sjohnson

The police captain was urinating on his own wall? Well, that does explain why Howard is so proactively defensive. Did not like the staging of the chase scene.

More Susanna Thompson.

The sex dream was quite funny.

Pretty sure the Frosts can do one person at a time, and it seems to be only at close range too. Any situation where there are more than three people, or people with guns out of their range, or anyplace with robot weapons and tear gas ducts, and so forth, would be just as likely to get one or more of them killed. None seem to be very brave either. So I've never thought the Frosts were all powerful. The kidnap should have worked. Who knew Campbell was a fan of Martin Sheen, and just loved The Dead Zone? Don't know the comics, but the mutant supremacists don't dilute the genes. The only reason I can see that Reed hasn't used that to dis-infatuate Andy is he's in denial about it too. Being bullied is a manhood issue, and a girlfriend would work wonders on Andy's attitude. Victims of bullying are targeted for bad reasons, but reasons there are nonetheless. At this point, I take it we are to think the real Andy is just a coward inviting abuse for the epic fail of his personality. And his powers have brought out the inner corruption. The worm turns but it's still a worm.

Doubling down on "How is Kevin one of the Righeous?" Kevin seems to have been a salesman for a corrupt investment fund, not an investment banker. Unless he's been both, at different times? Don't know why Tyler would have to go to a Canadian fishing boat to be anointed as a Righteous. As I've gotten older I'm pretty sure there's no redemption to be purchased with good works.

It is unclear what endgame the Brotherhood of Mutants/Hellfire Club is offering. It might be some sort of sanctuary city/reservation the Brotherhood forces the government to accept, if only de facto, by more or less mutual assured destruction. Or it may be billionaire safe houses for a self-funding mutant mafia, which seems to be Hellfire Club's idea of a happy ending. The get along gang's hope of hunkering down till the masses come to their senses suffers from the problem that their real enemy is the government. It is perfectly unclear why they don't get the government on their side by offering their services. That's their politics, status quo, after all. It's not to be expected that Andy would get it, but why doesn't everyone else realize his manhood issues would magically disappear if he started dating? At any rate, his powers are ideal for ripping off heads and limbs, so when he only shoves people, its visual proof Andy is a lot more conflicted about the violence issue than the dialogue says. (Or it would be proof if we could be sure the writers on this show knew what they were doing. Alas, it could be the directors being allowed to think they are creatives?) Most of all, I'm pretty sure that Andy doesn't know he only has six great-grandparent. At this point, I'm not quite sure Reed allowed himself to pick up on that. John should have heard it all at Otto Strucker's but he's discreet, I think. Summing it up, I think we can say that separating the sibs means the show won't have to try to come up with good CGI for the Fenris effect. Mission accomplished! Mumbling dialogue about how this isn't a manic phase doesn't mean treating bipolar disorder with a fugitive life style restores all moral responsibility. The show may want to resurrect notions about free will without openly deriding the idea that mental illness is not justification for not punishing someone with the full rigor of the law. Doesn't work for me at all, comes across as arbitrary dramatically, there solely to stand us for a certain view of crime and punishment. PS Coby Bell is in an ideal position to be written off the show. It may be for contract negotiations, or they may be making a final decision on whether to switch his salary to Skyler Samuels.

Still having trouble with the retcons. James is not the apocalyptic Boy but just another dreamer? It is not at all clear yet as to how child dreamers are useful, given that the only dreamer who seems to be using his dreaming powers for gain is Woody. And Sabine is all bent out of shape because Kumiko was somehow manipulating Taka by being catatonic? But Sabine gaslighted Tess for years about how Tess didn't have a baby? The drill and the drain cleaner bits were properly horrifying, but a very, very different kind of dreaminess from first season. I found the first season much more stylish, so far at least. Burton's new military background is very inappropriate to his previous fixer character I thought. Entering the dream world is falling *into* water, not falling water. Shouldn't they rename the show. So far, losing Burton's obsession with the Woman in Red, Taka's drive to waken his mother, Tess' search for the Boy has taken away the character motivations and they've just been replaced with a Big Bad they're all going to fight because.

By the way, at least one of those falls we saw Jason Ritter fall all the way down, face to camera. No landing on a mat. Added a lot visually I think. Not many actors and directors do that, as far as I have noticed.

Kevin's vanity about being the cool teacher and his resentment of the Pelk (sp?) was notably not righteous. Happily Adam's insistence on stopping the prank at least led it to being inflicted on someone who deserved it. Did Amy really not notice he went on a date with that security guard?

Real students would sniff out that Kevin was odd very quickly. Some would target him and the rest would sit, watching or doing their own thing. But this version is more palatable than realism.

You can definitely tell these are new showrunners. I believe they've retconned elements they didn't like. My first impression is that "Shadowman" is just a evildoer doing evil for the sake of doing evil, which is kind of boring. Also, that Burton would have been much more interested in finding the Woman in Red than in taking down the Firm. Or that Bill Boerg's outfit would be the first target. Or that H. Robert's White Sand would be useful in taking either down. Or for that matter that the actual policeman, as opposed to the "security" fixer would take point in law enforcement. Also, the insider trading the Firm did relied on dream info from Woody, which doesn't leave a trail to follow. Burton's magic box to open the safe wasn't believable, nor did I really believe he found the magic button when the FBI couldn't, and these events are especially odd, given that Burton could have discovered both in dreams. In the fictional universe, Burton has dream powers, not using them, instead relying on imaginary tech and good luck comes across as more foolishness. Or like the new showrunners want to avoid the freaky dream sequences they apparently thought tuned out viewers. Don't know why they'd worry about it though, because a Saturday ten o'clock show is there because it's canceled already. So maybe not? None of Burton is really working out this episode, not even the work out sequence. Taka and Burton are workout buddies? Really? I might believe that if they were working out the rules of the dream world (which is no longer "Topeka" apparently.") These things Burton are all little things, but at the moment it's all little bad things. All for sisterly love, but as of now we have to think Sabine (and the now non-existent mother) gaslighted Tess for eight years about the birth of her son. No, I don't think you get over that in six months. I thought "James" (I could have sworn the name he chose was "Michael" my bad apparently) might have been Tess' dream child. That would explain how the dead rocker knew what he looked like years before he was born. It is unclear why Tess is in "witness protection," because the only violence from the Firm was a suicide. The massacre of the cult members, the retaliatory assassinations of the perpetrators, the murder of the white Anne Marie Bowen, nope, none of it the Firm. Woody's dream sex with his boss' wife was nasty, but it's hard to see how witness protection would consider this kind of thing a problem. Or how witness protection would even help. But then, when the witness is meeting up with family members it's not really a witness protection program. It is not clear the Boy still has reality altering powers. But it does seem clear if he does, the plot will not let him use them, because it would short circuit any physical jeopardy. The Boy undid several realities in the climax of last season, so it's hard to remember who was where at the end. In one version the cult and Bill Boerg basically slaughtered each other. In another H. Robert was I think killed. I'll have to re-watch. Henry Bromell of course died before the first episode was produced, but it appears the main creative following up on Bromell's work was Blake Masters. He's gone. It appears that Remi Aubuchon, David Weddle and Bradley Thompson, more orthodox scifi people, have taken over. They are not deep thinkers, and their creative record is mixed. Falling Skies inevitably crashed and burned because Aubchon couldn't figure out that space war is stupid. BattleStar Galactica were never anything more than a hysterical 9/11 spasm in love with itself. If there's anything that needs deep thinking it's a character who can rewrite reality, as witness the failures in Legion. If I was to venture a guess these guys are going to make all their decisions based on money, getting rid of expensive dream sequences as much as possible, ditching old characters to save on paying actors, keeping it all simple physical jeopardy over the MacGuffin (or "James" as the series calls him.,) selling Burton as the poor man's Idris Elba, etc. But I hope I'm wrong. I have a tendency towards pessimism, so I'll be watching. PS Somewhere I saw a comment that they are making another season because Amazon picked up the first one. Having a complete cult product in the inventory for a streaming service seems to make a kind of sense, but making a continuation that doesn't want to continue doesn't. So maybe the new guys are just having trouble with the new budget?

The boy, Michael, had rewritten reality so that he was with his mother Tess. Burton was a captive of the Green Sneaker cult, who have brainwashed his dream lover, the Woman in Red, who was a journalist investigating the cult, taken prisoner when she knew too much. Taka found Sabine, Tess' sister, wakened from her prison sleep, but we are given to understand that Kumiko, his mother (leader of the cult in Topeka, aka the dream world,) has done things to Sabine's mind. She remembers nothing. Presumably Kumiko has hopes of regaining Taka's obedience. Woody was still playing the middle between the cult, Aeskyton (Tess' mother's psychobabble version of the cult,) White Sands (Douglas Hodges' outfit) and Bill Boerg, the evil billionaire with the new dream tech. The cult, Bill and H. Robert of White Sand still want to control the Boy, some more benevolently/less cruelly/maybe not as maniacally as others (?) but I'm afraid I've forgotten if Isla was just a front for Bill Boerg or some other player. The Boy is like David Haller of Legion, except with a reason for being kind of passive.

Unless you believe in original sin, pretty sure the baby's righteous..so far. Your point of course is entirely correct. It's the show that seems to think it's meaningful to talk about the righteousness of the baby. Being "annointed" by Kevin gives it a proactive guardian angel, so I'm pretty sure its going to be a special kid.

It was Amy's house, and it was the army who dragged her away so she didn't touch it first. The meteors are Yvette's plan, not God's, so I'm not sure it can take into account a helicopter showing up in the middle of the night. And it's Amy who's been amazingly righteous for taking care of Kevin, which is why I tend to favor Amy over Reese in a "Yvette got it wrong" scenario. Reese is a pretty decent kid, but how much testing for righteousness has she had? But I admit though I personally split the odds 55/45 for Amy, splitting it 55/45 for Reese is defensible.

The whereabouts of Simon are confusing as of now because they plan to develop this thread I think. And yes, I agree 001 transferred into Perrow to escape the Director. 001 gave the Director Ingram so that Ingram could walk back the revelations, believing the Director would let him go (for now, but 001 has other plans for the future.) If 001 really believed the Director would accept that 001 actually committed suicide to save the temporal anomaly Taylor, and that it was straightforwardly a matter of his cunning fooling the Director, I think he's kidding himself. When the author of the expose, the people who "confessed" under duress and the people who were kidnapped all agree it was a hoax, most will disbelieve. Especially those who think time travel is malarkey. (Curiously at this moment, it is a theoretical possibility in general relativity, the last time I looked, although it would be unimaginably difficult even in principle, and look nothing like "time travel" in the movies/TV.) Intelligence agencies will still have mounds of circumstantial evidence, but the sad fact is that many, maybe most, people will deny circumstantial evidence, even though it tends to be more reliable than eyewitness testimony! Think Ray will keep quiet for tips, think David will calm down and realize he loves the traveler and always has, think Jeffrey will realize that proclaiming the truth of travelers means he personally confesses to wife beating that had originally led to wife murder which will not help him keep his son...the real issue is Kat. But 3468 is what still survives of Grant MacLaren? But the upshot I think is that there is no real reason to think the program is definitively exposed. Possibly two or three episodes will be devoted to walking back the reveal, but... Any scenario which changes the future so that there is no Director is a paradox. Most time travel shows assume these are somehow possible. But if there is no Director there are no travelers to change the future so there is no need for a Director. Thus, we can see these developments as allowed precisely because they are constructing an alternate future in which there is a Director, avoiding that paradox. It is entirely unclear precisely where Our Heroes grew up in this scenario. The obvious solution is that the consciousness of each was created by the Director from its calculation of alternate timelines, that they will all be revealed in the end to be heroic fictions. This would be very meta, to say the least. Most people hate meta, I think. Whether or not it goes that far, a partial reveal may be incorporated into the Grand Plan. I think. This is especially true given the original Marcy's involvement with 001, which strongly suggests that's why she was chosen and why it was so essential to save her (which was not a given for the Director, even if it was for the team.)

I'm shocked. But despite its imperfections, it's at least watchable, so I'm good with it.

Pretty sure it was the Universe/God who sent the big box of throwaway, and cinderblocked the key to it. The theme of the night was re-committing to old relationships: Charley to his ex, Amy to Nate, Kevin to Kristin. Whether Yvette has really found her righteous has been an open question from the beginning, as far as I'm concerned. And I tend to think it was always an error to pick Kevin, it was supposed to be Amy I think. I do not think Yvette wrote to Tyler. I think some other person has written, whether by mistake or in hopes of taking advantage somehow of somehow so flagrantly desperate. I cannot think of anything that Yvette could write that would not lead to Tyler strapping on snowshoes...which I think of because snowy could =Canada. Pretty sure the show will be canceled, very much hoping the showrunners give it a tolerable finale, no cliffhanger. They do love their cliffhangers.

The Mutant Underground has no end game. They just are going to hang out indefinitely. This is not drama. Action, action, action as the script saves them from the Sentinels, yes, but not drama. This is really undermining the Polaris character for me, because she should be making real choices about the pregnancy. Hollywood is too conservative to seriously allow the character the choice of abortion, but the idea that two mutants would of course be able to produce a healthy child is nonsense, especially if you grant the mutant premise. One body that produces magnetic fields has to be very different from a body that produces lasers. It's not quite dogs marrying cats, but the assumption that the child of course would be viable long term really relies on mutation being FX, rather than an attribute of the body. The Struckers haven't decided what to do, so they at least have a meaningful choices to make, starting with, does a mutant listen to human (parents)? So for me they've always been more interesting. The can of blood sharing looks stupid to me. The idea that sharing blood somehow means sharing powers strikes me as evidence the only science Hollywood writers know is homeopathy, which is not a science at all. As for this episode, the problem is that the Frosts don't even have a middle game. There isn't a glimmer of an idea as to how they will "stop" the superHound program, any more than there was about how they could stop the Hound program. Tear down one lab? The government builds more, secretly. Kill one scientist? The government hires an army to take up where Garrett Dillahunt left off. You don't stop a war by blowing up one base, or by killing one commander. To me, the fundamental silliness means that the cuckoos are just a waste, even though their shtick is momentarily amusing. It dawns on me one of their major problems, aside from their apparent desire for incest subtext which requires leaving the siblings kind of undefined, is that Percy White is actually age appropriate for the role. Which means that there are limitations on how long he can be on set/at work. So they minimize the role, for the sake of keeping production costs lower.

When the episode was over, I realized that I'd been waiting for Fitz. As usual, this show manages to disappoint. First, this dude who shows up is the one who for me epitomizes so much of what's wrong with this show, it's appalling he's deliberately paired with Fitz, who is---or was---the heart of goodness, insofar as this show could tolerate it. Hunter's mild satisfaction at Rusty's death is simultaneously appalling and a perfect example of what almost all the characters on this show are. The indifference of an audience to the bloodless, instantaneous deaths of nameless bystanders is one thing. But Hunter was supposed to know Rusty. Even for the low empathy viewer, this is too much, I think. One effect of this bloody mindedness for me is, it makes it hard to appreciate would be zaniness like "Release the ferrets!" The mood swings are painful. Second I think, one of the reasons Agents of Hydra worked, unlike most of the show, was that the casual murderousness of the larger part of the leads, was very much an "ends justify the means" ethos. So SHIELD=HYDRA carried an immediate conviction that lent gravity to all the proceedings. Fitz' love for his father, and the subsequent loyalty to his teachings, and his love for Aida, and his steadfast determination to serve those he loves, noble aspects of his character were precisely the virtues that turned him into the Doctor. Most of the characters do what they know to be wrong, starting with the whole covert ops criminality, because, well, you do what you have to do. There's our side, our friends, and that's all there is to it. But when a Ward or Leopold FItz of the Framework have a different set of friends, and they do the same, except by what they've been taught they're not even doing the wrong thing, they are EEEEEEVIL. The same devotion that led Fitz to hold a gun to Enoch's head was exactly the same devotion that led Leopold Fitz to kill the Patriot, except for the minor detail of being to different people. (Sorry, no, occasional consequence free angst a la Simmons is just a suffering hero/martyrdom moment.) Third, I think that when the show insists on having Hunter approve this pointless meanness, the show is recommitting to "the ends justify the means," while ignoring the question of how you choose the means. As for this story line, clearly the implication is that the Seer is trying to save her life by changing the future, which implies that Daisy is the destroyer of worlds. And this further implies the complete indifference of all the rest to the destruction of the world and the annihilation of the vast majority of humanity, because Daisy is their personal friend, is depravity of an astounding order. Unfortunately, it is altogether too typical of this show. Dramatically speaking, the Daisy problem should be front and center for all decent human beings, but the show is going out of its way to paint the only character who seems to have noticed as shady (but still in the end committed to the Right People.) Incidentally, Iain de Castecker, being a decent actor playing a lower caste male allowed his character to show signs of need. I think that's why Fitz' embrace of Hunter showed so much more emotion than most other relationships. For better or for worse, loving someone means needing them. But, if your character is too cool to need people, this cools the relationship too. Real emotion is so rare on this show, one wouldn't have been surprised if Fitz/Hunter had continued with a passionate kiss. It accidentally gave the Star Wars quotes dramatic irony.

Oh there's no doubt that Ken's control fetish would have led to bad things. But I do have to protest that leaving just one light on really cuts down on that god-awful fluorescent glare. Unless you guys really like blinding white in every direction you look? Even more to the point, Ken hadn't had time to remodel.

PRIDE is for human sacrifice, but doesn't believe in divorce? Tina and Leslie congratulating each other on running PRIDE officially confirms the obvious. Molly thought she would live with Dale, Stacey and Gert after they went to prison for murder. Aww, how sweeeet! Counter-programming against Christmas reruns is a Godsend for this show.

^^^Have never been able to tolerate this show for long stretches, so tend to remember things, like SHIELD=HYDRA. Yet these people are running around like that never happened. These character believe a license to kill is not just a James Bond movie catchphrase but a moral code. SHIELD was a covert ops agency. Covert ops do not defend a country. Covert ops do not save people. Covert ops are crimes, committed at the behest of ruthless men in a cause that can't bear the light of day. Captain American taking down SHIELD (read, CIA) in Winter Soldier was a cheer the hero delight. This series walking it all back is woobification on steroids. As for Daisy destroying the Earth, maybe that's a parallel Earth, maybe it's not...and the multiverse theory says there would be an infinite number of Daisies who also destroy the Earth in an infinite number of timelines, so, no, the multiverse theory doesn't mean this Daisy sn't a Destroyer of Worlds. So, yes, Coulson has to know that Deke not killing the Destroyer of Worlds the moment her back is turned means he's exercising restraint. It also means he knows Deke has a hell of a good reason to distrust Daisy charging around like a maniac. And Coulson also knows Deke is more than an simple crook or he would have sold them all, rather than risk getting caught shielding them. Coulson locks up Deke (despite not knowing this world and having no other native guide to trust) so he can make a wisecrack, proving he's not just an unwiped asshole, but a smarmy unwiped asshole. Plot armor will no doubt save him from his folly, but it's still folly, and petty to boot. Coulson didn't turn a hair about Sky destroying the Earth because he doesn't really give a shit, so long as he looks cool and cracks wise. Your example of Coulson endorsing the murder of the guard isn't the show condemning Coulson. The show admires Yo-Yo for her toughness. And Simmons' reluctance is dramatic irony, which is why they have another guy savage Simmons so badly that Simmons snaps, even at the cost of some really awkward forced dialogue, that he's just as human. The show's forgiveness for Simmons was forgiveness for Yo-Yo too. As to the stuff about justifying slavery, the show doesn't justify slavery. Nor for that matter does Deke justify slavery. He thought turning Sky over was a bad thing in itself. That's why he toook the risk of openly telling Sky he was playing the long game. (Fortunately in convenient scripting the bad guys never notice coded language.) Deke didn't want to tell these people he used her. I don't blame him for that. Coulson et al. have made it perfectly clear they will risk anybody and everything, confident in their ability to kill anyone who stands in the way. I don't like Deke, but it's hard to see how anybody raised in this hellhole could get away undamaged. Speaking of damaged, Ward was the only one of the characters who had the kind of tortures and mental illness that could serve as an exculpation. The rest of these people are the way they are because they enjoy it. If your main takeway is that I don't like the show very much, that is correct. I have found whole months of it intolerable, and it's rapidly heading back there.

I bought the first season in dvd, and I bought the second season on Amazon. Don't think I can do much more.

B.D. Wong (and Garrett Wang way back when) don't play chop-socky Asians. Have to admit I'm drawing a blank otherwise. Structurally the show is 1/2 Young Mutants in Love on the Run. Like most casts it tops out at about five. Of them, John Proudfoot aka Thunderbird is supposed to be POC, Clarice aka Blink is supposed to be POC, Marcos is Latino, which may or may not be regarded as POC, depending on your insistence for precision melanin counts or DNA. Sonya aka Dreamer was white, as was Lorna aka Polaris. Sixty percent POC, and sixty percent female. And the antivillain Jace Turner is POC. The mustache twirling villain is white Garrett Dillahunt. In the supporting cast of this show, white woman Sage is balanced by POC Shatter. Now with Dreamer gone, the new vile villain is Esme, is is as white as it gets. This half of the show is casting villains as whites. The African American woman isn't left out though, she' Mrs. Turner. All in all, this half of the show I can't see perfection on the representation issue, but they do seem to be trying. The other half is the Struckers Family drama. It seems to be flirting with condemning them for being privileged because they're white. But only flirting. If they were really going that direction, Reed would actually be able to get a possible deal for Lauren at least, if not Andy.

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