Best lines
I’m waiting for an old friend - Bran
You left me for dead - Hound
I also robbed you - Arya
I’ve always had blue eyes! - Tormund
Whatever they want - Dany
but
It had its moments - Sansa
They need wheelchair ramps in Winterfell. They left Bran in the courtyard overnight!
Parallelism between Season 1 Episode 1 and Season 8 Episode 1
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ S08E01 Jon: "Where's Arya?" Sansa: "Lurking somewhere."Foreshadowing (from different Seasons/Episodes.)
01. S03E05“ “Let’s not go back. Let’s stay here a while longer,” Ygritte tells Jon. “I don’t ever want to leave this cave, Jon Snow.” S08E01 “We could stay a thousand years. No one would find us,” Daenerys says to Jon.02. Sam is suggesting rebelling against the Targaryen because they burned his father and brother alive. Similar to when Robert's Rebellion, began when Rhaegar Targaryen, allegedly abducted Robert's betrothed, Lyanna Stark.
What in the actual f*ck.
I'm a reasonable man, I realize I've been crapping on D&D even more than usual this season but I really do have to give them props for doing exactly what they set out to do. They hoped to subvert our expectations and they did just wonderfully in that regards.
We expected all of that buildup over the years to actually amount to something that at the very least passes for a presentable series finale but instead, we got an incoherent, steaming pile of shit. Expectations subverted!
We expected all of that character development to actually result in a beautiful pay-off that respects the journey of self-discovery each and every one of our beloved characters went through to get to where they are now but instead, we got a painful, disrespectful cycle of character regression. Expectations subverted!
We expected the final season of this show to keep us at the edge of our seats with thrilling writing that didn't subvert our expectations for the sake of subverting our expectations via low-quality shock value-seeking writing, but to introduce plot twists that make sense within the overall narrative of the story but instead, we got CW-level predictable, cringe material. Expectations subverted!
I get it. I really do. GRRM let them down by not getting the books ready in time and so they had to improvise away from his influence, but this? This? For a long while, Game of Thrones lived up to the slogan of its parent network, it wasn't just TV, it was something different, something unique and now to have to see it come to this... it's nothing short of disappointing.
On the bright side though, at least this episode didn't suck completely. The acting, score and cinematography were all on point, so I guess it's nice that I didn't walk out of it having appreciated absolutely nothing about it.
So why do I even bother anymore? I honestly could not tell you, though it's probably a mixture of masochism and a faint sliver of hope that they won't flush our collective investment into this series down the drain by the end of it, just one more episode dammit.
What a phenomenal show! Being a Marvel production, I fully expected something of quality, but my expectations were blown entirely out of the water. Daredevil has easily taken its place among my favorite shows currently on air and far surpasses the current lineup of comic book-based television properties (including Marvel's own Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.).
The cast is great. Charlie Cox brings emotional weight to Matt Murdock and an intimidating presence to his vigilante alter ego. Supporting players Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, and Rosario Dawson, all make their respective roles feel critical, never distracting or annoying. But it's Vincent D'Onofrio that really steals the spotlight as Wilson Fisk, bringing to life a villain who is not only vicious and truly terrifying, but also heartbreakingly pitiful.
Daredevil's writing separates it from the current crop of superhero television. The progression of the plot is well organized and dialog rarely (if ever) crosses that line into comic book corniness. You really get the sense that the show runners had a clear vision for where they wanted this freshman season to go, while still laying groundwork for future seasons. Never does it feel like you're just being strung along for bigger and better things to come next season. And the show doesn't constantly try to remind you of the broader Marvel Cinematic Universe, as any references to it are (usually) subtle.
But perhaps Daredevil's greatest strength is its cinematography. Fight sequences are expertly choreographed and coherent (not to mention brutally gritty), even rivaling those of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The production value is top notch, probably thanks to the refreshingly limited reliance on CGI. But what impressed me the most was the brave willingness to let the camera linger or even meander occasionally. Ending episode 2 with a minutes-long single take fight sequence had me speechless, and is a testament to the level of quality brought to the show.
Daredevil is a strong addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I think Marvel's partnership with Netflix could prove to be one of their best decisions regarding their television properties and I look forward to future shows like A.K.A. Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.
I don't really know how to put in words my love for this show. This was a very satisfying finale and the description could not be more perfect.
We got the answers we needed but its up to us whether we want to believe them. I believe Nora but it doesn't matter. This has always been a love story between two very broken people. Kevin realizing he has been just running from his life and just keeps coming back (see the end of every season). He becomes obsessed about finding Nora and him coming up short for all those years is truly heartbreaking. Nora finding her children and realizing that she is not needed. Spending all that time to just look at them from a distance and see them one last time. They fixed their problems the best the could. In the end, when they finally get back together, they are honest with each other and can be happy together, no more bullet proof vests and bags over the head. The last shot was beautiful with the two of them in a house and the messages of love coming back home. This was a surprisingly happy ending to an overall very depressing show and I'm ok with that.
This is one of, if not, the greatest TV shows ever.
[8.2/10] What a blast this is. I’m impressed both at how well WandaVision is able to replicate the 1950s sitcom vibe, especially for supernatural-themed comedies like Bewitched mixed with The Dick van Dyke show, while also including a subtle but palpable sense of existential terror beneath the three camera confines of the show.
I really enjoy how this first episode plays on the classic sitcom tropes: a couple not remembering an important date on the calendar, a wacky neighbor, a boss coming over for dinner who needs to be impressed. The show does a nice spin on them, while also feeling true to the sitcoms it’s paying homage to. I’m particularly stunned by the cast, who are able to replicate that acting style, and the editors and other behind the scenes craftsmen, who are able to replicate the rhythm, to such perfection.
What’s neat is that the episode works pretty perfectly separate and apart from its larger MCU connections as a solid old school sitcom pastiche. There’s a lot of nice setup and payoffs of gags, like Wanda repurposing a magazine's “Ways to please your man” article to distract her husband’s boss and his wife, or Vision singing “Yakety Yak” after decrying it earlier. Even the lobster door knocker routine was a fun and comical grace note to an earlier bit. As cornball as it is, there’s something charming about this sort of thing, right down to the “What do we actually do here?” gag about the computer company. And despite the light spoofing at play, this works as a solid meat and potatoes sitcom episode.
But the show goes a step further and has real fun with the fact that its leads are a self-described witch and a magical mechanical man respectively. There’s tons of amusing gags, starting with the intro, about the pair using their powers in trifling 1950s household sorts of ways. At the same time, it does well with the jokes about hiding their true identities. Vision writing off Wanda’s behavior as “European”, Wanda reassuring her neighbor that her husband is human, and Vision taking offense when a coworker tells him he’s a “walking computer” are all entertaining bits that make the most of the weird premise.
And yet, what really elevates this episode is the unnerving hints that there’s something terribly wrong going on here. It’s not hard to guess that after the events of Endgame, there’s still concerns about what happened to vision. The show plays with the melodic rhythms of the sitcom form to suggest something off at the edges here, in a really sharp way.
For instance, there’s an interstitial commercial featuring a Stark toaster, and not only does it feature the only bit of color in the black and white presentation with the beeping light, but the toasting takes just a beat too long for comfort. Likewise, the fact that Wanda and Vision can’t remember their story or how they got married is initially played for laughs, but then it becomes creepy when Mrs. Hart demands answers.
The peak of this comes when Mr. Hart chokes on his broccoli and the artifice freezes for a moment, leaving everyone paralyzed by the departure from how things work in this sort of situation. It’s a great piece of work, of a piece with the likes of Twin Peaks and Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared in its quiet horror.
I’ll refrain from speculating about who’s watching the broadcast we see or who’s in the monitoring room we seem to have an eye on, but the hints at what's really going on, and how that influences the images the audience witnesses, creates a great organic mystery and another layer to the proceedings.
Overall, this is a boffo debut for the series, and I’m excited to watch more!
[7.7/10] Another really entertaining episode. This is more explicitly doing Bewitched and 1960s sitcoms, and there’s a lot of sheer entertainment to be had from a riff on tropes of odd couples trying to fit into their idyllic neighborhoods.
I also appreciate the recognition of classic sitcom tropes and how they’d evolved in the subsequent decades. That goes beyond just the different decor in Wanda and Vision’s home. We see them walk outside and go seemingly on location, beyond the confines of a single set. We also see many more people of color populating their white picket fence town. It’s small details, but they add up to show change.
The notion of Wanda trying to impress Dottie, the queen bee of the neighborhood (Emma Caufield, aka Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Vision to get in good with the neighborhood watch, so as to further their joint initiative to fit in works as a great premise for the episode. There’s a lot of humor to be wrung from off-beat Wanda trying to fit in with the Stepford-esque ladies under Dottie’s purview, and awkward square Vision accidentally fitting in with the guys of the watch.
What’s more, the set piece of the two of them trying to pull off a magic act at the local talent show, where Vision is functionally drunk due to some literal gum in the works, and Wanda has to work to make people think it isn’t magic, is fantastic. There’s a great, frantic energy to the whole routine, and both Olsen and Bettany play it to the hilt.
This was also a great episode for stray lines. The running gag of people chanting “For The Children” in unison brought a lot of yuks. The poor mustached man from the prior episode going “That was my grandmother’s piano” when Wanda turns it into a wooden standee was a solid laugh. And one of the housewives in the audience asking “Is that how mirror’s work?” when Wanda uses them to try to explain Vision’s phasing hat trick had me rolling in the aisles.
But it’s not all laughs. There’s more horror at the edge of the frame that’s done quite well. The presence of an airplane that’s visibly Iron Man’s colors seems to shock Wanda as revealing that something’s wrong here. When Wanda assures Dottie that she doesn’t mean any harm, Dottie says “I don’t believe you,” in genuinely frightened tones, while a strange voice cuts through the radio, causing her to break a glass and bleed fluid that likewise breaks through the black and white color scheme. It’s another superbly done unnerving moment.
There’s also some interesting lines that have double meanings that are quickly glossed over, like their new friend saying “I don’t know why I’m here,” seemingly referring to the garden party, but also suggesting she’s been wrapped into this fantasy world somehow and doesn’t know why. There’s a lot of little bits of dialogue that work like that in this one, and it’s fascinating.
We also see and hear some loud thumping, played for laughs in the “move the beds together” scene (another wink toward classic TV changes), but also witness it used for legitimate scares. There’s some frightening imagery when the man emerges from the sewers in a beekeeper outfit and more “Who’s doing this to you, Wanda?” calls are heard, especially when Wanda uses the power to rewind the tape. The advent of a pregnancy is an interesting development, and the arrival of color with their kiss is some great effects worth.
I’m nursing a theory that this is all part of Wanda coping with the loss of Vision, feeling sick or afflicted and unwittingly creating this fantasy world out of some kind of grief, wrapping more and more people into it. Whatever the answer, color me appropriately intrigued by the mystery, charmed by the pastiche, and appropriately disturbed at the hints of something deeply wrong with all of this.
"Call her Nichole."
And just like that, my pathetic bitch ass is back on the June/Serena train. No regrets.
I could write a 1,000-word review of this episode and I still don't think I would cover everything. So, I'll try to list some of the things that absolutely blew my mind:
Aunt Lydia getting wrecked by Emily. Of course it's what she deserved, but it was brutal as fuck. Alexis Bledel's acting was everything. That initial rush of adrenaline followed by absolute terror and panic. So good.
How many more times is Serena going to allow Gilead to crush her before she finally rebels? I think she's near her breaking point. Give me the June/Serena team-up I deserve in season 3, you cowards. The way she gave up the child she'd wanted for so long so Nichole could have a better life was beautiful. Yvonne Strahovski, man.
Emily's getting out! Lawrence, you are officially my favorite man on the show (not that there's a lot of options there). I want to see her find her wife and son. I'm going to cry so much when that happens, I already know it.
So Marthas seem to have some kind of a secret operation going on, huh? That's gonna be interesting to explore.
I knew June would stay in Gilead. She needs to get Hannah out too, she can't just leave her behind. The last 10 minutes of the episode made me very emotional. Some good writing and even better acting in there.
What an excellent season finale. I have to say, I was afraid there would be a decline in quality in season 2 seeing as they were going beyond the events of the book, but that was certainly not the case. I liked this season more than the first one. Now, please give Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski and Alexis Bledel (The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit of acting on this show) Emmys and I'll be happy. I absolutely cannot wait for season 3.
Ahhhhhh i’m so happy they are not shying away from the tough conversations on what it means to be Captain America in this decade. I love symbolism in storytelling and there’s no stronger symbol than that shield, and the way they have used it as a vehicle and representative of the different American identities (good and (really) bad) has been incredible.
Steve Rogers, John Walker, Sam Wilson and Isaiah Bradley all represent sides of the US that co-exist, and John Walker being the effective Captain America for most of this show isn’t accidental - he’s the side of America that’s most present and salient right now (in the world off the screen), but ending the show with Sam Wilson carrying that shield - and going through all the issues that that might bring up - is as powerful a message as any - one of hope and of what the US should aspire to be. Steve Rogers is no longer enough, Steve Rogers is the American Dream - Isaiah Bradley the American Reality - and Sam Wilson is both. This show, and all of Captain America’s storyline, is about so much more than just men in spandex and they’ve done a fantastic job taking it even further here. Glad Marvel is still delivering after so many years, makes me proud to be a fan!
Thoughts based on the first episode.
I like zombie movies, especially the old ones. And what the more recent films of the genre don't pay attention to is the fact that zombies are dumb, they are slow. "Night of the living dead" [minor spoiler ahead] ends with humanity prevailing (in a way), and it's not surprising, decaying slow-moving corpses are a threat that can be dealt with. [end of spoiler] But I guess it doesn't make for a good movie or a long-running series. And film makers would rather have a grittier, tougher, depressing ending, that would make it clear that humanity is doomed and they are willing to toss all logic aside. But I've never felt it, because it doesn't make any sense. It's like a cliche now, and I'm sick of it. [minor spoilers for 28 days/weeks later ahead] 28 days later had an amazing ending. But the sequel had to go and ruin it: "Yeah! Zombies are everywhere, humanity is doomed, look at it! Are you depressed yet, are you?! Isn't this cool and exciting?" No! Quit it. [end of spoilers]
My point is, Fear the Walking Dead shows the start of the epidemic from a social standpoint and it does it well. It seems realistic. I watch it and I think "yeah, that is probably how it would have happened". Not fast with lots of screaming and people running around, but with lots of confused people not knowing what's going on. The government doesn't know how to deal with this problem, no one does.
This show finally dares to answer the question: if zombies are slow and dumb - how are they in power? Even when people see a walker, they don't fully comprehend it, they can't believe their eyes. They have never seen a zombie-movie, there's no such thing as a walker yet. No one knows the true gravity of the situation, they don't know what awaits them, they don't know there is going to be an apocalypse.
And that's why it's interesting for me to watch.
I also continue hoping for a zombie movie sequel taking place after the apocalypse, where survivors would have to deal with the guilt of things they've done, trying to rebuild society, scientists trying to figure out what caused the epidemic (with possible flashback). But I don't think it'll happen, because the majority apparently thinks it's boring. And it's a shame. Oh, well.
I read all of the books in the series before the show premiered. After a couple of episodes, I was done with the show. The thought of repeating all of that horror and misery, only on the screen instead of the page, didn't seem worth it, production values be damned. Some months later, I happened to walk into a room where someone was watching one of the last episodes of the first season. It was a scene where Tywin Lannister sermonises to Jaime while butchering an animal. It was a scene not taken directly from the books, but made whole cloth for the TV show. I was mesmerised, and suddenly, all on board again.
To me, the appeal of Game of Thrones has never been in the way it brings the books alive, but in how it diverges. It's been in the way it's emphasised, through performance, the humanity of its characters (both for ill and good), thus giving me something I never got from Martin's writing. Where some have lamented the direction the show has taken since it started outpacing the source material, I've actually grown fonder of it. The farther away it's gotten from the cutting of those adaptational apron strings, the more I feel like it's grown into its own thing.
So, while I don't doubt that the remaining episodes of this final season will break my heart in lots of ways – and George R.R. Martin will find several more when he gets around to telling the "real" version of the same story – I thoroughly appreciate that Game of Thrones is the kind of the show that knows the importance of showing people coming together, huddling for warmth in the face of impending doom. I could still feel the claw in my gut, of the horror to come, but I'm glad that's not all the show is about.
I can see why Marvel wanted to start with this show rather then WandaVision. I liked Wandavision, but this show felt more like the movies and had more of a direct relationship with them. It dealt more with "the blip" and seems like a more natural beginning of phase 4. Episodes of this length and substance are also more rewarding to watch week to week then the short run time of the wandavision episodes, especially given you had no clue what was going on until a few weeks in.
The opening action sequence was great, they made a good choice starting this story with Falcon and moving to Buckie mid way in. It was great learning a little more about Falcon being that they've really shed very little light on his story at all in the movies other than his loyalty to Steve. We know more about Bucky, so the focus here was correct. I like that these shows add more substance to the characters then the movies can fit in, it was sad watching Bucky come to terms with the damage he caused, but something his character needed since he was really only used for action scenes since the winter soldier all those years ago.
Very solid start for this show, I can't wait to see more but also felt satisfied with what I got which is something I struggled to feel with the short and mostly irrelevant WandaVision episodes.
And then the ending comes where everyone let out a collective "oh hell nah."
[7.8/10] “Previously On” is the sort of episode that answers the questions fans have been asking from the beginning. Who caused the hex? (Wanda) What made her do it? (Cumulative trauma) Who’s controlling it? (Sort of Wanda, sort of not.) What’s the deal with Pietro? (Total fake). What about Vision? (Wanda recreated him.) What’s Agnes’s angle here? (A witch trying to attain more power a probably drain Wanda the same way she drained the rest of her coven.)
For a lesser show, these could be mechanical answers to mechanical questions. Instead, this episode answers those technical points while also getting at the why of all this. It confirms, once and for all, that WandaVision is a story about the slow accumulation of trauma, and the ways the shiny sitcom worlds on the television screens are an escape from it.
Agnes (or Agatha, depending on your preference), plays Ghost of Xmas Past with Wanda, forcing Wanda to guide her through major events of her history in an effort to uncover how she became this powerful. Rather than centering on incantations or magical artifacts (give or take an Infinity Stone), it hinges on the moments of both comfort and loss in Wanda’s life.
It’s a strong conceit, giving Elizabeth Olsen plenty of notes to play across the years and showing how Wanda has lost so much of the year. We start with a scene of serene domestic bliss, or what passes for it in a war-torn Eastern Bloc country, with Wanda and Pietro as children with their parents. Suddenly a bomb disrupts the peace of “TV night”, destroying the young kids’ lives amid a moment of happiness and depicting events described in Age of Ultron. \
That sets a pattern for these things, where each moment involves how Wanda copes with such losses. We see her becoming a freedom fighter (or terrorist, depending on your vantage point), out of an attempt to avenge her parents in a way. It leads her to connect with the mind stone (something that, alongside a shadowy figure, will no doubt be explored in more depth later). The experience heightened her powers, but was also a source of further trauma, of being experimented on and treated as disposable.
(Just my crazy theory: [spoiler]I predict that the shadowy figure Wanda saw in the Mind Stone will be Wanda herself, from the future, creating a stable time loop and deciding to set these events into motion, even knowing the hardships of where they lead, because it’s a way to let love persevere.[/spoilers].)
But then we get the best scene in the whole episode, where we jump to Wanda still grieving her brother’s loss, another unfathomable trauma, only to get some unexpected comfort from Vision. The writing and acting here is magnificent. The imagery of Wanda talking about grief as a series of waves, continually hitting her every time she tries to stand, is haunting and effective. But Vision’s retort, of not knowing what loss is given his origins, but appreciating the notion that it is love persevering, is just as beautiful a counterpoint. You can see the way the two of them are connected not just through the mind stone, but through their unique experiences of grappling with the human condition from opposite sides, of learning how to move forward together. The chemistry, easy rapport, and connection between them in those moments is off the charts.
It’s a minor miracle. Having lost everyone close to her, Wanda forges a connection with someone else, someone who helps fill that space. Only then, he’s taken from her too. The final flashback we see is Wanda barging into Sword and seeing Vision being torn apart. We see the man she expected to be waiting for her when she was un-blipped lying in pieces before her. She reaches down and can no longer feel her, the last thread of that connection severed.
It’s enough to send anyone sprialing. We witness the mechanics of what happens next -- a grief-stricken Wanda coming to Westview, uncovering what was meant to be the place where the rest of their lives together began, the ghost of a new chapter of domestic bliss that she was once again robbed of by chaotic forces.
So she snaps. She explodes in her grief, for her parents, for her brother, and for her love, each ripped away from her in the times she most needed comfort, most thought she could be safe and happy like those people on the television screens.
That’s the most piercing thread of “Previously On.” At each stage, Wanda watches these sitcoms as a form of relief, of escape, to have a glimpse of the life denied her by circumstance and tragedy. She’s watching The Dick Van Dyke Show and seeing a happy couple when her parents are killed. She’s watching The Brady Bunch and a couple of friendly but needling siblings when she and her brother are treated like lab rats. She sees the comical violence of Malcolm in the Middle where the father figure can endure large scale mishaps but come out unscathed because “it’s not that kind of show.”
The import is clear. The allure of these stories, this pristine or even hardscrabble sitcom worlds, is that even when the edges are rougher, tragedies rarely happen. Happy families get to persist, to flourish. They get to happen at all. It’s a world where the worst losses of the world are kept outside of the frame, made digestible and easily resolved, one half hour at a time. It is, a world where she can have the life that she dreamed of as a little girl, the life she and Vision imagined for themselves, back.
Who wouldn’t want to bury themselves in that world at a time when the universe has taken pound of flesh after pound of flesh from your body? Look, we’re talking about a famed Scarlet Witch using her “chaos magic” to rewrite reality for a small town in New Jersey. None of this is down-to-earth exactly. And yet there’s something that feels so relatable, even natural, to Wanda choosing (or instinctively reacting) to conjure the sort of place that’s bereft of the traumas she’s suffered again and again and again.
We know the ruddy details now: that Agnes wants power, that Hayward wants a Vision of his own, that Wanda is firmly the source of the Hex. But more importantly, we understand why it came to this. “Previously On” gives us all those stark moments of love and joy and happiness that Wanda was robbed of, and the comforting glow of a place where no such heart-wrenching thefts can occur. Whatever season-ending fireworks happen next week, no one can blame poor Wanda for retreating into her static-filled dream world, when so much of her life has been this crystal clear nightmare.
Finally something actually happened after they dragged the season for absolutely nothing.
After four mediocre episodes in a row with three of them being filler, this episode is decent enough. Those previous episodes serve no actual purpose other than waiting for the plot to trigger itself by that call.
The dialogues in this episode could be better and so could the way the scenes are cut, especially for the first half. People seem too eager to join The Mando in his quest for the sake of moving the story. However the last 5-10 the minutes is quite watchable with enough tense. The brute killing in the last scene seems to suggest they're going with the "evil Empire" cliche, but I wish they could do better than that next episode.
It seems like the story just started to be set in motion and we will be left with more questions as Season 1 ends, which unfortunately seems to be Disney+ business model: just make cute Baby Yoda stuff for moms and Star Wars reference for dads, figure things out later in Season 2.
On positive notes, it's nice that they attempt to do more world-building like shocktroopers having signature tattoo, each Imperial province having their own insignia, and the Imperial warlord trying to convince people that the world is better with colonialism.
I'm writing this based only on the pilot, but OMG! There are Nazis and the Imperial Japanese, and they occupy America. This actually gives us a perspective on ourselves. In the show, the Nazis torture people, and the Japs invade someone's home, calling it a matter of "national security". In our reality, the CIA tortures people, and the NSA invades our homes, calling it a matter of "national security".
It's not simply a matter of an alternate reality. There is an object from our reality in theirs. That moves the show from pure fiction to science fiction. Our reality affects theirs. Does theirs affect ours?
Set in past, but not our past, the show requires a lot of careful details in the shots. The San Francisco skyline is an old one, and yet there are modifications for the increased Japanese influence.
The show is dense, and I found myself rewinding multiple times. One example is the origami unicorn. This was very significant in the movie Blade Runner (director's cut), and I'm guessing it is here too. Blade Runner is a movie that is like great literature, and I've always wanted a TV show that is like great literature, so maybe the Man in the High Castle is it!
Thank you Philip K. Dick!
Vikings turning into a WTHITH series wasn't what I expected when I first started watching it back when season 1 just came out. What does WTHITH stand for you wonder? Why The Hell Is This Happening
Why the hell is Lageartha dying in such a weird, uninteresting way that just leaves me thinking "wait, what, why"
Why the hell is there a plot involving Ivar's dead wife that is now ressurected and SOMEHOW ended up in Ukraine and SOMEHOW she met prince Oleg and told him all about Ivar and if it's not actually Freydis then it makes no sense and is unbelievably stupid
Why the hell does the Flatnose guy that Edge plays suddenly does a complete 180 and saves Bjorn when his goal all along was to kill him
Why the hell does the guy that saves Bjorn that looks like he's 45 say that he's too young to remember Ragnar
Why the hell there isn't a single character from season 1 alive anymore (and played by the same actor)
Why the hell there hasn't been one scene involving King Alfred this season
Why
Fuck me I'm glad that this is the final season. Let it rest already.
A perfectly placed flashback.
An episode entirely dedicated to Karen was something I didn't know was needed until now. The episode begins with a 30 minute flashback, and it's just so damn good. It had my full attention from the opening scene. I had no idea she used to be a drug addict, and had no idea about her relationship with her family...and this was the perfect time to finally inform me. Then, when it flicks back to present day, Karen is receiving inspiring and wise words from father Lantom regarding her "troubled soul". Then that church scene happens, and even though it's all action and violence, the scene still feels very much about Karen rather than the action.
In so many TV shows, flashback episodes always feel like an outlier; like you could almost forget about the episode and the season would feel the same, but the polar opposite can be said with "Karen". She's a great character who gets a lot of undeserved hate, and Deborah Ann Woll absolutely gives us her best work on this show yet in this episode, and rightfully so.
The people giving this episode hate have very short attention span and have to see Daredevil fighting the villain over and over again, much like a children's superhero movie. This brilliant show is an 18 age certificate for a reason. It's a patient and dark programme that explores adult themes, and it's starting to feel more and more mature now, with season 3 being its most adult season yet.
R.I.P Father Lantom. So much wisdom and a kind heart. Such a good character.
For me, personally, this couldn't have been written any better. I loved it! I know not everyone will but for me it did the show justice. It was bittersweet and in line with how the show did things in all its seasons. When Hvitserk is given his new name 'Athelstan' I had to push back some tears. It's like the story has come full circle in a way. Ragnar took Athelstan with him on his first quest and now a son of Ragnar has taken place in Wessex as Athelstan, a name given to him by none other than his son.
Ivar's death was more heartbreaking than I could've imagined. I never thought I'd be shedding tears over him. He changed a lot during his time with the Rus and it is beautiful that he essentially gave his life to ensure that of Hvitserk. These two had such a deep bond and I wondered how it would conclude. I always thought one would kill the other but this was beautiful and tragic all at once.
The last scene of Floki and Ubbe on that beach was so well written too. When Floki tells Ubbe he looks like Ragnar, beautiful. Such a pure scene of two men with deep respect and love for each other. Ragnar would be proud of that.
Now if there is one thing I would like to have seen different it would be Ingrid, living her best life as Queen. I never cared for her though I can admit she is a force. She stood her ground against Harald and Erik but I think I never really warmed up to her because she got with Bjorn while he was already married to Gunnhild and I loved Gunnhild like I loved Lagertha.
I'll say goodbye to this epic adventure for now... probably going to re-watch it in the future and appreciate it all over again.
"They're just people. But they snap their fingers and we jump."
Interesting episode showing the clutch of corporation in the lives of the superheroes. Heroes have to obey metrics--viewership, social media likes--they have to perform, to play the role of heroes to satisfy the demands of the markets.
The life threatening crime of robberies are made mundane, as shown when Homelander and Maeve have a casual chit-chat about their employers while performing cool action stunts of "saving the world". Which, in actuality, is a no-mercy beatdown of a guy who surrendered as soon as they appear. But they have to play their part: "the bad guy shot first", that's why it's legal to murder him. In the same vein, Starlight has to upgrade her costume, to show a "transformation" from a country girl to a metropolis supe. She doesn't like showing off her body, but once she signed the contract, her body is no longer hers--it's of the corporation. The supes may have physical power, but the billionaires have political and cultural power.
We have watched this mundanity before in the form of other entertainment--Marvel Cinematic Universe. Life-threatening actions were played out as jokes and mundane routines. And us the viewers enjoyed it, because it gives us "cozy feelings". But, like most performers, heroes hide secrets. And that's where the Compound V plot kicks in.
This episode attempts to show what sci-fi usually does: a commentary not of the future, but of the present. The subplots are knitted neatly to each other, marking a distinct theme. We tread carefully as plans and ploys unfold--and failed--but as they go, more possibilities were opened up. We watch our Hughie becoming more convinced of his place in The Boys. We see his conscience in opposition to the other veteran members of professional killers.
The great thing about this show so far is how everything is not portrayed as merely black and white. Superheroes may do bad, but they are all still humans who submit to corporate governance. While our boys may seem to have clear motives of taking down corrupt heroes, but they too are vested with their own interest. Hughie acts as our moral compass--the only ordinary guy, who happens to be trapped inside this clusterfuck.
[7.6/10] I didn’t like the sitcom material in this one as much as in the prior two episodes, but I liked the dramatic/horror material even better, so it balances out. It’s hard to say why the 1970s sitcom stuff didn’t work for me as well. It didn’t quite have the zip or the verve of the 50s and 60s parodies. Wanda wandering around her home with Geraldine, trying not to reveal that she’s pregnant or the weird stuff resulting from the combination of her powers and her labor didn’t have as much comic zing as the boss dinner or magic act.
But what it did have was some (I think) clever commentary on television conventions, like how quickly kids grow up on TV shows and how sitcoms used to come up with zany ways to try to hide actresses’ pregnancies so that they wouldn’t have to incorporate the babies or pregnancies into the show. There’s at least some high concept fun to be had.
It’s also a nice episode for the effects team. They come with a lot of creative ways to show Wanda’s powers tricking out while she’s having labor pains. I particularly enjoyed the appearance of the stork, replete with red smokes that fails to shoo it off, and an Untitled Goose Game-esque effort at blending into its surroundings.
But more than anything, I like the deeper confrontation of horror and tragedy that’s been lurking at the edges of the show coming to the fore. Details like Vision telling Wanda something seems wrong only for her to clip things back again gets your attention. The neighbors cutting through partitions and whispering about what they’re really doing here without spilling the beans feels freaky. And things come to a head when Wanda and Vision’s twins are born (a cute resolution to the “Billy vs. Tommy” debate by the way).
It introduces a note of grief to the proceedings, as the babies’ arrival isn’t just a cause for joy for Wanda, but also a reminder of her dead brother, her lost twin. There’s a subtle sense of grief running through the show, and maybe the sense that Wanda is trying to escape from it here, wherever here is.
It also gives us the clearest look at Geraldine, who is, apparently, not like the other residents of Westview. She knows about Ultron and seems to be trying to get through to Wanda in some way. It’s a striking conversation between them, one of the scariest in the show, with Wanda seeming downright frightened when the sanctity of her world seems to be threatened. There’s a certain sense that maybe the other residents are prisoners here, held captive by Wanda’s abilities and emotional turmoil, and I’m fascinated to see where that goes.
We also get the sense that Shield or some other governmental force is monitoring the situation, and perhaps that Geraldine was sent in to try to distract or get through to Wanda.
Overall, I am loving the concept here and the hints at the margins of what might be wrong with this scenario. I certainly don’t want to wait another week for more!
[7.6/10] One of the things that impresses me most about this episode is it’s brilliant timing in the season. Three episodes in is the perfect time to finally pull the curtain back a little bit, and indicate more directly what’s happening on WandaVision (at least as far as the Feds know about it). There’s a thrill to, as my wife put it, getting to see things from the other side of the looking glass for an episode.
We know why Wanda found a little RC plane in her yard -- a Sword drone sent to scope out the situation. We learn what the voice coming through the radio at the swim party was -- an FBI agent trying to make contact. And we even learn what the beekeeper who popped out of the sewer was -- a Sword agent trying to reach Westfield from underground.
It’s a particularly nice touch to see how everything is made to conform to the “production design” of the world the second it crosses into Wanda’s threshold, with a hazmat suit turning into a beekeeper outfit, replete with a jump rope replacing his tether. More pieces of the puzzle are falling into place, and the show earns the coolness of those reveals.
Even better though, is getting to know some actual characters on the other side of that bubble. First and foremost is the now-confirmed Monica Rambeau (previously Geraldine). She’s the most fascinating character here, someone who was snapped away by Thanos, came back, and found the entire world turned upside down. She was and is an Agent of Sword, uneasily finding her way back at the agency (with some coded racism in the response) and trying to get out from under the shadow of her mom, who built Sword and has a picture on the wall. Her boldness in ending up in the bubble and being, wittingly or not, Sword’s agent on the inside, makes her a unique presence, especially when she’s still processing a loss of her own.
But it’s also nice to see a few familiar faces as well. We have Agent Wu from the world of Ant-Man, and Darcy from the world of Thor, both investigating this weird phenomenon. I’ll admit, Darcy’s “quirky young scientist” routine started to run thin for me pretty quick, but I actually like the dynamic between her and Wu. The two of them discovering that Wanda is broadcasting these events, enveloping and “casting” real people in her fantasy world, noting discrepancies in the signal, and even getting invested in the storylines is a good beat for them.
(As an aside, this feels like the type of thing that Shield would be involved in, and the fact that they’re going with Sword instead is a nice was to at least leave open the possibility that parts of Agents of Shield could be incorporated into the mainline MCU canon.)
We also get to see what happened when Wanda confronted Monica in the last episode, showing a destructive force that was only implied last week. We get a confirmation that this is all happening post-Endgame, with a brief moment of Wanda seeing Vision in his mind stone-ripped, living dead guise, that is both disturbing and tragic.
It’s becoming more and more clear what’s going on here, that with Vision dead, Wanda is trying to use her reality-warping powers to create the life the two of them can never have together, cleansed and sitcom-ified to smooth over the rough reality that she’s still grieving. Her firmness about their having to stay here, that they can’t go elsewhere or do anything else, is the right balance of frightening and pitiable. There’s some real intriguing and complex work being done in her motivations and actions, and I like it.
Overall, WandaVision is four-for-four out of the gate, which is an impressive feat! I’m excited to see whether we end up with a 1980s sitcom world, more action on the other side, or a little bit of both!
Thank you, Rick! Thank you, Andrew Lincoln!
I'm in a state of shock. This episode hit me right in the feels. And then, when my feels were already punched, Hershel appeared and it broke me. The scene with Shane was simply perfect. Good lord, do I miss him! And he even screwed with Rick saying Judith was his daughter and then the whole, naw, she doesn't have your nose. I burst out laughing. And then Sasha appeared. I was low key expecting Lori on my screen, tbh.
I knew it was the end but by heart was bouncing when he was at the bridge. I haven't been so glued go the screen in a very long time. Probably, the best episode of TWD in years.
The scene with Maggie and Negan was outstanding.Im digging these shadow shots. When he broke and begged for Maggie to kill him I was expecting a smirk on his face at he end. I thought he was playing Maggie so that he could live. When he described how he killed Glenn I realized I got PTSD from that episode.
Poor Michone. Watching her breaking when he saw Rick dead was heartbreaking. And don't get me started with Daryl. When he cries, I cry. No exceptions. It hit me like a train.
The real question I've never seen anyone asking, who the heck leaves a crate of dynamite on a wooden bridge in construction?
That Space Junk song at the end just hit me off guard. I was just listening to it and all I could think of was "Hey, you. Dumbass. You in the tank. You cozy in there?" I miss Glenn.
Did anyone else catch that voice saying "Where's your wound?" At first I thought it was Morgan mirroring season 1, but then the voice changed.
Now, after that time jump of like 7 years or so, they better give me a good damn reason for making me believe Rick would leave his family for so many years. Also, Judith freaking Grimes being a young badass and getting perfect headshots was far-fetched.
I saw the preview for next episodes and when I saw Carol with that hair, all I could think of was, she's Jamie Lee Curtis, and "What do your elf eyes see?"
[8.0/10] This episode is a lovely tribute to both the character of Black Panther and to Chadwick Boseman. The central premise is a little silly. Apparently Yondu abducting T’Challa rather than Peter Quill would not only have resulted in some key differences in the Guardians part of the ‘verse at key moments, but it would basically have solved all of the MCU’s problems.
Thanos would be turned into a humble gardener! Yondu would become one of the merry men in T’Challa’s intergalactic Robinhood operation! Drax’s wife and kids would be alive and well! Korath would be an encouraging fanboy of Starlord rather than someone who’s never heard of him! Nebula would be liberated and an operator in her own right! Those imprisoned by The Collector would be freed!
And that’s just for starters. Other stray comments basically make clear that T’Challa hung the moon, and the galaxy is a massively better place for having him in it. It’s a little over-the-top, but I’m hard-pressed not to enjoy the charm of it. Despite delving into some serious things, these What If installments have kept a largely light tone, and that helps some of the more exaggerated aspects of these fun thought experiments land.
To wit, while other episodes recreate prior MCU movies except with some big twists, this one makes more out of whole cloth. While it’s playing with the beats of the first Guardians movie -- assembling a team of misfits to stop a major threat with stops at Knowhere -- this is basically a heist film, with all the entertainment that comes from that genre.
Seeing Starlord T’Challa, Yondu, Thanos, Nebula, and the rest of the Ravagers team up to find the magic “embers” possessed by The Collector is a hell of a setup in and of itself. The show plays the Oceans 11 vibe to the hilt, with misdirects, twists, and diversions that bait the audience and spark the imagination. Seeing the various ploys and counterploys against The Collector is a blast.
Once again, the animation and design work is surprisingly effective here too. The colorful world of the Guardians translates well to the cel-shaded visuals. Seeing T’Challa do combat against The Collector with his arsenal of MCU Easter Egg toys results in plenty of neat moments. And watching his lair come alive, with the Children of Thanos taking on the remaining quasi-Guardians, is a blast as well.
(Plus hey, we get some more fun extended appearances from Howard the Duck and Cosmo the Spacedog, which is a nice treat for something easier to pull off in animation.)
And there’s serious stuff too. Yondo lying to T’Challa about his home being destroyed tracks well with Yondu withholding information from Peter, but with the exact layers being different due to T’Challa’s different bearing. Yondu recognizing T’Challa’s “heart of an explorer” makes the deception heartening in its way, and makes you buy their disagreement and reconciliation because there’s a believable emotional core to it.
Continuing the theme, I like that the episode sets up lingering resentment between Nebula and Thanos, with the Mad Titan (who gets a great line nodding to his unofficial title) putting his life on the line in order to save hers. It doesn’t wipe away what he’s done, but it’s nice evidence that the change of heart evinced here is genuine and not just superficial.
At the same time, it’s heartwarming as all hell when the battle’s won and T’Challa returns to Earth to introduce his old family to his new one. The combination of the two, and the way they mesh better than you might expect, is exceedingly sweet.
In the end, the lingering sentiment of this outing is that regardless of what far flung locale was lucky enough to have T’Challa, he would “belong anywhere” brightening the lives of all he came across. It stands as a lovely paean to the character and the man who breathed life into him, and a fitting final benediction on Chadwick Boseman and his contributions to this imaginative world.
[6.0/10] Oh man, what a crock this is. It is so full of cheats and shortcuts and self contradictions that it's hard to take any of it seriously. Suddenly, we've pivoted to the prospect of mortality and self-sacrifice as the most important theme of the season, despite the fact that those have been, at best, tangential to the ideas the show was exploring up until...last week.
And it's totally contradicted by what the episode actually does! Picard trying to "give his life" to prove to Soji that organics is good would have more weight if we hadn't seen him jump into death-defying situations throughout the season. What makes this one any different? And when he "dies", it's not because the Romulans blast him or really anything to do with his grand stand. His brain abnormality just acts up when it's dramatically convenient, with no apparent connection to his attempt at self sacrifice.
Then the episode just wipes away that sacrifice anyway! I can't tell you what a cheat it feels like to have Picard die, learn a very important lesson about the beauty of life coming from the fact that it's finite, only for him to then immediately cheat death! Then the whole bending over backwards to try to explain that even though he has an android body now, he'll age normally feels contrived and bullshit as hell. It's a dumb plot choice that immediately contradicts the episodes laudable themes about accepting mortality as something inherently human.
It's not all bad. As deus ex machina as Riker's arrival, it's still a cool moment. As weird as Data looks in the "quantum simulation" (oh brother), his death and appreciation for Picard's love is moving. And even if Jurati feels like she's from a different show, her quips and jibes got a chuckle out of me.
Everything in this finale is just so rushed and glancing and ultimately unsatisfying. There's some good ideas here, but they're all shortchanged for a meditation on death that feels out of step with the show's ideas to this point, and a bunch of easy plot fixes and character relationships that haven't actually been developed.
On the whole, this season was a real missed opportunity. Assembling this kind of talent and deploying it only for this wobbly mess of a season is a big shame. I'm a sucker, so I'll be back for season 2, and I hope they'll work out the kinks But after this, I'm not terribly optimistic.
Last week's episode fucked me up so hard. This one did too, although in a slightly different way.
First of all, a little piece of advice to Serena and Aunt Lydia: if you care about this pregnancy so badly and want June to carry to term, then maybe it's not the greatest idea to try to strangle her or show her the body of the guy who helped her and force her to admit that it's her fault. Just a thought.
There is a weird amount of sexual energy between Serena and June. Every time Serena confronts June, it's like she's 2 seconds away from hate fucking her against a wall. I don't know. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that's genuinely the vibe that she gives off.
Speaking of Serena, this is a character that I literally think about all the time. I read an interview with Yvonne Strahovski once where she really nailed this on the head: Serena is an incredibly intelligent, presumably well-educated woman who had a successful career before Gilead. And now she's trapped in a world - a world she helped create - where she can't work, can't read, can't be in charge of anything and her opinion on most things doesn't matter. She's like a caged animal with nothing stimulating to do all day. To her, this baby will be an escape from her terribly boring reality. I'm sure she wants to be a mother, but I think a part of her also craves something to occupy her mind and that's what motherhood will provide her with.
(Sidenote: all the horrible religious bullshit and ritualistic raping aside, I'd rather drown myself than live in a world where your only entertainment is sitting around all day and knitting. I would die so fucking fast in Gilead, you have no idea.)
And no, that ending didn't give me anxiety at all, why do you ask?
[7.0/10] Eight years. Five seasons. Four captains. One ship. One infamous mutineer turned galactic hero. And I still don’t quite know what Star Trek: Discovery means.
That's alright! The show has had multiple showrunners and multiple creative voices at play. The series reset its premise at least once, with the jump to the far future, and arguably multiple times. Characters have come and gone. Ships have been retrofitted and become sentient. Species new and old have phased in and receded.
It’s okay if, after all that, even the overthinking viewer can't boil the robust (if not quite infinite) diversity of Discovery into a single idea or meaning. At the beginning of the show’s final season, Michael Burnham herself wondered what it all means, and I’ll admit, I’m not more equipped to answer that after the end of the show’s five year mission than she was when it started.
What it means, in immediate terms, is that the Progenitor mystery is finished. Michael and Moll’s twin journeys into the portal (alongside some disposable Breen mooks) leads them to a liminal space, fit for slow-motion special effects, gravity-defying fisticuffs, and cheap puzzle-solving.
Much of that feels a little gratuitous. You can practically feel the episode showing off instead of advancing the story. Why Burnham and Moll need to have a Matrix-esque anti-gravity brawl before the mandated alliance and sudden but inevitable betrayal is beyond me. But I like the setting and the slower pace the show adopts at times within it. Despite the questionable “movie every week” promise of the series, this is the rare instance where Discovery genuinely feels cinematic, and the pace and cinematography have a lot to do with that.
One of the big problems with Discovery’s aesthetic overall is that the sterile sheen on everything often gives the show’s backdrops a semi-unreal quality that detracts from the convincingness of the presentation. Thankfully, that totally works in a quasi-magical portal realm created by billion-year-old aliens!
The endless stretch of a fantastical environment, the way it’s punctuated by extravagant quasi-baroque architecture, the hidden path to central setting, the puzzle that leads you to some mystical parental figure spouting purple prose -- they all give “Life, Itself” an unexpected Kingdom Hearts vibe of all things. But for something meant to be elevated above even the everyday wonders the average Starfleet captain experiences, that approach works.
Granted, some of the path toward the Progenitor tech feels rote. All of the cryptic clues and vital totems come down to...arranging a bunch of glass triangles? You can derive some thematic meaning from that (“The in-between times matter as much!”) but it’s an oddly mechanical answer to the latest riddle. Moll giving Michael the ol’ el kabong and getting punished by the alien alarm is a bit too predictable. And the all-knowing ethereal being from beyond, come to dispense the great wisdom, is a big cliche.
But I like where they land. The rap on Michael Burnham in the fandom is that Discovery is too hidebound in its need to make her the greatest and special-est captain to ever captain anything. (Nevermind that the franchise has done the same with Kirk, Archer, and if I’m honest with myself, sometimes even Picard.) Here, though, when the Progenitor representative tells Burnham that she is the only one worthy to wield such incredible technology, Michael demurs.
She acknowledges her own flaws. She points out her own limitations. True to Federation principles, she disclaims the idea that any one person should have this power. And given the freedom to create life, or annihilate it, or use this amazing tool however she might wish, Burnham chooses to destroy it.
There is poetry in that. It’s a strange obverse of Groucho Marx’s famous quip, 'I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member.” The trails of clues left by the consortium of scientists was meant to test the mettle and the heart of the person chasing them, ensuring that they had the right disposition and perspective before they were granted access to this awesome power.
I can appreciate the poetic irony that the only soul worthy of wielding that technology is the one who would see its potential for death and destruction and choose to destroy it instead. It’s a conclusion to this story that, if a bit anticlimactic, feels lyrical, philosophical, and most importantly, Trek-y enough for a finale.
Unfortunately, it squeezes out just about everything else. Dr. Culber’s peculiar spiritual connection? Well, he magically knows the frequency for the portal box, and is just content with the unknown now. The end. Stamets’ desire to leave a great scientific legacy? All it takes is a twenty-second speech from Burnham and a quick (albeit admittedly sweet) bit of solace from Adira, and he’s good. As for Adira themself? They get another attaboy and a few hugs, but I guess they mostly completed their arc in the last episode.
What about Rayner? Well, he offers a bold solution to the stand-off with the Breen and remains steady in the face of danger, but doesn’t get to confront his onetime tormentor really, and again, pretty much wrapped up his character journey earlier. Tilly? She comes up with a cool science-y thing, which is on-brand I guess. But her soul-searching over the Academy leads to...a mentorship program? Really? That bog standard thing is her big epiphany? Sure. Why not? Even Moll goes from murderous and duplicitous to being amenable to Michael and cool with Book without much compunction, another major character arc that feels terribly compressed.
Look, it’s admirable that Discovery wants to give all the members of its crew something to do in the finale. But unfortunately it means that almost nobody besides Burnham gets a chance to really put a capstone on their journeys across the course of the series. That may be fine for well-liked but sporadic recurring characters like Admiral Vance, President Rilak, and Commander Nhan,and President T’Rina. (We even get to learn that Kovich is freakin’ Agent Daniels from Star Trek: Enterprise, among others.) But ironically, in an episode about how Burnham has the humility to step aside on the brink of extra-dimensional anointing, her story crowds out everyone else’s.
Thankfully, the exception to the rule is Saru. One of the iconic moments in the lead-up to Discovery’s premiere was his trailer-worthy line that his people were “biologically determined for one purpose and one purpose alone: to sense the coming of death. I sense it coming now.” When the series started, there was a timidity, even a rigidity to Saru. Despite absconding to the stars, he had that fear-based social conditioning within him.
And yet, over the course of the series, he’s arguably changed more than anyone else. He lost his ganglia and lived to tell the tale. He shared the truth of his homeland and rekindled his people’s culture. He’s been through an array of harrowing, potentially lethal events and come out on the other side. He’s even found courage in matters of the heart.
So it is rousing, then, when he stands off with a cruel Breen warlord and doesn’t blink once. Where there was fear, there is now force. Where there was reticence, there is now courage. Where there was timidity, there is now daring. Doug Jones kills it, as usual, and if there’s one thing this finale deserves credit for, it’s showing how far Saru has come: from the anxious officer preaching caution to the confident ambassador making bold bluffs to save his friends on the strength of his mettle alone. He’ll go down as the show’s best character in my book, and I’m glad “Life, Itself” gave him his moment in the spotlight.
The episode at least has a solid structure to keep things manageable. We have Burnham and Moll going through the Door to Darkness on the one hand. We have Rayner and most of the usual Discovery crew working to hold off Moll’s goons from the Progenitor device on the other. We have Saru and Nhan holding off another Breen faction with trademark Federation diplomacy. And we have Book and Dr. Culber sneaking through battle lines in a shuttle to keep the “portal in a can” from drifting into a pair of twin black holes. The balance among and derring-do within each thread is satisfactory at worst.
That last part is a big part of the episode’s mission, not because of the practical mechanics of destruction avoidance that have become old aht for Discovery, but because it’s a sign of Book’s love for Michael. And sure. I buy it. But I don’t feel it.
I don’t mind Book and Burnham together. It’s not a detriment to the show in any sense. But from the second Book popped up in season 3 as an obvious love interest, everything about them has felt pat and inevitable. So while I think they’re perfectly fine and perfectly plausible together, it never felt like the epic, essential love story that the show seemed to want it to be, especially in this finale.
I won’t deny the aesthetic power of the two of them reuniting at Saru’s wedding (which looks incredible, by the way), all gussied up. I’m not made of stone. You put two attractive people gazing deeply into one another’s eyes on a luminous beach with the music swelling, and you can get something in the moment. But they mostly spout the usual romantic cliches, made all the more stilted with oddly artless dialogue, before the romantic rekindling that was never really in doubt takes place.
Which means our epilogue, showing their shared future in the world’s coziest cabin, is pleasant but not quite moving. It’s nice that Burnham gets a little peace, that she and Book have a son on the cusp of his first Starfleet command, that she gets one last dance with Discovery. But that's about where it tops out. “Nice.” Not the touching goodbye to a long run the episode seems all but desperate to convey. We even get an impressionistic sequence on the bridge that feels more like the cast bidding farewell to one another in costume than the characters saying their goodbyes.
You can appreciate the attempts here. From another explosion-filled conclusion to a Tree of Life-esque sequence of creation to an artsy, golden-hued effort to gin up the emotion from putting a capstone on five seasons’ worth of adventures. There are some big swings here, which I admire, and you cannot fault the show for a lack of effort in this finale.
But in the final tally, it still leaves me a bit cold, and I’m still not quite sure what it all means. In the Progenitor’s big sermon, she suggests a positively existentialist reading on that question on a cosmic scale. We supply our own meaning, whether it be through exploration or scientific advancement or familial bonds. Discovery makes a few vague suggestions as to the possible takeaways, but affirms that the franchise’s values of infinite diversity in infinite combinations applies just as well to one of the essential questions of life. There are a multitude of meanings and possibilities out there, in the wide scope of people out in the world (or the galaxy), and in what drives us within our hearts and souls. I can appreciate that answer.
But the closest thing the show offers to an explicit answer comes from Bunrham herself, naturally, and the episode’s title. The meaning of life is “Life, Itself”, with the idea that our experiences can't be reduced beyond that, necessarily. The purpose is simply to be, to form bonds, to have those experiences, and share them with others. It’s a bit of a tautology, and more than a little trite, but there’s something to the idea that the meaning of life is to live.
That meaning extends to Discovery itself. I can't tell you what the show means, or how it coalesces into a greater whole, because quite frankly, I’m not sure that it does.. Instead, it simply is. These adventures happened: some good, some bad, some rousing, some dull, some memorable, some easily forgotten.
It’s a fool’s errand to predict a show’s legacy. From aspiring franchise flagship, to fandom punching bag, to something that was simply there, Discovery’s risen and fallen in esteem over the course of its run. It could earn a critical reevaluation down the line or sink down into the dregs like some of its predecessors. But through it all Star Trek: Discovery was there. It delivered five seasons’ worth of adventures, expanded the canon, and took the franchise further into the future than it had ever been before. Its whole may not amount to more than the sum of its parts, but those parts, those individual adventures and stories, will remain. I’m not sure that Discovery has a deeper meaning than that, or if it needs one.
[7.0/10] Patrick Stewart can act. That is, perhaps, no revelation. But the strongest moment in the series premiere of Star Trek: Picard is simply giving him a moment to emote, to condemn, to express his distress and regret over the state of things. When pushed to explain why he left Starfleet, the fire that fueled The Next Generation is revived, and the ghosts of the utopia it operated in are exercised.
Picard left because of xenophobia, because of isolationism, because of an abandonment of the principals of altruism and mercy and acceptance that buttressed the Federation he knew and believed in. That connection to larger ideas -- of a once noble nation turning its back on those in need out of a fear for what opening one’s doors to the world could invite in, and an architect of that community severing his ties with it when it shrinks from the ideals he so deeply believes in -- not only imbues this story with a real world resonance; it’s pure Trek.
But it’s not enough to offer a man meditating on his legacy and the institutions that devolved on his watch. So we need a mystery box. And we need a terrorist attack from a group of “synths” on Mars that scared the Federation into submission. And we need Romulan refugees resettling in an old Borg cube. And we need Romulan fighters trying to root out and destroy the last of the synths. And we need a mysterious young woman -- half River Tam and half Daisy Johnson -- to seek out Picard’s help to sort it all out.
It’s all...fine. It’s naive to expect a modern day science fiction show to rely on the staid, contemplative tone that The Next Generation thrived on. I don’t mind Dahj kicking ass in a hand-to-hand combat scene that makes Kirk’s karate chops look like childsplay. I don’t mind a wire fu-esque battle between her and a cadre of Romulan attackers that involves dodging phaser fire, leaping grand distances, and gory-ish explosions. Times change, and shows have to change with them, even if it means making allowances for the sort of fireworks that once disappointed fans in Picard’s jump to the big screen.
But what I do mind is how generic so much of the rest of the episode feels. Make no mistake -- it is a tall order to follow-up to one of the most beloved science fiction series of all time, that honors past successes while forging a distinct path for the show at hand. But if you shaved off the serial numbers and took away the easter eggs, this could be any other modern science fiction show, with a look and dialogue and mysteries that suffice but don’t wow.
The best you can say is that in the early going at least, Star Trek: Picard doesn't feel like fanservice. Sure, Picard’s dog is named “Number One,” and he orders earl grey tea, and he has a futuristic safety deposit box full of familiar trinkets. But when the show invokes the past, it does so in service of the story in the here and now.
And yet, that’s both a blessing and a curse. Revealing Dahj as Data’s daughter adds some emotional potency to her pairing with Picard. They make Brent Spiner’s guest appearances in the episode more than a fond reminder of everyone’s favorite android, but as a touchstone for Picard’s close relationship with his former protege. For all the flack Star Trek: Nemesis caught, one of its saving graces was the way it suggested that, flesh and blood or no, Data was Picard’s son, his family. So by making Dahj a sort of granddaughter to Picard through that bond makes her relevant in the early going, when the show has to be economical about establishing its characters and stakes.
But at the same time, that’s part of the problem. Stewart and Isa Briones do their best, but the on screen chemistry isn’t quite there yet, so the results feel more like Star Trek: Picard drafting on the good feelings of old, even if it wants to move in a new direction. Fans of the Next Generation will shudder to hear the name Bruce Maddox, the man who tried to have Data declared property, invoked. Still, it feels a tad cheap to have him missing and potentially responsible for some sort of new-fangled “biological synthetic” that is cloned or replicated or somehow otherwise spawned from Data.
All the while, “Remembrance” has the same, overly glossy look that the rest of modern Trek does. All the while, we get characters giving tearful statements that tidily deposit their backstories, with performances that can’t support the psychological weight the show wants to place on them as well as Stewart can. All the while, we get another damn mystery box, where we’re left to guess who made Dahj and her twin sister, and whether the twin’s new flirty Romulan acquaintance is part of the apparent terrorist group, and what the true motivation of the “synths” who blew up Utopia Planetia was, since the show apparently can’t muster that intrigue while still putting its proverbial cards on the table.
And all the while, we have to cut through clunky scenes that try to establish all of this. Little of it is outright bad. This is a competent production with a stellar lead actor and enough reverence for the source material not to upset too much of it. But when you’re bringing back one of television’s great characters and invoking the legacy of the series that started a new age of Star Trek, I expect better than solid but less-than-inspired adequacy.
None of it quite matches that one moment of personal truth or the real life implications of Picard’s disdain for what the organization he once loved has transformed into. When “Remembrance” deposits him into its adventure, it becomes just another off-the-shelf science fiction series, albeit one that can harness the history and world of The Next Generation, The Original Series, and even the 2009 reboot.
In that one scene, though, Star Trek: Picard gives us a glimpse of the show it could be. “Remembrance” soars when it allows its lead performer to do what he does best and embrace the thematic resonance and introspection that were the hallmarks of his prior series, rather than flash and whodunnits and twisty reveals. Only time will tell whether, with so much narrative throat-clearing and table-setting out of the way, the series sets a course for the better.
Where's my breath?!
Things really explode in episode 4. The previous two episodes did feel a lot like a build up to something, and that 'something' is one hell of a detonation.
I'm really liking the storyline of Dex so far, especially when you get extraordinary scenes like the one involving CCTV. The way those deep, cold eyes stared into the camera was unbelievable and sent shivers down my spine. I just can't get over how amazing Vincent D'Onofrio is as Fisk.
I just have to mention the fight scene though. This is, without a doubt, my favourite long take fight scene of the show. It's just pure adrenaline that doesn't seem to end. It's even more realistic than the hallway scene in season 1. The effort and preparation they put into this must be off the Richter scale. Well, it looks like the show's going to pick up another Emmy nod for stuntwork... ...and just when you think your jaw couldn't fall any lower, the episode ends like THAT and proves you wrong, sending your jaw to another world. I guess it's lucky these don't release weekly, because I wouldn't be able to handle the week after this ending.
Seriously impressive stuff; I'm addicted.
Honestly we’ve talked about it for years now, the whole song and dance has grown tired and as most of us predicted, instead of using these last few episodes to come up with some amazing ending that gives us payoff for sitting through this entire ride, we’re once again peddling slowly so that the bike ride that should take two hours takes eight. We’ve got a plot as dumb as dirt in this episode again, “Where’s the train going?”. Honestly…? And the big reveal is what, it was going back to their old home? So shouldn’t that have been the first place they thought of? It’s hard to root for this group, and these people, when you think of how good the show used to be and the amazing things they’d done as a group before somehow becoming idiots again. You had one cool moment in the show where Daryl took care of business and chased down a guy on a bike realizing it was down to him, and then it just made me sad thinking damn the whole show used to be like that.
We’ve got three episodes left and it appears the “Big final story” is taking back Alexandria and what, getting revenge on the people that played them for suckers for the 4th or 5th time? We already know at least one of these episodes is going to be filled with some stupid lame trial for Eugene and all I can think this entire time is damn, they could’ve just ended this show 4 or 5 years ago with Rick killing Negan and skipped this whole “creating the new world” bullshit that just repeated the past mistakes.
The Boys does its job best when they jab at mockery of how the show biz operates. The first thing Vought does then they know that Queen Maeve is bi is to capitalize it: make her sexuality as a performance in their newest movie. But not only that; they need to make Maeve not just a bi, but a lesbian, and her partner - Elena - has to be made to wear men's fashion. Because "lesbian is a bit more easy to sell" and "Americans are more accepting of gay when they are in clear-cut gender role relationship". Companies like Vought, like its real-life counterpart (Disney), cares much more about how something sells than the nuance behind it. This parody is even funnier considering that they have a Jon Favreau look-a-like and a guy named Joss (Whedon?) who handle the Dawn of Seven movie production.
Aside from that, the episode continues the tense relationship between Starlight and Stormfront, and we start to see how Stormfront attempts to pull strings to maintain her position in The Seven.
Two things I notice though: the part where Homelander murdered a bunch of civilian in the public, that turns out to be an imagination feels a bit like cop-out, however it is interesting that it parallels Hughie's frustration when he lost Robin back in the first eps. of Season 1. The way Noir and Butcher confrontation is handled also feels a bit too easy, especially after the big build up about them being Vought most wanted in earlier episode.
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).
