"O Creator, why did you allow me to feel?" Perfectly delivered. And your comment, well-put.

Agree that the finale seemed pretty subdued. But then "Possession" would be incredibly hard to follow up. And I liked that the show's gleeful disregard of narrative convention continued to the end. (Malcolm's flirtation with the spiritualist, in particular, was an incredibly weird thing to introduce in the last…

Gross, and anticlimactic. Trenna Keating's gruffness in the part works for some things, but it's wooden in dramatic moments. The "uncooked hotdog" impression probably wasn't helped by how mildly the mayor was sawing. (Especially compared to the chop with which TV amputations are usually performed.) (Can't believe I'm…

And it starts just beautifully, I think. "Last Days of Summer" is one of my favorite FNL episodes.

Gotta say, Lyla ripping on Jason in "Mud Bowl" is the reason I can't ever dock Minka Kelly points for her acting on this show. (Not that I did much of that to begin with.)

Had to stop after the first paragraph of the review. It sets up the book so well I'd rather read the rest, flaws and all, than risk getting spoiled.

his hair is always escaping from it's Peacekeeper ponytail

Off-topic, but I loved reading Chiana's entry in the wiki when I snooped around there on a rewatch of the series a few years back. Much of it was written by an apparently rabid fan of hers who took a lot of umbrage at the way she was treated by other characters. The bias has been softened by edits made since, though.

Agree with you there, especially on the dream sequences. I remember feeling that Daniel and Kerwin's exchange in the opening scene was uncharacteristically sentimental for this show, what with the "What do you say to a little girl" line — up until I remembered Hannah Dean, at which point it became clear the…

It took me for fucking ever to get that. And when I did, I wished I hadn't.

Well, in defense of that scene, if there was anyone primed to appreciate the clones not as clones but as entirely distinct individuals, it'd be Felix. With you on the facial hair thing, though. I don't have any explanations for that.

My personal impression was that the golf and the look was either part of the current con, a reflection of the dad's good health and circumstances where Billy and Tim had both assumed otherwise, or a combination of both those things. After all, it doesn't take too long for the veneer — what little there is of it, given…

I'd say "never held a job" would be strong. "Out of work for long enough
that her career arc in the show feels forced" could be accurate, though.
I'm not too troubled by it in the end, no more so than with SPOILERS
Street's landing the agent job (a resolution I found pretty satisfying, actually). Veering off topic…

Although the Person of Interest reviews do demonstrate how you can tell a show's well-regarded; see the number of commenters correcting things the review gets off or wrong.

And he's been known to eat his young.

I understood that reference.

Seeing all the characters sloshed was pretty great, and Aslaug and Torstein in particular. Slightly redeemed what was otherwise a baggy, shapeless scene marred by Horik's incredibly clumsy and belabored manipulations.

Speaking of stalking Bjorn — loved the camera panning from him and Thorunn to Floki lurking in the grass.

Oh man, that would be frustrating. (Especially if you're inordinately attached to Torstein as a character, like I am — don't ask me why, I have no idea.) Though I appreciated the lightning for what it gave to the scene that followed.

I appreciate this perspective. I've always found Vikings' tendency to make its narrative — and entire universe, really — skew so obviously in Ragnar's favor one of the most perturbing things about it. There's a definite satisfaction in watching Ragnar triumph, of course. But the way characters seem to be flattened and…