sci-fi Saturday
Jun. 2nd, 2018 09:05 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessHumans 3.3
Some emotional wallops, intriguing developments and things that didn’t work that well.
Emotional business first: Karen’s realisation that she can’t be the mother Sam needs was a punch to the heart. David Elster was the ghost hovering above everything here, as Sweet Anatole laid out his beliefs and Max and the viewers were all ‘Er, you don’t know the whole story, sunshine.’ And what he’d programmed in Karen was as a result of trying to protect Leo, but it stunted her ability to mother, ironically.
Up until then, we’d had the panic of the eye and watching Sam learn to pass as human. I felt that divorced Joe was missing his kids and his role as Dad very much, so much so that he found himself helping the synths (will Karen be Mia to his Laura?) It was a bit amusing that he was teaching Sam to be a bit more rubbish at everything, reversing the usual role.
Then there was Leotilda action FINALLY. Never forget that the show set it up at the end of season 1 and threw in another (murderous) love interest for Leo in season 2. I could have done with a follow-up scene, but I bet we’ll go to the awkward morning after next episode (probably involving other Hawkins family members). I thought Leo was more fragile from the start of the episode than perhaps he was, with his uncertain memories and need to find a new role. He epically did not get why Mattie had been visiting him, but when he did, he acted. I’ll take that.
The intriguing stuff is the message Niska got (IS IT FRED?) with its metaphysical touches.
Also, Agnes was right about the refugees and Max was wrong – Mia was wronger. I felt that she was cold towards Leo, and besides that, Mia initiated the rescue, she should have brought them all the way. I feel that Mia’s plot is more about manouvering her to do certain things than organic. Yes, she’s seeing the larger picture and trying to do something about it, but it’s picking and choosing what she’s emotionally invested in in a way that’s hard to follow.
Anyway, I liked Agnes’s self-knowledge, because she was the spanner in Laura’s plan. But having seen the foreign synths, she obviously feels justified in marching back and BEING ANGRY at the Dryden Commission. So that’ll go well.
I thought Mia’s plan about getting a flat and going to live was rubbish. (Remember Mattie’s line about her peers not starting their careers because of synths?) I’m more interested in Mia’s development as an artist. Obviously not!Gunnar will return soon.
I was kind of urging Laura to go to the behavioural scientist’s place and rifle through his papers. Also, he must never know what Mattie did. It’s interesting that Indra Varma’s character is so on Laura’s side (it’s kind of reaching the point where one needs to have rewatched the last two series to get the most out of this one). Also, I would not trust Stanley, but rather I’d assume he is a spy whether he knows it or not.
The Anatole-Max interaction has plenty of layers. I like that so much of what’s guiding Max emotionally his his grief for Flash. The accusation of his turning his back on his brother was more true than Agnes knew.
Timeless 2.9 The General
Being ignorant of quite a lot of American history, I needed someone to explain the significance of the title.
Lucy’s mother is…tough. (What was hovering in my mind was that if Emma got pregnant – not that I’m convinced she would go down the path – it would change things again.)
So, Christopher and Connor (after a week of…finding out there were a lot of pictures of Jessica on that stick and not being able to confirm why) decided security risk Jessica had to go. I thought they’d do more with them just being suspicious. Wyatt dropped the pregnancy bombshell (ouch for Lucy, who had been the most supportive of him until then) but not the brother who was also alive.
Wyatt looked best back in time (though the usual comment about the Confederates’ uniform being better, although however well dressed they were, they were fighting on the side of slavery) but he was short fused.
Harriet being hardcore showed that, yet again, this show is about the strong women, and I thought she was wonderful.
I wish they’d shown us a bit of Jiya hacking and finding out about Stanley Fisher – it just feels like the show is too eager to get to the action. Still, strong Jiya for the win!
And Harriet’s visions connected her with Jiya. They made Connor both mighty defensive around Stanley, which was unhelpful, and kind. Stanley was equally complex and in thrall to his visions. Still, we can see what Jiya will do to save Rufus despite knowing that the price may be a kind of addiction. It’ll be interesting if they develop the difference between time travellers who get visions and non-time travellers who get them.
Rufus is going to be rightly let down by Wyatt now. That was on the nose, but I liked that he tried to talk about the Jessica situation with Wyatt as well as Lucy.
‘Rhett Butler’ made me laugh more than Rufus’s movie comparisons of Wyatt’s accents.
We were left wondering if Lucy ignoring the expected behaviour of women would work. It did, although having Harriet shoot the sleeper was satisfying – why didn’t Rufus check up the end of her life? Enough had changed that that might have too.
I cackled at Flynn congratulating Wyatt and the way the scene played out, while Lucy pulling Wyatt in for a hug made me melt, because he’s going to be a daddy and under the anger there’s fear and confusion, and she recognised that. He also really wasn’t ready to walk away and give up the mission for/with (this) Jessica, which Christopher knew, and so called his bluff.
I thought Jiya was practicing her visions in the wrong place, and it’s not as if she hasn’t seen the consequences. But I didn’t see the ending coming – I thought Jessica was in Rittenhouse’s pocket, but not an agent. I still haven’t calibrated what to expect from the show. In fairness, what we’ve seen of how Rittenhouse handles its last few agents, who are non-legacies, should have prepared me. And taking Jiya! I’m more than happy with them giving Jiya more to do. Where and when? Another excellent cliffhanger.
I am, if not catching up, keeping up with B99, so I’ll do a bumper post, but I was more bothered about seeing the latest episode of Timeless than of Gotham, even though I keep thinking Gotham’s villains are better – certainly more fun – than Agent of SHIELD’s.
Some emotional wallops, intriguing developments and things that didn’t work that well.
Emotional business first: Karen’s realisation that she can’t be the mother Sam needs was a punch to the heart. David Elster was the ghost hovering above everything here, as Sweet Anatole laid out his beliefs and Max and the viewers were all ‘Er, you don’t know the whole story, sunshine.’ And what he’d programmed in Karen was as a result of trying to protect Leo, but it stunted her ability to mother, ironically.
Up until then, we’d had the panic of the eye and watching Sam learn to pass as human. I felt that divorced Joe was missing his kids and his role as Dad very much, so much so that he found himself helping the synths (will Karen be Mia to his Laura?) It was a bit amusing that he was teaching Sam to be a bit more rubbish at everything, reversing the usual role.
Then there was Leotilda action FINALLY. Never forget that the show set it up at the end of season 1 and threw in another (murderous) love interest for Leo in season 2. I could have done with a follow-up scene, but I bet we’ll go to the awkward morning after next episode (probably involving other Hawkins family members). I thought Leo was more fragile from the start of the episode than perhaps he was, with his uncertain memories and need to find a new role. He epically did not get why Mattie had been visiting him, but when he did, he acted. I’ll take that.
The intriguing stuff is the message Niska got (IS IT FRED?) with its metaphysical touches.
Also, Agnes was right about the refugees and Max was wrong – Mia was wronger. I felt that she was cold towards Leo, and besides that, Mia initiated the rescue, she should have brought them all the way. I feel that Mia’s plot is more about manouvering her to do certain things than organic. Yes, she’s seeing the larger picture and trying to do something about it, but it’s picking and choosing what she’s emotionally invested in in a way that’s hard to follow.
Anyway, I liked Agnes’s self-knowledge, because she was the spanner in Laura’s plan. But having seen the foreign synths, she obviously feels justified in marching back and BEING ANGRY at the Dryden Commission. So that’ll go well.
I thought Mia’s plan about getting a flat and going to live was rubbish. (Remember Mattie’s line about her peers not starting their careers because of synths?) I’m more interested in Mia’s development as an artist. Obviously not!Gunnar will return soon.
I was kind of urging Laura to go to the behavioural scientist’s place and rifle through his papers. Also, he must never know what Mattie did. It’s interesting that Indra Varma’s character is so on Laura’s side (it’s kind of reaching the point where one needs to have rewatched the last two series to get the most out of this one). Also, I would not trust Stanley, but rather I’d assume he is a spy whether he knows it or not.
The Anatole-Max interaction has plenty of layers. I like that so much of what’s guiding Max emotionally his his grief for Flash. The accusation of his turning his back on his brother was more true than Agnes knew.
Timeless 2.9 The General
Being ignorant of quite a lot of American history, I needed someone to explain the significance of the title.
Lucy’s mother is…tough. (What was hovering in my mind was that if Emma got pregnant – not that I’m convinced she would go down the path – it would change things again.)
So, Christopher and Connor (after a week of…finding out there were a lot of pictures of Jessica on that stick and not being able to confirm why) decided security risk Jessica had to go. I thought they’d do more with them just being suspicious. Wyatt dropped the pregnancy bombshell (ouch for Lucy, who had been the most supportive of him until then) but not the brother who was also alive.
Wyatt looked best back in time (though the usual comment about the Confederates’ uniform being better, although however well dressed they were, they were fighting on the side of slavery) but he was short fused.
Harriet being hardcore showed that, yet again, this show is about the strong women, and I thought she was wonderful.
I wish they’d shown us a bit of Jiya hacking and finding out about Stanley Fisher – it just feels like the show is too eager to get to the action. Still, strong Jiya for the win!
And Harriet’s visions connected her with Jiya. They made Connor both mighty defensive around Stanley, which was unhelpful, and kind. Stanley was equally complex and in thrall to his visions. Still, we can see what Jiya will do to save Rufus despite knowing that the price may be a kind of addiction. It’ll be interesting if they develop the difference between time travellers who get visions and non-time travellers who get them.
Rufus is going to be rightly let down by Wyatt now. That was on the nose, but I liked that he tried to talk about the Jessica situation with Wyatt as well as Lucy.
‘Rhett Butler’ made me laugh more than Rufus’s movie comparisons of Wyatt’s accents.
We were left wondering if Lucy ignoring the expected behaviour of women would work. It did, although having Harriet shoot the sleeper was satisfying – why didn’t Rufus check up the end of her life? Enough had changed that that might have too.
I cackled at Flynn congratulating Wyatt and the way the scene played out, while Lucy pulling Wyatt in for a hug made me melt, because he’s going to be a daddy and under the anger there’s fear and confusion, and she recognised that. He also really wasn’t ready to walk away and give up the mission for/with (this) Jessica, which Christopher knew, and so called his bluff.
I thought Jiya was practicing her visions in the wrong place, and it’s not as if she hasn’t seen the consequences. But I didn’t see the ending coming – I thought Jessica was in Rittenhouse’s pocket, but not an agent. I still haven’t calibrated what to expect from the show. In fairness, what we’ve seen of how Rittenhouse handles its last few agents, who are non-legacies, should have prepared me. And taking Jiya! I’m more than happy with them giving Jiya more to do. Where and when? Another excellent cliffhanger.
I am, if not catching up, keeping up with B99, so I’ll do a bumper post, but I was more bothered about seeing the latest episode of Timeless than of Gotham, even though I keep thinking Gotham’s villains are better – certainly more fun – than Agent of SHIELD’s.
