What a horrific episode. I swear there's a missing episode. I want to rewatch to see what kind of locations were in this episode just to see if it makes sense that they had to reedit for covid reasons. Because the episodes starts off clearly 3 steps ahead of the last one which makes no sense. How did Nathan and Nora end up at the whitenoise waterfall? They were very clearly not there before. Aleesha was just a manager but now she's celebrating being a VP. She's coming off a tug of war about will she or won't she accept the company leash. Something that was just starting to be hinted at last episode. It couldn't be more clear that a full episode is missing. Even Ingrid's storyline has jumped from her starting the baby process in secret to now this episode she's already told Nathan and scheduled a final appointment to seal the deal something he clearly knows about and is fighting. I kind of feel like Luke downgrade to G-Rated dreams feels like maybe it's the end joke to her setting him to PG-13 and then PG and then G but to be fair even without that technically his storyline fits. But everything else just feels like it advanced somehow when I wasn't watching. I actually paused about 3minutes in to triple check that I wasn't missing some episode because I'm not in the US or something.
As an episode it was merely okay which is kinda raw considering the big things that happened. The big one being the Download that was teased. A risky procedure that has risky complications some of which we may or may not see. It involves Nathan making some big choices in orders that aren't necessarily obvious. It's all ends not in a cliffhanger or a big moment but a small one. The kind of thing you barely expect to end an episode much less a season. There's a lot of behind the scenes talk about the season length. Supposedly they "let the story determine the season length" which just reads like justification after the fact. I don't actually have any issue with the season length in general. 3 episodes, 10 episodes, 7 episodes I genuinely don't care. The problem isn't the number of episodes it's that they complete their story. Wheel of Time had this issue too. It's got a MASSIVE story to tell and squeezing it into 8 episodes just wasn't enough for the scale they were going for. EVERY episode felt rushed. What I'm seeing here with Upload Season 2 was perfectly paced and well done until this episode where suddenly the only conclusion we can make is they didn't have enough budget or health and safety for the penultimate episode. So rather than delay the show and try to complete it they just decided to skip it and go right to the finale.
As a season I enjoyed this only slightly less than the first. I really like the complexity to their characters. It's not the deepest show ever but Ingrid is a sympathetic villain. Luke was enjoyably consistent. Aleesha shows depth.
I can't even put into words my distaste for this movie. Only Americans will ask you to feel bad for their war criminals. The quote by Frankie Boyle describes this film perfectly, “Not only will America go to your country and kill all your people, they’ll come back twenty years later and make a movie about how killing your people made their soldiers feel sad.” The whole point of The Card Counter is to try to get you to sympathize with a war criminal who tortured, killed, terrorized people. Not only that but it's extremely unrealistic to ask the viewer to believe that anyone responsible for Abu Ghraib faced meaningful consequences. Like, come on, now!
This movie followed the most boring protagonists, who are as dull as they can get. Zero chemistry between any member of the cast. Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, and Tye Sheridan are basically in 3 different movies and each one of them is total garbage:
"Abu Ghraib torturer, but make him seeeexy" How? Oh, cast hot actor with beautiful eyes. Plus, he did his time, 8 years for the most vile crimes you can possibly imagine. But he is a good guy now. He fucks girls and support college kids. For someone I guess we're supposed to dislike (?), the movie spends a lot of time showing how cool he is.
Tiffany Haddish must’ve been the only actress to audition for the role of La Linda because she was radically miscast. She is not ready for dramatic acting. As for her character – she is independent and has connections with rich folks … that’s it. Wow, so interesting, right?! The 'chemistry' between her and Isaac was weird. It wasn’t seductive, it just felt like watching high schoolers flirt, but even more painful.
Cirk seemed like he is dumb as rocks. To expect us to care so much about a kid who we don't even know is irresponsible. I couldn't care less about his death or revenge killing.
Oh, and there is another character introduced like "USA!" guy with no point. But he was born in Ukraine, so he is not American. Oscar Isaac was born in Guatemala, grew up in USA and plays an American dude, while people born in Ukraine who grew up in USA are only Ukrainian. Even if you want to follow American rules, you just can’t because the Yanks are very inconsistent and hypocritical.
Most bad movies have some redeeming qualities. I can’t think of anything with this, everything just felt so bland to me:
Nothing is happening, and the movie is sooo repetitive . Oscar Isaac looking serious and walking in a casino,with suspenseful music - this is like 80% of the movie.
Almost every scene is an end in itself, nothing is explored, and doesn’t progress the story at all scene to scene.
The music. Oh, the music, which mainly featured vapid, brooding indie/electronic songs, is just all over the place here. I hated it!
There is basically no concept of tension or mystery, which is pretty important when you’re watching a fake game of poker.
The philosophy was so juvenile, and the movie lacks anything interesting to say. We are supposed to believe the main character is very mysterious and smart but he is one of the most boring, dull and flat characters I have ever seen.
The dialogue is godawful, no exaggeration here! "I have no goals", "Have you ever read a book", "What is your story" etc. It felt so awkward and as if the characters aren’t even talking to each other.
Why is it called The Card Counter when the main character counted cards once onscreen and then spends the entire movie playing poker?
Did I see a different movie than all of these people rating it high?
Holy S, I can't understand the previous comments. This was one of the best 30 minute episodes of a comedy that I've ever seen. Surely there is a network sitcom that you can be watching if you want the same thing over and over again.
First, the episode was genius and in a sense reminded me of last season's first episode where they just kind of went free-form and didn't rush to get into the season. After all it is a larger story that they are telling - there will be lots of time to get to the train wreck that is surely coming. The episode also reminded me of shows like moonlighting that weren't afraid to have a theme show once in a while. If you saw the show's tag line it shouldn't have taken 20 minutes to figure out what they were going for. I was rolling towards the end of the show.
And finally... the point wasn't to show them all cute and cuddly. They aren't and that was the point. They are both dark and the episode showed how when the stars align they can be dark together and have a beautifully dark relationship that is all their own.
EDIT 5/20/2019. As I said in my review of the season premier there was a larger story to tell here. This episode set the scene for the last few minutes of the finale (not unlike how the first episode of the Sopranos last season set the scene for the magnificent ending).
[8.1/10] I’m so glad that they’re making Rita into a real character with this one. There’s a certain clichedness when we met her in the first episode, seemingly ignoring her son in favor of going out to land a “doctor dad.” But this episode puts that into context, from the abject shittiness of Bear’s biological father, to the sense in which Rita’s trying to provide for her family in multiple ways, to simply getting to hear her inner monologue (with a fun illustration of it) that makes her a richer and more sympathetic character. It’s a great way to evolve the audience’s understanding of her.
Bear’s sympathetic here too. The savvy viewer knows that his dad isn’t going to come, but also understands why hope springs eternal for a sixteen-year-old boy who can’t help but idolize his dad and wishes he’d come home. Seeing Bear go all out trying to get food his dad likes, movies they used to watch together, and even a gift for the deadbeat is heartbreaking even before Punkin flakes yet again. The actor who plays Bear does an excellent job of selling both the character’s joy at the prospect of his dad’s visit, and the crestfallen low when he fails to show up with another lame excuse.
I’m also a big fan of Elora’s storyline here. The invitation to join the rival gang comes a bit out of nowhere (or, more specifically, the grocery store). But Jackie puts a bug in her ear about the thing that so often divides people -- money. The simple idea that Elora’s more serious about earning and saving to get to California, while she watches Bear spend the group’s savings in a comparatively lavish fashion, communicates the way a simple comment can drive a wedge. We understand both Bear’s reason for spending and Elora’s reason for being put out by it, which makes for the best sorts of character conflicts.
I especially like the line this one draws between Rita and Elora. The notion that they have to make it work on the ground when the men in their lives are chasing dreams resonates through both of their stories. Both have to try to manage Bear’s foolish yet understandable expectations, with the implication that Rita’s already been through this sort of nonsense with his father.
Not for nothing, this is also a really funny episode of the show! RIta’s inner monologue isn’t just revealing, but has some good wry humor about the different sides of her, both equally valid and witty parts of her identity. Punkin’s scumbag qualities are frustrating but also ridiculous. The irony of the anti-diabetes festival hosting a rapper who sings about greasy fry bread is a laugh. The interlude where Rita spends the night with a guy who she thinks might be the ticket she’s been looking for, only to realize he’s got a confederate flag tattoo and a bevy of other problematic traits is well-observed. And the imagine spot of his plantation-esque days is darkly funny.
But the piece de resistance is her and Bear in the car after getting the news that Punkin isn’t coming. She reassures Bear but speaks plainly with him, telling her son that he can’t rely on hsi father, and that she’ll cut Punkin out of their lives if it’s what Bear wants. You can see in the way she wrinkles her nose at the suitor’s suggestion that Bear “needs a dad” that for all her desire to get Bear the resources a new father figure might bring, she’s strong enough to be all the parent he needs, and lives that every day.
Overall, I know I said this last time, but this is my favorite episode yet, and features a rich character story about an important part of Bear’s world who’s been otherwise underdeveloped until now.
This is an episode that cements something that's been bothering me this entire time. I'm not a fan of all the changes they've made to the relationship dynamics but these things are inevitable. But the thing that really bothered me is that Wednesday comes to this school and three nearly identical dudes are super into her, which in itself is fine. The problem is that contrary to what Xavier says here Wednesday gives absolutely zero indication that she's into any of them. So when the boys get upset that she isn't returning their affection I'm confused like why? She has given you nothing. The real problem is the framing of the show suggests they are right and Wednesday should be recognizing what she's doing to these poor guys. While I never saw Wednesday as an emotionally stunted child like they're clearly making here, Ortega has done a brilliant job of making Wednesday show absolutely zero affection for anyone or anything except the oppressed. She protects her brother. She protects her friends. She protects anyone who needs protection. But she couldn't care less about your romance neither rejecting nor accepting just completely apathetic.
For a show that keeps name checking patriarchy it's kinda weird that the show also wants to basically shame Wednesday for doing absolutely nothing in the deluded fantasies of white dudes that insist she's giving them signals.
I must be half way through part one by now and I think I'm realizing my issue with this season so far. First of all it's a mess. That's obvious. This isn't the focused character study we've been used to. This is literally a murder mystery. This is the Fast 5 genre turn for You.
But the problem isn't that it's different. It's that it's lost it's raison d'etre. I root for a lot of anti heroes here in "peak TV". I rooted for Dexter easily. I rooted for Walter White in slightly nuanced ways that I think a lot of Breaking Bad fans just didn't get. Yes he's the bad guys but I understand why he's doing it. It's why I was confused when I found out everyone hated Skylar. She's my second favorite character. Without rehashing that debate to myself again. Joe was different. I rooted for Joe like I do almost every main character but I felt slimy doing it. In a way I've never felt before. I wanted Joe to win. I wanted Joe to live. I wanted Joe to escape but there was nothing I could point to and say "here's why he deserves it not just because he's the lead character in a show about himself but he did this at least". That's why the children in season 1 and season 2 were a drag on Joe. The children were slightly redemptive. But Joe isn't a redemptive character. He's so well acted, well written that you don't need to redeem him. I put this on Penn because he does what the character does. He charms you. In anyone else or with worse direction you'd have to keep emphasizing how charming he supposed to be but with You, he just is. Joe is really goodlooking. Joe is erudite. Joe is everything I imagine a women wants to just take home and do filthy things to. And then you hear what's going on in his head. The "he loves kids" part ruins that. Just let Joe be Joe. He can just be the bad guy that you, as a man, understand just a little too well. The funhouse mirror to how you think when you meet a pretty girl or just any girl that says "Hi" to you while making eye contact. Nothing will make you fall in love faster than a girl who makes sustained eye contact.
Joe was perfectly crafted to be just so distasteful in exactly the right way. From a character perspective he thinks the same way Dexter and Walter do. He's justified in his actions because of his motivations and the information he has. But You did something great. It broke the internal narrative. And it did it by giving Joe an internal monologue.
It's not just hearing his voice but everything in the show that really showed Joe to be from the get go not what he thinks he is. Joe is horrible but he thinks he's noble. Joe thinks he's in love but he doesn't respect autonomy. Every dark thought I've had as a man, Joe breathes into existence and shows it's true face. He acts on thoughts we all learn to suppress like adenaline junkies learn to not jump off the cliff just because it's there. It was all so well balanced and focused on revealing Joe for who he is to the audience if no one else.
Joe in Season 4 isn't that guy. Joe's always fought with controlling himself and here suddenly he's a bastion of control. Suddenly here he's reading women for the signals they're actually giving him as opposed to the signals he wants them to give him. Here Joe is who is thinks he is. There's no heel turn. Not for us, not for Joe, not even in retrospect (at least not yet). And rooting for Joe now feels broken because he's still Joe but now I feel like the show is rooting for him too. You trust the show to keep you honest. To remind you that Joe isn't going to be the good guy this time around. The murder mystery (in every context of that term) is distracting from who Joe is. It's allowing him to shine as the hero he always thought he was. But that's not You. You is about a man who thinks he's the hero every woman wants but she's not even in danger much less in need of rescuing. Penn is still great. He's fantastic and I've seen Charlotte in so many programs and she's doing a rather solid job here. Will I tune in? Yes. But it's not You anymore. It's Me and a Joe focused on himself might make for a better man but it doesn't make for a better character.
Okay so let's talk about episodes 5 and 6.
Ron Pearlmen was an utter delight. I can't not say that. He always is. Just is. Even here in this lackluster role. That said the second half of the season is a noticeable upswing. I really like even this episode and what it's doing character-wise. Plot-wise it was nonsense but it's not like it's going anywhere anyway at least now I'm starting to enjoy the ride. The interplay between our leads is interesting even if the again the fact that they are spies is not. What I find fascinating is that there's more narrative flow and consistency in the titles and descriptions than there is in the show. It's like they prepared the show with the titles and synopsis long before they started filming. Because this
Couples Therapy (Naked & Afraid) - Oh, John. Oh, Jane. Our pair have been oh so bad at sharing and caring. Time to call in help -- John and Jane, get ready for: COUPLES THERAPY, what a gas!
Is an entire different level than what even this episode is. This is fun and goofy and comical in a way that not even at it's best the show is. Maybe on a scene by scene basis you might find something worthy of the type of gassing in the title/synopsis but most of it is very different. It's lazier, more laid back, less invested. Which to say yet again I don't put on Maya and Donald. They're solid but the writing and directing just don't care. It's weird to look at this show and say "Well at least True Lies the TV Show tried." I mean the True Lies show bombed like 70-80% of it's run time but at least they were going for something. The jokes were sometimes dumb but they came (a little too) consistently.
As for episode 6? Well honestly it's my favorite episode so far. It's fun in a way that few episodes have been until now. Holy snap it just occurred to me. Part of it is the missing intrigue. As I've said before this is a show with zero guile. I mean they're spies but spies in this world is a gig job. Anyone signs up anyone gets in and the AI runs you like an uber app. It's dumb and boring and uninteresting. But here... here they have to lie. They have to explain translate and keep things up in front of a therapist who, imo, Sarah Paulson made utterly adorable "Yeah! Whatever DID happen to Mya?" I died. She was hilarious. It's amazing how just getting the formula right finally lets everything shine. The spycraft is minimized but it doesn't matter because I'm having a ball watching Maya and Donald rehash their relationship. A relationship I actually care about this episode. "The therapist episode" shows the potential of this series.
Wow what a whirlwind. This is not an easy show to watch. You really have to step into the culture and really handwave a lot of stuff as just being due to their culture. Not just the matching, but the dispassionate way in which they force the matching. The insistence on traditional aspects to the point where they don't make sense like hand writing your database rather than keeping them on a secure database. It's just maddening watching this woman scroll through hand written notes when a simple database query would be much more efficient. If you want to reduce people to number that's fine. But then what purpose does writing them down serve.. at that point just assign a number and use filters and queries.
That matches are all over the map. There's the villain girl, the secret gay, and the foreigner which in this case means East Indian from Guyana. There's definitely a degree to which some of this is just reality TV nonsense. Like without stepping on cultural toes. I think I can safely say that the last one has no business even looking to this particular matchmaker. She's very East Indian old school. Which doesn't even look close to what she wants. But hey it does get her on the reality show. Our villain girl is a typical rich kid but that's pretty much everyone here. She's not very friendly but I think that actually makes her super easy to match with. You find her a guy who doesn't mind being "bullied" by his wife and there are plenty of guys like that. There's so much to take in though.
Okay. I'll give it this. Whatever my gripes with the series as a whole, it ended well. Let's talk about episodes 7 and 8. The final pairing.
Episode 7 starts with "Infidelity" and ends with the third strike and a separation between Jane and John. Michaela Coel has what is probably the best line of the series. Which is a shame because unlike say the best line in Ted Lasso it has nothing to do with the show. It's a throwaway line about how "We're not bonding you have a gun on me". It's brilliant. In a world where no one seems to care about telling anyone they are a spy, it makes it very confusing to care about things like when spies take people hostage. Oh sure this time she turned out to be a spy as well but in the next episode the same thing happens but not. The show very clearly doesn't have any conception of what a spy is. To the point where they get missions and pretend they have to keep a secret but then they ... don't. Ever. pretend or keep secrets. This was a solid episode where I liked the interplay between them because they had something to do while keeping up that interplay. Sort of like how YouTubers hold microphones no matter what type or style or situation because they need to do something with their hands. This show needs to do something with it's background plot or the interplay between the leads just feels weird and pointless.
Episode 8 Our finale of course is going to have a lot of big moments. You have your requisite dramatic irony as two character try to kill each other for the crime of trying to kill each other a crime neither committed. It goes on for way way way too long as an audience member but it's balanced well with all the action. It comes to a nice conclusion fight scene wise. We find out who was really pulling their strings as well as who was pulling THEIR strings. And then we have an excellent cliffhanger ending. Once again we have a spy taking someone to extreme levels of violence but this time it's not a spy posing as a civy it's an actual civy. In a show that played this sort of thing for laughs that could be funny but this show has a mise that's fairly serious but doesn't make sense. You can't do that. As a counter example I just watched Jason Statham's Beekeeper recently. That's a movie that's ostensibly about getting revenge on tech support scammers from someone who has never actually seen a tech support scam. What I actually think happened is because of the complexities of the optics and racism they needed to modify the villains so they made them into wall street traders. Which is fine because this is a fairly goofy movie. Contrast that to MMS where everything about it is goofy (Title, Concept, Synopsis, even the poster) except the actual episodes themselves. Those are played far too straight to take with humor. So when the FBI gets a case that involves oval office members and they tell the Secret Service to put it aside? I can take that in a movie where some dude gets strapped to a car and driven off a bridge. But when you hold a gun to a Sotheby's agent and threaten to kill them except "nah it's ok". That's a little harder to take. It's a good episode. Top 3 of the series even, but almost all of the good is due to finale shenanigans. Not literally all but almost all.
I'm perfectly willing to watch a second season. I naively believe now that we have a lot of the awkwardness out of the way there's no way the second season is going to have the same problems that plagued the first. We'll have a more focused story because there's not a lot of story floating. We have direct questions that need to be answered now. I actually need to rewatch the whole thing because I think there's a lot of ending interstitial I might have missed. The one in episode 7 foreshadows some of the discussion about Hihi in episode 8.
The writing is still too on the nose in general, and for Wednesday's character in particular, and feels too much like a standard, mediocre YA work, but the good scenes are still there, but just happen to mostly be between Wednesday and Thing. I think there's a subtly dropped bit of foreshadowing about halfway through.
There are some really nice shots peppered throughout the episode, like a few dramatically lit closeups on boyfriend boy, siren girl, and Wednesday herself, along with Wednesday's walk down the stairwell at Nevermore. I don't know how much of the location is prop design, and how much was existing architechture, if at all, but the location is gorgeous. Likewise, the costume design continues to impress in Wednesday's case. I don't know what they were thinking with the plantation creep and Colonel Sanders thing that Xavier and barista boy were sporting.
Then, there is, of course, the dance scene. Directors love their party and prom scenes, and Jenna's dance was just great, and a delight to watch. I still wish this show had been shot in the Cinemascope-style wider 2.35-2.37:1 AR, as the extra space and a wider shot on the periphery of the subject would have made the dance scene even more dramatic. Maybe they'll do that for season 2. Fingers crossed.
It would also be nice if the actors would consistently speak clearly. Almost all of the younger cast alternate between using their voices normally and falling into vocal fry mode, which is always unpleasant to listen to, especially when it's part of a professional production. I had social anxiety disorder hanging on my back for far too long thanks to ASD, so I understand vocal fry when being forced to have to actually talk to people when you're uncomfortable even speaking, but it's like actors aren't even learning speech training anymore. Go back and watch any '90s TV show or film, or even things from the 1970s and 1980s. American actors back then didn't sound like they were afraid to use their voices, and they were vibrant and simply pleasant to listen to. Hollywood just needs more of a culture of stage acting training as a baseline, as it always adds depth and nuance to a performance.
All in all, the show seems to be in idle mode with a few peaks every episode, but nothing that consistently wows. There's enough potential here that a single season like this could be worth it as long as their writing and directing team really shapes up to fully realize the concept in seasons going forward. If not, Netflix may drop the two-season axe like they should have done after season one of Flixer. But I am invested to see where it goes, so I hope it lives beyond the sell-by date of its gimmicks.
Season 3 is when I gave up on this show being subversive. It's laughably corporate. Ridiculously so. For a program that started out about a group of people who were all about the punk attitude and so anti-corporate they were working to take down the biggest corporation. The show has done nothing but suggest they were morally wrong for doing so. I expected the show might suggest how they did it was wrong. I expected the show might suggest things aren't better. I expected the show might push that they failed, but the last thing I expected is the show to constantly undermine the morality of taking down a literal evil corporation. To the point where this season is about restoring Evil Corp without a shred of irony. I realize 2017 wasn't 2020 but protests against racism and the government and corporations weren't uncommon. I don't understand how they can so frustratingly miss the point episode after episode, season after season. I kept expecting someone to realize the deeper layer. I figured there's no way this show is just going to ignore the bigger picture here. This is the season I realized I was waiting for it to happen and that it wouldn't ever happen.
I was absolutely floored for instance when they killed off all the minority characters from the f.society crew in such pointlessly racialized ways. Romero the black guy was killed in a literal drive-by off screen and the two brown characters were framed for terrorism. I believe even in the new f.society gang everyone I recall was white. It's so distractingly awkward it detracts from the general narrative because I keep expecting a deeper level at play. There isn't. It's a remarkably surface level show now that we're past the phase of unreliable narrator twists. Season 2 was a mess of the constant unreliable narrator and the backfill episodes and most of that is gone now so Season 3 is much easier to follow but that doesn't help the major themes and the issues with them.
I'm not sure how I feel about this episode. On one hand, there were moments throughout it that were very enjoyable and up-there with memorable moments. On the other hand, as a whole, this episode wasn't that interesting. It felt like a massive, very noticeable step-down, in a general sense, from all the previous episodes.
Maybe some of it is because I was expecting more and more insanity, suspense, that sort of thing, following the fifth episode and the fact that the end of the season is getting closer, which did happen, with the subsequent episode/previous episode but to a lesser extent, I was just expecting that to be the case for every remaining episode. And I feel like the momentum that was seemingly being started with the previous two episodes as an extension of a slower, more gradual momentum that has been moving along since the beginning of the season but especially, the fifth episode, has been broken with this episode.
Then again, when I put some thought into it, I guess it wouldn't quite make sense for things to get even crazier and whatnot, especially if it's just because the end of the season is closing in. I feel like this season has already hit its peak as far as the Doom Patrol-ness of everything is concerned. If anything, I'd go as far as to say that the peak of this season was the first three episodes, with worthwhile-to-mention, memorable moments scattered throughout not only those episodes but especially the ones following it, up to this point.
I don't want to sound...I don't know, however way some people may assume by me saying this, but there's a part of me that's relieved that there are only two episodes left. I feel like this season has dragged me in from the beginning, then dragged me out a little in-between the season but not quite in the middle, then dragged me back in, in the middle, which didn't last as long as when that whole process began, and now, I think I've been dragged out more than I was after the beginning and before the middle where I was dragged back in. And let me preface all of this by saying that I don't hate this season. I do think that the first season was much more enjoyable, which isn't necessarily everything, I know. I'd say that there were moments, so far, which have been just as enjoyable as some of the very memorable, iconic moments in the first season. I just can't help but feel a little relieved that the season is just about over.
I can say I've seen it. I can say I laughed uproariously. Because holy wow is this movie awful. Front to back, start to finish. It's so bad you sometimes forget it's offensive too. On purpose.
One of the first gags is that after failing to inspire his new youth male team. He dismisses them reminding them not to steal his catalytic converter. After being called out for it by the black player. The black player drops a saw used to steal catalytic converts. In the next scene he doesn't have a catalytic converter.
There's not so much acting as there is setting up punchlines whether they're awful verbal jokes or pointless (and often too long) visual gag montages. I was going to say something about the imitation indie music and wanna be Karate Kid soundtrack but the credits were still rolling and the song section came up. All the songs are by William Boreing. I don't know if that's Jeremy's son or whatever nepotism nonsense but the music was uninteresting. It wasn't sonic garbage just... boring.
You could spend an hour debunking all the nonsense assumptions the movie makes erroneously. But for my money even from a conservative Daily Wire standpoint most of the movie is just dumb and pointless which is a problem because the movie's only saving grace is supposed to be it's messaging. It's like a Christian Faith movie in that way. Christian Faith movies are awful but they're awful because they don't care about anything other than sending the right message. The art of storytelling doesn't come into it. The only one that matters is the root story. That a team of men's washouts could dominate in women's sports. Ironically basketball is a poor choice for this because the gender differences aren't THAT big. And physical mass isn't everything like you see in the movie. Not when you're playing comparable teams. The women's teams are practiced active teams and our ladyballer are again some washouts who are hanging out just to do this. It's so casually done you never see them practice which is both a reflection of how much this isn't a sports movie and a reflection of what the movie thinks about female players. You see what it thinks at the end of the movie when it has grown bulked out basketball players playing with girl-children.
No one expects a vanity project to be perfect. But just because it's a vanity project doesn't mean you get to by pass every narrative concept. Me, You, Madness is awful. This is worse. But that one PRESENTS as a vanity project. This presents as a movie with something to tell through humor. It's not JUST lazy. It's not JUST offensive. It's not funny either. There's just scenes that you know the DW found funny. Scenes that they were dying laughing while they were writing it. But in the end on the movie are just... "ehh oh i see what they were trying to do".
There is a lot to like about this episode but I faded out a bit for a while (maybe because I'm a little tired). I commented after episode 5 that they hadn't given much of a sense of time passing so the storyline had seemed a bit too soon. In may be because they felt the need to do that storyline that they kept this one for a little later but they could have used a similar mechanism as this episode to make it seem like they had been together for many months, it's really not that hard to do. Unless I missed it, they could have just made a few mentions of the many missions they had done off camera.
This episode (or something like it as this storyline only makes sense after they have established their relationship enough) might have also set the tone early on in the series. If done earlier it could have better set the tone with the whole spy caper just being a background to set their relationship against. With all the artificial restrictions it puts on them as two strangers who willingly accept an arranged marriage, while working together in a high stress job.
Now that the show has set the stage they can pretty much get into what the show will be going forward, if picked up for another season.
[6.4/10] This is another episode with a great idea and so-so execution. Starfleet officers having to infiltrate enemy ships/outposts is a good old chestnut, and there’s a lot of potential in the idea of humans having to pretend to integrate into Klingon/Romulan/Krill culture so as not to be discovered. The catch is that The Orville does this through a watered-down Abott & Costello routine with Mercer and Lloyd, where the jokes are half as inspired and the omnipresent references to 20th century pop culture and implausibility of the pair to pass as genuine Krill saps all the tension and suspense from their undercover efforts.
But it’s an interesting idea. I have to admit, I found it interesting that a show created by Seth MacFarlane, who has been very critical of the George W. Bush administration both in interviews and his T.V. series, painted its major villains as religious zealots with a nuke akin to an “Axis of Evil” country with a WMD. It is definitely in keeping with MacFarlane’s professed views to see technologically advanced cultures who are still so devoted to religion as misguided and even dangerous. But regardless of the real world analogues, it’s an interesting idea for an antagonist community in the series.
What’s more, I like the moral dilemma at play here. Mercer and Lloyd are theoretically just there to get intel on the Krill’s holy book, so that the Union can use that to make peace with them, or at least better understand their enemy. Then they find out that the Krill are planning to use a space nuke on an innocent farming colony, prompting them to try to destroy the Krill ship they’ve infiltrated. Then they find out that there are Krill children, some of whom question the indoctrination they’ve received and seemed poised to accept humanity as an equally ensouled species worthy of appreciation.
There’s some clichés there, but also some nuance. The catch is that the episode peppers so many of these developments with lame gags that it becomes hard to take the implications seriously. The running jokes about the Krill worshipping a deity who has the same name as a 20th century rental car company are such a stretch and elicit no laughs, and asides from Mercer about what he has written on his “tramp stamp” are just painfully unfunny. I had hope, since this is the first episode where Seth MacFarlane doesn’t have a writing credit, that we might be spared some of this stuff. But no, tis still here, dragging down what could otherwise be a decent, even great episode.
We do get some classic Trek action in the form of Mercer and Lloyd having to figure out a way tod disable the Krill crewmen while sparing the Krill children (and the Krill teacher they’ve befriended). There’s enough Treknobabble and wrinkles there -- from Mercer remembering that the Krill grow up in darkness and using that against them to Lloyd’s holographic disguise no longer fooling the bad guys -- to make the story work.
I particularly like the bittersweet ending, where Mercer saved the day, but the teacher suggests that the children he worked so hard to say will now be radicalized against the Union. That feels like an acknowledgement of the complexity of the political allegories at play here which feels true both to the shows The Orville is aping, and to the infinitely complex tangles of the real world.
That said, I continue to wish that The ORville would just give up the pretense and go for being a straight Star Trek impression than trying to inject so much of this tepid comedy into the series. I know it’s MacFarlane’s trademark, and I suspect I’m just going to have to accept it as a cost of doing business when it comes to watching this show. But I nevertheless wish that the series would spend more time on its Trek-imitation and less on its Family Guy imitation.
Somewhat interesting case. I know people don't like Michael but the "Oh he's a Dad so he doesn't know how to get his kids ready in the morning and it's so goofy and wacky the girl-child will go to school wearing a hat" routine is just kinda ridiculous. To the point where it really should have been lampshaded. We've seen this literal scene beat for beat like 180 times. Down to the hat. Down to the "Uh.. uh I don't have lunch so take some money". Down to the female not mom coming in and the kids ignoring dad to greet her and then leave. It's like they pulled this scene from Fisher-Price My First Screenplay book.
I think it's gross that she went to mental rehab and didn't tell anyone but her sister. I mean I was setup for the she wants a divorce and feels guilty about sticking with a man she doesn't love. Drop him and live your life I get that. But she went to a medical facility and just ghosted on her entire family. That's stupid. Lucky the police weren't called in to track you down. There's no reason not to leave instructions for the sister to let them know what happened. All it does is just stretch out how long I thought she left him to start divorcing him.
Aunt Nancy: Sneering My sister is going through something serious she doesn't understand herself. Last thing she needs is you swooping in trying to have a hero moment
As a reminder his "hero moment" was being willing to have taken Gina his wife to the mental hospital himself. I'm not saying the dude desperate to not divorce his wife doesn't have problems. But this ain't it. He has no idea what's going on. His kids don't know what's going on. I mean honestly all things considered he took that news that she didn't want to be around him like. a. champ. He didn't fight it. He accepted it. He's literally "best case scenario"-ing right now. And then there's Nancy who the show is trying to tell us is in the morally superior position but saying things like this
Michael: [And so you're saying] It's way better to keep me and her kids in the dark thinking that something bad happened to her?
Aunt Nancy: Sneering This is bad.
Michael: You know what I mean Nancy
And again, Michael's right. Because in no way was he denigrating the struggle she's going through. He's been supportive since he found out (which was like 10 seconds ago). His only problem was that she disappeared and everyone refused to tell him why? What IS he supposed to tell the kids when she just doesn't show up for breakfast? Aunt Nancy is too busy tone policing him to consider reality. People get sick. People you depend on get sick and that's life but it'd be nice to know they got sick and not just have them disappear like they got murdered because those are two different types of reactions you're going to get.
I don't know where they get these killers. You find a guy who has murdered 8 people and was literally on his way to do number 9 and heaven forbid they get framed for RICO. They will take that personally. They will wait 20-30-45 years if necessary but they will NEVER let it go... but why? I mean this isn't the burgler who gets framed by murder. This isn't the white collar criminal who gets framed for treason. This isn't the massage prostitute accused of child touching. This is a bad dude who does bad things who got setup for bad things. Even his father is like "I know my son he doesn't do drugs". Yeah but your son IS a rapist serial killer. I'm not sure what mileage he plans to get out of the 'at least he doesn't do drugs' stance. Nothing in his plan makes sense either. He wants to get at Director Wagner but he does it stumbling into killing someone and lucking out that she took the blame. Happening to have stolen her keys ages ago... and then leaving the murder weapon in a basket.
That's almost as stupid as all the cops rooting for Dir Wagner and yet them seeing their statutory requirements of holding her gun and her bad as a personal offense.
ACAB
And there it is... ACAB comes for all the cop shows eventually. We're bring it back because this was egregious. In the ACAB corner I'll highlight all the ways the show tries to make cops look better than they are. This is not normally a reflection on the show or it's quality.
Let's break down all the stupid nonsense in this episode. It starts from the fact that someone so high up is accused of killing someone on the skimpiest of evidence. Oh she ran into the house and there was someone dead. She must have killed them. What??? I don't understand all factors involved why she was given the task to go into the front door by herself while Will and Faith went round the back. If anything Will or Faith should have taken the front door solo and the other take Amanda with them to go out the back. She's a target so bad they both want to protect her, until it's time to face actual danger then she's fine on her own? It's an example of how the writing in this scene is so awful. I literally didn't understand what was happening until I realized this was just the most complicated insane way to setup Director Amanda Wagner for crime she didn't commit. That doesn't even take into consideration that in the narrative of the show this whole murder was just a setup from the jump. How did this week's guest star plan to have her accused of murder when he couldn't know she would be left alone. But she was alone for 2 minutes MAXIMUM and that's a huge stretch. Even with editing no way it was more than one minute but even if you call it two the idea that everyone just assumed she slammed this man dead in two minutes is just insane. Plus she would have had to secret away the murder weapon which was a very heavy blunt object. Something we saw the man throw in his truck and something Wagner never had time to hide. I honestly expected Will to point that out and this episode to take a different direction. Just like Wagner going in alone I was just confused why everyone thought she killed a man in like 20 seconds until later I realized oh wait this whole episode is going to be about what if everyone thought she killed a man.
Then we have the APD investigation of GBI. This is the central premise of the whole show they have to do it "By the book" or... what? Have you seen a cop shooting in real life? They shot Tamir Rice from three feet away on camera and it got ruled justifiable. The idea that people would take this circumstantial case so seriously remains laughable. It's the sort of thing a police consultant on set would suggest. Because they always suggest it. This "By the book" episode just shows how hard cops have it. How they can't just DO THE WORK because "By the book" is stopping them and interfering with their ability to do the job. In real life, one cop team investigating another cop team is like asking a Lion to stop a Tiger from eating a rabbit. It's like asking a MGTOW and MRA to stop a PUA from hitting on a drunk girl. They literally are not capable of seeing what's wrong. It's a lose lose concept because if they do block Trent from the case it's just show how all the cop police are bad. If they don't block Trent it shows that cop police are pointless. You don't get points for going the second route Will Trent. It's literally just as bad. Honestly it just makes the storyline more confusing. The cop police (Angie and Michael) casually sidestep the entire purpose of a "By the Book" investigation by letting Will and Faith do literally whatever they want throughout the case. When Jenna Elfman's Captain Reynolds demands everyone not validate this case based on emotion but on hard evidence untainted by emotional ties. It's a respectable stance (once you swallow the hard hard pill that she's accused of murder) and Angie and Michael just poop all over it by completely ignoring her. Kinda disrespectful of law and order for the "good guys". But it's fine because they're the "good guys". Again this gets you the viewer used to the idea that cops should have the ability to do what they want
Will: Why are you impeding my-- this-- whoever's investigation
Reynolds: I'm am looking for facts and to maintain departmental oversight so that this case doesn't go to heck
I would like to point out that the "impeding" is Reynolds questioning evidence just as circumstantial as the case against Amanda. Oh a man ran from the house where someone was killed and cop is taking the blame but they're too honorable to assume the man was related to the case. Where are these cops? In real life we've seen cops approach someone at the wrong address looking for dark skinned dudes harassing light skinned dudes. Asking for Jason and arresting Derrick. Looking at suspect pictures with bald men and hassling dreadlocked brothers. But sure here the cops are asking "Did you see him exit the house? Then it's probably just a random "run away from cop"-er. :shakes fist impotently: If only Will was allowed to run this case and didn't have to follow oversight then he'd get the real criminals. Curse you oversight.
Then the APD interview someone who implicates Director Wagner and they basically cringe when he says her name. They were like: "eww sir could you just not say you think she did it. We're here to accuse your son. Focus on him please."
There's more church/state violation at Director Wagner's place and then we have cat and mouse with the real killer. And then complaining about procedure by "the good guys". Oh you have to wait for a warrant? That's so unfair. Maybe cops should have special ad-hoc post gratum warrants they can apply for afterwards so they don't have to wait? I mean it sounds laughable now but give it 10 more years of cop shows like this and a clever name and just the right amount of sympathetic victim or maybe just 10 billion from the right conservative billionaire and it'll happen. I mean technically it already happens. Cops backdate warrants and just lie. Who needs legal methodology when you can just cheat openly? After all you are the referee and you get to investigate yourself. You probably didn't cross any lines according to yourself so it's fine. Heck who needs all that when cops can just pretend they hear a baby crying and suddenly it's exigent circumstances. Heck if you follow bad cop news you know they don't even need to hear a baby crying. They'll make up whatever and call it exigent circumstances. A toaster pops and suddenly that's exigent circumstances. Who is going to question it? Internal Affairs? You mean other cops. Which is my point about this whole episode.
At this point we're just half way through the episode.
Then we get the backstory. Let's talk about what the backstory means and how the characters receive it. Because EVERYONE literally everyone without exception looks at Director Wagner with DISGUST when they find out what she did. She framed someone for a crime they didn't commit. Every one who finds out look at this like it's the most noxious nose twisting thing they've ever seen.
It's so weird considering the story. Which is that she was literally almost raped as a lesbian black female cop in the 90s. A demo so rare even her FAMILY told her not to bother telling anyone what happened and her family was in charge of the department. A reality so dark she immediately understood and didn't question it. Dude we can BARELY get a rape conviction 25+ years later. Imagine how hard it was in 95. But she got the information and setup a case anyway. It flopped so she framed him for something else.
Now keep in mind throughout this narrative it's never questioned that he deserved it. It's never suggested that it was unfair for him to get setup for dealing and note rape/murder. It's never suggested maybe he could have turned his life around if someone gave him a chance. He's the devil who got punished for slapping you with is left hand when in reality he slapped you with the right. And with that context the disgust that comes off Will Trent is disorienting. It doesn't make sense. There's a phrase in English that goes
.. and not a jury in the world would convict me
It's a reference to the concept of jury nullification. In the US the Jury is allowed to rule on the case for any reason. The purpose of the trial is to present the evidence and the argument and the corresponding laws for their consideration but at the end of the day the jury goes into their deliberation room and they get to decide. They don't have to follow the law. They can look at a case with compassion. They can look at a beaten women and find her innocent of murder in slicing off the dick of the husband who trapped her in a violent marriage. They can look at a mother who fired a warning shot at a dangerous ex boyfriend and find her innocent of all charges even though warning shots are literally against legal statute. The point at the end is that Director Wagner's situation here the quintessential example of a case where she could never get convicted. Who in the right mind would look at the evil and dangerous devil criminal and say Wagner should be found guilty. No one. ESPECIALLY not cops. ESPECIALLY not family and that's what Will is. Family.
Will: Yet you still sleep at night?
Wagner: I sleep knowing I kept him from raping any other women.
Again the dialog wants you to look at Will and say he's right but no. He's not. This whole segment is about copaganda and how police abuse their power to get justice in their eyes and STILL I'm saying Wagner was 100% right with no questions.
There's a conversation between Faith and Angie. It doesn't make any sense unless you have the most extreme copaganda glasses on. Why is Angie apologetic to Faith? She's been letting Faith literally do anything she wanted on this case. She brought a literal apology apple to open the conversation. Faith aside from the scuffle with unnamed cop #4 has been the literal voice of reason even in this episode. All this to say "Come cross the chinese firewall again today".
Speaking of apologies it's Will's turn to apologize and that went over like a YouTuber apology. He totally pulled a "Sorry if you were offended". Because he didn't apologize and then doubled down on the "How could you?" this time with puppy eyes. Again Director Wagner is 100% correct. None of these people will ever walk in her shoes. Saying you're not like other men doesn't make it any less true. Then the most hilarious scene where SWAT comes in to accuse a black women in jogging clothes of waving a semi-automatic gun at children in the park. Their description is "a women waving a semi-auto at children" so you attack the black women who clearly doesn't have a gun or anywhere to hide the gun? So pop quiz hot shot.. who called in the SWAT? It wasn't the devil criminal because she was hiding at Will's. I'm willing to maybe cede that she went to her same running path that she goes to every day.. which is stupid. And even then WHY? He's dedicated his life to framing her not just getting her killed by her own people.
Then Wagner finally caves and goes tell everyone what she did but Will responds that "You don't have to do this". What the character stance? He's been pushing her to take responsibility since the moment he found out and when she does he balks? So cops should ideally feel bad but not actually be forced out of the job because their mistakes and cheats are for the greater good. Cops know who their local dealers are if they're planting evidence it's probably better for everyone anyway.
Even as I review it, the situation is just so gross with Faith as it was with Will. Director Wagner it talking to her daughter about having dinner and talking it out
Faith: You know, I was halfway home when it dawned on me that I misspelled something on a witness statement. So I came back. That's how important this work is to me, the integrity of the work.
LIES. This whole episode she's been trampling all over the integrity of the work by doing a case against ethical procedure and direct orders. She has the nerve to suggest that she's now forced to keep a secret that's against her ethics against her will while at the same time complaining that she was never told a secret that was against her ethics. What is the logic here? You really have to pick ONE lane and stick with it. You can't literally complain about both sides of the coin landing up. I promise you if Wagner went to give her "I did it" speech anyway Faith would be the first person in front of Will telling her she didn't have to. All this over a dude so evil he literally came back 30 years later to kill her after almost raping and murdering her the first time in a situation that once again Faith will never understand not being a lesbian, not being a rare sight, not having been overpowered solo by a serial killer not having lived in the 95. At this point the show reminds me that Faith isn't Wagner's literal daughter and I'm too lazy to go through this and remove those references. Whatever. Maybe later.
And the final point about ACAB here is that this is a show that heavily features APD the Atlanta Police Department. This is a department that's currently using as much copaganda as possible to justify murdering protesters who want to stop Cop City a multi billion dollar money pit that's going to train cops to kill innocent people. In natural forest park. I like Will Trent as a character and lord knows I'm still gaga for Christensen but ACAB moments in this show are especially dangerous in the current climate which is saying something considering the white watching of the LAPD that happens on The Rookie. The cops in the APD have shot protestors in the back and gotten away with it, like they took the wrong coffee order. They'll do it again if they haven't already.
Stop Cop City.
https://stopcop.city/
Just as confusing as the first time I saw it only now I understand why I'm so confused. If foldableideas's Dan Olson ever gets back to film discussion I hope he talks about the editing in this movie. It's atrocious. Every time Lantern fights Hector. There's no motivation behind it. It's actually what breaks the movie. The movie is going along mostly well until Hal fights Hector the first time. It's not motivated. It's unclear why Hal is there. It's unclear how much Hal knows about what's going on.
I did think it was funny when Carol pointed out that as someone who knows Hal their entire life they recognize him in a mask. It's amusing but the mask identity is there for a reason narratively. People like to laugh at it but storywise it has a purpose and when you break that for a joke it does things like make HvH 1 feel stupid. If Carol can recognize him why can't Hector? Hector has spent his entire life wanting to be Hal, knowing Hal and yet when Hal puts on a mask .... Hector sees nothing.
Likewise it's never clear if Hal knows that Hector is the mutated creature. It's confusing and literally everything in the movie after this scene stops making sense. All the way to the post credit scene where Sinestro puts on the yellow ring. I remember being pumped for that but watching it again it doesn't make sense. WHY would Sinestro do it? We've seen nothing to motivate him. We see what motivates him to CREATE the ring but by the time he's wearing it.... why? Might as well ask why HvH 2 fight happens because that again is a scenario when Hal knows nothing, gained nothing and yet goes straight to a fight that was also a trap?
The biggest problem with the movie is the CGI. "CGI" ruins almost every movie that comes out now and it does the same here for the same reasons. All CGI scenes have to be dark. OA is a planet permanently 2 hours past dusk. Why? They have so much power and zero lighting. But what's special about Green Lantern is that rather than give him a suit to wear they put him in a CGI costume and THAT was the worst decision. Because they couldn't do it. Whether money or time it couldn't be done and what remains looks AWFUL. It's like every TV show that doesn't use squibs and instead they just color the film red where the bullethole is supposed to be. The mask looks like a slightly better version of that but it IS a version of that and you can tell. It's almost as distracting and almost never seeing a closeup of his full suit.
It's a shame to utterly junk Ryan Reynolds in a perfect made for him role. With better writing he could have been the Robert Downy Jr as Iron Man of casting. Almost. I mean you'll never find casting THAT good again for a superhero movie but Ryan as Hal could have been close.
The movie just spends too much effort on too much story. Hector Hammond doesn't serve any purpose. He would have been a great sequel antagonist with Sinestro or without him. Parallax doesn't have enough story meaning you don't know what it's motivation and goals are. The Lantern Corps could have used a touch more to do but honestly if it had looked better it wouldn't have mattered. I think Hal's drunk driving story would have been a better first shot. Really sink home the "responsibility" angle.
It says something about how bad act III is that all the way up until Hal busts in on Hector almost 75% of the way through the movie and I would have rated it above average. Probably just a six but still. But on top of the throughout issues everything that happens STARTING with the first HvH fight is just so awful and non stop floating dominoes that it drags the entire movie down to my current rating which is 3.
Now we look at episodes 3 and 4. IMO. It's still not working as a show. But episode 3 should have replaced episode 2. I actually see them as a couple in episode 3. They bond, they do things together. I get it. I still don't think they have the chemistry of other versions of this story but it's something. It was a really good episode.
Episode 4 represents everything I had about this show. Like what on earth am I watching? Like you guys are spies right? It feels like they twisted their blasé take on man women spy nonsense and made it even more blasé. Because what I'm seeing here is the spy gig economy. Da heck am I supposed to take from this "literally everyone named john smith is a spy" nonsense. I mean part of being a spy is keeping it a secret and that tension of keeping a secret is one of the biggest problems i have with this show. There's literally no secret keeping. They lie about what they do like they're onlyfans stars. They lie about how they met like they met on Tinder. There's no intrigue do it. No guile. It's all practically white lies. Episode 4 took that up even farther. Everyone is flashing the "Org" credit card? Why does the org have such an easily identifiable credit card in the first place? Don't you know you're supplying spies? When Other John showed up I thought maybe this would be a test from the org to see if they're keeping their spy lie a secret properly. When Jane mentioned how much John loves his mom I thought maybe she's going to accidentally reveal that John is still in contact with his mom and that would be the tension with them having to kill the others so it doesn't get back to the company.
Something somewhere to build up some plot and tension. But nah. Everything in this show is just so... casual. Even the blood baths and the shootouts are so casual. I didn't have high expectations for this show but I so very much was hoping to be proven wrong. But even looking at this as it's own show completely unrelated to any previous franchise. This is not the spy romance I would have been interested in and honestly I'm putting it down the writing. I have a handful of problems with the show but the writing is the anchor. The rest I might be able to work around but this just isn't (to use the vernacular of the youth dem) hitting.
I'm watching this in two episode batches. This first batch confirms everything I was worried about regarding this show. The tension in MMS is about spies who are lying to each other but are in a relationship with each other.
Now I didn't necessarily need the same old "our marriage is tired and boring until we revealed our sexy secrets to each other" storyline. It WAS effective in the movie and I'm super curious about the Scott Bakula series which I'm sure is going to be very interesting if I can track it down.
But that tension between them having to pretend for a living and pretend at home is kind the whole point. What we have instead is just spies who have to date for the mission (and presumably fall for each other). And in THAT setup... this isn't doing so hot. Again I like the actors but I don't like the chemistry between them. For my money drop Donald and get Maya someone she can work with and while I like Maya this isn't my pick of a role for her. It's just not the worst and she's slightly better and more interesting than Donald here. There's a little kiss kiss at the end of episode two and even that didn't really break the slow dreary uncompelling pace that doesn't seem to know what it is. We'll see if it ramps up.
Today in Jingoistic Action: The TV series....
Chris Pratt returns to his Zero Dark Thirty Roots. He sells it. In theory you should be distracted by your memory of his more goofy comedy characters but it's more than just a baseball hat he sells his character to the point where you don't really think about it.
Now Sleep...
It's a dark show. Night night time show. But actually it's not awfully lit for what it is. You don't spend episode after episode turning up the brightness on your TV because you live in a house and not a pure black room. Visually it's comprehensive and that's always appreciated. Now in a metaphorical sense. It's also pretty dark. I never saw Zero Dark Thirty because there are limits to how much jingoism I can take. But there's a lot of violence to "salivate" over that exists only for that purpose. It's not torture porn or anything but if there was a dog in this series it would have been killed violently in a way that hurt.
A Tale as Old as Time...
The story here is compelling enough. It starts out with James Reece (Chris Pratt) losing all of his men in a botched raid. When the higher ups want to blame the dead soldiers for losing control, Reece refuses to go along with the narrative that insults his dead comrades. Eventually he thinks he finds a conspiracy and there's a lovely bit of ambivalence as to whether Reece is imagining it or not. Very like the series Evil on network TV.
In the end we have a good show. A focused show with a story to tell and I can't understate how much that's appreciated. Buuuuut, there are issues. My first issue is our main character Darby Hart the "Gen Z amateur sleuth" and as I expected she's only "amateur" in the sense that she is literally not getting paid. I wasn't sure they were going to do that but they did. Darby isn't interesting as a sleuth. When you think about the great detectives Darby doesn't really do much detecting. She's not obsessed with deduction like Holmes. She's not obsessed with details like Monk. She doesn't create stories like Sean Spencer or Richard Castle. They try to mask it a bit but her thing is that she cares ("The dead speak to me"). To the exclusion of everything else most specifically to the exclusion of the relationships she has with the living. That's not bad per se. It's just not the character of a Gen Z amateur sleuth main character.
Then there's the tech. I mean it started off good. I'll say that. But the longer the show went the more I had to squint to ignore all the tech issues in this show. From awkward conversations ("Vee Eye or emacs") because somehow no one told them you pronounce it "V-eye" or that vim is a thing. The concept isn't just that eight guests are invited by a reclusive billionaire. It's eight hackers. Which makes Darby as a tech savvy hacker less interesting. I mean they do try to frame her as the "computer hacker" and everyone else as just in the sphere of various general hacking but nah everyone here is a level of computer hacker and they do make it a point to say that a few times. So when Darby hacks, it's like why? Why do I care about this? That combined with the flubs in tech representation both big and small kinda damage this tech-happy murder mystery.
What the show does do well is all the none screenplay bits. The acting, the filmwork, even the soundtrack that I recall. I wanted to keep watching. I expected to hate Darby and find her awkward but she's not. She's understandable. She's relatable. I care for her and wanted to see her struggle though even when she was making bad bad impulsive decisions. Emma Corrin just kinda shines even when the writing doesn't. Honestly she's not alone the entire cast was excellent. Especially looking back.
The murder mystery, like the show, started off well. I cared about the characters. I cared about the victim. I didn't lean anyway towards the suspects. Plenty of room and scary situations for Darby to navigate. It was a great recipe. No idea how the cake ended up tasting so bad though. The back end kinda flops. I don't think there were enough breadcrumbs for the killer's reveal. Ironically enough I just finished A Haunting in Venice after this so they actually have something in common. But Haunting is just better. Which is unfair because it's leaning on the tower that is Agatha Christie. Still this could have ended a lot better if they had a more interesting endgame. The pacing was there. the characters were ready it just..... didn't.
Ending Spoilers:
an Christ almighty the less said about "AI that's going to kill someone" the better. It's a stupid plot point. Just when you think everyone's finally realizing that all these AI tools are moronic and useless suddenly these shows come out and make AI out to be this magnanimous force. Here the AI is the killer. In The Creator the AI is the savoir. It's all so stupid and dumb and shows you haven't been paying attention to what AI is and what it can do. It's like all the robotics nerds obsessed with sex dolls that can tell the weather and laugh at your jokes like that's going to replace women in Asia where there are too many men and not enough single women to support them emotionally. The "AI did it" is going to become "the butler did it" very soon and that's unfortunate because it doesn't deserve that level of trope support. AI will help you cheat on an essay but it does so so poorly the idea that it's nearly sentient and almost capable of erasing humanity pains me to hear people say out lout with their mouths. The only way AI could be dangerous is if people give it too much authority. Like making AI the CEO of your company is a bad idea. (Or to take another example from real life: Using AI to decide whose claim gets accepted. The AI had an 80% failure rate) I maintain they're only doing it on paper and that's a GOOD idea because it gives you a perfect scapegoat. Unethical and evil but an effectively "good" idea.
I think there was a lot of potential in this. I think this movie took bad choices (as a film) but even with the choices they took there was potential. For instance I actually think it's kinda brilliant how they pull out of the time loop with a change in weather unexpectedly. I think it was performed WELL. I think it was kinda pointless but as a function of the story it works.
I was hoping that Michael would be redeemed. I think this could have been an interesting variation on the time loop genre where you're stuck in a time loop with someone you don't like. Not like an enemies to lovers situation which has been done to death but someone you actively don't like. It could have been fun it could have explored social responsibility. They could have taken this ostensibly evil character and turned him good using a morality that only applies to people who are functionally above the law.
But the movie didn't really do much. It didn't really SIT in the time loop. Like Groundhog Day for instance really saturates itself into the loop. Even fun goofy romps like Boss Level really luxuriate IN the loop really having a good time. Letting you feel the character in the loop. Here we don't spend much time exploring the loop. Maybe they want to argue we already understand the potential of the loop so we don't need to see it. Heck even the characters already understand the concept and jump two chapters ahead. Honestly they figure it out way too fast in my opinion.
But it could have been more. It could have been something special instead contrary to the description this is the story of one dude trapped in a loop with his love interest and his id manifest into a fellow addict.
Wait why would you drive so wrecklessly when you can't leave the car. Of course it would lead to road rage.
That hospital scene is a very different emotional dynamic. Very compelling simply because we never seen this. Our hero cops have to persuade someone to kill a narrative and the citizens are refusing because they understand the social dynamics and effective consequences. In any other cop show this would be focused on cops trying to take them down in spite of their status.
Another great interaction when the copper figures out the sting shouldn't go through and no one listens to him. It felt not full on The American.
An utterly nonsense opening but otherwise a great investigatory episode. Our protagonist Jack finds himself in genuine moral quagmires and makes difficult decisions. I'm honestly just impressed in the end. This show feels like it's "going there" in a way that procedures and fantasy shows just don't often do. Now this is dark. Making me care for someone and then watched them get destroyed. For no reason. No benefit. No cost analysis. Just because. A slow opening to a swiftly paced and compelling conclusion. Honestly this episode more than the previously is going to sell me on what's going on.
For a cliff hanger episode it felt rather satisfying. One of the most surprising things about The Orville, a sci fi show form Seth MacFarlane is how episodes feel full and meaty. Cliffhanger episodes can often feel like cheating. They cut right when everything gets good. I'm happy to say though that doesn't happen here.
There's a plot point that involves a child leaving the ship and it does feel weird that he left and no one knew what was going on. It feels even more weird that the child was able to elude the planet natives using none of his special skills. But big changes are coming to The Orville this episode when Isaac falls unresponsive and the ship has to go to the mysterious homeplanet Kaylon to get him fixed.
I was genuinely surprised they turned him off without any sort of formal announcement. i think it would have made more sense for the Kaylons to use him to send a goodbye message or shut off message like French Stewart in 3rd Rock from the Sun. They also hint at the fact that save the intercession from The Orville Isaac would have been recycled but they don't indicate why. Is it because he was an inferior model for diplomacy only? Is it because he's corrupted with feelings? It's unclear.
