Another attempt at playing with "god is boredd" trope. Nothing really new here. Just a good set design.
A rather slow series, and I've watched Altered Carbon, which I liked better. It's only after Eps 4 that we see a stake and the plot starts to move; the first three episodes were spent to kind of world-build and develop the characters, but it falters here and there. Unlike Altered Carbon, which was filled with intricate details that you might miss if you're not paying attention, I feel like i could've watched this series while doing something else. I guess this is a soap opera sci-fi thriller of the 2010s.
It's tense and gory in the usual The Boys fashion, although I feel like they just sped up everything in the beginning and previous episode so that they can have this "wreak havoc" all out in this episode.
As a season finale though... it feels like this IP is starting to show a similar symptoms to MCU: each ending has to be a setup for another season/series/film. It's a huge cliffhanger. It doesn't really settle the story with Marie and co, albeit they did close the arc and begin a new one. What happened to the school? What happened after the laser? Why the Guardians of Godolkin twist at the end - and how is it possible, with everyone there clearly witnessing who the villains were? It just raises more questions and feels like not making sense.
Additionally, some of the characters made some really terrible decisions with their hero syndrome, but I guess I can suspend the disbelief because they're still teenagers after all.
With Neuman around it's always an horror episode. It's kinda predictable how she would do it though, but the tense lingers in the whole episode - not knowing when exactly she will deliver some bloody justice. The most interesting part of this episode is however this connects to Marie Moreau, and directly serves as a plot point to (I assume) The Boys Season 4. I give it only a 7 because of how much of exposition dump the first half of the episode is though.
Not exactly sure what's wrong with the episode.
But I feel like the dream sequence has become an easy exposition dump for the writers. They did something similar in The Boys Season 3 when they had to explain Black Noir's flashback and everything that happened back then. Mixing up everyone's memory and conveniently have everything panned out like that is not a great storytelling.
The Sam x Emma moment was fine, but how everything was resolved quickly when the group came into a conflict is quite too convenient. The ending was quite interesting, but everything feels like a filler only that the writers can get into the point to drop that ending and get the characters to band together and speak against power. It's quite a weak setup - and a too easy one at that, especially given most, if not all, characters there were ambitious students who want to rise to the top, now they were willing to easily abandon all that?
Also, where did Dusty go? The 28 year-old that looks like a boy. They just kinda forget him.
Teenage drama in a world of The Boys. This episode emphasizes that in a sense Gen V is still that teenage drama focusing on youngsters involved in a bigger problem that they can handle. But as a part of The Boys world those youngsters, as supes with impunity, come with their own selfishness, indifference, and cruelty - as shown with the scene of exploding dick (and the attempted assault that preceded it).
I think it's quite an interesting angle. Albeit the episode moves a little bit slowly with the teenage drama sequences, it still delivers The Boys typical uncertainty, anxiety, and... strange sex fetish. The ending is a very abrupt cliffhanger/jumphanger(?) though.
Right amount of thrill, teenage drama, and comedy. Gen V so far is really what The New Mutants should've been.
I also like that the episode shows what supes really are: performers. The scene where Polarity switched from dead serious face to big grin is that sort of "career laugh" you always see in those kind of parties. The episode also explore more the toxic parent-children relationship The Boys brought with Soldier Boy and Butcher, it's good to get more of it here.
What a very strong start for the series. This is what The New Mutants (the failed X-Men spinoff) should've been.
Enough world-building that it feels in the same world as The Boys, enough The Boys bloody mess and infallible supes where anyone can die at anytime, while at the same time having its own unique touch with its high-school/university kids drama and a kickstart to some twisted mystery that made the supes as crazy as they are since a young age. Every character is established really well and efficiently. Looking forward to the next episode.
The episode is about a naive protag with a strong sense of justice and an unusually strong power/genetic/etc capability found only in X hundred years. His day went like normal until an incident happened and a more senior person in the field appears. Fight ensues, protag finds his heroism, and finally joins forces and kickstarts the series.
The typical shonen trope. The curse concept also doesn't look that interesting. We'll see why this anime is popular.
A bit too on the nose in their attempts to poke the issue on darkly designed terms of service and deepfake, especially in light of the Hollywood actor and screenwriter protest (perhaps even inspired by it). The episode leans heavily toward being a meta humor, but it doesn't really work well. Annie Murphy does her best, and I believe Salma Hayek too, but they were given a rather one-dimensional, uninspiring script. As the episode ended I realized Charlie Brooker is the writer. That kinda explains the weak episode.
As a sci-fi episode it's OK. Even with the double-bluff the finale of the episode resorts to the usual sci-fli cliche. It's not really clever, not suspensful, nor is it an emotional roller-coaster.
What makes the episode really works is treating it as a drama-comedy: the charming chemistry between the two leads - unlike San Junipero - and how the subject matter of the episode is something that relates to its intended audience. An automated dating system until we find the perfect match. Would we want that? The episode doesn't ask the question, but you can't not ponder that yourself as the credit rolls.
A much better take at the social media frenzy era than Black Mirror's The National Anthem. This episode smoothly transitions from a murder mystery to a Candyman-esque horror to a crime thriller, standing on a better ground in the balance between surveillance and sousveillance. Unlike The National Anthem, which often felt one-dimensional by portraying a government slow to adapt to technological changes, this episode effectively weaves together today's surveillance capitalism with the cyber-bullying tendencies of the social media era.
For me, the episode could have been even more impactful if it had maintained a smaller scale. The complete system shutdown feels overly dramatic to drive home a point and somewhat deviates from Black Mirror's typically grounded approach to technology.
And the episode can't quite shake off the crowdphobic feel reminiscent of The National Anthem, occasionally portraying the masses as a thoughtless mob of bullies. It seems to lean towards apologism in its condoning of government surveillance. You can already see the episode earning nods from proponents of big government and figures like Elon Musk. Nevertheless, the well-interwoven plotlines and the teasing of a possible sequel in the cliffhanger crime thriller-like end make this episode a thrilling ride.
Certainly not the most novel concept out there, but the thrill and horror in the last 20 minutes of the episode makes up for it. The screams and frustration in the last minutes give the episode of a sort of claustrophobic feel until we found out the climaxes in the last minute. It kept me guessing and on my seat until to the very end. Great horror episode.
The phenomenon the episode depicts already happens to some part in our society: data scores in United Kingdom (or Chinese Social Credit if you want to turn a blind eye to Western surveillance system), and social media algorithms that prioritize influencers. Black Mirror's magic is combining the two and making it as mundane as possible (thus rendering it as relatable) through a desperate story of a middle class woman trying to get a better housing by approval of influencers.
Great acting from Bryce Dallas-Howard and Susan Taylor (who played the old truck driver). I don't feel any sequences of the episode is dragged on; the desperate, cringey attempts of Lacie to win her scores over makes the episode painful to watch as we can definitely see ourselves in her position. I really like the very pristine, filtered pink-ish look of Lacie's life in the first half of the episode and the contrast between her and the world around her as her score dropped down in the second half.
Let's be clear: this episode is like a slightly less charming version of Call Me By Your Name. That's why it feels rather slow and uninteresting in its first half. The performances between the two female leads could have been stronger, although I can see Mackenzie Davis trying her best.
The second half however swiftly hits you like a truck once the sci-fi element kicks in. Suddenly, all the clinging, drama, and attachment in the first half make sense (although it's still not an excuse for the slow burn - they could've made it for 10 minutes less). The moment when Yorkie and Kelly eventually meet is trademark Black Mirror, delivering heartbreaking, bitter reality in the show's fashion, and the episode maintains this emotional tone until a few minutes before the end.
In an unusual turn, the episode concludes with a more light-hearted, upbeat tone. Initially, I felt like it sidelined the heavy burden of the question between life and death, as Kelly aptly put it, "why didn't she have the chance?" But after some pondering, I realized the episode wants to present a more optimistic view of the inevitable end we all face. In the end, it's about how we choose to spend "the rest of it," as Kelly decided in the end. It's a more bright take on Blade Runner's pondering: if it feels real, then it's real.
Dumb kid freaked out because he did something indecent and trusted the words of some rando on the internet. Moral of the story: learn some digital security, he (and the other freaked out adults) wouldn't be there if he didn't give away his number very early in the beginning.
But seriously, this episode doesn't do it for me. I don't get people's fascination toward the episode. So the kid was supposed to look at CP, but how do we exactly know this? The webcam doesn't record the screen. Who knows if the hacker implanted the photos and made false claims? There was also no proof that "Mindy" was underage. All we know the guy got catfished into hiring hookers.
Acting is fine, but the thriller is quite bland throughout the episode. People on the screen are anxious but there's no tense. They are threatened by something but I don't really feel the real risk. Perhaps because there's no way to guarantee that the hackers will keep their promise, and turns out they really don't, so there's no stake for me. Just block them and face the risk rather than having to go through all that.
The episode living up to its labels: sex and violence. Not as strong as the pilot, but establishes Pablo's world of drug cartel as a wildly violent one. I like that one scene where Pablo takes photos of the dead bodies they hung in the tree, smiling wide, then nonchalantly escorts a stray lady with her baby still with the same smile.
Quite a well-done thriller with three separate but intersecting plotlines. It started out as an unnerving thriller, transforming into a horror, then into a drama reminiscent of The Entire History of You, before all the plotlines suddenly are knitted together. Like with other Black Mirror episodes, the questions surrounding technology - AI, consciousness, legal repercussions - is a background that only gets a nod (especially with the ending where "I Wish It Could Be a Christmas Everyday", an interesting choice of music) and they leave it to the audience to talk about after the episode ends.
The trick in the first half is fine, but the way Edamura noticed that everyone was up to no good just by spotting the same watch is stretching it. Makes little sense. Let's see how anime-ish (if you catch my drift) this one is.
Perhaps the best thing that ever come up since Disney's Star Wars buyout. The whole episode about the heist was intense. From the shaky march, the hesitated jamming, the heist itself, the botched consequences, the climax, and the wrapup. It's really tense even until the wrapup as conflict still arose and quickly resolved. During the climax it has a really great visuals of the Eye - quite a spectacle as the commandant would say - although TIE fighers ended up becoming cannon fodder again.
Well done! Obi-Wan and The Mandalorian writers should be ashamed.
"The pace of repression outstrips our ability to understand it. And that is the real trick of the Imperial thought machine. It’s easier to hide behind 40 atrocities than a single incident."
I really liked how they do world-building. This episode portrays both the Empire and Rebels as humans. Some are in the rebellion for revenge, for ideals. Some are in for the money; some others for their loss of position in the Empire. While in the Empire, you can always rely on colusion to regain the position you've lost, and as a gigantic bureaucracy it might be hard if you want to do a meaningful work.
The episode shows a story of people who can't communicate better. Walt Jr. who doesn't have good parental figures and unsure what to do. Skyler a toxic wife who can only think revenge/get Walt to taste his own medicine. And finally Walt with all his lies and ego that started it reaping what he sow, and using Jesse only for his own benefit. Anna Gunn performs really well as Skyler that I really hate her toxic attitude in this episode.
"There's fomenting out there, sir. Pockets of fomenting."
Great episode. Still taking it slow in pace but establishes the world perfectly. The metal clanker signaling start day and end of day. The trigger-happy corpo soldiers eager to get into action in times of imperial slow bureaucracy. The flashback of Kenari kids. The whole world feels very lived in. I particularly like Mosk's line: "Corporate Tactical Forces are the Empire's first line of defense." Really makes you think what kind of political institution the Empire is: relying on private security company to do their job.
So far this has felt like Altered Carbon (Season 1) or The Expanse, set in Star Wars universe. That's really a feat: brings me back to pre-Disney, classic Star Wars Expanded Universe.
The first competent Star Wars pilot, if not episode, since Disney buyout. The pilot does take its time to establish its world-building, juxtaposing the meager life of Cassian with the bureaucratic life of Syrill Karn.
I definitely adore the time they take and the way they tell stories by showing: the tense revolving Cassian and his co-workers, the gritty details of droids girding through the dirt taking viewers close to life in the show, the grotesque concrete set representing Prex-More buildings, the unspoken inefficiency of Prex-Mor officers. It almost feels like an episode from The Expanse - and it's good that this show doesn't "feel like Star Wars" because when fans say that it usually only means big screens Star Wars laden with dumb fanservice and not the various kind of storytelling that existed in Star Wars' now-forgotten Expanded Universe.
Certainly the show feels like if Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett had a decent writer and not just fanservice-dishing turd that is Feloni and his gang - kinda exceed my low expectation, but cautiously eager to watch the next episode.
"It seems like... something's missing?"
"What about the soul?"
"There's nothing but chemistry here."
Great episode that shows the start of Walter's descent to Heisenberg.
Finale might be a bit rushed, but I don't find it that bad. It's a perfect ending to the pilot's strong note, keeping it true with the theme of the world: No one wins at Night City.
If it was David's crushing poverty that sets the tone really bleak in the first episode, here the trap they got themselves into feel similarly oppressive. Once you're cornered by the big corporations you really can't make it out alive. I also really like that the series up to the finale keeps character's death as surprises - thing that just happens, without dramatic exit. Night City eats you up alive and often without warning.
Despite being sorely bleak, the episode still manages to serve some justice to the characters to some extent - as with Faraday being killed and both Falco and Lucy made it out alive. The series might not be the strongest anime out this season but as a tie in to the game it does the job quite well.
Strong episode. A bit cliched tropes - botched gig, amateur who hesitated, lead messing up, ending with everyone dead - but the execution was well done. There's enough tense, enough mystery, enough grit, and the intro sequence was well done to send Maine off with a bang. Still not sure why the heck they had to fetch Tanaka and what's the point of all those though.
Pretty good episode since the pilot. The action was right, so was the character development and the air of mystery. Like a true edgerunning gig.
The first half is your usual bonding between the main characters. It's fine but nothing to write home about. Just showing David developing his skills and relating to other characters - which is a very typical "calm before the storm" scene indicating someone will die in an episode or two. There's some sexual tension between David and Lucy. The editing between the scenes is kinda unique but feels like Instagram or MTV reels that don't let us connect to the characters - just like the game's strange V and Jackie bonding scene.
The second half is all over the place. First we have Pilar's demise, as expected given the build up in the first half. Then after all that chaos we get back straight to David and Lucy. Very strange pacing, as if nothing happened in the first second half, especially given the build up in the whole first half. The ending with David and Lucy feels like it just to keep the romance and plot going, which, again, feels like a cliched calm before the storm scene before some terrible things to happen in next episodes.
Decent episode to introduce the cyberpunk job and how it works in this universe. Pacing is well done, even much better than the game's (Cyberpunk 2077) pacing. Nothing too exciting but not too dull either. The scene with the fixer is kinda on the nose to make some sort of looming threat, however.
