CylonVIP

5

Compared to previous episodes, this episode is not bad, but still dumbly written.

As usual, a supposedly professional team of mercenaries turns out to be incompetent just-for-laugh bollocks, as shown by one person destroying a droid for fun in a ship they know are extremely guarded by, well, droid's connectivity. And no one seems to be troubled with that. Apparently recklessness and naivety are traits commonly shared by supposedly 'fighters' in this show - we've seen people ranging from bounty hunters, ex-rebel shock trooper, and even the Mando himself, who consistently failed to notice obvious traps (eps 5), wasted their time for overly convoluted plans (eps 4), or simply appeared to took the same marksmanship class as stormtroopers (eps 3 & 5).

Oddly, for a ship supposedly to be extremely secure, barely any droids patrol the ship. Even when the ship was on full emergency alert. The droids conveniently only appear as distraction as the plot needs it; for a heist/rescue episode, this leaves no stake on breaching the ship at all.

Speaking of stake, the characters also consistently make questionable decisions. Despite knowing they are limited on time, they just waste it for squabbling between themselves, hunting for each other down to the last of it, instead of focusing on running away from the ship.

But the worst offender is our titular character.

The Mando turns out to be a Disneyfied, Sunday morning, family-friendly bounty hunter, as he refuses to hurt people from New Republic but oddly has no qualms killing/hurting people who happen to be on the side of other factions (stormtroopers, bandits, fellow professionals, or even just a person who happens to have a huge debt - eps. 1).

It appears that the "hunting" in bounty hunting is only legitimate, as long as it doesn't involve one of the "good guys". Good guys according to who? No in-universe explanation is given except that according to Disney, New Republic must be the good guys. This show seems to be the opposite of Star Wars: The Old Republic (the online game, not the single player RPG): where the game aligns bounty hunter in the "evil" faction just because Boba Fett worked for the Empire, this show aligns bounty hunter in the "good" faction just because Mando is the protagonist.

The Mando also always consistently failed to realize that leaving Baby Yoda alone always means a bad thing. I mean, this is his damn third time doing that.

That being said, the action is quite well-done. The Twi'lek girl is choreographed nicely. The Mando has some cool action with his gears. The ending has some tense, though the last order from Ran feels a bit cheap. Unfortunately, those still can't save the episode from its below-average screen writing.

This episode is disappointing.

With the action, it’s tiresome and a considerable downgrade from the first episode’s kick-ass opening. It’s short, full of tedious banter and only shows people punching and throwing each other off trucks.

Similarly, the episode’s revelation has little weight; since the episode doesn’t explain why it matters, I don’t know why I should care. Also, they introduce a new character, but we don’t learn why she’s a threat to our heroes or why Sam and Bucky need to catch her group.

Worst of all, though, the character dynamics are awkward. Despite understanding its origin, I found the conflicts messy and confusing. I mean, why the therapy? What’s with this therapist?

On a positive note, I like the social commentary, even if the episode doesn’t explore it that much. In the first episode, the show comments on racial discrimination and they continue it here; I appreciate it.

Finally, the pacing is sluggish, and as a result, I struggled to get through the episode’s runtime. If there were more action, I’d forgive the weak writing, but alas, I’m left disappointed.

Likewise, The Star-Spangled Man feels undercooked, dissatisfying, and left me disappointed. Not only has the storytelling quality faltered, but the action has too, which is all I’m looking for in this TV show. Hopefully, this is the only bump on my FWS journey.

TECHNICAL SCORE: 6/10
ENJOYMENT SCORE: 5/10

Now they're trying to save the show by making people miraculously come to their senses and by sprinkling some sweet poly on top. Kudos.

But RE that whole "suicide with a plastic bag" thing. Now that we've seen how it happened... just reinforces how terrible the police force is working there. No signs of struggle? Really? He struggled quite a lot. But another plot hole seems to be how Nina is calling him right before entering his house and Ellie cuts off the call, right? I mean she could have pressed a silence button, but something about the reaction of Nina and the way Ellie handled it seemed to me like she actually declined the call. And declining a call while you're actually dead... doesn't seem suspicious? Plus his phone actually missing from the scene of the crime... not suspicious either? Wtf police. What the. Actual. F.
Same with how the kids had actually died... if they'd had an autopsy they would have realised they hadn't drowned. :rolling_eyes:

On a side note, how do you "keep watch' while they're inside someone's head. If Dodge suddenly showed up, what will they do? Jump into the door? Knock on it, "tiiiime tooo get ouuuuttt" or... uh... I guess you'll just stay exposed.

Of course taking the key back to the crown while you're off to get it is the best idea, because there's no way Dodge would be anywhere close by, and uh... major headdesk

[7.4/10] I would classify this as a “good not great” finale. That’s a little bit of a disappointment, but considering how many other long running shows have ended with a thud in recent years, I will take “good”! The thing is that I don’t have any major problems with the episode, I just think I wanted a little bit more. I also think that some of it stems from the fact that the show essentially did its big series finale at the end of season 5, so this was all a bit of a bonus to start with.

The one problem I did have is that the solution to the big major problem is a little too convoluted and confusing. I’ll admit that my memories of the end of season 6 are a little hazy, and I typically enjoy stable time loop solutions to problems. But time travel plots can get really messy, and this was no exception. The episode basically stopped dead shortly after it started so that Fitz could deliver ten minutes of exposition.

I’m sure if you break it down, it makes enough sense, but Fitz and Simmons plan, not to mention the rest of the team’s plan for defeating the Chronicoms in the main timeline, was so cryptic and shrouded in mystery and wrapped up in timey wimey craziness that there wasn’t necessarily the clarity of intention or character that I like from my TV shows.

To the point, I really like Kora turning and using her powers to help the good guys, as the culmination of her journey and learning that family can be a positive thing, as represented by Daisy and her experiences, versus a negative thing, as represented by Nathaniel Mallick and his experiences. I like the idea of May using her empathy powers to help save the day, as the culmination of her journey this season. And I like how the team’s experience with Enoch influenced their plot to turn the rest of the Chronicoms good, replete with a nice echoing line of “As I have always been.” But the combination of the three works much better on a symbolic level than on a plot level. Frankly, the plot mechanics of the whole episode are a little wonky.

I also didn’t have much of a response to the showdown between Daisy and Mallick. It was pretty much a fait accompli, and the two leaping around the giant inflatable balls didn’t do much for me visually, even with the show’s best director on board for this one. Daisy's attempt at self-sacrifice might have made more of an impact if I had any belief the show might actually go through with it. Instead, it mostly played like an obvious fake out. That said, I appreciate that Kora again used her nebulous powers for good, this time managing to channel them to revive her sister, in a vindication of ehr journey and the season’s themes.

And that’s pretty much that, in terms of the plot. The day is saved. We jump one year later. And what’s left is all character moments and beats, some of which were great, and a lot of which were fine.

Let’s start with my favorite of them. I love that Deke decides to stay in the 1980s so that he can send our heroes back to the main timeline. (This is also where I’ll say that the decision to bring the Chronicoms to the main timeline was pretty odd.) It shows great nobility from Deke. He’s very funny about it, but it’s also a sacrifice that he undertakes without complaint, even blessing the Daisy/Sousa pairing despite his prior crush. It even feels like a happy ending for him, potentially being both a rock god and the head of what’s left of Shield. I’m not sure any character has grown or become more endearing over the last couple of seasons than him, and I’m glad to see him get what I’d consider the best ending of the bunch.

Mack is still director, getting to close out on the helicarrier. Yo-Yo is still leading missions. And my favorite touch of the still-in-Shield crew is that Piper’s one wish for helping FitzSimmons was to get an LMD of Davis! Honestly, it may have been my favorite small touch in the finale.

Speaking of May, her teaching at the “Phil Coulson Shield Academy”, replete with good ol’ Flint(!) as a student, is a nice ending for her. I don’t know if it really completes the character’s journey for me, but it’s nice. She’s one of the major characters who kind of got her ending in S5, so it works as a grace note.

The same goes for FitzSimmons. The show gave away the game a bit when Simmons said “two become one then three become one” in her previous incoherent ramblings. The show got more juice out of her remembering Fitz than her reuniting with their child, but it’s still a nice beat. The fact that they got their happy ending with the life they made together up in space is a pleasant thought, and the bucolic tones of the two playing with Aliyah is sweet. Again, it’s all very nice, but just doesn’t carry the same emotional catharsis and impact their wedding did.

That said, I kind of like how understated Daisy’s ending is. There’s no “Me and Sousa are getting married” or “Kora is a whole new person”! It’s just “things are going well with both.” She’s built another new family and after feeling so lost in terms of romance and family when she started the series, having her end in a good but not “happily ever after” place is pretty darn good. It didn’t move me, but that’s okay.

Coulson’s ending is the one that threw me off the most. He, more than anyone, got his real ending in S5. But him getting his switch and his car is, again, at least nice, with a bit of a throwback to the show’s early episodes to boot, so I’ll take it.

At the end of the day, I’m not sure what more specifically I wanted. None of this material is bad. All of it is solid. I guess I just expected to have more of an emotional response after seven seasons and scads of adventures with these characters. It’s kind of a “life goes on” ending, which is bold in its own way. Still, it’s sweet and nice enough to pass muster, which I’ll count as a win given some of the series finales we’ve seen of late.

So farewell to Agents of Shield! A show that built its own unique and entertaining corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and used the freedom it found there for everything it was worth!

[8.4/10] I worried about how this show was going to do Logan/Veronica. In 3 seasons + a movie, the series had already been around the rosebush tons of times with those two, and since the fanbase has thrived on romantic drama, I was dreading however it would get inserted into the show.

But I really like this. Logan has matured. He has become healthier and more in control of himself, and an all-around more stable person. But Veronica is not healthy yet. As she notes in voiceover, she’s hardened into a different sort of person, the type she once thought she could get away from, but returned to being in the movie.

Her basically telling Logan that she can’t deal with him when he’s that healthy, and maybe doesn't love him when he’s better, is devastating and destructive, in a very real sort of way. Logan’s fist through the door is scary, but it comes from a true place. And in the same way, while some of the dialogue is overwrought, her trying to stoke the fires in Logan that nearly burned him up, just because she’s still smoldering, is a really interesting note for the sow to explore.

It also leads to some neat entanglements later in the episode. We see the type of ability that Logan is keeping suppressed when he single-handedly takes out a pair of rough-and-tumble hillbillies and gets himself a job protecting Congressman Maloof. It’s a nice touch that DIck mentions his money issues, and watching Logan be a badass, nigh-John Wick style, is surprisingly entertaining! The way it promises to complicate the relationship between him and Veronica, personally and professionally, is intriguing as hell.

I’ll add that I like that Veronica sees these patterns. She pushes those thoughts away with the carnal and doesn't exactly take Logan’s advice to talk to his therapist, but when she sees a reflection of herself in Maddie, it gives her enough self-awareness to apologize and see the harm she’s caused. As I said in my last write-up, it’s the sort of smart character work that the original show excelled at.

At the same time, the mystery stuff is pretty good here too. We’re introduced to Clyde (J.K. Simmons!) who’s playing off his Oz filmography by portraying one of Big Dick’s associates from prison. We see in flashbacks how he engineered his way into this role, and given how he sizes up and shoos along Dick’s date, he seems like a worthy foil for Veronica, whether or not his “can you find my ex?” routine is real or not. The “previously on” hints that the hotelier who died was leading the charge against Big Dick’s “NUTT” campaign, which makes Clyde an interesting suspect to boot.

We also get an interesting wrinkle in the form of the two Mexican men trying to figure out who killed their boss’s nephew in their own extralegal way. One of the neat things about the original Veronica Mars is how it would address racism, and while some of it’s a little tongue-in-cheek here, you see it through those two characters and the way that lily white Neptune responds to them. The fact that they killed some robotics competition rival is also a neat little wrinkle in the investigation.

I’m also interested in Patton Oswalt’s role as the pizza guy/amateur crime-solver. He seems like comic relief (and another good chance for continuity gags with his tweet), but I had him pegged as red herring comic relief. The catch is that his declaration that the Congressman killed his brother’s fiancée creates a neat fly in the ointment for Mars Investigations.

The same goes for Maddie, the hotelier’s daughter. The show gets a little too didactic about it, but I like the fact that she is an echo of Veronica -- somebody who is resourceful, demanding, and more than a little reckless, who wants answers to questions no one can seem to resolve. Hopefully the show doesn't keep gilding the lily, but I like the dynamic between her and Veronica.

Last but not least, it’s always nice to see some familiar faces! I like how Dick Casablancas hasn’t changed at all, and his “I had to think about two things at once” bit was a big laugh. I also didn’t expect to see Liam Fitzpatrick as one of the returning figures, but it’s a nice way to quickly signify danger to the audience, and Veronica pulling a gun on him makes for a tense scene!

Overall, this is two episodes in a row that feel like worthy successors to, and continuations of, the work the show did in the 2000s. There’s plenty of interesting personal and professional and mystery threads for this season to tug on, and I’m enjoying the ride.