Tomorrowland
This looks kind of interesting. Heartwarming, too, I assume — because, you know, Disney. But the teaser sparked my curiosity enough to check out the cast, and man. There are some fantastic people here. Other than Britt Robertson and George Clooney, we also have Judy Greer, Hugh Laurie, Keegan Michael Key, and Chris Bauer. I’m concerned that the success of this film could mean movies for every Land of Disney — I personally fear the dread Critter Country movie — but this could eventually be a rental, if I like what I see in longer, more illuminating trailers.
Although I feel it should be said: wouldn’t you try to pick up the pin with your sleeve or something, at least until you got out of juvie? I think I would.
In the Heart of the Sea
And then we have an excellent cast starring in a movie I have absolutely ZERO interest in. Let’s see, we’ve got Cillian Murphy, Chris Hemsworth, Brendan Gleeson, Michelle Fairley, Ben Whishaw, and Donald Sumpter, all being directed by Ron Howard, and yet . . . no, unfortunately, it’s still about a bunch of dudes who get shipwrecked by a giant whale. Pass.
Seriously, there’s this line where they say, “The tragedy of the Essex is the story of men . . . and a demon,” only we’re looking at a giant whale tail with, like, angry alien screaming background noise or something, and I just can’t take that shit seriously as all. I’m not saying a whale can’t fuck your shit up. I’m saying DEMON seems a little excessive. And yes, I know this is the story that inspired Moby Dick, or at least I figured it out by watching the trailer. Still can’t take it very seriously.
Fun fact: when they first mentioned the Essex, I was like, “Hey, I’ve heard of a ship called Essex before, and it obviously wasn’t this. How do I know that name?”
Star Trek: TNG, baby. “Power Play.” Ha.
Top Five
And another one where I care considerably more about the cast than the story, although admittedly, I’d rather watch this than In the Heart of the Sea. (Probably. It’s problematic. As a romantic comedy goes — cause I think we all know that’s where Chris Rock and Rosario Dawson are headed — I don’t think Top Five will do anything I haven’t seen a dozen times before. And the whale movie, at least, could have more exciting action and (hopefully) grisly death scenes. On the other hand, that movie looks like it’s taking itself WAY too seriously. This one isn’t screaming for Oscars and could ultimately be the more enjoyable film.)
Honestly, it’s the rom-com stuff that has me worried. I actually could watch a movie about a comedian who wants to take on more serious roles. It might be kind of nice, even, to see Chris Rock in something that isn’t, oh, Grown Ups, Grown Ups 2, one of the Madagascar movies, etc. Kevin Hart, Whoopi Goldberg, Gabrielle Union, Rosario Dawson, and Tracy Morgan also make up a vey nice supporting cast. I’m just not hugely inspired by this trailer, that’s all.
A Merry Friggin Christmas
Oh, this is sad. It’s always strange to watch actors in their last roles (or one of their last roles, as the case may be), doubly so with Robin Williams. You just don’t quite know how to react. And Robin Williams seems a little different in this movie. Not in a ‘you can tell he was in a dark place’ or some bullshit like that. (I kind of can’t stand people who think they know what’s going on in someone’s life, even if they’ve never met them.) I mean, his role in this particular movie seems less spastic and childlike than others. He’s apparently the conservative, grumpy old man guy, and in a way, that’s kind of funny in and of itself.
Christmas family comedies come out every year, and they usually don’t do much for me, but I’ll admit, Joel McHale and Lauren Graham do pique my curiosity just a bit. (Probably not enough to actually see it, though, not without hearing good things from people whose film opinions I trust.)
And Finally . . . The Librarians
I’ve only seen one of TNT’s Librarian movies — The Curse of the Judas Chalice — and let me tell you guys: it was hysterical. Intentionally, even. I watched it purely to mock the movie and was delighted to see that it was constantly making fun of itself. With that in mind, I watched the trailer for the new TV show, and I’m pretty sure I’m going to try this one out. The self-aware cheesy humor hasn’t gone anywhere. It seems like the perfect silly show to fill the gap that Warehouse 13 left behind. (Also, Leverage.) And I like many people in the cast, particularly John Larroquette and Christian Kane (who has, praise Jesus, cut his hair).
Admittedly, I’m less excited about Lindy Booth, but I guess I can’t entirely blame Cry_Wolf on her, and it’s not exactly her fault that she played the dumbest character in Dawn of the Dead. I will give her another chance. But I may have to be won over.
My Geek Blasphemy 
I agree about In The Heart Of The Sea. Like, sometimes animals do things like kill people or wreck ships or viciously attack my hand because I tried to pat them while they were busy snuggling up to my shoes. But that doesn’t make them evil, and I don’t find it nearly as OMG SERIOUS EPICNESS as this trailer seems to want me to.
I will say, though, that this trailer really makes me want a screen adaptation of The Mariner’s Revenge Song. The whale in that story is neither the villain nor the focal point of the song, and the epicness comes from the protagonist’s insanity.
I liked Lindy Booth in October Road. But that was a really terrible show with largely unlikable characters, leaving me desperately grasping for someone – anyone – I could get attached to. I can’t say whether I would’ve liked her normally.
I don’t usually mind Evil Animal stories, even if the animal is just doing what animals sometimes do. Like, I love Jaws. I think it’s an awesome movie. But then, nobody made a Jaws trailer with PLEASE CONSIDER ME FOR AN OSCAR stamped all over it. (Side note: I kind of want a series of trailers for shitty B horror movies or action flicks, only they’ve been remade to look like serious Oscar movies with sweeping scores and dramatic voiceovers. That could be awesome.) But I’ll tell you what would instantly make me more interested in this story: cannibalism. My sister said that in the real life account, cannibalism was apparently a problem. If Chris Hemsworth eats somebody, I will watch this movie.
I actually don’t know “The Mariner’s Revenge Song.” (I only know The Decemberists a little.) I’ll have to give it a listen.
I also did not watch October Road. I saw some trailers, though, and was like, “Nope.” (To be fair, I also had that reaction for the first trailer I saw for Community. You can’t always know. Even In The Heart of the Sea could be amazing. But until I see some hint of cannibalism, I’m not inclined to try it out.)
Did you end up watching The Librarians? I did, and it’s very okay. Kinda fills the Warehouse 13/Leverage void, although I have to say that the only characters who really stick out for me at the moment are Christian Kane’s guy and Jenkins, who’s sort of like The Librarians’ Artie. Cassandra’s halfway there, I think – at least they’re developing her, which is more than I can say for Ezekiel. It was fun seeing him under the influence of Santa’s jingly hat and all, but four episodes in, and his characterization still hasn’t gotten much further than “Cocky thief.”
Though it pleases me to an irrational degree that he’s Asian Australian, because I have literally never seen anyone with that background before in any international media, despite us having a pretty large Asian population. Actually, I could probably count on one hand the number of Australian characters who weren’t either white or indigenous.
I am also irrationally pleased with myself for guessing prior to the show that Cassandra would be a bit of an expy of Fred from Angel, just based off of her general costuming in that trailer. Also, while I’m on Cassandra, I hope we get more details on how the brain tumour/synesthesia works, because I can’t figure it out and it’s bugging me.
Also, Matt Frewer from Orphan Black is in this as a recurring villain, and it was so awesome seeing him ham it up while infected by the jingly Christmas hat. (Oh, and Bruce Campbell played Santa.)
I’ve thus far found the plotting to be slightly better than I expected, in particular the minotaur episode. They did this awesome, sort of House Of Leaves-ian version of the Labyrinth myth, wherein it isn’t just a place, but a curse/mental effect that scrambles its victims sense of direction and messes with their surroundings to lure them deeper into itself – so even if they escape, they just get drawn right back in. However, I feel like they didn’t capitalize on the terrifying potential in that concept. I desperately want to see a subtler, darker horror version of that idea. The minotaur is optional, although I think it should be used sparingly if it is in there.
Speaking of, if you haven’t watched the show, I highly recommend this clip of the minotaur. I love it so much, it looks like they just went to a costume rental store. It was really disappointing when the minotaur later changed into a human disguise to hunt them through the outside world.
As far as the films go, I think the one you saw is probably the best of them, and also, coincidentally, the funniest. It’s the only one where I didn’t hate Flynn and his love interest as a couple, too, because they actually seemed to like one another’s company and have fun together. (No joke – the dynamic between Flynn and his first love interest, and the realisation of how their roles were going to play out, made me have to take a break from the movie. For several days, mind.)
You made an excellent decision skipping out on October Road, unless you wanted to hear some legendarily bad dialogue. At one point I was going to teach myself editing by making a compilation of all the worst lines, but I never got past the whittling-it-down stage of things. There were just so many to choose from!
I am actually watching The Librarians, and so far I’m really enjoying it. Jake (who I keep calling Elliot) and Jenkins are my favorites, but I do actually like Baird for the most part, more than I thought I would, and Cassandra is okay. (I, too, wouldn’t mind more details about her synesthesia.) I don’t love her yet, but she has moments. Ezekial isn’t particularly well-developed and I’m not quite as charmed by him as the show wants me to be, but I also don’t have any serious problem with him yet. I’m willing to give the show a little longer on the characterization because I do feel like we’re going to get it. Also, I did laugh pretty hard at his Santa hijinks, even if it drove me nuts that they didn’t immediately give Santa back his hat for no real reason that I could see. (I finally just shrugged at it because I basically adored the rest of the episode. Bruce Campbell Santa was amazing. Also, yes, Matt Frewer in the Santa hat. I really like Matt Frewer. I enjoy him in just tons of stuff, and this is the rare thing where he doesn’t seem to be dying and/or the personification of Famine.)
I do kind of hope that before Ezekial becomes a fully redemptive character, he leaves the team behind at some point to save his own skin. I think it’s too soon for him to suddenly become a Unequivocal Good Guy.
I enjoyed the Minotaur episode — oh, that costume was so hilariously BAD. I actually didn’t mind the change to Human Minotaur, though, mostly because it just struck me as funny that he could do that. Sure, Human Minotaur, why not? My favorite part of that episode didn’t have anything to do with the labyrinth, though. It was the character beat near the end with Jake and Cassandra. You ever watch a character and they suddenly seem to be speaking for you? There was something about the quiet, stilted way Jake was trying to express his trust issues that just really worked for me and that I could relate to. Even if I’ve never been betrayed by a new colleague to an evil league of evil.
Nah, I think I’ll just keep staying away from October Road. Atrociously terrible dialogue CAN be its own sort of fun, but there are probably more enjoyable movies and shows I can go to for that.
There was a bit where Jenkins told Jacob and Cassandra that the hat would be affecting Ezekiel and perhaps they should tell him to take it off, and Jacob was like “,,,Nah.” So I just assumed they left it on him because they found Santa Ezekiel amusing. And I adored that, right up until he and Cassandra were organizing the plane and the hat was actively interfering in them saving Christmas.
I had to look Matt Frewer up to see where I knew him from, at which point I discovered that in addition to Dr. Leekie, he was also the old guy in the Dawn Of The Dead remake. Hi, Matt Frewer! I might not have remembered during Orphan Black that it was you in that movie, but your last line has stayed with me for years.
I’m not sure that they’d go there with Ezekiel, but it would certainly be interesting.
I have had those kinds of moments with characters. I wasn’t having one in that scene, but I did like it a lot, most especially the way Jacob had to struggle so to articulate how he was feeling.
In the latest episode, I’m not sure if there was supposed to be some sort of desirability component to the apple? Something that made each member of our team touch it, even when they knew they shouldn’t (Jacob and Ezekiel get a pass, Cassandra perhaps didn’t realise that it was the apple that made Jacob crazy, but why the holy hell would Baird and Flynn grab it with their bare hands? They knew how it would affect them!) and never put it down, even when they needed their hands for things like rearranging paintings or math-fighting Lamia. Speaking of, is math-fighting going to be a skill Cassandra only has while evil? I suspect that it is, even though that doesn’t make sense.
Anyway, it was an awful lot of fun to see what everyone’s evil selves were like. It greatly amuses me that Evil Flynn and Evil Baird want to take over the world, Evil Cassandra tries to knock out Europe’s power for shits and giggles, and Evil Jacob… gets angry over misplaced paintings. Also loved how much scenery Evil Cassandra and Evil Flynn were chewing, and Lamia and Matt Frewer’s utter confusion at their OOC-ness.
Oh, I was all okay with them leaving the hat on at first. I laughed, even, when Cassandra and Stone decided not to tell Ezekiel. But yeah, once it was obvious that the hat was getting in the way of them getting their plane, I didn’t understand why someone didn’t just yank it off. And when they met up with Santa, who looked like crap, I don’t get why no one thought, Hmmm, this is HIS magical power totem. Maybe we should give this back and see if it helps.
Matt Frewer is one of those actors I’ve been watching since I was a kid, since I grew up on both Honey, I Shrunk The Kids and (oddly enough) The Stand TV miniseries. He has, I’ve noticed, been typecast as a diseased old man a lot, which is interesting since he’s not even quite 60. But he was a cancer patient in 50/50. He was an ex-supervillain with cancer in Watchmen. He played Pestilence in Supernatural. (I think I accidentally said Famine before.) And, yup, soon-to-be zombie in Dawn of the Dead. (HA! I don’t know why I forgot that he played Cassandra’s father in that movie. That really amuses me now. I HATED her character so much in that film — she may, in fact, have begun my obsession with priorities.) And hey! I also really love Frewer’s last line in Dawn of the Dead. It has always stuck with me.
Yeah, I think it’s the way Stone has trouble articulating in this scene that worked so well for me. Because it’s not a spiteful, angry scene, which would have been obvious and done — even when Stone’s saying he learned his lesson, he immediately tries to backtrack, keep it from being an accusation. The way he kept starting and stopping, trying to express something out loud and not being able to — that’s what I really connected with.
I am assuming the apple was silently saying pick me up, pick me up because otherwise, yeah, that doesn’t make sense. Evil Cassandra actually didn’t work for me quite as well as I wanted it to, but the fact that Evil Stone just wanted to fix the museum amused the hell out of me, especially considering, like you said, everybody else wanted to take over and/or destroy the world. (This now makes me wonder what would have happened if Jenkins had touched the apple. I am so interested in Jenkins. That scene with him and Matt Frewer at the end of that ep was so GOOD.) I didn’t really buy that Ezekiel is already the worst version of himself, but it was funny enough, so I let it go.
And agreed: Lamia and Matt Frewer’s confusion was the BEST. This is also probably the first episode where I’ve cared even a little about Lamia. (Not because she’s bad. She just hasn’t had anything really to do yet but be sexy evil. Even her “what the hell is wrong with you all today” face felt like a step in the right direction.)
Teacups didn’t actually notice that Santa looked like crap. Teacups can be awfully unobservant.
On that note, when I skimmed Matt Frewer’s IMDB page, I somehow missed that he was in Watchmen, The Stand, 50/50, and Honey, I Shrunk The Kids. Maybe I’d just woken up or something.
Apart from the confusion, about the only thing about Lamia so far that’s grabbed my attention so is her flirtation with Jake, but it’s the fact that he’s actually reciprocating that makes it fun, so I don’t think that entirely counts. Uh, I’ve been reading John Rogers’ blog, and he said at some point that Lamia is a zealot and truly believes her cause is just. I could like that, if we see it a little more.
I wasn’t that into the fairy tales episode, humour and Rene Auberjonois aside – but the humour was an awful lot of fun. I have to memorize Jenkins’ monologue so I can quote it near vending machines. Some of Baird’s princessisms were pretty great too. My second favourite part was her genuinely horrified “It’s happening,” after her failed attempt at a scornful, non-princessy laugh.
Also, I predictably enjoyed the hell out of every woman in town going gay for Prince Cassandra (and Jake’s growing frustration at Red Riding Hood ignoring him) especially since most shows would’ve assigned that role to Jake or left it out altogether. Or worse, had the fairy tale lesbianism in there to make fun of it. (I mean, it was played for laughs, but I didn’t get the sense that this was BECAUSE it was gay. You could’ve done all the same gags if Cassandra had been a dude.)
Then we had the twofer this week. Uh, let’s see… It was pretty great seeing Bex Taylor Kraus again, and unusually for a one-episode guest star, I really liked and was interested in her character. She figured out the wish-fulfillment phone app, kinda! She volunteered to help them do magic, and found it awesome that magic was real! Man, I sorta hope she shows up again, somehow. Also loved the girl whose science project was about how sea otters will take over the world. That was amazing. In this universe, she could potentially be right, mice-in-Hitchiker’s-Guide style. I would laugh so damn hard if the finale was them fighting sea otters – although I expect that’s far too silly for the show to do.
It did really bug me that Morgan Le Fay’s whole “You only have time to kill me OR save everyone, not both,” routine actually worked. It wouldn’t have taken that long to shoot her in the head, or to throw her off that damn balcony they were both on – if it turned into an extended struggle, THEN Baird could have left.
They should’ve had Baird up on the stage at the end instead of Jake and Cassandra. As it was, it seemed like they’d picked the volcano kid as the winner. Which doesn’t actually entirely make sense for Cassandra – given how she’d been geeking out about the fair, I imagine she would’ve at least tried to pick someone who deserved to win. On the other hand, if Baird had picked the kid, it would’ve made sense and been funny. (I did like her enthusiasm for a project that actually met her expectations of high school science fairs. And also Morgan’s line “Oh, you’re a guardian. Sorry, I’ll talk slower.” And the running gag of everyone occasionally feeling the need to unnecessarily explain random things to her.)
I was pretty delighted to get a haunted house episode, and I loved the twist that the house wasn’t evil, just being misused by an evil person, and the creepy shit was all to try and scare them off. Although, couldn’t it have communicated with them a little more clearly? If it could write and send visions how about a vision of Katie brutally disembowelling somebody, or a message saying “Hey idiots, Katie is an immortal bloody serial killer from the 1800s who lured you here to kill you. Try asking her who the present day president is. I’m the wish-granting House Of Refuge, by the way.” You know, instead of just backing up her story. (After ruminating on it as I wrote this, I’m guessing its abilities were supposed to be rather spotty without specific wishes being made, but how hard would it’ve been to mention that, show?)
My other issue with the house’s warnings was that when we saw the photo that gave Katie away, she was so small and blurry that I still couldn’t tell at all that it was her.
I didn’t like the character arc in this episode much at all – it’s a damn shame it had to be in the horror episode, even if it did lead to a fun game of Teacups: Amateur Script Doctor as I was lying in bed last night.
First off, I understand not wanting to feel left out, but there’s a time to deal with that. It’s any fucking time you’re NOT in the middle of a horror movie, trying to save four kids’ and Ezekiel’s lives. Talk to Baird about it when you’re all back at the Annex having tea and biscuits, for Chrissakes.
Out-of-universe, the writers couldn’t do that for narrative reasons. So instead, I would’ve had Cassandra didn’t want to be protected because of her health issues as her friends charged headlong into danger. (In fairness, that did seem to be a little bit of it, but I think it was mostly feeling left out, untrusted, and wanting to prove herself to make up for her pilot betrayal.) It doesn’t come off as extraordinarily petty and selfish – I mean to levels only acceptable if you’re playing it for laughs – and it generally makes a lot more sense for the situation. Though I think Baird actually wins the Dummy Of The Week award here, for repeatedly insisting everyone split up and wander around the haunted house (now featuring a psychotic killer!) on their own.
Secondly, the big speech at the end caused me physical pain, I hated it so. I do like the idea of finding Cassandra finding Katie a wee bit underwhelming because she’s already had to deal with her imminent death for so long, and I think that’s what they were trying to convey there? But it was vague and overwrought and just an awful bit of dialogue. So throw out the speech, or at least cut it down a lot – desperately fighting to the death is a bad time to be monologuing, unless you’re evil of course. Though even then, the villains always believe they’ve got everything under control, and thus have the time for speeches.
I also would’ve had Cassandra weaponizing the house a lot more. Things like, “I wish this gun had some ammo in it” or “I wish I was invisible”? When Katie was searching the room, I really thought that was what had happened, and was disappointed when Cassandra was just hiding under a blanket or something instead.
On a different topic, I liked how comfortable Ezekiel was with being trapped in a dollhouse, but I think he would’ve been way more ambitious with his self-serving wishes. Instead of the video games, couldn’t he have been testing the limits of the house’s wish-granting? It still would’ve been funny, and it would’ve established the house’s limits.
Finally, I did ask how Cassandra’s synestesia/tumour works in one of the post-ep Q&As on John Rogers’ blog, and he said this.
“It’s important to remember that her tumor didn’t cause the synesthesia, it amplifies and interferes with it. When she accesses her memory, the imagery is amplified and spun out by the hallucinatory effects of the tumor’s placement. Also — pulp show.”
Carlie can be awfully unobservant too at times. Carlie will not judge Teacups too harshly, lest Teacups turn that judgment back upon her. 🙂
I’ve been pretty amused with Stone’s reaction to Lamia. I’ve also been reading John Rogers’s blog and am interested to see how Lamia’s motivations are explored. Also, and only semi-related, I’ve noticed that the majority of people on Archive seem to be shipping Stone/Cassandra. (It’s not a particularly big fandom. There’s, like, fifty stories so far.) I see where they’re pulling from, but I’m not much of a fan, and would actually be more interested in Cassandra/Ezekial. Shipper thoughts?
I did actually like the fairy tales episode quite a bit, probably for the humor. (And yes, Rene A.) I, too, liked Prince Cassandra Charming, Baird’s, “Why am I wearing heels?” and Jenkins’s proper appreciation of vending machines. It was the haunted house episode, unfortunately, that didn’t do much for me. I liked that the house itself was good — that was a fun twist — but I didn’t trust Katie pretty much the second I saw her, probably because I didn’t think she was a particularly convincing actress. Which, I feel bad about. I try to be nice to the young ones. But I did have trouble taking her seriously, and watching her directly after Bex Taylor Klaus in the last ep made me yearn for a stronger actress in the role.
I agree, it also drove me nuts that they kept splitting up for what seemed like no apparent reason. (I know that’s horror movie standard, but come on now. Let’s focus on the pattern here and STOP GOING OFF BY OURSELVES.) The speech seemed a bit awkward, though I appreciated that Lindy Booth seemed to be going for it. My serious Dialogue Fail was a little earlier when I think Katie was giving Cassandra an inspirational speech or something, and Cassandra’s all, “Right! I can do this!” and I just wanted to die. Too. Much. Schmaltz.
On the upside, the school fair episode was easily one of my favorites. I was really happy that the goth kids weren’t evil (cause, come on). Good character development for Cassandra and Stone. I would also be totally happy if Bex Taylor Klaus came back at some point. She could be a junior assistant librarian, I don’t know. But I like her. I didn’t call that Alicia Witt was playing Morgan le Fay until the last moment, but I did call that she was the bad guy for purely casting reasons. I enjoyed her, although my one problem with the whole episode was the same one you had: why the HELL couldn’t Baird knock her out and tie her up first or something? The whole ‘you only have time to save the innocents or kill me’ dilemma is a bit of a cliche but works fine if you actually believe the hero only has time to do one. Here, not so much.
Finally, ha! I actually saw that question and thought of you. That’s hilarious. 🙂
Well, balls, we might never get to explore Lamia. Though I did like seeing her as Cassandra’s Guardian, at least, at it somewhat ties into her genuine belief that she’s acting for the greater good.
I guess I’d be fine with either. Ezekiel and her seem on more of an even footing, which is nice, but I’m getting more of a friendly vibe off of them, to be honest. I’m not actively rooting for or against either ship. I definitely get the feeling that Jake/Cassandra is the one that will actually happen on the show, though, especially when she was getting snarky at his endless flirting with Mabel. (Though that may not have been indicative of anything, as I was kinda in the same boat. Jake, have the case-relevant discussion first, and THEN bond with the pretty lady. Especially when you’re trying to rescue your friend, jeez.)
Fun thing about Katie, did you know she was actually a real person? Jenkins’ exposition at the end about the serial killing Bender Family was true – they ran an inn wherein they’d kill their guests (which seems like an awfully obvious method of serial killing to me) and then fled when people got suspicious. There were a few vigilante groups who claimed to have killed them and things like that, but their fates were never confirmed.
The inspirational speech and preceding conversation felt off to me – like, Katie was talking like she’d knew and cared about Cassandra more than made sense? But then she turned out to be evil, and I felt like that punctured the speech’s schmaltz, as the reason it had felt like that was just that Katie had been overdoing it.
Finale thoughts?
I know! I was like, wait, you killed Lamia? Weren’t we supposed to hear more about her? I feel like we were supposed to hear more about her.
I could warm up to the Jake/Cassandra. I think it just feels like the expected route to go, and I’m a little bored by it. Ezekial and Cassandra strike me as more interesting. They certainly seem like they’d be more fun, although maybe that’s me thinking of Ezekial and Evil Cassandra. Either way, I kind of like the idea of their friendly chemistry becoming something else, but that’s not unusual for me. I often prefer a friend-based to a passion-based romance. As long as it’s not, like, sibling based. I will never forgive BSG for one of my most hated couples in all of television.
Also, I adored snarky Cassandra. Snarky Cassandra needs to be a permanent member of the team.
I didn’t know about Katie specifically, but I knew the Benders were real. I think I first heard about them when Supernatural did that one episode in first season.
Mostly, I liked the finale. I really liked the episode before — that was probably one of my favorites. (I will probably always be a sucker for Stone angst. Also, I really liked that Ezekial was the one having the moral qualms. It probably won’t lead to more character development, but it COULD.) But as far as the actual finale goes — I enjoyed all the alternate timelines, Baird’s reaction to kissing Stone, the reveal about Lancelot and Galahad, and that Jenkins had somehow been orchestrating their defense this whole time. I was kind of bummed they killed Lamia because I just expected they’d do something more with her, but I think my only serious problem was the fight at the end with Jerry O’Connell/Matt Frewer b/c it felt super underwhelming. And he just disappears, and I’m like, oh, okay? Even if he’s coming back next season (which I kind of assume, although don’t know for sure), the guy is still your season’s Big Bad. I feel like he deserved more than that.
Assuming it gets renewed (PLEASE GET RENEWED), I’m curious to see where it goes second season. Y tu?
I will say that I like Cassandra and Ezekiel’s bond more in general – I just don’t view it as romantic at this juncture. However, I definitely agree with the preferring friend-based to passion-based romance. I tend to find it hard to imagine the latter types ever actually settling down and working as a couple on a day-to-day basis, without all the drama. A couple who are actually friends have a much more solid base to the relationship.
Oh dear, I’ve never seen BSG, what happened?
I’m surprised there hasn’t been any Cassandra/Eve shipping fic yet either, or at least not that I’ve seen. I don’t really view them that way myself, but it usually doesn’t take too much to get a bit of a slash following going and now we’ve gotten that moment where Baird was batting her eyelashes at Prince Cassandra and the “Please don’t tell me I was like a mother to you,” “No, nothing like that,” exchange, which a lot of people found suggestive.
I really liked the whole electricity ghosts/bodysnatchers concept in the the ninth episode. And they did the pointy Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers scream! I too found it interesting to see Ezekiel have an ethical objection to something, and it fits that he’d have strong opinions on what is and isn’t okay to steal. The whole debate over whether or not to help the ghosts was a fun well-balanced ethical dilemna. And I loved that, when they realised that the fix might backfire and kill tens of thousands of people (at least) they maturely talked it over and decided to stop it. I don’t see the heroes making that call so often in pop culture, especially when it’s a main character they’re trying to save – in fact, more often the kind of choice the Librarians made would be presented as the wrong thing to do.
I generally loved the final lack of day-saving this episode, too. I always appreciate when episodic shows occasionally have the main characters unable to fix things. Makes the stakes feel a little more genuine episode-to-episode, instead of only existing in the big finales.
Also enjoyed the running UFO argument – Ezekiel’s enthusiasm for it, Cassandra finding enthusiasm cute, Jenkins’ insistence that UFOs are ridiculous and smugness when he’s right, and Zeke’s Kent Brockman-esque plan to sell us out to our new alien overlords.
The finale was okay. I utterly adored Baird’s reaction to Stone kissing her – one of my favourite moments all season. I liked how the LITs were all the heroes of apocalypse stories from three different genres. Upon reflection, though, it bothers me that Flynn is the only Librarian whose world didn’t get all apocalyptic in the last decade, AND AltFlynn had to save the day in each alternate universe. That bit just felt like they were pushing Flynn’s awesomeness as a Librarian too hard, and for no particular reason.
If I ever do a full season rewatch, I think I’ll do it with the episodes in the intended order, not the one they were shown in. I expect the season would flow better.
I hope it gets renewed too. It’ll sorta interesting to see where it’ll go now that the Library’s back – if Falling Skies finishes shooting in time, I’m assuming Noah Wyle would be a regular. Would Charlene and Judson be showing up too? Regulars? How would the team dynamics work now that the former-LITs have graduated?