What We Do in the Shadows: Freddie (4x09)

Ohhhh boy. I haven't checked for the reception of this episode yet, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say Tumblr isn't happy.

Cons:

So here's the thing, the biggest "con" I have for this episode is one that's very conditional on whether Marwa ever comes back. Turning your only woman of color into a white British man and then sending her off, after a full season in which this character is stripped of her agency and turned into nothing more than exactly what Nandor desires is... well, it's a choice. And to be clear, I think it's a choice the show made on purpose, I think we're supposed to think Nandor's behavior towards Marwa is ghoulish and disgusting and all the rest, I think we're meant to feel horrified by it. But that doesn't change the fact that I expected the payoff for this story to be Marwa getting to live her best life, and now instead she's... effectively... erased from existence? I don't know. This ending for her character gives me very weird, uncomfortable vibes. I would have played this differently if it really is the end for Marwa, at least resetting her back to her original state before sending her off into the world. If they go back and do more with this character later, I'll be happy. If they don't, I'm side-eyeing the way this was developed pretty hard.

Roswell, New Mexico: Two Sparrows in a Hurricane (4x12)

The blue filter is defeated! Huzzah! This was a really good episode.

Cons:

I feel like I have a decent list of little nitpicks, things I didn't love, but the overall pacing of the episode worked so much in its favor that I don't weigh these negatives very heavily against the overall successes... but let's go over them really quickly.

Tezca's death was the biggest negative for me in this episode. It was played up in a super dramatic fashion and I feel really bad but it just did absolutely nothing for me. Isobel and Tezca didn't get the time to really develop much of a relationship; her redemption felt half-baked to me. I think part of what made it less impactful was that she didn't really do anything in the pocket dimension, so what was the point of her sacrifice? In the end, it was Michael creating the fuel, Max able to hold off the storm, and Dallas using his water powers, that got the portal back open when Clyde closed it. So Tezca just came along in time to... die? I also wish, considering that's the last of Tezca, that she could have explained why she shoved Alex in the quicksand to begin with. Was it really just to get him out of the way? Or did she know that Michael would end up following him, and that since he has Jones's DNA, he'd thus destroy the pocket world, and that's what she wanted? I don't know, I'm super unclear on this, and I also don't really care, which isn't the best sign.

Eduardo's daughter appearing again felt like a waste of time, I'm sorry to say. A lot of watching this last season has been seeing things I wish they could have trimmed away to tighten the story, and this character is definitely one of those things.

What We Do in the Shadows: Go Flip Yourself (4x08)

I mean... absolutely hilarious in every way.

Cons:

This episode was relatively light on Guillermo, and I kind of missed having the Guide around, but honestly I don't have much I can really complain about! Oh, I guess even though Young Colin Robinson isn't my favorite part of the show, it was a little odd that he wasn't around for this, considering that it seems like the kind of boring show he'd be into as much as Lazlo. No acknowledgment that he also lives in the house was kind of odd!

Pros:

I just... I don't even really know how to articulate the cleverness of how this episode was framed and scripted and edited. It immediately sent me back in time to being a kid and watching shows on TLC, remember TLC? My favorite was Clean Sweep. Obviously now all this kind of thing is on HGTV which I don't really watch much of, but I still recognize the trappings of the genre. The editing, the logos, the way they'd show a misleading preview clip from the next scene after the commercial break, the intro song with the attempt at being bad-ass, played over clips of comically small renovations and stock footage of demolitions, the style of the interview, the moment of decision where we cut back to earlier moments of the characters considering their changes, the big "reveal" and how obviously disappointed they all were, the post-credits scene they all film for the purpose of getting like $1,200... I could go on and on. It all felt like a spot-on parody of something I wouldn't have even said I knew much about to begin with.

Roswell, New Mexico: Follow You Down (4x11)

Y'all, I'm seeing shrimp colors, I'm experiencing shrimp emotions, I don't know what way is up right now. Holy moly. Let's discuss.

Cons:

Let's start with Clyde. He sucks. He's a boring villain and a waste of time! I'm sorry, but it's true! I kept thinking that all of the core emotional beats between our principal characters could have been accomplished without him even existing. Instead of Liz getting literally kidnapped, continue the narrative of her being stolen away by her addiction to the alien mist. She could be trapped in a prison of her own mind, instead of Clyde causing unnecessary extra obstacles with his fanaticism. It's all just such an anticlimax, to have this follower of Jones be our villain for season four, when we already dealt with the man himself last year!

I'm also underwhelmed by Vanessa's inclusion in this story. I think we're meant to see Liz has having gained a mentor and a mentee this year, Shivani and Vanessa respectively, but they didn't do nearly enough to establish Vanessa as a character before using her here as the means of Liz's capture and control. And I'm not advocating for more Vanessa screen time, quite the opposite! Do this story without her. Have Clyde use Kyle as the bait. It works better in every way: it's someone Liz cares about, that the audience has a vested interest in, and then Rosa gets to use her superpowers to save her brother's life, instead of some random woman she doesn't know.

What We Do in the Shadows: Pine Barrens (4x07)

Amazing, flawless, no notes.

Cons:

No, seriously, no notes.

Pros:

This episode gave me everything I never knew to ask for. Let's take the two main stories in turn.

First, you've got Nandor, Lazlo, Young Colin, and Sean going out to a cabin in the Pine Barrens on a hunting trip. The emotional core of this story is that Nandor is jealous and resentful of Lazlo's friendship with Sean, and just feels in general that they've been spending less guy time together. Lazlo is insulting towards Nandor to start, and both of them fight back and forth, until the presence of the Jersey Devil (a creature they previously stated to be entirely made up), forces them to work together to defeat the evil in their midst.

As always, I'd like to avoid just listing out a million jokes that I thought were funny, but Young Colin playing "New Jersey music" from his phone in order to distract the Jersey Devil was pretty great, as was the gun battle ending in Lazlo accidentally shooting Nandor in the hand. I also just particularly loved Sean in this episode, he's just such a bro, such a guy, you know? His encouragement to Young Colin that he's not boring was really funny, as was his completely measured response to Colin's casual mention of his more violent tendencies. This was the funniest I've found Young Colin Robinson since the first episode of the season, so that's encouraging to see.

Roswell, New Mexico: Down in a Hole (4x10)

Okay, I will say that this episode was quite the mixed bag for me, and while I still came out of it curious and excited for what comes next, I'm also feeling a lot of kind of bad energy about the fact that there are only three episodes left, and all the things they've set up that I can't imagine being satisfactorily paid off. Let's talk about it.

Cons:

There were many scenes/moments/ideas in this episode where I found myself thinking: if there was going to be a season five, or if this was happening in the first third of the season, I would like it just fine. But that ticking clock made it really hard for me to ignore the overall pacing issues of this season. For example, we get time to linger on Bonnie's emotional journey, to work with Tezca on coming to terms with her brainwashed villainy. We have time spent with Shivani and her grief for her daughter, the ways in which she and Liz are diverging on their goals. None of this stuff is bad, and if there were going to be a fifth and final season of this show, I don't think I'd mind as much. But none of this is why I'm here, and it does feel like we're wasting quite a bit of time that could have been spent with our core characters and their relationships.

I think the big one for me in this regard has got to be all the stuff happening with Evil!Liz. Now, as I'll talk about below, I kind of love the idea of Liz going full ruthless, dedicating herself to the science and shutting off her compassion. But there are three episodes of this show left, and Max and Liz are... broken up? Liz and Max have continually made these big unilateral decisions that cause serious problems for their relationship, and again and again it appears that they haven't learned their lesson. Hard to root for a happily ever after for them in just a few short episodes, when I'm sitting here thinking maybe it's for the best that they be apart...

Westworld: Que Será, Será (4x08)

It's already the finale, time flies!

Cons:

In many ways this episode almost functioned more as an epilogue, like, it wrapped up elements of the season, but we didn't really learn anything new except that final decision from Dolores. So there were things as I was watching that felt... redundant? Unneeded?

Like, okay, we have another showdown between Charlotte and William. We saw these two fight last week, and this time it's like "hey, round two, with a new winner this time." So it almost made last week's confrontation seem irrelevant, if they were just going to do a round two here. It also stalls out the impact of Charlotte's "death" last week; it's not that we didn't know it would be temporary, but to see her getting back up and getting a cooler more impenetrable body so quickly made the whole thing feel a little pointless.

What We Do in the Shadows: The Wedding (4x06)

What did I just witness with my own two eyeballs!

Cons:

I... don't really have any? This episode honestly has everything a person could hope for? I feel a little bad, because this was probably my favorite episode of the season thus far, and it's the one that had the least Young Colin Robinson in it, so... there is that.

Pros:

Again I am at risk of this review just being a long list of funny jokes that I enjoyed, but I'll try and give you a sampling of what I liked so much about this episode.

The Baron! Makeovers with the Baron, a shopping montage, the gargoyle, both Nadja and Lazlo sneaking off for some time in the coat closet with him newly restored to his former glory... absolutely hilarious.

The long line of objections at the wedding, including Guillermo managing the line at the mic to ask people to stop checking about validating parking.

Roswell, New Mexico: Wild Wild West (4x09)

Depute Machete! Kyle as a horse! Ha! This episode was a lot of fun.

Cons:

Allie Meyers feels a little wasted to me in this episode. It was super cool to see her, and I thought her chemistry and charisma on screen was top notch. But... she didn't really have a ton to do, but to nudge Liz in the right direction once or twice. This woman was our big season three cliffhanger, and this is how she's finally folded into the story, nine episodes in to season four? I don't know. It was a bit of a letdown, and I hope Allie gets to do something interesting before the end of the show.

Clyde is boring to me. I think this episode, and the last one, both of which I really liked, emphasized to me how much more I like this season when we're not spending time with Clyde, or really with Bonnie and Tezca either. They take up so much room that I'd rather spend with other characters. This episode felt like a really good example of that. Liz's mindscape didn't have to include Clyde. There was enough going on with all her friends, and Allie, and the "evil" version of Liz, to fill up that time and make things interesting. He felt like he was added in there just because he's a villain and they needed to find something for him to do.

Westworld: Metanoia (4x07)

We're back to me struggling a little bit to feel invested, which I think is a function of less focus on the intimate character connections, and more on the somewhat convoluted and yet still not very innovative worldbuilding. Still, this was not a weak installment, even if it wasn't one of my favorites!

Cons:

The moment when Bernard and Stubbs had this goodbye hug kind of made me roll my eyes, because I can't actually muster up any caring about their friendship or whatever. Their time spent together in seasons three and four was probably the part of things that dragged the most for me. Stubbs is still such a non-entity in my mind.

Something about host!William deciding to burn it all down, turn the humans against each other and undo all of Charlotte's hard work... look, I think the truth is, I'm just kind of done with William at this point! I remember what a fascinating villain he once was, as we got a peak into his past and saw him transform into the man in black. But at this point I'm so sick of him! It looks like the human version of William has been killed, so I hope that sticks, and maybe in a potential season five we can step away from relying on William as a plot device?

What We Do in the Shadows: Private School (4x05)

Ha, this was a lot of fun!

Cons:

I think they could have wrung even more out of the concept on this one, I really liked the bits of Nandor/Lazlo, and all the different flashes of the different family configurations, but when it got to the part where they were flashing through the different setups, I was bummed out that we didn't get to see more of some of them, especially Guillermo partnered with each of the three vampires. Guillermo/Nadja? That could have been hilarious, and they didn't really go in for all the potential jokes they could have done there.

That's more a complaint about what we didn't get, as opposed to what was on the screen, though. I overall really liked this episode, but I will admit that young Colin Robinson is starting to wear kind of thin on me. He's not as funny as adult energy vampire Colin Robinson, and I hope that we get him back when this weird creature is fully grown.

Roswell, New Mexico: Missing My Baby (4x08)

I am so predictably easy lol. Literally you give me angsty Michael freaking out about Alex, and I'll forgive you anything.

Cons:

I really enjoyed this episode, but I'll of course try and step back and be objective about it! I think my main overarching complaint is that certain things in this episode would have been fine normally, but I feel a little weird about the pacing. I know that's a common refrain from me, but there are only five episodes left of this whole show, and it's a little concerning how we're still sort of lining up key pieces. Mostly, I'm talking about the Tezca stuff. It feels so late in the game to only now be clarifying the basic motivations and positions of our new characters. Clyde was my least favorite part of this episode, because the sinister reveal that he's the bad guy doesn't really hold weight when we saw him toss Dallas and Bonnie into quicksand last week. And what about the fact that Tezca is the one who quicksanded Alex? I just feel like the season spent quite a long time meandering before leading to this nexus point, and that does make me worried about what we'll be able to fit into the final episodes.

The big character thing that I need to mention this week... it's our girl Liz. I love Liz, I like having a female protagonist who is allowed to be messy and make these big mistakes and all that jazz, but this week she really, really rubbed me the wrong way. She's going around acting like she's the one who has the right to make big decisions on other people's behalves. She's the one who decides to keep Alex's disappearance a secret from Michael, and her reasons of "Michael might react poorly" and "I wanted to spare him from pain" are just... not good enough excuses! She also feels like she has a right to what Max chooses to do with his body and his powers, which is not a good look. And finally, after all the lessons she's supposed to have learned about the ethics of her alien scientific exploration, she goes ahead and takes Shivani to the pods, without running it by Max, Michael, and Isobel, and then Shivani finds out Max is an alien because of it! That's a huge secret to let slip, Liz. This is a big deal and it's super annoying that she's behaving in such an irresponsible and self-righteous way.

Westworld: Fidelity (4x06)

Hell yeah, Caleb's back, Maeve's back, this is a great episode!

Cons:

I don't really have any particular story-line that didn't work for me this week. Maybe just the same general complaint I've been saying all season, where I'm interested in various bits and pieces, but some of the larger thematic build of the season still feels sluggish/unnecessarily complex. The truth of Westworld is that they aren't really treading any new or original ground when it comes to sci-fi, so the uniqueness and spark has to come from the characters and the actual interpretation of these old tropes. Sometimes I'm impressed, and other times I feel like something tired and overused is being dressed up in a new shiny coating and being passed off as something fresh.

Pros:

Aaron Paul is a damn good actor! This whole episode shows Caleb, or rather a host built based off of Caleb, making escape attempts from Charlotte Hale. Charlotte is determined to figure out the secret as to why Caleb was able to resist all those years ago, and why humans continue to "wake up" from the control. She actually arranges to let "Caleb" escape to reach out to his daughter Frankie, but Caleb doesn't give any new information that Charlotte finds useful. All of the imagery, the dead/dying Calebs of the past, the utter torture Caleb goes through just to get an apology out to Frankie, it's really something. And then just the existential dread as you see Charlotte disposing of one Caleb and starting over with a fresh host... it's just so eerie, this sense of inevitability and looping, that whatever sliver of his original consciousness remains, it will never be able to fully escape, not even in death... chilling!