S01.E09: Care and Feeding / S01.E10: A Pack of Cards

[iChelleWatch]

I believe Sparks prefer this image of Katie. I remember one episode when he went to see the "offspring", he asked to see her. He was shown the adult version and requested the other one, then he was shown the younger Katie holding a balloon.

I didn't like how John wanted Molly to sidetrack her career for his. Ethan is not their child (no matter how much he wants to believe he is), so asking her to stay for Ethan was more like him asking her to put his career before hers. No wonder she keeps hallucinating about Marcus. John just doesn't seem to "get" her.

I don't know what to think if this show anymore. I think it only has my attention now so I can see how it ends.

[Happytobehere]

Yes, the writing is slow and plodding but at the end of the day, the real problem with the show is that HB lacks the acting skills to propel the show forward in a way that holds the audience's attention. A capable actress could have made this work. I imagine Taraji P. Henson, Gabrielle Union, Khandi Alexander, even Megan Goode in the role and immediately see a better show. Gina Torres would be phenomenal, but she is on Suits, so her casting would likely be impossible.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Gina Torres would be phenomenal, but she is on Suits, so her casting would likely be impossible.

 

I would agree with this -- been a fan of Gina since she played Hel on Cleopatra 2525 (I'll admit it, it was an eye candy show for me).

[shapeshifter]

HB is fine except when she delivers loud, angry lines and she starts to sound like she's from the hood--which would be okay if she didn't sound more upperclass the rest of the time. I think the plot is okay (although a little convoluted), but the dialogue is lacking.

I mean, it's pretty hard to deliver "My baby! My baby! My baby!" and not have it sound overwrought. IDK. It might be direction. She would have to be under the influence of the entity whenever she goes into baby-baby-baby! mode, so maybe she should have been doing more of the sleep walking thing.

Edited September 1, 2014 by shapeshifter

[Happytobehere]

HB is fine except when she delivers loud, angry lines and she starts to sound like she's from the hood

Really, which "hood" would this be? The white neighborhood she was raised in?

[jhlipton]

Yes, the writing is slow and plodding but at the end of the day, the real problem with the show is that HB lacks the acting skills to propel the show forward in a way that holds the audience's attention. A capable actress could have made this work. I imagine Taraji P. Henson, Gabrielle Union, Khandi Alexander, even Megan Goode in the role and immediately see a better show. Gina Torres would be phenomenal, but she is on Suits, so her casting would likely be impossible.

 

It's my belief that Ms Berry is popular with the studios for the same reason as Beyonce -- they are #NotTooBlack.  They are not as "threatening" to a white audience as their darker, more talented counterparts are (or so TPTB seem to think).  It makes me appreciate shows like Sleepy Hollow (with a beautiful, talented, dark woman as the lead) all the more.

[GoRunner]

That was about the worst "Dawson Baby" I’ve ever seen. I know they couldn’t use a real preemie, but at least get one that’s not already attending preschool.

 

Yes! I turned to MrRunner and said, "That is no newborn!"

[JBody]

I guess aside from the issues of using them for entertainment purposes, newborns on teevee never look like newborns IRL because most of them -every single one I've seen, including my own- look downright freaky. It would be more realistic to have a newborn doll or CGI something. Funny on a show about an alien/human hybrid when a newborn is kinda alienish, big dark eyes, all wrinkly & squishy anyway. It is bugging me too, this idea that Molly is the incubator or mere host: half its DNA is hers, she is its mother. Along with the AI, it brings more questions of what it means to be human.

Forgot to mention, even the Walking Dead used a several months old baby with what looked like a little grape jelly smeared on her cheeks (when Lori delivered Judith via emergency c-sec).

[SlackerInc]

I too rolled my eyes at the incredibly old baby, even for TV (I am curious though about the origin of the term "Dawson baby" as I couldn't find anything on Google).  One idea that occurred: Molly never had an actual newborn, so an older baby at "prime cuteness" age would work better to manipulate her.

In general, I agree that these latest two episodes were really a shark jump.  But for that same reason, I don't blame the problems as much on Halle Berry.  There were episodes not that long ago, mid-seasonish, when she was really doing a good job with good material.  She was smart and capable; now, as everyone's saying, she is beating an annoying refrain of "my baby, my baby". 

In general, I am really disappointed by how crappy the alien A plot has become, like a cheesy '70s horror show or something (the distorted shots from the "offspring's" POV are especially lame).  The B plot about Ethan is still a bit more promising at least, but it has lost some of the momentum it had when he was riding his bike and taking pity on park maintenance 'droids.

One item I seem to disagree with everyone about though is John's feelings about Molly going to space for 13 months.  That is a long-ass time, and I would not be too cool about it either if my wife was going to do that.  I guess it's like marrying someone in the military, that you have to be willing to live with that (and for that and other reasons I wouldn't marry someone in the military); but aren't astronaut missions usually shorter?

[carryanation]

Oh, yeah, I got that from Tvtropes:

 

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThreeMonthOldNewborn?from=Main.DawsonBabies

[jhlipton]

[A]ren't astronaut missions usually shorter?

 

Depends.  Things like voyages to the moon and back or shuttle missions lasted about a week or two.  But missions to the ISS last about 6 months, currently.   In the "future", they could be extended to 13 months.

[beedub]

It's much easier to write the daughter as a little girl and not have to deal with the problems that arise when hallucinating a grown, educated  woman who completed Astronaut School.

 

I think you mean SpaceFleet Academy.  ;-)

 

Just catching up here, but you make a good point, and I agree with most that things have gone a little off the rails. Things in general are moving along at a reasonable rate, but all the manipulation of people by Der Offshpring is getting a bit tedious, especially the Feeding-Time zombies. It's more than about time to let us in on what the alien is up to and what it's trying to accomplish. Yeah, I get it, Extant/Extinct, evolution of a hybrid form of life to supercede humanity and all that, but let's get on with it. Enough hanging out at campsites collecting human servants – what's the agenda?

 

Every time Molly says "My baby!" I imagine Julia Louis Dreyfus saying, "The dingo ate my baby!"

 

I was thinking more like Claire from Lost. "My bay-bee!" this, "My bay-bee!" that. Same 'Straylian accent as Elaine, though.

 

In general, I am really disappointed by how crappy the alien A plot has become, like a cheesy '70s horror show or something (the distorted shots from the "offspring's" POV are especially lame).

 

This is a pretty accurate description of things lately. It's maybe not Revolution-level bad, and it's still fairly entertaining, but it's certainly not living up to its promise.

 

One glaring example of the sloppy writing was when Molly and Molly's Minder (the scientist assigned to her by Yasumoto) were driving, and he tells her that they'll be there soon, they're an hour away tops, and there seems to be some urgency to them getting "there". Then in the next scene, they're having some leisurely pie and coffee at a diner. WTF? Who does that? No mention of "I'm starving" or "I need to make a pit stop", just some casual RnR by the highway while on holiday.

[Sandman]

... The difference is that Molly is seeing an entire situation from her past (rewritten), not just a person. So she literally can't see where she's going because she's "seeing" something else entirely. I presume it's because she's a hard sell, where as the Sparkses seem almost eager to be manipulated.

 

We've seen flashbacks to Marcus -- and his death, now -- that suggest to me that Molly has not finished grieving for him, and they've come up at points when she's in a physical crisis, such as after knocking herself unconscious in her round of elevator-parkour. The fact that the alien's mind control ties directly into times of specific physical as well as emotional trauma makes her experience of that mind control different from Sparks' -- except I'm tempted to think that there are few apples missing from Poor Deluded Evil Doctor Agent Ron Butterfield's bushel basket anyhow. (Er. Thus the name.)

 

Also: E-than, shapeshifter? Bwah! Wish I'd come up with than one myself. (Sidebar: is it not well known any longer that Julia Louis-Dreyfus's line from Seinfeld about the dingo is based on A Cry In The Dark, which itself is based on lived events? Huh. I'm old.)

 

Then in the next scene, they're having some leisurely pie and coffee at a diner. WTF? Who does that? No mention of "I'm starving" or "I need to make a pit stop", just some casual RnR by the highway while on holiday.

 

You know what? If Crazy-Ass Dr. Yeoman tells me we're pausing the hostage-taking for a pie stop, I'm not giving him a lot of lip about it, I don't think. Revenge Sensei sure has a lot of nutbars on the payroll. HR costs for Yasumoto Corp. must be through the roof.

Edited September 2, 2014 by Sandman

[shapeshifter]

...Also: E-than, shapeshifter? Bwah! Wish I'd come up with than one myself. (Sidebar: is it not well known any longer that Julia Louis-Dreyfus's line from Seinfeld about the dingo is based on A Cry In The Dark, which itself is based on lived events? Huh. I'm old.)

And eventually it turned out that the dingos really did eat her baby.

But I must give credit to the writers who penned "John Woods" lines in which he call Ethan "E" for short. As soon as he said that, I realized it was supposed to be a sort of pun: E-than is like human, but electronic.