Curate, connect, and discover
woke up at 3am and the first thing on my mind was marius josipovic. i fear there may never be a funnier character alive mostly bc of his perpetual irritation. the way it flares up so dramatically, you can just see it in his face. or his eye rolls??? JESUS that man can do an eye roll it's hilarious. the annoyed ass tone he gets, his lil accent slipping through. he really gets sooo upset that this fucking person ( carly ) whose family he's conning won't be his friend. what type of fucking conman tries to befriend someone who's going to be completely useless to their con. it's so funny because he really desperately tries to get on her good side, even apologizes and asks if they can start over, and presses the issue until she smiles?? his compassion for other people is actually insane considering he lies and cheats and steals, like at his core he shouldn't care, but he does, and that's what makes him stand out to me so much. i think he has the capability to emotionally remove himself from situations and other people, but when his empathetic nature hits, it's difficult to remain as unaffected as he tries to be. and something so fucking sad to me is that, for the first time in his life, marius feels welcome and at home when he goes to con the bernhardts. he feels like he has a family, because he's welcomed with open arms and there's not an inch of distrust there. which is so different from his own family - esp with his brother, who he genuinely can't trust bc eddie is actively trying to screw marius over to save himself! so to have these people who he actually somewhat trusts and who trust him in return? i think that's life changing.
and there's this scene with carly where marius mentions the bernhardts being a normal family and carly is like. normal family? and marius acknowledges that they may not be completely normal, and that's that. but to him, this is what a family should look like. a type of family he never got to experience, so of course this is normal for him. he even says this after learning about some of the fucked up things that have happened in the past and continue to go on between these people, knows about the strained dynamics, but it's still enough for him to feel safe. i think marius might be his most normal when he's with julia, shows her what he can do, but the thing is, he doesn't even think about it. he just does it, because he feels safe enough to. literally exposes himself as a fantastic liar, somewhat admits he's in deep with some bad people. and he did this all without a second thought, didn't even think, maybe i shouldn't show this person what i'm capable of when i'm about to con them. he even willingly comes back to save her life when he already told her it's best to run away from danger. she sees this as cowardice while marius just sees it as survival. which really shows the different experiences they've had in life. and yet, all the same, they bond and they work well together and they enjoy each others' company. like, genuinely. and that's something completely new for marius because he doesn't do bonding. the friends we see him have are old friends, people he's known for years. making friends ... it's not something he's interested in doing, but here, with the bernhardts, he just. subconsciously does that. sure, we can say he may need to bond with these people bc they literally think he's their cousin / family, and if he's going to be let into the family secrets, he has to be close to them. but there's no doubt in my mind that's not what's driving marius here. none of this behavior is calculated, he's not bonding or attempting to bond with them because it's the smartest thing to do. he's doing it because he fucking wants to. and that is just so interesting to me because marius knows better than to get attached, he's a seasoned fucking criminal, and yet...
and after he sees his own brother betray him?? marius doesn't even get mad, even when he would never do that to eddie, he doesn't get angry. i just don't think he's quick to anger, ever. irritation? yes. but not anger. and he can be a genuinely kind and understanding person, especially when it comes to people's emotions and motivations, like... he doesn't judge others for that. even if he doesn't feel the same way, even if it's something he would never do, he can empathize. at his core, marius is a sweet and warm person, but his entire life he's been molded into a criminal, a con artist. i'm sure he had to steal as a kid to help feed himself and his brother, because while we get very little information about he and eddie's childhood, it's clear to see that their mom wasn't a good one. and she was incredibly young. marius was always the caring older brother, always did everything he could to protect eddie, enough to where it's shaped him into who he is today. and he doesn't even resent that. he'd do it again in a heartbeat, and he does. his priority will always be the people he cares about, but when he cares about his brother and the bernhardts, who he has to steal from to protect his brother, what then? it's such an interesting dilemma and the writers just ... did a fantastic job of setting it up. this show, at least the first season, really is insanely well written and acted. giovanni ribisi is genuinely perfect as marius. and it's so funny because no one else i've showed this series to has liked it, but i just!! god i fucking adore it. i could write a fucking dissertation on it, about the fox metaphors, about marius and why he is the way he is, about VINCE?! fuckkk he's a great antagonist. there's just so many amazing characters in this show and i truly find myself liking every single one of them. that's rare. so, sneaky pete? you have a fan for life. will i ever finish s3? probably not but s1 goes so fucking hard and i'm never going to get over this story. also honorable mention, marius thinking anything spiritual is a scam is sooo interesting of him. he's such a skeptic. i love him. anyway. back to bed i go