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3×13 – Witch Hunt
Aww man. That’s actually in my top 20. Gotta readjust then!
However, the rest don’t really surprise me. Those are all episodes that rank further down for me.
Why do you think the episodes in the Top 10 and Bottom 20 were the episodes they were?
A think a commonality in the top 10 is that they’re all strong character episodes; they may not do a ton to advance the plot of that particular season but they all showcase and help nuance the characters.
The Round 3 Poll is now Liv
Voted!
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I’m curious to know, how many of you looked at the full results for Round 1? I know if I wasn’t running this, I’d want to be more surprised
I stayed away from the full results. Like you said, I’d like to be surprised.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"What were the biggest surprises for you?
7:15 A.M isn’t in the top 10. Hat Trick is a good episode, but I liked 715 better and would rank it above HT.
Also, Desperate Souls not being in the top 10 is mind blowing to me.
Also, VERY surprised that Quiet Minds wasn’t instantly cut.
What wasn’t surprising?
The episodes that were cut don’t surprise me at all.
’m surprised “Dreamy” made it through,
Honestly, I think that’s because Dreamy looks better in retrospect. In S1 I didn’t enjoy the episode at all, but 6 years later and it’s much better than some of the episodes that have aired in the past two years, at least.
Will knowing these results change how you vote in the next round?
Nope, all my top 20 are safe!
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"10×9 “Empress of Mars”
–Ehhhhh not my least favorite of the season but miles away from my favorite of the year.
–Points given for bringing back several classic Who figures with a big surprise in the form of Alpha Centauri!
–However points deducted for a mostly by-the-book episode. I guess that’s not a bad thing, especially in a season that started off being an introduction to Doctor Who for anyone who hadn’t seen it before. But still, this week’s narrative was a bit too rote.
–For example, the whole Brits vs Ice Warriors could have been done away with especially since we’ve seen the 12th Doctor as a Negotiator several times in his run. I’d like to have seen an episode of just Bill and the Empress discussing their cultures with regards to men, women empowerment, colonialism ect. It’d fit with the heavy political bent of this season. And, because I know we have to have some sort of driving force in an episode, the Doctor and Bill could have easily just trapped in a cave with the Empress, trying to break free.
–Soooo why did the TARDIS leave Mars with Nardole?
–Missy seems perfectly fine going back inside the vault. Okay, if we’re redeeming the Master/Mistress, that’s fine but there are only small moments that hint at his/her progress. I need something more substantial.
–Along with that, why do we end with Missy asking the Doctor if he’s okay? That’s an odd ending, yeah?
–I think this is the least I’ve laughed during an episode all season. The only chuckle I got was that the Doctor hasn’t seen classic sci-fi movies like the Terminator or the Thing, but he has seen Frozen. Go figure.
–Next week looks much better. Here’s hoping!
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Not strictly Gotham related, but more Batman related…
RIP, Adam West
http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/adam-west-dead-dies-batman-1202461532/
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I finally got to sit down and watch the finale!
GENERAL THOUGHTS: What an emotionally satisfying and gripping end to Gotham’s most successful season yet! This was the year I became much more of a proper Gotham fan largely because I think the show found its sweet spot: the bat-guano crazy villains of Ed, Penguin, Tetch, and Jerome. S1 was drivel; S2 never lived up to all its potential but S3 was the first season where I was legitimately excited to watch it every Monday.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the CoO or Bruce and Shaman storylines but it did end with total chaos in Gotham which was delightful. I do wonder, though, if this isn’t too soon for Batman. Sure, he’s a Young!Batman but Bruce’s still only 16/17 and to be that far along in his story seems rushed. Going along with that, a lot of the villains are really just getting started. Ed has only just now started to call himself the Riddler. Gotham needs a hero, to be sure, but it’s not utterly desperate for one quite yet.
I’d be glad to never see Barnes or Lee ever again.
Also, 100% here for whatever the writers are doing with Nygmobblepot. Enemies, friends, frenemies, murder-husbands. Whatever.
LIKED
–Killer Grandma is excellent and incredibly Gotham. Also, I really like the panning back to reveal just how far gone the city is.
–“Yes. I’m blaming it on the butler!”
–“I should cook him.”
–“Also, I think your children are angry with you…” RLT’s delivery of that line is hilarious.
–“I love you, Master Bruce. I would do anything for you. I would die for you.” Alfred’s speech to Bruce in the police station and later at the Demon’s Head lair *wrecked* me, guys.
–“I may have a virus that making me freakishly strong and mildly insane but even I know you were a sidekick to your brother and a sidekick to Barbara.” Okay, Lee. I’ll give you that one.
–I really need a few meta jokes about Bashir al Ghul having a best friend who runs a clothing shop but sometimes works as a spy.
–“You mean gloat?” “Yes, I do.” “It was always one of you less attractive qualities, Oswald.” Lord help me but I am HERE for Nygmobblepot until the bitter end.
–“It is my turn! It is my turn to kill you!” These two. THESE TWO. Ed throwing Oswald’s love in his face was hard but it also goes to show how well these two get each other. Os knows just what to say to make Ed shake with rage. And I agree with @Phee. They could never actually kill each other. In the most bizarre way possible, they love each other and are connected.
–“You were the one time I let love weaken me and I want you around as a constant reminder to never let that happen again.” My insides!
MIXED
–RIP, Fish? I mean they’ve faked us out so many times already with her.
–Do we think Barbara is really dead? That seems like such a waste given how much more interesting she’s become since S1. It’s a crying shame if she really is, but at least it’s a proper shocking death I didn’t see coming. Also, really great fight between Tabby and Barbara.
–“What? You’ve never seen a mason jar filled with blood before?” Okay funny line but how did Harvey and Jim even get out? Harvey just said it was impossible. Gotham has an annoying habit of telling the audience there’s a problem and then handwaving it away in the next scene while also speeding up time (Harvey and Jim escape AND manage to get to the police station that quickly?)
–Yeah, it’s really fast but dang it if I didn’t get serious chills seeing Bruce stand atop a high building in Gotham, having found the one thing he truly loves and is willing to protect.
DISLIKED
–LOL at these League of Assassins operatives. Looks like the Gotham writers need a bit of an Arrow S3 watch.
–The costume for Mr. Freeze is still really terrible, though better than the one for Barnes/The Executioner.
–The same misogynistic vein that runs through OUAT runs through Gotham as well. Any time a woman “goes bad” she’s vamped up, showing more skin than before and being hypersexual. Lee’s costuming and makeup, Selina’s costume, even Ivy’s new aged up personality. The Madonna/Whore/Good/Bad thing is more than just a little bit gross.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Sleepless in Seattle
Oh that’s a good one
Operation Cobra” has an almost unlimited number of anagrams, and I think people would tune in for “Airborne Cat Poo”.
LOL
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"19 voters so far! Thanks everyone! However there were 5 people who chose over 20 episodes – 21, 21, 23, 24, 25. I felt like I was clear in the directions. I’m leaning towards deleting all of the voters who cast over 20 votes, since this definitely affects the final outcome, but I’m open to hearing what the group thinks.
Hm. Well it’s easy to accidentally do one or two more. I kept having to recount to make sure I was at 20. 5 more is a bit much *but* I also don’t want those votes to suddenly affect the entire outcome by not being there (or by being there).
I would say keep the two 21’s (again, easy mistake)
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Also, someone correct me if I’m wrong but I’m fairly certain June doesn’t sleep with the Commander at Jezebels in the novel!
Just to correct myself here…
I went and dug up my copy of the book…Offred *does* sleep with the Commander at Jezebel’s but there is a difference to it, specifically that the Commander can tell Offred isn’t excited by the prospect of sleeping with him without Serena Joy and vocalizes his disappointment in her lack of enthusiasm. Offred them silently orders herself to fake it. (It’s chapter 39)
I guess it’s also important to note that the chapter ends with Serena taking Offred to sleep with Nick. Re-reading, Offred gives the account of sleeping with Nick twice one which is super romantic and one which is more awkward. Offred then acknowledges that neither version is totally true because all stories are a reconstruction colored by a lot of factors.
Some book spoilers ahead here! This again brings me back to the epilogue vs the TV show. I think we’re supposed to be viewing the TV show as present day unlike the epilogue which is a reconstructed story that has been put back together through the work of some Gilead historians who are presenting Offred’s story at a conference, some–what—200 years into the future? So The Handmaid’s Tale is literally a series of tapes found, pieced together in some orderly fashion and then transcribed in which Offred recounts her time with the Waterford’s but admits that her story is colored by the fact that she’s looking back. It’s also really incomplete, tangential, and lacking in details that usually make up a story.
I mean, for example, we keep referring to him as Waterford and to her as June but the novel never actually definitively says that’s who they are and in his presentation, the historian spends more time trying to figure out if the Commander is Fred Waterford or Fred Judd; with Offred’s identity it’s simply not possible to know who she is and the historians failed in puzzling her out. The historians are doing guess work based on their own research.
This is one of those things that makes Atwood’s novel so great because you get to the end and you realize that you’ve been reading a woman’s account but put together and puzzled out by a man in the far flung future after Gilead has long fallen who tells those who are listening not to judge Gilead society too harshly because all judgments are culturally based (and, yeah, as someone with degrees in history and religion, it’s basically what I have to tell myself when I’m working my way through ancient Greece or Judeo-Christian texts).
I guess what I’m getting at here is…where is the show going with June? The epilogue, for me, is one of the most unsettling aspects of the novel because Offred’s personal, internal, and emotional story seems so incomplete. There are no answers about what happens to her. Instead a professor explains how the tapes were found, how they were put together and transcribed by his team and then puzzles out who the Commander is. It’s like Offred, the person, once again because an object, and not the subject..
This spells trouble for the Commander, and in this the show’s very clever, because at this point the Commander is so utterly gross that you as the audience just might start rooting for the fanatics, because at least they mean it and it would be so very satisfying to see him brought to heel. But that’s a weird slippery slope to be on.
Yeah, who do you root for in this case? It’s like the novel/show says “better doesn’t always mean better for everyone. It’s always worse for some.” Getting rid of the Commander would save June his more ardent passions like taking her to Jezebels but at least she understands the Commander to some extent and can find moments of rebellion in Nick. Would getting rid of Waterford be better?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
