Lights Out – Is redemption at hand?

You know things aren’t going to go as planned for Patrick “Lights” Leary when even the priest at his church tells him to knock out his opponent early in a quick conversation after mass. The actions from the first episode, when Lights took a step toward the dark side, are catching up with him and his family is front and center while it does down.

I know people have a hard time with Lights Out due to the subject matter and boxing in particular as an underlying theme. That’s really too bad, because every episode digs deeper into the character of Lights: how he’s deeply conflicted, flawed and floundering to remain true to the good soul resting inside. He’s a man who wants to do right by his family, and the conflict makes his journey all the more compelling. Judging by the reactions to my posts last week, it seems many people find it difficult to support someone who punches people in the face for a living. I’m guessing these same people watch 350 pound gorillas knocking each other to the ground each week during a football game, so that should be food for thought. Just sayin’.

Something that really irks me at this point is Lights’ relationship with Johnny. Even knowing what he does now, he still asks advice and questions of Johnny as if he’s going to get a straightforward answer. Lights may have paid for Johnny’s MBA, but their business ethics seem miles apart. Although they are brothers, Johnny likes the lifestyle more than he cares about keeping the family safe financially. Watching Lights trying to win on scratch tickets was indicative of his desperation and made me wonder why he trusted his brother so much that he hopes a lottery win might be his answer out of the crap.

It’s heartbreaking he’s playing errand boy at the expense of his daughter’s ballet recital to try to rectify his mistakes, and it still just ends in more lies. At this point, I don’t think there is one truly honest relationship on the program. It’s a cascade of lies that will rain down on each character  in the future.

The last scene of the episode and all the convoluted actions during the hour reminded me of Damages. I’ve watched the episode twice as of this writing, and the number of things I missed the first time through are alarming. That could make it difficult to find viewer if I’m already floundering in the dark, but perhaps its my own bulb that is dimming, and the rest of you are way ahead of me.

A quote:

“Of course you can’t. Why would do anything your wife asked you to do?” – Theresa
“All I’ve ever done is what you’ve asked me to do. This house, three kids, no career. My choices?” – Lights

Clacked by Carissa Pavlica
on Jan 17, 2011 @ 10:00 EST5EDT