Lights Out - A memoriam thread for the boxing show on FX [spoilers]

So I just got into this and watched nine episodes over the past two days.
It's a slow burner: good acting, good plots, decent scripts, loads of machismo, but the pace is methodical and grinding.
Works well in large doses. Good musical choices (first time I can remember hearing The Coup on TV), strong ear for dialogue, Stacey Keach as a palooka and Bill Irwin as the heavy!
Anyways, it was cancelled and the last ep is on tonight. Was anyone else watching this?

Yeah, I'm an episode or two behind though.

The lead is great. This clicked for me in a big way with the Eamonn Walker/Ed Romeo storyline. A little "magical negro" for my tastes but that moment at the shark tank was pretty genuine.
And when lights takes out bloody loco, that shit was rad.
If anybody's curious (cuz this'll likely be on netflix in a few weeks), it's up yer alley if you like Justified/Breaking Bad/Shield/The Wire/Sopranos men-behaving-badly-but-with-good-intentions type machismo drama.

I saw the first ep bcz my friend was an extra, but it seemed OK.

holt mccallany has been around for years, he had some good roles in 'three kings' and particularly 'below.' i read a curious cancellation press release from one of the higher-ups at FX talking about how great it was, barely touching on any reasons why it was shut down.

The reason is: Absolutely no one watched it. Terrible ratings.

xp i think the ratings were shitty and i understand why. it was a hard series to pick up unless you'd seen every episode and the pace is so goddamn methodical and long goal oriented that it would turn off everybody but plot and storyline junkies who may or may not be into the brutality that tended to show up in every episode.
like sportsnight, the very concept sorta doomed it

I think the show is pretty easy to follow, honestly. This isn't Lost or The Wire or etc.

sports shows aren't usually successful unfortunately. maybe people feel they get enough drama from the real thing? idk.

Well, I think if you wandered into episode four, you wouldn't care about any of these characters at all. The emotional effect and interest was cumulative; it's not that it was so difficult to understand. Just took work to care about.

OK show, better than I expected from the zzz promos but i'm not heartbroken about cancellation (obv finale hasn't aired yet but it seemed like they had such a specific arc for this one season that i have no idea how a 2nd season wouldn't be anticlimactic if they'd gotten to do one). it's really the acting that's driving it, though, the dialogue is incredibly heavyhanded and artless.

Well, I think if you wandered into episode four, you wouldn't care about any of these characters at all.

What would be an example of a show that this wouldn't apply to?

louis. justified. curb your enthusiasm. party down. freaks and geeks. homicide. regular show.

Hmm, I disagree. It takes me awhile to care about characters, even if I'm already enjoying a show.

okay, tbf, i guess i mean GROW to like the characters when you jump into the middle of the show. Like you can start to connect in two episodes or so. Lights Out took a long time to connect before it hooked me.

wasn't the lead character a Caucasian recent-heavyweight champion? shoulda been on Syfy, amirite

this show throws a powerful right hook imo
it's a knockout

lights out packs a punch

it's a shame that it's down for the count

couldnt go the distance

I got too far behind and I stopped watching. I'm so sorry ;_;

^this is kinda what i mean; if you missed two shows, it never made an effort to explain what the hell had happened just before. Characters would do major two episode arcs and then totally disappear and never be talked about again.

Wladimir Klitschko is Caucasian. :)

I was gonna say, I couldnt name the heavyweight champ, or the last few

Yeah, the show has pretty much avoided the fact that no one cares about the heavyweight division anymore.

What hurt the show was an ad campaign that looked like it was for a Glass Joe video game instead of a gritty, slow-burn series.

tbqh I was mainly watching for Nicky Sobotka who is CUET

:D but I did like the slow burn of the story, I just sort of felt like maybe the characters weren't built up enough for me to really fall for them. Justified's a good comparison. You pretty much bro down with Raylan from the first, and even Boyd as a baddie you're like whoa who is this guy.

I mean, I have a good attention span and I will devote my time to a show if it gives me a reason to. Lights Out seemed a bit wishy washy, and if you have to play lifeboat with your DVR and free up some room, it's the wishy washy ones that lose out.

Veg, you should watch the Ed Romeo arc if you haven't.

did Stacy Keach punch anybody?

I think I got one, maybe two episodes into that arc? The kooky boxing coach? Yeah he was pretty cool. Almost seemed like they could have started with that angle...they spent so much time drawing you into the family only to leave you feeling like maybe the family is hurting him...idk

I should go back and get the other episodes, I feel bad for bailing on it.

that dude was the muslim cat on Oz, when he returned on this show i welcomed him
i think the destructive, cash/emotion sucking family was a really neat element to the show; Lights success is the only thing that allows them to survive and that stress provokes this dark deep rage in him. it's a clever dynamic and i think they definitely coulda built on it. I would've happily stuck around for at least another season or two.

Last ep was solid but they had set it up so that Lights was gonna deal with some dementia in the second season and come to terms with family pretty clearly but because there IS no second season, it ends with him defeating the hated rival and then being damaged for the rest of his life and here's the press conference, the end.
boxing sequences were very well filmed but the shifts of control in the fight seemed deeply unreal.

not that i was living in some urgent suspense, but uh thanks for the spoilers on the finale i hadn't watched yet. i should prob stay off this thread til the last ep becomes available to watch on demand anyway i guess.

er sorry.

well, given that private bout he had with the MMA thug in the second (?) episode, where he's getting killed, then plays possum and KOs the guy, I wasn't expecting naturalism in the fight scenes.

kinda surprised so many ilxors were (sorta) watching this and no one started a thread
guess it sums up the general lukewarm reaction on tv too

WTF liked this show.

boy, that finale

could cut the tension with a rubber spork

terriers didn't have its own thread, this sure as hell didn't need one imo

a bunch of us were discussing this on the rolling tv thread. i really loved it in the end. not sure i believe they could go another season tho. it already felt a little exhausted near the end of the first season