We finally get to the end of the Mars Brightest contest and the beginning of the new arc (with shining new OP and ED to boost), but narratively it’s not much of a big gap between these three episodes. While we can see how it wraps up from miles away, episode 12 wraps up the best way it can with the conclusion of the final showdown between Carole & Tuesday versus Angela. Turns out, there isn’t really a “showdown” to begin with, as our titular characters are disqualified for the final. Here, the show brings a fair share of pluses and minuses in its package. On one hand, I approve its focus on Carole & Tuesday relationship rather than the Mars Brightest contest. It’s nice to see them reflect on how important they are for each other and how they wanted to team up in the first place. With that, despite the fact that they didn’t win the contest, they still gain something more valuable: their partnership. On the other hand, the plot is simply too thin that it stretches out too much that you can see a lot of holes and inconsistencies. Take Tuesday’s Mom Valerie for example. We see her “abducting” her daughter because she’s in the middle of the campaign, but later on after Tuesday escapes we hear next to nothing about her in regards to Tuesday. So… she just gives up on Tuesday? Is she too busy to even consider Tuesday a threat for her campaign? Likewise, we have a random old passerby who appears just in time to give Carole & Tuesday a lift to the contest, then seemingly vanish without a trace. That’s what I called a clumsy plot device.
With the new arc begins in episode 13, now that Carole and Tuesday is popular, that doesn’t mean that they have a secured career ahead. In fact, they’re still struggle with having no money and are still looking for producers. Gus makes a gutty decision to brush off Catherine’s big studio offer to become independent (something in which I admire). This decision makes for another rivalry contrast between them and Angela, as they follow the opposite paths to their musical career. It’s interesting to see how each faces up to their very different issues. For Angela, it’s not the money that she needs to worry, but she strives for approval from her producer Tao. As we further see in episode 14, he uses AI to create a stimulation of AI-Angela singing a completely new songs. If her very career existence is to be samples so that AI can replicate it, then why would she be singing at all?
In the latest episode, Carole & Tuesday finally found a new producer. As of tradition, he’s another oddball that doesn’t stick with the tradition, but frankly I find him lacking of engagement. It’s okay to depict him as lousy, unpredictable but vastly knowledge about his field, but at this moment I fail to see his own philosophy. It doesn’t help that all he musters during the practice are “it’s shit” and “it’s the most glorious shit”. Well, I need more than that. We also see Tuesday’s Mom engaging in what-would-be a controversial move in her campaign with an anti-immigrant proposal. If that comes to happen (which I suppose it will), it will directly affect Carole and her immigration status, and that would in turn push Tuesday to finally confront her Mom in order to protect Tuesday.
The latest episode also provides some of my favorite moment of Carole & Tuesday the show thus far. With the popularity of Carole, comes all these people claiming to be her parents. Again, we could see signs of Dann as Carole’s father from the very beginning, but what makes this threads sing so well is the delivery (something that I don’t normally praise for shows like Carole & Tuesday). It’s the quiet walk with an equally quiet sad little story explaining why he and his late wife had to abandon her that speaks more loudly that anything that the show has done so far. He’s in the mix between really wanted to acknowledge Carole as his daughter, at the same time knowing full well that he doesn’t have the right to do that. Her last words towards him, is an act of acceptance. And that plot threads end the best way it can. Here’s hoping the show deploys more of this quiet approach to its plots.
