The Handmaid's Tale: Liars (3x11)

Well. I certainly can't complain that we're stuck in limbo, can I? Some stuff happened in this episode. Oh boy.

Cons:

Hmm. For the first time in a long while, I don't have much to say in the "cons" section. I suppose I should lodge a complaint that it's been way too long since we've checked in with Moira, Luke, and Emily up in Canada. I understand the instinct to focus on one singular character or plot thread in order to make the episode feel more cohesive, but even with the cut-aways to Fred and Serena, this episode did drag at some moments because there wasn't a lot of variety. But honestly, it was still pretty great, especially compared to the past few weeks.

Pros:

Let's start with that Fred and Serena subplot, actually. See, I was almost ready to put their plot in the "cons" section, because it felt like more treading water. Sure, they're on their way to a clandestine meeting with an American to get Nichole back, but mostly it's just the two of them feeling their way through their awkward relationship. And like... that's boring to me, because I think Serena and Fred are both awful people, and Fred had Serena's finger cut off, and watching the two of them reminisce about being a happily married couple is disturbing, and not in the way I enjoy watching. But then... then.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: From the Ashes (6x11)

Huh. Flint? Okay, I guess.

Cons:

This was one of those episodes made up of things I liked, but whose whole is less than the sum of its parts. I think in some ways, it's because the episode was treading water. We already knew that Sarge had some of Coulson's memories and was twisted up about it. In this episode, a lot of stuff happens, but as the episode has progressed, the only part of the status quo that has altered is that Daisy acknowledges the truth. Same with Izel. She wants the monoliths, and she has Mack and Yo-Yo hostage. A lot of action and stuff occurs, but as the episode ends, she's still just trying to get to those monoliths. All we've learned is that she can create images and manipulate people, showing Benson his dead husband, and then showing Flint. (Unless that's really Flint? Jury's out). Again, this isn't a big problem or anything. I liked everything that we saw here. But I felt as if the entire episode was all setup, without any big payoff. Next week is a two-part finale, so maybe I'm just being hasty, wanting the payoff that we'll be getting in a big way next week.

Also, and this is my own problem probably more than it's the fault of the show, but I kind of forgot about Flint. It's been a long time, and most of what happened in the future has gone dim for me. Hopefully they do a good job of reminding the audience a bit more about him in next week's finale.

Elementary: The Latest Model (7x10)

I thought this episode was perfectly average and run-of-the-mill, but not hugely problematic or anything. Let's talk about it!

Cons:

One weakness was that I felt the separation between the case of the week and the over-arching Reichenbach plot more than I usually do. While Joan and Sherlock are working on figuring out who killed a model, they are also dealing with Reichenbach coming to them with a potentially dangerous man, and asking for their confirmation. Both stories on their own have a lot going for them, but they connected so very little that you could have lifted either one and plopped it down in a different episode with no issue. I know that's been true of other episodes this season, but I just really noticed it this time around. I think, despite the shorter length of the season, we're still getting some of that mid-season drag that seems to come in every season of Elementary.

Pros:

The case of the week wasn't anything remarkable, but I did like the escalation of the murders. First, there's a Jane Doe in an alley. As they discover who this woman is, they find that she had a sister who died of a drug overdose ten months previously. But wait - turns out, that was a murder, too. And then in the course of the investigation, they find a private investigator who was trying to figure out how the first victim's sister really died - and he winds up dead, too. As a consequence, the case gets bigger and bigger as it goes. I also liked that the murderer was a clear and present character in the story, who we had set up earlier, and as more evidence came to light, it made sense to point the blame back at her. It was a good mix of mysterious and yet still solvable.

Suits: Special Master (9x02)

I like Faye. Because she's right. And that's interesting!

Cons:

There was virtually no mention of Mike this week, so that was a bummer.

No, but seriously. I thought this episode was pretty strong at balancing a lot of moving parts. The one thing I didn't super love was Louis going off on Benjamin like that. What Louis has been up to in trying to protect his firm from Faye is pretty sketchy. There was plenty of behavior that crossed the line already. For the most part, Louis seemed pretty level-headed about everything going on. So to have him go crazy and try to fire someone for no good reason? That was crossing a line. I'm always on the lookout for Louis' inconsistent characterization, because I need him to have grown into a more reasonable person than he was in the earlier seasons of the show. Otherwise, we slip right back onto that merry-go-round, and I have no interest in watching that again. I don't think we're at that point, but I want to make sure we don't get there, if that makes sense.

Oh boy. Thomas Kessler. I enjoyed Harvey and Donna's banter last week, and this week too, for sure. Really cute and great. But seeing Donna and Thomas interacting reminded me that they actually made a really good couple. It brought back to the front of my mind all of the complaints I had about last season's finale. Donna and Thomas were too good together to be a failed branch of a love triangle. Donna honestly deserves better than Harvey, if we're going to base this on all of his past behavior.

The Handmaid's Tale: Bear Witness (3x10)

Okay, that was kind of a good episode.

Cons:

I can't totally forgive this show for the sins of its past, just because of a stand-alone solid installment. June's newfound determination to smuggle kids out of Gilead is great or whatever, but there's this sort of "savior" vibe to June this season that I'm not really digging. There's this awesome moment that I really did enjoy, where June discovers that there are tons of people on board with getting kids out of Gilead, and she's going to have the support she needs. What bothers me about this is the larger implication, that they all needed June to come along and kick their asses into gear. It doesn't really track with the world building of the show as a whole, because we know there's a whole resistance network in place, that June is only tangentially connected to. So why do all of these brave rebels need June to come along and kick-start this new endeavor? Maybe I'm nitpicking, I don't know.

Speaking of world building, I was reading another review that pointed out how inconsistent this show is about power structures. I hadn't quite noticed it, but when I think about it, it's sort of confusing to me that Fred can yo-yo back and forth from persona non grata to extremely influential in the space of a few episodes. Same with Commander Lawrence. I thought he was allowed to be eccentric because he was an untouchable founder of Gilead, but I guess not? It just seems like the balances of power are not shifting organically, but rather shifting to serve the plot in any given moment.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Leap (6x10)

Last week, I was a little miffed at all the plot threads that had ended abruptly. And honestly, I sort of stand by that criticism, in the sense that I think the story before this point could have been paced better. We could have had more time with Izel vs. Sarge to build up to this. But... I must admit, I'm very intrigued with how things are turning out!

Cons:

Like I said - the big reveal this week, about the monolith energy, and Coulson and Izel being the same species of body-less energy, is all very cool. But we should have had more build-up with the supposed rivalry between Izel vs. Sarge. I love the idea that they have some sort of relationship, and that Izel wants Sarge to be on her side. Very cool. But we went from the mystery of Sarge, to meeting Izel, to finding out that Sarge hates Izel for "taking his family away from him," to the revelation that he has no family and that he's getting weird imprints from Coulson's memory... and all of that happened so quickly. There should have been a more organic buildup.

I'm wicked sad about Davis, I guess, but I also feel like they decided to give him more screen-time this season for the sole purpose of making it sad when he died. This is a problem that The Walking Dead is always falling into, and I point it out a lot in my reviews of that show - escalate a background character for a bit, just so the audience has more of a connection, before killing him. It was done okay here, and I do genuinely feel bad about Davis, but imagine how freaked out we'd be if Izel had killed a top player instead? I don't know. Maybe I'm nitpicking at this point.

Elementary: On the Scent (7x09)

Some more motion on the A-plot! Yay! This season is going to be over before we know it, and I'm not sure I'm ready to say goodbye.

Cons:

I really liked the fake-out with the case this week, with one key exception. See, for the first chunk of the episode, our team thinks that they are hunting down a serial killer, but then half way through the episode they discover that contaminated evidence has accidentally created a serial killer who never existed. My only issue with this is that they never really explained why everyone was so convinced that it was a serial killer. I mean, sure, there was DNA evidence that matched at two different scenes. But was there no attempt to find a connection between the victims? It just feels like everyone accepted the premise a bit too easily.

I also think Sherlock got let off the hook a little too easily for lying to Joan. I'm glad she's annoyed with him, but she seemed more bothered that he wasn't going after Reichenbach, than that he'd lied about the NSA. He needs to be taken to task.

Suits: Everything's Changed (9x01)

Ah Suits. What a ride it has been. I'm feeling super nostalgic about this last season. Let's dive right in!

Cons:

There has been so much in-fighting at this ridiculously long-named firm over the past several years, and I know that's what drives the drama for the show, but it can get a bit tiresome and repetitive, all at the same time. As I'll discuss below, I actually appreciate the way they're turning the fighting on its head, and showing these people band together... but there's still something wearying about the moment when Sam says she'll reveal the truth about Harvey and Donna breaking privilege, if Louis and Harvey and Alex vote to take Robert's name off the wall. It's another threat, another ultimatum. These people are children sometimes.

There were also a few moments that were just a little too silly for me to handle, plot-wise. Once is Donna telling Harvey to go fight Sam in the boxing ring. She makes this idle suggestion, and then in the next instant she's convincing Harvey that it's what Samantha "needs," and that if Harvey doesn't go and fight her, he'll be disrespecting her in some way. This is just such a plot contrivance. Donna tries to make it like a gender equality thing, and it just does not work. So much silliness.

The Handmaid's Tale: Heroic (3x09)

So, last week my review had complaints about several things. The key three were: 1) racism, 2) they shot a pregnant Handmaid which makes no sense, and 3) June is not suffering consequences. This episode addressed... one of those things. Kinda.

Cons:

I was surprised to learn that Ofmatthew wasn't dead. Well, she's brain-dead, apparently. But this doesn't really change anything re: my complaints from last week, because a pregnant Handmaid was still shot, and there's no way they could have known she would survive that. And also, still racism. This episode is an explicit and difficult to swallow commentary on the way that women's bodies are being used as nothing more than vessels for bearing children. That's a commentary that the show has been making from the beginning. But to have a black woman lying there, unable to speak for herself, nothing more than a vegetable producing a child... it was... well, it sucks. And if the show were grappling with the implications of that suckiness, that would be one thing. But no. The optics of this episode really, really bothered me, and I'd bet I'm not alone there.

There's another issue here, that's partially resolved but partially still extremely annoying to me. I've been complaining about June not facing punishment from Gilead, because it breaks the rules of their own universe. Here, she gets a punishment. It's creative and cruel and drives June nearly to the point of madness. As the episode ends, she sits with her former walking companion as she breathes her last, and makes a promise to the dying woman. She's going to help rescue the kids and get them out of Gilead. So... what was the point of this whole season's plot thread? Last week I expressed a cautious interest in the idea of "evil June." But it seems that instead, her homicidal rage, her disregard for her own safety, her insolence towards authority figures, was all leading her back onto the path of revolution. Suddenly, the whole season feels like it was treading water. June was already interested in the resistance. Why did she need to go through this whole twisted plot thread to get back to where she already was?

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Collision Course (Part II) (6x09)

Wow, that really... wrapped everything up, didn't it? I'm very curious as to where things are going to go from here.

Cons:

In most regards, I admire this apparent clean-slate approach. Fitzsimmons are back home. Izel, Jaco, Pax, and probably Sarge as well, are all dead. The threat has been eliminated. Snowflake is set up for a potential future story-line. That's kind of daring, and definitely unexpected. But it also really bothers me that we only found out about this terrible feud between Izel and Sarge in last week's episode, and now apparently... that's over and done with? Like... how unsatisfying is that? Why spend time developing this mystery if we're going to end it here? The answer is... we're not? Probably? I am confident that the show will eventually answer the question of why Sarge looks just like Coulson. But I'm not sure how I feel about this soft reset, if it means leaving so many mysteries unfulfilled. This is especially true give Pax and Jaco both dying, just when I was starting to get their names straight.

I love Deke a lot, but his romance with Snowflake really doesn't work for me. It's being played for comedy most of the time, but then abruptly there will be a moment where it seems like they want me as a viewer to be taking it seriously in some way. Is this supposed to represent the emotional resolution of Deke's long unrequited crush on Daisy? Because if so, it really doesn't work.

Elementary: Miss Understood (7x08)

I like Cassie. I was always a big fan of Sherlock mentoring Kitty, and now it seems that he might just have an affinity for this kind of relationship!

Cons:

There was this really weird little sub... well, I was going to say subplot, but it didn't even reach that level. Apparently there was a case from London that Sherlock and Joan were going to work on. Their client flew in to New York, but then off-screen he got arrested and implicated in a crime. Joan just narrates this at us in a couple of brief asides. If this is a setup for a later episode, then I guess that's okay. But for this episode, it felt incredibly out of place.

I also didn't love the fact that this episode once again had very little to do with the A-plot. Instead, we're adding in yet another new piece. Cassie is super interesting, and I want her to stick around. But with the end of this show right around the corner, it feels odd to throw in another new interesting piece. Are we starting to establish character end-games here? Is Sherlock going to keep finding exceptionally brilliant yet troubled young women to help? I guess I feel like this aspect of the story is interesting on its own, but maybe out of place as part of a larger whole.

The Handmaid's Tale: Unfit (3x08)

Um. Well, that happened. That certainly was... something.

Cons:

Can we talk for a second about the utterly clumsy way this show deals with race? It makes me cringe every time. For the most part, they try to pretend this is a totally post-racial society, but obviously they can't pull that off. And then they have some casual moment where Aunt Lydia tells some other aunts that a certain couple doesn't want a "handmaid of color," so clearly casual racism is not only present here, but also condoned by the elite. Because, duh. Gender politics cannot exist separate from racial politics. And yet this show is not willing to grapple with what that means.

Especially considering June, who is the Whitest of White Feminists in this episode, and honestly, throughout the whole show. Her plot armor is seriously becoming a problem for me. June and the other Handmaids are open and unsubtle in their shunning of Ofmatthew, because they are all furious with her for turning in the Martha who was helping June. What happened to the first season, when the rebellion was deep, deep in the shadows? Now the majority of the Handmaids are allowed to be insolent. And then June is even more insolent, right to Aunt Lydia's face. She seems to think that her usefulness as publicity in the hunt for Nichole will protect her, and... that seems to be true, for some reason. But why? June could be flogged, or she could be castrated, or any other number of horrible things that would be invisible to a camera. June's cocky self-assured attitude is only made more frustrating by the fact that she seems to be right about being weirdly untouchable.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Collision Course (Part I) (6x08)

This episode felt like set-up, because that's what it is. Not a bad thing in principle, but definitely a tad underwhelming.

Cons:

This whole episode is just a set-up for things to converge in next week's episode. Maybe I'd be a little kinder to it if the two-parter was happening in the same week, so this didn't feel like act one without a climax. Fitz and Simmons are on a space ship, close to home, but also on that space ship is Sarge's enemy, Izel, who is apparently maybe the one blowing up planets? She's hunting for the Monoliths. And Sarge is leaving his people to die, and Mack is still struggling with being a leader, and May and Daisy are frustrated by having to work with Sarge, and Deke is being a dork, and... then the episode ends. I wanted more.

Also, let's zero in on Deke a bit. I've enjoyed him as comic relief for the most part this season. It's sort of like he's replacing Season One Fitzsimmons as the genius who is also a totally awkward dork. But having him get with one of Sarge's minions, and be totally devoted to her with no buildup? Ugh. Also, we got a reminder of his creepy holographic version of Daisy, as Mack threatens to tell her about it, and that kind of "joke" just really rubs me the wrong way. I want to find a balance with Deke's character that I think this episode is missing.

Elementary: From Russia with Drugs (7x07)

This episode was the first one all season that felt a little bit filler-ish. Not necessarily bad, or anything... just not as gripping as what we've been seeing so far.

Cons:

To start with, we get something of a conclusion to the odd little subplot with Gregson's replacement as Captain. Gregson is back on the job, which is great, but it turns out that he isn't exactly Captain Dwyer's biggest fan, as there have been reports of him harassing female cops. When one of Gregson's best cops suddenly quits, Gregson suspects that Dwyer did something to drive her off. Sure enough, he did, but the woman, Bree Novacek, is nervous about reporting it because of what that will mean for her career. Eventually, though, she does report it, and Dwyer is out.

I like it when Elementary gets political, particularly about the police, and so I'll praise that in a second below. But what a weird way to use Captain Dwyer as a character. He stuck around and did nothing, and then Gregson comes back and we get a one-off story about sexism in the police force? I guess I was waiting for this character to have more of a point. As an individual story, this was fine. As a larger part of the season, it was distinctly odd.

The Handmaid's Tale: Under His Eye (3x07)

This episode was... kind of all over the place. As is always true with this show, there was plenty to enjoy, but I felt myself very frustrated with the overall scope of this installment. Let's take a look.

Cons:

The problem with this episode is... well, it's June, isn't it? I've talked in previous reviews about her plot armor, and that comes out in full force here. She's so lucky that Mrs. Lawrence is docile and nonthreatening. She's so lucky that nobody figures out what she was up to at that school. She's so lucky that when it comes down to it, the Martha helping her is the one who gets punished, even though she was the one pushing.

And what are we meant to make of the ending of this episode? June participates (is forced to participate) in the execution of various subversives, including the Martha who was helping her with the chance to see Hannah. Is her look of disgust and vindication aimed at Lydia for forcing her to do this, or is she pissed off in that moment at the Martha, for failing her? And then she goes apeshit on Ofmatthew when she realizes that her companion is the one who turned on the Martha... which is just... I mean, again, the plot armor is unbelievable, and June's attitude is kind of abhorrent here. There's this moment when she's sympathizing with Ofmatthew over her complex feelings over being pregnant again. But when it comes down to it, June seems to have forgotten that anybody else in this society is suffering. She's not the only one who has been removed from her child, and yet she's acting like she's the sole victim in this scenario.