hardy har
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Posts posted by hardy har
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I'm not gonna nitpick too much about what Pope/Prime side's plan is because we haven't seen what's going on over there yet.
5 hours ago, shapeshifter said:I assumed that dialogue was to reveal that there's some science-y reason they couldn't touch him when he's half and half, but your assumption, @jcin617, makes much more sense than mine, and, I think, is more interesting.
I think the crossing area from entry -to-entry is like an agreed upon Neutral Zone.
6 hours ago, jcin617 said:Another thing, they take pictures of everyone who crosses the border so why don’t they put that through a facial recognition program for everyone that works at the Office, or immediate family. “Oh you’re the 20th person to cross today claiming to be logistic support for the Embassy, but your Other is Billy from the mailroom, so.... no.” And how do these replacements come over under false docs and no one notices when the false person never crosses back? Like Claire... whoever she claimed to be when she crossed never crossed back, wouldn’t you think Housekeeping would pull up her picture and be all “oh, it’s a director’s daughter’s Other who obviously totally lied on her paperwork.”
I hate nitpicking, but when your central premise is spycraft, these folks are lousy at doing even basic counterespionage.
Yeah, but do we even know if they have facial recognition technology? Prime Side doesn't even have the tech for smart phones. Pope falsified an identity for Claire, so I assume that's what happened with The Guests too.
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I know this show is technically a co-production with America, but I want to thank the country of Germany for giving me Counterpart, Dark and Babylon Berlin to obsess out.
2 hours ago, scrb said:I don't get the conspiracy at all. First of all, did they raise the 3 doubles from the time they were children, like they did with Clare?
How would they even know that their shadows would have access to that building? And even having Baldwin kill them, how would they know the codes to get into that super high-security building?
But forget all that for a second. They spent years training those doubles and all they did was a shooting spree, killing mostly low-level people. The secretary didn't even go after the Richard Schiff character, who's a big wig. So they killed a lot of lower-level bureaucrats and border guards.
They might need the Big With Diplomat down the road. I think the point of The School was that they were training/indoctrinating the students so they'd be willing to do anything for the cause if they were called upon. For Claire, it was a long term mission and for The Guests it was basically a suicide mission. Since Quayle is Fail Spy, I'm assuming Claire was sending any info she could get about who worked/had access to the Housekeeping floor and that's how The School found the 3 they sent over.
Since, this is one of a two-parter, I'm gonna wait to see what else we learn, but I thought it was interesting that they seemed to be deliberately not shooting some people. There were a number of scenes (besides the one with Richard Schiff) on the Housekeeping floor where they seemed to be shooting specific people. At least that's what it looked like to me.
I think it's kind of fun that everyone is sort of fucked. Legit none of the principle characters have anyone they can actually rely on.
1 hour ago, scrb said:Looks like Baldwin is going to go after Howard Prime next episode. Even that doesn't make a lot of sense because Clare tried to have Baldwin killed and the promise of more money is enough to make her cooperate?
She was poor and couldn't afford any nice eats at that coffee shop and was disgusted at the luxury of the store in which she confronted Clare. But now she just wants to maximize the money she could get out of Clare and she'll let bygones be bygones as far as Clare seducing her and sending the killer to the same bed where they slept together?
I know she's suppose to be a mercenary but they showed Baldwin as somewhat conflicted about getting her double killed and alienated from Clare and the people who hired her.
Claire didn't try to have her killed. Claire actually warned Baldwin, started packing up her stuff and tried to get Baldwin to leave before they slept together in that episode (I totally missed that the first time, but my roommate is catching up and I caught a couple older eps) so I think there is actual affection there. At least on some level. I don't think Baldwin forgives her or anything, but if she's trying to disappear after all this, then more money, in theory, would make it easier for her. Though, that'll be a little difficult with Quayle's Kamikaze driving. Not that Claire would be able to get the money anyway.
I've wanted Baldwin and a Howard to team up since ep 3. I don't care which Howard it is, I ..... just want it to happen for some reason.
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12 hours ago, Haleth said:
Baldwin is very involved in the A plot. She was sent to take out the Alpha folks so the Prime people could assume their lives. She gets her orders through Clare from Pope.
No, I know that. I should've expressed it differently. I wish she had more involvement with the other main characters. It just felt like she was kind of off doing her own thing for a few episodes, but now that I think about it......not that much time has passed since the first episode has there? Has it even been a week?
5 hours ago, qtpye said:Howard's reasoning that allowing someone to take advantage of you "makes your love purer" is something one hears often with people who stay with romantic interests that treat them like crap. It also goes for people who let family members take advantage of them again and again under the reasoning "you do for family". He has rationalized that him being treated in this manner and staying, makes his love truly "special". He is disgusted that Prime Howard seems to throw his loved ones away so easily.
I still maintain the shittiest thing Howard Alpha has done is give Ana false hope about her relationship with her dad.
8 hours ago, Auntie Anxiety said:Does Ian (?) know that Howard Silk is not Howard Prime (how could he not know? Isn't he supposed to be an intelligence agent?)?
Ian seems to hate Howard with the burning fire of 1,000 suns, so I imagine that's part of the problem.
Other things:
- I did not need to see a pile of dead kids. That was fucked.
- I wonder if Pope's other is still alive?
- I wonder if Quayle will tell Prime what he did?
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9 hours ago, Haleth said:
Oh, Peter. This will not end well for you.
The Howard face off was terrific. Meek Howard is learning fast.
I think it was our guy she was killing so the replacement could slide in. I'm really tired of Baldwin.
I think Peter was protecting himself more than Claire. If Aldrich's anecdote about killing that woman his Other fell for was any indication, I'm guessing Peter figured Aldrich wouldn't have much of a problem killing him for being a gullible idiot. Speaking of Aldrich......Ulrich Thomsen is the shit. I know the "big scene" this time around was Howard/Howard, but the Aldrich/Quayle scene with the soup was probably my favorite scene of the entire series so far.
I thought Claire lying about killing her other was a nice parallel to Quayle lying to Aldrich about the mole. I wonder how long before the Sleepers realize something is up, considering Claire is too busy being cuffed to a towel rack to contact them anymore.
9 hours ago, Haleth said:I think it was our guy she was killing so the replacement could slide in. I'm really tired of Baldwin.
I think it was Alpha Guy too. He was way too chipper to be the sleeper agent. Unless they gave Sleeper Agent grocery buying privileges and he was super stoked about it :) I'm fine with Baldwin, I just wish they'd tie her to the main plot a little more. She legit has some kind of back story with Claire, Prime Howard came over to find her and Alpha Howard had some sort of impact on her earlier on, so I'm a little confused why she hasn't been more involved in the A plot.
Re: Howard vs Howard scene.....I wonder how much of this was Prime exploiting an opportunity to stay on the Alpha side on top of everything else? There have been some references to him traveling over there repeatedly and Emily Prime made it seem like he was really attached to Alpha World.
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25 minutes ago, scrb said:
The conspiracy doesn't really make sense either. If a half a billion people died from the flu pandemic, what are they going to do, send a few graduates of the School to the other side at a time and have them kill? They'd have to find the people responsible for the pandemic, if there are such people, and take them out? Or take over leadership of key countries and start a global war? What exactly do they hope to accomplish?
I haven't gotten the sense that they're trying to retaliate in any "in-kind" type of way where they'd go after the specific people responsible for the pandemic. I think they just want to cause as much long lasting harm as possible.
8 hours ago, Haleth said:It's scary how easily Clare took over her other's life since not even her parents noticed the change. I did kind of laugh when Clare realized she was going to have to lose her virginity. Aww, crap!
I'm wondering how the rift was first discovered. Are there any other passage points? Maybe our side had the means to prevent (or lessen the effects of) the flu and refused to aid the other side? If it turns out that our side wanted to kill the others to exploit their resources I will be horrified.
I'm wondering if it going to turn out that Alpha Side used the pandemic on Prime as Biological Warfare testing ground.
Re Claire's virginity. I definitely got a kick out of the fact that she pretty much immediately decided losing it to some random at a bar was was a better idea than losing it to The Ambassador. Wise move, Claire.
I was trying to find some info about creating the show and got lost in a Twitter wormhole. Amy Berg said they had every script written before they started (tweaks were made along the way for budget and once casting was finalized) and they created a Counterpart Bible. Apparently, it details the similarities/differences between the worlds and how/why they diverged and even includes things that what kind of stamps each side uses at customs for people crossing over. They even made an Employee manual for Office of Interchange.
I'm jazzed to do a rewatch of this once it's over. I feel like I'll catch a bunch of stuff I missed.
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RE: The Pandemic Responsibility
I can't remember which one, but in one of the little after episode things with the creator he mentioned a big theme of the show is "you have to love the lie" and that would tie in with Pope and everyone involved with The School. At this point, the idea that Alpha Side is responsible is so deep that it probably doesn't matter. The School took orphaned kids whose loved ones died from the pandemic and raised them as avenging soldiers. That is some deep seeded propaganda right there. Pus, The School seemed to be using Alpha as a catch-all excuse for anything shitty that they did to the kids.
I really like that Quayle was so terrible at being a spy. Like, he just got drunk and fucked that plan up right quick. I also love that he and Claire know about each other and I liked that he called Howard Prime right away. I was preparing for an annoying storyline where he tries to figure out what to do about Claire while Heinrich and Howard Prime think he's the mole. Though I guess we don't know if they'll let Heinrich know what's going on.
Here's something that I've been wondering. Do we know which department Emily Alpha worked in for sure? Was it Strategy/Housekeeping like Emily Prime? Alpha Howard mentioned she was a clerk, but if she was really high up, then being a clerk could just be her cover. Also, if Emily Alpha was working on paperwork from Quayle's safe does that mean Claire was working with her?
2 hours ago, kariyaki said:The one bit of exposition I found very interesting was in Clare's class she was teaching about how the worlds split in 1987 and ran along virtually identical until the flu pandemic in 1996. This explains Baldwin's age. The events that took place in her backstory episode weren't pre-1987, but sometime after that. Early to mid-90s, possibly right before the flu struck.
Hadn't caught that! I know the focus is always on Baldwin since the actress even looks younger than she actually is, but I wondered about about Quayle, Claire and the three sleeper agents as well.
4 hours ago, shapeshifter said:It seemed unnecessarily psychologically abusive (and therefore ultimately counterproductive to The Cause) to have Claire not anesthetized when they broke her legs. For that matter, breaking them at all seemed unnecessary given that there are many other, more likely mistakes due to gaps in knowledge of experiences likely to give her away. I guess the point of the leg breaking plot point was to (for now) clearly label that side as being run by ruthless Bad Guys.
I figured they didn't want her anesthetized because Claire Alpha probably wasn't. Just like Spencer mentioned how he had to get braces even though his teeth were fine. I broke my ankle over 10 years ago and I still have a visceral reaction when I think about it because I remember what it felt and sounded like.
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On 2/25/2018 at 9:27 AM, kariyaki said:
I was at first wondering if Quayle was one of the sleepers and for some reason didn’t remember the times of going all moley, but then I was pretty much assuming it was the wife, though I couldn’t think of who it might be. Only to be “of course!” when they dropped the bomb that it’s Claire. I’m assuming that the real Claire from this side is long dead?
I pretty much figured it had to be the wife early on in the episode, but I'm not gonna lie......when they did the coffee cup thing I thought (for a brief moment) it might be Quayle and they were "activating" him somehow. Now we just need to figure out how long Prime Claire has been his wife. Someone mentioned in another episode (maybe the Ambassador?) how much time and effort was dedicated to getting her in place in Alpha World, so it'll be interesting to see how long she's been there/when she took over Alpha Clare's place. I wonder if he started hiring escorts when Prime Claire showed up?
12 hours ago, Haleth said:So the estate where they were burning all the records is the replacement school, right?
Oh man, I hadn't even thought that might be the school, but that makes sense. It looks like we're going to learn more about The School next week, I know Pope is the mastermind, but I think it's run by a woman since Lotte Verbeek (does her character have a name?) said "she talks about you all the time" when she told Claire she was a year behind her. Speaking of Pope......I wonder how many spies he actually has on both sides?
11 hours ago, Gillian Rosh said:I like the actress playing Baldwin (Sara Serraiocco), but the character is fairly isolated from the larger story, so that's part of the reason I'm having a hard time getting into her character. It feels like she's just spinning her wheels until the writers bring her fully back into the overall plot. Also, even though she's on screen quite a bit, I feel like she's less a fully realized character than a collection of tropes. Hope that will change before the season's end.
ITA. I'm kind of hoping she an Howard Prime somehow team up. She's a contract assassin and not a part of The School, right?
I feel like once this season ends I'm going to have to binge it through in a couple sittings to see what I missed the first time around.
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The census stuff is intriguing. I wonder if the population of Prime World is significantly lower than Alpha’s due to the pandemic? And what happened post 2011? That was the latest year Richard Shiff was willing to give up, right?
Also, is the woman working with Baldwin a double for the Nurse in Alpha world? I was super tired when I watched this ep so my eyes may be playing tricks on me.
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Ok, so lower than I thought, but still. I just think it’d be weird the introduce a double for one of the main characters only to kill them pretty much right away.
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On 1/31/2018 at 9:01 PM, wilnil said:
I wish they'd left room for a fanwank, but someone in the episode had a line that explicitly said that though they knew nothing about Baldwin's background, they could get some information by looking into violinist Nadia's past, because the split didn't happen until she was 9 or 10.
I think what happened is the premise and history of the Baldwin character were set up before they cast the part, then they decided they liked Sara Serraiocco in the role even though she didn't match the age range needed, and then they just hoped we'd temporarily forget that the two worlds diverged 30 years ago, not 20.
I am still hopeful that the show will eventually reveal the details we need to make sense of the situation; the interview with the creator that was linked to in the Ep 1 thread sounded like he'd spent a fair amount of effort on working out the backgrounds of the two worlds. Note, though, the interview has a few spoilers in it.
One possibly useful if mildly spoiler-ish nugget from that interview: While Badass Howard's world is called the "Prime" world, Meek Howard's is known as the "Alpha" world. Maybe that was the first significant split between the worlds -- that they couldn't agree on a world-naming convention?
RE: Baldwin/Nadia's age.
About half way through, I had to remind myself that my personal rule about any show with parallel universes, alternate timelines or doubles is to wait until the season is over until I really dig into what appear to be plot holes early on in a season. Usually get addressed, in some way, down the line and then I can nitpick. If the creator did indeed spend a lot of time on the 2 worlds then it'd be hard to imagine them even considering an actor in their late 20's to play the part. if it didn't line up.
I do have a question though..........Nadia can't be dead, right? Why go through the trouble of a having a scene where Prime Howard asks for something to slip in her drink and a scene where we see him put said thing in her drink, only for her to die by the end of the episode? I mean, we only have Aldrich's word, we never saw her body and the shot was to her shoulder.
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So, I finally got around to watching Neon Demon and it managed to be both ridiculous and really boring. Anyway, I thought most of the acting in it was either way underplayed or over-the-top, but I really hope Abbey Lee is able to carve out a decent career. I thought she was the only good thing about Neon Demon and I know her part in Fury Road was small, but I thought she was great there as well.
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4 hours ago, seacliffsal said:
I want to see Abraham, Dutch, and Fet reunited and take out the master and Zack.
RIGHT?!?! If this show had just been those 3 doing what they fucking do best, I would've enjoyed it a lot more.
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Guys. I'm genuinely only watching this show for 2 things:
1. Zach dying is some terrible way.
2. Dutch getting to be the one who kills Eichorst.
I'll save #2 for another ep, but .... #1 has to happen, right? Right?!?!? He has no redeeming qualities at all.
Also, Quinlan? Don't give Fet credit for Charlotte saving your asses.
Damn, this show makes me cranky.
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You guys? I continue to be baffled at how clean the city looks. Show, you can't just shove a couple overloaded shopping carts on a side walk and start a trashcan fire and make me think the city is in shambles. Seriously, the building exteriors were so damn clean. I work retail and the parking lot I traverse through five days a week looks more akin to what the show keeps telling me the city looks like.
I'm still pissed the show left Dutch out of the S2 finale. One of our main goodguys is kidnapped by a main bad guy, imprisioned, psychologically tortured, chased through a fucked up hotel, and nearly raped via vombie stinger, but no biggie. We don't need to know. Oh, turns out she somehow managed to hook up woth some hacker she used to know even though they don't really have any way to communicate? Sure. Why not. Whatever. Ugh. Anyway, I'm glad she's back. I'm bummed she was slumming it with those morons, but at least the was a badass while killing the vombies and chopping that dudes head off. Setrakian would have approved.
This is silly, and I've brought it up every season, but whhhhyyyyy are they fucking with Kevin Durand's hotness?!?!?! I have had a crush on that man since Mystery, Alaska and the Shoe Polish level dye they slather atop his head and upon his chin makes me want to tear my hair our. It's awful. Speaking of Fet, as soon as that lady sat down I knew they were going to sex it up. Which would be fine if the show didn't turn it into some awful triangle with Fet , Kate (?) and Dutch. Which I'm sure they will and I'm preemptively hating it already.
I remember during the last 3rd if S1 I just wanted the show to be Setrakian, Fet and Dutch (who weren't all googly-eyed about each other) just being awesome and killing vombies. I believe I also wanted Gus involved, but it was purely because he is pretty and I just wanted to look at him. Anyway, those were fun times. Show, you can still make that happen.
Zach is still the worst. He might also be the stupidest, which is saying a lot. He saw his mother attack the lab/secret hideout place where she tried to kill Eph and Nora and then he straight up actually saw his mom more or less kill Nora (while Nora was trying to protect him) and he willingly went with her!!!!!!!! Now he is shocked (SHOCKED!) that his mother is feeding on some kid. Idiot. I hope he dies. I know that's awful, but I actively pull for his demise every time he's on screen.
I can't muster up excitement for Quinlan. On paper he is awesome, but he's just meandering around right now. Quinlan? If you remember you are a badass I will let you join the show with Setrakian, Fet, Dutch and Hot Gus killing vombies and being awesome that exists in my head.
Has this show always referred to the Master's blood (or whaever that is) as "the white" because I do not remember that at all. Between "the white" and Fet saying "muncher" all the damn time it's like the writers are trying to help out whoever will write the eventual porn parody or something.
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I'm sorry, but does that plane masquerading as a science lab/hotel/bar/military vehicle storage facility have a cloaking device around it or something?!?!?!?!?! How has no one from the military (or whoever the hell the human bad guys are) found them? They know they were working with that lady who got electrocuted by ants and they know that was her plane.............so why don't they have eye on that thing 24/7?
Serious question. Am I supposed to know, or have a reference point, for Mitch's step-mom? I have no recollection of her (or his father) being mentioned on this show at all.
They only thing that mystifies me more that the plane is that there continue to be next-to-no nocturnal animas in New Brunswick, Canada. I laugh every time Jamie and whatshisface are traipsing around at night with no problem. Also, Blond Lady Running things? I need to tell you something. If you burn 24 hours a day, you will eventually run out of shit to burn. I don't know what's funnier: the amount of people Jamie is directly and indirectly responsible for killing or the idea that a simple chainlink fence kept out a bunch of polar bears.
Jackson's black tears made me want to dive into old school X-Files episodes.
Abe? Shut the fuck up. I swear, all he does his on this show is get morally condescending or deathly serious and it kills my silly Zoo vibe.
Bye Chloe. I will miss you, your bug eyes and your vague, but ever evolving job title. BTW, I swear Mitch was doing chest compressions while Chloe was conscious. Who the hell took that video of Chloe in Africa. Didn't she say she went alone? Maybe it was a friendly lion :)
I still have no idea what the passage of time is on this show.
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I love that I have seen most of the lead actors in this show in other things and thought they were awesome and on this hot mess they are . . . hot messes.
3 hours ago, blackwing said:I can't recall, but are Jackson and Chloe actually married? The last episode of last season did some huge jump in time, right? Did they actually marry? I seem to recall that in the book (which apart from the names of the characters, has absolutely nothing to do with the show), they get married.
You know what's fantastic? You couldn't recall if Chloe and Jackson were married and I couldn't recall if they were even dating. God, I missed this stupid show.
I would like to give a special thank you to the makeup people in charge of Jackson's head wound. It bounced around from basically a gaping wound, to a deep cut, to a wound in the shape of an "X", and to a vague scratch the whole damn episode. Really, guys? It is so hard to take a picture of the wound after the first day and . . . . then just replicate that the rest of the time?
I genuinely have no idea how much time passed between the team flying to find Jamie, not finding her, but getting the leopard, and getting back to the plane. Like, I'd imagine that takes at least several hours, but the show made it seem like the whole thing happened in 10 minutes. Also, they are the worst goddamn rescue crew ever. Oh, our rescue target, literally, isn't in our immediate sight. K, BYEEEE!
Oh, and 1,000 facepalms to Jamie. All of these people are dumb, but she is just next level stupid.
1 hour ago, mertensia said:How could Jackson turning into an animal make this worse? I mean sure Chloe probably won't want to screw him but other than that, hey! Instant specimen!
Right?! I don't understand why Jackson and Chloe didn't tell Mitch and make him take a million samples from Jackson to try and figure this shit out. Wouldn't finding someone freshly bitten be a good thing?
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For the record, I have seen pretty much all the principal actors on this show in other things and they all deserve to much better than this mess.
Nora, you were always the nice one, but it was very cruel of you to lie to Eph before you died. Kelly did not "take Zach away" at all. You should've gone out shouting the truth to Eph. You, know.....something more along the lines of, "I had Kelly dead-to-rites and told Zach to run, but he tried to get me to stop and that's when KELLY INFECTED ME because I was distracted. Then, as I laid here slowly dying I watched your little shit of a kid (who I was trying to protect) actively speak to and then embrace Kelly. Then, they walked away holding hands as I pleaded with him to stop. So, you know what you can do to make this ok, Eph? Find your idiot wife and your waste of a child, who constantly put our group in danger, and kill those assholes."
At least she went out like a badass.
We were subjected to a Palmer/Coco kiss again and it was still the most traumatizing thing on screen. I did LOL hard at Palmer's face when The Master killed her. Expressing anguish and not a strong point for Jonathan Hyde. So, since he was cutting out CoCo's heart at the end is he going to be . . . like Setrakian now? I'm betting that he'll want to join up with our Scooby Gang now that his beloved is dead.
It's not good when I constantly forget The Master is the Big Bad of the show. He's practically a non-entity and Eichorst is infinitely more intimidating and interesting. That whole shot of them in Palmer's office/apartment/whatever wasn't helping either. It still looked like Eichhorst was the Boss and Bolivar/Master was his goon.
I also don't understand why The Master doesn't just kill Palmer and take his money, but whatever.
Where does this leave our female characters:
Nora: Dead. Boooooooo!
Dutch: Not shown at all. Possibly still sitting on Secretly Pregnant Nikki's porch and her last plot left her kidnapped, tortured and the victim of an incredibly fucked-up attempted rape. Thanks, show. Do you even remember she was all about killing vombies at the start of the season?
Justine: Not shown. Possibly facing indictment. The only character on the show who seemed to be moving any plot forward and we get nothing. Thanks again show. Idiots.
Kelly: "Alive" and well and reunited with her shitty kid. Fuck you, show. For real.
Ugh.
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FWIW, Auckerman has so many jobs . . . I don't know how he finds time to take a damn nap and that podcast isn't really about doing straight interviews at all. The worst episodes actually tend to be the ones where guests seem to think it is more of a regular interview podcast. The first segment is more about letting the guest/guests (especially if they're first timers) get into the groove. The response from a lot of the CBB listeners had a lot of "Yay, Tatiana Maslany is on!" mixed with "I started watching OB because of the guests and It's awesome!" and "Ep of the Year!"
Apparently, TM and KB have been fans and they'd been trying to get on for a while.
I would like to point out that, yet again, I saw TM was going to be on something with an OB cast member and I thought "Oh, cool. They don't get to work together that much." I always associate her with Sarah and forget she plays all the other clones.
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I wasn't entirely sure where to put this, but my 2 favorite podcasts ever both had Tatiana Maslany on and they were so much fun. First, she and Kristian Brunn were on Comedy Bang Bang and it was total insanity. Then, she showed up on How Did This Get Made?
If you need fun stuff to listen to check the episodes out. Her CBB ep is #377. That one is an improv comedy podcast hosted my Scott Auckerman and Lauren Lapkus and Paul F. Tompkins were the other guests and they did characters for the whole show.
Her HDTGM ep is the most recent one (#120) and they talk about Masters of the Universe. The whole premise of that podcast is they get together after watching a shitty movie (they try to pick ones that are easy to get/watch) and talk about how ridiculous it is, but it's not mean spirited or anything. It just the group basically marveling at all the movies that get made the literally make no sense.
Anyway, they were super fun.
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Whoever directed this episode was obsessed with face close ups.
I constantly forget that The Master is the Big Bad of the show. Seriously, he barely registers as a character, let alone any one to be worried about.
You guys? I cannot adequately describe how hard I laughed when Nora said Zach's grandparent's called. She was so casual about it and it was the most random fucking thing.
Show? I tell you this every week, I don't think you're very good, but why in the name of all that is decent are you wasting time on relationship bullshit? Whhyyyyyy? How much time has passed since the pilot? It feels like it hasn't been that long to me, but whenever Fet and Dutch say anything about loving each other I immediately think that they are insane because they just met each other. Same for Gus and that random girl at the restaurant. Anyway......
I don't care if Fet wants to fuck Dutch or Nora. I don't care if Dutch wants to fuck Fet or Nikki (hahah, I typed Kelly at first!). I don't care if Nikki wants to fuck Dutch or a pile of maternity clothes. I don't care if Nora wants to fuck Eph or Fet. I definitely don't want to know anything sex related about Palmer and Coco. And I don't want to know if Setrakian tries to fuck the Lumen.
That being said.........Really, Dutch? Nikki is just as much of a waste of space as Zach. Also, she appears to be hiding a pregnancy in addition to ditching you in a crisis (twice now) stealing your money and stealing your fancy Kill The Internet software. I know Fet shellacs his hair with shoe polish, but come on. The only positive thing I have to say about that whole mess is that Ruta Gedmintas is really gorgeous under all that eye makeup.
Why can't we go back to our group of hot people who just killed vombies? Sure it was still silly, but it's better than this nonsense.
So, I still don't understand how nesting vombies work? Yet again our peeps stumble on a nest and make "shhhh" gestures at one another and then proceed to ...... talk in front of the nest and they don't wake up. Then, Gus chats with a guard around the corner and they don't wake up. Then, Gus unlocks a bunch of fucking cells which makes a ton of noise and they don't wake up. Then, they toss a bunch of weapons on tables and have a meeting making more noise and they don't wake up. Buuuuut, they wake up when they decide to kill the guard. I know they fired a gun, but those dummies made a shitload of noise before that.
The Impeach Justine protesters were super weird because those looked like the people who were helping her kill vombies........not a bunch of wealthy people. Why doesn't Justine just peace out of Manhattan if they don't pay?
I both love and am baffled by the fact that Marlo has tapped into the post-vombie apocalypse black market demand for antiques and paintings. I was giggling like a fool at the stuff in his . . . place of business.
Gods, I have zero self control. I keep forgetting to remove this show from my DVR and then find myself watching it.
I'm so relieved to learn I'm not the only one this is happening to. I seriously forget about this show after I post here. Then, I inevitably see it on my DVR and think "Well, I wonder what kind of stupid happened on The Strain this week?"
Those flashbacks were fantastic... for anyone who missed seeing Corey Stoll with a tribble on his head.
Eph's Fright Wig is an agent of pure evil. Corey Stoll is so good looking and that wig not only kills all of his sexiness, it digs a grave, unceremoniously kicks The Hot into it, covers it up and tap dances on its handywork.
I haven't yet watched this episode, but I don't want a fantasy world where Palmer is getting some and Fet isn't. Go get it, Nora.
Look, I know a lot of our intrepid heroes are stone-cold morons, but I don't want a fantasy world where Palmer is seemingly getting it more than Fet, Dutch, Nora, Eph, and Gus.
Every time Coco (I still can't with that name) and Palmer are on screen together I think "Please, don't make out." The slightest notion that they may have even the most vague kind of sexual, or sexual adjacent, contact is the most terrifying thing about this show.
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Add me to the unimpressed list. There's just so much about this show that frustrates me. Why, in the name of all that is sane, should I care about the Gupta family? Why? I just get annoyed when they are on screen and wonder why the hell the writers felt the need to separate Gus from the group for ....... this tedious nonsense. What has Gus done this season? Oh, that's right, he befriended an old crippled luchador. Fantastic. Oh, and he met that vombie good guy who the show intimated was very important and then . . . . forgot he existed. Good times.
Also, there are not enough LOLs in the world to describe my reaction when I realized the heavily guarded hotel only had security at the front of the building. Eph, Fet and Nora just nipped 'round the back and were good to go. Just HAHAHA for daaaaaaays!
I thought Dutch's whole escape, capture, and rescue were very well acted, right up until the point where she leapt up into the the air to be caught and cradled in Fet's arms. Have they been secretly choreographing cheerleader routines together? No, they haven't? Then it felt very forced. Running over to someone and collapsing into their arms while sobbing? That's an actual real thing. But that flying leap game of trust schtick? Not so much. I think it was really only there to cap off the actual point of this episode, which was "Dutch has legs."
I actually didn't mind the initial leap because it looked like a giant bear hug in the "Oh thank fuck you found me!" kind of way. Then, it cut to Eph and Nora and when it cut back to Dutch and Fet he was carrying her like some Disney Princess and . . . I side-eyed the hell out of that shit. I did love that Eph and Nora when after Eichorst, but then I was WTFing all over the place because their pursuit of him seemed to stop immediately. Seriously, they went into the room, he wasn't there, and that was it. No looking anywhere else. No did you see where he went. Just......done. Like, guys? What if he was still there laying-in-wait?
Variation of the same question, then. If pepper spray hurts vampires, he probably shouldn't leave it lying around the dungeon.
I'm chalking that up the The Strain Logic: Pepper spray works on vampire for the same reason our Scooby Gang (I know...it's an insult to the actual Scooby Gang) never ever ever gets any worms on them when they hack up or get into fisticuffs with the Vombies.
Eichorst's mind games were more than enough; I think the attempted violation-by-stinger was well, I was cringing with skin crawling. I didn't think the show would do that, that these vampires (at least the ones with their own agency) indulge in attempted rape; not merely to terrorize and torture, but because it appears Eichorst was getting some kind of enjoyment out of it. I agree with the recapper, that Eichorst, though absolutely evil, was also kind of enjoyable himself, thanks to Sammel's performance and natural watchability. That's changed for me now, the show didn't need to go there, and I'm not sure why they did. I hope it isn't, as the AV Club review states, to put her through trauma to bolster the male protagonist's cause. I'll wait to see what happens with Dutch now.
The acting was really good for all if that creepy stuff. Sammel is always awesome and I think Gedmintas is the most underrated actor on the show even though Dutch has been progressively neutered by the writing on this show as the season progressed. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if the AV Club is correct. While I was watching all I was thinking was . . . why is this happening on this show? Now, wouldn't call this show good (at all), but the whole attempted rape thing just felt so out of place because we have never had any indication that Eichorst was a rapist or sexual sadist. And we sure as shit never had any indication that he had this long harboring desire to have his way with Dutch. This show had ample opportunity to place both of those threads/ideas in season 1 or even early this season, but they just randomly appeared all of a sudden.
There have been several thing on this show that reek of a writer going "Oh, man! I just thought of [insert idea here]! Wouldn't it be cool/fucked up/awesome?!" and all the other writers high-fiving each other instead of actually thinking about it to see if it makes any sense.
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Coco engaging in any kind of sexual (or sexual adjacent) activity with Palmer is the creepiest shit on this mess of a show. I'm still praying she's undercover for . . . . someone. I refuse to believe she sexing up Palmer because she wants to.
Every time Zach whines about his mom I just want Eph to be like, "Fine. There's the door. Go find mom." The show is actively making me pull for the demise of a child. Anyone who wants to write some post-apocalypic zombie (or vampire) movie where a child or teen is involved needs to play The Last of Us all the way through. If your kid character isn't as great as Ellie then don't put them in the show.
Ok, can someone tell me why Zach is so important? Like........why has The Master decided he's going to help Kelly find him? I did think it was hilarious that Kelly (liking like a normal person) was apparently strolling around the streets with 2 spider kids like it was no biggie.
Why are Gus and that girl acting like a couple? I thought they just met? And her parents are idiots. I don't know why I'm supposed to care about them.
LOL at Dutch's girlfriend moving into an abandoned building because she felt uncomfortable with the others. Yes, woman who was seemingly incapacitated by a sprained ankle, that seems like a fantastic idea.
And for the love of my fucking sanity, show! Is New York a burning mess on fire or is it doing just fine? We've got vombies all over Brooklyn, but 5th Avenue was looking awesome when Fet and Abraham decided to rob the church. Seriously, you can't give me areal shots of burning buildings, shots of check points where cops are are scanning people for worms, plot lines where swat teams are designated to clear out buildings infested with vombies and also have a Cardinal getting ready for fancy fundraisers and shots of people in the middle of goddamn Manhattan where it appears to be so nice you could put it on a post card!
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I hate triangles so goddamn much. I just wind hating everyone and this show is no exception. Fet? You are not a hormonal 15-year-old, so stop acting like one. Dutch, kindly remember that your girlfriend ditched you to die with a bunch of strangers and stole your money. Nikki . . . .um . . . you've been hiding because of a twisted ankle? Really? Ok. Oh, MrsRafaelBarba, you're not the only one who thought Nikki looked pregnant. That wardrobe was some sitcom level coverup. Sp weird.
Eph had some pretty great facial reactions to Fet when he was being all emo. It was like a cornucopia of "the fuck are you talking about?" expressions. Hee! Be drunk more, Dr. Goodweather!
Creme De Cacao busting it wide open for Monty Burns.
Dying.
After the episode where they danced together I was hoping Coco was some sort of undercover person (cop/FED/reporter) and was working some angle to get close to Palmer to try and expose his Bag O' Crazy, but damn. Ol' girl was exuberant about it too. I still don't understand why he wants to basically destroy everything. Like, lets say he does get to be like the master.........so what? What is the point if there's nothing to rule over or whatever.
I just do not feel Dutch/Fet. I love them both as characters, but with each other? Nope.
Same here. Why can't they just be tall hot people who kill vombies and occasionally flirt with one another in a joking around sort of way?
Weirdest -- with city in quarantine, fires burning in multiple buildings, and gangs of vamps running the streets at night people still keep going to work like it's any other day. Like the guys at that factory. I thought it was an abandoned factory, so why was a crew working outside it ? Why was there a cement mixer parked next to the factory and a car behind that.
Of all the dumb shit that exists on this show this is still the dumbest, As soon as I saw the workers I yelled "WHAT?!?!?!?!" at my tv.
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I freely admit I was on the internet through the last half of last week's episode so I may have missed it, but considering how overprotective he was of Pretty Waitress Girl (does she have a name?) last ep and this ep, I totally thought Angel was that girl's father. So, when her actual dad showed up I was very confused. Also her dad is a dick. Who is making deliveries in this mess?!? I'd be telling people to come get their shit and if they get there alive they get a discount.
At least Lee got to hook up with bald, hot Eph before she died. I don't watch this show as closely as I should, but I feel like in "show time" Eph and Nora are still a couple? Like, they hooked up just a few days ago in Kelly's house? I guess Eph is living the whole "if he cheats with you, he'll cheat on you" thing. Or they could be broken up. Honestly, I don't really remember.
I have no fucking clue if we're supposed to think they're a couple. They will act very coupley and then they won't and then they have convos about Zach's welfare and stuff and its juszz...zz......zzzzzzzz. I loved how Eph was all in a tizzy about not leaving Zach and Nora had to convince him to leave his shitty kid with her, but he had no problem leaving Zach with Dutch in the beginning of the season while she worked on her art project.
Speaking of.........where the hell was Dutch?
Honestly, I still don't even understand why being blind would turn you into a weirdly-jointed daddylonglegs monster.
Maybe deaf people turn into fire-breathing centaurs, diabetics turn into underwater cephalapods with bow ties and monocles, and people who for some reason feel compelled to carry giant bones around in their backpack turn into supervamps with noses that last forever.
Ha! I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out the whole spider-kid thing too. They were at one point blind children so that means that, once they turn, they have vombie super powers? What? Why? How? I still don't understand why Kelly needs them to find her son. She is his mother, so she should be able to "sense" him better than any of these random spider kids who don't know him. Speaking of how these rule make no sense: when Kelly and her Spider Kids were searching the church, I loved how the scent of Zach's scarf was somehow stronger than the scent of Actual Zach who was like 15 feet away.
Also amazingly stupid: Cop hits Spider kid with car, jumps out of car to check and get attacked. The driver door is open. Nora (bless her dumb but pretty self) decided firing through the roof and fleeing toward a locked building is the best move. Instead of jumping in the front seat and getting out of there.
The look in Zach's eyes was creepy when Nora was comforting him. I thought he was going to say something rude, or hit on her.
Ok. That scene made me soooooo uncomfortable and "Oh god, why is Zach perving on Nora?!?!?!?" was the only thing I could think. I genuinely thought he was going to try and kiss her and I was freaking out.
The homeless guy at the top of the episode was kinda funny. When someone walked by without giving him any money he told them to "Get stung!"
All I could wonder was how in the hell there were still homeless people. Wouldn't the vombies pretty much kill all of them pretty quickly since they're out there with little to no shelter and pretty defenseless. Much love for "Get stung!" though :)
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S02.E08: Women's Work
in The Handmaid's Tale
All the Serena/June stuff has been so good. I was annoyed, but not surprised when I found out they were making the Waterford's younger on the show than they were in the books, but (at least with Serena) I think it makes the relationship on the show really fascinating. June's line about the possibility of them being colleagues in another life felt right-on to me. There were just enough hints in S1 where I vividly remember thinking this was not the kind of society she envisioned. Again, not to excuse her awful behavior, but I'm curious to see where her arc goes.
Outside of this show, I've only seen Yvonne Strahovski in CHUCK and DEXTER. CHUCK was very frothy and fun with a sprinkling of serious stuff on occasion. Most of the press about her was about how good-looking she was, but she fucking brought it on that show. DEXTER was a goddamn shitshow by the time she got there, but she was good in spite of what she was given. I thought she was really under appreciated last Season and she's killing it this time around. Whenever this show ends, I hope she gets more quality stuff to do.
I still don't trust Nick, but I think that's mostly my complete and total distrust of him in the book creeping in. Also, my response to him snapping at Eden wasn't "Oh, no!" but "Of course!" Hey, dummy? Maybe find a better spot to hide your resistance messages now that you have a wife who is going to be tidying up your place every damn day. Idiot. I know Eden is a pain-in-the-ass, but she's fifteen, was gifted to a strange man and has been groomed by her family and the laws of Gilead to be a subservient piece of property. I just......can't get mad at her too much.
That end scene was gorgeous. I kept waiting for Asshole Mrs Putnam to walk into frame and take Charlotte and turn my happy tears into sad ones, but I'm glad they went out with the singing and cooing.