The second half of this season was so much better! I actually grew fond of Phoebe. Not so much her friends and I have definitely not warmed up to Kate whatsoever. The twist with Rhys was predictable but still interesting and I like how it showed just how much Joe was deteriorating. I'm glad the writers made him less likable and showed more of how dark he truly is.
Now when he jumped off that bridge I thought 'what will they do with the rest of the episode?' but they took a turn. A TURN! O my, I'm still processing. The joy of knowing Nadia helped save Marienne but the direct agony of seeing what her heroic actions brought her. The way Joe coldly told her that nobody would believe her and the absolute insanity that is Kate... KATE STAYING WITH HIM!? I mean who is worse here? At least with Love it was clear that she shared a darkness with Joe but Kate with her 'changing the world' bull is not in fact as Joe states 'a good person'. She is just as fake as her friends in my opinion.
I love how the ending is fitting to the theme of the show. It's dark and sinister and should in no way be romanticized. The hallucination was a nice touch too... seeing Beck and Love again. I wished they'd brought back Peach and Candace as well but that must've not been possible in terms of the actors and their schedules... I guess? And I didn't even expect to be THIS happy to see Beck but looking back I think we can all agree she was a real victim of Joe.
Goodbye, You.
"I am a trainer. I literally train swordsmen." — Urokodaki
Something tells me the Japanese word doesn't translate well into English.
This episode is strange because I like it more than the previous two, but it's got some weird flaws holding it back. I'm going to go through them now, but please note that I can criticise something I like; it doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Anyway, let's dive right into my first problem.
The first is Sabito's dialogue.
"A man shouldn't whine. It's unseemly. ...No matter how you suffer, bear it in silence... if you're a man. If you call yourself a man. Slow. Weak. Immature. That's not what you call a man."
Now, I don't mean to sound like an SJW, but these kinds of comments (verbal abuse) can be pretty harmful. Especially since this series' target demographic is 12-18-year-olds, who might have a lot going on physically and mentally, lines like, "A man shouldn't whine." and "bear it in silence." are unhelpful. Please, if you're struggling with something, whether that be physically, mentally or both, seek help: talk to your friends, close ones, your family, or seek professional help. I was hesitant to criticise this element at first, but seeing how it got Tanjiro to complete his task, I see this as a ruthless fantasy that will only harm adolescents in the long run. It makes this plot so straightforward, anyway.
The next is a less extreme, but still one that's more of a personal distaste: burn-out. Overworking yourself can kill you. The director of my favourite Ghibli film, Yoshifumi Kondō, died due to overwork.
"Doctors said that the aneurysm had been brought on by overwork." - Wikipedia
His death made it very clear to me that by pushing your body and mind to the brink, you can "work yourself to death". So don't do what Tanjiro did; you may end up doing more harm than good. I'm not saying you should never push yourself, but if you think you should take a break, or find people worried about you, then maybe you should. Again, it makes the plot so straightforward; just work harder, and you can do anything!
The last is a minor nitpick, but it made the episode somewhat unsatisfying for my taste, and this one is the off-screen development. Missing out on Tanjiro's one year of training with Urokodaki was okay because it doesn't tie into his character development. But when he's training with Sabito and Makomo, I want to see how he improved. Otherwise, we're missing out on seeing his growth. Instead, we only see the aftermath. So it's a little unsatisfying when he trains off-screen and challenges Sabito one day and wins straight away. Ever heard the saying, "it's about the journey, not the destination"?
Despite my complaints, this is still my favourite episode so far. It actually tries to get Tanjiro to do something other than walking to a place but shows him taking the time to improve. Although it falls flat for me, that's not to say I didn't enjoy this episode. I'll say that these episodes are getting better, but I've yet to see one that doesn't have issues like these.
TECHNICAL SCORE: 6/10
ENJOYMENT SCORE: 7/10
Very well done episode. Scary as hell. I see and hear shades of this in real life.
There are ‘preachers’ in my city that scream at women how they should wear long dresses and if they wear anything else - too much colour, makeup, have short hair - the ‘preachers’ scream in a megaphone about how the women should be raped, burn in Hell etc. It’s horrible but cops won’t do anything even when people try to file harassment charges. They don’t even care when these ‘men’ scream at little girls or care about the protests that have gone on.
This show is scary because it’s not that far from reality. Just a few laws and a few powerful people could tip the scales. It’s unnerving.
Also, the forced marriage scene with Nick was disturbing AF. I hope he claims impotence or something and doesn’t touch her though I’m not sure how long he can do that without being found out.
Serena is more of an evil bitch than I thought. And did I just see a few interactions where Aunt Lydia was being oddly human? She saw through Serena and the commander...so why put up with the charade?
I’m so confused with how everyone is justifying things but I guess that’s more realistic.
I really wanted June to go all Kill Bill on everyone. It’d mess her up but she’d free everyone including herself...
Glad to see June is starting to get back to herself though thanks to the baby.
For the sake of the show I hope the creators have an end game. Love it but I can’t take it if this goes on more than a few seasons. Just proves I’d never deal with that situation. I’d probably die or be sent to the colonies.
[8.2/10] What a blast this is. I’m impressed both at how well WandaVision is able to replicate the 1950s sitcom vibe, especially for supernatural-themed comedies like Bewitched mixed with The Dick van Dyke show, while also including a subtle but palpable sense of existential terror beneath the three camera confines of the show.
I really enjoy how this first episode plays on the classic sitcom tropes: a couple not remembering an important date on the calendar, a wacky neighbor, a boss coming over for dinner who needs to be impressed. The show does a nice spin on them, while also feeling true to the sitcoms it’s paying homage to. I’m particularly stunned by the cast, who are able to replicate that acting style, and the editors and other behind the scenes craftsmen, who are able to replicate the rhythm, to such perfection.
What’s neat is that the episode works pretty perfectly separate and apart from its larger MCU connections as a solid old school sitcom pastiche. There’s a lot of nice setup and payoffs of gags, like Wanda repurposing a magazine's “Ways to please your man” article to distract her husband’s boss and his wife, or Vision singing “Yakety Yak” after decrying it earlier. Even the lobster door knocker routine was a fun and comical grace note to an earlier bit. As cornball as it is, there’s something charming about this sort of thing, right down to the “What do we actually do here?” gag about the computer company. And despite the light spoofing at play, this works as a solid meat and potatoes sitcom episode.
But the show goes a step further and has real fun with the fact that its leads are a self-described witch and a magical mechanical man respectively. There’s tons of amusing gags, starting with the intro, about the pair using their powers in trifling 1950s household sorts of ways. At the same time, it does well with the jokes about hiding their true identities. Vision writing off Wanda’s behavior as “European”, Wanda reassuring her neighbor that her husband is human, and Vision taking offense when a coworker tells him he’s a “walking computer” are all entertaining bits that make the most of the weird premise.
And yet, what really elevates this episode is the unnerving hints that there’s something terribly wrong going on here. It’s not hard to guess that after the events of Endgame, there’s still concerns about what happened to vision. The show plays with the melodic rhythms of the sitcom form to suggest something off at the edges here, in a really sharp way.
For instance, there’s an interstitial commercial featuring a Stark toaster, and not only does it feature the only bit of color in the black and white presentation with the beeping light, but the toasting takes just a beat too long for comfort. Likewise, the fact that Wanda and Vision can’t remember their story or how they got married is initially played for laughs, but then it becomes creepy when Mrs. Hart demands answers.
The peak of this comes when Mr. Hart chokes on his broccoli and the artifice freezes for a moment, leaving everyone paralyzed by the departure from how things work in this sort of situation. It’s a great piece of work, of a piece with the likes of Twin Peaks and Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared in its quiet horror.
I’ll refrain from speculating about who’s watching the broadcast we see or who’s in the monitoring room we seem to have an eye on, but the hints at what's really going on, and how that influences the images the audience witnesses, creates a great organic mystery and another layer to the proceedings.
Overall, this is a boffo debut for the series, and I’m excited to watch more!
That was beautifully brutal. TWD at its best: emotional, brutal and intense episode that promises an exciting development.
Ben's death was harsh and his last words were so touching. Now that emotionally deranged Morgan's back he's ready to stand up to the Saviors along with Carol.
The symbolism between Dwayne and Ben as Morgan's sons was amazing. The events that triggered him into rage mode again were the deaths of his two sons. And, although this was Richard's plan all along, Morgan took his own words to stand up against the Saviors. Richard's plan went sideways, Morgan took his place by killing him.
That scene when Morgan went on "clear" mode was astonishing and the acting of Lennie James was amazing. He's such a tremendous actor. I swear, Morgan centric episodes are among the best.
The only thing about Richard's death that made me angry was that no one from the Kingdom decided to step in and stop Morgan, the guy they've just met, from killing Richard, a guy they've known for a while now.
This kind of thought provoking episodes are the ones that I love. Besides, it was full of tension.
"I'm gonna go kill them, one by one", oh boy, crazy as Morgan's back. When he said that I was totally thinking "use your aggressive feelings, boy, let them flow through you!"
That Gavin guy is awesome. The actor's doing an amazing job. One moment he's totally scary and the next he respects the deal and doesn't want anyone to get killed. And King Ezekiel is an awesome character. I'm amazed at the way in which he shows empathy and insight to his people.
Love that Nabila's quote "Here's the beautiful thing your Majesty, you can year it out and cut it down; you can burn it and throw it all away. But if you want, it can all grow back".
I also loved the symbolism between Carol and Morgan with that "go but not go". Carol taking Morgan's place in the Kingdom and he replacing her at the house, a threshold between war and peace.
On balance, one of the best episodes this season.
9.5/10. This was a superb effort from The Walking Dead. I really appreciate them devoting whole episodes to developing characters rather than trying to do it through the various machinations of an often baffling series of storylines alone. This was practically a short story, and it helped us to develop a better understanding of who Morgan is, and he got from the screw-loose madmen we saw in "Clear" to the pacifist monk who appeared last season.
Some parts of the story were a little too convenient. I was reminded of "Broken" from House M.D. where you knew that the writers were going to have to hit certain beats in telling a story of recovery. But that aside, I really liked the character of Eastman, who was given quite a bit to do and was the glue that held this episode together. The actor who played him (an odd mix of J.K. Simmons and Paul Heyman) lent the appropriate zen but playful air to him that made the character work.
And I liked how the show offered a little bit of optimism here. There's a great deal on TWD about people being damaged, scarred, shaken, or changed by the fall of civilization. It is, in many ways, a pessimistic show, about what people become when the metes and bounds of society are removed and our impulses go unchecked. Sometimes the show has depicted people finding solace in this new world, but never has it devoted so much time to showing a person healing. Despite the episode's end, it was a very hopeful episode, something that's in short supply in this series, and I for one, was happy to have it.
It was also a wonderful episode in terms of atmosphere and mood. It was very patient, going over the show's usual runtime to develop the story as long as it needed to. There were slow, lingering shots of edenic meadows, quiet streams where Eastman and Morgan practiced forms, or the characters simply stayed in place and reacted to each other. Very artful and a nice break from some of the more action-y drama from the first few episodes of the season.
I read all of the books in the series before the show premiered. After a couple of episodes, I was done with the show. The thought of repeating all of that horror and misery, only on the screen instead of the page, didn't seem worth it, production values be damned. Some months later, I happened to walk into a room where someone was watching one of the last episodes of the first season. It was a scene where Tywin Lannister sermonises to Jaime while butchering an animal. It was a scene not taken directly from the books, but made whole cloth for the TV show. I was mesmerised, and suddenly, all on board again.
To me, the appeal of Game of Thrones has never been in the way it brings the books alive, but in how it diverges. It's been in the way it's emphasised, through performance, the humanity of its characters (both for ill and good), thus giving me something I never got from Martin's writing. Where some have lamented the direction the show has taken since it started outpacing the source material, I've actually grown fonder of it. The farther away it's gotten from the cutting of those adaptational apron strings, the more I feel like it's grown into its own thing.
So, while I don't doubt that the remaining episodes of this final season will break my heart in lots of ways – and George R.R. Martin will find several more when he gets around to telling the "real" version of the same story – I thoroughly appreciate that Game of Thrones is the kind of the show that knows the importance of showing people coming together, huddling for warmth in the face of impending doom. I could still feel the claw in my gut, of the horror to come, but I'm glad that's not all the show is about.
