[Locke]

So here are my thoughts on Build up to and including the current episode.

The thing that keeps me watching is the flashes of inspiration, the strength of the performances and the chemistry between the cast. Everything else about this show, so far for me, has been awful.

The show has practically zero identity of its own, drowning in cliches and trite developments continuing the painful homogeneity of toku shows. The emotions never mature, the special effects never improve and the moral compass never becomes more focused. The show does attempt a few swerves but any twist can be seen from another dimension they are so telegraphed and all each twist does is make me aware of how little emotional investment I have in this show.

I also don’t care for the actual Rider’s so far. The mostly serious tone of the show completely clashes with the silliness of the Riders (including the villains). What happened to Riders evolving meaningfully? These shows have always been about selling toys, I get that, but Build is a walking advertisement for himself, nothing more and it is so egregious in its execution, everything just makes so much noise, so much shouting and so many sound effects but it is all low quality, painful, nonsense. I can’t concentrate on the action because the Driver is just shouting away while other props screech out horrible low res loops of the equivalent of an industrial blender being filled with metal. It looks like they are using the literal toys as props, they don’t even bother to paint the props on both sides.

Also while I’m here, how is Rider post Gaim? I hear Ghost is garbage but it seems like people quite liked Drive and Ex-Aid. I could never properly get into either of them. Should I push through and try and finish them?