shrewd.buddha

I sort of felt bad that Netflix cut the season down to eight episodes. The show had potential. But then I think that we would just have gotten more after-school-special type episodes. All of the 'heart' metaphors: Will's injured heart being healed by Robot, Robot's cave drawing of humans with valentine-shaped hearts, Robot living on in Will's artificial heart, SAR going for the heart, again --- it was a bit much. It is also a shame that Will's Robot was limited to being the dumb muscle bodyguard character (did he suffer a brain injury?). The writers also seemed to imply that all the Robots were not super intelligent, perhaps only knowing how to use the technology left to them by their creators. The robots were able to navigate their way through galaxies, scan humans to get their last known GPS coordinates and track any electronic signal. However, the robots were never able to learn how to translate human language, could not learn how to fly a human spacecraft, did not seem able to communicate with other robots wirelessly and used drawings to communicate. And -- if you pull a thorn from a Robot's paw, it becomes your friend. It was nice that they expanded the final episode to give everyone a happy-ish ending.

So now we have robots who are secretive ninja assassins who decide to frame Will's Robot. Interesting. I liked how John decided to take a walk out the back door seconds before the killer robots broke in the front door to murder the humans. That's some contrived plotting lucky timing on his part. Maureen has only been on the Alpha Centauri base for a couple of hours and she is already running the place?!

I was not paying super close attention, but I got the impression that Judy discovered that she was not a planned pregnancy. From the conversations, I inferred that Maureen and bio-dad hooked up during astronaut training -- then Maureen dropped out because she decided to go through with the pregnancy .. without telling bio-dad. Apparently Maureen told Judy another version of the story. Wow. Maureen, you are really racking up all the points for "person who thinks they know best for everyone else".

It looks as though everyone had 364 days of routine repair work ... and then everything starts happening at once. The Robinsons have a life-or-death crisis on a weekly basis, so I hope they appreciate their down time between seasons. I could ask why Judy would be the only person who happened to discover that there was pure titanium "in them-thar hills" -- but on this show plot contrivances are par for the course. All the square pegs will be pounded into the round holes.

Penny is on a long walk in the woods, finds something, walks back to get Will, they discover a cave system and get trapped inside for a while. Light years away, at the exact same time, Maureen, John and Don decide to go on a dangerous salvage mission on Planet Robot. On that exact same salvage mission, the robot Scarecrow shows up and gets inside Maureen and John's space ship. Simultaneously, Will's Robot shows up behind door #3 in the cave system and takes Will and Penny into an abandoned ancient alien underground construct - where machinery still works. Will's Robot uses the machinery to establish a real-time communications link to Scarecrow Robot who is, at the exact same time, about to attack Maureen. What are the odds?? The writing will always be clunky when the writers' main mission is to put seven main characters into different arrangements and give them simultaneously occurring crises that they can use to jump back and forth between. (Also, to sprinkle on some added schmaltz - in case you might forget they are a family, dammit.) It is a shame that the writing is so compromised on this show -- because there are so many other very, very good elements to this series (actors, sets, design, production, etc.).

Just finished season 3. Short and sweet - six episodes that are engaging with no fluff filler stuff. It had quite a Jason Bourne vibe to it (a good thing). There was a need for some suspension of disbelief: no one ever leaks data to the internet to compromise Utrax; no one ever seems to use their phones to take pictures to document important data or create photographic evidence. I was surprised that Amazon isn't giving any visible promotion to the show -- it is much better than some of the other things it has produced. Maybe they are promoting it more in Europe.. Afterwards, I wondered how many safe-houses and stashes of guns and money were left scattered around the world by Marissa.

The original Kirby version of the Eternals comics was a mess in terms of story and characters (by today's standards). It wasn't around very long and didn't provide the 50+ years worth of stories for the MCU brain-trust to cherry-pick from. The Neil Gaiman Eternals comic miniseries, and the one that came after, was interesting, but still had problems making the characters relevant and interesting. Gaiman's ideas would have easily explained why the Eternals were inactive during the Thanos crisis. The major conflicts always seem to boil down to infighting amongst the Eternals -- maybe because Marvel cannot get past the point of introducing, and re-introducing the characters. Ikaris dying and resurrecting rebooting has become somewhat of a regular thing in the comics. I was excited when the movie was first announced because the concept of the Eternals was still basically a blank slate. But now I am beginning to think that Marvel might slowly back away from the concept and characters. Kirby and the MCU decided to build on top of the myth of Ancient Aliens -- and the more you pick at that concept the messier things get. Ignoring the ethical quandary altogether, the MCU may have to retcon a lot of things to explain why so many god-level and mystical characters seem to be oblivious to the existence of one another.

The movie explains - as well as the comics - that the Eternals are not 'eternal' because they cannot die. They are eternal because the Celestials save their memories on the mother ship and recreate them whenever necessary they want. They are basically alien robots, after all. Ikaris could show up again in a different body. But most likely the same actor will return and Ikaris will have a memory gap.

This episode felt like it was trying to be controversial for the sake of being controversial -- to get some buzz. If this were L&O, the twist would have been that the daughter had not killed the guy, and the father was going to prison anyway because vigilante FBI lady had destroyed needed evidence and fed him incriminating information. They also fell back on law enforcement's laziest way to close a case: get someone/anyone to confess. Isn't that the reason so many poor minorities ended up in jail for 20+ years back in the 60's and 70's? The really odd part was putting a traumatized young woman on a bus and telling her to "live your life!", knowing she would be living with the guilt of her elderly father going to prison for her -- and having just gunned down a person for the first time. Plot twist: the daughter develops a taste for murder and becomes a serial killer. I wish an ethical, no-drama FBI team would come along and clean up all the messes of this hypocritical, judgmental FBI team. ..and people wonder why the average citizen doesn't trust law enforcement..

I think I didn't actively dislike this movie because I watched it "free" on HBOMax, instead of paying to see it at a theater. It was a ridiculously overcomplicated, Rube Goldberg puzzle of a parody of a James Bond movie. Having read reviews and being forewarned, I went along with the early scientist's advice of "don't try to understand it." The first half of the movie felt like a series of robots meeting other robots and robotically exchanging information. Protagonist lived in a turbine tower, for some undetermined period, for some reason. There were a lot of boats, watercraft, large trucks and aircraft .. for some reason. Protagonist spent a lot of time in different types of moving vehicles. I basically got the impression that most of it did not matter: The character's names didn't matter. What was being said didn't matter (because of the booming soundtrack and muffled mask-talk). The character's motivations didn't matter (because Protagonist did not have any, besides blindly following his handlers' orders.) It basically boiled down to: Super-evil guy wants to destroy the world because he is super evil. Wife-person hates her evil husband and loves her young son, tho most of her time is spent picking him up from school. Protagonist instantly becomes obsessed with protecting damsel-in-distress wife-person (who looks a foot taller than everyone around her). There is countdown clock in the final act -- like in all good Bond movies. There was something about time travelling objects. And an algorithm in a totem pole thingy. Good-guys win. Bad-guys lose. I almost wanted to try to understand why Protagonist needed to take wounded wife-person back to the place/time when/where they crashed the airliner -- to see if they were running around in the background of the first time it happened. But I just didn't want to give this movie any more of my time. I would rather find the "cheat sheet" online somewhere. Also, when a person goes back in time and there are two of the same person existing side-by-side, how does that resolve itself? Does the future-person version just 'disappear' when past-person catches up to that point in time?

Episode #10: Let's wrap this up and put a bow on it.. Overall, I would say that season 2 was a vast improvement over season 1. (Remember when they converted the dining area into a disco and had a dance party?). I was never bored. The things happening on Earth were much more interesting in this season. It was amazing how much Niko and the gang were able to accomplish when given a 24-hour deadline: discovering an Achaian could possess a human without a brain-spider , realizing the Achaians might not be biological beings anymore, breaking down Achaian DNA. Wow. That was a lot. And they were taking shuttles to/from the Salvare like it was an Uber service.

Eternals Pitch Meeting

Episode #9: Everybody's back on Earth.. I realize that they wanted Niko and the others to be outside to see the Salvare ship apparently explode, but it was clumsily played. Niko and the others run outside the tent and start yelling into the sky to Erik, as if they could get better reception there. That was just silly. AI:William's creator/programmer had an odd turn when William was going to take over Erik's body via the implant. Up to that point, she was totally okay with all of the Achaian killing of humans, soldiers, etc. At what point did the US military turn power over to the Achaians? Did the other countries go along with that?

Episode #7: It was all a bad dream because you had a bad enchilada air. Why is Niko going on and on about running out of air in a ship that looks as big as a football field. They have AI's but they don't have air scrubbers/filters? And who thought it was a good idea to run around the ship with automatic guns? Bullets and spaceships don't go together. Episode #8: All aliens are assholes At this point, Earthlings have not met any E.T. type friendly aliens. That's the takeaway, I think. Luckily for Nick and Richard, there is only one alien running the giant spaceship. They also lucked out that all the controls were so user-friendly that they could regrow Richard's arm, fly the ship and engage the FTL system. I did appreciate, later, that finding Paula-the-genocide-Explorer dying on the other ship was a good plot move: If they didn't know that the colony was destroyed, that was probably where they should have logically gone with their new spaceship. But it kind of sucks that 24 colonists were tortured and killed and that whole thing was treated as a afterthought.

I keep wanting them to be found out and reprimanded. The other two team members know, but do nothing, so it makes the whole FBI unit look like judgmental hypocrites. I wonder how the actual FBI feels about this kind of portrayal. It's not a good look. Every time I happen to watch the show, I also wonder "why did they pick these main characters?" . But now the show is stuck with them and their personal dramas until it ends, probably. The best thing this show has going for it is that it starts right after the original FBI show ends. FBI: Most Wanted is just flat-out depressing -- we quit watching that altogether. I like seeing the scenes of European cities, so that helps. Maybe they will get around to Iceland, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

Episode #4: My AI has an AI in it .. : It was interesting that AI:William was built from a faulty AI:Gabriel (?). But seriously, these A.I.'s are out of control. How could the space program have decided that it was a good idea for them to have so much control of the ship? And the AI's are way too emotional. AI:Iara still is obsessed with that time she was 'tortured' by her slow internet speed. She is already more paranoid than Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Episode #5: Humans ruin everything they colonize, including space.: The Paula the Explorer character seemed nice at first, but took a heel turn pretty quickly. It's difficult to believe that she could out-program AI:William to force Niko to allow the colonists to return to the planet ... to continue their genocide of the local primitives. Why can't Niko put the crew members who are problematic back into hyper-sleep? And Niko is sad that AI:William is not the same as he was --- except that he really seems pretty much the same. They are not making any of his differences stand out. Episode #6: Why would the US government allow the Alien-implanted ambassador to kill other humans? They are doing a pretty good job of showing how contact with a not-exactly-nice alien race could lead to a civil war. There would be crazy conspiracy theorists on every side -- and they would all be partially legit. The government is keeping secrets, the Achaians are keeping secrets, and the returning Salvare crew are keeping secrets. Most likely there would already be rioting in the streets.

It's too late now, but it would have been very interesting to have a scene where the Eternals explain to Tony Stark how they, in fact, were responsible for human advancement and human inventions (even the basic plow, for goodness sake). I found myself agreeing with a lot of points in this blog post. If you think about it -- and maybe you shouldn't -- there is an undeniable icky factor in the concept of ancient alien god robots being the invisible hand behind ten thousand years of human civilization.

Sometimes it seems as if people forget that China and India have huge (huge!) film industries with major (major!!) celebrities of their own nationality. I do agree that in the US and the UK those nationalities are underrepresented. But if people were willing to read subtitles and think globally instead of locally, they could find a lot entertainment with a lot of different nationalities and ethnicities. Michelle Yeoh and Jackie Chen didn't really need to become action movie celebrities in the US, but it was nice that they did.

It was not as bad as I had feared - but not as good as I had hoped. All the elements were there for great movie, but the overall result was a "just okay" movie. The pacing and plot could have been better. Very nice cinematography, though, with all those sunsets, skylines and vistas. A lot of good actors who weren't given much to work with. And the Eternals seemed to like to pose in a line a lot.. The MCU appears to have the same problem as the Marvel comics: they don't really know what to do with, or how to explain, the Eternals. They can't seem to settle on a satisfying origin story. And ancient god-like organic robots are not very relatable, especially since they mostly don't interact with humans except to treat them like a flock of sheep they are supposed to watch over. Marvel comics could never get the Eternals comics to catch on. And like this movie, the Eternals spent most of their time fighting amongst themselves. Also, there were many more than ten Eternals in the comics. I think the Eternals would have worked better in an alternate universe -- outside the Marvel super-hero universe. The end felt incomplete because the director/writers could not produce a satisfying conclusion to all the interesting ideas they had thrown out there. It was interesting that Ikaris helped the Deviants by getting rid of Ajak. And then the Deviants helped the pro-life Eternals get rid of Ikarus. But the whole situation was as messy as the moral dilemmas. Was Ikaris a bad guy..? Or just a loyal subject? Having Kingo bow out of the final fight, then show afterwards up to help Sersi move as if nothing much had happened, was a bold move. For what it's worth, I would be on the side of actual, existing lives as opposed to theoretical, potential lives.

Finished episode #3 last night .. so avoid reading if you are not that far yet .. The actress playing the uptight mother/mother-in-law is getting a lot of screen time. I suppose the 'simulations' save a lot on FX budgets - - which appear to be pretty low for this season. They still seem to be doing a decent job. The pitch-black interior of the Achaia ship actually works, in a way. It appears TPTB are saving money by not having much of a research station studying the Achaia artifact on Earth. The husband guy is 'working' at the kitchen table on a laptop. Also: probably not a good sign that I am this far into the show and can't ever remember Husband-guy's name. When the platinum-dye-job, 2nd-in-command character left the ship to help Niko, it felt like dereliction of duty to me. Didn't they just say "the mission comes first" a bunch of times in the last episode? (Also, how do you maintain a dye job on a multi-year space mission?) I had no issue with the 3rd-in-command, soldier-guy character deciding to do things his way, despite the AI's whining about "that's not what Niko would do". If the A.I.'s on this show are any indication of what they might be like in our future, we are certainly doomed..

I created a new topic to discuss Season #2: S02: E01->E10: The Whole Achaian Enchilada

Here's a place to discuss all of Season 2. No need for separate episode topics, due to apparent lack of interest ..

Maybe there should be a new thread for Season 2 - - tho I don't know it if warrants being separated into individual episodes. Episode #2 went by pretty fast (a good sign). It seems to help that they are not dwelling on things that are happening on Earth. I also realized that the Earth stuff in Season One had a lot to do with Selma Blair's character - who may no longer be available. The slow stuff was mostly the father/daughter manufactured drama anyways. I think it would improve the show if the AI's did not look exactly like just another actor standing in the room. Maybe some colored contacts or some kind of simplified bodysuit ..? The AI characters acting so emotional about everything just seems odd.

We watched the first episode of Season #2. It was okay and seemed to go by quickly -- I think of that as a positive when I am expecting more instead of wondering when it's going to end. They were really clearing out the crew members in this one and setting up the introductions of other crew members to be 'activated'. I wish they would address the concept of people signing up for a space mission to be kept in cold storage (sleep) until they are needed. Theoretically, you could get killed in your sleep if the 'awake' team really screws up (and the people on this space ship have managed to get a lot of people killed). I am trying to find some of the elements of this show as amusing/whimsical instead of irritating. For example: the alien AI decides to change its appearance based on its new name (interesting) -- but also decides to have highlights in her hair and a cute top to wear (??). And if I have learned anything from decades of sci-fi tropes, TPTB decided to get rid of the problematic daughter character on Earth and she will reappear as a grown woman with some type of special abilities.

I am taking a wait and see approach to this one. I am holding off on buying advance tickets and waiting for reviews from individuals who tend to appreciate the same things in movies that I tend do. However, I have noticed that Marvel is really over-selling this one, to a degree that seems like they are trying to counter-act some negative feedback from advance previews. There seem to be lots of 'official' youtube clips, introducing and explaining who the Eternal characters are. I don't remember anything like that with movies such as Guardians of the Galaxy -- another movie with all 'unknown' characters.