Pindrop

I'm going to suggest some plots to the beleaguered writers. We've now had a plane hijack and a viral pandemic, so how about: - 1) A giant meteorite heading for Washington. 2) Alien invasion. 3) Zombie pirates. 4) A Vampire-werewolf hybrid. 5) Dinosaur rampage. 6) Intelligent monkey uprising. 7) A cut in funding to an arts programme. President Kirkman is faced with a dinosaur rampage which threatens countless Americans. Meanwhile, Hannah and Damian uncover evidence that could change the lives of the First Family... see, how much better does that sound?

The entirety of "Legion"; slapstick is difficult to pull-off but it is hilarious here. The entirety of "Marooned"; bottle episodes are also difficult to pull-off, but the writing in this is sublime from beginning to end.

A new series is coming up. I have noticed in seasons 10 and 11 (those on Dave) that they have been heavily recycling jokes from the shows heyday (series 3-6). I'm not complaining because recycled jokes from that period are infinitely more watchable than the godawful 7th and 8th series.

There were three specific lines of dialogue in this episode that stood out to me (and weren't necessarily positive): - 1) Beth: "It'll be like season 1, but more streamlined" ... I've enjoyed this season, but I prefer the irrelevant excursions away from the plot and the ad-libs of previous seasons. Some of these episodes felt over-written, and I would prefer it if Rick and Morty did not resort to straight parodies of other shows (eg. Vindicators 3). 2) Rick: "South Park did it 4 years ago"... I really do not want this show to descend into lazy pop culture references and self-referential jokes for comedy, à la Family Guy when it turned crap. C) Jerry: "Simple, twice?"... Why are they now explaining jokes and in so doing undermining the punchline? These are minor points, but they are concerns I have had with this entire season that are well illustrated in this episode. Some of the episodes this season felt like someone trying to write Rick and Morty, rather than Rick and Morty. I hope it isn't a (downward) trend.

Nope, it is awful. There is literally no part of the show that compels me to watch; contrarily almost every part of the show compels me to turn it off. It is so mind numbingly dull.

I got five minutes into this episode and turned it off. Any residual interest I had in the show has vanished, and it is too bland to even hate watch.

Columbo is probably my favourite TV character. The 70's episodes are superb; those that extended into the late 90's and noughties are probably best ignored.

I don't understand why this is called Star Trek? If they had no intention of making a Star Trek series, they should have called it BSG or The Expanse, or SGU or something with a more fitting tone than Star Trek. Regardless, this was actually quite interesting, certainly more so than the first two.

I'm slightly more familiar now than I would like to be, mainly because you need earplugs in order to go five minutes without hearing someone referring to Trump. I wish people would realise that it is not necessary to insert him into every discussion, ceremony, speech, news report, comedy sketch, awards show, TV show thread... And now I've inserted him into the discussion ;)

The truth with this show is that they wasted a great premise in season one. The show could have been about the potential disintegration of the union following the attack and the polarising nature of the US political system, and could have started with the secession of Texas (I'm British so not entirely familiar with US politics). The show would have then had an A and B plot, A being the president's attempt to hold the union together and B being the conspiracy. The C plots would have been political bartering with actual shades of grey and a more objective and nuanced take on the subject. There could have been antagonists who were honest in their outlook and compelling, and protagonists who are not so insufferably smug. Instead we got drivel. EDIT: Actually we got the following: - The A plot (saving the union) was resolved in a couple of episodes of the first season, and with it almost all of the drama dissipated from the show. The complete dismissal of the A plot is cemented this season by the reconstruction of the Capitol building in a year (which, as others have noted, is an impossibility. Dam, even if it were a standard steel-framed, glass-clad office building it would be impossible, even without factoring in demolition and preparation.) The C plot (crisis du jour) moved up to the A plot position, and even then all the interesting dilemmas were resolved far too quickly, and any remaining antagonists left the show, or came on board with team Kirkman. At this point almost all of the remaining drama left the show. Instead we got irrelevant crap, like an arts fund getting cut, or that UN embarrassment, or the Russia/ Croatia randomness we had in this episode, none of which bear any relation to the original conceit of the show and are bland filler plots. The B plot (the conspiracy) would have been interesting if we had the FBI/ CIA organising and carrying out operations. Instead we got this one woman action hero rubbish, which was tonally inconsistent with the political drama. All the drama evaporated from this plot because it was so ridiculous and so ill-fitting. This show is a great lesson in how to come up with an interesting high-concept idea and destroy it through incompetent writing and plotting. I do not know where it can go for conflict/ drama now, and neither do the writers judging by this episode.

They've doubled down on all the bollox from last season. I'm out. Particularly: The writers parading their political views all over the show in the most reductive and dumb manner. Team Kirkman coming across as insufferably smug and self-righteous. The issue du jour and the weekly moral dilemma being juvenile, with no shades of grey, whatsoever. The one-woman action hero nonsense and the tonal inconsistency it presents with the political "drama". The absence of any compelling antagonists, that aren't cartoonish or a straw-man for the writers to bash with their political views. These issues were so glaring last season I cannot believe they have not been remedied.

I just watched this (while bored); wow, it didn't even make a full season. I am not surprised, the writing was astonishingly amateurish.

I've just watched it; my thoughts : - The first ten minutes or so were awful; the script was just horrible shoe-horned exposition covering issues these two characters would have no cause to discuss, and the entire footprints-in-sand sequence was suspension-of-disbelief snappingly stupid. This really got the episode off to a poor start. It does not feel like Star Trek; it feels like the JJ Abrams version of Star Trek, when I wanted the more traditional TNG era Star Trek. In terms of characters: I liked the captain (Yeoh); I simply did not understand what they were trying to do with Rainsford, her motivations twisted in the wind and she was almost schizophrenic in her personality shifts; the tall alien was moderately interesting and everyone else was instantly forgettable. But who cares about these characters anyway, since most will have vanished by episode 3? I liked the Klingons because their motivations were clearly written, and made sense to me. In fact, they were so much better realised than the Federation characters that I found myself siding with them. The CGI was well-done. The fight scenes were a horrible, shaky-cam, fast-cut mess. I'm unsure if I will watch beyond the first two episodes.

Just beautiful: -

I have a few issues that have arisen from season 7, which I will list below: - 1) On occasion it seemed that the writers had a particular plot point they wanted to reach, but they did not know how to get there, and as such parts of the show stretched disbelief or were simply nonsensical. For example, they wanted the white-walkers to have a dragon, so they created this plot whereby a few characters carried out the most stupid plan ever conceived, and then the white walkers stood around wasting time until the dragons could conveniently show up. The show was character-driven, but now it is plot-driven, and the plot relies on tropes and coincidence. 2) The world now feels small and safe due to the time jumps and the plot armour worn by certain characters. In addition, the travel times (even taking into account the jumps between scenes) do not add up. 3) The use of Deus Ex Machina, eg. the cave of convenience (with the cave paintings), Benjen saving Jon, Bronn saving Jaime, characters just stumbling into other characters or pieces of information for no good reason. Google Bran is now just a rod for the writer's back. Again he is used as a deus ex machina only when the plot requires it. 4) Characters acting out-of-character to suit the plot, eg. Baelish was a master manipulator, but my God his plan was transparent in this series, and what purpose did it have, what was his motivation? Daenerys was almost schizophrenic, she would have a different personality in every scene. Tyrion has suddenly become ineffectual and a shadow of his former self. 5) The use of retcons. Since when did all the white walkers die when you killed their leader? The dead used to turn by virtue of being north of the wall, they were not turned by the Night King. If this retcon is now true, then why didn't they just instruct Daenerys to burn him when she had the chance? 6) Fan service is used repeatedly and results in stupid scenes. The scene where Theon's absence of genitals allows him to win a fight was just pathetic. The dragon action sequences are actually less interesting than the lengthy, dialogue heavy scenes of old, when the show was character-driven. A few of these issues in isolation would not bother me, but piled one on another they are turning me off the show.

It is difficult to say, because the current GoT is a very different animal to the GoT of the first 4/5 seasons. If it were early GoT, I would have expected all tropes and expectations to have been subverted and for the finale to defy prediction. With The GoT of the most recent season, I expect tropes to be followed and the show-runners/ writers to be malleable to fan-service. I would much prefer the former ending, but I fear we will get the latter. At this stage, and given this season, my perfect ending would be to see the Night King on the Iron Throne and the rest of the cast as zombies, alas this is unlikely. The uninventive final season I truly hope that the writers employ a little more inventiveness than the following: - Jaime warns the north of Cersei's betrayal, and the Lanister's are defeated or de-fanged. The battle against the white-walkers begins, somehow Bran must sacrifice himself to defeat the Night King. Euron is defeated by a reunited Theon and Yara. Jaime returns to King's Landing and kills Cersei, completing his redemption. Daenerys is queen of the south and Jon is king of the north or Daenerys/ Jon rule the south and Sansa, the north. This would be a truly disappointing ending. The slightly more interesting final season My hopes (but not expectations): Varys is tried and beheaded as a traitor (it would explain a lot of the plot holes in this season). Both Jon and Daenerys die and a lot of the rest of the cast are decimated in the battle of the north. Jaime returns to King's Landing and kills Cersei, after warning the north of Cersei's betrayal, thus completing his redemption (I know these are obvious plot points, but I think they are necessary for this character's arc). Jaime is killed by The Mountain who is killed by his brother or Bronn? I prefer Bronn. Bran is intrinsically linked with the Night King and must be killed by Arya in order to defeat the white-walkers. Sansa ends up on the throne in the south with Tyrion as her hand. Arya ends up on the throne in the north. They are my thoughts.

Overall I have not enjoyed this season (I am probably repeating some points made by others): - Known characters have acted out-of-character to suit the plot. Strong characters have been diminished. Character motivations are confused. The world has become small and safe due to repeated time jumps and an absence of threat (who dies this season? Why is the plot armour so thick for certain characters?). This season has relied too much upon genre tropes (which actually contradict the previous lore at times). A number of the plots have been nonsensical; they seem to be designed to hit an action scene without rhyme or reason. Other plots have felt manipulative of the audience. In fact, the entire plot seems to have been designed around a few action set pieces that felt like fan-service, hence how the pacing felt off. I think last season had faults, but this season was the turning point where the show is limping towards an underwhelming conclusion. I am unsure if I will be there for that conclusion, largely because it is such a huge fall from the quality of the early seasons.

Honestly, I am just bored now. The cyclical plotting of this show feels like infernal torment.