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Post by President Ackbar mini™ on Sept 14, 2021 11:03:09 GMT -5
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Post by Weirdraptor mini™ on Sept 14, 2021 20:41:42 GMT -5
I watched my first Bob Ross episode last night, just to see how a guy sitting there painting managed to last 20-something seasons while shows like Firefly can't get past one. I... didn't dislike it. There was an odd allure.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 16, 2021 16:55:08 GMT -5
Finished Season 1 of Mr. Robot on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}I'd heard about this show, but also heard it was quite 'confusing' which was what had given me pause in checking it out. I even watched the trailer for Season 1 on YouTube and that didn't exactly tell me anything about the show or impress me, but instead just left me confused. However, I decided to take a chance (as I often do with shows I haven't seen on TV and can only watch if I buy them on DVD/Blu-ray). Yes, there was going to be the chance that I didn't enjoy it (and considering I'd bought both Seasons 1 and 2, that was going to be a costly risk that I took if I didn't end up liking the show - though they were part of a buy 2 for a cheaper price than normal deal), but the first episode of the show at least piqued my interest. I liked the atmosphere/tone that it set, it was well-directed and the characters were intriguing. The only real 'negatives' were that I didn't understand too much of the hacker jargon used and I found Rami Malek's voiceover to be very monotone. However, I'd watched Dexter, and in that show Michael C. Hall's voiceover was quite monotone too (monotone voiceovers always make me appreciate voiceovers in other shows where there's much more 'life' to them such as Kristen Bell's voiceovers in Gossip Girl or Veronica Mars). Speaking of, one of the things that stood out the most to me when watching the first episode was how there were a few similarities between Elliot Alderson in this show and the character of Dexter Morgan. You had the voiceover, you had the 'not good around people' personality, you had him taking down a bad guy (albeit not ending with his death but instead his arrest) and he even keeps trophies of his victims (instead of blood slides it's discs of his 'hacks' - not the literal kind of 'hacking', though), but after noticing these similarities, I was able to just roll with it. I'd seen much praise for Rami Malek in this role and so I was expecting to be impressed. I think one of the first things I ever saw him in was the TV series 24 and then I recognised him years later when he appeared in Breaking Dawn - Part 2, as he definitely stands out with his unique look. His most distinct feature - his eyes - were being used to full effect during his opening scene. While his monotone voice did kind of feel like the cure to insomnia at times, it also added to the darkly humourous moment when he shared what he had in common with the guy he'd hacked...and what he didn't. I always think that the introductory scene for the lead of a show should establish what sort of person they are, and this one did a good job of telling us what sort of person Elliot was. But it wasn't just the very strong opening scene; the episode as a whole really pulled me in. If I didn't already like Elliot, his likeability was certainly cemented when he rescued a poor pooch who was being mistreated by its owner (though I did wonder how the guy he blackmailed explained to his wife the sudden disappearance of their dog. I also wondered how they filmed the shot of the dog being pulled up into the air by the lead attached to its collar without it actually being hurt). Any rescuer of abused/mistreated/lost animals is instantly 'okay' in my book (that's why I liked Will Graham from the series Hannibal within the first episode of that show). At least now Elliot had something other than a fish to keep him company (though there was a funny moment in the fourth episode where we got to hear the fish 'speak'). Of course, Elliot wasn't always likeable and we got to see another side of him when he emotionally eviscerated a guy named Bill as part of a plan of attack against 'Evil Corp' (that was actually 'E Corp' but he always heard their name as 'Evil Corp', which the show illustrated by having characters actually say it/call it that when interacting with Elliot). Unlike some, I had no problem with the character of Angela from when she was introduced to the end of the episode. It became clear that she knew Elliot had 'issues' and was willing to be accommodating, but would also stand up for herself when he did more harm than good in trying to help her out. I could totally understand her frustrations when the head guy during the meeting had no interest in listening to her/dismissed her as someone who made mistakes (which she hadn't, actually). I instantly hated that guy (though, sadly, he seemed very 'real' as I see evidence day after day of guys who treat women the same way he treated Angela). While on the one hand it was nice to see Elliot step in to back her up, I could also see it from her perspective - that he needed to let her fail or succeed on her own and swooping in to 'save' her was not going to help anything. I'd only seen Portia Doubleday in the Carrie and Fantasy Island movie remakes prior to seeing her in this, and I wasn't quite sure what to make of her character here, but she showed she was no pushover and was actually capable of not only standing up for herself, but also taking on those who underestimated her. I would've liked to have seen more interaction between Angela and Elliot, as clearly there was quite a bit of history there, but it was nice that he was willing to hug her/be hugged by her in the first episode, after it'd been made clear how uncomfortable he was with such human interaction. Someone else who had an interesting dynamic with Elliot was the character of Darlene, played by Carly Chaikin (who was another one with a very distinctive face that I recognised, but I couldn't place where I'd seen her before until late into the first episode when it finally dawned on me that I'd seen her previously in the show Suburgatory where she played a 'self-absorbed, vacuous valley girl' (as the character's Wiki page describes her). She was also blonde there. So, basically she was playing a character here who was as different from that character as she could get. I saw that some people took an instant disliking to her, which I'm guessing was because of her few lines to Elliot during the first episode (which weren't overly friendly) coupled with the fact that she liked to make herself at home in his place (after seemingly having just met him) by appearing to break in, take showers there, etc. I personally didn't have much of a problem with her, but I was mainly just impressed with how Carly Chaikin was able to make Darlene so completely different from her Suburgatory character (though occasionally her voice would remind me of her). Things got interesting the more we saw her interact with Elliot culminating in episode 8 when it was revealed who she really was to him. Sadly, I'd been spoiled for it, but on the plus side I got to watch all the prior episodes with this knowledge and therefore noticed things that hinted at their relationship with each other before the onscreen reveal. What I hadn't been spoiled for, however, was that he snogged her - so that was kind of amusing, since I knew what her reaction to it would be before we saw he react (such a shame that he'd just started to feel feelings for Darlene...but they were the 'wrong' sort of feelings). There were actually a few big revelations during this episode. I wondered if I'd missed an episode when this one started with Angela and Darlene seemingly chummy with each other at ballet class (as we'd never seen them interact previously), but since I was already spoiled for the reveal, things weren't quite as shocking for me. I remembered there was the girl who adult Elliot saw during the fourth episode (which was like one big hallucination) and I thought that should've been a big clue as to who Darlene was. I'm bummed that the reveal wasn't a surprise for me, as I wonder how I would've reacted to the snogging scene if I hadn't known. Darlene being Elliot's sister certainly made all her bizarre interaction with him (ie. barging into his home, taking showers there, acting overly familiar with someone who we thought she'd only just met) suddenly make sense (and no wonder she freaked out when he saw her in the shower. It wasn't just some guy seeing her, but her brother). I do find her character interesting as well as her dynamics with both Angela and Elliot. I hope that we get to see more of both. Probably the least shocking revelation was that 'Mr. Robot' (who, amusingly, I saw some name 'Hobo Christian Slater'), the character who'd introduced Elliot to Darlene and wanted him to help them make their 'fsociety' hacker group take down the evil corporation Elliot worked for, was in fact not Mr. Robot (as his jacket claimed) but was actually a hallucination of Elliot's dead dad. Apparently there'd been loads of speculation early on during the series that there was going to be a Fight Club-like twist (I haven't seen that movie, but I know what it is), and I guess this was more or less that. Though what would've made it really hard for people to work out was that we'd finally seen Mr. Robot interacting with people other than Elliot. So how could others be seeing Elliot's hallucination? The answer being that Mr. Robot *was* Elliot and Elliot *was* Mr. Robot, so whenever one would talk to other characters, the other would fade into the background and when Elliot was talking to him, he was just interacting with himself (as was amusingly demonstrated when he had himself shoved up against a wall whilst in public and he was told by his ghost dad "You should get a Bluetooth headset so everyone thinks you're the local douche."). I'm not sure where they're going to go with the character now that Elliot knows who he is and I wonder if ghost dad will become like ghost Spike in Season 5 of Angel and just pester Elliot endlessly - seems like it might get stale after a while. Rami Malek certainly sold the hell out of all these revelations overwhelming Elliot and I understand why he won those accolades. As for Christian Slater, I thought he was fine in the role. I saw the characters of Tyrell Wellick and his wife, Joanna, described as 'Swedish vampires' elsewhere, which amused me, as they've certainly got the whole creepy vibe thing going on. I did roll my eyes that the writer/s felt they had to make Tyrell 'interesting' by having him beat up hobos (but at least he pays them!), doing it with a guy just to bug his phone, and then going home for some Fifty Shades action with his pregnant wife. Even more eyeroll-worthy was how unhinged he became, firing three guys from work for 'nothing' (other than they poked fun at employees 'going gay' to work their way to the top. I'm pretty sure they could've sued, couldn't they? Can people be fired without cause? Anyway, they got the last laugh since by the end of the season Tyrell's arse got fired too), watching a woman on the toilet and then choking her to death in a later episode. It was almost funny how he'd been made out to be so 'badass' early on, but in the end he was just weak, desperate and pretty pathetic actually. Heck, his creepy wife seemed calmer/cooler than him and seemed to hold their schemes together. She was certainly dedicated, as she even induced labor with a fork from the kitchen when the police were in the middle of questioning them about the woman Tyrell had offed. In her scene with Elliot in the final, she was especially creepy - and all without any gimmicks required. No shouting, no throwing things, just eerie calmness - THAT'S how you be an actually effective Swedish vampire, Tyrell! I think the one scene I didn't mind Tyrell was the one where Elliot brought him in on his plan to 'save the world'. I'd actually discovered this scene quite a while back due to the song that plays during it. 'Where Is My Mind?' was originally by the band Pixies, but then I heard a cover version of it in an episode of The Good Wife ages ago and immediately sought out that version on YouTube. I've listened to it countless times and I think it's safe to say I like it even more than the original version. I honestly don't want to hear any other versions of the song, as I can't imagine them being any better than this one. When I looked it up on YouTube I saw people commenting on how it'd been used in Mr. Robot and I found the scene. Of course, since this was quite some time ago I'd forgotten most of it, so I was looking forward to watching the scene play out within the actual episode. However, I was expecting the song to be used, but instead they just used an instrumental version with no singing...which I was a bit disappointed by, I have to say. Still, the music used in the scene made it all the more effective/one of the more memorable ones from the show. Other characters in the show either bored me or annoyed me. I didn't mind Shayla in the beginning, but I was spoiled for her death. The episode following her death started with a flashback to how she met Elliot and it turns out she more or less acted the same way Darlene was (ie. barging into his place, making herself at home, being somewhat rude, etc) except she didn't have the excuse of being his sister, so I wasn't that broken up over her demise. The one behind her death was FAR more annoying, though. If there's one thing I can't stand it's philosophizing monologues, but they're made even worse when they philosophizing villain monologues. I SO wanted the character of Fernando to STFU AND DIE...but, sadly, he seems like the type of villain character writers love to write for, so I don't foresee him being offed anytime soon (which is disappointing). Angela's b/f was entertaining to begin with due to us hearing what Elliot thought of him, but he just proved to be another jerk and I was glad she dumped his arse. All the rest weren't memorable enough to warrant mention (the one exception being BD Wong's character, Whiterose, who certainly made an impression...but I'm hoping they don't overuse that character). All in all, while I wasn't always sure what was going on, I think I got the gist of it most of the time. I even didn't mind that it often left you wondering what was real and what wasn't. I think they did a decent job of making it comprehensible if you paid close attention. I did think the show became slightly less interesting after the first episode, but it picked up again around episodes 5 & 6 and really got interesting by episode 8. Speaking of episodes, this show was totally doing my head in with the episode titles. The first episode, for example, was titled 'eps1.0_hellofriend.mov', but then the second episode was titled 'eps1.1_ones-and-zer0es.mpeg', the third episode was titled 'eps1.2_d3bug.mkv' and so on until the tenth episode/season final, which was titled 'eps1.9_zer0-day.avi' (episode 2 is ep 1? Episode 10 is ep 9? WTF?! Be less confusing with your episode titles next season, show!). The episodes were directed well and certainly had a lot of atmosphere, I wasn't really too bored and/or confused during it and I'm eager to watch more. I guess it's a good thing that I liked the show, since I'd already bought Season 2 and bought Season 3 after I started watching Season 1. Sometimes taking chances on shows I haven't seen before pay off...and this one one of those instances. I just hope we see Elliot doing more of what he did in the first episode - ie. taking down bad guys Dexter-style but with hacking in the computer sense rather than the literal sense. After all, he has a superhero-like name, his hoodie is practically his costume and he can even do a superhero stance/pose.
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Post by President Ackbar mini™ on Sept 18, 2021 12:28:23 GMT -5
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Post by President Ackbar mini™ on Sept 20, 2021 10:43:51 GMT -5
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 23, 2021 7:59:11 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of Mr. Robot on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}I'm discovering this show for the first time on Blu-ray and while I didn't follow everything that happened in Season 1, I still quite liked it. I'd heard Season 2 wasn't as good (or maybe I was thinking of Season 3, which I have yet to get to), so I went into the second season prepared to be disappointed. I think the most underwhelming episode was the extra-long two-part premiere. It didn't really interest me that much, though there were some intriguing parts. I liked seeing Darlene taking charge and the bit with Mr. Robot (aka 'Hobo Christian Slater') shooting Elliot in the head was certainly memorable. I was never attached to the character of Gideon, so him getting offed in Part 2 didn't particularly bother me. It was more a case of me thinking he hadn't actually died, but then when it became clear he had, my reaction was more or less "Huh". One unique thing about this show is the way Elliot addresses us, the audience, as his 'friend' who he talks to. He even made it personal, saying how he was hesitant to trust us again...though I could understand that feeling (having experienced more than one betrayal by so-called 'friends' in my lifetime). I was a bit bored at different points throughout the two episodes, but what kept me invested were the main characters such as Elliot, Darlene, Angela and Joanna Wellick (who'd been upgraded to 'regular' status this season. Can't say I missed Tyrell at all, as I always thought his wife was the more interesting of the pair, though I did wonder what happened to him considering the whole thing with the gun hidden in the popcorn last season. I was waiting for someone to learn it had been in there the whole time and be like, "Hey! I ate that popcorn! I hope that gun was clean!"). I find all four of them intriguing for different reasons. The trouble was not knowing what was reality/really happening and what Elliot was imagining happening (there was a disturbing moment that involved Elliot laughing at one point - it seemed so unnatural for him). I also had to get used to the fact that when we saw characters talking to Mr. Robot, it wasn't that they were actually talking to Hobo Christian Slater, but rather they were talking to Elliot (just as this other persona or whatever you want to call it). I wasn't that fussed on the guy who kept yammering on about Seinfeld (not a fan of that show, personally), but I didn't mind the guy with the dog - though, naturally, whenever an animal is introduced on a show like this, I automatically worry what harm might come to them. Speaking of dog harm, I wondered what happened to the pooch Elliot rescued last season. In the third episode, I didn't appreciate yet another show crapping all over those who believe in God (like when Elliot went on his rant and then realised he'd said it all out aloud to the group). It's become predictable at this point for shows to do this. You know what would be something new/fresh? Writing a character who believes in God but isn't made out to be intolerable/a caricature. The nastiest part of the episode, however, was the stuff involving Elliot vomiting up the pills he'd taken in the hope of suppressing Mr. Robot. It wasn't just that he vomited them up, but then he was crawling around in the vomit and taking the vomited up tablets again. That scene was the grossest thing to happen on this show thus far, though it was interesting seeing Elliot attempting to defy Mr. Robot 'owning' him. Thankfully, things seemed to improve by the fourth episode when we started with the flashback of how Elliot and Darlene first formed the idea for fsociety. I was just so happy to see him interacting with his sister before he'd gone 'crazy'. They were acting like real brother and sister. I was amused by the various knocks on the door Darlene did, then the gory movie she was watching and their casual conversation they were having, but what really stood out to me in this scene was the music playing in the background (especially in the second half of it), as it had a slight Star Wars-y vibe to it - like Jawas were going to appear at any moment - but at the same time was also somewhat unsettling. It definitely added to the mood/atmosphere of the scene (and that mask Darlene wore, which Elliot then wore for a while as he talked/formulated the plan, added to the disturbing feel of the scene...though Elliot's hair sticking up from the top of the mask made for a slightly amusing visual). It was a great scene and the first one this season that I really enjoyed. What made this episode even better was the montage of Elliot imagining himself making amends with everyone he'd wronged (including poor Bill from last season - who I was surprised to see was still alive, considering what Elliot had said to him made me think he probably would've gone home and immediately offed himself. Then again, this was only something Elliot was imagining, so who knows what really happened to Bill?). I liked seeing various characters (both regular and recurring) all together at a table in the middle of the street and watching the 'Evil Corp' building crumble. Not that I really cared about Tyrell, but it was interesting to see they managed to work him into this scene since they'd been playing it so coy with whether or not he was even still alive (actually, more interesting than the fate of Tyrell to me was wondering whether something was going on with the actor who played him. Was he busy with another project or didn't he get on with other certain cast members or something? Honestly, it reminded me of the first season Olivia Wilde received 'regular' status in the TV series House - she was absent from the majority of the episodes in that season. It seemed to be the same case here - only difference being that Martin Wallström was a regular from the very first season in this show. If 'regulars' get paid more than recurring of guest stars...then he was making the easiest money ever since, at most, he just provided a line over the phone or made a blink-and-you'd-miss-it appearance). Once again Elliot included us, the audience, by saying there'd even be a seat for us at the table (I saw some speculation that he was referring to his ghost dad, but I choose to believe he meant us/his 'friend'). In the fifth episode, I liked Joanna's speech about killing a person instantly versus giving them time to process why they're being killed. Once again I have to say how much more compelling a character I find her to be than Tyrell, who I know the show *wants* me to find compelling...but I just don't. I didn't think much of him last season (despite all the efforts to make him 'interesting') and this season he barely even appeared, so there was nothing really to change my mind about his character. What I was interested in was seeing some more interaction between Elliot and Angela (and the mention of Shayla's Elliot's fish). I think they're good together, but don't get nearly enough time as a pair onscreen. I also liked Angela and Darlene's interaction. Angela's proved herself quite the 'boss', able to take on various male characters who underestimated her, but Darlene was a formidable match for her. I enjoyed not only how different they were as characters (whilst also having a few similarities), but especially their different styles/dress sense. I also really liked what the show did with Angela this season. She showed determination/drive and gave as good as she got when someone dismissed her on insulted her. The best part, though, was her being brought into/included as part of the fsociety hacker group. Having different plotlines for every character can oftentimes lead to things seeming too 'disjointed' or whatever, so making her part of the gang helped her character not feel so separated from the main plotline. Episode 6 was where things REALLY got interesting/awesome. I'd seen a photo from the episode, which led me to believe there'd be some sort of hallucination/dream sequence involving Elliot, Darlene, their mother and their ghost dad in some sort of weird reality where things were most un- Mr. Robot-like. However, I was not prepared for this sitcom hallucination taking up a good percentage of the episode...but I was glad it did, as it was just so much FUN, including (but not limited to) Elliot's perpetual wide-eyed look of disbelief at everything going on, Carly Chaikin amusingly playing a version of Darlene that was more or less like her character from Suburgatory (her being in bright clothes and without the mane of wild hair was almost unsettling in its abnormality), the black humour of their mum punching Darlene's lights out not once, but twice (and to canned laughter, no less), the hilarious opening credits sequence/theme song (one part of it I found funny that others might not have taken so much notice of was Portia Doubleday's/Angela credit, where she's grieving her dead mother and then turns to camera trying to recompose herself but can't control her grief and breaks down again), everyone in the car except Elliot being nonchalant about things like Elliot hearing voices, the harm the parents caused their children (Elliot and Darlene's mum seemed to be a real piece of work - not only slugging Darlene twice, but also putting out a cigarette on her arm as she screamed), Mr. Robot acting so casual about there being a guy stuck in the boot (ie. trunk) and it turning out to be Tyrell who attempted to escape and then crashed into the fake background all whilst yelling how he was an important business man, and then to top things off...they included ALF! That was the most unexpected part for me, as I hadn't known about it beforehand. I was especially amused that Gideon got to make a brief appearance before once again dying - this time at the hands of Alf mowing him down and then casually driving over his corpse like it was just a speed bump. I saw some comments complaining that this whole segment of the episode went on 'too long', but I actually appreciated that it lasted as long as it did since it seems unlikely we'll ever return to this particular type of hallucination and it was just so OUT-THERE and funny that I wanted to soak up as much of it as possible before we left it behind. As great as this part of the episode was, the rest was thankfully not a letdown/disappointment after having so much fun. The whole part with Angela learning how to hack and then being sent in on her mission was pretty enthralling. Having her not be an expert at it after only a short/rushed lesson in hacking felt realistic. She was able to pick up a fair amount and do what needed to be done, but was also able to think on her feet when it seemed she'd been caught. Her rejecting the guy coming onto her and then distracting him when he seemed on the verge of figuring out what she was up to showed that she could handle the unexpected quite well. I love that she's a competent female character who's presented as smart/cunning, but not flawless/'perfect'. This was easily one of my favourite episodes of the show and possibly my favourite episode of this season. I think the next episode started with Joanna getting red paint thrown on her - this was one instance where yelling actually seemed warranted (unlike when Tyrell would do it). It was also the episode that revealed to us that Elliot had been in a psychiatric prison hospital all this season. I think I'd read a theory or two about that which kind of ruined the surprise. It also left me wondering if the interaction I'd enjoyed seeing him have with other characters felt like a 'cheat' now or not, since I had no idea what had really occurred and what hadn't (on the plus side...at least Elliot apologised to us, the audience, for the deception). Anyway, one thing that I know did occur was Angela rejecting the old guy (Price) who wanted her to 'celebrate' with him on his birthday. I don't like his character, so her responding with a simple blunt "No." amused me. I've now come to expect that after a big cliffhanger like that^, this show won't always pick up right where it left off. Sure enough, the next one was Elliot-free (can't say I missed his monotone voiceover, since it's rather sleep-inducing) and focused more on Darlene, fsociety and Angela. It was good to get more insight into Darlene's character. Things got out of hand when the woman who worked for 'Evil Corp' that they broke into the home of and held captive was revealed to be someone who took glee in destroying the lives of Darlene's family. Did she take things too far by zapping the woman in her pacemaker area with a taser? Probably, but all those condemning Darlene for this act seemed to have no problem with Tyrell murdering a woman last season or the fact that 'Evil Corp' is, you know, EVIL and they kind of had any retaliation coming to them. I was sad to see the dogs Darlene and the others freed last season wound up right back where they started - ie. a date with the incinerator (which Darlene and her b/f used to dispose of the body of the 'Evil Corp' woman). I did enjoy the end with Darlene taking a baseball bat to her b/f who'd seemingly betrayed her. I was surprised to see some people's reactions to Angela, like she was the worst human ever when she responded to an old friend of her father basically calling her a 'whore' with his implication of how she got where she was job-wise by responding that she was not only doing better than him through hard work, but that his job as a plumber meant he was literally cleaning shit for a living. I couldn't believe some people actually took offense at hearing this when, to me, it seemed pretty clear she was just aiming to hurt him personally like he'd intended to do to her with his lewd comment. Do I think she actually looks down her nose at ALL plumbers? No, I don't. I think she just said when she needed to so as to give as good as she got. I actually applauded her for her comeback and I think that any old guy who would more or less call his friend's daughter a 'whore' in public deserved whatever kind of retaliation the victim of his verbal abuse deemed fitting. If your go-to move is to accuse someone of sleeping their way to the top...then you don't deserve any sympathy. And one more notable thing with Angela this episode was her singing 'Everybody Wants to Rule the World'. Was it pitch-perfect? No, but that's what was actually refreshing about it. So many times in shows that feature a character singing karaoke, it seems like they're either comically awful at it or secretly a professional singer. In this instance, Angela was good, but not 'great'...and that's okay. Less okay was her seemingly showing interest in a random character played by Mark Moses (you can do better, Angela! A LOT better!). It was slightly strange seeing Angela with her hair all messy when usually it's in an immaculate tightly-pulled ponytail...but I guess this dishevelment showed where her character was at. I liked the way Angela's story in the episode intercut with what was going on with Darlene and the other hackers. The next couple of episodes kind of blended together in my mind. I remember that Elliot and his ghost dad seemed to be short-circuiting or something. Mr. Robot thought something was up and it was freaking him out a bit. I also recall the guy with the dog who I'd not-minded at the beginning of the season turned out to not be so nice after all (neither was the thing he said about his dog from what I can remember. I wasn't entirely following it, but I knew I wasn't worrying about the poor pooch for no reason. That worry turned out to be fully justified). Consequently, I ended up not-liking that dude, his goons or their beating up of Elliot. The whole chess thing also bored me (I remember earlier in the season Elliot and Mr. Robot were having a chess match and it took umpteen stalemates before Elliot realised he would never be able to defeat Mr. Robot - since they're the same person essentially). Meanwhile, the Seinfeld dude turned out to be useful in taking care of a bunch of bad dudes, though it was a bit too 'comic book-y' with how he just seemingly offed a bunch of people in public, but in actuality they were in the psychiatric prison hospital so I guess that explains it. We also got an explanation (and name!) for that random woman we'd seen in the background throughout the season who always seemed to be setting fire to things. Apparently she was called 'Hot Carla' and was the resident pyro. It was strange seeing her lighting a fire while in a prison yard since I thought prisons didn't like that sort of thing...but whatever. I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention the new character introduced this season who was an FBI agent - Dominique 'Dom' DiPierro, played by one of Meryl Streep's offspring. I wasn't familiar with Grace Gummer before watching this show, but I knew her sister from guest appearances on The Good Wife. One of the reasons why I'm only mentioning her now (so late into my review for the season) was because I was not fond of her character. Her stupid lollipop obsession was annoying as hell (I kinda wanted her to choke on one of those damn things) and it just felt like her 'quirkiness' was rather forced. Her character didn't hold my interest, and in fact anytime she was onscreen I kind of resented her taking away screentime from one of the characters I did care about. The only times she was even mildly interesting was when she got into a couple of different shootouts, but unfortunately she didn't wind up a casualty of either (I guess she's just that lucky). Wasting time on her talking to Amazon Alexa in the second-last episode of the season didn't do anything to endear her character to me and just felt like filler. Actually, that episode as a whole pretty much felt that way, as it alternated between being boring (Dom's scenes, old guy Price's scenes) and annoying (the mini-Angela who asked her rude/invasive questions like whether she'd ever cried during sex or thought about killing her father after Angela was kidnapped and taken to a room with a fish tank and outdated computer that the brat operated as she asked the same questions over and over until she got answers. I would've liked some more snarky answers from Angela and I was SO hoping she would see through the brat's BS story about them beating her if Angela didn't answer. I totally knew she was lying and it was fake bruising, but sadly grown-ups always get stupid around kids and believe what they say at face value. Sure enough, when Whiterose entered, she confirmed that the bruises were makeup and it sucked that Angela, who'd seemed so smart, was fooled/so gullible in this instance. I also grew tired of Whiterose this season and I hated the fact that the poor fish in the tank died). It felt like not much was achieved in this episode and the only mildly interesting thing was Elliot allowing Mr. Robot to take control. The last episode of the season wasn't a patch on the Season 1 final, I thought. While that one was interesting and felt satisfying, this one just felt like a lot of randomness. Joanna got beaten up, Tyrell resurfaced in the most unspectacular way imaginable after all that build-up surrounding what had happened to him, Dom questioned Darlene (after the shootout at the end of episode 10) and Elliot thought Tyrell was another figment of his imagination like Mr. Robot...until he shot Elliot for realsies. About the only interesting thing to occur in this episode was the phone call Tyrell made to Angela which made it seem like she'd given him the idea to shoot Elliot - though if that is indeed the case, that kind of destroys the Elliot/Angela relationship, which I would HATE, as they were good together. And where'd Tyrell professing his love for Elliot to Angela over the phone come from? How can he love Elliot when they've barely interacted? Of course, Angela said she loved Elliot too and I'm sure this automatically caused some people to see her as the 'enemy'/romantic rival for Elliot's affections because some watchers of the show can't resist a 'bad boy' and find Tyrell intriguing, even going so far as to be 'Tyrelliot' shippers, which... just why?? I see nothing between them, and even if there was, it'd be pretty one-sided (ie. Tyrell may have feelings for Elliot, but I've seen no evidence of his feelings being reciprocated). About the only 'good' thing to come out of the Elliot/Tyrell interaction this episode was seeing how Elliot appears to others when he's the Mr. Robot persona - I'd wondered about that. Anyway, these last two episodes were pretty disappointing...which I guess was a 'bookend' of sorts to the beginning of the season where I found the two-part premiere kind of disappointing. One of several things I think hurt this season was the extra lengthy episode runtimes. Last season the episodes seemed to be a bit shorter and thus made for tighter storytelling. Still, the show had other things that made this season not a complete waste. The characters of Elliot, Darlene and Angela kept me interested (though I wish Elliot's voiceovers weren't so monotone. Is the desire to put us to sleep? He's not so bad when he's talking with other characters, but when he's talking to us it's really hard to stay awake). I like that the two main female characters in this show are complex and have both strengths and weaknesses. I could've done without the addition of Dom, though. Now that Tyrell's back, I guess we're going to get much more of him. It'll be a shame if Joanna is neglected in favour of her far less interesting (at least to *me*, anyway) husband. The one thing this show DOES have going for it, above all else, is it certainly knows how to frame a shot. All throughout there has been interesting visuals, certain shots really stand out, the cinematography is visually striking and the show knows how to create moody atmosphere. While I didn't think much of the beginning and ending of Season 2, what was in between more or less kept me interested. Hopefully Season 3 can hold my interest throughout.
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Post by President Ackbar mini™ on Sept 23, 2021 11:21:25 GMT -5
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Post by Weirdraptor mini™ on Sept 23, 2021 13:12:36 GMT -5
Right now, I'm working on rewatching Kolchak: The Night Stalker, starring Darren McGavin. Man, I just wish there was more than one season of this show. It handled the tone of dark vs. fun a lot better than a lot of shows about hunting Monsters of the Week did later on. Then again, it also never got the chance to start sucking like The X-Files or Supernatural, so maybe I should just be thankful for that.
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Post by President Ackbar mini™ on Sept 28, 2021 11:58:13 GMT -5
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Post by President Ackbar mini™ on Oct 7, 2021 15:29:32 GMT -5
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Post by Hauntedknight87 on Oct 7, 2021 17:30:20 GMT -5
Watched the last episode of What If...?
It was a decent series.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 9, 2021 2:34:47 GMT -5
Finished Season 3 of Mr. Robot on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}I bought Season 3 not long after I'd bought Seasons 1 & 2 and started watching the first season. I was intrigued after the first episode and was fairly confident I'd remain interested in the series, so I got the third season on Blu-ray - which was slightly risky (because maybe my interest in the show might've lessened as I continued on with it), but luckily while there were some episodes I wasn't that into, on the whole I remained invested (so it's a good thing I got Season 3 when I did, as I was able to immediately go onto it as soon as I finished Season 2). This first episode of this season kicked off with the addition of Bobby Cannavale (who was made a regular from his very first appearance in this show. I think I last saw him in Boardwalk Empire) and I didn't even realise it was him to start with. The lighting made him appear quite different, plus he had a mustache, sticky-uppy hair and glasses on. While a part of me was sympathetic towards his character, Irving, being frustrated with the cashier (due to the semantics of redeeming the free milkshake he just qualified for, except it required making another separate trip to the Red Wheelbarrow BBQ restaurant for it to happen), I also felt sorry for her since she was just doing her job (and would've probably been fired if she'd been caught not obeying the rules) and this creepy guy resorted to thinly-veiled threats. I noticed Bobby Cannavale wasn't the only one made a regular this season. BD Wong, who portrays Whiterose, has also been upped to 'regular' status (considering I was kind of over that character by mid-Season 2, this wasn't exactly something I was happy to see) and apparently Whiterose has a ginormous underwater lair...or something? For a second it almost seemed like tiny people were inside a robot Elliot, since the camera emerged from his eye (which would mean the show's title was to be taken literally), but thankfully that wasn't actually the case. We soon learned that Angela had gotten Elliot home after his shooting at the end of last season, Rami Malek's voiceovering seemed less monotonous this season (still not exactly super-enthused with anything it was saying, but at least it wasn't as sleep-inducing) and I enjoyed all his scenes with Angela (especially getting some insight into her character when he said she didn't love the people who loved her, only the ones who didn't love her) after they kissed and she told him it was a mistake (which he admitted to us, the audience, 'hurt' quite a bit). The lighting in that scene was really moody, as was the lighting during his scene with Darlene at the Red Wheelbarrow BBQ restaurant (Hot Carla, the resident pyro, setting little red wheelbarrows on fire last season was apparently foreshadowing this restaurant's coming into being, I guess?). Speaking of Darlene, I liked seeing her interacting more with Elliot (though she was obviously paranoid about the Dark Army being out to get her - which wasn't entirely unfounded, since they were out to get her and thus her panic attack was warranted). What I really appreciated in this scene was Elliot wishing he had a mute button for life that he could use to silence annoying people - I wish for that same thing EVERY DAMN DAY, so I can totally understand wanting such a thing - and then he turned the volume back up once Darlene returned. I also liked Elliot telling one guy, who got carried away and put his hand on Elliot's shoulder, to not touch him and leave him alone - as I could totally relate to that too. Bobby Cannavale's character seemed to save Elliot and Darlene from the Dark Army whilst Angela was now apparently working for the Dark Army, and not only that, but she was also seemingly fully aware of the Mr. Robot side of Elliot's personality and able to tell when it was him as opposed to Elliot. I liked the moodiness of the scene where she talked with Mr. Robot and was only illuminated by candlelight after the blackout (it also gave Hobo Christian Slater someone else to interact with, since he was playing the scenes with Portia Doubleday rather than Rami Malek). It was interesting seeing these two interact and that she knew enough to tell Elliot apart from Mr. Robot, but it was also kind of sad how Angela was the one person Elliot thought he could trust (poor Darlene!) while at the same time she was going behind his back and conspiring with his ghost dad persona (who said he didn't trust her). The most intriguing part, however, was Angela talking about Whiterose's plans and how it meant turning everything back including the deaths of her mother and Elliot's father. I'd actually somewhat spoiled myself, having read theories of time travel or alternate dimensions prior to watching this season, so at this point I wasn't sure if Angela had just been mind-controlled by Whiterose and was fully deluded or whether this show was going to jump the shark by introducing sci-fi elements into it. Whether it was one or the other, the scene was still very compelling. There'd been a scene earlier on featuring Elliot monologuing to us, the audience, as he walked down a street and there were also tons of fliers up including characters in the show who had died, which Elliot felt responsible for. Then the power came back on at the end, and I liked the song that played combined with the creepy atmosphere. While I personally found the beginning of the second season to be a bit ho-hum, I quite liked the Season 3 premiere - probably the fact that there was a lot of Elliot/Darlene and Elliot/Angela interaction helped, as those dynamics were what I was interested in seeing more of. I didn’t like the second as much as first...though at least it included an INXS song (yay!) and...emoji heads (yay?). Elliot once again sank into sadness, I missed Angela not being in the episode, Joanna stood by Tyrell (goodness knows why, since he's not really worth it) on TV and then consequently got shot in the head by her jealous lover (as Roxette's 'Listen to Your Heart' played) who felt he'd been jerked around one too many times by her (I was spoiled for this death, so it wasn't so shocking...just more disappointing, as I thought Joanna was far more interesting than Tyrell, definitely scarier than him, and it seemed she was being disposed of simply to 'make room for' his return to the show after being absent for the majority of last season), and then we got the gratuitous autopsy scene with her skull cut open and brain exposed (was that really necessary? It's like the show was reveling in her death and enjoying it a bit too much), there was a good scene between Elliot and Darlene at the same location where we learned she was his sister back in Season 1 and here they talked about building a snowman they called Kevin McCallister who they named after the character from the Home Alone movies, she talks about how she's scared of Mr. Robot, Elliot's therapist meets Mr. Robot and he scares her too, the guy who kept going on and on about Elliot stealing his dog brings said dog (Flipper is her name) back to Elliot and says she's sick, probably dying and can shit all over his place now as he forcibly hands the dog over (causing her to whimper) and Elliot gives her water. How I wished he would punish that a-hole for the way he treated that poor pooch. Even though I thought the second episode was a step down from the Season 3 premiere, it was still less boring than the third episode which ended up being Tyrell-centric. His stupid Joker wannabe laugh was annoying when Mr. Robot was going to shoot him (in a flashback that showed us what happened after Elliot looked at that gun Darlene had stashed in the popcorn way back at the end of Season 1), but unfortunately the gun jammed and Tyrell used that as an excuse for why he should be spared. Worst of all, Mr. Robot listened to him (hasn't he heard of 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again'?) and spared his life. Then the rest of the episode was mostly just guest star Wallace Shawn asking Tyrell the same questions over and over (which became very irritating to hear), Tyrell growing a beard and shirtlessly cutting wood. As if he didn't already greatly annoy me, he also does this thing with his mouth when he's angry that makes him resemble the 'Smilers' from Season 5 of Doctor Who. Consequently, it's really hard to take him seriously whenever he gets mad and yells a lot/throws things - this is part of the reason I miss Joanna, as she was never so over-the-top. Tyrell seems to lack any subtlety, plus he's so desperate to please Elliot that even if he returned Tyrell's feelings (which I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know about, let alone reciprocate), the obsessiveness Tyrell displays would surely be a major turn-off. He's like crazy stalker levels of obsessed with Elliot. Sadly, there was only one Darlene scene and one Angela scene in this episode (about the only interesting thing to come out of this whole episode was Angela informing Tyrell that Elliot could indeed be a different person since Tyrell wasn't in on the whole Elliot/Mr. Robot split persona thing until he heard it from her). What a waste this episode was. At least the fourth episode was better, as it started with Darlene on the train, waking up, noticing her wallet missing, approaching the girl who was clearly guilty of stealing it (naturally, she denies doing so several times), things get weird, Darlene just wants the photo of her and Elliot that was in the wallet, then she says she stole from the thief first and confesses to basically everything including the bit about her murdering a woman last season, which doesn't seem like the smartest thing to do (on the plus side, hopefully her admittance of being a murderer scared the thief straight so she won't steal anymore). I liked the good dramatic scene we got between Elliot and Darlene, where she said how she was afraid of the Mr. Robot side of him (after he'd gotten rough with her previously) and then the two of them walking Flipper the dog together (it was a nice scene, even if it gave a sense of foreboding regarding Darlene's future when they made a 'vengeance pact' - ie. if one of them died, the other would seek bloody vengeance against the one who killed them). Someone else who Mr. Robot got rough with (but this time it was cheer-worthy) was Tyrell (seriously, Mr. Robot getting physical with/telling off Tyrell was one of the few times I've actually liked him), who's still annoying (and so is his angry mouth), doing his usual yelling/throwing a tantrum schtick (I SO miss Joanna) about their working together being 'his' operation, which Mr. Robot quickly corrected and also reminded him the only reason he was still even alive was because he allowed him to be by not pulling the trigger a second time on the gun he aimed at him (regretting that decision now, Mr. Robot?). Tyrell's such a fickle bitch, since one minute he was professing his love to Elliot and the next he was telling Mr. Robot that him and Elliot were donezo/would not be 'gods' together as planned. So much for their 'epic love', Tyrelliot shippers! Also, Tyrell doesn't know about his wife being dead. Still not fond of Dom, but I didn't mind her as much in her scene with Darlene at the bar. The lighting and the Chvrches song that was playing helped keep me interested, plus the fact that we got to hear Darlene talking more about herself than I think we ever had before. I could totally identify with what she had to say about her social life, etc. Unfortunately, she also wanted to learn more about Dom (which I was less interested in). Angela let her hair down this episode, I noticed. No more tight ponytail - I guess this is to show her turning towards the 'Dark Side' by working with Mr. Robot and Tyrell, calling Price to get Elliot fired and sticking Elliot with a needle to knock him out when he awoke/took over from Mr. Robot and saw the three conspiring together. Earlier she had a scene with Irving (who I can't say I'm that fond of. He seems too desperately 'quirky', like Dom when she was introduced) and having to not only watch/listen to him eating ribs, but also listen to him monologue about them was rather off-putting. Characters who love the sound of their own voice are pretty damn annoying. Also annoying? Whiterose and all the vague talk that seemed to hint at there being time travel involved in the evil scheme that was planned. Lastly, I found the song which played at the end of the episode (with Darlene and the polaroid she was so eager to get back from the thief at the start of the episode) to be super repetitive/annoying as well (which was a shame, since I liked the music playing in the earlier scene with Darlene and Dom). The fifth episode was one of those 'single take' episodes (which isn't really a single take, since there are hidden cuts, but it's presented as a single take). The Haunting of Hill House did an episode like this, and for me that's still the 'gold standard' of these types of episodes/the one which I compare all others to, but this episode of Mr. Robot did an admirable job. It certainly wasn't boring. There was a funny part near the beginning with Elliot saying to his annoying co-worker what he thought he was saying to us, the audience, not realising he was talking out loud (which, of course, offended his co-worker) and then he was happy because the guy stopped talking...except that didn't last, and Elliot remarked to us, the audience, how he spoke too soon as the guy continued chatting (clearly unable to stay mad at Elliot for long). Anyway, Elliot figures out he's getting fired (thanks, Angela!) and ducks into a conference room with a meeting going on, acting all nonchalant and like he's supposed to be there, making the guy in charge wait for him to finish doing stuff on his phone, then once the guy's ready to throw him out, Elliot sees dudes outside who're going to escort him from the building, so he kills time until they leave by getting all philosophical and stuff. Once he does eventually admit he's in the wrong place, he leaves and goes downstairs, where there are rioters outside. Darlene shows up and admits to him she's been working with the FBI. He naturally feels betrayed, but then just as he's left reeling from this news, she also tells him she saw Angela talking to Mr. Robot and clearly knew it was him. So, it's a double dose of betrayal for Elliot (though I still can't hate Darlene). The focus of the episode then shifts from Elliot to Angela, who's following Irving’s instructions as rioters destroy the 'Evil Corp' building, vandalizing and terrorizing (considering when this season of the show was made, it seems it predicted the future. Maybe there really *is* time travel involved in this show?). She manages to get card access to the section of the building where she doesn't belong, but then a security guy who she ends up sharing an elevator with gets suspicious and wants to get her checked out, so then she sics rioters onto him which allows her to slip away to do her thing (I thought it was interesting how the camera work was done in this scene, with us looking down on her and moving between/over walls). Once she's finished, she emerges and a woman’s there, which looks like it might cause problems, but a rioter in a mask also appears, the woman's clearly prepared as she pepper sprays him, but unfortunately for Angela, she ends up getting some in her eyes too (I remembered later that in the 'sitcom' from last season, her character got pepper sprayed by Elliot's mum...so I wonder if this was a reference to that or just a coincidence?), but still remembers to wipe everything down to clean off her fingerprints, she'd already made sure to wear gloves and also wipes the inside of mask that the rioter was wearing (to get the worst of the pepper spray out of it) before putting it on so she can slip by without being attacked by rioters (it's interesting, though, that when she doesn't have the mask on - clearly, no matter how much cleaning the inside of it she did, it still affected her eyes - she still seems to not get attacked. At least not much, anyway. I think there's one instance where she sort of is. Maybe Irving told them to leave a blonde with a tight ponytail alone...but not all of them? Or some just chose to ignore that? Or the fact that she hasn't got her hair in a ponytail in this instance confused them?). When she's on the phone with Irving, it was slightly amusing seeing her momentary look of panic when he wanted to make sure she'd done everything she was supposed to do, then he wants the name of the woman who saw her with her face uncovered and it sounds like he's going to 'take care' of her in the Mafia sense. At least Angela has enough consideration to check everyone's been evacuated from the building (since it's about to be blown up). She then encounters this hamburger man we've seen on a few occasions, who's always dressed in a hazmat suit, eating a hamburger, and rarely says anything. He gives her something in a bag and then the episode ends with her coming face to face with Elliot who asks her if she has something to tell him. For all the crap Portia Doubleday/Angela gets for 'not showing emotion' or whatever, I thought she DID show emotion (clearly feeling guilty) after she'd done her part (it's just that she tries to conceal it/regain composure, since she's obviously not someone who lets her emotions be seen by others - just like Elliot doesn't). This episode, thanks to the 'single take' style it was done in, managed to remain interesting throughout (even though quite a bit of it involved characters just walking from one location to another). Especially the Angela section, which kept me captivated. The sixth episode began with a flashback to young Angela (played by the same actress who played the brat dressed like a mini Angela at the end of last season and asked adult Angela a bunch of repetitive/annoying/intrusive questions. Obviously it was intentional to bring her back to play the actual kid version of Angela in this episode) at a party celebrating her mum's imminent death...or something. Or maybe it was her last birthday she was celebrating? Whatever, the point is...she's not long for this world and young Angela doesn't like the fact that there's a party for it, but Elliot's dad (who's still alive at this point in time) comes over to chat with her and talks about how in Back to the Future Marty encouraged his dad to ask out Lorraine to go to the dance and he asks her to promise that if he's not around in the future and Elliot needs a push, she'll do it for him (I guess this is what adult Angela's been trying to do?). Young Angela thinks partying whilst her mum is all ghostly pale doesn't make much sense, but after Mr. Robot gives her a pep talk, she's willing to give her sickly mum a chance (good casting with Angela's mum, as she does resemble Portia Doubleday). There's more vague talk of possible time travel and then we cut back to where last episode left off, with Elliot confronting Angela about what she's been up to behind his back. While he is understandably angry, he's apparently not SO angry as to leave her to the wolves, since he gets her into a room away from the rioters (though if they really wanted to, they could easily just break through the glass to get to the two of them). She’s acting eerily calm about prospect of blowing up the building and there's yet more vague referencing how everyone will be "fine" including their dead parents (okay, show, if you actually introduce time travel/alternate realities, that would be a total 'jump the shark' moment. On the other hand, if it's not that...then that just kind of seems like trolling the audience). She’s also calm on the train when a guy in a mask steals old ladies’ bags and then wants Angela's (that she was handed by hamburger man at the end of last episode), but it's too important to hand over and she won’t give it up (even though the oldies tell her to), and so she just stares the guy down until he runs off. I guess she really thinks that dying means nothing at this point since it'll all supposedly be 'undone' or whatever. Meanwhile, Elliot’s trying to stop the explosion and fighting himself/Mr. Robot (who keeps short-circuiting/giving us fuzzy TV vision) in the process, since Mr. Robot doesn't want him to stop the explosion. Then came a rather unexpected (and morbidly amusing) scene with Elliot resorting to throwing himself into walls, knocking himself in the head - which weirded out one passerby (reminded me of the scene from the movie Liar Liar where Jim Carrey's character kicks his own arse). Kudos to Rami Malek for really selling it, as it could've just looked ridiculous, but instead you laugh one second and then feel sorry for him the next as he's wrestling with himself both mentally and physically. He even types out messages to Mr. Robot on a computer, then eventually manages to convince him to help get them into the room he couldn’t get into by himself and Mr. Robot does whatever thing that’ll vent the fire (I think that's what he was doing?). Apart from the scene involving Elliot throwing himself into walls, there were two funny lines in the episode - one was him wondering why they always cut these things so goddamn close (when he was trying to prevent the explosion) and the other was Darlene commenting that she could see Angela's 'big-ass eye' through the peephole in the door when she knocked on it to confront her about the fact that she was fully prepared to blow up the building. She also calls Angela out on using Elliot's issues/sickness against him (ie. the fact that he's not always himself and Angela's fully aware of that/uses it to her advantage). They then both look at their phones and then the screen short-circuits again and I was wondering WTF that was about. At the end of the episode, Elliot sees on a TV outside that he may have saved the *one* 'Evil Corp' building...but 71 of their other buildings went kablooey instead (whoops). Boring bits in the episode included Price and Whiterose in a restaurant (I tuned out during all their scenes) and Dom (who's not very good at her job) finally finding Tyrell (who showed just how much of a wimp he actually is, despite acting 'tough' all the time, when he thought Irving was going to off him. I imagine Angela just shaking her head at this and saying, "I stared down a gun barrel and didn't flinch while you're acting like a little bitch.") as he ran out, yelling and warning everyone about the explosion (which he was partially responsible for) and then got arrested. I'm disappointed that Angela had a part to play in all the deaths, though she'd obviously been brainwashed by Whiterose. It was an unfair thing to do to her character, as she was presented as so intelligent in the first season and this has done permanent damage to her character. I *do* feel sorry for her, despite her part in it all. After a good first half of the season (especially the the last couple of episodes), this one felt pretty disappointing to me. I didn’t care about Seinfeld guy prattling on about Frasier being 'crap' and Knight Rider being 'Oscar-worthy' (as well as it’s theme song, which then predictably played at the start of the episode). It felt like the show's creator using this series to voice his own personal opinions on different TV shows and I just found it annoying (especially since I didn't agree). I also didn’t care about Price cussing out Whiterose in the purple/pink restaurant they both apparently like to frequent. They bore me just as much as Seinfeld guy does. Tyrell finally found out his wife was dead...and I just don't care about anything involving him since his wife was the only thing related to him that interested me. Darlene’s fellow hackers got set up as the masters of fsociety and being behind the 71 building explosions, then were framed/made to look like they offed themselves as Dom watched guys find them - big surprise, I didn't care. The only thing I did care about in this episode was Darlene finding Angela looking pretty out of it and clearly in denial about what she was a part of, as she stared at the TV where the building explosions were being shown and kept rewinding the footage so a collapsing building would go back to being 'fine' - which is what she kept maintaining everyone/everything would be. I found this to be a pretty boring episode. The eighth episode began with Elliot as a kid and his still alive dad at the movies. Apparently Elliot's still holding a grudge against his dad for pushing him out of that window, he still has his arm in a sling and not even being encouraged by his father to mix M&M's in with the popcorn can manage to cheer the kid up. His dad's coughing a lot, he asks how long Elliot's going to stay mad at him and whether he can ever forgive him, which Elliot answers in the negative, then his dad collapses and...Elliot just strips him of his jacket and walks off to go watch the movie by himself. I wondered how none of the adults surrounding him didn't bother to stop this kid literally stealing the clothing off the back of this clearly sick man in need of medical attention and walking away. It's like he had the ability to turn invisible. I mean, for all they knew he could've done something to his dad to make him collapse...and yet they just let him walk off. Useless moviegoers! At least the show did something interesting with the title card by having it appear as part of the movie young Elliot was watching. We then cut to adult Elliot talking about 'deletion', Darlene comes over and Elliot's feeling guilty about the 71 buildings he wasn't able to save from blowing up. Darlene tells him that Angela's spiraling and he needs to talk to her, but considering the part she played in the building explosions, he's all 'eff her'. She points out that Angela was there for him when he needed her, she then says he’s freaking her out/scaring her, they sit and talk and it was a good scene between them. I wished we could've had more brotherly/sisterly scenes like this. Elliot later goes to visit the houses of the two hackers who got blamed for blowing up the 71 buildings. The bro of the guy hacker thinks he was a terrorist and doesn’t care, while the parents of the girl hacker are moving, Elliot says their daughter was a good person and their remaining kid is hovering at the front door, eavesdropping. Before that, Elliot had bought a shit-ton of morphine tablets from a creepy dude with eyeshadow/lipstick who got him to undress (to check for a wire, I guess). Elliot goes to sit on the beach alone to take his morphine tablets and presumably off himself...but before he can, he's rudely interrupted by the eavesdropping kid brother of the girl hacker who has followed him. Elliot tells him to beat it and the kid claims he doesn’t know how to walk down the street/take a train or bus/how to get home (talk about useless). At this point he's already annoying me greatly and I wonder how he even made it to the beach since there's supposedly a curfew now and soldiers or whatever doing the rounds. He then makes himself more annoying by asking incessant questions and not leaving Elliot alone (I wouldn't have blamed Elliot for just downing a bunch of pills right there on the spot to get some peace and quiet). They go to the brat's house, he claims his parents are away and he can't get into the house, though I immediately knew he was lying, just like I knew the mini Angela from last season was lying when she claimed she'd be beaten if Angela didn't answer her questions - the lesson to be learned here is that you can never trust kids. They say/do whatever they have to to get what they want, and in this case it's annoying Elliot until he takes him to go see a movie. As if this turd wasn't annoying enough, we then have to hear more of what I presume is the show creator's opinions on movies (I was already sick of hearing that in the previous episode). Here he's speaking through Elliot and saying how The Martian starring Matt Damon 'looks like shit' and instead Elliot insists they see Back to the Future Part II instead (firstly, I hate it when characters in shows become more just a mouthpiece for the show writer/s and it's just them attempting to tell the audience what they think is 'right'/'good' and what's 'wrong'/'bad'. It's no longer the character talking at that point. Secondly... The Martian is actually AWESOME and BttF Pt II is the weakest of the trilogy, so I don't get this obsession Elliot/the show creator has with that movie whilst making out that The Martian is crap. I did appreciate Elliot's dig at Rotten Tomatoes, though. I'll never understand why anyone bases whether they see a movie or not on some website's opinions). There are lots of moviegoers dressed up as BttF characters and as much as I already hate the kid at this point, it's weird that Elliot thinks he'll have any hope of understanding the second film in the trilogy if he's never seen the first/any of them before. Naturally, the little snot complains the whole time, he whinges that Elliot's mixing M&M's with popcorn trick will ruin it, but after trying it, he admits it's not bad, once they go in to watch the movie, a guy who looks very much like Christopher Lloyd as Future Doc is sitting next to Elliot, and the ungrateful bastard who begged/blackmailed/tricked Elliot to take him to the movies gets up and leaves. Honestly, if I were Elliot, I would've just said "good riddance" and sat back to watch the movie in peace. Disappointingly, Elliot seems to be a glutton for punishment and actually goes looking for the turd, he eventually finds him at a mosque and the little shit not only had the nerve to say he wants to be left alone (oh, the irony), but then he royally pisses me off by yelling at Elliot (who has every right to yell back), saying he wishes he were dead (what an a-hole!) - to which Elliot, sadly, replies that he wishes that too about himself (no, Elliot, don't wish for yourself to die...wish for the little shit to!). I mean...just how ungrateful/rude/obnoxious is this prepubescent puke to say such a thing to someone who's only tried to help out his worthless arse? Unfortunately, they then chat and I get bored (since, really, Elliot should've just left him there). Anyway, they eventually return to the little punk's house, he proves my suspicions about him were correct and reveals to Elliot how easily he was duped, since he lets himself into the house, Elliot breaks down at the door, then the MOST ANNOYING KID EVER returns and gives him Dom’s fave thing to suck on (as if that makes up for the day of torture he's put Elliot through). Elliot then returns to the bro of the dead hacker guy and blackmails him into having a proper funeral for his bro, there's an Elliot voiceover about getting back deleted things, he retrieves Flipper the dog from the neighbour he left him with towards the start of the episode (when he was preparing to off himself) and finally brings himself to go talk to Angela. The scene with the two of them was extremely well done, I thought, as there's moody lighting and the contrast between Elliot in black with a red background and Angela in white with a black background was visually striking. They talk about when they were kids and making wishes, how they closed their eyes harder in the hope they came true, but the fact that they didn't wasn't really the point, as the wishing was the 'best part' - and this was the best part of the episode (along with the Elliot/Darlene scene towards the beginning). Everything in between was pretty blah thanks to the little shit making every scene with him unbearable. The episode ends with Elliot receiving an email from the hacker girl that she sent out before her death which is meant to help him undo the hack they did at the end of Season 1 and sent everything into chaos. In the ninth episode, we're treated to the sight of Angela as a hobo (so Hobo Christian Slater isn't the only one anymore), since she has gone full-blown crazypants now, has gross dirty dishes all around her place and looks to be one step away from storing her urine in jars. This contrasts with a flashback to her first working at the company she used to work at, where the old guy who was a dick to her in the very first episode of the show proves he was always a dick to her since upon meeting her he automatically dismisses her/thinks of her as just someone to fetch him coffee (though Price seems to take notice). She’s talking crazy to Elliot now, as well as to his fish, is all paranoid and it's sad to see what she's been reduced to. Tyrell's still a little bitch and he clearly plans to off Mr. Robot/Elliot (judging from his signature blue gloves, which he reserves for when he wants to murder people), but Mr. Robot tells him off. After chatting up Darlene at a bar, Dom brings her home only because Darlene said she wasn’t into girls (though she clarifies that she said she wasn't a lesbian and not that she wasn't into girls), cue sexytimes, then when Dom's seemingly still asleep, Darlene attempts to break into her safe, but gets caught in the act by Dom and then explains that she wants to undo the fsociety hack which she was a part of. Elliot kept mentioning a 'phase three', but there isn’t one. Instead he’s going after Whiterose who is currently listening to a glass player (providing extra creepy music in the background) whilst conspiring with a flunky/lover. While this wasn't that great an episode, at least it didn't feature any annoying little shits (which was a plus). In the tenth episode/Season 3 final, that annoying partner of Dom's (who was so obviously the 'leak' in the FBI all this time) is fully losing it, he takes Darlene and punches Dom's lights out (I should feel bad for her, and he annoys me especially...but, eh, I just can't seem to care), then the two women are headed for an untimely demise as he brings them to Irving in a barn ( Seinfeld guy's also there). I forget how Elliot winds up there as well, but he does, and if I hadn't known that Dom would live, I would've thought this may've been her death scene, as she's led out of the barn and Irving brandishes an axe. However, since I knew that she lived, it quickly became apparent this was going to be the death scene for the FBI leak, and sure enough, he gets axed to death. Considering how gratuitous poor Joanna's autopsy was, I'm surprised they actually showed restraint with the axing and focused on Dom's reaction to it rather than the impact on the guy's body as Irving went to town on him. Bobby Cannavale seems to revel in going OTT, and he certainly did so here. It's a bit cartoonish, but whatever. At least FBI leak is well and truly dead now. I also would've worried that Darlene was going to be a goner if I hadn't been spoiled for her survival too. Still, the scene where it looks like Seinfeld guy is going to be ordered to shoot her at the behest of Whiterose's flunky/lover was filled with tension. Both Carly Chaikin and Rami Malek did good solid work in this scene, totally selling it and making it seem like this may have been their final scene together. Luckily, Seinfeld guy ends up shooting the other bad guys (except for Whiterose's flunky/lover, who shoots himself after talking to Whiterose over the phone. I'm not sure what was going on there...I think their plan was foiled or something? Anyway, clearly flunky/lover had no more reason to live). While I was grateful that Darlene survived (it's not like I was ever even slightly worried for Elliot, because as 'ballsy' as this show may be at times, not even it would off its main character when there was another season to go), I've grown tired of the Seinfeld guy (who's name is apparently Leon) and his whole character who's able to be summed up with simply the word 'badass'. He can take out multiple guys with guns, not one of them manages to shoot him before he finishes them all off? There's no real 'complexity' to his character that I can see other than he kills people and feels a bit bad about some of them. Of course, he's not the one to off any of the other characters we were supposed to care about (like the guy and girl hackers who got blamed for the 71 building explosions - they got offed by someone else), so it means the audience won't hate Leon (how convenient), which they would've if he'd been the one to off them. I know others love his character, but I just see him as far too comic book-y in that all he does is act 'cool' and kill people (when he's not monologuing about TV shows - yet another character who I feel merely exists for the show creator to voice his own personal opinions about TV shows through). So, after Elliot, Darlene and Dom are saved, Dom decides to shit all over Darlene, blaming her for everything even though Dom's responsible for her own actions and slowness when it came to figuring things out. Take some damn responsibility, Dom! Ugh, as if I didn't dislike her enough already, she goes and does this to make me hate her even more. Why, oh why couldn't she have been axed to death too? Anyway, clearly she's a hypocrite, because after all the crap she accused Darlene of, she herself is going to be doing Irving's bidding now after he threatened her family (so get off your high horse, Dom! You have no moral high ground here). Meanwhile, poor Angela is sitting somewhere alone until Price shows up and chats with her, which leads her to the devastating revelation that everything she did was for nothing and all those people who died in the 71 buildings that exploded aren't coming back to life - nor are her mother or Elliot's father, which is why she did all this to start with. I can't help but feel sorry for her, since she was manipulated by Whiterose (though it feels like kind of a cheat that we never actually got to *see* what managed to convince her so thoroughly that bringing people back from the dead was possible for really reals). As if this isn't enough to deal with, Price then dumps another important piece of information on her in the most Darth Vaderiest way possible - he's her father. She's clearly struggling to process all this, but his only words of comfort are basically 'deal with it'. Wow, he's got real Father of the Year potential! On the train, Darlene and Elliot chat and she asks him why he mentioned the Kevin McCallister snowman they built together that one time and how random it was, he says it’s the day their dad pushed him out the window, but she says that's not what happened and he in fact jumped out the window (after swinging a baseball bat and smashing stuff when his dad turned up). So, now we know Elliot wasn't pushed...but as we get one answer, it's replaced with another question in the form of why he jumped and remembered it as him being pushed by his dad? Anyway, he and Mr. Robot come to some sort of 'understanding' and there are shots here that mirror their exchange at the end of the show's first episode at the train station. The episode ends with Elliot pushing the button to undo the fsociety hack...but as is always the way with season finals in this show, it ain't over until we get a post-credits scene and in this instance it's Darlene walking down the street...with a street walker (which seems obvious) and then that intolerable a-hole who likes to monologue philosophical BS (and who was responsible for killing Shayla in Season 1) turns up and is already annoying the crap out of me with his fur coat he's wearing. Ugh! WHY did his character have to be brought back? Where's Irving and his axe when we need it? Poor Darlene just can't catch a break! I think this season started better than last season, I liked having more scenes with Elliot/Darlene and enjoyed what ones we got of him with Angela too. I also thought it was interesting seeing his struggle with the Mr. Robot side of himself and that they eventually managed to 'work it out' more or less. However, there were still a few episodes I wasn't too fussed on this season and more than a few annoying characters, plus I'm still pissed that they unceremoniously offed Joanna whilst keeping Tyrell's petulant self around...but at least this season ended on a stronger note than last season's final two episodes. Now I only have Season 4/the final season left to watch and I'm not quite ready for it to be over yet (of course, I've already spoiled myself for some things that are going to happen - I couldn't help it). While I'm not always sure what's going on, and sometimes I'm bored/annoyed, the majority of the time this show manages to keep me intrigued.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 27, 2021 5:17:38 GMT -5
Finished Season 4/the final season of Mr. Robot on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}The 'Previously on' leads directly into this first episode of the final season, where we get a replay of that scene with Angela and Price/her dad from the end of last season. I think some of it's reused footage/dialogue, but some of it's new. He says Whiterose wanted to get to him, and that's why Angela was manipulated, she wants retribution, he tells her to live with it (which - spoiler alert! - won't be for that long), she then says she’s gonna get Whiterose back, Price tells her to shut-up and as she goes to walk off, she sees something, realises she’s screwed, he tells her he wishes she hadn't said what she said, she tells him she won't run and that he should go, then as he leaves it appears he was wearing a wire (hence why he didn't want her swearing revenge against Whiterose - who it would seem was listening in), which he takes off as he walks away and two masked goons walk over to Angela and one of them shoots her in the head (then again just to make sure she's dead dead and not just mostly dead). I'd known about this scene prior to watching it (spoiled myself), and I'd also read that Rami Malek cheated on Portia Doubleday while he was filming Bohemian Rhapsody (apparently they were together before that), which really sucks, since it obviously affected the show and the writing for her character - in this particular instance, Angela being killed off. I hate when r/l relationships between castmembers of shows ruin the dynamics of the characters that they play. It also majorly sucks that Angela's character got screwed over in the process. Yes, she did a bad thing in helping Whiterose that led to many deaths, but it's also clear she was manipulated/brainwashed into believing Whiterose could bring her mum (and Elliot's dad, as well as all the other dead people) back. Unfortunately, with this abrupt exit from the show, her character won't ever get to seek justice/payback for what Whiterose did to her and also to atone/redeem herself for her part in what happened. The worst part, however, is how her death seems to be more about how it affects the other characters than it is about her. When she's shot, it's from a distance and with the focus being on Price, then straight after we see him angry at Whiterose for killing his daughter and he says how he could've talked her out of seeking revenge, but Whiterose is having none of that. A disappointing end to a character who others didn't appreciate, but who I always thought was more complex than she might've first appeared. This was a major disservice to the character of Angela Moss and Portia Doubleday who portrayed her. After this^ scene, despite knowing it was coming, I was in kind of a bad mood and not really enjoying much that came after it, including Whiterose having a new female minion (since the last one offed himself in last season's final) who keeps finding ways to say that Elliot sucks, Whiterose telling said minion to send Elliot a message of what will happen if he doesn’t fall into line, then guest-star Jake Busey getting sent a thumb drive with footage of an underage girl he watched and told to do things he shouldn't, Mr. Robot's the one we see is blackmailing him rather than Elliot (I guess to give Christian Slater more screentime/more to do), he gets Jake Busey to bring the thumb drive to the train station, Elliot finally appears and talks with Jake Busey who wants the thumb drive gone and is clearly afraid of the Dark Army, but in the end he realises he's pretty screwed and shoots himself in the head - if only I cared (which I didn't). It's Christmas time, 'The Little Drummer Boy' song plays, then we're treated to the most random cameo ever in the form of Emmy Rossum appearing as one of the carolers (something else I was spoiled for). Other things going on include Tyrell now apparently being seen as a ‘hero’ of sorts, things have seemingly gone back to being good after Elliot undid the big hack, and most annoyingly, we never get to see Elliot’s, Mr. Robot’s or Darlene’s reactions to learning of Angela’s death - they just suddenly know about it, though it appears Darlene’s totally not coping, as she claims she's seen Angela, but Elliot's dismissive/thinks she's on something (pot calling kettle black much?) and he annoys me with his attitude towards Angela's death as he says to Darlene that they tried to help her/her death’s not their fault/she did it to herself. He seems pretty unsympathetic towards how Darlene's feeling and claims they have nothing to feel guilty about, then Darlene points out that she’s not the one who feels guilty. After she leaves, Mr. Robot says Elliot should’ve shown her the pic Whiterose sent of Angela with the gaping bullet wound in her forehead (there's a super-quick one frame shot of dead Angela that appears onscreen), but Elliot says it would've broken Darlene's heart (so, I guess he's not entirely without feeling - like he was appearing to be - after all). Such a shame that we never got to see the characters' reactions to learning of Angela's death, as again it seems her character gets shortchanged. Ugh, Dom’s storyline was something I couldn't care less about. Basically, she's not looking well and is paranoid about guys being after her, she thinks her mum's fixing her up with a hefty taxidermist named Janice but she’s only acting nice until she makes vulgar threats to Dom about where she's going to cut her mum's body. Further evidence that Darlene's not handling Angela's death well is shown by her hosting a party of sorts where everyone's doing drugs, including her...that is until she kicks everyone out and hugs the ballet shoes that were on the floor whilst breaking down (in reference to that one scene we saw of them at ballet together back in the first season, I'd wager). The episode ends with guys busting in on Elliot, sticking him with a heroin needle, and the showrunner himself makes a cameo as he says "Goodbye, friend." to Elliot who sees his father, mother and kid self saying they’re going away as he seemingly dies, then the end credits begin...but it's a fake-out! As then we see Elliot get stuck with something else (this time up his nose) that apparently revives him while Price is suddenly there and says in his best Agent Smith-to-Neo voice "Welcome back, Mr. Alderson.", and this time the really real end credits roll. Can't say I was overly fond of this episode considering what was done to Angela. Although it seems inevitable that shows these days will off a few 'regulars' in their final seasons, I could've maybe lived with her character being offed if it hadn't been done in such a flippant manner, but considering the way it happened, Angela Moss/Portia Doubleday (kudos to her for her final performance as well as throughout the series) deserved better. The second episode begins with a boring-arse voiceover from Price, while Whiterose is CGI’d into meeting famous figures like Tom Hanks was in Forrest Gump, then came another boring-arse scene with Elliot, Mr. Robot and Price, Mr. Robot voiceovers a bit (I guess they decided to give Rami Malek a break from the voiceovering and gave it to Hobo Christian Slater...though Rami's voiceovering had improved somewhat and wasn't as monotone/sleep-inducing as it was back in Season 1), and Price acknowledges Mr. Robot whilst walking past him (I always wonder about the logistics of Elliot's split personality and how he can be in one place and Mr. Robot be in another place - does Elliot just jump from place to place?). Thankfully, things pick up slightly after Elliot and Darlene get a call that their mum died, the woman talking to them about their mother's passing says how they must’ve felt so blessed to have her as a mum yadda yadda, and Darlene's like "Phfft!" (since we've seen all throughout the series that their mum was an abusive bitch), then she goes through the stuff their mum left, finds a fur coat, sees Star-Lord's Elliot’s Walkman, says that if he doesn’t want it, she'll have it, and she is clearly glad that their mum’s gone after way she treated them. Meanwhile, in Boringville, Dom explains what happened to her boss who was axed to death (but uses a cover story), then has to report back to Janice who is on the phone to her whilst going about her taxidermy business when a woman enters and throws down her dead white fluffball of a dog, saying she wants to be with her forever. Janice ain't happy Dom's only 90-something% sure she was convincing in telling the cover story...and I can't take Janice serious as a threat (Irving was more intimidating than her). Someone else who ain't happy is Darlene, who's mad when a guy says the safety deposit box that she and Elliot just learned their mum has went missing. This causes her to yell/swear a lot in public, not to mention Elliot's pissing both her and me off because he seemingly doesn't care about Angela being dead (but apparently he’s not over it), they then listen to a tape on the Walkman of the three of them as kids. Price and Whiterose continue to bore me to tears with every scene/conversation they have and the only thing that woke me up during their one in this episode was it ending with a big extravagant Christmas being knocked over/smashed, which left me wondering what caused it/who knocked it over (because I wasn't even paying attention and must've slept through it). There's one amusing moment in the episode involving Darlene and Elliot at the train station and someone in a snowman costume has been waiting for a train next to them, listening into their conversation regarding Angela's passing, then the snowman offers condolences regarding their friend before leaving. The episode ends with a scene of Elliot as a kid and his mum at 'Evil Corp' (I think? I'm not sure it's even still being referred to as that in the show anymore). On the whole, this was a pretty boring-arse episode (and considering there's the revelation that Elliot might have a third personality - that kind of tells you something). The third episode wasn't off to a great start with the boring-arse origins of Whiterose. Boo-hoo, your secret lover offed himself - so this is why you built a machine that may or may not make time travel and/or alternate realities possible? *yawn* Also boring/annoying is Vera (the dude we last saw accosting Darlene in the post-credits scene of last season's final), who's stuffing chickens (probably causing cross-contamination, since I don't think he washes his hands) and ends up killing a loyal flunky because some kid observed what Elliot was reacting to with Krista in a photo that was taken of them (she didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore and he was reacting not-well to it) while the flunky didn’t. Oh well, at least the flunky doesn't have to listen to anymore of Vera's monologues anymore, so death for him is probably a blessing. The most interesting parts of the episode involve Elliot and Darlene getting into a verbal fight, him being a dick to her by saying he should've never let her back into his life (back off, Elliot, you jerk!) and then him needing to get a thumb drive from a woman named Olivia at a bar. He wants to use the fact that she's an ex-drug addict against her (since if she's caught using again, she'll lose custody of her kid), but Mr. Robot is actually the voice of reason in this instance who thinks there's a better approach. This leads to Elliot attempting to chat her up...except he just stares at her awkwardly for a while before apologising, saying that her date who stood her up on Christmas sucks and apparently that's enough to win her over, as then they start chatting. She thinks he’s a bit crazy because he matter-of-factly mentions someone made him do heroine and such, her date eventually turns up but because she's surprisingly having a good time with Elliot, she pretends not to be the person the date's there to meet. Clearly she wants to leave with Elliot, but he just sits there, she leaves looking annoyed, but eventually he runs out to snog her so he can go home with her to get the thumb drive. I thought the music playing throughout their interaction was really good. Naturally, they go back to her place and do it, he wakes up and I guess is looking for the thumb drive or whatever, but ends up knocking over some pills in the bathroom. She catches him, but then instead of her kicking him out, they talk about/bond over wanting to off themselves (how romantic). She says that she thought he was crazy at the bar and admits she is too since she has a razor blade in a pill bottle to remind her to off herself if she hates herself enough to start using drugs again (most romantic date ever?). I thought the actress playing Olivia did a really good job with her performance, selling her tortured character's history, plus she had nice chemistry with Rami Malek. I guess they had to bring someone else in to be a 'love interest' of sorts for Elliot since Angela was no longer around. Speaking of 'love interests', although I'm sure the Tyrelliot shippers were over-the-moon, I personally was annoyed to see his stupid arse turn up to ruin things at the end of the episode, having busted into Elliot’s place (stalker that he is) and blurting out the plan to take down Whiterose while Elliot tried to shut him up and had to resort to writing a note saying that they were listening in before Tyrell finally shut his big fat mouth. So, while the beginning and ending more or less sucked, the middle part of this episode was at least decent (though I noted this episode that Hobo Christian Slater's voiceovering was actually starting to make me miss Rami Malek's voiceover - which I thought would never be possible). The fourth episode picks up where the previous one left off, only now it's from the POV of the guy sitting in the van and listening in on Elliot/Tyrell's conversation from the end of the last episode, but Tyrell's already run out, opened up the back of the van and whacks the dude, thinking he's dead (shouldn't Tyrell be a professional at killing people by now and therefore know he should always check for a pulse to make sure the person's dead? Well...I guess he sucks at pretty much everything else, so it should come as no surprise that he sucks at making sure people are dead dead - instead of just mostly dead - too). They eventually wind up in the back-arse of nowhere, go looking for directions, a woman reckons she's seen Tyrell somewhere before, he’s losing patience with her (now he knows how *I* feel whenever his character's onscreen) and she thinks he's from Big Brother. Anyway, they find the van is missing ( this is WHY you *always* check for a pulse, Tyrell! Rookie move), the woman continues to blather on, Mr. Robot's had enough and loses it at the woman (I wonder if she gets back at them by purposely giving them incorrect directions?) and they decide to hoof it to wherever. Meanwhile, Darlene's leaving an expletive-laden voice message for Elliot telling him how much he sucks as a brother and that she’s done with him after he told her to eff off during their fight in the previous episode (but then once she's let out all her anger, she calms down and re-records a new, much more civil voice message instead). She then goes to steal a car, but a drunk Santa catches her in the act, she tries to get herself out of this situation by eventually making a deal with drunk Santa to drive him home (since he's clearly in no condition to drive himself) if he doesn't turn her in. At first I thought he kept calling her 'Dalia' by mistake (which was the name of Carly Chaikin's character in Suburgatory), but disappointingly it appears I was mistaken and he was actually calling her 'Dolly' (missed opportunity to use her Suburgatory character's name here, guys!). As usual, Dom's boring and is currently chatting with someone online like they're teenagers until agreeing to meet after the reveal of it being a woman posing as guy who then turns out to be someone in a mask who drowns Dom in a bathtub...but unfortunately, it's only a hallucination. Oh, and how could I forget that at one point Dom's getting herself off by watching Darlene’s interrogation clip? Back in the only storyline this episode that actually interested me, Darlene and drunk Santa have a heart-to-heart, she talks about Elliot and the way he treated her, when they get to drunk Santa's house she thinks he's depressed and wanting to off himself, she doesn't want to leave him alone, mentioning about his wife being dead - but that’s not it at all, and he clarifies that his wife's on pain medication because she messed up her back putting up Christmas lights or whatever. He also realises the car they drove in isn't even his car. The boring-arse trio (if you count Mr. Robot as separate to Elliot) are trekking through the woods, Tyrell whines about Elliot never caring about him, which he admits to (heh), Elliot makes the baffling claim that Tyrell is the 'only one' who likes him (well, Darlene did like you until you told her to eff off, you jerk!), though at least he admits to Tyrell that he treated Darlene like crap, there are more boring Mr. Robot voiceovers (sorry I dissed your voiceovering back in Season 1, Elliot! Come back!), they stumble across the missing van which has crashed, when they go to check on the driver, Tyrell is so useless that he gets his fool self shot by the guy who first shot at Elliot and then shot himself. When Tyrell turns around to reveal the bullet wound he has no one to blame for but himself, I was amused at Elliot’s half-arsed "I can’t let you die.", Tyrell reckons he’s done (funny...I was done with you back in Season 1, Tyrell) and then says he’s just going to go for a walk and I think they just wanted the image of a figure in the middle of a misty road because it makes for an interesting visual and not because it made much sense at all. He stumbles through the woods and at first I thought the episode would end with him collapsing to the ground dead and an overhead shot of him or something, then I totally thought Darlene would be driving and hit Tyrell walking in middle of street...but no, instead he just frustratingly keeps on keeping on until he hears the sounds of a dying whale or something before coming across a purple/blue glowing light that he looks down at which leads to a white flash and into the end credits (with black text on a white background like the Season 5 final of Lost and Season 4 final of Supernatural both had). So...did Tyrell return to his home planet, disappear into a spaceship or jump into an alternate reality? I never gave two figs about his character, since he just appeared to do random shit/never seemed to have much direction. I feel certain viewers made him out to be this great character that he never actually was (I always found that the most interesting thing about him was actually his wife, who knew how to come across as creepy/intimidating), and it looks like even the showrunner didn't know what to do with his character/got bored of him. While the Tyrelliot shippers were no doubt devastated by this episode, I was glad to finally be rid of his character (which I knew was coming, having spoiled myself that he died - though I didn't know the specifics surrounding his demise). Anyway, hopefully his corpse will feed some hungry wolves or whatever. Have fun becoming wolf shit, Tyrell. The fifth episode begins with Elliot setting the van (and the Dark Army guy inside it) ablaze, Darlene finally enters Elliot's storyline (which I'd thought would happen at the end of the previous episode) and for a minute she thinks the van has crashed and exploded with Elliot inside it (judging by her reaction) all to the tune of 'Ode to Joy', which plays over the scene until there's almost a record scratch as Elliot appears, revealing himself to not be dead, and enters the car, with the flames reflected on the windows, as she says "It’s cool, dude. We don’t have to talk." before driving off - and that's the last piece of dialogue we hear any character utter until the end of the episode. It took me a while to work out this was going to be a special 'silent' episode without anyone talking and the only dialogue coming from phone ringtones, radios, etc (not even a news reporter on the TV at Dom’s home had sound). Did the Gentlemen from BtVS come to town and steal everyone's voices? I think what finally tipped me off that there was an 'oddness' to this episode was Darlene going for a prolonged period of time without dropping any F-bombs, especially once they got into high-tension situations and she was just panicking silently. Not to mention when Elliot was outdoing Tom Cruise as far as running goes, I would've thought he'd curse/say stuff out of exhaustion, but it especially became strange when the guy who hit him with his car didn't utter a word (almost as odd as Elliot seemingly being totally fine and continuing to evade the police who didn't yell out the usual "Stop! Police!" that happens in every scene I've watched with cops pursuing someone). Boring parts of the episode included Price, Krista, Dom and the taxidermist, Janice. Only the Elliot/Darlene stuff held my interest (I was amused to see Darlene's disguise as 'Dolores Haze', since it was so different to how she usually looked). There was a really neat shot of the two of them running down an orange staircase when they were making good their escape which I thought was pretty impressive, and I particularly appreciated that after having had a fight two episodes ago, it appeared Darlene and Elliot had made up, as the two of them held hands in their escape vehicle (apparently this was a callback to an earlier episode where Elliot reminded Darlene of when they were kids and how she'd have one of her 'episodes'/panic attacks, Elliot would tell her to squeeze his hand and she'd know he was there/everything was okay and real). Too bad Vera had to turn up at the end to ruin everything by accosting Krista and saying how it was time to talk. Ugh. On the whole, while this certainly wasn't on the same level as the BtVS episode 'Hush', it was an admirable effort...though they really should've found other ways around not having dialogue when logically there most definitely should've been in certain situations - they could've just cut to far away shots or something, so talking actually was happening but we just weren't close enough to hear it (I think there may have been one instance of this with Darlene and a security guard. I'm pretty sure they exchanged a few words when we were in Elliot's POV outside the building and weren't listening in, while the rest of the time the two avoided verbal exchanges). Ugh. The sixth episode begins with one of the worst things ever - ie. annoying villain monologuing. To make matters worse, Vera has chosen to wear a yellow jumpsuit... intentionally. Actually, the whole frickin' scene seems to be yellow as he tells Krista a long boring story of a bully, a "little bitch" (this has to have set some sort of record for the amount of times the word 'bitch' has been uttered within a single scene) and a baseball bat - which is what Krista is to him, as he wants to break down Elliot and build him up and own him like the 'little bitch' did to the bully who he came to hold the hand of in hospital after knocking all his teeth out. He seems like he's going to lose it at one point when he realises Krista was thinking that the 'little bitch' in the story was him, but all he does is keep. on. talking. Seriously, he NEVER SHUTS UP. This is the WORST kind of villain, as they're so in love with the sound of their own voice and hearing themselves spout philosophical BS as well as drawn-out monologues that could've reached the point in half the time - just as this story could've. Elsewhere, Janice sends Dom to go get Darlene’s phone to find Elliot and then orders her to kill Darlene (which would suck for her, since she and Elliot were back on good terms after he apologised for saying he should’ve never let her back in his life). Carly Chaikin gave an excellent performance, really selling Darlene thinking she was going to get shot whilst stuck in a bath tub. It was actually quite intense (even though I was pretty sure Darlene was going to survive), but Dom just ends up whacking her in the head instead, which causes a gushing head wound. Meanwhile, Elliot gets a peppermint mocha for Olivia, Mr. Robot says he's crossing a line...and, no, it's not the peppermint mocha he objects to, but rather the fact that Elliot's apparently drugged it - as his plan is to do what he originally intended back in the episode where he met Olivia, which was to threaten her with the loss of custody regarding her kid if she got caught using again. Why is he doing this? Because he needs her to do something for him in regards to his plot for taking down Whiterose (I think). He tells her about 'Evil Corp' (which I'm not sure is even still being referred to as 'Evil Corp' at this point) and what he wants her to do, then admits he drugged her to blackmail her into making the phone call that he requires. Elliot's done some pretty low things previously, but drugging a former drug addict - especially one who he'd gotten to trust him and made her feel like they had a connection - has to be the ABSOLUTE WORST thing he's done yet. It's kind of hard to like him after this, and I knew straight away she was going to use the razor in the pill bottle in her bathroom that she'd mentioned previously. Sure enough, she makes good on her promise to kill herself if she ever used again, but Elliot somehow manages to stop the bleeding, then explains to her how he can take down the company (might've been better to do this first before resorting to drugging and blackmail). In the end, she does what he wants, but is justifiably PISSED at him and rightfully says that although she may work for monsters, he *is* one and the worst kind at that (he doesn’t even know it). Once again, the actress playing Olivia did a really good job. It's a shame Elliot had to mess everything up between them. Back with Dom, she frees Darlene and then begs to be shot so that Janice will spare her family (because she thinks Janice is sane for some reason and won't hurt her family if she doesn't think Dom let Darlene go free?), but unfortunately Janice shows up during the middle of this and...just takes the gun away? I mean, sure, she's backed up by a couple of goons, but surely Dom or Darlene could've at least shot/wounded one or two of them before they did anything about it. Luckily, Darlene's wiped her phone before Janice can use it to find where Elliot is, so she can't afford to off her just yet until she gets it working again. How lame/useless must these bad guys be that they can't find a guy who's constantly wandering the streets? And why would the Dark Army be willing to off Darlene instead of use her as leverage against Elliot? Doesn't seem too bright. Krista seemingly caves and directs Vera to a file that will 'break' Elliot, who ends up getting kidnapped by Vera's goons at the end of the episode and thrown in the boot of a car (this seems to happen to Elliot quite a bit). The beginning of the seventh episode features the credits that usually appear over the start of each episode appearing just in the boot of the car Elliot was thrown into...so basically it's just boring blackness the whole time until the boot's finally opened and he's pulled out. Clearly this was used so no credits appeared over the rest of the episode. I remember Joss Whedon created an entire opening scene for his episode of BtVS titled 'The Body' just so he could get through the credits that appeared at the start of the episode without them actually distracting from anything important (so the whole scene was just a flashback). It seems that's what was going on here, as... ugh, it's going to be one of those types of episodes - ie. one SO pretentious that it has special 'Act One', 'Act Two', etc title cards for each segment of the episode. And worse than that, it's basically a whole episode of Vera's intolerable monologuing/philosophical BS. WHYYYYY?! Honestly, this episode was a struggle to sit through and the only thing that made it even slightly bearable was Mr. Robot having no time for Vera's BS, calling him out on it and insulting him. Speaking of insults, when one of Vera's cronies insults Mr. Robot's name, all I could think was "Your name's ' Peanut', a-hole. You got no business insulting anyone else's name EVER!". And speaking of 'ever'...it took FOREVER to get to the actual point of this episode, then it felt like ten minutes of going around in circles asking the same questions/saying the same things until FINALLY Krista just came right out and said what she should've said ages ago - which was that Elliot was molested by his dad when he was young and that's why he jumped out the window (to save Darlene, who was hidden in a closet). This was another reveal that I'd accidentally spoiled myself for, so it wasn't that big of a shock. All I could think was....were we supposed to like Vera because he gave Elliot a pep talk after? Because him being part of why this information came to light didn't in any way change my opinion of him and I still wanted him dead. Thankfully, Krista obliged (by knifing him in the back mid-speech, finally shutting the bastard up). It's the single best thing Krista's ever done (too bad she didn't kill his annoying cronies too). While Rami Malek did an excellent job conveying all the emotions Elliot was going through, I can't say this episode impressed me as much as it apparently did most other people (I think its 9.9/10 star rating on the IMDB page for the episode is especially ridiculous, as it's not even the 'best' episode of the season, let alone the show as a whole). It was just too far up its own arse and even verged into the unintentionally hilarious with the overdramatic music playing along with the thunderstorm going on. Then again, I felt the same way about 'The Body' (another 'unpopular' opinion of mine). I guess some people just lap this stuff up, but for me it was an episode focusing on mostly characters I didn't care about and it felt extremely self-indulgent on the showrunner's part. On the plus side, though, at least Vera's finally DEAD. Hallelujah! After the previous episode's giant wank-fest, it was good to finally get back to finding out what was happening with Darlene in this eighth episode. Unfortunately, just as we were rid of Vera, Janice replaced him as the villain who likes monologuing about random shit such as lightning creating the first city or somesuch as she's rolling out the torture tools she intends to use (this comes after the opening sequence which features Dom's family being grabbed as ‘It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ plays - which is kind of a plus, as it finally shut up the annoying little mouthy shits fighting over cards or whatever). Janice looks like she’s going to stab Darlene, but thankfully doesn't - plus, Darlene gets two great lines (one of which involves the word 'cvnt stick', while the other is a line I feel like saying quite often to people I'm not fond of) - and stabs Dom instead, saying she’ll be dead in 15 mins or so. Oh well. Janice is still wanting Elliot's location (the Dark Army really are bad at tracking people down, it seems...except when they aren't) and needs Darlene to undo the wiping of her phone, she refuses, so Janice is going to calls guys to start offing Dom’s fam (this is after Janice has been told Elliot’s not at the location he was supposed to be, which is due to him and Krista managing to get away after she stabbed Vera in the back. How I wish she'd offed his two cronies too, since they're clearly not very loyal cronies who just steal dead Vera's wallet and leave). Darlene eventually gave Elliot's location, but it's not her fault he isn't there. Janice thinks she's lying, but Dom says she can tell that Darlene’s not lying about not knowing where Elliot now is. When Janice calls her goons at Dom's house, they don’t answer - which Dom knows about, since said goons have been offed by other goons led by an Irish guy who Dom had rescue her family by getting them out of the house before the Dark Army goons showed up (that's what was going on at the start of the episode - a clear misdirect. Though if they were helping Dom's family, why tie them up, etc?). While Janice is preoccupied on the phone, one of her goons stands too close to Dom and she kicks him, he falls down, she grabs his gun, shoots him, then shoots Janice (HURRAY!) and then the goon behind her without looking - this is the MOST I’ve ever liked Dom (she’s doing remarkably well for someone with a knife in their lung). Darlene cuts herself and Dom free and Dom tells her to go to Elliot, though she doesn’t want to leave Dom. While all this has been happening, Elliot and Krista have gone to the police precinct, she wants to keep seeing him/having sessions with him after the big revelation from last episode, Mr. Robot reappears at the end to say he’s not the same as Elliot’s father who abused him, though still apologies and feels guilty, but is there for Elliot who breaks down and is unable to do whatever hack he was planning to do. There was something at the beginning of the episode involving kid Elliot hiding a key or whatever at a place he and kid Angela used to go (it was nice to see adult Angela in the 'Previously on' after her absence following the first episode of this season). The ninth episode begins with Mr. Robot, Elliot’s mum and Elliot's kid self talking about adult Elliot not knowing stuff till he’s ready and how Darlene can help with something or other. Elliot himself isn't in the first half of the episode, but we get to see quite a bit of Darlene interacting with Mr. Robot instead (which was refreshing). As usual, there's boring stuff with Whiterose and Price that I don't care about, though he had me going for a second when he was on the phone to Mr. Robot, attempting to convince him that Angela was still alive (even though I knew she was dead, I held out hope that maybe there was a chance - which is basically what Whiterose was trying to achieve here with Elliot). I thought there was a really neat transition from Mr. Robot to Elliot, where we hadn't seen Elliot up until this point, but as soon as Whiterose brought up Angela and tried to use her to manipulate him, it brought out Elliot. He's not buying Whiterose's BS, and with Darlene's help, the two of them steal all of Whiterose’s money (as well as other rich people’s money) to give to the poor. They basically pull a Robin Hood (interesting that no one took notice of Darlene doing the hack out in public whilst surrounded by a crowd). This is what Whiterose gets for not only trying to manipulate Elliot with a lie about Angela still being alive, but also he should've listened to his female minion who quit because Whiterose ignored her warnings and was acting stupid. It's good that Elliot and Darlene got revenge for Angela's murder by taking away the one thing Whiterose cared about and it was satisfying seeing Whiterose’s smugness wiped away. Darlene looked happy once the job was done, while Elliot looked relieved. Price gloats about it and gets one final dig in, saying "You didn’t lose, you just ran out of time” – which had to be the ultimate burn to Whiterose, who’s obsessed with time - before being gunned down in public as the price (no pun intended) for his insult. The episode ends with Whiterose's place being shot up by FBI and we just hear the sounds of it happening over the end credits. There was an 80's-style score during parts of this episode, which I liked, but other than that…meh. The tenth episode starts with Dom in hospital, recovering from having been stabbed by Janice, she doesn’t want to stay there and somehow manages to be allowed to go home, where she proceeds to listen to Faith Hill and eat a sad grilled cheese sandwich until Darlene finds her there, says she wants her to go away with her (since Dom's family is safe now), but Dom's just in permanent sad sack mode until Darlene loses it and finally kills Amazon Alexa after telling her off. It was a cheer-worthy moment, as I couldn't take another second of the most boring relationship on the show - ie. Dom & Alexa (Domlexa?). After getting the kick up the butt that she so desperately needed, Dom reluctantly agrees to go with Darlene, who shares a tearful goodbye with Elliot because he's not joining her, but he tells her that their hack they did is her win and she should be the one to distribute the money they stole from the rich to give to the poor (it shows what progress he's made when he's the one to instigate the hug between them), which is exactly what she does and it's the most happy I think we've seen Darlene, since she's got Dom with her as she does her Robin Hood thing. Once again I get bored by Leon who turns up with his tiresome movie critiques/recommendations. He freaks Dom out, since he doesn't really care that the last time they saw each other he offed several people in the barn where she was being held (she even has to remind him of it). She later runs into Irving and is scared shitless of him too, begging him not to hurt her and Darlene, but according to him, he and the Dark Army couldn't give two shits about them (nor Dom's family) anymore...but he does insist that she pay for a new book of his that he autographs for her. It felt like both he and Leon were just in this episode because the showrunner wanted to have them make one final appearance before the series was over (whether it really made sense/was necessary for them to show up or not). Darlene and Dom are going to go to Budapest until Dom changes her mind at the last second and wants to stay because of 'responsibilities' or whatever, this understandably upsets Darlene, who says she doesn’t do well alone, but Dom offers some half-hearted words of encouragement and this is the most emotional we’ve seen Darlene, I think (damn you, Dom, for breaking Darlene's heart! She deserves better than you!). Darlene’s about to hand over her plane ticket at the door but has a panic attack and leaves just as Dom (who's also changed her mind) runs to the line for the plane that Darlene was just standing in seconds ago. In the bathroom, a woman checks Darlene's okay and after recomposing herself, she says she's going to be fine. Meanwhile, Dom's on the plane, alone, and has fallen asleep with Irving's book and an empty chair next to her. I was surprised to see some people speculate that Dom was either dead or about to be dead (like Irving was a Bond villain and gave her an exploding book). Not quite as surprising was the fact that there were those who really crapped on this episode because *GASP* it focused on two women and their relationship with each other! I myself was fine with it and would take this episode over the one seemingly everybody loved/praised (ie. the seventh episode) ANY day. So this episode featured a Carly Rae Jepson song and was all about two women - big deal! It was a nice one and I appreciated how it flipped the usual cliché of two lovers running to meet up at the airport by having them NOT actual wind up together in the end (though my sympathies to the 'Domlene' shippers who didn't get what they'd hoped for...but, hey, neither did the Tyrelliot shippers, so take comfort in that). The eleventh episode picks up right where the ninth episode left off (so I guess this was happening whilst Darlene and Dom were doing their thing last episode) with Whiterose putting on lipstick for what feels like forever while the FBI are storming the place, guns ablazing, but then it appears Whiterose's goons have turned up and been victorious against the FBI dudes, all of whom are dead...except one...who’s then dead a minute later. We get a replay of the Elliot/Darlene goodbye scene from the tenth episode, he hugs her for longer than she'd planned to, I think, (she even says goodbye to Mr. Robot as she passes him when leaving) and then it's just music playing with slow-mo walking - firstly The Beach Boys' ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ and then some other song I wasn't familiar with - before Elliot finally has a big chat with Whiterose which seems to take up the majority of the episode. It seems Whiterose's shtick is to surround people with familiar things from their childhood, which was done previously with Angela and is also the case here with Elliot. There’s his old computer and even his fish Shayla gave him (I was mildly amused when he just casually mentioned Whiterose somehow managing to acquire Qwerty the fish, since one wonders just how that was accomplished), and basically their big convo boils down to Elliot thinking that Whiterose hates the world/blames it for everything, but then Whiterose gives a big speech about how that isn't the case at all and goes totally OTT with the shouting/yelling, turns the accusation around on Elliot and declares that he's the one who hates society (I mean, it's right there in the name 'fsociety', which Elliot did come up with, so Whiterose has a point). Elliot admits that he does think society sucks, but then says some people love him, so he’ll fight for them/the world or whatever. Honestly, I kind of zoned out during this drawn-out/seemingly neverending scene since it was pretty damn boring. I mean, really?? The big confrontation between the show's 'hero' and its 'Big Bad' is them just having a somewhat heated conversation? Lame! Whiterose says Elliot has to make a choice...and then commits suicide, the place starts shaking since the machine’s in use, Mr. Robot’s freaking out, Elliot plays a game on the old-timey computer which is asking a bunch of scenario questions about moving a barrel, going through a tunnel, a friend handing over a note that there's not enough lighting to read, leaving said friend behind and then the world ends/a new world is created...or something? Anyway, Elliot gets a do-over with the game, playing it again and this time lighting a match after receiving the note from the friend that asks him to stay and he does - this seems to work, but then the place keeps shaking and everything goes red for a while, then Elliot wakes up in seemingly an alternate reality where he's going to marry Angela (though they only talk over the computer because obviously the actors in r/l apparently couldn't stand to be in the same room as each other), he keeps talking about Angela finding out something, his dad’s alive (with subtle old age makeup on Hobo Christian Slater), Tyrell is too...but he resembles Hobo Christian Slater now with the facial hair, glasses and dressing like someone who's unemployed. 'Evil Corp' (which hasn't actually been called that pretty much this whole season, I don't think, and has just been called 'E Corp' like it was supposed to be all this time) is now 'F Corp' in this new reality, the hazmat suit-wearing hamburger-eating guy who's randomly appeared at various times shows up again at one point (he really doesn't seem to have much variance in his diet) and Alt-reality Elliot returns home to find his other self (from the normal reality) at his computer and asks him who he is. The 'Previously on' at the start of the twelfth episode showed things in a weird order, I noted, like Alt-reality Elliot (Alt-Realliot?) meeting normal Elliot before showing the machine causing everything to go all red (when actually it happened the other way around). Do your 'Previously on' clips in chronological order, show! Where we pick up this episode is with normal reality Elliot (Normal Realliot?) waking up in the middle of an empty place which is where the nuclear power plant was before the machine went off. I can't quite remember the order some of the events of this episode happen in (I blame the 'Previously on' for throwing me off with it's non-chronological order!), but I know that at one point he pays a visit to his dad's Mr. Robot store (but leaves, accidentally dropping his phone, before his dad comes out to see who his customer is), then he goes searching in his old neighbourhood, meets a girl on a bike (who I think was in the hallucination episode from the first season...except the actress has obviously aged since then, assuming it's the same one), he asks about his sister, Darlene, but Bike Girl says he doesn't have a sister, then his very much alive mum - who's over the other side of the street - calls out to him after he's done some lame hiding behind a bush (as if she wouldn't have been able to spot the obvious black-hoodied figure lurking there), tells him to come over, she notices he’s acting weird, he wonders where his bedroom is, finds that it's in a different part of his house (he wanted to check the window he jumped out of - that’s why he went searching for his room), he learns Angela’s also alive and he’s getting married to her, and I was amazed that his mum was able to hear things he said about Darlene, considering he was whispering and she's a fair distance away from him when he's muttering these things (she must have super-hearing). He has an awkward conversation with his mum where he asks if she or his dad ever hurt him, but she says 'no'. After he learns where Angela is, he goes to visit, a not-dead Price/her dad answers the door all " Mr. Anderson Mr. Alderson" like he's Agent Smith in The Matrix, then Angela's not-dead mum appears also, they notice he’s acting weird too, then for some reason they think he’s playing a game with their phone, but it’s the other Elliot on the line (making the phone call that he did to Angela’s mum last episode). Two Elliots talking apparently causes the alt-reality to shake, Elliot breaks something in the process, Angela's mum cuts her hand whilst picking up the pieces, neither Elliot nor Price seem that concerned or try to help her, he leaves and goes to the other Elliot’s place, uses his computer, finds sketches of himself, Darlene and other characters, then the camera goes weird, making a repetitive move over and over, shifting between Elliot, the keyboard and the computer screen. Then the soundtrack goes even weirder (it's actually quite bizarre and pretty annoying). Alt-Realliot enters, asking who Normal Realliot is and thus we’re back to where the last episode ended. Alt-Realliot wonders why Normal Reallliot looks like him, they talk about making up a comic book hacker vigilante character, Normal Realliot asks the other one if he wants to *be* him (since he has drawings of him), he answers 'no' because that Elliot is angry, alone and weird...then, amusingly, he apologises for just having kind of insulted him right to his face. Anyway, they get into fight, Alt-Realliot accidentally whacks his head on something hard in the most awkward-looking way possible, there's blood everywhere on the floor, Normal Realliot says he’s gonna call someone, then the phone rings and it's Angela’s saying thanks for a book or whatever that he was secretly planning to give her, he obviously misses her, the not-quite-dead-yet Alt-Realliot manages to remind Normal Realliot that he was going to call medical assistance, but talking to Angela has given him the brilliant idea to assume Alt-Realliot's identity, which he does after offing him so he can be with Angela. As if we hadn't already gotten enough of the weird/annoying music on the soundtrack in the actual episode, we're then subjected to it again over the end credits (which have a red background). GAH! Make it stop! It feels like it's taken twice as long as it probably should have to get here, but we're FINALLY at the thirteenth/series final episode, which picks up with Normal Realliot having offed Alt-Reallliot...and hopefully this is the last time I'll need to refer to them that way, as it was getting annoying. Also annoying is the weird music that apparently the showrunner fell in love with last episode, because it wasn't enough that we got it in that episode, but we get it again here too. It's like the most annoying background music he could've chosen to use. Mr. Robot has a talk with murderous Elliot, pointing out that he’s stealing dead Elliot’s life by marrying Angela, but murderous Elliot reckons he had no choice because the two of them apparently couldn't co-exist in the same reality (hence all the shaking/earthquakes that had occurred). Not content with murdering his alt-self and stealing his life/bride, Elliot then steals a wheelie thing for unpacking boxes from trucks, sticks the Elliot corpse in a box, tapes it up, wheels it out to the truck, but Officer Dom (who's in a police uniform instead of normal clothes, so apparently she's been demoted in this alt-reality) catches him having been parked for too long, turns out he's a crap liar, she's gonna give him ticket, she asks for his license, but when he gives it to her she says that's not who he is, she then notices the blood on the white cuff of the tuxedo he's wearing for the wedding, there's also blood seeping out the bottom of the box, so she pulls her gun and he immediately runs away, with her in pursuit...but I guess she's not really cut out for chasing perps, as he manages to lose her by running down to the subway and getting on a train - which is, of course, the familiar place he and Mr. Robot used to chat during Season 1. Speaking of, Mr. Robot's there, and no matter how much Elliot tries to leave him behind, he’s still there telling him Angela’s dead, his plan to steal other Elliot's life isn't going to work, etc. Elliot's final insult to Mr. Robot is telling him that all he ever wanted from him was to be left alone. He then goes to Coney Island for the wedding and the guests are dressed the same on each side (ie. the guys in suits, the women in identical red dresses), all wearing fsociety masks, Mr. Robot now seems to want to be helpful and tells Elliot some stuff that I can't recall, then Elliot sees Angela in the distance wearing her wedding dress, she runs away, he runs after her, and eventually when he catches up with her she talks to him from a distance (due to split screen, possibly? It seems Rami Malek and Portia Doubleday were SO on the outs with each other at this point that the show had to resort to going the same route as The Good Wife did when Julianna Margulies and Archie Panjabi could no longer tolerate being in the same scene, which is a shame. This final episode could've given us some closure with their characters if the actors could've actually acted with each other, but instead it looks like they may have filmed separately and that was spliced together along with footage from back in the first season which had to be used - though at least this proved one thing, which was that the showrunner must've had this scene in mind back when he started the show, since there was the two characters in wedding garb all the way back in that Season 1 hallucination episode). I'm not sure when exactly it happened, but at one point Elliot was seeing Mr. Robot everywhere (his face was on every other person - including kids and women, which just made for nightmare fuel) and then one ended up being Tyrell, who shot Elliot (and that's the last we see of him, thankfully). I can't remember how exactly, but Elliot eventually winds up in a therapy session with Krista, she tells him he’s not the 'real' Elliot, that he’s another persona (along with Mr. Robot, his mother and his kid self - all of whom served a different role/purpose) and that this Elliot we've been following all this time is actually the 'mastermind' persona who was created to help the 'real' Elliot deal with what happened to him as a kid (I think) and he got stuck in this 'prison' of sorts to keep him safe whilst the other personas dealt with shit - at least that's my understanding of what Krista was saying. While I mightn't have fully comprehended everything she said, I think I got the gist of it. She also mentions how everyone in this alt-reality are people who are dead in the actual really real reality (does this mean Dom did in fact die on that plane?), we learn the reason Darlene's not in this alt-reality was not because she was unimportant, but because she was THE MOST important one in his life, Elliot says he wants real Elliot's life, he wakes up in hospital (he was brought there after the machine had a meltdown or whatever), talks to Darlene, she knew he wasn’t the 'real' him all this time, he ends up going back into his mind prison or wherever, joins up with his other three family member personas, gives a big speech, they go to a movie theatre (presumably to watch Back to the Future Part II?), there's a tunnel of images speeding by (characters/moments from the show, I'm guessing, though I can hardly make any of them out), the theme song from the TV series Versailles plays as we exit through Elliot's eyeball and the last shot (which I was VERY happy about, as I'd been worried we were going to end the show before that with the persona fam in the movie theatre) is Darlene walking into frame, as we look at her from Elliot's perspective, and she finally gets to greet the 'real' Elliot for the first time in forever by saying, "Hello, Elliot." with the hint of a smile (which is clearly intended as a callback to the show beginning with Elliot's greeting of "Hello, friend." when he first spoke to us, the audience. It was funny how he still claimed that was a lame name to give us, the audience, and it was kind of neat how even Krista acknowledged us earlier when she was giving Elliot the big exposition dump). I liked one comment I read about how Darlene's signature heart-shaped glasses were a sort of representation of her love for Elliot. Carly Chaikin's praises must definitely be sung regarding not only her scenes in this episode, but also for her performance throughout this final season and basically the series as a whole. When watching Suburgatory, I had no idea she was capable of showing so much depth and raw emotion, but she really impressed me. I'm not sure I would've been able to stick with the show if not for her/Darlene. While I didn't know the details of how the show ended, I'd actually been somewhat spoiled (mostly unintentional) for things including the Elliot we'd been following all this time not being the 'real' Elliot. However, I didn't find it really 'ruined' things that much. I think if I'd been completely unspoiled, I would've been left wondering "WTF??" after this episode, but from reading comments and the odd vague spoiler, I was more or less able to figure out what was being said/revealed. I'd probably have to rewatch the show to double-check that everything that was said/revealed in this episode held up under scrutiny and didn't clash with anything we'd seen previously/there was no 'retconning'. I think it pretty much all fine/checked out, and I even found it fairly satisfying (I think Darlene being the final shot/getting the final line of the show helped a lot with that, since she'd become probably my favourite character in the show over the course of the four seasons). I wasn't even mad, like some people apparently were, that we didn't actually get to see nor hear from the 'real' Elliot. I didn't feel it was a 'cop-out' like some claimed. I figured he was basically like the 'Alt-Realliot' we'd seen in the past two episodes, personality-wise (ie. just basically 'normal'). While I'm sure this final episode probably wasn't what everyone was hoping for (I think a series final that pleases everyone is kind of impossible), I was fairly happy with it. This season as a whole, though, I was less fond of. I'd say the fourth/final season was a bit of a slog to get through, and part of the reason for that was because there were more episodes this season and that felt like just an excuse for some self-indulgence on the showrunner's part (though I didn't actually mind the 'silent' episode or the 'Domlene' episode like most seemed to, though I could've done without the Vera-monologuing-for-what-felt-like-forever episode - but clearly that one was 'important' given the revelation that came from it). I've seen some describe this show as 'depressing', though I personally never found it super-depressing (I've watched other shows that I've found more depressing than this one). Still, it's been an interesting journey, the show explored multiple personas in a really interesting way, and was pretty interesting - which I was grateful for, especially considering that I didn't know what I was getting into when I took a chance on the show by buying the first two seasons on Blu-ray and started watching them. It's certainly 'different'. I'd say the first Season was easily the best and the fourth was the 'worst' (though still better than certain other shows' final seasons), while I'm not sure what order I'd rank the second and third seasons. I'm inclined to say I liked Season 3 a bit more than Season 2. Anyway, I'm glad I took that chance on this show, which allowed me to see Rami Malek's acting that everyone was raving about (catch you in No Time to Die soon enough, Malek!) and, most importantly, I gained a newfound respect for Carly Chaikin as an actress. Even when I was bored during certain episodes, I had her character to keep me interested/entertained (especially since she had some of the best lines in the series) as well as the visual style of the show (which other shows could take notes from in how to compose visually interesting shots). This was quite a ride I went on, and I'm glad that it ended in a (mostly) satisfying/fulfilling way (which is something else other shows could take notes from). Considering I was hesitant to give it a go at first because people made out it was so 'confusing' and I thought I wouldn't be smart enough to understand it, in the end it really wasn't that hard to follow (most of the time) and the payoff for taking a chance on it proved rewarding. I think I'll miss this show. Goodbye, friend.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 29, 2021 18:12:15 GMT -5
Just finished Season 1, Part 1 of The Nevers on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}When I first learned of this show, I was excited to hear Joss Whedon was making a new series (as I hadn't even been aware that he was doing one until it had already reached the casting process). Of course, this was before all those accusations were made against him. While I didn't mind the movies he'd done, TV was where he could develop characters over the course of multiple seasons - which is what he really seemed to excel at. When I saw who had been cast for this show, I got even more excited since there were a bunch of names I recognised. The ones I was most happy about seeing included were Laura Donnelly (who I'd seen in guest-star or recurring roles on a few shows, but mostly knew as Jamie's sister, Jenny, from the TV series Outlander. I thought she was really great in that show, so I was pleased to see her score a lead role here), Eleanor Tomlinson (who I'd seen in a few things, but I mainly knew from playing Demelza in the TV series Poldark), Amy Manson (I think the last thing I saw her in was the TV series Once Upon A Time as Merida, but I'd seen her in a couple of other things and was first introduced to her in the second season of Being Human - the UK version) and Olivia Williams (who I last watched in the TV series Counterpart, where she was pretty great. I've liked her ever since I first saw her in the 1998 movie Rushmore. Whedon also worked with her previously on the TV series Dollhouse). Other actors' names I recognised from things I'd seen included Nick Frost, Tom Riley, Denis O’Hare, James Norton, Pip Torrens and Ben Chaplin. I don't think I was familiar with any of the other castings. So, this was a hell of a cast that the show had assembled. Then there was the fact that this was apparently going to be a sci-fi series and on HBO (which I was sure Whedon would take full advantage of since it allowed for more violence, cursing, sex/nudity, etc than he'd gotten to have in any of his other TV shows). Naturally, I was going to have to wait for it to be released on DVD/Blu-ray to get to see it, as it wasn't going to be on Free-to-air TV here, and I worried that perhaps it'd be one of those shows that for some reason never got released here (as there have been ones in the past that I've really wanted to see and for whatever reason they never put on DVD/Blu-ray where I am). Thankfully, though, the show *did* get released here finally and I was able to check it out. I'd read some spoilery stuff which gave me the gist of what the show was about (ie. set in Victorian London, but with sci-fi mixed in), so it wasn't a complete surprise when we saw glowing lights and a big honkin' alien spaceship in the first episode. What I was really eager to see, however, was what Laura Donnelly was like as a lead and Amy Manson's character (who looked interesting/somewhat freaky from the pics I'd seen of her). Within the first episode I was struck by how there were quite a few similarities regarding certain characters in this show and characters from Whedon's previous shows. For example, Laura Donnelly's character of Amalia True gave off certain Buffy vibes, I thought. She was that 'leader' type who appeared more or less stoic, but was not without human feelings or a sense of humour. I think she was maybe a bit more like Mal Reynolds from Firefly/ Serenity than Buffy Summers from BtVS in that she seemed like a character who'd been through stuff in her past that was SO bad that it had 'hardened' her and led to this tough exterior. I don't envy actresses who are cast as more or less the 'straight man' (or, in this case, 'straight woman') while others get to be the more 'colourful'/'comedic'/'crazy' ones, as oftentimes it seems these types of lead characters get labelled 'boring'/'the least interesting' simply because they're having to remain 'serious' the majority of the time. Thankfully, though, Donnelly was up to the task of conveying that True had lots of stuff going on underneath her somewhat 'stoic' exterior and that she wasn't just some stiff person. She was an awesome person who was smart, could kick arse, but wasn't 'perfect'/infallible either. She could sometimes be a bit rough around the edges, say/do things that we mightn't agree with and even be a bit hard to like at times, but Donnelly's performance kept her from being boring or annoying/unlikeable. What I particularly appreciated was that her co-lead was another female character (although I didn't recognise the name of the actress who played her, Ann Skelly, after looking at her IMDB list of credits, it turns out she's been in at least a couple of things I've seen...though I don't remember her from them) with the exceptional name of Penance Adair (if there's one thing I've come to expect from Whedon, it's that he usually gives the majority of his characters interesting/memorable names). Penance was another character where I could see some similarities between her and previous characters Whedon had created. At first I thought she had a somewhat Willow-esque vibe to her (since she appeared to be True's closest friend and they shared friendly banter, plus Penance would cover for True if she did things that drew unwanted attention), then I got some Kaylee vibes from her with her awkwardness and such, but then it felt like there was a bit of Fred from Angel in there too with Penance being someone who enjoyed inventing things - the first of which we saw was a prototype electric car that emerged from a horse-drawn carriage (I appreciated that it was clearly practical and not CGI'd like some other shows probably would've done. Another thing about Whedon is that he likes to go 'practical' with things if it can be achieved in such a way). Of course, there were aspects of her character which set her apart from the three I just mentioned, but what stood out the most was her dynamic with True. Donnelly and Skelly had wonderful chemistry which totally sold their characters' relationship/friendship right from the start. They made a great pair and I enjoyed their interaction. The third character who I thought resembled previous Whedon characters was that of Maladie (which, when I first read the name of, I thought would be pronounced 'Malady', but turns out it's actually closer to sounding like 'Melody' - except with an 'a' in place of the 'e') played by Amy Manson. Just from seeing pictures of her before I ever started watching the show, I could tell she was going to be an 'unhinged' type of character, then when she made her memorable first appearance in the episode (after having been mentioned/referred to a lot by other characters prior to her dramatic entrance) and started spouting 'crazy-speak', I thought this was going to be another character who Whedon got to enjoy writing insane person dialogue for (previously we'd had that with Drusilla in BtVS/ Angel and River Tam in Firefly/ Serenity). If there's one thing Whedon seems to enjoy writing (other than characters yelling over the top of each other), it's writing 'crazy-speak'. While it can get a bit annoying at times, I do give him credit for laying in secret/hidden stuff that will become relevant later on and it's not just writing a bunch of psychobabble (that makes no sense) just for the sake of it. What particularly stood out about Maladie was that she wasn't just some psycho killer person, but could also appear/sound somewhat 'sane' at times and also had a 'childlike' quality (albeit an insane one) on occasion too. It takes a skilled actress to play these types of characters and make them be something more than just a caricature who's spouting psychobabble, and I believe Amy Manson was just such an actress. I'd already seen her as a 'villain' of sorts in the UK version of Being Human (where she played a vampire character by the name of Daisy Hannigan-Spiteri - which another character in the show poked fun at), so I was familiar with her being able to portray a 'bad guy', but she brought so much depth/complexity to the role of Maladie where you could tell there was a lot going on with her than just what was being presented to us. She was clearly damaged, but thanks to Amy Manson's performance, I could see there was stuff about her we hadn't yet uncovered. Unlike some, I didn't find her character 'annoying'. Quite the opposite, actually, as I found hers to be one of the stand-out performances in the show. I already felt sorry for her character (despite the fact that her introduction in the show included her slitting a guy's throat) when we saw at the end of the first episode that she was seemingly the one person who remembered that glowing alien lights had been what gave people (who'd come to be known as 'Touched') their superpowers (referred to as 'Turns'). Clearly no one was going to believe her since it appeared she was already being hauled off to the nuthouse when she received her power/Turn (ie. the ability to derive power from pain), and I'd seen just enough little moments and amusing reactions from her character (in between all the murderous craziness) that endeared her to me. And although the show tried its hardest to make Amy Manson unattractive, I still managed to find her oddly entrancing/captivating to watch (I know, I'm a weirdo). Clearly her craziness didn't hamper her planning abilities, as she was able to pull off a pretty impressive plan for avoiding being hanged by assuming a different identity as a reporter and using her biggest fangirl as a decoy who wound up at the end of a rope in her place. I do wonder if I would have figured out that Maladie was Effie Boyle on my own had I not been spoiled for it (I think I probably would have, as Amy Manson has a certain face shape and it would've been too big of a coincidence for there to have been two women in the show who looked/sounded vaguely similar). Still, it made for a real 'Gotcha!' surprise ending to the fifth episode and I was glad they didn't actually off the real Maladie, as I think she's one of the most interesting - and certainly the most entertaining - characters in the show (I hope this role scores Amy Manson not only wider recognition, but also more roles in things as she was so great here and I'm thankful she got cast in the role which mightn't have been as awesome in the hands of a lesser actress). Another surprise (which I was also spoiled for), though I was less thrilled about it, was Eleanor Tomlinson being in so little of the show. Her character of Mary Brighton had a power/Turn where she could sing with the voice of an angel and emit a glowing light that showed other Touched people and drew them to her like a siren's song (I think that's what her power was, anyway). We didn't really learn too much about her, though it became clear that she wasn't just sweetness and (literal) light, as there was one scene where she confronted True about the fact that she wanted to bring in one of the Touched who worked for Maladie and also kidnapped Mary. Unfortunately, we'd barely scratched the surface of her character when she was so cruelly taken away (after having called other Touched people to a park where they were all gathering together) via being shot to death. And not just shot once either, but shot many times by a guy with a machine gun arm (Whedon always seems to reserve the cruelest deaths for the sweetest/most innocent characters in his shows). I don't know if this was always the plan - to off Mary so early into the series - or whether Eleanor Tomlinson found another gig or what (kudos to her, though, for managing to make Mary likeable and have us care enough about her in such a short space of time that her death had impact). It's a real shame she lasted such a short time in the show, as when the casting was announced I fully expected her to be a 'regular' who was in the show as much as the previous three actresses^ I mentioned (I couldn't believe my luck that actresses who I was a fan of - Donnelly, Manson and Tomlinson - were all going to be in the same show TOGETHER...but my joy at them sharing the screen was sadly short-lived). I did appreciate Maladie clarifying that she had nothing to do with Mary's death after almost everyone automatically suspected her just because she has homicidal tendencies (though it showed just how bizarre she was when she mentioned having had a little 'cuddle' with Mary in her casket). Mary's death was my biggest disappointment with the show, since it felt like a major waste of Eleanor Tomlinson (though, oddly, I see her credited for 9 episodes, which would suggest she has 6 more to appear in. Of course, it mightn't actually be accurate since I think IMDB pages can be edited by anyone. I guess we'll wait to see if she somehow makes a miraculous recovery or comes back a zombie or just appears in flashbacks). These^ were the four characters in the show who most interested me. The others (of which there were quite a lot) interested me somewhat less to varying degrees. Olivia Williams as Lavinia Bidlow didn't really stand out to me that much. I found her to be not that much different to the character she played in Dollhouse (though she seemed a bit more secretly evil here). The only times I really paid much attention to her was when she was interacting with her brother, Augie, as they seemed to have an interesting sibling relationship. Can't say I was that fond of Bonfire Annie whose power/Turn was, you guessed it, fireballs. She'd worked with Maladie in the beginning, but then apparently had enough of her crazy shit, changed her mind about joining True's crew (which she'd been opposed to previously) and turned up just as poor Mary was unceremoniously offed (and did this really odd thing, showing off her fire power for no real reason at the end of the episode), so it was kind of hard to not resent her presence in the group since she quite literally replaced Mary before she was even cold. I don't really know what purpose Annie serves other than to provide some literal firepower and to clash with True (the one good bit with her character was when she rudely sat in True's chair and was acting like she could take True on, but then she immediately leapt up out of the chair when she thought True was entering the room - but it turned out to just be Penance instead - thus showing that although she didn't want to admit it, clearly a part of her was intimidated by True...which she should be, since True kicks all kinds of arse). In the first episode they did this very sneaky thing of making us think a young girl named Primrose was just an ordinary kid (complete with bratty attitude), but then it was revealed that she was actually a GIANT and she brightened up once she had someone her own age (though obviously not her own size) to hang with, causing her to immediately drop the bratty attitude (thankfully). The effects used to show her bigness were a bit obvious at times, but other times were pretty seamless (one example being when her new friend, Myrtle - whose power/Turn is randomly speaking in other languages - leapt into Primrose's big arms. I thought that was pretty neat/well done and I liked the friendship between their characters...though this being a Whedon show, I half-expected expected Primrose to bite the dust at some point since she was like the classic 'gentle giant' type of character and he loves to off the most innocent types). The character of Lucy Best could break things/make things explode and halfway through the season was revealed to not be quite the good guy she appeared. At the very least she was involved with those who murdered Mary (even if she didn't know about the murderous plot). There was a good fight between her and True, but despite her efforts to excuse her actions with a sob story about how she accidentally killed her child using her power/Turn, I still wanted her to pay dearly for being involved with those who killed poor Mary. I would've been happy with Maladie offing her, but instead she was just sent packing (which was rather disappointing). I didn't mind the character of Harriet, though I did think her using her power/Turn to freeze grapes and then drop them on the ground, shattering them, was rather wasteful (hey, that's people's food that they could be eating!). Luckily, Penance was there to point out that Harriet would be the one to clean up the mess she'd made. As for the men in this show...I found them nowhere near as interesting as the women. Tom Riley (who I didn't even recognise without his beard from Da Vinci's Demons/didn't realise who he was until the end credits of the first episode and his name appeared, which caused me to cycle through my memory of all the characters who'd just been introduced until I landed on the one who I figured he must've played) was probably the one who stood out the most, as his character of Augie had a very similar vibe to Simon Tam from Firefly/ Serenity - ie. he at first appeared all very prim and proper, but then had a slightly awkward/dorkish quality to him - especially when interacting with Penance. It was hard not to draw parallels between their budding relationship and that of Simon/Kaylee. What made this one slightly different, though, was the fact that Augie had a power/Turn that allowed him to speak to and even control birds. I was amused when he was offended on the behalf of crows because the collective name for them is 'murder', which he resented and defended them against being called. Like with Simon, he stuck his foot in his mouth on several occasions when attempting to woo Penance, this led to mild arguments between them and by the end of the season he was firmly on True's side (even choosing to go with her instead of going with Penance when she wanted to save Maladie from her hanging because she thought it sent a bad message having one of the Touched being made a spectacle of with their very public execution - so this showed that although he cared for Penance, he wouldn't just blindly follow her/back her up with every decision that she made. Considering the execution led to a stampede with people injured, including Harriet, he obviously made the right call by not doing what Penance wanted/expected him to). His sister, Lavinia, forced him to stop seeing Penance for a short time, but luckily they did draw that out too long and he eventually told off his sister and confessed his feelings to Penance. I'd most recently seen James Norton in a mini-series on TV called The Trial of Christine Keeler and I have to say, his character of Hugo Swann in this show reminded me a lot of the character he played in that mini-series, with just some slight differences. As such, he didn't really leave that much of an impact, I found. He just seemed to be there to speak/act theatrically and fill the sex/nudity quota expected for a show on HBO. I guess we were supposed to be shocked when we learned he and the police detective in this show, Frank Mundi (who I thought had the name 'Monday' until I saw on the IMDB page for the show that wasn't quite it), had been involved together, but this revelation really didn't add much to the show nor made either character anymore interesting than they were prior to this news coming to light. Mundi was an okay character, though didn't really leave much of an impression on me either. The character of Horatio Cousens, who was the doctor in the show and one of the few male characters we saw who was Touched (he could heal wounds with a glowing light from his hands) was another character who was fine, but not that interesting really (he was having an affair with True, but the character who I enjoyed seeing him interact with the most was Maladie). I've seen others praise Pip Torrens in this show (who I knew from the series Poldark and one or two other things I'd seen him in), but I can't say I found him that impressive here. The reason for his character, Lord Massen, hating the Touched was because while everyone else received powers from the glowing alien lights, his poor daughter apparently died - worst power ever! Though for a while I'd thought his daughter became the giant, but I was mistaken (though from reading other comments, I wasn't the only one to make this mistake). The most interesting I found him was when he shared a one-on-one scene with True where they had an interesting way of working out who would want Mary dead, which involved them roleplaying. Even less impressive was the group of old farts who sat around discussing/complaining about women and how they seemed to make up the majority of the Touched/didn't deserve to have such power. They became tiresome pretty quickly, but then again they seemed very 'real' in that, sadly, there's still people even today who hold the same outdated views as these old fogies. Speaking of, Nick Frost played a character named the Beggar King and I guess he was supposed to be threatening, though I didn't think he was that scary even when he threatened to cut True's face, which she awesomely replied to, cool as a cucumber, wasn't even her face - which was elaborated on in the sixth/final episode of this 'Part 1' Blu-ray set. Regarding that episode, other than the impressive opening shot, I kind of disliked the whole first 'Act' (as this episode was split up into four separate 'Acts' with title cards for each) which made it appear as though we were watching a completely different show. It involved a glimpse into the future and involved a bunch of characters we didn't know nor had any connection with, yet we were clearly expected to *care* about what was happening with them...which I did not. I actually resented them because we were wasting so much time with their characters instead of the characters who we'd come to know in the first five episodes. It was kind of like the season finals for Dollhouse...but not as good as those episodes were - and I hadn't even been that big a fan of those either. The worst part was that so much time was spent on these strangers when the show could've easily reached the point it was trying to make in half the time - which was that there were some big alien creatures called Galanthi (we saw a big eye behind a glass ceiling), Claudia Black guest-starred playing a character referred to as Stripe (who we'd later learn the real name of is Zephyr Alexis Navine) and she ended up being sent back in time to inhabit the body of Molly, which was what True was called before she ever became Amalia True. Poor Molly, she clearly had a sucktastic life and it's no wonder when we were introduced to her in the first episode, she was committing suicide. You can't blame her given the shit she had to deal with (including a dick for a husband who she didn't want to marry, but was forced to, and a really shitty 'friend' who made her give up on the guy she actually wanted to be with, then gave her shit about it later, on top of firing her thanks to nepotism and, worst of all, after Molly lost two children, not only was her husband an a-hole about it, but so was her 'friend', throwing Molly's barrenness in her face - with friends like this, who needs enemies?). Alas, it apparently wasn't Molly's time to die, as the glowing alien lights brought her back with Zephyr having now taken over her body...which she didn't seem too happy about. It must be noted that Laura Donnelly really shone in this episode, as she was given so many emotions (and personalities) to convey/portray. A big speech she gave at one point was particularly well-performed, I thought, and I liked that we saw Zephyr adjusting to being in a new body that wasn't as strong as her original one (hence why we were treated to a montage including her working out/practicing fighting. This, coupled with all her knowledge she had on how to fight, explains why she can kick so much arse - so suck on that, haters who whined about her beating up men!) and having to deal with a new voice (Donnelly also did a really good job of mimicking Claudia Black's speech pattern/the sound of her voice, plus we saw how she learned to sound more 'proper' as part of the montage). There were some funny moments when her true (no pun intended) self would come out and she'd forget she was someone else now, and I particularly liked getting an explanation for why True could be so potty-mouthed - since Zephyr was, she continued being so even when it was frowned upon by certain folk/got her into trouble (one cheer-worthy moment was when she gave as good as she got from the woman who slapped her for cursing). It was a good way of showing how Molly became Amalia True (and her finally telling Penance her real name - after we learned characters from the future were apparently super-sensitive/paranoid about giving others their real names - was a nice moment between them, showing how much True/Molly/Zephyr now trusted Penance despite them having disagreements at times). However, the part of this episode that most interested me was getting to know what Maladie was like before she became Maladie. Her name was originally Sarah and she was actually a seemingly nice/friendly but unfortunately naïve girl who trusted the wrong person - in this case True/Molly/Zephyr - and thought they'd become friends, only for her 'friend' to throw her under the bus when it came to the evil doctor who liked to experiment on people (I forgot to mention his character, played by Denis O'Hare, when I was talking about the male characters in this show. I knew him from True Blood and a few other things, but he seemed kind of out of place in this show and felt out-of-place/too 'modern' in the way he spoke/acted, I thought - which was odd considering there were characters in this show who actually were from the future and felt less out-of-place than him). I'd felt especially sorry for one Touched woman who could cause things to float by touching them and wound up getting lobotomized by the evil doc. Anyway, it was actually quite upsetting to see poor Sarah betrayed by her new 'friend' and it became completely understandable why she harbored a grudge against True/became quite insane (I appreciate the show not shying away from having its lead character be seen in a negative light here with what she'd done, as some shows wouldn't want to do that). Once again I must praise Amy Manson, as she played the much more normal Sarah just as well as she played the psychotic Maladie. I really enjoyed seeing how she originally was and it made me feel all the more sorry for her regarding what she became. This episode started out pretty confusing and I wasn't that into it, but by the end things were just starting to get really interesting...and now we have to wait until who-knows-when for 'Part 2' of the Season 1, which is majorly frustrating. Apart from the previously mentioned electric car, there were plenty of other inventions that Penance created - a lot which had some hiccups and all of which were interesting to see (props to...er...the props department). Her annoyance with her prototypes provided quite a bit of amusement. The fights in the show were also well done, though none particularly stood out except for one - which was a major achievement for a TV show, I thought, since I hadn't really seen anything like it before. This fight was in the third episode and involved True taking on a big hulking bad guy who could walk on water. The visuals were stunning, the physics of fighting underwater with someone who was on top of the water were mind-boggling and Laura Donnelly once again impressed. It was a really exciting/awesome to watch this fight scene that I'm sure a lot of effort was put into. Very impressive. I also liked the setting for this show being in Victorian London, all the period costumes, but mixed in with some 'steampunk'/sci-fi elements (but not *too* much sci-fi - that's why I didn't like the beginning of the final episode, because I'd just grown accustomed to being in the past and I felt that if the show had wanted to tell a fully sci-fi tale set in the future...then they should've just made that show as a separate one and left this one where it started out at, as I wanted to remain firmly in the past with the Victorian London setting, costumes and characters). With so few episodes and so much story to tell, it did feel on occasion like there was just too much being crammed into the episodes (especially the last one) while at the same time it sometimes felt like there wasn't a whole lot going on. It's weird, but it it seemed as though there was 'too much' and 'too little' at the same time, like they thought they'd have more episodes to tell the story but then had the episode order shortened or something else happened. I'm not sure if Whedon being booted from the show he created had anything to do with that or not. Speaking of, it's really unfairly harsh to judge/criticise this show solely based on its creator (which it became clear some people were guilty of doing). Whatever he did or didn't do in no way should lessen the quality of the shows and movies that he's made. If you thought his shows/movies were great before, there's no reason to change your opinion of them now just because of the accusations made against him. Shows/movies should be considered separately from the person who made them and not punished for the creator's r/l issues. While I still think this series is in the process of finding its footing and working out its own identity to separate it from Whedon's previous works, I think it showed a lot of promise in these six episodes and the potential is there for it to become its own thing/something great...I just hope whoever takes Whedon's place being in charge of The Nevers doesn't drop the ball/fail this show, as it really does deserve to be checked out since it's something quite different to a lot of other shows at the moment. I look forward to watching more of it...whenever that may be.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Nov 3, 2021 3:37:39 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of Pennyworth on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}When this show was first announced, it seemed that most people reacted to the news with skepticism ("A show about Batman's butler??"), but having seen how much Michael Caine was able to bring to the role in The Dark Knight Trilogy and also the fact that certain other TV prequels had actually worked out well (such as Hannibal, and to a lesser extent Gotham - which was created by the same people behind this show), I thought that this series could possibly work at fleshing out the character of Alfred if done right. So it didn't come as a total surprise to me that Season 1 was actually quite good, as the show wisely decided to be its own thing and not rely so heavily on the 'comic book' aspect of it all. There was certainly more violence and cussing than I was expecting, but one thing the first season did so well was establishing Alfred's character as someone who would not just be thought of as 'Batman's future butler', but was his *own* character with strengths, weaknesses and depth. It was funny that he didn't really get along with Thomas Wayne that well, nor did he seem particularly close to Martha either. Obviously him developing a friendship with both is character development we'll later see. Alfred 'ghosting' the Queen/dodging her calls (after the two boffed last season) was somewhat amusing, but I felt a bit bad for her too. It was worth it, though, for when she finally managed to catch up with him. Speaking of Her Majesty, it kind of amused me that she wore her crown wherever she'd go (then again...why wouldn't she? Seems some people needed reminding just who they were talking to, especially given that several characters seemed to talk to her like she wasn't, you know, THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND. In regards to that, I found it a bit odd how she wound up in certain situations (with certain unsavory characters) which I didn't think she'd ever be put in. There's a definite 'comic book' feel to this show's version of the Queen, and I don't think we're really meant to question the sorts of shenanigans that go on around her when she's in the room. It was weird to see her watching guys beating each other up, hearing people yelling/cussing in her presence and threats being made (then again, she got kidnapped last season). It was almost funny to see her sharing drinks with the other main characters in the show, like she was just part of the gang. I wouldn't put it past this show to have her shooting some bad guys next season. Alfred wasn't the best when it came to how to treat the ladies on the show. Not just the Queen, but also poor Sandra who thought the two of them were more than they were as evidenced by the fact that he was willing to leave her behind to go to America. But that's Alfred for ya - breaking hearts all over London. If he's not trying to escape you by going to America, he's ignoring your calls. I find it weird that some people have theorised that Alfred would have a bastard child with Martha Kane that'd end up being Bruce - wouldn't that kind of ruin both characters? Here's hoping the show never goes there. Of course, Alfred *is* prone to questionable actions at times. On top of boffing the Queen, he also hooked up with the wife, Melanie Troy (played by Jessica Fe Gouw), of a dangerous old friend of his, Captain Gulliver 'Gully' Troy (played by James Purefoy), and kind of seemed more into her than Sandra (maybe it was the fact that Sandra, whilst not an outright terrible singer, wasn't as great as she perhaps thought she was? There were a few rough notes here and there). Melanie played hard to get at first, but then came around to caring for Alfred and he seemed to reciprocate...though not enough to go with her after he'd invited her along on his trip to America. Instead, he just sent her on without him so she could escape her husband. At least the plane didn't explode (like it seemed it may have been going to do - no matter how implausible it would've been for Gully to rig up a bomb on a plane that just happened to be the one Alfred was going to catch) and she had the sister of Thomas Wayne to keep her company in Alfred's absence. Melanie's husband was kind of a bastard and I worried he'd kill her after finding out about her and Alfred, but she put up a good fight and stabbed him several times before making good her escape. Too bad Alfred decided not to go to America with her after all (especially since half the season had been spent on him planning to go there/saying he would/getting the money for the trip. For him to suddenly change his mind at the last minute made the whole thing seem like a big waste of time and had me wondering what was the point of it all...other than namedropping Gotham - which we didn't even get to see this season). Apart from Alfred, this show has also done a good job fleshing out the characters of Thomas Wayne and Martha Kane so that they aren't just yet another iteration of 'Batman's parents who got killed'. They've been developed well and the actors have a really great dynamic, but I especially like the fact that Martha has been shown to be a real 'badass' in her own right (even moreso than Thomas), which is why I was happy when the first episode of this second season began with Action Hero Martha. She was pointing a gun at a guy, threatening to kill him (and I actually thought she was going to go through with it...but I guess the show didn't want to turn Bruce Wayne's mum into a cold-blooded murderer) and then the next thing she was escaping through a window swinging on a rope all Batman-style (so, I guess we know who he picked that up from). It was made clear that she was dabbling with her 'darker' self and didn't like what she was seemingly becoming, but thankfully they never pushed her character over the edge into becoming someone who Bruce would be ashamed to call his mother. Quite the contrary, actually, since she's like the BEST mum he could've had (though if he knew just how frequently his mum dropped the F-bomb, especially when hearing Raven Society propaganda, I'm sure he'd be quite shocked). I enjoyed the interaction between Thomas and Martha, how they'd have disagreements/argue one minute, then would get along and have nice moments between them, only for one of them to put their foot in their mouth and they'd be back to being at odds again. It was slightly weird that they just breezed past Thomas getting shot at the end of last season and didn't really acknowledge it, but him thinking he and Martha were already in a 'relationship', while she begged to differ, was amusing. I got a good laugh from her line to him, “We made out, I had your cock in my hand for maybe five seconds and then you were shot. That’s not a relationship, that’s a funny story.” (seriously, Bruce would be all fingers-in-ears, going "La la la la la la I can't hear you!" if he ever heard half the stuff his mum said/did). I was also amused once Thomas mentioned he was engaged, which kind of killed her mood for sexytimes and Aziz could tell she was 'peeved'. The other character Martha interacted with who allowed for some funny stuff was that of Thomas's sister, Patricia, who was the first to figure out Martha was pregnant and almost spilled the news to her brother. She seemed to have Martha's number and could read her like a book...whereas Martha wasn't so great at reading Partricia (especially when it came to that total wanker she accepted a proposal from - though, luckily, later she dumped his arse). As for the rest of the the characters...I can't say I'm much of a fan of any of them. I was somewhat surprised to see them off Bazza, but then the character hadn't really made much of an impression and I'm guessing the actor wasn't satisfied with what little material he was getting in the show (honestly, I can't remember a single thing he did/said from last season), so I imagine he must've wanted to do other things and that's why they wrote him out/killed him off (though it seems he parted on good terms with the show's creators, since they brought him back for a couple of episodes to make Alfred feel guilty). I know some were worried about how Bazza's death would affect the Alfred/Bazza/Dave Boy trio's dynamic...but I don't think it really made that much difference. Alfred and Dave Boy still argued, but eventually worked out their differences. Dave Boy seems to mainly function as someone for Alfred to bounce ideas off of and at times argue with, he's another character who appears to be fond of dropping F-bombs aplenty and towards the end of this season he seemed to be sharing a few scenes with Alfred's mum. Speaking of, I can't say I was too fond of her flying off the handle at Alfred/kicking him out when she thought he'd murdered someone (it happened when he was part of a heist at a wrestling match and one of the wrestlers got shot - though not by him). Newsflash, Alfred's mum - Alfred kills people all the time! It's nothing new. Also, she seemed to be one of those mums who puts the blame for her son hooking up with a 'dangerous woman' (in this case Melanie Troy, who had the dangerous husband) squarely on the woman and act like it doesn't take two to tango. This coupled with the way she acted when Thomas and Martha came over (along with, among others, the newly-introduced-this-season Lucius Fox, who seemed to function as the 'Q' of this series to Alfred's Bond), as they were all involved in a plan that she thought would endanger her son (despite the fact that he endangers himself regularly) made me not a fan of 'Mrs. P' (as Dave Boy calls her). At the end of the season she found out her husband/Alfred's father was still alive and had been turned into a wheelchair bound Darth Vader of sorts, was shocked at first, then angry/felt betrayed (which was understandable), but then turned around and seemed totally fine with her new steampunk hubby just in time for him to decide he wanted to end things and off himself by unhooking whatever hoses kept him alive, I guess. This^ wasn't the only ridiculous plot point this season. We were also treated to (or more like 'subjected to') Bet Sykes and her new obsession named Katie. First she was supposed to interrogate her, she tied her up and such, but then when a dude who was going to be much a more effective interrogator made the mistake of telling Bet to fetch some tea, she beat him to death, escaped with Katie (but kept her handcuffed) and the two seemed to wander aimlessly, with Bet beating up and/or killing whatever men they crossed paths with whilst trying to get a hold of her sister and Lord Harwood. It appeared to me as though Katie fell victim to Stockholm syndrome, since like any normal human being she wanted to get away from her kidnapper to start with, then gradually became accustomed to Bet's antics, but insisted she cease with the hurting/killing people...which Bet promised, but obviously was never going to follow through with. I kept expecting Katie would find out about Bet's continued bursts of violence/murder...but that didn't seem to happen. So, instead she just hung with Bet, suddenly developed feelings for her (where did these feelings come from? I mean, it's one thing for a psycho to think they are 'in love' with someone, but it's another thing for someone who seemed sane to return the psycho's feelings). On the whole, I found their storyline pretty boring and pointless. Things livened up slightly with the return of Bet's equally nuts (but better at hiding it) sister, Peggy, as she brought a bit of 'balance' to things. Still, they both kept kidnapping people and sticking them in BDSM costumes in their sex shop's front window on full display, and it got a rather silly eventually. That still wasn't THE MOST ridiculous part of this season, however. The bad guys were pretty OTT, such as the new character of Salt (I found him equal parts boring and annoying), I never thought much of Lord Harwood (the most memorable things about him were 1) his gold nose - at least we got to see it get knocked off and the nose cavity it was covering one last time...though it made me wonder how it hadn't come off beforehand since it seemed to fall off pretty easily when the occasion called for it, but remained in place the rest of the time - and 2) his demise, which involved him providing a distraction whilst Bet and Peggy got away and he got riddled with bullets in the process), John Ripper had the most flawed plan EVER, which he presented to the Queen (ie. "Let's get criminals to fight for us against our enemy! In return, we'll promise them pardons." - because, sure, that'd work) and all I got from Aleister Crowley the Satanist was that he seemed to have a thing for Thomas Wayne (who most definitely didn't return his feelings). I actually felt sorry for a couple of minions/flunkies to these bad guy characters, as they always seemed to get the short end of the stick and wound up treated horribly or worse, dead. The new character of Gully wanted to hunt Alfred for sport after learning of the affair, but ended up losing (Alfred used a trap he'd been taught by Gully against him), and in the final episode he came looking to make Alfred pay, but instead ended up as a guest at Thomas and Martha's impromptu wedding (him applauding it was mildly amusing), then the REALLY bonkers part - to stop the spread of a gas that would wipe out London, Alfred was going to swallow the capsule that the gas was contained in (and was about to be released from) until Gully stopped him and said he himself should be the one to do it (what brought on this sudden change of heart? I have no idea. Nor do I know why either guy thought that swallowing it would do any good). So, this ridiculous action happens and Gully seems fine at first, but then turns blue and seemingly dies. What a shock - ingesting poisonous gas does you no good! Anyway, the episode really should've ended straight after the sixth month jump ahead to Martha being her typical stubborn self, wanting to be a gun-toting pregnant mother whose husband couldn't talk her out of doing anything...but her going into labor could. Unfortunately, the episode continued onto THE MOST ludicrous thing to ever happen in this series...which was that Gully hadn't actually died and had instead been transformed into a sort of proto-Mr. Freeze, dressed in a bulky metal suit with blue tubes sticking out all over it, and he was now Alfred's secret weapon against the enemy, since he could blast the gas that should've killed everyone but instead he could somehow localize to just offing enemy soldiers (convenient). Some people seemed to be entirely focused on hating the reveal that Thomas and Martha's child turned out to be a girl (they jumped to the conclusion that Bruce Wayne had been gender-swapped instead of thinking a moment and realising the obvious - that it's far more likely this daughter of theirs won't survive and that'll be the reason they never mention her/why we never heard of her). Compared to the whole Gully thing, the Waynes having their first child be a girl wasn't that big of a deal. Sadly, this show which had started out pretty 'grounded' suddenly decided "To hell with it! Let's go full comic book!" and away any sense of 'believability' with this ending. I do wonder if they did this whilst thinking they wouldn't get another season. Since there will be a Season 3, I'll be curious to see if the show backtracks on this and either kills Gully off between seasons because they realise what a joke having a gas-shooting man in a suit is or whether they decide to fully embrace comic book ridiculousness and start having more characters with super powers. I really hope it's the former rather than the latter. You had a good show going, guys...make sure you lay off the wacky weed in the writers' room for next season, 'kay?
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Post by Weirdraptor mini™ on Nov 3, 2021 21:58:03 GMT -5
Chalice_Of_EvilSo, in other words, what took Arrow two and a half seasons, they did in just one?
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Nov 4, 2021 4:34:57 GMT -5
Chalice_Of_Evil So, in other words, what took Arrow two and a half seasons, they did in just one? More or less, yes. I'll have to wait and see what Season 3 is like before I decide whether the show is 'unsalvageable' or not at this point.
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Post by Hauntedknight87 on Nov 4, 2021 11:26:58 GMT -5
Currently watching what we do in the shadows tv series. I've been enjoying it so far!
If you haven't already, definitely check out the film which this show spin-off from.
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Post by President Ackbar mini™ on Nov 4, 2021 11:29:13 GMT -5
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Post by Weirdraptor mini™ on Nov 4, 2021 16:08:37 GMT -5
Chalice_Of_Evil So, in other words, what took Arrow two and a half seasons, they did in just one? More or less, yes. I'll have to wait and see what Season 3 is like before I decide whether the show is 'unsalvageable' or not at this point. That said, I'm shocked everyone got so up in arms about the Wayne's first child being a girl. That's just sad.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Nov 13, 2021 2:06:20 GMT -5
Finished Season 1 of Dark Matter on DVD. **spoilers below** I'd heard of this show and it'd been available on DVD for ages, but I just never really felt compelled to check it out. However, there was a special sale on a while back where if you bought one boxset of a TV series, you'd get another one for half its price. I'd already decided what show I wanted to get, and decided I'd make this the one I got for 50% off. I hadn't watched any trailers for it/didn't really know anything about it, so I was kind of going in 'blind'. Heck, I didn't even know that this show was based on a comic book or that Zoie Palmer was going to be playing an android. I thought she was going to be the Captain of the ship they were all on or something...though if that had been the case, it never occurred to me that she was the only one wearing what looked like a uniform whereas everyone else seemingly just dressed however they wanted...which would've been odd if she were the Captain. Like, way to not enforce a dress code with your crew! Of course, once I actually started watching the first episode I soon learned that this was going to be a show about a bunch of seemingly random people coming out of stasis with their memories wiped of who they were. On the one hand it could be viewed as the show writers not being terribly imaginative by having the characters decide to name themselves numbers from 1-6 in the order they emerged from stasis, but then we did find out the characters' names (which I would've expected to have been left until late into the series, if not the series final) and I actually found myself preferring thinking of them by their numbered names, as those were easier to remember and each character developed enough of a personality to make them stand out, so I didn't really need to know their 'real' names (and I can barely remember those anyway). One - Seemed the most 'generic' character. The actor who plays him is listed first in the credits, so I take it he's supposed to be the show's 'lead'...but unfortunately he doesn't seem to have the gravitas to pull off 'series lead'. I mean, I don't hate the guy or anything (like some apparently did), but he really was the most 'boring' of the crew. Even when they tried to make him more 'interesting' by having it revealed that his character was someone who'd taken another's identity/face, it didn't really make him that much more intriguing. The actor did a decent job of playing the real version of Jace Corso (his actual name), but as a whole the character of One felt more like he was from some teen drama series. His 'romance' with Two was also pretty teen drama-ish and I eventually got annoyed by his juvenile competitiveness with Three for Two's affections. I think they did eventually find a better 'balance' with One's character towards the end of the season, when he was sick of getting accused of being the mole on the ship when he'd been under guard and couldn't have possibly done what he was being accused of. I think the other characters picking on him/giving him a hard time made him a bit more sympathetic. He still remains probably the least interesting of the group, but he's not too bad. Two - I didn't really know of Melissa O'Neil before this show (though she looked vaguely familiar), but one thing that became immediately apparent when seeing her for the first time in this series was that she is smokin'. Yes, her character was what some might call a 'stereotypical tough chick', but it became clear that her basically appointing herself the unofficial 'leader' of the group made sense since she definitely had more leadership skills than One, for example. She felt like a natural Captain to me, though that didn't mean she wasn't without flaws. Like One and Three, she engaged in schoolyard pettiness and whatnot, withheld secrets (like her being able to heal from a zombie bite) whilst giving speeches about the crew sharing the truth with each other, and didn't always make the wisest of choices...but she still felt like she belonged in charge (to me, anyway). I figured she wouldn't die from getting 'spaced', but didn't know how she was going to survive that either. In the end, we learned she's not exactly a normal human and eventually this secret was revealed to all. Some might've had a problem with her, but I liked her character and that she formed a quasi-frienship with Five. Three - At first he just came across as being like every other 'bad boy' character in every show EVER (and a low-rent/discount version at that). He actually reminded me a bit of Adam Baldwin's character, Jayne, from Firefly during the first few episodes (I was almost picturing him with a beard to complete the look), but eventually he started to set himself apart from all the other similar types of characters I'd seen before and made himself more unique. He wasn't quite as backstabby as I was imagining he was going to be, and I was glad to see he eventually came around to being decent towards Five (though him sticking her in the airlock to frighten her for whatever purpose was still pretty hard to forgive, I would've thought...but she seemed to get past it). I was amused at Three finding Charlotte's Web, which Five gave him to read, hard to get into (only for it to be revealed during a montage that he was crying whilst reading it). He had more personality than One, at least. However, his antagonism towards One and constantly fighting with him/accusing him of things wore thin pretty quickly. The rare times they were able to at least be semi-civil in each other's presence, they were both more tolerable. Four - He was hard to get a read on, since he seemed the most 'stoic' and didn't really show much emotion or vary his facial expressions for a good percentage of the season. He also seemed kind of rude towards Five (who was just looking for a friend to spend time with her), as well as pretty much everyone else. Of course, then we found out about his past and how he'd been made to believe he killed his father when in fact his stepmother set him up. Though he wasn't exactly 'innocent' either, since like basically everyone except Five, he had murdered people in his past. In the 'present' her murdered his mentor who returned and had seemingly come to an 'understanding' with. Four wasn't the easiest character to like, but he was shown to actually start getting along with the other members of the crew and even cracked a smile once (I think). Mostly what stood out to me regarding him was that he had the fighting skills with the weapons of ALL FOUR Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as we saw him practicing with a sword, staff, sais and nunchucks (I like to think that was intentional - seeing him fight with the signature weapons of all four of those characters). Seeing how the actor who plays him is totally different was quite the surprise. Hopefully they can develop Four a bit more and show more sides to his character. Five - I knew Jodelle Ferland from various things I'd seen her in (I remember first seeing her as a homicidal ghost child from one of my favourite episodes in Season 1 of Supernatural, and then years later in the third Twilight movie, Eclipse), and she'd seemed like a decent actress in what small amounts of screentime she'd had, but I was - as always - wary of a kid character being in this show (since kid characters in shows/movies most of the time are annoying at best and unbearable/ruin everything at worst). Thankfully, Five ended up being one of the most likeable characters in this show. She was nice/friendly, fixed things, experienced the other characters' memories (which gave the actress some interesting things to play, such as Four's backstory), just wanted to make some friends and didn't do too many stupid things (which kid characters often do). In fact, more of the adults in the show made stupid mistakes than Five did. I liked that when they were discussing what they'd all do with a bunch of money they'd come into possession of, she wanted goggles that were both functional and cool. She endeared herself to me by being the one character who tried to get on with everybody - even the Android, who I expected to see her interact with a bit more than we did. I thought we'd see her trying to teach the Android how to act more 'human'...but we only got a very brief moment of that. It certainly added depth to Five's character when we saw her kill someone to save Two, then in the season final when she told the Android's projection to delete itself - that illustrated she could be quite 'cold'/'ruthless' when she wanted to be. On the whole, I was very surprised to find this kid (even though the actress was definitely older than the age she was playing at the time) became one of my favourite characters in the show. Six - Roger Cross was the actor I probably recognised the most out of this cast (only he, Jodelle Ferland and Zoie Palmer were ones I knew from other things, while the rest I didn't), as I've seen him in numerous things and most recently saw him in a new show with Serinda Swan (which I ended up abandoning because I just found it too boring). His character felt like he had aspects/qualities of each of the others and so he seemed the most 'balanced', but then we learned he'd been duped into getting people killed and then he intentionally killed those responsible for duping him out of anger/revenge. He wasn't without his 'dark side', and he could sometimes push Five away, but it became clear that he seemed to care about her. Roger Cross was probably one of the 'better' actors in the show and I think the fact that his character seemed pretty decent made the reveal of him being the mole in the season final all the more surprising. I wasn't spoiled for that, so it was quite an effective 'twist'. I'm not sure what they're going to do to keep his character around/excuse what he's done, but I liked his interaction with everyone. The Android - I last saw Zoie Palmer in the TV series Lost Girl where she played Dr. Lauren, girlfriend to a succubus, so it took a bit of time to adjust to seeing her play an android here. She had this way of delivering her lines and making her face look 'innocent' (not sure that's the right word for it, but it's the best I can come up with). She didn't just do the usual monotone robot voice (like almost ALL sci-fi TV shows seem to have their actors do for playing robots), she sounded almost 'childlike' in a way and her facial expressions made me think of a curious puppy or something similar. So whenever someone would dismiss her or say something intended as mean/hurtful, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. I also felt sorry for her that she wasn't given a proper name (I mean...really, guys? You couldn't have made her feel part of the group by calling her 'Seven' or 'Andi' for short or something??). I think Zoie Palmer did a good job playing the role and when she played the projection version of her character, it showed just how subtle her performance was because with just a slight difference in her facial expressions as this other Android, she was totally believable as a completely different (in personality, anyway) character. I did feel they underutilized the Android's character quite a bit, but then I guess she could take out a lot of bad guys/solve a lot of problems and that's why they kept having her character get taken out of commission. I do hope the crew start to accept/care about her more, even though she's 'just an android', since she became another one of my favourites. I can't say anything throughout this first season really 'wowed' me. There were episodes that were more interesting than others and some guest stars who I recognised such as Wil Wheaton (from Star Trek: The Next Generation), Torri Higginson and David Hewlett (from Stargate: Atlantis), Natalie Brown (from The Strain) and Ruby Rose - who guest-starred in what I found to be the most fun/entertaining episode of the season, where she played another android, named Wendy, who pretended to be friendly/helpful to the crew, but actually intended harm. I enjoyed her beating up Three, telling him off for the way he (and others) treated her and hearing her utter the phrase 'dunking the cosmic donut' several times. While I'm well aware that many don't seem to think of Ruby Rose as much of an actress (it was funny when One said that Wendy had default settings that were 'something called Aussie', which was obviously written into the show so Ruby Rose didn't have to attempt to cover up her Australian accent), and she certainly wasn't on the same level as Zoie Palmer, I thought she was fine in this role. Speaking of Zoie Palmer's performance this episode, I was also amused at the Android feeling jealous and then resorting to speaking in different accents to One (which can be viewed at this ->> link) in the hope he and the rest of the crew would pay more attention to her than they were paying to Wendy. One was actually pretty funny here too with his reactions, but the BEST reaction was Android's sad expression as she covered up her cleavage she was showing in an attempt to be more Wendy-like (since Wendy was a pleasure bot and dressed as such). On the whole, this show was...decent. It wasn't 'great', nor was it 'bad'. I'm not exactly in a rush to watch Season 2, but I'm sure I'll get to it eventually.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Dec 31, 2021 7:39:13 GMT -5
Season 2 of My Brilliant Friend on DVD. I’d previously started typing out my review for this season of the show...and then, much to my annoyance, I lost all my work. Consequently, I didn’t feel like typing out my review episode-by-episode like I’d originally planned to, so instead I’ll just summarise. I found Season 1 of this series (which I’d taken a chance on after watching the trailers and buying it on DVD) to be a nice surprise, as it was a really compelling series (so much so that as soon as I finished watching Season 1, I went out and read the book series...but it’d been quite a while since I read them, so I didn’t really remember much - though there were a few things I recalled). Margherita Mazzucco & Gaia Girace, who took over playing the roles of Lenù & Lila from the child actresses (who were excellent in their own right) a few episodes into the first season, are exceptional in their portrayals of these complex characters. It’s even more impressive when you factor in that neither had really acted before scoring these roles in the show. The depth and emotion they bring to their characters is really something to behold. Gaia Girace especially impressed me as Lila, who is a very complex/complicated character. She isn’t real easy to like and seems to be her own worst enemy at times, but still I find her completely captivating to watch. I was shocked to read that the actress who portrays her so wonderfully will apparently be leaving after a few episodes in Season 3 (I guess mirroring what happened with the child actresses who’d portrayed the characters previously). At this point, I can’t imagine anyone else in the role, and I’m not sure if I’ll want to continue without her. This has truly been a stand-out debut performance from her and I hope to see her in other projects worthy of her talent. This show deserves MUCH more attention (and awards too). It’s a truly is a special series (though don’t go playing a drinking game and taking a shot every time a character threatens to kill another...otherwise you’ll die from alcohol poisoning after only a couple of episodes). Season 1 of Superman & Lois on Blu-ray. I am WAY behind with all the ‘Arrowverse’ shows, and definitely hadn’t seen the big event crossover episodes, so this was my introduction to Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane (though I had seen Tyler Hoechlin’s Clark Kent/Superman when I started Season 2 of Supergirl). I was familiar with her from the TV series Grimm (when she was going by the name Bitsie Tulloch), and like a lot of people, I wasn’t overly impressed with her on that show. However, I was willing to give her a chance here, as I figured it was mostly the writing/character she played on Grimm that was the main problem. I was happy to see my faith was rewarded, as she proved to be an excellent Lois Lane in this show who had believable chemistry with Hoechlin’s Clark/Superman. Speaking of, it took me only *one* episode of Supergirl to know I preferred him in the role to Henry Cavill (whose arse just about everyone seems to think the sun shines out of, but who has never impressed me in his portrayal). Hoechlin’s Clark Kent brings the dorkiness of Christopher Reeve’s version, without going OTT, whilst his Superman is everything Cavill’s isn’t - ie. likeable, warm and inspirational. Added to this is the fact that he’s a pretty awesome - though not perfect - father (Lois matches him in the parenting department, as she can be stern, but not to the point where she becomes unlikeable). I liked that even when Lois got mad at Clark, she had good reasons for it, acknowledged how conflicted she felt about being mad at him (given all he has to deal with) and was able to act like an actual adult. The great thing about this married couple was they actually function as a mature adult couple - which more shows could take lessons from in regards to writing their adult couples. Together, they’re a great pair and they’re the main reason I enjoyed this show. Like others, I was resistant to the idea of a show about Clark & Lois having kids, but while both their offspring were rather annoying (especially in the first handful of episodes), what made them tolerable was their sibling relationship. Jonathan was easily the more likeable of the two (though there was one episode where it felt as though the show writers thought he was being *too* likeable, especially when compared to Jordan, and so they had Jonathan being an annoying angsty teenager just like Jordan was most of the time). On the whole, Jonathan proved to be a pretty good brother and he didn’t bother me too much. As for Jordan...well...it took quite a few episodes for me to find him tolerable (especially given all the crap he gave his parents, but especially poor Clark. I also found him to be a hypocrite at times, yelling at his parents for doing things that he’d then turn around and do himself). I did like the different lessons Clark taught Jordan about his powers (though it was a bit rough on Jonathan that Clark didn’t take him to the Fortress or introduce him to Jor-El like he did with Jordan. I could understand Jonathan not being too happy about that, but he wasn’t too much of a pain in the arse about it, thankfully). Once Jordan accepted his powers and wasn’t so angsty, he became bearable. I do hope going forward that there can be less fights going on between them/their parents and they can function more as a happy family. The other main characters in the show were varying degrees of interesting/likeable. I thought the actress who played Lana in this show reminded me of the one who plays Veronica’s mum in Riverdale - that was my first thought. My second thought was that Lana’s husband was a dick (though, to the actor’s credit, he managed to actually bring some layers to his character of Kyle/showed he had some depth. The writing probably helped too, as he certainly felt more developed than Lana's high school b/f in Smallville - Whitney). I didn’t mind their eldest daughter, Sarah. She wasn’t the typical annoying teenager. Yes, she made some questionable decisions here and there, but on the whole I liked her (I also thought the actress who played her reminded me of a young Kate Bosworth - who, coincidentally, was in Superman Returns). The younger sister, who seemed to be absent a lot, felt rather unnecessary, but on the whole I didn’t mind this other family in the show. At first the version of Sam Lane is this series seemed to be stuck in that rather thankless role the character always seems to have, which is him making life difficult for Superman. Having said that, he too showed over the course of the season that he wasn’t a ‘bad guy’ and was doing the best he could. I did feel a twinge of sympathy for him on rare occasions and I liked that he got along with Superman in this show more than I’d seen his character do in any of the other versions. I didn’t know what to make of ‘Captain Luthor’ after the first episode, since he seemed to be an enemy of Superman’s, but I guess the show creators heard the outcry over there being TWO African American characters in the show who were presented as antagonists (the other being Sarah’s b/f, who bullied Jordan), but of course if people had just waited for longer than an episode to get all outraged and jump to conclusions/accusations, they would’ve seen that both these characters weren’t actually ‘bad guys’ after all. Sarah’s b/f eased off on bullying Jordan, and as for ‘Captain Luthor’, it was revealed he was in fact a guy named John Henry Irons from an alternate future who’d been fighting a Superman-turned-villain and was inadvertently sent back through time. He wasn’t exactly the easiest character to like (except when he was undercover with Lois - though him getting along with her was explained by the fact that in his future they were a married couple), and while I could understand him being more than a little upset that alt-future Supes killed alt-future Lois, his first instinct being to just kill this Superman without explanation or anything didn't make for the best first impression. Thankfully, towards the end of the season he became an ally (though he was still a bit rough around the edges, feeling as though he was only tolerating being around the others rather than actually thinking of them as friends...even if they now thought of him as one). The thing I was least happy about regarding his character was the flashback to him with his daughter, who didn’t at all feel as though she was also Lois’s daughter. We saw exactly *one* scene of interaction between the the mother/daughter and it was her expressing disgust at her parents snogging in bed (maybe next time stay out of your parents room or at least knock?). The rather disappointing ‘cliffhanger’ in the season final, with her character miraculously crash-landing, has me worried about the fact that it’ll likely throw a spanner in the works of the Kent family dynamic. I hope they don't ruin a good thing. This season’s villain, Morgan Edge, wasn’t particularly interesting for the majority of it, then they suddenly pulled out this reveal of him being Kal-El’s bro (Lara was with another Kryptonian before Jor-El)...and I *still* didn’t find him overly interesting. I thought maybe he’d finally become somewhat interesting when they were having him turn into the Eradicator (the name of which sounded familiar, but I didn’t really know much about except he was an enemy of Superman), but even then he was still such a disappointment (and the way he was defeated was pretty anti-climactic). So, on the whole, I found him to be a pretty ho-hum villain. I actually liked his right-hand woman, Leslie Larr, more - as I at least found her mildly interesting. The show definitely took advantage of its budget, and I actually liked the action here (whereas MoS’s constant destruction porn bored me). I thought they did a decent job of showing off Superman’s various powers, and it didn’t seem to be too often the case that they were saving their budget by having very little action. There may have been more ‘family drama’ than action/powers on display at times, but what made it work was that it got to the point where you could actually be interested in what was going on when there wasn’t super power stuff happening. I appreciated some of the show’s humour (two of the most amusing moments, I found, were played out in the background of scenes – one instance when Clark had been teaching Jordan how to use his super-strength and then was on the phone and we could see Jonathan behind him trying to punch the thing and injuring his hand as a result, whilst the other was Jonathan lingering after Lois had told him to go upstairs when they were having a fight and her knowing he was still there without even turning around). In conclusion, I found this season to be pretty good (and certainly a lot less annoying than the last DC superhero show I watched on Blu-ray – ie. Stargirl). I am worried, though, that the writers might change things in Season 2...and not for the better. I guess I’ll be waiting a while to find out.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 3, 2022 6:06:55 GMT -5
Just finished Season 1 of Hell on Wheels on DVD. I think I originally watched the first episode (or maybe it was the first two episodes put together? I can’t recall) of this show when they aired the series on TV here and just didn’t really get into much, thus I didn't watch any further. However, since there was a 30% sale on all DVDs/Blu-rays where I buy them at, and the show had been finished for quite a while, the complete series boxset had gone down in price a fair bit...so I decided on a whim (as I sometimes do in regards to buying shows I haven't seen on DVD) to get it, as it was at the cheapest price it was likely ever going be. As luck would have it, they had one copy left (which is unusually good fortune for me, since normally I manage to just miss out on such things). I didn’t really remember anything from when I originally watched the first episode/s, so it was likely watching them fresh/for the first time again. I also hadn’t seen the show’s lead, Anson Mount, in anything other than this and Star Trek: Discovery (though I knew he was in the failed Inhumans series, and after looking up his IMDB list of credits, it turns out he guest-starred in a single episode of some shows I watched - though I have no memory of him in them). Anyway, here he plays ‘a former Confederate States Army Cavalry Colonel, Cullen Bohannon, whose family was slaughtered during the Civil War’ (full disclosure, I got that description of him from the Wiki page for his character. Yes, I’m that lazy). As you’d expect, he’s looking for revenge and this leads him out West and to the Union Pacific Railroad. These types of lead characters are ones I’ve seen many a time, they’re gruff, not particularly friendly, have no problem killing people (if they have half a reason to) and are ‘deeply flawed’. I was surprised, however, to learn that his character owned slaves...therefore making him deeply flawed (of course, he mentions how his wife made him see the wrongs of slavery and he even mentions how he treated his slaves ‘well’, so apparently this is meant to be our indication that he’s not that bad). I guess what sets Bohannon apart from other such flawed leads in shows is Anson Mount's portrayal. He has that steely glare thing working for him, and is the strong silent type a lot of the time, but when he does speak he’s a man of few words. He’s also constantly munching on cigars (seriously, it felt as though there was hardly a scene where he wasn't). I think the show did a decent job of not taking the easy way out and making him ‘suddenly good’. He does/says some very questionable things and he’s by no means a saint, but I also think that he doesn’t do anything necessarily ‘irredeemable’ either (though in the season final, he’s walking a fine line when he kills a guy he thought was responsible for the murder of his family, despite the guy's protestations, and then discovers this was indeed the case and he murdered the wrong man). I thought Mount did a good job as this character and managed to keep him likeable enough even when he did/said things I didn’t agree with (I’d previously enjoyed his Captain Pike in Star Trek: Discover, so that may have helped). The relationships Bohannon formed with various other characters showed his own character’s complexity, as he seemed to adapt to whichever individual he was interacting with and did/said what he needed to to keep on their good side (most of the time). Of course, there were some characters he interacted with who he just had no time for whatsoever, and those ones he wasn’t afraid to let know his true feelings (ie. beat them up, shoot off their ears, kill them, etc). I knew Dominique McElligott from a few shows I’d seen her in, but most recently The Boys where she plays a very different character (with a very different look) to the one she plays here. Lily Bell is the wife of a Union Pacific Railroad surveyor, Robert Bell, and carries the nickname ‘The Fair-Haired Maiden of the West’ (thanks again, Wiki!), but then they’re attacked by Native Americans, he’s killed, and she proves herself no shrinking violet by plunging one of the arrows she had gotten shot with (through not only her shoulder, but her hand as well - teaches her for putting out her hand in an effort to stop from being shot, as now she had two wounds whereas if she hadn’t done that, she would’ve just had one) into the neck of the guy who killed her husband and shot her, slowly pushing it in until he eventually dies. This made it clear from the outset that when push came to shove, she could handle herself and wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty. Naturally, given the way she looks and how she dresses (after she recovers from this incident), everyone seems to just dismiss her as a ‘prim and proper’ lady, but it became obvious that she was entirely capable of playing a certain role to get what she wanted/where she needed to be. She could play the ‘lady’, but at the same time was making plans and was not going to be somebody else’s pawn or trophy. There were times where she lost her cool and lashed out (sometimes it was even warranted), but most of the time she was able to see what she needed to do or say to get others to do what she wanted/needed them to in order to benefit herself. Clearly this was a tough environment for her to be in and she was doing the best she could given her circumstances. I appreciated that Lily knew when she had to swallow her pride and just go along with what someone wanted of her, but stood up and said ‘no’ when it really mattered. I also really enjoyed the scene where she told off the relatives of her deceased husband who were badmouthing her behind her back and made clear to them that she wasn’t a ‘damsel’ and was the one who took care of her husband’s killer (whereas up until that point, everyone had believed her husband died saving her and *he* had been the one took out his killer). That was a pretty “HELL YEAH!”-worthy moment from Lily. I knew that she and Bohannon were eventually going to be interested in each other, and there was the expected not-seeing-eye-to-eye on everything (with her calling him an insufferable arse and him assuming she was just some spoiled aristocrat), but then they slowly came to respect each other, he taught her to not jump to conclusions/form opinions/jump into action when angry and she taught him he didn’t have to be the stone-cold killer he thought himself to be. I already know that things won’t end well for her character (spoiled myself, but not so much that I know the details), and I’m bummed about that, as Dominique McElligott had impressed me in The Boys and was one of the main reasons I was willing to give this show a chance. I guess all I can do is appreciate the episodes I have left with her character and hope they handle her exit from the show well. One of the characters who I was referring to when I said she knows how to ‘play’ them was Colm Meaney’s Thomas ‘Doc’ Durant, who’s Vice-President of the Union Pacific Railroad. I do remember when I originally watched the first episode/s on TV, I’d thought to myself, “ This is supposed to be the main bad guy?”, as I didn’t find him very menacing, nor even particularly intimidating. Since then I watched the actor in Star Trek: The Next Generation and this time around when watching his character in this show, I still didn’t find him overly effective as a ‘bad guy’, but I did have a newfound appreciation for the actor’s performance, as I saw glimmers of a half-decent person and even some vulnerability which made me almost feel a twinge of sympathy for him on rare occasions (I said almost). I will hand it to Colm Meaney for managing to make his character not just be one-dimensional. I wasn’t as unimpressed with him this second time around and I even liked his different dynamics with Bohannon, Lily and various others (though the inevitable 'love triangle' between him, Lily and Bohannon was as predictable as it was eyeroll-worthy). One of those 'other' characters I speak of was a freed slave by the name of Elam Ferguson played by rapper, Common, who managed to impress with his performance. I’ve seen some rappers try to act before...and they should've probably stuck to rapping, but he actually did a decent job of bringing depth/nuance to his character. As would be expected, at first he didn’t really get along with anyone else, then there was his dynamic with Bohannon which started off as them being at odds, but slowly they came to respect one another and whilst I wouldn’t go so far as to call them ‘friends’, I’d say they’re at least reluctant allies now and possibly even acquaintances. It was interesting seeing how one minute the two of them would be getting into fistfights, then the next they’d be helping each other out (Bohannon showed how much he came to trust Elam by teaching him how to shoot a gun, and Elam returned the favour by saving Bohannon at times. Actually, they saved each other on more than one occasion). I did find their boxing match to be a bit weird, since at first Bohannon was so thoroughly kicking Elam’s arse (I don’t think he even landed a single punch during the first Round), and then their roles were reversed with Elam kicking Bohannon’s arse and him suddenly seeming like he’d forgotten how to fight, but then it was later revealed someone had helped Elam cheat...not that he was aware of it. I did wonder how they’d go in a fair fight, but I guess we might find out at a later date as I'm sure they'll come to blows again. I liked Elam’s relationship he developed with a tattooed prostitute named Eva played by Australian actress, Robin McLeavy who I only really knew as the delightfully psycho Lola (aka ‘Princess’) in the 2009 Australian horror film The Loved Ones. She gave good crazypants in that movie, but here she appeared to be playing ‘the whore with a heart of gold’, as she not only came to care for Elam, but also stood up for Lily and other characters who she felt weren’t treated right. I did grow to like her character quite a bit since she saw Lily as a person in need of help and wasn’t as mean to her as the others were. I did feel that in the season final, her misinterpreting Elam’s declaration of love as him wanting to marry her (when that wasn’t in fact the case) and getting angry just seemed like 'drama for drama’s sake'. She then went to dance with the Irish racist railroad worker (appropriately named Toole), who’d miraculously survived a gunshot to the face from Elam, which made it clear how mad she was at Elam since this other jerk had treated her so badly previously. Apparently surviving what should’ve been a fatal shot made the jerk turn over a new leaf, kneel before Elam and beg his forgiveness for everything he’d put him through. I honestly don’t believe it for a second, but I guess we’ll see whether he’s being legit or not in due course. The other notable character in this show is ‘the Swede’...who’s apparently meant to actually be Norwegian, but I don’t think his accent sounds right, and he's played by an actor I’m quite familiar with named Christopher Heyerdahl, as he’s been in numerous things I’ve watched but I’ll probably always remember him for/associate him with his role from Supernatural where he did his best (?) Marlon-Brando-in- The Godfather voice. Seems he has a thing for doing questionable accents, as this is another role where he’s putting on one which I’m not quite sure he was up to the task of pulling off. Anyway, his character had it out for Bohannon and I got pretty tired of it by the end of the season, to the point where I just wanted Bohannon to off him already. Sadly, all we got was Bohannon pistol-whipping him and then whacking him repeatedly with a leather strap (which he richly deserved, since he liked to do that to others) in one episode, and then other people who’d had enough of the Swede’s shit tarred and feathered him in another episode...yet, annoyingly, he still draws breath. I’m hoping he’s offed within the next season or so, as I think I’ve just grown tired of the actor and his shtick. I used to think he was really good, but over time I’ve thought less so. It’s possible his role in the TV series Van Helsing is to blame for me feeling this way, as he became supremely annoying in that and my dislike for him there may have carried over to here (which might not be fair...but there you go). Various other characters in the show I wasn’t that into, but some were more likeable than others. I didn’t mind the character of Joseph Black Moon, who’s torn between his real family and his adoptive ‘father’, the Reverend - a character who alternated between annoying the crap out of me and boring me to tears. Even when he decapitated a dude at the end of the season, I still found him boring. Add to that the fact that he was apparently a drunk/abusive father and husband, plus him telling Bohannon (who was seeking guidance, due to not wanting to be just some cold-blooded killer guy) to choose ‘hate’, as it was easier than being good, and he’s a pretty bad Reverend. There were two Irish brothers who I vaguely recalled from when I originally started watching the show, and I couldn’t help but wonder why they were given so much focus as they seemed more like supporting characters/recurring guest-stars than the ‘regulars’ they actually were (meanwhile, characters who did feel like 'regulars' - such as Eva and the Swede - I was surprised to find weren't actually). They randomly disappeared for a period of time during the season and I wondered if they were so pointless that the show had just decided to drop them entirely...but, no, they returned at the end of the season to waste more screentime that should've gone to the actual interesting characters. Honestly, I just don't find these two in any way compelling and am counting the episodes until one of them gets offed. I knew before watching this first season on DVD that there was going to be quite a bit of violence (nope, didn't need to see people being scalped, thanks...nor someone with their dong stuck in their mouth), and I was bracing myself for the part I'd read about someone having to put down their horse because it'd been shot in the leg (it was Bohannon, and thankfully he showed care towards the horse and was gentle with his mercy-killing of it, making sure to cover its eye), but on the whole there wasn't anything *too* bad (or if there was, coincidentally enough I just so happened to be looking elsewhere when it occurred). I was also surprised by how *bright* this show was (at least on my TV). Day scenes were almost blinding in how bright they were (but thankfully the night scenes didn't make things hard to see). I guess I've just grown used to darkly-lit shows over time. Considering I wasn’t overly impressed when I originally started this show on TV, I was surprised to find myself actually getting into it as the season progressed. that just shows you need to give TV series more than one or two episodes to judge them fairly (unless, of course, the first couple of episodes really turn you off). Once again, I’m happy I took a chance on a complete series boxset of a TV show, as it would’ve been a royal pain in the arse if I’d ended up hating it. Thankfully, there have only been a couple of shows I’ve regretted purchasing on DVD or Blu-ray, and I’m glad this wasn’t one of those.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 10, 2022 5:48:37 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of Hell on Wheels on DVD. After taking a chance on this show, buying the complete series boxset, I was relieved to find I actually quite liked Season 1 after it got going. So once I finished that, it was straight into Season 2, which begins with Bohannon having left Hell on Wheels after killing an innocent guy who he thought was the one who'd killed his wife. He’s now joined a bunch of rebel bandits who’re robbing trains (complete with sacks over their heads like some low-rent Scarecrows). There’s one decent member of the gang - a doctor - who Bohannon befriends and they eventually ditch the gang. Bohannon was due to be hanged, but Durant makes a deal with him for his freedom. In other developments, Eva the prostitute has married Irish racist Toole who supposedly turned over a new leaf after miraculously surviving a bullet through the mouth that exited his neck courtesy of Elam last season. Clearly she didn’t marry this jerk out of love, but she’s preggers and it’s Elam’s kid (how she knows this for certain, I’m not too sure), which is obviously going to cause problems, but even after she confesses it to Toole, all he does is get mad, yell a bit and storm off instead of what his old self would’ve likely done (ie. probably beat her or worse). He does manage to keep up the act of becoming ‘decent’ for most of the season (though he’s still a major jerk and his racism rears its ugly head at times), but it’s not until he catches Eva with Elam in the tiny house he built for them (which seemed to take a grand total of a couple days/two episodes) that he finally loses it completely, despite Eva telling him that she went there to inform Elam they can never be together. Rather than shoot either of them, Toole shoots himself - which apparently upset Eva but caused me to cheer and say “About damn time!”. I didn’t mind Eva in Season 1, but she was kind of hard to like this season with her constantly knocking back everything Elam did to help her/make it so they could be together. While I understand her situation left her with very few options, it still resulted in me feeling a bit sorry for Elam every time she refused him. Then once Toole was dead, it was like she was basically saying, “Does that offer for me to live with you in your tiny house still stand?”, but then of course the house sadly got burned down in the season final - what a waste...that took two whole episodes to build! It was weird how she became someone who Durant was willing to have take care of him after he got shot by one of Bohannon’s ex-crew of train robbers who started shooting up the town. Even Durant’s wife, who appeared this season, didn’t really seem to have a problem with Eva...probably because she wasn’t doing her husband - unlike Lily, who was (not that I think she ever really wanted to, but she was put in a situation where she felt this was one of her only options). Speaking of Lily, this season she got more involved with helping to ensure the railroad got built. To start with she got herself in a spot of bother after a prostitute was killed by some jerk and Eva came to her, wanting the guy punished, but no one was willing to do it, so Lily enlisted Elam’s services. He offed the guy, but then the townspeople were pissed, one of the Irish brothers seemed to take credit for it, that got them in strife, and eventually Lily revealed to Durant that she was behind it and he cast her out. So she was down in the muck, having to build herself a shelter and experiencing problems with floorboards until Bohannon returned and helped her out. This season they grew closer (she was still mad he skipped town after she waited for him at the dance at the end of last season and that’s why she reckons she ended up getting with Durant instead - because Bohannon buggered off). Naturally, they had their arguments this season and they judged each other wrongly at different times, but eventually they came to understand each other and even went to dinner with Durant and his wife (who was a mega bitch to Lily, but then I guess that’s mostly due to the fact that Lily had been boning her husband). We also learned that Bohannon had an aristocratic background and he wasn't quite what he appeared. One thing I liked seeing this season, other than Lily asserting herself and taking more control, was she got herself a nifty outfit which she wore most of the time. It was far more practical than dragging dresses around in the mud like she did last season. Lily helped out various characters, but eventually ticked off Durant SO much that he sent Elam to kill her. I was pissed at Elam for seemingly being willing to go through with it (they had a discussion about it, where he said he’d either strangle her or cut her neck), but she had a gun ready, so clearly she could’ve taken him out if she’d wanted to...but instead she put the gun on the table and made him a proposition - which was that he could get Bohannon’s job once Bohannon got Durant’s job after she took Durant down by sending off his ledger which showed his bookkeeping didn’t add up (I think that's what was going on). Elam accepted this deal, but I’m still annoyed that if she hadn’t offered him that, he may well have gone through with murdering her just to keep his tiny house and the land he built it on (which Durant promised him in return for Lily's murder). As she pointed out, she’d never done anything to him, and it was a real insult that her life meant so little to him. I knew she would meet her end this season (having spoiled myself when watching last season), but I didn’t know that there was going to be the Elam-killing-her-fake-out. I did, however, know her true murderer was going to be the Swede. Ah, the Swede. Boy, do I HATE this guy - even before he murdered Lily. I’d grown to dislike him in Season 1, but in Season 2 my dislike grew into downright loathing for his character as the writers seemed to just be randomly changing what he was all about from episode to episode. First he was recovering after having been tarred, feathered and run out of town at the end of last season, and he got stuck with the job of disposing of dead people. Then he was riling up the townspeople after the guy who killed the prostitute was killed. He was encouraging the crazy Reverend to be even MORE crazy (helping him supply the Indians with rifles) and then he decided to briefly try to become one of the Indians...but that didn’t really work out, and in the end he was given Elam’s mission by Durant (after Elam failed to follow through) and was the one to off Lily - which he was only able to do because Bohannon made the classic mistake of leaving just one inept guard to watch over the Swede (he got his throat cut as a result of his hopeless guarding skills) - but not before doing his dance of craziness in the middle of town which was aflame thanks to an Indian tribe who attacked and set the place on fire. I am SO SICK of seeing characters who’re obviously crazypants doing their dance of craziness. You see it all the time, and it’s supposed to illustrate just how nuts they are (doing random dances at inopportune times), but it’s just become such a cliché at this point. It’s not ‘cool’, it doesn’t make the character ‘awesome’, it’s just so predictable and eyeroll-worthy at this point. Like, WE GET IT. You’re a nutjob! We don’t need to see your dance of craziness to make that any more clear! Anyway, I was really annoyed with how Lily got taken out, as she had a gun...but it inconveniently ran out of bullets at the time she needed them the most (she’d used them up shooting those who were attacking the town) and then she pointed out to the Swede, as he wrapped his hands around her throat, that she was good to him (his thanking her for that was of little consolation), and the last thing I think she said was that Bohannon would kill his arse out of revenge...which was what he seemed to *want*. I was really hoping she’d put up more of a fight against the Swede as he strangled her. I wanted her to scratch his face, poke his eyes, knee him in the goolies - ANYTHING, but she didn’t do any of that and consequently I was very disappointed. For someone who’d been so strong against other males in the show, she ended up dying pretty helpless. Such a waste, considering her and Bohannon’s relationship was just getting going. I’ll miss Lily/Dominique McElligott in the show (especially since she was the main reason I started watching). At least I can see her in Season 2 of The Boys (which I still have yet to watch after buying it on Blu-ray quite a while ago). I was also annoyed that no one in town really seemed to react much to Bohannon carrying Lily’s body through the remnants of the flaming town. Considering she was decent to most of them, they could have at least looked sad (except, of course, for Durant and his bitch wife who were no doubt glad). Bohannon’s not having much luck with women so far - first his wife died when he wasn’t at home to protect her, now Lily died because he was off elsewhere. There’s a lesson to be learned here. He was already having a pretty crappy season, since he was almost hanged, constantly had to deal with irate townspeople, the Swede not giving up his mission to make his life hell, Durant, Indians (he put a guy out of his misery who was being tortured by them at one point), then he also had to kill his doctor friend (who, thanks to the Swede, got sentenced to death for 'aiding and abetting' the bandits who ended up shooting Durant earlier in the season even though he’d left that gang when Bohannon did). It was a sad moment when Bohannon had to kill his friend, and I’m not sure how he’s going to manage now that he doesn’t have Lily around to keep him from going all murderous. The *one* person who I did want him to murder was the Swede...but he wasn’t even granted that satisfaction since the Swede jumped off the completed railway bridge down to the water below before Bohannon could hang him. Despite the fact that he landed where it looked pretty shallow and we saw him floating off seemingly dead, I know he’ll survive for seasons to come and that royally pisses me off. I hate these bad guy characters that TV show writers fall in love with writing for and so they give them ‘plot armour’ which protects them and they escape death time and time again when by all rights they should've died ages ago. If there was one character who annoyed me almost as much as the Swede (sometimes even moreso), it was the crazy Reverend who tried to be all ‘white saviour’ to the Indians and was going to off people on the train (he managed to stab one engineer through the back with his sword), including his daughter, until Joseph thankfully stabbed him, ridding us of his ‘holier than thou’ self. He was SO DAMN ANNOYING. Now his daughter’s taken over and is already better at her father’s job than he ever was, but she is also stuck in a ‘love triangle of doom’ between Joseph and one of the Irish brothers who I really don’t care about, so it’s irritating that so much time is spent on them. They just seem to go in whatever random direction the writers feel like taking them at any given moment, not really having much of a *point*. Anyway, I’m not sure how into this show I’m going to be with a character I really liked having been offed whilst ones I hate continue to draw breath. Maybe I’ll go straight onto Season 3 or maybe I’ll take a break from the show and watch one of my other many as-yet-unwatched TV shows I have on DVD/Blu-ray.
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Post by Weirdraptor mini™ on Jan 10, 2022 18:43:18 GMT -5
The Mandalorian. Great show. It really understands the world of Star Wars, and I really like the leads. Too bad Disney decided to can Gina Carano, she was a great addition to the cast. On a last note, it amuses me to no end how much Mando sounds like Clint Eastwood back in his prime. And of course Baby Yoda is adorable. That entire arc within the series had the perfect ending when a certain someone from the original trilogy showed up. I give the series 8/10.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 17, 2022 17:15:52 GMT -5
Season 1 of Agent Carter on Blu-ray. Since I recently rewatched Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), it seemed only natural to go straight into Season 1 of Agent Carter (which I bought on Blu-ray ages ago, after having watched both seasons of the show on TV when it originally aired, but hadn't gotten around to actually viewing until now). Episode 1: 'Now Is Not the End'{Spoiler}I liked that they included Peggy & Steve's goodbye scene at the start of the first episode (though not all of it, as they saved the last part of it for towards the end of the episode, where we also get to see her pull out that old photo of Skinny Steve, which shows she's never forgotten him as he originally was). It then cuts to Peggy, who was having a memory/flashback, and she's sharing an apartment with a roommate named Colleen who, although we barely get to know her, it soon becomes clear she's a good friend to Peggy, recognises how great she is and is encouraging her to possibly get back in the dating game. Unfortunately, she's currently sick and knows nothing about Peggy's morning routine which I thought kind of bears somewhat of a resemblance to the opening credits for Dexter in that we see Peggy going about the mundane chores of getting ready in the morning, but it's intercut with various action sequences from the movie (and also from that 'One-Shot' she did), thus showing the contrast of Peggy's two lives - ie. the 'normal' one and the secret one she has. On top of everything else, she also has killer fashion sense with her Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? getup, we're introduced to Rose (a character who will feature more prominently later into the series), who even comments on/compliments Peggy's style (especially the hat), and it's quickly established that Peggy's stuck in an unfulfilling job where she's underestimated, underappreciated, dismissed/given secretary work that she's well and truly overqualified for and has to deal with the day-to-day sexism that comes with being a woman in the workplace at that time. Characters we're introduced to at her work include her boss, Roger Dooley (played by Shea Whigham, who I hadn't really seen in that much before I originally watched this show, but since then I've seen him in quite a bit of stuff and the last series I watched that he starred in was Boardwalk Empire), Jack Thompson (played by Chad Michael Murray, who I've seen in a few things but the last time I saw him he was playing a crazy cult leader who dressed in Evel Knievel getup, and like the leader of the Movementarians from The Simpsons, he'd planned to get away in his spaceship...or, to be exact, a rocket ship - yes, really - in the series Riverdale) and Daniel Sousa (played by Enver Gjokaj, who luckily was allowed to get some closure for his character thanks to the final season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. but I'll always remember being introduced to him in Joss Whedon's series Dollhouse, where he was able to show what range he's capable of as an actor). There's also another agent by the name of Ray Krzeminski, who is the typical misogynistic type. All the agents are varying degrees of dismissive and rude to Peggy...except for Sousa, who's the one really decent guy at work (who knows what it's like to not be treated with respect, since he has been crippled during the war) and stands up for her when Krzeminski makes one of his lewd comments. I appreciated that while Peggy asked Sousa to refrain from leaping to her defense like that in the future, she wasn't rude about it and said that she appreciated it...but I could see it from her perspective in that whilst Sousa thought he was helping, he was also kind of reinforcing her male co-workers' beliefs that she's nothing without a man to 'rescue' her. She wasn't bitchy about it, and that's what matters. He himself didn't seem offended by what she said either, so it's clear that she was being as decent/polite as possible. I was glad they managed to get Dominic Cooper to reappear (as a 'special guest star') in his role as Howard Stark from the movie. I'm also amazed by how much I prefer Howard to his future offspring, Tony, despite the fact that he has a lot of traits Tony will inherit. He's got a smugness, he cracks jokes, and is obviously a ladies man...and yet, he somehow manages to annoy me FAR LESS than Tony. Anyway, I liked getting to see more of the Peggy/Howard relationship (with some footage from the movie of their whole 'fondue' conversation in the plane) and how she trusted him (knowing he wasn't the traitor the news was claiming him to be by saying that he'd been selling his weapons he created to the enemy) as much as he trusted her (knowing she'd be the only one who could clear his name). I'd forgotten that Edwin Jarvis, Howard's butler (who Tony will name his A.I. in his suit after), was introduced to Peggy in a very Peggy Carter-esque way - ie. her socking him in the face as he approached her in a dark alley very mysteriously and like he meant trouble (which not only teaches him a lesson about doing such things, but lets him know exactly what kind of woman she is right off the bat). James D'Arcy is excellent in the role as Jarvis, forming easy chemistry with Hayley Atwell/Peggy in no time. They have a fun dynamic and his devotion to his wife makes for some amusing moments later in the episode when he's trying to juggle his home life with helping out Peggy who's stuck in a dangerous situation. Speaking of, you can't watch this first episode of the show and NOT acknowledge a certain gold dress which Peggy dons, along with a blonde wig, as part of her disguise to get access to a man (who she knocks out with special lipstick after he subjects her to an unsolicited snog) in possession of one of Howard's gizmos that she has to keep out of the enemy's hands. It goes without saying that Hayley Atwell's figure is utter perfection as evidenced by how stunning she looks in said dress. It was also great seeing her put a stapler to effective use in her fight with a bad guy. However, anyone who accuses Peggy Carter of being 'too perfect' should note that the bad guy not only manages to get away (after he miraculously survives her kicking him out a window and a decent drop below), but he also tracks her down at home and sadly offs Colleen - which I thought was a necessary moment in the episode, to show that Peggy indeed can't 'win them all' and there are consequences (albeit unintentional ones) to being friends/close with her. As is to be expected, Hayley Atwell totally sells Peggy's grief over the loss of her friend and it shows that even though she puts on a brave face in front of others, she does have a softer side and can be emotionally vulnerable at times. She's not some cold, emotionless 'tough chick', but is actually very human and has just as many feelings as everyone else. Anyway, she manages to enlist Jarvis in helping her track down the gizmo, where she encounters James Frain who James Frains away (with added voice synthesizer to make him extra creepy/evil on top of his natural creepy evilness that comes with being James Frain), and I enjoyed the banter between Peggy/Jarvis as she tells him to bring the car around and he's not fully aware of what's going on...that is until she leaps onto the car's roof before climbing inside (whilst it's still moving) and the building behind them not only explodes, but vaporizes itself as a result of the exploded gizmos (which James Frain had a whole truck load of). This was another great action sequence (which the show had managed to include several of) and lets the audience know there'll be action aplenty in this series. Then there's also 'quieter' scenes, like where Jarvis comforts Peggy (offering her a handkerchief) in the diner, which seems to be their regular meeting place for discussing their secret business. It's also the place where we're introduced to Lyndsy Fonseca as Angie Martinelli, a waitress who's another friend of Peggy's and dreams of becoming an actress...but instead has to deal with condescending jerk customers who slap her on the arse - which Peggy is having NONE of, and politely threatens the guy's brachial artery with a fork, making clear to him in no uncertain terms that he's to find somewhere else to eat and also tip Angie handsomely before leaving. I liked the friendship between Peggy and Angie (hoping that she wouldn't wind up in the same boat as poor Colleen did). The episode ends with Jarvis communicating with Howard and the suggestion things may not be as they seem with them enlisting Peggy's help. This was a great start to the series and it showed that Agent Peggy Carter/Hayley Atwell was just THAT awesome that she managed to score her own (well-deserved) series. Episode 2: 'Bridge and Tunnel'{Spoiler}The episode begins with the 'Captain America Adventure Program' playing over the radio, 'The Star-Spangled Man With A Plan' tune playing in the background as rather cringey performances are given by the radio actors playing the roles - though it's obviously supposed to be like that. Peggy Carter's character has been renamed Betty Carver and the worst insult of all...she's presented as a 'damsel in distress' type that the real Peggy Carter is the antithesis of. I was mildly amused by seeing the various objects they used to create the sound effects, but other than that I was feeling bad for Peggy that this is what they'd reduced her to, clearly not actually having done any fact-checking or research. Anyway, actual Peggy is looking for a place to stay after she lost her roommate last episode and Angie's super-eager for them to become neighbours...but obviously Peggy's reluctant to live close to anyone she's friends with/cares about given how badly that went for her former roommate. Her resistance to Angie's invitations result in her misconstruing that Peggy has a problem with her...but to Angie's credit, she doesn't suddenly turn bitchy or anything, which was a relief. Plus, by the end of the episode Peggy's accepted Angie's invitation and agrees to stay at the Griffith Hotel, which is for women and has a landlady in charge who's a stickler for the rules including no men above the first floor. When she's not looking for somewhere to stay, Peggy's attempting to get a hold of a file Sousa has with photos of 'the blonde' from last episode (ie. Peggy herself) and one minute he's seeing no sign of her at her desk whilst on the phone to someone who wants her, then the next she's suddenly there (after having hidden under his desk and been picking the lock of the drawer where he keeps the file). It's possible Peggy possesses teleportation powers. Turns out I was wrong about the building which exploded last episode having 'vaporized' itself, as this episode we learn that it has in fact compacted down into a big ball o' bricks and mortar (like the whole building was stuck in a giant trash compactor) and the guys Peggy works with are investigating it (she tries her best to listen into what they know thus far by using her job that she's relegated to - ie. bringing in coffee - as an excuse to eavesdrop, though unfortunately they cotton onto this and don't want her listening in). Determined to do more investigating, she dons another disguise/adopts another accent as a health inspector and I'm sure Hayley Atwell had fun with these different undercover roles that Peggy plays. Towards the end of the episode, it looks like the men at her work may have found the file with the photo of her as the blonde, but that's not the case (she was smart enough to keep her head turned/unseen in most instances). At one point there's a fight scene with Peggy vs Buzz from the Home Alone films and it's intercut with the 'Captain America Adventure Program' where what's happening in that vaguely mirrors the situation the real Peggy has found herself in...except Peggy, unlike 'Betty Carver', kicks serious arse. He's then tied up to a chair and Jarvis is tending to a wound she's sustained. I'm a little foggy on remembering the details and order in which things occurred, but I recall that he gives her a speech about accepting help from others, since it seems to him like she's determined to do what she does alone and this is one of Peggy's 'flaws' - that she thinks she can handle anything thrown at her/has trouble asking others for help (plus the fact that she doesn't wish to endanger anyone else like her poor roommate). There's a part where she mentions how Steve was basically perfect and didn't need anyone, but then Jarvis says that Howard told him Steve relied on Peggy - thus proving everyone, no matter how kick-arse they may be, needs someone to rely on/help them. Buzz manages to escape, Peggy & Jarvis go after him, then Dooley and Krzeminski catch up with him slowly getting away (still tied to the chair) while Peggy and Jarvis are pursuing a bad guy and she's fighting atop a moving vehicle and it's all very exciting. At the end of the episode, Krzeminski finds the car's license plate in the big ball of building which it would appear puts him one step closer to finding out Peggy was at the building pre-implosion. It also should be noted that Ray Wise guest-starred in this episode as a guy who made the mistake of calling Peggy 'Darling'...but on the plus side, it led to one of her iconic lines from this series where she's asked her name and the answer she gives is 'Agent' (that's why I always make a point of using her full name - Agent Peggy Carter - whenever there are any threads asking for favourite MCU characters, etc. That 'Agent' is a very important part and must not be forgotten). All in all, this was a pretty decent second episode of the show that, whilst maybe not quite up to the same level as the first episode, was still a good deal better than a lot of second episodes in shows that I've watched (which are more often than not disappointments after really great first episodes). Episode 3: 'Time and Tide'{Spoiler}The episode begins with a seemingly Pervy McPerve watching Peggy through her window from down on the street as she’s getting ready for bed. When she looks out her window, she finds a guy by the name of Jimmy climbing the wall and it turns out he’s there to see one of the other girls who's staying at the Griffith Hotel. Peggy directs him to where the one he wants to meet up with for sexytimes is...then she shuts the window on him. Next morning, all the girls are at breakfast and it sounds like Jimmy did eventually follow through on what he was there to do, but the hotel's strict landlady gives a speech about how Houdini could escape all manner of things but could not ascend above the first floor - which is just her long-winded way of booting out the girl Jimmy was there to hook up with, since the #1 rule (as stated last episode) is that no men are allowed above the first floor. At the SSR (which stands for Strategic Scientific Reserve), Peggy's co-workers have a dead James Frain from last episode on their hands (who apparently had his voicebox cut out, hence the scar on his neck and need for a voice synthesizer), the typewriter (which types back!) - that I forgot to mention the other bad guy used in the two previous episodes - and the license plate from Peggy & Jarvis' getaway car that got sucked into the building implosion at the end of the first episode. They eventually link the license plate to Jarvis, Sousa and Thompson go to pay him a visit, but Peggy's already there and has to hide from them as they question Jarvis and then bring him in for further questioning/interrogation by Thompson, who is at his most jerky with his line of questioning, even putting on a mocking fake British accent, then he makes the mistake of bringing up the name of Jarvis' wife, Anna, and threatening her with deportation, saying it'll be Jarvis' fault if that happens since he's refusing to turn on Howard Stark (who is the one they think is responsible for everything going on). As expected, this royally pisses Jarvis off and it's revealed that he was dishonourably discharged. Peggy then sacrifices all the hard work she's put in with trying to show her male colleagues that she's a competent worker by purposely screwing up the interrogation, which leads to Jarvis being set free and Dooley tearing Peggy a new one for messing up Thompson's 'exemplary' work. This illustrates just how self-sacrificing Peggy is - the fact that she's willing to lose all the headway she's made with her co-workers and them slowly coming to respect her. Now that's all out the window and everyone's glaring at her, she's forced to apologise to Thompson (who tells her that's not nearly enough) and it's clear this isn't something that Peggy just lets roll off her shoulder. She's obviously affected by her reputation more or less being flushed down the toilet in the eyes of everyone she works with. Poor Peggy. As Peggy's getting ready to go to bed, Angie walks right in, makes herself at home on Peggy's bed and is eager to discuss the days they've had, but considering how miserable Peggy's day has been, she just wants to sleep. She does say it in the nicest way she can, but Angie takes it the wrong way and gets all pissy about it. As she's about to leave, strict landlady introduces both of them to Dottie Underwood (played by Bridget Regan - who I personally hadn't really seen in anything when I originally watched this show, but I'd heard of her through comments from others online who seemed to be a fan of hers from a show she starred in called Legend of the Seeker), who's going to be staying at the hotel. She's overly chipper and friendly...which should immediately raise suspicions (plus, her stating rather obviously that Peggy's British after hearing her speak), but Angie's still pissed at Peggy and makes some thinly-veiled insults towards her before walking off, whilst Peggy says Dottie will enjoy it there...then promptly closes her door. So, overall, not the best first impressions ever. As only Agent Carter can do, it has a scene of exposition take place whilst Peggy and Jarvis are venturing into a sewer through a huge hole in the floor of Howard Stark's vault (where his gizmos were stolen from). At first she says she doesn't need to know what Jarvis' story is...but then eventually says the opposite (since they need to be able to trust each other). Turns out Jarvis met his wife (who Peggy clarifies was Jewish, which Jarvis confirms she still is - thus reminding me of Willow's line from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Hello? Still Jewish.") in Budapest whilst he was in the military, he stole papers that'd ensure her safe transport out of the country, was consequently charged with treason and Howard managed to reduce it to a dishonourable discharge - hence why Jarvis is so loyal to Howard. It's a good scene between the two, and I'm enjoying their dynamic as they learn more about each other. They eventually find a contraption that’s got a green glowy light to it and apparently will constrict muscles/break bones of anyone it zaps. Peggy wants to call it in, but Jarvis points out she'd have to explain how she discovered it. He then questions her like she would be questioned by her co-workers, she attempts to come up with answers but it all leads to what her relationship with Howard is. Begrudgingly, she agrees to let Jarvis call it in, making sure Sousa is the one to get the credit, which she says she "can almost stomach", whereas she doesn't want it to be Krzeminski, who's not only a jerk to her, but Sousa as well - as evidenced by the crack he makes at one point about how Peggy wouldn't be willing to 'trade in a red, white and blue shield for an aluminum crutch' (clearly he has no problem taking a dig at people crippled in the war) when he figures out that Sousa has a thing for Peggy (although he's not willing to admit it yet). Anyway, this leads to an amusing scene with Jarvis calling in an anonymous tip to Sousa...and using an obviously fake Brooklyn accent (so they don't recognise his voice) and words that he thinks make him sound more American. Whilst Jarvis is making his phone call, Peggy's assaulted by some goon who she's able to do a decent job of fighting off until he eventually gets the better of her, but luckily Jarvis returns in time to help out...that is until he winds up getting choked by the goon and Peggy uses the contraption they found to zap him (it delivers on what was described it does - ie. we hear the breaking of bones), his arm's rendered immobile and she whacks him with a pipe, knocking him out. They hear the SSR arriving, Peggy doesn't want to leave this witness, but Jarvis makes her go. Sousa and Krzeminski get a hold of the goon, I'm a little hazy on what leads to just Krzeminski transporting the goon alone, but he is informed there was a British woman who could hold her own, then before the goon can tell him more, they're stopped at train tracks and the occupant of the car behind them gets out, shoots Krzeminski dead and does the same to the goon. The following morning, Peggy arrives at work completely oblivious to what's transpired, but Rose soon informs her something bad has happened, she sees everyone's reactions and Dooley still thinks this is all Howard's fault, he wants everyone working to get the ones responsible and says he's got to call Krzeminski's wife while Thompson calls Krzeminski's girlfriend (Peggy made a crack about this earlier in the episode when Krzeminski was making his usual jerky comments towards her, but what once was used in a humourous way is effectively used in a more serious manner this time around). Obviously this affects Peggy, as she no doubt feels guilty about bringing Sousa and Krzeminski into a situation that led to Krzeminski's death, whereas if she'd handled it herself (which she wanted to do, but Jarvis advised her against it), she probably could've taken care of the assassin. So, all in all, things have been pretty shitty for Peggy lately and she goes to the diner, where Angie clearly knows how to hold a grudge, but Peggy's now more than willing to unload/talk about her day and Angie's happy to listen. Peggy mentions how a colleague died, lists all the reasons why she shouldn't be so broken up over the loss of him, but admits that she is. Angie being Angie, she manages to steer things towards herself and a story she has about her cousin dying on the job...by getting hit by a bus, but it's clear that they make up thanks to a guy in the diner demanding a refill and them bonding over their annoyance with him. Ah, jerks - bringing friends who are at odds back together. I thought that this episode, whilst perhaps not having as much 'action' as the two previous episodes, gave us some really good character stuff. There's, of course, the Peggy/Jarvis relationship, but also the people Peggy works with. They're not just a bunch of jerks, but have layers and even Krzeminski (who was most certainly a jerk) was treated as a real human bean being, his death *matters* and it show's things aren't so black/white. Well done, show. Keep it up! Episode 4: 'The Blitzkrieg Button'{Spoiler}This episode starts with Jarvis meeting some guys in a very cloak and dagger-y way. Meanwhile, the rest are getting their arses kicked by Peggy (there's a very cool bit with her silhouette that's like a classic hero sort of thing), Jarvis activates a suitcase which blows green smoke at the guys and it was a pretty neat opening scene. They eventually meet up with Howard Stark (I think the show did a good job of spreading out Dominic Cooper's guest appearances in the season, as it's only been two episodes since the first episode, which he was in, and it doesn't feel like he's been gone too long). There's an amusing part where he clocks one guy behind Peggy using a ball from the pool table, then next thing he's hiding in the back seat of the car Peggy's driving and she reluctantly takes him to the Griffith Hotel (where he's familiar with several of the ladies staying there, apparently) to hide him. I was amused by the whole bit with the dumbwaiter, Howard's fear of closed/tight spaces and Peggy's line, "Don't worry, I'll never reveal that Howard Stark's dead body is lying rotting at the bottom of a dumbwaiter shaft." when she forced him into it. That's when strict landlady appears and she gives Peggy a big speech, apparently wanting to protect her 'virtue' or whatever, Peggy plays along, she opens the dumbwaiter and there's a bag in there which she retrieves, then when she goes looking for Howard, he's already getting with one of the girls living at the hotel and Peggy's exasperation with his man-whore-ish self is amusing too. Once she's gotten him in her room, there's another amusing moment involving Howard giving Peggy a camera pen...which she's not overly impressed with (much to Howard's annoyance/disappointment) and an even funnier scene later on when she's told to go do the lunch orders at work by Thompson (who's been put in charge whilst Dooley goes off to question a Nazi about the dead Russian bad guys from the previous episodes), and Peggy's talking to one of the scientist dudes as she secretly takes plenty of photos of what they're working on using Howard's camera pen (there's even a bit that reminded me of the Q scene in the James Bond movie GoldenEye, where Q's devices were being tested out with the hazardous results...but in this case, the scientist guys catch on fire - not once, but twice). Peggy and Howard check out the photographs on the camera pen in a dark room (which also included some photos of what Howard gets up to with the many women he's involved with, which Peggy didn't need to see), he says he wants her to get back one of his gizmos that was stolen but won't offer up much useful information about it, and then he gives her a decoy to swap with the real thing - which she does successfully, but she also looks inside the device which ends up containing a vial of blood. When she goes to confront Howard about it, she catches him with a girl again, pulls him away and asks several times what's in the vial. He says she already knows and then confesses to it being Steve Rogers' blood...which leads to his face meeting Peggy's fist. She's obviously mad (and with good cause!) that he's been lying to her, using her and keeping this piece of Steve from her, then he makes a further mistake by saying the reason he didn't tell her about it was because she wouldn't be able to handle it 'emotionally' - which she rightly tells him off for, then gives an impassioned speech about Steve, how she isn't as 'good' as him and how Howard's always only out for himself/to make money. Hayley Atwell did a great job selling Peggy's anger and how betrayed she felt by Howard in this scene. I was probably supposed to feel sorry for Howard being torn a new one by Peggy, and after he gives a speech of his own about climbing up the 'American ladder' and what he had to do to get where he is...but I really didn't. I was just cheering Peggy on the whole way through. Of course, it's not just Howard she's been betrayed by, as Jarvis knew about it too and he'd been clearly lying to her throughout the episode (as she caught onto his rather obvious 'tell' - him rubbing his ear, which he did several times). There's not too much Jarvis in this episode, but what we *do* get of him leads to this fracture in the Peggy/Jarvis relationship, which had been going along fairly well until this point. Understandably, she's not happy with him either (though he doesn't get the full force of her wrath like Howard did), and for what it's worth, Jarvis feels horrible about the part he played, expresses as much to Howard as he's getting a shoe-shining done, and then Stan Lee makes a cameo as a guy sitting beside Howard after Jarvis says how much this has hurt him (lying to Peggy/betraying her trust). Near the end of the episode, Peggy bashes a hole in her wall, hides Steve's blood in there, then covers the hole with a picture frame. As for Dooley and the Nazi he visited (played by an actor I'm quite familiar with by the name of Jack Conley, who I've seen in a lot of things but I mainly remember for his being reused in the Buffyverse), he basically offered the guy a cyanide pill if he gave him the information he wanted, saying it'd be 'painless' compared to the hanging that he was scheduled for. The Nazi accepted this deal, gave up the info and then we saw that the pills were actually breath mints, as Dooley offered one to a guy and said as much (so, the Nazi was apparently ignorant of what cyanide pills actually look like and that such things would be 'painless'). Meanwhile, Sousa was still looking into that anonymous tip Jarvis called in last episode (with his obviously fake Brooklyn accent), trying to find someone who saw the caller. He comes across some bums who are ex-army guys, one he pays and gets useless information from, while the other isn't willing to talk at all, so Sousa brings him in for further questioning, Thompson (who made a big speech earlier about Krzeminski's middle name and what the most important part of his name was - ie. 'Agent' - and then used that to supposedly 'motivate' the rest of the agents, but it just came across to me as rather lame. He's certainly no Dooley) sarcastically applauds Sousa, remarking on his skills at bringing in 'Howard Stark' - who he comments on the appearance of...when it's clearly not Howard, then Sousa gives the guy a speech about how when he came back from the war, people applauded him but not another guy who also returned, which made him realise they were applauding because they felt guilty about him getting wounded/his crutch. This has no effect on the dude, so then Thompson takes a different approach, coming in with booze and a burger (which he proceeds to drink and eat), offering them in exchange for information - which leads to him getting a vague description of a dark-haired woman and fancy-dressed guy. Thompson then makes a comment to Sousa about not everyone needing a hug, and this isn't his only jerky behaviour this episode. He's also clearly let being put in charge go to his head, as he's barking orders at Peggy about lunch orders and telling her 'truths' about how no man will ever consider her an equal. There's the briefest of moments where he seems to feel some sympathy for her, but it's not exactly making him any more likeable. Disappointingly, Angie's relegated to an almost-nothing appearance, simply advising Peggy on how to conceal food they nick from the hotel (which she was doing for Howard when she was keeping him hidden). New arrival, Dottie, also seems to barely feature, but then near the end of the episode a bad guy (who kills his minions with an automatic pistol) breaks into the place and is going to go after Peggy & Howard...that is until Dottie sees his fancy gun, expresses a need to 'have' it, then promptly pulls some Black Widow-esque moves, swiftly killing him and later admires herself in a mirror, holding her newly-acquired weapon whilst the dead guy is on the floor. It's our first look at the type of person Dottie really is (which should've shut up all those who whined about the only bad guys in the show being 'men'...oh, who am I kidding? Those whiners would've never shut up with their complaining about this show) and promises interesting things to come from her character. This episode had some really good character stuff in it, some neat action, and some interesting story developments...it's just a shame characters such as Jarvis and Angie had to have their screentime reduced to make room for Howard and the multiple other characters who were just in this one episode. Still, it was another excellent episode of the show and I liked getting to see more of the Peggy/Howard dynamic. Episode 5: 'The Iron Ceiling'{Spoiler}There was no "I'm Peggy Carter" summary at the start of this episode like the previous two had, but rather just the usual 'Previously on...' that most shows do. I can't say I was as into this episode as I was with the previous four episodes, and I think a large part of that had to do with Thompson being given more focus and the Peggy/Jarvis relationship taking a backseat. I don't hate CMM as Thompson...but I don't find him particularly interesting either, even with the added character development he got this episode (ie. he killed a bunch of Japanese soldiers walking towards his camp before noticing they were carrying a white flag to surrender and he buried the flag before anyone from his camp saw it). Despite all his bravado, he froze up when there was a shootout whilst Peggy managed to snap him out of it and got him to hold it together long enough for them to escape. When it came to reporting back to Dooley (they'd found an engineer and his psychiatrist who informed them 'Leviathan' wanted the engineer to build a weapon that only he could), Thompson acknowledged Peggy getting the job done, but she made sure Thompson got credit too despite his freezing up, then Dooley actually praised her for a change. Peggy/Thompson had a 'moment' back on the plane (thankfully not a 'romantic' one...because bleh! Who'd want to see that? She's WAY too good for him!) where she seemed to see him in a new light, and I think going forward it won't be how it has been so far between them (even at the start of this episode, he was totally against Peggy going with him and other agents - Dooley was too at first, but then she proved herself by deciphering Russian code). Hopefully now Thompson nor Dooley will be so dismissive towards Peggy since she's more than proven herself to both of them. Despite the return of the Howling Commandos (where I'm pretty sure each member was recast except for the leader, Dum-Dum Dugan - which is still the DUMBEST NAME EVER - played by Neal McDonough), and there being plenty of shooting going on, I was not that into their storyline. I did like that they're fond of Peggy/know how awesome she is, and Hayley Atwell had nice chemistry with Neal McDonough. There was also some fun banter between their characters (the other Howling Commandos just seemed to be cannon fodder and their attempts at 'humour' fell pretty flat for me), but this marks the only time Peggy did something I disliked, which happened when they stumbled across an obviously fake-crying girl, Dugan stupidly approached her and knelt down in front of her, falling for her innocent act of pretending she was interested in his bowler hat (despite him wearing it all this time, he's never found out the origin of its name), only for her to stab him and then shoot one of the other Howling Commandos in the neck, killing him, before escaping down a hole. Dugan was gonna toss a grenade in after her, but Peggy stopped him, claiming she was just a little girl. Er... no, Peggy, she's a child assassin and just murdered one of your supposed buddies...she didn't deserve any leniency. It always bugs me when kids in shows get away with all sorts of shit. If you're old enough to murder someone, then you're old enough to suffer the consequences of your actions. At least I got a laugh out of Peggy describing Howard as an 'utter wanker', but it still didn't make up for the lack of Peggy/Jarvis - which, to be fair, is partly due to Peggy continuing to be on the outs with Jarvis after his betrayal last episode, but what little we *did* get of them was still pretty good. She got some digs in about him being Howard's servant and he gave as good as she got, pointing out how her co-workers see her (which, as I said, hopefully will now change). It's sad to see their friendship fractured after it only just started, but obviously they will work it out between them eventually. Sousa didn't get to do much this episode either besides noticing two spots on the back of Peggy's bare shoulder (which he did, unintentionally, thanks to Thompson being his usual jackass self at the start of the episode and tricking Sousa into walking in on Peggy as she was getting changed in the locker room. I was amused by her exclaiming "Bloody Nora!"), then managing to get access to her medical history or whatever and seeing she'd sustained two bullet wounds which he matched to two identical spots on the photo of 'the blonde' (whose hair he'd coloured dark with a pen last episode). So, now it would appear he's onto Peggy. As for the lack of Angie this episode, that was explained by Dottie towards the beginning... Speaking of Dottie, us getting some backstory on her (turns out she was a Black Widow-in-training) was probably the most interesting part of the episode. Back in 1937 in Russia, her kid self and others like her were trained hard and handcuffed to their beds, but she found a friend to share her bit of food with...though apparently 'friendship' didn't get in the way of her doing what she was trained to do, as she snapped the neck of her new 'friend' without hesitation (and good on the show for not shying away from the fact Black Widows were kids who killed other kids - it was a pretty surprising moment when it happened, but was necessary to show their ruthlessness). She spends time with Peggy at the diner at the beginning of the episode, purposely knocking her bag to the floor so she can steal Peggy's room key, then later lets herself in, snoops around, finds some stuff (like Peggy's photo of Skinny Steve), sits in front of the mirror and imitates Peggy's voice/British accent whilst saying "I'm Peggy Carter.", then it looks like she's going to try Peggy's lipstick, but instead she sniffs it and apparently can tell it's used for knocking people out (as we've seen Peggy use it for previously). She eventually leaves and replaces the thread on the lock which fell when she opened the door - which no one but Peggy or a Black Widow like Dottie would've noticed. Clearly, Peggy's met her match. Episode 6: 'A Sin to Err'{Spoiler}I can't recall exactly where this episode started at (stupid dodgy memory!), but I remember that Peggy teamed up with Jarvis to track down all of Howard's conquests (starting with the Western hemisphere) in the hope of finding whoever had handcuff marks on their wrist, since Peggy worked out that he'd been with the one who was the 'Leviathan' agent (ie. Dottie - not that Peggy knew at this stage that it was Dottie, of course). Peggy makes it clear to Jarvis that she still hasn't forgiven him for his lying/betrayal, but she's still wishing to clear Howard's name...plus, there's the added bonus for her of seeing Jarvis get slapped by each one of the women Howard dumped through proxy (turns out that proxy was Jarvis). Peggy admits to it being 'fun', though she does try to stop one of the women from slapping him...but then she just kicks him in the leg instead. I took this scene to be Jarvis' 'penance' for wronging Peggy, which he's willing to suffer through (to a point) in an effort to help her and prove that he's still her ally. At the diner, Angie's reciting lines and a customer applauds, Peggy compliments her performance, Angie says her father wants her to go to secretary school, Peggy encourages her not to give up on her dream of becoming an actress, but Angie says she's been told she's the worst audition ever...and she's had plenty of them. Due to the SSR having discovered Peggy's been acting as a double agent with them, they've dispatched agents to the diner - which everyone clears out of except the agents, Peggy and Jarvis (who exchange a few words as they prepare for battle), then ensues a great fight scene with a surprising choice of music that plays throughout (but that just makes it all the more effective/fun). Peggy shows just how much arse she can kick. Jarvis helps, hitting one or two agents with a bottle and a tray, but it's Peggy who cleans their clocks...and it's glorious. Unfortunately, when she and Jarvis flee out the back of the diner, Thompson's there, waiting with a gun pointed at Peggy. She says she can explain, but he's having none of it...so she promptly knocks him out (I'm sure at least a part of her found that cathartic despite her apology to him). And then it's Sousa's turn to try the same thing - though in a slightly less aggressive manner than Thompson did, but clearly Peggy's 'betrayal' hurts him a lot more since he counted Peggy as a close friend and the two of them bonded over being underestimated by the rest of the SSR. She doesn't knock him out like she did Thompson, but just runs off (after Sousa says doing so will prove her guilt). One thing I really liked about this episode was that it gave Angie a very important part to play. After Peggy retrieved the vial of Steve's blood from the hole in the wall where she'd hidden it, she escaped out the window to hide from Thompson and Sousa, who barged in (much to strict landlady's disapproval) and searched her room, before moving onto Angie's room. She catches Peggy outside her window, and without any explanation on Peggy's part, Angie proceeds to be the BEST. FRIEND. EVER (which Peggy's in dire need of at this particular moment) by spinning a tale about Peggy's sick grandma, crying on Thompson's shoulder, making both him and Sousa SO uncomfortable that they can't get out of there quick enough, then once they're gone, letting Peggy inside and simply accepting that she has a good explanation for what's happening and trusting her. Peggy compliments Angie's excellent performance with the agents (Angie says stuff secretary school, she's going to pursue her acting career after all), then the two hug and say goodbye. This whole scene almost makes up for how underutilised the character of Angie has been thus far in the season. It was a great friendship moment and showed just how loyal a friend she was to Peggy. The Russian psychiatrist Peggy and Thompson rescued last episode turns out to be a bad guy - which we discover when Dottie's watching him through the scope in a sniper rifle, as he's talking with Dooley (and attempting to hypnotise him by turning a ring on his finger and telling him to focus as he's talking about his troubles at home), but instead of snipering the Russian, Dottie uses a flashing light on the sniper rifle to do Morse code, which he responds to with taps of his finger (his message? 'Kill Peggy Carter'). Later, the Russian is left in a room with one newbie agent and this time he successfully does his hypnotism trick (after getting what information he can), telling the guy to gather his belongings, go to a bar, order a bourbon, savor it...and then walk into traffic - which he does (poor dead bastard). This whole part of the episode didn't particularly interest me, but what *did* interest me was the part where Peggy encounters Dottie, as she's trying to make good her escape (after Angie's assistance), and this leads to Dottie hugging Peggy...then snogging her. It quickly becomes clear that Dottie used Peggy's knockout lipstick, which she discovered in her room last episode. Proving she is still on the job, even as she's being knocked out, Peggy manages to uncover the handcuff marks on Dottie's wrist before falling unconscious. Dottie is about to kill Peggy with a knife (there's something fitting about the only person who's able to 'defeat' Peggy is another kick-arse woman), when Thompson and Sousa appear and Dottie has to abandon her assassination attempt, claiming to have just found Peggy in this state. The agents walk Peggy out of the Griffith Hotel in front of everyone, then through the SSR headquarters as well, before marching her into an office, sitting her down and handcuffing her to the chair/table (I forget which). Sousa not only questioned the need for this, but also when they first picked her up off the floor and Thompson handcuffed her, whereas Thompson isn't taking any chances after he got his arse handed to him earlier. This is where the episode ends - and what an episode it was. Things certainly ramped up in the second half, and it sucks that now just about everyone who'd come to trust/admire/respect Peggy feel the same way as she did when she learned about Howard and Jarvis' betrayal. Poor Peggy just can't catch a break (I know the feeling). Episode 7: 'SNAFU'{Spoiler}The episode starts with a flashback to the Russian psychiatrist using his hypnotism powers to ease the pain of a soldier (who has to have his leg amputated) by making him relive a happy memory of him with his mother - though obviously he's not doing this out of the goodness of his heart. Anyway, I was in a rush to get to where we left off last episode, with the SSR men interrogating Peggy and Dooley ensuring Sousa isn't going to go easy on her 'just 'cause she's a girl'. Firstly...she's a woman, and secondly... now you decide to treat her as you would a man/an 'equal'? The real eye-opener in this scene is that Sousa certainly isn't going to play nice. In fact, I wondered if he'd count as an example of the 'nice guy arsehole' trope, since up until now he's seemed like the one really decent male co-worker Peggy had at the SSR, but after he feels betrayed by her, he takes a turn and suddenly starts accusing her of every sexist presumption he can think of, apparently not as 'enlightened' as he first appeared. On the flipside, Thompson - who's always been the most aggressive towards Peggy - seems to be not quite so harsh towards her as Sousa is. Maybe that moment they had on the plane a couple episodes ago softened him towards her? I mean, he says that he is going to have to do stuff to her he doesn't want to do to get information...so I guess that's progress? Dooley is, of course, feeling betrayed too, but on a professional level (whereas with Sousa, it seems all personal). The best thing to come out of the interrogation - which is done in an interesting way, with it cutting between the three men taking turns at questioning Peggy - is her calling all three out on how they perceived her/treated her. Every word she said was true and it was satisfying to hear her throw it back at them in return for all the things they called her/accused her of being (whether or not any of them actually accepted what she was saying as truth is another thing - if there's one thing guys can't stand, it's being called out on their BS by women). Luckily, Peggy still has one ally in Jarvis, who comes to the rescue in the form of offering the guys a deal whereby they let Peggy go free and in return he will hand over a signed confession from Howard Stark. The only deal Dooley's willing to accept is Stark being delivered in person and he officially fires Peggy from the SSR. After she's left in the room with Jarvis, she soon works out that this signed confession from Howard wasn't actually from Howard after all and Jarvis forged it - the way she works it out and Jarvis admits to it is done in an amusing manner, and her "Oh, flipping hell!" exclamation was just as good as her "Bloody Nora!" a couple episodes ago. They're quite the comedic duo, but it works on a deeper level also - as it shows just how fond Jarvis has become of Peggy (the fact that he's willing to put himself at such risk to get her out - plus, he's clearly more self-sacrificing than Howard is, who's nowhere to be seen or heard from). Meanwhile, the Russian's been listening in on Dooley's phone conversation with his wife (clearly, not all is well at home), doing his hypnosis thing and once again tapping out Morse code at the window to Dottie who's watching from across the road - this time she doesn't even need the aid of a sniper rifle's scope to see it, but luckily Peggy sees it too and she can read it (as can Jarvis, and he's wounded when Peggy's surprised by this fact), which leads to her confessing everything that happened (for realsies) to the trio of SSR guys, expressing regret over Krzeminski's death (how she didn't know he was going to be assassinated, but could've possibly done more to keep him safe), etc...and then she points out they should be going after not only Dottie (who's the one that assassinated Krzeminski), but also the Russian who they've been trusting despite him being a virtual stranger. They ask why she didn't tell them all this to begin with and we're treated to another fine Peggy Carter speech where she calls them out on how they treat her because she's a woman. I'm sure there were those who rolled their eyes at these truth bombs being dropped...but every word she said was accurate and they needed to hear it. Truth hurts, don't it? I guess Sousa goes a ways towards earning back his 'nice guy' label by trusting what Peggy said, and Dooley trusts Sousa...so he tasks him and Thompson with going over to the building across the road to get Dottie whilst he himself stays behind to babysit the Russian. Unfortunately, him telling the Russian to shut the window immediately raises his suspicions that they're onto him...which are then confirmed when he sees the agents heading over to the building Dottie's in. So, then he does his hypnotism thing again, they go where the scientists have kept Howard's gizmos that they've acquired, Dooley finds a vest (that's clearly more than just a vest), but the Russian's after something else - which he eventually finds. He then is escorted to an elevator, hands Dooley the vest, tells him he knows what to do and leaves. Meanwhile, the agents assigned to grab Dottie aren't very covert, alerting her to their presence/the fact that they're onto her as she watches from behind a door. When she figures the coast is clear, she leaves, but can tell Sousa's hiding behind a corner thanks to his shadow/silhouette, so she's ready for him when he points a gun at her. For what it's worth, Sousa puts up a valiant effort in fighting her, but he's clearly no match. She then proceeds to escape via the stairs...but Black Widows apparently don't use stairs the way normal folk do, as she leaps down between them, bouncing from side to side, before landing in front of an obviously doomed agent (since he has no lines). Sure enough, he winds up dead, the Russian picks Dottie up in a car and they speed away to go do some evil. Back at the SSR, Peggy and Jarvis have been handcuffed to a desk and locked in the interrogation room (the Russian broke off the key), so they decide to toss the desk at the two-way mirror...but every time they reach 'three' in their "One, two, three..." countdown to letting go of the desk, Jarvis halts, Peggy gets increasingly exasperated at having to put down the heavy desk again, and they hypothesize about there either being innocent people on the other side (who'll get a face full of glass) or people with guns ready to shoot them (and Peggy/Jarvis will get a face full of bullets). In the end, they decide to chance it, smashing the window. It appears Dooley's gone home in the middle of this crisis to patch things up with his wife and kids...but their happy dinner together is just another mind-whammy of the Russian's and in actuality Dooley has the vest they found before strapped to himself and he's slumped over at his desk until he's awoken by Peggy and the others knocking on his door. They see the vest is lit up with glowing orange swirly lights which're getting brighter/hotter. It soon becomes clear to them that this is an explosive vest and Jarvis lists all the things that will set it off as they seek the scientists' help...except the scientists are apparently useless. Sousa is elsewhere when the lights on the vest seem to be reaching their climax, Dooley asks his agents to apologise to his wife for not making it to dinner, then he addresses Peggy specifically, tasking her with making the Russian pay and gives her an "attagirl" (again, she's a woman...but I guess we can let it slide on account of Dooley being about to do the heroic sacrifice thing), before running towards a widow, shooting it out (with a gun he swiped from one of the agents) and taking a flying leap into midair before a large explosion shatters the buildings surrounding it. It's a shame that only now, at his end, did Dooley truly respect Peggy and trust her above all others with the task of taking the bad guy down. It's nice that the show gave his character some development/depth so his ending had some weight/emotional impact. Shea Whigham did a good job in his portrayal and brought a lot to what could've been a pretty forgettable role/character. So long, Chief. Naturally, Peggy feels this is all her fault (since she rescued the Russian and brought him to the SSR), but Jarvis reassures her that is totally not the case. Sousa returns, wondering WTF just happened, then Peggy thinks the Russian went after Steve's blood. They find it's still in its container, but something else is missing - another of Howard's gizmos. What it is/does, Jarvis doesn't know...but we soon find out when Dottie, who's acting the part of a mother - as she went shopping for a baby carriage earlier in the episode - wheels in said carriage, but it's actually carrying a cannister of some obviously deadly substance. One guy in the audience reacts exactly the same way I would when seeing a mother bring her infant to the movies...but a woman in the audience tells her to pay him no mind, then Dottie just glares daggers at the guy one more time before setting off the gas and walking out, the Russian locks the doors to the theatre, then a short time later a couple (who were late) arrive with an usher, and when they open the door, they're greeted with a theatre full of dead bodies (as they started attacking each other, leading to a stampede before they died). So... that's what that does. This was a pretty great penultimate episode, with a lot of character stuff going on, but also some really good action stuff too. Only one more episode of the season to go. Episode 8 (season final): 'Valediction'{Spoiler}'The Captain America Adventure Program' is where the episode begins, with the performances just as hammy/OTT as they were the first time. Betty Carver's telling Captain America how much she loves him in the the cringiest of ways, while in reality Peggy and the rest of the SSR are looking into what happened at the movie theatre at the end of the previous episode. The description of heads bashed in and eyes gouged out paint a pretty grisly picture (sometimes descriptions are all we need and seeing stuff in gratuitous detail isn't necessary). I wondered last episode why nobody thought it weird that Dottie would bring in a baby carriage and then walk out without it. Wouldn't someone have said something? Anyway, the dead movie audience weren't the only ones to act stupid, as Sousa follows suit and foolishly picks up the canister (after worrying there's a dead baby in the carriage. Nevermind all the other dead people) which shoots him with a faceful of the gas. Shouldn't he be experienced enough to not act so reckless? Anyway, he pays for his dumb mistake by suddenly turning super-aggressive like the rest of the movie theatre did, he attacks Thompson, Peggy tries to intervene and then he hits her, and it's only when he gets knocked out that he stops attacking. He wakes up in hospital, restrained to a bed and...with no shirt, just a tank top ( why is that necessary?). Peggy asks him if he still feels like killing Thompson and he replies no more than usual. He remembers attacking him, and then attacking Peggy - which causes him to feel much guilt/shame and he apologises profusely for hitting her, but she knows he wasn't himself. Back at the SSR, Howard walks right in (after spending a season pursuing him, this is the ultimate insult to the SSR's abilities to track down a hunted man - that the only way they can get him is for him to surrender himself). He's arrested, then confesses everything that's happened which all leads back to 'the Battle of Finow', where the gas (which he created - but not for the purposes Dottie and the Russian have used it) was something he made to keep soldiers from falling asleep so they could be more efficient...or something, but then a General McGinnis used it in the wrong way or whatever and it made them attack everyone/each other and this led to a massacre. So, Howard's lived with this guilt and now he's going to have more guilt if it's used again. Sousa only got a mild taste of the stuff, but there are MANY canisters - all of which Dottie and the Russian intend to use. Speaking of the evil duo, they're driving and then get pulled over by a cop who Dottie wants to shoot, but the Russian says they shouldn't draw any unnecessary attention, so she puts on her sweet innocent act that she did when she first appeared in the show, the cop buys her story that she spins, but then he hears over his police radio descriptions of the pair, and when he turns around Dottie's pointing a gun at him. As easy as it was for Howard to walk straight into the SSR, it's just as easy for him to be acquitted of all charges, apparently - as Thompson is declaring to everyone that Stark was wrongfully charged, is innocent and such a great guy. Howard's feeding Thompson the lines of praise to say, but Thompson can only stomach so much. In the middle of Howard's speech, shots ring out and everyone ducks for cover, Peggy notices where the shooting's coming from and she goes with Thompson to check it out whilst Jarvis is tasked with getting Howard to safety, shoving him into a police car, which drives off... minus Jarvis (due to the actual policemen having been killed and revealed once the car disappears). After Peggy and everyone else learns of Howard's kidnapping, she works out that there's more going on with Dottie and the Russian's sinister plan. Sure enough, we soon learn what that plan is...after Howard's gotten slugged in the face by Dottie a few times on account of him not remembering his time with her...or her name. There's a brief flashback to him after they'd hooked up and he took her to his hangar - which is where he's currently being held at. The Russian's motivation for his evil acts? His brother died in Finow and Howard's to blame for that as far as he's concerned, so now he's going to use his hypnotism trick on Howard - making him think he's in a snowy environment at a time when Cap's plane has just gone down and a guy tells him they've found Cap...then Peggy suddenly appears (looking very fashionable in the cold weather) with Cap's shield in hand, telling Howard to bring Cap home (I think that was the gist of it). After Jarvis has informed the others of this second vault of Howard's, they get there just in time to see him flying off in a plane. Peggy's figured out the Russian has mind-controlled Howard into releasing gas over the populace and needs someone to fly after Howard, should he not be able to be freed from the mind-control and require shooting down. Thompson nor Sousa are of any use, so Jarvis is the only one left...but luckily he knows how to fly (though he's never shot down anyone). Peggy goes to stop the Russian, but she has to go through Dottie first. They have a pretty great fight, during which Dottie says she's always envied women like Peggy and basically wants to *be* her. She then makes the fatal mistake of underestimating Peggy, saying that she thought she'd be 'better'...and that's when Peggy proves just how much better she is by kicking Dottie's arse out a window and she thuds onto the wing of a plane that's down below. Peggy then finds herself in an eerily familiar situation, talking to Howard over the radio as he's getting closer to flying over civilisation and she needs to stop him before he does. It's a clear callback to her final exchange with Steve, where he had to down the plane into the water before it was over civilisation, but this time she's trying to snap Howard out of the imaginary situation he's in - where he thinks he's going to save Cap. The 'need more time' is a particular reminder of her goodbye to Steve, but in this case it's in reference to Jarvis being ready to shoot Howard down before he becomes a danger to everyone and Peggy needing more time to bring him back to reality. Meanwhile, Sousa and Thompson have gone after the Russian, noting that they should not allow him to speak to them at all lest they wind up hypnotised. Sousa tracks him down, pointing a gun at him (after Thompson failed to apprehend the bad guy and was bested by him), then the Russian starts in on his whole 'focus' thing, giving a speech to Sousa about how his co-workers (and Peggy) see/think of him, it appears like he's doing the mind-whammy on him, but when he tells Sousa to shoot Thompson, he instead whacks the Russian in the head with his gun, knocking him out, before removing stuffing from his ears and asking whether Talky McTalksalot was saying something. Back with Peggy, she's giving a speech of her own to Howard where she basically tells him he doesn't have to feel guilty about Steve (which he's been blaming himself for all this time) and this eventually seems to get through to him, she calls Jarvis off, and they all hug once back together. It mightn't have been the climax some were hoping for, but I didn't have a problem with it myself. Yes, one could maybe view it as being more about relieving Howard's guilt than about Peggy, but she's the one who saved the day in the end. Howard FINALLY remembers Dottie's name (saying it's 'Ida'), Peggy and Jarvis just exchange looks and then leave (Peggy found Dottie was missing from the plane wing when she went to check, so her nemesis is obviously out there somewhere to cause further havoc at a later date). Back at the SSR, Peggy's co-workers applaud her and it's nice to see her excellence recognised...but then some bigwig comes in and is looking for Thompson, who he heaps praise on and attributes saving the day to him, not mentioning Peggy or Sousa once...and Thompson, who you would think might've 'grown' as a person, just goes right along with it (the dick). Sousa is understandably pissed on Peggy's behalf, but this is where she delivers her iconic 'I know my value' line which is EPIC and perfectly sums up Peggy - that she doesn't need anyone else's approval or praise. I loved this line SO much that it was my signature for a while. Jarvis takes Peggy and Angie (I was glad they remembered her in this season final, even if she only got this single scene) to one of Howard's more 'modest' abodes, where Angie is flabbergasted at the size (saying the whole building of where she used to live could fit in one room of this place), then is even more amazed to hear there's a phone in every room. She's super-enthusiastic about her and Peggy being roomies at this lavish place (and for free!), though I know from having already watched Season 2 of this show when it originally aired that the writers don't actually deliver on this promise of us getting to regularly see them as roomies - which is a shame. She excitedly goes off to call her mum and tell her about her new quality of living, whilst Jarvis says he's happy to have found someone who appreciates the 'finer' things. Peggy reckons she does too...but just doesn't wish to know what's been done on the finer things, what with Howard being the manwhore that he is and such. When it all comes down to it, the most important relationship this show established was Peggy/Jarvis, and they share a couple of really good exchanges near the end of the episode - one being him ready to join her on another adventure anytime she needs him, while the other is very poignant and involves him handing her over the vial of Steve's blood...which Howard has nothing to do with, as Jarvis has made the decision that his friendship with Peggy is everything (even more than his loyalty to Howard) and he knows that she's the one and only person who should get to decide what to do with her beloved's blood. And so the season ends with Peggy Carter finding closure to her goodbye that she never was able to finish saying to Steve, on a bridge, as she tips out the last remainder of her true love, saying "Goodbye, my darling." and looking out to the sunset, ready to start a new chapter of her life. Of course, the episode doesn't quite end here, as we're then treated to an extra scene involving the Russian being led to a jail cell with a Hannibal Lecter-esque mask over his mouth and the guard taunting him about having nothing to say. Unfortunately for the guard, he's probably going to wind up the first victim once the Russian escapes - which seems a strong possibility due to his cellmate turning out to be the 'Smithers' to Red Skull's 'Mr. Burns', Dr. Zola (played by Toby Jones, making a fun/unexpected - at least the first time I watched it - special guest appearance). Not sure why they'd stick one unhinged criminal in with another, where they can plot together...but there you go. This first season of Agent Carter was, without question, excellent. It surpassed expectations, introduced new characters and relationships we could actually *care* about, had twists and turns, was action-packed, but never forgot to bring heart and have the emotional beats necessary to ensure this show was truly something great. It goes without saying that Hayley Atwell is a goddess. She brings SO much to this character, having already established Peggy as more than a mere 'love interest' from the first time we met her in CA: TFA. She's been through so much, but has remained a class act all the way. She's not without her flaws, but unlike a lot of characters, can acknowledge them and strives to grow/change/become an even better person than she already is. James D'Arcy proved another bit of excellent casting, as his Edwin Jarvis was the perfect onscreen match for Hayley Atwell's Peggy. They managed to create a believable friendship after only eight episodes and are a truly great pairing. All the other main cast, as well as recurring characters and guest-stars, were really good too. Naturally, there were some who had to nitpick this show for no other reason than it had a female lead who kicked arse and took no BS, but for those who didn't have the maturity of children, this was a very rewarding viewing experience that, sadly, wasn't appreciated as much as it should've been. Still, at least we got a second season (with ten episodes), and short seasons of high quality episodes will always be preferable to seasons with bigger quantities of lesser quality episodes.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 20, 2022 5:13:55 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of The Boys on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}I bought this ages ago, but only just recently decided to finally watch it. It'd been quite a while since I watched Season 1, so some stuff from that had faded from my memory, but I remembered the gist of what happened. Still, it was helpful having the 'Previously on' at the start of this season, since I'd forgotten some things - and what an extensive 'Previously on' it was. I think it lasted at least over two minutes. I'd originally avoided seeing the guy whose head got crushed underneath the woman sitting atop of it in Season 1 (knowing it was coming), but this time around when it was shown in the 'Previously on', it caught me unawares. Bleh! Speaking of the violence/gore in this show, I knew about the whole bit with someone's head getting ripped open from the mouth ahead of watching, so at least I was prepared for that. I know others enjoy the OTT violence/gore in this show, and for some it might even be one of the main reasons they watch the series...but for me, I watch this series because I like some of the characters and the actors who portray them, plus the 'dark' sense of humour that the show has...but when it comes to the violence, I watch this show in spite of it and not because of it. One thing I *did* really like was the montage of what Hughie and Annie/Starlight were doing set to Billy Joel's 'Pressure'. One thing this show excels at is its music choices, and this was no exception, as it really set the tone and fit what we were seeing onscreen perfectly. Also good - but for a different reason - was Translucent's funeral, which was amusing since there was nothing in the see-through coffin and then Starlight's song that she sang was also pretty funny (though I'm not sure how nobody saw through Homelander's BS 'heartfelt' speech, since it really came across as fake to me...but then that might be because I'm 'in the know' about what sort of person Homelander really is, and that's why everyone else can view it as him being sincere?). The fact that there's actually an 'official music video' for the song makes it even funnier (apart from being a really good actress, Erin Moriarty can really sing/has an excellent singing voice). The Deep, meanwhile, is quite a pathetic character. His 'woe is me' attitude, after what he did to Starlight in Season 1, wasn't garnering any sympathy from me. I'll admit he can occasionally be kind of funny in a 'dumb' sort of way, but I felt like most of his scenes this season were more or less a waste of time that took away from characters I would've much rather spent time with. His gills are indeed gross, and that whole scene with with Patton Oswalt voicing them and then singing 'You Are So Beautiful To Me' went on a bit too long. Like, I get it, it was funny for a little while...but way to drag it out until it became unfunny, show! I really couldn't get into The Deep's whole storyline with joining the Church of the Collective. I mean, Eagle the Archer seemed like a decent enough bloke (though did we even get to see him display his expert archery skills? I can't recall. I guess he was as memorable as Hawkeye, who he was obviously a parallel to), and I know there was supposed to be some 'character development' with The Deep learning to love himself/his ugly-arse gills and whatnot, but none of it interested me really. And then there was the whole worn-out 'joke' of The Deep's animal buddies dying in horrible ways. They played that out last season, I didn't really need more of it this season with that poor Sperm Whale (apparently named Lucy) being ridden by The Deep onto the beach in an effort to stop the Boys from escaping in a boat...only for them to ram straight into the poor animal's guts, with it moaning and slowly flapping its tail as it died - that was just plain mean-spirited. I'm sure there are some who get off on animal violence...but I'm certainly not one of them. Quit it, show! The joke's gotten stale. The one 'good' thing to come out of that scene was seeing all seven of, y'know, The Seven actually together (as it feels like they hardly ever are, since one or more always seem to be on the outs with the rest). Another character I wasn't fond of last season, and who didn't do anything to change my mind this season, was A-Train. He was more like an A- Hole right from the very first time we met him (when he ran through Hughie's g/f, exploding her - did he even ever feel any guilt/remorse about that? I'm thinking no) and he's never actually endeared himself to me *once*. What really pissed me off about him this season was him being an ungrateful dick towards Starlight, when she reminded him that she saved his life in last season's final and his response to that was basically "Well, bitch... your mistake then." - like, WHAT A BASTARD. She really should have let him cark it, if that's what he was going to be like towards her. I hated the way he talked to/treated her and I was glad to see her blackmail him with the fact that he framed his g/f's death as a suicide even though he murdered her. Some seemed to find it hard to believe that this blackmail would work or they complained that there seems to be an 'overreliance' on blackmail being used by various characters against other characters in the show, but I think that when you have beings that can kill you within a split second out of nowhere...blackmail's really your only 'friend' that can help you to survive (I'd also hope Starlight would've had backups and a 'If anything happens to me, send this to everyone/the public' contingency plan in place). About the *only* worthwhile thing A-Train did this season was supplying Hughie and Starlight with material on Stormfront that would ruin her in the public's eye/help take her down, but even that was just a self-serving action, as he just wanted to get back in The Seven - added bonus, it got rid of a Nazi. Speaking of Stormfront, who was the new addition to this season, I was overjoyed when I'd heard Aya Cash would be joining the cast of this show. I was just getting to know what a comedic talent she was thanks to watching her in the series You're the Worst when I first heard the news of her casting. I knew she was brilliant at comedy/drama, so I expected she'd be an excellent addition to this show. While I saw some similarities to the character she played in You're the Worst, she made Stormfront very different at the same time. Her snarkiness/one-liners were, of course, golden (there's just too many great ones to list hear, and I'm sure I missed a few since Aya Cash delivered them at rapid speed). Plus, I liked that she called out various other characters on their BS - whether it was the movie-maker and how his script wrote its female characters, or talk show hosts...or just generally anyone who needed to have some truth bombs dropped on them. I also liked that she was a 'mentor' of sorts to Starlight in the first couple of episodes, with her lessons in not having to 'tow the company line' and feeling bad about 'being a bitch'/how she should embrace it, and this helped Starlight when she hid the Compound V from A-Train when he nearly caught her with it. Lastly, the fact that Stormfront could stand up to Homelander (who just about everyone else was afraid of) was pretty awesome. Yes, at times it seemed like she immediately regretted saying certain things to him and thought maybe he'd kill her, but when she demanded he zap her in the boobs with his heat vision during their rough kinky supersex, we saw that she appeared to be relatively invulnerable to his attacks. It's too bad that she ended up being revealed as a Nazi. She could've been one of the BEST characters in the show if not for that rather significant 'downside' to her character. This show did social and political commentary in Season 1, but I felt it was a bit more 'obvious' and sledgehammer-y this season, hitting us over the heads with who it was calling out and the parallels to certain real life people. Like, WE GET IT! Subtlety, thy name is *not* The Boys (at least not this season, anyway). One thing I didn't have a problem with believing was everyone who'd loved Stormfront suddenly turning on her as soon as the stuff about her was released. After all, nowadays you can just call somebody a 'racist' and everyone will immediately turn on them, evidence or no evidence. So, people immediately hating Stormfront after the reveal (since there was actual evidence in this instance), was something I could totally buy. It was neat how the whole 'Girls Get It Done' thing, which was obviously aimed at mocking the all-female shot from Avengers: Endgame and other such things, came back around to be relevant in the season final when the girls did actually get it done (which Frenchie noted) as far as kicking Stormfront's arse was concerned. I know that the character of Stormfront is male in the comics this series is adapted from, but I had no problem with the 'gender-flip' here, as I felt it worked well and wasn't just for the sake of it. Actually, it allowed for more/different stories to be told and moments to happen that we wouldn't have gotten had it been a guy (and guys who beat him up) like in the comic. I knew what Stormfront's fate would be well in advance of watching this season, since I looked it up as soon as the episode originally aired in America, wanting to know if she got killed off or just horribly maimed. Turns out...it was the latter. I typically hate seeing actresses I find attractive get FUBAR'd in shows/movies, but I guess since she was such a terrible person, it didn't really bother me here to see Stormfront become Darth Stormfront (or should that be Storm stump?). I think the fact that at least part of her face remained also helped with that (whereas if she'd been totally unrecogniseable, I might've felt differently). The reveal of her being 'Liberty' turned out not to be as big a thing as I'd expected it to be (I thought it'd be drawn-out over several episodes, but by episode 4 we learned who she really was). I was curious what she said in German during the season final after she got zapped. Apparently what Homelander heard her saying, after he floated down to find her lying there all burned/without limbs, was the following (which I had to look up): "It was so beautiful. How the three of us sat there, in the shade of an apple tree. Do you remember the day Frederick? Chloe's arms out of the car window. We found the perfect spot by the river, in the shade of an apple tree. It was the first time Chloe ate fresh apples." and then there was some more that she said when Homelander was talking to his son: "...was so happy. It was wonderful. I wanted it to never end." - apparently having to speak German in the season final was sprung on Aya Cash and was the thing she dreaded most about the role (so I learned from watching interviews with her about the show on YouTube). I have to say, I think Aya Cash deserves major kudos for taking on this character. I think a lot of actresses would've probably let their personal feelings prevent them from tackling this difficult role, or they might've been too worried about how they'd be perceived in real life for accepting this part ( anyone who judges Aya Cash or thinks she's anything like Stormfront has *got* to be an IDIOT who can't tell the difference between a TV show character and a real life person - simple as that). She made the most of this character and brought a lot to the role. I guess Stormfront showed that there *could* be someone 'worse' than Homelander...but not by much. He's still a raging psychopath who rules by fear/intimidation and is basically just a man-child with super powers. Him drinking Stillwell's breast milk from a bottle that he warmed up with his heat vision (particularly the licking part) was SO gross, and even going so far as to force another Supe by the name of Doppelganger to assume Stillwell's form and pretend to be her whilst stroking him and his ego shows just how infantile he is. For all his threats of maiming or murder, he's actually just a coward and super-insecure...yet, sadly, I know there are some out there who watch this character and find him 'badass', thinking his attitude towards other people (especially women) is something they should emulate (he thinks of women as being there just to serve him, smacks them around or threatens to kill them if they get out of line - what a guy! ). I also know there are those who like that he's the most powerful character in the show and they would've hated seeing Stormfront be just as powerful/standing up to him (the fact that she healed from his heat vision - I wonder if that means she'll also heal from her injuries inflicted upon her by Homelander's son? I guess re-growing limbs is a bit different to healing skin one boobs. It may take some time, but I don't see why Stormfront can't make a future appearance at some point). I will admit I found some of the things Homelander did/said somewhat amusing in a morbid sort of way (like his meeting that blind Supe and what he said after illustrating how easily he could be neutralised or when he was teaching his son flying lessons by shoving him off the roof and his total non-reaction immediately following that - those were two instances where I probably shouldn't have laughed...but I did. I have a twisted sense of humour, I admit it). About the only thing Homelander did that I actually liked was him losing it at those protesters and mowing them all down with his heat vision...but then that turned out to not even be real, which was disappointing (damn protesters). I was surprised to see the season final include a scene with Homelander near the end that I'd heard was the one thing the show wasn't allowed to do during Season 1 involving him jerking off over the city whilst ranting about how he can do whatever he wants. I guess the show's been getting enough viewers for the network/is popular enough now that *it* can do whatever it wants too. I will admit that when Homelander's not throwing a tanty and is instead giving off a dangerous threatening vibe, Antony Starr excels at playing quiet menace. The way that he can switch from being all smiles and seemingly charming to cold-blooded killer is quite the talent. I hated seeing Homelander threaten Starlight's life in the elevator, and I'm not sure how long she's going to be able to avoid his wrath, but thankfully Queen Maeve came to the rescue in the season final. I recently watched the first two seasons of the TV series Hell on Wheels because Dominique McElligott was in it, and once she was written out, I went straight onto this show so I could see more of her (albeit in a different role), and I was rather disappointed by how little she seemed to get to do this season as Maeve. I mean, she was stuck doing that Batman v Superman/ Justice League parody of a film, was stressing out over keeping her g/f safe from Homelander, and then he 'outed' her on live TV with the added insult of her being told how she should present her sexuality/relationship to the public. I know others feel sorry for Ashley, who handles all the PR stuff and whatnot, but I personally CAN'T STAND the actress who plays her and her face just bugs the crap out of me (WHY couldn't you crush her head, Homelander??), and so I was cheering Maeve on when she told Ashley to act like an actual human being for a change after she'd just had her g/f basically dump her because she equal parts feared for her life and couldn't stand being around Maeve after learning about her and Homelander leaving that plane full of people to die last season. If the worst Ashley suffers is a loss of hair...then she's still doing pretty good for herself. Unfortunately, I'm afraid the writers are so in love with her character and find her so 'funny' that she'll stick around FOREVER/I'll never be rid of her. I wish her screentime could've gone to Maeve instead, as it felt like we barely spent any time with her (other than the stuff I already mentioned). I was mildly amused by her pissy reaction to meeting Hughie, even if she was rather mean...but I could understand her having-no-shits-left-to-give attitude by that point. Thankfully, she came through in a BIG way in the second half of the season final when she not only helped out Starlight and Kimiko with kicking Stormfront's arse, but then also saved Butcher and his kid with good ol' blackmail material. Unfortunately, I think her days are numbered at this point since she's made at least a few enemies (including Black Noir, who she saved Starlight from by taking advantage of his tree nut allergy and stuffing an Almond Joy into his mouth), the main one being Homelander. I dread to think what's going to eventually happen to her, but I hope the show uses her better/gives her some worthwhile material before her time's eventually up. In regards to Black Noir, we got to see a little bit of his humanity once the news got out that Supes weren't grown, they were made (parents of Supes having dosed them with Compound V without their knowledge), and his bit with the bunny in the montage at the start of the first episode this season was amusing...but then he beat up Starlight and was likely going to kill her, so I officially grew to hate the guy. I read what his identity is in the comics, but when we got a glimpse of what he looks like this season, it became apparent the show's going in a different direction with his character (which is a shame, as the comics reveal of who he is would've made for one HELL of a reveal in the show for those who have no knowledge of it. Seems like a waste to throw that big twist away). I worry that he may get revenge on either Maeve or Starlight...or both. Speaking of Annie/Starlight, she seems to be one of the characters who's gone through the biggest change/most character development in the show. She started off in Season 1 as sweet and in-over-her-head, while this season there was still some of that trying-to-stay-alive factor, but she seemed to also get a bit more ruthless. She threatened an old friend of hers, who could regrow his arms (and was pimping himself out to fetishists who got off by chopping off his arm - I was amused when he offered his dick up on the chopping block next and the pervert asked where the nearest ATM was. Also amusing was Annie's reaction to watching it whilst she filmed it), with releasing the video of him if he didn't get her the Compound V, she threatened other Supes, she was at least possibly considering going through with taking out Hughie when Homelander threatened to off them if she didn't, and then she accidentally offed a passing motorist who she stopped so she and Butcher could get a seriously-injured Hughie to the hospital. I have to say, I did enjoy the new dynamic of Annie/Butcher. It wasn't a pairing we'd really seen before, and I was kind of getting sick of his attitude towards her since she was helping him and the other Boys out, but it became clear that he admired her at least a little bit as she sunk more down to his level (which she called him out on and didn't want any of). I enjoyed Annie and Hughie getting to have a brief moment of carefree happiness together when they sung along to Billy Joel in the car, and I actually really appreciated their talk in the car during the season final (whereas I'm sure others probably found it 'boring'). I do hope she manages to survive the series...but I'm not so sure how likely that'll be. She's one of the few characters in the show who I actually really like/care about. As for Hughie....during Season 1, I found him the most BORING character. He was fine, but not particularly interesting. This season I guess I may have liked him slightly more, but that was probably mainly due to the fact that he got put through so much shit - including being covered in blood, guts and brain matter on a semi-regular basis. I was amused that he just reached a point where he was BEYOND reacting (like when he was stuck inside the stomach of the whale). I guess you can only take so much. I was also amused when Lamplighter set himself on fire and Hughie was at first shocked, then just annoyed and all 'eff you, dude' to his burned corpse as he was forced to pull off one of Lamplighter's hands to use for bypassing locks (btw, it had to have been an intentional bit of casting to get Shawn Ashmore - Iceman from the X-Men films - playing a Supe with fire powers here). At this stage I'm just amused by Hughie's reactions to all the crap that keeps happening to him/around him, which keeps me entertained, so I guess that's why I didn't find him quite so boring this season - as at least I could get a laugh out of the situations he found himself in. I'm glad Annie called him out on how he was using her last season and I hope they can stay together...though I'm fully aware this isn't the sort of show where anyone's going to be allowed to stay in a 'happy' relationship for very long. As for the other members of the Boys - I can't say I'm really that into any of them much. Mother's Milk (which is *still* the most ridiculous name EVER in the history of character names) had some good scenes with Annie, which I appreciated, and I was amused that he watches Outlander, but it feels as though his one goal is getting back with his family...which he has, as of the season final, so what's left for him to do now? I don't want to have to keep hearing about him wanting to get back with his family yet again after he's finally achieved that. I had trouble understanding Frenchie half the time/missed certain lines of dialogue from him. His trying to 'comfort' Kimiko by going in for a snog was an obviously bad move. I actually liked his friend with benefits, Cherie, and her advice to him regarding Kimiko (it was weird how, in a deleted scene featuring the three of them, she seemed jealous of Kimiko when all the scenes with her included in the episodes made it seem like she was on Kimiko's side). As for the strong silent one, the actress who plays Kimiko does a lot with her facial expressions, and it was good that she got some development this season involving her brother, etc. The violence that she unleashes was something I didn't really need to see, though (thank goodness I'd been forewarned). And then there's Butcher, the 'leader' of the Boys who only turned up at the end of the first episode and then we saw at the start of the second episode what had become of him following last season's final via flashbacks (and an extra on my Blu-rays titled Butcher: A Short Film, which filled in the gaps of what he did prior to returning to the Boys). Butcher was certainly dropping C-bombs aplenty this season (I think I counted no less than six instances of it being used just in a single scene), Karl Urban sounded like he was doing a Captain Jack Sparrow impersonation in the early episodes, and he's certainly a major jerk to everyone...except his wife, Becca, who he was trying to make amends with for having been a jerk to her previously. It's too bad they weren't allowed to get away from things and live happily ever after, despite Butcher's best efforts to do so - it's that damn kid! I was pissed at him for turning on his mother so easily just because Homelander and Stormfront were whispering things in his ear, but then in the season final he got so mad at Stormfront for trying to kill his mum that he took her out...with the unintended consequence of also killing his mum. I really did wonder if Butcher would've done anything to him with that crowbar (since he knows he's probably invulnerable to such attacks), but then Homelander turned up, told it like it is in regards to the little shit offing his mum, and that was finally enough for the kid to realise all that 'playing nice' with him was an act and so he sided with Butcher. I did like Butcher softening in regards to his attitude towards Annie, and the fact that we saw he's actually quite fond of Hughie despite all evidence to the contrary. We got to meet his parents this season, with his dad played by John Noble (giving us an Éomer/Denethor LotR reunion of sorts), and it's no wonder Butcher's favourite word is what it is considering how they both use it themselves. I was amused by Hughie holding onto a stuffed pig which Butcher's mum described as a 'fuck pig' that Butcher's bulldog, Terror, made his bitch on a regular basis. Also now his bitch? The Homelander doll Butcher bought for him and told him to screw). I do hope the writers don't have Butcher's character 'backslide' and return to being a dick to Annie and/or Hughie again, since he actually showed some progress/growth this season. I liked that he didn't suddenly want to spend time with Ryan, since he'd always made clear he wasn't interested in the kid and just wanted to be with his wife alone (too bad that can't happen now). The whole head-exploding thing was something I think I've almost become desensitised to seeing at this point, since it seems like in recent years a LOT of shows/movies have featured exploding heads/whole bodies, so the massacre in the second-to-last episode surprisingly didn't really gross me out. It was fun to see the actress Claudia Doumit guest-starring as Congresswoman Victoria Neuman, since I knew her from the TV show Timeless (a very different role to her one here). I do wonder if she could easily take out Homelander if she wanted to, since if she can just make heads explode by thinking it, then she doesn't need to be near him and could do it from afar. I hope they explain how her power works exactly or if there are any limitations to it, otherwise I'd say she's actually the most powerful Supe. While there was a lot to enjoy this season, I think I liked the first season a bit more (then again, I haven't watched it in so long that my memory of how I felt when watching it is a bit hazy). They certainly ramped up the violence/gore this season (I read Season 3's supposed to be even 'darker'...though I can't imagine how that's even possible, since this show's already pretty dark). It's mainly the characters who I like that are keeping me watching, along with some of the twisted humour and occasional surprises (most of which I was spoiled for this season). It's a different sort of show, but I hope it doesn't just keep trying to outdo itself in regards to the violence just for the sake of it. Being like Homelander and doing whatever you want isn't always the best option. Some restraint *can* be a good thing. I also hope that Jensen Ackles as Soldier Boy doesn't swallow the show next season. I know his rabid fanbase would be totally fine with that, but I personally think he should just be a single-season character (like Stormfront was this season - assuming she doesn't return). I've noticed with other shows that when a popular actor is brought into an already established series, the original 'main' cast seem to get the shaft a lot of the time, and the last thing I want to see is characters like Maeve getting even less screentime than she already did this season on account of the 'bright new shiny thing' the writers have to play with in the form of this new character (who I was surprised to hear referenced in the first episode of this season, suggesting they'd planned to include him in Season 3 all along). There are some really good elements to this show, but I don't want them to squander those for the sake of pushing boundaries until there's nowhere left to push them. See you in roughly a year's time, The Boys!
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Feb 18, 2022 1:12:03 GMT -5
Finished Season 3 of Hell on Wheels on DVD. Oh boy, did this show have a noticeable decline in quality this season. There'd been a time lapse between the end of last season and the beginning of this one (which always frustrates me when an important character gets killed off and a time lapse just seems like the easy way out, as then the writers don't have to deal with characters mourning for a period of time). Bohannon went full caveman and was living in isolation where it snowed and he had to contend with a random wolf who happened by. I was sad for the wolf, who clearly just wanted a meal and was presented with one...but then denied it on account of Bohannon punching the wolf, causing it to yelp ...but at least the wolf got a bite in. He then left, hoping to find a meal that'd put up less of a fight. It's not until later into the episode that Bohannon shed the caveman look and dressed up fancy-like to get what he wanted (everyone was surprised by his alive status, since they figured him dead). One thing this season dealt with was Bohannon doing some stuff he really didn't want to do - like when a family needed to be moved, as they were in the way road of railway progression, but the father refused and then Bohannon's chief of police (who had the weirdest-looking mustache, but seemed like a decent sort - especially to Elam) got shot and despite it being fairly obvious the father did it, he was willing to let his eldest son take the blame...as well as the punishment, which was hanging. Bohannon gave the father multiple chances to 'fess up, but he wouldn't budge, then when Bohannon begrudgingly went through with the hanging of the son, the father acted like it was Bohannon's fault his son died when in fact *he* was to blame himself. This grudge he held came back into play by the end of the season when he kidnapped Bohannon and put him on trial (we got a different trial of Bohannon earlier in the season as well, though that one was more Durant's doing - and, boy, if there's one thing that can bring a season of a show to a screeching halt...it's trial episodes. Is there anything more boring? And, of course, the trials are never fair, characters who're on the side of the one who's on trial end having their words twisted, etc - it's all very paint-by-numbers/predictable, so having two was even worse). The Swede, who's a character that clearly the writers are in love with (either that or the actor who plays him), but literally served no point this season until the end (he spent the rest of it pretending to befriend a family, but it was obvious from the start he was just biding time until he offed them - naturally the father and mother bit the dust, but the boy got away), where he became the one to put Bohannon on trial, intent on having him hanged (after Bohannon attempted to hang him in last season's final and failed, due to the Swede making an escape and miraculously surviving jumping off a bridge down into shallow water), but instead he and the father who wanted revenge on Bohannon suddenly changed their minds. Probably the best reaction this whole season was Bohannon's wide-eyed look of shock at the reveal that the daughter of the guy who wanted him dead (who Bohannon had banged near the start of the season) was pregnant with his kid. His look of disbelief was quite hilarious. Anyway, the father who had wanted nothing more than to see Bohannon swing begrudgingly allowed him to live when he said he'd marry his daughter and would stay there and build a life with her/work on the farm. Apparently no one was interested in her since she'd been with Bohannon, so she didn't have many options and her father was willing to let this marriage happen. This threw a spanner in the works as far as the Swede's hope of seeing Bohannon swing was concerned, but then it appeared he was just going to make Bohannon's life miserable (as indicated by him wasting the water Bohannon's new wife wanted to bring him as he plowed the field). Honestly, the Swede should've died at the end of last season, as now he seems to lack any purpose other than being a thorn in Bohannon's side and he's not even an entertaining villain...just a supremely annoying one. Also annoying was the stuff with the Irish brothers. I've never been the least bit interested in them, as they just seemed to move on from one career to another - bar owners, brothel owners, now it appears a casino with gambling and becoming Mayor of the town is actually an option? For the one that lived, anyway. I guess that was an upside of this season - that at least one one of them was finally offed (by the other one). There was some vague history hinted at with them, but it all seemed rather pointless. I did grow to like the character of the Reverend's daughter more this season, since she seems to be one of the only decent people in the show now. I also enjoyed her scenes/dynamic with Bohannon...though it was weird to think of them together, as had been hinted may have happened if Bohannon hadn't been forced to marry the girl he'd knocked up. Both his new wife and the reverend's daughter appear quite a good deal younger than Bohannon, so it's a bit squicky to think of him with either of them (though I'm aware in that era nobody would've blinked an eye at such things). Eva, who *was* a character I liked in the first season, became increasingly annoying this season. Her whole baby storyline annoyed me, as is usually the case with any shows that have babies as a major plot point. The one time I sort of liked her was when she was trying to save the chief of police and told whoever to shut her kid up who was making a racket. They then wasted a whole episode on the kid being taken (it seemed Brother of Toole was the culprit, but he pleaded his innocence and got beaten up by Elam's pal, Psalms, for his trouble until the child was returned), and then by the end of the season Eva had given her child to Brother of Toole anyway and sent it with him on a train to escape the cholera outbreak in the town. Naturally, this pissed off Elam, he threw her out, and then in the last episode he was as nice as he was capable of being to her before going off to try to help save Bohannon...but instead got into a fight with a bear (yes, really). The last we saw of the two of them, she apparently experienced a feeling of Elam's soul having passed on, informing the Reverend's daughter that he was dead, and we saw him all bloodied and lying on the ground next to the dead bear. If this is indeed the end of Elam...what a weird/random death. If he's still alive...then what was the point? This is like Kim Bauer encountering the cougar in 24 levels of randomness. One thing this season showed was Bohannon and Elam becoming more like 'friends' (though that didn't stop Bohannon from making the odd quasi-racist comment or admitting to Elam that he never freed the slaves he had like he'd always maintained - though Elam had figured as much). There was one totally ridiculous time-waster/filler of an episode involving the two of them getting involved in a lethal game of 'stickball' with some Indians, which felt like it was from a totally different type of show, but it did lead to them having a heartfelt exchange of words as they thought they were going to die being burned at the stake. In the end, it seemed as though they'd grown pretty close. As for Durant, I was pissed he got away with ordering the hit on Lily Bell last season and nobody really seemed to bring it up or hold a grudge against him for it. He met a new potential love interest, and she seems like she's not to be messed with, but neither of them interested me. Nor did the new character introduced this season who was a female reporter by the name of Louise Ellison. If she's supposed to be our replacement for Lily/Dominique McElligott...then major fail. I didn't find her the least bit interesting, even when they revealed she swings the other way. About the only positive thing I can say regarding her was she seemed decent to one or two of the other female characters, but that was about it. Oh, and the introduction of a kid who started out seemingly feral, but gradually became less so, was not exactly an addition I was happy with. The fact that he's totally useless and constantly needs rescuing (it got ridiculous when Bohannon would have to pick him up/carry him when the kid's quite capable of walking/running himself) certainly doesn't help. Kids ruin shows, that's pretty much ALWAYS the case. Add to this horses, mules and bears all dying throughout the season (kill as many lousy humans as you want, show, but leave them animals alone! The worst was when Bohannon and his horse desperately needed water, the horse was sniffing it out and Bohannon let it go drink before finding a sign that the water was no good/poisonous. He threw his hat in frustration and thankfully we didn't actually have to see him shoot his horse - all we saw was him carrying the stuff it had been carrying - and I guess it was a 'mercy', him shooting it, but still...if he'd held onto it and been a bit more cautious, there wouldn't be yet another horse to add to the increasing pile of dead horses he leaves in his wake - which also includes mules). So, on the whole, this season was pretty disappointing...but then I kind of expected as much after what occurred in last season's final. There's not really anything or anyone keeping me particularly interested in the goings on, but I still have two seasons of this show to go in the DVD set I bought.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Mar 1, 2022 19:21:51 GMT -5
Finished Season 3/the final season of Dark Matter on DVD. I'd bought all three seasons together in a boxset a while back and had taken breaks in between watching the seasons. I think I liked Season 1 a bit more than Season 2 (despite Season 2 having some pretty major shocks/developments such as One being unexpectedly offed in the premiere and Four turning to the Dark Side by the end of that season). I liked the show most when it mainly focused on the core six characters and didn't really care for any of the new additions who came and went (they did this in Season 2, but also in Season 3). When the show worked best, it was with the characters of Two, Three, Four (though he went by 'Ryo' since joining the Dark Side and mostly spent that season separated from the rest of the crew in a boring storyline that mostly put me to sleep), Five, Six and the Android (not sure why they never gave her the name of 'Seven', since it seemed only logical...though maybe the show wanted to avoid comparisons with Seven of Nine from Star Trek: Voyager?). Having said that, probably the most entertaining episode this season was one that actually involved the new additions to the crew. The episode in question was the 'time loop' episode. And whilst time loop episodes have been DONE TO DEATH not only in sci-fi shows, but superhero shows and even fantasy shows...what I appreciated about this show's version of that gimmick was that they just jumped right into Three having already relived the same day several times. They trusted that the audience was already familiar enough with the 'time loop' concept in other shows that it didn't need explaining nor did we have to sit through the character first experiencing the time loop, wondering what was going on, seeing the same thing repeated over and over until they got it, etc. This allowed more time to be spent of the fun 'looping' aspects and everyone's reactions to Three explaining he was in a time loop. Highlights included Three asking to get knocked out every time so he'd 'reset', him trying to remember technical jargon the Android told him about fixing something in the ship and him forgetting it after he reset, so this required him having to do it again (I can totally relate to that. I'd be the type who'd try to remember stuff to prove my time-looping, only to forget it after being reset and having to go through the whole process again thanks to my dodgy memory), him learning French (so as to to prove to the crew what he was saying was true - as how else could he learn a whole other language within a day?) and, best of all, him singing in French (he reminded me of Jayne and his 'pretty cunning hat' from Firefly in this scene) along with Android playing a ukulele - that was a stand-out moment from not only the episode, but the series as a whole (Two's reaction to it was good as well). Another really good episode in the season was the one that revolved around the Android. Zoie Palmer gives a very interesting performance that I don't think 'copies' similar characters in other shows, but is something different. I remember when watching the previous two seasons that her delivery of lines would sometimes sound really serious and especially stiff/robotic (intentionally-so), while other times her delivery had a 'softness' about it (especially during her 'comical' moments). It was almost like two different personalities - which got me wondering if she had a Gollum/Sméagol thing going on with her. I can't remember the details of the episode/s that focused on her (dodgy memory and all that), but I do recall that this season allowed the other characters to have some really nice moments with the Android character. There were some heart-to-heart talks (I especially appreciated moments with Three and the Android, and even getting to see Four again and him talking with her too back before he turned to the Dark Side). Of course, the most important dynamics for Android were her ones with Five and Two (who we found out had a romantic thing going on with the Android's creator, who had a British accent and the Android was clearly modelled after...minus the accent). There was an amusing bit with Android pulling out her previously used trick of pretending to be human/someone else, this time playing the part of someone with a Southern accent and who dressed considerably different to how Android typically dressed/looked. Speaking of Android's different look in that^ episode, towards the end of the season she decided it was time she dressed how she wanted to dress...and this apparently meant more cleavage. I know people complained about Seven of Nine's outfits in Star Trek: Voyager, and there are often complaints in other shows about female characters being put in revealing outfits seemingly just for the sake of it. I wondered what the motivation was for it here. I mean, there wasn't any real reason for Android to have to show cleavage, though they tried to write it into the story as her just deciding to try something different and that she'd maybe change her look again...though she never actually did once she settled on something 'booby'. Speaking of, her exchange with Two about 'boobs' was somewhat amusing to start with, but then they kind of drove that joke into the ground by having her say the word 'boob' several times as she walked off by herself (I always think the best bet with jokes is to recall the joke maybe twice after it's first been used, and that's it. So, a grand total of three times is the maximum amount a joke should be reused...otherwise it just becomes overused and loses any impact). An episode where I thought Android's humour was utilised better was in the one where the crew went back in time to Earth (it's good the show got to try its hand at these often-used-in-sci-fi 'gimmicks' like time loop episodes and time travel episodes, since this would turn out to be its last chance to do so) with Android telling all the others what their new personas would be (I got a good laugh out of her telling Five "And you're a disaffected youth committed to sulking and avoiding all social discourse."), her being all about getting the deals/specials when buying groceries. I also enjoyed Six struggling to ride a bicycle, Two being all schmoopy about a dog (which was apparently Melissa O'Neil's actual dog), Three and his walking around with a bowl of dip and even the kids in the episode weren't *too* annoying once they thought they'd discovered these people were aliens (I especially liked the part where it didn't go the way you'd expect when Three, who one of the kids had a crush on, suggested that the girl in the group may have been someone the kid could've had a crush on instead and then he exclaimed that she was his cousin (SO many times you see the trope of the character who isn't aware one of their friends is the person they 'should' be with, then at the end someone points this out to them and you know they're going to get together - this was a highly amusing way of subverting that trope). Speaking of Five, it amazes me that this show was able to write an actually likeable kid/teen character who *didn't* come off as annoying. She was intelligent, but never know-it-all to the point of being obnoxious, she could put up a good fight and the others acknowledged this (without her being THE MOST BADASS CHARACETR EVER), she was kind and thought of others (without being a doormat), was a good 'moral compass' for the crew (without being all 'holier-than-thou') and was the *heart* of the show (without being gag-worthy). If only other shows could take a page out of this show's book on how to write 'kid' characters (sometimes she came across younger than she probably was meant to be, while other times she came across quite 'mature'...but never in that way where writers write kid characters as being TOO mature for their age to the point where they're like child geniuses even though they're not meant to be). Five seldom ever annoyed me...which is quite the feat. In fact, she was probably one of my favourite characters. I actually liked the whole crew of Two, Three, Five and Six. It was only Four who I came to not-like as much as the others, and that was mainly because of his turning to the Dark Side, whereas if he'd remained as Four like in the first season, I'd probably include him with the others - though it seemed as if the show was slowly reintegrating him into the group by the end of this season. This whole crew was a great and had a likeable family dynamic. I wished we could've spent more time with just them and avoided other unnecessary additions to the cast (though I didn't mind Torri Higginson from Stargate: Atlantis turning up on occasion during the season, as at least her character was entertaining. Whereas one who was clearly *intended* to be 'funny' was played by an actor I recognised from the series Blindspot...but like with his character in that show, I felt they were trying too hard to make him the 'funny guy' in this series and I just kept wishing someone would permanently off him...or at the very least he'd choke on that stupid toothpick he seemed to always have sticking out of his mouth). It's a shame that the show ended on cliffhangers (as there were several of them). It seemed to really hit its stride this season and promised even better things to come. Very disappointing that it wasn't picked up by another network or at least given a final episode/movie to wrap things up. For a show that started off being, I felt, 'decent'...it really showed signs of becoming something even better as it went on. Too bad we'll never get to see it reach its full potential and have a proper ending (and maybe we would've eventually gotten to know how the title of the show was even relevant to the series?). I liked all the main actors in this series who played the core characters (some of whom I was already familiar with, though this show introduced me to a few I didn't really know beforehand). To me it seems this series was sadly underappreciated, which is a real shame. So long, Dark Matter. I'm glad I took a chance on you and bought the complete series boxset without really knowing much beforehand (especially since some other shows I've bought 'blindly' on DVD recently have turned out to be major disappointments).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Mar 1, 2022 19:23:19 GMT -5
Finished Season 4 of Hell on Wheels on DVD. My interest in this show dropped dramatically with the third season, and I wondered whether this season would be better or worse. It did have some unexpected developments. While I was fairly sure that Elam hadn’t actually been killed off via random bear fight, I wasn't expecting his injuries would lead to him losing himself and becoming someone who wanted to trade slaves (including one woman played by Sara Canning, who I’ve seen in several things but will forever think of as Aunt Jenna from The Vampire Diaries). This led to a dramatic/emotional scene between him and Bohannon where the friend Elam had gone looking for at the end of last season was the one who had to put him out of his misery since he no longer resembled the decent person he once was. At the end of the episode we also saw something we’d never seen before - Bohannon totally losing it and breaking down, as he was the one left to bury Elam (and this was after having people resent him for doing it, despite the fact that he was saving people and knew Elam was too far gone to ever be brought back to how he originally was). Kudos to Anson Mount for this performance, and for the writers being willing to show their male lead having this emotional vulnerability (as so many shows seem determined to keep their male leads 'MANLY MEN' who never show such emotion). I do think that bringing Elam back in this way wasn’t the best choice and I probably would’ve preferred random-death-by-bear to seeing him become what he did. Another unexpected development this season was the kid who Bohannon had found (and crazy reverend’s daughter, Ruth, adopted) turning out to have been underneath the floorboards of the church that was burned down by bad guy characters introduced this season. I thought maybe it'd end up being some other kid (since one had died earlier in the season, shot by the same guy who killed this one - though everybody seemed to get over that previous one pretty quick), but it actually was Ezra who died in the fire. Of course, they didn’t actually show his burned corpse (I guess that’d be too gruesome even for this show…but, hey, showing someone have their eyes gouged out is totally fine!), but Bohannon’s reaction to finding him told us everything (the actress who plays Ruth also gave a good reaction to it as well). Well done, show, for having the balls to kill off a kid character (and in a horrible fashion too). It’s not like the kid served much purpose in the sow anyway, so best use his death for dramatic purposes than just keeping him around for the sake of it (which they continue to do with certain other characters). Probably one of the reasons they offed him is because they knew they weren’t going to keep his adoptive mother around after this season. While it was good that Ruth got to be the one to shoot the guy who shot Ezra, unfortunately this led to her being arrested, thrown in jail and sentenced to hang. I’d known she was going to die (having spoiled myself prior to watching this season), but hadn’t known the circumstances surrounding it. I have to say, they worked REALLY hard to make her *not* want to be saved. It also made it harder to feel as sad about her death as I would’ve if she’d *wanted* to live...but it seemed she really didn’t, since everyone - including Bohannon - tried to spare her from the noose and she just kept refusing to be saved. It’s a shame that she missed her chance with him, since he went and got himself married at the end of last season, but just because she couldn’t be with Bohannon didn’t mean she needed to die. I did appreciate that they had a good talk, and even a laugh, before she met her fate. They tried the fake-out of him not being there at her execution, but he (naturally) turned up. I thought they filmed her death effectively, where we just saw what she saw through the hood until it went all black. It seemed people weren't that broken up over her death for very long, as they appeared to move on pretty quickly. This was another disappointing end to a character I came to like over the course of the first four seasons (I also hate seeing horses continue to to be killed or hurt so badly they have to be put down...and oftentimes it's a horse of Bohannon's. At this point, if I were a horse and saw Bohannon was going to choose me, I'd hightail it outta there). Characters I DIDN’T like were all the new antagonists introduced this season and it got to the stage where I just wanted Bohannon to off them all. Some are now dead, but at least one’s still breathing. I was glad that the one Ruth shot had maximum pain inflicted upon him, as apart from being shot and having the bullet removed, he then had his leg cut off (which was Bohannon’s solution to keeping the guy alive so Ruth wouldn’t be charged for murder, which was quite amusing in how nonchalant he was about it). I didn’t really have a problem watching the leg be sawn off (unlike the eye-gouging, which I DIDN’T watch), but it was all for nothing in the end since the guy died anyway. It’s interesting that Bohannon seems to be fine being around Durant now considering he ordered the death of Lily at the end of Season 2. I guess Bohannon’s gotten over that too. I knew about the recasting of Bohannon's wife from last season to this season with Mackenzie Porter taking over. She seemed okay at the beginning of the season, but didn’t really have a whole lot to do, and by the end it felt like the writers didn’t either, which was why she just disappeared with hers and Bohannon’s kid. As for the Swede...he should’ve died seasons ago, but the writers are clearly so in love with him/the actor that they just continue finding anything they can to keep him hanging around in the show (just like with Eva and the remaining Irish brother) while he manages to miraculously avoid actual hanging again and again, yet Ruth sadly didn’t). I’m not sure what the fifth/final season’s going to be like, but I’m certainly ready to finish this show (which started out so promisingly with its first season).
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