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They did No Man's Land in a way that even Christopher Nolan wasn't able to.  It feels so comic booky, yet it still feels very grounded.  I still don't buy this version of Bruce as Batman because he's just not very big, but they've done a great job with just about everything else.

The only thing about this show that bothers me is Barbara....she's so irritating and over-acts in every scene (moreso than everyone else).  I think her type of character fits, but the actress bothers me.  Her "no boys allowed" storyline might be fun, though.

I think this country needs a lot more of this.  Since we can block people we don't agree with, and since so much of our interaction is no longer face-to-face, I think we're able to too-easily separate ourselves from people we disagree with.  And the more we separate from them, the less human they become.

If we put ourselves in the shoes of people we disagree with, they become more human.  And I think once we see each other on the same level, we can find compromises.  Today, in politics, we seem completely unable to find compromises.

Well, looks like the writers either didn't know about Infinity War or didn't want to mess with it.  Everything that happens in Agents of Shield happened before, and with the return coming after the Infinity War sequel, it might not even matter to the AoS universe.  Which is fine.  The Thanos threat played into Talbot's motivations, and that's all that really needed to happen.  Considering how much of Infinity War takes place in space and Wakanda, I don't think anything more needed to be shown or referenced.

With Gotham going off the air, it could make sense to use Batman villains.

I like that Batman exists but doesn't appear because he doesn't want to.  Arrow makes the most sense to add (I still wish they'd been able to use Nightwing), but I'm sure all the shows would want to use him.  Using him in a crossover and then a run on Arrow makes the most sense to me.

Next season:

Supergirl is moving to Sundays at 8pm Eastern
Legends and Arrow will be paired on Mondays (8pm Eastern and 9pm Eastern, respectively)
Flash and Black Lightning are paired on Tuesdays (8pm Eastern and 9pm Eastern, respectively)

Has anyone seen Black Lightning?  How does it tie in with the Arrowverse?  Does it at all?

I think Chris Carter has said in interviews that he never intended for the X-Files to have a proper ending.  Something like "life never ends, why should the X-Files?"

NOTE: I'm rewatching LOST with my wife right now (she's never seen it) and I'm enjoying every moment. I've forgotten more than I thought I would, but it's just so well done.  Even the average stuff is just very compelling to watch.

MORE AVENGERS SPOILERS!

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I could see that, but I'm hoping they made some sort of deal with the budget.  Maybe they get the same budget for 13 episodes that they had for 22 episodes.  It would probably take someone at Marvel flexing their muscle, but maybe it happened. 

It's actually a good opportunity for Marvel to play around with a world that is, technically, post-Avengers.  It could actually be a cool world to play with as a writer's room.

The problem is that, sorta like Fringe's final season, it'd be really weird to have the final season of SHIELD be in some sort of post-apocalyptic world that eventually gets erased.

He retweeted an ad for Bar Rescue (which I didn't realize he was on as a contributor) yesterday.  He might've done it with some down time or it might be required in his contract, but I wouldn't think that he'd be on Twitter, retweeting Bar Rescue, if things were really bad.

So maybe things are better?

I'd be very interested in seeing Infinity War aftermath on Agents of SHIELD.  But I don't know if they'd go there (I guess we'll find out Friday), especially when it's likely that the aftermath would get undone.

There's some cool stuff they could do.  But if the budget has been definitively slashed, maybe it could help things.

Or maybe they'll divert more money to it with less episodes.  We'll see....even with the slashed budget, I think the season has been entertaining.  And I'm watching it on my DVR way earlier than I used to, since I'm eagerly looking for clues onto what Thanos is up to

Saw the movie "Downsizing" this weekend.

Holy God....this movie was a mess.

When I first saw the trailers, I was fascinated by it because the concept is really amazing.  People voluntarily shrinking themselves, either for selfless (helping to save the planet) or selfish (instantly becoming "rich") reasons.  Then, with the added drama of the wife deciding to opt out at the last minute, leaving the protagonist small and alone in a new world.  There were so many interesting stories to tell in a world like this!

Then the movie came out, and I heard terrible things.  To the point where I read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia, decided it wasn't for me, and forgot about it.

But my wife was intrigued, and we decided to watch it.

Two things struck me about the first hour.  The first being that the movie was actually engaging and thought provoking.  The second that it doesn't seem to have been edited at all.  I haven't seen many movies that took the time to go through some many different scenes explaining exactly what's going on.  They have a small scene introducing the scientists that create the process....then a small scene introducing the science to the world....then a small scene of the world reacting, including a minor introduction to the protagonist....then the movie really starts in the present.  But, between each of those scenes, there was a time jump.  One scene happens - 5 years later.  Another scene happens - 10 years later.  There's even another time jump later in the movie.

It reminded me of the movie Surrogates, where they jump ahead year after year to show how we went from life now to life in a world full of Surrogates.  Except instead of a two-minute montage, it was a good 10-15 minutes of scene after scene showing bits and pieces of this new technology.  It was kinda bizarre (but done well).

There were things here and there that they brought up that seemed to be pretty cool.  They talk about Third World Countries using the technology to punish political prisoners.  They talk about how the economy is suffering because so many people are suddenly buying and consuming so much less stuff.  A drunk man confronts the protagonist about whether or not his vote should count as much as a "normal sized person" because he contributes less to the economy and is physically smaller.

All of these things could have been used to make a movie that tells a fantastical story that delves into real-world politics.  Or, if they wanted, they could've simply told a story about a man who makes a decision with his wife, and how her last-minute change of heart changes his life forever.

Instead....the movie decides to tell the story of a man who feels lost in his life, crushed by the weight of choices he's made in the past, who decides to help people.  He meets a housekeeper (from the aforementioned political prisoner story), and he's drawn into her selfless world of helping people.  Along the way, he's introduced to a plan to save humanity by entering an ark in Norway.

What's crazy about the 2nd half of Downsizing is how little it has to do with being small.  Outside of some brief scenes, the movie finishes without any scenes with "normal-sized people" - I could show you a full hour of this movie, and outside of some dialogue here and there and a couple of visual gags, you'd have literally no idea that the movie is about miniaturized people.

Don't get me wrong - the movie tells a (somewhat) compelling story about a man who feels called to his destiny.  About a guy who always wanted to heal people who sorta got swallowed up by life.  A man who takes a few leaps of faith before he's finally able to find contentment helping people.

But the movie is bizarrely structured and handled, as it were two different movies gruesomely sewn together like Frankenstein's monster.  It's like the writer of the film wanted to tell a story about a man who helps a political prisoner in a slum, and he only used the compelling miniaturization storyline to get the movie sold.  Or, like I said, he had half of one movie and half of another and just sewed them together to get a complete movie.

I didn't hate it.  But I'm not sure I've ever seen a movie that could've used its premise to go in a million different ways and decided to (almost) throw away the entire premise to tell such a "normal" story.  As if the movie "Lost in Translation" had an elaborate opening scene that explained the entire movie took place on the first colony on Mars, made to look like Japan.

Has anyone else seen this movie and had the same series of thoughts?

Regarding Infinity War:

I see where you're coming from, but I don't know if the small-scale moments were even possible with a movie like that.  They did their best here and there (Quill and Gamora, Thor and Rocket, Tony and Pepper, Thanos and Gamora, etc), but these types of movies lend themselves to big giant action sequences.  Although, to be honest, I found the Wakanda battle scene to be the worst of the movie.  I preferred the other, smaller action sequences.

(In fact, I would've gotten rid of the faceless army in general.  I know we needed some fun action sequences and big wins for our team, but I think fighting Thanos' generals and then Thanos himself would've been just as much fun.)

People have been saying that Infinity War overwrites the point of Ragnarok, but I don't see that.  Yes, Thanos destroyed half of the Asgardians, but half of them still survived.  Thor might've failed in saving all of them, but all of them were going to die on Asgard.  He still saved a ton of Asgardians because of that movie.  The eye stuff is weird because I think they could've kept it - I didn't see any particular reason to give him the eye back (they could've had him lose to Thanos because of depth perception or something).

That's actually the one thing I would've liked to have seen.  If Thor is really the warrior that can take Thanos down, I wish we could've seen how he lost so easily the first time.

I also wondered that....did Thanos "spare" the societies where he already destroyed half the life?  Or did places like Gamora's planet and Asgard lose another half?  I'm guessing, since it's Thanos' mind controlling the gauntlet, that he spared them.  But I wasn't sure how that worked.

***********

Regarding AoS and Infinity War....it's very strange to me that the aliens in the Confederacy are aware that Thanos is attacking Earth but don't seem that concerned about it.  Do they not know about Thanos' plan?  Because, you'd think, if they did....that the final fight on Earth wouldn't just be the Avengers....there'd be alien spaceships and superheroes and remnants of the Nova Corps and everyone that's still alive.

Because the Confederacy seems to be treating the conflict like "we wanted to plunder the Earth before Thanos got there...." not seeming to realize that Thanos is going to destroy half of *all life* - there's a 50% chance that he could kill any individual in the universe.  It should, in theory, be an all hands on deck vs. Thanos thing.

Very cool!  The show's not perfect, but they seem to have a great vision.  I'm glad they're going to get the chance to see it through.

Exactly.  Even if he was on the show but in the shadows *at SCPD*, then they could at least follow the "following orders" excuse for most of the policemen.  Right now, the policemen are openly following orders from some random plainclothesed guy.  How are any of these officers going to explain any of their actions?

Gotham has been on life support for a couple of seasons now.  It's crazy when these shows roll the dice when they know it could be their last season.  I know they weren't definitively told that it was the end, but the ratings haven't been great for a while.  It's been a bubble show all year.  It's crazy if they don't finish because they assumed they'd be renewed.

Same thing happened with the Last Man on Earth.  That show barely made it last season and ended this season on another cliffhanger.  I don't know why shows like that don't write a simple finale that would serve as a good series finale if things don't work out.  If they get renewed, it's always possible to create more story.  It's not possible to continue a show after a cliffhanger if your show is (predictably) cancelled.

On Arrow...

Diaz is, in theory, a great villain.  He has control of the city, essentially turning Team Arrow into fugitives without having to frame them for anything.  The problem is....I don't buy it.

Putting pressure on a few guys at the top...that makes sense.  But Diaz seems to have put pressure on everyone in the city, and I don't get that.  And the show isn't being particularly clear on what, exactly, is going on.

There's a couple of things that they seem to be saying.  The whole flash drive thing was because it had everyone on Diaz's payroll - but is he paying everyone off?  And wouldn't that be insanely expensive?  Is Diaz rich enough, even with the Quadrant's resources, to pay off every person in the government?  And if he is, is that even the best way to use those resources?  Seems like it's way too much to be spending, even for the level of control he has?

Or is he paying off certain people and leveraging everyone else?  Or is he counting on paying off / leveraging top people, and simply hoping that everyone else falls in line?  Because I don't buy that.  Is the entire SCPD borderline evil?  Because some of the stuff that Diaz is ordering street-level cops to do is beyond "following orders" - even if you compare it to stuff in Gotham, they're essentially saying that Jim Gordon would work as muscle....since there are dozens of cops who seem fine with "I want Oliver Queen dead" with no questions asked.

What I think, maybe, should've happened instead of the Green Arrow trial getting Oliver impeached....is some sort of huge disaster where a ton of SCPD officers were either killed or seriously injured - where the city has to impeach Oliver because of the fallout and the city has to "hire" a private security firm to act as the police - and those would all be Diaz men.  Because this season technically has to end with literally every government officer in prison because they're all openly committing crimes for a crime lord.

I'm enjoying the season, and I think Diaz is a great villain for Oliver to face.  But every time I think about it, the crazier it seems.

To be fair, we've only met two evil Laurels....and one is from a universe where all the good guys are bad.  So, technically, 2/3 of the Laurels we've seen are "good"

But, yeah, that's an interesting idea to keep Laurel involved.

If Team Flash is going to reach out to anyone....why not Kara?  She could fly into space and destroy the satellites and is completely organic.  She also might be invulnerable to DeVoe, who would have no access to Kryptonite as far as I know (it shouldn't be on Earth 1 and DeVoe can't travel to parallel Earths as far as we know).

That'd be cool.  Maybe the first half of the season is him doing missions for the Suicide Squad and making allies and enemies.  The second half of the season would be the breakout.

I 100% expect that Infinity War will have zero effect on the Netflix shows.

Back to Infinity War spoilers....

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So I watched a few minutes of Spider-Man Homecoming last night because it popped up on YouTube.  It was then that I remembered that Aunt May found out that Peter was Spider-Man.

To me, the Spider-Man death is the one that hurts the most.  And it isn't because I expect him to be dead because I don't.  While everyone else faced their death with relative grace and poise, Spider-Man might've been the only one in the entire universe that knew what was happening to him and faced it with true fear.  He begs for his life.

And it hurts because Peter, while being brave and strong and heroic, is a kid.  He's going to come back, and he'll be a hero again in his next solo film.  And that'll probably be fun and funny like Homecoming was.

But it's haunted me since I saw it because he's a kid in a very adult situation.  I've gone back and forth with the question of whether or not Peter knew that the plan involved him dying.  And I still don't know whether or not it's sadder for him to have known (and then freaked out realizing that dying, even for a noble cause, sucks) or whether or not he didn't know (and it's just a 15-year-old kid realizing he's going to die).  I know the moment is going to haunt Tony, but it still haunts me nonetheless.

And that's when I thought about Aunt May.  I know this is a younger, sexier Aunt May.  But it's still Aunt May.  And I realized that, while she doesn't know that Peter disappeared....she knows enough.  Infinity War takes place over a couple of days, and the inciting incident is a fight between Iron Man, Dr. Strange, Spider-Man, and two alien invaders.  The news would obviously cover a huge spinning spaceship arriving in New York, the ensuing battle, and the ship disappearing.

There'd be witness accounts of who fought, and what happened to them.  Someone may have seen (and heck, there could be video) of Spider-Man and Iron Man on the spaceship (since no one would really know who Strange is).

And Aunt May knows that Peter is Spider-Man.  Even before she can get worried that Peter hasn't come home yet, she'd know that Peter boarded an alien spaceship that traveled light years away.  Even before people started disappearing, she'd know.  And even if she disappeared herself, she'd have a couple of days to understand that Peter was gone.  Not missing.  Gone.

And that made me sad again.

Weekly recap:

Supergirl - Supergirl definitely tries harder than the other shows to create effective drama between the characters.  I think I care more about side characters like Winn than I do about, say, Caitlin.  I still think there's zero reason for James to be on this show, though.  Maybe move him and Guardian to Legends?  Worked for Wally.

Flash - I do think Thinker's plan is dumb, and I don't think Marlize would go with it.  You'd think they'd want to go the other direction - and make everyone smart.  But if they're going to just use technobabble, they should just lobotomize everyone into being less violent.

I'm still waiting for the real villain to be someone other than the Thinker, but I don't know if that's going to happen.  I also thought that maybe Marlize was dead after the attack and Thinker re-animated her.  It'd explain why she's been inconsistent and controllable, but the Weeper tears doesn't really work with that explanation.

Arrow - I think you're right....do these shows not talk to each other anymore?  Both Arrow and Flash have the same situation with the same exit.  I think Arrow's was a cooler twist in a vacuum, but it was definitely muted by the fact that Flash already did it.  And so on both shows, the show had people put on trial and helped out with a guy in disguise.  And then no one seems to care about it anymore.  Will the news openly refer to the Green Arrow as Tommy Merlyn now?  Did the CCPD never follow up on DeVoe, who was mysteriously alive again and then disappeared?  Didn't they bury a body?  Did no one exhume it?

Although I read a rumor (completely unsubstantiated) that they might try and do the Supermax idea on Arrow next year.  I don't know if it's true or if it'd work, but I think it'd be a really cool way to do it.  I don't know if it'd work better as a movie (where the budget / special effects would be better) or in the Arrowverse (where we care about the character more), but if they aren't going to make the movie, it'd be a pretty great idea to try it in season 7.

Agents of SHIELD has gotten much better since the show decided it didn't have to behold to the movies.

Never met anyone.  But I've never really pursued it.  The only genre celebrity I've ever had any real interaction with is Jason David Frank.

New topic: Infinity War in relation to the TV shows:

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Season 1 of Marvel's Agents of SHIELD tried to be a close tie-in to the movies.  There were cameos (Nick Fury), full guest appearances (Sif), and direct connections (a cleanup from Thor: The Dark World and a huge tie-in with Captain America: the Winter Soldier).

After that....not so much.  There were loose tie-ins to Avengers: Age of Ultron, a few asides to people like Hulk and Captain America, and references to the Sokovia Accords.  But that's about it.  As ireactions has talked about at length, there's a weak connection between Marvel TV and Marvel Films, and it only goes one way.  The TV shows reference the movies, but the movies don't reference the TV shows.

It's even weaker on the Netflix shows.  There are references to the Battle of New York, but they're very vague about it.  I'm not sure about other shows like Cloak & Dagger and the Runaways.

At the end of the day, it's no big deal.  These shows are doing their own thing, and that's fine.  Not everything needs to be connected, and even when they're dealing with huge disasters, there's usually not any real reason why the Avengers would show up in the Netflix shows or vice versa.  Even when they're in New York in the movies (like Dr. Strange or in Infinity War), they'd have to be in Hell's Kitchen for any of the Defenders to show up.  So while a cameo like that would be cool, it would be more coincidence than fate.

But Infinity War ends with half the humans on the planet being turned to dust.  That's not something these shows can just turn a blind eye to.  Even if all the Defenders/Agents of SHIELD/Runaways/Cloak & Dagger all happen to escape Thanos' wrath....this is an insanely big development in what's supposed to be a shared universe.  And it won't be resolved for a year.

I don't watch Runaways or Cloak and Dagger.  Maybe they all take place before Infinity War and won't ever reach that point in MCU.  Same could be said of the Netflix shows....which could hypothetically take place at any time between Avengers and Infinity War without many mile markers to tell us when things happened (no one has mentioned Spider-Man, for example, so we can assume that he hasn't made an appearance yet).

But Agents of SHIELD has always been the one to tie in the most (aside from the sidequel series Agent Carter).  And while the show has shied away from too many connections in recent seasons, they did mention that something was happening in New York on the most recent episode (airing concurrently with Infinity War).

Half the human population can't disappear and that not affect Agents of SHIELD.  It just can't.

The one way out would be if, 1) the show gets cancelled and 2) the show wraps up its current storyline quickly.  People have analyzed it a bit - the fight between Iron Man/Strange/Spider-Man and Thanos' generals takes place during daylight.  A later scene takes place at night in Great Britain, and another scene takes place during the day in New York.  Then, the final scene takes place in Africa (during the day) and America (during the day).

It seems like Infinity War takes place over the course of a single day.  Maaaaaaaayyyyyybbee two.  Either way, New York is referenced on SHIELD at night (in America), meaning that Stark/Spider-Man/Strange are, at the very least, on their way to Titan.  Vision and Scarlett Witch are, at the very least, with Cap and his team.

So the remainder of SHIELD has to take place in the remainder of the movie or it has to be referenced.  And, to be fair to the universe, some of the primary agents are going to have to disappear.

Will they?  Or will this finally be the moment when Marvel TV and Marvel Films decide to go their own way?

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I think that makes sense.  The movie does seem to strongly imply that Strange is pretty cool with what was happening.  Thanos even remarks that they didn't use the time stone when they could've.  Strange didn't because he was okay losing.

Well, I don't know if you're going to like it.  If you're not invested in the universe, it might just be a lot of noise.

I'd just ask that you try and appreciate what they were able to accomplish.  Whether or not you like what they've done, they've done something that has never been done before.  And they turned it into a movie that is both, somehow, entertaining and makes sense.

HOLY CRAP.  Spoilers.  Spoilers forever.....

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I don't know if this movie is good.  I don't know if it's too much or too many characters or if they went in such a strong direction that it doesn't work for people.  I thought it was an amazing achievement to get all these characters together and give them stuff to do.  Every character, I'm fairly certain, gets a moment to shine or a little character piece.  The movie is long but it takes time to breathe.  There are character moments...if not character arcs for a lot of them.

And the movie is brutal.  I feel, just watching it, like I've fought Thanos himself.  The movie more than makes up for all the teasing because this guy is a bad ass motherf*cker. 

I legitimately came out of the movie crushed.  So many people die, and even though I don't care about all of them, some of them were just gutting.  In particular, Peter....begging for his life. 

It's gonna get undone.  They can't wipe out all the new characters and only leave characters that make $50 billion.  They needed to sorta clear the decks so that they can give the originals (who are all still alive) a strong sendoff.  At this point, it almost seems like Thanos is going to have to have a change of heart for it to work out (I assumed that the Time Gem would get held onto, and that that's how they'd undo it). 

It's the most downer ending for a blockbuster like this that I've ever seen.  There's a glimmer of hope in the end credits, but even that's a downer.

Again, I don't know how to even grade it.  I don't even know if I want to see it again to give it a grade...I saw it last night and I'm still struggling with how I feel about it.  But I said it earlier that I'm grading it on a curve.  And on the curve, damn, it was an impressive achievement.

You're right, I was thinking of Matthew Kim (Melting Point), who was at STAR Labs and is presumably dead.  What we both forgot was Fallout (from "The Trial of the Flash"), who hasn't been captured yet.  Per the Arrowverse wiki, he's with Tracy Brand trying to find a cure.

The Weeper also hasn't technically been captured, but DeVoe is using his powers to drug his wife so he must have some access to him (if not already taken his powers).

SQ22 is my evil doppleganger

And I think there's a bit of difference there.  If an actor plays a character differently, those traits become part of the character.  This can be on purpose or accidentally.  When Matt LeBlanc accidentally hurt his arm on Friends, it had to be written into the show.  LeBlanc was hurt....so Joey became hurt.  Rob McElhenney purposefully put on a ton of weight for Always Sunny, and they had to write it into the show.

If Jerry O'Connell played Quinn as lethargic and careless....Quinn suddenly became those traits.

Chloe was a good person throughout the show.  She showed none of the "Allison" traits.  So I can separate the two.  Maybe it's a weird place to put a divider, but it works for me. 

Cosby's a little weird because I never really watched the show growing up, and there was an episode where he drugs a bunch of people.  And he jokes about it in his standup routine.  So maybe that's a bad example.  I was just thinking of a couple different prominent examples.  I don't think Kevin Spacey's horribleness will make me enjoy something like Usual Suspects or Seven any worse.  I have a soft spot for K-PAX.

He did make me stop watching House of Cards, but that's because that show SUCKS.

Well, they're three very different things and sad in their own ways.  And I only threw Young in there at all because it was a tragedy too. 

Either way, 2 of the 8 main cast in the 1st season has been to prison (it could've been 3 if Kristin stayed in).  That's no good.

This season of Arrow hasn't been great, but it's interesting to have them take Oliver all the way back to the beginning.  It's also pretty crazy to run with this idea (fairly) that Oliver has become a better man but a worse hero over the years.

And it's interesting about Flash.  They know exactly what to do with certain characters, but they struggle, at times, to understand how to get those characters from point A to point B.  Either that, or they don't want to bother with certain things so they just add development during hiatuses.