them... from BTS footage I gather he ad-libs in character about as often as the late Robin Williams did. This project is ideal in that it’s so pop-culturally addled and flashy that he can slide these asides in much more seamlessly than he could have in the period pieces he did a couple of years ago.)
But... apart from saying Marc is a slow-burn antagonist in contrast to Ed Westwick’s more combustible Sonny (which was already revealed by the promos) I won’t say anything. I do want to fully review everything once I've watched and thought about it. I have noticed a lot of my European friends have found ways to watch this. If you don’t have access to Crackle, DM me. I’ll give you some tips.
Generally the acting is solid and the characters entertaining, though somewhat too limited to recognizable types that have been recycled in one form or another since the 1920s. This isn’t Breaking Bad or The Sopranos and isn’t trying to be that complex. It’s better at being funny and spirited than at creating riveting character drama. (I’m already bored by the “son trying to redeem his father” plot, though the actors are doing the best they can to enliven it.) Also tired of being expected to side with the young characters against the older ones. But Rupert Grint is hilarious and divides my sympathies a lot more than the overly earnest Hill clan.
I might also do a compilation post featuring my favorite GIFs of my favorite Marc characters later...
I’m still trying to find my way with this Tumblr and ID. It can be frustrating when the only thing I post that gets attention is reblogs, so I’m trying to focus more on original content, even if people don’t care. I’m also more circumspect about fandoms lately... I still derive such joy from them but they can be a double-edged sword, particularly in regard to artists who are shy or reluctant to have a public persona, like Marc seems to be lately. I made a lot of wild assumptions about him based on old or exaggerated media profiles and some things I said feel woefully ignorant or over the top in retrospect.
I don’t imagine Marc would waste time reading my stuff or generally lurking about the internet running searches on himself, but one has a responsibility to anyone one is a public fan of. So many fandoms are riven by juvenile competition and one-upsmanship. I have to be very careful not to get involved in that and have perspective.
I do wish Marc felt comfortable giving more interviews or could be comfortable engaging through social media in some way. Many artists I admire learn to do so without revealing too much about their private selves, and it puts a damper on idle speculation that can run rampant in fandoms. It’s harder to fetishize or commodify someone to suit your own whims when they’re on hand in some way and are a real presence rather than a fan projection. I have said many times that if Marc was on Twitter I would never bother him... in fact I’d probably leave the site. Give him space. But it would be comforting to know he was there.
But.. I know what a hazard social media can be to nonentities like myself, to friends who are genuinely talented but struggle to find an audience. It’s a different sort of hazard if you’re in the public eye, but most of my favorite artists, actors and musicians do a brilliant job of using it to express themselves, promote work and/or present their truth. But I don’t blame anyone for avoiding it. Half the time I feel like packing it in.
Didn’t mean to go on like this, Promised myself I’d keep in lowkey this March 20th. Sorry Marc. ;)
