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shallownessA bumper post, as I never seemed to have the chance to post my reactions over the past few days.
Gotham 4.3 They Who Hide Behind Masks
I’m trying to work out who acted biggest in this episode, Robin Lord Thomas and Cory Michael Smith you’d expect, but we also had Bruce Wayne, the actor, as the show got a little bit meta, with Alfred becoming Bruce’s acting coach as part of his vigilante training. Bruce had an okay street kid accent, but failed on vocab. I was less convinced by him acting the rich spoiled brat at the auction when he’d not been that at the Iceberg Lounge, but Penguin just thought ‘kerching’ and went along with it.* I loved how spitefully Penguin then informed Bruce that Babs really was interested in the knife and he’d bought trouble along with his purchase could he have the money now, please? I also thought Penguin and Babs’s scene was a pleasure.
So, it was confirmed that Babs’s benefactor/backer was Ra’s al Ghul, and it was the Lazarus pool that bought her back. More, he’d trained her a bit, she was deaf to him damning her with faint praise – ‘competent ally’ doesn’t really do it for me - and they were now lovers. I think she’s got in over her head there.
Alexander Siddig is great as Ra’s, so far, and so long as he doesn’t end up being boring like James Frain’s baddie was, that’s good. We got his (re)genesis when the first thing he was told, almost was that he had to look for an heir. His interest in Bruce suggests he’s been waiting for 2,000 years, and given the grumbling from the female characters on the show, I hope his daughters or one of them turns up to roll their eyes at that. Yes, even in a show that introduced three female characters (although, sorry, random cop, I didn’t catch your name), while giving a lame excuse for the lack of Tabitha and still hasn’t brought Lee back in the flesh this season. I think Gotham is trying, but it’s not flawless about its women.
Sofia Falcone was one. This storyline was mainly notable for the look – either they were hinting Florida or Cuba, although it didn’t look golden and sunny, perhaps because of filtering or colour work, it was outdoors in daylight and looked stunning. Jimbo tried to get Carmine interested in what Harvey reminded us would be gang war, somehow failed to notice that Sofia was interested and not a little girl to be ordered by her father, mainly because he noticed she was attractive and seemed to be into him. So, the usual level of intelligence there. Setting that aside, a mere episode is not enough to make me care about Sofia/Jim, unless if they bring back more of him killing her brother.
I thought Riddler was going to kill his no. 1 fan just as soon as he could, but no, he only hit her and Victor got to do it. (Victor = entertaining hitman.) She had never been introduced before, right? She was a bit grating, but an interesting mix of quite smart but not quite smart enough. However, we were meant to be focusing on Riddler’s recovery and how Ed’s brain was broken. I have always found Edward Nygma less interesting than the show does, and I think that remains the case, but Penguin’s hissyfit about losing him was fun.
Alfred snarking about Bruce, Bruce barely listening, so driven was he, me assuming the thief was Selina because of her shape and because of the word ‘thief’, Selina trying so hard to get respect from Babs, who played her. It’s not Selina’s fault if Bruce stymies her! Which he did again in a scene that was heartbreaking from Selina’s POV as he rejected her call for a solid, and which puts another boulder in their relationship. (Kids, I just want you to be happy! Even if I snort at Bruce A LOT.) She didn’t know he had Reasons.
*I have no issues with Mazouz’s acting, the show lucked out there.
Timeless 2.4 The Salem Witch Hunt
I know I wanted Jiya to figure out she was seeing premonitions and tell someone, but that was abrupt – as abrupt as Rufus’s ‘oh, the mother ship went back to 1980, maybe that’s how Jessica was brought back to life’. They wanted to get to Salem as quickly as possible, I guess.
But if I was a more hadcore Lucy/Wyatt shipper, I’d be a little disappointed, because Lucy’s reaction was often a little too…subtle. Okay, what else could she say to Wyatt at his news? She’s been his colleague and friend for longer than his lover, so the default mode would be understanding and unselfish, but we rarely had a moment where the show looked at the blow she’d had. Things didn’t come to life there until she came off the lifeboat, injured, and Wyatt, acting out of habit and instinct went up to her AND HIS FACE at the realisation that no, he couldn’t go to her like that any more.
Wyatt got to be a wounded puppy as he had Jessica back, but had to deal with the reality of this Jessica and how she knew him. I liked how, as part of the time travel explanations – and her reaction was amusing – he discussed how he was a different person from a different timeline, reflecting the discussion between Rufus and Jiya about the lack of the phrase ‘witch-hunt’ (presumably there’s no The Crucible and Miller found a different metaphor) in the new timeline. I’d like even more of what it means to be the time traveller carrying your memories of the original timeline and the reality of those who stayed behind and don’t remember. Granted, that’s going to be be head-spinny, so probably the show is wise to keep it light or to plot points.
I enjoyed Goran Visnjic’s snark very much and how Flynn’s presence and approach unbalanced things on the mission. I thought Rufus was harsh in lashing out at Jiya – did they not both overinterpret her vision?
Having said that, I thought it was really clever and apt that there was no sleeper agent that we, Lucy and co. were looking out for, but that it was her mother. Of course Lucy’s mom couldn’t kill Lucy and equally of course she wouldn’t join her – also inevitable that bossy Lucy was in charge of the team. But she’s definitely taken to changing the timeline with abandon ‘to do the right thing’ now, which could be read as a reaction to Jess’s return as well as distaste for letting eight people she’d spent time with and empathised with die. The show does have a strong feminist throughline because of Lucy.
B99 5.10 Game Night
In which Gina comes back (zero tension over her leaving her job) and Rosa came out to the team (because of Boyle) and then her parents and dragged Jake into it. Notable for Holt being really terrible about knowing about computers and interested in babies. I was amused at various points.
I don't want to comment much on the Allison Mack story, but I have changed my default icon on Dreamwidth.
And I saw Avengers: Infinity War last night, and once I've tidied it up/done some chores I'll post my reaction.
Gotham 4.3 They Who Hide Behind Masks
I’m trying to work out who acted biggest in this episode, Robin Lord Thomas and Cory Michael Smith you’d expect, but we also had Bruce Wayne, the actor, as the show got a little bit meta, with Alfred becoming Bruce’s acting coach as part of his vigilante training. Bruce had an okay street kid accent, but failed on vocab. I was less convinced by him acting the rich spoiled brat at the auction when he’d not been that at the Iceberg Lounge, but Penguin just thought ‘kerching’ and went along with it.* I loved how spitefully Penguin then informed Bruce that Babs really was interested in the knife and he’d bought trouble along with his purchase could he have the money now, please? I also thought Penguin and Babs’s scene was a pleasure.
So, it was confirmed that Babs’s benefactor/backer was Ra’s al Ghul, and it was the Lazarus pool that bought her back. More, he’d trained her a bit, she was deaf to him damning her with faint praise – ‘competent ally’ doesn’t really do it for me - and they were now lovers. I think she’s got in over her head there.
Alexander Siddig is great as Ra’s, so far, and so long as he doesn’t end up being boring like James Frain’s baddie was, that’s good. We got his (re)genesis when the first thing he was told, almost was that he had to look for an heir. His interest in Bruce suggests he’s been waiting for 2,000 years, and given the grumbling from the female characters on the show, I hope his daughters or one of them turns up to roll their eyes at that. Yes, even in a show that introduced three female characters (although, sorry, random cop, I didn’t catch your name), while giving a lame excuse for the lack of Tabitha and still hasn’t brought Lee back in the flesh this season. I think Gotham is trying, but it’s not flawless about its women.
Sofia Falcone was one. This storyline was mainly notable for the look – either they were hinting Florida or Cuba, although it didn’t look golden and sunny, perhaps because of filtering or colour work, it was outdoors in daylight and looked stunning. Jimbo tried to get Carmine interested in what Harvey reminded us would be gang war, somehow failed to notice that Sofia was interested and not a little girl to be ordered by her father, mainly because he noticed she was attractive and seemed to be into him. So, the usual level of intelligence there. Setting that aside, a mere episode is not enough to make me care about Sofia/Jim, unless if they bring back more of him killing her brother.
I thought Riddler was going to kill his no. 1 fan just as soon as he could, but no, he only hit her and Victor got to do it. (Victor = entertaining hitman.) She had never been introduced before, right? She was a bit grating, but an interesting mix of quite smart but not quite smart enough. However, we were meant to be focusing on Riddler’s recovery and how Ed’s brain was broken. I have always found Edward Nygma less interesting than the show does, and I think that remains the case, but Penguin’s hissyfit about losing him was fun.
Alfred snarking about Bruce, Bruce barely listening, so driven was he, me assuming the thief was Selina because of her shape and because of the word ‘thief’, Selina trying so hard to get respect from Babs, who played her. It’s not Selina’s fault if Bruce stymies her! Which he did again in a scene that was heartbreaking from Selina’s POV as he rejected her call for a solid, and which puts another boulder in their relationship. (Kids, I just want you to be happy! Even if I snort at Bruce A LOT.) She didn’t know he had Reasons.
*I have no issues with Mazouz’s acting, the show lucked out there.
Timeless 2.4 The Salem Witch Hunt
I know I wanted Jiya to figure out she was seeing premonitions and tell someone, but that was abrupt – as abrupt as Rufus’s ‘oh, the mother ship went back to 1980, maybe that’s how Jessica was brought back to life’. They wanted to get to Salem as quickly as possible, I guess.
But if I was a more hadcore Lucy/Wyatt shipper, I’d be a little disappointed, because Lucy’s reaction was often a little too…subtle. Okay, what else could she say to Wyatt at his news? She’s been his colleague and friend for longer than his lover, so the default mode would be understanding and unselfish, but we rarely had a moment where the show looked at the blow she’d had. Things didn’t come to life there until she came off the lifeboat, injured, and Wyatt, acting out of habit and instinct went up to her AND HIS FACE at the realisation that no, he couldn’t go to her like that any more.
Wyatt got to be a wounded puppy as he had Jessica back, but had to deal with the reality of this Jessica and how she knew him. I liked how, as part of the time travel explanations – and her reaction was amusing – he discussed how he was a different person from a different timeline, reflecting the discussion between Rufus and Jiya about the lack of the phrase ‘witch-hunt’ (presumably there’s no The Crucible and Miller found a different metaphor) in the new timeline. I’d like even more of what it means to be the time traveller carrying your memories of the original timeline and the reality of those who stayed behind and don’t remember. Granted, that’s going to be be head-spinny, so probably the show is wise to keep it light or to plot points.
I enjoyed Goran Visnjic’s snark very much and how Flynn’s presence and approach unbalanced things on the mission. I thought Rufus was harsh in lashing out at Jiya – did they not both overinterpret her vision?
Having said that, I thought it was really clever and apt that there was no sleeper agent that we, Lucy and co. were looking out for, but that it was her mother. Of course Lucy’s mom couldn’t kill Lucy and equally of course she wouldn’t join her – also inevitable that bossy Lucy was in charge of the team. But she’s definitely taken to changing the timeline with abandon ‘to do the right thing’ now, which could be read as a reaction to Jess’s return as well as distaste for letting eight people she’d spent time with and empathised with die. The show does have a strong feminist throughline because of Lucy.
B99 5.10 Game Night
In which Gina comes back (zero tension over her leaving her job) and Rosa came out to the team (because of Boyle) and then her parents and dragged Jake into it. Notable for Holt being really terrible about knowing about computers and interested in babies. I was amused at various points.
I don't want to comment much on the Allison Mack story, but I have changed my default icon on Dreamwidth.
And I saw Avengers: Infinity War last night, and once I've tidied it up/done some chores I'll post my reaction.
