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RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars: Lip Sync LaLaPaRuza Smackdown (2022)
Hi Jinkx Rigga Morris
The sense that this season was rigged had been brewing for a few episodes; with the finale it crystallised that it was rigged from the start- the versus choices, the songs, the looks for the songs, the final decisions...it was crystal clear who would prevail before their lips even mouthed a syllable and who cares about who actually did better, I guess.
It was always going to be impossible to whittle these queens down, because they are all equally talented legends in their own right imo. But if you have to have a winner, and of course you do, at least make it a fair fight!
The winner was well deserving, but we all saw it coming.
The Vivienne, Monet and Evie were especially robbed, but all credit to them for being so gracious.
The First Lady (2022)
Amazing cast, superb show
Leaving this review mainly to counteract some of the hate here. I loved the show from start to finish and could not disagree more with the criticisms levelled at Viola Davis.
Each of the three main actors did a superb job and all three time periods felt completely immersive to me with no distracting elements.
The Michelle Obama portrayal was maybe the most accurate, probably because she's the most recent figure to hold the title and therefore the one I know best, yet Davis is lambasted for some weird reason?
Gillian Anderson does far more "mouth acting" imo than Viola Davis and yet Viola is highlighted negatively specifically.
Nothing but praise for everyone involved in this series and I can't wait for more.
P. S. Love you Viola.
The Split: Episode #3.1 (2022)
Really very good
The Split hasn't always been consistent over the years and if this is to be the last season that's not a huge surprise to me.
From the outset I would have liked to see more legal drama to balance the family dynamic and better characterisation of the family outside the husband and wife main characters.
BUT...this episode was really strong for me.
I'm still invested in these characters after almost 5 years and personally this episode delivered real emotional impact, not just because of the plot, but because the choices these characters make along the way feel genuinely realistic.
And I know if I'm in tears at the end it's gotta be good.
Star Trek: Discovery: Coming Home (2022)
How it should have gone down
As with all the episodes in this fourth season of Discovery, its actually easier to describe how it should have unfolded (rather than listing the numerous faults)...
The pre-credit sequence shows citizens of the Federation fleeing in terror from the DMA, which can actually be seen in the planet skies/space (think the Voyage Home whales probe). Not just its effects.
Back on Discovery Stamets and the science team get one long scene or multiple scenes where they decode the DMA language in a believably lengthy, prolonged process with an exhilarating and intelligent final breakthrough (techno-babble a must).
Tilly and the Admiral get their scenes together, in which her trainee cadets are killed off one by one. The Admiral suffers a mortal wound, lending credence to his personal admissions and in the arms of a tearful Tilly. He can survive or not, I'm not particularly invested either way.
Back on Book's ship, Tarka doubles down on his intention to reach his lost loved one at any cost, but minus the admission it's only an alternate version of him, which really watered down his motives. His anger grows throughout the episode, reaching a level almost of madness (think Khan) until Book is forced to vaporise him. His hideous death affects Book deeply, but he knows it was necessary.
The DMA species turn out either to be malevolent with little care for lower lifeforms and who have knowingly destroyed Federation worlds, or are incredibly empathetic having either been misled by a military faction in their own ranks, or having not been aware of the sentience level of the species they were eliminating.
Whichever it is, Burnham can predictably triumph by threatening them with their newfound capability to destroy them, or show them the error of their ways by transmitting the extent of the suffering they inflicted though the modified universal translator.
The DMA species are now on side.
Book is the price the DMA species demand for continual communication and for stopping the DMA. He can either be a prisoner or a bridge. Book remains with the DMA species.
Burham triumphs in saving the new Federation she had a hand in restoring, but the price is her lost love. Very bittersweet.
The Earth President is not a President but a small group or a Quorum, which if it must include real-life political figures, should have one from each of the main political parties i.e. A representation of future unity.
Final scene is on an unknown world showing Tarka's lost life materialising at a plot-twist destination to set up the next season i.e. Saru's home-world (a personal preference because I find his home planet intriguing, but let your imagination run wild). He can be next season's biggest threat, since he's genius level, and once he learns of Tarka's fate be enraged, or he can be be a potential future Discovery crew member since he doesn't agree with the lengths to which Tarka went.
Mum: Saturday (2019)
Gentle perfection
Sad this over; it built so beautifully over 3 series.
There are familiar challenges for Cathy here, many moments where she kindly bites her tongue while we the viewers fume at the tv on her behalf. But also some wonderful pay-offs and moments between characters we haven't seen before. Why can't there be more? Too much of a good thing maybe.
Star Trek: Discovery: Unification III (2020)
Should have been the best episode of the season so far
Good actors + fascinating missions + interesting characters will always equal woeful, sleep-inducing television with the addition of abysmal writing. This had all the makings of the best episode of the season so far, but the opportunity was wasted by dumbass writing that only ever scratched the surface. All the emotion and weight is in the performances with the result that it feels lopsided. So disappointing.
Game of Thrones: The Bells (2019)
Carnage
I happen to think everything in this episode; the big plot twists and many culminations of character arcs and prophecies...all made perfect sense. The 'mad queen reversal' being the best of them all.
The problem, and it's huge, is that we can't enjoy and savour them to their upmost because this season has been so ridiculously rushed that the foundations for those pay offs were either poorly laid, or never laid at all.
We all love Deny, she's our rightful queen- the one who's gonna break that gosh darn wheel for sure! But when you simply flip some switches in a rapid space of time to turn her evil; we're obviously going to rebel against it.
So I did enjoy the episode and thought it worked well on a character level, but it's just such a bitter pill to swallow when you know it could have been so much better.
The OA: Overview (2019)
Going well, until...
For me the beauty of the OA (season 1) was the grounded high-school cast around the ephemeral Brit Marling. It was a magical mix.
In season 2 the creators chose to sideline the high-schoolers and concentrate on Brit Marling/the OA and the fantasy world/s around her.
I'm surprised by the ratings here for Magic Mirror and Mirror Mirror, because they were my favourites from this second season.
Although I enjoyed the mostly fantasy elements of the rest this season, I find the core of this show to be the character driven scenes with BBA, Steve, Jesse, Alfonso and Buck.
So I was fairly enjoying the episode finale which features all of them... until the final 5 minutes. The twist delivered felt disastrously premature. This was a turn of events for a series finale, not a second season finale. The bad wig was the icing on an underdone cake.
Hopefully proved wrong with season 3, looking forward to it.
7/10 for Overview.