wiseguy233 Reviews

It Follows (2014)

Thoughtful and unique horror movie

[9/10 · 31 October 2023]

There is a scene about 2/3 of the way into the movie when the teenagers are talking about their fear of going into an area that is no longer within their safe, predictable manicured suburbs. They talk about how they used to need permission from their parents to even travel to the border of the city which is portrayed as dark, decaying and ultimately existentially threatening. Their stage of life mirrors this border. They are dependents who are about to be independent. They are secluded in the suburbs and about to be among the diverse society. They have parents who child proof the world but soon their responsibilities will impact them directly and follow them.

Instead of jump cuts you get long takes of the entity lurching toward her. Instead of a main character's personality remaining constant or her getting stronger, jay goes from a normal teenager to showing real trauma. Real trauma makes you zone out. You see safety as camouflaged threat. Life is plodding haunted survival.

The end is ambiguous. She chooses not to hide in her room, to make impossible decisions and opts for connection with someone who believes in and cares for her.

Fear the Walking Dead: Remember What They Took from You (2023) Season 8, Episode 1

It was OK lol

[5/10 · 28 May 2023]

If you're still watching this in season 8 you have made peace with the writing being astonishingly terrible. Bad in a surreal, disorienting way. Bad like a B movie that you laugh at/with for an hour. I judge the show thru a curve: by how poor it is relative to the other episodes in show's history. And it's not the worst Fear The Walking Dead episode.

And yes it's bad. How is an old de-conditioned sick Madison able to swing an axe like Thor and drop two grown men? It's hysterical how certain death is always curtailed by the sudden miraculously timed appearance of an established character. Why tell her you're her mom and dad just to tell her later "we're not your mom and dad." I don't like kid actors because they are usually poor at acting. Not many Bella Ramseys in the world. The girl who plays Wren gives an earnest but flat and contrived performance.

It's the last season. I've decided to appreciate this show as something to put on in the background and spend some final moments with this bonkers world and these lackluster, ridiculous but enduring characters.

The Last of Us: When We Are in Need (2023) Season 1, Episode 8

A zombie show episode about grooming

[9/10 · 8 March 2023]

I think the show plays with our expectations. As the show started it was obvious there was going to be a cannibalism twist. Given that this was already done on another well known zombie show, it felt tired and dated. There are allusions to it but nothing overt early on so it looks like it's building to an "anticlimactic " lame "surprise" later on.

There's also a lower key grooming relationship going on. David seems too interested in Ellie. He agrees "teacher to preacher" are similar in a way that is off. David is always trying to win her trust often deceptively like by giving her penicillin to give to Josh only to order to have Josh murdered.

David identified with cordyceps. He rationalized abuse is love. That he was going to take her over, infect her beyond hope of escape and in this way he thrives. Creepy analogy.

I immediately saw the cannibalism setup. It gave cover to the less obvious grooming that was very present. Well written show.

The Last of Us: Long, Long Time (2023) Season 1, Episode 3

It did have a purpose

[9/10 · 3 February 2023]

It was about not living to survive because that's a form of compromised death. Bill could have barricaded himself in his own isolated corner of the world until he ran the time off the clock and passed away. In essence he prepped his whole life to avoid what danger could come and engaged life by avoiding the fall out of acting on his impulses to live a fulfilling life. The episode is about flourishing and growing among decay. Also it reveals the magnitude of Joel's feelings for Theresa and the basis of potential resentment he has toward Ellie. So the episode establishes a broad thematic framework that deepens the characters and their raises the consequences of their choices in the future.

Servant: Rain (2019) Season 1, Episode 6

Great camera work. Interesting show

[7/10 · 20 January 2023]

Camera angles in this show are always interesting. In the initial scene camera points down and above Dorothy and the mailman. There's a downpour and it evokes a kinetic malevolence but also like they are being watched. It's not from the perspective of either Dorothy or the mailman.

The show is full of off center close up shots that gives you a claustrophobic effect. There's a brilliant close up of the "uncles" hand grabbing Dorothy. His hand is oppressively big and the gesture is aggressive even at first assaulting.

The crib scene threw people off. I don't know why he's sleeping in the crib. Maybe there's an explanation in future episodes but Dorothy's reaction is not out of character. Her entire personality is built on denial. She wants to believe the child is real so much she's able to retrofit reality to make it happen. She feels like setting off the uncle threatens Leanne's stay in that house and a part of her realizes Leanne is necessary for her baby to exist at all.

The story however is too slow and the acting is self conscious. The only one who feels natural in the main cast is the actress who plays Leanne, and she's excellent.

Black Mirror: Metalhead (2017) Season 4, Episode 5

Relevant apocalypse story

[10/10 · 1 January 2023]

If you go to any Boston Dynamics robot skills video you will see this "dog" or ones like it and comments about people's fears that it will some day turn against us and kill us all. So that contemporary nightmare is captured here.

What I love about this episode is for five minutes i had no idea what was happening but then the current world, and the likely historical one appeared instantly. I was not put thru an overlong exposition lecture. We've seen this story before in various forms but this one is ripped right from youtube nightmares so has an added relevance and urgency.

There are quiet scenes where she has a moment of respite, some nostalgia of what life could be, even though there is the decapitated heads a a couple a few feet away. You need the quiet moments to feel the panic fully.

On a more practical level i wonder how this robot could be effective enough to wipe out the world's population. If paint partially blinds them then why not tar? If a broken leg cripples their climbing abilities then why weren't roadside bombs used? They are no match for a fighter jet. If you think about it, they don't pose any existential danger to humanity.

But this story is about out relentless pursuit of technological advances without regard to future consequences . That relentless chase is our undoing in many non literal ways.

Fruitvale Station (2013)

Good movie that I hated watching

[5/10 · 17 August 2022]

It's almost a sin to say this but I was bored. I think I understood the movie. Oscar Grant wasn't a political caricature by either the left or right. He wasn't an angelic victim and he wasn't a gangbanger whose death served the ultimate good. He was a young 22 year old man trying to figure life out. It's implied he's cheated, had been a bad employee, has a bad temper, sold weed. He was flirted with the woman at the fish counter.

He also was the man who loved his daughter. Quit selling weed, or at least is actively trying, Picked his daughter up for school. Loved animals. Treated his mom with adoration and wanted to make her proud for once. He was at a crossroads.

My criticism of the movie is I was so bored i kept looking to see how time it had left until it was over. Yes he's all of us counting down the seconds until new year's. I don't find average people interesting. Yes he had a conversation about marrying his girl and while heartbreaking the conversation was awkward and inert. And I felt chanting "i have a daughter" at the end, tragic and spoke a lot about how the police dehumanized him so he had to humanize himself. But it came off heavy handed to me.

Homeland: Rebel Rebel (2018) Season 7, Episode 2

Just not believable

[5/10 · 1 August 2022]

Ransomware attacks are not usually from the same country. In this case the guy lives within driving distance? I do not believe a CIA agent would click on a 4chan sent files without thinking - even if it's Carrie. Why would the hacker move towards Carrie while he was wounded and pleading for her not to hurt him. He'd run. He'd do anything besides pull in for a hug or whatever feeble gesture he was doing. Does the therapist know Carrie actually worked for the CIA and actually played a role in stopping the attack on the president? Saying Carrie is grandiose and has to be off her meds or the meds stopped working seems to be less obvious than she assumed.

The Handmaid's Tale: Household (2019) Season 3, Episode 6

Hopeless

[7/10 · 30 March 2022]

What I do appreciate about this show is it's unapologetic numbingly boring yet brilliant way it expresses itself. People move slowly like the entire world is seen thru someone's depressed defeated eyes. The show will pause, ruminate on sad, brutal images that are searing and deflating. The images sometimes blur out everything but the vivid garment color of individuals or castes. This expresses how unpopulated and monotonous their world must seem. It's a mute isolated hellscape.

I do not believe anyone is acting out of character. Aunt Lydia has shown empathy for the handmaids before. She seems real but complex and unpredictable which makes her interesting. Nick my be working both sides so maybe he helped arrange June's escape for their meeting.

What I'm beginning to believe is this show is about learning to be hopeless. It's about what it feels like to have a strong spirit that bends gradually , doesn't snap but is disfigured and broken nevertheless. There are closeups of June's face when she's in anguish. There are also closeups of her small brave victorious smiles when she believes she on a path to get justice and her anguish will be catalyst for revenge. As each flicker of revolution dies without impact and her suffering progresses - hope may become a burden. She may find more solace in routine and deference.

Fear the Walking Dead: Till Death (2021) Season 7, Episode 5

Maybe the worst show in the history of TV

[1/10 · 24 December 2021]

Good actors cannot not save a absurd script. Do the writers care anymore? The genius solution behind her escape from Victor's lair is phone books? How would phone books help her get thru dense layers of walkers anyway? The sheer determined weight of walkers would knock her down and trample her to death.

Better kill her before she tells anyone about her brilliant phone book theorem! Or maybe just throw out all the phone books.

At one point two women are holding a door pressed on by a hundred zombies while giving another bland emoting confessional to each other. And for the hundredth time we have to hear about how dwight and his girl found each other. Neither one of them are memorable beyond dwight's scars. And I'm also immensely tired of the mysterious answer to evading zombies always being to cover yourself in zombie blood. That's not a revelation. It's a common variable of their world. The end fight scene with the song coming from nowhere was surreal. It's boring and corny and dumb. These are prolific actors and I feel humiliated for them.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Great but not a perfect film

[9/10 · 20 December 2021]

I know Kubrick cast cruise and Kidman because they were in the tumultuous end stage of their marriage. That amount of spite and complex bitterness and affection takes years to develop. However, Cruise is wrong for the part. Cruise is synonymous with action, boldness, self determination. Cruise running from a lumpy old man in a trench coat who is stalking him doesn't feel authentic. Cruise cannot convincingly portray a reserved over-civilized man unable to assert himself physically or verbally. You could say it works cause it signifies the duality we exist in but it made me unable to connect to the movie.

There is a laconic tempo, people walking around dazed. The camera is at awkward distant angles. It's impersonal and off-putting. That's intentional. He's partly distracted by his wife's near infidelity for most the film and the movie is about people denying their humanity and living life disconnected from their primal real selves.

Beautiful scene at the end when he sees the mask on the pillow. It symbolizes the secret that will always be between them. He knows he has to confess to her all of his near assaults on the marriage. It ends up bringing them closer. They are two people. Not a model couple pretending to be the human ideal.

The Crown: Favourites (2020) Season 4, Episode 4

The Queen doesn't like any of them

[9/10 · 7 November 2021]

The Queen has maternal love for them all but there are moments when her revulsion toward them is apparent. When she's having lunch with Edward and he tells a joke about eating so much fish he wonders they don't have gills. She not only doesn't laugh but looks tortured by the cheese and his ringing fake laugh. She also doesn't like how he's turned into a cold authoritarian. He's not embraceable.

Ann is emotional. She's bleating on about her despair about nothing. Yes there is an oppressiveness with being in the royal family but recklessness and drama is not relatable for the Queen Elizabeth. They are different and again there's an intimacy gap.

Yes Phillip believes Andrew is her favorite but she looks like she wants to walk out. She's not just recoiling because it's not natural for her to talk about sex with her son but Phillip is callous to humane boundaries. He doesn't have empathy for anyone not even his mom who he is torturing at the moment. Would he kill Charles and his children. Who knows? Everything is good fun and can be re-framed as art or modernization.

I thought Charles was written poorly until I realized the dialogue isn't ridiculous, pompous and superficial - Charles is. And she can barely look at him. She laughs, scold, mocks him for his dry self absorption. He's sullen, cold and a walking satire of English pretension. I don't like Charles but when she demanded they get on with her lunch because she needs to get back- I felt bad for him. He's not likable. Even his mother needs distance from him and Queen Elizabeth relates to Diane who is hiding from him.

Band of Brothers: Currahee (2001) Season 1, Episode 1

Capt. Sobel

[10/10 · 5 October 2021]

Great episode.

Quick defense of Capt. Sobel. I don't see him as a coward. You're talking about a man who desperately wanted to fight and went into a depression when that possibility was taken away. Yes he was terrified of diving and nervous in the field but did it anyway.

He was portrayed as petty and duplicitous. There's no argument that he's not an admirable or likable person however Easy Company ended up being a superior fighting force because his talent was training men for battle not being part of one.

Succession: Pre-Nuptial (2018) Season 1, Episode 9

I hate these people but the show is top tier

[10/10 · 3 October 2021]

Did you ever have a comeback that was so perfect that you wish more than anything you could go back in time just to say it? That is every line in this show. The dialogue is isn't just sharp- every line is ideal. It would be a nightmare if people actually talked with such precision and hilarious articulate gravitas.

I want to hate the show because these people are repulsive. Only the top .000001 get the distance from consequences and need for empathy to become this breezily sociopathic and cruel. But even these obscenely shallow people are evocative because they impact us all.

Shiv looks amazing. Tom's conflict hearing that shiv i cheating on him is poignant. He wants to be in that world more than he wants her but he does love her.

It's hard to watch a show when everyone in it deserves nothing but disdain but the writing is so elevated that every line is worth paying close attention to.

Deadwood: Boy-the-Earth-Talks-To (2005) Season 2, Episode 12

Pretentious

[3/10 · 1 August 2021]

I'd be more predisposed to like this show more if the fans of it didn't sound like they weren't praising themselves for liking this show. It's fine. The dialogue is not Shakespeare. It's stylized, often to ridiculous lengths. Sometimes it's exquisite and sometimes unnecessary and bizarrely stilted. And Milch is not funny. Every show there are at least five thudding attempts at humor. You have a lot interesting themes. The destructive force of capitalism. The chaotic and merciless nature of death. The dehumanizing structure that civilization imposes on groups. There's nothing profound about a suicide at a wedding. Sorry, It also wasn't subtle. The camera held the shot for a decent duration.

I was not entertained. Politicking and squabbling over land rights is not scintillating story telling material.

House of Cards: Chapter 67 (2018) Season 6, Episode 2

Substandard, tacky and thoughtless

[2/10 · 19 May 2021]

Where is the secret service? How are people digging up ex presidents, breaking into the White House or their homes? How is Claire able to go alone into a town that was deemed toxic? Why is everything telegraphed. Claire's clapback line in the bathroom "are you sleeping with your brother" line I saw a mile away and hoped they would not go down that cheap predictable path. What's with the ballet in the bathroom? Is this them saying women are moronically competitive just like men? Everyone is slinking around theatrically evil and saying lines like they are the ultimate comebacks but there's no substance to anything.

I know this season happened in the middle of the "me too" movement" but please please let the moment with the African American judge have a purpose beyond virtue signaling. I haven't seen the rest of the season but please don't make "the days of middle aged white men are over" be a desperate applause line. Claire talking to the camera make me miss Frank. She comes off self conscious and like a second rate Frank Underwood.

I don't know what the Shepard Freedom Foundation really is. They just are a generic evil wanna be oligarchs. Real evil doesn't constantly announce their evilness with every movement. The son is so explicitly smarmy and deplorable it's transparently manipulative and makes me disconnect. Why does everyone scream at Claire and why does she take it? That's not the Claire I've known. She's contained but not someone who lets anyone cross or demean her. Am I really supposed to get worked up about a deregulation bill? Would Claire let any person get away with asking her if she needs help signing the bill and her only feeble comeback is be sure to put the ring back on my my dead husband who you grave robbed?

I put it off for years but I'm determined to finish this series. It's worse than I heard it was going to be.

Fear the Walking Dead: The Door (2021) Season 6, Episode 8

He asked to be let out of his contract

[10/10 · 14 May 2021]

Stop lashing out at the writers and show for killing him off, when he wanted out. And this episode went from a lot of blathering, emoting and predictable contrive noisy drama to a poignant goodbye to very likable quiet hero. He was one of the last characters I liked and it's no accident all of the surprisingly good episodes featured him. Alicia is the only character I like now.

Game of Thrones: The Long Night (2019) Season 8, Episode 3

It's good if you lower expectations

[8/10 · 21 April 2021]

I'll start of with some of the flaws.

Sending your strongest battlefield force headfirst into an enemy you can not even see is an insane and dumb tactic. The horses are your mobile force that should be used to gather intel or attack in strategic ways

Putting Jon on the dragon beside Daenerys shows their priority was to appeal to the demo that watched for a contrived silly romance and not the common sense necessities of the story or battle. He's the leader who has fought the dead before. It's not time to take the dragon out for a spin and miss 90 percent of the battle. It nearly cowardly to let your friends down there to die. Was he ever useful on his dragon ride?

The dragon fight was uneventful and boring. It was like glorified bumper cars.

Arya's weapon. There are only 6 episodes this season . They spent time on Arya's obsession to get her weapon made. She loses it in battle almost immediately. It did not have a major impact on the fight.

Jon and Daenerys being surrounded by the dead and not being killed. They are the king and queen. The night king would have had them targeted by the dead.

The plot cliche of making an enemy too strong to defeat but killing one person or find the one flaw that will magically kill them all at once. It's weird that i just got done watching the finale of Picard when this lazy trope was used too. And it was telegraphed in the last GOT episode. Anyone who has watched any TV knew the entire army of the dead would die at once when the Night King was brought to Bran. Bran was reduced to a piece of cheese and the Night King to a dumb rat

I could go on with more flaws and they would have mattered to me more if i was not grading on the curve of downgraded expectations. I knew years ago the quality was going to plummet once they were out of source material. So I watched and pushed away the aspects that made no sense and appreciated what the show did offer. I was glued to the longest battle ever on screen. I loved that it was filmed in the dark which added to the claustrophobic, oppressive gloom of the fight. I've never seen a fight this hopeless and terrifying. Seeing Sandor Clegane cower in terror hit me. Bravery is easier when there's hope. He always had the advantage of being bigger and more skilled. Fighting when you absolutely know you're going to die requires a whole other level of courage. I love the parallels of Arya sneaking around the castle like she snuck around King's Landing in the first season. Bran is all knowing and all seeing so him parking himself in the spot he knew would trigger the end of the fight made sense, although it was lazy writing. I was exhausted after this episode and there were scenes that I'll never forget. The Dothraki horde's lights going out was one of the best visuals I've ever seen. Yes the attack made no sense but that fire being extinguished was death quickly snuffing out the life of warriors who we have grown to respect for years. Theon was given one of the best redemption arcs in TV history. 5 major characters died. More should have died but that's still enough to take in for me.

This episode was trashed. I bet most of the people who are critical of the episode were thoroughly entertained the entire time and then hated it when they later analyzed it. I was immersed, entertained and choose to not negate all its positives just because it did not reach the standards we all knew it had no chance of meeting.

Penny Dreadful: Resurrection (2014) Season 1, Episode 3

A brilliant show

[8/10 · 14 March 2021]

The dialogue is exceptionally good. It's poetic and ornate but it also serves a purpose. I love listening to them talk. Quotes like "We have been brutalized with loss. It has made us brutal in return." It's a gem of a line but also serves narrative exposition -there is not true good or evil here only purpose.

People complain that they are acting too serious or dramatic. This is a British period piece. It's based of gothic Victorian 19th century literature and is not modernizing it to assuage manic American attention spans.

You go to any episode of any show that has a few reviews on IMDB and someone will complain that show is boring. Boring is the most subjective opinion. A slow pace for some can be reflective and others boring. A fast pace can be overused action tropes and for others exciting. Boring or interesting can be the difference between watching it after taking too much caffeine or too little.

It's a immensely complex to weave together this many famous story lines and come up with a new cohesive narrative. They are succeeding. And that's not negated just because you find victor frankenstien to be too young or some other detail you feel the need to over-focus on.

It's not a 10 because I get all the rest of their motives but Ethan's is unclear. The rest have been relentlessly traumatized. Would Ethan put himself thru this for money? His back story is likely not fully told but I didn't buy his motivation in this episode. He has a sick girlfriend who he just met who needs medicine. That's not enough.

The Punisher: Flustercluck (2019) Season 2, Episode 9

Not great

[6/10 · 19 February 2021]

The cast is great and unlike most people, i like Amy. She has good chemistry with Frank and is there to remind him of his daughter and his humanity.

There are two major issues with this season. The dialogue is an almost comical series of confessions. The tone of these conversations are numbingly grim. The last thing this show needed is a therapist to give more opportunities to share some tortured personal histories.

Villains in "super hero" shows/movies are as important as the hero. Hating or fearing them is what gives the plot suspense. Billy Russo already lost his battle against the punisher and this time he can't totally remember who he is. Pilgram is menacing but what different challenge does he actual give Frank? He's another thug. Two non-threatening villains do not make up for one worthy adversary

Jon Bernthal's portrayal of The Punisher is the reason to watch this. You get a character perfectly brought to life and some cheap action.

Star Trek: Picard: The End Is the Beginning (2020) Season 1, Episode 3

This was bad

[1/10 · 20 January 2021]

It's a series of cliches. Rafi protests going on the mission but we all know she eventually will for some reason decide to go. Why spend so much time with the predictable overheated, overacted conflict? The pilot is the 4th rate Hans Solo, a hotheaded, rebellious, adrenaline addicted pugnacious mercenary. It's a stock character. I'm sick of Picard musing about how he's not fulfilled with retirement and he belongs in space. He's said this every episode. Of course there's a moment when someone off screen shoots a bad guy to save the day. Whole scenes are filled with dry exhausting redundant exposition. Picard repeats old catch phrases and smiles knowingly. 3 geezers fights off 10 highly trained young assassins. The acting is terrible. Raffi is particularly bad and Patrick Stewart sounds weak as he gasps out his lines. There's no science fiction here. It's a soap opera. I liked the first episode and thought the second one was a step down but had its moments. This one had no redeemable moments and at various times made me reconsider watching the series at all.

Hannah Gadsby: Nanette (2018 TV Special)

Great speech but below average comedy

[5/10 · 12 September 2020]

It's a brilliant and poignant ted talk but a below average stand up comedy. I'm watching this in 2020, the pandemic year, so I'm in real need of some laughs. There are a a lot of moments when you know just by listening and watching her that you are involved in a profound method of forced empathy. You're feeling a fraction of what she's experienced her whole life, if you are capable of not being defensive. And actually the art history as interesting. But this is on every top list as netflix's best stand up comedy and there are very few laughs. She even says many times she's not doing comedy anymore. You come away feeling sad and 2020 has given me enough to feel sad about.

War of the Worlds (2005)

A migraine

[2/10 · 6 August 2020]

Dakota Fanning's performance is historically annoying. At least 20 minutes of the movie is just her screaming as hard as she can. For a few minutes she is screeching because the car is going too fast and then does a cutesy safe place coping mechanism that she never does again in the movie despite relentless chaos and loss. The son mesmerized by the war repeatedly shuffles away from his family as they scream compulsively for for him to come back. That's really the whole movie. Make as much nose as you can, empty panic, babbling, pantomime hysteria then end it suddenly. It also makes no sense. The aliens are there to drink us, use us as fertilizer but they zap and vaporize much of the population away??? The aliens spent a hundred years planning this but never realized we are toxic to digest? It's a movie made to enjoy not to impart any message or evoke deep emotion and this was a chore to sit thru.

Us (II) (2019)

This is not a good movie

[2/10 · 8 June 2020]

Peele cares more about piling on bread crumbs and extraneous symbolism than making a cohesive story. "Get Out" was great because it worked on many levels: social commentary, impactful, precise symbolism or just a basic horror flick. This movie makes no literal sense. Yes, it's a landfill of symbolism about consumer culture. I don't care about bible verse bread crumbs nor various potential meanings of rabbits. I want to watch a movie not google search for clues to a puzzle. The symbolism is contrived and overdone. The story makes no sense. How can doppelgangers, the tethered, commit mass slaughter with scissors??? Americans have guns. What's with the hands across American thing? The military would bomb them once they saw them as a threat. Why did she just live in the tunnels when there was a gateway outside? Why didn't they at least go thru the gateway to get some food? Why does she decide to go to Mexico when she knows her tethered thinks like her? Let her husband make the decision since his double was dead. Or maybe use a flicker of intelligence and do it by chance. Pick five options and pull them out of a hat.

The Handmaid's Tale: Holly (2018) Season 2, Episode 11

I hate this show

[1/10 · 12 May 2020]

I loved season one and I'll endure the rest of this season's slog but then I'm done. This is mediocre art and obnoxiously bad entertainment. I give characters a lot of room for their decision making. If a show is intelligently written- then it's on me to figure out what motivated them to make a decision that seemingly makes no sense and usually i uncover a profound catalyst for their behavior. June not shooting the Waterfords makes no sense. At that point in the story she's determined to escape. The Waterfords leaving alive makes that nearly impossible. She also was just raped by both of them. She's not incapable of murder after all they put her thru. I don't buy it. Also this show is trying to mask it's lack of anything new to say and a dearth of plot with slow motion long takes and mind-numbing insipid close ups of her distraught anguished face. I don't want to see her lying on a bed of menstrual blood for 3 minutes. I don't want to see her howling in pain ON TWO TIMELINES for 5 minutes while gives birth. I get it. She's having a lonely painful birth compared to an earlier time. Everything is heavy handed. Everything is an over dramatic and anguished visual or extended scene cause they really have nothing to say except this woman is sad and being tortured. Got it. It's a a boring hassle of a show