scowl

I finally got around to watching the first episode and I can't make sense out of what happened. Why were the robots dying? Why did the robot climb the tree, and how? Why did Will suddenly decide that cutting the thick branch was a good idea? Why did sending the robot crashing into the ground help it instead of killing it? Do I just need to pay more attention?

One thing they did well (as in previous seasons) was drop Joe into a bunch of people that made him easily feel superior. Many times he seemed like the only adult among teenagers and that made his aloof attitude really entertaining. If he didn't have people to hate I think his psyche would crumble.

Oh, that's right. He was hoping her daughter would see him paralyzed. So the "antidote" suddenly kicking in after a long time is even harder for me to swallow. I wish they could have come up with something better.

So he wasn't faking it the whole time? I didn't care for this final twist.

In so many romcoms the characters live in unexplained nice houses, they live middle class lives even if they work retail or in factories if anywhere, and they spend most of their time on the screen in romantic adventures. He ended up in exactly this situation... but married with a baby. What a nightmare! In the first season he even referred to himself as a character in a romcom which was funny, but apparently that's really how he sees himself, the ultimate romantic character in a movie, and all these sad men with wives and girlfriends just don't understand true love like he does.

For me that was the only big surprise of the season. Yes, it surprised me when someone didn't do something because everyone seemed to be doing whatever they wanted to even if the situation delayed them.

Am I getting this right? Joe has a hot wife and a beautiful home, he doesn't have to pay for anything, he doesn't have a job and there's no pressure to get one, yet he believes the situation is "suffocating" him? Does he sit around the living room thinking, "I could be stalking a woman right now!"

I mostly liked this because they really added a lot of interesting conflict and relationships, and I feel like I have a better understand of Joe's insane motivations and his fragile ego. Best of all, almost none of it reminded me of Dexter. On the other hand the plot depended on a lot of stupid mistakes like screaming about murder when guests were in the house and a few annoyingly smart moves like Joe taking adrenaline antidote tablets at the one time he thought they were going to save his life. I don't watch much television so maybe this is typical of shows these days? It seemed like the plot could only go so far unless another person got murdered so it was a little predictable during the last three episodes.

I kept thinking of the Kids in the Hall sketch when they're all singing around the campfire, "I am animaaaal!"

I'm really hoping it won't be anything like when Dexter got married. I really want this series to steer away from anything that reminds me of Dexter.

I think the first episode will show Joe having constant fantasies about how he can off the people he's trapped with. Every little item in his suburban house will be a potential weapon.

I never like LSD as a convenient plot device.

The exchange between Delilah and Candace when she caught Candace poking around Joe's apartment cracked me up because it sounded like they were trying to out vocal-fry each other.

I loved the alliance because I knew at some point a team would get screwed by it. It has always been a good strategy this season shows just how well it can work. I'm glad that TAR has a real social element between the teams because that is something that has been missing.

If TAR added a new rule every time a viewer saw something they didn't like, I think the show would become tedious to watch. I don't watch reality shows to see how closely people can follow arbitrary rules. I watch regular sports for that.