Search options (Page 5 of 35)

It could be cool. This would be a great time to really change things up and go in a completely different direction with the series.

But Oliver will be back to his normal life long before the crossover, and no massive cast changes have been announced, so... We'll see. My hopes aren't high.

Supernatural finale:

I'm torn on this. There are elements that I was really drawn into, and elements that I thought were kinda cringy. I think that can be said for this entire season's arc.

The alternate world arc wasn't great overall. I like that the angels over there weren't the stupid corporate angels that we've seen over the last however many years. They were dangerous, and didn't spend scene after scene just talking about how powerful they were. However, as a whole, I'm just not sure about the other universe. Using it was a way to undo deaths without undoing deaths felt gimmicky to me. In a whole entire other world, they just happen to bump into a bunch of their old dead friends (and not even the ones that I'd be willing to have back even if the method of doing it was kinda weak). And Bobby/Mary? No.

It wasn't horrible. It just didn't feel like Supernatural to me.

However, we got Jack this year. I didn't like how he came about last year, and I didn't like bringing Lucifer back at all, but I did end up liking Jack a lot, which surprised me. Not only did I like him as a character, and how he works with all of the other characters, but I liked this underlying question of whether or not he was born to be bad. There was always this threat that he was too powerful and could do horrible things, even if he didn't meant to. Watching that tension fill the room in each scene, even if it wasn't being directly addressed, was fascinating.

There was real tension with Lucifer and Michael, even if I didn't love them being there at all. Lucifer trying to lure Jack to the dark side, using his same old Lucifer methods, was interesting. And when he finally turned on Jack, it wasn't really surprising, but it was emotionally charged, just because we care for Jack at this point. I do like that they took Jack's power away. Even having Castiel around is too much of a crutch for the series, so if Jack is to stay, he needs to be a person, not a super powerful being.

And then Dean saying yes to Michael after all these years... it was cool. However, it led to some of the more horrifically corny visuals to ever grace this show. The flying battle was bad. It was like watching a B-Movie from the 80's, to the point where I kinda think that they might have been riffing that style on purpose (especially with the freeze-frame at the end of the episode).

I'm sure I'm supposed to be wondering how they will get Dean out of this, but I was just left screaming at my TV "Boot him! Why are you whining about having a deal instead of saying no?!"

But whatevs.

So yeah... I don't know. The episode wasn't horrible. The whole arc wasn't horrible. It just didn't feel like it was taking place on the right show for me.

And lest I forget, I am going to ding Supernatural for doing something that I've bashed the Arrowverse for. No special treatment.

TRUMP IS NOT PRESIDENT IN THE SUPERNATURAL UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!! Watch your own damn show, people!!! Jack is genetically the damn president's son! Yes, it was a stupid idea, but you did it anyway. Now you don't get to make Trump jokes!

Another interesting article about Allison, with comments from people who actually knew her:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/f … er-1112107

That's true. I think that the media obviously does treat the two parties differently. Whereas the people who said crazy things about Obama were painted as conspiracy theorist, anything said about Trump is regarded as legitimate news. For example, the birthers. Yeah, I never expected to find out that Obama was born in another country and couldn't be President, but there were legitimate questions to ask about why he wasn't required to show his birth certificate when it was requested (proving eligibility is something that even McCain had to deal with) and why he spent millions of dollars specifically to avoid showing it.

Most likely, it was because it made his detractors look insane, and that worked in his favor.

On Twitter, Erica Durance made a post about the whole "animals" thing. After is was proven to be fake news , she acknowledged that, but pivoted to say more bad things about Trump. So while the facts of the situation were tossed, "points" were still added to the "anti-Trump pile". Does that make sense?
And while this isn't significant on it's own, that pile of hollow hatred keeps growing with more and more instances where facts are thrown away while emotions are retained. I think that contributes to the overall toxic political climate in the media and on social media, whereas a more balanced disagreement/dislike would be more realistic and more productive.

And I've definitely done stuff like this in the past, calling Hillary a psychopath, or joking about "Pinky and McCain" back in the day. Hell, I make jokes about Trump too, because he makes me cringe all the time. But I do try to avoid getting so deep into irrational hatred that I can't find my way back to objective reality. A lot of the people I've seen online are way beyond the point of objective reality, and they react with pure hatred if you try to bring facts into the conversation.

But I guess the riots and lootings have died down, so... That's progress.

I was hoping that Batman would be an Earth-2 character. It just feels like a good fit to me. But I guess that probably won't happen. Since they are using Batwoman, I assume they will come from Kara's world, because of its toxic femininity. (That was a joke. Relax)

I doubt Batman will happen, and I'm okay with that. They cast Superman way too young, and they'd probably do the same with Batman. Arrow already swims in Batman-inspired waters pretty often, so it'd probably be weird to have Batman appear anyway. Same with Oracle.

I watched the first episode of Black Lightning, but it didn't impress me. I may revisit it over the summer, but I haven't decided yet. From what I saw, they left wiggle room that could allow the show to fit into tye Arrowverse if they wanted, but I didn't see any solid link.

Also in the news, this year's crossover will feature Gotham City and Batwoman. And everyone is already expecting her to hook up with Sara, because Sara is just a joke of a character at this point.

...because it is a story.

There's a difference between a "life goes on" ending and a "we have no idea what we're doing" ending. With his logic, why didn't the series start when Mulder was conceived?

AoS is scheduled to come back next summer, presumably after the next Avengers movie is released in May.

Yeah, not likely. And I'm fine with it. Maybe someday, after Chris Carter retires and can never return, we can revisit the franchise.

Wait, is Disney going to own it? Because if so, we might get a millennial remake series on ABC in two years. Oh, and a reimagined Millennium, with Dylan Sprouse as Frank Black.

Chuck had a small budget, but some solid plot, great characters, and a cast that could sell it. AoS has... a small budget...

I should probably avoid reading much more here, with all of the Infinity War stuff. Not that I'm hugely invested. The MCU movies have been getting worse and worse. Like they have a release date, and will release a movie on that day, whether they have one or not. Ragnarok was just horrible. I was literally cringing through the first quarter of the movie, and then my face got tired. But I was cringing on the inside for the rest of the movie.

I just don't understand it. Why can so many people watch these movies and enjoy them, but I watch them and they're just embarrassingly bad? It wasn't always like this. Even the early "bad" MCU movies were somewhat fun to watch (First Avenger, Thor, Iron Man 2), but now they seem 100% horrible.

Sorry you had to go through that.

AoS was renewed. For the life of me, I have no idea why.

I expect next season to be set entirely in one room. The year after that, they won't even film it. It will just be an audio production... Which might actually help to improve their stories.

Finally saw Ragnarok!

I can honestly say that it met my expectations.

I agree with most of what you said. Diaz should have been seen less this year, while his influence slowly built and became more obvious.

I've just gotten so tired of yelling "kill him" at my tv, while numerous characters just shrug and walk away. The end result is, he looks like a weak villain who isn't stopped because the heroes are weaker.

Recasting Lethal Weapon would just be dumb. Fox should have edited the finale to end a few seconds earlier, and it would have been a solid finale.

I think the fuss with Camren's hair has been a little over blown. In the comics Selina has had short hair, so it isn't a deal killer. Barbara's hair has changed quite a bit. Ivy's face keeps changing! I don't think a haircut is a big deal.

It is a challenge, because David Mazouz is only 17, so even if he started training heavily and bulking up, it could be hard for him to look Batman-ish right now. Unless they go with more of a Terry McGinnis look. He is really good in the role though, so I'd rather not see him replaced.

Buy yeah, the budget would be an issue.

So Friday was a bloodbath for TV, as networks canceled a ton of shows ahead of next week's up-fronts. The only cancellation that really bummed me out was Brooklyn Nine-Nine...

But NBC just picked it up. So I think I might be in the clear this year, unless Gotham gets canned.

I'm not sure. I don't use Twitter super often, but I've been checking it more lately. So I'm not familiar with any history here, just what he posted in the past few days.

Yeah, I thought of Kara or J'onn, but figured that they might get busy at the moment. Still, there are options that they're not really considering.

The Council of Wells is like... You know when an unfunny person tells an unfunny joke, but they insist that it's funny, so they keep pushing it harder and harder, to the point where it wouldn't be funny even if it had been funny to start with? Like a lame "Dad joke" that will not die.

And now we have a sequel to that horrible joke. And sequels always suck more.

This season of the Flash has been filled with attempts at comedy, from writers who obviously don't do comedy well. I wish they would just go back to writing the show, without trying to be a comedy series.

Also, both the Flash and Arrow need more stand alone episodes or short arcs. Their main villains get old and drag on and on for way too long, just because the pacing of their stories is so forced.

Yeah, he wins.

If they put Oliver in prison for all of next season, they could pretty much cut the rest of the cast back to recurring roles. It might be interesting. However, since Barry already went to prison, it would be another rehash. And how ling could we expect them to keep him in prison anyway? The CW would want him out in time for the crossover event.

We already know about a couple of cast changes for next season. One would help the supermax theory, but not the other. Either way, I hope they ditch the newbies (really ditch them. I don't even want Curtis working with Felicity on camera) and get back to a more hardcore action vibe. The whole family drama angle doesn't work for Arrow. I'd suggest that they kill off Felicity, just to jump start the story, but we all know that won't happen.

And here's one of the problems that has plagued AoS since the beginning... I haven't seen Infinity War, and even if I were super eager to see it, the odds of my getting to the theater in the first week or two would be slim to none.

TV is easy, because it happens on my schedule, and it's free. Totally different animal. AoS has spoiled movies in the past (most notably Winter Soldier).

I'm not super invested in the MCU, so I'm not the target audience, but if I were, I would find this very frustrating. Who wants to watch a tv show for free if it's going to ruin a movie that you're paying money to see?

But like I said, I'm not the target audience. I do agree that this season has been super cheap though. It's pretty ridiculous, given their basic concept.

Switching topics kinda...

I still haven't seen Ragnarok, and every time I think about renting it, it feels like a chore. Thor movies just suck, and the fact that Homecoming sucked and Doctor Strange sucked just kills my excitement for all of the other interwoven movies. I am a geek. We all know this. I find enjoyment in some pretty lame-but-geeky material. It's frustrating to me that so many people enjoy these movies and they make billions of dollars, and they should be exactly my type of movies, but I find so few of them to be the least bit enjoyable.

That said, I think that at least some part of their success is just a pop culture thing. Like Star Wars movies, the film's themselves aren't as important as everyone wanting something to be excited about. The DCEU is the same pop culture movement, but in reverse, since they represent the "other team", despite doing something completely different.

I'm rambling. I must be bored.

This week's Flash was... problematic for me. (though I hate the word "problematic" these days)

First of all, I think that the Thinker's endgame seems like an afterthought. It feels like they didn't think up his big plan until they absolutely needed to, and now that they have it, it doesn't even make sense. How does anyone come to the conclusion that less intelligence/technology will result in a more peaceful people? You could say that it's like arguing that less guns would result in less crime, and I guess people make that assumption all the time, so the Thinker isn't beyond the realm of normal people. However, history proves that humanity managed to be plenty violent before modern technology came along. And if you remove intelligence and cause people to operate purely on instinct and survival, things would be a lot worse.

But his real plan isn't to make humanity "better", it's just to rule over them. I still don't know how this makes sense. And rather than spend a season showing us the way in which this plan works, we have four episodes to figure out the mess of his logic, after spending all season spinning his wheels for... reasons. I'm not even sure how all of the bus metas were necessary. Is he planning a production of Fiddler on the Roof after he takes over the world? Couldn't he have really thrown off Team Flash by just not caring about a few of those bus metas?

Marlize is kind of a mess of a character as well. She now seem to be a more sympathetic character, who isn't totally on board with the plan. But earlier this season, she was just fine with all sorts of horrible things.

When The Flash, Vibe and Gypsy went to stop the Thinker and Caitlin showed up with the freeze gun... how? She can neither vibe her way there, nor super speed her way there. How did she get there?

I know we're not really supposed to question a lot of these things. It's a silly show and we should just go with it. However, I think the show would be so much better if the writers thought things through. These problems aren't hard to fix.

I shall trust your sister's intel. She knows more than I do.

Thirteen Reasons Why definitely isn't for everyone, and it is definitely more of a conversation than it is a lesson. But yeah, Netflix probably shouldn't load up on those types of shows. Glad to hear that this one is more fun.

If the movie is good, I'll say so. I never watch a movie and hope that it sucks, just so I can point out how much it sucks. I'm always happy when one of those movies surprises me. That just hasn't happened in a while.

I am not giving them points for what they've done so far, in terms of their cinematic universe. It's been a mess, with a few bright spots here and there. Making a ton of money doesn't make their movies good. They set an ambitious goal, and it would have been awesome if it had worked. I just don't think that it did. And they don't appear to be learning from their mistakes (because they're more about profits than craft, and that's fine). If they could do that, maybe the next round of joint-universe movies would be great.

Like I said, it's not really about concern for her. I'm just interested in the way people become what they've become. Character arcs, I guess. My brain seeks information. Motive. Backstory.

Apparently, Allison was once a normal person. But even within those comments about her, I spot weakness. They say that she was interested in finding her place in the world, helping people and female empowerment. None of those things actually mean anything. They're general notions of genres of goals. To me, this paints a picture of someone who had been playing characters her whole life and didn't have a grasp of who she was as a person. She was an empty vessel, and that made her a prime target for a cult. She wanted to feel like she had purpose and meaning, and ultimately, power over the world.

I can understand how a cult leader could take someone like that and mold that person into a monster. It doesn't change what she did, or lessen what she did in any way. People who are taught a pattern of abuse as children often repeat that pattern. It doesn't lessen their own crimes, but it helps us to understand where that evil is rooted. It helps us identify that pattern elsewhere.

Like I said, I'm fascinated by the psychology of cults. Maybe because I've seen it up close. That doesn't change the fact that I just looked at a clock, saw the letters "AM", got a flash of those initials burned into human flesh, and was disgusted.

Allison should definitely rot in prison for what she did. She is a disgusting human being. But she is the product of a machine, and I want to know how that machine works.

On another note, I saw an article that attempted to pain the whole Smallville series as cursed, with actors who never amounted to anything after it ended. Plagued by fleeing cast members (Michael and Kristen left after seven seasons! That's a whole series run for most shows!) and chaos. The article was BS, trying to paint Allison as one part of a larger tragedy. I don't get the need to ruin other people who just happened to be around her at one point, years ago.

http://variety.com/2018/tv/news/allison … 1202788522

Interesting article, with comments from a source close to Smallville. It helps create a sort of timeline between Allison being a nice, but desperate and lost young woman, to the monster she became. I do think she was an easy target, and that she was broken because of this. However, that doesn't excuse what she became. We are responsible for our own choices. So while wrongs may have been committed against her, they in no way excuse the wrongs that she committed on others.

And when she broke, she really damn broke.

So... Is the Allison that we saw on Smallville the same person that she is today? Or is there a divide somewhere?