Yikes. Horrible casting choices. Only the queen's older version feels like the same character. They either should have jumped earlier in the season or waited until season two. After kind of enjoying last week's episode I'm back to my overall impression of this being a poorly written and executed show.
the one eyed boy aged like +10years while the Rhaenyra's kids looked like they aged only 3years. the passage of time is so wildly different between characters, makes it feel so inconsistent
Boy, has this been an underwhelming season! Aside from 2 or 3 episodes, the writing has felt so generic and uninspired. And I know this is supposed to be for younger audiences as well, but it seemed like they leaned on the childish lines and dialogues way too much this time around.
From what I understand, there’s an outlined plan for the 7 seasons and this has clearly been sort of a new beginning, with the time-jump and everything. The first season was also the weakest, while the second and third were way stronger… I hope it will be the same case now.
This one was pretty interesting. Paulie is back around and making a stink again. Adrianna's well-meaning but half-baked plan to escape from the FBI's grasp by marrying Chris was a tidy, heartbreaking little storyline, especially Chris's shitbag response to finding out that she might be unable to have children.
The business with the HUD scam felt like something out of The Wire more than The Sopranos, but just because it was still pretty great and unnerving to see the buck passed and passed until terror rained down on the downtrodden folks in the crackhouse. It was in many ways the strongest part of the episode. (I especially liked Maurice, who was equally great in his role as Ben Urich on Netflix's Daredevil) That said, the related stuff with Tony and Zellman felt weaker. It's hard to say why, and maybe it's just a sign of Tony not being able to restrain himself with what he thinks it his, but it was still a little eh.
So did Tony die or didn't he? I think he did. I think the suddenness of the cut to black and the previous flashback to his conversation with Bobby that you don't see or hear death nods in that direction. But I also think it doesn't really matter. The point, if I may be so bold, is that the end doesn't necessarily come on schedule. It can come at any time, when you least expect it, when you're not thinking about it, in the heightened moments when you fear for your life at a safe house with an assault rifle draped across your stomach, or when you're feeling safe and enjoying a family meal at a diner.
We try to ignore that fact, to try to live as though it weren't true. You pretty much have to in order to keep living any semblance of a real life. But Tony, more than most people, lives, as Carmella notes, with a sword of damocles hanging over his head at all times. And that means that we should, as Tony once said and as AJ reminds him, remember the good times, to try to enjoy those sweet moments when we have them because we don't know how long they might last or how many opportunities we may have to find them again. It's existentialist, but a surprisingly optimistic take on it for this show.
Drawing back to the title, there's always been something the show posits as quintessentially American about Tony. In the final scene, they surround him with Americana at the diner: the friendly young couple, the cub scout troupe, the sports hero murals on the walls. Even Tony is assembling his nuclear family. He's from an immigrant family, considers himself self-made and both proud of his heritage and a part of the melting pot. Is Tony himself an aging superpower, or am I reading too much into it here?
The finale spends more time with AJ than I might prefer. But it also shows that as much as Tony wanted it, his kids cannot really escape his orbit. AJ is naive and misguided for the most part, and certainly insanely self-pitying, but he also shows a (again naive) sense of understanding about the greater tragedies in the world. His method of trying to help is an interesting one, but also a hard one, which is not typically the Sopranos way. Instead, his parents ply him with a cushy job (as the equivalent of a D-Girl, as Chris might say). And suddenly his concerns about the material world seem to drift away. He may not be a mobster, but he can be corrupted.
And Meadow has given up Tony's dream for her - becoming a pediatrician, and helping little babies. (The episode does lean hard into the "sociopaths like babies and pets" idea between this and the cat.). Instead, she's going to become a civil rights lawyers, and Tony can see her representing folks like him, marrying another mobster, and being pulled into a life he did not want for her. If there's a persistent theme to these series, it's not simply about the difficulty of changing on a personal level, it's about it on a generational level, how we carry the baggage of our parents and grandparents and other generations past, that makes it difficult to escape from their orbit. The show is a little blunt about it when Meadow says that if she hadn't seen her father dragged away so many times civil rights wouldn't be such a salient concern for her, but it's an interesting idea.
Indeed, another theme the show has kept close and blossoms in this episode is the idea that Tony taints whatever he touches. AJ is back to being a spoiled brat. Meadow is too much in the world of the mob to truly escape it. Carmela long ago figured out that she was in too deep to pull out of the life she had made with Tony. Agent Harris has gone native, cheering on the NJ crime family when he hears that Phil has been executed. Paulie talks about taking time off, but instead agrees to skipper the construction crew. And as he hits out in front of Satriale's, there are a lot of empty tables there with him.
So when the episode cuts to black, do we see a man about to get his just deserts, a tumor in the lives of friends and family being removed, or have we simply ended our time with a man who will go on to face a weapons charge? I have my thoughts on it, but more importantly than the outcome is the idea behind it. We don't know whether Tony lived or died, just like we don't know when the end is coming. There are perilous forces in the world like Tony Soprano who result in people like the motorcyclist from the last episode dying, or the comare and her father, who have no reason to suspect they'd be impacted by these events in this way. You can live the high-powered life of Junior Soprano and still have who you are taken away by forces beyond your control. Value the good times, David Chase & Co. seem to say, because we live in a state of sudden uncertainty, where the cut to black could come without warning or fanfare, and those moments become all we have, or had.
That Fortnite B story was just terrible. Bernadette is the WORST!!!
I've been saying that the timeline in this show is f***ed and this episode show why
Whoever was responsible for the directing and editing of this series did really an awful job.. Present and past are all f****ed and mixed together.. Not saying that it can't be done but the way they did it here is awful and very confusing for the viewers.. Confuse us for 6 episodes so you can tell us more on the 7th episode.. Wow that's an awesome idea, well done
Another thing I extremely hate is the time frame in this show.. I don't know how many days, months or even years has passed between each scene or each episode and with them jumping around in time makes even worse
The show runners really have something with time, they need to be logical about it rather than creative if they can't do it right
At the end I'm only saying this because I liked the show, so I want it to do better in the future
The most interesting thing here is the mind-controlling alien itself. It shows a level of either control or technology that hasn't really been done before, and that makes it kind of fascinating.
The hallucinations that everyone has are unfortunately very obvious and unadventurous. Particularly cringeworthy is the stuff with Paris and his father; daddy issues have never felt so dull. Far better is the revelation that B'Elanna kind of wants to get it on with Chakotay, and true to her Klingon heritage she wants him to be forceful about it. Not something I'm particularly eager to see, but it did manage to take me by surprise. Tuvok was a particular let down with his "I ... do not ... understand ... how this is ... possible". Seriously? There's a mind controlling alien giving you hallucinations, Tuvok, it's pretty obvious. You're supposed to be a logical and clever Vulcan, act like one.
Janeway's holodeck fantasy is a fun diversion despite some of the actors involved. For all its silliness, it's managed to create a compelling mystery (WHAT IS ON THE FOURTH FLOOR?!). However, having had cucumber sandwiches myself I can say with certainty that they are never something worth fantasising about.
Kes continues to develop her mental abilities and comes out, again, as the best part of the story.
Creative and enjoyable, with a pleasantly weird alternate-universe/time-shift aspect that never becomes too complicated to follow. It leaves you with the odd feeling of having seen the Voyager crew die, but never really being sure if they were our original crew, or whether that even matters. The exact same thing happens to Harry that happens to O'Brien in DS9's 'Visionary', in that we are left with a version of the character who isn't exactly our own one.
It was also good to see the Vidiians back to being pretty decent bad guys again. There was something chilling about the way they just assessed unconscious people by which organs they could harvest from them. Janeway was a bit of a badass in regards to the solution to getting rid of them.
Having the duplicate Janeways standing so close to each other during their scenes made it look like they were about to kiss, and really made me aware of how shows had to work within the 4:3 aspect ratio back then. I felt a bit more let down that the two versions of Kes didn't really interact with each other at all.
I got quite wrapped up in the ordeal of Ensign Wildman finally having her baby, which certainly ran through a gamut of emotions! Chakotay was as useless as ever, and I noticed that Voyager didn't require his authorisation to concur with setting the self-destruct - I guess Janeway changed that because she knows he'd just mess it up.
This is the one. This is the episode where, back in 1999(?), I more or less gave up on Star Trek: Voyager. I caught a few more episodes over the next year or two, but my heart really wasn't in it anymore and this was the nail in the coffin.
It's an episode that fails in every way, made worse by the fact that it's attempting to make a valid point about blind hate and propaganda. The horrible icing on the cake is that, of all the characters, Chakotay is the one chosen to lead this outing.
The peculiar dialogue, while initially intriguing, quickly becomes tiresome and cheesy, and then infuriating. Especially given how seriously all the actors attempt to deliver it, and then once Chakotay begins to use it it's unbearable.
In a lazy move, the Kradin appear to just be a slight variation on Nausicaans. The episode ends with an unbelievable act of stupidity on the Voyager crew's part when they bring the Kradin ambassador to meet Chakotay and wonder why the Commander is uncomfortable. HE'S JUST BEEN BRAINWASHED TO HATE THEM.
How many shuttlecraft does Voyager have? This is the third to be lost in the last three episodes.
Apparently it may take some time for Chakotay to get over this, but don't worry everyone - he'll have forgotten all about it next week. Just like this episode forgot that Tom and B'Elanna professed their love for each other last week after a whole year of trying to get us to believe it.
To see a show which tackled a somewhat similar subject and did it very well, see the Stargate SG-1 episode 'The Other Side'.
> Jeffrey Combs
> and Ethan Phillips
I heard Phillips' voice immediately. Yes, I was a bit excited. Yes, I was later disappointed.
It's so fun seeing recognizable real-life products disguised as futuristic sci-fi props. In this episode, it was two bottles in Sickbay that were clearly SIGG brand (and only very slightly touched up by the props crew). Nothing compared to Quark using my family's picnicware glasses every day in his bar on DS9, but still fun.
So there are only 173 Rules of Acquisition at this point in time? A lot changes in a century.
"There are fourteen weapons lockers on this ship." — And none of them should be accessible without any authentication at all. The key word is locker. They're supposed to be locked. Sigh.
Nice touch that they threw in "Do I look like a Menk to you?" as a reference to "Dear Doctor".
So Porthos wasn't affected by the gas? Does it only work on humanoids?
Watching this episode, I couldn't help but be totally distracted by the fact that they recast Daario Naharis.
It is really frightening for me to see how many of the people here see this as a happy ending.
I guess technology and the hedonistic neoliberalism have found its way already into our minds.
Weren't you atleast concerned about the talk they had about people "doing everything to atleast feel something" in this sadomaso / groupsex facility? About 80-85% being already dead? About a huge technology company owning us even after our deaths? Just for the sake of hedonistic, fake emotions disguised as only what it is: binary codes?
This was, for me atleast, one of the darkest endings of any Black Mirror episode ever. It shows you exactly what the neoliberalistic idea has already done to us and will eventually still do in the future (and I thank the director and makers of Black Mirror so much for it! One of the best episodes of this show so far)
Quite unimpressed with this one. I make fun of Voyager for using the reset button, but this episode ACTUALLY RESETS EVERYTHING AT THE END. It makes it all rather pointless, as none of it ever happens. Which is a shame, because the Janeway/Paris pairing was working quite well, and they had a lot things to teach each other. I feel more on Tom's side in that the Prime Directive should never apply when an entire planet is going to be wiped out (this was touched on not long ago in the TNG episode 'Homeward').
A thinly veiled criticism of nuclear power is all fine and well, though no real points are made other than "it's too dangerous". The alien civilisation they encounter (did they even both to not make them look human this time?) all wear the terrible same clothes, and the forced friendship story between Tom and the little boy was quite horrible to watch.
Kes's weird telepathic abilities are quite cool, but since everything resets I guess she doesn't remember anything about what it all means.
I really enjoyed the first half of this season, but the second half forgot to give me reasons to care. In the end I didn't care who lived or who died, I just wondered what the point of any of it is.
I'm mostly annoyed that this still wasn't even the actual conclusion. What the hell do we need another season for? I also don't see why humanity in the real world is apparently guaranteed to go instinct after all of this (according to Christina aka "Dolores" during her final dialogue).
Hell, while we're talking about that, how can she speak of having seen the best and worst of humanity and not acknowledge that the hosts did the exact same thing to humanity when the humans were basically hosts themselves with narratives written for them?
Considering that the hosts knew humans were intelligent, sentient, beings, where in the original park pretty much none of the humans knew that the hosts weren't simply robots without actual feelings one could argue that what the hosts did was actually far worse (at least, the hosts in the real world).
Lastly, why does she need one "final" test? As a test for what? The good that can be found in humanity? Weren't we just talking about seeing the beauty in this world? The ancient order in the chaos? What does she need another test/game for?
How do you spend an entire season showing hosts are just as flawed as humans (hell, this was one of the main reasons Hale wanted the hosts to transcend and not waste their time around humans in the city) and then not acknowledge it at the end and instead focus on the humans being the ones that need to face a final test? At least during her dialogue with Ted. It just makes no sense to me.
Maybe I completely misunderstood as she does mention "maybe this time we'll set ourselves free" and it's not so much a test for humanity but for all sentient beings (and would any human she created from memory in her virtual park actually still be a human to begin with?).
1/10
Weak Sauce
straight up sucked
with "The Message".
Woke propaganda
Piss-Poor Bull-shit.
THE "MESSAGE"
IS STRONG.
(Go Woke Go Broke).
(They Couldn't even
give The Legend
Wilfred a proper
send off and the
Ultimate respect
he deserves because
they were to busy
Ticking boxes
and being
"Stunning and Brave"
I put up with Chinballs
era using this show as
his own personal
Chew toy to spread
The Agenda
("The Message") as
I knew my man
Russell was coming
back to take over.
David and Catherine
were never my favourites,
(Rose "Billie Piper"
(the greatest of all time)
is
and always will be my
all time favourite
companion and
Peter Capaldi will always
be the best Doctor
of all time and my Favourite
Doctor).
I had hope they may
come back at some point
for the 60th but after this
Abomination of 59 minutes
preaching
"The Message"
and the fact that they
are not even trying
to hide the Woke propaganda
anymore
I don't want "my" Rose
(BadWolf) or Peter anywhere
near this DumpsterFire
shit-show.
And now Russell who
is Woke AF making
Davros a normal dude
who looks as though
his boss is Hitler,
Now Russel is saying
that one of the most iconic
characters of all time
can no longer be in
a wheelchair because
apparently according to him
it paints people in
actual wheelchairs as
been associated with
being "Evil",
(you can't have
disabilities associated with
Davos because he's evil
so that automatically makes
a real person with disabilities
evil), i shit you not.
This is where Russells Agenda
driven head is at,
it's actually disgusting
what he is implying
about people with a
disability and he's actually
pissed all those people
off and I'm not surprised,
(I've lost all respect for him).
so now you have (wish)
Davros straight up and
walking
(absolute nonsense).
"I'll see myself out".
Don't get me started
on The Doctor
a 4.5 billion year old
Time Lord who knows 5 billion
languages getting a dressing down
on using pronouns...wtaf,
it's arrogant-shitty and lazy writing
to even think the alien
The Doctor was talking too
would use human terms
for it's own gender,
get the fcuk outta here.
That ending is the most
Woke and cringe worthy
nonsense I have ever witnessed.
(you know nothing and we know
everything, because you
are a male presenting
Time Lord, if you were
still a woman you'd understand,
(WTAF).
I'll stop there it's killing
me just writing this and
remembering what an
Abysmal Abomination
piss take this was,
I was so angry how they
scrubbed quality writing
and story telling to
preach at me for 59 minutes,
this is not what I signed up for,
I've lost all respect for
David Tennant as he's all
for this Woke Bull-Crap
and bashing people over
the head with propaganda,
(David has a 10 year old
"Rose", so he's all for
Doctor Who being
high jacked).
Even The BBC review bomb
it's own show thst's
being shown
on it's own platform,
saying "Doctor Who has
always been progressive but
all it is now is a vessel to
spread "The Message",
that's all I need to hear to
know this once great show
"must see tv" is dead a buried
and it ain't never coming back.
And it's only going to get worse,
just listen to Russell in any
interview about his thoughts
and plans for the new Doctor
after David.
And I thought Russell
was going to be the
Saviour, instead he's
the Destroyer and he's
just picked up right
where Chinballs left this show,
In the mud.
"My death comes without apology." But who is the one-eyed man who told them that Ragnar really is dead? Anyone?
Man, this time I thought I was keeping perfect track of everything and had some theories lined up, surely they couldn't pull the rug from under us again... most of what I thought ended up being just dead wrong, I'm a fool, can't believe it haha. They pulled the "different timelines" trick of Season 1 mixed with the "fidelity time jump" trick of Season 2, and I definitely need to watch this one again.
So basically, everything we've seen with Caleb and Maeve (including the past stuff shown in this episode) happened in the few years following Season 3, but then they "died". Hale then dominates the world, and over two decades later, I guess there's only a faction of humans that remain, including Caleb's daughter, and that's when Bernard begins doing his stuff / Dolores begins realizing things are strange. The twist makes a lot of sense... knowing this, I'm super excited to see what the show becomes now.
What I'm most curious about is finding out exactly what Hale is doing, because it seems like the hosts aren't really aware of what went down and just "live life" normally in the world - so rather than just being a "human vs hosts" situation, at least it looks like Hale is also playing god even among the hosts, plus, humans are being made into hosts, such as Caleb. I wonder why, and also wonder if William is still being kept alive.
The biggest question though... was Stubbs just sitting down waiting for 30 years for Bernard to be back? lol
Best lines
I’m waiting for an old friend - Bran
You left me for dead - Hound
I also robbed you - Arya
I’ve always had blue eyes! - Tormund
Whatever they want - Dany
but
It had its moments - Sansa
They need wheelchair ramps in Winterfell. They left Bran in the courtyard overnight!
Parallelism between Season 1 Episode 1 and Season 8 Episode 1
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ S08E01 Jon: "Where's Arya?" Sansa: "Lurking somewhere."Foreshadowing (from different Seasons/Episodes.)
01. S03E05“ “Let’s not go back. Let’s stay here a while longer,” Ygritte tells Jon. “I don’t ever want to leave this cave, Jon Snow.” S08E01 “We could stay a thousand years. No one would find us,” Daenerys says to Jon.02. Sam is suggesting rebelling against the Targaryen because they burned his father and brother alive. Similar to when Robert's Rebellion, began when Rhaegar Targaryen, allegedly abducted Robert's betrothed, Lyanna Stark.
The funny thing is that after the episode ended, I came here to give it some stars.
Is this episode written by 16 years old?
This episode wanted to be Seven Samurai but ended up as that terrible The Walking Dead episode where everyone gets slaughtered (they're not though in Mandalorian, since this is a Disney series).
There is no development and no build up at all in this episode. Like the previous episode, everything is self-contained. All are introduced and resolved in this same episode. A lot of things happened in this episode but nothing actually contributes to the plot - except for exposition dump.
The bandit raid is a terribly weak, villain of the week setup. They just show up as some evil nuisances - no motives, no goals at all. The Mando teams up with an ex-rebel, which debunks a tired cliche, but at this point this feels like a try-hard attempt to make The Mando as a morally righteous hero. There is a half-assed attempts at romance here, but it feels forced as it happens so sudden. Despite being self-contained (or maybe because it is) the episode lacks closure by the end, and the nifty little scene regarding one stray bounty hunter seems like something that appears just because they still have several episodes to go.
The dialogues are terrible: it's a tonne of exposition dumps. I don't have any idea why the writers think it makes sense for the characters to suddenly ask a stranger, "when was your last time you open your helmet?" and, in return, open up a heart-to-heart "hey I got a tragic story" past to a stranger. The banters with Gina Carano's character is okay, but it feels like they have to slip backstory every now and then. As if they're not having a real, human conversation. Every dialogue feels so forced and hurried as if they have to make it fit into this episode.
Also, it seems like they have no idea what an AT-ST is. It's a vehicle, not a droid.
No idea if anybody realised this, but at the end of the episode, while in the brothel, there's a song playing in the background. A song that, if anybody has seen Outlander (series) would recognise. The intro, that starts with "Sing me a song, of a lass that is gone..."
Knowing that Bear McCreary composes the soundtrack for both shows explains it. But still, it was cool to recognise it.
I fell asleep. I think it turns out that the dog did it. You're welcome, I just saved you from having to watch this one.
I was worried when this started as it looked like was going to be an episode all about Neelix and his jealousy. It turns out that it is, but it's nowhere near as bad as I had feared. Tom and Neelix really needed to work their differences out, and in true cliched TV tradition they get stranded together. It becomes a prime example of how simplistic the writing on this show was, as the two of them bond over a baby and magically resolve all of their differences. You could argue that Trek in general operates like this, but Voyager somehow makes it much harder to stomach. Still, I'm really glad that the Neelix/Paris jealousy story is over.
It's also a shame that the alien baby puppet looks like a reject from that '90s TV show Dinosaurs.
I really appreciated the calmer moments of this one, such as Harry playing clarinet and the Doctor's discussion with Kes. Voyager was not one for really digging into characters, so when the moments occur I tend to enjoy them. I think this also wins the prize for the most insane camera shaking ever during the shuttle's crash landing. That was absolutely nuts.
Janeway's new hairdo is awesome.
Almost a disaster of an episode due to the central premise, which ends up only being creepy. It's the ethical situation which arises around it which makes the episode work much better than it has any right to. Merging Tuvok and Neelix, two of the most uninteresting characters on the show, results in Tuvix who honestly freaks me out more than anything. I'm not sure he was cast quite right, even though Tom Wright does a pretty fantastic job in the role.
It doesn't really get interesting until the final act (honestly - that opening sequence is torture, as Neelix STILL doesn't seem to comprehend the basic fact that Vulcans don't feel emotions). Once Janeway makes her decision it's quite uncomfortable viewing, and the ending leaves a bad taste. That's the second episode in a row to finish on a sour note, and it certainly makes things memorable.
One of the few things I kind of liked about that was the Starfleet uniform mixed with Neelix's garish suit patterns. This probably would have had some real ramifications if Tuvix had stayed around for a few episodes.
Why the fuck is an agent on a FBI special task force using unencrypted webmail to receive material pertaining to an active case?! http://755.16.174.56/webmail/incoming.php indeed! The laptop appears to be running some variant of Linux, based on the windowing system layout (close button on the top left, minimize/maximize on the top right), and presumably it's secured given that Liz used the laptop to access ViCAP. But they don't bother encrypting access to the webmail portal? WTF?!
Also, the email lists three attached photos, but Liz scrolls through more than double that number.
Oh yeah, and what is that ring of keys Keen is carrying that just happens to have the right key to open the warehouse door?
And it was all going so well.
This barely kept my attention and I ended up browsing Reddit while it was on. Really low effort Star Trek that fell back on the most obvious tropes it could. My main comment would be that Claire Rankin (Alice) is very good at doing crazy eyes.
