A TV roundup
I'm still sort of processing how I felt about Avengers Endgame, so just catching up on TV thoughts for now. Also, this means my next round up will probably include AoS, that makes me happy.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 4x17 (finale)
I can’t quite make up my mind how I feel about this one. I think it’s the right ending, and is narratively fitting, but I’m not sure it’s emotionally satisfying. That Rebecca’s (or anyone’s) happy ending is about more than romantic love is a long time theme of the show that I’m glad they stuck to even though much of these episodes (especially recently) have focused on hat element of it. That Rebecca’s passion is music and using it to express herself and she needs to find a way have that in her life if a very well established truth of the story. But we don’t actually hear the song she does write, so it still feels a little unfinished.
As far as the romantic options go, I think it’s telling that the only one established as off the table is Josh; while Nathaniel is ambiguous, and Greg is said to be single and White Josh doesn’t trust them in that state. Leaving two potential options (if one thinks she gets back together with either of them down the road) avoids the implication that one person just had to wait all this out for her to obviously choose them; not having all three options means that a year later they’re not exactly where they were when we left them. But it also allows the show to stand by one of its other long term themes, that narratively Josh and Rebecca shouldn’t end up together. The meta morals of writing that would just be really awkward (maybe even problematic). It’s good that they’re friends and both are better, happier people who could even think about having worked, but it’s wrong for the story.
So let’s talk about a few of the other happy endings we got. Valencia’s does involve her romantic life, but it’s also showing her growth across the series, that she doesn’t have to wait around for someone else to make the moves she wants, that she can be in control of her life and choices. Heather (and Hector) just continues along the path she’d already chosen, and is shown to be happy with her life. Poor White Josh had it rough, but he’s always had such a handle on how to live his life that while I feel bad for him I’m sure he’s doing okay. Daryl is going to end up with a good sized family which is something he clearly wanted. I just love Paula’s bit; she’d already reached her happy ending, but she wanted and got it to be even better.
As for Josh, we don’t get a ton of insight into his life as of next year, but it kind of makes sense that what we do get is him in a relationship. Josh’s growth over the last couple seasons has been towards him finding what makes him happy, and being happy with a lot of what he’s doing. Josh’s ambition was never career, he’s adapted well to the gig economy we see; he’s opening himself up to exploring hobbies and interests that he once would have thought weren’t cool enough for him but that he enjoys and now lets himself embrace. So to show Josh getting a happy ending (and to remove him from the field of Rebecca’s choices) we show that he is a loving relationship that he seems happy with and that it came from just being himself.
I just about cried at Nathaniel’s epilog. He’s going to go work at the zoo, people, that’s so great for him. He stood up to his father by quitting and by expressing his feelings, and now pursued his passion for animals; he probably is fully allowed to go to zoo at night if he wants to now. We don’t know where he ends up romantically, he may be seeing someone, he may still be hoping for another chance with Rebecca, but we don’t need to know that to know that he’s in a good place. They managed to give him a happy ending without needing to get into that.
Greg is in a similar place. Although we don’t get a true epilog for him (which kind of implies to me that he is still likely a potential love for Rebecca) we understand that he is living a life that’s good for him. He’s still sober, he’s made something of his restaurant, he’s connected with his friends, he’s made a home for himself by accepting who he is and what he wants. I would guess that he’s single not because he’s exactly waiting for Rebecca (he said he wouldn’t) but for similar reasons to why things ended with his Emory girlfriend, he knows what he wants to feel when he’s in love and he hasn’t found it again.
It’s all good narratively, a lot of choices I would have wanted them to make for the ending; I just didn’t feel as much for it as I would have liked.
Jane the Virgin 5x03
I had a hunch last time that the first thing that Michael remembered would be ‘snow,’ though I had more expected it to be him vaguely starting to remember or maybe saying that he always felt like there was someone who ought to be with him in the winter, and Jane being torn on what to say when it started to look like there was something of Michael in there. And since this episode worked to make it seem that they were wrapping up the Jason arc, and clearly it was not going to end that simply, I basically expected all the way through that when Jane went to get the divorce papers he would say something Michael-ish. (I noticed that while Jason was still saying in this episode that he didn’t like talking much, he seemed to be getting a lot more comfortable doing it, and sounded more and more like Michael, I’m less sure that was intentional though). And while I was a little off the mark in both cases, in general I knew what I was talking about. But I find I’m not able to call the next move, I don’t know if the next episode is going to pick up right where we left off so we can find out how much he remembers or if he’ll go off for a bit and figure out where his head is before telling her.
Surprisingly I really liked Alba’s talk about souls vs. soulmates and that they aren’t from the same idea. That souls are about connection to God while soulmates are bonds with other people; even though I exactly don’t believe in most of that, it was a good way of handling it.
I do appreciate the Jane and Petra story, though I’m not sure how much progress was actually made with the kids. This is a complicated blended family, and it’s not going to get a lot easier as they get older.
As for the Rogelio plot, this show has always worn its politics pretty openly so I don’t mind this I don’t think. It’s borderline too on the nose, and I would be annoyed if they focused on it regularly, but I’m okay with it as is.
The Orville 2x12
That episode felt really long, but in a good way; there was a lot of story there. I kind of think I liked it and was more invested than with the two-parter. My main complaint would be that because there was so much going on, each aspect of it felt a little underexplored and unfinished. And the writing was a little weird at times, unsettled on what it wanted to be. Which, hasn’t that been the show’s main problem all along? It started out torn between comedy and optimistic drama, now that it’s mostly settled into optimistic drama (really, were there any jokes beyond Dolly Parton?) it struggles to know where to put its focus.
But I definitely liked it, let’s focus on that a while longer.
Arrow 7x18
I have a fair amount of contradictory feelings about this one. There’s a lot to like in the A-plot but I also had some issues with it. While the B-plot was a waste of space and the future plot just makes no sense. Also I practically could feel the writers or producers forgetting that they wasted calling an episode ‘Birds of Prey’ back in s2.
So where did this whole future Canary network come from and why didn’t we hear about it before now? I guess they just needed some cannon fodder to show the situation was serious. Also, up until the all future episode that plotline had always been focused on the old characters and William (who’s kind of an old character) but now we’re being asked to switch focus to Mia who is really not the best focal character. And the heavy-handed women got to stick together message was just grating since the way it came about was so contrived.
I really hope Diggle’s look at the end of Oliver’s post mission speech indicates that least Digg knows that Oliver sounds delusional and falling into the habit of trusting ‘family’ to stupid levels. And I am still not going to buy that Oliver has any real bond with Emiko worth him getting worked up over when his actual sister has had maybe a handful of mentions all season. This is a hill I will die on right next to the ‘Barry is unforgiven for Sara Diggle’ one.
As for the main plot...well the obvious girl power setup was better handled there since these are all actual characters showing they should stick together rather than characters we barely know making speeches on the subject, but it was still a bit obvious. And I’ve been wondering since Dinah lost her Cry why she couldn’t use Laurels old artificial Cry; I’m sure it’s not as good, but it’s better than nothing if she wants it. So I’m glad they finally remembered that, but since it apparently is around (not that it being lost would have been a great excuse since I’m sure Cisco could make another) there was no reason not to do this sooner. And there is one glaring problem with Felicity and Dinah’s discussion about whether Siren can be forgiven: they should be talking about Oliver. Dinah had a few bad days where she wasn’t trying to do good, coming back from that isn’t comparable to what Siren is trying. Sara’s discussion with Siren is very fitting (and one I probably should have seen coming more than I did), those are comparable situations; if Helena was around that could have been a pretty interesting discussion; Siren and Emiko could have a ton in common (besides usually being the worst actors on the show) if it was explored right; but Siren and Dinah aren’t mirrors at all aside from powers. But in the talk I noted, Felicity should be asking if Dinah thinks Oliver is redeemed and a hero after the things he did in the past; Felicity does, and so does Dinah as far as I know, and I do kind of think it’s part of what colors Felicity’s determination to see the best in Siren, but I think Dinah could stand to see the comparison.
Now I’m trying to work out if I have issues with Oliver not acknowledging the similarities, and only just starting to come around on Siren. I think I can make it work only making him look a little hypocritical, and the show and the character would probably own a little hypocrisy in Oliver.
The Orville 2x13
Well, that wasn’t how I expected that to end, now I need to see if there are any effects from it. I would assume that either we’re dealing with divergent timelines, or there will be some direct follow-up to this next time. Because I don’t really think he show would make this kind of drastic change without having thought it through; I may not always think this show has all its ducks in a row, but they have to realize how huge this would be if it does change the timeline. But there is enough evidence in episode that we’re dealing with divergent timelines, so I’m going to try not to dwell on it. (Looks at title of next week’s episode...or maybe not.)
I low-key ship Ed/Kelly, in the sense where I don’t quite need them to be together, I think it’s the smarter move in character for them not to be together (though there are some catches in the why they’re not together), and really like their chemistry in the relationship they have. But I also kind of forget how much I do ship them until there’s focus put on their relationship. They light up around each other, while being mature enough to know how complicated relationships can be; they’re not going to be happy with anyone else, especially while they’re here and part of each other’s lives, kind of married still in a lot of ways.
I do however have some problems with this episode, besides the closing questions. The staging in some scenes doesn’t work, and I don’t just mean the two Kellys. Now-Kelly and Ed walk into the room together and past-Kelly doesn’t notice Ed for a while; it’s vaguely possible that past-Kelly was focused on her future self so didn’t spare attention for anyone else, but even that should have been made clearer. And I wish they had given past-Ed a slightly different look in the end too since it doesn’t seem like he’s changed at all in seven years this way. They weren’t real good at making this seem like Kelly of seven years ago although I’m not sure if that’s on the writing or the acting; she just seemed too young in a lot of it, and the writing offered options in places for her to seem more young-adult than the teenager that she came across as at other times.
The Orville 2x14
Let’s start with, I really liked that one. I liked the characters, I liked the callbacks, I liked that it was consequences for the previous episode, I like it kind of being Yesterday’s Orville, I just liked the story. I’m not sure I liked it as a season finale and yet it’s obviously meant to be that. I also don’t quite like that there’s no real room for consequences from this episode; I was expecting AU Claire to end up sticking around and for that to come into play eventually, but apparently not (though come to think of it, this was what happened in the time travel ep in s1; though also, if that future no longer existed, how was Kelly taken before Claire showed up?).
There are plot holes I could pick apart, some choices that don’t quite work, and I really am struggling with the idea that this is how they ended the season; but...I liked it a lot and for now that’s kind of more important to me. If I come back to it later with the intent of dissecting it, there will be a lot to say; but like with a lot of the show, I’m with it and enjoy it for what it is, so I just go with the flow.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 4x17 (finale)
I can’t quite make up my mind how I feel about this one. I think it’s the right ending, and is narratively fitting, but I’m not sure it’s emotionally satisfying. That Rebecca’s (or anyone’s) happy ending is about more than romantic love is a long time theme of the show that I’m glad they stuck to even though much of these episodes (especially recently) have focused on hat element of it. That Rebecca’s passion is music and using it to express herself and she needs to find a way have that in her life if a very well established truth of the story. But we don’t actually hear the song she does write, so it still feels a little unfinished.
As far as the romantic options go, I think it’s telling that the only one established as off the table is Josh; while Nathaniel is ambiguous, and Greg is said to be single and White Josh doesn’t trust them in that state. Leaving two potential options (if one thinks she gets back together with either of them down the road) avoids the implication that one person just had to wait all this out for her to obviously choose them; not having all three options means that a year later they’re not exactly where they were when we left them. But it also allows the show to stand by one of its other long term themes, that narratively Josh and Rebecca shouldn’t end up together. The meta morals of writing that would just be really awkward (maybe even problematic). It’s good that they’re friends and both are better, happier people who could even think about having worked, but it’s wrong for the story.
So let’s talk about a few of the other happy endings we got. Valencia’s does involve her romantic life, but it’s also showing her growth across the series, that she doesn’t have to wait around for someone else to make the moves she wants, that she can be in control of her life and choices. Heather (and Hector) just continues along the path she’d already chosen, and is shown to be happy with her life. Poor White Josh had it rough, but he’s always had such a handle on how to live his life that while I feel bad for him I’m sure he’s doing okay. Daryl is going to end up with a good sized family which is something he clearly wanted. I just love Paula’s bit; she’d already reached her happy ending, but she wanted and got it to be even better.
As for Josh, we don’t get a ton of insight into his life as of next year, but it kind of makes sense that what we do get is him in a relationship. Josh’s growth over the last couple seasons has been towards him finding what makes him happy, and being happy with a lot of what he’s doing. Josh’s ambition was never career, he’s adapted well to the gig economy we see; he’s opening himself up to exploring hobbies and interests that he once would have thought weren’t cool enough for him but that he enjoys and now lets himself embrace. So to show Josh getting a happy ending (and to remove him from the field of Rebecca’s choices) we show that he is a loving relationship that he seems happy with and that it came from just being himself.
I just about cried at Nathaniel’s epilog. He’s going to go work at the zoo, people, that’s so great for him. He stood up to his father by quitting and by expressing his feelings, and now pursued his passion for animals; he probably is fully allowed to go to zoo at night if he wants to now. We don’t know where he ends up romantically, he may be seeing someone, he may still be hoping for another chance with Rebecca, but we don’t need to know that to know that he’s in a good place. They managed to give him a happy ending without needing to get into that.
Greg is in a similar place. Although we don’t get a true epilog for him (which kind of implies to me that he is still likely a potential love for Rebecca) we understand that he is living a life that’s good for him. He’s still sober, he’s made something of his restaurant, he’s connected with his friends, he’s made a home for himself by accepting who he is and what he wants. I would guess that he’s single not because he’s exactly waiting for Rebecca (he said he wouldn’t) but for similar reasons to why things ended with his Emory girlfriend, he knows what he wants to feel when he’s in love and he hasn’t found it again.
It’s all good narratively, a lot of choices I would have wanted them to make for the ending; I just didn’t feel as much for it as I would have liked.
Jane the Virgin 5x03
I had a hunch last time that the first thing that Michael remembered would be ‘snow,’ though I had more expected it to be him vaguely starting to remember or maybe saying that he always felt like there was someone who ought to be with him in the winter, and Jane being torn on what to say when it started to look like there was something of Michael in there. And since this episode worked to make it seem that they were wrapping up the Jason arc, and clearly it was not going to end that simply, I basically expected all the way through that when Jane went to get the divorce papers he would say something Michael-ish. (I noticed that while Jason was still saying in this episode that he didn’t like talking much, he seemed to be getting a lot more comfortable doing it, and sounded more and more like Michael, I’m less sure that was intentional though). And while I was a little off the mark in both cases, in general I knew what I was talking about. But I find I’m not able to call the next move, I don’t know if the next episode is going to pick up right where we left off so we can find out how much he remembers or if he’ll go off for a bit and figure out where his head is before telling her.
Surprisingly I really liked Alba’s talk about souls vs. soulmates and that they aren’t from the same idea. That souls are about connection to God while soulmates are bonds with other people; even though I exactly don’t believe in most of that, it was a good way of handling it.
I do appreciate the Jane and Petra story, though I’m not sure how much progress was actually made with the kids. This is a complicated blended family, and it’s not going to get a lot easier as they get older.
As for the Rogelio plot, this show has always worn its politics pretty openly so I don’t mind this I don’t think. It’s borderline too on the nose, and I would be annoyed if they focused on it regularly, but I’m okay with it as is.
The Orville 2x12
That episode felt really long, but in a good way; there was a lot of story there. I kind of think I liked it and was more invested than with the two-parter. My main complaint would be that because there was so much going on, each aspect of it felt a little underexplored and unfinished. And the writing was a little weird at times, unsettled on what it wanted to be. Which, hasn’t that been the show’s main problem all along? It started out torn between comedy and optimistic drama, now that it’s mostly settled into optimistic drama (really, were there any jokes beyond Dolly Parton?) it struggles to know where to put its focus.
But I definitely liked it, let’s focus on that a while longer.
Arrow 7x18
I have a fair amount of contradictory feelings about this one. There’s a lot to like in the A-plot but I also had some issues with it. While the B-plot was a waste of space and the future plot just makes no sense. Also I practically could feel the writers or producers forgetting that they wasted calling an episode ‘Birds of Prey’ back in s2.
So where did this whole future Canary network come from and why didn’t we hear about it before now? I guess they just needed some cannon fodder to show the situation was serious. Also, up until the all future episode that plotline had always been focused on the old characters and William (who’s kind of an old character) but now we’re being asked to switch focus to Mia who is really not the best focal character. And the heavy-handed women got to stick together message was just grating since the way it came about was so contrived.
I really hope Diggle’s look at the end of Oliver’s post mission speech indicates that least Digg knows that Oliver sounds delusional and falling into the habit of trusting ‘family’ to stupid levels. And I am still not going to buy that Oliver has any real bond with Emiko worth him getting worked up over when his actual sister has had maybe a handful of mentions all season. This is a hill I will die on right next to the ‘Barry is unforgiven for Sara Diggle’ one.
As for the main plot...well the obvious girl power setup was better handled there since these are all actual characters showing they should stick together rather than characters we barely know making speeches on the subject, but it was still a bit obvious. And I’ve been wondering since Dinah lost her Cry why she couldn’t use Laurels old artificial Cry; I’m sure it’s not as good, but it’s better than nothing if she wants it. So I’m glad they finally remembered that, but since it apparently is around (not that it being lost would have been a great excuse since I’m sure Cisco could make another) there was no reason not to do this sooner. And there is one glaring problem with Felicity and Dinah’s discussion about whether Siren can be forgiven: they should be talking about Oliver. Dinah had a few bad days where she wasn’t trying to do good, coming back from that isn’t comparable to what Siren is trying. Sara’s discussion with Siren is very fitting (and one I probably should have seen coming more than I did), those are comparable situations; if Helena was around that could have been a pretty interesting discussion; Siren and Emiko could have a ton in common (besides usually being the worst actors on the show) if it was explored right; but Siren and Dinah aren’t mirrors at all aside from powers. But in the talk I noted, Felicity should be asking if Dinah thinks Oliver is redeemed and a hero after the things he did in the past; Felicity does, and so does Dinah as far as I know, and I do kind of think it’s part of what colors Felicity’s determination to see the best in Siren, but I think Dinah could stand to see the comparison.
Now I’m trying to work out if I have issues with Oliver not acknowledging the similarities, and only just starting to come around on Siren. I think I can make it work only making him look a little hypocritical, and the show and the character would probably own a little hypocrisy in Oliver.
The Orville 2x13
Well, that wasn’t how I expected that to end, now I need to see if there are any effects from it. I would assume that either we’re dealing with divergent timelines, or there will be some direct follow-up to this next time. Because I don’t really think he show would make this kind of drastic change without having thought it through; I may not always think this show has all its ducks in a row, but they have to realize how huge this would be if it does change the timeline. But there is enough evidence in episode that we’re dealing with divergent timelines, so I’m going to try not to dwell on it. (Looks at title of next week’s episode...or maybe not.)
I low-key ship Ed/Kelly, in the sense where I don’t quite need them to be together, I think it’s the smarter move in character for them not to be together (though there are some catches in the why they’re not together), and really like their chemistry in the relationship they have. But I also kind of forget how much I do ship them until there’s focus put on their relationship. They light up around each other, while being mature enough to know how complicated relationships can be; they’re not going to be happy with anyone else, especially while they’re here and part of each other’s lives, kind of married still in a lot of ways.
I do however have some problems with this episode, besides the closing questions. The staging in some scenes doesn’t work, and I don’t just mean the two Kellys. Now-Kelly and Ed walk into the room together and past-Kelly doesn’t notice Ed for a while; it’s vaguely possible that past-Kelly was focused on her future self so didn’t spare attention for anyone else, but even that should have been made clearer. And I wish they had given past-Ed a slightly different look in the end too since it doesn’t seem like he’s changed at all in seven years this way. They weren’t real good at making this seem like Kelly of seven years ago although I’m not sure if that’s on the writing or the acting; she just seemed too young in a lot of it, and the writing offered options in places for her to seem more young-adult than the teenager that she came across as at other times.
The Orville 2x14
Let’s start with, I really liked that one. I liked the characters, I liked the callbacks, I liked that it was consequences for the previous episode, I like it kind of being Yesterday’s Orville, I just liked the story. I’m not sure I liked it as a season finale and yet it’s obviously meant to be that. I also don’t quite like that there’s no real room for consequences from this episode; I was expecting AU Claire to end up sticking around and for that to come into play eventually, but apparently not (though come to think of it, this was what happened in the time travel ep in s1; though also, if that future no longer existed, how was Kelly taken before Claire showed up?).
There are plot holes I could pick apart, some choices that don’t quite work, and I really am struggling with the idea that this is how they ended the season; but...I liked it a lot and for now that’s kind of more important to me. If I come back to it later with the intent of dissecting it, there will be a lot to say; but like with a lot of the show, I’m with it and enjoy it for what it is, so I just go with the flow.