Kings of Pain 2 - Dec 11

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks and your family does its’ best to make you feel worse. You cannot escape them, not really, and certainly not legally, and if you aren’t ready to cross the legal lines, you are in trouble, and if you are-? Then you are ready to spread your trouble to your immediate vicinity and beyond because you are that badass, (but in a bad way, so do not get too cocky). …And so I tried to escape into the realm of TV for some sweet release, and what do I find there? ‘Kings of Pain’.

Now, I have been talking about them in passing in our last few entries, but I tried to avoid talking about them directly, because there were, and are, better topics to talk about; this time though there aren’t any. Oh, sure, there are also the news that the Marvel TV as such is being assimilated into the greater MCU, but this was in the cards all along: FOX mutant TV shows and FOX itself – cancelled/concluded/assimilated. Netflix TV series – cancelled or finished. AoS – finished in summer 2020. C&D – cancelled. Runaways – finished this winter, (2019/2020). And then there were none, and Disney+ is coming out soon, so any outsiders shall be dealt with accordingly. Yes, Sony showed that Disney/Marvel juggernaut is not so tough. Yes, until Netflix’s rights expire properly and for real, (we’re talking about the Defenders here), Disney/Marvel isn’t about to use any of them in its’ movies, TV shows, and so on, lest there be a copyright conflict issue. Quite a while back, Lionsgate made an animated ‘Planet Hulk’ film, and so we got ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ film the way we got. Disney/Marvel isn’t quite as badass as it appears to be, but it’s close enough, the end.

…Not that DC is much better – remember the Maxwell Lord situation that we have mentioned earlier? That is typical for DC, however – the ‘Arrow-verse’ is tight, and nothing else in DC-verse is. What does it have to do with ‘Kings of Pain’?

Here’s what: just as Disney has clamped down tight on its’ YouTube aspects – ‘Mulan’ barely got any discussion, and what did occur was carefully controlled and positive – so has ‘Kings of Pain’ stopped appearing on YouTube at all, even on the official YouTube channel of History TV. Why?

…Before we get into it, let us give a dishonorable mention to NatGeo, and not just because its’ website is now a paysite. Aside from the online paysite, NatGeo has two other main sources of sharing its’ info: the magazine, (which is always available on the site, of course), which is available as a corporeal, paper magazine, (duh!), and also on the YouTube channel – as videos. Actually, there are several connected YouTube channels that are property of the NatGeo brand, but…

…But now that the mothersite of NatGeo is a paysite, NatGeo releases its’ videos on its’ YouTube channel very rarely and very sparingly and they are only clips from its’ various shows now – no news. You get only what you pay – how commercial. They are not about to share much freely, but neither are they about to abandon this venture either.

Why is NatGeo’s YouTube info free? Hard to say. Various movies, TV series, etc., are for cash only on YouTube, but not short episode clips – just look at BBC Earth YouTube channel, for example. Video clips that are under 5-10 minutes are free, and apparently, NatGeo has to follow this rule slash guideline as well. Therefore, it does, and it does so by releasing only a couple of clips per week at most – yay. No.

How does the History channel compare to this sort of thing? Just like the BBC TV family on YouTube, it reveals plenty of episode clips from its’ shows on its channel – the full episodes are available on the History website where you need to sign-in, join-in, etc. Fair enough, but lately there are no episode clips of ‘Kings of Pain’ on YouTube, only full episodes on the History website proper. Why? Does the team of the History channel consider this show so good? Let me give you a hint: they are not.

…On this week’s episode, ‘Kings of Pain’ dealt, first, with the toe biter, aka a giant water bug. Note the ‘bug’ in its’ name – this is important, because the leads of ‘Kings’ called it a ‘beetle’ repeatedly on the show instead. ‘Bugs’ aren’t ‘beetles’: the two groups of insects are separate and distinct as much as – cats and squirrels, for example.

How you differentiate beetles from bugs? Beetles have two pairs of wings. The hind pair of wings is membranous and transparent and is used by beetles for flight. There are flightless beetles, of course, but they still have front pair of wings that are more properly called the elytra and aren’t wings at all, but hard covers that protect the vulnerable hind pair of wings and the soft abdomen of the beetles.

Bugs also have the membranous hind pair of wings and they too can fly, and they also have the elytra, but their elytra is only partial, it only covers part of the hind wings and of the abdomen, giving bugs a very different appearance from the beetles.

The second main difference of true bugs from true beetles is that all of bugs have a proboscis – a sharp syringe with which they stab their food, liquefy from the inside and sap it up. Beetles, conversely, usually have jaws called mandibles and they chew their food up – but they are a very varied group, and some beetles have adapted to eat liquid food also – we are talking about the stag beetles and their kin, so this method of separating true beetles from true bugs is not as reliable as the first one.

…And then we have the Wikipedia that already has done the hard stuff and you can always look it up to see just what you are dealing with, broadly speaking. Team ‘Kings of Pain’ did it – in this episode, they also list a number of lay names for the giant water bugs aside from the primary toe biter moniker that they clearly got from the Wiki – so why did they insist on calling this insect a ‘beetle’? Giant water bugs are no more beetles than cats are squirrels, you know!

…My money is on the show itself – it has its’ good aspects still, but so did AoS, and on ‘Kings of Pain’ we may be dealing with an AoS level of bad. The main leads seem to be decisively unenthusiastic when working with each other, they have no chemistry, and sometimes they appear to honestly hate each other sometimes, or at least – not like each other very much. Sometimes their banter does seem natural, but this isn’t enough to save the show entirely, so why the apparent VIP treatment by team History? Because they consider the new show to be that good, (it isn’t), or that bad, (it just may be)? Everyone can draw his or her own conclusion.

…The other animal featured on this week’s episode was the scorpionfish and that came with its’ own problem. You see, the term ‘scorpionfish’ applies to a very large family of fishes, scientifically known as Scorpaenidae. The lionfish, which appeared in an earlier episode and was referenced here, is actually a lay name for a fish genus named Pterois: it includes several fish species and is a part of the Scorpaenidae family, aka the scorpionfish. This particular ‘scorpionfish’ featured on ‘Kings of Pain’ didn’t look anything like a lionfish, but there are several genera of ‘scorpionfish’ that resemble each other very closely, (which is why the scientific names of their genera sound similarly), so it’s hard to figure out just what species of ‘scorpionfish’ ‘Kings of Pain’ used in their show. Of course, in the wild the scorpionfish live mostly in Indo-Pacific, which is nowhere near Baja California where this episode supposedly took place at, but not exclusively so, as the wild lionfish do, so let’s give ‘Kings’ the benefit of doubt on this one and call it a day.

Anything else? Well, Boris Johnson, who is the U.K.’s PM (for now, but still), had hid in his fridge to avoid an interview on live TV – nice. It is because of actions such as this one Ms. Greta Thunberg became TIME magazine’s person of the year… but we have already mentioned that real life sucks, so let us call this an end for this rant.

…Ergo, this is it for now, so see you all soon!

Dark Phoenix proper - June 8

Obligatory disclaimer of this blog: real life sucks. As for the ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ movie proper… it works. That is all there is to it.

Here is the fact – the previous ‘Phoenix’ movie version worked too, and I actually liked it better than this one. People are already talking about how even CGI of the 2019 movie was lackluster, and I have to agree – the previous version, where Magneto even took a certain bridge flying through the air, was better, especially given how CGI had improved from then till now. By modern standards, especially after ‘Infinity War’, and ‘Endgame’, and even ‘King of Monsters’, (which is a monster movie, and not a Marvel-related one, but we are talking about CGI here in general), ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ is an underdog, in a bad way.

…Yes, if we are talking about Marvel, people are already pointing out how the CM movie has undercut ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ in a bad way – again. As the previous X-Men movie – ‘Apocalypse’ – showed, Jean Grey was already the Phoenix, so what was with that space cloud shite? ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ had been reworked from the very beginning, but it was better in the first act, so the reworks were not so glaring.

Then again, we have the D’bari – the aliens of this movie. In the Marvel comics, they were, well, alien plant people that hated humanity after the Phoenix destroyed the sun to fuel her powers. They didn’t have any shapeshifting powers, and though one of them – Vuk, who was a female in this 2019 movie and played by Jessica Chastain – became something of a villain known as the Starhammer – they never became shapeshifters, ever. That was more of a Skrull thing, I bet.

…Of course, movies have remade and restructured comic elements, Marvel more so than DC, but on that note, unlike those movies, the X-Men films were de-facto set in ‘our’ world, with just mutants added for extra flavor – nothing more was necessary. Yes, the ‘Logan’ (Old Man Logan) film also had cyborgs…but, apparently, it was set in a world apart from the other X-Men movies – Earth 17315, while the rest of the films took place either on Earth-10005, or on Earth-TRN414. Seriously, FOX’s take on the mutant world was a mess, and that is before you factor in ‘the Gifted’, and ‘Legion’, and anything else that FOX threw forth mutant-related. However – and that is the point – it always was an ‘ordinary’ world, just with mutants in it. No aliens or extradimensional elementals or what else have you required. Yes, ‘the Gifted’ ended with the show’s heroes following Blink somewhere, even though she was dressed as some sort of an alien space princess – but ‘the Gifted’ got cancelled before we could learn as to what was up with that, so that state of affairs is nullified.

And now we have ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ that has outright aliens in it and their alien-ness did not do anything to further the film. In the trailers and clips, Jessica Chastain’s character looked more like a subdued version of Emma Frost/the White Queen than an alien and she acted similar to Emma Frost in the comics, too.

…It should be noted that there was already an Emma Frost in the X-Men movies, but we are talking about the old Earth-10005 world, not this TRN414 one, so there was no reason as to why her character could not have gotten a reboot. In addition, this version of the White Queen was not really a telepath – she could turn into living diamond, (something that the main basic White Queen versions also can), but she never had any mental powers. There was also an Emma in the ‘Wolverine Origins’ film, but it was a different Emma, a Silverfox rather than Frost, sister to the movie version of the Silver Fox character… Where were we? Oh yes, that Emma has also died in that movie, so Earth-TRN414 was still decisively Emma Frost-free, so why not have her and the rest of the Hellfire Club instead of aliens in ‘Dark Phoenix’? (As they were in the comics and in the 1990s X-Men cartoon series)?

Well yes, the Hellfire Club seems to have some problems of its own – mainly an identity crisis. These days, especially on TV, (whether real life action series as ‘the Gifted’ or various cartoons), it is referred as the Inner Circle club or something similar instead. That isn’t the problem, the problem on ‘the Gifted’ was that the show was kind of understaffed, but they still managed the best they could, and it was proportionally just as good a TV series as ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ was a movie, so there!..

This, I suppose, brings, us to Mystique. No, it is not regarding her comment about the X-Men being the ‘-Women’ instead, that just was something of a SJW-fail in my opinion. The thing is that Mystique has never really been an X-Man, and while sometimes she was a frenemy of theirs, as Magneto was, other times she was an outright enemy, as when she worked for Apocalypse, (as she did in the 1990s cartoon). When she became an X-Man in the ‘First Class’ movie…it kind of left me rubbing my hand and wondering – ‘now why would they do that’? If they needed a mutant shapeshifter, why not bring Morph – but we digress.

The problem with ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ was that it was re-written, that that re-write clearly was clumsily done, and that there were strong traces of Disney/Marvel behind this re-write. (Something similar went down with ‘the Gifted’ in S2 also, but since the show is cancelled, it does not matter anymore). The Earth-10005 movies were always very different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, with a darker, less colorful, more Gothic feel to them. The Earth-TRN414 films too were different, with various historical ‘flavorings’ to them, from the Caribbean Crisis onwards. The ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ film lacks that element, especially in the second half of it. FOX wanted to make ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ different from the CM film? Then it certainly took a wrong strategy, or went in the wrong direction, to do so!

What else to say? Real life sucks, as it was said in the disclaimer. The ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ film is slightly better than that, but only slightly. The fact that it comes on the coattails of the latest Avengers films does not help, but most of its problems are its’ own design, and sadly, it will likely to be remembered as CM’s poorer cousin, unlike the previous Phoenix film, which, at least, was its own movie. (Let us not even get started on the agelessness of the characters – let us just assume that mutants do not age as regular people do, and leave it at that).

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

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Code Yellow' - May 31

…Obligatory disclaimer: real life is weird sometimes – in Mother Russia, the ministry of labor has rearranged the holidays, to shorten the New Year celebratory period but to ensure that the amount of holiday days in the Russian year remains the same. Hashtag what gives, and this brings us to AoS’ episode ‘Code Yellow’.

In this episode, we re-meet Deke, who seems to have started his own Fortnite 500 Company or whatever, centered on a VR game that is named ‘the Framework’, and whose existence – Hell, the entire existence of the Deke Shaw plot line in ‘Code Yellow’ – was almost to mock AoS’ S4 and S5, as Deke kind-of recreates some of the elements of those seasons for personal glory.

Here is the fact: in this episode, we learn that Deke Shaw is greedy, self-centered, and shallow. He is also loyal, competent (at least to a certain degree), and smart. He is brave too, especially when it comes to other people, so he’s a mixed bag, and ‘Code Yellow’ really takes what we’ve learned about him back in S5, (especially in the first half), and does its’ best to run with it and to develop Deke further. Sadly, it does this with a typical American humor, so the result is bizarre and absurd and funny mostly to Americans, and the viewers in the other countries just roll their eyes and go along with it.

On the other side, we get to see Yo-Yo and Dr. Benson deal…with an alien space bat of a parasite who infested agent Keller and then killed him. Yeah, AoS keeps on killing its characters off; Yo-Yo appears to be devastated, (fair enough, she and Keller were just beginning to have something between them), but the problem is that in the script she and Dr. Benson have kind of…dithered most of their time while Keller’s immune system was trying to fight-off the alien infestation and he was still alive; the actors’ acting here is simply unconvincing, period. What next?

Sarge and Isis have captured May, but lost the other two members of their team, while Keller is dead, his body converted to some sort of crystals, (like the ones that we have seen in AoS S6 promo) and Yo-Yo is devastated…but the bad acting has ruined that tearjerker of a moment. C&D may be cancelled now that their S2 is over, just as ‘the Gifted’ had been back in April, but…

But the truth is that with the ‘Dark Phoenix’ moving airing in June 2019, this incarnation of the X-Men universe is most likely coming to an end, which means that the entire franchise is likely to be re-shuffled, and now that Disney/Marvel have taken over the X-Men franchise from Fox™, that is even more likely; plus ‘Legion’ is also ending, (after three seasons total), so there’s that. Was ‘the Gifted’ S2 rushed? No, though it did have its’ problems, as we’ve discussed it back in winter 2019, but that is done and gone; ‘the Gifted’ didn’t deliver high enough numbers and so it was given the ax. C&D’s S2 numbers were not that great either, so there is that. In addition, the potential suspicion that their time together is ending might have given C&D’s cast and crew motivation to rush through things and even cut their screen time and plot development because hey, they no longer care about it so much. Just look at GoT S8 and see how well that approach has turned out for them.

…Could Got S8 deliver the same plot developments that we have seen by now and satisfy a greater amount of fans/viewers than it did in real life at the same time. By now, the talk of the petition to reshoot the S8 has died, as it was going to, obviously, (petitions don’t amount to anything, they’re as effective as scaring a hedgehog with your bare naked ass is, and ditto for sanctions – just look at what Russia is doing in Eastern Europe regardless of them), but the bitter aftertaste remains and it just might sour the next generation of viewers from watching the GoT sequel. Ah well, as the ancient Russian epic poem, ‘The Tale of Prince Igor’s army’ says, ‘No matter how badass are you, you may even be able to fly as a bird does, you still will not escape God’s judgement’. Incidentally, this echoes the biblical statement of Ecclesiastes, that ‘God’s mills mill slowly but exceedingly small’ and that everything turns to dust. Thus passes the fame of the world, and in time, GoT will be forgotten just as ‘the Gifted’ are, or ‘Time after Time’ and ‘Powerless’ have been. It will just take GoT a lot longer to reach obscurity; a lot longer. Back to AoS?

No, not really. ‘Code Yellow’ was focused entirely on the S.H.I.E.L.D. team back on Earth, as they are beginning to realize just what they are fighting against – only not. Not unlike at what the script writers tried to do in S2, especially in the first half, when Gonzales’ faction of S.H.I.E.L.D. had infiltrated Coulson’s, in AoS S6 we’re seeing two groups of ‘good guys’ coming to blows with one another because of misunderstandings, and because in case of people of Coulson/Sarge, they’re crazy and pointedly unlikable. Ah well, you can’t win them all, and for the next two weeks we’re going to be AoS free, for better or worse.

This is it for now; see you all soon!

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Missing Pieces' - May 11

AoS S6 is here. And?

Firstly, the obligatory disclaimer: real life can be trying, but that is real life for you. How does AoS stack up to it?

The season’s premiere, ‘Missing Pieces’, is about Coulson and Fitz, since both died at S5 finale. Now, though, Team Jemma (her, Daisy, Davis and Piper) are travelling through space, kicking alien butts and taking their numbers while looking for Fitz – and there is a giant-ass space ship chasing them instead. However, never let it be said that Simmons is not an opportunist – she used the ship’s latest attack to take her team into a new territory, to continue to look for Fitz, though the rest of her team are unhappy with her, and there is going to be drama.

Simmons’ issues with Fitz aside - by now everyone knows that the FitzSimmons make their own drama, and this season AoS just might’ve jumped the shark with them, pity – what is worth noting is that Piper and Davis have become proper supporting characters: here’s to them lasting at least to mid-season, and not just because otherwise the FitzSimmons and Daisy will have to make a lot of uncomfortable explanations to Davis’ family at least, you know? Secondly, Daisy is having her own issues – she is channeling either Ward or Morse, and it does not do her character any favors. And finally – Deke is pointedly not with them; as Marvel Entertainment accidentally showed on YouTube, Jeff Ward (Deke) and Iain (Fitz) do not get along, so they clearly had to do something about it, while keeping Jeff on the show. Why is another question; they did a half-arsed job of trying to make chemistry between him and Chloe’s Quake in the second half of S5, but apparently it didn’t stick, so no Deke in space. Pity, because he and Elizabeth Henstridge (Jemma) actually had a good thing going-on in the second half of S5…

Back within MCU, Fitz is shown at the episode’s end, being dominated, somehow, by someone (or something) called the Controller. In Marvel, it is a man named Basil Sandhurst, who is…an Iron Man villain, actually, but in MCU, Stark is dead – for now, at least – so it is an open question if this is going to be a real-life version of the man, somehow. The point is that Fitz is having his own problems – again…so, it is nothing new. The more interesting question is – where is Enoch? He was not bad back in S5, did liven up AoS somewhat, and it would be exciting to see more Chronicoms in the future AoS episodes too. The fact that Fitz is in trouble, is mentally dominated, does things that are probably morally ambiguous at best, and needs Simmons and the team to help him is nothing new – remember the S4 Framework mini-arc, anyone?

This brings us to the other half of the season’s premiere – Mack’s version of S.H.I.E.L.D. on one hand, and the appearance of ‘Sarge’, (Coulson’s look-alike) on the other. There are several characters called ‘Sarge’ already in Marvel; the main ones are Nick Fury Jr. (and now that would be an interested character to introduce to MCU proper), and a mutant for a secondary universe (earth 2099 A.D.) now more usually called Travesty.

…Yes, in S5 already AoS took its’ characters to the future, and yes, there are gifted individuals of some sort, working for Gregg’s Sarge character, so it’s always possible that S.H.I.E.L.D. will be dealing with time travellers from a new future – the old one got derailed when S.H.I.E.L.D. blew up the alien space shift and defeated Talbot/Graviton in final S5 episodes, remember? The time loop is broken, the future is free from grabs – and MCU has introduced, sort of, the concept of a multiverse in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ movie, and it might be developing this concept further in the upcoming ‘Spiderman’ movie, just look it up at the IGN YouTube channel. IGN is not perfect, but it does deliver. What is next?

The main twist here is that as contrasted by a deliberately misleading clip released earlier, this version of Coulson/Not-Coulson is no friend of S.H.I.E.L.D. at all; the man he took down was a new S.H.I.E.L.D. agent instead, but on the other hand, despite their rugged appearances and crazy behaviours, he and his people aren’t trying to intentionally & deliberately hurt people, so maybe they’re not actually evil? In this case, Mack and co. will need to invent a new strategy beyond throwing armed forces and armored vehicles at them, while dealing with new drama: Mack and Yo-Yo have broken up, and now Yo-Yo is beginning to flirt with a new character named Keller, while Mack is with May…yes, because Coulson is dead now, (so far, Sarge is being set up as someone who’s not S.H.I.E.L.D.), and because AoS had thrown them together on occasion, especially in S4. What will come out of that, aside from the generic answer – more drama – is currently unknown.

…Also, speaking of drama, Mack and May managed to persuade an old friend of Dr. Garner to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. while the FitzSimmons are in space. Since Dr. Garner was revealed to be Lash, a killer InHuman, (who got redeemed, supposedly, by rescuing Daisy from Hive and dying in the process), it’s possibly safe to take the newcomer’s moral alignment with a grain of salt; after Radcliffe and the Darkhold disaster it is better to be safe than sorry, right?

Anything else? Gabriel Luna will return to his role as the Ghost Rider…this time, on his own show. Since it will be on Freeform, his show might have more in common with C&D that AoS, so (tentatively) welcome back, Mr. Luna, to MCU! Hopefully, you will have better luck here than Blood and Palicki did – by now, they are firmly in the past/recurring character sector of AoS, alongside Dalton and Campbell; ah well, ce la vie.

As for ‘Missing Pieces’ as a whole, it did a good job by bringing out the best aspects of AoS – special effects, a decent plot, great acting and decent dialogue. Now all they have to do is to keep it up and to win back their strayed fans. Between ‘the Gifted’, ‘the Runaways’, C&D, and ‘Legion’, (though it is supposed to have its final season this year, hah), it will be a tough job, even with Netflix’s series gone, and the Ghost Rider show still being in production…

This is it for now; see you all soon!

C&D, 'Alignment Chart' - April 25

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. True, the young striped skunk that I came across earlier this week might disagree – when I found it, it was dead, and judging by the snarling expression on the corpse’s muzzle, it had not been a happy death either. Of course, while it probably came from natural causes, it possibly was not the obvious natural cause: while our park has coyotes and red foxes, as well as some semi-feral cats and dogs, none of them will willingly go for a skunk; only the great horned owl does, and I wouldn’t put anything against the northern goshawk either, but there was never any evidence of them living in our park; and the red-tailed and the sharp-shinned hawks that do live there aren’t interested in skunks, even young ones. I’m leaning towards the theory were the skunk youngster perished in one of the recent rainstorms – they can be very bad, and our park gets semi-flooded regularly, and skunks aren’t good swimmers… so there. There are plenty of big holes in this theory too, the main one being that I found the dead animal on the ‘high ground’, which does not get flooded, actually, but still. The skunk is dead, and I am not, not yet, so let us count our blessings and move on to C&D.

This week’s episode, ‘Alignment Chart’, brought…a real life message aimed against human trafficking, which is one of the main elements of C&D S2: Tandy has been taking them on with help of Tyrone and Mayhem, but this time she went alone, and got captured, after her new friend – Mikayla or someone like that – tazed her in the back. Ouch. MCU – and C&D is recognized as a part of it, unlike, say, ‘The Gifted’ - does love a good betrayal. Next week, it seems, Tandy will be for even tougher times, but Tyrone will help.

…Yes, this is the stable of C&D – Ty and Dy are inseparable, metaphorically speaking. On their own, individually, they are defeated easily enough, together – not so much. The Runaways managed it, sort of, in the comics, but these days both them and Ty & Dy are having their own reboots in the comics, going in two very different directions with two very different depictions. The Runaways – in the comics – are trying to get their old gang together, but keep ending up with a new one, featuring new people, such as the Doombot, (a robotic rogue version of Dr. Doom), while Ty and Dy have already gotten together and are established heroes, while the Runaways are move of Avenger-Ish these days.

Back to the TV version of C&D? Unlike ‘Runaways’, it takes less liberty with its’ script, regarding TV vs. comic-verse, but again, it is less exuberant than the ‘Runaways’ are. Not unlike AC in the past, C&D works with a small, tight cast with a small, tight budget, so – no showy special effects as they are in the ‘Runaways’, ‘the Gifted’, and especially AoS. Did people notice that there were no AoS representatives at the red carpet premiere of ‘Endgame’? They were at CM, but at ‘Endgame’? No. Guess now that they were brought back into the fold, (hopefully), they are not interesting anymore. Of course, I, for one, will try to watch them once they come back in May 2019, but real life being what it is, I make no guarantees.

Back in C&D, Brigid seemed to have gotten some of her mojo back, Tyrone hadn’t killed Connors, (who seems to be genuinely repenting for now), and C&D in general tries to compensate for the lack of showy special effects by having plenty of non-showy ones. Since its’ numbers in S2 remain low, it does not seem to be working. Of course, the fact that it is a YA adventure/drama may have something to do with that – not everyone likes MCU’s take on it, especially with AoS still running around and not down for the count. Pity, because C&D is enjoyable to watch, with just enough sci-fi/supernatural elements, (Ty seems to be using voodoo to find Connors’, for example), to make it different from most police/detective adventure/drama TV shows as well as the other MCU shows, including ‘Runaways’, so there!

…This is it, for now. See you all soon!

The Gifted: oMens - Feb 26

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but sometimes you can manage. Now, onto ‘the Gifted’. It is done for its’ second season. Yay!

What can be said about the S2 finale? There was a lot of action and fighting in it, but…

But it was spread unequally – unlike, say, AoS, ‘the Gifted’ had to work on a more limited budget, especially when it came to CGI effects, and it showed. John’s fight with the Purifiers was the first and the most low-key…and what was with his ethnic make-up? Yes, John Proudstar/Thunderbird is a Native American character, but somehow, the S2 finale – ‘oMens’ – made it feel less Native American and more like Street Fighter of some sort. John looked authentic here, but also ridiculous…but hey, he made his peace with the Morlocks’ leader, who helped John defeat Jace and the Purifiers. Yay?

Well, yes – now the Morlocks’ leader, as well as the Morlocks in general, seem to have become more proactive than how they’ve been in the past, so that’s good for the mutant-kind, since in the last scenes of ‘oMens’ Marcos and co. admit that they are the Mutant Underground these days literally. However, Jace is still around – John had not killed him because of his inner goodness – but Reed is gone, his powers blew him and Reeva and Reeva’s penthouse HQ up. Remind me, what is the official U.S. stance on suicide bombers and the suicide bomber stereotype? Subverting it in ‘the Gifted’ took guts.

This brings us to the next point – the fight of Marcos, Lorna and Caitlin against Reeva’s mercenaries. It was impressive. It also used a lot of stock footage and out-of-camera actions because reasons. Budget reasons. The way that the Inner Circle’s invisible assassin died was one of the least impressive scenes in the episode – that guy was more incompetent than he appeared to be: he already been captured by the Mutant Underground once, and now the Mutant Underground – in the person of Mrs. Strucker – had killed him. The building explosion was nice though.

This brings us to the other big building takedown of the episode – Lauren & Andy’s destruction of the Sentinel Services’ HQ. Technically speaking, the sentinels are evil – remember S1 – but still, the way that the Strucker siblings are forgiven is something else. The way that AoS had dealt with Grant and Kara was bad, but the manner in which all the deaths’ that the siblings have caused are dismissed, is just as bad. Yes, Esme and her sisters had been mentally dominating them all along, but so had Hydra in regards to Bucky in ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’ movie, and it still caused a rift between Steve and Tony in ‘Captain America: Civil War’, with the rest of the Avengers piling on. Now, in part it was because Tony likes Steve, Steve likes Bucky, neither man handled their feelings very well, and the rest of the Avengers piled on because they were bored…while claiming that it was all about the Sokovia Accords instead. What has come out of them, BTW? …But another part of it was because brainwashed Bucky killed Tony’s parents, and Steve just wants to let him go. That did not go well, especially at the last quarter of the movie…and on the other hand, we have the Strucker parents and friends dismissing and forgiving Andy and Lauren using precisely that excuse – they were not themselves. And then they went and had a fight with Reeva’s mercenaries – they took out the Frosts by then – and Reed died.

…Some people have suggested to me that initially Reeva’s character was somehow related to the Struckers because Reed and Reeva sound somewhat similarly. Maybe, but this sort of reasoning is better applied to AoS – ‘the Gifted’ is knitted together more tightly and has done less restructuring of itself, especially in the past, so…

So ‘oMens’ exposed the flaws and the compensations of ‘the Gifted’. On one hand, it has a small, tight cast that works marvellously together and generates plenty of drama and interactions. On the other, it makes scenes with numerous people dicey, because it does not have enough of recurring characters – most of them are episodic instead, so when they are killed off there is no investment into them from the viewers. Yes, this makes a death of a main character – i.e. Reed or Reeva – only more poignant, but on the other hand, the Purifier that Reed killed last week was Ted, Jace’s Man Friday, and as we wrote before, no one, not even Jace, seemed to care that Ted is gone, aka dead.

Back to Jace? Again, as we had written, he is no Ward with whom AoS’ scriptwriters played, making him good or bad, depending on how they wanted him without any respect for his character, the other characters, or the audience. Jace is more consistent, but he is diminished because he has fewer lines these days and his role on ‘the Gifted’ has also shrunk.

Again, the strength of ‘the Gifted’ lies in the actors and their acting – the plot, and the script – itself can be very thin indeed, so when the actors cannot properly act, the show suffers, because unlike AoS it cannot really go for cool special effects or epic fights: John’s fight with the Purifiers showed that in particular: for an angry mutant-hating mob they certainly acted nobly (cough) attacking John one at a time… and it’s doubtful that they even wanted to gun him down at all… That line of Jace – ‘kill me’ – came completely out of the left field, and unlike AoS, ‘the Gifted’ do not swing this sort of curveball very well.

So, what happens next? S2 of ‘the Gifted’ is done, and we are back to waiting – both for ‘the Gifted’ S3 (if it happens) and for C&D in April 2019. Until then, see you all soon!

The Gifted: Monsters - Feb 19

Let us start with the obvious: real life… well, sucks. However, it is also confusing, and messy, and then there is the financial angle…but the less is said about money and taxes and the like is better. Let us talk about ‘the Gifted’ instead.

This week we learned… well, actually, we learned that Netflix is done with Marvel – even JJ and ‘Punisher’ are cancelled, done, finished. Why that is happened is another story, Disney is likely to be involved, but after the SW fiasco, Disney isn’t likely to be openly involved in another mess, especially one that involves money, (yes, money, again), so odds are that we won’t hear about ‘the Defenders’ or any of their associates for a while now, at least until all the copyright and ownership kinks are smoothed out.

Secondly C&D is returning this spring, (AoS is returning this summer instead). The S2 trailer showed us…not just Ty and Dy, but also detective Mayhem, who returns a full-on vigilante with her own powers, and odds are? She is going a) to rock, and b) cause more friction between Ty and Dy. (That said? The chemistry between them is great, and was part of the reason as to why C&D S1 was a success to begin with).

Finally, on this week’s episode, ‘Monsters’, we learn…that the strength of ‘the Gifted’ lies in the actors and acting and the drama that they manifest in their characters, as the plot itself can be holey. The most obvious hole in ‘Monsters’ is the time skip: one moment Lauren and Caitlin are hiding in an abandoned building during the day, with no one in sight, the next moment it’s night and there are cops outside of it already. The cops, of course, are right there with SW’s storm canonic troopers – lousy shots and are scared off by some feeble return gunfire too. Reed and Marcos were able to free Caitlin and Lauren by burning a hole in the building’s back wall without any interference. Score one for the mutants.

The second point is for Ted. He is dead. Reed killed him. With his powers. Considering that Ted had been the closest thing that Jace had had in the Purifiers for a friend you would think that he would be genuinely affected by Ted’s death, but instead? No one in the Purifiers seem to realize that Ted is dead, and Jace is having his doubts regarding the Morlocks’ massacre. Of course, he is right to do that, as the Purifiers are being manipulated, or even managed by Reeva, who is THE mutant villain of the S2, but still…Ted is dead and no one cares about him, not even the other Purifiers. Poor Ted.

Of course, Clarice is also dead, and the Morlocks are gone, their leader has schooled John in the ways of leadership again. Mind you, John is not a villain, he is a genuine good guy, but he is a terrible leader and had spent almost the entirety of ‘Monsters’ doing nothing but mourning Clarice. This makes him sympathetic and a figure of pity on some level, but also? Something of an annoyance…and a failure as a leader. There is a good reason as to why this corner of Mutant Underground fell apart when Lorna left them for the Hellfire Club/Inner Circle, and John is a part of it.

Speaking of Secret Agent Lorna? Sigh. Her and Andy’s escape from the Inner Circle was something else. Basically, the two of them just up and left – Lorna because she was planning to do with Marcos a while by now, and Andy because he had a pep talk with his father. The actors do their best to liven the lackluster departure and the CGI nighttime storm setting helps, but somehow? It still feels ridiculous. Reeva even had the nerve to be surprised when she, Esme, and Esme’s sisters discovered Lorna and Andy’s escape. Seriously, just who did she think she is? Other than a fantastic manager and manipulator? Mesmero the mind-bending telepath?

Of course, the Mutant Underground itself isn’t much better, plot-wise: the way that Lauren, (well, her character) mourns Clarice? It is impressive, but it does not negate the fact that ever since S2 of ‘the Gifted’ began, Lauren and Clarice spent less than two or three full episodes and did not even properly interact with each other at all. ‘the Gifted’ is an amazing show, but it still has limitations, sadly…

Anything else? Andy is back with the Mutant Underground, ditto for Lorna, and John…either heard Clarice say his name or he’s began to hallucinate. Either way, he owns the most impressive tomahawk (Native American battle-axe) that I have seen ever since DW S2 episode ‘Comanche vs. Mongol’ – but that is another story. For now let’s just accept that the Mutant Underground gang is together again, (almost), Jace is having his issues, and Reeva is almost ready to initiate the final stage of her plan to take over America.

This is it for now; see you all next week!

The Gifted: calaMity - Feb 12

Tonight, ‘the Gifted’ are back, so yay! ‘calaMity’, this week’s episode, did its’ best to be overwhelming, and so it was – or rather, it was just the right amount of ‘whelming’, so let us talk.

First, the bad news – Sage is dead by Reeva and the Purifiers - whose leader, Benedict Ryan, is revealed Reeva’s partner in her plan of taking over America - shot Clarice/Blink. At least they made Reeva an Afro-American, and not a Slavic immigrant of some sort, so kudos for that ballsy move. 

That said, Clarice’s about-turn regarding her attitude on all the mutants was jarring – one episode she was all about leaving, keeping her head down and not being a hero, and now she’s sounding exactly like that – exactly like John, and now she may be dead, (a self-fulfilling prophesy?), and John is left picking up his own pieces.

…On the other hand, there is still a chance for her to be alive, while Sage is genuinely dead. Somehow, let us be honest here, the writers of ‘the Gifted’ never figured out as to how to fit-in Sage into their world; for being a major character in the regular X-Men comics, in ‘the Gifted’ she was a recurring character at best, and now, she is killed off for dramatic effect and to demonstrate to the viewers just how ruthless and lethal Reeva can be. Yay? Lorna’s internal dramatics were interesting to watch, but nothing else – she is beginning to realize that she and Marcos’ can be over their heads and need to start drawing more people into their plan, maybe even Andy, because honestly? His loyalty to the Inner Circle appears to be somewhat thin after Rebecca/Twist had died…

However, if Sage’s death is somewhat problematic, in a pointless and unnecessary kind of way, reminiscent of AoS at its’ worst, then the rest of the episode certainly is not. The entire convoluted chain of command between Reeva and Benedict Ryan and Jace was certainly better than anything AoS – or the rest of MCU – showed on such a level, and the dramatic tension between the Purifiers and the Morlocks was certainly well shot, pardon the pun. Jace, of course, is beginning to have further doubts about the rightfulness of his cause, so we’ll have to wait and see as to what it will amount to, (if it ever will). Certainly, again, ‘the Gifted’ made him into a better anti-hero/villain than anything that AoS had done with Ward, or AIDA, or several other characters. As far as the within-universe rules go, Jace is still a better human being than Reeva is.

As for the Strucker family plotline, so far Reed finally decided to embrace his own mutation and stop taking the medicine; Lauren decided to stop running and to start fighting, (maybe even Andy, I don’t know, but after Sage’s death Andy might be having second thoughts of his own); and Caitlyn has stopped ‘playing nice’ and is ramming police vehicles these days. Of course the fact that the local cops seem to have gone to the ‘SW trooper’ school of shooting doesn’t hurt either, but now the Struckers are still fleeing and the cops are still chasing them, so the episode has ended on a cliffhanger; yay!

…Yes, certainly so – for all of its minor flaws, ‘calaMity’ was a very impressive, very dramatic episode, with plenty of both plot progression and character progression too – Jace and John, the Morlocks’ leader and Lorna and Andy, even Lauren and the elder Struckers have emerged from the Morlock-Purifier confrontation changed. Now we just have to wait and see as what will come out of this next week.

Ergo, for now, this is it. See you all soon!

AoS: more S6 spoilers - Feb 5

Briefly: real life sucks. My life sucks for all sorts of reasons, but today I met a pigeon, whose life was worse, ‘cause it was dead. The bird, that is. Red-tailed hawks live in our neighborhood, and I do see them hunting pigeons in the sky; they hunt other birds too, (especially songbirds), but this time it was a pigeon and it was partially eaten already. I don’t know as to why the hawk didn’t finish the job, most likely humans, (or maybe crows, they live in our neighborhood too and regularly harass the hawks, especially when it is winter, as it is now, when the gulls are mostly away from here and aren’t the top birds anymore as they are during the warmer part of the year), but there it was. One dead pigeon and partially eaten. Life sucks, and then you die, and death sucks even worse. Yes, yes, the circle of life and all that tripe, but when you see it, it still makes an impact.

…And then we have the TV-verse, and more precisely, AoS the TV show. As it was shown in the latest AoS trailer, when the show returns this summer, Clark Gregg returns to it…as a brand-new character, because Coulson will die (from massive damage and old age) between the S5 finale and the S6 premiere. Sigh.

Here is how life and death work on TV, especially for AoS: the show just cannot win, since it has entered this game. If it kills off an established character, a number of fans will stop watching the TV show; sure, they can still write fanfic, draw fan art, etc., but the show itself? They will not watch it, and the numbers will plummet. So, instead of doing what ‘the Gifted’ does, for example, and kill only secondary characters, and once every blue moon, to make each death count. And oh yes, ‘the Gifted’ has its own problems, especially the irregular airing schedule – they’re missing this week too, and it probably won’t be good for their ratings, but this is still better than how AoS went all cutesy in regards to life and death on their show. Fitz is dead? Yes, but for the second half of S5 or so he existed in two places (and in two times) at once, making himself his own twin or something, so now his friends only need to bring him back from space and all will be normal again, (theoretically), plus AoS the show has a plot arc to fill its’ first half of S6 or so. Coulson is dead? His actor is returning and playing a brand new role, so in some sense at least, Coulson is not dead. Ha-ha-ha, how cute, and how demeaning for the AoS’ roles. They – the characters – are demeaned, are no longer important, it does not matter if they live or die, the show’s writers will bring them back somehow anyhow. It is no wonder that AoS numbers have went down as months and years went by.

Anything else? No, not really. There is a story on Internet that a jogger has somehow killed a puma (aka cougar, aka mountain lion) in self-defence, but it is the Internet, you know? Life may be stranger than fiction, but the Internet does not always differentiate between both.

This is it for now; see you all soon!

The Gifted: teMpted - Jan 22

‘the Gifted’ continue to surprise, in a pleasant way, its’ viewers. This is good, because so far? Its’ numbers keep on dropping, sadly, because it is a good show and should be continued for at least another season, if not several.

Where did it go this week? In this week’s episode – ‘teMpted’ – the Morlocks finally played a bigger part than the usually did, which is…

Wait. Firstly, we actually got to see more of the rank and file Mutant Underground members, even if their appearances were just a combined cameo, really, but given how we’ve usually had just Clarice, John, Marcos and Lorna, (plus the Struckers, technically speaking), this is already noteworthy.

Secondly, we actually had Reed team up with John for a change as they tracked down Lauren, whose mind is being worn down by Andy and the Frosts, with mixed results. Sadly, this is one of the weaker plotlines of the episode; the scene where Lauren is prevented – by ‘fate’ – from leaving D.C. because some cops are taking down some poor saps feels especially contrived; understandable, of course: they need to keep Lauren on the show (for now) – but contrived and not very believable or sympathetic, for that matter.

…While Reed spent some time with John, (and yet John still got to go home alone, while Reed did his best to help Lauren with the Strucker family legacy – double ouch), Catelyn actually helped the Morlocks to help Glow, (who seems to be something of a love interest for Erg the Morlock leader) to recover from a bullet wound and did her best to show them that they aren’t living on a literal island, they are part of a bigger world and if they don’t accept it, things can, and probably will, get worse.

This brings us to the main point of ‘teMpted’, and it is not Lauren’s supposed temptation to join the dark side; it is the fact that the Morlocks aren’t just an occasional wild card to be thrown into the Inner Circle/Mutant Underground face-off, but a society, and a factor, in its’ own right. Morlocks may be liked or disliked, but they have issues and needs and they need to be addressed; sadly, until this week, these issues and needs were addressed mostly off-screen, so to be brought forth into the forelight so abruptly is…jarring. ‘teMpted’ was still a good episode, mind you, but for apparently different reasons that the scriptwriters have intended, (re: Lauren’s supposed temptation), plus… the show is taking a week off again and will return only in Feb 2019. These gaps are also a part of the reason as to why ‘the Gifted’ is not doing that well anymore.

Finally, we had Lorna and Marcos trying to capture/suborn one of Reeva’s new minions – Max. It failed by 110%; Max is dead, and Marcos himself is badly hurt. This is something of a cliffhanger ending, to keep the viewers excited and ready for the show’s return next month, but it doesn’t work like that in real life; shows always lose viewers and etc. after hiatuses, and the same goes for ‘the Gifted’, because it is a TV show and all. A very good TV show still, but nonetheless…

Well, for now, this is it; see you all soon, (hopefully)!

The Gifted: hoMe - Jan 15

‘hoMe’ the episode has arrived, and-

And it was impressive. For a show that is still working on a limited budget, (as compared to AoS in the seasons past, for example), ‘the Gifted’ continues to impress as our mutant heroes sink further into the pit of despair.

Let us begin with the most obvious plot development here: the Mutant Underground is officially dead: Reeva’s new batch of hired thugs had killed them. Off screen, because of the limited budget issues, but they are dead regardless, even Evangeline Whedon, (a canon comics’ character, by the way). At least this is how things are for now, for in MCU and its’ satellites death isn’t always permanent, especially since the Avengers are planning to fight Thanos in their next movie, and maybe undo the effects of the Cosmic snap, so there’s that.

…‘Runaways’ have also debuted their S2 on TV, but due to real life issues, we are unable to talk about them, or watch them, because in the end? Real life sucks, but you got to make choices about how you navigate it, ‘cause you’re living it. Until you’re not, and are dead – by accident, by suicide, by being unlucky, by deliberately doing crime (fill in your own blanks regarding the crime in question), etc. As long as you live, you have to make choices – and sometimes you get lucky; today my family, (include me, naturally), got to observe a red-tailed hawk in the wild for a few minutes before it fly off because of its’ own reasons and reasoning…

Back to TV and ‘the Gifted’? As it was implied above, sometimes you cannot get what you want because of your choices, because no one is an island and you get to live in the bed you made; sometimes the results, (good or bad), are unintentional, but they are still here, you got to handle them, somehow. This includes no ‘Runaways’, at least for now. What is left?

The next ‘Spider-Man’ movie is coming, featuring – apparently - Tony Stark’s lawyer Happy Hogan dating Peter’s aunt May, (well, at least it isn’t Tony himself, that would be even more awkward), Peter and his classmates on a trip, the return of Nick Fury to MCU proper, (yes, he’s doing that in ‘Captain Marvel’ movie, technically, but still), and some new-old Spiderman faces, including Mysterio… who may not be the typical villain he’d been in the previous Spiderman incarnations, including the 1990s’ Spiderman cartoon series. The biggest heavyweights in this movie, however, shaping up to be the Elementals – four extradimensional entities with the mastery of one element each; it’s all very Pathfinder™, if you ask me.

…The point is that in the Marvel-world we got at least three epic-sized exciting movies with a distinctive positive vibe…which is as far as possible from ‘the Gifted’ at this point: in their world, the Mutant Underground is officially dead, Clarice has left John for Morlocks, (so now it’s really just him, his dog, Marcos, Lorna – sort of, and the Struckers, who tend to do their own thing much more often than not), and then there are the Struckers…

The Struckers are actually the low point of ‘hoMe’ – ‘the Gifted’ is back in mashing Andy and Lauren together as they did back in S1, especially in the second part, when the Strucker siblings had to get their act in synch to defeat Trask’s and its people. This time, it apparently is the Inner Circle, and this plot twist had been nowhere in evidence; it is something old and something new at the same time; this strategy had been used in AoS time and again as its’ seasons progressed, and it didn’t help the older Marvel show in the matter of numbers; and as for ‘the Gifted’? Its’ numbers in S2 go up and down, true, but on average? It is lower than what they had back in S1, and that is not good, and that recycling of ideas is not helping either.

On the other hand, what else do they have? Lorna acting undercover in the Inner Circle reminiscent of S.H.I.E.L.D. infiltrating Hydra (and vice versa)? Check. ‘The Gifted’ further going with the entire Elf-king situation? Also, check.

…This probably deserves some elaboration. As we might have talked last time, in the ballad of Goethe, the child constantly sees things that are not quite real and his father is constantly explaining them to the boy, calming him down some, until it does not work anymore in the ballad and when they arrive at their destination – purposefully vague – the boy is dead. Ouch, and now we got ‘the Gifted’ trying to access Lauren via her dreams that are shared by Andy. It would be impressive if it were not so ‘tacked on’ and contrived, even more so than Marcos’ contrive conflict with the Morlocks.

The same goes for the Clarice/John conflict. Basically, Clarice had had enough of John’s heroics and her caring for him, so she quits. Well, considering that the Mutant Underground is gone, she technically does not quit, but the result is still the same: Lorna is back in, Clarice/Blink is out, and we got more drama among the non-Strucker mutants. What will they do next? I guess we will just have to wait and see.

…Well, this is it for this time – see you all soon!

The Gifted: meMento - Jan 8

Even though life is what it is, we were able to see this week’s episode of ‘the Gifted’ – ‘meMento’ - and it was good.

Where to start? Real life sucks, so let us skip over it and go forth somewhere else. ‘meMento’ had less conflict and more drama than the episodes of ‘the Gifted’ usually do. Central in it were the relationship of Marcos and Lorna, the struggle of the Struckers, (though Andy sat this episode out), Jace having an epiphany of some sort, and Clarice drawing the line in her relationship with the Morlocks, (‘the Gifted’ version of them, anyhow). And again, where to start?

The relationship of Marcos and Lorna was masterfully done. The young couple in question genuinely tried to make it work with other people, but because the show’s budget is not big enough still, it did not work, and they came back to each other. How do the lyrics go? ‘After all stops and false starts, we keep coming to our hearts, two angels that are destined to fall. After all that we’ve been through, after all’… Yeah, that is how. Marcos and Lorna, Eclipse and Polaris, are back together again, (and it can be noted that ‘meMento’ did mention Magneto, just not by name – either ‘the Gifted’ is being unnecessary coy, or there’re some copyright issues involved – it can be either thing or something else entirely), and they learned that Reeva is in cahoots with Benedict Ryan at least on some level.

…Benedict Ryan is the leader of the Purifiers in this universe, and Jace’s new boss. As it was already mentioned, Jace had an epiphany of his own in this episode – he realized that he is working for a variant KKK here. On one hand, calling this out on ‘the Gifted’ took some guts – AoS had its’ own variant, (from S3 onwards) – the Watchdogs, but it never acknowledged them as KKK directly. ‘the Gifted’, with its’ Purifiers, did – bully for them.

What is the difference between the groups within the Marvel universe? The Purifiers are religious bigots, while the Watchdogs are not as much. Indeed, the Purifiers already appeared in a cameo back in S1 of ‘the Gifted’, showing their comics’ trademark black-and-white get-up, but now they are more of a secular, rugged, rough-and-tumble outfit with no order…though Jace is shaping them up into something…or at least he did. Now that he realized that the Purifiers are KKK, and are chaotic evil to his lawful neutral, he might be more ambiguous about them. The damage, however, has been done, as he told Benedict Ryan (cough Benedict Arnold cough?) about Lorna and Marcos and co. working as a team to rescue John/Thunderbird from the Purifiers’ back in ‘eneMy’ – and Benedict probably told Reeva, so now both she and Andy will have some flack coming their way for sure.

This brings us to the Struckers: on one hand, Lauren herself is going into the dark side, (raising the question – where does it leave Andy, then?), and on the other, Reed and Caitlyn are having their own issues as to how to deal with this situation. Trivia alert: the Erlking is a poem/song by Goethe; it’s, naturally, Gothic, and it consists of a rider and his boy (presumably) as they are being chased by the Erlking…just think Shakespeare’s Oberon, for example. The boy sees him and his entourage, the rider – does not, (or is in denial), and so when he arrives at their destination, he discovers that his boy has died in his arms. Yeah, it is a dark poem, (but then again, Goethe and his fellows usually didn’t do sweetness and light in their works, period), but the version that Reed and Caitlyn discussed in ‘meMento’? ‘the Gifted’ clearly took liberties with the poem, creative license at its’ finest. The end?

No, because there is also Clarice and the Morlocks. Well, not really, not anymore – Clarice has rejected the Morlocks’ way of life, it seems, so now their relationship with her will change. Of course, considering that the cast and crew of ‘the Gifted’ went to some distance to bring them to the show, the Morlocks aren’t disappearing any time soon, but on the other hand? The conflict between them and the Mutant Underground, (primarily John and Marcos, here), was one of the most contrived and unbelievable on ‘the Gifted’, so hurray that it is over. What will happen next as the mutants – all of them – on ‘the Gifted’ go and prepare for some sort of a civil war is another story, and we’ll just have to wait and see as to where it will go in the future episodes, (provided that real life doesn’t intervene and prevent us from watching this show)…

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon!

The Gifted: eneMy - Jan 1

And so, we have finally made it to 2019. It was tough, those last few weeks/days/months etc., but we have reached a new year. Yay! No, really – yay. Let us see now what greets us.

Well, many new movies/TV series/online series and etc. ‘Runaways’ S2 has premiered on Hulu, but we’ll have to see if we’ll be able to see them on TV because of real life reasons. Talk about ‘the Gifted’ in its place?

Well, we can always talk about the upcoming S2 of ‘the Punisher’ instead – on Netflix. With ‘the Defenders’ being down, (save for JJ), it is up to Frank Castle to carry the Marvel for Netflix. It also further complicates the Disney-Netflix Marvel relationship, and as it was said back in 2018, until it is resolved, it is unlikely that Daredevil or any of his immediate cohorts will appear in MCU because otherwise? There might be real life conflicts and even lawsuits. Disney already got issues with SW, it does not really need problems with MCU, especially now that it finally got its’ act together with FOX – and yes, this brings us to ‘the Gifted’.

In this week’s episode – ‘eneMy’ – the Mutant Underground has technically teamed-up with the Inner Circle to rescue John/Thunderbird. In reality it were just Andy and Lorna returning to their old families and friends to, well, rescue John, even though Lauren is still upset in regards to Andy’s initial defection, and Lorna & Marcos’ relationship is still a mess. Of course, in ‘eneMy’ they actually work together to take down the Purifiers, but so do the Strucker siblings, alongside Clarice/Blink…who appears to be more skillful with her powers than how she initially looked. Go her, though odds are that this hidden knowledge will somehow cause trouble for the Mutant Underground in the future.

That is actually a worthwhile point to mention – ‘the Gifted’ really doesn’t do internal conflicts all that well; the new/old/renewed conflict between Andy and Lauren Strucker feels decisively contrived and forced; the script just doesn’t come naturally here; neither it does when the Strucker parents calm Lauren down in their car: the acting feels just thin here; the actors are being just actors, not their characters, as they usually are on the show.

As the script, so the visual effects – a large chunk of ‘eneMy’ was executed in sepia tones of some sort. Were they supposed to add to the atmosphere, to make it more dramatic and intense? It did not really work, it looked strange rather than oppressive, so yes, when they vanished, the viewers did feel relived, just for the wrong reasons than the show’s crew and cast were going for.

Back to the plot? Jace has gone full Sith here, torturing John with psychological warfare and eventually trying to kill him by shooting him full of lead. Hopefully, John will survive, as there is no indication that ‘the Gifted’ are bringing in a replacement character for him. Again, however, the show will set new conflicts for him and Clarice, because this is how ‘the Gifted’ appear to run in S2. It is doubtful that it is a good strategy, as the numbers of the show went up and down and all over the place, and the December hiatus did more harm than good for them, as such hiatuses often are. Ah well, it is still a good reason to enjoy the ride until it is over and the lady sings.

Yes, AoS is coming back for S6 in summer 2019, but so far, the information is sparse, and the shots of Daisy being a blonde-haired woman now are not encouraging either. AoS has driven itself into a tangled knot and while it had tried to untangle itself, true, it did not really work: the show got stuck with the character of Deke Shaw, who is even less popular than Kasius and Sinara had been, and they were villains, plus the titular agents have established themselves as a bunch unsympathetic gits…but that is another story. ‘The Gifted’ is doing something different: it took an original narrative and is now trying to diversify it with a bunch of contrived conflicts that make the show less derived and more drawn-out instead; plus…

Plus ‘the Gifted’ is more like AC than AoS; it still has a tightly knit, relatively small main cast with which it works: ‘eneMy’ brought them all together, albeit on different sides; Jace is still the odd man out, as he usually is. No Inner Circle, no new kids, no nothing. (Also, Andy did not go over to the Inner Circle because of their money and power as Lauren claimed on this episode – he left because he felt that he could do better over there instead, as did Lorna – now we will just have to see if he and Lorna made the right choice). Sadly, for ‘the Gifted’ this sometimes borders on ridiculous, again, and the show tries to do something about it – in 2018, for example, we’ve seen Marcos trying to contact other Mutant Underground members, but all in vain: everyone else became afraid of what the Inner Circle had Lorna and Andy set in motion to do something about it. That said, it would be nice to see more new mutant faces; instead, ‘eneMy’ barely acknowledged the chaos unleashed by the Inner Circle, Andy and Lorna and was all about John’s rescue instead. That is justifiable, but the way that John had rammed the Purifiers’ track back in 2018…not the smartest move either, not even by him; (the fact that it felt almost like DW the combat simulation part hadn't helped the episode either - it was that contrived). Anything else?

Ted of the Purifiers’ isn’t dead, Andy and Lorna are back with the Inner Circle, (if Reeva and the others even realized that they were gone – hopefully this issue will be addressed in the next episodes), Jace continues his holy/unholy war and descent into the dark side, and the Strucker siblings are setting forth to have a confrontation of their own. Sigh. ‘The Gifted’ tried to give them character development back in 2018, but instead they keep coming back to being full Lannister. Let us just hope that they will resolve their issues before S2 of ‘the Gifted’ is finished and we all can move on…somewhere. New, that is.

Well, so far, this is it. See you all soon!

Dynasties - Dec 11

Obligatory disclaimer: sometimes life sucks, but right now? It is more tolerable. Let us move on?

‘The Gifted’ are on a hiatus until January 1, 2019. This is a doubtful move by the TV show in question; they tried this strategy back with their S1, and it wasn’t really successful, in regards to the numbers; right now, S2 is longer – 16 episodes vs. 13, but they already played about 55% of them, 9 out of 16, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how they will arrange the last 7. What is next?

DC’s ‘Elseworlds’ ‘Arrowverse’ special was aired this and last week, and it works. It introduced a new villain – the Monitor – and eventually Super-Girl, the Martian Manhunter, and the rest of their people will need to battle an evil Super-Man. Very exciting! However, there are plenty of people discussing this story arc, no doubt, so let us talk about something else.

…No, it is not the excitement of breeding the various breeds of goldfish, or domestic turkeys, or whatever. I am sure that it is very exciting from the inside, but again, not the topic I want to discuss now – rather, it is yet another TV show that went down lately: BBC’s ‘Dynasties’.

No, it is not a yet another GoT rip-off, well, not really. Rather, it was yet another David Attenborough’s special – a five-part series about various animals around the world.

Well, not really – the lion and the wild dog came from the African savanna, and the chimpanzee – the common chimpanzee, not the bonobo – is living right next door to them in the African jungle, so it’s not much of a stretch, (some chimpanzee populations actually venture into the savanna, but unlike the human ancestors they still give its’ predators – lions, wild dogs, leopards, hyenas, etc. – a wide berth. They have not mastered fire either, though they still have tools. Technically, that is not a big issue: humanity had mastered fire only at the Homo Erectus/Homo Ergaster level, so chimpanzees have some time yet… unless humanity drives them to extinction first.

Now, this brings us back to the ‘Dynasties’ proper – they, this TV series, was about conservation of wildlife, especially the last episode, about the Bengal tigers. …Yes, according to some data, there are only two species/subspecies of tigers – the island tiger, (the Sumatran tiger), and the mainland tiger, a single species/subspecies, from India to Siberia, but I am not so sure that that P.O.V. is correct; and I reckon that this last, tiger episode was the weakest among the entire series. That is not surprising, many of American, (Western, actually), books, TV series, etc., the conclusion is often the weakest chain in the link. However…

There are rumors that clouds are gathering over Sir David himself. If that is so, then it sucks, because Sir David had been one of the best people that had ever come from the British soil, and his TV series, specials, nature documentaries, etc., were some of the best that had ever come to TV and the Internet. However, it is always possible that times are moving on, and Sir David is being left behind. This sucks, a whole lot, but real life sucks as a rule. Period.

Back with the ‘Dynasties’ proper, one of the weaker aspects it was the composition. As it was said before, the lion and the wild dog are almost two sides of the same coin, the chimpanzee is their neighbour, (a stretch, but not so much), but then we have the tiger, and the penguin.

The emperor penguin is the odd beast out. It is an Antarctic fowl among tropical beasts, but hey – everyone loves penguins, and the ‘Dynasties’ TV crew did their best to sell those flightless birds – and they did. However, the tigers? They were the weakest, and the most intense. ‘Dynasties’ did their best at selling the tigers at their most vulnerable, that it worked…and it was too much. Somehow, if the penguin episode felt like the odd one out, then the tiger episode felt like the weakest. Sorry, but them’s the breaks.

…Yes, the public perception mattered – the tiger and the lion have two very different reputations in the eyes of the public, especially Western public. Why this is, so is a difficult question, so we will not talk about right now. Moreover, it is not the point – the point is that ‘Dynasties’ have fumbled the ball at their last tiger episode, and that’s that. The series is over, (there is no signs of a sequel), so we have to live with that, and we can. Whether Sir David, (who may have his own real life problems), can, is another story.

Speaking of the other stories, there is the remark of ‘The Lion King’ looming in the future. Influenced by the remake of the ‘Jungle Book’, TLK is coming on strong, but-

But while TJB was written by Rudyard Kipling, who didn’t care for political correctness (especially by the contemporary standards) and who tried to include some real life wildlife facts in his books, (initially, TJB was a duology), TLK was, or is, ‘Hamlet’.

No, seriously, by now it is openly admitted that TLK was a remake of ‘Hamlet’, which was never big on real life wildlife, but on many other things. If you google it, you can find plenty of essays and discussions on it, in particular whether ‘Hamlet’ was a Catholic or a Protestant play, in regards to the ghost, because Catholic and Protestant branches of Christianity have two different opinions of ghosts in relation to, well, Christianity and the Bible, and that is important, because it leads to the question as to whether or not the Ghost was a genuine ghost, or an evil spirit who sold Hamlet a load of baloney, and that leads to the question as to whether or not Hamlet was honestly righting a wrong, or just killing many people for the sake of revenge. The truth being is that regardless of the veracity of the Ghost’s info, Hamlet overreached himself; if he had killed Claudius in private, while the other man was praying (and failing) in private, then the play would’ve taken a very different turn; instead, in reality, we had Hamlet killed Claudius as he wanted to – in front of many people, with a large proportion of them also dying. Hamlet did not care about Denmark or its’ people – he just wanted revenge for his father, which, for him, was the righting of the wrong. Bully for him, really.

TLK, on the other hand, tried to be more derived, and as a result on one hand, it isn’t realistic from wildlife’s point of view – since the 1990s, plenty of wildlife scientists pointed out that real life lions and hyenas don’t behave as they do in the initial TLK movie, and on the other? There is at least one theory that equates Zazu with Polonius, the crooked counsellor from ‘Hamlet’, suggesting that he had been conspiring with Scar to get rid of Mufasa and Simba from the start. It is an interesting theory, especially since the original Polonius is not so straightforward a character himself, so it will be interesting to see as to how Disney’s remake of the TLK will come out.

Finally, in summer 2019 the second ‘Godzilla’ movie is coming out. Here, he is facing off with King Ghidorah, and as someone said, ‘what is a king against a god’? King Ghidorah is taller than Godzilla is in this incarnation, but a good amount of his size are his wings, and tails, and necks with heads – he’s tall, not big, so Godzilla has a good chance in a straightforward face-off that we were shown in this trailer.

In other news, in one of the original ‘Godzilla’ movies, the titular character teams up with Rodan and Mothra to defeat King Ghidorah, and this trailer shows precisely those other two kaiju – or titans, in this particular incarnation. Maybe they will work together in the summer 2019 movie too, we will have to see. Of course, the big question is where’s King Kong in all of this, for so far, we have seen no sign of him, but again, we will may learn more about all of this in the future.

Well, this is it for now – see you all in the future!

The Gifted: gaMe changer - Dec 4

The obligatory disclaimer: sometimes real life sucks, and sometimes it does not. Yay, really. Now onto ‘the Gifted’.

…This week’s episode was called the ‘gaMe changer’, and it certainly lived up to its’ name. The Inner Circle has destroyed the control center for the mutants’ control collars, and now many mutants are free. With the ‘regular’ society already inflamed and divided on the mutant issue, Reeva’s plan for taking over USA is beginning to take shape and it is a workable one, too. Whether she will be able to keep the United States once she captures them, is another story, and, moreover, one that we will get to see later, after the winter break, (technically speaking). For now, more new mutant characters will be appearing on the show; whether they will stay, or go, as Rebecca did, is another story.

…Rebecca got killed off in this week’s episode, incidentally. Judging by S1, no return from the dead for her; ‘the Gifted’ are not like AoS in that fashion. (With AC, there is not enough material to make a statement). This brings us to Daredevil, or rather – to ‘Daredevil’, who got cancelled at the end of last month.

Is this noteworthy? Well, yes – ‘Reverie’ might have also gotten cancelled during November 2018, (albeit in the beginning, rather than the end), but ‘Daredevil’ lasted longer – for 3 seasons rather than 1, and it was much more exciting, proportionally speaking, than ‘Reverie’ had been. ‘Reverie’ was not a bad show, but it was very heavily influenced by AoS on one hand, and kind of… not exactly insipid, but certainly lackluster on the other. ‘Reverie’ got cancelled with a whimper; the exit of ‘Daredevil’ was more noticeable.

Yes, in part this is because ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Luke Cage’ were cancelled earlier in November 2018 too; with only JJ still up for grabs on one hand, and with ‘The Defenders’ proper being the weakest of Marvel/Netflix shows, things aren’t looking up for the Defenders team. However, that is acceptable: right now, the most popular theory is that with Disney establishing its’ own version of Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/etc., and as such, it is no longer too interested in cooperating with Netflix proper. (And maybe its’ counterparts as well).

Of course, until Netflix’s copyright for the Defenders’ team run out, Disney will have to tread carefully here, to prevent any conflicts back in the real world. It is already in a bad place regarding its’ other takeover, of SW, so it does not really need to add any of its’ Marvel properties into the mix. With Sony, (regarding its’ universe of Marvel characters or Earth-TRN688), making its’ boundaries clear and established, it might be Netflix’s turn next – or it and Disney might do something completely different, who knows?..

Back to ‘the Gifted’? So far, it is still going strong, with the ‘gaMe changer’ trying to go for something epic, as the Inner Circle releases captured and subdued mutants, the rest of the Strucker family destroying anti-mutant research, and John, from the Mutant Underground, getting captured by Jace and his Purifiers.

Well, technically, the Purifiers’ are not Jace’s, but are more of a free-ranging secret society, like the Freemasons or the Illuminati, but Jace is shown to be taking charge of them lately. Again, it is a question of just how big the Purifiers are, as a movement, but we’ll probably see more of them in the future episodes; right now, John got captured by probably no more than three or four of them, including Jace. Of course, John’s strategy had been to run at their jeep and hold it in place, until he got exhausted, but John has been in a bad place lately, as he and Clarice constantly fought lately, and Marcos was more of a comic relief than anything else.

Pause. This brings us to the fact that by now episodes of ‘the Gifted’ got somewhat, well, disassembled into separate plotlines; Jace capturing John at the end of ‘gaMe changer’ is really the first sign that they are coming together again, and maybe we’ll get something more along the lines of ‘the Gifted’ S1 in the next episode…

And this is it, for now. See you all soon!

The Gifted: the dreaM - Nov 27

Obligatory disclaimer: sometimes, real life does not just suck, but it also hurts. Like, emotionally. Sometimes, your family members are like emotional/energy vampires, and there is nothing that you can do with them…nothing that is truly legal, anyhow. Any solution that results in a funeral with a closed casket/coffin/call it whatever you will has to be wrong than the problem, it just has to!.. And now on to our feature presentation.

‘the dreaM’ of ‘the Gifted’ shows the continuous issue of this TV series: it is conflict-driven, and primarily – it is mutants vs. Sentinel Services. Whenever Sentinel Services went out of the equation, ‘the Gifted’ suffered. In S2, Sentinel Services around in the equation at all; in this episode, Jace isn’t even in it – instead we got yet another friend of Reed Strucker’s father Otto, who’s got an entire institute, (sort of), and whose goal is to learn how to manage and probably to suppress the X-gene, which makes mutants mutants. Sorry about repetition, but we already had something similar back in S1, so now it feels as if ‘the Gifted’ are going around in circles; it didn’t help AoS, which was notorious in recycling ideas for its’ plot and scripts, and it doesn’t really help ‘the Gifted’ either.

…This is the Strucker plot line, actually – whereas the other two of this episode were Lorna. Her life story, her journey to the current point in time in the world of ‘the Gifted’, and it culminates in her giving up baby Dawn to her aunt, and making Magneto’s token (and yes, this is the first evidence of Magneto/X-Men/Xavier/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants/etc. in the show. Oh, there had been plenty of references, but the token is something different, more real and precise, and Lorna makes into her own headpiece, reminiscent of Polaris – of all of Magneto’s children, she was the one the most like him.

The problem is that this version of Lorna is nothing like the mainline Polaris; by, well, giving up Dawn and all, Lorna has given up herself – her self that had been building up from the S1 premiere until now. Is this a result of FOX and Marvel (MCU) teaming up now, I do not know; true, there are some similarities now between ‘the Gifted’ and AoS & AC, but few and safely buried, so there.

Finally, there were also Thunderbird and Blink searching for Rebecca/Twist as the latter took a runner from the Inner Circle at the beginning of ‘the dreaM’. At the end of the episode, after sharing her small information dump with the not so dynamic duo, she seems to have been either killed or captured, and while that is bad, (especially for her), why…hasn’t she left D.C. yet? She had an entire day, (though the entire chronology of ‘the dreaM’ went jumping around in a non-linear way, and the various flashbacks did not help either), I guess… script reasons?

And the same goes for the John/Clarice fight/argument/etc. It felt contrived in the previous episode, (two weeks ago), and it feels contrived now. John and Clarice, it seems, just decided to fight, and Marcos…either is fanning the flames or is staying out of it entirely. Ditto for Lauren Strucker, even though at the S2 premiere she was shown to be an integral part of the Mutants Underground team. Now, though, the Strucker family has gone down one path and the Mutants’ Underground people – Marcos, Clarice, John – another. A plot device or a plot hole? Who knows, we can only wait and see…

…Well, this is it for now. ‘the dreaM’ had been a lackluster episode; or rather – an unbalanced one. Most of its’ focus, overwhelmingly so, had been on Lorna/Polaris, and ‘the Gifted’, in the past, didn’t do such character-heavy episodes. AoS, on the other hand, did, especially in its’ first seasons, with various effects, but that did not help it either; the S6 finale found AoS at a low point…but that is another story.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

The Gifted: no Mercy - Nov 13

Tonight, we are back. Real life still sucks – and that even without taking into account that Mr. Stan Lee is gone: I was never his biggest fan, but regardless, his death is being felt already; what is coming out of it is another story; onto ‘the Gifted’?

Well, let us try. This week’s episode - ‘no Mercy’ – was something else; in S2, ‘the Gifted’ are having issues into combining all of their narratives into one, and it shows.

What has happened in ‘no Mercy’? The Inner Circle robbed a bank. Jace met some sort of an evil politician/TV show host/someone-someone, and is going to star on his show. And the Mutant Underground are dealing with the fact that Reed’s problems are getting worse, and that they suck, at the same time. Let us elaborate?

‘no Mercy’ felt like three or four separate stories with little connecting them, period. The bank story line with the Inner Circle feels completely detached from the Mutant Underground story line, period. At least with Jace, the show’s scriptwriters put in effort to connect his TV appearance with the Inner Circle’s bank attack, and showed his inner struggle. (Hey, it sells the numbers, ratings and otherwise, so there!) The Mutant Underground, on the other hand? We had the Struckers doing their family issues thing, while on the other hand, we had Marcos all but stirring up trouble between John and Clarice regarding the Morlocks. Sorry, I still enjoy ‘the Gifted’, but John and Clarice’s conflict feels especially contrived – it really does. As we have seen in the past, the Mutant Underground, (i.e. Marcos) was aware of the Morlocks before S2, (technically speaking), so what is their problem with Morlocks? This conflict just holds no water, even by AoS’ standards, and that is just sad, because in S1 ‘the Gifted’ were more like AC, than AoS…

Anything else? Rebecca has a bigger chip on her shoulder than the rest of the Inner Circle do, now many people are dead, and Reeva’s true test as a leader has come: how will she handle Rebecca and her disobedience? She did have a plan, she gave Rebecca an order, and it did not work. Reeva will need to bring Rebecca to heel eventually, because if she does not, Rebecca might turn on her, and Reeva’s entire master plan will derail completely.

Here is a fact: as far as leadership goes, Reeva pictures herself more like Dumbledore than Riddle. She is willing to sacrifice anyone for the greater good, (whatever she perceives it to be), but good is the key word here. Rebecca is more like a Death Eater instead – she does not care about who gets in her way, as long as she succeeds. Andy Strucker is currently riding the metaphorical tiger, and it is an open question if he will succeed. (The fact that Rebecca’s character was upgraded is put aside – real life matters, even on a TV show, you know?) What next?

Well, on one hand, ‘the Gifted’ were showing Rebecca to be bad news since she appeared; the question is, is she irredeemably bad? (And what about Andy? Where does he fall here, again?) AoS tried its’ hand with redemption, (especially in S2), and made a hash of it; AC tried something similar…also in S2…but got cancelled after the second season, so that was the end of it; the greater MCU is just meh on it…so it’s anyone’s guess as how this will turn out. The same goes for Jace, though with him it’s more of an open question will he become just a narrative engine to expose the social ills of the world of ‘the Gifted’, or will he come into open interactions with the Mutant Underground (or any other mutant characters on the show) instead.

Anything else? S2 of ‘Runaways’ is coming on December 2018; S2 of ‘C&D’ – in spring 2019, and detective Mayhem will play a proportionate role to Ty and Dy, who are the titular characters after all. Real life does suck, but not always, it seems.

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

The Gifted: afterMath - Oct 30

And we are back. More or less, certainly limping, but for now we are back. Yay!

Back on TV, ‘the Gifted’ continue to impress, as the plotlines finally get moving. In this week’s episode – ‘afterMath’ – we have Andy make a new friend, whom they have rescued in the previous episode. Her name is Rebecca, so far, she is not one of the main cast, and her powers are turning things inside out. Her approach appears to be similar to Andy and Lauren, but her attitude is quite different: Andy did hesitate in attacking Lauren and Marcos back then, but Rebecca manifests a vibe that she would not.

…Some people say that there are two approaches to everything, a good and a bad one. The two terms aren’t fully interchangeable with right and wrong, but the fact is that starting with ‘afterMath’, ‘the Gifted’ will begin to show the, well, ‘evil-ness’ of the Inner Circle, as their lofty goals hide some unsavory means of getting there. Of course, the question of whether the game is worth the candle and whether the means justify the ends, will never be answered – at least not in real life – but on TV, as ‘the Gifted’ will continue to develop, maybe we get an answer in that universe at least.

Back to ‘the Gifted’ proper? While Andy was on his date with Rebecca, and Lauren was recovering from their fight with their father, their hospital was invaded by the Purifiers and Jace. So far, Jace had done nothing openly ‘evil’, and in fact is shown to have had more mixed feelings in the past, before his daughter died, about the mutants, but that was in the past and in the present, he clearly is not a friend to the mutants at all. How more can his TV character remain somewhat ambiguous is anyone’s guess, but eventually he will have to make a choice and after the events in S1, when the Frost sisters mind-forced his partner to kill himself, the odds are not in pro-mutant favor.

Speaking of mutants, the last main plotline of ‘afterMath’ was about Clarice and Marcos taking their rescued group of mutants to the Morlocks, into the sewers. The Morlocks’ take on the human-mutant conflict is to stay out of it, by hiding in the sewers, getting by by all sorts of means, including thieving, and generally that is it. They are not fighters, they are hiders. The Inner Circle might be evil, (at least from the P.O.V. of the Mutant Underground), but at least they are proactive. The Morlocks are not evil, but they are escapists, and from the P.O.V. of the Mutant Underground, that is just as bad. The Mutant Underground are good, (well, this is their story and they’re sticking to it, at least for now, even though at least some of their allies left them hanging instead), but they are also fighters, not escapists, and so they and Morlocks are going to clash, especially since the Morlocks don’t like them very much either. They are not looking for a fight, but their leader is interested in Clarice/Blink and her mutant portal powers – and John is not going to swallow that at all, especially since he had spent this episode recovering from his own injuries and growing increasingly frustrated with everyone and everything. Given that Clarice herself is feeling short-tempered lately, this can be very bad, for the entire Mutant Underground – but we will have to wait and see as to what will happen next.

…This is it for tonight; see you all soon! (Hopefully).