I share pretty much the same ideas as:
theGodde (post #36)
However, probably in an even more pessimistic light. I was fine with episode 1-3, but episode 4 & 5... There's the 'more action' thing, but it just feels like the writting (for the characters, the dialogue is well said IMO)... I'd like to say that it's worse, but it really just feels like it stagnates. What the Rippers said this episode is the same as what prior vilains have said. Like, it was fine for the prior vilains because they were there to establish your main characters and the story structure, but that's done now. I won't go more into these vilains, because clearly, they're just lacking any depth.
Then, how would killing prostitutes possibly lead to civil war? I understand that in could work in theory, but from what we've seen prior, we had no reason of believing that Scotland Yard would just not investigate a case for whatever reason relating to discriminatory practices. But we also latter learn during the puppet show at the start of the episode that they did try to investigate the first two murders? Like, why give up? I assume they didn't, in which case, the militia/peasants is angry because Jack isn't caught, and the police doesn't look like they're doing anything, not because the police isn't actually doing anything. That's not what the show shows us, though. So, that's for the conflict regarding Jack.
Now, for the resolution. Again, disregarding the superhuman feets, impossible feets (such as destroying the gatling gun, and lots of other stuff which happen in anime/other medias at times), we have the origin of the militia and the police working together. First off, when we see Jack kill that woman, why would anyone belive that that's jack the ripper? Like, I get it, he killed someone, said he was Jack, and you're in the heat of the moment. But, like, would anyone in that circumstance actually reveal their name and taunt the armed men? Certainly not, and the way Jack the Ripper opperates seems to be much more covert. Like, it wouldn't be this whole affair if he bragged about who he was. And then, there's the fact that Jack doesn't do the signature Jack the Ripper thing with the stomach/whatever of the woman he killed. He just stabs her in the chest area, and leaves her be. AND THEN he jumps out from the rooftop in the middle of 2 sides that want him dead. Like, that's required for this to work, I get it. But nobody spectating this situation IRL wouldn't scratch their heads, asking why he didn't just jump to the other side of the building. Especially after his speach of '' I'm fine if you don't involve me in this mess''.
And now, onto the cooperation aspect. Why is the police suddenly working with the militia? The police authority we heard clearly said that suppressing the militia is the one and only important task, and that letting Jack kill people was fine. I get that catching Jack would also stop the militia, but why is it different when Jack is in front of you, as opposed to when he's hiding?
Then you've got the number of people involved. I have no idea if it's supposed to be in the low 20s on both side, or in the high 100s, if not bordering the 1000s. It's something that I don't really care about, but it also doesn't give a precise scale of how big the skirmish between the police and the militia is, which makes Jack's running around thing seem like it's way more minor than what it ends up being. There are 3 things that really give an idea for the size, being 1: When Jack almost turned the wrong way (which was horribly expositioned, by the way), where you can see that you've actually got 3 big globs of people, not just the 1 or 2 we had before. 2: When the gattling gun was brought in. Like, I'd imagine that you need a really threat for the gatling gun to be available at a moment's notice like that. And 3: When they alluded to the Bloody Sunday event, last episode. Not only do I not know the numbers involved, I would assume the bulk of the target audience is Japanese, and if not, then there's still only a small percent chance they're English, and so, would not know this. One could point out that this is a historical setting and that people watching might be more inclined to know, to which I reply that it's a detective story first and foremost. Anyways, Bloody Sunday reportedly caused: No deaths, 75 gravely injured, 400 arrested (using Wikipedia stats). It was 10,000 to 30,000 commoners against 2,000 police, and 400 military. Not at all what I expect when hearing Bloody Sunday, what about you?
And then, there's Moriarty's brilliant deduction regarding the group behind this. Like figure this: 2 different people were last seen with 2 different victims, and now there's someone claiming they're both of them. I think the logical assumption is to either take this as a joke, or that it is an organisation. Brilliant deduction. And then, the reasoning for the logic behind the group. So, other than the fact that, as I've explained above, their reason doesn't make sense, so a good dedective would actually have no idea what they're doing, you've got the author litterally reusing the whole concept of Moriarty's character to help explain it away. This does come back up, at least, when Moriarty meets the Jack the Ripper org. but then they just reveal themselves to be the type of people Moriarty kills anyways, so no interesting takes there.
So, all in all, I did not like this episode, nor the last (I will not get into why I didn't like the bank robbing thing, I don't expect anyone to actually want to read more of me bashing this series).
Like, most of these complaints would be dropped if this show wasn't supposed to be a mystery based on Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels. Hoping for something decent, but expecting the worst, for the next few episodes. Don't expect to see me commenting on an eventual season 2. (To clarify, although this discussion thread's name is 2nd Season, I'm almost certain that this is only part 2 of season 1)
Edit: Btw, no, I don't think the show just turned bad. I think it has what it needed to set up the story, and it also had a great source to take inspiration from. It just can't do any more than that on the mystery front. If you recall, back on the train in the second to last episode of part 1, Louis was about to kill Holmes because he was acting friendly with his brother. Like, is that something a normal person searching to rid the world of unjustice thinks about? Then you've got the whole ''How will he explain himself away'' for Moriarty when Holmes declared that he was the person behind everything. That felt like it had such an obvious solution... and more. It's a visually appealing show, and the concept was interesting, but I can't say I could ever consider it to be a well written mystery. (Doesn't help that I can explain away that everything I thought made sense was taken from the original works, as I have not read them, so the author may be better than what I've been saying, but still) |