S04.E03: Bread & Circuses

[tessaray]

Nathan James's crew searches for a precious item leading them to a strange place of opulence and violence where they cross paths with a most unexpected ally.

[oakville]

Giorgio is a clownish villain. I have a hard time taking him seriously. I can't believe no one recognize Tom Chandler.

Sasha is too made up to look like a serious commando. Why would anyone in Algeria pay attention to her?

[ottoDbusdriver]

And the gang is back together.

I wish they had picked another city in Algeria like Algiers, because I thought they kept saying Iran instead of Oran.

Greece seems pretty far for a 2-bit player like Giorigio to go all the way from Sardinia to hassle the locals for protection money (or protection fish).  Just the fuel costs would be prohibitive.

How did Peter Weller end up on this show ?  Tom's about to get his hands wrapped and, whoa, there's Robocop.

Of course Slattery gets stabbed by Melania, so she's not as innocent as she appears.  And he falls down and drops his gun and is probably going to get captured. -- so they will need to go back and get him. 

This all seems a little much for these seeds from the Seed Vault.  I know, I know, last chance to saving the planet, yadda, yadda, yadda.  
How did Omar know to go to the Seed Vault in the first place ?  Is it common knowledge on the planet that these seeds are the plant saviors ?

Based on last episode, I figured that the old lady, Mahmoud's grandma, buried the seeds in the desert, but apparently not.  And her little bout of stabbery with Omar really foreshadowed Melania's knife play later on.

And the episode ended weird -- there was a radio call to Sunshine in the helo, he responded something about Charlie Oscar ...... and that was it.
 

4 minutes ago, oakville said:

Giorgio is a clownish villain. I have a hard time taking him seriously. I can't believe no one recognize Tom Chandler.

Sasha is too made up to look like a serious commando. Why would anyone in Algeria pay attention to her?

Giorgio looks like a poor man's Johnny Depp.

How are satellite phones working, but no one in the Mediterranean knows what Tom Chandler looks like ?

[TV Anonymous]

I know this is the third episode already, and I made similar comment last season but I am very, very impressed with Sasha linguistic ability. Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese and now Arabic. Those are languages with different grammars and vocabularies and syntax. Let us see if she also knows Italian and Greek.

I am also very impressed with Eurocopter that their Dauphin helo is capable to cover the distance of 500 nmi non-stop while the specification on Wikipedia says 450 nmi.

[FnkyChkn34]

My DVR cut out. Can anyone please tell me what happened after Chandler caught up with the team on the road back to the beach?

[Dowel Jones]

He notified them that Slattery had the seeds and Melania got away (not knowing that she has them).  Then it went to previews.

Points to Slattery for referencing Casablanca at the Fight Club. 

The crew sure did a nice job repairing the helo deck on the NJ, considering it took a direct missile hit.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

Goodness, what absurd action.

In the "hometown" of Mahmoud, not one average denizen rose the slightest question nor exclamation with the Anglo lady and other whites who were holding advanced rifles and stalking the group of Arabs who arrived in the helo?  At the fight, the away team could just saunter in, with weapons at the ready?!!!!!!!   With all the fighters on the Omar and Girgio side?  Not one look askance?!   

The very first burst against Omar (or is it Abu?) in the cramped tunnel, from no more than 15 feet, was lethal.  Impossible for that hail to have missed him.  But, no, he simply thrusts his right arm toward the shooter, and with one shot, fells HIM!  

Again, nobody had concussive devices, i.e. grenades, except the one smoke/flash device.  

The worst moments for me were idiot's refusal to allow the kill shot of Omar not once, but twice.  Unfortunately, that was all too real, to me.  The second one got my blood boiling.  The ENTIRE world depends on getting those seeds, and she thinks it more important to not allow the SLIM chance that the children would be hit by her marksman, instead of the target.  Even if allllll the children would have been killed in the resulting action, weigh that against the ENTIRE FREAKING WORLD!!!!!  Far too often, our forces are similarly hamstrung.  So...credit to TPTB for, even unintentionally, depicting madness.

It made little or no sense to me that the woman would have simply stabbed Slattery and not twisted the knife to kill him, so she would then be able to grab the seeds.  Her entire future was about those seeds.   She had clearly demonstrated being ruthless and mentally tough as nails.  Her ambition is off the charts.  She would get those seeds or die trying.*  Given the advantage she enjoyed with her initial thrust, she easily could have, and would have, spent an extra second ripping his guts apart.

I literally LOL when someone handed Chandler the bigger handgun, and he just threw away the other one!  Hercules can only carry one gun at a time.  Hahahahahahaha.

At least the Russian Admiral has not made the scene.  Yet.

*Slattery still has the pouch, but it is not clear that he has the tube.  If she did grab the canister, the point about killing her foe still stands.  He had the gun.  She needed to make certain he was incapacitated fully.

Edited August 28, 2017 by Lonesome Rhodes

[Dowel Jones]

I'm just waiting for the Zoo hybrids to show up.  Maybe that's next season.

[FnkyChkn34]

5 hours ago, Dowel Jones said:

He notified them that Slattery had the seeds and Melania got away (not knowing that she has them).  Then it went to previews.

Points to Slattery for referencing Casablanca at the Fight Club. 

The crew sure did a nice job repairing the helo deck on the NJ, considering it took a direct missile hit.

Thanks! (When you say Melania, you mean Lucia?) And I ended up seeing that, so I guess I caught everything. Abrupt ending. 

[oakville]

I don't like the Boxing Match theme this season. I find it ludicrous that people are showing up to see Boxing for food matches when there is supposedly massive starvation.

The scenes in Algeria were hilarious. People are sitting around in cafes having drinks. Meanwhile, the away team is wandering around the streets with guns. Wouldn't people notice?

The seeds have a nice bilingual label.

[FnkyChkn34]

1 hour ago, oakville said:

The scenes in Algeria were hilarious. People are sitting around in cafes having drinks. Meanwhile, the away team is wandering around the streets with guns. Wouldn't people notice?

Unfortunately not, and I think this is truer to real life than we'd all like to realize.  The Navy team weren't the only ones with guns - I noticed that there were plenty of others wandering the streets with them too.  I think it's actually common life for many people.

[Netfoot]

Giorgio and Omar.  Two comically unbelievable bad guys.  More suited to The Beano than night-time television.

Chandler is oh, so realistic as an anchor-fisted, invulnerable bare-knuckle fighter, master of the entire Mediterranean.

Lucia makes a poor femme fatale and an even worse villainesse.

I hope this show soon stops being stupidly unbelievable, and quickly returns to entertainingly unbelievable territory I've come to expect.  

[Joimiaroxeu]

Quote

Sasha is too made up to look like a serious commando. Why would anyone in Algeria pay attention to her?

Her face is so distracting to me. She looks like she has five layers of makeup on. It must take her hours to get ready in the morning. Good she has her priorities straight while the world is dying.

Quote

How did Peter Weller end up on this show ?  Tom's about to get his hands wrapped and, whoa, there's Robocop.

He has a very distinctive voice. Even if I hadn't seen his name in the opening credits I would've known it was him.

[thuganomics85]

Peter Weller's appearance was random as hell.  But I'm guessing there will be more to the character.  Maybe he finds Slattery and helps him out next week?

At least they already reunited Chandler with the rest of Nathan James, even if the whole thing has already gone to hell.  Of course, pretty much all on Team Nathan James made it out of the gun battles in one piece because nine times out of ten, they are invincible.  But now Slattery is in rough shape, because they underestimated Lucia.  Then again, instead of finishing him off and reclaiming the seeds, she just flees, so it's not like anyone is winning points here.

Giorgio basically comes off like some kind of trust fund baby, who is really trying to prove his father wrong, instead of a major baddie.  Still, he's at least more amusing then Omar, whose just your average Middle Eastern terrorist, that would fit alongside any procedural show on CBS.

So I'm guessing next week will be Operation Find and Retrieve the Seeds!  Oh, and Slattery Too!

[oakville]

4 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

Her face is so distracting to me. She looks like she has five layers of makeup on. It must take her hours to get ready in the morning. Good she has her priorities straight while the world is dying.

He has a very distinctive voice. Even if I hadn't seen his name in the opening credits I would've known it was him.

I think Bridget is stunning, but too pretty to be fighting in the desert. She poses too much during her scenes.

I can't stop laughing when Giorgio shows up on the screen. They need a better villain. I think Giorgio is financing the new Greek Navy.

[Dowel Jones]

8 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

When you say Melania, you mean Lucia?

I'm being overly snarky there, as her main function seems to be the outwardly attractive, vaguely exotic woman hooked up with a megalomaniac sociopath with bad hair.  But that's just my impression.

[CrazyDog]

21 hours ago, oakville said:

Giorgio is a clownish villain. I have a hard time taking him seriously. I can't believe no one recognize Tom Chandler.

Sasha is too made up to look like a serious commando. Why would anyone in Algeria pay attention to her?

Giorgio is cartoony, yet he does have a certain joie de vivre! He's the only one having an absolutely fantastic time in the second apocalypse.

I forget Sasha's background, but she's too perfect looking, and it's way too obvious. Why is she leading the missions now? 

I loved seeing Tom and Slattery back together, but isn't this the second time they've had to rescue him? He better live though.

I still miss Rachel.

[Artsda]

Sasha's posing like she's on a red carpet in her scenes is comical. It's distracting. 

They never should have killed off Lt Ravit. Inbar Lavi was so much better.

[ChiliCrab]

The acting in the past 3 episodes have been really bad. It used to be easy to overlook in the past because the storylines are interesting enough to distract you but not anymore I guess. The new girl can fight and shoot guns and flirt but when she says her lines it's just bad. Even Sasha, who I actually kind of like, seem to only have two default facial expressions now: a smirk or a smug half-smile. 

 

Is Sasha the team leader now? Everyone is taking orders from her now including Green and Wolf who I thought were the special ops guys. I thought it was funny that she mentions how people in Oran haven't seen a Westerner in a few years then sends the whitest white boy in the team to ask locals if they have seen Mahmoud's grandma. 

[Raja]

3 hours ago, ChiliCrab said:

The acting in the past 3 episodes have been really bad. It used to be easy to overlook in the past because the storylines are interesting enough to distract you but not anymore I guess. The new girl can fight and shoot guns and flirt but when she says her lines it's just bad. Even Sasha, who I actually kind of like, seem to only have two default facial expressions now: a smirk or a smug half-smile. 

 

Is Sasha the team leader now? Everyone is taking orders from her now including Green and Wolf who I thought were the special ops guys. I thought it was funny that she mentions how people in Oran haven't seen a Westerner in a few years then sends the whitest white boy in the team to ask locals if they have seen Mahmoud's grandma. 

That is the way it has worked since James Bond, maybe before. Middle aged spies are better fighters then young soldiers in their physical prime, even elite soldiers, and they have information that goes with them being fluent in all the earth's languages. While tactically they might take the orders of the soldier ("flank them on the right, provide cover") until they see the opportunity to improvise they are generally in operational control giving the soldier the overall mission "go to the villa and get Omar"

[oakville]

I find it strange that Green has to wait for Sashas ok before taking a shot at Omar .

wasnt she a translator? 

[FnkyChkn34]

Sasha is/was a Navy Intelligence Officer.  Remember when we found her, she was working (undercover?) in China.  I imagine that her rank is pretty high, but I agree that I don't understand why she now seems to be in charge.  Is it because we lost the higher ranking Burk brother?  If so, then Green should be leading his missions, IMO.  I can't imagine she's ranked higher than Slattery, but she sure acts like it.  Probably just another moment that we need to suspend belief...

[Thrifty]

Why are people hating on Sasha?  Being a skilled soldier and being attractive aren't mutually exclusive.  I work with the Marines (as a civilian contractor) and on 2 occasions where I had to go to a base for issues with my military ID, I saw servicewomen who were just stunningly gorgeous.

[oakville]

51 minutes ago, Thrifty said:

Why are people hating on Sasha?  Being a skilled soldier and being attractive aren't mutually exclusive.  I work with the Marines (as a civilian contractor) and on 2 occasions where I had to go to a base for issues with my military ID, I saw servicewomen who were just stunningly gorgeous.

She wears too much makeup. She should stop posing in the middle of combat scenes.

[FnkyChkn34]

1 hour ago, Thrifty said:

Why are people hating on Sasha?  Being a skilled soldier and being attractive aren't mutually exclusive.  I work with the Marines (as a civilian contractor) and on 2 occasions where I had to go to a base for issues with my military ID, I saw servicewomen who were just stunningly gorgeous.

 

18 minutes ago, oakville said:

She wears too much makeup. She should stop posing in the middle of combat scenes.

I don't necessarily care what she looks like, but she's overdone even compared to the rest of the cast.  IMO, that much makeup would be very unrealistic.  The makeup people need to learn how to make her look more natural.

[Palomar]

OK, so where are Chandler's kids?  Didn't he leave them with his last GF?  And he is cheating on her with Lucia? Or, was that just part of the job?  Sorry....my mind was just wandering a bit during some of the fight scenes. 

[FnkyChkn34]

29 minutes ago, Palomar said:

OK, so where are Chandler's kids?  Didn't he leave them with his last GF?  And he is cheating on her with Lucia? Or, was that just part of the job?  Sorry....my mind was just wandering a bit during some of the fight scenes. 

I think he left his kids with the older woman.  Is she his girlfriend's mother?  I didn't catch who she was, but I think she had the better bond with the kids.  He slept with Lucia to get access to her necklace, which was the key to open the locked office.  I think it's his cover; I don't get the impression that he is the least bit interested for real.

[Palomar]

17 minutes ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

I think he left his kids with the older woman.  Is she his girlfriend's mother?  I didn't catch who she was, but I think she had the better bond with the kids.  He slept with Lucia to get access to her necklace, which was the key to open the locked office.  I think it's his cover; I don't get the impression that he is the least bit interested for real.

Thanks. I figured he at least had the ulterior motive there but just wasn't sure about if the "girl back home" was watching his kids.

[raven]

On 8/28/2017 at 3:39 AM, Dowel Jones said:

I'm just waiting for the Zoo hybrids to show up.  Maybe that's next season.

Hee hee.

The Hercules fight story was so ridiculous. 

8 hours ago, oakville said:

She wears too much makeup. She should stop posing in the middle of combat scenes.

So much this.  I mean, I know TV = make up, but the other women on the ship are attractive and none of them are as made up, so she really stands out, especially in the combat scenes.  Bridget Regan is beautiful anyway, that much makeup isn't necessary.  The posing is pretty funny though, I've noticed that too.

I watch this reallly casually but am entertained by Giorgio, cackling away in most of his scenes. 

[seacliffsal]

i keep wondering where Chandler's dad is as he was taking care of the kids in the earlier seasons.

And THAT'S why the commanding officer should not be going on these missions...

[FnkyChkn34]

45 minutes ago, seacliffsal said:

i keep wondering where Chandler's dad is as he was taking care of the kids in the earlier seasons.

And THAT'S why the commanding officer should not be going on these missions...

I wondered that too!  Maybe he's dating Kara's mom and they are happy together somewhere else...

[Thrifty]

On 8/29/2017 at 0:47 PM, FnkyChkn34 said:

 

I don't necessarily care what she looks like, but she's overdone even compared to the rest of the cast.  IMO, that much makeup would be very unrealistic.  The makeup people need to learn how to make her look more natural.

I'm just not seeing it.  Unless you deliberately go Mimi Bobeck style clown levels of makeup, that's just what people on TV look like, in my experience.

[xaxat]

It's not the makeup that bothers me about Sasha, it's that she somehow switched from being an intelligence agent to the the leader of a combat team over Green even though that is specifically what he has trained for over his career. And the fact that she goes into combat situations with her hair down. 

When Peter Weller's character said he was a doctor, I was really hoping he was going to say his doctorate was in Italian Renaissance Art History.  A degree he holds in real life.

If Mike dies, I riot! (Seriously though. I hope it's not a tactic to give command back to Chandler.)

What good is money in a world without governments?

[FnkyChkn34]

40 minutes ago, xaxat said:

It's not the makeup that bothers me about Sasha, it's that she somehow switched from being an intelligence agent to the the leader of a combat team over Green even though that is specifically what he has trained for over his career. And the fact that she goes into combat situations with her hair down. 

When Peter Weller's character said he was a doctor, I was really hoping he was going to say his doctorate was in Italian Renaissance Art History.  A degree he holds in real life.

If Mike dies, I riot! (Seriously though. I hope it's not a tactic to give command back to Chandler.)

What good is money in a world without governments?

Definitely this too.  Actually, while I see the makeup issue, I suppose it doesn't really bother me that much - but definitely this.  Green has been in charge for 3 years, answering only to CO and XO it seemed.  Now he answers to her?  And the British guy?  I don't get it either.  I like that Wolf is still just there to look pretty and fight people. 

[Maverick]

5 hours ago, FnkyChkn34 said:

I wondered that too!  Maybe he's dating Kara's mom and they are happy together somewhere else...

Chandler's father in law is dead.  Elizabeth Rohm's henchmen tracked down Chandler's family, killed the grandpa and kidnapped the children (all off screen) at the end of season 3.

[ChiliCrab]

5 hours ago, xaxat said:

It's not the makeup that bothers me about Sasha, it's that she somehow switched from being an intelligence agent to the the leader of a combat team over Green even though that is specifically what he has trained for over his career. And the fact that she goes into combat situations with her hair down. 

 

I was wondering about her hair, too. That scene in the last episode where they were on their way to the chopper, her hair was flying all over. Not really a good thing when trying to keep a low profile. I'm really conflicted about Sasha. I like the actress but the not so much the character. Maybe navy intelligence officer is code for super soldier-sniper-diver-polyglot-diplomat-interrogator-botanist. 

[FnkyChkn34]

14 hours ago, Maverick said:

Chandler's father in law is dead.  Elizabeth Rohm's henchmen tracked down Chandler's family, killed the grandpa and kidnapped the children (all off screen) at the end of season 3.

Oh... right... and that's when Tex died on the plane, when he was saving his kids...  Thanks, I remember now!  Totally forgot!

[ttgreif]

On 28/8/2017 at 10:31 AM, Lonesome Rhodes said:

 

At least the Russian Admiral has not made the scene.  Yet.

 

Hey! I really I mean REALLY miss that...!

Let's hope he pops out from some sort of undercover/underground/underwater ex-Russian base

Edited September 2, 2017 by ttgreif

[oakville]

6 hours ago, ttgreif said:

Hey! I really I mean REALLY miss that...!

Let's hope he pops out from some sort of undercover/underground/underwater ex-Russian base

I think we may see the Russia admiral again. I think he was a worthy opponent. I didn't like the British Immune villain.

On 8/31/2017 at 10:00 AM, FnkyChkn34 said:

Oh... right... and that's when Tex died on the plane, when he was saving his kids...  Thanks, I remember now!  Totally forgot!

I hated that plot. Tex & the Grandpa were good characters.

[oakville]

On 8/30/2017 at 4:28 PM, xaxat said:

It's not the makeup that bothers me about Sasha, it's that she somehow switched from being an intelligence agent to the the leader of a combat team over Green even though that is specifically what he has trained for over his career. And the fact that she goes into combat situations with her hair down. 

When Peter Weller's character said he was a doctor, I was really hoping he was going to say his doctorate was in Italian Renaissance Art History.  A degree he holds in real life.

If Mike dies, I riot! (Seriously though. I hope it's not a tactic to give command back to Chandler.)

What good is money in a world without governments?

I think the geo politics is a bit confusing. They stated on the show that Athens is deserted yet the Greek island where Giorgio lives is operating .? Wouldn't there be thousands of refugees fleeing to all the Greek islands?

I would like to see what is hppening in the USA. Perhaps a cameo by the US President?

[BasilSeal]

On 02/09/2017 at 3:18 PM, oakville said:

I think the geo politics is a bit confusing. They stated on the show that Athens is deserted yet the Greek island where Giorgio lives is operating .? Wouldn't there be thousands of refugees fleeing to all the Greek islands?

I would like to see what is hppening in the USA. Perhaps a cameo by the US President?

It's one of the main failings of this series that after 4 seasons we still don't know much about how the post virus world works. Which is a bit rubbish given that this was basically what season 3 was about. Presumably the UK has some sort of functioning govt because the crew has acquired a new posh British guy, (it's a well known fact that all British people are either old Etonians with cut glass accents or cockernee wide boys).

Did i hear correctly that Georgio offers Omar and extra "10 million Drachmas" for the Mcguffin seeds? which is a bit odd because Greece is in the Euro Zone so there's no such currency as the Drachma anymore, now maybe the EU no longer functions and EU countries have gone back to local currencies, though there is apparently no functioning Greek govt so how a bunch of gangsters have established a fiat currency is unclear but all this aside, surely international terrorist Omar would want paying in dollars? not Greek monopoly money?

Then there's the whole business about the mysterious plant disease which affects all classes of plant life, how exactly do they know that this one seed which they don't have a sample of is immune? and even if they get it, they then have to do what with it? us GM technology to gene splice the resistance gene into common food crops? this would take decades surely? then what about all the other plants that are essential for the carbon cycle, does the virus only affect plants that are edible? Have the writer perhaps not thought this through?

 

Still, it's the last ship so we can't expect too much, it's essentially pretty people with big guns blowing shit up, now with added beards. what's not to like, really?

[Raja]

8 minutes ago, BasilSeal said:

It's one of the main failings of this series that after 4 seasons we still don't know much about how the post virus world works. Which is a bit rubbish given that this was basically what season 3 was about. Presumably the UK has some sort of functioning govt because the crew has acquired a new posh British guy, (it's a well known fact that all British people are either old Etonians with cut glass accents or cockernee wide boys).

Did i hear correctly that Georgio offers Omar and extra "10 million Drachmas" for the Mcguffin seeds? which is a bit odd because Greece is in the Euro Zone so there's no such currency as the Drachma anymore, now maybe the EU no longer functions and EU countries have gone back to local currencies, though there is apparently no functioning Greek govt so how a bunch of gangsters have established a fiat currency is unclear but all this aside, surely international terrorist Omar would want paying in dollars? not Greek monopoly money?

Then there's the whole business about the mysterious plant disease which affects all classes of plant life, how exactly do they know that this one seed which they don't have a sample of is immune? and even if they get it, they then have to do what with it? us GM technology to gene splice the resistance gene into common food crops? this would take decades surely? then what about all the other plants that are essential for the carbon cycle, does the virus only affect plants that are edible? Have the writer perhaps not thought this through?

 

Still, it's the last ship so we can't expect too much, it's essentially pretty people with big guns blowing shit up, now with added beards. what's not to like, really?

In earlier seasons we were lead to believe that the Immune's death cult had taken over Europe, save for the French port that the Russians nuked. How a late spreading cure was enough for them to lose power was unsaid.

Even though it is obvious that the US Navy withdrew their support they have enough stock footage and plenty of ground combat technical advisers for the show to work as military porn. As long as they don't make glaring mistakes like the opening credit Seahawk, which fooled me in the first episode when it became a Huey. 

[BasilSeal]

15 hours ago, Raja said:

In earlier seasons we were lead to believe that the Immune's death cult had taken over Europe, save for the French port that the Russians nuked. How a late spreading cure was enough for them to lose power was unsaid.

well remembered, yes, Europe was supposed to be under the control of the immunes, wasn't it? I suppose we could assume that the immunes now have no more power than anyone else given that their main tactic of infecting those that oppose them no longer works. The could have established networks controlling their territory but it would be easier for remnants of the local military to oppose them now that they're no longer hamstrung by the risk of infection by the red flu. this assumes there are elements of the military left alive, and someone with the authority to organise them. 

The sailor injured by the suicide bomber at the US naval base is flown to Germany, so presumably they have some sort of functioning infrastructure and government there, or maybe it's the US army bases that are functioning . Maybe the writers just forgot about the immunes now, who knows. It really wouldn't be hard to fill some of these blanks in and it would add greatly to the show, IMO.

[millennium]

This show has surpassed bad and is now beyond awful.    I never thought anything could make me look fondly upon the days of the Benny Hill submarine, but here we are.

I don't care about even one of these characters. 

Edited September 11, 2017 by millennium