Board 8 > Scarlet Ranks User-Nominated Episodes of Television: Season 2

(+) Yeah! (+)

Random.org has decreed that next up is... Frasier - "The Ski Lodge" (Nominated by: Poke)

29 Points:
Lost - "Walkabout"
25 Points:
The Walking Dead - "Too Far Gone"
19 Points:
Quantum Leap - "Raped"
Boston Legal - "Shock and Oww!"
18 Points:
Weird City - "The One"
16 Points:
The Mary Tyler Moore Show - "Chuckles Bites the Dust"
7 Points:
Angel - "Dead End"
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I said to myself, "I bet the 1st one rated of mine is going to be the Ski Lodge."

Prophet!
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Stop hacking Random.org!
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Sorry for picking an unpleasant subject matter on that one. >_>

Recent years have made it far too relevant to forget.
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Frasier - "The Ski Lodge"
Nominated by: Poke

Screwball comedy at its finest. The Ski Lodge distills the comedic arithmetic of a series of comically improbably events into a cogent, coherent, tight narrative. There's nothing in this episode that is unnecessary. No clutter whatsoever.

I highly recommend you simply watch it. The episode gives a premise and six characters right away, proceeding to build five different relationships with great efficiency before inserting one moment of misunderstanding that causes it all to fall apart like a house of cards. This is how you write comedy. The simplicity of each character, with clear flaws (stupidity, homophobia, chauvinism) is played up perfectly, and the karmic retribution plied against the cast makes everything go down easily. Just an excellent episode of Frasier.

Writing: 9/10
Characterization: 8/10
Scarlet Factor: 9/10
Overall Rating: 26/30
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Random.org has decreed that next up is... Agents of SHIELD - "4,722 Hours" (Nominated by: Cody)

29 Points:
Lost - "Walkabout"
26 Points:
Frasier - "The Ski Lodge"
25 Points:
The Walking Dead - "Too Far Gone"
19 Points:
Quantum Leap - "Raped"
Boston Legal - "Shock and Oww!"
18 Points:
Weird City - "The One"
16 Points:
The Mary Tyler Moore Show - "Chuckles Bites the Dust"
7 Points:
Angel - "Dead End"
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Negan showing up and laying down the law was a good moment but I would call his overall arc a low point of the show and what drove me off. Dude was basically Triple H circa 2005 for a while there cutting the same droning promo every week.

Governor arc was much better. No real dragging on there unlike Negan.
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Also surprised "raped" got as high on scarlet factor as it did reading that write-up.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Random.org has decreed that next up is... Agents of SHIELD - "4,722 Hours" (Nominated by: Cody)

This is what I'm here for.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Frasier - "The Ski Lodge"
Nominated by: Poke

Screwball comedy at its finest. The Ski Lodge distills the comedic arithmetic of a series of comically improbably events into a cogent, coherent, tight narrative. There's nothing in this episode that is unnecessary. No clutter whatsoever.

I highly recommend you simply watch it. The episode gives a premise and six characters right away, proceeding to build five different relationships with great efficiency before inserting one moment of misunderstanding that causes it all to fall apart like a house of cards. This is how you write comedy. The simplicity of each character, with clear flaws (stupidity, homophobia, chauvinism) is played up perfectly, and the karmic retribution plied against the cast makes everything go down easily. Just an excellent episode of Frasier.

Writing: 9/10
Characterization: 8/10
Scarlet Factor: 9/10
Overall Rating: 26/30

I love that episode, but Frasier becomes a real bear to binge for this reason, Frasier just piles on this exact sort of karma almost every week.
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Lopen posted...

Also surprised "raped" got as high on scarlet factor as it did reading that write-up.

So this is a Schindler's List situation. The difference is, how much do I weight the objective quality here against my distaste for enjoying the subject matter? Ultimately, while this episode is far from as well-performed and well-directed as SL, it still is strong for it's era of television. I respect the restraint here, and the attempt to break the Quantum Leap mold.

I do think a show like Law and Order would have better talent involved however and the format of that show would enhance the quality of storytelling. They also wouldn't waste a young Amy Ryan in a bit role either.
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Agents of SHIELD - "4,722 Hours"
Nominated by: Cody

Never did I really come around to returning to SHIELD. I think it's completely damaged goods to me, and despite an occasionally interesting episode such as this one, I have no goodwill towards the series. I gave it thirty or so episodes. I really did.

This third season outing is a fairly unique self-contained adventure that strikes me as a budget-version of The Martian, only featuring Jemma. Now, for those of you keeping score, Fitz, Simmons, Coulson, and May are all awesome characters. However, DaisyQuake is so utterly awful, all of the bad parts of a Joss Whedon character and none of the good, that I couldn't survive watching that series another second with her plastered across the screen.

Here, however, we only get Jemma. Almost forty-five minutes of Jemma being dumped on an alien world and forced to go Castaway. The front half of this episode focuses heavily on the survivalist nature of her disappearance, all of which makes for very compelling television.

Then a second person is introduced, and the episode takes a dive.

The problem with SHIELD is that it was always so focused on finding generic pretty people with little to no real personality and throwing them on the screen to sex up an otherwise tame series. And that never worked for me, ever. Jemma is captured by a bland astronaut (a bland profession for a potential protagonist), and it's at this point that you are pretty much told "Jemma will fall in love with this boring man." Like most television shows that try to insert temporary love interests to string out longer-boiling romances, FitzSimmons is injected with this cancerous cell of dullness, and it really just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

In fact, it takes what was proving to be an absolutely excellent episode and just turns it over and dumps it out. Very disappointing. Don't force relationships without having a character in mind for them.

Writing: 4/10
Characterization: 1/10
Scarlet Factor: 5/10
Overall Rating: 10/30
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Random.org has decreed that next up is... V - "Pilot" (Nominated by: Karo)

29 Points:
Lost - "Walkabout"
26 Points:
Frasier - "The Ski Lodge"
25 Points:
The Walking Dead - "Too Far Gone"
19 Points:
Quantum Leap - "Raped"
Boston Legal - "Shock and Oww!"
18 Points:
Weird City - "The One"
16 Points:
The Mary Tyler Moore Show - "Chuckles Bites the Dust"
10 Points:
Agents of SHIELD - "4,722 Hours"
7 Points:
Angel - "Dead End"
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V - "Pilot"
Nominated by: Karo

Let's start with the good: Elizabeth Mitchell. There are few actresses that come remotely close to being as absolutely intoxicating to watch as Elizabeth Mitchell. She straddles the line between angry and happy constantly. Her face fascinating to study, full of subtle nuances in emotion that make Mitchell such a compelling actress. Really, she's my TV Cate Blanchett. There's something timeless about her strange, elevated charisma. She is sadly beautiful.

Now for the bad: the show. Everything about this series feels like a mix between a 90s sci fi film and a CW teen drama. All of the bad, none of the good from both of these things. When a race of alien visitors arrives, it becomes all-too-quickly apparent that they are up to no good. Perhaps that's why this show was so doomed to failure from the start, honestly. V suffers from the clear and apparent truth that 99.9999% of humanity is too fucking stupid to recognize clearly malevolent alien visitors. Unlike District 9, where there is a messy mix of dumb humans and dumb aliens, making for a compelling quagmire of winless morality, V is presented as the worst version of Grant Morrison's Hyperclan.

Another strange issue I had with this episode is how... dull the arrival of aliens was. The show attempts to claim that this is a moment of historical significance, and yet V really does no favors to this moment. It's a quick, two-minute speech. Then, we're off to the races with boring people doing boring things. Cops are chasing terrorists! We should be allowed to linger in the majesty of this moment for at least a few minutes. The reason Close Encounters of the Third Kind is so memorable, the reason that first contact is burned into our collective psyche, is that it breathes. The viewer is given opportunity to let the gravity and scope of the film's events sink in.

Here, we get a pellet of first contact before the world just starts chugging along, adjusting marginally to the extremely important revelations as if the aliens have just debuted a popular hit single instead of revealing life in the universe.

Overall, I can't say I'd recommend this to anyone - at least based on the first episode alone. This is bland, rushed, and quite frankly, uninspired.

Writing: 3/10
Characterization: 2/10
Scarlet Factor: 4/10
Overall Rating: 9/30
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Random.org has decreed that next up is... Star Trek - "The Menagerie, Part I" (Nominated by: Anagram)

29 Points:
Lost - "Walkabout"
26 Points:
Frasier - "The Ski Lodge"
25 Points:
The Walking Dead - "Too Far Gone"
19 Points:
Quantum Leap - "Raped"
Boston Legal - "Shock and Oww!"
18 Points:
Weird City - "The One"
16 Points:
The Mary Tyler Moore Show - "Chuckles Bites the Dust"
10 Points:
Agents of SHIELD - "4,722 Hours"
9 Points:
V - "Pilot"
7 Points:
Angel - "Dead End"
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Good thing you're getting part 1 before part 2.
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No worries in any event. I've watched every episode of the series before!
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Agents of SHIELD is also a show I never went back to, but I didn't make it nearly as far as you did. Maybe 6 episodes in before I was completely bored. And I've heard so many good things about it, but can't bring myself to sit down and watch like 100 hours of a show that bored me after 6.

While I can't speak for the episode, I do absolutely hate the bland generic forced love interest trope that is so, so overused. In EVERYTHING. Sometimes writers/producers/whoever just can't let a character be good.

As for V... yeah, it's not a very good show. I liked Morena Baccarin a lot, but she was like 95% of the reason I watched it. It had its moments but was overall fairly dull.

I kind of feel the opposite about Elizabeth Mitchell though. Didn't care for her much on Lost and didn't care for her much here.
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I absolutely love that Simmons episode, real quality television right there.

I was going to recommend it but someone got to it first
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Star Trek - "The Menagerie, Part I"
Nominated by: Anagram

There is something to be said for the metatextual story behind this episode. Using unaired archival footage of the original Star Trek, Menagerie plays with some of the best material in Star Trek - procedure. Much like TNG's run-ins with court martials, TOS really plays up the military tribunal aspect of order and function here to great success. Where the episode falls flat is actually in reviewing the material from the pilot. While the hook is quite interesting (the original captain of the Enterprise and his exploits are shrouded in mystery and Spock is making questionable decisions for unknown reasons), the use of the material feels very forced and contrived.

I think the real killer moment is when the crew outright admits that video recordings like archived footage doesn't exist. And it doesn't make sense that this footage is being edited, shot from multiple angles, given music, and including shots from aliens who the crew had never met. It takes me out of the realm of believability.

I will always say that TOS episodes are about 8 minutes too long. That's actually not true here. The two-part nature of these episodes is absolutely necessary to fill the viewer in on everything involved with this story. That's a great sign. You need to have the material to make something compelling for 40 minutes. The downside is that, mostly, the episode is so focused on pushing through a trove of content that it never rises above the level of "pretty good." This is partially due to the dull and confusing nature of the pilot's inclusion, but I refuse to believe that two episodes can't be splicy-spliced together well. Deep Space Nine famously did it well.

Writing: 7/10
Characterization: 7/10
Scarlet Factor: 6/10
Overall Rating: 20/30
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Random.org has decreed that next up is... Girls' Last Tour - "Accident/Technology/Takeoff" (Nominated by: Xeybozn)

29 Points:
Lost - "Walkabout"
26 Points:
Frasier - "The Ski Lodge"
25 Points:
The Walking Dead - "Too Far Gone"
20 Points:
Star Trek - "The Menagerie, Part I"
19 Points:
Quantum Leap - "Raped"
Boston Legal - "Shock and Oww!"
18 Points:
Weird City - "The One"
16 Points:
The Mary Tyler Moore Show - "Chuckles Bites the Dust"
10 Points:
Agents of SHIELD - "4,722 Hours"
9 Points:
V - "Pilot"
7 Points:
Angel - "Dead End"
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Girls' Last Tour - "Accident/Technology/Takeoff"
Nominated by: Xeybozn

The opening and closing themes were excellent. In fact, the opening credits were a very Vertigo-esque style of art, and I definitely had I expectations coming out of the first minute or so. This episode, however, seemed to sink into a very slow, muted story that plays as the third act of a multi-part story. Without the motivation of the characters or an understanding of what's going on in this world, I'm really flying blind here.

The idea of inventing flight (or reinventing it) is always a magical tale. The noble tales of man engineering their way into the realm of birds are as old as Daedalus and Icarus. We love to witness the birth of flight no matter the medium or genre. This time, however, I had some concerns. For one, the gimmick of the two lead characters, children, being naive to everything grew old very quickly for me. And the standard Two-Face style split of a grounded intelligent child and a manic pixie child is about as uninteresting and overused as possible. I've seen, I don't need to see it again. Also, and this was a real killer for me, but naked children taking baths. Pass. Hard freaking pass.

The moment of flight itself was very powerful and moving, and the subversion of the miracle of flight with a critical failure caught me in my throat for a moment. If only the solitary, lonely technician hadn't just been a bespectacled teacher's assistant style shrinking violet that felt like the trope had been ripped off of a website and plastered into the episode. That kind of embodies all of the characters here. They drag a very interesting story down.

But, there was a very engaging, moving moment at the climax, and that matters,

Writing: 8/10
Characterization: 3/10
Scarlet Factor: 5/10
Overall Rating: 16/30
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Random.org has decreed that next up is... Beast Wars: Transformers - "Code of Hero" (Nominated by: Karo)

29 Points:
Lost - "Walkabout"
26 Points:
Frasier - "The Ski Lodge"
25 Points:
The Walking Dead - "Too Far Gone"
20 Points:
Star Trek - "The Menagerie, Part I"
19 Points:
Quantum Leap - "Raped"
Boston Legal - "Shock and Oww!"
18 Points:
Weird City - "The One"
16 Points:
Girls' Last Tour - "Accident/Technology/Takeoff"
The Mary Tyler Moore Show - "Chuckles Bites the Dust"
10 Points:
Agents of SHIELD - "4,722 Hours"
9 Points:
V - "Pilot"
7 Points:
Angel - "Dead End"
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Out of the ones ranked so far I've only seen Walkabout and Too Far Gone. Walkabout is definitely top tier early LOST. Too Far Gone is probably my favourite episode of The Walking Dead (or at least one of them). It's a shame that show went downhill for a bit after that. Then it picked up and went downhill again to the point that I just quit.
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Beast Wars: Transformers - "Code of Hero"
Nominated by: Karo

Holy fucking shit, this was absolutely terrible. In terms of animation, I felt like I was watching bad PlayStation graphics throughout the entirety of this game; everything has an ugly plastic veneer, all motions feel as though they are occurring in low gravity, and no action from a living being looked remotely real. An absolute eyesore, the character designs are bizarre combinations of colors with mottled mixes of earth tones and bright neons. Much like Reboot in terms of a very ugly, blah design.

What Reboot at least has slightly going for it is a marginally interesting concept. Here, we're saddled with the standard Transformers generic toy-pushing scripting. Every line feels like it was written by committee in order to meet a deadline. Hell, every line feels like it was added to an already animated scene. None of this episode propels characters with motivations. No character comes across as anything but a badly-presented voice and an ugly design that would likely only impress young children who have parents with too much disposable income.

A character dies in this episode. A character who seems fairly important. In maybe the most damning aspect of this shitshow that was foisted upon my list by someone who clearly wanted me to have a terrible time, this character's death didn't even have the decency to make me happy to see something annoying die. I had no reaction. Zero. Probably the completely disjointed plot full of uninspired lines and delivery that comes off as about as urgent as replacing an empty jar of maraschino cherries have something to do with how utterly and totally forgettable this show is. Beast Wars is so unremarkable that if you put it in a line-up with four weather reports and asked me to pick out the animated series about robots fighting each other, I would only be about 80% sure on my choice.

This is crap. This is bottom-of-the-barrel animation. This is the sort of cartoon that made me dislike cartoons when I was young.

Writing: 1/10
Characterization: 1/10
Scarlet Factor: 1/10
Overall Rating: 3/30
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Random.org has decreed that next up is... Simpsons - "Homer at the Bat" (Nominated by: Great Paul)

29 Points:
Lost - "Walkabout"
26 Points:
Frasier - "The Ski Lodge"
25 Points:
The Walking Dead - "Too Far Gone"
20 Points:
Star Trek - "The Menagerie, Part I"
19 Points:
Quantum Leap - "Raped"
Boston Legal - "Shock and Oww!"
18 Points:
Weird City - "The One"
16 Points:
Girls' Last Tour - "Accident/Technology/Takeoff"
The Mary Tyler Moore Show - "Chuckles Bites the Dust"
10 Points:
Agents of SHIELD - "4,722 Hours"
9 Points:
V - "Pilot"
7 Points:
Angel - "Dead End"
3 Points:
Beast Wars: Transformers - "Code of Hero"
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:(
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I remember kinda liking Beast Wars as a kid but it's one of those things I intentionally never go back to because I'm sure I'd hate it today. Like I'm pretty sure I just liked it cause animalz.
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I've found that shows that were popular with people as children often lack much nuance or bite to the scripts, which is probably why children find it so engaging. Simplicity isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is easily accessible.
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I haven't seen Beast Wars but just looking at the animation makes me not want to
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I generally avoided the "funny" shows as a kid so it's not as common for me to have that kinda feeling that I'd completely hate the shows if I were to rewatch them. Most of the more actiony cartoons that I took interest in have either some sort of unique appeal to the setting or some nuance to the plot, or they're super campy and would be entertaining to watch even if it's maybe bad at times.

But yeah I can't actually remember anything about Beast Wars other than the fad 3d animation style and the names being terrible puns like Optimus Primal the ape which is a major red flag and makes it one of the noted few I've made a point to stay away from ever watching again.
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Beast Wars was great along with Reboot.

Dinobot >>>> scar
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I actually liked Beast Wars as a kid and remember that episode as one of my favorites. I didn't care about how well written something is or how technically sound the animation is (it really is terrible animation). It was just plain fun to watch.

Would this be the lowest ranked show if you include the season 1 shows you ranked?
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Simpsons - "Homer at the Bat"
Nominated by: Great Paul

In an episode that, to me, is reminiscent of the MLB lockouts of the 80s and 90s, Mr. Burns buttresses a weak roster for a local softball team with real baseball players.

Now, I'm not sure what people want from me here. The concept is good, but the episode, like every Simpsons episode, is pretty toothless. However, in this case, the episode is able to overcome its general fluff thanks to a very concentrated story. The usage of the players is simple, quiet, and surprisingly effective. I have to imagine these are actual voices here, given that some of the players sound pretty wooden and lack the animation of most voice actors. Still, the idea of bringing in voices as stunt casting is generally amusing, and I'm able to overlook the quality of work in these small roles.

Homer, as always, proves to be the weak link here. His doddering, stumbling, mumbling character dumbs down every moment in which he appears. As the main character focus, the ensemble of guests have a difficult time enlivening his staid, one-note antics, but Darryl Strawberry has decent chemistry with Homer. In fact, Strawberry really comes off as the best character in this episode. There's a certain whimsical excellence to all of his actions.

In the end, Mr. Burns takes a larger role as the world seems to crumble around him, and Homer steps up to the plate in the final moments for a moderately humorous final punchline to the episode.

I think this episode is about on par with the more average South Park episodes over all, though.

Writing: 7/10
Characterization: 6/10
Scarlet Factor: 7/10
Overall Rating: 20/30
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Random.org has decreed that next up is... Flight of the Conchords - "Love is a Weapon of Choice" (Nominated by: Great Paul)

29 Points:
Lost - "Walkabout"
26 Points:
Frasier - "The Ski Lodge"
25 Points:
The Walking Dead - "Too Far Gone"
20 Points:
Simpsons - "Homer at the Bat"
Star Trek - "The Menagerie, Part I"
19 Points:
Quantum Leap - "Raped"
Boston Legal - "Shock and Oww!"
18 Points:
Weird City - "The One"
16 Points:
Girls' Last Tour - "Accident/Technology/Takeoff"
The Mary Tyler Moore Show - "Chuckles Bites the Dust"
10 Points:
Agents of SHIELD - "4,722 Hours"
9 Points:
V - "Pilot"
7 Points:
Angel - "Dead End"
3 Points:
Beast Wars: Transformers - "Code of Hero"
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theiceisnice posted...

I actually liked Beast Wars as a kid and remember that episode as one of my favorites. I didn't care about how well written something is or how technically sound the animation is (it really is terrible animation). It was just plain fun to watch.

Would this be the lowest ranked show if you include the season 1 shows you ranked?

3/30 is the lowest possible score, and this is the fourth overall 3/30 I've delivered.

Beast Wars: Transformers - "Code of Hero"
Spongebob Squarepants - "Band Geeks"
Invader Zim - "Mysterious Mysteries"
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - "Pinkie Pride"
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Transformers cartoons dont age well.
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I thought that was a much better choice for a Simpsons episode this time around. Kind of a shocker to me it reflected in the score though I just assumed something was fundamentally unable to click with you and Simpsons period. I mean that is probably true but less severe than I thought I guess.
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Scarlet simply has what is known as the "evil gene"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBbioa6cSaM" data-time="
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Pokewars posted...

Scarlet simply has what is known as the "evil gene"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBbioa6cSaM" data-time="

It's almost like this clip exists to demonstrate how South Park is cutting and incisive where the Simpsons is chewed up and processed safe humor.
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I could not disagree with you more on Beast Wars. I don't think it's poorly written overall. There's definitely some "aged poorly" aspects at work here - Beast Wars and Reboot were the absolute cutting edge of 3d animation when they were made and sure, the animation doesn't hold up at all to todays standards and the way they recorded voice acting is poor on a technical level compared to more recent animation

But that doesn't mean the material doesn't hold up, and Code of a Hero does IMO. I haven't watched it in a very long time but I did rewatch it as an adult and think it really held up as a good example of strong characterization and growth in a children's show, something I'd like to see way more often in animation. I definitely see Beast Wars as belonging to the category of kids shows that aimed to be more than just generic children programming, and sought to give it's audience more.

As for who Dinobot is, you could consider him a Vegeta type character, which is why the choices he makes in this episode are compelling.
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CoolCly posted...

As for who Dinobot is, you could consider him a Vegeta type character,

Well this explains why I think this show is poorly written.
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I guess so, if you consider anything with an villain face turning to an anti hero to be poorly written.
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I consider Dragon Ball to be poorly written, so the comparison makes sense.

Villains turning into anti-heroes are great. The Shade, Ben Linus, Ari Gold, Alan Shore... there are a ton of them.
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To be clear, I don't begrudge people their own opinions about shows. But Dragon Ball is exactly the sort of formless gunk that regurgitates the same blah scripting week after week without ever landing memorable lines and goes through the motions of development inorganically. This show felt like a toyline, not a show.
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dinobot is a badass warrior poet, and pretty cool if you're a child. i don't remember much about the plots or know how well the show holds up, but the characters were memorable esp. all the ones voiced by scott mcniel.

scarletspeed7 posted...

without ever landing memorable lines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9uFxdAzcr0" data-time="
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scarletspeed7 posted...

It's almost like this clip exists to demonstrate how South Park is cutting and incisive where the Simpsons is chewed up and processed safe humor.

There's no doubt South Park is more provocative, but there are few shows that beat South Park in that regard.

But golden-era Simpsons had solid, witty writing, and did provoke some people of the time (really weird to consider the 90s as some long ago past).

It's why they had a whole episode devoted to making fun of George H.W. Bush because of some Christian conservatives not liking the dysfunctional family.
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See, that episode I might like a lot.
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sideshow bob roberts would have a been the choice for scarlet i think
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PumpkinCoach posted...

sideshow bob roberts would have a been the choice for scarlet i think

Oooh that would be intriguing to see his review.
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