Boring.
I really wish I had another first thought besides that, but these episodes reminded me of why I didn’t enjoy the first season all that much. There’s a lot of things that are forgettable. Period.
Ed and Stede’s retconned personalities feel impossibly old to me. I’m not sure I can pin a defining personality trait on either of them to make them appear as actual people anymore, let alone well-written fictional characters. The bar is on the floor. Speaking of, what on earth is going on with Jim and Olu? I guess they’re split– but that’s honestly a terrible decision by the show writers. It comes across as lacking continuity and nuance that held a lot of my favor within season one. Within this time frame I also looked up what Samba Schutte has done in his life— and let me tell you, it summed up a lot of what was wrong with this show for me; there’s so many talented people in the ensemble who get very little screen time– and my question is: Why? Why are you undervaluing the talented cast you have? At most, giving them cameo length appearances where they do little but muck around in a “rude mechanical” Shakespeare way— when they can have more depth than that?
It was a nice Con O’Neill got to sing. Truly, a lovely moment! But was it earned by the episode? No. Did it feel rushed? Yes. Does the corporate metaphor, again, continue to murk everything up in a way that holds little value? Absolutely. Also, the clock-antagonist? Could he have been introduced with a little bit of a better arc? The lack of clear antagonist pathways here this season didn’t feel subversive, only sloppy.
All this is to say, incredible acting really is what’s holding this season together. After the first three episodes, it has felt like quality dropped significantly in…literally everything else. Perhaps the finale, which was a standout last year, will hold more merit.
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