Mars477

The guy "made" them as people who might be following him, not specifically as US agents. "Baghdadi" means "Of Baghdad". It's part of a nom du guerre, and not somebody's real birth name. It's clearly cribbed from the IRL leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Bagdadi. Abu Bakr was the first Caliph following the prophet Muhammad's death in the Sunni tradition of Islam, while "al Baghdadi" literally means "of/from Baghdad".

The asinine "drama at home" nonsense in this show and The Unit makes me glad that there's none of that BS in The Brave. I have to say, opening the episode with David Boreanaz being insanely condescending to his female therapist (who of course would have the necessary clearance to treat SEALs you dimwit) was not the best look. Also he's way too fucking old to be a Navy SEAL. Also hilarious is the idea of a SEAL CO being seen as a pencil pusher. Officers in the SEALs, even in the higher up commands like NAVSPECWARCOM and SOCOM, made their bones as operators, who underwent the same training and work as enlisted SEALs. The current commanding officer of Naval Special Warfare Command was a SEAL Team leader in his youth. Not sure if this worse than Six or not.

It's not like any of them openly identified as US military. I'm more amused by the idea that US covert operations are targeting Al Nusra Front leaders. Al Nusra Front is the local Al Qaeda affiliated coalition, but they're fighting the Syrian government, which the US is also opposed to. It's not wholly unreasonable however, since the US has been more concerned with destroying ISIS instead of seeing the Syrian government toppled for years now.

So I thought this was pretty good. Took me this long to get around to watching the ep though (on my cable provider's on demand service) so I may be part of the problem. The field team is pretty interesting. I like Jaz and Amir, who play the role of token "good Muslims" (although I guess Jaz is nonpracticing) without being tokens. The show might have flubbed some of the military stuff somewhat. Like how Dalton is a Captain, but Jaz calls him "Top", which is slang for a First Sergeant. Maybe he's a mustang, but it's a hell of a stretch. Sadly, like many decent TV shows it looks like this underperformed against Scorpion, which is bad, and the fucking Good Doctor. This is why we can't have nice things.

I'm hoping that it approximates a "The Activity" tv show. Loved that comic.

Uh, the new showrunner was a screenwriter for Electra, not the director. He also was one of three people with a writing credit, so who knows how much of his work ended up in the final script.

1) The "outsider" nature of Danny Rand doesn't matter, because the show didn't do shit about showing Danny as an outsider in Kun Lun. 2) Making Danny feel like an outsider in Kun Lun does not require him to be white. Nonwhite people are not born with some kind of ancestral memory of their cultural heritage, and an Asian American Danny would be just as much of an outsider as a white Danny. More, even. Trust me, being judged for knowing nothing about the culture or even language of one's ancestors is absolutely a thing. 3) Danny's whiteness is a legacy of his racist origins in 70s Orientalism, where Asian culture was cool and awesome only if told from a white perspective. It's not something that is all that inherent to his broader character, and doesn't necessarily need to be preserved in adaptation in the Year of our Lord 2017. 4) Granted, an Asian American Danny wouldn't have helped the fact that the writing was shit and the characterization all over the place. Maybe an Asian American actor could have helped things by being less awful than Finn Jones.

Well, this is a bummer. Gotta say that I never quite saw Chicago PD as precisely "prestige" television, and Sophia Bush was maybe 80% of the reason why I watched. It'd be interesting seeing where the show and Bush go from here. Also, I've only ever known Tracy Spiradakos from the abysmal first season of Revolution, where she was a less than quality actor, so I don't think I'd be too happy seeing her becoming a regular here. This also sucks because Erin and Jay were the primary romantic pairing. I don't know what would be more annoying, him being super mopey or him whoring it up as a newly single man.

The trailer has been leaked, and it looks... really bad. I don't know if Scott Buck directed the pilot, but the camera work in this leaked trailer is pretty awful.

Man, what's with these The Unit updates? This one looks a little better, or at least less bad, than the others. Kind of like a The Activity tv series. One thing that's pretty neat is that two of the SF operators look to be ambiguously Arab or Muslim (the female operator is played by a half-Lebanese actress, and one of the males is shown praying in a mosque.) Hopefully this show's treatment of Muslims or Arab Americans doing their part in the war on terror is a bit better than, say, Homeland's.

Hah, yeah. "This looks like The Unit" is what I thought, since Six looked only like so much garbage to me. As far as The Unit reboots in this upcoming season go, this looks like the lesser one. David Boreanz isn't selling me, the banter is a little too twee, and if the show is going to have him enter into an affair with the lead intelligence officer I do not want.

Please, like the writers would write anything for Atwater with four white male characters still in the cast. I hope Erin stays, because Sophia Bush (and come on, Tracy Spiradakos is a massive downgrade from Sophia Bush), but the writing has been pretty dire. Bringing up the awful Bunny subplot again instead of developing Jay's PTSD or whatever was a tremendous waste. And potentially writing Erin out by way of the FBI after how tired that plot device is in the show is just bad.

Have to say, the whole "Policewoman drinking under duress from charming villain" thing reminds me of an episode of the 2007 NBC cop show, Life. One of the first season episodes has the female lead begin an investigation into a man who she's pretty sure she heard confess to a rape at her Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. She ends up held hostage by the rapist and forced to drink a giant bottle of vodka, but awesomely manages to remain lucid and turn the tables on her captor. Of course, the episode structure is entirely different, and Sarah Shahi is ten times the actor that Marina Squerciati is. Considering that Squerciati is really pregnant, why would Costuming have her wear a skimpy nightie in the opening scene where her niece wakes her up instead of, say, a baggy college sweater? (Ok, there are two pretty obvious reasons why, from a certain perspective.)

Halstead remains interesting and relevant. If you think that he only exists as an ancillary to Lindsay's subplots then you might not be paying attention. Also, by "before they hooked his wagon up to Lindsay" do you mean in the first one or two episodes? The good ole days indeed. Antonio's story was spent when his wife and kid(?) were written out for whatever reason. I don't know what Justice is like but the guy used to have a personal life.

I can't say that I'm a fan of how Bobbie's story has been changed. In the books, Bobbie remains loyal to the MCR, and Avarsala arranges things so that Bobbie is reassigned as a liaison to the UN, which results in her kicking some Protogen ass and meeting up with Holden and co. This is important because Bobbie is still resupplied by MCRN loyalists later in Caliban's War. I'm pretty sure that the same Navy guys rearm the Roci with torpedoes. Following CW, she returns to Mars, but since half of her former compatriots want to hear about her tangling with a protomolecule soldier and the other half thinks that she's kind of a traitor for working with what is basically the boss of the UN, she retires, starts working for the Martian VA, and pulls her kid nephew out of a sticky situation, among other things. Of course, there are ways that the show can go with this and still preserve Bobbie Draper: Martian loyalist. Namely, by playing up the internecine conflict within the MCRN earlier, and explicitly showing the divisions between elements of the MCR that oppose protomolecule exploitation. And what do you know, the black ops Navy Captain who shows up to convey Mars' covert approval of Team "No Grey Goo in Our Only Solar System, Please" also has some High Explosive Incendiary bullets for the MCRMC power armor's main gun in his armory.

Pick Up Aristry is founded on the principle that a guy can whittle down a girl's self esteem and fulfill conditions X Y and Z and they'll get laid, like women are female shaped robots who don't actually have a conscious decision over who they sleep with. It's an inherently sleazy and misogynistic "industry". What it really is is a way for losers to rationalize the fact that they're getting laid much less than they think they deserve, by directing the blame to "Those Bitches" who won't drop trou the instant they say hi. Pretty pathetic. That said, being the family of someone on the Intelligence unit must preclude getting any kind of life insurance. I'm terrified of what the show will do to Atwater's siblings the moment the writers remember they exist, especially since the cliches are already preformed and the story writes itself.

This was stupid when it was Justin. If the show really wanted to deliver a punch, they'd kill a regular character. Like Ruzek. Killing off a family member of one of the detectives (again) is just dumb.

I liked Kenny too. I prefer him greatly to Ruzek. He seems like a nice guy (even with people treating him like shit) and not some cocky dude getting too big for his britches. No idea why someone would think Halstead is a tool. He doesn't display very many tool like qualities. And yes, he actually made his bones as a cop instead of having a plum position gifted to him and then whining about it no longer being there when he left it.

Shut the fuck up Ruzek, you weren't even out of the Police Academy before you were ushered into an elite unit of detectives. Don't act like you have any seniority or such bullshit. God, the character is such a smug asshole (unintentionally on part of the writers, apparently).

Speaking of Castle, at least none of the female character here have developed into runway models masquerading as cops as their romantic subplots developed. The progressive makeovers and sky high heels that that female lead character adopted over time were so, so stupid.

That moment between Lindsay and Antonio was nice. This show needs more of such moments between the younger detectives to bring out the human element in the characters. Also, goddamn it Ruzek, go away. And stay away from Burgess, who at least is less annoying when you're not around.

Yeah, but then you'd have certain people whining about how the show gives too much screentime to Lindsay. It's a bit of a missed opportunity that they didn't make Burgess the UC. Not only would she be less vulnerable to accusations of impropriety (I knew a guy who worked as security for a female juvenile justice center, and he talked about how clumsy seduction attempts bordering on full-out sexual assault aimed at the male employees were a matter of routine). But she's also very young and incredibly earnest, and both qualities could be useful in that kind of setting (even if they normally make her pretty punchable).

I sure hope he stays gone for a long time. Don't miss him at all, and his replacement is a hundred times better.

I didn't think so. It's a nice set up for a woman who should eventually be (book spoilers) . And yeah, the description of Bobbie Draper in the books is one of those things that doesn't really work on screen with a real woman in today's society. But the actress is super tall for a woman, and super jacked as is. She's never supposed to be a body builder, as Holden (who, granted, is Holden) describes her as a "Polynesian beach bunny blown up 150%" and it's made clear in no uncertain terms that men find her attractive.

Who is Fred Johnson's female adjundant? She has a good command voice. Avarsala is the best. And I can't wait to have more Bobbie.