Jesus... those fucking TALKING GILLS!!!
You are so beautiful
To me
You are so beautiful
To me
Can't you see
You're everything I hoped for
You're everything I need
You are so beautiful
To me
You are so wonderful
To me
You are so wonderful
To me
Can't you see
You're everything I hoped for
You're everything I need
You are so wonderful
To me
You are so beautiful
To me
You are so beautiful
To me
Can't you see
You're everything I hoped for
You're everything I need
You are so beautiful
To me
The control that Starlight takes in the tense situation with A-train seemed perfect to me. and to think that she seemed the naive, deadbeat of the group. I love the script of this series and how they develop the characters.
The deep subplot is extremely lame so far
the Starlight’s bag plot is ridiculous, like it was written by 10 years old boy. anyway, this is second episode, and I don’t care about what’s going on my screen, too much baby drama
The writing is so dumbed-down and literal. Even this episode's best moments, Stormfront's rant in front of the cameras and Kimiko's heart-to-heart with her brother, it feels like the show is talking to 10-year olds.
[7.6/10] Good episode. I feel like I’m missing something about how the pieces fit together. Something about Stormfront’s point about not believing that good is nice and dropping the mask, I guess? But for the most part, this was a lot of disconnected scenes that I, nevertheless, thought were pretty darn good.
My favorite of them is Maeve’s. I dig her realizing that Elena had a medical emergency, going to look after her because she’s still her emergency contact, and the two bonding a bit and rekindling old times. I want to see more of the two of them, since they have good chemistry together, and their back-and-forth is sweet and believable. But I also like where it resolves, with Maeve explaining that she broke up with her girlfriend and didn’t want to be seen in public because she was afraid of what Homelander would do out of jealousy. You understand why this wouldn’t work for reasons other than “the life.” It’s quietly heartbreaking and another sign of the abuse Homeleander inflicts on everyone around him.
But god help me, even Homelander’s vaguely sympathetic in this one. Don’t get me wrong, he’s also utterly terrifying. The way that he softly menaces Becca, or is clearly making his son uncomfortable by assuming a closeness between them that he hasn’t earned, or talking about how he’s a god who shouldn't have to feel pain, is all different flavors of abjectly terrifying. Him insinuating himself into the life of his son the child’s mother, while pretending he’s not forcing his way in like he forced the events that caused this to happen in the first place, is rife with understated horror.
Yet, there’s something in his voice when he responds to Becca’s insistence that he leave so Ryan can have a normal life. He talks about how being isolated can mess someone up, leave them lonely and distressed, and it’s the closest thing to self-awareness we’ve ever seen from him. It doesn’t excuse his actions, but abuse begets abuse, and the way he’s trying to force a family here is horrible, but also a product of him chasing the family that he never had.
I also appreciate the added detail we get to what’s going on with Becca and Ryan. The idea that they got to live in an isolated community, so that RYan could have a normal life, in exchange for protection from Homelander is an interesting concept. It seems doomed to failure, but you can understand Beccca’s fury at being promised protection from her abuser and having to grin and bear it while he tries to bond with her son. I’m also intrigued by her basically trading visitation rights to Homelander in exchange for him letting Billy live.
Speaking of which, I don’t know how I feel about the power struggle between Billy and Hughie. I do appreciate that Billy’s been hunting for something for eight years, finally gets confirmation, and is now that much more determined to find her by any means necessary. His scene with Mallory is great, especially how she diagnoses and dresses him down in an instant. And him coming clean to the rest of his crew about what happened and why he’s doing this is a good scene.
Hell, I like Hughie still being mad at Billy for abandoning the rest of the crew and demonstrating that he doesn’t care about anything except his one-man crusade. Hughie acting to protect Kimiko and Mouse, because he’s loyal to their group, and the other members backing him up when he makes a stand, are both nice moments. It just feels like we missed some connective tissue between Hughie’s issues and Billy’s, and I wish the show would connect the dots beyond a good punch there.
Speaking of picking up lingering issues from last season, A-Train is back and doing some menacing of his own toward Starlight. It’s not clear what his motivation is to me. Why he doesn’t immediately go to Homleander or Vought or someone else is beyond me, but I guess the story needs him around a bit. That said, I appreciate that the episode at least confronts the beef between them. Starlight tries to play nice, hoping that A-Train will appreciate the fact that she saved his life. But ultimately, she realizes that Stormfront’s right, these are jerks, and the only way she can get him to back down is by threatening to blackmail him the way he’s trying to do with her. It’s all good, though it feels like we’re retreading this ground with Starlight’s season 1 conviction to become a fighter and stand for something.
And I don’t know how I feel about Stormfront. On the one hand, I like her. The way she’s able to cut through the bullshit of Vought’s micromanaging and speak real truths through the PR bullshit is rousing. I also like that she basically reacts to Annie the way Annie did to Maeve, in an “I used to look up to you, but now you’ve gone corporate” sort of way. (Granted, that might make more sense if Annie’s turn to corporatehood didn’t feel totally random after what happened last season.) But I’m also worried about the air of manufactured authenticity she puts on, and given that she was appointed by the big boss, I’m convinced she’s a plant or a spy or someone else with an ulterior motive beyond the persona she assumes here. The name still doesn’t help.
Plus god help me, I’m actually liking The Deep. His mushroom trip, with his gills talking to him with the voice of Patton Oswalt, is a trip, but an endearing one. It’s a little too popsci, but the idea that he humiliates women because he’s uncomfortable with his own body and doesn’t want them to humiliate him first is a good-enough-for-TV explanation for his pathology. And the idea of him accepting himself despite the part of him he’s ashamed of is legitimately wholesome, even if it involves singing cheesy songs in unison with his own fish flaps on a drug high.
That just leaves the high point of this one for me -- Kimiko’s reunion with her brother. I like that we get to truly understand Kimiko in her own words for the first time. Plus the story of the two of them, having both been through some insane shit and abuse, coming out on different sides of a war, is heartbreaking. The actors both do a great job, and you really feel for each of them given all that they’ve suffered, with the joy of reunion mixed with the pain of commiseration. The fact that the Supe the squad is hunting turns out to be Kimiko’s brother is rife for conflict, and anything that deepens Kimiko and her motivations is good with me.
Overall, there’s not a lot of clear lines between the different parts of the story or episode right now, but all the individual parts are still good, so I’m on board.
I don't know how to describe it exactly, but there's something that was happening in this episode that didn't vibe with me. I think it has a lot to do with the tone of these characters interacting with each other this season so far. Starlight feels unlike herself; Hughie was off-kilter; and Butcher had some sort of funky, half-assed empathetic break that led to him doubling down in the end.
There's nothing outwardly wrong, but it does feel kind of off.
Also I just don't like The Deep. I mean, yeah he's an abuser so of course. But this plot with him this season just kind of weirds me out. Are we supposed to be laughing at him?
The episode wasn't bad but so far this is not as enjoyable as Season 1.. I don't know if is it the plot or the dialogue, but it seems like there is something missing.. And those talking gills! :confounded:
"Just drop the mask once in a while. Feels good. You can finally breathe."
I have a feeling the creators didn't know how these few lines would have a different meaning by the time this episode airs opposed to when they innocently wrote this dialogue, but boy, it is not good.
I think that if Butcher had similar powers as Homelander he would be just as disgusting and heinous as Homelander is.
We finally got Meave without the costume! She looked so pretty in regular clothes!
I don’t know what’s the endgame with Deep... he is a rapist who instead of jail or a real punishment he just got sent away to a nice apartment with a paycheck, so I don’t have any sympathy for him and I don’t the purpose of showing his life after being exiled.
And I’m getting a little tired of A-train, if he’s gonna be the same as season 1 then there’s no point of having him, nothing new and after a while these type of villains -the ones obsessed with a conflict even tho it’s been proved it’s their wrongdoing- get annoying, so maybe they shouldn’t have saved him.
I don’t trust Stormfront, if Mr Edgar appointed her there must be a reason why!
I don’t blame Frenchie for not getting “that’s my brother” out of the word ‘boy’ like I just assumed the supeterrorist was a little boy, not her brother.
These first couple of episodes this season certainly haven't been bad, but they're far from being anything memorable or fantastic like the first season.
Great character development with Starlight this season. Glad we've seen some more from Queen Maeve too.
Maeve: "Hello? What? When?"
Stormfront: "I have a family emergency too."
Gills: "Bro we gotta talk."
The Deep: "I'm the ugly one."
Gills: "No."
The Deep: "Yes. On the inside."Stormfront: "Come on. Let's finish dick-tickling these half-wits so we can finally do our real job."
Homelander: "Son, we can do anything we want. And no one can stop us. Now, that.. that's a good feeling. A really good feeling."
Why is Butcher tryin' to shoot Kimiko's brother?
Ah, well, it's nice to know Butcher doesn't care
Damn, it's Butcher vs. the Team
Annie: "I don't give a shit."
Butcher: "Well, cheers, love. At least someone's got some sense around here."
[Kimiko's brows furrow. Butcher's smile fades.]Butcher: "You come between me and my missus again, I'll fucking kill you."
Anyone else really dislikes Butcher or is it just me? He's such an as*hole and I don't even feel sorry for him. The show's way better when he's not on the sreen.
I liked Stormfront, but her attitude was a bit too bitchy in this one. On one hand I can understand it, as Starlight does come off that way, but for Stormfront seemingly questioning everything and being reflective, her being this dismissive of Starlight not just being your regular blow up doll seemed rather low. Double standards much?
Homelander is still fantastic at giving people the creeps.
But no show without the Homelander, so I guess we have to endure a bit longer.
This show does not hold back on the violence and good moments between Maeve and her GF, revelations for Starlight and Stormfront and epic action for the boys!
Glad to see our fucked up friends again as much as our fucked up Supes! I have a feeling that's gonna be fucking heads exploding and chopped up limbs great season!
is it really that easy to blackmail a-train? i mean there won't ever be full proof and the company's already helping cover it up, it just doesn't feel like it'd stick, not enough to really hurt him. he's got way more leverage on her.
the writing felt a bit more on-the-nose than usual this ep. like stormfront's deal is she just monologues about what her character is. i think it's sort of interesting that someone is perceiving starlight as being a suck-up and saying "you don't have to be that way" but its also sort of... not true? starlight was threatened and berated for going off-script, and the other heroes were abusive towards her. is that just not happening to stormfront...? has homelander not threatened her yet for mocking him...? so i'm not quite buying the whole "see, you could be carefree like me" thing just yet.
This was probably the most "okay" episode of the series, thusfar, but I wouldn't at all call it bad. There were several good moments, and some I'm not sure exactly how I feel about. I can understand some people's impatience with the The Deep plot line, but I think it's quite meaningful, and something that hasn't really been taken on. You can acknowledge that someone is a piece of shit, while also showing their humanity and why they behave as such a garbage human being. And delving into why insecure douche bag dud-bros are sometimes the way they are, and the things about our culture that damage people in ways that causes them to damage other people is certainly something worth doing. The singing scene, as I understood it, was both supposed to be funny, but also to potentially have you laugh at how ridiculous and pathetic the situation is, and while you're laughing you can be receptive to the revelation and journey The Deep is going through. It's important where the show goes with this, of course, and it's still to be seen what the agenda of the Owl guy and the cult is.
I don't get why some people say that they don't like Hughie. He hasn't done anything wrong or unreasonable given the circumstances he was forced into. If anything, Butcher is an insufferable ass, because, well, he is. The show is going to have to remain at its quality level so the audience doesn't hate him.
Language rant:
As for the actual writing, I do wish people would stop with their "literally Tourettes". The line "I taught you that move" conveys the same meaning, with no ambiguity, as the same sentence with "literally' meaninglessly littering it. "Literally" does not mean "for real, I totally, actually mean this"; it establishes an implication of a literal action or sense, explicitly differentiating when there is ambiguity because a common figurative usage exists, or when discussing the finer points of literary use and mechanism. There are more egregious examples you will easily find anywhere online, but it's extremely disappointing to see it seeping into seemingly intelligent and well written materials by presumably professional writers who should know better and have more respect and basic understanding of the language they're writing in.
I was less entertained while watching this episode than I was while watching the premiere. And I think that's a bad thing. The premiere felt slow, but I was sufficiently entertained. This episode felt like nothing happened ─ no progression or hardly any, that sort of thing ─ and I wasn't as entertained. If I'm entertained more while watching this episode, that would mean I'd become invested in the season a little faster. Usually, it takes a few episodes for that to happen ─ with any show, I think. I mean, there are probably shows that I'll end up watching sooner or later that will take fewer episodes for that to happen.
This show, specifically, or rather ─ this season, isn't going to be like that, I feel like, which is why I think it's a bad thing that I wasn't as entertained or more entertained while watching this episode as I was with the premiere. It means that I won't become as invested in the season as I would've liked.
Preferably, I would like to be invested enough with what I'm watching to where it's on my mind, frequently and consistently ─ and to where it's always brought back to my imagination, in some way, as quickly into the season as possible. And I think watching an episode every other day with a day in-between of not watching an episode is good, in general, and mentally, and should help with that desire of mine as well.
Now, I'd like that to start happening around the second or third episode, at minimum. But I feel like, in this case, it may not start happening until after the third episode, which worries me. Oh, and if it wasn't obvious already, I don't think it is happening yet, not with this episode. Anyway, I hope that despite it possibly happening in a few more episodes and not the next episode, I'll still find watching this season as enjoyable as it is.
Moving on, a theory of mine that I thought of yesterday happened to be true, which I was a bit surprised by. I wish I thought of it the day before, as I was writing my thoughts about the premiere so I could've added it. Basically, I thought of two theories about what The Female/Kimiko was trying to tell Frenchie after finding that origami figure near the boat in the premiere.
a.) She figured out that the Supe(r)villain is a kid
or
b.) The origami figure that she found was something that her brother did, suggesting that the Supe(r)villain is her brother
I figured that the first theory wouldn't make much sense, given how she cared so much about trying to tell Frenchie something. And with this episode, that was proven to be true, along with my second theory being true as well. The more I think about it, the more predictable that "twist" seems to be, you know? Granted, it was entirely by luck that I thought of it, but still. Regardless, I was a bit proud of myself for calling it.
Annie's playing with fire. Sure, good for her and all that for being brave and taking Stormfront's advice, and whatnot, but she's playing with fire. A-Train has no reason not to rat her out with how she has some Compound V to the higher-ups at Vought along with other things. I know that there's the fact that he killed Popclaw ─ and, yeah. That's seemingly more than enough reason not to.
But I feel like that's not enough, and maybe not anything at all. Homelander knew about it. Furthermore, he's the reason A-Train did it, right? And that was related to Homelander's plan to create Supe(r)villains, which Stan is aware of, as proven in the premiere. If it weren't for Homelander, A-Train never would've killed her. I think he truly loved her. Or am I misremembering things?
I get that Homelander isn't necessarily apart of this specific picture, in that Annie wouldn't go to him with that information, or Vought, for that matter. She said it herself. She's smart enough to know that it wouldn't matter if she brought that to Homelander or Vought. But why does she think that bringing it to Sports Illustrated will be any better? Vought probably has spies throughout every company, news outlet, and so on. Not to mention, they must be smart enough to keep enough tabs on what their heroes do to where she'd never get that information to them in the first place.
Anyway, that's all I can think of to write for this episode. I don't think it was a bad episode, but I wasn't as entertained while watching it as I was with the premiere. But this is only the second episode of the season. I'm sure it's going to increase in the entertainment category.
Shout by Vlad TepesVIP 4BlockedParent2021-03-14T20:23:44Z
That asshole Hughie is even more annoying than Homelander.