S01.E02: Silence

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

When adjusting to life back at home doesn't go as planned, Nicky turns to Henry for help in her hunt for Zhilan; Jin looks forward to life getting back to normal.

Promo:

Original air date: 4/14/21

[AnimeMania]

At first I thought that fancy party last episode was the wedding, but I think they said it was the party to announce the date of the wedding.

How did the homeless girl plan to pay for the gun?

I hope Nicky remembers to remove that unregistered, probably involved in many crimes gun from her handbag. Especially it she plans on beating down 25 strangers a day on the regular.

I am guessing the family's money troubles are resolved.

[memememe76]

The family dynamic is great. Love the cake tasting scene. The father is touching and the mom was less over the top. 
Nicky trying to help Rhonda was less engaging but whatever. How much money did that scummy guy actually steal to partake in that really fancy casino? Only needing a thousand dollars to partake seems way too low, given its surroundings.

The mystery I am most interested in is who Althea was speaking to on the phone. Another suitor? 

[RachelKM]

OMG... So not San Francisco. There are no elevated trains in the city.  I have to let go of this.  But it is such a very distinct city and it is very small geographically.  So there are no parts of it that are unfamiliar to anyone who live in or around it. 

It's still not a great.  But i'm enjoying the family dynamics. 

[Camera One]

The characters were still likeable and the tone was still fun, but they really need to put more care into writing coherent and realistic plotlines.

I thought the girl's mother boyfriend was the man she was arguing with, so I was a bit confused at first meeting the mom's actual boyfriend.  As mentioned above, how was the girl planning to pay for the gun?  The guy withdrew all the money in cash and went directly to the casino?  Is that how Nicky got "all" of the money back?  The sister said, "You were pre-law, surely you learned something."  So what exactly did she learn?  How a restraining order worked?    Shouldn't the girl's mother have contacted the bank immediately?  Was the unlisted number calling Nicky from the police officer?  I liked Nicky helping the girl and her mom, but there seemed to be too many holes in the storyline.  The scene at the casino was fun, but so ridiculous.  If she were to do something like that, at least have the team around to help her out behind the scenes.

I liked the flashbacks to the monastery and the actress who plays Nicky's mentor, and it was good they were showing Nicky dealing with her PTSD, but the dialogue was too unnatural and tried too hard to be philosophical.  After "moving forward without fear", she was now feeling her "grief as joy"?  Huh?  

Nicky is mostly easy to root for, but they need to find a way to avoid making it look like she's just using people for help, especially Evan and Henry.  

I've been to San Francisco a number of times, and I laughed when there was a shot of Vancouver's Skytrain in that scene.  Since I live in Vancouver, it's harder to immerse myself into the show when I recognize the places.  

Althea saying that a lot happened in the last three years was interesting, plus her mysterious phone call.  There is still a lot of potential with the characters, and I think the actors playing family members have chemistry with one another.  I just wish the writing was better.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Camera One

[RachelKM]

2 hours ago, Camera One said:

The sister said, "You were pre-law, surely you learned something."  So what exactly did she learn?  How a restraining order worked? 

That line nearly broke my brain. "Pre-law" isn't really a thing the way pre-med is. My undergrad degree was in Film and Theater. Some people do criminal justice or communications.  But it isn't like undergrad prepares you for being a lawyer or teaches you how to navigate the legal system. Hell, law school barely does that. But any idiot who has watched a police procedural should know about restraining orders.  Good on her for knowing that a power of attorney can be revoked at any time. But yeah, they should have called the bank immediately to put a flag on the account and notify them of the withdrawal of POA. But any bank teller would know that. It isn't a law school, much less "pre-law" thing.

2 hours ago, Camera One said:

I've been to San Francisco a number of times, and I laughed when there was a shot of Vancouver's Skytrain in that scene.  Since I live in Vancouver, it's harder to immerse myself into the show when I recognize the places.  

I figured they were likely filming in Canada.  The streets are wider than any Bay Area city and most of these shows are filmed in similar locations. The family home looks like it could be in the North Bay. But they would have to be ridiculously wealthy to have a home like that in Marin. It's fun to know where in Canada. So, thanks. 

And as I said, there are no elevated trains in San Francisco. Bart is elevated in some parts of the East Bay, but not in the City.  It would have been nice if they said Evan lived in Oakland since the place he was running at least resembles Lake Merritt and would actually make more sense for a young attorney, even one who came from money. Speaking of Evan, I hope they confirm he was already in law school when Nicki left since he seems well settled in his profession and law school itself is three years. Again... more things I have to let go of. 

I'm seriously going to have turn off my brain to watch this. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I have no formal training in conflict resolution but I'm pretty sure that telling an abusive boyfriend that you're temporarily kicking him out of his appointment and revoking his power of attorney means that the odds of him doing something petty and spiteful like immediately cleaning out your bank account are pretty high.

Also a terrible decision: showing up to the private card game alone and just demanding the money back. No one there cares if the money is stolen or that he's a scumbag. Did she really think if she did that, he would just apologize and hand over the money? I thought maybe the guy running the game would offer her a job after seeing her kick three of his security guards' asses and that would be the point of that scene, but no.

Based on those two instances, Nicky's fatal flaw seems to be that she sees things as black or white, right or wrong, and she believes that simply pointing out that someone is doing wrong will be enough to make things right. Unfortunately, we live in a world full of liars, manipulators, and people without morals so that M.O. is not going to work on the criminal element.

I did not understand how she thought Evan's SFPD friend was going to track down Ronda since there was no ID in the wallet she found. Is there some special police program I don't know about that can locate random girls without a name, a photo, fingerprints, or any other identifying information?

Another dumb plot point was Althea telling Nicky to use her pre-law education to help Ronda. You can major in ANYTHING and apply to law school. The most common pre-law type courses that people tend to take as undergrads are poli sci/government and none of those classes would help you come up with a plan to deal with a POS like Derek. I got my law degree from the University of Law & Order Reruns and even I knew that Ronda's mom needed to revoke his power of attorney immediately. Nicky shouldn't have tipped her hand and let him know that was coming though.

More nitpicking: the cake tasting. Normally you contact a bakery or caterer and schedule a tasting at their shop. They do not give you four full cakes to take home with you. They give you small pieces of cake to taste on site. Obviously Althea is up to something shady after that phone call at the dress shop. I'm guessing it has to do with something work related? I did love that instead of remotely hacking Derek's laptop, she used her basic knowledge of how stupid/lazy people are when it comes to choosing their passwords.

The timeline was weird too. Nicky and her dad were supposed to play at 8pm. She showed up at home after he'd fallen asleep on the sofa so it was clearly past 8pm. Next she went to Derek's apartment and chased him off. Then she called Althea who was shown walking down the street with armfuls of shopping bags. Even in pre-COVID times, most stores in downtown SF (the mall, shops around Union Square, etc) close by 8pm, so did she just go shopping and then spend an hour walking around downtown with all her shopping bags?

Despite all of my nitpicks, I like the relationships between the characters. It was sweet to see how excited her dad was to unearth the board. Her mom seems angry at Nicky, but I think she's also being protective of her husband because she doesn't want to see him get hurt again.

I am still finding a bit odd that everyone keeps talking about how Nicky abandoned them. People move away after college all the time and she was only gone for three years so I guess what they are really mad about is that she left unexpectedly? Her parents and siblings seemed to take it really personally that she left (or more accurately didn't come back from her trip to China). My sister unexpectedly got offered a job out of town and she took it and no one in my family saw it as her abandoning us, so I've been quietly scratching my head at Nicky's family being so mad that she stayed in China instead of coming home.

6 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

At first I thought that fancy party last episode was the wedding, but I think they said it was the party to announce the date of the wedding.

Yes, last week was a party where the fortune tellers chose an auspicious date for the wedding.

Edited April 15, 2021 by ElectricBoogaloo

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

7 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

At first I thought that fancy party last episode was the wedding, but I think they said it was the party to announce the date of the wedding.

Yes, last week was a party where the fortune tellers chose an auspicious date for the wedding.

That sounds problematic, how much lead time do the fortune tellers give you or do they just pick the date that you tell them you the wedding venue booked for? 

[Lady Calypso]

I find myself needing to suspend disbelief at some of the solutions to the plots this episode. I definitely agree that Nicky going to threaten the boyfriend Derek was going to end in disaster. Just telling a bad guy to leave isn't going to cut it. Also, Nicky going to the private card club and just beating up some guys shouldn't be enough to get the host to say "yeah, here ya go!" If these people are here secretly, then most of them ARE probably scumbags and happy to do illegal stuff, so one woman coming in to take down three guys and then demanding money back wouldn't be enough. At the very least, the host would have asked her more questions. 

I also thought the cake testing would be at a bakery, not at home. I get it was for the purposes of Rhonda being around, but still. 

Althea is up to some shady stuff, and I'm sure that'll impact her wedding somehow. It probably is work related, and I do respect that they allowed a character like her to have a more unconventional job for her character type. Cybersecurity may not be an uncommon job on television, but it is for a character like Althea.

The scenes with Nicky and her father were so, so good. I also liked getting more of an insight into Nicky and her mother. Their relationship is still fractured and I bet this whole season will be building to them mending it somehow.

Not a total surprise that Nicky's mentor and her killer were sisters. I figured a twist like that would come eventually, so I'm glad they got that reveal out of the way early.

7 hours ago, Camera One said:

Nikki is mostly easy to root for, but they need to find a way to avoid making it look like she's just using people for help, especially Evan and Henry.  

Unfortunately, that's the feeling I'm already getting from her. She may genuinely care about people, especially Evan and Henry, but all she's been doing with them since coming back is asking them for help. Every scene she's in with both men, she's asking them to help her with her problems. 

[Camera One]

15 hours ago, RachelKM said:

And as I said, there are no elevated trains in San Francisco.

That's why it stuck out to me too.  Since they specifically said that was a homeless shelter in the Tenderloin.   That's sloppy work from the location scout.  They actually used that exact location in "Once Upon a Time" to represent Seattle.  

12 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I have no formal training in conflict resolution but I'm pretty sure that telling an abusive boyfriend that you're temporarily kicking him out of his appointment and revoking his power of attorney means that the odds of him doing something petty and spiteful like immediately cleaning out your bank account are pretty high.

Yeah, that approach made no sense.  If she wanted to get the mom to go to the bank and buy time for the restraining order, why didn't she take a stealthier approach?  Why didn't she take the mother to the bank right away after the boyfriend left?  Even if it was evening, she could have helped the mom navigate the call, since her "pre-law" knowledge was valuable, apparently.  Surely, the mom and the girl shouldn't be left alone in case the man came back.  Was there no other solution than kicking him out of his own apartment?  

Quote

More nitpicking: the cake tasting. Normally you contact a bakery or caterer and schedule a tasting at their shop. They do not give you four full cakes to take home with you.

Stuff like this gives me the impression that the Writers are being sloppy, which is not a good thing.  

10 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Unfortunately, that's the feeling I'm already getting from her. She may genuinely care about people, especially Evan and Henry, but all she's been doing with them since coming back is asking them for help. Every scene she's in with both men, she's asking them to help her with her problems. 

Me too, and I'm a bit worried about this because the last thing you need is an unlikeable protagonist.  She stalked Evan all episode to get him alone to make requests.  Then, she seemed annoyed that Henry had other things to do.  She "forgot" to ask her dad to get checked out at the clinic (which was what her brother was concerned about).  Not taking Althea's cake tasting seriously I guess was supposed to be funny but at the same time, Althea seemed hurt that she didn't take it seriously.  I'm assuming she didn't forget about playing the game with her dad, and she was just busy with the girl and her mom, but why didn't she just call and let her dad know she had an emergency?  

12 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I am still finding a bit odd that everyone keeps talking about how Nicky abandoned them. People move away after college all the time and she was only gone for three years so I guess what they are really mad about is that she left unexpectedly? Her parents and siblings seemed to take it really personally that she left (or more accurately didn't come back from her trip to China). My sister unexpectedly got offered a job out of town and she took it and no one in my family saw it as her abandoning us, so I've been quietly scratching my head at Nicky's family being so mad that she stayed in China instead of coming home.

This makes it seem like Nicky never indicated how long she was going to stay in China?  Which seems weird since that would imply a total lack of commitment to her mentor as well.  Did she re-evaluate every six months or something?  It also seems like she didn't bother to call her family members to talk to them.  I get she was mad at her mom, but why would she ignore everybody?  

Edited April 15, 2021 by Camera One

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Lady Calypso said:

I find myself needing to suspend disbelief at some of the solutions to the plots this episode

Heh, maybe this reboot should be titled: “Kung Fu: Demanding 21st Century Suspensions of Disbelief.”

I did appreciate this episode showing a bit of the OG show’s practice of mindfulness/meditation and even the dispensing of a pithy saying. 

[tennisgurl]

As someone currently planning a wedding, Althea stressing about the cake tasting was really fun to me, its quite relatable. "Yeah yeah magic sword, I'll help with your quest after you get your ass to my cake tasting!" It seems like something is going on with her though, possibly with her job? I wondered if it was issues with her fiancé, but she seems to be really excited about the wedding, no seeming second thoughts, so it will probably be a work thing, and as she works in cybersecurity that could end up being plot relevant. 

I know that everything on TV is Vancouver and we just have to go with it, but San Francisco is just a distinct city, its hard to suspend disbelief quite so much. 

This show is still fun and it has a lot of potential, especially now that its setting up its status quo with Nicki and her family and friends helping a random person of the week with the quest for the sword and revenge against the bad guy as a bigger myth arc, but there is a lot of weird first draft feelings towards a lot of the plotting. So Nicki's plan to get the money from the scumbag boyfriend at the card game was just to run in and say its stolen? Why should they believe her, and why should they care? If its a sketchy underground card game, why would they care where the money's from? Storming in to just announce that the boyfriend has got to go is obviously going to lead to him doing something petty and mean, I guess they were lucky he didn't escalate to violence against the mom or daughter. Maybe this is just Nicki figuring out her groove when it comes to helping people, but it all feels like it needed one more edit to really live up to its potential. 

Evan saying how he and Nicki's mom get along now that they aren't engaged was kind of funny, but it would be nice to see Nicki trying to connect with her friends and family for reasons other than needing help. I know we only have so much time in any episode, but a bit of down time would be nice. I think we had it confirmed that Nicki called and told her family she was going to be staying in China, so they didn't think she was dead or something, but I guess her family is annoyed about her basically ghosting them for three years because it was so sudden? Or that she totally cut herself off from them, no calls or emails or anything (which makes sense being in a Shaolin monastery of course), maybe if she can been more in touch it wouldn't have been that big of a deal? Well, for most of her family, her mom would probably be furious no matter what. 

I liked getting more of Nicki's family, I think this gave a bit more context to why her mom is so upset with her. She watched her husband miss Nicki for three years, with no idea what she was doing or how she was, leaving right out of nowhere, and she is not only mad about that but is worried that she will just leave again and hurt him even more. 

So the evil chick who stole the sword and killed Nicki's teacher is also her teachers sister? Oh boy, we are going hard on that Wuxia drama, I like it. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

FYI (this is not addressed to anyone in particular here) - the main character's name is spelled Nicky. I have known several people with that name and they had different ways of spelling it so I googled the show to see which way they are spelling this character's name (otherwise I probably would have ended up spelling it differently every week).

[Starchild]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Heh, maybe this reboot should be titled: “Kung Fu: Demanding 21st Century Suspensions of Disbelief.”

This statement aligns with a realization I had while watching this episode.

I mentioned last week that I preferred the premise of the original, which was the loner going from place to place and taking on bullies of various stripes. While this episode did have an element of that, with Nicky helping a random stranger being bullied by someone stronger, it didn't quite work.

Why? The reason is encapsulated in the scene at the private casino. Even if it's for a noble reason, disrupting a business and beating up guys in public who are just doing their jobs (notice she didn't actually lay a hand on the bad guy in this scene) is not something you can do in a major city in 2021 without facing legal or civil consequences. If this is something she plans on doing on a regular basis, how can she hope to continue to avoid arrests or lawsuits? Hell, the DA ex-boyfriend didn't bat an eye. Really?

In the Old West, where law enforcement was spotty, this could work. The only way this could even slightly work in the 21st century is if the protagonist did their best to remain anonymous and nomadic, so no single police force really knew who they were or where to find them.

Good people doing good deeds are arrested and sued all the time these days.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Starchild

[shapeshifter]

1 hour ago, Starchild said:

This statement aligns with a realization I had while watching this episode.

I mentioned last week that I preferred the premise of the original, which was the loner going from place to place and taking on bullies of various stripes. While this episode did have an element of that, with Nicky helping a random stranger being bullied by someone stronger, it didn't quite work.

Why? The reason is encapsulated in the scene at the private casino. Even if it's for a noble reason, disrupting a business and beating up guys in public who are just doing their jobs (notice she didn't actually lay a hand on the bad guy in this scene) is not something you can do in a major city in 2021 without facing legal or civil consequences. If this is something she plans on doing on a regular basis, how can she hope to continue to avoid arrests or lawsuits? Hell, the DA ex-boyfriend didn't bat an eye. Really?

In the Old West, where law enforcement was spotty, this could work. The only way this could even slightly work in the 21st century is if the protagonist did their best to remain anonymous and nomadic, so no single police force really knew who they were or where to find them.

Good people doing good deeds are arrested and sued all the time these days.

So Nicky should be wearing a disguise.

 

*********************************

 

8 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

More nitpicking: the cake tasting. Normally you contact a bakery or caterer and schedule a tasting at their shop. They do not give you four full cakes to take home with you. They give you small pieces of cake to taste on site.

I recall an episode of The Closer in which Brenda had even more varieties of cakes for sampling --but she was a police chief in LA, so maybe that had something to do with it?

[Starchild]

4 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

So Nicky should be wearing a disguise.

At least.

Look how much trouble John Reese had staying under the radar doing this kind of thing in NYC. And he had help from a billionaire hacker lol.

[thuganomics85]

Not surprised that it looks like; for the initial episodes at least; there is going to be a "case of the week" aspect, where Nicky ends up helping some kind of downtrodden victim of some kind.  And I suspect most of these cases will end with Nicky at least having to kick one person in the face!  It is a common, but fun enough of an idea, but I do hope they tighten up the writing on that aspect of the show, because this episode was all over the place.  Maybe some of it could be chalked to Nicky kind of flying by the seat of her pants here, but she really made some questionable decisions like threatening the abusive boyfriend but not telling the victim to secure her mother's funds first or barging into the casino without any real plan.  Might want to plan things out better next time, Nicky.  Or do what all the other CW heroes do best: get yourself an official squad!

On the other hand, the family dynamics are already working well for me.  Nicky, Althea, and Ryan already have some fun sibling banter and chemistry going for them (the cake tasting scene was the best), and I'm already enjoying Nicky's relationship with her father and how touching it is (definitely helps having a heavy hitter like Tzi Ma in the role.)  Even the mother showed something resembling more than just the atypical overbearing mother.  It's interesting that the new CW shows this season (this, Walker, Superman & Lois) really seem to have shined best with handling family drama and relationships, despite usually being something I have found boring or eye-rolling on past shows.

Althea continues to be my favorite, so I hope that mysterious phone call wasn't anything too bad.  I guess it could be connected to work, but I also wonder if it is a rival suitor of some kind.  But judging from that one exchange with Nicky at the dress store, there is clearly something going on with her.

Both Henry and Evan are nice and inoffensive, but neither one has really moved past being just exposition soundboards for Nicky.  And likely love interests for her (again in Evan's case.)

Really should have seen Zhilan being Pei-Ling/Nicky's sifu sister coming.  That is the type of twist that usually always happens on these types of shows!

Show still is struggling with a few issues, but I'm enjoying it still.

[MissLucas]

Aww, I liked it and think it was a huge improvement over the pilot. Maybe it's nostalgia but I'm willing to do a lot of hand waving (literally, currently practicing a Wushu inspired workout and loosening the wrists is part of the warm-up). 

I'm glad we got dead Shifu back dispensing some philosophy and Nicky trying to practice mindfulness. And I never expected this show to deliver sartorial shout-outs to the original. The satchel last week was great but the addition of the quilted jacket this week took it to another level.

The sibling banter was great. Nicky being annoyed at Althea trying to explain to her who Pippa Middleton is was a highlight. As was the cake tasting even if it was not realistic. I also like that Nicky's still not in the clear with her family - the scene with her mother was especially powerful.

The COW was a bit rocky, at first I thought they were going to a much darker place with the mom's jerk boyfriend. Nicky was lucky things worked out almost magically by the end. There was so much that could have gone wrong with her handling the situation the way she did. And I also wondered if the guy running the poker game was considering to hire her at the end. I mean, she needs a job sooner or later.

I guess the main problem for the writers is finding ways to let Nicky perform her good deeds without getting into trouble with law enforcement and all sorts of legal shenanigans. Tricky considering that said good deeds require her to kick and punch people. That's not easy if you aren't wearing a superhero costume or have a billionaire covering your derriere.

Edited April 16, 2021 by MissLucas

[Stardancer Supreme]

19 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I am guessing the family's money troubles are resolved.

Probably not. The loan shark is out of the picture for the moment. If this was written realistically, the second in command of the Triad would have attempted to collect the debt...  Remember, Althea's fiancee is footing the bill for most of the wedding, and being a hacker versed in cybersecurity probably got Althea in a situation that Nicky would have to clean up later.

13 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

More nitpicking: the cake tasting. Normally you contact a bakery or caterer and schedule a tasting at their shop. They do not give you four full cakes to take home with you. They give you small pieces of cake to taste on site. Obviously Althea is up to something shady after that phone call at the dress shop. I'm guessing it has to do with something work related? I did love that instead of remotely hacking Derek's laptop, she used her basic knowledge of how stupid/lazy people are when it comes to choosing their passwords.

 

Despite all of my nitpicks, I like the relationships between the characters. It was sweet to see how excited her dad was to unearth the board. Her mom seems angry at Nicky, but I think she's also being protective of her husband because she doesn't want to see him get hurt again.

I am still finding a bit odd that everyone keeps talking about how Nicky abandoned them. People move away after college all the time and she was only gone for three years so I guess what they are really mad about is that she left unexpectedly? Her parents and siblings seemed to take it really personally that she left (or more accurately didn't come back from her trip to China). My sister unexpectedly got offered a job out of town and she took it and no one in my family saw it as her abandoning us, so I've been quietly scratching my head at Nicky's family being so mad that she stayed in China instead of coming home.

Yeah, you don't usually get full size cakes to try. Who's going to eat all of that?  Now I want cake. Heh.

I knew the opening sequence was a dream and I'm also glad that Nicky isn't completely off the hook for her 3 year China detour.  Mama was hot because her daughter was supposed to go to China, get a husband, and come right back to finish Harvard law school and get married.  What made her angrier was that Baba was so hurt over his favorite child leaving and not having any way of preparing for his loss.  Ryan, already breaking the favored son covenant by being gay, lost having Nicky as a buffer against their parent's disappointment.  Althea seems to be the only one who wasn't shaken by Nicky's loss in the family dynamic and now will need help fixing whatever she got into.  Nicky appears to be the middle child who Mama pinned all her hopes and dreams on, which is odd considering she had Althea as the first daughter who would normally get that pressure.  I just wouldn't call it "ghosting" because apparently the Shens knew where Nicky was the whole time.

2 hours ago, MissLucas said:

The COW was a bit rocky, at first I thought they were going to a much darker place with the mom's jerk boyfriend. Nicky was lucky things worked out almost magically by the end. There was so much that could have gone wrong with her handling the situation the way she did. And I also wondered if the guy running the poker game was considering to hire her at the end. I mean, she needs a job sooner or later.

I guess the main problem for the writers is finding ways to let Nicky perform her good deeds without getting into trouble with law enforcement and all sorts of legal shenanigans. Tricky considering that said good deeds require her to kick and punch people. That's not easy if you aren't wearing a superhero costume or have a billionaire covering your derriere.

Yeah, the COW was cleared a bit too cleanly for my taste.  I was also wondering how she got around the city with no car.  The job issue could be resolved if she decided to work at the family restaurant or the Community Center.  Staying at home will only go so far.  If they mix COW with the ongoing 8 Guardian Weapons saga every week, it can get old real fast. I would prefer that they focus more on the Shen family, with Althea's wedding, settling debts, and fishing out the other secrets the Shens are holding onto.

Shallow moment: Yvonne Chapman as Zhilan is smoking hot. 

[Sakura12]

I still really like the family dynamics in this show. I'm guessing Althea was more wild when she was younger, which is why she's not the golden child. I'm also guessing her hacking got her in some kind of trouble and that's what the phone call was about. Maybe she was in some kind of hacking group and they are trying to pull her back in. Which just makes me think of the movie Hackers with Angelina Joile and Johnny Lee Miller. 

I figured Zhilan was related to Pei Ling with the difficult family talk she had with Nicky. 

If they want to tell the criminal of the week story to be stuffing so they can drag the sword story, they need to put more effort into them. They are really simple and tie up way too easily. Nicky can't just wander anywhere she wants and beat up people with no consequences. I know it isn't this show, but maybe she should be wearing a mask. At least then I could buy her beating up people in populated areas and not have anyone know who she is. 

I guess I do like that she doesn't seem really interested in Henry as a love interest, she seems to just be using him for her mission. Just like she's using her ex. 

[TV Anonymous]

This was my issue in the first episode, and now is my issue in this episode. How does a San Francisco ADA get access to domestic crime in China? There is no international angle on that event and China is not a country to openly opens its internal matters. He even gets the information of Zhilan movement from Beijing to Singapore?

Related to that, this means that Evan knows Zhilan actual identity. Nicky is an actual eyewitness to the murder, why does she not testify?

[possibilities]

17 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

She may genuinely care about people, especially Evan and Henry, but all she's been doing with them since coming back is asking them for help. Every scene she's in with both men, she's asking them to help her with her problems. 

I don't like it, either. But there are a lot of shows where the male lead has a bunch of people around town who he calls on for help with investigations. Elementary is, I think, the only one where the helpers were also given some kind of payment (often times something humorous of their choosing, but also sometimes something substantial for their well-being).  

[paulvdb]

7 hours ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

I was also wondering how she got around the city with no car.

We didn't see her arrive or leave anywhere on a bike so my guess would be public transport. Unless she only went to places within walking distance. I'm not familiar enough with San Francouver's geography to know if that was the case.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 4/15/2021 at 1:25 AM, RachelKM said:

they would have to be ridiculously wealthy to have a home like that in Marin.

Their house isn't in Marin (although Marin did get a mention this week - Althea said she needed to borrow their mom's minivan to pick up centerpieces in Marin). According to what Nicky said in the first episode about why she and her siblings needed to poke around the Chinatown businesses for info about Tony Kang, their parents live in SF.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

8 hours ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

I was also wondering how she got around the city with no car. 

BART (train), muni (bus), lyft. Lots of people who live in SF don't drive to destinations within the city because it's too hard to find a damn parking space!

[arc]

Boy the A plot was garbage.

I thought using downtown New Westminster was a decent shot at doubling for SF's Tenderloin, minus the elevated train. It's hillier than Vancouver proper. And hell, we as a society let Sam Raimi put an elevated train in Manhattan in Spider-Man 2. The show could also maybe look into shooting in North Vancouver, which is also hilly but has no elevated trains to break suspension of disbelief.

I said this in the previous episode's thread, but I really don't like how much the sifu* speaks in fortune cookie type phrases. Is this an homage to the original show? It plays badly to me, esp after decades of subverting the trope.

* ok, I guess "shifu" is really how it's said in Mandarin, but I'm Cantonese and until now I only knew the Cantonese word.

I'm glad they didn't make the actual go game metaphorical. (Yes, the game as an activity was a metaphor/synecdoche for her absence, but I mean they didn't make the actual moves metaphorical, something shows and movies do a lot with, say, chess.)

"There was a ping on Zhilan" ... the woman who you never gave me a surname for. Man, Evan's good! And then he talked the Chinese embassy into giving birth records on a Chinese citizen who's not officially accused of any crime? My god, he's wasted as an assistant DA.

Vancouver doubling for Singapore is a little silly but I do feel insulted that they slapped the "shithole country" yellow filter on.

[RachelKM]

10 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Their house isn't in Marin (although Marin did get a mention this week - Althea said she needed to borrow their mom's minivan to pick up centerpieces in Marin). According to what Nicky said in the first episode about why she and her siblings needed to poke around the Chinatown businesses for info about Tony Kang, their parents live in SF.

I know they do not. I was remarking on how none of the locations look like the city and that the neighborhood and house do look a bit like Marin. 

10 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

BART (train), muni (bus), lyft. Lots of people who live in SF don't drive to destinations within the city because it's too hard to find a damn parking space!

Yes to this. I had a car when I live there.  But I never touched it unless I was driving out of the city (or moved it for street cleaning). One time I drove to my friend's house in the Castro because muni was down (again, some more) and I spent over 30 minutes driving around a 4 block area before I finally timed it right for someone to be pulling out of a space 3 blocks from his apartment. NEVER AGAIN!!!!!

[MissLucas]

12 hours ago, arc said:

I said this in the previous episode's thread, but I really don't like how much the sifu* speaks in fortune cookie type phrases. Is this an homage to the original show? It plays badly to me, esp after decades of subverting the trope.

Yes, that was pretty much a staple of the show. And after a decade of subverting the trope the pendulum might swing back. It's the Tao of the Trope *shows herself out*

[arc]

Is Nicky going to get a job at any point? Her parents are working hard -- restaurant life is not easy -- and meanwhile she's just running around the city fixing strangers' drama for free.

On 4/15/2021 at 3:48 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Her parents and siblings seemed to take it really personally that she left (or more accurately didn't come back from her trip to China). My sister unexpectedly got offered a job out of town and she took it and no one in my family saw it as her abandoning us, so I've been quietly scratching my head at Nicky's family being so mad that she stayed in China instead of coming home.

It's not like Althea or any of em couldn't have visited her in China!!! Americans fly to China all the time! (pre-pandemic) They treat it like she was on Mars. It's so weird! Esp because Harvard is already on the other side of the country from SF. (yes, still a shorter flight than to Beijing.)

[possibilities]

Joining a monastery is one of the more wholesome things a person can do if they "rebel" against parental expectations. 

[tessaray]

On 4/16/2021 at 4:57 AM, arc said:

 said this in the previous episode's thread, but I really don't like how much the sifu* speaks in fortune cookie type phrases. Is this an homage to the original show? It plays badly to me, esp after decades of subverting the trope.

I don't think the original sank to the level of fortune cookie dialog.  There were a lot of quotes taken from the Tao Te Ching and writings attributed to classic Shaolin teachings.  If anything, it was probably the much mocked style of the master/student flashbacks.  I put a link in the Kung Fu on TV thread if anyone wants to check it out. 

[Trini]

I guess I'll be echoing what everyone else has mentioned: I like all the characters; the family is the best part; they need to work on their "case of the week"; that's not how cake testing works.

Shifu and Zhilan are kind of cardboard cutouts right now; because one is dead, and the other we haven't seen enough of yet. But hopefully that can improve later.

Bonus points for getting that laptop password a basic way, and not the typical TV superhacking.

I know the love triangle is coming, but I'm glad it's not activated yet. I want to get to know Nicky and her family first.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Trini