• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Michael Caine as Scrooge

      The Muppet’s Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 20, 2022
    • Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 1

      2022’s Christmas Movie Watchlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2022
    • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Poster

      REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • Troll: Ine Marie Wilmann as Nora

      REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry with The Hendersons

      Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • Fantastic Four Poster

      The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Matrix Keanu Reeves Neo 2

      1999 was a Mt. Vesuvius of pop culture

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 25, 2019
      Movie Blogs, Music
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Big Sky S03e05: Kylie Bunbury, J. Anthony Pena and Katheryn Winnick as Cassie Dewell, Mo Poppernak and Jenny Hoyt

      Big Sky S03E05 Review: Flesh and Blood - Glamping!

      By Salome G
      | October 22, 2022
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Big Sky S03e10: Gang

      Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Rick And Morty: S01e03

      Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e09: Dedee Pfeiffer and Cree as Denise and Emily

      Big Sky S03E09: Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire – Stalling

      By Salome G
      | December 1, 2022
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff as Drax and Mantis

      REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S01: The Gang

      The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e08: Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes

      Big Sky S03E08 Review: Duck Hunting – I love a weirdo.

      By Salome G
      | November 19, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Splatoon 3 Screenshot

      A trio of Nintendo Switch reviews!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 28, 2022
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • AEW All Out 2022: Keith Lee. Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn

      AEW All Out 2022 - Review and (wild) Speculation!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
      AEW
    Recent
    • WWE WrestleMania 38: Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins

      Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 4, 2023
    • AEW Full Gear 2022: Young Bucks and Kenny Omega Elite Entrance

      AEW Full Gear 2022 – A needed reset at the end of a tough year

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 22, 2022
    • WWE Survivor Series 1997: Bret Hart

      The Montreal Screwjob – Twenty Five Years Later

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 8, 2022
    • AEW Grand Slam 2022: Jungle Boy and Rey Fenix

      AEW GRANDSLAM 2022 showcased the present and future of the promotion

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 25, 2022
    • AEW All Out 2022: CM Punk

      AEW All Out Fall Out: All the CM Punk drama that’s fit to print!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
    • AEW Dark: Ricky Starks (22/09/20)

      The future of the AEW World Championship

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 14, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?
    • The Muppet's Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book
    • 2022's Christmas Movie Watchlist!
    • REVIEW: GDT's Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!
    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock - Break time...
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

    Star Trek Picard S01E05 Review: Stardust City Rag – A mixed bag

    By Matthew Martin
    | February 22, 2020
    TV Blogs

    Episode Five is in the books. You can catch our previous reviews here…

    Episode One earns a 10/10 – It’s Star Trek. It’s more modern, slicker, but still Star Trek. I’m glad it’s back. I’ve really, really missed it.

    Episode Two earns an 8/10 – Picard’s second outing is a solid half of an episode, that itself is only an okay one-tenth of a story. I need more.

    Episode three earns an 8/10 – The show’s third episode ends the storyline’s first act. We’re through the looking glass; now we see where this story is actually going.

    Episode four earns a 5/10 — Patrick Stewart’s mellowed take on Picard continues to be a surreal spectacle as someone who’s been watching him play the role for as long as I can remember. Nevertheless, my interest in the show is waning.

    *****

    Last week was the lowest-rated episode thus far but, despite how empty it left me feeling, I nevertheless walked away with a spark of hope that the show would still find its footing. One hour later and, while I won’t say the spark has turned into a flame, it also hasn’t gone out either.

    What’s keeping me interested?

    In the case of this week, it was two-fold. On the one hand, there was everything the show didn’t have, namely the Romulan subplot on the Borg Cube. The happenings there are mentioned a grand total of one time and that’s it. We don’t even get a quick cutaway scene to remind us what’s happening. Despite the fact that Picard’s entire plot is about getting the old man to that cube and to that girl, I still can’t muster up a whiff of interest in anything that’s happening there.

    The only bonus this week was the fact that it graced us with a few answers to the many questions the show has raised thus far. In a show that has been serialized to the point of feeling like one story arbitrarily hacked into eight pieces, where episodes don’t end so much as “stop,” it was a welcome change of pace to have a mostly self-contained story(!), that gave its two best actors this week the time and space to do some nice acting(!!), and actually revealed some of the plot that’s been stringing us along for half the show thus far(!!!). Those are A+ things. Good job, everyone!

    The only thing you forgot to do was not suck.

    Picard S01e05 Santiago Cabrera Cristobal Chris Rios Dominic Burgess Mr Vup

    First, the self-contained story featured the squad going down to planet “Freecloud” which at first seemed like it was some kind of virtual reality world (and what a dated and horrible idea that would be for a show set in the 25th century), but then when they get there it’s just…the Ready Player One discotheque? The silly pimp outfit, pirate eye patch, funny accents (although Jean Luc finally sounding like a Frenchman, albeit an intentionally horribly cliched one was *mwah*); it was all too much and (other than the accent) not in the “so bad it’s endearing like the Ferengi episodes on DS9” sort of way, but more like the “I don’t want someone to catch me watching this like Spock’s Brain” sort of way.

    Picard S01e05 Patrick Stewart Jean Luc Jeri Ryan Seven Evan Evagora Elnor

    Second, the best scenes of the episode were the ones that featured Picard and Seven, sitting next to each other, playing verbal chess. The single best scene this week came at the end, where the two ex-Borg share a moment of solidarity, both acknowledging that, after all these years, they both know a little part of them is still gone. Picard leaves Seven with a hopeful word, in true Picard fashion, telling her that they keep getting that little part of their humanity back, a piece at a time, every day.

    Seven then beams back to the planet and murders the villain of the week.

    Picard’s still searching for his little missing piece of humanity; Seven seems to be chipping away at what’s left of hers. That’s great, great, great, stuff and I wish the whole show was that good. After episode one, I was left with the impression that this would be a return to Star Trek being a show that loved pondering ideas, debating morality, and resolving conflicts. Halfway through the first season and that feeling has yet to reappear except in little, fleeting, glimpses as we had with Seven/Picard.

    Picard S01e05 Patrick Stewart Jean Luc Jeri Ryan Seven

    Finally, there are the plot reveals. While I am glad to have them, I can’t help but be disappointed now that they’re here. Bruce Maddox was name-dropped from the jump and when he finally gets an episode (recast, unfortunately), it left me supremely disappointed. His opening scene, early in the episode, ended with me thinking he was poisoned and killed, which angered me because I was ready to invest in the character again. Then he’s rescued…only to be killed for real this time. Why build up this character, bring him back, just to kill him without getting any use out of him, personally?

    They set up the relationship between Bruce and Agnes at the beginning of the episode, creating emotional stakes in the rescue plot. That’s good. Then they end that relationship with her murdering him all within the same episode, making the initial reveal feel hollow and contrived. Why not establish they were lovers in episode one? Or episode three? Or any time that’s not the same hour in which she kills him? You’re doing a serialized show here, CBS; use the medium to its potential!

    The reveal that Agnes is working with Admiral Oh at Starfleet is one that many predicted. I didn’t; I thought it was too obvious and that she was actually playing it straight. Turns out she was 100% emotionally invested in their plot right up until the exact moment when she had the opportunity to kill her lover. And he was her lover; she shed those tears while she killed him. She wasn’t faking that. She’s not a total infiltrator. Instead they “got to her,” but without buildup or context, it’s just yet another plot twist.

    So, props to Picard for answering some questions this week. Demerits to Picard for replacing those answers with new ones. Ordinarily it’s good when a show does this, but when the first round of answers are disappointing,  it’s easy to lose faith that the next round will be better.

    6/10 – A marginal step-up from last week; competently directed and occasionally well-acted, but there’s not much to work with here.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    Star TrekStar Trek Picard

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest

    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest

    9 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments
    Gavin the Binge-Watcher
    Gavin the Binge-Watcher
    2 years ago

    As much as I enjoy the programme, it does feel like they’re relying on nostalgia to gain viewers. Throw in some of the old cast members and all is well it seems.

    0
    Reply
    Thatcher
    Thatcher
    2 years ago

    What explains the recast? Don’t get me wrong, the bloke did a great job and if I squinted my eyes, I might not even notice the difference. But it was a weird decision to go with since Brian Brophy is known for the role. I believe he teaches acting classes now, so surely he would’ve been interested in the gig.

    0
    Reply
    BostonAustin
    BostonAustin
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Thatcher

    I think he was involved in some sort of scandal. I don’t remember what it was about, but it must’ve been pretty bad because he appeared to retire from acting shortly thereafter.

    0
    Reply
    Thatcher
    Thatcher
    2 years ago
    Reply to  BostonAustin

    Wow, I had no idea. I guess that makes sense, especially as the series is new, I doubt they want to court controversy. The franchise was always big on teaching life lessons and morals too, which is probably another reason for the request.

    0
    Reply
    Drewsi
    Drewsi
    2 years ago
    Reply to  BostonAustin

    I didn’t know this either. Very interesting. Yes, the show always did try to teach people. It makes sense that they wouldn’t cast someone who was in trouble.

    0
    Reply
    Kkelie
    Kkelie
    2 years ago

    Great review! Again, it’s Seven who will have me coming back for the next episode. Picard trying to talk to her, trying to give her peace was a sweet scene.

    0
    Reply
    cornholio1980
    cornholio1980
    2 years ago

    “Why build up this character, bring him back, just to kill him without getting any use out of him, personally?” Apart from JL, the characters in “Picard”, unfortunately, aren’t really characters. They are plot devices, only there to serve a specific function.

    0
    Reply
    Kkelie
    Kkelie
    2 years ago
    Reply to  cornholio1980

    I too was disappointed with this whole situation. I guess they did it to show that Agnes was acting under Admiral Oh. I kind of suspected that but now we know.

    0
    Reply
    Jordaina
    Jordaina
    2 years ago
    Reply to  Kkelie

    I was confused on this too. Why try to have us get to know someone new to just kill them off in the same episode. That was lame for sure! I hoped after last weeks episode that it would be better.

    0
    Reply

    You might also like

    • Star Trek Picard S01E04 Review: Absolute Candor – An absolute bore

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 14, 2020
    • Star Trek Picard S01E03 Review: The End is the Beginning…of act one

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 7, 2020
    • Star Trek Picard S01E02 Review: Maps and Legends – Asks a lot of questions (and that’s it)

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 31, 2020
    • Star Trek Picard S01E01 Review: Remembrance – Picard is back…and so is Star Trek

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 24, 2020

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    TV Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Doctor Who 2022 October Special Review: The Power of the Doctor – Lackluster

      By Jason Collins
      | October 25, 2022
    • Can the Doctor regenerate into a previous incarnation?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 23, 2022
    • Is the Tardis more sentient plant or machine?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 10, 2022
    • Star Trek Strange New Worlds – Season two wishlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 14, 2022
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 5/5)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz