sinkwriter

It's time for a series rewatch for me; been too long since I've watched it. But last time I did, I remember thinking that the John/Aeryn relationship development was better than anything else I'd seen. I used to point to Mulder/Scully as my favorite TV series relationship (not only for the romantic angle but also for the complexity and for the fact that neither of them were your typical character), but after seeing Farscape, I felt like there was nothing better than John/Aeryn. They both grew so much, and the writers didn't draw shit out way too long or twist it in terribly manipulative ways. Instead, it felt like a natural, understandable progression and development of the characters and their relationship. I thought it was remarkable. Time to rewatch it and remind myself! 🙂

I hope it will be available at some point on Netflix or another streaming service, because I no longer have cable or U-Verse so I don't have access to Ovation. I love this show. The discussions are so fascinating! I hope that no matter who takes the hosting baton, they will continue to close out the program with the Bernard Pivot questions. That is a CLASSIC staple and should not change.

Oooh, Timothy Hutton, what a manipulative character! Somehow even though he's acting like he wanted that childhood drawing saved for sentimental reasons, how much do you want to bet he also grabbed it and brought it home with him because he's got something hidden behind the picture in the frame? Maybe a flash drive of his laptop documents, or something written down. Not sure how I feel about the show, but I guess we'll see how it goes. I'm still testing the waters on this one.

Oh my gosh, yes!! I was totally waiting for that to happen! I was practically yelling at my screen, "Don't you learn anything from previous paparazzi messes?? Stop hugging in the doorway where they can take pictures, and shut the damn door!" LOL. If nothing else, Stevie's always been a mess when it comes to that stuff, but Blake should know better.

She grates on me even though it's only been two episodes. I feel like there's a weird tone shift when she's on screen, like she's in a different show than what it's meant to be. Like she fits in a CW fluff sort of program, not something where her father is a serial killer. She also seems too young to have put in the work and experience to be an on-camera journalist being called in for big crime scenes. I don't like the casting on this one. The writing still feels clunky to me, trying too hard. But I'll give it a few more episodes to see if it hits its stride. To me, the strongest part is still the scenes between Malcolm and his dad. For this episode, I'm with everyone else. I'm starting to suspect the mom knows more than she is telling. Though I do think it's strange that Dad gleefully cops to other murders but not this mysterious girl in the box. What makes her different than the rest? I assumed Malcolm couldn't remember because he'd been drugged with rohypnol or whatever that date rape drug is that pretty much wipes out your memory and you have no recollection of what happened the night before. It's just blank. At this point, I suspect everyone (LOL). I even have a sliver of mistrust for Malcolm's cop friend (Lou Diamond Phillips). I know Malcolm's dad could have killed him that night, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know things or isn't keeping things from Malcolm, for whatever reason. It could very well be to protect Malcolm. Or it could be for a more sinister reason. I don't know. But I am curious! A couple things that bugged a little bit: Dani gets a glimpse at Malcolm's home, and barely blinks at his bed restraints? She basically asked one question (about how it must be awkward to bring people home), and that's it? I know she said it's not even close to the strangest thing she's ever seen, but still... she must have more questions, I'd think, especially being an investigator. It would come naturally to her to want to ask. (The only reason I'll let it slide is because he really wasn't in mental condition to answer very well.) A similar moment happened when Malcolm opened the floor to any and all questions about his father, to clear the air with the rest of the team. Gil doesn't need to ask anything, because he knows Malcolm, but the others just stare at Malcolm and don't bother to ask anything? Really? (Other than "was it weird?" Come on.) He gave them an opening to ask anything and these seasoned professionals just sit there? JT had been shooting off snarky comments left and right; surely he had something more he was curious about, no matter how inappropriate the question may have been. I just felt like the writing didn't offer up true human behavior, and show that given the opportunity, cops like JT and Dani would have questions they'd want to throw out there. I suppose they may save it for another episode, but it just didn't feel natural. Same with Dani in Malcolm's apartment scene. She's Miss Hard Ass all the time, but she takes one step in his place and suddenly she's gently (almost lovingly) putting the restraints on him? Based on what they'd shown about her up to this point, I would have expected her to crack a smart ass joke about bondage, or show a little bit of awkwardness given that she barely knows the guy and she's not the warmest person. (Not a bad thing, just saying that's what they've shown about her character thus far.) So I feel like the writing is missing opportunities for natural, honest human behavior and that's part of why I'm not fully connecting with the characters or the show just yet. *shrugs

I thought the writing was pretty stilted and too on-the-nose but as others have said, it is the pilot and pilots tend to try too hard and over-explain way too much, so I'll give it another few episodes and see how I feel. Michael Sheen made me laugh a few times, and he had a terrific creepy energy in all his scenes, so I did like that. What I think I'd find more interesting is if they spend all this time showing us that we should be worried about Malcolm being his father's son and descending into madness and violence... and in the end it turns out that his sister is the one who cracks. She's the one her mom referred to as "perfect" and not the one to worry about. So it would be more interesting, I think, if we worry about Malcolm but eventually start to see that he's the safe one, because he's so worried and anxious about NOT becoming his father that he goes to extremes to make sure that will never happen. Meanwhile, his sister seems pretty blasé about it, maybe because she never knew her dad? So it would be interesting if they gave her some depth and we slowly but surely start to see her shift and change and become altered. And then we wonder, just which one is the true monster and did they inherit that from their father, and can it be stopped?

The car where the radio thief escaped to? There was no plate on the back of the car as it drove away. (I was wondering that too, or wondering if she could at least memorize the plate, until I saw the back of it as it drove off.)

For all of 1 minute into the episode. *eyeroll Fast recovery for a dude who just had a seizure in the ambulance. WTF. I'm still ticked that Afton (Bishop) had to leave. I've read that the actor (Demetrius Grosse) who'd been accused of sexual harassment toward Afton has been cleared of all charges, but so much goes into covering up bullshit like that, that I'm doubtful her complaints were given enough credence. Especially when they say "no one acted in an unlawful manner or demonstrate[d] behavior inappropriate for the workplace." That is such a subjective thing to decide. They may have dismissed something that was indeed very inappropriate and uncomfortable to her. No one should have to put up with that. The show will be the poorer for it, without her character. And the way they had to just write her off with a dismissive one-liner was disappointing.

True. It's just that they didn't show it, so what they did present made me say, "WTF are you doing, Katherine?!" I don't deny her needing to get away. I wholeheartedly agree with that. I just think they doctored up this melodrama where she leaves her son (and doesn't talk to him on the phone or anything after she's gone so he's clearly confused and waiting for her to come home again) so that it will be super dramatic when the reality of the situation would have been dramatic enough. It's like the whole thing with Delilah and that lactation nurse. That was ridiculously doctored up so Maggie could make that melodramatic speech. (And possibly to get us feeling bad for Delilah, but... that's just not going to happen, LOL.)

Yeah, but she still left before Eddie got there (at least they made it seem that way), so she did leave her kid alone. And something could have happened to Eddie along the way. He could have been delayed, stuck in traffic, got in a car accident, you just never know. So for her to leave before Eddie got there was not great. (I also didn't buy that she would do that. Maybe wait in her car until she saw Eddie pull up, and then leave, but to leave just knowing Eddie's maybe 10 min. away didn't seem like something Katherine would do.)

I thought that scene with the moms was excellent. The actress who played the mom who did most of the talking (the one who initially dismissed Holden as being too young and pretty much said forget it, at first) was SO good. The way she stared Holden down and just talked so personally about what their community has gone through and how their children were being murdered.... I got chills. She was terrific. (IMDB says her name is June Carryl and her character is Camille Bell.) Powerful performance that really showed the distrust of the police and the enormous frustration they must be feeling, in wanting answers and not getting them and not seeing anyone take the cases seriously enough.

I think they kept him sedated over the weekend (or whatever time period it spanned?) and in restraints, because Holden couldn't seem to calm down on his own. When Bill was finally clued in, it was Holden himself on the phone calling Bill (because Bill responded with, "Where the fuck have you been??"), so it seemed Holden had missed work and no one had called anyone on his behalf. That was pretty strange to me. Before Holden's call to Bill, I kept waiting for someone to come down to the basement and tell Bill or Dr. Carr where Holden was or say there'd been "an incident."

I think they see Holden (and all the authorities) as untrustworthy and "too little, too late." That everything gets tied up in politics and bureaucracy, and no one gives a shit about these poor children who are going missing and getting murdered. She doesn't know Holden, she has no history with him, and so far he's only gotten involved when the Bureau let him get involved. We know that Holden is driven for answers, but that's not anything these mothers can see from their end of things. And the deaths keep happening, and no one knows what's being done. It probably feels like nothing's being done. They just keep seeing more children disappearing. So I would imagine they're pretty angry and see this as another situation where no one cares enough because it's not white kids going missing. What's really hideous is that this kind of attitude (the politicians and the cops, not the mothers) is still going on today. There are so many situations where things seem to get taken much more seriously if the victim involved is a (straight) white male. There are times when that mother was quiet and polite (as best as she could be under the circumstances); she even shook Holden's hand, even though she definitely hesitated. But I can't blame her for being angry and demanding answers. Side note: what I'm curious about is what Jim's got cooking in his brain after talking to that mother whose kid knew almost all the victims. He seemed to find that curious, which makes me wonder if it could be another situation where the kid got groomed for bringing victims to the perpetrator. Until "Pat-man" lost his usefulness, perhaps? Because he's not missing; he was killed too, right?

No worries. It's just that people who want to watch episode by episode and then come here and read the comments might not want to read something about the next episode until they've seen it. So it's good to keep comments strictly to the specific episode thread that you're in. (And of course you can reference past episodes, because obviously they came beforehand so that information is up-to-date with the current episode thread.)

True, but I didn't find that out until today when I watched the next episode, which revealed that plot point. So your comment probably belongs in that episode's thread. 😊 Nevertheless, with the info we were given in this episode, I stand by what I said. Sherlock's a rational guy, not a sentimental one. And the idea that it's okay to just kill someone preemptively is horrific, which is why he tried so hard to find a different solution.

I didn't see it as a preachy or liberal attitude. I saw it as a logical one. Why on earth would or should anyone's first instinct in the situation be "Kill the guy"? If his beef with the other guy was a legal one and he hadn't found representation that could help him, why wouldn't the first option from Sherlock be, "I have contacts -- including shark lawyers who've worked for my father. If they can help my father, they can surely help this guy." If his only issue is a legal one, that would seem to solve the issue and the podcast guy would no longer be upset with him. Case closed. Based on the info Sherlock had been given, it would seem the issue was resolved without bloodshed. That's not some mushy "love solves all"; that's "let's look at this rationally and find a solution before we resort to murder." Sherlock is a rational person. If he'd known there was a further issue involving the parents, who knows? He might have been able to prevent that as well. But none of them knew about that.

Thanks, blueray!

Almost every week this season they've had Sherlock wake her up, and I love it. He's so obnoxious, but it's really entertaining to see how he'll choose to wake her up each time. He was fantastic (and fantastically creepy) as a villain on Orphan Black. He's great! But as soon as he came on screen, I said, "EVIL! HE'S EVIL!" LOL.

Side thought: I don't care if Blake and Stevie get together or not (they're cute as just friends), but I did like that Blake immediately confessed to Mike B. Blake's an honorable guy, and I really like him. I wish we saw more of his character more often. If his dating Stevie gets me that, I could live with it, I suppose. Then again, he might want to rethink that, especially after what happened with Dmitri. Guys don't last long, dating Stevie. 😉 I'd hate to see Blake exiled somewhere.

As soon as they opened the episode with him instead of someone from the main cast, I said, "Yep. He's a goner." Too bad. He was an interesting character and Skip did a good job with it. I admit I may have gotten teary when Elizabeth's secretary started crying about the "absurdity" of her crying over him when he's the one who made her cry. That was a really sweet moment, and I like that Elizabeth hugged her.

Thank you so much for your thoughtful explanation, Llywela! So helpful. I really appreciate it. ❤️

I'm not really sure what Eve thinks she can go back home to at this point. She doesn't yet know about what happened to Nico's colleague, but she does know that Carolyn's not going to cover for her because Eve chose Villanelle. So assuming she survives that bullet (because of course she will, just as V survived being stabbed), what does she think she can do next? Just go home and pretend nothing happened and that MI6 or Carolyn or the 12 or whoever else won't come after her or hold her responsible for everything that happened? Frankly, while I understand the logic of not having Eve run off with a potential psychopath, what alternatives do either of them have at this point, if Konstantin and Carolyn won't protect either of them anymore? Shouldn't they both be on the run? I was kind of ticked at Eve in this final episode, because she gives Villanelle such mixed messages. She touches her face all the time and obsesses about her and runs to save her (leaving poor Hugo to possibly bleed to death!), but when V actually responds to that, Eve keeps pushing her away with disgust as if V is ridiculous to even think that Eve might be attracted to her. What the hell? I'd say she's in some deep denial, or she's being an asshole. Of course she can't get romantically involved with a ruthless killer, but don't lecture Villanelle on needing to be honest and then lie to her about not having any interest or attraction, because that's such bullshit and she knows it and V knows it. Everybody knows it.

Would anyone be able to tell me how the various shows mesh as far as a timeline goes? For example, I've only seen season 1 of Jessica Jones (a long time ago), and I just watched the entire Daredevil series, but I've never seen Iron Fist or Luke Cage or Defenders. I'm guessing Defenders series (only 1 season, right?), then Daredevil season 3? But what about JJ and IF and LC series. Where do each of their seasons line up with one another and with Daredevil as a whole? I'm also wondering, is it worth it for me to check out those other series? Do you like them? I loved Daredevil, but I've heard less than thrilled comments about some of the other series, and am wondering what your take is. Thanks!

LOL, the reaction from Tom Ellis. 😄

I thought this was a hell of a season, and I spent the final episodes on the edge of my seat. I'll miss the show. I really enjoyed it, and loved the actors.