With this episode, we’ve come to the conclusion of the Mars Brightest arc and the first half of the show. It was a pretty crazy episode from start to finish. It looks like next week, we’ll be getting a recap episode I think from the point of view of Gus and Roddy, since the episode is 12.5. I’ll most likely not be reviewing that, and the sub group said they most likely won’t sub it either so it’ll be a couple weeks until we see episode 13 and the beginning of Carole and Tuesday’s journey of stardom.
While I felt like this episode was stronger, at least the strongest of this Mars Brightest arc, there’s still issues. It was surprising to hear that Spencer also got into music, but it was a passing statement that wasn’t delved into. It would have been cool to see how obsessed he was with it and how he left it, how he feels about it now, etc. I’m glad that he completely supports Tuesday, and I can see that they at least have a decent relationship? They don’t seem too close, what with Tuesday’s “And I’m surprised you’re interested in a failure like me” sentence that says so much. One, she felt like her brother never gave a damn about her. And two, that she has zero self-confidence. And I don’t blame her when her mother only sees Tuesday’s running away as only something detrimental to her image during her campaign, and literally saying she doesn’t expect anything from her own daughter. I mean holy shit, it wasn’t even subtle. It’s no wonder Tuesday got the hell out of there. But at least now she knows that her brother does indeed care about her and wants her to follow her dreams. I just wish we could have spent more time with just the two of them because I was really interested.
Actually, I’m surprised this was all resolved so quickly. I felt the episode rushed with things happening in breakneck speed, with the breakout, the very convenient fan helping the girls out while avoiding the police, and the whole competition wrapping up. I think it would have been better if we had at least another episode to wrap things up? I know this show is mostly positive, what with all the plot armor and good things happening to the girls (with a couple bumps in the road) but I really would like it if they focused more on backstories or flashbacks to really give us time to see how, in this case, Tuesday grew up? We already have an idea, so I guess it would be repetitive, but actually seeing it I think would make a stronger impact.
The theme of this episode was loneliness as Carole and Tuesday being separated they were both able to feel the loneliness in their lives without the other. The theme of loneliness also showed up in the two songs this episode, where Angela gave a pretty good performance, probably my favorite of hers. And our main duo finally performed the full version of The Loneliest Girl, which is one of their best songs and it was quite pretty. Ertegun’s reaction in the end was hilarious. They were able to voice out their loneliness but with strength, not to win since they were disqualified, but just to sing. But they got their debut anyway! Besides, even if the judges didn’t break the rules and turned them away, I’m sure someone somewhere would have given them the chance. Also, interesting to see Angela being cool with them when before she showed more animosity.
Speaking of Angela, I wonder what her feelings are? Tao and Angela had a very interesting talk at Tao’s place that had me going HMM HMM HMM, where she spoke up and said how weird her songs were in that the lyrics match up with her own feelings. Supposedly these songs are supposed to be an amalgamation of the most popular songs to create songs similar to them. But Tao admits that his AI program notes Angela’s feelings every time she was there, and so her own feelings were reflected in her songs. Her newest song reflected her own loneliness stemming from her strained relationship with her mother. But the song she sang before was about not knowing a certain someone’s feelings, not knowing what’s going on in their mind, how it’s not fair (with a shot of the back of Tao’s head) wanting them to…kiss her?Also she straight up told him to look at only her for the final performance. Hmm, HMM I SAY. Again, the part of the show about Angela, her mom, and Tao are what really grab me. I’m also more interested in Angela because of how friendly all of a sudden she seems with Carole and Tuesday. I can see that she respects them and she wanted to have a fair competition with them, but the show made her seem to be the antagonist. Seeing how friendly she is, I wonder what the conflict of the second half of the show will be and if Angela will even be part of the main conflict?
Will we be finally getting into the AI-produced music versus traditional music plot point they teased at the beginning? Will we also get romance between her and Tao, and maybe even between Carole and Tuesday (though I don’t personally feel it now)? I mean, the show does have a romance tag so I wonder where that’s going to come in.
So far, I’m still a little meh on the show. It started off very promising but slowly went down in quality for me, especially when the Mars Brightest stuff started. I hope the second half bounces the show back!
Thank you so much for blogging this show. Your opinions are very much appreciated.