Sunday, July 31, 2016

Shattering the Ceiling - Earth S2016 E30

This will teach me not to get my expectations up. After last week's awesome episode, I had high hopes that the series was finally getting back on track, but, no.

Hillary's always been a problematic character. Her first introduction back in season 1992 was exciting -- at last, after the dismal failure of Margaret Thatcher, the writers were going to give us a real, strong woman in a central role. Remember how excited everyone was when she said that voting for Bill would be a two-for-one deal?

So what did the writers do? Right out the gate, they had her fail in passing healthcare reform. There we were with what was supposed to be a revolutionary presidency, and they kneecapped it right in the first season!

And if that wasn't bad enough, the ratings started to tank right after that. Now anyone with a brain could figure out the problem was the end of the Cold War arc. The Persian Gulf War had been good, but that was over in a single season, and the whole Balkan subplot was too confusing for anyone to follow. But rather than building up a new conflict, what did we get? Billy gets a blowjob from an intern. The single dumbest plot in the show's entire run. Three seasons of story revolving around an affair.

And to make it work, the writers had to neuter Hillary. They turned her into a good wife who stood by her man through thick and thin. For me, that was the moment when the character lost all credibility.

Honestly, Hillary should've been written out of the show at that point and the writers could've tried again with a more credible female character, but instead they brought her back as a Senator from New York. (Why New York? Who knows! She had no connection to the state before season 2000, but the writers waved their magic wand and suddenly she was a New Yorker.)

And immediately after that, the writers made her look ridiculous by having her get duped by George, Jr. (George, Jr!) into supporting the Iraq War. Seriously? What happened to Hillary, the strong female character who was going to be Bill's co-president?

After that, of course, we got the Obama arc with Hillary promoted to Secretary of State. Given the mess George, Jr. left the show in, you'd think this would, finally, be her time to shine. But no. First thing to happen, she gives a reset button to Russia, even though it's blatantly obvious to everyone watching that Putin's being set up as the second coming of Stalin. Yet again, the writers undermined her character by letting her get duped. Then the show got mired with these stupid subplots about Benghazi and her emails -- subplots that are still going on, even though nobody gives a shit. It strains credibility that characters in the show actually think any of this stuff is a major issue. But they do.

By this point, the writers should've given up on the character. She's been nothing but a trainwreck. They've undermined her at every turn. And the character's pushing 70. But instead of letting her and Bill retire quietly, now they're pushing her as a Presidential candidate?

I don't get it.

I just don't get it.

Every episode this season, I've been expecting some twist to come up that would make Bernie the nominee. Or better yet, the writers would find some way to make Elizabeth Warren the candidate. Anything but four more seasons of bad writing for Hillary.

My biggest fear right now is the writers are setting her up for a fall. They want Trump to win and shake things up, so they've positioned the worst candidate on the Democratic side -- the only candidate who might believably lose to that shithead. (The fact that she picked Tim Kaine as her running mate supports this -- if the writers were plotting some shocking twist that would elevate the VP to the Oval Office, surely they would've gone with Warren, or anybody more interesting than the piece of cardboard that Hillary picked.)

(And while we're on the subject, can we take a moment to discuss the decision to recast Chelsea Clinton? I know the actress who played the teen Chelsea has run into some problems in life. It happens. I wish her the best. But when the producers decided to bring a new actress in for the role, did they have to make her such a babe? I feel that totally undercuts the original Chelsea's character arc, where she learned to value herself for her intellect and personality and to ignore what Rush Limbaugh had to say about her looks. All that's been thrown out now so the new, super hot Chelsea can stand in counterpoint to Ivanka. But think of how much more of a contrast she'd present if she still looked down to earth and a little frumpy, more of an everygirl character.)

So now I guess I have to discuss the elephant in the room -- the Wikileaks twist.

What a clusterfuck.

As I said last week, I understand there've been problems between the producers and the actor who plays Assange, and that's why he was written out of the show with that rape plotline even though he was an immensely popular character. Fine. But to bring him back and ruin his character like this?

It doesn't even make sense. The last time Wikileaks was a major plotline, the Republicans were up in arms about the group and wanted to hang Assange. But now, suddenly, he's working for them to destroy Hillary under orders from Vladimir Putin? WTF. Are we supposed to believe he's been a Russian agent this whole time? Way to retroactively ruin one of the most interesting plot lines from the last few seasons. Throw in the part where the Republicans are suddenly against NATO, and the terrorists are targeting France instead of the USA, and I have to wonder, are the writers even watching the show anymore? Nothing makes sense. They're coming up with random plot twists for no good reason. The way this show's going, they might as well make Trump president and have him start WWIII, that way the show can go out with a big bang and we can finally be done with it.

NEXT WEEK: The return of Harry Potter. Wow, I guess they really are desperate for ratings.

No comments:

Post a Comment