TV catch up part 2
Nov. 14th, 2017 05:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthI really thought I would get more catching up done in the last couple weeks, but I did get one thing caught up on...granted it was Inhumans and I regret bothering, but I did get caught up.
Supergirl 3x05
I don’t think I liked that one very much. I definitely feel like I should like it as I do like Lena stories (at least...in theory I do) and I’ve always said I should care about Alex/Maggie even though I never really did. But ultimately I can’t find anything to hang on to in this one that I cared about, and I am really disappointed that the answer is so easy. If you ever wonder why Arrow and Legends are such better shows in my book it’s that they have whole arcs born of consequences for characters hard choices; this is fast heading into Flash territory, though I so far a bit more forgiving since it isn’t just ‘no consequences for out lead character’ and is pretty much straight up escapism where there are no consequences for the good guys.
There’s a part of me that feels the show is moving in a Lena/Jimmy direction, but that just seems weird to me. I feel like the producers must know there some backlash against the way Kara/Jimmy ended and how big the Kara/Lena ship community seems to be, so pairing them together ends up feeling kind of pair-the-spares-ish. And so far, while I feel the writing trending that direction, the actors don’t have any actual chemistry yet (they could, but they don’t so far)
While I like Sam, I’m still having difficulty dealing with how quickly she’s being integrated into the main group. I thought last week was weird, and this isn’t much better.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x05
Review 1: I have so many feelings I can’t even think of what to review; sorry, main review will not be as fresh because I have to sit with this for a bit.
Review 2: I’m still not sure I’ve processed my feelings on this one and it’s a couple days later. Barring the last few minutes it was already an episode that messed with my heart a lot, then the last few minutes happened...
Let’s talk about a few other thing I can’t decide if I actually ship Amaya/Zari, but the show sure feels like it’s opening a door (without knocking) for that. If they are going there I’m probably going to be retroactively mad at Nate/Amaya for taking up time last season (less so Mick/Amaya since there was never much actively pushing that). Weirdly...look I want to see everything in this episode through a Rip/Sara lens and so I end up wondering if Amaya/Zari (A-to-Z ship) is a way to make it okay in people’s eyes that Sara’s love interest would be a guy; look we have our progressive same-sex relationship, Sara’s going to love the Englishman. Also it gives the end a very pronounced feel of one not-quite relationship beginning while one is ending (for now, fingers crossed).
I guess the promo did show that Darhk would be back, but had kind of thought it would be a one off deal. I like a lot of what they did surrounding him being the threat they were facing, but I’m not super fond of the character.
But oh boy am I mainly here for Rip and the Rip/Sara drama. As much as the end kind of destroyed me, it doesn’t feel wrong, which is probably at least part of why it hurt so much. There’s a whole different hurt when it feels like that story is being forced into a shape I can’t agree with rather than a quite logical but painful turn. Rip can’t keep the Bureau in one hand and the Legends in the other, not really trusting or relying on either of them. He keeps forming clubs that he won’t let himself fully be a part of and when they take on a life of their own he goes rogue. And yes, after a lifetime with the Time Masters and how badly that ended it may even be justified in his mind that he keeps himself from truly investing in a new group.
I’m not sure if the writers or the director here, but this was the most Rip/Sara framed episode I can remember in a while, maybe ever. There have been scenes certainly, but it was all over this episode. When Rip is in so few episodes, it becomes necessary to narrow down the focus of his character to those relationships that are the most important, and last season made it plenty clear Sara was at the top of that list by a lot; and I don’t think he has any scenes without her here, and when there are other people in those scenes the focus is still on the two of them. They are constantly in shot together (their dress and coloring evoking a kind of bride and groom look), and they just gravitate to each other. While Rip would certainly like to have the Legends as a whole on his side, it’s Sara that he appeals to.
Probably because I waited to actually review this, a lot of the specific moments I might have mentioned feel less necessary, but I was definitely into this one. I think it was also good, but my judgement is so skewed by the fact that this episode appeals to my specific tastes that my word may not be the one you want to take.
Inhumans 1x05
So...nothing happened on this show. Except that I think someone realized Maximus was a little too in the right so they tried to walk it back a bit, but the other people in the writing room didn’t actually get that memo so he mostly still comes off as being right except when we’re clearly supposed to think he’s not. But on the whole, just let this show end already so we can get to AoS.
Arrow 6x05
I didn’t like that one as much as the last couple. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t do much for me personally. I’m glad they actually finally did something with Vigilante, but this feels like a retcon that wasn’t originally intended. I could be wrong and in the comic Vigilante’s civilian name is the name we heard for Dinah’s partner when she was introduced and people who were in the know have been waiting for this to come out; but I can’t help feeling the retcon vibe.
As for the Oliver and Slade plot, I’m sort of reserving judgement on if it works since this looks like a plot that’s not over, but I wasn’t actually surprised by most of the twists. Not that I called them, but also not surprised. What I want more of is the team that was around in s2 dealing with the fact that Slade is now considered a friendly (I’m mean enough to really want Ray to have to see that); and I would love to see Slade ask how much of the Felicity trap was a ruse at the time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we do get that at some point.
I have not been missing the flashbacks so their return was not exactly welcome. Young Joe looks a lot like William, or is that my moderately bad face-blindness at play again? At least now we’re only getting flashback when they’re relevant to the story.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 3x05
I...am not sure I really want to comment on that one. I didn’t got a lot out of the songs, especially the second one felt really like an afterthought and even the first one mostly just got in the way, though that was sort of necessary to break up the uncomfortableness in the story.
On the whole, I’m starting to have doubts I’m going to be particularly inclined to rewatch this season in a hurry once it’s done, this is a really rough season.
Inhumans 1x06
So I have opted for finished Inhumans off and being done with it. I barely want to do reaction posts, but I suspect I’ll have things to say as the plot winds down so I might as well continue. This is a terrible show, and it would have made a terrible movie. I don’t know how much this is a direct adaptation of any comics initially, but even if it was it was probably published over months and actually felt like time was passing. While the story would probably flow better watched in marathon, the fact that it’s already a problem that no time seems to be passing would definitely not be helped in that format. It’s been less than a week and the only people who seem to know that are the people in charge of Medusa’s hair still being shaven. I guess on the flip side if it felt like everything was happening at once it might work, and that might have been helped in movie format, but in TV there end up being too many down moments to catch our breath so it feels like nothing is happening.
I could tell about the time the battle at the lab started that either Karnack or Gorgon was going to die; and Karnack is at least sometimes almost a character so I’m not exactly surprised it was Gorgon. Plus we were actually supposed to believe that Gorgon has hooves inside his shoes, and I’m not that dumb. And, to the last, evil-Cyclops makes sure to point out why we really shouldn’t be rooting for any of these people to win and yet I get more and more convinced that the writers either don’t realize it or think we’re going to be surprised when we do get it in the end (I will be surprised but only because they’re not complete idiots in that case).
The writers clearly have no idea who Medusa even is. At the start she’s randomly changed away from being the bloodthirsty one to being the voice of reason, then she goes back to being a condescending asshole about humans later on. She doesn’t even take...blonde human lady’s (nobody’s names really matter) father’s ashes with her to scatter on the moon, which would at least have shown her being a little nice.
Inhumans 1x07
So...was I supposed to be rooting for anyone besides Maximus? Yes he’s gone full Mad King on us, but he’s still less of an asshole than our “heroes” and more consistently written (and he’s not actually that consistently written).
I thought last episode that the fact that Gorgon didn’t look all that dead meant they were going to try and bring him back, and as soon as they said such a thing had monstrous side effects that was obviously going to happen. I’m not sure this show has the nards to actually end with him dead, because “good” “triumphing” over “evil” at very little cost to themselves seems fully in keeping with this series. Yeah people have died on this show, but most of them were unimportant and basically nameless, or Karnack’s fling.
Great, green guy, who is even less of a character than any of these other people, turns out to be alive. Great job show, you knocked a fish man into the ocean and he didn’t die, I’m shocked. I mean, I am shocked, but only that you expect that I or anyone would care. I still don’t really understand what was going on there, apparently BB knew Maximus was going to stage a coup so set all this in motion, that doesn’t make a lick of sense. Plus that whole opening set makes no sense whatsoever. And then apparently we were supposed to be pulling for him in that fight at the end and I’m absolutely not.
Have Black Bolt and Medusa completely switched characters? Mudusa was the blood thirsty one wasn’t she while BB seemed to be learning something from their brief exile to Earth only now it’s the other way around. Also, the last couple episode I’ve really wished they would subtitle BB’s signing; it worked fairly well when he was interacting with locals who he couldn’t communicate with that he had to find very basic ways to communicate; but now I wish we were in the know about those conversations.
Just one more episode...
Inhumans 1x08
Wow are all these people super dumb, and I hate them. Marvel can feel free to ignore this ever happened going forward, I won’t mind (though I might laugh). Watching three episodes in a row kind of proves me wrong about this working better as a marathon, since after three episodes I’m done forever.
I...don’t even want to get into it, it’s just that bad.
Supergirl 3x05
I don’t think I liked that one very much. I definitely feel like I should like it as I do like Lena stories (at least...in theory I do) and I’ve always said I should care about Alex/Maggie even though I never really did. But ultimately I can’t find anything to hang on to in this one that I cared about, and I am really disappointed that the answer is so easy. If you ever wonder why Arrow and Legends are such better shows in my book it’s that they have whole arcs born of consequences for characters hard choices; this is fast heading into Flash territory, though I so far a bit more forgiving since it isn’t just ‘no consequences for out lead character’ and is pretty much straight up escapism where there are no consequences for the good guys.
There’s a part of me that feels the show is moving in a Lena/Jimmy direction, but that just seems weird to me. I feel like the producers must know there some backlash against the way Kara/Jimmy ended and how big the Kara/Lena ship community seems to be, so pairing them together ends up feeling kind of pair-the-spares-ish. And so far, while I feel the writing trending that direction, the actors don’t have any actual chemistry yet (they could, but they don’t so far)
While I like Sam, I’m still having difficulty dealing with how quickly she’s being integrated into the main group. I thought last week was weird, and this isn’t much better.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x05
Review 1: I have so many feelings I can’t even think of what to review; sorry, main review will not be as fresh because I have to sit with this for a bit.
Review 2: I’m still not sure I’ve processed my feelings on this one and it’s a couple days later. Barring the last few minutes it was already an episode that messed with my heart a lot, then the last few minutes happened...
Let’s talk about a few other thing I can’t decide if I actually ship Amaya/Zari, but the show sure feels like it’s opening a door (without knocking) for that. If they are going there I’m probably going to be retroactively mad at Nate/Amaya for taking up time last season (less so Mick/Amaya since there was never much actively pushing that). Weirdly...look I want to see everything in this episode through a Rip/Sara lens and so I end up wondering if Amaya/Zari (A-to-Z ship) is a way to make it okay in people’s eyes that Sara’s love interest would be a guy; look we have our progressive same-sex relationship, Sara’s going to love the Englishman. Also it gives the end a very pronounced feel of one not-quite relationship beginning while one is ending (for now, fingers crossed).
I guess the promo did show that Darhk would be back, but had kind of thought it would be a one off deal. I like a lot of what they did surrounding him being the threat they were facing, but I’m not super fond of the character.
But oh boy am I mainly here for Rip and the Rip/Sara drama. As much as the end kind of destroyed me, it doesn’t feel wrong, which is probably at least part of why it hurt so much. There’s a whole different hurt when it feels like that story is being forced into a shape I can’t agree with rather than a quite logical but painful turn. Rip can’t keep the Bureau in one hand and the Legends in the other, not really trusting or relying on either of them. He keeps forming clubs that he won’t let himself fully be a part of and when they take on a life of their own he goes rogue. And yes, after a lifetime with the Time Masters and how badly that ended it may even be justified in his mind that he keeps himself from truly investing in a new group.
I’m not sure if the writers or the director here, but this was the most Rip/Sara framed episode I can remember in a while, maybe ever. There have been scenes certainly, but it was all over this episode. When Rip is in so few episodes, it becomes necessary to narrow down the focus of his character to those relationships that are the most important, and last season made it plenty clear Sara was at the top of that list by a lot; and I don’t think he has any scenes without her here, and when there are other people in those scenes the focus is still on the two of them. They are constantly in shot together (their dress and coloring evoking a kind of bride and groom look), and they just gravitate to each other. While Rip would certainly like to have the Legends as a whole on his side, it’s Sara that he appeals to.
Probably because I waited to actually review this, a lot of the specific moments I might have mentioned feel less necessary, but I was definitely into this one. I think it was also good, but my judgement is so skewed by the fact that this episode appeals to my specific tastes that my word may not be the one you want to take.
Inhumans 1x05
So...nothing happened on this show. Except that I think someone realized Maximus was a little too in the right so they tried to walk it back a bit, but the other people in the writing room didn’t actually get that memo so he mostly still comes off as being right except when we’re clearly supposed to think he’s not. But on the whole, just let this show end already so we can get to AoS.
Arrow 6x05
I didn’t like that one as much as the last couple. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t do much for me personally. I’m glad they actually finally did something with Vigilante, but this feels like a retcon that wasn’t originally intended. I could be wrong and in the comic Vigilante’s civilian name is the name we heard for Dinah’s partner when she was introduced and people who were in the know have been waiting for this to come out; but I can’t help feeling the retcon vibe.
As for the Oliver and Slade plot, I’m sort of reserving judgement on if it works since this looks like a plot that’s not over, but I wasn’t actually surprised by most of the twists. Not that I called them, but also not surprised. What I want more of is the team that was around in s2 dealing with the fact that Slade is now considered a friendly (I’m mean enough to really want Ray to have to see that); and I would love to see Slade ask how much of the Felicity trap was a ruse at the time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we do get that at some point.
I have not been missing the flashbacks so their return was not exactly welcome. Young Joe looks a lot like William, or is that my moderately bad face-blindness at play again? At least now we’re only getting flashback when they’re relevant to the story.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 3x05
I...am not sure I really want to comment on that one. I didn’t got a lot out of the songs, especially the second one felt really like an afterthought and even the first one mostly just got in the way, though that was sort of necessary to break up the uncomfortableness in the story.
On the whole, I’m starting to have doubts I’m going to be particularly inclined to rewatch this season in a hurry once it’s done, this is a really rough season.
Inhumans 1x06
So I have opted for finished Inhumans off and being done with it. I barely want to do reaction posts, but I suspect I’ll have things to say as the plot winds down so I might as well continue. This is a terrible show, and it would have made a terrible movie. I don’t know how much this is a direct adaptation of any comics initially, but even if it was it was probably published over months and actually felt like time was passing. While the story would probably flow better watched in marathon, the fact that it’s already a problem that no time seems to be passing would definitely not be helped in that format. It’s been less than a week and the only people who seem to know that are the people in charge of Medusa’s hair still being shaven. I guess on the flip side if it felt like everything was happening at once it might work, and that might have been helped in movie format, but in TV there end up being too many down moments to catch our breath so it feels like nothing is happening.
I could tell about the time the battle at the lab started that either Karnack or Gorgon was going to die; and Karnack is at least sometimes almost a character so I’m not exactly surprised it was Gorgon. Plus we were actually supposed to believe that Gorgon has hooves inside his shoes, and I’m not that dumb. And, to the last, evil-Cyclops makes sure to point out why we really shouldn’t be rooting for any of these people to win and yet I get more and more convinced that the writers either don’t realize it or think we’re going to be surprised when we do get it in the end (I will be surprised but only because they’re not complete idiots in that case).
The writers clearly have no idea who Medusa even is. At the start she’s randomly changed away from being the bloodthirsty one to being the voice of reason, then she goes back to being a condescending asshole about humans later on. She doesn’t even take...blonde human lady’s (nobody’s names really matter) father’s ashes with her to scatter on the moon, which would at least have shown her being a little nice.
Inhumans 1x07
So...was I supposed to be rooting for anyone besides Maximus? Yes he’s gone full Mad King on us, but he’s still less of an asshole than our “heroes” and more consistently written (and he’s not actually that consistently written).
I thought last episode that the fact that Gorgon didn’t look all that dead meant they were going to try and bring him back, and as soon as they said such a thing had monstrous side effects that was obviously going to happen. I’m not sure this show has the nards to actually end with him dead, because “good” “triumphing” over “evil” at very little cost to themselves seems fully in keeping with this series. Yeah people have died on this show, but most of them were unimportant and basically nameless, or Karnack’s fling.
Great, green guy, who is even less of a character than any of these other people, turns out to be alive. Great job show, you knocked a fish man into the ocean and he didn’t die, I’m shocked. I mean, I am shocked, but only that you expect that I or anyone would care. I still don’t really understand what was going on there, apparently BB knew Maximus was going to stage a coup so set all this in motion, that doesn’t make a lick of sense. Plus that whole opening set makes no sense whatsoever. And then apparently we were supposed to be pulling for him in that fight at the end and I’m absolutely not.
Have Black Bolt and Medusa completely switched characters? Mudusa was the blood thirsty one wasn’t she while BB seemed to be learning something from their brief exile to Earth only now it’s the other way around. Also, the last couple episode I’ve really wished they would subtitle BB’s signing; it worked fairly well when he was interacting with locals who he couldn’t communicate with that he had to find very basic ways to communicate; but now I wish we were in the know about those conversations.
Just one more episode...
Inhumans 1x08
Wow are all these people super dumb, and I hate them. Marvel can feel free to ignore this ever happened going forward, I won’t mind (though I might laugh). Watching three episodes in a row kind of proves me wrong about this working better as a marathon, since after three episodes I’m done forever.
I...don’t even want to get into it, it’s just that bad.
