sluggish neko

Finally got around to renting this. I loved the scenery, but they sure chewed through the plot quickly. It's like they just ticked off all the major plot points in the book without really developing the characters, especially the other two suitors. Bathsheba's love for Troy was very sudden, as was his fake death and surprise reappearance. Boldwood's infatuation with Bathsheba was just as sudden. It's like the valentine she sent him had a love spell on it or something. I think this is one of those stories that does best in miniseries form where things happen at a leisurely pace. Also, I have to agree about casting Matthias Schoenaerts as Oak. Gabriel was way too attractive. I spent most of the movie wondering if Bathsheba was blind and why the other two men were even in the running when she had such a hot shepherd pining after her. You don't get that impression from Gabriel in the book. Now, off to find other movies starring Matthias Schoenaerts...

Ha! Glad I wasn't the only one who saw the trailer and thought it was a prequel to Interstellar. I do hope that it's a better movie than that very pretty but very jumbled nonsensical mess.

It definitely wasn't Nick's. The guy likes to steal clothes. I figured that out after he stole the old man's outfit from the hospital. He looked so silly wandering around in those oversized clothes wondering if he's gone insane. After he takes his parents to Cal's body, sees that the body's gone, and has a "I'm not craaaazy!" breakdown (which totally cracked me up), I realized Nick was comedy relief. Humor is always nice in zombie apocalypses... otherwise things get way too bleak. Doesn't Rick serve the same function on TWD? Of course! It wouldn't be The Walking Dead otherwise. It's all in honor of T-Dog.

I caught the second half of this episode and I have to say Terrence Howard deserved that win for his ridiculous outfit alone. And then he insisted on staying in character! Hah! Taraji's choice to do "Material Girl" was also fun and I loved her leopard print dress. Did anyone notice how at the end credits, Taraji ripped the Rick James wig off of Terrence? She's awesome.

It's nice that Will and Bedelia have their own little Hannibal support group, but I really hope Will's not using Bedelia as a psychiatrist. She looks about as traumatized as Will in their sessions. When Will said that what happened to Chilton was not unexpected after all that emphasis about his hand on Chilton's shoulder, I liked that Bedelia echoed Hannibal's response to her after she stood by and watched as Hannibal murdered that poor guy who recognized him as fake Dr. Fell. Not observation but participation. Well, the Wile E. Coyote title now officially goes to Chilton, because holy shit, how the hell did he survive that? Will only got gutted, thrown off a train, shot, and barely brain-sawed, but Chilton got his kidneys cut out, face shot off, lips and tongue chewed out, and then set on fire. I know he's slimey and pompous, but in an endearing way. I really, really hated seeing him tortured like this. (Though Esparza really acted the crap out of the terror Chilton felt.) Poor guy. He really needs a vacation. Armitage is a wonderful actor, but they need to give him more to do than yoga exercises, beating himself, and making him repeat the line "GREAT. RED. DRAGON." again and again. Normally, I love this show's visuals, but the cgi dragon and dragon wings must be stretching their budget. They look a little borrowed from Syfy.

Honestly, D'avin being turned into Level 6 would make him more interesting, but Fancy needs no improvement, damnit! I wonder what Khylen's ultimate plan for Dutch is. His distraction to keep her away from Westerley was as usual, his way of protecting her, but his fellow Level 6 agent had no qualms about killing her. (Btw, Johnny gets all the best lines. I'm John Jacobi. Stop licking my partner! Plus, his expressions when Kendry was hitting on Dutch were priceless.) I wonder if Khylen has his own hidden agenda that's not exactly aligned with the Company's. After John did the blood blessing dressed in monk's robes, I thought hey, if Alvis ever got killed, he's got a replacement ready to take on the rebellion and I don't think many people would notice. They would probably wonder when Alvis developed a great sense of humor. In any case, they set up a lot of cool possibilities for season 2 if the show gets one. All in all, this first season was fun summer entertainment.

Short interview with Sam Esmail on EW previewing the last two episodes: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/19/mr-robot-creator-sam-esmail-preview-interview (There's spoilers here for episode 8 so don't read if you haven't seen that episode yet.) He seems to imply that we'll see more Whiterose. Fingers crossed B.D. Wong will make another appearance.

I was all, Yeah! Elliot got Mr. Robot back for pushing him off the balcony... until I realized he threw himself out the window. Dammit Elliot, how many times are you going to keep throwing yourself off high places? Elliot looked so devastated when he realized that he was hallucinating Mr. Robot and his real father was dead dead. He can never make up for betraying his father, except in his mind. It was sweet to see their bond in that opening flashback in the Mr. Robot store (and yeah I agree, that customer was a real prick). Also sweet? The sisterly dynamic between Angela and Darlene whose characterizations have really improved over these last few episodes. Tyrell has become totally unhinged. His plan to climb the corporate ladder was an EPIC FAIL. I'm guessing he's using Elliot as some way to get rid of his CTO competition and return to Evil Corp? Or he could be plotting something even crazier. Who knows with him? The guy likes strangling people. Where can I find a husband like Gideon's?

That bugged me too. How is his brain/Synth interface any different from having a pacemaker? Without the machinery, he'd be brain dead; without a pacemaker, a human would have no regular heartbeat and eventually be dead dead. So... how does that disqualify him from being a person? That was one of many huh? moments that made my brain hurt and as I've learned to do with this show, best not to think too hard about the science or logic of it. Much like on Merlin, Colin Morgan is better than this show. How Karen could ignore Leo's plea for help is beyond me. Look at those puppy dog eyes! In the end, it boiled down to a Surrogate Mother vs. Duplicate Mother Battle... and I guess Mia has more desperate eyes? Or maybe Karen has some bit of maternal feeling programmed in her? I'm still not sure why she made a 180 turn. Hmm... Probably not a good idea to let the murderer decide what to do with the code of great Synth importance. No one thought it weird that Kill-All-Humans Niska suddenly trusted Laura the human? I'm rooting for Niska to unleash that code and cause chaos in Season 2, but I probably won't stick around to watch it.

Hey, Will and Molly now have matching bullet wounds! Someone's going to be jealous. Hannibal really is going stir-crazy with his petty and mean little games.. like a lion pacing back and forth in a cage. Maybe it's the lack of the fabulous food prep scenes or Hannibal's snazzy dinner parties, but the show feels like it lacks something with Hannibal stuck behind bars/glass. I miss the grand mind games of Season 2.

That was kind of fun-- though the awkward Dutch/D'avin luuuurve really isn't necessary. In fact, D'avin isn't necessary 'cause Dutch and John work just fine without him. Plus, after hearing the story of how John and Dutch first met, I demand a flashback episode! Heh, if Lucy was wearing that wedding dress, she and John would totally be married by now. Seriously though, I bought the whole John/Dutch platonic relationship until I heard John tell that story. Now, I'm not so sure. And damn you D'avin for ruining their moment! I pick on D'avin a lot, but when the three of them work as a team (like in inflitrating the RAC) they're quite entertaining. To sum up the show mythology advancement, Dutch is the last member of some fallen royal/noble family and Khlyen needs her to... save himself? (And it has something to do with his super secret level 6 mission?) Anyway, I've always thought Khlyen made a great Evil Mentor. He may be eeeevil, but he seems to genuinely care for Dutch. It's the best kind of messed-up (surrogate) father/daughter dynamic. Sad that there was no Fancy sighting at RAC HQ.

They got me. There was a lot of talk about distractions in this episode and still, I was too focused on the whole why of Mr. Robot (who a lot of people guessed was his dad-- good job!) that I didn't see the Darlene sister reveal coming. The ballet scene was a clue, but mostly my thought was more along the lines of hey, it's the two blondes who represent the two sides of Elliot's life and wait, they know each other?!? And it seems this isn't the first time Elliot's forgotten her. Jeez, how many times has he erased and remade his identity? Sometimes I think Tyrell is an alien impersonating a human corporate go-getter and failing comically at it. When the police came for him, I wasn't worried (even though he was totally cracking under the pressure) because that wife of his is cooler than a cucumber (or pickle or whatever it was she was munching). I knew she'd take care of it. And now, he believes in Elliot's mission? I wonder if they had an agreement from the beginning that Elliot "forgot" like the one Elliot had with White Rose. Ollie's email titled "on the verge of tears" cracked me up.

Oooookay, as long as she's just a prop and doesn't block my view of Rogelio. 'Cause frankly, when Rogelio's in a scene, he's all I see.

Funny, I thought Gillian Anderson's speech pattern was somewhat similar to how she talked on the X-files and she just forgot which set she was on. After all, Hannibal addressed his trolling letters to the FBI... Scully/DuMaurier, eh, whatever. I did think Bedelia's advice to Will was meant to be helpful. Look how scar-free she is! I don't understand how Will does not at least carry a taser with him at all times whenever Hannibal is involved. After all he's been through, he should expect some kind of bodily harm whenever Hannibal points him to something. I wonder if Fuller has an ongoing bet with the directors to see how artsy fartsy they can make the sex scenes? I know they try reeeally hard (and I like both actors), but I don't see the chemistry between Francis and Reba. It's about as convincing as the Hannibal/Alana coupling.

Did Leo not learn the first time that going off with his mother (or the synth that looks like her) is a bad idea? He's just lucky he didn't end up drowning in a lake... again. Mia is now providing the marriage couseling Laura and Joe should have gotten in the first place. Maybe that's what Joe should have spent his money on instead of a hot lady house-Synth. Would've saved them all a lot of trouble. Damn you Not!Beatrice for killing the best part of the show and making us suffer through Pete's storyline.

That... was boring. Dutch and D'avin talking out their feelings is exactly what I did NOT want to see. Y'know this whole storyline would have played out in a similar way if they took out the Dutch/D'avin attraction. Please make it stop. I don't see the chemistry. Pawter being an exiled poor rich girl junkie explains a lot. So they're implying John's mom was an addict too? John and Alvis the resistance monk look so similar to me. If it weren't for that silly monk outfit, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Edited to emphasize the NOT!

WTF is up with Tyrell? I've been trained to expect an awkward, creepy weirdness from him that's somewhat funny and then he goes and straight up murders the CTO's wife? I was so confused. I kept wondering if it was part of the plan. But then it really looked like he was genuinely freaking out, which was kind of funny-- not as funny as how he abruptly fired those three guys earlier. Agree that Rami Malek is amazing. He's what drew me to the series in the first place. I'm so suspicious of Mr. Robot that whenever I see him, I just think oh, that's Elliot in his Mr. Robot skin. I won't acknowledge him as a real person unless someone actually calls him out by name and there's a scene with Mr. Robot, Elliot, and one other person where they all talk and they all acknowledge each other's presence. Aack, this show is making me paranoid now. After hearing what Colby said to Angela, I hope somebody kicks him in the balls soon.

I intended to drop this show after that last crappy episode, but I saw that Amy Acker was going to be on and she can be so darn charming at times! If Harvey ever grows up, he and Esther might be a cool ship to jump on. The key word is grow up, because I'm tired of watching kids pretending to be lawyers. And though yes, Louis does has a very punchable face, Harvey should know better to punch him in his nearly all-glass office. You're supposed to be lawyers! Use your words. Does Jessica need to toddler-proof all the sharp corners in the firm? Aaaand, with the return of the stupid Mike fraud lawyer plot, I'm out. In my version of the last Suits episode, Jessica and Gretchen stylishly run the office and everyone else gets fired. Yay! The End.

Finally stuff happens! They should have brought Mia back sooner-- before I got completely sick of the Hawkins family. One look at the teenage son's permanent derp face or that idiot asshole Joe and I tune out. There are still problems with plot contrivance that annoy me. Max had all that time while Leo was expositioning away to the Hawkins and he couldn't find the time to charge himself before they left? Really? I don't mind missing a few scenes related to Pete's synth-complicated life. It's like All My Circuits but not as good cuz Calculon isn't in it.I'd totally watch a sitcom about Dr. Millican and his troublesome synths. Fred is my new favorite BAMF.

Abigail as an actual character isn't that interesting. I see her more as a symbol of the bond between Hannibal and Will. She's someone they both wanted to protect and in doing so, she is what brought Hannibal and Will together. Hannibal revisiting his days with Abigail in his mind palace is him reviewing his unrealized familial relationship with Will. But I do agree we've seen too much of her at this point. They're really squeezing the last dregs of her story at this point. Let her go, Hannibal. Will already has. When Hannibal and Jack were facing off, I wondered if this was where the real battle was. After all, Hannibal and Jack have had two very physical fights and it's a draw (1-1). Will seems like a pawn the two men push back, something like a special game piece the men fight over to control. In any case, Will's relationship with either man isn't good for his health.

Well, that was a super fast hook-up and break-up! Just like the episode title promised! Johnny was right, Dutch & D'avin are epically bad at relationships. This episode didn't seem that promising at the start. Pawter was acting desperate with D'avin again, D'avin was ghosting on her... so he could get with Dutch, and Johnny walks in just at the right time to see them together. How cliché can it be? To be fair, it was refreshing that John wasn't romantically jealous, only concerned that he would be caught in the middle when it all inevitably blows up like a kid stuck between divorcing parents. He's rightly bummed. Forcing to pick between mom and dad sucks. Then suddenly, the Dutch/D'avin hook-up pulls a Buffy/Angel (yeah I know it's not exactly the same, but it sure is convenenient that Dr. Jaeger turned the kill-all-teammates switch on right after Dutch's sexytime with D'avin) and things get really interesting. How fun was it to see Lucy freak out over John? I'm still annoyed with Pawter, but she gets special points for saving John's life. And just like that, D'avin's backstory is revealed and the Dutch/D'avin attraction is out of the way 'cause she can always say: hey, the last time we tried that, you beat the crap out of me and stabbed your brother and left him to bleed out... probably not a good idea. Good job, show.

I was happy to see Tyrell's scenes, especially the one where his wife munches on a phallic appetizer all cool and collected with an air of "told you so, i'm always right" while he's throwing a tantrum in the background. The comedy was much needed in this otherwise depressing episode. Tyrell might have lost his little corporate game, but the stakes were not as high for him as they were for Elliot. Mr. Robot was right about Shayla. Elliot had already lost the game (much like Vera's brother), but he was unwilling to admit it. That whole scene in the stairway between Mr. Robot and Elliot felt like a debate Elliot was having with himself about his options at that point. When Mr. Robot said to Elliot that Elliot couldn't see the truth even when it was right in front of his face, I took it to mean more than just the Shayla situation, I took it to mean Mr. Robot's actual face-- the truth of who and what Mr. Robot is. Then again, I also interpreted Elliot's morphine withdrawal dream trip to mean that Mr. Robot was his creation. So, yeah, I'm firmly in the Mr. Robot isn't real camp now. But... the show has left it vague enough that Mr. Robot can turn out to be real and I'll still buy it. Angela is more interesting with a purpose. Now she gets to show how smart she is.

I was cheering for Harvey when he destroyed that annoying psychiatrist during the deposition. All she does is blather on about Harvey's mother. She is a physical representation of how anvilicious this show can be. And once again, Harvey just waltzes back into her office, dashing all my hopes that we'll never see Dr. Freudian Anvil again. Why, Harvey, why?!? At the very least, find another therapist. I hear Dr. Hannibal Lecter is accepting new patients. Mike and Rachel's wedding venue gets a C-plot? People care that much? Whatevs. At least Harvey's panic attack trigger Donna and all-star ass-kicker Gretchen got to interact. Hoping they get more scenes together. I don't even want to get into how ridiculous and offensive and baka (ばか!) that meeting with Tanaka was. Writers, if you wanted me to really hate Louis, you've succeeded.

The Mia and Leo reunion was so disappointing. He spends five episodes looking for her and talking about how he loves her and then finally he finds her! But after a couple hours of banging angrily on the keyboard, he just declares that Mia's dead and gives up. WTF? Does a person who claims to be in love just give up like that? The annoying teenager has more faith in her! Some boyfriend he is. Maybe Leo caught the angries from Niska. Geez, the Hulk has nothing on her. She can barely contain her rage having a nice conversation with a doddering old man. Also, how is it that Dr. Millican is suddenly fine with Vera now? Vera doesn't even report on Niska when the synth detective visits. Suddenly she seems harmless. I'm disappointed overall with the show. I was hoping for a more intelligent exploration of sentient robots, but all this show does is make me miss Caprica.

I'm also afraid that they're telegraphing a Dutch/D'avin hook-up. Fancy even outright asked if it had happened yet right before his awesome asshole speech. I really hope we see more of Fancy and his amusing brand of douchebaggery. Pawter's clingyness to D'avin and her sloppy spywork made me lose a lot of respect for her. The guy wasn't even completely unconscious when she was manhandling him. She's a shrink, right? Couldn't she have hypnotized him or erased his memory or something? C'mon show, I thought she was cooler than that. I like seeing bits of Dutch's backstory and how it plays into the larger role of the politics of this world. We know she grew up in a royal harem, which connects her to the six families and the Company. And yet it seemed that Khlyen was working to steal the weapon from the Company. Plus, the RAC and the Company have some kind of shady history together. Hopefully it all ties together before the season ends.