Saturday, September 22, 2018

A Night of Bad Shows: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and Elementary Season 6 Finale

I watched Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and the season 6 finale of Elementary on the same night.  I've generally liked the Jurassic movie franchise even though it deviated from the novel and I've been a fan of Elementary since it first aired.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World is terrible.  Every character from the villains to the kids were just different degrees evil or narcissists.  Ironically, in the movie the "bad" guy asks the protagonists how are they different and in this movie it is actually very easy to feel that they aren't different from each other.  In this movie there are no real protagonist/hero.  I don't know whether it is because this is a bridge episode to the final installment of the trilogy, but the characters show little empathy to each other and just focus on their own individual views.

It's hard to cheer for characters who care so little for others and can so easily throw away their moral values.  From the "nerd" who can just suddenly decide it's okay to kill another person to a vet who find it cool to be rude and a bully everyone it is really hard to find a likable character in this movie. The writers seem to only have two views: either you're with the dinosaurs or you're with people.

The irony continues since the movie actually starts with Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm character explaining that it's not so black-and-white, but the movie and every character in it immediately ignores him.  The movie makes zero attempt to show that it's not black-and-white.  It completely ignores it and just moves forward with everyone making decisions for their own benefit.

Ultimately, the movie tries to distract you with action and tries to get audiences to develop emotional attachment through nostagia and sadness by killing the likable dinosaurs from the original Jurassic Park.  This alone says a lot about the movie... it is terrible.

Elementary Season 6 Finale


Similar to Fallen Kingdom, Elementary went out of its way to completely alienate one of its main characters in the season 6 finale, "Whatever Remains, However Improbable".  Elementary always pointed out the moral ambiguity of the decisions its character has to make, but it also dedicated time to show that such decisions were not taken lightly.  The show also emphasize loyalty and dedication to one another where family doesn't just mean related by blood.

In the season finale, some of the main characters from the show completely violates the tenants of the show.  From Watson's decision that would break apart her and Sherlock's partnership and then throwing it in Sherlock's face that if they were partners he should support her decision to Captain Grayson blaming Sherlock for all the bad things then throwing them under the bus, both took the easy path.

Only Sherlock and Marcus stayed true to their beliefs and recognized that the more difficult path was the right one and wasn't deterred from walking that path.  In their decisions, they came out being more noble in their characters which only made the contrast with Watson and Capt. Gregson's action more difficult to bear and accept.

The show seems like it'll be make numerous changes in season 7 especially as season 6 didn't end with any type of cliff hanger to tie the seasons together.  I hope, though, that it doesn't just abandon the fractured relationship from season 6 as fans have invested 6 years into these characters' relationship.  Although Elementary is a crime drama, the show is ultimately a show about relationship between people and the impact that one person can have on another.  It would be a shame if they just threw this all away so easily.

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