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shallownessBlack Earth Rising
1.6 The Game’s True Nature
There was more vomiting going on in this episode – what a recurring motif to have. The first time I watched it, I struggled to engage emotionally because I was fighting sleep more than the content. Kate and we found out more - Eunice was behind Florence (sponsor a former child soldier and use him as your own personal agent, what a nice move, Eunice). Kate went back to trusting Michael a bit.
Going to Rwanda changed her perspective – she wasn’t so special there, and Francois’s history challenged her tendency towards binaries a little. The fact that she was able to show mercy was important for her character.
Some striking moments to tell the story visually, striking because they’re not conventional shot choices on TV, and so perhaps a little arch.
In the rewatch, I picked up more details, and actually saw the last 10 to 15 minutes of the episode. Kate reaching out to Florence, for all their trauma, made a lot more sense to me than Kate/Michael (but then I’m not a middle aged man trying to land John Goodman to play a part in my show. And yeah, yeah, Kate has been voiciferous about what she’s been through and her mental ill health leading to weird choices.)
1.7 Double Bogey on the Ninth
I watched this episode under the growing conviction that it was the final one, but I have now checked and there’s one more to go. This is good, because what a deflating episode as justice got thwarted, and the conspirators turned out to have underestimate all they were up against. They weren’t off the hook for with-holding from Kate, using her tragedy even.
The little confirmation of Florence’s personal betrayal came long after I’d twigged that he was in David Smugface’s pocket, not Eunice’s. And there’s then a question of how involved he was in the killings at the court, although it could have been the other thug we saw at the striking, combustible opening of this ep.
But it was made clear that most of the Western powers didn’t want to interfere, to complicate matters, for reasons that had been laid out clearly. And they hadn’t given the Western media enough evidence to grab attention when competing with so much else.
And whither Kate? Still a survivor, her story of her beginnings upended. I felt that there should have been more focus on her (rather than Michael, but apparently he was the caterpillar all along?) The Honourable Woman did end on Nessa, after all. But I suppose there was a point for the well-meaning white person in all this. However, Kate is the POV-entry character for the audience, knowing the least, being the investigator. I want the next episode to be so much more about her.
Ha, it wasn’t Frank’s fault that the tape got taken. He did his best and wasn’t the weak reed I thought he might be, although Alice used worst code ever over the phone.
Blindspot ep 4
I keep thinking I’ll stop watching this, and then, there I am at a Wednesday at 9, brain dead, thinking ‘oh, go on then.’
And, in fairness, the story moved into (mildly) interesting places, leaving some questions to ponder. We learned more about the rest of the team’s private lives. The blonde geeky one has an equally smart boyfriend who pored over the puzzles of the tattoos, because of course she took very classified work pictures home, and helped lead to the clue of the tat of the week. The negative black one is a player on the dating front, and I think is meant to have potential UST with the more sensible Latina one, who seems to be in debt (for gambling)? So, she’s not sensible in all aspects of life. Jane did bring up the negative black one’s constant doubts about her – some of which she shared, and I knew he wouldn’t have been as blasé about giving her a gun as Weller intimated he’d been – and he brought his doubtfulness back to Weller because of her effect on him. Although Jane did enough to gain respect points this episode. There – that’s the team character development done.
We opened with people in hazmat suits in a lab, and my first thought was someone was tampering with Taylor Shaw’s DNA, although it quickly became apparent it wasn’t that. Instead it was scientists wanting to release a deadly virus (possibly not a virus, but A BAD ILLNESS THING). Cool reveal of Jane’s secret tat, and thank goodness it’s only visible in the one site, because imagine walking somewhere there’s UV light and numbers appear all over your face.
She got her fight scene as she came to rescue Weller – girl saves boy, yay.
The meat was him talking about Taylor. I was very glad to see the laptop scene, because I’d have thought Jane would be more curious about her childhood. We saw a softness to Kurt we hadn’t before, although he still called Jane ‘Jane’ – perhaps because Taylor’s story didn’t seem to jolt anything in her – except the ‘flashback’, which raises the question of whether it was a flashback and she’d had a similar experience, or something she imagined, suggested by his words. Because her tooth (nice use of a detail from a previous episode) suggested she wasn’t Taylor, which suggests someone used the backstory to get under Weller’s defences, suggesting Daylight is the real reason they wanted Jane working with/on this FBI team. And, of course, although all this was done to this Jane, the woman she was may well have been a part of setting this up. No-one recognised her this episode.
1.6 The Game’s True Nature
There was more vomiting going on in this episode – what a recurring motif to have. The first time I watched it, I struggled to engage emotionally because I was fighting sleep more than the content. Kate and we found out more - Eunice was behind Florence (sponsor a former child soldier and use him as your own personal agent, what a nice move, Eunice). Kate went back to trusting Michael a bit.
Going to Rwanda changed her perspective – she wasn’t so special there, and Francois’s history challenged her tendency towards binaries a little. The fact that she was able to show mercy was important for her character.
Some striking moments to tell the story visually, striking because they’re not conventional shot choices on TV, and so perhaps a little arch.
In the rewatch, I picked up more details, and actually saw the last 10 to 15 minutes of the episode. Kate reaching out to Florence, for all their trauma, made a lot more sense to me than Kate/Michael (but then I’m not a middle aged man trying to land John Goodman to play a part in my show. And yeah, yeah, Kate has been voiciferous about what she’s been through and her mental ill health leading to weird choices.)
1.7 Double Bogey on the Ninth
I watched this episode under the growing conviction that it was the final one, but I have now checked and there’s one more to go. This is good, because what a deflating episode as justice got thwarted, and the conspirators turned out to have underestimate all they were up against. They weren’t off the hook for with-holding from Kate, using her tragedy even.
The little confirmation of Florence’s personal betrayal came long after I’d twigged that he was in David Smugface’s pocket, not Eunice’s. And there’s then a question of how involved he was in the killings at the court, although it could have been the other thug we saw at the striking, combustible opening of this ep.
But it was made clear that most of the Western powers didn’t want to interfere, to complicate matters, for reasons that had been laid out clearly. And they hadn’t given the Western media enough evidence to grab attention when competing with so much else.
And whither Kate? Still a survivor, her story of her beginnings upended. I felt that there should have been more focus on her (rather than Michael, but apparently he was the caterpillar all along?) The Honourable Woman did end on Nessa, after all. But I suppose there was a point for the well-meaning white person in all this. However, Kate is the POV-entry character for the audience, knowing the least, being the investigator. I want the next episode to be so much more about her.
Ha, it wasn’t Frank’s fault that the tape got taken. He did his best and wasn’t the weak reed I thought he might be, although Alice used worst code ever over the phone.
Blindspot ep 4
I keep thinking I’ll stop watching this, and then, there I am at a Wednesday at 9, brain dead, thinking ‘oh, go on then.’
And, in fairness, the story moved into (mildly) interesting places, leaving some questions to ponder. We learned more about the rest of the team’s private lives. The blonde geeky one has an equally smart boyfriend who pored over the puzzles of the tattoos, because of course she took very classified work pictures home, and helped lead to the clue of the tat of the week. The negative black one is a player on the dating front, and I think is meant to have potential UST with the more sensible Latina one, who seems to be in debt (for gambling)? So, she’s not sensible in all aspects of life. Jane did bring up the negative black one’s constant doubts about her – some of which she shared, and I knew he wouldn’t have been as blasé about giving her a gun as Weller intimated he’d been – and he brought his doubtfulness back to Weller because of her effect on him. Although Jane did enough to gain respect points this episode. There – that’s the team character development done.
We opened with people in hazmat suits in a lab, and my first thought was someone was tampering with Taylor Shaw’s DNA, although it quickly became apparent it wasn’t that. Instead it was scientists wanting to release a deadly virus (possibly not a virus, but A BAD ILLNESS THING). Cool reveal of Jane’s secret tat, and thank goodness it’s only visible in the one site, because imagine walking somewhere there’s UV light and numbers appear all over your face.
She got her fight scene as she came to rescue Weller – girl saves boy, yay.
The meat was him talking about Taylor. I was very glad to see the laptop scene, because I’d have thought Jane would be more curious about her childhood. We saw a softness to Kurt we hadn’t before, although he still called Jane ‘Jane’ – perhaps because Taylor’s story didn’t seem to jolt anything in her – except the ‘flashback’, which raises the question of whether it was a flashback and she’d had a similar experience, or something she imagined, suggested by his words. Because her tooth (nice use of a detail from a previous episode) suggested she wasn’t Taylor, which suggests someone used the backstory to get under Weller’s defences, suggesting Daylight is the real reason they wanted Jane working with/on this FBI team. And, of course, although all this was done to this Jane, the woman she was may well have been a part of setting this up. No-one recognised her this episode.
