finished this up this weekend. on the whole, it is an underwhelming season. and the shine has been wore off from this show a while now.
in order of how i watched it:
"joan is awful" - really fun premise, but it goes in too many directions for its own good. it could've been a few episodes dedicated to each plot twist (especially the idea that a streaming service has a link to our personal lives, the satire being that "binging" is literally a way of life). it does have some laughs, and it's fun at times. but it goes on too long and wears thin by the end. plus, the happy ending undoes a lot of the impact of the theme.
"loch henry" - also goes on too long (the end with the BAFTA awards was completely unnecessary), but had me intrigued throughout. i liked the true crime aspect, and how the story progresses. i liked it more than "Joan".
"mazey day" - easily my top pick. just for its simplicity, and it's the shortest of all the episodes. i love the twist, because i honestly didn't see it coming. it's just gory fun, something that could be rewatched during halloween.
"beyond the sea" - the longest and inexplicably so. there was no need for this to be a full length feature film style episode. unlike something like "USS Calister", which has a ton going on...this is an empty vessel. The story not only telegraphs itself, it takes forever to get to its predictable conclusion. the acting is excellent, which makes it watchable for a time. but i had a few moments where i almost turned it off, just by boredom. i think the story could've been stronger, given the idea that a "robot replica" exists in this alternate reality...there was something to flesh out, but it never really did anything with that idea. like CLH said, just lazy. it's a shame. "X-Files" did a ton better with that title.
"demon 79" - this was the most disappointing one for me. it starts out looking authentically like a late 70's British horror film, credits and all. But it starts becoming just another modern TV show episode, with the predictably evil WASPs getting justifiably killed so that we avoid an apocalypse. what makes no sense about this premise is that when the girl discovers the talisman, the demon that comes to her gives her glimpses into the future of specific targets (she has to sacrifice 3 people in 3 days, one each day)...but if the demon knows the future, he would know that none of these people would have futures. the story reminded me of "the cabin in the woods" and "frailty". the latter being the far, far superior film. but the idea that this demon is like...a friendly sidekick, is lame. i'm not sure what we're supposed to think as an audience. are we rooting for this girl to kill people? of course, like i said, these people that she kills and targets are "bad people". so they deserve to die? according to a demon? wouldn't the opposite be true, and the demon would just be fucking with you to think you're doing something good? it's just superficial jokey crap instead of something that could've been profound. like the idiotic "cabin in the woods", the logic of the story is incongruent and shakey. the conclusion is also flat...at 74 minutes, again...have something to say other than "punish wicked people or we all die". and in today's world of slippery slopes, what's good and bad anyway? people justify evil every day. so, the message doesn't come through. this is supposed to take place in 1979 but gets tripped up by "presentism" writing, which is completely ruining storytelling.
out of
for the whole season.
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