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Someone wants Dreamer to take off her cape. He says we don’t need a Superhero like her. He is targeting members of the transgendered community to get her attention. Across town at Obsidian North Kelly detects a problem with the technology. This new virtual reality is so immersive it connects to your biometrics. If you get too stressed a red button appears that should eject you from the scenario. When it fails Kelly must pull the patrons out with adrenaline. She must report this bug to Andrea.
Yvette is not going to let Nia spend another Friday night on the couch. She invites her to come along to a club where she is meeting her new boyfriend. She met him through Upswipz, the hottest dating app in National City. Unfortunately for Yvette this date is a sham. He is just using her to get to Dreamer. Nia is understandably enraged and has very little patience with the Police sluggish response to the situation. This is Dreamers community, therefore this is personal.
Alex is still struggling with her new Martian weapon J’onn reminds her to be patient. The weapon needs time to bond. Training is put on hold when they get a new case to investigate. Al’s brother Trevor has been missing for a week and the Police are writing it off as a virtual reality bender. J’onn goes to Al’s house to find an object to help him search with his psychic power. Alex is off to Obsidian to dive into the world of Virtual Las Vegas.
All is going well at first. Kelly is guiding Alex through the world that Obsidian has built. However, advanced users are allowed to add on to this place. These user created spaces take time to catalog and can have unexpected consequences. A user created a house that looks like it was constructed for a horror movie. Once Alex reaches a certain point in this house she loses touch with Kelly. She must go on alone.
This really is a house or horrors where Alex is forced to relive when a foe tries to drown her. She pleads with the users stuck in the water tanks to say the command that will end the simulation. They tell her they have tried with no success to end their torture. You see with this generation of Obsidian technology it gets integrated into your biometrics. Which means your body believes it is real even if it is not. After saving the men in the water tanks Alex heads to the next room. There she finds Trevor exploding over and over. She tries to calm him. He can control his experience if he focuses. J’onn has discovered the motive for why Trevor is being subjected to an endless loop of torture. An Obsidian Super User named Richard has discovered his wife has been having a virtual affair with Trevor.
Supergirl had the night off but her Superfriends have it covered. Alex saves Trevor and Dreamer makes sure that the man that hurt Yvette went to jail. Nia will not back down. She will stand up for those who are not seen. She will not allow prejudice to go unnoticed. I love how Kara supports her as all the emotions Nia has been experiencing spill over. This team is more like a family. They are going to need to use each of their strengths. Leviathan is up to something. Does Andrea know what’s going on or is she just the public face of Obsidian North? Will the news about Jeremiah make Alex want to escape reality for a while. We will have to tune in next week and find out. This is your eye in the sky Green Butterfly. Have a super week.
Does Andrea Know What Margo is up to?
- No (67%, 2 Votes)
- Yes (33%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 3
Cougar’s Comic Corner
Supergirl #37
Written by Jody Houser, Released December 11, 2019
Infected Supergirl strikes! After Supergirl protects Superman from getting infected by the Batman Who Laughs virus, she gets infected herself…and accepts this new version of herself with pride! With Batman and Superman claiming to want to “cure” her to cover up that she had to protect Superman, and the Batman Who Laughs wanting to use her in his own plans, which side will Supergirl choose? Or will she forge a whole new alliance?
$3.99 on Comixology
Next Time On Supergirl!
“Alex In Wonderland” airing March 22, 2020 on The CW.
ALEX TAKES ON A NEW ROLE – Alex uses a pair of Obsidian contact lenses to visit a virtual National City where she takes on a whole new persona. Meanwhile, Kelly helps William investigate Lex. Kara deals with difficult news. Tawnia McKiernan directed the episode with story by Rob Wright and teleplay by Jess Kardos & Mariko Tamaki
Feedback
We want you to be part of the podcast! After a new episode airs, head over to our feedback site and drop us a quick line, or record a short voicemail, reacting to the events of the episode. What was interesting to you? What stood out? What did the episode do well or, perhaps, what did it not do well? We rely on your input to help round out our conversation and anticipate the opportunity to include your thoughts and theories!
[sc:ms]
Some blog post comments…
The banner this week makes me sad! 🙁 A good choice though!
“Does Andrea know what’s going on or is she just the public face of Obsidian North?” – this is a fair question especially post reboot; I think she knows things are going on but maybe not exactly what is happening anymore, so face plus.
“Meanwhile, Kelly helps William investigate Lex.” – you can put him with whomever you want show I’m still not going to root for him! As for super Alex, does this mean we’ll see Chyler with glasses out of the suit because you know you need those so people don’t know your identity. Lol.
While I rated this episode fairly high for me this season I still do have issues with it; a big hit as I said was the fact this was hyped as Nia centric episode but Nia’s only in maybe 10 minutes…it’s not what I would call a centric episode for her even if the A plot related to her. I also feel meh about Alex’s plot of the week because are we really suppose to get excited about a cheating plot? TRUE, Al’s brother may not have known the woman was married as just like in reality people lie in virtual spaces but they don’t say he didn’t know either from what I remember so there’s this weird space of should I really be mad or not about this husband wanting revenge. I can agree killing him would have been wrong, but if the brother knew she was married then I can also understand the guy being mad about that with them both. Again I’m in this weird middle section with the season and so I’m just more meh than excited like I have been previous seasons.
On to the podcast…
We would all love all the Alexs a part of one big mega Alex Justina but sadly the writers aren’t giving us that. 🙁 Again this season feels very “highlight edition” for characters so if we can only have one here’s what we go with; the perfect world though is all the facets showcased, maybe in season six we’ll see that writing return!
“It’s like nailing Jell-O to the wall.” – this is the best tag line I’ve heard yet to describe season 5 John! There are as you said some intriguing concepts but the handling of them often fails to excite. I personally have no idea what the game plan is with this season and not in the good way; again characters feel like very limited versions of themselves and there’s no real back and forth on any discussion points, I’m still waiting for Kelly to tell Kara the bright sides to the technology also so it’s not all – tech evil. This season has just been very meh as I’ve said.
UGH that opening Alex scene is so annoying to hear; she could be at the DEO right now if she wanted, she quit it’s not like they made her leave so this whole “I miss it” thing doesn’t work for me as she only has herself to blame. That was a down vote section for the episode for sure with me.
There was Doctor Alex as a menu option too; I assume it was a nod to “what if Alex became a doctor instead of working for the DEO?” because she probably wonders about that sometimes at night. That or it was just another “Grey’s Anatomy” wink by the writers. But yeah the main three were doctor, mom, and super Alex with super Alex being the one it lingered on longest and then mom the second longest and then doctor we saw more than the other options but on the whole I think she had 5 options to pick from because I saw different background color choices than just the yellow = doctor, blue = super suit, and red = mom.
I’m with you Justina, I thought Kelly was going to be more upset about the eject button not working because she reported that two months ago and it’s still not fixed and that’s kind of a big deal so not something that can go to the bottom of the pile for patching. Again is this highlight writing because the focus at the time was on what people can do or was it just them not caring about realistic writing at all? Frustrating plot handling example number 900!
Virtually cheating is still cheating.
Season 2 was the last time I remember a Jeremiah plot being in play. Maybe this is just them cutting down on previous storylines now that the universe has been rebooted? It is a lazy end to his story for sure, if this was his end just kill him when you had the actor and could do an emotional scene because now Alex is never going to get that resolution with him for sure, but that does set up the plot of how does that effect her now knowing she can never get closure for sure. The question is will they write to that or just let it go? Did they kill him just to have this super suit Alex storyline coming up…if so was there not another way they could have gotten that? That would have been your reveal moment John, don’t even show super Alex in the menu really and then when this news comes and you see the promo it’s like “What?”. It makes sense Alex would suit up as one conversation with Eliza didn’t fix the stress Alex feels after a lifetime of feeling like she has to be the protector and like if maybe she had powers too she’d get attention and treated as a normal, but killing Jeremiah just to see this fantasy feels lazy. Concept wise it’s an interesting episode especially when the first trailer line is “Let’s go punch stuff!” because it shows how as Justina said Alex is so closed off she doesn’t know how to deal with things beyond physically lashing out but I do worry if it will be given the weight the story deserves especially using Jeremiah as the springboard because again the plot handling this season hasn’t been great. We’ll see how it goes.
Crisis was never our focus so I’m not surprised we aren’t really dealing with it like “Flash” or “Arrow”, it happened to Kara yes but it didn’t really effect her in anyway except Lex is now in charge but that could have been a plot even without Crisis arguably so yeah I don’t think it means as much to our show as it does others.
“we had Guardian.” – lol that’s hilarious Darryl! 🙂 I do agree that line about finally having a night off is bull though because she’s definitely had back up for that since forever. J’onn has said multiple times after all how much he loves that skirt!
I’m glad the date only lasted a minute, Leslie! Also they didn’t do the whole “let me show you how to do it” hug from behind cliché because ?!
I’m pretty sure Lex just used a sharpie to get in power. Ha.
John (regarding Kara/William): “When’s the second date?!” Me: ????? Justina you may want to asks Geoff if he can fill in next week, John is clearly not feeling well still. If we’re going to do another date moment in an episode John let’s see Kelly and Alex have some time because really we’ve seen nothing with them to show why they’re a good match; they make great friends with benefits based on what I’ve seen but nothing has really said steady relationship to me with them. Yes there was the morning after breakfast early on and it was cute but again it could just as easily be friends with benefits or the tease to a relationship but it doesn’t mean romance confirmed; I need more to show why I should invest in them together specifically, are they headed down the same life path? What do they disagree on and can they work it out or not? What does their relationship look like outside of rescue scenes? Give me Alex picking up Kelly somewhere before they go out and talk about the future; I need to know does Alex have game or not, would she use a cheesy pick up line on Kelly when she sees her or does she come up with something more honest feeling? Also show me Alex posing questions not just reacting to them! I’m sitting here thinking and Leslie can correct this if I’m wrong but we’ve never seen Alex be the initializer for a relationship I don’t think; Maggie was the one who asked Alex if she was into women, Kelly’s been mainly the one doing the talking in this relationship (yes it doubles as giving us Kelly’s history but still), and it was the one night stand who approached Alex at Yvette’s party – true again there’s a reason for that via plot but still it’s always people coming up to Alex so show us her getting invested in the relationship. If they have to do a romance for Kara pick another guy to try with, not Mon, please because this one isn’t working, he’s too forced feeling.
Stay as healthy as you can gang!
Aaron on March 19, 2020 at 12:49 pm
“Some blog post comments…”
Replies.
“The banner this week makes me sad! A good choice though!”
It sure is.
“Does Andrea know what’s going on or is she just the public face of Obsidian North?” – this is a fair question especially post reboot; I think she knows things are going on but maybe not exactly what is happening anymore, so face plus.”
A “face” of a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization is usually aware of the RICO and will be charged in the indictment.
“ “Meanwhile, Kelly helps William investigate Lex.” – you can put him with whomever you want show I’m still not going to root for him! As for super Alex, does this mean we’ll see Chyler with glasses out of the suit because you know you need those so people don’t know your identity. Lol.”
Wigs work. Ask Powergirl writer Judd Winnick when he put her in a wig to make her a redhead.
“While I rated this episode fairly high for me this season I still do have issues with it; a big hit as I said was the fact this was hyped as Nia centric episode but Nia’s only in maybe 10 minutes…it’s not what I would call a centric episode for her even if the A plot related to her. I also feel meh about Alex’s plot of the week because are we really suppose to get excited about a cheating plot? TRUE, Al’s brother may not have known the woman was married as just like in reality people lie in virtual spaces but they don’t say he didn’t know either from what I remember so there’s this weird space of should I really be mad or not about this husband wanting revenge. I can agree killing him would have been wrong, but if the brother knew she was married then I can also understand the guy being mad about that with them both. Again I’m in this weird middle section with the season and so I’m just more meh than excited like I have been previous seasons.”
a. Valid point, Nia is kind of shafted in screen time.
b. The Alex plot is co-tangent to Nia’s plot actually.
c. Virtual cheating goes to the thought of crime. Not actionable. It must be a criminal act either incited, or committed in reality.
d. Being mad about a fantasy is the definition of insanity. The cops should pick up the guy as a nut-job once he acts on his fantasies to endanger others or himself.
e. Asking Supergirl writers to understand a-d, as to how the world works, is really reaching far beyond their imagination event horizon.
“On to the podcast…”
Oh yeah.
“We would all love all the Alexs (types) part of one big mega Alex, Justina, but sadly the writers aren’t giving us that. Again this season feels very “highlight edition” for characters so if we can only have one here’s what we go with; the perfect world though is all the facets showcased, maybe in season six we’ll see that writing return!”
Refer to a.=> e., and add that the writers would need the time and the skill to juggle three Alex stories at the same time.
“ “It’s like nailing Jell-O to the wall.” – this is the best tag line I’ve heard yet to describe season 5 John! There are as you said some intriguing concepts but the handling of them often fails to excite. I personally have no idea what the game plan is with this season and not in the good way; again characters feel like very limited versions of themselves and there’s no real back and forth on any discussion points, I’m still waiting for Kelly to tell Kara the bright sides to the technology also so it’s not all – tech evil. This season has just been very meh as I’ve said.”
I would have used the clouds metaphor because the writer bullpen has concepts full of fleecy nothings that in reality just rains on the viewer parade.
“UGH that opening Alex scene is so annoying to hear; she could be at the DEO right now if she wanted, she quit it’s not like they made her leave so this whole “I miss it” thing doesn’t work for me as she only has herself to blame. That was a down vote section for the episode for sure with me.”
A Steven Ditko objectionist, Aaron? You mean that Alex is responsible for Alex? WOW! what a concept. But seriously, I agree 100% that Alex has her fate in her own hands. She should act on her convictions and not mope like a dope. Ditko up and go all Ayn Rand on the show like she did in Season One.
“There was Doctor Alex as a menu option too; I assume it was a nod to “what if Alex became a doctor instead of working for the DEO?” because she probably wonders about that sometimes at night. That or it was just another “Grey’s Anatomy” wink by the writers. But yeah the main three were doctor, mom, and super Alex with super Alex being the one it lingered on longest and then mom the second longest and then doctor we saw more than the other options but on the whole I think she had 5 options to pick from because I saw different background color choices than just the yellow = doctor, blue = super suit, and red = mom.”
I missed the Grey’s Anatomy reference. I* sure hope we get Super-Alex MD.
“I’m with you Justina, I thought Kelly was going to be more upset about the eject button not working because she reported that two months ago and it’s still not fixed and that’s kind of a big deal so not something that can go to the bottom of the pile for patching. Again is this highlight writing because the focus at the time was on what people can do or was it just them not caring about realistic writing at all? Frustrating plot handling example number 900!”
Just event #187 to show me Kelly is no-good at her job as her character bible has evolved. But then ayeye (artificial intelligence) software code writer from Army medic promoted to psychiatrist for story reasons is not too swift for me. Does this show some of my thought processes about how cardboard love object characters inserted for “message reasons” instead of story integrity as Nora (Jessie Parker Kennedy) was used on the Flash, grate on my last nerve as writer.
“Virtually cheating is still cheating.” Is NOT actionable. Refer to a. => e. again.
“Season 2 was the last time I remember a Jeremiah plot being in play. Maybe this is just them cutting down on previous storylines now that the universe has been rebooted? It is a lazy end to his story for sure, if this was his end just kill him when you had the actor and could do an emotional scene because now Alex is never going to get that resolution with him for sure, but that does set up the plot of how does that effect her now knowing she can never get closure for sure. The question is will they write to that or just let it go? Did they kill him just to have this super suit Alex storyline coming up…if so was there not another way they could have gotten that? That would have been your reveal moment John, don’t even show super Alex in the menu really and then when this news comes and you see the promo it’s like “What?”. It makes sense Alex would suit up as one conversation with Eliza didn’t fix the stress Alex feels after a lifetime of feeling like she has to be the protector and like if maybe she had powers too she’d get attention and treated as a normal, but killing Jeremiah just to see this fantasy feels lazy. Concept wise it’s an interesting episode especially when the first trailer line is “Let’s go punch stuff!” because it shows how as Justina said Alex is so closed off she doesn’t know how to deal with things beyond physically lashing out but I do worry if it will be given the weight the story deserves especially using Jeremiah as the springboard because again the plot handling this season hasn’t been great. We’ll see how it goes.”
The episode was Exodus (215) Season 2 of Supergirl. There was a last mention of Jeremiah Season 3 Episode 301 I think. Since then/… nothing.
“Crisis was never our focus so I’m not surprised we aren’t really dealing with it like “Flash” or “Arrow”, it happened to Kara yes but it didn’t really affect her in anyway except Lex is now in charge but that could have been a plot even without Crisis arguably so yeah I don’t think it means as much to our show as it does others.”
Having Lex as boss of the DEO is like having CLAYMORE (Remember her?) zeroed in on you 24/7 (Which probably is another thing Supergoyl should worry about as a character in this season.) and we are getting an episode where Crisis is invoked to explain how Lex and Claymore are doing these days and how they get to where they are. If this was a farm and I was turning fertilizer, otherwise known as bull caw caw into the freshly plowed up and fouled up pastureland that is the 5th season story so far, I would call this “backfilling with manure to fill in and fix all the plotholes”.
“ “we had Guardian.” – lol that’s hilarious Darryl! I do agree that line about finally having a night off is bull though because she’s definitely had back up for that since forever. J’onn has said multiple times after all how much he loves that skirt!”
Bum should date Claymore. This show needs the comedy!
“I’m glad the date only lasted a minute, Leslie! Also they didn’t do the whole “let me show you how to do it” hug from behind cliché because ?!”
I would have been happier with a 3 stooges comedy pool table bit with the cue ball in the face followed by the pool cue to the back of head as Staz Nair tries to prove Kara is Supergoyl. Then we can see him Darth Vader choked as Kara figures out his jerkitude.
“I’m pretty sure Lex just used a sharpie to get in power. Ha.”
Lawyers and a good publicity agent.
“John (regarding Kara/William): “When’s the second date?!” Me: Justina you may want to asks Geoff if he can fill in next week, John is clearly not feeling well still. If we’re going to do another date moment in an episode John let’s see Kelly and Alex have some time because really we’ve seen nothing with them to show why they’re a good match; they make great friends with benefits based on what I’ve seen but nothing has really said steady relationship to me with them. Yes there was the morning after breakfast early on and it was cute but again it could just as easily be friends with benefits or the tease to a relationship but it doesn’t mean romance confirmed; I need more to show why I should invest in them together specifically, are they headed down the same life path? What do they disagree on and can they work it out or not? What does their relationship look like outside of rescue scenes? Give me Alex picking up Kelly somewhere before they go out and talk about the future; I need to know does Alex have game or not, would she use a cheesy pick up line on Kelly when she sees her or does she come up with something more honest feeling? Also show me Alex posing questions not just reacting to them! I’m sitting here thinking and Leslie can correct this if I’m wrong but we’ve never seen Alex be the initializer for a relationship I don’t think; Maggie was the one who asked Alex if she was into women, Kelly’s been mainly the one doing the talking in this relationship (yes it doubles as giving us Kelly’s history but still), and it was the one night stand who approached Alex at Yvette’s party – true again there’s a reason for that via plot but still it’s always people coming up to Alex so show us her getting invested in the relationship. If they have to do a romance for Kara pick another guy to try with, not Mon, please because this one isn’t working, he’s too forced feeling.”
Uhm… Kelly is facing SERIOUS JAIL TIME, Aaron. Some of the stuff she has screwed up and NOT REPORTED to HHS in her human being trials is criminal and actionable. I figure the writers, if they had a clue, would arrange the next meet and greet, as a jailhouse conjugal visit. I remind you that I discussed this kind of legal problem back when Lena kidnapped Sam, falsely imprisoned her and tried to labrat her in Season 3? And if Lena did it to Adam (and killed him and hid that fact of her human trials resultds) and again this season is about to retool every gerbil in National City with her non noncere crackpot experiment, Lena and Kara will have conjugal jail house visits in their future.
“Stay as healthy as you can gang!”
And hire good writers, Supergirl show runners!
Monty
I’ve definitely been disappointed in Kelly’s character progression Monty; first you finally have a therapist in this group which means you could get into some deep character stuff with them but what’s Kelly doing? Making heart eyes at Alex. You have someone who supports the technology you have in play as a plot element this season but what is Kelly doing? Having like a 30 second scene at best which is not enough time to really do a counterpoint when another character is also getting time in the scene to say their peace. You have yet another example of how not all heroes wear capes or how not every team member has to fight to be considered valuable but what’s Kelly doing? Busting out a shield from her brother’s failed costume adventures. Kelly could be an interesting character but she’s been limited in every way; again her screen time is extremely limited, I’m pretty sure the CatCo exterior has had more screen time than her, and when she does get it it’s usually some look to Alex which does not make me see a romance writers, again friends with benefits, but why should I ship them together over other possibilities for Alex and Kelly also I don’t know.
Arguably the only thing that stopped the wife from physically cheating Monty was distance and maybe she chose someone out of the area because it was easier to get away with so it comes off more as she was trying to have it all rather than it being an indulgence of fantasy. If it was a fantasy match where realistically it would probably never happen due to not just distance but a difference in preferences (ex: personality wise, sexuality wise, looks wise – all the options for why someone would hook up with another person) and a difference in social circles so you may never meet honestly it would be maybe something the husband could write off, but because Al’s brother is someone the wife could actually hook up with in not for distance than it makes it more real and thus he can’t write it off as an indulgence of fantasy. What’s the saying, look but don’t touch? It may have been digitally but she touched. I think it’s an interesting discussion you could pose with what’s the difference in virtual actions versus dream actions as both aren’t the real world, but I think at the end of the day it may come down to intent regardless of where you are and it seemed like the wife was into Al’s brother but not being caught so I’d say it was cheating even if it wasn’t physically acted upon more than her just acting out a fantasy with someone she could never otherwise have if that makes sense. Even if she couldn’t have Al’s brother and it was more of a fantasy thing you could then question is this just a one time thing or is this a multiple occurrence and if it’s multiple are you also thinking about your relationship partner because if you’re having sex with everyone but your relationship partener in your ideas then why are you with your relationship partner still and again you have the question of cheating as with marriage you are legally with someone else but you aren’t emotionally with them you’ve moved on and so technically it’s cheating. Hopefully that made sense but yeah I’m still going with she cheated even if she couldn’t physically be with the brother in the moment.
2 years since the last time Jeremiah was mentioned…yeah that worry over the plot getting it’s weight is in full force now! We might get a little commenting on him at the start and the end but the rest will probably be a look at “what if” for Alex more than addressing why she picked this scenario or why she made the choices she did in the virtual reality even though she has a therapist girlfriend right there and again it could give us some interesting character stuff. Again I’m going to hope I’m wrong on this and hope it’s a good episode but I won’t hold my breath.
I won’t hold my breath for the episode to fix pot holes Monty; it could but it could also create more issues, again this season hasn’t been great for handling so it’s hard to get excited about things.
I’m still mad at Lena for not bringing in Alex like Sam asked! Taking on Reign alone is definitely a her bad. Still #LenaIsNOTEvil. 🙂
#CaitlinParrishForShowrunnerForSupergirlS6…at the very least bring her back into the writers’ room!
Aaron on March 19, 2020 at 10:53 pm
REPLY follows.
“I’ve definitely been disappointed in Kelly’s character progression Monty; first you finally have a therapist in this group which means you could get into some deep character stuff with them but what’s Kelly doing? Making heart eyes at Alex. You have someone who supports the technology you have in play as a plot element this season but what is Kelly doing? Having like a 30 second scene at best which is not enough time to really do a counterpoint when another character is also getting time in the scene to say their peace. You have yet another example of how not all heroes wear capes or how not every team member has to fight to be considered valuable but what’s Kelly doing? Busting out a shield from her brother’s failed costume adventures. Kelly could be an interesting character but she’s been limited in every way; again her screen time is extremely limited, I’m pretty sure the CatCo exterior has had more screen time than her, and when she does get it it’s usually some look to Alex which does not make me see a romance writers, again friends with benefits, but why should I ship them together over other possibilities for Alex and Kelly also I don’t know.”
I don’t know what to write with regards to the Kelly character. Maybe; I DO. I like Azie Tasfei, because she has charisma through the camera, unlike the thoroughly unlikeable Florianna Lima and Staz Nair, but the Kelly character is so poorly written. I could take a stab at the problem if the writers could follow a season outline, but that demands that an overall master plotter which for this show should be Katie Rose Rogers or Jessica Cardos, the story editors, sit down and hammer out what each character in an ensemble cast should be doing for 20-22 episodes per season. In the case of the Kelly character.
a. Run clinical interviews and experience studies on the “victims” of the Obsidian North trials. It is the Andrea Rojas character or “Scientist # 2” from episode to episode who should handle code and hardware problems with the VR wifi and with the software coding of same. Psychologists deal with human beings, not the machines when it comes to human factors testing. Liberal arts majors should not write the sciencey stuff.
b. The Kelly character in the “love object” treatment of the season character arc, should not be an object, but a romantic partner for one of the leads with just enough incidents or quick exchanges in each episode to show that a ‘domestic arrangement” is in play. The showrunners on Supergirl have been utterly cowardly in this regard in refusing to show domesticity in a couples fashion with Chyler and Azie, mainly I believe with how negative an audience feedback they received from the first time they bungled a love interest for the Alex character. This is directly on point with reference to poor casting choices, and incompetent writing by emotionally immature women writers who are utterly clueless as to how to portray real people, real adults in mature relationships on television or on video. I notice the incompetence. Couples have tension and action over ridiculous things like grocery lists and someone not picking up after herself in the bathroom or even leaving dirty dishes in the sink or not running the dishwasher. One of two items like that every three or four episodes and the audience instantly connects “couple”.
c. Kelly, with a shield, does not bother me as much as Kelly not being good at her job. If someone were as incompetent a psychologist as Kelly, I would haul her into court, first on criminal medical malpractice (see previous remarks above.) and then in an unending series of civil suits until I ran her out of the medical profession as an incompetent. In FACT, if I was writing the next eight episodes it would be a Kelly and Alex story line preparatory to writing the Kelly character out of the show.
“Arguably the only thing that stopped the wife from physically cheating Monty was distance and maybe she chose someone out of the area because it was easier to get away with so it comes off more as she was trying to have it all rather than it being an indulgence of fantasy. If it was a fantasy match where realistically it would probably never happen due to not just distance but a difference in preferences (ex: personality wise, sexuality wise, looks wise – all the options for why someone would hook up with another person) and a difference in social circles so you may never meet honestly it would be maybe something the husband could write off, but because Al’s brother is someone the wife could actually hook up with in not for distance than it makes it more real and thus he can’t write it off as an indulgence of fantasy. What’s the saying, look but don’t touch? It may have been digitally but she touched. I think it’s an interesting discussion you could pose with what’s the difference in virtual actions versus dream actions as both aren’t the real world, but I think at the end of the day it may come down to intent regardless of where you are and it seemed like the wife was into Al’s brother but not being caught so I’d say it was cheating even if it wasn’t physically acted upon more than her just acting out a fantasy with someone she could never otherwise have if that makes sense. Even if she couldn’t have Al’s brother and it was more of a fantasy thing you could then question is this just a one time thing or is this a multiple occurrence and if it’s multiple are you also thinking about your relationship partner because if you’re having sex with everyone but your relationship partner in your ideas then why are you with your relationship partner still and again you have the question of cheating as with marriage you are legally with someone else but you aren’t emotionally with them you’ve moved on and so technically it’s cheating. Hopefully that made sense but yeah I’m still going with she cheated even if she couldn’t physically be with the brother in the moment.”
d. I can only show what the law can cover. A person can be charged with the planning and execution of a physical act, but even in the planning, thinking is not actionable. It is the actual planning steps invoked to create the intended deed.
e. In the case of the wife and Al’s brother, the chargeable offense is the creation of the medium that allows the virtual cheating to occur. This means that the indictment handed down would name Andrea Rojas and Kelly Olsen as the subjects who created the physical means and opportunity whereby the infidelity occurred based ostensibly on the motive to profit monetarily by running a “virtual brothel”. THAT is the crime. See how it works? RICO. (See previous remarks about where Kelly should wind up once Obsidian blowbacks and the law starts to react to the criminality involved in this enterprise.)
f. Now in the case of domestic infidelity covered by d=> the only recourse there is civil court, which is divorce proceedings. That is strictly contract law, in which case Al divorces his wife and sues Obsidian North for contributing to breakup of his marriage.
“2 years since the last time Jeremiah was mentioned…yeah that worry over the plot getting it’s weight is in full force now! We might get a little commenting on him at the start and the end but the rest will probably be a look at “what if” for Alex more than addressing why she picked this scenario or why she made the choices she did in the virtual reality even though she has a therapist girlfriend right there and again it could give us some interesting character stuff. Again I’m going to hope I’m wrong on this and hope it’s a good episode but I won’t hold my breath.”
g. I’m sure we will find out that Leviathan has done something to Jeremiah. If it is Metallo 4.0 I’m going to be very annoyed.
h. Super-Alex is already predicated in the roll-outs. Just grin and bear it.
i. Based on h. , can we have a nickel and a dime for Kelly? I mean 5 years in prison and the $10,000 dollar fine is about right for her gross negligence and incompetence seen so far.
j. Based on I. , that would be a c. , where we could have a courtroom oap opera running with Kelly and then the Kelly in prison kind of story line to mimic the Oliver Queen buffalo sierra they ran on Arrow when those showrunners put Stephen Amell on ice for a few episodes.
k. Now that I think about it… How about putting Melissa Benoist on ice for a few episodes with that soap opera gag, instead of trying to shoot around her condition?
“I won’t hold my breath for the episode to fix plot holes Monty; it could but it could also create more issues, again this season hasn’t been great for handling so it’s hard to get excited about things.”
l. Trust me, Kelly and Kara in the same jail cell will solve a lot of plot holes and open up huge story possibilities. Comedy for one thing.
“I’m still mad at Lena for not bringing in Alex like Sam asked! Taking on Reign alone is definitely a her bad. Still #LenaIsNOTEvil.”
m. That Titanic has sailed. Only way for Lena not to heel turn is to be in the same jail cell with Kara and Kelly and for much the same reason. She has committed negligent homicide, kidnapped, experimented without permission, human trafficked, and committed medical fraud, insider trading, computer fraud, and is attempting civil insurrection against the legal constitutional government (treason) ; so Lena has crossed the Lex Luthor line a long time ago. It is a miracle that her non noncore conspiracy has not put under the jail, yet.
n. Lena may not be evil, but her actions, based on m. , indicate galloping insanity. She is a MAD scientist, I am afraid.
“#CaitlinParrishForShowrunnerForSupergirlS6…at the very least bring her back into the writers’ room!”
Have to sell that one to the show runners.
=============================================================
P.S. I wrote a lot of the above with a sense of hyperbole, because ya’ know… comic books allow a lot of really outré stuff to pass for normal on a Berlanti show, but seriously in the real world, the west wing of iron Heights would be jammed full of half of the Supergirl cast for their plotted story shenanigans. The other half would be in Arkham.
Monty
I would love to see more of Andrea coding Monty so definitely yes to A with more showcasing of Andrea’s involvement in the product while Kelly examines the repercussions of its human usage! They can still have Kelly make inputs about things based on how a line of code might react in the body but the person who types it in should be Andra or a technician not Kelly.
To expand on your B point in regards to Kelly, those little moments could also be used as markers for passage of time to show just how far into the relationship people are or at the least give us character insight – are they moved in together because it’s been almost a year or are they moved in together because it’s been a month and Alex likes to hold thing close when she’s has them? Does Kelly have her own place still because she knows it’s ok to take big choices slow. The dishes as you pointed out – who thinks it can wait and who thinks they must be done now for less mess out and health standards? Little moments can have big things to them also with a little effort. I know some writers think happy couples for a long period of time is boring TV but for me it just feels realistic and especially if you like the couple you’re going to want more happy content instead of drama, drama, drama; again I don’t know what it is with the season but it definitely feels like an extreme highlights version romance with Kelly/Alex than an actual romance you can really invest in. It’s like cool they kissed but how is Kelly going to react to Kara as Supergirl (fine I would assume but you have to ask everyone because someone could be different); awe they smiled at each other, but how do they handle a difference of opinion…fans want the meat of a plot not just the summary!
Handicapping the intellect of character’s to the job skills they should have is annoying to me as well Monty, but that shield is pretty annoying too I have to say! It reminds me of the awful Guardian screen time and just what a mess that whole plot was. To paraphrase Edna Mole from “The Incredibles” NO SHIELDS! 🙂
I actually liked the Oliver prison stuff in season 7 “Arrow”, I’ll admit it did go on a little too long looking back but I felt it was an earned position for his character after everything that had happened.
With CGI they could have Supergirl land and just shoot her from the chest up when she goes to stand up; there are ways to shoot around the baby bump if she’s still pregnant during the start of filming or take it easy on Melissa if she’s given birth by the start of filming. You could also do Alex heavy episodes or show people who don’t normally work together like Lena and J’onn doing an episode A plot together in the space to help Melissa have time. There’s definitely going to be work involved but I think they can get it together.
“The other half would be in Arkham.” – what the writers heard: crossover! Ha.
Aaron on March 21, 2020 at 11:26 am
A. thesis.
“I would love to see more of Andrea coding Monty so definitely yes to A with more showcasing of Andrea’s involvement in the product while Kelly examines the repercussions of its human usage! They can still have Kelly make inputs about things based on how a line of code might react in the body but the person who types it in should be Andrea or a technician not Kelly.”
A. Comments
Based on observation; software code-writers, psychologist and business managers (the work which Andrea Rojas by story logic and what we have seen should be her back story, Andrea should not even be writing code. Besides psychologists, cyber linguists and business people do not even understand each other. (Has any business manager EVER brought new software to market on time and on budget? No.) (How many whackjob hackers have psychologists cured? None.) Like many “neat ideas” she has been underutilized as a character and wasted for the money invested in paying that actress’ salary this season. It goes directly to a show-runner incompetence at the production level in not even making sure that this payroll expense meets returns in story impact and screentime seen. The writers are not being held to account for that expense they gin up and do not justify. I mean aside from the origin episode with Acrata has the Rojas character even been necessary? More on the thoroughly bungled Leviathan storyline in a moment.
B: thesis.
“To expand on your B point in regards to Kelly, those little moments could also be used as markers for passage of time to show just how far into the relationship people are or at the least give us character insight – are they moved in together because it’s been almost a year or are they moved in together; because it’s been a month and Alex likes to hold things close when she’s has them? Does Kelly have her own place still because she knows it’s ok to take big choices slow. The dishes as you pointed out – who thinks it can wait and who thinks they must be done now for less mess out and health standards? Little moments can have big things to them also with a little effort. I know some writers think happy couples for a long period of time is boring TV but for me it just feels realistic and especially if you like the couple you’re going to want more happy content instead of drama, drama, drama; again I don’t know what it is with the season but it definitely feels like an extreme highlights version romance with Kelly/Alex than an actual romance you can really invest in. It’s like cool they kissed but how is Kelly going to react to Kara as Supergirl (fine I would assume but you have to ask everyone because someone could be different); awe they smiled at each other, but how do they handle a difference of opinion…fans want the meat of a plot not just the summary!”
B. Comments
Show do not tell the audience how the situation develops. Show Kelly’s character in the kitchen. She yells; “Alex, there are dirty dishes in the sink!” Alex yells out of scene; “I’ll get them later.” Do the dirty clothes in the bathroom bit, with Kelly picking Alex’s things up and putting them in the clothes hamper. During game night, have Kelly frown at Alex hitting the sauce as usual. Have Kelly use a coaster for her own lemonade drink. Conversely have Alex comment in a car driving scene, that Kelly drives like a little old lady. Put Alex on a motorcycle with a terrified Kelly and let the two of them Batgirl to a crime scene.
This stuff writes itself over six or seven episodes and only takes 6 minutes screen time. SHEESH, if “I” can do it, then why cannot these writers?
C. thesis
“Handicapping the intellect of characters to the job skills they should have is annoying to me as well Monty, but that shield is pretty annoying too I have to say! It reminds me of the awful Guardian screen time and just what a mess that whole plot was. To paraphrase Edna Mole from “The Incredibles” NO SHIELDS!”
C. Comments
Give the shield to Alex.
D. thesis
“I actually liked the Oliver prison stuff in season 7 “Arrow”, I’ll admit it did go on a little too long looking back but I felt it was an earned position for his character after everything that had happened.
With CGI they could have Supergirl land and just shoot her from the chest up when she goes to stand up; there are ways to shoot around the baby bump if she’s still pregnant during the start of filming or take it easy on Melissa if she’s given birth by the start of filming. You could also do Alex heavy episodes or show people who don’t normally work together like Lena and J’onn doing an episode A plot together in the space to help Melissa have time. There’s definitely going to be work involved but I think they can get it together.”
D. Comments
If you have an actress in the middle of the birth cycle, and it is a stunt heavy role, you want a story line a year long that will protect your actress and give her a chance to work through as long as possible until she gives birth.
This can be handled two ways on Supergirl. Introduce Superbaby (Ugh!) as a plot point in a Season 6 story line, or park your Lead heroine in a storyline where she is off the board and guest hero for the 8-16 episodes from now to the middle of season 6 to make it all work.
I nominate REIGN. Put Kara in the cooler and let Reign do an Azrael substitute Batman type storyline on Leviathan. See how Gemma handles a Kryptonian that goes all Avenging Angel on her. For Leviathan do THIS>
https://bluebeetleandboostergold.fandom.com/wiki/Maxwell_Lord
Reign gets to do the necksnap.
For Azrael/Batman see here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azrael_%28comics%29
Blood and thunder a plenty. Azrael left dead bodies everywhere and his “redemption” at the end was a real mental illness mess, sort of like Alice is behaving on the current CW Batwoman. Sam goes nuts until she does Gemma and then she has to undergo “treatment” as she is found “not guilty by reason of insanity”. Hey, what do you know? Kelly is her psychologist! I tell you this stuff writes itself. You do not have to work all that hard to gin up interesting story elements better than the sludge we get.
E. thesis
“The other half would be in Arkham.” – what the writers heard: Crossover! Ha.
F. Comment
Why not? Heroes in Berlanti-verse gang up to spring, Lena, Kara, Kelly and probably Alex and prove all of them (except Lena and Kelly who will need pardons.) innocent of all charges.
Hah!
Monty
Jumping an episode ahead.
Supergirl (TV Series) “Alex in Wonderland” (2020) (516)
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Hello Maid of Steel Podcasters; “I Sing the Body Electric” Monty here.
One Name to blame/praise …. Mariko Tamaki
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6238555/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr7
Her other experience?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariko_Tamaki
Brief synopsis: Mariko Tamaki of Toronto, Canada; comes originally from a performance artist/ comedienne background. She wrote a couple of juvenile young adult graphic novels of some mediocrity which brought her to the attention of Christina Harrington at Marvel ™. Under Ms. Harrington’s uneven tutelage, Ms. Tamaki developed some writing skills and storyboarding technique while authoring She Hulk and X-23, two female lead comic book serials.
So how did she come to write this episode of Supergirl?
Paul Kaminski, Andrew Marino, and Dan Didio took a chance and let Ms. Tamaki pitch a Supergirl limited series titled “Supergirl; Being Super” about young Kara growing up and discovering her Kryptonian past and her true origins in a coming of age story aimed at the young teenage female adult audience. Sound familiar after seeing this episode of Alex in Wonderland? The young adult graphic novel has father-daughter issues and the first deceived love and gender confusion issues galore but bit is mostly about adolescent into maturity trandformation as Kara figures her self out. There is a confusion between what the main character wishes were true and is true about her. In other words, a bit autobiographical for Ms. Tamaki and for the first time in her career, PROOF that she can write well.
https://www.amazon.com/Supergirl-Being-Super-Mariko-Tamaki/dp/1401268943
The limited series is available for purchase via Amazon and Comixology.
========================================================
So that is the writer.
How did the Supergirl cast and crew do with the teleplay?
Acting semi-successes.
Right away I noticed that the first principles, Chyler, Melissa, David fell into their character motivations easily. I was surprised by the jolting FIRST SEASON Supergirl jealous Alex character callback that Chyler dredged up from the opening scene forward. I was also surprised that Melissa remembered her first season Supergirl and still managed to play it forward to a more experienced Supergirl with nuances of character maturity we should have seen from the character’s growth to season 5 so far..
As an aside, in the dialog Aaron and I had about Reality Bytes, last episode, she and I discussed the problems the SG writers had with the Alex/Kelly relationship. In the back and forth, I mentioned how the writing to illustrate how such a couple should be sketched in with show, not tell incidents over six or seven episodes. Well… Ms. Tamaki, Jessica Kardos and Rob Wright dumped a half season of such elements into the first five minutes. Messy Alex, alcoholic Alex, psycho Alex and Kelly the Felix to Alex’s Oscar show up. The acting is good, but the compression of what should have been a build up to psycho-Alex is forced. The acting only manages to carry it halfway up the story incline. Not even Brie Larson (Captain Lost Her Marbles) and Annette Benning (Kree Not So Supreme Intelligence) could pull the acting off to sell this compressed writing. The direction by Tawnia McKiernian does not help.
Acting Fail Hards.
If you could quantify charisma as a through the camera value (Q) and it can be by sociometrics, (audience testing) then you can take the scenes with Azie Tesfai and Chyler Leigh and directly contrast those scenes with Azie Tesfai and Staz Nair. GAH! It is jaw droppingly shocking how much of a deadhead / blockhead presence in a two person set piece Staz Nair is in presence. He is so bad in front of the camera that he actually depresses Azie Tasfai’s ability to act. She cannot act or react with him. It is almost as if the personal dislike between them shines through like a floodlight and overwhelms whatever else the scene is supposed to convey. With Chyler, there is enough interaction and likeability between the two actresses that they can sell domesticity up to a point. With Staz Nair, Azie acts like she is trapped in an elevator with a pile of manure. If the camera can pick that up, and it can, then there is something disastrously wrong with the William Dey character. He should be soap operaed off the show immediately.
Acting Fail Mehs.
As Chyler goes off into Cloud Cuckoo Land, she is the lead whack-job and manages to cope with her part of dubious-ville quite well. I do not know what Tawnia McKiernen, as director, told Dave Harewood, she wanted from him, but it is a cross between 3rd rate Shakespeare Iago from Otello and Snidely Whiplash from Dudley Doright of the Miunties. It is funny awful. Nicole Maines performs a perfect tree in scenes and Jesse Rath as Braindead, well he mumbles and stumbles his characters through. Olivia McKannen as young Alex (Couldn’t the hairdresser tint her hair properly? Fire that person!), gives a 4.0 sanity check performance and Anne Hollister as Tillie/Bonnie gives up a weird middle aged Laura Kroft tomb-raider bit. Kudos to Spike the dragon. Everyone else is community theater.
Story A.
If you buy into Alex goes nuts and runs away from home/reality/her self just because she is daddy’s girl with daddy issues, and is a closet alcoholic/addict and is a 16 year old at heart, then you might buy into her story. It is an interesting story but it has the big problem that it is a TEENAGER’s story. Adults do not behave this way. But given what it is and the target audience of this show and the writer, it is about the best treatment of this defective kind of setup I have seen in a while.
Story B.
Leviathan. UGH. So Lex is putting up a Starlink service to help Lena spring non-nocere on everybody so he can perform the usual take over the world
thing? And Gemma is somehow running her own side-game of warehousing VR addicts in a literal warehouse for reasons? Spoooooky! And Blockhead and Kelly are Holmeless and Witless-son hot on the trail, so that Blockhead finds the patient’s bracelet clue IN THAT WAREHOUSE after he walks halfway into it and is first blank-faced by an illusion wall mirror effect. (Normal for Staz Nair all the time on this show, is that stupid blank expression he wears, like the gerbil in his brain wheel died and he is in zombie mode. I might as well call him, the Charlie Brown meme, “What a blockhead!”). Guess that is a -20 in the writing of the B story.
Overall impression.
I liked following crazy Alex around in delusion-ville just for the gaffes and laughs and to see those bits of Alex and Kelly we should have seen spread over this season pepper this episode and fill in the blanks to build a family album in one go. It should have been scattered over time, but better late than never. We have a believable domestic couple at last. Too bad the compression makes it only a half-baked cake of verisimilitude. One good writer cannot repair the season’s worth of sins of omission in this plotline.
NEVER give me a common metric I can measure scene against scene. Azie Tesfai was that Q metric. With Chyler she is good and can perform a reasonable character interpretation. With Blockhead, she cannot act at all. She is just there reciting lines and standing on mark. I first noticed Blockhead could not perform with Melissa, but could not put my finger on it, but now I know for certain. Staz Nair comes through the camera as a jerk. He may be a swell guy in real life, but I can only report what the camera shows me. He needs to forget acting and take up another profession. Used car salesman or roofing contractor comes to mind.
Time to rate> (Complicated)
Acting
Acting: The Alex in Dubious-ville part is 3. Rest of it was -20.
Directing
Directing: Alex in Dubious-ville was 3, rest of it was 2. McKiernan screwed up pacing, PoV and 2 person set pieces.
Writing
Writing should have been 20, but Blockhead ruined the B story with his existence and the essential Mariko Tamaki mistake of making it about teenagers instead of functioning adults in the Alex A story makes it only a 5.
Overall? Acting was -17 (Mostly Blockhead’s ruining everything acted whenever he skunked up a scene.), Directing was a 3 (McKiernan additionally goofed up her horizon line and group shots.), The 5 is for Writing (Tamaki has to write adults eventually. She cannot replay her themes of emergent adolescence over and over forever.) out of 5/5/5
This was an episode to which I gave the extended analysis treatment. It will be in the comments for Reality Bytes and in the Feedback for this episode. Upon conclusion, I can say this has been the most interesting season 5 episode of SG for me to take apart.
And just say NO to Staz Nair! Bring back Chris Wood and Mon-el Railroad. At least with him you get sushi. With Blockhead you get blarrrgh.
Monty