Best lines
I’m waiting for an old friend - Bran
You left me for dead - Hound
I also robbed you - Arya
I’ve always had blue eyes! - Tormund
Whatever they want - Dany
but
It had its moments - Sansa
They need wheelchair ramps in Winterfell. They left Bran in the courtyard overnight!
Parallelism between Season 1 Episode 1 and Season 8 Episode 1
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ S08E01 Jon: "Where's Arya?" Sansa: "Lurking somewhere."Foreshadowing (from different Seasons/Episodes.)
01. S03E05“ “Let’s not go back. Let’s stay here a while longer,” Ygritte tells Jon. “I don’t ever want to leave this cave, Jon Snow.” S08E01 “We could stay a thousand years. No one would find us,” Daenerys says to Jon.02. Sam is suggesting rebelling against the Targaryen because they burned his father and brother alive. Similar to when Robert's Rebellion, began when Rhaegar Targaryen, allegedly abducted Robert's betrothed, Lyanna Stark.
RIP Olenna Tyrell. The OG badass bitch, even when she is dying she still has to have the last laugh. She is right though, Cersei is a disease and she has infected Jamie. Cersei really is just the worst. What she is doing to Ellaria Sand is awful, fair but awful. Her alliance with Euron might really change the war or at least make it more even.
The battle for Casterly Rock was great, I loved Tyrion narrating how he expects it to go but it never goes as expected. This will end up being a huge misstep for Daenerys. Her army is spilt and they are now landlocked. At least she still has the dragons and the Dorthraki. Looks like Cersei has a couple of tricks up her sleeve.
It was nice to see another Stark reunion. Bran was a little creepy like, you looked so beautiful the night Ramsay raped you. Sansa seems like she is a natural born leader. I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up Warden of the North or maybe even on the Iron Throne at the end. After all she has been through it would be fitting. Hopefully we will get another Stark reunion next week with Arya.
And of course we only have the biggest meeting of characters so far on this show. Jon and Daenerys finally meeting and they introduced her with a thousand names and Davos was like "This is Jon Snow... He's King in the North." Jon seems a little petty not to just bend the knee. Its not like he wants the iron throne. The Starks were loyal to the Targaryens in the past. A little gesture could of gone a long way but at least they have some dragon glass. I think the only way he is going to convince her or anyone is to capture a white walker and bring it back.
Quick thoughts:
Theon is alive, maybe another chance for redemption?
How will the iron bank play into this war? If Cersei has money who is she going to get to fight for her?
Jorah is healthy, I hope he goes to dragonstone right away and she takes him back. I bet she was just thinking when she sent him to "find a cure" that he was going to die. She is in for a surprise.
Why does Melisandre, and Varys, need to die in Westeros?
Cersei gives zero fucks now, who cares that people she her in bed with Jamie. The Targaryens did it so why not the Lannisters.
I can't get enough of Euron and Jamie, I hope they more awkward scenes together.
I wonder if Daenerys is going to follow up on "taking a knife in the heart?"
[9.2/10] Every season, BoJack Horseman does at least one format-bending, stylized, impressionistic episode. And almost every season it blows me away. I don’t know if this tops “Free Churro” or “Fish Out of Water”, but it at least sits comfortably with them, an allegory for the act of death, the process of letting go and reckoning with your life and its end.
There is something very Sopranos about this, not only the implied demise of our main character, but also in the dream space he occupies, one where the ghosts of his past return to haunt him. This isn’t quite “The Test Dream”, but it fits into that same liminal mode that David Chase’s show (and again, also Mad Men) would go to when they wanted to make their points in a roundabout way.
It is a frightening, beautiful, challenging episode of television. It is frightening because it treats the act of death as a horror movie, where a big pile of sentient black tar goes after you, where the bystanders melt into avian husks, where there’s nothing on the other side. It is beautiful because it conveys the act of leaving this mortal coil as one of art, where true to BoJack’s psyche, each of these deceased people in his life goes out putting on a show, plying their trade in one form or another, until the time is right.
And it’s a challenging episode because it asks us what the value of life and the value of death are. It asks whether there is “good damage” that means something or if that’s just a way to treat being happy as something selfish. It asks if valorizing sacrifice makes us less fulfilled in our lives. It asks if the best parts of our lives justify the worst parts. It asks if the choices we make in life add up to something in the finally tally of our days and nights. It asks if it’s worth it to care, if there’s any sort of reward or self-justification for putting so much effort into our projects and plans.
And it asks whether it’s all worth it, what the best way to live and the best way to die are. It doesn't answer these questions. It only presents contrasting views spoken over a dinner table, one where old wounds are reopened and the faces of death BoJack’s scene and heard and internalized play out his own internal dilemma as he waits on death’s door.
It does all of this with words and tones and images that catch the eye and pierce the heart. The way that the episode presents these debates works because each of these characters feel fully-formed and represent different perspectives. Each captures both a contrasting view of what the best life is, while also reflecting the people that BoJack has known and mourned, in one way or another, in his past. That gives their conflicting points weight, sheathed in the personas of the losses that have shaped his life.
It accomplishes its heights in the shows that each puts on. Sarah Lynn sings a haunting rendition of “Just Keep Dancing”. Her song suggests a guilt still dripping from BoJack’s soul, from bringing her into this business and teaching her that continuing to perform is the only way, until it killed her. Corduroy, not one of the more poignant deaths in the series, dies doing an acrobatic rope trick, one that befits his method of death.
BoJack’s father performs a poem, one where we understand in greater depth not only his suicide, but his wish that he could take it back, that his mid-air clarity was doomed by the choice he made seconds before. And yet, before he takes the stage, he tells BoJack that it didn’t matter, that he wished he’d cared less, and that he put up walls because he didn’t want BoJack or his wife to know how much he did care. Maybe that’s just what BoJack wants or needs to hear right now, or maybe it’s the confession of a man more complicated than BoJack quite understood until he became a xerox of a xerox of him.
BoJack’s mother performs the routine we heard about in “Free Churro” accompanied by the uncle whose death helped spin her life out of control. Her ribbon dance has a haunting quality to it, with moves that seem impossible, accompaniment that floats in the air, and a contrast between the hard part and the easy part that leaves her long alabaster prop irrevocably stained with the mark of black death.
And then there’s Kazzaz, the master of ceremonies, there to rundown BoJack’s life: what he did, what he didn’t do, who he was, and who he wasn’t. When it’s all over, the goop takes him too, killing him slowly in contrast to his compatriots, eating away parts of his body like the cancer did, until the drip-drip-drip finally ends. Each has a performance, and each leaves through that door to oblivion in a way that’s befitting.
The show captures the dream logic of all of this wonderfully. Without a wisp of transition, Sarah Lynn goes from being the little girl BoJack met on the set of his show, to the adult performer who succeeded later in life, to the drugged out starlet who died sitting next to him. The man who represents his father has Butterscotch’s voice, but Secretariat's body, nicely representing the way that BoJack conflated his real life dad with the one he imagined filling that space as he sat in front of the television screen. And Beatrice goes from being the younger, vibrant woman BoJack once knew, to the sick old woman he left in a home.
This isn’t a show that’s typically particularly well-designed or animated. There’s creative material in the visual presentation for sure, but normally the actual animation is fairly basic. But here, BoJack Horseman’s production team really challenges themselves. The flooding of the black gloop, the impossible geography of the home where BoJack meets his dead friends and family, the perspective changes as he runs through it and ends up back where he started, all have an immediacy and shifting perspective that the show doesn't always go for.
But the most haunting image is the glimpses we get of BoJack in the pool, an image that connects to the show’s intro, and hints at what’s really going on here. There is a boldness to all of this, not only killing off your main character, but doing so in a way that breaks with the formal limits of your series, that confronts him with the death he’s been a party to, and presents his brain seeing and doing what it needs to in order to make peace with that.
It ends on a note of nihilism, on the possibility that none of this mattered, that there’s nothing he could do to stop it, and that the best and only thing to do now is die. But when he does, he wants to be on the phone with Diane, he wants to know how he’s doing. BoJack is dying, but even in that, he cuts against the nihilism. If none of it matters anyway, even if it all ends anyway, he wants to die caring, caring about someone he loves, someone he wants to be happy and whose joys make him happy, whether he’ll be around to see it or not.
Thanks to Melisandre we could actually see what the fuck was going on!
This episode was so dark, even the Night king's guard didn't see Arya coming...
My therapist will hear about this episode.
They didn't even need the Dothraki. Greyworm, Gendry, Tormund, Brienne, and Jaime killed like 2,000 wights each
The Night King was reduced to Tyrion level of Stupidity.
Confirmed death count: R.I.P
Edd
Beric Dondarrion (aka. Barricade Dondarrion)
Lyanna Mormont (Lyanna 'Giantsbane' Mormont. Killed a giant at the age of thirteen in the Battle of Winterfell. Her greatest and final act. And now her watch has ended.)
Theon Greyjoy
Jorah Mormont
Night King
Melisandre (Melisandre: "I will be dead before the dawn.")
99.8% of the Unsullied
99.9% of the Dothraki (Dothraki's flaming weapons slowly disappearing in the dark was the most terrifying scene EVER)
Confirmed living:
Ghost
Drogon
Rhaegal
Jon yelling at a fucking Dead Dragon!
Jon: We did it. We defeated the dead.
Bran: We don’t have time for any of this. Cersei has 4 elephants.
One of the Best part was the slow piano montage of everyone dramatically fighting to the last breath with a shot in the middle of Sam lying on the ground, sobbing uncontrollably.
RIP Azor Ahai Theories
RIP Night King
RIP Logic
RIP Lighting in the Episode
RIP Lyanna Mormont True King in the North
RIP Arya as a good character
RIP Melisandre the confused woman
RIP Theon protecting Useless Boy
RIP Jorah and Beric Defending Strong woman
RIP Good storytelling and 9 years of Hype
RIP Winter and the Long Night
RIP Me
None of the prophecies mattered, nothing was resolved between Bran and Night King, all eight seasons of build up and the NK dies from one quick stab. No surprising twists, no intelligent storytelling, the storyline ends like this. The whole long night ends in one battle.
The war council preparing for a siege, they send out their cavalry to die in the first 10 seconds, 20 or more wights surrounded every character, and yet every main character manages to retreat. Theon with around 20 archers managed to defend against a horde of wrights. We see Jon surrounded by a crowd of wights, and next scene there's no more wights left.
I think this time it's a bit of a stretch to say DB Weiss and David Benioff planned this well. By their own admission they've only known Arya was going to land the finishing blow for 3 years and when you account for the 2 year hiatus, that's just season 7. Even then, Arya got the job because she's a fan favorite, not because this is what she's been building up to. Her story never even had a hint of "White Walker" plot. I think Mel talking about shutting eyes forever back in season 3 was purely about her faceless man training. Mel said the "Blue Eyes" comment second in season 3 but they retro actively made it the last color while reiterating it this episode to force prophetic weight onto it.
From a story writing perspective this was not Arya's fight to win anymore than it would've been Oberyn Martell's. Her experiences made her a highly skilled fighter but her plot didn't set her up to be the savior of the realms of the living.
A little more Black Mirror like than the first one, but come on.
The plot is a very basic hostage situation and they all look the same. The whole thing is totally predictable and hold little interest except for Andrew Scott performance. I didn't even recognize Topher Grace, so good on his part too. It's not bad, it has all what you would expect, but also yeah, you expect it all.
As for the theme, this show used to be about visionary stuff not dayly occurences. Social media is addictive and the company design it this way and it's bad. Really ? Now ? Also don't use your phone while driving, wow ! I mean, there's nothing special here, how many people died this way ? Thousands ? There are litteraly hundreds of people dying each year by taking selfies in stupid places, will they also make a whole episode about it ?
It's also showing that these companies can have everything on you, and spy on you, that's actually a bigger thing than the addiction issue, but it's just passed over when that should be a way better reason to go after them.
And where's the boldness in attacking Facebook now ? And not really attacking either, taking the choice of humanizing the ones that take these decisions like they just happened and were not conscious decisions to make money at the detriment of everything else, that's a poor direction for what this show used to be about.
A small point, that most people will probably not notice. The Persona company sends the mother her daughter's password. It kinda look like a nice thing, but it shows that they won't do it for legal reasons (wouldn't the heir of a deceased person would be lengally entitled to that ?), but they will share their customer data if another billionaire tech bro asks them too. It also means that they can access the clear text passwords of their users. Both things are very wrong. Both also happened to have been in the news about Facebook in the past months. Not sure if it's on purpose or a coincidence. It's pretty hidden for something that's on point on technology misuses, you know, the kind BM used to be about.
I’d rather have had the NK kill everyone than this.
Throwback to the days when even minor character deaths had an emotional impact and made sense.
When the Lannisters surrender but you still have 40 minutes to fill the rest of the episode.
Dany: Guess I'll commit Genocide.
Foreshadowing is not the same as showing a character's arc. After 7 seasons of portraying her as a flawed heroine (even her musical themes played that up) who NEVER harmed innocent children, they needed more than two damn episodes after she saved the North to make it seem earned. [Literally the “signs” of her going mad are echoed in Sansa - Sansa is shown being jealous of Jon getting the acclaim, and being a bit of a party-pooper, and wanting to kill Cersei. But no one accuses her of being mad, because those aren't signs of madness]. You can’t just have a couple of characters worry about it, have her save millions of lives and then just magically make her go mad [In Season 4, Dany locks up her own Dragons because ONE of them scorched ONE child. There is no progression. There is her being a hero and then in the span of an episode she is mad. Hinting that Daernerys will go mad. This isn't the same thing as actually writing her descent to madness. Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon both executed people. They're not considered mad. Jon Snow executed all the guys who tried to kill him. [He turned useless not Madness]. Instead, we got an Unlimited Dragonfire Special Edition... which Dany has already experienced plenty and viewers were never given time to digest...and characters telling us it would happen, but not showing it from Dany's perspective. Like her or hate her, the character and viewers deserved a real transition with clearer motives for her Genocide actions. They went for shock value over clear character development and it was cluster fuck.
In some way, this might be the best episode of the first season, and the most convincing expression so far of the show's thesis in how technology can amplify our worst impulses as a human being, or at least make us arrive at the inevitable faster. The tech is believable and only just slightly exaggerated from the present to give chills, the integration into everyday life is seamless, and the way it is used to advance a familiarly grueling story like distrust and paranoia in a relationship is just great. But again, one stumbling block, and the clearest example of why people often compare this show unfavorably to The Twilight Zone: the humans in that relationship. I feel the disturbing horror and discomfort of their disintegration, but never the keen sense of loss. I don't know whether it's the nuance in writing or the performances (but highly suspecting the former), but the way the couple is presented, I never get a handle of them as complex people, which is crucial for a story like this. The husband especially just becomes this rage, jealous, overbearing from the get-go; I don't expect characters to be sympathetic, but some empathy beyond what the situations are doing to them would be nice. So, still prefer "The National Anthem" out of the first season.
Very disappointing episode. Anyone saying it’s the best episode of this show is just caught up in the hype.
Visually, this episode was fantastic. And as a stand-alone episode, it was very good. But when you take this as an episode of Game of Thrones and think about everything that led to this, it’s undeniably disappointing.
Barely anyone died. Most of the characters had super thick plot armour. Lots of plot holes. Anti-climactic ending. I don’t mind that Arya killed the Night King. I also don’t mind how it happened. But for it to happen so soon... the army of the dead have been hyped up since season 1 as the true enemy, and we were told that they were the most dangerous army in the show. Yet all they accomplished was the deaths of a few side characters. It’s pathetic compared to the feats of other characters and armies in past seasons. The Night King should have taken Winterfell and killed at least a few main characters. The survivors should have them retreated somewhere and then beat the Night King in a later episode. The Night King and the army of the dead did not come across as very threatening by the end of this episode. They were unable to kill any main characters, and they were defeated in the first proper battle they took part in.
Very disappointing. My rating is only as high as it is because of the great visuals and the value of the episode as a stand-alone piece of television.
Pros
+Fight scenes were pretty intense and not as hammy as they have been in other episodes with The Others and Wights
+Melisandre returning was good
+Dragon fighting was great and properly brutal
+The Night's King's assassination was pretty great, I liked how they led us on twice with Dany trying to kill him with dragonfire and Jon trying to duel him fairly and both failing before Arya got him
+Theon's redemption was godly and I can already tell people are going to be overlooking it in favor of other scenes unfortunately
+Beric Dondarrion getting brutally stabbed in the hallway was pure cinema, great cinematography
+Brienne and Jaime's unbeatable tag team fighting was great
+Acting was noticeably solid this episode, even actors I don't exactly like did well here, the writing being more competent than most episodes definitely helped
Neutral
* the Dothraki getting all hyped only to do literally fucking nothing was actually hilarious
*Lyanna Mormont bit was the only really cheesy part but it was kind of fun
*Arya chase bit was a lot longer than it needed to be
*Sam just lying down on a pile of bodies doing nothing for the last half of the battle was kind of hilarious too
*Crypt parts broke up the action a bit and served their purpose but also didn't bring that much to the table
Cons
-There were a number of scenes that tried to create tension by prolonging whatever action was happening (like the absurdly long wait at the start, or when Melisandre set the fire to the moat, etc.) and I don't feel like most of it was necessary or added anything but time to the scene
-Not enough important people died for a show that made it's name for not giving plot armor to main characters, there were a few too many scenes where one should've died and was saved at the last second by another character that had no business being at that part of the battlefield (I'm looking at you Jorah! fucking teleporting outside of the castle to save Dany. I'm onto your sorcery)
-Too Dark, hahaha I know dumb complaint but it was noticeably annoying at points
-Didn't really explain why Bran just decided to control the ravens for a bit (I'm also secretly disappointed he didn't steal the Night's King's dragon)
-No giant ice spiders
-Tactics made no sense as usual but magic zombie fighting wouldn't anyway so that's not completely unforgivable.
yeah I know I put a lot of critical points here but the critical parts were all minor to me and the good parts wayyyyy outweigh them. It was a great episode, it sets up an interesting ending to the series. Never thought Cersei would actually be the big baddie at the very end when they could have the Night's King but I'm not against it either. Can't wait to see Jaime stab her and pull out a flaming sword :smirk:. also the Cleganebowl/Trial of the Seven/whatever shit they set up for the final encounter will be wonderful
Where's my breath?!
Things really explode in episode 4. The previous two episodes did feel a lot like a build up to something, and that 'something' is one hell of a detonation.
I'm really liking the storyline of Dex so far, especially when you get extraordinary scenes like the one involving CCTV. The way those deep, cold eyes stared into the camera was unbelievable and sent shivers down my spine. I just can't get over how amazing Vincent D'Onofrio is as Fisk.
I just have to mention the fight scene though. This is, without a doubt, my favourite long take fight scene of the show. It's just pure adrenaline that doesn't seem to end. It's even more realistic than the hallway scene in season 1. The effort and preparation they put into this must be off the Richter scale. Well, it looks like the show's going to pick up another Emmy nod for stuntwork... ...and just when you think your jaw couldn't fall any lower, the episode ends like THAT and proves you wrong, sending your jaw to another world. I guess it's lucky these don't release weekly, because I wouldn't be able to handle the week after this ending.
Seriously impressive stuff; I'm addicted.
The whole Star Fleet universe is pretty good. Really well done while keeping the cheap retro look. Except for the monsters, that are really top class.
The concept is however a lot less original than what Black Mirror usually does. People trapped in a game ? Come on, it's been done hundreds of times, and it's even already been done in Black Mirror. Otherwise the question is whether we should treat AI as persons. Not really original either, even if more in the Black Mirror vein, but it's treatment doesn't bring much here. That's one of the themes that seem obvious for the series, it had to be addressed at some time, but it's largely ignored here.
The one interesting thing is that the episode makes you root for the AI as if it was a good thing. They even win in the end, they escape and the bad guy is punished; but how is it a good thing ? There's not really any moral ambiguity here.
Can someone create game characters and do whatever they want with them ? Well, yeah.
Hurt them, torture them, kill them ? Well yeah, we've had that for a while now.
Can we blame them for venting their anger and frustration on digital replica of people instead of doing it in real life ? Clearly not.
But what if they were sentient ? Well maybe there is something to explore there, but it's not done at all. We're just put in front of the fact: they are and that's it. A great missed opportunity.
There's no explanation for it on the in-universe side either. They seem surprised themselves so this technology does not exist. Daly really is an incredible genius. Not only did he develop this great game, almost by himself (the team seem pretty low in numbers for something this big), but he apparently also invented, without anyone knowing about it:
- sentient AIs
- a way to make a digital copy of someone from its DNA
- and even a way to copy memories from fresh DNA
That's a whole other level of genius ! No wonder the guy is frustrated by the way everybody treats him.
Apart from that, a lot of inconsistencies in the story.
Why would he let his own world be auto patched ? OK, let's call it a mistake.
He knows they react like real people and just act like game characters when he's here. How could he fall for her immediate turnaround and not be suspicious ?
They want to die, ok, but what's the point of getting rid of the DNA ? He'd start again, but it would not be them, just other copies. So to prevent him to do it again to other versions of them ? Well he can clearly get fresh DNA whenever he wants. He got hers two days after she started working there. It will just get him a little longer to start again and he will be more frustrated and cruel with the new digital versions, that's all.
The ending kinda implies he's stuck in the game when it's shut down. But there's no way a game technology that is apparently well implanted in society would do that. You'd die if the power turns off or somebody pull out the cable ?
And let's say he is, what about the legal consequences for the real her ? It will be highly suspicious, she was there, even ordered pizza o his place from his phone, she probably left trace everywhere. The AI worry about what would happen to other digital replicas of them, but have no trouble implicating the real life version in crimes ? Well, so much for them being the good guys of the episode.
Oof, that was a lot to take in and I'm not quite sure where to start.
All in all I actually enjoyed this season much more. I felt like season 1 dragged on for too long and sometimes I was bored, though it might also be relevant to say that I read the book, so I knew most of the plot. The second season was more exciting for me and I think a big reason was that Clay wasn't the main character - We had all different kind of views and characters. It made it much more interesting.
The bathroom scene was completely shocking - I skipped through Hannah's rape scene in the last season, but this scene with Tyler was so quick that I was just staring at my screen and then it was already over. I honestly had to pause the video for a bit because I was feeling sick and I was crying. But now comes the point where I have to disagree with many people - I don't think it was unnecessary. The whole scene itself could've been done in a less explicit way, definitely, but I do think addressing the male on male rape and the continuing and even worse abuse Tyler suffered was relevant (though that should never excuse the planned shooting). And teenagers raping other teenagers with objects is so much more common than some people seem to think. It's not far-fetched.
So the only problem here for me is how graphic it was and I wish I would have been able to skip it, but society still acts like male on male rape is non-existent or even funny, so a show dealing seriously with it is something I welcome.
But I have to say I have a huge problem with the ending.
We were probably all wondering if the school shooting would happen or not because the "hints" have been there since the beginning (even at the end of the last season). I was never sure if they were using it as red herrings or if Tyler might get stopped while he's still planning it. So now I actually thought this would end with him shooting some people we know. To me it felt like the weirdest anti-climatic way to end it - Clay talking to Tyler instead of calling the cops and Tyler running away.
Which is actually my big problem with it - They definitely seem to have a third season planned and we are left with a bunch of cliffhangers which I really dislike. They had a chance to tie up some of the storylines in a slightly better way (skipping Chloe's pregnancy, having more moments with Jessica/Justin, not having Justing use heroin again etc) and the end with the dance would have been good. It wouldn't have been a perfect happy end, but it would have been bittersweet. But instead we are left with this. I know how bad it sounds to say "I wish they went through with the school shooting", but I think this would have been a much better idea than just having Clay talk to Tyler for two minutes.
I also think it's weird to have school shootings as a taboo in shows - Nowadays this topic is even more relevant than ever and I really hope Netflix didn't change the ending because of the recent Santa Fe shooting. Especially because of the recent shootings we shouldn't ignore such topics.
So I'm really angry that literally the last episode destroyed a lot of the progress we made (Justin getting clean, Tyler working on himself, Alex and Jessica getting together etc) and the only reason I can see is that they want to make a third season.
I hate saying this but what a complete mess
The show is fun yes, I enjoy some of it yes but overall it was so confusing in terms of the timeline and time frame.. They jump back and forth in time without really making it obvious so I found myself questioning everything that happens in some moments
Another thing I hated is that the show was extremely rushed to the point that I felt like the character development of Yennefer didn't make sense at all, it's like over night she's a totally different person with no smooth transition whatsoever
One of the biggest flaws of this season is the directing and editing choices they've made.. The way they chose to tell their story mixing past and present in a hard to tell way killed it for me.. I would've enjoyed this show much more if I actually knew what was going on during the scenes not after
It's amazing how much and little progress they've made with this season at the same time LOL, it's like so much happened yet so little
Anyway I'm only saying this because I like the Witcher and want it to do better in future seasons
Overall season is 6/10
"Time travellers. Assemble!"
Before I start rambling on I've gotta say that the final 10-minute montage, the music, the rhythm, the parallels up to a t, was one of the best in the whole show.
After the episode, I've got one question. How the hell are they gonna wrap this up in just two episodes?
Honestly, I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm team Adam. This suffering is too harsh and too confusing for me to keep track. I'd rather everyone dies than keep track of how many Marthas are there.
In total this episode, we've seen 5 Marthas, plus original world Martha. And what probably looks like an Entanglement Martha.
There're two Jonas, one who goes to world B with alt short hair Martha, and another Jonas (adult Jonas/Adam) who stays in the bunker. Like Schrödiger Jonas.
Alt short hair Martha brings Jonas to World B. Then, she goes back to 1888 to meet adult Jonas and give him the cesium he needs to open the portal. Then, she goes back to Adam in the future and gets locked up in a cage only to, moments later, be sat up right under the portal and for Adam to kill her son via Apocalypse in both worlds.
In World B, Jonas (who has no idea of what's going on) goes to see alt long-haired Martha (who has no idea what's going on), she basically tells him to cool it and Jonas meets Eva, who brings him to her secret bunker and tells him that she wants to save both worlds.
Then, this Jonas decides to insist and, since long-haired Martha doesn't believe him, he brings her to the future where they meet adult Martha, who then sets them back to have sex and conceive the child that will be the key to the family tree.
Long-haired Martha and Jonas go to the nuclear plant, where long-haired Martha gets a cut, similar to the one adult Martha has, which triggers Jonas' alarms and discovers everyone is lying to him. So, he decides to go back and demand answers from Eva. When they get to Eva's secret bunker, another Martha (big scar Martha) emerges from the shadows and kills Jonas, thus living long-haired Martha sobbing and confused. Big scar Martha ends up writing a letter to Jonas that is delivered by adult Martha in 1888.
After that, long-haired Martha goes back home and cuts her hair, thus becoming short-haired Martha, she goes with Bartosz to the nuclear plant but are intercepted by adult Magnus and Franziska, who give short-haired Martha the apple device to go to our worlds and save Jonas so that he could go to alt world and long-haired Martha can learn it all.
The thing that strikes me is that Adam wants to destroy the origin of the entanglement (that's alt Martha and early-expired Jonas), but he's the one who creates it in the first place by sending Magnus and Franziska to give alt Martha the apple device, right? That makes no sense to me because, if alt Martha doesn't save Jonas, they don't conceive a child, so no one would exist. But (and that's a big but) "der Anfang ist das Ende, und das Ende ist der Anfang", which literally means that Adam has to make sure that everyone exists and that the origin (Martha and Jonas' son) is born so that he can break the cycle. Also, if big scar Martha is pregnant, that means there's another Martha. Like Entanglement Martha. So, in some point in the past, short hair Martha had to made a decision (similar to Schrödinger Jonas) and thus, create two pregnant Marthas.
This episode was, by far, the most confusing one, not because of not being able to follow or understand what's going on, but because there're way too many Marthas and that's confusing the shit ourñt of me. Of course, as soon as I see more episodes, I'll probably realize I'm completely wrong in everything I've said.
[7.8/10] I didn’t expect the two stories in this one to dovetail so well. Diane’s tale of trying to write her book is a strong one, full of relatable struggles to impart oneself on the page and a nice dramatization of trying to recover from depression. The subplot about Charlotte and Penny being confronted by those reporters is some necessary plot movement, and a good choice to put some of this from their perspectives, but dragged down a bit by the overstretched His Girl Friday gags at play. But for the most part, the two don’t seem to have much to do with one another.
And yet, the thing that makes both parts of the episode stronger is the thematic connection between the two. Charlotte advises her daughter not to open up to those reporters, because she won’t be able to control the story about Bojack, because it will have personal repercussions for Penny’s mental health and Charlotte’s marriage, and because it will dredge up a lot of stuff that both women felt like they’d been able to move past. But Penny seems to want to do it, if only because it will help other women, warn other people, and most of all, make the pain that they suffered for something. There’s a strong idea there, in taking the things that hurt us and putting them to some use.
But what’s interesting is how the other half of the episode doesn't reject that idea exactly, but at least says it doesn't have to be that way. Diane is torn between writing a confessional series of essays about eh hardships she’s experienced in ife, but also finds herself writing a fun middle grade detective adventure that is lighter, more accessible, and not nearly as dark or challenging.
When that seems to be what the world wants from her, she bristles, because she’s worried that if she doesn't put all the time she was miserable into a book of some kind, it will have been for nothing. She thought that pain made her special, and that by turning that hardship into something brooding and incisive, she could cast a lifeline to other girls like her. But Princess Carolyn reassures that light things, positive things, can be just as good, can still reach people, and seems to get through to her friend and client.
There’s a lot of complexity there, between the two stories. Again, the Penny story is weakened by the fact that we’re still doing the His Girl Friday homage to rapidly dwindling returns. But there’s a legitimate question there, eof whether you protect yourself and your ability to recover from trauma (the concept not the store), or you give it to a machine that wants to sensationalize and publicize it in the name of helping other people and trying to spin that straw into gold.
But what if you think that gold is going to be applied to a cracked vase and that’s what makes it beautiful? “Good Damage” does a stellar job of depicting the tumult going on in Diane’s mind and her writing process. The stick figure drawings and impressionistic sequences confer a scattered quality to the rush of thoughts. But you also get Diane’s insecurities, her efforts to dredge up the worst of her life, her worries that her upbringing wasn't that bad and isn’t interesting, and her straining to turn it into something good so that it will have all been meaningful.
But sometimes misery is just misery. I’m a firm believer in the idea that tough times can be fodder for great works (I believe it was Schubert who said that “great pain makes great art).” But I’m also a firm believer in the idea that there’s value in non-brooding, non-serious, just enjoyable and uplifting art as well. It’s a struggle to put yourself between those two poles, strive to write your personal magnum opus, and find yourself writing Y.A. fiction instead.
It’s also tough to wonder if it’s because you’re on medication that is helping your depression. The show hasn’t forgotten about that struggle, or Guy as a partner. It’s funny to see him joking about everything being “Chicago-style”, and sweet how much he tries to look after Diane. The show does a nice job of balancing the depths of Diane’s struggle here and the pressure put on her by PC with the realization that she has a good support system and people who care about her.
That’s the cinch, though. She’s happier now. She has a partner who’s helping, medication that’s helping, and the chance to keep writing. It’s natural to worry that if you’re not transmuting your misery into something, that all those years you suffered were pointless, something that could cast a pall over the better times you’re experiencing now. There’s a layered complexity to that which is poignant.
The whole episode is poignant (sans the screwball comedy shtick), finding choices for Penny, Charlotte, and Diane, to try to make their past pain worthwhile, even if things are good right now, and cracking under the weight of which side to pick.
[7.6/10] I both love and hate how this mid-season finale is the negative image of the prior episode. While “The Face of Depression” was about BoJack moving past his sins, and the ways in which he is unexpectedly capable of helping others, “A Quick One, While He’s Away” is about how those sins are still poised to come back to haunt him, and how other people are still dealing with the lingering effects of his worst behavior.
For the latter, we reunite with Kelsey Jennings, the original Secretariat director who, as she herself notes, was the only person in any way punished by the incident in season 2 where she and BoJack and the rest of the crew broke into the Nixon library to film the big scene. Much of this season, and frankly this series, is about how women bear the brunt of the negative consequences for this kind of behavior, and I like this as an illustration of that. (It’s no coincidence that all of our point of view characters in this episode, and the people who harm has been visited upon, are women).
We haven’t seen much of Jennings since season 2. But when we check in on her life, we see how she’s reduced to doing “sponsored immersive content” far below her talent while hacks like her film school pal get to do big budget work. Hers is one of the few hopeful stories here, where she sticks to her guns and to who she is when she pitches for a big time superhero movie, and ends up winning the job. But at the same time, the episode isn’t shy about how much of a struggle it’s been for her to get out of director jail all this time.
Things are, shall we say, less hopeful for Gina, who we see for the first time in season 6. She’s the lead in her own film, but she’s still traumatized by what happened on the set of Philbert last season. It’s reached the point where she’s hypersensitive about anything even vaguely surprising happening on set, and when, in a moment of improvisation, her costar holds her by the neck as part of an innocuous dance move, she has a moment of panic, falls and hits her head, and ends up storming off the set while packaging it as the “modicum of respect” she’s owed as number one on the callsheet.
It’s a sort of pain and discomfort that is not her fault, that is the result of BoJack’s issues being inflicted on someone else, but when Kelsey is looking for an actress to star in the new film, Gina’s current director gives her the dreaded temperamental label. It’s mediated by other events, but however much BoJack has gotten better, his actions have made Gina’s life and her profession less secure for her, and indirectly keeps from getting a bigger break (or even, possibly, a smaller one).
But these are events that are unlikely to be seen or understood by BoJack, if he’s ever aware of them at all. It’s also no coincidence that none of the regular characters appear in the episode (outside of the intro). In many ways, “A Quick One While He’s Away” is about the ripple effects of BoJack’s behavior, occurring far outside of his immediate orbit, but still affecting people far beyond him and maybe even coming back to haunt him.
The least compelling of these is the big His Girl Friday parody of the investigative reporter pursuing the story of who was with Sarah Lynn on the night she died. While I can appreciate the specificity, accuracy, and joie de vivre of the spoof, it feels like a mismatch for what the show is trying to do with the Sarah Lynn story. There’s something poetic and ironic about Sarah Lynn’s death being the thing that convinced BoJack to start trying to get better, but which could, if his role in it is exposed by a reporter, be the thing that ultimately tears him down. The breadcrumbs that the reporters find are interesting, particularly when it seems to lead them to Penny and her family as well, but it feels more like a weird tease of things to come within this broadly comic shell than anything substantive in his own right.
But the best of the four stories is Hollyhock’s, where what starts as a story of BoJack’s actions having second order effects on people in his life turns into a story of his old misdeeds coming back to haunt him. I like how the show explores Hollyhock’s reluctance to drink given the most recent examples in her life of people out of control, something she knows is in her blood and that makes it hard for her to relax and enjoy something fun. Her interactions with Tawnie, her panic attack, and her gentle recovery from it are all endearing and well-observed and a little sweet.
The catch is that the person who helps her out of that panic attack at a college party is Pete, one of Penny’s high school classmates. The two commiserate over their mutual traumatic experiences involving alcohol, and it’s a convincingly quick bond between them. That turns more traumatic, though, when Pete starts telling Hollyhock about how “this guy” was the cause of this horrible experience, with the episode making a devastating cut right before the person in the world BoJack loves most and sees as the best reflection of himself learns what is, well, not even the worst thing about him, but something that could still shatter Hollyhock’s image of her big brother in her mind.
I like the way the episode sets all of this up, teasing out connections between these events at the periphery until they crystalize into a broader, more haunting whole. The show finds a natural way for Hollyhock to learn about one of BoJack’s worst sins, through a chance connection that is just intermediated enough to not feel contrived.
That’s the bitter irony of this one. The BoJack we’ve known and watched for five and a half seasons has made meaningful progress in getting better. He has accepted himself, learned to forgive himself, made it possible for him to help others and think of their needs before his. He has taken these lessons and these mistakes and used them to become someone who is worthy of the care and attention and affection so many people have shown him before he did anything to deserve it. He is trying to make a fresh start and to forgive himself for the things that, in the episode where we got into his head, led to him constantly calling himself a stupid piece of shit.
And just when he has that breakthrough, just when he becomes a person semi-worthy of his status and web of meaningful relationships, the ghosts of his past seem poised to emerge all at once to tear his life asunder. BoJack may be getting better, may be turning a corner, but the other people touched by his worst actions are not, are still hurting from the things he’s done, some never to recover. Even as the show implicitly lauds BoJack for his progress, it doesn't forget the lasting harm he’s done to others not so privileged or lucky to be able to recover from it. That afterimage of his own recovery, the uncertain future so many people, so many young women, will labor under, isn’t going away, and that’s the thought BoJack Horseman leaves us with, as our heroes are left on the sidelines, before at the beginning of the end.
There were essentially four stories here, two of which I liked, and two of which made me roll my eyes. So let's mix and match!
My favorite element of the episode was the scenes between Trish and her mom. The mom was the scorpion from the fable of the scorpion and the frog. You can tell she legitimately wants to connect with her daughter, that she genuinely wants a relationship with her, that she's proud of Trish, but that she can't turn off that part of her that has to sell or self-justify or manipulate. Trish's disdain was palpable, and it was frankly one of her better performances, and the mom's presence and layered depiction of her character's emotions was stellar.
I would say this show's greatest strength is how it's able to show people as simultaneously bad and still sympathetic, or at least understandable. You see it with the mom; you see it with Kilgrave, and you see it with Hogarth. Each of these people do terrible things (with differences in degree, obviously), and yet the show is neither content to write their bad behavior off as an unfortunate indiscretion, nor willing to treat them as pure unadulterated evil. Each has their own, comprehensible motivations for they do and have done, and even if that doesn't condone their actions--which is important--it explains it, which helps to make these characters feel more real and nuanced.
The reverse of this situation is the Robyn-Malcom story. I believe this was an attempt to do the same thing, to show that whatever Robyn's craziness, there's a certain fractured love beneath it that makes her far from all bad, and deserving of consolation and friendship, The problem is that she's just such an annoying character. I don't necessarily put it on the actress, but the performance is so broad, the dialogue so corny, that it's hard to buy into that type of arc, even when it's being bounced off of Malcolm, who quickly became one of my favorite characters on the show, and whose goodness and devotion to helping others despite, or perhaps because of his trauma, makes him a beacon of light in an otherwise very dark show.
And then, there's Jessica and Luke. I've just never bought into their relationship, so the fact that it was the backbone of this episode, and the emotional undercurrent of it, meant that their scenes generally fell flat to me. Luke is just a bland hunk in my book, with action moive dialogue and delivery that feels borrowed from the parodic protagonist of Team America. The scenes that are supposed to be moving or emotionally charge left me rolling my eyes, or even laughing, and the odd cinematography of the episode, with peculiar shots focused on street signs or other odd angles didn't help communicate the tone.
But then I did like the twist that Kilgrave was setting the whole thing up. When Kilgrave mockingly said the "I forgive you and I'll say it every day" line, I cracked up, because I thought that line was painfully sappy when Luke said it originally, so the reveal was a pleasant one. I appreciate Kilgrave's misguided jiltedness as what's motivating him here, and how he's attempting to twist the knife via Luke. It's a believably despicable turn from him.
And I enjoyed the fight between Luke and Jessica. Again, it didn't have as much meaning to me given that I was fairly unmoved by their relationship, but it was well-choreographed and told a story about Jessica not wanting to hurt Luke. The final shotgun blast was an intriguing finish (though come on, we know he doesn't die), even if the "do what you have to do" came off like a dry cool action hero line. But the perfect capstone to it was Jessica crying over him. I've gone back and forth on Ritter's performance here, but she absolutely sold that moment like a pro, and even as I come around on her quips as the show makes me a laugh a little more, I still prefer scenes like these where she sells the moment in her expressions and demeanor.
All-in-all, this was a mixed bag, leaning toward the positive.
The satire is hit and miss, and the hits are not really saying anything profound. Who knew social media is trash? Thanks. The first half was adequate in some ways but also unfunny. In fact I didn't didn't laugh once at the whole movie.
Second half looked better until the political commentary. It was very obvious who the bad guys would be. Yes it's the gun and money loving deniers who wear hats. Enter Perlman's character who's ''out of touch'' and says bad things. That's the level of comedy in this. Add Jonah doing his usual pathetic character and Lawrence with a snarky edgy woman. The good? Dicaprio. And considering the different elements of the movie (disaster and comedy) the tone worked.
It wasn't reasoned at all. Near the end of the movie why don't certain characters spend their time elsewhere instead of having dinner with non family? Do they have nobody else? Is Peter Isherwell's character based on Jordan Peterson? Where were the UN (isn't this a global crisis?) The days of USA saving the world in movies needs to end...
The irony is that it attacks sheep yet is for another set of sheep. It also adds to the modern era of useless social media political fighting, as people take sides. I'd like a satire to rise above this.
First, we have multiple timelines. Then, we have multiple worlds. Now, we have different versions of characters existing from separate choices that are made (i.e. Jonas). These complexities will either be absolute genius or sheer ridiculousness. And we’ll know in two episodes. Maybe.
Why does it feel like there are wayyy too many versions of Martha out there? And why does it seem like both sides (Adam and Eva) want to keep the loop going? Neither want characters to divert from their paths, and these characters repeat everything regardless — which is kind of annoying. And is anyone else disappointed that Noah isn’t playing a bigger role? He was being set up as this major antagonist.
Again, everything could come together in a remarkable way and make an impressive amount of sense. OR what seemed like a well-thought-out story over the course of three seasons could ultimately result in a whole lot of randomness, that was simply made to appear clever.
Obviously, I want things to wrap up nicely, but there’s something frustrating about a show that delivers more questions than answers. That’s been the journey of this series. So will it even matter what the destination reveals itself to be?
[8.0/10] I both like and hate what this episode’s doing.
I like and hate it at the same time because it’s yet another self-induced tragedy from BoJack. He does the softball interview with the flattering reporter. He admits to his most serious misdeeds in public, but couches them in enough talk of remorse and addiction that he comes off looking good, maybe even great.
He’s fawned over in public again. He’s waved at by adoring fans. He doesn't have to pay for coffee. In short, he’s receiving adoration and attention again, and being BoJack, he wants more. So he can’t leave well enough alone. He has to go back on the same show for a second night of admissions, and the implication is that it’s the beginning of his downfall. He just couldn’t leave well-enough alone. He had to grandstand, and it’s likely to destroy him.
It’s sad, because Bojack seemed so close to turning a corner. You’re happy for him in some ways that he’s getting a second chance to live a good life and be a good person. You hate that he shoots himself in the foot.
But there’s also a part of it that’s good. We like BoJack. We want him to succeed. He’s our protagonist and we understand him. He’s also done some terrible shit, shit that he deserves to face the music for. We know the causes of that terrible behavior are complex, but we also know that he’s hurt a lot of people, and seeing him be able to skate on by with the same “I’m sorry, I’ve changed” rhetoric that puts off Diane and Todd isn’t a good thing.
I kind of hate the way that the reporter treats Bojack. The episode sets up a Frost/Nixon-esque wake-up call from Paige to the softball reporter, to get her to play hardball, and it makes for a tense scene. Biscuits blindsides BoJack. She asks him the hardest questions one-after-another without him being able to think them through. She paints the most unflattering portrait she can. She takes certain events out of context. She picks the worst moments of his life and tries to connect them in ways that, at times, at least seem unfair. Emotionally, I hate seeing a protagonist whose struggle the audience has come to empathize with treated so brusquely.
I also hate the way BoJack responds to all of it. I hate the way he throws Sharona under the bus for Sarah Lynn’s first taste of alcohol. I hate the way he hurts Princess Carolyn by saying he never loved the women he’s been with so soon after she tells him she’s standing by him because he’s her great love. I hate the way he retreats to his old standards of minimizing and deflecting and blaming everyone but himself.
But most of all, I hate that Biscuits (and by extension, Paige) is right. It’s a stretch to say that, through the events we’ve seen at least, BoJack gets off on having power over the almost exclusively younger women he dates and pursues. It feels like revisionist history to say that’s what motivates him. And yet, it’s entirely fair to say that BoJack is someone who has power over people, many of them women, and who uses and abuses it without thinking. BoJack is not the deliberate monster that Biscuits’s interview technique paints him as, but he is, assuredly, an oblivious monster.
BoJack didn’t hurt Sarah Lynn or Princess Carolyn or Penny or Gina or others who possessed less power than he did intentionally. He did it selfishly, because he only cared about what he wanted, and didn’t consider whether and how that could override what they wanted, that however consensual some of those situations were, there we imbalances which cast a shadow over every choice he and they made, and it’s the type of imbalance that BoJack never paid heed to. The result is a score of people who’ve been hurt and broken in his wake, including the people closest to him.
BoJack seems to know, after PC’s admonition, that this is now something of a last meal for him, that the three hours before the story hits are his last chance to enjoy the admiration and respect that caused him to go back on camera before he becomes a pariah. So he goes to a comedy club where Kaz once set him up. A chance encounter lets him reflect on the joy he used to bring to people. And he goes up in front of people and makes them laugh, able to appear like this in public, unencumbered and even loved, for what may be the last time.
It’s a tough pill to swallow. But I like it for the same reason that Diane seems to. When presented with this list of misdeeds, this pattern of taking advantage of his power whether he knows it or not, of the outline of the person his actions have created, Biscuits asks if it fits him. BoJack says yes. For all his deflection, for all his ill-conceived, on-the-spot arguments to the contrary, for once he says that however much he may quibble with the details and claim that he’s turned the page, that picture she paints is assuredly of him.
There’s an irony there. The BoJack we see is, perhaps, truly different, willing to accept responsibility and capable of understanding the types of harms he’s caused to the point that he will internalize and publicly acknowledge them. Diane’s raised eyebrow signifies that this is a man (er, horse) who has genuinely changed, genuinely accepted what he’s done and more importantly, who he was and is. And yet, the thing that finally raises him in the esteem of one of his closest friends, may also be the thing that utterly sinks him as a public figure.
I love that and I hate it. I love it because it’s a marriage of true, hard-fought change emerging, with the attendant costs that make it earned. And I hate it because however Biscuits may caricature the picture in places, the one she sketches of BoJack is accurate, and it’s hard to look at, for BoJack and for us, however much he’s earned this comeuppance with bad decisions past and recent.
Death is the only way.
Awesome episode. I thought these last two episodes were both going to be the climax but there's definitely more set-up here, which is fine...but if there's one thing I had to complain about this season, it is that half of it is build up. Having said that, this episode was really great and we did get a literal climax of one character, the likable Rahul Nadeem who sacrificed himself for his family, killed by the barrel of Dex's arguably naive obedience. Jay Ali did really well playing Nadeem, especially in this episode. There's one last ambitious grasp for hope when Nadeem tries to tell Dex that Fisk is manipulating him but Dex doesn't buy any of it, and it seems like he and his growing danger will be a huge part of the finale.
This all happened because of Vanessa, who requested for his death (although Fisk would've asked for the same). When she arrived at the beginning of the episode, I had a strong suspicion she had returned as a spy to get information out of Fisk, and especially later on when she is pushing Fisk to tell her the truth about his violent secrets, but clearly not after that evil decision from her.
The only way to stop Fisk now is to kill him, and Matt knows it.
I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend this show to people and especially not to people who have a hard time with teenagers and drama, but personally I thought it was entertaining. I wouldn't call it high quality or unique, but it did surprise me positively. The first two episodes were kind of slow and lacking something, but from episode 3 on something clicked for me and I enjoyed it.
So all in all I was surprised by a few things and ended up enjoying it and I'm looking forward to an announcement for season 2 :)
[9.5/10] Pretty damned amazing. This episode was part-Birdman (obviously) and part-“The Zeppo”, while still being infused with the insane spirit of this show. There were so many incredible little setups and payoffs to this one, from little bits like Frank painting himself black leading to the carbon monoxide fake out, to Mac moaning into the vents to scare off the health inspector from a particular toilet, to the setup for Dee’s stool to break apart. This was an absolutely clockwork episode, and it was orchestrated beautifully.
Even beyond the formal audaciousness of imitating Birdman’s style (which was masterful), I love that the story focus of this one was on Charlie being a savant, keeping the bar running, while, as usual, being taken for granted and demeaned by the rest of The Gang. It’d be too much to say that there’s hidden depths to Charlie, but in later seasons at least, we’ve gotten glimpses of some greater talents from him, and it’s amusing and entertaining to see them given the spotlight like this.
There’s a real sense of controlled chaos to this one, not just in how Charlie directs his various woebegotten bar-mates while working in his element, but also in the show itself managing to pull off this wild endeavor and keep everything moving in sync as needed through the episode. This is one hell of an achievement, and a particularly impressive and creative one for a show in the middle of its tenth season.
Overall, this is a tour-de-force, and easily the most ambitious thing IASIP has ever done.
So right off the bat... As a movie, this is pretty shit. Maybe a 6.5/10 overall if you had to rate it honestly.
It's mildly funny, predictable, overacted, arrogantly and self-righteously American.
But that's not what the sum of the parts is.... That is exactly what it is trying to be.
What you have here is a searing indictment of modern humanity. Self-obsessed, intellectually inept, molly-coddled Americans who - when faced with the end of the world - decide to turn it into a political battleground, attempt to milk it for profit, hand it over to sociopathic billionaire industrialists as the government officials are too incapable to handle the situation, who ultimately pay the price for their decisions.
It's a sadly accurate depiction of where the West stands at the moment. Crippled by 40 years of mind-numbing entertainment that has depleted our intelligence, our ability for critical thought and common sense.
I wouldn't rewatch this if you paid me. And it is 30 minutes too long. But it is the most realistic holding up of a mirror to society as I have seen in a decade.
The most reasoned and insightful view of how messed up we are as nations today is coming from satirical comedy. Just as it always has.
7.5/10
I take back everything I said before.
Yeah, things were mega-ultra-frustratingly-complicated, but this finale makes up for it all. It cleans up the mess with a clear-cut answer: these two worlds of wild connections and repeats were the product of one genius simply wanting his family back. And — ultimately — he succeeded! With a little help from our cast of characters, particularly Jonas, Martha, and Claudia (the kween who truly figured it all out).
This final episode was beautiful. I loved the lighting effects. I loved the final “dissolving” moments with all of our characters realizing the knot was untied. The moment with Jonas and Martha saving the family from the car wreck was incredibly heartwarming, as was the family’s reunion with Tannhaus. I loved how the colors were so much brighter in the origin world... the real world. It just all came together very well.
But who was that older man in the photo with Claudia and Regina? Egon? And what were they toasting Regina for? And what happened to Wöller last summer?!
It was also great to see everyone happy at the dinner table! And to see Peter living his best true life!! It dawned on me that the Nielsens never existed in the real world (good luck wrapping your brain around that if you haven’t yet). I’m sure that there’s so much more I didn’t pick up on! Perhaps this show was smarter than I ever gave it credit for.
The journey was confusing for sure, but when is time travel not? I’m officially giving ‘Dark’ all the praises. Kudos!
So I just watched "Gone Girl" and it was pretty fantastic. I'm not gonna say too much about the movie's plot because it is something that can be spoiled but it was delivered extremely well the characters were unique, fleshed out and very entertaining.
The soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross was amazing as usual. The right songs were used in the right scenes making certain parts of the movie extremely intense and extremely disturbing, it was all incredibly well paced and I didn't even feel that it was two and a half hours I just wanted to keep going. It was refreshing to hear such professional sound mixing where everything seemed to be at the right level but the characters were still audible and could easily be understood.
All of the actors were great and Tyler Perry's inclusion did not destroy the movie for me at all. Despite how horrible of a director Tyler Perry is, it looks like David Fincher was a good enough director to be able to direct him to act well. Anyway Tyler Perry did not ruin the movie for me and to give credit where credit is due he did play his role very well granted the script wasn't written in a way that called for him to shine but he did fit his character.
The meticulous direction that David Fincher has over as actors is shown quite well in this movie. Many directors would have their actors merely pretending to text when their hands are off screen but in this film you can see actions like those subtly shown through the reflection of characters glasses. It never shoves that in your face doing a close up saying "Hey look do you see this extra detail I put in?" But rather lets you pick up on those things yourself and adds an extra layer of immersion into the film.
When the characters look like they're doing things that are just for the sake of the camera paying attention it helps us believe in the world we're seeing. I'm happy to say that a lot of care and effort was put into this film the story is pretty straightforward and I don't think it's something that I'll have to watch a second time to pick up more details but in my opinion it was riveting. The only real personal issue that I have with this movie is that I found myself yelling in my head at certain characters that should be doing things differently.
But otherwise the story was daring and absolutely fantastic.
Wow. They actually ended it on the last panel of ch. 116!!! They basically didn't show you guys anything, yet. Damn, that's just brutal.
But also hilarious. I was sure that in order to put all the important info from 2 chapters they would have to cut some small stuff for good. But nope! Not even the smallest thing was cut from the manga... except for the panels revealing what happened to Levi and Zeke afterwards. Which I assume everyone wanted to see the most)
Brilliant move. Instead of 1 cliffhanger this way they got 3 cliffhangers for anime fans.
I freaking loved the Passing. And to be fair they archived it thanks to cutting two major plot points from the manga. They probably gonna start Part 2 with Levi and Zeke scenes. There is just no way around it. They have to show it eventually.. Oh and the dialogues this episode all hitted the right note except for infodump between Pixies and Yelena.
I can't believe that Porco was shown in the manga too before Jaw appears and I didn't notice him back then. Too be fair it wasn't as in your face as in the anime. But still https://official-complete-2.eorzea.us/manga/Shingeki-No-Kyojin/0116-027.png
Eren vs Pieck - their whole interaction couldn't have been done better.
"Show us. Where's the enemy? There. - I was waiting for this scene. It was perfect.
https://official-complete-2.eorzea.us/manga/Shingeki-No-Kyojin/0116-034.png
Anime fans in week or two manga will officially end. So spoilers would be everywhere. Be careful. And goodluck!
To summarize part 1 of Season 4:
Blessing in disguise. Characters, their mindset and themes were handled right. Marley's arc in particular. Manga had more gradual reveal of some plot points, but I'm not sure that in the end Zeke's plan suffered from it for example. Cuts and rearrangements worked most of the times. Especially in episodes like Children of the Forest as well done set up. Hell, Gabi and Falco focused chapter was almost unbearable to read through. But with some small tweaks to timeline and pushed around storylines Gabi and Falco focused episode was actually enjoyable in the anime.
They managed to get passing under control and let scenes breath after 4 or so episode.
Action did suffered. Well, Levi action scenes suffered alot in my opinion the rest was decent to good. Certainly not worst than Eren vs Reiner in season 3 I'm not a fan of soft retcon with the Ackermans. Purpose of it just seems unclear in regards to the future storyline changes. Oh and there is definitely moments where animation felt way off. Not even season 3 had this many derp faces)
Ok, so Part 1 covered 25 chapters in 16 episodes. Only 22 chapters left. Here's hoping that it would give us at least 14 episodes. That would be ideal passing. Apparently Part 2 would came out around January 2022.
p.s. I can't believe that final chapter will drop in like a week. Hope, it won't dissapoint.
I'm a bit sad the show is over but I'm not that glad about this series finale.
1- If the plan was to kill Stefan just so he could be the hero of the day, there were other ways.. That whole Redemption thing.. I'm kinda surprised it didn't say on his grave that "He died as a Martyr, like he has ALWAYS wanted".
2- To me the whole Caroline/Stefan pairing has been made just because they were both lonely when Elena chose Damon. At the end of season 4, the plan was for her to live her life with Klaus, not go and marry Stefan. (Klaus: "He's your 1st love, I'm your forever")
Plus this ending kinda made it look like as if Kathetine got what she wanted in the end (Stefan 'choosing ' her).
3- Bonnie is a freaking witch. She saved the town but couldn't save Stefan...?
Also, neither the other side or hell still exist so why all those dead people kept coming back at the end.
And yeah. Jeremy... Not cool! We haven't seen him in a ages and nothing. No reunion, nothing on his life.. Not cool.
4- The past 3 episodes didn't make any sense tbh and we're a bit disrespectful. I mean come on, we've watched 8 seasons of this show!!!!
