Let the Right One In episode-by-episode discussion

[Siggdalos]

If no one else is going to post this, I guess I'll do it.

Some rambly thoughts on how the show is going so far, presented in no particular order:

I'm still enjoying my time with this and am curious to see where things are headed, even though Isaiah and Ellie's scenes are about the only ones that really make me feel like I'm watching something titled LTROI. The rest is quite far removed from the spirit of the original story, but I can still enjoy it for what it is. Mostly. Speaking of Isaiah and Ellie, I would say that they're the strongest part of the show. It might count as blasphemy around here, but I'd even go so far as to say that Madison Taylor Baez is pulling off a stronger performance than Leandersson and Ceylan did. Of course, it goes without saying that Ellie and Eli are very different characters and Ellie's actor has more varied material to work with, so maybe it's unfair to compare them in that way.

Thoughts about some specific things from E03 and E04:

• The scene with the woman at the hospital in E03 seems like an obvious set-up for a Virginia's death-type situation, what with the bandages conveniently protecting her from the sunlight streaming in. I will be entirely unsurprised if it's reincorporated later.
• Zeke is the real MVP of the story. Honestly. I also thought that his and Ellie's reunion was genuinely touching.
• I enjoyed the break-in scene in E04 showcasing a somewhat darker side to Eleanor (her recklessness about getting what she wants and her controlling attitude toward Isaiah).
• I'm not sure if I think the semi-frequent, direct references to the original (e.g. the Cube showing up in the magic show) are endearing or if they make me want to roll my eyes. I think part of the issue is that since they've changed all the rest of the dialogue (and, well, everything else), when a direct reference like that does appear, it sticks out like a wink to the viewer instead of fitting in with this new story of theirs they want to tell. An example is "I flew". In the film, it's a serious answer to the question (even though Eli certainly knows that Oskar won't take him seriously). In the show, it's a jokey way for Ellie to brush off a question, since she didn't actually fly (and hasn't been shown to be able to). Keeping the same line but in a different context makes it stick out, in a bad way. I dunno. I should probably just view them as respectful homages to the original and let them slide.
• I don't know what to make of Matthew's motivations. Becoming infected without the drawbacks is what I'm guessing he was after the whole time, but I also get the impression that he genuinely cares about Peter in at least some sense. That storyline is probably the worst one, though. I don't care for that kind of body horror and the like. Also, Jesus Christ, the CGI on those chimpanzees is awful. Claire and Peter's performances and interactions are alright, though.

I'm not sure how things are going to end. I can't see the season having the same ending as the original story. The bully plotline is obviously not done and while I can picture a Pool Massacre equivalent happening (it would fit right in with the unnecessary amounts of gore the showrunners seem to like in the horror scenes), what I can't currently picture is a scenario in which Isaiah would willingly leave everything to be with Ellie, bar Naomi dying. There's of course also the issue of Frank's death left to resolve.

One detail I'm very curious about is how much they'll show of Liz's (Ellie's mother's) death, beyond what they've implied so far (that being that Ellie killed her).

Also, I'll make a prediction for the season finale. Based on what Bichir has said about wanting to keep going for "many" seasons (bleurgh), I'm betting that Ellie will be cured to some extent (to allow for a second season while avoiding the issue of an aging child actor), but they won't find the vampire that bit her and Peter (to leave enough unresolved plot for a second season).

[danielmann861]

I still haven't watched E04 yet but I was kind of in and out of focus with E03.

I'm still not ready to write it off entirely yet but I will admit that E02 and E03 didn't have my interest anywhere near as much as the first episode and I do fear it may be diminishing returns for me with this TV show. But I will get around to E04 later this week and keep going with it.

I think I'm kind of the opposite with regards to the Matthew, Peter and Claire story line. I actually don't mind that story line. It may sound crazy but I see a lot of JAL in that story line in terms of what it takes to love someone that is the other. That story line doesn't bother me anywhere near as much as I thought it would because I still see a lot of the spirit of JAL in there with regards to how it is exploring Claire's devotion to Peter given his circumstances. Also, in some ways I kind of appreciate it because it is something new. I've seen the core story of LTROI many times over and while it still has that same appeal to me that it always did, I actually don't mind that show is exploring something brand new with that story thread but is also still managing to evoke something of the JAL spirit. Even if it wasn't written by him.

I don't know. That story thread doesn't really bother me all too much.

I think what is starting to lose me a little is actually Isaiah and Ellie (funnily enough). Granted, this show is far from finished and I don't want to make a final judgment call but I don't feel that relationship is on the level as Eli and Oskar from what I've seen so far. I just don't feel it as much. I know the show runners have said that they wanted Ellie and Isaiah to feel more genuine and less predatory, but I'm someone who has always seen the true beauty of Eli and Oskar's relationship being that they come to realize each other as equals. I don't know if that's where this is going with Ellie and Isaiah and its the one part of the show I'm still not sure how I feel about yet.

I actually don't mind Ellie's father and Zeke. That's actually one relationship I am enjoying in the show.

I still have to watch Episode 4 but I will admit, Episode 3 lost me a little. I'm hoping that's not going to be the case going forward. Anyways, I'll post again once I've watched E04

[Siggdalos]

I think I'm kind of the opposite with regards to the Matthew, Peter and Claire story line. I actually don't mind that story line. It may sound crazy but I see a lot of JAL in that story line in terms of what it takes to love someone that is the other. That story line doesn't bother me anywhere near as much as I thought it would because I still see a lot of the spirit of JAL in there with regards to how it is exploring Claire's devotion to Peter given his circumstances. Also, in some ways I kind of appreciate it because it is something new. I've seen the core story of LTROI many times over and while it still has that same appeal to me that it always did, I actually don't mind that show is exploring something brand new with that story thread but is also still managing to evoke something of the JAL spirit. Even if it wasn't written by him.

I don't know. That story thread doesn't really bother me all too much.

That's fair. Maybe I'm being too harsh on it.

[PeteMork]

Things I liked:
Ellie watching over Isaiah through his window in E03.
Ellie's and Isaiah's interaction in both E03 and E04 developed naturally. They work well with each other.
I did like the appearance of the cube in the magician's trick, and the appearance of 'Dad' on Isaiah's card in E04.
I like Naomi's character development (Isaiah's mother.) She's definitely empathetic. IMO so far, the most ethical adult character in the series.
Things I didn't like:
The dialogue often seems stilted and simplistic to me, more like that in a soap opera as opposed to a well-written drama; especially at the party in the restaurant in E04.
Ellie's reveal at the end of E04 was a disappointment to me. I prefer the gradual reveal in the original. Not sure Isaiah will be able to handle it, at least believably.
Still a bit too much explicit gore for me. Seems gratuitous.
The "I flew' comment fell flat with me too. They should have saved it for a better scene in the future.

Matthew's motivations are still a puzzle to me, but Siggdalos may be right.
Agreed, the chimpanzee CGI was bad, but not as bad as the cats in LTROI.

[Siggdalos]

Ellie watching over Isaiah through his window in E03.

I also really liked that. It's an interesting combination where it's a shot that feels heartwarming in the context of everything that happened earlier in the episode, but looks unsettling when looked at in isolation. At least for me.

Agreed, the chimpanzee CGI was bad, but not as bad as the cats in LTROI.

Hm, I'm gonna disagree with that. I think the cats are easier to forgive since they're from 2008 and they only appear in one scene, where they're mixed with practical effects and you don't get a clear look at most of them. I was never really bothered by them when watching the movie. The chimpanzees, on the other hand, are always shown front and center for fairly long periods of time, so it becomes impossible to ignore how fake they look.

Obviously this is a matter of taste, though.

[Siggdalos]

Renamed the thread because I didn't feel it was worthwhile to keep making new threads for each episode.

So, E05 then. It kind of annoyed me.

Annoyance #1: I audibly groaned at Naomi saying "What happened in those sewers was just the beginning". I don't think they could've made that line more cliché if they'd tried.
Annoyance #2: Matthew's line about his "brothers" and what family should be about. I don't mind that being one of the show's main themes, but what I do mind is having the characters outright explain the theme to each other (see also: Zeke describing his staff as his family in E01). It's pretty on-the-nose, to put it mildly. Cutting it down to just the "brothers" part would've gotten the point across, I think.
Annoyance #3: The special effect of Eleanor climbing up the wall was pretty bad. You can clearly see that her feet aren't touching the wall at several points.

Not sure how I feel about the "Two months earlier" reveal. Maybe I'm just an inattentive viewer, but it didn't feel to me like there was a way to reasonably guess from the earlier episodes that the Peter and Claire scenes were not shown in chronological order vis-à-vis everything else, so my spontaneous reaction was that the reveal felt a little bit like cheating. Still, I suppose it's a somewhat creative way of clearing up the obvious question marks and tying the plot threads together.

And then there's this:



This really does not work for me, and I've been trying to put my finger on why. I think it mainly boils down to the fact that it simply rings hollow. When Eli writes this message to Oskar in LTROI, he really is alone: Håkan is (as far as he knows) dead, and Oskar is the only thing he has other than the prospect of going back to his life of solitude and eventually having to go look for another helper. Eleanor has never been that alone, because she's always had Mark (a loving father, not just a helper) and now she has Zeke too. Of course there's a difference between that and having a normal friend her own age, but still, it makes her seem hyperbolic. There's also the fact that with this version of the story shifting focus more to Eleanor and Mark's relationship and having to balance that with the other subplots, Isaiah and Eleanor's relationship is naturally reduced in importance. I'm not necessarily opposed to either of those changes in a loose adaptation like this, but if you're changing so many things around, importing weighty dialogue like Eli's note from the original is not going to carry anywhere near the same power as they do in the original context. Instead it comes across the writers merely trying to achieve the same impact as the original story, but falling short.

On a related note, I think it's becoming an issue that Isaiah is such a passive character compared to Oskar. It doesn't feel to me like he does much of anything to change the direction of the plot. Instead, things simply happen to him and he reacts to them. He doesn't hit back after being encouraged by Ellie; Ellie does it for him, without telling him. When he does stand up to the bullies, the only reason it works is because of what Ellie did. He doesn't choose to leave his father; his father dies, and all he can do is react to it. It makes him less interesting, and as a consequence makes the love story less interesting as well. (I'm pinning this entirely on the writing, mind. Ian Foreman's performance is alright for the most part.)

Okay, rant over. It might seem like I hated watching this episode, but I didn't, really. It's just that most of the individual parts that stuck with me were negatives (of varying degrees of nitpickiness). I think, for me, the actors' performances are carrying a lot of the show and keeping me invested, even when they're given lackluster material to work with.

As far as the plot goes, I (obviously) misinterpreted the drug's effect on Matthew, mostly because I did not think that what he and Peter were injected with was the same thing as the painkiller drug. I do like that the way they made it clear that he wasn't infected was by repeatedly showing him in scenes of bright sunlight, rather than through explicit dialogue. This episode also strengthened my belief that he genuinely cares about Peter (and Claire too).

I suspect that Eleanor's "Now we're in this together" line is heralding a change in plot direction that I'm not going to enjoy much: a turn toward more action and her and Mark focusing on tracing things back to Claire. But we'll see. I am curious to see exactly what Eleanor and Peter's past connection is (them appearing in the same photo in E01). I'm also holding out some amount of hope that the writers haven't expended all the potentially interesting stuff in Isaiah and Ellie's relationship yet.

[Siggdalos]

E06. Not as much to say about this one. Felt like largely filler.

I like the scene of Mark and Ellie talking about Isaiah and the way it injects some levity by sounding like a regular father-daughter conversation, but most of Isaiah's birthday is way too saccharine for my taste. Ellie and Isaiah on the Ferris wheel and Mark and Naomi on the bench are alright, but I kind of had to make myself sit through the other scenes. Blegh. Peter, Matthew, and Claire's scenes were the stronger aspect of this episode, I think.

Then there's the bedroom scene, which I guess was inevitable. I suppose it's fine on its own (again, I think the performances is what saves it), but it's definitely tamer--and therefore lesser--than both the original and Alfredson's version. It feels less magical and more mundane, what with Isaiah and Ellie planning a sleepover beforehand rather than Eli appearing unexpectedly in Oskar's window. There's also the fact that the original scene is more ambiguous in that Oskar asks his question not yet knowing what Eli is (neither his vampirism nor his ambiguous gender), whereas here, Isaiah is already aware of Ellie's disease and asks her to be his girlfriend in spite of it, so there are fewer questions left to resolve in their relationship from this point (with the one major exception being Frank's death). I should also mention that when I first watched the scene, I reacted pretty negatively to Isaiah wanting to become a vampire considering how Oskar views the whole thing in LTROI, but after thinking about it some more, I think it's actually totally fair and makes sense in the context of the show, since Isaiah hasn't yet seen any of the ugly sides of the infection and only the ones that make it seem like a superpower.

[Siggdalos]

E07, the big flashback episode. I really like it. One of the better episodes so far. It's suitably bleak and horrific and very much succeeds in conveying the desperation and hopelessness of Mark and Elizabeth's situation, I think. Strong performances throughout, especially by Demián Bichir and Fernanda Andrade (Elizabeth).

I would say the only parts I don't like are the sewer scene (feels like too much of a repeat of things we've seen before, but thankfully it's pretty short) and Elizabeth's death (too sentimental). I'm not overly keen on the attack scene either (a little cheesy in parts), but that's not a major complaint.

I was expecting the episode to also show how Peter got infected, but I guess that wouldn't add anything we didn't already know, and keeping the episode narrowly focused on Eleanor's family was probably a good call.

[Siggdalos]

Been slacking off on this for the past two weeks.

E08: Didn't care much for the Chris subplot, but it serves an obvious purpose in the narrative. Naomi's scenes with Mark and Ellie are the stronger parts of this episode, I think. I was frustrated by Mark's stupidity at the end, considering that this is a character supposed to have stayed ahead of the police for a decade, but at least they lampshade it in the following episode.

I thoroughly enjoyed E09. Pretty tense throughout, and Bichir, Baez, and Foreman's performances are really good. After not liking the priest character much in E06 and E08, I did like what he added to this episode. The warehouse massacre is, obviously, the show's counterpart to the Pool Massacre. I think it manages to be similarly effective to the movie's depiction of the Pool Massacre, even if they overdid it with the sound effects. I don't mind Matthew's death--I think he'd played out his role at this point--but it's a little boring that he and his motivations never turned out to be anything more than exactly what he said they were. Mark and Ellie's exchange toward the end ("It was different") and Ellie and Isaiah's goodbye are moving, almost (almost) enough to make me tear up a little bit.

I'll try to decide what I think of the show as a whole after the finale. For now, I'm sticking to my earlier theory about the ending. Some last additional predictions for E10:

• Claire is planning on luring Mark and Ellie into a trap or something similar with Peter's help, but Peter is going to change his mind once he recognizes Ellie. They'll all end up teaming up to try to find the original host, as the setup for a second season.
• Naomi will discover (part of) the truth, probably by accident, i.e. coming home early and overhearing Claire talking to Mark and Ellie.
• Isaiah will in some way choose to side with Eleanor over his mother, as a parallel to the original's ending. Possibly run away with her and Mark while being unaware of the truth of Frank's death.

[Kalpara]

I liked the series with some reservations. It is a story about a young female vampire and it shares the same title as my favorite movie. But it goes its own way as an episodic series for television has to.

I thought the season ending was great except for a plot point we were reminded of in the scene where Eleanor is taken to see Peter in his room; that both characters were attacked by a vampire who got their addresses at the stargazing event. What the heck? Why would a vampire need a potential victim's address? It seems like a sloppy way to connect them.

There is also something about the relationship between Eleanor and Isaiah that is a bit troubling. She is a 22 year-old woman in a child's body. To me, the boyfriend/girlfriend vibe in the series is a lot more up front than in the movie, where, at least by one interpretation, Eli is grooming Oskar to be her new caretaker, not romancing him. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else shares this feeling.