The Flash 9x09+Steeltown Murders 1x01+Yellowjackets 2x07+ 2 more
It's My Party And I'll Die If I Want To
Self deluded narcissist Barry is 30. This is heinous. The struggle of their lives is promised. Nora is knocked up? Diggle gives Barry Oliver's bow. Snow is mentioned. Oddly Kate never is. There is a cosmic reckoning or something. There is mumbling and punishment of evil. Some rando baddie shows up to crash Barry's party. He's played by the guy from 'Heroes' and 'Covert Affairs'. This is not eloquent and potent.
Barry is not likeable and deserves no solace and peace. Wally is messed with. Barry thinking with his dick got Eddie killed, not that he cares. TPTB cannot throw some feeling in there. Wally finally has a negative reaction to Barry. This is universally bad. The baddie veers between motives. Barry whines and is getting nowhere with his argument. The baddie plans epic revenge against the pathologically selfish Barry who perpetueted selfishness. WTF is a time vault? Barry is called on his main character syndrome and how Frost and Snow are dead.
WTF is speed healing? Barry is called on stealing Wally's life. Barry encounters a bored looking Oliver who has the power of a god. There is bad acting. Barry mentions Oliver bringing back his mother, Tommy and Lance. How the arrowverse has changed from the pilot ep of 'Arrow' is amazing. But not in a good way. Oliver still does not say sorry to Tommy for screwing Laurel.
There is firey anger. Oliver looks constipated which is meant to be icy self containment. This show has never been consistent. TPTB wage a war of attrition on viewers. Oliver has stridency. Barry says sorry to the profoundly perturbed Wally. Barry was not always thus. This was shockingly bad and much more mundane.
Best Lines:
“Deep examination of yourself.”
“A tad too melodramatic.”
“One more sacrifice in your name.”
“Your anger means nothing.”
“Random mad scientist.”
“Dishonour his sacrifice.”
“Know my gift and rejoice.”
“Gateway to the multiverse.”
“They were lies! Made to tempt me!”
“All your friends are zombies.”
“Living hurts.”
“Locked myself in the time vault.”
~
Steeltown Murders (2023) 1x01
Philip Glenister stars in this BBC drama which is based on a true story. It is also clearly abhorrent.
~
Burial
I have no pity for Shauna. None. Zero. Zip. The crash was life altering. Shauna is in the depths of unhappiness. The plot has no movement. Shauna laments the absence of her bastard child conceived by morons. What happened to Crystal's body? Is Nat in with Lottie's cult? The adult survivors gather at Lottie's abode. Are Lottie's rituals ancient in practice? Lottie is galvansied in her mission. Shuna screamed about imagined infractions in the wilderness. There are worrying echoes. This was inherently defective. Shauna's lunacy escapes mention. Watching this requires effort.
Misty's behaviour shouldn't be let stand. Shauna's actions are not big talking point. Shauna is the obligatory school jackass and she builds animosity and is mean and stupid. Shauna took poor dead devoured Jackie for granted. This was mundanity. Critics call this genuinly extraordinary and I don't see it. Who is Ben? There are things that worry. There is demented enthusiasm and a whole bunch of lying going on. Who is Paul? There is an act of lunacy by violence for pleasure loon Shauna. People bitch about Misty not looking for Crystal, they're not looking for her either!
How are they tending to their hair? Misty and Shauna rant about murdering people. There is a lot of fake crying. Does Shauna's son rest happy? I want to see bad things happen to them. There is a fraught period. There is a goat and a musical number. Misty once talked Ben off the edge. Van's dying. So? Misty yelled about the coach's errant willy. Lottie sees things. People get drunk and talk about how fragmentation is a feature of traumatic memories. Shauna acted insane. Were there unknown forces? This does not resoante.
Best Lines:
“Have you 2 joined a cult?”
“We will eat you!”
“Butt meat!”
“Doing woo woo sh*t.”
“Aren't welcome here anymore.”
“Water coffin.”
“Doesn't have a job job.”
“Where does he go to prison?”
“I lost my goat.”
“Risk or loss or conseqeunce.”
~
PBS Frontline: Death Of A Porn Queen (1987)
The story of Colleen Applegate a small town girl who became erotic actress Shauna Grant whose story inspired a 1988 tv movie. An 18 years old Colleen went to LA and found a world of money, drugs, sex and her own early death. There is blaming silent shame. She shot herself with a rifle in 1984 when she was 20. There are photos that show dated hair and tan lines. Her grave is sad and untended. Her possessions were just abandoned at her LA apartment. Did her parents care at all? Where is her headstone? Why did they not take her stuff?
She posed for 'Hustler'. Her parents who are now divorced speak. She had 4 sisters. Her father is sad. Her mother is cold as ice. There was inept crisis intervention. She wrote poems. Her mother goes on about no housework being done by Colleen. She's more concerned about that than the fact her daughter had suitcase pimps. Friends speak. Colleen came from a town of 4000 or so. She tried to kill herself before heading to LA. Her vile uncaring mother says she wanted attention. This was advocacy. Contentious aspects are overlooked. Colleen's own mother had no concern for her at all.
Her LA life went bad with shocking speed. The depths of her desperation, misery and uncertainty are only hinted at. She defied societal expectations. Her mother has no sense of care. There was family commorbidity. Her mother has sorrow. It is said Colleen was driven out of town because people were on her case about trying to kill herself. She had vague ambitions. She went to a sleazy 'model agency' aka nude photographic modelling. She was gullible.
Nude photoshots led to pornos because she ignored advice. Nobody approved of her LA life. She had POS suitcase pimp boyfriends and uncaring parents. Her father has regret. Collen was beautiful. Sleazy men speak about the porno meatmarket. Clips from her pornos that look horrible are shown. Her make up artist speaks. She looked like peaches and cream.
Colleen's use of drugs is discussed. She is said to have looked hard due to her job. People taped Colleen's magazine photos to her sisters lockers. Colleen's small town friends didn't want her around anymore. A Las Vegas conference is shown. A 100 million pornos were rented last year according to the voiceover. She earned $100,000 and blew it on cocaine.
The perms! The makeup! Colleen hated doing porn. A guy in a wifebeater rants that people are still making money off Colleen. LA was harmful to her. There is talk of an abortion and herpes and her body count. Colleen left porn. Her drug dealer boyfriend thought she just wanted attention. Why was Francis Ford Coppola sat near Colleen at an adult film award?!?
Colleen shot herself. Her organs were donated. This was good and very sad and troubling.
Best Lines:
“Dreams, values, choices.”
“Young people in trouble.”
“Run out of money and cocaine.”
“How did she get so far from home?”
“Run the house.”
“Decided I shouldn't be there.”
“Safe from the outside world.”
“Just let it happen.”
“Each weekend he must clean up highways.”
“So sadistically discussing.”
“Unwelcome at a friend's wedding.”
“Stay away from all this cocaine.”
“Beach bum girl.”
“Nation's videotape dealers.”
“No meaning in the picture.”
“Living in a small town can really be the pits sometimes.”
“Headed west.”
“Stayed in touch with her to the end.”
“To be somebody.”
“Just doesn't care about her.”
“Get out of nude modelling quickly quickly because it leads downhill.”
~
Waco The Aftermath 1x05
Reckoning
Michael Shannon is on the stand. Waco need never have happened. Shannon and his calm focus lies on the stand. The ATF didn't want history to record their lies. The ATF closed down all possibilities of a non violent end. Shannon is caught in his lies on the stand. The ATF did leaglised lawlessness. The ATF were fine with what was being done in their name. The ATF were angry about global humiliation and killed the cultists.
Waco was running out of water. ATF leadership and Reno get bashed. This show is lawsuit baiting. Carol snoops. The panicked 911 call from Waco is played to the jury. The caller died in the fire. The defence does an emotional closing speech. 'The Turner Diaries' and a bomb are mentioned.
The jury acquits the Waco survivors. Someone won't help Shannon out of spite. People won't listen to Carol. She says Elohim City are the only ones who wanted her. She heads off to an unknown future. The defence lawyer learns who spied on him. The jail screws with the acquitted woman. The jury changes the jury verdict and hands down sentences and fines. One man gets 40 years.
It is suggested charging the ATF with perjury, that was prevented. McVeigh carries out his revenge in 1995 on the building where the ATF planned the Waco raid. Shannon crashes a Waco memorial and oddly isn't pelted with rocks but allowed to intone gravely. The man on death row knew what was to happen. This was good. We learn what became of various people and that the urgent threat of hate groups grows.
Best Lines:
“Was it inevitable?”
“No it was not.”
“I alone see the truth!”
“Asking to have this happen again.”
“Everyone was tired of it.”
“I better like your answer.”
“I was high!”
“People will remember this.”
“No way this outcome was the jury's intention.”
“I narc-ed on him.”
“God has given me this land and everything on it.”
“We do this mean.”
“Found a new doorway to darken.”
“Received another vision from god.”
“Right to attack its own citizens? Scary question if you say it out loud.”
“I didn't take nothing!”
“Somewhere to go?”
“No I don't.”
“No plan for peaceful surrender.”
“Wanted it over at any cost.”
