rab01

I read the books only once and basically as they were coming out so I don't have a good memory of any of it. Between that gap and the show's revisions, I'm pleasantly unable to predict what's going to happen in any particular episode. Thank you all for reminding/teaching me about parts of the books that I missed or forgot. For me, the show is in an enviable position in that Jordan created an interesting world, with some interesting characters and a LOT of scenes and plot points that would be cool to see on-screen but he marred many of his female characters with similar irritating ticks and descriptions of their physical attractiveness (so much that I suspected underlying author sexism, which was probably unfair to him) and he couldn't edit himself so the show has the unusual opportunity to improve on the source material. After season 1, I thought that despite some good casting choices (perhaps other than Rand) they had missed that chance but season 2 was so much better. (Also, the actor playing Rand has improved.) I do wonder whether the show works for someone who hasn't read any of WoT though ...

According to articles about the show, Prue tests her own challenges the week before to make sure they're doable within the time limit. (They don't mention whether Paul does the same.) So, it sounds like no one from the show tests whether someone going in blind can do it in time on the first try. (The sample we see is made by staff on the day of filming but not as a test, just to have a pretty example to show on-screen.)

GBBO used to have masterclass episodes where the judges show how they would have handled the challenge. Does that still exist? If so, I want to watch Paul Hollywood do this week's technical. I'm guessing he can but I still want to see it actually done. Separately, I may be the only one here but I like Christy so I'm happy she managed to survive. (I think Matt is actually a weaker baker.) Did anyone else feel like Noel was over the line in refusing to leave her alone when she asked for space to do her work?

Isn't he more than that but those memories have been deleted?

Was I the only one who thought Halbrand was styled to look a lot like Aragorn when he was talking with Galadriel? Nobody checking the package is a little annoying but I'm not too hung up on it because it only had an impact on us the viewers. If they had checked it immediately after Adar's capture, it still would have been too late to stop the catastrophe. The show did it to make a surprise sad ending and didn't think about how it would make the characters look dumber than they are.

It looks to me like the tree is dying for the same reason that the tree in Numenor shed leaves, that the elves are abandoning their duties and turning away from honor by sticking their heads in the sand about the rising dark. It feels narratively wrong for it be something that can be cured by stuff, rather internal struggle and growth. I've only read the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and a few of the short stories so can someone more versed tell me whether this show's treatment of Mithril is in Tolkein's work? It feels like a retcon invented by the Show. Maybe to make Bilbo/Frodo's chainmail retroactively more special - like a Marvel movie's treatment of Infinity Stones or Thor's Hammer.

I think you hit on the reason for the styling changes in your comment. The Goth costume was a great pairing with the comic personality but it's not as perfect for this characterization and this actress' choices. I appreciate the disappointment when a perfectly realized image in the source material is scrapped for a different vision but I respected Gaiman's and the others' choices here. Death was my favorite character in the comic but for this show, set in the present day, rather than when I first read the comics, I think I prefer this version of her.

I blame the actress for that. The dialogue and plot as written fit an Egwene who is more confident, strong, and determined than any of the guys. It's the actress' choices in her reaction shots and voice that so often read as timid little girl. (Just picture the actress playing Nynaeve saying and doing the things that Egwene has done ...)

I read Eye of the World twenty years ago so I'm hazy on it but -- (1) didn't the book include long scenes of Lan teaching Rand how to sword fight and Moraine teaching him to find the void? (2) Didn't the final fight involve using the only pure source of male power left in the world and a power battle written as something like a mystical sword-fight? (which would've been more entertaining than this snoozefest). IF so, I'm fine with moving Rand faster towards madness but losing the training scenes makes it seems like knowledge and practice are irrelevant when it's kind of important throughout the books (and it's really stupid writing to have a chosen one who knows everything he needs without being taught). Also, am I the only one who thinks that this "final" battle scene, besides being really dull, also borrows a bit from the actual final battle at the end of the series and will push them to change that too?

They needed better editing on this show. It's been edited as if it's a prestige drama with Oscar-winning actors in it - long close-ups of the actors feeling their emotions - but 3 of the 5 youngsters (Rand, Perrin, Egwane) aren't up to it yet. It made the whole thing a little sleepy. I agree with everyone else who thought this ending was a bit anticlimactic.

Let's now turn to him having been one of the most decorated astronauts in the program while she was a trainee when they hooked up and he was 20 years older than her (at a guess since they look about the same age now and he cryoslept for almost two decades). That's really not a great basis for a relationship. Also, did she start dating John the minute after that rocking chair scene with her and baby Judy? Cause Judy and Penny look like they're only a couple years apart.

I think the whole "Ship of the Dead" and sweeping the battlefield to collect their honored dead is diametrically opposed to that part of TNG era Klingon lore. It must be another thing scheduled to change in the time between Disco and TNG. As for times of famine, they were explicitly said to be starving on that ship in the aftermath of the Battle at the Binary Stars so it would make sense from a plot-continuity standpoint (though I agree with the poster above who said that it was just a way to make them super eeeevil).

I'm really surprised by the amount of dislike expressed for the finale. Not that there is anything wrong with those opinions - Everyone is more than entitled to their own opinion and if a piece of entertainment doesn't entertain you then, for you, it failed. - It's just that I felt like this was the proper ending for the series; it made me tear up, it was occasionally funny, and it fit with the philosophical ideas they played with throughout the series. To the extent I had issues with the finale it was little things like Eleanor seeming less at peace than the other three at the end, or Tahani not being shown to ever have a boyfriend/girlfriend that she vibed with, or there being relatively little surprising in it. As for whether the time in the good place was insufficiently set up or too rushed, the show kept burning through plot faster and faster throughout its seasons so less time in the Good Place made a lot of sense. Honestly, I half expected them to never show the good place because it's more challenging to depict heaven than hell on screen. Also, they never showed the true tortures of hell so they also never showed the really sybaritic pleasures of heaven -- just the emotionally important moments for the characters. That felt ... balanced ... to me.

We were joking about Wild Wild West.

Man, The Cold Equations is a brutal short story and should absolutely be required reading for the Robinsons.

No, but I remember the much maligned 1999 film where Kenneth Branagh was part mechanical spider monster. Does that count? 😄 What the hell was in the water during the 90's?

I think there's a shot of Dr Smith holding the stress ball when she's looking at the not quite frozen robots. If that's right, the show wants you to know she's alive. *sigh*

Same here. I thought the horses were in a separate safety perimeter and thought that was insane enough but your idea that they had no perimeter at all would truly be impossible. Actually, now that you bring up the horses - Isn't it nuts to pretend that the Resolute would be carrying full-grown horses (rather than horse embryos)? When you're running colony trips for the very vert select few people and weight is such a premium that chocolate is strictly rationed, how much does a horse weigh? And how much does its feed weigh? How many people could have been transported in their places?

I think it's funny that the show's forgotten that Will is the one who couldn't pass the colony tests, not Penny. As for Penny's whining, they were mainly waiting for the rest of the family to lower a rope so I guess they had the time for it.

I liked this episode. I sort of enjoyed the first season but hated Dr. Smith and found at least one moment every episode where I had to stop the show because someone had done something stupid beyond all human recognition. (Usually involving treating a an unknown alien planet as if it were a weekend camping trip.) This time I didn't notice them doing anything monumentally stupid except maybe not having tethers every time they were outside the sail-rocket-ship and, at least until the final scene, they had been keeping Smith locked up.

This show is dead to me now. There was more bad than good in Season 2 and the people leaving the show are the best actors and taking the best characters with them. Top that off with racist bullshit in the casting process and I am so done with this trash. And, yeah I'd say racist despite whatever reason they say (or even think) they're following because when you have a production as deeply troubled as this one, you do not jettison the few pieces that work in favor of the stuff that puts people to sleep, regardless of the source material.

It's not dead until they drop a house on it, see the witch's legs shrivel up and get a coroner's report afterwards. Personally, I don't dare to hope until they lose a first round playoff game and miss the playoffs the next season (and even then I'm keeping my fingers crossed until Bellicheck retires.)

Isn't tobacco pretty common in Virginia?

electric car batteries last about 8 years so those would be dead by now in the ZA. Also, their flashlight batteries should start failing within a couple years. Speaking of timelines, the turncoat doctor's timeline doesn't make a lot of sense but it's a little easier to swallow when I remember that the whisperers have been around for somewhere between 8 months to a year - Rosita had just learned she was pregnant around the time they showed up and her baby is now a few months old.

I think that was their communal graveyard. They pulled to an overhead shot that had bunch of rectangular patches in the grass about the size of graves. In an earlier episode, they showed Michonne visiting Carl's grave and only some graves had markers and even those were small. I just caught up to this episode and am wondering about how that guy infiltrated Alexandria and assume we'll get a the backstory before he dies - no need to spoil me, I'll get there soon 😉 I like that they gave us enough clues as to the Whisperers plan and that it was one with enough deniability to possibly be accidental. The show seems to be suggesting that Alpha isn't any more certain that she can destroy the communities than they are certain they can destroy her horde. That's a huge improvement over two years of dick-measuring with Negan. I also like Carol doing things that make sense to her but aren't necessarily correct or moral and that other people call her out on it and try to do things with which she disagrees but that doesn't make people cartoonishly good or bad. The show's honestly gotten better under Kang.