Librarians S4 - Feb 9

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. For reasons that are not related to what will be discussed below, though.

What is being discussed here? Hard to say. ‘Librarians’ S4 came to an end, and it was quite satisfying, possibly better than S3, so there’s that. They are still presenting atypical yet heroic characters in atypical yet extreme situations, as they always did, so kudos to them for finding their niche – their humor is appreciated, especially in the darkest hour, though their racial representations are something else, let us be honest. However, if it works, it works. What else?

MCU is on a roll – ‘Black Panther’ is coming later, this February, ‘Cloak & Dagger’ – later this year, ‘Ant-man & Wasp’ movie after that, followed by some ‘Captain Marvel’ film, (currently unnamed), and then there’s the upcoming ‘Venom’ film as well. (In Marvel™, Venom is one of Spider-Man’s greatest enemies, but so far, Spidey is not going to appear in this ‘Venom’ movie. Maybe they are taking a ‘Kong & Godzilla’ approach, with the protagonists starring in their separate movies before taking on each other in yet another one? This could work, though as the ‘Dark Universe’ has shown, it does not always work.

The thing is that the ‘Dark Universe’ not so much failed to launch, as it did not succeed. The result was somewhat lackluster, and the ‘Mummy’ remake was uninspiring, as was Mr. Cruise. People do not like to admit it, but movies are all about money, not unlike TV series…but while TV series (sometimes) get the chance to redo things in upcoming seasons (S1 did not work, let us try with S2), movies do not, not exactly.

Again, real life doesn’t work like that; both ‘the Catch’ and AC ended after two seasons rather than one, and ‘Time after Time’ and ‘Powerless’ ended practically before the end of S1, but in general, this is how it works. Movies do not work exactly like that; yes, both ‘Batman’ and ‘Superman’ franchises got rebooted over the years repeatedly, but they are heavy hitters, big leagues, and-

And if truth is to be told, while comics often receive a lot of flak about having little content – sort of like popcorn for brain – horror movies have even less: they aim only to scare and thrill the audience, nothing else, no clever commentary, (socio-communal and etc.). The comics at least… you can do all sort of things with the comics, plus it is much easier to reboot them than any ‘proper book’ series, and-

And you can always either insert some sort of original content or revamp what there is already, as MCU has apparently done with the Ghost in the upcoming ‘Ant-man and Wasp’ movie, by remaking the Ghost into an entirely new villain…one that isn’t a white-furred dire wolf from the GoT franchise either. (Though an official MCU/GoT crossover could be cool). You cannot exactly do the same thing with a ‘monster’ movie character, though it does not stop Hollywood and co. from trying – this was the third mummy ‘reboot’, for example, while ‘Shape of Water’ was the reboot of the ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ movie that wasn’t. It works – but it is a hit-and-miss, (and yes, ‘Shape of Water’ was not a part of any movie universe), and the latest ‘Mummy’ reboot was a miss, so some time later no more Dark Universe period. What next?

It is anyone’s guess, really. ‘Librarians’ S4 is finished, ‘Shape of Water’ got ‘Creature from the Black Lagoon’ covered. MCU movies are going strong, DCEU’s movies – not so much, and AoS is returning to us in March, as does ‘Blindspot’.

See you all later.

The Gifted: boXed in - Oct 31

‘The Gifted’ TV show has reached the S1 middle point – ‘boXed in’ – and it was a dozy. Put simply, the scriptwriters as well as the rest of ‘The Gifted’ crew, tried to make an episode showing ‘how the other half lives’ – namely Jace from the Sentinel Services. Did it work?

It all depends on how much the audience likes/hates Jace and everyone else from ‘The Gifted’. Every TV show is a product, trying to be sold to its customers, in this case – the audience. In addition, yes, it is not clear-cut how it works, but having good ideas and an appropriately good execution of those ideas helps: just look at ‘Arrowverse’ TV series (DC) as examples. If this does not happen, well… ‘The Catch’ got cancelled after 2 seasons, APB, (aired in winter 2017) – after just one. AC, of course, also got cancelled after 2 seasons, but it is also a possibility that that happened because of Hayley Atwell – some things just went wrong for Marvel at that moment in time, and it showed in S2/S3 of AoS as well…

Actually, it is not quite certain if AoS got over that problem back then: at the end of S3, the titular team was already in space and primed to have some space adventures – but they did not. Instead, AoS S4 was a mixed bag of various discarded ideas of the first three seasons, including the Ghost Rider, but even that does not appear to have stuck: so far, there is no mention of Gabriel Luna returning to AoS, so no Ghost Rider for S5, it seems.

Back to ‘The Gifted’? Well, so far it is going strong, it features a solid plot and it knows exactly what it supposed to be, unlike ‘InHumans’, for comparison. Unlike AoS, ‘InHumans’ greatest flaw isn’t revisions of the script; rather it is indecisiveness – where do they want to go as a show? As it was written regarding them the last time, ‘InHumans’ try to be action/adventure, a space soap opera, some sort of a romantic comedy, etc. – all at the same time, while trying to do so with a small cast as well. AC also had a small cast, but it knew precisely where it wanted to go, so it’s anyone’s guess where it had went wrong instead, while ‘InHumans’ are going all over the place, and it is hurting them. Pity.

On the other hand, ‘The Gifted’ also knows where it is going – in the X-Men direction, complete with direct references to the X-Men, so no problems here. The script might have been revised, but so far, there is no overt indication of that, so it is just guesswork. And the viewers love them, because of novelty, good acting, other reasons, etc. – so no problems in this area either. What next?

Well, next week Johnny/Thunderbird is going to spearhead a mission to learn if Sentinel Services are brainwashing mutants into fighting other mutants, Lauren/Dreamer makes a new friend with useful new powers and Clarice/Blink needs to make a choice.

…Oh wait, you mean in the in review? There is nothing much left – ‘The Gifted’ have delivered as they have done from the beginning, so let us wish them good luck and wait until the next episode!

River Monsters and co. - March 27

Bad news on the horizon, I am afraid – ‘River Monsters’ (RM) is getting cancelled; S9 is going to be the final season.

On one hand, everything must end, and I honestly feel that RM should have finished by S7 or S8, when it jumped the shark by going out to sea. (Until S8 it stuck only with freshwater monsters, remember?) On the other, what will Animal Planet offer as a replacement? ‘The Zoo’ is a good show, (although I feel that it is focusing too much on daily lives of zoo vets), but it isn’t a good equivalent/replacement; the various pet shows? ‘Tanked’? Do not make me laugh. These days, AP is all about pets and domestic/domesticated animals; ‘RM’ went out into the wild, into the remote corners of the world, as the various Nat Geo Wild programs do – you know, ‘Wild Borneo’, ‘Wild Scotland’, etc.? With ‘RM’ gone from AP, it will be an end of an era, and in a sad way.

But then again, lately the TV shows seem to be on the sad/disappointing end of things in general. ‘The Catch’, for example, has subtly revamped itself: it got rid of all the same-sex/interracial couples and is now a straightforward crime drama full of humor, drama and sex…yeah, it is still good, but the same-sex/interracial couple angle set it apart from the other mystery dramas and with them largely gone, ‘The Catch’ is more generic than it was in S1. It is still fun to watch, but somehow S1 of it was more intense and powerful – but maybe it is just me.

And moreover, ‘The Catch’ is still rather better than ‘Powerless’, which is suffering from chronic unpredictability: maybe it’s just Canada, but it has been airing irregularly, with intervals of one, two or maybe even more weeks between the episodes. What gives? It wants to be a solely U.S. TV show? Then why air in Canada at all? ‘Powerless’ has found its footing as a TV show, but due to the gaps between the episodes, it may have problems.

These gaps, mid-season breaks and the like can be trickier to implement in a show than it may look like. ‘Blindspot’ handled its mid-season hiatus well enough, but it clearly has a precise, concise and clear game plan in regards to plot development, and character development, and etc., so that it can recover, or rather – it has recovered from the latest hiatus well enough.

AoS…initially, the info that Grant is coming back, as a guest star, was very exciting, but by now the excitement is gone and the old battle lines are probably getting drawn: people who love him and those who hate him, and the two groups don’t get along. AoS should probably resolve the issue of Grant being a part of AoS for good in S4, or else the controversy that his character is creating, on top of the controversies about Hydra and Steve vs. Tony vs. Bucky may cause much worse backlash than what AoS needs – it needed to continue with the Ghost Rider and co., to make a new start with the Reyes brothers, and the new director, (i.e. Mace), and the Watchdogs…etc.

Well, okay, it did not need to, but… But the fact is that after the S3 finale AoS had direction problems on top of everything else. In the first 3 seasons there was clear-cut progression, as S.H.I.E.L.D. dealt with aliens/InHumans and Hydra (the organization) in various proportions, culminating in Hive, an alien/InHuman who was also in charge of Hydra by default. S.H.I.E.L.D., (or rather – Lincoln), destroyed Hive forever, ending S3 openly – Coulson was no longer in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D.; Daisy seemed to have turned vigilante; etc. The road to move on into the future was clear. So what happened next?

We all know as to what happened next. S4, which began with the Ghost Rider mini-arc and a clean break from the previous seasons, is concluding where it began – with Grant Ward, and Hydra, and etc. The only question is why? Clearly, the matter of finances is there, (S4 AoS is much more frugal than the S3 AoS was), but it doesn’t really explain everything; rather than bringing back Dalton, they could’ve just continued with Luna all the way instead – between the Ghost Rider, and the Watchdogs, and the occasional InHuman, and even the LMDs, they could’ve created a genuinely original and new S4…and instead they created a chimera of old and new…and not in a good way…

Or, you know, if it was simply a matter of cash and it was cheaper to work with Dalton than with Luna, then they should’ve just worked with Dalton from the start, (somehow, but still), and not gotten involved with Luna, period. If you do not have enough cash to make a good AoS/Ghost Rider ‘crossover’…then do not. Just stick with the tried and tested and remain within the budget; otherwise, you will still fail…

Okay, AoS is not returning to the TV screens until the next month, so let us talk about Marvel’s ‘The Defenders’ instead. The last of them, ‘Iron Fist’, was released on Netflix in March 2017 and it had plenty of its own flak, considering that the titular character was played by the ‘Game of Thrones’ Flower Knight. You know what? The fan base knew about this long before March 2017, so it was not a surprise – or a problem. The problem is that ‘Iron Fist’ is strongly influenced by DC’s ‘Arrow’ the TV show, especially the first season – but we have discussed this in the past.

What next? First, there was ‘Daredevil’, who introduced several of Marvel’s B-string characters: the titular hero, the Kingpin, (Wilson Fisk), the Punisher, Electra…and the Hand. It also has two seasons under its’ belt now, making it a showrunner and the front man for the defenders’ team. Then – ‘Jessica Jones’ and ‘Luke Cage’, which introduced their titular heroes and gave variety to the usual cast of Marvel’s heroes as a woman – an abused woman – and an Afro-American man from NYC. That alone balanced out the whatever flaws JJ and LC had (as shows), and then came ‘Iron Fist’, and while it was reasonable to expect the titular character to be an Asian, or an Asian-American man, in the comics he isn’t, not really, so live with the Flower Knight in the role of a warrior monk, people!

…Of course, it does not really help that the defenders’ team moved into their endgame as well, with the all four of the defenders, (plus their allies), square off against the Hand and its’ ninjas, because, well, they do need a good and worthy opponent. The Kingpin is still in the big house, so why not ninjas? It works. ‘The Defenders’, just like ‘Blindspot’, have a clear plan progression in sight, while AoS does not. AoS’ ‘Ghost Rider’ mini-arc tapped into the vigilante ideas’ pool a-la ‘The Defenders’, and it could’ve stayed there or moved on with the Ghost Rider, but it didn’t, but rather returned to its old haunts – and the problems associated with them.

So: RM is moving into its final season, ‘Blindspot’ is going strong, as do ‘The Defenders’, ‘The Catch’…isn’t as strong as it used to, and neither is 'Powerless'; and AoS will have problems when it returns in April or so. That is it for now, see you next time!

Gilmore Girls II & co. - March 17

What to talk about? Well, I could talk about ‘The Catch’ – it was good in S1, now, in S2, it is even more exciting, in a good way: the cast and crew at that series has invested effort and enthusiasm into the series, and there is plenty of imagination to go around as well.

How is this important (in greater detail)? Just look at ‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life’ restart and compare it with ‘Fuller House’. Both shows tried to play on the nostalgia of their former fans but while ‘Fuller House’ had enough enthusiasm in its cast (and crew) to create endurance for the show, ‘Gilmore Girls’ didn’t. Both shows had flaws, but ‘Fuller House’ is going to have S2 – actually, it had had S2, ‘Gilmore Girls’ probably will not. Yes, its’ humor was sometimes somewhat racist or otherwise abusive, (especially by modern standards than by the 1990s standards); yes, the plotlines had plotholes, and the character development of the titular characters (and others) was often flawed, but so’s the case of ‘Fuller House’ – it may not be exactly racist, but neither was it perfect, period. So?

Okay, firstly the racial issue (sort of). Earlier this month, there was a new viral video, a very short one. Professor Robert Kelly was interviewed for BBC from his home, when his daughter (3-4 years of age) walked in, followed by his son, (a baby, 1-2 years of age) in his baby walker, and then his wife (Kim Jong-A) rushed in and got them (the children, the professor was left behind to finish his interview) out. The whole thing took less than a minute, (judging by the length of the clip), and personally, I think that the mother’s actions were the most distracting and messy. What next?

Next, BBC released a full online interview with Robert Kelly and his family, and there were also plenty of other online clips that showed the family in question. As the audience can see, this an interracial family, probably bilingual as well, (Kim Jong-A has some problems with speaking English, and since Robert Kelly works at the Pusan National University, he probably has a good grip on the Korean language), and progressive/liberal in their views, at least when it comes to raising their children: they are given the run of the house and trouble began after their mom forced them out of the room, (which is apparently their room with their toys). What is this has to do with GG?

Enter Lane Kim, (who is a Korean), and her husband, Zach, (who is Anglo-American). They are either some of the main characters, or some of the most important secondary characters, take your pick. Moreover, the Kims are probably the only Asian-American characters of GG, just as Michel was the only African-American character there, so, while GG probably were not racist, neither had they tried to make their show more racially diverse, in keeping in touch with the current socio-political times…

No, seriously, Trump’s approach to the racial issues is as incompetent as it is to everything else…and Obama’s was not better, (remember all those racial riots throughout his presidency?), but this is not just about the 45^th president of the U.S., (or his cabinet, or the 44^th president, or etc.). Rather, it is about the fact that by now, the Americans like to think of themselves as interracially integrated people and GG failed to reflect this.

Of course, neither does ‘Fuller House’, but ‘Fuller House’ is centered around a single family, (although a very big and unconventional one), whereas GG is centered around an entire town instead. These are two different scopes, you know? Would it kill ASP and her husband to integrate at least some POCs into the town – as background, episodic characters? Since there really were not any, apparently yeah, it would.

Instead, there was the line of the Star Hollow not having any gays, so shall we export some from the next town? It was said by Taylor Doose, (I think), who is not always a positive character, but still, with the Donald in power, this sounds slightly too much as what the 45^th president can say under some circumstances or other, because it was tasteless. And that is a problem for the U.S. – it is not that the 45^th president is incompetent, it is that he is tasteless and vulgar, and the same goes for his cabinet, and – for his critics, who often just spew vitriol from TV and computer screens without caring as to whom they can really hit. By now, the Americans themselves are tired of this sort of criticism, so it is going down, but do not worry – the anti-Russian hysteria and wiretap accusations and similar topics going around will compensate for that sort of thing nicely…

And with its’ government divided, does the U.S. think that it can take on North Korea and China, should it come to WWIII? Yeah, the odds right now are not in the U.S. favor: first resolve the inner division between each other, (I am talking Republican and Democratic parties here, plus every other third party involved), and then go back to adventures abroad.

If we get back to GG, the truth, again, is that they didn’t try to be deliberately racist, or openly insulting towards fat people – various reviewers felt that Melissa McCarthy/Sookie St. James had views regarding this, and she’s a prominent actress in Hollywood these days and she and the Pellegrinos possibly had a talk, so between this and her fee no wonder that Melissa-Sookie didn’t stick around for the new show.

However, enough with the conspiracy theories for the moment, the fact is that GG do not feel racist, they feel sloppy, slothful or lazy – people just did not want to get involved/invest their effort into it. Milo Ventimiglia, who played Jess Moriano, was openly unenthusiastic in his interview regarding the ‘next’ next installment of the GG saga, and without Jess the GG dynamic just falls apart so either Milo will change his mind, (for an appropriate amount of cash), or no more GG – and considering that the backlash of ‘A Year in the Life’ was already rather damaging to the original series, this doesn’t look good for GG…

And that is actually my next point: team GG did not put too much effort or imagination into the show’s revival because there was no enthusiasm, or at least – not enough enthusiasm, you know? ‘APB’, ‘Powerless’, ‘Making History’ ‘Time after Time’ and etc., have their flaws, but they also have enthusiasm, and consequently, they make plenty of effort to counterbalance for these flaws. GG did not. Hence – the fallout.

The same goes for the dilemma of ‘For Honor’ – sort of. As far as I’m concerned, ‘For Honor’ did deliver mostly what it promised to deliver – a very good fighting game, not unlike that of ‘Battlefield 1’, save that it is set in the Middle Ages…sort of. Whatever option you choose, you still get plenty of good fighting – and nothing else. Apparently, when it came to the campaign mode in foiling Apollyon’s plot, this was not good enough, and that is a real problem. Oh, it is not the only one, but most of the other problems are technical; ‘For Honor’ should fix them easily enough and keep on going…or fail to do so, and vanish into obscurity forever, as it deserves to. A bad story, however, is not fixed as easily, and ‘For Honor’ is ‘purely’ a game; it cannot be redesigned and reset with the same ease that, say, a TV series can…

Facepalm. What I meant to say here is that ‘For Honor’ will need to back away from all the intensity it had generated this February (2017) and revise its’ campaign story mode big time, so that the next edition/release/whatever has something different. After all, the conclusion of the campaign mode is kind of depressing: Apollyon died, the wars continued, almost everyone else died, there is no peace and the matter of honor is hanging in balance as well. Yeah, after the disastrous 45^th presidential election this is just what the U.S. society needs – more doom and gloom. Maybe this is how the creative team of ‘For Honor’ thinks to introduce the new classes/characters/etc., but as I have written before, this probably is not the good/right idea that they think it is…

And that is that for today’s installment. GG is done, at least for the moment, ‘Fuller House’ is not, and neither is ‘For Honor’ (hopefully). See you next time.

For Honor VIII, etc., rant - March 13

…Last time I ranted, I tried to talk about things ending; maybe this time I should be talking about the returning and etc.?

One of the things that has returned is ‘The Catch’, which is the grown-up version of the ‘Zootopia’ movie, save that it is done with humans (rather than anthropomorphic animals) and is shot live rather than as a cartoon/animated feature. ‘The Catch’ tries to be a mystery/crime show, but in reality, it is more of drama show, with the mystery/crime elements actually being its bigger flaw instead. That said, it is still enjoyable to watch, so, yeah, watch it?

Another new TV show, (this time new for real), is ‘Time after Time’. This is a curious one, since it deals with Jack the Ripper escaping into our time via H.G. Wells’ time machine, (yes, we are talking about the RH person here), and H.G. has followed him to stop him, (duh).

Now, what is curious is that this is ‘take III’ on the idea, so to speak. ‘Take I’ was the original…novel, which laid the groundwork both for the first two episodes of the current series and the movie, (‘take II’?) that aired in 1979, (I think). This means that the scriptwriters and co. had plenty of ideas of what kinks need to be fixed at least for the first two episodes, and probably even beyond. Spoilers alert: the appearance of Dr. Brooke might be the ‘real-life prototype’ of Wells’ Dr. Moro, and frankly, I think that one of the show’s ideas is that H.G. Wells got his inspiration for his novels in the future – his future/our present. As far as ideas go, this one is not bad; ‘Making History’, (which has also premiered in March and which also features time travel) is worse.

No, I am sorry, but ‘Making History’ sucks. It makes ‘Powerless’ look good especially since the latter has gotten over its terrible first episode and has found its’ footing, whatever it is. In part ‘Powerless’ reminds me of Crimson Fox, the main superhero of Charm City, where the show takes place. Have you seen her, on the show or in the comics? She doesn’t look anything like a fox; she looks a bit like a mushroom or a cobra with its’ hood spread out, but while the crew in Gotham, (Batman & Catwoman, cough), look sort of like their titular animals, the Crimson Fox just…doesn’t. She is still a proper superhero, no question about that, it is just there is nothing obviously corresponding with her superhero identity.

The same goes for ‘Powerless’. It is supposed to be a comedy about ordinary, common people trying to make a living in a super-powered world, but in reality, ‘Powerless’ works best when it is a comedy about a business company trying to make a living regardless of the facts that its’ CEO is an incompetent and infantile jerk, most of the staff would rather do anything else but work, and the main heroine of the show (Emily Locke) has this sort of a ‘Perky Polly’ attitude that can be hard to swallow and can be overwhelming in a bad way. Further complicating the show’s standings are some RL issues – the promo videos are coming at irregular intervals, they can actually be misleading, and they do not really reflect what will be aired in the episode per se.

…This is somewhat reminiscent of AoS, save that that AoS has many problems that ‘Powerless’ just lacks: the former plans to return Grant Ward to its’ screen (why, but this was discussed in earlier installments), plus it still has not fully recovered from the mess of Lincoln Campbell, (played by Luke Mitchell) and his (i.e. Luke’s) departure from the show.

Again: the first half of S3 did its best to depict Lincoln as Daisy’s boyfriend/other half, fine. This makes his final demise on screen at the S3 finale only more pointless and damaging to the show; I cannot help but to feel that someone else was supposed to perish instead. Coulson’s demise would’ve made the most sense – he is heroically dead, (as an Avenger should be), there is a new director, Lincoln really has to work it out with Daisy, with the new director, with the other agents, and-

Well, yes, given how the show was handling Daisy and Lincoln’s relationship, Lincoln didn’t really have any other choice…but the actor who was playing him did. These days Luke is playing Roman on ‘Blindspot’, and I do not see he has any regrets about leaving AoS for good. AoS itself might have mentioned Lincoln three times or so throughout the entirety of S4, so I am guessing that his departure was a bad one…because it did do damage to the second half of S3, for example. Lincoln just could not up and leave, so they had to kill him off.

…Okay, he could’ve just left, as Lance and Bobbi did, (sort of) – it’s equally possible that Joey, (played by Juan Pablo), was the one who was going to die at the end: it would certainly be appropriate for his character development – from an ordinary person, to a new recruit, to an agent, to a hero – and instead he left the show on a whimper with nary a mention. For a former friend of Daisy and others this was a low way to leave. However, what else could there be done? Juan Pablo signed onto AoS for just one season, and this was it. With Lincoln doing the heroic self-sacrifice now, (because if he just left Daisy and S.H.I.E.L.D. instead it’d be worse), there was no point to keep Joey, and so he left, Lincoln died, and when Radcliffe’s framework captured Coulson and most of his team, Coulson got to be the one who taught the dangers of InHumans, which didn’t suit him very well, (I don’t think that he really cared about the InHumans one way or another aside from Daisy), but it did suit Lincoln, since Simmons and he had been working on a ‘cure’ for the InHumans in S3…before that plot point got completely forgotten, apparently. Lincoln was intended for S4 (and beyond) but this never happened. The end, and AoS chose one of the worst ways to replace him with Grant, (Brett), ‘cause this just brings back all the old controversies and fights between the fans and what have you. Great move.

Let us stop the rant about AoS, again, and talk about other successes gone wrong, such as ‘For Honor’. As much as it was promoted before February 2017, now it is being torn down – and for deserved, technical issues. This is reasonable and probably ‘earned’ – ‘For Honor’ needs to fix various technical bugs and change/update some of its context: ‘Battlefield 1’ is not doing so hot either, but it is getting better…and so will ‘For Honor’, I hope. What worries me are the rumors that new classes are going to be added – the centurion and the ninja.

Well, the centurion was a ranking officer in the ancient Roman army, which means that he had more basic/less advanced weaponry than a Viking, a Samurai or a Knight did. Moreover, the Roman military was badass, especially before and during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, but-

But they were ‘team players’ fighting and working as a single unit; their armor was not very good, but their shields were broad and strong, and fighting cohesively, not one on one as their enemies (Celts, Gauls, Teutons, etc.) did, so when they could have a massive, army-on-army battle, they would win. In one on one battle, they would lose, as the S2 of DW showed clearly and honestly, by putting the abovementioned Roman Centurion against a Rajput warrior…who was not very different from a Celt, tactics-wise. As individual warriors, the Romans were worse than the Vikings, Samurais or Knights, so unless ‘For Honor’ will do some reality- and history-bending, the Romans are going to be the underdogs – and rightfully so…

(Of course, there were also the gladiators. The modern concept of gladiators is ‘shaded’ by the ‘reforms’ of the emperor Nero – yes, that Nero – but during the Roman republic they were different; at one point they were used as instructors from the Roman soldiers instead, but that is another story…)

As for the Ninja, here is the thing. DW gave it a bad deal, such weapons as black eggs, a medieval Japanese version of pepper spray, against a Spartan, who used a shield and a spear as its main weapons; the Spartan, essentially, won by points, and…let’s be fair to DW – it got rid of such unbalanced matchups in the following seasons. And anyhow, what worries me is that ‘For Honor’ already has a ninja-like character in its’ roster – the Samurais’ Orochi; his promo clearly says that this character was ‘trained by ninja clans’. So why add a duplicate?

…On this note, let me end the rant. It went in a completely different direction from where I wanted it to go, so yeah – until the next time, and hopefully, it will not be as embarrassing for me as this one was. 

The Catch - Jan 12

Something good is happening in the TV land for a change – ‘The Catch’ is returning to TV land in March 2017.

‘The Catch’ is…the movie ‘Zootopia’, done for adults, so no anthropomorphic animals, but plenty of interracial couples, and same-sex ones. It is supposed to be a crime drama, so there is plenty of trick-ery and sneak-ery, but that was the weakest part of the show in question; the interactions between the characters were probably the strongest. It was not the best show on TV, (‘Blindspot’ is better, for one), but it is still a good one. Considering that AoS is not quite delivering anymore, ‘Blindspot’ is itself, and ‘The Librarians’ S3 will probably wind down by March, this is still good; (it even ended on a cliffhanger – go it!).  

Anything else? ‘The Catch’ isn’t ‘the Hood’ and his ‘Merry Outlaws’ going against the evil nobles, modern style; rather, it is done in the manner of Janet Evanovich and similar mystery novels, but as a drama, rather than a crime (or a mystery) show, it still works, so I, for one, will be watching its’ S2…providing that nothing goes wrong in the real life.

Cheers.

Why 'Carter' Shouldn't Be Cancelled

Now, there are rumors, that Agent Carter, (AC, not AoS), can be cancelled. To be frank, this can happen, and it will be wrong. AC has its own flaws: S1, in particular, was somewhat lackluster and almost verged on uninspired (which is one of the worst things that can happen in a TV show), but curiously, after the S1 finale, there were no rumors of the show being cancelled, and now, after a more successful S2, there are.

Let us pause and talk about what makes AC different from AoS. (Yes, there are Marvel shows on Netflix – ‘Daredevil’, ‘Jessica Jones’, etc., but they are a different case.) It does not try to do plot twists and turns the way that AoS constantly does, since the beginning of S2 – it is a fairly straightforward show: the good guys are good; the bad guys are bad; and yes, they both seem to be coming out of a Hollywood movie (and not an A-lister either): they may be almost clichés, but they are grounded in historical realism, which makes them more enjoyable to watch.

Yes, this is correct: AC does care about ‘historical authenticity’; maybe through a prism of sexual, and later on – racial inequality, but it is still more than what AoS does. Yes, Joey seems to be a gay character, but he comes and goes on screen, and the writers just might decide to write him off by killing him as the much-vaunted AoS S3 finale. …And it would be a bad idea – ‘100’ has killed off one of their sexual minority character, and maybe even more than one, and now they had a lot of bad reactions from the critics, something that AoS is trying to avoid in the first place. …Of course, this sort of ‘avoidance’ isn’t a best course of action too – ‘Blindspot’ (and maybe ‘Quantico’, maybe also ‘The Family’) is doing its best to depict the more controversial interracial and same-sex relationships; ‘The Catch’ is quite big on interracial relationships too.

The latter deserves a mention of its own. By now, most people know about the ‘Zootopia’ movie, which too has dealt with a number of modern controversies, including, perhaps, the racial issue, disguised there as the issue of relationships between various species, for example Nick the fox and Judy the rabbit, who are the main characters of the movie. For a further twist, Judy was a cop and Nick a street hustler for the better part of the movie – and now, in ‘The Catch’, we have two protagonists: a con artist and a private detective. Cough.

Yeah, the cough was intentional: ‘The Catch’ is largely ‘Zootopia’ for adults, turned TV series and with realism – i.e. it is a criminal/mystery drama, no sci-fi, no nothing. It is… a drama, with the actors acting out their characters really good; it is the other parts – the detective mysteries, the cons, etc. – that do not deliver and seem to be largely secondary, to add further spice for the drama. That said, it is not a bad TV series, just, almost, uninspired. Then again, so’s the latest version of ‘Supergirl’, and she is still very popular among the fan audience.

This brings us back to AC and AoS. The S1 of AC too was kind of uninspired and flat – but between the historical realism and a small, but tightly knit, cast, it still worked, and got even better in S2, where not just historical realism got more intense (i.e. the references to WWII), but humor got added, and integrated, quite well.

Now, AoS also uses humor as break in the tension, but sparingly, and only for a greater dramatic effect, as it did in ‘Failed Experiments’ episode, for example. When standing side to side, AoS is much more serious and dark than AC had become, not to mention the way it treats its characters, by killing them off on a regular basis? The AC does not do it, no, just no. Every member of the character cast is important and is not killed just for extra realism or drama…unlike on AoS. And no, do not talk about this sort of ‘fridging’ being important for realism – so far, ‘Blindspot’ is much more realistic than AoS is, (for the obvious reasons, but still), yet it doesn’t kill of characters just for drama. Yes, the FBI protagonists of the show often kill ‘bad guys’, but they are largely that – nameless, almost faceless, douchebags who are terrorists, or some other sort of criminal, and almost deserve to be killed by the heroic FBI people.

…Yes, this sort of attitude has led the U.S. to its defeats, military and otherwise, abroad, but still, this is more honest than AoS, it makes more sense than MCU, who want to make the audience ‘feel’ for Thanos. They already tried it with Grant Ward, and as a result made him into a more controversial character than they must’ve liked, so they tried to turn him back into ‘just’ a villain’ in the first half of S3, before just killing him off. Frankly, the man was better for it, while Coulson, who did the actual deed, is worse off, for the way that AoS has done it? It could have been done better, period, without the unnecessary drama, for example. Xena, the warrior princess, (cough, agent Izzy, cough), had killed Callisto once on her own show, and she did it much better than what has gone down with Coulson and Ward.

…And then there was the talk of redemption and second chances. Even S1 (Grant as Hydra) story arc didn’t really handle it very well, and when Coulson had tried to channel Obama during S2, when he was selling T.A.H.I.T.I. to Grant (and ignoring Kara, which was even more wrong), it didn’t really go down well either – for the audience. (In-between character interactions are a different thing). As a result, the entire talk of trying to save Daisy/Skye (at least), while creating parallels between her and S1 Grant are hypocritical, at least in part. Period.

And in AC, on the other hand? There actually is redemption, and mercy, even if they actually are not spoken about aloud. Dot, who was an evil minion back in S1, is becoming her own person, (and maybe not fully evil anymore), in S2. Whitney, who was the ‘big bad’ of S2, is not killed either, but is incarcerated, (which is better than death is, yeah?). Nothing like that has ever happened in AoS, where all villains die, period. (Moreover, see above, regarding ‘Blindspot’ on this sort of thing). Add this to the tightly knit character cast, and you get a different show from AoS yet again.

Yes, it is about Lance and Bobbi. Part of AoS problems is the fact how it tried to integrate this couple in itself in S2, only to part ways with them completely in S3, as they finally got their own show, (whose relationship to AoS is somewhat blurry at this stage). Seriously, WTH was with that? Blood and Palicki needed more cred with the audience? Considering how it went down with Kara and Bobbi, they really could have lived without it instead – and nothing like this has happened on AC either. (Not yet, anyhow.)

Anyhow, let us stop. AC is a very good TV series, and it does not deserve to be cancelled. The catch that at least one another TV series, Primeval: New World, became cancelled, regardless of it being fairly decent in its own right. P: NW became cancelled because the entire Impossible Pictures™ company went down – in part because of its own inconsistency, but in part because BBC™ was releasing a ‘new’ version of ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ TV series – this one a 3-D film regarding dinosaurs, and it was clearing the field from competition beforehand. One cannot help but wonder if this is something similar in MCU – AoS, and maybe ‘Most Wanted’ (the one that is going to star/be centered on Hunter and Morse) is trying to get rid of competition? One hopes not.

…In either case, I hope that I gave a good explanation as to why AC has become a better show than before, and why it does not deserve to be cancelled.

End

PS: And speaking of shows and cancellations? Hello, ‘Castle’. ‘Castle’ without Beckett just won’t be the same, you know? Now there is a show that should just quit on a high, rather than a low note. Period.