Hightown 2.2: Some of My Favorite Things

 

A top-notch second episode of the second season Hightown tonight.  Among my favorite parts were:

• The body in Nickerson State Park.  We have a house not too far from there.  Oi!
• Osito reading Lean In. Not quite as good Stringer Bell and The Wealth of Nations in The Wire, but definitely headed in the right direction.
• Jackie's in bed with Leslie, after the latter says she likes "dick".  Another win for Jackie's powers of seduction.  Plus, she's coming up in the world of whom she seduces.
• Ray waking up in a car in the street by Renee's (and Frankie's) house.  A daring albeit black-out drunk move.

Now on that issue, it's still not clear that Renee's baby is Ray's.  But I'd say Hightown is spending far too much time on the pregnancy if Ray's not the father.  Which would be a great development for the story, if not precisely for the characters.  If this series or even season had a happy ending, Frankie would end up in prison for life, his cousin would be gone, and Ray and Renee (hey, their names rhyme) could live happily ever after.

But happy endings are hard to come these days in television series in which most of the characters are drug dependent, burned out, heartbroken, or at least two out of three.  Hightown at least does this with the ever rolling sea in the background, or sometimes in the center of the action, as it is when Frankie and cousin Jorge dispose of the guy who brought the heat down on them by selling the deadly drugs to those college kids.   How long will it take before Frankie has to dispose of Jorge?  He'd definitely do that to his cousin, if the choice was Jorge or Renee -- unless Renee and Ray get together, and Frankie finds out.

See you next week.

See also Hightown 2.1: Switching Ups and Downs

And see also Hightown 1.1: Top-Notch Saltwater and Characters ... Hightown 1.2: Sludge and Sun ... Hightown 1.3: Dirty Laundry ... Hightown 1.4: Banging on the Hood ... Hightown 1.5-6: Turning Point and the Real True ... Hightown 1.7: Two Things ... Hightown 1.8: Up and Down and Up