20 thoughts on “TV Superlatives: September, October, November – 2021”

1. I love “Evil” so much. Agree with everything above re.: it.

   Reply

   • It’s just so deliciously weird! I’m glad I finally started watching it.

     Reply

2. I’m in the middle of Evil Season 2, and I remember enough of the lyrics to Fake Palindromes to be mighty curious about that Sheryl scene.

   I really enjoyed the possession case-of-the-week with the very Old Testament-y angel – I loved the concept, the creature design, and the heavenly lighting and colour scheme in his scenes – and I liked his last scene… Except I really that shouldn’t have been the last scene.

   Reply

   • Ah, apologies for the partial spoilers. I forgot to think of the Andrew Bird fans! Do let me know what you think when you get to that scene. 🙂

     That episode, is that A is for Angel? I admit, I don’t totally remember the wrap-up of that story, it didn’t stick with me for whatever reason. But I agree, I did really love the design and artwork in that one.

     Reply

     • Yeah, it was A Is For Angel. I meant to elaborate, but my computer ate my comment while I was writing it. I didn’t even realise I’d posted it.

       The ending of that one was that they go over to the dude’s house, and he’s staring at a big pile of salt, which he reckons God turned his wife into – like Lot’s wife when they were leaving Sodom. And then that’s it.

       It was presumably meant to be an ambiguous ending – his wife had been considering leaving him and Kristen had given her the number of a women’s shelter, so she could’ve just walked out and then he went and bought 200kg of salt, dumped it in the corner, and convinced himself that this was his wife. Or it could be the same thing, but he murdered his wife when she threatened to walk out on him. Or maybe God really turned her to salt.

       It felt incomplete, because presumably the team didn’t just go “Oh, his wife is a pile of salt now, what a shame,” and go home. I would assume they would’ve at least made a cursory attempt to find her – call the women’s shelter, check the basement for corpses, that kind of thing. If they wanted the ambiguous ending, they could’ve had them say they’ve done that and haven’t found her, but it could just be she left without going to the shelter, or he disposed of the body – so they contact the police about it, and hope she’ll turn up.

       We still wouldn’t know what happened to her, but since she was the person who called them in and the dude didn’t want to be exorcised of the angel, once they turned her disappearance over to the cops their work on his case would presumably be done, so the story would feel more finished.

       Also, do you have any thoughts about who Temperance’s prophecies from Nancy Drew apply to?

       My Least Favourite Subplot is also a love triangle, from the second season of The Alienist. It’s the worst kind of love triangle, where two of our main characters are love interests, and then one of them gets a fiance with very little personality, interior life, or involvement in the story except to be jealous and be a reason for our love interests to angst over each other. And the storyline has been taking up an ever-increasing amount of time as the season goes on, too – I hated it so much I ended up taking an indefinite break from the show halfway through an episode.

       With apologies to Evil, I’m gonna have to give Best WTF Moment to Riverdale. They’ve been doing a short run of episodes set in an alternate dimension, which (initially) seems almost identical to the main dimension, except the town is called Rivervale. At the end of the first alternate dimension episode, Cheryl ritually sacrificed Archie to “She Who Walks Amongst The Trees,” to make sure the town was fertile and prosperous, while all the other main characters on the show helped. It had been foreshadowed to hell and back, but I still never saw it coming, because I was judging these versions of the characters by their largely similar prime-dimension selves, and I’d assumed all the characters had either too high moral standards or too much affection for Archie to do anything really bad to him.

       At that point, I realised that the alternate dimension episodes were most likely going to feature the main cast getting killed off to various horror tropes and homages. (Also, Jughead narrates each episode in the style of The Twilight Zone.) And as a bonus WTF, it cracks me up that the next episode went back to framing them as you’d expect for their regular selves, and treating them as protagonists, even as it kept reminding us that this was set in the same continuity and these lunatics fucking human sacrificed their friend last week.

       Reply

       • Ah, that’s right, the pillar of salt. Yeah, I see what you mean there. Though I have to say, it would be an incredible blooper if we DID literally see someone on the team say, “Oh, his wife is a pile of salt now, what a shame,” and just go home. I would die laughing.

         You know, I’m not sure about the prophecies. I’ve definitely been thinking about them, or over-thinking, as is my wont. I like to make things too complicated. For instance, if there’s a trick to it: six characters, six destinies, so you’re thinking one destiny each, right, but the way it’s worded, technically, they could all apply to one person. Also, I assume we’re supposed to think “fulfill your destiny” will be Nancy cause, like, Nancy Drew, but I was wondering if that might be Bess instead. (I have very mixed feelings on Bess’s Woman in White stuff. I actually like that she wants to do magic–I was really worried S3 would just be about her love life and nothing else–but it all feels so rushed, up to and including her working with Temperance. I’m trying to let it go, but it frustrates me.) I am hoping no one is going to lose their heart literally, because if any of those six characters do, it’ll probably be Ryan, and I like Ryan. What about you? What do you think about the prophecies?

         Sometimes, I’m sorry I gave up on Riverdale because it always sounds fucking wild. But not quite sorry enough to start back up again. Which is too bad because Rivervale sounds bonkers-amazing.

         Reply

         • DUDE. That is eerie. I just came up with the exact same theory – by myself, I didn’t see any part of it online where you might’ve read it too – a few days ago about how maybe all the prophecies were about one person, and that person is Bess. I was gonna lay it out in my previous comment, but then I thought I’d get your thoughts first.

           I realised how many of the prophecies could either apply to her crushing Odette’s soul stone (“Betray your true love”/”Forsake what is dearest to you,”) or Temperance planning to use Bess somehow to wreak havoc, cause the others’ demise, and make the others fall. I mean, I’d figure she’s been teaching Bess magic for a reason. (Judging by the promo for the next episode, it seems like Bess might accidentally put a truth spell on everyone in town, which could also wreak some havoc.) And Bess could have the last soul shard, being fated to lose her heart.

           With that being said, shortly after I came up with that theory and was very proud of myself, I saw it pointed out that Temperance told Nancy that the destiny card applied to her, right before they went into that serial killer’s brain. I mean, Temperance could be a lying liar who was lying in that scene, but IDK, it seems like kind of a cheat to pull both that and trying to make us think there’s one prophecy per person.

           I did wonder if maybe the prophecies were all about Nancy, but it admittedly doesn’t fit as well. As I guessed for Bess, Temperance needs Nancy for something ominous, so some prophecies could still easily be about what Temperance is planning. But the others feel like less of a natural fit.

           If it is actually one-prophecy-per-person, though, I agree that Ryan – not being a member of the main five – is the most likely candidate to (literally) lose his heart, if said prophecy isn’t gonna be averted or reversed somehow. Betraying your true love could be Nick and George if they break up, or it could be Ace going behind Amanda’s back to catch her dad, or Bess and Odette, as mentioned. I know the last one really seems like a stretch for “true love,” but eh, I kinda expect the CW to be hyperbolic with that kind of thing.

           Seriously though – are you a mind reader? Have you been my split personality all this time? Did you read that theory online, in what may have been a comment I made on a Nancy Drew message board? Has this theory been making the rounds on the internet, and I just haven’t seen it about? Did a ghost tell you?

           Reply

           • What can I say? Ghosts tell me their secrets. This is where all my stories come from.

             In truth, I think I actually had the ‘maybe all the prophecies apply to one person’ idea after watching the first episode. I didn’t see it anywhere online. Actually, I don’t usually read message boards for any of the shows I watch. Instead, I pretty much immediately rewatched this scene just so I could write all the prophecies down and then obsess about them because I’m a GIGANTIC sucker for this kind of suspense. But the problem, as you said, is that the prophecies are so vague that most of them could potentially apply to anyone here.

             I did forget about Temperance telling Nancy that she’s the Destined One. I admit, part of me kind of wishes she’s lying because, much as I generally like Nancy, I feel like it would be very fitting with her character to sorta assume she’s the Chosen One and therefore more likely to believe it when Temperance lies. (This is kinda going back to her, ‘OFC I’ll get into Columbia, even though my grades tanked and I took a gap year and Columbia is a BIG DEAL SCHOOL where tens of thousands of super smart kids still don’t get in’ attitude.) It also could potentially be interesting if Temperance is just WRONG about her own prophecy and who it applies to. Either way, I think I’ll just have to see how they handle it.

             Another thing I was considering about the whole ‘losing your heart’ deal is that it could be a misdirect. Say Bess does have one of the soul shards, and she’s just barely saved, so we’re relieved that the crisis is averted–only for somebody else outside the core six to literally lose their heart instead, say, Carson or Agent Park. I don’t know if I really think they’re going that way and frankly hope not because I like both those characters, but prophecies are by nature tricksy, so I’m keeping it in mind. (Also, since it doesn’t seem that Agent Park is a secret bad guy, like I’d initially assumed, and thus I worry about his lifespan. And not just because I liked the actor in The Librarians. I feel like he brings a different energy to the show. Then again, I guess they could just drop him between seasons like poor Tamura. Have you read any gossip/theories about that? I was really surprised when he never came back. I’d kinda finally warmed up to him and everything.)

             Reply

             • I knew it! Anyway, I’ve been going back and forth on it, and ended up still favouring the Bess theory, even if it means Temperance was lying. Apart from that, it just feels right.

               I’m hoping Park doesn’t turn out to be evil, or get murdered, because I also quite like him. But regrettably, if the show’s gonna kill someone off for shock value, him, Ryan, or Carson all seem like they’d be high up on the list. IDK how the show would keep him on long-term though, given he’s there as an FBI agent working the Frozen Hearts case. Maybe the FBI could do what they did with Betty on Riverdale, and say that this one small town has so much crime and murder that they’re just giving Park a permanent field office there?

               I haven’t heard anything about Tamura. Though my guess would be that either the actor had other commitments, or they wanted to do the love interest storyline with Nancy, figured Tamura was too old for it not to be creepy, and then figured that having both him and Park around would be redundant.

               I’m up to the penultimate episode of Evil, and the Fake Palindromes scene was indeed great. Even though you said it was a very literal song choice, I wasn’t prepared for just HOW literal. It was clear they’d written the scene entirely around the lyrics of the song – almost every line had a matching shot embodying it. It was basically a music video.

               I did ship Kristen and Fenna (the face touching! the t-shirt!) and share your disappointment that Fenna seemed to be a one-off character. I guess she could leave the monestary and come be a nun with Sister Andrea?

               I am really liking that even though demons and whatnot explicitly exist in this universe, and the Church’s mythology seems to be more-or-less correct, they’re still portrayed fairly critically, and have the same sorts of institutional problems that they have in real life. It’s more nuanced than “Demons bad, church fights demons, therefore church good,” which what I’ve mostly seen before from religious horror. It’s definitely more appealing to me politically, given I’m not overly fond of the Catholic Church.

               I was kind of surprised that the cop episode ended up so strongly blasting not just the RL police, but the many, many cop shows featuring “heroic,” rule-breaking mavericks who get results via intimidation and brutality. I would’ve thought the network would’ve pushed back on that, because they also make some of the shows that Evil was criticizing as morally bankrupt. And one of CBS’s top-rated shows is Blue Bloods, which is significantly worse than average about that kind of shit.

               I also think that episode works better because Mira was a recurring character who’d been long established as a good friend of Kristen’s, who’d previously seemed like a professional who was trying to do the right thing, even when her goals differed from the protagonists’. So you’d think that in an episode tackling these sorts of issues, she’d be held up as the example of a “good cop,” to contrast everyone else. But instead she reveals herself to be exactly the kind of nepotistic, racist, trigger-happy asshole the episode was criticizing, and Kristen just hadn’t seen and/or registered that side of her before.

               We didn’t know Mira well enough to call this OOC, but we’d seen her enough that it was unexpected for the audience (or me, at least) the same way it was for Kristen. You *could’ve* done the storyline by introducing her as Kristen’s friend in this episode, but it wouldn’t have hit the same.

               Love the pop-up book opening titles, but if they were gonna sell a real-life version, how would you store the fresh brain that comes with it?

               Reply

               • Yeah, Park is definitely the easiest to kill off, followed by Carson or Ryan. I definitely feel that enough weird shit happens here that the FBI could be like, “Dude, you have to stay.” It’s what I’m rooting for, personally, but I don’t think it’ll happen, especially b/c I think John Harlan Kim is still in that 9-1-1 show.

                 Wait. Did Betty on Riverdale become an FBI agent? *dies laughing*

                 You’re right, “Fake Palindromes” on Evil basically was a music video. I don’t know exactly why it works so well for me, but it really does. (I’m now trying to think of all the other TV shows I watch and decide what song they would use, if they decided to randomly just open one of their episodes with a music video. Hmm.)

                 Holy shit, Fenna and Sister Andrea would be a fucking force to be reckoned with.

                 I think Evil was allowed to get away with way more shit in S2 because it jumped from being on CBS/Paramount Plus, to just being on Paramount Plus. Like, obviously CBS still owns the service, but Paramount Plus seems to have way more freedom to be weird/swear/heavily criticize institutions. That being said, it’s still kinda surprising considering the damn plethora of crime procedurals on CBS. Like, Cops and Sitcoms is basically CBS’s whole brand. (I still have not see a single episode of Blue Bloods and am thankful for it. I’m sure we’ve discussed this before, but it looks kind of excruciating.)

                 Agreed, the whole episode works specifically because Mira is a recurring character and, up till now, seemed basically fine. You’re not so invested that you’re devastated or crying OOC, but it hits much harder than some random Secret Bad Cop who we’ve never heard of before.

                 I wouldn’t keep the fresh brain. I would wait for a stormy night and use it for Resurrection Science.

                 Reply

3. Yep, Betty became an FBI agent during the timeskip, as inspired by her FBI agent long-lost brother – who then turned out to be a serial killer. Then she got kicked out for disobeying orders, then got reinstated after she caught a whole clan of serial killers who were masquerading as aliens. She was then told that the FBI was opening a field office in Riverdale permanently – which makes sense, it is the Serial Killer Capital of the World – and can hence now be an FBI agent while remaining on the show.

   I have finished Evil now. What did you think of Sheryl’s arc this season? I’m onboard with her becoming more of a full-fledged, willing villain instead of just Leland’s dupe, and I’m really enjoying her begrudging semi-friendship with Leland. I am slightly confused about her being the heir to a demon house though – the guy she’s meant to be succeeding looks to be about the same age as her, which seems like it’d sort of defeat the point. But then, it’s also totally possible that one of the effects of mainlining other people’s bodily fluids is screwing with their lifespan – her predecessor could be much, much older than he looks.

   On a side note, I absolutely love that the way to become the new head of a demon house is to eat the old one, and that the demon houses throw a cannibalism dinner party to celebrate.

   Oh, my Favourite Badass Moment is going to the very last task of Taskmaster. Everyone had to make a certain type of noise without the host – who could hear but not see them – guessing which of the five contestants it was. The second category was beatboxing, and one woman had to ask what that is. Her neighbour Morgana was then first up to the mat, and gave the worst possible attempt that could still technically qualify as beatboxing. The host mused that such incompetence would point to the woman who hadn’t known what beatboxing was, but realises someone could be doing this deliberately to mislead him. However, being familiar with the contestents after an entire season of judging them, he then declares that that level of cunning points to Morgana.

   Using the other contestant’s beatboxing ignorance as a red herring was a really clever bit of quick thinking on Morgana’s part, but the host figuring out the ruse and using it to identify her was some Sherlock-level shit.

   How were your holidays? I hope they were nice, or at least not too stressful.

   Reply

   • Argh, I started to reply to this last week and then got it in my head that I’d actually finished the comment.

     First, and I’m sure I’ve said this before, but wow, Riverdale is fucking WILD.

     Switching over to Evil, I think my general reaction to Sheryl is to shrug and say, “Fuck it, let’s just see what happens.” I definitely am enjoying her more in Season 2 where she seems to be more of a villain in her own right, and agreed, her dynamic with Leland is much more fun now that she’s not just a helpless pawn. But I also don’t really know what to make of her half the time, particularly with Eddie the doll and shit. Sheryl is one character where I would actually seriously welcome some flashbacks. As far as Tim Matheson goes, you’re right, it could be that he’s much older than he looks. It could also be that his character is just sick, cancer or something, so he has to find a new host. (A younger host would make sense, but it could be that some aspect of that particular demon is drawn to certain people with similar traits or desires? Maybe?)

     Cannibalism dinner parties are obviously the very best dinner parties.

     About Taskmaster: ooh, that’s fun. Smart play by Morgana, genius deduction by the host. (God, I’d be bad at this show. My deduction skills are quickly countered by overthinking, and Christ help me if I ever had to beatbox, LOL.)

     My holidays were, well. Pretty stressful, to be honest, but that’s not totally uncommon, and we’re past them now. I’m trying to feel the new year energy, and because I’m a cliche, that means I cut off all my hair. It feels great. I just keep forgetting I don’t need that much shampoo anymore 😁

     I do hope you had nice holidays!

     Reply

     • I did spend a lot of the season wondering where things with Sheryl were going, and I did think the doll was one of a couple storylines this season that didn’t get much resolution. Though it’s not as bad as Ben’s girlfriend Vanessa with the arm-ghost evil twin situation – WTF happened after he got a call from Vanessa while he was with her twin? That storyline is likely going to continue in some fashion next season, but it seems like there should’ve been some more immediate follow-up.

       I think maybe they could’ve spent the doll’s screentime better if that storyline is finished now – though it did crack me the hell up when she started talking to the doll in front of Andy, while he was like “OMG, everyone has gone insane while I’ve been away.” Side note, if Sheryl is a proper villain now, I’m wondering if she’ll kill off Andy. Although her main problem with him is that he’s an absent father and husband, and that’s not that would be fixed by killing him, so IDK. Maybe she’ll instead brainwash him or something to make him the perfect family man. There could still be some complication that ensures he’s off the show permanently, which seems like it’s where the show is heading.

       I don’t know what it says about me or this show that I thought of “Maybe this guy is actually 300 years old,” before “Maybe he’s terminally ill.”

       My holidays were weird – New Year’s was fun and normal, but on Christmas Day, my hand slipped and I dumped a whole cup of piping hot tea down my front and got some second-degree chest burns. I had to go to the ER to get it looked at because GPs were shut, and of course they were busy because Christmas. (It was fine, I just had to keep the burns clean and dressed until they healed over. Doctor Cat insisted on breaking into my room and supervising me while I changed the dressings.) Apart from the holidays being emotionally taxing for lots of people anyway, that was part of why I asked – the poor intake nurse who questioned me was extremely grateful just ’cause I wasn’t an asshole when she explained she didn’t know how long I’d be waiting. Which made me pity whatever the staff had had to deal with from the influx of impatient, questionably sober patients over the holidays. I wasn’t sure if your admin role meant actually interacting with the public much or not.

       If this was an Important Haircut, then I assume this is how it went: https://youtu.be/XCSePj7CVnA?t=10

       I watched the first season of Black Spot, BTW. I’m enjoying it thus far, although creepy, stalkery, kidnappy Roman is the wooooooorst. Also looks creepily old to be a love interest for Cora, who seems 18-ish? Bertrand at least has some… Well, not redeeming qualities, but pitiable ones? I feel sorry for him sometimes, and don’t mind him as an anti-villain, but Roman I just keep hoping will be sent to jail or killed off.

       I’d been thinking the woods seemed to like both Cora and her mother since about halfway through the season, when that Steiner henchman got snatched by a tree or whatever, and I’m taking the fact that they brought Laurene back and saved Cora a second time (You’re correct that the woods had been punishing bad people all season, but the timing seemed suspicious.) Also, if both Cora and Laurene get these weird hunches, and Laurene was outright hearing Marion’s voice in the bog leading her to the corpse, then whatever low-level psychic abilities they have might be genetic? Maybe there’s a minor forest deity or wood elf or something in the family tree somewhere, and that’s why the forest protected them; out of familial affection?

       Then again, if the forest likes them, maybe it just hands out psychic abilities to people it likes. Which would explain why the bartender also seems to have the same psychic abilities. Or maybe the bartender is actually Laurene’s mother/aunt/cousin, and she has psychic powers because she too is a descendant of whatever dwells in the forest.

       Reply

       • That storyline with Vanessa has never really worked for me, and I have to admit, I’m kind of just hoping they’ll drop it entirely, but we’ll see. I do really hope they go back to the doll, though. And honestly, I’m a little surprised that Andy has lived this long. On one hand, I do feel a bit bad for the guy cause, wow, he is the embodiment of that GIF from Community where Troy leaves to get the pizza and comes back to an apartment of chaos and fire. OTOH … I don’t really care about his and Kristen’s marital woes, and have definitely caught myself wishing they would just kill him off already so we could focus on other things. I am heartless.

         Shit, I’m glad the burns were okay! Not a fun way to spend Christmas, I’m sorry. My drama was primarily family stuff, as it usually is. I did work Christmas Eve and Christmas night, but both were honestly fine; I even had help both nights! (Both Staffing and supplies have been a bit bleak for a while now.) In regards to patients, I mostly just answer the call light on whatever department I’m currently in. I used to deal a little more with visitors, but right now we’re not letting anyone in except in very specific circumstances, and I’ve mostly missed out on the “it’s my constitutional right to visit and visit unmasked” folks, thank God. Mostly, my work is half clerical, half go-fetch, which works pretty well for me, although sometimes my feet disagree. 😁

         You know, I’ve seen Catwoman before, and I think I’ve blocked every scene from my brain, including that one. But yes. That’s pretty much how the haircut went. 🤣🤣🤣

         I really did hate Roman at first, and—well, I won’t say he got better for me, because he never really did. It’s just that my disgust with Bertrand only kept growing. But yeah, absolutely, Roman sucks. Also, I like the idea of a sentient forest that hands out cool psychic powers to the people it likes. I need to find a neat sentient forest like that.

         Have you watched the season finale of Nancy Drew yet? Cause I did, and I … have Thoughts.

         Reply

         • I did find it pretty funny when Vanessa told Ben all about her arm ghost, to his utter bafflement, but I was surprised when she popped up again in Season 2. I don’t want her to become a regular or to get a big ongoing storyline, but I hope she returns for an episode just so they can wrap up what happened with her. It would feel like such a loose end if they left it as is.

           Ha! The comparison hadn’t occurred to me before, but Andy IS the living embodiment of that Community scene.

           Ugh, I’m sorry about the covidiot visitors and the staffing/supply shortages. I do not envy hospital workers one bit.

           You mean you’ve forgotten the best scene in cinematic history; the Sexy Basketball Game of a Thousand Cuts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o02MxS2ugEU

           My question would be, if the forest can freely hand out psychic powers, can it give people any other kinds of superpower? This could be the origin story for Squirrel Girl.

           I’ve watched Nancy Drew. I was pretty annoyed about quite a few things. The biggest negative is the curse. Why the fuck would Temperance let on that the curse only applies if Nancy acts on her feelings for Ace? For that matter, why pick a death curse with such a glaring loophole to be her failsafe in the first place, instead of just one that kills Ace (and for good measure, the rest of the show’s cast) outright if Nancy kills Temperance? And why would Nancy make things worse by lying about it to everyone? It’s not like this would be the first curse they’ve dealt with, so it seems like it’d be worth spilling the beans to Bess at least and seeing if there’s a way to break it.

           Basically, this seems like a load of poorly-contrived bullshit designed to keep Nancy and Ace apart and provide some angst next season. While I’d be perfectly fine if the Nancy/Ace ship never left the docks – I was pretty apathetic to them – watching them mope around next season about this shit sounds unbelievably annoying. And it comes right after some love triangle bullshit, too. Argh.

           I’d kind of been figuring Temperance would need something more complicated from Nancy, or that there might be some clause where Nancy had to help willingly or it wouldn’t work. Because if all Temperance needed from Nancy was her blood, why go to such great lengths to gain Nancy’s trust? It would’ve been ten times simpler to just murder or kidnap her and drain as much blood as she needed. As a bonus, murdering Nancy takes her off the board as a threat.

           The next problem is the tsunami and siren. Why were all these extras just standing in the street blankly staring at an approaching tsunami, not even considering things like “running away,” or “finding higher ground,” until the siren goes off? Also, it seems like the siren was pretty last-minute, so between that and the size of that wave we saw, I don’t think I buy that nobody died.

           OTOH, I was tickled by the structure of the episode, where everything’s seemingly wrapped up early on and then we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. Also, Ryan and Carson and Park all survived! Huzzah! Shame Park is leaving, but that’s not surprising.

           Reply

           • ROFL, I have ZERO memory of that sexy basketball scene. (Good lord, there really ARE a billion cuts.) I honest to God didn’t even remember Benjamin Bratt was in the movie. My brain has straight up deleted this shit.

             I’m now trying to decide what kind of magic forest power I’d like to receive. Obviously, being Squirrel Girl would be amazing. But I kind of love the idea of having two forms, two bodies. Maybe I could sometimes be a tree. Just cause.

             Oh, thank God, because I read multiple good things about the Nancy Drew finale, and I just felt like I was watching an entirely different episode than everyone else. THAT CURSE MAKES ME SO FUCKING MAD. I’ll admit the ‘two lovers can’t touch/admit their love/etc or someone will die/suffer a terrible fate’ trope has never been my favorite, but there are probably exceptions. It can work. This, though, is easily the stupidest version of it I have EVER seen. It makes no sense. It is outright ludicrous that Temperance would defend herself with this BS curse rather than, as you say, just an outright death curse. I am SO annoyed by this.

             I was honestly wondering if I missed a line where they said Ace would die if Nancy told anyone about the curse. I’m guessing they’ll say that Nancy wasn’t sure, so she didn’t take chances, and she always does things on her own, blah blah blah. I used to like Nancy/Ace well enough, like, it was never a Big Deal Ship for me, but they had a couple looks or moments that I enjoyed. But the second they made it angsty, I got bored. I’ve been getting frustrating Arrow vibes all over it again, like, taking a fun or potentially fun ship and ruining it with The DRAMA. I definitely enjoyed Nancy/Park way better. (I’m glad Park didn’t die, but I was annoyed he didn’t come back in the Real Future. If this is his actual character exit, I’m a bit disappointed by it cause I think he deserved better. He’s genuinely one of my favorite things about this season.)

             I’ll admit, I kind of forgot about the whole Nancy’s blood thing, but you’re right, I have no idea why Temperance didn’t just straight up murder Nancy for her blood. Also, agreed, the idea that the siren actually worked when the waves were that close? HA HA HA WHAT?! Nope, bunches of people are dead.

             The structure of the episode actually didn’t work that well for me, either, I think because it felt rushed and dreamlike from the start. I suspect I would’ve enjoyed it better if this had been a two-parter and we’d gotten to see more between ‘Ace’s nightmare’ and the start of the finale. I WAS happy no one permanently died, though. I also really liked Ryan’s death scene. I know it’s a quick moment, but I thought both Riley Smith and Kennedy McMann were excellent in it.

             I do hope Nancy Drew gets renewed for a 4th season—I’m starting to worry, especially with the schedule change this year—but this finale was easily one of my least favorite episodes of the season.

             Reply

             • I was completely fine with that trope in Pushing Daisies? But the show wasn’t super angsty about it, both characters were on the same page, and it was part of the premise, not something chucked in last minute to draw out a couple getting together.

               I too liked Nancy/Park better. They weren’t a Big Deal Ship for me, as you put it – I haven’t been reading fanfic or looking up gifs or anything – but they were cute.

               I’m admittedly not feeling super enthused for Season 4 at the moment. I already hate the curse storyline – this was definitely my least favourite episode of the season – and the prospect of getting more of it sounds SO tiresome. At least I’m curious to know what’s going on with those witch-axe people.

               I just finished binging Taskmaster Season 4, which actually had Noel Fielding from The Great British Bake Off. At one point he won the task “Create The Most Exotic Sandwich,” by tying two slices of bread to the assistant host’s head, then getting him to perform an exotic dance. Unfortunately, Noel was then informed that the next task was for everyone to eat their exotic sandwiches.

               Reply

               • Oh, yeah, I was totally fine with that trope in Pushing Daisies, especially because it was part of the premise. I was thinking more like . . . oh, I’m sure I’ve come across this before, but all I can think of right now is Dark Angel, where at the beginning of 2nd season, the heroine is purposefully infected with a genetically modified disease to specifically target her love interest, so they can never get together, OR HE’LL DIE. It’s definitely silly unnecessary angst, but it at least halfway made sense as an assassination attempt, at least compared to this.

                 Season 3 has definitely been my least favorite so far, so I won’t be totally crushed if the show gets cancelled, but I must admit I was kind of hoping for a better ending than this. So, I’d still like to see a Season 4.

                 Well, Noel. I mean, that’s just bad luck. 😂

                 Reply

4. I finally got round to watching the second season of Black Spot.

   I was really not a fan of Sirani’s descent into being a Peeping Tom.

   It was also awful to me that Hermann had beaten up an innocent man to force him to confess to the crime Hermann was accusing him of, covered up the beating, then pressured the only witness into identifying the man. And when his boss found out, the only form of consequences he suffers is being lightly chastised. That was like one of those police misconduct stories you hear about on the news.

   On the upside, at least I loathed Roman ever so slightly less this season? And I did genuinely enjoy the twist about the other prisoner in the sanctuary with Laurene.

   Reply

   • LOL, I think that was my reaction to Roman this season, too. And I’d forgotten about that Hermann storyline. Yeah, that’s . . . not great.

     I did NOT forget about Sirani becoming a weirdo peeping tom because I HATED it. I’m actually surprised I didn’t bring it up in the superlatives, considering how annoyed I was. 😡😡😡

     Reply

Leave a Reply to Teacups Cancel reply

Enter your comment here...

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Email (Address never made public)

Name

Website

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Notify me of new comments via email.

Notify me of new posts via email.

Δ

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.