dwmarch

Alright, another Golden Lizzie where she is mentioned but not seen! The storyline with Ressler's NA buddy took a decent turn. I thought for sure the guy would turn out to be some social engineer who was going to manipulate his way past Ressler's defenses to put the team in danger yet again. Putting him in the employ of the Congressman was something I wasn't expecting. One thing they never came back to was how Dembe managed to kill that one suspect who turned out to be innocent. They never mentioned the idea that the guy might have been allergic to the metal of the handcuffs. Herbie's safety suit looked more like a beekeeper's outfit than something you'd see at the CDC. Another Breaking Bad actor showed up! That guy who always plays a gangster! I think he was Don Eladio on BB. I wonder if number one on the blacklist is going to be Heisenberg.

I have to wonder about the set design. Why have a courtroom where the judges are separated from the lawyers by what appears to be a giant hole in the floor? Has Starfleet's JAG office had too many people rush the well? Are we seeing the consequences of the Bailiff Revolt of 2205? (I think they may have re-used the Starfleet Command set from Discovery which had a similar giant hole in the middle of a meeting space) If anyone was wondering why Spock referenced Gilbert and Sullivan, this was shown in one of the Short Treks. Spock and Una get stuck in a turbolift and end up singing karaoke while waiting to be rescued.

It's been a while since I have seen the episode but he was the translator.

Well, I didn't hate episode three but it was not my favorite either. The one bit that stood out to me as strange was when Hank Azaria's character insisted that his partner hand him a gun. Is he Jocelyn's personal security? If she's in danger does he just come in and start blasting? It didn't make a lot of sense other than to introduce a gun to the story so that it can show up again later. I find Tedros obnoxious but I think he's supposed to be that way. He barks at the guy who works at the clothing store and that guy doesn't feel threatened so much as confused. He mispronounces carte blanche to see if anyone will dare correct him. He gets what he wants just through being the loudest, most aggressive character he can be. Any number of other characters should see right through this but I guess there has been a bit of setup to establish that these folks are pretty sheltered and live in a whimsical world of their own making. He says a famous producer is coming over. Well, that's amazing! He says his coke doesn't have fentanyl in it. What are the odds? But things are going differently now that he has arrived and some people's fantasies are sort of coming true so they are cutting him way too much slack. I agree they should have thrown the hairbrush in the fire but I think Tedros using it on Jocelyn is supposed to be a reference to Scientology and other cult behavior. I vaguely recall that cults will get you to admit something terrible about yourself and then use that thing to keep you in line. It was interesting to see the other members of Tedros' cult saying yes to everything but having some clearly defined lines they won't cross as regards Tedros himself.

Episode 4 had a guest appearance from a Vancouver vet best known for Squish that Cat:

I liked episode 2. Jocelyn's handlers are ignoring her or humoring her most of the time, constantly pushing her around and demanding "sexy" from her in conditions that are the exact opposite. The first half of the episode is agonizing as they all treat her like a piece of meat but also insist that she's the problem and she should be grateful for all the shit they are giving her. And when she does knock it out of the park, these so-called professionals aren't even looking at her. She's trying her best, apologizing constantly and still attempting to soldier through even though she can't stop crying. The whole time all of this is going on, I'm in the audience feeling uncomfortable with having to watch her go through this and wondering when they are going to let her go. But instead of a big blowup they pull the plug when she's still trying to fulfill her obligations. It is difficult to watch but it is supposed to be. Contrast this to when Tedros and friends come over. Instead of some weird superhero costume that she has to be sewn into, she's just wearing a simple but undeniably sexy leather mini and a tank top. Everyone is getting along, having a good time (although with the added assistance of booze and drugs) and folks just start having sex because they end up in the mood. After that release (which she seems quite happy about) she ends up making some incredible music with some folks who are just effortlessly talented. There's no one shouting directions or telling her she's doing it wrong. She's just happy and comfortable and safe (for now) and listen to the result! But no one will hear the result because they're not recording it. The back half of the episode goes by a lot quicker than the first half, as wonderful moments in a person's life tend to do.

Reddington sure comes across as a noble criminal here, doesn't he? What is in the crates? Is it guns? Drugs? People? No, nothing so nefarious! It's expensive wine and Red is just trying to avoid paying the exorbitant import taxes on it. How very American for his crime to be a tax revolt! So why would four assistant directors of the FBI need to get together to sign off on Dembe anyhow? Is that how personnel decisions are made there? Maybe Cooper convinced the other three it was a good idea by passing a joint around? When Hudson decided to leave his envelope behind I knew there was going to be some variation of DEEZ NUTS in it. He is a great social engineer and he's much smarter than the task force. I am rooting for him! Lizzie is mentioned but not seen. We need a term for this, Golden Lizzie or something. I wonder if this is because Hudson found himself filled with irrational anger every time he looked at her picture.

Since it's in the last episode and folks might not binge the whole season before coming into this thread, I'll spoiler code it.

I thought her handlers went in the wrong direction when trying to do damage control on her selfie. They immediately started talking about revenge porn but this was while they had the nudity coordinator locked in a bathroom because Joss is not shy. One person even mentioned that she was the one who took the photo. So she seems to have been a willing participant and she didn't even seem upset that this photo was out there. I thought they were going to reveal that she leaked it herself. I must also wonder if this would be a scandal if it happened to a celebrity in the real world. Every freaky thing that human beings can think of to do has probably also been done by a celebrity. There is also a thriving community of people out there who use Photoshop (and now AI art) to turn any and every celebrity into the porn version of themselves. If I want to see a picture of any celebrity in a similar situation I'm sure I wouldn't take much time or effort to find such a thing. I think the handlers would have been better off saying the photo was a fake. Especially since once things are on the internet, they never come off.

Let me guess, he went down to the FBI's firing range. Testimony and receipts were provided to show that despite millions of dollars in training time and 9mm ammo, Ressler still can't hit the broad side of a barn if he's standing inside of one. That is going to be tough to argue against.

I finished watching all of the episodes and I found the show to be fun as well. The humor was probably the best part and I'm glad they kept it lighthearted. The show didn't even try to be realistic but that is not a bug, it's a feature. The sudden but inevitable betrayal at the end made me sad though. Always enjoy seeing Gabriel Luna and I think he's great as the baddie here. Also great to see Tom Arnold as the gleeful torture specialist. To expand on the True Lies comparison, I find that this show is to True Lies (the movie, haven't watched the series) what Terminator 3 is to Terminator 2. Basically the same story except one is by James Cameron and the other... isn't. Nonetheless, I didn't hate it. If there is another season I'll watch.

Interesting. With the last season it was obvious what they were adapting but with this one, it's getting into some of the later Clancy novels and seems to be a new plot altogether. Having said that, terrorists and drug dealers working together was in "Against All Enemies" which isn't actually even set in the Jack Ryan universe. It is labeled on Amazon as The Campus book one and there is a cameo in the end from a campus character but it also references things that cannot have happened in the Jack Ryan universe. The one specific reference I remember was I freeze-framed that bio of Ding Chavez and it says he was in BUDS (their spelling, it should be BUD/S). No, he was not. He was in the US Army (7th Light Infantry Division, "We Own the Night"). His best friend/father in law is a Navy SEAL but he most definitely is not. He is no less badass for this though. I have no idea why the show would change his background other than to make him into this show's John Clark (which I think they are hinting at with his torture of bad guys) or because production-wise the Navy is easier to work with? The bio also lists CIA - RAINBOW which tells me they didn't read the friggin' book. Rainbow was an international anti-terrorist squad. It was not a part of the CIA or even the US government per se. I know Rainbow is charitably described as "not Clancy's best work" but the organizational structure was something the man had no problems writing about in excruciating detail. I thought I saw one second of Cathy in there, it will be good to have her back. Other than that, we'll see how this goes. I wasn't expecting a season 4 so soon after season 3 and I hope this show ends on a high note. I don't want them to end with Debt of Honor's ending which I will spoiler code for those who have not read it yet: If we're not coming back for more, let's have this end with him getting married to Cathy and buying a house out in Chesapeake Bay. I'd be okay with that.

I'd mix up the pairings. Put Inara and Wash together for an episode, they didn't have much interaction on the show. Maybe have Simon and Zoe go on an adventure together. I'd love to see a mission/heist that requires the involvement of a Companion but Inara can't risk being seen so Kaylee has to go undercover and pretend. I would imagine they probably would not still be flying Serenity 20 years later (the ship was visibly falling apart the last time we saw it) so I imagine the first episode or two would be getting the band back together from various planets. Did Simon go back to working at a hospital somewhere? And if so, back in the Core or is he doing frontier medicine somewhere? River after 20 years should be thoroughly badass but maybe she's tending a garden somewhere. Has anyone managed to knock any sense into Jayne in 20 years? He can play a convincing badass in a suit and tie or at least he did on Angel. And how about Inara? Is she still in the Companion ecosystem or is she doing something totally different? I think there are a lot of fun directions to go in.

Hey, would you look at that? Siya straight up asked Reddington to tell her the truth even though it might be painful and he actually told her! No idea who Siya's mother is but I'm pretty sure this means her father is So Red did this whole thing with the port deal just to get a few seconds with his old bodyguard? I know this show is finally tying up some loose ends but I wasn't curious about this one. Red's government homeboy from Alaska (who loves the puppies!) can influence which contractors are used for port projects in Florida? None of that makes any sense. Well, except the puppies. Man, Dembe was pissed. Did someone steal his dowry? As much as I have been pooping on the budget crisis storyline thus far, I think I'm coming around to the side of the auditors here. You have this FBI task force that is just sitting on ass all day when all they need to do to catch cases is literally ask the person right next to them? Is the America of The Blacklist having a crime shortage or something? They can't figure out anything to do except scratch their asses while hoping Reddington will come around and bless them with some busywork to keep the bean counters away? They have no work to do and they still keep showing up so they can justify collecting a salary? I'm pretty sure number one on the Blacklist is going to be the Reddington Task Force itself!

I have only seen the first episode so far but it feels like a weird sequel to True Lies except without James Cameron's involvement. I don't love it yet but I'll watch a few more episodes to see how it goes. The cast is good and there's plenty of comedy so I'll hope for the best.

I liked Stevenson's take on The Punisher in the fantastically gory, over the top Punisher: War Zone. Also loved his villain character in Big Game, where he is hunting President Samuel L. Jackson and a kid who is doing his coming-of-age ceremony. I'm looking forward to seeing Stevenson in Ahsoka and I'm sad we won't see him in anything else.

The most important thing we learned here is that Red has a guy he calls to find new homes for neglected pets and this guy will murder people to accomplish his goals. This makes me feel slightly better about some of the animals this show has abandoned over the years although we don't know how long Red has been doing this for. I liked how we get a bunch of Reddington side stories crammed together with very little detail. It was a good way to make use of this show's clearly diminished budget. I'm still not sure what to make of Siya's plot but it seems to me like Reddington is proactively anticipating any moves she might make. Having her switch from her service weapon to one of his choice may have been a setup for something. This could either put her fingerprints on a dirty weapon or puts her service weapon in the hands of someone who won't hesitate to give the FBI an exact copy while doing something nasty with the original. This show has been on long enough that I guess it would not work at all to have Meera Malik's original actress (Parminder Nagra) come back to play her younger self but I don't think the new actress looks anything like her and it distracted me the whole time. Is "Meera Malik" a code name like James Bond and it just gets passed from agent to agent along with any children that might get orphaned along the way? Once again this show has a weird idea of what a budget is. The congressman seems to think the rate at which the Task Force spends money is unacceptable. Again, they would get their allocation at the beginning of the fiscal year and how they spent it would be up to them. Also, the idea that they are spending too much is weird considering how much we have seen them mostly just sitting around lately. Was it that expensive to put Herbie on the payroll? I think this plot would work better if they could include a line about the Task Force repeatedly blowing through their budget, requesting more and the requests always being approved without being scrutinized. It would still be BS but it would sound better.

"You're gonna watch them burn!" mwa-ha-has the villain. Hey, you do realize people are flammable too, right? If you set them up in a room full of fire they will probably escape because Hollywood fire is considerate like that. If you set them on fire they would have been dead before Robyn could get halfway down the hall. Drugged Dante was fun. He rarely ever gets to relax on this show and never, ever gets to be funny. All in all, I liked the robbery plot more although I thought the ending was a little optimistic. Dee jumping in the way of the cops would probably get her shot in this world. Now that would have been a cliffhanger. The cops bust in, end up shooting Dee because they think she's the robber and they won't listen to the white guy when he tries to confess. He ends up being hailed as a local hero while Dee is facing big medical bills and criminal charges because the cops saw her within three feet of a gun. That might be too realistic for this show though.

When Robyn realized her father had been intentionally targeted I couldn't help but say "ain't vigilantes a bitch?"

Cooper totally said "soft and cuddly" because Agnes was still in earshot and he doesn't think she's ready to hear "are you fucking kidding me?!?!" yet (although since she's Lizzie's kid she must have heard that a few times by now). I kind of love that the FBI is looking all over creation for Reddington and he's at Cooper's friggin' house eating ice cream and watching movies. I'm not really sure how a black budget secret FBI task force works but I'm pretty sure it's not on the basis of "what have you done for me lately?" I feel like they would get a set amount of money every year. It might make more sense for them to be in financial trouble because they are spending too much trying to teach Ressler how to hit a target or putting ads on milk cartons for missing animals or something like that and they've blown the budget halfway through a fiscal year and they're asking for more. But black budgets are black. Congressman So-and-So would not have paperwork that describes a secret thing in just vague enough terms to get the ball rolling on some loud public questions. That would defeat the entire purpose. How it is listed on the paperwork? EXPENSIVE SECRET FBI SHIT (valid through Q2 only), DON'T ASK ANY QUESTIONS? Speaking of budgets, there didn't really seem to be one for this episode. We had a lot of scenes suggesting a lot of globe hopping except it was mostly people talking indoors. For all the talk of the doctor's imminent execution, we never saw the people who were holding him except for their brief appearance at the beginning. And speaking of brief appearances, hey Siya, go away for a while, we don't need you for this one. Like, at all. Thanks! Maybe they pay her by the minute and since they are trying to save on money... Chalk up another suspect collaring fail for Ressler, who is driving a big FBI SUV with the lights on and everything and somehow still manages to arrive behind Reddington who really shouldn't have had much of an idea of what was going on and who probably got there in a goddamned Uber. Then again, I feel like this whole thing was manipulated by Reddington perhaps to put Dembe back on Team Red. It is weird that "Dr. Michael Abani" is a Blacklister. He was a patsy for the real villain so why put him on the list at all? Because then it wouldn't have been a shocking reveal when the only other character who could be the bad guy turned out to be the bad guy!

This show has got the weirdest schedule. Apparently season 3 has already been filmed and has aired in Australia but the Global TV website says season 2 is coming soon. I saw season 2 a long time ago!

I think Dee's plot would have worked better if it had been spread out a little more. Maybe she could get hired in one episode and be excited about working, even if it is just warehouse stuff for now. And then we see her coworkers being rotated out of the warehouse stuff and working up front but Dee seems to have been passed over. And then she clues in as to what is different between her and the other folks. Instead, she gets this new job and about five seconds later her racism detector goes off and on her first actual day where she's supposed to be working she decides to make a scene in the store in front of everyone. From her point of view they wouldn't accept her as her authentic self which is a perfectly fine reason to leave a job. But from their point of view they didn't say anything to her other than assigning her a very general task and she ended up storming out of there going on about how racist and criminal their work environment is. Even if she's right (which the episode didn't actually go out of the way to establish beyond that one woman having a sour faced look) there are better ways to speak truth to power. But I guess the fashion industry isn't for her so she'll have to do spy stuff instead. It was a weird look, like they put an outfit together for her out of whatever bits and pieces they could find that she hadn't worn yet. Harry was not nearly bothered enough by his rival getting tortured and killed in his shop. Harry, that is what we call foreshadowing. Remember, that guy was tortured and killed for the file that McCall hung onto for the lulz. That was weird too. So the CIA sends her on a mission to retrieve a thing. She retrieves it but decides the world is better off if she hangs onto it herself rather than handing it over to those shifty CIA pricks. The CIA guy basically laughs and says "you got me this time, Mall Cop!" and walks away instead of having her arrested and thrown in jail for several lifetimes.

Overall I liked this episode although I have to wonder who in the writers' room said "you know what we need? Remember how in Die Hard the FBI shows up at the hostage situation and they just fuck everything up? We should do a story from the point of view of those FBI agents!" It seems as though the writers for this season are only referring to recaps of previous seasons and skipping over those pretty lightly. For example, a plot about DNA results and agonizing over whether or not to read them? We already did that with Liz. And now all of a sudden Main Justice is concerned with Reddington leaving dead bodies on the floor of the Post Office? Reddington leaves bodies behind everywhere he goes! He has killed plenty of people at the Post Office and various other "Federal facilities" and he has often done it in plain view of many Task Force members! But now for some reason they care? Actually, knowing what I know about bureaucracy, that part is kind of realistic so maybe... but still! For the civilians at the end there, getting the bags of cash... did the husband and wife have to split one? Shouldn't they each get one? Also, can all these folks be counted on to spend their ill-gotten gains wisely? I would hope Red gave them some insight as to how to absorb a giant duffel bag full of money into one's life without attracting various kinds of unwanted attention. Remember, they do live in an area where well-armed, healthy-looking crackheads remember to cut the DSL connection before robbing a store! I have been giving the side-eye to Siya this whole season but after this episode I'm curious about Herbie too. Did Reddington figure out that Siya is obviously there to get revenge on her mother's behalf so he has set things up to just pull that particular rug right out from under her? Hey, guess what kiddo... you were adopted! No need to get revenge! She wasn't your real mom! Speaking of adoption, are you by chance in the market for a couple of cats or any of several dogs?

Is this the season finale? If so, this was a good way to wrap things up. I'm glad to see Weir had something of a plan going all along although I think I'd have to rewatch from the beginning to see how well it all ties together. I loved Hailey's look in that brown leather skirt. There was no particular plot related reason for her to change into it and that makes me love her even more. No answers on whether or not she works for some other company or agency yet. I'm going to guess Defense Intelligence Agency based on the skirt because Whistler on NCIS: Hawaii has the exact same one (leather on the front, stretchy back). Crowley had access to all that data and was just using it as a blunt-force object. This is a similar weakness to various villains in 24 who could only leverage such information against the CTU team so long as they could keep them on the phone. Oh no, the bad guy is going to call me and threaten to expose all of my secrets if I don't do something for him right now! What if I just send the call to voicemail? It's a bit of a dramatic shortcut to suppose that every person has some deep, dark secret that they will immediately kill someone else to protect. But some folks aren't going to care about their dirty laundry. Some folks are not going to react the way the villain thinks they will, no matter what his algorithm says. Speaking of CTU, when the villain was firing up Skynet, I had a feeling I saw those letters come up and sure enough, part of the data he trawled was from a 24 wiki:

Saw this movie today and I'm glad I went. The theater was packed and I overheard that the next showing was already sold out. Overall I thought it was great and a nice way to close out the series. I'm very glad no one died. I thought we were going to lose Drax for sure and I wasn't sure about Rocket. While I am not personally sensitive to any gore or violence that could possibly appear in a PG-13 Marvel movie, there were definitely moments in this one where I hoped there were no young kids in the audience. There is some nightmare fuel in this one for the young. I found myself on the verge of tears three times: Rocket saying it hurt, Kraglin seeing a vision of Yondu and Rocket finding and freeing the baby raccoons. James Gunn knows how to get great emotion even in the most absurd situations and there was plenty of that in this movie. I know all stories are going to overlap to some degree but I could not help but notice that the High Evolutionary is basically Handsome Jack from the videogame Borderlands 2. But I don't know the HE's history from the comics (aside from ScreenCrush videos that give very short summaries) so it's possible the inspiration is the other way around and Handsome Jack is the one who has been borrowed. In any case, both are mask-wearing megalomaniacs who suffered severe facial trauma courtesy of a hero character. Both are trying to build a perfect society. Both are doing cruel experiments on captives. There was a nice balance of comedy in this one. Sometimes Marvel movies are too quick with the quips so there you are trying to absorb an emotional moment and five seconds later someone cracks a joke. There was some of that here but by and large I think it was paced in such a way that the humor didn't end up stripping the impact of emotional scenes. The biggest audience laugh was for "open the fucking door!"