Hello and welcome back to The nerd shelf.
The first part of this post is going to be completely spoiler free until my review of the show.
Todays post is going to be on season one of the show Condor. It was a new show for 2018 and it ended a couple weeks ago. It is already renewed for a season two so if you like this show, don't worry, it's coming back.
If you haven't watched the show it's about a young CIA analyst called Joe Turner (portrayed by Max Irons), whose idealism is tested when he stumbles onto a terrible but brilliant plan that threatens millions of lives. Turner secretly joins the CIA hoping to reform it from within. But when everyone in his office is massacred by assassins he is forced to go on the run. If he wants to survive he'll have to do things he never could imagine himself doing or being capable of. He doesn't know who to trust or where to go, but he knows he'll have to fight.
This show is a thrilling adventure with a lot of action, with plot twists around every corner.
My general thoughts:
I really enjoyed this show, and it quickly became one of my new favorites. The writing for this show is incredible, and there were so many things I didn't see coming, which is nice for someone who watches as much television as I do because you become very good at being able to guess what comes next. The acting is amazing and I especially enjoyed Max's portrayal of being so conflicted about what he has to do. I would recommend this show to anyone who loves a good thriller and likes a mystery.
The trailer for Condor season one:
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
My season one review:
The show is so well written, and well acted and just in general extremely well made. When you watch as many shows as I do you can become pretty adjusted to foreshadowing and being able to see what's coming but this show surprised me all the time. There were so many twists and turns that I didn't see coming.
Like the death of Sam Barber (Kristoffer Polaha). I thought that he was going to be a huge part of the show, which he was but in a completely different way than I thought. I thought that when we see him trying to save Joe because of his guilt that it was going to be them against everyone else. But instead he's killed off in the second episode and Mae Barber (Kristen Hager) becomes a bigger part in the plot. I love that we get to see her and how she deals with her husbands death. I think they've portrayed her and her sons and how they grieve so well, and how everyone grieves differently. And Kirstens acting is amazing. I loved that her faith in Joe Turner (Max Irons) never falters. That scene in episode 10 when Joe manages to set up a meeting with her through her son is heartbreaking but also so relieving, cause she walks up to him and he starts to defend himself, and she just hugs him and starts to cry. It made me cry, cause finally Joe finds someone else who believes him.
I did not see Kathy Hales (Katherine Cunningham) death coming either. It took a few episodes for her to come around to Joe, after being held hostage by him, and believe his story and of course as soon as she does she gets shot. It was such a cool scene though, with Joe and Kathy in the car trying to get away and Gabrielle Joubert (Leem Lubany), who I love although she's supposed to be the villain, just shoots the side of the car from pretty far away and just walks away. I thought that Kathy and Joe were going to have this whole love story but the writers just said nope, that's not going to happen.
I really enjoyed Joes backstory of how he became a CIA analyst. The fact that he hated the idea in the beginning when Bob tried to recruit him, but joined anyway to try and reform it from the inside was really interesting to me. You see glimpses of it throughout the whole show, the conversations between him and Sam for example. I enjoyed seeing his ex best friend, Caleb Wolfe (Delmar Abuzeid), and how he had become this notorious hacker and how he fit in to the story. I thought he would be able to help him but it almost felt like Joe couldn't talk or interact with anyone without them getting murdered. I also loved seeing Joes ex girlfriend, Janice (Melissa O'Neil), and how he, back in the day, didn't want to tell her that he was joining the CIA.
Gabrielle Joubert is one of my favorite characters in this show. I love that they made the female assassin the most badass of them all, and that she can turn on even her employers if they betray her. She has a reputation to uphold and not even the people who pays her will stand in the way of that. She's so smart and able to get the job done. I enjoyed to love her but also hate her at the same time. I can't help but love a badass female even though they are doing something bad. I really enjoyed the scene after she has taken everyone out in the safe house and her and Joe is in the car and he runs it off the road. I did not see it coming at all and neither did she. It left me just sitting on my couch with my jaw on the floor.
The last part of episode 10, when we see Joe in his new life in Italy and Gabrielle calls him, I thought, like Joe did, that she was there to kill him or try to get something out of him. But I love what she said about him being the one to get away, which makes me think that no one has gotten away from her before.
Nathan Fowler (Brendan Fraser), was an extremely frustrating character for me. I hated him, and I was so surprised when he killed himself. I never saw that coming. I thought he would be the most power-hungry of them all, which he was in his own way. But it was like he didn't care if he was alive when his plan came to fruition, just that it did.
I really enjoyed Sharla Shepard (Christina Moses) because I love the actress from other shows that I've watched. She was smart but a little too vengeful to be smart about who she trusted. She just wanted the people who murdered her girlfriend dead, which I don't blame her for. She trusted in Marty Frost (Mira Sorvino) who stabs Sharla in the back in the end.I really only thought that Marty was bitter because of Bob but noooo... she was apart of the conspiracy the whole time.
In the beginning of the season I thought that Deacon Mailer (Angel Bonnani) was just the one who was going to attack Saudi Arabia but I enjoyed getting his backstory throughout the season. The fact that he was a soldier who got caught by terrorists who tortured him in many ways makes his reason to be apart of this so much more sensible. But I was so glad to see him go by Jouberts hands in the end.
I hated Reuel Abbott (Bob Balaban), he was just so unbearable the whole time. Every scene with him and his wife was so uncomfortable for some reason. It became clear pretty quickly that he was apart of the conspiracy but it was so frustrating that no one could make him see what was wrong with his views on the topic. He just couldn't see why it was bad that they would release a plague onto thousands of innocent civilians just so that a few wouldn't do the same to the U.S.
The fact that the conspiracy was to take out a huge part of the world population just to prevent a few from doing something is really interesting to me. That's where the questioning of your own morals comes in. Should we take action against something that might happen even though thousands of other innocent people will become victims? I've always thought that if you see that a problem can occur that it's better to prevent it from ever happening in the first place, but when it comes to human lives my view changes. Also living in this world, in this day and age, when there are so much hate in the world I feel like something like this would just spark more anger and evil.
So that's my thoughts on the show, I loved the first season and I can't wait until season two!
/Johanna
The show is so well written, and well acted and just in general extremely well made. When you watch as many shows as I do you can become pretty adjusted to foreshadowing and being able to see what's coming but this show surprised me all the time. There were so many twists and turns that I didn't see coming.
Like the death of Sam Barber (Kristoffer Polaha). I thought that he was going to be a huge part of the show, which he was but in a completely different way than I thought. I thought that when we see him trying to save Joe because of his guilt that it was going to be them against everyone else. But instead he's killed off in the second episode and Mae Barber (Kristen Hager) becomes a bigger part in the plot. I love that we get to see her and how she deals with her husbands death. I think they've portrayed her and her sons and how they grieve so well, and how everyone grieves differently. And Kirstens acting is amazing. I loved that her faith in Joe Turner (Max Irons) never falters. That scene in episode 10 when Joe manages to set up a meeting with her through her son is heartbreaking but also so relieving, cause she walks up to him and he starts to defend himself, and she just hugs him and starts to cry. It made me cry, cause finally Joe finds someone else who believes him.
I did not see Kathy Hales (Katherine Cunningham) death coming either. It took a few episodes for her to come around to Joe, after being held hostage by him, and believe his story and of course as soon as she does she gets shot. It was such a cool scene though, with Joe and Kathy in the car trying to get away and Gabrielle Joubert (Leem Lubany), who I love although she's supposed to be the villain, just shoots the side of the car from pretty far away and just walks away. I thought that Kathy and Joe were going to have this whole love story but the writers just said nope, that's not going to happen.
I really enjoyed Joes backstory of how he became a CIA analyst. The fact that he hated the idea in the beginning when Bob tried to recruit him, but joined anyway to try and reform it from the inside was really interesting to me. You see glimpses of it throughout the whole show, the conversations between him and Sam for example. I enjoyed seeing his ex best friend, Caleb Wolfe (Delmar Abuzeid), and how he had become this notorious hacker and how he fit in to the story. I thought he would be able to help him but it almost felt like Joe couldn't talk or interact with anyone without them getting murdered. I also loved seeing Joes ex girlfriend, Janice (Melissa O'Neil), and how he, back in the day, didn't want to tell her that he was joining the CIA.
Gabrielle Joubert is one of my favorite characters in this show. I love that they made the female assassin the most badass of them all, and that she can turn on even her employers if they betray her. She has a reputation to uphold and not even the people who pays her will stand in the way of that. She's so smart and able to get the job done. I enjoyed to love her but also hate her at the same time. I can't help but love a badass female even though they are doing something bad. I really enjoyed the scene after she has taken everyone out in the safe house and her and Joe is in the car and he runs it off the road. I did not see it coming at all and neither did she. It left me just sitting on my couch with my jaw on the floor.
The last part of episode 10, when we see Joe in his new life in Italy and Gabrielle calls him, I thought, like Joe did, that she was there to kill him or try to get something out of him. But I love what she said about him being the one to get away, which makes me think that no one has gotten away from her before.
Nathan Fowler (Brendan Fraser), was an extremely frustrating character for me. I hated him, and I was so surprised when he killed himself. I never saw that coming. I thought he would be the most power-hungry of them all, which he was in his own way. But it was like he didn't care if he was alive when his plan came to fruition, just that it did.
I really enjoyed Sharla Shepard (Christina Moses) because I love the actress from other shows that I've watched. She was smart but a little too vengeful to be smart about who she trusted. She just wanted the people who murdered her girlfriend dead, which I don't blame her for. She trusted in Marty Frost (Mira Sorvino) who stabs Sharla in the back in the end.I really only thought that Marty was bitter because of Bob but noooo... she was apart of the conspiracy the whole time.
In the beginning of the season I thought that Deacon Mailer (Angel Bonnani) was just the one who was going to attack Saudi Arabia but I enjoyed getting his backstory throughout the season. The fact that he was a soldier who got caught by terrorists who tortured him in many ways makes his reason to be apart of this so much more sensible. But I was so glad to see him go by Jouberts hands in the end.
I hated Reuel Abbott (Bob Balaban), he was just so unbearable the whole time. Every scene with him and his wife was so uncomfortable for some reason. It became clear pretty quickly that he was apart of the conspiracy but it was so frustrating that no one could make him see what was wrong with his views on the topic. He just couldn't see why it was bad that they would release a plague onto thousands of innocent civilians just so that a few wouldn't do the same to the U.S.
The fact that the conspiracy was to take out a huge part of the world population just to prevent a few from doing something is really interesting to me. That's where the questioning of your own morals comes in. Should we take action against something that might happen even though thousands of other innocent people will become victims? I've always thought that if you see that a problem can occur that it's better to prevent it from ever happening in the first place, but when it comes to human lives my view changes. Also living in this world, in this day and age, when there are so much hate in the world I feel like something like this would just spark more anger and evil.
So that's my thoughts on the show, I loved the first season and I can't wait until season two!
/Johanna
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