The Americans 1.01

Pilot

Philip and Elizabeth Jennings are Russian spies. They have two children and live near Washington, DC. They have been living in the United States for about 16 years, since 1965. They track down a defector, Nikolai Timoshev, a former KGB officer and capture him. They are supposed to get him to a ship which will take him back to Russia. They make a stop to drop off one of their collegaues who was stabbed during the pursuit of the defector. They arrive at the dock in time to see the ship leaving but not in time to get the defector on board.

Philip and Elizabeth aren't sure what to do with Timoshev. In the meanwhile, they keep him tied up and locked up in the trunk of their car. They use a ball gag to keep him quiet. Elizabeth has a past with Timoshev, an unpleasant one. He raped her when she was a trainee 20 years ago. She never told Philip. She seems eager to kill Timoshev now that their best chance to get him out of the country has set sail. Philip tries contacting other KGB operatives but everyone is laying low because the FBI is out and about searching for the missing defector

Philip is swayed by Timoshev to consider turning himself in. Timoshev tells Philip about the money he will get if he does, millions. Philip tries bringing it up to Elizabeth but she is adamant that they will not defect and will not betray Russia. I get the impression that she is the senior member of their team although it isn't explicitly stated.

Stan Beeman plus his wife and son move in across the street from the Jennings. Stan is an FBI agent. He starts to sense that something is off about Philip but can't quite put his finger on what it is. He comes dangerously close to spotting Timoshev in the trunk when he comes over to borrow some jumper cables.

Things get increasingly tense for Elizabeth and Philip. He is about ready to let Timoshev go and turn himself into Stan Beeman when Elizabeth finds out what he is up to. She's disgusted. Timoshev halfheartedly apologizes for what he did to her 20 years earlier. She's ready to kill him but doesn't. Philip does instead, after hearing about what Timoshev did to her. They dispose of the body together and make love in their car afterwards.

I'm hooked. I loved this episode. There's a lot to like about it. I like the setup and the way the plot unfolds. It kept me on my toes and wasn't as forced or predictable as I feared it might be. There are some powerful character moments for both lead characters. I really liked the way music was used in this episode to help set the scene and ratchet up the tension. I'm very eager to see where the show goes from here.

The Defenders 1.08

The Defenders

Luke Cage doesn't want to help Daredevil and Jessica Jones but they (with some help from Colleen Wing and Claire Temple) talk him into helping them rescue Iron Fist. The three main characters find the elevator and head down into the pit. Colleen and Claire plant the explosives which are supposed to take down the building. Daredevil, Luke, and Jessica meet the the bad guys (Elektra, Madame Gao, Murakami, and a slew of Hand thugs) at the bottom of the pit. A big fight ensues. Jessica, Danny, and Luke make it back on to the elevator and start to exit the pit. Things get dicey when the elevator cable gets cut but they still make it out alive. Matt stays behind to try and talk Elektra into switching sides.

Claire and Colleen encounter Bakuto, Colleen's old sensei, while they are setting explosives. Colleen and Bakuto fight. Misty shows up and gets her right arm chopped off. Colleen kills Bakuto by chopping his head off, just like Stick killed Sowande in 1.05. The timer on the explosives is set. Claire, Colleen, and Misty head for the exit. They run into Luke, Danny, and Jessica as they are exiting the building. The explosives go off. The building collapses into the pit.

There are a number of special effects which didn't do it for me in this episode. The collapse of the Midland building was probably the worst. It isn't the worst ever but considering how close the heroes were to the building when it imploded, they and everyone around them should have been enveloped in a cloud of dust.

On the whole I found the dialogue to be very rough and lacking in subtlety of any kind. It seemed like every single member of the supporting casts of the four shows leading up to this one had to make an appearance. It all just felt very forced.

The end of the show, the last 15 minutes, isn't much better than what came before. It is the next day or maybe a few days have passed and there are few scenes which show how the survivors are picking up their lives and moving on. Matt is assumed to be dead but the very last scene shows him in a bed, bandaged up. It reminds me of a similar scene from Born Again.

On the whole this was a disappointing series, in the same way that Iron Fist was disappointing. If this is the direction in which Marvel Netflix shows are headed then I may not be watching too much more of them.

Star Trek: Enterprise 1.15

Shadows of P’Jem

The monastery at P’Jem is attacked by the Andorians. No one is injured but the Vulcan High Command blames Captain Archer because of his actions in 1.07 (The Andorian Incident). Archer’s superiors refuse to take action against him. The Vulcans decide to recall T’Pol without explanation but it is implicitly clear that she is being blamed for his actions at P’Jem.

Archer and T’Pol take a shuttlepod and head down to the surface of the one inhabited planet in the Coridan system. They are attacked and taken hostage by a group of local insurgents. The insurgents think that T’Pol is the Captain. Archer tries to convince them otherwise but they aren’t buying it. T’Pol plays along with the insurgents beliefs about her rank.

Tucker tries a rescue mission after the Enterprise gets ransom demands from the insurgents and a visit from the Vulcans who are there to pick up T’Pol. Trip and Reed travel to the surface of the planet and run into Shran and another Andorian. They are the same Andorians who were last seen in 1.07. The Coridan system is a front of sorts in the war between the Vulcans and the Andorians. The Andorians are aligned with the insurgents but Shran wants to clear the debt he feels he owes to Archer.

The Vulcans show up on the surface of the planet in the midst of the Human/Andorian rescue mission. Archer and T'Pol are rescued but T'Pol is injured when she places herself in the line of fire while defending Sopek, the Vulcan leader. Archer manages to convince the Vulcans to let T'Pol stay on the Enterprise for now.

I like this episode but I'm not crazy about it. It felt a bit forced in places. I like the conflict between the Vulcans and the Andorians and how the humans are caught in the middle, strictly aligned with neither group. Sopek gave in to Archer's reasoning a little too easily for my tastes. I do like the reasoning for why Shran and his lieutenant and there to help the humans. There are also some light moments that I enjoyed quite a bit.

Master of None 2.01

The Thief

Dev is studying in Modena, Italy. He is learning to make pasta. He meets Sara, a British woman, at an exclusive restaurant on his birthday. They are both there alone. She had a reservation but she arrived on the wrong day. He offers to share his table with her. They have a great time together. She invites him to come visit her.

Dev’s phone gets stolen as he is waving goodbye to Sara. He chases the thief but is unable to catch him. He doesn’t know how to contact Sara without the phone.

This episode has some nice touches to it. I liked the team of Dev and the young boy. I think that Sara will be back even though Dev doesn't seem to have anyway to find her at this point. The entire episode was filmed in black-and-white. There is a lot of subtitled Italian dialogue in this episode. It’s unclear if the whole season will be presented in this manner. I doubt that it will but I think it worked this time around.

Lady Bird (2017)

Christine, or Lady Bird as she prefers to be called, is a senior in high school. She is, like a lot of people at that age, still figuring out who she is. The movie follows her over the course of her final year in high school. She joins the drama club, dates a couple guys, goes through a couple friendships, applies to college, learns to drive, and deals with her family. The movie is framed as being about Lady Bird's relationship with her mother. Her mother is an important part of the movie but if feels as though it is about more than that. It is about Lady Bird figuring out who she is.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit but halfway through I still wasn't sure what to make of it. In many ways it felt very much like an average indie film up to that point. It wasn't until probably two-thirds of the way in that the movie started to really move me emotionally. Is it a perfect movie? No, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

I watched this movie in bits and pieces. I thouhgt it was much better than I was led to believe it would be. I think it comes from the same mold as many of the other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

I passed on it (until now) because I had heard a lot of negative things about it. I went back to watch it because of all the references to it in subsequent movies, most recently in Thor: Ragnarok but also in Captain America: Civil War. As a stand alone movie it probably isn't that great but it feels like an important piece of the puzzle. It features the first appearance of the Vision and Scarlet Witch. It is in this movie that Segovia is destroyed. Hulk disappears at the end of the movie not to return until Thor: Ragnarok. Thor takes off and similarly does not return until Thor: Ragnarok. Unlike some of the solo movies this feels much more like an important chapter in the overarching story.

There are some holes in the plot, which allow the Avengers to get some moments away from action. The romance between Natasha and Bruce seemed to come out of nowhere. This is not a perfect movie but for the most part I enjoyed it.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

I did not enjoy this movie. I thought there was too much thrown into the mix and it went on for too long. There were a number of moments that felt like the end only to have the movie continue. I kept thinking to myself, "you mean there's more?!" which is something my father used to say. Most importantly, I did not feel emotionally connected to the movie. It just didn't hook me. I didn't care about the characters.

The well known actors (Laura Dern, Benicio del Toro) who appeared in the movie added nothing to it for me. Neither or them was bad or awful but casting well known actors was more distracting than anything else.

The other thing that I found distracting was General Leia Organa. Carrie Fisher passed almost a year before the movie was released. General Organa faced more than one moment when it looked like her death was imminent. I thought they would kill her off in this movie and each time the General faced a near death moment I wondered if this was how she was going to go. Very distracting.

I don't like to compare movies too much but in a way I can't help but compare this to Tron: Legacy. I really like the original Tron film. I had high hopes for the sequel. I love the music but I found the sequel to be a huge disappointment. Similarly I enjoyed the Force Awakens. I interpreted the final scene in Episode VII to be a statement to the older fans, who grew up watching the original trilogy of movies. I thought that final scene meant that the next film was going to be about pulling them in more and including Luke in a meaningful way. Instead I feel like what I got was the director giving the middle finger to the older fans: Forget the past and move on. I don't have a problem with creating something new but openly advocating forgetting the past is not something that I am cool with.