Critic’s Rating: 3.4 / 5.0
3.4
Did Disclaimer just make us sympathize with obnoxious “sad boy” Nicholas?
Credit where it’s due, Disclaimer Season 1 Episode 5 picked up a bit, if only microscopically.
In the fifth hour, the series delves into the tension directly, and things are clicking into place at a pace that’s slightly faster than sap trickling down a tree trunk.
Stephen’s Mechanizations Reach Absurd Heights
We split the hour relatively evenly between Catherine, Stephen, and Jonathan, and it was emotional to jump from one rendition of this tale to the next.
But the installment mostly dropped multiple grenades into the field, so we know the confrontation between Catherine and Stephen is right around the corner.
While Kline continues to gleefully play Stephen like a cartoon villain, a performance that has sparked some life and amusement in this whole ordeal where there is little to grab ahold of, even that has worn thin.
It’s screwball ridiculous to see this man pittering around a pitiful home in ratty slippers and a moth-ridden cardigan that belongs to his late wife while occasionally checking in on the cockroach that has been dying in a glass on the counter for what feels like a lifetime.
His long game of executing this elaborate plan to destroy everything in Catherine’s world has taken flight, and he’s lost all sense of rationale in the process.
There were two points where he lost whatever intriguing hold he could’ve had on viewers clinging to something entertaining about this series.
The first instance was his cowardly retreat into his depressing home. He avoided Catherine when she dropped by to speak to him and shouted vague statements about whatever important thing she had to say.
Is he so committed to this plan that he can’t even face this woman whose life he’s insistent on destroying?
If he wanted to be a badass and take these huge leaps, why not tell the woman to her face right then and there?
Of course, part of that was her coming to him at a time he couldn’t control, but why wouldn’t he anticipate this?
Isn’t it reasonable for Catherine to seek him out for a conversation or something?
Of course, the second point in which he completely went off the deep end was the catfishing maneuver he pulled with Nicholas, only to throw a fragile guy into the deep end callously and not even care what the ramifications could be.
As a school teacher, you’d think there would be a hint of remorse or cautiousness when dealing with another kid, but Stephen’s utter disregard for the turmoil he unleashed on Nicholas was staggeringly abhorrent.
Trying to keep track of Stephen’s mundane conversations with Nicholas via chat was enough to get me to stop playing games on my phone and actually look at the screen.
Maybe that’s progress.
Nicholas is a Wet Blanket, But Sympathetic to a Degree
Nicholas is such a melancholic character, and it was frankly pathetic that he was hanging onto every word of a person he thought was six years his junior.
Did Nicholas not have any other friends?
Was he still chronically unemployed?
How did his entire world suddenly revolve around this random dude on social media so quickly?
It was as perplexing as it was sad, especially given that the conversations were so shallow and mindless that they shouldn’t have even had any impact.
But Nicholas relished having a younger guy who looked up to him, even if it meant all they discussed was porn, girls, and traveling.
What got me was that somehow, some way, Stephen convinced Nicholas to read this book that looks like a Driver’s Manual, and Nicholas did.
It’s utterly shocking that everyone in this realm is just randomly reading this book or following along with it in this day and age when not everyone considers themselves a reader. Many have the attention spans of gnats and can’t commit to a book anyway.
Stephen’s constant reference to this book felt like something that should’ve tipped Nicholas off that something wasn’t right.
And once Nicholas realized that Jonathan was actually dead and that it was someone else screwing with him, he probably shouldn’t have given much credence to much more than they said.
By the time we got to Stephen flooding Nicholas’ phone with sexy pictures of his own mom masturbating courtesy of that romp session in Disclaimer’s Sexy But Dull Double Feature, it’s no wonder the kid went off the deep end.
But also, one would think there was some curiosity and that before he stumbled to the nearest trap house and shot up, he’d maybe want to ask a few questions or sort some things out.
There’s so much commentary that Disclaimer is trying to make about society, sexism, trauma, and all of these other things.
I get it; I do.
Disclaimer’s Miscommunication Drama Feels Contrived
However, this series’s complete lack of communication feels so contrived that it overshadows the show’s many intentions.
Literally every scenario in this series could be resolved or on the pathway to resolution via simple conversations.
The characters’ having to skirt around them to continue fueling the plot teeters on absurdity at every conceivable turn.
Nicholas actively avoids talking to his mother for reasons we don’t know to such an extreme that it’s frustrating.
Even the phone call at the trap house with him sobbing into the phone was irritating because it was only instrumental in stressing Catherine out and tipping her off that something significant was happening — which we need to move the plot along.
Nicholas’ first order of business when Stephen throws this horrendous information at him is to retreat into his dangerous vices.
And now, we’re left with his life potentially hanging in the balance due to the mechanizations of a grieving father who has conjured up this whole idea of what he feels transpired in Italy via some photographs on his son’s camera and his late wife’s imagination.
Robert continues to be the most frustrating of all and is a critique of the type of deep misogyny and sexism that still manages to thrive even within marriages.
Because he has not allowed Catherine to speak a single time since he got those pictures and has just taken off with all these things he feels happened.
It was almost worth a chuckle that this bumbling buffoon of a man would rather invite Stephen out to dinner to extend some apology and renounce his own wife than have a reasonable conversation with said wife.
Catherine Could Resolve So Many Issues if She Only SPOKE
It’s not to say that Catherine is much better herself.
She holds the phone and attempts to talk to people only to stutter and sigh and never get to the heart of what she wants to say, which never seems to help her cause at all.
By now, we know she must have a worthwhile one because Catherine’s story is not what Disclaimer feeds us from so many angles.
It doesn’t take much explaining to figure out that something else happened in Italy. However, the waiting game to get to that point is tedious, and we watch Catherine hand-wringing and bumbling through conversations instead of just talking.
Even Catherine’s speaking to her mother while she was asleep, recounting her version of the whole story (which we were excluded from hearing), was irksome.
We get these poignant moments and words where she reaches the inevitable realization that women do, and it hits you that this person you only know as “mom” had a full, rich life and her own story of womanhood outside of what you know.
Again, it’s a nice, poignant moment. There’s nothing quite like the realization that your parents are, in fact, human.
But it hangs there, waiting to be significant if Nicholas can comprehend the same thing regarding his mother and whatever happened in Italy down the line.
Catherine showed more fire at work when Stephen dropped his bombs there and allowed them to explode.
The Group Gangup at Catherine’s Job Exceeded Sensibility and Rationale
It’s not surprising that some people are eager to learn something unsavory about someone they admire.
But again, it stretches the bounds of credulity that the entire scene took place as it did at Catherine’s job.
Some random senior-aged man who one of her assistants assumed was a pedophile at worse, or someone could’ve had any number of cognitive issues or whatever else at best, could vaguely mention this book and Catherine’s involvement in it, and it’s a hard fact?
No one even questioning this or pushing back against it is where this scenario loses plausibility, no matter what type of commentary there is about “not believing women” or how easily people can turn on a person based on fabrication, speculation, or rumors.
Hell, I’ve been on the receiving end of the latter, so I know it’s possible.
Disclaimer Doesn’t Examine Catherine’s Own Privileges
But I also know that Disclaimer also, thus far, hasn’t played with Catherine’s own privileges either.
She’s a wealthy Anglo-Saxon woman; there are various situations in which she’d at the very least be given the benefit of the doubt with things, and the hour glosses over them entirely.
Her boss making a scene by publicly humiliating him in front of the entire team rather than pulling her aside for a meeting is a prime example of a situation in which at least some people would be on her side.
The man kept grabbing at her, and no one said a word, but it was only when she snatched her arm away and hit him in the process that it became a big scene.
All of this is based on speculation from a book that some of the looky-loos and boss confronting her admitted they hadn’t even read.
If there were an attempt at some more balance with this, it’d be easier to go along with, but alas, Disclaimer is saving all of the good stuff for the final stretch.
If only we could get there sooner.
Until then, over to you, Disclaimer Fanatics.
Will Catherine find Nicholas in time? Are you having difficulty buying into this amount of limited and miscommunication?
Sound off below!
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