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sparklingdisneyprincess · 3 years

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Can The Flash writers let their characters actually process stuff in a fruitful way???

Is nobody else lowkey upset that instead of writing full arcs for Barry to overcome his trauma and grow from it, they instead have some Flash event wipe them away? S2 Barry’s journey into the Speed Force that helped him come to term with his mom’s death (I don’t mind this one it was well done, but it’s still an example of them using Speed Force to work through Barry’s issues.) S3 Flashpoint erased his pain of having just lost his dad, so we didn’t get to see him work through it and then S4 Speed Prison that left him feeling “reborn”, so he didn’t have to deal with the emotional fallout of how stressful S3 truly was for him. At least in S2 we got to see him process his emotions on screen. S3 & S4 didn’t even give us that, and don’t even get me started on S5 & onward.

Since S5 the writers haven’t even given him a magical speed induced reset to help him through his trauma, they’re just making him plow through tragedy after tragedy without rest and it shows. He’s way more erratic, easily set off, obsessive, and he’s always had these traits, but in my opinion it’s so unhealthy now. Barry Allen is a highly emotive individual and thus his good traits come out of that like his ability to love deeply, but bad ones come just as easily too. These more negative traits of his are exacerbated by the fact that he has unresolved issues that need to be addressed. If they would let him air out his fears, pinpoint the source and origin of them, as well as overcome them we would see a Barry Allen much more similar to how he was at the beginning of S4, but with a more mature edge to him now that he’s in his early 30s.

One arc. All we need is one arc to revamp his character and the rest of the arcs can focus on him becoming a truly independent hero and tackling work, fatherhood, and his hero duties.

Barry Allen deserves better writing.

(Also notice that Barry Allen has gotten at least 2 emotional resets to help deal with his trauma and Iris has gotten none. Zero. Zilch.

Let me explain to you what Iris West-Allen has been through in this show.

She watched her best friends that she’s known since the age of 8 heart stop multiple times as he was in a nine month coma.

The guy she was dating and was unsure about because she also had feelings for Barry shot himself and she held him while he died.

She found out that the mother she thought died when she was too young to remember isn’t dead but was actually addicted to drugs and walked out on her and her dad while pregnant with the younger brother she never knew she had.

Her mother soon after this reveal actually dies.

Iris finally accepts that she loved Barry all along, but now she is destined to die in a couple months so she emotionally prepares for her death (off screen) and ends up surviving only because somebody else died in her place even though she tried to stop them when they suggested it.

After surviving that mess she hoped for a future with Barry now that they were engaged, but then Barry goes into the Speed Force leaving her to mourn him for 6 months.

Barry’s not dead! They have a wedding but it was invaded by Alternate Earth Nazis and she subsequently had to watch one of her friends (Kara) heart almost be removed while Barry was stuck on said alternate Nazi-earth.

Amidst that whole mess Barry and Iris still managed to get married but then Barry’s sentenced to life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit with very little way to prove his innocence, thankfully Barry is released a month later (Still doesn’t make sense to me how they managed to pull it off, but oh well.).

Iris who grew up without a mother and has always wanted to be one has her and Barry’s future daughter show up from a timeline where Barry disappears. Their daughter resents Iris for dampening her powers a decision present day Iris couldn’t even fathom making, thus leaving Iris distraught.

To Iris’s great joy she makes up with their daughter only for her to die in Iris and Barry’s arms.

Barry her husband of almost 2 years and best friend of 20+ years who is destined to disappear in 2024 now is set to disappear in 2019 and in this timeline not only are they saying he dies instead of disappears, but also won’t even have a kid that she’d be able to cherish after he’s gone. She’ll never see their daughter that died ever again.

Luckily Barry survives the Crisis. Iris still has a chance to have Nora someday and now wants to build her media empire, but she gets trapped in a mirror dimension and experiences psychological torment in the form of neural dissonance that should’ve left her with severe brain damage (but amazingly enough it didn’t. I don’t understand how, but it didn’t).

Barry got her out of the mirror, but she hasn’t been able to advance her newspaper because stuff with the forces, her trouble adjusting to the real world again and 2 of her friends moving out of town one of whom is her employee, with one days notice.

Now in present time she’s potentially pregnant and experiences migraines due to phasing through timelines with Deon (The Still force) protecting her because if he doesn’t she could be fragmented through time.

Add to this all the times that I didn’t mention in which either she has almost died, has had to watch Barry almost die, or has actually thought that Barry was dead.

And she has barely been able to process any of this on screen and when they try to let her, they give her one scene about it and move on! Barry deserves better, but so does Iris because that list is LONG and she didn’t get any emotional resets to help her through any of it.)

Just write real arcs that allow your characters to confront things within themselves and their environments throughout an overarching storyline and have the progress they make actually stick and if it doesn’t explain why and expand on that in the next arc, is that too much to ask?

Rant over, PEACE✌🏾✌🏾

#WestAllen #Iris West-Allen #Barry Allen #CWTheFlash #Barry x Iris #Iris West #SDP speaks #If you are curious what the timeline would be like if Barry never made Flashpoint there is an official 3 part book series #It is by Barry Lyga and it's good #Book 1 was my favorite #It's got WestAllen and good characterization I wish Barry Lyga was writing for the CW series cuz he got Big Brain energy

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sweeneyxlaura · 5 years

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Review Round-Up, 2.01 - 2.03

Hi! I thought it’d be nice to see what the critics are saying every week about our favorite Dead Wife and Leprechaun, so while I’ll have a proper round-up for each episode after today, here’s a quick summary of observations for Episodes 1-3.

As a side note, I do generally think critics’ reviews on the episodes are sometimes neither here nor there while being perhaps overly nitpicky, but I do believe that a good deal of what matters here is that Fremantle, Starz and the producers care about the critic response as a litmus on, not only Sweeney and Laura, but on the show as a whole. What both fans and critics positively respond to (and they’re usually pretty closely correlated) will help shape S3, just as the well-received team-up of Sweeney and Laura back in S1 was probably quite crucial in giving them more of a spotlight in S2. And so far, our favorite trash duo is getting a lot of love! And a good chunk of credit has to go to Pablo and Emily and their amazing performances and chemistry as these characters. 🥰

For episodes 1-3, many of the critics lauded Sweeney/Laura scenes as a particular strength of the show, with comments ranging from:

IGN: Despite coming from completely different networks and teams, the Season 2 premiere of American Gods feels reminiscent of the later (Scott Gimple-driven) seasons of The Walking Dead, with characters speaking in portentous riddles without saying much of anything — although both Emily Browning’s Laura Moon and Pablo Schreiber’s Mad Sweeney offer a welcome break from all the foreshadowing with their acerbic delivery and general disdain for the pomp and circumstance of what Mr. Wednesday is peddling. Still, even when the pacing drags, the show’s stellar cast remains magnetic - in addition to Browning and Schreiber’s delicious performances, Orlando Jones’ Mr. Nancy offers a shot of adrenaline to the episode the moment he appears on screen, sinking his teeth into the scenery with relish.

Vulture [New York magazine]: “..one almost wishes Mad and Laura would just drive off into their own spinoff. The Leprechaun and the Zombie! This Fall on Starz!”

AV Club: “Laura Moon sees that light, and her pursuit of Shadow makes up “the Beguiling Man”’s best segments. Emily Browning and Pablo Schreiber are a joy together. Even the contrast in their sizes emphasizes the clash between these two characters who are pushed into working together, and who pretend to begrudge each others’ presence”....

NPR: “...at least when nothing happens on this show, it manages to do so gorgeously. Example: The wisdom of sending Mad Sweeney and Laura off on what's shaping up to be a series of fetch quests seems ill-advised, even if it does give the two charismatic actors shared scenes that highlight how well they click.”

The Geekiary: Laura and Mad Sweeney continue to have the world’s best chemistry, and this episode is further proof of that. Their madcap hijinks are entertaining, their banter is snappy, and though on the surface they don’t like each other, it’s clear they’re starting to depend on each other. I think their relationship may be the best part of the show.

Games Radar: Laura (Emily Browning) brings out the best in whichever character she’s with, and this is the episode where it really shows. She’s tagging along with Mr Wednesday (Ian McShane), who promises to breathe life back into her heart, and her straight talking means that we get a very clear picture of how Mr Wednesday sees Laura and Shadow’s relationship.

TVLine: There’s an upside and a downside to giving the TV version of Laura Moon more presence, personality and spunk than she has in the Neil Gaiman novel on which American Gods is based. The plus side? She’s far more interesting, live (well, sort of) and in technicolor than she is on the page. The minus? Now that I’m invested in her, all I want is for Laura and Mad Sweeney to ditch the rest of these celestial crazies and hoard off to a tropical island somewhere. Sorry Shadow: You’re on your own. Too reductive? Too ‘shippy? Too bad.

And finally, Hypable has two reviewers, who also happen to be Madwife shippers, discuss the episodes in conversation, and it’s always great to get their takes. For example, they go very in-depth into what may have been going on between Sweeney/Laura in the funeral home scene in Muninn,and I actually really loved that they’re trying to figure it all out, just like I was to be perfectly honest. That said, onward!

#american gods #mad sweeney #laura moon #pablo schreiber #emily browning #media*#articles #alot of the media in madwife's corner #makes me happy

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thewritermuses · 5 years

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Call of Duty - The TV Series

Strike Back - Chris Ryan - Season 1 - 5 7/10 In a post 9/11 world Section 20 strikes foreign targets in a bid to stop threats to the UK and its allies. It's just a bit sad that it took them three seasons to really hit their stride. Season four was the best, a mix of action and comedy. Great characters and interesting plot. Section 20 are a deniable military force run out of the home office in the UK. This story follows their fight against threats to the UK and the world. This is a really interesting and unexplored idea for me. I feel that we generally see this story told from the point of view of the brass back in Whitehall and rarely get to see the it play out from the soldier's perspective. Great Episodic Narrative The storytelling is generally fantastic on at the meta level. Each season follows an overall plot, generally perpetrated by a main villain. Each episode follows a single part of the story but fits neatly into the meta plot. This allows us to get to know all the characters on a deeper level as less time needs to be spent focusing on the plot in each episode. In turn it doesn't detract from the narrative because it is all part of the seasons meta plot The investment in the characters is also true for the story. They are interesting and thought provoking. Each season poses what if scenarios that are allowed to play out. Playing in this space is very fun for writers and you can tell this as it shines through on the screen. Buddy Series After the first season the show changes quite dramatically. For the first season it has been a one man show. John Porter, Richard Armitage (The Hobbit & Spooks), carries the season on his ample shoulders.

From then onwards it becomes a buddy series. Sgt. Michael Stonebridge, Phillip Winchester (Crusoe & Chicago Justice), plays a straight laced SAS officer who plays by-the-book. Sgt. Damien Scott, Sullivan Stapleton (Animal Kingdom & 300: Rise of an Empire), plays a wise-cracking, philandering Yank. They make a great team, each playing off each other's strengths. The tension between the two is also very good. They have their differences but also have each other's back when it matters. Big Names in the Supporting Roles There are some big names throughout this series. Because of the structure of the narrative they are given a lot of opportunity to really sink their teeth into their roles. Conrad Knox, Charles Dance (Game of Thrones & The Imitation Game), is the main villain in season three - Vengeance. He plays the charismatic South African billionaire who is trying to change the face of the political landscape in Africa. Li-Na, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon & Star Trek: Discovery), is the lead of North Korea's Section 39. She is a ruthless and effective killer. Michelle nails this role. Unfortunately I gave up on the show before the end of her season. Some Bad Parts There were many mistakes and issues with the series so I'll just list some of them here. S2 E1 - There is a gunfight at the start of the episode. It takes place in a street and the kid running away from Section 20 goes down before they fire. S3 E1 - Up until this point Stonebridge has been the stoic reliable part of the combo. He flies completely off the rails and puts a bullet in Jake Hanson's head after Jake himself loses his mind and murders his squad. Then Stonebridge runs to his side to check his vitals. Come on, you know he's dead.

Photo by Lucas Fonseca from Pexels S4 E2 - Rebecca is shot in the head and yet is still able to move and talk. The scene is quite good apart from the particular injury that would have made her continued role in it impossible. Perhaps the issue is a lack of understanding of how debilitating head wounds are. Some Worse Parts S3 E3 - There is a fight in a hotel and three grenades go off. There is a market happening outside and everyone here would have clearly heard the explosions, but they go about their business as if nothing has happened. In season two there is part of the meta plot of a secretive operation called Trojan Horse which is the main villain's motivation. We only start seeing reference to this towards the end of the season. It is buried too deep for us to understand it. Essentially the entire last episode is one big reveal which we couldn't have see coming. Season two ends with the death of the section chief. We are supposed to care and feel for her sacrifice. But this is just not possible. First, she has been utterly unbearable for the leads the entire season. Fine, but you cannot expect us to take a complete one-eighty. Second, the reason that she sacrificed herself was to stop Operation Trojan leaking - an operation that we had no idea about until moments before. Glaring Plot Holes S2 E6 - A doctor working with Doctors Without borders, or another similar group, is treating people at a hospital under guard of the UN. As night approaches they are told they have to leave. This appears to be a daily routine and she must have some understanding of the threat that she puts everyone in by refusing to leave when an injured lady arrives. Her naivety gets everyone killed. It was also key for her to be captured - but that doesn't excuse the terrible writing. S2 E8 - People working as organ harvesters see their boss murdered and continue working. Everyone up to this point has been a captive working at gun point. Why don't they immediately try to escape? Perhaps the perks are just really good as an organ harvester in eastern Europe? We made it to Season 5. We don't have to worry about the Plot now right? In the first episode Section 20 get a tracking device onto their target's car - the idea to follow him to where he is holding a kidnap victim and perhaps whomever is running him. But they don't pull back at this point - they keep following. It proves important for them to be there so why did they need the tracker at all? In the third episode it gets even more ludicrous. After an attack on their new safe house Julia learns the surname of one of the attackers and finds out the city he is from. From this information she determines that he is Yakuza AND that the Yakuza are working with Section 39. Seems a little farfetched to me but it gets better.

Photo by Cristian Benavides from Pexels Stonebridge then walks into the room and says that they think we killed their boss. Presumably he learnt this from the Yakuza he was just fighting. Surely it would have been good to show us this part of the fight rather than cutting away right before it happened. Also isn't this contradictory to what Julia has just discovered? It would be a huge coincidence if the Yakuza were after vengeance as well as being in league with Section 39. And that is exactly what happens, even if the target of their vengeance is misguided in this instance. The End of the Show for Me The problems and plot flaws above were wearing a bit thin for me but there were also some great bits which we will talk about in a moment. The end of the show for me, and literally where I stopped watching, was S5 E4. They have tracked a truck of metal to a Yakuza stronghold. The metal was going to allow North Korea to have a nuclear weapon. They also know that Li-Na, head of Section 39 is here. They begin the assault on the stronghold, as normal outnumbered at least three to one. The head of Section 20 says: "The only thing that matters is the metal." So they fight their way until they are in sight of the truck and it is heavily defended. Click edit button to change this text. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Photo by Chandler Cruttenden on Unsplash At this point the section head orders Julia and Kim to take down the truck as he and Stonebridge go after Li-Na. So in a couple of minutes North Korea getting nuclear weapons switches from priority one two somewhere else down the list. He has to pay a heavy price for this decision but it feels completely unbelievable that he made it in the first place. Why did I watch Five seasons? There is some really great stuff in this show. I think if it had just been episodic I would have been done long before season five. The meta plot spanning a season was really engaging. The way subtitles are done in this show are awesome. With a lot of the show taking place in non-English speaking locations it was great to see them try something new and it worked. The subtitles were huge and felt more like speech bubbles from a comic. It's really fun. There is a great scene in S2 E2 where Section 20 storm a hotel that has been rigged with explosives. A bomb has been suspended above the centre of the floor. As it falls and everyone dives for cover. Stonebridge pelts towards it, catching it at the last second. Other things that they did really well The title music, Short Change Hero by The Heavy, is a banger. It sets up every episode perfectly. You cannot be anything but pumped up for them to storm in, guns-a-blazing, after hearing this track. Generally the editing and pacing are both good. A great example of this is S3 E10. Various teams have been separated as they travel back to base from Nigerian HQ. This thoughtful editing is so fantastically handled. S4 E9 has a portion of the episode where Stonebridge and Scott are assaulting a base while wearing night vision. They transition between first and third person. It works extremely well and lets us experience what the characters are experiencing. Good use of Plot Devices Using Hugh as the villain in S1 E1 and then as a red herring was brilliant. This makes us think that he is always the bad guy, even when he isn't. Great misdirection. Season two sees a double cross of Pakistani intelligence. This aspect of the story is well told and its unfolding is handled with nuance and skill. The show is great at toying with our expectations. It shows us time and time again that it has no qualms killing main characters. It then uses this to setup characters to appear to die or look like they are going to die. As an audience we feel that their death is almost certain and then they escape. They also do the reverse when they kill main characters. They meet our expectations in ways we don't expect which is a hallmark of great storytelling.

Photo by Quentin Kemmel on Unsplash A Missed Opportunity to Use Hatred Well In S3 E1 Stonebridge's wife miscarries. She takes her anger out on him saying that he is happy because he never wanted the child. Stonebridge has been struggling with the decision about the child for a while. He left Section 20 to return to a desk job all so that he could be around. Her reaction is important because we have to hate her. We have to hate her otherwise we will hate Stonebridge when he rejoins Section 20. If they had left this there it would have been great and Stonebridge could have tottered off to kill some bad guys and we would have been on his side. But no - they had to have someone kill her as well. This is supposed to make Stonebridge go on a mad rampage now whenever he sees the perpetrator. This makes little sense. Why setup the hatred of the wife and then make us kind of upset about her death. This makes Stonebridge's decisions from here on appear wishy-washy. He kind of just chooses the motivation that fits best for the situation he is in. Which just takes away from his character. Read the full article

#tv #tvreview #callofduty

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