shrewd.buddha

I think the scorched earth(s) approach by Claudia/Jonas was the only satisfactory outcome to all the timeline pollution done by so many of the characters. There didn't seem to be any typical heroes in the show and no real sympathetic characters - - except, maybe, young Jonas and young Martha. But old Jonas/Adam and old Martha/Eva were really horrible, cold-blooded murderers. There was also a lot of characters who murdered their own parents or their own children: Claudia, Jonas, Kathrina's Mom, Martha's nameless son(s), etc. A big chunk of season 3 felt like a killing spree. And no version of Martha seemed that attached to the son that she was supposed to be trying to preserve by saving her world's timeline.

Finished episode 4: thoughts ... and spoilers: As far as hallway fight scenes go, the one with Sister Beatrice (?) was pretty good. Maybe it is my own prejudice, but I would be happier if the Warrior Nuns appeared to be more of a well-oiled fighting machine and less of a bickering group of semi- mean girls. From all the books in Ava's room at the orphanage, it seems as if she would have given some thought about what she would want to do with her life if given the chance .. but she really seems to be bumbling around and bouncing from one thing to another. Maybe some of her booksmarts with come to light later. I guess it's because of our current culture that we have to endure Ava constantly obsessing over whether or not she is being repeatedly rescued by a boy. .. a boy who she has a crush on .. Does it make her less of a damsel in distress no matter the age, gender or sexuality of the people constantly rescuing her? So Ava has found insta-crush-love with a world wandering boy named JC ... could it be that J.C. ?!? .. I don't think this show is going for subtle or coincidence. I do appreciate that the show has a somewhat even amount of adult characters versus pretty young people with problems. .. even tho most of the adults are business and religious megalomaniacs with nefarious agendas ..

We were looking for a fun distraction and are two episodes in .. but this seems to be mainly aimed at the CW network crowd. (Which is fine, really.) I'm not heavily invested and may stick around to see how things go .. or not .. The snarky voice-over narration is difficult to bear. Random impressions: Ava has had a hard-knock life in an orphanage (which seems to have only two children) - - yet she is both naive and tough-as-nails. Suddenly free from being a crippled, abused orphan, Ava's main pursuits appear to be dancing, drinking, party drugs, dressing up and hooking up. Miraculously (appropriate for this show?), Ava instantly meets her possibly one-true-love and falls into a ready-made, diversified group of youths who live like pirate party kings .. while managing to convince themselves they are morally superior to 'society' and adults. Ava, The Chosen One, is being pursued by the Warrior Nuns, who are protecting the world from EVIL-with-a-capital-E. Only about four of the nuns manage to get names and personalities ... but they appear to be somewhat petty and prone to giving one another side-eye. This could be a fun show. It shows potential for being outrageous and irreverent. Plus, it is set in Spain(!) Too bad the powers that be decided to weigh down the beginning with so much baggage. I suppose it is cheaper to produce a show with an emphasis on teenage angst as opposed to action adventure. Eh, c'est la vie.

I think that things felt more contained when the time travelling was done with the tunnels - and everyone was confined to time periods that were 33 years apart. When all the time-travel devices came into play and everyone (and it felt like everyone) started jumping all over the time/place, things started to get really convoluted.

Mild spoiler alerts ahead - if you haven't watched all 3 seasons: I agree. I will say that the show provided a lot of entertaining speculation and discussion, but we were left with a nagging feeling that some things just didn't add up. And when it got to the point of Jonas and Martha 'putting their soldiers into position' ... and younger Jonas and Martha being snatched away in time - - right before the time they had time-jumped previously - - I sort of gave up and just let it wash over me.. A few things that were sort of confusing/annoying: Martha#2, in the beginning of season 3, had a cut under her left eye. But later, and when she first got the cut with Jonas, it was under her right eye. Was there any point to that? About halfway through season 3 there seemed to be a lot of the same dialogue: "You can't trust Adam, he lied to you." "Martha is lying - don't trust her." "Claudia is lying - - she has her own plan." Basically, all the old time travelers were liars. There seemed to be way too many time-travel and dimension/time-travel devices - along with time travel tunnels. And everyone seemed to be experts at setting their destinations without any instruction. At the end of season 2, it felt like all the characters were jumping around in time. Old Adam and old Martha just seemed to be hanging out in big rooms a lot of the time, waiting to explain/lie to whoever was being brought to them. What had they been doing with all their in-between years? And who was building all those time-travel devices? It was sort of convenient that all (?) of them were created from plans sent back from the future ... the Bootstrap Paradox Overall, the scope of the series was impressive: the large cast, with three versions of each character in some cases, and all the interconnections, past, 'present' and future. There must have been some massive white board meetings with the show runners.. To me, it felt as if the story that was started in season 1 did not flow very smoothly into the story of season 3 .. with the themes of Adam and Eva ... and Claudia trying to save Regina ... and things coming back around to the clock-maker, who really didn't seem to be an important character for most of the series. .. but even so, it was a fun ride ..

It was fun as a wacky, dark rom-com, but it did not do well with the sharp turn into violent action adventure, along with Nathan becoming a hacker extraordinaire. How did the murder of Fran Booth never come up? Her death was pretty public - Nathan should have heard about it. This first season was entertaining and mostly engaging .. but the idea of dragging out the status of Nathan and Nora's relationship is not appealing. (And having an 'uploaded' BFF might be nice, but why would anyone encourage an actual romantic relationship between the living and the dead?)

I am surprised that Nathan is not more interested and involved in looking into his own murder. It is not as if he has a lot of other things to do. (Probably just an inconvenient time for the plot, I guess.) I know this is a dark comedy, but Nathan's girlfriend is the worst. Why would someone like her latch on to someone like Nathan, whose resume appeared to be part-time model and barista?

If nothing else, I appreciate that Upload is demonstrating that a possible digital afterlife is not the utopian wonderland that most sci-fi stories make it out to be. Like most things, it would be limited to those who could afford it. And those that participated would be at the mercy of whatever company designed the digital universe - who could also pull the plug at will. Nathan appeared very alert and healthy despite being near death - which was either a swipe at corporate manipulation or the show taking liberties to get the plot where they wanted it. It does seem strange that Nathan would not be in contact with his friends and family, since that appears possible. And it would be a great scam to create a digital afterlife. Who could prove that it actually existed - or was instead populated by very sophisticated AI's impersonating the deceased?

Those scenes feel extremely repetitive. How many times does the show need to remind the audience that Lacroix is an absentee dad whose wife died serving in the military? It feels as if Lacroix 's family life was designed to check off as many socially relevant boxes as possible. All the conversations revolving around hawks are getting old, too. Why not show some private life moments of some other team members?

Meh... Jonathan Pryce is a good actor but this episode was just ponderous. It was a bit comical that Grandpa gets a phone call from his doctor telling him he only has a short time to live. Months? Weeks? Days? And what is the cause of this death? Plot-itis?

He literally only had the clothes on his back. He is walking and stops at a roadside diner at night. How is that going to end when he makes plans to stay in contact with the new guy? At least it didn't end on a completely depressing note. These episodes are loaded with atmosphere and that's all well and good, but there are lots of unanswered questions: Two gay gentlemen living on a farm with no tractor for 10+ years and nobody does any farming? Gaddis#1 lives in the guest house in his reality, but owns the farm land and the tractor? Will anyone from Loop Inc. notice that their security guy is missing?

As usual, this episode felt like it lingered on and on.. it almost makes you feel hypnotized by the slowness, wondering where things will end up. But it is a safe bet that the end will be bittersweet ( leaning mostly towards depressing). All the old, yet advanced, technology feels like a bait-and-switch trick. There are compactor robots controlled by wireless harnesses - - but no cell phones and no camera surveillance systems. And clearly the guy would have done better by getting a dog - at least he could have slept at night. I was more struck by how this guy's kids are ruining his life, emotionally and financially, by blatantly lying to him and skulking around his house at night. The medical expenses of keeping his son's body alive could easily be shifted over to The Loop Inc. if all the facts were known.

Just rented it over the weekend, VOD, and thought it was okay. I was surprised at how low budget it seemed - it did not feel like a major motion picture 'super' hero movie. It seemed like something Netflix would have made. It reminded me of Deadpool - to a point. But none of the action sequences were close to those of the first Deadpool. Even the car chase felt pretty tame. Although, there were some impressive fight choreography moments. And the soundtrack was good. There were a lot of odd choices, such as calling itself "Birds of Prey" when it did not feel like a team movie. And this did not have what I know to be the members of BoP - - so the name was doubly misleading. It was also weird that no one in Gotham mentioned Batman, the one thing everyone associates with the city of Gotham. Maybe it was the directing, staging, or lighting - but Harley Quinn did not come across as a larger-than-life character. The early scenes of Harley in the bar just looked like a ordinary drunk person at a bar. I think the movie would have benefited from some 'grand' entrances by Harley. I think a director like Tim Burton could have done something special with the character.

There were so many significant, immediate, plot points left hanging. Things that could have been given just a quick line or scene instead of ignoring completely. But no, instead, the show wanted all that time for maudlin good-bye scenes with Picard, then mourning soon-to-be-alive-again-Picard, and more fireside chats between Data and Picard professing their love for one another. There was way too much emphasis on the super, BFF, unique connection between Picard and Data. I watched TNG and that was never the case. Data and Picard became friends when Data became a popular character. This show made it seem as if they were practically soul mates. Maybe it was the result of binge watching, but the Data drama was over the top ... and that goes for *all* the Data worship by so many of the characters. And did everyone forget about Lore? That felt like a waste of time. I won't even bother complaining about everything nonsensical with "Look! We made you an 80-year old body with no advantages to your previous body, besides not being dead." I would prefer if ST:Picard was a stand-alone series, to be followed up by ST: Geordi or ST:Seve-of-Nine, etc. So now the Federation knows that there are über-synths somewhere out there. You know who won't be able to resist trying to explore that?: Starfleet.. The introduction of the magical, imagination-powered, fix-it tool was probably a good representation this series. It claims it wants realism when it comes to being grim and pessimistic - - but then it gets silly when it comes to the science part of sci-fi.

So, ST:Picard is turning out to be your typical sci-fi show .. which is good in an entertaining, mindless fun kind of way. But the 'mindless fun' part is starting to show up more frequently now. Rios' and Ryker's direct connection to the main plot of this Synthetic story are more of the ham-fisted plot points that are starting to add up. Of course the team is going to head straight for Soji's home world - because that's what you do in this type of show - despite knowing a Romulan kill quad (maybe fleet) is on the way there. It is about as smart as deciding to try to put out a forest fire with bucket of water, but sure ..

With regards to Picard's scene upon entering the Borg Cube: While I understand that Sir Patrick Stewart relishes opportunities to 'Act' (with a capital A) ... the unfortunate result is that he has thoroughly convinced me that Picard is a frail, frightened old man. And we already saw Picard's Borg PTSD in the TNG movie - and there he managed to suck it up and get stuff done. And that was 20+ years before. Haven't there been any advancements in treating PTSD?

The fight scene with Laris and Zhaban at the chateau was exciting - but it leads to questions the show doesn't want to deal with: what is Picard going to do with the dead Romulan bodies? Are they going to bury them in the vineyard? Even if they managed to magically vaporize, there was time for Picard and the others to obtain some physical evidence to prove there are Romulan kill squads operating on Earth. There should be cameras everywhere in the future.

Yes, the first episode seemed to create a feeling of excitement and possibility. But this episode seemed to establish a pessimistic tone for the series. We already had a super secret Romulan kill squad. This episode introduced an asshole admiral, a clueless or colluding commodore, and a pair of sinister - possibly incestuous -siblings. Did we need to have such a grim and ominous atmosphere set up so early?

I'm not thrilled about this recurring theme of continually dumping abandonment guilt on Picard. Last episode, it was from Raffi. This time it is Elnor and the surviving Romulans. Picard should have taken advantage of that Absolute Candor thing and told everyone that they should take some responsibility for their own lives .. and appreciate the fact that they have lives to complain about .. and generally to shut up. Looks like the show is going full tilt towards Lord Of The Rings. There are teleporters, phasers and warp-drive space ships ... but everyone still wants hand-to-hand combat and swordplay. Okay.. At first I thought they had just blatantly named Ninja Warrior guy after Elrond from LotR, but after some googling, I realized they managed to alter it .. a bit. Same look, tho. If Trek holograms are capable of physically interacting with their environment (removing shrapnel from Rios' shoulder), then why would anyone want to have an android? And why are the holograms considered so different from the androids?

I like the concept of the show, but my reaction to the first two episodes of Season 3 was that it was sort of boring. Neil DeGrasse Tyson, to me, seemed as if he was trying to do an impersonation of Carl Sagan's style. The ongoing attempts of poetic philosophizing felt pretentious. I feel as if the show would benefit from dialing back the amount of ND Tyson. The pontificating got old, quick. There was also some confusion because of all the special effects. Yes, the futuristic cites, spaceships and flying astronauts are fun to look at - but they show also used special effects to demonstrate an actual proposed mission to Alpha Centauri (I think). Why not interview the real scientists and film some actual equipment?

It was an okay end to season 2, but it didn't feel completely satisfying because so many things were left unfinished. The big battle at the top of the tower came off as a bit clunky to me. .. a little too much like a WWE brawl with the double- and triple- teaming. Why did evil governor Danica think she could take on Kovacs, Quell and Yager+Alien just because she brought a gun? I was expecting, and hoping for, much more ramifications and changes to Harland's World after the revelation of the Founders' alien genocide. It seemed as if they sort of brushed that whole thing under the rug and carried on with business as usual. I would like a season 3 - if only to wrap up 'the Quest of Quellcrist'. On the other hand, I am not very excited about the prospect of another season where Kovacs and Quellcrist try to work out their destined/cursed relationship issues. .. I also found it hard to believe that Quellcrist could just walk around and use the space travel facilities with no problem - and then just leave her body unattended.

I had some trouble buying into the representation of Poe's circle of AI friends. It really doesn't make sense that AI's, when 'hanging out' with other AI's, would dress in period clothing, play darts and read paper books. I think it was Poe's reading a book that actually got to me. I get that it is all done for visual effect - but it seems silly. And I am a bit disappointed that this season is becoming somewhat of a retread of the first season with the ongoing saga of Kovacs and Quellcrist. In season one Kovacs was brought back to solve a murder, which was a story in itself. But season two jumped to the Kovacs and Quellcrist saga pretty fast. I did enjoy the twist of Current Kovacs having to deal with Original Flavor Kovacs, tho.

I was looking forward to this show returning. It has the look and feel of a true sci-fi show (tho I'm not sure how Netflix pulls that off). I also like that Kovacs is getting a new body for this season ... but Mackie does not seem very comfortable with all the techno gobbledygook dialogue. Perhaps looser, more easy-going characters come more naturally to him as an actor. It feels like a lot of characters and situations are being thrown at us - - to the point I stop paying attention to names and wait to see who manages to live through the next sure-to-be-coming gun/blade battle.

The last straw for me may have been the reinterpretation of the Hansel and Gretel story. The racist recasting of the fairy tale characters was bad enough, but they completely ignored a significant part of the story: Hansel and Gretel's parents trying to abandon them in the forest, which was horrible in itself. That was just lazy racism which made me think that this show would most likely paint every situation - past, present and fairy tale - as an example of extreme racial prejudice. The Truly Grim History Behind The Fairy Tale Of Hansel And Gretel

Yes, it is very jarring how the show leans hard into the comic book, pulp, fiction with Jonah's fantasy visions of a team of heroes with flashy intros, specific skill sets and code names. But the flashbacks to the concentration camps (with an extra layer of sadism) just feel icky and disrespectful. It doesn't make the revenge fantasy feel like righteous justice when two of the killings have basically been some strangers breaking into an old person's house and taking them unawares (the NASA Nazi and the music Nazi). It wasn't like the (ex- ? ) Nazi's were still actively killing. And who, besides this secret band of Hunters, will get any relief or satisfaction from these executions when the Nazis' past crimes are not exposed? I don't think I am going to make it much further in the series. The wackiness of Jonah's friends, the quirkiness of the Hunter's characters and the 70's window dressing doesn't manage to compensate for, and is not balanced by, the in-your-face horrors of the holocaust flashbacks. I find myself wanting the episodes to be over.