kayla2moon

Sorting through life while making a go of it

[kayla2moon]

bObsweep Dustin Wi-Fi Connected Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum and Mop

A fun way to get the vacuuming done while you sit and watch

[kayla2moon]

Did She?

I'm not a fan of Ava Bekker. I knew she was brought on for Connor when he was still with Robin, and I did not like that. I also did not like that Dr. Latham was used as the reason for her presence. I really was hoping they would have sent her away by saying that she took the position Connor was offered. Instead they've made her whiny and ambiguously manipulative and vindictive. Did she sleep with Connor's father? Did she stick herself? Did she set the scammer on Connor? The writing implies she did while at the same time leaving the door open for some other explanations. Trying to have it both ways lessens the stakes and diminishes whatever drama they could have eked out of this. Essentially the damage is done. While I can sort of understand Ava liking Connor.enough to want to be around him and maybe seeing his dad funding Connor's project as a solution, her not quickly shooting down the dad's implied condition makes me skeptical. If they'd even just stuck with that I might've found it interesting but they didn't. Her whole manipulative turn on Connor potentially causing her to contract AIDS isn't something they can make okay. She's had reactions that glossing over would make look like an attempt at shock with no substance. At least they have only involved Robin on a peripheral level. I don't want to see her sucked into some snooze worthy Ava nonsense.

[kayla2moon]

Minor

I don’t know whether taking personal phone calls during surgery is a thing, but I would definitely take issue with my surgeon or any participant in a surgery, using personal devices in the operating room.

I know I was supposed to wonder what was serious enough to cause conscientious Connor to ditch his patient, but instead I was put off by the nurse not just telling the caller that the doctor is currently unavailable and to call back. Unless they’re going to show that Ava was behind the call, it was unnecessary to place it in that scene.

[kayla2moon]

Ode to Vicky Glass

Okay so this is just a mini-rant on how she could have been used. So the reason for her return was weak. Ethan didn't update his emergency contact. Does that mean she was in Chicago and didn't intend to speak to him? I have no idea why they broke up the first time, but I guess the writers found it irrelevant. I guess no one thought to ask if he had anyone he.d like to be notified. Vicky could have easily checked up on him and asked about his PTSD onscreen, though they don't ever imply that any meaningful discussions take place offscreen between the characters. What a complete waste of a return. How low key and mundane of a scene was it to have her get dumped on the sidewalk when there was no need to rekindle a non-romantic romance. I did like them together before but this was more like I'm back to let the audience know that you want April. Vicky wasn't needed. Any extra would have been sufficient.

[kayla2moon]

Woeful Romances

I’ve said this before but Chicago Med’s romances are poorly written. This season epitomizes it more for me than any other so far. The only pair I’ve found compelling were the young ones who couldn’t be together because of their immune systems. Everything else has been pretty eye roll inducing.

I don’t care that Will and Natalie are on a break (no matter how many times I read or hear it’s over, I know they’ll end up together and probably married by the end of the series. If I were in charge of this show the first episode wouldn’t have made it tat obvious. But then again, I would not have written a pregnancy as a roadblock. Grieving, pregnant, widow Natalie could not get involved with Will but look a grieving new dad can get involved with her.  I guess their point is grief is processed differently or just ignore what came before because it’s totally irrelevant.

April and Ethan are one big bag of conflict, obstacles and unnecessary drama. I don’t see why they could not have developed a friendship that grew into the romance. Conflict over sibling Noah was the catalyst for their attraction and conflict over sibling Emily was the catalyst for their break-up. The worst part for me so far is how Vicky Glass was totally wasted on this dreck. I hate that she was part of a cliche break-up scene and how unlikable Ethan is made in order to facilitate the non-stop miscommunication/drama that is April and Ethan’s relationship.

Connor’s clearly being tormented for some reason. Uhm no....it’s not great at all. If they intend for him to end up with Ava then they’ve wrecked that. Even if she turns out not to be the jealous obsessed woman they’ve gone out of their way to make her seem, the damage was pretty much done when she asked Connor’s father to fund his project. They can go around all they want about what she might have had to do to convince him to part with his coin, that she went to him at all tainted her relationship with Connor.

[kayla2moon]

I’ll get there

I keep meaning to post some of my comments on what I’ve seen of Chicago Med-S3. Where to start? I really don’t like the character Ava Bekker and I hope Connor recommended her for the position he was offered. I don’t think good writing choices regarding her relationship with Connor and in reducing Dr. Latham to a referee/bystander were made.

I wasn’t particular with how Bekker was brought on in the first place. And it was more than obvious that she was intended as a love interest for Connor. I didn’t like that because he already had an admirer and Robin was still around. Robin is still a sore point for me since I also hate how little time was devoted to interaction with her father. The only relationship that I feel is properly paced in terms of development is the one between Natalie and Will.

Noah is still pretty useless to me. It’s almost laughable that he represents April’s great close family when he was pretty much a non-factor when she really needed family support. She’s shown to be supportive of him, she miscarries and the writers treat it as a mere plot point instead of using it as a bonding opportunity. He’s a supporting character but in scenes with April, she seems to be in the supporting role.

This is a start with more to follow.

[kayla2moon]

The least...

Just my opinion but when I hear the “least racist,” it sounds as the same as not as racist to me.

[kayla2moon]

Bye Bert

I can’t wait until Sharon and Bert reconcile. Seriously why is he back? His presence on this show is another one of those things that make no sense whatsoever. They brought back an old love just to have Sharon suffer through his death and another round of Bert left you for another woman. Feel sorry for Bert.

Maggie’s about to crack for the cheating ex because giving her a new guy is less interesting than second chances.

Connor loves Robin but a new car will help him turn the page on that. Maybe he’ll soon be driving around with that snarky surgeon Latham brought on for him. ‘Can’t wait.

I love April and Ethan’s conversations. They’re so deep. And there’s not much conflict brewing unlike the ones she had with her ex-fiance. I guess it’s too much work to actually develop a relationship for them so throw them together at the end of the season and give them tidbits.

There’s a story in there for Sarah that just seems to be stuck.

Robin was so easily dismissed that I’m back to why they brought her on in the first place. All that drama for Connor and they didn’t even get a goodbye.

Natale and Will. Whatever. Individually Will works. Together, I just don’t care.

I wish one of the other regulars-Sarah maybe-got to talk to Connor instead.

Yet again, I feel as though this show does not get enough out of the medical drama aspect. Potentially powerful stories just seem awfully flat. It’s like they are written for some end with the doctors involved but even that fizzles. The amputee was used to show snarky surgeon’s softer side to make her more acceptable for Connor but I still don’t care for her or that as a potential pairing. All the heroin addict did was show how cruel it is to use a patient to achieve fix one problem by creating another - with the usual lack of follow-up. Oh and to introduce viewers to an Ethan backstory that probably is better summarized than executed. Forget he has/had PTSD because  a troubled sister... Maybe they’ll bond like Maggie did with hers and she’ll disappear as well. And Lila came back to die for no reason other than more Sharon martyrdom.

I forgot about that crossover.

[kayla2moon]

Flash Trial

Almost a blink and it’s over which isn’t necessarily bad thing since it wasn’t really necessary in the first place. They could have gone straight to a scene with Barry conveniently in the same cell in which young Henry Allen etched his name on the wall. Zoom in on Barry Allen etching his name on the wall and the biggest like father like son non-mention at the joke of a trial.

It’s unclear why Cecile is considered the best at criminal defense since she barely made an attempt to defend Barry...or at least the basic way in which this was written made it seem that way. I know I’m not one of the sniffling jurors but nothing about that “widow’s” testimony was heartbreaking.

It wasn’t remotely odd that a man worked for five years helping to solve crimes and he sloppily killed one person or that this newlywed was even obsessed with said individual in the first place. Nah because if Cecile had been written to make a competent attempt at a defense, the guilty verdict might have surprised the viewers. Instead they delivered on the hopelessness in obvious ways that made the episode really exciting.

Joe did all he could to try to (find evidence( plant evidence to clear Barry. Iris confronted the lying widow and secretly recorded her confession. Singh pushed back against the ridiculous notion that being late for work 72 times and taking unplanned leave were signs of being a murderer. instead of being stunned into silence.

Silly me thought the judge was going to express shock over a person with no prior criminal history would just commit such a heinous crime. I did not see that description of Barry coming.

That Devoe can just take over someone’s body and grab his meta traits and that host can’t even fight back just a little bit is disappointing.

I hope they at least come up with a good plan and reason for Devoe as the main villain.

[kayla2moon]

[kayla2moon]

Quick Flash

I wish they would stop selectively letting the bad guys go on The Flash. It makes their heroes look stupid when they allow the person to return to torment them further. Iris and Caitlin had Amunet captured and Caitlin knew she ought to be locked away but she let her walk. Surely they could have written it in such  way that Amunet escaped instead--since they planned to use her later.

I got tired of overlooking that sort of thing and stopped watching until The Crisis arc. Then I overlooked how Barry could have cleaned his place up before the police broke down the door and how people he worked with found it necessary to break the door down in the first place. That was overkill.

So John Diggle just happened to know their full names...

They didn’t want to move away from whatever he stepped in....

Felicity was fine with ruining their special moment...

The writers thought the viewers would love to see two versions of a ruined wedding...

At least they could round up extras for the wedding since it wasn’t possible for Iris to have more people at her bachelorette party...

They really should have at least let them have a proper wedding...

[kayla2moon]

Crisis on Earth-X

I was expecting a showdown on Earth-X going by the title but that didn’t happen.

I still don’t get why they needed to use the wedding or couldn’t wait until the vows were done. Nor do I get why the officiant didn’t know Barry and Iris even though this was planned in advance. I could go on about the wedding but I’ll leave that for another post.

It seems that this should have originated on Kara’s earth and included J'onn J'onzz since they were after her heart.

I guess it didn’t matter that Barry didn’t have a doppelganger since the end result would have been the same: Barry letting him go. The finale illustrated the big difference between the others not shying away from killing or death versus The Flash where they selectively let the bad guys walk away for the purpose of coming back after them again.

[kayla2moon]

Chicago Med - The Women

Before I get to my next point, I want to take a moment to smh over the stupid nonsense with Nurse Doris. She is supposed to be mad because April is getting “special treatment” from Ethan as a result of sleeping with Ethan. She gets no real reaction when April finally confirms her relationship with Ethan. Not even “you lied to me...yes you did.” This is more of a what was the point in the opener, since it clearly didn’t matter.

The women seem to basically be reduced to dependency on men in that they are not given total independent strength.

Natalie is more or less written for Will in a way that doesn’t emphasize her too much as an individual. In retrospect her pregnancy and recent widowhood seemed to be a means of slowing down the inevitable pairing with Will. Her role as a mother is generally just used as a way to relate to a patient now and then. The first season was promising in terms of the bonding between her, April and Maggie.

April may be strong-willed like Maggie and Natalie but she’s also written around men. Her illness could have been about her but instead it was used to end a pregnancy that to me seemed to be insurance against April-Severide shippers. What was the point of that miserable relationship with Tate (we hardly knew ye and for good reason)? I wish they’d given her a sister instead of a brother so there’d be at least one continuing sisterhood. Maybe they’ll flesh out her relationship with Ethan but it would still be nice to see her out with her friends and in an episode with an April-centric plot. It’s great that they remembered she had a miscarriage but her casually saying she could get pregnant again as though a complication wasn’t an issue. Yeah the writing...

Maggie hasn’t been wrecked and there may not be anything wrong with her giving her ex another chance, I just don’t want to see her become needy. Maybe I’m misinterpreting her getting dressed up to sit at the bar when her ex was there and whatever scheme that was to lure the paramedics. I thought they were supposed to take patients to the nearest available hospital but maybe the rules are related to the region.

Doesn’t Sharon have any children or family with whom she can interact other than her ex and his new woman? I get that she is compassionate so why did she give up nursing to become an administrator? There are stories to be told that aren’t being told.

[kayla2moon]

Why is he on this show?

I really find this character useless. It would be great if his presence as a supporting character helped to develop April as a main character, but it does not imo.

They initially used him to deter any social interaction between April and Severide. She could not go out with him because she had to help Noah study. He was also used as a source of friction between April and Ethan. 

I’ll go back to how useless he was when April miscarried. Yes that whole pregnancy-miscarriage was dreadful. Her handling of it may have made her seem like a trooper but it was written in a way that made it seem as if she simply tripped and took the time out to help a patient through a rough time before getting her own knee bandaged. They could not even afford to have Natalie interact with her about the pregnancy.

April’s miscarriage wasn’t worthy of any special attention but Noah required an ovation. And I don’t get why April, the sister who makes all these sacrifices, would care about going to a party of a meddlesome co-worker over seeing about her brother. It isn’t in line with the protective sister.

Since I’m not interested in his pursuit of Sarah and I think there should be more focus on developing April and her having her own spotlight, I am all for Noah going far into the background.

[kayla2moon]

Chicago Med - more leave it

Another thing I noticed is how there usually is no follow-up with some of the patients with tougher issues. Sharon spent time convincing a patient to take a test and it would have been nice to see interaction between the patient and her aunt afterwards.

Just as I find Robin’s self-cure for nympho-klepto ridiculous (and I assume the door is open for her to return-yes I know Mekia Cox is a regular on another show now but she wasn’t a regular on this one so I don’t see why she cannot return again outside of any scheduling conflicts), simply suspending Sarah seemed sort of negligent. No one thought she needed help. And I mean no one except Noah, who they keep pushing on her for some reason. I’m definitely against that.

I don’t think Ethan’s bright side of pepper spraying is a defense of her actions. She’s around all these professionals and none of them found her paranoia alarming enough to be concerned. I guess the end with Dr. Charles is meant to rectify that but it does not excuse why Sharon only asked her one question and then suspended her without trying to help her.

[kayla2moon]

Chicago Med - Take it or leave it

So far this season I haven’t seen much in the way of character development. In the first season Ethan was shown (in scenes with Vicki) to have some form of PTSD. All that was left from that last season was the parrot and up until the last episode he was down to disagreeing with April about making their relationship public. I may have missed some episodes but none of the ones I’ve seen has shown Ethan at home.

Dr. Latham, who was a great addition, has now been reduced to making observations about Connor and the rival which is an absolute waste of his character. Robin was turned into a nymphomaniac-kleptomaniac (who can be cured by going “home”), seemingly to show how patient and wonderful Connor is. Their relationship was a series of crises instead of the romantic story it could have been and I don’t see point of having her be Dr. Charles’ daughter since they didn’t bother doing much with them either. Maybe there was potentially some great storytelling that was poorly written and just came across imo, as a string of plot points.

The bottom line for me is that there is a total lack of depth which I think stems from too much emphasis on plot points and not on actual development. None of the stories are given a chance to be powerful because they’re all just rushed to make whatever point before the end of the episode. Even that suicide last season was devoid of any real lasting impression. I vaguely recall an episode in which a patient was asked for her husband’s organs without any consideration or concern for how she must’ve felt about learning of his death. I’m pretty sure that she was just left alone.

Most of the Manning-Halstead cases seem written to showcase their mutual admiration for each other because in the end, they manage to figure out the problem/cause. Cue the smiles. While the Sexton-Choi cases are for relationship drama. The patients are so irrelevant that they might as well use mannequins.

[kayla2moon]

The best photo I’ve seen today.