781

(746 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

So I really loved Picard Season 3.  I have a bunch of very spoilery thoughts and some nitpicks

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- I guess I'll start with the future.  I think Terry Matalas gets Star Trek, and I think he hit the right nostalgia notes for most of the season.  Setting an episode at the fleet museum so we got to see all the classic ships...great.  Bringing back the Changelings and the Enterprise D...chef's kiss.  The episode with Ro and the awkwardly poetic end for Shelby...great touches.  If he wants to do Captain Seven and the crew of the Enterprise-G for another series, sign me up.  If he wants to do pretty much anything else, sign me up.  I'd love to see him get another show.

- I was surprised that we didn't get more cameos.  I think Chief O'Brien would've worked well on the show.  Someone like Bashir would've fit in nice.  Janeway would've made a ton of sense.  I know they didn't want to step on Prodigy's toes...but I don't see how Janeway being on two shows at the same time steps on anyone's toes.  They referenced her as being alive so it can't be "well what if we want to kill Janeway on this kid's show".  I do wonder why DS9 is the black sheep of the universe.  They retconned Worf's DS9 ending and he's never spoken of it again.  But since the story focused on Changelings for so long and involved Seven as a key figure, I figured we'd get more than just Tuvok as cameos.  Where's the Doctor???

- Season 3 made me so mad at Seasons 1 and 2.  It's so obvious that this show needed to be Picard and his crew.  Not that I didn't like the new characters - I liked a lot of them.  But it was so much more fun to have the whole cast there, and I can't believe they waited until season 3 to do it.  This is what season 1 should've been, and we could've had two more seasons with this as the jumping point.

- Speaking of that, Matalas didn't seem to have a ton of love for the first two seasons either.  They essentially abandoned the Laris storyline after the season premiere even though that was a huge part of season two, and the rest of the season 2 storylines (the Jurati Borg and Q's "death") got "Rise of Skywalker" level retcons.  I liked season 3 better than Seasons 1 and 2 but it's weird and confusing to re-write continuity with a couple one-off lines.

- I loved the character moments, but the plot this season doesn't hold up under much scrutiny.  One thing I thought I liked about season 2 was that the Borg seemed like a nullified threat.  Maybe they could be villains again, maybe not.  But for the Borg to essentially be the main villain for all three seasons is pretty lame in my opinion.  And to be fair, I didn't even like that the season was about Starfleet being infiltrated again (since it was technically a storyline in all three seasons if you count the Evil Starfleet from the beginning of season 2).  Changelings on a ship being chased by Changelings could be a cool story, but I'm a little tired of Starfleet command always being evil or replaced or infiltrated or whatever.

- So why did the Changelings work with the Borg?  Is it just an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" situation?  What did the Changelings get out of the Borg being rebuilt?  Wouldn't they hate the Borg just as much as they hate any other solids?  How did the Borg Queen even find the Changelings and how is it better revenge to assimilate Starfleet than to simply take over themselves (which they'd already done).

- The whole Enterprise D thing was cool, and I feel like the explanation made sense?  I don't know how difficult it would be in the 25th century to rebuild a ship by yourself, even if you're a master engineer and you have 20 years to do it.  But maybe when he says he rebuilt it, he means he had low-level grunt help.  I saw an article saying that maybe he used the outlawed "slave androids" from season 1 since they would've been legal for some of that time.  Since he references drones, maybe that's all he needed to do.  And to be fair, maybe the D wasn't as damaged as we think and it just needed a decent amount of cleanup (which could be done in 20 years).

All in all, I thought it was a great sendoff for the Next Generation Crew.  I acknowledge that the series wants to move forward with new blood, but I would love an anthology series where we get an episode for different TNG/DS9/VOY castmembers (either main cast or even smaller roles like Naomi Wildman).  Let's see what everyone is up to and get cool little one-off stories for Bashir and Quark and Tom Paris and even Harry Kim.  Let's see the Doctor again!  I know a lot of these guys could come back for the already-announced Starfleet Academy but I want an anthology show to put some of these characters to bed.  Then we can either do a time jump again (like Next Gen did), pick up from Discovery, or whatever.

782

(1,098 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I happened to see the ZSJL fight between Superman and Steppenwolf on YouTube the other day.  I don't know if this was kept in Whedon's version or not (I didn't go back and check) but Superman is thoroughly beating up Steppenwolf and Heat Visions off part of Steppenwolf's head/horns/helmet.  He doesn't cut off his arm - just seems to either maim him (or at the very least, embarrass him by ruining his helmet).

I don't know if I mentioned it when the movie originally came out, but it struck me as very un-Superman-like.  I know that I don't really understand Snyder's version of Superman, but is there any reason why the comics-version of Superman would do that?  I don't think anyone was in danger, and I don't think cutting off his horns would make anyone any safer.  I feel like snapping Zod's neck is one thing since it saved people, but this seemed like cruel for the sake of cruel.

Any thoughts?

783

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ireactions wrote:

I just can't get past how Allegra and Chester's emotional dilemma is perpetually: they like each other and avoid talking about it for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Yeah, that's what I mean it's written for middle schoolers.  I watch a lot of TV and when two characters like each other, someone makes a move and it's accepted and then they're in a relationship.  There might be minor issues when it comes to major steps in the relationship and I assume that Allegra might have a little apprehension about those that get close to her dying, but these characters are adults.  They can get over the simple fact that they like each other.

The problem with some of these storylines is that they're repetitive.  Chillblaine and Khione are doing the same thing, it seems.  Barry and Iris have similar issues to Joe and Cecile.

Maybe they should've had Chester switch powers with Allegra and she has to help him navigate it.  And maybe he teaches her about running point so he can be out in the field.  Now they're spending time together but it's not "Do You Like Me: Check Yes or No" - they're literally stepping into the others shoes and learning the other's deepest interests.

I just don't understand what this season is doing.  I would think a final season would be about legacy.  Or moving forward from having a fun superhero life in your 20s to having a family in your 30s.  Maybe Barry starts actively working for Team Flash to replace him (for the most part) so he can be a father?  Or maybe he looks to transfer his speed to someone else so that Central City can still have a Flash without Barry constantly putting his life on the line? 

Maybe they do the Azrael story where Barry finds a new Flash and he ends up being a psycho.  And Barry, no speed, has to take down the Flash.  Or maybe we spend the whole season with Barry working to find a new Flash and realizes that he doesn't have to give up his speed to be a good parent.  I don't know, I'm just spitballing and I've only been thinking about it for five minutes and the CW isn't paying me smile

But training a replacement allows Grant Gustin to be gone for a certain time, allows for the other castmembers to grow, and allows for fun new stories that make season nine feel like season one.

But, sure, let's keep figuring out if people in their 30s know how to navigate a crush.

784

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Yeah I meant to write about this more.  I think Wallace, in saying that he didn't have time for other stories because he had to focus on Barry....was either a blatant lie or him covering for a situation he didn't have control over.

Maybe he told the fans something that wasn't true or maybe he felt like they couldn't turn over any episodes of the Flash to wrap up the Arrowverse, just like Superman & Lois isn't interested in doing, just like Batwoman or Legends wouldn't have been interested in doing.

But, man...none of these episodes seem all that crucial to Barry's journey.  He isn't in a lot of them, and the ones he is in don't feel important.  I'm sure he's learning lessons, but this season isn't really adding up to much.  And I don't feel like Barry is a better man, a better father-to-be, or a better superhero because of any of this.

If they needed Grant Gustin to have a break, there plenty of stories to tell.  No offense to Dreamer, but her story didn't need to be added to ahead of the Legends or Batwoman.  And we don't need so many episodes about Allegra and Chester, and their story seems like it's written for middle schoolers, not adults.

Wrapping up a show is hard.  Wrapping up a whole universe is almost impossible.  At the moment, the Flash is failing at both.

785

(330 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I'm interested.  But I'm mostly interested in seeing what kind of response this ends up being because I think most of Star Wars is a studio reaction to what came before.

George Lucas did his prequels, and they were, especially at the time, ridiculed.  Some of that might have been because George Lucas (and team) thought that people liked Star Wars because of the lightsaber fights.  The prequels ended up being a overly complicated political drama in the Star Wars universe with a lot of lightsaber fights.  Although sentiment has flipped a bit since then, the main thought ended up being prequels=bad and Lucas=finished.

So Disney got their hands on Star Wars and decided to make a new Star Wars film.  Since prequels=bad and Lucas=finished, they got new blood in and went as far away from the prequels as possible.  Instead of trying something new, they redid the original movie.  They leaned on established characters and imagery and got as far away from politics as possible.

And while the Force Awakens was a big hit, people didn't like the fact that it was so close to A New Hope.  So Rian Johnson went with the most non-Star Wars film yet.  Johnson tried to defy expectations and made a movie where the great Luke Skywalker doesn't do much and doesn't believe in the Jedi.  Reception was very mixed and the fanbase was split.

In the meantime, Star Wars had a fun little story with a prequel set during the original trilogy.  Maybe the fans don't love the sequel trilogy but they could create tons of spinoffs.  So they banked pretty heavy on Solo, which they shot twice, and it wasn't warmly received.  Reaction: no more spinoffs.

Then came Rise of Skywalker which went back to the Original Trilogy mold.  Brought back the Emperor and Lando and Darth Vader's helmet and tried to undo and redo as much of Rian Johnson's movie as possible.  And even though people hated The Last Jedi, they really hated Rise of Skywalker.

Then came the Mandalorian.  Again, someone tried to do something new - A Star Wars TV show!  There were things that people liked (Mandalorian armor!  Yoda creature!) but not many lightsabers or Star Wars.  It was a western in the Star Wars universe.  And it was a big hit!  And they brought back Yoda and Boba Fett and a lot of fun stuff.  Reaction - movies are bad.  TV is the future.

So where does Star Wars go from here?  They haven't made a Star Wars movie since Rise of Skywalker, cancelling project after project.  Do they go back to the Original Trilogy well?  Do they try to do something original?  Do they make it like the Mandalorian?  If the first movie does well, will they do more like it?  Keep trying new stuff?  If it does poorly, does it become a one-off?  How much of Rise of Skywalker do they try and undo or ignore?

It will all be very interesting.

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From a narrative place, I wonder how they will do it.  We won't be far enough in the future that characters from the Mandalorian will be too old to show up.  If the Mandalorian is the new gold standard for Star Wars, will we see Rey added to those stories?  Will we see Ahsoka?  Ezra Bridger?  Din?  Thrawn?

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And like I was saying before, why would Rey's next Jedi school work out any better than Luke's?  Did Luke's school fail because Luke was too devout to the old ways of the Jedi?  Luke implies this but....how?  Was Kylo turned to the dark side because he wasn't allowed to love?  I don't think so.  Kylo had the biggest expectations in the history of the galaxy with a darkness inside him that no one was able to reign in.  It was bad but I don't think the old ways of the Jedi are to blame.  Luke probably should've learned that lesson but he didn't and passed it on to Rey.

But I'm unsure on why I should believe this next school will be better than the last.  Or why anyone in the galaxy should buy into a New New Republic considering what happened to the last two.

786

(3,535 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

pilight wrote:

Even if Trump is convicted the next Republican president will pardon him.

There is zero chance of him receiving any meaningful penalty.

Well if he's convicted of the crimes in New York or Florida, the next Republican president can't pardon him.  A president can only pardon someone convicted of federal crimes.

787

(3,535 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

So the indictment on Trump in New York feels like a nothingburger.  Granted, I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know any more details than anyone else outside of the Grand Jury.  Maybe there's something in there that will both lead to a conviction and even jail time.  But most legal experts I've read, even left-leaning ones, think that even if he's convicted, he's looking at a fine and no jail time.

This coming from a very liberal city and a DA that ran on a campaign to get Trump.  Yes, it would be embarrassing to lose, but his job literally depends on him giving it a shot.

But does that matter?  Does it matter if the first case that goes to trial against Trump is a dud?  Or did someone need to go first, and this one is as good as any to accomplish that?  I feel like the Georgia case is the one that has the best chance of doing something - it's a recording and clearly shows Trump was trying to influence the election.  That one feels like a slam dunk, even though I also don't know what the penalty would be for that.

Also...does it matter?  Will Republican voters turn away from Trump post-indictment?  Some will.  I don't think everyone would.  And we've become so "anti-them" that I don't know if even matters who people are voting for.  Just who they're voting against.  If this were Hillary Clinton running as a republican against Joe Biden, would 75 million Republicans vote for her?  I think maybe they would.

Trump can run while under indictment.  He can serve as president from jail (although I wonder how that would even work with the secret service having to protect him).  He could also be convicted, go to jail, and constitutionally have to be released so he can be president.

Does any of this matter?  I really don't know.  Trump's campaign isn't really going great, depending on which polls you believe.  He's either crushing DeSantis or he's getting crushed by him.  Doesn't seem like it's one or the other.  And I think DeSantis just needs more name recognition and he'd beat Trump.  And if he does, Trump will do something to sabotage DeSantis' chance. 

I think that's the best way Biden wins.

I don't know where I'm going with this.  I just can't get excited about this indictment.  Having a mugshot of Trump could be funny.  Will he be mad?  Will he do that stupid smile of his?  Will he try to look tough?  That's the only part I care about.

788

(330 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I love Avatar and Korra so I get your references.

And I don't so much want to stop seeing stories about war.  I think you can tell action stories without undermining the stories that came before it.  And I have just started to love what I'm seeing in the Star Wars universe with a New Republic trying to find its place.  I think it's exciting to see them trying to fix the wrongs and even when they make mistakes (dismantling Star Destroyers instead of using them to protect themselves), it's for the "right" reason.

There's probably something to be said about a society that wins a war and makes too much of an effort to focus on peace (when there's always someone out there that wants to ruin that peace).  But I don't think JJ Abrams thought about that.  They just wanted to retell Star Wars on a bigger scale with new characters.  And so we lose out on original stories because the new creator didn't care.

And that just sucks.

But, yes, Korra told an entirely different story and thought was put into how that world would've evolved.  I don't think any thought was put into how Star Wars' world would've evolved.

789

(330 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

That's a pretty good summary.

I think one of the themes of Star Wars is survival against the odds.  It's more exciting when David beats Goliath so to have a ragtag group of rebels beat an overwhelming Empire is fun and impressive.  We like an underdog story.  And even the title "A New Hope" is an inspirational message against something that seems invincible.

And even in the prequels, Lucas does this.  The Jedi and the Republic have all the numbers, but even then, Lucas is able to paint the situation as hopeless.  Palpatine is in charge of the Senate and is ten steps ahead of the Jedi.  Because we know the end, the story still feels grim.  And even though the Republic falls and the Jedi are wiped out, Obi-Wan and Yoda saving themselves and the twins feels like a win against insurmountable odds.

And then JJ Abrams gets the ability to make a new Star Wars movie.  But he doesn't want to make a movie about a fledgling Republic and a new enemy.  He wants the Rebellion vs the Empire.  And not only that, he wants the stakes to be increase significantly.  There is no Luke.  The Republic can't help because it's destroyed without fanfare.  But all the other faces are the same - the stormtroopers and ships and weapons are all basically the same.  They even have a new more powerful Darth Vader and Death Star.

The problem is that there's no growth in that story.  It's not a sequel, it's a reboot.

And besides being lazy, it does a disservice to the stories that came before.  It's a 90s sitcom where they have a Very Special Episode about pill use or suicide and the next week everyone's going to get frosty chocolate milkshakes as if nothing happened.

I think there were ways to do the kinds of stories that Abrams wanted to tell without dismantling all the thematic progress the stories had made.  Maybe the remnants of the Empire escaped to the far reaches of the galaxy.  Maybe they licked their wounds and combined with a greater threat, and they come back.  Maybe Jakku is the furthest planet out in the New Republic and this new threat attacks there first.  That would certainly feel hopeless.  The Jedi and the New Republic are too far out to come, and First Order has Empire ships and loads of stormtroopers.

Maybe they continue this story with the First Order being welcomed on places like Jakku which are too far away to get the protection of the New Republic and are now struggling to survive without the support the Empire used to provide.  That would feel hopeless.

I don't know.  Thinking about it just bums me out.  I don't think the movies are terrible, and I think they have a lot of good parts.  I think they get Star Wars (1977).  I just wish they understood Star Wars (the overall universe that evolved significantly since 1977).

790

(330 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

So I think I officially hate the Star Wars sequels.

Not because of Rian Johnson or Mary Sues or black stormtroopers or Rose or Snoke or Reylo or Palpatine returning somehow or any of the main reasons people don't like the sequels.  I just think they're depressing to think about, especially as they flesh out the universe with superior content.

In the Mandalorian, things are still mostly grim.  It never seems like people are thriving.  But we've seen glimpses of hope for a better tomorrow.  The New Republic is doing its best to undo what the Empire did.  They're trying to dismantle and rehabilitate and chart a new future.  And in shows like Andor and the Clone Wars, we learn more about Mon Mothma.  And since Mon Mothma is the chancellor in the New Republic, when we meet her and learn about her, we start to cheer for her.

We are seeing a hopeful Luke starting to train new Jedi and the Force seems to be healing the world.  Force-sensitive children are allowed to live and thrive for the first time in 30 years.

But....who cares about any of that when we know it's all going to come crashing down?  The prequels are supposed to have an ominous feel to them because we know the Republic is going to fall and the Empire will rise.  But it's okay because we know how it ends.

And, yeah, the sequels have a happy ending....sort of.  And maybe it's enough that Luke and Leia get to enjoy that happy ending through the Force.  But it just feels like the Original Trilogy is a waste of time.  Everything that happens in the Original Trilogy doesn't matter.  They don't defeat the Empire (really).  They don't even defeat Palpatine.  They make things slightly better on a few planets and redeem Anakin.  That's really it.

And that just sucks.  The prequel trilogy is about the hubris of the Jedi and how democracy is delicate.  The Jedi could've stopped Palpatine easily if they hadn't gotten cocky.  The Republic should've been strong enough to resist the Empire.  But hubris is real and democracy is delicate.

What's the lesson from the original trilogy now?  It's still that even the worst man can be redeemed.  But the band of heroes fails in the end.  They all end up with fairly pointless deaths.  Leia essentially exhausts herself because she has to do everything all over.

And what sucks is that the lessons from the sequels are able to discredit the happy endings made by the sequels.  Sure, maybe Rey has learned from the failures of the Jedi, but who's to say her new path will go any better than Luke's.  Luke wasn't tainted by thousands of years of Jedi laziness.  Even with books and teaching, he was essentially charting his own path like Rey is going to.  I wouldn't think there'd be anything to stop one of Rey's new students from pulling a Kylo Ren and pulling the whole thing down.

And maybe there will be a New New Republic, but who's going to lead it?  And why would we think they'd be any more successful than Mon Mothma was?

I always wanted to see the sequels.  Yes, I wanted to see a badass Luke Skywalker at the height of his power, but it's just fun to see what things look like once the story is over.  And I think there's stories to tell when a fledgling government is starting over.  And, trust me, I think de-politicizing (and by that I mean less focus on galactic politics, not messaging) Star Wars in the sequels was a good idea.  But I don't think anyone making The Force Awakens thought about the message they were sending.  They just wanted to remake A New Hope and needed a new Empire.

The original trilogy was about the fall of Rome.  The original trilogy was about revolution.  Maybe the sequel trilogy should've been about civil war.  Maybe people in the galaxy liked certain aspects of the reign of the empire and the security it brought them.  Maybe they fight back against a young republic trying to learn how to walk.  Maybe disarming ends up weakening them and forces inside the republic start talking about re-arming and becoming more militaristic.  Maybe there begins to be talk of sending Luke's new Jedi to fight this war.

The prequels start to repeat themselves.

And maybe people like Mothma and Luke and Leia and Han show that they've learned from the mistakes of the past and start making the right decisions.  Maybe Luke learns that the Jedi can't be soldiers or special forces or even peacekeepers - maybe they need to be something else.  Maybe Mothma and Leia can find a balance between being peaceful and being strong.

And you wouldn't even need to change much about the characters.  Rey is Luke's promising young student who feels conflicted because she misses her old life and family.  Poe is a hotshot pilot who wants to protect the New Republic at any cost.  Finn is a defector of the people that don't like the chaos that the end of the Empire brought to certain places in the galaxy.

And you can still have Starkiller Base and underdog space fights and hopeless situations and lightsaber fights.  But you don't have to undermine everything that the previous movies taught us.

It makes me sad for an stories that are coming on Star Wars TV.  And it makes me feel hopeless about Episodes 10-12 making the same mistakes.

791

(746 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Thoughts on the first 60% of Season 3 of Picard.  First just a general "I really love this show" because I think it's really great.  I think it's as well done as Strange New Worlds but with a level of nostalgia that I appreciate more as a bigger fan of the TNG/DS9/VOY era.  I don't know if it's definitely the best of "new Trek", but it's miles ahead of the first two seasons of Picard and a lot of Discovery.

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I'll start with my negatives.  As much as I *love* that the Changelings are back because I think they're a really cool villain...are we really doing a "Starfleet has been infiltrated and is the real bad guys" season again?  Didn't we basically do that in season 1 and then show it again in the alternate future in season 2?  I get that Starfleet is supposed to be this rock, but TNG went to this well a hundred times too.  Essentially 90% of the admirals we've ever met are evil or corrupt or secretly a (insert evil species).  The Changelings are cool, and if this is going to be their sequel story, this is probably how they'd go about doing it.

But couldn't we just have this be the TNG cast reuniting to go on one more adventure?  Does it have to be the End of Starfleet (TM) or the End of the Federation (TM) every time?  95% of Trek isn't about saving the entire galaxy.  I don't know why New Trek has to be almost entirely about that.

Okay, enough bad stuff.  I love the crew getting back together.  And I love that the space between Nemesis and this season feels lived in.  Worf, Geordi, Crusher, even Data...it feels like time has actually passed.  I know there's some weird timeline stuff (season 3 should be way further removed from season 2 if I understand the timeline correctly), but I feel like they put some thought into how these characters would react and grow.

And I'm really liking the nostalgia stuff, like I said.  Episode 6 is essentially an easter egg factory, and as corny as the scene at the shipyard with Seven and Jack could've been, it was beautiful.  Playing the theme for TOS/DS9/VOY as we saw each ship was great.  Having Seven discuss her life on Voyager as the Voyager theme played was amazing.  I've rewatched that scene several times.

(Side note since I've rewatched it so many times - Jack has heard of the Defiant but not Voyager?  Does that make sense in-world?  I get that the Defiant was a big part of winning the Dominion War, but people know the Titanic before any military ship, right?  Voyager made it seem like the ship was big news for civilians so I would think Jack would be familiar with Voyager before anything from the Dominion War.  But maybe I'm wrong?)

I also think it's interesting that if you look carefully, you can see the proposed refit from the cancelled season of Enterprise.  So they built a model for it, but they didn't mention it?  I know Enterprise has no connection to this show, but you'd think they could've added a line of dialogue about it.

Anyway, I'm still hoping to see more cameos before the season is over....or that the "Star Trek Legacy" show comes about.  I still think there are so many characters that I'd like to catch up on.  And if everyone comes back but Chief O'Brien doesn't....come on.  We need to see some of Seven's old family.  We need to see Dr. Bashir.  We need to see Quark.  I'd love an anthology series where we catch up with each of these guys properly.

And Picard has been so good that I actually started watching Prodigy.  I needed a bit more Trek in my life.  So far it's very kiddie but I hear that it gets a bit more mature as time goes on.  Anyone else watching it?

792

(31 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

My memory is terrible.  My dad died when I was younger, and I essentially erased all the memories of him when I was younger.  Instead of doing that, I basically erased *everything*.  Not only is most of my childhood just completely gone, but I have trouble remembering tons of stuff that happened afterward.

No need to feel sorry for me - I had a great childhood regardless.  I only say that to illustrate that I have a handful of memories from that time in my life.  And one I can remember *very* clearly is sitting in the office of my mom's boss while she worked late certain nights.  I had a McDonald's fried chicken sandwich (which I can almost taste), and I was watching TV on one of those old TVs.

I was watching Sliders.  I don't remember which episode but it would've been season 1.  I was blown away by the concept, and I thought it was so much fun.  I can't remember many birthdays, trips, or stuff like that.  But burned into my memory is eating a McDonald's chicken sandwich in an office "late" on a weekday, watching Sliders.

I really liked it.  I'm a little surprised it was nominated for best picture (let alone won) because I think it dipped into being too silly at times.  But I'm glad it did win, and I hope it inspires Hollywood to do more stuff like it.

794

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Yeah, I had the same thought.  I don't disagree with any of the choices he made (giving Gustin a break, giving Becky a happy ending, and giving Cecile and Allegra something to do), but I agree that the story was bland.  And, again, I think they could've had their cake and eat it too.  Just like the Red Death could've easily given the Flash a worthy adversary and wrapped up Ryan Wilder's arc, this episode could've been about the Legends and still accomplished all those goals. 

Maybe Kid Flash (as the link between these two) shows up to Star Labs to recruit Barry to save the Legends and finds that only Cecile and Allegra are there.  With no time to spare, he takes the two of them on an adventure.  And maybe Becky comes because plot.  And so Cecile, Allegra, Wally, and Becky have so stage a break-in to rescue the Legends.  Maybe the Legends are separated into separate jail cells and so a) there are opportunities for each of the heroes to showcase their abilities and b) the Legends that were available for filming could show up and some people get rescued off-screen by Legends that were already rescued.  Maybe Booster Gold can show up, but he doesn't have to.

Cecile can still have her crisis of faith in being a good mom because sometimes superheroes get wrangled into rescuing other heroes from time jail and missing a birthday breakfast.  But that's basically all you'd have to shoehorn.

I know Wally is showing up later so the Legend can be anyone.  Maybe Ray Palmer.  Maybe Nate.  I don't remember who got arrested and who didn't.  But the story is pretty flexible.  And there's the added bonus that maybe it's a happy ending for Allegra - maybe she and Chester join the Legends at the end of the season.

795

(1,683 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Yeah, the villains for Flash have always been a problem.  And even then, I don't understand the fight scenes in the Flash.  Barry usually just runs around people in a circle.  I rewatched the first fight between a corrupted Barry and Oliver (in the very first crossover), and if you think about it, Oliver should have literally no shot.  Barry is just running around in circles giving Oliver a mathematical chance of hitting him (however small it would actually be).

A speedster should be able to easily kill Oliver without Oliver even knowing about it.

Even when it's speedster vs speedster, I think some sort of "Flashtime" fight scene would've been better, but it's usually just the two speedsters running next to each other across a CGI city.  For the most part, I just tune out when action scenes happen in the Flash.

One thing I'm shocked about is that they only did a couple episodes with a depowered Barry.  I think slowing down Barry should've been a major storyline for an entire season.  Let Barry face someone like Mirror Master without his speed.  Let him fully show he's a hero without it.  I know it's the Flash and that's his thing but come on.

I'm also sad that they never adapted this storyline - they could've easily done it with Oliver or Joe.  (Credit to TF or you, whoever told me about this.  It's now one of my favorite comic stories ever).

https://comicnewbies.com/2017/04/20/bat … h-rebirth/

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Yeah, I thought it was a bit of a mess too.  I don't understand what's happening with the Joe storyline or the Chester/Allegra storyline.  I don't know why they're doing a separate Khione storyline.  I get that Joe deserves a proper sendoff (and I think that's what we're getting here?), but characters moving away is always a weird way to leave the show.  If the Flash is in danger, it'd be super easy to get Joe back (and he'd want to come back).  Not only does he have multiple speedsters in his family, but they have teleportation technology.

The Chester/Allegra stuff has been dragging out for multiple seasons.  Why are they acting like they're in middle school?  And maybe the Khione stuff will end up paying off, but I don't see how this helps pay off Caitlin's story at this point.

Do we think this Red Death story was written before Batwoman was cancelled?  I kept thinking that it probably works if this story was going on with Batwoman still on the air.  Maybe Batwoman was missing for an episode or two, and then she shows back up at the end of episode 5 and then makes it to Central City on time?  There's also almost no wrapup of her story so I feel like it was written before and not adjusted?

It would be like getting Jerry O'Connell back for season 5 of Sliders for one episode and they have him play some sort of conman version of Quinn who doesn't even help Diana split Mallory.  And at the end of his episode he says "good luck with that or whatever" and it's played off for laughs.

We got Javicia back for two full episodes plus a cameo, and they didn't resolve anything.  No cameos from her team.  No update on what's going on.  And you're right, why even make her missing if they weren't going to address why she was missing.

It was cool to see her back, but it felt really empty.  Maybe it's better that the Legends aren't coming back.  Our head canon may be better.

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I know that titles, especially in the MCU, don't necessarily mean that they're borrowing from similarly-named comics....but wasn't Karen crucial to the Born Again storyline?  Or am I thinking of something else?

At the same time, maybe the storyline is that Matt gets exposed as Daredevil and has to go on the run.  Maybe it doesn't take place in New York.  I think there are some reasonable explanations for them not to be involved story-wise.

Of course, there are very easy narrative ways to include those characters.  Maybe Kingpin strikes while the three of them are on an apple-picking excursion in upstate New York, and now they're on the run together.  It is disappointing.  I thought the three of them were very good together.

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I was one of the people taking issue with an older Batman, but my concern was mostly around the fact that I think Bruce and Clark should be contemporaries.  I didn't like that Affleck and Cavill were in such different places in their superhero careers.  It worked for the story they were trying to tell in BvS (kinda, they didn't go deep enough if they were going to go in that direction), but it didn't work for a larger story.

To me, Keaton looks older but I don't think he looks anywhere near 71.  He looks late 50s to me?  Maybe mid-50s.  The guy has aged great.

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Yeah the "let's get nuts" one was especially awkward.  And I guess maybe Javicia is playing Ryan a little extra crazy, and she doesn't know how to do that?

But I read a good point on one of the TV blogs - maybe they didn't have the budget for it, but it would've been really cool to see flashbacks for Ryan's story.  Even if it wasn't true, it'd be cool to see Flash attacking Batwoman with an army of Rogues behind him.  They could've used the same Rogues that were already in the episode to save money so it would've just been a matter of getting the Batsuit (or altering the Red Death suit) and using the actors for an extra scene.

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Question - my friend's wife has Covid.  My friend (who has had Covid twice so far) and two children have tested positive.  I'm supposed to have dinner with my friend on Wednesday.  If he tests negative by Wednesday, do we think I'm okay to have dinner?  I'm torn about it but want to keep myself and my family safe.  But also want to go if the risk is low / nonexistent.  What do we think?

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ireactions wrote:

Because of Slider_Quinn21, I now have to look at every Season 9 episode of THE FLASH and ask: is this story more important than resolving LEGENDS OF TOMORROW? And watching Season 9, Episode 2, I have to ask: why did we need an entire episode of Team Flash not resurrecting Caitlin Snow and effectively killing off Caitlin and Frost?

I'm doing the same thing.  While I thought the first episode was silly, I think it was a milestone on Barry's adventure.

This didn't seem to accomplish anything.  If Caitlin is gone, it's a really rough way to write off someone who was on the show 8 years.  If she's coming back, what was the point of this?

Although I like that it was essentially Tuvix but this time Tuvix gets to live.

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I wonder how that stuff happens.  I know they changed networks, but this stuff is easily trackable.  You could just have the unit go rogue.  It's still part of the government, but now it can be evil.

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This is really interesting.  I watched Supergirl in between season one and season two, ahem, via a website.  I remember it being good, but I don't have the eye for noticing stuff like you do.  There's just about a 0.0% chance I ever rewatch Supergirl, but I am enjoying remembering a lot of the early stuff.

I do wonder how things would've gone if Supergirl had been a huge hit for CBS.  I guess she still would've had crossovers?

804

(934 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ireactions wrote:

What have you disliked from Feige?

I wrote a long rambling thing about Feige, but I ended up arguing against my own point.  I think my main point was that he's oversaturated the MCU market so it doesn't feel so much like an event.  It doesn't feel special as much anymore.  I was going to say that the D+ shows needed to serve the greater MCU more, but I think that they have.  I think where oversaturation has hurt the MCU, other than a loss of "specialness" is a decrease in CGI quality because Marvel is making a dozen projects a year instead of two.

But I prefaced my whole thing with talking about how much I like Feige and how much I respect what he's done.  So let's just leave it at that.  The argument I was going to make was either going to be forced or cliche - I think Feige is doing a great job.

*******

I watched Black Panther.  I thought it was really well done for what they had to do.  I won't get into spoilers, but while I thought it felt long (because it's very long), I thought it handled T'Challa's death with the weight it deserved.  It made me realize (again) what a big hole was left when Chadwick died.

Happy to speak more to it when more people have seen it.

*******

I'm going to try and see Quantumania before it hits Disney Plus, something I failed to do the last two movies.

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ireactions wrote:

FLASH's Season 9 premiere was okay. Some good character work with Iris disliking how her future is entirely too known to her and being irritated with Barry wanting Iris to follow every hint of the future to the point of everything being obnoxiously predestined and controlled. FLASH notes that the show has always been about Barry's mysterious future whether it was CRISIS or Nora 1.0 or Nora 2.0 and Bart and how that can become extremely trying on Iris trying to live in the now. Some good jokes. Some nice character beats in Barry and Iris' marriage.

It was nice. It was fine.

Yeah, it's fine.  I think when you deal with Barry, this was another lesson he needed to learn.  If he can't change the future, at least he can chronicle it to keep people safe.  I don't think this was an hour wasted of Barry's story.

What's weird about these time loop episodes is how often people die.  We've seen it on Star Trek, in Supernatural, in tons of sci-fi shows like this - do characters let up their guards because they know they're in a time loop?  Is this just all their bad luck crammed into one pocket universe?  Because whether it's Sam and Dean or Barry, they always are killed in these time loop episodes much easier than they would be in other episodes.  I don't think this challenge was unique or dangerous enough to kill Barry again and again and again.

I know it's fun to kill off the Flash a bunch of times knowing that there are no stakes.  I just think it's a weird situation because, narratively, it feels forced.

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The movie looks crazy expensive - essentially a Justice League sequel with seemingly as many action sequences (at least compared to Joss Whedon's version).  I assume that's why, no matter what Ezra Miller did, it was coming out. 

The movie does look interesting.  And as Gunn has said, it should reset the Snyderverse into the DCU.  I don't know if I totally understand how that can be the case - and how some people might be recast and some might not.  But as much as Ezra Miller makes me want this movie to fail, I'm very intrigued by it and am looking forward to seeing it.

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I realized something.

When Gunn announced his slate, he said that we're getting a younger Superman.  That's why Cavill had to be recast.  But he also said that they're doing a Batman that is dealing with his son.

Which means, essentially, that the DCU is going to have the same dynamic as the DCEU did in terms of Clark and Bruce.  One will be young and inexperienced.  One will be a veteran.  Because by the descriptions that Gunn used, Clark should be fairly young.  I'm thinking early 20s.  Batman, if he has a crimefighting son, can't be any younger than 30, right?  Mayyyyybe late 20s if he had Damian at 16 and Damian is now 12?  Either way, Bruce and Clark probably won't be contemporaries.  And for whatever reason, I want that.

But I am excited to have a Bat-Family and that seems to be the direction that Gunn is going.  So I'll accept it.

808

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Well, that's a good thing.  Perlmutter, besides being an ass, also is bad at content.  I think Feige has made some missteps recently, but there's no doubt he's better in every way from a fan perspective.

809

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It's.....fine?

I haven't had any technical issues, really.  The hardest part for me is that there's not an easy way to purchase comics on the app.  So I generally just read stuff that's already included in my subscription (which has been, recently, Sandman, Y:The Last Man, and the IDW TMNT current run).

The other issue is that they changed the way my reading queue is set up, which was a minor issue.  And a lot of times, I have to restart the app completely if I want something new to pop up in my reading list or my wish list.  And occasionally the search won't really work.

I'm almost caught up on TMNT (which has *all* been included, which is cool), and I have a decent number of DC titles in my queue.  But when I'm done, I might (at least temporarily) switch to the Marvel unlimited plan.  That will give me all the Marvel stuff and all the Star Wars stuff, right?  A lot of the Star Wars stuff is on Comixology, but either I read too fast or they've essentially stopped at War of the Bounty Hunters.

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ireactions wrote:

It's possible that FLASH could only book the LEGENDS actors for a day or two or weren't able to book them all in the same filming slot or could only get them to film insert shots (like in SMALLVILLE's ninth season when all the returning guest-stars were mostly talking heads on Watchtower's video screens). We don't necessarily know the whys.

Yeah, and let's be honest - it's a minor miracle that Flash is getting any episodes at all.  It could've easily been cancelled along with Legends and Batwoman with all the nonsense happening at WB.  And even if that wasn't happening, with a Flash movie (allegedly) happening this year, they could've gone for a clean break and just said the Arrowverse is done.

And while it's not what I would've done, I appreciate that the Flash is working to make sure that we do get some level of closure with the rest of the Arrowverse.  It's their show, and they could've done whatever they wanted.  So even making the effort is a gift to the fans.  Just like with Michael Rosenbaum, any scene in the Smallville finale was appreciated and made me truly happy.  That we're going to get Oliver and Batwoman and the Legends back is really cool.

Have any other guests been announced?  Supergirl?  Superman?  Our boy Ray Palmer?

Of course, it's entirely possible that Eric Wallace just can't imagine THE FLASH's final season not having 13 episodes with Barry Allen experiencing 13 separate crises of confidence and needing 13 individual motivational speeches from 13 different characters in order to get back on his feet for 13 episodes in a row.

I don't usually do this, but this made me laugh.

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ireactions wrote:

But. It's absolutely true that there have been entirely too many sequential episodes where Barry is moping around STAR Labs until someone gives him a sappy motivational speech. And I find it really difficult to believe that THE FLASH has to do another 13 and cannot spare 1 - 2 episodes to get the Legends out of jail.

Budget and timing is one thing.  But they *have* the Legends.  Scheduling worked.  Why not do a couple episodes and give them a proper wrap-up.  Especially since the Legends can absolutely be silly.  Maybe the time jail looks exactly like Star Labs for some reason so you can use the sets.  If they can't get Donald Faison, let Tom Cavanaugh do it and say it's a time disguise.  It doesn't really even matter with the Legends.  Just have fun.

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ireactions wrote:

LEGENDS will unfortunately not get a series finale on THE FLASH.

Eric Wallace:
It’s disappointing to me. But we just don’t have the bandwidth.

I had hoped that we’d have 20 episodes. My original concept was to have at least one — if not a two parter — that wrapped up LEGENDS OF TOMORROW. A little crossover: we get them back, we get them out of time jail, all these good things, Booster Gold.

When we found out we only had 13 episodes, that was no longer possible.

All the Legends at least are all going to appear in an episode.

https://thenerdsofcolor.org/2023/02/06/ … the-flash/

I read yesterday that the show had a huge plan for a season 10 with the Justice League uniting to fight Destro.  When they found out they weren't getting a tenth season (and that the ninth would be shortened), these plans were dropped.

I don't understand these TV writers.  If there's a storyline that would be super cool and give the fans what they want...why do they insist on leaving those ideas unmade?  He says they need all thirteen episodes to wrap up Barry Allen's story.  But I feel like so much time is wasted on The Flash that they're going to continue that even with a leaner ninth season.  A Justice League story, even if it's just a 2-3 parter, would be a great way to end the Arrowverse.  And to just say "yeah, we wanted this but it won't happen" just irks me.

Maybe this season will surprise me and I'll say "you had 13 hours of television and you used each of those hours perfectly" - but every time this season that Barry fights someone dumb by running around in a circle, I'm going to be sad that we aren't seeing the Justice League unite.  Every time it looks like Barry and Iris are going to break up or whatever, I'm going to be sad that we aren't seeing the Justice League unite.

I know it's their show and they should get to end it how they want.  And they think they need all 13 to end their show.  And, really, they've earned that.

But I'd rather end the Arrowverse right than end The Flash right.  But that's just me.

I'm looking forward tonight to seeing what they do.

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ireactions wrote:

I think only an insane person would try to write full scripts for even a mini-season of SLIDERS.

What about 1.5 full seasons? big_smile

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Yeah, they've already released an image of Amell in the Green Arrow costume.  It will be nice for him to be able to close out the universe he helped start.

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ireactions wrote:

FLASH's creators assure fans that Oliver's Spectre storyline won't be overturned:
https://www.cbr.com/the-flash-oliver-qu … ow-events/

That's a relief.  Although I'd probably feel better about Oliver's story if he didn't die when he did, and if he were somehow resurrected and could patrol Star City again.  But it's probably unfair to Arrow to do that.

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Okay, I think that's essentially what I'd do. smile

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ireactions just made me think of something.

Did anyone ever write a fanfic where they land on a world where Quinn *did* invent anti-gravity?  Its funny that Quinn seems to be the most ubiquitous slider, but he never really even did what he was trying to do.  So did we ever write something where Quinn actually achieved his goal?

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Interesting.  I'm very intrigued by Gunn's vision.  And I'm glad that Superman & Lois will get time to tell their own ending.

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One thing I would've liked better would've been for the universe to stick the landing a little better.  It would've been nice if the whole universe could've ended on a big crossover event.  Maybe Crisis - maybe something else.  I know this stuff is impossible to predict, but if they'd known things were shutting down, I wish we could've made this feel a bit more cohesive.

And that's why I'd use Flash as a series finale to the whole universe, not just the Flash.  But I also get letting them finish however they want.

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Yeah looks like the Berlantiverse is done.  Quite the era but it's probably done either way.

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I think that's probably fair.  If I were Berlanti, though, I would probably try and set up some mini-arc where Barry has to travel to Gotham, to Star City, to National City, and to the Waverider to collect McGuffins.  And in those episodes, bring back as many of the characters from Arrow/Supergirl/Legends/Black Lightning/Batwoman as possible, and make those episodes essentially "Flash guest stars".  Give us updates for the shows that finished themselves, and give us wrapups for the shows that couldn't. 

It would relieve pressure on Grant Gustin (although maybe 13 episodes is more manageable), it would eliminate "freak of the week episodes (again, maybe 13 episodes is the right number to avoid that), and it would give the fans what they want.

I don't know if any of those shows need more wrapup than you said, but I'd like to give each show their due since this will almost certainly be the end of the Arrowverse as we know it.

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ireactions wrote:

I dunno.

Javicia Leslie will be in THE FLASH, but I've read that she may not be playing Ryan Wilder but rather a parallel universe doppelganger and that Leslie's appearance isn't meant to tie up BATWOMAN in any way.

I generally think that the fan preference is for characters to return as the characters; Oliver Queen as Green Arrow, Ryan Wilder as Batwoman 2.0. Maybe the creators have a plan to give us that but in an unexpected way.

For Batwoman, I would want her to come back and wrap up her character.  Same with the Legends.

For Oliver, I think he needs to stay dead or be the Spectre.  It would be weird for Arrow to wrap up emotionally on their show and for Arrow to undo some of that.  I don't know, I feel like wrapping up Legends and Batwoman is one thing - rewriting the ending to Arrow is another.  But it's all the same people, really, so maybe it doesn't matter.

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Stephen Amell (and two others) have agreed to return for Flash's final season.  Hopefully there are a lot more others who can guest star.

Which leaves the question - is he The Spectre?  Will it be a flashback?  A parallel Earth?  Or will Oliver be resurrected?

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ireactions wrote:

Where is this fanfic?! I must read it!

It only exists in my head - I never wrote it sad

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ireactions wrote:

[One of the hardest parts of writing the TV show SUPERNATURAL, I think: it has to be finding a way for Sam and Dean to find some solution to beat the monsters of the week, to defeat Lucifer, and to, in the final season, take on God Himself.

This is why I was a fan of my fanfic season of Supernatural.  I think it would've been cool if something the boys did to save the world actually broke the fundamental laws of the world.  What if Dead Man's Blood didn't work against vampires?  What if silver didn't work against werewolves?  What if the Colt didn't work against *anything*?  Because I think at some point, the monster of the week stuff got stale because none of the traditional monsters were much of a challenge.  John's book essentially was a cheat code.

But if the boys had to start fresh?  Find new ways to kill vampires, werewolves, ghosts, demons, etc.  Write their own book.  That would've really reinvigorated the show, especially in the later years.

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ireactions wrote:

Dallas is featured very prominently in the first X-FILES movie, FIGHT THE FUTURE.

I've just always thought it was funny because it was clearly filmed outside of Dallas because there aren't mountains for hundreds of miles in the real Dallas tongue

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The movie that starts out in Dallas featuring very prominent mountains in the background? big_smile

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I did finish Stargirl - it was good.  I thought the twists at the end were a little predictable but effective.  I thought the show finished strong and left everyone in a good place.  The epilogue felt a little tacked on, but I don't know if it was or if it was supposed to set up a season four.  I know Brec Bassinger said season 4 was going to be "crazy" - I always hope writers are specific about that, but I don't know if they'll let us know what they were going to do.

All in all, the show was sweet.  It was different than the rest of the Arrowverse and I'm glad it didn't cross over with anything other than John Wesley Shipp.

I did read that Stargirl might appear on Titans.  That would be kinda cool.  I'm enjoying Titans season four, and I'm glad Doom Patrol is back.  I assume both will be in their final seasons.

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ConradBennishJr wrote:

I feel though that its still quite a bit different to LOST in that, the mysterious event that occurred seems to be the primary influence for the majority characters and if not explained in a satisfactory way might end up affecting my liking for the show whereas LOST was really a hangout show in disguise.

I don't remember when I started really caring about the characters, but you're going to need to start caring about Kevin and Nora or you're not going to like the ending.  Whether there's a definitive explanation for the disappearances is, at least in my opinion, up to the discretion of the viewer.  So if you're needing that, I don't think you'll be satisfied.

But I'm glad you like it better in season two.  That was certainly my opinion.  I think season three is also really good.

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ireactions wrote:

I think this goes back to Slider_Quinn21's point: when a story leaves the audience satisfied with the characters' journeys, then it's alright for the Mystery Box content to be disjointed, contradictory, unresolved, and not even that interesting and often out of focus. The audience will forgive that. Or at least Slider_Quinn21 will. Again, I have not finished LOST, but my sense from Slider_Quinn21 is that even if the Island wasn't ever explained, the character arcs were satisfying.

I think this is a fair statement.

Were all of LOST's answers satisfying?  No.  Were all of them reasonable?  No.  Were some of them, after watching the show multiple times, confusing and/or dumb?  Absolutely.

But mysteries are hard.  You have to come up with a mystery that is interesting enough to keep an audience interested that is a) mysterious enough that the audience won't figure it out and b) simple enough that it's satisfying upon rewatch and c) with enough breadcrumbs that your audience won't quit because you aren't revealing anything.

LOST set up some simple mysteries.  What is up with this island?  What is this monster that keeps killing people?  Who are these "Others" on the Island?

The show couldn't really explain the first one since it was the primary question.  So it solved the question about the Others.  In season one, we knew one Other who died before he could reveal anything (Ethan).  In season two, we met another, but he kept his identity secret.  By the time he revealed who he was, his answers very vague and, well, mysterious.  But by season three, we were spending time with the Others.  By season 5, we basically knew everything we needed to know about them.

The writers knew this was difficult.  That's why they insisted the show end after six seasons - they didn't have enough ways to delay gratification.  You can answer the Others question but you have to open up other mysteries.

As far as what the Island ended up being...to me, it didn't matter.  The answer is still vague to me.  The Island has some sort of cosmic importance, but it's unknown what the Island being destroyed would mean for anyone.  It ends up becoming a McGuffin.  But by that point, the characters were so beloved (to me and others) that it didn't really matter to us.  The Island could've been a cosmic turtle or purgatory or the town from the Village and I wouldn't care.  It didn't magically make those answers more satisfying - it made the mysteries less important to me.

So that's why I understand why people get mad at LOST for the mystery aspect.  But that means that they never bought into the character aspect.  Which, again, is fine, but that means they essentially wasted half of every episode getting to know characters they didn't have any interest in getting to know.

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(21 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ireactions wrote:

There's a part where George Clooney's character snarls, "Do I have to explain everything? Can't you just be amazed and move on?"

That is, I feel, quite reflective of Lindeloff's approach to LOST if I understand Slider_Quinn21's summary correctly.

It's funny.  LOST was a huge success primarily because of the mysteries.  WHY IS THERE A POLAR BEAR?  WHO IS THIS FRENCH WOMAN?  WHO ARE THE OTHERS?  ARE THEY DEAD?  WHAT IS THE MONSTER?

And to me, all of that was cool.  I desperately wanted to know who the Others were.  I loved learning about Danielle and other castaways on the Island.  I wanted to know what made it special and whether the world was still out there.

But Lindelof was very clear from the beginning through the structure of the show that this was about people.  It's why he devotes 50% his airtime *every week* to these people.  And not just Jack/Kate/Sawyer/Locke - to each of the main characters.  He didn't just want random nameless people going through something extraordinary (like, for example, The Walking Dead).  He wanted you to know each one of these characters and how they got to be the people they are now.  That when Jack or Boone or even Nikki made a decision, you understood how those decisions were forged.

It was plot-heavy but it was extremely character heavy.  You got to learn mysteries about the people every week, even if the Island plot was Hurley building a golf course on the Island or finding a Dharma van.

So it's so strange to me that people could watch 3 years of flashbacks (the flashbacks stop then and expand into other forms of storytelling) and not think "huh, why are the mysteries so lame?" - if a teacher spends half the class talking about World War II, don't you think you should focus on World War II when you are studying for the test?

With The Leftovers, as I said in my previous response, Lindelof starts fresh.  People all over the world disappear.  But we don't spend time with the President of the United States (like in the Y: The Last Man adaptation or every disaster movie ever) or a scientist trying to figure out what happened.  We spend time with families in a small town that were affected in different ways.  There's no effort to explain what happened any more than explaining a hurricane.  In season two, Lindelof changes the theme song from a dour instrumental to a peppy folksy song called "Let the Mystery Be."

He's not going to explain it.  If that's why you're here, you're free to stay for as long as you want, but you need to love these characters and how they grow and change. 

(Slight spoiler but they do, on some level, dabble in explanations, but it's all dabbling).

I think Lindelof is great with characters and specifically three-dimensional characters that exist in a real world.  I think he's also great at coming up with cool stories.  I think his payoffs are sometimes not as great, but in my opinion, the characters can carry the lamest of explanations.  I'm sold.

I also think Carlton Cuse doesn't get enough credit or blame for LOST.  I think the work he's done after LOST has been hit or miss but mostly strong - I really liked Bates Motel, I thought the Strain was fun, Colony was pretty solid Sci-Fi, and Jack Ryan is...fine?  But I don't think anything he's done as been as solid as The Leftovers or Watchmen.  I can see that Lindelof might've been more about characters and Cuse might've been more about story.

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ConradBennishJr wrote:

Speaking of Lindelof, did you ever see The Leftovers? I started watching season 1 but wasn´t that drawn in by the characters, but I keep hearing a lot of good things about it so I will probably persist with it.

The Leftovers is *incredible*.  While LOST is my favorite show, the Leftovers has to be on my list of the *best* shows.  I think it's incredibly well done and one of the most emotionally-gripping shows I've ever seen.

Now you're right - season one is hit or miss.  I think mostly because the show is so depressing.  I've suffered at times with depression and it was hitting way too close to home at times.  But I think there was enough in season one to get me through - I think Two Boats and a Helicopter is amazing and the end of the episode nearly destroyed me (I think Matt Jamison is a spiritual successor to John Locke). 

Season two is where the show is reborn.  They add a bunch of characters, change the setting, change the theme song (appropriately to a song called "Let the Mystery Be") and moved the story along.  Season three does some really great things, changing the setting again and experimenting with some different story ideas.

And the finale is perfect.  They set something up that works both as an emotional closure and a narrative closure depending on how you interpret it.  And, really, it's all because of LOST that it works.  Lindelof clearly learned from both legitimate mistakes and the artificial mistakes that fans blamed on him.

I think it's just phenomenal.  If I were you, I'd start it over again.  If you get the urge to quit, skip to season two.

833

(21 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I *love* LOST.  I know that people don't like the ending or whatever, but I think it's great.  I was a hardcore viewer from the very beginning (I read an article about it in the newspaper prior to its premiere) and loved it to the very end.  I watched the finale in a theatre and definitely got emotional at the ending.  I think it has the most well-rounded characters of any TV show ever, and it's my favorite show ever (not the best but my favorite).

Do all the mysteries get wrapped up, and do all the mysteries that get wrapped up feel earned?  Not necessarily.  But really the mysteries of the island stopped mattering to me once I fell in love with the characters.  Finding out what happened to Jack/Kate/Sawyer/etc was much more important to me than finding out why the Island was special.  Lindelof gets a lot of crap for the puzzle box stuff, but I love his work.  If it had all been a dream or the Island was in a snow globe or any of that, I would've been just as happy with the show.

834

(140 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ireactions wrote:

It also helps that Gough and Millar are running the show and ensuring that scripts never fall below their baseline standard. SMALLVILLE was often a very poorly written show, but that often seemed to be due to Gough and Millar not being very involved in SMALLVILLE and only writing nine scripts out of 152 episodes across their seven seasons. Most of the scripts from Season 2 onward lacked the touch of their rewrites. The nine episodes they did write personally across Seasons 1 - 7 were enjoyable, capable stories.

I'm curious which nine they wrote and if I could tell you anything about the plot of the nine based on Smallville's somewhat-vague way of titling episodes.

835

(3,535 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

So Trump is running in 2024.  I don't see how this isn't a good thing for Biden (or whoever runs in 2024).  If it's Biden vs Trump, I think people will vote for the same person they voted for in 2020.  I can't imagine anything in the last two years would indicate that people would've changed their votes.

But for Trump's side, he has to beat DeSantis first.  And I think that makes things so much harder.  Trump will either p*ss off a bunch of DeSantis voters (who I assume would stay home rather than vote for Biden) if he wins, or DeSantis beats him.  And if DeSantis beats him, I think there is no chance that all Trump's voters get in line.  I think you'd see record numbers of people write in Trump, or Trump would just keep running.

Because I think there's no chance Trump would accept that he lost a primary.  It'd be like 2020 except he'd just keep running afterwards.  I don't know how that would even work with the Republican Party - they obviously can't have two candidates.  I think the GOP's best bet is to tell DeSantis not to run, but that might make him want to run even more.

Either way, even with Biden being historically unpopular, I don't see how Trump running doesn't significantly help him.

836

(687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I understand Welling's decision, but I'm confused by it.  Welling hasn't done a ton since Smallville, and he seems totally okay with that.  I'm sure he made more than enough money from Smallville to support his family and only work when he wants to, and the notoriety to make big paychecks whenever he does choose to work.  Not The Rock big but big for any of us (I think he just signed on to the Supernatural prequel and even though it's on the CW, I'm sure we'd all take whatever he's getting paid).

So was he worried about being typecast?  Was he worried he'd be a laughingstock if he looked silly? 

Because Gough and Millar also said "no flights" - that rule didn't last very long (Clark "flies" in the first season!) and was broken tons of times.  Why was Welling okay breaking "no flights" but not "no tights?"  Even if Superman is the end of the show, they could've included it as an epilogue so we could've seen the full Superman on the show after we all waited ten years.

But I respect it.  We got the chest plate and it works.  Whether we see the whole suit or not, we can visualize it. 

I would say that I wish that we'd gotten it, but Tom Welling and Smallville already made two wishes come true - we got to see Welling and Rosenbaum one last time (maybe the most excited I've been about a TV announcement, at least top 10) and we got Welling to return in Crisis (maybe the most excited I've been about a TV announcement, at least top 10).

So if the guy who made both of those things happen (I assume) wanted things differently than me, that's fine.  We owe him one.

837

(687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

ireactions wrote:

But a bit of an afterthought epilogue that you didn't really need.

I didn't need it, but I could see how others would.  And I was glad to get ten more episodes with Dexter.  It was a nice ride.

What I liked about the original character is that it was full circle for him.  Dexter starts the series as a loner who uses people to cover up the fact that he's a loner.  He doesn't like people, but he feels like he needs to have friends and a girlfriend to look normal.  To pass as a regular human.  He picks a woman with a violent sexual history because he knows she won't want to be intimate.  He doesn't want that either so he's good with that.

Over the course of the series, he learns to love, appreciates the friends he does have, becomes a father, and genuinely begins to enjoy the life that he thought was artificial. 

To end the series with Dexter isolated from everyone with no one and nothing is a great ending.  He would've loved that level of isolation at the beginning of the series.  Now he hates it.  It's a win (he doesn't go to jail or die) but also a huge loss.  I think it's poetic.

This new ending is poetic but in a different way.  Now Dexter has become complete.  He used to be an animal that works off his bare instincts.  Survive.  Get away with it.  Don't get caught.

In this ending, he allows himself to get caught.  He allows himself to die.  He makes a sacrifice for someone else.  I think it works - in a different way than the original ending - but it works.

ireactions wrote:

Never seen a single episode of DEXTER, but Slider_Quinn21's fascinating thoughts (thank you!) have touched on something: there's what we, the viewers, *want* to happen to and for the characters. And then there's what the natural outcome is for the events and situations and character traits within the story.

This actually makes me think of Breaking Bad.  That's a show where I've decided to have a different headcanon than the actual series.  I like my version better haha

838

(687 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

It's now FIVE months after this, and I would like my pal ireactions to know that I'm 4/10 of the way through Dexter New Blood.  And I should hopefully be done in the next couple of weeks.

I did it!  Here are some thoughts:

S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S

I liked being back in the world.  Dexter is a really great character - he's funny, he's charming, and he scary.  I had a lot of fun watching him doing his thing for another ten episodes.  There were some genuinely funny moments, and it was a nice story.  It felt like a rebootquel with only minor cameos from anyone else.  But I think that also made the show pretty great.  You (ireactions) could watch this without needing to watch much of the previous stuff.

Was it as good as the first few seasons of the show?  Probably not.  Was it better than the last few?  I think so.  Again, the reason why I was the subject of this experiment is that I actually thought the ending was pretty appropriate and not terrible.  So I never thought the show was unwatchable.  It definitely got dumber, but it was also a victim of the era when it came out.  One of the season's big twists was solved because of the early days of fans coming together online to throw out theories.  And so the whole season rolled by with this twist that most fans already figured out.  Is that the show's fault?  Maybe?  It wasn't a great twist either way.

So what do we have in "New Blood"?  It's a simple little story.  Dexter's son returns and Dexter runs across another serial killer in town with him.  It's all a little convenient, but it works.  Dexter and Harrison are good together, Clancy Brown is a great villain, and the other characters are good.  There's a minor cameo from the original show which was nice, but it tries to be its own thing.  No opening credits, no theme song (except at the very end and over the closing credits each episode).

So does the show have a great ending?  Maybe?  I feel like I need to add another spoiler warning, but I guess I won't.

Dexter dies.  Pretty definitive end.  I don't think Harrison is a good enough character for there to be another season of New Blood, and I don't know if I'd watch it otherwise.  Dexter is a better character than Dexter is a good show.  And without Dexter, I wouldn't watch.

I don't know if Harrison is going to be less f*cked up without Dexter, even if it feels like it at the end of the show.  I think I would've actually preferred a happy ending where Dexter and Harrison do go and work as a vigilante team.  I might've liked to see Batista and Angela chase them down.  But maybe Michael C Hall didn't want that, and I think Dexter dying felt like the ending that most people wanted.

The thing is, Dexter dying is a cop out to me.  Dexter is a monster, but he's also the victim of a monster.  Dexter does enjoy killing, but he does have a code that he abides by.  On some level, Dexter wants to be a good person.  So I think if you consider the Dark Passenger to be an actual character, then Dexter is a victim of it/him/her.  So killing Dexter is killing the Dark Passenger and saving Dexter.  So is Dexter let off the hook now?  Or should he have to live with what he's done?

To me, the perfect ending is to have Dexter captured and face trial.  And I would've always ended the show with a season where Dexter is sorta playing Hannibal Lecter.  Doing one last redeeming action before he dies.

The issues I had:

- Dexter shouldn't have killed Logan.  I'm sure Dexter has killed innocent people before (Doakes is the most obvious example) in the name of self-preservation, but it felt lazy.  If they wanted Harrison to kill Dexter I think there could've been a much less contrived situation.

- The Dark Passenger being Deb instead of Harry wasn't explored nearly enough.  Was he/she/it the same, or something different?  It seemed like she was just a representation of Deb and seemed to be anti-Harry and anti-Code.  So not just a different embodiment of the Dark Passenger.  What was up with that?  I also felt like, for many times during the show, that there was something darker to how Deb was advising him.  But nothing came of it at all.  I might've liked to have a scene with both Dark Passengers.

All in all, I'm glad I watched it.  And I hope people enjoy the ending better than the previous one.  I probably prefer the ending where Dexter is suffering alone after spending years learning to love being around people.  But I can accept that Dexter was a terrible person who deserved to die and died on his own terms.

839

(6 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

Jim_Hall wrote:

I get to it whenever I can, a lot of times I don't feel up for it due to my health. Here's a link for how it's done:
slidecage.com/rewatch

Is everything okay?

840

(1,098 replies, posted in Sliders Bboard)

I saw Black Adam.  After hearing bad things from most of my Twitter nerds, I think it actually was pretty fun.  I think the universe still doesn't feel all that connected, but I think it was a fun movie.

Is Black Adam an anti-hero or just a villain traditionally?