I just finished watching all three current seasons of Snowpiercer.
I avoided this show until recently because all I picked up from the ads and commercials was that it's a show about a train in the snow. And that just failed to grab my interest. So allow me to explain briefly what this show is about.
Snowpiercer is set in a world where scientists attempt to combat global warming by inducing global cooling. They overshoot, and the entire world ends up 200 degrees below 0. As things are cooling down, a super-rich guy hires a brilliant engineer to build a magic train with a perpetual engine, which generates more power than it consumes. So the train can keep going forever without fuel, and as long as it's going fast enough the passengers have heat and electricity.
Within the train, 1001 cars long, is an entire ecosystem; complete with gardens and pastures housing plants and animals to provide the various creature comforts that the humans onboard require. Still, limited resources and the fact that half of the passengers are wealthy elitist assholes leads to inevitable fighting between the various factions that form onboard Snowpiercer. And that drama is what the show is about.
One of my most noteworthy takeaways from this show is that is feels like every episode has a different writer, with nobody in charge to keep things orderly. Rivalries and romances are initiated almost every episode, only to be forgotten or contradicted in the next episode. Big mysteries are built up, and then never resolved. It can be rather disorienting at times. But this also kind of helps keep things moving along, without ever getting bogged down. So it's not entirely unforgivable.
Overall, Snowpiercer was a fairly enjoyable watch. And I'll be tuning back in for Season 4, which seems poised to be the last.
I also just finished Season 3 of The Boys.
This one focused on Homelander's origins, and an effort by The Boys to finally remove him from the picture.
We got a look at Black Noir's origins as well, which were every bit as messy and f'ed up as we've come to expect from this IP.
This season also had The Boys stumble upon the identity of the Head Popper, completely by random chance, and then do absolutely nothing with that knowledge the rest of the season. Which I found infuriating.
My main gripe with this season was how Homelander's son changed sides after a weak 15-second speech, and absolutely no other buildup. That little plotline definitely could have benefited from more time.
Also, I'm not really sure where they're going with The Deep. I kinda felt like his entire purpose existing in this season was to watch him suffer as retribution for what he did in Season 1. And it's become wearisome.
Still, this season deleted a few old characters, brought others back into the picture, expanded the world lore both backwards and forwards. Overall I'm quite happy, and looking forward to more.