Plot Idiocy
Sep. 18th, 2007 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuI've been watching The 4400 this season. Never watched it before, but it's been interesting. And overall it's been pretty good. But the most recent episode I watched (I still have the season finale to watch) annoyed the hell out of me. Federal agent Tom Baldwin has been possessed by a bad guy from the future (or has had his brain filled with nanotech machines which have installed a new personality which is a bad guy from the future...same thing, more or less).
He's been acting villainous. His partner and his boss both twigged to the fact that he's been possessed. They're concerned about their friend and co-worker (and in one case, lover). They investigate and find out a possible means of eliminating the nanotech machines and getting their Tom back.
Do they:
A. Pretend nothing is wrong until they're ready to act?
B. Work together to ambush him, catching him offguard and with no hope of escape?
C. Each draw a gun on him, only to have him knock her on her ass (or worse) and then escape, knowing his cover is blown?
If you chose C you're wrong. It happened THREE TIMES, not just two. Okay, the third time she actually managed to put two rounds in Tom's chest before he could shoot her. But she still had him at gunpoint and let him fake her out and almost get her with his holdout piece.
Christ! These woman are supposed to be trained, armed federal agents! If they're all that worried about shooting Tom, then they shouldn't be accosting him (alone, without backup) with a deadly weapon. Lure him into an enclosed space and TASER THE HELL OUT OF HIM, then slap cuffs on him while he's down. It's not rocket science, you know.
I understand that the idea was that Evil Tom was such a badass that (combined with their reluctance to shoot him), he could get away with this crap over and over again. But that's not what I saw. What I saw was couple of DUMBASSES who didn't have the tactical sense god gave an animal cracker. Disappointing!
I'm willing to accept time travel and superpowers that defy all reason and every physical law we know if the story is entertaining. I'll overlook stilted dialogue, wooden acting, flimsy sets, laughable special effects*--all of that--if the plot holds water and the characters are at least as smart as I am. (Smarter is even better--surprising twists that make sense and seem inevitable in retrospect are best of all, but that's an awfully high bar. But at least as smart as me is a bare minimum.) And overall I've been happy with the series. But this episode disappointed me deeply.
*Which is not to say that 4400 suffered from these things, but if the writing is sharp enough I'll overlook them.
This rant brought you by the Beta Tester Minimal Posting Requirements Commission.
He's been acting villainous. His partner and his boss both twigged to the fact that he's been possessed. They're concerned about their friend and co-worker (and in one case, lover). They investigate and find out a possible means of eliminating the nanotech machines and getting their Tom back.
Do they:
A. Pretend nothing is wrong until they're ready to act?
B. Work together to ambush him, catching him offguard and with no hope of escape?
C. Each draw a gun on him, only to have him knock her on her ass (or worse) and then escape, knowing his cover is blown?
If you chose C you're wrong. It happened THREE TIMES, not just two. Okay, the third time she actually managed to put two rounds in Tom's chest before he could shoot her. But she still had him at gunpoint and let him fake her out and almost get her with his holdout piece.
Christ! These woman are supposed to be trained, armed federal agents! If they're all that worried about shooting Tom, then they shouldn't be accosting him (alone, without backup) with a deadly weapon. Lure him into an enclosed space and TASER THE HELL OUT OF HIM, then slap cuffs on him while he's down. It's not rocket science, you know.
I understand that the idea was that Evil Tom was such a badass that (combined with their reluctance to shoot him), he could get away with this crap over and over again. But that's not what I saw. What I saw was couple of DUMBASSES who didn't have the tactical sense god gave an animal cracker. Disappointing!
I'm willing to accept time travel and superpowers that defy all reason and every physical law we know if the story is entertaining. I'll overlook stilted dialogue, wooden acting, flimsy sets, laughable special effects*--all of that--if the plot holds water and the characters are at least as smart as I am. (Smarter is even better--surprising twists that make sense and seem inevitable in retrospect are best of all, but that's an awfully high bar. But at least as smart as me is a bare minimum.) And overall I've been happy with the series. But this episode disappointed me deeply.
*Which is not to say that 4400 suffered from these things, but if the writing is sharp enough I'll overlook them.
This rant brought you by the Beta Tester Minimal Posting Requirements Commission.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-09-19 12:56 pm (UTC)If they just would have shot the motherfucker instead of inventing yet another Rube Goldberg murder process...
But all the same I'm glad I got to see and read all the Bond films and novels.