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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 15, 2020 11:07:49 GMT 1
Was it the first season that you watched, President Ackbar, or are you already ahead of me and watching Season 2 as it airs? I myself will have to wait until it's out on DVD/Blu-ray where I am to see it. I actually watched the first season earlier this year (in July, according to the time stamp of when I posted my review for it). Please feel free to read my review if you wish. I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts on the first season were (all I ask is that if you read my thoughts on it and find yourself shaking your head in disagreement with my thoughts...please take it easy on me. I'm well aware my opinions on shows/movies are oftentimes the 'unpopular' ones, so I imagine we may well disagree on our opinions of this show and its characters - that's totally fine...so long as we can disagree civilly ). Just finished Season 1 of The Boys on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}In the first episode, I immediately saw the parallels between these characters and other famous comic book characters. Homelander = a cross between Captain America and Superman (but...you know... evil) Queen Maeve = Wonder Woman (with a bit of Xena mixed in) A-Train = The Flash The Deep = Aquaman I just wasn't sure who Starlight's, Black Noir's and Translucent's other comic book character counterparts were. I knew going into this that the 'superheroes' were not going to be what one typically expected superheroes to be like, and boy...they certainly weren't. It wasn't long before Hughie's girlfriend, Robin, was exploded by A-Train super-speeding right through her. I'd heard about this, so it didn't have quite as much impact as it probably would've had I not been spoiled for it (especially the slow-motion part of it after it appeared she'd blinked out of existence). So, straight away A-Train established himself as more an A- hole than anything, as he barely seemed to care about this innocent woman's life he'd snuffed out and the impact it had on Hughie. I've seen quite a few characters in shows introduced as jerks/a-holes and it's often hard for me to have my opinion of them changed since they made such a bad first impression...this instance was no exception. Nothing I saw in the rest of the season altered my view of A-Train as a supremely a-holish person. Next on my 'shit list' was The Deep (hi, Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl, I wasn't sure it was you to begin with and had to wait until the end credits to check). He acted nice to Annie/Starlight to begin with, but it wasn't too long before he was dropping his pants and pretty much forcing her to give him a bj or he'd make sure she was no longer in The Seven and would ruin her life/any career prospects. Although they didn't actually show the act (which I was thankful for), it was pretty clear she had to go through with it. This immediately made me feel sorry for her and she seemed like the only decent character in the show. I guess one could argue Hughie started off 'decent' as well, but he was kind of a sad-sack (though, to be fair, he had reason to be after what he'd gone through), but even he managed to go 'dark' as the season went on. I didn't really get to know much about Queen Maeve or Black Noir in the first episode, sadly. All I really noted about Karl Urban's character, Billy Butcher, was that he had to explain what he meant by 'boot', his accent (which sounded like Urban's natural Kiwi accent some of the time, but at other times sounded like he was trying to be Dick Van Dyke as Bert in Mary Poppins) and the fact that he had a bad habit of dropping c-bombs at regular intervals (and I'd thought Pennyworth featured a lot of c-bombs. That was NOTHING compared to this show, as there were at least five per episode, if not more, I'd estimate). I didn't know Simon Pegg was going to be guest-starring in this as Hughie's dad (after looking at pictures of the comic book version of Hughie, I saw how closely he resembled Pegg, but I guess they wanted the character in the show to be younger, so this was their way of giving a nod to the uncanny resemblance while casting a more age-appropriate actor for the part. Having said that, I didn't get that they were father and son to begin with. They looked more like brothers to me. The actor playing Hughie, Dennis Quaid's son, looked too old to be the son of Simon Pegg). I also didn't know beforehand that Elisabeth Shue was in this, so that was a surprise as well. In the second episode, Karl Urban's accent seemed to lean more towards a British cockney accent than his natural New Zealand accent (though at times that still slipped through). It was interesting seeing the 'PR' side of things, with prearranged team-ups, etc. Though I HATED the actress who played the Vought publicist and Starlight's agent, Ashley. I hated her in Jessica Jones (where she played a character named Robyn, which was why I noted the name of Hughie's girlfriend in this show, since she was also named that...though with different spelling. I think I'll forever associate the name with that loathsome character in Jessica Jones and this actress who played her), as she almost ruined that show's first season for me she was so annoying, and she just has one of those very punchable faces, so every time she was onscreen in this show I was irritated and hoped she'd be offed. No such luck, unfortunately. When The Deep was whining to Starlight about how he was only called on when there was 'trouble at a dock. Or a river, or a lake, canal. A jetty.', it immediately reminded me of Knightboat: The Crime Solving Boat from The Simpsons and how there was always an 'inlet or a canal or a fjord' as a means of escape. I was glad to see Starlight stand up to The Deep and threaten to burn his eyes out for what he'd done to her (it became quite clear that although he 'acted big' in the first episode, he was just as much of a walking fish joke as Aquaman's always presented in everything but the Jason Momoa film). Homelander also threatened him. Speaking of, my brain could not compute that this was Antony Starr aka Lucas Hood (or, more accurately, Not!Lucas Hood) from the TV series Banshee. I didn't recognise him in the first episode without his facial hair from that other show, though I did feel there was something familiar about him. It wasn't until I saw the end credits and recognised his name that I realised. He deserves kudos for playing this 'hero' who, on the surface, appears as sincere a 'good guy' as Christopher Reeve's Superman and Chris Evans' Captain America, but underneath that persona he presents to the public, he's actually a sociopath and quite evil. Considering all the powers at his disposal, that combined with his threatening manner equaled one scary dude. I never knew if/when he was going to zap someone with his laser eyes or something else equally horrible. I was annoyed that Maeve still barely had anything to do/say, but was glad to see Translucent meet a sticky end, as he'd annoyed me and I was hoping he was dead after the first episode. It was weird that no one had thought prior to this about how someone with invulnerable skin wouldn't necessarily have invulnerable insides as well. I mean, this is the first thing that occurs to me whenever I see anything with characters who have super-tough skin. I figured they'd just trick him into drinking an explosive or whatever, but they explained why they had to knock him out and insert it rectally (because he might've vomited up anything they fed him). Anyway, I was virtually saying out loud to the screen, "Come on, Hughie, kill him already!" as he wavered a bit, before finally going through with it. I may have cheered. I was also happy to see Starlight beating up those guys to save that woman from being raped. Unlike most of the other heroes, she was actually using her powers for good. Unfortunately, it got her into trouble with her extremely annoying agent. The third episode began with shoveling up Translucent bits. The only time I liked Homelander was him telling Elisabeth Shue's character, Stillwell, to turn off her kid/make it stop (even though she pointed out that it wasn't crying, it was still making annoying noises, so I understood where Homelander was coming from in that instance). The woman who Starlight saved last episode came forward, so she was no longer in trouble for not consulting her extremely annoying agent about the save she made...but she was made to wear a skimpy outfit. Stillwell basically forced her into it, saying she'd be out of The Seven if she didn't (there seems to be a lot of that type of threatening by the characters towards poor Starlight ). A-Train’s girlfriend, Popclaw, appeared to have one of Wolverine's original bone claws in each arm. She also reminded me of Marrow from the X-Men comics. A-Train showed how little he regarded 'mere humans', as he didn't seem to recognise Hughie (who was barely containing his rage when coming face to face with his girlfriend's killer). It was funny seeing the actor who played Rufus in the TV series Timeless (which I just finished rewatching on Blu-ray earlier this year) appear here in what seemed like a 'bit part' (though he was featured more in later episodes). I guess since Timeless was a show from Eric Kripke (the man behind Supernatural) and this one was too, he wasn't above 'reusing' actors. It also took me until this third episode to realise where I'd seen the actress playing Queen Maeve from previously. She was in The Astronaut Wives Club, which I'd watched when it was on TV. She looked quite a bit different here, which is why it took me so long to 'place' her. Once we learned that Maeve had a thing with Homelander, I was immediately worried for her on account of the fact that he was always threatening-sounding (even with her) and him nonchalantly shooting her after killing a guy who'd been shooting at them. He cared more about his glove that got bloody from the sucking chest wound he'd punched in the dude. Clearly she wasn't totally on board with him killing the shooter. It was interesting that we learned Homelander couldn't see through zinc. Here's hoping this proves useful in eventually defeating him at some point. I really couldn't have cared less about A-Train and his racing woes or druggie habits. The only real thing of note was that he was apparently 'high' when he ran through Hughie's girlfriend. That didn't excuse what he did, of course. I hope that wasn't supposed to 'let him off the hook' in any way. It'd be like excusing a drunk driver who killed someone. Meanwhile, his girlfriend crushed a guy's face from sitting on it after having taken the same Compound V stuff he was on (I knew that part was coming, thankfully, so was able to find something else worth looking at when that moment occurred). Again I felt sorry for Starlight when she took a photo with a kid fan who was dressed in a replica of Starlight's old outfit and the girl revealed she was saving up to get an outfit just like Starlight's new one. Some dude yelled out for Starlight to show her boobs and after that kind of 'ruined' the photograph session, she told the girl to save her money. I can't say I was too sad to see how The Deep was treated by Homelander given how he'd treated Starlight, but I was amused when it was mentioned that The Deep's 'friend' (a porpoise) found the Translucent bits. The fourth episode showed just how evil Homelander could be, as he purposely let people on a plane die rather than rescue any of them. Maeve showed she at least had some humanity, as she firstly wanted him to fly people down to safety (which let us know that she couldn't fly herself), but obviously Homelander thought that would take too long/too much effort, then she wanted him to at least save a mother and her young daughter...but he wouldn't even agree to that. In the end he gave her a choice to either crash with them or go with him. This was a particularly 'dark' moment (one might argue even 'darker' than the more gory moments, as this involved people begging to be saved and Homelander dismissing them/threatening them with his laser eyes). I will admit, though, that I found it morbidly amusing when he was reassuring them everything was fine as they were panicking after they’d been so relieved at his saving them (though they did witness him zap one guy dead). They'd applauded Maeve too. It was so close to being a 'happy' moment at the start, but then it all went to hell in no time. Meanwhile, The Deep wasn't exactly having a 'fun' time either, as he wanted to help dolphins at Oceanland after talking to his therapist about being the fish joke guy. It was funny seeing him driving and the dolphin in the back, talking to him/wanting him to touch...something, but then he slammed on the brakes and the poor dolphin (who'd looked/been acting so happy) went flying through the windscreen (in slow-mo, no less) and out onto road where it got run over by a semi. That^ was a pretty sad moment, and I almost felt sorry for The Deep since he seemed to genuinely care about the dolphin...but then reminded myself what he did to Starlight and he immediately lost my sympathy. I just felt sorry for the poor dolphin. I hate any sort of harm coming to an animal, so this^ was a bit much. It wasn't enough it went through the windscreen and onto the road. No, it had to get SQUISHED as well. I don't see the 'funny' in animal cruelty. Something that was funny, though: Butcher’s Spice Girls analogy that he used in an effort to keep his gang together (which then led into their song 'Wannabe' that played as The Deep was attempting to rescue the dolphin). The only one having a half-decent time was Hughie, who went on a date with Starlight. At first she seemed like a bad bowler, but it turned out that she wasn't really, after revealing that she'd held back on her bowling expertise because a guy she was with stopped talking to her after she beat up a dude and he apparently couldn't handle her being stronger than him. Hughie suspected her of not being the nicest person in the world (all evidence to the contrary) and was being haunted by his dead girlfriend. Like with the show trying to make us feel sympathy for The Deep by showing him caring about animals, it seemed they were also trying to make us think that A-Train really cared about his girlfriend (shame he didn't care about anyone else's). We were introduced to The Female aka Kimiko, who had been locked up but was freed by one of Butcher's team (Frenchie - who I had trouble understanding half the time) and she killed a bunch of people violently. Elsewhere, Homelander was putting a spin on the tragedy of the crashed plane by saying it never would've happened if The Seven were allowed into the military. The fifth episode illustrated that A-Train apparently didn't care about his girlfriend after all, since he super-sped two needles into her arms, causing her to overdose after he'd found out about her taking Compound V and talking with Butcher. So A-Train's apparently an equal opportunity girlfriend-killer (not just other people's girlfriends, but also his own). I can't say I really appreciated this episode's heavy-handedness with the whole Anti-Christian stuff (especially from Butcher). The only one who I was able to tolerate at the Believe Expo was Starlight (who got to wear her old/less reveal-y outfit again). As part of her speech, she mentioned what was really 'immoral' was what The Deep did to her. Of course, she didn't mention him by name, but everything else she put right out there...and good on her! Hopefully it got through to The Deep, who was watching at home, stuffing his face after the dolphin incident. Starlight wasn't the only one who went 'off script', though. Homelander did as well (though maybe not quite so much). Later on when Homerlander was lying on Stillwell’s lap, it was looking like he was going to suck on her boob or something...but, thankfully, only did that to her fingers (still, ew). On top of Homelander's creepy relationship with Stillwell, we also learned about baby Supes and how they were created, not born (as they'd been led to believe they were). I knew, long before watching this show, about Butcher using the Supe baby to slice and dice through guys with its laser eyes. Someone else who almost got cut in half was Kimiko (by Black Noir, who finally did something noteworthy), but then she healed. I was so glad that in the sixth episode we finally got to say goodbye to Starlight's horrible agent (though, sadly, she wasn't offed). Buh-bye, bitch! She said she was glad she didn’t have to kiss Starlight’s arse anymore, while I was just glad I didn't have to see her punchable face anymore. Starlight stood up to Stillwell, The Deep had to ‘fess up to what he did to Starlight (though he spun it that he perceived it as 'consensual') and was basically sent into exile/banished, Maeve apologised to Starlight...but that was about it (more Maeve, damn it!), we learned that Homelander raped Butcher's wife, Butcher made it clear to Hughie that he thought Starlight was just like the rest of The Seven (if only he'd known what was done to her by The Deep, maybe he'd have had a little sympathy after what happened to his wife...then again, Butcher only seemed to care about himself and his own problems, so maybe it wouldn't have made any difference after all) and threatened Hughie if Starlight found out about Translucent's death. I was amused by the Tara Reid and Billy Zane cameos at the convention, and this is the second show I've recently seen grown-up Haley Joel Osment in (the other was Future Man, which I was watching on TV). I don't think I'd seen him in anything since I watched A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) on TV years ago, so it was quite the 'jump' to go from last seeing him as his kid self to seeing him as an adult. He still looks like himself (just now with a beard). The seventh episode started with a flashback to Butcher (minus his facial hair, but with as much of a potty mouth as ever) and his wife, Becca, meeting Homelander. It wasn't until this episode, when we got a better look at her, that I recognised the actress playing Butcher's wife as Shantel VanSanten. She appeared in Season 2 of The Flash as Patty Spivot and was another actress from the TV show Timeless (she appeared in the very first episode as a lookalike of Wyatt's dead wife). The meeting that Homelander had with The Seven Five was filled with tension, I thought. He was his usual threatening self and I kept expecting him to do something bad. The only one he complimented was Black Noir (who we actually see doing very little most of the time). In this scene Starlight found out about Hughie and Butcher, everyone learned about Starlight and Hughie being together, A-Train got mad at Starlight while Maeve was sticking up for her. Later they chatted and had a martini. When A-Train was threatening Hughie’s dad, broken up about his girlfriend's death, all I could think was what an a-hole he was, since it was him who killed her. Of course, he had to place the blame on someone else since he was incapable of accepting responsibility (both for her death and for killing Hughie's girlfriend). I was somewhat amused by The Deep being stuck living somewhere he deemed 'beneath' him. Even more amusing was Air Supply's 'All Out of Love' playing as he struggled to write his ‘Deeper: A Memoir’ (I'll forever associate that song with Dean Winchester singing along to it in an episode of Supernatural) and then him going shopping at the local grocery store and chatting with a lobster who he promised to free. Less amusing was the lobster being killed before he had a chance to stop the guy from doing it. The show is trying really hard to make us feel for The Deep. I feel for the animals. Butcher killed Haley Joel Osment's character, Mesmer, while Homelander went to see a guy (played by the actor who was Carmine Falcone in Gotham) who lab tested him and this was, I guess, supposed to 'explain' Homelander's evilness. I was just mainly worried about the dogs the guy was breeding and whether Homelander was going to do something horrible to them. Hughie basically admitted to Starlight he was using her to get to A-Train (after earlier she'd asked him if he they went to a hotel because he was trying to do 'nice things' before up and leaving her like her father did). She wanted to take him to the cops, but Butcher shot her a couple times as they fled - which made me dislike Butcher (who I noticed didn't seem to utter as many c-bombs this episode as he usually did. Or maybe I just somehow missed hearing them) and Hughie (for just leaving Starlight like that) more than I already did. On the 'plus' side, Kimiko broke A-Train's leg - complete with bone sticking through (usually I'd be grossed out, but he totally deserved that). We also learned there were Supe terrorists out there. In the eighth episode/season final, we began with Homelander zapping/slicing through guys. I did not watch him crush one guy's head with his foot (after it became clear that was what he was about to do). It showed how horribly efficient Homelander was at taking out enemies. He also uttered his line to the guys he helped out about how they were the 'real heroes' (which he liked to do when in public). Turns out Homelander helped create supervillains (which just seemed unwise to me, as although it ensures The Seven will be needed and let into the military like they've wanted all this time, it also means there'll be other Supes out there who could possibly give Homelander a run for his money. I mean, how does he know there won't be anyone else more powerful than him? Even if there isn't, they could all gang up on him). Although I think Mother's Milk has got to be THE MOST STUPID NAME EVER for a character, I did like him helping out Hughie by pointing out to Butcher that Starlight didn’t know him, and since he got 'burned' along with the rest of them, she couldn't be to blame for it. A-Train was his usual a-holish self when he wasn't immediately recognised in a store while on crutches and cursed at everyone. Later he was pulling a train to strengthen himself and he even managed to piss off his trainer or whoever the guy was who hightailed it out of there after even he had had enough of A-train's BS. Losing friends and alienating people - that's A-Train. Starlight had a talk with her mum about what happened to her as a kid (after Hughie had filled her in). She learned she wasn't 'chosen', but just 'made' and her mum was basically like a lot of pageant mums, making it all about her and giving Starlight no choice really (which she'd already had taken away from her by The Deep, Stillwell, etc). It made sense why she then 'rebelled' by wearing her skimpy outfit once again (after getting a reprieve from it at the Believe Expo) and was looking to hook up with random dudes and other stuff until Maeve had a chat with her in the bathroom, telling her to just being her 'goody two-shoes' self. I liked seeing scenes between these two. I wished we could've gotten more (and just more Maeve in general, really). As Black Noir played the piano, we met Giancarlo Esposito's headhoncho character. Mr. Edgar (who was apparently the boss of The Seven and seemed to intimidate them by just his name being mentioned). Elsewhere, Butcher referred to his guys as ‘the boys’, which finally made the show's title make sense (he also made up for his lack of c-bombs last episode by dropping plenty of them in this one) but abandoned them, while Hughie wanted to help them. Homelander learned last episode that Butcher’s wife had his kid, but they supposedly died (her from it tearing itself out, and it after only a short while being alive). However, after more creepy stuff between him and Stillwell, she promised to not lie to him anymore and then proceeded to lie about Butcher's wife dying in childbirth. Starlight showed up to help the boys. I enjoyed seeing her living up to her name and going all 'starlight-y', glowing and sending sparks everywhere. When A-Train showed up, I was hoping she'd manage to take him out. Unfortunately, he shoved Starlight away (after we cut to slow-mo) and was his a-holish self once again (blaming everyone else for his problems while accepting no real responsibility or feeling guilty for his own actions), putting Popclaw's death all on Hughie...but then he suddenly suffered a heart attack. This would've been GREAT...except then, for some reason, Hughie felt compelled to save his girlfriend's killer who he'd been wanting to kill himself all this time (and he'd proven he was capable, after offing Translucent). I was with Starlight, and it was a bit rich for Hughie to expect her to take over saving A-train while he escaped (after what the a-hole had just done to her). When Butcher was waiting at Stillwell’s place in the dark, it immediately made me think "How long has he been sitting there waiting?". I always wonder this whenever a character dramatically waits in the dark for someone to return home. What if he'd been waiting a while and had to go take a leak just as she returned home? That would've totally ruined his dramatic revealing of himself to her. He'd found out she was supposedly Homelander's 'weakness' and thus strapped explosives to her, but as Homelander pointed out to him...it wasn't much of a plan. Everything Homelander said to Butcher (about his lack of plan and him not even making 100% sure he'd killed Butchers wife) was the truth. I wondered what the point of Homelander bringing Stillwell's kid down into the room was, but in the end all he really wanted was a confession out of her that she was afraid of him (after letting her know he'd caught her in her lie earlier on). He then proceeded to laser beam her in the face, burning through her eyes and a good percentage of her skull. I guess with Mr. Edgar being introduced, the show had no further 'need' for her character. So long, Elisabeth Shue. It was nice to see you again after having not really seen you in much for quite a long time. Apparently Butcher figured he was screwed (or that he had nothing left to live for), as he set the explosives off once he no longer had any 'leverage' over Homelander. He then woke up on a lawn and it was 'revealed' (not that it was that surprising really) Homelander's son was alive and living with his mum/Butcher's wife who was also still alive. I'm not sure where they're going with all this next season, but it should be interesting. The thing that made the least sense this episode? The Deep shaving all his hair after having had a girl stick her fingers in his gills (which were in a sensitive area). I guess now he knows what it feels like to be sexually assaulted/have someone do something to him he didn't want to happen (just like what he put Starlight through). So, has he finally had enough of living on land and is going to start a new life under the sea? While I could've done without the constant c-bombs and excessive violence, I knew what I was getting into when I started this show. It seemed others, however, did not. I liked the show in spite of those things rather than because of them. Starlight was easily my favourite. Erin Moriarty was easily likable as her character and I'm not sure if I would've liked the show much if she wasn't in it. The opposite of that was Homelander, who was most definitely a character I didn't 'like'. Nevertheless, I did find him interesting (and quite unsettling at times). Antony Starr was really good in the role. I've already mentioned a few times how I would've liked to have seen more of Maeve. I really wanted to get to know her character, but she seemed underused in this first season. I hope they rectify that in Season 2. Speaking of the second season, I just checked out the teaser trailer for it. As well as this clip featuring the introduction of a new character named Stormfront played by Aya Cash (I'm SO pleased to see she's joining this show, as she was excellent in You're the Worst. So much so that I watched that series TWICE in a row).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 15, 2020 11:10:17 GMT 1
{Spoiler}Just watched Episode 27 from Season 2 of Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie (aka Agatha Christie's Criminal Games) titled 'Un cadavre au petit déjeuner'...which, sadly, looks to be the final one we'll be getting for some time. I'm not sure if it'll be back, but I recall stumbling upon some photos of an entirely different trio of main characters to what we had in this season and I'm guessing they'll end up being replacements? I'm not entirely sure what's going on with the show, but this (for all intents and purposes) last episode decided to go out with a bang...and by that I mean a musical episode. I didn't realise that was what it was going to be to start with, but soon it became clear when Marlène suddenly burst into song. Unfortunately I don't speak French, and so I have no idea how well the lyrics for each song fit with the tunes that accompanied them. Yes, as always there were subtitles, but it's different hearing a song in a language you don't speak. Anyway, all I could really judge each song on was how catchy the tune and how memorable the lyrics were. I can't say that I now find myself humming any of the songs from the episode, but there were some that were pleasant enough to listen to (others...not so much). What was worth noting in the songs was some of the lyrics, which were quite hilarious. This show has always been 'quirky' (but endearingly so), though it has caught me slightly off guard at times with how nasty Laurence could be to not only Alice, but also Marlène on occasion. Thankfully, Alice has always been the sort of character to call him out on his horribleness and give as good as she got (with Marlène, she didn't quite do that...though it was good to see her stand up to him more in this later part of Season 2). Anyway, the fact that Laurence and Avril got to sing their usual animosity towards each other was made more amusing with some of the lyrics they were singing. I can't recall any other musicals I've watched where characters sang insults at each other (and not just mild jabs either, but quite personal/nasty stuff), At one point Alice sang at him, "Stick it up your arse, you old fart." which amused me (Alice actually got what I thought was the majority of funny lyrics to sing. I recall when she and Marlène were singing about love, Alice had a very different opinion of the subject to Marlène, comparing it to rolling over and farting in bed (at least I think that's what she said. It's a bit hard to remember the lyrics from the songs word for word). One thing that's always struck me about this show is how it'd probably be branded "un-PC" by a lot of people, but it manages to remain charming nonetheless. The most enjoyable characters are Marlène and Alice Avril. Swan Laurence is a bit hard to like given the way he treats the both of them, but the three of them together are quite the trio. Although I didn't watch the show from the very beginning and missed quite a few episodes from this second season, I did catch the very first episode via YouTube and after watching that one a while ago it became apparent that Marlène's feelings for the Superintendent were there from the very beginning. It was love at first sight for Marlène, apparently (though one has to wonder what she ever saw in the jerk). She not only got to sing her feelings about him at the start of the episode, by the even got a song and dance number together later on (how nice of Laurence to sing about all the things Marlène did which he found annoying but he was going to miss, since he was leaving for a new job in America - a little piece of information he neglected to mention to either her or Alice and they had to find out from other source, just in case it wasn't clear how much of a thoughtless ass he is). We were also treated to Alice's amusing songs about how lousy her luck is with men (especially since she woke up in this episode next to a corpse). I'd like to mention the addition of the coroner, Tim Glissant, was a welcome, as he added a different dynamic between the three main characters. It was also good to get to see Tricard involved more, as he'd seemed to be mostly there to lust after Marlène and be the butt of jokes. I actually felt sorry for him at times. It was nice seeing all of them sing together towards the end (one thing particularly funny about Laurence during the musical numbers was how at first he'd not seem that into it, then suddenly would get into it). The last musical number was a fine one to end on. It was certainly visually interesting. Since she'd been raised in an orphanage, Alice had wondered about her parents and earlier this season a case conveniently led to her reuniting with her mother...but, sadly, that time together didn't last and she died. So it was nice that Alice was reunited with her father in this final episode (again, thanks to convenience/the case causing her to cross paths with him and he actually survived. A bonus was that Alice had access to a private plane and after Laurence was going to leave for America with some floozy, he changed his mind and walked off arm in arm with Alice and Marlène after they enticed him with the private jet. I wasn't that surprised to see the three end the episode together (the show never could seem to make up its mind who he would/should end up with...but I spent the entire season thinking both women were way too good for him and should've gotten together themselves. Hell, there's even a 'ship' name for them - Marlice). What WAS surprising was the very end of the show with them realising they were having the classic old-style closing of an episode with the 'iris-out' (where a black circle closes to end a scene) and how they turned around seemingly in horror at the idea that this would be the last we the audience would see of them, then they attempted to prevent the circle from closing and that's where there was a freeze-frame and the episode finished (an extra bonus I noticed in the latter half of Season 2 was end credits accompanied by 'outtakes' from the episode, showing the castmembers filming, flubbing lines, etc). I must say, I will miss these characters (well...two of them, anyway) and this show if it is indeed the last we'll see of them. I don't think I could get accustomed to a new cast. This really felt like the end for those three and I'm so glad I discovered this show.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 15, 2020 12:41:09 GMT 1
I just finished Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 1 Episode 2: 'Encounter at Farpoint, Part 2'. After watching the movie Star Trek: Nemesis last weekend, I saw that Star Trek: The Next Generation was going to begin having repeats of it shown on TV here this week. I decided to give it a go, since I'd never watched it before. It appears they're starting from the beginning, which is good for me. Two episodes into the show and I already understand why seemingly everyone hates the character of Wesley Crusher. I'm not looking forward to putting up with him for seven seasons. This might be a less 'popular' opinion, but I also can't stand Q. What a jerk. Everyone else is fine, though.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 16, 2020 10:57:37 GMT 1
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 1, Episode 3: 'The Naked Now'. I get it now, Wesley Crusher is like Poochie from The Simpsons...so long do we have to wait for him to die on the way back to his home planet?
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 17, 2020 9:35:43 GMT 1
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 1, Episode 4: 'Code of Honor'.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 22, 2020 13:20:12 GMT 1
Elementary - Season 1, Episode 22: 'Risk Management'. I finished the final season when it finally aired on TV earlier this year. After it had ended, they decided to put on repeats starting right back at the beginning. I didn't really have any desire to rewatch the show...except for the final three episodes of the first season, and the third-last episode was the one I just finished watching. {Spoiler}The reason this episode's ending is so worthy of rewatching is because it's where Sherlock finds out Irene Adler (played by Natalie Dormer from Game of Thrones), who he thought was dead, is in fact alive. The way Jonny Lee Miller plays it, as he first hears the music, then recognises the paintings, and slowly comes to the realisation she is alive, is so well-performed - especially the moment when he utters her name and almost collapses. Lucy Liu also deserves kudos for the way she plays Joan's reaction at seeing Sherlock get so emotional as she supports him. This^ scene still remains one of the most emotionally effective/memorable ones of the entire series. And the next two episodes are also pretty great too (though I won't get to rewatch them until next week when they air).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 22, 2020 14:22:32 GMT 1
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 25, 2020 23:12:56 GMT 1
FINALLY finished Season 4 of Fear the Walking Dead on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}I started watching this season quite a while ago, but about halfway through I was losing interest and then I stopped about four episodes from the end and decided to watch several other shows on DVD/Blu-ray. It was only recently that I got around to finishing the season. When I started watching this show, I already knew there were those who complained about it (but I wanted to judge it for myself), and I have to say that this fourth season was when I finally 'got' what they were talking about and have to agree...it's pretty boring/average now. I almost can't muster enough enthusiasm to review the season, but since I'd already jotted down some thoughts as I watched the episodes (I stopped towards the end of the season after I'd lost interest), I may as well make use of them. So, here goes... Episode 1The beginning of the season started in an unexpected way. You'd think we'd pick up from where the Season 3 cliffhanger ended, with Madison waking up on the shore after the dam flooded...but, no, instead we start with Garret Dillahunt (who I'll always remember as playing Cromartie aka Chrome Artie from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), dressed like a cowboy and talking to whoever he thinks is out there with him in the middle of nowhere. And, boy...can he talk. I must say I got sick of him yammering on for ages with boring crap where I had no clue what half of it was thanks to his accent. Things livened up a bit when he shot a zombie, revealing Morgan was behind it, then he asked, "What's your story?" - which is not only the episode's title, but also a theme running throughout the episode...as well as the entire season. One guarantee - you'll never want to hear that question asked ever again after watching this season. I noticed the show got a spiffy new title card at the beginning, accompanied by the most minimal 'theme music' (if it can even be counted as theme music) ever. This is followed by a flashback to Morgan, who is apparently in self-imposed exile, hanging out at a junk yard and being visited (or is he just imagining it?) by people from The Walking Dead. While I've heard of the character named 'Jesus', I myself never watched that show long enough to see him introduced. He's the first one who appears, then Morgan's visited by Carol and lastly Rick. I only vaguely recalled Morgan from Season 1 of TWD and definitely never saw all the stuff he went through in later seasons of that show, but from what I could gather he'd obviously been through some bad stuff....which I get, but then everyone else has been through bad stuff too, so I'm not sure what makes his bad stuff 'special'. This episode seemed to focus a lot on Morgan walking (not the most thrilling viewing experience ever, it must be said). After he left some water and whatever else for a guy in the back of a truck who didn’t want it, we were all caught up with what Morgan had been doing before his encounter with Garret Dillahunt's character, John Dorie, who seems friendly enough and like he only wants some company. Morgan comes off as a bit of a jerk, knocking back Dorie's kind offer (you'd think Morgan would've accepted after the dude from earlier on refused his own offer to help), but after a lot of arm-twisting, he sleeps for a while in Dorie's truck before leaving...and then promptly gets in trouble with some bad dudes (should've stuck with Dorie, Morgan!). Dorie saves him (thus proving Dorie the more decent of the two), but they're outnumbered. Fortunately for them, Maggie Grace from Lost and the Taken films (playing a character by the name of Althea here) shows up in her kick-arse SWAT van that has mounted machine guns at the ready with one tug of a lever. After she saves the two, she wants their stories. Honestly, though, I would've rather she shared hers. It was around this point, I think, that I noticed everything now appeared to have a grey filter over it (except when looking through Althea's video camera lens). I also noticed Maggie Grace was doing a deep husky voice thing that I didn't recall her having in other stuff I'd watched her in. I guess that, combined with her short brown hairdo, was to make her as different a character to Shannon from Lost as she could be. Dorie was happy to tell her his story, but Morgan being his (it would seem) typical grumpy self refused, even after Althea pointed out she'd just saved him. He keeps wanting to leave those who’re being friendly and trying to help/save him...I say just let him go. Later, the bad dudes they encountered return and try to steal the awesome SWAT van, but when one of them mocks Althea, saying she's not so tough without her lever (connected to the machine guns), she proves the fool wrong. Then there's some zombie-killing, bad dudes getting killed by zombies, and Althea again saving Dorie/Morgan with her SWAT van's machine guns. Morgan manages to be pretty spry for a guy shot in the leg. He eventually tells Althea some stuff about where he came from, something about a kingdom and a pet tiger, but nothing particularly useful (though like Althea, I wanted to hear more about the tiger). At one point Althea says she calls zombies ‘the dead’, Dorie says he calls them ‘the passed’, and Morgan mentions that where he’s from they call them ‘walkers’. At this point it’d be funny if someone said "I just call ‘em zombies." and everyone looked at them weird. Morgan says he loses people then loses himself, yet again walks off from help, then what follows is the most slow-paced zombie chase ever. It's almost comical how Morgan's hobbling along, slowly pursued by two zombies, and once again we see he would be dead without Dorie's help. Morgan kills a zombie, Althea again gives them a ride, Morgan says no more asking questions (or rather, if Althea asks...he just won’t give answers), they see a person on the road up ahead and decide to get out of the safety of the SWAT van to go investigate...because that seems smart . They could've left one of them in there at least. The funniest part was Althea saying something like "Oh, great time to let me know you both don’t like killing." (especially after they'd just killed a bunch of zombies). I figured the person in the middle of the road would turn out to either be Madison or Alicia, since we hadn't seen them all episode. It ended up being Alicia...sporting some crazy hair (probably gave Maggie Grace flashbacks to Feral Claire from Lost). Feral Alicia, Nick, Luciana and Strand surround the three and the episode ends with Althea asking the same thing she's going to be asking everyone she meets for the rest of the season. Oh, and Nick’s not dead (damn it). Episode 2We start with ‘Before’ appearing on the screen and everything’s not grey-filtered like in the last episode (plus, Nick’s hair is back to its oily ratty self). All the gang are together at a baseball stadium, alive and well and I’m confused because there are people we don’t know including some kid (oh joy...a kid character) who apparently hates salmon patties...and for some reason this is important enough for us to waste time on hearing the origin story of as she tells it to Madison (really engrossing stuff). We then get the new opening title card thing again, and I see what they're doing now - each episode's title card image has something in it relating to the episode (it's kind of like Once Upon A Time's title card in that way). And oh look, more engrossing stuff with turnip problems and weevils. Even the characters are bored with all of this, since Nick likes being bored apparently and Alicia suggests they stare at a wall later on. Jenna Elfman pulls a gun on Madison (hi, Dharma...not that I ever watched Dharma & Greg), her name is Naomi, she's soon outnumbered and asked if she knows the kid’s family, then winds up on top of a tank and falls in goop/oil, followed by Madison who jumps in after her (for some reason. Seriously, she just had a gun aimed at you. Leave her be!), the others open the tank thus causing a zombie oil slide (probably less fun than it sounds) and finally do some zombie-killing. I found it weird that both Madison and Naomi didn't immediately take showers after, instead they wasted time talking and Madison informed Naomi about the hot water (so why don't you go use it instead of talking about it?). Nick goes outside in a truck, but experiences flashbacks to last season's dam explosion and crashes the truck while going really slowly, then needs others to save him/kill zombies for him - because he's become completely useless this season, it would seem. They get back to the stadium and soon guys turn up outside, set up camper vans (and 'smug lawn chairs' as I saw someone comment elsewhere). They're referred to as the Vultures and the lead guy is named Mel (as in Sideshow Mel from The Simpsons?). Yeah, he looks really intimidating... Their evil master plan is...to wait until Madison’s gang die because of bad turnips. If these are supposed to be the bad guys for the first part of the season, I have to say they're pretty weak (even moreso than the Proctors from the end of last season). They also have a guy riding around on a bicycle while playing music to herd zombies into their trucks. It would appear the kid (who I guess I should start calling by her name, which is Charlie) was a spy, feeding them info. Serves you right, Nick, for being so trusting! Yet Luciana still takes a book out to her later on (STOP doing nice things for people who don't deserve it, you bozos!). We then cut to ‘Now’ (hey, it's like Supernatural except they replaced 'Then' with 'Before') and everything’s back to a grey filter (BAH!). There was something about a flag belonging to the Vultures, which the gang in the SWAT van takes with them, but I didn't really follow what was so important about them because I was too bored. Episode 3Nick's chopping crops, burning turnips and we're apparently switching between different time periods as it keeps changing from grey filter to no grey filter. Meanwhile, Althea gets a few good kicks into Nick as they're fighting in the SWAT van, causing it to crash. She bargains for them helping her get the SWAT van out of a ditch and telling her their story if she tells them where she got the flag. Again with the story-telling and the flags - the former I'm sick of hearing about already and the latter I don't even care about. Ugh. On the plus side, we were treated to seeing Morgan hitting Nick with his stick, which was funny. Unintentionally funny, though, was him warning Nick that he'd better not move more than five feet from the SWAT van...despite the fact he couldn’t chase Nick if he ran, since he's got a limp and all. Nick sees a car go by (the Vulturesmobile) and wants to go after it, but Morgan won't let him, so then Nick attracts zombies with the SWAT van's horn that keeps blaring continually (and is very annoying. I had to turn the volume down) and Morgan leaves his beloved stick behind when he has to run from zombies. Nick nearly died, but Morgan saved him (damn it). You 'don't kill', Morgan? I'm sure all those zombies you killed would beg to differ. Thankfully, Alicia's around to take charge, telling others what they need to do. They attract zombies and Althea shoots some of them. Meanwhile, in flashback (?), Nick and Madison go to the guy from the Vultures who rode a bicycle around with music playing to attract zombies into the trucks last episode and they find Charlie there with him. I already hate him and his hipster hat. We learn that the guy taught Nick about feeding his family (turnips!). Althea really wants her stories from people and panics when she sees that the place she kept them in her SWAT van had its lock broken (Nick and Morgan crashed into it during their fight earlier), checking all the tapes are there. Strand and Althea make a deal that they tell her everything as she takes them to where she got the flag. Nick kills hipster hat guy (I knew as soon as the stag head fell to the floor that he’d fall onto it), Nick feels he isn't dying quickly enough and so gives him a helping hand, pushing him further onto the stag head. The field of bluebonnets for this episode's title card makes sense now, since we flashback to somewhere Nick and Madison found together which had the flowers (it reminds me of the meadow from the beginning and ending of the movie Eclipse). In the 'present' (whatever that actually is), Nick's holding one of the flowers and I wasn’t expecting that gunshot...or that Nick would be killed so early in the season (I knew he would be eventually killed off, just not when or how) or that the one to kill him would be Charlie. I should be pleased he was finally offed...but by that brat? Ehh, I couldn't quite enjoy it as much as I would've liked to. This is what you get for helping her out/caring about her, Nick! Lesson learned. I noticed Strand hugged Luciana in an effort to comfort her, but not Alicia (you know, the actual sister of the guy who just died). WTH? Maybe he was worried she'd stab him out of anger. So, Nick dies (finally) and we cut to him lying down in the field amid the bluebonnets. I must say, this show seems to have a habit of killing off its 'main' characters in the most unexpected (yet underwhelming) of ways. It was mildly annoying that we never got to see Madison’s reaction to the death of her 'favourite'. Alicia: “HA! I win!" Smell ya later, Mr. Unhygienic-Oily-Ratty-Hair who loved to bathe only in blood. Episode 4The gang are filmed by Althea as they mourn Lifeless Nick (all that's missing is her asking them, "How do you feeeeeeel?" ), Alicia stabs him in the head (working out some of that pent-up resentment towards her brother who was always her mum's 'favourite', I'd wager), Strand covers his corpse with a jacket...and I forgot what Luciana did. Althea interviews them on the SWAT van as they transport Stinky Nick, but says they can hold off (so she at least respects the dead until they're buried), but obviously it would be a long trip filled with awkward silence, so they decide to hell with that and fill her in. It would appear Strand was hoarding stuff and just wanted himself and the guy he liked to get away and live, but then he winds up sharing it with everyone whilst not telling them the complete truth. Alicia and Naomi go to the waterslide park...which sounds like a fun time, but isn't so 'fun' (for them, anyway. It was quite entertaining to watch, though). They crawl up the slippery waterslide and at the top find a mounted machine gun, but get attacked by a zombie which causes Naomi to slide back down and then Alicia’s hanging off the gun, the piece of it she's hanging onto comes loose, she pulls it off and slides down too...though she manages to use the gun mount to kill zombies at the bottom. There's lots of green/moss on the slide. I've noticed this season that the gore seems to be 'toned down' a bit from what it was like previously. Lots of rather boring zombie kills. Just mainly head-stabs with a bit of blood spurting out and that's it. Where's the creativity? Nick and Luciana decide where they’re going to go based on what random page in a book they flip to (because basically 'eeny, meeny, miny, moe'-ing your life choices is the best way to go), while Morgan’s yet again nicking off on poor old Dorie. We continually cut between present and past and I can't be bothered specifying which time period each thing that happens takes place in. It's confusing enough to watch let alone describe. In the SWAT van they're all alluding to making decisions that led to something bad. The title card for this episode turns out to be the field where they bury Soon-to-be-worm-food Nick under The Lion King tree. Turns out they just wanted guns to go after the Vultures. Alicia leaves Dirtnap Nick first, then Luciana goes, and lastly Morgan who leaves a blue flower on the grave. Sadly, we don't get any Zombie Nick covered in blood (he could've been as a zombie as he was in life!) since Alicia stabbed him in the head earlier. We learn that Naomi is not actually Naomi's name, but that it's Laura and she was the one who Dorie was searching for when he finds his gun in her bag. The others tell him she’s dead. He needs a moment. Episode 5When it became apparent that this was going to be a Dorie-focused episode, I was annoyed since we hadn’t even gotten an Alicia-focused episode yet after 3 and a bit seasons into the show! How many zombies does a girl have to kill to get an episode focused on her in this show? Although I like his character because he’s nice, it was still boring spending time on him trying to think of words with his Scrabble letters. Eventually he meets Naomi/Laura. She’s not very appreciative of his help and could’ve been nicer to him, I thought. She keeps wanting to nick off without saying goodbye and is even planning to steal his truck. WHY do all these decent characters keep helping ungrateful characters? Go help those who'd actually appreciate it, for crying out loud! He sets up a privacy curtain for her and even offers to sleep on the couch. He fills her in on his cowboy background (ie. he doesn’t want to use guns on zombies because he accidentally fatally shot someone in the leg when he was a cop), teaches her how to fish...while standing in water they know zombies have washed up in (doesn't seem too wise) and, surprisingly, the fish tastes good despite having come out of zombie-infested water. At one point they're attacked by zombies while in the truck and Dorie nearly lets one get him because he refuses to use his guns, so instead he stabs it, thus sending blood everywhere including on Naomi/Laura (once again it proves to be fortunate in this show that having zombie blood all over you doesn't cause you to turn and somehow magically manages to stay out of people's mouths/eyes/nostrils even when they're splattered with it). Dorie gets angry about her poking around in his guns (I think she might've used one to kill zombies when he refused to use it). The ditch that Dorie had dug (alliteration!) outside his place proves not enough to stop zombies (gee, I never would've expected them to just keep piling into it until there was enough of them that they could make it across that very small gap). Climbing into the ditch doesn't seem like a wise idea either. Naomi's/Laura's nearly overrun until Dorie finally kills zombies with his guns. The moral of the story? Being all 'anti-gun' is never the way to go in the Zombiepocalypse. Miraculously both still alive after having only just narrowly escaped death, the next thing they do - naturally - is make out (and presumably more). She’s, of course, gone by morning, having left Dorie a message in the form of spelling out 'I love you too I’m sorry' with Scrabble letters (after she wasn't able to tell him with words). I was amused by Dorie's fish radio that was his wake up alarm at the beginning and near the end of the episode, but other than that...this show isn't exactly a barrel of laughs (not that I need humour in everything that I watch, but once in a while wouldn't hurt). The episode finishes in the 'present' (I guess?), with Dorie and Morgan. Episodes 6 & 7This is where my enthusiasm for writing down my thoughts on each episode first began to wane, and so they're blended together for these two (and might not be quite in the right order). Laura/Naomi keeps nicking off and trying to steal cars, she seemingly betrayed the gang, Alicia accidentally (?) shoots Dorie in a gunfight, there's a truck explosion with Mel, Charlie wants to see if he’s okay, Alicia says he’s gone/dead...but it appears he's only mostly dead, as he's now Extra Crispy Mel, so Alicia makes sure he's really dead by stabbing him with her sharpened gun mount (which she picked up at the waterslide park). It's a cool-looking weapon, but I miss her butterfly knife. Strand confesses to Madison he had a truck with supplies ready to go, as he planned to make like Naomi/Laura and skedaddle. We're once again cutting between periods of time, as we learn that Madison sent Mel away (back before he was extra crispy), but Alicia and Nick (who is still hanging around on the show for flashbacks - argh!) wanted to save him...for goodness knows what reason, considering what he'd done. Alicia regresses to her old not-so-smart self when she and Nick get stuck, as Vultures unload zombies from the trucks they'd herded them into previously, and can't get back inside the stadium. My first thought: why not just drive through them? Episode 8 This one starts with Madison meeting Althea in whatever period of time that happened (I can't keep track of when anything takes place in this show anymore). Since things didn't pick up right where the last episode left off like I'd expected it too, I thought I'd missed an episode. WHAT does this season have against telling a story in linear form? Madison trips a wire and consequently shoots Althea's food, which doesn't go over so well and gets her tied up for her trouble. She's forced to tell Althea her story (argh! ENOUGH with that! Don't give her what she wants, Madison! You're just encouraging her obsession!) and since Althea didn't specify how long ago to start from, Madison's story dates back to when Alicia and Nick were kids, as they nursed an injured bird back to health that had flown into a window (Madison says they never gave up on it, while she thought she’d find it dead - good ol' pessimistic Madison). In a different time period, Alicia’s crew is battling Althea's crew, Althea says she’d punch Alicia in the cooch, Dorie’s still shot, they’re housing little psycho Charlie, Alicia is holding her at gunpoint, gets in a fight with Althea, finds her mum’s tape, after Althea had said her truck was 'built like a tank in a tank in a bank vault'...the door falls off, Morgan won’t let Alicia shoot Naomi/Laura and hugs her, she helps Dorie (who should've bled out by now?) and they all wind up around a fire together, telling the tale of how Madison died (which Alicia had mentioned earlier, blaming Naomi/Laura for). We learn Naomi's/Laura's really real name is actually June (seriously? This is like YoSaffBridge from Firefly with the multiple names). We finally cut back to where the last episode left off, with Alicia and Nick caught in the middle of a zombie horde because they didn't drive over the zombies. Evidently Madison watched Jurassic Park enough that she applies the same rule to zombies as Alan Gant did to the T-Rex and distracts them with a flare, leading them away from her dopey kids and into the stadium, then proceeds to lock the zombies in with her as her back's against the wall and there's no visible means of escape, throws the flare on the ground, lighting up the stadium...and that's how she dies (I guess? It's not like we actually see her die). Like with Now-Rotted Nick, I knew Madison's death would happen this season long before I ever watched it, but I didn't know when or by what means it would occur. At least you can't say the show isn't consistent when it comes to main character deaths - they've all been how I'm guessing no one imagined they'd be, both unexpected and disappointing/underwhelming. Others may not have liked you, Madison, and while you did make some (okay... a lot of) questionable decisions/choices, I didn't mind ya. At least now you can reunite with Travis and your 'favourtie' offspring. Still...Alicia WINS! Unless, of course, Daniel Salazar suddenly appears out of nowhere and kills you (which would be when I'd stop watching. I'm with this show for as long as Alicia Clark/Alycia Debnam-Carey is. Once she's gone, so am I). At the end of the episode, everyone shares noodles...even with Killer Charlie. Other random thoughts on this episode (this is the first time this season where I've had enough thoughts on an episode to warrant an 'Other random thoughts' section in my episode review) :They never showed what happened directly following the end of last season, only gave us vague references to it...and now I guess we'll never get to see what happened (presuming Madison won't be hanging around via flashbacks like Now-Fertilizer Nick is). Strange that no one remembered the handy zombie blood-smearing trick to survive zombies that EVERYONE was using in the first three seasons. Madison hugged her 'favourite' child, but not Alicia when reuniting with them earlier in the episode. Whatever. At least Alicia's still breathing, unlike others who shall remain lifeless. No more non-linear storytelling flashbacks/flashforwards/flashwhatevers, please! Episode 9This one begins with a storm, lots of rain and wind (I thought it was Winter/snow at first) and, amusingly, zombies being picked up by the wind and flung through the air (though it looked more like someone with telekinetic powers was tossing them around - that'd be awesome, if Alicia developed telekinetic powers). Yay! No confusing different time periods now! Boo! Permanent grey filter over everything (as it was only reserved for the 'present' segments previously, but now we're stuck with it). I'm also annoyed to see that Alycia Debnam-Carey, who should be the show's lead (now that the other three who were listed before her in the credits are all gone), is now listed second after the actor who plays Morgan. ADC has been there right from the very start of this show, so that alone should ensure her name comes first, but giving a character who only joined the show in Season 4 the top spot over her? That's really unfair. He hasn't been on this show long enough to earn that spot. It's like they weren't willing to make someone ADC's age the show's 'lead' and they think that only the more 'adult' actors/actresses should get to be the show's leads (first Kim Dickens/Madison, now Lennie James/Morgan). If I were ADC, I'd be PISSED. She waited three and a half seasons, is the last one standing of the original castmembers and now she's credited behind a crossover character. I can kind of get that Morgan and his crew didn’t know Nick well, so they could forgive Charlie for offing him...but apparently Luciana forgives her too (because she brings that book back they gave her)? Your first instinct was right, Luciana - chase her away! And don’t leave your door open when you go out after her, that’s how that zombie got inside which nearly ate you while you listened to your record that somehow blocked out the sound of Strand fighting/killing said zombie. Meanwhile, Alicia is fixated on finding the mystery person who's been attaching 'help me' notes to zombies, but finds the guy is already a zombie. She then goes out into the storm, despite Morgan's efforts at trying to get her to seek shelter with him as he informs her that he's leaving and wants everyone to go with him. Elsewhere, Strand’s a drunk now, June is all about her different personas and whether Dorie only loved the 'Laura' one (speaking of Dorie, he’s slowly recovering from his bullet wound and figures Strand owes him - to help go look for Charlie - since Alicia shot him...even though Charlie killed Strand’s friend, Nick). The episode ends with Althea and June stuck in the middle of the storm with zombies being flung against the windows of the SWAT van (I think). Flying zombies will never not be amusing. Episode 10FINALLY! The Alicia-centric episode I've been waiting three and a half seasons for. A shame it took the show THIS long to make it happen (she should've had episodes focused on her back when other characters were getting them). Getting an Alicia-centric episode wasn't the only thing that took a long time, as it also seemed to take her forever just to get in the door (I think it took over a minute for her to get in the door and then once inside, walk away from the door towards the screen). Still, she creates one hell of a silhouette (especially with that new weapon of hers). Butterfly Knife: They did something interesting/fitting with the title card segment for the episode by having the letters from 'Fear the Walking Dead' get blown away like the zombies were. Once finally inside the house, Alicia was her usual kick-arse self, swiftly dealing with a couple of zombies. I appreciated the slight bit of 'realism' that was added when she got her weapon stuck in the wall after having stabbed it through one zombie's head. It looked like she was without a weapon as another zombie appeared, but then she found whatever spiky object was handy and used that - looking like a BAMF as she did so. As if to taunt her, while her previous issue was kicking a door open, the next problem she faced was getting a constantly swinging door to stay closed. In fact, I think there were a few. This episode could've been titled ‘Alicia vs the Doors’ (instead of its actual title, which was 'Close Your Eyes' - that immediately makes me think of Buffy/Angel and him being duped by someone telling him that twice in his unnaturally long life), though it might've led people to believe Alicia was going to be fighting Jim Morrison (or Val Kilmer). She then discovers Charlie is in the house and I personally LOVED the fact that Alicia dropped a bunch of truth bombs on the little murderer - such as telling her how Nick died slowly/painfully, how she knew she’d done it after he tried to save her, calling her garbage, saying she wanted to kill her and that’s why she wanted her out of the house, etc. After the flying zombies last episode, I thought the show was done with comical visuals...but here we were treated to a zombie that had been impaled on a tree branch and was swaying back and forth towards the house, reaching out and making the usual zombie noises while hoping to snack on Charlie. Alicia tells her that she’s not going to forgive her and wasn't saving her from branch zombie because she cared, but because she wanted Charlie to live with what she'd done. I practically cheered and applauded Alicia in this scene, as long ago I grew tired of shows taking it too easy on kid characters. So many times they're the reason other characters get killed (usually adults), even if it's unintentional and not outright murder like what Charlie did to Nick, yet they're always told "It's not your fault." and other BS. Thankfully, Alicia didn't take it easy on her. I was relieved about that. I wasn't sure what the heck was going on with Alicia apologising to whatever she dislodged from the fireplace...but after a bit of research it turned out that it was a callback to Madison's bird story she told Althea in her last episode on the show. When Charlie tried to make small talk as they ate together, I thought "Good on you, Alicia!" as she made it perfectly clear to her she wasn't interested in any of that. After seeing Charlie removing pictures from photo frames of the people who lived in the house, Alicia told her it was pointless - Charlie's reason for doing it was later somewhat explained when the two of them then wound up stuck in the flooded basement and she says to Alicia she couldn't remember what her parents looked like before being zombies and how she didn't want to be one, so she wanted Alicia to shoot her. Alicia wants to shoot her too...but alas, is unable to go through with it. They’re miraculously freed by branch zombie falling on the locked outside door to the basement (somehow that breaks the lock), they get out, make graves for the dead family whose house they're now occupying, find a crashed bus on a bridge, Alicia kills a zombie with an arm dangling by a few threads, the two walk off and Alicia wants to shows Charlie the beach (which she's never seen). *sigh* They were this close to keeping Alicia angry at Charlie for what she'd done...but I guess they wanted to have the two of them start becoming close. Alycia Debnam-Carey did a great job with her first episode centred (mainly) around her. She played a whole range of emotions and despite my frustration with the development, managed to completely sell Alicia's turnaround on her attitude towards Charlie, making it believable that Alicia would choose to let her anger go because it was just too much to hang onto (at least that's the way I interpreted it). It was also probably my favourite episode of the season. Episode 11ANOTHER Morgan episode?? I guess after having the one and only Alicia-centric episode ever in this show previously, the showrunners felt the need to 'balance' things out by making it All About Morgan once again. Flying debris taking out the zombie going towards Morgan was mildly amusing, but then we were subjected to MORE of Morgan walking after the storm was over and he sought shelter in the back of a truck. He wakes up to find that the truck he's been sleeping in has been driven somewhere, he hears a woman on the radio who tells him to take what he needs and leave what he doesn't, but he's his usual rude self. He then meets wheelchair guy with a gun who he has an argument with about talking to someone on the radio (they keep saying essentially the same thing back and forth 5 times or so and it gets old REALLY fast. One thing this show will never win any awards for is its dialogue, that's for sure). Wheelchair dude is with a woman named Sarah who drives the truck, running over a zombie, and wheelchair dude only awards her half a point because she nearly killed a bird (that would almost make me like him...but I still find him annoying. His name is Wendell). Morgan’s going to go back to the gang over a bridge but changes his mind and lies that the bridge is out. He then comes to the rescue of a guy with a sack over his head escaping zombies (who's somehow survived/avoided being bitten despite his hands being tied behind his back). It turns out to be Aaron Stanford who played James Cole in the TV series version of 12 Monkeys. Here he's playing a far less interesting/likable character named Jim Brauer (what other character name does that sound like?) and I quickly tired of him rambling about beer (which he makes). Morgan unwittingly returns him to Sarah and Wendell, who turn out to be the truckers Jim escaped from. They not only want him back, but they also want Morgan to direct them to Virginia. Zombies suddenly turn up, Jim knocks Morgan down a hill, he somehow manages to get on top of a car with his hands tied behind his back, gets stuck there after telling the truckers where to go and they don’t help, then later on manages to get off the car and also avoid getting bitten. He uses a road sign as an axe, convinces the truckers to take him and leave boxes on their way to help people, and it's revealed that the woman he talked to on the radio earlier is bad news judging by the way she's writing something on a zombie’s face. This was a blah episode after the previous one. Episode 13 (I didn't even bother writing down any notes for episode 12 apparently) was another boring one, as it was just Strand and Dorie trying to cross water while there was an alligator eating zombies and they set off a car alarm to attract the zombies into the water/provide a distraction for the alligator, but (predictably) the alarm eventually died and then they had to abandon their plans of crossing the water. Elsewhere, Luciana encountered a guy stuck in a car who was totally done for, but the last thing he wanted before dying was a beer...so she went in search of one, found one of the helpful boxes (which managed to keep the beer in it cold) and got it to him before he died. Yes, a very thrilling episode - crossing water and searching for beer. Episode 14 wasn't much better. If they expected the backstory for crazy woman from the radio (whose name is Martha) to excuse what she was doing to people, then they failed miserably. She and her husband were in a car accident and no one would pull over to help her husband (who was quite clearly done for and no one could've saved judging by the fact he looked like he was almost cut in half). There's a quick montage that's supposed to illustrate time passing and in that space of time she goes from sane to INSANE. So, now she kills people who try to help others (because that makes sense...not. If anything, wouldn't you go after those who don't help people? Or is it just a case of "Well, they didn't help me...so screw everyone else in need of help!" as far as she's concerned?). It makes very little sense, even when she attempts to explain that she wants to make Morgan 'strong' (because of course he's the one she becomes fixated on). That's crazy person logic for ya. Episode 15 featured Morgan and his crew getting stuck on the roof of a tall building after having 'escaped' to there when fleeing zombies in the previous episode. Althea's off taking care of them by herself or something, there's seemingly no way down and also Jim got bit last episode. He keeps blaming Morgan, who insists over and over that the others go, as he's staying behind (he never wants to hang with people for very long, it seems). They eventually do leave, but come back for him and he gets down thanks to a truck with an extending ladder. Jimbo throws himself down on a vehicle below, causing its alarm to go off and attract the zombies so the others can make their escape (after Morgan did the same thing with a dead zombie earlier on) – it’s the new trick everyone uses in the show (replacing the old zombie blood smear trick. Now that Nick's dead, it appears his trick died with him since no one ever uses it anymore). They name beer after Dead Jimbo and the whole thing was ridiculous. Episode 16 is pretty ho-hum for a season final. They keep crazy woman alive after capturing her, she poisons them all with antifreeze in their drinking water, they're all dying, Morgan won't kill the crazy bitch and instead just handcuffs her to a car, then naturally he arrives in the nick of time to give everyone alcohol (even Charlie drinks. I wish we could've seen her drunk, it might've been amusing) that apparently counteracts the effects of antifreeze . Martha got bit, becomes a zombie and FINALLY Morgan does what he should've done from the very start and offs the psycho. The only entertaining part in the episode, I found, was Althea writing an expletive-laden note, telling the others to get the c#^t (referring to Martha). Well, in case it wasn't clear...I found this season to alternate between being boring and confusing with very little to enjoy about it. Alicia was, of course, awesome and really went through quite a lot of changes this season. She's probably developed the most since the start of the show. Dorie was a decent person (though got a bit boring when he'd start monologuing). I liked Althea (except for her constant ""What's your story?" catchphrase). I wasn't so fussed on Naomi/Laura/June (seriously, three names? What is she, a spy?). Strand and Luciana were okay. Charlie was annoying, but I'm actually not that sad she offed Nick (I was prepared to be super annoyed near when it looked like she was going to start wearing Dorie's cowboy hat à la Carl wearing Rick's hat on TWD, but thankfully it didn't last). I don't like the two truckers who we're now seemingly stuck with (I'm guessing the woman, Sarah, is supposed to be 'funny' at times, but she just annoys me). Lastly, I'd read long before watching this season that new showrunners took over from the ones who ran the show in the previous three seasons (this seems to be a pattern with these shows) and how they'd 'changed' what the show was. I didn't really understand until watching, when it became clear they were obsessed with the Morgan character (and Lennie James as an actor), making the show revolve around him (when Alicia was RIGHT THERE!) and unceremoniously getting rid of all the other original characters from the show. It's as if they wanted to sweep away everything they didn't like about the show and only kept the few things they did like (ie. Alicia, Strand and Luciana). Safe to say I won't be in a rush to watch Season 5 of Fear the Walking Morgan (or should that be Fear the Morgan Dead?).
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 27, 2020 1:04:03 GMT 1
Just finished rewatching Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie (aka Agatha Christie's Criminal Games) - Season 2, Episode 8: ‘Pension Vanilos’. In the episode we met the sister of Marlène (Elodie Frenck), Solange (also played by Elodie Frenck). When I originally watched this episode on TV, I didn't even recognise that it was the same actress. This doesn't usually happen. Most of the time I can pick an actor/actress playing another role in a show or movie, even if they're wearing extensive makeup to hide the fact that it's the same person. In this instance, though, it wasn't like she had tons of makeup on or anything - quite the opposite, actually. Usually Elodie Frenck looks so glamorous as Marlène, but for the role of her character's sister, instead of a makeover she got a 'makeunder'. When watching their first scene together, I thought the actress playing Solange looked somehow familiar, but couldn't place her. It wasn't until the next scene or so that I realised it was the same actress and I was quite impressed at how different they managed to make Elodie Frenck look with just a change of hair and makeup (or lack thereof). But it must also be noted that her performance was what really helped pull it off. She completely changed her entire demeanour from Marlène when playing Solange. She altered her voice, her posture and just became a completely different character entirely. She also interacted with herself onscreen. It was quite impressive, I thought (even after five seasons of Orphan Black where they had one actress - Tatiana Maslany - playing many different characters, I'm still not sure how they do it when one character the actress is playing interacts with/touches another character the actress is playing. It must all be very 'technical'). Kudos to Elodie Frenck for proving she can play more than just the 'ditzy blonde' - though the character of Marlène in fact has more depth than that. {Spoiler}Also in this episode, when the characters of Swan Laurence and Alice Avril believed Marlène had been murdered, it was actually really emotional/effective, I thought. Both of them showed more emotion than we'd seen previously, especially the actor playing Laurence who usually shows very little emotion and his character is typically quite a jerk to Marlène. It was good to see him really broken up when he laid eyes on what he perceived was her body. Naturally, the first thing he went and did was got drunk. Blandine Bellavoir also got to show off her acting chops (not to say she's a 'slouch' usually, it's just that most of the time she plays the humourous side of Alice and not so much the emotional side...but here it was different), showing how attached her character was to Marlène. It was nice seeing Laurence actually support Alice when she needed it (considering usually he's pretty mean towards her). It was fun seeing the two of them get drunk together (apparently it takes them both being intoxicated to actually get along (though they still didn't entirely let up on the passive-aggressive comments made towards each other). It was also fun to see their relief when they found out Marlène was in fact alive (Laurence making light of her sister being the dead one, complete with playing around with her corpse as Alice expressed shock/disgust, was morbidly amusing). Anyway, I thought Elodie Frenck's dual performances in this episode deserved praise.
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Post by AQUA SALZ! on Sept 27, 2020 18:08:45 GMT 1
Watched the last episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, an adaptation of Christie’s Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (2013), last night. No, I don’t know why I put it off so long either. Curtain is an odd book, combining some brilliant material, some goofy material, and some material that just makes no sense. A good adaptation would be hard, which is no doubt why the producers picked Kevin Elyot to pen the script: Elyot wrote two of the best and most elegiac Poirot episodes, “Five Little Pigs” (2003) and “Death on the Nile” (2004), so bringing him back for the finale makes sense. (Why oh why didn’t they bring him back for “Murder on the Orient Express,” though? That needed his handling.) Unfortunately, his “Curtain” script isn’t up to the heights of his first two Poirots. (Sadly, Elyot passed away in 2014 after what his Guardian obit calls a “long illness.”) At first, however, it seems it will be. The rest of Poirot Season 13 wasn’t particularly good—by that point, they were adapting Christie’s weakest books—but “Curtain” starts off with our old friend Capt. Hastings (hooray! Hastings was always the silliest character—he’s the dumbest Watson ever—but Hugh Fraser’s acting made him such fun) and some sparkling dialogue. When Hastings and Poirot meet up and start reminiscing about the past, the episode seems like it will be one of the strongest out of the entire program. And then the plot kicks in. It’s not a poor plot at all, though. The silly and nonsensical stuff in Christie’s book is mostly in the way of clues (the Othello clue is pretty weak), with a few structural flaws, but there are also some great clues and a real whopper of a solution (not just the killer’s identity, either). But here it distracts from the Poirot-Hastings relationship, which should be at the center of things. We’re engaged in what becomes a fairly run-of-the-mill murder mystery just when we should be caring about the characters. The mystery should be a metaphor for character relationships, as Christie picked up on. Here character and mystery have no real connection, and the episode suffers. At the same, Elyot keeps in all of Christie’s sillinesses and adds a few flaws of his own. The ending is particularly weak: Norton only comes across as truly evil in one scene, so Poirot’s decision to kill him feels unearned.
Even worse, we get no funeral, no appearances from other old standbys such as Insp. Japp and Pauline Moran’s magnificent Miss Lemon, and, amazingly, no show of emotion from Hastings. Again, we focus on the mystery, not on the characters—in a story in which character is paramount! I don’t want to over-criticize this: there’s some good dialogue and exceptional acting from everyone. David Suchet and Hugh Fraser are as excellent as ever. Suchet, I think, has given us a better Poirot than Christie ever did, providing a sympathetic, warm, chivalrous characterization. Alice Orr-Ewing, who plays Hastings’ daughter (a character we’ve never seen before—gah, that’s the kind of thing you fix for a TV show!), is oddly attractive and delivers what should have been a star-making performance. But the script flaws are so pronounced. Perhaps, alas, that was because of Elyot’s illness, but the flaws are there and do bring the finale down. Really too bad. At its best (“Peril at End House,” “Wasps’ Nest,” “Death on the Nile”), Poirot was one of the best mystery shows ever, and even in its weaker later years, Suchet never gave less than a great performance. It, and he, deserved a better sendoff.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 28, 2020 10:55:16 GMT 1
Elementary - Season 1, Episode 23: 'The Woman'. {Spoiler}One of the best 'twists' in any show I've watched. Irene Adler is actually Moriarty! I know certain people would've just rolled their eyes at the reveal and dismissed it as 'another gender-swap', but it actually works. Natalie Dormer was already fascinating whilst playing the role of Irene Adler, and watching her completely shift at the end of the episode into playing Moriarty was brilliant.
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Post by AQUA JAR!™ on Sept 29, 2020 0:11:57 GMT 1
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Sept 30, 2020 15:17:29 GMT 1
Elementary - Season 1, Episode 24: 'Heroine'. {Spoiler}Firstly, I want to again give kudos to Natalie Dormer for taking the role of Moriarty and making it her own. After the over-the-topness from Andrew Scott in Sherlock (which I was never a fan of),. it was a relief to see a much more 'grounded' iteration of the character. Still, she had her 'flair' about her and Dormer did a wonderful job playing this character who really was an evil genius (a hard role to pull off for a lot of actors/actresses). What was particularly fun to see was her dynamic with Watson. At this point in the show, she didn't see Watson as a credible threat to her. And that, ultimately, was her undoing since. When Sherlock informed Moriarty "She solved you." (referring to Watson), her look said it all. As did the looks she and Watson exchanged soon after. I appreciated that no words were needed (it made me dislike Watson's earlier line to Sherlock - "Let's say we go stop this bitch." - even more than I already did, as that was such a stereotypical line/pretty eyeroll-worthy, I found, since it wasn't really needed). I appreciated Moriarty's convoluted plan to make nearly a billion dollars. I did feel that she was duped into believing Sherlock had overdosed for real a little too easily, but as he said - they both made the same mistake of falling in love and he was her weakness, so I guess she can be forgiven for a lapse in judgment. It seemed fitting that Watson got to be the one to 'defeat' Moriarty (I appreciated the 'double meaning' for the show's title, as it not only referred to Sherlock seemingly relapsing back to his addiction, but also Watson being the 'heroine' of the episode - at least that's how I interpreted it, anyway), and it was a nice way to end the episode with Sherlock naming a new species of bee that he'd bred after Watson ('Euglassia Watsonia'). I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again - I don't think the show ever really reached the same heights at these last two episodes quality-wise. The fact that they couldn't get Natalie Dormer back after Season 2 (aside from a voice-over in one later episode) kind of hurt the show, in a way, as she was such an electrifying presence. It was quite the feat for her to make such a memorable impression given she only really had three episodes to do so in this first season (in the third last one, she didn't even have any dialogue at we saw her for a very brief moment). I won't be rewatching much of the show as episodes are repeated, but will make sure to rewatch the episode Natalie Dormer guest starred in during Season 2 for sure).
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2020 1:38:33 GMT 1
My roommate and I are riffing the original "Jem and the Holograms" cartoon from the 80s for our amusement. We saw a clip of an episode and it had the main villains ride into a music producer's office on guitar-shaped motorcycles. In that instant, we knew he has our new "beer and giggles" show for the weekends.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 12, 2020 10:40:37 GMT 1
Was it the first season that you watched, AQUA JAR!™ , or are you already ahead of me and watching Season 2 as it airs? I myself will have to wait until it's out on DVD/Blu-ray where I am to see it. I actually watched the first season earlier this year (in July, according to the time stamp of when I posted my review for it). Please feel free to read my review if you wish. I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts on the first season were (all I ask is that if you read my thoughts on it and find yourself shaking your head in disagreement with my thoughts...please take it easy on me. I'm well aware my opinions on shows/movies are oftentimes the 'unpopular' ones, so I imagine we may well disagree on our opinions of this show and its characters - that's totally fine...so long as we can disagree civilly ). Just finished Season 1 of The Boys on Blu-ray. {Spoiler}In the first episode, I immediately saw the parallels between these characters and other famous comic book characters. Homelander = a cross between Captain America and Superman (but...you know... evil) Queen Maeve = Wonder Woman (with a bit of Xena mixed in) A-Train = The Flash The Deep = Aquaman I just wasn't sure who Starlight's, Black Noir's and Translucent's other comic book character counterparts were. I knew going into this that the 'superheroes' were not going to be what one typically expected superheroes to be like, and boy...they certainly weren't. It wasn't long before Hughie's girlfriend, Robin, was exploded by A-Train super-speeding right through her. I'd heard about this, so it didn't have quite as much impact as it probably would've had I not been spoiled for it (especially the slow-motion part of it after it appeared she'd blinked out of existence). So, straight away A-Train established himself as more an A- hole than anything, as he barely seemed to care about this innocent woman's life he'd snuffed out and the impact it had on Hughie. I've seen quite a few characters in shows introduced as jerks/a-holes and it's often hard for me to have my opinion of them changed since they made such a bad first impression...this instance was no exception. Nothing I saw in the rest of the season altered my view of A-Train as a supremely a-holish person. Next on my 'shit list' was The Deep (hi, Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl, I wasn't sure it was you to begin with and had to wait until the end credits to check). He acted nice to Annie/Starlight to begin with, but it wasn't too long before he was dropping his pants and pretty much forcing her to give him a bj or he'd make sure she was no longer in The Seven and would ruin her life/any career prospects. Although they didn't actually show the act (which I was thankful for), it was pretty clear she had to go through with it. This immediately made me feel sorry for her and she seemed like the only decent character in the show. I guess one could argue Hughie started off 'decent' as well, but he was kind of a sad-sack (though, to be fair, he had reason to be after what he'd gone through), but even he managed to go 'dark' as the season went on. I didn't really get to know much about Queen Maeve or Black Noir in the first episode, sadly. All I really noted about Karl Urban's character, Billy Butcher, was that he had to explain what he meant by 'boot', his accent (which sounded like Urban's natural Kiwi accent some of the time, but at other times sounded like he was trying to be Dick Van Dyke as Bert in Mary Poppins) and the fact that he had a bad habit of dropping c-bombs at regular intervals (and I'd thought Pennyworth featured a lot of c-bombs. That was NOTHING compared to this show, as there were at least five per episode, if not more, I'd estimate). I didn't know Simon Pegg was going to be guest-starring in this as Hughie's dad (after looking at pictures of the comic book version of Hughie, I saw how closely he resembled Pegg, but I guess they wanted the character in the show to be younger, so this was their way of giving a nod to the uncanny resemblance while casting a more age-appropriate actor for the part. Having said that, I didn't get that they were father and son to begin with. They looked more like brothers to me. The actor playing Hughie, Dennis Quaid's son, looked too old to be the son of Simon Pegg). I also didn't know beforehand that Elisabeth Shue was in this, so that was a surprise as well. In the second episode, Karl Urban's accent seemed to lean more towards a British cockney accent than his natural New Zealand accent (though at times that still slipped through). It was interesting seeing the 'PR' side of things, with prearranged team-ups, etc. Though I HATED the actress who played the Vought publicist and Starlight's agent, Ashley. I hated her in Jessica Jones (where she played a character named Robyn, which was why I noted the name of Hughie's girlfriend in this show, since she was also named that...though with different spelling. I think I'll forever associate the name with that loathsome character in Jessica Jones and this actress who played her), as she almost ruined that show's first season for me she was so annoying, and she just has one of those very punchable faces, so every time she was onscreen in this show I was irritated and hoped she'd be offed. No such luck, unfortunately. When The Deep was whining to Starlight about how he was only called on when there was 'trouble at a dock. Or a river, or a lake, canal. A jetty.', it immediately reminded me of Knightboat: The Crime Solving Boat from The Simpsons and how there was always an 'inlet or a canal or a fjord' as a means of escape. I was glad to see Starlight stand up to The Deep and threaten to burn his eyes out for what he'd done to her (it became quite clear that although he 'acted big' in the first episode, he was just as much of a walking fish joke as Aquaman's always presented in everything but the Jason Momoa film). Homelander also threatened him. Speaking of, my brain could not compute that this was Antony Starr aka Lucas Hood (or, more accurately, Not!Lucas Hood) from the TV series Banshee. I didn't recognise him in the first episode without his facial hair from that other show, though I did feel there was something familiar about him. It wasn't until I saw the end credits and recognised his name that I realised. He deserves kudos for playing this 'hero' who, on the surface, appears as sincere a 'good guy' as Christopher Reeve's Superman and Chris Evans' Captain America, but underneath that persona he presents to the public, he's actually a sociopath and quite evil. Considering all the powers at his disposal, that combined with his threatening manner equaled one scary dude. I never knew if/when he was going to zap someone with his laser eyes or something else equally horrible. I was annoyed that Maeve still barely had anything to do/say, but was glad to see Translucent meet a sticky end, as he'd annoyed me and I was hoping he was dead after the first episode. It was weird that no one had thought prior to this about how someone with invulnerable skin wouldn't necessarily have invulnerable insides as well. I mean, this is the first thing that occurs to me whenever I see anything with characters who have super-tough skin. I figured they'd just trick him into drinking an explosive or whatever, but they explained why they had to knock him out and insert it rectally (because he might've vomited up anything they fed him). Anyway, I was virtually saying out loud to the screen, "Come on, Hughie, kill him already!" as he wavered a bit, before finally going through with it. I may have cheered. I was also happy to see Starlight beating up those guys to save that woman from being raped. Unlike most of the other heroes, she was actually using her powers for good. Unfortunately, it got her into trouble with her extremely annoying agent. The third episode began with shoveling up Translucent bits. The only time I liked Homelander was him telling Elisabeth Shue's character, Stillwell, to turn off her kid/make it stop (even though she pointed out that it wasn't crying, it was still making annoying noises, so I understood where Homelander was coming from in that instance). The woman who Starlight saved last episode came forward, so she was no longer in trouble for not consulting her extremely annoying agent about the save she made...but she was made to wear a skimpy outfit. Stillwell basically forced her into it, saying she'd be out of The Seven if she didn't (there seems to be a lot of that type of threatening by the characters towards poor Starlight ). A-Train’s girlfriend, Popclaw, appeared to have one of Wolverine's original bone claws in each arm. She also reminded me of Marrow from the X-Men comics. A-Train showed how little he regarded 'mere humans', as he didn't seem to recognise Hughie (who was barely containing his rage when coming face to face with his girlfriend's killer). It was funny seeing the actor who played Rufus in the TV series Timeless (which I just finished rewatching on Blu-ray earlier this year) appear here in what seemed like a 'bit part' (though he was featured more in later episodes). I guess since Timeless was a show from Eric Kripke (the man behind Supernatural) and this one was too, he wasn't above 'reusing' actors. It also took me until this third episode to realise where I'd seen the actress playing Queen Maeve from previously. She was in The Astronaut Wives Club, which I'd watched when it was on TV. She looked quite a bit different here, which is why it took me so long to 'place' her. Once we learned that Maeve had a thing with Homelander, I was immediately worried for her on account of the fact that he was always threatening-sounding (even with her) and him nonchalantly shooting her after killing a guy who'd been shooting at them. He cared more about his glove that got bloody from the sucking chest wound he'd punched in the dude. Clearly she wasn't totally on board with him killing the shooter. It was interesting that we learned Homelander couldn't see through zinc. Here's hoping this proves useful in eventually defeating him at some point. I really couldn't have cared less about A-Train and his racing woes or druggie habits. The only real thing of note was that he was apparently 'high' when he ran through Hughie's girlfriend. That didn't excuse what he did, of course. I hope that wasn't supposed to 'let him off the hook' in any way. It'd be like excusing a drunk driver who killed someone. Meanwhile, his girlfriend crushed a guy's face from sitting on it after having taken the same Compound V stuff he was on (I knew that part was coming, thankfully, so was able to find something else worth looking at when that moment occurred). Again I felt sorry for Starlight when she took a photo with a kid fan who was dressed in a replica of Starlight's old outfit and the girl revealed she was saving up to get an outfit just like Starlight's new one. Some dude yelled out for Starlight to show her boobs and after that kind of 'ruined' the photograph session, she told the girl to save her money. I can't say I was too sad to see how The Deep was treated by Homelander given how he'd treated Starlight, but I was amused when it was mentioned that The Deep's 'friend' (a porpoise) found the Translucent bits. The fourth episode showed just how evil Homelander could be, as he purposely let people on a plane die rather than rescue any of them. Maeve showed she at least had some humanity, as she firstly wanted him to fly people down to safety (which let us know that she couldn't fly herself), but obviously Homelander thought that would take too long/too much effort, then she wanted him to at least save a mother and her young daughter...but he wouldn't even agree to that. In the end he gave her a choice to either crash with them or go with him. This was a particularly 'dark' moment (one might argue even 'darker' than the more gory moments, as this involved people begging to be saved and Homelander dismissing them/threatening them with his laser eyes). I will admit, though, that I found it morbidly amusing when he was reassuring them everything was fine as they were panicking after they’d been so relieved at his saving them (though they did witness him zap one guy dead). They'd applauded Maeve too. It was so close to being a 'happy' moment at the start, but then it all went to hell in no time. Meanwhile, The Deep wasn't exactly having a 'fun' time either, as he wanted to help dolphins at Oceanland after talking to his therapist about being the fish joke guy. It was funny seeing him driving and the dolphin in the back, talking to him/wanting him to touch...something, but then he slammed on the brakes and the poor dolphin (who'd looked/been acting so happy) went flying through the windscreen (in slow-mo, no less) and out onto road where it got run over by a semi. That^ was a pretty sad moment, and I almost felt sorry for The Deep since he seemed to genuinely care about the dolphin...but then reminded myself what he did to Starlight and he immediately lost my sympathy. I just felt sorry for the poor dolphin. I hate any sort of harm coming to an animal, so this^ was a bit much. It wasn't enough it went through the windscreen and onto the road. No, it had to get SQUISHED as well. I don't see the 'funny' in animal cruelty. Something that was funny, though: Butcher’s Spice Girls analogy that he used in an effort to keep his gang together (which then led into their song 'Wannabe' that played as The Deep was attempting to rescue the dolphin). The only one having a half-decent time was Hughie, who went on a date with Starlight. At first she seemed like a bad bowler, but it turned out that she wasn't really, after revealing that she'd held back on her bowling expertise because a guy she was with stopped talking to her after she beat up a dude and he apparently couldn't handle her being stronger than him. Hughie suspected her of not being the nicest person in the world (all evidence to the contrary) and was being haunted by his dead girlfriend. Like with the show trying to make us feel sympathy for The Deep by showing him caring about animals, it seemed they were also trying to make us think that A-Train really cared about his girlfriend (shame he didn't care about anyone else's). We were introduced to The Female aka Kimiko, who had been locked up but was freed by one of Butcher's team (Frenchie - who I had trouble understanding half the time) and she killed a bunch of people violently. Elsewhere, Homelander was putting a spin on the tragedy of the crashed plane by saying it never would've happened if The Seven were allowed into the military. The fifth episode illustrated that A-Train apparently didn't care about his girlfriend after all, since he super-sped two needles into her arms, causing her to overdose after he'd found out about her taking Compound V and talking with Butcher. So A-Train's apparently an equal opportunity girlfriend-killer (not just other people's girlfriends, but also his own). I can't say I really appreciated this episode's heavy-handedness with the whole Anti-Christian stuff (especially from Butcher). The only one who I was able to tolerate at the Believe Expo was Starlight (who got to wear her old/less reveal-y outfit again). As part of her speech, she mentioned what was really 'immoral' was what The Deep did to her. Of course, she didn't mention him by name, but everything else she put right out there...and good on her! Hopefully it got through to The Deep, who was watching at home, stuffing his face after the dolphin incident. Starlight wasn't the only one who went 'off script', though. Homelander did as well (though maybe not quite so much). Later on when Homerlander was lying on Stillwell’s lap, it was looking like he was going to suck on her boob or something...but, thankfully, only did that to her fingers (still, ew). On top of Homelander's creepy relationship with Stillwell, we also learned about baby Supes and how they were created, not born (as they'd been led to believe they were). I knew, long before watching this show, about Butcher using the Supe baby to slice and dice through guys with its laser eyes. Someone else who almost got cut in half was Kimiko (by Black Noir, who finally did something noteworthy), but then she healed. I was so glad that in the sixth episode we finally got to say goodbye to Starlight's horrible agent (though, sadly, she wasn't offed). Buh-bye, bitch! She said she was glad she didn’t have to kiss Starlight’s arse anymore, while I was just glad I didn't have to see her punchable face anymore. Starlight stood up to Stillwell, The Deep had to ‘fess up to what he did to Starlight (though he spun it that he perceived it as 'consensual') and was basically sent into exile/banished, Maeve apologised to Starlight...but that was about it (more Maeve, damn it!), we learned that Homelander raped Butcher's wife, Butcher made it clear to Hughie that he thought Starlight was just like the rest of The Seven (if only he'd known what was done to her by The Deep, maybe he'd have had a little sympathy after what happened to his wife...then again, Butcher only seemed to care about himself and his own problems, so maybe it wouldn't have made any difference after all) and threatened Hughie if Starlight found out about Translucent's death. I was amused by the Tara Reid and Billy Zane cameos at the convention, and this is the second show I've recently seen grown-up Haley Joel Osment in (the other was Future Man, which I was watching on TV). I don't think I'd seen him in anything since I watched A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) on TV years ago, so it was quite the 'jump' to go from last seeing him as his kid self to seeing him as an adult. He still looks like himself (just now with a beard). The seventh episode started with a flashback to Butcher (minus his facial hair, but with as much of a potty mouth as ever) and his wife, Becca, meeting Homelander. It wasn't until this episode, when we got a better look at her, that I recognised the actress playing Butcher's wife as Shantel VanSanten. She appeared in Season 2 of The Flash as Patty Spivot and was another actress from the TV show Timeless (she appeared in the very first episode as a lookalike of Wyatt's dead wife). The meeting that Homelander had with The Seven Five was filled with tension, I thought. He was his usual threatening self and I kept expecting him to do something bad. The only one he complimented was Black Noir (who we actually see doing very little most of the time). In this scene Starlight found out about Hughie and Butcher, everyone learned about Starlight and Hughie being together, A-Train got mad at Starlight while Maeve was sticking up for her. Later they chatted and had a martini. When A-Train was threatening Hughie’s dad, broken up about his girlfriend's death, all I could think was what an a-hole he was, since it was him who killed her. Of course, he had to place the blame on someone else since he was incapable of accepting responsibility (both for her death and for killing Hughie's girlfriend). I was somewhat amused by The Deep being stuck living somewhere he deemed 'beneath' him. Even more amusing was Air Supply's 'All Out of Love' playing as he struggled to write his ‘Deeper: A Memoir’ (I'll forever associate that song with Dean Winchester singing along to it in an episode of Supernatural) and then him going shopping at the local grocery store and chatting with a lobster who he promised to free. Less amusing was the lobster being killed before he had a chance to stop the guy from doing it. The show is trying really hard to make us feel for The Deep. I feel for the animals. Butcher killed Haley Joel Osment's character, Mesmer, while Homelander went to see a guy (played by the actor who was Carmine Falcone in Gotham) who lab tested him and this was, I guess, supposed to 'explain' Homelander's evilness. I was just mainly worried about the dogs the guy was breeding and whether Homelander was going to do something horrible to them. Hughie basically admitted to Starlight he was using her to get to A-Train (after earlier she'd asked him if he they went to a hotel because he was trying to do 'nice things' before up and leaving her like her father did). She wanted to take him to the cops, but Butcher shot her a couple times as they fled - which made me dislike Butcher (who I noticed didn't seem to utter as many c-bombs this episode as he usually did. Or maybe I just somehow missed hearing them) and Hughie (for just leaving Starlight like that) more than I already did. On the 'plus' side, Kimiko broke A-Train's leg - complete with bone sticking through (usually I'd be grossed out, but he totally deserved that). We also learned there were Supe terrorists out there. In the eighth episode/season final, we began with Homelander zapping/slicing through guys. I did not watch him crush one guy's head with his foot (after it became clear that was what he was about to do). It showed how horribly efficient Homelander was at taking out enemies. He also uttered his line to the guys he helped out about how they were the 'real heroes' (which he liked to do when in public). Turns out Homelander helped create supervillains (which just seemed unwise to me, as although it ensures The Seven will be needed and let into the military like they've wanted all this time, it also means there'll be other Supes out there who could possibly give Homelander a run for his money. I mean, how does he know there won't be anyone else more powerful than him? Even if there isn't, they could all gang up on him). Although I think Mother's Milk has got to be THE MOST STUPID NAME EVER for a character, I did like him helping out Hughie by pointing out to Butcher that Starlight didn’t know him, and since he got 'burned' along with the rest of them, she couldn't be to blame for it. A-Train was his usual a-holish self when he wasn't immediately recognised in a store while on crutches and cursed at everyone. Later he was pulling a train to strengthen himself and he even managed to piss off his trainer or whoever the guy was who hightailed it out of there after even he had had enough of A-train's BS. Losing friends and alienating people - that's A-Train. Starlight had a talk with her mum about what happened to her as a kid (after Hughie had filled her in). She learned she wasn't 'chosen', but just 'made' and her mum was basically like a lot of pageant mums, making it all about her and giving Starlight no choice really (which she'd already had taken away from her by The Deep, Stillwell, etc). It made sense why she then 'rebelled' by wearing her skimpy outfit once again (after getting a reprieve from it at the Believe Expo) and was looking to hook up with random dudes and other stuff until Maeve had a chat with her in the bathroom, telling her to just being her 'goody two-shoes' self. I liked seeing scenes between these two. I wished we could've gotten more (and just more Maeve in general, really). As Black Noir played the piano, we met Giancarlo Esposito's headhoncho character. Mr. Edgar (who was apparently the boss of The Seven and seemed to intimidate them by just his name being mentioned). Elsewhere, Butcher referred to his guys as ‘the boys’, which finally made the show's title make sense (he also made up for his lack of c-bombs last episode by dropping plenty of them in this one) but abandoned them, while Hughie wanted to help them. Homelander learned last episode that Butcher’s wife had his kid, but they supposedly died (her from it tearing itself out, and it after only a short while being alive). However, after more creepy stuff between him and Stillwell, she promised to not lie to him anymore and then proceeded to lie about Butcher's wife dying in childbirth. Starlight showed up to help the boys. I enjoyed seeing her living up to her name and going all 'starlight-y', glowing and sending sparks everywhere. When A-Train showed up, I was hoping she'd manage to take him out. Unfortunately, he shoved Starlight away (after we cut to slow-mo) and was his a-holish self once again (blaming everyone else for his problems while accepting no real responsibility or feeling guilty for his own actions), putting Popclaw's death all on Hughie...but then he suddenly suffered a heart attack. This would've been GREAT...except then, for some reason, Hughie felt compelled to save his girlfriend's killer who he'd been wanting to kill himself all this time (and he'd proven he was capable, after offing Translucent). I was with Starlight, and it was a bit rich for Hughie to expect her to take over saving A-train while he escaped (after what the a-hole had just done to her). When Butcher was waiting at Stillwell’s place in the dark, it immediately made me think "How long has he been sitting there waiting?". I always wonder this whenever a character dramatically waits in the dark for someone to return home. What if he'd been waiting a while and had to go take a leak just as she returned home? That would've totally ruined his dramatic revealing of himself to her. He'd found out she was supposedly Homelander's 'weakness' and thus strapped explosives to her, but as Homelander pointed out to him...it wasn't much of a plan. Everything Homelander said to Butcher (about his lack of plan and him not even making 100% sure he'd killed Butchers wife) was the truth. I wondered what the point of Homelander bringing Stillwell's kid down into the room was, but in the end all he really wanted was a confession out of her that she was afraid of him (after letting her know he'd caught her in her lie earlier on). He then proceeded to laser beam her in the face, burning through her eyes and a good percentage of her skull. I guess with Mr. Edgar being introduced, the show had no further 'need' for her character. So long, Elisabeth Shue. It was nice to see you again after having not really seen you in much for quite a long time. Apparently Butcher figured he was screwed (or that he had nothing left to live for), as he set the explosives off once he no longer had any 'leverage' over Homelander. He then woke up on a lawn and it was 'revealed' (not that it was that surprising really) Homelander's son was alive and living with his mum/Butcher's wife who was also still alive. I'm not sure where they're going with all this next season, but it should be interesting. The thing that made the least sense this episode? The Deep shaving all his hair after having had a girl stick her fingers in his gills (which were in a sensitive area). I guess now he knows what it feels like to be sexually assaulted/have someone do something to him he didn't want to happen (just like what he put Starlight through). So, has he finally had enough of living on land and is going to start a new life under the sea? While I could've done without the constant c-bombs and excessive violence, I knew what I was getting into when I started this show. It seemed others, however, did not. I liked the show in spite of those things rather than because of them. Starlight was easily my favourite. Erin Moriarty was easily likable as her character and I'm not sure if I would've liked the show much if she wasn't in it. The opposite of that was Homelander, who was most definitely a character I didn't 'like'. Nevertheless, I did find him interesting (and quite unsettling at times). Antony Starr was really good in the role. I've already mentioned a few times how I would've liked to have seen more of Maeve. I really wanted to get to know her character, but she seemed underused in this first season. I hope they rectify that in Season 2. Speaking of the second season, I just checked out the teaser trailer for it. As well as this clip featuring the introduction of a new character named Stormfront played by Aya Cash (I'm SO pleased to see she's joining this show, as she was excellent in You're the Worst. So much so that I watched that series TWICE in a row). Here are a couple of interviews with members of the cast that you may be interested in watching...assuming you actually liked the show (which I would know if you told me your thoughts on it already! ): Here are a couple of the cast doing the interviewing (though you probably shouldn't watch it until you've seen all of Season 2, as it's spoilery): And here's the 'Honest Trailer' for the show:
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Post by Grandmaster on Oct 12, 2020 14:59:12 GMT 1
The Right Stuff. Its on Disney+. Its made by NG. A dramatised story aboit the Mercury 7. Its cool.
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Oct 14, 2020 11:27:58 GMT 1
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season 1, Episode 23: ‘Skin of Evil’. Alternate Episode Title: 'Noooo! You killed Tasha, you bastards!". I'd been spoiled for this before ever watching the episode (yes, it's possible to be 'spoiled' for a show this old, when I hadn't started watching it until this year), but nothing could've prepared me for just how frustrating/anger-inducing it would be. It started off fine enough with Tasha and Worf sharing a scene together. I liked seeing the two of them interact and it was a nice moment between them as Worf encouraged/supported Tasha in regards to a martial arts competition that was going to take place in three days. It showed how well they got on and how they had a lot in common. It wasn't until Tasha, Riker, Data and Beverly encountered the malevolent oil slick that I realised this was the episode of Tasha's death. After seeing that the sentient oil slick would move in their way whenever they tried to get past, I figured what was going to happen was one of them would try to jump over it and it'd get them (whether it be Tasha or she tried to save one of the others who it grabbed, I thought this was how it was going to happen). But no, her death was even lamer than that. She made clear to it that they weren't going to harm it, they just wanted to save Deanna Troi and the other crewperson who were trapped in a shuttlecraft. Yet it still zapped her. I was surprised that's what happened, as I had envisioned her getting enveloped by it ever since I first saw photos from the episode back when I started watching this show and was looking up her character online (though Riker would get the honour of being oil-slicked later on). I thought maybe it'd be a struggle between her fighting being part of it now or something. No, it was much more boring/mundane than that. Beverly pronounces poor Tasha 'dead' like she's just some rando and not a crewmember they all know well. Very disappointing acting from that actress who played the doctor. Then again, none of them really seemed to react much to the news of their crewmate being DEAD. Is barely reacting to well-known fellow crewmember deaths a 'thing' in Star Trek? I remember towards the end of Star Trek: Nemesis, Picard seemed to barely react to Data sacrificing himself. Anyway, they get Tasha back to the ship and Picard asks Beverly if there's anything she can do for Tasha (to help with death??). Alas, she cannot. And, wow, people thought the actress playing Tasha was 'bad'? How about the total lack of any emotion coming from the actress who played Beverly? Honestly, I thought someone would pick up the slack as far as expressing actual sadness over a crewmember's death was concerned...but apparently that was expecting too much. What was worse was the way they seemed to hardly even spend any time on it before having discussions about rescuing Deanna and the other one. I'm sure Tasha would've been so pleased to see they spent all of one minute focusing on her before being like, "Yeah...well...moving on." following her DEATH. It became clear as the episode went on that the oil slick was a sadistic oil slick, enjoying killing Tasha for fun, wanting to torture/cause pain to other crewmembers just for fun. And what was its deep, dark reason for hating everyone? He was left behind. So, he's a big whiny BITCH. The voice also reminded me of the Epideme virus from Red Dwarf (though less amusing than it). Even Deanna, who I thought for sure would have SOME sort of reaction to Tasha'a death, just seemed to accept it had happened and was like, "Well, you're a sadistic oil slick... of course you get off on this." and that was it. If there's one thing I hate in episodes of shows where a 'main' character is killed off, it's the other characters not reacting enough to the death (very seldom have I found characters have overreacted to another one's death). It's not a good sign when I'm sadder than Tasha's crewmates appear to be. When Picard sat down to have a civil discussion with the Oil Slick O' Doom, I was peeved. He was going on about it not being evil despite the fact it clearly was happy to kill people just for fun - if that's not 'evil', I don't know what is. Thankfully, he made clear they weren't going to help it leave the planet as he was beamed up. I just wish he'd said "Tasha Yar - remember that name for the rest of your existence." or "This is for Tasha." or something like that. Anything would've been good. But no. *sigh* At least they remembered her at the end at her funeral. But how slack of Picard that he didn't even really talk about her or anything. Instead the end became about a hologram of her saying how great everyone else was. At least we FINALLY got some vaguely sad-looking acting coming from the others. Marina Sirtis did the best job (I read her tears were real) at looking like she actual missed Tasha and was upset by her being gone, whereas everyone else pretty much appeared like they were trying to look sad...and only half succeeding. At least the actresses who played Tasha and Deanna seemed like they actually enjoyed each other's company and genuinely got along. I'll miss that. When Hologram Tasha was praising everyone and got to Wesley, I immediately rolled my eyes. Oh, how I wish HE'D been the victim of a psycho oil slick instead of Tasha. Hell, have it take out both the Crushers, as I wasn't a fan of either one. It's a shame we got so little of the Tasha/Worf dynamic, as it showed such promise (but, hey, Worf got a promotion out it...so things are looking up for him). The most interesting dynamic, though, was Tasha's relationship with Data (not that they really had a 'relationship - there was that one episode where she was all horny for him, but other that that...). Considering when the show started, she was wary of him... It was interesting seeing her call him 'friend' near the end of her monologue and his reaction to her saying he was more human than all of them. Though I kind of took issue with Picard telling Data that he was right to have his thoughts not be so much about Tasha, but more about how he'd feel without her around anymore - yes, because it's really all about the living rather than the DEAD person, Picard. I've read some comments saying that Tasha wasn't the developed as a character...but, honestly, the same could be said of several other crewmembers too. Certain ones felt like they got a lot more 'development' than others. Apparently the actress who played Tasha was sick of that and that's why she wanted out. While I do understand her reasons, I wish she'd stuck around/hung in there longer so we could've gotten more Tasha. She mightn't have had as much 'development' as some of the others, but she still felt like a proper character to me (and certainly felt more development than the majority of the cast in Star Trek: Enterprise). I'm not surprised by certain comments I'd read from haters of the character/actress (seems like there were those types of people around even back in the day). I, for one, will miss her character in the show. Although she was a little rough around the edges/came on a little too strong in the first couple of episodes of the show, I was surprised to find myself liking her as the season went on. It seems to just be my luck - that characters I like always die in shows. All I have left to say is...Natasha Yar deserved better!
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Post by AQUA JAR!™ on Oct 14, 2020 16:27:49 GMT 1
I watched all of the boys recently, im not all that great at typing out reviews
i stopped watching the first season last year, i thought it was too dark, too cynical, too violent
then i picked up with season 2 and felt the same way
i stuck with it though, and even went back to finish season 1
then they tricked me, and went back to back too being uber bloddy and gross
i guess its meant to be funny, or something
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Post by Dave Stoller on Oct 14, 2020 20:31:05 GMT 1
I watched all of the boys recently, im not all that great at typing out reviews Ah, so that would explain why you didn't share an opinion on the movie The Signal or much on The Comey Rule.
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Post by Dave Stoller on Oct 14, 2020 20:41:08 GMT 1
Well, someone around here and it wasn't me *Ahem - Ahem* forgot to pay the electric bill so I have been staring at a blank screen and making up my own shows. It's even better than the real thing because no commercials!
So the last thing I "watched" is a sitcom called, "The Coffee Shop" which takes place in a coffee shop. (And you thought I was going to type in "Laundromat." No silly. That comes on in an hour.) Anyway, the owner is a Russian, Ukrainian or wherever Borat is from and he says in his thick accent the catch phrase, "I do not joke around." In the last episode he was telling a regular, a retarded blind black woman in a wheel chair because PC you know, "In my village we would sacrifice a virgin goat every full moon but that stopped when I made sure they were no longer virgins." Then the regular says, "You have gotta be joking." "I do not joke around." Raucous laughter.
Does that answer your question?
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Post by AQUA JAR!™ on Oct 14, 2020 21:23:41 GMT 1
I watched all of the boys recently, im not all that great at typing out reviews Ah, so that would explain why you didn't share an opinion on the movie The Signal or much on The Comey Rule. yeah, i am a very articulate and even verbose speaker, but i am a horrible writer, i have always joked that "god gives you one talent or the other... but not both!"
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Post by AQUA JAR!™ on Oct 14, 2020 21:25:30 GMT 1
the most you will usually get out of me on a film review ( or any review ) is "it was great" or "it was horrible"
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Post by AQUA JAR!™ on Oct 14, 2020 21:26:54 GMT 1
if any of you ever gets me on the phone for some reason, you will regret it, you wont be able to shut me up, lol
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Post by Dave Stoller on Oct 14, 2020 23:12:26 GMT 1
if any of you ever gets me on the phone for some reason, you will regret it, you wont be able to shut me up, lol We both live in the midstates so which means we are not all that far from each other. Where ya wanna meet? You head out and travel no faster than the speed limit and I will do the same. That way we can answer the classic math question of, "Where would we meet heading in these directions going at this speed?" Though be sure to pause the stop watch when you have to stop for gas, eating and restroom breaks. Party on, bro!
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Post by Dave Stoller on Oct 14, 2020 23:15:34 GMT 1
the most you will usually get out of me on a film review ( or any review ) is "it was great" or "it was horrible" Yeah, I noticed! LOL For one (Comey) but not the other (Signal). So did you like The Signal? Great or horrible? You should start a movie review show. 60 movies in 60 seconds. "Great, great, great, horrible, great, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, great, horrible..." etc etc.
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Post by AQUA JAR!™ on Oct 14, 2020 23:25:08 GMT 1
if any of you ever gets me on the phone for some reason, you will regret it, you wont be able to shut me up, lol We both live in the midstates so which means we are not all that far from each other. Where ya wanna meet? You head out and travel no faster than the speed limit and I will do the same. That way we can answer the classic math question of, "Where would we meet heading in these directions going at this speed?" Though be sure to pause the stop watch when you have to stop for gas, eating and restroom breaks. Party on, bro! NO MATH! we should probably meet at a Trump rally, no social distancing, no masks!
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Post by Dave Stoller on Oct 14, 2020 23:40:52 GMT 1
We both live in the midstates so which means we are not all that far from each other. Where ya wanna meet? You head out and travel no faster than the speed limit and I will do the same. That way we can answer the classic math question of, "Where would we meet heading in these directions going at this speed?" Though be sure to pause the stop watch when you have to stop for gas, eating and restroom breaks. Party on, bro! NO MATH! we should probably meet at a Trump rally, no social distancing, no masks! Sounds like a plan, Baby. I am no good at math and why not live a little before ya die and live life on the edge with those risks you mention? Who needs a gun for Russian Roulette? This is Murica dammit and we is gonna play Trumpy Roulette! Fuckin A right!
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Post by Deleted on Oct 15, 2020 9:23:02 GMT 1
Ah, so that would explain why you didn't share an opinion on the movie The Signal or much on The Comey Rule. yeah, i am a very articulate and even verbose speaker, but i am a horrible writer, i have always joked that "god gives you one talent or the other... but not both!" It just takes some practice I suppose and I think Im ok. Besides, no one's a review nazi around here
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Post by Lord Ackbar on Nov 6, 2020 19:34:12 GMT 1
Binged all of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul over the last 2 months and now I’m feeling the pain of having to wait another year for the final season. Great shows though
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Post by Chalice_Of_Evil on Nov 8, 2020 0:32:59 GMT 1
Most recently finished Season 2 of Anne with an E on DVD. I previously watched Season 1 on DVD earlier this year, after having never read the books or seen any other adaptations of them, and was surprised to find how much I enjoyed it. Season 1 felt like the type of show that used to be on TV which I would've watched growing up. It was a relief from all the super dark/depressing shows I typically watch (though there are some 'dark'/'depressing' parts in it too). By the end of the first season, I was eager to watch the next one and thankfully it wasn't too long a wait for it to be released here (the third and, sadly, final season was released shortly thereafter). The one thing that made me a little hesitant in starting Season 2 was that I'd found oftentimes shows which had a great first season struggled to maintain the same quality in their second season and I was worrying that the second season of this show would possibly disappoint me after I enjoyed the first one so much. Episode 1{Spoiler}Begins with abstract shots of Anne (not showing her face, just parts of her) as she says goodbye to Belle the horse (there wasn't nearly enough horse-chatting going on this season), grabs some rope, waves to a tree (she waves to everything. I'm surprised she doesn't wave to the dirt she walks on), then literally hugs the tree, climbs it, and is up there to get a good perspective. For a split second when seeing her grab the rope and taking it to a tree, my mind went to a dark place (I thought, "Damn, what happened between last season and this one that would make Anne want to hang herself?")...but then I remembered what sort of show I was watching and that they wouldn't dare 'go there' (I blame all the other dark stuff I watch for making me automatically think of the worst possible thing). She’s still as curious as always, talks just as much, and soaks in everything/feels everything so completely. By all rights, Anne's overenthusiasm for everything should get on my nerves...but I find Amybeth McNulty brings such a charm to her character that no matter how irritating Anne might get at times, I just can't hate her for it. I can't even dislike her. I've noticed in recent years when reading comments online people using the phrase "He/she must be protected at all costs!" in relation to various characters. I never really 'got' that before now, but I think I can safely say I feel protective of Anne's character in this show. Anything that's done to upset her royally pisses me off and I feel stabby towards whoever does it. Who woulda thunk it? Me, a person who typically hates most kid characters in shows/movies, feeling 'protective' of a kid character in a show? That's a testament to Amybeth's acting, I think, as I'm not sure I'd care so much if a different/less endearing actress had played the role. But enough of this gushy stuff! I was disappointed to learn that her freckles AREN'T REAL. They put fake freckles on Amybeth for her to play Anne. I wonder how many viewers were so happy to have a heroine who, like them, had an abundance of freckles...only to find out it was all a lie! I feel SO disillusioned! I still love the show's theme/opening credits, though, and was glad to see neither had been changed (I hate it when shows have already perfect themes/opening credits and then feel the need to change them and they're not a patch on the original versions). Seriously, if nothing else...check out these opening credits! They're a thing of art and one of the best I've ever seen. Of course, not everything is 'light'/'fun', as we are shown more flashbacks to Anne's torturous time at the orphanage where the horrible girls there are telling her nasty stories (seriously messed up things that have you wondering what sort of psychos birthed them in the first place), and yet Anne is the one who gets in trouble for talking and is forced to hold a pile of heavy books all night, it seems (though she cleverly hides one under her dress to slightly lessen the weight as the person who's supposed to be watching her snoozes). Later on, one bitch rips part of a book out because Anne likes reading it. I feel so sorry for Anne every time we see something horrible that she’s put through. It's always the good ones who're treated the worst. I thought it was weird that the Cuthberts still hadn’t figured out their two new boarders were bad news. It's also a bit disturbing that Anne seems like she has a bit of a thing for one of them, the one called Nate, but it's also weird that he seems to have a bit of a thing for Marilla (causing her to get flustered). Clearly he's putting on an act for all of them (especially Anne, who he appears to struggle to be patient with at times). The other one, Mr. Dunlop, seems nicer and bakes lots of stuff with Anne. They even sing. But I won't forget that he and Nate beat up and robbed poor Jerry at the end of last season, thus making both of them scum. Obviously Nate is messing with Marilla, since at dinner he takes her hand (then everyone else joins in). I was amused at Anne asking him to say something in prayer that sounded more 'romantical' (her favourite word). The family go for a ride, Anne randomly jumps off and wants to go to the beach, she goes into the water against Marilla’s wishes and so does Matthew, then there's a brief moment where they think Anne's drowned, but he carries her out and proceeds to give her a brief swimming lesson. Anne asks if they make enough money can they buy back the horse which Jerry sold in last season's final (and they didn't even get the money for the horse, since Nate and Dunlop stole it from Jerry after beating him up). Speaking of, he's getting menaced by Nate in the barn and I wonder how it's possible Jerry doesn't recognise one of the men who beat the snot out of him. Anne's been giving him lessons to learn the alphabet/how to read, though he doesn’t want a spelling lesson with her after his barn encounter with Nate (who was possibly going to do something bad if Anne hadn't come in). It was nice to see Anne and Diana, as well as Ruby Gillis (who was pretty horrible to Anne last season, but then ended up becoming a friend of hers), at their clubhouse and writing stories...or at least trying to, anyway. I was amused that apparently Ruby just kept writing romantic stories about someone with a name like Gilbert (as she was obviously missing him) and Diana kept offing her characters. Matthew sees from a distance the two grifters chatting and they’re pretending they've found gold, purposely talking loudly about it so Anne overhears, then she goes to Rachel Lynde who can tell she’s hiding something and says whatever secret she's keeping is safe with her. Cut to everyone knowing. The grifters are playing them like a fiddle at the town meeting and getting them to invest a large sum of money in their supposed gold-finding venture. While they’re away from the house, Anne finds the stamp thing in Nate’s stuff he's used to create fake gold certification documents, she prints it onto paper she takes because she has a shortage, prays her letter gets to Gilbert and that she makes no spelling mistakes (I know the feeling when it comes to hoping for no spelling mistakes). She plans to replace Nate’s paper that she took, but later he finds that someone's been in his stuff, then proceeds to pull a hair from his head and put it on the lock he keeps his stuff in (I think)? Meanwhile, Gilbert’s elsewhere and has befriended an African-American man named Bash (short for Sebastian), singing as they shovel coal into the boiler of a steamship they're on. Episode 2{Spoiler}Begins with Gilbert and Bash. Gilbert admires a horse and encourages Bash to come over to it, but he has a thing about horses. Some jerk assumes Bash is a slave and wants him to do whatever for him, but Bash informs him that he's a free man and Gilbert learns things aren't so easy for his new friend. Somehow Jerry STILL hasn’t put two and two together in regards to Nate and Dunlop being the ones that beat him up last season. Nate makes Anne believe she's seeing traces of gold under a microscope despite the fact that she's not actually seeing anything and says as much to him, but he convinces her that it's there and she goes along with it. This reminded me of the first episode last season when Marilla thought Anne had stolen her brooch, which she hadn't, but Marilla convinced Anne to lie and say she did. It was disappointing to see in this scene with Nate that Anne, who is so intelligent, let him pressure her into second-guessing herself just to please the jerk, as she really should've gone with her gut/trusted her instincts on this one. Matthew gives Anne money to buy a new slate after the one she cracked on Gilbert's head last season (a classic moment from Season 1 that I'll never forget as it always cracks me up whenever I think of it). Anne has such imagination when walking with Diana in the woods, imagining a branch she gets snared on as a skeleton hand and (amusingly) freaking them both out. At school, Cole is a quiet artistic type who we're introduced to and he draws very well for someone his age. Billy Andrews (Anne's main tormenter last season) throws a ball, tells Cole to throw it back and says he’s got a good arm, but Cole doesn’t want to join. Billy then throws the ball hard at a 'friend'. He's still a dick, I see. Meanwhile, the creepo teacher has still got his ridiculous hair/mustache, still got that student (Prissy) lusting after him, and is still an a-hole. Billy the dick makes ink go all over Cole's drawing (apparently he didn't take too kindly to Cole knocking back his invitation and now has a vendetta against him - which kind of makes Billy the Draco Malfoy of the school. Hell, he even has his own Crabbe and Goyle), but creepo teacher blames Cole (what is it with adults in this show blaming the person being victimized?) and makes him go to the black board to write (after not even letting him pick up his stuff that fell on floor. Luckily, Anne - who is one of the only decent people at that school - picks it up for him). Cole writes in big fancy writing, but creepo teacher rubs it off, saying he’ll need space for 50 more ( such an a-hole!). Anne and Diana go to sit with Cole at lunch, one by one others join (mainly because Diana has tarts). Josie Pye (Anne's other main tormenter last season) pretends other older girls are outside asking her to join them. Anne continues to freak out her friends with her ghost story, they leave, she gets a bit freaked herself, meets a fox, then returns home to find Dunlop fake-crying over a letter supposedly about a dead relative and saying that he has a sizeable inheritance. He gives her a fancy pen and she immediately forgets all about her slate which she dumps in the wood bin for collecting firewood. I felt a bit sad for Matthew when he saw this, after he'd given her the money for a new one. Speaking of making people sad, Marilla has been changing her hair multiple times to attract Nate, yet he won’t hold hands with her at dinner like he did last episode and doesn't bother with saying grace either. Diana’s parents are having a party and everyone leaves Anne at home (who’s still freaked out by her own story). Dunlop sings along with Diana’s piano playing, everyone wants to get in on the whole gold-finding venture, Diana’s sister (who nearly died last season, but Anne saved) catches Nate trying to steal something and he puts it back, fake-compliments her and she kicks him - which makes her awesome. Go, Minnie May! Marilla thinks she hears Nate complimenting her, but turns around to see it’s someone else he's complimenting (let it go, Marilla, he's not worth it). Dunlop offers to pay Matthew and Marilla the money they need to get in on the whole gold venture thing, then later he and Nate argue outside the Cuthbert residence, causing noise that scares Anne more than she already is (as she's heard howling and whatnot prior to their raised voices). Anne goes to write a letter to Gilbert about the gold and ink pours out of the pen Dunlop gave her. I was mildly amused that the episode ends with her reaction, where she's like, “NO!!”. Speaking of ruining paper with ink, I forgot to mention that earlier in the episode after Billy the dick had spilled ink onto Cole's sketchbook, later on Cole turned over several pages in his sketchbook that the ink spill had soaked through and gradually there was less and less ink left on the pages until eventually he reached that was mostly clean and just had a few spots of ink on it. I thought it was pretty neat how he turned those spots into Anne's freckles as he drew her face and continued to prove what a gifted artist he was. I feel bad for him, as he just wants to keep to himself and draw, yet bullies won't leave him alone (I can relate). Episode 3{Spoiler}Begins with Matthew and others riding in the night on horses with lanterns in pursuit of something. After the opening credits, we pick up right where the last episode left off with Anne and the pen ink that went everywhere over the paper she 'borrowed' from Nate. Apparently she's going away for a trip with Diana and her parents (who have been fully convinced of the whole gold thing by Nate and Dunlop). Matthew wants to pay them for taking Anne with them, and while Diana's father doesn't think it's necessary, Diana's mother has no problem taking money from them despite the fact the Cuthberts aren't exactly rolling in it. Diana’s sister, Minnie May, is super-irritating on the ride (which is disappointing, after she'd been so awesome in kicking Nate last episode). Once they reach their destination, Anne and Diana go sleuthing and track down a sarcastic old guy named Malcolm Frost. He's not overly friendly to begin with, but it's done in a funny way. Gradually, though, he comes to respect Anne and what the two of them are trying to achieve by investigating the gold rush. He helps them and they put two and two together, figuring out Nate and Dunlop are swindling everybody. Jerry hasn’t, though, after all this time around them, and Nate is trying to force him to drink alcohol. Marilla's also moved on from not-minding them to not-liking like them now after finding their hidden booze. Dunlop wants to stay and buy land, build a house, stay close to the Cuthberts, and is even making Anne a pie.
Meanwhile, Diana’s mum is pissed they went to a pub and threatens to end their friendship when they try to tell her about the grifters. Once Nate and Dunlop realise Anne and Marilla are onto them, they tie the two of them up and flee. FINALLY Jerry gets it that they were the ones who beat him up...just in time for Nate to punch his lights out again. It’s nighttime once Matthew & co catch up with the grifters (which brings us up to where the episode began). Nate's pushed Dunlop down a hole at the site where they pretended to find gold and has fled. Jerry says at least he tried to stop them this time after feeling guilty he didn’t last time. The most infuriating thing is that NATE GETS AWAY. This is like Game of Thrones-levels of unbalanced (ie. good characters like Anne, Cole and Jerry get treated like crap, while characters such as Nate, creepo teacher and Billy the dick get away scot-free/suffer no comeuppance whatsoever for their actions). It's really quite rage-inducing. Of course, it's at this point that Anne’s letter she sent reaches Gilbert and he’s like, "There’s gold in Avonlea?". Er...yeah...about that... Episode 4{Spoiler}Begins with Anne and her friends reenacting a play that involves a corpse in a boat. It's sad to hear Anne say she won’t play the main role because of her red hair and that Ruby should play the part instead (this show will do wonders for your self-confidence if you're a redhead, for sure!), but eventually she relents. Unfortunately, Diana's mother scolds them all and seems to especially target poor Anne. It was at this point I wished Anne would've pointed out to her that she'd tried to stop them giving money to the grifters last episode, but she wouldn’t listen (not that it would've likely done much good, of course). Diana and Minnie May are given social etiquette books on how to be 'proper ladies' or whatever by their mother, who is harsh with them and makes them balance the books on their heads (Diana manages to, and while curtseying too. Minnie May? Not so much). At school, Diana's showing Anne how horrible the social etiquette book is and they ask Cole if there's a book that's equally horrible for boys. His response is it wouldn't help him. It's not so much the words, but the way he says them and reacts that gave me my first clues of what his deal was. The book's descriptions of all the things not to do and how bad they are in the book are somewhat amusing with how ridiculous they sound. One of the 'Don'ts' includes burping...which creepo teacher proceeds to do (apparently it is 'social ruin' or whatever), causing Anne and Diana to have a good laugh. Anne discovers that Matthew’s been receiving letters from Jeannie (who we met last season when Matthew went to get a dress made for Anne). There's obviously some unresolved feelings there between the two and Anne encourages him to write back, but he doesn’t. Naturally, Anne being Anne, she replies to the letters on his behalf and you just know this is not going to end well. When Matthew does eventually find out, he tells her in no uncertain terms that what she did 'wasn't right'. While previously I've felt sorry for Anne whenever anyone has caused her to get really emotional/upset, I thought in this instance she somewhat overreacted to what was said to her. I mean, it wasn't like Matthew was yelling or insulting her or anything. He was pretty reasonable, actually. I'd expected him to be a bit more harsh. Thankfully, he wasn't...but the way Anne reacts to what he says seems like the sort of reaction one would have to something a lot worse. I guess it can be chalked up to Anne tending to 'over-feel' things. Or it might just be that Matthew's always so good to her, and they've gotten along so well up to this point, that having him be disappointed in her really got to her. Anyway, rather unfairly, she takes out her being upset on poor Jerry, then runs off to her clubhouse and is visited by her new fox friend (I was relieved she didn't take out her feelings on the fox as well). Rachel Lynde says in not so many words that Marilla was responsible for the grifters and I was ready to hate her again like I did at the start of Season 1, but later she retracts that, more or less saying it wasn't Marilla's fault. Matthew talks to Jeannie, she quickly realises he wants to spend his remaining time with Anne who later comes to see him in the barn and is hesitant to enter it at first after what he said to her earlier, but then he holds out the horse reins for her, basically letting her know he's forgiven her. It was a really nice moment when she said her reason for doing what she did was because she didn't want him to not have love in his life he said he had her, ending with them hugging. I remember back in the second episode of Season 1 when he spent the whole time looking for Anne after she'd run away (after Marilla accused her of stealing the brooch which she hadn't) and called out, "She's my daughter!" at the train station and her reaction to that - it was such a heartwarming moment. I'd been missing moments like those so far this season up until this point. There should be more of them! Anne also had a good scene with a peddler in this episode. It's always nice to meet a character who is decent to Anne. Naturally, she's very open-minded about him (unlike Marilla). Diana’s family playing in leaves, after her mother apologised to her daughters because Minnie May was upset her parents weren’t getting along (they'd been arguing about who was to blame for giving their money away to the grifters), didn’t feel entirely 'believable' to me. It was too much of a turnaround on the mother's part. I didn't buy for one second she'd be willing to get all dirty with the leaves and whatnot. It felt 'too happy' a conclusion to their plotline in this episode. It would've been enough to just hear her apologise to her daughters (and to Anne as well would've been nice). What I did believe, though, was Diana running in excitedly to tell Anne she had plenty of time to become a woman (her mother’s words) and that they could play again, followed by them having a sword fight with broomsticks. What's Gilbert been up to this episode? Why, he's been drinking, barfing and helping to deliver a woman’s baby. Just as well he doesn't take things to heart as much as Anne does, since the woman tells Bash to keep 'that white boy' away from her. Bash reassures her by saying he didn't trust Gilbert (who he refers to as 'pasty') at first either. The most Gilbert gets after his miraculous delivery of a baby is a 'thank you' from the woman (no 'sorry', though, despite the fact that all he did was try to help her and if she really thought he meant her harm, what did she think Bash was hanging out with him for?). Bash isn't the only one who gets unfairly judged. Episode 5{Spoiler}Begins with Anne and her friends hanging out. Diana's playing the role of a guy, Anne poses the question of why the girl has to wait for the guy and, frustratingly, keeps going on about how ‘ugly’ she is (I really hate seeing her be so hard on herself when it comes to her looks. I wish at least one person would compliment her on them. She's far from the worst-looking person in this show. Still, I can understand her struggling to overcome what she's been told about herself by others after a lifetime of put-downs and no one really complimenting her appearance). We get more flashbacks to the horrible girls at the orphanage who tortured her and you can see why she has such low self-esteem when it comes to her looks. She ties lots of bows in her hair, but Marilla is against it. Really, Marilla? An abundance of bows in her hair is where you draw the line? Marilla's character seems a tad inconsistent when it comes to things she will and won't allow Anne to do, I find. Anne puts them on anyway when she’s in the barn and out of sight...until Jerry finds her and she rolls her eyes at his staring at her. Anne's weird with her treatment of/attitude towards Jerry. After all the bullying she's suffered, I would've thought she'd be a bit more sympathetic/nicer towards him. She treats him kind of like a kid brother...but I think he may feel differently about her. Earlier she was mean to him when he was talking to Diana in French and complimented her, saying how beautiful she was. Anne said she wished she was beautiful too and Diana's response was she’d rather be smart. Cole helps Anne style her hair and make the bows work better, but creepo teacher (who we were subjected to more scenes of along with his willing victim, Prissy, earlier as they discussed him ‘aiding and abetting her higher education’ - is that what they call it back then? His moustache is so annoying and he’s such a ponce and a creeper) catches this and makes Cole sit with the girls (which, of course, gets all the usual jerks laughing). One thing that's been confusing me for some time now is how Josie Pye is so horrible to Anne at school...but hangs out with her outside of class. It was great to see Cole tell her off at one point during the episode. It was also good to see Anne tell off the jerky guys who were running around lifting the girls' skirts (how uncomfortable it must've been for the actress playing Diana to utter the words 'just boys being boys' since that excuse certainly doesn't fly anymore...or at least it shouldn't). After much discussing of the subject of 'kissing' earlier in the episode (there was a funny scene involving Anne talking to Marilla and Matthew about kissing and their reactions/awkward responses were quite amusing, as was Marilla saying it wasn't the right time to be asking about that...only for a few seconds to pass before Anne asked what would be the right time?), Josie Pye gets a game of 'spin the bottle' going at school. Anne once again flashes back to the horrible treatment she suffered at the hands of the monstrous girls from the orphanage and I'd really like someone to track those bitches down and kick their arses. One of the worst things about bullies is they prey on those who they perceive as 'weak' and oftentimes niceness is something they mistake for 'weakness'. Anne is so nice, so naturally she's the perfect 'victim' as far as they're concerned. I hate the fact that Anne was subjected to all that nastiness, including face-licking (like, WTF?) and throwing her book she loves into what appears to be tar. Diana has to kiss a guy who seems excited by the prospect of getting to smooch her. Cole mentions to Anne that he doesn’t like being ‘weird’. Marilla offers no reassurance about Anne’s looks when she's constantly putting herself down, and I was not only disappointed by that, but also mad at Marilla later on when she basically confirmed what Anne had said about herself being 'plain' - which she seemed to intend as words of comfort or whatever. I felt so bad for Anne. How was Marilla so blind not to see the hurt she caused her? Rachel Lynde wasn't any better, of course, recommending whipping Anne for asking about kissing (just when I think she's a half-decent human being, she comes out with crap like this and I'm back to hating her character). When Anne's out in the woods, she encounters her fox friend once again. After making some comments to the fox, it gets startled and runs off. I thought it was a sweet moment from Anne when she yelled out to the fox that it was beautiful. It's sad that although she can recognise beauty in all manner of things, she can't see it in herself. Thank goodness for Diana saying at one point that she wished Anne would stop putting herself down (or something to that effect). Anne really needs to be told that more often. Diana's a good friend. When it came time for a second round of spin the bottle, all I could think was " Why does Anne even sit with them, let alone participate?" given all the nasty comments they typically make towards her. This instance isn't any different, as they call her all manner of mean things. The guy that the bottle lands on says in the most hurtful way that he doesn't want to kiss Anne, which is bad enough, but they all start chanting "Kiss, freaks kiss!" when Cole says he’ll kiss her. Billy the dick makes his usual annoying/obnoxious barking noises and I really wanted someone to kick his arse. Instead, Anne takes hold of Cole and bends him backwards like he's the female half of the couple and gives him a peck on the cheek. It was a sweet moment - Anne was returning Cole's kindness after he stood up for her. Speaking of standing up, at one point during the episode (I can't remember exactly when) Cole showed again what a good friend he is to Anne by snatching back from Billy the dick something he'd taken from her (I think it may have been a letter from Gilbert? Not sure). He's taller than that jerk and therefore can hold it out of his reach (giving him a taste of his own medicine). Another great moment in the episode that I can't quite recall when it occurred was Anne walking through the woods and wishing she was a tree...until she saw a completely bare one. She meets the peddler from last episode and he sells her hair dye in exchange for a sandwich. Even if I hadn't been spoiled for what was going to happen, I still would've been able to tell this wasn't going to go well. Marilla returns, thinking she’s prepared to answer Anne’s questions about kissing now, and finds her with...green hair. Anne says she can't face Josie Pye (though considering all of her crap she's put up with so far, what else could she possibly say that she hasn't already heard from her? I imagine she's pretty much used up all manner of insult already. At this point Anne should just embrace her Joker hair and go full maniac on Josie Pye's bitchy arse!). Marilla still doesn’t reassure her, but considering her lack of tact earlier, I guess Anne should be thankful she didn't run out screaming or double over in laughter at the sight. Marilla says there's really only one option - and that's a haircut. I think Anne feels like this is even worse than having green hair. This is one of the instances where I can at least understand her getting overly emotional (especially considering how down she was on herself before all this), no matter how much I mightn't like her being so harsh about her own looks. At least her overreacting felt somewhat justified here. We end on the sound of the first snip as the screen goes to black. Well, Anne, you wanted 'better' hair...and instead it cost you your already lovely hair. Lesson learned, huh? Still, at least you're not a completely bare tree. Oh, and Gilbert’s back...after shoveling shit. Nice snowy landscape. Felt sorry for the cows, though. Episode 6{Spoiler}Begins with purposely not showing Anne, as she doesn’t want to go to school with her new haircut. Honestly, I didn't think it was that 'bad'. Diana, once again proving what a great friend she is, helps Anne out by removing a bow from her own hair and tying it around Anne's head. I was so pleased to hear her say she'd promised never to 'forsake' Anne and comforted her by saying, "It's just hair. It'll grow back." (take notes, Marilla...THIS is how you reassure Anne. Not by essentially saying, "Why, yes, you are plain."). Of course, not everyone at school is as decent as Diana is. Actually, hardly any are. Cole's reaction is interesting, but the most noteworthy part is Anne's eyes widening as she sees Gilbert has returned. Poor Anne. As if she wasn't feeling 'humiliated' enough, the person who she least wants seeing her in her current state is standing right there in front of her. Gilbert being Gilbert, though, he doesn't even remark on her hair and is just so happy to see her. It was funny that the first thing she says to him after her shocked "You're back." is that there's no gold (referencing the letter she sent him). Naturally, creepo teacher is as bad as the majority of the students and snidely calls Anne a 'boy', asking if she’s sitting in the right place (this comes after he'd previously made Cole sit with the girls). He's such an a-hole and the WORST. TEACHER. EVER. Marilla meets Bash and it was somewhat amusing when he called out to Gilbert that there was a very surprised lady there to see him. While she does have a noticeable reaction to seeing Bash, she quickly recovers and asks him to Christmas dinner. Considering oftentimes it feels like Anne is a bit too harsh with Jerry, it was nice to see her genuinely thanking him after he presented her with a Christmas card. She even managed to not correct his misspelling of her name. Apparently there's an annual 'Christmas pantomime' being put on with Rachel Lynde in charge (god help them). Anne, Diana and Cole try on dresses and a tiara, but Anne reckons she can’t be a Queen looking like she does. All I could think was, "Tell that to Cersei Lannister!". Marilla catches the three of them and doesn't know what to think of Cole in a dress, but after she leaves they just laugh off her reaction. It's not the only crossdressing going on in the episode, though, as Anne poses as boy (after being called one at school) and helps out people in town, the last of which being Jeannie who Anne apologises to for writing letters posing as Matthew/on Matthew's behalf. Speaking of Matthew, I appreciated his talk with Anne encouraging her and saying she's brave. We also get flashbacks to young Matthew and how his brother Michael (who died) was the one who encouraged him - so, in a way, Anne reminds Matthew of Michael with his outgoing personality, whereas Matthew himself was the opposite. His brother even gave him marbles to help him make friends. It's a very interesting scene when Gilbert and Bash come over for Christmas dinner. First, there's Matthew's reaction to seeing Bash. He's not as good with his 'recovery' from the surprise as Marilla was. Then Bash meets Anne. Their reactions to seeing each other seem to be of equal surprise. Anne's never seen someone like Bash, and I'd wager Bash has never seen a girl looking like Anne currently does either. While she's her typical chatty self and things look like they might get a bit awkward for a second (Marilla and Matthew in particular look uncomfortable), Bash's smiling says all we need to know. He's clearly as intrigued by her as she is by him and they shake hands and all is well. As Cole is painting the set for the Christmas pantomime, Billy the dick purposely knocks him from the ladder he's standing on which results in poor Cole getting seriously injured, as it appears he's broken his wrist. Even worse, it's the one he uses to do his artwork. While Billy does look shocked, like he hadn't intended it to have such serious consequences, it doesn't even begin to make up for the fact that he did intentionally knock the ladder Cole was on (what was he expecting to happen exactly? Did he somehow think Cole wouldn't fall off? Billy doesn't seem that bright, so it wouldn't be a surprise) and then once Cole gets injured, all he does is stand around looking shocked and saying it was 'an accident'. BS! How does no one see all the crap this jerk does? It's like he has a cloak around him that makes him invisible when he does things like this. Everything Billy does just makes me hate the guy more. He has NO redeeming qualities about him. Same with Josie Pye. Honestly, they deserve each other. Josie Pye also richly deserves getting sick, which is what happens as the Christmas pantomime is about to go on. So Rachel Lynde asks Anne, who has experience posing as a boy, to take over...but they're missing an all-important prop - a shovel. I was amused by this exchange she had with Marilla when asking her and Matthew for a shovel. Anne: “I need a shovel. Josie Pye just fell gravely ill." Marilla: “What do you intend to do with it, bury her?” IF ONLY, Marilla! Since Billy likes to mock everyone (especially Anne), it would've been fitting to see him get mocked for being dressed in a goofy-looking owl costume when he's onstage (same goes for creepo teacher, who is even more ridiculous when 'performing' than he is the rest of the time - something I didn't even think possible), but I guess we have the small consolation that Billy the dick gets whacked on the head by a lightning bolt prop. The downside is that his bitch of a mother blames Bash for it and makes predictably horrible remarks. And just when he'd been feeling welcomed by the Cuthberts, he's reminded of how nasty a lot of people can be to him. With Billy the dick down for the count, Rachel Lynde gets Matthew to fill in. He looks equally goofy as Billy did in the owl costume and he's all nervous about going onstage in front of a large audience. His brother helped encourage him when he was younger and Anne is there to encourage him now. He has one line and it's simply "They all lived happily ever after!". That's it. I have to say, this is one of the WORST plays I've ever seen performed. It's just so bad. The singing is terrible, everyone is uncoordinated, and there's many mistakes made. Rachel Lynde can't direct worth a damn! Christmas comes and Matthew gives Anne marbles after she’d been playing them earlier when posing as a boy. It's a nice ending to what had been such an awful beginning of the episode (for Anne). Gilbert also gives her a present (a miniature dictionary). I'm not sure when exactly in the episode it occurred, but there was one line from Anne - "Oh, Marilla, what is it that makes people take such delight in the misery of others?" and that really spoke to me, as I wonder that very same question every day given all the horrible people in the world who do horrible things just for the sake of being horrible/because they derive joy from it. Can't they all just have lightning bolt props dropped on their stupid heads? Or, better yet, get struck by actual lightning? Episode 7{Spoiler}Begins with Marilla having headaches, and we get flashbacks to her and Matthew as kids where she took care of him and their mother after she lost her other son, Michael. As I commented on last season when we were treated to Marilla flashbacks, the actress they cast to play the younger version of her really doesn't resemble Geraldine James in any way, but she sounds like her and matches her inflections. Anne’s wanting to go to a soirée that Diana's Aunt Josephine is having, but Marilla won’t allow it. Why even bother objecting to these things at this point Marilla? It's rather pointless as we all know eventually you'll relent. To be fair, I think part of why she says 'no' is simply because of having to deal with these headaches she's got going on. Gilbert asks the creepo teacher for help, as he's wanting to become a doctor, but all the useless creeper can think about is the student he's been preying on all this time (Prissy). And as if he wasn't utterly contemptible enough, he then uses a metaphor about Gilbert’s father even though, as Gilbert points out to him (showing much more restraint than I would've), his father is deceased. The a-hole just dismisses this with "The metaphor still stands." and I wished Gilbert would've punched that laughable thing he calls a mustache right off the prick's stupid face...except then Gilbert would've gotten in trouble. Cole can’t draw properly because of his hand injury Billy the dick caused last episode and burns his sketchbook which Anne and Diana have to rescue. As an artist myself, I can fully sympathise with Cole and how bad a feeling not being able to draw would be. If I couldn't do my art, I'd feel like life was over too. Thankfully, Anne and Diana are there to comfort him. Anne also concocts a scheme for her and Diana to be able to go to the soirée - by having Cole escort them. This manages to convince all the adults to let them go. At the soirée, which has all manner of people, Diana's Aunt Josephine is nice to Anne (which is a far cry from how she was when she first met her last season, but then Anne saved Minnie May and that made Josephine respect her) and Cole, but when she tells Diana she doesn't have to be like her parents, Diana gets all weird. Some people dress Cole up in an effort to cheer him up, he talks to one about not being able to draw, she suggests clay and that he hasn’t lost his ability to do art. It's nice to see Anne and Cole more or less having a good time, after both of them being put through so much torment at school. This was such a relief, watching them actually get to be HAPPY. Unfortunately, Diana's not so happy when she learns her Aunt Josephine had a thing with another woman named Gertrude and is weirded out by it, but I think it's all just so new to her since she's lived a rather 'sheltered' life (and given the sort of mother she has, it's no wonder she reacts the way she does). While it mightn't be the sort of reaction everyone would've hoped for from her, it's at least understandable and not one of 'hate' or anything. It's mostly just confusion, I think. She deserves to be given a chance to come to terms with the brand new information she's learned and shame on anyone who judged her too harshly for how she reacted. She is, after all, still quite young. At one point Cole's talking to Josephine and admits that he thinks he’s like her and Gertrude. It was good that he finally told someone, as I wondered how long they were going to stretch that out for this season. Marilla worries about becoming a burden to Anne, given her headaches and that her eyesight is starting to fail. Matthew reassures her that she was stronger than their mother, as she got up every morning to take care of them. Anne returns and wants to tell Marilla everything about the soirée in her usual enthusiastic manner, but Marilla politely asks if she could possibly tell her in a quiet voice (due to her headaches and everything else going on with her). This is one instance where Marilla used the right tone with Anne. She asked in as nice a way as possible and Anne didn't get offended or anything. She even cheers Marilla up by giving her the flowers she'd been wearing from the soirée. Anne also mentions how she learned more about 'love'. Some might've got their noses out of joint about what she says, accusing it of being 'too modern thinking', but we know Anne is an open-minded individual who embraces everyone/everything, so I don't think it was such a stretch to believe she'd be so accepting of different types/forms of love. One of the best moments in the episode for me personally was seeing Gilbert stick it to useless creepo teacher by saying he learned stuff without his help (this is after the a-hole picks on him by asking a question that he obviously thinks Gilbert's not going to know the answer to...except he does). I always enjoy seeing that jerk taken down a peg (not that it happens too often). Episode 8{Spoiler}Begins with creepo teacher (ugh!) who is apparently going to make things 'official' with his prey Prissy. It surprised me that apparently everyone knew that they were involved...yet they didn't seem to have a problem with a teacher being involved with a student. Yes, why persecute him when they can go after innocent people who never do anything wrong? He even asks Prissy's father for her hand in marriage. It's kind of funny that Poncy wants to marry Prissy. Will they become Mr. & Mrs. Prissy? It'd be fitting. He’s still the WORST. TEACHER. EVER. Billy the dick knocks Cole over after almost killing him two episodes ago (so, clearly he hasn't learned anything from the experience - then again, it's Billy Andrews and he is one of those people who will NEVER learn). Cole goes to get firewood, spills some bits on creepo teacher’s shoes, they both bend down as he tries to clean it off and there's this moment between them where creepo teacher A) recognises that Cole is gay and B) makes it clear to us that he is as well. For a moment there I thought creepo teacher was going to take advantage of another student (because one's just not enough!), but instead he's obviously disgusted by himself (and that Cole has recognised someone who's like him) and so he takes it out on Cole because he knows they’re the same. Later, when Billy the dick throws what I think is a squeeze ball (which Cole's been using to strengthen his injured hand) threw a classroom window, once again the jerk refuses to accept any responsibility and blames Cole (like nearly killing him episodes ago and then knocking him over just earlier this episode wasn't enough). Even after Cole tries to get him to tell the truth, he won't and just remarks that he was giving the ball back to him. Naturally, self-loathing creepo teacher is blind to Billy being the culprit, despite Anne having Cole's back, and wants to punish him with a caning...but Cole stands up to the a-hole. Between this^ and last episode with Gilbert standing up to him as well, FINALLY creepo teacher is getting told off. Too bad it's taken this long. And shouldn't telling off a teacher earn Cole some 'cred' with the other students who wouldn't have had the nerve to do so? I guess it doesn't really count for anything since most of them aren't fond of Cole and his 'weirdness'. Later, Cole is at Anne's clubhouse (the fox makes another appearance) and he tells her he’s like Josephine and Gertrude. "Except with boys." Anne clarifies, then she thanks him for telling her and I saw no problem with her saying this or her acceptance of him (apparently some people did, though). They're true friends and I wouldn't have expected anything less from Anne. They also pinky swear that if they don't eventually find romantic partners, they'll marry each other and it'll be a marriage of friendship, based on them being equals, instead of romantic love. There's some stuff with Prissy and her mum, but I didn't really care about any of that. The fact that her parents were okay with her marrying creepo teacher tells me all I needed to know about them as people. I've never really thought much of Prissy either, but Anne tells her she can have her own life when married which gets her thinking about things and reconsidering marriage. Meanwhile, Bash has a sore tooth which he ties to one end of a string and the other end to a doorknob, wanting Gilbert to slam the door shut (why can't he just slam it himself?). After Gilbert tells him to go get it seen to and Bash refuses, he walks out and slams the door on his way past like Bash asked, thus pulling out the tooth. Later, Bash goes to buy some salt (for his gum infection) and encounters a rather nasty shopkeeper. He does learn one useful piece of information in between all the racist remarks. Apparently there's a 'Bog' (sounds inviting) where the shopkeeper says Bash's 'kind' are. He's happy to learn this, it seems, but unhappy with Gilbert for not telling him (the reason for that, he says, was because he didn't want his friend going to a 'slum community'/place of poverty). When Bash stops by the school to talk to Gilbert, Billy the dick says he's not welcome there and that Bash tried to kill him at the Christmas pantomime (if only he HAD, the world would be much better off). At least Anne stands up to him, saying that the only threat in the classroom is Billy. Gilbert says he knows someone who can help, but Bash is intent on going to the Bog. After Gilbert finally manages to convince him to go see his doctor friend (making a compromise that Bash can go to the Bog after he sees the doctor), they encounter problems boarding a train because they won't allow Bash on. Luckily, Marilla's there (along with Rachel Lynde) and helps them out (she's on her way to get her eyesight looked at). The passengers give Bash the stink-eye, but Marilla's happy to see them both (Rachel apologises awkwardly to Bash for treating him as 'the help' the first time they met). When Marilla informs Gilbert that creepo teacher will be leaving, Gilbert says he hopes the next one’s actually interested in teaching (I hear ya, Gilbert). The doctor they go to see is decent to Bash and helps him out. There's a funny moment where Gilbert sees a needle the doctor's going to use and promptly faints as a result (I give you your future doctor!). And Gilbert's going to be working there as an apprentice too. Good luck with that. Bash keeps wanting to go to Bog. Once there, he encounters an African-American man who he met on the train and seems to think Bash 'doesn't know his place' and punches him (though avoids the face, since he knows about his toothache). He says Bash's 'guest' (referencing Gilbert) 'ditched' him. It would've been nice if Bash had made clear to this guy that Gilbert was his friend and there was no 'ditching' involved, though the train guy seems like he wouldn't have accepted that anyway. He does at least help Bash up out of the mud/shit and directs him to a laundry where he meets Mary who works there and he’s making googly-eyes at her. Gilbert catches up with Bash at the laundry and is given a look by those who work there, but he's his usual polite/courteous self and the two rent a room (with Gilbert sleeping on the floor). While all this^ is going on, Anne is getting carried away with all the marriage talk and accidentally rips a veil of Marilla's that she was trying on. After the brooch incident last season, Anne's learned to go straight to Marilla, tell her the truth and be prepared for whatever consequences. Marilla appreciates this and 'bequeaths' the veil as well the brooch (which she has bought back from the pawnshop it had been sold to at the end of last season when they were in dire straits financially) to Anne who is so excited that she doesn't know which she likes best - the brooch or the word 'bequeath'. It's nice that Marilla gave her the brooch after that whole misunderstanding last season which led to Anne running away, especially since back then Marilla practically forced Anne to lie - since she kept telling the truth but Marilla just wouldn't believe her - and then punished her once she did lie. Marilla gives Matthew back his pocket watch which she also bought back from the pawnshop (she did all this after going to get her eyes checked out, and Rachel Lynde helped with the pawnshop owner who liked to haggle). The pocket watch was something she didn't know had been sold, as she thought Anne sold it back when they got her to sell various stuff of theirs in return for money, but in fact Matthew sold it when he went in pursuit of her after she'd run away. The episode ends with Prissy running out of her wedding, doing the only wise thing she's ever done (ie. dumping creepo teacher at the altar), and into the snow with her friends pursuing her, and after a moment she realises she's free from the a-hole and they all laugh and play in the show. I'm not sure how much I buy that^ happening...but considering it got her way from the perv and she looks so HAPPY once she's free of him, I'm willing to just roll with it. Episode 9{Spoiler}Begins with us meeting the new teacher who's taking over from creepo teacher (whose arse got dumped at the altar last episode and who, hopefully, we've seen the last of). Her name is Miss Stacy and she rides a motorbike and is automatically a vast improvement over creepo teacher. Hell, Anne's fox would be an improvement over creepo teacher. Immediately I'm struck by how much she talks, acts and even looks like Anne from certain angles - so much so that I thought she would be the perfect casting as an adult version of Anne. But unless this show is introducing time travel and Anne has come back from the future and assumed a new identity...I guess it's just a case of the show wanting to make it clear how similar the two characters are/how much they're alike and the resemblance is just a bonus. Unfortunately for Miss Stacy, the 'Progressive Mothers' group (led by Rachel Lynde, naturally) want her gone because she's late and is dressed/teaches unconventionally. The group's name seems rather contradictory. I think they should consider a more fitting one like, say, the 'Gossipy Bitches' group or something - since that's what they are. They assume the worst about her, gossip amongst themselves, spreading rumours (we learn that Miss Stacy's husband died and there's all sorts of speculation surrounding that) and basically give her an ultimatum of "Be more conservative or you're outta here!". I'm not the only one who thinks Miss Stacy is a lot like Anne, as Anne herself does too and assumes they're going to get along swimmingly...but then Anne talks too much, as she tends to do, and tells her stuff about each student as they're introducing themselves to their new teacher using the letters that are the initials of their names to describe themselves - this is something Miss Stacy comes up with, which naturally you would think Anne would be an expert in, but she's not so fond of Anne's oversharing and lets her know as much, which causes Anne to get flustered, and because she's reeling from the teacher's disapproval, when she's called on to introduce herself, she can’t think of any words to describe herself using her initials. I felt sorry for Anne here because although she was being a tad gossipy, I could understand her being excited to meet someone she thought was so much like her and her overeagerness in wanting to impress Miss Stacy with her knowledge. The saddest part is that we know how skilled Anne is with language and how many words she has in her vocabulary...but she's not able to show any of that off to this new teacher she so desperately wants to impress because she's upset that's she's made a bad first impression. Miss Stacy wants her to do an essay on gossip, Gilbert wants Miss Stacy's help to expedite his studies and Billy the dick lets Miss Stacy know just what sort of dick he is by calling her "little lady" and she puts him in his place (another tick in the 'Why Miss Stacy is SO much better than creepo teacher' column). Rachel Lynde is horrible to Marilla, insulting her and using her to make Miss Stacy feel unwelcome and fall into line with how the ' Progressive Judgy Mothers' want her to be or just simply leave. Almost everyone seems to be against Miss Stacy except Anne, but she's not exactly on her teacher's 'good side' currently as she keeps putting her foot in it. I can totally relate to having what you thought would become a favourite teacher at school, only to find they didn't see eye to eye with you, and it's rather sad, as is the fact that Miss Stacy hasn't really gotten a good impression of Anne at this point whereas if things had just gone a bit differently when they met, they could've immediately become good friends. Anyway, Miss Stacy teaches a lesson in class involving electricity and potatoes. Marilla's also there for some reason (I forget what) and is equally impressed as the students are with this 'unconventional' lesson. Naturally, Rachel Lynde and the ' Progressive Regressive Mothers' storm in and complain about Miss Stacy as well as what she's teaching. One student stupidly tries to taste one of the potatoes and receives a shock, which causes him to knock over the light bulb the potatoes were charging and glass shatters everywhere on the floor. His mother is all like "MY CHILD!" and I'm all like "IS A DUMBARSE!". Naturally, they blame Miss Stacy and think this is even more reason to get rid of her. The final nail in the coffin is when Rachel sees Miss Stacy getting a ride with Billy the dick's father and assumes the worst, spreading vicious lies about Miss Stacy, basically saying she's a big ho. It was nice of Anne to let Marilla and Miss Stacy into her clubhouse. They seem impressed and it's the first time, I think, that Miss Stacy has seen there's more to Anne than the less-than-stellar first impression she got of her. Anne makes them pinky swear not to tell a soul about the clubhouse. As if there's not enough stuff going on for Anne to worry about, she also is as horrified as I am that Billy the dick and his cronies are off hunting her poor fox friend (they stumble upon the clubhouse and, being the utter wastes of existence that they are, decide to destroy it and Cole's clay sculptures he's been making ever since it was suggested to him at Josephine's soirée that he try using clay to do his art as it'd be easier on his injured hand. They take great delight in being destructive, destroying something they know is a sanctuary for their victims that they torment endlessly, and you just wish that they'd suffer horribly for this heinous act). The fact that Matthew's set traps to stop the fox going after his chickens doesn't help things. Anne's constantly telling him to remove the traps, but he refuses, and eventually she's overwhelmed by so much going wrong for her that she drops some eggs and snaps at Matthew about his refusal to remove the traps, then she runs off. Sadly, things don't improve for her as she discovers the remains of the clubhouse. While all this^ has been occurring, Miss Stacy's gone to Cole's house to find out why he hasn't been attending school (he's been skipping it and making his sculptures instead) and inadvertently lets his mother know who hadn't been aware that he'd been skipping. This causes him to get angry, as he finds out Anne was the one who sent Miss Stacy to his house (though only with the best of intentions, as she thought Miss Stacy could help encourage him back after creepo teacher, Billy the dick and everyone else who tormented him at school made him leave and not wish to come back in the last episode), and he comes to yell at Anne just as she's reeling from the discovery of their ruined sanctuary. It's pretty devastating. Anne is NOT having a good day. Neither is Cole, really. It's scum like Billy Andrews that makes me hate the world and I can understand how upsetting this must've been for their two characters. Anne tries to explain things and how she was just trying to help Cole, but he finds what I presume is Billy's scarf which tells him exactly who he needs to go punish for this atrocious act (like there was ever really any doubt who could've done this. How many people in town destroy things just for the pleasure of it?). Anne runs after Cole as she knows what he's going to do and, sure enough, he storms in right during the middle of class and starts beating up Billy the dick. They get into fisticuffs which ends with Cole accidentally causing Billy to hit a hot stove and burn his ear. He, of course, screams and Cole runs off. Anne looks shocked and this is treated like some majorly terrible thing that's happened...but, honestly? Billy deserved MUCH worse for all the crap he's done. Cole should’ve put his whole head inside the stove. He got off lightly. This was a pretty intense episode, as lots of stuff happened and at times it was quite upsetting - the clubhouse being destroyed, the fox-hunting, Anne's and Cole's friendship seemingly being ruined. The one bright spot? Billy the dick FINALLY got some comeuppance! Though, unfortunately, this isn't good for Cole. There was so much going on this episode, in fact, that I forgot to mention a couple of other things that happened such as... 1) Anne getting competitive with Gilbert (since he was wanting Miss Stacy to help him with his studies) and them not being as nice to each other as usual. It was weird seeing them at odds, especially Gilbert getting angry with Anne since he's always so courteous to her. 2) Bash being unable to handle farm work and dumping Gilbert after feeling he'd dumped him and their plan to work on the farm for two years (again, Gilbert's focused on his studies). He's no better than Gilbert, though, since he appears to only be thinking with his downstairs brain and all he seems to care about is Mary from the laundry at the Bog. I found it a bit too much that he fell for her about as quickly as Anna fell for Hans in Frozen. Seriously, he's only just met her. Talk about 'too fast'. Running the farm is clearly a two person job, as without Bash around, Gilbert is no better at it (making a fence is hard work, apparently). Episode 10{Spoiler}Begins where last episode finished, with Anne running after Cole after he's just (unintentionally) caused Billy the dick to get injured. Cole's standing at the edge of a cliff, looking like he's ready to jump, Anne apologises and hugs him. It's a nice moment...except for the dodgy green screen background. It's sad that Anne wasn't able to give Diana and Ruby a heads-up about their clubhouse being ruined, as they find the ruins of it and hadn't been forewarned, so they're feeling as devastated as Anne and Cole were when they discovered it. Group hug time. Aww. They move out what stuff they can find that hasn't been destroyed. On the way back home, Anne is so upset that she collapses to the ground and what confused me was Matthew and Jerry discussing how Anne would be 'happy' about something until they see her collapse and then she's thanking Matthew as he hugs her. I thought maybe he'd made a pen to keep the fox in so it'd be safe from Billy and his hunting buddies...but it appeared that wasn't the case. Still, any scene of Anne and Matthew hugging is a good one. I couldn't get over the fact that Cole APOLOGISED to Billy when it should've been other way around (with added apologies to Anne, Diana and Ruby for destroying their clubhouse). Billy, being a dick and all, offers no apology back to Cole and tells him to get gone. Cole asks Billy if he ever thinks why he destroys things that aren't his and he says he doesn’t have to think. "Yeah, I can see that." is Cole's perfect response to that. Anne tries to make things right with Miss Stacy, Rachel Lynde is yet again terrible to Marilla who finally tells her off and even brings up how she treated Anne terribly back when she met her in the show's first episode. Rachel's all "La-la-la-la-la-not listening!", too hellbent on judging Miss Stacy for being without a husband, without a child and seen riding home with Billy's father. Marilla calls her out on her prejudice and basically tells her to get out, which is a cheer-worthy moment. Anne, the gang, and the guy who broke the potato bulb and got Miss Stacy in trouble last episode (whose name is apparently Moody) all jump on a train to go see Diana's Aunt Josephine for help in saving Miss Stacy's job. While there, Diana apologises for how she was after finding out about Josephine and Gertrude, they both thought they'd disappointed each other, but they make up. Cole stays behind because he can be himself there and is going to live with Josephine. He and Anne share a goodbye and it's sad that Anne's losing one of her good friends since she has so few in Avonlea. At one point Cole points out the obvious to Anne which she's apparently been unaware of this whole time and vehemently denies. Anne's plan that she's come up with to keep Miss Stacy around involves her and other students walking in during the middle of the townhall meeting (on whether to keep or get rid of Miss Stacy) while holding up the potato bulbs Miss Stacy taught them last episode. Anne then makes a speech in favour of a teacher who actually teaches them stuff, unlike their previous one, then Marilla and Matthew stand up for Miss Stacy as well and I guess Rachel Lynde has a change of heart because she, along with pretty much everyone else it seems, vote to keep Miss Stacy around. Hurray! We get to keep the teacher who DOESN'T make me want to punch the screen whenever they appear! Once again I must comment on how much Miss Stacy looks like a grown-up Anne, especially when wearing that hat she wears. Billy the dick, in his first non-dickish act ever, sees Anne's fox friend as he’s walking around the ruins of the clubhouse whilst carrying his gun and for a second looks like he wants to shoot it...but then he seems to remember what Cole said to him earlier and he lets the fox live. I guess this is to be interpreted as Billy displaying 'compassion'? Though more likely he just wasn't in the killing mood at that particular moment. If this is supposed to show 'growth' for his character...well...he's still got a LONG way to go before he even comes close to proving he's more than just a hate-filled, destructive person who gets joy out of making others miserable. I've seen the 'bad boy redeemed' storyline play out SO many times previously, I'm really not eager to see any attempts to 'redeem' Billy...but if he can become even slightly less dickish and not hurt innocent people or animals, then I can live with that. In other news, Bash has ditched Gilbert to go chase after the woman, Mary, who he only just met and helps her around the place instead of doing anything on the farm (just because Gilbert isn't there to help) and is going to propose already, but sees Mary kissing another guy who it turns out is her grown-up son we find out when Gilbert goes to her in search for Bash who is drunk at the laundry. Next thing you know, there's a wedding. Talk about fast. Still, at least it's a 'happy' ending compared to last season's final with Jerry getting beaten up (where was he this episode, by the way?) and the guys who beat him up becoming boarders at the Cuthbert residence. Final thoughts on Season 2I still adore the character of Anne who, while she makes mistakes (which is good, as she'd no doubt be deemed 'too perfect' if she didn't), still remains likable as far as I'm concerned. She's just got so much enthusiasm, imagination, empathy and love in her heart. Things would be better in the world if more people were like her. I was also glad to see Diana get more development and their friendship is so pure (which is something that's in short supply these days, it seems). Cole proved to be a really good new character introduced this season and was also a great friend to Anne. I still love the relationship between Matthew and Anne, and I hope for more scenes between them in the next season. Marilla has softened quite a bit since last season, though still has moments where I question the things she does or says. Still, she's shown she cares for Anne and I like seeing that. Miss Stacy was another welcome new addition who I hope to see more of next season. I didn't mind Bash when it was just him and Gilbert, but I'm worried his already being married to a character we hardly know and her having a grown-up son might bog (pun unintended) things down next season. Finally, Anne's fox friend was a delightful surprise addition this season (I just hope nothing bad happens to him). All the jerks in the show, however, can go jump off that cliff I thought Cole was going to throw himself off of. On the whole, I wasn't too disappointed with this season like I'd feared I'd be. While I don't think it was as good as Season 1, it wasn't particularly 'bad' like I'd seen some claiming it to be. I can’t believe people complain about it not being exactly like the book and working in too many ‘modern sensibilities’ – WTF? If you want a word for word direct translation of the book...just go read the book instead! Or go watch the other filmed version of it. This show is its own version and I don't think it has done anything to make the 'modern sensibilities' it's worked in feel out-of-place or anything. I'm saddened that the third season will be the last for the show, as it deserved more than that, so I may possibly put off watching Season 3 for a little while to 'prolong' the show's existence (for me, anyway), as I just don't want this series to be over. It's been quite a long time since I've come across a show with this much 'heart'. It's something special and deserves much more recognition/appreciation. While other crap continues to get renewed season after season, this little gem of a show is unfairly cancelled (that always seems to be the way isn't it?). Anyway, like the theme song says, Anne is 'ahead by a century'. Likewise, I feel this show would've gotten more of the appreciation (and awards) it deserves if it existed in a different time to now. These days quality family shows like this just aren't appreciated enough, which is a shame. As I said after watching Season 1, I highly recommend checking this show out.
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