[6.9/10] The punchline here is good. I like the idea of an advanced, immortal species, using our heroes as a means to experience what a taste of mortality would be like. The notion that without time as currency, existence becomes idle play, and the idea of death becomes exotic rather than chilling, is an interesting answer to the “Why?” of this episode.
At the same time, I appreciate the continuity nod of the godlike being responsible for the chicanery being from the species who advanced hundreds of years every week or so in a season 1 episode. It’s the kind of thing I thought the show would gesture toward but then totally forget. So their being the culprit makes for not only a good explanation for the “How?” of this episode, but gives us an organic follow-up to a prior story, which is a big plus.
There’s just one big problem -- a solid 80% of the episode until that point simply isn’t that interesting. The scenarios the godlike beings throw Mercer, Grayson, Malloy, Bortus, and (ostensibly) Keyali into are pretty dull, generic affairs. The gang being trapped in a high school isn’t especially weird or scary, and an attack from a giant troll is more odd than frightening. A plane with no pilot is a stock scenario. The Moclan death chamber looks more goofy than unnerving, and the corpse coming back to life is a standard horror trope. And a raft being attacked by a large sea creature isn’t much to write home about either.
The show wants to go for something of a Twilight Zone vibe with these sequences, where some of the sheer eeriness is supposed to carry the day, but it just doesn't . The direction isn’t interesting enough, and the scenarios aren’t exotic enough to really up the tension or deliver the ominous atmosphere the show’s aiming for. Maybe I’ve just watched too many of these episodes of Star Trek to be impressed by this sort of thing anymore, but I kept waiting for some escalation, some wrinkle, that would make these challenges more exciting or disturbing than the fairly generic spooks we got.
What’s more, the broad outlines of the reveal here were fairly obvious, even if the specifics weren’t. By the time we had both Gordon and Mercer experiencing the weird eye-flash thing at the moment of near-death, it seemed obvious that some alien race was trying to comprehend what that experience was like, something gestured to by the title of the episode.
I will say, I appreciated the fake out that our heroes had seemingly made it off the planet shortly before being attacked by the Kaylon. It’s a neat, plausible explanation for why this was happening -- the robotic Kaylon trying to figure out how to commit psychological warfare against their adversaries. You would totally buy it as an answer for the mystery of who was doing this and why, and setting up with Kiyali’s comments about detecting Kaylon radiation earlier is some clever story construction.
The only problem is that I was able to sniff out that the whole thing was a feint, both because it’d be in keeping with past Trek and Trek-adjacent twists-within-twists (thing TNG’s “Future Imperfect”), and because there seemed to be too much time left in the episode for that to be the real answer. But those aren’t the writers’ fault, so I’m loath to slate them for it.
Plus hey, they did surprise me with the reveal that Kiyali was a plant the whole time! It’s setup nicely with the fake Kiyali returning from vacation early, and the fact that she declares she had the same out of body experience the others did, but unlike the others, we never actually see it in her eyes. It adds up in hindsight, and I appreciate when shows like this play fair with a twist like this one.
That’s the thing. On paper this story works. There’s action, adventure, mystery, an earned twist, and a thought-provoking resolution that connects naturally to past escapades. The big problem is that for most of the episode, the whole action/adventure/mystery part just isn’t very good. The show continues to look kind of cheap in its production design and effects, which breaks immersion and dampens the ability of the episode to chill the spine. And the scenarios the demigods (read: writers) cook up to test the good guys just aren’t that interesting. The big picture ideas behind this one is cool, and the structure is sound, but on a scene-to-scene basis, there’s just not enough there to make it worth your while until the end.
Just as slow as the original, but I'd argue it's a better film overall.
There isn't much between the two films, I admit. However, I found 'The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement' more enjoyable than 'The Princess Diaries'. The plot is probably just as interesting, but there's less cringe in this one and the villains are a big improvement.
Anne Hathaway (Mia) is very good once more, while Julie Andrews (Clarisse) does solid things again. John Rhys-Davies (Mabrey) and Chris Pine (Nicholas) are top additions, great casting on the latter by the way given it's Pine's feature film debut.
I also said in my review of the 2001 film that I don't like fictional places in live-action, non-fantasy productions. That's still the case here, but I didn't actually mind it all that much to be honest. "Genovia" is way more believable here, thanks to us actually getting to see it for real - as opposed to it just being referenced.
As noted, there are still a few cringey moments and it does run too long. There are some sweets parts, though. It's also kinda weird that, technically, Mia and Nicholas are related; a number of generations back sure, but still...
A sequel that (minorly) improves on its predecessor, that's always a positive in my book.
The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement is a 2004 American family comedy film starring Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway. This film is also the sequel to 2001’s The Princess Diaries. In this film, Queen Clarisse (Andrews) is abdicating the throne, and Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway) learns that she needs to marry within a month in order to be Queen of Genovia. At Mia’s 21st birthday party, she meets the dashing Lord Nicholas Devereaux (played by Chris Pine in his film debut).
I’ve actually never watched the first film, but pop culture has filled me on the context of the characters, setting, etc. That being said, I was interested in watching this Disney classic, regardless of the order!
I thought that the acting, especially by Hathaway and Pine, were well done. Hathaway still portrays Mia as the down-to-earth, rambunctious girl I’ve come to perceive her as, and Pine is a charming and bantering young lord who often bickers with Mia throughout the film. And of course, Julie Andrews is superb as Queen Clarisse, as she is the definition of grace, class, and beauty.
The plot was honestly predictable, but c’mon... it’s a Disney film. It was still enjoyable to watch! And the music gave it a nostalgic touch (at least for me, watching it in 2021), making it a great feel-good movie.
With the plot being predictable, I wouldn’t rewatch the film.
Not exactly a satisfying ending but I guess better than "it was successful, everyone got rich, the world changed for the better, the end." Pretty creative, albeit this and the previous episode started taking this AI concept a bit too far considering the state of that technology. The simple premise of using some fancy new compression technology that leads to all these interesting ideas is quite convincing and not so far from reality that it stays clear of being straight up science fiction. But this grounded approach is thrown out the window with this AI deux ex machina stuff. Maybe they should have thrown in some quantum computing while they were at it. It's a bit simplistic that Dinesh could just plug in a USB drive to upload the code. The rats were a clever touch though. The 10+ years later trope is always a bit of a cop out, and is even cliché at this point (cf Parks and Recreation, Veep …).
Wasn't expecting the season to end after only 7 episodes. Altogether a great series, unfortunate that the production hit some rough patches near the end and presumably cut some corners in order to end up where it needed to.
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.
Suffering Sappho!
If there were ever a movie I wanted to be good, (though, realistically, I want almost every movie to be good) it would probably have been this one. Believe me, I was pretty hyped for this film. Actually, my initial reaction to the trailer for this movie was an awesome (in the literal, Biblical sense) headdesk, crashing to the table below, as I bellowed my indignation that I could not have been involved in the making of this movie myself! Is that a little grandiose? Sure, but so am I, so bear with me.
Unfortunately, the reality of this movie turns out to be a little bit of a patchy mess. It is uninspired in its aesthetic (not terribly surprising from the director of infamous Disney reboot "Herbie Fully Loaded," lesbian B movie "D.E.B.S.", and several episodes of "The L Word"), the pacing is erratic and jumbled at times, and the writing flies in the face of historical accuracy and vernacular speech.
Where the movie deserves praise, although sometimes at the expense of its worldbuilding mise en scene, is in the casting and performances of the three principals, Evans, Hall, and Heathcote (in credits order, though not truly in order of importance or merit). Here, each had moments of true brilliance, as the triad stood alone (sometimes too alone, to the detriment of the too-flimsy film world around them) against a sea of angry, very red, very white faces.
I never felt disengaged from the characters, and they were written flawlessly. Where these figures deviate from history (which, I hear, is at many points) I will allow poetic license, because they are painted so vividly and with such charming life. Even when the script is bad, the actors presented it well. Just as even when the script called for the location to be set in New York state, it still looked like Massachusetts.
This movie was truly robbed. With a better cinematographer, two more really good rewrites, and maybe some more specific focus, this movie could have been a serious awards contender, and a very great piece of art. As it is, it's been a blip through the cinemas, to be misunderstood and forgotten until such time as polyamory is more accepted in the social mores of the day, and it can be further misunderstood and miscategorized as evidence of how backward society was in 2017, that this was our take on the Marston/Moulton story.
Of course, by that time, there will be a better "Wonder Women" movie. There had damn well better be.
Incredibly simplistic. I think if not for the excellent acting by Jennifer Lien this could be the worst episode so far.
The sexually-attracted-aliens-in-space are just embarrassing, and most of all it feel like it gets in the way of the more interesting story with Kes. There's never a second where you feel the ship is genuinely in danger, and the effects have aged very poorly.
Kes going through her version of puberty works better, but Neelix ruins it. It's ironic that she's not even 2 years old, but Neelix is the one who acts like a child. From the start of the episode he's unbearable and its something of a relief when the Doctor throws him out of sickbay. He's incapable of making decisions and when someone implants an idea in his head, he latches onto it like a toddler.
It didn't even occur to him he might have a daughter? So he's a bit sexist, too. Props to Tuvok for the best line: "why would you treat a daughter differently from a son?". At least someone has a brain.
And then convenient crew pregnancy in an episode all about mating is convenient (from a character we've never met before).
Klingons, I love 'em. They are going to become a major part of DS9 and this is the first episode dedicated fully to them. It could have been nothing more than a fun diversion, but bringing back the actors who played three Klingons in The Original Series was an absolute stroke of genius.
Kor, Kang and Koloth (it's easy to forget which is which) steal this episode in every way and bring so much fun to the proceedings. Kor especially is a joy to watch bringing his drunken humour to everything. It's easy to believe that Kang is a revered warrior as he takes charge of this little gang, and one of my favourite moments is Odo's realisation of who he is dealing with when Koloth arrives in his office.
But at it's heart this is a Dax episode. The tough choice she has to make about whether or not to follow through with her blood oath is portrayed well, notably in her conversation with Kira. She manages to piss of Sisko, but there isn't any real fallout from it. The episode begins to lose its impact a bit once we get to the end battle; it's severely underwhelming and the Albino turns out to be little more than a pantomime villain. The guards that the band face are beyond pathetic and there's no sense of a challenge there. For all that, the final moments are quite strong as Jadzia needs to figure out if she's capable of murder.
I don't feel that this episode deserves quite the amount of praise that so many people give it. It delivers a message about the effects of war, but because this is '90s Star Trek it's so watered down. None of the guest characters feel like real people and indeed they exist only to be cheesy caricatures. Raymond Cruz (I'd totally forgotten he was in this) comes off the worst as the near psychotic soldier on the edge of a nervous breakdown with a really OTT performance. I don't believe in a single one of these characters (I had similar issues with season 5's 'Nor the Battle to the Strong', although on a smaller scale).
The ketracel white necklace also looks extremely silly.
The themes of the episode are important ones, but they've been delivered so much better in other places, be it war films or even other episodes of DS9. Quark (whose reasons for being there are kind of iffy) actually manages to be the best part of the whole thing and manages to bring a bit of weight to proceedings. Ezri and the engineer also have some nice moments. We see Nog lose his leg here but the full impact of it won't be felt until later, at this point I think we're all assuming that future prosthetic technology will be able to fix him up good as new.
The "houdini" mines are a scary invention, but once we see just how many are floating around in the Starfleet camp they suddenly become a bit dumb. If there were that many in there, the Jem'Hadar could have wiped out everyone in the camp at any time they wanted.
The setting becoming a character in a film is a cliche. It's easy to give in to the charms of talented production designers and themes rooted in a particular time and place and declare that a well-established center of events rises to the level of personhood within a story.
But this desolate den of thieves and junkies and ramshackle mobsters in the Ozarks is more than just a character in Winter's Bone, it is a visceral realization of the mood of the film. What I love most about this film is it's restraint. There are few grand scenes of exposition, only a couple of big moments, and little in the way of on-the-nose dialogue to explain who these characters are or what their hopes and wants and weaknesses will be. Instead, it finds other, subtler ways to convey character and conflict and stakes.
None of these is so potent as the surroundings that Ree Dolly finds herself in. While the camera rarely acquiesces to the stark if scenic beauty of the area, it takes time to linger on the dull gray and washed out colors of the Dollies' corner of the Ozarks. The desperation of this place, the lack of hope and the sense that the same patterns are doomed to repeat in its grizzled confines come through without anyone needing to say it.
More than anything, Winter's Bone gives us an ecosystem, a hierarchy, more through implication than by anyone laying it out for us. We see the way that the women of this area have to look to men for approval, and yet are the real muscle and motivators that solve the problems the story presents. We see the elaborate games of telephone, the way that honor must be shown and recognized, that drive the characters from one point to another. And we see the bonds of family, the way everyone in this town is some distant relation, and the difference between what that's supposed to mean and what it does.
That strength is matched by the film's lead. Jennifer Lawrence may have gone on to win Oscars and headline blockbusters, with many striking performances, but I'm not sure she's ever topped this one. The strength and resolve in Ree Dolly, as she pushes her way through the Byzantine spate of resistance and blind eyes that threatens to leave her family penniless and homeless, with her vulnerability on display in more private, intimate moments, creates an incredible portrait of a young woman in an impossible position. Lawrence masters the layer of the character: her boldness tinged with uncertainty on display as she stands up to the men and women who attempt to stymie her, her doubt and fear as she pleads with her shell-shocked mother for help, her anxiety and pragmatism as she tries to teach her young brother and sister to be self-sufficient.
It's that pragmatism, the quality that takes a young woman with clearly enough smarts to make her own way in this world, that spurs the film to its climax. There's a parallelism to it. When Ree is teaching her brother how to prepare a squirrel, she tells him to remove its guts, and he resists. She tells him that he has to do it anyway, that he has to get used to stuff like this. That thought comes back to bite Ree as she's forced to reach into the water and pull out her own father's bloated corpse while her antagonists and accomplices take off his hands with a chainsaw to provide proof of his death. She too resists, but swallows her disgust and horror and does what needs to be done. It's a testament to that desperation once again, to the idea that painful things have to happen, that the innocent have to be broken, at least a little, in order for them to survive in a world with such ugliness.
There's an undercurrent to this story about someone trying to break out of a system that aims to hold people like her in place. When she walks into the local high school she looks longingly at what goes on there. She tries to enlist in the military to see the world and get out. She is, however, tied to this place, by the need to take care of a mother and siblings who cannot, and in the case of the former, maybe never will, be able to take care of themselves. She is needed, and that means putting the rest of a promising life on hold, in a community that feigns support (with pride and reputation being prized), but which is deeply suspicious and uncaring when their livelihoods or positions are threatened.
The one ally who crosses this line is Teardrop, who is a part of this same system but breaks ranks to assist his niece in her honorable quest. John Hawkes gives the performance of a lifetime. A far cry from the clean cut Sol Star of Deadwood, Hawkes is the apotheosis of the thoroughly-worn creatures of walking regret who populate the film. His sunken eyes mask a long-buried warmth and connection to the world, that begin to reemerge in the face of Ree's struggle.
That struggle, in its way, is a very simply story. A young woman tries to find her dad in order to save her family. But the layers the film adds onto that basic premise -- the conspiracies of silence and of gossip that loom in the background, the filial and fraternal issues that permeate the story, the understated, frightening nature of the possibilities from poking the wrong hornet's nest in this town -- make into something affecting and universal. Winter's Bone is a film about one resourceful, pitiable young woman's efforts to complete her Herculean labors, but it's also about the community she labors within, and the place, bereft of hope or opportunity, that spawned it. That place, and its fallow environs, show the depths to which this land has sunk, but also, through Ree's indomitable spirit, Teardrop's renewed connection to his family that suggests the support that might set her free, and the windfall that acts as her father's final gift, there's the hint that what has lain fallow may be reborn, that there is hope in the midst of this unmitigated bleakness, and that those old, destructive patterns can be broken, if only a little.
The return of Brad Dourif once again means that he completely steals the show. I sort of wish that his character could have been involved more across episodes, but I also wonder if it would have been a case of having too much of a good thing.
This is a decent end for the second season with a pretty enjoyable cliffhanger. It's a shame that it brings back the terrible Kazon because they weaken everything. Additionally, Seska has now become very cartoony and lacks any menace (and why has she still not reverted back to full Cardassian after all this time?). I don't really see how the Kazon are constantly able to outsmart Voyager given how disparate they are, and how unintelligent they continually prove themselves to be.
The baby plot is a bit stupid, and I don't think Janeway would have made any of the same decisions if the child belonged to a low ranking ensign or lieutenant that wasn't a part of the senior staff. Her job is to get these people home, not make dangerous diversions at every opportunity. It's a prime example of why I have problems with this show at the most fundamental level.
But for character moments, this mostly delivers. Stranding the crew on a barren and hostile planet is really interesting, and Janeway steps up to take command of her people. The main crew all work together quite nicely. Really, though, it's the quiet and powerful moments with Janeway, Tuvok and Lon Suder that make the episode for me.
For once in my life, I'm gonna be as brief as I can because otherwise I would be writing hours and hours talking about this show.
First thing, when I thought Abernathy's actor couldn't surprise me more, he does. His acting is superb and no one plays a malfunctioning robot as good as he does.
Dolores is such a badass but her lines are starting to become a little repetitive. I just feel for Teddy so damn much. I get the feeling that Teddy is us. Just look at his face, he's got a constant "Wtf?" written on it. I think he'll turn against Dolores in the near future. So far, his narrative is to follow Dolores and do as she pleases; however, he also has to kill Wyatt and something tells me he's gonna go the second road.
Maeve, Hector, Armistice, Felix and Sylvester. The gang is back together. I'm loving Sizemore more and more. I didn't know that was possible but it is. So Hector is a version of who he wanted to be? Interesting.
The first scene was amazing. A godamn tiger! Poor girl. When she appeared, I thought she could be William's daughter, Emily, if memory serves. Let's see how it evolves.
The Ghost Nation is back! I wonder where Elsie is. She was captured by them. Since they caught that girl and they wanted Sizemore, I'm starting to think that Elsie somehow reprogrammed them to save the guests from the robots.
I missed Ed Harris in this one. But next week we've got Shogun world and I can't be more exited.
Also, did Bernard just insert all Abernathy's data into himself? Charlotte is growing on me more and more, I hope the trend continues because I want to see more of Tessa Thompson.
8.5/10. The best part of this one is Lily and Marshall's conversation at the end, which feels very real and earnest and heartbreaking for the way that both of them are open wounds at this point. There's an undercurrent of real emotion even amidst the more outsized gags on the show, and it's a formula that really works for HIMYM.
As for the main stories, it was a nice way to integrate Lily back into the show, even if it feels a little quick, but the necessities of sitcom status quo demand it, so I'm willing to go along with it. I have less disdain for Lily this go-round, if only because the idea that she wanted to find herself a bit doesn't seem as crazy as Ted makes it out to be, even if she handled it poorly. Still, the ending with her and Marshall seems to take that into account, which makes it work.
And the Barney and Marshall storyline is mostly a chance for silly fun. I think I remember the ultimate twist to all this (unless I'm thinking of something else) which colored my view of the proceedings a bit, but it's still fun to see Barney pumping up Marshall's confidence only to swoop in and steal the spoils of war.
The first season of Kim's Convenience starts like a college production of Korean Simpsons. Uneven but generally solid performances, clever but unpolished writing, and low rent production value. Coupled with almost offensive amount of Konglish, I was ready to bail.
Then, something happened after a couple of episodes. Kim's family started to become more real and endearing. Performances were no longer caricature but nuanced and realistic.
It would be easy to characterize Appa (Mr. Kim) as Homer Simpsons. But underneath his rotund, prideful, stubborn exterior lies an immigrant who cares deeply for his family (including his estranged son). He may appear to be a stereotypical Korean immigrant dad, but he's a lot more than that.
Umma (Mrs. Kim) also initially appears to be a stereotypical Korean mom, placing too much weight on what other people think. But we see that she's conflicted, who understand the flaws in her upbringings, evolving to place greater value in her family's happiness and well being.
Their kids, Jung and Janet, are likewise flawed, but they are good kids with many great qualities that would make any parents proud. Surrounded by amazing supporting characters (Shannon and Gerald are stand outs), the first seasons ends with big potentials and lots of hearts.
I look forward to the second season.
[5.6/10] For me, the greatest sin of a television show is wasted potential. Some episodes are liable to be great. Some episodes are liable to be terrible. A good many more will vary between “fine” and “pretty good.” As I’ve exhaustively detailed on this website, there’s a ton of reasons for that, some of which are understandable and some of which are maddening. But the most frustrating thing when taking in a story of any stripe, is feeling like somebody had a great idea, or great premise, or sniffed greatness, but then left some of the best possibilities on the table.
“The Crossing” leaves more than the best possibilities on the table. It leaves most of the possibilities on the table. The prospect of non-corporeal beings, touring the human body as a vessel of choice through meatspace, is a thrilling one. As “Return to Tomorrow” from The Original Series showed us, the notion of what beings without bodies do once returned to them can be an illuminating experience for the characters and the audience alike.
But Enterprise dispenses with all of that for a rote pod people story. Instead of any philosophical exploration of what it means to encounter a new form of life or the costs of their form of existence versus ours, “The Crossing” does a cheap spin on a horror tale, with Stepford Smilers and “who’ll be brainwashed next?” questions that don’t amount to much beyond some bargain basement scares.
That wouldn’t be so bad if the show’s would be ghost story were any good. As much as I enjoy Star Trek’s more philosophical side, there’s nothing wrong with just telling a simple, creepy tale in the confines of a spaceship. The problem is that the invasion of the “wisps” is pretty dull, and doesn't make much sense.
Most good stories that involve the supernatural (or the “may as well be supernatural”) have rules for how things have to operate. These rules take the nigh-magical and not only ground it in something the audience can relate to, but make the characters earn their success (or failure) in dealing with it. Here, the rules are all so opaque and nonsensical that it’s hard to invest in any of the problems or solutions.
Are you unsure whether or not a fellow crewman is inhabited by a wisp? Well that’s no problem, because Dr. Phlox just invented a wisp detector! Are you running from a being that can go through walls (which, in fairness, are the episode’s best sequences)? Don’t worry about it! These things that the sensors can’t even really detect are repelled by the alloy in the catwalk for some reason! Is a third of your crew infested with these beings who might have evil intentions? That’s fine! We can just gas them out of the ship without any ill effects to the human beings they’re inhabiting! What about that massive alien ship that you can’t outrun and which is so technologically advanced that it takes over all of your systems? Just blow it up!
I’m used to easy Treknobabble solutions to what ought to be thorny problems, and I’m not a nitpicker, but “The Crossing” takes the cake. It stacks arbitrary implausibility on top of arbitrary implausibility until you wonder if the writers even began to think this whole situation through. I’ll concede that there’s something clever about T’Pol using her psychic abilities and disciplined mind to discern the wisps’ plan after one tries to take her over. But for the most part, the episode introduces a series a big, difficult problem and then comes up with all sorts of convenient answers that don’t pass the smell test.
Some of this would be more tolerable if the episode didn’t feel like it was stretching to fit the required runtime. My compliment for the last episode was that it knew how to evolve its central problem to create new challenges for our heroes to overcome. “The Crossing” does nearly the opposite, giving us the gist of the problem early on and then letting us watch Archer and company tread water for most the episode before figuring out how to solve it. In the meantime, we get a bunch of lifeless scenes of Archer yelling generic missives at his wisp-possessed crewmen and, bafflingly, multiple silly fight scenes starring Dr. Phlox: action star.
The episode also tosses in some weird sexual harassment material with the wisp who possesses Malcolm which is, dare I say, problematic. Either it’s meant to be a source of menace, in which case it feels cheap and especially galling for the show to try to pull that crap using T’Pol as the victim again. Or it’s meant as comedy, which may be even worse. There’s something interesting about a non-corporeal being experiencing sexual curiosity and desire, without understanding human mores, but Enterprise doesn't have the skill to explore that fraught material with any grace or nuance, and the whole thing comes off as uncomfortable for other reasons than what the show seems to be going for.
That’s the cinch to all of “The Crossing.” There’s grand metaphysical questions at play about what it’s like for a being without a body to suddenly find itself able to talk and eat and feel again, and for a human to suddenly experience the world through a different lens. There’s grand ethical questions about whether it’s right for a wisp to do this, and how much leeway to give a species that’s long removed from issues of bodily autonomy. And there’s compelling moral dilemmas about a group of dying lifeforms seeking salvation and how we measure their lives against ours.
But Enterprise just blows them up, literally and figuratively. Gone are the engrossing questions of different forms of life, and in comes a procedural horror story that’s rife with boring interludes and quick fixes. When the series had the chance to tell us a story about the famed “new life and new civilizations” from the once-famous, now-jettisoned intro, it gave us a mostly-fine but uninspired possession story that barely bothered to graze any of the imaginative qualities and curiosity that made Star Trek great.
I can handle bad Star Trek episodes. Hell, I love some of them. What I truly don’t like are episodes like this, that feel like they waste something great to settle for something less.
I can't believe there are no comments on this film. I had plans as soon as I saw the ad for this film to see it. That's like 6 or 7 months. It never came to australia until the korean film festival then it was cancelled due to a system fault (lmao). If you went to the lengths I did to try and see this film youd know it was ultimate irony.
Luckily I managed to be able to see this soon after the festival ended. This movie is about a girl with autism who has witnessed a crime committed in the house across the road the actress is the same one who plays the youngest reaper in Along With The Gods and this has really showcased her ability as an actress and I am so touched she took on this role despite how Korea may treat people with disabilities. I honestly feel this was such a good film with a really empathetic view towards people with autism.
As it goes, Sunho, Miran's defence lawyer initially befriends Jiwoo in order to understand her disability and to use it as leverage in his defence. This blindsided Jiwoos family and shatters their trust of him. Throughout this part of the film we see the writers really tried to incorporate traits common of people with autism. Jiwoo repeats things she hears, she self harms under stress and she doesnt recognise body language very well despite her mum trying to teach her. She also has a packet of sweets in which she only eats the blue ones. She's also really naive.
There are quite a few storylines in this film but I felt like the most unnecessary one was that Sunho is 45 and single living with his physically weakened father. He is constantly being badgered by his father to date one of his old classmates from university who is also a lawyer. It doesn't add much to the story except being a minor motivator for him to be more genuine and to recognise good and bad people.
The point where you think the film would be resolved is where it actually keeps going. Sunho wins the case but realises that he made a grave mistake when he hears Miran say something that Jiwoo constantly repeats. He decides to go to court again but instead of as the defence he proves that Jiwoo was right and the murder was committed by Miran. He regains the trust of her family and helps Jiwoo make friends. He's even there on her birthday after she transfers to a special school.
My favourite scene honestly was when he gave her a bottle full of her favourite sweets.
"How do you like your new school?"
"It's alright. Just a little strange."
"Why?"
"I don't have to pretend to be normal anymore."
9/10
[6.7/10] Alas, another underwhelming start to a new season of Schitt’s Creek. I don’t know what it is about the show that it can’t put its best foot forward in its first shot out of the gate, but three data points is officially a trend! Woe is us!
The show’s not only back and doing love triangles, but it’s back to doing them with everybody now! Not only is Mutt back in the picture, but he’s having trouble in paradise with Tennessee. That’s magnified when he invites Alexis to house-sit while he and Tennessee are out of town, and she naturally brings along Ted so that they can all maximize the drama of what is, more accurately, a love quadrangle. Who needs character growth when you can throw in more relationship drama? (Though I’ll cop to laughing at Ted’s bad puns about Mutt and Tennessee going off to a “pinecone harvest.”)
It also turns out that both David and Stevie are dating Jake, the strapping woodworker from the season 2 finale. It feels like the show is eventually just going to cut to the hypotenuse of this one, but again, I don’t need relationship drama between David and Stevie over some random, seemingly polyamorous guy. (Though again, I’ll admit to getting a big laugh out of the cold open with everyone else in the family walking in on a post-coital David and Jake and making things about as awkward as you’d expect.)
Even without the relationship drama, I didn’t really care for this one. Moira’s first appearance on the council lends her to make big promises that she has to walk back when she realizes there’s no money for what the citizens are demanding. There’s a solid lesson there, about politicians not being able to just give a big speech and wave a magic wand to make good things happen (hello, fellow West Wing fans!), but the realization of it is very broad and not especially funny.
The one story I did really like here was Johnny’s. I like the idea that he feels useless after all the other members of his family are off working or helping lead the town while he’s getting kicked out of his would-be office space by a virus-protection scammer. He’s used to “holding this family together” and feels outclassed and surpassed by everyone else. Moira reassuring him that his contributions are still valuable, even if less visible, is another dose of sweetness between the two, and the only good follow-up to what was hinted at in last season’s finale.
Overall, this is another underwhelming start to the new season, but hopefully this one picks up steam like the past two seasons have.
[7.4/10] I liked all three stories in this one. Some more than others, but they were all entertaining and even connected in neat little ways, mainly through the cafe.
My favorite of them was Johnny’s, for once! I love how him reluctantly helping Twyla with a few dishes given her bum leg turned into a whole day’s worth of waiting tables for the Rose patriarch. The whole “full combo” kerfuffle was a solid laugh, and I like the awkward reactions of the other Roses who patronized the cafe. But my favorite part was the close, where having walked a mile in a waiter’s shoes, Johnny decides he can’t take the portion of tip money that Twyla offered him, treating it as “reparations” for all the times he was a difficult customer himself. It’s a nice moment of self-reflection from Johnny, who’s maybe getting some of that personal growth the rest of the Roses have been pursuing as of late.
I also liked both the comedy and the drama of Moira and Alexis having lunch together. For one thing, it’s funny since Alexis ends up accidentally talking herself into this lunch by tweaking her mom for treating her brother like a favorite. By the same token, the way that Moira and Alexis both have to psyche themselves up for the meal (with Ronnie and Ted respectively) is amusing, and the same goes for their awkward silence and Moira’s list of icebreaker questions.
But then, again, the show pivots toward someplace real. Moira’s insecurity about her daughter not wanting to be seen with her and Alexis’s discomfort over her mom’s public notoriety make for good fodder for a heart-to-heart. The pair of them endeavoring to “make up for lost time” after speaking plainly to one another is very heartening.
The story I liked the least here was the continued saga of David and Stevie playing tug of war over Jake. Even so, there’s some good laughs over the comedy of manners that emerges from each trying to navigate the delicate waters of break-ups and other tangles in this tripartite dating arrangement, particularly David not understanding that Stevie was trying to warn him about a break-up. The whole Jake business has been pretty lame, but hopefully it’s over now, and David and Stevie as snipe-y best friends is still a good mode for them.
Overall, a definite improvement on the season premiere, with particularly good stories for all the Roses except David!
[8.1/10] Another episode where I liked both of the major storyline. We’re not only getting some nice advancement for Johnny Rose as a character after him mostly being aimless comic relief up to this point, but we get the best David/Alexis story the show’s ever done in the same episode.
Let’s start with that. I love Alexis and David teaming up for David’s driving test. There’s a really good contrast between the two of them here, with Alexis trying to get her preternaturally anxious brother to relax by convincing him that “nobody cares” and “no one thinks about you like you do”, at the same time David tries to make his preternaturally calm sister realizes that not everybody “skates through life” and “has everything handed to them” the way that she does. It’s an excellent conflict of temperament that comes from deeply-rooted character traits, and utilizes the performers’ great dynamic with one another.
I particularly enjoy where it ends up. David is his usual anxious self during the driving test at first, until he realizes that his sister was right and the part-time DJ of a driving instructor he’s got gennely doesn’t carea bout this, to where David can realx. But I like the reciprocal side of that, where David reveals that part of his constant anxiety stems from having to be the one who worried about Alexis when she was galavanting about the world and her parents couldn’t be bothered to pay attention. There’s a sense that Alexis is partly so calm because she’s seen it all, but also that she only survived all her scrapes thanks to David’s long distance intervention, and that the constant worry took its toll on him. ALexis acknowledges that, but also smiles at the realization of how much her brother cares.
It’s such a great story, one that plays in the space of complicated sibling dynamics, lands somewhere sweet and real despite the absurdity of the context, and even gets some good laughs in their back and forth. A real winner, to be sure.
Even if it doesn’t hit the same heights, I like the story of Johnny and Moira’s reaction to the prospect of Stevie potentially selling the hotel as well. A lot of it is just silly, like Moira’s failed attempt to persuade the Town Council to initiate a bailout or her evasions with Johnny about it. There’s also some good laughs with Ray’s chipper explication of all the reasons that partnering with Johnny is a bad idea. Even Johnny trying to be supportive of Stevie while not-so-subtly nagging her about the drip in the kids’ faucet is a good laugh.
But I also like this as a mean for Johnny to contribute to this family and self-acutalize a bit. He’s felt left behind by all the other Roses’ successes. This is a chance for him not only to find a purpose -- the support and management of the hotel -- but to help keep his family secure by ensuring a new owner doesn’t come on board and kick them out. The fact that in the end, however comically middling he is as a plumber, Johnny is once again ready to do the dirty work, is another nice bit of personal growth for him.
At the same time, I like this one as a brief moment of vulnerability for Stevie, who’s overwhelmed at the prospect of owning a motel with “one underperforming employee.” Her crying when looking over the paperwork and weepily thanking Johnny for his help is really sweet, and the actress does a nice job at conveying the character’s distress.
Overall this is another strong episode that hits on some real emotions, develops the characters, and gets some good laughs in the process. Season 3 is looking up!
[7.9/10] A very nice, albeit very schmaltzy, ending to the show’s third season. They’re really going for the sap here, but it largely worked on me, so who am I to complain?
That said, I think my favorite moment here was one of the less schmaltzy ones. It was Alexis looking at the resumes for other receptionists and realizing that not only is there someone who could do a better job, but that they could help Ted. It’s a sort of selflessness, empathy, and understanding and concern for others that we don’t normally see from Alexis. It’s a nice way to show her growth continuing; it shows that all that time with Ted has been good for her soul, and hell, it even paves the way for the two of them to date again without the uncomfortable boss/employee dynamic.
The rest of the episode is good too. The scenes involving Alexis’s high school graduation are some of the sappiest, but they still work. I particularly like the scene of Moira and Alexis with the latter in her cap and gown. You forget how good a dramatic actress Catherine O’Hara is given how great a comedic actress she is, but she totally sells the look of sincere pride and joy in Moira’s eyes when she sees her daughter ready to take this big step.
The Jazzagals performance is the icing on the cake at that point. It’s nice that Ted shows up to support Alexis too, cementing their bond even apart from the vet clinic. But it is very sweet, however cheesy, for Moira to put her money where her mouth is (while, admittedly, stealing some focus) to make her daughter a priority in her life. It’s not quite Lorelai locking eyes with Richard and Emily, but it’s still quite nice.
There’s even a victory for Johnny here! Lord knows the last thing we needed was more Roland-related sex schtick, but the fact that he and Stevie managed to sell out the motel is an achievement for him too. It’s nice to see all the Roses having their little victories.
That includes David. His is maybe the lowest key, but I like what they do. For some reason, David’s seemed really hesitant to push things with Patrick. Maybe it’s just the demands of a network sitcom where payoffs have to come at the end of the season. Whatever it is, I like Stevie kicking David in the pants and telling him to treat this “birthday dinner” with Patrick like the date that it clearly is. Their kiss in the car is very sweet, and there’s interesting ground to cover with Patrick still testing the waters of his sexual orientation. They have good chemistry together, and Patrick’s thank you to David for the kiss is really genuine and sweet.
I even liked the tag, with Johnny and Moira bringing in a cake (with the wrong names) to show that they didn’t fully forget their kids’ achievements, while also crediting themselves for their recent successes. It’s the perfect, “We’ve grown, but we’re still adorably flawed” note to go out on, especially the over-the-top singing.
On the whole, this was another strong season, one that may even top the prior one. It’s focused on the growth for each of the Roses and taken them in interesting directions, even if it started a little shaky. Onto season 4.
[6.6/10] Eh, I didn’t love this one. The best of the three stories is the one about Johnny not being good at gifts and Stevie’s reaction to it, and even that was pretty mild. Stevie putting on all the makeup and deadpanning her way through an “appreciation” of Johnny’s gift was a laugh, but otherwise there wasn’t much to this one.
I didn’t really care for either of the other two storylines. Moira initially sidestepping Alexis’s “singles night” idea, then inadvertently stealing it, then taking credit so that she can lead the project did nothing for me. That sort of self-rationalizing self-centeredness is not out of character for Moira, and Alexis being thrust into a much bigger project than she expected is a good story engine, but there’s nothing really funny or endearing about the situation here.
(As an aside, how did Alexis get any kind of degree from Elmdale college in four months. Wouldn’t even an associate’s degree take longer than that?)
I didn’t much care for David’s storyline either. Again, it’s not out of character for David to prolong his break-up with Patrick because he likes being pampered with gifts, but at the same time, it’s not exactly the most likable behavior. Plus, there’s something that feels so broad and sitcom-y about David coming to make up only for Patrick to say he hears David’s silence loud and clear and won’t push him. The fact that David lip syncs to “Simply the Best” feels like a pretty meager apology, and the “I’m not used to this situation” excuse is mildly sympathetic, but requires a little more remunerative action than fake singing along to Patrick’s preferred eighties power ballad.
Overall, this one was mostly fine, but still one of the weaker episodes of the season.
[7.9/10] I like that the finale is mostly a Stevie episode. She’s my favorite character on the show, so it’s nice to see her get that sort of focus. I’ll admit, I totally bought that she was still nursing some hurt feelings over David getting married. It’s not a well the show has gone to a lot in recent seasons, but if ever there was an occasion to bring up some season 1 romantic drama between them, this was it.
Instead, they swerve things to a lovely place. Her getting monogrammed towels for David is such a sweet gesture, one that ties into how their friendship started in a very cute way.
And yet, she is still struggling with the news, albeit not out of jealousy or regret. She’s just seeing people move on and grow in their lives while she fears staying stagnant “behind the front desk.” Once again, though, Moira has some wonderful reassuring words for her, affirming Stevie’s coolness, the way she knows who she is and stands her ground, and how that will serve her well whether she sets sail or stays put. It’s an emotional scene, and like most Moira/Stevie scenes a great one.
Even better is how it gets used in the show. Moira doesn’t just reassure Stevie, she tells her to use that feeling in the show. There’s a perfect dovetail between Stevie’s worries and those of Sally Bowles, and “Maybe This Time” makes for a great emotional climax for the character this season. It feels like a real community production, but also suffused with the truth that comes from the character’s journey.
On the comic side, there’s a lot of laughs to be had from everyone hearing David’s news before he has the chance to make an announcement. There’s also some nice spiraling out of control here and there, and Johnny feeling leery about his daughter leaving, which pays dividends both for the comedy quotient and the adorable dad quotient.
Of course the big cliffhanger is that Moira’s big movie is getting shelved, which devastates her, since she potentially viewed it as the start to her comeback and maybe even her ticket out. I’m curious to see where they go with it!
Overall, a lot of nice stuff here, particularly for Stevie, which is a good thing in my book.
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.
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.
[8.2/10] When I saw that Oliver & Co. were covering Alex Jones, I rolled my eyes a bit, expecting this to be yanking at the low-hanging fruit. But I actually really liked the direct LWT went with this. The best LWT episodes typically have a strong thesis, and that helped this episode become more than just a series of easy digs against a televised nut. Oliver didn't just point to Jones's more outlandish statements to paint him as a loon; he took Jones at his word to put the show in its larger context and paint him as a shill. It's easy to laugh or shake your head at Jones's out there claims, but it's more troubling that he's not only puffing up these imagined problem, but claiming that he can offer solutions. There's something far more corrosive and despicable about that, and looking at him through that lens gave the episode a focus and impact that a more scattered dig-fest wouldn't have.
Otherwise this was business as usual. The opening rundown was entertaining; watching news anchors try to avoid saying the most vulgar parts of Scaramucci's statement was entertaining; and it's always a treat to have Jack McBrayer around. But on the whole this one succeeds on the strength of its main segment, which had a nice throughline to attacking Jones beyond just spotlighting him as a crazy man.
It has a rocky start with some terrible expositional dialogue and it's hard not to laugh at the fact that the harvesters look like containers of Pringles, but I do enjoy this episode. The pairing of Miles and Julian was always one of the best parts of the show, and it's especially great here in the early days because Miles still just doesn't like the doctor very much - but he's starting to warm to him a little. O'Brien has a short fuse whenever they are together which makes me laugh, but I've always liked to think that Julian knew the Chief wasn't too fond of him and changed his ways a bit.
I really like the way that Sisko believes Keiko without any question when she demonstrates her reason for believing her husband is still alive. Maybe it's because our commander was married, and I couldn't picture Picard doing the same thing.
The rescue of Bashir and O'Brien is a bit too convenient, and Sisko and Dax's trick at the end is a bit too obvious but it's nice that the solution taken was a sensible one for once. The final moment with Keiko is just perfect.
Possibly gets the award for the worst alien haircuts ever.
I don't know what they were thinking when they made this one. It manages to be not only ridiculous and stupid, but offensive to basic scientific concepts of evolution. Apparently humans are going to evolve backwards and become primitive lizard lifeforms. I can't think of any reaction other than to stick a giant middle finger up at this piece of garbage. I almost hope that somebody's career as a writer was finished after this (cough Brannon Braga cough).
The early sections with the whole idea of attempting to break the warp 10 barrier are actually somewhat interesting, but it's the way the episode becomes completely derailed after that which ruins things. Robert Duncan McNeill gets to overact gloriously and try to get the Fly-esque makeup effects to be taken seriously.
What's even more dumb, though, is that they do actually succeed in achieving warp 10, meaning they have a viable means of getting home. Sure, it's going to turn them all into lizard freaks but the Doctor could just revert them all back to their original state, as he does at the end of this episode.
Worst episode of the entire Star Trek franchise? ... quite possibly, yes. Watch it to laugh at it, make a drinking game out of it, just don't take it the slightest bit seriously.
[7.2/10] The first season of Westworld was fairly complete. It’s not as though there were no more places for the story to go, or that there was a definitive air of finality, or that the premise of the show alone couldn’t sustain seasons and seasons of more stories. But if “The Bicameral Mind” has been the last we’d seen of the series, I’d probably still thirst for more, but nevertheless be satisfied. There’s a clear overall arc, answers to the major questions, and enough suggestions of the consequences of the actions we’d seen for the season to feel like a full meal and not just an appetizer.
The problem, then, is that in Season 2, Westworld has to re-pilot, at least a little. Sure, there’s bit to mop up from last season’s finale, but “Journey Into Night” has to do more than just pick up the pieces. It has to set most of a whole new trajectory for another batch of episodes.
So we see bits of Dolores doing full on villain monologues, killing any human she comes across, leading the robotic rebellion, and talking with Teddy about something approaching world domination. We see The Man in Black start a new game, one with stakes because it’s real, and one that, as the echoes of Ford tell him, is for him.
We see Bernard and Hale retreat around the same time, escaping from the immediate aftermath of that fateful evening from the last episodes, escaping to a bunker where Bernard repairs himself and Hale let’s him in on her plan to use a host as the back-up for IP. We all see the beginnings of a new storyline, where a new security guy revives a version of Bernard from a couple weeks after the start of events that Ford’s death kicked into gear, and tries to figure out what happened.
And then there’s Maeve, who does the impossible -- she makes Sizemore interesting and entertaining. I found that guy endlessly annoying when he was a generic shitheel writer last season. But watching him try to be a weasel and get squeezed under Maeve’s footheel as she’s the one in charge makes both characters incredibly entertaining.
That’s the biggest theme of this pilot -- role reversal. When it’s time for Sizemore to change, he’s the one forced to be nude around the hosts with no concern for his modesty, not the other way around. When Dolores has some guests standing on tombstone crosses, she taunts them, the same way the guests used to do to her, replete with bitter echoes of lines she was forced to say. After fruitlessly questing for meaning in the maze, The Man in Black is finally reinvigorated at playing for keeps. The balance of power has shifted, and that means possibility.
But it also means dragging a few things out, and resetting the mystery box, and reverting to the general weirdness and cryptic hints that made me start to lose patience with the early part of Season 1.
To wit, at the beginning of the episode, we flash back to a conversation between Dolores and (presumably) Arnold where he talks about a dream where the hosts are all by the ocean and the water’s rising. And at the end of the episode, Bernard finds a mass collection of hosts floating in a sea constructed by Ford. There’s some obvious symbolism about a changing of the guard, but for the most part, it feels like imagery for the sake of imagery rather than anything particularly arresting.
There’s also the same cavalcade of flashbacks and flash forwards, and the same unnerving images of dead bodies scattered beneath the sun. It’s enough to both gesture toward what’s to come and provide the sort of in-your-face visuals that HBO’s prestige genres are known for. There’s nothing wrong with it exactly, but it’s a little tiresome to be thrown back into the puzzle box after Season 1 only truly came into its own when it started to deliver answers and embrace some clearer and more forthright direction as opposed to wallowing in the same old open questions.
But then again, I suspect that’s what many if not most folks like about the show. There’s plenty to speculate about, plenty of clues to pour over, plenty of mysterious flashes to what may be the past or the future to try to unscramble. I don’t mind a good tease, and I especially understand the need for a television show to do a bit of resetting and repositioning at the start of a new season, I’m just hoping that Westworld can do more to build on what it accomplished in Season 1 rather than just reverting to the same formula they unleashed then with a new coat of paint.
“Journey Into Night” seems to be promising that things are genuinely different. The prospect of there being other parks, including ones where characters (or at least fauna) is making its way into Westworld is in the offing. Hale is upfront with Bernard about her plan to smuggle some data out to her benefactors, and conspicuously missing in the scenes set in the “future.” And a different type of security force is around but seemingly being bested by the robotic revolutionaries.
Whether that will amount to a genuine difference remains to be seen. “Journey Into Night” has some cool elements. The Man in Black gets to play a mostly silent badass. Dolores, despite her cheesy intro speech, is different in her cadence and manner, reflecting the changes she’s been through. Maeve is firmly in control and Bernard is at his wits end. There’s promise in all of these things, as the chickens Ford spent much of the first season preparing to call are now coming home to roost.
But color me a little skeptical. Westworld is back to couching its ideas in the same sort of riddles that are fine when you’re kicking things off for the first time and slowly easing a new audience into your world, but become more of a stretch the better and better acquainted the audience becomes with the setting and rules of your story. Who knows where Ford’s newest “game” will take us, or what Maeve’s search for her daughter will bring, or how Dolores’s nascent revolt will turn out. Hopefully they won’t just take us back to places we’ve already been.
A worthy conclusion to the 2-parter, probably more satisfying that the opening episode. Again, Brad Dourif acts circles around everyone else and makes it look effortless (the contrast between his and the terrible Kazon performances is startling). Superb scenes of him grappling with his reality and conflicted feelings add so much depth to the proceedings, and I actually felt some emotion at his passing. There's a lot of fun to be had with the Doctor's scenes and the stuff on the planet manages to have some exciting parts (the cave monster, ooh).
Losing Hogan did actually have an impact since he's made quite a few appearances throughout the show, but it does bug me a bit that the main characters are always safe. That was just the nature of 1990s episodic television, I guess, but on Voyager it stands out as dishonest.
In some way, this episode feels like the entirety of Star Trek: Voyager condensed down: the crew are stranded in a hostile and unknown place, and within moments of arriving they manage to piss off the local inhabitants (seriously, this crew are ridiculous for this). Crew members die along the way as they make mistakes and learn about the environment they've come into. New dangers appear each more terrible than the last, but the crew manage to work and overcome them. New friends are made.. Eventually it's all sorted out and they get back to where they originally started with all of the main characters present and accounted for.
I feel like things were wrapped up a little too quickly in the end. Suder's noble death is given the briefest of mentions as Tuvok gives him a one-sentence goodbye. Seska dies (why? Nobody else died from the same thing) and Chakotay just covers her up and that's that. We're denied a proper resolution between her and the Voyager crew, not a good decision.
Also, the sudden revelation that the baby is not actually Chakotay's doesn't make any sense and is a really badly botched writing job.
I'm hoping that this is an end to the Kazon storyline, even though Maje Cullah and his son live to fight another day. There could have been some really interesting stuff done with Seska, so it's a shame that she was the one to die.
[6.7/10] A lesser light by Community’s standards. This one feels a lot messier than other earlier episode, and hadn’t quite mastered the show’s scene-by-scene virtuosity to make that sort of vibe work yet. Jeff and Britta being the “parents” of the group and trying to steer Annie away from Vaughn and toward Troy is a good premise, and this is the most I’ve liked their dynamic in a while, but something about the storyline gets too sitcomm-y and then the show just collapses into vague, multi-car pile-ups of romance.
I’ve also found Vaughn a little trying and the ending with him singing to Annie a little meh. Abed’s eye-brow raising is a good laugh, and Troy’s whole deal here is pretty funny, but the storyline just collapses under its own weight in the third act. (And Britta’s part of it gets semi-incoherent.)
The B-story, like most storylines focusing on pierce, is fine enough but nothing to write home about. Pierce trying to do riffs and being frustrated when he can’t, only to fall back on physical comedy, feels like real life (or Dan Harmon’s own frustrations with the biggest “name” in his cast) writing the script, but it has its moments, and Troy and Abed’s fascination with kickpuncher is enjoyable.
Overall, definitely a weaker episode, but one with some individual scenes or gags that are winners.
