S01.E02: Power

[The Crazed Spruce]

Quote

Sarah is faced with her first major challenge as a leader when Greylock's power is shut off; Bella pushes boundaries with her dad when it comes to spending time with Tyler and Sarah.

 

[Lady Calypso]

Ok, so I watched it. I think this episode was...slightly better than the pilot, but I don't think this is the show for me. There was still a lot that left me bothered. 

Ok, so they skip ahead two months to bypass the trial stuff. I guess, for a town declaring independence from the United States and becoming its own country, a trial has to be sped up, somewhat. But having the jury declare Sarah not guilty AND the judge decided to...what, allow Greylock to actually separate itself from the US and Canada just like that? I would figure that they would have fought harder and not made it so easy. I get the premise of the show is about the town being its own nation, but still, it seemed TOO easy and too wrapped up. Not to mention the fact that Sarah's mother bailed her out of jail within a day, with a million dollar bail. I know her mother put her house in as collateral, but still. 

The town needing electricity from someone in order to survive could have worked better if they actually focused on it as an actual problem. The town had no electricity or running water or running anything for at least a couple of days and they seemed to make it more of a mild inconvenience by the townsfolk. Sure, Sarah needed to find someone to provide them electricity, but nobody else seemed concerned at all. 

The Governor being portrayed as the Big Bad Villain when Sarah was the one who caused all of these issues in the first place? It's not that I'm rooting for the Governor, but she isn't wrong about wanting to not help out here. Sarah really did screw the entire country over by doing this, all to save a few houses. Great, now you get to run your own country AND still lose a couple of houses as a result! 

Also, convenient solved problem by having one company fund EVERYTHING for the town...until someone inevitably screws that up in the season finale by pissing the company off.

I still really dislike the LA teen brat. We didn't even see her father in this episode, and she decided to take her issues out on Bella instead. By the way, Bella is coming off as an ok teen character. I did enjoy the fact that she was the only one who spoke French in order to translate and I like that she's being defiant toward her asshole of a father, who I guess also tried to overtake the town at some point. I couldn't care less about her getting involved with the other teens, but her working with Sarah and the other townsfolk to help out is working well enough.

So, the saga of Danny and Corrine continue. Sarah insists that Josh is not his son (I'm not convinced in the slightest) and now we see that Danny has a fiancée (hi Emori from The 100!), whose heart is 100% getting broken by the end of the season...or she breaks his heart to make it easier for him to get back together with his other ex fiancée. It could go either way, at this point. 

I totally get why Grover would be upset with losing his house, and I totally get why he's struggling with being around Sarah as a result, but buddy needs to stop screaming at Sarah when she genuinely does feel bad. Yes, she obviously should just give him space and her help is clearly not actually helping, but he's screaming as if she did it on purpose. That being said, at least it's believable drama to keep the two separated for the time being. Him being angry makes sense as to why the two can't just be a couple. It's better than manufactured drama, such as a love triangle.

I'm struggling with whether to continue or not because I'm critiquing the show more than enjoying it. I do like that it's not a modern CW show, which is now just either Superheroes or a Dramedy...but I just don't think this show is really that good.

[possibilities]

I think this show's concept is way too ambitious for the network's general tendencies, and it's glossing over way too much.

The place just declared independence and... what? No constitution or governing anything of any kind? Sarah is just the entire new govt? She makes deals, signs treaties and contracts, negotiates everything, and has to consult no one? No wonder there wasn't much of a fight to stop the secession. They would not be taken seriously by anyone at all. No one would sign a contract with them because they can't be seriously considered a reliable or legitimate entity.

Naming her "Sarah Cooper" and not having her do any lip sync is killing me.

[thuganomics85]

I actually kind of got a kick out of them just blowing through Sarah's trial in two months off screen, because it's like they knew that any actual trial scenes would come off ridiculous on screen, so why bother, right?  Although can a judge really single-handily declare Greylock a sovereign nation like that?  I would think there would be way more to it.

Outside of the former mayor, everyone really did seem strangely chill over the lack of electricity.  I would have figured there would have at least been some kind of town hall or meeting with the townsfolks, outside of the one with Sarah and the rest of the main adult characters.  Hell, I would at least have thought the teens would be more mad over the likely loss of internet access...

I know I should feel more for Grover and losing the house, but I'm really not sure what he wanted Sarah to do instead.

There is so going to be a love triangle between Danny, Corinne (whose totally did give birth to his child), and his fiancee, which sucks since the fiancee is Luisa d'Oliveira and I'm going to hate to watch her lose out on it, unless she's the one that ends things (hey, maybe Richard Harmon can show up as her new love interest!  Murphy/Emori was by far one of the best things about The 100!)

Slight improvement from the pilot, but I'm already suspecting that this is going to be another show that is not going to be able to match its unique concept.  There are a lot of interesting ideas and places they can take this, but I just don't think it's going to happen.

[Diapason Untuned]

14 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

I know I should feel more for Grover and losing the house, but I'm really not sure what he wanted Sarah to do instead.

Even he understood it needed to happen, he was just emotional about it and I can't blame him. If I actually built a house, I'd be attached to it too.

[possibilities]

He should be able to SELL it to them, though, for a bazillion dollars. I understand that the town will take it by eminent domain if he refuses, and that he doesn't want to give it up at all. But why is the town able to take it without market compensation? The company is getting the land and paying the town the bazillion dollars, instead of paying the owner of the land? I don't think that's how it works, but since they've seceded from the USA, there are actually NO LAWS governing what is or is not legal.

[AAEBoiler]

I'm finally getting around to watching this off my dvr but why couldn't they have had the big, bad corporation pay to move the house to a new location? There are ways to pick up a house and move it. It's expensive and time consuming but I wasn't sure why that wasn't an option at all.