Ottis

Maybe, and also, this ep felt like the people writing the show forgot there was a plot. I thought it was slow and sort of boring. All the cutesy banter between Mobius and Loki, on and on, so that when we finally see female Loki at the end it was sort of like, "Oh yeah - there *is* a point to this show!" They need to watch that balance.

I only hope BL has time to create without her and show how good it could have been. This is about 4-5 years too late, IMO.

My question wasn’t about Walter’s motivation, my question was, why now? These folks have been supes for what, 70-80 years? What triggered Walter now vs. 10, 20 or 30 years ago, given his motivation? You might argue he would have done this earlier, when Paragon was young or nonexistent.

It’s sad to watch the whole season already knowing there won’t be a season 2. I agree that The Code, in the complexity of today’s world, should have been the center of this show. The origin story was a distraction that, IMO, ended the series. It could have waited. I’m not sure why Walter is making his move now, vs. any other time, but his philosophical battle with Sheldon reminds me of the similar struggle in Babylon 5, on a more personal level.

They should have saved the origin story until season 2, and spent all of season 1 on the moral aspects of being superheroes with a code in a more complex era. Draw viewers in with a strong premise, then tell the origin layer.

Oh, the difference better editing might have made. The moral quandary of doing the right thing even if it cost you AND no one else cares would have been interesting. Sheld on's vision powered quest? Not so much.

Well now I know why this show isn’t returning. It has basically given up the super hero angle and now is just about a bunch of nuts and/or losers in two timelines. Almost fell asleep in this ep a couple of times.

Still liking the central conflict between principles and reality. Not really liking the “Hero Island” tease at the end. Super heroes are interesting as more powerful representations of ourselves, dealing with mortality, aging, succession and morality. The Boys touch on that. The island seems likely to be fantasy fluff.

I liked the code, and the moral debate. The problem is only Prison Blackstar got it right… is there a double standard? What is the cost? The citizens seem to care more about being protected.

Many, many options. The war between "the resistance" or whatever it would next be called and "the empire" remains. We don't know a lot about it but clearly one party is in charge and has bad actors while another party seems to be oppressed ... or are they? There is the "new actor, new film noir mystery" route. Make the show be about the world and a new lead each year with connected crimes and crime solving. I kind of like that approach, if they can have the crimes be about the wider society. Then there is simply further exploring the wider society. I posted this in earlier eps, but it's almost criminal how fascinating this world is, especially the impact of not actually dying on human society, and yet the show barely touches on those ramifications and spends most of its time on who loves who and who is a hero and family. Put that stuff in the backseat and let's go explore this universe! I actually was intrigued by the perspective that allowing humans to live more than 100 years leads to no good. That was barely a side point to a revolution that turned out to not even be real. Let's look more at things like that. As for the ending, meh I guess. It became very conventional, with some choosing to sacrifice, enemies teaming up and some losing perspective. The battle in the tower was like watching a Marvel movie. This series could and should be much more than that. Yet another thread to follow, if there is a season 3. Shoot, we don't even know if the alien was bad. It was more like the tunnel monster in ST:TOS protecting its young and lashing out at humans, because of what a few awful humans did. It was going to stop until Gov. Irritating shot it.

I loved that this season started out with another Meth hiring protection. I hated that it ended as fast as it appeared, and now we are stuck with "characters" missing old friends, protecting brothers, not remembering who they are, etc. Give us a mystery with some technology and societal impacts, show. Not a soap opera.

{Spongebob voiceover] "Two ... years ... later ..." So when it became apparent around ep 6 that this show was going to spend too much time on "characters" and not enough on the implications of this fascinating idea of stacks and reincarnation, I started skipping forward. But I did watch this final ep, and yeah, they had some amazing worldbuilding to work with and came up with ... this. - I never warmed to Lizzy. I wasn't even exactly sure who she was and why we cared, aside from she had parents. - The sister was the traitor because she didn't want anyone to have her brother. That might have worked if they pushed further and showed a disturbingly close relationship, but they didn't, do it was just a crazy sister. Which wasn't that exciting. - I *did* like the weirdo henchman assassin guy. Agree, they should have stuck with the film noir angle of solving the crime, and left out crazy sister and most of Lizzy. It was all over the place, and after a while I only cared about the occasional discussions around the impact of stacks (death has no meaning, humans who live so long get weird and bored, why "going on ice" matters - aren't people unconscious?, etc.).

I hope the comment about needing a break until “maybe Thanksgiving” was a joke. Didn’t they just have 3-4 weeks off, along with another couple of weeks with no show somewhere in there, not to mention the long holiday break. I have never heard of this host, though I have heard of her show (haven’t watched it… someone playing chess?). She has an almost anime face, with huge eyes. Not sure what to take away from Hollywood Squares, aside from you shouldn’t erase history. Didn’t get the humor of the prom pic. Kind of tired of the “stupid dad” trope. And followed by more “dumb males” humor making human male. Oh, and now a gay male stupid behavior song. Not familiar with Celtic performances. Maybe because I’m Scottish. “Sweet Home Alabama” did make me chuckle. Hahahaha, Guiliani’s kid joke, Gary Busey, loved that. First big laugh of the night. The Boom thing writes itself. Damn if the funniest part of this show isn’t the un-PC jokes Che and Jost give each other. It’s nice when we relax and laugh because we realize it’s just words. Cecily went for it in WU, wow. Bra skit… just hit me that this host is nailing everything. Maybe I’ll watch her show. I think Beck would be better as the Russian gangster guy on Barry than Vin Diesel.

There seemed to be a little bit more extra joy in this episode, perhaps because of the masks being gone (especially at the "Live from NY, it's Saturday Night!" opener), and maybe because the host seemed to be having fun. Loved the Muppets, WU was hit or miss but had some hits. I wish they had given Gemma more lines, because the humor of that skit is all in her oblivious delivery. I fast forwarded through the "two older ladies who used to be performers" skit because I always FF through those. They are painfully unfunny. The Last Dance skit went on way too long. I saw the real TLD and loved it, and got the point of this skit immediately, but it was clear the only point it would make would be the same one over, and over, and over. Also enjoyed the prom night skit, because people had fun being high school goobers, but if that red carpet thing exists IRL it saddens me. The rap diss skit would have been great but lost its way with the guy taking his rival's gf and kid. That was way too serious. Should have stuck with the idea of a gangsta being freaked out by how mad someone is at him.

OK, now it’s just silly. Some third rate fight club dude can force a cop to fight? Tak can turn on his team and actually kill them for his sister? The world is cool. The characters, meh. I’m probably out at this point. PS. Tak look and sounds like an Asian Rob Schneider.

Catching up.... losing interest. Did we solve the crime? What’s the point of the show now? Ryker was set up? Little to no interest in Ortega and and her family. I like the world. I think what they are doing with it is uninteresting.

The very end of season 4/the series was pretty dumb, IMO. Yet another show using the "we like to let viewers make their own interpretation" excuse when they come up empty at the finish line. I had actually skipped the eps from mid-season 3 to the last three eps of season 4, because while I loved the first season, it was clear in 2 and 3 that they were just dancing around in circles before making it to whatever ending they had in mind. I don't feel like I missed much. The last ep was powerful, with the daughter's realization, Helen's self-awareness and John's horror at what he had become. No issues with any of that, well done. That last scene, though, made no sense. It seemed like it was supposed to be some kind of relief for the folks stuck in the world where the Allies lost. But why? The people who came over weren't soldiers, armed with knowledge and a plan. No one was coming to help. It was just a bunch of random people who really should have gone back to where they came from given the Nazi-controlled world they were entering (unless their worlds were even worse, which is a terrifying thought). It also wasn't people who had been lost in the Alt world, coming home. Not as far as we can tell. There were no tearful reunions, or recognition. At best, it was the freedom of at least a handful of people to go seek whatever kind of world they wanted. But it was only a handful, and don't think the Nazis wouldn't have shut that down fast (or at least access) as soon as they could. And that skips the mechanics of whether people can find an open portal from world to world, to go on to new places. Or would have the freedom to do so. Who knows whether the world they would find would be better or worse than the one they had left. If we are supposed to make our own interpretation, there is no interpretation that makes that ending a clearly positive one. At best, it drags the problems of this world into other worlds. Disappointing.

This was the “Funny but ...” episode. Loved seeing the moms, cringed every time they cut back to Miley singing and her irritating vibrato. Gen Z is usually the kind of sketch I like, making fun of a younger idiot generation, but I haven’t noticed Gen Zers talking that way and it was only about talking and not actually being idiots (as Millennials are). Quarantine spoke to all of us, seeing others after so long, but seems like our memories would still allow us to remember who people are, including cousins. Though I loved the subtle pullback when the cousin said he got the J and J vaccine. I was really enjoying the truth telling about what a drudge going to a Disney park is during WU, because the crowds are way too big and the whole fast pass/reservation thing is irritating and absurd, but then they get weird at the end with the kids being Che’s and undermind the whole thing. Merder Derder and Luigi were just grating. Aw, poor Chad. Hope he survived. Always good for a few laughs. Cowboys was actually funny, with its parallel to IRL. And I have to note this was the first time I have seen the Nike “Play New” commercial, which I loved. Great message. Musk did fine. His awkward and sped up line reading made him hard to understand sometimes, but this isn’t his main gig.

Still catching up, on ep 6, but this season seems both more professionally done and more conventional and predictable. Totally saw EZ being attacked, though I expected a car from the side. At first glance I liked the new opening, but after watching it I don’t get it. Are we saying all these fuck ups and poor decision makers and criminals are the result of institutionalized discriminaton? No. Just no. I don’t mind Gaby. It’s like watching a new Gemma in training. I still can’t stand Emily. Late add: Also? It appears “I got you” is the new “I get that.” Kind of ironic that the clueless characters are constantly noting they “get” things.

So a cartoon can annoy as much as a live action show when it doesn’t explain the damn key reason for everything. Ugh.

Clearly. But if their worry was that crab pricing might collapse at any time, and they were already 70-80 percent full, wouldn’t it make sense to go in ASAP? Then they can do the math on going out again. All the worry about price, and yet no action around it, was annoying drama. As for COVID setting unloading rules, if that were true, why not say so? That would both better explain the situation and add to the realistic drama.

Jake is a shit leader. “Hurry up and go fast so I can get home and get rid of you all.” Given the worry about pricing, shouldn’t they get into port and unload ASAP? They can always go back out. I haven’t watched this in a few years. Jake has really aged.

People are talking about how long it took OMNI Man to kill the Guardians. How about a why? I have no background in this so I don’t know what the hell is going on.

Clearly I'm missing something. When the Nazi/racism stuff came up, I just said, "Huh?" The whole bit about supes and racism seemed like a late add on, tied to Stormfront. I mean, the guy who runs the company is black. There are black employees. Aside from the required "there are only 2.5 percent minority supes, while there are xx percent in the population" diversity language that does reflect real life, where did race play a role at all in this universe until Stormfront showed up? Homelander hates all nonsupes equally. The Church was also a weird add. Does it go away now? The most interesting thing about The Boys, by far, is how the real world would deal with real superheroes. Some are friendly, some are not. Some are known, some are not. They cause collateral damage. They have mental illness, and other regular issues, but they have superpowers. How does someone deal with a possessive supe ex? That stuff is freaking wonderful to watch. The scene with Homelander whacking off on top of the building, stating "I can do anything I want," was hilarious and terrific and should have been the logo for the series.

This episode was hugely disappointing, unless Liberty was lying. All of this, the the superheroes, the company, the experiments... was to keep minorities down? Like some sort of Limbaugh world? How mundane.