Mini-update to my previous post for the show... It's AMAZING. Watch this NOW!! The show only got better and better (until it sadly ended... for now). This is definitely not your traditional shoujo show. It has a great mix of that light shoujo humor that we all love along with some great animated action and pretty serious moments/feels that parallel some very superb character development. I got so addicted to Akatsuki no Yona that I already read ahead in the manga before the last episode and now I’m just waiting for scantalations (aka suffering). The next parts in the manga after the conclusion of the first season are even better.
This was probably my most surprising anime of the season/s. While the romance isn't full blown, it develops and is hinted at with lots of curves thrown our way. While it's a long ways away, there are just a few moments every few episodes that just make you ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
My best comparison to this would be a more of a romantic shoujo version of Seirei no Moribito with its protecting theme and the bits of fantasy elements and world building developed throughout.
I can't recommend this enough. A very solid 8/10 from me and I have the manga at a 9/10 (I just might be on a Yona high though). I try to recommend it to everyone as it has been criminally underwatched (but it is building a lot of good word of mouth).
I'm pumped for the upcoming OVA. Hopefully, a second season is announced after the OVA comes out. And I need my new scantalations in the manga. Being ~30 chapters behind sucks :(
tl;dr - Watch Akatsuki no Yona. Now.
Mini-update to my previous post for the show... It's AMAZING. Watch this NOW!! The show only got better and better (until it sadly ended... for now). This is definitely not your traditional shoujo show. It has a great mix of that light shoujo humor that we all love along with some great animated action and pretty serious moments/feels that parallel some very superb character development. I got so addicted to Akatsuki no Yona that I already read ahead in the manga before the last episode and now I’m just waiting for scantalations (aka suffering). The next parts in the manga after the conclusion of the first season are even better.
This was probably my most surprising anime of the season/s. While the romance isn't full blown, it develops and is hinted at with lots of curves thrown our way. While it's a long ways away, there are just a few moments every few episodes that just make you ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
My best comparison to this would be a more of a romantic shoujo version of Seirei no Moribito with its protecting theme and the bits of fantasy elements and world building developed throughout.
I can't recommend this enough. A very solid 8/10 from me and I have the manga at a 9/10 (I just might be on a Yona high though). I try to recommend it to everyone as it has been criminally underwatched (but it is building a lot of good word of mouth).
I'm pumped for the upcoming OVA. Hopefully, a second season is announced after the OVA comes out. And I need my new scantalations in the manga. Being ~30 chapters behind sucks :(
tl;dr - Watch Akatsuki no Yona. Now.
Mini-update to my previous post for the show... It's AMAZING. Watch this NOW!! The show only got better and better (until it sadly ended... for now). This is definitely not your traditional shoujo show. It has a great mix of that light shoujo humor that we all love along with some great animated action and pretty serious moments/feels that parallel some very superb character development. I got so addicted to Akatsuki no Yona that I already read ahead in the manga before the last episode and now I’m just waiting for scantalations (aka suffering). The next parts in the manga after the conclusion of the first season are even better.
This was probably my most surprising anime of the season/s. While the romance isn't full blown, it develops and is hinted at with lots of curves thrown our way. While it's a long ways away, there are just a few moments every few episodes that just make you ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
My best comparison to this would be a more of a romantic shoujo version of Seirei no Moribito with its protecting theme and the bits of fantasy elements and world building developed throughout.
I can't recommend this enough. A very solid 8/10 from me and I have the manga at a 9/10 (I just might be on a Yona high though). I try to recommend it to everyone as it has been criminally underwatched (but it is building a lot of good word of mouth).
I'm pumped for the upcoming OVA. Hopefully, a second season is announced after the OVA comes out. And I need my new scantalations in the manga. Being ~30 chapters behind sucks :(
tl;dr - Watch Akatsuki no Yona. Now.
Mini-update to my previous post for the show... It's AMAZING. Watch this NOW!! The show only got better and better (until it sadly ended... for now). This is definitely not your traditional shoujo show. It has a great mix of that light shoujo humor that we all love along with some great animated action and pretty serious moments/feels that parallel some very superb character development. I got so addicted to Akatsuki no Yona that I already read ahead in the manga before the last episode and now I’m just waiting for scantalations (aka suffering). The next parts in the manga after the conclusion of the first season are even better.
This was probably my most surprising anime of the season/s. While the romance isn't full blown, it develops and is hinted at with lots of curves thrown our way. While it's a long ways away, there are just a few moments every few episodes that just make you ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
My best comparison to this would be a more of a romantic shoujo version of Seirei no Moribito with its protecting theme and the bits of fantasy elements and world building developed throughout.
I can't recommend this enough. A very solid 8/10 from me and I have the manga at a 9/10 (I just might be on a Yona high though). I try to recommend it to everyone as it has been criminally underwatched (but it is building a lot of good word of mouth).
I'm pumped for the upcoming OVA. Hopefully, a second season is announced after the OVA comes out. And I need my new scantalations in the manga. Being ~30 chapters behind sucks :(
tl;dr - Watch Akatsuki no Yona. Now.
We're up to episode 7 with Yona of the Dawn (Akatsuki no Yona) and it has been one of the most pleasant surprises for me this season. Yona of the Dawn is being animated by Studio Peirrot and I know that they got a lot of flack for Tokyo Ghoul (among other shows), so I was a bit hesitant to start this. However, so far the pacing has been great and Peirrot has stayed faithful to the manga. The ancient setting is pretty cool and immersive, and later on adds an interesting fantasy element that gives Yona of the Dawn its own unique world. There is also a solid romantic element (and quite a struggle involving it along with many will they/won't they moments), very well-animated action & fighting scenesn (Hak is a beast), drama/feels, and some nice comedic moments spread throughout.
As I said before, the gradual pacing of the show has been great. Because of this well-done pacing, the main characters of Yona, Hak and Soo-Won have gotten great opportunities and scenes to shine, develop and uncover some deeper feelings and emotions that allow us really connect a lot more to their situations and struggles. Yona has been one of the better versions of an estranged princess that I've seen, and Hak has served as an excellent foil to her (while being a complete bad ass and a gentleman and scholar at the same time). Soo-Won has been portrayed as a deeper and more conflicted antagonist so far especially due to his childhood friendships with Yona and Hak. I really hope that they keep him that way instead of going full classic bad guy.
I believe at the moment, Yona of the Dawn is set to be at least 2-cour. I've greatly enjoyed the adventure that Yona and Hak have set out on so far and I'm really excited for the future characters and developments (can't spoil it) to come. Definitely check this show out if you are looking for a new adventure anime with a splash of romance, an ancient setting, a bit of a fantasy element, and plenty of strong characters to bring it all together. Here's hoping that Studio Pierrot doesn't screw this up.
The problem with coming to a popular film like this later on is that hype gets in the way. With no awareness of the brand or comic, yet having been told numerous times how great this is, it is difficult to approach this in the right manner to review. There is no doubt that it is a lot of fun and a large part of this is down to Pratt who nails the lead, Quinn. Its bright and colourful (a welcome change to the lived in feel of many other sci-fantasy films) and confident in it's execution. Yet equally it is part of a Marvel formula that started to wear thin after the first Avengers movie - for all the talk of how different this film was to the usual Marvel film, it's only real surprise is just how tied to the Marvel template the film is - everyone trying to get hold of a MacGuffin of unspeakable power, culminating in a large scale battle and fight scenes that unfortunately lead to very little of consequence, with all our heroes surviving to fight another day and a tease as to where this is all leading to. Admittedly, the fun here is in the different characters they have created. But If Marvel are serious about creating a cinematic universe where all these stories are interconnected then at some point they are going to have to take a risk in the storytelling - this isn't it!
I didn't expect this show to be that good. Indeed the first episode I was kinda meh about it. Now, 7-8 episodes in, I'm loving it. The characters are complicated. Pretty much no one is doing anything that they want to be doing. People are acting in ways that make logical sense for the most part, with the occasional "really?" (but those don't happen to often, and sometimes even the characters will comment on how that seemed a bit weird). They all have their motivations, and those motivations are driving them to do what they think is right. Even at this point, it's not clear exactly who the good guys are, or the bad guys (aside from the aliens, who, thankfully, we haven't even seen). Good scifi makes a point about our current systems, our current forms of governance. This show shows how you can collect all the data you want by spying on people, when it comes down to it, those who are really going to be a "problem" will evade such nets, rendering all that spying, all that surveillance, completely moot (and a waste of resources), at the same time showing how that surveillance is great if you want to weed out the obvious people that may cause you problems, if the entity doing the weeding is clearly a bad guy. It shows how even if you have the best of intentions, shit can and will go sideways (whether you're in government, or opposing, whatever side you believe yourself to be on). Even though we're not sure what the aliens want, it shows that divide and conquer is a pretty much universal strategy, one we continue to employ against ourselves.
It's not perfect, but it's pretty damn good.
Quite a ballsy move going for a bad end after all that. I see a lot of people are upset about it since this bad end was basically a combination of about 3/4 other route endings, but with only 13 episodes I don't see what else they could have done really. This makes sense, and it looks like there will be a Season 2 covering the Moon and Terra arcs (which are the true route of the story anyway). Hopefully it'll be a bit better in terms of quality too.
As a big fan of the VN I can't say this series is completely without merit, but I do think it makes for poor standalone piece and is definitely a "for fans only" series. So little time is spent explaining a lot of the elements of the plot that only someone who's read the VN will get it. The same thing happened with Grisaia and the same studio was behind that too. I'm not blaming them specifically, I just think it's a shame that the last few Key properties have ended up with sub-par adaptations that don't hold up on their own.
I will of course be watching the second series but I wouldn't blame anyone for not bothering after watching this. All I can say is that as if often the case with these things, the source material is far better and I would urge anyone who is willing to give it a chance - there's a reason I was initially looking forward to this adaptation so much and it's because the VN itself is great. If you do plan to check it out, be aware that whilst the original Rewrite VN has been fully translated, Key are also planning a release of Rewrite+ (the original game and the fandisc, plus some tweaks to the original story) in English in the future.
I love October. You can practically hear all of my favorite shows coming back from hiatus.
This was a really good episode. Like, really good. Thankfully, Superman didn't overshadow Supergirl at all. I'd been worried that that might happen - the media had been massively overhyping his appearance on the show before the season started, but he didn't steal Kara's spotlight, for which I'm grateful. Tyler and Melissa work so well together. It was a pleasure to watch their characters interact.
Lena Luthor seems pretty cool. I hope to see more of her soon.
Cat Grant is absolutely fantastic. I love her. What a shame that Calista is no longer a series regular. Kara and Cat's relationship is a delight to watch.
Kara and James didn't even last one episode, which is hilarious. Honestly, I'm glad. Let Kara focus on herself before you put her in a relationship.
We also got yet another British villain, the first glimpse of Project Cadmus and Alex Danvers kicking some bad guy ass (hell yeah!).
After a pretty shaky start and some serious improvement in season 1, Supergirl is now a well-balanced superhero show and also one of my personal favorites. And boy, am I glad that they moved it to the CW. To be honest, I didn't know what to think when I heard the news back in May, but it worked out extremely well. The pacing and the flow of the episode were significantly better than what we'd got used to in season 1. The dialogues were better. The editing was better. The atmosphere was better. Supergirl has always been charming, colorful and fun, and now all these qualities seem to have been amplified somehow. If this episode was any indication of how the rest of the season is going to look like, we're in for a treat. And I couldn't be more excited.
You know who I love? Alex Danvers. Any episode where she gets her own scenes is a good episode in my book. Which is kind of sad, actually - she's a main character after all, arguably the most important one after Kara, and yet practically all of her storylines revolve around her sister. The showrunners promised that we would get to know Alex more this season and see more of her personal life, so I'm waiting for that. And I'm really happy that they acknowledged Alex's problems with Clark because she's right. 12-year-old Kara was willing to take care of baby Kal, but Clark, who was a grown-ass man when her pod landed, immediately dropped his cousin off at the Danvers family's doorstep like a stray puppy. Alex has dedicated her whole life to Kara while Clark has been flying around, showing up once in a blue moon. What's up with that, by the way? It took him like 5 seconds to get from National City to Metropolis. Can't they hang out for dinner every Saturday or something? Why do they see each other so rarely?
It was fun to have Superman on the show. I really liked the way Tyler Hoechlin portrayed him.
Clark and Kara are adorable dorky dorks and I love them.
My favorite scene in this episode was the one where Cat told Kara she was leaving. I genuinely cried. I love Cat Grant and the show won't be the same without her. She'll return at some point, of course, but she'll probably never be a main character again, which sucks. Just like Kara, I don't like change, and I will miss Queen of All Media deeply.
Winn is absolutely hilarious. His reaction to Clark and J'onn arguing was the same as mine. And Star Wars references are always great.
Project Cadmus is super shady. I mean, I already knew that, but damn. They're much better villains than Non.
James is the boss, which is... actually good in my opinion? And it makes sense? Give him his own storylines outside of being Kara's (former) love interest. It'll be good for both of them.
6.5/10. Look, I love John Oliver's commentary on Donald Trump as much as the next guy, and lord knows that Trump keeps generating material, but at some point it becomes hard to wring the comedy from it and not just be exhausted and dismayed by it, and I think I've hit that point. Oliver's doing a yeoman's job with the material, but it's just too much at some point.
The same, more or less, goes for Oliver's look at Jill Stein and Gary Johnson. In some ways, I think it's an important public service given the groups that I surmise make up his target demographics, and I appreciate the thesis of the piece -- that there are no perfect candidates out there and each vote you cast involves a certain amount of nose-holding, but pointing out the flaws in the two third party candidates felt, to some degree, like hitting easy targets. The closing message of the piece kind of saves it, but there's a certain amount of a "look at this asshole" tone in the segment that I wish Oliver would leave for purity test partisans like Samantha Bee.
That said, the interstitial segments about the infinite patience and internal workings of the mind of the man who runs CSPAN's call-in show was sublime, and the sort of off-the-wall but enjoyable stuff this show does better than any other. Overall, this one was a step behind usual offerings, but it's LWT, so there's almost always still something worth watching.
What happens when you give the keys to the Star Trek kingdom to the director of the Fast and the Furious movies? You get a franchise known for its thematic depth and attention to character reduced to a series of whiz-bang action sequences and only the shallow veneer of theme or character development on top of it. Make no mistake, Star Trek Beyond is a film that can barely get the surface-level details right, and stumbles in its abbreviated attempts to go beyond them. And the result is a generally dull action film that could have its serial numbers shaved off and thus be wholly unrecognizable as anything related to Star Trek.
The film is most striking in how it fails where its predecessors succeeded. It's true that there was little of the heady optimism at play in the 2009 Star Trek reboot, but what the movie lacked in thematic heft, it made up for in terms of giving the audience a journey focused on character. The greatest conflicts in the film are not between the Enterprise and the Romulans, but within and between the film's two biggest characters. Kirk starts out as a good-for-little scoundrel and through his experiences in the film, evolves into an officer, albeit one who is still charmingly rough around the edges. Spock starts out as a man unable to reconcile his human side and his Vulcan side, and through his experiences in the film's adventure, he find balance and peace. Most importantly, those two character arcs intersect in meaningful ways and make us invested in those in charge of the enterprise.
By contrast, Beyond suggests a similarly intriguing start for both Kirk and Spock, but peters out between the beginning of their journey and the intended destination. The idea of a somewhat jaded James T. Kirk, having lost some of his passion, wondering if his mission even matters given the enormity of space, and contemplating whether to hang up his spurs, is a superb one that made me think director Justin Lin and writer Simon Pegg (who also plays Scotty) and Doug Jung (who plays Sulu's husband) were following the 2009 film's lead in this regard. Similarly, the notion that Spock, rattled by his alternative timeline counterpart's death, also feels inclined to give up Starfleet to focus on carrying on the elder Spock's goal to rehabilitate the Vulcan people, creates numerous storytelling possibilities and a parallel sense of restlessness to the character that mirrors Kirk's. The state of play as Beyond begins seems poised to tell another compelling, character-focused story of growth and change.
Instead, by the end of the film, Kirk has decided to stay in active duty; Spock stays a part of his crew, and the reasons for their change of heart are fuzzy at best. Whereas the 2009 film spent ample time showing events that marked the changes in Kirk and Spock's mentalities and perspective, Beyond amounts to something along the lines of, "They wanted to leave. They went on an adventure. Now they don't" without nearly enough connective tissue to get at the why of the shift in their plans. It's an Underpants Gnomes approach to character development that falls flat. There are vague concepts of "unity" as an important principle floating the film, but Beyond does little to tie it into concrete incidents that motivate Kirk and Spock to be in a different place at the end of the film than they were at the beginning. Instead, they just go on an adventure and come back different, which makes their supposed evolution narrative unsatisfying and ultimately unearned.
It doesn't help that the whole "unity is good" concept underlying the film is dramatized in about as shallow and trite a manner as one could imagine. It's a fluffy theme to begin with, and Star Trek Beyond doesn't do much to make it any more weighty or meaningful in how its realized in the conflict of the film or the characters' actions, especially in the context of on-the-nose dialogue to that effect. Say what you will about Star Trek Into Darkness, and there's plenty to say, but at least the film had the moxie to explore, as its hallowed predecessors did, some of the major social and political issues of the day. There's room to criticize Into Darkness's approach, and other flaws derivative elements that hobbled the film out of the gate, but tackling concepts of militarization and the security state feels of a piece with the politically-charged spirit of The Original Series and its successors. Its reach exceeded its grasp, but there was a nobility in the attempt.
Beyond, on the other hand, is content to coast on a vague Barney-esque notion of teamwork as a guiding principle and theme that barely feels worthy of a generic space adventure, let alone a franchise like Star Trek. The new ally introduced in the film is a lone wolf, wayward traveler brought into the Starfleet fold, whereas it's villain is motivated by a rejection of unity and the benefits of collective action, in a skin-deep realization of that contrast meant to be the film's focal point. Idris Elba is completely wasted in the latter role, an outstanding actor reduced to snarls and platitudes that do not do him justice. In fact, few cast members are given material worthy of their talents. What little they're given to work with in terms of expressing this theme, undercooked though it may be, is lost in a sea of stock beats and action set pieces that feel almost wholly disconnected and inadequate to convey what the film is shooting for.
Those set pieces, which ought to be the saving grace of bringing in a director like Justin Lin, are also a surprising weakness for the film. While there's no shortage of action, almost all of it is shot and directed in a nigh-incoherent fashion that makes it difficult to follow what's happening from scene to muddled scene. Lin and cinematographer Stephen F. Windon pay little mind to ideas of geography or scope, rendering what ought to be a strength of Beyond, instead a collection of occasionally-cool moments with little to put them in context with one another. The film can boast an enjoyable anti-gravity sequence, and its Beastie Boys-fueled excitement is enjoyable if silly, but for the most part, the visual fireworks of Beyond fizzle out into a hodgepodge of undifferentiated combat and explosions.
The film does have its merits. The dynamic between Spock and Bones is the best realized element of the film and lives up to the humor and endearing qualities that Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley imbued into that relationship. And for however much the film's action falters, its design work is impeccable, from the unique look of newcomer Jaylah to the geometric wizardry of the Yorktown Space Station. But they pale in comparison to the fundamental elements of Star Trek, whether they be from the pre-2009 shows and movies or the Abrams films, where Beyond totally misfires.
At its best, Star Trek features the focus on character that drove the original series, bolstered the 2009 reboot, and is realized in only a meager, perfunctory fashion in Beyond. The franchise can soar in its examination of meaningful social and political issues in a fantastical setting, in keeping with its science fiction roots, a virtue Beyond sacrifices in favor of a generic message about working together. This film skips the heavy lifting of showing us how the characters at the core of the franchise develop and grow, and the burden of telling a story that can be both heady and thrilling, in favor of an easy, unambitious action film that has a handful of good moments, but only the patina of what made Star Trek special. Star Trek Beyond is like any other middling cinematic sci-fi adventure of the past decade, with only a Trek-inspired coat of paint to distinguish it, and that's the film's greatest sin.
Edit: On rewatch nearly five years later I...still agree almost completely with my previous review. I probably wouldn't rate it as poorly, but even knowing where everything is heading, this film is a narrative mess that substitutes bland platitudes and indiscriminate action for having an actual story or character or point with any genuine depth. With Simon Pegg as a credited screenwriter, there's more charming references to The Original Series (e.g. Kirk ripping his shirt, Chekov claiming that scotch is Russian) and even some homages to Star Trek: Enterprise (a mention of the Xindi!). But those cute callbacks don't make up for this flashy, indiscriminate clump of a movie.
The one thing I would revise is that there's at least a decent arc for Spock here. he thinks that living up to Spock Prime's legacy means leaving Starfleet to help Vulcans, only to see how much his friends and colleagues need him and realize that Spock Prime's legacy was helping and standing by his friends. It's bare bones, but it's there, and the movie deserves credit for it.
Still, a rewatch does this no favors. If anything, it just confirms the film's Underpants Gnomes approach to storytelling, the jumbled pacing and lumpy structure, and the unavailing action sequences that make it something less than the fun success of ST'09 and less even than the noble failure of Into Darkness. I'd probably upgrade it to a [5.5/10], but it's still a real low-light among the reboot films.
6.5/10
Homeland is what it is at this point. It's still adept at doing tense scenes involving the threat of a terror attack. It's still adept at Quinn: the badass spy sequences. It's still adept at showing scenes of backroom politics in the CIA. What it's not particularly good at anymore is making me care about the characters involved in those types of sequences.
I have a hard time getting on board with Carrie's 5-minute (or 2-year) retirement. The show has to hammer the point home that no one believes she's really out, and maybe that's in keeping with the audience's expectations -- there's not a show if Carrie doesn't get involved with the CIA again, or, at least, there's a very different show. So the scenes where she calls back home, where she talks about having someone there waiting for her, meant to show that she's different, feel cheap because it seems inevitable that she's going to fall off the wagon in more than one sense of the term this season, and showing us "how far she's come" is only a weak sense to give that predictable fall from grace some stakes. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but maybe I've just gotten too familiar with the structure of these types of stories for them to have meaning for me anymore. Or maybe the show will subvert my expectations and I'll look like a fool. But I'd be shocked if she doesn't end up sleeping with Quinn and/or the head of the foundation and getting involved with the CIA again by the end of the season despite her Brody-expy waiting for her back in Berlin.
The journalist story felt kind of perfunctory. The character's pretty annoying, even when she makes good points, but perhaps that's intentional. The power struggle with Saul, Dar, and Allison has promise, as does the hacker character, but it's a big "withhold judgment until more goes down" on that front.
And Quinn's hunt for his latest target, who appears to lead a number of western girls toward some kind of attack, was intriguing as to where that seed is going to pop up later in the season, but the teaser at the end where Saul(?) is telling him which target to go after next seemed strange and a little hacky.
Overall it wasn't the most inspiring episode of the show, but as usual, there were some decent elements and the promise of both well-done and facepalm-inducing things to come.
It's funny, before I'd even seen the title of this episode, I said to my wife, "I know it's going to be controversial to portray Carrie's mental illness as a super power." But however good or bad that depiction is, it's one the show has held to since its first season, and I think it worked surprisingly effectively here. As pleasant as it is for someone who's been watching Carrie develop as a character for four seasons, to see her in a place of stability, there is something undeniably compelling about Crazy Carrie, at least in small doses.
And to the point, the show doesn't use Carrie going off her medication as a means for her to solve the major mystery presented at the end of the last episode. Sure, it allows her to figure out that someone used the kidnapping of her boyfriend's son to figure out her location, but it's also shown as a way to remove the protective shielding Carrie's erected around herself to keep her from feeling all the deaths she's been responsible for. It's a little corny, but the image of Carrie sitting within a star made up of the faces of the people she's killed (including, as the episode's direction draws our attention to, a number of women and mothers) is a powerful one.
I must admit, I am something of a sucker for gut punch of a character on television hallucinating the presence of someone close to them who's passed on. House did it to great effect; it's been a reliable arrow in the quiver of The Walking Dead, and shows as varied as Buffy and The Sopranos used figurative (and sometimes literal) ghosts to bring the sins of the past to the fore. Having an innocent like Aayan be the manifestation of Carrie's misdeeds and the lives lost in the process was affecting, and I appreciated the surprise and the way it was used here.
I also liked that they developed Jonas a bit. Thus far he's been a pretty generic studly boyfriend, but it was nice to see him disgusted by Carrie's actions, but also strong enough to go toe-to-toe with her when she was going off the deep end. To the same end, I appreciate that the show did not hold back on showing how ugly and manipulative Carrie could be when she was off of her meds. They didn't sell the bipolar disorder as a magic cure-all, but rather as something with a pretty severe cost, which worked in the context of what we know about Carrie's prior condition.
As for the other storylines in the episode, Saul is pretty scary this year. Mandy Patinkin absolutely sells that Saul is a changed man from when we last saw him before the time jump. Sure, he could certainly be steely, but there was always a warmth behind the strength that came through. Now, despite the reveal that he's sleeping with his subordinate (and was that a baby bump?) he seems so cold, so angry, so harsh with everyone from During to the expelled embassador, that I completely buy him as both the kind of calculating guy who would be orchestrating a coup with Dar Adal and as a much different presence in the series than he's been historically. Patinkin's face tells the story in almost every scene, and it's great stuff.
Hacktivist/Reporter Lady story is still a little eh. As I've said before, it has promise, and I'm especially liking the way the Newman character is being developed, but I'm a little less confident in how the story itself is being developed.
In the same vein as Saul, robotic, chessmaster Quinn is frightening in his own right. The establishing of Jonas's ex wife and son was well done before I realized what was happening (a nice little twist), and he seems so single-minded and coldly effective in everything he does, from kidnapping Jonas's son to connecting with his old flame for equipment. The episode's final scene with his and Carrie's cat and mouse game was incredibly well shot and directed, with a great sense of building tension. The last little bit was a very Dexter-esque end-of-episode tease, but overall, I was incredibly impressed by not only how well each individual story was told and acted in this episode, but how all three were balanced together. One of the best episodes the show has put together since the end of the original Brody storyline.
This was the sort of episode where it felt like a lot of pieces were finally snapping into place. I liked the fact that Allison is having trouble coping with her role as a double agent. She's not just a cold and indifferent spy. She's caught up in something that's put her under a lot of strain and stress and while she seems cool and self-assured in the thick of it, she's having a lot of trouble in private moments. It's solid, character-based take on the hoary mole story that takes advantage of the actress's abilities.
To the same end, I also appreciated Jonas, of all characters, in this episode. He's something the show's desperately lacked for more than a few seasons now -- a regular individual who can look at the world of spooks and spies and remark as to how batshit insane that entire sphere is. It helps ground the show a little, and to put Carrie's transition into civilian life into perspective. He's not my favorite character on the show or anything, but he's a voice of reason to some extent here, in opposition to the take-it-for-granted personalities of everyone in the muck of intelligence gathering on the show, which makes the role he plays in the episode interesting.
I do appreciate that they're shining some light and connecting a number of dots here. Carrie puts together the general nature (if not the specifics or motive) for the people who put a hit on her. We understand the goal of the Russians and it's set up nicely with what we've seen from Saul and his colleagues so far. There's even some legitimate connection between Carrie, Laura, and Numan via the documents, to where it seems like they're legitimately positioning them to come together (as is inevitable) in a way that feel's natural rather than contrived. The disparate threads of the plot are all being tied together nicely so far, and it helps.
The weaker parts of the episode, however, were the hacktivist story and Quinn's wounded duck routine. The hacktivist protest, with Numan's mask and the lowgrade "I am Spartacus" routine just reeked of watered-down attempts at topicality, though having witnessed a couple of Occupy protests, it wasn't necessarily off the mark. It still just feels like this storyline was stapled into Homeland from a different show. The tone is a little off, and while Homeland is not always subtle, there's a bluntness and an all-too-tidy nature to how this plot is depicted that renders the storyline less than pleasing.
In the same vein, Quinn's weak-willed suicide attempt to protect Carrie felt like too much. He loves Carrie; we know that, but I thought this was a bridge too far and not necessarily depicted artfully either. Plus, I have no idea where they're going with the religious guy following him around. I suppose I should withold judgment.
Those griefs aside, I appreciated how this episode put an interesting spin on some spy cliches, like the troubled mole or the concerned civilian, and how it's started assembling the plot and bringing disparate elements together in a way that both makes sense and is intriguing.
This was an episode comprised of three stories from three of the show's most significant characters. One was great; one was good; one was godawful, all for different reasons. Let's take them in turn.
Saul's storyline was tremendous, and much of it has to do with the direction and cinematography of the episode. Mandy Patinkin certainly held up his end of the bargain, but the way his scenes were structured really elucidated Saul's paranoia without having to be more explicit about it. The way the camera seemed to be spying on him (a technique the show would employ in its first season) sold Saul's feeling cornered and needing to do something risky and/or desperate. I also appreciated how he gave Carrie the kiss off at the beginning of the episode, but that what he was experiencing gave him reason to believe her. Straining the relationship between your two most significant characters and then bringing them back together is an old trick, but they're doing the legwork to make it plausible and compelling. At the same time, it was nice to see Saul using those spy skills again, from downloading the documents after creating a diversion, to slipping During the drive without his CIA tail being able to catch on. Great stuff.
Carrie's storyline was only OK, but it was heightened tremendously, as always, by Claire Daines's acting. Whatever they are paying Daines, it isn't enough, because in scenes where her character is lonely or isolated or desperate or blindsided, the written dialogue does her no favors -- full of cliches and weak lines -- but she sells in her reading of those lines, in the pained or blindsided or wistful expressions that show she's at the end of her rope, and in the way she carries herself that lets the audience buy into her situation. She's succeeding in a herculean task on that front, and it elevates the material.
The Quinn storyline, however, was ridiculous, in a bad way. I realize that any show, especially one involving spycraft, is going to require a certain amount of willing suspension of disbelief, and a tolerance for things working out just as they need to for the plot to move along. But my god, a nearly-mortally wounded Quinn being rescued by a random good samaritan who just so happens to be flatmates with a terrorist who was released because of the very documents that Carrie is so worked up over and revealed Saul's plan with the Germans? That just strains plausibility too far. It's far too convenient as a plot development, and Quinn overhearing a terrorist plot, and then becoming the Pirate King by killing the terrorist guy in a final showdown rumble at the end of the episode was just too cartoonish for me to bear. Really hacky stuff. I don't know where they're going with all of this, but it had better be good to justify this level of B.S.
I'm just going to start off by listing the 3 shittiest things that He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named did in this episode, okay? By the way, please enlighten me, how does a dude who does multiple shitty things per episode even stand a chance with Kara, let alone actually get together with her?
Calling Kara helping people as Supergirl "little superhero-ing".
Immediately disregarding Kara's wishes and telling everyone about their relationship.
Ignoring what Kara said (again) and trying to brush it off (again).
I just don't get it. A part of me thinks, or hopes, that the writers are doing this on purpose to show what a toxic relationship looks like and how not to treat your significant other, but let's be real, that's probably not it. They actually seem to think that this shit is cute and romantic. And it makes me sick.
Sure, Man-Hell was right about Jeremiah. But contrary to popular belief, the end doesn't justify the means. He could have proved his point without being an asshole. But I guess that's just how he rolls, right? And we're supposed to let it slide because... he's conventionally attractive?
Honestly, fuck this guy.
Alex's confrontation with Jeremiah was a powerful moment and Chyler Leigh once again brought her A-game.
How long will I have to scream into the void about Maggie's lack of screentime before someone finally hears me? I can't believe the showrunners think I'm more interested in What's-His-Face than in this amazing woman, who:
is simultaneously an absolute badass and the softest human being I have ever seen (those dimples, man, Jesus Christ, what a bae)
was outed to her parents and kicked out of the house at 14
is such a good detective that she figured out Kara's secret by herself
is a good, pure, unproblematic fave who deserves better.
I have no dignity left anymore, I will literally beg if I have to. I'll sell my soul if that's what it takes to get her a proper storyline. Sure, the family dinner thing was cute, and the way she comforted Alex was wonderful. Maggie Sawyer is a kind, supportive girlfriend who listens to Alex and is always there for her, and the way they keep trying to draw parallels between Sanvers and Karamel lowkey makes me want to die. They're not similar! At all! Not in a million years! One is based on mutual love, respect and support, and the other is an abusive garbage fire. I'm starting a campaign. Let Maggie Sawyer deck Fuckboy in the face 2017.
And another thing: I guess Karamel can be all over each other, make out, wake up in bed naked after obviously having sex, but God forbid Maggie and Alex do anything more than kiss for exactly 1.5 seconds. No, I'm not bitter, why do you ask?
Does Cadmus want to send all aliens back into space? Hey, here's a thought: maybe they can use that big-ass ship to launch Mayo-El into the Phantom Zone? Pretty please?
I like the idea of this episode--slowing down a bit and telling the story of how Allison got involved with the Russians in the first place--but the execution was pretty clumsy.
I don't mind the flashback interspersed with developments in the present structure, but it is a bit played out and they made it really obvious when scenes from the past were meant to inform the present. For instance, Carrie telling Numan to google "Banana Joe's in St. Lucia" after seeing the guy's screensaver was more than enough to let us know that she'd put two-and-two together without needing to cut back to the scenes where Allison mentioned St. Lucia.
The story itself was a bit too paint by the numbers. Spy gets frustrated and wants to escape, skirts the rules, gets caught and turned is pretty standard stuff, and it's not as though there was some specific twist on it here than made Allison's journey through it more interesting. The dialogue didn't help either. Both the actress who plays Allison and Claire Daines haven proven themselves to be superb actresses in the show so far, but their exchanges in the flashbacks were awkwardly worded and pretty stilted. What could have been an interesting dive into Allison's psyche and what brought her to where she's willing to play turncoat became more of the facile backstory type bit that wouldn't feel out of place on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
The other big stories are puttering along. I'm still not a fan of the Quinn story the show's embarked on in the second half of the season. Him becoming the pirate king was suspect to begin with, and again, it feels a little too convenient that he just happens to fall into the gang of terrorists who are planning to unleash a dirty bomb of some sort on Berlin. If too much of your story relies on coincidence, and the reasons for getting all your major players in one place are a bit contrived, it's hard to buy in.
Saul's story continues to be a highlight. I've always enjoyed the backroom dealing and horse trading sides of espionage that the show occasionally traffics in, and there's enough twists and turns in his story to make it interesting. I assume Etai is lying to Saul or at least not telling all that he knows (collaborating with the Russians?) so I'm curious to see where it goes.
Similarly, there continues to be more to During than meets the eye, but I can't for the life of me figure out what his game is. Maybe he's trying to embarrass the intelligence community writ large? Sleep with Carrie? Both? Who knows.
But overall, this was a weaker episode that had the right idea in deepening Allison's character and making us care about her journey, but couldn't really get the execution right to make it actually happen.
Certainly one of the most taut thrillers of an episode the show has done this season. Giving the episode a more singular focus, the hunt for Allison, not only allowed the episode to feel more direct and powerful, but it led to the smaller details around that main story feeling more salient as well.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the acting on this show is what has kept it worthwhile even as the storytelling has been more uneven from season-to-season and even episode-to-episode. The quiver of Carrie's lower lip as she looks at Saul for the first time since he told her off before he embraces her, the light in Saul's eyes when he tells Alison "I was asleep for ten years. You woke me up," the subtle pain and mild regret in Alison's eyes when she hears those words, was all masterful and added personal stakes to the larger spycraft story being told. The actress who played Alison did a particularly good job here, communicating her characters steely grace, fear, and determination in equal measure.
But the direction and cinematography deserve serious kudos as well. There were several images of the same person duplicated in multiple frames in this episode -- Alison on multiple surveillance screens, Quinn being videotaped by the terror cell, his soft-hearted would-be savior walking into his own reflection in a room full of reflective glass. The easy read of this motif is the multiple sides to these individuals, the way that Alison is a double agent, that Quinn cycles through identities, that the man who sympathizes with Quinn is both a terrorist but also a human being with empathy. But at base, it reflects the idea that there are multiple sides to these individuals.
And the way the episode's director put together the scenes of Allison's attempted escape and capture were superb at conveying the tension and pressure of the moment. Surveillance has been a recurring visual theme in this show, people's most personal moments watched through a digital frame, and it worked well here. But even when the show switched to steadicam and showed Alison weaving through the Berlin train station, it conveyed her sense of panic, of how tenuous Saul and Carrie and the Germans' hold on her was. It's one of the series' stand out sequences, and the (momentary) payoff to this season's game of cat and mouse was a satisfying one.
Unfortunately, Quinn's storyline was something of a drag. His plotline has been the weakest on the show since he all-too-conveniently found his way into a terror cell planning an attack on Berlin. The idea of the terrorist who has second thoughts about what he's planning and who is both humanized and sees the humanity in the people he's fighting against is a legitimate story beat, but it's also a bit of an easy one,, and there's not much of a distinctive take or twist to it here. Chekhov's sarin antedote injenction was a predictable turn in the story, and the entire enterprise feels like something to keep Quinn busy until it's time for him to rejoin the main plot of the season.
But still, the effort to trap Alison, the personal moments between Carrie and Saul, and the bits of spycraft we witnessed in both efforts, elevated this episode to being one of the best of the season so far. Alison's attempt to spin the events with Ivan as her asset is an interesting story direction, and while I have no doubt that Quinn will survive, there's still lots of intrigue going into the final three episodes of the season.
Another very solid episode from this season. I appreciated the twist that even if Dar doesn't buy Allison's story, he is--as he is wont to be--concerned about the political fallout if they were to reveal that the CIA had been duped by the SVR for 12 years and so he tries to maintain the status quo. But at the same time, I appreciated that Saul was clearly so betrayed by what had happened that he couldn't play along, if he was even trying to. Allison is playing this perfectly, and it's an interesting direction.
The other strongest element of the episode was the bonding between Carrie and Astrid. Nobody does a cryface like Claire Danes, but there's a dry steadiness to Astrid to where the clear hurt on her face after she found out about Quinn conveyed just as much as Carrie's tears did. The actress who plays Astrid is always a strong (and often funny) presence on the show, and I'd like to see her get more to do.
On the other hand, the pair's ability to find Quinn based on the floor tile pattern in the video was a little convenient, but they at least laid the groundwork with some CSI-esque technobabble to try to make it plausible that the BND and CIA could narrow down the possibilities enough for Carrie and Astrid to track him down. And the scene where they realize he's alive was a joyous one, even though it was inevitable--again, thanks to the great acting from the actresses who portray Carrie and Astrid.
I was less moved by the story involving the terrorists. Sure, there was tension in the scenes where Bibi discovers that someone helped Quinn, and Qasim is sweating bullets. But Qasim's the only character here who has more than one-note to him. Maybe the show is trying to develop Bibi a bit, but in the mean time, the whole crew just seems like the plot brigade boys, only there to introduce the season's big terror threat without much development.
And at the same time, I got a bit tired of the debate between During, Jonas, and Laura over what to do with the falsely accused electronics store owner who may have information about the attack. The debate itself is kind of facile, and none of these people are in the category of the show's most interesting characters. The intelligence agency (CIA? BND? SVR?) picking him up after Otto tries to bargain for his protection was a semi-interesting way to go with it, but still, meh. In my continuing speculation as to Otto, I'm now wondering if he specifically tipped someone else off to get the electronics store owner taken in away from Saul, but I'm sure we'll get the reveal of Otto's larger game plan somewhere down the line.
Otherwise, I appreciate the focus that an impending terror attack with Peter Quinn as the poster boy gave the episode, to where everything else could revolve around that plot point. It wasn't as strong an hour as some in this season, but it still did a good bit to advance the ball as to the larger season arc, and to give us some insight into the major characters and where they are after all that has happened. That makes it an above average entry in Season 5.
8.5/10. There was what seemed to be a recurring theme in this episode, and it was an interesting one - whether a personal cost is worth the greater good.
It started with Allison, asked to weigh the lives of all those individuals who would be hurt or killed by a terrorist attack in Berlin, with her own personal freedom and financial security. She obviously chooses the latter, but it's an interesting position to put the character in. It's arguable whether she had crossed the moral event horizon so far. Sure, she'd played the CIA for suckers to the Russians after being caught in a similar position, but there's a certain "it's all in the game" quality to the double-crosses among spooks. And yet there's something about shooting an innocent person, one who believes she's been framed, in order to save her own skin and ensure a terrorist plot goes forward that feels unforgivable.
Allison has been one of the most interesting and compelling additions to the show this season, and much of that is due to the actress, who tells so much of the character's story with her expressions, and who has the perfect "I'm faking, not acting" tone when she talks to Saul after the attack.
Mandy Patinkin as Saul is another actor who brings his A-game every episode. In his story, the question is whether the possibility of preventing a terrorist attack justifies harassing an innocent person who may know something about it. When that man commits suicide, the fact that Ingrid (who is also great) just keeps rolling, and Saul has to stop to process and tap out for a moment is a quiet commentary on that idea. Saul is an old hand. He's been through this sort of thing before, but the bodies keep piling up, and even he can't help but feel like he's had enough when his hard-nosed (if softer than the Germans') interrogation leads a man to take his own life.
And then there's he and Carrie risking Quinn's life in the hopes that it will prevent the same attack. Again, there's the same issue of balancing a single life to potentially save dozens, if not hundreds more. It's heartbreaking to see Carrie clearly conflicted, using her genuine feelings for Quinn to try to bring him back to consciousness, but then aghast at herself when he provides nothing useful and seems worse for wear. The fact that they're playing in the space between Carrie the spy devoted to stopping terror at any cost, and Carrie the human being who feels a connection to this poor man who's spent most of the season in some state of being near death's door is interesting moral territory.
Even Laura Sutton, likely my least favorite recurring character this season, has an intriguing storyline where she puts her own safety and security and job on the line for what she believes is the greater good. When she threatens to release the hacked documents until she's given access to the man being held by German Intelligence, it seems far nobler than her general browbeating of the intelligence apparatus to Carrie or During or whomever, not just because it's for one man, but because she sees it as for every man, as her standing up for common citizens everywhere, and every time that a government decides it can suspend people's rights because of an imminent threat. It may seem misguided, at least to me (who knows how many lives will be lost if those documents are released -- though Lockhart handing over documents to terrorists didn't seem to have too much collateral damage last season), but there's at least something that feels self-sacrificing about it.
And then there's Qassim, who starts to question whether the larger goal of driving the West out of his homeland is worth the smaller, but still very significant loss of life -- from the woman in a hijab to a father and daughter -- that the attack would inflict. Again, there's a personal cost to these innocent people that Qassim cannot shake, even in the face of his larger goals, goals that seem all the more hollow when Professor Aziz is an atheist who is disdainful of the country that took him in.
Of course, in the background of all this high-fallutin' thematic material, there is the veritable ticking time bomb of an impending terrorist attack that gives the episode a sense of urgency through it all. We see Carrie at her best once more, running down leads and talking her way through corrupt Hezbollah leaders, good Samaritan doctors, and even strangers on the subway to try to save the day. There's an excitement, a build to all of this that feels very earned and well-realized after the progression of the season as a whole. Let's see if Homeland can close it out at as high a level as the show has been able to maintain so far.
Something like this comment was originally a reply to @Pedro, but I thought I'd put it here.
This show starts a little slow. It does that thing where the first few episodes are your typical boring cop procedural to show the network they know how to paint by numbers. Then it picks up.
It starts actually exploring the morals of mass surveillance, and (minor spoilers) it turns out the Machine is an AI, and they deal with all the interesting ramifications of living in a world secretly run by a benevolent(?) AI. One of the nice aspects of this show is the only fictional element of the Machine is software. Makes for a very grounded science fiction.
The characters start to deal with total corruption of the police system and attempt to take it down, meanwhile learning and redeeming themselves from their dubious past.
They also deal with taking down organised crime, and what to do when someone tries to consolidate power within the families, even though the new boss is less violent.
They get caught up in vast government conspiracies waging massive secret intelligence wars, and must stop innocent people from getting killed while remaining hidden from powerful people.
Heartbreak, romance, homoerotic sexual tension, SciFi, shooting people, explosions!
They stop making another cop show and start making some really compelling television.
6.3/10. I thought that Quinn was dead. In some ways, I was hoping he was, not because I dislike the character, who quickly became one of the show’s best, but because I thought it fit with the themes of Season 5. This type of life is difficult, both to live through and to escape. It forces people like Carrie, Quinn, and Saul to make hard choices, to perhaps even have to kill people they love. Saul had to kill Allison, a woman he cared about but was deceived and betrayed by, for the greater good. And it seemed like Carrie had to make a parallel choice, to kill Quinn, a man whom she, in her own fractured Carrie ways, loves, because she believes it’s a mercy when the alternatives are a difficult life he faces caused by her own choices.
The major theme of Season 5 was the quest for a normal life and whether it’s possible after all these people have seen. Including a major casualty in these events, let alone one caused by the show’s protagonists, seemed to drive home the costs of being in this world.
But Quinn, as you know if you’ve watched this episode or any Season 6 promotional material, is alive. And as I rewatched the end of the Season 5 finale, the intentions of that last scene were more ambiguous than I’d recalled. Carrie still seems poised to end Quinn’s life rather than face the difficult and uncertain road to recovery, but then there is that flash of light – the titular “Glimmer,” that seems to symbolize the possibility of a life apart from all of this misery and mayhem – and she pauses.
There is that same glimmer present in “Fair Game,” when Quinn is sitting in some drug den, looking squirrely, disheveled, and thoroughly not himself. He writes it off a glimpse of another life, a sign that he views himself as a lost cause. And after some reflection, I think the move works as a narrative choice, that it turns the final scene from an (admittedly compelling) symbol of the darkness that comes with this career choice, to a symbol of hope, that no matter how deep in you are, it’s worth the strain and struggle to get your head clear and your feet on the ground again.
The problem then becomes how Homeland depicts that path back to normalcy for Quinn and for Carrie. The idea of a guilt-ridden Carrie checking in on a resistant Quinn every day in the hospital gives us a cliché “let me go” story thread. Claire Danes and Rupert Friend are superior actors who can elevate the material, but it doesn’t make the setup any less tired. What’s frustrating is that there’s potential there. In my write up for the Season 5 finale, I compared Carrie to Tony Soprano, with the idea that both shows depict their protagonists as tainting the things they touch to some degree. The idea that what Quinn needs to recover is to be away from Carrie, and that Carrie’s guilt over being a cause, if not the cause, of his current condition prevents her from being able to do that, to Quinn’s detriment, is an interesting one.
But the depiction of Quinn’s downward spiral is hokey as all get out, with this damaged individual going full Riley Finn/Trainspotting to signify the depths of his despair and his hopelessness. Again, Friend is a great actor and makes these scenes work better than they have any right to, but it’s all just well-worn shorthand for rock bottom that doesn’t feel as real or pathos-ridden as it ought to. By the same token, Carrie and Quinn going full Odd Couple (with a side of Bubs from The Wire) has some mild potential given the themes in play, but comes off as more of a conceit to keep them around one another than a natural story development.
But that’s part of what a season premiere, especially for a show like Homeland, has to do – establish the plots and the premise of the upcoming season, even if it has to contort itself a bit to set everything up. We can see that in Saul and Dar Adal’s storyline, where the President Elect seems skeptical of the CIA’s “lethal programs” and proposes pulling out, or at least severely scaling back America’s military efforts in the Middle East and elsewhere. Dar Adal ascribes it to the President Elect having lost her son in Iraq, something she apparently would not discuss publicly and, if the closing scene where she lingered on a locket is any indication, it’s a good guess.
Saul is bullish on the President-To-Be though, wagering that she’s right where it counts and persuadable on the margins, while Dar is a “paranoid fuck” who’s chatting with others in the intelligence committee—without Saul—and presumably deciding how to continue on the same path regardless of the President. We only get the first wisps of this storyline in “Fair Game,” but the promise of a conflict between the President and the intelligence community (something that could only happen in fiction, clearly) with Dar on one side and Saul on the other portends intriguing things.
But it’s the other major storyline introduced in “Fair Game” that holds the most promise, or at least potential. Sekou Bah is a young American Muslim who is painted as a terrorist by the generic special agent who takes him in, but is, through the scenes where we’re introduced to him prior to his arrest, presented as a young man who clearly sympathizes with terrorist actions and is devout, but who is also principled, who believes in a seemingly justified different perspective, and who knows and appreciates his rights in this country.
It’s bold territory to not only present but to humanize a young Islamic kid who praises the actions of terrorists. While Qassim, the terrorist with the heart of gold from Season 5 felt like something out of a generic action movie, Sekou feels far more real, far more three-dimensional already, and, true to the spirit of Homeland, far more relevant to the current issues the country is facing at the intersection of radicalization and xenophobia. Again, this is Homeland, so there’s plenty of ways for this to go off the rails (and please, for the love of god, don’t have Carrie sleep with him), but it’s a promising start.
But “Fair Game” spends so much time on the poorly executed Carrie/Quinn business – Quinn’s unfortunate jaunt, Carrie acting as a civil rights lawyer(?) for people targeted by the CIA/FBI, and other “Hey! We’re in New York now!” moments that it drags the whole thing down. There’s a lot of dull setup that even the consistently good acting on the show can’t overcome.
If the theme of Season 5 was the cost of trying to get a normal life back, the theme for Season 6 appears to be the cost of trying to go it alone. Otto tells Carrie that she cannot make it as a loner (which feels like groundwork for she and Quinn getting together); Saul and maybe the President Elect are being isolated by the rest of the intelligence apparatus, and Sekou finds himself separated from his family, his home, and his life. “Fair Game” isn’t a great start, but like most of Homeland’s premiere, at least offers the possibility of interesting things to come, even if it presents them in a fairly uninteresting way. Let’s hope it can make good on that promise.
Yeah, baby! I'm all about crossovers. And a vintage musical crossover? Sign me the fuck up!
I love the fact that Melissa Benoist, Grant Gustin and Darren Criss all used to be on Glee. It must've been a fun little reunion for them to shoot this thing.
Well, would you look at that. Fuckboy isn't just a former slave owner, he's a former prince of slave owners. What a catch, am I right?
(Can he please just die already?)
At least Kara dumped his ass for now, but let's be real, this is the CW. She'll take him back despite the fact that he's a toxic piece of shit. Just free her from this awful relationship. What do I have to do? Cause I'd sell one of my kidneys to make that happen.
Cop Maggie! Cop Maggie! Cop Maggie! Give me more of that, please! Give me 42 minutes of that, I don't give a damn. I love her so much.
Winn is really unlucky when it comes to the ladies. But seriously, this one was his fault. Having sex in a museum? Don't you have a bed for that? Or, I don't know, a kitchen counter? Or any other flat surface in your apartment? If you want an adventure, go skydiving, not commit felonies. And fine, I understand why Lyra did what she did, but why did she even need Winn for that in the first place? She's invisible, for crying out loud. She didn't need a patsy to take the fall. The police would have never been able to prove it was her, anyway.
[6.8/10] It's not like this was a bad episode, but here's the thing. One of the things I've always liked about LWT is that Oliver feels like an honest broker. Sure, he has a certain slant, and always has, but it felt like he was spotlighting things that received too little attention to have political spin, or that he'd wade into more mainstream politics but try to approach the topics even-handedly.
That hasn't really been the case lately. Don't get me wrong, I can 100% understand not being able to keep your journalistic objectivity when you're talking about Donald Trump and the things happening in his wake, but it makes Last Week Tonight a more run of the mill program to me, just part and parcel with the scores of shows out there pointing to how terrible this stuff is with an admittedly amusing brand of snark. Sure, when Oliver talks about the new Republican health care plan, he's more informative about what's in it than most, but it comes off like doing the same thing everyone else is doing.
The best thing to say is that he does find a unique angle on it at the end, essentially saying that whatever you think of the bill, it's not the bill Trump promised, and it's likely to be the best he can do. But even that isn't a sterling or especially novel insight into it. There's some dada-ist glory to the show's "Catheter Cowboy" repeatedly asking Trump is he "gets it" but otherwise it becomes part of the din. And bits like making fun of local news anchors for their responses to International Women's Day or a MadTV level gag reel about Samsung products exploding doesn't do much to distinguish the show either.
Again, it's not bad. It's all sound enough and true enough and funny enough, but for a while there, it felt like Oliver had brought a different tack and a different energy to the political comedy show, and it's starting to feel like everything else.
The end is nigh
It's exposition time in Westworld, y'all! So Bernard was created because Ford wasn't able to recreate true emotion. Only another host could do it. Maybe this is analoge to programming we have now. In the early days of computing coders needed to code in assembly, tell the computer every operation it had to do. Nowadays we have higher level programming, in some cases we can even talk in natural language to it. So i think the way Ford works is not so far away to the way we work with computers. For me it is totally logical, that just hosts can model their own emotions, fulfill such a complicated task. My current Arnold-Theory is, that he was a host, that Ford created to do a similar task. But it got out of hand. So Bernard is Arnold 2.0.
Ford also quotes Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: One man's life or death were but a small price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of our race.
It is a bit to on the nose for my taste, but i guess this late in the season they really to tell it to the last viewer, who didn't already understand.
One gripe i had with the episode was, that apparently you can photoshop people out of surveillance footage. Who thought this was a nice feature to have? "Oh, and make sure we can edit our security tapes. You know...just in case" "Of course, that is not at all creepy and suspicious"
While I walked in the theater I expected a good movie. Because I liked the concept of the story as it was set-up in the trailer. But mostly because I 'trusted' Tom Hardy and Gary Oldman to pick a good movie to play in. While I walked out the theater I had different thoughts unfortunately. The film was disappointing to me and I will try to explain why. It wasn't the acting and 'world building' but I disliked the directing, screenplay and filming.
First of the directing and filming, all of the action scenes where flooded with shaky cam. This was handled very badly in my opinion. I couldn't figure out what was happening most of the time. Due to the shaky cam, number of cuts, close-ups and the peace of all that. That was the main reason why I disliked 'Safe House', which is also made by Daniel Espinosa. It almost felt like he was trying the make the filming and directing 'not perfectly on purpose' to make it 'real' but it didn't worked out at all! It all felt kinda clumsy and there were way to many meaningless shots overall. There were some exceptions, some shots of the cities and area's they visited where beautifully. They really landed the rough and dark tone that they successfully tried the show. Although they over did it sometimes.
Then the screenplay or script, which is based on a 'best selling novel', again! First of you get a nice back story of Tom Hardy's main character, which felt real to me. All of the other characters felt a bit empty, like they were there to fill a place that was written for them. That made it almost impossible for my to understand the characters and the decisions they make. I also missed the whole balance in the story. The first part was way to long ( set-up ), the middle was rush ( plot kicks in ) and the final party ( ending ) was also rushed and kinda unbelievable. I think because of this I wasn't sucked in to the story. The second and third party felt way to easy and straight forward. Like solving a child murder case which is spread over thousand of miles is easy. I think the story could be told in a better and more interesting way.
Overall I was disappointed by Child 44. The dark Russia after WWII was displayed intense but the story lagged suspension and balance. The action scenes sucked even more than the conversations because of the directing and filming methods they just. Tom Hardy did is part good but not brilliant and unfortunately Gary Oldman's characters was barely in it. I give Child 44 an 5 aka 'Meh'! Thanks for reading!
Man, I missed this, although actually I don't know how to feel about it. I certainly expected more after this three-week hiatus. But any episode with Lena Luthor is a good episode. It was a bit light, but it had some great things. I freaking love the way Lena knocked out Beth like, listen bitch, I'm a Luthor. I love her character. I don't really want her to be bad,but I feel like we're attending to the evil turning of Lena, like the origin of evil Lena. I love this Clark and Lex vibe going with Kara and Lena. I'm assuming she doesn't know Kara is Supergirl, and that is what will drive Lena to the edge. She's gonna be so pissed and hurt and although at the end she could understand it, my spidey senses tell me she's gonna be mad at Kara and thus, her villain origin story begins.
I also loved that the intro of this episode finally makes sense. I mean, Kara hasn't been a reporter for a long while and now she turned the page. Snapper is not Cat but I like the guy. His last conversation with Kara at the end was fantastic. And his line about not starting a food truck was hilarious.
The Lyra stuff, on the other hand, was kinda boring. You already know how it is gonna end before it starts. I love seeing Winn being happy with her and the writers giving everyone who works for the DEO having a backstory. But Lyra really seems legitimately crazy. I don't go them to go full on psycho crazy girlfriend.
Kara and Mon-El were great today. He's a funny sidekick with a lot of potential and this is the right amount of screen time he needs, enough not to make me hate him again. For once, Mon-El was more than a pretty face and was actually there to help Kara, despite his adorkability and awkwardness. Non-relationship scenes are the ones I enjoy with him and Kara. "This is creepy journalism". I loved that line.
And that Jack Shpeer is a handsome motherfucker. Man, I get he's Lena's krytonite.
[4.2/10] I had essentially forgotten about this one, and on rewatch, I can only assume that it's because my brain mentally blocked it out. This is pretty much as bad as Bob's Burgers gets. A love pentagon where Tina wants Yap, Yap wants Gail, Gail wants Bob, and Linda is involved and egging the whole thing on is just weird, and there's a lot of uncomfortable sexual stuff to boot. I'm no prude, and it didn't offend me, but Bob's sister-in-law haranguing him for sex while her wife pushes him into it despite his clear discomfort is just not amusing or enjoyable for me. It's a strange episode, without many laughs (Ken Jeong finds the more annoying side of Chang from Community with Dr. Yap for most of the way), and little to recommend it.
The B-story, with Louise and Gene having continual contests regarding a jawbreaker has some funny moments (mostly their endurance test for listening to Teddy's story) but peters out pretty quickly as well. Really, the only source of laughs is "The Prince of Persuasia." Mrs. Bloom and I will still randomly crack one another up by quoting "push her in a lake" or insisting the other push a higher floor in the elevator and "make a big deal out of it." Still, making fun of The Pickup Artist isn't enough to redeem this pretty crappy episode.
6.5/10. There's a few times when I know a subject and feel like Oliver & Co. are giving the other side the short shrift, but there's also episodes like this, where I know very little about dialysis but something feels off. Little details like treating settlements as admissions of wrongdoing (90+% of cases settle) and taking individual testimonials rather than pointing to survey data or broader figures makes this feel like bending things to make a point rather than making a fair assessment. And what's particularly frustrating is that I completely believe there are problems in the commercial dialysis industry, but contrary to the show's usual M.O., Oliver doesn't really offer a solution or a proposal to how it could be improved. He just concludes with a meh riff on Taco Bell and encouragement to donate your organs after you die which, hey, I am totally on board with, but doesn't feel like a real policy answer to the problem identified.
The top of the show was just okay as well. Again, sometimes Trump is hard to make fun of because the stuff he does is so ludicrous in and of itself, but this was another instance of Oliver offering pretty much the same take as other late night commentators. His gags about New Zealand's leader were amusing enough, but as John himself pointed out, it's not like they haven't done this sort of thing before already, and the terrible pizzas was kind of an easy gag.
Overall, I'm glad to see the show doing a main story on a little-known issue again, but this didn't feel like as fulsome or fair a look at the problem as I've come to expect from LWT.
