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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 29, 2022 21:57:36 GMT -5
Finished Season 1 of Magnum P.I. on DVD. I'd had the first three seasons of this show on DVD sitting in the queue to be watched among my many other unwatched DVDs/Blu-rays for some time now and finally got around to watching after deciding on a whim it was about time I did so. Out of all the shows that got cancelled during the 'culling' this year, I was somewhat surprised that this one got 'saved'. I never watched the original series starring Tom Selleck. I knew he was in it...and that was about it. So I went into this 'reboot' with no expectations whatsoever of what the show would or 'should' be like. I did, however, get the reference to Selleck's iconic moustache in the second episode, as this version of Magnum (played here by Jay Hernandez, who I knew from some other things I'd seen him in quite a while ago) contemplated keeping that particular part of his facial hair as he shaved...and then thought better of it. I hadn't ever really taken notice of Selleck's version also making Hawaiian shirts his signature 'thing', so when this version eventually started wearing them - I wasn't expecting it, but I gathered by how the moment was played that this was another 'iconic' part of the character. I thought the beginning of the first episode was a bit weird with him doing a halo jump FROM SPACE, but then it turned out this was purposeful embellishment as his character's written about in books (reminded me of Castle a bit) by the mysterious owner of the place he's now living in/working out of, so that made the outlandish beginning a bit more easier to swallow since it was clearly *meant* to be unbelievable. I knew Perdita Weeks from several other shows I'd seen her in previously and automatically took a liking to her character of Juliet Higgins (a Brit who, ironically, doesn't like tea) due to her owning a couple of Dobermanns named Apollo and Zeus. I immediately thought to myself good on the show for establishing that not *all* Dobermanns are 'bad' - yes, they chase Magnum, but that's simply because they don't like him specifically. Whereas one of his buddies, as well as certain others, get along with them just fine. It's about time a show broke the 'Dobermanns are a bad breed' stigma. I was bummed when we lost the brief shot of the two dogs in the opening credits after the first couple of episodes to accommodate two new additions to the series who weren't there to begin with (surely they could've lost one of the umpteen helicopter shots in the opening credits in order to keep the shots of Higgins' pooches?). I also felt bad seeing her have to say goodbye to TWO of the fancy sports cars (they were so nice and shiny!), even if they're not technically hers and belong to the guy who she's the 'majordomo' (ie. property manager) for. I've seen the kind of dynamic Higgins and Magnum have in many a show, though here the female half of the 'will they/won't they' relationship is a bit more 'prickly' than other such ones I've seen (for example, in the TV series Castle, Beckett was never quite so rough). Higgins and Magnum have the usual 'banter', but here there's a lot of exchanging of 'favours' between them (I'd be interested to know if any viewers keep track of who owes who how many favours exactly since there's been SO much of it throughout just the first season). I know some probably hate her character and find her too 'mean' or whatever, but she does make fair points about Magnum using her stuff that she bought for herself and his general 'mooching'. What keeps her from being 'unlikeable' for me is that we *do* see her soften towards him and there are moments when she does show support, thank him for things that he's done for her whilst also helping him out when he really needs it. I think if we didn't get these moments, then I could understand not liking her, but we *do* get them, which shows that she's not some 'Ice Queen' and can be decent. I also like how her yoga wasn't forgotten about after the first episode and actually helped out one of Magnum's clients. As for Jay Hernandez in the title role, I'd say he's...fine. He's likeable enough and I think he gives just the right amount of 'pushback' against Higgins' barbs she throws his way (ie. he's not 'fighting mean with mean', but he's no pushover either and can give back as far as trading goodhearted insults is concerned). Though I wouldn't say he really stands out that much from the dozens and dozens of other similar types of leads, I did appreciate that he doesn't think himself 'too good' for certain clients, like a young girl who lost her cat - so that's appreciated. He's not the typical snarky jerk who we 'have' to like because he's also got a 'softer' side. He's an actual nice guy and he isn't spouting one-liners constantly, nor is he too much of a 'man-child' who's constantly acting like a big kid/too immature to take seriously as an adult, which is another 'plus'. I think the only real 'negative' I find about his character is the voiceovering (makes me appreciate/miss the Jughead voiceovers from Riverdale...which is pretty sad). These voiceovers don't really have much 'life' to them and they feel rather redundant, since most of the stuff he explains we already know or could figure out for ourselves. He also has the annoying habit of telling us what we must be thinking, when in fact we could be thinking something totally different. I do find the voiceover mostly unnecessary - there was WAY too much of it (coupled with exposition) in the first episode and in the first half of the season, but I think they may have dialed it back somewhat by the end of the season, which I was grateful for. Something else there's FAR too much of is the loud background music drowning out dialogue. It was particularly noticeable in the first episode. I'm not so sure they've dialed that back yet. It's very annoying/distracting. I was also somewhat annoyed by the cutting back to one of Magnum's buddies, Rick (played by an actor I only really knew from one show I'd previously watched him in called Happy Endings), on a boat dancing to Spice Girls whilst Magnum was underwater actually *doing* stuff. I guess it was meant to be played for 'laughs', but I just found it irritating. However, once we got past the first episode, I actually started not-minding Rick and he even amused me on more than one occasion. Thankfully, though, he's not just the 'comic relief' and actually proves to have some *substance* to his character as the season goes on. Magnum's other buddy, TC, didn't seem to have quite as much to do and mainly served to be there as Magnum's form of transport (ie. helicopter) when he needed it - whether for himself or for clients. It took a while before I felt both these characters actually got something worthwhile to do, as they seemed to be stuck in thankless B-Storyville for a fair amount of the season. Gradually, though, we got to know a bit more about them and I came to appreciate their dynamic. While they still aren't on the same level as other supporting characters in a 'police procedurals' (like Ryan & Esposito from Castle) for me yet, I think they've got potential. I just don't know if we really needed a third character added to their dynamic in the form of a wheelchair-bound guy by the name of Shammy. He's fine, I guess (at least once he got past his 'woe is me' suicidal phase, anyway), but I had no problem with it just being Rick & TC (though I do enjoy their interaction with 'Higgy' - as Magnum affectionately refers to Higgins as - and it's interesting that she seems to go easier on the two of them than she does Magnum...which I'm guessing is because she feels differently about him than she does those two, so her being 'tougher' on him his her way of keeping herself 'guarded'/from showing her true feelings for him...maybe?). The two characters who were added after the first couple of episodes - Kumu and Detective Gordon Katsumoto - are, again, fine (though I still wish their being added to the opening credits hadn't cost us the shot of Higgy's dogs! ). I think Kumu was more instantly likeable, as she clearly gets along with Higgins and backs her up when she makes good points about Magnum, but she also isn't as tough on Magnum as Higgins is, making her a 'happy medium'. Katsumoto proved a bit harder to warm up to, for me, as he just felt like the usual type of character who is there to tell the lead character to stay out of the way and not get himself into trouble, but just sighs and gives a bit of a lecture when he's blatantly ignored. I think in the latter half of the season, we did start to see there was a bit more to his character and he even seemed to develop a slight sense of humour. However, it seems his begrudgingly starting to accept Magnum was undone by one too many in a long line of 'betrayals' on Magnum's part (ie. lying to him) and they went back to square one in the season final. Honestly, I much-preferred the character of Detective Tanaka we got in the first episode. I found him more easily likeable. Shame we had to lose him from the show. It was a nice surprise seeing several actresses I reocgnised from other things guest-star in this season such as Navi Rawat (who'll always be Dana the crazy Slayer from Season 5 of the BtVS spin-off, Angel, to me) as the mother of the girl who lost her cat (it was kind of a shame she never returned despite the hint that she may have become a possible 'love interest' for Magnum), then there was Halston Sage from The Orville, and lastly Jordana Brewster (I thought the first episode she appeared in was probably the BEST episode of this whole first season of the show), who most would probably know from the Fast & Furious movies but I personally always think of as being from that 2004 movie D.E.B.S. (as that may be the first thing I recall seeing her in). Brewster plays played Hannah, who was someone Magnum apparently was going to marry until she seemingly sold out him and his buddies to the Taliban. By the end of the season we find out she had a 'reason' for doing so...though I'm not sure it was really a good enough one to excuse what she did. Anyway, she ended up dead, so any attempt to 'redeem' her was rendered moot. On the whole, while this show's not doing anything I haven't seen before, I don't think it's 'offensively bad' either and am relieved that I didn't buy three seasons of a series on DVD that I ended up not thinking much of (only on rare occasions has there been a show I've regretted 'blind-buying'). I look forward to watching the following seasons and am glad the series got renewed after 'cancellation' so it can continue.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 7, 2022 1:16:17 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of Magnum P.I. on DVD. I went straight into Season 2 after finishing Season 1 and was glad to see a shot of Higgins' dogs - albeit a very brief one- made it into the opening credits for this season (after having been given the heave-ho last season two episodes into the show so that shots of other later additions to the cast could be included). I think they might've dialed down the music that was drowning out dialogue, and for a while it felt as though they'd also reduced the amount of Magnum voiceovering...but then it seemed to be back in force. I'm not quite sure what the point was of drawing out Higgins deciding whether to accept Magnum's offer to become partners or not. I think they went several episodes before she finally said 'yes'. Her mulling it over for that long didn't really seem to serve any purpose other than Magnum constantly badgering her about it. I did think she seemed to 'soften' towards him a bit more this season than she did in Season 1. I saw more instances of her actually seeming to be decent towards him and going periods of time without her usual snarky comments. However, like with the first season, it did feel as though some of the episodes were out of order, as it'd go from her not being so 'harsh' with him to her acting like her old self after seemingly having made 'progress' with their relationship. I have no idea if any of the episodes are out of order on these DVDs I've been watching, but it did sometimes seem like that was the case with her attitude towards Magnum (unless it's just the writers of the different episodes not being consistent with her character growth?). It did feel as though Higgins was being 'punished' a bit for her 'meanness' towards Magnum when she got tortured/waterboarded in one of the early episodes this season. Also, while I've seen some accusations made that the show has her being 'better' at Magnum at 'everything', I never thought that was the case and especially in this season it felt as though they went out of their way to have him show that he could indeed be better than her in certain instances. Added to that was the fact that he knew when she was lying at times (like when she spent an episode pretending she had an injured arm in a sling when it was actually fine and it was revealed at the end of the episode that he'd known she'd been faking it the whole time). The most obvious example of him getting back at her was during the second half of the crossover with Hawaii Five-0. Previously we'd seen him at the mercy of Higgins' Dobermanns, Zeus and Apollo, who didn't like him, but this time around Higgins came across a dog that didn't like her and was in very much the same situation Magnum was often in with her dogs (ie. yelling out for help) and he got to enjoy the moment, just standing there watching her squirm as she would do with him when he begged her to call her dogs off him (added to this was the amusing bit with him snapping a photo of the moment - which he *said* he'd make her caller I.D. pic...but he never followed through with that. Speaking of, I've now become familiar with what each character's ringtone/song is when they call someone on this show - though I'm still not sure how 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' relates to Rick - and it was weird that in an episode at the end of this season, the song that plays on Higgins phone whenever Magnum calls appeared to have been replaced with some generic ring. Not sure if she changed it - why would she? - or whether the person in charge of sound forgot to have that song be played. Seemed like a really random change and it'll be a shame if it's not present in the next season whenever Magnum calls her). I think Higgins getting a taste of her own medicine regarding the dog was the show's attempt to 'even things up' a bit between her and Magnum so she wasn't always coming out on top with him always being the 'butt of a joke'. I was actually happy when they started officially working as partners and seeing her more involved in the cases, as their dynamic is a large part of what makes the show enjoyable. I also like the 'family' dynamic they have with Rick, TC and Kumu (while I did enjoy Perdita Weeks' rendition of 'The Gambler ' - which she finally got the words right to, after Magnum had earlier pointed out she was doing it wrong - I did think the group karaoke rendition of 'I Will Survive' went a little overboard with the corniness...but not *too* much. After all, I remember there was a similar corny group singing moment in an episode of Castle). In regards to the crossover episodes, I have watched the first season or so of the rebooted Hawaii Five-0 previously...but that was quite some time ago. I knew hardly anything about it past the early seasons except that Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park had left the show/been replaced with new people. Though I didn't know that Katrina Law from the 'Arrowverse' shows was one of the newly-added people to that show. I didn't recognise her at first, since her face looked a bit different to how I remembered from Arrow. Even Alex O'Loughlin's voice sounded quite a bit older (has that much time really passed?). I found it interesting how the Magnum peeps came off better in the H50 half of the crossover (McGarrett seemed slightly jerky with his possessive need to drive ALL THE TIME...even when it's someone else's car, and Chi McBride's Grover was kind of a jerk to Magnum/Higgins too, I thought. The two female H50 characters weren't so bad. I guess Danno's actor can barely be bothered doing his own show at this point, let alone a crossover with another show considering he didn't appear in either half, nor did O'Loughlin or McBride bother to appear in the Magnum P.I. half - which was kind of a snobby move, not returning the favour for the leads from that show appearing in their show. Instead we got the 'lower tier' characters). As I said, I thought the Magnum peeps came off well in the H50 half...but then not so much in the episode of their own show, where they were enlisted to do things to help find a kidnapped member of the H50 team, but failed at several points. Weird to have them look 'worse' in their *own* show. Anyway, I did end up liking the interaction with Higgins and the ladies from Five-0. I can't say I find any of the cases Magnum and Higgins work on to be particularly 'great' or anything. I mostly just enjoy their interaction/banter and don't really focus much on the case-of-the-week stuff. I did notice they seemed to include less of Higgins not getting American movie references and such this season (whereas there was numerous instances of that in Season 1. I think she did only a couple of times this season). It did feel as though the show kept trying to find 'roadblocks' on their way to making 'Miggy' (the shipper name for the characters, I've discovered) happen. Magnum got himself a g/f at the start of this season, but even she could see that 'Miggy' was destined to happen and so she left. Then there was the various times Higgins would keep something from Magnum and he'd point out she should apologise for that (whilst also apologising himself for his part in being the reason she kept things from him). The most awkward attempt to foreshadow them being 'endgame' was his offer of a marriage proposal so she could get her green card and stay in Hawaii. Given all her connections, I'm sure there would've been several other options available (and it was so OOC for Higgins to allow things to get to this desperate stage, considering she was always so prepared usually). Like with her deliberation over becoming Magnum's partner, she had to seriously think about whether or not to accept his fake marriage proposal. In the end, though, she decided to heed Detective Katsumoto's advice about keeping Magnum out of this illegal behaviour and she was all set up to fake marry TC instead (which Magnum wasn't so thrilled about...though to his credit, he at least he came right out and said as much and didn't keep his feelings bottled up/to himself like he'd accused Higgins of doing at different times) until she decided against that too and just accepted having to return to England (the absolute SADDEST/most effectively emotional moment in the season final was her saying goodbye to her dogs ), but luckily Magnum made a call to the mysterious Robin Masters and he sorted things out...a little TOO well, since the season ended with Higgins being made boss of Magnum (and all the others who work with them). Not sure how this is going to affect their 'partnership', but I can't imagine it's going to exactly go smoothly with the two of them. I think this season did a decent job of letting us get to know the characters of Rick, TC, Kumu and Katsumoto a bit more. Rick, especially, now feels like a proper character to me and not just "Hey, it's that guy from Happy Endings!". While most of his stuff seems to be about providing some humour, he *did* get the odd dramatic moment to play, which I thought the actor pulled off well. The guy who plays TC got *one* decent emotional moment (though, unfortunately, it was part of a storyline involving an old flame of his cheating on her husband with him. While it was good that he did the right thing by rejecting her offer to leave her husband for him, he essentially sent her back to being with her hubby who was clearly 'second best' as far as she was concerned. Still, TC came off looking better than she did in that whole situation). I continue to enjoy Higgins' 'sisterhood' with Kumu, who's on her side a fair amount of the time, but not always. She did get at least one episode this season that she was the main focus of. I thought Katsumoto acted a bit like a spurned lover in regards to Magnum 'betraying' his trust at the end of last season. He spent the first few episodes of this season still being pissed at him and it was only after he finally came out and said that Magnum hadn't even apologised that Magnum finally did so and this appeared to 'mend' their broken relationship (at least a bit, anyway). It does seem that Katsumoto's a stickler for the rules...until it suits him *not* to be, then he breaks them. I think I liked him a bit more this season than I did in Season 1, as I actually found some humour in his reactions to Magnum, Magnum/Higgins, Magnum/Rick/TC this time around. Still, I hope it's not just going to continue being him telling Magnum off, then forgiving him, rinse/repeat. This season saw the introduction of a recurring character by the name of Jin, a former thief, who was annoying at times...but also amused me some of the time. I took notice of Peter Facinelli when he appeared in an episode as an overly nervous guy working alongside Magnum, but I figured he was secretly the big bad because I'd seen a similar situation at the end of the first season of the TV series Dollhouse where Alan Tudyk played a comical/nonthreatening guy...only for it to be revealed he was the show's 'Big Bad'. I guess Facinelli's Ivan is supposed to be that for this show...but I can't say he seemed particularly threatening. I'm curious to know how often they'll be able to get Facinelli back for guest appearances). All in all, I quite enjoyed this second season and I think I'll be somewhat bummed once I've watched Season 3 on DVD, as it'll be a while before Season 4 ever gets released.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 11, 2022 2:23:23 GMT -5
Finished Season 3 of Magnum P.I. on DVD. As expected, Higgins being given ownership of Robin's Nest at the end of last season so she could stay in Hawaii and not get sent back to England took some adjusting to for Magnum at the start of this season. I was surprised to see her get shot early on, as I thought that sort of thing was usually saved for season finals. Obviously she wasn't going to be killed off, but at least we got to see just how concerned for her Magnum was. It also allowed for the amusing scene where she was on painkillers, making her a far more happy Higgins than we'd ever seen previously (Perdita Weeks has some good comedy skills). This also introduced the character of her doctor, Ethan, and it wasn't long before he took an interest in her that wasn't exactly 'professional' (and vice versa), but at least he waited until she got a new doctor before he asked her out. This wasn't Higgins' only brush with death, though, as later in the season she got kidnapped and held captive until Magnum traded himself for her (eventually they got him back too). There was a deleted scene for that episode which showed Higgins' dogs sad/upset by her absence, which I guess they thought wasn't needed but I personally would've appreciated, as I always like seeing her dogs in the show. In fact, for a while there they seemed to be absent from a lot of episodes, so I was glad to see them again by the end of the season (I was also glad to hear Magnum's ringtone that Higgins has on her phone whenever he calls, as last season I'd feared they'd done away with that tune and it got me wondering if maybe they didn't have the rights to it anymore or something else had happened. It was conspicuously absent for most of this season, but then we finally heard it again in the season final). Naturally, the will they/won't they dynamic between Higgins and Magnum continued. While last season I felt she 'lightened up' towards him (at least a little bit in the beginning of the season), it seemed like she was back to her usual 'harshness' with him this season more often than not. While I know that some people hate her and think of her as nothing more than a 'bitch', I *do* think we get to see her more vulnerable/'human' side, with her being caring/considerate towards Magnum, enough times that it helps to give us some relief from her rather tough exterior. I didn't mind Doctor Ethan as a potential love interest for her (who, let's be honest, was never going to last. Just like Magnum's g/f last season, he was simply another 'roadblock' on the way towards 'Miggy' eventually becoming a thing). He was decent enough (and had a great head of hair), and although Magnum was clearly jealous at different points, at least the two of them eventually talked it out and seemed to reach an 'understanding' of sorts. Of course, then near the end of the season it felt as though the writers had to give him some major flaw to counter how 'perfect' he seemed, and said flaw was his overreaction to learning Higgins hadn't told him about her being a former MI6 agent. He freaked out about the SECRETS & LIES...which seemed a bit OOC for someone who'd been a seemingly pretty chill dude up until that point. Then in the last episode, he suddenly changed his tune and wanted her to come WITH him when he left for Kenya. Considering how much effort Higgins and everyone else had gone to in order to keep her *in* Hawaii last season, it seemed like that was all for naught since she ended up leaving anyway (and yet again I had to see her saying goodbye to her poor pooches. Quit doing this to them, Higgy! They can only take so much! ). It was interesting that Higgins' parting words to Magnum were that he was her 'best friend' (which his reply to was 'ditto'), as I figured Kumu was probably the one she was most fond of (just like Rick and TC are Magnum's friends who he bickers with far less than Higgins), but I guess this was the first real substantial step on the road towards them eventually getting together. While I think Jay Hernandez does an adequate job portraying Magnum, he hasn't really done anything to 'wow' me as yet. A lot of the time, even if something major happens, his reactions seem pretty subdued. Then again, he (like Ethan) had a moment of overreaction at one point (when his uncle turned up and it was revealed he'd had a thing with Magnum's mum at one point...this was years after her husband/Magnum's dad had passed away). There also seemed to be a storyline that ended up hardly being much of anything with a white van following Magnum (I wondered if perhaps it was going to end up being Peter Facinelli's Ivan character from last season who was behind it...but that wasn't the case). It was a pretty disappointing season-long 'mystery'. I did like hearing about how Magnum had a mouse when he was a kid (sadly, it got squashed ) named Roberto and this explained why he was a defender of mice who was against Higgins' traps she'd laid for them in the wine cellar (which Magnum was unfortunate to discover the hard way). It was nice of Higgins to capture, but not kill, the mouse that she'd been after and present it to Magnum as Roberto II (it was the only thing I liked in an otherwise unbearable episode revolving around an infant dumped outside Robin's Nest which Higgins and Magnum had to look after. I HATE these types of stories - which, annoyingly, too many TV shows seem to have - and I spent a lot of time turning the volume down so I didn't have to listen to the noise that was constantly being made. Too bad Higgins didn't stick with her attitude that she had in the beginning - which was pretty much not wanting anything to do with it. Unfortunately, they then had to go the predictable route and have her show that she was a 'natural' at looking after it. On the 'plus' side, now this irritating story is out of the way and hopefully we NEVER have to see anything like it again in the show). Much better was the episode before that one, which involved a car being stolen at a petrol station...with a woman's dog inside. I spent the whole episode fretting about the pooch...and, sure enough, it wound up shot and being close to death (which I was NOT happy about ), but luckily it pulled through. While most of the cases-of-the-week don't really resonate with me, this one *did* since I'm an animal person and it was quite upsetting, but I appreciated the fondness with which characters spoke about their dogs...including Higgins. It was good to hear the origin of how she wound up with Zeus and Apollo. Also, I noted this episode included some pretty impressive physical fights both Magnum and Higgins got into (separately) with bad guys. There seemed to be a noticeable lack of these in a lot of episodes, so it definitely stood out to me when we finally got some. In regards to the other characters, Rick got himself a g/f this season (turns out she's played by the r/l wife of the actor who portrays Rick - I guess with Covid, love interests being played by the actors' r/l spouses in shows became more of a 'thing' than it had been prior to Covid? Speaking of, I was glad that we skipped over Covid in the Magnum P.I. universe and didn't have to sit through episodes of the actors with their faces covered by masks. They made reference to it, but obviously in their universe they'd moved on from it). I thought she was an okay love interest for Rick. As usual, his main dynamic was with TC, who I felt got a bit more to do in episodes this season than he had previously. I especially liked seeing him teaming him up with Higgins at one point, as they hardly ever had any one-on-one scenes. In contrast, it felt as though there were slightly fewer one-on-one scenes between Higgins and Kumu this season (though maybe that wasn't the case and I'm just misremembering?). Nothing involving Kumu really stood out in my mind this season (then again, my memory's pretty shoddy these days). I do recall thinking the actress they got to portray her younger self in a flashback had a good likeness to the actress who plays Kumu. It was also fun to see Janel Parrish from PLL guest-star as Kumu's stepdaughter, but it I thought they could've done more with her. Detective Katsumoto continued his dynamic with Magnum/Higgins where they'd do something without his knowledge, he'd give them a talking to, but eventually he'd get over it (plus they helped him with cases on occasion). I think that gradually they started looping him on things more often, though it felt like there were numerous episodes where the climax would be him arriving just in the nick of time to shoot the bad guys, thus saving Magnum/Higgins (which got repetitive after a while). Naturally, we just had to get the apparently mandated 'cops suck' episode that all shows seem to include these days, which was tiresome. I thought his son was pretty unappreciative of the effort his dad put into having some quality father/son time (all that food he'd prepared!) and his 'excuse' for lying/going off to party with his friends instead was pretty pathetic. Unlike Kumu's stepdaughter, I can't say I ever really want to see Katsumoto's son ever again (though I'm sure we will). Meanwhile, unlike some...I don't HATE the character of Jin (who resurfaced in a few episodes this season), so long as they keep his appearances to being in small doses and don't overuse him. Yes, he can be rather annoying, but occasionally he amuses me too (as do the other characters' reactions to the stuff he says/does). I'd mistakenly thought that this season was going to end in such a way that I'd accidentally spoiled myself for, but then it became clear that *wasn't* going to be the ending for this season...so I guess it must be Season 4's ending. Oh well, not sure when that season will be released here on DVD, but hopefully it will, as I've come to enjoy this show and look forward to watching more of it.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 18, 2022 4:41:44 GMT -5
Finished Season 1 of You on DVD. {Spoiler}This was one of many shows I bought on DVD ages ago and only just now got around to watching. I didn't really know much about it other than Penn Badgley from Gossip Girl played a psycho killer in it and that Elizabeth Lail (who I last saw playing the live-action version of Anna from Frozen in Season 4 of Once Upon a Time) played the object of his obsession. For some reason I'd assumed he was going to be like Dexter and a professional at this whole killing thing, but it turns out that wasn't quite the case (he was sloppy as hell and it's through sheer luck/plot armour that he's even still alive, let alone out and about to continue doing his murder thing). One thing he *did* share in common with Dexter (other than the whole killing thing) was the voiceovering thing. After having watched Gossip Girl (the original version, that is. I've NO interest in the 'reboot' version or whatever the hell it's supposed to be) and seen how it ended (ie. not great), it's not much of a stretch to imagine Badgley's character from that show, Dan Humphrey, changing his name to Joe Goldberg (the name of the character he plays in this show) and deciding to embrace his inner creepo stalker. Seems he just can't give up the blondes. First, it was Blake Lively, and now it's Elizabeth Lail (who it's still weird for me to see as a blonde, since I got used to her as Anna in OUaT and to me the hair colour/styling makes all the difference - so much so that I keep thinking she looks like a completely difference person...though occasionally, if I squint, I can recognise Anna in her). Anyway, getting back to the voiceovering, it does allow us to hear just how skewed/crazy his internal 'logic' is regarding others, like how he thinks his victim, Beck, is doing things for *his* benefit/to entice him, when in fact she's just going about her normal day, not at all expecting to attract some nutjob. Like a lot of creeps, he sees things the way he *wants* to see them and rewrites events to suit his own narrative. I will admit that Badgley did a decent job of not making his voiceover too boring (unlike voiceovers by main characters in some other shows) and what helped with that was he'd occasionally make an amusing comment/observation about someone or something. I know from reading comments that seemingly quite a few people didn't like the character of Beck. I personally didn't hold the character's flaws against her. People complain about female characters who are too 'perfect', but then if they have character flaws, those same people hate on them for it. They can't win. Compared to the other characters who populated the first season, I didn't think Beck was too bad. Sure, she made mistakes and wasn't the most 'virtuous' person ever, but she wasn't as 'terrible'/'awful' as some made her out to be. And as for her being supposedly 'stupid'...given that she had no reason to think Joe was some psycho stalker, I'm not sure she can be blamed for not taking precautions to protect herself from him. As far as she knew, he was some nice guy she met in a book store who saved her from being splattered by a train when she drunkenly fell onto the tracks. He really did nothing that she saw/heard to alert her to the fact that he was a creeper. As for Lail's performance, I thought she did the best anyone could with a character who wasn't really her 'own person' so much as what others wanted her to be. She already had her own issues going on (with an addict father who she helped recover and then he repaid her by basically ditching her for a new family he was starting with other people). Adding to this was Beck's 'friends', all of whom were varying levels of horrible, the worst being the questionably-named Peach (seriously, was her mother Gwyneth Paltrow?) played by Shay Mitchell who I knew from Pretty Little Liars (again...the original version, not the reboot). Considering how manipulative she was, it's no wonder Beck didn't take too kindly to finding out she was basically stalking her (Joe's voiceover that acted all horrified at this stalkerish behaviour was morbidly amusing due to how ironic it was for *him* of all people to act offended about such things). I saw people praising Mitchell's portrayal of her character here...but, honestly, to me she just acted like her character from PLL (Emily) as if she was trying to be another character (Alison) on that show. It didn't seem like much of a stretch, nor did she blow me away with her performance. In the end, she rather foolishly tipped her hand to Joe which resulted in her demise. Peach was pretty bad, but there was an even more annoying character by the name of Blythe who was indeed a pretentious bitch just like her name suggests. I kept wishing she would be a victim of Joe's, but wasn't that lucky. Then there was a kid by the name of Paco who lived in the building where Joe lived. His mother was involved with an abusive a-hole, who Paco avoided by spending the majority of his time out in the stairwell which led to Joe befriending him and pretty soon he was gifting him not only with books, but also advice. This 'friendship' was all well and good for a while, but it soon became clear that Paco wasn't a complete innocent since he took measures to get rid of his mother's abuser (with a bat, pills, etc) until Joe finally offed the guy. Unfortunately, in the season final Paco turned into a real little shit when Beck was doing her best to escape from Joe (after she'd discovered the truth about him and he'd imprisoned her), she begged Paco to let her out, but the little turd only cared about 'protecting' Joe (who'd done him a favour by offing his mum's abuser) and so the bastard left her to die. And there can be no mistake about it - she literally *told* him Joe was going to KILL her...but he left her to die anyway. Future psychopath, that one. I resented him SO much that after her death, when Joe was saying goodbye to Paco (as he and his mum left to have a brighter future), I was sickened that we were supposed to *care* about this mentor/mentee 'relationship'. Honestly, when they were hugging, I wish a bullet would've just taken them both out - and since the final scene revealed that someone who we'd thought was a previous victim of Joe's (his ex g/f, Candace) turned out to still be *alive*, the shot fired could've come from her and I would've thought it a fitting end to psycho and future psycho. Unfortunately, I know all too well that even if shows like this one that pretend to be 'edgy' with their violence, cussing, etc...they're still pussies when it comes to offing any kid characters (even if they deserve it). Can't say I thought much of Candace (what little we saw of her), but the fact that she's going to likely be a thorn in Joe's side at least promises something interesting (though I don't doubt she'll eventually meet her end by his hands). I thought the show started out strong and was going along pretty well until about episode 7 or 8 when Beck and Joe briefly split up before getting back together by episode 9. Episodes 7 & 8 mainly felt like 'filler' to me and I think the season would've benefitted from being just 8 episodes rather than 10. The scariest part about this show is all the excuses people come up with for Joe's behaviour/actions and why they like him, but hated Beck. It's the same messed up 'logic' I see online from certain people who probably think the way Joe acted towards Beck was 'fine'/'justified'. I might be one of the few, but I truly felt sorry for her. Yes, admittedly, Penn Badgley is good in this role (maybe the casting people watched the Gossip Girl series final and thought to themselves, "Now there's a guy who can play a convincing creep!"), but I don't think he's doing anything Emmy-worthy like some seem to think he is. It's a good performance, maybe even very good...but I've seen better. Unlike Dexter, who offed bad people, Joe's offing bad people and non-bad people (ie. those who don't deserve offing) alike, so the fact that some viewers *like* him and want him to keep getting away with these murders is rather disturbing. I myself am mainly watching because A) There are actresses who I like who star in both this and the second season, and B) I already bought Seasons 1 & 2 on DVD, so naturally I was going to watch them anyway, otherwise it would've been a waste. The show ended up being not quite how I imagined it would be before I started watching. I've already watched the first episode of Season 2 and thankfully am still intrigued about where they can take the story. However, I still want Joe to get what's coming to him eventually. Whether or not the show manages to deliver that is another thing (I haven't read the books which this series is adapted from).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 22, 2022 2:35:42 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of You on DVD. {Spoiler}Like with Season 1, which was a 'blind buy' for me, I bought Season 2 before I'd even watched the first season. Both seasons sat unwatched for quite a long time, but after having just finished Season 1 at long last, naturally I went straight onto Season 2. Because my memory sucks, the start of the season is a bit fuzzy as far as me remembering everything that happened, but I recall that Joe (Penn Badgley continues to have the most voiceovering I can think of in any show I watch. It was at ridiculous levels in the first season, though I think he didn't do it quite as much in this second season. I also wasn't as amused by his comments/observations that he made in his voiceovering this season as I was last season. There were a few funny lines, but last season they were funnier). The first episode of this season saw him moving to Los Angeles (which he apparently HATED) after last season ended with the reveal of Candace (who he thought he'd killed) still being alive. Unfortunately for him, she managed to track him down and promised to make him suffer. While I get her motivation for wanting to do that, it was immediately evident this was just about dragging things out until such time as she'd inevitably got offed. This is why when you know someone's a psycho killer, as much as you want to, fight the urge to torment them and just 'take care of' them (in the Mob sense) as quickly as possible so you don't give them the chance to 'take care of' you first. It was sad seeing in a flashback how Candance went to the police after Joe had bashed her head hard against whatever surface (it was weird how this was edited, like they didn't show it in clear detail) and then she dug herself out of her grave like a zombie...only to be informed that, without proof, she was pretty screwed. While something about the actress who played Candace kinda bugged me, I *did* feel sorry for her after all the crap she'd been through and the fact that she was told outright nobody would believe her. Sadly for her, she was outmatched in this game of cat and mouse and didn't foresee that Joe's new victim, who she was trying to help show that Joe was a monster, was in fact just as psycho as him and this led to Candace's untimely demise. If only she'd gone to Beck last season...things might've ended very differently for both of them. Regarding Joe's new 'victim' this season, the first episode made it seem like he was giving up his obsessive stalking behaviour (yeah right!) and he met the character of Love Quinn (yes, that's apparently her real name) organically. However, by the end of the episode it was revealed he *hadn't* changed at all (what a surprise!) and she was just as much of a stalkee as Beck had been. I first saw Victoria Pedretti, who plays Love, in the series The Haunting of Hill House on DVD, and it's still crazy to think that show was her first thing she'd acted in (besides a couple of 'Shorts') since she was pretty amazing in that series and gives off this feel of someone who's been acting for a long time. Like, her performances are WAY better than some actors who've been in the business much longer than she has. She'd already wowed me in that show, and so I was very happy to learn she would be in this one when I bought it on DVD ages ago. Her character of Love was complex, intense and as different from Beck as could be. Love also seemed to have a codependent relationship with her brother, Forty (again, YES, that is the character's *actual* name. I guess their parents, who we later meet in the season and are revealed to be a-holes, were avid tennis fans? Hence Forty-Love). Can't say I was a fan of his character. He annoyed the crap out of me, especially when things got to the ridiculous stage where he had himself and Joe seemingly kidnapped (complete with hoods over their heads) and stuck in a hotel with guards who'd been ordered to shoot if they tried to leave just so Forty and Joe could finish a script for a movie based off the book Joe completed/released in the Season 1 final under the guise that it was from Beck. I found this whole scenario pretty contrived and devoid of any sense of 'realism'. Added to this was Forty drugging Joe with LSD without his knowledge and it made it pretty hard for me to care when Forty eventually met his end in the Season 2 final (via bullet fired from a cop who thought he was protecting Joe and Love from Love's psycho brother). Still, if there was *one* 'good' thing to come out of the episode where they were 'trapped' in the hotel room, it was seeing Joe experiencing the effects of acid which caused him to see Love with giant anime eyes. Other new characters added to this season included sisters, Delilah and Ellie. I wasn't really a fan of Delilah, who just seemed like a more aggressive version of Peach from last season (as dumb-sounding as the names Love and Forty are...I still think I hate 'Peach' the most as an actual name for a person. Only Gwyneth Paltrow would think there's nothing wrong with it). She certainly loved to curse (speaking of, I think the show changed networks or whatever and doing so allowed them to get away with more, as although there *was* cursing in Season 1...it felt like there was twice as much this season - probably a third of which came from Delilah. There was also more gore in the second episode of this season than I think there was in all of last season. To me it felt gratuitous here, like it was just intended to SHOCK more than anything as we saw Joe cut up a guy and feed him into a meat grinder). I just found her very abrasive and she was unnecessarily harsh with Joe (leaving out the fact that he's a stalker/murderer - she didn't know that...well, not until towards the end of the season anyway). Her younger sister (played by Jenna Oretga, who I've only seen in the latest Scream movie) was slightly less aggressive, so I was able to tolerate her more. I thought she was maybe going to end up being this season's Paco (ie. the 'kid' character who Joe protected - in this case from a predatory comedian named Hendy who he ended up offing, albeit accidentally). She wasn't a little shit who aided Joe in murdering an innocent woman like Paco did with Beck last season, so that automatically made Ellie not as bad as that turd was...but she still came off as a jerk a lot of the time. In the final, yes, she learned her sister had died and Joe *was* in part to blame for it (even though it was Love who'd killed her), but considering everything he'd done to keep Ellie safe, it was kind of hard to like her when she was going off at him (considering she wasn't even aware of his stalkerish/murderous true nature). I think the thing that cemented my dislike of her by the end of the season was when she mentioned Beck and Candace dying...then proceeded to tell Joe she didn't care about any of that, just her sister. Way to think of other innocent victims, Ellie (as if it wasn't already apparent these siblings didn't give two figs about other people when they cut up and flushed the pics Hendy took of his other underage victims without letting those other girls know they even *had* the pics, let alone what they were doing with them). These sisters only really seemed to care about themselves/what they wanted, with little regard for anybody else. It was somewhat fun to see various actors I recognised from other things guest-star this season - the most prominent of which was the actor who played Penguin in the TV series Gotham appearing here as someone named Will, who Joe stole the identity of (so he could start fresh in Los Angeles) and kept prisoner in his plexiglass cage (which he somehow managed to transport to LA and reassemble by himself). While it seemed inevitable that the real Will would wind up dead, miraculously by mid-season he'd managed to convince Joe that he could trust him and Joe actually let him go (too bad Beck wasn't afforded this same courtesy). Other faces I recognised were the previously-mentioned Saffron Burrows as Love's mum, Magda Apanowicz as Joe's mum (I've seen her in a few things, but I'll always think of her as Lacey Rand from the BSG spin-off Caprica first and foremost) who we see via flashbacks, Kether Donohue (from You're the Worst), Madeline Zima (from The Nanny) and a guy I think was in the early seasons of Chicago Fire. Maybe there were others I don't recall. Honestly, I wasn't really fussed on anyone this season besides Love, who Victoria Pedretti should've been receiving the amount of praise for playing that Penn Badgley does for playing Joe. She brought so much nuance to her character and really sold the underlying feeling that something wasn't quite right with her. Unfortunately, I know what Love's ultimate fate will be by the end of Season 3 (having been spoiled for it) and I'm pretty certain I wouldn't want to continue watching this show once she's no longer in it. I felt this season wasn't quite as good as Season 1 which seemed to have a very clear path that the story was on, whereas this season's story seemed to veer off, at times feeling like it lost track of the main point - which was that Joe is an obsessive psycho stalker and he needs to be TAKEN DOWN. It's disturbing seeing all the ways people who like him (or the actor who plays him) blame everyone else for what he does to his victims whilst absolving him of any blame. It's pretty unhealthy. Also disturbing are those who think his female victims 'deserve' what they get. No, they DON'T. None of the ones he's offed have 'deserved it'. Some the guys he's offed, however, are a different story. Still, the fact that he thought he had found a new love in Love, only for her to reveal that she herself was just as unhinged as he is (and this shattered his image he'd created of her in his mind) shows that even when he finds someone who is a 'perfect fit' for him...he's still not satisfied. It's clear that what he enjoys is the hunt, as evidenced by the fact that the final scene of the season was him married to Love (with a child on the way), but he thought of it as 'hell' and was already eyeing his neighbour next door as his new victim. I don't see how they can keep dragging out this show without it becoming boring/repetitive. It's just more of the same - Joe finds a victim, stalks/obsesses over her, they eventually find out about him and then are offed. Even if they change things up and have a future victim of his get away, it still doesn't change the fact that characters who *should* have survived (Beck, Candace) are still dead. While others can handwave Joe's actions because they think he is 'charming', funny, etc...I just want this dude in prison and/or dead already. While Dexter offed people who deserved their fate most of the time, Joe's victims more often than not *don't* deserve it, thus making it hard for me to want him to keep getting away with it. Badgley's performance in the role is quite good, but it's not enough for me to ever forget what Joe is. I'm not sure if Season 3 will ever be released here (since it hasn't been so far), but other than seeing Love possibly out-crazy Joe, I think my interest in this series has greatly lessened. In a way, the Season 3 final's ending could serve as a 'series final' of sorts if I look at it as Joe being trapped in his own personal hell whilst still being up to his old tricks of finding new victims. Oh well, at least I have The Haunting of Bly Manor with Victoria Pedretti on DVD to look forward to watching whenever I find the time.
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Post by President Ackbar mini™ on Nov 14, 2022 12:06:09 GMT -5
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Nov 28, 2022 3:43:27 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments on DVD. **spoilers below** I’d watched the first season of this show ages ago - in fact, it was SO long ago that I’d forgotten a fair bit of what happened, so it was good they included the ‘Previously on’ at the start of the first episode this season. Even with that, though, I was still confused about who was related to whom. I knew Clary and Jace were supposedly brother and sister, and I remembered that Izzy and Alec were siblings as well; I knew that Valentine was Clary & Jace’s father...but that was about it. Things that were news to me this season: Izzy and Alec having a young brother named Max (who was supremely annoying! Kid Shadowhunters? DO. NOT. WANT! At least I got to see a bad guy whack Max’s head into a hard surface, knocking him out, which gave me a laugh) and Alec referring to Jace as ‘brother’ when last season I thought he had a thing for Jace (apparently they’re not technically related and Jace is just Alec’s adoptive brother?). Anyway, he’s moved onto Magnus the warlock now (and the show certainly spends plenty of time on their being a couple). Meanwhile, Simon (the ‘worst vampire ever’) finally shared his feelings about Clary with her this season and she quickly accepted this declaration of love, getting together with him since she thought there was no chance with Jace on account of them being ‘related'...that was until the reveal happened that they WEREN’T in fact related (which is just as well since though Jace was having feelings for Clary that a brother most definitely shouldn’t when he still thought they were related and I briefly wondered if they were going to go full Lannister until I remembered this show wouldn’t ever ‘go there’). To make things even MORE confusing, there was Clary’s *actual* brother, Jonathan (which is what also happens to be Jace’s full first name), who was turned extra crispy in what I'm assuming is this universe’s version of Hell and he masqueraded as a normal-looking guy (I recognised the actor from the TV series Humans) who was ‘helping’ the good guys when in reality he was working with his father, Valentine (who not too long before this team-up he'd wanted to kill/send to be made extra crispy so he knew how it felt). I even felt Jonathan was giving off a vibe of having a thing for Clary (seriously, this show has some major ‘incest’ vibes even if technically there’s no actual incest going on). After getting together rather abruptly, Clary/Simon eventually broke up again because of a contrived plot point where she was forced to kiss Jace and thus revealed *he* was the one who she truly loved. This then led Simon into the arms of a new character introduced this season who I was NOT a fan of: Maia the werewolf. I did not like her ONE BIT since she spent the beginning of the season telling Simon to let Clary know how he felt about her, then she got all jealous over them together, THEN she was all about murdering Clary (supposedly to stop her from being forced by Valentine to use a sword that would kill all Downworlders, but you just know some of it was motivated by jealousy), and then she got with Jace whilst Clary was with Simon and as soon as those two broke up she was getting it on with Simon. Total soap opera stuff. Worst of all, I know she’s going to be a fulltime cast member in Season 3 (that’s why I’m taking a break before I move onto the third season - I’m just not in the mood/ready to deal with more Maia, as I already felt like she took up too much screentime this season). People give Katherine McNamara a lot of crap for her acting, I’ve seen, but to me she’s not really any worse than the rest of the cast. I still find Alec (and the actor who portrays him) SO BORING. I was tired of his hatred for/jealousy of Clary being with Jace last season which continued into this season (even though she was always nice to him), and it didn’t seem to finally come to an end until he got possessed by a demon and killed her mum. THEN he was super-apologetic. Hopefully he won’t regress to his bad attitude towards her, since she could always pull out the “You killed my mum, so you don’t get to hate me, jerk!” card (not that she ever would, of course. In fact, she showed far more maturity when standing next to her mum’s killer than a certain MCU character did when he watched footage of someone who was MIND-CONTROLLED killing *his* mum. He wanted to kill his mum's killer, whereas Clary knew it wasn’t Alec’s fault. CLARY’S MORE MATURE THAN TONY STARK!). I find Alec’s actor pretty stiff/emotionless most of the time. While I like Emeraude Toubia as Izzy, she’s not the greatest actress either (she had a particularly cringey bit on a bridge when taking on Jonathan in the second-last-episode this season). Harry Shum Jr. is probably one of the ‘stronger’ actors in the show, but he still tends to overdo the hand gestures. NONE of the actors on this show are award-worthy, so I don’t know why people single out Katherine McNamara and pick on her. Maybe they're jealous of her pretty pretty hair? Really, one of the best actors this season was the young actress who played the Seelie Queen (see, it *is* possible to cast decent kid actors in roles...just not with Max, apparently). Sadly, she was then replaced by Sarah Hyland who I didn’t think was nearly as good in the role. The rest of the recurring/guest star/one-off characters/actors range from okay to downright awful (though I did wonder where Lydia disappeared to after she got injured, as I quite liked her). As for the storylines this season, some were okay while others were...not (prime example: poor Izzy being stuck in the dreaded ‘drug addict’ storyline which a lot of shows seem to resort to eventually. In this case, it was her becoming addicted to vampire venom). I think there were some interesting developments here and there, the occasional action scene (though they seemed few and far between. Instead, we got much more standing around and TALKING), the effects/CGI aren't great, there was WAY too much 'relationship drama' and as previously mentioned, there were characters that annoyed me which made me wish we could’ve spent more time on the core four of Clary, Jace, Alec and Izzy fighting together as a team (which we finally got in the form of them taking on winged demons in the season final). Instead of all these newly-added characters, the show would’ve done well to spend more time on these four *together*. On the plus side, at least Valentine (a rather ho-hum villain portrayed by an actor I recognised from the series Reign - probably the best episode with him was when he and Magnus swapped bodies, at that at least allowed him to play something a bit more interesting) finally got offed this season - and better yet, it was Clary who got to kick his arse and she didn’t just stab his throat...no, she then stabbed his abdomen multiple times. See, THIS is how you kill a bad guy! Keep on stabbing! One measly stab/slash ain’t gonna cut it. Strangely, though, after Jace got stabbed by Jonathan in the second-to-last-episode and seemed to shrug that off like it was no big thing, what ended up killing him in the season final was another simple stab wound from his not-father, Valentine. I guess he just stabbed in a more fatal area than where Jonathan did? Anyway, I knew Jace wouldn’t remain dead and after killing her father, Clary got to make a wish upon an angel which was to bring Jace back (sorry, dead mum!). Naturally, there are consequences to bringing someone back as evidenced by whatever was going on with Jace near the end of the final episode. It also appears Joanthan mightn’t be totally dead (just MOSTLY dead) if all those demons combining to form his ‘mother’ was any indication as her clawed hand reached out to touch him. So I guess that like a lot of supernatural shows, nobody ever really stays dead in this series (except for YOU, Clary’s mum!). On the whole, there was stuff I enjoyed this season, but also quite a bit of stuff I didn’t, which is why I’m not exactly in a rush to watch my Season 3 DVDs just yet.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 8, 2023 16:37:45 GMT -5
Finished Season 1 of House of the Dragon on Blu-ray (which I received for Christmas). Episodes 1 - 5{Spoiler}I was surprised when this was released on DVD/Blu-ray here so soon after it had finished airing in America/on Pay TV (which I don’t have). I thought I’d be waiting about a year to see it like I had to with each season of GoT...but no, they released it only a couple of months after it had aired, I think - which was good news for me! However, I had read about each episode when the show originally aired, so I was fairly spoiled (by my own choice). Still, watching it play out onscreen was different to what I’d read (and I hadn’t spoiled myself for everything - just most of the main/important stuff, more or less). Episode 1: 'Heirs of the Dragon'{Spoiler}My memory’s not great (even when it comes to things I only watched recently), so I might be mentioning events a bit out of order. Since I’d only read bits and pieces of spoilery stuff, I’d imagined some things occurring quite differently. I’d thought that we were going to get text onscreen with older Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) voiceovering, but instead we actually got to see what was being described play out (with the old King naming Viserys Targaryen as the new one) and only after that was there text onscreen about how long before Daenerys this show was taking place (with the amount of years and her name being the last words left onscreen as it went to black). The sweeping shot following along with the dragon flying over the city (NOT burning the people below - like certain other Targaryens would - as they watched it, unconcerned) was a good way to reintroduce us to this world after the opening voiceover. Turns out this was the dragon of young Rhaenyra (Aussie actress Milly Alcock), called Syrax. I liked seeing how affectionate she was towards her dragon, showing a clear bond between them. I also liked seeing Graham McTavish from Outlander as Ser Harrold Westerling, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, who appears to be a protector of Rhaenyra watching over her. We also meet young Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey). I thought both young actresses did a really good job of immediately establishing their friendship/dynamic (though I saw that some people felt there was ‘more’ between them...which I can understand, as the actresses had great chemistry, after all), they felt natural in their performances and I especially liked the scene with them together under the tree, which made for a nice visual. Apparently some people hated Rhaenyra for tearing a page out of the book (which she showed she had studied properly, even though Alicent thought she wasn’t paying attention, which demonstrated that Rhaenyra was smart among other things). I was amused by hearing Rhaenyra’s goals in life/all she really wanted - she’s got her priorities straight! We also saw that Rhaenyra got the ‘privilege’ of being allowed into the small council with her father, King Viserys (Paddy Considine, who I’d previously seen in a show called Informer - which I didn’t think much of, nor did his performance in it really stand out to me. I later discovered I’d seen him in other things like the third Bourne film and just hadn’t really taken much notice of/remembered him from them), and his advisors - albeit just serving them wine - and one of them is Alicent’s father, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans, who I’ve seen in a number of things), who is Hand of the King. At one point we were treated to the sight of Viserys with a pus-filled lump on his back...which, of course, the show felt the need to give us a good CLOSE-UP LOOK AT IN DETAIL complete with someone scraping the pus out of it with some tool/instrument (because the GoT world never skimps on the gruesomeness) and whatever sickness/disease he had seemingly started from him cutting himself on the Iron Throne, which may LOOK like the coolest chair ever, but clearly it’s impractical and dangerous (at least this was finally acknowledged within the show itself rather than just being an observation made by viewers). I was surprised to see that it had grown out to create a carpet of swords leading up to it (which weren’t present in the GoT era). I appreciated the effort that went into making Daemon Targaryen's (Matt Smith) introduction feel ‘epic’, involving Rhaenyra walking in on him sitting atop the Iron Throne and us not even seeing him clearly to start with. It goes without saying that Matt Smith instantly made an impact with his performance (which was not only completely different to his Doctor from Doctor Who, but unlike some of his unfortunate movie appearances, it wasn't CUT), I thought both he and Milly Alcock had major chemistry (which would be totally fine...if they weren’t RELATED, but they are Targaryens after all, so this sort of thing is to be expected) and they worked well off each other, making the scene a standout in the episode. Them both speaking High Valyrian also added a lot to the scene. It soon became clear what sort of person Daemon was with his comments he made about how doing sheep would be preferable to doing his own wife (who we didn’t see) and taking men out to punish criminals by cutting off the hands of thieves and the junk of rapists among other things. He also enjoyed unleashing violence during a jousting tournament and this was the scene which introduced not only the audience, but also Rhaenyra & Alicent, to the character of Ser Criston Cole - who the young ladies were apparently surprised to discover was Dornish, but nevertheless they still thought him dreamy. Reading descriptions of the violence during the tournament was enough for me, as I wasn’t watching this show (or GoT for that matter) FOR the violence, but rather in spite of it. One person who obviously wasn’t a fan of Criston was Daemon, who looked to have beaten him (dang it, Daemon! If only you'd offed the dreamboat, so many bad things in the future might’ve been avoided!) until he turned the tables and defeated Daemon, who obviously wasn't too happy about that. It’s good that Rhaenyra got that one scene with her mum in this episode, given what happened to her during the scene. While it wasn’t exactly subtle, the cutting between the violence of the tournament and the violent birthing scene with Viserys’ wife upped the tension, as he was given a difficult choice between either trying to save the child and letting his wife die or letting both die. It was hard not to feel sorry for poor Aemma, who hadn’t a clue what was being done to her until too late (the actress did a fine job portraying her pain, fear and desperation to not die, as did Paddy Considine in showing that he wasn’t a King without heart/feelings). It was all for naught in the end anyway, since both she and her child died. I’d read people’s comments about how nasty this birthing scene was, but I’m fairly certain I’ve seen much worse. Maybe it was just the circumstances surrounding it that made it seem so bad? Anyway, it’s reported to the King that Daemon was making an ass of himself in public, getting drunk and toasting to the dead child as ‘heir for a day’, which understandably pissed Viserys off, leading to a yelling match between the two, with Daemon pointing out how the King made Otto Hightower his Hand instead of his own brother, warning him of Otto’s untrustworthiness, etc (him pimping out his daughter, Alicent, to cosy up to the King being just one example). I thought Milly Alcock’s performance during the funeral scene for Rhaenyra's mother was her standout one of the episode, as she couldn’t quite get the word ‘Dracarys’ out to begin with, fighting back tears, but then recomposed herself and said what needed to be said (with some nudging from Daemon) so Syrax would light up her deceased mother's funeral pyre (I appreciated the small detail of the dragon seeming hesitant to do the deed at first). For someone who I hadn’t even heard of (I discovered after she was cast in this show that she'd already starred in an Aussie TV series here, but because it wasn't on free-to-air TV, I hadn’t gotten to see it), nor had I seen her in anything before this series, Milly Alcock certainly established herself as an actress with real talent just in this first episode alone. I liked seeing Daemon being affectionate towards his dragon, Caraxes (who he flew off on with his prostitute, Mysaria - the Frenchiest of French ho ever), and how much effort went into making the dragons we’d seen so far have their own unique look/appearance (and not just be different colours), thus setting them apart from Dany’s dragons. I also liked the visual of the giant dragon skull as Viserys informed Rhaenyra of the prophecy he’d learned (though when he said that Winter would be coming, I thought to myself “Yeah, but it’ll be a while.” ). I got chills at the end when the music (which usually accompanied any scene with Dany’s dragons in GoT) started playing and then we went into the end credits with the GoT theme being played as Rhaenyra turned around and was named heir. Once again, Milly Alcock managed to make one hell of an impression - and this time with just a look. I remember when the first trailers for the show were released, I saw a few actors I recognised and a bunch who I didn’t, but hers was the one that stood out to me as it was ‘unique’ and I didn’t have any previous performances to associate her with, and unlike some of the other unfamiliar faces, she looked like one that actually belonged in the GoT world just as Emilia Clarke (who I didn’t know when I first watched GoT) had. Anyway, it was a hell of an opening episode, which showed much promise, being different to the original series but not *too* different. Episode 2: 'The Rogue Prince'{Spoiler}So, after having no opening credits sequence during the first episode (which I can understand the reasoning behind), we got them starting with this second episode of the series. Not long after the episode aired, I saw people arguing for and against the show theme music for HotD remaining the same as GoT’s. Some were happy it didn't change from the iconic GoT theme music, while others wished it had changed and been something different. I personally can see both sides of the argument, as having a familiarity with a theme evokes fond memories of the original show (back in its heyday). By the same token, they had the chance to create something new/equally iconic...but there was always the danger that it wouldn't live up to the GoT theme. I think that either way, whatever they chose to do for this show's theme wasn't going to please everybody. Can they be accused of 'playing it safe' with the theme music? Maybe, but at least the credits themselves offer something different (the Targaryen family tree) whilst not straying too far from GoT's opening credits. If I have one quibble with the sequence, it’s the order that the cast’s names appear. While I can understand Paddy Considine’s name being first, followed by Matt Smith’s...given how important to the story the characters of Rhaenyra & Alicent are, I thought Milly Alcock and Emily Carey’s names should’ve been slotted in after the first two actors and *before* Rhys Ifans’ name (that receives the special ‘and’ treatment). Instead, the names of the two young actresses who play Rhaenyra and Alicent are behind the names of the actors who play Corlys Velaryon, Rhaenys Targaryen, Criston Cole and even Criston’s ho - WTF? Milly and Emily’s name should’ve at least been ahead of those last two! Are they so far back in the sequence of names simply because they’re ‘unknown’ actors? I’d think the ones playing Criston and Mysaria weren’t that widely known either. Or is it because Milly and Emily were the youngest members of the main cast at this point? Either way, I felt offended on their behalf that they weren’t among the first few names listed in the cast given that they play crucial roles to the story. Anyway, moving on, apparently half a year has passed between last episode and this one, Rhaenyra is *still* only allowed to serve wine during small council meetings...but she also has IDEAS, and while her father appears willing to listen (and Corlys Velaryon, also known as ‘The Sea Snake’, appears impressed), Otto Hightower’s clearly of the opinion "Women having ideas? What absurdity!" and dismissive of her, steering the King away from listening to his daughter's good advice, thus showing that Daemon was right about him last episode that he sucks as Hand of the King. Rhaenyra’s sent off to pick a new Kingsguard knight since the old one passed (I was amused by the focus on the little set of stairs she had to stand on to see over the railing properly at the knights below) and after being unimpressed with most of them, she ends up choosing Ser Criston Cole because he’s dreamy he’s the only one with actual battle experience. Rhaenyra & Alicent have a good scene between them that’s set at a big candlelit table where Rhaenyra says she wishes her father would see her as more than just a ‘little girl’ and Alicent offers some advice, being a good friend...if it weren’t for the fact that she’s still doing her own father’s bidding by charming her way into Viserys’ favour while he shows her his extravagant model city of Old Valyria made by stonemasons. He accidentally drops one of the dragon models, breaking it, which she later has fixed for him (I see you, Alicent!). When he’s not busy using his models to impress girls his daughter’s age, he’s sticking his hand into maggot-filled bowls (seemingly totally unfazed by it) so they can feed on the dead flesh of his fingers which have turned black. Meanwhile, there’s a bad guy named the Crabfeeder who unsurprisingly feeds his victims to crabs (it’s right there in the name!) and Daemon’s off causing problems, stealing the dragon egg that was intended for the child that died in birth along with Viserys’ wife last episode. Rhaenyra has more advice for her father, but is again dismissed. Otto goes to confront Daemon, who announces that he’s going to marry his ho (who’s still super-French), and his red dragon appears - I noticed it makes different dragony sounds to what we’ve typically heard dragons make previously, such as Rhaenyra’s dragon...which she shows up on like a badass (do dragons have brakes on them?), dismounting and basically daring her uncle to off her since she’s the one who was made heir and thus is standing in his way (not just literally, but figuratively). After she's called his bluff, Daemon carelessly tosses her the dragon egg he stole and it gets put in a portable oven before she flies off on her dragon, actually having GOT SHIT DONE (unlike Otto). When she gets back home, her father gives her a stern talking to about what she did (they’d had a quiet dinner scene earlier - which he’d mentioned to Alicent during their scene, saying his daughter barely said two words to him - so he was making an effort to talk to her more). Corlys had been urging the King to marry his 12 year old daughter (who looks even younger than that, and I imagine the actor playing Viserys must’ve felt weird about his walk-and-talk with the child actor as they characters got to know each other and she says she’s on board with marrying him since she was told she wouldn’t have to actually do him until she was 14). Rather than wed a child, he ends up announcing that he’s going to wed someone slightly older - Alicent. Once again I must praise Milly’s Alcock’s performance when we see Rhaenyra’s reaction to this totally shocking/devastating news. Her emotion feels *real* and you can see all the thoughts she must be having written all over her face at this WTF-worthy news that her BFF will become her step-mother (you broke the sister code, Alicent!). She, along with Corlys (who's pissed about having had his daughter be rejected by the King), leave the room and Corlys is now apparently on Team Daemon. Episode 3: 'Second of His Name'{Spoiler}Crabfeeder’s living up to his name by feeding some tied-up dude who’s trash-talking him to his crabs, Daemon’s seen flying on his dragon overhead and the dude thinks he's his salvation, calling out to Daemon to save him...but Daemon don’t care and, hilariously, the dude gets his whole body crushed by the dragon’s giant foot (bad luck, dude). Speaking of Caraxes, what stands out to me most about him is how spindly he looks (and his hind legs stick out in a funny way when he’s flying). He’s also apparently known as ‘the Blood Wyrm’, which is an apt description, and he reminds me of Smaug from The Hobbit films. It would appear two years have passed; Alicent’s married to the King, had his first kid and is pregnant with the next one. Rhaenyra’s still pissed at her BFF her ex-BFF for marrying her father and she’s not at the celebration of the second nameday or whatever it’s called for their first-born son, Aegon II. Instead, she’s off underneath what was formerly her tree she hung out with Alicent, but now by herself reading a book and listening to a guy playing a tune which she likes to hear on repeat (which I totally understand, as there's certain songs I feel that way about). When he suggests something else, she exerts her authority over him, saying to play it again, but then Alicent shows up (having been sent by Viserys to retrieve his daughter) and exerts HER authority, telling the guy to leave whilst Rhaenyra orders him to stay...but, unfortunately, being the Queen trumps being a Princess, so Alicent wins this round and the guy vamooses, not wishing to get in the middle of whatever is going on between these two. I can understand Rhaenyra holding a grudge, but the time jump doesn’t actually feel like two years have passed, instead feeling like it’s taking place not long after the last episode’s events. I did like Rhaenyra’s outfit she was wearing, as parts of it look like armour that resembled dragon scales. Once she joins everyone else, Jason Lannister who chats her up (they oddly don't bond over being part of incesty families), she argues with her father about it, Viserys tells her to choose who she wants and she’ll never be supplanted as heir after they have words (meanwhile, Otto’s adamant about Alicent’s son being heir since he still doesn’t like Rhaenyra - so she’s not the only one who can hold a grudge for two years) and Rhaenyra rides off in a huff with Criston Cole following. Turns out he's not the only wild bore she has to deal with, as a big hairy pig attacks, it’s on stop of Rhaenyra, Criston stabs it once (making it mostly dead), then she proceeds to stabs it MANY times (making it really dead), working out some of her issues/venting her anger at all the shit she’s dealing with, getting covered in blood as a result. There’s a white hart out there who is supposed to get killed to ‘celebrate’ this second nameday BS which no one can seem to find, but Rhaenyra and Criston stumble upon it - he wants to kill it (the bastard!), but she thankfully stops him – which is good news for the white hart. But it’s NOT such good news for the innocent stag who’s serving as a substitute in the white hart’s absence elsewhere, as it’s been captured, tied up, and as if further proof is needed that Viserys is rather lame at hunting/killing, he’s not even able to kill it with his first stab and we have to hear it crying out it agony as he tries again, it makes a horrible anguished sound before eventually dying...and he’s applauded for his pathetic effort (damn you, show! I see you’re keeping up the tradition from GoT of having poor defenseless animals getting killed and making us have to watch them suffer. This is one thing I would’ve been happy to see not carry over from the original series into this one!). While Viserys sucks, Rhaenyra’s doing her badass blood-soaked walk past fire with the boar whilst everyone watches. As to where Daemon’s been all this time, he’s off miraculously dodging many arrows and taking out many bad guys before eventually getting hit with a couple of arrows which he breaks off the ends of and then continues on like it’s no big thing (I find it rather hypocritical how certain people seemed to have a problem with Rhaenyra getting to be a badass in the episode, but had no problem accepting Daemon’s ‘badassedness’ despite the improbability of his survival). Thanks to a small army attacking the cave where Crabfeeder’s guys are hiding (and with more than a little help from Caraxes), they are defeated and Daemon ends up dragging out the upper torso of Crabfeeder (I guess, ironically, he’ll now be feed for his crabs). All I could think was that it seemed very odd to have the violence (ie. Crabfeeder being cut in half) *not* shown onscreen, since this show, like GoT before it, seem to never miss an opportunity to show gratuitous violence in all its gory glory...but I guess they didn't show the actual act simply so they could have the surprise reveal. Episode 4: ‘King of the Narrow Sea’{Spoiler}Rhaenyra’s interviewing potential suiters to marry...starting with an old guy, she makes some crack about how it was an eternity ago (that he was born? That he started talking?), then next up it’s a kid younger than her...though, oddly, his voice sounds older than he looks (there’s NO appropriately-aged suiters available, apparently) and he says he’ll protect her, then some mucho dude calls the kid a dumb C-bomb, pointing she has a dragon, everyone laughs...but the kid gets his revenge by fatally (?) stabbing the jerk (NOW who's laughing, bitch?!), and I found it amusing how Rhaenyra just nonchalantly walks away from this. I also found it funny how Criston told her not to look at the violence going on behind her when A) she didn’t seem to give two figs about it, and B) She soaked herself in the blood of the boar she stabbed eleven billionty times last episode...I don't think she's the squeamish sort. Daemon returns (sporting a new short haircut and crown), making with the nice-nice to the King, bending the knee and everything! At whatever celebration thing that’s going on, Alicent suggests Daemon check out tapestries with her and Viserys laughs her off, saying he’d have no interest in such things, then Rhaenyra says she’d like to and goes off to do so alone. Alicent goes to talk to her, even though Rhaenyra’s still probably mad about the whole marrying-her-dad thing, but after a chat, they’re friends again! Rhaenyra also chats with Daemon in High Velaryon (which is so hot right now). Later, she finds Daemon’s left her street clothes, which she gets dressed in before sneaking out, then he takes her on a stroll through the great unwashed...which she for some reason enjoys despite all the unsavory stuff going on, as well as passersby shoving her/calling her a boy (which just seems to amuse her...though she's less amused by a mummer's play performance). She enjoys some rat, then runs off without paying for her food and bumps into a soldier (I forget who), he recognises her but lets her go, Daemon eventually catches up with her and proving what a great uncle he is, he takes her to a pleasure den where ALL the depravity happens, they start getting hot n’ heavy, but he can’t go through with it (apparently Daemon *does* draw the line at incest...so I guess he’s not a very good Targaryen) and abandons her. After Daemon dumps her, she’s still horny and so she tries to get it on with Criston Cole who’s hesitant to start with, but he's warm for her form and eventually caves. I saw some accusations from people saying that Rhaenyra ‘forced’ herself on him...but, really, he’s SO much bigger than her - and she’s so tiny - that he could’ve easily just moved her out of the way of the door by grabbing her shoulders, lifting her up and shifting her aside or he could’ve just left when she stepped away from the door. He made his own choices and clearly wasn’t thinking with his upstairs brain. Plus, she's a teenager...what's his excuse? Otto rats out Rhaenyra/Daemon to the King, relaying what he was told by witnesses happened between them, Viserys doesn’t believe him and is mad, making him actually SAY it instead of pussyfooting around what he’s accusing the King’s daughter and brother of getting up to together, Alicent overhears and confronts Rhaenyra, who denies she did the deed (technically she’s right - at least regarding Daemon, anyway) and Alicent claims to just be looking out for her BFF. Daemon gets drunk, begging the King to let him wed his own niece (so it wasn't so much that he wasn't willing to do the deed with his niece, it's just that he just wanted to marry her first, I guess), Viserys gets understandably mad, telling him off and kicking him whilst he lays on the floor (that's right, show how tough you are against tied-up deer and inebriated brothers, Viserys!). It’s then time for a most awkward father/daughter talk, Rhaenyra points out how Otto just wants to ruin her...so Viserys fires his arse (thus his plan backfires on him spectacularly). Instead of marrying her uncle, Rhaenyra will be marrying Corlys’ son as part of her ‘duty to the King’ and she’s brought a tea to take care of any unwanted accidents (though whether she drinks it or not is unclear). Episode 5: ‘We Light the Way’{Spoiler}We meet Daemon’s wife (Rhea Royce, played by Rachel Redford - that's a lot of R's), the same one who he said makes sheep look like a decent sex partner by comparison...and evidently she got wind of these kind words from her loving husband since she throws them back in his face. She’s not nearly as bad appearance-wise as he’d made her out to be (then again, these Targaryens are all about incest, so their idea of ‘beauty’ might be a bit skewed). Anyway, while it’s nice to see her stand up to her jerk of a hubby and tell him off...it’s also not too bright to do this when you’re by yourself and the guy you’re insulting is clearly shady, complete with sinister-looking hooded cloak and just menacingly standing there at a distance. He moves towards her, freaks the horse out (see? Even the HORSE knows he has murderous intentions! Should've listened to it and just rode it straight out of there!) and consequently it rears up, falling backwards onto Daemon’s wifey. Thank goodness the horse is okay (as evidenced by the fact that it just gets right back up and trots off). No such luck for wifey, though, who is pretty much paralysed after having a horse dropped on her. Daemon puts his foot on her arm to make doubly sure she ain’t goin’ nowhere, he starts to walk off, but then she throws one more insult his way about not being able to finish. On the one hand, if you know you’re pretty much screwed and going to die, might as well hurl a final insult at your murderer. On the other hand, Daemon coming at her with a rock really shouldn’t have come as that much of a surprise. Speaking of surprises, I was shocked that the show - which usually revels in violence - actually demonstrated restraint here, NOT showing what he did to her in grisly detail. After Otto’s Worst Plan Ever, Alicent’s saying byeee to her dope of a father who got his fool self fired as Hand of the King and she says she believed Rhaenyra about nothing happening with Daemon and dear ol’ dad’s informant was mistaken, he says she *wanted* to believe Rhaenyra, who’s totally bad news and going to have her kids killed, etc. Meanwhile, Kingy’s sick on boat...or just plain sick in general, his new Hand is one of the Strongs (whose first name I didn't bother to learn). Really, seemed to me like he should’ve been Hand from the beginning, since he'd offered the King some sound advice previously. Viserys pays a visit to Corlys (whose driftwood throne is no match for the Iron Throne, it must be said...though at least the worst thing he gets from sitting on it is probably splinters in his arse rather than some deadly disease slowly killing him after scratching himself on it), whose daughter has now aged up (while no others have, it would appear), and the King wants to have Rhaenyra marry the Sea Snake’s son, but is stuck on the whole last name thing, saying they can take the Velaryon last name until they’re on throne...but then it’s Targaryen (gotta keep the name of the incestiest family going, after all). Corlys son is gay, but Rhaenyra is totally understanding (she even uses a duck and goose analogy), proposing that once they do their duty and have an heir, they can do what they want with whomever they wish. Of course this plan doesn’t involve Criston Cole, who wants Rhaenyra to run away with him, but she ain’t dumb enough to give up everything for Ser Dreamy...who obviously doesn't handle rejection well. So when Alicent questions him about what really went on between Rhaenyra and Daemon, he confesses to being the one who boned the Princess - which is all the information Alicent needed (Criston, you a-hole!) to lead her to wearing the colour of SUPER PISSED-OFFNESS...and also war: GREEN (two guys expositioning about what this meant was so clunky and clearly just included for those of us who had no clue about the significance of the colour). Her entrance - which was LATE (something that wanker, Jason Lannister, was remarking on, making a crack about why men go to war being because women are never ready. I enjoyed Rhaenyra’s epic eyeroll at him and her thinly-veiled snarky comments about the ‘pleasure of his company’) - manages to steal all the focus off of Rhaenyra on her wedding day (and also Daemon, who just casually sauntered in at one point, shocking everyone and causing his bro to look pissed). Some Grima Wormtongue-like figure named Larys was in Alicent’s ear earlier, I think, so that probably didn’t help matters. Daemon’s wife’s cousin is pissed at Daemon who calls him a C-word and will get her inheritance, Rhaenyra’s future hubby’s involved with someone who has the unfortunate name of Joffrey (my god...there was two of them?! Amusingly, his last name’s Lonmouth - more like LOUDmouth!) who mouths off to Criston about Rhaenyra, who's currently with Daemon and they're doing their chatting in Velaryon thing, getting close (which Viserys takes notice of), she has no time for him after he dumped her in Crackton last episode, but they’re rudely interrupted by sudden screaming...then chaos ensues. Loudmouth mouthed off one too many times, it would seem, as Criston’s pummeling him, Rhaenyra’s caught up in the crowd of people (what exactly are they all stampeding out of there for, it’s not like anyone’s on Criston’s ‘To Kill List’ besides Loudmouth, yet they’re reacting like he’s randomly killing everyone), Viserys demands to know where his daughter's at (seriously, if I was Rhaenyra I’d be majorly pissed that nobody cared about their Princess, damn it!), then Harwin Strong finds her/slings her over his shoulder as she amusingly tells him to put her down (I think this is just a thing Princesses say whenever they’re thrown over someone’s shoulder, even if doing so seems very unwise), the King has a sudden nosebleed, Criston works out his issues in much the same way as Rhaenyra worked hers out on that boar in episode 3...only in this instance, since Joffrey refused to listen when Criston told him “SHADDAP YOUR FACE!”, Criston shuts it up *for* him. Permanently (I admit I did NOT look at the resulting mushed face. I read about it and that was enough for me). Somehow Criston manages to just leave this murder he’s committed without being arrested (not so dreamy NOW is he? Who am I kidding, there are probably those who found him even more 'hot' after unleashed his inner rage monster), he goes off by his lonesome, strips off his armour and is preparing to commit suicide (feeling guilty about breaks his vows or whatever) when Alicent interrupts him (damn it, Alicent! You should’ve just allowed him to stab himself!). Clearly, she has use for him - also, they can bond over their shared dislike for Rhaenyra now. Speaking of, her shotgun wedding to someone who just witnessed their lover's face be reduced to lasagna with teeth is being held in the same room where it happened (with rats licking up the blood that’s still on the floor, no less!), she’s looking somewhat disheveled as she is wed, and the episode ends with the King collapsing. As far as weddings in Westeros go...this one had a surprisingly low body count. Will there EVER be a wedding taking place in this world where it doesn’t all go to hell and people die? I think at this point they’re just having death and weddings be synonymous to maintain the ongoing joke. Episodes 6 - 10{Spoiler}I’m sad to say I didn’t enjoy episodes 6 - 10 nearly as much as I did the first five episodes. I knew the time jump/s were coming and that Milly Alcock & Emily Carey would be replaced by episode 6...but it still felt like the show was in a rush to get to certain plot points/characters, and as a result we missed out stuff. Are we supposed to believe that NOTHING really of note/importance happened in all those years that passed? I sure would’ve liked to have spent at least the rest of this first season with the younger actresses still playing their roles, and then Season 2 could’ve started with the older ones. But nope, we fast-forward through 10 years of the characters’ lives and boom, they’re adults now. I will say that Emma D’Arcy’s onscreen debut as ‘older’ Rhaenyra (after having previously only been heard voiceovering in the first episode), going through one hell of a birth, and then having to make the long arduous trek up to show off her newborn to Queen Alicent after she demanded to see it (dick move, Alicent!) was a pretty effective way of showing just how tough Rhaenyra’s resolve was to let Alicent know who the TRUE badass out of the two of them was, and D’Arcy totally pulled it off (I was amused by Rhaenyra’s reactions to her hubby comparing childbirth to him getting a shoulder injury and asking if the birthing hurt - as if he wasn't already in the doghouse enough for naming their child after his mush-faced lover without her permission. Seriously, ANOTHER Joffrey?! That name should've died with Mushface! I was also amused later when she confessed to the King that she may have called the midwife a C-word). While I definitely preferred Milly Alcock in the role of Rhaenyra and the characterization from the earlier episodes, I thought that out of all the recastings, Emma D’Arcy was probably the ‘best’ and was believable as the younger badass Rhaenyra all grown up. While I’d known Olivia Cooke from other things (mainly the TV series Bates Motel) and had liked her in them, I can’t say I was really ‘wowed’ by her as Alicent. Yes, they gave her some pretty dramatic scenes to play (probably the most memorable one being when she let her true colours be seen by everyone, coming at Rhaenyra with a knife after wanting to take the eye of her son for reasons I'll get into shortly), and she certainly pulled them off when the occasion called for it, but I thought the ninth episode was THE MOST BORING episode of the season - which also happened to be the most Alicent-focused episode of the series, as she dealt with the King's passing. I'm afraid to say that she wasn’t enough to keep me enthralled in what was going on, and I was disappointed to see Emma D’Arcy & Matt Smith absent from the episode (though, thankfully, the tenth episode/season final featured them both and Alicent was the one who was absent). I was once again annoyed by the order of the names in the opening credits (though pleased to see they altered/changed them as the family tree grew, just like the opening credits used to change in GoT). I expected the cast names to be Paddy, Matt, Emma and then Olivia...but for some reason Olivia was before Emma. Once again I felt the names weren't in the 'correct' order (whereas the the names in GoT's opening credits usually made sense with regards to importance of the characters). I thought it was unintentionally funny how certain characters didn't seem to age while others did. All the kids grew up...but Daemon didn't look any older, and even more ridiculous was Criston Cole (having gotten off scot-free from committing murder in episode 5 - presumably Alicent had something to do with that) not looking like he'd aged a day. Has he been bathing in the blood of virgins or something? I think back to when I first saw the cast for this show and I assumed he'd be the 'Jon Snow' character (ie. the 'hot' guy who all the female audience members - and probably a few male ones too - swooned over, as he was the dashing hero type), but he actually ended up being the opposite of that and turned out to be a petty, backstabbing, rat bastard of a character who held a grudge for TEN YEARS against Rhaenyra for rejecting his laughable fantasy he'd imagined where she ran away with him. Even worse, he called her a C-word (which, thankfully, Alicent shot him look which clearly told him that while SHE could say all manner of things about her former BFF, she wouldn't tolerate someone like him saying such things) and he took his grudge against Rhaenyra out on her kids as well, basically being a bully towards them during sword training and egging Alicent's kids on to kick their arses. Too bad Graham McTavish's character handed in his resignation as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard (after Criston bashed an old dude's skull onto one of those little ball thingies each member of the small council has, killing the guy for daring to challenge Alicent), as now Ser Arsehole's in charge of the Kingsguard. He really is THE WORST and I hope he dies a slow/painful death next season. I also have to say I didn’t like ANY of the main characters' kids. They ALL annoyed me to varying degrees, with Alicent’s spawn easily being the worst. The oldest one (Aegon II) turned out to be nothing but a cocky drunk who pulled a Homelander out a window (presumably the same one that Tommen will take a nosedive out of in the future), and the actor who took over the role from the teenager version didn’t look anything like the previous actor to play the role - not even CLOSE! He also didn’t feel as though he’d be able to carry scenes by himself and was a very unimpressive actor, I thought. However, Alicent's second son (Aemond) was at least somewhat interesting, with him having been bullied by the other kids when he was younger, but also having the balls to claim the BIGGEST & OLDEST dragon (I was impressed with not only the size of it, but also how they showed its age) and losing an eye from fighting the combined efforts of Rhaenyra’s and Daemon’s spawn (I saw arguments for and against who was in the ‘wrong', but personally I think they *all* were to different degrees and no one was really ‘innocent’). The kid playing young Aemond was easily the best of the lot (though I was mildly intrigued by Alicent’s daughter, who seemed to have a thing for bugs, was weird and apparently could prophesize things - like Aemond losing an eye and thus becoming Eyepatch). Oh, and hey, good on Rhaenyra & Daemon for finally doing what they'd always wanted to (ie. get married) not long after Daemon's wife committed suicide via her dragon (which is how Eyepatch was able to claim it) and they faked the death of Rhaenyra's hubby (so he could go off with his new lover). Glad those two crazy/incesty kids worked it out! Luckily, the recasting of Eyepatch wasn’t such a fail as the recasting of Aegon II was, since the older actor to take over playing Eyepatch made quite the impression right from his very first appearance in the show...though it was distracting to me how much I thought he resembled Matt Smith (now that would've been a recasting that would've worked, with those two actors playing the same character since they actually *look* alike), and despite him being younger than Aegon II...he actually looked older - what was up with that? I'm also rather disturbed to hear that he already apparently has fanboys/fangirls (there's always those out there who love such types). Still, not even he could make the ninth episode compelling for me. So while he’s easily the ‘best’ of the younger generation of characters, he’s still not up to the same standard as Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy or Paddy Considine, imho. Speaking of the King, Paddy did a great job throughout the season, but especially when Viserys was literally falling apart. Yes, the effects/makeup helped...but his performance was really what sold it (and I liked the part with Daemon helping him/handing him his crown that had fallen off as he made that painful ascent to the Iron Throne, showing he *did* care for his brother despite all their arguments). I felt for Viserys, especially when he wanted his whole family to just get along...which they kind of did for a brief moment (it was nice to see the two former BFFs go from sitting as FAR away from each other as they could get to actually complimenting each other and seeming sincere in their civility towards one another) before he had to leave and then things descended into petty fighting between Rhaenyra’s and Alicent's spawn. Unfortunately, Viserys managed to make the most colossal cock-up of his life just as it finally came to an end, with him uttering the prophecy he’d told Rhaenyra when she was younger, but Alicent (the only one at his bedside) mistakenly thinking this meant he was saying HER oldest son should be King. Dang it, Viserys, you should’ve just kept your gnarly-toothed mouth SHUT and died in silence! Anyway, I can’t say there are very many characters outside of Rhaenyra and Daemon who interest me anymore. Shame those decent members of the Strong family got killed (meanwhile, the suckiest one of them - Larys - continues to draw breath, Grima Wormtonguing his was into Alicent’s favor, and most WTF-worthy of all: he apparently has a FOOT FETISH. That just felt SO out of place...yes, even though this show has dragons and incest, him jerking off to the sight of Alicent’s feet as he gave her information felt like the MOST out-of-place thing in the entire show. I can't express enough how much I LOATHED episode 9). While Rhaenyra’s kids didn’t leave much of an impression on me, at least they seemed a bit more decent than Alicent’s, and I *did* feel sorry for Rhaenyra at the end of the season final when Daemon brought her news that the younger of the two boys she sent out to secure herself allies had died thanks to Eyepatch wanting revenge against him for...well...making him become Eyepatch (when, really, he should've been THANKING him after having inexplicably gained a neat-looking glowy blue eye that makes him look 'cooler' than all the other kids) and his giant monster of a dragon chomping the kid’s much smaller grey dragon into pieces (I HATED watching Dany's dragons die in GoT, and while I wasn't as attached to this one...it still wasn't fun to watch. But the scene as a whole, set during stormy weather, was the standout one from the episode and probably the most exciting thing to happen onscreen since the last time jump). I was somewhat intrigued by both dragons seemingly disobeying their riders’ commands, with the grey one breathing fire at the giant one and then it munching in retaliation (I guess Eyepatch will have plausible deniability when he's accused of murder - "I didn't do it! My dragon did!"). Does this mean we’ll be seeing dragons disobeying their riders next season and turning on them? That’d at least be interesting. Once again Emma D’Arcy excelled at saying so much with just a facial expression, as the episode ended on Rhaenyra turning around after having received this devastating news and her face really said it all (wearing the colour green might mean a declaration of war as far as the Hightowers are concerned, but the look on Rhaenyra's face was when I really BELIEVED war was afoot - so props to Emma D’Arcy's for such a strong final shot to go out on at the end of the season). In what may be an 'unpopular' opinion, I thought the first five episodes showed promise that this series could feel ‘familiar’ and honour the original series whilst at the same time be its own thing, but I must admit my faith in the show was shaken somewhat by the back half of the season. I guess we’ll see what Season 2 is like, but I’m hoping it’ll be more up to the standard of the first five episodes’ quality and less of the next five. I'd also like to convey my annoyance at the lack of cast commentaries and other extra features we used to get with the DVDs/GoT Blu-rays. While the DVD/Blu-ray release for this show *did* have some extras, it seemed like only half of what we got with the GoT releases. I sure hope they weren't holding off including the rest on a future re-release of the season. I HATE re-releases of TV show seasons! Such an obvious cash-grab.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 13, 2023 6:29:08 GMT -5
Finished Season 4 of Outlander on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}I’d actually bought this AGES ago (same with Season 5), but hadn’t gotten around to watching it until this year (after finishing Season 1 of House of the Dragon). My putting off watching this season of the show wasn’t due to me not-liking the series...far from it. In fact, I think part of the reason was BECAUSE I enjoyed this show so much, I kept wanting to ‘save it for later’ and that just kept pushing my viewing of it further and further back until I recently bought Season 6 (when there was a bargain on during Boxing Day of last year). Now having Seasons 4-6 of the show without watching any of them, I finally decided it was probably time I got on that. It’d been quite a while since I watched Season 3 (actually, I think I rewatched it, as I’d watched it for the first time by myself and then watched it again with other people), so I needed a bit of a refresher on what happened at the end of that season. I have to admit, the Season 4 premiere kind of bored me for the most part. It wasn’t that there was a lot of ‘talky’ scenes (I was riveted throughout Season 1 during all the talking scenes, so I *can* be enthralled...so long as they actually interest me), but I just didn’t find much interesting stuff in this season’s first episode. Most of note was a prisoner who’d escaped hanging (which a friend of Jaime’s did not and he had to witness...because neither Jaime nor Claire can go without suffering for very long in this show) and was helped by Claire/Jamie...which came back to bite them in the arse at the end when he and his goons beat up Jaime, robbed them (including stealing one of Claire’s wedding rings - the one Jaime had given her - after she attempted to save both by swallowing them) and killed another friend of Jamie’s (lesson to be learned here: don't befriend Jamie. It's a death sentence). THIS is what you get for *helping* people, Frasers! Just stop! I spent the whole scene worried about the wolfy-looking dog Young Ian had saved - which was shown in an extra on the Blu-rays called ‘Outlander Untold’ - by winning him at a game of dice (the poor animal’s cruel former master talked of not only starving him, but that he was going to SKIN him if he lost the dog fight he was going to be forced into, but luckily Ian caught the bastard cheating and used that against him to win the pooch and thanks to the ‘lucky roll of the dice’, he named him Rollo). This was actually my favourite part of the episode - Ian & Rollo and the start of their beautiful friendship...which wasn’t even *in* the actual episode itself (all that was shown was Ian suddenly having a dog and giving Claire/Jamie the gist of what how this had come to pass) , which tells you how unimpressed I was by the premiere. Rollo proved himself a good doggie by attacking one of the bad guys and knocking them overboard (I still worried about him even though I’d been told he survived). Can’t say I was that interested in what the Frasers got up to in the following bunch of episodes this season either. I was actually more curious about what had been happening with Brianna (Claire & Jamie's daughter, still stuck in the future) and Roger. They hadn’t seen each other in quite some time (I vaguely recalled the episode last season where they spent Christmas together - though that's mainly because I remember Bree looked cute in her Santa hat), it was a ‘long distance relationship’ of sorts between them, they were getting along fine, playing car games, going to Scottish festivals and having a portrait of themselves drawn, but everything went to hell (which is what usually happens in this show whenever any of the characters are actually happy) as they were getting hot n’ heavy and Roger interrupted sexytimes, walking off (I felt for Brianna, sitting there on the floor in her underwear and watching Roger get up to leave - all sorts of thoughts must've been going through her head...none of them good) - only for him to return to PROPOSE to her with a bracelet that had the inscription "I love you a little, a lot, passionately, not at all" on the inside of it. She tells him to slow his roll (not in a nasty way, it must be made clear, but in a 'letting him down gently' manner) and that things are moving too fast/she's not ready to be married, but he remains stubborn about it and is in the mindset that it’s 'all or nothing with him', then he turns into a real bastard by saying he could’ve had her on her back a dozen times last summer, which earns him a well-deserved slap (she even draws blood!), and he’s basically slut-shaming her because she wanted to have sex without marriage and he actually says these two things to her: “If you don't care enough to marry me, I don't care enough to have you in my bed.” and "I will love and have all of you, or not at all." (she even makes it clear to him that she's not saying 'no' to mariage forever, but just right now...yet he won't have it - which is really a red flag, the fact that he's giving her an ultimatum, essentially saying 'Marry me RIGHT NOW or we're over'). Naturally, this puts a damper on their whole relationship. It was quite shocking to me, seeing Roger be an a-hole to Bree after he’d seemed like such a decent/likeable guy when we first met him in the Season 2 final (though I couldn’t really recall much from Season 3 with them). While all this^ was happening, Claire/Jamie/Ian/Rollo went to stay at Jamie’s Aunt Jocasta’s plantation where Claire (being Claire), made her feelings regarding Jocasta owning slaves quite clear. She then attempted to save a slave who was being hung up on a hook after he'd retaliated against the person who'd been whipping him, bringing him into Jocasta's house didn't go well, an angry mob came for him and Claire was forced to break her Hippocratic Oath (not for the first time since the show began) and ease his suffering by giving him something to make his passing as painless as possible before the angry mob dragged his lifeless body across the ground and strung it up. As you'd expect, after this Claire/Jamie/Ian hightailed it out of there and sought out a place far away from there to make their home. Other things going on included Claire encountering an Indian’s ghost after discovering (and keeping) his skull, Jamie killing a bear-man and thus being allowed to build a home on Indian land, Claire befriending the Indians’ healer woman and then her subsequently getting murdered/scalped by an angry German (lesson #2: don't befriend Claire. It's also a death sentence) who thought her people were to blame for his daughter and her child getting measles/dying (I spent the whole episode worried vengeful German guy would hurt Rollo, as he was the only one at home with Claire since Jamie was off reuniting with Murtagh. Instead, Claire just received the WORST GIFT EVER from the German, who presented her with her friend's scalp - though he paid for his crimes, as did his wife, when the Indians got their revenge by shooting up their place with flaming arrows, killing them both), Lord John Grey showing up with Jamie’s bastard son (who was the result of Jamie being forced by that woman, Geneva, to have sex with him last season before she died. The kid was such an annoying entitled ponce, but Jamie bonded with him and the kid did slightly redeem himself when he was willing to accept the punishment from the Indians that they were going to take out on Jamie when the disobedient little shit crossed into Indian land despite Jamie’s earlier warnings) and Claire/LJG sized each other up in regards to them both having been important parts of Jamie’s life, getting to spend time with him that the other didn’t (ie. Claire is his soulmate and has a daughter with him, but LJG was with Jamie for that period of time Claire went back to the future and he also took care of Jamie’s bastard, raising him). It became quite clear LJG only showed up to rub in Claire’s face the time he’d had with Jamie that she hadn’t, but in the end she WON...er...they come to an ‘understanding’. Meanwhile, after their fight, Roger discovered that Bree’s parents were going to die in a fire thanks to an old newspaper article, he hesitated to inform her of this, but then by the time he eventually got around to doing so, it was too late and she'd already discovered this news herself and was going back in time to prevent this event from occurring, leaving Roger with just a letter (that’s what you get for being a DICK, Rog!) that he wasn’t meant to open until a year later but the messenger she left it with to give to him didn’t do her job properly. I’d known for years now that both Bree and Roger would be travelling back in time, so that was no surprise. What WAS a surprise, however, was after Bree went through the stones (we didn't really get to see her reaction to experiencing this whole time travel thing firsthand. Sure, she'd believed time travel was real for some time now, but to actually go through it herself was something I thought we'd at least get to spend some time seeing her react to - but nope), it took her not very long to injure herself, she fell asleep as she was reaching civilisation, and who rescued her/took her in? Laoghaire! Yes, that Jamie-obsessed bitch who tried to have Claire burned as a witch all the way back in Season 1. It was interesting seeing Laoghaire actually be DECENT to Bree, acting like a normal sane human being for a while...though that was only because she’d didn’t know of her relation to Claire. As soon as that was revealed, then the old Crazypants Laoghaire we all know was unleashed (people gave Brianna crap for not keeping her mouth shut, but considering that Laoghaire called her mother a whore - among other things - I didn't blame her for not being able to restrain herself and blurting out the Jamie never loved the psycho bitch) and this led to Bree getting herself locked in her room by the nutbar who was still spouting crap about Claire being a witch and her daughter being no different since Bree had alluded to her trying to prevent her parents dying in a fire that hadn't yet happened (that was her one real mistake). Despite telling Roger not to follow her, he ignored this and went back through the stones as well, got himself involved with a pirate crew (which just so happened to be captained by the bad guy, Bonnet, who had robbed Claire/Jamie in the first episode), he eventually reunited with Bree, but due to his manhandling her, a girl named Lizzie (who had become Bree's travelling companion after her father had begged Bree to save his daughter from becoming someone's ‘concubine’) misconstrued their relationship, thinking Roger was abusive towards Brianna (people gave Brianna shit for not telling Lizzie what her relationship with Roger was...but he didn't exactly give her the chance to, since he grabbed her/hauled her away when they were arguing. Seriously, Roger, quit being so controlling!), then after Roger & Bree got ‘hand-fasted’ (ie. shotgun married of sorts, Scottish-style) and finally had sex, he let slip he’d kept the news of Bree’s parents dying in a fire from her and this led to another big fight between them, he asked her if she wanted him to leave and she said no one was stopping him (Roger, you dope, this was obviously a TEST. You should've stayed), then she encountered Bonnet (trying to buy her mother’s ring back that he’d stolen after asking about her) and this led to the very unpleasant-to-watch scene of him raping her (I will give the show credit for not focusing on showing too much of the actual act itself and instead showing the bar full of patrons blatantly ignoring her screams for help as it happened. I've seen this show called 'Rapelander' by some, and I do see their point considering Claire, Jamie, Mary from Season 2, Fergus, Ian and now Brianna have ALL been raped - that's a heck of a lot of characters we've met, most of whom know each other. It was nice to see Jamie comfort Ian in the premiere when he was experiencing traumatising flashbacks of his own rape at the hands of Geillis Duncan last season when she forced him to perform acts he didn't wish to partake in against his will). I know a certain percentage of Outlander fans have made it quite clear they’re not fond of Sophie Skelton who plays Brianna, but I personally have never had a problem with her (or her American accent - actually, I think it's the fact her character has an American accent that makes her stand out from the rest of the cast. Of course she's not going to sound 'quite right' when everyone else has Scottish/English accents. It makes her American accent sound 'odd' in comparison) and I thought she especially delivered in selling the trauma Bree went through. There’s some boring shit with Roger stuck on a boat working for Bonnet...that is until he tosses a girl overboard for having smallpox (her mother jumps after all and they both presumably drown) and Roger’s done with Bonnet after that (he manages to get a couple of gems before he leaves, which are required when going through the stones apparently - something I must've forgotten about - as he clearly intends to find Brianna and take them both back home to their time). Much more interesting is Brianna FINALLY meeting her biological father (in an earlier episode this season we'd seen how she didn’t take the news of Frank wanting to divorce Claire so well and her final words to the man who'd raised her were ones of anger, which she obviously regretted since he went off to die in a car crash). I hadn’t been spoiled for the meeting of father/daughter, so I was totally shocked to see she caught him in the middle of taking a piss (I immediately laughed whilst exclaiming “Oh, shit!” to myself as the scene slowly unfolded onscreen). Both Sam Heughan and Sophie Skelton did a really nice job of selling all the emotions their characters were feeling as they met for the first time (if you don’t wish to ruin the lovely moment for yourself when watching, just don’t think too hard or you’ll be grossing yourself out when you realise that Jamie touched his daughter's face after he’d just been touching his dong whilst peeing...and NOT WASHED HIS HANDS). The reunion with Claire and Bree was also well-done (Caitriona Balfe always brings it whenever Claire gets emotional), and I liked how Ian just took this introduction to a new family member popping up out on nowhere in his stride (not asking questions, like he said). It was nice seeing Brianna get accustomed to the time period she was living in, meeting Ian and later Murtagh, farming with her parents and such. She also bonded with Jamie, eventually learning that 'Bree' was a Scots Gaelic word that meant “a disturbance.” which he was hesitant to share with her, but shared with Claire, as he didn't want to ruin things between him and Bree as they were just getting to know each other as father and daughter, but Claire encouraged him to talk to her and he told her, asking if he could call her 'Bree' and she seemed cool with it. That was a nice father/daughter moment. Eventually Bree told Claire (who told Jamie, despite Bree making her promise not to) about her rape and the fact that she was now preggers with a child that might not have been Roger’s. Jamie's way of showing his daughter that she couldn’t have possibly fought off her rapist (when she kept voicing the guilt she felt about not fighting him more than she did), goading her into trying to fight him as he grabbed her (saying things like she lied about the rape or asked for it) was some real ‘tough love’ on Jamie’s part, though she eventually realised what he was doing and then she asked him about his own rape by Black Jack Randall and he talked to her about how he surrendered himself to his rapist/didn't fight him in order to save Claire (and he'd do it again). Everything was fine for a while (Ian even developed a little crush on Bree) until Roger turned up around the same time that Claire figured out Bree's rapist was Bonnet (when she discovered her wedding ring amongst Brianna's things, after Bonnet 'paid her what he owed'). Thanks to Lizzie (who, really, is the main one to blame here), Jamie and Ian were led to believe that Roger was Bree’s rapist (since the last time Lizzie had seen him, he was being rough with Brianna and then the next time she saw her was after she’d been raped). Due to neither Jamie nor Ian ever getting the name of the rapist (it must be pointed out that Claire couldn't have told them it was Bonnet since she hadn't known and the reason Bree hadn't said it was him was because she knew how guilty they'd feel about letting Bonnet go free - plus Ian had told her of Bonnet robbing them, so she knew what they'd already been through with him) and not knowing what Roger looked like, Jamie proceeded to beat him into unconsciousness before he could even finish a sentence and then handed him off to Ian to dispose of when they were interrupted by passersby. Naturally, Bree eventually learned what of this colossal cock-up/misunderstanding and let them all have it, telling Lizzie she *should* be sorry (after she apologised to Bree for setting all this in motion), slapping Jamie (when he assumed she'd made up the whole being raped thing) and then slapping Ian after learning he'd sold Roger to the Mohawk (I find it morbidly amusing how when she slaps people – in this case Ian - more often than not she manages to draw blood. She's got a mean right hook). When Claire looked to Brianna for permission to inform Jamie that Bonnet was their daughter's rapist, Jamie reacted by violently knocking over a chair and Brianna told him he did NOT get to be more angry about this than her (which I thought was a really stand-out moment from her during the fight). While Bree could’ve eventually forgiven Jamie for what he did to Roger, what she was really holding a grudge about was him thinking she’d lied about being raped and saying things that were really hurtful before she made clear that Roger and her rapist were TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE/Jaime beat up the wrong man. He, of course, felt awful afterwards (and I did feel sorry for Ian, who had just been following Jamie’s instructions. It’s a shame this messed up Bree's relationship with both Jamie and Ian), but I didn’t hate Bree for her anger towards them. Nor did I blame her or Claire for what occurred since Bree was sure Roger had journeyed back home through the stones after their last fight and had no reason to think he was still around the place, and Claire didn't ever have time to tell Jamie that Bonnet was the rapist before he beat up Roger (since she only learned this news whilst the beatdown was occurring). I saw some people blaming the two women while trying to absolve the two guys...and that’s just NOT how things went down. Anyway, the rest of the episodes were devoted to Claire, Jamie and Ian attempting to track down the Mohawk and get Roger back from them whilst Brianna stayed with Jocasta since she was going to give birth before her parents returned and couldn't stay at home with just Lizzie and Murtagh. I must say, I found everything to do with Roger (his enslavement, torture, etc) kind of dragged and I wasn’t really that interested (with the most Roger-centric episode of the season being the most boring episode of the whole season). Thankfully, by the season final, they found Roger - though bargaining for his return didn’t exactly go according to plan, as although Jamie offered to stay in his place, in the end it was Ian who did (he’d shown an interest in the Indians/their way of living throughout the season, had learned their language and even traded with them, so he knew them better than Jamie or Claire did). All three actors did a good job with the goodbye scene between Jamie/Claire and Ian (though I was sad to see Rollo didn’t get a goodbye from them and I hoped he was soon let off the leash that the Mohawk had used to restrain him). The gauntlet, involving Mohawk lined up on two sides and their prisoner forced to walk between them, taking beatings until they reached the end of it (which Roger had failed miserably at), ended up being something Ian was quite adept at maneuvering through and this earned him a place among the tribe (they probably thought he was quite the upgrade from ‘Dogface’ - a name they’d given Roger due to his beard - since they gained someone who wasn’t completely useless...plus an actual dog. What a bargain!). Bree finally had her kid (there’d been a whole side-plot with her asking blackmailing LJG - who she met and later saw screwing a guy in plain view - to marry her, but this was just a delay tactic until Roger was returned to her since Jocasta had insisted on her being married due to what having a child with no husband would do for her reputation. I was surprised to see Pippin from the LotR appear as one of Brianna’s potential suiters who she had absolutely no interest in). When news reached her of her parents having returned, she seemed pretty heartbroken that Roger didn't appear to be with them. Prior to this, after Claire/Jamie got him back in the exchange for Ian, Roger returned the favour for Jamie beating him up by dishing out his own beating...which was pretty lame, since he had one arm in a sling. Jamie allowed it…up to a point, but then made it clear to Roger that he better have been sure he wanted to return with them/be a husband to Bree/be a father to the child that may well not have been his. They argued, Claire played peacekeeper and Roger said he needed time to process/think (just as well Claire was there). All the actors did a good job in this scene, I thought, as much came out into the open. By the end of the episode, Bree spotted Roger approaching the plantation from afar with her eagle vision she did a dramatic running into his arms (which some complained about being 'cheesy' or whatever...but given everything they'd been through, I think they'd earned themselves a little cheese [insert Bree/Brie joke here]). Roger made it clear he was willing to raise the child (that mightn’t be his) with her when he asked to be taken to his son. Murtagh and Jocasta argued with each other...then predictably slept together. Everyone was happy for a while, but then Jamie was issued with an order by the Governor to hunt down/take out Murtagh, leader of the ‘Regulators’ who opposed his unfair taxes (when they thought the redcoats who turned up had come for Murtagh and he was told to hide, it was funny seeing Jamie and Claire's reactions to Murtagh and Jocasta seemingly having a 'thing' going on between them). This wasn't exactly a a nail-biting cliffhanger ending like the first two seasons had (I thought Season 3's, like this season's, was pretty ho-hum). We *know* Jamie's not going to kill his godfather, Murtagh. I can’t say I was into this season as much as the previous ones...though, to be fair, I don’t really even remember that much about Season 3 since it’s the season I’ve rewatched the least. Whereas I've rewatched Season 1 the most and it easily remains the BEST season of the show thus far, the quality of which I don’t feel has been matched since. Season 2 wasn’t quite as good, but still had some decent stuff. As I said, Season 3 is foggy in my memory. I think Season 4 took a while to get going and there was some boring stuff with Roger - this season really did his character no favours in my eyes (which sucks since I’d liked him previously). On the flipside of that, this season did a good job of making me grow to like Ian as a character. He’s just such an hard-not-to-like kind of guy, nice/kind, enthusiastic, easy to talk to (though willing to fight/kill when necessary). Rollo was, of course, the MVP this season as far as I'm concerned. I didn’t hate Brianna like so many others seemed to, but I did wish she could just have some more moments of happiness with her family and not so much angst. Claire and Jamie are still what anchors this show and I was annoyed when they were missing from a couple of episodes this season (which hadn’t happened in the previous three seasons). On the whole, I’d say there was some really good stuff mixed in with some pretty average stuff this season...but even at its 'worst', Outlander is still better than the majority of things on TV at the moment.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 19, 2023 6:05:56 GMT -5
Finished Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}I bought this a LONG time ago, and I can’t recall if I ever watched it (I might’ve started and then stopped partway through). Anyway, I decided it was time to give the show a rewatch as it had been so long since I originally watched it on TV when it originally aired. While there was certain stuff I remembered, there was quite a bit I'd apparently forgotten. For example, I’d forgotten that Daisy Skye was just a hacker chick in Season 1 until we were introduced to her in the first episode. Having gotten used to her being an action chick in later seasons, it was weird going back to her being the person who'd sit out of fights/mostly remained behind a computer. Luckily, it wasn’t long before Skye got to be out on a mission, which she handled fairly well given her newbishness in the field. I was also glad that it didn’t take forever for Skye’s secret to be revealed. They’d made it seem like she was a double agent is was working against S.H.I.E.L.D., and once she was found out, the team understandably felt betrayed, but it wasn't quite what we thought. In the end the main thing we learned about her was that she didn’t know her family, was dumped as an infant and Coulson (despite her betrayal) made it his mission to help her find out about her parents - though then when he eventually *did* find out some info, he hid it from her for a while...thus showing he was a bit of a hypocrite (and this wouldn’t be the last time we saw evidence of this). I know some people didn’t like Skye early in the show, but I never really had a problem with her. I do think they were trying a bit hard to have her sound ‘Whedonesque’ with her dialogue - and, yes, part of the reason for that would be that two Whedons - one being Joss - were creators of the show), but it just didn’t feel entirely ‘natural’. Also, the ‘subverting expectations’ (that Joss was so fond of) had gotten to the stage where it’d become somewhat predictable. So when Skye was crapping on about her Rising Tide hacker group and how they could never be found or whatever, as the music swelled, you just knew that she would be discovered – and, sure enough, Ward and Coulson opened up her van, interrupting her mid-speech. I think the fact the show was obviously trying so hard to be ‘classic Joss’ is maybe what turned off some people. Anyway, it didn’t really bother me that much and I actually enjoyed the early episodes (whereas most seemed to think that the first season didn’t ‘get good’ until the episode which tied in with Captain America and the Winter Soldier). I’d forgotten that Agent Grant Ward wasn’t too fond of Skye to begin with, and somehow I also forgot this amusing part: While I didn’t mind the early episodes of Season 1 (I think I maybe skipped one of the really early episodes and another episode later into the season because I vaguely recalled them being pretty boring/lame), for me personally the show didn’t really show that it was capable of telling a truly compelling episode until the sixth one (titled ‘FZZT’ - which, for those who wondered about its relevance to the episode, I’m pretty sure was the meant to be the word for the zapping sound made by an object which caused people and the things around them float...before they died). Up until this one, the characters of Fitz & Simmons had just been these couple of scientist characters who were presented/thought of as being like ONE character (hence the the joining of their names to make ‘FitzSimmons’. I imagine the writers of the first episode probably thought they were being clever and that it’d be a ‘big reveal’ when this character referred to as ‘Fitzsimmons’ turned out to be two separate people...but, really, I think the biggest reaction it would've elicited would've been something along the lines of "...Huh."). And while they were fun in the first five episodes, what this sixth episode did was not only give us some much-needed depth to both, but also gave Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge’s a chance to really show off their acting chops, as they got to do more than just play the ‘technobabble’ aspect of their characters and displayed some real emotion in the dramatic scenes they shared (and this was just the tip of the iceberg as far as us seeing the level of their acting talent). I think I’d become fond of Simmons as early as the first episode of the series (when she “Awwed" at one of their little flying contraptions, which they’d named after the Seven Dwarves). Between that episode and this one, she’d endeared herself to me quite a bit, so I was already pretty attached to her character - as I'm sure many others were as well - and this was what was needed in order for this episode’s ‘stakes’ to work, since the character of Simmons seemed to be on the chopping block. It explains why they took their time getting to this story, as it wouldn’t have had as much impact if people hadn’t grown to care about her and it had happened in one of the first few episodes. By waiting, they ensured that people *did* come to care about Simmons. Plus, I think the episode played into Joss Whedon's reputation/being known for killing off beloved characters in his shows (especially at surprising times) and they knew that people would be fearing he’d off someone they’d become fond of - which helped sell the moment when Simmons seemingly committed suicide by willingly falling out of the plane that they all apparently live on (think of the cost of fuel when it seems to always be flying!). Was Ward jumping after her, managing to get a parachute on himself and also somehow catching up to her despite her head-start somewhat cheesy/unbelievable? Maybe, but I bought into it because I *cared* about Simmons being saved (and considering the budget the show had at the time, it was a pretty well-done sequence. Then again, the quality of the effects on the show never really bugged me like they apparently did for some people, as I don’t expect the average TV series to have a movie-level budget). Apart from my relief that Simmons was saved (despite Coulson yelling at her, it was clear he cared about her when he said they’d hate to lose her - Clark Gregg was good at the subtle stuff), one other thing I really liked about this episode was that it included some humour that actually worked (whereas some of what had come before, as well as some of what came after, didn’t always work/could sometimes ‘miss’ as often as it ‘hit’). I LOVED Fitz & Simmons’ impressions of Ward, imitating his kind of stiff, soldier type persona. I actually got a good laugh out of this, and best of all it allowed Brett Dalton to make fun of himself near the end when Ward did his own impression of himself (it’s actually quite impressive once you know what his character’s really all about after the ‘twist’ that comes late into the season). While this^ episode seemed to be a Simmons-centric one, what came next was a Fitz-centric episode...which I wasn’t as fussed on. It seemed to mainly be about building the Fitz/Ward friendship which took some doing, since Fitz was kind of bugging the crap out of Ward whilst in the field on a mission (though NOTHNIG excuses Ward tossing away the special sandwich Simmons had made for Fitz - you arshole, Ward!). While I got the ‘point’ of this relationship-building, I just didn’t find it as compelling (or funny) as the Simmons episode. However, things got good again when we started delving more into how Coulson was saved from his death in the first Avengers movie. We’d kept hearing about ‘Tahiti’ and knew something was really off when he’d always respond to it being mentioned with “It’s a magical place” (in an automatic kind of way). I definitely remembered the reveal of him having his brain exposed as hi-tech robotics worked away on it (though had forgotten that he was begging for death and that Skye found him). I also remembered Ron Glass from Firefly making a couple of appearance as a doctor who played a role in Coulson coming back to life (and he wasn't the only castmember from a previous Whedon series to make a guest-appearance in this show, as J. August Richards and Amy Acker from the BtVS spin-off, Angel, both played important roles in this season - though the former was a recurring character whilst the latter was just in the one episode). I think that the series did a decent job of ‘earning’ Coulson’s miraculous coming-back-from-the-dead. Like, it wasn’t easy. Making him go through all that pain/suffering and the lasting effects it had on him ensured that one couldn’t simply say, “Oh, he was dead and then came back to life like it was no big thing.” - it was a BIG thing and the reveal of how it happened was a story arc that took up at least half the season, then it remained important until the very end of the season. I liked when the show started trying different things, such as the episode that played out on a train, showing us the different characters’ POV’s (where an event happened, and we saw it play out over and over, but saw it from each character’s perspective each time). This was the episode that featured the requisite Stan Lee cameo. I enjoyed the fact that Simmons being a terrible liar (but GREAT at preparation) was an ongoing character trait with her (which allowed for some good humour. Speaking of humour, there was also a funny scene featuring Ward & Coulson trying to work the ‘holotable’ that Fitz & Simmons always made look so easy) and it was an episode that showed just how badass Melinda May could be, as she was put through the wringer and yet STILL managed to take out multiple bad guys. This is probably a good point to mention how utterly awesome Ming-Na Wen was as Agent May. She quickly established herself as the most badass member of the team and although she had a tough exterior and showed very little emotion early on, we saw that she did care about the team and there was a lot going on underneath her steely glances and seemingly grumpy attitude. I think it became clear how much May cared about the team when Skye got shot TWICE (that was an effective moment, as it was actually shocking...especially the second shot. Although most probably expected her to survive - though I think some were hoping she wouldn't - the way they played it was still impactful, especially everyone’s reactions to it. Elizabeth Henstridge in particular totally sold Simmons’ sadness over someone who she’d become friends with coming close to dying, but thankfully she was the quick-thinker who helped save Skye...though that stuff from the alien torso Coulson discovered also had something to do with Skye’s survival and we learned it was what helped bring Coulson back too. Speaking of, while I personally though Coulson was probably the least interesting character in the main cast and oftentimes he showed about as much emotion as May did, when they really started uncovering what had happened to him, it gave Clark Gregg a chance to show some real emotion and he pulled it off well). One episode that I always fondly remembered from the first season was the one which featured Lady Sif from the Thor films making a cameo. I felt her character (and the actress who portrayed her, Jaimie Alexander) was underused in the films and I was so happy to see her have an expanded role in this episode of AoS. It was fun seeing her interact with everyone, her reaction to Coulson (or ‘Philip, son of Coul’ as she called him) being alive again, and her one-on-one talk with May regarding what the baddie of the episode (another Asgardian by the name of Lorelai played by Elena Satine, who I know from quite a few things) could do - ie. enslave men with her voice, and if that didn’t work...her touch (it was interesting that Ward was able to resist her voice and only became her bitch once she touched him). I also enjoyed seeing Sif kick major arse, her one-on-one fight with Lorelai and hearing the backstory between their characters (honestly, I would’ve been happy with a whole episode devoted to just that - it's a shame we only got to hear about it). It was kind of funny how nonchalant Coulson was about Sif getting sucked out of the plane by the whammied Ward, while Skye and Simmons thought it meant Sif was a goner. One thing I didn’t realise until I read about it online was that Ward still pulled the trigger on his gun he had aimed at May’s head (after they’d fought each other in spectacular fashion) even once Lorelai had been gagged by that collar Sif brought which nullified her powers (so Ward was trying to kill May even when he was back to ‘normal’ - this was a nice little clue as to Ward’s true self before we got to the actual ‘big reveal’ episode). Just as well May had taken his ammo during their fight. As for the actual episode that revealed Ward’s true allegiance, I recall being pretty shocked when the episode originally aired, as I’m pretty sure I wasn’t spoiled for it. I was sad to see Victoria Hand (Saffron Burrows) get offed, as I’d enjoyed her character (sure, she could be stern and seemingly not very fun, but as she proved with her ‘test’ of Simmons and Trip - another agent who joined the show when Bill Paxton’s mentor character to Ward and old friend of Coulson's, John Garrett, was introduced - to see whether the two of them were Hydra, she knew how to do her job). I think things actually started ramping up *before* this episode, and then the real payoff happened after it. Ward turning out to bad reminded me of Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He’d started off as a pretty ‘serious’ character who didn’t really give much away emotion-wise and who some people apparently didn’t think much of in regards to his acting, but then him losing his soul happened and we met Angelus which allowed David Boreanaz to let loose and really step up his game, showing that he did have pretty good acting chops. With Ward, I felt similarly that his character being revealed as a part of Hydra allowed Brett Dalton to really tap into other layers of his character, showing depth we hadn’t seen up to that point. However, I never found him 'dull'/'boring' even when he was 'good' Ward. I thought Dalton made him likeable enough, even when he could be a bit of a jerk at times. Once the reveal happened, I think some people wondered if he was a legit baddie or pretending or brainwashed, and I find it funny that it took several episodes for some to work out he REALLY WAS BAD (and not in that ‘redeemable’ sort of way some assumed - or hoped - he would be). I did like the fact that even after the reveal of his villainousness, we got to see him still playing the ‘good guy’ to the team (there was a fun interrogation scene and I thought everyone’s answers perfectly summed up their characters). I do think the show ‘treaded water’ for a bit until everyone found out about Ward, starting with Skye who was the first to learn he was a baddie (when she stumbled upon the corpse of Patton Oswalt’s character, who Ward had killed). I did feel as though they were stretching things out until they got to the season final, though there was some good stuff that happened before it. We had some funny moments like with Coulson and May posing as basically Fitz and Simmons, then there was the dramatic reaction from Fitz to learning Ward (who he thought he’d bonded with) was a villain (though, really, the sandwich–throwing incident should’ve been your first clue he was no good, Fitz). While I understood his reaction, he did become rather annoying how he was continually living in denial whilst everyone around him (including Simmons) was telling him that Ward was REALLY REAL BAD ( FOR REALSIES). One things I did enjoy in the last few episodes of the season was Cobie Smudlers returning as Agent Maria Hill (after having only previously appeared in the show during the first episode). She does SO much with the role, managing to make Hill awesome/badass, funny, but not without her flaws, as we see her make mistakes. I especially liked her standing up to Ward after he resorted to insulting her looks (which seems to be the go-to move for any guy who gets called out on their shit by a female), saying basically that Fury should’ve kept Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow around as ‘eye candy’ instead of Hill (this just showed how lame and pathetic Ward was). Something else it was good to see again was Coulson’s flying car, Lola, actually...you know... flying (which was another thing we hadn’t seen since the first episode of the show, and I realise that was probably because of budget...but still, having a flying car that hardly ever flew seemed rather pointless). I enjoyed the sequence with him and Skye plummeting to Earth in the car and seeing the result it had on Skye’s hair after they'd safely landed. While I had enjoyed the character of Garrett (Bill Paxton - RIP - managed to bring a *lot* to the character), I thought that they did a major disservice to him in the season final when he was ‘going crazy’ from having the stuff injected into him that had saved Coulson and Skye. They had him spouting all this stereotypical villain crap and he was no longer entertaining like he'd once been. I also thought his final demise could’ve been played a bit better than it was. Yes, they went for the classic Whedon joke of a villain rambling on only to be cut off (in this case he was obliterated by some gizmo Coulson found), but I just thought it was a bit random. Coulson turns up, zaps the shit out of Garrett and acts like nothing happened. Were we to believe he didn’t see/hear Garrett monologuing and his killing him was purely an accident? Or was it that he *did* see/hear him, but then just killed him without even reacting to doing so? It was weird, and this wasn’t the first time I felt that if Joss had been the one directing, he would’ve refined the ‘joke’ a bit. I found throughout the season that various writers seemed to want to channel Joss’s particular style of writing/humour...but only succeeded about half the time. I actually felt the season final was a bit uneven and could’ve been more than it was. The most important part, of course, was Fitz & Simmons stuck at the bottom of the ocean in a section that had been jettisoned out of the plane they’d trapped themselves inside when trying to escape Ward. Obviously they’d thought they were safe in that little room, but despite Fitz attempting to appeal to Ward’s ‘humanity’ (bringing up their friendship and such), it did no good and he dumped them in the ocean - there was parallel drawn between him doing this to them and what we saw via flashback with Garrett coming to Ward when he was younger, bringing him into Hydra, leaving him on his own in the middle of nowhere to fend for himself for many months and then telling him to KILL the cute chocolate Labrador named Buddy who’d been Ward’s only companion for that period of time Garrett left him. I HATE whenever animals are killed in shows/movies, so watching Ward point the gun at poor ol’ Buddy’s face was upsetting enough. Sure, he fired the gun into the air, sending Buddy off running away...but then we got a shot of someone watching Buddy flee through the sight of a sniper rifle and the pooch’s fate was left ambiguous (well, at least until the Season 2 final when Ward confirms he *did* in fact shoot poor Buddy - Ward, you arsehole!). While Fitz had a crush on Skye during the early episodes of the season (which I'd totally forgotten about), it soon became clear that he and Simmons were 'endgame'. Being trapped underwater, Fitz allowing Simmons to be the one to get to the surface with oxygen (since she was the 'better swimmer' according to him) and this resulting in him being without oxygen for a period, which affected his brain was just the first in MANY trials & tribulations they would both have to deal with throughout this series. Once again, Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge showed they were two of the 'stronger' members of the cast during their scenes in this episode. As I previously mentioned, while other people were shitting on this show during Season 1 (up until the Winter Soldier tie-in episode, anyway), I really enjoyed it and felt that it stood apart from other superhero shows mainly thanks to the interesting characters and the actors who played them, as I felt they 'elevated' the material. What I really liked about this first season was the building of a 'family' dynamic. When the show started, it took some time to get a 'feel' for these characters (other than Coulson, of course, who we already knew from the MCU - though we didn't even know that much about him either) and really show how they could work as a team. While this first season did have some ‘rough patches’, I appreciated the ‘simplicity’ of it (as I know it’ll just keep getting more and more complex as the series goes on) and thought that it really wasn’t that bad.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jan 22, 2023 19:03:24 GMT -5
Finished Season 1 of Upright on DVD. I wasn’t even aware of this show until I read that it was something Milly Alcock had starred in before she scored the role of young Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon. If it was ever on TV here, then I must’ve missed it. After watching her in HotD, I became a fan of her and decided to check whether the show was released on DVD here. Luckily there was a copy left, so I grabbed it. I didn’t really know what the show was about other than it was supposedly a ‘road trip’ type of series and also starred Tim Minchin. One comment I read about this series summed it up as ‘The best thing Tim Minchin has ever done’. My assessment of him up until this point might have been somewhat unfair, since I’d only seen him in a couple of things/heard some of his music...none of which really impressed me. However, just getting to see Milly Alcock in the role she had before her face was plastered everywhere to promote HotD was enough to get me to buy this show. Things I liked:Milly Alcock, obviously. Her character of Meg is someone we first meet when Minchin’s character, Lucky, accidentally crashes into her truck as he’s pulling back onto the road. The first thing we hear from her is expletive-laden abuse towards Lucky (which is understandable, given he could’ve killed her - even if it was an accident). Usually I’m not particularly fond of foul-mouthed youths, as they tend to irritate the hell out of me, but within the first episodes I came to like Meg and that was mainly thanks to Milly Alcock’s performance. Her insults towards Lucky could’ve gotten old/annoying real quick, but the writing (which supplied Milly with some imaginative expletives) and her ability to portray the hidden layers to her character helped a lot. I was particularly impressed with her reaction when it appeared Lucky had dumped her at the hospital (after they’d made a deal that she would travel with him and his piano he was transporting back home). The range of emotions she displayed on her face when she thought he’d left her behind reminded me of a scene from HotD where she conveyed a vast array of emotions all within a short space of time. She can say SO MUCH with her facial expressions and it’s especially impressive for one as young as her (she also must be commended for her ability to refrain from swatting away FLIES CRAWLING ON HER FACE and continue acting without missing a beat. Her non-reaction to them was almost freaky). Meg’s interaction with Lucky was what MADE the show. Unless you were invested in these two characters, watching the show would’ve not been very fun. While I’ve seen the dynamic of two characters starting out pretty much hating each other, only to gradually become tolerant and then eventually become fond of one another more times than I can count, what made their dynamic work was the believability of how different they were, yet how they came to relate to/care about each other. Throughout the season, little pieces of their own personal stories were shown via flashbacks. Meg had a mother who left, a brother who killed himself and a father who’d become so depressed by this that he didn’t even talk to her when she called him. Lucky, meanwhile, had a mother who was dying, had a fling with his brother’s wife and they had a child. The way Meg and Lucky slowly started to ‘soften’ towards each other was done in a realistic way, as on several occasions one of them would leave the other behind when they stopped somewhere, but they’d go after the other person or come back to them. At one point Lucky mistook a letter from Meg’s brother as being from her, thinking she was about to commit suicide from a cliff and he grabbed her, but soon learned she’d never do such a thing because of her brother having killed himself. Likewise, Meg helped out Lucky on more than one occasion (sometimes illegally). The best example was in the season final, when she stood up for him against his brother after they returned the piano at long last. It was clear Lucky’s brother held a grudge against him for what he'd done, but Meg defended Lucky, listing off the times throughout their road trip where he displayed more than just selfishness (which was something that not only his brother accused him of, but Meg had done so as well previously). Once again Milly soled the hell out of the scene and I could totally buy that was enough to talk Lucky’s brother into giving him another chance with his daughter. As previously mentioned, I can’t say I was ever a fan of Tim Minchin's before. However, his performance as Lucky showed me that he’s capable of giving an actual decent dramatic performance. When the show started with him and his piano, I immediately dismissed that as just being an excuse for him to show off his piano playing (since I knew he played one in r/l). However, as the season went on, the piano actually became an important part of the story and wasn’t just solely there for the purpose of him playing music. It was a crucial part of the story and had deeper meaning than first thought (that poor piano had a pretty rough journey). It took me an embarrassingly long time to connect the title of this series with what it was related to (ie. the upright piano - since I’d never really heard of that before). There were numerous instances that showcased Minchin’s acting ability, and I'll admit I was fairly impressed (since I always just thought he was a standup comedian who wrote funny songs). I also totally bought how he came to be protective of Meg and they earned the hugs they shared (which were few and far between) given all that they'd been through together. I think while some jokes fell a bit flat, most of the humour in the show worked (I got a good laugh out of him standing still when he was stuck in the middle of nowhere and a brown snake happened by...which bit him, then he yelled at it because the deal is supposed to be that if you stand still, they leave you alone - I could totally see myself having the same rant). I did get quite a few decent laughs here and there (though I think some of it would totally go over the heads of non-Australian viewers). The Australian landscape was well-utilised. I’ve come to expect Aussie shows to oftentimes look rather ‘cheap’, and while this one didn’t have anything that actually made it look ‘expensive’, what stood out was the scenery and how it was displayed onscreen. One particularly memorable part was when Meg ran across the salt flats/pink lakes of SA. The show made the most of the different locations Lucky & Meg travelled through. I also appreciated the Aussie music that was played on the soundtrack at various times. There were some pretty great songs used and I liked hearing them - which brings me to... Things I didn’t like:While the music that Lucky listened to was at least decent, Meg’s taste it music was not my cup of tea (to put it politely). I HATE rap crap...but it was what she liked listening to, so we were subjected to it numerous times. Worst of all, while the end credits for each episode would begin with a decent song being played over them, partway through it would cut (like someone changing the radio station in the car) to Meg’s rap crap and it’d totally ruin the end credits for me (which, up until the point the music changed, I was happily listening to). While I get the *point* of the change halfway through (it was to further show the difference between the two characters), it really ruined the end credits imho, resulting in me immediately turning off the episode as soon as Meg’s shitty music started. Thankfully, about halfway through the season they seemed to have less of the changing from decent music to crap music (sometimes we’d even get *two* decent songs instead of one decent song and one crap song). By the end of the season, they were playing songs in full over the end credits and there were no disruptions partway through. I imagine whoever decided to have the switching between music tastes during the end credits thought themselves ‘clever’...but I personally just found it SUPER ANNOYING. At one point when Meg left Lucky behind, she was imagining talking to her deceased brother and this caused her to swerve off the road, then when Lucky eventually caught up with her he found her sitting beside a poor dying baby camel she’d inadvertently hit with her truck. As I mentioned in my last two reviews, I HATE animal death/cruelty, so seeing a camel (not that we really saw much of it - as they had a not overly convincing/fake-looking one) slowly dying was pretty sad. At first Lucky was going to end its life with a big rock to the head until Meg convinced him that wasn’t the way to put it out of its misery. Instead, he used his pills (which were rather important to him) and they buried it. I do kind of hate it when a dying animal is meant to ‘bring characters together’ and help them bond. I could’ve totally done without the poor dead baby camel. I also could’ve done without the style in which the flashbacks were shot. They had this slightly squished look to them, like they were shot in weird format. Throughout their trip, Meg & Lucky interacted with a wide range of people - some decent, some...not so decent. On the whole, none of them really grabbed me and I just wanted to spend more time with the road tripping pair interacting, just the *two* of them - since they were what made the show worth watching. Everyone else? I couldn't have cared less about. The hardest to swallow thing about this entire series was the reveal partway through the season that Meg was supposed to be thirteen. While Milly Alcock certainly has a ‘young’ look about her (she’s actually 22 now), it was much easier to buy her playing a sixteen-year-old (which was the age she’d told Lucky she was in the beginning). Thirteen? That was a stretch. And it’s not like her being younger than she’d originally said really added anything (other than maybe explaining some of Meg’s more childish behavior). On the whole, for a show I knew hardly anything about and only checked out because of Milly Alcock, I actually came to quite enjoy it (even if there were a few things that prevented me from loving it). I do think it’s one of the ‘better’ Australian TV shows to be made in recent memory and I was glad I got to see more of Milly Alcock after having finished HotD a few weeks ago (I hope she continues to find much success and go onto bigger/better things). I do wonder what they can do with a second season, since this show mainly worked as an unplanned journey together between two people who didn’t get along. Now they *do* get along (more or less) and they’re ‘good’ with their families, what reason would they have to travel together again? Also, since the title of the show is Upright (relating to the piano), how is the piano/title going to continue being relevant to the series now that it’s been delivered and won't be traveling with them everywhere? I’m not sure a second season was needed, nor do I think it’ll be as good...but I’d be happy to be proven wrong and will most certainly buy it whenever it’s (presumably) released here on DVD.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Feb 13, 2023 3:56:17 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}Like with the Season 1, I hadn’t watched this season in quite a long time, so it was almost like watching it anew. I’d remembered that the Season 2 premiere introduced the characters of Lance Hunter (played by Nick Blood, whose name makes him sound like a comic book villain) and Mack, while also featuring Xena herself, Lucy Lawless (whose character, here - Hartley - sadly didn’t make it out of the first episode alive...though she did return later for some flashbacks), and best of all...an appearance by Agent Peggy Carter via flashback! I’d remembered that Fitz was struggling to return to his ‘normal’ self after having been deprived of oxygen thanks to that arsehole, Ward, sending FitzSimmons to the bottom of the ocean at the end of last season...though I somehow forgot that he was imagining Simmons talking to him until it was revealed at the end of the episode. I’m sure some people were mad at her ‘abandoning’/’giving up on’ Fitz, but I *knew* there was a good reason for her doing so - as was revealed in the third episode which began with a musical montage of Jemma’s morning routine set to ‘God Help the Girl’ (a song I wouldn’t have been aware of at the time I originally watched this episode when it first aired, but since then I watched a movie starring Emily Browning which not only featured the song, but also had it as its title - so I almost immediately recognised the tune this time around). Unlike the second episode (which was focused on the character of Hunter, who I wasn’t really fussed on despite the show’s best efforts at attempting to make us like him even though he messed up and Coulson seemed totally fine with this, not only letting him off the hook for it, but actually praising him for it...which just made me wish Hunter had died and Hartley had lived instead), thankfully things picked up in the third episode and we saw that Simmons hadn’t ‘abandoned’ Fitz (I never thought she had), but instead was sent on an important mission by Coulson to go undercover at Hydra headquarters. Not only was the opening montage perfect, but so was the character of Agent Barbara ‘Bobbi’ Morse (played by one of my favourites ever since I first saw her guest-star appearance in the Season 3 final of Smallville, Adrianne Palicki), who was first introduced as (in her own words) ‘being uptight and evil’, but eventually we learned she was also an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent who was tasked with extracting Simmons once her cover was blown. Simmons perfectly summed up Bobbi’s character. She was amazing, could believably kick arse (Palicki has that whole Amazonian stature thing totally working for her) and even after having only just been introduced to her character, I automatically took her side in any arguments she had with Hunter, after she was revealed to be his ex that he was always bitching about. Seriously, how he ever managed to snag her is a total mystery. In fact, Bobbi was SO awesome I wondered if maybe the writers had decided that they’d made her almost TOO AWESOME early in the season, since later into the season she was shown getting fooled by Simmons (into holding electric gizmos that knocked her unconscious), getting her arse kicked a couple of times/needing to be saved, and WARD of all people ‘made’ her when she was spying on him whilst reading a book (how the hell could he have seen what page of her book she was on when he walked past her which allowed him to work out she was spying on him later when he pointed out she was still on the same page? He would’ve somehow had to have had x-ray vision!). Worse yet, they stuck her in a boring side-plot with Mack, where they spoke to each other cryptically and it seemed like it took FOREVER until the reveal of what they were up to finally happened...which turned out to be pretty underwhelming. They worked for another branch of S.H.I.E.L.D. - “the real S.H.I.E.L.D.” as Mack called it - and I couldn’t have cared less. Worst of all, though, was that at the end of the season, Bobbi is captured by Ward and his yawn-worthy g/f, Agent 33 (who was a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent that had been captured by Hydra at the start of the season and was tortured/brainwashed into working for them, used one of those ‘Nano Masks’ from CA&TWS to disguise herself as May, who she fought and got electrocuted in the face by, causing her facial disfigurement, and this led her to Ward, who she helped after Skye - quite awesomely, it must be said - shot him, and then in no time Ward/Agent 33 were suddenly in luuuuurv ), and they attempt to torture an apology out of Bobbi, as Agent 33 wants revenge against her since she didn't blow her cover to help save Agent 33 when she was being brainwashed. It sucked that Bobbi was taken out of commission for the final episodes...which, once again, was probably due to her being TOO awesome - that’s also a large part of why I think Ward resented her so much when he hardly even knew her. He recognised that she was so much better than him in every way, she essentially replaced him on Team S.H.I.E.L.D. and he couldn’t handle it. He also couldn’t handle the fact that she totally had his number, calling him out on his hypocrisy and blaming everyone else for him being evil. Despite his attempts to break her (with needles under the fingernails that she didn’t feel to begin with because he’d drugged her up, but slowly the drugs wore off and she felt ALL the pain at once), she *still* managed to get free and hold her own in a fight between both him and Agent 33 until they cheated (it was SO not a fair fight!). The fact that she managed all of this after hours of torture showed just how badass she was, then once she was recaptured, they tied her to a chair and set up a gun to blow the head off the first person who entered the room - which was presumably going to be Hunter, as he mounted a rescue mission to save her, and when he eventually *did* find her and was about to enter, she selflessly leaned over far enough to take the bullet that was meant for him in her shoulder instead, thus saving him and making her she even MORE badass than she already was. She was in pretty bad shape by the end, and it’s clear she won’t be getting back to being in top form for quite some time. I kind of resent the writers for presenting us with this kick-arse female character and then them having to ‘depower’ her in a sense because she kicked 'too much' arse. It did a disservice to the character and the actress, I thought. Still, even with all these obstacles the writers threw at her, she was STILL the biggest badass in the show since Melinda May. Speaking of May, this season gave us the episode that explained why she was referred to as ‘the Cavalry’ and why she hated that name. Basically, there'd been a mission where S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents were being controlled by some kid with powers (the young actress did a good job playing a creepy super-powered child), she was killing them and May was forced to shoot her. Personally, I thought May didn't do anything wrong, since it was either a bunch of people or one disturbed child and I know which one far outweighed the other, but it was good to finally get the origin of May's nickname (even if it was a little underwhelming). It was fun seeing May vs Agent 33 early in the season (since they were both played by Ming-Na Wen during the fight scene) and I liked that she and Bobbi more or less got along (whereas it would’ve been easy for the writers to have them not like each other since they’re both strong, kick-arse women - but thankfully their characters recognised each other’s awesomeness and had respect for one another). Best of all was May tricking Ward into shooting his boring-as-shit g/f (after setting her up so she'd wear her face again with that 'Nano Mask') and killing her, thinking it was May. That was some sweet, sweet comeuppance for the bitch who had a hand in torturing Bobbi - though, naturally, it just made Ward madder than he already was and by the end of the season he’d gained henchmen (just how lame do you have to be to become henchmen of Grant Ward?). We also met May's ex-husband, Andrew, who was a neurologist/forensic psychologist that Coulson brought in to help Skye after she went through a rather dramatic transformation. That transformation, btw, was probably this season’s equivalent of the Ward-is-Hydra reveal from last season...only this development happened in episode 10 of this season rather than towards the end of the season. There’d been this whole storyline with a Nazi back in the days when Agent Carter was around to interrogate him, he experimented on super-powered people which included a woman (played by Aussie actress Dichen Lachman, who I’d last seen in that other Whedon show, Dollhouse, before seeing her in this one when it originally aired) who never aged. Him dissecting her, taking her organs and doing god-knows-what with them (what, did he make them into a smoothie which he then consumed?) gave him this same immortality and that’s how he was able to exist in the ‘present’, having reinvented himself as an American named Whitehall (he was another Dollhouse actor, and I remember he got to be quite funny in an episode of that show. Disappointingly, here he was all seriousness). Much more entertaining than Whitehall was Skye’s dad, Cal, played by a scenery-chewing Kyle MacLachlan, who appeared to be having the time of his life as a character who’d become unhinged after having experimented on himself to gain enhanced strength. And, oh yeah, he was the husband of that immortal woman (Jiaying) who’d been butchered by Whitehall and he wanted revenge against the Nazi bastard whilst pretending to be on his side. So there was all this family stuff going on with Skye, she eventually met her dad (who had killed some people, which made things awkward) and we finally learned her real name - Daisy Johnson (though he might've first mentioned her real name earlier than that. I can't remember. If not, then him humming the nursery rhyme ‘Daisy Daisy’ was certainly a big clue). Apparently Daisy Johnson is a character from the comics (much like Bobbi Morse/Mockingbird is), though since I didn’t read the comics, I wasn’t aware of this until I read about it online. It’s pretty cool that the show managed to bring two Marvel comic book characters to life and do them justice (screw you, MCU, for deciding to ignore this show and pretend it didn’t exist!). There was this whole big thing with maps leading to lost cities, Mack got possessed or whatever and attacked the team until Bobbi zapped him and he fell down a deep hole (but miraculously survived). Raina was there too. I can’t say I ever was fond of her character (which was probably why she didn’t even warrant a mention in my Season 1 review), as she just seemed to exist to stir up shit. When she, Skye/Daisy (Dye? Skysy?) and Trip were together in a cavern, a mist engulfed them, turning them to stone - from which they emerged moments later (well...except for poor unfortunate Trip, who disintegrated), with Skye/Daisy having apparently gained earthquake-causing powers while Raina was later revealed to have become an unsightly thorn-covered monster (how ironic, given that she was always a thorn in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s side. She always wanted to be around super-powered people - last season she yearned to meet ‘the Clairvoyant’, this season she wanted to be what Skye/Daisy ultimately became...but it didn’t go according to plan, and that’s what she gets for being on Team Evil!). It was a hell of an ending to the episode. Too bad Trip had to die in the process. From what little I've read on the matter, it sounded like the actor who played him wanted to leave, so I guess that left the writers with few options...but, personally, I liked his character more than Mack - who, as previously mentioned, was introduced in the first episode of this season and I think they tried a bit too hard to get the audience to like him by having him quickly bond with Fitz as he was trying to recover from his trauma, having him question/stand up to Coulson, and I’m sure he won over a few of the anti-Skye people since he was all about pointing out that Trip died because he went looking for her. While I didn’t dislike Mack, I l wished we could’ve kept Trip around instead. He just had this easy chemistry/dynamic with all the other characters and he was likeable without even trying to be. Maybe the reason the actor who played him wanted to leave was because he felt he wasn’t being given enough material worth sticking around for since the writers seemed to struggle to find things for him to do and largely wasted him? After Skye/Daisy developed quake powers (her character in the comics is, unsurprisingly, called Quake), she was struggling to control them, causing damage to her surroundings and unintentionally harming people. Trying to hold it in didn’t work either, as that just caused herself harm/bruising on her arms. Luckily, Simmons was there to create some gizmos for her arms which helped her control the power but cause not self-harm. While I was pleased to see an appearance by Lady Sif for the second time in the show, I was somewhat disappointed that she spent half the episode with amnesia, not remembering who she was. Again, I think part of this was because they couldn’t afford to have her running around, kicking arse all episode, so she was hampered by this memory loss thing. I’d remembered that Eddie McClintock from Warehouse 13 appeared in this episode, but I didn’t remember that they’d altered his voice somewhat to make it sound deeper (I guess they thought he needed that to come across as a credible Asgardian/threat?). I enjoyed seeing Sif interact with the S.H.I.E.L.D. characters (evidently she’d picked up some human expressions), though I did hate seeing members of S.H.I.E.L.D ready to fight her to protect Skye/Daisy. In the end, though, everything worked out, Eddie McClintock’s character got zapped with his own memory stick (which allowed for a humourous moment) and Sif was no longer S.H.I.E.L.D.’s enemy. Still, it felt like a bit of a waste of such a great character. Speaking of great characters, it was cool to see Jemma Simmons growing/being developed from the sweet, ‘nerdy’ scientist last season into someone who was willing to do things I don’t think she ever would’ve done previously. It was interesting seeing her 'make friends’ at Hydra (as per Coulson's advice during one of their meetings where she updated him on how she was going with her mission), then setting one of them up to take the fall when she was almost outed early in the episode, thus showing that she was capable of doing questionable things for the greater good. I was bummed that the Fitz/Simmons dynamic from Season 1 was altered in such a way that when the two of them shared a scene this season, it was more awkward and angst-y than it was fun (which is what they used to be). In the Season 1 final, Fitz confessed his feelings for Simmons when they were at the bottom of the ocean, basically took away her choice about which one of them would swim to the surface with oxygen and forced her into it, then she saw that his trauma was worse with her around (Mack basically said as much to her - which I kind of resented on Jemma's behalf, since it came across more as him saying “Fitz is MY friend now! Be gone, woman!” than concern for him - and she responded by saying that was indeed the reason she left). Fitz was angry with her, despite the fact she was doing what she thought would help him. By the end of the season they finally got back to being in a ‘good place’ with their relationship, and Jemma seemed open to them pursuing something more than friendship...but, of course, this is when the whole keep-FitzSimmons-separated-every-season plots began happening (which we would then keep getting for the rest of the series) and in the last scene of the Season 2 final, as one comment I read put it, ‘that thing ate Simmons!’ (the ‘thing’ in question being a stone monolith that would randomly switch to liquid form). I blame Fitz, since he was leaning on the latch and clearly that’s what loosened it so the liquid could spill out to swallow Jemma. I think I probably freaked out back when the episode originally aired on TV. NOBODY hurts Jemma! Least of all some liquid rock! I liked seeing her be determined to take out Ward. While Fitz thought it was ‘wrong’ or whatever, I was firmly on Simmons’ side and was just bummed that she ended up taking out someone else who dived in front of the gizmo that was intended to disintegrate Ward. While I didn’t mind his character in Season 1 (both before and after he turned evil), this season it just felt like the writers kept him around because they love Brett Dalton (which they’ll continue to do for seasons to come). If they were attempting to make us feel sorry for him when he put all the blame for how he turned out on his brother (who’d become a Senator) and his parents...then they failed miserably. Grant was that sort of person who didn’t take ANY responsibility for his own actions (despite him telling his brother otherwise...right before he killed him - along with their parents - after he threatened him with death to get a confession out of him). All throughout the season Ward kept whining about how everyone else - his family, Garrett, S.H.I.E.L.D. - was to blame for the person he’d become, and I thought this just made him come across as pathetic. If you’re going to be evil, OWN it, don’t blame others for it! He really became a nuisance this season and when he attempted to justify his actions to his former Team, the best part was Skye/Daisy saying she was GLAD she shot him, everyone else agreeing with her, and Simmons saying she should’ve aimed for the face. Ward could’ve been made into a formidable foe (a former teammate turned against S.H.I.E.L.D.), but instead he’s just lame, with plot armour preventing him from being killed when he should’ve been dead AGES ago. The only thing he deserves at this point is EVERYONE contributing to his death (à la Murder on the Orient Express). I did feel this season piqued around the time of Skye’s/Daisy’s transformation and then treaded water until we got to the season final (which is how I felt last season after the Ward-is-evil reveal...except this time the treading water went on a lot longer). We learned that super-powered beings are called Inhumans (I never saw the show that was about them, since it was never released here. I do know basically everyone seemed to hate it, though). I thought the eyeless teleporter character was quite interesting (the actor did a lot with fairly little, especially with no eyes. Shame he had to die). We also met Lincoln, who has 'the ability to manipulate electrical charges'...which is just a fancy way of saying he has electricity powers. I know others weren’t fond of his character (or the Aussie actor who played him, Luke Mitchell), but I didn’t really have a problem with him. Sure, he wasn’t particularly interesting, but he was nice enough, got along with Skye/Daisy (a much healthier relationship than her one with Ward, to say the least) and although he opposed S.H.I.E.L.D. to begin with, he eventually came around to realising the real villain was Jiaying, who showed her true colours when she attempted to drain the life out of her own daughter until Cal intervened and gave her the bear hug of death. Speaking of death, Mike Peterson ( Angel’s J. August Richards) aka Deathlok returned (this time on the good guys’ team), I was glad to be rid of Raina (thanks, Jiaying!) and it was nice that Cal got to live his life as a vet after getting the T.A.H.I.T.I. treatment like Coulson had. Regarding Coulson, I continued to find his character the least interesting out of everyone, as he kept secrets from which caused others to go against him, whereas if he’d just been honest, a lot of the conflict in the season could’ve been avoided. Oh well, in the season final Mack chopped off his hand with an axe to avoid him turning to rock. On the whole, I think this was a fairly solid second season of the show. But like how I didn’t think Season 1 was as ‘bad’ as others made it out to be, I can’t say that I felt this season was as much of a ‘vast improvement’ as others seemed to think it was when compared to Season 1. There was a ‘charm’ to Season 1, back when it was innocent and less convoluted...and Skye/Daisy had better hair (seriously, although Chloe Bennet is a beautiful woman, I thought her bangs this season were a step down from her hair last season). While I do think this season developed the characters more, gave us some real stand-out moments/new characters, I did feel the plot kind of dragged in the middle. Still, it’s easily the best comic book TV series I’ve been watching lately (I’ve watched one on DVD recently and am currently watching another on TV - neither of which hold a candle to this show). I don’t really remember much about Season 3, but I do seem to recall AoS kept getting 'better and better’ as it went on, so hopefully that proves true and I'm not misremembering.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Feb 17, 2023 1:58:25 GMT -5
Finished Season 1 of The Magicians on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}I’d bought and watched this first season of the show many moons ago and quite enjoyed it...except for one character - Julia - who, unfortunately, appears to be the show’s ‘female lead’ (if the actress who plays her having second billing in the credits is any indication). In fact, she was SO bad that she turned me off the show for a fair while. I still bought the remaining four seasons as they got released on Blu-ray here, but had put off watching them because I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with sitting through anymore of Julia’s crap at the time. Speaking of 'time', it unfortunately appears to have taken a toll on my Blu-rays of Season 1, as when I was rewatching them, some episodes were glitchy/would freeze in place and no matter what I did (trying to fast-forward past the glitchy parts, skip the scenes entirely, take the discs out/clean them/put them back in and try again), NOTHING worked...and so I missed entire scenes (some being pretty important) during my rewatch, which was rather annoying/frustrating (WHY couldn’t I just miss all the Julia scenes instead, WHY???). To get an idea of just how bad a person Julia is would require me listing her every sin just in this first season alone...which would be a monumental task that I don’t have the time for, nor can I remember them all since - to quote Gray Leader from Star Wars - there's too many of them! Plus, I probably missed some in the scenes I didn’t get to see because of the glitchiness. Suffice to say, she’s a selfish, whiny, bitchy, backstabby, betrayer of people she claims to be ‘friends’ with, who only cares about her own desire for powerful magic and intimidates/threatens/blackmails anyone who doesn’t automatically do what she demands (at risk to their own lives). One of her worst sins this season was her taking part in mind-raping her oldest 'friend', Quentin, simply because he said some mean things to her (about how she wasn’t meant to be at Hogwarts Brakebills, the magic school they’re both invited to but only Quentin passed the written exam for, while Julia fails it and consequently gets kicked out/her mind wiped, but not before she cut her arm...which made her remember she was there somehow? Then she acts all entitled, saying she 'deserves' to be there because she ASKS QUESTIONS and screws over as many people as she can to get back in). And when it appeared Quentin was doomed to be stuck in this mind trap...Julia wasn't even one of the first people to try to help save him. Some friend! Then later on she writes the WORST APOLOGY LETTER EVER, having the audacity to tell Quentin to go eff himself after what she did to him. On top of all this, she gets various people killed including some new 'friends' she makes thanks to summoning who she thinks is a *good* god, but turns out to be a trickster god who rapes her, which was clearly the show’s attempt to get the audience to feel sorry for her - and although she experienced a terrible thing, that doesn’t change the fact that she’s still a terrible person herself as evidenced by the fact that even at the bitter end of the season, she’s still screwing over people when she steals the knife which could kill the Big Bad known as 'the Beast', thus allowing him to maim/kill all of Quentin's friends/allies just to serve her own vendetta. When I started rewatching this season, I couldn’t remember what Julia had done to make me hate her so much when I originally watched, all I could remember was that I *did* hate her. It certainly didn’t take long for me to be reminded of the many reasons for hatred of her as a character, as just in the first few episodes she’d already done a number of shitty things and I quickly grew tired of her mopey, sour face all over again (other than maybe her first scene in the first episode when she actually smiled and seemed to have some life to her, the rest of the season she spends seemingly capable of only two expressions: resting bitchface and teary-face. I also came to think of her as ‘Dead Eyes’, since there seemed to be no life behind them. Or maybe she was just very tired all the time? Either way, the actress who plays her - who I’d seen in at least one other role since originally watching the first season of this show and she failed to do anything for me there either - is at least part of the reason I can’t stand Julia whenever she’s onscreen. There’s just nothing about her performance that makes her interesting or rise above the material she’s given as one of the worst people in the show (and this is a show with rapist gods and mothman beasts). There just aren't enough ways to describe what a truly horrible person Julia is. Thankfully, though, the rest of the main cast (almost) makes up for her horribleness. I always think when watching the actor who plays Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) that he reminds me of someone else...but I can’t think who (I might just be imagining it). While he too at first seemed like a mopey sort, what made him much more tolerable than Julia was his nerdiness when it came to the Fillory books which are at the centre of the show’s premise. From what I can tell, they’re like the Narnia books (British children walking through wardrobes to get to a magical land with talking animals and fauns being the most obvious similarity between the two), but as Quentin himself discovers as the season goes on, there’s a dark side to Fillory that is most certainly not like the Narnia books (even though those had some ‘dark’ aspects, they’re nothing compared to the dark twisted dirty shit that goes down in Fillory). We meet Quentin in a mental hospital, so he has his reasons for being a bit mopey, but he still has plenty more life in him than Julia, and unlike her he’s always believed in magic/Fillory, while she ‘grew out of it’...that was until they’re actually *shown* it's real, then all of a sudden she changes her tune and does whatever she can to get as much magic as possibly by any means necessary (they even go that tired 'magic addiction' route which I'm pretty sure NO ONE wanted to see again after Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Back to Quentin, he’s amusing with his reactions to pretty much every other character, the situations he finds himself in, and despite his faults he's still likeable. Probably his biggest mistake was having a threesome (this was after he and the other two participants had just regained their emotions after literally bottling them up so they could train to use magic better in preparation for fighting the Beast...I think?). Anyway, at this point in the story he had been involved with Alice Quinn, a gifted magician who first showed how much she kicked arse when she helped to send the Beast into retreat back through the mirror from whence he came (after having paralysed everyone and leaving them powerless to stop him from ripping out the eyes of/breaking the fingers of the Dean who had only managed to do one magic shove before the Beast made him his bitch). Quentin started off not exactly being Alice’s favourite person in the world when he put a stop to her brother she’d resurrected and he went all evil or whatever - that kinda pissed her off, but then they went through trials together, turned into geese, flew South for the Winter or something, had sex as foxes and then as people and he met her hippy-dippy parents, all was good in their relationship...that is until the aforementioned threesome. I thought showing her fight with him (after he woke up to her sitting on the bed beside the trio) with all the sound dropped out and just *seeing* her anger was an effective way to do it. So, yeah, other than that...I don’t think Quentin did anything particularly ‘bad’. You had to feel for him when he learned the truth about Fillory - that it wasn’t such an innocent place after all - after it was revealed that one of the child characters had been molested by the books’ author (played by Mr. Sheffield - Charles Shaughnessy - from The Nanny of all people! Fran would be MOST upset!). Watching the realisation dawn on Quentin's face as his childhood escapism was destroyed right before his eyes was pretty sad. Also sad? That his one and only childhood 'friend', Julia, helped mind-rape him into believing he was back in the mental hospital to drive him insane. Who needs enemies when you have friends like her? Hell, even the character of Penny (who I remember mistaking for an actor from the TV series The 100 when I originally watched this first season) ended up being more decent to Quentin than Julia did. Sure, Penny started off hating him (and was totally serious about thinking of stabbing him all the time), but gradually he...well...came to hate Quentin slightly less. Progress! Even while hating him, Penny still helped Quentin after Julia took revenge on him (in a totally unbalanced way) because he was A BIG MEANIE TO HER. The way in which Quentin got Penny’s help was actually pretty hilarious, since it involved him singing (exceptionally badly, it must be said - though apparently Jason Ralph can sing? So I guess props to him for playing a truly terrible singer convincingly) a song he *knew* Penny hated (since Penny had heard Quentin singing the song in his head in a previous episode - because apparently Penny can read minds or something?). The song? Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’, which I found out cost the show 50k to get the rights to use - which might seem pretty steep, but considering Penny kept calling it a ‘stupid song’ and whatnot, plus the fact that Quentin butchered it, I think T-Swizz was probably justified in asking for an exorbitant amount of money since the show was pretty much making fun of it. Also, it was totally worth all that money just for the hilarity that ensued. Throughout the course of the season, Quentin and Penny continued to get on each other’s nerves, but they also at least displayed mild concern for each other at times. Thankfully, the show didn’t go the predictable route of having them quickly bond and become friends. I think Penny stills feels like stabbing Quentin, and it was amusing seeing how many times Quentin could call Penny a 'dick’ after he’d do something...well... dickish. I didn’t like Penny in the beginning, but by the latter half of the season, his ‘frenemies’ relationship with Quentin made him more tolerable. I especially liked seeing that he had a softer side in regards to Alice (who he even said was one of the few people he respected). She could get him to be less aggressive/act less jerky - though not all the time, as there was a limit and he lost patience with her on occasion. Him being a traveler allowed for a different sort of magic to what the others could do, it led to some great moments (both interesting and amusing), and by the end of the season Penny was easily a far more likeable character than Julia (him getting his hands cut off by the Beast was a hell of a way to leave his character in the final episode’s climax). I think Alice had some revenge sex with Penny to get back at Quentin for his threesome...and I can’t say I held that against her (as she said to Quentin herself, he had no right to judge/shame her after what he'd done). Speaking of Alice, I really liked her character as she had this nervous sort of twitchiness to her, at times reminding me of Bella Swan (which I’m sure most would probably interpret as an insult, but there was this way she’d hesitate when speaking or stutter/stumble over her words at times that reminded me of that character - not the personality, though, just to be clear). Yes, she was single-minded when it came to trying to get her brother back and there were some casualties, but you know the difference between her and Julia? She didn’t KEEP doing stupid things that got people killed just to serve her own self-interest. She actually showed she *cared* about others and was trying to stop the Beast who was their greatest threat - which she could’ve done in the season final if Julia hadn’t pulled that dick move of swiping the god-killing knife from her just so she could settle her own personal score with the trickster god (by making a deal with the Beast - because THAT'S SMART) and this resulting in Alice being bled out. If she’s dead, her death is on Julia’s hands...and she’d hardly be the first, since earlier in the season Julia teamed up with the mother of Penny’s fuckbuddy - Kady - and they stole stuff from a bad magician by the name of Marina (played by Kacey Rohl, who was pretty great in Hannibal) and this resulted in Marina taking revenge against the thieves with a curse that caused hemorrhaging from the head of Kady’s mum - a moment that had stuck with me ever since I first watched it ages ago, as I found it particularly freaky how all this blood poured out of her head...yet there were no visible wounds/cuts/scratches, it just spilled out of seemingly nowhere. It was certainly an effectively creepy moment that I never forgot. Who else did Julia screw over by leaving alone, seemingly dead, in the season final? The characters of Eliot (yes, that’s how his name’s spelled - with *one* ‘L’ - which I personally just find irritatingly pretentious) and Margo (the lack of a ‘T’ at the end of her name bothers me far less). They both started out as the typical older year students who would ‘punk’ the younger/new students, they drank, did drugs, and slept around whilst making snarky comments and didn’t seem to have that much going on as far as character depth was concerned...at least not at first, but pretty soon we got to know them better, Eliot revealed to Quentin that he accidentally killed his high school bully with magic and Margo actually had a nice quiet scene with Quentin where she bonded with him over his love of the Fillory books and how they got him through high school. While Eliot and Margo provided a lot of humour - oftentimes at the expense of Quentin, and to a lesser extent Alice - they also came to actually care about those two, I think. I especially enjoyed that Margo, who you would expect to look down her nose at Alice because of her personality type, actually genuinely tried to bond with her. Throughout the season, Eliot & Margo were also shown to have a very deep bond with each other, he met a new beau (Margo telling them to "Bang already...NOW!" was an amusing moment), but unfortunately Eliot’s new flame turned out to be a vessel for the Beast (I think?) and after a brutal killing of an innocent bunny (which I did NOT watch, but read about - and that was more than enough), as well as gruesomely murdering the adult version of one of the kids from Quentin’s Fillory books, Jane Chatwin (who was someone that we didn’t even know the true identity of until right before her death, which made it feel as though there was a lot of wasted potential to the character. Plus, it was pretty dumb that she just wandered into a room with this crazy murderous magic dude who wasn’t even restrained from what I could see), by not only strangling her/breaking her neck, but after she was ALREADY DEAD, he then went a step further and continued throttling her corpse with such force until her HEAD EXPLODED (not that we actually saw the exploding head, but the blood/gore that sprayed her killer made it pretty clear that’s what had happened). Poor Esmé Bianco (who played Ros in GoT and played Eliza/Jane here), she’s always dying in some horrible way. I was shocked when I first watched this scene, as it was so unexpected and rather unnecessary, I thought. Of course, the reveal that the Beast was Martin Chatwin after he turned evil (because of what was done to him, I guess?) in the season final meant that he was Jane's sister...though he took sibling rivalry to a whole new level. Out of the pair, I liked Margo more than Eliot. Yes, she could be bitchy at times, but we also saw how much she cared about Eliot (meanwhile, all he could seem to do after ending his Beastie Boy lover was to get drunk, be an arsehole to everyone - including Margo - and almost get all of them killed when Alice did a spell to cloak them from bad guys at one point). Summer Bishil, who plays Margo, was able to bring a lot to her character that could've been one-dimensional. She also had excellent chemistry with everyone and I enjoyed her dynamic with all the characters. Best of all, she called Julia out on the shit she pulled and held a grudge against her. I do think Hale Appleman was quite good as Eliot too, as he played the character well and could convey all the emotions going on with him (whereas Stella Maeve just mostly looked half-asleep most of the time when playing Julia). He got many a funny moment/comment, just as Margo did, and it was nice when he was clearly willing to finally talk to her about how he'd been feeling...unfortunately it turned out he was about to unload all his feelings onto a Margo golem ('Margolem', as they called it) and then when real Margo showed up, he was no longer willing to share his feelings. He could be frustrating as often as he was amusing. Both he and Margo weren't able to escape Julia's betrayal at the end of the season and got shoved so hard against a wall by the Beast they were...rendered unconscious, I guess? If that was their 'death', then it was pretty lame. The world of The Magicians is a true mishmash of genres and tones. You can have crazy sex dreams from Quentin where he imagines himself as Indiana Jones, Alice as Daenerys Targaryen (though that was a pretty piss-poor attempt to make her look like Dany, since when did Dany EVER wear anything like what Alice was dressed in? Really, Quentin, you couldn't even bother to dream her resembling the character accurately?) and Julia as Princess Leia in her Jabba slave girl gold bikini (the ONE time in the whole season where Julia was tolerable...and she was just a figment of Quentin's imagination - which should tell you something) and Penny poking fun at it, then have fauns in Fillory who looked like they'd eaten too many cakes and filled a jar with their sperm which Alice had to drink to become god-like or whatever in order to hold the knife that could kill the Beast. Seriously, the tone of this show was all over the place to the extent that you'd get whiplash going from one scene to the next. There'd be ridiculous humour, moments of pure fantasy that seemed to come straight out of Harry Pothead, then stuff so dark/gruesome that it felt like a completely different show. It's a truly bizarre mix of different things that one can't really pinpoint how exactly to describe this show. The only thing I can say unequivocally about the show is...JULIA SUCKS.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Feb 28, 2023 4:24:51 GMT -5
Most recently finished Season 2 of The Magicians on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}The good news is there seemed to be no glitchiness with the discs this season, so I didn’t miss any parts of the episodes...at least not from that, anyway. I did miss the end of one episode because I apparently fell asleep. I’d been drifting off but trying to stay awake, then realised I must’ve dozed off momentarily as I woke up just as the episode finished. That’s not the bad news, though. The BAD news is that the character of Julia was just as terrible, if not worse, than she was last season. This has got to be one of (if not the only) show where I begin my reviews with talking about the character I like the least. Last season ended with Bitchface nicking the Beast-killing knife from Alice before she could kill him, leaving her defenseless, and this got her killed along with Margo and Eliot, while Penny had his hands magically chopped off (Quentin was the only one seemingly left unharmed). Julia did this so she could make a deal with the no-longer-moth-faced-and-instead-Charles-Mesure-faced Beast (because making deals with murderous Beasts seems like a good idea?) to get him to kill her rapist, the trickster god ‘Reynard the Fox’. Just absorb this for moment...someone screwing over a bunch of people who are friends of her supposed ‘friend’ just for her own selfish vendetta. She pretty much got them killed. While it was the Beast who did the actual killing, if Julia hadn’t been a massive bitch and stolen the knife, Alice could’ve killed the Beast and then they could’ve gone after Reynard. But nooooo, Julia’s only thinking of her own desire for revenge and everyone else can go hang as far as she’s concerned. Oh, sure, she includes in her deal with Beastie Boy that he’s not to harm any of her ‘friends’ (what a complete load of crap her referring to them as her ‘friends’ is), but he’s no fool and is onto her, knowing full-well that she’s trying to work out loopholes in the deal even as she makes it with him. Meanwhile, Alice - who is the complete opposite of Julia (ie. she’s actually likeable and thinks of others) - manages to snap back to life thanks to that jizz of Ember’s (the goat-man from last season) she was forced to drink to become powerful enough to kill the Beast. Seems it’s having some lingering effects, one of which is bringing her back and giving her the power to resuscitate Margo & Eliot (I guess their hearts just stopped when the Beast slammed them against a wall?). Quentin, who left them, was running through the forest at the beginning of the episode as freaky music played and he came across a cottage that resembled that of the witch’s gingerbread house from the Hansel & Gretel fairytale. She demanded his blood (I forget why) and then he reunited with his now- not-dead friends. Penny’s hands haven’t grown back, they’re just bandaged, but the fact that he’s not dead from blood loss is also thanks to Alice. At one point he goes with Margo to a river that’s meant to heal his hands, but he offends the ‘River Watcher’ dude because he asks for ridiculous payment in return and as a result the annoying dude curses Penny’s newly-returned hands...which he later discovers causes them to have a mind of their own and do dangerous magic things that are out of his control. If there was one bright spot in the episode, it was the gang having a crowning ceremony (it was revealed last season through a test that Eliot was High King of Fillory, and apparently all these ‘children of Earth’ are Kings and Queens...except for Penny - not that he seems to care since he rolls his eyes throughout the entire thing). After they cross the visually stunning 'Rainbow Bridge', there’s an ancient-looking knight who bears a striking resemblance to the one from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but instead of asking them to choose the right cup, he gives them a 90’s pop culture-themed quiz which was quite amusing. Even moreso was the characters knowing the answers. One of the most amusing moments, though, was Eliot using Alice to help him reenact Johnny’s big speech scene from Dirty Dancing (Hale Appleman does a pretty decent Patrick Swayze impression). The BEST part, however, is when once they’ve sufficiently answered the questions and are presented with their crowns, seeing them crown each other (complete with apologies to who they’d ‘wronged’) and the titles they give each other. Yes, it’s a blatant rip-off of the crowning scene in the first Narnia movie...but oh so much more hilarious and had some really nice moments between the characters. How I wish the show could just be about THEM and not cut back to Bitchface. While some of the Beast’s air of mystery was lost after he gained a face that wasn’t made out of moths, I will say that Charles Mesure (who I remember first seeing WAY back in the Season 5 premiere of Xena: Warrior Princess as the archangel Michael) at least made this now very human-looking version of the character entertaining...which is more than I can say for Julia, who remained the opposite of entertaining. As terrible as the Beast was for all the horrible things he’d done, I still liked him better than her and was glad that he seemed to be annoying the crap out of her with his show tunes and dance moves. Unfortunately, Julia’s ‘specialness’ seemed to affect him like it did everyone else and so I had to sit through him telling her how he liked/admired her and all these compliments he paid towards her while she just kept threatening him. It’s so barf-inducing when writers clearly love a character they write for and feel the need to have ALL the other characters gush over them/praise them, etc when they DON’T DESERVE IT (thank goodness for Margo who calls Julia out on all her BS and doesn't seem quite so willing to forgive her like virtually everyone else does). When her ‘best friend’ Quentin warns her not to be around the Beast since he and his actual friends are planning to end him (as Alice has the power to do so), selfish bitch that she is, all Julia does is threaten him and the others because she wants the Beast to take out Reynard first. For a moment I thought Quentin had finally woken up and realised what a truly terrible person his ‘friend’ was when he said out loud that he’d come to warn her and this was how she was thanking him (with threats), but sadly it’s quite apparent that he’s stuck in this toxic friendship with her where no matter how shit she treats him...he just keeps coming back for more, not learning from his past experiences (like when she helped mind-rape him into being stuck in a mental prison last season, for example). Next on Julia’s list of people to screw over? Marina (Kacey Rohl is SUCH a better actress than Stella Maeve. Maybe if she’d played the character of Julia, I might’ve actually had some sympathy for her after her trauma). Marina’s roped into Julia’s plan by being bait for Reynard, she does a spell, it seemingly doesn’t work, but then when she returns home he appears and this was the WORST moment of the season for me. We already knew Reynard was a monster, but it seems this series likes to go overboard in showing just how cruel a villain in this universe can be. Last season it was when the guy possessed by the Beast unnecessarily exploded Jane Chatwin’s head by strangling her with such force (after she was already dead). In this instance Reynard does something completely repugnant with Marina’s poor pet cat as a means of torturing her, finally getting her to flinch after she’d remained strong in the face of his intimidation techniques/threats. I didn’t actually watch it (as I’d read about it long before I ever reached the episode it happens in), but apparently he turns her poor innocent feline INSIDE OUT. Worse yet, this doesn’t instantly kill it, it remains alive and we can still hear it meowing (so its unimaginable pain is cruelly prolonged) before he eats it (I think. I don’t know for sure because I was SO not going to watch any of that, but I’m guessing that’s what happened). Then he proceeds to bite off Marina’s fingers (I still wasn’t watching the screen at that point, as I didn’t wish to accidentally catch any glimpses of the poor feline...assuming any of it was left). It's sadistic shit like this that turns me off the show (well...that and Julia) and makes me question the sanity of the show's writers that they'd not only think of such sick twisted shit, but that they'd feel the need to *show* it in gratuitous detail. We already knew Reynard was a bad guy, this wasn't the least bit necessary and I have to wonder if the writer of the episode got some kind of messed-up pleasure out of it (maybe they're a dog person?). This isn't the first animal death in the show, as last season featured a gruesome rabbit murder and Quentin accidentally killing a puppy riddled with cancer. Seek help, show writers. So, Penny transports the Beast away (after Julia HESITATED to kill Reynard when she was given her chance to...because she’s an idiot? Because the obviously sick-minded writers of this show, for some twisted reason, LOVE this despicable character of Reynard and wish to keep writing heinous things for him to do and they can’t do that if they kill him off, so they keep finding contrived reasons for him to stick around?) and it’s up to Alice to take care of him (because she’s the *true* ‘badass’ of the show, despite all attempts to tell us how ‘special’/’amazing’ Julia is) while all Eliot & Margo do is uselessly watch on and Quentin ends up being at the Beast’s mercy until Alice comes to the rescue (though, to be fair to Quentin, at one point - I can’t recall exactly what order events occurred - he *did* jump in front of a magical attack from the Beast that was intended for Alice, causing him a massive slice in his shoulder as a result - so at least he helps her like she helps him). Unfortunately, Alice - powerful as she is - isn’t enough to finish the Beast off (of course this is only because her jizz-fueled power started wearing off thanks to Bitchface hiding away with the Beast and thus it took them longer to find him, whereas if she hadn't been so single-minded about her own revenge, she could've worked *with* the others to help them defeat the Beast much earlier. Once again, thanks a BUNCH, Julia!), so she does what her brother did and gives herself completely over to the magic which engulfs her in blue flames as she screams, but just as the Beast is about to off Quentin, the now Neffin!Alice appears, grabs hold of the Beast’s hand and then he’s begging for her mercy - which she’s fresh out of, as she literally rips his chest open to release all the moths that reside inside, thereby apparently killing him. Alas, Niffins are bad news and after saving Quentin, Niffin!Alice is gearing up to off him next (along with Margo & Eliot), so Quentin is forced to release his cacodemon (they all got one which reside in tattoos in their backs. I know Alice released hers because she felt sorry for it being imprisoned inside her. I forget what happened exactly to Margo & Eliot’s, but I have a vague recollection of theirs fighting each other for some reason). Anyway, it’s basically Quentin giving Neffin!Alice the ‘Old Yeller’ treatment, there’s an explosion after the cacodemon attacks her and all that’s left is her lifeless open-eyed corpse. Kudos to Jason Ralph for selling Quentin’s anguish over having to kill the love of his life (that’s right, Ghoulia, it’s NOT YOU!). It’s even more of a tragedy because Q & A (see what they did there with their names?) were finally reconciling after that whole Quentin-having-a-threesome-with-Margo-and-Eliot thing last season, which it had taken umpteen episodes for Alice to finally start forgiving him for (not that I blame her for being slow with the forgiveness). So, naturally, just as it looked like they’d get back together...he’s forced to kill her. If you’re keeping score of Ghoulia’s sins thus far this season - her leaving everyone for dead, threatening Quentin and the others if they killed the Beast before she had him kill Reynard, getting Marina killed after using her as bait to attract Reynard, HESITATING when she *finally* got to do what she’d been screwing everyone else over to get (ie. kill Reynard), being indirectly responsible for Alice's death (by not letting her kill the Beast when she originally could’ve), and then after she learns Alice died, Ghoulia’s acting all ‘woe is me’ by whining about how everyone blames her for Alice’s death (that’s because it *is* your fault, hag!). She’s SO unselfaware that she doesn’t even get that everything she’s done was WRONG and is now looking for sympathy because of how everyone is (justifiably) treating her. But, hey, that’s not enough. She also tore off the bracelets Penny got given (I think because he boned Anne Dudek’s teacher character? I forget exactly) that were keeping his out-of-control hands in check - clearly not caring that his hands could harm himself or others against his will - because he wouldn’t tell her something she wanted to know (I think that was the reason, anyway). As if Quentin killing Alice wasn’t heartbreaking enough, we see him crawling across the ground (his massive shoulder wound the least of his concerns) and sobbing over her body (once again, kudos to Jason Ralph for his performance) until Eliot gently comforts him. Once back at their castle, Eliot & Margo discuss building a statue to honour Alice and it was here that I found Margo somewhat unlikeable, since she acts as though Alice was never their friend (whereas I’d thought last season she’d actually come to genuinely like Alice, so this felt like a betrayal of that pseudo-friendship I’d believed they had formed). Meanwhile, Quentin’s getting fixed up by a centaur and receives a wooden shoulder to replace his ruined one (it’s then painted over with flesh). After Penny hears of Alice’s death, he tries to offer his sympathies to Quentin in his own Penny kind of way. Unfortunately, this amounts to basically “That sucks.” and I could understand causing Quentin to lose it at him. Maybe next time if you can’t come up with something better to say, Penny, don’t say anything at all? At least Quentin gets to work out some of his resentment towards Penny when he asks Quentin to chop his hands off again (since they’re going haywire and are a danger to both Penny and everyone else - THANKS AGAIN, JULIA!). They learn of the ‘White Lady’ of Fillory who can grant wishes, Penny instructs Quentin on how to shoot arrows (he’s about as good at shooting as Tobias Menzies’ character was at shooting a flaming arrow onto a funeral boat in Season 2 of Game of Thrones), they journey into the forest (it was quite evident that the actor playing Penny just had bandages wrapped around his hands and no effort was made to have it look like his arms were shorter after his hands were supposedly cut off since they still dangle well below his waist) and become stoned - this drags on for WAY too long. Eventually they find the White Lady who looks somewhat faun-ish in appearance and is played by Emma Dumont who I last saw as Polaris when watching Season 1 of my The Gifted DVDs (unfortunately, that was the only season of the show ever released here). She’d impressed me in that show and she did so again here (though I wouldn’t have even known it was her in all that makeup/prosthetics if I hadn’t noticed her name in the guest-starring credits for the episode. Hell, I didn't even realise that it was her on the cover of my Season 2 Blu-rays until it came to this scene and eventually I realised. For some reason I'd thought it was a male creature of some description when I first bought the Blu-rays ages ago. Sorry, Emma!). Like everyone else in this show, she seems to be fond of the ‘F’ word (seriously, couldn’t some of the characters in the show not be so foul-mouthed? It kinda loses impact when ALL of them - even mystical Fillory creatures - swear like sailors). and informs Quentin that she can’t resurrect the dead (since, naturally, his one wish was for her to bring Alice back after he managed to shoot her in the...was it her butt or the leg? I forget). Penny wishes for his hands back, which she *can* do, but this proves very painful and she silences him because she’s sick of hearing his screaming (which I can sympathise with, since there are certain screaming individuals around where I live who I wish *I* could silence just like that). Quentin then wastes his wish by asking her to send him home (dude, you could’ve just travelled there yourself as you’ve been doing since you first came to Fillory. Use your wish for something you CAN’T do!) and once he’s back in the normal world, he dumps his bow & arrows in a bin. It’s sad seeing Quentin so disillusioned with the fantasy world he’d loved so much prior to visiting there. Though whoever finds his archery gear will think it's Christmas (especially if it's some kid). Other things going on - Eliot's stuck in Fillory having sex with his wife when he'd rather be boning guys (oh, POOR YOU!!!) and she's not really up for the orgy that he suggests. He's also concerned about the others leaving him behind since they can travel to and from Fillory, whilst he can't because he had to give that up (as well as any other partners) when he married her as part of a deal to help them defeat the Beast (I think) last season. He does create a golem version of himself (thanks to Margo, who has experience with such things after the Margolem last season) and *it* is able to go back to the real world and bone guys whilst real Eliot's screwing his wife in Fillory at the same time. That was weird. Julia continues being the most selfish person ever, not even bothering to seek out Kady (who she last saw when being raped) until she needs something from her. Disappointingly, she and Kady become 'best bitches' (complete with half-heart necklaces). Even *more* disappointing was watching Margo’s stand-off with Julia where Margo came off second best. I was cheering her on when she was telling Julia off for all the shit she’d pulled, but then Julia made a comment about how what she needed didn’t concern Margo’s hair, so therefore it’s not important to her (or somesuch), she then had the audacity to make out that MARGO was selfish/self-involved (hello? Pot, meet kettle!) and blamed her and the others for ruining their chance to kill Reynard and the Beast. The hypocrisy here is ASTOUNDING. She then seems to actually wound Margo by telling her she hasn’t really got ‘friends’, just people afraid of her. I HATED seeing Ghoulia be the one to win this war of words when Margo’s the type of character who should be able to win a verbal sparring match. Once again it felt like the writers *had* to have Julia ‘win’ (though at least Margo pointed out to her that she has NO friends and that’s what she deserves. Too bad she then gave Julia the book she was after, as that kind of undercut her final words). How’d Ghoulia know she needed a book? She briefly brought Marina back to life just to extract the necessary info out of her even as undead Marina was begging her not to send her back to the world of the dead or whatever - but, hey, once you’ve served your purpose to Julia, she discards you (Marina should’ve known that). Oh, and we learn that Julia and her coven of idiots brought Reynard to Earth...so once again THANKS FOR THAT, JULIA. She learns she’s pregnant with a rape baby, basically jumps ahead of the queue by either playing on sympathies or blackmail (I forget which - though knowing Julia, it’s probably the latter), then gets the abortionist killed because Reynard’s child won’t allow itself to be killed (either that or Reynard himself mojo’d it so it wouldn’t be killed) and the woman gouges herself in the eye with one of the tools she was going to use (I’m guessing this was the writer of the episode making a statement about where they stand regarding abortion - ie. they’re against it - so naturally the abortionist had to die. Meanwhile, you’re FINE with turning cats INSIDE OUT?!). How many people’s deaths does this make Julia responsible for now? I’ve lost count. It just occurred to me that this review is becoming exceedingly long and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to fit everything in (since Proboards apparently has a word limit for posts - which I learned when trying to do a review for the last season of Riverdale that I watched), so I guess I’ll have to summarise the rest of the season. I forgot to mention there’s a scene-stealing tree sloth named Abigail who screeches advice which an interpreter translates for the main characters. She’s not the only talking animal, though, as there’s also a rabbit that announces Eliot’s wife being pregnant (pregnancy tests in Fillory are bizarre) and probably other talking animals I’ve forgotten about. Things improved somewhat when Neffin!Alice returned (that happened at the end of the episode which I missed seeing on account of falling asleep), albeit just in Quentin’s head. She bugs him and is snarky towards him (though amusingly so). She’s not the real Alice at all and wants her freedom, but will settle for possessing Quentin’s body for a period of time. He keeps refusing until he *needs* her when everyone’s come together to do a magic heist because of - you guessed it - JULIA. I couldn’t believe for a second that any of them (except maybe Quentin, since he’s clearly her bitch) would ever team up with the one who got most of them killed. The writers really go out of their way to make these characters who should HATE her somehow forgive and/or sympathise with her. It’s complete crap and I hated seeing Eliot being nice to her while at the same time essentially telling Quentin to move on from Alice. Anyway, I totally missed the part where Julia somehow gained some grey fat creature with a bag over its head as some sort of bodyguard that was supposed to keep her safe (that’s right, even mystical creatures are falling over themselves to PROTECT this person who doesn’t deserve protection). As comes with the territory of being around Julia, it dies (protecting her from another invisible creature) - so chalk up another casualty to Ghoulia (how I wish fat grey bagman had just let Mr. Invisible Monster strangle her to death like it almost managed to do before being interrupted). As you’d expect, the heist goes awry. I have to say I wasn’t fussed on this episode at all. Margo took on a really weird exaggerated accent when laying out how the heist would go down (was she supposed to be imitating someone?), Penny was awesome when her referred to Julia as a 'psychopath'...but then instantly changed his mind about not wanting to work with her (which made me think less of him) and there was some really weird discussion prior to the heist about gaining the necessary thumbprints from people required to get into the vault or whatever it was (which involved doing magic and literally getting the person’s finger). It was all very confusing. Oh, and Eliot’s golem gets killed when they’re making their escape during the heist. I HATED seeing Julia in Alice’s bedroom (she has no right to be in there!) where she was still playing the victim regarding everyone holding her responsible for her actions and *still* didn't get that what she did was wrong. There’s some really bizarre editing in this show, where it’ll cut away from characters virtually mid-sentence or at really odd points during scenes that makes it feel as though parts of the scene have been cut out. It’s quite jarring. Anyway, at some point Julia got her abortion but then Kady informed her there was a complication and she’s lost her ‘shade’ (the Beast had told her about it in the first episode of the season) which is like her heart. HA! AS IF Julia even has such a thing! For whatever reason, being shade-less makes her seem more chipper and carefree at the start of the episode, but we soon learn it’s just made her more psycho than she already was when she ends up committing tree genocide by tricking a race of tree people (dryads) into taking a bomb from her. Why did she do this? Because one of them was rude to her and Kady. So, naturally, in Julia’s mind this warranted MASS MURDER. But this shouldn’t come as a shock since totally unbalanced punishments for people who insult Julia is nothing new (just look at what she did to Quentin in Season 1 when he made some mean comment towards her). To top things off, it sounds like the trees are gonna wage war over this - so let’s all give Julia a round of applause for setting off a WAR. Kind of makes Margo’s almost doing something similar seem not so bad by comparison; as at least she averts that (it was because she mouthed off to the son of some royal or whatever). Obviously we’re meant to think Julia is 'badass' as she walks away from the burning tree people with that annoying smugly smirking face of hers, but it actually had the opposite effect and illustrated just how irredeemable she is (not that the writers think so, obviously). I forget the details of why (I think it might be because the golem of himself died), Eliot becomes gravely ill/is dying himself, so Margo has to make a deal with the fairies to fix him and/or the wellspring (which got FUBAR'd thanks to Ember taking a dump in it towards the beginning of the season because...he just felt like it? I swear, sometimes these writers just write the most random - in this case literal - shit) and the only thing these creepy fairy folk are willing to accept in exchange for fixing things is the child that Eliot’s wife is pregnant with. Margo makes the deal while Eliot’s out of commission, and sure, it’s a shitty thing to do...but she’s still not even CLOSE to being at the same level as Julia when it comes to doing shitty things. When Margo referred to herself as a ‘c*nt’ because of what she’d done, all I could think was that, "No, you're not, Margo. Julia is.", as that’s the only word strong enough to describe her. There was one good moment in amongst all the crap and that was Eliot, Margo and the rest of the court busting into song (Les Misérables to be exact) when marching out in preparation of Eliot fighting the father of the brat Margo offended in hand-to-hand combat. It was a well-done musical sequence (I especially liked Margo mentioning to Eliot how she'd skipped over some lyrics that weren't relevant to their particular situation - reminded me of Willow's 'meta' line in the BtVS musical episode where she sang "I think this line is mostly filler."). Sadly, everything that follows is pretty boring and/or annoying. Eliot fights the guy (Leonard Roberts, who I always think of as Riley's friend from BtVS, but he was also in Heroes and a bunch of other things I've watched) until he loses the magic from the sword (which was doing all the fighting for him, I guess), then he runs and hides in a tree until they bond over wanting to be with guys rather than their wives and apparently there’s a rule in Fillory that says Kings can have both? So, now they're getting married. Yeah, it makes about as little sense as it sounds. Neffin!Alice is still bargaining for more time in Quentin’s body and offs some snake-girl at a sandpit (but she was evil, as far as I could tell, so it’s fine). During that one part of an episode I fell asleep during, I guess we learned Reynard has a son, and we now meet him - he’s adult and played by Christopher Gorham (who’ll always be Evil Henry from Harper’s Island to me) and he’s a senator who doesn’t know about his powers but unintentionally unleashes them when he gets mad (he also learns he's unintentionally been mind-controlling people when he thought it was just natural charm or whatever). Honestly, my memory regarding this point in the season is pretty vague since I was rather bored. Though I *do* recall yet another shitty thing Julia did in her long list of shitty things. There’s some protective barrier at Brakebills, Reynard storms the place and Julia shoves Quentin through the protective barrier so that he will release Neffin!Alice to kill Reynard (I think?). So, yeah, once again she’s basically sacrificing her ‘best friend’ just to achieve her own selfish goals. Quentin, naturally, won’t release Neffin!Alice and he looks done-diddly-done for, but then luckily for him (and no thanks to Julia) Reynard’s son shows up and he disappears with him instead of killing Quentin. Reynard ends up offing his son’s wife in his typical gruesome fashion (though thankfully we’re not subjected to actually seeing the act itself...it’s just heavily implied by his description of her being ‘here and there’ and the ear in a box that he gifts his son). He wants his offspring to be evil like him, but he refuses to be and instead has Kady kill him. She FINALLY gets a clue that Julia sucks and tells her off/locks her up. Unfortunately, the school’s Dean (who became a regular castmember this season along with the actress who plays Kady) is like all the others who are Julia’s bitches and FREES her after she’s hardly spent anytime locked up, clearly playing favourites and singing her praises that makes me BARF. Everyone just accepts this and clearly Julia’s learned nothing, suffered *no* punishment for her actions and it’s just so ENRAGING seeing her be given chance after chance even after continually doing shitty things to people she claims are her ‘friends’. Penny faces the consequences of having signed a contract to get magic back that said he’d have to serve in the magical library for a million years or something like that (the way he exclaims this when he’s reading it cracked me up). The main librarian chick who we’ve seen there from time to time since Season 1 is played by an actress most would recognise from the second Tobey Maguire Spider-Man film as the daughter of Peter’s landlord who had a crush on him (I mean *she* had a crush on Peter, not the landlord). She’s quite memorable here as Zelda. Far less likeable is the irritating kid Penny gets stuck with as his ‘supervisor’. Thankfully, she seems doomed and seems to know it. I guess she dies as she predicted she would? I wasn’t really paying attention since she annoyed me. There was a ‘Poison Room’ where all the most dangerous books were kept and that was the one place where a book could be found to kill a god (which is what they need to do to make everything right in Fillory again). Once Penny and the brat broke in, it delivered on its name (THE POISON ROOM) and poisoned them. Penny’s in magic hospital and hasn’t much time left. Meanwhile, Julia has her MILLIONTH chance to off Reynard with a god-killing bullet she acquired at some point, but ONCE AGAIN hesitates and this gives that lady god she and her idiot coven thought they were praying to last season the chance to show up and ask her NOT to kill Reynard/her son - which Julia agrees to - and they both vanish. If this really is Reynard’s ‘ending’, this has got to be THE MOST UNSATISFYING THING EVER. After watching an entire season of Julia fuck everyone over to kill him, we don’t even *get* that? DIAF, show! Quentin did end up freeing Neffin!Alice in the end (though I’m glad he didn’t do it to serve Julia’s goals by being forced into it and made his own choice to free her instead). She eventually returns and isn’t quite the Alice we knew, but isn’t as ‘bad’ as Neffin!Alice was either (there was this whole side-plot with them retrieving Julia’s ‘shade’ from the underworld, where it manifested as her child self, and they also ran into Alice’s child self...so they took her with them as well and this is what more or less brought ‘real’ Alice back, I think. I’m skimming over the details here). There was one part where Quentin talked to an Alice from one of the previous time loops where he’d died but she’d survived and this scene was really well-acted between Jason Ralph & Olivia Taylor Dudley (speaking of, she was fun as Neffin!Alice but it was good to get more or less the ‘real’ Alice back). Oh, I forgot...there was also a dragon (who, like everyone else in this show - except for maybe Zelda - dropped F-bombs). I’m skipping over a lot of stuff, but the season final began with Ember doing an amusing recap of the series thus far. Though I was glad when he eventually got offed near the end of the episode since I hadn’t really found him as amusing as the show had obviously *wanted* me to all season. And I was glad that Quentin got to be the one to end him - though, annoyingly, Julia helped by distracting him because OF COURSE she got to be in on the action while Eliot and Margo didn’t. All poor Margo got to do was get Eliot’s wife and her baby back in exchange for one of her eyes. I’m glad she didn’t have it stabbed out or something like I was expecting when I first saw pictures of her with an eyepatch ages ago, long before I ever started my rewatch of this show. Her eye's just not there anymore. I guess this is her ‘penance’ for the deal she’d made regarding Eliot’s wife and their child...but how come JULIA doesn’t have to do any penance for her many sins, huh?! As if to rub it in, the episode ends with Ghoulia revealing to Quentin (who she claims is the *only* one she trusts - gee, what an 'F.U.' to all the others she screwed over and yet they helped her when she needed it) that she still has magic (basically that of Jubilee’s powers from the X-Men...only lamer) after Alice and Quentin hooked up again (thanks to him winning her over with greasy bacon and sex) and he informed her he’d offed Ember, which she then read him the riot act for since killing gods has CONSEQUENCES and we see this is indeed true as literal magic plumbers turn magic OFF like they’re turning off faucets (because the show has become so unimaginative at this point it just goes for the literal). No more magic (except for JULIA, of course) is our big ‘cliff-hanger’ ending, but I can’t say I’m in any hurry to watch Season 3. I’m just not in the mood for sitting through more seasons of FUCKING JULIA. UGH. Most of the other characters are varying degrees of likeable, but she just *ruins* the entire show for me and I can’t even skip over her scenes since the writers insist on making her an integral part of the story. It’s become so intolerable at this point that I think I’m just going to have to take a break from the show for a while. Instead I’ll watch one of my shows on DVD where I like ALL the characters and there’s no one who’s constantly making me want to STAB the screen.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Mar 10, 2023 2:43:27 GMT -5
Finished Season 4 of Magnum P.I. on DVD. {Spoiler}After watching the first two seasons of The Magicians, I felt like watching a show where one of the main castmembers didn't fill me with stabby feelings whenever they appeared on screen. Thankfully, no one in the main cast of this show enrages me so much, thus I was able to sit back and enjoy it. I was surprised by how quickly Higgins’ relationship with Ethan, who she met and got involved with last season, seemed to be basically donezo within the first few episodes of this season. We saw them chatting via computer, he was stuck where he was working for 6 months more than originally planned, then that was basically it. It was pretty much a given that any ‘love interests’ for either Higgins or Magnum were just temporary ‘roadblocks’ on the way towards ‘Miggins’ (I was amused that this ‘ship’ name actually got a mention in the show - though I thought fans dubbed them ‘Miggy’?), which meant that the same was going to happen with Magnum’s detective g/f he had this season. While I thought she was fine (and I did appreciate that she and Higgins actually got along, as petty hatred between the woman who’s with Magnum and the one who secretly wanted to be but didn’t yet realise it would’ve just been tiresome and, quite frankly, insulting. So at least they had the maturity to actually be *nice* to each other, and not just in some forced sort of way), she wasn't particularly interesting and certainly didn't have that 'spark' with Magnum that Higgins has. There was also a whole plot with Higgins getting involved with MI-6 again (at least I think that's who it was) after she'd screwed up and was basically blackmailed into doing their bidding. I was glad we didn't have to wait too long for that whole plotline to be resolved, as I wasn't really into it. Higgins works best when she's working with Magnum and vice versa. I noticed this season (at least in the first few episodes) that Higgins seemed to be calling Magnum ‘Thomas’ a lot more, so that was one sign that she was letting herself feel ‘closer’ to him than she had previously. I do find that when Magnum’s by himself, while he gets to maybe *do* a bit more, he’s nowhere near as entertaining as when he is with Higgins. It’s their playing-off-each other that makes the show entertaining. However, I do also enjoy seeing Higgins interact with the other characters. She and Kumu are always good together (I loved hearing Kumu expressing her appreciation for Higgins' impressive arms) and it was nice to see Higgins interacting with Kumu’s stepdaughter, Maleah, at one point when they were exercising. Shame this apparent friendship didn't receive more screentime/development. We even got a bit of Higgins & Rick, I think (though not nearly enough, imho). I do like that Katsumoto has a slightly 'softer' spot for Higgins than he does for Magnum, where he obviously expects more from her (though that's not to say he doesn’t get angry at her at times like he does with Magnum - I think he’s pretty fair when he reads them the riot act if they’ve done something he disapproves of, and there was some of that this season. I don't think we can make it through one season without it). The one dynamic I feel could be explored a bit more is Higgins and TC, since I can’t remember them having many (if any) one-on-one scenes together. As usual, the Magnum/Higgins dynamic is the main reason I enjoy the show, and they had their typical banter this season...but I don’t think she was as ‘mean’ to him as she had been in the past. It was fun getting to see Higgins don various disguises (and even put on a very obviously fake Southern accent at one point). She seemed to get more into that stuff this season. I especially enjoyed the Christmas episode where she spent a good percentage of the time in her ‘Santa’s Helper’ getup until Magnum eventually brought her a change of clothing. I was also amused by her ‘Higgy pudding’ (which didn’t really look very appetizing and I would’ve loved to have seen everyone’s reactions to tasting it). Another good bit in that particular episode was after some girl was a brat to Magnum-dressed-as-Santa, he took down a criminal or suspect or whatever and turned to the kid, saying “I told you there was a naughty list.” (after she’d doubted such a thing existed), which clearly freaked her out a bit. That was quite satisfying. While we got to see more of ‘fun Higgins’, at the same time we got to see ‘ruthless Magnum’ in one episode where he was poisoned and had to do the bidding of the Yakuza to get the antidote (which, of course, they were never going to give to him). I remember there was some good dialogue/exchanges in this episode (one part where he was told ‘Don’t get caught’ and he responded with something like ‘Thanks for that, because I was totally planning to get caught’ - that was the type of comment I always utter whenever a character in a show tells another character something obvious). The ‘ruthlessness’ came after when he delivered the guy who was responsible for everything and left him to be tortured and then executed. We also got to see Magnum’s smarts on display, as he talked his way out of winding up dead himself. Rick & TC had their own separate stuff going on this season. Can’t say I was fussed on Rick impregnating his sort-of g/f (were they even officially a thing?) and that whole storyline. He got to help out Magnum and TC on the rare occasion, but there was far less of them together this season, which was unfortunate. On the plus side, I did feel the show finally gave the character of TC something worthwhile to do besides fly his helicopter, doing favours for Magnum. He ended up coming to look after a kid whose mum had died from a drug overdose (I think) and didn’t have any family until after TC had started the process of adopting him (then a grandmother, who hadn’t even known about him, suddenly turned up. I thought for sure the kid would end up going to live with her, but that wasn’t the case...at least not yet). The actor who plays TC got to have some good emotional moments and, miraculously, I didn't find the kid *too* annoying. I still can’t say I’m particularly fond of the other member of their group who comes and goes - Shammy. I just feel he’s a bit of a drag and doesn’t have the same ‘energy’ to him as the rest of the cast. I’m never invested in anything he has going on. While I know the character of Jin isn’t well-loved by many, he doesn’t bother me too much and I even find him somewhat amusing on occasion. Though this season I was on the verge of turning against him when he fed Higgins’ dogs CHOCOLATE (like, HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE?!). Still, I find him more entertaining than Shammy, at least. Speaking of ‘the lads’, there was far too little of Higgins’ dogs this season, I thought. There were some recogniseable guest stars, the one I liked the most being Brooke Nevin as a woman who had a ‘meet-cute’ (*shudder* I can’t believe I just used/typed out that cringe-worthy term ) with someone who turned out to not be quite what they seemed and she enlisted Miggins’ help in finding him. I know her from so many other things that I’ve seen her in previously and I just always find her so darn likeable. The season final was a pretty decent episode which focused on Katsumoto and his wife being kidnapped, he had to help a prisoner escape in exchange for her life and David Anders (Sark from Alias) guest-starred as the baddie of the episode. There was a fairly good shootout towards the end and Tim Kang got to show off his dramatic chops (whereas usually it’s just him looking disapproving of Magnum and/or Higgins’ actions). What I had originally thought was going to be in last season’s final when I watched it actually ended up being this season final - which was the now infamous ‘bad fake sunset’ scene where they FINALLY confessed their feelings for each other. The show had really amped up having all the other characters telling these two that they were ‘meant to be’ (whereas previous seasons it hadn’t felt quite so heavy-handed to me). I guess maybe because the show thought it might be cancelled (which I believe it was...until it *wasn't* anymore), they went all-in and put the characters together at long last in case this really was the end of the series. Luckily for them, it scored at least two more seasons. So, next season it’ll be a matter of seeing how Magnum & Higgins deal with the fallout of this mutual declaration of feelings - which I thought was well-done (or should I say it was well-performed by the actors, just like I thought Perdita Weeks did a good job in the scene with Higgins' therapist an episode before where she came to the realisation of her feelings for Magnum). Even though it felt a bit awkward, I think it was supposed to be awkward for them since declaring their feelings for each other was never going to be something that came easy to either of them. Will it screw up their dynamic? I’ll have to wait until Season 5’s eventually released here to find out (which probably won’t be until either the end of this year or start of next year - which is around the time this season was finally released).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Mar 15, 2023 4:57:44 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of Superman & Lois on Blu-ray. It’d been a fair while since I watched Season 1, so I’d forgotten some stuff. I did remember how last season ended, however, and this season picked up right where that left off. Sadly, my fears regarding John Henry Irons’ daughter from another world, Natalie, were confirmed pretty much straight away with her attitude towards the Kents, but especially Clark. I kept waiting for someone to point out to her that the Superman who killed her mum (ie. another version of Lois) on her Earth WASN’T this Superman. I think it took a while before her father eventually did, but why’d it take him so long, why’d he only say it once (when it clearly didn’t get through) and why did nobody else say it until she finally woke up and accepted this fact? It was *not* a good way to start this character off by having her hold Clark responsible for the actions of an alternate-verse Clark/Superman. It would be like if there were identical twins and one committed a murder while the other never harmed ANYBODY, knew nothing about their sibling's actions and yet was held responsible for them. Sound reasonable/fair? I DON’T THINK SO. Maybe if she were a 10 year-old or younger, her behavior would be understandable. But she’s a frickin’ TEENAGER and is pretty ‘mature’ in every other sense, but acts like a child in regards to this man who DID NOTHING WRONG. As evidence of just what a decent guy Clark is, he’s totally accepting of this stranger, invites her and her dad to live with them, he’s paying for their food and everything they use (which, by the way, a fair percentage of which is wasted after Lois goes to the trouble of making a huge breakfast to welcome Natalie and only *then* does she bother to mention she’s vegan. Like, maybe make your special dietary needs known as soon as you start living there so food isn’t wasted?). Lois tries her best, after feeling guilty for something SHE NEEDN’T FEEL GUILTY FOR. So she didn’t have an emotional reaction to the sight of Natalie when she first arrived... and? Why should she be expected to when it’s someone she’s never met before? I hated that she felt guilt over this and APOLOGISED for it when seeing someone she'd never met before/had no connection to whatsoever. It was also disappointing to see her take her guilt out on Clark, since they worked so well together as a married couple last season and I hated seeing them fighting. Thankfully, that just lasted the one episode (though they still had arguments here and there this season). It was ridiculous for Lois to feel bad for something she shouldn’t have felt bad for, but even worse was Natalie treating Clark like a bad guy when all he’d done was try to make her life on this world easier for her by giving her a place to stay with her dad. Then at one stage her dad got injured when going to help Superman in a fight and, of course, this just added fuel to the flame as she yet again blamed CLARK, even though (as her own dad pointed out to her) he made his *own* choice to go help Clark. He’s a GROWN-ASS MAN, Clark didn’t ‘make’ him do anything. This is what friends *do* - they help each other out when one of them is in trouble. And, oh yeah, your dad tried to kill Clark last season (if I remember correctly), so you can STFU with all your blaming Clark for your dad getting hurt, Bratalie! If you want to blame someone, blame either your dad for putting himself in danger (though that too would be a shitty thing to do) or maybe blame the one who actually *hurt* him - Ie. Bizarro Superman. Despite all her misplaced hatred for Clark, we actually had to listen to him excusing it, saying she was ‘right’/’had a point’ (um...NO SHE DIDN’T) and even after everything, he was nice enough to give them another place to stay that was elsewhere (actually, it was a friend’s place. So, he finds them a new home which they don’t even have to PAY for on top of everything else) and thus he was spared from being further subjected to Bratalie’s stinkeye. It seemed like she was even angry at Lois (who had even LESS to do with what happened than Clark did). Anyway, the episodes I enjoyed the most this season were the ones with NO Bratalie in them (though, unfortunately, since she’s tied to her dad, that meant no JHI in the eps either. He was fine. I would’ve been happy if just he had appeared in the episodes, but sadly now it appears they’re a ‘package deal’ and we can’t have one without the other). Funny how she seemed to get along with Lana’s eldest daughter, Sarah, as well as Clark and Lois’s sons, Jon and Jordan. If you can blame someone for something simply because they look like the person responsible, why not blame their sons too? Makes about as much sense (ie. NONE). As infuriating as she was with her misplaced blame, even worse were those whose comments I saw online that were on her side and defending her crappy behaviour. Does NOBODY ELSE get how messed up it is to hate someone for the actions of someone else? In what world can this possibly be considered 'okay'? Despite all evidence to the contrary, it was crystal clear that we the audience were supposed to think she was the BESTEST KID EVER, as we were hit over the head with her 'specialness' in the form of various characters repeatedly telling her how ‘awesome’ she was after hardly even spending any time with her. Lois forming an opinion of her as a person after literally only seeing her for a moment and then being ignored/avoided by her for ages before finally getting to sit down with her was a prime example of characters just telling us how ‘great’ she was without any *proof* to back up this praise. Personally, all I saw was someone who was rude to the people who did nothing but try to HELP her. By the last third of the season, the writers finally had her do something useful by aiding her dad in fighting the Big Bad...which kind of made her a hypocrite since she'd given Clark shit for getting her dad involved, and then she was bitching at her father to let *her* be involved. When she said “The world needs Superman.”, I scoffed (considering this was the total opposite of her opinion at the start of the season). Don’t know why they bothered having her ‘gift’ Jon with the suit she’d built when he never got to use it and instead she did. Who the hell gives a gift to someone and then doesn’t let them use it and uses it themselves? The only times I found her tolerable was when she was interacting with Sarah or the Kent boys. She was pretty annoying with everyone else (including her own dad). So, suffice to say she was my LEAST favourite among the ‘teen’ characters in the show. Compared to her, the Kent boys weren’t that bad...though they did have their moments of being annoying as well. I suppose after being the ‘good’ kid last season (from what I can recall), it was inevitable that Jon would eventually screw up this season - which he did in a MAJOR way by taking space steroids aka X-Kryptonite via inhaler (I’m still not even sure what the deal is with X-K other than it makes regular humans super strong/gives them powers like Superman). Him covering for his drug-supplying g/f seemed to go on FOREVER (seriously, it felt like every scene was just “Tell us who you’re covering for.”, “I can’t!” repeated over and over and over again). Eventually he came clean and THANK GOODNESS for that. I think his parents reacted pretty reasonably considering their kid was taking drugs. I know some felt they were ‘too harsh’ (no doubt mainly Jon fans after seeing him break down when he finally realised how much he’d screwed up/disappointed his parents, but especially his dad - who, y’know, is SUPERMAN - as made clear by the fact that Clark cussed, which is something Superman would *never* normally do). Still, despite Jon royally messing up this season, he had some really good moments where he was a good brother and son. I also think out of the two actors who play the Kent kids, the one playing Jon is the ‘stronger’ of the two...so it was rather disappointing to learn a while back that he was exiting the show and being recast. As for Jordan, I remembered that he annoyed the shit out of me last season, so this season I was surprised to find him more tolerable. Still, he had his instances of brattiness and his obsession with his g/f, Sarah, verged on stalkery behavior at times (constantly calling her phone, hounding her about things, choosing inappropriate times to present her with letters expressing his undying love for her, etc). While some hated Sarah for her beaviour towards him, I was willing to cut her some slack those times he was coming on a bit too strong. That’s not to say she didn’t screw up as well. We learned that while she was away at camp, she kissed a girl (and liked it!), which it took a while for her to confess to Jordan. We met this friend of hers she'd snogged (who just in one episode was far more likeable a character - and played by a better actress – than Natalie was in ALL of her episodes) and although Sarah trying to get all three of them together to hang out was clearly awkward (everyone but her seemed to realise this), she kept good to her promise that there was nothing else going on and she remained loyal to Jordan. Even when she broke up with him late into the season, it made sense given how he’d seemingly disappear on her and not show up when he promised to. It made him seem flaky. Then when she eventually learned the truth about him (which I was surprised by when it happened), it all finally made sense to her and she said outright to her mum that if she’d known his secret, she would’ve understood what he’d been up to and would’ve never dumped him. I liked her interaction with her mum and dad (both separately and together) and finding out her dad cheated on her mum FOR SIX MONTHS at a special event for her was no doubt devastating. I think she handled it about as well as could be expected. I particularly enjoyed her reacting to all the other crazy shit she learned/that was going on in the last couple of episodes this season. It’ll be interesting seeing how she manages with all of it going forward. Regarding her dad, Kyle...I seem to recall he was a jerk last season, but then showed signs of having a bit more ‘depth’ to him and we got to explore that further this season. Heck, he even seemed likeable at times...but then this cheating reveal happened and, well, I can’t say I would’ve really cared if that had been the end of his character. I thought for sure they were setting him up to die by the end of this season, but miraculously he survived. While he and Lana are now on ‘better’ terms than they were immediately following the news of his cheating, she still hasn’t forgiven him enough that they’re back together (and I can understand that). As for Lana, I actually quite liked her most of this season. I know others were bored by her whole storyline involving running for/becoming Mayor and having to deal with the other scummy Mayoral candidate. Yeah, that stuff wasn’t overly fun, but I like the actress who plays Lana and she manages to make her more of a fully fleshed-out character than Lana on Smallville ever was. I enjoyed her interaction with her daughter (technically she has two daughters, and we did see the other one a few times this season, but she barely registers as a character to me) and especially with Clark and Lois. It was so nice not seeing any resentment whatsoever on her part regarding Lois being with Clark (since I’m fairly certain the two of them had a ‘thing’ together when they were younger). I thought the two women had a very mature friendship they developed and also, regarding Lana’s relationship with Clark, I never saw her secretly flirting with him behind Lois’s back or any shitty behavior like that...which was a relief, since so many other shows would’ve included that stuff. It’s a shame, then, that once Clark revealed his big secret to Lana...she took it not-too-well (to say the least) and turned into kind of a bitch. Blaming Clark was one thing (poor guy, he had a rough time this season, being blamed for EVERYTHING by everyone, getting his arse regularly handed to him, nearly dying, etc), but her blaming LOIS? That was some Bratalie-level BULLSHIT. I was disappointed to see a character who I’d enjoyed for most of the season suddenly become someone I didn’t much enjoy anymore. Here’s hoping she improves by next season. Clark & Lois remain the BEST part of the show. It’s so nice to see a balanced/fair, healthy married couple relationship without constant bitching going on. Yes, they had disagreements, but more often than not they continued to be one of the best parent teams on TV that I can recall in recent years. Clark is such a good guy and Tyler Hoechlin (whose facial hair as Superman wasn't something I really noticed last season, but *did* stand out to me a bit this season) continues to be the *best* Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman we’ve gotten in the last decade (unlike Cavill, he’s not some emotionless robot who people only seem to love/adore because he’s their ideal Superman in the looks department). Hoechlin gives his Clark/Superman foibles whilst maintaining his 'hero' status. Lois says it at one point after he’s had his powers taken away, that he INSPIRES - and that’s what was missing from Cavill’s version (there was nothing ‘inspiring’ about him. All he did was cause destruction porn). Hoechlin had ‘double duty’ this season, as he not only played Clark/Superman, but also Bizarro Clark/Superman. They did a good job coming up with the character’s look and Hoechlin’s performance added depth to the character who could’ve just been a one-dimensional ‘baddie’. The worst thing about Bizarro was his lame death at the hands of Anderson, the shittiest military guy in a long line of shitty military guys who make Superman’s life hell. It was funny seeing Ian Bohen once again making life hard for Tyler Hoechlin, since he played a similarly jerky character on Teen Wolf). I did think when Anderson crossed over to Bizarro World, Ian Bohen finally managed to give him a few layers...which was just before he sacrificed himself (so at least he didn’t die as one-dimensional as he’d spent the majority of the season). Elizabeth Tulloch continues to show that her previous series, Grimm, never utilised her to the best of her ability, as she’s FAR better on this show than she ever was in that one. Her Lois is tough/not to be messed with, but she has her moments of ‘lightness’, manages to amuse me at times and most of all her chemistry with Hoechlin’s Clark is what holds the show together. She’s become one of my favourite iterations of Lois Lane (SO much better than the one from the Snyderverse) and I think she’s a great female lead for the show. It wouldn’t work nearly as well if not for both her and Hoechlin being perfectly cast in their parts. It was good to see her dad not having as much animosity towards Superman this season as he seemed to last season (if I recall correctly), but instead there was family drama with the Lanes thanks to Lucy Lane, Lois’s sister, getting sucked into a cult by the season’s Big Bad. It was nice to see Jenna Dewan show up for multiple episodes. It was just too bad that her character was brainwashed for most of it, which made it hard to like her. Thankfully she came to her senses by the end and now they’re back on good terms. Speaking of that cult she got involved with, the leader of it was about as lame a villain as last season’s Big Bad was (who, btw, made several appearances this season and was more tolerable as Superman’s snarky brother than he ever was as a main villain. They had some decent interaction this season, but I did feel that Clark was way too forgiving of him. Also, Clark seemed to be very lax in his discussion of having a son in front of his captives that surely could've used this info against him). The trip to Bizarro World this season was fun, especially seeing Super-powered Jon and Lana, Lois in crazy getup and weird wigs, Jordan looking like a Goth kid and Superman being a jerk celebrity among other things. Though my FAVOURITE thing about Bizarro World? The cat! I was surprised to see two actresses I'm very familiar with (namely Elizabeth Henstridge from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which I'm currently rewatching, and Amy Jo Johnson from the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that I watched as a kid) were directors of two episodes this season. One thing that stood out in particular about Amy Jo's episode was the first scene firstly with Bizarro Superman and then later with normal Superman (and how they were shot similarly...but inverted - as were a lot of things when dealing with Bizarro World including the show's title card). I thought both ladies did a fine job with their directing. While there was quite a bit of good stuff this season (and a few not-so-good bits), the season final was...a thing that happened. Seriously, what’d Superman actually *do* to separate the two Earths from merging? From what I could see he got thrown into the sun to charge up, punched the Big Bad back into being separate people, flew around the merged planets and then delivered a solar-powered landing punch to split the planets apart again. Logic clearly went out the window at this point (and what was with someone saying to keep the two versions of the Big Bad apart...only to then stick them in the same cell *together* where they were able to hold hands? Obviously keeping them separated wasn't a top priority). I am glad that Clark took his family sailing so they could all join him in recreating his Fortress of Solitude (though how can you have 'solitude' if your whole family's with you?) in the middle of the ocean (I'm not sure how secure it’ll be there, though). I’d forgotten what happened to it last season. I do hope the hologram of his mother, Lara, will show up inside it (since we got to meet her this season via his brother’s Fortress - which, as Jordan basically said, wasn’t as impressive as his dad’s was). It took me a minute to recognise the actress playing Lara as Mariana Klaveno who played Bill’s ‘maker’, Lorena, in True Blood. I totally binged this season of the show, so I must’ve been pretty into it. But given that the part of it I liked the least clearly isn’t going anywhere and we’re stuck with her...I can’t say I’m anxiously awaiting Season 3. In fact, I think I can quite patiently await Season 3 getting released here on DVD/Blu-ray (which is just as well, as I imagine it probably won’t be until at least next year since the new season only just started airing today, I believe).
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Post by President Ackbar mini™ on Mar 26, 2023 13:14:45 GMT -5
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Post by The Rock on Apr 1, 2023 21:07:49 GMT -5
XFL!
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Apr 17, 2023 4:57:30 GMT -5
Finished Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}When watching Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery, I’d been thinking to myself I’d rather have been watching a show about Anson Mount’s Captain Pike, Ethan Peck’s now-beardless Spock (which took me a while to get used to) and Rebecca Romijn’s Number One/Una. Well, apparently others thought the same and hence this show was created (though I’d wondered if it was ever going to become a reality since it seemed to be taking its sweet time). I have to say, that while the first episode of the season showed a lot of promise...the rest of Season 1 didn’t quite deliver on what I was hoping for - which was those^ three mentioned above being at the *centre* of the show. Oh, sure, Pike and Spock got plenty of screentime/focus...but what about Una? At times it felt like she was a side character instead of one of the ‘main three’. Hell, it often felt more like The Pike, Spock & Uhura Show, which made it seem to me like a bit of a ‘bait & switch’ by the showrunners. The whole reason I’d been looking so forward to this series was because the 'main three' had stuck out so much when we first saw them together and it was that trio who I really wanted to see. While Una did get an episode focused on her (the third one), clearly she wasn’t a priority since Uhura not only got the second episode of the season focused on her, but also got another one later into the season (meanwhile, Ortegas really got shafted this season, since everybody else seemed to get an episode focused on them except her). Fastest way to turn me off a character is to have them clearly being ‘pushed’ by the writers as someone we ‘should/MUST’ like and who's clearly their favourite. Uhura was fine at times, but other times I felt she spoke too ‘modern’/was a bit OTT with her reactions. The fact that she was also being treated like the third lead of the show when it was supposed to be Una didn't exactly endear her to me either. A new character we were introduced to, La’an Noonien-Signh, seemed like she was going to be the one the show focused on, but that wasn’t quite the case (I had to look up the actress who played her because she looked vaguely familiar and I discovered she was in an episode of Doctor Who during the Matt Smith era of the show, but I would’ve never thought it was the same person if IMDB didn’t say it was even though I remembered the character she’d played). While she appeared a bit more ‘serious’ than the rest of the crew to begin with, I thought the actress did a good job of showing her character had more layers to her than just being someone who not only had the misfortune to share her last name with a renowned ST villain (I’m probably one of the only ST watchers who’s never seen The Wrath of Khan, but I know of his character from that), but was also a victim of the Gorn (lizard-people, who we *finally* got a good look at towards the end of the season and certainly appear to be a step up from the old versions which I have seen photos of. Too bad these Gorn didn't eat the annoying girl who only cared about herself and cost various crewmembers their lives, yet suffered no consequences for her actions. Those poor, poor doomed cadets. I *knew* they were screwed right from their very first scene). I liked seeing a ‘lighter’ side to La’an when she hung out with Una and the fun they had discovering 'Enterprise Bingo' (well...'fun' until La'an shot Una, of course). I enjoyed their friendship. I also liked the mentor/mentee relationship that was set up between La'an and Pike in the first episode (it’s a shame they didn’t really follow through with that as much as they could’ve). I was bummed when it seemed she was leaving the show in the second-last episode, but hopefully she’ll be sticking around. Another new character who I found almost immediately likeable was Nurse Chapel (again, someone I wasn’t familiar with beforehand, having never seen the show her character originally appeared in). She had an ‘energy’ about her in the first episode that made her stand out from the rest and I got a laugh out of her injecting some person who’d been beamed aboard and then escaped from sickbay but she managed to catch up with after he’d shared a pleasant conversation in the lift with Uhura and Chapel just suddenly appeared, injecting him twice with the hypospray twice - her line/reaction amused me. It’s unfortunate that as the season went on, the writers felt they had to set up a ‘love triangle’ between her, Spock and the Vulcan he got engaged to - though considering how boring I found all the scenes with just those two, I was actually fine with Chapel & Spock since at least she wasn’t as snooze-worthy in scenes with him as T’Pring was. Having said that, I think there was more to be explored with Chapel than just her feelings for Spock (and although he maintained otherwise after they had to pretend to be lovers in one episode, it’s clear he *does* have feelings for her too). Hopefully next season it’s not just about the ‘love triangle’ and she has more to do, since she was one of the characters I liked the most this season. I know Ortegas annoyed some with her way of talking to the Captain, but I didn’t mind her. I thought it showed that she had clearly formed such an easy-going relationship with him that he didn’t mind the things she said. And considering that pirate impression he did, he’s got NO business having a problem with how Ortegas acts around him. While this was a rare instance of Pike being cringey, it was worth it for Una’s “Please stop.” - though it appeared Rebecca Romijn was trying hard not to laugh, whereas I just felt secondhand embarrassment for Pike). Speaking of pirates, I thought the villain for that episode was decent before we learned they were actually a bad guy (which I’d unintentionally spoiled myself for), but after the 'reveal' went a bit too much into the typical/default ‘bad guy’ mode of just being snarky/sarcastic and thus not very intimidating. If this is to be a recurring villain, hopefully they tone it down a bit in the future. I did like that episode, though. However, the episode I think I enjoyed the most (since the first one) had to be the doctor-focused episode. While the doctor himself was a character who I didn’t mind, what MADE this episode was seeing everyone become characters from a story. The clear stand-outs were Pike as a sniveling wimpy character who only cared about himself and La’an becoming a pampered princess complete with little doggie that she carried around (whilst also belting out a tune – which made me cringe almost as much as Pike’s pirate impression did). They were SO fun and I’m sure the actors had a ball. The rest were entertaining too, but to a lesser degree (though I liked seeing Una as the Huntress and the hint that something more may have been going on between her and the character who Ortegas took on the persona of). I know this episode wasn’t for everyone and that some really hated it, but that’s to be expected since comedy/humour is subjective, and what some find amusing others can find horrible and vice versa. I know there have been ‘comedic’ episodes of other shows which I haven’t enjoyed but others have liked...but I liked this one. What helped was that they didn’t try to do too much of this and it was balanced by the more ‘serious’ stuff. As for the ‘main three’ (or who are SUPPOSED to be, anyway), pirate impression notwithstanding, Pike continues to be one of the most easily-likeable Captains in any ST show I’ve watched and may quite possibly be my favourite ST Captain thus far. I mainly attribute that to Anson Mount’s portrayal of the character (once again, I never saw the original version). He plays a Captain who can be ‘personable’, but stern when he needs to be without being a stick-in-the-mud/humourless, he’s fair/open to others’ ideas, but also takes risks. Most importantly...he's NOT A JERK. While we got enough interaction between him and Spock, I wish we’d gotten more with him and Una. I enjoyed their relationship/interaction, but felt she was underutilised in this first season of the show. Rebecca Romijn did the most she could with what she was given and although there wasn’t nearly enough of her character, Una still remained a fave of mine. I hope she’s not missing for too long at the start of Season 2, given she was whisked away by Pike’s g/f or whoever she's supposed to be (played by, to my surprise, Melanie Scrofano from Wynonna Earp - an actress I’ve met in person at a convention and whose show I was really annoyed to find only had the first two seasons released here on DVD/Blu-ray and no more even though the series continued on past that). Up until her hauling Una away, I’d quite liked Melanie Scrofano’s character and her interaction with Pike. Suffice to say this is probably going to put a dent in their relationship. As for Spock...I was *still* getting used to him being beardless (after I’d only just gotten used to seeing a bearded Spock). Most of the time I was thinking how his beardless face reminded me of a younger Marton Csokas (who’s been in a TON of things, but will always be Borias from Xena: Warrior Princess to me). I think Spock was pretty interesting...when he wasn’t interacting one-on-one with T’Pring (when they body-switched, I really had to pay attention to tell the differences between how they acted). I much more enjoyed his interaction with all the other characters, especially La'an. I was amused during one dream sequence he had where what is apparently the ‘classic’ fight music from the old series (though I always associate it with The Simpsons) was being played as Vulcan Spock fought a human Spock. I almost forgot to mention the character of Hemmer...which shows just how little of an impression he left on me. Like La’an, he seemed the more ‘serious’ of the crew to begin with...but unlike her, it took me a while to decide what I thought of his character. Unfortunately, he only became tolerable for me towards the end of the season (the one where they all became storybook characters was the first time I actually liked him), but by then it was too little, too late and he was killed off all in service of getting Uhura to her position on the bridge (which, btw, is still easily the most visually-appealing bridge I've seen in an ST show thus far). Someone else I almost forgot to mention is Paul Wesley's version of James T. Kirk (who appeared in the season final) - and that pretty much sums up my thoughts on his debut as the character. Although this first season of the show didn’t turn out to be quite what I was hoping, at least it was better than Star Trek: Discovery (which I only stuck with for the first three seasons because of Michelle Yeoh. With her character of Georgiou no longer in it, I've had no reason to bother with Season 4. Plus, I just recently learned one of the only remaining likeable characters in that show - Tilly - was written out during Season 4, so now I have even less reason to continue watching it than I already did, especially since the only character left who I like on it is Saru. Wonder if they'll end up offing him in Season 5 since apparently that'll be the show's last? Knowing my luck, he probably *would* be. Meanwhile, even if Georgiou and/or Tilly return for the final season, I don't think that'll be enough to get me to watch). Season 2 of Star Trek: Picard was also rather disappointing, so compared to both those other two...this one was definitely an improvement. I just hope next season they’re a bit more ‘evenly-balanced’ with giving characters screentime/storyline focus and they remember this was a show that was advertised as being about Pike, Spock and Number One (speaking of...exactly *who* is the 'official' Number One now? I'm guessing it's Una, but for a while there Pike was still calling La'an 'Number One' even after they got Una back at the start of the season). Anyway, until then I can enjoy seeing Rebecca Romijn have a much more substantial role in the TV series The Librarians, which I’m currently rewatching the first season of on DVD.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Apr 19, 2023 3:57:02 GMT -5
Finished rewatching Season 1 of The Librarians on DVD. {Spoiler}I've been rewatching the three Librarian movies starring Noah Wyle (which I bought ages ago after they were recommended to me) on Blu-ray, and at the same time have also been rewatching this first season of the TV series on DVD. Having just recently finished watching Season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds on Blu-ray, which starred Rebecca Romijn (who I felt was greatly underutilised in that show, which I found rather disappointing after the series had been created all because her character of Number One - along with Anson Mount’s Pike and Ethan Peck’s Spock - were such stand-outs in Season 2 of Star Trek: Discovery that it seemed EVERYONE was asking for a show about the three of them...yet despite Number One being one of the ‘main three’ characters, it didn’t really seem as though that was the case and I was craving more of Rebecca Romijn), I thought now was the right time to get back into The Librarians TV series - hence my rewatch of the movies and this first season of the show. Thankfully, Rebecca Romijn had a much more substantial role in this than she did in ST: SNW (considering she’s this show’s ‘lead’/’first-billed’, one would *hope* so). Not long after we're introduced to her Col. Eve Baird, she meets Noah Wyle’s Flynn Carsen, learns magic is real and is brought into the world of ‘The Librarian’ along with three others - Jake Stone (Christian Kane, who I was first introduced to as Lindsey McDonald in the BtVS spin-off, Angel, and aside from one Ashton Kutcher movie, I can’t recall having really seen him in anything else besides this show), Cassandra Cillian (Lindy Booth, who I still recall first seeing in a movie with Jared Padalecki called Cry Wolf, but most recently saw reunited with her co-star from this show, Rebecca Romijn, in Season 1 of ST: SNW for an episode...though I can't remember if they even shared any scenes together) and Ezekiel Jones (Aussie actor, John Harlan Kim - though going by just ‘John Kim’ here - who I only just discovered was in the Nancy Drew show I’ve been watching. I *thought* he looked familiar, but hadn’t put two and two together since it’d been umpteen years from when I originally watched this season of the show. It took looking at his IMDB list of credits to make the connection). What first struck me about this show was that it managed to keep the same ‘tone’ as the movies, not making things ‘too dark’, keeping the comedy, but also having a bit of drama/’seriousness’ mixed in. This was a *good* thing, as so many adaptations from movie-to-show or vice versa seem to want to ‘lighten things up’ too much or make them much ‘darker’. This was just the right mix and that helped it feel like it was set in the same universe as the films (though I kept being surprised when someone would utter the word 'shit', as I didn't really recall such a word featuring in the films - not that I was opposed to it here, as they only used it sparingly, making it unexpected when it *was* used and thus funnier than if it, as well as other cuss words, had been used more frequently). As far as the characters go, Baird quickly became a favourite of mine. I’d first seen Rebecca Romijn (when she was still ‘Rebecca Romijn-Stamos’) in the TV series Just Shoot Me! before I ever saw her as Mystique in the X-Men films, so I already knew she could do comedy since she was actually quite amusing in that sitcom and it was great to see her stretch her comedic chops even further with this show. While she played the ‘tough’ side of Baird well and was believable as the ‘muscle’ of the group (though I think her fighting skills were a bit rusty...either that or the director and/or fight choreographer weren’t doing their job right, since she looked better when fighting in the X-Men films), it was seeing her get to be funny that I really enjoyed. In a strange coincidence with ST: SNW, this was the second show I recently watched where Rebecca Romijn played a character who got stuck turning into a storybook character for an episode. In that show she became a ‘Huntress’ and in this one she became the exact opposite - a princess - with hilarious results (her princess-y laugh, which she immediately reacted to by covering her mouth in shock realisation at what was happening, was almost as funny as her hair progressively getting more ‘princess-like’ and her batting her eyelashes at Cassandra who, in a nice twist, was morphing into Prince Charming and thus attracting all the ladies...Baird included). Eventually, though, Baird became a "ninja princess" (because the little girl who was controlling all of this was able to think up such a thing) and thankfully got back to kicking arse. I was also amused by Stone becoming 'the Huntsman' and the hilarious way a bird randomly appeared on his arm between one shot and the next, Baird pointing this out to him and his reaction to it. Regarding the three Librarians-in-training, it was nice to see Christian Kane play a character who wasn't so 'serious' all of the time. Lindsey in Angel only really got to be 'fun' when he was either being bitchy with his co-worker, Lilah Morgan, at the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart or sniping at Angel. Lindsey's last episode in Season 2 of that show finally gave the actor a chance to show he was actually capable of doing physical comedy, as his reaction to Angel throttling his 'lead', whilst also wondering why Angel wasn't trying to kill him like he usually did, showed he was quite adept at such humour. I noticed throughout this season of The Librarians moments that reminded me of that funny scene from Angel. Since the actual potential Librarians already had a 'Guardian' in Baird, it was important that Stone wasn't just extra muscle. He often showed his smarts and thought of things the others didn't, making him an asset to the group. I don't know how much older Christian Kane is than the other two, but while I did think it slightly odd that this older guy was hanging out with these younger two (or at least I perceived them as being quite a bit younger - but, who knows, maybe the actors were closer to his age than I imagined? I don't feel like checking), he had good chemistry with them as well as Baird (who was more his age, I think). The absolute FUNNIEST moment from this whole first season (which I'd always remembered from back when I originally watched) was a moment between Stone & Baird which happened in the season final where Baird was hopping between alternate realities and in one of them she was Stone's Guardian, he was THE Librarian and the two of them had hooked up. I never forgot her reaction to him snogging her, as she "Nope"d away whilst waving her hand in the air. If this^ was hinting at Baird and Stone maybe hooking up in future seasons...I'm not sure how I feel about that. I think they're good together as co-workers, but them being ' together together' could possibly mess up the team dynamic. I think a much more suitable 'love interest' for Baird is Flynn, since he's not always around and only appears every once in a while. They clearly had a thing for each other and were going off together by season's end, but he wouldn't be around enough to screw up the dynamic of the team (I did feel Noah Wyle went a bit more 'crazy' with his character in the show than in the movies, but on the whole I think he felt more or less like he was playing the same person. Only *this* show could manage to make me feel sad for a sword, as we were forced to witness Excalibur - which Flynn had befriended and called 'Cal' (which I guess shows how good of an actor Noah Wyle is, since he was able to form a believable friendship with a CGI'D SWORD) - 'dying' in the two-part premiere. Damn you, show! Did you HAVE to make Cal whimper like an injured puppy?! While I saw various comments elsewhere that made it clear others weren't overly fond of Ezekiel Jones, I honestly didn't really have a problem with his character. Yeah, he was selfish/only cared about himself and stealing things, being a thief and all, but as far as 'a-hole' characters go...I didn't think he was that bad. Maybe I'm biased since I'm a fellow Aussie, but I liked having him in the mix and his line deliveries/reactions to various things amused me quite often. We also gradually saw that there was a bit 'more' to him and that he *did* care about other people at times, he saved the day on more than one occasion and was another character who thought of things others didn't. I think the most 'human' he was happened in the episode where ghosts from the past were possessing people...which he firmly objected to. I enjoyed his interaction/dynamics with everyone else and was surprised with myself that I actually liked him (whereas most of the time I tend to hate the token 'a-hole' member of a team in shows, as they're usually just snarky dicks who I can't understand anyone tolerating. Thankfully, Jones wasn't like that - at least *I* didn't think so, anyway). I was less fond of Cassandra, who for reasons I can't quite explain reminded me of Fred from Angel...but much less likeable (I think it was her way of speaking - she had this higher-pitched voice and tended to babble quite a bit as she lived up to her 'Math Girl' nickname in the show, doing mathematics for things which were visualised as glow-y symbols and whatnot in the air that she interacted with. In between her calculations, she'd sometimes remark on things she thought of that got her sidetracked for a second, interrupting her process, before she'd return to solving whatever problem. There was also the fact that she was dressed in a typical 'nerd' type of fashion...at least I think that's what they were going for). Cassandra's character started the season at a bit of a disadvantage compared to the rest of the characters since she betrayed them in the two-part premiere to save herself from her tumor (which is the thing that allows her to be such a genius, I think). Honestly, I couldn't blame Stone for continuing to be wary of/not trust her despite the fact that she kept pointing out she'd been helping them on several occasions to make up for said betrayal. What I liked about Stone was that he calmly explained to her his reasons for not trusting her, he wasn't a big jerk about it, and was civil...but he wasn't instantly going to forgive her either and that had to be *earned*. I personally feel Lindy Booth is no Amy Acker (Fred), but she did get to show her dramatic skills in the haunted house episode where she took on a serial killer girl and vented at her. I also approved of Cassandra kicking the arse of Lamia (Lesley Ann-Brandt, who has annoyed me for four seasons of Lucifer thus far and I don't expect that to change whenever I eventually get around to watching the final two seasons. And what is it with her ALWAYS playing a character who hates blondes? On Lucifer, it's Chloe, and here it's Baird. The most interesting thing about her in this show was getting to hear her have a different accent to her one in Lucifer), who was henchwoman to the season's recurring main villain, Dulaque (Matt Frewer, who bizarrely seems to be fond of doing accents he just can't seem to master if his one in this show and attempt at an Aussie accent in the series Eureka are anything to go by. JUST STOP, Matt Frewer! You're NO GOOD at them no matter how much you think you are!). The fifth member of the group is Jenkins, who is basically there to fill in for whenever Flynn isn't around whilst also pretty much filling the same role as Artie from Warehouse 13 (which this show has more than a few things in common with). While I wasn't that fussed on his character, I didn't hate him either. His basic function was to deliver the majority of the exposition. John Larroquette was fine in the role, but I wasn't that invested in finding out more about him either - which it was hinted at, on several occasions, had something to do with Arthurian legend. Much more interesting was the character of Morgan Le Fay played by Alicia Witt (points to the show for going with a non-traditional redheaded interpretation of the character, which I imagine hasn't really been done before...or at least not often). Just in her one and only episode she proved a more interesting villain than Dulaque was throughout the entire season. I especially liked her dynamic with Baird (who I enjoyed seeing punch Morgan, and the way she laughed it off made her more interesting too). Honestly, *she* would've made a much better recurring villain than the ones we were stuck with this season. I hope she returns. If not, it'll feel like a massive waste of potential. Other actors I recognised guest-starring this season included Bruce Campbell as Santa (which I was surprised by, since I had no memory of him in the show) and an even more surprising appearance from Jerry O'Connell (husband of Rebecca Romijn - which explains the randomness of him turning up for a cameo) in the season final as a younger version of Dulaque (I guess Jerry felt the need to imitate Matt Frewer's dodgy accent by doing one of his own?). It was nice to see Charlene (Jane Curtin) and Judson (Bob Newhart) from the movies make an appearance in the two-part premiere (though sad that Judson died off-camera and was limited to appearing in a mirror). It was clear the show didn't have the budget to maintain the 'main library' and thus we got a reduced base of operations set that was the 'library annex'. However, by season's end The Library was brought back...though I don't know how often we'll get to see the true scope of it. As first seasons go, this one was pretty tight and I didn't feel there was any particularly 'bad' episodes (just ones that were a bit more enjoyable than others). It was pretty much as fun as I remembered it being, it kept 'true' to the spirit of the movies and I was glad to see much more of Rebecca Romijn here than I did in ST: SNW. I've had Seasons 2-4 of this show sitting, unwatched, on DVD for years now and just hadn't gotten around to watching them because I had SO many other shows on DVD/Blu-ray waiting to be watched. Now that I've finished the rewatch of the three movies and first season of the show, I can finally move onto watching the remaining three seasons which I haven't yet seen (though I think I *may* have started Season 2 previously and maybe watched the first episode...but that would've been it, as I think I got sidetracked by watching other things).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on May 24, 2023 16:39:40 GMT -5
Most recently finished Season 3 of The Boys on Blu-ray. {Spoiler} Butcher Out of all ‘The Boys’, he’s definitely the biggest jerk. He’s spent three seasons now wanting to take out Homelander, comes close to doing so during the ‘Herogasm’ episode (but Homelander, showing what a coward he really is, flew off as soon as he thought he was in actual danger) and then in the season final gets his second chance when Soldier Boy is ready to do what he was freed by Butcher and the rest of The Boys to do: zap Homelander with his depowering power. But because SB slaps around Ryan (the kid Butcher was entrusted by his late wife, Becca, to look after since the brat is her kid), we’re expected to believe that Butcher gives up his vendetta against the worst Supe of them all, suddenly decides SB is 'worse' and even joins Homelander in zapping SB with their eyebeams...all because the kid was there? Isn’t he supposed to be (or eventually become) stronger than Homelander? So, he was never in any danger. It was complete crap. As I always say, kids ruin EVERYTHING. If Ryan hadn’t been there, Butcher would’ve left SB alone and he could’ve done to Homelander what he was there to do. It wasn’t enough that Butcher screwed up their season-long plan, but he also showed what a hypocrite he was by being someone who HATES Supes and wanted them ALL dead...yet he takes Temp V and turns himself into a Supe (albeit temporarily) in order to have a fighting chance against Homelander. So, he wants all super-powered people dead...but will *become* one if it serves his goals. His actions this season made it hard to like him, but Karl Urban’s performance kept him from becoming totally hateable (even when it seemed like he was going to do the lowest thing he possibly could by *not* passing along Starlight’s message to Hughie that continuing to take Temp V would kill them and instead he actually encouraged Hughie to keep taking it. Thankfully, it turned out Butcher wasn’t a complete shit of a human being and he knocked out Hughie so he wouldn’t follow him on his mission). While most thought the scene in the first episode this season between Butcher and Homelander, when they sat down to have a semi-civil (at least for them) conversation, was the ‘best’ scene of the episode, I actually really enjoyed the one between Butcher and Queen Maeve (it was so weird seeing her in normal clothes, even though we have seen this previously), as I couldn’t recall really having seen them have one-on-one conversations previously (it’s possible they did at the end of Season 2, but it’s been so long since I watched it that I can’t remember for sure). It was interesting watching Butcher being so close to a Supe and even still maintaining every single one of them had to go - I’m imagining he excluded Starlight and Kimiko from that since they’re both involved with members of The Boys - Hughie and Frenchie - and offing their g/fs would just lead to Butcher being on EVERYONE’S shit list including his own teammates). Anyway, even without targeting the significant others of members of his crew, he *still* managed to piss each one of them off this season in various ways. While we did see them (especially Frenchie in the season final) stand up to Butcher, they end up just going right back to working with him. It remains to be seen if they'll continue standing up to him next season or not. There are only so many times they can say they're through with Butcher only to return to him before it gets ridiculous. I wonder if he’ll eventually reach the stage of pushing them *too* far. In a surprising turn of events, Butcher and Maeve did the deed in one episode (I think after she supplied him with more Temp V). I wonder if she got preggers which we’ll later find out? I hope not. He seemed to just go along with Starlight becoming an official member of The Boys in the season final, and we got flashbacks to how he ended up the way he is (his abusive father that beat the shit out of him, who he stood up to, but then he left his younger brother alone with their father and the kid offed himself as a result - if Butcher's memories whilst being stuck in a mind whammy by a Supe were accurate). While it was fun to see Butcher with powers for a while, he’s now suffering very real consequences for subjecting himself to it and is supposedly ‘dying’. Since I think it's pretty clear the show's lead isn't going anywhere before the series is over, I'm not sure how the writers are going to solve this one, as it seems they’ve written themselves into a bit or a corner with his character. Where can they go with him next? He takes Compound V to become a Supe permanently? That’d kind of defeat the whole point of his character. Will they have him discover some miracle cure? That'd be cheap/a cop-out. Despite all the terrible things he did/said this season, I still don't hate the guy. As foul-mouthed as Butcher can be, he still manages to make the dirtiest word (which is also his FAVOURITE word, it would seem) far funnier than it should be when he uses it so frequently. HughieButcher wasn’t the only one who became hard to like this season, as Hughie ended up succumbing to his feelings of inadequacy in regards to being a powerless human dating a superhero (Starlight). This led to him taking Temp V and gaining the power of teleportation (which came with the unfortunate side effect of him teleporting out of his clothes - which also extended to anyone he teleported with him, like Starlight). He kept repeating over and over how he was doing this to ‘protect/save’ her, but as she continued pointing out to him, she didn’t need to be protected/saved, she just needed *him*. Something as simple as not being able to open a jar at breakfast and having Annie do it for him was clearly something that bothered Hughie and once the option to become a Supe (even if only temporarily) was available, he immediately leapt at the chance due to his need to be ‘equal’ to her. I’ve seen more than enough evidence certain guys can’t handle powerful women (whether it be figuratively or literally, they just can’t accept females - or even female characters - who are stronger/better than males). Another good point Annie made to Hughie was him injecting himself with an UNTESTED substance. I had to roll my eyes at all the people badmouthing her character for making fair points and that they dismissed her as 'woke'/'feminist crap'/etc...but I imagine if Hughie were the superhero and Annie the human who was injecting herself with an untested substance to become just as strong as him, they'd totally be on Hughie's side (they're just that predictable). It's so typical when certain people can't take a female character being *right* about something. Kripke had said this season would tackle the topic of ‘toxic masculinity’ and such, and while that term was embodied with the character of Soldier Boy, we also saw Hughie verging into that territory. Thankfully, by season’s end he came to his senses, realised that staying alive was more important than being the ‘strong one’ in his relationship with Starlight/Annie, and instead of taking one final lethal dose of Temp V, he used his *brains* and gave her a power-up by turning up all the lights in the room everyone was in when taking on Homelander and SB, so he helped her out that way. Hopefully he’s now gotten over this addiction he had to superpowers and will continue helping his superhero g/f out in ways that aren’t harmful. On the plus side, at least while Hughie was suped up he got to get a lick in against A-Train whilst demanding an apology from him for that time he exploded Hughie’s former g/f by super-speeding straight through her. Also a plus? When the first episode of the season ended with Hughie discovering that his new boss, the Congresswoman Victoria Neumann, was the ‘head popper’ from last season...at least he wasn’t covered in blood & guts like he usually is every season (instead *she* was when she exploded bit by bit the head of a guy who she used to know - not that I actually watched any of that part, as I knew it was coming and averted my eyes - which I seem to do a lot of when watching this show). Hughie *did* get vomited on by Butcher, though, as a result of his taking Temp V, so the show did keep up the tradition of Hughie getting covered in some sort of grossness after all. Jack Quaid continued to do a good job as Hughie (his expressions/reactions to all the crazy shit that goes on around him is always amusing), and even though he was rather frustrating this season, I never hated his character. HomelanderIf ever there was a character that richly deserved to be called Butcher’s favourite word...it’s this guy. To list all of his crimes this season would take forever, but suffice to say the *only* time he was ‘decent’ was in the ‘Dawn of the Seven’ movie which the first episode kicked off with (including an amusing cameo from Charlize Theron portraying Stormfront - which I think I’d read about when the episode originally aired in America but had forgotten about since then and so it was actually a surprise for me when I watched). The rest of the time, however, he was his usual supremely dickish, controlling, abusive, homicidal, psychopathic self. He really does make being a member of The Seven the most unpleasant job in the world. This season, he body-shamed A-Train (not that I felt sorry for him, since he did his own fair share of crap), forced The Deep to eat his tiny octopus friend, Timothy, just to get back in The Seven (what is up with this show and its need to include animal cruelty every season? Obviously the writers find it ‘funny’, but it just tells you how messed up in the head they are), and regularly threatened/blackmailed Starlight into doing what he wanted (including pretending to be in a relationship with him) and then offed her old flame, Supersonic, in a particularly gruesome way as a demonstration of what he’d do to Hughie if Starlight didn’t fall into line and quit conspiring against him. While I can’t deny that Antony Starr’s performance as Homelander continues to be top notch in the chilling department (the way he can express so much with his face and you can see him switch from the hero the public *thinks* he is to who he truly is in the blink of an eye, all whilst smiling for the camera, shows just how skilled an actor he is), there’s only so much longer they can keep dragging out this character’s existence before it becomes stale, I think. The good guys need to have a ‘win’ at some point, and while they came close to being rid of their greatest enemy this season...naturally, it didn’t go quite according to plan and now Homelander’s completely unleashed since the one person who seemed to keep him in check (well...as much as it was possible to do so, at least) and kept others safe from him (like Starlight) - ie. Stan Edgar - has been removed. Plus, the public has seen Homelander freak out and express his true views (expletive-laden and all) on TV and in the season final actually witnesses him murder someone...yet this hasn’t reduced his supporters (I felt particularly sorry for the poor suicidal girl who changed her mind when Homelander decided to take out his frustrations on her and forced her off the rooftop to her splattery death). There are those who *love* him for it (which seems pretty true to life, as I know there are those who worship the character of Homelander in r/l and just don’t seem to get that he’s the BAD GUY). So, really, there’s not really anyone who can oppose him now that SB’s been returned to his cryo-sleep. I guess the writers are going to have to come up with contrived reasons for why Homelander doesn’t just off all the characters he doesn’t like, otherwise there’s barely going to be anyone left standing by the end of next season. The problem with 'popular' villains is there are only so many things writers can do with them if they’re determined to keep them around. Either they ‘redeem’ them and they become reluctant good guys (which I think is pretty much off the table with Homelander, nor would I ever want to see that happen with him since he’s definitely unredeemable at this point), they *force* him somehow to not do evil deeds (ie. like chipped Spike in BtVS - though that would kind of take away what makes his character interesting), he loses his powers and is stuck being human (which would mean he could still do his evil deeds...only it’d be a lot harder, as he’d have to achieve them like regular evil humans do. Plus, there’s the fact that if he became human, what would stop all those who want him dead from being able to kill him since it’d be so much easier to?) and those are the only options I can think of - none of which sound appealing. I really think Homelander needs to be defeated before the series is over, but am afraid the writers have too much ‘fun’ writing for this sadist and wouldn’t know how to keep things ‘interesting’ without him around (either that or they’re afraid they’d lose a significant amount of their audience if they killed him off). What’s clear is something drastic needs to happen with his character in the next season, otherwise we’re just going to be repeating the first three seasons with him - ie. he threatens/kills as he wants, has a moment or two of seeming ‘vulnerable’, but doesn’t really ever ‘grow’ as a character and just continues doing (in his words) ‘whatever the fuck he wants’. Please, show, don’t drag out this character’s existence to the point where we become sick of him (though I think some have already reached that stage). StarlightNaturally, there are those who resent her for A) simply being a female superhero (though when she does display her powers, they insult them as being ‘weak’/’lame’, yet if she displayed greater powers they’d label her as being ‘woke’ or 'OP' or some other buzzword because they can’t handle female characters that are in any way, shape or form stronger than male characters. Funny, they probably didn’t even learn a single thing from the storyline this season about ‘toxic masculinity’ and Hughie not being able to handle Starlight being stronger than him). She was used, abused, lost at least two friends/allies this season (Supersonic, who Homelander killed, and Queen Maeve who the world was led to believe got killed but in actuality managed to get ‘out’ of the superhero business) and at this point I don’t know how she’s still managing to stay alive with Stan Edgar gone (he’s not dead, but he’s not around either, and he was the only one at Vought keeping Homelander from killing her, I think). While it’s always cheer-worthy whenever she stands up to Homelander (and she did a good job of getting more evidence against him - since apparently he no longer cares about that video Maeve was using against him which showed them leave behind a plane full of passengers to die), I honestly don’t know how they’re going to believably write it that he doesn’t just off her when he’s next feeling in the mood - especially now that she’s ‘quit’ being Starlight/a member of The Seven and has fully joined The Boys’ team (then again, with her no longer one of The Seven, that means Homelander doesn't have to share his 'Captaincy' with her anymore after she was promoted to co-Captain at the start of this season. Erin Moriarty did a great job of conveying Starlight's 'oh, shit' reaction to this news and I loved the fact that at one point she said if anyone should be co-Captain, it's Maeve - showing her loyalty to her. Meanwhile, Homelander was quietly fuming and you could tell that as much as the idea of being a co-Captain who could actually do some *good*/create some change within The Seven appealed to her...she also knew just how dangerous accepting the offer would be but was eventually talked into it by Stan Edgar who assured her he'd keep Homelander in check). I liked that we got to see some more backstory with her, showing just how much of a ‘stage mum’ her mother was when she was a kid (that inappropriate-for-her-age performance she did of Britney Spears’ ‘Hit Me Baby’ illustrated how messed up Annie’s childhood was, including the fact that she would dig her fingernails into her palms whilst making a fist when trying to contain her emotions - which she not only implemented during her childhood performance but again when Homelander forced her to be part of the #HomeLight coupling with him), and on top of all the threatening from Homelander, she had to deal with Hughie’s feelings of inadequacy and that bitch I can’t stand at Vought, Ashley, cooking up a BS story about her being into child trafficking or whatever. This was NOT an easy season for Annie, but there was the occasional ‘bright spot’ like her scenes with Kimiko. It was nice seeing them interact one-on-one and discuss Kimiko’s wish to regain her powers after having lost them thanks to getting blasted by SB's depowering power. Annie’s a good friend to her. Same goes with MM, who she shared some scenes with again this season. They’ve gradually been building up a quasi-‘friendship’ between them and while they have opposing viewpoints at times, I do think she’s one of the few who MM will listen to when he’s not thinking straight and only has his mind on revenge. Meanwhile, I doubt Butcher would ever listen to her. I think him getting along with her is quite a ways off, especially considering she probably considers him as someone who endangers Hughie’s life time and time again (which he did once more this season). I do look forward to seeing how she works as now being a fully-fledged member of The Boys next season. While the usual suspects online keep hating on her, she remains one of my favourites in the show. What I really enjoyed, though, was how her relationship with Queen Maeve has been built up over the three seasons. Speaking of... Queen MaeveFirstly, she was criminally underused this season. Actually, I’ve felt she’s been underused/underutilised from pretty early on in the show. She just seemed to be there for Homelander to torment/treat like crap and not much else. Of course, she was one of the few to actually stand up to him (LOVED it when she told him this season that she’d always hated him even when he was claiming there had been something there between them and that he’d ‘loved’ her in his own way - she wasn’t having any of it). Naturally, she paid the price for being one of the only ones who actually let him know TO HIS FACE what she really thought of him by getting jumped (was it by Black Noir? If so, I guess that was revenge for her shoving that Almond Joy he was allergic to down his throat last season to save Starlight from him) and thrown into a prison cell, then having Homelander inform her that he was going to harvest her eggs (as if he hadn’t already violated her enough). Whilst she was offscreen a lot of this season, we did get some development with her character. Clearly the part she played in leaving the plane passengers to die in the first episode of the show was eating her up inside (though, really, what COULD she have done differently? She had two options: stay and most likely die with the passengers since I doubt she would’ve survived the crash OR go with Homelander and make it her mission to bring him down to avenge the plane passengers' deaths. If she hadn't gone with him and survived, no one would ever learn the truth about what happened) and she was pretty blunt about no longer caring if she lived/having a death wish, informing Butcher in no uncertain terms that she was willing to die (and even felt as if she ‘deserved’ it) in their attempt to take down Homelander. It was good to hear that Maeve had sobered up and planted fake rumors about herself to disguise her training in preparation for the fight with Homelander whilst she aided Butcher in their common goal. While everyone was busy praising Karl Urban, Antony Starr and Jensen Ackles this season, I feel Dominique McElligott never got the credit she deserved for what she brought to the character of Maeve. Hers wasn’t a ‘flashy’ performance, but understated and you really had to pay attention to those blink-and-you’d-miss-them reactions her character would have to other various characters. She really nailed the eyerolls whenever Maeve interacted with Hughie, for example, and her toughness with Annie/Starlight being a disguise for how she truly felt about her (ie. she was one of the only people Maeve actually cared about, I think). If you looked for it, you could see all the nuances that were put into her performance...which makes it even more of a crime that she wasn’t given the chance to shine more often than she was. Maeve may not have appeared much this season, but when she *did* she made it count. I especially loved the joy she took in seeing Homelander afraid - the part about it being one of her Top 3 days despite the fact that she was locked up and he was going to harvest her eggs was really good. Even better was her grin when she made Homelander bleed in the season final (not once, but TWICE, I think). Of course, there are arseholes commenting underneath YouTube videos of the Maeve vs. Homelander fight saying how he was ‘nerfed’ (ie. his power was reduced) and she was only able to take him on because of ‘feminist BS’ and whatnot. These dickheads need serious help for their mental issues, as they clearly wish she’d remained a victim of his abuse and/or been killed by him. Why? Because they think Homelander’s treatment of her (and other female characters) is ‘okay’ and they ‘deserve’ what he does to them/he's putting them 'in their place'. This lack of self-awareness and how fucked up they are for thinking the way Homelander does is truly astounding. What I think happened was that we knew Maeve had been training all season, biding her time, and she wasn’t holding back - she was giving the fight her all. People have always just assumed she was so far below Homelander as far as strength goes (including Maeve herself, probably), but once she saw that she could actually make him bleed, she realised her full potential and put everything she had into her fight against him. Naturally, there are those who just can’t accept that she was able to take what he was dishing out (obviously his eyebeams to her arm gauntlets hurt like hell, but she managed to tough it out). The only real time he got the ‘upper hand’ against her was when he gouged out her eye (I’m sure all the women-hating Homelander fans got their jollies when watching this part). Still, she proved what a true hero she was by seemingly sacrificing herself (saving Annie once again, as well as all the other members of The Boys in the room) when tackling SB (who was about to explode), sending them both crashing through a widow at the top of Vought Tower into mid-air before he blew. A lot were surprised to learn that The Boys helped her get away (it was the LEAST they could do for her, after all, and I was glad to see them repay the favour for her having saved them) and that she ended up with just some bruising and, of course, was minus an eye. I was SO relieved when I’d read that she’d survived (because I just HAD to find out when the episode originally aired, so I spoiled myself by reading about it online at the time) and was happy to see Annie pay Maeve a visit where she was hiding out with her g/f. Maeve getting depowered by the SB blast, but living and being able to get away from it all with her lover, was probably the best possible outcome she could’ve had (even counting the missing eye - her discussion with Annie about whether she should go with a glass eye or an eyepatch was fun, and I agreed with Annie that Maeve could most definitely rock an eyepatch). I’m glad she got out and I’m hoping that the writers stick to this (relatively) happy ending for her, since it’s what she deserves after all the misery she’s had to endure. I just hope they don’t feel the need to adhere to the comics and bring her back just to off her. I have read rumours about why Dominique McElligott no longer wished to be on the show, and if these are indeed true I’m sure she’s glad to get out of there/is unlikely to return (they better not just give her an offscreen death and have someone refer to it or have Homelander toss a prosthetic of her head or something in front of Annie and that’s how we learn he killed her). Let Maeve live in peace, Kripke, and don’t eff it up! A-Train & The DeepAre there two more pathetic characters in this show? A-train remains a selfish A-Hole ( that’s what he should change his name to) who only cares about himself and will screw over anyone/everyone (as he did with Starlight and Supersonic, which led to the latter’s death, since he informed Homelander of their plan to take him down after Supersonic had brought him in on the plan. Naturally, everyone blames Starlight for this, saying she should’ve told Supersonic that A-Train couldn’t be trusted...but, hey, Supersonic was an adult, he could’ve asked questions/checked with her first about who it was okay to bring in on the plan and who wasn’t. And, really, the two people who deserve the majority of the blame here are Homelander for brutally torturing/murdering Supersonic and A-Train for being the one who was the reason it even happened). A-Train also claimed to want to be returning to/embracing his ‘roots’ or whatever, but it was all just to garner popularity. Even when he forced the racist Supe, Blue Hawk, to apologise to the community he’d been menacing, A-Train did this to serve his own personal goals and as a result his brother got paralysed thanks to Blue Hawk. It was such a satisfying moment when A-Hole’s brother told him off/kicked him out of his house in the season final. The show had the perfect opportunity to off A-Train after he’d gotten his revenge against Blue Hawk (in a very gruesome way which, again, I did NOT look at even though he was pretty much asking for it) and he finally apologised to Hughie for that time he ran straight through his g/f, exploding her. This seemed to wrap up his character, and yet he was given Blue Hawk’s heart by Ashley (way to give a POC a racist’s organ without their consent, Ashole!) and continues breathing - for what purpose, I have no clue (other than being abused/body-shamed by Homelander whilst also being his rat). They should’ve just let him die from his heart attack. I also didn’t buy his apology to Hughie as 'sincere' (even though we were probably meant to), as I felt that if what happened to his brother hadn’t happened, he wouldn’t have been feeling in a guilty/apologetic mood. If they try to ‘redeem’ A-Train, I'm totally calling bullshit. As for The Deep - he continues to be the sort of character I think the writers are only keeping around because they enjoy coming up with sick, twisted bestiality-related acts for him to perform and also they love torturing his character by causing maximum cruelty to all of his sea life buddies. The Deep, ironically, isn’t very ‘deep’ at all and is actually a pretty shallow character. We saw his wife that he got married to thanks to that cult last season (which I barely remember) being the ‘brains’ behind his public persona and he didn’t take too kindly to her controlling him, then he pushed her too far by trying to have a threesome with her and an octopus he was screwing at ‘Herogasm’ (it was funny seeing Annie catch him in the act and film it on her phone as blackmail material to show to Homelander) and escaped with inside a bag of ice after SB exploded the building. I imagine his wife’s not long for this world and wonder if it’ll be The Deep who offs her or Homelander (which The Deep will probably be grateful for). His was another apology I didn’t really buy, when Homelander brought him back into The Seven (after that whole nasty Timothy-eating thing) and he ‘apologised’ for what he’d done to Starlight back in the very first episode. The sad thing is there are those who still maintain he didn’t rape Starlight and think that eating his octopus friend was ‘worse’. Well, now he knows what it’s like to have something forced down his throat against his wishes (which is what he did to Starlight). I dread to think what further cruelty to marine life the writers will cook up next season, and like with A-Train, I think The Deep has pretty much worn out his welcome. He’s basically a ‘joke’ character and nothing more at this point (though I do commend Chace Crawford for fully committing to the role of playing this pretty thankless role - he's come a long way since his Gossip Girl days, but isn't really having to do much other than take part in a some truly gross acts onscreen). The Deep *did* commit a murder in the season final at Homelander's behest, so maybe we'll get to see him be a bit more 'dangerous'? They really need to do something of substance with his character next season, since so far there’s really not that much to him. MM, Kimiko, FrenchieFor starters, I’m glad that this season characters mainly stuck to referring to MM *as* ‘MM’ (because, comics-accurate or not, ’Mother’s Milk’ is an effin’ STOOPID name to hear uttered out loud by characters onscreen). This season it was all about two things for him: 1) Dealing with the fact that after he was brought out of retirement (which he’d been happily spending with his family) by Butcher, that this meant the guy his wife was now with got to swoop in, influencing MM’s daughter and getting her into the whole Supe world despite the fact these were the very people MM was fighting against. 2) Getting revenge against SB for having killed his family. One was linked to the other, since the seeking vengeance part was what managed to bring him back to The Boys after he’d gotten ‘out’. It was mainly through exposition that we learned that SB had been ‘patrolling’ in MM’s neighbourhood and fighting what he deemed to be ‘criminals’, in the process tossing aside a car all willy-nilly, not considering the home it crashed into which just so happened to be MM’s and thus killing his family. His need for revenge got the best of him and this combined with Todd ‘raising’ his daughter led to him delivering a punch to the guy who it was revealed basically worshipped Homelander. It was only through talking to Annie that MM realised what was most important (she also snapped him out of his singlemindedness when he futilely tried to take on SB at Herogasm and got him to help with the victims of the SB explosion). He’s another one who is beyond sick of Butcher’s BS and was drugged by Butcher to prevent him getting in the way of the plan they had for SB to take down Homelander. It’ll be interesting to see where MM and Butcher’s strained relationship goes next season, but I do hope they keep the Annie/MM ‘friendship’ going. Kimiko & Frenchie’s story this season seemed almost completely separate to the rest of the characters’ storylines, as it began with Frenchie trying to have fun with Kimiko and taking her to ‘VoughtLand’ (of course, that all went to hell when one of SB’s old superhero crew, Crimson Countess, didn’t wish to answer their questions about SB’s supposed ‘death’ and she pursued them, accidentally exploding a mascot of the theme park dressed as Homelander in the process). Then there was the business of Kimiko doing a job for Frenchie’s old evil Russian boss, Little Nina (Katie Winter, who I last saw in a series called Blood & Treasure - which I’m still waiting to see the second season of), and offing a Russian mobster and his men (with The Seven-themed dildos, no less) and scaring a bunch of the women in the process (I don't blame the one who shot her, since anybody would probably have done the same after witnessing the carnage Kimiko unleashed...even if doing so thereby freed the women). Kimiko had been convinced that her powers were what made her a ‘monster’ (which Frenchie kept saying she wasn’t), but then she was still just as vicious *without* her powers when fighting enemies, so this just made her think she herself was the problem. Anyway, after spending so long not wanting her powers...she then decided she wanted them back and got Annie to steal some Compound V from Vought to regain them. It felt like a bit of a waste of time this season, but the actress who plays Kimiko does a lot with just her expressions and body language, I enjoyed her scenes with Annie and it was nice to hear her voice (though the musical portion of an episode where we heard her sing was kind of random/felt like it didn’t really belong). I still have a hard time understanding Frenchie quite often, but by the end of the season he'd learned to stand up to Butcher thanks to Kimiko's encouragement (him saying “No! No, my cake hole shall remain OPEN!”, after Butcher had told him to shut it, was amusing). Hopefully next season they better utilise both these characters. Soldier BoyMuch hoo-ha was made about Jensen Ackles joining the show this season. Unfortunately, wherever he goes, so too goes his cult of fangirls (and I’m sure fanboys as well), and because they refuse to accept him playing a ‘bad guy’, they rationalise all of his character’s actions/come up with excuses for them since they seem to think of Jensen Ackles as The Second Coming or whatever. I have no such devotion to Ackles and thus could judge his character and performance without any ‘attachment’ to him getting in the way. Basically, I’d just wanted to see him in a different role after FITEEEN FRICKING SEASONS OF SPN. I should’ve known it was overpraise from fans and critics alike. I really didn’t see a whole lot of stretching his ‘range’ here. Sure, his character was a supreme douchebag who killed people (both those who deserved it and those who didn’t), had a potty mouth to rival Butcher’s and was the living embodiment of ‘toxic masculinity’...but all I saw in Ackles' performance throughout the season was stuff I recognised from his performance of various versions of Dean Winchester in SPN. When he was getting intense in his speech to Crimson Countess about how he'd loved her and had held out hope she’d rescue him from the experimentations he went through after being taken prisoner by Russians, I remembered all those times Dean gave impassioned speeches. When he was being a major a-hole to people, I just thought of demon Dean. Nothing really made me feel like he was as fully realised a character as all the other main characters in this show. His misogynistic behavior just felt as though the writers looked at how jerks on the internet behave and wrote that into the scripts. Despite the attempts to make me feel sorry for SB...I never did. When compared to Homelander, I just didn’t find him nearly as interesting. In the end, he didn’t really ‘gain’ anything (other than revenge on his old team who sold him out due to him being, by all accounts, an abusive a-hole to them but especially to Black Noir) and he wound up right back where he started - ie. back in his box in cryo-sleep (only difference was now he wasn’t being taken out to be experimented on). While I certainly wouldn't say Ackles was 'bad' in the role, I just don't get the worship of his performance and I can’t say I’m itching for his character to return, as I found him rather disappointing after all the fuss made about him. Other CharactersLike Dominique McElligott, I’d read rumours of the actor who played Black Noir having issues with certain people on the show and that he wanted out of the show. I guess that’s why he was hardly present this season (much like Maeve) and they seemed to power through his backstory/origin of how he got his scars (which we caught a partial glimpse of last season during the aforementioned Almond Joy incident). If I hadn't read about the whole cartoon character hallucinations prior to watching this season, my reaction to seeing them probably would've been of the WTF variety. As far as I can recall, we'd never had any indications previously that he imagined cartoon buddies brought to life who acted like his friends...but also had potty mouths (is there *anyone* in this show who isn't foul-mouthed?). We basically learned of SB's abuse towards Black Noir via seeing various characters including Noir, SB and SB's superhero team called Payback (who were a bunch of jerks that got out of control in the first episode to feature a flashback of them) 'played' by different cartoon animals (SB as a bald eagle, Noir as a sheep, Crimson Countess as a fox, etc) with the actors' voices (all except Noir, who I'm fairly certain was voiced by a totally different person to who portrays him onscreen in the costume) and I wonder if part of the reason all of this was shown to us in cartoon form was because the beyond brutal beating SB gave Noir when he 'got out of line' would've been too much to show (even for *this* series) in live-action with the actors? We see Noir's brains exposed in amongst all the splattering blood flying everywhere at one point. Anyway, after hardly doing anything all season, Black Noir went to join Homelander against SB...but he ended up gutting Noir with his fist (after hugging him) due to the fact that his 'friend' had hidden from him that he knew SB was his father. Apparently Homelander doesn't take too kindly to someone he considered a 'friend' keeping such secrets from him. As Noir died on the floor, his cartoon friends once again appeared and comforted him as he passed (when Noir died, he still had his mask on as Homelander walked away from him, but later he dumps Noir's mask in front of A-Train, The Deep and Ashley, so it amused me to think that Homelander had to go back to retrieve it since he hadn't removed it when he exited the room after killing Noir). Black Noir seemed to be one of those types who seemed cool in his whole violent but silent persona...but never hearing him speak (other than in cartoon form) meant we never really got to *know* him and he was hardly developed as a character. Consequently, I don't think there was that much the show could've done with him since they refused to have him utter a word and he only communicated via writing - that coupled with the fact we never got to see any expressions from him meant we couldn't really 'connect' with his character (unlike Kimiko who, whilst also silent, at least has her full range of emotions that she can display on her face that isn't perpetually covered like Noir's is). Some seem to be whining about Noir getting unceremoniously offed and that it was a 'waste' of his character, but since the show seemed to not be going down the same road with his character as the comics (thus doing away with one HELL of an eventual reveal to who he really was), it left them with limited options. I guess they could always have some other actor step into the role/costume if they wish to resurrect him at any point, but really...I didn't feel much of anything over his 'death' and won't particularly miss him. Someone who I wish would die, but seemingly refuses to (because, again, I think the writers are too in love with the character/actor) is Ashley, the PR woman who got promoted to CEO this season after Stan Edgar was given the boot. She was even more of a bitch to various characters this season than she had been previously, and I think that was mainly due to her getting a taste of 'power' (though not of the Supe variety). She parroted words used by actual powerful characters back at others she deemed 'beneath' her, she spread vicious rumours about Starlight, went along with keeping Maeve stuck in captivity and on the whole was just completely loathsome. Added to this is the fact that I can't stand the actress's face (ever since first seeing her in Season 1 of Jessica Jones - which Erin Moriarty also happened to be in - where she played another totally unlikeable character, I've been unable to tolerate her bug-eyed visage as it gets on my last nerve whenever I see her). She displayed a modicum of humanity in two instances this season - one was when Starlight was trying to find out what Homelander had done with Maeve and was telling Ashley to quit being Homelander's/Vought's bitch - she looked to be getting through to her...but then her power-hungry self took over and she was back to being Butcher's favourite word again. The other instance of her being 'a fucking human being' - which Maeve had told her to be in a previous season - was, fittingly, when she and an analytics employee were looking at the footage caught on camera of The Boys helping whisk Maeve away after the SB explosion and apparently Ashley deleted it (I had to look that up, as I wasn't sure since all I saw was her exchange a look with the other person viewing the footage). So it appeared that Ashley finally did act like 'a fucking human being' for once in her life. I just hope that she doesn't rat out Maeve's alive status to Homelander next season and that she sticks to this one good thing she's done. She acquired an 'Ashley' of her own this season who she treated like crap and left to fend for herself when Vought Tower was told to evacuate before the SB explosion. I'm hoping maybe 'Also Ashley' will off original Ashley next season, but figure that's probably unlikely since the writers appear far too attached to the character/actress. We were treated to some backstory regarding the Congresswoman, Victoria Neumann, this season. I can't say I really felt anything for her character, especially after she backstabbed Stan Edgar who'd adopted her (which we learned via flashback). Speaking of Edgar, I hope we eventually learn why he was the one person who could insult/talk down to Homelander without fear of death since anyone else who said the things he did to him would've gotten splattered everywhere. It's fine to keep Edgar's secret a mystery for a while, but eventually we NEED to be given a proper answer for why he holds so much power over Homelander otherwise it's just a cop-out/cheat. I was bummed that Laurie Holden, who portrayed Crimson Countess, was used so little this season. We basically met her as someone who performed cheesy songs in front of audiences at VoughtLand (including one called 'Chimps Don't Cry'), then saw she spent her off-hours providing kinky online videos for Seth Rogen (who I wouldn't have even recognised had it not been for his unmistakable voice). Add to this the fact that she apparently had a chimp fetish (because it seems the writers have to give almost all of these Supes some sort of weird fetish - with The Deep it's marine life, with Homelander it's milk, with SB it's old fogeys, and with Crimson Countess it's apparently chimps). Alas, we hardly knew ye, CC (before you were crispified by SB's blast)! Kudos to Aya Cash for returning for such a small part this season as Stormfront Stormstump and while she's rambling about Homelander carrying on her dream of him creating a 'master race' she's amusingly giving him a handy. Clearly he didn't share her vision, describing *himself* as 'the master race' and leaving her in an upset state, then we later find out via a big honkin' billboard reporting a news story that she's died and Ashley learns over the phone that Stormfront bit off/swallowed her own tongue - which I found a rather anti-climactic ending to her character (how does that even work? Last season she seemed unfazed by Homelander's eyebeams at full blast shooting straight into her chest, but then Ryan - little future psycho that he is - blasted her and turned her into Anakin Skywalker...but she doesn't heal from it (well...she *does*, but veeery slowly and even after a year's passed she's still pretty messed up. So, how exactly did swallowing her tongue kill her? Seemed like an odd choice for her death). After the big deal made about the Herogasm episode which I'd heard...it didn't really end up being that shocking (though the fight between Homelander/SB/Butcher/Hughie was pretty good). There's been WAY more shocking stuff happen on this show than what we were subjected to inside Herogasm - like in the first episode this season with a scene that involved an Ant-Man-like character called Termite shrinking down to GO INSIDE HIS LOVER'S PENIS. That was certainly graphic...as was what happened when Termite accidentally sneezed himself back to regular size whilst STILL INSIDE HIS LOVER'S PENIS. Apparently since those who wanted to see Ant-Man crawl into Thanos' butt (what is WRONG with people?!) and explode him from the inside were never going to get their wish from the MCU, Kripke obliged by offering us...this. Termite later met his end at Herogasm curtesy of Homelander's boot. It seems others felt this season was the 'best yet' (including Kripke himself), but I'm afraid I must disagree. Whilst there was character development/interactions that I enjoyed this season, as well as some awesome moments and pretty funny stuff (I don't think any other current show makes me laugh quite like this one does), on the whole I found Season 2 was 'better' imho. As always, I'm anxious what fucked-upness the writers will think of in the next season (and, as always, will probably spoil myself for it as soon as it airs in America and then will promptly forget a fair percentage of since it's such a long wait for seasons of the show to be released here on DVD/Blu-ray).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jun 8, 2023 3:59:40 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of Upright on DVD. After finishing Season 1 of House of the Dragon on Blu-ray, I’d been eager to check out more of Milly Alcock, as I thought it was a shame she only appeared in five of the ten episodes of HotD Season 1, and so I bought the first season of this^ show on DVD and quite enjoyed it. To my surprise, there wasn’t as big a gap between me watching Season 1 and having Season 2 be released here (probably due to the fact that I was so late getting into the first season). Anyway, although I enjoyed Season 1, I felt a second season wasn’t really necessary given that the story seemed to reach its natural conclusion in the last episode. However, getting to see more of Milly Alcock made it seem worth it. The first episode started at a point that would turn out to be rather late into the storyline this season. It was Lucky stuck in the middle of a rainforest, falling down a hill, whacking his head against a tree on the way down (I’m not sure how he survived that much less stayed conscious. They could’ve at least shown a nasty gash on his head from the impact), and sporting pink fluffy handcuffs (for some reason). His shouting out Meg’s name was what sent us back to before this point in the story, where he was performing his average quality music before audiences, he has an Aussie soap star g/f named Avery (played by Jessica McNamee, who I hadn't expected to see...but was a nice surprise) and he's supposed to be meeting up with his daughter (who he still hasn’t informed is *his* daughter even though her mother and Lucky’s brother want to tell her. They're not very trusting of Lucky given he hasn't been the most reliable person in the past). On top of this, he's forced to do a radio interview with the typical sort of annoying radio dicks, and try as he might...he can’t restrain himself from calling one of them ‘fuckwit’ (despite being warned by Avery prior to the interview not to take their bait). Not that I blame him considering they were being arseholes in their line of questioning. Meanwhile, our introduction to Meg this season is just seeing the words ‘Piss’ and ‘Off’ on the backs of the boots she's wearing, her taking a bus, some guy commenting “Nice boots, sweetheart.” and her replying in her typical Meg fashion with “Nice mullet, fucksicle.” (not sure if that’s what she called him, but that’s what it sounded like to me). We don’t see anything more than her boots and legs until she knocks on Lucky’s door at the worst possible time (when he’s in the doghouse with his g/f for screwing up the interview and then getting into a physical altercation with a paparazzo who was harassing them outside which led to him smashing the jerk’s camera and damaging a car window in the process). Meg hasn’t lost any of what made her Meg last season, as when Lucky answers the door she greets him like only she can with, "Hey, dickhead. Miss me?” (which is, I guess, her idea of a term of endearment). Meg and Avery meet (with the former commenting on the latter’s hotness and questioning what she’s doing with Lucky), and pretty soon Lucky's caught up on why she’s there - to search for her mum. I think if anyone else played Meg, you would’ve wanted Lucky to kick her out and tell her off, never wanting to see her again...but somehow Milly manages to keep Meg just on the cusp of becoming irritating and instead, no matter how rude/inconsiderate she is, you still like her. That’s all down to Milly’s performance. It takes some convincing, but just when Lucky thinks he’s out she pulls him back into her orbit and the two of them head off in search of her mum (since he seems to just want to escape all the shit he's currently dealing with), though not before that annoying paparazzo makes the mistake of assuming Meg is Lucky’s underage sex partner...which earns him a well-deserved swift kick to the balls from her. I couldn’t believe when I read an article online that said this moment was complained about during trailers for the second season that aired on Pay TV (I remember seeing the trailer for the season and noting that particular moment...but while others clutched their pearls over it, I was intrigued). People actually made complaints that this three second snippet was 'encouraging female violence against men' and 'glorified gendered-based violence'. Maybe if the trailers had given context for it they might’ve not complained? Then again, these days everyone feels the need to complain about EVERYTHING and act all ‘offended’ by whatever. It’s total BS, but thankfully this show doesn’t give two shits about that. On their long journey to find Meg’s mum, the pair encounter a bunch of side characters...none of which I felt were particularly interesting nor did I form any kind of fondness for/attachment to (so it was just like Season 1's side characters for me in that regard). There were some familiar faces including Noni Hazlehurst (who I was first introduced to when I used to watch Playschool as a child) playing a crazy, sweary, hillbilly old woman named 'Squirrel'. Other side characters included Meg’s b/f who turns up briefly (I was worried he was going to hang around and thus screw up the Lucky/Meg dynamic, but thankfully he was gone after two episodes once we learned that he’d gotten Meg pregnant and she sent him packing), a Dutch pastry chef (who ends up being not as useless as he first seems), an old ‘friend’ of Lucky’s (who was involved with drug dealing and Lucky ditched when cops came, so he’s none-too-pleased with Lucky and wants retribution) and lastly...a ‘pervy sex cult’ which is run by another old ‘friend’ of Lucky’s who he once dismissed and told to learn yoga or something- which he did, then he became the ‘Father’ of said pervy sex cult where people are convinced to give up their money/worldly possessions which he hangs onto/uses (like a sex swing). So, typical cult stuff. It’s at this crazy cult that Meg finally finds her mum, but she doesn’t want her daughter back in her life since long ago she nearly got her killed in a car accident. Meg also learns she has a half-brother who was born in the cult (speaking of brothers, she never ends up informing her mother that her other child offed himself - as Meg thinks that would ‘destroy’ her). There are some crazy hijinks during the cult episode, which is probably one of the best of the season, but the trouble is it’s the second-last episode of the season and it felt like there was a lot of water-treading/’filler’ happening until we got to that point. Still, the journey there gave us some good LOL-worthy moments and also some decent dramatic moments too as Meg and Lucky got into heated arguments and said things that were hurtful, but later apologised for them. This show continues to be the most tolerable I’ve found Tim Minchin (though I admit my exposure to him has been rather limited), It’s Milly Alcock, though, who keeps you captivated as she totally nails those deeply emotional moments her character has and is completely believable as this damaged teenager who might put on a tough exterior, but also has a vulnerable side. Without her, I don’t think the show would be worth watching. Which brings me to the final episode, where Lucky and Meg rush to meet Lucky’s daughter at the airport, she doesn’t arrive, they return home and everyone’s there having been worried sick about Lucky, thinking he perhaps did something bad to himself. There’s a funny moment where Meg mentions her pregnancy and her dad immediately tackles Lucky until things are straightened out, but on the whole this part of the episode is mainly all about the ‘drama’ and Lucky still arguing with his brother over whether to tell his daughter he is in fact her father. Then when it seems she’s just figured it out and runs off, she returns with a letter that she begins reading that was done back before Lucky’s mum passed away at the end of last season. She basically spills the beans in the letter about the whole parentage thing and we learn that Meg was the one typing it out and helped it reach Lucky’s daughter at the right time. So, she’s known Lucky was her father for a while and it all seems to work out in the end (a little *too* neatly, I thought). The end of the last episode is Lucky and his daughter performing onstage for an audience (she can certainly sing). Disappointingly, Meg seems to more or less fade into the background during this last scene of the show and the focus is on the father/daughter relationship. If the show does end up getting another season (I'm not sure how likely that is), I hope they're not thinking that people would want to watch Lucky and his daughter on a road trip instead of Lucky and Meg. We haven’t grown attached to the daughter character, and it’s the Lucky/Meg dynamic that *makes* this show. Without Meg/Milly Alcock, there’s really no point. On the whole, while I still felt this season wasn’t necessary...it wasn't terrible or anything, but the first season was definitely better.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jul 6, 2023 22:05:56 GMT -5
Recently finished the 2004-2009 complete series of BSG (plus the two movies) on DVD. I'd bought this^ back in May 2020 (when there was a good deal on for the boxset), but had a TON of shows on DVD/Blu-ray that I had yet to watch (still do) and I guess I got sidetracked, so that's why I hadn't gotten around to watching this series until now (after it had sat unwatched for over three years). I had seen the mini-series that kicked off this reboot when it aired on TV here...then for whatever reason didn't watch anymore until I happened to catch the last episode of Season 3. I then must've watched an episode of early Season 4, as I recalled seeing a scene I'd watched before when watching the show all the way through this time. So, I'd seen a few episodes...but nothing more. I don't think I was as enamored with the series as a lot of people were. Like I said, I'd watched the mini-series and recalled only the vaguest memories of it. Upon my rewatch, I was enjoying Season 1 quite a bit (though there was the occasional 'boring' episode). That season was what I'd imagined most of the show was going to be like. With Season 2, I thought things really picked up with the 'Pegasus' two-parter, and unlike most (it seems), I actually enjoyed the the Razor movie. It was the jump ahead in the Season 2 final and then basically the majority of Season 3 where I found myself getting bored/not that interested, as the change of scenery just wasn't doing it for me. However, I thought things started to pick up again with the beginning half of Season 4, then things REALLY got interested in Season Part 2. Hell, when I started watching the three-parter, I didn't even realise that was the last three eps of the show until I started seeing things that I'd been spoiled for, then I realised that was the end. I actually had no problems with the ending of BSG like so many others did, and in fact Season 4 was the most interested I'd been in the show since probably Season 2. My top 5 favourite characters from the show:1. Number Six 2. Gaius Baltar 3. Starbuck 4. Helo 5. Racetrack And my top 5 LEAST favourite characters:1. Cally 2. Roslin 3. Kat 4. Tory 5. Gaeta All in all, I didn't do too badly with characters who were my faves dying (only two had bit the dust by the end of the series) vs my least faves dying (all five were dead by series end). There was stuff I liked throughout the show...but also quite a bit of stuff that annoyed me/pissed me off. I'm glad I bought it/watched it, but I doubt I'll be doing a rewatch anytime in the near future.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jul 8, 2023 19:08:05 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of the most boring alien invasion series featuring robots dogs EVER. I'd watched Season 1 of this show on TV and found it so deathly dull that I didn't even bother with Season 2 when it aired (I may have tuned into the first episode...I can't remember for sure). However, there was a deal on DVD TV series here where if you bought two, you got a third one free (and that was on top of the already 20% off sale). This season was actually released on DVD quite some time ago, but I hadn't had the motivation to get it. But after having become a fan of Daisy-Edgar Jones (who starred in this show and was the only reason I stuck with it throughout the boring-ass first season) and recently watching her in the far superior series she did *before* this one, Normal People, as well as getting her movie from last year ( Where the Crawdads Sing) on Blu-ray, I was itching for more of her...thus I decided to get this season on DVD (since it was free). As expected, it was *still* boring (it'd gotten to the point where I was on the robodogs' side since I couldn't stand any of the human characters), and worse yet, they offed Daisy Edgar-Jones character, Emily, in the season final (in a particularly mean way too - shame on you, Gabriel Byrne, for shoving an innocent blind girl off a roof after only giving her vaguest of reasons as to why). I'd actually already been spoiled for this scene of her death when the episode aired on TV, which I think I just happened to catch by accident (and not knowing what had led up to it). So, any lingering interest I had in this show died with her character...except I saw on her IMDB list of credits that she does apparently appear in an episode of Season 3. Adding to that is the fact that I see another actress I'm a fan of (Lizzie Brocheré) appears in all eight episodes of Season 3...which means I'm probably going to end up watching it. Assuming, of course, that it's ever aired on TV/released on DVD here. If not...oh well, no big loss. HOW exactly do you make an alien invasion story so boring??
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Post by Hauntedknight87 on Jul 13, 2023 10:54:04 GMT -5
Currently watching season 5 of Modern Family.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Jul 23, 2023 5:00:19 GMT -5
Most recently finished Season 1/the complete series of Caprica on DVD. {Spoiler}Me being my contrary self, when I heard people saying this show 'wasn't as good' as BSG, I decided to watch it when it originally aired on TV here, as unlike those people...I wouldn't be unfairly comparing it since I'd barely seen any of BSG at that time, which I think helped with my enjoyment of this show (coming into it relatively fresh, as I hardly remembered what little I'd seen of BSG). In fact, I enjoyed this show *so* much that after I watched it on TV, as soon as it was released on DVD...I bought it (but I hadn't watched it since then, which was a long while ago). After having just recently watched BSG from start to finish on DVD, I figured it was only natural to give this show a rewatch, this time with a new perspective. Yet I *still* prefer this series to BSG ('unpopular' as that opinion may be). One thing that helps is there's not so many characters to keep track of. With BSG, I was often finding myself wondering who someone was/who somebody was referring to. And with less characters, there was less chance of there being ones who annoyed the crap out of me (there were quite a few in BSG, but only a couple in this show). I also had no issue with the lack of dogfights in space (which seemed to be a lot of people's problem with this show). One thing I'd remembered from all that time ago when I originally watched this series was that the 'Pilot' episode immediately grabbed me and I was enthralled throughout. That didn't change this second time around, as I still found it compelling and not at all 'slow' like some people apparently did. This was probably the first thing I saw most - if not all - of the main cast in and I've always remembered them from/associated them with this series whenever I've seen them in anything else since then. I remember thinking it was weird when we first meet Zoe Graystone in the club in 'V-World' during what was apparently human sacrifice going on and there seemed to be shifting from human visages to demonic - I didn't know what to make of that when I first saw it, but it wasn't long before I caught onto what the deal was - ie. Zoe being your typical rebellious daughter, was a believer of 'the One True God' who got on a train with one of her fellow believers - Ben Stark (played by the first of MANY actors who, when I did this rewatch, caused me to react with "Hey, I recognise that person!" - in this case he was someone who I could *tell* I'd seen somewhere else...but couldn't figure out from where exactly. Turns out he was in a show called Victorious which I recently watched episodes of on TV). Meanwhile, Zoe's best friend - Lacy Rand - backed out at the last minute...which was just as well, since Ben Stark decided to go full suicide bomber (which clearly Zoe wasn't expecting), blowing up the train whilst spouting religious craziness. It was a ballsy beginning for the show (then again, BSG had whole baby-neck-snapper Number Six thing, so I guess this was this show's version of that). A crucial part of this series was an invention created by Zoe's farther, Daniel Graystone, called a 'holoband' which was a device that allowed people to go into the virtual world. I know other sci-fi shows such as Star Trek: Voyager were accused of relying too heavily on using the 'holodeck', but here something that was similar to that (though also different) played a *key* role in the show's premise, and therefore I didn't have a problem with us regularly taking a trip to V-World. We also learned that there were two versions of Zoe - the real Zoe (who perished in the train explosion) and the Zoe she'd created in V-World which was another version of herself that had her own independent thoughts. I thought Alessandra Torresani did a good job of playing both versions of Zoe, but it's too bad we didn't get to see more of them together. The costume department also did a good job selecting an outfit that stood out for her (and that I always associate with her character, even when later she appeared in different outfits). It was like a 'signature' costume for the character. The lighting and atmosphere made V-World visually interesting. Speaking of 'visually interesting', this show's opening credits (which we got from the second episode onwards) were TO DIE FOR. They're SO well-done, the way they show us each of the 'regulars' (though not with the actors' names appearing alongside them - those come after the sequence) and each scene blends seamlessly into the next is just exquisite. My favourite part is when it goes from the statue with its arm outstretched to the arm of Clarice Willow (Polly Walker) in the exact same position, then she closes her fist and brings that arm to her chest while with her other she hands the character of Lacy Rand (Magda Apanowicz) the infinity symbol/Soldiers of The One pin (you gotta love the effect of the wind machine blowing Lacy's/Magda's hair artfully, and the background they're both in is really eye-catching). What makes this moment even better? The music ramps up, however briefly, to the point where you could totally rock out to it. It's just hands-down the BEST part of the opening credits sequence, imho. The rest is neat too, of course, and I liked how it comes full circle (starting with Daniel & Zoe Graystone and then ending with them). I also like the sound effect of the red Cylon eyebeam thingy as it moves before we see the show's title appear over an impressive CGI shot of the city that the series is named after. Another 'unpopular' opinion of mine is that I was never fussed on the BSG theme (it was too mournful for my liking and the grunting "HUH!" before we'd get flashes of images from the episode - which I always felt were kinda 'spoilery' - annoyed me) or that show's opening credits (I didn't think the shots in the credits were that interesting - hell, they didn't even include a clear shot of Number Six! Unless you count that one of her from afar where she makes Gaius Baltar get down before the explosion engulfs them). I've already mentioned why I like this show's opening credits images, but a reason I feel this theme is superior to BSG's is that it sounds both beautiful and a tiny bit eerie at the same time, giving off an unsettling vibe before changes gears and totally rocks. My only complaint? When most of the beat seems to disappear as Amanda Graystone walks across the screen with Daniel (it's like someone turned the sound down), but thankfully it comes back at the very end. The shot of each castmember does a good job of summing up their character in an instant - we see Daniel's an inventor as he turns around and there are Cylons being created behind him on an assembly line, the wipe from Cylon Zoe to human-looking Zoe is something that's used throughout the series and we get the first taste of it here, then Joseph Adama is mourning in the graveyard after the deaths of his wife and daughter from the train explosion. The only sour note is the character of Willie Adama, Joseph's son, appearing since 1) the character is annoying/literally does *nothing* in his shot, and 2) the actor who plays him isn't actually a 'regular' and so he's the odd one out since all the others *are*. On the plus side, Joseph's brother, Sam, makes up for the Willie shot by showing he's a character who means business with the reveal of the knife on his belt - since he's someone who offs people when it's deemed 'necessary' by the Mafia-like family they're involved with, this is his character in a nutshell. The grandmother (who we learn in the show is just as ruthless as Sam) also appears...though she too isn't a 'regular'. Meanwhile, Agent Jordan Duram - who *is* a 'regular' in the series - doesn't get a shot in the opening credits. I 'spose it would've been tricky to work him in, but he could've been lurking behind a tree in the graveyard or that statue that leads into Clarice Willow and Lacy Rand's shot. The only 'boring' part is Daniel's wife, Amanda, who just seems to be in a zombie state, with her vacant staring into space (while Daniel's changed out of his work clothes and donned going-out wear with his signature red scarf), but we end on a good note by going through the eye of Zoe, revealing the Cylon underneath, before the cityscape shot. All in all, this is one of the best opening credits sequences I've seen (and blows BSG's out of the water, imho), as there's so much meaning to all of it. The amazing theme music is just the icing on the cake. There was a LOT of stuff to introduce in the first episode of the show (hence its longer-than-a-typical-episode runtime...though I guess it didn't warrant a 'mini-series' like the very beginning of BSG did). There were all the characters to introduce, their different dynamics (like how Zoe and her mum clearly don't get along, which leads to Amanda slapping her daughter when she mouths off one too many times and Zoe declaring that her mum will live to regret that for the rest of her life - which was some good foreshadowing of what was about to happen to Zoe), and then Lacy being contacted by Zoe's avatar. Lacy coming over to the Graystone residence under the guise of just wanting to spend time in Zoe's room, when really she's paying Zoe's avatar a visit in V-World, eventually leads to Zoe's dad learning of his daughter's still-existing avatar in V-World following her death. At first he's not accepting of her being the 'real' Zoe, only a 'very good imitation', but eventually he does think of her as his daughter and we soon learn how sneaky he is and willing to do whatever it costs to get what he wants when he finally embraces avatar Zoe, only to use this hug as a way of downloading her into a USB or whatever which he wants to upload to the robot he's created (the first Cylon) in the hopes of one day giving her a proper body and thus, for all intents and purposes, he gets his daughter back. However, when he loads the Zoe avatar into the Cylon, something goes awry and and he quickly ducks back into V-World to see if she's still in there but she's gone and he thinks he's lost the last piece of her he had left (the Doctor Frankenstein parallels become clear pretty early on). Unbeknownst to him, the Zoe avatar now exists in the robot and she's determined to keep this a secret from him since she clearly can't trust him after what he just did to her in V-World (which she's still able to be in as well as the robot). All of this stuff could've been very confusing, but the show did a good job of making it clear. The first episode also has Daniel and Joseph Adama meet and bond over the loss of their loved ones in the train explosion (without either one knowing that Zoe was part of the group behind the bombing, even if she herself wasn't actually responsible for the blast). It's too bad they don't stay friends for long, but that's all thanks to Amanda (after Clarice Willow gives her that STO/infinity pin that belonged to Zoe) deciding to publicly announce that she suspects her daughter of being a terrorist. I don't care HOW she tries to justify it to her husband later on (claiming she didn't know what she was doing in the moment or whatever), it's a stupid thing to do and she brings all the hate they receive (including something being hurled at her which cuts her and Daniel getting beaten up by Sam Adama whilst Joseph threatens him) onto them. Consequently, she was one of the characters I never really warmed up to in the show. The writers also seemed to struggle to find something worthwhile for her to do and it was only in the latter half of the season that she actually got involved in one of the main plots as a spy for Duram sent in to get information on Clarice (who had befriended Amanda, gaining her trust up until she learned Clarice was who got her daughter involved with these terrorists). Nothing the writers did with Amanda's character made her more 'interesting' to me (that stuff with her seeing her dead brother, where we had to watch the same footage of him running through a hallway over and over again bored the shit outta me). Really, the most interesting thing she ever did was try to kill herself. Unfortunately, she somehow miraculously survived the fall and we were stuck with her. I think the only time I found her even mildly entertaining was when Daniel created an avatar of her (after they were living separately for a while) and this avatar wasn't quite right/kept trying to *be* Amanda not entirely successfully (which pissed Daniel off, but I enjoyed how not-Amanda-like she was and then when she tried too hard to be like Amanda). I think by the final episode we saw how this married couple could work well as a team...but that was far too late in the game to finally have her character actually be useful. Daniel himself wasn't as boring as Amanda, but he too could be unlikeable at times - though he didn't start off that way. To begin with, I liked him quite a bit and he could be mildly entertaining on occasion, but then in his pursuit of proving that the Zoe avatar *was* inside the Cylon (after he caught onto this fact thanks to the way the family dog, Caesar, acted around her and other little hints that this robot was reacting in non-robotic-like ways) he showed his true colours, at first terrorising his robot daughter by leaving her stuck in a circle of fire whilst retelling the story of what first made real Zoe afraid of fire, then what really pissed me off/made me dislike him was him ordering her to shoot his dog he claimed to 'love' (though not as much as his daughter) after counting to 5. Although it was later revealed that he'd only loaded blanks into the gun (which Zoe's robot self was able to tell just from the difference in weight between them and a live round), just the fact that he'd put this robot he suspected of being his 'daughter' through such torture said what sort of man he was. I was SO glad I'd been spoiled for this moment prior to when I originally watched it on TV, as I would've totally fast-forwarded if I hadn't known the dog would be okay. I don't hold Zoebot's pulling of the trigger against her, since she *knew* full-well that it wouldn't hurt Caesar (well...except for his ears, I'm sure, which is what made the moment all the more nail-biting since we actually hear him yelp/whimper as she's firing the blank rounds which is why it really seemed like he was being shot until the reveal of him being okay...though probably with somewhat damaged hearing). I was happy to hear Lacy sounding upset about this when Zoe told her about it later (she always came across to me as an empathetic character). I will give Eric Stoltz credit for his reaction as Daniel, having just lost what little hope he had of his daughter being 'alive' in some sense, since Zoebot pulling the trigger without hesitation seemed to prove to him once and for all that Zoe wasn't in there (as Zoe would've never shot Caesar). He looked more than disappointed, it was like losing his daughter all over again. From this point on he just treated Zoebot like what everyone else saw - an emotionless robot. With Zoe inside the Cylon body, it made it more instinctual and better at target practice (which it failed at in an earlier demonstration before being inhabited by a human girl). Once again we see how unfeeling Daniel can be when he orders the robot to rip off its own arm to show the members of his company that Cylons are the future - it's a memorable scene and one that makes good use of the device of shifting between seeing Zoebot as a robot and seeing her as her human self. They wisely choose to show the arm-ripping in robot form (as it would've just looked weird seeing her do it in human form). Although this regular intercutting between the two was clearly implemented mainly to save money, as they could only afford to show the CGI robot so many times (though according to the episode commentaries it led to them having to film every scene with Zoebot twice - one pass with the CGI robot and one with Alessandra Torresani...so it didn't really end up saving them much of anything because it ate up more time), it worked for the story as well, since it allowed us to see Alessandra Torresani's reactions/facial expressions which was what the robot was feeling (which we wouldn't have had any idea of if we'd only ever seen the robot). It was particularly effective in the early episodes when Zoebot was being manhandled by the rough one of two lab technician dudes who were tasked with taking care of the robot, testing it, etc. There was Mr. Unfeeling Jerk and Mr. Sympathy (actual name Philemon. I can't remember the other one's name), who treated Zoebot like a human being while the other one insulted her and wasn't exactly gentle when he strapped her down (I couldn't help but feel sorry for Zoebot as we saw her reacting to this like any normal human girl would). I think seeing Zoe's reactions helped remind us there was a person inside the machine and thus feel sympathy for her. I guess some people got turned off by the stuff with Philemon looking for love and Zoebot being that person for him (since he actually treated her Cylon self with respect/dignity - though it was funny when we saw him working on the robot, considering whereabouts on its body he was tinkering - again, this is where the choice of when to show the robot and when to show Zoe allowed for some subtle humour. There was no attention drawn to it, it was just up to our imagination to picture what it would've looked like had we been seeing human Zoe in that instance where he was crouched down low fiddling with her parts). Ironically, Mr. Unfeeling Jerk seemed to be the *wise* one, steering clear of Zoebot, since once she eventually revealed to Philemon that it was in fact real Zoe Graystone inside the robot (this was when she was desperate to escape since they were going to destroy the part of her that made her 'Zoe'), instead of trusting her/standing by her, he did what she asked him *not* to and was going to rat her out, so she batted him aside. Unfortunately, not knowing her own Cylon strength, this proved fatal and he got his head bashed against a hard surface, falling to the floor quite dead (so all those who feared the show was veering too much into 'mushy teen love' stuff should've stuck with it past the 'robot dancing' stuff - which, really, wasn't even that big of a deal - as this potential 'pairing' certainly didn't go in the direction anyone would've been expecting and instead ended in tragedy. Shortest potential relationship ever!). This was the midway point in the season when, after a long time planning it, Zoebot finally made her escape from the lab, speeding away in a stolen van and ramming a blockade which sent the van flying/exploding (no matter what, Zoe just can't seem to escape exploding modes of transportation). The character of Zoe's best friend, Lacy Rand, was someone who I'd found myself liking the most when I originally watched the show (moreso than Zoe herself) and I still really liked her during my rewatch. Firstly, I think her name just sounds cool (some fictional character names sound odd/weird/wrong, but then others just sound 'right' and are the perfect combination of first and last name - which is the case here). Then there's the fact that she felt guilty about not joining Zoe on the train bound for Gemenon (as she rightly points out to avatar Zoe, who gets on her case about it, she would've *died* too and then who would've Zoebot been bossing around to help her escape?). I found Magda Apanowicz to be particularly compelling in her portrayal of Lacy, who started off nervous and unsure of herself regarding their plan to head for Gemenon, but then proved herself capable of handling the situation of being Zoe's eyes and ears out in the real world once she was contacted by the Zoe avatar still in V-World who tasked her with a number of things which she handled admirably (if not perfectly), such as securing her transportation to Gemenon (which involved Lacy getting herself in deep with Clarice Willow and then her enemy, Barnabas - played by James Marsters who's first introduced to us in silhouette, wrapping barbed wire around his arm - so you know he's unhinged). Sure, in the end Zoe got herself out of the lab - but she really had unrealistic expectations of how quickly Lacy could gain the trust of Barnabas and thus have him set it up so Zoebot-in-a-crate wouldn't be stopped at customs or whatever. The fact that Lacy couldn't *tell* anyone what was being transported made it hard for her to be trusted and thus she had to prove herself time and time again, including partaking in that favourite pastime of all crazy cultists - ie. cutting their palms with a knife to bleed into a bowl (get a new shtick, nutjobs!). As I said previously, Lacy was an empathetic character who felt for others, but she also proved tough when she needed to be - whether it was tackling the guy who might've had a thing for her (and vice versa) to the ground and demanding to meet Barnabas or when she was being held prisoner by Clarice, she rose to every occasion. She also proved just how devoted she was to Zoe's avatar when Barnabas at one point forced her to blow up a vehicle Clarice had been in (after Lacy had unknowingly planted the explosive device on Clarice when Barnabas had led her to believe she was just planting a tracking device). Of course, Lacy didn't know Clarice was safely out of the vehicle when she set off the explosive, she thought she was killing her and she certainly didn't make this decision lightly. Not only was Barnabas refusing to transport what Lacy needed transported (ie. Zoebot) if she didn't blow Clarice to hell, but also her potential love interest's life was in the balance. In the end, though, Barnabas shot him anyway (eh, you were better off without him, Lacy! You were always too good for that weenie). Lacy was one of the characters who I *most* enjoyed following the journey of throughout the season and whenever they'd cut away from her, I was disappointed/wishing we could've stayed with her instead. Yes, she got in over her head at times, and her helping Zoe escape came a bit too late, but she always managed to pull through no matter how tough the situation was and she ended up the stronger for it. She was the best friend a girl-inside-the-body-of-a-robot could have (despite the fact that sometimes she was treated unfairly by Zoebot) and Magda Apanowicz did a lot with a role that would've likely been not half as good had someone else played her. I think Lacy proved herself the most when a ship she was on with other STO recruits was seemingly taken hostage by pirates who made it appear as though they were offing those aboard one by one. She helped form a plan with another recruit (a dude I recognised from a few things but will always think of as one of three future superheroes who paid Clark a visit in Season 8 of Smallville. Speaking of, the actor who played another one of those three future superheroes appeared in this same episode as one of the ones who got 'shot'), and together - along with the remaining recruits - they overthrew the pirates and Lacy went to town beating the crap out of the leader played by Christopher Heyerdahl...which I was happy to see (as although he *is* a decent actor, the last couple of shows I've seen him in have caused me to become sick of his shtick since he seems to just keep playing the same sort of weirdo bad guy most of the time, with very little to differentiate between them other than bizarre accents). Of course, then it was revealed this was all a 'test' to see who was loyal and who would renounce their faith when threatened with certain death. Those who were 'shot' were still very much alive (though at the end of the episode a Cylon executed those who didn't pass the test and had renounced their faith in an effort to stay alive). We saw Lacy 'grow' as a person throughout the season and by the end of it she was quite a different person to how she started off the series. And as if I didn't like Magda Apanowicz enough already, she made me like her even *more* due to her being a big Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan who grew up with the show and fangirled out over James Marsters (aka Spike) appearing in this series during the several episode commentaries she was a part of (where she was highly entertaining and made them better than they would've been without her. Some people who do commentaries are annoying or boring...but she was neither. I especially liked how she kept bringing up BtVS in conversation and it was neat to learn that she was like me - someone who got into BSG late in the game and heard of it through other people before checking it out. Plus, her fave character was Starbuck - so you know she has good taste...though that was already clear from the fact that she was a BtVS fan). I was already a fan of hers after originally watching this show, and was bummed I hadn't seen her in much else since then (just one or two other roles here and there). I just can't praise her enough, as she's a large part of why I think I enjoyed this show so much. The only 'bad' part regarding her character was that she was hardly featured in the final ever episode except for a very brief appearance (basically a cameo) in a flashforward of events 'yet to come' (which I guess was intended as preview of Season 2, but because the show was cancelled, it served more as an 'epilogue' to the series). I realise they didn't know at the time whether the show would be renewed or cancelled...but still, this was a major disservice to her character/the actress who portrayed her after she'd played such an important role throughout the season and there was a lot more of her story to tell. It was a total waste of her in the final ep and a disappointing note on which to leave her character (on the plus side, I was glad to see her replace that creepy 'Mother' of the Monotheist Church, as I wasn't fond of the woman playing her - sorry, actress-who-apparently-came-out-of-a-ten-year-retirement-from-acting-to-play-the-role). Another character who ended up being awesome (but who I hadn't recalled just HOW awesome from my first viewing of the show and was only reminded of upon rewatching) was Joseph Adama's daughter, Tamara Adama (that's a name with a lot of 'A's in it). She, along with her mother, were on the train when it blew and it was only after Daniel Graystone befriended her father that he created an avatar of her in V-World. Unfortunately, despite him doing Joseph this 'favour', Joseph didn't react in the way Daniel had hoped due to the fact that the Tamara avatar was scared, had no clue what was going on and couldn't feel her heartbeat, which not only freaked her out, but her father as well. Joseph was so wishy-washy about the avatar of his daughter - one minute declaring her an 'abomination' and making out that Daniel had sinned against nature, then the next he was desperately seeking her out in V-World. Before we get to that point, though, the Zoe avatar and Lacy find Tamara in V-World and direct her to a way out of the game (not knowing her real self is dead and thus she can't 'derez' which is what happens whenever someone in V-World removes their holobands in the real world). She decides to wander through V-World and thanks to a gamer who goes by the name Heracles (played by an actor who I always immediately recognise because he has a very distinctive face and who I've seen in numerous things but always associate with this show) she learns of someone who can help her, since she thinks she's still alive. There's this whole thing with Russian Roulette (though not as we know it, since it's the guns doing the spinning around, everyone takes a gun and puts it to their head before pulling the trigger and then one unlucky soul gets derezzed - since 'dying' in the game kicks you out and then you can never get back in). Tamara's shot by the woman who was supposed to help her...but she doesn't derez and is instead wounded, but it heals. Before Tamara can get some answers, she and Heracles have to go steal some virtual currency from a fat dude, Heracles literally takes on the guise of the fat dude's avatar they're stealing from after Tamara proves herself by distracting the guy (getting shot by him) so Heracles can gain his avatar, there's a bank heist, Heracles uses something that I thought looked like a dustbuster to suck up these floating coins, but they're caught in the act by guards...then Tamara gets shot again, but at this point she's gotten used to it and is able to 'control code' in the game by derezzing the guards simply by willing it - which was something she hadn't even realised she was capable of before. When they return to the useless woman, she bluntly informs Tamara that her real self has been dead for a while and then quickly moves onto making plans to use her for...things, but Tamara's having none of that, she grabs a gun (Heracles' one, I think) and blasts all those who wouldn't help her/tormented her, causing them to derez (including a character played by an actress I've seen in a number of things including the Megan Fox movie Jennifer's Body, which the actress who plays Tamara was also in alongside her. The actress who I don't know the name of, despite having seen in several things, always seems to play an annoying character - and it was no different here, as she was this smirky bitch who took delight in Tamara's plight, which meant that I was SO GLAD to see her get derezzed). Thus begins Tamara's journey towards becoming one of the biggest badasses in V-World. I almost forgot to mention there's this whole other part of V-World called 'New Cap City' which has a totally retro look to it, like something from a 30's or 40's gangster movie (the costumes, the style and everything has this 'darker' atmosphere going on than regular V-World). This is where the effects people working on the show got to get really creative, with dazzling cityscapes, a dreadnaught airship flying overhead, planes shooting at those below like from a war time setting - it's crazy! But it's also the most interesting the show's been since the 'Pilot' episode. I liked Heracles as a character and his teaming up with Tamara - they made a good pair. I wish we could've spent more time with them together in New Cap City, I would've loved to have spent an entire episode (or more) with them there. Instead, Tamara decides to go it alone (doing a badass strut with a gun through the city). Heracles - whose real name is Tad - goes back to his boring real life where he's a 'nobody', whereas in the game he can be ' somebody'...that is until Tamara's dad tracks him down (this is after Tamara in V-World asked Tad to check she really was dead in real life and he turned up on Joseph's door at the exact time he was in the middle of a ritual for Taurons where they're meant to 'move on' from family members they've lost - which was something Sam convinced him to do because he was sick of seeing his brother spend all his time trying to find Tamara in V-World and not taking care of himself/his remaining family in the real world. Joseph had chased after Tad who gave him the slip) and basically forces Tad to help him find Tamara in New Cap City, so they put their holobands on right there in the alley out the back of where Tad works and it was kind of fun seeing Heracles guide Joseph, who couldn't have been more out-of-place in a virtual game. There's one particularly funny instance where Joseph asks why they can't just fly instead of the endless walking and Heracles plays along, teaching him how to stand in preparation for taking off...only to then drop the act and all but slap Joseph upside the head and tell him he's an idiot, as there's no defying of gravity in the game since it more or less adheres to the rules of reality - this was a fun scene and it's a shame their dynamic, like the Tamara/Heracles dynamic, is so short-lived thanks to Joseph being hopeless at evading bullets and shoving Heracles as he runs which gets him derezzed. I certainly felt sorry for Tad after this, as it was his *one* escape from the crappiness of the real world and Joseph screwed it up for him, ensuring he could never go back. However, it's not too long before Joseph finds himself another guide through New Cap City in the form of a woman by the name of Emmanuelle. She's far less entertaining than Heracles, though. Eventually, after some not-that-interesting shenanigans, Joseph *finally* catches up with Tamara...but it's a short reunion, as she shoots herself (it's almost amusing how nonchalant she's become about being shot at this point) and then shoots her dad, derezzing him, and he reacts much the same way as Daniel did when he thought he'd lost the last remaining piece of his daughter. At first I'd wondered why she felt the need to shoot herself before derezzing daddio...but from the way he acts, it seems he believed she killed herself in the game (though we know better, since she can't actually 'die' in there. Also, to me it looked like a shoulder shot - hardly 'fatal'). This was her way of telling him to 'move on' from her while making sure he could never go searching for her in the game ever again. I was pretty bummed how underused Tamara seemed to be until she finally encountered Zoe's avatar, who'd been searching for her/tracking her down via goons with tattoos on their faces that were Tamara's symbol she used as a kid (which is something Joseph recognised when he was in the game, seeing those symbols on a wall). It was fun getting to see Zoe take on these discount 'Droogs' with a sword, derezzing them (she also evidently picked up Tamara's ability of rewriting game code, as she's able to make one discount Droog's gun stop working just by willing it), but it felt like we should've been spending more time with her traversing V-World/New Cap City and learning to become a badass 'Deadwalker' (which is what both she and Tamara come to be known as in the virtual world since both of them were dead in the real world/couldn't 'die' in the game). Like with avatar Zoe, it seemed that all of Tamara's growth from a scared, helpless girl to pretty much a 'God' of V-World was offscreen (which was a shame. All this character growth would've been far more interesting to me than anything we got with Amanda). Huge props to Genevieve Buechner who played Tamara, as she convincingly portrayed this character who we didn't to get see *too* much of, but had a whole character journey, and like with Lacy, became quite a different person to how she started out (though there were hints of her being a secret badass right from the very first episode when she was still alive and telling her mum on the train that she responded to some kid at school insulting her Tauron heritage by walking away... after kicking him in the balls). When Tamara confronts Zoe...it's not in a friendly manner, bringing a shotgun to a swordfight and having guys beat her up in an arena before finally taking Zoe on herself. They duke it out, but eventually come to an 'understanding' and team up. Together they make a pretty awesome duo, taking out whoever they need to in an effort to 'clean up this city' as it were (becoming known as the ‘Avenging Angels’). They also look fabulous doing it. I do feel things kind of 'petered out' towards the end of the season with regards to Zoe/Tamara, as they eventually got sick of the dark/depressing New Cap City and used their combined powers of rewriting game code to turn it into more of a fortress upon a mountain (somewhat reminding me of the Great Wall of China at one point). Considering how much I'd enjoyed the urban setting, I was somewhat disappointed to see it transformed into a more bright/sunny landscape - though the transformation itself was well-done (I imagine that cost them a pretty penny with the CGI). But just as they created this, Daniel yanked Tamara away into a black void to make her give Zoe a message (as she'd been avoiding her parents), but then Zoe appeared and kicked him out of the game. However, Daniel, Amanda and Sam Adama still pursued them (with Sam intent on 'killing' the Tamara avatar, after he learned she wasn't 'dead' like Joseph had thought she was, wanting to make her 'dead' so his brother wouldn't become obsessed with finding her again) and then there was this whole bit where Zoe created dragons out of horses...that didn't look great (I guess they blew their budget on the reconfiguring of New Cap City), but then this *is* a virtual world, so complaining about mythical creatures not looking 'real' in it is probably being nitpicky...but that's just because everything else looked so good. Anyway, Zoe's parents finally caught up with the Zoe avatar (after Sam got derezzed by Amanda when he was going to shoot Daniel, I think) and they had an awkward family reunion where Zoe was apprehensive of them, but eventually she wanted to rejoin them and Daniel created a virtual version of their home inside the game where Zoe could stay. I was EXTREMELY disappointed/annoyed that Tamara didn't factor into the final ever episode of the show after we'd followed her on her journey throughout the season. Clearly there was more planned for her, but thanks to the cancellation...we never got to see it play out. After doing some research I discovered one idea they had for her was that she would become the 'archetype for the Number Eight model of humanoid Cylon'. Once again, a HUGE waste of an interesting potential future storyline thanks to those IDIOTS who cancelled this show. Back in the less interesting real world, Daniel and Amanda were unaware that their home had been invaded by Clarice and two of her husbands (because in this show, multiple partners in a marriage wasn't at all 'weird' - she apparently had several wives as well as these husbands), one of whom was played by Scott Porter who most would know from Friday Night Lights and who I've seen in several other things. Most upsettingly, both he and the other dude blasted the crap out of the Graystone's cute robo-butler or whatever he was named Serge (who resembled an oversized bowling pin that zipped around and was very polite). He was in charge of security, but made the mistake of giving them a count to 5 warning before he was going to sort them out. Unfortunately, they didn't extend him the same courtesy. I was more sad about Serge's 'death' than I was about another death in this final episode, but on the plus side...it was satisfying to see Scott Porter get his brains splattered everywhere when the Zoebot awoke (Zoe's avatar going from V-World back into the robot) and bashed the shit out of his head with the arm she'd been told to rip off earlier in the season by her father (when Scott Porter got whacked, I thought to myself, " That was for Serge!"). As for Clarice and her surviving hubby, she'd had this whole plan of her disciples planting bombs at a stadium for the game Pyramid (like a football stadium) and when they set them off, killing themselves/everyone else, those nutters were going to be sent into V-World where they'd get to 'live forever' in a paradise Clarice had her hubbies create. Of course, Clarice herself turned out to be a bit of a chickenshit who was the only one who *wouldn't* be joining them (she spun some BS story as to why, but really...she was just clearly one of those 'Do as I say, not as I do' types who liked to talk big, but hadn't the guts to off herself). Her plan went awry, however, when avatar Zoe turned the virtual Heaven into a virtual Hell (literally) while Daniel called in the cavalry at the stadium in the form of all his Cylons that'd been made, who worked like troopers, taking out the suicide bombers before they could set off their bombs and sending them to their Heaven-turned-Hell (I'd remembered Kacey Rohl, who I've become *very* familiar with thanks to Hannibal and The Magicians among many other things I've seen her in, being one of the bombers with her pink backpack. She didn't play a huge role, but she nevertheless stood out from the crowd). So, I guess all those crazy cultists who thought they were going to a paradise got quite the shock when they found themselves stuck in the Hell that Zoe had turned their paradise into. Although Polly Walker did a good job playing Clarice, I can't say I was that interested in her storyline throughout the season (though it wasn't the worst one). After listening to the episodes commentaries, it seems that early on they wanted her character to be somewhat like Gaius Baltar in that they intended for her to provide some slight 'humour' (there was one scene in an early episode with her and Lacy where she gave tea to Lacy who kept sending her back to fetch more stuff to add to the tea over and over because she was uncomfortable being in such close proximity to Clarice who was becoming increasingly exasperated despite trying to maintain her 'cool' - I guess it was a slightly comedic moment, but nothing even close to the level of humour that Baltar provided). I think they figured out this approach to Clarice's character wasn't really 'working', so then after the midway point of the season, they decided to do some 'retooling' of the show (including getting new writing staff, focusing on different aspects of the show to what they had been focusing on, etc) and decided to embrace her character's ruthlessness, as we saw her being more vicious (which we'd only gotten a taste of previously when she made Barnabas her bitch). There was this whole plotline with Agent Duram using Amanda as his spy in Clarice's flock and he set up one of her wives as the mole to protect Amanda, which led to Clarice stabbing the crap out of her wife (who was innocent of being a mole and had in fact been suspicious of Amanda the whole time after Clarice brought her into their home). In the ending of the final episode we saw Clarice become a preacher to the Cylons, encouraging them to rise up against their human oppressors (there was also a weird bit with yet another Zoe appearing in amongst the crowd of Cylons - I think one of the commentaries said they wanted to have 'Head Baltar' or 'Head Six' from BSG appearing but couldn't get James Callis because of his cost or Tricia Helfer because of scheduling conflicts - though she was at least willing to appear - so they created this 'Head Zoe' for Clarice...at least I think that's what the person was suggesting who did the final episode commentary). I know people hated the 'religious stuff' in BSG and probably were put off by how heavily it was featured in this show, but I think it was a integral part of the story (even if it wasn't always the most interesting part) and it's a shame so many dismissed this series because of it, since I think it tackled the subject in a thought-provoking way. Something else I think this show did a better job of than some other shows was the virtual world and robot-with-human-feelings stuff. The other main storyline throughout the season was the Adamas, which involved the Mafia-like family stuff that I've already covered some of. While Joseph and Sam's dynamic was interesting and it was great to see Teryl Rothery (who I know from plenty of other things but who'll always be Dr. Janet Fraiser from Stargate SG-1 to me) playing a close personal friend of Joseph's who became like a member of the family (and also turned out to be who 'Emmanuelle' was in real life, as she'd disguised herself using an avatar of a totally different-looking younger woman in the game to steer Joseph in the direction towards Tamara after convincing her to send him out of the game after making him think she'd killed herself), what dragged down this storyline was the character of Willie Adama. I think when the show was conceived he was supposed to be a young version of Bill Adama from BSG...but the writers didn't cotton onto the age discrepancy (this show was meant to be set 58 years earlier) that the BSG fans did until late in the game. In the second-last episode, Willie got his fool self shot by not listening (which he was frequently guilty of) when he'd been told to stay in the car and consequently died (which the writers thought would catch people off-guard since they would've figured he was safe when they thought his character was a young Bill Adama). In the flashforward to the second-season-that-never-was, we saw a younger kid who was named Bill and it's obvious this was the writers' attempt to correct their mistake (and to make it crystal clear that this was meant to be the *real* younger version of Bill Adama, they gave him unnaturally blue eyes to match his older/Edward James Olmos self's eye colour - it was almost funny how startlingly blue this kid's eyes were, like he was some sort of alien - whereas Willie apparently hadn't had the correct eye colour...not that I ever even noticed such things). They basically gave Willie the 'Henry James Olsen' treatment (which will make sense to anyone who watched the Season 8 final of Smallville - dubbed 'Failsday' by people who weren't too impressed with it, part of the reason being because of what they did with the character who we'd *thought* was THE Jimmy Olsen for three seasons of the show...only for him to be retconned as the 'older brother' of the *real* Jimmy Olsen). Yes, it was a pretty transparent correcting of a rather big boo-boo on the writers' part...but, hey, that annoying little shit Willie Adama (who was disrespectful to his dad, completely useless, and not played by a particularly good child actor) winding up as cannon fodder was no great loss. He was the one who I mentioned earlier whose death I cared far less about than Serge's 'death'. Willie and Amanda were the two 'weak spots' among the cast of characters for me - and I'd wager them and their storylines were part of the reason some viewers didn't stick with the show past its early episodes. This show is where I've always remembered both Esai Morales and Sasha Roiz from when I've seen them in other things, and I think both actors did a good job with their characters. Sam was clearly the 'cool uncle' to Willie, as he taught him about cutting class and other such things his father disapproved of, plus he was also obviously someone who didn't have a problem offing people while Joseph seemed to not be onboard with that sort of thing (though he had no problem with getting Sam to beat up Daniel when he wanted to see the Tamara avatar and Daniel was avoiding him, claiming he thought Tamara's avatar had vanished after he thought he'd lost the Zoe avatar during the whole download-it-into-a-robot thing in the first few episodes). However, as the season went on we saw Joseph embrace his inner 'Sam' a lot more and he eventually reached the point where he was blackmailing Daniel into setting off a bomb to kill his own mother (though he claimed it was just a test). By the end of the season he was fully onboard with killing the guy he deemed 'responsible' for Willie's death (ie. the head of the Tauron mobsters who sent the men after Joseph that shot his son). I actually found the most interesting part regarding the Adama brothers to be an episode focused on them where we got flashbacks to their kid selves, where Joseph played by the rules while Sam broke the rules, stealing a gun from a Herac soldier (who'd been beaten to death outside their home) and keeping it under his bed - which led to a Heraclides lieutenant by the name of Kolibri being sent out to investigate. While the kid actors cast as young Joseph and Sam did an admirable job (as well as the actor who played their father - who I recognised from other stuff), it's the actress who played Kolibri I must give major props to for being able to portray someone so intimidating/scary...whilst not actually being physically imposing (she's flanked by two big dudes who dwarf her, as does Daddy Adama...yet she clearly holds all the power throughout their scenes). While the Nazi allegory was a bit ham-fisted (as someone on the commentary put it, she was like a 'younger, hotter version' of Hans Landa from Inglourious Basterds), what made the flashbacks compelling was the actress's chilling performance. She has the mother killed and tortures the father, all the while the kids are hidden in a cupboard. They attempt to free their father when his torturers are out of the room, but his kneecaps have been broken and he knows he can't escape with them, so he sends the kids back into hiding and young Sam has the gun he stole...but can't go through with killing anyone (even those who murdered his mother and have been torturing his father), so it falls on young Joseph to shoot all three - he kills the two men, but Kolibri's still alive (just badly - fatally? - wounded). Because Taurons apparently have this whole thing where they like to choose the manner in which they die, Joseph's dad tells his son to shoot him...which he does, splattering Kolibri in the face with his father's blood. This shows us that Sam being the man of action and Joseph being the one to hold back wasn't always the case and that, when they were kids, Joseph was the killer - thus making his slowly embracing being ruthless as an adult more understandable (especially after he'd backed out of wanting Sam to off Amanda early in the season when he learned her daughter was 'responsible' for the terrorist attack that killed his wife and Tamara - we were led to believe Sam went through with the hit, but he was just messing with his bro...which was kinda mean-spirited/messed up, but also morbidly amusing and made Sam the more entertaining of the two). There were quite a few side characters throughout the season, some of whom were interesting...and some were not. On the whole, though, I found myself less bored than I was throughout parts of BSG's run (especially Season 3, which felt like a chore to get through). I think certain people require lots of action/killing/bright flashy things to keep them interested in a show, and while this series had all three of those sprinkled throughout...they weren't the focus. This was a more 'quiet' show than BSG, but I actually found it less frustrating. Although there were some things they could've done better/improved upon, the few aspects of the show I wasn't so fussed on weren't enough to 'ruin' it for me and I was able to tolerate them more than the parts of BSG that annoyed/angered me. I actually had no real problem with the series even before they decided to 'retool' it around the midway point of the season. I do think that in an effort to bring in more viewers/please those who hadn't been into the first half of the season, their 'readjustments' led to a somewhat 'uneven' feel. Personally, I didn't think there was really much to 'fix'. I found this show to be a hidden gem that was only just starting to realise its full potential by the time it was unceremoniously cancelled. There are those who dismiss it with "Well, it's no BSG.", but as is often the case with me, I find myself having the 'unpopular opinion' of enjoying this show more than BSG (it might not have reached the same heights as BSG did when it was at its best...but by the same token, I don't think it ever sunk to the same lows as that show when it was at its worst). I feel this short-lived series was actually quite ahead of its time, and consequently was underappreciated (whereas if it came out later, it might've been appreciated a bit more. Then again, considering how dire the quality of TV shows has become in the last umpteen years, I don't think I would've wanted this show to come out much later than it did, as I think then it would've had a whole different set of problems). There was a lot I liked about the series - including the look of it (I'm probably one of the few who wasn't in love with the handheld shaky camera technique BSG was so fond of using) - and only a few things I didn't like. At least before the series ended we got a shot of how the human-looking Cylons we knew from BSG came into being, as one of the last things we see in the 'flashforward' of the final episode is Zoebot emerging from a 'goo bath' and changing right before our eyes from looking robot-like to humanlike - I appreciated that. This is one of those shows that may have only had a single season, but it was a damn good single season and I will always cherish it. We fans of Caprica mightn't be large in number, but we knew this series was something special and appreciated how much work went into it. It's criminal how the untapped potential it had wasn't allowed to become realised thanks to those who cancelled it - FRAK YOU, MOTHERFRAKKERS!
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Aug 10, 2023 9:18:18 GMT -5
Finished Season 2 of His Dark Materials on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}I bought this quite a long while ago (and bought Season 3 earlier this year). I'd enjoyed Season 1, but because I knew Season 3 was the last one and there weren't that many episodes per season, I guess maybe I was putting off watching as I didn't want it to be over? Or more likely I just got sidetracked by the many other unwatched DVDs/Blu-rays I have. Anyway, due to it having been so long since I watched the first season, I'd forgotten some stuff, but I think I remembered the most important stuff. One thing I *did* remember for certain was this show has a kick-arse theme - it's one that, after I heard it for the first time, I then immediately found it on YouTube and listened to it on a loop multiple times. Just recently I was fortunate enough to find someone had made a 1 hour version of it, so now there's no need to click the 'loop' option since it's already looped and lasts an hour. It's a theme I just never get sick of listening to. Episode 1: 'The City of Magpies'{Spoiler}Naturally, one thing that remained the same between Season 1 and this first episode of Season 2 was that the theme was still awesome. I just hope they don't change it for Season 3, as I've watched other shows that altered their theme tunes and changed them in different ways - usually for the worse (looking at YOU, Outlander!). This show's theme is SO epic, it's like movie quality (which is ironic, since I haven't heard a memorable tune in a movie in quite a while). I love that while there's an 'adventure' feel to the music, there's also an underlying somewhat menacing feel as well. It suits the series perfectly. While the opening credits themselves are visually interesting, I think the music enhances them rather than the other way around. I noticed straight away that this season Dafne Keen who played the LEAD character of Lyra last season had suddenly become a co-lead, her name sharing first place in the credits with the actor who plays Will (who was only previously featured in the final episode of Season 1). I guess them being co-leads should've been the first indicator this season was going to focus as much on the character of Will as it did on Lyra. At least Ruth Wilson maintained her position of second place in the opening credits (though if I had my way, it'd be *her* who shared first place with Dafne Keen). Anyway, I think I preferred Season 1's 'simpler' opening credits, but I get that this season's version had to reflect what the storyline was about for Season 2. At least the whole 'different worlds' stuff in the credits finally made sense to me (whereas I hadn't really understood the relevance of much of the imagery in the credits during Season 1), since we explored that a bit more this season. I appreciated that we saw Lyra was still upset over Roger after her dad, Asriel, offed him/his daemon to open a portal in the Season 1 final. It would've made her look like a crappy friend if she'd just seemingly forgotten about Roger. I still love Pan (and would be quite content if I had my own daemon, as I think it'd be really neat to have an animal companion to talk with). Will finally got a bit more interesting than last season (where he bored me to death with his parts of the season final) when he met Lyra in this episode - though surprising her in the deserted town they both ended up in after traveling through a 'window' (what they call the portals) probably wasn't the wisest choice, since she put him in a hold like professional security do (ie. one arm held out behind his back in a painful position) whilst questioning him. After she lets him go, he reacts to hearing Pan talk, finding it weird - though she finds it equally weird that he doesn't have a daemon (since it's considered SO wrong to not have one). I was surprised Will seemed to just accept a talking animal without asking very many follow-up questions (I would've had plenty) and he mentions how 'daemon' means something 'evil' where he's from. Naturally, Pan's insulted...but Will makes up for that by asking if he wants something to eat (which he politely declines - so I guess that answers the question of whether daemons have to eat?). It's explained to Will that Pan is a part of Lyra, then he seems mildly amused in his reaction to Lyra talking about 'dust' like its this major thing, quickly catching on that it probably means something different to her than it does to him (they could've had a bit more fun with this, where she kept talking about dust like it's some deadly serious thing and Will saying something like "Ever heard of a dustbuster?"). I was surprised to see Bella Ramsey from Game of Thrones appear in this, as I hadn't known she was going to be in it (though obviously this was not long before she got the gig in The Last of Us - which has been released here on DVD/Blu-ray, but I'm not particularly in any rush to watch). Here she's playing a character named Angelica and she has a blonde friend named Paola. I remember everyone seemed to think Bella Ramsey's acting in GoT was SO amazing, but I never really got onboard that hype train. Her character went out like a badass...and that's all I can really remember of her. I never found her speeches particularly impressive, so despite her being built up as this 'great' actress, I actually thought the one playing her friend was more effectively creepy when describing to Lyra and Will how the things they were afraid of in this seemingly deserted town were called 'Spectres' and they'd take away what was inside of you/what made you *you* (apparently they leave children - who can't see them - alone, and instead go after adults. Will's informed he's close to becoming an adult and thus in danger). Unfortunately, both these girls (as well as other surviving turds of the town) turned out to be massively sucky human beings when Will later interrupted them terrorising/hurting a poor innocent cat (I had to read up on why they were doing this - not that ANYTHING excuses such actions - and turns out it was due to a superstition of cats being 'bad luck' or whatever...which is a totally BS reason to go after the poor animal, and it made them look like idiots). Will made me like him a bit more by rescuing the cat from them (Pan was even more awesome, changing into a wolverine when defending Will and the cat - a possible shoutout to Dafne Keen being in the Wolverine movie Logan, perhaps? And why is Will not more amazed that this talking animal can change into different animals?). Sadly, after that scene it seemed like we never saw that cat again (which lost Will some points with me, as what kind of rescuer doesn't then take care of their rescuee?) I'm sure we were meant to think of Lyra as presumptuous and rude for basically inviting herself to stay where Will was staying and automatically taking the small bed, even though there was a bigger one close by. Will says he was sleeping in the one she chose...then just says he’ll find somewhere downstairs to sleep – why not take the bigger bed or say Lyra could have it if he liked the smaller one? Instead he walks off in a snit. If you didn't want her staying with you...then you shouldn't have told her the two of you should stick together, Will. They’re from two different worlds stuck in this other one, and while words have different meanings, they discover their worlds also share some similarities like having an Oxford. Meanwhile, Lee Scoresby is doing what he does best - flying through the sky in his hot-air balloon with his arctic hare daemon, Hester (who I mistakenly thought was voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge...but that's not in fact the case. Somehow I got her mixed up with the woman who actually voices Hester - I think it must've been because when they list the voice cast during the end credits, it's on the screen so briefly that I caught sight of Phoebe Waller-Bridge's name and thought she must've been Hester because I can't recall many female daemons in the show. By the end of the season, I thought I'd discovered which daemon Waller-Bridge voiced...but was mistaken again. In the end, it appears she voiced the osprey named Sayan Kötör which was the daemon of Will's dad. It's a bummer I didn't realise this at the time, as I would've liked to have known it was her when listening to the daemon speaking). ANYway, it was nice to have more time with Lee and Hester talking (I couldn't recall how much time was spent with them last season), and eventually the witch Serafina Pekkala (played by Ruta Gedmintas, who is sporting a better look this season than last - the hair especially is an improvement) takes him to the rest of the witches, but gets in trouble for doing so because apparently it's 'not allowed'. Another witch turns up, opposing Serafina's POV and thus making me dislike her, though it was somewhat interesting when we heard her and Serafina's daemons (that are both birds) holding a conversation (not only did it seem there were more visible daemons this season, but also more hearing from them as well - whereas last season I guess they didn't have the budget to do as many daemons as was needed and thus they felt scarce - which really didn't serve the story well, since there should be LOTS of daemons about the place and it's meant to be a rare thing to find anyone *without* a daemon). After arguing with Serafina, the other witch (who, in a strange coincidence, happens to share the same first name as the actress who plays Serafina - ie. Ruta. You'd think that wouldn't be too common a name, but to have both a character and actress with that same name in the same show seems unlikely...yet here we are. Wonder if things got confusing on set when anyone called her name and it wasn't clear if they were referring to the character or actress?) flies through the rain and I would've enjoyed the moment more had it been Serafina doing that (stop trying to make the other witch happen, show!). She's informed by her bird daemon that a witch who's been captured and is currently being tortured by Mrs. Coulter is begging for the sweet release of death. Her means of torturing the captured witch? Using tweezers to pull out a thistle-y type thing from her back which apparently is what allows witches to do magic/fly. The captured witch's daemon is in a cage and I was glad that at least we didn't have to see *it* being tortured (sure, torture all the people you want, Mrs. Coulter...but leave the daemons alone! Though since they feel each other's pain, the daemon was probably feeling the torture anyway). Once again, I wish it was Serafina we were seeing kill a bunch of dudes and grant the captured witch's wish for death...but instead it's that other one who does it (one fat dude, who I think is in charge of the priests, gets stabbed by her but manages to miraculously survive...though not well, and Mrs. Coulter makes a deal with another priest who sees her way of things after fat dude opposed her...and it's pretty clear that fat dude’s toast). Episode 2: 'The Cave'{Spoiler}Despite lots of stuff going on in this episode, I personally didn't find it to be as good as the previous one. I was amused by Mrs. Coulter looking slightly goth-like in her 'mourning' outfit after fat dude's assassination last episode. Her outfits are always amazing, as is her ability to look totally badass while also being fashionable. Plus, no one else but her could do a slow-mo walk with a golden monkey and make it look badass. Her calmness when talking and threatening the guy who got promoted to Cardinal following the previous one's death and is now in charge is particularly effective, as Ruth Wilson is an expert at playing someone who seems calm on the surface, but you can tell there's simmering rage underneath. More villains should go the calm route rather than yelling all their lines. Since the guy allowed Mrs. Coulter to off the old Cardinal, his daemon tells him that even if the part he played in the assassination was 'necessary', it was still a sin - which leads to him placing his hand over a fire (I guess it’s their version of self-flagellation?). Will’s less likeable when he’s nagging at Lyra about everything as he was in this episode, especially when he said Pan had to get in Lyra's bag to remain hidden. I felt sorry for Pan with his timid/worried/uncertain “Lyra?” at the prospect of being stuck in the bag for ages (at least Lyra apologised to him - unlike Will - and Pan got to be snarky not only when remarking on the smell of the bag, but also when he said "Don’t ask how I’m doing or anything." from inside the bag). He poked his head out at times, though, and some people seemed to react to seeing him. I guess maybe his remaining hidden served two purposes - one being for the story and the other being they saved a bit of money on CGI by not having to show him as much. Speaking of, the CGI used to create his red panda form at the end of the last episode and the start of this one was really good, I thought. Looked pretty convincing (better quality than even some movies' CGI animals). It was somewhat amusing that Will’s phone failed to impress Lyra, they separate for whatever reason I can't recall, Lyra just goes everywhere she wants with no boundaries and walks into the place of 'scholar', Mary Malone, asking about dust and whatnot - it amuses me thinking about how all these people Lyra mentions it to must wonder WTF the big deal is in regards to dust. Mary is the most accommodating adult ever, just going along with Lyra’s fantastical story and truth-telling compass (the 'alethiometer'), etc. They talk of dark matter, which it seems might be what Mary's world calls 'dust', and it's crazy how she doesn't really ask too many follow-up questions of this strange random kid showing up with information about her work. By the end of the episode, Will makes Lyra leave (though she promises Mary she'll return) and it’s all about his mum/parents which I find extremely BORING. Things I was glad about this episode - Roger keeps getting mentioned and the fact that it felt like we saw more daemons during group scenes than last season (but a lot still must be tiny or on the floor/out of sight). I recognised the actor who played the Laird from Season 1 of Outlander playing a dude stuck in a cell with his sad dog daemon this episode. I was disappointed that there was so little Ruta Gedmintas/Serafina Pekkala in the episode and the most we see of her is at the very end when the witches land/home gets bombed. Episode 3: 'Theft'{Spoiler}This episode didn't start off great, as it was more boring Will family stuff (we get flashbacks with his dad played by Andrew Scott, but unlike others...I don't find him the least bit interesting in this role - then again, I wasn't fond of his Moriarty in the Benedict Cumberbatch Sherlock series and he's failed to impress me in pretty much every role I've seen him in thus far), there's still a disappointingly short amount of Serafina stuff every episode (the witches swear revenge for the bombing of their home...and that's it for this ep), and the character of Boreal kinda...well... bores me. Lyra nicks off against Pan's advice (listen to your daemon, Lyra!) to go see Mary Malone, there's a cop there questioning her, and I give Lyra credit for doing a pretty good job lying to the cop, but then she gets tripped up on her lie when he asks about Will living with her (so she's not perfect, but it was an understandable mistake). Mary distracts the guy as Lyra makes good her escape, then BOREal drives past and invites her into his car. Lyra should know better than to get in cars with strangers, but he's insistent (plus, she needed a quick getaway from the cop chasing after her). I was worried about Pan trailing the car in bird form as Lyra looked out the rear window, as I thought for sure the cop was going to shoot him...but thankfully that didn't happen. Lyra seemed to not be entirely sure of seatbelts but worked it out pretty quick, it's not long before she demands to be let out of the car and BOREal eventually obliges, but HOW on earth did she forget her bag with the alethiometer inside it as she runs off when it's been made out to be the MOST IMPORTANT THING EVER? BOREal stops the car and hands her bag out to her before driving off, but she doesn't look inside it until after he's gone and, naturally, she discovers he's stolen it. Lyra had left Will a note explaining her absence when he got home, but it took him forever to notice/read it. He eventually catches up with her and she reports the theft, she's offended he thought she was running off to just muck about and he says he was worried about her, they hide out in a movie theatre and there's a funny part where she takes a handful of his popcorn, eats some, it looks like she goes to put some back and then she grabs some more all whilst saying it's disgusting/tastes like wood shavings...yet she can’t stop eating it (I guess popcorn is as addictive to her as cigarettes are to adults). The movie they're watching is the first Paddington (at least I assume it's the first one, having never watched either of those movies myself). It was fun seeing Pan peek out of Lyra's bag to watch the film, though odd that no comments were made by anyone seeing him, and I'd expected him/Lyra to comment on there being 'talking animals' in this world (since Paddington's a talking bear). In a strange coincidence (though most likely why they picked this particular movie), it appears Paddington goes through a portal just like Lyra/Pan/Will did. Lyra mentions Roger again, they go to visit BOREal at his house after he gave Lyra his card earlier and end up making a deal with him whereby he'll return the alethiometer to her if they go fetch him this special knife he's after. The armored bear appearance in one scene was a surprise (but a pleasant one, as it's always good to see Iorek Byrnison again. I think he even talks to Serafina's bird daemon). The most interesting part of the whole episode, however, comes after Lee shoots at a guy through a curtain who was shooting at him, accidentally killing the guy (his lemur daemon disappearing in the process) and he feels guilty about it (though Hester reassures him it wasn't his fault, as the dude gave him no choice but to shoot back), then he's captured/held captive...and he's visited by Mrs. Coulter. The scenes between them were easily the best part of the episode, as these were two characters we hadn't seen interact before, she (naturally) gets physical with him - first slapping him (and in turn her monkey slaps poor Hester), then grabs him (causing her monkey to grab his daemon by the throat) and I was just glad we didn't have to watch her torturing Lee's daemon in order to get information out of him. I personally have never really had an issue with Lin-Manuel Miranda playing the character of Lee Scoresby as others apparently have, but then I never read the books so I didn't go in with any expectations of how he 'should' be (all I had to compare him to was Sam Elliot's portrayal of the character in the movie version The Golden Compass - and to me he was just playing the role like every other one I've seen him play/didn't particularly strike me as being that 'great', so at least Lin's portrayal was something different to that and I actually like his version of the character). This episode definitely gave him the best material to work with this season, as we got to learn a bit about Lee, and he does a good job going toe-to-toe with Ruth Wilson's Mrs. Coulter. Their scenes are electric and have so much going on, as while she's threatening him, he totally has her number, sharing with her that he had a parent who beat him (his father) and he can tell she had bad parents too. Ruth Wilson does a superb job showing all those emotions her character's feeling but trying to keep hidden as she doesn't want to show him that what he's been saying has had any effect on her. He says his life isn't worth a tenth of Lyra's (which Mrs. Coulter agrees with, and that also tells us he undervalues his own life), he won't spill any info to her and it becomes clear that Lee's ready to die to protect Lyra. This eventually leads to Mrs. Coulter having her monkey knock out the snake daemon (and the guard it belongs to/is a part of - since they're affected the same way) and her slipping Lee a key to free himself whilst making him promise to keep Lyra safe should he find her first. I thought there was great work not only from both actors during their scenes this episode, but also with the CGI of the daemons, especially their expressions (the monkey in particular showed a lot of emotion when Mrs. Coulter was feeling actual feelings and I liked the part where Hester mentioned how Lee hadn't talked about his father in a long time and touched foreheads with him). The best part is when the monkey (who we've seen be regularly abused) actually goes to comfort Mrs. Coulter, following those feelings about her parents being brought to the surface, as she recomposes herself whilst standing facing a wall and the monkey takes her hand. Most surprising of all is that she doesn't bat its hand away like I was fully expecting her to. Episode 4: 'Tower of the Angels'{Spoiler}This episode started with a rather LotR-esque voice-overing at the beginning about the creation of this all-important 'subtle knife' that Will (along with Lyra) is supposed to retrieve as part of the deal made with BOREal to get the alethiometer back that he stole. I couldn't care less about the damn knife, nor do I care about all this stuff with Will's dad (who bores the shit out of me - seriously, Andrew Scott's voice as this character is SO monotone/emotionless/without feeling) even when Lee Scorseby meets up with him. There's a guy who acts like Gollum in regards to the knife who attacks Will with it, cutting two of his fingers off (so this is like the third thing I noticed the episode having in common with LotR - the first was the voiceover/creation narration, the second was the Gollum-like guy and the third is the Gollum-esque character taking the finger - or rather two - of the person who wants to take away his 'precious' ie. the knife. Something strange I noticed was it seemed Will had wrapped a bandage around his hand *before* he lost two fingers - I guess to reduce the goriness? I may be misremembering, but I thought how convenient that he already had a bandage on his hand since he *really* needed one after the loss of his two fingers), Terence Stamp makes an appearance in the episode as the previous bearer of the knife (who also lost fingers - as apparently that's part of the price you pay being a knife bearer. Now that I think about it, that might explain why Will was prepared with the bandage already around his hand. That only just occurred to me) to give Will a quick lesson in using the knife to cut 'windows' to other worlds (one of the rules is to never forget to close a window that's been opened) and Lyra freaks out when Pan (still in red panda form) goes to nuzzle the injured Will, since someone else touching your daemon is a big no-no in her world. Terence Stamp offs himself before Spectres can take him and there's boring-ass stuff with Mary Malone and her computer thing - maybe it was 'important', but I was barely paying attention to it since I found it so dull. Making matters worse, there was FAR TOO LITTLE Mrs. Coulter in this episode. When she's informed by BOREal that he has Lyra, she points out he in fact doesn't have Lyra since she's currently off on a mission to get the knife. I remember at one point when BOREal is touching Mrs. Coulter's hand as they're chatting, she grips her monkey daemon's fur tightly - as obviously she doesn't like being touched, especially by creeps like him. Once again, there was an all-too-short amount of Serafina in the episode...but at least it was her kicking arse, making quick work of the bad guys in one of the airships that bombed her home. We need more of THAT in the show. I still wonder if it's weird for the actress Ruta Gedmintas when her character of Serafina has to call the other witch by her name which is Ruta. Episode 5: 'The Scholar'{Spoiler}Lyra’s encouraging Will in regards to his cutting 'windows' with the knife, as they plan to steal back the alethiometer from BOREal (with no intention of handing him over the knife in exchange for it). Despite one of the main rules of the knife (which Will was taught by Terence Stamp last episode) being to always close a window after it's been opened, Lyra has to remind Will to close the window he made whilst doing his practicing. At one point Lyra and Will encounter Angelica and her creepy friend again and they're hella pissed that someone they know (who I think may have been the Gollum dude Will took the knife from last episode) fell victim to the Spectres without the protection of the knife and now he's all zombiefied. I personally find Bella Ramsey pretty intolerable in this role she's playing, as she swears to get back at Lyra/Will (which made me worry for Pan). Lyra keeps swearing to help Will find his dad blah blah boringness. Things improve when Mrs. Coulter goes with BOREal through a 'window' into the world Lyra and Will are in. Her reaction to being told she would stand out/not blend in whilst dressed as she is in this world was amusing (she gives a little tug on her jacket). How DARE you suggest she hide her impeccable fashion sense, BOREal! He's found her more 'normal' clothes to wear and her reaction to jeans is hilarious. She smooths one side of her hair whilst looking in a mirror to see how it'll look pulled back tightly. Despite having to leave behind her glamourous clothes, she still wears ‘normal’ clothes extremely well, rocking the look. There was both a funny and sad moment involving her daemon - the former being the sight of it sitting in the car with a seatbelt on (this and the jeans moment are the sort of humour I appreciate and there should've been more of in the show), while the latter is when she leaves her monkey behind whilst going out to pay Mary Malone a visit. Her daemon's clearly not happy about this and not everyone is capable of being such a distance away from their daemon (she mentions to BOREal about how witches can do it...which raises some questions about how she's able to) and I yet again felt sorry for the poor thing when she closes the door to the room as she leaves it behind, making sure it can't follow. She talks to Mary Malone, learns what Lyra’s been doing (ie. reading the alethiometer for her and having conversations about dust), then leaves abruptly while Mary’s back is turned. She and her monkey have an interesting moment when she returns to it and they share this exchange of looks. There's one moment when she's talking about how women can have doctorates and be in charge of academic departments in this world (clearly she was jealous of Mary being able to), as she mentions how the only way to publish her research in her world would be to let a man take credit. Ruth Wilson knows how to put emphasis on certain words, drawing out ‘dust’ in an effective way when BOREal talks about it. Things get really interesting when Lyra arrives, knocking on BOREal's door to keep him distracted while Will cuts a 'window' from the different location he's at to the inside of BOREal's house to steal the alethiometer (why he has to make it so far away from the thing instead of right just next to it so he could easily reach his hand through, grab it, then close the hole...I don't know. Contrivance? Probably). While they did some preparation for the heist, they hadn't counted on Mrs. Coulter being there and they can't see her when Will peeks through the hole. She's right there close by, but behind a wall and it looks like Will is able to get it unnoticed, but naturally her daemon catches him in the act and pounces, she comes into the room, then Lyra enters the room and her reaction to being reunited with her mother again really tells you everything about their 'relationship' considering the first thing she tries to do is turn tail and run, but BOREal stops her. It then ends up being him vs. Will for the knife, while Mrs. Coulter tries to talk to Lyra. I thought maybe Will would end up killing BOREal's snake daemon, but instead he just knocked it out. Mrs. Coulter tries to entice Lyra with the alethiometer, but Lyra makes Pan turn all wolverine (after he'd spent most of the episode still as a red panda) and he attacks the monkey, thereby hurting Mrs. Coulter (getting revenge for that time she had her monkey attack and hurt Pan/Lyra last season). Even though we were probably supposed to cheer at this moment, I couldn't help once again feeling sorry for that poor much-abused monkey. He might've had it coming, but I still didn't like seeing it be hurt (it's not enough it gets hurt by Mrs. Coulter, now it's getting hurt by others - sucks to be that monkey). Mrs. Coulter, although hurt, eventually stands up as her monkey’s looking to her for help, and I wondered if Lyra's shocked reaction was due to her mother being able to fight through the pain caused to her daemon (further showing she can 'separate' herself from it to a degree) or that she was now acting as ruthless as her mum - maybe it was a bit of both? She's too distracted to listen to Will at first when he keeps saying they gotta go, but eventually snaps out of it and they dive through the 'window'...with the monkey attempting to go after them, but the hole's closed before he can follow them through. This was a great scene in the episode, very tension-filled and exciting...it's just a shame there weren't MORE moments like it prior to this episode instead of wasting so much time on boring Magisterium politics and Will's family stuff. It was the most thrilling the show had been thus far into its second season. The episode ends with Mary just casually walking up to a 'window' that was left open, the guard just assumes she's Mrs. Coulter - which she plays along with (I'm sure the REAL Mrs. Coulter would be deeply offended if she learned of this case of mistaken identity) - and then Mary travels through the portal. Alas, no Serfina this episode (I do wonder if Ruta Gedmintas got fed up with having such little screentime in the series or if she was busy with another job). Episode 6: 'Malice'{Spoiler}At the start of the ep, we see angels flying through the sky...and all I could think was 'sky sperm' since that's what they looked like from afar. Angelica and her band of bitches come after Lyra and Will, attempting to make good on their promise to get them back for what they perceived was their fault (ie. the zombiefied Gollum guy), I was worried they'd capture/hurt Pan, but instead when they corner them on a roof Serafina flies to the rescue and tells the little shits to bugger off. Hurray! I guess this episode was designed to somewhat make up for her having so little screentime the rest of the season, as I think she had more in this episode than she did in all the previous episodes of Season 2 combined. Will was once again annoying this episode, going on about his dad (that's ALL he seems to do) and being a dick to Serafina (who was just trying to help tend the wound of his TWO MISSING FINGERS). At one point she tells him how it may be Lyra’s job to watch out for him, but it’s also his job to look after her...or something like that, anyway. Lyra’s more trusting of Serafina than Will is, though still appears somewhat wary...but she can rattle off all the things she knows witches can do and Serafina seems impressed. When asking the alethiometer something (I can't remember for sure what it was, but I think probably the whereabouts of Will's dad since he just WON'T SHUTUP ABOUT HIM), it simply tells her 'up' (which we know is referring to the fact that they're both in Lee's hot-air balloon - though you'd think both Lyra and Serafina would've caught onto this since they've both encountered Lee's character and know that he's an aëronaut who spends the majority of his time flying...but I guess they were unaware of him accompanying Will's dad). Will continues being annoying when he’s whining about Lyra using him as an excuse to stop in their journeying, constantly telling her to ask the alethiometer about his dad...when she only just did that before (shut up about your damn dad, Will! He's such a boring character and it's a shame Lee's saddled with him). Mary encounters Angelica and her friend (who'd been eating flowers whilst they were watching Mary just sitting around in this strange new world she'd arrived in earlier on), they come right out and say they tried killing Lyra and ask if that’s wrong, Mary's answer is emphatically 'yes', but this doesn't stop her from giving them sugar (like what these two psychos need is to be MORE hyped up) and then when flower-eater asks her for a hug, I was expecting her to stab Mary in the back. In fact, I thought throughout this whole scene they were spinning some BS story about wanting Mary to be a 'parent' to them and they were totally suckering her into believing they were helpless little girls when we know they're far from it. If this had indeed been the case, it would've made Mary look exceedingly STOOPID, but to my surprise it appeared they didn't have ulterior motives to 'befriending' her and just wanted to go with her to wherever it was she was headed. Mrs. Coulter manages to 'control' the Spectres (or at the very least repel them) as BOREal locks her outside when they swarm the town they're in, she leaves her monkey behind and it seems to go into a kind of trance as I guess she's 'hiding' her humanity so that the Spectres don't attack her). One of the non-Serafina witches travelling with Lyra/Will bites the dust whilst being the suckiest scout ever, since she's out in front of everyone else (you had ONE job!). After BOREal learned of Mrs. Coulter's ability to 'control' Spectres, he said they should celebrate...and I was just glad that didn't turn out to be code for sex. Maybe it was his locking her outside when the Spectres appeared or him claiming that they're now both 'equals', but it wasn't too long into the scene of them drinking together when I thought of her poisoning him...which turned out to be exactly the case. We saw his snake daemon on the ground approaching the monkey and I wondered if it was going to pounce, but instead it gets evaporated as BOREal dies while Mrs. Coulter informs him they were never equals. It's kinda morbidly amusing that after we've cut away from her, the next time we cut back it's nighttime which suggests she's been sitting there for hours with his corpse drinking and playing with fire (as she sticks her hand over the flame of a candle - much like the new Cardinal did when he was punishing himself for being complicit in the old Cardinal's death) and informing her monkey that 'strength is salvation'. You can't help but feel for the poor creature considering everyone else probably treats their daemons with at least a modicum of respect, while he gets stuck with this self-loathing whacko (I've seen theories about why she abuses her daemon so badly and how it's because there's a part of her that hates herself). Although we learn Will's dad is a shaman...that doesn't make him anymore interesting, even when he seemingly summons a storm at the end of the episode to fight off airships attacking them. One of the shooters must've been a crack shot because he's able to zero in on the smallish gas canister (didn't want to aim for the much BIGGER target...y'know, the balloon?), causing them to crash. I'd been wondering where Lee's daemon was for most of the episode, as Hester had seemingly disappeared, but she shows up again when this is happening. The Magisterium is still boring, one of them makes a big deal about the name of Lyra to the Cardinal who says something about being the first sacrifice (I didn't catch all of it, as I tend to zone out whenever it's just them with no Mrs. Coulter around to liven things up). Episode 7: ''Æsahættr'{Spoiler}It's season final time! Already! And just as well, as I don't think I could take another episode of Lyra and Will seemingly having the same conversation over and over again, blah blah knife bearer blah blah Will's dad blah blah. Lyra and Pan are discussing how she's 'changing' (I guess that's in reference to what she had him do to Mrs. Coulter's monkey) and that when she changes (figuratively), he'll stop changing (literally). He says he hopes he winds up as a flea - which I totally don't get, as why would you want to be something that could so easily be killed (I remember last season a woman's butterfly daemon was easily crushed). When Lyra's supposedly sleeping, Pan talks to Will about how she’s his best friend and vice versa and then when he returns to Lyra, we see she’s awake/has been listening the whole time and smiles. I recall at one point Will being a bit presumptuous when he told Lyra she makes him stronger and he makes her stronger. They argue over whether they should stick with Serafina (who’s saved them twice now, as Pan points out to Lyra) or separate from her since Spectres can hurt witches but not kids. Speaking of witches, we see the witch who went to go find Asriel is asleep and then she wakes up and sees some beasties that I don't recall from the first season (they could've been there, but if so...I don't remember them at all) and then she reports back to Serafina about what Asriel had to say. Meanwhile, Angelica and her flower-eating friend are taken to a nice place by Mary Malone and that’s where she leaves them (the whole time I thought they were going to suddenly turn on her and do something bad - she conveniently forgot/forgave them saying they tried to kill Lyra, apparently). In the end, these brats seemed to serve no purpose to the story other than explaining what Spectres were. Hopefully it's the last we see of either of them. They could've been left out entirely and we wouldn't have lost much (and that poor cat would've been left alone - where'd it go, btw?). I sure hope Bella Ramsey's better in The Last of Us, as she really didn't make me a fan of her in the role she played here. Lee, Hester and Will's boring dad (who I shall henceforth refer to as 'WBD') trek through woods until agents of the Authority shoot at them, Lee gets shot in the leg (I think), then another bullet grazes his head (it was slightly amusing that Hester's like, "It's just a flesh wound!") and he stays behind, allowing WBD to get away (making him promise to get the knife to Lyra/protect her) and it's probably just as well I was unspoiled for this, as I was totally not expecting Lee/Hester to actually bite the dust (and in Hester's case, quite literally). Sure, the odds weren't looking good for them, but that hasn't stopped countless characters from getting out of tight spots in shows/movies, so I fully expected something to save them. Hester mentions a thing Serafina gave Lee to summon her with (which I had no memory of. Also...couldn't have thought of it sooner, Hester?). Serafina feels the summoning of her, but doesn't want to leave Lyra/Will, though Lyra says they'll be alright left in the care of one of the other witches (HA! If only she knew how wrong she was about that). So Serafina jets off, and it was really sad seeing injured Hester crawling over to Lee (I can't stand seeing hurt animals of any kind) and when Lee begged Hester not to go before him (I guess because he couldn't stand to see her die first - which I totally get, as I'd be the same way). She'd earlier said she felt guilty about holding him back...or something (I didn't really get what she was talking about), but he assured her she never did. Lee's shot yet again, this time in the chest, and I gotta give props to Lin-Manuel Miranda, but also the one voicing Hester, as they say to each other that they can die 'happy' because they know it was all for Lyra (meanwhile, all I could think was WBD was SO not worth this!). I was actually pretty shocked when we saw the first signs of Hester evaporating appearing from the bottom of the screen, as I knew that was it for their two characters (though I hoped there was some miraculous way of bringing them back). Making it even more tragic was Serafina arriving too late (I don't blame her - it was kinda Hester's fault for thinking of summoning her too late, but I don't wish to speak ill of the dead). It was a shocking/sad scene and if you think about it for too long, they kind of died for nothing given what happens not long after, but I give it credit for being one of very few moments this season that were actually emotional. Damn it, they were two of the only characters in this show I still actually liked! WBD eventually reunites with his son...and it’s just as boring as everything else concerning them has been, with WBD just repeating over and over that Will’s the knife bearer and he is the one to take down the authority while Will says he can't be the one. And then a soldier shoots and WBD steps in front of his son, taking the hit in his back, his daemon kills the soldier’s daemon and the soldier dies, but then thanks to Will’s dad getting shot, his daemon (who was useful) dies along with him. I felt NOTHING as Will said goodbye to his dad he'd only just reunited with. I felt more sad about the loss of the daemon...and, oh yeah, LEE/HESTER DYING. So, WBD didn't deliver on his promise to Lee and thus the actual good characters ended up dying a rather pointless death for this crap character who was a massive waste of screentime/added nothing to the story. Good riddance to him and his manbun, I say! The witches (who aren't Serafina) proved themselves pretty crap when tasked with looking after Lyra and Will. One ended up the victim of the Spectres after Mrs. Coulter sicced them onto the witch's bird daemon (which I felt sorry for, hearing it squawking as the Spectres took a hold of it. I think this was after Mrs. Coulter's monkey had already had a go at it, as I recall it seeming like she was going to let the Spectres have it too, as she allowed them to get very close to her poor terrorised monkey - though it wouldn't make sense for her to do that, as it'd then affect her...or would it? We've seen her gradually being able to 'distance' herself from her daemon more and more, but I don't think it's gotten to the stage yet where she can let the Spectres zombify it and she herself remaining unaffected). Later, she abuses that poor monkey once again, kicking it and saying it’s either 'with' her and Lyra or against them. She then calms down, asking it "What are you frightened of?" (it's frightened of YOU, you whacko! Stop abusing your monkey!) and when she goes to touch it, it understandably flinches at first, but then accepts her touch. Despite the fact it would make NO SENSE, I kept expecting her to do something bad to it like snap its neck, so I was relieved when that didn't happen (honestly, any scene like this where it's just her and her daemon always puts me on edge, as I never know what she's going to do with it. It's nerve-wracking...though probably not half as nerve-wracking for me as it is for that poor monkey). Witches sleeping on the job seems to be a 'thing', as the one who's supposed to be guarding Lyra is snoozing and thus leaves herself vulnerable to get zombified by the Spectres Mrs. Coulter sics on her whilst she goes over to touch a slumbering Lyra in a rather creepy way (Lyra awakes, understandably startled by her mother being right there in her face). I guess this answers the question of whether a person can sleep while their daemon stays awake or vice versa - it appears nope, they both sleep at the same time (which is why they're not alerted to Mrs. Coulter's arrival - since the daemons are snoozing too). I'd wondered if we'd see Asriel/James McAvoy this episode (since he'd been absent all season and we never even got to see his exchange with the witch who went off to find him - we just had her relay the information from him to Serafina. I was also looking for McAvoy's name in the opening credits and didn't notice it), so it didn't come as a complete surprise when we heard him voice-overing towards the end of the episode as we got a montage of where all the different (still alive) characters were (like Iorek Byrnison watching snowy mountains collapse - which is one of the only ones I can even remember) while he made a big speech to the 'angels' about freedom for all blah blah privilege blah blah but says they’re with him or against him (mirroring the ultimatum Mrs. Coulter gave her monkey earlier - which I guess shows she and Asriel really were meant for each other. Let's not forget...he sacrificed Roger to cross between worlds - so although Mrs. Coulter does bad things, at least she doesn't think of herself as a 'good guy', whereas I get the feeling Asriel *does* think of himself that way despite the fact he clearly isn't). The last shot of the episode is a reveal of Mrs. Coulter having apparently kidnapped Lyra (who I guess she knocked out) and stuffed her in a trunk/oversized suitcase - that's all Lyra gets to do in this season final. We then get a choir performing the show's theme tune over the end credits and despite not actually knowing that there would be, I waited until they were finished on the off-chance there was a post-credits scene...which indeed there was. It surprised me to see Roger again, and we heard Lyra asking what place they were in - I guess its something similar to the afterlife (though Lyra's clearly not dead). On the whole, I don't think I enjoyed this season as much as the previous one (then again, it's been so long since I watched the first season that I may be forgetting exactly how I felt, but I don't recall being as bored with it as I was this season) and that was mainly thanks to there being too much focus on Will/his dad and not nearly enough on Lyra, Lee and Serafina. Mrs. Coulter remains the most interesting character (played by the best actor) in the show and it baffles me when I read comments from people complaining about her and wanting her killed off. Without her, the show would be even more boring than it already ended up being this season, she's easily the most complex character in the whole show and Ruth Wilson does so much with the role (that in the hands of a lesser actress could've come across as a lot more one-dimensional, whereas she has all these layers going on with her portrayal of the character). Some dismiss her as just being flat-out 'bad'/'evil', but I think there's a part of her that actually cares for Lyra...it's just that she doesn't know how to express her feelings like most normal people do. She's the show's biggest asset, and with no more Lee/Hester, very little Serafina, and only cameos from Iorek...she's basically the only reason to keep watching, as the show seems determined to focus on the most BORING aspects. Here's hoping the third/final season is an improvement and the show goes out on a high note.
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Post by President Ackbar mini™ on Aug 10, 2023 12:51:56 GMT -5
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Aug 18, 2023 5:19:11 GMT -5
Finished Season 3/the final season of His Dark Materials on Blu-ray. **spoilers below** Wow, what a decline this show took between the first season (which I quite enjoyed), the second season (which was somewhat disappointing but still included some good stuff) and this season (which I found pretty boring most of the time). I think part of what made this season less enjoyable than the first two for me was the focus on James McAvoy’s Asriel who was SUCH a dick! Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed McAvoy in a role less than I did in this one. I spent every moment he was onscreen resenting him taking screentime away from characters I actually liked, and every time he spouted his anti-religious propaganda, I was shouting mentally at the TV... Back when I saw The Golden Compass movie at the theatre, I’d heard this story described as the ‘anti-Narnia’ and I took that to mean while Narnia was pro-Christianity, it meant this one wasn’t...but I couldn’t recall the first season of this show being so unsubtle with its message. This season it was like they were delivering their message with a sledgehammer and it was far too preachy (which is ironic). Added to this was the fact that Asriel didn’t seem to give two figs about his daughter, barely reacting when Mrs. Coulter delivered news of Lyra being dead (which was what she had been led to believe), and Asriel seemed to give a shit more about the demise of one of his tiny fairy assassins with mechanized dragonfly wings. Unlike Ruth Wilson’s impeccable performance as Mrs. Coulter, I got very little ‘depth’ from McAvoy’s performance as Asriel and he just seemed like a douche from start to finish. Hell, I felt more sorry/sad about his snow leopard daemon turning to dust as they all fell together to their deaths, taking the baddie with them, than I did about Lyra’s dad. I’m glad the final moments of their characters onscreen focused more on Mrs. Coulter than him, as he certainly didn’t deserve to be the last one we saw. I couldn’t even say I was disappointed that Asriel and Lyra never got to share another scene together, since he clearly cared about his rebellion more than his own daughter. I was glad Mrs. Coulter told him off in regards to that. I was kinda glad I’d unintentionally spoiled myself for Mrs. Coulter's death (along with Asriel and both their daemons) in the second-last episode, as I think I would’ve been royally PISSED as I witnessed her dying with the loser father of her child if I hadn’t already been prepared for it. She went on quite the journey this season, starting out with holding Lyra captive in an effort to hide her from the Magisterium, to being held prisoner herself by Asriel, then held captive by the Magisterium and almost having her daemon severed, to her realising just how ‘wrong’ she’d been with all of her actions she’d performed in the name of the 'Authority', and then we got the most significant moment I can think of for her character where she finally owned up to how poorly she’d treated her monkey daemon and apologised to it. Unfortunately, it looked like they’d finally come to an ‘understanding’ and from here on out she’d treat it better...only for them both to wind up dying the very next episode (so the poor monkey got to experience a very short period of time where it wasn’t being abused...but at least it played a crucial part in them taking down the baddie). It was a sad moment when we saw the monkey reach out to Lyra and she reached to touch its hand but it dusted before their fingers met (since the monkey was a part of Mrs. Coulter, I thought of that moment as it reaching out to her daughter on her behalf since she couldn’t be there to do it). Once again, the animators and puppeteers must be commended for their stellar work regarding Mrs. Coulter's monkey, as there were some really excellent subtle work going on regarding its expressions. Apart from the scene of Mrs. Coulter and her daemon finally hashing things out, the other scene I really enjoyed this season with her was the one where she and Serafina Pekkala finally interacted (I’m pretty sure they hadn’t up until that point). It involved Serafina expressing her sympathies over the loss of Lyra (back when they still thought she was dead), and rather than Mrs. Coulter being appreciative, she decided to go the route of Faith in Season 1 of Angel - ie. attempting to provoke Serafina into killing her/ending her suffering - and she did this by seemingly taking pleasure in describing all the nasty things she did to the witches, specifically the one she held captive last season and tortured before she was finally put out of her misery by that other witch named Ruta. Speaking of, it was amusing when Mrs. Coulter said that Ruta would’ve offed her, then Serafina replied “I am not Ruta.” considering she’s played by Ruta Gedmintas. It had to be an intentional wink at the actress bearing the same rather unique name as a character in the show who was played by a different actress. When Ruta the character bit the dust, I felt nothing (I felt more sad about her bird daemon spiraling downward into the abyss before dusting), as I’d always thought her screentime/the stuff she did would’ve been better given to Serafina instead since she was SO underutilised throughout the series. Even this season they were *still* wasting Serafina’s character (and Ruta Gedmintas), as she only appeared in the last three of the eight episodes. Ruta Gedmintas did a lot with the little she was given and I was glad she survived (I would’ve been supremely PISSED if both Mrs. Coulter and Serafina had died). As for the characters of Lyra and Will this season, I was surprised that I found Will more likeable than I did all last season. He spent the first episode searching everywhere/doing everything he could to find Lyra and even stood up to Iorek Byrnison. He was there for Lyra as much as he could be, comforted her, helped her and was actually a really good friend. I was shocked that I went from not thinking much of him last season to actually liking him this season. The only thing more shocking was how much I disliked Lyra this season. There’d been times throughout the series where she’d annoyed me, but I’d never *hated* her. However, that changed in the latter half of this season when she was so hell-bent on following her dreams of Roger in the afterlife and rescuing him from the Land of the Dead that she was willing to separate from her daemon, leaving Pan behind on a jetty as she went off with Will in a boat. This was after Pan had begged her not to go, pointed out she was choosing Roger over him and that it was *her* mission that she’d dreamed about, not *his* - despite them being a part of each other...and then they were apart from each other. I truly hated Lyra in the end scene of the episode where she left him behind, and even though I’d felt so sorry for Roger after what Asriel did to him in the Season 1 final, I was pretty much of the opinion “Screw Roger!” when it became a choice between him and Pan. While the scene was indeed sad (kudos t0 the voice actor for Pan, who really gave his vocal performance in the episode his all, as well as the animators for matching his performance. See, THIS is how you give realistic-looking animated animal characters actual expressiveness. Take note, animators of the shitty Lion King remake!) , I think I was more mad than anything when watching poor Pan stand on that jetty, wanting to follow Lyra but helpless to do so (then they just HAD to have him making sad animal noises, which made things even worse). Yes, in the end it all ‘worked out’ - as Lyra and Will freed Roger, as well as all the other dead souls including Lee Scoresby, with the power of...telling stories to large turtle vultures - but unlike Pan (who eventually forgave Lyra in the final episode), I never got over what she did to her daemon and it left a bitter taste in my mouth regarding her character. She seemed to take Pan for granted a lot of the time, telling him to shutup when he’d warn her of something/express hesitation about something she was doing, and she always appeared to put others above him. If I had a daemon, I’d *never* do that. In the end, I thought he deserved better than Lyra. I was also somewhat disappointed that the final form he ‘settled’ on was one we’d seen right from the start of the series - ie. his pine marten form (I’d always imagined it’d be a form we hadn’t yet seen, or if it was going to be one we’d already seen...I wished it had been his red panda form, as not only was it cute, but the CGI for it was SO well-done). Pan seemed to like the form he settled on, though, so I can’t really be that against it (Lyra liked it too...but after what she did to him, IDGAF what she ‘liked’ or ‘didn’t like’ - her opinion meant *nothing* to me and I felt no sympathy for her when Pan didn't want to hang around when they first reunited). After all the talk of Will having gained a daemon, the reveal of it being the cat which I’m fairly certain was the same one he rescued from Bella Ramsey last season (but we hadn’t seen hide nor hair from since then) was one that I’d been spoiled for...but even if I hadn’t been spoiled, I think I would’ve still been somewhat disappointed by the CGI for it which didn’t seem to be up to the same high quality standard as the CGI for all the other daemons (which is weird, since a cat is so ‘normal’ and should’ve been one of the easiest to CGI convincingly). I liked that Serafina was the one to give Will’s daemon a name (since she was looking out for both it and Pan): Kirjava. It’s a shame we hardly got to see what sort of bond/dynamic Will and his daemon formed, but an interesting thing of note was that after the whole ‘forgiveness’ thing regarding the daemons being ditched, we not only saw Lyra hugging Pan and Will petting Kirjava, but then Lyra and Will petted each other’s daemons (which up until this point was ‘forbidden’). Lyra/Will eventually hooking up all thanks to a story from Mary Malone (who they met up with in the final episode) about how she was a nun who rejected faith/the church because she wanted to be with a woman was quite a lot to swallow, as was the fact that somehow Lyra & Will’s ‘love’ was what restored dust to all the worlds/made everything 'right' more or less (we even got a half-arsed explanation from Mary about what exactly dust *is*...yet I'm still not sure). It was even harder to swallow than Mary Malone finding her way into a land populated by creatures that I thought resembled Snuffleupagus from Sesame Street (not only that, but they got around by rollerblading on seedpods). The majority of her time this season was just spent walking, it felt like a massive waste of time, and then when she *did* end up eventually serving a purpose...it was just basically to say “Go, be merry!” to the kids, encouraging them to get it on (and Will’s daemon wasn’t the only one where I felt they slacked off with the CGI, as Mary Malone also discovered she had one - an Alpine chough daemon - which I thought looked pretty fake). It was hard not to notice all the heavy-handed ‘message’ pushing that was included this season. There were even gay angels just to drive home this show was made post-2019 (I’ve noticed a definite shift in the way TV shows are from that point on). I don’t know how much of this was from the book and how much the series added to the story, but it felt like they were bludgeoning us over the heads every. single. time. About the only good thing I can say to come out of the whole ‘Authority' story was this show’s version of Heaven (with lots of pillars, white platforms and mist) at least showing some effort and not being as lame/pathetic as that of Supernatural. Even the way they did Metatron in this show was pretty impressive (at least until he appeared as a regular human in the second-to-last episode, anyway. Before that he was shown mostly as a silhouette with gigantic wings and a truly otherworldly-sounding voice, which was how I wished he’d remained since that actually seemed to do angels ‘justice’. Oh well, he was still more impressive than Boogertron from SPN). In the end the ‘Authority’ was defeated after Mrs. Coulter, Asriel and Asriel's daemon, Stilmaria, took Metatron with them as they plummeted to their deaths, Heaven was destroyed and a cube fell to earth which Lyra and Will opened exposing the figure inside to whatever Earth elements caused him to dust (essentially killing God). As previously mentioned, Iorek Byrnison made an appearance this season (actually, he appeared in a few episodes), and after Mrs. Coulter had caused Will to break his super-special knife (making him feel guilty about leaving his mother or whatever whilst he was attempting to cut a 'window' with the knife), Iorek then helped Will to reform it. Sadly, it was then broken again (this time intentionally by Will...because some angel told him to) and thus Iorek's work was undone. It's too bad all we got of him in the final episode was just a shot of him (still, he fared better than Mrs. Coulter. It felt SO wrong that she wasn't in the final episode of the series and thus Ruth's Wilson's name wasn't included in the opening credits of the final ever episode since she'd been in the very first one. Speaking of the opening credits, as if there wasn’t enough already that I disliked about this season, on top of everything else...they messed with the show’s opening credits/theme! It mightn’t have sounded any different at first, but they added more sound effects as things whizzed by the screen and I found that annoying/distracting. I also didn’t think much of the new images included (especially that electricity thing - which we learned was called an ‘intention craft’ that both Asriel and Mrs. Coulter flew at different points this season). There was just too much noise/sound effects going on and distracting from the theme itself, I found it too ‘busy’ and that it lost the impact of the last two seasons’ opening theme. I much preferred the far simpler Season 1 opening credits. Someone put together a comparison of all three side by side: I was originally going to type out a review episode by episode for this season (I even made notes about each one), but by mid-season I realised I really wasn’t enjoying the show like I once had, so in the end I couldn't be bothered putting the time/effort into typing up an episode-by-episode review like I did for the first two seasons. I was actually relieved when the final episode was over (it ended with Lyra and Will having to return to their own worlds, all the 'windows' between worlds being closed and thus them remaining apart from each other after only having just got together...but they arranged to both be at a bench in their own worlds on one day a year where they could ‘meet’ - ie. they’d each sit there in their own worlds and pretend they were with each other). After the final shot pulling away from Lyra on the bench, text appeared on the screen telling us what Lyra and Will went on to become (jobs-wise), that they did their bench-meet thing every year, Lyra learned to read the alethiometer again after she'd lost that ability and that regaining the ability to read it would come in handy in the next adventure for her and Pan...but that was another story - and one I don't really care to know about, frankly. If I ever revisit this show at some point in the future, I think I’ll stick to just the first season. It’s disappointing that yet another show that I'd enjoyed SO much in the beginning ended up becoming something I didn’t enjoy much at all by the end and it went out with a whimper.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Aug 25, 2023 6:06:33 GMT -5
The complete series boxset of this^ show is going to be available here on DVD. Since you're such a big fan, can you try to convince me why you think it's so great (maybe link some clips from YouTube which you think would best illustrate this show's 'awesomeness'?) and maybe I'll check it out.
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