Thursday, 11 January 2018

Runaways: Doomsday - Jan 11

…And ‘Runaways’ penultimate S1 episode was aired on TV this week. (We will skip the season’s finale from Hulu – also this week – because of next week’s TV spoilers). Was it good?

Well, the titular heroes are together as a team at last, it seems. They look good, though Tico seems to be going for DC’s Zatanna Zarana look in this episode, complete with fishnet stockings, while Molly…what is her theme? Is she supposed to be more like the comics’ Patsy Walker/Hellcat here? And as for Old Lace…

Old Lace clearly has a problem with ‘Runaways’ – being more CGI than animatronics, this heir of BBC’s ‘Walking with Dinosaur’ series doesn’t appear to be fitting into ‘Runaways’ budget, whatever it is – and it should be noted that as a whole ‘Runaways’ S1 was low on special effects; the staff of one has plenty of oomph in it, and Molly’s amazing feats of strength are also CGI’d, at least in part, but as a whole, there wasn’t much CGI in ‘Runaways’ S1, period. Ergo, budget issues?

It certainly is possible; aside from ‘Cloak & Dagger’, which is coming to Hulu later in 2018, ‘Runaways’ were their first dip into the Marvel pool, and unlike ‘InHumans’, which appeared in the second half of 2017, it has worked. ‘Runaways’, that is.

…In fact that is because unlike ‘InHumans’, ‘Runaways’ were more on periphery than on the main stage, and didn’t get into contact (of whatever sort) with AoS. In the years past, when AoS was airing its seasons 2 through 4, it has borrowed a lot of materials from the failed versions of Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ and ‘Most Wanted’ series, (the latter never got aired at all), and as a result, ‘InHumans’ had to backpedal a lot and rewrite themselves – and their characters – a lot, and the result was insipid; plus there was the IMAX disaster, and at the moment, the fate of ‘InHumans’ hasn’t been discussed about, much.

AoS is doing well, so far the numbers for ‘Fun and Games’ – last week’s episode – have gone up, and are now in S4’s higher end. Good for them. Here is to hoping that their winning streak can continue, though is it the right choice in making Kasius and Synera more sympathetic now? Well, this was already discussed, we will have to wait and see for this week’s episode to learn how this decision will work out.

(Of course, the fight between Daisy and Synera was good, the reunion of the FitzSimmons – ditto, and of course the acting itself in S5 has been great from the start. The fact that AoS has finally managed to get itself out of the mess that were seasons 2 through 4 helps as well).

‘Runaways’, meanwhile, managed to avoid this entire issue by going original and by not invoking any specific Marvel™ material at all, other than the basic one, the ‘Runaways’ comic series, of course. Throughout the series ‘Runaways’ have adopted the original material in whatever ways that wanted, and they have achieved what they wanted as well: this particular Hulu/TV series was very enjoyable to see. It isn’t always true to the source material – in fact, it is almost never true to its’ source material – but the acting of the actors, as well as the script of the show in question, has more than adequate compensated for this decision. Good luck to them!


…This is it for now; see you all soon!

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