TV rundown
Mar. 19th, 2018 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urthSo I actually managed a little of catching up on things the last few days, so it’s a more diverse set of reviews than expected.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x13
Too muck Darhk, not enough Rip, that’s the quick and dirty summery.
The plot with Ray and the Darhks wasn’t exactly bad, but there was too much of it; I don’t find Damien’s shtick that fun to watch, I can practically feel Nora the character wanting to have actual character progression that’s being held back until it’s convenient for the plot, and Ray...like I said last week, Ray seems to have been flattened out as a character in some ways that I’ve having a hard time nailing down; it may just be him being pulled into the restraint of Nora’s character rather than playing off the Legends where he’s better served.
And the plot of the Waverider was badly underdone. I needed to see Wally form any kid of connection with the team, as is I still don’t care. He says at the end that he doesn’t think Zari likes him, and I see nothing of that; Amaya, yes, and Zari might be in protective girlfriend mode, but we don’t see it. Also, surely there was more that could have been done exploring the spirit world.
And Rip’s return is nowhere near enough. I’ll be generous (though I probably shouldn’t be considering he didn’t know about the Nazis) and assume he knows about Stein’s death, and guessed that Jax wouldn’t be there in that case so we maybe didn’t need to see him hear about that, but he should have said anything on the subject. It was kind of interesting to get most of the crew’s initial reactions to Rip being back being a variety of “what the hell” (only Nate pays attention to Wally before wondering about Rip’s presence), but considering the way things were left in 3x05 there ought have been more. And while I kind of got a kick out of him being so callous about Grodd destroying the Time Bureau (isn’t the Time Bureau in Star City? Won’t Team Arrow be pissed about having to fight a giant mind-reading gorilla?), in that I can enjoy Rip being a jackass, he spent five years building the Time Bureau, if he’s not going to be more affected by its fall somebody else should be commenting on how much of an ass he’s being.
Also, at one point Sara manages to dismiss everyone off the bridge except for Rip, and then we don’t actually see them talk. Doesn’t it kind of feel like we were supposed to have had a scene between them there that cleared the air? It was certainly set up for it. The shipper in me wants to imagine all kinds of things they could have talked about; but it’s not even the shipper that says we needed to see that discussion. It is mostly the shipper in me who notes that later in the episode we rejoin them alone on the bridge together, they’re noticeably standing at adjacent stations at the console rather than further apart.
And mostly the shipper in me that has a hard time imagining any reason to focus on Rip so hard when he sees Sara and Ava kissing; like that focus only makes sense to me if we are supposed to take as read that Rip has been in love with Sara for a while (which I do take as read, so it works for me). The end kind of sets up a different reading, of something that’s probably going to bite them in the ass, but I think it’s still firmly in the camp of Rip putting Sara first. It’s definitely the shipper in me that first assumed Rip was deleting his drunken recording of attempted love confessions
This was a bad use of the show’s limited Rip time. I hate it when my favorite character on a show is only on part of the time, it pissed me off on TVD (not that it ended up keeping me watching The Originals), and it pisses me off here.
Arrow 6x15
That was a much better episode than the last few, had quite a bit of good character work (although they’re all still being pretty dumb regarding Siren) and the promise of some good stuff to come. We got Roy back and it looks like he’s not just going to be gone next episode, and we’re dealing with the League, so maybe we’ll get Nyssa; it’s a full family reunion. Although they apparently have not needed to go fight Grodd.
But on Roy specifically, I hope we’ll continue to get good stuff there; I’ve been saying for almost two years now that I want to see Roy and the new team bounce off each other. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, through s4, the team was a family; when they took on new members in s5, those were teammates, which created the rift between the family and the team that has imploded this season. But I’ve also always said that the rift was wider than the splinter team has even talked about this season; because Thea and Quentin were and are still family, because Roy is still family. And want the distinction seen and remarked on and for it to probably be a problem. While I will insist there is no actual contradiction between Oliver’s choice regarding Vince and his dedication to Roy (there was no other threat that needed to be stopped instead of rescuing Roy), I feel like in Dinah’s eyes he would look like a hypocrite.
Maybe it’s because this episode didn’t have the other team in it much (and none as a team) the hominess of the Arrow Cave really came through. They were a family meeting at the table, plenty of spots for brother-sister chats (including Digg and Felicity), or husband and wife talks. It felt like home base, emphasis on the home, in a way I haven’t noticed in a while, and really noticed was there this time. Sure, the fight scene cinematography wasn’t my favorite, but the framing of the bunker scenes was good at conveying exactly what I think I was supposed to take from it.
I think Diaz may be an interesting character now (that he isn’t the obvious odd duck out in Kaden’s crew), just because he’s a different sort of big bad than they’ve had most seasons. Someone who isn’t trying to blow the city up, that’s new.
Agents of SHIELD 5x12
On one hand I do think that addressed some of the problems I brought up last time about the show not letting anything breathe; on the other SHUT UP SKYE, I HATE YOU. I have not hated her this much since s3 and I hated her a lot in s3. Literally every other member of the cast had more interesting and layered reactions to what was going on that I would have liked to see explored more. I want to see Yoyo find out that this is another part of things coming true; we certainly did not need two scenes of Skye making it all about her. I can’t even enjoy the scenes with characters I do like finding out about Coulson because it insists on making it about Skye. Plus she threw Hydra in Fitz’s face; show, when you actually deal with all that then she maybe won’t look like the world’s biggest asshole for going there, right now she does. Also, she has not shown me for one second in 100 episodes that she would make a capable leader, and I am sick and tired of the show acting like she has; she failed as a team leader back in s3 and hasn’t exactly grown any since then, and as for leading the whole organization I won’t believe it any time in the next ten years.
Also, Ghost Rider was only like six weeks ago for these people (aside from Fitz), stop acting like Coulson’s been sitting on this for all that long.
Anyway, this was such a shallow version of exploring past plot point and the characters’ fears. There had to be several billion more interesting things that could have been done. And they really should have gotten Fury in for this episode, and that goes double for the Koenigs. Yeah it’s good to see Mike again, I always like seeing him and wish we got updates on him more often, but this didn’t exactly do anything with him. Did Davis get to go home to his family at any point or has he been on the run? Who are all these other people that we’re probably never going to see again?
You know, I think I may be more angry with this episode than I realized before I started writing about it. I knew I was pissed at Skye and the writers for focusing on Skye, but there are a lot more problems than just that.
As for the whole end bit, I was too distracted by the fact that the forest still existed (if it does, they should probably be worried about other remnants) and annoyed at Deke’s commentary. Also that Phil wanted Haig and couldn’t get it. The wedding was fine, but I couldn’t feel it between the distractions in scene and my dislike for the episode leading up to it.
Although, on reflection I think the Zima is an interesting choice for possibly unintended reasons. Something from the 90s that had been lost to time, only the make a surprise return 20 years later. Their Haig was an idea put on the shelf decades ago, and now its chance missed, but Zima came back, so can the rest of it.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x14
I think I liked that one, not the best ever, but solid. I do have remarkably little to say on the subject though; probably because there’s no Rip to talk about or even anything to do with him worth discussing. The episode did make me sad over the death of a rat though, and that is worth noting.
Also, I’m not certain, but there seems to be an argument that the writers of this show share my view of speedsters, that they’re useful to have around but as characters they suck. They’re just gimmicks and wackiness that isn’t actually very amusing, and therefore mostly just annoying. Plus, while Firestorm was basically the biggest heavy hitter on the team, Martin and Jax were both actual characters separate from their power (and not separate in that their relationship to each other was very wrapped up in the powers, but still character driven). Wally is not actually a character (although I do sort of like him better here than I usually did on Flash) and I don’t expect the writers on Legends are allowed to give him a real arc since they’ll have to hand him back to the Flash writers at some point.
And, not for nothing, but they have really over-accelerated the Nate/Amaya relationship in the last few episodes. It came out of nowhere that they were sleeping together again as of a couple episodes ago, and now they’re super in love with each other. I feel either a tragic end coming on or them leaving the show (or expecting the show to be cancelled and sending them off together in the end).
I miss Rip.
Agents of SHIELD 5x13
Well, that one didn’t make me as angry as last week’s episode re. its underwhelming me, but I still found it pretty meh. I might even go so far as to say it was trying not to fall into the trap I’ve been complaining about on and off for a few episodes of not letting things breathe, because there were some scenes that were just letting the characters live and be, I just ended up not caring.
A lot of that problem is the stuff with Deke. Him and Fitz sniping at each other was not any fun or interesting to watch. And while not contrived that they wouldn’t get along (they’re very different people), most of their scenes seem utterly hacky. And it was so obvious as soon as his mom was like ‘remember that old family saying’ that Simmons was going to end up using it this episode; it’s something she always says don’t you know? What do you mean she’s never said it before? That plotline was so forced that I just wanted it to stop.
The episode as a whole was also not helped by the fact that the villains are so very boring (and that’s with Werner being at least 10x more interesting than anyone else in that plot) and yet they kept insisting on showing us so many of those scenes. Blondie cannot act at all, and the General is so underdeveloped that I’m not even scared of her even though I’m clearly supposed to be.
I was far more engaged with Mack’s old friend here, although I spent most of the episode thinking that I wasn’t sure if he was dead meat or they absolutely shouldn’t trust him, since he survived I’ll go with the later. Plus, bringing up Operation Paperclip invited me to point out that that turned out to be a bad move last time and lead to the whole Hydra mess, that apparently still isn’t finished (on one hand, that’s to be expected, Hydra is the big bad against SHIELD, but also plotwise, isn’t there enough going on without bringing Hydra back?)
Also, shouldn’t these guys be a bit more cautious about bringing tech back to base?
Stargate Origins 1-5
So this show is pretty bad even before getting to the mess it’s making of continuity. Because yes, Stargate continuity is a mess and this was always going to violate it, but if it had been well done the continuity problems would either have signaled this was a whole different timeline or been like all the other continuity problems in the verse, where you either paper over them or don’t but move on anyway. I think the format is part of the problem, just make a TV or direct-to-video movie and pace it like an actual story instead of small chunks where it can’t build up any inertia even when watching them in fairly close succession. It also doesn’t help that it looks like it was made for about $10 and maybe a cheap pack of cigarettes; the effects are terrible, the sets are terrible, the action (such as it is) it really terrible.
But again, all of that would be forgiven if it was a good story with good characters, but it’s not. I hate everybody. Maybe it will get better in the second half, but I kind of doubt it.
The X-Files 11x01
Finally getting to this one, and I guess it’s just fine I didn’t refresh myself on how last season ended, because it clearly doesn’t matter. It’s upper obvious they just didn’t know how to write themselves out of that cliffhanger, so we’ll just say it was a vision. These kind of two-parters (one revealed to be a vision and then the fallout from it) only work – if they work at all – if they’re a month or less apart and its revealed at the end of part one that I was all a dream; being separated by a year means it obviously had no planning at the time. And if I recall the end of last season at all, I seem to remember thinking that there was no way out of it without fundamentally changing what the show is, which is something I keep hoping could happen because I would love to see TXF take on a true serialized plot that didn’t have to exist in the ‘real world’ but was actually its own thing. But apparently it’s not to be, I’m not even certain I’m surprised, just let down.
I also feel pretty let down by this whole retconning that now the villains don’t have to do with aliens; sure there’s got to be alien tech involved and they’re obvious out there but they have nothing to do with the story anymore I guess. And since I watch this show for aliens and alien-related matters, I’m not particularly happy. On top of which I don’t really like this change to Cancerman, the point was never for him to be the big bad; now he’s just a rogue agent trying to end the world rather than one of many players working in the shadows.
Also not very happy with the end, but...I also don’t feel touching that one yet. Except to say that from my very spotty memory of this show, they have probably successfully gaslit me that I kind of almost think I remember at least some of that happening; and yet I don’t believe my memory saying that, because clearly if it had happened at the time fandom would have been speculating on it as part of William’s origins all along. And then I’m not even sure I trust that Cancerman is telling the truth, so why do I kind of feel like I remember Scully going off with him on an adventure at some point? Also, wasn’t he supposed to be playing dead during that time anyway? Like between Krychek pushing him down the stairs and showing up in the finale? And I don’t think the scenes as we saw here were old scenes, despite the makeup doing a good job of making it look like the old days, it didn’t really look like old footage. Thing is, post Mulder’s abduction I can totally get my head around Scully being talked in to going on an adventure with Cancerman (if he was still supposed to be alive at that point) in an effort to get some answer regarding Mulder or her mysterious pregnancy, but in s7 I don’t remember any reason she would have gone for that. I could be wrong, and my own brain keeps telling me it might have happened even though I can’t make the pieces work. On the other hand, I can absolutely believe Cancerman would be that much of a creep, I just don’t believe he has any actual feelings.
The X-Files 11x02
I don’t know that I liked that episode exactly, but I liked a lot of things this episode was. I think it strikes a good balance, that I could stand to see more of, between being part of the mytharc and being an exploration of a specific case. For good and bad it’s confronting the difference between TXF in the 90s and now (the premier was trying to be it got lost in its own mess on that front); it almost explains for me on a meta level why they took the aliens off the board in this game, because modern conspiracy theories that it plays on don’t turn to that the same way, we’re all so afraid of what’s in the world already we don’t have the same need to borrow fear from beyond it; I still prefer aliens for kind of the exact same reason.
And I like that it finally just lets Mulder and Scully be together and be a team and just let that be the way things are. Sure my not at all inner shipper would have liked them to be more demonstrative at times, but as a way of writing them as just being together and it not being a big deal, I’m content with it this way. It’s kind of like how I felt about the episode, I don’t know that I am super happy with all the elements of it, but I like the idea in it enough that I’m ending up feeling okay about it.
The X-Files 11x03
This is a very familiar type of TXF episode, the type where I don’t care about the plot at all so it’s make or break on the characters, and this one happened to be pretty schizophrenic (bad choice of words though that is in this episode) on how it treated the characters. It clearly doesn’t really know what to do with Scully after all these years, she’s seen too much to really be the skeptic anymore, but the show still needs her act like it as required. And after noting that the previous episode just treated the relationship as if it was their natural state of being anymore, this one calls attention to it without really knowing what it wants to say about it.
Also, no one remembers Emily? I can’t really remember if the show ever did reference Emily after it happened, but Scully did have another kid.
Plotwise, the end was super lazy. They couldn’t have convicted the twins of anything, so they had to be taken out, in this case by each other for poorly developed reasons. Also, didn’t the show come down on the side of Donny Pfaster being the devil a couple decades ago?
The X-Files 11x04
That was a really weird one, but it wasn’t quite weird enough for what I think it was trying to be. It wanted to be one of the zany episodes, but it was a little too serious for that; it’s was painting it’s political message in such broad strokes that it couldn’t actually make a clear message; and was all around too much standing around talking bollocks. I got some laughs out of it to be sure, but mostly I thought it was awkward and not very good.
Although, if this is somehow a meta comment on episode 11x01, that my brain cannot resolve the fact it kind of remembers things happening with it not making any sense to have happened...well, this may be secretly the most brilliant bit of writing they’ve done in a while. That would mean I wouldn’t be the only person to have reacted that way, and whichever way I’m right or wrong I don’t know how they could have predicted that being a potentially common reaction.
Stargate Origins 6-10
Well, the last half, especially the last 2-3 parts were a lot better than the first half. By the end I almost didn’t hate anybody. James never stopped being super annoying, but I didn’t exactly hate him anymore; and Catherine...well I still mostly hated her but it was less distracting; all the way through I was basically thinking, no wonder two don’t end up together, you’re terrible together, I’m glad Ernest isn’t around for this. The problem all the way through was that the many conflicting sides in the Papa Langford-Nazis-Goa’uld plot was so much interesting than redoing the Stargate movie with inferior characters.
But the end trying so hard to put everything back in place for where the movie had things was almost funny. I could tell when Catherine went to get the symbols off the tablet that we were in contrived prequel territory rather than an AU; I knew she’d find the tablets and somehow be responsible for breaking them to set up for how Daniel and Sha’re find them in 50 years. From there on it was a lot of moves made to fit the pieces together; and I guess it mostly does. Although at some point after Ernest’s disappearance they will just shut the Stargate research down so time-traveling Daniel can convince Catherine to get back into it in 1969.
Still, end result...I’d actually watch this again at some point and it has whet my appetite for Stargate material. So...I guess it worked out.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x13
Too muck Darhk, not enough Rip, that’s the quick and dirty summery.
The plot with Ray and the Darhks wasn’t exactly bad, but there was too much of it; I don’t find Damien’s shtick that fun to watch, I can practically feel Nora the character wanting to have actual character progression that’s being held back until it’s convenient for the plot, and Ray...like I said last week, Ray seems to have been flattened out as a character in some ways that I’ve having a hard time nailing down; it may just be him being pulled into the restraint of Nora’s character rather than playing off the Legends where he’s better served.
And the plot of the Waverider was badly underdone. I needed to see Wally form any kid of connection with the team, as is I still don’t care. He says at the end that he doesn’t think Zari likes him, and I see nothing of that; Amaya, yes, and Zari might be in protective girlfriend mode, but we don’t see it. Also, surely there was more that could have been done exploring the spirit world.
And Rip’s return is nowhere near enough. I’ll be generous (though I probably shouldn’t be considering he didn’t know about the Nazis) and assume he knows about Stein’s death, and guessed that Jax wouldn’t be there in that case so we maybe didn’t need to see him hear about that, but he should have said anything on the subject. It was kind of interesting to get most of the crew’s initial reactions to Rip being back being a variety of “what the hell” (only Nate pays attention to Wally before wondering about Rip’s presence), but considering the way things were left in 3x05 there ought have been more. And while I kind of got a kick out of him being so callous about Grodd destroying the Time Bureau (isn’t the Time Bureau in Star City? Won’t Team Arrow be pissed about having to fight a giant mind-reading gorilla?), in that I can enjoy Rip being a jackass, he spent five years building the Time Bureau, if he’s not going to be more affected by its fall somebody else should be commenting on how much of an ass he’s being.
Also, at one point Sara manages to dismiss everyone off the bridge except for Rip, and then we don’t actually see them talk. Doesn’t it kind of feel like we were supposed to have had a scene between them there that cleared the air? It was certainly set up for it. The shipper in me wants to imagine all kinds of things they could have talked about; but it’s not even the shipper that says we needed to see that discussion. It is mostly the shipper in me who notes that later in the episode we rejoin them alone on the bridge together, they’re noticeably standing at adjacent stations at the console rather than further apart.
And mostly the shipper in me that has a hard time imagining any reason to focus on Rip so hard when he sees Sara and Ava kissing; like that focus only makes sense to me if we are supposed to take as read that Rip has been in love with Sara for a while (which I do take as read, so it works for me). The end kind of sets up a different reading, of something that’s probably going to bite them in the ass, but I think it’s still firmly in the camp of Rip putting Sara first. It’s definitely the shipper in me that first assumed Rip was deleting his drunken recording of attempted love confessions
This was a bad use of the show’s limited Rip time. I hate it when my favorite character on a show is only on part of the time, it pissed me off on TVD (not that it ended up keeping me watching The Originals), and it pisses me off here.
Arrow 6x15
That was a much better episode than the last few, had quite a bit of good character work (although they’re all still being pretty dumb regarding Siren) and the promise of some good stuff to come. We got Roy back and it looks like he’s not just going to be gone next episode, and we’re dealing with the League, so maybe we’ll get Nyssa; it’s a full family reunion. Although they apparently have not needed to go fight Grodd.
But on Roy specifically, I hope we’ll continue to get good stuff there; I’ve been saying for almost two years now that I want to see Roy and the new team bounce off each other. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, through s4, the team was a family; when they took on new members in s5, those were teammates, which created the rift between the family and the team that has imploded this season. But I’ve also always said that the rift was wider than the splinter team has even talked about this season; because Thea and Quentin were and are still family, because Roy is still family. And want the distinction seen and remarked on and for it to probably be a problem. While I will insist there is no actual contradiction between Oliver’s choice regarding Vince and his dedication to Roy (there was no other threat that needed to be stopped instead of rescuing Roy), I feel like in Dinah’s eyes he would look like a hypocrite.
Maybe it’s because this episode didn’t have the other team in it much (and none as a team) the hominess of the Arrow Cave really came through. They were a family meeting at the table, plenty of spots for brother-sister chats (including Digg and Felicity), or husband and wife talks. It felt like home base, emphasis on the home, in a way I haven’t noticed in a while, and really noticed was there this time. Sure, the fight scene cinematography wasn’t my favorite, but the framing of the bunker scenes was good at conveying exactly what I think I was supposed to take from it.
I think Diaz may be an interesting character now (that he isn’t the obvious odd duck out in Kaden’s crew), just because he’s a different sort of big bad than they’ve had most seasons. Someone who isn’t trying to blow the city up, that’s new.
Agents of SHIELD 5x12
On one hand I do think that addressed some of the problems I brought up last time about the show not letting anything breathe; on the other SHUT UP SKYE, I HATE YOU. I have not hated her this much since s3 and I hated her a lot in s3. Literally every other member of the cast had more interesting and layered reactions to what was going on that I would have liked to see explored more. I want to see Yoyo find out that this is another part of things coming true; we certainly did not need two scenes of Skye making it all about her. I can’t even enjoy the scenes with characters I do like finding out about Coulson because it insists on making it about Skye. Plus she threw Hydra in Fitz’s face; show, when you actually deal with all that then she maybe won’t look like the world’s biggest asshole for going there, right now she does. Also, she has not shown me for one second in 100 episodes that she would make a capable leader, and I am sick and tired of the show acting like she has; she failed as a team leader back in s3 and hasn’t exactly grown any since then, and as for leading the whole organization I won’t believe it any time in the next ten years.
Also, Ghost Rider was only like six weeks ago for these people (aside from Fitz), stop acting like Coulson’s been sitting on this for all that long.
Anyway, this was such a shallow version of exploring past plot point and the characters’ fears. There had to be several billion more interesting things that could have been done. And they really should have gotten Fury in for this episode, and that goes double for the Koenigs. Yeah it’s good to see Mike again, I always like seeing him and wish we got updates on him more often, but this didn’t exactly do anything with him. Did Davis get to go home to his family at any point or has he been on the run? Who are all these other people that we’re probably never going to see again?
You know, I think I may be more angry with this episode than I realized before I started writing about it. I knew I was pissed at Skye and the writers for focusing on Skye, but there are a lot more problems than just that.
As for the whole end bit, I was too distracted by the fact that the forest still existed (if it does, they should probably be worried about other remnants) and annoyed at Deke’s commentary. Also that Phil wanted Haig and couldn’t get it. The wedding was fine, but I couldn’t feel it between the distractions in scene and my dislike for the episode leading up to it.
Although, on reflection I think the Zima is an interesting choice for possibly unintended reasons. Something from the 90s that had been lost to time, only the make a surprise return 20 years later. Their Haig was an idea put on the shelf decades ago, and now its chance missed, but Zima came back, so can the rest of it.
Legends of Tomorrow 3x14
I think I liked that one, not the best ever, but solid. I do have remarkably little to say on the subject though; probably because there’s no Rip to talk about or even anything to do with him worth discussing. The episode did make me sad over the death of a rat though, and that is worth noting.
Also, I’m not certain, but there seems to be an argument that the writers of this show share my view of speedsters, that they’re useful to have around but as characters they suck. They’re just gimmicks and wackiness that isn’t actually very amusing, and therefore mostly just annoying. Plus, while Firestorm was basically the biggest heavy hitter on the team, Martin and Jax were both actual characters separate from their power (and not separate in that their relationship to each other was very wrapped up in the powers, but still character driven). Wally is not actually a character (although I do sort of like him better here than I usually did on Flash) and I don’t expect the writers on Legends are allowed to give him a real arc since they’ll have to hand him back to the Flash writers at some point.
And, not for nothing, but they have really over-accelerated the Nate/Amaya relationship in the last few episodes. It came out of nowhere that they were sleeping together again as of a couple episodes ago, and now they’re super in love with each other. I feel either a tragic end coming on or them leaving the show (or expecting the show to be cancelled and sending them off together in the end).
I miss Rip.
Agents of SHIELD 5x13
Well, that one didn’t make me as angry as last week’s episode re. its underwhelming me, but I still found it pretty meh. I might even go so far as to say it was trying not to fall into the trap I’ve been complaining about on and off for a few episodes of not letting things breathe, because there were some scenes that were just letting the characters live and be, I just ended up not caring.
A lot of that problem is the stuff with Deke. Him and Fitz sniping at each other was not any fun or interesting to watch. And while not contrived that they wouldn’t get along (they’re very different people), most of their scenes seem utterly hacky. And it was so obvious as soon as his mom was like ‘remember that old family saying’ that Simmons was going to end up using it this episode; it’s something she always says don’t you know? What do you mean she’s never said it before? That plotline was so forced that I just wanted it to stop.
The episode as a whole was also not helped by the fact that the villains are so very boring (and that’s with Werner being at least 10x more interesting than anyone else in that plot) and yet they kept insisting on showing us so many of those scenes. Blondie cannot act at all, and the General is so underdeveloped that I’m not even scared of her even though I’m clearly supposed to be.
I was far more engaged with Mack’s old friend here, although I spent most of the episode thinking that I wasn’t sure if he was dead meat or they absolutely shouldn’t trust him, since he survived I’ll go with the later. Plus, bringing up Operation Paperclip invited me to point out that that turned out to be a bad move last time and lead to the whole Hydra mess, that apparently still isn’t finished (on one hand, that’s to be expected, Hydra is the big bad against SHIELD, but also plotwise, isn’t there enough going on without bringing Hydra back?)
Also, shouldn’t these guys be a bit more cautious about bringing tech back to base?
Stargate Origins 1-5
So this show is pretty bad even before getting to the mess it’s making of continuity. Because yes, Stargate continuity is a mess and this was always going to violate it, but if it had been well done the continuity problems would either have signaled this was a whole different timeline or been like all the other continuity problems in the verse, where you either paper over them or don’t but move on anyway. I think the format is part of the problem, just make a TV or direct-to-video movie and pace it like an actual story instead of small chunks where it can’t build up any inertia even when watching them in fairly close succession. It also doesn’t help that it looks like it was made for about $10 and maybe a cheap pack of cigarettes; the effects are terrible, the sets are terrible, the action (such as it is) it really terrible.
But again, all of that would be forgiven if it was a good story with good characters, but it’s not. I hate everybody. Maybe it will get better in the second half, but I kind of doubt it.
The X-Files 11x01
Finally getting to this one, and I guess it’s just fine I didn’t refresh myself on how last season ended, because it clearly doesn’t matter. It’s upper obvious they just didn’t know how to write themselves out of that cliffhanger, so we’ll just say it was a vision. These kind of two-parters (one revealed to be a vision and then the fallout from it) only work – if they work at all – if they’re a month or less apart and its revealed at the end of part one that I was all a dream; being separated by a year means it obviously had no planning at the time. And if I recall the end of last season at all, I seem to remember thinking that there was no way out of it without fundamentally changing what the show is, which is something I keep hoping could happen because I would love to see TXF take on a true serialized plot that didn’t have to exist in the ‘real world’ but was actually its own thing. But apparently it’s not to be, I’m not even certain I’m surprised, just let down.
I also feel pretty let down by this whole retconning that now the villains don’t have to do with aliens; sure there’s got to be alien tech involved and they’re obvious out there but they have nothing to do with the story anymore I guess. And since I watch this show for aliens and alien-related matters, I’m not particularly happy. On top of which I don’t really like this change to Cancerman, the point was never for him to be the big bad; now he’s just a rogue agent trying to end the world rather than one of many players working in the shadows.
Also not very happy with the end, but...I also don’t feel touching that one yet. Except to say that from my very spotty memory of this show, they have probably successfully gaslit me that I kind of almost think I remember at least some of that happening; and yet I don’t believe my memory saying that, because clearly if it had happened at the time fandom would have been speculating on it as part of William’s origins all along. And then I’m not even sure I trust that Cancerman is telling the truth, so why do I kind of feel like I remember Scully going off with him on an adventure at some point? Also, wasn’t he supposed to be playing dead during that time anyway? Like between Krychek pushing him down the stairs and showing up in the finale? And I don’t think the scenes as we saw here were old scenes, despite the makeup doing a good job of making it look like the old days, it didn’t really look like old footage. Thing is, post Mulder’s abduction I can totally get my head around Scully being talked in to going on an adventure with Cancerman (if he was still supposed to be alive at that point) in an effort to get some answer regarding Mulder or her mysterious pregnancy, but in s7 I don’t remember any reason she would have gone for that. I could be wrong, and my own brain keeps telling me it might have happened even though I can’t make the pieces work. On the other hand, I can absolutely believe Cancerman would be that much of a creep, I just don’t believe he has any actual feelings.
The X-Files 11x02
I don’t know that I liked that episode exactly, but I liked a lot of things this episode was. I think it strikes a good balance, that I could stand to see more of, between being part of the mytharc and being an exploration of a specific case. For good and bad it’s confronting the difference between TXF in the 90s and now (the premier was trying to be it got lost in its own mess on that front); it almost explains for me on a meta level why they took the aliens off the board in this game, because modern conspiracy theories that it plays on don’t turn to that the same way, we’re all so afraid of what’s in the world already we don’t have the same need to borrow fear from beyond it; I still prefer aliens for kind of the exact same reason.
And I like that it finally just lets Mulder and Scully be together and be a team and just let that be the way things are. Sure my not at all inner shipper would have liked them to be more demonstrative at times, but as a way of writing them as just being together and it not being a big deal, I’m content with it this way. It’s kind of like how I felt about the episode, I don’t know that I am super happy with all the elements of it, but I like the idea in it enough that I’m ending up feeling okay about it.
The X-Files 11x03
This is a very familiar type of TXF episode, the type where I don’t care about the plot at all so it’s make or break on the characters, and this one happened to be pretty schizophrenic (bad choice of words though that is in this episode) on how it treated the characters. It clearly doesn’t really know what to do with Scully after all these years, she’s seen too much to really be the skeptic anymore, but the show still needs her act like it as required. And after noting that the previous episode just treated the relationship as if it was their natural state of being anymore, this one calls attention to it without really knowing what it wants to say about it.
Also, no one remembers Emily? I can’t really remember if the show ever did reference Emily after it happened, but Scully did have another kid.
Plotwise, the end was super lazy. They couldn’t have convicted the twins of anything, so they had to be taken out, in this case by each other for poorly developed reasons. Also, didn’t the show come down on the side of Donny Pfaster being the devil a couple decades ago?
The X-Files 11x04
That was a really weird one, but it wasn’t quite weird enough for what I think it was trying to be. It wanted to be one of the zany episodes, but it was a little too serious for that; it’s was painting it’s political message in such broad strokes that it couldn’t actually make a clear message; and was all around too much standing around talking bollocks. I got some laughs out of it to be sure, but mostly I thought it was awkward and not very good.
Although, if this is somehow a meta comment on episode 11x01, that my brain cannot resolve the fact it kind of remembers things happening with it not making any sense to have happened...well, this may be secretly the most brilliant bit of writing they’ve done in a while. That would mean I wouldn’t be the only person to have reacted that way, and whichever way I’m right or wrong I don’t know how they could have predicted that being a potentially common reaction.
Stargate Origins 6-10
Well, the last half, especially the last 2-3 parts were a lot better than the first half. By the end I almost didn’t hate anybody. James never stopped being super annoying, but I didn’t exactly hate him anymore; and Catherine...well I still mostly hated her but it was less distracting; all the way through I was basically thinking, no wonder two don’t end up together, you’re terrible together, I’m glad Ernest isn’t around for this. The problem all the way through was that the many conflicting sides in the Papa Langford-Nazis-Goa’uld plot was so much interesting than redoing the Stargate movie with inferior characters.
But the end trying so hard to put everything back in place for where the movie had things was almost funny. I could tell when Catherine went to get the symbols off the tablet that we were in contrived prequel territory rather than an AU; I knew she’d find the tablets and somehow be responsible for breaking them to set up for how Daniel and Sha’re find them in 50 years. From there on it was a lot of moves made to fit the pieces together; and I guess it mostly does. Although at some point after Ernest’s disappearance they will just shut the Stargate research down so time-traveling Daniel can convince Catherine to get back into it in 1969.
Still, end result...I’d actually watch this again at some point and it has whet my appetite for Stargate material. So...I guess it worked out.
