[5.8/10] I like what I’ve come to call “calm before the storm” episodes. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer was especially good at them.) They give shows a chance to take stock, to give you character moments before the fireworks to go off, to add meaning to the fisticuffs or dramatics in the offing prior to the volume going up to eleven. Good shows need that, setting the stakes for the final battle rather than just diving headlong into it.
But good lord is this episode a whole lot of nothing. When the credits hit, I was legitimately surprised, because I assumed something would happen, some prelude to the big fight, some moment of genuine, if glancing, catharsis, rather than the big zilch we received. Because “Such Sweet Sorrow” has exactly two kinds of scenes: (1.) here’s our treknobabble to solution to our treknobabble problem and (2.) here’s a dialogue-heavy lovefest between various crewmembers.
The latter is no big deal. Discovery still deposits technological obstacles and technological fixes with very little build-up or time for our heroes to really puzzle over them, but that’s an issue that arguably has been with the franchise from the beginning. And there’s room in a “calm before the storm” episode for the latter, but by god, you can’t just stuff your episode to the brim with that sort of material, and you sure as hell need to do it better than Discovery did here.
Instead, my goodness, did I ever overlord on the schmaltz. I will cop to being somewhat of a sap, willing to forgive shaky narrative journeys if a show can deliver a strong emotional moment to knock me over. I’m an easy mark for this sort of thing. And yet, by the fifth time there some allegedly touching exchange between a pair of characters (probably involving Burnham), I was reduced to rolling my eyes and praying that the show would move on to something else. The series of partings (to which the title of the episode refers) was endless and samey, and those erstwhile momentous goodbyes came off convenient and unearned.
That’s partly due to the fact that there’s very little at stake here based on what we know from other clips and series. While I am always skeptical when a show wants the audience to take its main character risking her life seriously, I almost bought it for a little while here. It would be a bold move for Discovery to kill off Michael Burnham in its second season finale, or to at least strand her in the future with no probable way home. But the series is also aping other programs like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead (from whence Sonequa Martin-Green came) which have made similarly bold moves. And it strained to put almost every character she’d ever had a connection with in the frame to say a goodbye. It was plausible, if not probable, given the lengths the show went to and the fact that it was a solo mission, that this might be the end of Burnham.
Except that then every single major character on the show (including Spock!) agrees to stay on the Discovery to help her with her mission! They’re not going to kill off everyone! We know from the “Calypso” short trek that Discovery (or another ship very much like it) survives, which undermines the whole “self-destruct” sequence at the beginning of the episode. We can suspect that Discovery is not so bold as to kill off every major and minor character in the series in one fell swoop. And if that weren’t enough, we know that Spock and Pike survive the encounter with Leland, so putting Spock on the Discovery means that they’re pretty likely to find a way out of this pickle.
Inevitability doesn't have to be an albatross. You can get around predictable recoveries or victories if you can make the characters’ emotions and goodbyes feel real in the moment. But dialogue and emotion have never been Discovery’s strong suit, and stacking one tearful farewell on top of another just exposes those fundamental weaknesses when there’s nothing else in “Such Sweet Sorrow” to break them up or offer a change of pace.
Oddly enough, the goodbye I liked the most is for a relationship I’ve had the most trouble with this season. The exchange between Stamets and Dr. Culber still has some of Discovery’s clunky dialogue, but there’s subtle passion, wistfulness, and resignation in the scene. It’s the most restrained we’ve ever seen the players, and there’s a charged but rueful energy as each vocalize their plans for a life without the other. Who knows if it’ll stick, or if some “I almost lost you” event in the finale brings them back together, but for once I bought their post-resurrection struggle, and it’s one of the minor highlights of this episode.
Almost every other goodbye in the episode is far too pat and too unconvincing. It doesn't help that supposedly there’s this emergency situation stemming from Control’s impending doom-bringing from the end of the last episode, and yet there’s plenty of time to get to the nearest signal (which some time-dilated version of Burnham has presumably set herself to tie up the time loop), to say all these sad farewells, and Sarek and Amanda to venture on and off the ship without risk or incident. I’m all for extending shows, especially science fiction shows, a fair bit of leeway in the name of advancing story or character, but at some point you’re not only straining credulity; you’re undercutting the urgency of your supposedly uber-important final confrontation.
So we see a moment with Burnham and her adoptive parents where Amanda shows her love and Sarek shows some humility. We see Georgiou offer her concern in a characteristic way. We see Tilly (who reunites with her royal friend from another of the shorts) say they couldn’t bear a longer goodbye. We get one “last” kiss with Tyler, who’s presumably off to round up a Klingon cavalry and then probably drift away to the Section 31 spinoff. And that’s before Pike says goodbye to everyone, and there’s the big “we’re with you, oh so special Michael” moment, and plenty of other faux-emotional flotsam that doesn't pass the smell test.
Some of these scenes could work in isolation. Some of them could even work sprinkled over a few episodes. But packing them altogether like this is exhausting. Only the very best shows could stand such a lack of variety, and even then, it would take a herculean effort of writing and performance. Discovery has yet to show that it’s capable of that, and as the show gives us this extended preamble to its momentous, effects-heavy final battle, the whole effort is one giant thud, rather than the heartening capstone to the character relations and the exciting tease for the finale that it means to be.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-04-12T04:48:11Z
[5.8/10] I like what I’ve come to call “calm before the storm” episodes. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer was especially good at them.) They give shows a chance to take stock, to give you character moments before the fireworks to go off, to add meaning to the fisticuffs or dramatics in the offing prior to the volume going up to eleven. Good shows need that, setting the stakes for the final battle rather than just diving headlong into it.
But good lord is this episode a whole lot of nothing. When the credits hit, I was legitimately surprised, because I assumed something would happen, some prelude to the big fight, some moment of genuine, if glancing, catharsis, rather than the big zilch we received. Because “Such Sweet Sorrow” has exactly two kinds of scenes: (1.) here’s our treknobabble to solution to our treknobabble problem and (2.) here’s a dialogue-heavy lovefest between various crewmembers.
The latter is no big deal. Discovery still deposits technological obstacles and technological fixes with very little build-up or time for our heroes to really puzzle over them, but that’s an issue that arguably has been with the franchise from the beginning. And there’s room in a “calm before the storm” episode for the latter, but by god, you can’t just stuff your episode to the brim with that sort of material, and you sure as hell need to do it better than Discovery did here.
Instead, my goodness, did I ever overlord on the schmaltz. I will cop to being somewhat of a sap, willing to forgive shaky narrative journeys if a show can deliver a strong emotional moment to knock me over. I’m an easy mark for this sort of thing. And yet, by the fifth time there some allegedly touching exchange between a pair of characters (probably involving Burnham), I was reduced to rolling my eyes and praying that the show would move on to something else. The series of partings (to which the title of the episode refers) was endless and samey, and those erstwhile momentous goodbyes came off convenient and unearned.
That’s partly due to the fact that there’s very little at stake here based on what we know from other clips and series. While I am always skeptical when a show wants the audience to take its main character risking her life seriously, I almost bought it for a little while here. It would be a bold move for Discovery to kill off Michael Burnham in its second season finale, or to at least strand her in the future with no probable way home. But the series is also aping other programs like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead (from whence Sonequa Martin-Green came) which have made similarly bold moves. And it strained to put almost every character she’d ever had a connection with in the frame to say a goodbye. It was plausible, if not probable, given the lengths the show went to and the fact that it was a solo mission, that this might be the end of Burnham.
Except that then every single major character on the show (including Spock!) agrees to stay on the Discovery to help her with her mission! They’re not going to kill off everyone! We know from the “Calypso” short trek that Discovery (or another ship very much like it) survives, which undermines the whole “self-destruct” sequence at the beginning of the episode. We can suspect that Discovery is not so bold as to kill off every major and minor character in the series in one fell swoop. And if that weren’t enough, we know that Spock and Pike survive the encounter with Leland, so putting Spock on the Discovery means that they’re pretty likely to find a way out of this pickle.
Inevitability doesn't have to be an albatross. You can get around predictable recoveries or victories if you can make the characters’ emotions and goodbyes feel real in the moment. But dialogue and emotion have never been Discovery’s strong suit, and stacking one tearful farewell on top of another just exposes those fundamental weaknesses when there’s nothing else in “Such Sweet Sorrow” to break them up or offer a change of pace.
Oddly enough, the goodbye I liked the most is for a relationship I’ve had the most trouble with this season. The exchange between Stamets and Dr. Culber still has some of Discovery’s clunky dialogue, but there’s subtle passion, wistfulness, and resignation in the scene. It’s the most restrained we’ve ever seen the players, and there’s a charged but rueful energy as each vocalize their plans for a life without the other. Who knows if it’ll stick, or if some “I almost lost you” event in the finale brings them back together, but for once I bought their post-resurrection struggle, and it’s one of the minor highlights of this episode.
Almost every other goodbye in the episode is far too pat and too unconvincing. It doesn't help that supposedly there’s this emergency situation stemming from Control’s impending doom-bringing from the end of the last episode, and yet there’s plenty of time to get to the nearest signal (which some time-dilated version of Burnham has presumably set herself to tie up the time loop), to say all these sad farewells, and Sarek and Amanda to venture on and off the ship without risk or incident. I’m all for extending shows, especially science fiction shows, a fair bit of leeway in the name of advancing story or character, but at some point you’re not only straining credulity; you’re undercutting the urgency of your supposedly uber-important final confrontation.
So we see a moment with Burnham and her adoptive parents where Amanda shows her love and Sarek shows some humility. We see Georgiou offer her concern in a characteristic way. We see Tilly (who reunites with her royal friend from another of the shorts) say they couldn’t bear a longer goodbye. We get one “last” kiss with Tyler, who’s presumably off to round up a Klingon cavalry and then probably drift away to the Section 31 spinoff. And that’s before Pike says goodbye to everyone, and there’s the big “we’re with you, oh so special Michael” moment, and plenty of other faux-emotional flotsam that doesn't pass the smell test.
Some of these scenes could work in isolation. Some of them could even work sprinkled over a few episodes. But packing them altogether like this is exhausting. Only the very best shows could stand such a lack of variety, and even then, it would take a herculean effort of writing and performance. Discovery has yet to show that it’s capable of that, and as the show gives us this extended preamble to its momentous, effects-heavy final battle, the whole effort is one giant thud, rather than the heartening capstone to the character relations and the exciting tease for the finale that it means to be.