Return of Groupwatch?: The Illusion of Truth

[Hal_10000]

It seems we forgot about groupwatch when TLT came out. Is there any interest in finishing things? The next episode would be the Illusion of Truth.

To me, this is an odd but pivotal episode, wrenching our attention back to Earth after the dramatic end of the Shadow War. It lies between epic parts of the arc, so gets overlooked. But it provokes immense rage at what is done to our characters. I like Furst's direction, Zack's sheepish green when the camera appears and some great lines, such as when Sheridan upbraids Ivanova for threatening to throw the reports out of an airlock -- because she didn't promise to take their clothes first.

It also includes the chilling "confession" scene that harks back to the Soviet era. And the list of names straight out of the McCarthy Era blacklist.

I'll judge whether to continue Groupwatch (or let SmileoftheShadow continue if he wants) by the response.

[Jan]

I'm glad to see these back, I've missed them.

I think that this may have been one of the most important episodes of B5 -- not for anything it did for the story arc, though that's important, but because they pointed out, clearly and unmistakably how easily perceptions can be manipulated and just why we need to be alert for that. I've read people say that they thought the episode was obvious and in some ways it was. In others it was more subtle. The important thing is that it wasn't a bad thing for it to be pointed out the need to pay attention to what we're told and to not simply accept everything at face value. Having seen the manipulation in this episode makes it easier to think about how it might be done in other cases.

While I liked the way that Sheridan and Delenn were open about their closeness, I did think it was kind of contrived that they were willing to show that to the reporter. It was necessary in order for Dan Randall to conclude that everything wrong on B5 revolved around Delenn so they were more demonstrative on camera than I thought they really should be.

I generally like the off-format episodes a lot and this one didn't disappoint.

Jan

[moreorless]

I'm glad to see these back, I've missed them.

I think that this may have been one of the most important episodes of B5 -- not for anything it did for the story arc, though that's important, but because they pointed out, clearly and unmistakably how easily perceptions can be manipulated and just why we need to be alert for that. I've read people say that they thought the episode was obvious and in some ways it was. In others it was more subtle. The important thing is that it wasn't a bad thing for it to be pointed out the need to pay attention to what we're told and to not simply accept everything at face value. Having seen the manipulation in this episode makes it easier to think about how it might be done in other cases.

Indeed, I often see it mentioned how obvious the lies seem but if you look back though history or even today there have been alot of even more extreme "big lies" sold sucessfully.

[SmileOfTheShadow]

Thanks, I really dropped the ball on doing this. Let me watch tonight and get back to you