Absolute trash...they figured out a way to make Doctor Who even worse than the horrible Whitaker run. Run far, far away from this unless, like Nero, you wish to watch it burn to the ground.
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@gryphon1911 Angry because they added a trans character huh? :3
I'm getting totally lost here. What is going on with this show? Going nowhere slowly :snail:.
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@davezn What do you mean? It's not complicated, and there's a bunch of stuff happening this week that isn't introspection, so those who've complained that things were moving too slowly should be happy for a change. I thought it was great; love to see the Brotherhood of Evil from earlier in the season combine with Gomez's Madame Rouge and become relevant again. What happened to Cliff was horrifying. Jane/Kay, too.
6.6/10. You’ve seen Hidden Figures before. Maybe you haven’t seen this exact movie -- about how three unduly unheralded African American women helped NASA in the early 1960s -- but if, like me, you dutifully watch many, if not most, of the Oscar-nominated films each year, then within ten minutes, you’ll already know this movie by heart.
It features a gutsy but unorthodox protagonist trying to make a dent in a system that marginalizes and ignores her. It’s a period piece, with enough obvious dialogue, signs, and cameos from well-known historical figures to let you know exactly when the story is taking place with plenty of opportunity for the viewer to say, “My, how far we’ve come.” It has supporting characters facing challenges that mirror the protagonist’s, shining more light on the ways in which the order of the day affected those who were quietly fighting to maintain their place in it, and maybe even change it. And it has the untold story/historical injustice angle that’s supposed to imbue it with an extra bit of triumph and tragedy, all unleashed with a heavy dose of Hollywood mythmaking.
The difference, and the thing that distinguishes Hidden Figures from the likes of The Imitation Game, Dallas Buyers Club, and other recent Oscar nominees that play in the same space is that it uses the power of that formula in support of a woman of color. At a time when the world of film is still lingering in the shadow of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, it’s encouraging that Taraji P. Henson can be cast as the star of a movie that follows the Academy Award film blueprint and succeed at the box office in the process. It’s just a shame that the film’s artistic merit doesn’t match its social merit.
Don’t get me wrong; Hidden Figures is a well-made film. It chugs along at a good clip -- telling the story of one brilliant mathematician’s contributions to NASA at a time when someone of her race and gender had to work twice as hard to make it half as far -- in a tight, if predictable manner. It sprinkles in the subplots about her compatriots nicely, allowing them to work well as breaks from the main narrative that still feed into it. The acting on display is solid-to-good all around. It’s impeccably shot, framed, and edited, with colors that leap off the screen and composition that emphasizes the loneliness, bustle, or intimacy of a given setting. And it can boast a jam-worthy soundtrack that fits the movie’s big moments, but which would be worth listening to apart even outside the theater.
But good lord is it full of every hoary trope from every awards season film you’ve ever seen. The film runs through a litany of standard, predictable beats, telegraphing each one along the way. The good guys overcome the heavily-underlined obstacles in their way. They stand up to thinly-drawn, ineffectual antagonists. They offering cutting, cheesy one-liners after finding their footing.
The film provides an opportunity for Henson to give a Big Damn Speech, and for Kevin Costner to give a Big Damn Speech, and for Janelle Monáe to give a Big Damn Speech (which is, surprisingly, the best written and performed of the three). There is a one-dimensional love interest (Mahershala Ali, whose talents are squandered here) whose only true defining characteristic is that he likes the protagonist. And in the end, there are the expected measured but clear victories, culminating in a big historical event and a “where are they now” text-on-screen closing.
Even the canny little moments of repetition and subversion -- the protagonist being handed a piece of chalk, symbolizing opportunity, by her supervisor the same way she as a child in the classroom; or one of her white colleagues having to hustle across the NASA campus to find her rather than the other way around -- feel like a page torn out of the usual awards-bait playbook. The only times when the film transcends this are when it puts its three leads -- Henson, Monáe, and Octavia Spencer (who manages to make a lot out of a little here) -- together. It’s in these moments that they seem like real human beings finding solace in one another and navigating an environment where the deck is stacked against them, rather than mascots for another rote bout of silver screen “triumph over adversity” heartstring-pulling.
Hidden Figures does the good work of telling the world about the trailblazing achievements of Katherine G. Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, but it does a disservice to these women’s stories to reduce them to the usual prestige pablum, and it doesn’t have to be this way.
It’s laudable that Hollywood is using its hagiographic abilities on women of color who deserve to be widely known, but even the Awards season fare of the recent past shows that it can do better. The superlative Selma looked like a bog-standard Great Man biopic, and instead treated its historical giant of a central figure with a humanizing gaze that made Martin Luther King Jr., his movement, and his struggle feel more real than all the usual tinseltown gloss and lionizing tone could. The Best Picture-winning Twelve Years a Slave suffers from a small bit of the same white savior syndrome that afflicted the execrable The Help, but it was raw and uncompromising, putting the ugliness of the prejudices faced by its protagonist on display in a way that didn’t reduce them to petty hurdles our heroes would inevitably hop over. These vital stories can be told without sacrificing artistry or giving into the cliches of typical Oscar fare.
But maybe that’s the best thing to say about Hidden Figures. Every awards season is going to feature a certain quotient of this type of film. Every year sees a new crop of competently-made, not particularly inspired movies that deal with Important Things, typically from The Long Long Ago. If this is inevitable, if the awards circuit is continually going to honor films that hit these same notes over and over again, then the least we can do is use this generic form in service of people whose stories deserve to be told, and who are all too often, as the movie’s title portends, left on the cutting room floor.
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@andrewbloom
Dude you talk too fucking much.
I hate these movies; not because they're bad or twee or sugar-coated. I hate them because the time of our history they portray was disgusting and the fact that they haven't been told until recently is as equally shocking.
By the way, the kind of discrimination portrayed is still prevalent to varying degrees today.
You're entitled to your opinion, as am I and if this offends you... Good.
You needed to be offended.
We’re haters if we don’t act like this is the best episode, probably. But Supergirls preachy episodes aren’t when it is the most watchable. I am sure more are coming though. Since Melissa Benoist is pregnant.
They’ll probably bring James back too and have another lesson about racism. People watch shows to escape from reality. Not be reminded of it constantly.
Next Supergirl will battle the Coronavirus.loading replies
Boo hoo. Some of us like our TV shows to have some depth and not just be escapism.
People that are comparing this to John Wick need to go back and watch John Wick. This doesn't even come close.
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@csbarker 'People are comparing this to John Wick so I'm gonna vote it a meager 5'
Good riddance! I know I won't miss you.
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@chelentano hated it enough to watch all the way to the final episode? Hmm.
Good riddance! I know I won't miss you.
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[Deleted by Sean]
Random name calling cuz OP didn't like a show. Be better.
So I saw the comments here before I watched the episode, and found it rather amusing how the only commentators complaining that it was too focused on misogyny and too "obvious" etc. were all men. I still decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and watched it with an open mind.
I'm going to give a minor spoiler outside of a tag here since one of the other commenters failed to use a tag and I feel their comment needs to be explained as it had absolutely no context. Dana did not suddenly have a personality change and decide to break the law. The FBI can hold a suspect for a certain time and she chose to keep one in holding, not because he was an ass, because she felt it warranted it. As the episode summary explains "a serial bomber appears to be targeting Wall Street’s elite" and the suspect is one of those elite with a connection to at least one of the victims. It's not a huge leap in logic to realise that it's safer to keep him in custody - and oh what do you know? He was the last victim. But of course, if you see things from a 'femnazi' perspective the female supervisor must be abusing her power rather than trying to protect a male who makes her skin crawl.
Yes the theme of misogyny is strong from the beginning; the first suspect is a complete misogynist and it isn't toned down at all. I wouldn't say it's overdone or too obvious, because in my experience there are actual men like that in the world, especially in business. They do actually speak like that. Then Dana is immediately usurped from her position as profiler (she's a former profiler but always acts as the team's profiler until now) by her bosses who bring in a special profiler for this case; there's absolutely no need for it and yet this type of thing happens to women every day. It could be argued that this was an important case, but there's been plenty of those and they've not pulled in another profile until now.
I do think that this was sloppy writing. If they had built up a reason for Dana to be replaced on this case as profiler rather than just wanting to have a male character to question her actions by profiling her and assuming that she is treating a misogynist a certain way just because she's been treated that way through her career. The male profiler is not badly written; he's a man who considers himself more qualified than his female boss and chaffs at it and attempts to undermine women at any turn. The problem is that Dana is confident enough in her position to put him in his place - I'm sure some people would say she got angry, but let's be honest, so would any male character if their authority was questioned by a guy who literally walked in the door 2 minutes ago.
At the end of the episode, Maggie saves the misogynist's life by moving a bomb and the male profiler apologises to Dana, she doesn't make a fuss. She doesn't laud it over him how he was a complete ass the entire time, how he needs to change his attitude etc. He just offers his hand (something she pulled him up on previously) and she takes it, shakes it and walks away.
The FBI agents, men and women, all acted professionally as usual.
Dana remained on target, profiling the perpetrator and did not focus just on the one person. She used the guy in custody for information but did not have tunnel vision at all. Maggie and OA also have a conversation about how gender politics in the workplace aren't clear cut and I think that sums it up pretty well.
TLDR: A bit of sloppy writing regarding the introduction of the other profiler but basically the previous commenters here just didn't like seeing themselves mirrored on TV.
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@justgeekingby I like your interpretation. I did feel Dana owed a better explanation that "because I can". However her every move was under question & it gets frustrating at a certain point. That's also realistic writing, she's not perfect and will also make the same mistakes her male counterparts do - ruling without elucidating reason, just relying on hirerachical power.
I'm getting totally lost here. What is going on with this show? Going nowhere slowly :snail:.
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@davezn its really not that hard to understand
I don't really like how drastically the writers made tali change. It doesn't feel natural.
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It’s not changed , she’s getting older
