Aquarium 4.20 -- "The Last Man"

[hth_the_first]

Complete with Final Thoughts on the season -- two buzzkills for the price of one! No need to thank me.

Comments

[spike21]

*laughs* I sort of agree with you altho I was just meh on the ep, not hating it. But meh is not what I want from a season finale.

I'm in such a wierd fandom space with SGA -- most of the people I love and respect in fandom have HUGE issues with the show for one reason or another and mostly I don't disagree with them. And at the same time I am fairly happy with what the show gives me. I'm not sure what that says about me (I'm hoping it says: I am large, I contain multitudes or something good like that) but whatever *g*) Anyway, yeah, on to S5... awayyyyy.

[hth_the_first]

Ultimately, "meh" is not a small complaint. I think when shows like XF and Buffy are going horribly awry in various ways, it's easier for me to make allowances because, you know, these are Big Shows with Big Ideas and they're trying to get something done, and especially on the schedule you have to break and write a season of tv, you're doing it *on the run,* and everyone's written enough WIPs to understand the feeling of "fuck, if I had it to do again, I would just..." I mean, shows fuck up; things that seem like good ideas don't play out, or you get so caught up in one thing that you're too willing to sweep this other thing under the rug, etc

[spike21]

Actually, when I think about it, I do have a core issue with the show, but they went awry so long ago that I think to a certain extent I de-invested. My issue with SGA is that I loved the idea of Atlantis alone -- cut off from Earth. I think I was assuaged by the sort of Atlantis First ethos that Weir maintained for them all. This year, with Carter, I felt they had lost some of that -- that they had become Earth Firsters in ways that seemed unnatural for everyone, especially John. I don't even feel it was deliberate -- more that the SG1 oriented creators never even realized that there was this whole sense of Atlantis as something at odds with Earth and that this was a good thing. Ehh. I dunno. I don't know how they can mess up and still keep me relatively happy, but they do.

[ratcreature]

It would've been nice to see Atlantis do something -- PRACTICALLY ANYTHING -- to punch back at him, without resorting to a completely coincidental time rift so that Sheppard can be sent back in time with *all the information they were too slow to collect in the first place.*

Yeah, that's very true. Though I wasn't bothered that much because it seems they save themselves through luck more than competence fairly often. Maybe that's the reason why all the parallel universes are so crappy, that it really is more like a lottery chance thing that they succeed.

[hth_the_first]

Heh, that's so true. But I think usually it's more like they have this plan that probably *shouldn't* work, but they do it anyway, and -- LUCKILY! -- it just happens to turn out okay after all! I think this is the first time where all their wing-and-a-prayer plans actually turn out *not* to work, which could've been interesting in and of itself, if there hadn't been a Convenient Time-Traveling Solar Flare to bail them out when it became clear they just weren't up to this task.

[ratcreature]

Obviously it is their manifest destiny to be rulers of the pegasus galaxy (or maybe feudal warlords accepting zpms as tribute?), so any sun is bound to shine on them and intervene in their favor... *snerk*

[hth_the_first]

I'm glad it was helpful for you! Sometimes there's no sane response but to throw a temper fit, you know? *g*

[wneleh]

In the meantime, though, I kind of want to thank everyone who sits through these commentary tracks of mine on a semi-regular basis

Thank you for doing them!

Esp. this season, I've been finding myself wondering what, exactly, Atlantis is trying to be. Is it just "Drake and Josh" in space? Or is it something more? And, if so, is that intentional?

What I like about your reviews is that you seem to notice the things I do; but I just go "huh" or "eh." You really shape how I end up interpretting SGA; even where I disagree with you.

[hth_the_first]

Oh, dear God. It IS Drake & Josh In Space. *Thanks* for that, now I'll never be able to get it out of my head again!

[wneleh]

My daughters (ages 9 and 6) have mapped John to Josh and Drake to Rodney. And of course I've protested that, no, it's Josh->Rodney and Drake->John. So, IOW, this is my life.

[copracat]

Look, for my sisters in McShep fandom, I gotta think that right now you are annoyed, because for a plot that they kind of set up as though it's about Rodney's attempt to rescue John, he kind of doesn't lift a finger to do *anything* about John until his wife dies and Rodney thinks of a way he can use John's disappearance to change the timeline -- oh, and incidentally, rescue John.

But don't you think that it's nice that he put just as much, perhaps even less effort into finding John as was put into finding the Athosians?

[hth_the_first]

But don't you think that it's nice that he put just as much, perhaps even less effort into finding John as was put into finding the Athosians?

Err...for certain values of "nice"? *g* I do kinda find myself quietly pleased on the karma angle -- see, John, maybe if you had bestirred yourself to save the Athosians, all that good energy would've come back around when you needed saving!