Ottis

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.

I found it reasonably accurate.

Not sure it said they had a great life they could reclaim, it felt pretty hopeless to me. Like, "you lost all your stuff because you were gone for 5 years, and we will try to help but really, don't expect much." I love that the show is exploring that. What would have happened to your home, car, possessions, job, etc., and what should be done about it? I'm disappointed in how they are handling Walker. It would be much more interesting and complex if Walker was genuinely like Steve, and wanted to be the right symbol, but simply couldn't measure up and was struggling.

I liked that, too. SNL has been around a long, long time, and it has earned that kind of perspective. I was not even a teen when I first watched. SO ending with Maya photoshopped into the original cast, given The Shining set up, worked for me. I just wish it had added more funny. Not Rachel in the bathtub funny. Something better.

Is NYC back on lock down? It sounded like there were 6 people in the audience, and 2 weren’t paying attention. Even WU was restrained. The Vax skit, which had potential, had a fatal flaw. You can take aim at Boomers for a lot of things, but they didn’t choose to get vaccinated first, that’s what the experts said to do. The spring break dating skit should have mercilessly pounded all the dumb shits partying as we try to get over the hump on a pandemic, but much like the actual spring breakers, it wandered off with no point to make. I liked the concept of the last skit, The Shining parody, it just wasn’t very funny. What a strangely flat show this was.

They make him far too stupid. Just like they did with the communications guy in Spin City. They need to rein it in.

I am 7 eps in, and the problem is it is too much about the family and not enough about the con. I don’t care if Lila is alive, or how that fact is affecting the family members. That could be a C plot but it is damn near 80% of the season.

I'm not sure what point you are making here. Yes, *many* things could have been. But they weren't. And the path the show went down was exactly what appeared to be true in ep 2 or 3, so ... The WaPo has a good article on WandaVision. You may need a sub, but basically the writer states that the show didn't hold Wanda accountable for her actions (i.e. she should have gone to jail, as I had posted) because, for some reason, the fact she was grieving seems to have excused her acts. I feel like this show tried to manipulate viewers with the long, drawn-out "Wanda is grieving" plot so that when her heinous world all came down, she was excused. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/08/wandavision-finale-grief-scarlet-witch/

How could anything have surprised anyone, when what happened was exactly what we knew had to happen back in episode 3, once it became clear Wanda was grieving, created the town narrative to make a dreamworld and needed therapy? Her fantasy had to end at some point. When it did, Vision and the kids had to go poof. We spent 5-6 agonizing episodes featuring sitcoms to get us to a point we knew would arrive. Agnes was the most interesting thing about this show, and she arrived too late in the season and disappointingly forgot her own rule. This entire season was a snoozer, and the only thing that should have happened was Wanda should have gone to jail for holding all those people hostage.

Hey, stuff happened! That was interesting! And tied to other Marvel universe pieces! It only took 8 episodes. ”It’s not that kind of show.” Indeed. I noticed today that in the description of WandaVision, it lists “romance” first, and “science fiction” fourth and last. That explains the first 7 episodes. At least Agatha gets to the point. She is the shrink we needed in episode 2 to respond to Wanda - “I’m grieving, listen to me ... or else.” Sigh. Hayward needs to go back to finishing school, though.

“I’m a spaceman” is the dumbest song lyric I have heard maybe ever. Cinderella was fun. They need to do one of those on every Disney classic, and how inappropriate they are when you think about it. ”Bachelor Party” captured the pointlessness if that whole activity. I’ve been to a few, and afterward, it’s always like, “Uh, what now?” “Sience,” heh. Perfect. “Aunt Jemima mobile,” heh. I think the writers have missed the magic of the Dionne sketch. The joy of it the last time was she asks the obvious questions about Hollywood fakiness and silliness that we all wonder. She came close with The Weeknd but should have asked about his bandages and what he was trying to prove. Instead of being afraid of MGK she should have asked him about Megan Fox and his persona vs. his songs. Asking Jonas to show his penis was just gross for the character. Enjoyed this one overall.

So when we are in Wanda’s world, I do taxes and play phone games and check email. Because besides the conceit of the sitcom decades, there is nothing to learn besides who Monica is (unless you enjoy easter eggs and like to connect a baking dish to one in Ultron). Which means each episode is actually about 10 minutes long. Handy. Agatha All Along is another sigh-inducing permutation that comes from Wanda’s original selfish sin. Plus it stretches out the season at least two episodes. Yay? Guess I am committed now though.

Only issue with that is, they didn’t only do that for the host. They did that for Pete Davidson, and other random cast members. I think only male cast members. I’m sticking with my young teen women theory. EDIT: Another proof point, the audience didn’t seem to get many of the more clever WU jokes.

Clearly they heard comments about the dead audience response, and brought in busloads of 8th grade girls, judging by the screaming at every. Little.thing. It’s almost bad sitcom bad. Didn’t know the host, or the show he is on, haven’t laughed yet and I am up to WU.

Yawn. You know, if this were the first ep of this show, and we got all the important stuff from the prior 5 eps in 15 minutes, which is completely doable, it seems like one go-to move would be to have someone call, I don’t know, the Avengers? Probably at least one or two would be interested. Logic continues to be suspended in the service of writers trying to be clever. The show goes for emotional swings in the absence of any reasonable connection.

When you just throw cast members out there with fake beards and suits who don’t look or sound like the people they are impersonating, is it still an impersonation? Didn’t laugh until the opening moments of Gorilla Glue, and then it felt wrong the rest of the skit. The “mom signs” skit had possibilities, but didn’t go far enough. Also, Geico did it better. ”Oh look, I’m high” humor is the laziest humor. I don’t know what genre the musical artist was, but it was nice to see someone who wasn’t a 25yo with no life experience. I kind of liked the first song, which was sort of gospel. The second one reminded me of the Blues Brothers. Every character Kate McKinnon does sounds like an offshoot of her Guliani. “Jets level.” Heh. I like the SNL Tom Brady more than actual Tom Brady. I did not understand the joke of the Fliona skit. Like, not even the structure or the punchline. “Elbows.” None of them have printers? What? I have to say, Melissa always looks so fun in a skit. There should be more that feature her.