alchemicink

This week: failures! Many characters going through it right now 😩

Title quote comes from Zeztz this time.

Mild spoilers, as always, below:

Zeztz (episode 21)

After 21 episodes, Baku fails one of his missions. And he fails hard. There were so many kids swallowed by the nightmare, and then so many people were being affected out in the real world too.

It's a surprisingly dark turn of events to follow such a fun dream beforehand. (Nem even got to help this time, which was great! Until, of course, things went off the rails.)

Presumably, Baku will find a way to save the kids somehow, but I'm definitely interested in seeing how the ramifications of this all play out. It's about time that we get some explanations on what The Lady is trying to do, and now would be the perfect opportunity while the real world is being effected.

In other plots, Nox continues to fight against 5 and 6. But as I said last week, until we understand everyone's motivations, this fight isn't holding much of my attention. (Also, I suspect they'll kill off Kureha/6 in the next episode, so I'm also kinda preemptively mad about that.)

Miss Scarlet (season 6, episode 5)

I actually enjoyed this episode, even if I figured out the twist around halfway through. The plot was set up different than most episodes so it felt like a bit of fresh air.

Instead of investigating a crime, the focus was on the crew of Scotland Yard, who put the building in lockdown to keep a high-profile criminal from escaping overnight. But the big problem is that they're understaffed and the phone lines are down. It was just a lot of fun to watch, especially as the idea of a traitor on the inside came to light and suspicions ran high.

It gave new character George Willows a chance to finally shine, though I hate that they waited so late in the season to do it. (But he's unfortunately still uninteresting to me compared to Fitzroy and Phelps). And his coworker/girlfriend Izzy got some spotlight too... but considering what was revealed, I really wish we'd seen more of her throughout the season beforehand. I found myself not caring much about her or her relationship with Willows.

And, of course, without Eliza around to take part in the action, we get more of Inspector Blake's point of view, and how he's feeling about his break with Eliza. I was annoyed by the turn of events last week, but in light of this episode, it's good he had some time to think things over. It gave him more perspective on the matter.

So, all in all, an entertaining episode! It's just too bad that it took episode 5 out of 6 to get there.

Starfleet Academy (episode 6)

I'm in the minority here, but I didn't really like this episode. But it's not because of the downer ending; I think the consequences of the end will be interesting to explore in the next few episodes (presumably).

I suppose I wanted more of an ensemble episode when it was really more focused on a few characters (Ake, Bracka, Caleb, and Tarima). And I dislike when shows kill off a character simply to "raise the stakes." It always feels like lazy writing to me.

But, you can't write a review on what you wished happened. You gotta focus on what actually happened onscreen. So with that in mind, I did enjoy a few things:

Ake and Bracka's back-and-forth was entertaining to watch. You can tell Paul Giamatti is having so much fun in his role. They have been playing metaphorical chess the whole time, and I am excited to see where it goes in future episodes. (When Ake wins, it'll be very satisfying)

And I liked that this almost was a focus episode for Tarima, who has been the least developed so far. We learn a bit about her past and what she can do. (I love that Ocam is such a supportive brother too, by the way!) I don't really like that her whole motivations center on her romance with Caleb but... it is what it is, I suppose.

And I did really enjoy the worldbuilding in this episode. As someone who didn't watch Discovery, I really enjoy learning more and more about the state of things in the 32nd century. It's so different than what was happening in 90s Trek.

I'm still very much enjoying this series, despite my feelings about this episode. I am interested to see the fallout next week.

***

Also, I watched the final episode of Gozyuger this week, so here are a few bonus thoughts on the series overall. (They are not very nice, tbh. You have been warned)

It's really a shame Gozyuger went off the rails when it had such a promising solid start.

Setting aside the awful mess with Maya (she didn't deserve that) and how the production never fully recovered afterwards, the writing in the show just got... bad. About halfway through, they started cramming about three episodes worth of plot into each episode, making it so hard to care about anything happening onscreen. We jumped from one thing to another and then another way too fast to really process. I think the writers would have benefited from cutting some of their ideas to better develop others.

By the end of the series, I was left feeling like I still didn't understand the lore of the universe. And while I love all the characters, some of their plot arcs and conclusions also felt weird.

It's just annoying all around.

I keep thinking to myself that I wanna do a full Gozyuger rewrite that would be better than the mess we got, but thankfully I know I won't have the patience to write a longfic for it.