Ottis

This show has the worst music soundtrack ever.

Star Wars as a franchise is in love with itself. Same planets, same species, same plots. A village burned when Luke, er, Fett returns. A Rancor is back. Untrustworthy politicians. It has zero new to say. “Everyone is waiting for a response.” You think? BTW, why does this show and Mandalorian have their new own threads and Discovery and Picard get lumped under “Star Trek shows?” The teen biker gang is clearly an attempt to appeal to young viewers who cannot identify with the older Fett. And yeah, it’s about merchandising. Star Wars usually is.

If there is one community I care less about than Broadway, it’s … well, there isn’t one. FF’d through nonsensical cold open and, after a bit, the monologue. The NBA skit showed potential at the start as a vehicle for COVID commentary, then immediately dropped that for the lazy “regular people cannot beat NBA players at basketball” layups. Hardy har har. The funny thing about the Urkel skit is, I could see someone producing that show. The prom skit? Meh. Some kind of NY-based skit. Don’t know them, don’t get it. FF. Musical guest seemed fine, brought back memories of Elvis Costello and 80s pop. WU: “Arrr, matey,” first laugh of the night. And a pope joke, nice. Great Durst joke. Elmo would have been funnier if it were just Elmo, no human face. I was *almost* as exasperated at the Sound of Music skit as I was at the actual Sound of Music movie. Singing, cutesy, meh. Heh, Lesbos poetry. I liked it at first when I thought they were saying the new translations were actually ancient translations ( showing ancient life was similar). Less funny as incompetent frauds. Longhorn Steakhouse should have played “What is Lurr,” from Haddaway. I think I set a record for FFing an SNL ep.

I multi task during this show because it’s not very interesting. Cena is fine, just not a lot happens and much of the dialogue is about who is lying to who, and I don’t really care much about that yet because I don’t even know what matters.

Uh, yay, I guess? After watching the least necessary prison riot in the history of television? What was the point of all that, aside from gratuitous violence? - It wasn't a commentary on the prison system. The show never portrayed a reasonable protagonist who could make the point that conditions were unfair for average people caught in the system, much less people who admit murder and other crimes. And the show never portrayed it as truly awful (crowded and violent, sure, which most people include in the definition of "prison"). - It wasn't a commentary on Mike "losing his soul," because we haven't seen him do things to lose it. At worst, he bent the rules and brokered deals to try to prevent violence, at least in his mind. Even when he shot the guys who abused Iris, the show provided him with a moral motivation (that simultaneously cut off any thought that he was above the other people who broke the rules when it was convenient). The prison riot didn't happen because Mike took steps to cause it. Aside from the one deal he did, that he didn't want to do, to kill the dude who burned down the trailer, Mike didn't do much of anything and was holed up with Iris. He made alliances with people like Bunny to try to help, and he certainly didn't enrich himself much in doing so. He may have been misguided, but he didn't seem particularly compromised or evil. So trying to "rebuild his soul" didn't clearly apply. - It wasn't a redemption story, or much of a revenge story. The prison guard who was a hard ass was killed, so he got his just desserts, I guess? Seemed liked overkill. I have no idea why they had the tower guard do what he did, and then get killed. - It wasn't a hero story. Mike didn't save the day. No one did. A lot of people died. It was a couple of hours of pointless prison violence. No idea why the show went that way. I thought when Mike returned to the cabin, Iris was going to eventually reveal a dead attacker. But nope. Milos escaped, but he could have escaped without the riot (and in a more interesting way). Is it somehow a Mike vs. Milos chess game, and everyone else is a pawn? Maybe? But the fact that isn't clear underscores poor storytelling. And that could also have been shown in much more interesting ways. Renner has been great. The writing has not. I hope they find a direction.

Actually, Fett is pretty much Dune, with a tiny bit of Lawrence of Arabia, except there is no point to any of it because nothing any of them are doing stands for anything. This show is excruciatingly bad, unless you are 10 years old. There is no logic to the plot, nor to things like physics (good luck walking on a train moving that quickly) or even consistency (so if Fett put the lizard up his nose, lizard is a poor choice BTW should have been something smaller because honestly the lizard would have damaged him, while he was with those raiders, where did they, or he, go that the next day it looks like he has been wandering in from the desert? And that train had to have gone 30 miles during the poorly planned heist, how were the Raiders on site when it crashed?). The show is on Tattoine (again), with more of the species SW has shown before (again) including a poor man's version of Max Headroom as the "mayor's" secretary, with the Rancor (again). No originality. Fett without his helmet looks like someone political, what with the teeth all the time. They should have made his #2 Fett, she is far more convincing. And as soon as he got the speeder bikes and brought them back to the camp, I said "let the hilarity ensue!" And of course it did, because this show is predictable. BTW, isn't Fett a bounty hunter, with "certain skills?" because he seems more like a newbie. Is this going anywhere? If this is intended to fill in white space around Fett, OK, well, guess so. Did anyone want this? Watching a dude wander around Tattoine? If this were set at the origin of Boba Fett, I would get it. Or if Fett were training an apprentice, I would get it, mostly. But this is just a bizarre peek into one guy's experience for a few weeks that honestly isn't very interesting. What show just had that scenerio, where human male and female twins from Italy showed up to take over? Was that the Sopranos movie? The twins were very stylish and the woman loses her cool. Anyway, even that has been done.

My 5th grade self would have written this, it was so bad. It was like Bad Words (which was a hilarious movie for its first 30 minutes) crossed with a 70s cop show (addiction! Redemption! “Fix what was broken!”). I had stopped watching BL maybe 4 seasons ago because Lizzie was beyond annoying and incompetent, and the way everyone on the show worshipped her drove me nuts. I wanted to see a season without her. And this damn show just won’t let her go. Also, that’s an annoying kid. Worthy of Liz. I admit a skipped a lot of this. But when Ressler shot the cop, I could hear the Bruce Banner walk away piano cue from the 70s Hulk show. After that, all I saw was Bill Bixby. Please show, please. Let Lizzie go.

This show's narrative is so screwed up, I don't know if it can be saved. Look, decide what you are about. Either: 1) Focus on Mike, his family and their roles within a rough town, with the prisons, the drug dealers and shady others part of the backdrop, or 2) Focus on the role of the prisons in the town and show us the people who work in them, their lives and their families, and the complex issues around being in prison or having to guard prisoners. Because this episode was basically an hour of prison break porn, and *I didn't care what happened to anyone.* Well, I did wonder if Mike's mom would get caught up in it. But mostly I was bored because the entire prison could empty, killing every guard in the way, and rampage through the town and it wouldn't matter because I am not invested in anyone aside from Mike and his family. Once Kyle was shown to be alive, there was pretty much no danger to him. Nor his mom. And of course Mike is, for some reason, putting up with Iris when he knows she has to be a long con from Milos. I assume the narrative point of the break was to get Milos out. Fair enough. But that could have been done without an hour of pointless violence. Do you know who the only character I have cared about on this show? That guy who burned down the trailer and killed the mom and kid. Because he definitely did the crime and was a criminal, but he was also a druggie who didn't mean to do it and seemed to feel real remorse afterward, as he realized that because of his thoughtless action, two people were dead and everyone in town wanted to kill him. That was some Breaking Badish "things went downhill quickly" stuff, and that was interesting, and sad for all involved. I like Renner. This show is well done generally. But come on, give us a narrative that draws us in and makes us care about what we are seeing on the screen.

For me, it means that it is difficult to understand what one person sees in her, much less two.

I thought I would feel that way, but I see his character as more of a "this is true, and that is not, no bullsh-t allowed" type. Sometimes what you realize is true isn't in character with what you thought before, and so you now must evolve your thinking. That's how it felt to me. Ironically, the Federation president, who they keep portraying as sort of difficult and pedantic, is now who most seems to represent the ideals of the old Star Trek federation. Because Michael is so far down the emotional scale that she misses obvious issues, and Book is rogue. Who I really miss right now is Pike.

That was… silly. But at least no sappy baby yoda. I’m more a Star Trek fan, so I don’t know much about Fett, but he isn’t particularly impressive in any way. Doesn’t seem like the kind of bounty hunter that would make closet Fett fans happy.

Most I can say is that the last two eps were vastly better than the first six eps, starting with the pregnant woman fighting for her life. The way they show channeling the One Power has been nicely done throughout, it just takes too damn long. The bad guy was disappointing. That’s the terrible Dark One? Don’t like Egwene, she looks like she is visiting from the home of the Sand Vipers, not the life-long love of an older teen in a remote village. Also, she is screechy. Agree this was a poor place to pause the narrative between seasons.

The opening fight with the pregnant lady was the first thing in this show since it debuted that I felt was really excellent and GoT quality. I take it she was one of the red-headed warriors? ”The Ways” are, like most things on this show, so dark and limited that they are little more than a tiny set. And then there is talk and talk and talk, including CW-quality debate on who really likes who and when. So much of this episode was about characters expressing feelings for each other that should already be understood, given their history, or which don’t actually mean anything in the context of the story. Also, I find Egwene hugely annoying. Something about the actress I think. I cannot fathom why Rand likes her, she doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would create a love triangle.

So Mike the Fixer is in fact as lawless as the people he frets about warring in the streets without his fixer help. Still no one to root for here, still no real direction to the show. Rebecca is probably my favorite, because she sees the nuttiness, notes it and then let's it ride, because I think she just wants to see what happens. I like this show. I do. And I like Renner, and the George Jefferson-like walk he created to be Mike. But what is the point of any of this?

When Pike joined Discovery, this show found its way. And it maintained it for a while after he moved on. Even this season, the first episode was well done. Since then? Discovery has devolved into season one’s crappy form. The moment this ep showed Michael staying aboard to save the ship, walking in slow-mo no less, it hit rock bottom. I hope the other new show returns to the tone Pike brought to Discovery. And no, Michael, having Zora develop emotions is not “different, but good.” That’s never good.

Tony is dead ... for now. Nat's dead ... for now. Etc., etc. If Robert Downey Jr. were 15 years younger, I would put $100 in a neutral party's hand right now and bet you that Ironman played by Tony Stark/Downey Jr. would return within 5 years. *If* those characters stay dead, it will be because the actors age out or want out, not because Marvel didn't want them back, if they could. The multiverse gives Marvel that power., with virtually no effort. It's one thing to say Steve Roger's legend is he was frozen for decades and then thawed to be a contemporary hero. It's another to kill him today, via villain, and then have him pop up again later because - multiverse! The endgame just happened. Then multiverse was introduced. Give it some time. I fully expect to see Nat again. And when it happens, it will make Clint's mourning irrelevant, and cheapen the entre storyline. That's what the multiverse does.

I get that it works for your point. I want to add a completely separate point that I hate the multiverse concept. It's a way for Marvel to do pretty much anything, and then use "multiverse!" to undo it. The net impact on viewers is that nothing really matters in Marvel movies now, because anyone who died can come back, any deed can be undone, any emotional impact can be reversed. Ugh.

That is more fan wanking that I am capable of! And the bit about Stark and Pym was accounted for in my comment. If you figure he uses what, 20 arrows? More? In an engagement, and he has to very carefully design and assemble them (maybe there is a second meaning to, "Avengers Assemble!" as they all take their spots on the arrow assembly benches), I struggle with him having all the arrow parts and tools lined up at home, spending a few hours each day making arrows. Doesn't seem like Avenger work, IMO. Also, given how complex some of those arrows are, he practically has to be an engineer to assemble them correctly. Far, far better if they arrived made-to-order, every week. That would have been a fun part of Hawkeye, having him have to be in place for his weekly arrow delivery, delayed by the holidays and supply chain issues, and waylaid by the track suits. Maybe his arrow shipment gets switched with that of a regular kids, who is surprised when his home target blows up. Way more fun that watching Clint and Kate use tools to build stuff. I think in his Ronin days, his arrows were pretty much about killing. Not a lot of call for bouncy ball arrows during that phase.

So men are “outside animals,” but Dan has to rescue the wedding when reality didn’t meet Louise’s unrealistic expectations. This continues to be one of the most agenda-driven shows on TV.

My favorite MCU TV series by far. Fun, and also some nice feels with realism like Clint aging, his sorrow for Nat (and he grieves without holding a whole town hostage for way too many episodes), the speech from Kate about how someone with zero super powers can still be a hero if they care enough, and of course Yelena, who is a delight. Jack was a red herring. The track suit mafia came right out of a video game, complete with a truck showing up to unload more bad guys. Kingpin at the end was a massive (literally) bonus. I will say I have no interest in Maya or her story, and I find the idea that Hawkeye makes his own arrows (with an assist from Stark and Pym) ridiculous. He would have no down time, between fighting and making arrows - just buy them from Stark and Pym, made-to-spec. I did *not* need to see the musical again, ugh. Was hoping for a quick DD glimpse.

Wait, what? It just now occurred to the Discovery team that the DMA could have been created? We learned in episode 2 that it wasn’t natural, which means it was either sentient with its own needs, or it was being controlled by someone with his/her/their own motivation. Glad they finally arrived at the obvious. Not sure accepting an away team volunteer just because they volunteered makes sense. Really don’t care for the “hurt feelings, boo-hoo” plot with scientists. Bring me some Vulcans. Also not a fan of moral outrage over a system that is obviously immoral. Isn’t the Emerald whatever a bunch of criminals? Not sure I would expect reason in its justice system.

This show suffers from a common TV affliction, e. g. "no one worth caring about, so nothing matters." The FBI is corrupt and has agents being killed, Iris is a call girl who has hit a bad patch, Mike is a "fixer" who fixes for his own benefit, his brother is a whiner who won't sack up and leave even when he has the opportunity, their mom is a bitter person who contributes to the things she despises, the young security guard is an idiot, the old security guard is an asshole, and most everyone else is a criminal. Rebecca, maybe? She may be the only one to care about, and she seems pretty cool with whatever. Anyway, as I watch these characters and their paths, I don't care what happens to them. None of it matters much, and there is minimal emotional impact. The show is done well, and I like Renner. I just don't see why viewers should be invested in any of this.

The only thing I took from this episode is that seeing Liz, even in a brief flashback, fills me with frustration, annoyance and snark. And Agnes? You are headed down the same road.

The same research she did to know all about Kate Bishop. I mean, an Avenger has to be more in the public eye than Kate, and Yelena actually bragged about how much she knew about Kate. Surely at some point, it became known that Clint and Natasha were friends and her death upset him. *How* she died wouldn't matter. If Clint actually killed Natasha (who was his friend) as Yelena thinks, why would Clint be so devastated by her death? That's a starting point.

I’m not even done watching this one and it’s bad. I don’t actually care if everyone on the shuttle dies, so whatever. The political silliness feels heavy handed and unnecessary (“what is trust?” Blech). And more of Booker is Sad. Oy vey.