The Legend of Vox Machina: Shadows at the Gates (1x04)

So, episode three was amazing, pretty much what I would call flawless, which I think set my expectations a little too high for what would come next. I enjoyed all three episodes that just dropped, and I want to say up front that I am still very much enjoying the show! But I do have a couple of larger structural issues to discuss, and some smaller things as well. Let's jump in.

Cons:

The big thing about episode four for me is that it kind of grinds the pacing to a halt. This may be a case of them following the stream too closely, even though the details are quite different. The end of the last episode was full-on HOLY SHIT, what the fuck is up with Percy? And now they're arrested?! And to immediately downgrade that to house arrest and everyone asking Percy what's up but Percy not really giving any answers... like I said, that's more or less stream-accurate, with the gang being in big trouble with the Council and dithering around for a minute before going to Whitestone, but in some strange way it just killed the momentum coming off of episode three for me.

And that's odd, because if someone had asked me what I wanted for episode four I would have said for them to slow down, take a beat, have some character moments and a chance to breathe after all the exposition and buildup of the first three episodes. And that's what we got here! In many ways it feels odd to be complaining, but that brings me to my second major complaint of this episode (and it's one that will recur in the next two as well, sorry to say). And that's... well, the script. Not the larger structure so much, and certainly not the delivery of the lines, but the actual dialogue itself. To me, thus far, that's been the weakest thing of the show. I noticed it in the first three episodes, that there were a fair number of jokes that just didn't land, and here in episode four I saw it in more serious scenes as well. A prime example for you:

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Feast of Realms (1x03)

Okay what the FUCK actually though this is so good I'm crying.

Cons:

Uhhh... I guess I'm going to say what a lot of people are saying, which is that a 22-ish minute runtime feels very short? I don't care that things are changed/shortened/removed, and I'm already getting a little peeved with seeing people criticize along the lines of "but Vex got two natural twenties in the stream, she should have had this epic moment yada yada..." this show wouldn't be sustainable as a story if they actually followed the role of the dice in every instance. Of course Delilah doesn't fall on her ass in her opening villain reveal fight, y'all. But even though that's not at all my gripe, I will say things happen so quickly that I do wonder how people new to the story will react! Percy has like two lines of dialogue about the Briarwoods. One, "they took everything from me", and two, "they killed my whole family". I mean, sure, that's the important information to impart, but it certainly doesn't leave a lot of room for these reveals to breathe.

Very minor clunky moment that felt like they had to cut something for time, when they realize Vax is in trouble and Pike says "ugh, we lost the ticket?" to get their weapons back from coat check... there should have been a beat where the Matt Mercer NPC refused to give them their stuff without the ticket, but it wasn't there so I kind of blinked at that moment. Super minor, but there you have it. I can't spend the whole review in utter adulation, that would just be embarrassing.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Terror of Tal'dorei Part 1/Part 2 (1x01/02)

I've decided to break this sucker up, reviewing the two-part premiere and then moving on to episode three in a separate review.

Let's just start by screaming: OH MY GOD IT'S FINALLY HERE!!! Also, if anyone actually bothers to read this and you are not familiar with the stream, warning for some spoilers as to characterization and future relationships developing between various members of the party. And then let's dive right into my thoughts!

Cons:

While ultimately I am very, very pleased with what I've seen of the show so far, as is tradition I will start off with my personal gripes.

My biggest complaint? Well, the humor, honestly. It's odd, because I think the first couple of scenes of the first episode had a lot of weaknesses that then mostly disappeared from the second half, and from the second episode entirely. The show was front-loaded with so much adult humor that felt to me almost... self-conscious? Like the show was posturing a bit too hard, trying to set its tone so you wouldn't mistake it for a kid's cartoon. And that's all well and good, but for me it felt a bit jarring. In the first ten minutes of the first episode, we get plenty of swearing and the gruesome deaths of the generic opening adventuring party... fine. But we also get Keyleth throwing up directly into someone's mouth, which is disgusting, we get a shot of Scanlan's balls, we get Scanlan peeing directly onto a man's legs... I don't know. Does anyone else think some of this stuff was a little try-hard? For me, the moments of comedy that did work were a lot more subtle and character-driven, and I'll talk about that later.

Doctor Who: Eve of the Daleks (2022 New Years Special)

Now this is what I'm talking about!

Cons:

All through this past season, I've been complaining that I wanted more interactions between Dan and the Doctor. And while there were certainly a couple of improvements in that regard, I still feel like I don't get a sense of their friendship as its own entity. Yaz and Dan? Yes, I totally get their deal. But Dan and the Doctor still feels a little weak to me.

I felt like there were a couple failed jokes with our guest stars of the episode, Sarah and Nick. I liked a lot about them, which I'll go into momentarily, but there were a few things that seemed almost too... farcical, like they weren't really human beings? Especially Nick. Is Nick... homeless? A hoarder? A stalker? The joke is supposed to be no, he's just an awkward, earnest weirdo, but... the thing about keeping all the items his exes had left behind, prompting Sarah to wonder if he's a serial killer or whatever, then rant about how strange he is, leading him to sacrifice himself to the Daleks in one of the loops? That's... a bit of an odd energy, to be quite honest.

Grey's Anatomy: It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (18x08)

I'm literally such a bad person but I hope they actually kill [redacted] off lol.

Cons:

Okay, let's start with this whole Link/Jo/Amelia/Kai kerfuffle. I feel like I'm going to sprain my eyeballs from rolling them so hard. This entire story is taking characters I like under different circumstances, and putting them into scenarios that just make me hate the time I'm spending with them. What a bummer! Jo's weird attraction to Link came out of nowhere, was sparked just by learning that he once had a crush on her, and seems to have made her into an instantaneously pining mess who feels conflicted about Link's impending confession to Amelia. Oh come on. Jeez. This is so stupid. I just want their friendship to be platonic, I just want these two nice people to be happy! Is that too much to ask?

On the other side of this, the whole "Link walks by just in time to see Amelia and Kai having their first kiss" thing was so goddamn stupid. I actually really like Kai and Amelia's energy together; as I've said, Amelia is a much more tolerable character to me when she's actually happy. Angst makes her insufferable. She seemed happy with Link, then they made a contrived conflict. Okay, fine. Make her happy with Kai, that works for me too. Just get it all over with and move on!

Grey's Anatomy: Today Was a Fairytale (18x07)

...Link and Jo? No.

Cons:

I want Link and Jo to be like Alex and Meredith. In each other's lives, friends forever, no hint of romance whatsoever. I do not want this to go there. It makes me cringe just thinking about it. That end scene was embarrassing to watch. While I find Kai and Amelia cute and promising, I also just think Amelia and Link's whole romantic travail this season is pointless and weird. They were good together. Amelia was fun without all the excessive angst. Just settle her with whoever you're going to settle her with, and stop messing with her. I'm exhausted, y'all.

I continue to be unimpressed with Nick and Meredith as a romance. He's bland as fuck and I don't understand their connection even a little bit.

Doctor Who: The Vanquishers (13x06)

I will say, this episode managed to make me feel the epicness in a way I wasn't expecting!

Cons:

But I will also say... nothing about this season was what I wanted it to be. It's a bummer, but there you have it. In some ways, it almost felt like the whole thing was a big-budget, convoluted, messy, unclear prologue to the kind of story I actually tune in to Doctor Who to watch. At the very end, we get this scene of Dan being invited to join the Doctor and Yaz on the TARDIS, going on fresh adventures. That's the show I wanted to watch. Instead, we'll get a couple of holiday specials with this gang, and then it's goodbye to our current regeneration and onto something new. I can't help but feel a bit disappointed.

I'll talk about the good parts of this chaos in a moment, but must first lodge my repeated complaint that this whole six-episode story has just been too crowded for me. I was happy for Vinder and Bel that they reunited, sure, but we spent quite a lot of time on these two characters, only for them to add very little in the end. We had every Doctor Who villain imaginable make a cameo, with the Sontarans and the Weeping Angels making up the biggest chunk of screen time, but then we also added in all this "end of time" nonsense, these baddies who want revenge on the Doctor for stuff she can't even remember... like I said, messy. Hard to know which pieces to focus on.

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.

Grey's Anatomy: With a Little Help From My Friends (18x04)

This episode felt a bit like treading water to me.

Cons:

So... is Megan like... sticking around? I find it odd that she and Owen have spent so little time together, and that we're adding this contrived thing where Farouk is sick. Give the poor kid a break, after everything else he's been through! Maybe they're setting up a Hayes/Megan thing since apparently Riggs and Megan broke up offscreen, and they're pairing Meredith with this new boring Minnesota guy? I don't know. I'm not saying I'm completely uninterested in all that, but I will admit I'm kind of confused how it fits in with everything else.

In this episode, we get Amelia explaining herself to Addison, the reason why she and Link aren't together anymore. "I hated the life that he loved." Basically, she was overwhelmed and miserable and close to relapse during the pandemic, while Link was handling it better and falling in love with domesticity. I guess I can understand this, and it does feel a bit more grounded than a lot of the earlier stuff with this dumb drama. But it still just feels super contrived. This show needs to learn how to make established couples interesting. Breaking them up at all felt like such a cheap and unnecessary move, and so all the time we're devoting to it just makes me frustrated anew every time. We don't have much time to spend with Addison, and she spends it helping Amelia with her relationship drama? What about Jo, having a new mentor? What about Meredith and the kids? So many more interesting things could have been happening here.

Grey's Anatomy: Hotter Than Hell (18x03)

Well... awww. That was kind of adorable.

Cons:

There was a moment when Link and Teddy were together and Link was lamenting all this bullshit with Amelia, and Teddy was like "trust me, I've been there" and like... bitch, what?!?! Sorry, but Teddy cheated on Owen, meanwhile Link has done nothing wrong and also Amelia was the one who was manipulative and difficult in their relationship. Not to be an Atticus Lincoln stan or anything, but Teddy, these two things are not the same. Jeez.

I found Hayes' subplot about his kid not talking to him... well, it's not that it's a problem in and of itself, but I found it to be a little one dimensional. See, there's a sixteen year old girl who ran off to meet an internet friend and got injured, and she refuses to call her parents. The guy she's with says she really hates them. Now, I know teenage angst is a thing, but if you're that seriously injured and in that much pain, surely you'd still want your parents with you. Unless, of course, your parents are seriously bad news: neglectful or abusive or in some way otherwise unsuited to parent you. The whole time this subplot was going on, I expected there to be a reveal/twist that the patient had good reason for wanting to avoid her parents, and that Hayes was allowing his own situation to cloud his judgment. But... nope! I don't know, maybe I'm being overly sensitive to this, but I feel as if this whole idea lacked nuance.

The Walking Dead: For Blood (11x08)

Well, for a midseason finale I'm a little bummed we didn't spend any time with the most interesting characters or plot threads... let's dive in.

Cons:

So like. I'm not invested in Daryl and Leah. So when Leah does her whole double-cross thing and I think we're all supposed to be like oh no, poor Daryl, I'm just like... yeah, dude, you have a family and it's not her and it never has been. We saw them sharing a life together in one episode forever ago, and it wasn't exactly a convincing portrayal of love ever after. I also thought Daryl was kind of a dumb dumb about this whole situation, like, did he really think after seeing all the fanaticism that Leah was going to just come with him? He should have run without waiting for her to cross him.

I'll also just say as a more general note that nothing is new under the sun, so even elements of the story that feel perfectly adequate, where I can't point to it and say "this is stupid and here's why", still aren't grabbing my attention in a meaningful way. Like in Alexandria, I wanted Virgil and Judith to talk more about Michonne: that's interesting, that's character-driven drama and intrigue. But instead the bulk of the story there is dealing with inclement weather and a Walker breach, so we've got all the cute kids in peril and Carol, Rosita, etc. running around trying to save the community from crumbling entirely. I get that the stakes need to be high, but sometimes the stakes are boring because we've seen them over and over again.

Grey's Anatomy: Some Kind of Tomorrow (18x02)

Okay, stuff is happening, let's dive in!

Cons:

I'm not sure I like the wishy-washy decision that we reach in the Meredith plot. So she's going to accept the huge cool new opportunity, and she doesn't have to move away from Seattle? Okay... seems kind of weird to artificially inject that drama, doesn't it? I also just find her love interest dude to be pretty bland. Not bad by any means, but also not particularly interesting.

Owen and Teddy are not compelling to me as a couple, sorry! I feel the need to keep repeating that.

The Walking Dead: Promises Broken (11x07)

This felt like a "arranging things on the chessboard" episode in that a lot happened but a lot of it felt like a ramp-up to something more down the line. That's not necessarily a bad thing, although I do have my complaints...

Cons:

At this point the whole Pope thing, with Daryl and Leah and whatnot, is just... not working for me. I like Daryl, I like seeing how he's going to be able to make it out his various scrapes, but I'm... bored and annoyed and I feel like there's nothing new to explore with this concept.

The scene where Eugene punches a guy for being rude felt so overprescribed, like, it was obvious from minute one that this performatively douchey dude was going to wind up being the son of someone important and it would mess with their chances. I had (and still have) such high hopes for this weirdly sheltered community and where the story might go from here, but that moment was such a cliché that I couldn't really get behind it.

Grey's Anatomy: Here Comes the Sun (18x01)

We're back!

Cons:

Hey, I still don't care about Teddy and Owen! The big cheesy wedding in the bar at the end does nothing for me at all, I feel nothing, I am dead inside!!! I think it's just that they've both been fundamentally so shitty to other characters, and that Teddy had an actually somewhat interesting vibe with Tom, and that a lot of the characters who have sustained me in these later seasons of the show are gone now... it's all just a little draining. It was nice to see Megan, but her and Riggs broke up? Oh come on! What's the point of that! If they're not on the show anymore, just let them stay together! They had a death defying love, for god's sake!

The guy that Meredith has dinner with is apparently someone who's been on the show before, but if you gave me a million dollars I wouldn't be able to tell you anything about him or his impact on her or the show. It's been four seasons and several other potential Meredith love interests since then. Why bring this guy back? I like the whole Cormac Hayes romance. I like the information we got here, that they'd tried to date but that Cormac's son had had a hard time with it. That's an interesting story right there. Why bring in this rando? I get this is a soap opera, but Meredith has mellowed out over the years. Give her a fundamentally peaceful, if still complex because they're both single parents with dead spouses, romance! It's sitting right there, for goodness' sake.