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S01.E03: The Silence Of The Cicadas


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Honestly don't get this show. I guess I'm too rational or literal minded or something.

Look, there are more guns, bullets, and poison gases than there are animals.

Crazy-assed animals killing people? Either arm the populace and give them permission to shoot to kill any and all animals on site or drop some serious poisoned gas on the bastards.

How. Why. Didn't the guard have guns? With long range scope thingies to shoot the errant humans they guard? Why couldn't one guard with one gun take out the whole pack before they even approached the gate?

See? This is why it's best I don't watch this show. Makes me nuts. GUNS. We have more guns than there are animals. HOW IS THIS A SHOW????

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Honestly don't get this show. I guess I'm too rational or literal minded or something.

Look, there are more guns, bullets, and poison gases than there are animals.

Crazy-assed animals killing people? Either arm the populace and give them permission to shoot to kill any and all animals on site or drop some serious poisoned gas on the bastards.

See? This is why it's best I don't watch this show. Makes me nuts. GUNS. We have more guns than there are animals. HOW IS THIS A SHOW????

Well eliminating all animal life is mutually assured destruction for us so that's clearly not an option.  Besides, most of humanity doesn't realize we're at war with the animal kingdom.  

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Honestly don't get this show. I guess I'm too rational or literal minded or something.

See? This is why it's best I don't watch this show. Makes me nuts. GUNS. We have more guns than there are animals. HOW IS THIS A SHOW????

No, you are not too rational. You just might need to work on that part a little bit if you want to enjoy this show for what it is.

 

I mentioned how this idea bugged me last week.  My thought was that animals versus a person, especially a person used to them NOT attacking us, have a pretty good shot of winning that battle.  But Animals versus People is not going to work out so well for the animals. Once the dolphins get involved, somebody needs to tell them the story of the American Bison 50,000,000 down to 1,000 and that was with 19th century technology.  I think the Dolphins will be smart enough to get the point and pass it along to the lions and tell them to chill out.  The Wolves too. If it weren't for some well meaning conservationists, there wouldn't even be any wolves to burn down a prison.

Edited by JTMacc99
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One wolf prison break and everyone glosses over the fact that the dogs were targeting tourists because they wouldn't be missed right away. That's some next level shit for a dog to figure out.. 

 

It goes without saying these animals would rule the Dome.

 

Poor Abe flies all the way to Japan and the only woman he meets dies 2 minutes later.

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One wolf prison break and everyone glosses over the fact that the dogs were targeting tourists because they wouldn't be missed right away. That's some next level shit for a dog to figure out..

 

In addition to the dogs, the lions in Botswana and the rhinos in Sumatra also went after tourists -- but for dogs to do that someplace not normally visited EX CLUSIVELY by tourists really is stepping up their game as they "hone their skills".  Much like the lions in Botswana slashing only the femoral arteries of their victims.

 

How did the dogs know they were all tourists ?  Did they lure them all away from the same hotel ?

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How did the dogs know they were all tourists ?  Did they lure them all away from the same hotel ?

Maybe murderous Jack Russell showed up in a different hotel each day of the week? And locals can always spot tourists - so local dogs can too. I was more amused by the notion that nobody notices a tourist disappearing. The last victim at least had a family, others were probably travelling with groups or friends - and hotels prefer a proper check-out when guests are leaving. If several tourists disappear in the same city within a relatively short period of time all sorts of alarms would go off.

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I have no guns. What does that imply?

 

Sorry. Sorry. This show has a strange effect on me. I think I have a defiant nostril that makes me type stupid shit on the internet.

 

I have a very big gun and NO penis.  What does that imply?

Yeah, I type stupid shit on the internet ALL THE TIME.  :-)

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The cheese is so thick, I could have made my lasagna with just the noodles and tomato sauce tonight, but I love this show anyway. It's just SO bad in a guilty-pleasure ridiculous-summer-indulgence-to-guffaw-over kind of way.

 

 

Ha!  Thumbs up!

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On the next episode... Sinister French Guy teleports a hungry polar bear, a ticked off tiger, and a pack of compsagnathus into a windowless locked room with Irritating Flinty Voiced Reporter Lady.  It is marvelous to behold.

 

At least, that's my version.

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Hee!  I love animals but I'm all for seeing animal rights activists being mauled as well.  

 

I really want to give the show the benefit of the doubt but those prison guards running in terror was just pathetic.  I'm going to assume they were unarmed.  BTW does anyone know if it's standard practice for interior guards not to carry firearms?

Well, we did see the attack on the warden.  I remember you bringing this up before and I think this may have to do with real world constraints.  Perhaps certain animals are just too unpredictable to work closely with humans.  For instance, the multiple lion attack might have been to risky to film.  There's always CGI or practical effects but I guess some suit probably felt it wasn't worth the expense.

 

I thought prison guards inside the facility can't carry guns because of the safety issues that poses if or when a prisoner grabs a hold of their gun. Theoretically there might have been armed guards in the towers during normal prison operating times but I assumed the place was in lockdown for the death row guy's execution hence why all the other prisoners were staring at the wolf pack.

 

As for the Warden we saw some cut aways of first wolf attacking him and it was intimated that the wolf was either ripping up his shoulder or his neck but the angle of the camera work made it impossible to be clear what it was doing. The wolf didn't even have a bloody muzzle 3 seconds after presumably killing a man with biting.

 

As for 19th century man killing bisons... Those bison weren't fighting back. Killing someone who doesn't fight back isn't an achievement. Killing trillions of potentially affected animals who are taking murder human classes and are actively trying to kill humans would be an uphill battle. Especially as you would have tonnes of adults and children wanting to protect their pets from other humans regardless of reason because fluffy cute animals. The average person is going to have a hard time pulling the trigger on cute puppies or breeds like poodles, golden retrievers and siberian huskies.

 

I'm not sure how guns would stack up against insects or rats or even cats as they move fast, agile, flexible and their bites are 80% infectious.

 

What I want to see is the animals take over a nuclear power plant. In Whispers their nuclear power plant was infiltrated by a child.

Edited by wayne67
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No, because thought transference is the animals magic ability, and teleportation is our magic ability.

 

Tell that to cats that get into rooms they've been shut out of.

 

I too am more than fine with the animals expanding their vendetta to kill sympathetic targets. If I'd blinked and missed Tamlyn Tomita's untimely demise I could easily mistake the show for one about heroic animals banding together to fight scumbags and idiots. So long as they don't mess up James Wolk's pretty, pretty face they can do whatever they want as far as I'm concerned.

Edited by Bruinsfan
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My favorite part of this show is how they overlay frightening noises over animals that are clearly not making those noises - like the wolves, making some god awful snarling noises while trotting through the halls kind of smiley-panting.

Actually they did it to the child getting adopted in ep 2 (i think) when he was saying "tigres tigres tigres!" (Or something along those lines) to indicate ge wanted to go to the circus. I am 90% sure that was very poor voice-overlooking

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I'm not sure how guns would stack up against insects or rats or even cats as they move fast, agile, flexible and their bites are 80% infectious.

Once the deer ticks carrying Lyme get involved, we are certainly doomed.

 

Tell that to cats that get into rooms they've been shut out of.

Well, you only THINK they get into the room. You can't KNOW if the cat is in the room or out of the room without opening the room. Therefore the cat is both in and out of the room as long as the door is shut. ;)

 

(cause we've managed to go all this time despite even having a cat tree without a single Shrodinger reference that I recall)

Edited by slothgirl
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This is a theory I'm seriously considering.  Seriously.  The death row killer had a dual purpose in killing hunters 1) he is on the animal's side and 2) the wolves needed thumbs on the inside.  That was overkill for a prison break.  I'm thinking they need a holding facility for hostages.

 

Also we had proof that the fish aren't going to rise up against us.  Death row wanted fish sticks as its last meal.

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Sinister French Guy

I've really liked Henri Lubatti ever since he was on Sleeper Cell.  He always plays some (usually sinister) European guy - and now I find out he's from Seattle.  Woof.

 

 

My favorite part of this show is how they overlay frightening noises over animals that are clearly not making those noises

Oh, yes, I love that too.  Of course movies always do this with rats  - they always have squeaking noises, when rats are usually silent to human ears, unless they're screaming out in fear.  They almost never shut up, but they hear seven or eight times as well as dogs and almost everything they have to say is in registers higher or lower than we can hear..  Rats are an interesting possibility as foes anyway, more interesting than I expect to see on this show.  They are terrifyingly intelligent, display better reasoning and logic than most humans, aren't particularly afraid of people to begin with even BEFORE the Defiant Pupil shit, and know the ins and outs of our cities, houses, subways, sewers, etc. etc. better than we do.  Their ability to make snap judgments based on spatial reasoning  is much better than ours.  They are physically brave - the bravery of a cornered rat is literally proverbial - they will attack creatures hundreds of times their size if threatened.  They take much better care of their young as a species than we do, and both males and females help with this. And there are millions of them.

 

Of course as many have pointed out if this spreads to the insects, humans are gone almost immediately.  The end.

Edited by ratgirlagogo
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Ok, the dog in Slovenia... didn't adoptive dad say last week, can you move that dog please? Because he was afraid the dog would bite the child to suddenly this week, he knows the dog and it appears to live with them in the hotel?

And the mum having 2nd thoughts, is she just going to leave that child to be raised by the dogs now?

Loved loved loved Sleeper Cell and that actor! I can't but help love him here. I know I know, scary bad guy, but...

Edited by hatchetgirl
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...  Of course movies always do this with rats  - they always have squeaking noises, when rats are usually silent to human ears, unless they're screaming out in fear.  They almost never shut up, but they hear seven or eight times as well as dogs and almost everything they have to say is in registers higher or lower than we can hear..  Rats are an interesting possibility as foes anyway, more interesting than I expect to see on this show.  They are terrifyingly intelligent, display better reasoning and logic than most humans, aren't particularly afraid of people to begin with even BEFORE the Defiant Pupil shit, and know the ins and outs of our cities, houses, subways, sewers, etc. etc. better than we do.  Their ability to make snap judgments based on spatial reasoning  is much better than ours.  They are physically brave - the bravery of a cornered rat is literally proverbial - they will attack creatures hundreds of times their size if threatened.  They take much better care of their young as a species than we do, and both males and females help with this. And there are millions of them. ...

 

Whose side are you on, ratgirlagogo??  ;-P

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Well, you only THINK they get into the room. You can't KNOW if the cat is in the room or out of the room without opening the room. Therefore the cat is both in and out of the room as long as the door is shut. ;)

(cause we've managed to go all this time despite even having a cat tree without a single Shrodinger reference that I recall)

 

I love you slothgirl!  This made my day.

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As for 19th century man killing bisons... Those bison weren't fighting back. Killing someone who doesn't fight back isn't an achievement. Killing trillions of potentially affected animals who are taking murder human classes and are actively trying to kill humans would be an uphill battle. Especially as you would have tonnes of adults and children wanting to protect their pets from other humans regardless of reason because fluffy cute animals. The average person is going to have a hard time pulling the trigger on cute puppies or breeds like poodles, golden retrievers and siberian huskies.

 

I'm not sure how guns would stack up against insects or rats or even cats as they move fast, agile, flexible and their bites are 80% infectious.

I just used the bison as an example because of the raw numbers.  Humans have done a good job of putting pretty much every large predator on the endangered species list too. I wouldn't be too worried about the survival of the human species regardless of how coordinated the animal kingdom becomes.  We have a fine collection of firearms, traps and poisons at our disposal.  Once the animals lose the element of surprise, I think we're going to be okay.  Not that we wouldn't be thinned out a bit, but stuff like that happens when the defiant pupil kicks in.*

 

Good point about the pets. I can think of some people who would still be feeding their dogs Merrick Grain Free Real Buffalo and Sweet Potato Dry Dog Food (only $36 for a 12 pound bag!) and letting them sleep in the bed even after the dog came home with a human femur in it's mouth.  I've had over a dozen different dogs and cats during my lifetime, and I can think of a couple I wouldn't believe turned evil even if I saw it with my own eyes.  I can also think of a couple I would personally strangle the second it looked like they were turning to the defiant side.

 

The problem for Zoo! however is that the animals should have the element of surprise on their side for quite some time. Because who is going to take this group of people seriously?

 

 

* All bets are off if the insect kingdom gets in on the act. If that happens, I think we're boned.  But do insects even have pupil?

Edited by JTMacc99
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The great fountain of wisdom aka Wikipedia tells me that insects and crustaceans have pseudopupils.

I think they will sooner or later weasel out of the whole insect issue by claiming that this defiant pupil business only afftects vertebrates. But what do I know - next week we might get some killer slugs taking out a whole farmer's market.

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Maybe murderous Jack Russell showed up in a different hotel each day of the week? And locals can always spot tourists - so local dogs can too. I was more amused by the notion that nobody notices a tourist disappearing. The last victim at least had a family, others were probably travelling with groups or friends - and hotels prefer a proper check-out when guests are leaving. If several tourists disappear in the same city within a relatively short period of time all sorts of alarms would go off.

 

I thought that part was stupid too.  They should have made them homeless people or something, but tourists?  And who goes off following some hyped up Jack Russell?

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Crustaceans!??!  No, no, no!  Regular bugs will be no problem, once we realise we have to lay in stockpiles of DDT, but not the Soldier Crabs!!!

 

Give a whole new meaning to The Deadliest Catch, now, doesn't it?  :-)

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Regular bugs will be no problem, once we realise we have to lay in stockpiles of DDT,

I doubt even DDT would kill a Charleston Palmetto beetle (aka: giant flying cockroach). Napalm might do it, although I always had some success with a Manhatten yellow pages phone book (thrown with enough force). They don't need to "turn" on us.. they're already against us and can kill us all through sudden heart attacks and sheer panic. We're already scared of them though, so there's not much new to see there from a standpoint of story-telling.

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Ok, the dog in Slovenia... didn't adoptive dad say last week, can you move that dog please? Because he was afraid the dog would bite the child to suddenly this week, he knows the dog and it appears to live with them in the hotel?

 

The dog didn't live with them.  He was the hotel's pet.  I'm guessing the father had seen it enough that he thought he could coax the dog into bringing back the kid's toy.  As for why the dog comes back to the room after leading the father to his death, I have no idea.  Maybe he actually liked the kid.

 

I kinda zoned out on crazy dad's theory.  Does the defiant pupil mean that there's a hive mind linking animals across the globe or is it a foreign intelligence that is possessing the animals?

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I kinda zoned out on crazy dad's theory.  Does the defiant pupil mean that there's a hive mind linking animals across the globe or is it a foreign intelligence that is possessing the animals?

 

It's Drill 2.0 from 'The Whispers' -- he gave up on the stupid kids and went with animals instead. </snark>

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I *think* the defiant pupil is the evidence of a change in the animals' cognition as well as their perception of human beings. I don't know for certain if Crazy Michael Steadman's theory of the defiant pupil included evidence of collective intelligence or communication over distances (i.e., what Professor Snarky Morgan and Nancy Drew are working on); Minako mentioned "the animals' cognitive acuity." Though the blinded horses on Crazy Island might have been exhibiting a shared awareness.

I don't know how Death Row Hartley connects to the animals, but I will be (even more) disappointed if the change in the animals ends up being from an invading alien intelligence.

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Un-believeable. The only humans I'm rooting for is Dr. Oz, and his friend. Everyone else is annoying. I also can't believe Wolf Prison Break. I am sure that guards in the towers have sharp-shooter rifles with scopes, and even if the guard inside don't carry guns, wouldn't they have stun guns or even batons? Something? WTFH? Still better than Under the Dome though.

Edited by Julie23
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I doubt even DDT would kill a Charleston Palmetto beetle (aka: giant flying cockroach).

 

You mean Mahogany Birds?  Yeh, they're gross.  Which is why I always keep Baygon in the house.  One very brief squirt and they're deader than mutton!

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The only humans I'm rooting for is Dr. Oz, and his friend. Everyone else is annoying.
I like Mama Oz, she can live.  I also would allow French Lady Spy to live, because, well, I find her hot.  And I'm a sucker for a female French accent.  Her eyes are a little buggy though, maybe she's actually the Insect Queen and is going to send forth a plague of locusts on the unsuspecting world.
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* All bets are off if the insect kingdom gets in on the act. If that happens, I think we're boned

 

I remember reading a line in one of those 'animal kingdom goes berserk and kills people'-type novels that I used to read all of the time that said something like:  'Scientists have speculated on what would happen if the animal kingdom were to turn on us...In no scenario does the human race come out on top.'  (Maybe it was from a movie.  I wish I could remember where I read/saw it.  I keep thinking it was from 'The birds', but I don't know.  I may have to re-watch the movie.)

 

When the two guys (I can't remember names of characters in this series) were in the hut on the island, I kept telling them to 'hurry up!'.  I would have just taken a few photos of the arrangement on the wall, grabbed every paper I could, and then high-tailed it out of there.  I kept waiting for a shadow to go past one of the cracks in the wall and for one of the horses to kick a hole in the wall and to begin chasing them.

Edited by BooksRule
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I thought that insult was dickish and unneccessary.

Pun unintended? :)   But yeah, he and Girl Reporter are annoying and made for each other.  Also, his hair bugs me.

 

When he said that, my response would have been "did they all drop their pants willingly or unwillingly? I'm scientifically curious"

 

Would have liked more time on the Island of Dr. Oz with deserted cabin, drawings on the walls and eyeless horses.  I see the elder Dr. Oz was more interesting in filming his assistant being attacked and having her fingers bitten off then in putting his camera down and helpng her. 

From the recap:

 

It's AMAZING. First they get the warden outside of the gates and when Barney Fife opens them to help, a whole pack runs in! Then, THEN, they somehow run around the whole complex because (1) the guards keep not closing doors behind them, and (2) the security protocols make all the cell doors open. One wolf attacks a prison cook and starts a grease fire that burns the whole place to the ground! Amazing!

Hee.  I mean, shut a door!!! or gate or two or three! Isn't that like, standard protocol in a prison?  It was also tremendously helpful for the wolves that most of the guards just stood there and waited to be attacked, or ran aimlessly with no plan.  Free for all!

 

Since the transporter from the Enterprise is a real thing in this show, our team should be able to solve it in no time.

 

I'm here for Jackson (because, cute and concerned) and Abe (because, Nonso Anozie).  Would have liked to see some rhino stomping though, but I guess all they could afford was stock rhino charging footage. 

 

I am kind of curious about how to wrap up the whole defiant pupil thing.  How to fix it globally?  The sun, the tides?  IDK.

 

I do love the sound of wolves howling.  Never been lucky enough to hear in the wild, but I did hear real wolves at a sanctuary last year; beautiful.

 

ETA:

Entertaining review here.

 

Fans of Sherlock-type whodunnits got a small deduction scene where Chloe cracked the case of the Mystery of the Mutt Murders by correctly surmising that these dogs were singling out travelers who would not be missed except by maybe their loved ones like the wife and child of the dad killed last week and also how exactly would these dogs know this? Were they stealing Facebook account info? Counting friends/likes? This was the only part of the whole premise of this entire show that almost does not make sense. Oh no, BATS!

LOL!

Edited by raven
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And I'm a sucker for a female French accent.  Her eyes are a little buggy though, maybe she's actually the Insect Queen and is going to send forth a plague of locusts on the unsuspecting world.

I missed it while watching the actual show because the scene was like a rectangle of inky blackness on my TV, but man that is some kabuki-grade acting in those GIFs. Does Slovakia not have greasepaint and chūnori wires that she could have picked up on the way to the alley?

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I too am more than fine with the animals expanding their vendetta to kill sympathetic targets.

I'd like to see dogs and cats that underwent the Big Snip from their vet return the favor.  ;-)

 

Or drowning a few groomers for all those baths.

 

So many possibilities.  So little time.

Edited by backgroundnoise
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Tell that to cats that get into rooms they've been shut out of.

 

I too am more than fine with the animals expanding their vendetta to kill sympathetic targets. If I'd blinked and missed Tamlyn Tomita's untimely demise I could easily mistake the show for one about heroic animals banding together to fight scumbags and idiots. So long as they don't mess up James Wolk's pretty, pretty face they can do whatever they want as far as I'm concerned.

 

I think you blinked a couple more times.  The thing that is definitely there but not overly emphasized is that the animals are targeting kids.  The cats planning to attack the elementary school.  When the attacks were reviewed one the team assembled, some of them were schools and kids.  I think they are subtly playing the animals eating their young or another's young (like tigers) and picking off the weakest of the herd.

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I am kind of curious about how to wrap up the whole defiant pupil thing.  How to fix it globally?  The sun, the tides?  IDK.

 

Magic mumbo jumbo scienc-y eye drops of DOOM ? perhaps. Or they dose the water supply with some antidote of some bollocking nonsense.

 

I think you blinked a couple more times.  The thing that is definitely there but not overly emphasized is that the animals are targeting kids.  The cats planning to attack the elementary school.  When the attacks were reviewed one the team assembled, some of them were schools and kids.  I think they are subtly playing the animals eating their young or another's young (like tigers) and picking off the weakest of the herd.

 

I'd imagine figuring out how to take children is both a practical way of limiting the human population and experimenting their kill techniques on smaller weaker humans.

 

I keep waiting for this stupid show to deal with farms. If the animals started to have a revolution against us planet raping humans you'd think they'd start from rural locations where animal life outnumbers humans and they can kill all the farmers while they sleep. STAMPEDE of the COWS and CHICKENS :P.

 

Then again that would cripple the agricultural industry and the humans would have to deal with cattle that charges them.

 

Also Safari Scion ? should be a tad more concerned about leaving his mother behind in Lion rampaging country... It's odd how indifferent these human main characters are to the zooapocalypse which only really makes sense for the the french woman who probably wants her sister viciously murdered by rats.

Edited by wayne67
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Nancy Drew doesn't seem to understand the concept of 'evidence'.  They don't have journalistic evidence of a link between Radeon and the lions, let alone scientific evidence.

On a different show I'd say this was a commentary on the state of journalism.

 

Seriously, Burke is killing it.  I somehow see both Mitch and Burke in this performance.  Anytime Mitch gives a look where he seems to be thinking "This is stupid, but it's not like I got anything better to do", I can also see Billy being like "This is stupid, but I really could be in something much, much worse."

Yep, he's definitely been in worse.

 

The power of the defiant pupil obviously isn't related to the power of eyesight for any particular species.  That would just be crazy talk.

I think they're going with the crazy talk - those horses are nice and placid now that their eyes are soaking in a formaldehyde filled jar.

 

I really want to give the show the benefit of the doubt but those prison guards running in terror was just pathetic.  I'm going to assume they were unarmed.  BTW does anyone know if it's standard practice for interior guards not to carry firearms?

After a few prison riots and guard deaths, prisons stopped arming guards with the walls of the prison. Even without guns, the guards shouldn't have run screaming into the prison without shutting the gates/doors behind them. That was beyond stupid. I think most of them have automatic systems to lock down the facility - but even so, there was time to just shut the damn doors. It's not like the wolves have opposable thumbs.

 

I love how everyone just shrugs and goes "Okay" and goes off with a mysterious guy in a good suit without getting any confirmation he's on the up and up.

 

Guns wouldn't necessarily be useful if we're swarmed by multiple herds/prides/flocks etc. You'd have to manage a kill shot each time, and have enough shooters to do it. Guns would help take out a  small group of animals, but not in the kinds of numbers they could pull. We killed millions (literally) of buffalo back in the day - but only because they didn't turn and stampede and stomp the hunters' butts into the dust.

 

I kind of wish they'd show a SeaWorld scene - with the Orcas and others somehow getting the executives (not the trainers, who do seem to care about the animals).

 

As cheesy as it is, it is getting to be pretty fun. If they'd only get rid of the faux journalist...

Edited by clanstarling
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