Writing Blind: The X-Files S3

Welcome to a feature called "Writing Blind."  In this series, I will be writing about seasons of television that I watched in the past year or so, but failed to write about at the time.  I call it writing blind, because I will be sharing my thoughts months after I have already finished the season.  This is both because I want to write about these seasons, but don't have the time to re-watch them and because it is a challenge to hopefully improve my writing.

Back in the day - you know as early as 20 years ago - TV shows necessarily created a safe haven for viewers.  You can watch this Thursday, skip next week's, and be none the wiser when you turned back in for the next episode.  They needed to not alienate new viewers in order to gain viewership.  So talking about full seasons of any show that was mostly procedural and you could mostly just drop in on an episode without much issue is difficult.  Because the quality varies week-to-week.

Even on a season as consistent as the third season of The X-Files, they still have possibly one of the worst episodes in the series that I've seen in "Hell Money."  To be honest, I don't remember much about that episode except that it was dreadfully boring and terrible.  (It's either that or "Teso dos Bichos" - I don't remember which, but both were just terrible.)  But that just serves to strengthen my point.  How the hell am I supposed to grade a whole season of a show that is designed to allow you to skip episodes.

Now The X-Files is one of the rare shows that rewards people who watch it in order.  It doesn't reward you THAT much.  But it's clear the writers want to maintain some continuity even if it's just in the subtext.  You can only notice that if you watch it in order and probably only if you watch episodes over the course of days and not say the normal TV schedule of a network show.

If there's anything I take away from this season, it's that this is the season where I will re-watch the most episodes.  If I'm being honest, right now at this date, I'm probably watching the entirety of The X-Files and then not returning to it after I finish watching it.  I'll sometimes come back and re-watch maybe 10-20 episodes that I really, really liked.  More than a few will come from this season.

Because this is the season of Darin Morgan.  I read X-File episode reviews/recaps after I watch each episode and the comments always list their favorite writers of the series.  Morgan is almost unanimously the first name that is mentioned.  Sometimes he's listed second, because his episodes comment on the show itself in a mocking tone and none of them are the essence of X-Files.

I'm not in a position to pick a side of the debate on that yet, but I will tell you I will return to every one of his episodes in this season.  "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," "War of the Coprophages," and "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" are all classic X-File episodes.  As a Scully fan first and a Mulder fan second, I like how these episodes usually good-naturedly mock Mulder.  (As a side note: Am I the only one totally not shipping Mulder/Scully.  She's too good for him)  They're also cleverly written, entertaining as hell, and they bring the best out of the two leads.'

This season also features Vince Gilligan's first great script.  Remember when I said Morgan was the first name mentioned on top writers.  Gilligan is the second name.  Sometimes, he's first because his episodes represented the typical X-Files while still being original and spooky.  "Pusher" is that episode.

Another challenging thing about writing about a season for a show like the The X-Files months after I've seen it is that I can't really go into detail about specific episodes.  I'll try to write the fourth season soon, because it's relatively fresh in my mind, but most of these episodes I don't remember from just the title.  Anyway, I think that could work to my advantage because I don't want to go just describing each good or bad episode anyway.

I've seen written that the third season is the best mix of the Mythology and the standalone.  The fourth season comes close, so close I'm not willing to make that determination.  But the third season certainly has the best standalones of any season so far, and probably of the whole series judging by what I've heard about the later seasons.  I mean the four episodes I mention are all standalones and not at all required for the mythology.  (The Morgan episodes somewhat need you to be familar with the standard tropes of X-Files and the Mulder/Scully dynamic so they aren't typical)

I'm going to go by memory that I enjoyed the mythology episodes, because wow do I don't remember any details about any of the mythology episodes in this season.  Like the Indian saying mystical stuff in the first episode and... Mulder and Scully on a boat in one of the best scenes.. and uhhhh.... Yeah, in ten years, I won't remember anything about the mythology probably.  Doesn't matter.  I liked them when I watched them.

In conclusion, The X-Files third season is a model of consistency with only one or two duds in it.  The usual price for consistency is that the show will just re-hash the same formula over and over.  The X-Files changes it up enough to keep it interesting.  Not to mention, it's not only consistent, but has some of the best episodes of the entire series.  I'm not sure if I think season three or season four is better, but I can feel reasonably confident that this season is a solid lock for at least the second best season of the entire series.

Grade - A

Rewind: 24 S7

I watch 24 in a way I don't watch other shows.  I'm never going to think it's a great show so my expectations are simply that it be entertaining.  For it to be entertaining, it needs to keep the show moving, limit filler, and avoid unbearable storylines.  In that sense, season seven was an undeniable success in my eyes.

Most 24 seasons feel basically the same to me.  So I'm curious at what makes the seasons that I didn't like (2 and 6; and to a lesser extent, season 3) different from the ones I did like (every other season).  I think the answer lies in the show simply having as few clear space-filling plotlines as possible and when they do have a clear space-filling plotline, keep it short and entertaining.  I hated season 2 because literally every Kim scene was completely pointless, which meant 24 episodes of clear space-filling plots.  Season 3 was simply repetitive.  I was bored of the show by the end.  And Season 6 was terrible in every way as clearly all the writers just forgot how to make the show any good.

Season 7 doesn't fall trap to this.  Sure, you have a few plots that clearly are there just to fill space, which is really all of the presidential stuff.  More specifically though, I didn't really care if Henry Taylor found his son's killer.  But it was short and entertaining at times.  I didn't care about Olivia wanting John Hodges dead and later on, whether she was caught.  Actually that kind of sucked, but it was still only a plot for about five episodes.  (Sprague Grayden, who plays Olivia, is actually quite terrible in this season.  I don't remember her being bad in Sons of Anarchy, but she is awful here.  And I was kind of excited to see her in this!)

Now, this season is different because it actually analyzes Jack's actions and looks at torture.  Now granted, the show ultimately ended up pro-torture most of the time, mostly because 24 is a television drama which presents hypothetical situations that don't happen in real life.  And because everyone he tortures is definitely guilty and never gives him false info. (Last point on this: Torture is ineffective and obviously inhumane)

Anyway, Jack has never looked like more of an asshole than he does here and it actually seems like the writers did this on purpose.  It actually gives weight to the things he's done, which the show usually brushes off as nothing.  It culminates in the final scene where Jack confesses to Muhtadi Gohar about the things he has done.  He knows he's not a good person.  (which he isn't - I'm sorry you can't be a good person with the things he's done, for the good of the country or not)

Interestingly enough, the mirror of Jack is Tony Almeida, whose motives are more bent on revenge than Jack, but ultimately similar.  He goes undercover to kill the man responsible for killing Michelle and many more people for years.  He does despicable things.  He does it for revenge.  But in his mind he had rationalized it as things he needed to do for justice.  How does that sound different than Jack?  Jack is just on the edge of being a bad guy, something Tony has crossed, but it's really easy to imagine Jack following him sometime.

Lastly, his protege of sorts, Renee Walker - previously a cop who followed the rules - ends up following in his footsteps.  Obviously, she didn't completely fall victim to Jack Bauer, but she did need a push.  She was willing to get his advice even though that probably was a bad idea (you know in real world logic, not Jack Bauer is a superhero 24 logic).  By the end of the season, 24 ended on a surprisingly dour note as she clearly intends to torture Will Patton's character.  (He doesn't get much screentime, but he's so effectively smarmy that you it's hard to blame her)

Then there's Senator Blaine Mayer, played by the awesome Kurtwood Smith.  Initially presented as a person just out to get Bauer, he turns out to be extremely sincere in his intentions.  He and Bauer reach an argument to do this right and... he gets killed.  That was one of the darkest moments of the show.  In hindsight, I should have expected it because Bauer going through files and legally catching the bad guys just isn't that interesting.  (It could be in theory in the right hands, but the writers definitely aren't good enough for that to work at all).  However, it surprised the hell out of me and devastated me.

So while this season went through the usual beats (nothing really original was written except for the torture conversation), the Jack Bauer and Tony stories REALLY worked.  The presidential stuff didn't at all.  President Allison Taylor basically exists to be dumbfounded and to get expositional info thrown at her (and the audience).  But I have a higher tolerance for this when it is new characters.  Season 8 could be rough.  As awesome as President Palmer was, I was bored by his predictable character by Season 3.  Allison Taylor isn't really a character yet, much as Cherry Jones tries.  (She's like a less interesting President Palmer who doesn't know anything)

Other Notes
- I think this is Kiefer Sutherland's most impressive season, acting-wise.  His scene at the end of the season in the hospital when he breaks down crying saying "You don't the things that I've done" is extremely impressive acting.

- How could I forget Bill Buchanan, who has an appropriately patriotic death, and never did sacrifice his values, refusing to torture someone when Jack wanted him to do it



Grade - B+

Quick Thoughts: True Detective S2

True Detective's second season is, in a lot of ways, similar to a sequel to a movie you liked as a kid.  There are elements there that remind you why you liked the first movie, but there are much more elements that make you question if the original was even that good to begin with because enough of the same things happen that do not work at all in the sequel.  It doesn't necessarily make the original a worse movie, but it stains it.

This is admittedly a weird thing to bring up in a season that, by design, starts from scratch.  The actors are different, the setting is different, and even the director is different.  But the writer is the same.  I may be a little biased because I came to True Detective late.  I saw the reviews and I saw all the praise it was getting.  I didn't love it.  I think my opinion of the show would be much different if I happened to watch it from the beginning with no expectations, but as it stood, I merely liked it.

The problem is that the things that worked in the first season weren't there for the second season.  Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrleson were off to other projects and the replacements couldn't match them.  McConaughey somehow looks even better in retrospect because some of the dialogue he had to say could only work out of his mouth.  Also, Cary Fukanaga, the director who set the mood and tone, had moved on as well.

There's not much I could say about this season that hasn't been said already.  The plot was needlessly complicated and ridiculously hard to follow.  The dialogue was cringe-worthy at times.  The main characters weren't well-written.  (It seems unfair to wonder this, but I wonder how Nic Pizzolatto's work would look without world-class actors.  What I'm saying basically is that some writers can still make a good movie/TV show without good actors, but Pizzolatto definitely isn't one of them.)

There were some bright spots, most notably Colin Farrell.  Farrell played an impossibly written role, where he was an violent, drug abusing, alcoholic who beat the father of his son's bully in front of the son.  And he made him somewhat likeable, sympathetic, and while you maybe weren't rooting for him, you certainly hoped he would get better.  I dare say few actors could pull off what he did.  (In praise of Pizzolatto, this part seems written specifically for Farrell so he could have theoretically known ahead of time that he could make a sympathetic character that on page looks irredeemable).

Rachel McAdams is also very good and she has even less to work with than Farrell.  She is a tough, knife-wielding, badass member of law enforcement.  So she basically embodies all of the cliche male law enforcement officers except for the knife part.  (Actually, her character is a well-worn trope itself right down to the tendency to use a knife.)

Taylor Kitsch is competent though he doesn't really elevate the material.  The problem is the material.  He seems like a useless character.  With the exception of his final scene, which is well-staged and tragic, he could be removed from the show without the show actually losing anything.  Do we need to see another homophobic self-hating homosexual?  (I'm pretty sure that's a thing that is much more rare than fiction would lead us to believe.  Most homophobic people are... just homophobic)

Lastly, Vince Vaugh is unfortunately one of the worst casting decisions possible.  He actually does very well in the finale, proving he can actually act.  But you shouldn't hire Vince Vaughn and make him a stiff, humorless character who says pretentious shit all the time.  I don't know who thought that was a good idea.

Lastly, I think the ending fell flat with me.  I don't mind a sad ending, but Ray not being able to send that message to his kid was all kinds of bullshit.  He was on the highway and then decided it would be a good idea to go into the woods?  Sure good luck with that.  And Ani is pregnant?  Why?  Both men sacrifice themselves for their women?  Haven't seen that before.

In all, I think I enjoyed this less than most.  Some people, once they adjusted that the second season was not the first, ended up liking it.  I wouldn't say I hated it, but some episodes were a slog to get through.  I just have a lot of trouble enjoying a show with thin characters with a plot that is impossible to follow.

Grade - C

Writing Blind: Twin Peaks S1 (Rewind)

Welcome to a new feature called "Writing Blind."  In this series, I will be writing about seasons of television that I watched in the past year or so, but failed to write about at the time.  I call it writing blind, because I will be sharing my thoughts months after I have already finished the season.  This is both because I want to write about these seasons, but don't have the time to re-watch them and because it is a challenge to hopefully improve my writing.

Twin Peaks' first season is a confusingly alluring season of television.  It sticks in your brain.  It really doesn't seem like it should be as good as it is.  The show is juggling different tones: a murder mystery, a soap opera, a love story (which okay, yeah that's also under soap opera), a slice of small-town America, and what can only be described as psychedelic dreams laced with symbolism.  By legacy alone, Twin Peaks should be watched for what it did for television.  But it was also a pretty good show.

If Twin Peaks does not seem like your kind of show, don't let that scare.  It doesn't seem like my kind of show.  I'm not really into David Lynch.  I didn't like Mullholland Drive (which, full disclousure, is the only movie I've watched of his.  Yes I know I need to go see Blue Velvet immediately).  I don't watch soap operas.  I don't really like things that just continually throw weird shit at you just so you can say "Wow that was weird." 

If there's one false step in the first season, and I know I diverge from a lot of Twin Peaks fans in this opinion, it's the first 30 or so minutes of the show.  It's 100 percent because of the acting.  The seriousness that the camera is treating the material is juxtaposed with soap opera acting - which is a shade off from the rest of the episodes to my eye.  It's not a huge difference, but for some reason I just can't get past it.  It's a little more expressive and over-the-top.  It's acting to where you can always tell they are acting.  That's not always a problem, but it just points me to the falseness of the characters.  This is not only a 30 minutes problem, but the entire pilot problem for me.  But the end of the episode ends up dropping plot bombs on you every 10 minutes so that's more entertaining.

I honestly think it's just because the situation - the instant reactions of a girl being murdered - is so serious and the acting is clearly ACTING that it blends less well when a new soap opera element is introduced.  Almost none of the actors come out that well.  The one who comes out best is Grace Zabiskie, playing Sarah Palmer, and I still am unmoved by her tears because she cries in the old movies style and not realistically.  (Now that statement might actually get me in trouble here.  It's still probably convincing enough for people with kids.)  Dana Ashbrook (Bobby Briggs) is never worse than he is in this episode.  I came to love Jack Nance's odd delivery, but it still didn't even work for me in retrospect here.  And James Marshall, well... never mind I always just kind of tolerated him throughout the series.

However, whatever happened in the first episode that prevented me from embracing the series is gone for the other seven episodes.  I can't explain it.  It just clicks for me the rest of the way on.  Not only is the acting not a weakness past the first episode, it's a strength (for the most part).  I don't even know if they do anything differently, but I sure as hell love it.

The glue to the series is unquestionably Special Agent Dale Cooper as played by Kyle MacLachlan.  In fact, I don't think he shows up until halfway through the pilot and that could be the answer to my problems in the first 30 minutes.  He's just not there and I need Agent Cooper there.  He is possibly one of the most unique law enforcement officers in  the medium of television, which is no small feat given the large swaths of time dedicated to law enforcement.  He is endlessly optimistic, completely devoid of judgment, and incredibly competent.  Where you usually expect a character to zig, he tended to zag.  For instance, you just don't see an FBI agent go into a small town and seamlessly dictate how the investigation will be conducted.  Sheriff Harry S. Truman (who just FITS in with this show really well and is one of my favorite characters despite not having all that much to actually do) understands he's just there to help and respects Cooper. Likewise, Cooper can tell Truman knows what he's doing and respects him equally.

One of the big indicators that Cooper is vital to the series is that he is a part of two of the most delightful and burgeoning relationships that happen as the first season progresses.  There's the aforementioned Cooper and Truman relationship which is one of the more surprising and welcome friendships I've ever seen portrayed.  The other, of course, is between him and Audrey Horne.  There's just a magic between MacLachlan and Sherilyn Fenn in their scenes that enhances the episode.  It's a shame off-screen developments caused the writers to abandon that for the second season because it was one of the better parts of the first season.

Leaving aside Maclachlan's performance, which honestly if i squint I could see on different shows, my favorite performance that is distinctly Twin Peaks is definitely from Richard Beymer.  Beymer plays his character over-the-top yet somehow still containing a semblance of reality.  When performances are generally grandiose and heightened, Beymer provides an example of someone who can pull that off while still seeming like an actual character.  The other shining example is oddly enough Piper Laurie as Catherine Martell.  I say that because she has one of the roles that somewhat disappears when you look back on the show.  But she is certainly giving the most soap opera like performance with her devouring of scenery and she does it so well you don't even care.  (Obviously this is under the assumption that a soap opera performance is a bad thing which is an opinion I hold, but if you do not share that opinion, boy you probably LOVE her performance.)

There are a lot of performances to get through and I probably hold an opinion of all of them, which you certainly can't say about every show.  Ashbrook either gets better and sinks into his character as the show goes on or I just get used to him.  It doesn't really matter to me either way because eventually I grow to like his performance.  I always enjoy Ray Wise, who has guest starred in about a million shows.  Warren Frost gives probably the most subdued performance of all the actors, but it works all the better for it.  James Marshall is as awkward in his eighth episode as his first so I tend to think Ashbrook actually got better, because Marshall never does for me.  Joan Chen makes the least impression on me and I didn't really like her performance or her character.  Russ Tamblyn (Lawrence Jacoby) is great.

I really liked Everett McGill even though he for some reason seems like the character most likely to fit in on Days of Our Lives (of which I've seen maybe 10 hours total in my life due to haphazardly glancing at when my mom is watching it, which she has done as long as I've been living).  It's a sin it took me until now to mention Mädchen Amick (Shelly Johnson) who unfortunately has to act alongside Eric da Re, who is in the running for the worst actor on this series with Marshall.  I can't believe two things: that Sheryl Lee never acted before this and that she hasn't had more of a career post-Twin Peaks, because she makes such an impression in such little screen time that you wish you saw her alive.  (Because I only have so much space - the rest: Michael Horse as Hawk is awesome, Harry Goaz as Andy is a fantastically terrible actor, and I actually have no opinion on Laura Flynn Boyle for better or worse.)

The interesting thing about this show, when researching it, is how much credit David Lynch gets and how little he actually had to do when the cameras started rolling.  He co-wrote the first three episodes and directed the first and third, but other than that he didn't have any direct involvement in the rest.  He obviously deserves credit for molding the directing style and helping to formulate what the show would be.  But I think Frost wrote almost all of the characters except for Agent Cooper (which by my own admission is a rather important character)  This is just an observation and honestly the non-Twin Peaks credits for Frost are so disappointing and just plain bad that it's weird he helmed most of the first season.

I will refrain from giving this a grade for two reasons: an A feels dishonest as I don't really know if my overall feelings would warrant that and the grade is flexible in this case.  I think Twin Peaks' first season is a show that gets better every time I watch it.  It is the rare show that, first 30 minutes of the pilot excepted, I will never get tired of watching.  That is an extremely rare quality in a show and I can count on one hand the number of shows where that applies.  Hopefully my words, rather than an inability to given an A, can convey my feelings towards this show.

Playlist 
1. "Swimming Stone" - 20syl
2. "Be Above It"- Tame Impala
3. "Wesley's Theory" - Kendrick Lamar
4. "Lonely Soul" - UNKLE feat. Richard Ashcraft
5. "From Hate We Hope" - Steve Mason

Rewind: 24 S6

Before I watched this season, a vast - VAST - majority of lists listed Season 6 as the worst season of 24.  Some had Season 7, some had Season 8, but Season 6 was far and away as near of a consensus as  possible the worst season the show had to offer.  Too many of these lists preceded this post with "Even the worst season of 24 is good."  Because no this season is awful.  This is borderline unwatchable.  It took me months to watch this season.  Every time I was faced with the prospect of watching another episode, it was a struggle to watch.

24 is a weird show and I've probably said this in my other posts on it and will probably say it in future posts as well.  It's good for weird reasons basically, reasons that aren't usually at all sustainable over multiple seasons.  Is it well-acted?  Well not really.  Are the characters well-fleshed out?  Again, not really.  Is it well-plotted?  Well, the more you think about it, usually the less sense it makes.  Is it well-written? Eh no the dialogue isn't really a strong selling point here either.  Well what the fuck makes this a good show? Excitement, twists, Jack Bauer, and good acting from key supporting characters.  (I kind of cheated and said it wasn't well-acted, but sometimes it is like George Mason or Charles Logan.  Generally speaking though, I don't think it's a reason to watch the show)

Now, excitement and twists are two things that tend to get less rewarding the longer you have a show, especially if you don't have interesting characters.  24 HAD interesting characters.  They killed a lot of them off though.  Wayne Palmer isn't one.  Nadia Yassir isn't one.  Milo Pressman isn't one.  Neither is Sandra Palmer (do you have remember her?).  Bless 24's soul, but how in the hell do you have James Cromwell and Regina King and make both of their characters absolute nothings.  James Cromwell, as Jack's father, should have been great.  Hell, Cromwell as Jack's evil father should have been a piece of cake.  It's James freaking Cromwell.  How did they mess that up so badly?  Judging from the fact that King is a starring character and showed up in 9 episodes, they clearly had no idea what to do with her.

Then they kill off Curtis Manning in the stupidest way possible.  Manning was an underrated character.  I don't know how Roger Cross did it, because I can't imagine anything was on the page for him to work with, but I was invested in Curtis Manning.  Then, all of a sudden, he becomes so unprofessional that he forces Jack to kill him.  Congratulations on being extremely unsubtle about the difficulties with working with someone you hate, 24. (That's unfair; 24 has never been subtle)

I'm going to be honest here.  There are many high points in this season that I can point to where I can say I enjoyed it.  This was just an absolute trainwreck of a season.  Powers Boothe is decent as Vice President Noah Daniels, but like his weirdly obsessive desire to go to war makes no sense.  And I am tired of so many characters on this show going against the president for the good of the country.  And that happens this entire season.  I don't mean go up against in the sense of verbally, I mean like try to take him out.

Anyway, I'll keep watching, because from what I've read, Season 7 is a lot better.  Yes, some say it is worse than Season 6, but a lot of other people claim it's a change of pace and that it's better than any of the last three seasons (which granted, so far is like being one of the best Big Bang Theory episodes).  In any case, these lists have been generally trustworthy, outside of their inability to prepare me for just how truly bad this season is, and season seven and season eight both seem to have good and redeemable qualities and are far from hard to watch.

Grade - D

Rewind: The Simpsons S8

I'm a somewhat strange Simpsons viewer in two respects. The first is that I started watching a couple years ago, in 2013, and have somehow completely avoided watching any episodes - to my memory - good or bad ever before that first viewing.  I think I haphazardly watched part of a Treehouse of Horrors episode in its later years, but I gave up on it pretty quickly - and really not sure a later years Treehouse of Horrors is the best introduction to The Simpsons.

The second is that, amidst the discussion of what the "golden era" of The Simpsons is, I found myself extremely underwhelmed in some of the years considered "golden".  Season 2 is by no means a season that is universally considered among peak Simpsons, but seasons 3 and 4 are on every list.  It's not that I didn't like them, but I so clearly enjoy seasons five through seven over the previous two that I feel I'm missing something.  Hell, I rewatched seasons three and four to make sure I didn't miss anything.. and pretty much the same feeling as before.  I caught more jokes, but overall I didn't experience some sort of leap in quality or enjoyment that I was hoping I would get.

So I'm a little more amenable to the idea that season eight might not have been the decline people make it out to be.  Or I was when I started the season.  There's definitely a dip in quality.  I wish I could explain it well, or even at all, because I watched the majority of this season a few months ago.  Looking over the previous episodes, the episodes I remember or ones that stick out, are ones that are considered classics.  But I distinctly remember at the time watching them - though not the specific episodes - that this is somewhat of a downgrade from before.

So I'm of two minds going forward at this point.  On the one hand, I am clearly an unconventional Simpsons viewers with varying tastes from the consensus.  As such, I shouldn't assume things that the consensus tells me are simply true.  I should find out for myself.  From that perspective, I absolutely need to watch season nine and possibly season 10 (as both are lumped together as similar in quality).  I probably won't watch season 11 as of now, but I'm willing to amend that depending on how much I like or dislike the next two seasons.  At most, I'm watching until season 12 and I've considered having sort of a "greatest hits" collection of episodes post season 10 on to the present day.  Skip the bad ones while still getting a feel for modern Simpsons.

On the other hand, season eight really feels like a series ending type of season, doesn't it?  You get the sense that they are wringing every possible type of comedy that is left in their creative brain.  This is everything that they have left and everything they've got for the rest of the series.  Now that may or may not be true, but this season features changing the status quo more than once (Milhouse Divided, Grade School Confidential), off-the wall ideas (El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer, Spinoff Showcase), and unfortunately narrative shortcuts and some lazy ideas (The Springfield Files, Simpsoncalifragi. yeah not typing more of that).

The last three episodes, for my money, are some of the greatest episodes to end The Simpsons.  I'm not saying they are the best episodes, but that it's a damn great way to stop watching.  "Homer's Enemy" IS one of the greatest episodes of the season, features some extreme meta commentary on the show, and after watching it, it's kind of hard to continue forward.  The show is pointing out how ridiculous it is and that seems like a thing you do when you end the show.  "The Spin-off Showcase" is a creative and original idea, and while not all three segments are great, it helps, well, showcase both its originality and the vast crate of characters.  The last one is a return to classic Simpsons: simple story, emotional, and funny.  Seriously, I want my last memory of The Simpsons to be that so bad that it's going to be difficult to watch season nine, which I pretty much assume is worth watching if not essential.

(Short review, but I watched most of this season a while ago so you get what you get)

Playlist
1. "NWA" - Miguel feat. Kurupt
2. "Them Kids" - Sam Roberts Band
3. "Long Way Down" - Robert DeLong
4. "Endors Toi" - Tame Impala
5. "Hood Took Me Under" - Compton's Most Wanted

Vikings S3

It's no longer unusual for a creator to have such a wide-ranging influence on his television show that he might as well have written every episode himself.  Of course that'd be kind of ridiculous and nearly impossible to do.  And yet, Vikings creator Michael Hirst has tried to do that very thing on Vikings, writing every single one of the 28 episodes so far.

And I think the show has suffered for it.  It's creatively stagnant with few surprises and constantly checking on stories that have never been interesting.  The first season was a good show with a few flaws that never got fixed.  The second season was pretty much an identical season to the first, quality-wise.  And the third season in my mind represents a clear decline.

One of the biggest worries for me going forward is that I thought the dynamic between Athlestan and Ragnar was one of the most compelling and intriguing parts of the show.  And for some reason Hirst had him killed off by Floki.  From a plot sense, it made sense.  Floki has been resentful of Athlestan for years and it was only a matter of time.  But from a character perspective, it loses a lot of the appeal I once had for this show.  With him gone, what relationship will provide the bedrock for the series?

Similarly once a staple of the show, the relationship between Ragnar and Lagaertha is another thing that's been missing.  Occasionally, we'll get a glimpse of their past, but it's few and far between.  Understandably they've grown apart, but unfortunately their new partners are significantly less interesting.  Aslaug has never been a good character and barely anything changes this season.  I can't think of anything she did this season except come into contact with a wanderer and humiliate the Christian who thought he could carry a burning stick.  The wanderer brought the death of Siggy and her death was far more interesting than anything she did in life.  THAT was a good example of using a death for a character who had exceeded her time and raising the stakes.

And Kalf is a dud as a character, who instead of being menacing, just makes Lagaertha bad because she trusted him.  His character motivations made no sense either.  Lagaertha wanted to marry him and he didn't because we needed a plot here, so he usurps her by gaining the trust of another member who wanted her gone because women be crazy.  That member was apparently impactful enough to convince everyone else Kalf was good as earl, but not impactful enough to convince everyone Lagaertha was bad.  It's a mess and it could probably be forgiven if Ben Robson is at all convincing.  But he's not and every time spent on him was time better spent elsewhere.

Which is really the story of Vikings at this point.  It's a shocking change of pace from one moment to the next.  You're either really interested in what's happening (Ragnar is usually involved) or not at all interested (most of King Ecbert later in the season, although thank god for Linus Roache).  Speaking of not being interesting, I have no idea why they decided to make Athelstan have sex with Princess Judith.  Here's where something comes out of nowhere.  Despite never showing any interest in women, he all of a sudden is so distraught with "love" for Judith that he abandon common sense and has sex with her.  She gets pregnant and then gets her ear cut off and then Ecbert wants to have an affair with her, because she's apparently irresistible despite having no personality.  She's basically a blank canvas so that Hirst can do whatever he wants with her in order to have a plot.

Floki is well played Gustaf Skarsgård, but his character is extremely annoying at this point.  I'm sure there's another beat to be played other than "Really religious and hates Christianity" but Hirst has yet to do it.  It isn't that his character isn't well-explored, it's that there's got to be something else to the character.  It was good to see him get his comeuppance in the battle because I no longer like him at all.

Speaking of that battle, Hirst keeps trying to do the impossible and fool the audience into thinking something will happen that so clearly won't.  Last season, it was Floki turning on Ragnar.  This season, it was acting like Ragnar died.  Look, it was somewhat convincing, but the biggest problem is that without Ragnar there is no show.  He IS the show.  So if he dies, what the hell else is he going to do?  Plus, all of his actions where nobody could see him look worse because if you're playing a long con on the audience, you need to have him fooling someone else who isn't supposed to know.  But if he's coughing up blood by himself, that's just cheating.

Naturally, Travis Fimmel is as good as ever.  He's the reason to watch the show at this point.  In fact, I'm not sure if his story is still technically interesting as it is written or if Fimmel is just that good.  Similarly, Linus Roache does his best with some weak material.  When he's a part of the plot and he and Ragnar grin and play mind games with each other, it's honestly fantastic television.  When he starts just getting thrown in to remind us he's still a factor, he's not really able to save the pointlessness of it all.

Not much else to say about this season - or at least if I did have more, I'd talk too much about plot.  This show is technically better than other shows as mediocrely written as this because of its production values, it's acting, and it's period drama.  Technically speaking I should probably give this a higher grade than I will.  It's a C show that is elevated to a B show from its production.  But I'm going to give it a C anyway because no way in hell do I think this season deserved a B.

Grade - C

Playlist
1. "Easy" - The Commodores
2. "The Man in Me" - Bob Dylan
3. "Maggot Brain" - Funkadelic
4. "1999" - Prince (Look this up on Spotify I guess; no Prince songs on Youtube)
5. "House of the Rising Sun" - The Animals