boring doring goring schmoring. An hour out of my life that i will never get back!
Flash Forward: "137 Sekunden" 10/8 - Grading & Discussion
- Thread starter Aragorn
- Start date
Average
Easily the worst episode so far, but still moderately interesting.
Easily the worst episode so far, but still moderately interesting.
But other than that, did you like it?
The wifey and I are watching it, and I must say, I thought the first one was okay and they've been getting worse every episode. She likes it more than I do but feeling the same downward trajectory.
Great premise, but...
The episode raised some interesting points, abut I just couldn't get over bizarro Germany, where prisons suddenly look like US prisons, guards wear machine guns, prisoners wear uniform prisoner's garb and people talk like no one would in real life.
So they made up this huge prison near Munich with a weird name. Fine, but then please don't pretend it's real by stating that Sophie Scholl died there. Sophie Scholl was executed at Stadelheim in Munich, a prison that's still in use and rather well known.
And really, if all you can come up with are clichés, why even use another country in your story? Nazis, Munich and beer mugs - how original.
The whole Nazi story was quite implausible. Didn't anyone else notice the dead crows after waking up? And how did Geyer know Mark's name? Also, I find it hard to believe Geyer would be set free just like that (or at all, really), only because some FBI dude demands it. Last time I checked we were still a fucking Rechtsstaat. It's also highly unlikely that there was nothing they could do after it became apparent Mark got played (and fell for it like a bloody amateur).
So they made up this huge prison near Munich with a weird name. Fine, but then please don't pretend it's real by stating that Sophie Scholl died there. Sophie Scholl was executed at Stadelheim in Munich, a prison that's still in use and rather well known.
And really, if all you can come up with are clichés, why even use another country in your story? Nazis, Munich and beer mugs - how original.
The whole Nazi story was quite implausible. Didn't anyone else notice the dead crows after waking up? And how did Geyer know Mark's name? Also, I find it hard to believe Geyer would be set free just like that (or at all, really), only because some FBI dude demands it. Last time I checked we were still a fucking Rechtsstaat. It's also highly unlikely that there was nothing they could do after it became apparent Mark got played (and fell for it like a bloody amateur).
Above Average. Still a well structured mystery and less domestic angst this time, but instead we gpt a whole lot of overwrought moralistic yammering of the intensely cliched variety that doesn't pass the smell test. In a global emergency, would the FBI and their German counterparts really be sniping at each other over some shit that happened long before any of em were born?
The scene with the devastated (Seattle?) airport was very effective and creepy but it does seem pretty far-fetched that any airline would resume operations before clearing the wrecks away. What PR genius thought of that stunt?
But kudos to whoever did the voice acting for the pilot. He put juuuust enough edge into his voice that I knew exactly what was happening - first flight after the disaster - before the script made it apparent.
The guy with the "dead" daughter - why did he trust the military would have the right DNA on file? He could have double-checked with his own DNA and as her father, been able to tell whether the person in the grave could have been his child. A ringer wouldn't pass the test. I have a hunch the miltary's DNA records were switched on purpose and the other shoe is still to drop.
Dead crows. Oh come on. If there was a sudden crash in crow populations just exactly on Blackout Day, every newspaper, cable news outlet and blogger on earth would already be all over that story because the people who monitor crow populations could not possibly keep it to themselves while everyone on the planet is freaking out trying to come up with explanations. The friggen crows would be the biggest news story since Michael Jackson croaked. Bigger. Biggest story in human history. Jesus Christ would have to put in an appearance for any story to be bigger.
The scene with the devastated (Seattle?) airport was very effective and creepy but it does seem pretty far-fetched that any airline would resume operations before clearing the wrecks away. What PR genius thought of that stunt?
But kudos to whoever did the voice acting for the pilot. He put juuuust enough edge into his voice that I knew exactly what was happening - first flight after the disaster - before the script made it apparent.The guy with the "dead" daughter - why did he trust the military would have the right DNA on file? He could have double-checked with his own DNA and as her father, been able to tell whether the person in the grave could have been his child. A ringer wouldn't pass the test. I have a hunch the miltary's DNA records were switched on purpose and the other shoe is still to drop.
Dead crows. Oh come on. If there was a sudden crash in crow populations just exactly on Blackout Day, every newspaper, cable news outlet and blogger on earth would already be all over that story because the people who monitor crow populations could not possibly keep it to themselves while everyone on the planet is freaking out trying to come up with explanations. The friggen crows would be the biggest news story since Michael Jackson croaked. Bigger. Biggest story in human history. Jesus Christ would have to put in an appearance for any story to be bigger.
Yeah wtf is the CIA for anyway.
I don't get Demetri's whole problem. If he died on a certain day, that's a big problem. An asteroid could fall on him. A blood vessel could burst in his brain. Accidental death is impossible to avoid, but now he's in luck - he knows he's being murdered, specifically via bullets to the torso. That's great news, much easier to avoid! Just avoid other people - you can't be murdered without one of them around.
First off, change the stupid wedding date. Elope immediately to Vegas. Then rent a boat for just him and wifey (assuming he trusts wifey not to murder him) for just before D-Day and take off sailing across the Pacific on a random course. Who the hell is going to be able to find him?
Or just rent a bank vault for the day and lock himself in.
Or learn to fly and take off by himself in his own plane. He knows he isn't going to be murdered via anti-aircraft missile shooting him down. Nobody can get close enough to fire a bullet at him. He's perfectly safe.
Or maybe he's being lied to. It's hilarious how gullible everyone is about the flash forwards. It's a great way to manipulate people that my current namesake, Dr. Mabuse, would love to indulge in. At least this episode kind of touched on this topic, albeit half-heartedly. And for all its two-dimensionalty, the German agent raised the point of predestination paradox. Too bad Marc won't listen and happily continue on this path.
That would have been a much more interesting twist. Janis was already pissed off at the Nazi. Have her set up that accident...
Average
There were some good things to like, but this was the worst episode of the season so far. The Nazi storyline went pretty much nowhere other than the whole cliche right/wrong debate, and all the tension that was built in the second episode (With D. Gibbons and Suspect 0) pretty much went away in this one. I also agree with someone who said there are too many characters in this show. Last night just felt a bit too unfocused with useless plotlines and stuff like that. Also, they brought up the whole animal thing with the crows, but if there was one thing I remember that was significant in the plot was the Kangaroo in LA. Why hasn't that been brought up again?
There were some good things to like, but this was the worst episode of the season so far. The Nazi storyline went pretty much nowhere other than the whole cliche right/wrong debate, and all the tension that was built in the second episode (With D. Gibbons and Suspect 0) pretty much went away in this one. I also agree with someone who said there are too many characters in this show. Last night just felt a bit too unfocused with useless plotlines and stuff like that. Also, they brought up the whole animal thing with the crows, but if there was one thing I remember that was significant in the plot was the Kangaroo in LA. Why hasn't that been brought up again?
I gave this one a "below average".
I really enjoyed the first two episodes, but this one was just slow and plodding, and felt like filler. As has been mentioned, there was barely even mention of D. Gibbons or Suspect Zero. I realize the writers were trying to introduce new pieces of the puzzle, but ignoring the existing ones after building them up so well in the first two episodes felt too abrupt for me.
I'm sure the 137 seconds and the crows will fit into the main story somehow, but the way it was presented just wasn't that interesting, similar to the filler episodes Lost had before that show was given a confirmed end date. Hopefully this is an anomaly and not a sign of things to come.
I really enjoyed the first two episodes, but this one was just slow and plodding, and felt like filler. As has been mentioned, there was barely even mention of D. Gibbons or Suspect Zero. I realize the writers were trying to introduce new pieces of the puzzle, but ignoring the existing ones after building them up so well in the first two episodes felt too abrupt for me.
I'm sure the 137 seconds and the crows will fit into the main story somehow, but the way it was presented just wasn't that interesting, similar to the filler episodes Lost had before that show was given a confirmed end date. Hopefully this is an anomaly and not a sign of things to come.
The Nazi was good, but the 'good' german was a waste as all germans are evil it is a turn-off when they try to lamely show a 'good german'
Also this guy must have been a huge war criminal since he was 21 years old when the war ended. He must have been a huge decision maker in the hierarchy.
I wish they had dragged in a 96 year old nazi for the female character to spew her hatred at---because they really went weak on how much she hated nazis.
Other than that they are really moving this thing along at a fast pace. I can hardly follow all the revelations---the crow thing was stunning. I though they'd waste a huge chunk of episode on a pojntless exercise of going to Germany, but that whole 'crow' thing made the episode really worthwhile.
I mean they learned there had been another 'crow die off' and mass fainting which they would have never learned of in any other way than spending a whole episode on the Nazi.
Also this guy must have been a huge war criminal since he was 21 years old when the war ended. He must have been a huge decision maker in the hierarchy.
I wish they had dragged in a 96 year old nazi for the female character to spew her hatred at---because they really went weak on how much she hated nazis.
Other than that they are really moving this thing along at a fast pace. I can hardly follow all the revelations---the crow thing was stunning. I though they'd waste a huge chunk of episode on a pojntless exercise of going to Germany, but that whole 'crow' thing made the episode really worthwhile.
I mean they learned there had been another 'crow die off' and mass fainting which they would have never learned of in any other way than spending a whole episode on the Nazi.
The bigger issue is that he apparently hasn't yet bothered to compare the flash-forwards of people like the terminally ill who can expect to be dead in six months to the flash-forwards of people who were asleep.
Or do it the other way around: find out who saw nothing and then look at who they are. If there's an unusually high percentage of terminally ill people, the extremely elderly, people with know health problems, people on death row, and people in groups with a high death rate (drug dealers, gang members, active military personnel) then Demitri's got a problem. If the population seems random, he should stop stressing out.
Until he does that little thing, he really has no way to interpret his own flash-forward or his financee's - maybe his brain is unusual and the flash-forward just didn't "work" for him, and he's upsetting himself over nothing, and the fiancee is telling the truth.
Why not just put the whole predestination notion to an immediate test by eloping to Vegas? That doesn't mean they won't later go to Hawaii for a formal wedding, but at least it's an attempt to take control of his life. Or bust the pothead guy and see what happens with that. Try everything and anything to subvert the future.
This is like the issue of whether higher-intelligence primates were affected - something these people should have thought to address immediately before traipsing all over the globe to talk to Nazi's. Two really big fat logical holes in the story so far.
Maybe it escaped from the zoo while the keeper who was cleaning its cage was knocked out. That would imply that kangaroos at least weren't affected but since nobody has said anything about mass animal deaths, I assume at least the lower-intelligence animals were unaffected. The real question is whether animals with some degree of self-awareness or understanding of the concept of "the future" were affected too - primates and cetaceans.
One interesting thing about crows is that they're pretty intelligent by bird standards. If ravens and parrots (also highly intelligent) were also affected, and died presumably by being knocked out while flying and then falling to their deaths, that could be significant. But also silly - the more animals were affected, the more implausible it is that lots of people didn't notice it immediately. Why weren't there dead crows all over the streets all over the planet? I live in San Francisco and there's a resident pair of crows that live in the trees on my street. Crows aren't some sort of incredibly rare creature.
You're raising excellent points, Temis. I hadn't even thought about the animal angle.
I think the writers are a bit indecisive concerning Demetri, whether he's in denial about the flash forwards or believes they really show the future. I think that's why his actions don't add up. But it's only the third episode, so maybe he'll do the things you mentioned soon.
Not really. I think they tried for a figure like John Demjanjuk, who's lived in the USA for a long time and was only prosecuted for what he did a few years prior to the episode. That's why he speaks English so well and refers to the US as its home.
They could have - and should have - learned of the crow thing in various other ways. A lot of people should have noticed the dead crows. It's actually quite implausible that only an old Nazi fart should have noticed.
I think the writers are a bit indecisive concerning Demetri, whether he's in denial about the flash forwards or believes they really show the future. I think that's why his actions don't add up. But it's only the third episode, so maybe he'll do the things you mentioned soon.
Not really. I think they tried for a figure like John Demjanjuk, who's lived in the USA for a long time and was only prosecuted for what he did a few years prior to the episode. That's why he speaks English so well and refers to the US as its home.
They could have - and should have - learned of the crow thing in various other ways. A lot of people should have noticed the dead crows. It's actually quite implausible that only an old Nazi fart should have noticed.
And there must be a lot of situations that are the reverse of the young intern: People who saw something in the future that pushed them over the edge to suicide. Somebody should be researching suicide notes that reference bad visions.
The main character immediately started recreating the pin-up board from his vision. The first thing I would have done is asked for a change of office.
But it's impossible for people to see bad visions that make them commit suicide because then they wouldn't be alive to see the bad visions!
That would be an interesting story: people who try to kill themselves but for various reasons don't succeed.
^^ Indeed.
Exactly. This would be evidence that the visions are just "suggestions" of the future.
But it's impossible for people to see bad visions that make them commit suicide because then they wouldn't be alive to see the bad visions!
