Tuesday TV Toucbase: Snowpiercer

Here in the Fortress of Ineptitude, we are still watching the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Andrea is obsessed with watching gymnastics and swimming and whatever else NBC puts in front of her.  

I'm watching people do all these fantastic physical feats while I experience pain moving from a sitting position to a standing position.  

I will summarize these Olympics in an upcoming "This (Non) Sporting Life" post.  

Welcome to the Tuesday TV Touchbase, the place on the blog where I touchbase on Tuesday on what I am watching on TV

 

We all got that?

 

Starting us off this week is the return of Snowpiercer for it’s 4th and final season.

 

Warner Bros. Discovery tried to do to Snowpiercer’s 4th season what it did to the Batgirl movie and to Coyote Vs. Acme.  Take a nearly completed project and stash from public view for the tax write off.  

 

Snowpiercer got rescued from the tax write off trash heap by AMC and now 2 years after season 3 aired, we’re ready to catch up.

 

Remind me of what the heck is Snowpiercer? It’s a train that carries the last vestiges of humanity around an Earth that is frozen solid.  

 

At the end of season 3, there were signs that there might be a spot on Earth that is starting warm up. It’s near the Horn of Africa and the track is not safe. But it’s hard to pass up the chance to establish life on the Earth itself instead of in the confines of the Snowpiercer train.

 

So the train splits up. Using the prototype Big Alice engine, part of the train will venture towards what Andre Layton has dubbed “New Eden”.  It is not a safe journey and the train crashes when it hits the last stretch of track. But dang it if the outside is liveable.  

 

It’s still cold but not break your arms off cold. You can go outside without a friggin’ space suit.  You can feel the fresh air on your skin and see the blue sky. 

 

Season 4 picks up 9 months after the arrival in New Eden and things are going… good. 

 

It’s takes everyone working hard to make it go but New Eden is coming along.  Layton has ceded leadership of this community to Ruth Wardell and..

 

The thing about Snowpiercer since season 1 is the status is not quo.  In season 1, Ruth Wardell was a devoted acolyte of Mr. Wilford, the creator of the engine eternal, Snowpiercer.  She was a stern taskmaster of the Hospitality Corps.  We did not like Ruth. 

 

Now she’s the leader of the rebel group who broke off from Snowpiercer to make the crazy run at find new life on Earth.  And she and Layton are pals.

 

Andre Layton is content to let the burden of leadership fall to others as he leans into the role of doting dad with his daughter, Liana.  Zarah is her mother and although Andre and Zarah are no longer a couple, they still make a real good go at this co-parenting thing. 

 

But not all is going well in New Eden and there’s a threat lurking outside this nascent community, a threat that takes Zarah's life and now Liana is missing and the heretofore chill doting dad is ready to kill somebody.

 

Meanwhile, what has happened with Snowpiercer itself?

 

Melanie Cavill is leading the main train in it’s trek around the frozen globe when the train is boarded by the International Peacekeeping Forces headed up by Admiral Anton Milius. 

 

Milius is played by Clark Gregg who was the affable Richard on The New Adventures of Old Christine and the friendly SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  It breaks my heart to see him playing a bad guy. 

Season 4 of Snowpiercer is not what it once was but that’s in keeping with the whole vibe of the show from day one. While most series twists themselves in knots to maintain the status quo, Snowpiercer is more than willing to shatter that status and let the pieces fall where they may. 

 

I am very much anxious to see how they handle the landing when series reaches it’s end at the culmination of season 4. 

 

Everyone lives? Everyone dies? It’s Snowpiercer. It could go either way. 

Given it's violent legacy and the tendency to go in unexpected directions, I would guess it's more like the latter fatal outcome.

Next week? I have NO idea! 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.