Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 I gave up after episode 1 of season 4, is it worth ploughing through ? Sounds like it improved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3CityApache Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 (edited) Season 4 is generally an improvement over disastrous season 3, that's for sure. But is it much better than in episode 1 of season 4? I don't know, not really I guess. So if it's the first episode of the current season that pushed you to give up, I wouldn't count on much improvement. Edited December 22, 2023 by 3CityApache Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 I'd say the same. It definitely lacks the melodrama of S2 and especially S3, which were the things that really hurt the show the most. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Selig Posted December 22, 2023 Share Posted December 22, 2023 I had mostly given up on the show but gave Season 4 a chance, partly because I was curious to see how much of my country's capital would be recognisible there (I had heard that the scenes which are supposed to be in Moscow were shot in Sofia). And it's very obvious, in Margo's first scenes this season they showed some of the most recognizable location of Sofia which was pretty funny to me. They also used the infamous Ikarus 260 bus when she tried to get to the Star City, which was a staple of public transport in Bulgaria (and the rest of the Soviet bloc) for decades and you could still see some on the roads of Bulgarian cities until several years ago. I guess even with cheap energy the Soviets were still unwilling to modernise public transport too much. Margo walking around at a Sofia location known as the Largo in Episode 1 was also funny to me. I don't know if this was an intentional joke by the showrunners. Anyway, I agree that the show is a bit better than in the previous seasons, but not that great overall. Miles' plotline is especially irritating to me, there is no way in hell this reckless dumbass would have been so successful at such a business. And the fact that the 72 year old Ed was still one of the top pilots at the start of the season and was given the most important jobs was just destroying my suspension of disbelief, good thing this seems to be over for now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 Lots of dangling threads as they focus in on just two parts of the plot, so stuff like Danny and Ilya are, so far, forgotten. I groaned a bit when the focus was on Alex -- cute kid who is a shy, anxious wallflower is somehow worse than just regular cute kid -- but it paid off in the end. The reintroduction of Spoiler Sergei did not go where I thought it was going to go, but is intriguing. Spoiler I mean, Margo can't go to the US again, she can't go back to the USSR... so, what, she finagles her way to Mars while Dev declares independence? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fionwe1987 Posted December 29, 2023 Share Posted December 29, 2023 3 hours ago, Ran said: Lots of dangling threads as they focus in on just two parts of the plot, so stuff like Danny and Ilya are, so far, forgotten. I groaned a bit when the focus was on Alex -- cute kid who is a shy, anxious wallflower is somehow worse than just regular cute kid -- but it paid off in the end. Yeah, but wow, Ed really is coming across as a total moron. Kelly is going to correctly be incensed at what he used her son for. 3 hours ago, Ran said: The reintroduction of Hide contents Sergei did not go where I thought it was going to go, but is intriguing. Hide contents I mean, Margo can't go to the US again, she can't go back to the USSR... so, what, she finagles her way to Mars while Dev declares independence? I wonder if Spoiler Sergei comes clean in a public way, and Margo gets a deal to defect back to the States. Not very realistic, but I can see this going there, with all the "Moscow Margo" trash talking this episode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 (edited) As soon as they started swapping back and forth between Sergei and Margo… I had a feeling… Edited January 5 by Ser Scot A Ellison Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGP Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 37 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said: As soon as they started swapping back and forth between Segei and Margo… I had a feeling… Yea... Spoiler though I'd anticipated a garrote just before Sergei got into his Big Mac. I really liked his character Ser Scot A Ellison 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corvinus85 Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 48 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said: As soon as they started swapping back and forth between Sergei and Margo… I had a feeling… Spoiler I was expecting a black bag or a plastic bag to suffocate him, not that. Anyway, Sergei seemed to have forgotten he was married. I guess his wife was just a bed warmer for him. I still have some sympathy for him, though. Didn't deserve to go out like that. On a different note, I was glad to have gotten more from Dannielle in this episode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 (edited) I knew that the episode's title, "Brazil", was bad news: Spoiler Pretty sure that's a nod to Gilliam's film, in which the song "Aquarela do Brasil" serves as the romantic, escapist vision of a better life... that doesn't actually exist. Alas, Sergei. I, too, did not expect the assassination being set up as a suicide. Figured they'd disappear his body. But no, better to do it this way, not least because it lets Margo know that they did it, and that she was never out of the KGB's eye. A lot of signaling for the final episode: Spoiler Besides Sergei and Margo obviously, there's Ed and Danielle both giving monologues that suggests their time might well be numbered. I can't imagine both going. And yet... I'm not sure how people are gonna go? Is it going to be a matter of the calculation being off and the asteroid crashing into Happy Valley, so they need to evacuate? Or is it going to be in a fight over shutting off the rogue comm equipment and someone gets hurt in the struggle with those "won't breach the environment" pistol(s) that the CIA operative has? If the latter, I think it'd be Danielle dying. The former, I'd bank on Ed. Also, can't take credit for this, but a prediction others made that makes a lot of sense to me ... Spoiler So, the fake discriminator is found out at the last moments, and the real one is put back in. The solution is sent up from Houston.... and Aleida and Margo both conspire together to deliberately put the asteroid in Mars orbit, given talk throughout the episode about the fact that the M7 is going to completely abandon the Mars research colony as soon as the asteroid is on its way to Earth orbit. So Dev's plan fails, but it doesn't. I think that'd work very well. Also, I guess this means Margo maybe says FU to the Soviets and seeks asylum in the US, and next season we'll be seeing her in federal prison? Edited January 5 by Ran Ser Scot A Ellison, Corvinus85 and Martell Spy 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Just caught up on the show. Interesting nod to Star Trek in the latest episode: there's only three shows in 2003, and I'd bet good money they're TOS, TNG and DS9 (RDM worked on the latter two). He disliked Voyager (and hated the working culture on it, managing six weeks or so before quitting) and I don't think was particularly interested in Enterprise. Ser Scot A Ellison, Martell Spy and Ran 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 (edited) 11 minutes ago, Werthead said: Just caught up on the show. Interesting nod to Star Trek in the latest episode: there's only three shows in 2003, and I'd bet good money they're TOS, TNG and DS9 (RDM worked on the latter two). He disliked Voyager (and hated the working culture on it, managing six weeks or so before quitting) and I don't think was particularly interested in Enterprise. We wondered at the reference, and figured the same three shows as you, but good reason for why Voyager and Enterprise isn't in the number. Edited January 5 by Ran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Relic Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 16 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said: As soon as they started swapping back and forth between Sergei and Margo… I had a feeling… Of course, was totally obvious Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGP Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 (edited) 3 hours ago, Ran said: I knew that the episode's title, "Brazil", was bad news: Reveal hidden contents Pretty sure that's a nod to Gilliam's film, in which the song "Aquarela do Brasil" serves as the romantic, escapist vision of a better life... that doesn't actually exist. Alas, Sergei. I, too, did not expect the assassination being set up as a suicide. Figured they'd disappear his body. But no, better to do it this way, not least because it lets Margo know that they did it, and that she was never out of the KGB's eye. A lot of signaling for the final episode: Reveal hidden contents Besides Sergei and Margo obviously, there's Ed and Danielle both giving monologues that suggests their time might well be numbered. I can't imagine both going. And yet... I'm not sure how people are gonna go? Is it going to be a matter of the calculation being off and the asteroid crashing into Happy Valley, so they need to evacuate? Or is it going to be in a fight over shutting off the rogue comm equipment and someone gets hurt in the struggle with those "won't breach the environment" pistol(s) that the CIA operative has? If the latter, I think it'd be Danielle dying. The former, I'd bank on Ed. Also, can't take credit for this, but a prediction others made that makes a lot of sense to me ... Hide contents So, the fake discriminator is found out at the last moments, and the real one is put back in. The solution is sent up from Houston.... and Aleida and Margo both conspire together to deliberately put the asteroid in Mars orbit, given talk throughout the episode about the fact that the M7 is going to completely abandon the Mars research colony as soon as the asteroid is on its way to Earth orbit. So Dev's plan fails, but it doesn't. I think that'd work very well. Also, I guess this means Margo maybe says FU to the Soviets and seeks asylum in the US, and next season we'll be seeing her in federal prison? Like the theory. Way it was set up on the sabotage side though, NASA would/should know about the swapped discriminator right away [no longer capable of pinging it] so one would think the tech savvy in the scheme should've anticipated this and Samantha disabled the replacement [if given a chance to do so] I mean, it's not like Dev and them might count on the swap happening last minute and the Mars faction [lol] absolutely needed to lock NASA out in the event they regained control and some subsequent burn adjustment fucks up the plan to put Goldilocks into Martian orbit [though it might also fuck up any chance for Earth orbit too, I spose] Edited January 5 by JGP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 8 minutes ago, JGP said: [no longer capable of pinging it] I don't think that will be true. They'll have it set so that it just sends back that it verifies the pings regardless of where they come from, until they decide to block NASA out when it's go-time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Ah, apparently two of the three series are TOS and Phase II. After Phase II ended they made The Wrath of Khan as their first movie. So the third show is most likely TNG, assuming they're not counting the animated series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JGP Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 11 minutes ago, Ran said: I don't think that will be true. They'll have it set so that it just sends back that it verifies the pings regardless of where they come from, until they decide to block NASA out when it's go-time. Perhaps. I'm not a hacker or anything yet I'd think if there's a successful handshake or whatever there's enough of a backdoor and/or access to cause issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Scot A Ellison Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 What about the NK faction? With the NK commander killed… what happens there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 3 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said: What about the NK faction? With the NK commander killed… what happens there? I think that fact is what may escalate things to where Spoiler Someone may be killed in a struggle in the lower level, trying to shut off the rogue gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Relic Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 (edited) There is nothing subtle about this show, plot beats are telegraphed a mile in advance. For instance, the moment you see the ketchup in the previous episode Spoiler you know dude's brains are going to get blown out like splattered tomatoes. In fact, the moment he warns Margo that she's in danger he's dead, but the shot of him walking up to a motel at night in the rain with a bag of fast food in his hand is classic "dead man walking" imagery. So, if there is a S5, either the asteroid stays on mars, or something else comes out of left field to enable further space stuff. And one of the old guard is dead, probably Danielle, but its a 50/50 between her and Ed. Dev might die in order to somehow get Alieda into his spot as head of Tesla Helios. Against my better judgement I like this show. Can't really put a finger as to why, other than i think the overall tory is interesting, even tho the beat-by-beat plot is borderline hackey bullshit. Edited January 6 by Relic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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