I'm exhausted. This tension, the politics, the intrigue, even to the last second. So much is happening in this episode. So much concealed under such elegant garments.
In one way I look forward to the finale next week, however I'm not sure how they are going to fit what I was anticipating to be in this episode into the last, unless it is a 3hr episode, but I think it won't be such.
The other way I'm looking forward to the finale, is I no longer will need to invest all my emotion and attention in this concentration of spectacle and the craft of each Actor performing to perfection their role, and appreciating each word, glance, and interaction with their counterparts in such a magnificent, stunning location.
I'll be ready for this finale but until then I'll be soaking in what I've watched today. What a pleasure it is to witness what the Arts can deliver if given a proper opportunity.
Thank you to the Creators, Actors, Crew, and Those That have painstakingly brought this masterpiece to us.
The conundrum has set in... I desperately want to see the last episode now, but I don't want it to be the last show. 10/10
This is a very weird movie, but not by its content. Hard to tell whether it was worth watching.
Visually it's nice, extremely clean and ordered. But 90% of what happens has absolutely no interest. Family picnic. Wife showing the garden to her mother. Some random conversations. Dictation of work letters. Administrative work. It is very boring, soporific even.
The only interest comes from knowing who those people are and the whole context, and the contrast with the banality of their lives, with the clinical simplicity of administrative decisions.
The whole camp is hidden behind a wall. There is just a background noise, far away, muffled, some cries, some gunshots. And the chimneys smoke.
Among what is banal but extremely shocking by the context:
- The mother complaining she could not get her neighbour's curtains.
- The commander getting a new post, but her wife complaining about losing her garden
- The sales pitch of the new generation crematorium
- Being so happy that the plan is named after him that he calls his wife in the middle of the night
- Ashes used as fertilizer in the garden
The only small moments that acknowledge the violence are:
- the wife, upset, threatening the maid that she could have her incinerated just like that
- the commander having a young girl sent to his office
- in the commanders meeting, the word "extermination" is said once, but all the rest is just logistics and quotas
At the end, a cutscene shows people cleaning the camp, and it takes a while to realize they are cleaning the current day Auschwitz museum, I guess showing the continuity of mundane tasks in all circumstances.
So in the end, this is definitely a work of art that succeeds in what it's trying to achieve. However the boringness is what makes it special, and you can't avoid the fact that it is mostly boring. Not to watch when sleepy or tired.
A very interesting portrayal of the banality of evil. The horror is not in what’s shown, but what isn’t. The compartmentalization, the routine. While gunshots and screams echo and smoke billows, they have their idyllic little life, better than they dreamed. Anything that brings too much attention to the other side of their life is an intrusion, an annoyance, like the mother who can’t stand the flames. The droning score and the bright colors underscore this, banging at the door to be let in and acknowledged and shut out by this family. Most striking of these was Rudolf under a blindingly white sky while a soundscape of death paints the picture, and a close up of the flowers of their happy garden while the ashes of the people they’ve murdered rest in the soil.
The revulsion the film inspires with Rudolf sharing how the only thing he could think about at a party was the logistics of how to gas them all, as if it’s a fun thought experiment and anecdote, is impressive. As is Hedwig’s entitlement towards her idea of a perfect life and her lashing out at the Jewish servants when it’s threatened. Or the eldest son playing a cruel trick on his younger brother, licking him in a greenhouse door and imitating a gas chamber.
It’s all so innocuous to them. Just background noise of their life. The repetition is as droning as the score, leaving you desperate to escape this mindset and terrified of the ways that we too suffer from it.
Feels exactly like Stargate formula with similar issues (no surprise, with Jo Mallozzi and Paul Mullie). Not a bad thing as is being a huge Stargate fan. Quite the opposite actually, it feels kinda like "home", familiar so to say, although the cast is completely different and there's no Stargate anywhere whatsoever.
Now, this is not SG by a long shot BUT it shares some of the longest writers/exec producers of SG which is a good thing.
Personally, I couldn't be happier about Jo making a new SciFi show in space. It may or may not work out but so far, and we're just 3 eps in now, I genuinely enjoyed it. It doesn't reinvent the wheel and I see issues (clichés) but is by far not the worst effort of a new show I've seen the past seasons (DIG/American Odysee) and has room for a lot of exploration and I do trust Jo to be at least able to make this a greatly enjoyable show given time. Question is, if he is given the time he needs.
Considering the low acceptance of "SciFi" these days I won't hold my breath no matter the journey in S1 but we'll see.
Visually magnificent, words that come to mind to describe Kogonada are rituality and aesthetic musicality, if it makes sense. A philosopher of tea, after this?
I felt an incomplete connection with the characters. Maybe it was too reflective to allow to create attachment and delve into them properly.
I think I loved Columbus more because of the exchanges of ideas, the dynamic between the characters which led to a mutual growth. Here it felt more one-sided: through Yang's eyes, a blossoming for Jake.
Still, beautiful and poetic
This is definitely classier and more polished than Bayformers, but now this franchise finds itself caught in the same corner as a lot of the Terminator or Men in Black sequels. No longer will these movies appear on anyone’s top 10 worst of the year list, instead they will have been forgotten about by then. It’s very soulless and filled with too much exposition for what is basically just another, generic macguffin hunt. The characters are boring and it doesn’t help that they picked actors that carry little screen presence. The action looks competent albeit very bland, however with that being said: I’ll still take bland over Bay’s pornographic sensibilities anyday. Pick your poison, I suppose. Overall, this is all too calculated and measured for me to get a lot out of it. For example, I really love a lot of the songs they picked, but there’s little to no reason to pick these specific tracks besides being an obvious nostalgia ploy. There’s no vision, and to put it bluntly: the movie feels like something that was conceived and made entirely by AI (just wait for that phrase to become horrendously overused over the next few years). It’s completely indistinguishable from any other big movie like it, I have a hard time telling the difference between this and your average Marvel or DC fare besides the different avatars being used. There’s even an action sequence that doesn’t look too dissimilar from the final battle in Avengers Endgame. These really need an entire creative overhaul, some fresh new talent. Right now this franchise continuously hits a creative dead end with each new installment, and this one’s no different.
4/10
I remember watching this episode in the '90s and being stunned that they actually referenced minor events from previous episodes. At this point I was just used to the Star Trek style of storytelling which was generally very self-contained. But Stargate embraced continuity, and this episode brings back completely unimportant characters from not one but two previous adventures! Just for single, throwaway scenes! Crazy! The fact that the show rewarded you for watching like this was one of the things which made me fall in love with it.
A strong and effective send off for Daniel that does hit the right emotional spots. It's handled with care. Of course, even back in 2002 it was widely reported that Michael Shanks was going to be leaving the show, so there wasn't a surprise factor here. But that didn't diminish how sad it was to watch.
While the episode does remove his character, it has the foresight to not "kill" him off as such, leaving the possibility open for appearances in the future. But even so, this manages to feel final. The farewell between him and Jack is played very nicely, and it was the right choice that Daniel selects him to say goodbye to. Their friendship has been rough along the way (even as recently as a couple of episodes ago with the ending of 'Meridian'), but it's really grown into one of the most solid relationships here. The tears in Michael Shanks eyes feel genuine which is a testament to his acting abilities.
Whether you agree with Daniel's reasons for leaving is another matter. He seems to almost be giving up, despite his protestations that he's not. He claims to feel useless and that he's done all he can; I'm not sure I quite feel the same. The episode attempts to justify his state of mind, but the fact that it's not been built up kind of makes it not ring entirely true for me. He and SG-1 have accomplished a LOT over the past few years.
Other than that, this introduces us to the naquadria element and also Jonas Quinn. I like Jonas and I think this episode helps to establish his morals quite well.
I remember a lot of online discussion back in the day about Carter's goodbye scene with Daniel where she's talking about "why do we always wait to tell people how we really feel?". This was misinterpreted by a lot of people, myself included, as her declaring some romantic feelings towards him. I think it's an easy mistake to make given the words she chooses, but it's definitely not meant that way.
I like it when episodes start off by setting something up, but then go off in a direction you don't expect. This one presents the mystery of a virus that appears to have wiped out a local population, but it leaves that behind quickly to become much more about the bond between Carter and Cassandra and then the realisation off the trap that SG-1 have unknowingly sprung. It manages to get emotional and that feels earned by the end. The episode is fairly tame overall, but it works.
[7.1/10] The pacing and structure for *Homeland*s season finales has been kind of wonky since at least Season 3. “America First” is half-climax and half-denouement, and that leaves it feeling a bit jumbled tonally. It is difficult, at best, to have the culmination of all the fireworks and plotting and threats that have bubbled up over the course of a season sewed together with the quiet aftermath and scenes of people putting the pieces back together. It leaves the finale of one of the show’s best seasons feeling like Frankenstein’s monster.
And yet, taken apart, each half of the episode is solid, if not exactly an achievement. The attempt on President Keane’s life, and Carrie and Quinn saving the day, would have worked better as its own thing, and expends a number of conveniences to get the characters separated and put back together right when the show needs it, but it has its moments.
For one thing, it’s nice to see Carrie taking charge a bit. One of the show’s recurring bits is Carrie as the last sane woman, and seeing her make her way to the President, figure out the plot (with some unexpected help from Dar Adal), and keep the President Elect safe from her would-be assassins is a minor thrill. The threat of the rogue ops team trying to blow up her car and then hunt her down verges on the unbelievable, but makes for a few nice set pieces at least.
And, oh yeah, Quinn is dead. It’s a moment that feels like it should have more impact than it does. It’s nice that he goes out with a heroic sacrifice, saving not only the leader of the free world but the woman he loves amid a torrent of gunfire. The fact that making it through that blockade means they’re suddenly safe, and the entire idea of pegging the assassination on him are a bit farfetched, but there’s the kernel of a good idea there.
Quinn goes down fighting, and when he believes he’s empty and worthless and only good at killing, he dies putting his life on the line for something bigger than himself. The tone of the moment is somewhat weird, as the show doesn’t get too impressionistic or too realistic, but it tries to follow up on the sense that Quinn has been out of sorts and trying to protect Carrie throughout the season, and he makes the ultimate sacrifice in that regard here.
The problem is that Quinn has been near-death so many times in this show, from his pirate king escapade last season, to his miraculous survival of the attempt on his life at the cabin this season, that it’s hard to gin up too much investment in his actual death here. “America First” doesn’t dwell on it, and I appreciate its commitment to not overdoing the moment, but you can only turn a character into a death-defying superman so many times, or fake out his demise so many times, before when you actually pull the trigger (so to speak) it doesn’t mean what it might have.
We then get to “six weeks later,” which conjures up troubling recollections to Brody magically beating his drug addiction through the power of a “three weeks later” mini-montage. Still, the passage of time puts some distance between the climax of the season and the inevitable end-of-the-line reflection, which at least softens the sort of disjointed feeling of it all.
The good guys have won! Brett O’Keefe still has his show, but he’s talking about how he’s let his fans down by letting Keane get inaugurated. Dar Adal and his cronies are in jail! Saul is the head of the CIA, or at least someone big enough to have a seat at the table when the heads of the intelligence community are gathered! Carrie is going to get Frannie back, and she’s getting a job in the White House! All is well! Conspiracy scuttled! Bad guys vanquished! Heroes victorious!
This being Homeland it is, of course, not that simple. I like the poetry of that “what hell hath I wrought?” ending to the season, where Saul is arrested, Carrie is used by the people in power, and things don’t look so sunny on the other side of Keane’s inauguration. There’s something uncomfortable in Dar’s ominous-yet-warm statement to Saul that what he did was unforgivable, but that he’s not sure he was wrong to do it. It feels like the show is trying to tie into Trump-related concerns of the real world that are an uneasy fit for Homeland’s fictional, if occasionally ripped-from-the-headlines one.
Still, I like the law of unintended consequences coming into play here. Dar and O’Keefe’s efforts stemmed from a mistrust of Keane, a sense that she would set back their projects and their way of life. Now, that feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy. There is no doubt that Keane would have enacted reforms, but it is clear that the attempt on her life hardened her, made her into someone that would have heads roll throughout the intelligence agencies, who would reauthorize the patriot act rather than limit it, that would make mistrustful of anything that isn’t under his auspices.
As disquieting as that is to see, it’s entirely understandable. When your own deep state makes an attempt on your life, it’s not crazy to be mistrustful of anyone even remotely affiliated with them. When your enemies, who turn out to be mortal enemies, subvert the rule of law to run you out as a duly elected leader, it’s not a crazy move to subvert it yourself in order to ensure they’re not able to do the same thing again. There’s a troubling subtext from Dar’s comments and Keane’s own worries to Saul that there is something fundamentally unsound about Keane that makes her prone to this, or not up to the mantle of being President, but the show take an interesting tack in showing how Dar and O’Keefe’s plan changed the course of Keane’s presidency, but not in the way they imagined.
It’s not in the way Carrie imagined either. The iconography at the end of the episode, of Carrie looking off into the distance and seeing the capital, is a direct parallel to the famous image of Brody doing the same thing. The implication, at least as I read it, is that just as the first major arc of Homeland centered on the blowback and problems from the war on terror sparked by undeniable tragedy, so too does Carrie look upon a government in Washington that is poised to start the same cycle over again, the same recriminations and power-consolidating executive that helped to create an environment where Brody would be born. Carrie had hoped to avoid all this, to prevent Dar from perpetuating that cycle, and yet despite her best efforts, it’s all back where it began, even if it took a different road to get there.
But Carrie doesn’t just mourn the lost opportunity for reform. She mourns her friend. As Mrs. Bloom noted, Carrie discovering Quinn’s collection of picture hidden in a book is a nice callback to how she uncovered his former family life in the first place. The book itself, Great Expectations, is a symbolic choice, one that tells the story of a young man who idolized a young woman, and who went through hell in pursuing someone who would not, and arguably could not, love him back. The stack of pictures is a little cliché, but still, the moment where Carrie finds the photo of herself amid Quinn’s treasured snapshot memories is still affecting, a sign of intimacy that she was one of the few things in his life that mattered, that made him more than a heartless killing machine.
Season 6 was still one of Homeland’s best, one with an impressively unified story that relied on fewer wild twists or conveniences than most, and which offered better and more potent commentary on today’s political climate despite not quite tracking with the real world in its fictional leaders. “America First” isn’t the softest landing for an otherwise quality stretch of episode, with the divided structure and languid pace giving the entire efforts a less-than-cohesive sensibility, but it ties together a certain fatalism that has been with the show from the beginning.
There are good people, even good people who do bad things. There are well-intentioned people, in government and in the intelligence services, who mean to change things and defend their country. But sometimes the confluence of those intentions leads us inexorably back to the same place, sinking to the level of those we oppose, stamping out our enemies without process or justice, and starting the cycle anew, birthing more Brodys and Quinns to fight and die in the struggle. Carrie is a survivor and a witness, and all her talent, all her effort, all her sacrifice to make things better or different may be for naught. That’s not fun, but its potent, and so is Season 6 of Homeland.
I adore 'The Walking Dead' and I like 'Fear the Walking Dead', but unfortunately I didn't enjoy 'The Walking Dead: World Beyond' much.
Thankfully it's only two seasons and twenty episodes long, so if you love the TWD universe then it's very much worth a sit through once. An appearance from a well known face at one point helps keep the minimal interest flowing.
Annoyingly though, this third iteration of this particular world of dead is hampered hard by poor writing and lacklustre acting. I will say I did like, if not overly enjoy, one or two of those onscreen. Alexa Mansour (Hope) and Nicolas Cantu (Elton) are two of the actors I found to be relatively good throughout, they are not perfect at all (not helped by the writing, of course) but their performances here are promising enough to the point that I'd be interested in seeing them again. Annet Mahendru (Huck) is also one of the more decent parts of this show.
Again, I'm glad it is a short series otherwise I probably would've quit watching at some point. As such, I'm glad I got through it just because I'm very intrigued to see how and where the universe progresses and expands out from 'The Walking Dead' - my favourite television show.
Probably the best episode of season 1. This has a lot of fun with the concept of an alternate universe and feels like it's on a bigger scale than anything that's come before. It's all genuinely exciting. I particularly like that it's all from Daniel's perspective as I don't think it would have worked quite as well with any of the other core characters. Plus, he gets to express a level of frustration and disbelief that helps the episode along.
This episode is nothing special, but it has a couple of important things. One is the introduction of Bra'tac who will become one of the best characters in the series - it's interesting to note how well developed his character feels straight away. Tony Amendola managed to make the character both stern but also incredibly playful.
The other important addition is of course Teal'c family, although that's more down to the bearing they have on his character rather than any future appearances they will have going forward. I also really think that Carter shines in this one, throwing grenades and stealing Goa'ulds. I always liked it when she and Daniel teamed up for mini-missions.
Random thoughts:
Average episode rating this season: 7.13636363… (7.14285714… if 1x01 and 1x02 are not rated separately)
Coming from the vast universe of Star Trek, I found this to be a surprisingly strong first season. While all Trek shows of the '80s and '90s had a well deserved reputation for weak beginnings, I'd bet that basing this series on the established characters of a film helped Stargate SG-1 get a running start. There were still some growing pains and awkward characterizations, but nowhere near as many as I'm used to from the other "Star" television franchise.
Things that did bug me a lot during this season:
To counter some of my own nitpicking, some things that I loved during this season:
A classic stranded-and-hoping-for-rescue episode, with a nice mystery twist. I love the way this plays out, especially the stuff back at the SGC. The Jack/Sam stuff is fine - and I'm sure it triggered a huge amount of shipping among fans - but can begin to drag in parts. The dialogue is so quiet and slow which gets in the way of some good character stuff. It's the search that's that really interesting part, especially Daniel's efforts.
I really enjoyed this season 1. I'd be surprised as well as pissed off if this doesn't get a second season.
Some noticeable continuity issues here and there where they need to focus on. Maximus is a rather annoyingly simple character, I am glad they split Lucy and him at the end up (for now). They do not belong together and I am not invested in their romance, there's just too much other amazing/cool stuff happening where they should focus more on.
Lucy's father escaping the way he did was stupid, though. But keeps the story running, I guess. Her mother appearing like that was unexpected, quite a bleak but nice twist.
A lot of references in pretty much each episode. To fully appreciate this I think you need to be familiar with the Fallout games. Otherwise you will probably not fully understand some of the weird stuff (Vault 4 for example) happening in this world as it does not get explained (well, indirectly perhaps).
Still has its flaws here and there but I'd classify this as a from fans for fans type of series overall. In other words Jackpot.
Sidenote: Schockingly, any random guy in a Power Armor knows how to / is able to show more emotion than a seasoned actor like Pablo Schreiber.
Mitch! I knew they couldn't kill you off. The best character in the series, well except for maybe DeX. It would have been a shame to have him succumb to a flippin Goa'uld.
On the down side, what sort of absolutely useless guard aren't prepared to deal with the alien presences they were explicitly there to protect against? Completely pathetic.
And Major Lorne disappoints as well. Shoot Weir and sort it out later. WTF?!?
Teyla, Ronon, just fucking shoot Weir! And Ronon, we just covered that you probably never spoke with Weir. The aliens know everything the host knows. So why didn't you shoot Sheppard? What the hell is wrong with you people?
And as a senior member of the expedition, McKay, don't you think it would be a good idea to revoke all access that Weir and Shepperd have? I mean, come on guys, this is rudimentary security practice. We aren't even talking about Security 101. This is more along the lines of Security for the insanely stupid and completely incompetent.
And for the record, no fire suppression system would have physical access to any life support system in any time or place. They are mutually exclusive systems for this exact reason. No matter what is used to put out a fire, it is going to be generally to extremely harmful to humans. Even if it is only water, the water sitting in those pipes for long periods of time gets very nasty and not something a human would want to ingest. Yet more writer and director incompetence...
I was all excited to see Jamie Ray Newman in the opening scene. Then I was crushed to find out she was going to be a voice all episode. What a waste of a wonderful guest star.
At least the episode was a good one. David Hewlett does a decent two personality portrayal. The two shot Gollum-portrayal doesn't work well for him, though. Everything else he did was quite good.
I love the scenes with Cadman and Beckett. The hand touching, the facial expressions, the kiss! So perfect!
Poor Zelenka, he really got it good this episode. I keep hoping he will show up McKay big time.
And I am really beginning to like Dex. He rubbed me the wrong way a couple times, but in general I am really digging the character. He seems to be more amiable when he is in a combat situation, which I guess makes sense based on years of being hunted. I do have to wonder why he doesn't know what a radio is or a few other things. It looked like his civilization was decently advanced based on the architecture. It seems a little dumb. But it does add a bit to the character as he accepts things and we move on.
Great fun. Possibly the first episode to go full comedy and really use that side of the franchise to its fullest. It works extremely well as it's been clear all along that tone of the show is suited for exactly this kind of stuff, and that the cast themselves were seemingly well up for it. Even with the comedic tone, this never changes the character's behaviour for laughs, and instead just has them deal with a crazy situation as they would.
Teal'c really does well here, helped by Chris Judge's continually stoic demeanour but also the addition of his wig and clothing. Daniel utters the fantastic line, "I speak 23 languages, pick one" which inspired me years ago to try and dive into learning (with limited results!), plus his fake German scene is great. Meanwhile Carter's scientific side keeps things grounded.
The guest stars are also also strong here, with one notable exception. The young version of Hammond does well (a shame that the actor has notably different coloured eyes to Don S. Davis!), and the two hippies are a joy to hang out with. There's a sense of really wanting to know what happened to them at the end. The low point is the unfortunately poor performance from the actress playing the elderly version of Cassandra, who seems to be behaving as if she's a children's TV presenter.
"Nyet."
Stargate did clipshow episodes, a money-saving measure that was an unfortunate necessity for many American television shows at that time. They are never fun to watch. This franchise did at least try to make the episodes as interesting as it could, though. In fact, the Stargate clipshows could sometimes be some of the more important ones for pushing the overall story forward. 'Politics' definitely falls under that description, making it a necessary watch.
Outside of the clips, the episode is actually fantastic. The introduction of Senator Kinsey gives us a really loathsome villain who is a lot of fun to watch, especially with all the verbal sparring that accompanies him. The SGC become ever more desperate as they attempt to defend the Stargate program to a person who has already made up his mind. It's a one-room episode that works really well, and the introduction of more political elements to the show opens things up for some good future conflicts.
But, I just can't excuse the use of all the clips from previous episodes. They are also taken from a number of the more awkward episodes, making them even less appealing. Well, at least we can be thankful that they didn't use anything from 'Hathor', I guess.
It's fair to say that the pilot episode for the Stargate TV show was nothing special, and doesn't really capture the adventure, sci-fi creativity or comedy that the show would become known for. The script doesn't do the characters much justice and the performances are kind of stilted. Michael Shanks does a spot on impression of James Spader and the only returning actor from the original film is Alexis Cruz as Skaara.
So I'm really glad that this "final cut" version of the pilot was made, because it improves things. The overall pacing is tightened up and a lot of silly dialogue is removed or altered (including some horribly sexist stuff). The unnecessary nudity is excised completely, allowing this to fit with the more family friendly nature of the rest of the show. There are updates to some visual effects and the soundtrack music is changed. And most of the film uses alternate takes and better line readings which result in more natural acting.
It's still difficult to recommend this as the beginning of one of my favourite TV franchises. There's a cheapness to the whole thing - those snake head serpent guards are terrible, especially compared to how cool their movie counterparts looked. The new bad guy isn't intimidating in the least and the tone is a bit too varied.
But the concepts here are great. I love the expansion of the mythology as we learn of a vast network of stargates across the galaxy. Similarly, the introduction of the Goa'uld and Jaffa works well with a nice creepy factor. And the main characters are wonderful even if they're not developed well at this point. Richard Dean Anderson lightens the mood in Kurt Russel's role and Amanda Tapping is the coolest, smartest most kickass astrophysicist/air force captain while also being just plain fun.
The one thing I really miss here is the removal of the little twist at the end with Kawalkski which was pretty much the best thing in the original pilot, and really drew me in to keep watching.
Stargate SG-1 is MUCH better than this pilot movie would have you believe, but I think nostalgia always helps for me. I was into this show from the very start and even collected it on VHS back when it became available. Maybe time to start a full rewatch?
This was a good film, though i was nearly always on mother's side.
Really one of the only ethical problems was the whole her killing the children that were "imperfect" though we don't get any clarification.
What if she was killing children who had inoperable brain defects which would make them murderously violent in later life. And now that the human girl will allow any child to live, that may happen. Even if mother may later tell her that will happen, daughter won't do anything and let it happen or keep the person contained in later life, i guess. I don't know.
But yeah it's most likely she was killing children who weren't perfect in other ways, which of course is wrong and mother should have known it was wrong for logical reasons, but the writer wanted the story or this aspect to be more against mother's side, so it's written this way.
So if you take away mother killing the imperfect children, you don't have much reason to be against mother's plan.
Restarting humanity as a utopia. With the best education and resources. And even if the mines were real, it would be full of flawed humanity and they may all starve to death or destroy each-other. Plus, in the facility, they would have the technology to one day research maybe how to destroy the droids (if mother was actually just an independant care droid).
So i was nearly always on mother's side as the movie progressed. The final twist didn't alter much.
The line of dialogue "I saw them (the droids) torturing babies" doesn't make sense given mother's plan and personality. Especially given it's supposed to be one consciousness, or something.
I kinda liked that mother planned for that woman to arrive at the facility. That cleared up a contrivance that the woman just happened to arrive at the facility at that specific time.
Mother's plan was a bit convoluted. But still, it was alright. I don't fully buy the independance angle at the end, from daughter's or mother's side, but i'll roll with it. I still think humanity would be better guided by mother, and as humanity grew she would take on a more advisory role, or something.
Ok, compared to the other episodes from this season, this one was gold. I really used to enjoy Supergirl and kinda never got tired of it and I wasn't expecting this final season to decline drastically in both writing and general plot and also everything that I always enjoyed about Supergirl. At least it was a satisfactory ending and thankfully it was the end, otherwise the next season would be awful. I was happy for Nia and Brainy and couldn't care less that Mon-El and Kara did not end up together and gladly Winn and James screen time was minimal cuz I can't stand Winn and James is a bore. Cat could deliver an "old days vibes" while in another of her teachable moments with Kara and it was a good moment. J'onn is cool, had a glimpse of his future and all and Alex went crazy with this "mother plot" which was boring just like Kelly (and her brother) ... . If Lena gets a spin-off, I'll be watching, definitely lol love her! So, I guess it was a happy end! Yay! Probably won't miss Supergirl cause they did a terrific job creating the worst season of the show.
Kara have a pretty "meh" ending, they tried to do something fantastic but it ended up being... boring(?)
Alex and Kelly are just corny, thank god they are gone. (Sarah and Ava are the superior lesbian couple of CW)
The last relevant season for John was the 3rd one (with his father plot), since there he is just a functional character and his ending is no different.
They started a great plot with Lena (Magic) but ended just ended like: "It's just It?"
Nia was amazing, my favourite since she got into the show, but they just warp her story so fast in the end.
Brainy was really annoying I don't care for him (since he was just there to try to replace Winn).
Lilian had a beautiful ending at all.
Andrea, Nyxly, Lex, Mitch and Willian. Their story was so bad I can't even talk about it, I just can't.
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Also, they completely forgot and M'gann M'orzz (who disappear in the final of S7a 'n never come back god knows why) and Mxyzptlk (who was kept inside Nyxly ball) in the end.
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They put on almost every character in the last ep. It's good to see Jeremy Jordan's Winn and Calista Flockhart's Cat (James I just don't care). But I miss Kara parents (who are alive 'n well Astro), maybe a Superman&Lois cameo makes sense too but you know, covid.
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The last chapter is not exactly bad, but isn't good either (represents pretty much the series average). Seriously, everything that I can say is I'm happy it's finally over.
That is why you hire an actor of Stiers's calibre. The robotic delivery of his performance was incredible. The short, sharp, precise head movements. His speech patterns. He relishes in his true nature, and his extreme anger towards the Lanteans. All the rest of the Asurans are very human in their mannerisms, with a lot of the natural twitches of biological life.
I do, however, love the "They knew exactly where to hit us" line, immediately followed by a shot showing the hives pummelling the ocean all around the city. Barely any of the shots actually connected after the pinpoint precision of taking out all the shield emitters on the first salvo.
Have to appreciate the inconsistency of the ZPMs though. Not even a year prior, Atlantis's single ZPM with no failsafe was enough to "destroy not just the city, but, uh, most likely the entire planet". This time, it needed all three just to make systems across the city explode in a piddly little explosion in the night sky. Can't have them gain any more ZPMs for Atlantis at this point. In fact they're on the verge of utterly draining the one they already have. Gotta keep that tension up.
What a fun mini-crossover episode. I had completely forgotten it and had no idea where it was all going. On top of the strong mystery (which keeps escalating in a fantastic manner) we also have the welcome return of some previous faces with Cadman, Novak, Agent Barrett and Dr. Kavanagh. This episode really has a little bit of everything and I love the way things just keep getting more difficult. The only part of the story which didn't work for me was Teyla and her old lady friend which brought the narrative to a screeching halt each time. Teyla just isn't a very interesting character.
But then there's the song. The music itself is nice enough and Rachel Luttrell has a great singing voice, but it's presence in the episode is SO out of place to the point where it ventures into full cringe territory. If the Athosians had just done a simple, realistic sounding musical piece to accompany the funeral ritual then fine, but this overblown fully produced modern-sounding song with huge instrumentation and reverb effects on the vocals was such a bizarre choice. Not to mention the ridiculous nature of having it take place during the middle of a massive crisis situation.
Otherwise, one of the best Atlantis episodes.
This episode suffered from so many poor decisions, but yet still managed to cobble together enough to make a decent story.
As others have pointed out, there is no conceivable scenario where the Prometheus would not be shielded against EMP.
Also, it seems unlikely there are no supplies onboard to perform repairs. This isn't a sub where space is at a premium. This is more like an aircraft carrier. It may not have supplies for a good repair, but I can't imagine a ship not having materials for some sort of repair to any system on board, especially since it is designed to go to places where there won't be a rescue vehicle to bring supplies. Once they leave Earth orbit, what they have is what they have. NASA would be shaking their heads at this catastrophe of a ship design.
The isolationist twat was a detriment to his people. He was the stereotypical military fucktard that can't see beyond his own shortcomings and desire to fire on anything that might potentially, even if inconceivably unlikely, be a threat. But no one ever said a sense of reason and insight was a requirement to be a military "leader"...
Thankfully we got a wonderful character portrayed by Robert Foxworth as the Chairman. He portrayed a great character with good balance; a weakish character that finds his strength.
And we get Hohne! Er... Tarek Solamon, played by the delightfully quirky Alex Diakun. That was very much a pleasant surprise.
Carter, I don't think "fail safe" means what you think it means. That phrase doesn't apply in any way in this situation.
So by very little gravity, Carter means about 0.000001g. That is 1 millionth of Earth gravity. That is so little gravity picking your feet up would launch you into space when you try to out your foot back down. There is no walking, even with magnetic boots hoping to attract the iron in the rock. Iron ore in rock just isn't magnetic enough. And that rover, the first bump it hit would send if off into space.
Also, the notion that they can divert the asteroid with a 1 gigaton bomb is poorly thought out. Maybe if it was further out, but not a day before impact. That asteroid would be massive, about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg. Even if all the energy of the blast was converted to kinetic energy of the asteroid, about 4,000,000,000,000,000,000 J, that would give the asteroid a lateral velocity of about 3 m/s. However, a more reasonable estimate is it will be less than 30% efficient (using the rocket nozzle analogy Carter mentions), so that leaves the asteroid with about 1 m/s lateral velocity, or about 3.6 km/hr. Over two full days, they will have diverted the asteroid by 173 km. So instead of hitting northern Greenland... nope still hits northern Greenland. Greenland is 2600 km long...
All around this was a craptastic scene/plan.
Oh, and as an aside, since they took the bomb into a cave, it will be less efficient at diverting the asteroid. Instead, it will be more likely to come apart so it can spread the love with impacts all over the northern hemisphere.
I do have to give some kudos. Even though we hear O'Neill and Teal'c walking when there is no atmosphere, someone was smart enough to have O'Neill put his hand on the escape pod to feel the vibrations of knocking, though I suspect between the metal and the gloves nothing would be felt. Kudos for the idea nonetheless.
Carter really is stupid. Who cares if the asteroid is denser than it should be. What are you going to do about it? It was fairly likely from the trajectory that this was a Goa'uld attack. Interesting that it is full of naquadah and you couldn't detect that before? Even if you weren't looking for it, the extra mass would have been obvious as it would be necessary for the trajectory to be what it is. Kinda how that works dumbass. Also, the fact that they are so close to the Earth they could set the atmosphere on fire with the enhanced explosion goes to show how ridiculously close the asteroid is to Earth and how stupid trying to divert it was.
Absolutely superb, and a fantastic follow up the equally great 'Touchstone' from season 2. This episode takes you on a ride and manages to make you question whether your really knew O'Neill at all. I loved it when Stargate went full intrigue because the characters were set up well enough to take it to all sorts of unexpected places.
And again, this uses the shows history to build a new story from existing parts, which is so cool. We go right back to Tollana from a few episodes back and use their "no technology" stance to take us down a completely different path. Maybourne and his secrets that were laid in 'Touchstone' begin to be revealed and Jack is even able to use the events of '100 Days' as a reason to help him with his plans.
It manages to keep O'Neill's intentions pretty well hidden, even going as far as to potentially hurt his friendship with Daniel in quite a harsh scene. One thing that always stuck out to me was that in his conversation with Carter about "now I'm acting like myself", his performance really brought me back to the original Kurt Russell version from the movie. Nice.
A surprisingly good self interaction episode. There are very few awkward scenes of Hewlett interacting with himself. He and the director did a great job. This is much better than some of the SG1 episodes. The multiple Carters just never felt right. Tapping did an okay job, but I feel the director didn't help her enough to make the scenes feel fluid.
Anyway, back to SGA. The plot was good, though the explanation of what happened is a little poor. It severely lacks an understanding of probability and infinity. However, among the ignorance the writers have repeatedly demonstrated in both SG1 and SGA, this a very forgivable one as both concepts cam be very hard to wrap you mind around. However, I am sure they could have called someone to fix their science/math. Why shows like this don't have experts to consult is beyond me. Well, I guess it isn't, it is because the studio is cheap.
I loved seeing McKay interact with his sister. There was enough complexity in the relationship that it felt real. (No doubt helped by the fact they really are siblings.) It is interesting to see the ego runs in the family. His sister couldn't even imagine that she made the wrong decision by not signing the NDA and working with the military. Didn't even consider that she was so short sighted that her brother had to come talk to her. So close minded that her small family couldn't do without her for a little while in order for her to do something with her theory. And what is up with the husband not encouraging her to do more? What an asshole that guy must be to keep his brilliant wife on kid duty despite the fact that she just came up with a brand new theory that she worked out in detail in and afternoon or two. That sort of work usually takes months or years. But, no, she should stay gome with her daughter and not use her talents at all. There is nothing that says she couldn't work from home part time to consult. Nope, just give it all up...
Even though there are tremendously annoying parts to the episode, it was still very well done.
