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909 Watches TV: Peaky Blinders

muzzington

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I've seen the first season once and haven't watched the second. How would you rate the first compared to the third?
 

909

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I've seen the first season once and haven't watched the second. How would you rate the first compared to the third?

The first is a 10, it's one of the best seasons of TV ever. Season 3 gets by with a good story but the acting is much more present as a factor in becoming invested in the season. I would also say that in the third season the detectives do a lot of things that are more morally ambiguous than what Rust and Marty did. Also, the first season has a much more heinous plot and is far more dark.
 

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HAWKEYE

NEVER MEET YOUR HEROES


Making sure not to fuck up and forget like I did with Loki. Anyway as far as a Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) show goes, there's really only one route to take and one comic storyline to borrow from. It's the track suits. In this case Hawkeye isn't in the episode all that much. The episode is mostly about Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld). As viewers know, Kate becomes a Hawkeye but maybe we'll get to that by the end of the series and maybe we won't. Kate is a great archer to the point where she destroys something at her college and gets sent home. Upon arrival, she learns that her mom Eleanor (Vera Farmiga) is going to get married to Jack (Tony Dalton). She doesn't like it, her dad died during the events of the first Avengers movie, she'll never like it. She follows Jack into a secret auction, the tracksuits break into the auction to steal Hawkeye's Ronin suit, Jack steals the sword for himself. Meanwhile Hawkeye is at an Avengers musical (this is really funny), he goes back to his hotel and sees Kate wearing the Ronin suit, Kate finds Jack's uncle dead, Hawkeye finds Kate, and now we've set the series up. I liked this but the second episode is much better.

HIDE AND SEEK

Hawkeye's job here is to get Kate out of her mess with the tracksuits, but unfortunately for him it becomes both their mess. The LARP scene is a highlight here as is Kate fencing with Jack, who decides to trigger her immediately afterward and find out what she knows. She would only know about the candy if she had been in Armand's house, you see. I summed these scenes up quickly but they both took quite a large portion of the episode, so I don't have that much to type about anymore. I already know Kingpin is in this series but I was hoping for him to show up at the end here. Instead it's the deaf girl. I laughed hard at some of the lines the tracksuits had and I also cracked up at Kate falling through the roof. I don't usually laugh about stuff like that so the episode had to be effective in some kind of way to get me to do so.
 

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ECHOES

This is mostly what I was hoping for. There are more tracksuits, the Echo character is a big deal but not so big as to sidetrack the entire series, and it is very clear that Kingpin would appear in this show. I'm sure everyone saw it coming but I don't like watching anything week to week, so I'm doing it this way. I wish we knew exactly what it is that Clint did as Ronin. Merely saying that he killed people is actually not enough for me and I feel like I need to know more. I thought this was all good though, and the tease with Jack holding his sword up to Clint is funny. It was also obvious to me in that moment that Jack wasn't going to do anything. Everyone else had to wait a week to find out though. The dog is another cool side thing. My brother has a golden just like it. Not missing an eye though.

PARTNERS, AM I RIGHT?

I was waiting for this to come back to the missing watch, and while I don't know what the watch means or why it's important, much of the episode is centered around finding information so that they can get this watch. There's some good nods to Black Widow here, and while I said I thought the movie was just average, there are pieces from that movie that I would definitely like to see again. We see one here with Yelena having returned in an attempt to kill Clint. I laughed cause I thought we were over this, but JLD's character probably isn't over anything and has something to do with all this. I have no idea where that stuff is going though. Now I do have a complaint, only one actually, and it's that the LARPers are very not funny to me and I don't care when they're on screen.

I have been careful not to spoil anything for myself so I'll finish this tonight.
 

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in Avengers End Game it shows him hunting down various cartel and gangsters around the world and killing them as Ronin if you remember that.
 

909

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RONIN

Ok so this does answer more of my questions, but there is one mistake. Namely that Yelena was hired by JLD's character I thought. Or what connection is there between her and Kate's mom? The scene with Yelena and Kate was great but I'm sure some people got real perverted about that shit when they saw it. I have to admit that I don't care about this Echo and Kazi subplot whatsoever though. It means zero to me and Echo getting her own show seems pointless, but what's done is done. I do also like seeing that yes, Kingpin is going to be in the last episode and it isn't just some shit where they show him and don't follow up on it. They also do a good job of quickly explaining why Yelena didn't have any part to play in Infinity War, and basically that's for the best.

SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS?

Alright so my initial reaction was that this wrapped everything up, but actually I would say that it did not. Upon more time to reflect there are a few glaring examples of things that were unfinished. One is that Clint cannot be done. Another is that they introduced a bunch of characters who have nothing obvious in their MCU future. Yelena is the biggest example of such. Kingpin also cannot possibly be dead. If anyone died in that scene I would rather it have been Echo and almost everyone would say the exact same thing, but they made a show about her before seeing any fan reaction at all. Whatever. I think Loki is the best of these shows, but this is second. At the same time this still leaves a lot of stuff unresolved and there isn't going to be another season. Eleanor's storyline also cannot really be done, but this isn't being made into another season, so is it? The musical at the end was a nice added touch that got spoiled for me, but that's ok. Also, can we have a show about Jack

Show Rating: 7/10
 

Aero

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I liked Hawkeye overall, especially with the Christmas setting. Thought Kingpin's role in the last episode was pretty lame and rushed, though. In the Daredevil series, he was scary, meticulous, and nearly untouchable. In one episode here, he's in a Hawaiian shirt getting knocked around by a teenage girl. The internet assures me he's not dead, so not worried about that part, and apparently it sets up the Echo series. Introducing him like they did was cool, I just wonder if it'd have been better to save him for his larger role in future projects.
 

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BLACK MIRROR

THE NATIONAL ANTHEM

Yeah, I started this last night and...I can see why Netflix reversed the order of the episodes so that this one doesn't come up first. I have read complaints about this before, and I knew why, but seeing it is a whole other thing. I don't see what the problem is here though. I think the episode poses some questions about society that we need to think about, and I thought it was a really effective satire on the influence of politics in decision making. Polls told the PM to go against his wife and fuck a pig to save someone and that's what he did. Now he has to pretend to be happy all the time while his wife won't speak to him, and I also liked the touch about how he didn't actually have to do it and that the kidnapper just knew that he would. The PM doesn't know that though. The side storyline with the porn guy was hilarious but the stuff at the hospital felt like something where part of it got chopped out and didn't make the cut. No other reason it would be there other than to show how people's priorities get warped.
 

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FIFTEEN MILLION MERITS

Great episode here. The world consists of people riding Pelotons in order to get money to live. Literally everything costs credits, including skipping advertisements that are geared towards each individual person based on what they do. Some are quite bad. Bing (Daniel Kaluuya) has a ton of credits, near the top of the leaderboard it seems, but he just keeps going about his day. Life in this world seems extremely boring. One day he hears some chick singing in the bathroom, and decides that he'd like to get her on this singing competition. Problem is nothing works out exactly as someone wants it to. The objectification going on here and the acceptance of it is absolutely beyond the pale. It's much worse than what I expected but it's a symptom of a society that backslides. The ending is also fantastic because dude went and sold out. I laughed very hard at this, and I was expecting Abi (Jessica Brown Findlay) to be in his house too, but I guess she's tainted now. You can very clearly see why Kaluuya's career exploded after his appearance here. If I have a complaint here it's that the female judge doesn't have enough lines.

THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF YOU

This is a fucked up episode. So in this version of reality people are implanted with chips that connect to their eyes, which allows them to relive memories constantly if they so desire. Of course a lot of people desire to do so all the time and some have become obsessed with it. One such person is Liam (Toby Kebbell). Liam is married to Ffion (Jodie Whittaker), and after a hard day at his job he retreats to a dinner party Ffion is at. Liam sees something that he doesn't like at said party and decides to ruminate on it for seemingly the rest of his life. There ya go. That is the very obvious downside of something that seems like a good idea, the ability to remember all your memories and everyone you come into contact with. Straight up it is not a good idea and the episode shows exactly why. I can think of almost no positives in being able to do so. Unlike the first two, this is an extremely serious episode. It's very tense and I felt that tension. FWIW I thought that both of them were fucked up people and kinda got what they deserved. One thing I'd say in criticism though is that if the Grain was real I feel like nobody would be able to be friends with someone else. They would look back on all the times they thought their friends slighted them, and they'd see that their perceptions were true and not be able to handle it.

BE RIGHT BACK

I would be surprised if this turned out to not be the best episode. It hits pretty hard. What if when someone died you could bring them back as an android? Would you want to? The point made here is that you shouldn't and that it's impossible to fully capture the spectrum of someone's personality. I do think the ending kinda sucks though. Besides that it's great. Hayley Atwell is pretty good here going all the way through the emotional ringer. Pretty sure she has to display every human emotion over the course of this episode. One thing here that I liked too is that it showed that most people would probably do the same thing when they received the android of their deceased partner. They'd bone it of course. Sentencing the android to a life spent in a room upstairs is pretty fucked up though. And her child can only see the android on the weekend which is hilariously fucked up. I feel like that erased some sympathetic aspects of Atwelll's character.
 

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really loved 15 million merits especially, i love those really "out there" sci-fi type episodes that still are painfully "oh fuck that hits too close to home".
 

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and the pig fucking episode is brilliant. the people that can't handle it need to remember that david cameron fucked a dead pig's head!
 

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WHITE BEAR

Talk about a plot twist. At first I was like 'wow this is a really effective use of tension in a television show' and then come the end I was absolutely stunned. Great commentary here on our societal focus towards punishment. What's crazy here is that in this case the murderer is merely being told they're a killer. Their memory is almost entirely wiped every day. Can someone even be punished when their memory doesn't exist, what's the point of punishment anyway even besides that? Prison should solely be used as a tool to keep the dangerous away from everyone else, to keep honest people from being fucked over. That's not what prison is though. All the actors here are great. I believed completely that the guy was going to kill her, then it turns out that he's a host at a theme park relating to her...lol. While I think this society portrayed here is absolutely crazy I can't deny that in the end I laughed a fair bit at all this.

THE WALDO MOMENT

This one sucks to the point I'd rather not say anything at all. Part of the reason it sucks is because it's prescient, yes protest voting and satire and blah blah blah I don't give a fuck. There's a lot of cliches here and the comedian is extremely dislikable. In fact everyone in this episode is a piece of shit and that makes for a really difficult watch. Yes, everyone in the last episode was a bad human being as well, but there's a difference in how intriguing the characters are in these two episodes. The ending here is also super flat and not very engaging.
 

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WHITE BEAR

Talk about a plot twist. At first I was like 'wow this is a really effective use of tension in a television show' and then come the end I was absolutely stunned. Great commentary here on our societal focus towards punishment. What's crazy here is that in this case the murderer is merely being told they're a killer. Their memory is almost entirely wiped every day. Can someone even be punished when their memory doesn't exist, what's the point of punishment anyway even besides that? Prison should solely be used as a tool to keep the dangerous away from everyone else, to keep honest people from being fucked over. That's not what prison is though. All the actors here are great. I believed completely that the guy was going to kill her, then it turns out that he's a host at a theme park relating to her...lol. While I think this society portrayed here is absolutely crazy I can't deny that in the end I laughed a fair bit at all this.

THE WALDO MOMENT

This one sucks to the point I'd rather not say anything at all. Part of the reason it sucks is because it's prescient, yes protest voting and satire and blah blah blah I don't give a fuck. There's a lot of cliches here and the comedian is extremely dislikable. In fact everyone in this episode is a piece of shit and that makes for a really difficult watch. Yes, everyone in the last episode was a bad human being as well, but there's a difference in how intriguing the characters are in these two episodes. The ending here is also super flat and not very engaging.
The Waldo Moment, even at the time it dropped, always struck me as one of the weakest episodes in the series' run at that point and it hasn't aged well, especially in light of the much, much stronger episodes littered throughout the series by comparison.
 

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WHITE CHRISTMAS

What we have here is another great episode focusing on punishment that is disguised as something entirely different. Firstly I knew when I saw my man Don Draper in a cabin with this guy, that he was going to have some great stories to tell and sure enough I was not disappointed. Jon Hamm is the best, but much like Don Draper, the character in this episode is hiding something and is solely interested in himself at whatever cost. Of course Joe (Rafe Spall) is also very self interested and we get around to that eventually. We learn what Matt (Don Draper) did for fun, what he did for a living, and this leads Joe to open up about why he's been in this cabin. The key is that Joe in the cabin is a clone of himself, and it is made clear in this episode that said clones separate from their human consciousness and can be ruthlessly punished when someone so chooses. So while you might not get exactly what you want, well, you can rest assured that whoever did something bad is definitely feeling it somewhere. It was also hilarious that someone would clone themselves and punish a separate consciousness of themselves. Anyway I kind of figured that this guy Joe did something bad but I wasn't prepared for what he'd done. The blocking here is incredible too. Great way to spend an hour.
 

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NOSEDIVE

I know this is where Netflix took over the show and they stopped having to make things were low budget and fit for British TV, so I expect this show to get way more dark from here. This episode is not really what I was expecting even though I thought it was funny. Imagine your social media status mattering so much that it completely alters your life? Maybe at some point we weren't far off from that but now the idea is unfathomable. I also dig the idea that when your social media status is that low you become imprisoned. I did find the beginning of this really annoying though because everyone in this society is impossible for me to identify with. Even still, we do have a lot of people who put stock in their social media clout and everything here shows why that's so poisonous.

PLAYTEST

Now this is fucked up. Cooper's (Wyatt Russell) dad dies so he travels the world. He tries to ignore his mom and have fun, but his bank account gets drained after spending the night with Sonja (Hannah John-Kamen). It may be the case that she did it, but I don't know. This leads Cooper to have to sign up for a random job to make some money, and Sonja's a gaming journalist so she's heard of one. Cooper is told to turn his phone off upon arriving at this job but he does not do so. He is implanted with a small device in the back of his head and is told that the events to come will be like a video game that's personalized to his fears. And man, some of these fears are really funny and some are really fucked up. The ending is fucked up too. It's like the worst in taking video games too far, but that's all that this is. The episode isn't deep and it's more horror based than the rest. It's good but like I said, this feels like how dark I thought the show would be all along.
 

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Imagine your social media status mattering so much that it completely alters your life? Maybe at some point we weren't far off from that but now the idea is unfathomable

tell that to a teenager. the melodrama over facebook likes from my kid is amazing.
 

909

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SHUT UP AND DANCE

This is some really sick minded shit, once again continuing a theme of punishing people for having done wrong, but I'm gonna be honest. If the pedo kid didn't rob those people I feel like this would have been a fair way of dealing with what he'd done. Learning he's a pedo is a massive twist, but I think the episode is better when you know that's the case all along. I don't like the way in which you're supposed to feel sympathy for him because he got busted jerking off, I think it's misleading in a bad kind of way to not share the whole story here. Anyways almost literally everyone in the world jerks off with a camera in front of them so everyone better hope that shit doesn't get recorded. I thought Jerome Flynn's character here was great though. He wants to do whatever the people say but he's going to make sure that the kid does all the bad shit that someone could easily get busted for doing. Smart guy.

SAN JUNIPERO

Now I see why people hold this episode up as something that's worth remembering. It is but it's also more positive than these episodes usually are. Let's put it this way man I did not see that mid-episode reveal coming. I am good at avoiding spoilers so I had no idea what any of these episodes were about. I found it to be very interesting but that I don't know how I feel about continuing my life after the fact. I think I'd be okay with it if there was some semblance of the world around me that I could participate in. Can I still watch the NBA Finals? The Super Bowl? Movies? You know, shit like that. If it was possible to virtually have me sit in some arena like I was actually there and watch stuff 200 years after I was born I would be cool with that shit. And considering the end shot of the episode in this reality it would seem like that's possible. But see the thing is that in this case this is two people who are somewhat comfortable with the idea of passing through without their loved ones. While I don't have many loved ones now, I feel like in the future I wouldn't be so receptive to the idea of not being with them. It's impossible to predict what your feelings will be about something down the road.

Anyway, with that out of the way, the episode itself is great. It's great to see a LGBT themed episode of something that deals with older people and not just those our age or younger.
 

909

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I'm hopelessly backed up on these after the COVID experience soooooooo

Men Against Fire - I know what they were going for here but I thought this was dull. The twist here was really obvious and I thought the commentary they did have here wasn't pointed enough.

Hated in the Nation - I thought this was too long but I also thought they did a great job of holding my attention for the duration of the episode. TBH this would be kind of a cool society to live in for however long it lasted. There's so much trash we need to get rid of. The ending on the other hand well you get some comeuppance for that kind of society and I thought it was a good twist.

USS Callister - My man Meth Damon went way over the top here. Good episode with kind of a stupid ending. I was tripped out when he was lining up the girls for a kiss at the end of the first scenes and figured there had to be something going on with that. That being said I thought the whole episode was going to be like Star Trek and that there wouldn't be anything in the real world. I was wrong.

Arkangel - I'm glad this girl fucked up her mom but I did not like this episode at all. They took the easy road in terms of storytelling here, but someone who knew their mom could watch them everywhere they go, they already would have bugged out and took control of that tablet and/or destroyed it. The technology here is also something that would never be allowed and it's hard to take the episode at face value because of that.

Crocodile - I thought this was great and have very few complaints. The technology used by insurance adjusters? Yea, I can see that one. I can see someone thinking they could beat said technology too, and well, they were wrong. Killing the baby is well, it's really far but when someone's truly committed to erasing what they've done, they would do some shit like that because people do that shit all the time. One thing I would say though is that this is less focused on the science-fiction aspects most of these episodes feature. Instead it's a raw killing story.

Hang the DJ - The ending here is terrible, that's most of what I have to say. I also think there's no way someone would put up with that bad of a relationship for a whole year. I know people do put up with bad relationships for a whole year but in this case there was literally never any good time or anything decent about it. Not even when they met!

Metalhead - Fantastic episode the whole way around, I don't have any complaints at all. Simple yes, but sometimes that's what the viewer needs. I don't see much need to write about this.

Black Museum - Alright, I feel like this is an episode where we nearly jump the shark. The museum operator is like a caricature of evil. Also, nobody in their right mind would ever have their wife implanted in their head for the rest of their life. You can't ever get none for the rest of your fuckin life. Nobody is gonna do that. The electric chair story is fucked up though, and so is the dude killing the homeless guy.

Striking Vipers - This one on the other hand is hilarious, it's totally believable, but I think they should have taken the concept all the way and made them gay. Or you know, maybe they are. Maybe that's why they started fighting. Maybe it's only Karl that's gay, and maybe Danny would be into him if he had the same personality in a female body. There's a lot of ways to interpret that. This episode's weird cause I find that the show is often not that good when things get too complicated, it's better when things are simple, but this episode is not in the latter category at all. It's really complicated and it's enjoyable. I also thought that this was a great portrayal of what would happen in VR games where you can "do anything." Yeah everyone's gonna start fucking each other. Dead ass. Playing Street Fighter would happen like 5% of the time maybe.
 

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Arkangel - I'm glad this girl fucked up her mom but I did not like this episode at all. They took the easy road in terms of storytelling here, but someone who knew their mom could watch them everywhere they go, they already would have bugged out and took control of that tablet and/or destroyed it. The technology here is also something that would never be allowed and it's hard to take the episode at face value because of that.

There's already microchip implant tech for monitoring your kids and other shit so tbh I don't think it's a huge leap. Way less than a lot of other stuff in the show.

Also, nobody in their right mind would ever have their wife implanted in their head for the rest of their life. You can't ever get none for the rest of your fuckin life. Nobody is gonna do that. The electric chair story is fucked up though, and so is the dude killing the homeless guy.

If you've lost your wife are you fully in your right mind? I'm not saying I'd do something like that but I don't think it can be ruled out. There's definetly a lot of people who would IMO.
 

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SMITHEREENS

This is not a science-fiction episode, but it's still alright. The question here is once again the impact we allow social media to have on our lives. Also, don't check your phone while driving. I do think though that the dip in quality of these episodes has now become really apparent the longer the show continued on. Striking Vipers is great but we went from a show that didn't have misfires to one that had a misfire one of every two episodes if not more. That being said I think people should take the message here to heart even though I didn't find the episode entirely interesting.

RACHEL, JACK, AND ASHLEY TOO

Another misfire but I expected that given the nature of the episode. The two girls here are really annoying, Miley Cyrus does her part to counter balance that, but it's a job too difficult for pretty much anyone. There are a lot of potentially interesting concepts here and none of them are ever expanded upon. I think the show also mighta fucked this up in not having the Ashley doll be the sole lasting exhibitor of Ashley's personality. Like, what if the teenager said they liked being able to take Ashley with them in the doll, and didn't think it was worth even trying to bring Ashley out of her coma? That's better than someone as old as Rachel being so codependent on a doll with no personality as is the case before they screw the doll up. Anyways I'm glad they're making more episodes because this wouldn't be the best way to leave things.

I'm gonna watch the choose your adventure movie tonight btw.
 

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MOON KNIGHT

THE GOLDFISH PROBLEM

The title is in reference to Steven/Marc's (Oscar Isaac) goldfish giving away some shit is going on. Anyway I really liked this but I don't have a whole lot to say because the nature of these series does not allow for many thoughts until they're finished. The scene in Austria felt like it was almost out of place due to how bright the lighting was in comparison to everything else, but I didn't mind all that much. Obviously now I know there isn't any grander MCU tie-in and I'm fine with that because it allows me to appreciate the show for what it is. Oscar Isaac's fucked up British accent is great as well. It's obviously messed up, but if you don't know the character you don't know why until the ending of this episode.

SUMMON THE SUIT

This episode here dragged a little bit in that we have to hear internal monologuing about using the Moon Knight suit or not using it, but there was more of Khonshu here, more of Harrow (Ethan Hawke), and we also meet Marc Spector's wife Layla (May Calamawy). We also have it explained what the scarab is, what Harrow wants, what everyone wants for that matter. But there's the matter of Steven not wanting to cede control of his body and I find that goofy given what happened last time when he knew he has to. Anyway obviously this show is heading to Egypt and Moon Knight is gonna have to stop Harrow.
 

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THE FRIENDLY TYPE

This one's heavy on the exposition, effectively forcing viewers to learn way more about Egyptian gods than I'd thought a show would do. I'm okay with that as well. All this being said the line between Steven and Marc is being far more clearly drawn and around this point was when I decided that Steven was more annoying than Marc. So of course this is a Marc episode with him in control most of the time. That being said here we also see STEVEN in the process of killing someone. Or is it Steven? I'm not sure even though usually you can tell who does what. Sad to see Khonshu go at the end of this though.

THE TOMB

Dude, the ending. WTF. I dig the Alexander the Great tie-in here though. So, this is mostly a Steven episode but when he gives up the body for a few minutes, all hell breaks loose. Marc kills some dudes and gets shot, he winds up in a mental hospital that only exists in his head, nutcase shit happens after that. The hippo thing leaves all this entirely unresolved and I should have watched the next episode too, but I didn't. I cracked up when Marc and Steven hugged each other lmao
 

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As a history nerd I went into full WELL ACTUALLY mode with the Alexander The Great thing since it's very well known were he was entombed and even the methods of display etc but then I was like god damn I'm watching a Disney+ capeshit show.
 

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ASYLUM

Fair to say this episode is way more out there than anything else Marvel has produced in the last few years. Marc/Steven are dead and they're on a boat sailing through the Duat, but the boat is a psychiatric hospital and they have to relive a lot of their past memories, some of which have been buried inside of the alternative personalities. There's some messed up scenes here, but this feels like the definitive Marvel origin story to me. None of the other characters they've ever introduced have been given this amount of back story and time to round their character out. Oscar Isaac is so great in this. I never say someone in capeshit should get nominated for something, but there's a first time for everything and he deserves acting nominations for this. I think this is the best of these Disney produced Marvel shows too.

GODS AND MONSTERS

I don't know why it took me this long to realize that Osiris' avatar was one of the activists from The Square. The Square was a documentary about Cairo during their revolution from 2011 to 2013, where the range of emotions was from hopefulness to utopia to crackdown and ultimately to resignation that things wouldn't be that much different at all. And they're not different from what I understand. But anyway I thought it was weird to see that guy here (also more people should watch the documentary). Anyways this episode is a very flat ending but compared to what came before it, I'm not sure what could have been different. The mid-credits scene here is really cool though and not what I was expecting. Hopefully we get more of Marc/Steven and Layla in the future.

8/10 even on a scale where the lowest quality good shows are like a 3 or 4.
 

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Next up is...

VIKINGS

RITES OF PASSAGE

Alright so I've been putting off watching this show for a really long time even though a lot of family members told me to watch it. But it's a History Channel show. So we'll see. The first episode makes a smart decision to keep things compact and not introduce too many characters. You see a lot but being introduced is another story. There's Ragnar (Travis Fimmel), his brother Rollo (Clive Standen), Ragnar's wife Lagertha (Katheryn Winnick), their son Bjorn (kid actor), the ruler Earl Haraldson (Gabriel Byrne), and his wife Siggy (Jessalyn Silsig). You know that seems like a lot but usually these kinds of shows have a million characters so I appreciate the attempt to limit things in episode 1. Simple story here. Ragnar comes back from another Eastern raid and his kid is meant to go on a rite of passage to their village. While doing so, said kid gets to vote on a murder verdict and see someone's head get chopped off, and we learn that Haraldson is a greedy fucker. Ragnar wants to raid the West and Haraldson does not. Maybe it's because it isn't his idea, who knows, but Ragnar goes to visit a shipbuilder named Floki (Gustaf Skarsgard) and a ship is built to hatch their own plans. Good setup.

WRATH OF THE NORTHMEN

So there's a couple things here before the main plot. One is that Rollo is a rapist and I was kinda expecting that. Lagertha is also a violent sort and capable of handling herself. Another is that Haraldson uses his wife to find out who isn't loyal to him and then he kills them. Shit he kills everyone who helped Ragnar go west too. Of course I also just mentioned that Ragnar gets a crew together and goes west. Land in England is found. This episode here turns into a massacre at Lindisfarne Monastery, which is sacked and burned after the killing of many of these priests. Some are captured and taken back to Norway, another actually knows their language. Athelstan is then protected by Ragnar, who prevents Rollo from killing him. But why does this dude know their language?
 

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DISPOSSESSED

Sometimes I feel like I'm echo chambering, but anyway...I find it hilarious Ragnar is keeping Athelstan as a slave, but not really a slave because his wife wanted to fuck this guy, but he's a priest so he wouldn't do it. Dude what. Anyway, it's time to go back on another raid even though they had to give almost everything to Haraldson. This time the Northumbrians were ready though, but it's not like it mattered. The Vikings killed them anyway and made their way towards the town lol.

TRIAL

There's a little bit of killing but the Vikings raid this town and take what they want. Haraldson's friend tries to take what he wants and Lagertha kills him. Laughed at this. They go back to Norway and there's a trial, it doesn't go the way Haraldson wants, and now he's out for blood. This is a good episode but they aren't exactly breaking the mold of television here.

RAID

I feel like maybe I'm just not up to writing today, it probably isn't to do with anything else. But Haraldson decides to raid Ragnar's farm and kill him and/or his family. This goes somewhat according to plan, except they don't kill Ragnar and Ragnar is able to go hide with Floki. I did find the wedding hilarious, but it feels like the first season of a show where plot threads pop up out of nowhere. I have no idea if they'll follow up on Rollo wanting to bang Haraldson's wife but now they've thrown it out there.
 

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BURIAL OF THE DEAD

I didn't expect things to accelerate this quickly. Haraldson faces Ragnar in combat and of course he dies, which will lead to Ragnar becoming Earl. Well the episode is as much about that as it is Haraldson's funeral. I guess the creators figured that there are things they need to show us about the Viking culture. Funerals are certainly one of those things given all that happens here. I thought these scenes were pretty cool. I also didn't know what Ragnarok was so it was cool to get a scene where the weird wizard fucker told us all about it. The ending here broke the rule I have of watching every scene. I cannot watch some dude being thrown into a snake pit.

A KING'S RANSOM

So in this episode it is made clear that sometimes months pass by over the course of these events. Lagertha got pregnant in the previous episode, carried the baby for quite some time, and miscarried. The Vikings also went back to England and pretty much carry out a whole campaign here. They build a camp, they attack under cover of night, and kidnap the Northumbrian King's brother. Ragnar demands a ton (literally) of gold and silver to leave and give the guy's brother back, which leads to a series of ruses and Rollo being forced into baptism. The Northumbrian ruse also leads to this guy's brother being killed. Is Floki gonna give Rollo shit forever about being baptized? I kinda hope so.

I do feel like writing though, I guess I just wasn't up to it that day. I find this show p entertaining.
 

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I finished Moon Knight. Good show. Most of the Disney Plus shows (both Marvel and Star Wars) feel like they have an issue with giving a fully satisfying season finale. Moon Knights felt among the flattest of them all, unless you add in the mid-credits scene which improves things alot.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

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... even on a scale where the lowest quality good shows are like a 3 or 4.

Could I trouble you to please explain this to me, like I'm five years old? Nothing in that sentence makes sense to me... "lowest quality good show" sounds like an oxymoron, and a "good show" scoring a 3 or 4 on a scale of 10 doesn't make sense at all: wouldn't a 3 or 4 be below average?

Also, why does my internal soundtrack have you pron
ouncing "capeshit" with a hard R?
 
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