Jillian finally gained some purpose on top of being eye candy.
I actually like her parts better, specially the speech, which reminded me of the underappreciated gem that is After the Dark (https://trakt.tv/movies/after-the-dark-2013)
I understand that there's more to the bureaucrats reasoning for pulling Darius Tanz's funding, but to think that the U.S. government is concerned about "wasting" a billion dollars for SAVING THE PLANET is pretty laughable even by Austin Powers standards.
Hackers, murders, this gets complicated
Review by Jim G.BlockedParentSpoilers2017-08-04T05:24:11Z
First things first. I'll take a flawed show like this one over reality TV or summer reruns of the 183rd season of NCIS. So props to CBS for that. Still, the flaws. Those horrible, horrible flaws. Those avoidable flaws. Those unnecessary flaws. Here are the most glaring ones this week.
First, a repeat offender. It takes more than 30 minutes for light from Jupiter to reach Earth, but we once again have magic video that can cover that distance instantaneously. Inexcusable and avoidable. I have to believe that the science advisors for this show would know all of this, which means that they must have been ignored. So why have science advisors if you're going to ignore them? Maybe the advisors just don't care as long as the checks clear, but I do!
And then there's a bunch of air gap-related stuff. For starters, if Darius was in that air-gapped facility that blocked cellphone signals, then his RFID implant would have been blocked, as well. It would not have been able to report his location at that time. Furthermore, and for the same reason, Darius would not have been able to send texts from his phone while he was in the air-gapped facility. So either he wasn't there or someone else sent that famous text. And finally on that point, I guess Darius hasn't heard of multi-factor authentication when it comes to accessing his various batcaves, as in RFID chip and retina scan and 3D facial mapping verification for access to the places that we saw. Instead, someone gets his chip and it's full access to everything! Yay! Again, why bother to have science advisors?
And finally, a couple of liberal arts flaws. First, Harris says at one point, "He's guilty, Grace. The evidence is not circumstantial." Um, no. You have a vague and noncommittal text message and a location where multiple people would have been working. That's pretty much the epitome of "circumstantial." And second...well, pretty much Jillian's entire speech at the end, which clearly represented the show's writers projecting BIG TIME. But I'll focus on the "It is hope and only hope that will save us." Um, no. Again. Hope can motivate. Hope can inspire. Hope can get you through dark times. But hope without scientists and engineers to do the heavy lifting is just false hope. In the current context, hope will not stop an asteroid.
Competent writers could have avoided all of these issues (and others) without taking anything away from the drama. The fact that they didn't do so is disappointing. But, again, not as disappointing as being stuck with reality TV or NCIS reruns. I guess I'm just saying that my gratitude has limits. :)