Inhumans: Make Way for...Medusa
October 14, 2017 6:13 AM - Season 1, Episode 4 - Subscribe
The search for Black Bolt continues on Earth. Meanwhile, Maximus makes bold moves to cement his status as the new ruler of Attilan.
None of these plotlines make the least sense.
Why is Karnak getting naked with the beach girl drug dealer? Sure, I understand the appeal, and he was the skeezy one earlier, but I thought the concussion messed with his powers, not his memory. He does still remember his family in danger, right? Gorgon doesn't seem to have any sort of plan, and Bolt's plan is little more than "wait for everyone to find me". What exactly was Medusa thinking, taking the laptop? It showed BB was in the middle of nothing, somewhere too far to walk. So why was she consulting it like it was giving constant location updates? That helicopter landing pad wasn't moving. (And seriously, her parents got really lucky when they named her. I mean, imagine if terrigenesis had given her teleportation or the ability to grow flowers instead of the wavy hair.)
Crystal... ugh. So her escape plan was to go to the council chamber, grab Lockjaw, and teleport away, but she couldn't do that because Lockjaw wasn't there, so she used her powers to overcome the guards and go to Lockjaw and teleport away. That means she could 1) use her powers at any time, 2) was strong enough to overcome any number of guards (presuming the most heavily guarded area would be council), and 3) knew where Lockjaw was kept the whole time.
But the most baffling part is Attilan. Are there ANY inhuman royalists who support BB, working against Maximus? Does anybody want to see them restored to the throne? Any why don't any of the groups Maximus has killed have any powers they can use to defend themselves? It really seems like inhuman society is going to be vastly improved once Maximus's murderous rampages remove the last of the dictatorial regime, so maybe they're all good with it.
This show really has given me no reason to root for the overprivileged pricks who are supposed to be the heroes.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 4:46 AM on October 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
Why is Karnak getting naked with the beach girl drug dealer? Sure, I understand the appeal, and he was the skeezy one earlier, but I thought the concussion messed with his powers, not his memory. He does still remember his family in danger, right? Gorgon doesn't seem to have any sort of plan, and Bolt's plan is little more than "wait for everyone to find me". What exactly was Medusa thinking, taking the laptop? It showed BB was in the middle of nothing, somewhere too far to walk. So why was she consulting it like it was giving constant location updates? That helicopter landing pad wasn't moving. (And seriously, her parents got really lucky when they named her. I mean, imagine if terrigenesis had given her teleportation or the ability to grow flowers instead of the wavy hair.)
Crystal... ugh. So her escape plan was to go to the council chamber, grab Lockjaw, and teleport away, but she couldn't do that because Lockjaw wasn't there, so she used her powers to overcome the guards and go to Lockjaw and teleport away. That means she could 1) use her powers at any time, 2) was strong enough to overcome any number of guards (presuming the most heavily guarded area would be council), and 3) knew where Lockjaw was kept the whole time.
But the most baffling part is Attilan. Are there ANY inhuman royalists who support BB, working against Maximus? Does anybody want to see them restored to the throne? Any why don't any of the groups Maximus has killed have any powers they can use to defend themselves? It really seems like inhuman society is going to be vastly improved once Maximus's murderous rampages remove the last of the dictatorial regime, so maybe they're all good with it.
This show really has given me no reason to root for the overprivileged pricks who are supposed to be the heroes.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 4:46 AM on October 15, 2017 [2 favorites]
I know the reviewers are feeling more upbeat about this, but I'm really not.
In the AV Club comment thread, the recapper said it may be Stockholm Syndrome. The show is indeed still very very terrible, and I continue to marvel at the train wreck.
So, are we to understand "banishment" to be a euphemism for execution? Maximus told the one Genetic Council dude that he'd banished the rest of the council, though we saw them all killed, and Black Bolt's parents told Medusa that her parents had been banished though in another scene someone (Maximus? Medusa? I forget) said that her parents had been killed by Black Bolt's parents. I mean, where would they be banishing people to? Another planet/dimension, since Earth is not an option.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:00 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
In the AV Club comment thread, the recapper said it may be Stockholm Syndrome. The show is indeed still very very terrible, and I continue to marvel at the train wreck.
So, are we to understand "banishment" to be a euphemism for execution? Maximus told the one Genetic Council dude that he'd banished the rest of the council, though we saw them all killed, and Black Bolt's parents told Medusa that her parents had been banished though in another scene someone (Maximus? Medusa? I forget) said that her parents had been killed by Black Bolt's parents. I mean, where would they be banishing people to? Another planet/dimension, since Earth is not an option.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:00 AM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
This show really has given me no reason to root for the overprivileged pricks who are supposed to be the heroes.
I feel like I keep harping about that, but that's the show in a nutshell, yeah.
Almost everything else that's wrong with it could be campy fun - this is all very low budget B-movie stuff, like 'don't show their powers very much' - but making the protagonists all rich assholes who literally use humans as slaves was just... such a bizarre choice. Like, it makes me want to read backstage interviews about it.
So, are we to understand "banishment" to be a euphemism for execution?
I think so, yeah. I mean, they're on the Moon, and none of them seem to be cool with hard vacuum - 'banishment' seems to mean 'take a long walk out of a short airlock.'
posted by mordax at 10:57 AM on October 15, 2017
I feel like I keep harping about that, but that's the show in a nutshell, yeah.
Almost everything else that's wrong with it could be campy fun - this is all very low budget B-movie stuff, like 'don't show their powers very much' - but making the protagonists all rich assholes who literally use humans as slaves was just... such a bizarre choice. Like, it makes me want to read backstage interviews about it.
So, are we to understand "banishment" to be a euphemism for execution?
I think so, yeah. I mean, they're on the Moon, and none of them seem to be cool with hard vacuum - 'banishment' seems to mean 'take a long walk out of a short airlock.'
posted by mordax at 10:57 AM on October 15, 2017
Not 'he's my best friend, you gotta save him!' Not 'oh no my poor dog!' Not even a stream of curses and threats at the guy. Just the calculated, completely empathy-free: 'he can't help me if you don't fix him.'
See, I think the writers did a piss poor job of showing that Crystal expected the friend to be an inhuman with healing powers. She had never before had to deal with human type healing, so she thought she was having her chain yanked.
And yeah, otherwise I'm having a hard time being sympathetic to the royal party, and Space Ramsay Bolton's insurrection is probably the best part, he's still Space Ramsay Boltoning his way through it.
posted by Kyol at 9:34 PM on October 15, 2017
See, I think the writers did a piss poor job of showing that Crystal expected the friend to be an inhuman with healing powers. She had never before had to deal with human type healing, so she thought she was having her chain yanked.
And yeah, otherwise I'm having a hard time being sympathetic to the royal party, and Space Ramsay Bolton's insurrection is probably the best part, he's still Space Ramsay Boltoning his way through it.
posted by Kyol at 9:34 PM on October 15, 2017
I think if they just embraced the ridiculousness a bit more and put more effort into the wardrobe/costumes, this show could take the place in my heart Revenge used to occupy (which was essentially a beautiful trainwreck of "what if Dynasty met Elektra Assassin"). Revenge, with a dash of Under The Dome, what with the way they are obviously avoiding expensive special effects.
I would also appreciate if they just went full blown Arrested Development with the royal family. "Medusa, you can't break into people's homes and eat their food!" "Ugh, it's just an apple, Louise. How much could it cost? Ten dollars?"
posted by Poogle at 11:24 PM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
I would also appreciate if they just went full blown Arrested Development with the royal family. "Medusa, you can't break into people's homes and eat their food!" "Ugh, it's just an apple, Louise. How much could it cost? Ten dollars?"
posted by Poogle at 11:24 PM on October 15, 2017 [1 favorite]
I think so, yeah. I mean, they're on the Moon, and none of them seem to be cool with hard vacuum
Except Gorgon, whose bare hoof stomped on that lunar rover.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 10:01 AM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
Except Gorgon, whose bare hoof stomped on that lunar rover.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 10:01 AM on October 16, 2017 [1 favorite]
Excuse me: Whose bare hoof stomped on that rover, and then was seen wearing boots on Earth later in the episode.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 9:13 AM on October 17, 2017
posted by ArgentCorvid at 9:13 AM on October 17, 2017
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* Karnak, of all people.
He was a super creep in the pilot, but I'm liking his turn away from duty and toward learning how to live like a regular person. So I guess the subplot about the smartest Inhuman warrior giving it all up to become a backwoods pot farmer is actually sort of working for me.
Unfortunately, it's a testament to the quality of the rest of the show that the only subplot that really clicked for me was about the character who refuses to engage with the show's main story and is literally showing pot farmers how to irrigate better and frolicking on the beach.
* Black Bolt.
The lack of dialogue continues to work for him. I also appreciated that he handled the enemy attack with anything approaching finesse: causing a gas leak was probably the smartest thing I've seen anybody do in this series, even if that's a painfully low bar to clear.
Also, I really liked that he didn't kill everybody the second he thought he could get away with it. It would've been smarter, it would've been easier, but it wouldn't have been very regal - that brief bit of compassion went a long way toward making him at all sympathetic.
Not too fond of the rest of them:
* Medusa continues to be Medusa-y.
Her stealing the laptop was the low point for me. I mean, the scientist is cooperating freely, bought her food, wants to help, and Medusa still just steals the computer the second she can and is all "I have what I need."
* Crystal was extra horrible.
So, we get lines like "That's the first time a human's ever touched me," and - though horrible - I guess I can maybe look past it because her family tosses humans into the slave pits before she can get to know them. Okay, fine.
However, her attitude about Lockjaw's unforgivable. We got this line, and I watched it twice to be sure I had it right:
"He can't take me to my family unless he's healed!"
Not 'he's my best friend, you gotta save him!' Not 'oh no my poor dog!' Not even a stream of curses and threats at the guy. Just the calculated, completely empathy-free: 'he can't help me if you don't fix him.'
This was a moment to have her break down, either angry or sad. Having her just looking on wondering when Lockjaw will be viable transit again? I mean, they make it pretty clear she doesn't even care about her own dog.
I'm not a dog person, but that's still a pretty bright-line test for who's evil.
* Gorgon is still just sort of there.
He's so dumb it's hard for me to get invested in anything he's up to either way. So... okay, personal growth, seeing humans as worth keeping alive, etc. etc., but I just... can't care about any of it. The magical mercenaries who are willing to die for him are an especially offputting thread in his subplot too - they really, really should be pissed their friend died. That was a moment to have them wanting payback or... you know, something, anything but calm acceptance.
* The Maximus stuff continues.
He's doing what genuinely needs to happen in Attilan: he's taking down the caste system, he's setting up so humans can have a chance at powers. Everything Maximus is doing is what the heroic protagonist of a story like this should be doing.
Except he's just Moon Ramsay, he's doing it out of leering evil, and I'm left without a clear sense of who's even the worst ruler of Attilan, because it's possible Moon Ramsay will still be an improvement over the rest of his family.
So yeah, lotta words to say, 'mostly same-same.'
However, I am coming down on the side of 'this is not as bad as Iron Fist' for a couple of reasons:
1) As someone rightly pointed out last week, this probably won't affect continuity much. Danny Rand's existence is half of why The Defenders was such a mess. (The Hand was the other half, may they never return.) Inhumans probably won't contaminate much past Agents of SHIELD, which has improved to the point that they may be able to take the hit.
2) Some of these characters are learning. Crystal feels a lot like Danny to me, but at least a couple plot threads have involved a little character growth at all.
Also, I'm really fascinated by this. Like, 'trainwreck I can't look away from' fascinated by all the places where it doesn't work. Maximus on a weird inversion of heroic deeds is particularly WTF to me.
So I guess that's... something?
posted by mordax at 2:57 PM on October 14, 2017 [1 favorite]