shrewd.buddha

Elizabeth is simultaneously very smart and very naïve. It feels like a trend for main characters to be borderline autistic these days. While I did enjoy Elizabeth not really caring about fitting in with the snobby popular girl clique, she comes off as an almost feral street urchin willing to do almost anything to get by: lie, shoplift, skim prescription drugs, etc. So far, she seems to have been lucky enough to only have to deal with people who mostly ignore her. Being ignored and isolated can make for an unhappy childhood, but it beats the alternative of being targeted and abused. Nitpicks aside, this is one of the better series available this year.

I am always suspicious of shows that start with a pivotal ending scene and then jump back to the true beginning. Do they not trust their story to be engaging enough? Maybe they wanted their lead actor to have some face time because the first episode only used the younger actress for the character. The character of Jolene, while interesting, feels like bit of a stretch for the time and place. Maybe Kentucky in the late '50's was more progressive than I imagine. I know the show is cutting to the chase, but the orphanage seems so regimented and Elizabeth seems so detached. Elizabeth is so unemotional and so narrowly focused on chess and tranquilizers that it is somewhat difficult to get invested in her as a character.

It's hard to ignore glaring inconsistences like that. Conspiracy theories live and breed online. Our heroes are constantly online. But they never bother to photograph or upload anything. (Seems like Jessica would know about burner phones.) The Utopia comic seemed to be of little use by the end. Maybe the comic 's biggest benefit was that it helped flip RaisinBoy killer's loyalty by reading it. Once RaisinBoy killer delivered Christie to Jessica, he just told them everything - - what was the point of the cryptic comic clues? Dr. Mike Stearns came to the same conclusions as the Nerd Squad without benefit of the comic. Would knowing what the anti-pregnancy virus looks like make any difference? Cool visual, but another puzzle that didn't matter. The worst part was having to endure Christie's endless monologue-ing. Such a trope. All the ruthless killing suddenly stops when it comes to the major characters. So, during 20+ years, Christie never bothered to figure out what the Chinese tattoo on his torso represented? Wilson was a real disappointment - he could not even avenge the murder of his entire family and was easily seduced by Christie. During the season, Wilson would complain about how much waste there was in peoples' houses - but who was he to be outraged? Both Wilson and his father were obsessive hoarders. The ending was sort of a mess. Jessica and RaisinBoy (siblings?) are both emotionally damaged lab rats and indiscriminate murderers. Should I be invested in them as anti-heroes? No thanks. I would be happy for both to end up in jail or dead ( I doubt either option would bother them much). A second season? Not exactly anxiously anticipating more of this. I suppose I am not as obsessed with "What Happens Next" as Christie thinks. also: Justice for Samantha!

I was trying to figure out why this show wasn't very engaging - then skimmed thru some reviews on RottenTomatoes and MetaCritic (not the best reviews) .. and I think I know: it is frustrating to watch people trying to figure out mysteries when you know most of the answers already. The nerd squad doesn't seem so smart when they believe Dr. Mike (Basement Lab Guy) could be Mr. Rabbit. The real action seems to be happening at the evil Christie Corporation. Jessica Hyde and the nerd squad do not seem to be active players - - they are just running for their lives and have only recently gotten all of the pages of Utopia to study. So far, their biggest breakthrough was something from a photograph - not the comic. A big part of the show deals with what is happening with the 'big name' celebrity actors - and not the comicbook nerd characters. If we were learning things from the nerd squad's perspective, the tension could be mounting. Instead, we are just waiting for them to catch up to what seems obvious. Are all of the employees at the Christie Corporation part of their cult of sycophants that were raised from childhood? Everyone in the boardroom and internet influencing team seemed to be 'all in'. With that many people, there should be one of two who aren't so excited to help cover up a national crisis.

So .. one "dying" girl gets "cured" and everyone is declaring that Basement Lab Guy's vaccine-cure is legit? No one is going to question why none of the other sick children are getting better? Are they all already dead? It's frustrating that Basement Lab Guy is so easily duped. And the Christie Corp. guy and his son are a very special type of sick assholes. They have managed to raise their own suicide cult of brainwashed children. I suppose we will never know what exactly is in the Dystopia and Utopia comics (though they appear to just be a collection of art pages). The only glimpses the audience gets is when something in the artwork is determined to be a puzzle that can be figured out at some particular time, for some particular reason. It reminds me of that show, Blindspot, featuring a character covered in tattoos - one tattoo getting deciphered at a time. It seems that someone in the nerd group would have suggested posting all the Utopia pages on the internet. It would make them and their loved ones less of a target. It would also cause the evil Christie Company (Mr. Rabbit ?) a lot of problems: the clues would be available for everyone to figure out, not just five people. I agree with what they nerd team guy said - if Jessica was kidnapped to force her father to create viral bioweapons, her life is not worth more than hundreds of children. Especially not Jessica, who only wants to find her father, doesn't care about anyone else, and shoots innocent people in the head for no reason. Jessica does not seem much different in her own unhinged way than the Raisin Boy killer guy.

There are a few things that do not seem to add up. Vought was happy that sales of Compound-V were about to skyrocket. The Boys exposed Stormfront and supposedly stopped the escalation of fear of Supe-Villains. The Boys were also instrumental in exposing the Supes as products of Vought using Compound-V. (Tho I did think someone else was going to be responsible for that press leak - Hughie and Starlight seemed surprised.) The Boys also helped expose Vought+Homelander for creating foreign Supe-Villains with Compound-V to justify The Seven being given military status. After all that, why would Vought suddenly be okay with The Boys still existing? Also, their identities are public knowledge now. Hughie should not be able to return to regular civilian life. Not sure, but I think The Boys remained a clandestine task force in the comics.

The comics - Dystopia and Utopia - do they actually exist? Has either one ever been shown completely? It seems that only bits and pieces of artwork have been displayed as part of bigger conspiracy board. When people are shown flipping through one of the comics, it only looks to be ten or so pages. And there does not appear to be any dialogue or captions that a comic would normally have.

This one seemed random and confusing. Jessica is going to the funeral of the woman who sold the Utopia comic? Didn't that woman die at the convention only a day ago? Or has Sam's body's been lying on the floor for three or more days? The Basement Lab guy and the Evil Corporate guy are at odds. But why, exactly? It's not as if the FDA would allow a vaccine to be produced and distributed without testing. What did Basement Lab guy think he could accomplish at the site of one of the outbreaks? After years(?), Jessica tracks down Artemis, the woman who raised her, hears something she doesn't like, and decides to kill her. Jessica is on quite the killing spree - including killing the assassin twins. The five or so minutes it took for their death battle could have been better used by explaining what is going on. But the writers are probably using the fighting and killing to keep things interesting. The comics - Dystopia and Utopia - do they actually exist? Has either one ever been shown completely? It seems that only bits and pieces of artwork have been displayed as part of bigger conspiracy board. When people are shown flipping through one of the comics, it only looks to be ten or so pages. And there does not appear to be any dialogue or captions that a comic would normally have. ( I will also post this in the media thread )

Maeve cannot fly, yet she magically appeared at two locations in the nick of time. That felt too convenient. And it is becoming a bit unbelievable that Butcher is repeatedly coming face-to-face with Supes that could kill him in a half-second - yet manages to walk away each time. Homelander and Black Noir are shown to slaughter people without hesitation, but they seem to know that main characters require time for smack-talk. At least Stormfront is gone. Maybe. I was tired of her Nazi shtick, and ready for her to go, but her exit was not handled very smoothly. It felt clumsy - - as if the writers wanted every female character to get a piece of her before she died. Becca even got to stab her in the eye (somehow). They had ramped Stormfront up into the nastiest villain possible and then took her out like a piñata. Vought's reasoning for using Stormfront seemed pretty sketchy. And how did a hate-monger like Stormfront suddenly appear on the scene without her reputation being known? The motivations of the head-popping senator woman are even more difficult to understand. Why kill the CIA director lady at the beginning of the season - but none of the Boys team? If she is helping Vought - by killing people willing to testify against them - why is she not stopping The Boys and the retired CIA woman? She knows all the players on the anti-Vought side. It should also be easy for her to find out where they have taken Ryan. I was expecting the head-popping Supe to be the not!Scientology leader - so that was a surprise. The show is really hammering Scientology's crazy tactics and beliefs. That does not seem like something that would have happened years ago.

I will be actively wishing for Jessica to be killed for the rest of the series (if I continue). I will even hold a grudge against the three others if they don't attempt to avenge the murder of their friend - or at least try to escape. Is Jessica supposed to be on the 'good' side? I cannot think of any antihero character who would kill an innocent person just because they cannot be bothered with their leadership being challenged. The torture scene was brutal. And pointless. Are the killers so clueless that they cannot tell if someone doesn't really know the information they want? Of course, the icky-ist of the conspiracy killers is still alive to pursue the main characters for the remainder of the season ... because, typical trope syndrome. The scene of the characters changing into disguises looked as if it was supposed to be humorous - - but after having just seen a family being killed and a guy graphically tortured, it felt weird. The tone feels really off and schizophrenic. Two episodes in and I cannot say that I am enjoying this. It's not really fun, more off-putting than scary, and not super interesting because the comic book connection to whatever conspiracy is happening feels like a gimmick that is being forced to work. If every character turns out to be as repulsive as Jessica Hyde, I doubt I will finish this season.

Yes - that is not the way to conduct an auction and start a bidding war. How would people know to raise their offers? It was just a way for the killers to easily find their targets (who for some reason were in their rooms, alone, and not out partying during a comic convention). So none of these events would have started if that young couple had not found those pages from a comic in a hoarder house and did not just trashed them? That's just random. They could have kept the comic for a long time before getting around to trying to sell it. Why is no one questioning who created the comics? Who was the artist? Does it look like a known artist's work? Who published the first comic? I have to admit I found the first episode a bit boring and kept wondering why people were making odd choices in certain situations.

As some others have mentioned, National Geographic had a series called Mars that was good. Part fictionalized dramatic action, part documentary about the challenges of actually going to Mars. There were two seasons - 6 episodes each, i think. It also features a female commander - but she doesn't come across as paralyzed by her emotions. There is a bit of unnecessary melodrama, but it doesn't feel like a soap opera.

Why do they always seem to have these female astronauts leaving behind a daughter? (Like the other Netflix show: Another Life) Because it is more acceptable to have a daughter being fearful and needy and crying over missing their mother? Perhaps a young boy who thinks their parent is an action hero and is having exciting adventures - instead of a potential victim of dangerous circumstances - doesn't lend itself to soapy drama.

Agreed. I don't see how shows such as this, where the main characters is a weepy, indecisive, guilt-ridden and self-doubting woman, is supposed to be seen as empowering. I much prefer the determined and optimistic-even-in-the-face-of-danger type of characters that are usually depicted in space exploration shows. Emma comes off like an emotional train wreck most of the time. This level of bad writing is usually found on the Lifetime network. I doubt we will continue past the third episode (we decided to give it a 3-ep chance). The second episode was way too maudlin and trope-y. You can already predict that every episode will have crisis in space and a crisis at home. And everything is exaggerated for maximum drama. A space walk should be standard procedure for an astronaut - but everyone acted as if it was the first time they had ever been outside a space craft. And the worst part: Emma's husband, in a hospital bed, watching the space walk on TV (despite the live feed being cut), manages to figure out a solution before any of the hundreds of experts at NASA. It doesn't help that the writers have stuffed every nook and cranny with potential angst: afflicted husband; angsty teenage daughter; care-giver's daughter with downs syndrome; possible closeted lesbian crewmember; disrespectful and untrusting crew; .. and on and on .. Could it get even more angsty and treacly? Sure - why not add on flashbacks? (complete with bad wigs and gauzy screen filters) I don't think I will ever come around to believing that NASA, or any international space organization, would have put this particular group of people together for a three year mission to Mars. They appear undisciplined, unprofessional and act as if they barely know one another.

The opening scene of this episode was disturbing in how on-the-nose it was with current events, racism, conspiracy theory paranoia, and anti-immigrant politics. But how can Homelander continue to be the beloved Captain America role model if he is making public appearances with Stormfront? He would quickly become a controversial personality among many groups of Americans.

Maeve was in the courtroom in the final scene - but I did not see Noir. How could she have gotten away with helping Starlight and attacking Noir? Unless Noir is dead or in a coma, he should have been in the courtroom - and he would have reported Maeve as a criminal, since Noir seems to be Vought's personal enforcer. It seems as if there has not been seven of The Seven for a while. Translucent is dead. The Deep appears to be out. A-Train was fired. Now Starlight is branded a traitor. I think Vought would consider this a serious image problem. Becca seemed smarter than someone who would try to lie to their child about almost every part of the outside world. Maybe the plot forced her to be dumb. Once Ryan's powers manifested, she should have started being honest with him. Becca overplayed her hand. There are a lot of dangling threads and only one episode left. It would be nice if just a couple of story lines could get some type of resolution.

In some ways, the writing for Season Two feels sloppy and rushed. Butcher did not go into the facility with the others - for contrived reasons - because the writers wanted Butcher, Hughie and Annie to have a separate 'adventure' and explore the tension between Butcher and Annie. They are also being lazy with the fact that The Boys are as famous for being criminals as The Seven are for being heroes. How can any of them go into a hospital and not be recognized? How can Starlight stay away for so long without raising suspicions? Vought should be trying to locate her tracker - and destroying it should cause issues. The writers do not seem to want to deal with the inconvenience of situations they have set up. Only a few characters are getting any significant screen time to develop their stories. I don't mind a fast-paced show, but many times I feel as if I'm basically watching a series of highlights - just so that each of the 12+ characters gets a bit of face-time per episode. It is also disappointing that The Deep is such a bumbling idiot - with the way he is endangering Mauve, causing the deaths of sea animals and falling for all the notScientology BS. Maybe I am remembering it wrong, but in season 1 the characters did not seem so much like caricatures. But in terms of outrageous entertainment, this show is doing its job pretty well.

Did they ever solve the case of who killed Mr. Said Out Bitch? If it was revealed, it was not clear. To leave the case in limbo seemed like an odd choice for a police procedural show.

It appeared that Butcher had given up on life and was going to commit "suicide by supe" in this episode. But it is difficult for me to muster as much sympathy as Hughie does. Basically, because Butcher: a) never shares information unless he is absolutely forced to b) only befriends people to use for his own goals -like Hughie in S1 c) casually shrugs when people get killed after he puts them in harm's way. I had wondered how he could have had the idealistic marriage to Becca that he seemed to recall in S1. Turns out, Becca knew Butcher had serious anger issues. He is an interesting character, but I don't find myself rooting for him (maybe his mission, but not his character). Homelander is being pushed to his homicidal limits .. which will probably end badly for some characters. Although you can see how Vought really created a monster with the way they raised him like an experiment. Maeve could possibly be his friend, but is too scared to be honest with him. And does anyone call him by any name except Homelander? That can't be good for his mental health. Like some others, I find myself less interested in The Boys themselves than in the corporate media corruption of Vought and the dangerous dynamics between the members of The Seven. The show feels a bit weighed down by trying to keep The Boys a relevant part of the ongoing story. How can they move about so openly when they are public enemy #1? Being internationally known criminals is not something that can be rolled back. It's beyond suspension of disbelief that MM, Hughie and Starlight could sit in a diner, with no disguise, and not get recognized. It doesn't help that this show - like some lazily-written shows - seems obligated to give every character something to do. If Kimiko and Frenchie are going to have side-stories, I would prefer having more episodes with specific stories to tell. Everything is starting to feel like snippets of stories, which is not so satisfying.

Homelander could use a dead body double to his advantage if he wanted to find out how people really feel about him.. Butcher's wife was in a no-win situation: no one can refuse Homelander, the psychopathic super-being. If she had fought back, she may have ended up dead or severely injured. Now Homelander feel alienated because he knows everyone is lying to him - - but everyone *has* to lie to him, because if he doesn't like what he hears, he tends to kill people. It's a vicious circle. Something that I would like an explanation for is why would Vought put Stormfront in the 7 when all she does is bad-mouth Vought? Is there some strategy on their part? Is Stormfront a loose cannon that the company regrets hiring? She does manage to occasionally point out female exploitation - but mostly she is awful and now appears to be a hate-monger with an agenda.

While I realize that Vanya is basically a comic book character and acts like one, it did seem odd to me that she just casually killed around a thousand Time Commission agents in the blink of an eye and didn't seem to think twice about it. Sure, the agents got what was coming to them - but could Vanya have stopped them without killing them? Did she care? And not all of the dead people in the federal building were guilty of drugging and torturing Vanya. I think it would have helped if the writers had given Vanya a moment of "whoa, what did I just do?" after killing so many people.

They were a bad-ass fighting team during the first five minutes of episode 1 of this season. They were wearing the same outfits they were wearing at the farm (for some weird reason). Allison and Klaus were contributing - and they were fighting as a team.

The Umbrella Academy are on the FBI's most wanted list and their names and faces have been broadcast on national television. But they think they can go to 2019 and nothing will be different? They also changed their family history by confronting their Dad in 1963. The Hargreeves children might not be 'exactly' biological siblings - but there is a chance they have DNA from the same father (alien being). Their upbringing was more like an orphanage than a family. I suppose their childhood was better than many foster kids and orphans - but Reginald Hargreeves was certainly a cold-blooded dick-tater. (Knowing that he was an alien and raised them as an experiment makes it more understandable.) It makes sense that Lila could be a sibling that wasn't collected by Hargreeves. What doesn't make sense was the hand-to-hand girl fight between Lila and Allison right after Lila had thrown a 400-pound Luther through the wall of a house. What was the point of that? Also: Allison never attempted to use her powers to help with anything that happened at the farm. Why? The Umbrella Academy was supposed to be a well trained team of superheroes at some point in their lives. There was no evidence of that when they were all together at the farm-pocalypse. Klaus did not seem to contribute anything to the fight. Kate Walsh was a fun villain as the Handler .. but it's time for her to go bye-bye. Although with this show, I wouldn't be surprised if she popped up in season 3 and said "I'm the only one who can fix your timeline problems." ..But despite all that, it was a fun way to spend time during our national quarantine lock-down.

I don't like how the writers made Diego such a gullible dumbass: Diego could have prevented the assassination by just stopping the motorcade. A few anonymous calls to different authorities could have shut down JFK's visit to Dallas. Diego could have gotten Allison to rumor some authorities to help stop the event. Diego completely forgot about the actual shooter, Oswald, as soon as he saw a picture of Daddy Hargreeves at the event. Diego tackles a guy with a bowler hat and umbrella - standing in plain sight of people - not on a grassy knoll. Even if they managed to get back to 2019 at this point, they have majorly altered the past: A lot of federal agents were killed by a unknown powerful force: Vanya, a suspected Russian agent, during a presidential visit - which ended in assassination. The federal building may not have exploded, but there is no way the government isn't going to think they are under attack from another country. Sissy threatened her husband Carl with a gun during a domestic dispute and Carl ended up dead (via a series of unfortunate events). Sorry, Sissy .. but that's on you. You go, girl ... to jail.

Murdering people with an ax is a bit much. I believe we are supposed to sympathize with Five when he kills indiscriminately - and on orders from the Time Commission - but we are not supposed to be sympathetic to the Swedes, who are no different from what Five was (and is, again). Yeah .. Vanya has amnesia - but has not bothered to ask anyone any relevant questions to piece things back together on her own. Instead, she is attempting to run away with a woman she has only known for four months. Despite having no memories or money, Vanya seems to think that she knows what is right for a married woman who has spent eight years raising a special needs kid with her husband. Carl may be a semi-jerk, but I can see why he would fight to keep his family. Vanya, Klaus and Diego seem to only care about things that matter to them. Unfortunately, the poignant emotional scenes for the core characters feel manipulative to me. The actors are good and really sell their scenes - - but those scenes don't fit with the overall zany atmosphere of the show. It seems wrong to have realistic scenes of the Civil Rights Movement, bigotry, homophobia, etc - and then jump to a kitschy scene with The Handler and the Time Commission - - or time-travelling, cat-loving Swedish assassins. It feels like emotional whiplash.. (just my opinion..)