Of course they randomly run into Shaw in Morocco. Of course they instantly find what the counter was hiding. Of course Lexi randomly picks the bottle of wine that reveals the stash. Of course Lexi doesn't password-protect her phone and then gets a text at a bad time. I'm still enjoying a lot of the aspects of this one for the most part, but the writing is still pretty weak.
Late in the episode: "Project Idabel, it's not some half-abandoned way station like it is here. That's Ground Zero."
Three minutes later: One of our heroes easily overpowers ONE GUARD and breaches "Ground Zero."
Classic. I mean, okay, I'm liking this show well enough at this point, but stuff like this is just beyond stupid.
Well, the use of f-word variations is up to 42 in this one. Incredible. Beyond that, is anyone ever going to have a normal conversation from start to finish on this show? It's just another way that the writers pad the script and drag things out even more without giving any answers to any of the mysteries that they've thrown out there.
All in all, it's getting very, very frustrating. On the bright side, Kristi's breasts make an unexpected appearance, so there's that. And Sara is still appealing in a broken psycho sort of way.
If there's any sort of a master plan behind the writing here, they're doing a good job of hiding it. The show is taking on more and more of a LOST vibe for me as the creative team continues to lose focus, making me believe that the show has gotten away from them.
This one is better in a lot of ways than its predecessor, but a few glaring questions have me rating it lower, anyway. Specifically:
Very early on, we're told that "But in 1978, there was one survivor." And then we see that an entire busload of kids actually survived. And the future sheriff. And more. So that's all kinds of confusing to me.
How did Adult Ziggy know so much about Cindy's actions (she's narrating things, after all) when she wasn't there to see them? I would've had the same essential question here if the plot twist at the end hadn't happened, in which case I would've been asking how Cindy knew so much about Ziggy's actions.
How did Ziggy manage to keep ANYONE from finding out about her identity switcheroo? Or are we supposed to believe that other people knew about it and they ALL kept it a secret?
The story continues to be extremely compelling, but the lack of any sort of chemistry between the actors playing Young Jonas and Young Martha is getting to be almost painful to watch. The Jonas actor actually seems to be getting worse all-around over time instead of better, with it being most noticeable in those scenes with Martha. To call it wooden would be an insult to trees. And it's unfortunate since their tragic love is supposed to be the focal point of it all.
My other problem with this one is the stupid way that Claudia creates a false sense of urgency by telling Ulrich to meet her at 10 that night. As a result, she HAS to get that key card right away. Dramatic? Sure. Idiotic? Also true. A far better option would have been to just tell Ulrich that she might need some time, and that he should be there every night at 10 until she shows up and NOT get discouraged if it doesn't happen the first night. Or she could have compromised by bailing on the first attempt to get the key card and going back to see Ulrich so that they could regroup and reset things a bit. But, no. She needed to get that key card RIGHT NOW and, well, go figure.
Beyond those complaints, though, the rest of it, as I said, is still terrific. I'm just a bit disappointed to have any complaints AT ALL since the show has spoiled me up until now...
I'm as much of a fan of "Show, don't tell" as anyone, but you can overkill on the show part, and that's what they did at the beginning of this one. I didn't need them to spend so much time on the whole "Oh, look, LeBlanc is a genius with poor social skills" or "Bullying is bad" messages, and the show's pacing shouldn't be geared to those who do. Still, after that shaky start, things got pretty interesting, but I'm again paranoid that having this on a network is gonna mean that the filler and time-wasting stuff is gonna get worse before it gets better. And frankly, the LeBlanc character is ALREADY getting tedious, so there's that concern, as well. Don't blow this, writers.
And on a related note, if you're gonna create a tech-heavy show, have some tech-savvy writers or advisers. Because I wanted to throw a shoe at the screen when LeBlanc asked C.M., "Where'd you learn how to code, in a trailer park?" Because that WASN'T CODING. That was command input. Coding is something else entirely, but liberal arts majors writing for TV must think that using the word as a verb sexes things up in their script, or something. But it's wrong and it's stupid and it's a mistake that a person like LeBlanc would never, ever make.
I'm not grading this one so low because I didn't like the death at the end. Heck, seeing that stupid loser die was the highlight of the episode. I'm just so sick of loser Vic and her dysfunctional loser relationships, especially the ones with her loser parents. So of course this episode was something like 95% loser family soap opera and loser decision-making with only about 5% plot development. That prolonged opening eulogy just summed up the problem so perfectly. This is not how you produce an entertaining show, and it's definitely the last season that I'll be watching of this dreck, whether it's renewed or not. I'm a huge compete-ist, but every once in a while something comes along that makes it easy to make an exception, and this show has become a perfect example of it.
Is there any chance that they might kill off Vic and her parents? I'm asking for a friend.
Did no one in the office notice or care that Glover's character seemed to jump to his death from his office building near the end? The way that it was handled was equal parts funny and bizarre.
No progress on the Vic vs. Manx front, too much time wasted on dysfunctional and drunken family stuff and a gratuitously gory death for Maggie's incredibly decent surrogate dad and protector would have been bad enough, but they had to go and have a character -- the old junkyard woman -- be so incredibly, painfully stupid that it was almost intolerable. Stall, lady. There were many ways to stall. Seriously, this may have been the single most stupid moment I've seen on TV in a long time, and that's saying something. No one deserves to die for being stupid, but that old woman comes close. Throw in some drug use by both heroines and it all added up to an episode that was far more sucktacular than entertaining.
All in all, this show is not heading in the right direction.
Taken in isolation where the final season is concerned, this was a solid finale. Once I set aside the rushed nature of some things in earlier episodes by pretending that this was episode ten of the season instead of episode six, I was able to appreciate most of it.
Having said that, there has never been a book or a TV show or a movie where every reader or viewer was happy with the way that everything ended, and that probably goes double or triple for adaptations. Where TV is concerned, I'm beginning to think that shows that are cancelled without warning are the lucky ones, at least for the writers. Sure, fans might be angry about a cliffhanger that goes unresolved because of Those Dang Suits At Corporate, but that seems to pale in comparison to the anger that gets vented when the writers choose to wrap things up in ways that some fans don't like.
And just like that, any sliver of rationale for this being on the "History" Channel vaporized. Yeah, it was entertaining, but it should have a different TV home. Beyond that, this might have been the most unflattering depiction of von Braun that I've seen in fiction yet. The real guy was morally gray, at best, but he's usually whitewashed rather thoroughly in historical fiction -- at least in American stuff. But not here. And really, that exchange between von Braun and General Harding was basically a reenactment of Deep Throat telling McGrath about how you want to keep your friends close, but your enemies closer in a classic early episode of THE X-FILES. And in both cases, it only makes sense because plot.
I made it about 20 minutes into this one and bailed. I just couldn't and wouldn't take any more. The kid was so freaking annoying that I was rooting for the monster -- ANY monster -- to end him on the spot in the bloodiest and most painful way possible. This was not even remotely entertaining.
I'm very much not a fan of shows featuring drug abuse and drug addicts, so the fact that I was able to have some sympathy for adult Luke says something about the actor and the directing here. Still, while I can appreciate it from a technical perspective, it wasn't entertaining or appealing to me in any other way, and it was decidedly un-scary. Sad and pathetic in many ways, but not scary. And that's not a good thing when the genre is horror.
Despite the lack of resolution on almost every front, I'm rating this season finale as high as I am because I'm hoping that we get a third season. If the show gets canceled, then I'll have to come back and drop the rating to a 1 or a 2, given that only one plot thread was even remotely settled even as several more were added to the mix.
My first disappointment of this season. I understand what the writers were trying to accomplish, but I question whether it merited the entire hour. It just seemed to be lacking in execution in ways that are hard to put a finger on, and the end result it that it just wasn't particularly compelling or intense for some reason.
I don't think that Lynch has enough banked goodwill to go all Black Lodge for 18 episodes, so he's either very brave or very stupid to go at it so hard at the outset, which could result in him losing many viewers -- new ones, in particular -- in a hurry. It's equally brave or stupid to give most of the old regulars who appear only a brief bit of exposure, and usually only as a cameo sort of thing that serves little purpose beyond stunt casting. I guess that I was hoping for more of season one's finale and less of season two's finale as "Return" got under way. There's still plenty of time, of course, but I'm not encouraged at the outset and am reminded of Quentin Tarantino's post-FIRE WALK WITH ME commentary about how "David Lynch had disappeared so far up his own ass." The first two outings here give me little reason to think that Lynch has seen much fresh daylight since, at least not in terms of Team Cooper, but I'm hoping that I end up being pleasantly surprised when it's all said and done.
A few silly mistakes away from being a perfect pilot episode -- the big one, of course, being the failure to inform OtherHoward of the flowers given to the nurses, despite something like 185 chances to mention it.
I’ve been thoroughly enjoying this show up to now despite the fact that it has regularly pushed the envelope on certain religious fronts. But the cold open in this one crossed a line that can’t be uncrossed, going from funny as hell to extremely offensive and profane in an instant. So even before the credits rolled, I knew that it was time for me to part company with this one. I wish Team Jesse the best, but I won’t be accompanying them on any more of their adventures.
After killing off a couple of interesting and key characters last season, the writers are losing their focus and it's seriously affecting the quality of this final season. In particular, I couldn't possibly care less about John Smith's marital issues or his home life challenges with his daughters. Can we fast-forward through it and get to whatever purpose that crap is supposed to serve? If I wanted that kind of "drama," then I'd watch soap operas or reruns of THE WALTONS. It also comes close to being a criminal waste of Sewell's talents. The same pretty much goes for Kido and his son. I like Kido the character and de la Fuente's portrayal of him, but the garbage with his son is another soapy waste of time and talent. I hate filler, and if the writers don't have enough story left to tell, then it's okay to make the episodes 45 minutes long instead of an hour.
Well, the Megan subplot was every bit as stupid in the end as I thought it'd be, and more. Not only was her motivation almost entirely nonexistent, but there wasn't even any real resolution to any of it. It was as if they got a couple of episodes into this thing and realized that they didn't have enough for the actress to do so they rushed out this mess overnight. Other than that, though, it was okay even though I was expecting three corpses to be wheeled out of that Rome hotel room and there ended up being none. Go figure. But really, the highlight was that Cassie might -- just might -- be on the right path to putting her messes behind her. Because while I found Dumpster Fire Cassie to be hilarious at times, the whole thing was beyond sad once you thought about it for more than five seconds.
I'm gonna mostly skip right over the silly (and sure to be divisive) Destiel fan service and just point out that the very ineffective spot where Sam and Jack met up with the others should be called the TARDIS Tower.
It's good to have this one back for its final run. But as has been the case for much of this final season, the timing was just a bit off more often than not and the humor was just missing the mark more than it was hitting it. The best part of this one, really, was the actress playing the nymph who, frankly, acted circles around everyone else. I thought that the improvements to the bunker would be a valuable addition down the stretch, but the writers had them literally hit the reset button on that one so that it was ultimately little more than an average filler episode. Still, as I said, it's good to have this one back.
Donatello continues to be awesome, and perhaps the most relatable character on the show.
After last week's outing, this one was bound to be a letdown no matter what, but the decisions on where to place the focus for the hour made it all a little worse than it had to be. Thankfully, there was Leon. Go with the LLC, Leon. Go with the LLC.
I still can't quite figure out how Robert Singer can be so awesome when he directs the funny episodes and so bad when he does the serious ones. Part of it is that everyone just seems stiff and the timing is so often off by a half-second on the exchanges, but there's more to it than that. And seriously, why do the writers all hate the Kevin Tran character so much? Cut that poor guy some slack for a change!
As well made as it is, the show knows that its narrative has to eventually go somewhere, doesn't it?
That parting scene between Margo and Josh was pretty terrific. The rest of the episode was solid, as well, but I must have blinked and missed the whole quesadilla thing.
1/10 for the ridiculously anticlimactic end to the Rittenhouse business (when did Rittenhouse go from being a multinational threat to being nothing more than Emma?), but a solid 8/10 for the feel-good 'shippy stuff and nostalgia. All except for poor Flynn, destined to go from being alone in a Brazilian bar to mostly alone and misunderstood on a quest to dying alone and unidentified on a nameless California beach, and all while never being reunited with his family. But that's way too depressing to focus on, so I'll think instead of the happily-ever-afters for our Lifeboat couples.
