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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 3 years

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Psycho Analysis: Suicide Squad Team A

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS! Seriously, as soon as you click that read more, you’re gonna be smacked with SPOILERS! Don’t say I didn’t give you ample warning this time!)

The world’s in danger yet again, and Amanda Waller is in need of some expendable forces to take on some dirty jobs in the name of preserving peace. Last time she did this, it seems like she hired the wrong people. Nice guy Will Smith Deadshot? Bland, boring Killer Croc? El Diablo, who became attached to a bunch of reprobates after spending a couple hours with them? The only one who was useful in that squad was Katana. She had their backs, could cut all of them in half with one sword stroke just like mowing the lawn, and her sword traps the souls of its victims. Unfortunately, she was decidedly not expendable, so what is a girlboss like Waller to do?

Easy: Assemble a brand new squad of criminals to do the dirty work. Harley and Boomerang are the only ones she brought back, because let’s be real, they’re the only ones we give a damn about. Filling out the rest of the squad are the stoic, craggy crackshot Savant; the handsome, German spear-thrower Javelin; the alien warrior Mongal; the frothing, psychotic animal Weasel; the confident and all-powerful TDK; and Blackguard, who is literally just a guy. Together, this team gets deployed to Corto Maltese to do what no one else can do, and with skills like theirs, they are absolutely unstoppable!

They all fucking die before the opening credits.

Motivation/Goals: Considering the goal of the squad is to shave time off their prison sentences by going on the mission, it’s ostensibly the reason every single one of these goons accepted the job. Savant and Weasel are pretty well established in this regard; we get to focus on Savant for much of the opening, so we can get a sense of him, and Weasel is stated to have murdered no less than 27 children. So, yeah, they need to do this mission.

The rest, though? Who knows! Why are Mongal, Javelin, and TDK in prison? How did they even get an alien like Mongal? What did they do to land in the position they’d need to go on a suicide mission? Why doesn’t this movie have flashy, intrusive cards explaining everything to us in a throwaway gag in a montage?!

Blackguard, at least, has some other motivation. He sold out the entire squad to the military of Corto Maltese, which is why they’re ambushed. Now, there’s actually some ambiguity here: Did he do this of his own volition, and was this a complete surprise, or is it, as it is heavily implied, all part of Waller’s plan and she let this happen as a diversion for the other team to get in unnoticed?

Honestly, though, it doesn’t matter what their goals are. They’re all dead within five minutes of the movie starting, with one exception.

Performance: So, the reason these guys are even worth talking about is because, despite their minuscule screentime, all of their actors manage to cram in enough humor and characterization that they’re all pretty fun and likable. Michael Rooker is as stony and stoic as ever as Savant (until he hilariously isn’t), Flula Borg’s Javelin is really sweet and charming in his interactions with Harley, and Pete Davidson’s Blackguard is just amazingly douchey and pathetic. Special mention goes to Nathan Fillion’s TDK, who has an utterly endearing and unwavering faith in his astoundingly crappy ability to… detach his arms. It’s honestly kind of beautiful. Then there’s Weasel as portrayed by Sean Gunn, who is just a hilarious crackhead of an animal man.

Final Fate: Literally every single one of them die horribly thanks to Blackguard’s betrayal. He’s the first to go, because as soon as he walks out saying “Hey guys, it’s me, the one who contacted you!” he literally has his face blasted clean off. The rest go soon after. Mongal, in one of the most astounding moments of idiocy I’ve ever seen, leaps on a helicopter despite Rick Flag telling her specifically not to. Her weight and strength send it careening out of control, which leads to it shredding Captain Boomerang to bits before exploding, burning her alive as she painfully screams and writhes in agony. TDK gets his arms shot into Swiss cheese, leading to him bleeding out since even detached they still are part of him. Javelin is also shot, but gets a dying moment with Harley where he passes her Checkov’s Javelin. Finally, after witnessing all of this carnage, Savant completely loses his shit and tries to swim away, leading to Waller blowing his head up.

You may be wondering what happened to Weasel. He appears to drown as soon as the Squad deploys, because despite being actually smart in this movie, Waller forgot to make sure everyone on the Squad could swim. Thankfully, this lovable child-murdering crackhead rodent was just sleeping, and wakes up in the first credit scene.

Best Scene: Obviously, it’s their one and only scene. It’s a magnificent slaughter that puts the X-Force scene from Deadpool 2 to shame.

Final Thoughts & Score: I’ve gotta hand it to James Gunn. Even though these losers are only onscreen for a few minutes, they all get to cram a lot of charm and personality into that time, to the point it’s actually kind of sad seeing them all die. It’s a beautiful mix of comedy and tragedy. Since their screentime is so limited, though, I’m mostly going to be grading them on style, performance, and so on rather than on villainy like normal. They are all bad guys, as they don’t really get a chance to redeem themselves like the other Squad, so I’m still counting them as villains, which means they could potentially score above an 8 (which is the highest score I’m willing to give heel-face turn villains, because they end up being better as characters in general than as villains).

I’m also not going to talk about Boomerang (I’ll talk about him when I review the original Squad) or Harley (because she not only lives, but deserves her own solo Psycho Analysis). Now here we go, from best to worst:

TDK

If you thought anyone but TDK would get top marks, you’re sadly mistaken. Seeing Nathan Fillion proudly wield the insanely lame power to detach his arms to lightly tap soldiers on the head and gently grab their guns is a sight I never knew I needed to see until this movie. The fact he just seems so darn proud about this power that he doesn’t even bother to use in any way that would be remotely useful is honestly really endearing. Frankly, the sheer fact they adapted Arms-Fall-Off Boy in any way is enough for me to give him a 10/10.

Weasel

Weasel is just disgustingly delightful. He’s just a horrible, nasty, ugly little bastard… But he’s kind of adorable? He clearly has no idea where he is at any given time and is just so goddamn freaky that I can’t help but love him. The fact that, despite being a character who in the comics is noteworthy only for dying on his first mission with the Squad, he manages to survive the entire movie is pretty impressive. Hopefully he comes back in the future, but either way he gets an 8/10 from me.

Javelin

Honestly, aside from Boomerang, his death stung the most. He’s just so cute and charming, and he doesn’t even get to fling his javelin at anyone! Thankfully, he passes it on to Harley, and boy does she ever get to use it! He’s so cute, I have to give him an 8/10. I just wish we got more of him.

Savant

Savant is just an absolutely hilarious bait-and-switch. We follow him through the prologue, with everything seeming to point to him as our main character and the Squad leader. He’s stoic, he’s cranky, and he has impeccable aim… and then we get to the beach and he just freaks the hell out and starts screaming and crying and running away like a little bitch. Seeing Michael Rooker act like he’s shitting his pants after playing a badass like Yondu is just the sort of hilarious subversiveness that James Gunn loves to do when you let him loose. The fact that he looks like, to paraphrase the TVTropes YMMV page for the movie, a “cyberpunk Tommy Wiseau” is the icing on this 7/10 cake.

Blackguard

I was prepared to hate this guy just based on how lame Pete Davidson’s costume was, and you know what? I do hate him. But I love to hate him. He’s just an utterly pathetic scoundrel and a coward, true to his name. The fact he is the first to die, as just about everyone predicted, and is killed absolutely gruesomely makes any annoyance he could provide moot, and his freeakout over being seated next to Weasel on the plane is actually kind of funny. I was originally going to give him a 6, but you know what? He can have a low 7/10. He’s like the only member of this particular Squad to actually do anything evil, so I gotta give him props for that.

Mongal

Let me make this perfectly clear: I do not blame James Gunn or actress Mayling Ng. I’m not actually mad at either of them for what they chose to do, because it is ultimately hilarious and sad. It suited the narrative of the film, and I’m not actually, genuinely mad.

With all that out of the way, Mongal is one hell of a stupid cunt. It is one thing to cause your own death with your stupidity, it is something else entirely to cause the death of a beloved character with your poorly planned attack. The fact she didn’t take into account how her weight and strength would effect an airborne helicopter makes one wonder if she is really supposed to be based on a character who can take on Superman and live to tell about it.

Let’s compare her to two similar characters to really show how bad she is. Like Blackguard, she is directly responsible for a death on the beach, Blackguard being responsible for everyone by selling them out and leading them into an ambush (and yes, I’m including him as well), and Mongal killing Boomerang with the chopper. The difference is, Blackguard’s betrayal was deliberate, he meant to sell the team out, he was actively doing something evil there, while Mongal killed Boomerang out of sheer idiocy.

Now, let’s compare her to Zeitgeist from the similar bloody massacre that occurred during X-Force’s deployment in Deadpool 2. Like Mongal, he accidentally kills a teammate. The difference is, in the case of Zeitgeist, he only accidentally melted Peter, it was a freak accident, and ultimately it does get undone by the end. Meanwhile, Mongal made a conscious, stupid decision and ended up killing her squadmate with her own idiocy. She sucks, hardcore. I don’t do this lightly, but I’m giving her a 1/10. Villains just don’t get much stupider than her.

I will giver her this, though: the makeup work on her is good. She’s lowkey kinda hot if I’m being honest. But being hot and having good makeup does not a good villain make.

#Psycho Analysis #The Suicide Squad #Savant #Michael Rooker #Javelin #Flula Borg #TDK #Nathan Fillion #Weasel #Sean Gunn #Mongal #Mayling Ng #Blackguard #Pete Davidson

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zumpietoo · 3 years

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Okay...

This should tell you everything, all by itself and, with this, going forward, if you ever fucking whine to me about "but Alex saiiidddd....." I will consider you to be a concern troll and block your ass....

Do NOT believe what he says....If I'm being generous, he inserts a considerable amount of his bias into shit and, honestly, that's right, I'm calling him a fucking liar. Because he does.

He has no more knowledge, other than viewing the episode typically mere days before the rest of us, than does anyone else.

He has never worked in TV, his "site" is fucking online fanboying and his only "published" work was a self published Pinkle fanfic on Amazon. He is nothing. He is nobody.

He, again, LIES. His theories are almost invariably wrong. He's been insisting every year, he'd get Bafie owning the entire thing. He thought Jughead was the GK from contaminated water everybody else swam in. He was actually surprised that Evil was Edgar's wife.

He's an idiot

If the "book were shut on BH", the show would be DoA....

He makes up half of what he watches. I recall where he thought Betty being pleased Douchie and Josie were dating was a Barfie moment....he, again, hates Jughead/Cole and, LBR, hates BH.

He's wrong....always. In fact, I'll venture while she gets moar screentime than usual, Tinkle isn't even half as important as he claims----how could they fit everybody ELSE in the episode in that case?

Meanwhile, to further (and yeah, peeps have been questioning me), how do we know Barfie's shortlived?

It was already well into October when tomorrow's ep was filmed (and they didn't film for a months from mid-December to mid-January)....they had to film a bit out of order, so episode seven wasn't even completed when when they returned to work...yet, already, no more scenes where Lili and KokeJ filming together, to say nothing of alone. LOTS of scenes of him and Crotchi, with neither Cole nor Lili anywhere near the set.

Even Holy Roller Barfie shipper is already trolling VD getting back together.

Babyman Ted could actually only troll Barfie happening as "active, unexpected, working on a case...." (actually being stalked by Goolies/Hymen's goons)----and only obsessed over the first couple of time jump eps, cause the rest seemed like a wild disappointment to him (at least until we get some shitty Ragey "centric" or something....)....so it's more an impulse thing, which goes with Betty's sexual impulsivity AGAIN..

Now, it's possible RAS was gonna have more, IDK....but it's also clear the network/Berlanti shut that down....and then Babyman was pissy and flounced off SM.

Again, people, do the fucking math....

Just as, turns out, nope, Jughead isn't nearly as fucked as they kept insisting (another Zalben lie....while ignoring that Betty's basically a prostitute with raging PTSD, he makes it sound like she hits a career speedbump, Babyman Ted insisted she was a "bad ass", turns out she's a colossal mess), everybody else is way worse (again, I'll happily take writer's block over PTSD).

So that's it and stop freaking out.

THE END

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Superman & Lois Episode 3 Review: The Perks of Not Being a Wallflower

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This Superman & Lois review contains spoilers.

Superman and Lois Episode 3

“Morrissey’s a xenophobic has-been.”

This one line, delivered with deadpan perfection by Alex Garfin’s Jordan Kent pretty much sums up why Superman & Lois episode 3 is so good. Wait, really? Yes, stay with me for a minute…

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I loved the first two episodes of Superman & Lois. There’s no question about that. But there was a very slight nagging feeling in the back of my mind, that maybe this show was going to be a little too serious for its own good. That maybe in the process of making Jonathan and Jordan Kent as believable as possible, and as “relatable” (god, I hate that word) to young audiences as they needed to be, that the show would end up trying just a little too hard, get a little more wrapped up in its “family drama, but with Superman” high concept than it strictly needed to, and maybe forget to lighten up every now and then. I could excuse it in those first two episodes, which play like one feature length pilot when watched together, and which had a lot of work to do to get us to buy this very different take on the Man of Steel, but I wasn’t sure if the tone would sustain over a longer stretch of episodes.

And then along comes “The Perks of Not Being a Wallflower” to put those fears at ease. To be absolutely clear, this is absolutely not a drastic change in tone from what has come before. But now that we’ve gotten to know the Kents and their neighbors and classmates, and that the Smallville setting feels very much like the natural setting of the show, there’s a little more fun to be had. No, this isn’t suddenly The Flash and STAR Labs with a team of folks cracking wise at every opportunity, and it’s certainly not my beloved Legends of Tomorrow, but the humor is here, it’s subtle, and it works at every opportunity.

The opening scene with the family trying to paint the old Kent home is a charmer, a moment broken by Clark hearing a bridge collapsing in China which he speeds off to save. It’s another near-cinematic action sequence for this show, but the special effects aren’t really what sell this scene, it’s the moment of terror to relief to pure joy of a single fisherman as he realizes he’s witnessing Superman hold up a bridge…and Superman’s wordless interaction with him is equally joyful. This is something that simply hasn’t been done in live action interpretations of Superman since the Christopher Reeve years, and I honestly rank those few seconds with Supes and the fisherman as one of the best screen moments in the character’s history.

This episode is full of moments like that, even though Tyler Hoechlin once again spends most of his screentime as Clark rather than Superman. But even there, this is certainly Hoechlin’s finest performance as the character so far, bouncing effortlessly between Man of Steel to “Clark the superpowered dad dealing with problems new even to him” to “Clark who has to act like there’s nothing special about him.”

I worry slightly that Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane still doesn’t quite have enough to do as they build her Morgan Edge investigation through the Smallville Gazette. In every other aspect, moving the family to Smallville has worked, particular in regards to exploring completely new facets of the Clark/Superman dynamic, but Lois so far feels a little out of place. On the other hand, I should probably be thankful that they aren’t trying to “do a journalism” the way it’s so often been portrayed on Supergirl or The Flash, and maybe the slow burn is the more prudent move here. Anyway, it doesn’t change the fact that Tulloch is a delight in every scene, and she is quickly becoming the definitive screen Lois for me.

But the real highlights for this episode come in the form of Jonathan and Jordan, the two characters I was most skeptical about going into this show. I’ll confess, despite some terrific comics by the likes of Peter Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Dan Jurgens, Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis, and others in recent years, I’ve never been the biggest fan of the “Superman as dad” concept. I tend to like my Superman stories a little more unencumbered (or some might say traditional, but whatever). But Jordan Elsass’ Jonathan and Alex Garfin’s Jordan are just so darn likeable, and the story being written for them so compelling, that I can’t really complain.

The idea that Jordan would try out for the football team despite his burgeoning powers seems a ridiculous one, and I honestly thought that sequence was going to be revealed as a daydream (similar to Clark’s in the first episode of Smallville). But it’s real, and it doesn’t go quite where I thought it would. Jordan excels at football…as it turns out, he’s a bit more powered up than Jor-El suspected last episode. You’d naturally expect this to lead to friction with Jonathan, who has yet to get the hang of his new team, and for a brief period it does, but then the show does something unexpected.

This isn’t about football going to Jordan’s head or even about him “getting even” with the guys who have been bullying him. Instead, it’s the first time he’s felt part of something. After absolutely leveling Sarah Cushing’s boyfriend (well…ex-boyfriend now) on the field, he offers his hand and apologizes for that awkward kiss at the Shuster Mines. Jonathan, meanwhile, sees the good the team is doing for his brother and advocates for him with a Clark who is understandably annoyed that his son is using his powers to gain an advantage on the football field.

Batwoman Season 2 Episode 6 Review: Do Not Resuscitate

By Nicole Hill

Superman & Lois: Behind the Scenes of The New DC TV Show

By Mike Cecchini

I know, I know, this all sounds far weightier than the Morrissey joke I quoted at the start of this, but it all unfolds with a little charm, and some surprisingly light touches here and there. Jonathan and Jordan reacting to an incredibly awkward moment with Sarah and Lana, Clark overdoing his “dorky, eager dad” routine, and other little touches just make this feel like the show is settling into a rhythm with these characters and getting more comfortable being playful.

It’s perhaps a little worrisome that Wolé Parks’ mysterious Captain Luthor is nowhere to be seen this episode, with the only superhuman punch-up coming in the form of guest star Daniel Cudmore’s mysterious, nameless goon who makes the mistake of trying to take out Lois during her investigation. That leads to a really sharp (but quick) punch-up between him and Superman, with a terrific sequence where Superman freezes him with super-breath before delivering a perfect uppercut that would look right at home in a comic panel. If this show continues to work out creative ways to use Superman’s powers the way they have with Barry on The Flash, I think we’re gonna have some real fun in the coming episodes.

But then there’s that ending. As Lois asks, why DOES Morgan Edge have someone with super powers working for him? More than one, apparently, as Cudmore’s mysterious baddie is vaporized by a woman with heat vision named…Larr. So far, the formula for Superman & Lois seems to be to give us a family drama heavy episode, punctuated by moments of cinematic action, and then to close with a mind-bendingly cool reveal. Well, if they insist, who am I to argue?

Metropolis Mailbag

There’s not a ton of DC or Superman Easter eggs this episode, so I don’t think it’s necessarily worth its own post. But, here’s what I’ve got…

The bridge collapse scene does faintly call to mind Superman saving the Golden Gate Bridge during the earthquake in Superman: The Movie.

Jonathan telling Clark that “if you’re not actually allowed to be special” etc feels like a subtle nod to teenage Clark telling Jonathan Kent in Superman: The Movie that he could excel on the football field if he wanted to, which Jonathan forbids, saying that Clark isn’t here to “show off.” But that Clark’s answer was a philosophical “is a bird showing off when he flies?”

Cudmore’s nameless character is apparently “Subjekt-11” a designation which calls to mind “Subjekt-17” an alien raised by the Soviets to make Superman’s life miserable in Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco’s incredibly underrated run on the Superman comics.

Sharon Powell may not be a character from the comics, but the folks at Kryptonsite used their X-Ray vision to point out that the actress who plays her, Jill Teed, was known for portraying Maggie Sawyer on Smallville!

Tyler Hoechlin finally gets to talk a little baseball on this show. Before going into acting, he was a baseball prodigy.

It seems that’s Morgan Edge’s right hand woman, “Leslie Larr” vaporizing our mysterious baddie. The closest I can find to her is a “Lesla Larr” who was an obscure Supergirl villain. THAT version of Larr hailed from Kandor (post shrinking) and she made Supergirl’s life miserable from time to time. I don’t expect this version of the character to have too much in common with her comics counterpart, but it seems like “evil Kryptonians” are definitely gonna be a thing on this show going forward.

The post Superman & Lois Episode 3 Review: The Perks of Not Being a Wallflower appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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juiceboxman · 4 years

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Thoughts on Birds of Prey:

Good:

-Harley Quinn: Movie has a firm grasp of who Harley Quinn is as a person, which a lot of media just doesn’t. In D&D terms she’s what I’d refer to as a character with high intelligence but low wisdom. She has the intelligence to be an accomplished Psychiatrist and have the strategic ability to take on Batman, but lacks the wisdom to see the consequences her actions would cause. Margot Robbie as always crushes it.

-Black Mask: This Black Mask is a bit different than we’re used to. A little bit camper, but still possesses the same characteristics that people love to hate; being a detestable asshole and being an absolute meme. He’s like an Ivy League prep school guy became a crime lord, which is exactly how Black Mask is supposed to be. Ewan McGregor is great too.

-Huntress: Ngl, her twenty minutes of screentime was the best part of the movie.

-Cast: Great

-Cinematography: Gorgeous. Whatever you feel about DC films, you gotta admit they are almost always visually stunning.

And....that’s all the good things I have to say about it.

Bad:

-Birds of Prey: This is not a Birds of Prey movie. This is a Harley Quinn movie. Which would have been fine if it were a solo movie, but when you sell it as a kickass superhero team up movie- you gotta have these characters be together for longer than 15 minutes. It also doesn’t help that most of the characters are under developed as FUCK

-Tone: All over the place. They undermine a lot of great character moments with stupid jokes that takes all the relevancy out of it. It replicates Marvel’s theory of “if something gets too sad or dramatic, laugh and it’ll be fine” it’s not fine. First time the gang meets Huntress they laugh at how mad she is like??? Why???

-Cass: Straight up hate what they done with Cass. They made me hate Cass. Not only did they take away the most tragic and interesting backstory from ANY batman character, they made Cass an idiot and unlikeable. Truly I enjoyed this movie so much more when Cass was off screen

-Writing: There’s some character decisions in here that straight up defy all logic. Like how Harley convinced Black Mask she could find Cass, even though he has a whole army who could do it faster and far more efficiently, and he lets her because...reasons. Same with the characters at the end having the fight in the fun house and then walking out the front door LIKE THEY FORGOT AN ENTIRE ARMY WAS OUT THERE WAITING FOR THEM. Truly at a point the characters operated on some horror movie logic

-Editing: Pacing was off. A lot of information is repeated or even contradicted. Like when Harley went to buy a pet, the owner made some creepy sexual advances on her and it was implied that she fed him to the hyena. But later on its suggested that she did fuck him so that she could get the hyena and then the hyena bit him, not killing him. There’s a few scenes like that throughout the movie. Non-linear story could have been done a lot better as well.

Conclusion:

In the end, this movie is confusing. It feels like there was a Birds of Prey movie and a Gotham Sirens movie in the works at one time and the producers were like “yeah well you only get one” and Margot Robbie really wanted a girl-gang movie but she also wanted most of the screen time so we get an absolute mess.

Replacing the Birds of Prey with Catwoman and Ivy and switching it up from this weird, action adventure to a straight up heist movie would have been the way to go in my opinion. That or even have a lock-in type movie, like “these heroes, anti-heroes and villains are stuck in a precinct surrounded by goons and are forced to work together” type movie would have been a lot better than what we got.

Also, don’t use Cass if you’re not going to have her be Cass. Matter of fact, don’t have any character in your movie if you’re going to ignore everything appealing about what makes that character both unique and popular. Just don’t.

In the end, I enjoyed parts of Birds of Prey and I disliked other parts. I’m kind of sad that the movie isn’t performing too well because I want all decent super hero movies to do well. Personally I blame marketing and poor reception for previous films.

I’d give it a 5.6/10

#birds of prey #birds of prey spoilers #harley quinn #black canary #huntress

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dramajib · 5 years

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I’m planning to start watching Strangers from Hell today, but before I do, I wanted to share some quick thoughts I had on the Watcher finale.

Obviously, spoilers below.

I actually loved the ending between Do Chi Gwang and Young Goon. I know @rocknghorss doesn’t necessarily agree with me, but my takeaway from this was that it was kind of sweet, the relationship that is developing between these two.

Do Chi Gwang played a huge role in Young Goon’s dad going to jail (as a side note - his death was. not. okay.) and the guilt/trauma from all the fallout has seen him evolve into a really interesting character. He explains himself pretty well to Han Tae Joo somewhere in those last two episodes (unfortunately I can’t seem to find the scene to cap it) when he talks about how he doesn’t see himself as a righteous man, or a bringer of justice or anything like that - he’s just trying to do the right thing, and does whatever he needs to to do it. Which is problematic, of course, but fascinating in terms of character development.

In this last scene between the two, Young Goon rightly calls him out on it, but instead of being disappointed or angry or anything like that, he just says he’s going to stay by his side and make sure he keeps on track. And to me it’s just as if he’s decided that hey, you know what, you messed up, and I was fucked up, and you watched over me to make sure that circumstances didn’t turn me into a failure of a human being, so now I’m going to do my best to return that favour.

Is there anything I love more than two very flawed people loving on each other? Not that I can think of off the top of my head, to be honest.

Which is part of why I’m so disappointed with the character of Han Tae Joo. There was so much promise in there, I love how she was this badass, super effective, unapologetic broken person on a mission of vengeance. But as strong and cool as she was in the earlier episodes, somewhere along the line I felt like the production team just lost the plot a little.

A lot of the time I couldn’t understand her decisions and actions, and we never really got the necessary exposition. I usually don’t like exposition because it’s often overdone, I can understand things without every little thing being spelled out, thank you very much. But the show went in the opposite direction, and gave me so little to work with that I was just confused and felt dumb. Because of course this amazing character has some sort of logic and reasoning behind her actions, even if she’s just being fuelled by irrational emotions, you know? So why couldn’t I figure out what her guiding philosophy was?

The introduction of her ex-husband for two episodes to move the plot ahead in a way literally any of the other bad guys could have (or even a new anonymous henchman acting as a Turtle substitute for that matter) was either the laziest bit of story telling, or the most pointless, I’m still not sure which.

There was so much room for an amazing story when it came to her, so I just feel really let down on that front.

Though not as let down as I was by the fucking blacklight bullshit. COME ON. What even WAS THAT. You go the whole series not doing any of that CSI, actual crime solving nonsense, but focusing instead on the politics and stories and people, and then suddenly in the last episode everything gets wrapped up because of some GAS and a BLACKLIGHT?!

Like maybe Commissioner Yeom just gave a big ole handy before closing her laptop, you know?! UGH. It legit made me so mad. SOOO MAD.

It really was the weakest point of the show for me, even more so than Han Tae Joo’s wishywashyness, even more than her ex-husband (because his psycho ass was kind of an interesting character, even if he barely appeared on screen), and even more than the criminal lack of screentime Park Ji Hoon got (look, that chiseled face and thin goatee thing is like my East Asian man kryptonite, I can’t help it, I’m a hoe).

But honestly, apart from those things, this show was great. Like I mentioned to a couple of people before, I think it was a case of solid storytelling (and acting!), but unfortunately without an equally strong script to back it up. So did I love it? Hell yes. Would I recommend it to anyone else? It depends. If you’re the kind of person who loves mystery and suspense and some politics in a cop drama, then hell yes. If you love OCN shows, this is a great one to add to your list. If not, maybe start with something else, and then work your way down to this one, because it’s the worth the time, but only if you’ve already started that slippery slope of a love affair.

#ocn watcher #park ji hoon #kim soo jin #ahn kil kang #kim hyun joo #han suk kyu #seo kang jun

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sarkastically · 5 years

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Endgame Spoilers

And now for some Endgame spoilers under the cut

Things I enjoyed:

Carol

Rhodey was utilized more than I remember seeing from most of the other movies, and I was living for it. Especially his interactions with Nebula.

Nebula’s character arc got to continue growing for her. I was very glad that we got to see her consistently make the choice to remain on the “good” side of things even when it would have been easy for her to defer back to her past self and her father. I really enjoyed that she got the make the decision to pick Gamora over her past self’s relentless drive to please their father. “I wanted a sister,” indeed.

Scott was utilized WELL. Scott who is never the smartest person in the room, but is good at, like, some theft driving his ass across the country to find the Avengers for a heist was perfect. I loved that they took the time to let him check on Cassie.

In the end fight, Carol meets Peter and is instantly like, “Oh, this is Tony’s first Lt. Trouble” and then it’s all the female characters kicking ass to keep anyone from touching Peter.

Thor got to be closer to Ragnorak Thor even if the reasons for it apparently had to be “drunk” and “failure”

Valkryie

When everyone showed back up at the end for the final fight to beat Thanos and his goons up

Decapitation baby

Peter’s breakdown. I mean, I hated it, but it was a moment of actual, harrowing emotion and it made sense.

Things I didn’t like:

Bucky’s 0.5 seconds of screentime without even an actual goodbye? Sam got one, which I enjoyed and like kudos to Sam, but Bucky doesn’t even get to say anything to Steve? Like. Bucky now knows that he basically has to go it alone when practically no one else will talk to him or trust him. Fucking ouch.

We couldn’t have given Carol 2 seconds to show her human side and check on Maria and Monica the way that Scott gets to check on Cassie?

When Thanos didn’t immediately dust out, I thought that maybe Tony got that Nebula or Gamora should be allowed to end him. And then it was just that his dusting was slower, and I was disappointed once again.

Undid most of Gamora’s character development and then had her simply disappear? Ummm.

Did Ned get dusted too? Did Peter’s entire class get dusted? He seems to simply arrive back at the same school in the same grade after five years of absence with no one batting an eye. Only Ned is very pleased. Maybe way more pleased than you’d be if your best friend was just gone for a few days fighting a space warlord. idk. I’m confused about the five years thing in general and how people are supposed to reacclimate to it.

“Stephen Strange is the best of us.” Um. Sorry. No. Not even in the comics where I like him could Stephen Strange honestly be considered the best of anyone and that was a shit reason to hand that stone over. Maybe, “Oh, Stephen is pragmatic so this probably makes sense to him” but not. That.

Hey. Speaking of Stephen, not only is he fucking magic, but he’s also a medical doctor so, like, why was he not immediately sprinted over to Tony to maybe try and do....anything? At all. It probably wouldn’t have made a difference but, um, perhaps a little effort, sir.

Honestly, just get Strange out of the movie maybe.

Thanos never should have gotten the soul stone in the first place. While I didn’t really enjoy what happened to Nat, that is the sort of fight over it that made more sense. There is no question whether Nat and Clint love one another. They love each other so much, they’re both willing to die for that stone and both think the other one should be the one left. Thanos shoved his daughter over a goddamn cliff. The stone should have yeeted him right back along with a dissertation on why endless emotional and physical abuse might seem like love to Thanos but isn’t exactly what the stone means.

Bruce is underutilized again with more references to the romance that almost was with Nat.

I was surprised that we didn’t have another Stan tribute at the beginning of this one, but I guess I didn’t need to cry more in a public place so. Thanks?

#endgame spoilers #avengers endgame spoilers #avengers endgame #spoilers #long post

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shadows-twilight · 5 years

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RWBY Volume 6 Chapter 7

My various thoughts and opinions on Chapter 7 of RWBY Volume 6, "The Grimm Reaper"

SPOILERS BELOW:

Did Barbara name this one?

Hmm, so despite Cinder's single-minded drive to kill Ruby, she hasn't forgotten that Salem wants her alive. So her plan is to have Neo kill Ruby instead as a bullshit technicality so that Cinder doesn't get in trouble with Salem. Right, good luck with that, Cinder. Let's see how well that goes for you.

I find it disappointing that, despite having several minutes of screentime so far, Neo's eyes have yet to change color in any way.

Wow. The Nevermore flying at a young Maria from out of the mist is probably one of the most cinematic shots we've seen so far in this show. I love it.

I must say, while current elderly Maria is in no way bad-looking, her younger form is...kinda hot. And by 'kinda' I mean incredibly.

The way Maria uses her scythes and the way they attract each other reminds me of the 'Viridian' trailer from the fanmade 'SLVR' series. It was awesome there, and it's awesome now.

So this obvious-Tick-Tock-the-Crocodile allusion, Tock, she mentions that her boss wants Maria dead. Is she one of Salem's goons from this time era? Did Maria know about Salem before meeting Jinn? I really would like to know just how in the know Maria is.

Props to Melissa Sternenberg. That scream of pain was spine tingling. Damn, Tock's death was brutal. I guess that's what you get for taking to taunt a wounded, cornered warrior, but still. Damn.

Question, if Qrow based his weapon on Maria's, why does is the resemblance more prominent in Crescent Rose?

It is now official. We are getting a "Maria trains Ruby in the Art of Silver Eyes" arc. Really can't wait for that.

Jaune! I'll admit, I was afraid that it would take a lot longer to get to Argus. Glad to see they're not dragging it out any.

Ruby has Jaune in her scroll as 'Vomit Boy'. Gawddamnit, Ruby. "Cute boy OZ!!!" I've said it once. I've said it many times. I will continue to say it many times more. Nora, please never change.

I don't see Lancaster shippers having fun with that reunion at all *insert sarcasm marker here*

Argus looks like San Francisco mixed with those novelty Christmas towns my Grandma puts on her mantle. I quite like it.

Hehe, the license plate on the trolly is the episode's air date. Nice.

Man, not even a year yet and they're already making a movie out of the Fall of Beacon. And I thought Hollywood was exploitative. That being said, I kind of want to see the Remnant-Hollywood interpretation of how that all went down.

Oh my gawd, is that...is that an Arc sister? Is that an honest to goodness Arc sister!? I've waited so long for this day!

Man, from Ruby's excited expression, Jaune's arm-flailing, and Weiss and Yang doting on Saphron's kid (as well as everything from him in general), they're really going all out on the silly and adorable animation. I am loving it!

Ooh, sibling group photo! Ok, so from left to right we seem to have a pair of obnoxious twins, a silly girl in orange, the mature and responsible eldest, Jaune in pigtails (hang in there, buddy), a cutie in pink, what I'm going to guess is the brainy one, and...David. In blonde, female form. Best reference since the Camp Camp theme song in Chibi.

Terra Cotta? Really? Come on guys, even for RWBY, that is just blatant. Also, more gay is always cool.

"Shut up there's FOOD!" I see Ruby is steadfast in being the voice of reason in these trying times Ok, when they talked about things not going well with the Atlas military base, I expected it cutting to everyone being arrested, rather than them simply shutting the door in their faces. Still, I suppose it was too much to hope for anything to go that easily.

Man, I had high hopes for this episode, and even then they managed to exceed them to an extreme level. This has been the volume that just keeps on giving, and I can not wait to see what happens next.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rooster teeth #rooster teeth animation #RWBY volume 6

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miss-musings · 6 years

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My List of Top 10 Blacklisters

Let me say right off the bat that it was really difficult to compile this list. Because while I feel a lot of one-off Blacklisters are pretty much throwaways, especially all the different cults and kooky people that the show likes to keep introducing, many of the better ones (IMO) were bad guys who had been around for multiple episodes, maybe even entire arcs or seasons.

So, picking out my Top 10 -- based on how unique they were, how memorable they were, how intimidating, how threatening they were to the main cast, etc. -- was relatively easy, but ranking them was difficult. Because, again, a lot of them get way more screentime than others.

So, I'll try to rank them based on a combination of how much I personally liked them, how much of an overall impact to the story/characters the Blacklister had relative to their screentime and build-up, how well the actor did with the role, how unique and memorable they were, etc.

You'll notice that people like Laurel Hitchen, who was an antagonist but not technically a Blacklister, isn't on the list; and you'll notice that "good guys" like Dembe or Marvin Gerard who were technically Blacklisters, but weren't antagonists for Red or the Task Force aren't on here either. Tom, who flip-flopped between good guy and bad guy as the show progressed, isn't on here either; but that's because there's so much material to judge from as he was a main cast member for at least three seasons, which is unfair.

Anyway, without further ado: my list. Again, feel free to disagree and make your own lists if you like.

(EDIT: I’ve done a follow-up list of ‘Top 10 Best One-Off Blacklisters’, because so many of the below entries had multiple episodes in which to be menacing.)

Note for future reference: this list only includes Blacklisters up through the end of S5.

###

HONORABLE MENTION: MR. KAPLAN

I really wanted to put Mr. Kaplan on this list, and I had at one point, but then I realized I forgot one of the more imposing Blacklisters and had to slide him into the spot where I had Mr. Kaplan. The only reason I took her off completely rather knocking every lower-numbered entry down a spot, was because while I really liked Mr. Kaplan up until S3c, I hated how the showrunners forced the storyline where she had once been Liz's nanny and hated Red for doing her and the Keen family wrong. I love Susan Bloomaert and think she's a very talented actress who's incredibly underrated; but I loved her character more when she was on Red's team -- his cleaner, his friend, his confidant. Granted, there were some really good episodes with her as an antagonist, but I hated the way she died -- throwing herself off a bridge.

Anyway, again, I want to emphasize that this list is purely subjective. So, if you think I've done Mr. Kaplan a disservice, feel free to make your own list to give her to honor you believe she deserves. As I said: I loved Mr. Kaplan, but I felt the whole S4b storyline completely assassinated her character as we knew it up to that point.

P.S. I also feel like GREGORY DEVRY should get a shout-out, but I’ll probably include him in my list of Best One-Off Blacklisters.

10. LEONARD CAUL

This is one of those entries where I guess I kind of cheated. Caul didn’t really end up being an antagonist for Red, Liz or the Task Force. But he was introduced to us a little ambiguously with him developing photos of Liz and Red, listening to the police scanner -- and then holding Liz at gunpoint (briefly) in Red's Bethesda apartment... I really liked all of that and how it was kind of vague from the beginning whether he was on their side or not. Granted, he doesn't get much screentime even in his own episode, and honestly, after S2, I'm not really sure what happened to him. I know he was hanging around with Red up until the S2 finale or thereabouts, but yeah, whatever happened to that guy?

Anyway, it was a really tense episode, and I felt like Caul brought a level of adrenaline and urgency to the situation with Red and the Cabal, as well as the show in general.

9. IAN GARVEY

You'd think Garvey would be higher on this list, but I was never really a big fan of him. Granted, he did pose a pretty serious threat for our main crew, after he stole the Real Reddington’s bones, killed Tom and his goons knocked Liz into a coma. And the actor did a fine job. But, I just felt that -- up until his connection to the Reddington family was revealed -- he was just kind of cartoonish. A dirty cop who runs a drug cartel? Yeah, I don't care.

But, again, while I don't really like Garvey, I felt like he had such an impact on the show and the characters that he deserved a spot -- even if it was a low one.

8. MADELINE PRATT

The only female Blacklister to formally make it onto the list. (Sorry, Mr. Kaplan.) I thought her character and this episode was incredibly well-done. It was a little bit of a heist storyline, and Pratt was a good foil for Liz and Red, forcing both of them to open up in ways we hadn't seen before (up to that point). Liz became more comfortable doing criminal-type things, using her slight-of-hand, infiltrating locations and lying/manipulating people; while Red, conversely, became more human and opened up about why he has been so distant with people and the hurt he has experienced in the past.

Also, Madeline is one of the few past/current love interests of Red that we see on the show, and I really like Jennifer Ehle (mostly because of the 1995 version of Pride & Prejudice). I felt like she matched well with Spader and wasn't overpowered by his always-charismatic performance. And, while we only ever saw her in this episode and briefly in 2x14, I felt like she deserved a spot because she was such a unique character and that episode introduced a lot of character details and traits that became important later.

7. THE STEWMAKER

I really, really liked the Stewmaker -- both the bad guy and the episode. The only reason I didn't put him higher on this list is because I feel everyone else is too good (or bad, depending on how you want to look at it) to be displaced.

So, I remember reading on one of those TV-watching websites that if you weren't entirely sure about a show but you wanted to give it a chance, you should watch at least four episodes to see whether it was any good. By the fourth episode, the show should have established its characters, its dynamic, its continuing plot points, its feel, etc. Pilots, of course, always feel a little different than the shows themselves because they're filmed months before any other episode; so you have to give shows a chance to establish themselves and walk on their own two feet.

So... when THIS was the show's fourth episode... oh, buddy.

The Stewmaker posed a serious threat as he was the first person to ever hold Liz captive and feel the wrath of Red for such an offense. The episode gave us the infamous Parable of the Farmer; and continued the then-mystery of Liz finding out about Tom's shady past.

But, as for the character himself, he was just really weird. Walking around naked while he was working, but having that mask on; disintegrating bodies; having his dog with him; actually being a family man but having this criminal work on the side. And, also, we had a little bit of interaction where Liz was actually trying to do her job (for once) and profile him and use that info to her advantage.

He was a character that I feel the show has tried to redo several times -- the kooky weirdo who's very calm, apologetic and doesn't like violence but who is also fascinated by death, bodies, etc. But, of course, this was the FIRST time the show had used such a character, so it was much more memorable then and not so watered-down.

In any case, I really liked the Stewmaker and thought he was a fantastic Blacklister for the show to have in its fourth episode of the entire series.

6. MATIAS SOLOMON

So, this is actually the spot where I had Mr. Kaplan. But, while I was doing some background research on my #1 choice, I ran across Edi Gathegi's name and remembered that I left Solomon completely off the list. He had been an antagonist throughout the whole of S3a and then came back for his namesake episodes where he and his crew attack Liz and Tom's wedding, Liz gives birth to Agnes, and later she "dies" with Red by her side.

Solomon is either directly or indirectly responsible for a lot of major shit that happened on this show -- hell, just in those two episodes. And, I really like Gathegi's performance, especially considering how Solomon was a little Extra™. So he had to play him as dramatic with a penchant for flair and style ... but without him becoming cartoonish. He was just a little bit eccentric but could still hold himself and lead a team of goons in shooting up a church.

Again, I hated to leave Mr. Kaplan off the list but I felt it was a greater disservice to not put Solomon on it, considering how much of a threat he posed to our main cast throughout various points of S3.

5. THE DECEMBRIST (A.K.A. ALAN FITCH)

This is basically just an outlet for me to talk about how amazing Alan Alda is and how much I love him and wish the show hadn't killed his character off. Seriously, he's just so adorable, and it was hilarious to see him partly playing against type here. Fitch was intimidating, but I also kept wanting to give him a hug.

And, I felt like that was how Red felt toward him. He hated Fitch for the whole bullshit in that raid on the Post Office, but yet, he also respected him. That look on his face when he's having that last conversation before the bomb on Fitch's neck goes off... just heartbreaking.

And while so many actors seem to bow under the weight of Spader's performances, Alda is also one of the few actors who I felt like was on-par with him in terms of charisma and acting chops. It seems he just strolls onto the set and does whatever is required of him without a care in the world. "Need me to be gruff and menacing? I can do that. Need me to be sad and fearful? I can do that. Need me to look bored and indifferent? I can do that." God, I just love Alan Alda, and I want to give him a hug.

But, seriously, Fitch was a Blacklister who's impact on the story goes all the way back to setting Berlin on Red decades before S2 takes place, and he was one of the few people (at that time) who seemed to know Reddington from the pre-Night of the Fire era. (It's unclear now whether that was actually true; he probably knew the REAL Reddington, but never knew our guy was an imposter.)

Anyway, Fitch had a major impact on the story because he was the one person/thing who had a connection to the raid on the Post Office, the Cabal and Berlin. So, he definitely deserves a spot on this list. And also, ALAN ALDA!

4. BERLIN

This is a weird entry, because Berlin is hardly in either of his two namesake episodes; and even when he is, his identity is obscured until the very end of "Berlin: Conclusion."

Berlin had been built up for a long time, and while I still am so frustrated that it was never addressed how he organized a giant criminal syndicate from inside a Russian prison. Honestly, for as much as for as long as he was built up, I feel like the pay-off was a little bit disappointing. Which is why he’s at number four for me.

Still, when he came back in the first half of S2, he was such a good baddie. I absolutely love when he and Red meet on Coney Island, and that weird, dynamic and layered conversation that they have. And overall, Peter Stormare's performance is fantastic. He's mustache-twirling, sure, but he was so intimidating at the same time... threatening Liz, capturing Naomi, being responsible for the attacks on Cooper and Meera, etc.

He had a tremendous impact on both S1 and S2a, so he definitely has to have a spot.

3. ALEXANDER KIRK (A.K.A. CONSTANTIN ROSTOV)

Like Berlin, Kirk is hardly in either of his namesake episodes, but we get to see him more fleshed out as a character/villain in S4a.

Unlike most villains, we actually got to see quiet moments of Kirk, where he was caring, respectful, loving and just ... generally not villainous. Most of these other Blacklisters never got those opportunities, and Kirk -- in hindsight -- was built up as a kind of hero out of a Greek tragedy. Odette tells Liz that he was a kind, caring and gentle man up until he found out about Liz’s identity as Masha and her connection to Red. Then, he flipped his shit and did whatever it took to get his (step)daughter away from him. And, honestly, I really liked his little farewell speech to Liz about how she would only ever remember him as a villain who kidnapped and threatened her and her child; and she would never remember him as the young, happy father who held her in her arms, excited at what the future would hold for their family.

God, just thinking back to that speech makes me feel such sympathy for the man... not the one he became but the one he used to be. Kirk was hurt and betrayed multiple times by Katarina, the Real Reddington, the Fake Reddington, and all these other people who played him like a puppet for their own ends. Really thinking back on it, it’s no wonder he became the broken man he is, so desperately trying to cling to this frayed prospect of happiness with the family he once had. Yes, he was hoping that Liz or Agnes would help cure him of his disease, but I truly believe that was only a bonus in his mind and he was really hoping to piece his family back together -- to have a second chance in his (step)daughter’s life and help her with her newborn.

He’s also one of the few villains with his own arc who WASN’T killed off at the end of said arc, so I REALLY hope he comes back. I doubt it, but I would really like to see it. Maybe he could help Liz understand what all happened with Katarina, Real Reddington, Fake Reddington, and everything on the Night of the Fire.

And, again, like with Fitch, he was a really important Blacklister as he was connected to both Red’s past and Liz’s. And, that scene where he’s about to kill Red, and the two stop to reminisce about Katarina, who she was, and how important she was to them ... that’s the kind of depth we don’t get out of most Blacklisters.

Honestly, even though his introduction to the audience was a little too Darth Vader/Alias-esque, I still really enjoyed the range of emotions Ulrich Thomsen got to run through in his portrayal, especially in that final episode. And while he doesn’t really have a lasting effect on the story once his arc is resolved, he was a major threat to everyone, including Liz, and the main characters to make major decisions in the latter half of S3 and the first part of S4 that showed us who they really are.

So, yeah. IMO, he deserves to be this high on the list.

2. ANSLO GARRICK

It might seem a little weird to have a one-off villain this high on the list, but Anslo Garrick -- both the character and his namesake episodes -- was an actual game-changer. Here we were, skipping along through S1, pretty complacent and chill. And then all of a sudden, Anslo Garrick shows up and turns everything on its head. The Post Office is under attack; Ressler gets seriously injured and he and Red have to make due hanging out together inside the box; Cooper et al is captured; Liz and Aram, who have little field experience between them, have to team up to try to get to safety. Luli is killed; Dembe is almost killed; Liz is threatened; Red is captured and later escapes.

God, so much happened in those episodes, and I still think “Anslo Garrick: Part One” might be the best episode of the show to date. Seriously. Even though Red and Liz have zero screentime together, that episode is just SO GOOD. Intense, dark, with high-stakes and important character moments -- and there have been very few episodes like it since.

But, anyway, as for Anslo Garrick himself... he isn’t really all that much. He was a rabid dog sent by Fitch to bring Red in. He was intimidating, coarse, violent and gave zero shits about his actions.

This entry doesn’t really celebrate who the character of Anslo Garrick was, but more of what he represented and the major impact he had on the show at that point in time. He introduced us to Fitch, who first brought up the whole “Cabal” storyline, which was responsible for a lot of shit in S2 and S3a.

Again, Garrick woke us viewers out of our little complacency that Red & co. were just going to glide through their Blacklisters with only a few cuts and bruises and no real stakes (outside of the Tom/mystery storyline that was going on at the time). This was a good kick in the pants to make us realize that we were wrong.

So, yeah. I feel like he deserves to be Number 2.

1. THE DIRECTOR

So, you’re sitting there, wondering who the hell could be sitting at Number 1... above Garvey, above Kirk and Garrick and Fitch and everyone else?

It’s the man who if I could push a button and bring any of the show’s dead character back to life, he would be the one I’d pick:

Peter Kotsiopulos, The Director ... played by the amazing David Strathairn.

Even though he appeared in 12 episodes over what amounted to an entire season of the show (from 2x09 to 3x10), I really wish The Director hadn’t been killed off. Seriously, I have no idea how much money TPTB had to throw at Strathairn to get him to appear for as long and as many times as he did, but it wasn’t enough. I've always said that this show deserves a Big Bad (assuming that Red isn’t it), and he would’ve been great as the Big Bad for The Blacklist.

While Strathairn's basically just reprising his role as "Unethical and Shady AF Government Official and Resident Mustache-Twirler" from The Bourne Series, it's a role he's REALLY good at. And even though he didn’t get a lot of quiet moments to be humanized or come across as sympathetic, like Kirk did, I still feel like it was such a bitch move for Red and his crew to play on The Director’s feelings for/obligation to his wife as their opportunity to abduct him. I know that Liz was facing trial for murder and desperate times called for desperate measures, but I can just imagine that poor lady sitting in her therapist’s office, wondering where her husband was only to find out that he was a villain who had ditched her and fled the country, when that wasn’t the case AT ALL.

Yeah, I know The Director’s an absolute piece of shit who’s responsible for threatening the entire Task Force, publicly demonizing Liz and almost killing Red... but he was so good at being bad that I wanted him to stick around long-term. I wanted to see him and Liz have more interactions; and again, Stathairn was one of the few actors who held his own in scenes with Spader without any effort.

He was also the first one, as I recall, to set Liz on this path toward Katarina Rostova’s backstory and finding out how alike the two of them were. Remember in 2x19, he remarks how much Liz looks like her mom, and I feel like that sends Liz down a road to get answers from Red about who she was and what his connection was to her mom and her family.

But, anyway, yeah. I just love David Strathairn; I loved him in this role, on this show; and I loved how diabolical, manipulative, and just conniving his character was. I also just absolutely love the look on his face in 3x10 when he and Red are watching Laurel Hitchen on the TV and Hitchen just outs The Director as a member of the Cabal. He just goes from angry and staring daggers at Red to flustered and “oh shit” in an instant.

So, just like my Fitch entry was my opportunity to celebrate how amazing Alan Alda was, this is my chance to celebrate how underrated David Strathairn is as an actor and how much I wish he was still on the show.

But, putting all of that aside, why should The Director as a character be ranked above all those other people as a better Blacklister?

Because, The Director represented the Cabal, which was an entity that had been built up from 1x09 as a major force that had power to easily destroy everything Red, Liz and their crew was trying to work toward. They sent Braxton after info about the Fulcrum, they sent Karakurt to frame Liz, they sent that team of commandos to attack Red. They were a force that seemingly could not be stopped, and the Director was at the head of it all.

And, while I can’t find it anywhere (so help me out if you know what I’m talking about), I know there’s a saying about how the worst man is the one who does evil in the name of good. And that’s The Director. He is the embodiment of all the worst parts of The Blacklist’s villains, actual real life government officials and humanity at large. He has dozens of people killed without batting an eye because it’s all in the interest of “national security.” Or so he tells others. But, deep down, we all know that he’s only really concerned about his own self-interest.

Now that the show has killed him off, obviously, there’s no way for Strathairn to return as The Director; but perhaps, if/once the show delves more into Katarina and Red’s backstory, maybe we will see a Young Director in a flashback so that we can see exactly how he was connected to Katarina, the Cabal, and that whole mess with the Fulcrum.

Plus, I can’t get over how awesome his interactions with Liz were, and Strathairn’s delivery of the now infamous line, “I know who you really are, Raymond -- who you are TO HER.”

###

Again, if you disagree, feel free to reblog with your comments or your own list. This is all purely subjective, but -- because we’re on this crazy-long hiatus until January -- I felt like it was good to fill the time with SOMETHING. My goal with this isn’t to give a definitive list and that’s it; but rather, to prompt discussion about the topic.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end and cheers! ~mm

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constablewrites · 6 years

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The Rocketeer’s Jenny Blake: Sexy Lamp or Something More?

The Rocketeer was one of my favorite movies growing up, although I was never a big fan of the love interest, Jenny Blake, who always seemed kind of like a sexy lamp to me. (If you didn’t follow the link, the “sexy lamp” test means that if you could replace your main female character with a sexy lamp and the story would still basically work, you have a problem.) But the more I try to pin it down, the more I think it’s not that simple. She may not be your standard strong female character (a nebulous phrase my loathing of which is well-established), but if you were to remove Jenny from the story, it wouldn’t just be different–it wouldn’t exist at all.

In hanging around writing groups and forums, I’ve encountered a lot of writers who struggle to figure out the genre they’re writing in. My advice is always to look at the stakes–what’s the worst thing that will happen if the hero fails? That tends to be the main thing that defines a genre. So in a comedy, the stakes are personal happiness and success. In epic fantasy, it’s stopping the forces of darkness. In dystopia, it’s breaking free of the corrupt institution. And so on and so forth. After repeated viewings of The Rocketeer, I’ve come to realize that while we may be dealing with Stupid Jetpack Hitler, the primary thing at stake is Cliff and Jenny’s relationship.

No, seriously. This movie is a rom-com with gunfights and Nazis, also known as the best possible kind of rom-com.

Although Jenny’s not present in the first act, Cliff keeps a picture of her in his cockpit, even risking himself to rescue it from the fire. After a bunch of setup about the rocket, the two go out on a date, a scene which gets a pretty substantial amount of screentime (the whole sequence takes about 10 minutes). They have a fairly contentious meal, highlighting the issues in their relationship: Jenny wants a change of pace and doesn’t feel like Cliff respects her career or trusts her with important news. It’s because of this and in the hopes of making amends that he seeks her out on set the next morning, revealing to her–and to the eavesdropping baddie Neville Sinclair–that he’s found the rocket. That directly leads to Sinclair moving in on Jenny in the hopes of getting to Cliff.

Then we’ve got a couple of action sequences, and the escalating danger is enough to prompt Cliff to call it quits and turn the rocket over to the FBI. That is, until one of the mobsters spots Jenny’s phone number, and we see Cliff’s look of horror as he realizes that the guys who murdered his boss and are trying to torture his best friend are also after his girlfriend. From that point on, protecting her is the only thing that matters to him, more than even his own safety or that of anyone else. And this concern is mutual, as evidenced when Jenny goes back into the club to save Cliff from Sinclair’s goon (without which the third act wouldn’t happen). The crisis makes them both realize that, despite their quibbles, they’d do absolutely anything for each other, and they end the movie in a much stronger place.

So what makes this the primary stakes? Well, let’s compare to another similar film, Raiders of the Lost Ark. In both movies, the hero realizes that rescuing his kidnapped girlfriend will further the Nazis’ goals (which is a rather specific parallel, come to think). Indy’s response is to promise Marion that he’ll return for her after he’s secured the Ark. Cliff’s response is to fight his way out of FBI custody and go to the hostage exchange anyway. Even knowing what else is on the line, Jenny’s more important.

There’s still the issue of her lack of agency, which tends to be a major sticking point with female characters. After all, she’s reactive rather than active, and her choices aren’t really what drives the story. She also doesn’t really have much of a character arc, ending the story more or less where she started.

But here’s the thing: You could say basically the same about Cliff.

See, context counts for a lot in these sort of situations. The Rocketeer is a very conscious throwback to the adventure serials of the 1930s, and those pulpy plots are usually driven by the villain. The bad guy is the one who has a plan and takes steps to achieve it, and the good guy has to stop it, generally staying a step or two behind the whole way and only prevailing due to a last ditch, desperate gamble. Really, the only choice Cliff makes on his own is to try using the rocket pack in the first place, and even that is in reaction to their financial situation after the crash of the Gee Bee test plane (which was shot at by a bad guy because… the plot wouldn’t happen otherwise, pretty much). Everything else he does is in response to someone else being in trouble. Agency is the wrong yardstick to use in a case like this, because the only one who really has agency is Sinclair. These stories also tend to trade in stock characters, which is why no one really has an individual character arc, but Cliff and Jenny do go through an arc as a couple.

It’s easy to write her off as just another damsel in distress, but part of what consistently fascinates me about that trope is how rarely it’s played purely straight anymore. The standard damsel will run off with the hero she’s only just met once he’s proven himself by saving the day, but Jenny and Cliff are in an established relationship, one that seems fairly serious from the start, so them getting together at the end makes perfect sense (and, as previously established, is kind of the whole point). She’s also crafty, deftly manipulating Sinclair and doing pretty well at escaping until she gets sidetracked by the whole Nazi discovery. Oh yeah, and when she gets handed over to a random mook, she stands helplessly for all of three seconds before she stone-cold kicks the dude through the window of the zeppelin.

Seriously, I’m pretty sure Cliff doesn’t have any confirmed kills in this movie (I only give him partial credit for Sinclair, personally), but Jenny sure as hell does.

I think it’s important that, as scholars, we don’t give into our first knee-jerk reactions about a character and look deeper, and that as writers, we seek out ways to add that depth. The Rocketeer may be working with a fairly established formula, but they manage to take a role that’s often marginalized and make it an intrinsic part of the story. With no Jenny in the picture, Cliff never crosses paths with Sinclair, and he returns the rocket to the Feds as soon as things get hairy. With her, we have a much more interesting film.

#writing lesson wednesdays #the rocketeer #the rocketeer spoilers #gifs #damsel in distress #badass women #characters #character development #relationships #raiders of the lost ark #romance #romantic comedy #stakes #genre #writing #writing advice #amwriting #writeblr #repost from my website

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jinjojess · 6 years

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Gold “Jigsaw” Starz wants me to play a game

Okay, so I saw the “which 2 would you revive in the DR games?” question and I think the opposite is pretty interesting, but to maximize the thought of the question, I came up with some rules:

1) You can’t just kill off your least faves, there needs to be some thematic meaning behind the deaths (even if the meaning is the inherent lack of meaning, like Ishimaru)

2) You have to explain the contexts of their deaths in your scenario (how did they die and why?)

3) You can move around deaths so an establish killer or victim kills or is killed by your chosen characters. They do not have to be the same role (killers can be victimized and vice versa)

3a) If you do this, you also have to explain how the revised murders played out (but not how they are thematically involved)

Bonus rule for V3) You can’t just have everyone die in the final Execution like they should have. For this scenario, you can choose everyone who was alive by the start of Trial 6 (Saihara, HaruMaki, Yumeno, Shirogane, and Kiibo)

I hope this isn’t too much lol, I just wanted to come up with a cool game.

Okay, here we go!

DR1

I’d have had Naegi actually die in the 5th trial, and then switch to Kirigiri as the player character, and her choosing to adopt his optimistic outlook in the critical moment against Junko at the end. I understand that the reason this didn’t happen was because a) Kodaka wanted to hammer home that normal people are important too, and b) he doesn’t know how to write from the perspective of a really smart, observant detective without ruining the experience of discovery for the player, but from a narrative standpoint, I think that would have been a legitimately shocking development in a game full of shocking developments and then maybe DR3 wouldn’t have turned out as shit as it did because we wouldn’t have Naegi “literal Jesus” Makoto taking over the series like a fucking cancer.

As for the girl, surprise! I’d actually have had Kirigiri die at the end of the game, perhaps to let the others go free. She’d feel like she’d be paying back both Naegi and Samidare that way, and it would mean that in later installments the more neglected characters could get more screentime.

SDR2

I kind of like the idea of Owari and Souda staying behind in the Shinsekai Program to try and help revive the others from the inside, knowing full well that they may be stuck there forever. Not necessarily a “death” scenario, but pretty close. (We’re assuming that Sparkle Hinakura doesn’t exist in this version of canon.) Neither Owari nor Souda really had much impact on the story, and I think reconciling their naturally selfish/self-absorbed natures by having them make a sacrifice like that would put a nice cap on an actual character arc for the two of them.

DR:AE

I love them all to death, but the three boys in the Warriors of Hope should’ve died. Nagisa was crushed by a robot, like?? Having all the important characters live at the end was just so unsatisfying and unrealistic. (I don’t care enough about Haiji to want him dead.)

Girl is a little more complicated–originally the scenario I wanted at the end of the game was for Komaru to fall into despair and become Nu Junko, with Fukawa going to rescue her and bring her back to her senses (there’d be a Chapter 6 where you’d play as Fukawa by herself) before the Mirai Kikan arrived to “handle” the situation. At the end, Fukawa manages to bring Komaru back, but she gets gunned down by Future Foundation goons anyway. This sets the stage for DR3 where both Naegi and Fukawa have their mettle tested.

Alternatively, Fukawa could also die to protect Komaru, which would then trigger her to try and find an alternate path from the one the Mirai Kikan is taking.

DR3

Both boy and girl should have come out of the remaining survivors. Kirigiri and one of the guys. Naegi giving up his life to keep another friend from dying = good. Hagakure making a last minute sacrifice = he finally gets a moment to be the hero in a big way. Togami dies doing the right thing rather than the smart thing = nice cap off to his character.

DR Zero

Not enough people survived to really answer this question.

DR Kirigiri

This one is going to be answered in future tense, as I don’t know what’s coming up yet.

I want Yadorigi to be consumed with the desire to avenge Uosumi and die as a result of getting too up in the Committee’s face. Seeing him become a culprit in some special Duel Noir against Shinsen would be cool.

Connected to that, I want Mizuiyama to sacrifice herself to show she trusts the others, since she’s so wary of everyone else.

(Samidare is too obvious a choice and I’m 95% sure she will die.)

DR Togami

I don’t want Shinobu to die necessarily, but it would be interesting to see Togami react to it. Preferably, she dies in such a way that she takes Suzuhiko and Kazuya out with her–she gets revenge on both her brothers, ending things on her own terms.

Killer Killer

A subtle one, but the series ends on an older Dougami investigating a murder-suicide implied to be Hijirihara and Asano.

Not totally clear on the rules for this one, since it sounds like I have to choose how the final trial ends?

Uh, if I can’t kill everyone, I guess Saihara and the others make good on their word, leaving only Shirogane and Kiibo behind. Kiibo obviously doesn’t blow up to destroy the school in this one–rather he just shoots Mother Monokuma who explodes and blows a hole through the sky. Shirogane has snapped and refuses to leave the grounds of Saishuu Gakuen despite the Team DR clean up crew coming in. Kiibo, meanwhile, has regained his own personality, but now that he doesn’t have any inner voice to follow, he seems confused for a few moments, but then quietly leaves the premises.

The final scene I guess would be a shadowy cabal of Team DR producers, discussing how Shirogane will have to be sacked and how they can do damage control. Someone mentions using their last ditch resort, and then the camera is facing a door head-on. The door swings open and inside is a CG of Komatsuzaki-style Kodaka sitting on the floor in dirty clothes with shackles around his ankles.

~END~

So that’s it! Sorry I didn’t go mega in-depth on moving around existing parts of canon–if I started that, I’d have to rewrite the entire thing and I really don’t have time to do that. Still, it was fun, so that’s for the game, Starz!

#submission #goldstarzzz #dr #opinions #character hate #not really but tagging just in case #long post #grumble grumble mobile got rid of my cut

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movietvtechgeeks · 7 years

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Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/walking-dead-catch-plus-whos-next-die/

'The Walking Dead' catch up plus who's next to die

The Walking Dead season 7B finally returns much more quietly than it began as we weren't left with a life or death cliffhanger this time around. After such a violent and brutal premiere, it ended with more hope as Rick Grimes and company were finally reunited and ready to kick some Negan butt. Viewers complained that Rick should have been doing this, but if you recall in season 6, that's exactly what they were doing and it bit them in butt pretty hard and resulted in both Abraham and Glenn feeding Lucille. Jeffrey Dean Morgan's has created a character in Negan (while sometimes annoyingly over the top) that was able to bring Rick to his knees and strip him down to nothing. We've seen Rick go through these periods. Remember when he kept taking calls from his dead wife? This was just steps further down the line of a breakdown. For those of you who absolutely hate Negan; well we don't have good news for you. He's going to be around into at least season 8 as the Negan war won't be coming to a conclusion this season. Remember, Rick and company will be having to bring in support with other groups (like King Ezekiel and his tiger) and convince them to join up together. They have to bring on Alexandria, The Kingdom, The Hilltop and the tribe that Tara found. The latter will be their best bet as they seem to be the one group with access to a huge stockpile of guns. But we have to wait for Tara to mention them. The Walking Dead has suddenly become more timely when you see all the protestors on the news since Jan 20, and the message of people who wouldn't normally come together now united for a common purpose. Now The Walking Dead sometimes follows the comics and sometimes not, but all of our forecasts have been dead on so here's the latest round of who's going to be the next victim? Morgan Morgan is in an interesting spot right now, as his character is a lot different than his comic counterpart, and has been used a lot differently as well. Right now, he’s sort of a spiritual mentor to Carol, but I have a sneaking hunch that his death might be used to propel her out of retirement and back into action as the killing machine she needs to be to take down Negan. Technically, Morgan should already be dead, as in the comic he died during the walker breach of Alexandria. But again, that character is way different than the Morgan we have. He came back much sooner and hooked up with Michonne and was never anyone’s guru in any capacity. This Morgan is essentially a character reborn, much like Carol, and though I really would not want to see him killed, I can understand why there might be story reasons where that might happen. And since he, or some version of him, is dead already, it does seem like he’s living on borrowed time. Simon Time for a villain! Stephen Ogg is absolutely killing it as Simon, one of Negan’s goons who does not have a counterpart in the comics. In my opinion, he outshines both Negan and Dwight themselves, but I also think there’s a specific reason this character was created: to die. One of the main problems with the Negan war is that the resolution does not really result in any major deaths of the key instigators. Both Dwight and Negan survive, one turned into an ally, one kept as prisoner, which is a little bit of a letdown, given the havoc those two caused previously. But Simon? I think they’ve invented an “expendable” villain character who we actually know and can name, one that actually is going to find a bullet with his name on it, courtesy of Maggie or Sasha or Enid or whoever. That’s really too bad, given that he’s doing such a great job, but I have to believe that this is going to be his ultimate purpose on the show. Oh well, at least Ogg still has Westworld. I’ll refrain from say everyone else is definitely safe besides these four, but for now, everyone else does seem pretty safe. Nearly every major character not listed has some pretty big storylines ahead of them, even if that storyline ends in their death. Other characters like Daryl and Carol may be free of comic twists and turns, but they’re such fan favorites that its doubtful the show has the gall to kill them. If Daryl survived Negan’s Lucille execution, I honestly don’t think he’ll ever die, and Carol is the one show character Robert Kirkman said he would never kill. Plans may change, but for now, I think most of the cast with a few exceptions will be safe for a while. I do hope The Walking Dead improves in the second half of this season. Falling ratings have been indicative of falling quality, and while we may never get back to the high point of season five, I hope TWD manages to turn things around. The Negan storyline is the peak of the comics, but so far it seems to be a valley of the show. Sasha There was some rather ominous news that broke a few months ago that the actress who plays Sasha, Sonequa Martin-Green, has been cast to play the lead in CBS’s Star Trek: Discovery. Great for her and that show, but it does not bode terribly well for the fate of her character on The Walking Dead, even though everyone is pretending like she can somehow do both. Sasha’s fate is the most clear out of everyone’s here, in my view. Though she’s not a comic character, she has clearly assumed the role of “Holly” from the comics, an Alexandrian citizen who causes Abraham to leave Rosita. She’s given a key role early in the Negan war as she rams his fortress’s wall in a vehicle which allows walkers to stream in. She’s captured, almost raped (Negan kills her would-be rapist), but then returned to Alexandria with a bag over her head and surprise, she’s now a walker. She’s arguably Negan’s last major in kill in the war. I don’t know if things will play out exactly the same way (Fear the Walking Dead literally just did the bag-over-a-prisoner’s-head-but-really-they’re-a-walker trick), but I can definitely see them giving Sasha a “blaze of glory” moment like Holly’s since she does inhabit that role fully now. Out of everyone else here, I would be amazed if she survives the season, as I think we’ll at least get to that moment in eight episodes, but who knows. Heath Heath is another curious case because he was much more of a major character in the comics, but The Walking Dead has relegated him to such a background role it’s easy to forget he even exists. Currently, he has about five minutes of screentime a season, and it’s unclear if that’s going to change. Again, this is a case where an actor taking on other responsibilities may affect his role here. Corey Hawkins is not just a movie star (Straight Outta Comtom, Kong: Skull Island), but he’s now leading FOX’s new 24 show as well. I suppose The Walking Dead could continue giving him very, very little screentime the way they do now so he’s able to juggle all of this, but I could also seem them just killing him off and giving Heath’s parts to another character in the future. Heath feels like he was added as an afterthought, as he didn’t show up in Alexandria until fans complained about his absence (ah yes he was on one of those famous, months-long “supply runs”), but they have not done much with him since. Irrelevant means in danger on The Walking Dead, so I would not be surprised to see him meet his end in the Negan war, even if that differs from the comics.

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#Featured #Negan #Rick Grimes #The Walking Dead

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