Master Torbin is Shaggy using 90% of his strength.
This show keeps getting better as it goes on. Almost no dialog, yet this episode teaches such an important lesson.
The narrative told in these seven minutes is better and more meaningful than a lot of feature length movies.
You think you're not really watching Bluey, then you get this intro and it throws you so much you have to stop what you're doing and back it up to make sure it even happened.
If the characters winked at the screen any harder, their eyeballs would bleed. It's a worthy message, but with such ham-fisted writing that it makes Whittaker's run seem nuanced and understated.
Otherwise, this is exactly what you would expect from modern Who.
This show continues to be weird as hell in the best way possible. Not AotS, but this will most likely end up being a favorite of 2024 for its originality. This kind of left-field storytelling is something only Anime can really aspire to.
Gabriel didn't have to shut Lila down THAT hard. If he directed that kind of anger at Ladybug and Cat Noir, this show would've ended after one episode.
This feels like an unfinished script they dug up from 2010.
The fight between Mark and Anissa has a very strong General Zod controlling Superman by threatening Lois Lane vibe.
Once again, the animators taking Every. Single. Live-action. Producer. To. School.
Real blackout darkness without making the show difficult to watch. Every light source and shadow in this episode was premeditated. Even when characters were completely hidden by shadows, I could still see what was going on on a nine-year-old LCD. The entire episode took place on an island experiencing total overcast and yet everything still looked beautiful and colorful.
If a genie suddenly told me I had three wishes, my first wish might actually be that every human values and respects the ability to competently frame and light a scene!
As for the actual story... Asajj Ventress, Kraken Whisperer.
The way Ventress was so casually (re)introduced, and the way she relates to the Batchers was a real left-field play and I really liked it. And they finally said "Midi-chlorians" after being so cheeky for so long with M-count this, M-count that. Just say the word. It's not cursed or anything.
Another thing I really liked is how Crosshair gave Ventress his hand. Good Crosshair, you're LEARNING!
Omega's journey is about to get very heavy, and we are now at the half-way point for the final season. This whole series has been one bar higher than the animated Star Wars that came before, and this season has been so focused and devoid of any distractions. I'm so conflicted that this is the end, but I'm so pleased that this isn't the end for Filoni's animated Star Wars.
(I'm still holding my breath for a complete remaster of the original Clone Wars series using the current version of their animation engine.)
I don't think anyone was asking for gator wrasslin' down on the bayou in Star Wars, but here we are.
We thought the old dude was bad. Naw, he's just a reckless old dude that puts other people's lives in danger because he has a hunch - like Gandalf or Dumbledore.
This one gets the first 10 of the season. Not because it's one of the best episodes overall, but because the plot is so perfectly honed and has almost no fat on it.
From the start to the finish, this episode is one, long run and gun. First it's the Imperial company against Rex's crew, then it turns into a squadron against the Batchers, then it turns into the Operative against Crosshair. Which leads to a very serious fight to the death that lingers on Crosshair beneath the water just long enough to make me genuinely worried that he was about to be Battlestar'd right then and there. You can see the fear of death on his face when he gets rescued. More trauma to add to the pile.
And the standoff at the end is a painting that Kubrick could be proud of. Even though it seems unusual that an Imperial Commando would just let them all go, they were clones that long stopped being mind-controlled by the inhibiter chip and are now just following orders - another clone's orders. Brothers recognizing brothers.
No wasted time, no wasted words. Everything that was done and was said is peak Filoni and peak Star Wars. This whole season has been almost completely free of filler thus far, but this episode in particular - the second half of a two-parter - is a shining example of why The Clone Wars and everything that spun off of it has tremendously raised the bar for what I expect from Star Wars and animation in general.
Love how the entire fight with Blue Streak is one big Lightcycle reference.
One of the best episodes of the series. BJ can be scary when he wants to.
Spending 45 minutes dunking on The United States of America made for one of the best episodes of QI ever.
David Mitchell got ANGRY when the subject of tea came up!
This isn't a cooking show, this is a Souls-like!
(And Laios made a friend, so cute!)
If they don't call that song "Goblin King Swing" on the soundtrack, I am going to be angry.
"I'm going to make him watch all the Star Trek, all three series." - Danielle Poole, 2003~4
If you count The Animated Series, that means this timeline did not get Deep Space Nine or Voyager (or Enterprise). I can imagine this has something to do with the falling out Ronald D. Moore had with Star Trek's Executive Producer at the time Rick Berman, who gave him hell on DS9 and led him to leave Voyager very early on. I wonder how many TNG movies there are in this timeline. This episode is set about around when the last TNG movie, Nemesis, was released in our timeline.
Edit: Someone else pointed out that FAM's timeline might have gotten Star Trek Phase II. Which would mean no Next Generation either. And because The Motion Picture was created from the ashes of the cancellation of Phase II, probably no Star Trek films at all! Imagine a few years of 60s Trek, a couple years of 60s cartoon Trek, then maybe a few more years of 70s Trek, all influenced by a young Roddenberry. And then the franchise peters out and gets shelved alongside shows like Battlestar Galactica and Space 1999 because people are much more interested in actual space travel than imagined space travel.
The way Dr. Strange goes from being a complex hero to a mustache-twirling villain in What If...? works so much better than the way Wanda Maximoff goes from being a complex hero to a mustache-twirling villain in Multiverse of Madness.
Yeah, there have been some recent movies that have been excellent and some recent TV that have been disappointing, but I wish the Marvel TV writers would be put in charge of the movies from now on. In general, they're just writing content that is so much more compelling.
This show is just so effortlessly good. So glad it came back.
The nightmarish intro to this episode was the funniest this show has ever been.
She casted Levitate on the damn horse, instead of the wagon.
This show just keeps giving and giving. A lot of them, like the most recent one, feel like mini-movies (some of them really are). After 20 minutes I feel like I've been watching for over an hour and am not the least bit bored.
Bravo, Danielle Poole, Bravo!
We were all thinking it, you finally said it. Watching a character in a show react the same way a viewer of the show would react is cathartic and almost therapeutic for how seldom it actually happens.
The saddest part is that Kelly and her family are going to Mars and Ed's shuttle back to Earth will probably pass them in transit. Bonus points if their eyes meet and he gives a sad wave through the viewport.
Now we finally have a visual on the crux of this season. I'm hoping the Goldilocks asteroid transforms the now Alt-History universe of For All Mankind into proper Science Fiction. Even though at the rate seasons are being released, the show won't overtake our calendar until both we and the show are in the 2030s.
Wouldn't this be a special instead of a regular episode?
If this isn't proper Doctor Who, I don't know what is.
The only thing better than David Hyde Pierce is two David Hyde Pierces.
This is one of the best things I've ever seen! Framing current and past events, which themselves tie into each other, within a Bunraku performance that mirrors both stories that also turns out to take place in-universe and after the fact is a master class in storytelling. Everyone involved in this series deserves multiple awards.
Major Burnham manages to look eerily like Henry Blake.
So good to have decent hard science fiction back on the air. Technology on the show has progressed to the point where I can start to see and feel parallels with The Expanse and Mass Effect (minus the aliens... ...so far). The visuals have also really gone up another level. The wide shots of them towing the asteroid are incredible!
I also missed the Soviet political intrigue. Now that The Americans is finished, it's a good way to keep myself from making the mistake of rewatching all of that again. Not because it's bad, but because I won't be able to stop. My backlog of stuff I haven't watched would put a curse on me.
Strong start, no time wasted. A much better start than teen angst and love triangles in the space hotel. This show really has become the heir apparent to classic Star Trek. Instead of a humanity that drives itself to the brink of extinction and has aliens hold their hands as they learn to travel the stars, humanity saves humanity. A humanity that prevents itself from becoming complacent and keeps feeding the hunger to go further. And we get to watch how, instead of making a perfect utopia, it simply makes the world better one little bit at a time. This is the show that will make future generations look upward and get inspired to be their best selves. And hopefully some of that positive change will affect this version of humanity.
(I always smile when I see the Okudas in the credits. They are good stewards of this show the way they were good stewards of Star Trek. Their respect for the story helps set For All Mankind shoulders above the rest.)
