Doctor Who: Survivors of the Flux (13x05)

Hey, so I like... forgot to watch this episode while I was watching it. Mostly that's my bad, I could have forced myself to give a damn and pay attention, but I didn't, and the result is that I was spacing out and working on other things the whole time this episode was playing in the background. Should make for a fun review...

Cons:

Not to absolve myself of too much of the guilt, but one of the reasons that it's hard to give a damn is that this whole season has been a lot of setup, a lot of chaos, a lot of moving parts and new concepts, with very little character meat at the center of it all. I have said it every week and I will say it again, it's bonkers to me that Dan and the Doctor haven't gotten to properly speak to each other since he joined the show. Who's idea was it, to introduce a new companion, pair him off with Yaz, and immediately separate the Doctor from her companions? It's bad writing, in my opinion.

So in this episode, the Doctor meets... her mom? And wow, I want to care, I really do, but this whole plot, from the minute we were introduced to the idea that the Doctor was some sort of foundling and thus not necessarily from Gallifrey, has reeked of leftover Moffat-vibes for me. I don't need epic revelations about the Doctor's backstory. Not only do I not need them, I don't want them. I think they make the show actively worse!

Doctor Who: Village of the Angels (13x04)

Oh boy, taking full advantage of the angels being spooky as hell!

Cons:

Bel and Vinder are perfectly lovely characters and all, but I find myself perplexed by their continued presence. See, the way I see it, there are two possible outcomes: either they are random new characters, mostly disconnected from the rest of the story, who will loop in at a key moment and that will be that... or, they're some big twist. They're related to someone, the baby is the Doctor or Yaz's ancestor or some timey wimey thing like that... and I just don't really want it. I want the show to take a breather from twisting up the canon. Maybe I'll be impressed with what they come up with, but as it is, I can't see myself being particularly happy either way.

For all that the Weeping Angels are properly creepy at certain points of this episode, I will say that having them so ubiquitous this season does have the effect of dampening the horror at times. When they talk through Claire inside Claire's mind with the Doctor there to see it, I thought that was kind of a cool idea. But when they speak to Professor Jericho, it just got kind of hokey. A bit how the Daleks are less scary when they start having a full-on conversation with you, you know?

Grey's Anatomy: Everyday Is a Holiday (With You) (18x06)

Oh goodness... Farouk...

Cons:

I literally cannot remember Meredith's boyfriend's name. Hold on, let me Google it. Okay. I'm back. Nick. Nick is boring. Nick has nothing to do. Nick is bland and unoriginal and I'm sorry, but why have we killed off Andrew DeLuca and then pivoted away from Cormac Hayes, only to land her with some dude I don't know anything about or give a shit about? Yeesh. They really tried to make this episode click, give this guy more screen time, and they still couldn't make me root for the relationship even a little bit. I'm borrrrred.

I'm also just rolling my eyes at Link and Amelia... I should be happy that they hooked up, since I didn't want them to break up in the first place, but I just know this is going to lead to more drama and angst and I'm already so annoyed about having to experience it! If they're not going to be a thing, then just let it go and move the heck on. I'm bummed about it, I don't want to prolong the stupidity. They should have just stayed together.

I miss Maggie. I hope she's back soon!

Doctor Who: Once, Upon Time (13x03)

This episode was... enormously frustrating to me.

Cons:

Once again! I reiterate! This is a short mini-series and it's our last chance to hang out with Jodie Whittaker, and they keep separating all the main characters! Dan and the Doctor have still had zero bonding time. Conceptually I understand there's something kind of cool about this whole splintering time thing, all the mysterious and various strands tying together, but the core of this show, in my opinion, should be the Doctor's individual relationships with the people she travels with, and we've gotten so very little of that, here!

You've got this new star-crossed lovers element with Vinder and the girl he's trying to get back to, and while I honestly think it sounds like a pretty interesting story, I can't help but be frustrated by how disjointed it feels, how completely unnecessary to the core of the story. What even is the core of this story, come to think of it? The flux, I guess, and time going all wonky. But also we've got each companion and their individual concerns, and the Doctor missing a piece of her past... I don't know. It all feels like it's trying to do a bit too much.

Grey's Anatomy: Bottle Up and Explode! (18x05)

Koracick my love!

Cons:

I will continually register my complaints that the powers that be are trying to con me into watching Station 19. Not gonna happen. They could at least do a "previously on" to let me know about any characters who I care about on Grey's, so I can bridge the gap... so like, I'm sure the death of Dean Miller is a real tragedy. I do love Okieriete Onaodowan (Hercules Mulligan!), so if I watched this whole other show, maybe I'd be all caught up in the emotion and the drama. But I don't know this dude! I can't borrow emotional resonance from something I know nothing about.

I liked a lot of the stuff with Meredith in this episode, but I still find her romance very... boring? I want something stable and simple and comfortable for Meredith, I really do, but I thought Hayes could have been that for her. There's still the tension and drama of blending families with kids, both of them having lost their spouse, etc. etc. But instead we get this random pivot to someone else, who has very little in the way of personality. I just don't really feel connected to that story-line as of yet.

Doctor Who: War of the Sontarans (13x02)

Well, there's certainly a lot going on, I'll give them that!!

Cons:

I think I'm noting a fatal flaw with the whole concept of this big time war/flux story, and that's that it's trying for such a large scope we're losing out on the personal connection piece of Doctor Who. Take our new companion, Dan, for instance. I really like this guy! I do! But in the first episode we established him, and got him connected to Yaz and the Doctor. In the second episode, the three are immediately separated again, and each spend the episode on their own branches of the adventure. The Doctor and Dan have hardly said more than two words to each other. So when the Doctor asks Dan if he'd like to come along at the end of the episode, the moment is still sweet, I guess, but it lacks the weight that it would have had, if the Doctor and Dan had had a chance to bond a bit more. Instead, everyone's off doing their own thing, and there's no particular cohesion between the Doctor and her companions. That's the thing I love most about the show when it's done well, and it's been pretty sparse this season so far.

I was also getting Loki vibes from the whole time planet thing, and not in a good way. Apparently there's like... a time council and time is breaking down or whatever. It just feels very unnecessarily high-concept sci-fi in a way I don't appreciate. The episode is so crowded with all these different characters and bad guys and historical figures, etc. that none of it had proper time to breathe, in my opinion.

Doctor Who: The Halloween Apocalypse (13x01)

We're back! Knowing that this is going to be our last glimpse with the thirteenth doctor is making me feel an extra degree of fondness for her. The past seasons might not have been as strong as the Russel T. Davies era, but I enjoy the characters quite a bit. Let's dive in!

Cons:

I'm not sure how to feel about this whole "flux" idea in and of itself, that these six episodes are going to be one continuous story. Doctor Who is at its best when it's episodic. And while I liked a lot of stuff being set up here, it had the problem of perhaps being overloaded. I wanted something perhaps gentler, more contained, to introduce our new companion. That may be just a personal preference thing, though. But really, we've got meeting Dan, we've got the bad guy aliens, we've got the guy on the research ship, we've got the dog people, the weeping angels... so many different elements to introduce in a short period of time.

I'm kind of luke-warm on the idea of the "flux" right now too, in terms of the actual event... apparently it's some big energy hurricane that's going to rip through the universe. That's just... kind of generic sci-fi in a way that I don't find particularly appealing. It's not a very grounded, personal conflict for the Doctor to struggle against, and I think grounded and personal is the way to go, when at all possible.