As summer of 2018 continues to pick up momentum, Marvel’s™ ‘Cloak & Dagger’
continue…to just continue. By now, they are in their fifth episode, which is a
midway point, and so far, things are only beginning to get started. The first four
episodes were more of an origin story than anything else, and most reviewers are
not particularly impressed with the show. Am I impressed with the show? No, and I told you the reason why before
– there is no Marvel™.
I.e., in this particular episode – ‘Princeton Offensive’ –
Tandy tried to use her good looks…and also her powers, but, nevertheless, she
still looks good here; for a semi-hobo, a criminal, and a semi-drug addict this
girl certainly looks posh and healthy; anyhow, she infiltrated Roxxon to
discover its’ secrets. From what we have seen on screen, Roxxon is a typical
Wolfram & Hart client, whose members would screw each other in a heartbeat;
Angel and co from ‘Angel the Series’ (AtS) are sorely missed here, but sadly,
so far ‘C&D’ fandom is a small one, and there’re no signs of a crossover
yet, so Tandy will have to do it on her own…with some help from Tyrone,
perhaps. ‘Course, now that Tyrone has a girlfriend of his own now, so this can
become complex, but who knows?..
Pause. Let us take a deeper breath and start again. Tandy
has infiltrated the ‘Evil Inc.’ aka Roxxon, whose members behave just as evil
corporate… villains are expected to behave. They are also, well, Anglo-Americans…
with one exception. Secondly, Tyrone himself is behaving as a… ‘typical’, or
perhaps even – a ‘stereotypical Afro-American’ teenager, complete with screwing
his girlfriend, who is also an Afro-American. As a contrast, last week’s
episode of ‘Reverie’ – ‘Blue’ – had an interracial semi-couple; there was no
sexual content or anything like that; actually, there’s very little sexual
content in ‘Reverie’ at all, which might be another reason as to why this show
is still not very popular among the viewers, but at least two of the characters
– Charlie and Monica – are ‘black-and-white’ themselves and are in a
relationship. For a show that is supposed to be ‘edgy’ ‘C&D’ got none of
that; instead, there is some sort of an official unofficial segregation, a
tangible ‘us vs. them’ mentality in both the Anglo- and the Afro-American
populations of the New Orleans, and that raises a question: what year is this
supposed to be? 1978, maybe? Or the creative team behind ‘C&D’ is trying to
create some sort of an American dystopia, here? Idiots, just look at the real
life USA – the dystopia that is rising here has nothing to do with racial
segregation, at least…not entirely.
Another pause. What is
the ‘C&D’ finale game, here, for right now, there is no indication of it;
in fact, T&T are still doing their best to stay apart from each other. This
can certainly work, but… pre-story – throughout their incarnations in MCU,
C&D needed each other to function, as much as they needed anything, or
anyone, else. Here this does not appear to be so; in fact, T&T tend to use
their other powers – seeing the hopes and fears of the other people – instead.
Okay, but, that is not ‘C&D’.
Yes, it is childish and immature to exclaim that the Marvel™/Freeform™ creative team here is
in the wrong, and if Marvel™
hadn’t been associated with this show, (so instead of ‘C&D’ we had
something more generic ala ‘Tru Blood’), then there wouldn’t be half as many
issues: it’d be ‘just a show’, like how ‘Reverie’ is, whose own numbers may be
low, but still twice as high than those of ‘C&D’. Again, considering that ‘C&D’
is a Marvel™ show,
and ‘Reverie’ isn’t, this is surprising, and not exactly in a good way – just what
is the relationship between Marvel™
and Freeform™ here,
how their cooperation works?..
Stepping away from such lofty heights, there is still the
fact that the world of ‘C&D’ seems to be populated with clichés;
Anglo-American clichés, Afro-American, and the episode’s finale introduced a
Chinese-American character, who is extremely intelligent, very nerdy, and works
for a big company, becoming a success. Maybe this new character is intended to
be a foil for Tandy, but so far? She is also yet another cultural cliché. For a
supposedly edgy show, ‘C&D’ appears to be too invested into a bad version
of cultural appreciation, and that just is not good. In real life, if you are
resorting to villainy to become successful, you have to be skillful about it,
because otherwise? You will fail. In the past, DW tried to become a propaganda
piece for the US – its’ government, (pre-Donald), its’ military might – and it
backfired. Maybe ‘C&D’s’ own secret agenda will backfire on them too – and it
will suck…
Well, this is it for now; thank you and see you in the
future!
