Outlander: Temperance (6x03)

Oh man... some of my very favorite stuff from the books, although of course it's hard to watch for obvious reasons!

Cons:

I was really vibing with the energy of last week's episode, and this week had a lot of stand-out scenes I liked, but also had some of those clunky moments I notice with the show sometimes, were it kind of feels like everyone is play-acting and they don't feel like real people to me. Crowd scenes where Brianna and Marsali awkwardly exposition at us about Mrs. Bug watching the kids, or Roger filling Bree in on the situation with Lizzie and the twins. The scene with Amy and Roger, with the bullfrog in the pitcher of milk - I get why that scene is there, for the sake of stuff that will happen later, but on its own it felt a bit awkward.

Grey's Anatomy: The Makings of You (18x12)

Huh. I feel distinctly torn about this episode.

Cons:

I like that we're actually doing some stuff with the kids, it's fun to see Zola have a personality and interests of their own, but also... oof... the kids' acting in this show is... not the greatest. It's a little distracting to see Maggie and Winston playing off of the performances from the little ones playing Bailey and Ellis, and even Zola.

Nick. Okay, so in this episode, we meet Nick's niece Charlotte, and we learn that he can have a bit of a temper sometimes, and that he's overprotective of his niece. Real, concrete information about this guy. A personality. I wish I could bring myself to care more. I will give them credit and say this is the most that a storyline with Nick has ever made me want to pay attention, and that's because I love Meredith and I want her to be safe and happy. I just can't quite click with this generic nobody, no matter how hard they try and make me.

The Walking Dead: The Lucky Ones (11x12)

Eh, this episode didn't compel me the way the last couple episodes have. I guess the novelty of the Commonwealth is starting to wear off a bit.

Cons:

The guy who wants to bring in the additional communities for his own personal clout is kind of boring to me? I guess I don't quite get his whole deal, and Pamela is also feeling a bit one-note to me. I get that it's going to be an issue of control, they're going to have to figure out a balance where the benefits of the Commonwealth are not worth the totalitarianism. Like, we all agree totalitarian regimes are bad, but zombie apocalypses are also bad, right? I don't know, it just seems like all this stuff is going to be dragged way out past the point of interest, where I want to get to the aftermath, so we can see what the world will truly look like moving forward for these characters. This is the final season, let's get a move on, here!

Pros:

I did like Eugene and Max's scenes. I want to believe there will be no more double-crossing, that this time it's really real, and Eugene will get to have that happiness. I loved his apology, where he talked about his difficulty with social cues and how believing in the imposter was part of so badly wanting to have that love in his life. These two are both very awkward and yet sweet, and I find myself genuinely rooting for their love! And I also thought Eugene's struggle before getting to that point where he could talk to Max was interesting to watch. He and Rosita having a moment together was sweet; at this point they are some of the longest lasting characters on the show and their friendship was a bizarre yet powerful one to watch develop over the years.

Outlander: Allegiance (6x02)

This was a good one, lots of stuff from the books that I remember with a certain degree of fondness/dread... let's dive in!

Cons:

Still not sold on the whole ether plot thread here... I'm trying not to be a grump just because it's different from the books; that's not really my beef with it. It honestly just seems out of character for Claire in a way I worry they won't integrate well moving forward.

Also... okay... so this is lifted straight from the books, but the scene where the Cherokee women come into Jamie's bed uninvited has always felt a little odd to me. It's a pervasive problem with this whole story, that so many of the characters experience sexual assault or rape in their life, and yet there is also this very irreverent and joking way that such things are often looked at. I'm not saying Jamie is obligated to feel violated by what happens to him in this scene, but the fact that it's played entirely for laughs is sort of odd, is it not?

Grey's Anatomy: Legacy (18x11)

Koracick, my love!

Cons:

Why are they giving Nick his own story-line? You can't trick me into caring about this man, Grey's. You can't do it. This episode brought back Tom Koracick, one of the weirdly greatest characters ever written for this show, and you expect me to pay attention to Nick's boring shit? And it doesn't help that the story seems kind of... basic ground for Grey's Anatomy? It's a simple story about an organ transplant, where we have to grieve for the young man who died and celebrate the young man who gets another chance at life. I was waiting for some twist that would make it stand out from other similar plot elements over the years, but there really wasn't anything. It honestly feels like that plot thread was just there to try and make Nick more sympathetic, give the audience something to connect to. The trouble is, Nick being a nice guy is literally the only thing I know about him, and now I've learned nothing new.

And then the end of the episode is Meredith going to celebrate her success with him, which is honestly the last thing I care about seeing. It kills me, because seeing Meredith in a stable, simple relationship with a good guy is something I really want for her, but Nick just gives me nothing to connect to!

The Walking Dead: Rogue Element (11x11)

Oh damn, poor Eugene!

Cons:

I guess I want a bit more information from the leaders of this community... so far we just get "they seem nice but they're all kind of creepy" and it's about time to learn a bit more. Do any of them have qualms about what they're doing? I guess this isn't so much a con as something I hope they explore a bit more later on.

I see that most clearly in Carol's little detour this week, with Hornsby, where we learn that the Commonwealth does deals with other less idealized communities. Specifically, they get their opium supply for the hospital from one such group. This could be interesting color and certainly raises some questions, but mostly it just had me scratching my head as to why Carol would be given this tour. If this is an Authoritarian community, why do the newcomers get to spend so much time poking around in their business? Does Carol have a job, or what?

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: