#gen:lock season 2 spoilers

[historyhermann]

My Dad the Bounty Hunter Review

My Dad the Bounty Hunter is a coming-of-age animated sci-fi adventure series by Everett Downing Jr. and Patrick Harpin. Both have worked in the animation industry for many years, often as storyboarders or writers. However, this is their first series they have created on their own. This review will have spoilers.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the twenty-fourth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on February 14, 2023.

This animated series centers on the story of Terry (voiced by Laz Alonso), a Black father who has a secret job: he is a bounty hunter named Sabo Bok. One day, his children, annoyed by his constant disappearances, stowaway in his flying car, and find themselves in a spaceship. Terry is forced to care for his precocious daughter Lisa (voiced by Priah Ferguson), and his nerdy, but anxious, son Sean (voiced by Jecobi Swain). All the while he faces his former business partner, Gorlox (voiced by Rob Riggle), and the Conglomerate, represented by The Fixer (voiced by Jim Rash) who is a bit like Agent Smith in the Matrix franchise.

Personally, I was not planning on watching this series, and knew even less about it, as no one has even bothered to create a Wikipedia page for it! In an effort to watch more shows made by Black creators, I decided to give this series a chance, and I was impressed by what I watched. The voice actors and animation was top notch, as is the music selection.

In some ways, My Dad the Bounty Hunter felt familiar. That's because voice actors like Yvette Nicole Brown, Kari Wahlgen, Yvonne Orji, Christian Lanz, Keith Ferguson, Andrew Morgado, and SungWon Cho, who voice Krs, Lootbat, Tess and other assorted characters in this series, are all well-known voice actors. They are known for their roles in The Ghost and Molly McGee, Velma, Fairfax, Elena of Avalor, Victor and Valentino, Craig of the Creek, High Guardian Spice, Gen:Lock, and The Cuphead Show.

Furthermore, the plot line of this series reminded me, in more ways than one, of episodes of Dogs in Space and Cleopatra in Space, which share some of the same voice actors. It even made me think of the first season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, when Omega and the Bad Batch are on the run from various bounty hunters who want to kill or capture Omega.

Since the series is for all ages, there rarely blood spilled, just some laser battles, fights, and the like. Sure, no one is invincible, but also, no one gets seriously hurt, apart from Terry crash-landing on a planet and some scuffles. There aren't assassinations on the scale of the Immediate Murder Professionals in Helluva Boss or mass murder akin to the season one finale of Invincible.

All in all, I found My Dad the Bounty Hunter a fun watch. Even so, I would have preferred, just as I did with Season 2 of The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, for 1-2 episodes to air every week, rather than all the episodes dropping at once on February 9th. That would allow for more time to take in what is happening in each episode. On the other hand, the series almost seemed to be designed for a binge, since a lot happens in a short period of time, assisted by music and fast-pacing. The series was undoubtedly affected by the fact that, reportedly, 99% of it was produced "at-home" because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There was nothing to dislike when it comes to the show's cast. This is despite the fact that this is Laz Alonso's first major voice role, while Jecobi Swain and Priah Ferguson are new to voice acting. They only voice characters in Hamster & Gretel and Firebuds. The same can be said for the more seasoned voice actors, including, apart from those I mentioned earlier, Jamie Chung (as Vax) and Maddie Taylor (as Torga). There are other new voice actors such as Leslie Uggams (as Grandma), Everett Downing Jr. (as Bogdog), and Devin Bright (as Player 2). This gives the series life and makes the characters much more relatable.

Just as The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder is likely to garner a Black audience, the same is the case for My Dad the Bounty Hunter. It is designed for families, especially, like many other all-ages series currently out there. In addition, characters like Lisa, who is sassy and intelligent, may become beloved. Some might even connect to the fact that she organized a gambling den at her local school and held high-stakes poker games. She is like Maya in The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, in that she when she gets passionate and determined, no one can stop her. In fact, Lisa becomes skilled with a sword, and plays a vital role, especially when helping her dad out of some tough situations, as does her brother Sean.

As I've said in other reviews, 3-D animation is not always my favorite. For instance, I think the Tales of Arcadia can be a bit hard to watch at times due to the animation style. However, the animation is done very well in this series. It is as strong as the flowing animation in D4DJ. Computer generated images can be good if they are animated with a distinct style, but traditional, 2-D animation, is just as good. The series was supposed to be 2-D originally, but it cost less to do 3-D, as they didn't have to build sets, while flashback scenes were 2-D, which separated "the present from the past" as Harpin noted.

Due to the fact that My Dad the Bounty Hunter is only 10 episodes, there isn't much time for lore, or even exploration of everyone's backstory. There's some backstory given for Terry, Tess (Terry's wife), and a bit for Lisa, but that's it. Even so, this doesn't take away from some of the messages in the series, emphasizing the importance of family, togetherness, and overcoming obstacles. This creates a wholesome series which sticks with you, episode-to-episode.

This fades away when the story centers on brutal exploitation of the Chillas by the Conglomerate. These creatures are imprisoned and forced to mine minerals for no pay (i.e. as slaves), with the materials only used to make the Conglomerate that much richer. Unlike Qui-Jon Jinn, who only freed Anakin from slavery on Tatooine, Lisa, with the help of Vax and her comrades, frees all of them. She ultimately convinces her dad, Terry, to side with her, once he realizes he is doing the wrong thing.

Watching My Dad the Bounty Hunter made me think of the exploitation of the worms in Futurama, especially exemplified by Slurms MacKenzie, who caused the caves to collapse, when he parties one last time. There are similarities to the Ewoks in Return of the Jedi in more ways than one, or rescue missions in Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: The Bad Batch, which ends up freeing those imprisoned, often by the Galactic Empire, even if it puts their lives in jeopardy.

The season one finale of My Dad the Bounty Hunter leaves the door open for more seasons. It remains to be seen if Netflix will go that route, or whether it will treat it like City of Ghosts, a curiosity which executives deemed as needing no continuation. I remain hopeful that despite all the shenanigans going on at Netflix right now, they will renew the series.

After all, since the series is based on the dynamics within the family of co-creator Everett Downing Jr., there is likely more to explore in that realm. There are other plotlines which could be told in a second season. Perhaps Lisa will have a boyfriend, or even a girlfriend, and family conflicts may erupt, changing this from a happy family-friendly series into a more mature one.

Even so, it is likely, more than not, that a second season would continue to portray a loving Black family, and have additional sci-fi elements, which the creators said they incorporated into the series the best they could. When asked about another season, one of the co-creators said he would like to focus on Tess and "give her a shot in the captain’s seat."

Furthermore, since the first season of My Dad the Bounty Hunter was said to be a "love letter to animation, science fiction, and Black families" rolled into a wild action-comedy, it is possible that another season would go even further. There is a lot which can be done with animation, unlike any other medium, which makes it apt for storytelling. Of course, not every animated series is superb, and some are subpar. But, when animation is done well, it shines like nothing else. This series shines.

This series is unique, even on Netflix. While the streaming platform hosts shows like Princess Power, Ada Twist Scientist, Dogs in Space, Hilda, The Dragon Prince, Bee and Puppycat, and Dragon Age: Absolution, nothing even comes close to this series. The same can be said for the upcoming Agent Elvis and Mulligan.

The only comparison with this series is on other streaming platforms, specifically in the Star Wars franchise, a flagship grounding Disney+ in the streaming wars. Perhaps, My Dad the Bounty Hunter is being used to compete with those series. Although, if that is the case, it would be absurd, since the other series are much longer lived, and likely have more money behind them.

In the end, while My Dad the Bounty Hunter is not my favorite series ever, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it and I'd definitely recommend it, as it can be watched in its entirety during a morning, or an afternoon.

My Dad the Bounty Hunter is currently streaming on Netflix.

© 2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[leviticus101st]

My Live Tweet thread of Gen:Lock

(I copy and pasted a Twitter Thread of my reaction to Gen:Lock. I'm more active on Twitter, so if ya want to see more from me, my @ is LeviJones101st)

I don't usually do this, but I decided to live tweet my watch through of Gen:Lock.

Let's see if this shit show was worth all the workplace abuse and fucking over of the Nomad of Nowhere.

Spoilers: I believe the answer is gonna be no.

Okay. Starting out and this is more of a small thing, but I've gotten really sick of Sci fi settings that always like showing off how super advanced they are by showing technology that does not look like it'd be used.

Like Dave and his girlfriend decided to take leave to visit his mom with……some kind of physical hologram?

Why? Why do this instead of just physically going there?

My nitpicking aside. This opener is actually really solid, establishing this mysterious threat that I totally didn't spoil myself on and making the main hero look likable.

"How did it get so close?!" Lady. If nome of you noticed that thing, ya'll would have fallen apart even if this Union thing wasn't around.

Okay, this opening episode was actually pretty good.

And….wooow that Theme Song does not match this kind of show. It's apparently a licensed song, which is just baffling to me.

They forced people from their other projects to rush their work on this show, they had a moral line not to force a rush job from Jeff and Casey Williams?

I mean, I'm happy for them not being forced to crunch out or anything, I just find it funny that's where they draw the line.

I like that Chase is actually taking all of this very well.

It's actually quite nice.

OH MY GOD! THEY SAID THE THANG! can I go home now?

Doc….I think they're meeting their future regardless……I mean the future is the time that isn't now…….so technically they'll never meet it.

Also, I do believe that people should grieve however they can……but Miranda is kind of an asshole. At least the lady in MoU said 'good to say ya again'

I actually really love Weller. He is just so casual about everything and I love it.

I'm actually getting into this show. It is a bit slow though, ESPECIALLY for an 8 episode season.

"Making soldiers out of children!" Lady. These are grown ass adults. We're these guys meant to be like teenagers originally?

WELLER! JUST TELL THEM THE SPY WASN'T COMPATIBLE!

Weller's speech about "making a difference" is actually quite nice.

I'm already halfway through S1 and while it's been slow going, I'm actually really enjoying myself so far.

Hey. They're saying the RWBY thing.

This Nemesis thing is actually pretty cool.

And the action is actually pretty solid.

Being in a digital space where you control the mech and can affect the mind and personality of the mech pilot is actually a very interesting concept.

I'm sure somewhere this idea was done before, but this is an interesting concept.

The Chase clone twist is actually very compelling.

"Your Deus Ex Machina!"

That's actually a very clever double meaning with the phrase, kudos.

It took us til the end of the season, but we finally got the genlocks in their promoted designs.

The designs do clash with the shows visual aesthetic, but they are actually cool.

Okay. Overall, this first season was actually pretty good.

I'll be watching the second season tommorow, since it's like 10:00 where I live and i have a cavity filling tommorow.

So if what I heard about Season 2 is true, ill be in for a double whammy of pain.

Got a cavity filling and I can't feel the left side of my mouth.

Sounds like the perfect condition to watch Gen:Lock S2. I might be out of it, so maybe there won't be much live tweeting.

Hopefully, people were just overexaggerating how bad it is and it's just okay at worst.

Though I doubt it given what I've heard.

Okay this theme song matches the show better……but honestly this one just sucks.

And immediately it's clear that it's a different person writing for the show.

"Kazu is just whining" no, he’s not. You're just being childish Chase.

Aside from some awkwardness with the new creative team, this first episode was actually pretty solid.

Are they…….are they trying to make the Union look like they were in the right?????¿

Also, a good showcase of why you can't just stretch something into a 16:9 screen format

The Union:

Did the priest dude just use a deadass evil switch.

Wow, they really are tying to present this as a grey on grey conflict, aren't they?

Oh my lord they are.

OH WOELW! THAT SEX SCENE JUST CAME OUT OF NOWHERE!

It was a literal sex scene jumpscare.

Hmmmmmmm. I wonder if the Union, the guys who committed mass Terrorist actions, make machines that are over the topply evil, and took over the world, are the good guys.

Yasamin is the only character making sense in this damn show.

"They were so peaceful!" NO THEY WEREN'T! WE SAW GROUPS OF PEOPLE COMMITING SUICIDE! THERE IS NO RELIGION ON THE PLANET THAT ENDORSES IT!

HOW DOES THIS HAPPEN FROM A RELIGION FUSION DANCE ANYWAY?!

Cammie girl, lass, my sister in christ….YOU LITERALLY CHANGED YOUR PERSONALITY! WHY CAN'T KAZU DO THE SAME!

Whose idea was it to throw in all the sex stuff?????? It's not gritty or gross or whatever, IT'S JUST BIZARRE!

Also, why did nobody mention this climate crisis in Season 1?

Also, are they trying to make the Union look like a cult, because that's what it looks like to me.

This shallow samurai shit made to crap on old school anime is actually crapping on bad modern anime.

No seriously, this roboshogun stuff makes me cringe so hard.

It's trying to mock old mecha anime like Gundam and the like, but instead it's giving me the vibe of a bad high-school anime that came out in the early 2010's.

Also, this might just be a me thing, but this attempt to jump around the timeline is really annoying. Just transition to one story and say their happening at the same time, yesh.

Toxic masculinity stuff. I am totally tapped out on this.

Another JumpSex. That's my new nickname for it.

AND WHY IS THIS BEING SHOW WITH INTERCUTS TO CHASE'S ACTUALLY INTERESTING STUFF.

"See how the Polity wars!" I do see……it is significantly better than how you guys do it

Wow…..Cammie is kind of a brat.

Wow. This making the polity bad shit is annoying.

And of course……Kazu's dead.

Who the fuck kills off a character after their arc just finished?!

Like……..narratively what does this accomplish????? And no 'showing the hardship of war' is not a good reason.

All this 'grey on grey morality ' shit has done is make me hate all the characters.

Except for Kazu and Yasamin…….and they killed the former. And the latter I only like because she is the only one calling out everyone's bullshit.

And now I have to listen to Marin try and justify fascism.

MAYBE TURN OFF THE SCREAMING HEADS WHEN PRESENTING YOUR SELL'S PITCH!

'Like my old one, but different' I want to throw a dictionary at your head.

This Chase corruption plot is actually cool and interesting, a shame it's not the actual focus of this damn season.

They're trying way too hard to portray the 'Flow' as a good thing.

"Man, this roboshogun thing is so graphic!"

Why are you people affected by a 2D cartoon with blood in it when you've seen a bunch of corpses.

Also, mandatory joke about how 3D characters see live action shows and that kinda thing.

Ew……just ew.

Marin is trying to stop a cult from ruling the world and everyone is trying to stop her 'evul' plan.

I hate well intentioned extremists Union. I hate it so much.

I love mechanic dude and I can never remember his name.

I have to say the LowTierGod cinematic universe is turning out to be extremely lame so far.

I praised RWBY Vol9 when It did this thing, but I think this show makes that stuff worst in hindsight.

Also, why is Cammie's model look so weird????

Does…..typo

WAITAMINUTE! YOU MEAN THE EVIL CULT WHO TRIES TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD IS EVIL?!

God, the ceo mech is so ugly

I haven't mentioned this, but man this show is so much uglier now

I actually really like the Chase plot, it's just a shame that it's buried in so much crap.

Oh my god, the last episode, I'm almost done here.

I'm all burnt out on this show. I'm just gonna point out what's funny from now.

YOU SHOULD KILL YOURSELF NOW!-The Ultimate Message of Gen:Lock

I love this dumb fucking ai thing so much.

God, at times the dialogue is so fucking bad.

God, I hate Sinclair so bad.

Also, the body horror is so lame.

Lmao! This beast thing was made out to be so big and might and yet it's so small next to the skyscrapers.

That's it? That's the climax???????????? WHAT?!

THAT'S THE CLIMAX?! THAT WAS SO ANTI CLIMATIC WHAT THE HELL!

Also, Genlock's message…..it's proud theme?!

What did Chase's sister do to get to New York exactly????

I'm gonna fucking scream.

That's it? THAT'S IT?!

Fuck this 2nd season!

Fuck the higher ups for abusing the staff!

Fuck the pornbots who keep liking this thread!

IM DONE!

I did this whole ass thread and I appreciate absolutely none of it.

On the plus side, I can feel the left side of my face again….mostly.

[g0ld-m3d4l-stuff]

What happened on the latest gen:lock episode?

The Flow is real, Cammie is in there and she can control the Flow and is about to use it to free the merged copies in the Holon Frames by resetting them to their default status and separating them as opposed to Chase's initial plan to kill them all.

Also Marin is forcing Sinclair to pilot a Holon that's basically and Evangelion unit with a human face named "Odin" which will probably be the final boss of the season

And overall they really seem to be going in the direction of "the Union were the good guys all along and suicide with an after life is better than dying in the climate apocalypse" All of which are ridiculous plot elements that completely ignore and contradict what was very clearly established in S1 about the Union

[your-dar-ling]

Gen:Lock 2.5 Re(view/cap)

I think this is the best episode in the season so far. I really enjoyed the characterization in it. Let's get to it.

Cammie

Okay so it seems obvious that they're pulling a Rogue One situation. If this is meant to be the definitive end to the Gen:Lock story, alot of what happened before now makes alot of sense.

I absolutely LOVED Cammie's story. I don't think it had the time it needed to breathe, but for what it's worth they made it work. Given all that we've learned this season the progression of her character from moment to moment seemed very plausible to me. She summed it up pretty well with the idea that she needs an "us."

Here's my thing with the discourse from this week:

This person (who I'm anonymizing for obvious reasons) would be right if what the Union was planning on doing was "genociding humanity." Let's break it down.

The Union does not think they are genociding humanity. They think they are giving humanity a new home in the face of climate collapse. We can call it a lie or a fantasy, but so too follows for all religions because the Omnifaith is literally every religion. It's obviously not a 1-to-1 because the real world doesn't have magical glowy nanobots to yeet your body away, but like if we're willing to suspend your disbelief that far to separate these fictional circumstances from the real world ones, I just don't understand how a person could come to a conclusion as if they aren't.

There is already proof that they are not just murdering people. Gen:Lock as a concept is just temporarily killing yourself to pilot a mecha. It's why one can't "exceed uptime," if one does, their brain will literally be unable to revive their consciousness. They never explicitly say this but I think it's pretty clear. They are not just "falling asleep," their entire person is moving from place to place. And if all it took to "die" was uploading their consciousness into a digital framework, disregarding your body, Gen:Lock is a weaponized, repeated and voluntary suicide they've been participating in since Day 1. If anything Gen:Lock exceptuonalizes the concept, making martyrdom of it. I don't think there's too much here to there for Cammie, who helped develop the thing.

But okay fine. Fine. Maybe the Flow is worse because it's not reversible. There's no returning to your body when you ascend like in Gen:Lock. Two things: the flow literally brought Yaz back to life (although I don't know if she's aware of it), and Brother Tate -- who wholeheartedly believes in his message -- was brought to and fro as well. But even beyond that, Chase cannot return to his body. And moreover, he chose to be stuck in his bot brain forever. Does that mean Chase committed suicide? I think it's more complex than that.

And you might be asking "why doesn't the show just show what it is like in the Flow?" Because the Polity is based on science, which is a necessarily evidence based field. But in contrast to that, the Union is based on faith. Evidences of faith are not literal. It wouldn't be an interesting story if we just got to saw whether or not they were right or wrong. Showing all these people that believe in it is the evidence. But in case that wasn't enough there's alot more i.e. them actively developing it to be more sustainable.

I don't think the show is saying Cammie's suicide was a "good" thing. I'm not down for ascribing moral quality of any kind to suicide. But I don't think the show is glorifying, but the show's characters definitely are. I think the show is simply showing that Cammie did what felt right to her. Why she did what she did and the coercive qualities of the Omnifaith are all important in this conversation! And I think ultimately Cammie didn't even think she was committing suicide, or at the very least she wasn't in a place to acknowledge it. But I think this rough discourse is what makes her story work.

Other G:L

Chase please go to therapy.

Val please go to therapy.

The fact that Yaz mindshared Kazu's DEATH is soooooooooo interesting and should've been way more than just a "talk." Girl's been paid dust.

...oh yea Kazu yea I guess we don't care about him anymore lol

Polity

Marin's characterization this episode was absolutely flawless. Her little speech gave so much context to her as a character. I can finally get behind watching her now that I know. She's not paranoid or cold. She loves her nation and its people. But she values their lives over their choices, and that leads her down a dark path. She's just got a bad case of "tough love." I feel like I've met the exact type of person her character is hyperbolizing.

Union

Wash rinse repeat.

No Man's Land

The gays keep winning. I don't have much to say about Sinclair, but his conflict is nice. Even they struggle with helping others when it's at expense to themselves. I think what Chris says in response is the theme of the whole episode:

"You give people a choice. That's your third option. And she's made hers."

Conclusion

I'm so ready for this show to end. In both a "I wanna see where this is going" and a "if I have to look at one more discourse I'm gonna explode" kind of way. I'm excited for next week though, which is at least better than the last.

Final Ranking: 8/10

[amethyst-wind-uk]

Hey, guess what Gen:LOCK didn’t need? (Gen:LOCK season 2 episode 3 spoiler within)

An entirely gratuitous sex scene with full-frontal nudity.

Robot strippers.

Kazu’s exploration of self being reduced to a damn joke.

A blatant Hawkeye ripoff.

~

I’d worried that Gen:LOCK going big budget, and by a mainstream studio would negatively affect the quality.

Unfortunately, it looks like those worries were not baseless. I’m not in the slightest bit engaged at any point. There’s not heart in it, at all.

I don’t even think that any of the pilots besides Chase even *HAVE* their own plots this season. At least not yet.

[photosynthefish-12]

Honestly, fuck gen:lock season 2.

Season 1 was great, and I encourage people to watch it, but I will not be watching more of season 2.

Season 1 was bright and hopeful, about transhumanism and doing whatever you can to make a difference in the face of overwhelming force and oppression. (Dr. Weller even says it - “they want you to become numb”) While things weren’t great right now, they could get better with tremendous effort and a little luck. Things weren’t all doom and gloom all the time - the characters made jokes and had fun together and just got a chance to be human.

Season 2 is at best angsty fanfiction that took one look at canon and tossed it out the window. 

First, the tone completely changes. Now everything is doom and gloom and hopeless, no fun allowed. It’s a full dystopia where one side is unapologetic murderers who will do whatever it takes to win, and the other is somehow supposed to be sympathetic despite also being murderers who will do whatever it takes to win.

Everyone gets reverse character development - Miranda goes from emotionally shielded to just cold and uncaring. Colonel Marin loses all sense of morality. The team has lost everything they gained in season 1, and then some - the start of a found family has turned sour. Chase’s mom has always been a Union sympathizer.

The time skip doesn’t work well. Where they could have gradually shifted to a darker tone, and shown all the things infodumped in a monologue at the start of the new season (which would have been very interesting), they just chose to skip over it. I want to see those increasingly hopeless battles against growing numbers of Nemesi. I want to see the team being worn down through pyrrhic victory and crushing defeat until they can barely stand each other, rather than simply being told it happened. I want to see the effects of climate change becoming inescapable, rather than going from the forests and grassy parks in the background of season 1 to the desolate fire-swept plains of season 2. Climate change doesn’t - can’t - go from “everything seems fine” to “this is literally hell” in a few months. You wouldn’t get from the lush forests of Oregon to “I heard there were still trees in New Zealand” in months. The time skip is the laziest possible way they could have done that transition, and as such it simply doesn’t work for the narrative.

It’s inconsistent. Someone else pointed out that Yaz defected because she accidentally outed her parents as intellectuals, where season 2 has them openly working on science for the Union government. In season 1, “the Union does not innovate,” seeming to rely on captured scientists forced to work. They are a force of oppression and death. In season 2, they value scientific knowledge and use gentle persuasion to recruit a scientist. They were a utopia with a dark heart, turned war machine after a preemptive strike from the polity. Season 1 left well-developed characters with promising arcs, and season 2 said “we’re not going to do any of that - let’s do this instead.” Season 2 is a completely different show, tacked on to season 1 with duct tape and string. This is not the union whose nanotech burned a park in New York, this is not the Marin who let Weller decide whether the recruits stayed, not the Val who fought the Union “his whole life,” not the Chase who wanted to talk to his friends again but wasn’t sure how to start.

And lastly, a personal pet peeve of mine. Why all the sex? It seems to be a staple of this flavor of dystopia and dark & gritty “mature” works to have sex be a prominent part of the story. In most cases, it adds nothing to the narrative. Dumping a boatload of sex into the story doesn’t make it more mature, just like rhyming doesn’t make something poetry.

It’s like they took everything I liked about season 1 and discarded it. While some people might enjoy season 2, I doubt they are the same people who liked season 1. Gen:lock is like two different shows stapled together with silly string now, and for me canon ends with season 1, episode 8.

[maxiemumdamage]

I just wanna say right now that the animation and lighting for this season looks beautiful. The extra time RT had to animate really shows!

[necronymie]

[implodingcacti]

here you go shogun sniper fans, the only part of this episode i can share that's both that good good shit and also able to be posted on tumblr with a tag that won't blast my account into the void

[dontexpecttomakesense]

Cammie being alive doesn't even fix anything because they made such a big deal about her death, her suicide, they even put the message about reaching out to people and those who you think they are in need of help.

And now turns out she's not even dead.

Her death wasn't meaningful in a thematic sense, it was just some bait-and-switch made for shock and drama.

[g0ld-m3d4l-stuff]

A Rant About gen:LOCK Season 2 (spoiler warning)

I really enjoyed season 1 of gen:LOCK. It was brilliant. I was very disappointed to later hear about how Gray cannibalized the budget of other RT shows while crunching the production crew to make gl. Resulting in several layoffs.  It's such a shame especially considering how passionate the crew was about gl. Even worse it that from what I've heard, Gray didn't even show remorse over the crunch and got quite defensive, hence why he had to go.  When I heard that gl would continue, I was relieved, but then when I learned about how RT would not be involved in production and that HBO would take the reins, I was very concerned. I didn't want to judge too soon though.  Then season 2 premiered and oh man. No Battle Tapes. No David Levy. A potentially seizure inducing opening animation that only reuses scenes from the s1 op while showing some in show scenes from s2. Cheap and lazy. But that's really the least of my problems.  The animation was crap. RT had a great handle on the low framerate style in s1 but season two was horrible. The movements are jerky and awkward. The fight scenes are terrible and unlike s1 they are clearly not one of the things that the series prides on.  You could even see a difference in rendering. It feels more... lifeless (?) compared to s1 and some frames seemed like they forgot to properly render it.  The writing was really bad. They undid Chase's acceptance of Mind Sharing. The characters act quite differently. The timeskip made the tonal shift too abrupt and certain character arcs (specifically Marin) unsatisfying. They also completely retconned Yaz's backstory.  While I understand that HBO is an adult platform they should've kept in mind that many of the people who would watch s2 were a young adult audience who watched s1 when it was on RT. Although they warned that the show would take a darker more mature turn, they weren't clear.  RWBY promised a darker more mature turn but nothing like what happened with gl. And when RWBY did something extreme they at least put trigger warnings because RT actually respects us. HBO did not do that with gl and when they did it was too late.  They had an on screen animal death. No warning whatsoever. I mentioned the seizure inducing op earlier. They didn't put a warning for that until it the episode after it was first shown.  They had a on screen sex scene with full frontal nudity between Jodie and Miranda that especially objectified Miranda, not to mention how horribly animated it was.  And this one is the worst part. They give Kazu and identity crisis, develop his relationship with Val (leading to another sex scene) give Kazu some good development... only for him to be killed off, purely for shock value. All that character development was for NOTHING!  Like overall, HBO is clearly just trying to be "dark and edgy" more than trying to write a compelling story, with how graphic they have been throughout s2.  Oh and between all of this? Warnermedia issued unfair  copyright strikes against YouTubers who made gen:LOCK reaction videos BEFORE the series was taken by Warner. An action that went over RT's head and when they learned about it they wanted to do something about it.  Now there is something that kinda bugs me. gen:LOCK is no longer being produced by Rooster Teeth but it's still a Rooster Teeth IP isn't it? Is RT in the dark about what production decisions are being made until each  episode airs? Are they gonna keep promoting the show?  I'm gonna keep my eye out on what happens next. Until we know what's gonna happen, please do not attack RT for this. This is all on HBO.

[your-dar-ling]

Gen:Lock 2.7 Re(cap/view)

If you haven't seen my other 6 reviews literally click #darglreview in the tags and read them all because I said ALL this, review done.

I just love when my faith in a narrative is rewarded.

Some favorite lines:

"[*Gen:Lock has invaded the building*] Oh. I know those guys. Back to work." - Henry Wu

"Don't let your hubris confuse *our* end with *the* end." - Dr. Jha (girl pick up that gun)

"*Sees a man get chopped in half* Oh man well now I feel really bad." - Migas

"I've had this scar for a long time, I'm just embracing it now." - Julian Chase

The entire Val/Kazu scene

Final Ranking: 8/10

Okay I did not predict the base literally burrowing underground that sounds like incomprehensible damage to the Earth but hey everyone's dying anyway who cares.

[dynared]

Sex is a part of the human experience. If a rating increase allows Gen:Lock to explore that (especially in the episode *about* boundaries [especially especially in a show where the human body is literally being phased out of existence]) it is not inherently a bad thing. In fact I appreciate the attention it draws to those ideas. Gen:Lock, the name of the show, isn't about the mechs. It's about mind-share. It's about connection. Sex is 100% a part of that.

HBO often gets a bad rap as the “Home Boobs Office” with naysayers claiming the sex in its shows is mostly for shock value. 9 times out of 10, I disagree heavily since it shows either a plot or thematic advancement in the act and people’s interpretations of it.

This is that 1 time out of 10. There is no point, nothing in the previous season that made this kind of content seem anything less than jarring, and no, it doesn’t accomplish anything. It’s a shock tactic designed to show how much more “mature” and “adult” this season supposedly is.

Even if there was a way to make it work, the animation was not up to the task anyway. So showing full blown sex with your lowest bidder animation isn’t doing the scene any favors.

I’ve repeatedly railed against mecha shows that don’t use their mecha or seem disgusted with the concept, so I won’t dig up that argument again. Unless you want to see how the Voltron franchise is doing (the answer is “not well”).

[polandspringz]

So unless when Yaz gets taken in by the Union (and healed from those bullet wounds) and made a pilot she gets surrogate parents who are secretly against the Union- we’ve got an error on our hands

[gen-incorrect]

Hey, am I the only one who doesn't like the fucking sex scene in today's episode? I'm not here for that kind of action literally ever. That scene was totally unnecessary, especially when animation and voices are expensive.

It felt very unnecessary in my opinion, not to mention jarring. Kinda funny seeing that sentiment come from an incorrect quotes blog.

The episode would've played out fine without it script-wise. You could cut the entire scene out, put Miranda at her desk, and nothing would change or feel missing. All it did was show us that their relationship was over, which is something we already knew.

[basic-bamboo]

Unpopular opinion about Gen:LOCK s2 (spoilers):

While the Miranda and what's-his-face sex scene was unnecessary, I actually didn't mind the Val and Kazu sex scene. It can be argued whether it fit the tone of the show or not, but it was nice seeing the bodies change and Kazu being cool with it while it also not being from a lascivious pov. It was a little awkward and it was definitely noticable that when Val was "male" Kazu was always "female" and vice versa, but having an openly genderfluid, pansexual character (that because of the cyberpunk nature of the show gets to live life physically, bodily fluid) have sex with someone who was previously a little put off by them and their body changes too was cool in a way that I haven't seen before.