Outlander: Echoes (6x01)

Well, we're back! Since the last time this show was on, I finished my re-read of the Outlander books, including the new ninth book that just came out in November. So I've got a lot of Outlander overflowing in my brain... I'll try and keep it all straight!

Cons:

So, one big thing they're adding here is that Claire is dosing herself with ether as a way of coping with her trauma from her kidnapping/rape last season. I suppose I should reserve judgment, maybe I won't hate this change moving forward... but it immediately set my teeth on edge for a couple of reasons. One, this is a big change to the psychological profile of our lead character, and if they're going to do this, I want them to go all the way with it, meaning the ramifications from Claire drugging herself would need to be big and really rework a lot of what's happening moving forward. I'm not sure I trust them to do that well. The other thing is... in the books, Claire's experiments with ether are extremely dangerous and Claire is beyond meticulous in the creation and testing of ether. It just seems so out of character for her to do something so careless, unsupervised. Again, if this is meant to show how badly her trauma has affected her, fine, but they need to see this through.

A meaner complaint, and one they can't really correct for at this point, is the actor who plays Brianna. I'm sorry, but I've never been able to get fully on board with her performance. Every time she's in a scene with anyone, I'm suddenly painfully aware that this is all fake, that everyone's dressed up in their little outfits on a set with cameras pointing at them. There's this oppressive sense of the play-acting of it all. I don't see Brianna in front of me, I see someone awkwardly saying lines written for her to say. It honestly impacts every scene she's in.

Grey's Anatomy: Living in a House Divided (18x10)

I feel so much unreasonable anger over being forced to watch parts of this show I don't care about lol. This is a me problem.

Cons:

Meredith's boyfriend Nick... okay I caved and payed attention to his name finally... he's just So Boring. They're really playing this up as this romance that we're supposed to feel connected to/happy with... we see him meeting Amelia and Maggie for the first time, and they're all interested in Meredith's new relationship, and Nick is confessing deep feeling for Meredith and wanting them to stay with each other more. And the whole time I'm just yawning at the screen. Especially aggravating because we saw Hayes for like two seconds this episode, and his moment where he talks about how much Meredith meant to him in handling his grief over his wife was more electric and powerful than anything Nick has ever provided. Sorry, dude, but you're boring.

I guess having relationship drama with Teddy and Owen that's about medical stuff is more interesting than the usual roundabout they're always on, but since I still dislike both of these characters quite a lot, I'm not really enthused about having to follow this plot thread. Teddy spends the episode desperately trying to figure out what Owen is up to, what he confessed to Hayes in the car. She talks to Owen, to Hayes, to Megan about it, and finally sees one of Owen's patients' wives in the room with him, and follows her out to Owen's car to confront her about what she's just taken from there. So now we're at the point of no return, Teddy about to discover what's happening... and again, I'm just not at all here for it. Boring and annoying all at once.

The Walking Dead: New Haunts (11x10)

I will say I found this episode refreshing on the level of different settings, different kinds of problems to explore than the usual. But at the same time, there was a bit of clunkiness to the script that I can't deny.

Cons:

So one of the conflicts here is your basic class divide. We see the rich and privileged part of the Commonwealth enjoying a fancy party, while the riffraff is left outside. We've got a disgruntled waiter holding a knife to someone's throat so he can have the opportunity to speak to the Governor. The dialogue here was just... so cliché. It sounds like the Commonwealth has a lot of pre-zombie-apocalypse problems, with the underclass having less access to comfort and virtually no access to luxury. That's interesting I guess, but is there anything unique that's going to be said with this?

Grey's Anatomy: No Time To Die (18x09)

Wow oh my god I'm so annoyed.

Cons:

The thing is, I'm just so not here for most of the romances we've got going for us. The biggest No for me is Link and Jo. I want them to be our Alex and Meredith, have a strong male/female friendship without an attraction or romance there. Honestly cannot stand the sight of the two of them kissing, and they got a whole drawn out love scene with the dramatic music over the top. Gag me. Ugh. It's just narratively unsatisfying to me, and it this point it really feels like throwing spaghetti at the wall, seeing what romances stick.

I also could not care less about Meredith's beau. At this point I'm stubbornly refusing to learn his name. It's a clever protest against the existence of a character so bland that my eyes slide off his face whenever he starts to talk. See, the thing is, I want Meredith to have a stable, nice relationship with a good man, and that is technically what we're seeing here. You know who else is stable and nice and a good man? Cormac Hayes. Instead of seeing that relationship develop, we get to hear how it was a nonstarter in between seasons, and now Hayes is leaving? One of the last good men this show has to offer? I'm very annoyed.

The Walking Dead: No Other Way (11x09)

I'm going to sound like a broken record here but I don't really caaarrrre. I mean, we're here in the final season, and there are so many pieces on the board, so much chaos, and so few characters I feel a real connection to. Let's talk about it.

Cons:

I've said this from the minute she came back, but I just don't find Maggie to be a very compelling character anymore. I think it's mostly that she went off and formed all of these bonds with people we don't know at all, and her motivation is now about protecting and/or avenging those people, and I don't feel an investment. Also, I find Negan to be more charismatic and interesting to watch that Maggie any day of the week, but I find it laughable that the show wants me to consider the relationship between these two characters as complicated or ambiguous. Negan murdered Maggie's husband in cold blood, while he was defenseless and on his knees, in front of all his loved ones, and he fucking enjoyed himself. There's no getting over that, and I wish the show would stop jerking us around on that.

At the end of the episode, we see that Negan is leaving because he knows Maggie will never forgive him and might one day decide to kill him after all. Smart move, Negan. We obviously haven't seen the last of him, though, which kind of makes me exhausted just thinking about it. He's like a cockroach.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Darkness Within (1x12)

Amazing! I can't believe how happy I am with this whole season, it's just caused me so much joy from beginning to end. I can always find flaws in any thing I watch, and I'll talk about those briefly, but wow. I'm happy. I'm so happy.

Cons:

But let's start with a couple of things I wasn't totally sold on, although I wouldn't call them huge problems or anything...

The resolution of the cliffhanger with Keyleth didn't quite land for me, and it was mostly a minor pacing issue. We end the episode with "holy shit Keyleth is going to DIE," but this final episode isn't about that at all... We have a drawn out period of time where we are struggling to bring Keyleth back, but to me it lacked tension because when Keyleth did wake up, it was like "oh hey, we don't have time to deal with this" since Percy and Orthax were now the obvious focus. If I had been the one writing the scene, I would have replaced the weeping and the long pause before Vax realizes he can try the herb and dirt thing, and instead have it be more frantic, like, "oh shit, no more potions, quick, grab the dirt!" keep the momentum, make it more of a triage scene than a true resurrection-type scene. I get that they wanted the stakes to feel very serious, but it didn't quite gel the way I wanted it to in the aftermath. In short, while I loved the decision to make Keyleth the one in peril in the last episode, I'm not sure the resolution to that plot beat landed in the context of this episode.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Whispers at the Ziggurat (1x11)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Cons:

This is a small thing, because once again perfect episode is perfect, but I will say that Scanlan's "realization" at the start didn't quite hit right. They have him do a gasp and a flashback to him looking at the creepy book, and the star chart, and putting together the pieces, but I don't feel that we actually learned anything new here. It was basically: "ohhh that creepy book about a ritual and a Ziggurat means they're going to do a ritual at a Ziggurat?" I don't know, maybe they wanted to make sure the stakes were clear so we wouldn't be confused about the visuals of what Delilah does later, but for me it seemed like they were treating an obvious escalation as if it were brand new information, some sort of plot twist or reveal.

Could have done without the "you're their light now" callback during Keyleth's big moment, simply because it didn't quite hit for me right the first time, I felt the stakes weren't set up for why Keyleth getting that validation from Pike specifically would be important. It was fine, but didn't add to the epic-ness for me much. This is such a small quibble, though. Seriously.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Depths of Deceit (1x10)

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I liked this final crop of episodes. Holy shit. My heart was pounding the whole way through.

Cons:

All I can put here is the true nit-picky-est of nitpicks, just a few little things that I happened to notice.

We've had all of Percy's iconic one-liners from the campaign represented so far, and every single one has met and even surpassed my expectations. "Your soul is forfeit", "you were the one I was least looking forward to", "you're the face I saw when murder entered my heart." Like... you can't fucking beat this, man. However, and like I said this is a nitpick, the one I was looking forward to the most was in my opinion kind of awkward when executed in this version of the script. Percy says to Anna: "You are the luckiest person in Whitestone. 'Cause you're at the bottom of my list." In the campaign, Percy was a lot more level-headed at this point, where in the show his vengeance has ramped up to this really scary point and he's rapidly losing control. So this suave, bad-ass line, delivered with a lilting tone and a smug expression in the original, lost something here when it was said after a scene where all of his friends and his sister had to beg him not to shoot this woman in the head.

Okay and this is the smallest thing ever, but Pike called Grog "buddies" in this episode? As a plural? She did it a couple times over the course of these three episodes and I don't know why "buddy" suddenly became plural? It was distracting.

The Legend of Vox Machina: The Tide of Bone (1x09)

Anna Ripley... hey girl hey. Perfect episode is pretty much perfect...

Cons:

I loved seeing the backstory with Delilah and Sylas, I really did, but once again I think of this through the eyes of someone new to the story and I feel like it would be kind of confusing. Yes, Sylas and Delilah visually look a little bit different, but there's nothing at first to indicate where or when they are. If I didn't already know, I might not have placed this as a flashback right away. I think even a "x-years-earlier" text over the image would have been sufficient to solve for this, and maybe it's not as confusing as I'm making it out to be, but I did notice that one thing.

Pros:

As I said, I did love the Briarwood flashback, though. That's what's beautiful about the these villains. They will fucking go so hard for each other. Delilah will turn to dark magic without thinking twice, and Sylas will be like "hell yeah, I'm cool with it." Their love for each other is spooky in its intensity, but it also adds this amazing dark romance to their villainy, so that at certain moments you kinda... root for them to win a lil' bit. In the best way. Also I keep forgetting Matt is Sylas, he's doing such an astounding job with the performance. "Trust in the Whispered One, for we are his blood" is such a metal villain line for a cartoon baddie, I'm kind of obsessed with it.

The Legend of Vox Machina: A Silver Tongue (1x08)

Mayyyybe the best episode that the show has had yet?

Cons:

I'm going to talk about Pike more in the "pros" section, I promise I'm not trying to be a hater. First off, I talked about the momentum of the last episode being break-neck and intense and perfect, and starting off this installment with Pike just ground everything to a halt in not the best way, in my opinion.

And then here's the thing... Pike's stuff doesn't have the right stakes to it, because the story didn't build up properly. The pay-off is honestly very good. So much about this is very good. But narratively, the reasoning for Pike having this crisis of faith feels very contrived and ill-considered, until we get the explanation. I needed more build-up, I needed more hints of where Pike's issues were coming from, what she needed to realize about herself.

So, essentially, Pike needs to learn that it's okay that she likes to play rough with her friends, go out drinking and brawling. There are so many paths to a holy and faith-filled life, and Pike needs to accept all of herself to be a good cleric of the Everlight. That's great! I loved that! But this stretches back into the set-up of the earlier episodes. We see one example of Pike having doubt/discomfort about her relationship to the Everlight, and that's when she's slightly awkward blessing that family's house in the first episode. Other than that, whenever she's needed her magic to work, it's worked. Sure, she can't save the boy in the first episode, but that's not framed as Pike's failure because of her relationship to her goddess, it's just framed as... well, she ran out of spell slots. When she needs to heal Grog and Vax, she can. When she needs to create shields and buff people's weapons with holy power, she can. She doesn't seem to have any actual issue with any of it, or feel any guilt after she drinks with Grog or swears or does any of the other "uncouth" things she's now saying she feels bad for.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Scanbo (1x07)

Ahhh god, this show just keeps getting better and better.

Cons:

Most of my "cons" in this one are going to be small, mostly nitpicks. I really loved Percy's flashback sequence where he talks about having the dream of making a gun, but I wish there had been a bit more clarity earlier in the season that nobody else in this world has guns, that this is a Percy-specific weapon that he invented. I can imagine a newcomer to the story being confused by that element, where everyone is suddenly like "what is a gun, though?" when nobody has seemed confused by it before.

On a personal preference note, there were a couple Scanlan jokes that I didn't appreciate this week... that weird incest joke at the beginning about Percy and Cass? Like, why? I did like that Vex and Vax told him off in unison, showing that they're united even after their little spat over Keyleth which I'll discuss in a minute. Also, I know there was a lot of poop humor in the campaign, but I didn't literally need to see Duke Vedmire's shit... I'm not saying these are real problems with the episode, just jokes I was unimpressed by.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Spark of Rebellion (1x06)

Archibald... I'm a little bit in love...

Cons:

This episode was the strongest we've had since episode three, which is no surprise since it's got all that creepy angsty goodness with Percy and the Briarwoods and all that. But I have basically the same "cons" as the other two episodes carrying through, which I'll highlight briefly:

Unfortunately the Pike stuff is where the weakness comes for me. I don't want it to be true, but it is. We see her wandering around trying to connect to the Everlight, and then when she remarks that it's not working because of Delilah, the priestess says: "No curse, no spell could sever her connection to your light..." and something like "whatever is keeping you apart, it's inside of you." And then Pike says: "You're saying... it's not a curse, it's... me?" Just... what an awful line. No offense but yikes. It's just a blunt, repetitive restating of what the priestess just said, and once again everything with the Pike subplot feels like it's treading water. I'm not sure why they've structured it this way at all. I really wish Pike had gone with them on the road to Whitestone, and maybe further character beats could have shown that she's losing her connection gradually, tying directly in with her choices and behavior... then she could peel off for her own subplot for an episode or two. But as it stands, I just don't feel like her absence from the group was earned or justified, and despite what they're telling me, the sequence of events is still: Pike's magic worked fine, then a bad guy broke her necklace, now her magic is on the fritz. That's not an interesting development. I need to understand where Pike's doubt is coming from in order to connect with why we're spending time on this.

The Legend of Vox Machina: Fate's Journey (1x05)

Okay! This episode I felt was stronger than episode four, it had more a sense of motion to it, literally, and we end up in Whitestone where things are really going to take off!

Cons:

Those same script issues I was mentioning in episode four do make an appearance here in a couple of spots. One is the clunkiness to the campfire scene, where they're all swapping stories. I wish they'd come in the middle of the story, and then not explained directly, just had the next person jump in with "oh, what about the time I..." instead they kept repeating "the worst kill I ever had was..." and it just seemed unrealistic as to how they'd be having a natural conversation. It just seems like the kind of thing where they could have taken one more pass at the script and smoothed out some awkward-sounding moments.

There was also one pacing note that I wanted to mention. The end of the episode is a big reveal about Whitestone being destroyed by the Briarwoods. But Percy is reminiscing about what a paradise it was literally right before they emerge and see the wreckage and the corpses on the Sun Tree. I would have arranged this slightly differently. Maybe Percy could have shared about the Sun Tree with Keyleth back in episode four when they were having their heart to heart. Or earlier in this episode with Vex on the cart, or during the campfire scene. Something where we already know what Percy is remembering, and then maybe a brief reminder of it as they approach, like Keyleth saying "I can't wait to see the Sun Tree" or something. Maybe this is the most nitpicky thing I've said yet, I just wanted to say it felt like "Whitestone has been desecrated" could have been built up better if we'd had longer to sit with the knowledge of what it once was.

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.