What I’m Watching: Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer: Season 3, Episode 7 “Ouroboros” (B)

Generally speaking, I’m a fan of alternate realities and mirror universes where characters inhabit different roles and act in a completely unexpected way. That wasn’t quite the case here since it was just an extended fever dream of Layton’s, but at least it was good to see something unlike the norm, with Layton theoretically assigning meaning to each of the characters that doesn’t track with what we’ve seen them do. Wilford was actually one of the heroes of the story, while LJ was typically cruel and unforgiving but in the apparent service of the law, something that she has no regard for in the way that we know her. Till for some reason didn’t get to have a different identity, while Pike was a priest and the person running the entire show was his grown daughter. The developments in the real world were more notable, namely Audrey seeing Till crying and offering to help lure Layton back to consciousness and Zara apologizing to Josie so that the two of them can be good now. When Alex came to find Wilford, he was in a considerably more stable and productive state than when Audrey went to see him. His latest theory is one I can very much get behind, and it also answers the question of why Jennifer Connelly was still in promotional advertisements for this season. If you don’t see someone die, or even if you do – like in Josie’s case – it’s best to assume that they’re still out there. Let’s bring back Melanie!

What I’m Watching: 12 Monkeys

12 Monkeys: Season 4, Episode 2 “Ouroboros” (B)

As I write this, I’m well aware that the final season of this show has already completed finished airing, but I still have a full nine hours left before I’m all done with this wild time-bending adventure. We’ve reached a point typical of shows at this point close to the end of their runs, which allows characters to relive past moments and see better, or at least naiver times, once again. Often, shows have transformed so much from their starts to their ends that newly important characters play an overly crucial role in current events even if they haven’t been stalwarts the whole time, and this show is a fortunate exception. Not only can its characters actually travel through time, but we’re getting to see them go back to the formative moments that got everything started, with the reintroduction of Ramse as a particularly sentimental inclusion. Cole suggesting that Jones should walk around as herself since their former selves were only looking for scavenging intruders and not their mirror images was clever, and it’s incredible to see just how much Jones knows about her own future as a result of repeated non-paradox visits from those with information about what will come in her life. Cassie going back to 1971 to kill Olivia with no tether was made all the more impactful by her appropriation of Cole’s “This was always a one-way trip” catchphrase, cementing the fact that she’s become the most hardened of all these time-travelers, a major difference from how she was when she first started. As I stated in my review of the season premiere, I really do wish that Jennifer’s hallucinated self who evaporated into oblivion had died a real death, but I’m on the edge of my seat with curiosity after her latest move to fall back onto the train platform with a certainty that she wasn’t alone.

What I’m Watching: Shameless

Shameless: Season 7, Episode 9 “Ouroboros” (B+)

Hurricane Monica is back, and she really does an incredible ability to rile up all her children – and her ex-husband – and to keep a few of the younger kids on the hook until she ultimately devastates them. She did do a magnificent job of getting Franny back for Debs, and she couldn’t even screw up the DCFS hearing, which went about as well as it could have, granting her custody again and visitation for those who took her. Fiona going after the girl who wrote a terrible Yelp review of the laundromat was quite a sight to witness, and drinking her milkshake was an especially formidable show of unrestrained fury. Kev suggesting thruples therapy was an interesting idea, and the process went pretty well, but then Svetlana casually announcing her ownership of the bar, which negates all the goodwill she had earned and makes her a serious threat to their happiness. It’s a distant memory, but Svetlana was married to Mickey, who has now apparently escaped jail and is most certainly coming for his beloved Ian over his actual wife, something that’s going to shake Ian up in a big way and might threaten his semi-stable relationship with Trevor. Lip is throwing his life away, spending more time trying to fix the plumbing in the new apartment of the girl who broke with him than getting his act together to apply for a paid internship that the professor who still has faith in him set up for him. I don’t see that going well, and I’m worried that he’s spiraling.

What I’m Watching: House of Lies

House of Lies: Season 1, Episode 9 “Ouroboros” (B+)

Having characters sit and talk to the camera, or in this case an unseen audience, can produce iffy results. Yet in this case, it’s an effective tool, allowing each one of the primary four characters to air their strengths and weaknesses, and to show how they handle themselves under pressure. Perhaps the most fascinating was Doug, who stumbled all over himself explaining his family name and lineage but emphasized how good he is with numbers, making a surprisingly strong case for his worth. Clyde was predictably casual, while Jeannie was quick to anger and Marty had no patience from the very start. The episode’s most interesting moment came when Jeannie rushed outside to stop Wes from coming into her office, but she couldn’t stop him from introducing himself to Marty. That moment was intense, as Jeannie told Marty the full truth, hoping he wouldn’t ruin things for her. To his credit, he played along, though he did murmur quite a bit about a “Westery” while he was high with Greg Norbert out on the town. Greg seems like he may not be much of a threat to Marty after all, and Monica and her new protégé James are much more fearsome enemies for him. That subtle scene in which Marty discovered his father’s condition just before watching a performance by Roscoe and April was extremely strong, and as always, this show does a formidable job with its more serious material while continuing to bring the funny on a weekly basis.