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Sherlock: The Final Problem (2017)
Extraordinarily disappointing beyond measure
Sherlock is a show that was always designed to be about logical deductions and observations and it did an amazing job of showing before telling. When Sherlock makes his deductions you realize you've seen what he had seen and that you missed it the first time. That was a key part of the appeal the show had, at least on me.
But for some reason they threw that away in this episode completely. They no longer show, they only tell. Eurus is supposedly a genius beyond imagination but we have seen very little to demonstrate any of it aside from some tropes about intellect set by entertainment people who don't even understand how IQ works.
Apparently Eurus has superpowers, but we don't call them superpowers because that would appear a bit too stupid for the legacy of the show. Instead, we pretend that Eurus can enslave people after having a few minutes of conversation with them. How? Not at all mentioned nor visited again, it just IS. In fact, the "evidence" of how she enslaves people is laughable, so much so a toddler can do a better job than what was shown to us. But hey, the plotline demands it so it has to be.
Everyone in the prison was following her orders, but nobody understands why. She has no power over them, we're told she just controls them and we have to accept it.
Eurus simply is unimpressive. I just don't buy it, none of it. She's just insufferable whenever seen and she just has infinite resources apparently.
And finally the elephant in the room... A lot of people dying because the Holmes are having a domestic. Like sorry, when was this show a drama about the Holmes? And in the end you are supposed to be sympathetic to her.. Sorry the only thing I wanted to see was her hanging for what she had done. We're supposed to pretend it's all roses and rainbows and just forget about the death, destruction and suffering she caused to endless amounts of people? Sorry no, no amount of backstory would make me sympathize with someone like that.
This episode gets worse the more you think about it. Trust me on that one.
Utopia (2020)
With a protagonist like Jessica Hyde, you will be cheering for the bad guys to win
This show is so poorly written I could not resist not to write this review. It made me cringe quite hard that I had to get it out of my system. It is legit one of the worst things I've ever seen. I honestly think birdemic has better character development than this.
You see, Jessica Hyde's character is written so badly that you reach a point where you just wish the world ends just so she could meet her demise. The actress is terrible at basic acting. The character is just insufferable cringe that you will need to pause, take a breath, shut your eyes, then resume every minute you see her on screen.
I don't know if there is a checklist somewhere that describes the worst possible protagonist, but I sure know if such a list existed, Jessica Hyde would be it. Honestly, the plot meant so little to me I started cheering for the bad guys.
I am glad to see there was no season 2 and I sure hope no more money is wasted on this sad excuse of a show because it truly is one of the worst things I've ever watched. I do hate it with passion and I urge anybody looking to watch this to steer away and never look back. I can assure you, you are not gonna regret this decision.
Wander (2020)
Certain parts were meant to be cartoonish
Initially I was disappointed in the way things played out after he called his friend to come over where he'd explain everything. His retelling of the events seemed very cartoonish and very unbelievable to a point where I was also suspecting he was just imagining everything. But now I think that was the whole point. It was meant to be cartoonish and it was meant to look crazy because that is what he was supposed to reflect, a crazy pawn that was used to create diversion.
However, two parts of the ending are hard to swallow: 1) why would they risk visiting him in jail and telling him the truth instead of ignoring him and making him think he truly was delusional? 2) Why did they leave the chip inside of him? It is a big piece of evidence of what he was saying. Further, when he said he had the chip, it makes sense to scan his body especially with everything going on. That would have proven what he was saying all along.
The plan to set him up was very flawed and easily exposed if anyone did a bit of digging.
The Terminal List (2022)
Genuinely enjoyable action thriller
One of very few series titles I've enjoyed over the past couple of years. The story/action balance is perfect, and the moral decisions made by Reece are quite interesting to go through.
I just hope they don't get influenced by whatever goes on outside of the show and its story. And I hope they deliver us with a season 2 that is a worthy continuation of the first season.
I imagine this show somewhat caters to the male fantasy, so I think the majority of the people who like it are men. I hope they stick to their success regardless of the audience demographics instead of taking current audience for granted in the pursuit of a new audience.
The Recruit (2022)
An interesting study of the mind of 12 year olds
If you're looking for mindless entertainment this might be a good fit. Otherwise, it's dumb, and I mean really dumb.
The whole show looks like it was written by a 12 year old who watched a couple of movies about the CIA and intelligence agencies, and then decided he wanted to write his own story from such inspirations.
The show does seem to think it's smarter than it really is, and it seems to be aimed at directing the thought process of the audience towards "look at what these good guys do to keep you safe". Maybe that's the whole point behind the show, which wouldn't surprise me at this point.
Everything happens because the plot demands it to happen. It almost feels like you're watching it with the director as it's being filmed, and things are just following a script without any critical thought behind anything. And it is quite cartoonish.
I'm not asking for some big brain story to make you scratch your brain, just for something that isn't written by 12 year olds. I do think there's a big gray area between the two where this show can do well.
It seems that modern productions just keep trying to mark some checkboxes without actually taking a minute to look at the damn story, which... y'know... is the most important part.
The Peripheral (2022)
Good engaging start, but becomes pretty boring quickly thereafter
I watched the first episode, and while some things were a little too cheesy and edgy for no reason, I still liked it and it was engaging. The actors do a good job portraying emotion overall, but in many different scenes you get the feeling the scenario is requesting overacting from them.
Later down the line, it gets a bit boring. I find myself just wondering if anything of importance is gonna happen or if it's just a little increments of little events that I barely care about.
The story seems to have some inconsistencies in some aspects. Like, they send an assassin who fails, then they send someone far more capable to tie the assassin's loose end. I mean, why not just send that guy in the first place if he's so capable? I guess we're just supposed to take it without question?
The villain is cartoonish in every possible way, honestly. It's the most basic motive, with the most basic methods. I've seen that story a million times with better executions.
It is a bit disappointing, it showed promise then it showed lack of creativity. I guess that's what to expect from modern productions...
Game of Thrones (2011)
Un-rewatchable. The early excellence does not redeem the ending.
When I judge a show, it is mainly centered around the entire story. Now, many shows have derailed themselves down the line, but for the most part you can pretend later seasons didn't exist and rewatch earlier ones where the story was resolved and completed (for example, Supernatural seasons 1-5 are resolved, you can pretend nothing else exists and rewatch them only).
This show, on the other hand, does not have such luxury. The story is not resolved until Season 8, and S8 is simply too horrible. So you can't rewatch the show without S8, unless you don't want the full story. You can't stop at any season and pretend the story is over, because it never is at any of the seasons' finales, except the dreaded last one.
Accordingly, I would never rewatch this show, and therefore it only gets a single star. Maybe that's too harsh, but that's just my opinion.
Signs (2002)
The movie isn't about aliens, nor should it be judged as such.
I love this movie, always have and always will enjoy it. It's a great story, and contrary to what most negative reviews seem to believe, the movie isn't about aliens. It doesn't even pretend to be. The alien plotline is never addressed in detail, because THAT'S NOT THE POINT.
If you're here for sci-fi elements, you should probably not watch it. If you're for the thrill and for a good story, watch it and pay attention to the little details.
This is a story about a man with shaken faith who got confused and gotten lost. Judge it based on that...
The Call (2013)
It isn't only the third-act that's problematic. The second act is pretty terrible too.
Netflix kept jamming it in my face because I typically enjoy thrillers. So I caved and said why not. I started watching, the first act is there, it is suspenseful, she screwed up and decided to stop working 911 calls. Understandable, a young girl was killed because of her mistake, it's far too much of a burden to carry.
So far so good, the movie sets the stage of redemption arc for Jordan, and the second call happens. Jordan freezes up initially and then gets ahold of the situation and she's back.
Making her wave her hand was arguably smart because it got them some information about the car which they did not know previously. And they knew where it was.
Then the movie just takes a detour and jumps off a cliff.
Dropping paint from the trunk is an invitation to anybody in the street to notify the kidnapper, potentially putting the life of that person at risk as well. And sure enough, exactly that happens.
Then, like she never learned from the first act, she keeps screaming at the girl to talk to her in the worst possible time. There goes any hopes of redemption. Putting her life at an even higher risk, and the limo driver as well.
Then the limo driver gets kidnapped, and he knows exactly what happened, but instead he decides to bang on the trunk to get himself killed? Really?
Then the movie just takes the piss on your intelligence with the third act as everyone else explained before me, so I won't bother going there.
TL;DR: the first act was good in setting some expectations, the second act started well with the redemption arc. Then halfway through the second act the movie just decided to throw all forms of common sense out the window and then finish by an ever more terrible third act.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)
Aside from the title and Tom Cruise, nothing even close to expectations.
The movie is like taking everything good about the first one and throwing it in the trash. Reacher isn't even remotely the badass he was in the first one. He's like your average action hero guy you find in pretty much every other action hero movie.
The plot is so redundant. I've seen this story like a thousand times already. The first movie's success was the mystery and the story, not the action bits. If you take the action out of the first movie, you still get a good story. If you take the action out of this one? You get pretty much nothing.
The characters are very unlikable. A Major in-over her head is suddenly this manufactured badass. Cocky, disrespectful, and condescending. Neither is a likable trait. And sorry, her badassery is just not convincing at all. We get no history on her service or achievements, and suddenly she's this big shot taking out ex special forces like they're school kids. Where did this come from?
And the kid is insufferable. Really just horribly written character added for manufactured tension.
The first movie was nice because it was somewhat believable and the story immerses you while you watch. This one is just fiction screaming at you every single moment.
It's also quite boring. Every scene is predictable, the story is predictable and that's about it.
I'm just gonna pretend this movie never happened.
Unknown (2011)
Amazing twist with a great deep underlying meaning behind it.
I may be an overthinker but the way I think of this movie's twist is much deeper than may have been intended, or maybe not.
He was a trained killer sent to do something horrific for a paycheck, amnesia hits him and he remembers back shards of his past, the ones he does remember are those of his fake cover of a normal scientist who lived a happy life with his loving wife.
When it is revealed he was an assassin to him, he kept his humanity from the shards he remembered of his past and went against everything he was originally supposed to do, despite that past being all a lie.
I believe the meaning behind it is how his humanity and inner good prevailed over his dark side. In other words, he wasn't inherently a bad person and this was proven by the fact he snapped out of it even when faced with the undeniable truth about his horrible past.
The acting was great as usual from Liam, great movie.
Hannibal (2001)
Lacks the suspense factor. Anthony is the only one worth watching.
I enjoyed the first movie quite a bit because it had the investigative suspense and the known drawn all over the place. The acting was superb by parties involved.
The same cannot be said about this one. My issues with this movie are:
1. The feds do not seem to be genuine nor interested in doing their jobs at all. Apart from Clarice, no one wants to do any investigation. They made the bureau look like Internal Affairs in L&O SVU which doesn't really seem fitting given the background from the first movie.
2. The character appeal of Clarice was just taken away. She was not appealing because she looked and acted badass. She was appealing because she was smart and had great critical thinking and investigative abilities. None of that was actually shown in this movie. Furthermore, she seemed to lack some of the moral values she had in the first movie by saving Hannibal and killing the people who wanted him dead. Yeah they were bad guys, but not as bad as Hannibal. Then she essentially let him loose, which is a real risk she knew she was taking.
3. Pretty much everyone in the movie is bad. The Italian cop, most of the feds. This does not go well with the story shown in the movie largely because it isn't about some conspiracy or whatsoever. The bureau putting all pressure on Clarice, for things she was clearly not guilty of, seems like a cheap way of pushing her towards Hannibal even though she wanted his arrest all way through. It just seems too scripted.
4. Hannibal's escape takes so much from the threat of his character. Yes, it was somewhat the point the movie is trying to make, that he loved Clarice so much he ended up severing his own hand instead of hers to escape. But frankly I had no doubt he was going to do that when the scene came. He was predictable which took a lot of his character development and his suspense.
5. Too much unnecessary gore. The first movie had some gore going for it, but it was minimized to show horror and demonstrate how dangerous Hannibal is. The gore in this was seems to have been done just for the sake of doing it.
The Highwaymen (2019)
A film about the heroes instead of glorifying criminals
I would rate it a solid 8 but reading other reviews pumped mine to 10/10.
People watched this movie expecting to watch their idolized criminals and have their psychopathic tendencies satisfied. I am glad this movie serves neither.
There is nothing to admire in Bonnie and Clyde. They were psychopaths who enjoyed killing and that's about the whole of their story.
The story of the two rangers that tracked and stopped them is much more appealing than a story of psychos in love. We live in a culture where men of law are portrayed as cold-hearted killers and this sentiment hurts society. This movie presents a different case and for that it has my respect.
Bonnie and Clyde should have never been idolized, and they will always be as such. It baffles me how people admire them. Similar to Bundy, honestly.
The Witcher: Much More (2019)
Disappointment.
Quite frankly by the end of the episode the only thought I had was: this should be renamed to "Yennifer".
The Witcher's character is amazing, I loved it. But where the hell was it during the FINALE? Oh, he was being dragged on a cart like a bag of potatoes while Yennifer was doing all the heavy lifting.
Seriously, he was not even wounded in battle, he was tuned out of the finale by a zombie he wasn't even supposed to fight, but yeah sure, whatever gets Yennifer more screen time.
Just to make my point, I counted. The Witcher was only present in ~15 minutes of the episode. Yes, only a quarter of it. Half of the 15 minutes was him having childhood visions that barely add a thing to the action. The other half is him dragged in a cart.
Yennifer had more than double his screen time. Again, what are we watching exactly?
It was especially disappointing how Yennifer single-handedly ended the battle and the Witcher had ZERO role in it.
Disappointment is an understatement.
Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne (2019)
Execution was bad just as the rest of the season, but I think this may be the ending Martin intended.
I liked the ending events as events. I did not like the execution of it, but the events themselves are quite good and they are consistent with the very beginning of the story.
I think GRRM told D&D the ending he intended and they screwed up the path to that ending, but the ending itself is quite good.
Bran as the king is fitting, it's the only real change that Westeros has seen in its politics. Jon becoming a King is a return to square one with no moral behind the story. Bran becoming king especially that he cannot have kids is great, for once the throne will not be inherited. It will be about who actually deserves it.
The scene where Jon killed Dany was poorly written and executed, it still is what I wanted to see, just not the way I expected to see it from what was the best TV show ever.
Sansa winning the North its freedom was also great, because that's all she ever wanted. She didn't even want to be the queen (evident by her last conversation with Jon). But she would happily take it given no other choice. This goes well with her arc, she isn't like Cersei, she never was. All she really cares about is the North and its people and she kept true to that.
Arya going west is also fitting, she's done with whatever she came back to do.
Tyrion becoming the hand of the king to seek his redemption through his expertise is also fitting. He made mistakes, but he always followed what he believed to be righteous.
The king's counsel is a great one, those are the people who carried the world from destruction when facing the Night King. Who else is better to rebuild it?
Jon's fate is the best one I could think of. He went back to where he always belonged. The North, or as Tormund puts it, THE REAL NORTH. HE FINALLY GOT TO PET GHOST AGAIN.
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So again, while I do like the events, I'm taking three stars for the poor execution. If I read those events in a book, it would be a lot better simply because my imagination will serve them more justice than this episode has. I think this is a failure on D&D's side where the TV show must always reflect a very good representation of the events.
While I hated this season, I think this episode brought something back. This is why I think it's GRRM's ending and not D&D's.
Game of Thrones: The Last of the Starks (2019)
I pretty much loved everything the show had to offer. Up until this point.
I kind of expected it, for the writers to throw 7 seasons of build ups into the waste. But I didn't expect it would be this bad.
1) Jon was always the light in the darkness to everyone. He's the character you'd look-up to when you lose hope in everyone else. He's always the salvation of the entire story. He does what he does because he believes in it. Yet in this episode and the last, I can't help but feel he's reduced to a publicity stunt whemp. In the Long Night, he virtually did nothing, like at all despite the build up of an entire story revolving around him being the one to save the day. Except, he was shouting at a dragon when the day was saved by the character with no build-up towards the storyline (Jon was always the one concerned with the NK, Arya heard of him basically after everyone else did). Then he goes to lick Dany's boots in what only appears to be degrading. He had seen her thirst for ruling. He looked her in the eyes and saw in them how the Iron Throne is the ONLY thing she cares about. He had seen in her eyes that she isn't very different than any power-hungry rulers he had met before. Yet, he decides to keep supporting her when he knows it is not the right thing to do. For the first time ever, I feel disgusted by Jon Snow. I've never thought my favorite character could become this ... thing.
2) Dany had a bit of goodness in her. She seemed to be a good ruler. She would go at lengths to ensure her people do not suffer. Yet we see her reduced to Cersei's level in a matter of literally 5 minutes. For seasons they give us reason to believe she actually cared for anyone. Then in 5 minutes they take that entirely away. What? She lost her dragon? Or what she calls her son? How is she ANY different from Cersei? Everything Cersei did, she justified it by convincing herself it was for her kids. Now we got another raging power-hungry maniac who was supposed to be a good one. Yeah great storytelling.
3) How do you ambush a dragon roaming the SKIES? There was NO WAY she couldn't see the enemy ships. It's NOT possible. Their battles/engagements have always felt crappy, but this is a whole new level of low. Also, how do you suddenly write-off a dragon (A DRAGON FFS) in 30 seconds of screen time? Idk, maybe if we got less scenes about drunk people getting more drunk, and more build-up towards a dragon dying...
4) How was Missandei kidnapped? Shooting a bunch of ships from afar is one thing, going in there looking for one particular person is another. None of those important details were shown at all. It's like the script said: "ambush, dragon dies, Missandei kidnapped. Back to kingslanding, Missandei is in chains". I bet the real script wasn't much different.
5) Jon throwing a bombshell on Arya and Sansa suddenly switches to blackscreen. Yeah, great cheap way of not putting any effort into showing the reaction of something this big. Really well-done.
The writers have to pull a miracle to come back from this mess.
By the end of this episode, it felt like watching Days of Our Lives.
Game of Thrones: The Long Night (2019)
Amazing episode. Great ending. Some disappointing events.
To start off, I loved this episode. I am a big fan of action and epic large scale battles.
The episode started off with the armies lined-up against each other and the dead are no where near visible. The Dothraki are in the front while the rest are in the back. The Unsullied in front of the gate to protect any retreats given their extremely powerful formation.
The battle starts, and no matter how much of death you get, there is even more coming. Dany and Jon abandon their plan to help their armies only for it to turn out as an extremely bad idea.
The Dothraki disappear in no time, the rest soon to follow. The retreat is hopeful, but it isn't enough. Winterfell walls were not made to hold against +100k troops of Wights willing to throw themselves to make "siege towers."
The city walls are breached, dragons are useless. People are fighting, but for every kill they get a dozen more to fight. The best of warriors have fallen or have given up hope. Arya, for the first time in a long run, is wholeheartedly scared to death. She runs but wherever she goes it isn't enough.
Some get redemption, some get honorable deaths... But in the end, every living death is just an addition to the dead's army no matter how bravely they have fought.
The crypts turn out to be an awful place to hide given the amount of possible Wights to rise within.
Hope is almost all lost, until the very last moment which Bran always knew was coming and was foreshadowed heavily in previous episodes and seasons. Arya finally does it, the faceless girl, the nobody is the one to defeat death and tell it "NOT TODAY."
The choice of Arya killing the Night's King was genius on many levels and certainly unexpected until she's rescued.
It was the perfect end to the darkness as we see the dawn is upon Winterfell the moment the King is dead.
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What I disliked about the episode (and hence the -1 star) is:
1) The naive battle tactics followed by Dany's armies. The Dothraki are cavalry units. Anyone with any knowledge of medieval battles knows Cavalry doesn't charge into full armies hoping to do something. Cavalry units are awful in stand-on fights because mounted soldiers have disadvnatge in the battlefield once their horses are stopped. They can easily be taken down and killed. Cavalry is usually used for speed flanking and distraction to sever the enemy into multiple vulnerable smaller sections to make it easier to defeat piece by piece. Instead, we saw a full charge which expectidly ended in a few minutes with the entire force getting wiped out. This is not something I expect from a military leader who was gratified for the past 7 seasons. This is something I expect from a rockie with no knowledge of war tactics and only knows bruteforce charges in hopes of intemidating the enemy into retreat.
I get it, the writers wished for the message to be: you can't defeat death except by killing its root. However, to make that message powerful, you need to show proper military tactics failing, not some wishful thinking failures. So that was disappointing.
2) Jon Snow: his entire role throughout the episode was merely useful to anything. I agree with the mentality that they didn't want him to kill the Night's King and all. However, that doesn't mean he should be useless. And he was. First off, he barely helped with the battle itself. He just flew his dragon in the mist doing nothing. When the Night's King showed up, Jon barely did anything as well aside from falling off his dragon. Then he tried to follow the King and it was a pathetic try. He had to be saved by Dany which put her life in extreme danger and got her almost killed with him not helping her at all. Then he spent the next five minutes doing nothing but running and literally nothing else. Finally, he starts shouting at a dragon.
It would've been nice to show him actually have an effective role slowing up the Wights while Arya was making her way to Bran. That is, making his role important in the final outcome. Instead, we got Theon Greyjoy playing a much bigger role in the outcome than Jon, the one we've all expected to do the most since "Winter is Coming."
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With that in mind, I really hope they do not turn Jon into power-seeking maniac who wishes to sit on the iron throne. I love his character and do not wish for it to be ruined. This is a possibility because in this episode we see Jon taking the hard, but tactically wise, decision of standing his ground when the armies were being annihilated. This is something you never expected to see from Jon since the very beginning, he would abandon anything to save lives if he could. Yet here, for the very first time he chooses not to by telling Dany to wait. I may be paranoid in reading this negatively and I certainly hope it is more of the case where Jon finally knows something and is wise enough to make military decisions even when they are hardest.
Game of Thrones: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2019)
Stretching events for no reason
By the end of episode 1 I was expecting to see something interesting in this one. But no, it's just stretching and stretching because they wanted to waste the episode. Other than the very last conversion in the episode, nothing really interesting happened. Some conversations that may foreshadow future events, but they felt totally unnecessary.
This is the last season and it doesn't have many episodes, I wished they'd make the best of them instead of wasting screentime.
Triple Frontier (2019)
What is the point?
(I've tried as much as possible NOT to include any spoilers, you can only relate once you watch the movie)
The movie started on a great foot and the action was getting real. The job is real and the motive behind the coordinator was real and beyond greed. Suddenly, all went downhill, and I am talking about the story, not the plot.
The execution of important events went like "swoop it happened, deal with it" when the viewer was never invested in how big those events are and they really didn't feel that big. Then the ending came and it left you wondering, what... is... the... point?
I liked the little twist at the end, but it does not justify what happened before. After all, it was all going PERFECT but for a simple dummy mistake that felt more made up than a real problem real professionals would ever put themselves into. That made the entire plot questionable.
It had a LOT of potential, the chemistry between the crew members was amazing. The chick is great. However, the execution was... meh.
Hell on Wheels: Done (2016)
Nice but disappointing
I enjoyed this show a great deal and I am sad it's done. I liked this episode but I can't help but feel sad and disappointed by the final scene. I will explain.
First of all, the whole relationship with Mei didn't fit as they had no chemistry and felt like he'd be a father figure for her instead of a lover. Seeing them intimate together does not feel right at all. He has a son whom he gave up to be with this Mei so it also comes with a great cost. The build up for the relationship seemed just wrong. But how does that fit in?
Here is the thing, the story of Bohannon is a story of an honorable man whom went to hell and back several times and managed to maintain a certain level of humanity and honor. It's a story of a man who fought to protect the people he'd loved and yet buried them. It's the story of a man who had the major contribution in the construction of the biggest railroad in the country. He's done so much for his country and all he got back was sadness, loss and grief.
Then when the punchline comes, he finds happiness in China, far away from his country. That is very disappointing. The message it sends is that his reward for all he did for his country was misery and death, while his salvation was far, far away.
This was the moment I realized how bad of an idea was it to write Lilly off the show. She was the perfect candidate to bring salvation to Bohannon. She was the first one to get his heart like his dead wife Mary did. She was the one to remind him of his humanity and help him restore it. She was in the country and she felt the misery same as Bohannon, yet she fought and stood by his side. An ending with her was a much better ending, because it would've meant Bohannon's salvation was in his country, the one he served. While what we got was an ending with Mei, who (without own fault) ended up forcing Bohannon to start killing again even after he refused to kill when his own wife and son were in danger (the Swede in Ep. 8). If you really think of it, Mei's character played negatively, not positively, in Bohannon's development. To bring the ending with that character, that's just disappointing.
It was that ending scene where he took off on that ship that suddenly brought this episode from 9 stars rating to 6.
Supernatural: Let the Good Times Roll (2018)
Loved it, but the plot-hole is huge. The fight was..meh
I didn't watch any trailers, I didn't see what the writers said before the episode. The only thing I did was watching the episode and that was it.
I did not see it coming and I very much was left speechless. Speechless because I was amazed and disappointed in the same time.
Two things I could not not understand:
1) How did Lucifer take Jack's grace with ease? Jack isn't like your normal angel (or archangel for that matter) so he wouldn't be harmed even with the archangel blade. Yet, he was still harmed and lost his grace in like a fraction of a second.
2) How did the fight between Michael and Lucifer not destroy almost everything? Season 5 revolved around the idea that Dean kept refusing Michael because he didn't want half of the planet to burn. Then, here, he was the one to suggest giving in to Michael and the fight was pretty much harmless to everything. If this was the case, then what was the whole fuss in season 5 all about?
Also, the wiring was so obvious it really felt cheap.
Anyway, a possible explanation for the big plot-hole about the harmless fight between Michael and Lucifer would be: well, since Lucifer had way much more power than Michael, then it wouldn't be a real fight and Lucifer would win with ease. Therefore, the fight ended quickly with Michael losing (of course until Sam gave him the blade) which would explain why there wasn't mass destruction. It doesn't explain the no destruction at all, though.
That still isn't a satisfactory explanation, but for those who love this show no matter what, it might do. Still, the way Jack just lost everything, when he's supposed to be indestructible, is just beyond me. I cannot overlook this one. I mean, if it were so easy and all it took was an archangel blade, then the again, what's the whole fuss about?