Maelstrom

Angsty daddy issues Nate sounds better than schmoopy romantic lead Nate, but I’d still rather watch Mick, Sara, Zari, or Ray instead. Or any combination of those four. The most tolerable version of Nate IMO is supportive buddy Nate. The new character sounds interesting, my first impression is that she’s a less cynical version of Zari but I’m sure there’s more to her than that. This is the first promising news about next season that I’ve heard.

Interesting challenge tonight - certainly a welcome change from monsters and gore. I’m a bit of a mythology nerd myself, and don’t necessarily agree with the descriptions the show gave to some of the deities, but I digress. I did like Matt and Damien’s makeups (beautiful paint jobs on both) and though Walter’s feathered serpent wasn’t the most creative take on the idea it was well executed. That’s cool Damien was able to redeem his previous alien makeup. Kelly continues to irk, and her punk rock bounty hunter didn’t work for me in concept or execution. Can she go away next week, please?! I disagree with the judges about Graham’s feathered sun god, I thought it was pretty cool. Once again there’s a bit of a disparity between what the contestants are told when Mackenzie lays out the challenge parameters and what the judges are looking for. Frustrating. Agree most of the other makeups were pretty meh. I think I’ve already forgotten them. Was that the most useless preview ever or is it just me? I’m guessing it’s some sort of horror challenge? Oh joy. Just what this show needs more of.

Ha! That’s awesome. I would totally watch that.

I hope you’re right! Losing both Winn and J’onn is just too cruel.

So I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention to this (or the past few episodes) so I’ve probably missed some of the important parts. Eh. Damn I’m sorry to lose Winn! He’s finally gotten a chance to shine this year, and I’m really going to miss him. Hopefully Jeremy Jordan will come back for a few guest appearances next season. Having Brainy around could be interesting - at least, I hope it will, because without Winn there isn’t going to be much to hold my interest. No Jonn, no Cat, Alex watered down and sidelined... remind me why I still watch this, again? Other thoughts: J’onn rocked that fedora. So after an entire season of build up they defeat the evil witches in, what, ten minutes? If it was that easy, couldn’t they have done it earlier and spare us the last half dozen episodes or so? Alex has a severe case of baby rabies and J’onn retires. ‘Kay, show, whatever. Have you ever bothered to watch yourself before? I’m glad to have a break from this show, because I can’t seem to find anything good to say about. Shame, really. It had so much potential.

I’m so glad Tim won, even though it was due to yet another catastrophic failure. I enjoyed watching all three of the round two contestants, and would love to see any of them come back in the future. Tim’s kelawang really was gorgeous. I think the only person happier than Doug when he’s sticking his fingers in ballistics’ dummies guts is Wil when he’s shouting numbers at people. Hee. Am I the only one who gets a kick out of the little animated splurts of blood when they show the overview of the final weapon? Like, gee, I wouldn’t have known what would happen when someone runs a boar spear through another person’s guts, thanks for clearing that up!

Because you have ears! And I’m right there with you. OK, Bunny Cop was pretty cool. I could actually see that character in a movie. The rest... well, the less said, the better. They varied from wholly uninspired to downright awful. Although this challenge was a pretty tall order. How could they realistically come up with anything creative in two and a half days? I get frustrated when reality shows don’t give enough time to come anywhere close to decent work. Are we actually getting a non-monster challenge next week?! Aztec-inspired aliens could make for some pretty cool makeups. I’m sorry Jo and Sasha are gone (more because they both have come across as genuinely decent people in both of their seasons than because of their makeup prowess) but not surprised. Can Kelly be next? Please? Also, it doesn’t seem fair that she had an extra person helping her, but since she didn’t win anyway I guess it doesn’t matter.

Regarding the spoiler-tagged part of Lady Calypso’s post: Add me to the list of people wondering why the Kryptonians would want to terraform earth if they get awesome powers here. WTF, Kryptonians? RIP hot Asian guy, you shall be missed.

I’m glad that at least it was his choice, and I wish him all the best, but I’m still disappointed to lose him from LoT. :(

Damn, that sucks. Why bother bringing him on at all, especially after dumping Jax so unceremoniously? I’m really sorry to hear this.

Doug Jones, yay!! We love you! OK, so this season is off to a... start. Not liking the “battle” concept - didn’t they learn their lesson after last season’s disastrous team challenge? These one-on-one battles leave it open for unfair results such as both makeups in one challenge are excellent yet one has to lose, while another challenge has two crappy makeups where one is rewarded. Disappointing. And seriously, Kelly won?! I remember her from her previous season, and I wish I didn’t. She is just as nails-on-a-chalkboard irritating as she was before. And apparently I’m blind or stupid because I really don’t see how her mess of a makeup (that in no way resembled an egg) was better than Matt’s tinkerbell. WTF, judges? And here I was hoping she’d be the first to go. I remember just about everyone from their previous seasons, and there are a few I’m glad to see again. Also nice to see Matt, Megan and Nayeli again, even if they were covered in,pounds of foam latex. And as always, it’s nice to behold Glenn’s hair again. It’s frequently one of the most creative and outlandish things on the reveal stage.

Sounds like the perfect motto for this show.

Is it sad that I think Supergirl would work just fine without, well, Supergirl? Seriously, it seemed like business as usual at the DEO with just Jonn, Alex, Winn and James (what is this Catco you speak of?) I didn’t miss Kara at all there. The two good things I can say about this episode are that it gave me time to catch up on my backlog of jigsaw puzzles in my favorite game app, and it made “Schott Through the Heart” seem even better episode in comparison. So now that the DEO is giving up guns, are they going to be attacked by zombies like in the Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror? It might improve things.

I know I'm super late to this thread, but I’m curious why Joan is dressing like a Blues Brother these days. I half expect her to tell a suspect, “We’re on a mission from god.”

Very interesting (and sad) article about the NXIUM cult from the NYTimes mentions so many of the same brainwashing techniques and bullshit doublespeak as Scientology. It's just disgusting how cults play off people's fears and twist their minds like this.

And we have a new winner of the Ron Carlivati “I Don’t Know How Girls Work” Award! I’ve never had kids, nor do I have any close friends or relatives who have had kids, but even I know labor doesn’t work this way. Sweet zombie jeebus, this show is a challenge. Today’s ep is the kind of shit that gives soaps a bad rep. And they didn’t even re-air Stuffy’s epic fail, I mean fall. I swear, at this point people could tell Liam that an empty toilet paper roll is his true love, and he’d probably believe them.

Sweet Jeebus the filming schedule for this show is nuts. Last night’s ep must have been filmed quite awhile back if Doug’s arm was fine during the in-forge segment but barely healed for the final testing. I can’t figure it. Ouch, watching that ax head fly off during J’s final swing was just painful. Alex’s ax was definitely worthy of winning, but I still felt for Mike. That had to hurt. Also, the first wonrounds had some of the roughest looking knives I think i’ve ever seen on this show. Yeesh. I can’t believe the finalist in the Memorial Day ep actually just called it good after two days! For a $10,000 challenge you think you’d want to use every working second to make a perfect piece. Personally I’m not a fan of guns in the least, but Wil shooting those swords edge-on was some impressive shooting. I always enjoy the banter between the judges and Wil, and how invested they get in the contestants’ work. This show (and Face Off) are the cream of the crop when it comes to reality shows.

Ha! Me too. Ack, I’ve spent years trying to erase all memories of Messica from my mind. It’s been tough lately considering this storyline is basically a carbon copy of that one, though at least this time the main actress can actually act. My espanol is no bueno, but I googled the translation of “el fideo” and it seems to mean noodle or beanpole. Honest. So either I’ve messed up the spelling or the days writers picked the lamest nickname ever. Anyone here know Spanish?

I kinda wanted Ed to win just because of the cat shirts (Doug really loved making all those cat puns) but Jonathan‘s sword was pretty impressive. Though I’m just happy the most recent episodes seem to have finally broken the streak of catastrophic failures determining the winner.

I can see why they wouldn't mention Maisie, since whatever they say about her role in season 4 would be a spoiler. Why no Wally, though? Hmmm. Still have my reservations about Constantine, which I won't go into again. The mythical creatures and legends thing could be fun (I'm a sucker for that kind of thing generally) but I don't want to see LoT turn into Grimm or Once Upon a Time redux. Or *shudders* later seasons of Charmed. Season 3 was the first season I watched live, as before that I was catching up on Netflix and dvd. So now I understand why you guys talk about Klemmer interviews between seasons making things sound really ominous. But if they can pull off a giant super-powered Furby fighting a demon for their big finale, then they should be able to pull off a magic-centric season... right? Just focus on their inevitable reconciliation, and how gruff yet heartwarming it will be (I say this as a non-shipper, but please feel free to read anything you like into the idea) ;) And in non-LoT news, Supergirl gets the Sunday night death slot. Hmmm.

So we’re totally supposed to be siding with Lena over Kara, right? This show has some really strong episodes when they first came back from their break, but this and the previous one were full of way too much dumb for my tastes. Do better, show. The final scene between Jonn and his father was well done, though. David Harewood is such a talented actor, i’m Always happy when they let him show it off. So is that it for Brainy? I was hoping he’d stick around next season.

I've been almost universally opposed to all of the reboot/sequel monstrosities that have been taking over Hollywood recently, but somehow this one actually sounds like a lot of fun. Mostly because this is exactly what I would imagine has happened to the characters over the course of their lives - very little, lol. And if they do get William Sadler back as Death, then I'm in for sure! Interview with the writers, Keanu and Alex:

Thank you! I thought I was the only person on the internets who felt that way. By the end of the movie I didn't feel like there was a point in getting invested in any of it, because anything significant would immediately be undercut with a joke. That would be awesome, especially if they used another giant Beebo to defeat Thanos with cuddles. I'd love to see what kind of chaos the Legends could cause before fixing this problem with a bigger problem. After all, sometimes they screw things up for the better! I've heard also that the runtime forced Whedon to trim down that vision quest scene - I seem to recall reading somewhere that to keep it intact they would have had to cut all the scenes at Casa de Hawkeye. To which I call total BS, because if you trimmed 30 seconds off every damn (repetitive) fight scene in the movie there would've been time for Thor's Bogus Journey in full, and probably even time to show the team stopping for some shawarma at some point.

All jokes at Rocket's expense aside ("trash panda" will never not be funny), this is another sign to me that TPTB had no clue what an amazing movie Black Panther would be and thus didn't incorporate nearly as many Wakandan things as they should've. Fingers crossed the next movie remedies this!

Thanos killed me ten times before I gave in and accepted my fate. I guess I don’t have Strange’s patience to look at fourteen billion futures!