Homeland Season 2 Episode 2

When I finished Homeland Season 1 about a week and half ago, I was so excited about the soon-to-start Season 2. After all, Season 1 did end on a pretty high note and it had just won the 3 biggest Emmy Awards. Unfortunately, the euphoria from Season 1 did not last very long into the second season.

The second episode of the 'critically lauded' series is a classic example of how absurd Homeland has gotten. Major plot hole after plot hole appeared throughout the episode. Here are some really glaring ones:

Major Plot-hole #1:
Brody getting invited into a top secret live broadcast of DoD operation without proper vetting, removal of electronic devices and what-not. Are we talking about the Pentagon here? Or is this some random police station? Are we talking about a 6-month old Congressman here or a 20 year US Army General?

If Abu Nasir is that big a terrorist they talked about in Season 1, this has got to be a pretty serious operation attended by the President, Army General, Special Ops Director, all the major bureaucratic leaders of the Pentagon. How am i supposed to believe that a 6-MONTH OLD CONGRESSMAN has got a seat reserved for him near the head of the table? Right opposite of Vice President Walden? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

How could Brody be important enough to deserve a seat with the other Army generals and the Vice President himself?

Major Plot-hole #2:

Hey, obvious much?

Oh jolly, Brody just managed to send a text message across the Pacific Ocean, African continent, and length of the Mediterranean Sea to warn Abu Nasir of the assassination attempt, all within the space of a few seconds. It basically happens within a few seconds, that's gotta be pretty amazing. There will definitely be questions asked about how and why Abu Nasir was warned off at the last minute, and direct telecommunication traffic right into Beirut, outside of the CIA/Pentagon's secured channels of communications, will be the first to raise suspicions, if those hunchos in CIA has got any experience at all.

The alternative being a message being bounced around through several people so that it is less likely to be traced back to him, but this would be nigh impossible to warn Abu Nasir on time.

Looking at the speed of message transmission, Brody has to have had Abu Nasir on speed dial. If its that easy and undetectable, why bother with making Roya the middleman? Just continue sending messages in code, why don't you?

Major Plot-hole #3:
Dear Brody, if you voluntarily let Abu Nasir 'live another day', you should be prepared to face the consequences. Why would you get upset about having to continue to act as one of his puppets? Did you ever consider, if he had died, you would have been freed immediately to execute your own version of morally justified retaliation on the US government, free from constraints and dictations from the fucktard?

No? Well then, your amazing lack of intellectual powess certainly disqualifies you from a congressman position. Ah wait, I remembered Sarah Palin had been running for Vice President a while back. Look at what kind of influence you have, Palin, politicians in every show don't have to be smart no more.

Major Plot-hole #4.1:
Carrie, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING? I mean, there's no way you would think she's CIA trained looking at how rashly she jumped out of the vehicle. Option 1: Leaving your companions amidst hostile forces to go into an unknown area blind looking for God knows what, with minimal chance of finding anything. Option 2: Stay with your companions and get out of the area ASAP. No prize for guessing which option smart Carrie picked. Such brainless actions fully justify why she deserves to be kicked out of the CIA. She is a danger to other agents and herself.

Definitely someone with a problem

Major Plot-hole #4.2
Related to Plot-hole 4.1, is the amazing turn of events following Carrie's rash action: Leaving your companions to hostile forces, entering an unknown area without facing any resistance (the building and specific apartment just so happens to be abandoned by inhabitants. No matter that Muslims are polygamous and it is impossible for that Muslim lady to be the only wife of a Hezbollah COMMANDER.) Such a conspicuously blonde lady was able to move unmolested around a Hezbollah stronghold when America is having major tensions with the Muslim Middle East. (though the hostile people did come after her after some time later) A group of foreign looking individuals driving a GENERAL MOTORS COMPANY hatchback into and stopping in a Hezbollah controlled area.

Then the most amazing thing is Carrie is taking all these risks to grab some random documents from a table top in a freely-accessible study room. I mean, if this isn't a show, there's no way a CIA agent would be this STUPID, right? You just have to consider the odds to know random documents lying around is not gonna be worth the risk. Can you imagine dying for some electricity bills? I got plenty of those lying around on my study table.


There's are other more minor plot holes, such as Saul's never-ending blind faith in Carrie and the Brody family's meteoric rise in economic and social standings. But those simply pales in comparison to the above developments. With some of the most  absurd plot lines involving Brody, it will take an actor with significant charisma and conviction to pull them off convincingly. I for one, was not sold by Daniel Lewis' 'critically acclaimed' subtle (read: bland) acting.

Sabriel by Garth Nix
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It was a fantastic book. Garth Nix kept me breathless throughout Sabriel's adventure. There were just the right amount of background information to help the audience understand what went on in the novel, and there were just the right amount of questions left unanswered that will keep readers coming back for book 2. The book can also be read as a standalone, as the main storyline was well wrapped up.

However, since I rated The Way of Kings and both entries in Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles as 5 stars, I felt that Sabriel in comparison falls short in several aspects, as it didn't give me the WOW feeling that i genuinely had with the other books previously mentioned.

In terms of world building, Garth Nix could have explained the magical system (the Charter) of the book, better. Right from page one, the author dumped "Charter" on the readers, without really delving in the mechanics of the magical system throughout the book. Readers were left to fend for themselves picking up clues along the way. In a way it works as it avoids a lot of info-dumping. In another way, it does make a lot of things very convenient for the characters as sometimes the characters got out of difficult situations a bit too easily (such as flying the Paperwing)

As for the characters, none of the characters stood out except for Mogget. Now that guy is fascinating. The schizophrenia and obvious wisdom makes for a very interesting combination. Sabriel is one strong woman, both mentally and magically. While I do admire her will and focus very much, she did come across as rather plain. No cracking wit, no exceptional insight (though this is probably a result of authorial intention to place the main character in a state of perpetual ignorance), no real flaw etc. She's just, for lack of a better term, meh.

I felt the relationship between Sabriel and Touchstone seemed rather rushed towards the end. After Sabriel finding Touchstone irritating for most of the book, the two inexplicably fell in love with each other. Perhaps it was because of the dire situation they found themselves in, you know, like crisis bringing together people. But still, I thought the interaction between them was written in a very cold manner.

I have to add that my perception of the book might have been coloured by firstly, speed reading most of the book, hence I may have missed out key details. It honestly is a very fast paced, a lot of things going on kind of story. And secondly, I accidentally discovered, to my great annoyance, that the next book will not feature Sabriel. Regardless of my thoughts towards the character design, I am still invested in her and would honestly want to read about things from her perspective again.

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Game of Thrones, Season 2 Episode 4

Its been quite long since I last checked in huh.

Today I wanna talk about the fantastic season 2 of the Game of Thrones. This is one of the best shows on TV these days. Besides the keen dialogue, perhaps the most attractive feature of the show is its cast of unique, flawed, vivid, unconventional characters. None of the characters has once behaved the way I expected him to, there's just about surprises around every turn.

This season, this show is complimented by its bevy of excellent actors (with the exception of the random supporting actor coming out for 5 minutes, such as the Lannister cousin today), imaginative costumes, detailed set designs, well-picked location settings.

Game of Thrones is by far, in my opinion, the best cable show I have seen. It mixes a whole range of themes: honor, politics, sex, violence. In short, it is a very, very intelligent show. Of course, a big portion of the credit has to go out to the original book author - George R.R. Martin. The first book, Game of Thrones didn't break the traditional fantasy mold much. But book 2 or season 2 is showing me just how smart this series is.

I LOVED IT~!

Unfortunately, as HBO Presents George RR Martin's freaky story in all its glory, sometimes the show just takes it even further than what my experienced mind can accept (True Blood and Spartacus veteran here). Season 2's episode 4 has just 2 such scenes - They are SO CREEPY/WEIRD/:SSSS

Its better if I just showed you.

Joffrey, Joffrey, Joffrey: this has got to be the creepiest teenager on TV EVER. At merely 15 years of age, he commands his knight to publicly humiliate and beat up his fiancee to be (another 15 year old girl), and here he forces two prostitutes (well-intended gifts from his uncle meant to help him becomes "less (mentally) clogged" ie stupid/weird/evil/twisted) to beat each other up.  

He is an idiot psychopath given all the power. He gets my vote for the most psychotic fictional sociopath ever created. Here's some worthy competition, Hannibal.

That said, I sincerely wonder where Jack Gleeson comes up with the "emotional memory" to portray such a twisted character in a believable fashion.

Scene 2

I can totally understand why the producers left this as the concluding scene for the episode. Despite all the weird out shit that this episode had, I doubt anybody has the appetite to watch anything else after this "unconventional" birthing scene.

When the woman removed her robe at first, you see a swollen belly, she lies down on the floor, spread eagled and starts yelling as if in labour. You think, she's pregnant and ready to give birth already? (she had sex with one of the king's  2 episodes back, promising to give him a son) Okay, maybe her magic sped up her pregnancy.

Then the camera shifts to her belly (first picture), and you see there's something seriously wrong about her stomach: its pulsating. Expanding, contracting, denting... Then the camera moves further down, and you see shit coming out from between her legs. Literally black smoke stuff, which then evolves into claws around her legs: some silently screaming, skull like, black monster.

Hmm, what's wrong with this picture?

I guess this is the point where people start dying. 

Yep, weird shit indeed.

I challenge anyone to find me anything weirder than this.