What I saw: October 16th, 2016

Time for a full blog post today! I got to watch a few episodes of stuff after a very busy weekend and a very sleep inducing workweek. I was on a train and caught up with some season 4 Arrow, which is not really worth writing about on its own. I did watch the season 5 premier, which so far seems to be an improvement, but I'll be cautious. Anyways, time to continue on.

What I watched:

Arrow S5.E1 - "Legacy"
Shameless S2.E8&9 - "Parenthood" and "Hurricane Monica"

What I saw:

Starting off with the Arrow Season 5 Premier.

I stopped watching this show after Season 3, because the writing was just all over the place, and The Flash's season 2 as just infinitely better that there didn't seem to be a point. Now that it's on Netflix I watched a couple of highlights (Vixen showing up, and Lauren's death) that were mentioned in The Flash; as well as the finale to get a better feel. I was right in not watching it.

But, I then watched the premier now that I had some context, and I actually kind of liked it. The whole episode's theme of moving on seemed to parallel with the production of the show: its time to move on from the failures and get back to kicking ass. Oliver reconsiders his vow to not kill as a vigilante, and when Thea reluctantly dons her costume to rescue him and sees his ruthlessness, it solidifies that she is done with that life. There is the question of whether taking a life is it ever right comes back to the forefront, with no clear answer.

Oliver takes the cue from everyone else and decides to move on and recruit a new time for the bad guys that lie ahead. I'm cautiously looking forward to seeing how this new season pans out.

Now a double dose of Shameless.

These two episodes had a bit of a Good Will Hunting vibe to it. Lip's smarts are actually impairing him rather than empowering him. Everyone is telling him how smart he is as he tries to slack off and sign up for vocational training rather than continue the college track he was on, because he feels he needs to prepare to take care of his family. However, he grows increasingly frustrated as Karen shakes off the responsibility and tries to find an adoptive family that will pay her for the baby, basically mocking his idea of parenthood.

Speaking of parenthood, Frank and Monica reconnect and return to the house to raise their family. Fiona is naturally distrustful, but slowly comes to grips that even if it is only temporary, she can still use the break from everything. She doubts her decision to give Lip the ultimatum of go to school and move out. This fell in line with the overall theme of what does it mean to be family, and what does it mean to be a parent.

Fiona is experiencing first hand that being a parent doesn't always mean having the right answer, or even if you are right, that the kids will see it that way. At a certain age, sometimes life ends up being the best teacher.

I wonder what will happen to show Lip just what exactly is he running from. Or rather, he needs to see that he is trying to force having a strong/normal nuclear family even though Karen wants nothing to do with the baby anymore. Something will break, either the bridge with his family or his delusions that he can have his family now.

What do you guys think parenthood looks like? Or if you want a more lighthearted question, what do you think needs to happen on Arrow to draw the audience back in? Let me know in the comments below!