Searching For Sheela (2021)
A one off follow up to 'Wild, Wild Country'. Criminal. Celebrity. Icon. Enigma. Who is the real Sheela? She's in Switzerland. Sheela heads home to India after 35 years. Sheela is a rather pathetic figure. This was slow and ponderous and excruciating. This has no charm or wit. This goes into precipitous decline.
This was not grim, compelling or essential. This was damning. Sheela needs to have a reckoning and doesn't. What happened to all the other cultists? The scale of the damage done in the tumultuous past is not addressed. There is no contrition. Nobody is frank or honest. Sheela once had such conviction and no deep regret. Her links to the cult seem unbreakable.
The cult was not a giant misunderstanding. She acts magnanimously. The sheer chaos the cult caused is shrugged off. Sheela complains about disinformation. She's not penitent. This was ill-advised. There is no rationale for this. Sheela seems to have apopletic fury. There is impassioned opposition and this was maddening and not resonant.
Sheela is doing a media tour for some reason. Was the disorder inevitable? This was a spectacular misjudgment. What will emerge from the debris? There is societal anger. There is consternation and why does Sheela have such loyalty and passion for the cult? This was a ghastly blank. There are no moral credentials. Why was a rambling old man cult leader venerated? This has depreciating relevance.
Sheela had a fall from grace. The old man cult leader was slothful, negligent, heedless, cynical, misanthropic and sleazy. There was a dearth of talent. There is no moral consensus. This wass not irreverent, observant or insightful or biting. Sheela is a complicated and ambiguous woman. This was not suprisingly effective. There are no moral demands. This was lazy, inane and smarmy.
There is long standing hostility. This was desperate and farcical. There were explosive consequencs to the cult. This went so badly wrong. This was a series of mishaps. Denials are not convincing. Sheela feel slighted. Truth is elusive. Bombast drowns out everything. There is untrustworthiness. There are and were hostile actions and egocentric mythomanes. The offical version is largely unshakeable. This was mundane. The criminal enterprises are shrugged off. There are self aggrandizing claims. There are dubious ethics. So many charming liars.
Best Lines:
“Kicked off the central Oregon ranch.”
“Happy homecoming Sheela.”
“Tried to poison an entire town.”
“Famous sexual meditation groups.”
“Writing bad stories on you.”
“Took over a secluded ranch.”
“No meaning anymore.”
“Grows in size and wealth.”
“Open mind to listen.”
“Make this judgement?”
“Never come again here.”
“I want you to be angry.”
“Remove everything you came with.”
“Teaching her the bad words.”
“Redemption lies in guilt.”
~
Baltar's Escape
This is not a bleak account of the last of the 12 colonies. Baltar is a prophet of doom. Is there hierarchical suppression in the fleet? The society of the 12 colonies reaches another turning point. There are concatenated crises and cultural narcissim and enormous upheaval. The fleet are living through dark times. Will social solidarity wane? Society's ills are mentioned. Is the fleet a fractured society? Baltar commits more treachery. There is no mutal concern. This was not uplifiting or brilliant. The fleet is a manifestly broken society. The fall of the 12 colonies didn't generate or enforce common purpose. Things get dysfunctional. Apollo and Starbuck are mutually trustworthy. Did the society of the 12 colonies undergo cultural change due to the major external shock?
Why isn't Baltar subject to scrutiny and penalties? TPTB lacked the conceptual tools to make this show good. The fleet has major socioeconomic stresses. This was not communitarian. There is no fortuitous conjeunction here. This was not pertient. Adama galvanized people to find Earth. This was not grandiose. This was imperfect and scarcely suprising. This fails so singularly and is breathtakingly superficial.
Is Adama's extravagant objective feasible? Baltar won't admit to folly. This was too wooden, slow and arduous. There is no tech-glamour. Earth is a vital objective. Things are encrusted with myth. There is idiot plotting ceaselessly repeated. There is no correcting strategy. Emotion is more powerful than reason. The fleet have no recourse at all. This ep leads to no good. This show has a quality of sameness.
Why did Baltar strike his terrible bargain with the Cylons? Why did he have such moral freefall? There are regrettable lapses and inconsistencies. There is unresolved warfare. Baltar is a contemptible character. He's reprehensible and has put himself in his own position. Baltar has aggression and arrogance. Folly fed Baltar's will – he's a megalomaniac. He made a monstrous bargain. Starbuck does laddish behaviour. Baltar inflicted massive damage. There is no chastened uncertainty. There is no fitting conclusion. This was not innovative. This was ridiculous. Apollo has a fascinatingly withdrawn personality and reticence. Adama has fixed theological concepts. This ep gets no considerable acclaim. There is impatient dismissal of this ep. This has no pathos.
The fleet face the grimmest of circumstances. This show is blighted. One ultimately recoils at this beastly ordeal. There are no inevitable moral compromises. Starbuck is nauseating. There may be underlying anger in Apollo who has sincerity. Baltar is coldly detached and derisive. There is no moral suffering. Somehow a ruined civilization is not engrossing.
Lives are lived at fortunes extremes. This was incoherent. People are in a horrific situation. This was irrelevant. TPTB can't unbore this. This show is unlikely to give much joy. The fleet have an uncertain future. Starbuck finds joy and purpose in being a hokey cliche. There is no forlorn emptiness. The fleet are perpeutal tourists. This was silly nothingness full of transitory moments. There is obsolescene and extinction. This was ephemeral. Cylons were perpetrators of horror – where are they? Tthe 12 colonies territory has been reduced to a rag tag fugitive fleet.
The rag tag fleet are exiled inexorably. Starbuck has smug certainty. Apollo has continued loyalty and purity of purpose. The Eastern Alliance burks whine. All TPTB's efforts came to nothing. The space nazis are angry and resentful. Apollo says they've been under martial law since 1x01. Baltar plots. There are perilous and inglorious times. The council are stupid. Baltar has smug glee and baddies from previous eps join forces with him to escape the prison barge. A council bint bores. Civvies are ungrateful. This was woeful. Baltar is foiled and Adama romances the council bint.
Best Lines:
“Since we fled the colonies.”
“Total oppositon to me.”
“Stinking livestock ship.”
“We do many things to survive: even die.”
“Oh frak!”
“What do we do?”
“What warriors always do: their job.”
“Not you two again.”
~
El Sid
Jeffrey Dean Morgan was the guest star. Wade and Quinn are told not to get involved. The city is a prison. This was a popular ep for reasons. Sid (Morgan) and his battered galpal are morons. There is bad acting and this was boring.
Best Line:
“Passes itself off as human.”
“The nation of the sociopath we've launched on this unsuspecting society.”
“Though I am a man of peace, I'm prepared to make an exception in your case.”
~
Inquisition
Section 31 debut and target Bashir. This was not good. There is bad acting and no JAG.