"Dot and Bubble" [review]
Jun. 3rd, 2024 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverThis season is going by too fast!
Spoilers ahead!
Another excellent episode! We've already watched it twice! Loads of fun, and yet also disturbing. This season has so far been one of the best in consistent quality. No, I didn't like "Boom" very much, but I can admit that other people did and therefore don't hold that against it in the statement that this has been a phenonomenal season so far.
One of the best things about studiously avoiding spoilers and any advance information (including the "next time" trailer at the end of the previous episode) is that we get to go into the episode with no expectations whatsoever, except for the episode name that Disney+ so helpfully plasters in the upper left corner of the screen as it starts playing. (Thanks, D+, but could you not? Yeah, thought not.) So, Lindy wakes up and immediately turns on her bubble and catches up with her friends, and I thought, "Oh, this is going to be about how bad social media is." And it was, and yet not.
What it really was about is that getting deeply involved in anything to the exclusion of everything else is bad. Social media was the most obvious example, but relying on the HUD to tell you how to walk, associating only with rich kids, leaving your bodily functions to the online doctor/AI, etc., left the citizens of Finetime unable to cope with anything else. Lindy's repeated attempts to build psychological barriers to block out things that were going on right next to her that she couldn't understand and her retreats to her comfort bubble were fascinating.
She does, however, learn to cope to some extent, enough to be able to make her way to the conduit with help from Ricky September... and then she sacrificed him to save herself. Did anyone see that coming? Not us, and that was probably the best scene in the episode. Though she was obviously the character we were supposed to root for, she'd had objectionable bits all through the episode, and then she showed her true colors here.
It's entirely in character, if you think about it, and part of the overall theme. She's grown up in a perfect world as a rich kid who has no real responsibilities and everything is catered to her liking. She's never learned to care about anyone else, or even to give anyone anything. She's the epitome of selfish. Of course it's entirely right for him to die instead of her. Does she feel bad about doing it? She knows it wasn't morally good, as she didn't admit what had actually happened to Ricky to the Doctor, but internally, she probably feels no regrets (other than now she can't name-drop him) and entirely justified, better him than me.
Ricky was the opposite of Lindy. He was educated and interested in the world around him, even if there's nothing he could do to explore it himself. I'd guess that he felt that he was trapped on Finetime, in this meaningless circle of digital presences. He didn't actually engage with them - he put up his videos and went off to read - but he had to appear to do so, because we saw what happens to those who don't conform. But he was the one who actually thinks and feels, and thus was the one who tried to help. Imagine if any other Finetime resident had found Lindy frozen amidst the monsters in the plaza. They'd probably have laughed and made their escape, using Lindy as a distraction.
Then, there's the ending, where the Doctor feels, for the first time, racism hitting him square in the face. The brilliance of this scene is that what he's denied is the opportunity to save the lot of them, the one thing that he loves to do and the one thing you'd think that no one would ever turn down for any reason. Lindy doesn't respect him because of his skin color and, despite him solving all the issues and getting her to safety, she can't believe that anything he says is correct or clever. He says they won't survive out there? Obviously they'll be fine. He says that box is a ship that can take them away? Obviously that's ludicrous. She, and the rest of them, are so blinded by their prejudice that they can't accept a word he says and eagerly head out into the jungle despite not even being able to walk without a bubble only thirty minutes earlier.
Subtle. That's the word. This episode was so subtle, the themes and morals coming out through the story, through the characters' actions and decisions. Love it.
The visuals in this episode were amazing. In Lindy's world, which are the interiors in Finetime, everything is clean white and bright pastel blue, orange, yellow, and pink. Everything's in its proper place, except Lindy's flat was a mess, with clothes strewn everywhere. Rich kids don't clean, I suppose. But the cheerful clean world only emphasized how out-of-place and unwelcome the Doctor was, the contrast of his dark skin and clothing against the bright background as he burst on her screen. And then the exteriors, while tidy, were also drab and, actually, rather industrial. Finetime obviously knew that the inhabitants wouldn't care about going outside, so why waste money on environmentals?
On the "ongoing plot development" side of things, now the Doctor and Ruby are starting to see and recognize this woman across time and space. Interesting... I had an idea that maybe she's a different form of Clara - after all, this is what the Clara fragments were supposed to do, just hit the Doctor's timeline on a tangent to correct something that the Great Intelligence changed, and nothing says she couldn't have gone into the Eleven's future - but it doesn't work; it makes no sense that she would be the face of the ambulance.
I also loved that the monsters didn't actually have to move. There wasn't a single scene where we got to fully see the monster chase or attack anyone - all of them were either already eating or attacked in a bubble window. Thus, the props department could create a more monstrous monster (rather than a rubbery human suit).
I really could watch this thing again, right now. Which just means that the list of "let's go rewatch!" is getting way too long, as it encompasses everything since "The Power of the Doctor" except for "Boom". Time for a marathon!
Spoilers ahead!
Another excellent episode! We've already watched it twice! Loads of fun, and yet also disturbing. This season has so far been one of the best in consistent quality. No, I didn't like "Boom" very much, but I can admit that other people did and therefore don't hold that against it in the statement that this has been a phenonomenal season so far.
One of the best things about studiously avoiding spoilers and any advance information (including the "next time" trailer at the end of the previous episode) is that we get to go into the episode with no expectations whatsoever, except for the episode name that Disney+ so helpfully plasters in the upper left corner of the screen as it starts playing. (Thanks, D+, but could you not? Yeah, thought not.) So, Lindy wakes up and immediately turns on her bubble and catches up with her friends, and I thought, "Oh, this is going to be about how bad social media is." And it was, and yet not.
What it really was about is that getting deeply involved in anything to the exclusion of everything else is bad. Social media was the most obvious example, but relying on the HUD to tell you how to walk, associating only with rich kids, leaving your bodily functions to the online doctor/AI, etc., left the citizens of Finetime unable to cope with anything else. Lindy's repeated attempts to build psychological barriers to block out things that were going on right next to her that she couldn't understand and her retreats to her comfort bubble were fascinating.
She does, however, learn to cope to some extent, enough to be able to make her way to the conduit with help from Ricky September... and then she sacrificed him to save herself. Did anyone see that coming? Not us, and that was probably the best scene in the episode. Though she was obviously the character we were supposed to root for, she'd had objectionable bits all through the episode, and then she showed her true colors here.
It's entirely in character, if you think about it, and part of the overall theme. She's grown up in a perfect world as a rich kid who has no real responsibilities and everything is catered to her liking. She's never learned to care about anyone else, or even to give anyone anything. She's the epitome of selfish. Of course it's entirely right for him to die instead of her. Does she feel bad about doing it? She knows it wasn't morally good, as she didn't admit what had actually happened to Ricky to the Doctor, but internally, she probably feels no regrets (other than now she can't name-drop him) and entirely justified, better him than me.
Ricky was the opposite of Lindy. He was educated and interested in the world around him, even if there's nothing he could do to explore it himself. I'd guess that he felt that he was trapped on Finetime, in this meaningless circle of digital presences. He didn't actually engage with them - he put up his videos and went off to read - but he had to appear to do so, because we saw what happens to those who don't conform. But he was the one who actually thinks and feels, and thus was the one who tried to help. Imagine if any other Finetime resident had found Lindy frozen amidst the monsters in the plaza. They'd probably have laughed and made their escape, using Lindy as a distraction.
Then, there's the ending, where the Doctor feels, for the first time, racism hitting him square in the face. The brilliance of this scene is that what he's denied is the opportunity to save the lot of them, the one thing that he loves to do and the one thing you'd think that no one would ever turn down for any reason. Lindy doesn't respect him because of his skin color and, despite him solving all the issues and getting her to safety, she can't believe that anything he says is correct or clever. He says they won't survive out there? Obviously they'll be fine. He says that box is a ship that can take them away? Obviously that's ludicrous. She, and the rest of them, are so blinded by their prejudice that they can't accept a word he says and eagerly head out into the jungle despite not even being able to walk without a bubble only thirty minutes earlier.
Subtle. That's the word. This episode was so subtle, the themes and morals coming out through the story, through the characters' actions and decisions. Love it.
The visuals in this episode were amazing. In Lindy's world, which are the interiors in Finetime, everything is clean white and bright pastel blue, orange, yellow, and pink. Everything's in its proper place, except Lindy's flat was a mess, with clothes strewn everywhere. Rich kids don't clean, I suppose. But the cheerful clean world only emphasized how out-of-place and unwelcome the Doctor was, the contrast of his dark skin and clothing against the bright background as he burst on her screen. And then the exteriors, while tidy, were also drab and, actually, rather industrial. Finetime obviously knew that the inhabitants wouldn't care about going outside, so why waste money on environmentals?
On the "ongoing plot development" side of things, now the Doctor and Ruby are starting to see and recognize this woman across time and space. Interesting... I had an idea that maybe she's a different form of Clara - after all, this is what the Clara fragments were supposed to do, just hit the Doctor's timeline on a tangent to correct something that the Great Intelligence changed, and nothing says she couldn't have gone into the Eleven's future - but it doesn't work; it makes no sense that she would be the face of the ambulance.
I also loved that the monsters didn't actually have to move. There wasn't a single scene where we got to fully see the monster chase or attack anyone - all of them were either already eating or attacked in a bubble window. Thus, the props department could create a more monstrous monster (rather than a rubbery human suit).
I really could watch this thing again, right now. Which just means that the list of "let's go rewatch!" is getting way too long, as it encompasses everything since "The Power of the Doctor" except for "Boom". Time for a marathon!
no subject
Date: 2024-06-03 08:47 pm (UTC)I agree it was subtle; I’ve seen comments about things you don’t notice unless watching it again. What happened to Ricky was just cruel- he really deserved a good ending. But I figured we are and aren’t meant to root for Lindy.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-03 09:07 pm (UTC)Actually, it's not at all about which character to root for. It's much more complex than that. The real point of the episode is to make the audience consider their own prejudices. Cos everyone's prejudiced in some way.
I'm sure that everyone watching started off rooting for Lindy, despite the ample evidence that she was morally questionable (such as the way she repeatedly brushed off the friend who was upset and blocked the Doctor on one look). So why were we all predisposed to root for her?
Part of it is definitely that the show doesn't usually follow a "bad" character around, or have the monsters threaten "bad" people, so definitely the show used that to make us assume she's good. But what else made us want to like her? That's really up to us individually, but it's all about our prejudices - for example, we may unconsciously tend to trust people more if they're young, or clean, or good-looking, or smiling, or a specific gender, etc. Is that a good thing? No - anyone, like Lindy, could be untrustworthy and we could make costly or even fatal errors because we assumed. Ricky certainly did. In Lindy's case, she's trusting her white peers instead of the black man who saved her life, and she's going pay for it with her life.
So we should definitely be aware of our own prejudices and how they're leading us astray.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-03 11:15 pm (UTC)And we both agreed that what Lindy did to Ricky is pretty terrible
no subject
Date: 2024-06-04 04:23 am (UTC)Lindy says, "Because you, sir, are not one of us... I mean, screen-to-screen contact is just about acceptable, but... in person? That's impossible."
Then Hoochie says, "Like, you have a magic box? Seriously?...Excuse me, sir, that's voodoo. And it doesn't matter where we end up living, because it is our God-given duty to maintain the standards of Finetime, for ever."
Then Brewster says, "If you'll turn away, ladies, before you're contaminated."
They're not talking to Ruby here. They're talking directly to the Doctor ("...you, sir, are not one of us..."). They're "maintaining the standards of Finetime" - the whole city, not just their friends' circle. And the line about becoming "contaminated" pretty much clinches it. That's a direct insult and not something anyone says when they only mean that they're turning down help from a outsider that they otherwise view as good.
no subject
Date: 2024-06-04 01:18 pm (UTC)This says a lot when you can talk about an episode this good!
no subject
Date: 2024-06-04 08:20 pm (UTC)"The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon."
no subject
Date: 2024-06-03 10:22 pm (UTC)LINDY: Thank you.
(The little boat heads off down the river...)
(..hopefully to fall down a waterfall or crash into a grille or vanish when it gets to the edge of the dome because it is a hologram or something. Because.)
… 😳
no subject
Date: 2024-06-03 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-07-06 08:22 pm (UTC)