Carole & Tuesday Episode 23: Planning a miracle

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My opinion of this show hasn’t changed much with the recent episodes. It finally looks like things are coming together for the ending, but it still feels rushed. I don’t mind the idea of having the musicians band together, but the political angle of this series seems flimsy. At this point, I assume the final episode will just be an extended cameo for every character in the series, so we’ll have to see.

I’m not sure how I feel about Spencer’s conversation with Tuesday. I think it’s important for getting the idea of mothers in Tuesday’s head for the final song, but I also think it’s meant to indicate a redemption arc for Valerie. I think it’s too easy to make Jerry out as the sole bad guy in this series.

I like seeing Carole and Tuesday choose to take action in response to the political climate of this series, but I also think that the message is heavy-handed. Gus also kind of oversells it by calling the event “miraculous”. I understand that censorship can often get out of hand, but I don’t think this series has done a good job of letting it get that far yet. From what’s been shown so far, it’s more like the series is suggesting that music relies on the ability to make a political statement to survive, which seems wrong.

I actually think Angela has a decent backstory in this episode. Despite her behavior, I can believe that she chose her careers to make people happy. I think that it’s also sad to see a sense of desperation in her shift to music. It’s nice to see Carole and Tuesday go to her for help as well.

I think that “mother” could work as a focus for the show’s final song, but I’m not sure I’d be willing to accept a change of heart from Valerie. At this point, it seems unearned. Maybe the upcoming conversation with Spencer will help with that.

Well, it’s about time. I’m half-expecting Tao to use phone reception in his AI dungeon as an excuse in the next episode.

Carole & Tuesday Episode 22: Hitting the bottom

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While I wasn’t always the biggest fan of Angela’s character, I think it’s been sad to watch what’s happening to her. As we near the conclusion, it looks like the series is maintaining its concept of contrast, and I’m curious to see what comes of that. I honestly didn’t expect Angela’s story to go as far as it did. Here’s hoping everything comes together for the ending, right?

I can get behind Angela’s desire to sing at the Grammys despite her situation, but I still think that her story could have been fleshed out more. I think I can get a sense of her motivations, but her shifts seem to erratic. I understand that her situation is unstable, but she was questioning herself entirely in the previous episode. Seeing that transition could have been interesting.

Dahlia’s death also seems to come out of nowhere. I think it’s a good way to push Angela over the edge, but I would have preferred if it didn’t seem so uneventful. If anything, you could say that Angela is retreating into Dahlia’s final wish to keep herself sane, and that would be a cool way to present her if that’s what the series is going for.

I liked Carole and Tuesday’s performance in this episode. The song was decent, and I didn’t notice Crystal all too much in the music. Though, she’s admittedly a lot more noticeable on stage.

Angela’s performance was pretty tragic as well. Her singing definitely sounded rougher than normal, which conveys her current struggle in a believable way. I wonder how original that song was. Seeing her collapse in the end was a sad conclusion for the episode. I actually do hope that she’s able to get back in the swing of things for the ending of the series. I wonder where her contrast with Carole and Tuesday is going, after all.

Carole & Tuesday Episode 21: One last song

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I’m not sure what to make of this show now. It honestly feels like it’s racing to reach the ending. I think it’s a shame too. This week’s episode introduces multiple subplots that I think could have been interesting, like Carole’s relationship with Amer and Angela’s growing anxiety. Maybe it’s just me, but I felt like they happen too quickly to really mean anything.

Honestly, I think Amer has a decent story to tell. I just think it’s condensed too much. There’s something to be said about being forced to don a mask to survive, but it’s hard for me to buy that this persona that he’s spent so much time building could be broken down with two short conversations with Carole. The two definitely have a strong relationship, but Amer jumps to romantic love in a heartbeat.

Similarly, Angela’s struggle with the nature of her birth seems to come out of nowhere. I think it’s fine for Dahlia’s outburst to force Angela to question their relationship and investigate. Angela is basically finding out that she might have been taken in just for her talent. But she just suddenly pops up with a birth certificate and spirals into drugs.

Spencer’s taking on a lot of risk by returning to Valerie as a double agent. It seems like an incredibly obvious ploy, so I respect him if he’s got a better plan up his sleeve. It’s hard to tell so far.

The music hall in the intro of every episode is starting to make more sense based on the nature of this “last song”. To be fair, I thought the song was pretty good, so no complaints here. It does make me wonder if there’s supposed to be another performance after the Grammies, though.

Crystal’s appearance is also throwing me off. It feels weird for Carole and Tuesday’s miraculous performance to involve a collaboration with an established artist. Maybe it can work if Crystal is just an opening act, but this also makes me think there needs to be another performance.

Meanwhile, Tao is doing sketchy stuff. As for the final scene, I do hope that he ends up going to Angela in response for her plea for help. I vaguely wonder if this is meant to set up a romance between the two, which might be going too far. But it would be nice to see him actually care for her.

Carole & Tuesday Episode 20: Going to war

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I guess things are starting escalate now. Valerie’s campaign seems to be going into full swing in this series, and multiple characters have been arrested. I wonder if this “Grammy” performance that Carole and Tuesday have been invited to is going to be climax for the entire series. I’m not entirely sure how I’d feel about it if the show ended with them solving the Valerie story with their “miraculous” performance.

Then again, the Grammy thing could also be another throwaway performance. It looks like the story is throwing wrenches into two of Carole and Tuesday’s competitors, so it might end up being an undeserved victory.

Yeesh, Dahlia really took a turn in this episode. I’m not against it because previous episodes did set it up through Angela’s memories, but it feels like a sharp change nonetheless. Seeing Dahlia attempt to achieve a dream through Angela was pretty rough.

I think this scene was interesting for showing some of Tao’s motivations. To be honest, his study of the human mind isn’t all too different from my own personal interest, so I might relate more than most. I suppose it’s good on him for sticking with his principles.

I would have liked to see more of Carole’s past, but I’m glad her meeting with Amer goes well in this episode (especially after what happened with Tuesday). I mentioned last week that Amer might end up just taking the fall in Carole’s place push the group to fight Valerie, and his arrest is making that look likely. His song was cool, though.

I mean, it’s good to see that Kyle is still working on taking down Valerie, but who’s really surprised by this?

Once again, this might be a bit much. If the AI is perfect, then there’s literally no reason for Angela to sing. I don’t see how this works…

Carole & Tuesday Episode 19: A big performance

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I didn’t think about it as much last week, but I like how the Cydonia Festival is framed as a second chance in this episode. I had forgotten that they never actually got to play the first time, so it’s nice to see the girls taking their shot at revenge seriously. As a general comment on the series, I’m still wondering where it’s headed. I know we have the weekly reminder about their miraculous performance, but it’s a weird, meandering road to get there.

The security camera snooping angle wasn’t too hard to guess, but I guess it’s interesting to see Tao being so proactive. I’m sure it’s easy for him to say that he’s just protecting his “product”, but this week’s episode seems to be the first time he’s been willing to listen to Angela’s complaints. I haven’t been the biggest fan of the stalker development for Angela, but I guess it helps that she’s potentially getting closer to Tao.

Well, this meeting goes pretty much how I would have guessed.

Carole’s refugee past always seemed like a way to keep her past nebulous, so I like that this episode seems to be pushing her into the light. I’m hoping this isn’t just a way for the series to prop up a different character as a sacrificial lamb for Valerie in Carole’s place. I think it would be good to see more of Carole’s life growing up alone.

I think Ertegun plays off the crowd decently in his performance. To be honest, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Angela’s song with him, but I liked his initial performance (before she goes on stage). I used to listen to that style of music, so it ended up working for me.

Why did Cybele feel so much more effective as a creepy stalker character? Maybe this stalker incident has been dragged out too much. Anyway, I’ve mentioned before that I think this works to get Angela closer with Tao. I also wonder how much of it is meant to give Carole and Tuesday the opportunity to catch up (I’ve said this before).

I respect Carole and Tuesday for sticking with their guns and foregoing the flashy entrance. I tend to like slower songs, so I preferred their performance over Angela’s performance. I also thought it was funny to see the backup band used to snap their fingers in the background.

Carole & Tuesday Episode 18: Love troubles

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This week’s episode was a sad one, but I think it was an interesting way to show Tuesday the pain of being lovesick. I’m still not sure I enjoy how far the series is veering into Valerie’s campaign parallels, but I guess we’ll have to see how that turns out. I signed on to watch two girls make their way to the top as musicians, so it’s been an odd detour. That being said, I do like that this episode gives Carole a chance to really support Tuesday.

While I had a hard time with how quickly Tuesday fell for Kyle, I think I respect how the episode handled it. As far as I could tell, Kyle doesn’t do much to lead Tuesday on or take advantage of her. Instead, Tuesday develops her own crush and falls under her own misinterpretation. It’s a sad scene for her, but it feels perfectly reasonable.

Angela’s stalker is another plot device that’s starting to get a bit tired. I wonder what the series plans to do with that. The best I can come up with is that it’s meant to be a way to keep Angela from rocketing ahead. Her fame gives her a general edge over Carole and Tuesday in their competition, but the stalker could be the show’s way of doubling down on the drawbacks of that fame.

I assume that this attack was a plot from Valerie’s sketchy campaign manager, but I’m not sure. Am I the only one that thinks it’s too on the nose? I get that Valerie’s supposed to be pointing at issues in the current political climate, but you could be more subtle about it.

I’m very curious to see how Tao factors into Valerie’s campaign. On one hand, he’s in the music industry, so he doesn’t seem that useful in the world of politics. But on the other hand, he seems to be a big deal in the world of AI, so it might just have to do with that.

I really liked this scene between Carole and Tuesday. Carole basically predicts that this would happen at the start of the episode, so it’s great that she’s only there for support when the time comes.

Carole & Tuesday Episode 17: Finding glory

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This week’s episode was an interesting turn for Ertegun, but I felt like it was generally lacking in subtlety. I don’t mind that Carole and Tuesday take a back seat in the series either, since the character stories that are being shown have been fun. It looks like the girls are steadily making progress, so I don’t think it’s detracting too much from them. I did kind of wish that Ertegun would support the girls after his incident, but I guess it’s too much to ask.

I liked the idea of having Ertegun lose everything. I think it would be great if his character makes a larger shift as a result. I also thought it was funny that the episode blatantly shows him with a shirt that says “who am I” while he’s struggling. But I think the episode overreaches by shining a giant spotlight on that shirt and mirroring it with a news headline.

It’s nice of Tuesday to worry about Carole, but I’m a bit skeptical about this scene. It’s not hard to make the connection between Valerie and Carole based on Valerie’s proposed policies, so I’m not a fan of seeing the show point a finger at it. I guess I don’t really get what this scene adds.

It’s kind of cool to see Spencer ditching his mother, though. He seemed to be making a concerted effort to stay, but no one was listening to him.

There’s something intriguing about watching Ertegun inevitably pull himself out of his slump. His recovery is basically an extended inner monologue, which usually isn’t too effective. I’m not sure what that says about him, though.

To be honest, Aaron was a little creepy, so I’m not too upset to see him go. I’m curious about what Tao says in an earlier scene regarding Aaron’s programming ability. It’s probably meant to partially exonerate him by mentioning that he doesn’t have the skills to do what the stalker does. But that certainly doesn’t look great for Tao.

In contrast to other parts, I think Tao’s relationship with Ertegun is handled pretty well in this episode. Tao initially reacts to the article about Ertegun’s bankruptcy, which sets up their inevitable conversation. Ertegun’s pitch for the song was also a funny scene.

Carole & Tuesday Episode 16: Starting the recovery process

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I question the setup in this episode a bit, but I think that the emotional payoff works out in the end. I’m not entirely sure what to make of recent episodes. The major point in this episode seemed to be that the debut single for Carole and Tuesday was released, but that didn’t seem to amount to much. Still, getting background on Gus isn’t too bad, and I can only hope Flora plays more of a role in the show moving forward.

Given how much the girls typically struggle to make things work, it’s kind of funny to see something just work out for them. Honestly, I don’t have a problem with them randomly finding a band, but I do somewhat question the idea of the band helping them out for free.

This “knight” business with Angela is being drawn out more than I expected. That being said, this week’s episode seems to throw an interesting wrinkle in it by having Angela get a message after she meets with the prime suspect.

I like that this episode shows Gus being a good guy. His encounter with Flora makes his relationship with Carole and Tuesday a lot more reasonable. Also, his story of betrayal makes his fear of recording labels understandable. He also seems to have a fairly warm relationship with Flora, so I think it would be cool to see him together with her in the future.

Past that, I think Flora’s story didn’t seem like much. From side research, it seems like she was based on a real musician, so I guess I can’t be too upset.

That aside, I do like that Carole and Tuesday cover Flora’s song out of respect for her. It was a great way of bringing things around. Also, it felt like a small part, but I also liked that Flora’s attempts to sing along in the end don’t overpower the girls. It just sounds like a normal person trying to mimic a song.

Carole & Tuesday Episode 15: Making connections

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This week’s episode didn’t have all too much going on, but I still thought it was great despite Desmond’s role as a one-and-done character. The series is layering on politics through Tuesday’s mother more than I expected, but I appreciated how it contributed to the contrast in this episode. I do somewhat question what the overall gain from the episode was, but I think it works if you look at it as a launching pad.

I was happy to see that Desmond wasn’t as quirky as I expected from the initial introduction. I definitely did get a “spiritual” vibe, but it was surprisingly subtle. I was expecting eccentric recluse, to be honest.

This is an admittedly random piece of worldbuilding, but I think it’s interesting. I’m assuming Dahlia experienced something similar. I say random mostly because I feel like Desmond’s story has the same impact without that revelation. Perhaps it’s meant to explain the “connection to the world” principle.

As I’ve mentioned before, I suspect that this focus on Tuesday’s mother as a politician is just an excuse to put her in conflict with Carole later in the story. That being said, I like that this episode uses it to play into the general theme of contrast. As Desmond is inspiring Carole and Tuesday as they’re launching their first single, Tuesday’s mother is similarly jumping off on her own campaign.

In addition to that, Tuesday’s mother pushes a platform of separation of Mars from Earth, whereas Desmond inspires the girls to think about how they can connect themselves to others. I actually really liked Desmond’s concept of connection and how it leads to eternity. By interacting with others, you shape them in small ways, which leads to larger changes. In that way, you can live on through the people you meet.

This is also a small scene, but I’m curious this small scene with Desmond’s AI. I’m guessing the main point is that it has developed human-like tendencies from having interacted with a person for over twenty years. I just wonder if there’s something more going on (not necessarily a Psycho Pass type thing, but maybe something similar).

Carole & Tuesday Episode 14: Finding some polish

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This series surprises me in the weirdest way. I feel like it handles its loose plot threads so well that I have to question what other stories are left to tell. It’s a bit exciting and I think it contributes to my enjoyment of the series as a whole. A few things seemed to be getting set up in this episode, but the main story seemed to be revolving around Carole. With the sense of closure she seems to have at the end, I’m legitimately curious whether there’s more to her story.

Of course, we also had the encounter with Tobe to deal with in this episode. It definitely felt like solid progress for the girls, but I saw it largely as a backdrop. It was cool to see Skip again as the girls were trying to get their song produced.

Given that this series doesn’t play too coy with its mysteries, I get the sense that Aaron is introduced in this episode because of the “black knight” situation that pops up later. He seems to have an interest in Angela, and the black knight is described as using technical prowess to protect her from harassment online. It seems like a reasonable conclusion.

I applaud Dann’s development in this episode. Carole overtly displays her flippant view of her parents and seems to actively reject them while she’s talking to him. With how anime characters tend to develop, it would have been easy for him to get discouraged by that and drag things out. Then again, this series doesn’t seem to be too guarded with its secrets (as I’ve said before), so maybe this is just what I should expect.

I honestly wasn’t expecting quite so sinister from Tao. I get that he’s an unsavory character, but something about the “artificial Angela” angle doesn’t feel right to me. I’m not sure how much I should accept this scene at face value.

This scene is clearly meant to be doing something else, but it kind of made me wonder about the political climate in this world. The consultant mentions that he’s backing up his suggestions with “consulting AI”, and I’m not so sure about that statement. I just get the feeling that an AI that’s covering such a wide dataset would be too much of a black box to allow strong interpretation of the results. So, I guess it’s more that I question where this guy gets the justification to say why the AI suggestions make sense.

Well, this scene was certainly heartwarming. As I’ve said before, I’m glad that the show wasn’t a tease about addressing it, but I do wonder what happens with Carole now. Do we just switch over to Tuesday’s family problems for the rest of the show?