Twilight Sparkle vs. Godless Communism

And so, the fifth season of MLP: FIM is coming upon us in 2015. Already, a trailer has been released (in a manner of speaking). In it, Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her team are about to face-off with... the Godless Communism.

Well, no, it will not be denounced directly as that, not on a children’s show, but otherwise... In the trailer, the Elements will come to another pony settlement, whose inhabitants have given away their cutie marks (marks of their individualities) in favor of monotony – the sign of equality (two parallel black bars). They all behave distinctly brainwashed too, even in the trailer, so whatever this town may stand for, it isn’t democracy; and the fact that it is run by a mayor Marx (who is probably a villain – or one of them – of the episode), it probably doesn’t stand for  Nazism either (not on this occasion). 

What can be said? Yes, propaganda is an appropriate federal tool for the USA as well as for any other country, and yes, since the third team of president Putin the relationship between the RF, the EU and the USA have become strained, so some anti-communism slathering is just what the politicians have ordered. But!

Firstly of all, the US is supposed to be better than Them. Do Americans really have to drum the concept of “individuality good, indistinction bad” as such an early age? What, or rather – whom do they expect to raise with such an approach? A variant breed of Orwell’s sheep? “Four legs good, two legs bad”. No, wait – “four legs good, two legs better”! Yeah, that did not work as expected, but that is the only way indoctrination works, whether it is done by the Russian state, the American, or some private company, firm or sect. 

And second, lately the propaganda war is not being waged too successfully by the US. Setting aside the already-established fact that the individualistic Americans tend not react in a positive way when the American government tells them what to do directly – they go and begin to act in a clearly contrary manner – the thing is that lately the American propaganda didn’t work all that well.

As an example, Deadliest Warrior (DW) tried its best to present the States as unbeatable ever since their S1 episode had the American Green Berets lose to the Russian Spetznaz. Naturally, the Americans became upset, and by S3 DW did its best to show the Americans as unbeatable. The result?

A series of rather crude propaganda pieces, and not very successful either – i.e. NKSOF was defeated by the US Rangers only by 0.5%. 0.5%! Keep in mind, that this was some time before the end of 2014, when in connection with “The Interview” movie North Korea had almost put the global community in its place. Ouch!

Needless to say, DW did not fare so good – it was cancelled after the 3^rd season and has not been renewed. Oh sure, the various games that were inspired by it still hang around – if you like playing a bloke fighting other blokes to establish their hierarchy that is the game for you; and if not, there’s always Deadliest Battle, where Rogue fights Wonder Woman, Batman – Captain America, and Gaara – Toph. No political subtext there, no indeed!..

Getting back to propaganda, that discrepancy with reality has plagued the American world for quite a while now. The Punisher and Rambo can kick Vietnamese arse in films and comics as much as they want – in real life the Vietnam War was lost by the USA. DW – that was already discussed above; “The Interview” – that did backfire on Sony very badly, and it was only some real-life Western backbone that the rest of the world was not hit as well; and now – MLP: FIM. Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the elements vs. the Godless Communism in its’ child-friendly incarnation. Ayn Rand and her novella Anthem are spinning in her grave, most likely.

Sigh. On the theme of propaganda, Anthem was a fine piece, completely detached from reality and dedicated to fighting the evils of indistinction in the name of godly individuality and ego. It did not use any colorful ponies to get its point across. It was not trying to adapt to the current global situation either, unlike “The Last Ship” the TV series (the original novel is something). Twilight Sparkle? With the beginning of S5 of MLP: FIM, you just might have been had.

On the theme of MLP: FIM villains. In the first three/four seasons, the elements of the stable and unchanging Equestria fought and defeated villains who were much more malleable: Nightmare Moon, who could turn into fog or other ponies; Discord, who is pretty much protean in shape; Chrysalis and her Changelings, who made change or metamorphosis into their trademark power; and Sombra, who alternated between a unicorn stallion and a cloud of darkness. See the theme? The arrival of Tirek shook that up, and so yes, Twilight Sparkle’s upcoming battle with Godless Communism, Equestria-style, is also a change – now we will only have to see if it is for better or worse.

End

Agent Carter - general remarks

And so, with LG taking a midseason hiatus (never mind that it is the last season of the show, so there really is not any need for a hiatus), things are rather slow in the TV land. True, there is Marvel’s Agent Carter airing, but despite it being the same solid piece of work as S.H.I.E.L.D., there is something missing from this show, some sort of a spark.

Let us rewind: Howard Stark, (the father of Iron Man), has been framed, (supposedly) into being a terrorist of some sort. He gets Peggy Carter to clear his name and to recover his stolen inventions. Peggy has to outrun both the bad guys (communists rather than Nazis here), and the SSR (the prototype S.H.I.E.L.D.) with the help of Jarvis, Howard’s human butler (unlike his son’s version, which is an AI). 

Sounds exciting? It is, yet despite all of that, plus historical accuracy of the series, plus a rather lively cast of actors, plus the show’s address of such important issues as gender equality back in the early Cold War era, the show somehow remains less exciting and interesting than S.H.I.E.L.D. was. The characters, they go through their motions, yet the audience does not get touched by them – not really. The fanbase remains largely untouched – Carter is barely more popular (as a show) than ‘Naturally, Sadie’ or P: NW are, even though both shows have been finished, done, ended. Even the online Wikia, or rather – the ‘Fanbrain’ section of it – have gotten somewhat disenchanted with the show, reducing its’ intake of the Carter episodes down to the bare basics: i.e., this is Junior Juniper, who died thusly on the show, while in the comics, he has died thisly – etc. 

So why does this happen? What has gone wrong?

Unlike LG, for example, or Primeval, Carter does not suffer from such problems as continuity, consistency of the cast, or even common sense – everything is solid with her, the character development, as well as the plot, develops and progresses as it is supposed to, one step at a time and no further.

The historical accuracy, the feel of the historical accuracy, rather, is also present in the series without any deviations or inconsistencies. The actors act too just fine, without any over the top or hammy acting, as it happened in other shows, such as Primeval or IP version of Sinbad, for example.

And yet, it is not enough. There are no surprises in Carter, as there are in S.H.I.E.L.D. – you just know that Sousa will figure out that Peggy is a double agent of sorts; that Thompson is going to become more respectful of Peggy, as will chief Dooley; that Peggy will be able to retrieve all of Howard Stark’s missing inventions; etc. There are no surprises, save that Dottie Underwood is an undercover Leviathan or Red Room agent; since she’s also female, odds are that she is going to be the one to have one final showdown with Peggy before the miniseries end. Of course, it’s also possible that Peggy will convert Dottie into a good guy, but unlike Whedon’s earlier series, BtVS and AtS, S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t big on redemptions; odds are, neither is Carter.

There are no surprises, but there is a rush – sort of. Carter is not a hackneyed job and there are not any plotholes, but neither there are any secondary plots; even Sousa trying to figure out if Peggy is the blonde or isn’t, is part of the main plotline: Peggy seeking to outrun both Leviathan and SSR in a race to recover Stark’s stolen inventions. There is Angie, Peggy’s waitress friend, who appears to be somewhat aware that Peggy’s more than what she seems, but because Carter is a mini-series without much time to waste, Angie appears to be largely comic relief for now, as are Peggy’s other neighbours (except for Dottie).

Then there are the special effects and CGI – there almost isn’t any. Carter is very historically realistic, but it is based on a comic series, so historical realism and accuracy is not that important to it. There are no super villains either, not yet, so the comic book element of Carter feels rather downplayed as well.

And the show is predictable, unlike S.H.I.E.L.D. or even LG. You just know that Carter is going to kick the villains’ ass while looking good in it. Some of the good guys are going to die, including SSR agents in the process – and that is another thing.

Because Carter is a mini-series, all of the characters present there are either episodic roles (literally), or main cast, who will likely last until the end. There are no secondary characters, and while the same is largely true for S.H.I.E.L.D., the fact it is a longer, multiseason show, gives it some leeway in that department, for example the Koenig brothers, making it different from Carter, and more exciting too.

And so, Agent Carter does not quite fall short of being a great series, it just is not one. Period. It is a very good series to watch, less so to review, so do not expect too many reviews of it here.

Cheers.