#blindspot: episode review

[magic-and-maybess]

A semi-formal review of pre Critical Role live action Ashley Johnson content

*this is not an exhaustive list, just the films/shows I've watched personally. yes i am biased. Blindspot is not included but I do have many positive feelings about seasons 1 and 2*

Crime Scene Investigation, season 7 episode 21 : Ending Happy (2007)

Character - Dreama Little

Plot -

When a has-been boxer is killed, the team must establish which of several life-threatening acts actually ended his life.

Review -

As someone who hasn't seen any CSI prior to this, I thoroughly enjoyed it. This episode puts Ashley in the shoes of a sweet prostitute with a southern drawal and more smarts than one would expect.

The episode was engaging and made me feel very empathetic for Dreama. She certainly stood out from the main cast in just a few scenes.

Rating - 8/10

Spooked Episodes 1-4 (2014)

Character - Morgan

Plot -

Five paranormal investigators help the citizens of their city with everything from ghost sightings to possession and aliens.

Review -

This was a decent, turn-off-your-brain spoof on paranormal investigation shows. I found the writing to be a little shotty at times and many things could have been fleshed out more. Despite this, it was an entertaining binge at only 4 20 minute episodes available for free.

I found Ashley's character one of the most entertaining of the group. Quickly, a love triangle forms around her and sets off a lot of drama within the team but the resolution was an oddly sweet one.

Rating - 6/10

Annie : A Royal Adventure (1995)

Character - Annie Warbucks

Plot -

In this sequel to the 1982 film, Annie and her friends venture to England where hijinks ensue and the preteens must stop a plot to overthrow the monarchy.

Review -

This was a fever dream of a film, but in a fun way. I didn't expect much going into it, and I wasn't disappointed. It was very childish but not in an annoying way. There was a song, which I enjoyed.

Rating - 5/10

The Failures (2003)

Character - Lily/Lilian

Plot -

When a misfit teenager meets a suicidal outcast, she comes up with a plan to help him kill himself. Too bad love gets in the way.

Review -

This was the best movie I've watched in a while. I was completely engaged. The writing was witty, nuanced, and every character was so well done. Neither cynicism or optimism was the right answer, life just is what it is.

Ashley gave a standout performance here. Lily is so well done. She's not good or wise, she's just a dumb 17 year old who thinks she knows everything. Her intentions and motivations are messy just like everyone else here. Nobody is fully bad or good. They're all just people.

Rating - 10/10

Growing Pains : The Movie (2000)

Character - Chrissy Seaver

Plot -

Jason and Maggie Seaver move back to their hometown so Maggie can run for public office. Quickly, things spiral into a mess when the kids get involved.

Review -

This movie was... fine. It did what it was trying to do, I think. When viewed as a continuation of the original series, it falls a little flat. I found Carol's relationship drama to be really boring, and the writers seemed confused on who they wanted Chrissy to be. Overall, there was a lot going on in this that makes it the far weaker of the two.

Rating - 4/10

Growing Pains : Return Of The Seavers (2004)

Character - Chrissy Seaver

Plot -

Jason and Maggie are finally ready to sell the house and see the world now that the kids have all moved out. As it turns out, this is not okay with the oldest Seavers, and shenanigans ensue.

Review -

This is the far better of the two Growing Pains movies. The plot is much more engaging and the characters feel more like themselves. Chrissy also gets a lot more of a plotline here as she deals with her awful love life. Overall, it's a better version of what happens to these characters 15 years later.

Rating - 6/10

Otis (2008)

Character - Riley Lawson

Plot -

Teenage girl Riley is the newest victim of serial killer/degenerate loser Otis, who just wants to take a girl to "prom". When a misunderstanding between Riley and her family occurs, they devise a plan to murder her assaulter... and get the wrong guy.

Review -

The first half of this movie was tolerable, almost enjoyable. After Riley's escape, the entire thing goes downhill. Don't let the box art fool you, this is the worst movie I have seen in a *long* time.

The only redeeming quality was Ashley's acting. She was wonderful as always and was the only character I felt any positive emotions towards.

Rating - 3/10

[wherever-i-look-blog]

Blindspotting: Season 2/ Episode 8 "Return to Ithaca" – Recap and Review (with Spoilers) https://tinyurl.com/2mm6zyol

[mesillusionssousecstasy]

Love, Death + Robots : Volume 1

The animation were incredible and so different from each other.

But the show should have been named "Kill, Death + Robots".

My favorite one was again the three robots exploring the apocalyptic earth and lucky thirteen wasn't that bad at all.

So here a review for each episode :

Three robots (1x01) : I love those three robots, the way they are discovering each human tradition was well done. I really liked the part about the cats being the god of them all. It's also the fragility of the human race.

Beyond the Aquila rift (1x02) : The animation was amazing. From the beginning you know that it will end badly. It's the idea of what's real. Terrible story, I really didn't expect that.

Ice age (1x03) : The only episode with true actors. I also liked the mini world in the freezer, being the repetition of the same story, the same cycle.

Sonnie's edge (1x04) : It's about monster fight in a pit controlled by human. The end is really unexpected.

When the yogurt took over (1x05) : the story was very stupid and ridiculous, but I liked the demolition of human satellite.

The secret war (1x06) : It was the best SGI animation from the entire volume, every detail was so well done. However, the characters should have spoken in Russian and at the end, the episode became too much like a video game.

Sucker of souls (1x07) : I was sure from the first moment of the episode that it will concern vampires, but I don't understand what they were looking in the first place, in this tomb? Also, why Gary has a girl's voice, that doesn't make sense. And I really liked the importance of cats in this episode too.

The witness (1x08) : Every animation is different, this one was very different from the other, like animation on drugs too. Why there isn't any one in this town? Why the man has the key of the flat? It seems that the two of them are stuck in a loop in which he killed her and the other she killed him.

Suits (1x09) : Poor cows. It was honestly a weak episode. What was the point of it?

Good hunting (1x10) : First of all why the characters do not speak in Mandarin? And why it couldn't be a love story between Jan and Ling instead of this horrible story, even if the end is good.

The dump (1x11) : Is about a monster who survive on garbage, I called it "le monstre des poubelles".

Shape-Shifters (1x12) : I really hate war, but I think they want to show us, who are the real animal during war?

Fish night (1x13) : From the beginning, there was a foreshadowing of what will become later in the episode. The animation with the ocean sea was amazing, the desert becomes a sea of glowing fishes. It also shows us that the young boy becomes a fish, suggesting his descent to death.

Helping hand (1x14) : The episode was disgusting, but I presume it's about surviving and not dying in the atmosphere.

Alternate histories (1x15) : If only an application like this could exist. It's called multiversity.

Lucky 13 (1x16) : The story in itself was a bit sad, but cute. The ship sacrifice itself.

Blindspot (1x17) : The only episode with a happy ending I presume, but it's a shame that we don't know why this microchip is so important.

Zima Blue (1x18) : The episode with a bittersweet ending, the last art of Zima, beneficing himself at the end.

Some quotes:

"- You've seen one post-apocalytic city, you've seen 'em all." (Robot 1 - 1x01)

"- No. Indeed, it was their own hubris that ended their reign, their belief that they were the pinnacle of creation that caused them to poison the water, kill the land and choke the sky. In the end, no nuclear winter was needed, just the long heedless autumn of their own self-regard. (Pyramid robot) - Are you okay? (Orange robot) - Yeah, sorry. Thought that would sound better than, "Nah, they just screwed themselves by being a bunch of morons." (Pyramid robot - 1x01)

"- And what makes you so special? - I'm not special. Unique." (1x04)

"- Now, hate that was something I had to learn. You don't come into this world with hate." (1x04)

"- Everyone sees what they want to see." (1x04)

"- Do try to at least act excited. (Doctor) - Mercenaries are like hookers, pretending to be excited costs extra." (Mr. Flynn - 1x07)

"- Well, at least I'll die young and beautiful." (1x09)

"- You know what I think? It's all in the attitude. The right attitude can sell anything." (Young boy - 1x13)

"- God damn company penny pinchers, am I right? (Bill) - Why pay two when one'll do?" (Astronaut - 1x13)

"- I had to make a wee sacrifice to the great nothing." (Astronaut - 1x14)

"- In spite of all his success, Zima was still dissatisfied and what he did next was, for many, too extreme a sacrifice to make for art." (Clare - 1x18)

"- But you're a man with machine parts, not a machine that thinks it's a man. (Clare) - Sometimes, it's difficult even for me to understand what I've become. And harder still to remember what I once was." (Zuma - 1x18)

[moviemunchies]

[Doing another TV show review. This one can be found on Roku.]

Over a decade ago, the Sci-Fi Channel/SyFy was known for two things: terrible original monster movies, and great original television shows that it canceled too soon. Alphas was the first SyFy original series that I watched, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

I was fairly impressed by it.

Alphas takes place in a world (perhaps the same world as Eureka and Warehouse 13) in which certain individuals, dubbed “alphas”, have enhanced physical or mental abilities–superpowers. Ordinary human psychologist Dr. Lee Rosen (played by David Strathairn) leads a government-funded team of alphas to investigate criminal cases involving alphas, especially regarding a secret activist group called Red Flag. Along the way, the team has to cope with their own problems–after all, each power comes with a physical or mental drawback.

This show came out about a year after the NBC series Heroes, I think? Do you remember Heroes? It was a show that everyone went nuts for even though I don’t know of anyone who has much positive to say about it after the first season (it also got hit by the Writers’ Strike in its run, so maybe not its fault). Alphas got a lot of comparison to Heroes. It had a much lower budget, but I think that it works in the show’s favor? It’s aiming for a more grounded attempt at superhero fiction, after all.

I do not want to call the superpowers in this show “realistic”; some of them are quite ridiculous! But they’re generally smaller in scale and the show works to create explanations that sound somewhat plausible. There’s an alpha who doesn’t turn invisible, as much as walk in people’s blindspots. There’s an alpha who can shapeshift, but he has to study his subject extensively before transformations. 

Leaning into that: a fascinating aspect of the powers in the show was that each one came with a disadvantage. Some of these are physical; on the team, for instance, Bill has enhanced strength that kicks in with his body’s fight-or-flight response. The problem is that his body can’t handle going through that for extended periods of time. Sometimes (and seemingly more often) the side effects are psychological; Nina, whose power is temporarily being able to mind control people, has significant trust issues and a tendency to use her ability for petty tasks like getting out of speeding tickets.

This adds a dimension to the powers–it helps build these characters, so that their powers don’t feel as if they’re just tacked on. The psychological aspects help the characters feel more grounded, as it questions how people would act if they had these powers, and the physical limitations puts boundaries on what the characters are capable of. There’s nothing as gaudy as time travel or throwing bolts of lightning here.

The main conflict of the series is between the government and the group Red Flag. It’s pointed out more than once that alphas have every reason to be antagonistic towards the US government, given its tendency to exploit and imprison alphas whenever they want. Many in Red Flag have sympathetic motivations and backstories, making the heroes wonder at times if they should really be fighting them at all.

If you decide to get invested in this series (which maybe you should, as it’s pretty good), you should be aware that it only lasted two thirteen-episode seasons, and it ends on a cliffhanger. Not one of those, “Oh, what happens next?” cliffhangers, a full-on, “Everything is screwed!” cliffhanger, that makes you think there must have been a really good plan for what happens next. That doesn’t change that the show is good, but you might end up deciding that it wasn’t worth getting worked up over a story that’s clearly unfinished.

But overall, Alphas is good. It’s really good. If you’re into superhero fiction, but won’t mind the lack of costumes or secret identities, this could be a good show to try. Or if you’re just interested in science-fiction series, it’d be worth giving Alphas a try.

[twh-news]

Loki Season 2 Episode 2 Review: Wolfe Among Us

This review contains spoilers for episode 2

★★★★☆

In the second episode of Loki season two, Loki and Mobius try to track down Sylvie.

Loki and Mobius hit the darkened streets of the Sacred Timeline in episode two of Marvel’s Loki, as they attempt to track down Sylvie by tracing the movements of a TVA deserter.

X-5 (rapper and Blindspotting star Rafael Casal) has made quite the life for himself on Earth in the 1970s as Hollywood A-lister Brad Wolfe, and it’s one that he really doesn’t want to give up, so Mobius and Loki have to give chase like proper magic time cops at the premiere of his new movie, Zaniac. (If you look closely during this opening scene, you’ll also see a poster in the background for Kingo’s latest movie! Always refreshing to have an Eternals reference in one of these shows.)

Also refreshing is Casal as the arrogant X-5 aka Brad, and his “mummy’s boy” attitude makes him supremely punchable. When Loki and Mobius finally haul his ass back to the TVA, it creates an interesting dynamic in the interrogation room. Mobius assumes that the sneering, entitled X-5 will easily be able to push Loki’s buttons, but it’s the eternally-chill Mobius who loses his temper when Brad questions his reticence to find out what kind of life has been stolen from him by He Who Remains and the TVA. Looks like Loki is setting up a curious arc for Mobius in season two – he was really sensitive about that whole deal. Nice to see Loki take time out to chat with Mobius after his meltdown, but that key lime pie looked really gross honestly.

Regardless, I would absolutely watch these two sit talk about literally anything every week. I love their friendship. There have been some comments about Hiddleston’s performance in season two so far, noting that he’s completely stopped being the Loki we’ve grown to know and love, and that Loki could now be any other “normal” character as played by Tom Hiddleston. I get where they’re coming from. The show has gone to great lengths to re-shape this variant of Loki for his hero’s journey, but I do sometimes miss the edge Tom used to give the character. When we see Loki “perform” as his old self in this episode, the glimmer in Tom’s eye just serves to remind us how much fun he used to be. (I rambled on a bit more about this here.)

Loki gets that groove back (briefly) when he and Mobius are forced to figure out the mods on Brad’s TemPad without OB’s help. Luckily, Casey is a TVA guidebook superfan and he helps them figure out that the TemPad isn’t blocking the TVA’s tracking system, but since they’re no closer to breaking X-5 or finding Sylvie, they decide to try torture and ….yeah, I don’t know. I don’t like Brad, but the “box crushing” torture was kinda rough and I didn’t really love seeing it play out well for our “good guys”. You mileage may vary!

The “temporal aura” exposition between B-15, OB, and Casey is also kinda rough. Seeing Casey fan out over OB’s guidebook makes it easier to swallow, but the mechanics of the Loki plot were definitely easier to follow when they were coming from a cartoon clock. Unfortunately, Miss Minutes has absconded with Ravonna Renslayer to lord knows where. There’s certainly no sign of the pair this week, but Loki, Mobius, and their Brad-shaped prisoner do finally find Sylvie. She’s working at McDonald’s in her branched Broxton timeline and seems pretty content, if a little lonely.

Things are awkward between Loki and Sylvie, but I really don’t miss the romance plot between them. If that’s still cooking in season two, it’s at such a low level that I don’t have to acknowledge it at least. The sexual chemistry between Hiddleston and Di Martino is still missing and presumed dead, unlike General Dox, the loyalist who gets taken back to the TVA alive after committing countless genocides. Sylvie, however, chooses to stay in Broxton and sling burgers, but in the closing moments of the episode we see she still has He Who Remains’ TemPad, which is really advanced TVA technology that can twist time in a different way. I wonder what she’s planning to do with it?

Overall, this was a solid second episode of Loki, with only a few wobbles. It wasn’t as compelling as the premiere, and lacked its kinetic pace, but I found the ongoing story so entertaining that it didn’t bother me too much, and I’m looking forward to episode three next week. Fingers crossed, Miss Minutes is back and just as terrifying as when we last saw her!

[obsessiveviewer]

OV424 - Civil War (2024) & Late Night with the Devil (2024) - Guest: Brandon Peters

This week, I’m joined by guest Brandon Peters for a feature review of Civil War in non-spoiler and spoiler sections. We also talk about podcasting, PopCon Indy, movie theater experiences, and more. Then, in this week’s secondary review, Mike joins me for a review of controversial new horror film, Late Night with the Devil.

Timestamps

Show Start - 00:28

Introducing Brandon - 02:05

PopCon Indy 2024 - 18:15

Feature Review

Civil War - 26:30

Spoiler - 56:55

Brandon Outro - 1:37:00

Secondary Review

Mike Intro - 1:39:24

Late Night with the Devil - 1:41:10

Spoiler - 2:14:00

  Potpourri

Mike: Horror Blindspots - 2:42:51

Matt: 24 Season 6 - 2:48:08

  Closing the Ep - 2:53:02

Patreon Clip - 2:54:50

  Related Links

Start Your Podcast with Libsyn Using Promo Code OBSESS

Brandon’s Letterboxd

Brandon’s Twitter

The Brandon Peters Show

TBPS - PopCon Indy 2024 Preview with Carl Doninger

Brandon's YouTube Channel

PopCon Indy 2024

Brandon's Appearance on The KJ Today Show

  ‘Late Night with the Devil’ AI Usage Sparks Debate: Fair or Foul?

Mike’s Band As Good As it Gets released a new single: Stay (Be Honest)

  My 2024 Podcast and Writing Archive

One Year of Criterion Channel - Dec 24, 2023 - Dec 23, 2024

Movies I Own But Haven't Watched/Rated Yet

  Follow Us on Social Media

My Letterboxd | YouTube | Facebook | Twitter/X

Instagram | Threads | Bluesky | TikTok | Tiny’s Letterboxd

  Subscribe to the Podcast

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Audible

Support Us on Patreon for Exclusive Content

Official OV Merch 

Obsessive Viewer

Obsessive Viewer Presents: Anthology

Obsessive Viewer Presents: Tower Junkies

As Good As It Gets - Linktree

Mic Info

Matt: ElectroVoice RE20 into RØDEcaster Pro II (Firmware: 1.3.4)

Brandon: Shure SM58 LC via Analog Mixer in Google Meet

Mike: Blue Snowball via USB in Google Meet

  Episode Homepage: ObsessiveViewer.com/OV424

  Next Week on the Podcast

OV425 - Abigail (2024) & Sasquatch Sunset (2024)

Check out this episode!

[theworkprint]

'What We Do In The Shadows' Recap: It's Absolutely Soaking Wet in "Pride Parade"

In the What We Do In The Shadows episode "Pride Parade", Sean's running for comptroller, Laszlo's running experiments and Nadja is running wild. Read our review/recap.

Recap We open up on Sean (Anthony Atamanuik) and Charmaine (Marissa Jaret Winokur) Rinaldi pitching the Vampire Residence on a gay pride parade. Seanie’s running for the magisterial position of comptroller and Staten Island’s gay community just so happens to be his largest blindspot. Officious Laszlo (Matt Berry) is more than happy to grand marshal the parade with the household, going as far as…

[1uppod]

Are you ready to embark on a trip to Stardew Valley? The 1UP Pod gang are here to talk about all things related to Eric Barone/CofusedApe’s charming, adorable, indie farm simulator.

The gang is sadly one man down this month as Chip is taking a mental health break from the show (and we hope to see him again soon – we love you, Chip!) but, fear not, we have someone on hand to help us out: Ben! You may or may not recall his name cropping up in previous episodes, such as the time Andy told him to fuck off in the Final Fantasy VII episode or while the gang were discussing how much they hated Ben from The Walking Dead.

On this episode’s ‘What Have We Been Playing?’ segment we see Andy defend his questionable leadership qualities while playing The Pale Beyond, Sasha enjoying the endearingly chaotic vibes of A Little to the Left, Ben’s nostalgic good times with Metroid Prime Remastered (one of Andy’s gaming blindspots), and Becky enjoying Forza Horizon 5 as a newly christened Xbox Dickhead.

While discussing Stardew Valley, the gang share their style of farm building – be it chaotic or heavily organised – as well as Bash’s disdain for all crops. They talk about their favourite characters and storylines, their romanceable preferences, with Andy ruining a perfect segue from Becky between all that.

Favourite tasks and favourite seasons are shared, and the gang try to explain why this game is so addictive to some people.

All that, plus the usual 1UP Pod nonsense.

Please do drop us a like, share, subscribe, and drop us a review/rating:

Amazon | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher

And you can contact us on Twitter or Instagram or via these options.

And always remember to get a life and play video games.

[more--than--anything]

Episode review: "We just have to trust each other, like old times." [S05E9/10]

Wow. That was... a lot. How overwhelmed are you feeling after a double dose of our favorite show and knowing that there is only one episode left?

Y: What can I say... I’m usually left exhausted and a ball of anxiety and emotions after one episode of Blindspot. Hit me with two back to back, and I need a couple of days to recover and go back to being a semi-functioning human.

L: I mean, I feel less traumatized than last week? Slightly? But also pre-emptively overwhelmed thinking about what’s going to happen in that last hour. Maybe it’s good that we get this extra week in here...

Let’s take this in pieces. In the first hour, we see our team, after two seasons, finally get an edge over Madeline. How did they get there, and what does it cost them?

L: Our team starts this episode exactly where we left them: In Madeline’s custody in the NYO, grieving for Patterson (as we all were for the week leading up to this episode). In fact, the only people who aren’t grieving for Patterson are Madeline and, well, Patterson, who doesn’t have time for questions about how she survived, because she has a team to rescue. And preferably before Madeline convinces one of the team to confess to all her sins (in another superb bit of cross-cutting, from one interrogation room to another). Madeline is pretty persuasive, even threatening Tasha’s unborn child (how the hell did she find out about that?!), so it’s a good thing our team is pretty stubborn.

I’m not gonna lie, I really thought they’d stretch out the “Patterson is dead” thing longer than they did, but I am not going to complain that we got her back so quickly! Patterson starts by rescuing Boston, arriving just as Madeline’s thugs do, and then cooks up a plan to get Afreen to help her and Boston sneak into the NYO by exploiting the gender-bias on their facial recognition software. (And to cut the software some slack, I hardly recognized Patterson and Boston when they showed up. Josh Dean is fabulous as Boston in these two episodes, as always, but man, he sure makes one hell of a drag queen.) They cleverly send a message to Jane, who is about to confess to all of Madeline’s sins, via a morse code signal in the light on the camera Madeline is using to tape her confession. And then they rescue Tasha and Rich, in short order.

Weller is more heavily guarded, but fortunately Rich is no stranger to crawling through the ductwork at the NYO. And then we get another surprise, when Agent Rose walks in just as Rich reaches Weller. This is one of my favorite scenes in this episode, because it is one of the first that answers a question that’s been nagging at me all season: Does the rest of the NYO truly believe that the team is guilty of all of the crimes they’ve been accused of? Agent Rose has been around since season one. She’s worked under Mayfair, Weller, Reade... and now she’s working under Madeline. She knows what kind of person Weller is, and she knows dedicated this team is. She’s seen them put themselves in harm’s way to save others over and over again. And now she has to decide whose side she’s on. “Agent Rose, you know me. You know my team. We are not what Madeline says we are. You see that, don’t you?” And Weller-the-boss did not underestimate the loyalty of his former employee; she tells him to cuff her so it looks he overpowered her and got away.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this scene, and I think it might be good that some time has passed since the team was branded as criminals and Madeline took over. I am sure that life under Madeline’s reign has not been a party for the agents in the NYO. Even if they were persuaded to believe her about the team (or to follow Weitz’s lead) in the beginning, that confidence must have waned the longer they had to work with Madeline. I’m sure they wondered about the thugs that she brought in, and I doubt anyone was pleased about the draconian security measures she imposed upon them. If this particular scenario—the team locked up at the NYO—had happened right away, it’s possible that there wouldn’t have been as many people willing to stick their necks out for the team. But as it is... Madeline, like so many things, you brought it on yourself. And I can’t deny that it sure was fun watching her come unglued as she realized that the team was slipping through her fingers, right there under her nose.

In the meantime, Patterson has discovered that Madeline has covered her tracks very neatly, placing all the blame for her misdeeds on Weitz. Well, now we know why Madeline has been keeping him around; he’s a very useful fall guy. But fortunately for Weitz, William Patterson is in his corner, and she is able to obtain the original data, all the evidence they need to incriminate Madeline. But just having that information isn’t enough; they need to make it public, so that there is no way that Madeline can bury it. Tasha picks up her phone and calls Megan Butani, Reade’s former fiancée, who we remember is a reporter for “The New York Star.” I guess that answers the question of whether she got deported or was able to stay in the US. Tasha asks Megan to remember what kind of man Reade was and that there is no way he was guilty of the crimes Madeline pinned on him. Megan reminds Tasha that Reade dumped her because he was in love with Tasha, and Tasha tactfully doesn’t mention that she’s expecting his love child as she asks Megan to go public with all of the evidence they have on Madeline.

Ivy’s team is hustling Jane out of the NYO, so the team has to act fast. Madeline has put the whole NYO in lockdown, so the only way for them to get to Jane is to override the lockdown with an evacuation order. Unfortunately, that reveals to the goon squad that they’ve been hiding out in the server room, and the team is rounded up and taken on their second slo-mo walk through SIOC to face the music. We get two surprises then: First, that Weitz hasn’t quietly moved to Canada as he’d threatened, and second, that Agent Rose isn’t the only agent who has signed on to Team Rogue Agents. TRA emerges victorious from the shootout with Ivy’s goon squad, but Weitz is hit in the crossfire. And here we see illustrated the difference between him and the team; Jane took a similar hit, traveled back to the bunker, started searching for her husband, and then directed her own surgery without anesthetic. Sadly, Weitz, is not made of quite such resilient fiber, and passes away with a last dose of his signature snark.

Without Weitz (or Madeline, who has flown the coop), there is a bit of a power vacuum at the FBI. Without a boss to give them orders, Weller seamlessly slips back into the fearless leader slot, and the team heads out to track down Madeline with help from an anonymous tip. Tasha catches up to her on her private plane, but before she can bring Madeline in, Madeline drinks her poisoned champagne and shuffles off this mortal coil. (I’m honestly a little disappointed that Tasha didn’t see that coming, knowing Maddie’s fondness for using poison to get rid of her problems.) The location of the ZIP bombs is still unknown, although Shirley has that information on an encrypted memory stick he tries to sell to Ivy, but all he gets in return is a bullet between the eyes.

I’m not going to lie: I am a little annoyed with the way that Madeline went out. Committing suicide seems like a pretty easy way out after all that she’s done. I really wanted to see her back in prison orange, regretting all of her life choices. Same with Shirley (although I thought the way he went out was pretty harsh, even for him!). But even more, I’m disappointed that this wasn’t really any kind of end of the systemic corruption that our team (and Shepherd, for that matter) have been fighting since day one. Yes, we still have one more episode, but we have to deal with Jane being zipped and apprehending Ivy, plus (hopefully) a few minutes to give the team some sort of resolution, so I don’t know how much time is left to unravel a big conspiracy plot. I will be disappointed if we don’t get a resolution to the questions this show has been posing since the pilot.

And there are still a lot of loose ends left in the Madeline story. What about all the corrupt individuals she put in place? Weitz seemed to take the view that they were all like him, basically decent people who Madeline had tricked into doing something incriminating, but it’s equally likely that some of them were legitimately corrupt and just didn’t cover their tracks well enough, which allowed Madeline to discover their misdeeds and use them for her own ends. Lucas Nash comes to mind here. He was definitely under Madeline’s control. We know Shepherd wanted to put Keaton at the head of the CIA, which would imply that the current director and other candidates were corrupt. Is Nash still in power? Being freed from Madeline’s control doesn’t necessarily mean that those individuals will become model citizens; freed from her oversight, they could do whatever they want, including exploiting the position she put them in for their own gain.

And I am a little worried. I think it would have been better for the team if they’d brought Madeline in to face trial, rather than letting her go out on her own terms. As Weitz would say, “the optics” would be better that way. As it is, if there is any question at all about the evidence they turned up (which might not be admissible in court, or at least, it wouldn’t be in the real world), it could look like the team was just covering their own tracks rather than exposing Madeline. And ultimately... they did run, and they did refuse to turn themselves in. And when they were taken into custody, they escaped, which resulted in yet another shootout at the NYO in which the Director of the FBI was mortally wounded. And then they refused a direct order by the new interim director. But we’ll get to that in a minute...

Y: So much to discuss! So little time!!

I’m sorry, but I’m a little overwhelmed by how much was packed into the first episode, how much of it was absolutely brilliant, and how much I have to say about it all. First of all, I have to say that I absolutely loved the premise of this episode. The way it was set up and how it played out was so reminiscent of 2.21—including the building lockdown, Patterson doing computer stuff stealthily, the team sneaking their way around the office, and of course the ultimate showdown in SIOC and the director’s demise—and that episode is by far one of my favorite Blindspot episodes ever. So all of this made me very happy.

The interrogation scene was fantastic. The editing and cutting made it so much better. But by far the best thing was the head to head between the team and Madeline and the team’s tenacity and stubbornness. The way they took Madeline’s taunting and her threats and just sat there so badass and defiant. We’re going to talk about the team later—and by talk I mean mostly gush and fangirl and make weird noises about how much we love them. But for now, let’s just say that those interrogation scenes were a thing of cinematic beauty.

The way the case played out was really fun as well. There were so many little games of cat and mouse, some were through the FBI servers, some were psychological mind games, and in Rich’s case they were all about crawling through the vents to save his favorite mumbling special agent. And it all led to Madeline standing in the middle of SIOC all alone as everything collapsed around her and then the ultimate showdown between the team, Weitz and his Team Rogue Agents, and Ivy’s men. And in between all those huge moments, we got to see Agent Rose make a comeback, and Megan make a comeback as well. And you would be 100% correct if you assumed that I cheered for both of those comebacks. First, Megan, while the way she was dumped wasn’t really great, at least the show respects her enough to show us that she’s not one to hold that kind of grudge or have that residual pettiness in her. And it’s also a testament to who Reade really was that Megan knows those accusations cannot be right and that the way to honor his memory is to do what’s right here. And at the same time, a testament to Megan, her professionalism and her pedigree as a journalist. I honestly really loved that scene and the conversation with she had with Tasha and Blindspot once again not falling into the horrible cliché of vengeful exes.

And then there’s Agent Rose. Oh, Agent Rose. For five seasons now, I have singlehandedly held on to the hope that she will someday make a return. That sassy agent in that random scene with Fischer all the way back in season one made like one or two random background appearances, and I’ve stood here alone in my crusade to want her back. I am not going to lie. I never in a million years thought they would bring her back. I mean, even I—the founder and only member of the Agent Rose Fan Club—didn’t expect them to bring her back. But they did! And okay, my excitement doesn’t only stem from this weird niche obsession with her but like L said, her return and the role she played was bigger than just her, and it answered so many questions we’ve had all season, and it validated the faith we have in the team. Except for Weitz, Afreen and for a brief moment Briana, we never really got to see the rest of the agents at the NYO react to the news that the team are all traitors. Most of these people have been working with our team for years and a part of us knew they couldn’t have all just fallen for Madeline’s lies. But of course, we never really had a chance to peek into their private conversations so this episode provided the perfect opportunity to show us just how much they’ve been waiting for a chance to stand up for the team—whether it’s Agent Rose or Agent Woods or Agent Shayla or any of the other agents who proudly and confidently joined Team Rogue Agents. So it was great to see the NYO still full of these good people we’ve come to know and that their loyalty to the team is still strong.

And if I may take another moment here to just flail at how completely epic that moment was! Hands down one of the most badass moments on the show for a single character—Weitz—and one of the most badass group entrances by the Rogue Agents.

And speaking of rogue agents, I love that the little underdog resistance that Afreen and Weitz had going, never knowing if they were doing more good than evil, managed to have such a tremendous payoff. If only they knew they had so many others willing to help… And I also hope we get to see Afreen one last time in the finale because this episode and review don’t really do her enough justice for me to flail about how much I love her. I need the finale to give me some Afreen so I can justifiably spend ten hours talking about her. Or else I will have to have an independent Afreen is Awesome post. You’ve been warned.

But for now, let’s talk about Madeline. Watching her stand all alone in the middle of SIOC as everything she built collapsed around her was the first moment this season we felt the team actually win something. After everything they’ve been through, destroying all that Madeline has built felt good. But the disappointing thing about it is that in Madeline’s eyes, in some ways, it didn’t matter. She had set out to destroy the FBI and even though now she stands there defeated, in so many ways, she has already achieved what she had set out to do. The damage she has caused at the moment looks almost insurmountable. The team has put at an end to her reign of terror but the damage she has done is already catastrophic. And while this part of her story is a plot line I do enjoy, I don’t enjoy the next part of it. Setting up the finale and the next chapter in the universe with the task of rebuilding the FBI and rooting out the corruption once and for all is actually a very hopeful note to end on and maybe Madeline inadvertently did the FBI a favor. And like L, I do wonder if this opens the door to getting rid of all corruption and allows us to finally go back to what started everything and come full circle to the mysteries from season one.

I think it’s poetic that Madeline ultimately died by the same poison she used on most of her enemies, but it is frustrating that she gets to go out on her own terms, that she does not pay for her crimes and that the team don’t get the revenge they deserve. Tasha should have seen it coming. I think we all did when she sat there with a glass in from of her. But dammit, I wanted her to suffer for what she did to the team and not dictate her own fate. But I suppose that is quite a true reflection on how most monsters in this world get to go?

One person who didn’t really have things go his way was Shirley. After cutting ties with Madeline, claiming he wants to do what’s best for his family, Shirley proved he’s nothing more than a bottom feeding leech and went to Ivy seeing as she’s the boat that hasn’t sunk yet. But Ivy was lucky to be the person to do the one thing we’ve all wanted to do for almost a year now. She put a bullet between his eyes. And I know that’s cruel, but he was just unbearable. Some characters you hate to love and others you love to hate, but Shirley was just… ugh. I mean, amazing performances by Raoul Bhaneja every single time, but still. It’s interesting that this episode saw the end of two characters who for most of what we’ve seen from them have always been self-serving and good at attaching themselves to “winning projects”—Shirley and Weitz—but ultimately they went down on opposite extremes of the spectrum.

And finally, there is one more thing I want to touch upon in this section, and that is the way this season set up its villain—or villains. Essentially, it looked like the season’s ultimate villain would be Madeline and that Ivy was just the muscle she hired to get her dirty work done. But as the season progressed, we watched as Ivy and Madeline became more on equal footing in terms of who was in charge, even if Madeline thought she was the one in charge, Ivy clearly didn’t see the agreement between them as such. The power struggle was a really fun one to watch—especially with Shirley in the middle, serving Madeline for the most part but ultimately showing his true colors as only serving himself. The more things got complicated between the two women, the more the cracks showed between them and the disparity in their endgames widened the gap between them and made their agreement less amiable.

Blindspot’s never really done that before—had more than one villain at the same time—and I think in this shorter season, it gave it a little something extra and definitely made things harder on our team, especially going into the finale. It’s going to be an intense finale, but I have to admit I loved the way the antagonist was set up this season as a two-headed monster that in the end had to be split up.

L: I both agree and disagree. I liked that Madeline wasn’t the only bad guy that needed to be taken down, but I also want the final case to be more than just stopping a bomb-toting terrorist (in other words, just another Thursday for this team). I really hope there is a much bigger resolution and payoff coming—not just a case of the day, but a sewing up of the thread that somehow ties all of their cases over the past five seasons together.

Our team won the day—or at least, they finally brought Madeline down—but it was not without cost. I am not going to lie: Weitz’s death made me cry. We had a feeling that he wouldn’t make it through the season, and we were right. He finally discovered his convictions, only to die for them. But there’s no question that he died a hero. As Rich says, “When we needed you the most, you were here for us.” His resolve might have wavered like a flag in the breeze, but when it really counted, he made the right call. When we first met him, he was self-absorbed and snarky, and for the most part, he remained true to that image. But somewhere, deep down inside, he discovered a conviction and courage that no one, least of all him, suspected he had.

And it’s important to note that if he and Afreen hadn’t been able to get rid of the blackmail files on Shirley’s laptop, the team wouldn’t have been able to take her down. The editor of “The New York Star” would have killed the story before it ever saw the light of day. Not only did they destroy Madeline’s hold over him, but Weitz must also have contacted him to tell him that Madeline no longer had any leverage over him, or else the editor would have simply assumed that the blackmail was still in place. And we can’t forget his phone call to warn the team about the drone strike. Rich is right; Weitz may have driven the team crazy over the seasons, but in the moments when it mattered the most, he had their backs.

Rest in peace, Matthew. I never would have thought I’d say this, but I am really gonna miss you.

Y: Oh Matthew Weitz… what can I say to do your character and your journey justice? This was the final chapter in Weitz’s story, and like everything else in his story so far, it was an uphill battle. His instincts were screaming at him to go full ostrich, to pack up and head to Canada, but in the end he remained true to the path he’s been put on for a while, a path that Afreen—out of nowhere—helped him stay on when things got really really tough this season, and he saw it all through. It did cost him his life, but he went out completely redeemed and a true hero.

And his last words were appropriately about his hair.

It was heartbreaking to learn that the only reason Madeline kept him around for so long was to pin everything on him, but that came back to bite her because in his time staying alive, he played a huge part in destroying her blackmail material and in taking her down. I think Madeline hugely underestimated him, and I’m glad he was there to see her defeated.

That scene in SIOC when the rogue agents walked in, armed and ready to fight for him—well, for the team but also for him—brought tears to my eyes. It was an epic scene, and as Matthew’s last stand, it was as heroic as it can get.

Would I have preferred him go full ostrich? He would’ve survived which would have made me happy but very disappointed so ultimately not so happy. This is how it was meant to be. I am heartbroken but so damn proud.

Rest In Peace, Matthew. You did good. You did good.

 In the second hour, our team has to face the fact that stopping Madeline doesn’t stop the threat she posed, and it doesn’t guarantee that they will ever get their old lives back. What does that mean for their present and their future?

L: Madeline’s gone, but Ivy is still out there and so are the ZIP bombs. As much as the team would like to focus on clearing their names and getting their lives back (or in Rich’s case, making a clean getaway with a new identity), or even on getting a shower and a change of clothes, first they need to stop a terror attack. You know, business as usual at the NYO? Not quite. The team doesn’t work there anymore. They have no authority to call any shots (and probably don’t even have the clearance to walk through SIOC). So Kurt, showing us exactly why he’s always been the true leader of this team, leaves it up to the people who still work there: “We are not here to take over. We’re here to help. If you’ll have us.” And the agents at the NYO, of course, take them up on his offer, because the FBI doesn’t hire dummies. (Or at least, they didn’t when Mayfair, Weller, or Reade was in charge of the NYO. I’m guessing Madeline vastly preferred dummies she controlled as opposed to the rebels who helped take her down.)

Finding Ivy isn’t going to be easy. The only clue that they have is that Madeline had a good hacker on her team. Someone who could doctor all the documents to point to Weitz and build a puzzle that would trick Patterson and lead Madeline to the bunker. Someone very quirky, kooky even. Someone like their old pal Kathy “Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs” Gustafson, the third blind mouse, who disappeared after she set loose all manner of chaos in Iceland. The team is moving out to track her down when she walks into the NYO and turns herself in. Patterson and Rich try to “good cop/bad cop” her but are entertainingly blindsided by her offer to help them in exchange for the “good” deal. “The one where you ignore all the bad stuff I did and put me on the team full-time. I want the Rich Dotcom deal.” And frankly, you gotta love a show that can laugh at itself like that. Because, yes, it really is kind of ridiculous that Rich is in the position that he’s in. He should be in jail, or at the very least, not on the FBI payroll. But he is, and of course we wouldn’t have it any other way.

For all of Kathy’s craziness, she’s actually pretty straightforward about this. Ivy wants her to hack Madeline’s Darkcloud server, so she can find out where Madeline stored the ZIP bombs. But Kathy doesn’t want to be on Ivy’s team. “I’m not an evil person. Ivy is and so is her plan. I don’t want people to lose their memories. They’re all we have.” So she’s come to the FBI instead to tell them what she didn’t tell Ivy: She doesn’t need to hack Madeline’s Darkcloud key, because she built it and left herself a backdoor. Of course. If this show has taught us nothing at all, it is that programmers always, always leave themselves a backdoor, whether it’s a videogame, a secure messaging service, or a cloud server solution.

Rich and Patterson squabble for a bit about whether they can trust Kathy, until Patterson finally tells the whole team off: “You are all being hypocrites. We are asking... for a second chance, and we can’t even give Kathy one?” Which is a valid point, no matter how little we trust Kathy. Rich attempts to bluff Kathy, but Patterson delivers her second truth bomb of the day, “We can’t give you a deal because we don’t even have a deal. Stopping Ivy is our best chance at getting one. And if we can get a deal, I will do everything I can to make sure that you get one, too.” It’s not the offer Kathy was hoping for, but it’s the best she’s gonna get—especially once she realizes that the alternative is being arrested for taking down the power grid for Madeline—so she accepts.

Unfortunately, by the time Kathy gets to work, she discovers that she’s too late. Another hacker has beaten her to the punch. Another hacker with a very familiar coding style. Another hacker named Boston Arliss Crab. They need to find him, and fast, because Ivy is going to kill him as soon as she gets what she wants. Or she’ll kill him if he doesn’t get her what she wants. Either way, the outcome for Boston is very very not good. And just to make sure that he grasps the gravity of the situation, Ivy cuts off one of his fingers. And eeek, as much as I should have expected Ivy to do something horrible, I did not see that one coming. Boston puts his remaining nine digits to work doing Ivy’s bidding, and his first order of business is locking Kathy, Patterson, and Rich out of the darkcloud server.

As it turns out, our Three Blind Mice do not, in fact, appreciate being blind. Since they can’t get the information Ivy is after, they figure out how to remotely enable the webcam on Boston’s machine and try to locate him that way. They can only narrow his location to a neighborhood, so they have to resort to old school sound triangulation to find him, which means that Weller, Jane, and Tasha are in one SUV, and poor Patterson gets to drive with Rich and Kathy bickering in the backseat. I think Patterson might reconsider the whole adoption thing, after her “driving mom” experience. It’s really not for the faint of heart, and I can attest that being good at math is really no help at all.

By the time the team arrives, Ivy and her team are long gone, leaving poor Boston standing on a pressure-plate bomb, a distraction to keep the team busy while Ivy goes to get the ZIP. Weller, Jane, and Tasha head out after Ivy while Rich and Kathy and Boston bicker incessantly and Patterson works on defusing the bomb. (And I am not gonna lie, listening to them all throw shade at each other’s coding skills totally cracks me up.) Unfortunately, instead of disabling the bomb, they engage a timer which gives them five minutes to figure a way out. Boston tries to send them all away, but Rich recognizes what he’s doing (in much the same way that Patterson realized that Rich was plagiarizing Harry Potter when he told them that Boston was dead). “I always thought we’d all end up together. All of us. Like some really good looking modern family,” Boston says, and he is not at all alone there. Trust us, Boston, that is what this entire fandom wants!

Kathy insists the only way she can defuse the bomb is by switching places with Boston, so they pile some weights on her as Boston attempts to be honest about his weight (a struggle that everyone who has been eating their way through quarantine and mainlining chocolate during this final season can relate to). The two of them trade places, and then Kathy tells them that there really isn’t any way to stop the timer. “Look, I created this mess. The attack on the power grid. Framing you guys and your friends. Helping Madeline find you... I just need to make it right.” She shoos them away, and they run and take cover, only to discover that the bomb has been disarmed and Kathy is gone.

And at the end of the day, Patterson and Rich were both right. Kathy did help them, and yes, she also played them. But can you really blame her for escaping at the end? She’s already been to prison, and she doesn’t want to go back. Yeah, her obsession with Rich and Patterson is a little weird, but it’s not all that different from Rich’s fascination with Jane and Weller, and he turned out okay. For all Kathy’s kookiness, she was honest about what she wanted. And in the end, Boston does pretty much exactly the same thing as Kathy does; he takes off instead of waiting around to see what the new director decides to do with them. Rich is our only convicted felon who is brave enough to stick around and hope for clemency.

Arla Grigoryan, the new Interim Director of the FBI has arrived in the NYO and her first order of business is to recall Weller et al from the field, where they are closing in on Ivy and the ZIP bombs. But the backup is too far out to get there in time, and so our heroes make the call to go after Ivy instead of following orders. I really want to believe that this decision won’t doom them at the FBI, but honestly, this season has been a lot more grim and loss-filled than we’re used to on this show, and my optimism is really running low.

Weller takes out Ivy’s thugs as Jane finds Ivy, loading the ZIP into the bombs. Ivy escapes through a door which locks behind her, trapping Jane in the room just as the ZIP bomb goes off. Knowing she has already been exposed, she does the only thing she can to protect Kurt and seals the airlock door. And for the second time in two weeks, the music swells as we watch someone mouth “I’m sorry” through a door before being obscured, and frankly, that is two times too damn many for my poor, broken heart.

So if those were the only bombs that Ivy had, the team just won, but nothing has ever felt less like a win. We know that Patterson has the antidote for ZIP, so it’s a good bet that she’s gonna be able to serve up a cure for Jane, but damn.

Everything hurts and I need more chocolate.

Y: I’m going to say this here and no one take it the wrong way. Nothing ever good has happened that has involved Kathy Gustafson! I was completely team Rich on this throughout the episode and was screaming at Patterson to not trust her and yes, I know she ultimately saved Boston’s life, but was it all worth it?!

Yes, Boston’s life is worth it, but I am sure the team would’ve saved him some other way, and they would’ve found the ZIP some other way too. Oh, and speaking of finding the ZIP, we all know how that ended so maybe not finding it would’ve been better? I’m sorry, but I am just very very upset and even with all the chocolate I’ve consumed, it has not helped, and I just want to team up with Rich and rant about Kathy for the next fifteen years.

I think I am mostly upset, also, that this being the penultimate episode, Tasha, Kurt and Jane got so little time because we were focused on the A Plot of the episode, and I was hoping we’d see more of them. There I said it. It’s all Kathy’s fault and I hate Kathy. In fact, everybody should hate Kathy. Maybe this could have been called Everybody Hates Kathy Part Two?

Okay, now that I have gotten this off my chest, I can relax—not really—and talk about something else. All the bantering and bickering and the shouting and the nerding aside, this episode provided an interesting character juxtaposition by including both Boston and Kathy along with Rich. These three in many ways fit in the same category, and Kathy really was trying to fit into the Rich Dotcom mold—if we’re going to believe her claim that she wanted to work with the FBI and get a similar deal. In many ways those three represent that category in its different phases, and they’ve been allowed evolve within it surrounded by different circumstances.

For Kathy, I think, she put it perfectly when she mentioned how lonely she is. We know that one of the main reasons Rich has been allowed to grow and develop is the fact that he was welcomed into this family and was surrounded by these people. Kathy has a lot of issues, not necessarily the same issues as Rich, but issues nonetheless. And maybe had she had the same nurturing environment that was allowed for Rich she could find a way to change and become better. The question is, does she want to? It seems that the concept of it is something that appeals to her, but then again, when she talks to Patterson after escaping, she tells them that they’re delusional.

Who knows what could be next for Kathy Gustafson, whether her love for chaos would overpower her inkling for good, if she’ll find the right environment to allow one to outgrow the other, or if she will continue to sway in the middle—one minute lending a hand to the good guys and the other minute dancing over the ashes of the city with the Madelines and Dominics of the world.

 Our team has been through so much, and they still haven’t gotten their lives back. But they just never, ever give up, especially not on each other. How are they staying strong, both individually and together, through this journey?

Y: All you need to know is that Patterson is not dead and she saves the world. Again.

Okay, maybe that’s not all you need to know, but it is at the core of what you need to know because William Patterson is alive! And if you think we’re happy about it, you should’ve seen how happy the team were! And if there was ever any doubt of how loyal this team are to each other, how supportive they are of each other, how far they’re willing to go to save each other, and how much stronger they are as a team, this episode denounces all those doubts.

First of all, the first of the double bill episodes gave us what will go down as two of the best reunions ever on Blindspot.

Maybe even three, because Afreen and Weitz’s discovery that Patterson is alive was just absolutely precious. Okay, maybe precious on Afreen’s end and absolutely adorably panicked on Weitz’s.

And then there are the reactions of both Tasha and Rich to Patterson being alive and nothing in the world could ever be so pure and also so heartbreaking. Tasha’s reaction made me smile and cry all the happy tears. But it was Rich’s quiet somber reaction that absolutely destroyed me. This man has come such a long way, and this relationship has grown to become one of the most honest and loving and genuine relationships on the show, and I am an emotional wreck.

Watching Patterson take full control to save her friends and to clear their names was a thing of magic. We know just how good she is. She has spent the last years proving day in and day out that she is the best. Simply the best. But it never ceases to amaze me when I watch her do her thing on screen. Seriously, my love for Patterson in this episode was almost all consuming that I cannot even bring myself to talk about things, you know, intellectually.

Patterson was her beautiful Patterson self. In the first episode she was everything we know she is. She survived the bunker explosion, found her way back to the US, saved Boston and then spent the day as the true leader that she is to get her friends out of lockdown and bring Madeline down. In the second episode, she again showed the true leader in her, and while I personally was on team Rich with regards to Kathy, I know Patterson did the right thing and that her decisions led to saving Boston and locating the ZIP. She displayed true leadership qualities, unparalleled empathy, and genuine belief in other people, in the concept that people can change and deserve second chances.

And at that she’s a much bigger person than I am.

L: Patterson isn’t our LeBron for nothing. She figured out how to survive the bunker explosion, rescue Boston, sneak into the FBI, save the team, and get the evidence they needed to stop Madeline. I’d appreciate her feats even more if I could stop crying for joy that she’s alive.

I am not going to lie; the reunions of the team members—especially when they realize Patterson is alive and well—are my favorite moments in these two episodes. And I honestly can’t decide which I loved more: Tasha’s “You are the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen” or Rich’s heartfelt “Promise me you won’t ever do that again.” This team is a family, and there is nothing more painful than believing you’ve lost a member of your family. This team has been through so much and lost so much, and this week I am crying tears of joy right along with them that they didn’t lose Patterson, too. For the first (and only) time, I’m glad that this season is so short, because if it was longer, there probably would have been a Patterson-free episode in the middle of this arc, and honestly, I don’t know if my heart could have taken that.

I think the thing that struck me most about Patterson in these two episodes is how all-around smart she is. She’s computer smart, we all know that. And she’s pretty damn good at disguises. But she’s also people smart, as we see in her decision to trust Kathy. She refuses to lie to her, she yells at Rich when she realizes he is deliberately slowing Kathy down. Okay, maybe she should have known that Kathy was lying about the bomb at the end, but also... maybe she did know, and went with it anyway.

I think Patterson understands Kathy better than anyone else. As we saw in the conversation between Rich and Patterson in last week’s episode, it’s not always easy to be the smartest person in the room. It might make people respect you, but it doesn’t always win you a lot of friends. Being part of the FBI team gave both Patterson and Rich (and Boston) a circle of close friends who look out for them and love them for their eccentricities, not in spite of them. Kathy has never had that, and it has been clear in all of their interactions that she’s been desperately trying to find that same kind of family of her own. And Patterson knows that Madeline and Dominic played on Kathy’s loneliness to reel her into their nefarious plans. Patterson was manipulated by Borden in the same way that Kathy was manipulated by Dominic, so of all of them, she is the one most likely to understand Kathy’s perspective.

So in summary... Patterson is smart, but she’s also got a really big heart. And that’s one of the reasons why we love her so damn much.

Y: These guys have been through hell this season. It’s true that no season has been easy, but this year has just felt like it’s been so much harder. With the loss of Reade, the endless string of losses to Madeline, and all the bad luck they’ve faced, it’s a true testament to who they are that they’re still hanging in there, still fighting, refusing to give up and determined to do the right thing.

And no one has had a rougher season than Tasha. She’s really had to dig very deep to continue to find strength and purpose to push forward. She hasn’t found it easy to open up to her teammates, but still she’s leaned on them when she’s needed them, and not once did they abandon her or let her down.

But Tasha has really shined in the moments where she’s been on her own and in a head to head confrontation with someone else. And she has done especially good when she’s come up against Madeline. In the brief scenes of the interrogation that we did see, Tasha once again was just fantastic, resilient, strong, fearless and the perfect antithesis to Madeline, as much as Madeline would want to believe that she and Tasha are the same.

And as much as that last scene on the plane with Madeline frustrated me for how it ended with Madeline, it was great for Tasha in that she finally got to finish the case that has taken so much from her over the past two seasons and to finally stand victorious in front of the woman who has literally destroyed her life in so many ways.

I don’t know how much Madeline taking her own life will feel like a victory for Tasha or if she too will take it as a cop out—like everything she had gone through has gone to waste. But I also hope that Tasha can find some peace after all of this and feel like she’s been on the right side of this whole thing all this time and that her sacrifices have not gone to waste.

L: Oh, Tasha. There’s no surprise that Tasha was the first one on the scene to capture Madeline. Facing down Madeline might be Tasha’s most powerful moment in this entire series. Madeline took literally everything from Tasha. Her professional reputation, her career at the CIA, her friend and mentor in Keaton, even her best friend and the man she loved. And Madeline knew that and gloated about it. I am sure there is nothing more Tasha wanted than to slap the cuffs around Madeline’s wrists, and I’m angry again at Madeline that she did not get that moment.

And I’m not going to lie, I’m worried about where Tasha goes from here. I think she’s been able to avoid really thinking about Reade’s death or the fact that she’s carrying his baby by focusing on taking Madeline down. Now that she has... what’s ahead of her now? She’s lost Keaton, too, and any chance of returning to the CIA. Is there a place for her at the FBI? And if so, can she still fit in there, if she even wants to be in a place where everything reminds her of Reade?

When they were on the run, the team was just focused on stopping Madeline and magically getting their lives back. But now they are finally admitting that it might not be that simple. As Kurt says, “We didn’t do what Madeline framed us for, but we did do a lot of other things. And... Grigoryan, she doesn’t know us. And on paper, we don’t look so good.” Tasha isn’t the only one to worry about their future, but she’s the one I’m most worried about, because her place is the least clear of all of them. Patterson is back in the lab, where she belongs, and if Grigoryan isn’t smart enough to do everything in her power to keep her there, then she’s not smart enough to run the FBI. Kurt and Jane will be with Bethany and Allie and Conor, either in NYC or in Colorado. Whatever is ahead of them, they’ll face together. And I think Rich and Boston will be much the same, even if they do it from the flirty distance they usually do. But Tasha? Stay with your family, Tasha. You know they will be there for you. And really... kids are a lot of work, and it’s hard to find babysitters you can trust.

Y: If season five should be remembered for one thing, it should be how we got to see Rich Dotcom finally become the best version of himself. He’s found his purpose, found his heart, found his family, found his strengths, found his light, learned how to balance it with his dark and embrace all the parts of himself.

I’ve talked about this before, and I am going to do it again, and it’s how season five has more than once brought back people from Rich’s past and put them side by side with Rich to compare the two. These people have presented who Rich was and who he would have been now had he not found this team, and it’s been really great seeing that comparison and appreciating Rich’s journey more and more.

The second episode in the double episode did that with two people—Boston and Kathy. In some ways, Kathy represents the other extreme to what Rich has become. The taste for chaos and anarchy that is left unchecked and giving in to every impulse that Kathy displays versus how Rich has evolved until—much to his annoyance—he often finds himself the voice of reason.

And with Boston, the phone call between them in the beginning of the episode provides insight as to how Boston, while trying to find that path that led Rich to where he is, isn’t there yet. If Kathy is on one end of the spectrum, Boston still finds himself in the middle, struggling to give up some of his older habits as he tells Rich “we have to take care of ourselves.” To which Rich replies, “Yeah, but that’s all we’ve ever done,” indicating that for Rich, these older habits are things they have to learn to move on from.

Boston is still stuck in that mindset, while Rich has moved on and is in a place where he would never abandon his team even if he knows it will lead to something horrible.

Finally, one last thing… I think what made me the proudest I have ever been of Rich is how he’d forgiven Matthew. I cried, people, I totally cried.

L: Yeah, that scene got me right in the feels. And I think it’s significant, because, like Weitz, Rich certainly vacillated between being out for himself and being a team player. It makes sense that he is the hardest on Weitz, not just because he got sent to a blacksite, but also because he is measuring Weitz by the yardstick he uses to measure himself. We are always the least tolerant of the flaws in others that we struggle with in ourselves. It’s safe to say that no matter what happens in the finale, Rich Dotcom has officially completed his amazing character arc. He’s successfully transitioned from self-serving criminal to full-on FBI team player. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy being Rich DotTwo, with all this new self-awareness and a highly developed conscience.

I loved Rich’s speech to the team at the start of 5.10. “Sorry, just before anyone else says anything heroic, may I remind you that we’re still wanted criminals.” One part of Rich’s evolution is this new, adult way of looking at things. “Best case scenario, we get fired. Worst case? I’ve been there before, and I don’t exactly plan to go back.” He understands what’s at stake, and he knows that—of all of them—he’s the least likely to get a deal at the end of all of this. So honestly, I couldn’t blame him if he wanted to run. But the thing is, he doesn’t, because the second part of Rich’s evolution is his newly-discovered skill of self-sacrifice (which, yes, he totally picked this up from the team as Madeline describes, “These people have made falling on their swords into an art form.”). He can’t leave the team to see this through on their own, knowing that he could help, even when it means giving up on the idea of a future with Boston. When Boston tells him that they need to look out for themselves, Rich tells him, “Yeah, but that’s all we’ve ever done.” Being a part of this team is the first time he’s been part of something bigger than himself, and it’s the first time he’s gone out of his way to do the right thing just because it’s the right thing—and it’s even more poignant because of what he is giving up—the chance to run away and build a new life with Boston. And even if you’re not Rich, it’s a tough call—save the world or save your future with the person you love? But in this context, knowing how far Rich has come and how hard he’s worked to get to this point... It’s an impossible call, and I’m all the more proud of him for making it.

Y: One last, probably completely unnecessary note, but I cannot be the only one who freaked out when Ivy grabbed Boston’s hand to cut off his finger, right? Forget hacking, the man is an artist, and he needs those fingers!! Fortunately, she left him with nine so his art career isn’t ruined.

And I know I was a bit tough on Boston in my review, but I do love me some Boston Arliss Crab. Since his days of bantering with Patterson are over, I am glad we got to see some with Kathy. Josh Dean is really good at that. And he’s also good at many other things. His humor is fantastic, he has amazing chemistry with Ennis and with Ashley, and in these two episodes he really got to shine. It’s hard to believe that Boston is only a recurring character. It feels like he’s been part of the show for so long and such an integral part of it.

I just love them all so much and I am very emotional—and yes, I am writing this on the day of the finale, just hours before it airs, so I am extra emotional. If that is even possible.

 Like the rest of their team, Kurt and Jane go through a lot in these two hours of television, only to finish on a terrifying note. How do they tackle these challenges, both together and alone, and what do we think this means for their future?

Y: Was it just me or was Kurt extra barky in the second hour of this double episode? He just seemed a bit more growly than usual. And yes, I am talking about this to avoid talking about the… other thing.

There are other things I’m willing to talk about as well. Mainly all the awesome Kurt things that happened this week. Like the rest of the team, Kurt during the interrogation was as badass as we’ve known Kurt Weller to be. He was absolute fire, stubborn as hell, defiant, and so confident in his team. Honestly, that sequence was close to the most badass we have ever seen the team—all of them.

But I think the most badass Kurt scene is—not just in this episode but maybe in the history of badass Kurt moments—is him taking out six armed mercenaries on his way to rescue Jane. Excuse me, but what was that? I don’t know about you, but I cannot stop watching this scene, watching this man do literally the impossible to save his wife and become an entire army himself to get to her.

The Jeller reunion was quintessentially Jeller. It involved some badass fighting, trademark Jeller softness, and of course the adorable flirting during a life and death situation. This is our ship. This is the ship we’ve loved for five years.

And then there was Kurt’s reunion with Bethany. Sigh… that was just the purest thing ever and Little Bee is the most precious little girl ever. That scene melted my heart and soul and Bethany telling her dad to hurry back to her absolutely destroyed me. So I can only imagine what it did to poor Kurt.

L: One of my favorite Kurt Weller scenes in these two episodes is at the start of 5.10, when he stands in the middle of SIOC and basically announces that he doesn’t have any authority there anymore. He tells the gathered agents that the team is not there to take over. They are there to help... if they’re wanted. And he leaves the choice up to them. We’ve talked a lot about how different members of the team have shown leadership this season, and those examples have frequently contrasted with Madeline’s dictatorial style. And this moment showed us so much about what kind of a leader Kurt is. He doesn’t tell them what they should do. He lets them make that call. As we’ve mentioned before: Kurt Weller never asks anyone to take a risk that he wouldn’t take. And he respects the people who look to him for leadership. He asks for their input, he respects their opinions (even when they disagree with his own), and he gives them the choice of doing what their consciences dictate. In short, he is the exact opposite of Madeline and is the best leader that any of them could ask for.

And yeah, he’s also a devoted husband and father. We just really love Kurt Weller, okay??

Y: Oh! How could I forget to mention that scene in the opening of 5.10. That was… just beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Everything we love about Kurt Weller and then some. Seeing him standing in the middle of SIOC, in his natural born leader pose… it just makes me happy… and it’s such a perfect parallel to the scene in the Pilot as well. Yes, I know we have had several of those scenes, but that one from the Pilot really jumped at me.

Now… onto Jane… Jane, Jane, Jane...

Not to be outdone by her husband, who is willing to fight six fully armed men while he himself is not armed, Jane does the thing we all expected her to do—sacrifice herself for her team. I had a feeling Jane would do this. We know Jane. We’ve known her long enough to know that she would be the first to fall on her sword to protect everyone else. That’s what makes her Jane. That’s what we love about her. And I know that Madeline would not have honored the deal, but Jane really didn’t have much of choice and it’s so true to who she is that she would do that.

But sometimes Jane’s willingness to sacrifice herself to save those she loves can become a little too much and cause us a little too much pain. And I am still not ready to discuss this.

L: Jane’s self-sacrificing nature is simultaneously one of the things I love most about her and one of the things that makes me yell at my television screen like a crazy person.

We already know that Jane blames herself for, well, everything. And to some degree, she’s not entirely wrong. Her arrival in Times Square did put this story in motion. But that doesn’t mean it’s all her fault. The cases the team followed, the corruption they were fighting... all of that was already there, whether Jane showed up or not. If her tattoos hadn’t led the team there, something or someone else might have. There’s no guarantee that Shepherd—or even someone else—wouldn’t have put some other plan into action if Remi hadn’t returned from Afghanistan willing to join Sandstorm. And it’s not fair to blame her for the actions of others—for Oscar or Crawford or Madeline. And even if Jane can’t admit it, an awful lot of good came from her joining the team. All the criminals they put behind bars, all the evil plans they stopped, and all the innocent lives they saved. As Tasha put it, “Do you realize how many times this team has saved the world?”

But we know all of this has been weighing on Jane’s mind all season. And then we add in the weight of Patterson’s “death”; Patterson, who was the first person to welcome Jane to the team and who saved Jane’s life from her lab so many times out in the field. And finally, add the knowledge that Kurt will never get to be there to watch Bethany grow up, when Jane has already sacrificed her own happiness once before to ensure that Kurt would have this future. So it’s really no surprise at all that Jane is willing to accept all the blame for the team’s “crimes” in exchange for Madeline’s promise that the team will be treated fairly and sent to federal prison instead of an anonymous blacksite.

And similarly, it was no surprise at all that, when faced with the prospect of exposing Kurt to ZIP or taking all the risk herself, Jane would choose again to sacrifice herself. It’s who she is. It’s who she was as Remi—willing to sacrifice herself to stop the corruption they saw in the government—and it’s who she is as Jane. Like Kurt, she won’t ask anyone to take a risk that she won’t take, and if she has to sacrifice herself to save her husband or the rest of her family? Well, then there really isn’t a choice to be made.

Look, I am not worried about Jane. We know that Patterson has the stem cells and the cure for ZIP. Jane’s gonna be fine. Honestly, I’m a lot more worried about how Kurt is going to deal with Jane having her memory wiped.

Y: Okay, enough days have passed that I think I am ready to talk about that last scene in 5.10. If the elevator kiss in 5.08 was peak Power Couple Jeller, then the final scene of 5.10, with Jane in the world’s worst Escape The Room situation, is peak Epic Tragic Jeller. First from Jane’s perspective, this is such a Jane thing to do—sacrificing herself for the ones she loves. And that moment right there reminded me so much of 1.15, when Jane goes on the run to protect the team from Cade, and in the end when Kurt confronts her about it, and she asks him what he would have done in her place. And to that, Kurt replied that he would have done the same.

And he would have. In both situations, Kurt would have done exactly what Jane did.

And that is why these two will always be the most epic of ships—tragic, legendary, heartbreaking, a love story for the ages. As heartbreaking as that scene was, and what it sets up, and as nervous as it makes us going into the finale, it just seems right that Jeller get to go through something this huge in the finale. Every season finale has put Jeller through the impossible, so it is in typical Jeller tradition that the series finale puts them through even a harder final ordeal than ever before.

I don’t know what is going to happen. I am braced for the worst and hoping for the best. But what I do know is that this ship has for five seasons been perfect—well, almost perfect. They’ve made us laugh and cry and flail and swoon and cry some more and flail some more. They’ve been through everything—and put us through everything—and it’s only appropriate that at the end of the day they go through one final challenge that really tests who they are and who they’ve become and that beautiful bond between them.

I’m terrified and excited and scared and worried and at the edge of my seat.

And I have faith.

I have faith.

----------

Which brings us almost to the end of the fifth and final season of Blindspot. How has this season met your expectations? Is there anything that you need to see in the last episode? Come talk to our Ask Box. Or just come and wail about how much you love this show and don’t want it to end.

—Laura & Yas 

[lokiondisneyplus]

EXCLUSIVE: Rafael Casal (Blindspotting) is set for a major role in the upcoming second season of Disney+’s Marvel series Loki, sources tell Deadline.

A rep for Marvel declined comment but word of Casal’s casting started trickling out when a photo from the set of Season 2 leaked online. It features Casal walking alongside Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson, who are back, reprising their roles as anti-hero Loki and Mobius, respectively. Details about Casal’s character are being kept under wraps; online speculation includes a hypothesis that he could be playing Zaniac.

Following strong reviews and record viewing numbers for the original installment, Loki became the first Marvel series for Disney+ to get a second season.

Loki is set in a Marvel Cinematic Universe-adjacent world, in which the God of Mischief is a fish-out-of-water when he lands in trouble with the bureaucratic TVA (Time Variance Authority) after absconding with the Tesseract.

As Deadline reported in February, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are co-directing a majority of the episodes in the new season. Hiddleston and Michael Waldron, who wrote and served as showrunner in Season 1, executive produce. Eric Martin is penning all six episodes.

Casal, along with Daveed Diggs, co-wrote, produced and starred in the 2018 movie Blindspotting. The two co-created and executive produce Starz’s Blindspotting series spinoff, which debuted earlier this year, with Casal as showrunner and reprising his role from the movie. The series, which has been renewed for a second season, earned an Indie Spirit Award and Gotham Award nominations for Best New/Breakthrough series. Casal’s acting credits also include Good Lord Bird, Bad Education and Are You Afraid of the Dark?

[popculturebuffet]

Big City Greens: The Chip Whistler Saga (A 13 Episode Retrospective) (Comissioned by WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy people! We got a long one today but one i'm glad to finally cover as it's been a long overdue review blindspot. Despite this blog being built on Disney Channel's original animation, what with my Ducktales Season 3 reviews both starting my animation reviews and netting me Kev as a frequent comissioner, self proclaimed editor and basically producer of this blog and providing me with a lot of my fanbase, with my reviews of Owl House and Amphibia following it only growing from there. Disney is a vital foundation to this blog being the subject of a good chunk of my output, both paid and on my own time.

Despite this though there's been a bit of a blind spot. A show that just didn't fit regular coverage that well, so I haven't covered it week to week but that's defintely deserved SOME kind of review all this time, I just never realized I hadn't covered it at all till Kev came up with the idea of doing this arc. It's finally time for me to cover Big City Greens. Big City Greens is the brainchild of The Houghton Brothers, Chris and Shane, who previously worked on the criminally underated Harvey Beaks, a slice of life show with mild chaos and a charming large supporting cast from Chowder and Jellystone god among men CH Greenblat.

Big City Greens takes a lot of it's DNA from Harvey, being a somewhat chill slice of life show that still revels in slapstick and over the top worldbuilding, has a mostly feral child as one of the leads (as well as a good safe boy who tries to color between the lines). But while some of where the brothers Houghton came from is evident, and welcome given how much I love and still miss Harvey Beaks, and fear for it's little sister Jellystone for obvious reasons, Big City Greens is still very much it's own work with a unique identity: The Houghtons having grown up in a rural area and moved to the city for college, used the memories of this culture clash and their own childhoods to craft the tale of a charming country family forced to move to the city and getting into shenanigans after their forced to sell the family farm. It's like the Beverly Hillibillies if they hadn't become the 1%.

The show is nice mix of grounded yet zany, reminding me a lot of the simpsons (Which the Houghtons admit was a major inspiration): The world can get as goofy as needed for a joke, from mad scientiests using the family as Guinea pigs, to the family arch enemy using a mad max style coffee cart and just shooting it at people (more on that later), or the entire family deciding the best way to get rid of Cricket's annoying singing Barracuda toy behind his back is to flat out murder it with an axe, a stove and the lawnmower but the main cast themselves are grounded: Still hilarious but utterly relatable and realistic. Our heroes deal with class inequality, homesickness, not feeling like you fit in somewhere you moved, influencers abusing children, predatory businesses, and more things without loosing it's charm or a step. It's a throughly engaging show that never once stops charming the pants off you.

It's also the only one of the few animated shows Disney hasn't in some way treated like crap: The show is up to it's fourth season, a rarity for the network, hasn't been shuffled around time wise, is well promoted and is even getting a movie for Disney+ I can't help but be excited about. It's likely because unlike Disney's other greats like Ducktales, Amphibia or Owl House i'ts not seralized outside of one or two arcs, so it's easy to just throw episodes on. Plus Disney Logic dictates that kids don't like ongoing storylines or engaging characters even when it's transparently obvious they do and one of your biggest all agest franchies is built on that foundation, just like this blog is built on a foundation of praising the work creators put out for Disney while sighing heavily at the company that actually puts it out for near constantly fucking up.

So while apparently there are some who don't like the show for this, feeling it dosen't deserve it's sucess or it's somehow responsible for Owl House or Ducktales getting the shaft…

i've never been one of them. Sure it's a show I can fall behind on, tends to happen with me and slice of life as the lack of impetus to watch every week means I can let it pile up like the dumb dumb I am, but it's a show I highly respect and stands proudly next to the other standouts of the era. It's good at what it does, it's charming and it's hilarious.

So I was happy to cover it's biggest arc to date and one of the few running through it, which also happily runs into some other major plot points and episodes along the way. It tis the saga of the series only Big Bad to date, the only real true villian in a series full of minor jerks and a guy Vasquez knew once. A guy who seemed like he'd just be a jerk but went full on supervillian as the show went on. It's time to talk about Chip Whistler: If you don't know him your about to and if you don't know the greens thi sis a nice crash course as we weave both through his appearances and the episodes that enrich said appearances. So sit right back as I spin a yarn I like to call the Chip Whistler Saga

Welcome Home We start at the very top of the series and before we even get to the episode i've already run head first into a very familiar problem: The airing order. For the longest time Disney had a bad habit of just airing whatever episodes it felt like for a series instead of you know what the creators actually meant to make chronlogical sense. Ducktales 2017's first season is the most famous victim of this, with Disney's often arbtirary shuffling of the episodes meaning the intended, delicate ballance the creators had for the season was thrown off badly and for years many, including me, blamed the creative team till it got cleared up this wasn't their fault.

So it's not a huge shock Big City Greens, which came out a year after, got the same treatment, and thus the Disney+ order is different from the airing order. In most cases it's not a huge deal as while BCG has a strong continuity, something that only intensifies from season 2 onward, the plot important episodes are still mostly in about the same place: some come up earlier, some come up slightly later, but their all where they should be and unlike Ducktales where the episode pacing was a very tight balancing act, most of Big City Greens episodes are breezy slice of life numbers that can be put anywhere and those that NEED to be at the right place in a season are where they belong regardless of the list.

As such this seems to be, feel free to point out in the comments if i'm wrong, one of the few very noticable exceptions. THe series still works perfectly with Space Chicken as the start, it's what got me into the series and while I ocasionally forget to watch it it's never left my heart since that episode, but it's still weird to have an episode about the Greens moving in that was clearly produced to go first and explains some important things (Why the Greens are in the city and how Bill lost his finger) from the get go moved a ways down instead of just paired with space chicken as intended.

The episode itself is decent, getting Cricket, Tilly, Bill and Alice's characters across really well: Cricket is good hearted but incredibly egotistical, impulsive and has a bad habit of not listening to his dad, Tilly is soft, good natured, loves animals, but is also spacey and naive and Bill is well meaning but often too passive. (Or prideful but that comes later and his mom is well.. she's the kind of woman who takes lateness from her Son and grandchildren not as a sign their lost but as a sign she needs to fake her death to teach them a lesson. That really is Alice green in one sentence.

It's just a fairly standard plot of a bunch of characters unfamiliar with the city getting lost in it. Plenty of good jokes and a decent start, but not much else to say. It might be WHY it got delayed (even if again it comes off very weird to just plop it mid season) as Space Chicken , only having to introduce Remy and Gloria and only being off in that Tilly isn't a main character yet and thus Remy gets way more focus than her, just flows a mite better. Still worth watching and I still recommend the + order as it flows SLIGHTLY better.

Critterball Crisis:

So next up we get to the eps we need proper with Critterball Crisis, which gives us a proper introduction to Gloria. While she first debuted in Space Chicken with the rest of the non-nancy main cast (We'll get to her in a moment), this is the episode that startings fleshing her out into the depressed, insecure, grumpy mess we all know and relate to.

This also is where I started to notice a pattern, a type of episode the show really likes to go back to and showed up a lot during this marathon: "Cricket Screws Everything Up" Cricket does something impulsive, selfish or misguided, and his actions result in consequences for someone else and sometimes also himself he has to work to make up for, learning a lesson from the experince. Wethere the lesson sticks is a coin flip, but it still works since he's well 10. It took a long time for me , a 30 year old man to learn some lessons that seem obvious in hindsight. It does explain why some fans dislike the character though, as while he is endearing to me and does grow as the series progresses, I get when your watching every episode as opposed to a few every so often that having a character be the sole cause of conflict every other week can be tiring.

In this case Critter invents Critterball, basically Calvinball but with Livestock, and naturally pitches a ball into the cafe, angering Gloria who understandably is just trying to do her job. She tells him to not pitch any more balls over the fence.. and he ignores it and he , Tilly and Remy just pitch balls over anyway. Shockingly Gloria does not want to give the ball back, making her the first cranky person to not return a ball accidently pitched over a fence to be justifably mad as this is a place of buisness, it's wrecked the outside of the cafe, and could cost her a job as Food Service Bosses geninely don't give a shit whose fault it was and expect you to magically fix it.

I do like that the episode is clearly built to grow with the audience and fit both kids and adults: kids watching would likely side with Cricket, while any teen or adult whose worked a thankless job like Gloria's for too little money will likely understand WHY she's so pissed off at a child for wrecking her work place, giving her EXTRA work and then wanting his balls back to do it all again without a hint of regret. To a kid she's just the mean lady not giving Cricket his balls back.

I also love the scene after this where Cricket tries schmoozing her by asking about her effiel tower. I'm also glad I first saw this episode for this review as with the hindsight of later episodes, it provides both a great window into the character and some foreshadowing: For the former it shows she dreams of going to Paris, to explore the city of lights and finally get everything she wanted: her own cafe, a boyfriend (if one who CLEARLY is horrified a stranger just proposed to him. Even in her fantasies she can't win. I mean i'd do it, but i'm also an orangutan with nothing better to do with my time. I'm not a stubbly fantasy frenchman and i'm okay with that), a life. It shows right from the start one of her bigger flaws: the assumption she needs to do something big and grandoise with her life to be a success. It also hints at her starting the Cafe at the end of season 3, and solidfies she LIKES working in a cafe, something I genuinely didn't realize about her till she opened up the Gloria + Green cafe. She always seemed miserable but turns out it's just working minimum wage. Can. Relate.

Naturally Cricket's big idea for getting his balls back

Is to steal Gloria's Effiel tower and hold it hostage.

Naturally he ends up breaking it and while he is sorry, it's too late. Gloria is gone now. There is only vengeance in a gloria shaped shell destroying their balls leading to a brawl in the cafe Gloria nearly gets fired over because her day apparently cannot get worse. Thankfully both for Gloria and the Audience's Tolerance of Cricket, Cricket comes clean and offers to work off the debt and thus a brother sister relationship is forged by an act of true integrity and repentance. And also a dodgeball themed war involving the effiel tower and far animals. Just like all sibling bonds.

Supermarket Scandal

So now we get to the actual Chip Whistler portion of this Chip Whistler retrospective. And once again this episode is Cricket's Fault, this time somehow topping himself with harassing an innocent employee for making his actions have consequences by going behind his dad's back to try and fill an order to Wholesome Foods, which is unsubtle as heck but also a really nice parody name glad this show got to it first, that bill turned down, then trying to stick in a bunch of dangerous fake vegtables to fill said order.

As you can tell this episode dosen't quite work: The lesson Bill is trying to teach cricket, letting quality go over profit and letting the quality of the work speak for itself, something I try my best to do, it's a good one as is Tilly's lesson to combine Cricket's showmanship with Bills ethics. But the episode isn't all that funny apart from a mime breaking his ten year vow of silence.

Thankfully what salvages it is Chip himself whose just.. hilariously slimy. He instantly makes the audience recoil at his presence, from calling the greens hillbillies outright, to wiping his hand after finding out Bill is missing a finger. It does make Cricket's not all that likeable actions and getting away with them (only having to give up the money which bill likely would've made him give up anyway for pulling all this, so no actual consequence), work as you don't care that he ripped off this guy in paticular, and thanks to bill and tilly he gets all the fake food sans one piece back before anyone innocent bites it. He also actively warns chip against chewing an apple later after the greens start selling the fake food outright as fake food, so his first chipped tooth is ENTIRELY his fault for not listening. He vows revenge anyway.

I also have to give it to Chip's VA Paul Scheer. Scheer is an actor i've always loved, from his sadly short lived and underated Sketch Show human giant, to his various other voice acting roles to his amazing podcast with his wife June Diane Rapheael and my surrogate creepy uncle Jason Mantzokus, How Did This Get Made?. He's a top not comedian and having played smug before easily slips into Chip's entitled, condesnding hipster rich boy shoes and beaded braclet he wears around his ankle because apparently he needs extra douche points. Maybe he wins a free sundae. But Scheer handles chip both at this point and for the next few eps as a bumbling man baby.. and his slow transition into a slowly decaying manbaby whose become unhinged as he attempts to get revenge.

Family Legacy

This is one I already loved when I first saw it, but ended up being a textbook episode of an Innocuously Important Episode: An episode that, to quote Wayne Campbell "Seemed Extraneous at the time" but ends up being vital to a future story. In this case we learn the Green Family Farm has a habit of nearly being sold once a generation, usually requiring the child of the family to find some way to save it despite their parent having already given up. While it seems the episode, a treasure hunt for the lost family treasure that nearly gets grandma to sell when it turns out to be heirlooms, only to realize the whole point of those was to not sell and that a family's legacy is important and all that, as we'll see and most of you likely know the actual trial is to come and that indeed Bill will have pretty much given up already and be more than willing to leave.

The episode itself is really fun: not only is the treasure hunt aspect engaging, but the various flashbacks are neat, from a Cricket-Esque ancestor going on horesback to sell the Green's goods after the train stop they were counting on ends up being moved down a few miles, to Amelia Eirhart Tilly saving the farm with a cropdusting, to finally the most badass which naturally goes to Alice, whose response to finding water and her dad being...

Which is somehow genetic in this universe. So she STEALS THE NEARBYE BULLDOZER THING, WHATEVER IT IS AND USES IT TO DIG UP THE WATER AND SAVE THE FARM.

Don and Dawn, the realtor couple trying to get her to sell are also hilarous, just being way too chipper and apparently having just been. .waiting on the other side of the greens fence till Alice decided to sell. Either way a very good episode with suprising implications for later. Next!

Feud Fight

This one is solid. It's also the first Chip Episode I saw, but does a good job catching you up if you didn't see Supermarket Scandal and is easily the better of the two, as while Cricket once again causes some of the plots problem, he's coming from a good place: It's Farmers Market Time again and Bill puts Cricket and Tilly in charge of the stand after Alice drags him off to go find a hot pepper. We end up getting a fun , utterly hilarious sideplot about a weird pepper man out of it and Griffin McElroy utterly nails it as said weird pepper man while Bill is just . .baffled by all of it and Alice is ambivlant if happy to finally find a pepper spicy enough.

The reason we're here though is Chip is back and naturally has opened up a stand for Wholesome Foods directly across from our heroes. It's also hilariously sad that a rich manchild picking a fight with an actual child with a lower social standing for entirely stupid and petty reasons is something that not only feels like it's already happened but i'm shocked dosen't happen more.

This is also what makes Cricket actually justified in wanting to do an antic for once: While Bill did simply tell him to protect the stand in his mind chip is a threat to that. He has reason to do this for revenge, to do this to try and stay true, to do it for the ones who had to go on an extended pepper sidequest and doing it for you. Chip is trying to run down a small buisness that badly needs the money simply because of something stupid he did and was warned not to.

What makes the episode work though is while Cricket going after chip feels justfied.. it's still the wrong move. Revenge can feel good in the moment.. but it often sprials, not ending till something truly awful has already occurred. Thankfully this is a fairly light show so we haven't worked up to murder YET but going after chip in the most hilarous way possible (Tilly pretending to be a bedsheet ghost.. without having even cut out eyeholes and claming the foods haunted while everyone just believes her and Chip is somehow the voice of reason for once pointing out how obvious a con this is), only causes things to sprial. Sure it starts with him making japanese mascot Tomato San "dance tomato san dance" which is easily my faviorite line reed of Scheers across this arc, and one I BADLY hope somehow got quoted on how did this get made.

It gets actually damaging though when Chip starts blasting coupons out of a van which threatens not just the heroes stand but every other stand and before you know it

With Cricket and the other farmers marketers on one side, Chip and his employees who aren't getting paid near enough for this on the other. Tilly thankfully snaps her brother out of his blood rage before he kills a man.. I mean it's a justifable homicide but still he's too young to kill a man. Let him hit puberty first. Then the blood harvest can begin.

It's a fantastic character moment as Cricket sees the damage he's caused both the other farmers and the stand and that in giving into his anger, letting his rightful anger at chip ballon into vengeful rage, that he's become only marginally better than the enemy. And to the kids credit and showing just WHY he's still likeable despite screwing up: he always tries to make up for it. Some efforts ring truer than more, but this one defintely does as he drops his tomatoes, and generally tries to make peace with chip.

Chip, as his his nature as we'll see, screws himself over: Chip is so petty and vindictive that he GENUINELY can't fathom someone doing something for any reason other than spite, and assumes Cricket is planning to attack or something and thus pelts a child with tomatoes. And not just like one or two as one of his employees puts out he DESTROYS Cricket. This turns EVERYONE against him with a bunch of employees walking out (some come back as everyone needs a job and all), and Chip blaming Cricket for his own self made prison, going into a mad rant once Bill returns and trying to eat all their food.

It does not as he eats the peppers, melts his new teeth and once again blames the Greens for his problems. While the previous episode set up important parts of Chip, his arrogance, lack of empathy and complete inablaity to take any responsiblty for his own action, this episode really cements it.. and their only going to intensifiy from here.

Coffee Quest

We're back to Chip already

And thankfully also Gloria as we get one of my faviorite episodes. The setup is simple: There's a coffee bean shortage just as Cricket and Gloria are really getting on each others nerves, Cricket having been working the Coffee job for a few episodes now, and like any good siblings are just about to throw down when Mrs. Cho, the owner of the cafe who only speaks in grunts that Gloria can only understand because they share a voice actress, comes in and has a proposition: There's a shipment of coffee beans coming in, vital to keep the cafe going during this. If our heroes can get there and back again, Cricket's debt is solved and I assume Gloria gets a crown like the queen she is or something. I don't know what she gets out of this other than being free of Cricket, which is nice and all but given this is a woman often living paycheck to paycheck, you MIGHT want to give her a cut of the loot. Could pay off an iota of her student loans, just saying forgivness hadn't kicked in yet. She needs this.

The twos conflict dosen't really SETTLE, but Cricket does prove invulable at the bean site, where every coffee joint in town is waiting and the suplier is more than willing to have them fight it out and let whoever emerges bloody and triumphant from the wreckage get it. Thankfully Cricket just super mario jumps on their heads, acrobats his way past his competttion and various other feats, so getting the bag is easy.

Keeping it.. .is while sadly not a warriors style ordeal about a bunch of diffrent coffee groups, maybe someday , maybe someday, it's still an ordeal since ya know Chip is back. Made it pretty obvious. It's the ONLY time in this arc and in general his main goal isn't fucking with Cricket. I mean he still makes time for it, as a good arch should, but he's here more because Wholesome Foods is also after the bag. Getting to fuck over Cricket is just an executive bonus. He also entirely misreads the room and hits on Gloria, who properly responds to his skeezy come ons by sweeping the leg. Sensei Kreese would be proud. Turns out Gloria knows Tae Kwan, Tae Kwan, Tae Kwan Doe!, and while she hasn't had to use it against the ninja yet the series is young.

Gloria and Cricket are on good terms again, having bonded but needing to escape. Cricket quickly screws up the good vibes by taking Gloria's car and trashing it, but doing so at least gets Chip's van out of the way and gives them time to hide.

This is where the episode really shines: While the frantic chase between our heroes and chip is fun and all and the actoin is at it's peak here, especailly for a series that only has action sequences every so often is awesometastic, what really makes the episode is this scene as our heroes end up hiding in Gloria's apartment and while we got a hint at who she was with "Critterball Crisis" and "Paint Misbehavin" (which we'll get to in a future BCG retrospective... yes folks if you want it there's even more planned), this one finsihes fleshing her out with a twist that genuinely suprised me when I watched the ep: Gloria ISN'T from the city. While it's easy to tell in this episode as she talks up being a city girl so much that it's clear she isn't, it's not something you'd guess but its something that adds depth to her: like yours truly, Gloria grew up in the suburbs, with two loving parents and left for Big City to try make SOMETHING of her life after college. I deeply relate to feeling like your wasting your life and badly wanting something anything to make you feel special. Just some sort of purpose. Instead of giving her that going to big city has just exausted her. It's also why she lashes out at Cricket so much: while part of it's antic, a lot of it's simply him being her mirror: he's also a fish out of water in a city that seems to actively reject him at time.. and yet he's also settled incredibly well, tackling everything with far more confidence than her, getting rewarded for it far more often, and easily attracting friends. He's happy in his own skin and she simply isn't and wonders if she'll ever fit.

It's what makes Gloria such a perfect mirror to the greens: Most of the Greens are optimists (With Alice, whose once bad day from trying to murder everything and everyone who isn't related to her, being the obvious exception). They try to belive the best in people, work hard, and make the most of each day. Even Bill who tends to be the most anxious and the most likely one to crash things to reality, still tries his best and tries to be a good person despite life having repeadtly wacked him upside the head having seen his dad die at a young age, loosing most of the family farm because his mom had to refocus on taking care of him, a divorce with someone he clearly still carries somewhat of a torch for and vice versa, said ex-wife going to jail for a while for trying to HELP him, and loosing the farm despite her sacrifice. Despite ALL of that bill still keeps going.

Gloria is TRYING to keep going... but unlike our heroes dosen't have a support system: Her parents love her but as the show will bear out also put a LOT of pressure on her without realizing it. Her friends don't seem all that close and her one roomate is a parrot who repeats the things she says in her lowest moments, talking about her being so lonely and missing home or having eaten a whole carton of ice cream in one go. It's no wonder she's barely holding on by this ep, and as we'll see while Cricket's sweet earnestness that he's there for her helps, it can't fix a problem this deep. Our heroes only get this far because they have each other and it's by them gladly letting Gloria in that she starts to heal and grow as a person.

The climax is also spectacular as Cricket (or rather Gloria with Cricket telling her the number), calls Tilly for an assit and we get our heroes racing chip in a chariot and winning.. and the bittersweet realization that Cricket and Gloria's time working together is over. Naturally since the Houghtons aren't done with this setup JUST yet, it dosen't last and heartwarmingly Gloria breaks stuff, pins it on cricket iwth his approval and our heroes are reunited.. and one of them is massively in debt again!

Phoenix Rises

We now get to one of the biggest twists in the series history, done early so you all know and love it but when I first saw a clip of this eps ending my jaw dropped.

The episode itself is a heartwrenching story as Phoenix, the green's lovable red rug of a dog whose as old as cricket and thus getting on in years, suddenly darts off, with Cricket blaming it on him half assing a brushing job for the old gal. WE can see that Phoenix just smelled SOMETHING and took off, but to a kid whose dog may be gone for good it's just eating the poor kid alive. For once Cricket didn't do anything terrible, just slacked off slightly on a chore. Phoenix dosen't seem to care if she gets brushed or not. So it's almost 11 minutes of the poor boy beating himself up and looking for the dog and coming oh so close only to keep failing again and again, eventually coming home defeated. I mean it's not over, as Bill puts it they will keep looking they just can't all night and it's not his fault. It's really excellent stuff and easily some of Chris' best acting as he really sells that feeling when a pet gets lost and your not sure they'll make it home. Top notch stuff

Thankfully Phoenix DOES come back... and he brought a guest. A mystery biker who Bill makes a playful coomment about getting out of jail and lifts her helmet. And this is where my jaw, and Remy's represnting us dropped originally as the kids say one thing that instantly turns this on it's head and explains everything "Mom!"

See for those newer to the series who might of met Nancy BEFORE this, as after this she's main cast, you have to understand that for the first 2/3 of season 2 the kids mom was an enigma. She dosen't come up much, but the kids also don't see mournful of her either, yet refrence her recently enough ti's clear she HAS been in their lives. It's not clear if she and Bill are divorced, seperated or what. With this it becomes clear both where she's been AND sends her back into their lives. And that this episode was just the cliffhangery warmup that after a few important episodes leads into the real reason I covered this one, Nancy's proper debut..

Uncaged

This is an episode I already liked on first watch but got better. It's not every cartoon that would say "Ex-Con Rights" but i'm glad one did and this one does it exellently

Nancy did mess up: While she tried freeing some dairy cows from a corporate farm for the right reasons (said farm not treating them well and as we'll learn threatning her familes livelyhood), she admits it cost her time with her kids, dosen't plan to do crime again, and is by all accounts a vibrant woman who her kids love. She's got the "cool parent" vibes, but she's shown to be a very good mom, to the point that when Cricket wants to follow in her footsteps and break out an orangutan she calls him a good kid and tells him not to.

The problem dosen't come from Nancy herself, but from everyone else. For the kids Cricket worries he's not cool enough and thus stupidly tries to break out the orangutan, worrying her calling hi ma "good kid' means sh'es not impressed by him. She is she just dosen't want to land him in prison which given this retrospective so far is a valid concern. This leads to our heroes having to get all the animals back, which has a ton of fun bits, the standouts to me personally being the turtle who gets stuck in a club and our heroes have to crowdsurf out and the Giraffe who eats Greg's Nicose salad.. which quickly escalates to him blasting his boyfriend for not liking his cooking then begging they just let him have this and let the giraffe finish eating. God bless you man, god bless you.

The issue.. is everyone else. Alice is just awful.. and not in her usual loveable curmudgeon sort of way. She hates nancy which as the show will prove she always has but uses her being an ex-con as an excuse to be cruel to her and wants her not around the kids despite having done her time and served her sentence. Bill at least TRIES to be a mature adult, letting her take the kids overnight as he should and fighting his worse instincts: while alice gets in his head about the prison thing, he tries fighting it for the longest time before eventually surrendering to worry. In the end when he sees Nancy apparently helpping the police and hugging the kids, having clearly not been behind the nights animal antics or at least trying to stop it, he realizes he was right and basks in it. He shoudln't too hard, as again he crumbled fairly easily, but it shows how these ingrained society prejudices against former convicts can affect even GOOD people

Then there's Officer Keys who never really recovered from this episode with me. The houghtons acurratly portray how the system, represented by Keys who at least is played amazingly by Andy Daly. Keys is normally a kind officer.. but with Nancy he automatically assumes she's behind the Zoo breakout, chases her around town and generally ignores the actual problem or her clearly trying to fix it in favor of locking her back up. He only relents when the kids confess they aren't and let's everyone go. Granted it's hilarious as his partner points out it probably shoudln't work that way but gavel gavel, case dismissed. The system dosen't WANT Nancy to do better, they just wait for her to possibly mess up. Thankfully she survives it and the episode ends in the most heartwarming way imaginable: a mother hugging her children and assuring them she coudln't love them any less if she tried.. and not to tell their dad who already knows about any of this. Awwww

Reckoning Ball

So yeah you know how I kept saying during "Feud Fight" that we hadn't gotten to attempted murder YET? Well this is why.

We jump ahead to Season 2 and Wholesome Foods is a ghost town. And not the fun kind with bedsheet ghosts in lil spooky sheriffs hats. Turns out pelting a child with produce and bragging about it is a terrible idea in the social media age and has got the store boycotted. Chip naturally blames the greens for this and takes the rational, adult step of renting a wrecking ball and heading to their house to murder them

The sad part is while it's an extreme escalation, I do wish there was a step between corprate hyjinks and straight up attempted murder, it still fits the character enough to work: We've seen Chip takes no responsiblty, assumes consquences don't apply to him (and being rich he'd be right if this was the real world), and picked a fight with a 10 year old for incredibly stupid and petty reasons. It's a stretch sure but not a massive one that he was one series of bad days from just outright trying to murder them.

Shockingly trying to murder a family with a wrecking ball dosen't go unoticed, as Officer Keys, doing his job right for once, bravely stands between the greens and death and the most chip gets is part of the roof destroyed and his chip toothed again.

We meet Chip's kind, thoughtful dad whose ready to just fire his son, truly saddened his son turned into well...

And only dosen't because Chip Whines enough. So his dad draws up the standard company forgivness contract which makes me giggle as a company having someone sign a document saying "we forgive you" is something i'm shocked dosen't exist.

Naturally Chip showing up to the people he just tried to murder dosen't go well Cricket and Alice rightfully attacking him and Tilly getting ready to call the police and showing we share a brain "I hope they call the dogs this time"

Chip gets them to stop as he did come just to say sorry.. but Cricket and Alice rightfully don't buy it. Bill does show his character: he also dosen't buy it nor is he just going to sign it when Chip is VERY clearly not trying to be a better person.. but he will give him a chance to make things square as this feud going on can only end badly and it's the right thing. He could be a LITTLE more suspcious of the guy, but he's at least trying to set a good example for his kids and I can respect that.

Bill isn't SOFT though. When Chip's half assed roof repair only causes more damage by having Chip land in a garden, all the while Cricket rightfully laughs at chips commupance, Bill adds that to his tab to. While Chip assumes it's a power move and being unfair, Bill is simply asking him to fix what he broke and had Chip actually listend to bill and done the roof right, he wouldn't of fallen off it.

It is so satisfying seeing chip have to do gardening, and showing Cricket gladly choring, and only dig himself further, having a hallucination after only 10 minutes from exaustiona nd burying the kids bikes. He then has a crybaby tantrum and destroys everything... only creating more work for himself because he can't really do anything right.

It's then we get a moment of truth. While BIll WANTS chip to be better and finds out about the contract, he also wants to know why chip's like this. Chip points out he wants to take over for his dad and be good at it.. and here he could've turned aorund. He makes a speech claming he'll fix everything and try to be better..a nd he could've. He could've stopped being an enemy, become a friend and heck we may even of had him hire the greens.

But.. ultimately Chip's worst enemy. .is himself. He becomes CEO.. but he's so stuck on his pety grudge, a grudge that no longer makes sense as the greens think he's reformed and he now owns his own company, he plans to use it against them. Had chip just walked away, at ANY point not just now, he might of actaully had a good life and got to enjoy things.. instead.. it's only going to get worse for him.

Elevator Action

Cards on the table, this is my favorite episode of the show. It's something I didn't even realize till I sat down to type about it. It's emotionally rich, deeply hilarious and gives every character something hilarious to do and really gets to what the heart of the show is about: Family. And while most of the shows family is indeed related, sometimes Family is not who your born into but who you find along the way.

SHOCKINGLY it's also a Gloria episode. Cards still on the table: She's my faviorite of the main cast, and a lot of it is that she's deeply relatable: deeply insecure about where she is in life, often depressed, and working minimum wage. The only diffrence I haven't moved out of my Mom's house.

So the opening where Gloria after a day of work not only vegges out with some funny videos, though I personally prefer this guy to people falling down...

But to each their own. I also relate to seeing everyone else seemingly doing better than you are on social media and feeling you've done nothing with your life. I mean I at least have this as a career, but there was a time I didn't. I've been in a state of constantly feeling like i've done nothing with my life and will go nowhere and even now I struggled with that sort of anxiety.

Gloria plans to deal with it in her own way, which involves going up a big glass elevator to see her landlord and turn in her key, her finances being so strained she can only afford 10 minutes on the meter and has to make this quick and hopefully not run into anyone.

Naturally given this series needs her and I needs her, fate and the creative team ain't going to let it be that easy and the Greens happen to show up with Cricket naturally locking on her and not getting the hint that maybe she dosen't have time for this, says Gloria a lot and tries T-1000 his way through the door. Gloria gives up and lets him and his family in. I also love Gloria's statment "I can't deal with people I know today". We've all been there.

Why our heroes are there is always something i've really loved: City Exporation Day: Each saturday one of the family picks a place in the city to go visit they've always wanted to. It's a really cute way to both get them familiar and have some fun and I really give Bill credit for it. May tell my brother to try that with the nieces.

Tilly picked a museum and Cricket naturally picked a big glass elevator, which frustrates bill but does make SOME sense once he has Gloria look outside it. Cricket also unsuprisingly is that kid who pushes all the buttons and Gloria's understandable attempt to undo it and less understandable button fighting with her sibling gets the elevator stuck.

What follows is just... pure comedy gold as everyone is grappling with something; Alice naturally freaks out, having a fear of elevators, and in doing so breaks the emergency phone, Tilly adorably decides they just live here now and makes a fashion statment out of the rubble of said phone, and Cricket and Bill grapple over Cricket having bought a child sized drink.. specifically the size of a child liquified. As such Cricket needs to go and Gloria gets caught in the middle of bil trying to teach him a lesson instead of giving her the phone. It's a golden moment for each green that really sells who they are. Said phone also having a REALLY bad plan is hilarious. Seems like Bill upgraded after this or it dosen't matter as the joke is funny enough. We also get a cute moment of tilly tucking gloria in with part of the carpet she tore up. It's really sweet.

Eventually though Gloria breaks down and admits why she's here to the Greens, with Cricket naturally taking it the hardest and her reasons are heartbreaking: Like I said she's alone here and that combined with her feelings of inadcuacy finally broke her. She hasn't done what she set out to do, her friends are all succeding somehow, and she has no one to help hold her up when she's down.. or so she thinks. That feeling of lonliness is powerful and Anna does a REALLY fantastic job showing off Gloria's pain.

Thankfully the firefighters arrive and Gloria dashes to go save her car and Cricket, after failing to give an inspiring speech thanks to his bladder, instead heads for the bathroom. Chris' noises as Cricket takes a whiz are both hilarious and deeply uncomfortable

Turns out though Gloria only THOUGHT she was alone. She gets to the car as it's being towed.. only to find the Greens gladly standing up to stop it and annoying the Tow Truck driver into leaving. As Cricket puts it "You're never alone when you have us! I can't belivie I had to explain that to ya". It's a good show of how depression works: you often do feel alone.. but more than not your not alone and you never were. Cricket always cared about her and while he can be obnoxious about it, he's there for her and as for Bill, as he puts it he also lost a car with everything he owns in it. He gets how she feels.

With that.. Gloria invites the greens over and Bill buys pizza.. and Cricket buys 4 more giant sodas having learned nothing. Or maybe he has and just realizes it's easier on the bladder when you can just go to the bathroom again and again at will. Either way the ending of them all together unpacking gloria's stuff is adorable, as is Cricket telling her grouchy neighbor no you shut up. She's not alone. And with that we've left the episodes without Chip... and enter the thunderdome.

Friend Con

This one is just pure fun. The Greens head to Farm Con, the usual farmers convention where Bill is a keynote speaker and is in heaven with things like a booth on dirt and new crop rotation techniques. It's weird how a character named Bill reminds me so much of Hank Hill i'll tell ya what.

Bill admits missing his friend joe, who he hasn't seen since he moved out of the city years ago, and Tilly being a gentle soul wants to find him a friend. Gramma meanwhile goes about stealing all the swag for the episode and ends up having to run as she takes ALL of it. Like not one per booth EVERYTHING. Usopp bless this woman.

So after shooting down most contestants in eyesight they find Chip and since they don't know he's evil again yet, try to make them friends. Naturally Chip turns this into an evil scheme, planning to replace Bill at his speech to ruin his good name which is both simplier and suprisingly well thought out than most of his plans.

The kids find out , have to stop it, and end up getting Grammas help as she tries breaking out with her semi-ill gotten gains. As you can tell this is a very simple episode but the concept works out: WE know Chip isn't a good person anymore but not what his plan is since he's here for a farmer meet and greet (which he naturally skips), so it's a matter of figuring out what his angle is with bill. Will he do somethign NOW or will he use this later? I mean it's obviously now, Chip tried murdering a family because he pelted a child with tomatoes, impulse control isn't something he has. But you aren't sure going in.

Of course our heroes get to the real bill, and the actual Joe turns out to have been there the whole time and reconnects with Bill. Chip also gets all but his front teeth chipped , having gone platinum last time. So there's that. The main takeaway is that Chip is becoming more and more unhinged since becoming CEO .. and it's about to reach it's peak.

Chipwrecked

As you can see from the image

Like look I didn't know I needed Paul Scheer on top of a starbucks themed mad max tank in post apocalypse gear over a suit having barristas literally shoot coffee at people from a hose to try and cost a little boy his job, all while some woman walks her husband on a leash because that's just their thing. You didn't know you needed Paul Scheer on top of a starbucks themed mad max tank in post apocalypse gear over a suit having barristas literally shoot coffee at people from a hose to try and cost a little boy his job, all while some woman walks her husband on a leash because that's just their thing. We all didn't know we needed Paul Scheer on top of a starbucks themed mad max tank in post apocalypse gear over a suit having barristas literally shoot coffee at people from a hose to try and cost a little boy his job, all while some woman walks her husband on a leash because that's just their thing. But it's glorious we have it.

Somehow this is Chip's rock bottom: Cricket isn't remotely taking him seriously, fully confident, and correctly so, Chip will somehow screw up and ruin his own plan despite Gloria and Mrs. Cho's hestiancy, and the rest of the Greens also agree. It's easy to see why: He's only won ONCE out of his appearances, and that was because they were being nice and trying to be the bigger people. He's only remotely won or gotten close when he's used his brain.. which he shockingly has.

That is nice setup for today though when he finally DOES win. While a chunk of the episode is about Cricket tricking his family with a "bring your family to work day"" scam that ends how you'd expect, that's the subplot: The main plot is Chip having hit his lowest: his board is fed up with him never doing actual work, he's deshevled, none of his plans are working, and his obession with beating the greens has left him somehow MORE of a shell of a man than he already was.

It's once again his father who in his attempts to do right by his son instead ends up giving his son the matches to burn everything down: He points out Chip isn't a manager anymore, he's a CEO. He has the whole empire at his proposal. He needs to start acting like it.

So he does..... and Chip does indeed level up. See something i've noticed while writing this is every time Chip uses his head instead of acting on his impulses, he does well: like I said he has a brain and as we've seen it can be dangerous: he got the greens to sign simply by faking sincerty and nearly won last time not with an over the top villanous scheme but simply manipulating bill and the greens and only lost because Bill happened to have a friend there.

So when he combines that with remembering "Oh yeah I have the endless money code unlocked now I have a company", he comes up with a sinsiter over the top scheme.. that's also terrifyingly well thought out and clever. Chip's win here is as cool as it is horrifying: he decides to start up his "Wholesome Foods Expansion Plan", buying up part of big city to launch a giant, modern as hell new Wholesome Foods. And naturally it just so happens to start with buying out big coffee and just so happens to involve taking out the greens entire street.

How he takes over Big Coffee is also great, he comes in having hired bouncers to replace his former minions, aka hired goons, and has them start tearing it all down. It seems like one of his usual half assed schemes and the one that finally ends in him getting arrested.. till he pulls out this gem of a line after.

"Truth is I don't own the place yet but I will in about five seconds"

Cue him writing Mrs. Cho a check, getting big coffee and throwing our heroes out, leaving everyone panicing as Chip ACTUALLY won and Chip rubbing it in cricket's face about the contract, the episode ending on everything being terrible and our heroes being backed into a corner. And so we come to our finale, one of the series best episodes and the reason we're all here.

Chipocalypse Now

So we end the saga with Chipocalypse Now, the game changing half hour special. Chip is naturally bathing in having basically won, quickly acquiring the apartments next door and then building his new mega store directly over the greens home, blocking their crops.

Naturally the family wants to fight back... sans Bill who took the previous loss of the farm to mean you can't fight the rich and he should give up

I was livid with Bill when I first watched this.. but with some time to reflect I realized I was a bit hard on the guy. He's still WRONG, our heroes shoudln't give up and even if there's a risk some fights are worth it, which ends up being the point of the episode. But not only is he meant to be in the wrong, you get why with his backstory. His whole life big buisness has won over him: Nancy went to jail failing to fight them, they eventually wore out his farm to the point the bank forclosed, and even as a kid his needing attention meant his mom had to sell more land. None of this is his fault: Nancy was an adult who knew the risks and only regrets not seeing her kids for so long, Bill tried his best and sometimes even when you do that you fail, and his mom did what she did for his sake and is fine with what she had left. I can't blame him for being so jaded he assumes they'll loose, but I do blame him for not seeing that his family dosen't want to give up and shouldn't while they CAN still fight. It's frustrating to see Bill constantly telling them not to do anything, but I get it enough to accept it.

So our heroes naturally ignore that and Cricket, Tilly and Alice all go raid the grocery store.. only to run into Gloria. This.. isn't handled the best in my eyes. I get her viewpoint: "I don't need a family I need a job" and I get her TAKING the job, chip likely offered it to her immidently just to fuck with cricket more and while it sucks, it feels like she could be just a pinch more conflicted. She blames cricket for all of this but.. like he's 10 and was trying to do the right thing and forgive and Chip is 30 something and doing all of this to bully a child. Prioritse glorious gloria, priorities. Still it's a minor writing hickup.

Bill is naturally annoyed at this but Nancy still wants to fight back and DOES show some growth from last time by taking Bill's words to heart... not giving up, but trying to do this the legal way first. Since Chip Showed them a piece of paper saying imminent domain, well more gloated about getting the mayor to do it, then they need to confront the mayor on it. They go to the mayor, a hilariously spineless people pleaser played by Andy Richter who dosen't like people being upset at him and is fine to help them till Chip shows them a pettition for the greens to leave. Rightfully smelling a rat or the clear bodyspray shower Chip takes every morning Nancy takes his tablet.. and gets arrested again. It's truly devistating, not only for this to happen to the kids again, but that Officer Keys AGAIN does it. YOu can see why maybe I don't like a cop who dosen't seem the LITTLEST bit sorry to arrest a woman in front of her children.

Bill is mad, which I get but also maybe don't lecture your kids when they just saw their mom get arrested, and being told no one wants them here really rattles cricket. Thankfully Nancy wasn't stupid and while she coudlnt' keep the tablet did send the pettition to Bill's phone.. revealing that Remy was one of the signees

The next scene is objectively funny as Cricket shouts betrayal and tackles remy from offscreen, Vasquez naturally steps in and Remy tells them both to stop and affirms he never betrayed cricket. They cut that episode. Naturally Chip faked it, and if they can get to his computer they can prove it. We also get a nice scene of Cricket and Tilly going to their mom and letting thier worries loose btu Nancy reassures them: Yes this fight cost her but it was worth fighting for. And if Chip is going to take everything anyway, they might as well go down swinging.

So while Bill still refuses to fight, Cricket, Remy, Tilly and Alice make a plan: Team Spidercat, the fellas, will go try and get the evidence while Team Thunderbandit, the gals, guard the farm and prepare for war.

Team Spidercat tries going through the front door but fails since it's closed. Thankfully Gloria dumping them out a chute earlier means they have a way in and using an opening sequence refrence Team Spidercat gets inside. They end up running into Gloria, but Cricket finally gets through to her, pointing out their family has always been there for her (accurate), and their on the cusp of loosing their home. Gloria changes sides, gives Cricket her key card and takes care of the goons that come for them. I mean she looses but at least she takes the goon with her.

Team Thunderbandit has to get to work early as chip plans to start construction earlier than the planned midnight because of course and it's up to our heroines to hold the line. They do well, but eventually needs helps. We get a truly Johnny Lawrence level badass moment as they radio Cricket.. nad Remy reveals he was ready for this, calling in a code red... and Vasquez swings in , beats up a ton of mooks and declares "The greens are master remy's closest friends. I won't let anything happen to them". Bad. Ass.

He and Alice quickly go back to back for life, and I kinda ship them? Is that weird? I mean Vasquez is clearly younger but like he seems older than Bill? I dunno man, either way i'm for it I just want to know. At any rate they do well for most of it, and Bill comes out to once again bill things up despite Chip you know having shown up to wreck the place early. That's when Tilly gets her moment in the sun giving one hell of a speech pointing out why their doing this.

"Mama knew the risks, but she couldn't stand by while our family was under attack. And now, the Green family is under attack again! Maybe we are just the little guys... but if we stand together as a family... we have a real chance to turn things around. And I won't give up on our home while there's still a chance. Isn't our family worth fightin' for?"

Bill runs back inside.. but comes back with Chicken Feed fully convinced.. as is most of big city as the news came to record this and thus everyone now knows what Chip is doing.. just as Chip heads to go confront cricket.

We get the gag of the episode as Remy sarcastically says "Gee cricket ya think this might be chip's office", given it has a giant portrait of him ,and naturally the results are all from one IP adress. They print it out and Remy once again shows he's awesome by faking being a lost child to distract the goons while Chip plans to finish this.

Outside Bill awesomely stops some jackhammers with a swarm of chickens, but our heroes are soon cornered when Cricket arrives with the evidence, and Nancy, having been freed by officer became a decent human being, has just brought the mayor. Said evidence goes up in helicopter as Chip naturally is a step ahead.. but he's still two steps behind as the various friends, associates and one off pepper weirdos of the greens have shown up to protest their being kicked out. The Mayor is upset people are mad at him, sad that I can relate, and Nancy get shim to do the right thing: he saves the Greens house and bans chip from town. With nothing left to loose Chip goes back to his old plan a for the season: MURDER THE SHIT OUT OF THEM.. and for once last time.. .his impulsivness dooms him, with cricket getting him caught on a banner and launching him out of town.. and just for added irony his tooth chips. Chip has been defeated, probably not for good sadly as I just realized the Greens just moved OUT of big city this season... and Chip isn't banned from smalton. I mean he has no more resources but that hasn't stopped him before now has it? Btu for now the big bad is defeated, the farm is safe and the other properties go back up as was. IT's a truly heartwarming ending, our heroes having truly won.

It does get a hilarious and awesome button though as Gloria just.. moves on in. She did the right thing but she can't really afford her aprtment so she's moving in. THey don't get a say in this. Though honestly I don't think Bill would've turned her down from just asking and it's not like she's wrong. So Bill has a third kid now as we roll credits.

The Chip Whistler arc. .is excellent and it, and the episodes I showed adding some depth to things, show just how strong this show is. It's not heavy on an arc, nor does it need to be but it has heart, a very strong continuity and courage to shake things up: the status quo soen't stay too samy for long: Nancy joins mid season 1, Chip is foiled here close to the end of this season leading to Gloria joining the house, and next season they move back to the country. The Houghtons made a point of shaking things up around the middle each season and it gives the show new life every time. I can't wait for what comes next and if you want to see me come back, then like or reblog this. let me know. Because me and Kev.. we already have ideas for the sequel. This was a fun, exausting project and I can't wait to do it all again. Thanks for reading .

[tabloidtoc]

Entertainment Weekly, June

Cover: The Pride Issue cover 3 of 4 -- Lena Waithe

Page 3: Contents, other covers featuring Lil Nas X, Mj Rodriguez, Bowen Yang

Page 4: Sound Bites

Page 7: The Cold Open

Page 14: The Must List -- In the Heights

Page 15: Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon, Iceage -- Seek Shelter, Ziwe

Page 18: Trying Q&A with Esther Smith and Rafe Spall, Day Zero by C. Robert Cargill

Page 20: Milestone Returns #0: Infinite Edition, In Treatment

Page 21: Brat: An '80s Story by Andrew McCarthy, The Empty Man

Page 22: My Must List Pride Edition -- Niecy Nash

Page 25: Pride 2021

Page 26: Lil Nas X -- the 22-year-old rapper is still breaking barriers one song and several clapbacks at a time

Page 29: St. Vincent -- the chameleonic singer-songwriter returns with Daddy's Home, an adventurous new album inspired by her father's prison time

Page 30: Olly Alexander -- after a lauded lead turn in It's a Sin, the artist returned with the single Starstruck, from his newly solo musical act Years & Years

* Rostam -- the new solo album from the multi-instrumentalist is rooted in society's fear of change

Page 32: Lena Waithe -- the producer and actor, and the new star of Master of None season 3, wants to create provocative art while elevating voices

Page 35: Josh Thomas -- the Australian creator-star of Everything's Gonna Be Okay is telling his story through his art

Page 36: Meet Your Maker -- Natalie Morales -- the queer star directs her first film(s), the sharp indies Plan B and Language Lessons. Here's what got her behind the camera

Page 37: Joshua Safran -- the man behind Alex Parrish's attitude and Blair Waldorf's one-liners shares how his sexuality helps him empathize with his characters

* Brandon Taylor -- coming off his explosive, best-selling debut novel Real Life, the lauded author is looking toward his second act and beyond

Page 38: Mj Rodriguez -- with the final season of the history-making FX drama Pose, it's leading lady is ready to claim what's hers

Page 41: Colman Domingo -- after decades of stellar work, the scene-stealer is front and center on Euphoria, Fear the Walking Dead, and more

Page 42: Auli'i Cravalho -- the star of Disney's Moana proved how far she'll go to be her authentic self, and is now focused on joy and inclusion

Page 43: Queen Supremes -- the international RuPaul's Drag Race winning class speaks power to the franchise's worldwide domination and looks ahead to a fab future

Page 44: Bowen Yang -- the Saturday Night Live breakout is defining funny for a whole new generation and pushing boundaries in the process

Page 47: Margaret Cho -- the stand-up comedian plays the lesbian pal we all wish we had in the comedy Good on Paper

Page 48: Molly Bernard -- after playing Younger's pansexual publicist, she's ready to explore the full spectrum of queerness

* Josie Totah -- from Disney's Jessie to the Saved by the Bell revival and Amy Poehler's Moxie, the actress has made a name for herself twice and Hollywood's paying attention

Page 49: Calendar -- 10 upcoming LGBTQ projects to get excited for --from eye-opening documentaries to sweeping romances, there is plenty to add to your Pride watch queue

* Pride season's 6 essential reads

Page 51: Summer TV Preview

Page 52: Loki with Tom Hiddleston

Page 53: Panic, The Celebrity Dating Game, Gossip Girl

Page 54: September Mornings, Schmigadoon!, Masters of the Universe: Revelation, Ted Lasso

Page 55: Heels, The Good Fight

Page 56: Power Book III: Raising Kanan

Page 57: Sweet Tooth, Blindspotting, Kevin Can F**k Himself, Mr. Corman

Page 58: We Are Lady Parts, Love Victor, Sex/Life, Turner & Hooch

Page 59: Physical, Hit & Run, American Rust

Page 60: Bosch, Marvel Studios' What If...?, Lisey's Story -- Q&A with Julianne Moore

Page 61: Calendar

Page 62: The Fast and the Furious oral history -- how did a little movie about underground racing speed off to become one of the most profitable franchises in history? The cast and crew reminisce about 20 years of Fast, one quarter-mile at a time

Page 68: News + Reviews -- Nominate Them, You Cowards -- on July 13, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will announce the 2021 Emmy nominees. Here are some standout shows and performances we insist not be overlooked

Page 72: Movies -- Summer Star -- taking the lead in blockbusters A Quiet Place II and Jungle Cruise, Emily Blunt is the face of Hollywood's comeback summer

Page 74: Making the Scene -- Army of the Dead -- Zack Snyder explains how he bet big on destroying Las Vegas in his bloody zombie heist movie

Page 75: Oxygen, The Woman in the Window -- the journey from smash best-seller to star-studded streaming thriller was long and fittingly bizarre

Page 76: Meet the Fab G -- director Kay Cannon on how Billy Porter found a fresh, inclusive take on the fairy godmother in the new Cinderella

Page 79: My Favorite Shot Pride Edition -- Sebastian Lelio, A Fantastic Woman -- the Chilean director revisits a gravity-defying sequence in his groundbreaking Oscar-winning drama

Page 80: TV -- The Underground Railroad

Page 81: The Upshaws

Page 82: Oral History -- in 2011, Teen Wolf premiered on MTV. Ten years later, we look back at the pilot episode that introduced us to Scott, Stiles and the werewolves of Beacon Hills -- Jeff Davis, Tyler Posey, Russell Mulgahy, Dylan O'Brien, Crystal Reed

Page 84: What to Watch

Page 86: Music -- Miranda Lambert Q&A -- for The Marfa Tapes, Lambert decamped to the quiet artsy town in West Texas and recorded songs around a campfire. She talks to EW about the album and being an introverted superstar

Page 88: Ear Kandi -- Xscape member and current Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss reflects on the hits she's made for Destiny's Child, *NSYNC, TLC and more

Page 89: The Black Keys

Page 90: Books -- summer books special -- a comedy of eras -- in a sharp new essay collection, The Wreckage of My Presence, actor Casey Wilson weaves big feelings into even bigger laughs

Page 92: Poetic Justice -- prolific romance writer and political powerhouse Stacey Abrams bookend an incredible year with more thrills, this time in her first novel not written under her pen name Selena Montgomery

Page 93: Author Spotlight -- Silvia Moreno-Garcia -- Velvet Was the Night

Page 94: Fatal Attraction -- inside the intoxicating depravity of Animal, Lisa Taddeo's meaty follow-up to Three Women

Page 95: Critic's Pick -- The Great Mistake by Jonathan Lee

Page 96: Critic's Pick -- In the Country of Others by Leila Slimani

Page 97: The Conversation -- Taylor Jenkins Reid and Paula Hawkins -- the names behind Daisy Jones & the Six and The Girl on the Train are coming for your beach tote

Page 98: Q&A with Zakiya Dalila Harris -- The Other Black Girl, former book editor Zakiya Dalila Harris' genre-bending evisceration of workplace privilege, is set to become the debut of the summer

Page 99: Critic's Pick -- Afterparties by Anthony Veasna So

Page 101: Q&A with Billie Eilish -- in between winning Grammys and releasing her sophomore album, the pop star is publishing her first (self-titled) book, a collection of never-before-seen pics of her early life on the road

Page 103: Parental Guidance -- your crib sheet on the best entertainment for kids from toddlers to tweens

* Q&A with Gabrielle Union-Wade and Dwyane Wade -- the actress and her NBA legend husband, bring it on with their new children's book Shady Baby

Page 112: The Bullseye

[silhouettica]

Disclaimer: image shown above is not mine; source is linked to the image.

____________

It’s been a long time since I’ve written an anime review, but this one is too well-deserved to pass up.

I tend to have a love-hate relationship with the sports-shounen genre in the manga industry. On one hand, good quality stories have great characters, undeniably well-drawn images, and okay storylines... but--- technique-wise, there was just too much suspension-of-disbelief required to go on reading.

Take for instance, Kuroko no Basuke and the legendary Phantom Sixth Man who is capable of magically disappearing in court; or, there’s Prince of Tennis and the gravity-defying non-arc path that their tennis balls traverse -- OR do not traverse, as do those which avoid the Tezuka zone. Basically, most popular and long-running sports genre mangas have a tendency to go borderline fantasy in many elements, or otherwise tend to sport some rarely-seen-in-a-thousand-years genius to spice up the story, which is understandably unrealistic (after all, this is fiction we’re reading). But perhaps, after almost two decades of watching anime and reading manga, my personal preference is now leaning towards the comfort provided by the slice-of-life genre, and against typical expectations, there’s that lingering desire to taste the slice of life in a sports manga...

Enter: Haikyuu.

Haikyuu was already a famous anime when I heard that it revolved around volleyball. When I heard that, the first question that occurred to me was, How much plot can be formed around such a sport as volleyball? Don’t get me wrong -- I’ve only ever been involved in two fields of sports: one is track and field, and the other is volleyball, so I at least like the sport. But since we’re used to being exposed to mangas centering around basketball or some martial arts, a story revolving around volleyball was foreign territory. But it was already famous, and with fame comes expectations --- thus, for fear of suffering from failed expectations, I deferred, or more like skipped out on Haikyuu.

But, well, with FB Watch capable of being a demonic source of temptation, Haikyuu showed up in my Watch Feed, and poof! - I was hooked. Manga was finished in less than a few weeks, and episodes repeatedly watched on FB (still ongoing, haha). In my personal list of top mangas, it has far surpassed even One Piece. It’s that good.

What’s so attractive about Haikyuu is that above being refreshing character and plot-wise, it was also obviously painstakingly created with so much attention to detail, in terms of the technical aspects of volleyball. I mean, just watch the videos contrasting Haikyuu to real-life volleyball matches - there’s almost no difference to be seen. The accuracy is admirable. In this regard, suspension of disbelief is very minimized --- well, except for the repeated overtime in matches; but if they stuck to the usual 15 or 25pt matches, we wouldn’t have much screentime to make a viable story, now, would we? So it’s an understandable adjustment to accommodate for the sake of cultivating the story.

Beyond this, Haikyuu boasts of a roster of interesting and complex characters littered throughout the storyline. Honestly, I can’t hate any single one of them. Your heart would go out to every character in every team. It’s amazing how the mangaka depicted each character differently, with all their bias and flaws, besides their refreshingly non-OP strengths, all combined to portray each individual’s humanity. And gah, when they’re made to mix together - the rapport between and amongst such variety of personalities is just fascinating to behold. And then comes character development - whoosh. How one person’s evolution affects the quality of a team’s mixture is another feast to behold. So much respect for this mangaka for bringing to life such abundance of quality complex characters. Seriously. Shounen x Sports x Slice of life + epic ups and downs + epic ending arc (MOST SATISFYING ENDING TO SPORTS GENRE EVER).

This is plain epic.

At first glance, any reader/follower would be drawn to the main characters - there’s Kageyama, Hinata, Ushijima, Oikawa, etc., all those OP-level players (or at least potentially so, for Hinata). 

Well, Hinata is the main character, as the story is dominantly affected by his actions and skill development. Watching his character growth is a treat, in and of itself. Seriously. Hinata may be boke at times, but isn’t really stupid. He’s just less-skilled than others (understandably so, given his lack of experience), but he more than makes up for it with his bottomless enthusiasm. And that innocence... Kawaii~. His love for the game is just contagious. Freakin’ want to buy a volleyball just to start playing on my own.

Kageyama may be called a genius setter, but really, he’s far from being the complete package. And he’s one of the more complex characters that really steals your heart. Like Hinata, he just overflows with love for the game, but his innocence is of a different level. After being shown his blindspot, he tempers his snobbishness, and literally BEGS for help --- I mean, look how he bows to Tsukishima for help in acads, or towards his senior Oikawa, in order to improve in volleyball. He’s mostly snobbish only towards those who don’t do their best (besides being just plain socially awkward). But he’s a very good kouhai, and it’s especially touching how he and Hinata paved the way for Asahi’s attack against Date Tech. I appreciate that he’s not so OP-level that he didn’t need anyone to improve -- he was helped by their coach, he was helped by Oikawa, there’s his senpais guiding him somewhat, etc. He’s not the Echizen-type who can learn on his own. He has so many blindspots, but he listens and asks for help once he’s shown that they exist.

There are a wealth of other characters worth mentioning, but recently, when I think of relating to the characters, what I easiest to resonate with are Yamaguchi and Ennoshita. Tsukki is another runner-up, being one who’s overly phlegmatic, with a defeating inferiority complex, but with a taste for vengeance... Bokuto’s answer to his existential question on why they play volleyball was very insigtful --- you don’t enjoy volleyball probably because you suck in it. HAHAHA. Isn’t that true for all of us - how we superficially hate some things when actually it’s because we just aren’t good at them. But at the very least, Tsukishimi Kei has so many qualities that puts him above others, it’s hard to compare oneself to him. On the other hand, there’s Yamaguchi the one-trick pony and Ennoshita the returning quitter. Sometimes I think of quitting when the academic “training” gets tough, but coming to think of Yama, I’m reminded that this is my one sword. The only reason he enters the court is as a pinch server - apart from that, there’s nothing else. So if he gets cold feet and settles for an easy serve, he forfeits the right to enter the court. If he lets go of the jump float serve, he has nothing else. Similarly, there’s Ennoshita who actually quit the team, but returned because the comfort became uncomfortable... I dunno if I’m the only one who’se quit in at least one point of my life, and took an easy way out or through something, but Ennoshita’s lesson is true for all of us - we’d regret quitting. Quitting is a no-go.

Anyway, I can’t describe all the other characters, else, this would be too long. But it’s just so amazing how Haruichi Furudate was able to create so many complex characters, each with their own backstories (okay, unrealistically, no sob stories here since this isn’t a drama) and no antagonist to hate, but the story was was just so complete and wholesome. I mean, take the Nekoma team, for one - they’re supposed to be Karasuno’s biggest rival, but they’re the ones who gave them a fighting chance to improve. Sportsmanship really dwells high on this one. Bokutooo, that once-spoiled ace... Oikawa, that snobbish great king who only recognized Kageyama as his junior when talking to Ushijima... The side characters who made up each respective team’s coaching, managerial, and cheer squad... There’s just so many personalities to admire and be thankful to the author for.

Haikyuu is truly a story about volleyball --- it’s not a story about inter-high, it’s not a story about high school; rather it’s a story that explores the different aspects surrounding volleyball - from childhood, as between friends, to high school and inter-high competitions, to the coaches and managers and trainings behind the scenes, to (SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!) in-house vs. beach volleyball, to a professional career and international competitions. It’s really volleyball in different seasons of lives of a variety of people.

One poignant fact is that for most people, playing sports would be limited to high school. After inter-high, teammates would separate and a new team will be formed, year after year. That’s why it’s so precious how (SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!) the manga showed the fanatic-highchoolers-turned-professional players being watched by their previous volleyball teammates and competitiors --- something I’ve never seen in other sports mangas (which mostly had to do with players getting some injury, going to rehab and recuperating, and so). Previous teammates faced each other as competition, and previous rivals became comrades. It’s just. so. epic.

Anyway, thank you,  Haruichi Furudate-san. May the anime remain top-notch in quality. Viva Haikyuu!!

[hayleyzorel]

I posted 6,956 times in 2021

17 posts created (0%)

6939 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 408.2 posts.

I added 1,335 tags in 2021

#supernatural - 191 posts

#legacies - 187 posts

#hope mikaelson - 163 posts

#the vampire diaries - 162 posts

#queue - 122 posts

#dean winchester - 120 posts

#teen wolf - 105 posts

#elena gilbert - 102 posts

#lucifer - 96 posts

#doctor who - 87 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#theres a comic issue that im not sure is still canon where jonah gave peter the job because he recognized his name from uncle bens murder

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

The Fear Street Trilogy was so good

7 notes • Posted 2021-07-17 06:47:28 GMT

#4

GLAD WE WASTED ALL THAT MONEY ON A SNAP ELECTION IN THE MIDDLE OF A PANDEMIC……… ONLY FOR LITERALLY NOTHING TO CHANGE

JAGMEET SINGH I’m so sorry

11 notes • Posted 2021-09-21 10:16:30 GMT

#3

In case anyone hasn’t figured it out in less than 3 weeks I finally watched the entire series of The Originals, finished all available episodes of Legacies and have Started and almost finished Season 1 of Blindspot (patterson is amazing)

13 notes • Posted 2021-07-07 08:41:31 GMT

#2

Forgot to post this earlier, but I wore my Buffy dress to get my second vaccine shot today

18 notes • Posted 2021-07-04 07:20:17 GMT

#1

Prince Philip is dead, Excellent Work Agent 47. Now make your way to an Exit

37 notes • Posted 2021-04-09 12:13:37 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[unbiasedcabaret]

love death + robots

objectively the most badass name for a tv show

anyways here's my review of the first season. it is ranked. but rankings change depending on whether I wanna look at pretty animation or be invested in characters/story. there are short, slightly (extremely) stupid reviews next to them too.

(Also rankings are so hard. Am I basing it off of rewatchability? how impressed I was on the first watch? would I want to go back to that world? the animation? the characters? my investment in the story? Currently, I'm going off of what feels right and how excited it makes me basically)

18. The Dump: Eh. I couldn’t get into it. Boring animation, like it was definitely good quality, but nothing particularly interesting. Like okay, dumpster monster. Cool cool cool. This felt so long when it was relatively a shorter episode.

17. Alternate Histories: Never have I been so disappointed so fast. The premise sounded so cool, I was really hoping they’d go realistic with this one, explore some really interesting theories/possibilities. If I look at it objectively, pretty okay. I liked hitler’s long legs, did not enjoy the weird prostitute part, and had an okay time at the ending. Eh.

16. When the Yogurt Took Over: I don’t get it. Oh wow, humans are so dumb even the yogurt left us. Or oh wow they were so smart they got everything they wanted genius yogurt. Okay so? I didn’t care about anything happening, because I got over it kinda fast.

15. Lucky 13: Fun. I love pilots loving their ships, especially with this slightly sentient(?) ship thing going on. I enjoyed the rise to the top, could’ve been a less predictable fall perhaps.

14. Ice Age: Great start, I was hooked from the second the civilization started developing. Might’ve helped that I was high as fuck while watching this. Didn’t really go anywhere, there was no resolution, no reason, nothing. Honestly just felt a little underdeveloped, they should’ve pushed it a little. Very cool premise though.

13. Beyond the Aquila Rift: I don’t fully get the hype not gonna lie. Like I was interested definitely but the twist didn’t blow my mind it just seemed like it made sense. Didn’t have the ‘oh fuck’ moment and wasn’t especially blown away by the animation

12. Sucker of Souls: My favourite part of this was when they literally killed the exchange student. Very fun. Also when his head was split in half and it split into layers. Other than that, eh. The cat thing was interesting but then they never actually used it so what was the point. It just went nowhere and wasn’t that cool. Okay, I take that back the chase scenes/fight scenes/anything action was very engaging.

11. Shape-Shifters: I agree with that one guy who said bad-ass. I love it when fight scenes are actually all out because you KNOW motherfuckers tend to hold back for the sake of plot or whatever. I like it as a short though because it’s interesting to think about, I’m just not too interested in seeing where it goes after. (Which is a good thing because they did all the fun things in the short).

10. Three Robots: Really interesting, loved the characters, loved their skewed understanding of human history (kinda makes me question how much we really know about the past). Odd ending but high me was impressed

9. The Secret War: I was super into it. I love a good fight scene, great backstory, great animation. I just watched Aquaman and the creatures reminded me of those guys from the trench, especially with the flare at the end and I’m not complaining.

8. Blindspot: Why does this episode get hate. It’s a heist with robots how is it boring. I personally love heists, especially in the fast&furious style thing. I loved the characters too, and I’m now questioning my ability to get attached to robots this fast. Also enjoyed the murder, because I’m so used to people being saved at the last minute. I would definitely watch the fuck out of this movie because there could definitely be fun ways to fuck with the whole ‘there are no stakes because we can’t die’ thing.

7. Suits: PERFECT. So perfect there is nothing wrong with this like absolutely nothing wrong. I was into it, loved the robots, loved the characters, loved the world. Would wanna go back into this world and see more of it. Just the idea of casual alien encounters is so fun to me. I’d definitely watch this movie. Honestly felt bad when Jake died which is surprising with an 18-minute runtime. Basically, I view this as a little Pixar version of the show and I had a fun time.

6. Fish Night: So pretty so mesmerising so mystical. I wish the fish part went on for longer I would’ve watched the shit out of it. I kinda wanna go and see that whole scene again. Great short. Very perfect.

5. Helping Hand: Gravity but gory. Did not see it coming so it was a very fun surprise. Nothing wrong with this and I would watch again. Especially liked the part where no one somehow managed to save her and she figured it out on her own. (Not from a feminist point of view, more from a predictability point of view)

4. Sonnie’s Edge: Brilliant fucking animation (when the neon outfits/parts thing came I had to replay several times), great fight scene. I shouldn’t have been deceived by that dude’s girlfriend but she was good, so when she extended her nails through Sonnie’s skull it was great. Apart from the animation and the direction, the story did kinda fall flat now that I think about it. Like it felt a bit, okay so? types I think.

3. Good Hunting: Very great animation, great story, great storytelling. Loved the world and the way the world developed. Loved the automatons. Loved the combination of magic and machine. I didn’t expect her to be able to transform at the end so that was extremely fucking cool. Loved that she got her agency back and that the son was able to break away from his father’s habits. Hated seeing that one guy’s dick.

2. The Witness: SEXIEST animation. Spider-verse vibes especially with the bang! or whatever and I wish there was so much more of this. I was definitely more interested in the action sequences than in the weird sex stuff mostly because I saw no point to that. What was the point of the whole vladmir character when we don’t even know what he’s like. Like he was given way too much importance in my opinion. Technically she didn’t even have to leave that room. The loop stuff was pretty cool though like I had to go back to the beginning to make sure because- slight mindfuck. But I think this animation, and this beautiful beautiful world, was wasted on this average ass story. Could’ve been way cooler.

1. Zima Blue: Oh god this was a good fucking episode. Didn’t think it was gonna be this good. First of all the art itself was so cool. The were spray painting literal space rocks you cannot get more anything than that. Then his whole story? His origin? His truth? FUCK me. Also the animation was so distinct. It was so, it’s own. So specific. And it worked so well with the story. I don’t want anymore of this short in the best way possible. Also I thought of this art thing that starts like this but the blue starts becoming better and then a whole universe comes out of the blue and it starts right back where he started - murals of the universe. And his final work is a universe with like a tiny blue square to show that it repeats forever? Idk what that means but I kinda wanna make it but it’d definitely be plagiarism. Also I can’t do art.

[firespirited]

Clarice episode12 Spoilers under cut

I hesistated to watch this one without waiting for episode 13 as 10-11 were two parts of a whole and browsing the AVclub for something else caught a glimpse of a C grade review calling it "dumb" https://www.avclub.com/clarice-starlings-past-and-present-all-fall-apart-at-on-1847124928. I disagree.

Here's the basic of the episode: Agent Starling can't accept she's angry, she pushes back, reaches a breaking point, recognizes something very loud within her, names it: it is indeed anger, does the smart thing. She's in a job where you're supposed to gaslight yourself into working until burn-out, multiple characters say to compartmentalize or bulldoze on. She makes a choice not to. Not dumb.

*Adding the "you're a good father" line to Krendler leads to a messy surface read but that's where Clarice was at mentally (and where we are storywise): fathers and fatherhood. Her vicap crew had very slowly become family that have her back. Krendler has been a true mentor in the past few episodes: protective, trusting but honest about her limitations, not letting the punch slide.

*Catherine is fantastic, she knows her mother's flaws and strengths. It's good to see her healing in a psychiatric hospital. Can I just say how rare and precious it is to have a psych ward not shown as hell on earth but a safe haven for once, a place to rebuild yourself.

*The reviewer for the avclub seems to think we're in a normal crime procedural universe and the show has gone 'over the top' with the villain. Did the lack of name dropping Hannibal make you forget that this is the Harris-verse where serial killers become gods and monsters and make art from violence. DUDE. You really thought this was going to be about a bad guy who makes money off a bad medicine? LMAO. This is limb-sculpture, wolf-mecha, beehive-head and dragon who eats the sun territory. If CBS has guts, it'll end with a man eating a human in the style of that 'Saturn devours his son' Goya painting.

*Not mentioned in the review but adding the bad dad angle is new to the character and could be seen as cliché to turn the Clarice Starling into a "daddy issues" woman but that would be too simplistic: 1/ West Virginia lawman in the 70s who was a good father but also a bad copper - sanctified and cystallised into an ideal by early death and being sent away from home is not a stretch. 2/ Clarice isn't just driven by spite, empathy and intellectual curiosity there's always been something about needing to understand the nature of evil as a corrupting force beyond meat farming metaphors. Also I love that she gave Hannibal just enough to feel he was in but he was just one layer deep. He can hurt her but she's still protecting the core. 3/ Working a straight very white male institution is punishing, profiling bad men is punishing, working for the feds who are a very shady institution because it's also got quantico is morally punishing. Clarice engages in a punishing lifestyle AND risky behaviour: Krendler is right, she should never have gone in alone: repeatedly. Her actually listening to her therapist and profiling herself is good. Taking herself off the job is good. It doesn't fit the classic tropes but it makes sense that a smart woman finally listened to other smart women and made a change. I like this plotline far better than her soldiering on. It's intelligent. 4/ Her recognizing she has an empathy weakness and blindspots is probably going to allow her to pick up on something in the next episode that saves her life.

You build yourself on what you've got and then learn to build your own self when those foundations crumble, there was a sense there was always a little more to it than just losing a dad and being sent to live on a meat farm. My guess uptil recently was some unresolvable grief about something explaining why her mother couldn't keep her around, it was dad related instead. That's a 3 dimensional character. Sorry if that breaks your female badass ideal. I was really concerned with where they were going with the dad angle which is why ep10 gave me pause but it's been treated with a bit more subtletly; the perfect dad was a crutch she's been using that she needs to drop to be able to grieve what happened with Gumb but also how she was forced to sacrifice parts of herself to Hannibal for info and was thrown to that wolf by her mentor Crawford. The throughline the season has been drawing is parents and mentors: from Chronos and Alaster to Jame Gumb's mother to Catherine's mother to Clarice's father: what they give us, what we take and what we reject to build our own selves.

Of course the finale could bungle it all. pessimistic me says cliffhanger because they were told season 2 was guaranteed (it was but now it's not because streaming companies are fighting).