Chyromaniac

Okay so I have two reference jokes, and I can’t decide which I prefer: 1) For some, shyness is their AT-ST... Or 2) Before the sun comes up, we're going to build on this site an exact replica of the town of Swamp Ridge!

I don’t know what was grosser- the black goo coming out of everyone’s mouths, or the actual composition of that meal. Besides the mashed potatoes and baked beans, I thought I saw rice and maybe some kind of tabbouleh salad? That’s a weird mix, and definitely an overload of carbs. And Ramsey’s bringing Lasagna too? Nuh uh.

Write Before Christmas feels like the platonic ideal of current Hallmark- a holiday movie about the magic of greeting cards...

You know what’s hilarious? That’s not even what I was referring to- I was thinking of the poor kid who died when Lena was developing her super serum. So that’s two secret experiments with fatal results- and she was sooooo upset when Morgan Edge accused her of poisoning people with the anti-Daxamite weapon. For what it’s worth, I guess we have to give the writers credit- they have been laying the groundwork for this turn for a while now (wasn’t there a scene back in her first season that implied that kid Lena was already a bad seed?). But it’s still disappointing that Kara and Lena’s friendship is over- I don’t know how the show can credibly walk this back. And, that they’ve progressively turned a fun, enigmatic, morally gray ally into an emotionally fragile, hypocritical enemy.

I mean, her human experimentation program resulted in the death of at least one subject...

I know I’m a bit late to the Little Mermaid discussion, but I just wanted to say that “Part of That World” is probably my favorite Disney song. The way Ashman’s lyrics play off each other and Menken’s music is just magical, with all the little pauses, and internal rhymes and alliteration. I don’t generally have a head for lyrics, but I spent an afternoon listening to cover versions online, and I basically memorized them. And, it all but introduced the broadway concept of just having the lead actress sing about her feelings (the “want” song) to Disney- something they’ve done for practically every Princess since. And of course, it’s the song the execs wanted to cut for time...

Man, the Indiana Jones is strong with this show. Mando is always getting beat up and dragged around like Indy. The chase on the sandcrawler was very reminiscent of the tank scene from Last Crusade. And maybe it’s just me, but I can’t not hear the Temple of Doom score in the main theme for this show. I don’t know if it’s an intentional nod, or just both characters descending from the same archetypes- but I am enjoying the similarities nonetheless.

The redesign is fine- the bigger concern is that Jim Carrey is still the only interesting thing in the trailer. Otherwise, is it weird that I can’t get past the fact that Sonic sounds like Dewey Duck? I mean, they both make Ben Schwartz noises.

They also stuck a little Union Jack plaque thingy behind William in his otherwise sterile white work space. We get it show- he’s British... I thought this week was better overall than the past few episodes. If nothing else, the different plots felt a bit more connected. The VR stuff is still confusing though- it seemed like everyone was inhabiting a shared space, and could interact with each other. So did everyone else using it in the office just watch William call their boss and her family a bunch of killers? Nice to see Phil- I’ve been hoping he’d get to show up in person eventually. Maybe the effects budget for the character finally ran out.

I dunno, it’s been nearly three months since the Netflix deal was announced- to me that feels like a reasonable amount of time for Benioff and Weiss to figure out their priorities. And shockingly, it appears they chose to focus on their $200 million development contract, and not the other project for their new employers’ most bitter rival. Look, I’m glad these guys are off Star Wars- but I just don’t see the controversy here.

Before I comment on this, please note that I believe: A) it was dumb for Lena to never have figured out Kara’s secret on her own, and B) it’s disappointing that they even feel the need to make her bad at all. Having said that, I do feel like knowing that she’s “evil” has given her scenes an interesting edge thus far. It’s fun to analyze Katie’s performance looking for clues and tells- and so far I think she’s doing an excellent job of not giving It away with the heroes, then switching on a dime for sinister mode.

Seriously. I actually paused the dvr at that point, because I had to talk that scene out with my wife. I mean, Victoria is introduced just as a “family friend”- a fact that she doesn’t dispute. She also doesn’t argue when he says that the trip was basically for business. Honestly, I don’t even know if Victoria even clocked that he and Corey were together. Plus, their friends are right there, and can corroborate his story. I guess I give them credit for not having Corey just see them hug or something at the party- like in every other one of these movies- but still, that had to be the flimsiest twist in quite a while. Otherwise, Matt McCoy has basically become Sam Waterston, which is weird-but now I want to see Hallmark’s “Love & Order: Marital Intent.”

Boy, Corey sure was a fan of that pony ride pantomime, wasn’t he?

Maybe it’s because I really enjoy that original Zutons arrangement, but I thought the Valerie battle was fun. Honestly the only battle (that we actually saw...😕) that I didn’t enjoy at least a little was High Hopes- their voices didn’t really pair well together, and it felt like they had to mess around with it to get the harmonies to work. That being said, I agree that the pacing and editing on this show have somehow gotten worse in recent seasons. There’s always been too much filler, especially when they can’t be bothered to actually show every performance. But now it even feels like they’re cutting some of Carson’s lines in half. It’s like we’ve gotta save those extra 5 seconds, for what? At this point, my viewing experience is basically ff-ing for 15 minutes, watching 5 minutes of singing and chopped together reactions, rinse and repeat. I don’t know how anyone can actually watch this show live.

Have we heard that version of the main theme before? Because holy $#!? Williams just went full opera on us! That more than anything else in any of the trailers has me pumped for this.