Sandman
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Posts posted by Sandman
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1 hour ago, cmahorror said:
I never watched Homicide so I cannot speak to him as a dramatic actor
See Glory, if you can. The cast is altogether wonderful, and he stands out in a great field.
Homicide wasn’t my favourite performance of his, but everything I found self-conscious or mannered about him as Frank Pembleton seemed to make Raymond J. Holt ever more brilliantly realized. He was a marvellous actor, and he’s gone too soon. Damn.
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On 5/24/2023 at 9:16 PM, DanaK said:
Can Med go back to being the kind of hospital it was before?
You mean judgy? Well, since Red Halstead, Ethan and Natalie are all gone, probably not.
Seriously, I miss Big Red (remember when Maggie tried to make that happen?), but I will not miss Jack. I was waiting for the other entitled evil shoe to drop through his whole storyline.
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On 6/24/2023 at 7:58 PM, Dani said:
We saw on Disco that a Vulcan joining Starfleet was controversial. Throughout Trek, Vulcan has had its own interests that often run contradictory to Starfleet’s interests.
I think it’s always been canonical that Sarek discouraged Spock from joining Starfleet, rather than accepting a place at the Vulcan Science Academy (though this might be less about Vulcan feelings of cultural superiority, and more about career prestige, kind of like the way some parents prioritize getting accepted into medical school over joining the army, say).
And we know T’Pau was the only person ever to refuse a seat on the Federation Council. So I would say that there’s evidence that some parts of Vulcan society (old school, perhaps?) have a degree of reservation when it comes to the Federation.
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On 7/25/2022 at 7:32 PM, Morrigan2575 said:
Like what if Nakia and T'Challa got busy between BP and Infinity War and there's a little T'Challa running around?
We-ell…
Apparently Ryan Coogler’s superpower is the ability to break my heart.
I really loved this. I thought it was much more even tonally than some Marvel outings ::side-eyes Thor movies :: though I was struck by how grief was the main motif of the movie, shaping the whole thing. I liked the emphasis on sisterhood throughout, too. I definitely want to see more of the relationship between Shuri and Nakia. I loved Nyong'o’s performance here, as much as anyone’s, up to and including Bassett’s. Some roles felt a little under-written (Riri’s mostly, but Namor’s to some extent as well. I did like the deconstruction of Namor’s name into “el niño sin amor.” That was a nice little detail.) Some of the lines given to Riri seemed too overtly expository or purely functional: “Shit, he’s fast! But I’m faster” seems like a particularly cringeworthy example. That could have used another pass at script editing. But I guess they’re leaving her character development to her own show.
I thought the Rihanna song played over the closing was gorgeous, and perfectly expressed the tone of the movie’s ending. I was confused by M’Baku’s challenge, though: does that indicate a return to tradition, or is it an actual betrayal? Whom is he challenging? Is he challenging Shuri in absentia?
And how the ever-lovin’ crap did crazy-ass Valentina Wossname Don’t Care end up as CIA Director? I’ve seen this character twice in the MCU and I’ve already grown thoroughly tired of her. She manages to be simultaneously boring and enraging. And Ross was married to her? Oh, my giddy Aunt Lobelia, the hell you say! Nope nope nope. I could not possibly agree more with the sentiment that they need to stop trying to make Val happen. A stupid character given a grating performance.
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"Amy was right -- drugs are bad!" Horrified, stoned Rosa is hilarious.
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On 3/1/2023 at 3:17 PM, Andyourlittledog2 said:
I wouldn't be surprised if little birds dressed him in the morning.
In his mind, I'm sure they do.
Seriously, is Remy supposed to be this ... unhinged? I get that his brother's case had him on edge, but the episode "Black Mirror" made him seem not only completely unprofessional, but barely more rational than the perps they were chasing. (Maybe the FBI's entire Office of Professional Responsibility was away at a conference that week.)
I had to stop watching L&O: Organized Chaos in part because Dylan was constantly eating the scenery, but, daaaaaamn -- this show is dark. FBI's Most Wackadoo is not for me.
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On 9/7/2023 at 12:33 PM, TaraS1 said:
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that she has Alicia Coppola on soon!
Does anybody else wonder why Alicia Coppola never had a bigger career?
I remember watching the pilot episode of Star Trek: Voyager, excited to see her working, only to watch Lt. Stadi bite it before the plot even got going! (And Stadi was to have been a Betazoid, too, dang it!)
I seem to remember that she and Dano grew genuinely fond of each other; maybe that increases the chances that she’ll appear on the podcast.
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On 12/6/2018 at 5:06 PM, Guildford said:
Would it have killed them to have little breadcrumbs along the way that Antonio was spiralling? Maybe comment that he's late a few times, or misses something, or is always on the phone. Have someone comment on it....but no...he goes from calling his Dr way back in episode 3 0r 4? to suddenly six episodes later they remember and bang full-blown addiction, running from cops, heroin-seeking drug addict.
I’m watching a rerun of “Descent,” and the story is definitely handled clumsily, especially in its suddenness, and how on-the-nose the beats are. Antonio, blowing up at his doctor that he’s “not some junkie trying to scam his doctor for pills” is just a walking eye roll at this point. Dude, that’s exactly what you are. I’d be more sympathetic, but Antonio’s always been a smug, judgmental dickhead with all the self-awareness of a wad of pocket lint. It’s too late to make me care about his mirror-punching (oy gevalt) self-destruction, writers.
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I just can’t imagine that Frangione is gone.
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On 8/23/2023 at 12:17 PM, Yogisbooboo64 said:
Nancy Frangione, Cecile, passed away at 70 on the 18th.
This does not compute for me, somehow. The characters (and actors, apparently) I knew and loved from the great days of Another World remain fixed within me, a constellation of memories.
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5 hours ago, Affogato said:
He was shaking and having difficulty standing, presumably because of the fight/flight response. That would be active PTSD in its purest form.
In addition, I think the flashbacks in the story were presented (YMMV as far as this observation is concerned) as more intrusive and debilitating for both him and Chapel than such storytelling devices usually are — not just a flash of memory, but a “reliving” kind of experience — a defining characteristic of a PTSD diagnosis, as I understand it.
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On 7/28/2023 at 12:02 AM, rtms77 said:
Pike pretty much guilt tripped the Vets into joining the dinner. Still I blame Starfleet, they are just tone deaf to their vets it seems.
He did; even though the decision came from way over his head, I think some kind of out for the (clearly traumatized!) vets could have been within the captain’s discretion. It was interesting — and sad — to me that M’Benga and Chapel were still responding in a way that was not only in line with ship’s discipline, but also falling back on a soldier’s code: “Our captain needs us.”
I am surprised that both M’Benga and Chapel passed any kind of psych screening for serving on a long-term mission like that of the Enterprise. I don’t believe that the psychologically damaged are broken irrevocably, but the episode makes it obvious that they both have active PTSD. Forget Ship’s Counsellors, does Starfleet Medical not have ANY kind of psychological division?
This was maybe the least Trek episode in the franchise that I’ve seen, and that’s without any Section 31 or covert Mirror Universe infiltration nonsense: The ship’s CMO straight-up murders a member of the diplomatic corps, the head nurse lies (Christine said she saw the whole thing, and there’s no way she could have) to cover it up, and everyone just carries on like it’s just the third Tuesday of the month?
Or maybe I’m just sore because Spock apologized for “breaching” a sensitive subject, instead of broaching it. C’mon, writers; you can do better than this!
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On 7/30/2023 at 1:23 PM, kiddo82 said:
Compelling from end to end. A lot of movies don't justify their run time but this one did. And for a movie were so much time devoted to physics talk and government hearings it never dragged.
Agreed. I thought the interwoven flashback structure would make it harder to follow than it proved, for me, in the end. And I was a bit worried that the soundtrack would have Nolan’s usual punishing volume. Though some of the dialogue was a bit hard to catch, it worked. (Maybe I had extra reason to be on the edge of my seat, listening intently?) There were moments where the tension was building almost unbearably. I think the structure of the telling added to that sense of uncertainty— even though we know the outcome. (Though I confess much of the story of the ruin of Dr. Oppenheimer’s reputation was new to me.) The complex structure also meant, I think, that the question of when Dr. Oppenheimer’s moral qualms arose might have been harder for the audience to answer precisely, leaving us feeling something of his confusion and doubt. I thought that was a nice detail.
I loved the casting throughout. Emily Blunt was brilliant, as were Murphy and RDJ. (So many faces I recognized, it became a little bit of “Hey, It’s That Guy” funtime, without actually taking me out of the story, if that makes sense.) Florence Pugh’s Jean is sort of sketched in, but she’s a compelling enigma. Josh Hartnett surprised me with the strength of his performance. But Tom Conti was maybe my favourite piece of casting of all — it’s little more than a cameo, but it’s a lovely, surprising choice: in the midst of the story’s darker turns, he seemed to capture the impish quality that Einstein was reputed to have, without ever sliding into caricature or broad comedy.
I thought it was thrilling. I want it to win awards by the fistful.
Edited to add: Does anyone know if Göransson’s score quoted from John Adams’s Doctor Atomic? I thought there might’ve been points where I heard something I knew — though I don’t know that work by heart, or anything.
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6 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:
I think the tonal criticism is at least somewhat off-base because even though SNW (and pretty much all live-action Trek) is a serious affair, it can also change tone to have goofy misadventures and hijinks.
I don't mean to suggest that the difference in tone makes the episode unsuccessful (again, for me). And we may disagree on the overall effect, or its source. Sure, TOS (heh, I'm never going to think of that initialism in quite the same way) did have its moments of levity and broad humour, as does this show ("Charades," as an episode, has a mostly light-hearted, even goofy, tone. Except maybe not so much for T'Pring.) But I do think there's a difference between comic relief in a mostly epic drama and a show whose overall tone is mostly satirical (or maybe serio-comic is a better description).
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21 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:
What specifically didn't transfer? Mariner is annoying whether she's animated or live-action. I happen to find her being annoying amusing but I can understand why others might have varying mileage on that point.
Part of it, for me, is how different the two series are in tone. Mariner and (to a somewhat lesser extent?) Boimler seem more annoying than usual because the tone of their own show is not the epic/heroic mode of the rest of the canon. They are not the senior officers and bridge crew of the flagship of the fleet. There's a reason why they are the lower decks crew -- they're comic underachievers, or at least less experienced crew members, whose adventures are played for laughs. I think this accounts for at least part of how jarring Mariner's attitude seems here. The tone of the animated series is mock-heroic and sardonic (even if the love of Trek is evident). These two don't belong in this show, and not just for reasons of (urg) "temporal mechanics."
Maybe Boimler skipped the part of the syllabus on the Eugenics Wars.
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On 7/23/2023 at 2:16 AM, thuganomics85 said:
Only thing better than Boimler’s "Riker!" when he straddled the saddle like he did, is knowing that Jonathan Frakes was directing this. The Riker Maneuver will never die!
Una: “Mr. Spock ran an analysis; it’s not just a delta, it’s also a communicator. You just press here —“
Pike: “But flipping it open is the best part!”
Sandman: “I already love this episode!”
Even though time travel annoys me, the fact that future generations are awestruck by Uhura seems only right to me.
ETA: I never realized how strongly Jack Quaid resembles both his parents — he could be one of those CGI mashups.
Also, also: Cartoon Spock saying, in his usual dispassionate tone, “My arm doesn’t usually do this,” with his arm noodling in the breeze like a blue used car lot Minshall man, had me wheezing with laughter. That whole cartoon sequence was hilarious.
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On 7/20/2023 at 11:23 PM, CarpeFelis said:
Anyone here have a favorite song that’s from 200+ years ago?
Love me some “Ombra mai fu”! And so much of Handel and Bellini and pretty much all of Mozart, really.
I agree the jump scare with Zombie Hemmer in the turbolift was very effective. Celia Gooding did a great job, but I always like her. I even liked the first meeting of Spock and Kirk.
But I already hate the relationship between Sam and James Kirk. They just seem to bring out the worst in each other, in ways that make both seem childish. It’s not cute, and it doesn’t strike me as especially nuanced or even all that realistic. In Uhura’s place, I’d have been itching to slap them both. “At least your family’s not DEAD, you egotistical moroons!”
Edited to add: Does anyone ever stun a Redshirt?
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Yeah, the tea ceremony as Gom Jabbar didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Many cultures have ceremonies that involve physical risk, but there’s usually some connection between the nature of the ceremony and the risk involved. (It also made me wonder if maybe Vulcan history is littered with incidents of potential mothers-in-law getting scalded by “accidentally” yeeted kettles?)
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On 7/13/2023 at 6:14 PM, MissLucas said:
I also loved Number One, Uhura, La'an and Ortega giving him lessons how to be Spock.
This was a fun moment. I agree that Una had the best Spock Voice.
On 7/14/2023 at 3:56 AM, paigow said:TOS canon establishes that it started as a Teacher-Student relationship
Thanks — I’d forgotten that detail.
I also sympathized with T’Pring in that Spock should have let her in on it. But he had intended to tell her, and in the moment that he first chose not to, I think he genuinely did not wish to add to her burdens. (Dude could have found some way between then and charades, though.)
T’Pau, in TOS, might have more reason than most Vulcans to take a superior attitude, but she treated Spock’s human friends with grave, if formal, courtesy; even a degree of compassion, I would say. (I can’t help it — Celia Lovsky and Mark Lenard are still “real” Vulcans to me in ways that few other actors have matched. Though Fionnula Flanagan and Suzie Plakson get honourable mentions.)
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13 hours ago, historylover820 said:
It's an AU. Because there's no way that TOS and SNW fits together with the Spock/Chapel relationship. Korby doesn't exist, and the Spock/Chapel relationship isn't doomed by canon.
Korby does exist: Unless I’m mistaken, those were his principles of archeological medicine that Christine had to memorize. (Does that mean he and Christine are of different generations?)
But I agree; more and more, it seems the only way this show works, or at least is enjoyable to me, is as an AU.
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On 7/13/2023 at 7:27 AM, baldryanr said:
… and/or sick of Vulcans being portrayed as assholes.
:: raises hand ::
I just don’t see how “Vulcans have mastered their emotions, and value logic and self-discipline” equates to “Vulcans are petty, boorish, insensitive clods.” (I think we’ve seen Vulcans be cool and even haughty with humans in the earliest parts of the franchise, but active nastiness? That’s an invention of Enterprise, and I still think it’s stupid.)
I also don’t see how genetic alterations would just erase decades of experience that Spock already has. But Ethan Peck’s comic timing is pretty much aces, so I’m torn.
The Spock-Chapel shipping I’m kinda lukewarm on, I guess, but I like Mia Kirshner’s Amanda, and I think she and Ethan Peck have terrific chemistry as mother and son. I really liked the scene they shared as Amanda was leaving the ship, and I’m glad we learned a little more about the shared memory, and what it meant for both of them.
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Well, I suppose a cargo cult episode (or two) was inevitable. I don’t know if the mashup of the cargo cult idea with a stratified society episode like “The Cloud Minders” really works. This one had its tensions, but ultimately, as mentioned upthread, doesn’t really stand up to scrutiny. I mean, even the Troglytes didn’t immediately get better (after generations of exposure).
I wouldn’t mind if “I am Erica Ortegas; I fly the ship!” were to resurface (“… prepare not to die!” being optional, of course).
ETA: I realized that they managed to jam in a third type of TOS episode in here: the sort (of course) where a stranded/resentful/full-on crazypants Federation dude becomes the local autocrat/Grand Poobah, as in “The Omega Glory” or “Whom Gods Destroy.” Which suggests that the Federation’s commitment to democracy is only one strategic bonk on the head away from authoritarianism. And also maybe the Prime Suggestion should include the rider “No using Federation tech to install yourself as emperor. Yes, this includes you.”
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4 hours ago, paigow said:
Zac was trying to do his best Col. Kurtz, but landed on Col. Hogan
Or Col. Klink?
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14 hours ago, millennium said:
Wasn't the Kelvin Kirk also born in space?
Good point!
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S02.E04: What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Grandmaster?
in What If...?
OMG, even in animated form the Grandmaster is charmless and boring as fuck.
Someone needs to tell Jeff Goldblum (and Marvel) he's not nearly as funny as he thinks he is. This episode was just a slog to get through.