The Mist, Season One, Episode Nine: The Waking Dream

The Waking Dream is the penultimate episode of The Mist.  More than any other show that I've watched this season, I cannot wait to see the back of The Mist. It's been horribly homophobic as well as sexist.  The characters have jumped from zero to world ending panic in a fashion that makes absolutely no sense.  In short nothing the writers have come up with to expand the scope of King's novella are sensible or make The Mist even somewhat entertaining. 

The Tunnel

When last we left Nathalie, she was leading Conner, Ursula and Trevor through The Mist in an effort to reach the mall. Having chased a few suspects through the sewers, Conner is confidant about them finding their way. Conner talks about a suspect finding himself covered in rats and being horrified.  Thanks for telegraphing what the characters are going to face writers. At any rate, Trevor falls, breaking his leg badly and so calls out for help.  Nathalie is insistent that there's nothing they can do because they cannot carry Trevor.  Ursula argues to save her husband, suggesting that they could go and get help but still Nathalie will not relent. As Ursula pleads for Trevor, Nathalie and Connor keep exchanging looks.

Ursula begins to climb down some stairs to get to Trevor and after one last look at Nathalie, Connor approaches Ursula.  Promising to help Ursula, Connor moves closer as he pulls out his knife. Connor promptly stabs Ursula and pushes her down the stairs, causing her to land on her husband with a thud.  The two start to beg for help but Connor and Nathalie will not be moved. Rats approach Ursula and Trevor and start snacking on the couple like they've been presented with an all you can eat buffet.  Nathalie explains to Connor that this is all part of the cycle of life and death. They've now provided nature with food which it will recognise as harm and allow them to pass by unscathed.  Nathalie picks up a passing rat and then passing it to Connor, encouraging him to feel the love. 

I don't feel any pity for Ursula and Trevor mainly because they existed only to be killed to cement Connor's loyalty to  Nathalie.  Furthermore, Ursula and Trevor participated in locking people in the church and burning them alive.  Clearly the scene with the rats was to intended to meet The Mist's weekly quota of creep factor.

Adrian, Mia and Bryan

As we know, Adrian took a shot at Kevin and then took off to the car, claiming that his father killed Kevin.  Bryan and Mia talk about going back to ensure that Kevin is indeed dead but decide to push forward, not wanting to take the risk and believing in Adrian's assurance. When they arrive at the mall, they agree to go their separate ways since Mia and Bryan are technically criminals. The moment he's by himself, Adrian practices what he is going to tell Alex and Eve about Kevin's supposed death. This is clearly meant to remind us of how calculating Adrian is. 

The mall continues to be a cesspool of panic and nonsense.  Having blamed Alex for Shelly's death, Gus is now in a corner.  The residents of the mall want to hunt Alex down and make her pay for Shelly's death based solely on his lie about seeing Alex running away from Shelly's body.  Jones tries to tell the mall cop that this is getting ridiculous but when the mall cop makes it clear that someone is going to have to pay for Shelly's death, Gus gets on side pretty quickly.

Mia and Bryan take shelter in an outdoors store and they talk about what might have happened if they hadn't gotten together because of The Mist. I don't care how hard they try to sell these two as a couple, I simply don't buy it. When Bryan closes his eyes to daydream about the whole white picket fence scene he has created, Mia opens up her duffle bag which contains a shit ton of money.  Mia wants Brian to agree to run away with her. Bryan agrees to this and to look for supplies. Is anyone going to wonder how far the Mist extends cause if it involves more than their small town, that money is going to be useless to them?

3%, Season One, Episode One: Capítulo 01: Cubos

3% is the first Netflix original out of Brazil and the differences are immediately visible.  Unlike many shows created in North America, 3% has many people of colour in the cast.  Even if I didn't find the premise interesting right away, I think I would be compelled to give this more time than I would another show because it's refreshing to see so many hues of people on my television screen.

The premise of 3% is a futuristic dystopian world in which the majority of population lives in extreme privation while a privileged 3% live off shore in a utopian world. Each year, at the age of 20, in land citizens go through a form of rigorous testing which will decide if they will have a life filled with privation, or one of luxury and comfort.  As you might imagine, the test causes great anxiety for those participating. The testing and the lifestyle of the 3% is something that many in the 97 resent, so much so that they have created a resistance.

The candidates are notified via some device that has been implanted in their ear.  It's a long march to the testing site and when they arrive, they are told to change their clothing.  Candidates get weeded out almost instantly, as some fail the initial interviews.  The questions asked are designed to mess with the candidates emotionally and place them under stress.

Watching the entire interview process is Ezequiel, who is under much more stress regarding his selections than previous years.  The offshore, which is supposed to be a Utopia, has experienced its first murder in over 100 years. The murderer is a candidate who passed Ezequiel's rigorous testing the year before. Ezequiel is thrown for a loop when he is informed by counsellor Nair that Aline has been sent to observe the entire process this year and that many on the island blame Ezequiel for the murder. It's clear early on that Ezequiel is an arrogant tyrant who only cares about his testing procedures. The rejects who fall below the 3% maker are clearly people he sees as subhuman.  Ezequiel doesn't even respect his own staff and actually suffocates a woman in a sink full of water when she displays sadness that a reject jumped to his death after she failed to pass him.  Ezequiel felt that the only way to teach the lesson that what they do is a matter of life and death was to simulate drowning on a subordinate. It's only the first episode and I'm ready to see Ezequiel get his.

Although they all come from the same economic background, the candidates are very different personalities. There's Rafael, who falsified his registration and then cheated on a test to be able to stay in the running, in the process causing someone else to be eliminated. Rafael is smart enough to know that cheating caused great animosity among his fellow candidates and so he orchestrates a situation in which several candidates become violent in order to gain sympathy.  Rafael is absolutely conniving and when Joanna notices this, she enlists him as a team mate. For her part, Joanna is extremely bright and she exceeds on the first test. I love that she is laid back, bright and clearly full of some epic snark. Marco is perhaps the most confidant candidate of them all because his family has a history of passing the test.  Fernando is the disabled candidate and he refuses any and all help because he believes that looking like he needs help will eliminate him. Fernando however is willing to do a good turn when one is done for him.  At the end of one test, when it looked like Michele was going to be eliminated for failing to assemble enough blocks, Fernando quickly creates one large block allowing Michele to pass.

Killjoys, Season 3, Episode 8: Heist Heist Baby

Time for some war games to see how D’avin’s army will do against the Hullen

The answer - they will be utterly destroyed because they’re completely outnumbered and outclassed. Also Johnny is giving D’avin shit for stealing Dutch’s army - because Johnny is so connected to Dutch it takes some time for him to accept that she basically abandoned the army. D’avin also didn’t expect that - he thought if he went in all critical she’d fight back, not cave. She never caves.

Meanwhile Zeph is still studying Dutch, Aneela and Hullen stuff and Dutch is avoiding everything.

But Johnny may have found a way to cheat - a signal that disrupts Hullen hive-mindness. They just need a big amplifier. Thankfully there’s a mine that has something like that. Unfortunately the security is through the roof and the miners are TOUCHY.

Dutch hears this and thinks old-timey heist just like the fun rollicking good old days and she’s super, creepily, chipper about the whole opportunity. Which sets off everyone’s worry radar

But an old timey heist - and I didn’t realise how much I missed the old hit of the week no grand epic meta episodes as much as I did. It’s a nice call back

Speaking off we go to visit an old friend, Borna, head of the wastelanders around Westerley who is willing to trade for information. She also has a new husband, Jelco (she says wife and he hurriedly corrects her which suggests a very different view of marriage beyond the multiple partners). Yes, Jelco, one of the Company people who we thought was dead. Still, no hard feelings and all that. They get lots of useful information about the scary scary scary miners and their scary security.

Step 1 of which requires an insider, which requires seducing a guard (Dutch fails. Johnny fails. D’avin’s big shiny gun sort of succeeds but only if drugging him unconscious counts. Pree doesn’t think it does).

The plan goes ahead with reminders of how brutal the miners are and how security conscious they are with dead people and handcuffed D’avin (apparently standard for their transport people). This means when they unleash the ambush there are also some issues they hadn’t anticipated but the biggest problem comes when Jelco launches his own attack to try and steal the crystals they mine (which Dutch doesn’t actually want). It all goes rather wrong - Dutch escapes with the sonic thing they need but Jelco and D’avin (and some extras are kidnapped)

Dutch wants D’avin back - and Borna wants her third husband back, he’s her “strategy husband”. With D’avin talking to Jelco it’s clear that Jelco also wants to return to Borna - that he truly loves her and he enjoys his place by her side. I’d be much happier with this (hey and a whole storyline with Borna and her three husbands) if there wasn’t also jokes about her punching him. And, for that matter, if all of Borna’s portrayal - of a big Black woman, wasn’t how strong and big and dangerous she is. Though I do appreciate an acknowledgement that he does love her and does find her attractive and we have something beyond the whole  ”big and strong and dangerous”. Jelco also discusses not wanting to lead - and how D’avin, as another follower, needs to think on how he can best help Dutch

Naturally there’s a rescue and Borna and Jelco have their loving reunion. Everyone is reunited and it’s all shiny and they have their new weapon which may help them against the Hullen even though they have superior numbers still. Dutch has a plan - while they all distract the Hullen she can assassinate Aneela in person - because the Hullen don’t have the numbers, they have one person who runs a hive mind. Destroy the original and everyone else falls

Wynonna Earp, Season 2, Episode 11: Gone as a Girl Can Get

So last week we had random side plot pulled out of the arse of nowhere had the Iron Witch’s long lost sister appear from nowhere to use a demonic hockey trophy to put Doc down a well and make Wynonna disappear.

Yes. Did I mention there’s like 2 episodes left? Because? So I guess forgive the half-assedness that follows?

Firstly I’m going to jump past the “let’s show the ending at the beginning” nonsense.

So, Doc, because he touched the trophy at the time the Iron Witch #2 used it, he ended up zapped into a well. Because he has a thing about wells after being stuck down one for millennia. So he’s in his personal hell stuck down a well for a couple of hours before a revenant points out there’s actually a ladder

No. Really. A ladder. Remember that half-assed stuff I mentioned?

Doc is the only one who can remember Wynonna exists and finds that the world is a little different without the Earp heir. For one thing, he’s now leading the Revenants on their little rampage, and they’ve set up base at the Earp Homestead. He has also chained up Rosita to manufacture drugs for him (he releases her. She hates him) and is no. 1 on the local law enforcement’s hit list after killing Sheriff Nedry.

Since Nedry is awesome, I can understand that

That police force is Sheriff Nicole Haught who is dealing with way more supernatural nastiness AND missing pets. We also have Dolls (now sporting a scar on his face from a previous encounter with Doc. He is not Doc’s number 1 fan). And Jeremy. Who is still Jeremy.

This is awkward because he really needs people to believe him but he’s public enemy #1. Dolls ends up locking him up in a cell with Mercedes (after Nicole knocks him out) one of the captured widows (who they happen to have locked up and she’s in a bad shape so she has no poison at least). Mercedes at least is ware they’re sort of in an alternate realm.

Nicole is also not in a relationship with Waverley, Waverley was brought up not an Earp and is now going to marry recently introduced guy Perry (though she keeps getting cold feet). She and Nicole clearly still have a thing and the spell is fraying because Nicole knows waaaaay more about Waverley than she should. Similarly some of the privacy issues she has with Nicole are spilling over into her relationship with Perry.

Zoo, Season 3, Episode 8: Stakes on a Plane

Jackson and Abigail are continuing their family drama. Sister dearest would like the secret to Jackson’s super Doolittle powers. She calls it communicating with animals and tests it by having a hungry Bengal Tiger released next to him when he’s covered in blood.

I have to point out this is animal command not communication because communication would go like this:

Tiger: HUNGRY!

Jackson: Don’t eat me!

Tiger: nom nom nom nom.

I also want to point out the flaws in deciding to test Jackson’s animal control powers by letting a tiger loose around him. Luckily she has magical sleepy drugs that can put a tiger to sleep mid pounce. Dear TV-landia; tranquilisers don’t work this way.

Anyway she wants to record his brain mojo so she can add it to her hybrid mojo and TAKE OVER THE WORLD

Or destroy the world. Do evil stuff anyway.

To do this she needs some more emotional stuff so in between being an arsehole about Jackson’s dead family who were hastily retconned into the story two weeks ago, (and Jackson never once tries to hit her sore spot “daddy loved me best!”) she also decides to mess with the plane.

This would be the plane with the rest of the team on who are going… somewhere and doing… something? I guess. Mainly they seem to be flying around the Atlantic discussing various personal issues

Dariela and Abe have just had awesome sex but Dariela is still concerned about raising a child on the plane of drama and death and would like to go home. Abe concedes this - and will AFTER they save the world which doesn’t exactly appease Dariela because they may all die in the process. Though Jaime does have a point that if they don’t save the world there’s no much point in saving Isaac anyway, but slightly less heartless because she’s not me and kids being fed blatantly manipulative lines to try and pluck the heart strings annoys me. I als kind of don’t want another reason why Dariela is pushed to the margins

Mitch has used knockout/forgetful juice on Jaime so she doesn’t realise he’s Mr. Duncan because REASONS. Max, his dad knows about shis but doesn’t really care because he’s, perhaps, the worst person ever. He’s totally cool with Mitch lying to Jaime and thinks he should do it more because he totally did it while cheating on all those women and really we should not listen whenever Max speaks.

Shadowhunters, Season 2, Episode 20: Besides Still Water

Jonathan is alive… but only briefly. He bleeds and calls for his mother, his blood forming a pentacle which summons a great big ugly demon

Hey, I’m with you demon mum, someone calls me unexpectedly in a morning will not get me at my best

Simon and Luke have noticed that Maia is missing and they go to visit the Seelie Queen (well first they visit Magnus who is all “excuse me, valentine, genocide, et al. Priorities”) who they have randomly decided is responsible (accurately but hey, Valentine is running around but you assume the Queen is at fault). She lets slip she made a deal with Valentine to get him out of the city and Simon and Luke pretty much spend the rest of the episode playing in the Seelie realm looking for Maia. This would be the magical fae realm of Plotboxia!

The Shadowhunters - well, Izzy, Clary, Alec and Jace since the rest of the Shadowhunters only exist in crowd scenes in the Institute. They fight the big demon which splits into a gazillion little demons which all run and hide. This is when Clary gets the news from Luke that Valentine has fled the city. They can’t take down the warlock ward against angel blood because it will let the demons out.

Wait… why… what?

They also decide people need to go to Idris to protect the lake from Valentine’s shenanigans. Yes there’s an army of Shadowhunters there but they’re ALL CIRCLE MEMBERS. Seriously like half the Clave is a circle member. Of course Clary and Jace go. Of course they do.

That leaves Alec and Izzy to stop the demons by closing the portal. For that they need a powerful warlock. Magnus you have been summoned, at least he makes it clear he’s not doing this for the Clave. They go to the portal, fight more demons and seal the rift. And by “they” I mean Magnus

So, to Idris where Clary and Jace discover that the army led by chief Clave member Malachai are all Circle members. No, really. I told you so. He makes a big speech about how the Downworlders are totally the worst and how Clary and Jace have to die - starting with Clary

We even pull out the sad music for Clary’s impending doom. I didn’t press fast forwards. I was tempted. To the shock of no-one, Jace activates his wondertwin powers and he and Clary kill everyone. How shocked

To the lake before Valentine (hey, is this a good time to remind everyone Valentine only knows about the lake because of Clary & co? Yes?) and Valentine appears and stabs Jace. Woe he’s dying. And dying. And still dying. And Alec is feeling it through his rune and oh he’s dying and dying and woe and DIE ALREADY

Look, absolutely no-one watching this thinks Jace is actually going to kick the bucket. Stop wasting your dramatic tension on this

So Jace is dead and Clary imprisoned and Valentine makes another speech about how he’s totally not a bad guy - and he summons the Angel Raziel

And I honestly expected better CGI. This is your angel, Shadowhunters do better! Valentine announces he wants all demons dead. And all Downworlders. And all nephilim who don’t support him (all 6 of them).

Raziel points out heaven is totally uncool with this - killing Nephilim is bad. Killing Downworlders (who have souls) also totally bad. Killing demons is cool though

Valentine doesn’t even pause on hearing this (fuck the will of heaven apparently) and plans to go for it anyway- because apparently if you cut yourself in front of the angel he totally has to do what you ask

Blood Ring (Rogue Mage #1) by Faith Hunter

This book is huge. Not so much because of the length of the book but the sheer amount packed in here - especially this really original world.

Honestly, if someone has sold this book to me as a post-rapture word, a world after the book of Revelations, a world where the angels came down and massacred huge chunks of humanity, I would be leery.

But what about that world where the angels never confirmed any one religion? What about when the Most High never actually appeared (but pointing that out is a quick way to get dead)? What about a world where actually fighting each other over a religion is the quickest way to get you dead by angel?

We have a world where religion and religious rules have definitely risen to prominence, piety is common and all but mandatory (there’s a lot of pressure even when it’s not mandated) and religious laws dominate. But at the same time everyone is kind of uncertain as to what the laws need to be. One interesting element of this is that they seem to have avoided the very common trope of just defaulting to “sexual” crimes (probably because most authoritarian religion seems to devolve to that level) and we see a lot more fierce punishments for things like swearing. It’s an interesting and unique political situation with religion ascendant and in control but without the certainty or single religious dominance you’d expect from such a world

It’s also been several generations since the end of the world so humanity is doing what we always do - backslide. Thorn notes that things that would never have been tolerated 10 years ago are now creeping back into the human media

It’s also really well done how the balance is set out. Because it would be easy to portray the Seraphs as wonderful saviours of humanity - and that’s clearly the spin and there’s definitely a cult that has grown around them - but Thorn sees it as a cult. Equally the depictions of the Seraphs arrival and the end of the world is depicted as duly horrific. The idea that the Seraphs are all good and pure is strongly challenged despite the spin. At the same time we have the dark powers, the monsters from the depths, demonic forces et al that humanity and the Seraphs allied against - so we do have the seraphs as being humanity’s protectors and destroyers, humanity’s shield, but also the sword which could come down at any time if humanity break the rules they’re STILL not entirely sure they understand. It’s all complex and nuanced and precarious

Add into that is Thorn, a Neo-mage. A woman with magic and, by official doctrine from the Seraphs, soulless. Registered and sequestered, Neo-mages are both an incredible asset to humanity for their skills but also feared and persecuted when unlicensed and not in their official communities. Thorn is surrounded by neighbours who would murder her if they found out about her while at the same time seriously considering hiring mages at exorbitant cost to help them with the town’s problems.

Oh and the world is a dystopia - not just because of the end of the world which means there’s a lot of salvaging and a lot of things mankind just doesn’t have the numbers to produce any more and is now working to produce in numbers what was once taken for granted. There’s no suggestion the technology is lost - it’s just hard to maintain the supply chain and production methods with most of the population dead. But the world is also entering a mini ice-age which doesn’t just mean cold, but also worries like glaciers forming in the mountains above the town

Throw in demons coming out at night and haunting the world and we have a much scarier world - and, obviously, an equal dependence for the decimated population on the Seraphs.

This world is FULL and it is FASCINATING and I understand there’s an actual RPG game that has built up around it because this world is amazing. I could happily just keep reading more world building and more and more and more and more

But in a book? All of the above is huge and complex and fascinating. And then we see different neo-mages with different powers and different sources of power - with the added complexity of elements from other specialties draining them (Thorn, a stone mage, is drained by water and moonlight). Then we throw in the descendents of humans and Seraphs, the descendents of mages and humans and the mixing of these blood lines all creates different complexities - and on top of that the dark side also has it’s own different forces and bloodlines

I love the world, but sometimes I feel like I need a guide to read separate to the story as it can be hard to follow all the ins and outs and complexities. This is sometimes not helped by the writing - especially when Thorn is deep in her magic and bonding with stones, I’m not always entirely sure what has exactly happened. This is especially the case later in the book towards the end with a grand finale where Thorn faces down the big bad hordes and it’s epic and it’s amazing and it’s exciting and powerful and… and I only have the slightest clue about what actually happened.

I think it did add even more complexity over what the Seraphs are - but I was too lost in it all to be certain. It still felt epic and the victory was clear but what exactly Thorn did? I’m not sure, I’m really not. Too much abstract, too many things going on.

The plot itself is a wonderful exploration of this world - and I think you needed a whole book on that. We largely focused on Thorn just living in this world with her friends. Which is excellent because this world is HUGE so huge, so very huge.

We have a mystery: someone has been captured (Thorn’s ex) and they want to get him back and stop the big dark evil things doing their evil worst but most of Thorns’ day and experience isn’t spent on this particularly. I think this works because the world is big and complex and, if anything, needed paring more for this book (the amethysts in particular were damn confusing)

I do like Thorn’s relationship with her friends and colleagues, all of whom work in stones and jewellery. There’s Jessie with her large family who has her own complicated past with religious society though is something of a minor character in her circle which is sad because she and a child and a very very distant woman mentor are the only women in Thorn’s life and we need more women in there. We have , Thorns’ best friend who is a gay man. I started out somewhat hostile to this character because he is introduced with a whole lot of dubious code words “flamboyant” “theatric”, an over-emphasis on clothes and make up. He loves musicals - in a dystopian world which doesn’t produce musicals ad doesn’t seem to have an excess of recorded media. The almost odd part of thi is it fades as the book goes on: it seems less to be character development and more that the author kind of forgot he was gay and the coding she’d already established. We have Audric who is one of these woo-woo half-breeds, a Black man and in a relationship with Rupert. Despite Rupert being her BFF, since Audric is the one who is actually aware of her secret than the others so is more prominent than the other characters. But part of the woo-woo apparently involves some unspecified genital deformity which, again, it’s implied makes him sexless. It seems an unnecessary addition to make it so expressly clear the gay couple cannot be sexual - especially as we’ve introduced the completely unnecessary concept of the mages entering highly sexualised heat. This used up way too much time of Thorn fighting supernatural horniness.

I’m fascinated by this world and curious by these characters. This book was probably too full, too overwhelmingly full, but what it was full of was absolutely amazing and  loved every last minute of it. Just reading this first book makes me think this series can become one of my favourites - all the more likely as it develops and I become more familiar with this huge world

Preacher, Season 2, Episode 9: Puzzle Piece

Oh Preacher, I’m getting a confused vibe from this show that is similar to how I feel about Z Nation. It just feels all over the map thematically. It will be fun and zany and I’ll love it - but then it will push that bit further and suddenly we have a shed load of rape jokes or suicide jokes and it’s like… wait… no… stop. And then it will be kind of deep and emotional, but then we’ll have weeks of moping and trauma which could be an analysis but just feels jarring and kind of lost. This episode pretty much epitomises everything

Our main gang is pretty sad and tense. Dennis is healing (he’s clearly been turned into a vampire) but Cass, while still saying the right things, is clearly pissed at Jessie for not using the Word to help. Jessie is completely despairing about finding god and he starts to rant on why it matters so much - god is order and rules and there needs to be someone in charge - but Cass both doesn’t care and noisily keeps on working with the kitchen, drowning Jessie out

When Tulip arrives from another night of no sleep and getting shot in the chest and Cass is clearly concerned. He tries to reach out to her and Jessie snaps “we’re good here!”, ignoring Tulip who herself laughs angrily at Jessie’s pronouncement. Jessie uses the Word on her to make her sleep.

Cass does not approve.

All of this is witnessed by Herr Starr when his minions bring their file to him. He hasn’t bothered to read any of it because he is the epitome of not giving a shit. He see the video and being pretty much revolting in every way, sees nothing special and how broken is the word that people think it’s a super power for a woman to obey a man.

He has a date so just orders his minions, Hoover and Featherstone to just kill everyone

So in goes a squad - and I love the whole first persons shooter vibe to this - as they’re taken apart by Cassidy, Dennis (now newly vampired) and Jessie using the word to turn them against each other. Unfortunately, Dennis kills the survivor leaving no-one for Jessie to question.

Herr Starr hears about this on his date where the governor of Louisiana’s daughter rhapsodises about meaning in her life with a terribly condescending story, while Herr Starr reflects how boring his life is, how something is missing despite his awesome power, throws in some contempt for disabled children and tells the young woman to strip and hold a stick of butter under her chin.

I… I don’t know what he intended with the butter before he was interrupted an really really really do not want to speculate.

He returns to the office where Hoover and Featherstone have already put down plastic sheeting in time to be execute, Hoover taking the time to tell Featherstone he loves her, while she focuses on being scarily professional. She agrees with Starr that they should be put down in a scarily fanatical zeal and even works extremely efficiently to clear the jam in his gun so he can do this - and describes how dangerous Jesse is in the process while laying out future plans to bring him down