anadyr21

Like many sci-fi shows before it, Colony has an interesting premise, but problematic execution. As someone else made reference to, by starting the story in media res, I feel like I'm missing information that would make a lot of characters' actions make more sense. I realize this will gradually be filled in, and I'm fine with that. However, I end up yelling at the tv, because nonsensical, irrational actions that may appear to be based on bad writing, may have logical reasons, specifically, most of the scenes/actions of Lori from TWD/wifey. And I literally mean, darn near every scene, as in, too many to list, I questioned why she took any of the actions that she took. Like, why would you risk getting caught during curfew, knowing the potential consequences, and that you've still got 2 kids living at home, to simply to ask a co-worker what happened to hubby? Unless I missed it, or it will be addressed soon, how/why was their 11 year old (at the time), separated from them in the Santa Monica bloc during the initial invasion? Was he at school? On a field trip? With relatives? Alone, with no parents or siblings? They made reference to wifey blaming husband for this, but does she have a legitimate gripe, or is she just trying to blame someone, anyone? This seems to be the driving force of their actions, yet, I'm worried that this separation was done strictly to create drama for dramas sake. Anyone else get a weird vibe between wifey and the resistance guy fixing the house? It almost played like they were having an affair at some point. Which I would totally understand, cuz dude was hot! I'm interested enough to try the next episode, but I need logic soon. Otherwise, I'm out.

Thanks to those who explained why GOT and The Expanse were unfair comparisons. Special thanks to Danny Franks, who probably gave the most detailed, articulate reasons that I've read, thus far, beyond some general, superficial differences.

Edited: Edited: I'm quoting these edited posts to build on my question. I am not attacking the OPs or anyone else with this view; I'm legitimately asking: Why do you all feel that GOT is an unfair comparison? As noted in one of the posts, both have political issues, use standard tropes (fantasy vs sci-fi). In addition, both appear to have interlocking stories and issues related to socioeconomic class and nationality. Also, I've read the GOT series, but not the Expanse series. This may be why I don't understand why the comparison is unfair. Can someone elaborate without spoilers? (I'm putting this question here, because the other threads didn't seem to fit).

This episode was a huge improvement over the first. Things are really starting to come together and make a lot more sense. In the first episode, I thought Miller's arc was the weakest, but now, all the arcs seem just as interesting and important. From a viewer standpoint, I still maintain; for at least the first 2 episodes, they should have been combined. I'm sure there are corporate reasons that they weren't.

My husband has audiobooked a couple of books in the series, so he was excited. It sounded interesting, so I figured, why not? I really felt like they packed in way too much info in the first hour. I find it rare that a visual medium can start with a written or spoken epilogue/crawl, and still be good. To me, that's a sign that you have a bad story, too much story, or bad pacing. As someone else commented, I think this would have benefited from being a 2 hour episode, because it got good in the last 10 minutes. I really felt like there was information overload, and my husband actually agreed. It ultimately made sense, but, let's keep it real, the average tv viewer isn't going to sit through all that, though, I think sci-fi viewers tend to skew a bit, um, smarter, and more patient. I'm glad we weren't the only ones who complained about the sound mixing. Between that and the accents, a lot of the dialogue came out garbled, which was really frustrating. On a good note, I do think the story/stories are interesting, and I absolutely love the cast. Diversity, Yay! And I mean for both the actors and the characters, who all seem to come from different races, religions, nationalities, languages, and planets. This really feels like a global and planetary system-wide story. It's a relatively short series, so I'll probably finish it out. I suspect that I might be happier reading the books.

All kinds of late on Eva's botch on Carmella. On the plus side, it was a House show, not NXT. Had the Carmella botch been the only one, I could chalk it up to "the nature of the beast" that is wrestling. However, she consistently botches. Yes, she has to learn and she's going to make mistakes. But, she's not ready. And, not to fault Carmella, but I wonder if it had been a more experienced opponent, could they have compensated? I know it can't always be helped, but isn't Carmella fairly green too? (I'm really not faulting Carmella; I'm wondering about the bookers). I also wonder how much Eva has trained with the other girls. Could she have been better able to judge her move if she had more experience outside of personal training?

While the acting in this episode was excellent, I have a major problem with the placement. You've had 3 action-packed episodes, and this episode completely killed the momentum. I understand that after a lot of excitement, you need a breather, however, you also needed some type of closure to the excitement, so that when you get back to the main story, it's a new sub-story. I was hoping there would be at least an indirect connection to the mayhem of the last episode (and that little Wolf bit doesn't count). I can't imagine how jarring this would be for someone marathoning the season for the first time. I'm not even sure where you can put this episode. Right now, it's really derailed the main narrative, and I feel that it adds very little to the overall story, and even Morgan's overall character development. And, 90 minutes.... of this!?! I would have been ok without understanding Morgan's new "zen" mindframe. I can fanwank. As at least one other person has said, this should have been a series of webisodes.

So, they're turning her botch into a storyline. A week or 2 ago, Eva had another terrible match. In this one, the ref purposely didn't do a 3 count or she had her foot on the ropes. Some nonsense like that. They're trying to make it seem like the first botch was the ref doing a slow count and the most recent was a similar deal. These announcers have to play up the whole "Eva is a threat" thing, but it's sooo obvious that they're full of ish. Her in-ring success is dependent on the opponent leading/calling the match. This match shown above actually shows how good her opponent is, since she's carrying the whole match. Eva's more recent match was worse, not because her opponent was bad, but she wasn't as good as the first. She really sucks the life out of a match. Her intro is kinda cool, though. I don't understand why they don't let her be a ring announcer, like Jojo. She can still do media events and be a "face" for WWE. But please, get her out the ring.

I may be showing my age a bit, but I remember seeing Splash in the theater.... on Long Island. When that scene came up, everyone fell out laughing. Though most people in that theater were probably from Long Island and (eastern) Queens, and I'd like to think we were fairly progressive, so, if we thought the name was ridiculous, I wonder how FTWD's Madison fared during her childhood. Edited post: In the first episode, she commented about Nick's addiction being "in the genes." If we extend that comment to your hypothesis, and throw in the use of a completely non-traditional name for her time-period, we may have a good psychoanalysis of this character. However, there's the old adage, "Keep It Simple, Stupid." I highly doubt that the writers have thought that hard about this. Yet, I'm now more interested in her backstory (and how she got that name), than I am in the actual show itself (which as I promised myself, I'm only reading the threads; I refuse to watch beyond episode 1).

I'm all kinds of late on this, but I thought this pilot sucked a**. Other than "dad," there really wasn't a likable one in the bunch. I have little patience for junkies. The fact that this tweaker easily took out the drug dealer, well, that doesn't say much about the skills of the dealer, who choreographed his whole intent. I have no desire to deal with the subplots of teenage angst (daughter and the "dad's" son) against parental units, even if said angst is justifiable. Mom was a neurotic Type A personality, who seemed to be both in denial about everything that came her way, yet strangely detached about the situations that she finds herself in. And "dad," I'm gonna say it. Why the heck did you agree to get involved in this mess of a family dynamic? I realize that the show wanted to introduce our characters and backstory, and then let ish hit the fan. However, by devoting so much time to these characters, it exposed a ton of character flaws in one fell swoop, rather than letting us see this gradually, as the season progressed. I have no reason to root for these characters, whom I actively dislike, and unlike a slasher movie, the bad guy isn't going to eviscerate everyone within 90 minutes. If this hadn't been part of The Walking Dead, I wouldn't have even finished the episode. I've been burned by mediocre pilots that had potential, only to self-destruct by the third episode. This wasn't mediocre. This was bad. Maybe it will improve, and I will eat crow. But, for now, I'll just peruse the episode boards, because I really want to like this show.

Edited quotes: Ganging up on Eva really came off as hatin. Don't get me wrong; I'm not particularly fond of her either. I agree that she gives zero effs about actual wrestling and cares more about moving on to "bigger and better things." But, if the company specifies that they are interested in her "look" and having her at promotional appearances, over rigorous training with everyone else, what is she supposed to say, "No, I want to rough it like everyone else!?!" It seemed that Trinity was the only one who understood this. I'm absolutely amazed that Trinity is one of the younger Total Divas. What little I've seen of Eva's "wrestling" and promos blow. It shouldn't still be this bad. I wouldn't be shocked if Eva ended up with her own, "That Jackie Gayda Match" that still lives in infamy. I don't think that WWE doesn't want Nattie. I don't think they really know what to do with her. She's a technical wrestler. Male wrestlers can have a hard time gaining traction with that wrestling style, much less a female. In addition, she's not a standard beauty like the Bellas, she's not a beast (as in mollywopping chicks left and right) like Chyna, and she's not ridiculously athletic, like Trinity. She's probably the best female wrestler to help newbies "get over," while climbing the ladder to the title. This whole episode was some high school level ish.

Yep, this is exactly how I feel. I remember watching that first season and just being happy that everyone could be talented and positive. I wanted to get a glimpse into their lives. Yes, you need some drama to keep things from getting boring, but each season has been getting less and less watchable. Did I miss something, because I really don't get the flat out hatred of Chante. I can see getting annoyed and tired of her, but the level of animosity makes me wonder if there's some stuff on the cutting room floor that they're not showing. Once Leela jumped into it, I figured it's the little things that finally got to her. But still.... There have been reality tv characters I've disliked. Stacy is the first one I've outright hated... to the point where even I want to punch her in the mouth. She truly has ruined this show for me. She brings absolutely nothing to this show but drama. Brave is actively trying to get her music going. Leela, Chrissette, and Chante, still have varying levels of mainstream success. Michel'le was working on with Crystal Waters. WTF is Stacy doing? That skincare line was BS. Who would buy any product with her name on it? And you know what, WTF is Mo doing, other than make more bad relationship decisions? Seems like the most ratchet chicks are doing the least. And Stacy is too old for this catty sh*t.

This was exactly my feelings on this. The movie started with Whitney already as "Whitney." Why didn't we actually see how Clive was able to present her as a sophisticated pop singer, when she was a "round the way girl?" Why was there no mention of the early complaints that she was too pop (for a black, female singer), which was why she was able to crossover so well. I still don't know what her actual feelings about that sentiment were. While I didn't necessarily expect the movie to explain why, or even know why, she was already into drugs before Bobby, the lack of reasoning drove me crazy. Even a "it's no big deal, everyone does it" would have worked. And, seriously, how do you not touch on the total trainwreck her last few years were? How do you end with a epilogue on her death? This movie had the same problem as the Aaliyah one. There was no real stance taken, so the movie ended up being a bunch of scenes without a cohesive narrative. I thought the vocals were well done and the acting was at least passable.

Speak of the devil.... During the second episode, Cookie was wearing this yellow, multicolored dress. I'm pretty sure I recognized it from my Covet Fashion game (yeah, don't judge), as a Torn by Ronny Kobo dress that I really wanted. After checking the images and asking my husband, he thought I was right. In fact, one of the other dresses that popped up was the little black number, with the cutout sides, that Hakeem's girl was wearing. So, yeah, loving Cookie's clothes!

My own confessional blasphemy; I always thought Aaliyah had a weak voice, that benefited from creative and cutting edge producers. The music needed a voice that wouldn't overpower it. I thought the singer for this biopic was actually better than Aaliyah. I cringe whenever I hear "At Your Best." It's nails on a chalkboard. Of course, this didn't stop me from buying her albums and rockin the baggy jeans, some Tims, and midriff shirts. I may be misremembering which red carpet/awards show this was, but I recall Aaliyah being interviewed by Joan Rivers, and when asked where her dress was from, she said something like, "Nothing special. It's from Express." I think it may have been the one portrayed on this biopic, maybe the same one where Neve Campbell butchered her name in her introduction. This seemed like a very romanticized version of her life, where even something as creepy as that relationship, was darn near rainbows and butterflies. This was a hot mess.

Can we substitute Regina for Golden? Oh, wait, she's steady working. She came off a lot differently than I would have expected, considering the roles that she has played. You know, I get Golden and Elise's arguments. But, here's the thing; sometimes, UNTRAINED "actors" do a better job than trained actors. As Regina said, a reality star can bring something fresh to the table. As much as they talk about their training, I never would have guessed that either of them had as much "pedigree" as they do, Golden, more so than Elise. But, as much as I dislike Golden, I think she's been spot on about everything she has said, including Countess' weight issues. The problem is the way that she says it. Tact, girl. Use it. Frankly, I don't think Golden is a particularly good actress. Elise is a competent actress and is gorgeous. Countess has good comedic timing and is (or was) an amazing singer. I have no opinion on the skills of Paula or Lisa.