So good to have decent hard science fiction back on the air. Technology on the show has progressed to the point where I can start to see and feel parallels with The Expanse and Mass Effect (minus the aliens... ...so far). The visuals have also really gone up another level. The wide shots of them towing the asteroid are incredible!
I also missed the Soviet political intrigue. Now that The Americans is finished, it's a good way to keep myself from making the mistake of rewatching all of that again. Not because it's bad, but because I won't be able to stop. My backlog of stuff I haven't watched would put a curse on me.
Strong start, no time wasted. A much better start than teen angst and love triangles in the space hotel. This show really has become the heir apparent to classic Star Trek. Instead of a humanity that drives itself to the brink of extinction and has aliens hold their hands as they learn to travel the stars, humanity saves humanity. A humanity that prevents itself from becoming complacent and keeps feeding the hunger to go further. And we get to watch how, instead of making a perfect utopia, it simply makes the world better one little bit at a time. This is the show that will make future generations look upward and get inspired to be their best selves. And hopefully some of that positive change will affect this version of humanity.
(I always smile when I see the Okudas in the credits. They are good stewards of this show the way they were good stewards of Star Trek. Their respect for the story helps set For All Mankind shoulders above the rest.)
The revival wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t any where near as funny as the original. I wanted to love it, but it was very like every CBS sitcom, like" "Mike and Molly" for example.
The competence on display really reminds you that the best of the original series was a masterclass in ensemble cast work. Kelsey slips into the role like a pair of socks, as for the rest of the cast, I'm reserving my judgment until I’ve watched at least a few more episodes.
Definitely feels like they're just trying to replace characters like for like. I get that David is basically doing his best Niles impression, but something isn’t clicking here, so far he seems to have been written like Shelton from Big Bang Theory to me rather than Niles. Flipping the Martin/Frasier dynamic with Frasier/Freddie just feels like "been there, done that". I'm worried about Frasier not having anyone to snob around with, I felt that his and Niles' discussions about clothing, opera etc. were quite important. Alan doesn't seem to fill that slot, and neither does David.
The canned laughter is spoiling the funny bits. It's on almost every damn line. Do people really need to be told when to laugh?
I’m hoping that it gets funnier as the characters develop.
Pointless episode.
Anakin and Ahsoka fight because he wants to teach her one last lesson: "it is bad to die".
Ahsoka is full of herself and makes fun of Anakin because he has nothing left to teach her. She keeps crossing her arm.
Flashback/Nostalgia scenes where an young Ahsoka, played by an actress with an even worse performance than Rosario, sees clone troopers dying and is sad and angry at Anakin for teaching her how to be a warrior and thus getting clones killed. She also crosses her arms.
Lightning effects and Vader imagery to make fans excited to see Vader again in an awful show.
Dave Filoni OC proves she is so much cooler than Vader, defeats him and chooses not to kill him, tosses his light saber away.
Anakin approves Mary Sue and sends her in her merry way.
They rescued Ahsoka from the bottom of the Ocean. Either she died from falling on the ocean and came back to life or she can breath underwater. Either way is dumb.
Ahsoka turns into Gandalf the White. She starts wearing white even before she wakes up after being rescued. Did Anakin dressed her up?They decide they don't need the map cause Ahsoka can talk to the space whales, hop her ship inside the stomach of one of them and tell them to go where Ezra/Trawn/Sabine are. Geez. No one could see that coming.
And that's it! They could cut everything between Ahsoka waking up in make-believe-land and she being rescued that no one would notice, because it doesn't influence the story in nothing whatsoever, other than showing that FIloni´s OC is cooler than Anakin/Vader, so fans should clap.
Ahsoka is still the insufferable character from the 2008 Clone Wars film. Rather, she is even worse.
Maybe I’m one of the few who really enjoyed this episode, and I’m just saddened that this is the case.
“Time to Fly” is a action based episode to show in few dialogue the dynamics between Ashoka and Sabine, a dynamic which we only hear offscreen but so far never seen it.
The chase is the part where both of them need to find common ground and survive together. Sabine must put aside her frustration in her training and Ahsoka must start believing more in Sabine’s insights. When they finally start to listen to each other, they are able to flee and with 20 min you can feel that they had done this many times before and cast light over a relationship crucial to this show and to the plot it is creating. With few episodes I believe this was necessary, as much as the Mandalorian Episode where Grogu eats Spider eggs while Mando tries to free the ship from the ice. Few dialogues, storytelling by action. [Which is also written by Filoni]
Ahsoka space lightsaber fight was something never done before in Star Wars tv and movies and it was thrilling to see and the Huyang perception of Sabine as one of a line of Jedi’s who defies the common Jedi rules (Dooku>Qui-Gon>Obi Wan> Anakin > Ahsoka)
Was a nice new point of view on Sabine being a Padawan.
The chase is not about the stakes or the survival of the characters. The story plays as it is being told to you after they survived, and you want to know how. How one single ship on enemy space scape 6 ships and three heavy cannons and lived tell their story. It’s not about the stakes of who will leave or not, but what they will endure until they find their friend.
We also have an insight on why Ahsoka trained Sabine and how she perceives Sabine and the use of the force as something anybody can do, going beyond the Jedi order. She is not training Sabine as a Jedi Padawan, but as a Rogue force user apprentice. This breaks again the binary viewing of the force and help expands the notion of Ahsoka being a renegade gray Jedi.
Not only this, but after Rebels and Andor, seeing the rise of the rebel alliance and with Mandalorian seeing the inefficiency of the New republic, the Hera and Chancellor part of the episode showed the sense of suspicion of the new senate and how they were able to allow the first order to return.
Amazing episode with a lot done in 37 minutes and few dialogues. A feast to the eyes with the chase between the Purgills, thrilling to see how Sabine and Ahsoka worked to fight the enemies and new information to the plot of the series that just make this really really interesting!
Can’t wait to see where this is going!
I liked the premise of this episode... but the execution was sloppy at best.
First of all Jim Kirk... why does he hang around on Enterprise for hours? Doesn't he have somewhere else to be? And the ending seemed awfully forced when Jim and Uhura were in the bar and all of a sudden Spock joins them... why exactly would he do that? I would have understood if Jim or Spock had played chess and the other one was eager for a challenge... but for Spock to join Uhura and Kirk whom he doesn't know at that point... no, too far-fetched. Also the family drama with Sam... urgh... who cares if Sam thinks his dad might not be as excited about his career in science as he is about Jim's career? Sorry, but I don't need Jim Kirk on this show (especially not one who's as far away from being Kirk as Quinto was from being Spock...
Then there's the resolution about the deuterium aliens... again, I liked the premise... but the ending was way too rushed... it's like they ran out of time. Uhura rushes to the bridge, tells Pike that her hallucinations are actually aliens without any kind of scientific proof... and Pike hurries to destroy a whole station? It's not the resolution itself that bothers me, it's the way it's shown. (And let's just abandon common sense in that apparently there's no big manual emergency button to stop the station from collecting deuterium or just some way to cut the power to the system other than destroying the whole station...)´
Anyway, it's back to rather mediocre episodes - or poorly executed plots, to be more precise. The ideas are there.
Well well... This is a tough one isn't it? Quite a predicament we all face.
The worst season of the 3 - gave way to a lot of wokeness and ridiculous script by well-being committee. Once Ted needed the shrink in season two, it seems it opened the floodgates.
On the other hand, we do get the redemption of Nate. The rounding out of Roy.
But for all that, the awkwardly wedged-in lesbian relationship that ends just as awkwardly. The teasing of Rebecca's future that is alluded to as an after thought...
See, it's just a minefield of wrongs and rights isn't it?
So let's just go with how I felt at the final moment of the credits.... I felt that it wasn't an egregious wrap up like so many shows. I was content with the Ted thread but very happy with the Roy Kent/Nate/Beard one.
I honestly don't know though if I'd recommend this show to people now. After the first season, it was all I could do to not tap on strangers' shoulders and tell them to run and watch this. After season two and that god awful Beard After Dark episode, it was a qualified recommendation that it is very good but there's a bit of nonsense creeping in and also that episode should be avoided like the plague.
Given season three from episode three to nine is a cluster bomb of wokery and 'tv by social media approval' then the whole series became something of a chore.
It'll be a while before I settle on this one.
Sorry, I don't like this schmaltzy Jack Grealish part. Only funny moment: Jamie's room. That's also perhaps the only hilarious moment in this whole episode. The other part in Manchester is soccer-centric. How are they so bad tin re-enacting actual soccer games? It looks horrible. Everything. The pitch, the players, the players, the fat referee, the stands. Well, maybe the latter is perhaps depicted realistically. Man City is a soulless and cheating investor's club that is a danger to "our" beautiful game and their stadium isn't exactly Europe's Bombonera. (Personal remark: It's just silly that people call it The Ethiad as if that's a honorary nickname earned over decades). Only Pep is really him and he looks good indeed ('cause he won't ever look bad. He's Premier League's Xabi Alonso).
The Nate redemption/forgiveness story comes to an end. I didn't enjoy this a bit. It's totally foreseeable and horrible Hollywood kitsch. Never ever Nate was believable or a likable character. And the only interesting part of it, namely a boy who became a grown man with a morale that stands up to his manipulating, gaslighting club-owner was never really elaborated on. He doesn't speak up against him or the club culture he's trying to cultivate. Instead he first flees into this restaurant and then crawls back to Richmond because he's a good guy. As if we ever believed that wouldn't happen. If I could chose, I'd like to learn more about Nate's girlfriend. She seems to be the much more interesting (and possibly complex) character.
The other part is about Ted's mom. It's barely watchable. Ted has Daddy issues. That's it? That's the reason behind it all? It really seems they added this part hastily to this penultimate episode because they had no time to finish his "panic attacks story" before the grand finale (although they told this story half-decently before by adding this psychologist). Since they had no time and psychotherapy is a lengthy process with uncertain outcome, they came up with a magic remedy: a hug between mom and son. And so ends one of the more complex sub-plots of this show with some hastily put together Hollywood kitsch.
Likewise, they attributed 15 seconds to Rebecca's great revenge. I mean, last episode she already learned not caring anymore about her ex. That must have been a moment of relief. And I liked this part in the last episode. But here comes the big fat redemption part and it's only 20 seconds and very implicit. Waddingham is such a good actor and Rebecca perhaps the most likable, most funny person in this show and all we got is this? Where's the drama?
I'm usually okay with the fact that the show's plots are simple AF, that the jokes are innocuous and only mildly funny and that characters are not really complex. I mean, that's something I never expected from this show. I was okay with watching a kitschy but often heartwarming show full of lovable characters. But this episode was too much to stomach. Sorry. They probably had good good intentions. Can it get worse? Yes it can. By letting them win the title in the next epiosde. Like it's 1992 Hollywood and the Mighty Ducks win the state title because their coach made them believe.
The movie in minute 26: You've got Mail (https://trakt.tv/movies/you-ve-got-mail-1998)
Minute 10: Planned plays:
The start is horrible. Gosh I hate it when people that were supposed to be naked are dressed in TV shows. I understand this. It's a PG thing. Still, if they can't show this then better show nothing at all. I don't care whether their teeth were sneakily brushed or not. The question is: why do they - all four of them - wear clothes? Apple is as boring as Disney.
All the relationship stuff is boring. I've watched this again and again in other shows and movies. It's obviously not funny. It's not meant to be. It's meant to be serious or emotional or romantic or whatever. It was nothing like that. It's just very superficial and shallow and boring. Only exception is maybe the men discussing the Fappening in the locker room. But the episode falls short in discussing this issue any further.
Plus, this episode falls back into old annoying patterns: stereotypes about Britain (or Paris). English breakfast, fries, pubs, red phone booths, quaint squares (I expected to spot Hugh Grant somewhere) and the Beatles. Gosh.
All, in all it's a weak episode. The stories told are weak and it's not even exceptionally funny or full of the heartwarming kitsch that saved many otherwise lackluster episodes.
[4.8/10] Stupid stupid stupid. Why does it always have to be the Borg? Why does it always have to be some random, shocking twist instead of just sticking to what you’ve built to through the prior eight episodes? Why must it be chock full of credulity-straining retcons and cheesy coincidences?
The plot twists here are dumb as hell. The whole biological Borg “seed” being implanted in Picard’s never-before-seen son retcon absolutely breaks my willing suspension of disbelief for how convenient it is. The Borg getting a biological assimilation upgrade that basically lets them flip a switch and assimilate everybody is a cheap bit. And god, the fact that it only affects people under 25 is such a convenient dodge to get the old crew in the driver’s seat.
If that weren’t enough, the nostalgia-pushing here is so blunt and obvious. Yes, it’s very cool to see the Enterprise-D again, to hear Majel Barrett’s voice as the computer again, and to see that set recreated with familiar faces standing on it, ready to go defend none other than the now-Admiral Shelby. But the method to get there is so unearned, so full of psychological and narrative gymnastics to arrive at this destination, that the warm feelings built from seven seasons of the old show are muted by this new one’s transparent attempt to invoke them to cover for its dumb twists and reheated conflicts.
This one’s not without its pleasures. Shaw sacrificing himself and calling Seven by her real name is a nice and well-earned moment. Data’s “I hope we die quickly!” declaration is a solid laugh. I’m glad to see Shelby in live action again and to get a reference to the USS Pulaski.
But this episode all but squanders the goodwill and good work the show’s managed to pull off over the course of season 3. After finding ways to channel high points and fond memories for the old show to tell new stories and move things forward, why are we back to Star Trek: Picard’s mind-numbing plot twists and threadbare nostalgia? What a waste of a fairly good build to this point.
Oh man, all this is such a lazy bad writing... so they're going into an unknown potentially dangerous place. And the alien race warns them specifically saying that is a very dangerous place indeed. They come there and who goes into the recon mission? The admiral, the captain of the whole ship, the first hand, the main doctor, the main engineer - so, all the "head" of the ship. So if something happens the whole ship has nobody to command. It's an official union explorer ship with hundreds of people on board and they have no exploration team who goes first at all. Okay, even if I can forgive them that stupidity for the sake of tv-show excuse to show the main characters more often. But what's next?
Do they go into this dangerous place in space suits with weapons? Of course no, they go just like that and admiral literally put his face into some weird looking bio-thingy. It's like Space 101 of what not to do. Of course he gets infected, of course he's a trojan horse. They don't even secure him anyhow, just walk and go, do whatever, infect others. Then we going to spread around the ship while having no weapons at all, because why would we, we're going to have them for a minute at the end of the episode otherwise no thrilling moments.
If you think you already seen all of that somewhere but in a much less stupid way - you are right, the episode of Firefly had exactly this, but much more logical.
Seriously: even him? I mean, it's not him - but it's him. I appreciate the nostalgia but enough is enough. Somewhere the line must be drawn. This is not a story; this is a Trek reunion. Plus, it's not a show in its own right when they "just" steal parts from earlier installments. Checking whether someone's a conspirator the old-fashioned way? Watch no further than TNG Season 1 "Conspiracy". Changelings infiltrating Star Fleet command? Look no further than DS9's Dominion wars. TNG shows you how not to drag out a story like this; DS9 shows you how to tell such a story over the course of several seasons. Picard gets the pacing wrong. The (presumably simple) main story is oddly drawn out. Think about this episode. What did really happen? They prepared a trap (in order to do what exactly? They think they have Riker? But did they expect bring Riker with them as part of the boarding party? They tried to get away from this ship for 6 episodes and now they think it's a good idea to lure them aboard? I don't get it.) They failed. The ship was taken over and we're not closer to anything. What are they trying to achieve? Rescue Wil, uncover the weapon or what ever this is the shape shifters want to use on Frontier Day? Shouldn't they try to disclose and end the conspiracy first? There amust be a way to inform trusted officers within Star Fleet. There must be a way to convince them that they are no fugitives. There must be a way to purge Star Fleet from the changelings. All while the show has no time to decently tell its too many B-plots or portray its too many characters. Stealing doesn't stop there. Remember Odo's origin story? His trauma? Stolen! Remember Lore pretending to be Data? Stolen! The list goes on and on.
Still not revealing the Jack mystery? Another cliffhanger? Frau Greta Farbissina [James Bond logic: who must be mad because she's a villain because she has a scar] obviously is about to lift the veil but I'm sure that next episode won't start with her simply telling us what's wrong with the Crusher boy (this one - not the older one). Still nobody bothers to find out? JLP thinks it's because they need a blood sample of Jack to emulate him? Plus, they need JLP`s corpse to do so? Whaaaat? Why that? It makes no sense on so many levels. Why is nobody pressing the boy hard on the mystery BS of his? "I'm different. I can feel things." Gosh. Why is nobody asking him to elaborate on that so that can be examined thoroughly? "I don't want other people to be in danger because of me". Gosh! What exactly does he think he did to his mother all the time? That's perhaps the most annoying aspect of this show. Let's get over with this. Nobody cares about Jack anyway. He's a prick. And the show didn't invest any time to portray him in a way that makes me bond with him.
PS: the whole boarding operation is stupid. Those laser shoot-outs remind me of Star Troopers. The force fields are conveniently lowered by Data when they needed to be lowered to turn tables. Seizing the bridge is too easy. No wonder: when that's convenient, Seven must act stupid. That's not our Seven from back in the day. She's just fan service in this episode. How could she not know that Changelings could mimic the floor if they wanted to? Didn't she watch DS9 on TV? I've seen more exciting boarding operations in TNG and Voyager. What happened to switching off the power to the turbo lifts? What happened to climbing ladders? What happened to hiding in Jefferies tubes? What happened to arming yourself with the big guns when you're about to be boarded? What happened to well devised traps? Well, perhaps I'm wrong and let them take the bridge was the actual trap all along. Maybe. Let's see. In any case our heroes will regain the upper hand. It's a tiring cycle ....
Another strong episode that balanced fun with some great emotional material. I think Worf might be stealing the show already at this point, and the Picard/Beverly discussion was simply fantastic with both actors really giving their all.
I really wasn't expecting the Changeling reveal, and I have to say that it was an extremely pleasant surprise. It's got me wondering if Riker might not be himself.
It's not all perfect - spending an entire two episodes now on a single encounter is feeling slightly tiresome, and the back and forth nature of the Picard/Riker argument was really pushing things by the end of the episode (which also gives me further fuel for the above spoiler). Part of me wanted to scream to get on with things and move the story forward, but the other part of me was delighting in just hanging out with the characters. Jeri Ryan is doing great work here even with the limited screen time in this one.
The fact that I'm very eager for more at the end of each episode is a sign that it's doing things right, but it's also very hard to judge what the overall season arc is going for right now. I feel like I know nothing about what's going on.
The de-aging effects for Picard and Riker weren't great.
[7.4/10] This felt like a midseason finale rather than a season finale. There’s nothing wrong with that, but considering we got so much build to Maarva’s funeral, with all the major players converging in one spot after so many disparate storylines and choices, I was expecting a rollicking ending to, at the very least, this chapter of the story, if not the entire show.
Instead, it ends with more of an ellipsis, suggesting that there’s much more to come next season, rather than anything that puts even a minor amount of finality on this one. Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with that approach, but it does feel a little unsatisfying when it seems like we’re being strung along a bit, rather than settling much of the business here and moving on to new adventures next season. That said, if this were, say, episode 13 of a 26 episode season, I don’t think I’d feel the same way, so I don’t want to slate Andor too much over format distinctions.
Even taking the episode on its own terms, it’s a little unsatisfying. Part of the trade-off to Andor is that the time we spend on set-up and throat clearing in many episodes is fine and good, because they make the episodes with a ton of payoff more meaningful. Well, the problem with the finale is that, despite being a fairly long episode, there’s still a lot of throat-clearing. It doesn’t move the ball that much, and then the payoff is pretty good, but not as incredible as the escape from Ferrix, or the raid on Aldhani, or the prison break on Nakina 5.
Everybody's there. Everybody’s scheming or skulking around. Andor’s sneaking back and some folks are helping him, while others are tipping the authorities off. It doesn’t reveal much in the way of character or establish much in the way of what’s to come. All of this comes off like wheel-spinning before it’s time for Maarva’s funeral.
And yet, once we get to Maarva’s funeral, things are pretty good! The local orchestra marching through the streets, gathering mourners as they go, is mellifluous and mournful in perfect balance. The locals starting their processional at the time they chose, with as many attendees as they wanted, is a good show of defiance to kick things off. And Maarva’s closing speech, decrying the Empire as a disease, imploring her fellow citizens to wake up and rise up, shows the revolutionary spirit that her son would take to heart, and that the galaxy would catch fire with sooner than later.
I like the theme of this episode, and by extension the season, about what spurred Andor to go from a good-for-nothing scoundrel to a dependable agent of the Rebellion. Part of it comes from his mom, who has that revolutionary zeal and it inspires it in others. Part of it comes from his dad, whose flashback talks about recognizing the value in things other people ignore, that just need a little fixing up, a metaphor for Andor himself.
We even get to hear a bit of the manifesto, which is a little too cute in how it predicts the way a few choice losses will lead to the downfall of the Empire, on the idea that authoritarian regimes founded on control are too brittle to withstand liberty. It’s a little naive, but inspiring nonetheless, which is the right balance for something like this.
The actual skirmish is reasonably exciting as well. The action is a little more generic than in prior outings. But the scale is impressive, and the scenes of the proud people of Ferrix, growing fed-up with their oppressor, and trying to throw off the shackles of the Imperials, comes with a good amount of oomph to it.
The catch is that so much of what happens here feels like setup to season 2 rather than a close to this one. Cassian can’t save his mom, but he can save Bix, and rely on his contacts here to set those close to him off on their next adventure. Karn saves Meero’s life, seeming to give her a new appreciation for him, possibly clearing his name for losing Andor and giving him a leg-up to get back into the service. A regretful Mon Mothma introduces her daughter to the son of a well-heeled gangster, but in a clever ploy, she also works ISB by suggesting her money irregularities are the result of her husband’s gambling problem.
And last but not least, Cassian confronts Luthen about he and his agents being on Ferrix to kill Cassian as a loose end. Once again, these all gesture to future stories rather than close off what Andor set up so far, but they’re mostly teases. Reasonably good teases though. (The same goes for the reveal that the parts Cassian and company worked on in the prison were being installed on the Death Star.)
The first season of Andor was very good. It has a British spy film tone, which fits the material, and is pitched squarely at adults, which adds variety to a franchise that is churning out project after project at rapid pace. The craft remains impeccable, and the deeper grasp on politics is a welcome one. I will surely be watching Andor season 2 when it comes out, but I still wish what we had here was an end to the current season, rather than a mere prelude to the next one.
Have we lowered the bar so low that all we care about now is the prettiness of a show and we careless about story, content and writing?
Yes it looks pretty, but so is the Venus Fly Trap that entices flys to venture into, and slowly wrap around the fly whilst numbing it so it can't fly away and eventually is consumed by it.
The Weta Workshop always do stunning backdrops, models and that was clearly where tons of cash was used but the swords and armour were deficient in budget. But that said you cannot rely just on 'pretty' to sell a story and keep an audience. You can have the best backdrop on a pantomime but if the acting and the writing is like eating stale cardboard you won't keep an audience long.
I have up watching last week's episode half way through as I was bored out of my skull and returned when I could stomach it. I watched this episode after saying I won't but decided to ensure till the end of the season but I can tell you there was nothing in this episode that have me satisfaction in starting that's for sure.
Honestly this episode felt like it was 3hrs long. It was hurting me to stay focused and try to keep the fragments of the whisp of any 'story line'. Dear lord the writing is abysmal in this thing.
It's like the 'pretty', is 'My Precious' of the original trilogy and is hypnotizing an audience into complete submission.
There was nothing in this episode that made me enjoy it and it even made me despise all the more. This is more targeted to schoolage children just coming home from school. And wasn't it Amazon themselves that wanted a show of equal calibre for their own 'Game of Thrones' type drawcard?
Compare just in terms of what is a strong presence on screen and a believable woman fighting, watch 'Anna' as a recent example. The writing of that movie is quite good too.
This waste of time show is like blowing up a balloon then releasing all the air and all you have left is a stretched soggy and flat but colourful piece of rubber that's no good for anyone.
I could repeat my comments from last episode, but I won't do this. In a nutshell: it looks awesome, but the story and most characters are mediocre. I still enjoy it but it's certainly not great.
Let me talk about something else instead. Tolkien's work and Jackson's adaptation have always received their fair share of criticism regarding ethnic and racial stereotypes. One example is the problematic Wagner-ish portray of dwarfs. I won't go into this. Enough was said about this. In this show, they added Hobbit "ancestors". Hobbits were never funny and a a big fat Irish stereotype. Now they added this element of "migration". How could you not think that they are inspired by Irish Travellers? The Harfoots have other traits allegedly ascribed to their culture: they too love music, gather around campfires, organize themselves in families and live at the edge of society in relative poverty. It's like costume artists were fans of The Kelly Family. I'm not even saying that only negative stereotypes are reverberated: the Harfoots are too likable to immediately incite prejudice and discrimination against Travellers. But I wonder why they always do that in this franchise? Why do they often use a discriminated ethnic or racial group as a template and why do they choose to portray them in a very stereotypical way? They could have designed this people very differently very easily. Who's next? Gypsies? Pygmy peoples? Sámi? Eurasian nomads aka "horse people"? It doesn't really bother me though. (I'm not a snowflake and I realize that fiction is different from reality). This was mostly an academic remark. But I think, it was worth to be mentioned. Instead, very interestingly though, the show is (totally unfairly) criticized by some for including (as in: inclusion) black actors. Really? It makes you think whether "our" value system is well calibrated.
PS: I knew it. Yolandi Visser is one of these weird, otherworldly, pale elves. These guys are elves, right?
The ending was later game of thrones stupid.
Daemon running out there like an idiot, and the dozens of archers firing at him miss, again, again, and again, and again, and again, and then oh now finally they hit.
All the while he's fighting against opponent, after opponent, after opponent, against multiple opponents, as the crab feeder sends out dozens of his men.
It's just stupid. And his dragon stayed back because? No reason. Could have been attacking the archers.
And it turns out Daemon didn't do this solely to try and kill the crab feeder, but to try and bait him out so he/his allies can kill him and his army?
But wait. Allies said they had around 700 men. They're in a war. So crab feeder must have hundreds or around that number. Crab feeder wouldn't be stupid enough to send out a big force just for daemon, especially because he was wounded by arrows and on the ground, and still being attacked by them. Plus, we saw him send out what two dozen of his warriors? Against Daemon. For some reason.
Then when allies show and dragon attack, Crab Feeder and his allies don't go back in the caves? Which was their usual tactic each time for literally years during the war.
Even though they're in a losing war, Daemon and his allies win at the end.
None of this makes sense.
Writing quality across the whole episode is lower than the previous two, and we have now reached later game of thrones level of stupidity.
Would Daemon have really done that stupid run? Oh and we also see more of his dishonorable nature by nearly beating a messenger to death, and then betraying the white flag of truth. Even though he at least seemed to have some honorable aspects to him in previous episodes, even though he was brutal. Was this all in the book? The stupid suicide run, the dishonorable actions. And was it in the book when Daemon charged right in the middle of battle on his dragon and got pounded by arrows and almost died? He got lucky because one went into his shoulder. This is stupid. Even on the run he could have been killed by the first volley of arrows. I'd be very surprised if any of this was in the book.
Edit: And we don't get enough info about things regarding the status of armies, and the numbers we do get don't make sense. So Valeryon's forces have 700 men left? Eh? That low? And you're waging a war? Been in a war for years? How many forces does Daemon have? Does he have any left? He had goldcloaks right? For some reason. I guess he had so much of their loyalty is what it said in previous episodes. Yeah i guess they just followed him to Dragonstone and then into war. Where are they? Are they still a part of his army? If not, then it's just him? Why did the Valeryon guy say Daemon is helping them lose the war, he has a dragon. He's consistently helping, especially so if he's contributing his goldcloak forces, and i assume that's all Daemon would have, since we don't know if he's the lord of anywhere and able to conscript people.
So many questions like that. All through the episode about things. When an episode is a mixed bag like this, you start to see and question many other things. I still enjoyed the episode overall though.
Edit 2: Since a lot of people seem to agree with me, i thought i'd go into more detail. The show hasn't completely broken down yet like later Game of Thrones, nor has the logic been twisted too much like middle Game of Thrones. The previous 2 episodes i thought were really good, but this episode you could tell had a different writer, and that's not good, because it makes you less immersed, like sometimes you feel these characters shouldn't be saying what they're saying. Contrast that to Game of Thrones season 1, and i couldn't tell who was writing what episode, as it was good across the board. So early into this season and i'm seeing a mismatch in writing is not a good sign.
I think we have a lot of interesting characters in this show and i'm looking forward to continuing. I'd rate this episode a 6.5/10, but 6 or 7 is valid to me. Most of this episode i thought was pretty good, but there were too many things for me to choose 6. The mismatch in writing, the timeskip, the brattiness of Rhaenyra, the white deer heavy handed symbolism, the end of the episode and the anticlimactic nature of the crabfeeder. The king feeling a bit too lost in his soul, when he's supposed to be king and has been king for a long time, and has a queen and children. I understand the reasoning, i just don't buy it much. But i still like the many conversations, politics and intrigue in the show, and the characters and story.
Honestly, I'm very mixed. The explosion was the biggest turnoff and to be honest, the Steven brothers have the worst storylines. Everyone staying behind so Kelly can have her baby is beautiful, and even when Ed flies the ship to have her leap off even though he might not land. THIS IS FOR ALL MANKIND! This works! The Steven brothers seeing that it's too late to condone their sins... that can go. I was really sad to see Karen leave (honestly her being head of Helios would've been interesting) but I guess this means more Dev. Molly was technically written off the show, so it was nice to give her one last hurrah since she was a lead in the first two seasons. Then there's Margo... honestly, the explosion seemed the best fit for ending her arc since you know, she'd go to jail. Seeing her in Russia shows that she'll now make the SU a big player in space exploration in the 2000's (and she'll be Aleida's arch nemesis) but honestly, I was hoping we'd get a tease for where the story would go space-wise (like the rocket with the nukes in S1 and the first feet on Mars in S2). I'm mixed, it'll be interesting to see where this show goes next, I really hope the writers read the reviews!
By now I feel like it's visually extremely well made but the writing, plot development, villains, emotional points, characters motivations... are all extremely erratic and bland. What will now happen? A 2nd rescue to fill 1 episode, then 1 escape and pulling the strings in the finale? I'm honestly not that keen to know, given we already know what the characters' fate will be. What is this adding? I was interested in seeing more humanity from Ben, him mentoring Leia maybe, maybe see some of Luke's life at the farm meant as "giving beloved characters a more rounded persona, emotionally and in the small things and in what led them to become who we know".
I have the same impression I got with Spider-Man: No Way Home and The Book of Boba Fett : quite unnecessary plot, just playing on the nostalgia factor and love for the characters. I don't know if it's Disney's go-to in this period but personally if it's done this way I just prefer to treasure the memories
- Going to Freck cause he seems friendly from the distance. It seems Leia's only purpose by now is to put them into a supposedly dangerous situation to get the plot ahead for 5-10mins
- The whole ride on the "bus" with the stormtroopers...
- I liked the heartfelt conversation after the stormtroopers left, and honestly I'd have preferred much more such a tone. Less events-packed
- Obi-Wan bowing and accepting his fate and a possible shot seems forced, not trying to protect Leia I mean
- Feels like Ewan McGregor was not used anymore to his Obi-Wan/Alec Guinness voice: while they're hiding in the Path, he underlines "what is [this place]" like Guinness did, exact tone
- Again stormtroopers getting close and aggressively questioning someone just to let it go. Cheap tension, if used too often
- I don't know if it's acted on purpose but you can see that Obi-Wan moves like an older man, with less agility, a more shuffled running pace
- The main villain always having a sixth sense over how to discover where the good guys are hiding, or were hiding as when Reva does here discovering the hiding room and the tunnel (as she saw them last episode shooting on the roofs. Here even randomly by throwing away some object in a rage attack) - again feels cheap writing to have something happen and have a chase
- Obi-Wan getting force-choked? I've always wondered how during a lightsaber duel, one would protect himself/herself from such a technique
- And of course, the final
The acting of Ewan was phenomenal. He really sold the PTSD broken Jedi. The chemistry between Ben and Leia felt real and reminded me of the banter Obi-wan had with Anakin, Ahsoka and Rex. I smiled when rusty ben gets help from fearless little Leia. The intro of Vader was chilling and he looked and sounded exactly as I remembered. We even got some lore and name dropping. I'm really sorry that I have to say this but I do feel like they fumbled on the landing.
I get that Darth Vader wanted to make Obi-wan suffer and wanted to take his time, but this is only 10 years after their duel. He should have been way more unhinged and certainly would have had no problem in preventing Obi-wan's escape. Simple force crush of the loader would have been enough. Sorry but anything other than a vehicle getting them out of there at high speed is bad writing ( like they evaded Maul in episode 1 ). Vader searched the entire galaxy for a decade and he's now being stopped by 5m of fire in between two over sized molehills?
Second huge question is how Reva got to the pilot first? Was there a shortcut that Tala and Leia didn't take ? Why did they take the long way round ? Did Revan meet Tala on her way back and then did a forcerun flash to pass Leia ?
I don't expect Star Wars to be Godfather quality but I really hope they explain those things.
[7.6/10] Enjoyed this one quite a bit! The main story deftly married a central thematic idea with some ripping action. Considering the Separatists were the major enemy of the Clone Wars, the post-Revenge of the Sith on-screen media hasn’t dealt much with what happened to their remnants in the Imperial Era. I appreciate the glimpse not only of how one of those systems is faring after the rise of the Empire, but also how the Bad Batch find themselves having to trust people who were once their enemies.
The episode doesn’t go very deep on either of these things, but both are potent ideas conveyed in an age-appropriate way. Senator Singh is a great microcosm of that (Alexander Siddig, bridging the Star Trek/Star Wars divide!) His ideas of wanting to stand up for his people, despite Imperial pressure (and implied torture), and struggling with the decision to live another day rather than keep fighting for the sheer futility of it is a simple but effective one. Siddig’s performance gives him shading that amplifies what’s in the script, and it makes him feel of a piece with Hunter and company, who found themselves fleeing and figuring things out in a post-Republic world.
They are a bit on edge in this one, getting information and advice from formerly Sepratist potentates that makes them question whether this is all a trap, whether it’s Senator Singh or his protocol droid, GS-8. Again, these decisions are straightforward -- accept a code, go into a particular space, head into a seemingly dead-end -- but the show and the backstory make these decisions meaningful under the circumstances, which is what you ask for from these types of legacy series.
Plus, on a base level, the action is just good. This is one of the episodes of Bad Batch that feels most like the old Clone Wars show, appropriately enough. The group's tactics against the stormtroopers and their tanks feel of a piece with the Clone Trooper’s tactics against the Separatists. And a simple extraction mission for an important diplomat seems like the sort of thing Anakin, Ashoka, and Rex might tackle in the former series. In particular, helping to sack a lush city feels like their adventures on Onderon. But the fights are crisp with a nice back and forth between the g ood guys and their foes, and some good Threepio-esque comedy and help from GS-8.
The B-story is good as well, seeing Omega left behind for fear that she’s at risk after the events of the past couple episodes, only to discover a special talent for strategy with some encouragement for Cid. It works well because it softens Cid, showing that despite her rough edges and mercenary bent, she has some well-worn wisdom and support to offer. And I like the idea of Omega not feeling helpless, seeing that she has something to offer even if she doesn’t quite have the braun of her comrades. It’s also about Hunter realizing that too, which is good. It’s understandable that he’d want to be cautious after Cad Bane and Fennec Shand were on her tail, but seeing that Omega is capable and apt to provide a tactical advantage (as displayed through games of Phil Tippet’s famed holochess) is a good way to show both of them getting over it.
Overall, this was a very sound installment that did everything it set out to do quite well.
How come that landing the ending is so hard for so many series but rarely for movies. We had a major cliffhanger at the beginning of the first part of this season which ended up being a red herring. Is it because we can't let "the bad guy" win or are they really considering every viewer and want to please all making it suck for even more of 'm.
Killing Ruth so late in the game was pointless. Same with Navarro really since he gets replaced by someone who most likely is even worse. And then they pull this Sopranos ending at the end? To prove what? How a kid shoots either an honorable man or his parents or that he shoots in the air for no reason in particular. In what book is this a good ending? Nothing is resolved, nothing is cleared up, it doesn't end even though it ended. Pointless second half of a season from a great show with the biggest cunt I've ever witnessed in a series (Yes Wendy "I got what I wanted to all of a sudden I'm sane again and everyone loves me" Byrde).
Maybe there isn't a good ending, but this certainly was the lamest way to end it.
I feel like a miserable person because everyone seems to enjoy this episode but me. And when I think about how the Original Trilogy, The Mandalorian and The Clone are probably my top 3 of the Star Wars shows and movies I should normally love this, right?
Of course I was excited when all these iconic characters showed up but maybe it's because of how many of them were introduced in just a single episode, but it felt a little cheap. Not to mention, I think this show is extremely predictable; for example the Cad Bane scene went just as I thought it would, him shooting the other guy while only wounding Vanth. And it's not just the scenes that are predicable - the dialogue in this whole show feels cliche and uninspring.
I'm always here for more Luke and the cgi for him is very impressing, though I'm a bit disappointed that he is so harsh with the attachment rule, I don't think it fits his character very well considering his arc and own attachements in the OT. But this may as well be a test he puts Grogu through so we shall see.
And even though I adore Ahsoka, I'm also personally not the biggest fan of Rosario Dawson's potrayal of Ahsoka, not sure why. On a sidenote, I know they can't really make her lekkus longer in live action because of the stuntwork but I wish they could at least somehow make her "horns" (montrals, right?) bigger. It just doesn't look good the way it is now.
But hey I'm nitpicking now, my biggest problem with this show is the dialogue and overall writing; With the exception of the 5th episode (I loved that one) I just don't think it's very good. And of course the lack of Boba Fett in his own show is jarring but then again whenever the focus is on him it's not very interesting either. The story is lacking and it's a shame.
While I definitely liked the episode, it felt more like a Mandalorian episode rather than a Book of Boba Fett one. That's really my biggest complaint. The show is literally meant to be about Boba Fett, but we don't see him once this episode. Kinda weird and it disrupts the entire tone of the show.
Approaching this as more of a Mandalorian episode rather then a Boba Fett one, I really liked how Din doesn't seem to really fit in with the strict ideals and traditions of the Children of the Watch anymore. He's growing as a person and now that he's been cast out of the covert, he is free to live his life without feeling the constant fear of others seeing his face.
Seeing a Naboo Royal Starfighter was cool. Also Din training with the Darksaber gives me Rebels vibes.
Overall a very entertaining episode with some added bits of lore, like what happened on the Night of a Thousand Tears. It seemed to be hinting that Din will visit Grogu and Luke before he teams up with Boba and Fennec, but I don't want Din to become the main focus for the rest of the show, considering he'll have all the focus in season 3 of The Mandalorian.
Unpopular opinion: I was not a big fan of this episode. It was too obvious for the killers to be the Dimases, yet they ended up spending an entire episode going down that theory again. So, in the end we don't have any new information. We are onto the 9th episode and we still don't have a minor clue who would be the murderer.
The ending saved this episode because of the twist. This sends the investigation into a whole new direction, and I'm hoping for something interesting.
If Jane is dead I won't be mad, she may be right but is still so annoying. I think she's been stabbed but will survive.
Who in the building has connections to the police? How are the police involved?
Why would Theo take Oliver and Mabel to show them the place where they dispose bodies? He could have got his father down to the basement. And how did Theo manage to tie two people up all by himself?
Was that a good “shit, fuck, fuck”? Martin Short deserves to win an Emmy for this show, he provides like 90% of the humor. He was on fire in this episode.
“Reverse helpful” is getting added to my vocab.
I hate saying this but what a complete mess
The show is fun yes, I enjoy some of it yes but overall it was so confusing in terms of the timeline and time frame.. They jump back and forth in time without really making it obvious so I found myself questioning everything that happens in some moments
Another thing I hated is that the show was extremely rushed to the point that I felt like the character development of Yennefer didn't make sense at all, it's like over night she's a totally different person with no smooth transition whatsoever
One of the biggest flaws of this season is the directing and editing choices they've made.. The way they chose to tell their story mixing past and present in a hard to tell way killed it for me.. I would've enjoyed this show much more if I actually knew what was going on during the scenes not after
It's amazing how much and little progress they've made with this season at the same time LOL, it's like so much happened yet so little
Anyway I'm only saying this because I like the Witcher and want it to do better in future seasons
Overall season is 6/10
Do I want a third season? Sure, this is one of my favourite book series of all time.
Would I be surprised if it all ends here? Not at all.
'Clunky' is the best word I can think of to describe this entire show. Amazing costume design, amazing special effects, amazing soundtrack and (for the most part) amazing actors. Amir Wilson killed it this season. Episodes 4 or 5 were so good I thought we were going somewhere (btw, bring back those writers who helped Thorne in those episodes, for the love of God).
But the problems are still there. Even after two whole seasons, scenes are edited poorly, Jack Thorne's writing is abysmal and the pacing is extremely inconsistent. Those are problems that were more or less understandable for the first half of season 1, but we're two thirds of the way in. What did the witches even do so far, apart from dramatically staring at walls and talking about prophecies? What was the point of showing Mary Malone wandering through Citagazze for two episodes?
A shame, considering how good all other aspects of the show are. I tried to keep an optimist mindset, and I'll be watching if a third season ever comes out, but I can now affirm that this adaptation has been mostly a disappointment.
An outstandingly accurate account of the months leading up to the infamous 2016 U.S. Presidential election, as well as the immediate days & weeks following the results.
This cast is full of top-tier, A-list talent — and everyone turns in a performance that could possibly be the best work of their respective careers. Gleeson’s not going for any sort of “mimicry” or “impression,” because his version of Trump isn’t looking for audience laughter. There are brief moments where you’re not actually sure if you’re seeing Gleeson or the actual loser POTUS himself (1 term POTUS might I add; only the worst presidents in US history fail to win re-election, but I digress...).
James Comey & Andrew McCabe, NO MATTER HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THEM, dedicated their entire careers in the FBI and that hard work paid off. They never let an ounce of personal bias or political leanings change the way they approached their decades-long careers in the FBI.
You can still be angry if you want and tell yourself that James Comey’s poor decisions before the 2016 election cost Hillary Clinton the White House, and I would probably agree a little bit to be honest....however, if you’re not watching this amazing 2 part mini-series out of some sort of misplaced belief that it will only cover events you already know about & don’t need them in your face again, TO THAT I SAY WATCH IT ANYWAY BECAUSE THERE’S QUITE A BIT THE AVERAGE AMERICAN VOTER DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT THE SPECIFICS OF THIS STORY.
Thank me later :)
Jeff Daniels is a revelation, as always. Scoot McNary shows up briefly but his scenes are the ones that really stuck with me. “Doug Stamper” plays Andrew McCabe — which is one of the greatest casting choices since, like, ever. Sally Yates is played by Holly Hunter, and like I mentioned: every face you see besides the Russians (who unquestionably meddled in the 2016 election w/ significant success in their slandering of Hillary Clinton on social media) I think you’ll have an easier time listing actors you don’t recognize.
To be clear: it’s not good BECAUSE you recognize so many great actors — this little special mini-series turned out this great for a number of reasons, but of course a big factor was having a deep bench of talent ready to step up for even minor roles and knock each scene out of the park.
If you watch this mini-series, (and pay attention! No looking at your phone or computer like a jackass pls), and STILL don’t think that James Comey’s decisions were ones you would’ve handled immensely better, I’d be eager to hear you out before pointing you to a psychiatrist to treat the delusions of grandeur in your unhealthy mind.
If you watch this and think it was fine, but nothing TOO awesome or whatever, that’s okay too! That’s how I feel, really. It’s not that I think this is something that you can re-watch a lot & always enjoy; I just think it’s so well made that the subject matter is far too important for most Americans to overlook/ignore, hence the enthusiasm on display.
Anyway, no matter which end of the political spectrum you lean towards, I hope you all enjoy this. Full disclosure, however, there are NOT “fine people on both sides” in this story. There are the American Patriots who work for the DoJ & FBI etc., and then there is a sleazy cabal of inbred D-level reality TV star family members + some hack lawyers who follow the impeached, 1-term, most-popular-vote-losing-POTUS-candidate-ever like they worship the cheap ground he walks on.
If you think this story is too dramatic to have really taken place — read McCabe’s book. FBI agents are trained to immediately catalogue every conversation of potential relevance VERBATIM the moment the talk ends & those filed away notes are kept in a safe at HQ. McCabe & Comey did a hell of a job capturing the exact words of the soon-to-be-unemployed & bankruptcy POTUS, and I’m grateful we had those heroic men running the Bureau at the time.
Go go. Watch it. And if you think it’s just a bunch of nonsense created by the “fake media” in an attempt to ruin Trump’s image — then I think you should honestly ask yourself what parts of his image are worth acknowledging or giving credit? I’ll wait...
[6.0/10] This was the saggiest episode left. On the Picard side of things, we're gathering up the band, and few of the new crewmembers do anything for me. The show tries to slap together some meaningful backstory between Picard and Raffi, but can't pull it off, and she and Picard have no on-screen rapport to speak of. (The "J.L." nickname is beyond dumb.) Rios feels like a generic jerk with a heart of gold, and the accent routine doesn't do much for me either. I like Dr. Jurati more (if only because she's a better actress than the other performers), but the writing for her characters is just as questionable. It's a tall order to have to follow-up the cast of TNG, but this new crew definitely doesn't cut it in the early going.
The other half of the episode is pretty sorry too. Miss me with this whole "double-secret Romulan prophecy B.S." It feels like such a generic tease, and I'm already tired of the mystery box material. I'll admit that it's a thrill to see Hugh again, but the episode barely does anything with him. And the weird, vaguely incest-y Romulan super spies is some hackneyed/weird Bond villain nonsense.
Overall, it's been three episodes and the show still hasn't really won me over. I am a lifer, and pretty much going to watch no matter what, but it's hard to term this anything but a disappointment out of the gate. Thankfully, there's still seven more episodes for the show to, well, grow the beard.
"iF yOu ThInK tHiS hAs A hApPy eNDinG, yOu hAvEn'T beEN pAyInG aTteNtIOn"
Literally everyone except Daenerys got a happy clean ending.
This episode and this season as a whole have been a complete and utter disaster. the decline of storytelling quality from the last seasons is shocking. The show is barely recognizable at this point.
A character who wasn't a contender for the throne ended up on it even though they have done absolutely nothing this whole season, had lots of potential to make for a very interesting role but was ignored and swept aside then suddenly elected king.
Daenerys's character being completely butchered as she was turned from someone who never showed the slightest disregard to innocents' safety to someone who commits mass genocide and shows no remorse afterwards, all in the span of 2 episodes.
So many character arcs were neglected or wrapped up poorly. Jon being reduced to a secondary character with a combination of three sentences of dialogue, Jaime's development being thrown out the window, Cersei barely doing anything and then getting killed by bricks, Tyrion, the master tactician, turning to a gossiping idiot then getting promoted after he quits his job (seriously?)
So many plot points were discarded or turned out insignificant. Azor Ahai, Jon's lineage, The Lord of Light, Cersei's prophecy...etc
The whole White Walkers storyline being eliminated in one episode, then the whole Iron Throne storyline being eliminated as well in the end (FFS)
So much shit not making the slightest bit of sense. Dany's army multiplying, Arya's impenetrable plot armor, The North getting the independence while the Iron Islands didn't when they were the first ones to demand it, Drogon not killing Jon after he killed Daenerys, hell, the Dothraki and the Unsullied not killing Jon after he killed Daenerys, The point of the Night's Watch now that the WW are gone. Tyrion being in chains and holding up a presidential vote over who would run the 6 republics. HBO c'mon man.
Overall the pacing was too fast and inconsistent, the ending was rushed, anti-climactic and nonsensical. This couldn't have ended in a worse way. Kudos to D&D!
I am incredibly grateful to Game of Thrones for this adventure I have found myself sucked into for some years now. I am grateful for all the emotions it brought me since day one, bitter and sweet alike. I am grateful for all the laughs, all the tears, all the jokes and gags, every single bit of it, I really am grateful and appreciative of it all. It's been just... wonderful.
That said, I am feeling robbed and betrayed right about now. This ending is arguably one of the worst series finales in the history of television and trust me I realize how bold of a statement that is. The terrible violations the characters have suffered this season, the lack of proper resolution to many of the plots and narratives developed over seasons worth of buildup, the seeking of shock value at the expense of quality writing... that and much much more solidified this as an absolute disappointment of a finale, as opposed to the marvel wrap it could've given this cultural phenomenon.
This episode does have its positives, as always the score, acting and cinematography are perfectly performed but I just do not think it's nearly enough to compensate for how lackluster the writing has been, as much as I wish they did. Oh well, sad as it may be, I'll just hold on to the good stuff and hope that GRRM's book, once finished, will tackle the ending in a more coherent, more respectful and more meaningful way. It's been real y'all...
P.S: I'll leave this here lest some people jump me again. This comment is a representation of my own personal opinion, I am entitled to one just as all of you are. If you enjoyed this season and felt this finale delivered what you were looking for then more power to you mate, but that doesn't nullify my opinion nor does it make yours any valid. If you want to discuss or challenge my views, I'd be more than happy to engage you on that basis but if all you have to offer are petty remarks then please keep them to yourself.
