Normally, I wouldn’t pick Pain Hustlers to watch. On Netflix, it’s labeled as a drama, and that’s not usually my go-to genre. However, when I checked IMDb and saw a 6.6 rating, which I consider pretty good, and read that it’s based on real events, I decided to give it a try.

And I m glad I did.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15257160/

A drama, but not only this. A (true) drug crime, and a docudrama (first time I saw this document+drama) as it is based on a book, that is based on true events (you see details at the end of the movie)

Story:

Liza dreams of a better life for herself and her daughter. Hired to work for a bankrupt pharmaceutical company, Liza skyrockets with sales and into the high life, putting her in the middle of a federal criminal conspiracy.

The movie starts in an interesting way. We see people testifying to the police, while at the same time, we catch glimpses of a divorced woman’s life,strong but struggling to survive and raise her daughter in difficult circumstances.

I can’t say that Emily Blunt is one of my favorite actresses, but every time I’ve seen her in a film, she has done a good job, and this one is no exception.

All the actors were great and to be honest I only realized that I was seeing Andy Garcia when I checked out the cast!

If you dont remember who Catherine is, she was the mum in Home Alone

The story revolves around a pharmaceutical company that’s about to shut down, until Liza enters the scene in an unexpected way. Suddenly, following Liza's initiatives and talent, the company starts to blossom, making huge profits and turning everyone’s life around.

Everyone’s happy, or not?

Soon, things take a darker turn. Something starts happening to the patients taking the company’s drug. Some things catch the police attention.

Will they get caught? What what’s really been going on behind the scenes, is something you’ll have to discover by watching the movie yourself.

Overall, Pain Hustlers is a film that combines ambition, greed, and moral dilemmas in a story that feels all too real. In my opinion, it is definitely worth watching, especially knowing that it’s inspired by true events.

You can watch the trailer here:

Screenshots are taken from imdb & from the movie trailer

Thank you for your support, I hope that you will enjoy it!

About the book: The book is called "Pain Hustlers: Crime and Punishment at an Opioid Startup," which was originally published as "The Hard Sell" by Evan Hughes. It was the source material for the 2023 movie of the same name. Author: Evan Hughes Original title: "The Hard Sell" Topic: The book is a non-fiction account of the pharmaceutical startup Insys Therapeutics and its aggressive, sometimes deceptive, marketing of a powerful fentanyl-based painkiller.

Not for Attribution (S05E03)

Airdate: January 20th 2008

Written by: Chris Collins Directed by: Scot Kecken & Joy Kecken

Running Time: 58 minutes

David Simon’s much-maligned fifth season of The Wire, ostensibly dedicated to dissecting the crumbling edifice of Baltimore’s newspaper industry, arrives burdened by immense expectation. Yet, in its opening salvos, a palpable dissonance emerges. Where Season Four’s exploration of the education system felt immersive, visceral, and central to every narrative thread, Season Five’s promised media focus initially recedes into the background, operating with a frustrating opacity. This deliberate choice, compounded by the pervasive use of insider journalistic jargon – terminology utterly alien to the average viewer – creates a significant barrier to engagement. The very title of the third episode, Not for Attribution, exemplifies this issue. To the uninitiated audience member, it remains an obscure phrase, a coded whisper within the newsroom, rather than an immediately resonant dramatic device. This is a fundamental narrative strategy that risks alienating viewers precisely when the season most needs to hook them, making the media storyline feel less like the central pillar it was promised to be and more like a complex, secondary layer demanding prior knowledge it rarely provides.

The phrase "not for attribution" itself, crucial to the episode’s political machinations, refers to information a source provides to a journalist on the condition it can be quoted, but without naming the source. This stands in stark contrast to "off the record," where information is purely background, guiding the journalist but not directly quotable. In the hands of the politically ambitious Mayor Tommy Carcetti, this specific type of leak becomes a lethal weapon. Carcetti, having been deliberately fed falsified crime statistics by the duplicitous Commissioner Ervin Burrell, seeks Burrell’s scalp. His informant is the ever-opportunistic Stan Valchek, who, hoping to temporarily seize Burrell’s throne, supplies Carcetti with the damning real statistics alongside the deception. However, Carcetti’s ultimate target isn’t Valchek; it’s the seemingly impeccable Cedric Daniels. Before moving against Burrell, Carcetti must test the waters with key Black political figures like Councilwoman Nerese Campbell. To do this, he deploys his former journalist aide, Norman Wilson, to strategically leak his intention to appoint Daniels to The Baltimore Sun. The resulting article sparks initial elation in Daniels, swiftly extinguished by his politically astute ex-wife, Marla, now a council member herself. She delivers the chilling reminder that Burrell, cornered, would likely retaliate by unearthing the murkier, potentially scandalous details of Daniels’ early career – a stark illustration of how political ambition is inextricably tangled with personal vulnerability and the ever-present threat of character assassination within the city’s power structures. The "not for attribution" leak, intended to pave Daniels’ path, instead becomes a potential trigger for his downfall, demonstrating the perilous double-edged nature of media manipulation in the political arena.

Simultaneously, The Baltimore Sun itself is imploding from within, mirroring the decay of the institutions chronicled in previous seasons. Corporate overlords, panicked by plummeting advertising revenue and the existential threat of the internet, deliver brutal news: foreign bureaus shuttered, legendary reporters offered buyouts. When Gus Haynes nervously anticipates his own demise, he is instead handed a poisoned chalice – tasked by Managing Editor Thomas Klebanow and City Editor James Whiting to supervise a drastically reduced, younger team expected to produce the same output with fewer resources.This internal crisis is the suffocating atmosphere in which the political leaks and Carcetti’s manoeuvring must play out. The newsroom’s turmoil directly impacts its capacity to function as the city’s watchdog, a point hammered home, albeit clumsily, by the lengthy, almost reverential recitation of H.L. Mencken’s prose by the soon-to-be-ex-reporter Roger Twigg (Bruce Kirkpatrick). For many viewers, this moment feels ponderous, self-indulgent, and disconnected from the urgent street-level drama, highlighting the season’s struggle to make the slow death of journalism feel as viscerally compelling as a drug bust or a political backroom deal.

While the political and media spheres churn, the streets of West Baltimore remain lethally active. Marlo Stanfield, ever the expansionist, attempts a bold power play, seeking a direct connection with the powerful Greek organisation by approaching Vondas. His offer of a large cash sum is brusquely rejected; the money is "not clean," useless to sophisticated international operators. This humiliation forces Marlo to seek laundering expertise, turning to Proposition Joe. Joe, wary of Marlo’s volatility, reluctantly directs him to a bank in a French Caribbean territory. Crucially, Joe expresses strong disapproval of Marlo’s obsessive vendetta against Omar Little, seeing it as destabilising. However, Joe’s underling, Cheese, sees opportunity. Accepting Marlo’s money, Cheese betrays Omar’s former financier, the blind Butchie. The subsequent abduction by Snoop and Chris Partlow, the brutal torture, and Butchie’s defiant refusal to talk culminate in his execution. Chris, ever the strategist, spares one of Butchie’s bodyguards specifically to carry the news of the murder back to Omar, gambling that grief and rage will lure the legendary stick-up man out of Caribbean exile and back into Marlo’s deadly crosshairs – a gamble that appears poised to succeed as Omar receives the devastating news.

Amidst this institutional collapse and street violence, Jimmy McNulty’s descent into self-destructive madness reaches a new, audacious peak. His farcical plan to manufacture a serial killer – targeting homeless victims – intensifies as he meticulously sculpts evidence. Discovering a red ribbon on one unsolved case, he plants an identical one on another homeless victim’s body in the morgue, then pressures the medical examiner into ruling it a homicide. When the horrified Bunk Moreland drags Lester Freamon into the fray, expecting condemnation, they are stunned by Freamon’s pragmatic, almost gleeful endorsement. Lester not only accepts the scheme but actively refines it, advising McNulty to "sensationalise" the narrative, to craft a story so lurid and terrifying that the brass must allocate resources.

Written by Chris Collins and co-directed by Joy Lusco Kecken and Scott Kecken, Not for Attribution is undoubtedly a solid hour of television, weaving multiple complex threads with The Wire’s characteristic density. However, its critical weakness lies in a certain narrative diffuseness, particularly concerning the Sun storyline. The depiction of the newspaper’s demise, while undeniably important to David Simon’s overarching thesis about institutional failure, often tips into didacticism. The character of Gus Haynes, the principled city editor, functions far too transparently as Simon’s own mouthpiece. While the decline of local journalism is a vital societal issue, translating it into compelling drama proves elusive here. The intricate political chess game between Carcetti, Burrell, and Daniels, or the visceral, high-stakes violence of Marlo’s war against Omar, possess an inherent narrative propulsion that the internal struggles of the newsroom – the buyout meetings, the staffing cuts, the Mencken quote – struggle to match for the average viewer. The sheer weight of the newspaper’s institutional collapse feels abstract compared to the tangible human cost witnessed on the corners or in the police vans.

The episode finds far more resonant ground in its quieter moments with returning characters, moments that poignantly highlight the cyclical nature of Baltimore’s despair and fleeting sparks of humanity. The sight of Michael Lee, Dukie Weems, and Michael’s younger brother using drug money to experience a day of manufactured joy at Six Flags is heartbreakingly naive. Their brief escape into childhood wonder – a rarity in their harsh existence – is brutally curtailed as they are inevitably pulled back to the unforgiving reality of the corner. Similarly, McNulty’s self-immolation continues apace; his alcoholism deepens, yet amidst the ruin, Simon injects dark, uncomfortable humour. The scene where McNulty, having picked up a "cheap blonde" at a bar, proceeds with vigorous coitus bent over a car hood, only pausing to casually flash his badge at an inquisitive patrol car before resuming, is simultaneously pathetic and darkly comic. It’s a stark reminder of McNulty’s enduring, destructive charisma and his utter disregard for consequence, even as his world crumbles.

Significantly, Not for Attribution offers the first genuine glimpse of vulnerability in Marlo Stanfield. His mastery of the West Baltimore drug trade is absolute, yet thrust into the alien worlds of international finance and organised crime, he appears startlingly out of his depth. His humiliating failure to simply buy his way into Vondas’s organisation, and his subsequent helplessness in the Caribbean bank – reduced to frustrated gestures while the teller feigns incomprehension of English – strips away the aura of invincibility. He is a king dethroned the moment he steps beyond his concrete kingdom. This vulnerability is crucial, revealing the limitations of pure street power in a globalised criminal economy. Yet, the episode also underscores that Proposition Joe’s perceived weakness – his attempt to "civilise" Marlo, to bind him with rules and kinship – is ultimately his fatal miscalculation. Joe underestimated Marlo’s ruthless ambition and, more critically, overestimated the loyalty of his own underlings like Cheese. His efforts to manage Marlo inadvertently provide the young kingpin with the tools and connections needed to wage not just one, but potentially multiple future wars.

At the end, Not for Attribution functions as a microcosm of Season Five’s ambitious, flawed brilliance. Its very shortcomings – the initial backgrounding of the media theme, the jargon barrier, the moments of preachiness – are not accidental failures but deliberate reflections of Simon’s core argument: that the decline of vital institutions like journalism is complex, often opaque to the public, and unfolds amidst the relentless, more immediately visible crises of poverty, crime, and political corruption. While the Sun storyline may lack the visceral punch of Season Four’s schools, its integration with the political and criminal narratives creates a richer, more unsettling tapestry. It demands patience and rewards close attention, revealing that the most profound institutional failures are often the quietest, hardest to see, and easiest to ignore – precisely until it’s far too late.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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The animated movie, Predator: Killer of Killers is not just a short film, it's a statement of strength. It does what the Predator franchise has always tried to do: show us that our history, full of war, myth, and lost heroes, is nothing more than a regulated hunting ground.

This movie doesn't give you a break. You're not slowly introduced to the action, you're thrown right into the essence of what Predator is all about: natural selection with alien weaponry. No matter the era, the setting, or the weapons, the Yautja come for one reason—the best trophy.

This animated project takes the franchise out of its usual setting and places it on the vast terrain of human history. You have the Viking fighting in the bone-chilling cold. The fight isn’t about fine tactics, it’s about over-resistance. The warrior wins through a will not to die that transcends all biological logic. The Predator adapts, but is overcome by the simple brutality of an opponent who doesn’t know when to surrender.

Then there’s the sudden change of scenery. The shift to hidden faces and the precision of steel. In Feudal Japan, hunting turns to geometry and silence. Here, the Predator faces off against some of the most perfect hunters on Earth—ninjas and samurai. They don’t use noise or brute force; they use anticipation. They move like ghosts, and their victory against a Predator is not determined by armor or weaponry, but by that millisecond of deadly accuracy. It's a duel of camouflage, where one uses technology, the other, just discipline. And finally, the modern segment comes. The fight moves again, forcing the Predator to confront the logic of firepower. It's no longer a duel, but a confrontation with organization and explosive weaponry. The human hero who wins in this scenario does so through coordination, strategic thinking, and using the environment as a weapon, not necessarily through individual strength. It's a hunt that shows that, despite the technological gap, humans are the most adaptable predators on the planet.

The piece de resistance, the one that connects all these eras, is precisely the ending. There is no honor, there is no peace after the monster is defeated. There is only extraction. The three victors, symbols of resistance in their eras, are quickly collected. This confirms that all these conflicts were not incidents, but standardized tests carried out throughout human history.

The highlight of this project is the brutal confrontation in the north: Predator vs. Vikings. It is no mistake that Yautja ends up there. He seeks where the greatest slaughter is, feeding on brute force, on that will to fight even after being torn in two. It is as if the hunter tests how far the pure toughness of the human soul can go.

These scenes highlight the beauty of this superb project: it shows that the hunter is not interested in our spaceships. He wants the best warrior of any era – from the most savage to the most calculated. I really liked it even if unfortunately it is at the level of an animation. The animation, visually, supports the tone. It is gore, it is sharp, it does not shy away from the bloody impact, treating the subject with the seriousness that a mature Predator film deserves.

• Why Yautja? Where does the name Yautja come from? - this made me think badly. Generally in the classic films (starting with Predator in 1987, created by Jim and John Thomas), the creature was simply called Predator. The term Yautja does not appear on screen.

Yep and apparently, this name was adopted by fans and the extended universe (comics and books) to give depth to the species. Yautja was first introduced in the novel Aliens vs. Predator: Prey (1994), being the name they themselves use. This transformed the monster into a civilization, giving it language, hierarchy, and culture.

It seems like the creators just wanted to combine military action with horror elements, but they needed a structure. That structure is the Yautja Code of Honor.

This code is what transforms the Predator from a simple monster into a ritualistic hunter. It dictates who can be hunted, prohibiting the killing of children, the elderly, the sick, or the unarmed. This is the fundamental reason why the franchise can exist: the Yautja are not looking for random massacre, but for a balanced confrontation.

The moment that takes my breath away in Killer of Killers is the ending: the collection. When the three survivors are extracted from Earth, they not only escape, but receive a "promotion". I think that this was somehow sought to explain the human myths of missing heroes and kings taken to other realms. This is not about benevolent gods, but a cosmic cycle of slavery.

These warriors are transported to the strange planet, a dungeon designed to ensure that the Yautja's blood sport never ends. Predator: Killer of Killers confirms that we have always been the hunted, and that in our history, the greatest compliment we can receive from an alien species is to be deemed worthy of being hunted forever. It's a dark perspective, but one that is perfectly justified by our myths.

In many ancient cultures, there were deities or demonic entities associated with hunting and the theft of life. The Predator takes on this role. He is not a simple alien who accidentally landed; he is the Yautja Hunter God who operates by a rigid and, most importantly, selective code of honor.

Myths about gods demanding human sacrifice are not far from the Predator's ritual of removing the spine. It's not just any crime, it's a sacred trophy. By setting the Predator in the Viking Age, the film kind of suggests that those creatures from Norse tales (forest spirits, giant monsters) could have been Predators in search of valuable prey.

Global myths speak of invisible monsters (like the Wendigo from Native American folklore, although the subject is sensitive) or of nature spirits that punish hunters. The Predator's thermal and invisible camouflage aligns perfectly with descriptions of a demon visible only by its effect – a sound, a trace of heat, a distorted shadow.

The deepest mythological fissure touched by the film Killer of Killers is alien abduction, a motif that did not only appear in the 20th century (the case of Betty and Barney Hill, for example), but which has its roots in legends about being taken by fairies, spirits or giants from the sky.

Looking for example at European folklore, it was said that fairies stole talented people (or babies) and took them to their realm, sometimes to use them as slaves, sometimes to admire them.

When a Viking village burned down completely and only one survivor remained, the locals of those times did not need science fiction to explain the disaster – it was the hand of a monster😁 or a crazy demon of war....or when a great Daimyo (Samurai) disappeared without a trace, the only acceptable explanation was that he was taken by a supernatural entity or that he fell into a diabolical trap. https://youtube.com/shorts/Ec55lr7sxAc?si=SPbaipC7MTRxqnOV Predator: Killer of Killers transforms these historical gaps and timeless fears into a coherent canon: what people thought were demons, evil fairies, or warrior gods were, in fact, the regular visits of a species of cosmic hunters.

This film confirms that the Predator franchise is not based on the future, but on a past full of blood and myth, in which the Yautja are the entities who wrote, in the shadows, the most brutal legends of humanity.

OK, so i don't know what you think, but i think it's time 😊 to recognize our status: - We humans are the most dangerous prey the galaxy has ever encountered. Hmm!! ...Are we the only ones in the entire universe!!?

Hello! 💙

De uno de los guionistas de la tan aclamada serie de Rick y Morty, llega ahora esta nueva propuesta sobre un hotel embrujado que sí tiene mucho parentesco con Gravity falls o incluso series como Scooby Doo pero llevadas con un tono hacia lo adulto hacia la comedia simplemente sencilla la cual no busca sorprenderte y tampoco busca que la historia sea lo más llamativo del mundo, simplemente es como estas caricaturas de domingo que no acostumbrada a ver en la mañana que simplemente eran entretenidas y ya, si tiene una pequeña continuidad Pero la verdad es que no le afecta lo más mínimo incluso podrías ver de todos los episodios de manera desordenada.

From one of the writers of the highly acclaimed Rick and Morty series comes this new offering about a haunted hotel that bears a strong resemblance to Gravity Falls or even series such as Scooby Doo, but with a more adult tone and simple comedy that doesn't seek to surprise you or make the story the most striking thing in the world. It's simply like those Sunday cartoons you're not used to seeing in the morning, which were just entertaining and that's it. It does have a little continuity, but the truth is that it doesn't affect you in the slightest. You could even watch all the episodes out of order.

Fuente de imagen

La verdad es que si están pensando en ver algo relacionado al terror pero que tenga un toque de comedia o que relativamente lo pueda ver toda la familia esta serie la podría recomendar si tiene un humor muy adulto en varios momentos pero creo que fácilmente puede ser vista por cualquier persona sin mayor problema, es una serie que repito no busca de ser grandiosa ni busca ser maravilloso simplemente busca ser entretenida para pasar un fin de semana en la mañana para ver algo relajado y creo que por esa parte cumple bastante.

The truth is that if you're thinking of watching something related to horror but with a touch of comedy or that the whole family can watch, I would recommend this series. It has some very adult humor at times, but I think it can easily be watched by anyone without any major problems. It's a series that, I repeat, doesn't seek to be grandiose or wonderful, it simply seeks to be entertaining for a weekend morning when you want to watch something relaxing, and I think it does that quite well.

Fuente de imagen

Me tuviera que ponerle algún problema a la serie diría que es la animación que está bien pero la verdad se nota extraña por momentos la verdad te termina apareciendo aburrida Hasta cierto punto la paleta de colores es muy bonito pero creo que la animación pudo dar un poco más de sí también se entiende que es apenas una primera temporada y se nota que es una serie de bajo presupuesto, si bien Te la venden como de los mismos creadores de Rick y morty no es del todo cierto simplemente es un guionista que fue participe de esta serie y decidió hacer o incursionar realizando su propia serie, lo cual repito creo que deberían dar una oportunidad porque es bastante entretenida especialmente son de disfrutar esta serie que simplemente tienen humor Y ya y que no buscan contar una historia ni muy grande ni tienen una continuidad en específico simplemente quieres ver algo por divertirte.

If I had to point out a problem with the series, I would say that the animation is fine, but the truth is that it seems strange at times and ends up being boring. To a certain extent, the color palette is very nice, but I think the animation could have been a little better. It's understandable that it's only the first season and you can tell it's a low-budget series. Although they sell it to you as being from the same creators as Rick and Morty, that's not entirely true. It's simply a screenwriter who was involved in that series and decided to try his hand at making his own series, which, I repeat, I think you should give a chance because it's quite entertaining, especially if you enjoy series that are simply funny and don't seek to tell a big story or have a specific continuity. You just want to watch something for fun.

Fuente de imagen

Source

Hi, I'm Abeegail welcome to my blog I'm a teen who love scary movies and psychological thrillers. I recently watched a movie called "The Visit" and all I can say is that it is more disturbing and creepy than horrifying and the end I had actually not seen coming.

The Visit follows two siblings, Becca and Tyler, who spent the week at with their grandparents who they've never meet before. Their grandparents had a fall out with their mom which led to them not ever meeting their grandparents until the visit. At first everything was harmless and quirky; just grandparents being old people but things get increasingly strange, as Nana and Pop Pop set strange rules "Don't come out of your room after 9:30pm, they hear disturbing noises and increasingly erratic action that brings about a chilling end.

What I loved about this movie was how disturbing and creepy it was. It showed the everyday life and the weird behaviour of ordinary people, especially old people, to make the movie uneasy to watch. M. Night Shyamalan’s use of tension and suspense to make the movie more chilling was a nice touch and the suspense led to something great. The performance was on point especially Deanna Dunagan’s as “Nana”, her shift from warmth to menace was so unsettling, she could say something disturbing and talk about making cookies like nothing happened. Olivia DeJonge (Becca) and Ed Oxenbould (Tyler) carry the story well, balancing youthful innocence with resourcefulness. The style of filming was one I have never experienced, the filming was made from the handheld camera of the kids, it made the movie feel real, like a documentary of an event that really happened.

There was nothing I really hated about this movie but if there is one thing I would hit home about this movie is the twist. I was so close to writing out the spoiler but it would be better if you found out for yourself. Critics say it was predictable and horror fanatic would see the twist as the plot unfold but I'm a die hard horror fan and I didn't see the twist coming, maybe I'm not a good enough fan. The twist was really twisty and I was chilled when I found out. The twist reveals something that would make you understand the grandparents weird behaviour.

Under all the crazy and unsettling things going on in this movie, The Visit drives home strong themes like; the fear of aging, how children process trauma, family estrangement and how the horror comes from the fact that people we trust can become stranger. Like I said this movie is not horrifying but it's disturbing, suspenseful and full of tension. It not the best horror movie but it's great for a nice scare.

Pls watch this movie, I promise it's worth the while.

It's Abeegail ✨💗 The first image is Sourced, the rest are just screenshots from the movie.

Z okazji Halloween nie mogło zabrać adekwatnego wieczornego seansu z mężem. Wybór padł na "Zniknięcia", film mocno ostatnio promowany na platformie HBO Max.

For Halloween, she couldn't find a suitable evening viewing with her husband. She chose "The Vanishing," a film that has recently been heavily promoted on HBO Max.

Kiedyś oboje lubiliśmy kino grozy, nie wiem czemu te czasy jakoś minęły. Ja zawsze jestem strachajło i najpierw bardzo chcę oglądać horror, a potem się boję :D Dlatego ten film w sumie przypadł mi do gustu, a męża trochę rozczarował: nie jest on bowiem typowym filmem grozy z potworem wyskakującym znienacka - choć w sumie i takie sceny się trafiły.

We both used to love horror movies, but I don't know why those days have somehow passed. I'm always a bit of a scary person, and first I really want to watch a horror movie, and then I'm scared :D That's why I actually liked this movie, but my husband was a bit disappointed: it's not your typical horror movie with a monster jumping out of nowhere – although there were some scenes like that.

Fabuła jest następująca: pewnej nocy o godzinie 2.17 wszystkie dzieci z jednej klasy znikają. Poza jednym chłopcem. Zagadkę oprócz policji stara się rozwiązać nauczycielka, oskarżana przez lokalną społeczność o bycie wiedźmą. A zło czai się gdzie indziej...

The plot is as follows: one night at 2:17 a.m., all the children in a class disappear, except for one boy. In addition to the police, a teacher, accused by the local community of being a witch, tries to solve the mystery. And evil lurks elsewhere...

Wcale nie było to złe jak na ten niezbyt wyrafinowany gatunek filmowy. Można obejrzeć :) polecam.

It wasn't bad at all for this not-so-sophisticated genre. Worth watching :) I recommend it.

pics from filmweb, hbomax

Samaritan Snare (S02E17)

Airdate: May 15th 1989

Written by: Robert L. McCullough Directed by: Les Landau

Running Time: 46 minutes

Following the seismic introduction of the Borg as the ultimate cosmic horror in the preceding episode, Q Who, the creative team behind Star Trek: The Next Generation faced a significant challenge. Having plunged the Federation into existential dread, they seemingly felt compelled to offer something radically different: a lighter, more character-driven, and arguably safer narrative. This pivot resulted in Samaritan Snare, an episode that, while hardly ranking among the absolute nadir of the series, occupies a distinctly unloved space in the affections of hardcore trekkies.

The narrative opens with Captain Jean-Luc Picard displaying a rare vulnerability, reluctantly heeding Dr. Pulaski’s insistence that his malfunctioning artificial heart requires replacement. Picard, ever the stoic commander, had been aware of the issue but deliberately postponed the procedure. His motivations were twofold: a keen anticipation of exploring the Epsilon pulsar cluster and, more significantly, a deep-seated reluctance for his crew to become privy to this perceived physical weakness. Boarding a shuttlecraft to accompany Wesley Crusher – en route to his Starfleet Academy entrance exams at Starbase 515, conveniently housing the necessary medical facilities – Picard gradually lowers his guard. In a moment of unexpected candour, he reveals the origin of his artificial heart to the young ensign. He recounts a youthful episode of profound arrogance: as a brash, newly commissioned Starfleet officer, he needlessly provoked a confrontation with three Nausicaans, resulting in his natural heart being pierced by a knife. His survival hinged solely on the immediate proximity of a medical facility, a stark lesson that forged the careful, measured leader he would become.

Simultaneously, aboard the Enterprise, Commander Riker assumes command. The ship receives a distress call from the Mondor, crewed by the Pakleds – a bizarre, humanoid species whose physical appearance evokes a cross between Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and whose speech patterns suggest profound intellectual limitations. Their commander, Grebnedlog (portrayed by Clifton Collins Jr.), claims their engine is disabled and requires repair. Despite Lieutenant Worf’s immediate suspicion and Counselor Troi’s empathic warning that the Pakleds do not feel genuinely distressed, Riker dispatches Geordi La Forge to assist. This decision proves catastrophically naive. The Pakleds, revealed not as hapless victims but as scavengers reliant on stealing advanced technology, promptly capture La Forge. Their true demands emerge: they require La Forge’s expertise to build weapons and, audaciously, demand access to the Enterprise’s memory banks. Riker, however, demonstrates his tactical acumen by devising a clever ruse. He transmits a seemingly innocuous, coded message to La Forge, enabling the chief engineer to sabotage the Mondor’s shields and facilitate his own emergency beam-out, escaping the Pakleds’ grasp.

As this farcical yet perilous drama unfolds, Picard’s ostensibly routine heart replacement surgery takes a sudden, life-threatening turn. A critical complication arises, necessitating the immediate presence of a specific, highly specialised cardiac surgeon – a specialist coincidentally not stationed at Starbase 515. With the Enterprise only just extricating itself from the Pakled predicament, it races against time to deliver the expert. They arrive with mere moments to spare, and the saviour is revealed to be none other than Dr. Pulaski herself. Picard survives the operation, and Wesley successfully passes his exams, securing his continued place aboard the Enterprise.

Initially, the Pakleds present the most intriguing facet of the episode. Their harmless facade, coupled with apparent intellectual vacuity, creates a scenario ripe for comedic suspension of disbelief. Just like with the drug-addled Ornarans in Symbiosis, One might question how such seemingly inept beings manage interstellar travel, yet the episode could potentially have leveraged this absurdity effectively, employing it as a modern, comedic analogue to the classic The Corbomite Maneuver bluff. The potential for satire on underestimating opponents was certainly present.

Tragically, the Pakleds are not the sole purveyors of foolishness here. Commander Riker, a seasoned Starfleet officer renowned for his competence, commits a series of bafflingly poor decisions that strain credulity. Ignoring the explicit counsel of his security chief and ship’s counsellor – both seasoned professionals whose roles specifically involve threat assessment – to send his irreplaceable chief engineer alone to assist a suspiciously vague distress call, borders on the inexplicable. His only salvation lies in the Pakleds’ own lack of strategic depth; had they possessed even moderate cunning, the Enterprise would have been severely compromised. This constitutes a textbook "idiot plot," where the narrative conflict exists solely because characters act with uncharacteristic stupidity. Such contrivances proved so grating to some viewers that they reportedly spurred writers Dennis Putman Bailey and Dave Bischoff to pen a spec script – which later evolved into the superior Season 3 episode Tin Man – partly as a direct rebuttal to the perceived narrative laziness on display in "Samaritan Snare."

While the Pakled storyline might have benefited from greater depth or a more consistent comedic tone, the episode mercifully offers the Picard heart subplot as a counterbalance. This narrative thread provides genuinely valuable character development, illuminating a pivotal, humbling moment in Picard’s past that shaped his core philosophy of caution and responsibility. It transforms him from a near-mythical figure into a relatable man marked by youthful error.

Yet, even this promising element succumbs to the "idiot plot" syndrome. The surgery, which logically should have proceeded smoothly given Starfleet’s advanced medical capabilities, is unnecessarily complicated purely to manufacture artificial drama. This contrivance serves primarily to showcase formidable guest actors Daniel Benzali and Tzi Ma as the surgeons, a serviceable but ultimately shallow use of talent. Furthermore, the convenient absence of the required specialist at Starbase 515 feels entirely manufactured. The episode even teases the possibility that the absent expert might be the beloved Dr. Beverly Crusher, only to reveal Pulaski – her unpopular, temporary replacement – as the saviour. For many fans still mourning Crusher’s absence, this felt like a deliberate bait-and-switch, a cynical ploy that significantly contributed to the episode’s enduring unpopularity.

Nevertheless, even episodes of questionable quality can serve a purpose within a sprawling franchise. Samaritan Snare, for all its flaws, provided foundational building blocks. The Pakleds, initially a one-note joke, found unexpected redemption and nuanced exploration years later in Star Trek: Lower Decks. More significantly, the Nausicaans, introduced here merely as the thugs who stabbed young Picard, were revisited with profound depth in the Season 6 masterpiece Tapestry. That episode masterfully reconstructed the bar fight, exploring its psychological ramifications and cementing the Nausicaans as one of the franchise’s most distinct and culturally resonant alien races. The very incident recounted in Samaritan Snare became the cornerstone of one of Picard’s most defining character studies.

Samaritan Snare is a curiously divisive entry. It exemplifies the pitfalls of the "idiot plot," where character competence is sacrificed for artificial tension, alienating discerning viewers. While it succeeded in providing necessary breathing room after the Borg’s shadow and inadvertently seeded elements for richer future stories, its immediate execution feels clumsy and unsatisfying. It is not the worst TNG has to offer, but it is undeniably one of the least respected – a well-intentioned stumble where the promise of character depth was tripped up by contrivance, leaving trekkies rightly frustrated that such a pivotal moment for Picard was framed by such questionable storytelling.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19244304/
• Platform: HBO MAX

Rottentomatoes Rating

The show also brings in the Hanlon family witch is super important because Will is Mike Hanlons dad from the movies so we know this kid makes it out alive at least, Leroy the dad finds out the military brought him to Derry for some secret weapon project that uses fear as a weapon and they need him because he has no fear after getting brain damage in combat during the Korean War witch sounds completely insane, General Shaw tells him they are looking for something buried under Derry that generates debilitating fear in people and could theoretically kill someone on the spot witch is obviously Pennywise or at least parts of the meteorite that brought him to earth millions of years ago, his wife Charlotte is dealing with racism everywhere she goes in town because its 1962 and people are terrible, she sees kids beating up another kid in broad daylight and nobody does anything about it like everyone just walks by and ignores it because Pennywise has this whole town in some kind of trance were everyone just ignores the bad stuff happening around them like its completely normal, the butcher even says boys will be boys and its just gross how people turn a blind eye to everything, there son Will is getting bullied at school for being the new kid and for being smart as hell, he is into science and telescopes and space instead of sports witch his dad Leroy does not really understand because Leroy is more of a throw the ball around type of guy but Will does not care about that stuff at all and I love that about his character, the military subplot is wild because it adds this whole other layer to the story that I was not expecting at all, like I thought this was just going to be about kids fighting a clown but now we have the government trying to weaponize Pennywise to win the Cold War witch is the dumbest plan I have ever heard but also super interesting to watch.

After two episodes I am giving this a solid 8 out of 10 because the scares are brutal and creative in ways that most horror shows would never even attempt, the acting is great across the board especially from the kids who are carrying a lot of the emotional weight and not just screaming and running around like idiots, the story is building up to something big that I can not wait to see play out over the rest of the season and its not easy to pull off this type of prequel shows because you usually know were everything is going, this is how you do a prequel series for real, it respects the source material but also adds new stuff that feels fresh and not just a retread of what we already saw in the movies, Alien Earth tried this too but was not as good as Welcome to Derry. HBO really spent the budget on this show because it looks like a movie not a TV series at all, the production value is insane and you can tell they did not cheap out on any aspect of the show from the costumes to the sets to the practical effects everything just looks expensive and polished, the opening credits are also incredible with this animated postcard style showing all the horrible events that happened in Derry over the years from the Paul Bunyan statue to the Bradley gang shootout were Pennywise was hanging out a window with a gun witch is insane, if they keep this quality up for the remaining episodes this could end up being one of the best Stephen King adaptations we have gotten in years and I would even say that not even the movies had this kind of impact, I can not wait for episode 3 to see were this all goes and if the kids finally meet Pennywise face to face or if they keep teasing us for a few more episodes witch would be fine by me because the buildup is working.

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_{The pictures that didn't have a source were screenshots from the movie.}