Snowpiercer [TNT/Netflix] (**Spoilers**)

CastorTroy

Spoiler Warning

Asha we barely knew you.

Doctor bringing back Pike?

dalyboy

Loved season one , season 2 was watchable , season 3 , I got to episode 3 and can’t watch it anymore. It’s lost the plot , too much virtue signalling, and the general feel of the show is gone. Far too many better shows past and present to be spending time on.

pixelburp

Episode 5, and I guess the love triangle is finally closed off. Suppose once the baby came they couldn't keep Josie pining in the background, a potential homewrecker.

Spoiler Warning

Not too much in the episode really, given it centred primarily around the baby's birth; the notable exception being Pike's final decision to strike out on his own. It was always coming and I guess the absence of Layton, coupled with the immediacy of Wilfred's reign meant a pin was put into the hostility.

The question then remains if Ruth remains steadfast behind the lie. I suspect once the somewhat inevitable reveal New Eden doesn't exist (maybe not where they're heading anyway), that when the closed loop breaks.

Such a good show these days.

Staplor

This really is my favourite show right now, I can catch up on email, check the news, and get so much done while it's on in the background.

Agent Coulson

Interested to see where they go now with next weeks season finale now that Melaine is back.

pixelburp

Welp. That's what happens when you subscribe to a TV show thread, and be 4 episodes behind.

Slydice

3.9: Now THAT! was a story! The quality of the episode! Can't beat

Spoiler Warning

having Jennifer Connelly back in the game. She even delivered Sean Bean that top moment of the We're At War!.

Melanies henchmen immediately got ominous lookin axes too! 😲

pixelburp

Episode 6 down, and damn Pike. But yay Rosch(sic) coming back; gotta dig that proper Santa beard. I am enjoying how the writing doesn't bend over backwards to justify every one of Layton's actions; he's still the nominal lead, but barely Lawful Good (to use the D&D parlance) at this stage and the scripts seem to acknowledge that - this episode a good reminder of this. Worse shows would have his bloody hands celebrated.

Not entirely sure where they're going with Wilfred though. Beaten, simpering, but out of the game?

EoinMcLovin

https://tvline.com/2022/03/28/snowpiercer-clark-gregg-cast-season-4-new-showrunner/

pixelburp

Gonna be very hard to see him as anything except Agent Coulson (no, not our Agent Coulson). Though I could see how his face and mannerisms would easily transform into something slimier, more sinister. My bets are he plays an antagonist of some form.

Agent Coulson

Well now that was an interesting ending and set up for next season.

CastorTroy

Would think they would let Snowpiercer know what they found.

Though it felt a bit like they thought they were going to be cancelled so were quickly wrapping things up only to then find out they were renewed.

Slydice

3.10: Awe I liked that finale! A lot going on. I can't believe it!

Spoiler Warning

Looks like they've actually found a warm spot but maybe... maybe Wilford just launched more of the make-the-atmosphere-cold-stuff rockets!!

or maybe it has something to do with:

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118849446#Comment_118849446

Well so... next season! I'm in!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118850030#Comment_118850030

I'd argue he looks an awful lot like Our Agent Coulson! Just don't mention Tahiti! 😁

sioda

New meaning to the evil eye.

Good ending alright but was annoyed by the big goodbye as couldn't they just go back up the track until I saw the state of big Alice

Spon Farmer

I really liked the solution to the conflict. I expected another battle and I think it would have disappointed me - peace and compromise winning was a nice change.

I was disappointed that Wilford gave in so easy. He was going in the little engine one way or the other but some resistance or a little speech would have been fun. And they should have explained why try didn’t just kill him.

I was surprised that the writers didn’t keep Boki on Snowpiercer. Hedwood was with him - was the other doctor with Melanie?

Looking forward to next season. Seems there are more survivors - I’d be willing to wager heavily that Wilford is with whoever fired that missile.

Spon Farmer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118865573#Comment_118865573

No I did not. The only thing I saw that I recognise was s part of the rocket.

Did you see something from the little engine?

To be honest, once the phone call between Melanie and Layton made it obvious they had joined forces, I had expected the little engine to be used to scout the track to New Eden.

When they used it to exile Wilford instead then announced the separation I assumed that the area of New Eden was a great distance. From watching the episode it gets like it was only a few minutes but now thinking back it never actually specifies whether it was minutes, hours or days.

As I type I am thinking that the missile might not have been launched by a new group of survivors. To suddenly encounter a new group of humans to be a threat or allies is a bit dull - like suddenly there has to be a hostile military force to threaten New Eden and the train?

I think it will be much more interesting if the missile was launched in error by failing technology. Maybe season 4 is going to be about the Layton groups’s struggle to build a colony and Melanie’s struggle to stop missile silos, nuclear power stations, etc. around the world from failing. No doubt Wilford will have a hand in it or perhaps find some redemption in helping Melanie.

I am just speculating. No doubt there is something about the final season in the news streams and I don’t want to know.

pixelburp

Episode 7 and this was the most checked out I've been with the show since the blah first episodes. Not really a fan of these coma episodes TBH, they usually just seem an excuse for "it's all a dream" wackiness and/or the cast playing against type for a spell.

All saved though by the revelation I was not expecting. I'd drawn some parallels with the Battlestar Galactica reboot before with Layton's visions; this time with the reveal Layton was instead pulling an Adama afterall, albeit in denial about it. This can't go down well.

And just when we had one revelation, then another comes along. Just like buses trains.

fitz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118875862#Comment_118875862

This season threatened to re-tread old ground a couple of times and just about earned it's indulgent parts imo. The payoffs were worth it, and lead to satisfying arc by the end of the finale.

fritzelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118876349#Comment_118876349

Exactly - it was a bit a drudge to get through at times

fitz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118876444#Comment_118876444

I wouldn't go so far as to say drudge, and just when I'd start questioning or getting annoyed with where they were going they'd do something to make it work. A good season overall, though not quite up the lasts season's standards consistently.

retalivity

Why did the ben and josie thing just happen, then she disappeared for a few eps? Then she comes back, layton decides he loves her, zara doesnt seem to care, and ben goes back with melanie?

Also, why didnt they send wilford up the dodgy track as a test? I had thought that was the plan til he just took off another way.

The demise of LJ seemed to be shoehorned in for the sake of it as well.

I'll watch S4, to see what happens, but parts of S3 were a chore.

pixelburp

Episode 8 and funny how conditioned I've been to the show's particular, icy palette. The travel through the volcanic cloud was a dramatic, effective change to what passes for normal in this world. The hellish red suitably foreboding for what must be some serious culminations about to arrive.

It was also a good ensemble episode too, every major character getting a little check in, to see where their headspace was at. Again, probably in service of the coming finale. The mystery patient was curious 🤔

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I've just finished watching all 3 seasons over about 2 weeks and have many thoughts. Spoilers, I guess, for anyone not up to date.

S2 was definitely better than S1, but S3 did feel like they were spinning their wheels a little. Layton just isn't compelling enough as a character to carry as much of the show as they give him. Don't get me started on how much time they spent on that coma dream episode. Contrast that with Jennifer Connelly, who can literally carry an episode almost entirely by herself, and then remover her almost entirely from S3, and you're already losing me. To be fair, I don't know how much of S3 was impacted by Covid, or if Connelly was tied up with Top Gun, or if they were really just running out of ideas, but if I hadn't been able to binge S3, I probably would have checked out early on.

I feel like other shows that were impacted by covid did the smart thing and doubled down on their characters, having more intimate storylines and developing individuals and relationships, but Snowpiercer seemed to do the opposite. Characters like Till, Miss Audrey, Roche, Zarah, Ben, Josie, and even Alex, were kind of sidelined for a lot of S3. Till and Audrey's relationship could have done with a lot more development, I would have spent more time on Till and Roche too, and that might have made her choice at the end of ep10 actually carry some emotional weight, if she was saying goodbye to Roche instead of Layton. She really felt like a spare part around Layton and co, but it didn't feel intentional and they didn't tap into that for storyline either. Same with Miss Audrey, especially after her S2 arc. The set up at the start of S3 with the pirate train should really have allowed for some exploration of why she decided to stay on Big Alice, how she fell back into that toxic and harmful relationship, and again, given some more weight to the relationship that developed between her and Till, and the choices they made at the end of the season.

Melanie and Alex is probably the most compelling relationship on the show but the constant enforced separations are getting old now. I'd have been far more interested to see Alex form some new relationships while Melanie was gone, maybe even with Josie. It's weird to me that Melanie basically killed Josie, and is responsible for what she is now, and they've never really delved into that. Having Josie and Alex form a close bond in Melanie's absence, and then having that tension there when Melanie came back could have been really interesting to see. And it certainly would have been a better use of Josie's character than just having her stand about waiting for Layton to pay attention to her.

As great and all as Sean Bean is, maybe they should have just killed him off when Roche tried. Spent a few episodes trying to keep his death quiet or something. I know that's a rehash of S1, but as it was it really felt like they didn't know what to do with him, and what they ended up doing seemed kind of ridiculous. As someone else pointed out, they could have used that little track car thingy to send someone down the Cape of Africa track to test it, or even made Wilfred do it, stroked his ego a little bit by giving him the opportunity to be the one that gets everyone off the train (although I know that's not what he wanted.) Even splitting the train seemed like a solution they should have come up with earlier? Even back when they voted to keep going or try for New Eden, Layton lying didn't seem like the same situation as Melanie lying about Wilfred. Again, Layton just isn't that great a character, and he makes some really poor decisions, but they don't seem to be writing him as actually being a bad leader, so there's no conflict developing. I actually found myself in agreement with Pike, not necessarily that Ruth should take over, but that Layton shouldn't be in charge, but again they wrote it like Pike was out of order with his line of thinking.

Anyway..... all that said, I still really enjoyed it on the whole, and it'll be interesting to see where S4 goes. I really hate this trope of keeping the cast as two separate groups and only bringing them together at the end of a season, so hopefully that rocket was the New Eden crew signaling for help and they don't spend an entire season jumping between 2 storylines.

youcancallmeal

The problem for me with season 3 is that any wonder and mystery has almost completely been removed from the plot(Exception being the last 5 minutes of the finale). It was mostly dull interpersonal relationships that didn't really serve any purpose in pushing the story along i.e. Till and Audrey, Oz and Lilah etc. You'd have to think that season 4 will be heavy on outdoor scenes to save on budget with just some brief scenes from Snowpiercer that Jennifer Connolly can film in the space of a couple of weeks.

pixelburp

Episode 7 was so unbelievably stupid, but equally, I'm so used to Network TV pulling those kinds of episodes I couldn't be annoyed either. If the show can't introduce an actual parallel universe then the writers will trot out that trope of the dream or coma, with a distinctive theme, where all the characters are different. It's usually cos of budget, or maybe a star going AWOL, or they're missing a script and need one ASAP.

What made this one particularly weird is that the theme made no sense, nor was ever explained: why would Layton's subconscious lean towards some Cuban / Caribbean, mid 20th Century vibe? Maybe if he was reading a book about it prior to losing consciousness it'd make sense; but it was just like WTF for the sake of WTF. At least it looked like the actors had a bit of fun I guess.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118945221#Comment_118945221

The only things to come from the dream seemed to be reaffirming that Layton did not want to raise his baby on the train, and then him realising his vision was just a picture he saw on the wall. Which, fine, but he could have just seen the picture with Asha's stuff or something.

S3 definitely felt like they had the initial set up of New Eden, and then the conflict for the end when Melanie returned, but not a lot of ideas to fill the space between.

pixelburp

Episode 9 and while the big return was spoiled here and elsewhere, I wasn't salty about it either; I had started to internally wonder if Melanie was more than a ghost by the constant refrain that maybe, maybe she wasn't dead. And you think someone who spent his life watching movies would remember the rule of cinema (horror especially): if you didn't see the body, they're not dead.

So here comes the finale and it's war. Uhhh, again. This time Layton's a pariah for real I guess, and Wilfred's back? Hmmm. Bet Ruth was especially píssed for taking out all the champagne too.

It's a weird point to be at, notwithstanding how most reading is probably ahead of me: I've seen casting news for season 4 while we know it'll all end when season 5 ends, so yet another civil scuffle seems too much a retread ... so I'm wondering where it's going to go beyond more violence. At this point? Maybe Eden is real, people are living there and they're not letting Snowpiercer in.

pixelburp

Episode 10 and a nice bait and switch. All that noise about a conflict, the resolution simply being adults realising compromise and dialogue was the way forward - even if it means another season of split locations. But then, at season 3 the status quo had to change something because the premise could only go so far before the rot set in. When the show is all about going in literal circles there are only so many rotations available.

As to season 4, looks like the BSG comparisons continue with what appears like a New Caprica arc coming? The mystery of that missile is the main focus in the aftermath of this episode and I'd put money on it being tied with New Eden - perhaps Layton finding themselves under the heal of unforeseen natives. The Warm Spot looked pretty barren all the same so I'd question how many people it could sustain. People living there mightn't be happy with newcomers.

Also, goodbye LJ. Was it a bit off hand? Sure but something about the ignominious nature of her death was neat; all that positioning, all that scrambling for power and in the end she dies unseen, by clumsy accident.

pixelburp

TNT and TBS's owner Warner Brothers announced yesterday the networks will no longer be creating new, original dramas; it's unclear what that means for Snowpiercer, though given the prior commitment to finish out the show at 5 seasons - and that it's not a new series - presumably it should be OK. Hopefully it doesn't mean a slashing of budget though or something similar.

https://www.avclub.com/warner-bros-discovery-tnt-tbs-original-shows-snowpierce-1848846099

Agent Coulson

Probably move to HBO Max