The Booth at the End

Discuss TV shows old and new.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Murdoch
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:59 pm
Location: Upstate NY

Re: TV of 2012

#1 Post by Murdoch » Mon Aug 27, 2012 7:31 pm

Anyone else here a fan of The Booth at the End? Outside of Breaking Bad it's my favorite drama, the one character who wishes for an unidentified religion to be annihilated has pushed the show to even more disturbing ground than last season. My only reservation is that the show's premise could become tired so hopefully the show will move into new directions this season and branch out beyond a wish granting bottle episode.

User avatar
Murdoch
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:59 pm
Location: Upstate NY

The Booth at the End

#2 Post by Murdoch » Mon Sep 03, 2012 1:38 pm

I don't suspect I'll get many responses to this topic as any posts in the TV of 2012 thread didn't elicit anything, but this show is just too good to be confined to a few measly yet glowing posts. As far as I know it's only available on Hulu here.

The show has the same type of mysterious spirituality that was present in Twin Peaks and Lost, with this unknown yet dangerous force boiling under the surface and leaving the viewer questioning from what source it derives. The basic plot is an unnamed man sits in a diner booth and makes reciprocal deals with those who come to see him. The deals can be mundane (help an old lady cross the street to get free flowers for a girlfriend) to despicable (kill 22 people in a public shooting in order to annihilate a religion). The show is a series of bottle episodes in the diner, with the action confined to the dealmakers' descriptions of what they have done to help complete their task and their reactions to what they are capable of. While it can be contrived, with different dealmakers' actions intersecting with others, that just adds to the suspense as one person clashes with another, with neither knowing that both have made these supernatural deals and the clash being described only later by the person who survived.

What strikes me about the show is how much it does with such a limited budget and premise. Each episode is basically a plot-driven variation of My Dinner With Andre with the personal anecdotes replaced with narrative advancement but maintaining the cathartic dialogue. The show is so character-focused that it removes any traditional action or conflict in order to focus on how these individuals react to personal failure and triumph, and that these deals they've made have revealed something they weren't prepared for (one man stunned by the realization that he is capable of murdering a child, for instance). It's such a refreshing form of serialized drama that I'll be watching even if it falls prey to the same shortfalls Lost had in rectifying its mystery with its spirituality.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: The Booth at the End

#3 Post by domino harvey » Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:09 pm

Checked out the first season of this thanks to your rec and while I didn't respond with quite the same fervor, I did enjoy it on the whole. I liked the series best when it played with the assumptions presented (the likable sad sack who takes his "protection" detail in a cringe-inducing direction), but many of the moral quandaries felt less pressing than the scenario's premise promised. I questioned the cluttered construction of the opening episode before the show eventually revealed itself to be an interconnected web of tasks-- though to be fair this does little to quell my biggest concern with the series, namely that it's a stripped-down variation (or if we're being less charitable, ripoff) of Needful Things. However, it went down smooth enough and left me entertained for the span of a feature film, so not a terrible return on the time invested. I'm sure Season Two will fulfill a similar function soon enough!

User avatar
Murdoch
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:59 pm
Location: Upstate NY

Re: The Booth at the End

#4 Post by Murdoch » Sat Oct 13, 2012 10:19 pm

Glad you liked it! As much as I enjoy the show I do think its premise works best in small doses so the half-hour runtime, five episode-length seasons help the show in not overstaying its welcome. I'd only heard of Needful Things before and haven't actually seen it, but from what I read it seems the mysterious salesman, for lack of a better term, in that desires to play upon people's greedy compulsions and see his customers destroy themselves, while the man in Booth is more concerned with why people would be willing to do these things and appears relieved when someone decides not to do the more horrific tasks they are assigned. A minor difference since it does appear the two have a great deal in common, but I've always loved these "deal with the devil" scenarios so I'm not one to complain!

Post Reply