There's no denying that this season has seen a downturn in the quality of writing. Characters are not acting like themselves and making choices which don't reflect the journeys they've been on. Ridiculous leaps in logic are made and time compression has suddenly made Westeros feel very small. Spectacle has taken centre stage and it feels like the lack of GRRM's own prose has left the show's writers floundering.
And I've got to be honest, it hasn't bothered me all that much, because it's been so incredibly fun. Say what you will, but season 7 has not been dull for a second. Yes, I've found parts frustrating and rolled my eyes in disbelief at the stupidity on display, but there's something to be said for the pure thrill involved in what's going on screen.
I might prefer things to be slowed down a bit and do miss the insightful dialogue and foreshadowing, but I'm not throwing my toys out of the pram over it as so many seem to be. Even in this state, Game of Thrones remains among the best programmes on television. The finale did make up for some of the seemingly moronic writing choices made in earlier episodes and demonstrated that it can still make me care for these characters and fear losing them.
Not perfect and not up to standard, no, but some of the most enjoyable viewing I've had this year.
The show just keeps stepping it up. This was a joyous adventure full of fun and making full use of the characters. Ethan Peck is bringing so many good things to his portrayal of Spock. Pike's pirate excursion was delightful and I'm becoming genuinely heartbroken for how Chapel's feelings are being thrown around.
The real star here turned out to be Jesse James Keitel who absolutely slayed it, creating a character that I am super eager to see return. Slightly less impressive was the pirate Remy who felt like he was there only for joke purposes. Still fun though, especially as we got to see Pike in armoured apron.
And wow, that ending twist! I didn't even realise how much I wanted that until it happened.
Keep doing what you're doing, Strange New Worlds. This is so much fun. I just wish we were getting more Hemmer.
I thought this one was great fun. The actors here really made the characters work with their comedic timing, and the animation was just beautiful throughout. I have to also give credit to how great the backgrounds and environments were, overflowing with detail (definitely got a The Last of Us vibe at times). The climate change message wasn't exactly subtle, but that doesn't mean it's not needed.
I also love cats, so this worked for me.
One thing I really appreciate about this show is the way that scenes dig in. So many shows will let a scene get interesting and then cut away to something else. Mindhunter lets them continue and the results are mesmerising.
We're at a point here where a number of different plot threads have begun jockeying for attention, all gripping, but the show gives all of them room to breathe.
This was glorious. The stunning stylised 3D art reminded me of the sort of thing seen in Telltale games (and, oddly enough, old LucasArts adventures like Full Throttle), but obviously much more detailed. And so colourful! Visually this just ticked all the right boxes for me. The story itself was exciting and felt pretty unique (farmers with mechs battling giant insect aliens) and allowed for defined characters to come through despite the short run time.
Not quite the "feminist Western" which Netflix seemed to promote it as, but that's fine because it didn't need to be. Godless is a lush and rich Western miniseries which somehow feels fresh while still embodying many tropes of the genre. We have a tired sheriff with an overeager deputy, a band of outlaws seeking revenge and a mysterious stranger on the run. All this happens in and around a town populated almost entirely by (badass) women.
It's to the shows credit that it makes each of these clichés feel unique and interesting. The sheriff is losing his eyesight and is regarded as a coward by the women he's charged with protecting, while simultaneously struggling with feelings of resentment to his own little daughter. The evil outlaw (played superbly by Jeff Daniels) is actually a man capable of incredible compassion and acts of love alongside his brutality. And Whitey, the overeager deputy, turns out to be one of the most enjoyable and unpredictable characters in the whole thing.
But it's the girls of La Belle who do manage to steal a good portion of the show. Maggie is tough as nails and doesn't back down an inch when confronted with male posturing, as well as being engaged in a very natural relationship with Callie. Meanwhile, Alice lives her life exactly on her own terms as she raises her son along with her (awesome) Native American mother-in-law.
Godless is not an action-fest, although when things go down it's extremely satisfying. This is more of a measured story which lets things breathe. The cinematography is absolutely glorious and my jaw dropped at the staging of several scenes. I found it to the show's benefit that we spent so much time just taking things in as my attachment to the characters grew more and more. To give a specific example there's an episode in which a lot of time is spent with horses, and while it doesn't further the plot significantly, it pays off down the line and only allowed me to enjoy the experience all the more.
The cast are uniformly excellent, and it's easy to forget that three of the main characters are Brits. The writing is also of a high quality, and while this is not in the same league as the poetry and magnificence of Deadwood, it's very much going for a different vibe and doing its own thing. This feels more like an epic Western whereas the HBO show had a tighter focus on the comings and goings of the town it was set in.
That's not to say the show is perfect. I'm definitely not the first to notice, but there are a number of plot threads which are introduced but go absolutely nowhere. We meet characters like John Doe who have a mystery set up and then no more is given to us. We don't really get any huge revelations into Bill's past with his wife or situation, and what the Indian and his dog were all about. The (fantastic) German character Martha is only introduced at the very end. And we don't even get a proper explanation as to why Roy betrayed Frank in the first place. It definitely feels to me like there is plenty of room for a continuation, but this appears to be a one-off.
But I absolutely loved Godless. It manages to be incredibly satisfying despite its flaws, is one of the best looking shows you can watch right now and when it kicks off the thrills are absolutely glorious.
Your own enjoyment of this new show might depend on your own love for 1990s Star Trek, and whether or not you find Seth MacFarlane funny. Fortunately for me, I'm a big fan of both and the first episode of The Orville was delightful fun. It's an homage to The Next Generation's style and storytelling, with an added comedy element (which isn't as overpowering as the trailers made it seem). The jokes were all pretty funny, too, but I'd probably have laughed more if the trailer hadn't spoiled all of them beforehand.
I like pretty much all of the characters, and it seems well cast - at this point we don't really know much about anyone beyond the captain, his ex-wife and his helmsman friend (I'm still learning names!), but I can see a lot of potential.
It looks great - if oddly empty - with some lovely special effects and an attention to visual details (views through windows, engine damage) that was never seen in Star Trek, most likely because the technical capabilities and budget wouldn't really have allowed for it back then.
It's even got the fade-to-black advert breaks at dramatic moments! It feels like years since I've seen that. I'm looking forward to seeing where this is going, and I think it's got a lot of heart. Unfortunately, this is a Fox sci-fi show and I'm completely expecting it to be cancelled.
That was surely one of the Star Trekkiest episodes that ever Star Trekked. I could easily picture this being a TNG story. Hard hitting, tough, highly watchable. Pike's hair continues to impress.
I'm very torn over the original Star Trek series. I'm too young for it; I grew up in the 1980s with the original cast films - which I loved and still do - but my real adoration for Trek began with The Next Generation and then especially Deep Space Nine. The original Star Trek is a very different show from any of that, and I have to look at it with a different mindset to try and appreciate it. I don't have any nostalgia colouring my view.
To put it bluntly, it's horribly dated and oftentimes difficult to watch or enjoy. It's campy and looks very cheap. BUT, it's saving grace is how good the actors, writing and characters are. They brought the show to life, and at points made it a complete joy. For the time it was made it did incredible things with progressive storytelling and strong special effects.
I'm never going to love the original series, or even really get it. It's not my Star Trek, but it has its place in history and that can't be denied. I feel it got it chance to shine when it moved into the film format (conversely, TNG and the rest of the franchise worked far better on TV than as films).
An absolutely wonderful beginning. All the spirit of classic Trek, characters that are vibrant, a sense of fun and adventure, and it brings up relevant modern issues like Trek always has. I can't wait to see where we go from here. Anson Mount and Ethan Peck are just brilliant in their roles as we already knew, but the new cast seem to fit immediately too. Celia Rose Gooding in particular captured the vibe of Uhura very well, even though we saw so little of her. And that was a nice little surprise with the Lieutenant at the end.
Woah, this already dark show just became insanely dark. What the hell is up with Brian?
The second episode does bring the action with an extremely impressive space battle, though fortunately not entirely at the expense of character. I was particularly intrigued by the flashbacks to Burnham's Vulcan upbringing and her initial arrival on board the Shenzhou (finally answered my question about the weird "lateral" transporters, too!). I loved the sneaky tactic of beaming a warhead onto a dead body, and the resulting explosion was great.
I wasn't quite expecting the deaths of what seemed to be main characters (although honestly, I wasn't completely expecting Michelle Yeoh to hang around all that long), so seeing T'Kumva meet his end this early was surprising. It didn't really feel like Burnham did much to try and capture him, as was the initial plan - couldn't she have stunned him and then beamed back with him as her prisoner?
Her interactions with the computer in the brig felt like something we've never seen before on Trek, as typically when a character tries to engage the computer in some kind of speculation or discussion it ends up getting confused. But I liked it. I'm a little bit sad, though, that the computer voice isn't provided by Majel Barret, as there were so many rumours going around that she recorded a vocal library before passing away which could be used to synthesise her voice.
The Klingons feel like the weak point to me. The redesign bugs me a little bit, but not enough to ruin things. More problematic is if they insist on speaking Klingon all the time then it really slows scenes down due to how stilted the actor's dialogue becomes. However, I quite like that they've given them much more of a culture and meaning, as opposed to the drunken "honourable" warrior caricatures that '90s Trek reduced them to.
I'm impressed that the show has done enough this early to make Captain Georgiou's death have an impact. I must admit, thought, that I'm quite surprised that we still haven't seen the USS Discovery.
Absolutely excellent, probably the best episode of the season so far. Some real edge-of-your-seat enjoyment with stunning visuals.
I get emotional every time. Deep Space Nine ends with a beautiful farewell that manages to cover a lot of bases. It wraps up the Dominion War and gives - mostly - satisfying farewells for these characters. This show had by far the characters with the most depth and development in the franchise. There is no room for arguing that fact at all. They felt real. They had faults and they had arcs and evolved throughout the show.
So, it's a real shame that this is the final on-screen appearance for all of them bar Worf. If there was any Trek show that deserved a continuation in film format it was this one. The stories developed here were so rich, and even though this episode wraps things up it still leaves enough open questions and paths for exploration (with one MASSIVE cliffhanger in particular).
This episode itself is strong though certainly not without problems. The pacing is mostly good, but every time we cut to Kai Winn and Dukat on their pah-wraith search it really spoils the momentum. I've now learned (thanks to online forums that didn't exist for me back in the day) that a lot of people were not fans of any of this storyline. I can kind of understand why, even though it never bothered me too much. I really like the mythos that was slowly built up around the Bajoran religion, and certainly when I was younger I couldn't see the way elements became shoehorned in. The pah-wraiths amount to little more than hand-waving magic when you really look at them and they had the effect of turning both Winn and Dukat into pantomime villains.
I don't really accept the way that Winn changed her entire religious beliefs so readily, even though she tries to justify it. I also don't quite understand most of Dukat's motivations after he loses his daughter in season 6. If we are supposed to believe that he's just gone a bit insane then it could have been portrayed better. The whole showdown is over and done with far too quickly and it all gets a bit Star Wars (which I adore, but Star Wars is fantasy-based whereas Star Trek is science fiction/technology based). It doesn't fit. And we get a fast wrap up where Sisko and Dukat just fall into the fire which is... silly, to be polite.
The rest of the episode makes up for this, though. The final battle of the Dominion War is a visual feast and a gripping rollercoaster. The space battle is a tremendous accomplishment for 1990s television standards, but the best part is the Kira/Garak/Damar resistance storyline. Those three characters have such rich histories of conflict to mine that putting them together leads to nothing but joy on screen. The death of Damar does feel like a gut punch even though we've spent so much time hating him for his actions over the course of the past few seasons. It's a shame that his murder of Ziyal is never directly addressed by Kira or Garak. The love-to-hate-him character Weyoun gets a satisfying send off, and the war is ended with a moment of compassion and understanding when Odo offers to give himself up to save everyone.
The individual character bookends are also greatly satisfying, and often bittersweet. Odo leaves, O'Brien leaves, Worf leaves. Odo's decision feel natural even though he leaves hurt people in his wake, but Miles' is much more unexpected and actually the more emotional for me. The O'Brien/Bashir bromance was among my favourite parts of this show, so the video collage of their past moments is heartbreaking for me. Worf's departure is a bit stranger, since we will see him again in Star Trek: Nemesis and it doesn't acknowledge his decisions here at all. Additionally, I will be forever disappointed that there are no flashback to Jadzia due to licensing reasons.
In happier endings, Julian and Ezri are finally together and I like it. It was all a bit forced but I'm just happy at the thought of them together. Nog gets promoted to Lieutenant (take that, Harry Kim), Kira is in charge of the station and Quark gets to keep running the bar while Rom has become Grand Nagus!
That leaves the saddest ending of all: the Siskos. In particular, I think Jake gets the short straw. His dad is gone but just within reach. Benjamin has not only left his son behind, but his pregnant wife. It's a bold ending that leaves you wanting to know more, and extremely bittersweet. Ben and Jake were the heart and soul of this show from the very beginning and I think it's appropriate that it finishes on a shot of Jake thinking about his dad while being comforted.
I said in my review of 'Emissary' that DS9 was my favourite TV show of all time. This rewatch has solidified that statement for me. The characters here are mismatched, broken people who grow and evolve into true friends and take us on that journey with them. It has also really struck me how much DS9 continues to stand up to today's modern TV landscape, while the other Trek shows feel very much liked dated products of their time. Here we have a tale of terrorism, religion, war and through all that a thread of hope and idealism.
I absolutely can't leave it here, and I'm going to be delving into the "relaunch" novels that pick up where the show ended and continue the journey. It's not official canon and could easily be overwritten at any time (especially given the announcement of all the new Trek heading our way on TV), but that doesn't take away from these new stories at all, and given the "black sheep" nature of DS9 in the franchise I have a feeling that these stories are probably the best I can hope for. There's also the upcoming documentary What We Left Behind to look forward to, and maybe one day we'll get a nice HD upgrade for the show.
See you again down the road, DS9.
Incredibly compelling stuff that forced me to question a lot. Started off fun with Holden attempting to teach children, and ended with a pretty bad taste in my mouth. A lot of resentment going round here. Also, damn you Patrick and Debbie.
In possibly my favourite entry so far, we get a far more traditional "episodic" story. A situation develops at the start, complications occur and things are happily resolved by the end (although, Harry Mudd may disagree with that assessment). Although, that final shot was a doozy!
Everything felt like it was working better here than it has previously. The Klingons have been the most difficult thing so far as they slow down the episodes so much, but here we get them speaking English and behaving a lot more like the classic Klingons that Star Trek presented us with for so many years. These guys want to fight and hurt other people, and no religious nonsense is going to get in the way.
This gave us a much more detailed look at a couple of characters. Captain Lorca reveals more and more what kind of person he is. He wants to help people, but he also recognises the sacrifices that may need to be made to do that. It's easy to disagree with his perspective when we hear about the results, and the news that he destroyed his own ship and crew is a lot to take. He's also extremely intelligent and perceptive, and he has no qualms about people paying the price for what they've done. Rainn Wilson's portrayal of Harry Mudd isn't too far removed from the Original Series character, but he also managed to put his own spin on it. Maybe it was just due to the quite horrible situation he was trapped in, but this Mudd was more serious while being no less selfish. Still, I don't know if I agree with Lorca leaving him there.
More compelling to me was the different side we see of Saru. It felt like his desire to be an effective captain (going as far as researching the traits of Starfleet legends) began to override his more natural decision making. The debate over the use of the Tardigrade was exactly the Star Trek storytelling we've been waiting for, but at the same time the context here made it kind of one-sided. Placing Saru on the side of using the creature made him seem unsympathetic and cold, and it's only when we realise that he has to make these choices because he believes that saving his captain is the highest goal that we can begin to see why he's doing that.
There was also scientific joy as Stamets uses himself with the jump drive. This is one part of the show that I wasn't quite clicking with, but the more detailed explanations here have made things clearer. As it stands, it seems to me that this method of travel isn't sustainable given the high cost on the user (is Stamets going to be willing to do that again?) and I'm really interested in where it's going to go. I was also pleasantly surprised to hear the first use of the word "fuck" in all of Star Trek. Tilly continues to be a delight.
Very disappointed to see the online homophobes and bigots crawling out of their holes all over the place.
How do I begin to sum up 'The Visitor'? It's not only one of the finest episodes in all of Star Trek, it's one of the best pieces of television ever made. Every time I see it, I end up in tears. But it's not an overly sentimental tearjerker, it's subtle and honest in its storytelling. It's delightfully simple and self-contained, making it something that you can watch even if you've never seen any of DS9 before.
I think what clicks for me always is the performances. Everything that makes Avery Brooks my favourite Star Trek captain is displayed here, not only because of his performance but because of what he allowed Captain Sisko to be. He's a family man and a father before he is a Starfleet officer, and he's never afraid to show his vulnerable and caring side. Duty is important to him, but it's with the simple things in life that his heart really lies.
To complement that, Cirroc Lofton as Jake is probably the best he's ever been so far. The moment where his father first comes back and asks how he's doing, and instead of being able to reply he just starts to cry sums up so much of their close father/son relationship. Jake really needs his dad, even relies on him and there's a really deep love between them, undoubtedly solidified more since he lost his mother. We can see that without his dad, Jake turns completely away from the life he could have and shuts the doors to so many other people and paths. My favourite moment is actually the last time Sisko appears and he just watches old Jake sleeping with such a lovely expression on his face.
Then there's Tony Todd playing the older Jake who also is magnificent. While the old-age makeup effects still look kind of terrible (always a problem, they looked terrible back in the 1990s too), the performances are fortunately able to come through. He also has a great chemistry with the young lady playing Melanie.
Maybe there's a bit too much technobabble at moments, butI love this episode and it will make you want to go and see your dad.
That sure fizzled out at the end. Dramatic and exciting in parts, but I'm not sure that any of it made a bit of sense. Remember when these guys used to solve crimes?
That was pretty great. Visually very strong, I especially liked the space craft designs. I assume the character work was all done with mo-cap which is still something that never feels quite natural, but the performances helped. In particular, Greta's face was an incredible piece of work, extremely lifelike - meanwhile, the other characters suffered from the uncanny valley effect. However, the performance for Suzy was all a bit offputting in an unnatural way.
I enjoyed the story quite a bit, pretty scary stuff once the reveal comes so it's probably for the best that Thom's memory is erased.
Exquisite visuals and decent animation (mostly for the creatures, less so for the people). I had no idea this was based on a Peter F. Hamilton short story. The voice acting let it down for me, the extreme Essex accents didn't seem quite natural to my ears. The beastie fight made up for it, that was pretty exciting to watch. However, the crude dialogue throughout this short really got in the way of things, too - I think one character swore with every single sentence and that lent a juvenile air to everything.
Just because you can include adult content doesn't mean you have to.
Pleasantly surprised by this. Of course, having David Fincher's name attached generally ensure a certain level of quality, but I went into this expecting a traditional dark story about stopping a serial killer along the lines of Se7en or Zodiac. I'm delighted to find that it's something quite different, with a strong focus on the educational side of criminal psychology.
Television is getting closer and closer to film quality in terms of visuals, and this is joining the ranks of Stranger Things and Star Trek: Discovery in terms of cinematography.
Holden is an interesting and appealing characters immediately. He's such an outsider, almost oblivious to how out-of-place he is. He also seems somewhat fearless and more than slightly obsessive about his work, so right now it's hard to figure him out. I just know that I like him.
I'm also sensing a potential for some humourous moments with the pairing up of Ford and Tench, who obviously have very different perspectives on what they're doing. This could almost be compared to a modern retelling of The X-Files, just with horrific murders in place of supernatural events.
That was 45 minutes of pure Star Wars joy. I can't fault a single thing about it. Excellent character work, deep lore exploration and stunning visuals. Glorious.
Well, that was a ride. The episode draws from a huge amount of Trek backstory and crafts something bursting with emotion. I think that the the view of Picard's face lining up with the classic image of Locutus is one of the most arresting shots ever done in Star Trek.
Patrick Stewart is completely on form throughout, and it's hard to pick one singular moment that stood above the rest. From his anger about the Borg while speaking with Agnes, to his PTSD when first arriving on the Cube, to his genuine happiness at seeing Hugh again and all the work he's doing, this consistently feels like the Jean-Luc Picard we all knew. He's shown first hand that disconnected Borg are not the monsters he had assumed. Small bursts of moments from First Contact were used effectively, including an unexpected glimpse dof the Queen. The terror of what he experienced may never fully go away despite the strides we saw him make over the years, and it rings true.
Other random thoughts:
I didn't follow this very well, and yet I feel like I'm super into it.
Yep, I've forgotten this one already.
It's kind of insulting that the show, often derided for its use of the reset button and lack of consequences, makes an episode in which the characters literally forget it ever happens. I also find it ridiculous that Voyager doesn't have any kind of basic security cameras or way of verifying that Kellin was ever on board. I get that there's a virus to destroy all traces of her presence, but it's a massive oversight.
Also, I thought we were told that transporter technology won't work on her species? Whatever. I wasn't paying that much attention - there was paint drying on the wall next to me.
This episode is rightly lauded as one of the best of the entire franchise. It's emotional, powerful and thoughtful and exemplifies exactly what the show is about. But, and I am frustrated with myself for saying this, I don't really love it all that much. This could be a product of having seen it a bit too often, or having it always rammed down my throat as BEST TREK EVAH!1!!
I get it, it IS quite wonderful, but I've always found it to highlight The Next Generation's inherent weakness, and that is that the episodic nature of the show. This is an episode that absolutely demanded to have repercussions for Picard as a character, and there are absolutely none. It should have utterly changed him as a person. The fact that this is such a self-contained episode makes it lose its power somewhat for me. Much in the same way that Worf is completely fine following 'Ethics' or that Riker falls in love but has forgotten all about it after 'The Outcast', TNG tells fantastic stories that you can dip in and out of at any time but so rarely rewards the viewer for watching.
Went in knowing next to nothing about this, and pretty much loved it. Engaging story with good characters, and a flawless performance from Jennifer Lawrence.
A frustratingly slow opening. It sets up a mystery but really takes its time and feels like it has a few too many characters right now. Nobody seems very friendly, either. I hope it gets more interesting and we'll actually be given answers.
This did not go in the direction I was expecting! I'm not a fan of anime or the art style used here, but for this story it worked very well and the two main characters were developed well in the short time allowed.
With a number of strong episodes throughout, the first season of the show is powerful and gripping - and yet, I never found myself all that wrapped up in it. It felt like it meandered a little too often, I'm never quite sure where it's all leading. Elisabeth Moss is astoundingly good in the lead role, but she stands head and shoulders above most of the other cast. Any episodes, or indeed moments, that weren't focused on her cause the show to fumble. Yvonne Strahovski and Alexis Bledel do stand out as particularly strong performances, and I can't help but feel heartbreak whenever Madeline Brewer (Janine) is on screen.
In fact, somewhat ironically, it's the male cast which really let things down. Joseph Fiennes becomes a caricature by the latter half of the season and the character of Nick is an absolute stain on the show's otherwise decent offerings (it was a struggle not to fast forward any scenes he's in). Moira was also difficult, the writing for her struck me as completely unnatural (her only interactions with people seemed to be to insult them and tell them how wrong they are) and it was only in the later episodes that that got turned around.
It's the story and setting here which are the reason I kept coming back each week. It's a brutal show with shocking moments each episode. Part of you scoffs at how far-fetched it is, another part of you becomes fearful of the path our current world is going down.
My only other feelings is that the desaturated look of the show actually makes it feel a bit cheap. There's very little sense of a large world when watching this, but that's okay. We're focused on Offred's world and that's the important story.
