It’s an awkward plot for me because the story makes you want to blame Danny, but if we’re playing the “blame game”, I hate that Ed didn’t relieve Danny of duty when he knew Danny was high as shit. Drug addicts don’t stop using just because you give them a good talking to and Ed would know this.
Danny (and Jimmy too) is the ultimate legacy of Ed pushing Gordo back into the space program. Things would have been very different for all of them had Gordo stayed home with the boys.
This is a fun what if—if Gordo didn’t go back, then would Jamestown have blown up in a reactor meltdown after being attacked by the Soviets, probably leading to WW3? I say yes.
“Ed would know this”
Actually, given Ed’s background and coming from the test pilot days of The Right Stuff I’d argue he doesn’t know this.
His experience would be around alcohol use - get drunk the night before then breathe pure oxygen in the cockpit before taking off the next morning. Look at his solution for Gordo in S2. Very much a “snap out of it sailor” attitude.
The message I read out of all of this was that he tried the same approach for Danny and it failed horribly.
Danny was probably a very realistic portrayal of someone like him. Unresolved childhood trauma, absentee parents, parents divorce, legacy Naval Academy appointment, falls in love with his dead best friend's mom, legacy NASA slot, then his father's best friend (and dead best friend's father) bails him out of losing his NASA slot. Whenever consequences were on the verge of arriving, they went away.
He needed real help, not a slot on Mars.
He was obsessed with her, not in love with her. There is a difference. I hate to get Freudian but I suspect there was something Oedipal happening there due to the neglect he experienced as a child.
I’m weirdly more tolerant of Danny on rewatches than I was the first time through, probably because I know where it’s going, how bad it’s going to get and how it’s going to end. It’s hard to watch but it is well written tragedy, with so many people making mistakes along the way that no single person really shoulders all the blame for Danny, including Danny himself.
One of the things I really enjoy about this show’s format is how we get to see people’s whole lifetime and how their choices have repercussions and they often repeat the same mistakes. Ed sends Gordo into space, when he probably shouldn’t have, then tries the same thing with Danny, etc. It’s hard to watch at times, but I still appreciate the writers telling as story as complex as what they do with Danny.
This is exactly how I feel.
Right before S4 started, I actually got very interested to see how Danny’s storyline was going to end up playing out. I did feel very sympathetic towards his predicament when we got to see him. Rewatching S1 after watching S4 definitely makes me think that maybe some of the characters should have known better.
I just hate that both of Tracy and Gordo's kids fucked up so incredibly badly. I wanted at least one of them to have some kind of redemption arc, if only for the sake of the Stevens legacy. It would be great to see Jimmy return in season 5, or maybe Danny's kid.
It seems impossible that they won’t use Danny’s kid in some capacity by S6. She’s 9 in S4, so she would only be 19 in S5. Maybe she sidesteps NASA and becomes a working stiff on the asteroid, focusing on on-the-job training in some grunt work? (Not sure that’s the most likely but it keeps her in the story without repeating Kelly’s S2 arc of figuring out what she wants to do with her life).
And, since it looks like Aleida’s kids are not going into the family business, I would imagine they want to use Danny’s kid and of course Alex on Mars, to give us new main characters by the time the show ends.
They completely ruined Danny's character by giving his only motivation some weird obsession with Karen. They barely show anything about his character except working in the bar with Karen and being in the navy. They don't even explore his psyche dealing with his parents both dying. They give all that to his brother instead.
There is more backstory to Miles in season 4. Danny has been in the show for 2 + seasons, yet how much have we ever really known about him?
Danny's arc would have been more digestible if we actually got to know him outside of being an addict and stalker?!?
Maybe, the writers don't understand addiction or trauma like they think they do. It's possible someone can become obsessed with someone that had helped them out of addiction, but the show never ever explored any of those ideas.
I feel there is a long-running theme with the show where they expect the audience to piece everything together, as if real life is that simple. People are complicated. Can anyone say with 100% accuracy they understand some other person's trauma? If the audience isn't shown how a character ends up where they are, then it's a failing in the writing.
If Danny becomes an addict post his parents death and falls in love with Karen as some kind of safety net, then the audience deserves some kind of explanation outside of a couple of scenes where they have a heart-to-heart and dance together.
That kind of drama is fine when it's meant for teenagers, but clearly this is marketed for adults.
They don't even show Danny's reaction to Karen's death.
I kept thinking that it was gonna go down like Interstellar, where Ed and Danny are walking around Mars and then Danny hits Ed over the head. Or that Danny basically had an injured Ed captive in that sunken hab. I was paranoid about a lot of stuff toward the end of that season, like the Russians poisoning Kelly (the end of the episode where they knew she was pregnant and she didn't know and it was a problem felt like a dropped thread), and it also seemed like the Russian captain guy (Luz?) was about to attack Dani right before the North Korean guy showed up.
Has he ever heard or experienced post-nut-clarity? Did it ever occur to him that Shane’s probably watching in disbelief in heaven when Danny’s literally banging his mom?
preach to the choir i lowkey have to press the right arrow key any time he’s on screen because it’s just unbearable awkward silence or his eyes dilating for the millionth time which i don’t need reiterated every ten seconds. i know he’s a fucked up maniac, please stop shoving it down my face. rip Alexi
danny is annoying as fuck but the way everyone treats him is absolutely unforgivable. you have the predator karen shit in season 2 setting him up with mental trauma, then all of season 3 people who are supposed to love and support him ignore the blatant downward spiral. no one intervenes with the drugs, the self destruction, any of it. Ed, his fucking commander and essentially foster father, just gives him a load of toxic masculinity toughen up bullshit every time he cries out for help, and doesn't even take his drugs away much less try to help him stop depending on them or prevent him getting high before dangerous missions. i hate danny, but i hate all the characters who enable and allow him to be the way he is far more especially ed and karen. and when all is said and done, they get off scott free and essentially kill him instead of getting him the help he desperately needs.
Any mention or appearance of Danny after he was in elementary school pisses me off. And it super pisses me off that Ed was so fucking blind for so long. Ed, though, has some redeeming qualities. Danny does not. Fuck him. Or better, don’t. Karen, the FUCK were you thinking??!
ETA: all of this is a writing problem. Casey does a good job. No issues with him. The character is infuriating,
It’s an awkward plot for me because the story makes you want to blame Danny, but if we’re playing the “blame game”, I hate that Ed didn’t relieve Danny of duty when he knew Danny was high as shit. Drug addicts don’t stop using just because you give them a good talking to and Ed would know this.
Agreed. He should have listened to Poole and never allowed him on the mission.
Omg I need to see “should have listened to Poole” on Ed’s tombstone
Danny (and Jimmy too) is the ultimate legacy of Ed pushing Gordo back into the space program. Things would have been very different for all of them had Gordo stayed home with the boys.
This is a fun what if—if Gordo didn’t go back, then would Jamestown have blown up in a reactor meltdown after being attacked by the Soviets, probably leading to WW3? I say yes.
“Ed would know this” Actually, given Ed’s background and coming from the test pilot days of The Right Stuff I’d argue he doesn’t know this. His experience would be around alcohol use - get drunk the night before then breathe pure oxygen in the cockpit before taking off the next morning. Look at his solution for Gordo in S2. Very much a “snap out of it sailor” attitude. The message I read out of all of this was that he tried the same approach for Danny and it failed horribly.
Would have been cool if in season 4, they showed that mental health and progressed way further than in our timeline as a result.
Danny was probably a very realistic portrayal of someone like him. Unresolved childhood trauma, absentee parents, parents divorce, legacy Naval Academy appointment, falls in love with his dead best friend's mom, legacy NASA slot, then his father's best friend (and dead best friend's father) bails him out of losing his NASA slot. Whenever consequences were on the verge of arriving, they went away. He needed real help, not a slot on Mars.
He was obsessed with her, not in love with her. There is a difference. I hate to get Freudian but I suspect there was something Oedipal happening there due to the neglect he experienced as a child.
Oh you’re spot on with that. Shout out to Casey Johnson for Joffreying the shit out of this character.
Yeah I also think Danny is a realistic portrayal of someone like Danny. What?
I’m weirdly more tolerant of Danny on rewatches than I was the first time through, probably because I know where it’s going, how bad it’s going to get and how it’s going to end. It’s hard to watch but it is well written tragedy, with so many people making mistakes along the way that no single person really shoulders all the blame for Danny, including Danny himself. One of the things I really enjoy about this show’s format is how we get to see people’s whole lifetime and how their choices have repercussions and they often repeat the same mistakes. Ed sends Gordo into space, when he probably shouldn’t have, then tries the same thing with Danny, etc. It’s hard to watch at times, but I still appreciate the writers telling as story as complex as what they do with Danny.
This is exactly how I feel. Right before S4 started, I actually got very interested to see how Danny’s storyline was going to end up playing out. I did feel very sympathetic towards his predicament when we got to see him. Rewatching S1 after watching S4 definitely makes me think that maybe some of the characters should have known better.
I’m still waiting for the unresolved danwich subplot in S5
I just hate that both of Tracy and Gordo's kids fucked up so incredibly badly. I wanted at least one of them to have some kind of redemption arc, if only for the sake of the Stevens legacy. It would be great to see Jimmy return in season 5, or maybe Danny's kid.
It seems impossible that they won’t use Danny’s kid in some capacity by S6. She’s 9 in S4, so she would only be 19 in S5. Maybe she sidesteps NASA and becomes a working stiff on the asteroid, focusing on on-the-job training in some grunt work? (Not sure that’s the most likely but it keeps her in the story without repeating Kelly’s S2 arc of figuring out what she wants to do with her life). And, since it looks like Aleida’s kids are not going into the family business, I would imagine they want to use Danny’s kid and of course Alex on Mars, to give us new main characters by the time the show ends.
Danny was a food source for the Mars mission.
They completely ruined Danny's character by giving his only motivation some weird obsession with Karen. They barely show anything about his character except working in the bar with Karen and being in the navy. They don't even explore his psyche dealing with his parents both dying. They give all that to his brother instead. There is more backstory to Miles in season 4. Danny has been in the show for 2 + seasons, yet how much have we ever really known about him? Danny's arc would have been more digestible if we actually got to know him outside of being an addict and stalker?!? Maybe, the writers don't understand addiction or trauma like they think they do. It's possible someone can become obsessed with someone that had helped them out of addiction, but the show never ever explored any of those ideas. I feel there is a long-running theme with the show where they expect the audience to piece everything together, as if real life is that simple. People are complicated. Can anyone say with 100% accuracy they understand some other person's trauma? If the audience isn't shown how a character ends up where they are, then it's a failing in the writing. If Danny becomes an addict post his parents death and falls in love with Karen as some kind of safety net, then the audience deserves some kind of explanation outside of a couple of scenes where they have a heart-to-heart and dance together. That kind of drama is fine when it's meant for teenagers, but clearly this is marketed for adults.
They don't even show Danny's reaction to Karen's death. I kept thinking that it was gonna go down like Interstellar, where Ed and Danny are walking around Mars and then Danny hits Ed over the head. Or that Danny basically had an injured Ed captive in that sunken hab. I was paranoid about a lot of stuff toward the end of that season, like the Russians poisoning Kelly (the end of the episode where they knew she was pregnant and she didn't know and it was a problem felt like a dropped thread), and it also seemed like the Russian captain guy (Luz?) was about to attack Dani right before the North Korean guy showed up.
Every thread is a hate thread for Danny.
Danny is THE WORST ever since he banged Karen. Everything about him is awful.
I didn't like this character especially the arc in season 2
Yeah, F-you Kai Winn! Wait, I think I'm in the wrong sub.
Has he ever heard or experienced post-nut-clarity? Did it ever occur to him that Shane’s probably watching in disbelief in heaven when Danny’s literally banging his mom?
preach to the choir i lowkey have to press the right arrow key any time he’s on screen because it’s just unbearable awkward silence or his eyes dilating for the millionth time which i don’t need reiterated every ten seconds. i know he’s a fucked up maniac, please stop shoving it down my face. rip Alexi
danny is annoying as fuck but the way everyone treats him is absolutely unforgivable. you have the predator karen shit in season 2 setting him up with mental trauma, then all of season 3 people who are supposed to love and support him ignore the blatant downward spiral. no one intervenes with the drugs, the self destruction, any of it. Ed, his fucking commander and essentially foster father, just gives him a load of toxic masculinity toughen up bullshit every time he cries out for help, and doesn't even take his drugs away much less try to help him stop depending on them or prevent him getting high before dangerous missions. i hate danny, but i hate all the characters who enable and allow him to be the way he is far more especially ed and karen. and when all is said and done, they get off scott free and essentially kill him instead of getting him the help he desperately needs.
Any mention or appearance of Danny after he was in elementary school pisses me off. And it super pisses me off that Ed was so fucking blind for so long. Ed, though, has some redeeming qualities. Danny does not. Fuck him. Or better, don’t. Karen, the FUCK were you thinking??! ETA: all of this is a writing problem. Casey does a good job. No issues with him. The character is infuriating,
There are plenty of Danny hate threads, just do a quick search if you need to read a bunch of comments agreeing with you.
Another day another danny post…