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.
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.
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.
The episode really excels in the soundtrack, really brings the classic, fantastical Yuki Kanno feel. The simple flat visuals helps in creating that mystical anime feel. The two match perfectly with the local community theme going on. I like that that the episode depicts the world of Star Wars as a plural one. Not everyone follows the religion of the Force-sensitive; some who do may have their own religion, and here it's called as Magina. Very fascinating. Great world-building.
However the episode suffers from the same issue like most episodes so far. Simple storytelling, and dumb villains. Kinda disappointing seeing battledroids as yet another parody. Too focused on the role of the Jedi as well. Wish they had focused on the Magina believers more.
Not the strongest pilot: it branches on each main character's future plotlines, with Holden, Naomi, Alex, and Amos going on their own path. However it sets up the Inaros as quite detestable villains - in case killing Ashford in previous season was not enough. It started with Filip and ended with Marcos. The extras were less convincing, but the space shots - and we got lots of them (Tycho, Venus, Earth) - all are gorgeous.
As a work of TV show, it's good. It sets up the characters and the theme it wants to talk about. It starts with the aftermath end slowly reveals how the event unfolds to the disaster Chernobyl was.
However the message it tries to deliver, as it seems already obvious from the start, is very problematic: the all-too familiar story of meritocratic individual not being able to fight against the evil of bureaucracies, epitomized in the face of the Soviet state - the episode even has a speech on the need to believe on the Socialist State. This premise is very shaky, as David Graeber has famously written, bureaucracies - and its "evils" - were more prominent within the so-called neoliberal states and even corporations more than back then in Soviet era. Turning the disaster into a fight between heroic individuals also seem all too common for Hollywood who keeps hallucinating for the existence of an underdog superhero.
But let's see how it goes for now.
Still as eccentric as the first season, this season starts out with similar spectacle and embezzlement. The plot paces faster than the first, however there are still scenes that feel a bit little dragging, like they're still playing out with David's mind as he goes. The writing can be weak at times, like the part where David meets with Syd again. David felt it was just like yesterday, but for Syd it's been a year. There can be so much tension in their relationship, but it is simply resolved with a sex in astral plane. As a pilot episode, this episode doesn't fare too well. But still intriguing at very least.
Finally a decent episode. Part of the reason this episode works better than previous episodes is because it focuses on one arc (Ezekiel and Carol story). It makes the episode less jumbled and give the characters some breathing space.
The beginning starts out rather unconvincingly, but as the episode progresses they finally show some stakes at the life of character (Ezekiel). No more tricks: life could actually mean something. However, in contrast to this, bunch of lives of The Kingdom fighters hardly mean anything in this episode. They got slaughtered, and there was a brief flashback about them with their families, but they were really faceless. It feels like they're just a plot point for the main character (Ezekiel). The only meaningful death here might be Shiva, the pet tiger. Her death proves well not just because it's the closest to one of the main character, but because they have enough screentime and not just jumbled in the beginning of the episode.
But both The Kingdom fighters and her death is an important plot point to get to the most important point of this episode: the arc of Ezekiel. It shows that it only takes a front stage, a speech, and confidence to make "some guy" to be a thing he is now: a leader. The intro with him, starting as a just your ordinary Joe going to dressing room, to be a king complete with attributes, play a lot with the idea of dramaturgy - what matters is your front stage, not back stage.
That aside, in the action department they really need some better directing and plotting. The car chase doesn't look convincing at all with Rick and Daryl able to avoid a light machine gun shots and the absence of tense/feeling of being pursuit in the chase. There is also some stupidly inconvenient action that the characters should have thought up, like Carol shooting that damn car's tire if she doesn't want the car to go.
It's still okay-ish though, especially compared to previous disastrous episodes.
The second episode after the fantastic pilot is the hardest part: as it has to struggle to maintain the tense and sense of amazement the pilot has achieved before. Legion's episode 2 faces exactly the same struggle, and it fares rather decently for a second episode.
In contrast with the mind-boggling shots in the pilot, episode 2 takes a more linear shots, showing the way Haller starts to make sense of his life. We are introduced to the mentor characters, Melanie and Ptonomy, who helps Haller rediscover who he really is by looking through his memories. This plot device is useful not just as the typical "discovering power" trope in superheroes films, but also a clarification for the previous episode as we here, just like Haller, start to differentiate which is part of his memories and which is not.
With the introduction of Melanie and Ptonomy, the show is getting a very Heroes (2006) -esque vibe, especially with the memory alteration plot and the government hunt after mutants and their headquarter going on. Fortunately, the show doesn't attempt to get big and impersonal as typical superhero movies do, as with the cliffhanger we're getting back to Haller and the life around him as the focus.
Okay so the episode was kind of dragging on with Rick's group being played around with Negan's group, but I guess it's purposeful to make the viewers the feeling of being toyed with and to give more screen time for the characters for the emotional build up.
However, the ending... with that kind of build up, the episode ends with a goddamn cliffhanger! What the hell is the purpose of 45 minutes long build up? The scene with Negan screams terror, the moment he started to swing his barbed wire lashes out fear, but the episode ends without revealing anyone. It's a shame. Should have shown the victim's face, or at least hair, or anything from his/her back, so at least the viewers can speculate.
The episode continues with the clumsiness of last week's episode. Now not only we get to see Carol's teenager mood-swing, we get to see Daryl's too. The usually calculating hunter now risk himself and his comrade's life a few days after Denise got murdered. Daryl wanting to finish Dwight once and for all, that is understandable. After all it's not only once Daryl seems to be reckless and going in his way. But him needing to wait a few days after Denise's demise just to fit in with Carol's disappearance seems kinda forced. Not to mention everyone seems to become so reckless by wanting to be involved in the search party. I mean they have a home to protect. Why every bits of them seems so motivated to get out of their home?
That said, this episode leaves us with an interesting cliff-hanger. We all know, especially comic book readers, that someone is going to die in the next episode. But who? Carol, Daryl, and Glenn are all out of there. There is also Michonne. The episode spent quite a time to give Maggie and Rick more screen time (which usually means someone close to them is going to die in the next eps), so it's kind of difficult to predict which of them is going to leave the show.
This actually is an overall decent finale. The tense in Camina's fleet is good. The Rocinante battle is good. Naomi's rescue is good. The reveal on the end was also good. However there's one reason that makes the episode feels like a jumble of choppily edited scenes: everything involving Alex's death.
I don't take issue with it being sudden and abrupt, as many deaths are. But everyone feels really disconnected from that one incident that should have affected at least all the main casts. Alex just died, but Holden and Naomi spent their time to listen to Naomi's supposed farewell (and spent minutes on it). Amos was more eager to bring Peaches instead of mourning his close friend; even worse he was only informed about Alex's death off screen. For a fellow Martian and somebody who has spent quite a time with Alex, Bobbie seems largely unaffected at all. And Alex, well... The only tribute they gave to this incident is a plaque, which makes for some emotional moment, but that's it. Heck, that part where Holden talked to Naomi to rekindle the events almost feels like Holden breaking the fourth wall to explain to viewers due to how abrupt it is handled.
It almost feels like the event is not supposed to happen, and the showrunners edited in last minutes.
This season has been nothing but a Naomi season that leads to a reunion of Rocinante crew. That incident stuck like a sore thumb, making the supposedly joyful event with all crews gathering feels really emotionally detached. Not to mention that, barring the reveal at the end, most events still happen off screen. Just like most things that happened this season. We don't get to see the impact of something big happening.
So despite being an overall decent episode, this finale closes the relatively most mediocre season The Expanse has produced. I'd even say that the quality is even lower than Season 4. The first four episodes were nice, but it went downhill and stagnated really fast.
Compared to previous episodes, this episode is not bad, but still dumbly written.
As usual, a supposedly professional team of mercenaries turns out to be incompetent just-for-laugh bollocks, as shown by one person destroying a droid for fun in a ship they know are extremely guarded by, well, droid's connectivity. And no one seems to be troubled with that. Apparently recklessness and naivety are traits commonly shared by supposedly 'fighters' in this show - we've seen people ranging from bounty hunters, ex-rebel shock trooper, and even the Mando himself, who consistently failed to notice obvious traps (eps 5), wasted their time for overly convoluted plans (eps 4), or simply appeared to took the same marksmanship class as stormtroopers (eps 3 & 5).
Oddly, for a ship supposedly to be extremely secure, barely any droids patrol the ship. Even when the ship was on full emergency alert. The droids conveniently only appear as distraction as the plot needs it; for a heist/rescue episode, this leaves no stake on breaching the ship at all.
Speaking of stake, the characters also consistently make questionable decisions. Despite knowing they are limited on time, they just waste it for squabbling between themselves, hunting for each other down to the last of it, instead of focusing on running away from the ship.
But the worst offender is our titular character.
The Mando turns out to be a Disneyfied, Sunday morning, family-friendly bounty hunter, as he refuses to hurt people from New Republic but oddly has no qualms killing/hurting people who happen to be on the side of other factions (stormtroopers, bandits, fellow professionals, or even just a person who happens to have a huge debt - eps. 1).
It appears that the "hunting" in bounty hunting is only legitimate, as long as it doesn't involve one of the "good guys". Good guys according to who? No in-universe explanation is given except that according to Disney, New Republic must be the good guys. This show seems to be the opposite of Star Wars: The Old Republic (the online game, not the single player RPG): where the game aligns bounty hunter in the "evil" faction just because Boba Fett worked for the Empire, this show aligns bounty hunter in the "good" faction just because Mando is the protagonist.
The Mando also always consistently failed to realize that leaving Baby Yoda alone always means a bad thing. I mean, this is his damn third time doing that.
That being said, the action is quite well-done. The Twi'lek girl is choreographed nicely. The Mando has some cool action with his gears. The ending has some tense, though the last order from Ran feels a bit cheap. Unfortunately, those still can't save the episode from its below-average screen writing.
Weird season finale. After all the build up, everything feels anticlimactic. Right down from A-Train--the reason all this mess started--to Homelander.
Before we get to that, let's talk a bit about how weird the whole prison sequences play out. The joke, the attempted rescue, the shootout, all feel really weak especially compared to well-directed sequences in prior episodes. First of all there is really no need for some jocular banter that went for about two minutes or more. Not to mention the pauses. It feels dragging. This includes the attempted rescue which continues the joke.
Second, the shootout looks really weird. We've seen Frenchie did his weird stuff when it comes to the Female/Kimiko, but this doesn't seem logical. He is a professional killer, why the hell he keeps on showing up his head to look at Kimiko when getting shot at? Is he looking to die? Not to mention he got shot prior, on the stomach, how the hell he can walk and help Kimiko walk that easily? Hughie getting to shoot randomly while saying "I'm sorry! I'm sorry" and miraculously hit trained soldiers is even worse. Even the Starlight rescue looks like a cheap deus ex machina for the plot to goes forward.
The Boys had been attempting to mock the quip-ridden superhero genre--that is, the Marvel Cinematic Universe--but the whole prison sequences makes The Boys looks exactly like an MCU episode.
Now we get to the supes.
The Deep. His subplot has been standing on its for quite a while now. There seems to be no direct connection with the bigger plot that has been going on. And this episode his subplot stays that way, while still giving him enough screen time to focus on his emotion. I'm not sure if that is something we wanted to see for a finale. It feels like something to be saved for future seasons. Even if that doesn't mean it's bad, they could have cut it way shorter than what they did.
Then the thing with A-Train feels very anticlimactic. He just popped up there out of nowhere. We were previously shown his desire, his post-power syndrome, his attempt to be relevant. Then in the supposedly final showdown, we finally see Hughie vs A-Train head on. But we don't see A-Train. We see an injured A-Train, a traumatic supe in his mental and physical breakdown. Now this still could be an interesting, emotional confrontation between our protagonist with the one who murdered his sweetheart. Not to mention, the presence of Starlight could make this dynamic interesting--is Hughie done for, how would he cope between his past and present emotion? What we get instead, however, is a slow motion capture with very minuscule combat and almost none of emotional engagement. Then A-Train just went, just like that.
I feel like they are saving him for future episodes, but this being the finale--the culmination of all emotion that has been built up so far--makes this confrontation very lacking. It feels like we are still on Eps 5 or 6, but with worse pacing.
Now Homelander. He is our another main driver of the plot. Everything that has happened so far always leads us back to him. His dynamics with Madelyn the CEO has been a bizarre Oedipus complex-like situation, What happened between them in this episode is actually very unexpected, though one may sense that it would eventually came to this point through the clues scattered so far. This result should have provided a surprising reveal. However, as it turns out, there seems to be something hollow in the encounter. Given the interesting portrayal of their faux-mother-son-sexual-relationship in the first half of the episode, the second half seems to speed up the climax. As if they were being chased by some deadline, that they have to cut it short, while at the same time giving enough spaces for Homelander to give his, in Maeve's words in previous episodes, "boring speeches."
It feels climactic and inconclusive at the same time. And I guess the same can be said with many encounters in this episode. Starlight with Meave. Billy with the CIA. Hughie with Starlight at the church. It feels like they have to speed it up--to shove in the dialogues--for the sake of putting the plot forward. It's shaky and unreliable.
Now, the end of the episode leads us to a quite intriguing reveal. It's not the direction we--or at least, I--expected to take in the season. However, with such really weak build up throughout the episode, the ending feels like forced. As if they have prepared them to be this way, but still unsure how they would bring it up to this moment. As such, while the scene itself is (should be?) surprising, there is not much surprise when I watch the event unfolds. It's less of a "wow, so this is it?" than a "oh okay, so this happens, and then?"
Credits where it's due: Anthony Starr as Homelander and Karl Urban as Billy Butcher display terrific performances in this episode. Especially Homelander with his extremely erratic, unpredictable behavior. But that alone is not enough to pardon the sloppiness of this episode.
Perhaps because they, like MCU and other superhero movies, seem to busy themselves to prepare for the upcoming season instead of trying to give audience a closure of the plot. And that exact reason is what makes superhero movies went boring for these past years. They are focusing to build an universe, instead of writing a good narrative. Unfortunately, this episode robs the fresh air that The Boys has breathe for quite some time. While I hope for the continuation of the series, I am less excited.
James Gunn really liked the idea of shoving stuff into people's mouth huh. He did it in The Suicide Squad, he did it again here.
Not the greatest The Boys episode, esp. not Season 2's good. They have come this far to plan and strategize against Vought, yet they don't seem to have any backup plan... not with Lamplighter, who they leave only with Hughie to babysit, and especially not with Dr. Vogelbaum, the man behind all these, the most important man who should have acted as key witness? With Lamplighter, okay, they missed their chance, but Butcher and Mallory could have at least made Vogelbaum recorded his confession or some sort since they should have known that sending him off means an extremely high risk of failure. And they freaking knew there's someone out there who can pop head out of nowhere. Why don't they take any precaution?
The one scene with Hughie and Lamplighter is kind of dumb too, only showing him as ever petulant bystander who can't prioritize - which is a step down of character development since he blew Transluscent's ass. Butcher family drama seems to give a hint of character development but the pacing is too convenient as a cop out for stuff to fall apart.
Got plenty of fight scenes and mostly that, but it don't pack the same punch as the fight scenes did in the first season. I don't know if it's Anthony Mackie, the choreography, or just the cinematography, but it looks weak especially during the fight with Quell.
Not the most engaging pilot. So many setups and characters introduced at once. Mystery seems to be fleeting, lingering around the corner but there's no clear direction yet where it would lead the viewers. Feels like the episode is setting up a lot of things for the whole season at once.
It's relieving to see the Alexandrians putting up a fight, hand-to-hand, against the zombie menace. But if all this is triggered by Rick's sudden madness, it begs the ultimate question: why the hell didn't he do it since the infestation begin?!
Rick just needs a few experienced fighters (Glenn, Michonne, Abraham, etc maybe Aaron too). Back in Season 6 episode 5, they should have stood in front of the gate and cut the walkers to bits one by one like they just did in this episode. It should have not cost anybody's life--not to mention the life of a woman dearest to Rick! No need to gather the zombies far away and causing unintended consequences. Maybe all this is a ruse by Rick, to teach the Alexandrians a will to fight. A will to power. But it doesn't make much sense considering the cost and risk he ultimately pays. Especially since Rick is ultra-protective and should be calculative enough to realize that.
Putting that aside, with the Wolves leader dead, and Jesse's two annoying kids also dead too, I think the show kinda putting off the tense too early and too easily. The annoying little kid poses a classic, albeit cliched, zombie movie annoyance (scared little kids who ruin everything) and his older brother (Ron) could've been some sort of a rival to Carl (or a potential enemy, I mean he already bears deep hatred to Carl and Rick). Ron could've helped Carl's interesting character development. Perhaps Ron can be a Shane to Carl, leaving the audience the feeling of, "this guy is gonna give trouble but we're not sure how and when." The same goes with the Wolves leader. The show spent quite a time to built their characters for the audience to expect more. They could've made an useful, interesting tension like we had with Shane.
But they're all dead now, so it's kinda a waste, I guess.
I usually always have many good things to say about The Expanse, and it saddens me that I don't have lots of good to say about this episode. It feels almost like filler episode. Like in the first episode, the scene with the girl and the animals took way too much time (more than 5 minutes) - it almost feels like a Walking Dead filler episode.
The action scene is nice, but the scene with Clarissa/Peaches on steroid have been very weirdly directed in the last 2 seasons. What happened to the fast-paced tiger brawl like when she was first introduced? The effect is really poorly done - they could've learned a thing or two from how Dennis Villeneuve directed Bene Gesserit's The Voice to evoke something that is visually strong.
The only redeeming point here is Drummer's crew interaction with the old guy, which makes a good dynamic and illustrate what's been going on since Marco's uprising. This is particularly important considering the world building has been very lackluster since Season 5, which is a disappointment. Considering in this final season they only have 6 episodes. I was expecting it to be more dense given the limited episode. Alas, this is what we got.
I still like the world building. I like the part where Kovacs take Ortega to the hospital. Patients have to wait in long lines unless you're filthy rich. Doctor keeps talking like a telemarketer while doing surgery, constantly asking you for new products. It's a classic play on neoliberal patients-as-consumers/doctors-as-producers where everything is measured by money. I like the tension between the police officers and the meth; also the meth lawyer and the actual meth elites. Private power vs public power. It's the good cyberpunk classic trope.
The episode spends less time on world building however, and starts to move the plot a bit faster. This can be either good or bad. The good side is a lot of things happen in a couple of minutes. The complex web of interplay of power (Dimitri's, Carnage's, Leung's, Hemingway) is seen. Kovacs and Ortega move fast from hospital to Bancroft estate to arena.
The bad side... the storywriting starts to show its weaker points. This is especially true with the cliffhanger of sister ex machina in the end of the episode. She appears from nowhere - no build-up, no character introduction save for a few flashbacks. Cliffhanger could be interesting and pose a lot of questions, but this one doesn't. Not to mention the cheesy entrance. The ninja swordplay action is a bit off with high tech as its background, and I'd guess this serve not much other than playing the classic cyberpunk ninja trope. Which, since the character hasn't been handled well enough, doesn't look really good. Same thing with Dimitri's entrance in Kovacs' original body which seems to serve the Rule of Cool.
The scenes in hospital is a bit forced. Kovacs pulled a Sherlock to the police sergeant Tanaka. I understand Envoys are meant to be highly perceptive, but the scenes don't show it well. It relies too much on the exposition - of "telling", instead of "showing". They could've handled it better. Vernon Elliot's character is also handled a bit too poorly; only sitting there watching operation and interupting it with no clear reason, waiting for Kovacs to activate his sidekick plotline.
Not bad but not good either.
The pacing seems to be off; every characters seem to talk a lot of things in a short amount of time, like they already prepared them as a speech. This especially look weird in the dialogue between Guts and Farnese. The scenes are jumping quickly between one person talking to another, without a moment of silence.
However the animation is slightly better than the first episode. CGI still can't handle expression well (look at some Farnese's expression and the soldier who Guts punched), but it's okay-ish. The adaptation from the manga is also good, unlike the abrupt lumping-it-all-together in episode one.
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.
The moment Daryl and Tara set their rogue plan in few episodes prior, we know Rick's plan - and TWD's plot - is already doomed. That's what this episode is basically: how we see Daryl and Tara ruin everything. Two things don't seem to make sense in ensuring that happens: 1) what are the purpose of the snipers "covering" Daryl and Tara? 2) How do the zombies even enter the compound through the small hole the truck caused? The apparent build up in previous episodes only lead up to nothing in this episode. This is only make worse with the weird resolve among The Scavengers when dealing with Rick. They have the advantages against Rick, yet they don't take any action and opt to change their mind that quickly. That two plot points lay the foundation for this episode, but they both open a glaring plot hole that it feels like the episode is just a way to go through to the "ultimate showdown".
Putting that aside, this is one decent episode for Eugene character development. His allegiance shows that in the end he is just an opportunist, selfish guy. He inhibits the "loser" character trope: a guy who sees themselves highly but lacking attention he wanted. Eugene keeps on seeing himself as the smarter guy, but nobody ever appreciated him. Negan sees through this and keep on praising him up. Negan made Eugene feels worthy. It's something Eugene's former teammate (Rick and co) never did. It only makes sense, out of his opportunistic character and him getting the praises he always wanted, that Eugene chooses to side with Negan. This is one development that has been consistent since Eugene's defection to Negan.
The fact that it makes the character annoys the viewer seems to show how convincing Eugene is; he's not a typical villain or dumb secondary character we usually see in horror flicks, he is more akin to that co-worker who overestimate their own capability and push everyone aside to rise up in office politics.
I quite liked that they treat the quippy one-liner spouter Adebayo as seen as the dumber person by other characters, which kinda shows how ridiculous it is to be quippy in serious situation - like a slap to MCU face. I also liked they slipped in the derogatory "cape shit" to refer to superheroes/supervillains.
But I guess the episode swings between jocular and serious moments a little too hard, and it's a bit difficult to get the tone they're trying to convey here. I get it that this show is an action comedy show, but it would've been great if they can maintain a tone a bit more consistently. The drama between the couple is a bit too overdone, as well as the dick joke between Vigilante and Peacemaker, and the part where Peacemaker had to jump from ledges. I guess it's a bit too much for a 45 minutes episodes - too little substance.
It's fine overall but I hope this doesn't end up as "Deadpool but DCEU".
This eps and the pilot should've been the same episode. It's only becoming quite clear where the episode is headed.
Two episodes so far, and they spent too much time on still shots seemingly to show character's expression and general mood of the situation. That could work if they've gone a bit further in the episodes, but we're still on eps. 2 where we don't know or don't care about each characters. There's no world-building as well. What we know so far about Winden is it's just a small town in the middle of forest with a nuclear plant heavily guarded where no significant crime has happened.
So that's a lot of time wasted.
First slow episode on The Expanse after a while. Melba's plot is uninteresting and is really dragged out, same with the story that revolves around the reverend. The tense between Holden and The Martian group is reckless and unconvincing - they are in the exact center of alien artifacts - of all things they could possibly do, they insist on capturing Holden? At least Holden's quest with his old friend is interesting, I love each conversation they are having, but the cut between each character's journey is distracting to say the least.
Mabel seems like a rather weak character with her daddy complex as her motivation. This episode spends quite a time to outline her story too, which is least interesting after all the tense and events that were packed tightly in previous episodes. This episode seems to be only interesting in the first half. Naomi's decision also seems to be resolved quite too fast. The Belter's side of the story is interesting, though how did they get onto the Ring first while Mars and Earth just let them slip away? Drummer's pessimism regarding the Belt also seems to be forgotten in favor of the Belter identity.
