Hawkeye, 'Christmas' - Dec 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks - just ask Noth, who’s been declared a sex offender throughout the week, and everyone else is dropping him like hot shite. I can’t say that I blame them- team Carrie can’t afford to go against the flow: already their core base is fracturing because of AJLT take on their characters, and unlike SW they don’t have Disney to back them up; any more pressure, and they will become just 3 more washed-up actresses instead with AJLT being the albatross on their collective necks.

Ditto for RR - he got involved with Peloton, not with Noth, and he has his own problems, as the ‘Red Notice’ film turned out into a 200 million USD flop. So, let’s go to the greener pastures of ‘Hawkeye’.

…Actually, I’d rather not, since it’s not much of an improvement; sadly, JWD’s latest Input is a poster of Owen being harassed by an Atrociraptor- the franchise stopped making dinosaur hybrids and is just reimagining them from the get-go. Still better than ‘Hawkeye’.

Where to begin? Fisk’s big return was a joke - he didn’t do much and was killed-off by Lopez - supposedly, but still. It’s rather underwhelming, but then again, the conclusion of Maya’s story arc was underwhelming- she killed Kazi without much of a fight, and then just turned on to her uncle/surrogate father with nary a struggle. Not impressive character development, let me tell you; not to mention that Fisk cannot die - he is just too important for the Marvel universe.

Getting back to Ronin… Clint burned the suit; so much for my prediction that Maya will be the next Ronin, just as Kate is the next Hawkeye. As I said before, the entire Maya story arc appears to be rushed through here, so maybe we won’t see an Echo mini-series after all, authenticity and equal opportunity or not. Instead, we got a hint that Laura might have been a Mockingbird…only MCU already has/had a Mockingbird- Bobbi Morse; already there are people upset about this decision, and Disney doesn’t like controversies after the SW mess… so odds of the watch vanishing now that the ‘Hawkeye’ mini-series are done aren’t bad.

And yes, AoS has started it by ‘spoilers’ - in the series’ last season they’ve explored the multiverse, sort of, thanks to the Chronicons, but this sort of backwards-engineering in ‘Hawkeye’ still stings.

Finally, The fact that ‘Hawkeye’ is done has also left a bad taste in my mouth - it itself feels rushed, you know? At least Clint had the good taste to bring Kate to his family’s home for further mentoring, thus tying into the ‘Endgame’ epilogue, but still…I expected fewer cliffhangers… and Yelena’s resolution… well…

This brings us back to transitions. ‘Hawkeye’ has followed this theme - the mantle has passed from Clint to Kate, (even though in 'Endgame' it was implied that it would be Clint and Laura's own biological daughter instead - ouch!), we got an update on Yelena, and maybe Echo will reappear in the future. However, the rushed story arcs and the unnecessary twists - it was Elinor all along, etc. - have rather ruined the impact. Still better than real life, though.

This is it for now; see you all soon.

And Just Like That - Dec 14

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and I am still unsure about the reviews of the last two ‘Hawkeye’ episodes, (let alone anything else, cough), so while I have the chance, let us talk about something different, (genre speaking). Let us talk, however briefly, about ‘And Just Like That’.

This particular mini-series – so far, there’s only 1 season, with 8 episodes, and two of them were aired already – is a reboot of the much earlier ‘Sex and the city’, and that is already a problem. Why? Well, let us rewind a few years back, in real life, to the ‘Gilmore Girls’ reboot, called ‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in Life’, or something like that. Not unlike SATC, this seemed to be a solid hit, since the GG series had had a secure fan following back in the heyday, but instead…

…But instead, it was discovered that the entire GG franchise has not aged well, and that keeping in mind that its’ characters/actors kept their actual ages out of focus. They had plenty of problems – such as the fact that Rory seems to have become an entitled brat, her mom, Lorelei, isn’t too far from an average Karen, and that the entire four-part revival is a mix of ASP’s original epilogue, (never aired), and the conclusion of the original series’ S7, and the two main components didn’t mix well… The result is that the GG fandom has sunk back into slumber, having been briefly woken in a manner of a hibernating bear, and not unlike a prematurely awoken hibernating bear, the result was more negative than positive, but what about AJLT?

Why, it is the same problem, as GG – the material didn’t age well, nostalgia alone isn’t enough to placate or to satisfy all of the critics or the audience members, and so instead of having an easy journey, team AJLT is dealing with an increasingly dissatisfied and fracturing fan base, which may – or may not – pull the entire franchise down under instead. This has happened before, just look at the SW Sequel trilogy or at AoS, but unlike them, AJLT does not have Disney’s gold parachute to keep on going; instead…

…Instead it has an albatross of its’ own, one that GG did not have – the fight, (such as it is), between SJP and Ms. Cattrail. Everyone is downplaying it, but the fight did happen, and as such, SATC’s character Samantha is not in AJLT at all; since she was one out of the big four, her absence is really glaring, and the way it was handled on screen? It was just pitiful, Ms. Cattrail’s fans are outraged, (and they are not in the wrong), and so are her character’s. What was that about a fracturing fan base that we were talking about?

And then came the death of Mr. Big, (played by Mr. Noth) – and it hit… team Peloton right in the balls. I have been half-following Peloton through the years – first it was their ‘Peloton family’ ad misadventure, one where a husband gave his wife a gift – a Peloton cycle, (or something like that) – and she was happy. Supposedly. Instead, the actress fungled the role, (sort of), and everyone began to compare the ad to a ‘Black Mirror’ episode and things like that; the company’s stock tumbled.

In swooped Ryan Reynolds, who gave ‘the Peloton wife’ a new role – one that promoted his own personal brand of booze, and the woman made a fortune. Nothing like that happened to her male counterpart, but hey, that is the modern values; you either roll with them, as RR does, and you prosper, or you don’t, as Chloe Bennet hasn’t, and you don’t prosper.

…No, this is not about AoS, not entirely. Earlier this year, Ms. Bennet made it clear, that she was not a part of the Live-Action Powerpuff girl remake, nor was she going to return as Daisy Johnson/Quake in the upcoming Marvel ‘Secret Invasion’ franchise, and Disney/MCU were looking for someone else to play the latter character. Considering that Chloe Bennett was THE actress to play Daisy, this is strange and weird, in a sad and disappointing sort of way. My only theory is that Chloe didn’t go with the flow; while working at Disney/MCU, which is increasingly about representing the various social, racial, sexual and other minorities in the American society, Chloe Bennett… well, identified herself as Bennett, rather than as Wong, (seriously, look at her Wiki page), and didn’t look, or behave, very Asian-American – and we got the message that Disney/MCU were looking for a female Asian-American to play Daisy Johnson/Quake… ouch!

Of course, AoS has also the honor of being Disney/MCU’s subtlest failure: among other things, it was supposed to introduce several new heroes to MCU, including Deathlok and Mockingbird, with the latter being important as being Hawkeye’s ex. There were rumors of Mockingbird, (in MCU, she’s Bobbi Morse), coming to Hawkeye…I mean, ‘Hawkeye’, but those rumors were quickly squashed: apparently, AoS and all that is associated with it can stand buried and gone, (or as Britney Spears has told Diane Sawyer, ‘she can kiss my white ass’). What is left?

Ah yes, AJLT and the Peloton. After the Peloton family misadventure… and another misadventure – apparently, another Peloton ad made some children believe that the Peloton exercise bikes were indoor jungle gyms or something; some children, not surprisingly, got hurt and the company suffered; well, this time, after Peloton got associated with AJLT in a big bad way, Peloton was ready: they contacted RR, and he quickly made them a new ad, one were a very much alive Mr. Big is enjoying himself with his Peloton instructor, (played by a RL Peloton personality), and that’s it, really. Peloton had had enough with being the butt of the business world, and is striking back; AJLT is not likely to suffer from this fallout, but the fact that they have killed-off another major character may. Even GG didn’t go that far – Richard Gilmore died because his actor died for real – but then again, AJLT is just getting started, maybe it’ll be able to shake-off its’ lackluster – to put it mildly – beginning and shine for real. I am not rooting for it, though – the original series were fun enough, but the movies not so much and the cast was proportionally younger and more vibrant back then as well due to the obvious reasons…

Well, this is it for now; see you all soon.