Thogek

VIP

8

Woowww.

This was definitely not the season for successfully making deals with devils.

So much thickening of plot, so much dangling over cliffs at the end, so much to look forward to next season.

Wondering more and more if we'll find out somewhen along the way who this cryptic Deep Throat is. (Room 105, 11 14 PM, ???)

I do hope we get to see more of Ethan in the future. He's almost like a little mini-Martin, minus the extremes of Martin's haunting suicidal demons, and maybe yet another lifeline for Martin's own future. And watching the two of them together is just good fun.

I hope DEA Agent Palmer shows up again from time to time in the future. She made for an interesting addition to the dynamic, and particularly in her evolving interactions with Riggs. Not that he's ready to be pushed to together with someone, but... I kinda see him evolving closer and closer to some semblance of non-suicidal normalcy largely as a result of eye-opening interactions with various people, including Roger and Trish, Karen Palmer... and this kid next episode...

I think the only part that stuck out enough to bother me was the "training" exercises. What exactly was the value in a bunch of assorted team members throwing whatever moves and weapons they have at the one team-member alien hovering in the air whom none of their weapons could hurt at all no matter what they did or how they used them? Seemed like a complete waste of time (and ammo).

Ignoring that, though, and maybe a little over-simplification of a plot that screams out to be spread out over multiple movies,... lots of fun seeing the whole extended group together like that. And some great lines. Oddly enough, Diggle's deadpan "I'm convinced" was the one that most had me flailing for the pause button so that my wife and I could finish laughing and regain our breath. All this meta-and-alien weirdness won't get to you, Diggle; you're good.

And tossed in the midst, Barry finally having to face the effects of his time-traveling, the reactions to others as they find out what and who Barry's actions changed and erased. That was a long time coming, and what a way to complicate this impromptu team's dynamic.

Liking this overall, but...
Was anyone else bothered a bit when Mari ordered the dogs to "sic 'em" at the police? Funny (and powers-appropriate) as that may have sounded at the time, that order's obvious results are that some police (who're just doing their jobs responding to a criminal-activity call) are going to get hurt and/or (more likely) the dogs are going to get shot. Mari seems like one who'd want to be less careless than that.

IMO, in some ways, this may have been one of Supergirl's better episodes so far. So much going on -- alien parasite, J'onn J'onzz's injury and the angst over the not-quite-a-match blood-transfusion (and what that might do to him later), James's dangerous new venture, Mon-El's budding self-discovery, Alex's exploding self-discovery -- and, for the most part, all nicely woven together.

My one gripe was how quickly and easily Dr. Jones (and, BTW, I can't say that name seriously without imagining a fedora and a whip) was brought from the Antarctic outpost to the National City DEO office without any real mention of clearing him of contaminants. Not even some sort of throwaway line that he'd gone through something to medically clear him. It looked like: scary five-millennia-old disease wiped out his whole research team but him, and we'll just pop him right back into a large densely populated city and examine him there. Uhhh, no. That could have been treated better. And much of what ensued depended on that.

But other than that... wow. I think we'll be seeing much more interestingness from just about everyone in the near future.

BTW, did anyone else get the impression, while Robbie was growing more and more upset and talking about "the other guy", that Robbie Reyes should hang out with Bruce Banner for awhile?

Eli Darkhold, eh?. Whodathunkit?

Lots of interesting madness going on, with a bit of a hanger to eat at us over the few-weeks' break. (Phil? Fitz? Where'd you... C'mon guys; not funny!)

Although I'm getting a little tired of Director Mace's hypocritical "a team that trusts" lines. A team that trusts doesn't subject its innermost members to constant invasive lie-detection examinations, Jeff. (Or... does he already fully realize that?) That needs to get thrown back in his face, hard and soon.

On watching them first ride into hearing range of Hex's would-be hanging -- BTW, where'd they suddenly get horses? -- oddly enough, the first thing I thought was "Of the whole group, Sarah Lance seems to be able to fit in anywhere/anywhen so easily." Was that just me?

I almost look forward to AUSA Matthew Weitz attempting to follow up on his "process" threats. And getting squished.

I gotta say, while Detective Cruz is arguably a bit of an odd character, I'm really getting to like the guy. Hope we get the benefit of his assistance more often.

Fun stuff overall.

Favorite moment, when Barry's talking to Jesse about a lesson, powers, and precision:
"When you enter a new environment, you got to case every inch of it. You never run in blind...."
I was immediately thinking the obvious, appreciating the back-reference to who said those same words to Barry just a couple years ago, and--
"Oh my God. I've become Oliver."
--thank you!

Mack: "Did two fire dudes just drop into a warehouse full of fireworks?"
Coulson: "You had to see that coming."

Niiiice.

Fun Legends twist on a classic sort of plotline. Though I did appreciate the Yamashiro family name-drop at the end. Niiice.

While some of the details and interactions are still fun, the overall mechanics of the show still stretch things beyond reasonableness in too many places. A show that's fundamentally centered around a genius talent for applying physical sciences knowledge to all sorts of crisis situations, some of those applications -- and the plain old plot-holes sprinkled about between those crises -- are asking a bit much of the whole suspension-of-disbelief thing.

I enjoy some of the show's moments, but, while I want to like a modern reconception of MacGuyver, and I'm okay with truly reconceiving some aspects for a new and different take on the telling, it's difficult to like this when its overall writing and execution seem this half-heartedly careless.

I'll probably watch a couple more eps and keep hoping, but...

Ennis Esmer in overdrive (as Rich Dotcom) is always fun to watch. That said, after that fiasco (and the multiple deaths he brought to the FBI), if they don't lock him (and sidekick Dobby-- er, I mean, Boston) up in a hole someplace verrry deep, they're going to be kicking themselves when he breaks out and shows up somewhere yet again.

But, even then, I wouldn't be surprised if the writers dragged him out from that hole at some point at which his unpredictable talents could be uniquely useful...

I have to wonder what they saw, and how much of that we'll see in near-future episodes. Maul is clearly after something specific -- some one specific, apparently now -- and I thought I heard Ezra say "twin suns" which sounds very Tatooine. Iiinteresting...

Good tough start to follow last season's cliffhanger.

I do wish that the Stormtroopers weren't always portrayed as hosing great splays of blasterfire and still utterly unable to hit any actual target (at least come up with some reasons why these professionally trained too-accurate-for-sand-people soldiers still miss every single shot).

But other than all that, good stuff. And wondering if we're gonna see more hints of A New Hope comin'.

Finally, a good use for the captured Chinese destroyer. ;-)

The sequence of birth memories at the end was, as many have pointed out, amazing in so many ways. I'm not sure if this is the intended sequence, did it seem that it started with Riley somehow picking up from her father the memory of her own birth (perhaps via his strong association between that and his playing), and then cascading from her through the rest of the cluster? IAC, beautifully presented. Wow.

Wow. When Tom Keen goes into something, he really does go all in.

A very different sort of episode than any Blacklist has put out so far, but... wow. Redd.

This officer-for-hire JD Richter seems rather promising - if he can get over the crazy-lady first impression...