shrewd.buddha

It helped that it was a limited series and moved along at a fast enough pace that you didn't get hung up on all the implausible plot points. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at how often characters strolled around out in the open who were being hunted by all of MI6 and the CIA.

Why can't Jubal use that power of denial when dealing with work?: "I'm sure she wasn't kidnapped. It is probably all a big misunderstanding. She'll be fine." "I'm sure that was the only bomb they made. Nothing to worry about.." "The power of positive thinking, people! Let's go!"

At least it's over.. For the final episode it looked as if they ran out of money and basically lost interest. So many scenes in (unguarded) caves, fake looking interior rooms of a ship, office rooms and hallways. Mood lighting and background music can't work magic. The Czech president running around Russia, alone, like a CIA operative was ridiculous. The whole season felt like an excuse to give the actors a European vacation. Character building details developed during eight episodes: Greer is on a diet. Jack Ryan can't run very fast, only speaks English believes every day is casual Friday. Perhaps my favorite scene was in the mood-lit war room with the president and generals when CIA-woman was asked who her source was and she said "Jack Ryan" - - and the entire room groaned in unison. I could relate to that.

After the last episode, we decided to accept this as an unintentional comedy and strap in for the last episodes. Highlights: 1. Jack's back in the CIA, but they only send him, alone, to surveille and protect old man Luca who is meeting #1 bad guy. Sure. 2. John Krasinki's ability to run is pretty sad. Tom Cruise would be embarrassed for him.

The most mind-blowing thing about this episode was that the tunnel rescue scenario went from paper, to a team of writers, all the way to the director and then a final edit. If there were any military consultants, wouldn't they have asked "doesn't this make us look kind of dumb?" There must have been some production mandate that ordered "Jack Ryan must solve every problem and rescue every person - no exceptions."

So far, so boring.. Has Amazon finally started letting their A.I. write their shows? Everything is just a cookie-cutter collection of espionage movie tropes. Jack has no personal life now. He is just a bad-ass Jason Bourne clone who is being hunted by everyone but does't bother to change clothes or wear a hat.

Guess who else saw all of that?: Detective Benoit Blanc. He also knew that Miles took the gun off of Duke. But for some reason Blanc decided not to mention any of that until after Helen was shot and it was time for the final confrontation. Benoit Blanc also "solved" an off-screen murder based solely on hearsay accounts from a group of notorious liars. As a parody of a murder mystery, it works. But it was not not a clever or well-crafted whodunit.

As a murder mystery it was disappointing. The plot relied on an identical twin sister no one knew about, a high-profile suicide that went unreported, someone carrying a bottle of Tabasco sauce, a woman carrying a book in the breast pocket of a jacket and a very accurate shot through a glass wall. An Agatha Christie detective character would never hand over the equivalent of stick of dynamite to another character to extract revenge. I'm not a fan of celebrity schmooze-fest shenanigan movies, so the appeal of that was lost on me. The few things that seemed mysterious were: How was the original victim, Andie, such a poor judge of character regarding Miles? What tech-savvy person lives alone with no doorbell camera or security system in the year 2020? Who would think these these rich assholes would tolerate there being no staff to prepare their food, drinks and attend to their every want and whim?

The most surprising thing about this show is the lack of surprises. Owen isn't particularly clever or resourceful - he manages to stumble from one situation to the next, surviving because of plot armor. I knew what I was in for by the first episode. When the showrunners aren't confident in their show they tend to do these things: a) Show part of the high-stakes finale, then flash the title card: "Two Weeks earlier" (or a variation of that) b) After the first episode, attach a highlight reel preview of upcoming scenes. Watching it as a comedy helps. It is like a mashup of Friends and The Office. CIA employees using their personal cell phones for work?! Sure.. Bring Your Kids to Work Day at Langley?! Why not.. .. looking at his "body of work" .. it appears he is attempting to corner the market on "The New Guy at the organization" genre. Agreed. And how long will they put off introducing Owen's mother? They mention her constantly. This show is so old-school, it's obvious they will try for the high-profile actor boost. If the first season is a "success", they have more leverage to bargain with.

Streamed it from Amazon. Was somewhat surprised at how lifeless it felt considering how "action-packed" it was. It suffered from mediocre, bland writing: a patchwork of tropes, cliches, action-movie dialogue, etc. Black Adam and Hawkman seemed to fight so many times - with no consequences - that it felt as if you didn't need to pay much attention to the next round. I don't recall Hawkman being so indestructible from the comics. Aldis Hodge as Hawkman sounded so much like his character from the TV show Leverage that it felt a bit lazy on the part of the director and actor. On the plus side, the scenery was somewhat interesting.

Is there any indication as to whether this show was considered a success for Amazon or not? Streaming services tend not to disclose viewership numbers that are not flattering - - but they do tend to announce the approval of the next season when shows are well received. From a media buzz factor, this show did not appear to be getting much attention.

"So many questions answered. " .... what show was she watching?

This was a disappointing ending to the season: no conclusions to any of the storylines. Attempting to stretch the contents of one book over two (or more) seasons is not a good plan when almost all of the episodes feel overlong and stuffed with superfluous details. There was a lot of this ^^. Peripheral-Flynne was created and owned by Lev Zubov. But now Peripheral-Flynn is popping into future London to have secret meetings with Lowbeer, Peripheral-Conner, Wilf, etc. Wilf sometimes even seems surprised when Peripheral-Flynne 'appears'. How is that? My only explanation for this is that Peripheral-Flynne created a new connection (stub) to the past - but a past very near her own timeline - when human-Flynne still has the data-DNA in her head. Otherwise, what would be the point? Lowbeer would have to bring human-Flynne up to speed on what events she had missed. But it seems a simpler solution would be for human-Flynne to just leave RedNeck-town in 2032 and go into hiding. Cherise Nuland wouldn't have a reason to set off the nuke and would have to track her down. I could understand that a new 'stub' location could be like a secret bank account number or unknown website address -- but it takes an entire facility to maintain one (or so it looks). My other major issue is Lowbeer. What is the point of this character? She seems to have some sort of authority (making peripherals dance at her command), but she doesn't seem concerned with upholding any laws. Lowbeer is now secretly scheming with Peripheral-Flynne, who wants to take down Cherise Nuland (and maybe Lev Zubov). Aelita and Ash's agenda appears to be anarchy. Why would a government official help with that? The majority of what happens in future London is people having exposition conversations to explain things - and doing a poor job of it. Peripheral-Flynne gets into a few scuffles trying to get information -- but it doesn't make much sense why Flynne, a good gamer, is supposed to also be a good investigative detective. In episode 7, it also made little sense for Lowbeer to 'create' an eight story building out of nothingness for some combat demonstration (to what end?) - but there are already lots of abandoned buildings in London. Was the building a physical hologram? Because the Peripherals are actual, physical robots that interact with physical objects. It seems as if the showrunners are attempting to liven things up with unnecessary action scenes.

re: Episode 508, 11/22/22-“Into the Fire” Maggie and OA need to break up. Actually, their supervisor should step in after their argument during the bomb crisis. I did wonder if Maggie and OA would fight over who would go maverick and drive the truck bomb off to explode at the last second. But, alas, this bomb was not on a timer. Now they are still tied at 1-1.

That was what they said before they stole Tony's arc reactor out of his chest and deconstructed it. After that, Obadiah Stane was able to construct a similar suit but not as refined. RiRi created the vibranium detector as a college project and would have had to document how it worked (show your work). Not realizing that the government was going to use the device, her professor could have asked for details and she had no reason to withhold information. They said "it was made from scraps" - but never said there was a magic box inside they couldn't deconstruct and reconstruct. (Tech companies do that all the time.)

We saw it on its second weekend. As a popcorn movie, it was good. As as film-movie, something that could stand on its own, it wasn't so great. It felt diluted and weighed down by all the things it was trying to do: As a tribute to Chadwick Boseman: A+. But it went too far for too long. They should not have killed off another very prominent character and then have Shuri still mourning T'Challa at the end of the movie. It was as if everyone was supposed to understand that the other death was okay because it was scripted. They fast-forwarded through that second funeral (which almost seemed as if it were filmed at the same time as the first). A launchpad for a Disney+ series: C. RiRi's vibranium detection tech was already documented, passed through several agencies and was in use - why did they need her? And it didn't help that Shuri and RiRi are basically the same character. Origin story for Namor: B-. The ankle wings were cute, but don't make a lot of sense. Not-Atlantis really didn't seem so amazing - although it didn't help that it was dark and murky. None of the other water people left any type of impression. Marvel/Disney seems to try to continue to have their cake and eat it too. The Talokans and Eternals have been around for centuries but have no known interaction with world events (the Snap, etc). Wakanda is recognized by the United Nations but its location is still a mystery. In Black Panther and Infinity War, Wakanda's capital city (where Shuri works) looked pretty landlocked. But now the capital city, and most other locations, appear to be on the coast ... of a ocean? ... a tributary? ... a massive lake? ... an unnamed African river?

Episode 4 and it still seems that the show is arranging the furniture in preparation for something to happen. Is it odd that there was more action when Flynne was playing an actual VR game than now, when she is basically having Skype meetings with the future people? Robot Flynne's walk through the future cemetery was weird.. The mass extinction event would have only been around 50 years before -- but the cemetery seemed much older than that -- and it was normally laid out, considering billions of people had died off. The special effects presentation of The Jackpot event was ...interesting...? (Maybe cheaper than flashbacks?) If there are 80% less people (?), why is London so densely built? Who was available to build all those gigantic statue air scrubber factories? Who are these snotty rich people isolating themselves from -- and where are they? So, the name Wilfred means "desires peace" - - but it's not his real name and he only agreed to take it in order to be adopted. (So, why make a thing about it?) Wilfred learns that his employer is probably a psychopath. Wilfred's psychopath boss is married to a mafia heiress who enjoys creating hostile workplace environments. Wilfred's psychopath boss - who apparently is always in the middle of a meal - has a meeting with psychopath Queen Beekeeper (also a horrible boss) and they make vague threats with food metaphors, trying to establish who is capable of being the most vicious victor in a battle between ulta-rich psychopaths. Okay then..

Three episodes in and it still feels as if we are waiting for the other shoe to drop... (shoes?) At this point I could could take it or leave it. Flynne now appears to be using her trips to the 'virtual' future world .. to have conversations about what is going on. The future people appear to have urgent business, but it doesn't seem to matter when Flynne decides to jump back into the future-world-robot. She takes random breaks and the future people seem to just wait for her randomly timed arrivals. Last episode, it was a big deal that Flynne's brother won $250K. Now he has bought a business and can afford to pay the local drug cartel leader $200K per week. This local drug cartel leader is running an actual drug factory, apparently 24-7. Sure, okay.. Flynne's brother isn't much of a sympathetic character, either: he seems primarily motivated by greed and is petty nonchalant about burying a dozen or so men in his backyard with a backhoe. The possible "good guys" from the future seem to be okay with kidnapping socialites, removing their eyeballs, and discarding them afterwards. (And was there any need for Flynne to be "present" to experience her robot-body having its eye removed?)

Three episodes in and it still feels as if we are waiting for the other shoe to drop... (shoes?) At this point I could could take it or leave it. Flynne now appears to be using her trips to the 'virtual' future world .. to have conversations about what is going on. Last episode, it was a big deal that Flynne's brother won $250K. Now he has bought a business and can afford to pay the local drug cartel leader $200K per week. This local drug cartel leader is running an actual drug factory, apparently 24-7. Sure, okay.. Flynne's brother isn't much of a sympathetic character, either: he seems primarily motivated by greed and is petty nonchalant about burying a dozen or so men in his backyard with a backhoe.

How incredibly lucky was it that the bad mercenary team decided to ambush Flynne and her brother on the very night he was having a late night campfire gathering with the former members of his elite tech-enhanced marine buddies .. all of whom are now non-active and live in the same area .. and they happen to have drones and are heavily armed .. ? My big take-away was that gun control laws have definitely not changed in 10 or so years... Flynne is a "brilliant gamer" - - but how does that make her more capable of remote-piloting a robot in the actual (future) world? There are no hacks, tricks, easter-eggs or secret passages. Exceptional hand-eye coordination does not seem to be a factor since there are no controls .. to be controlled. Why does it matter that the robot look like Flynne or her brother? (other than the obvious desire of face time for the actor) Still - the show is not so bad. It does drag a bit because so much time has been spent setting things up. And there is a lot explaining to do. So much explaining ... and we still don't know much of what is going on or why certain things need to be done. But we continue to watch..

With the seemingly mandatory male+female partners and no reprimands for supervisors dating subordinates, why don't they just go with an inner-office polyamory situation? :-) Seriously, all the the characters on these police and medical procedurals are such lazy daters. No one ever seems to have a successful, stable relationship outside work. Everyone always claims that their co-workers are "family". (Ugh) Everyone appears to be on the clock 24-7 ... or hanging out at a bar with co-workers after an 18-hour day at work.

It does amuse me every time the FBI SWAT team shows up in tactical gear from head to foot. But the 'star' FBI team members are at the head of the charge, with only their FBI vest .. because you gotta get that face time...

Are this show's writers trying to make the FBI look bad? Tiffany enlists a guy that is very clearly a loose-cannon. Scola lies to back up her support. They later find loose-cannon guy about to kill the bad drug-runner guy. "We can't let you kill anyone!" ... the FBI ends up killing both men within about a minute. ... but they feel bad about 'having' to do it over drinks that night.

Finally got around to seeing this ... (streamed from Amazon). Was this made for the pre-teen market? As an adult, it was pretty hard to get through .. the jokes were juvenile and it came off like a bad sketch comedy. Director Waititi turned Thor into a blissful idiot -- and the other characters were just as dumb and/or dumber. ("Maybe your arm went to Valhalla.") It reminded of the recent movie Wonder Woman 1984. It felt as if the director took the attitude of "super-heroes are silly and movies about them should be silly, too." The cold-open scene of Gorr and his dying daughter was the only moment having some sense of gravitas. Everything after that was a joke .. in every sense of the word.. Taika Waititi is developing a reputation - but of what kind I am not sure.

My other suspicion is that maybe Sauron and Adar are playing a long con game against Galdriel and the Elves. Would Adar have no awareness that Halbrand was Sauron? Can Sauron mask his 'evil wizard energy' from everyone? Everything seems to have been done to make Sauron/Halbrand look noble and sympathetic to Galadriel.