millennium

I call that "Eva Destruction"

Gina Torres was a lot hotter. I could almost understand why everyone did her bidding, lol.

I'm sick of shows that are too dark to watch, and I don't mean thematically. Viewers shouldn't have to squint or adjust their TVs from scene to scene. What a disappointment to see badass Ellie turn into a puddle of goo once she finally comes face to face with Abby. "I didn't mean to kill your friends!" and "Nooo, don't shoot him!" So Ellie gets to fake-out death twice in one episode? The Seraphites become distracted and let her fall to the ground when she's on the very brink of petechiae, then she's not killed by Abby's bullet (obviously). This is the second show I've watched in two nights that closes out the season with a "dead? not dead?" cliffhanger. And since I'm in a complaining mood, I'm tired of the ever-contracting number of episodes in series television now. I still remember when a season was 22 episodes and shows had a new season every year. The streaming came along and it dropped to twelve episodes. Then ten episodes. Then eight episodes. Now it's six or seven episodes. Plus, we're forced to wait 1.5 to 2 years for whatever spoonful of new episodes they dole out. (Looking at you too, House of the Dragon).

Table for three. Eva should have argued her real skill: emotional manipulation. Early graduation from college, doctorate at Brown University, fellow of the National Science Brain Trust or whatever it is ... oh, but I'm autistic and sometimes I can't control my emotions! I'm close to someone who is autistic (Asperger's) and every day of his life ranges between a challenge and a living hell. He has never gone to bed at night and thought "this was a good day," while experience has taught him that hoping for a better tomorrow is a joke. The only thing he really wants out of life is acceptance and friends. He's managed to get his college degree (by working twice as hard as everybody else), get a job, and live a decent life but none of that makes any difference because most people don't want to interact with, let alone befriend, someone who seems a little "off." It makes them uncomfortable, so they keep their distance. He's been rebuffed so many times he's wary of even trying anymore. The only times you really see autistic people featured on TV is when the networks have an opportunity to put a sweet, relatable face on autism (Eva), or a really bad one (criminals and/or people who are obsessive and lack empathy). And in both instances, it's not really about autism. It's about exploitation and profit. Meanwhile, amid all the corporate virtue signaling, the autistic people who exist in the wide swath between those two extreme ends of "the spectrum" remain invisible. IMO Eva emotionally manipulated Joe and others, not only by playing the autism card, but the damsel card as well. Does anyone really believe that Eva was unaware her sobs could be heard by Joe and Kyle back at camp? Does anyone believe Eva the rocket scientist was ignorant of how a woman's sobs can work upon a man who sees himself as a protector/provider type? IMO, when she revealed her true profession and accomplishments to Joe and Kyle, her laughter had a sinister edge, like she was laughing at them. In that moment my suspicions that Eva went into this game determined to exploit her autism for gain felt validated. As a strategy, it almost worked. I'll give her that. Eva may have rhapsodized about her openness re: her autism, confronting her challenges, etc. But in the final moment, when she learned Kyle had won, she didn't look like someone pleased to have gotten so far in spite of her disability. She looked like someone whose bullet-proof plan had just blown up in her face.

Ja. Isobel has to survive. I can't live without those eyes and cheekbones.

It was, by far, the most feeble and lackluster disposal of a character I have ever seen in series TV. Days of Our Lives gave Joey Tribbiani a better sendoff. And when JJ came out of the door and said, "He's gone. Will's dead," I half expected the BAU team to look at each other and say, "Okay, well ... anyone want to get some coffee?"

Ugh. When did this become the Herschel show? The character is even duller than Glen, with a side of petulance. Dama's looking more and more like the Cryptkeeper. Hope Maggie's the one who gets to kill her because every time I see the old lady cozying up to Herschel I think "Save the Dama for your mama!"

When Eric Delko said, "Can you believe this shit?" It encapsulated everything I feel about this show. Three seasons of Zach Gilford. Is he sleeping with the head of Paramount?

Only great episode of the season. The Firefly doctors were going on a fishing expedition into Ellie's brain. Their willingness to sacrifice the only known immune person suggests desperation. Nothing they said convinced me they were confident that the "cure" would work. It all seemed theoretical. I'm glad Joel didn't lie a second time. But it's an abuse of dramatic happenstance that he finally confesses his past sins to Ellie, then just 12 hours later Abby finds him and beats him to death after 5 years of searching

I've never played a single computer game, so I guess the "everything" of the show is just going over my head.

I was a teenager once and I don't remember being obsessed/attracted to the septuagenarian down the street. But this is the second show now where a teen has an icky relationship with Lisa Emery, so what do I know? Which leads me to this question: were no other actresses available? Couldn't they have done something other than give us Darlene Snell 2.0?

It's a courtesy to viewers who don't have a lot of free time -- you can watch either show and yet feel like you've seen both.

Cityscape, paramilitary organizations, religious zealots, torture porn, perfunctory executions, assorted gratuitous violence, perilous encounters in enclosed spaces ... I thought for sure Maggie and Negan would rescue Ellie and Dina before Jesse showed up. Guess I'll just have to wait for the "greater theme" of the show to reveal itself.

Case in point: Wu brought TONY to the final!

This happens virtually EVERY season. I don't understand why anyone is surprised or pissed. Time and time again, they leave the strongest players in the game despite perfect opportunities to remove them, then they lament about it when two of the players they could have voted off are in the final four. So many morons come on this show calling themselves "superfans." They know everything about Survivor but somehow never manage to learn, despite numerous examples, that you take out the strong players when the game gives you the opportunity. Instead they come up with stupid reasoning like "I want to go up against a real competitor in the end" or "He/she shared things with me that make it difficult for me to vote them off."

I'll disagree and leave it at that.

Jonathan for the win! (I figure that's the only way Ana gets out of this alive.) Can't stand Carson and Jack. Everything about them feels phony and performative. Too bad the blue team was eliminated instead of them. Jonathan doesn't appear autistic. But in fact, lack of empathy for others and having no filter between brain and mouth are two classic hallmarks of some forms of autism.

I'm LGBT and I find it more arrogant than progressive.

This ending wrecked me. It's poetically ironic -- to go out on a season premised upon the idea that Superman loses his heart, when this show had more heart than any superhero series I've ever watched. I don't expect to see a better or more human Superman than Tyler Hoechlin in the years I have left on Earth, and that's just fine by me. I really doubt anyone could do it better. Not a false note in four seasons. This Superman had empathy for all living things, even when they tried to kill him. He saw the tragedy in Doomsday even as he pushed him into the sun, transforming the triumph of vanquishing an adversary into a compassionate act of mercy. Were the writers making a statement when Clark's spirit rose from the bed dressed as Clark rather than Superman? Does it refute David Carradine's observation in Kill Bill Volume II, that unlike Batman and Spider-Man, who have alter egos and costumes, Superman is fundamentally Superman from birth, and his alter ego, Clark Kent, is a mask? I greatly preferred Michael Kudlitz's characterization of Lex Luthor to any other. I can't help thinking how milquetoast Nicholas Hoult will seem by comparison. Did I miss Sam Lane in the Valhalla-like Kent household in the end? Many viewers were critical of Jordan throughout the seasons but I want to on record as saying I really enjoyed the actor, the character and even his hair. I was worried the show would stick with the grown-up versions through the ending so I was happy to see the regular Jordan and Jonathan in the final minutes. Well, that's about all. I'm truly sorry the show is over. I despised Greg Berlanti for the mess he made of the Arrowverse, shamelessly pilfering story lines from Batman, making Olicity a thing, somehow making The Flash so boring that I just stopped watching (having Godfrey/Tom Cavanaugh say "Flash forward" instead of "Fast forward" was funny) ... but he redeemed himself here. This show felt like a comic book.

So that was forty-something minutes of nothing. This show has more expansive sets and fewer annoying characters but in the end it's still The Walking Dead: Book of Ellie.

The Walking Dead is strong with this one.

Tonight on Unsolved Mysteries ... The year is 1923. The burnt frame of an abandoned automobile is discovered in the snow-swept Montana badlands ... inside, a woman's charred remains ... her husband's body lies frozen solid in a snowdrift only meters away. Was this a homicide gone wrong? Did the killer make a murderous miscalculation in trying to escape on foot, only to be cut down by the unforgiving Montana cold? Or is there a more sinister twist to this story? Tonight, we'll examine all the evidence, including an expert who believes the car's occupants were actually the unwitting victims of an extremely annoying and entitled British woman involved in a string of improbable mishaps ranging from Africa to England and all the way to the American west. Join me, won't you, as we explore "Who Killed Hillary and Paul?" Maybe you can help solve a mystery ... Seriously, though, about Alexahhhndra's death ... This show could have been so much more. Instead, they took a story that could easily have been told in two two-hour segments and spaghettified it into two seasons. With torture porn. Excepting Alex, you know what irritates me most? The reluctant trade Spencer made on the train. His lion's tooth for the knife. In any well-written series, that knife would have saved Spencer's life in the end, like after his gun ran out of bullets or whatever ... fate placed that knife on his person for a reason. It was Chekhov's knife! But no, we can't have nice things. I sorely wanted Harris Ford to take a muffin off the table and start eating it while Spencer was filling Whitfield's belly with lead. And then once Whitfield died, Harrison Ford would look at Spencer and say, "You should try one of these. They're really good."

Now that you mention it, lol.

David to Joe:

I just watched the trailer. Must say, this seems pretty dreadful. Corenswet sounds like an amateur actor and looks like Superman cosplay. Rachel Brosnahan, who was so bright and colorful in The Marvelous Adventures of Mrs. Maisel, seems washed out and frumpy, like a cheap knockoff of Margot Kidder (whom I thought was a bad choice to begin with). And way, way too many other characters. As for Lex Luthor, Nicholas Hoult doesn't seem menacing in the least. And Krypto reeks of CGI. I doubt the movie will flop. The public's loyalty to the character will probably get it across the finish line. But I felt none of that "screw July, I wanna see this NOW!" emotion I got from the Matt Reeves Batman trailer in advance of that movie. The hype over James Gunn has left a bad taste, too. He seems like an egomaniac and all the promotion up till now feels like the movie is more about him than the last son of Krypton.