“You want to be the dominant species but you built your whole world with things like me.”
–Dolores Abernathy
Westworld dropped episode five this week, which means we’re more than half-way through Season Three. We’ll get to “Genre” in the near future. This week, we’re finally reviewing and discussing the first half of the season.
Picard and his associates reach their destination: a colony of Synths presided over by a descendant of Noonien Soong. But will the Romulan fears about the colony prove legitimate?
Will our ruthless enemies turn out to be the heroes?
Assume serious spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.
Picard and the members of his Questing Party encounter old friends, new dangers, a seedy tavern, and the truth that ties several events together.
In a development that will surprise no one, the Romulans planned the attack on Mars!
But how far does the conspiracy reach? And what were their motives?
We can post a discussion for Sonic the Hedgehog, if anyone asks, and we’ll have a review soon of The Invisible Man, see? But for now, we’re reviewing a Disney family movie that opened to… a disappointing box office. The Call of the Wild isn’t exactly our usual genre, but this adaptation does feature Harrison Ford and a LOT of CGI.
And I’m willing to bet quite a few people who check in on this site have read Jack London’s most famous work. If you haven’t, you probably should.
But should you see this most recent film adaptation?
The two-part conclusion of this season feels like old-time Doctor Who, but it also retcons a good deal of what we know, and raises questions that, presumably, will be the focus of the next season. Certainly, they didn’t answer them in this one.
We do, however, get to meet the Doctor’s mother, and we encounter a new mystery in the form of this Irish lad named Brendan.
This season’s penultimate episode delivers a fairly solid story, makes effective use of location filming, provides clues to the latest destruction of Gallifrey, and introduces a mystery that will obviously be central to the conclusion: Who is Brendan? If nothing else, we have a Doctor Who episode that, for the most part, should please viewers both traditional and new.
We’ll post a proper review next week, after Part Two airs. Meanwhile, here’s a place to offer opinions, ask questions, and explain your timeless theories about Brendan’s identity.
After a couple of episodes that kicked the audience in the teeth with THE MESSAGE, Doctor Who serves up one of the season’s best episodes. It begins like a thrill ride, creepy and fun. The second half turns darker and more overtly thematic, but it feels like Doctor Who.
Picard assembles his party of adventurers.
Meanwhile, it becomes clear that some Romulans consider Soji to be “the Destroyer,” a figure of some importance in their mythos.
“Engage!”
I’m a little late to this week’s review—and a little surprised by the intensity of the negative response it has received in some quarters. The episode has an extended PSA-leaning epilogue that feels decidedly out of place, and it’s more than a little confusing, but it’s also one of the more interesting episodes of this season.
The latest DC super-movie opened, a sequel to Suicide Squad that also functions as an origin for Birds of Prey. It under-performed at the box office on its first weekend and played to mixed reviews.
This review may be more mixed than many.