MCU Spider-Man - Lion King with thumbs? - July 16

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Otherwise, where are we?

…Apparently, as we put ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ behind us, and TLK-2019 is in front of us, now we are in the perfect time to proclaim: the current incarnation of Spider-Man, the Tom Holland version, is TLK, just with opposable thumbs and different hairdos. Let us begin!

Peter Parker is Simba, with Tony Stark being Mufasa; previously, it was the late uncle Ben who’d been Peter’s father figure, but in the MCU, it’s more of Tony’s job; so far, the closest we came to Ben Parker is the BFP suitcase that Peter took upon his European vacation; we don’t even know how he looks.

…This isn’t actually such a great deviation: we still know next to nothing about Peter’s actual parents: his uncle Ben and aunt May had been present with us, alongside Peter, in all sorts of incarnations, but the actual Parker parents? Not so much. Adding Tony into the mix did change the balance…but not as much as it appears at a first glance. Tony is still Peter’s mentor and father figure, and he rescues Peter from the Vulture, (at first), just as Mufasa rescues the young Simba from the hyenas. Young Simba and Peter even have similarly optimistic and carefree attitudes pre-Vulture and the elephant graveyard, respectively – Peter may not have a musical number similar to ‘I just can’t wait to be king’ of Simba, but I kind of got a feeling in ‘Homecoming’ that if he could he would.

Same for the women – Simba got Beyoncé… that is to say, Nala, and Peter got Zendaya… uh, MJ. Yes, them. Do not know if that is woke or just personal preferences, but there it is, and both Nala and MJ are presented as having similarly spunky personalities, so to say. Yay?

Timon and Pumba in Africa and by Betty and Ned in NYC/Europe round up the entourage of our titular heroes. Zazu (Oliver) is balanced by Happy (Favreau), who, yes, got May to balance him out for further MCU romance, but honestly? That romance was the weakest of the three in ‘Far From Home’ and rather reminiscent of Ned & Betty back in Europe.

Both fathers die and are succeeded by villains, Scar and Beck. Both of whom are hypocrites, liars, and are especially successful at misguiding the titular heroes, in different manners but with similar results – Scar becomes king on one hand, and Mysterio gets the unlimited access to Stark’s technology on the other. Hyenas assist Scar, Mysterio got his own minions; hyenas turn on Scar, Mysterio’s minions just outlive him as Spider-Man defeats him for the final time…supposedly.

And then there are the sagely old advisors that take shit from no man or lion, Nick and Rafiki. Rafiki is more polite and subtle than Nick is, but conversely, he is more physical with Simba than Nick is with Peter.

Pause. Yes, Nick is actually Talos, while Maria is Soren, or is she?

Let us look away from Spider-Man to ‘Captain Marvel’ and one person that you do not see there is Maria Hill. At all. Maybe she was just busy elsewhere, or maybe she just had not been hired by S.H.I.E.L.D. in the 90s, or something else, but maybe there is no Maria Hill, but only Soren, pretending to be human. If so, then you have to admit that she is one kick-ass S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, is all that I am saying.

It also alters the disposition of both the initial two seasons of AoS and the very first Avengers movie, (aka the one where Loki invades Earth with Thanos’ army). As humans, Fury and Hill may have had only the slightest idea, as to what the GH formula will do to Coulson, (it was made based on Kree blood, remember?). As Skrulls, Talos and Soren may have had a much better idea, and then there is the issue of how does the rebooted post-Hydra and cap revelation S.H.I.E.L.D. fit into the entire Kree vs. Skrull conflict. At the end of ‘Far From Home’ film, there are mentions of Kree cells on Earth. Sigh. Looks as if Kree will be replacing Hydra as the main secondary villain in MCU and possibly AoS.

…Here is the thing. From AoS S3 onwards, Hydra and the Kree were increasingly mashed together, until the final quarter of AoS S5, where the Hydra were revealed as being the minions of the Kree. Yes, it contradicts the second half of AoS S3, where Hydra was supposedly founded by Alveus, who was an InHuman or an alien space worm, rather than a Kree, and who really didn’t like them, but that’s AoS for you: it had its’ back story broken and reset about as many times as ‘Lost Girl’ had, only ‘Lost Girl’ was finished after five seasons; AoS is currently in its’ sixth. Yay, really.

That aside, at that period MCU and AoS were in a bad place, as their fan base were divided over whether Hydra was Nazi or only evil, whether S.H.I.E.L.D.’s treatment of Grant and Kara was justified, who was in the right – the Iron Stark or Cap’n Rogers… wait, sorry. The Iron Man and/or Captain America – there, that is the correct versions, right? Anyhow, the Hydra issue proved to be much more divisive than MCU imagined it to be, so around the time of CA: CW movie they retired it from MCU as well as from AoS – we are talking the S3 finale here. Only by the second third of AoS S4 Hydra came back in a different incarnation… as opposed to the second half of S5, where it was in its’ classical depiction instead: apparently, MCU cannot really function well without Hydra, yet with it, the old controversies come back. Whereas SW tried to just steamroll over them and it backfired, MCU is trying to fix them – first it tried to get rid of Hydra, and now it is trying to replace it with the Kree. Squee, and let us see as to how it will work out for Marvel. Back to the main topic?

Both Peter and Simba struggle with their fathers’ death, both Scar and Mysterio try to make them worse with verbal bullshit, and both times it backfires – Simba learns that it was actually Scar who had murdered Mufasa and is able to overpower him and throw him off the Rock where the hyenas turn on him and tear him to pieces, while Peter gets his own shit together, gets to Mysterio, and overpowers him, even as the latter’s handgun misfires and he dies. What next?

Simba gets to be king. Peter gets to be a true hero slash Avenger for real, finally. Of course, nothing good lasts forever and Peter know gets to deal with the new incarnation of the Daily Bugle, as well as any other shite that comes his way, (such as MCU’s version of the Scorpion), while Simba will eventually have to deal with Scar’s widow and children in TLK2 movie, (which hadn’t been re-worked with CGI yet). Go them, I say!

What next? Hard to say. No Marvel movies are coming in the next 10 months or so, and AoS is being all over the place; plus real life sucks, so it’s doubtful that we will be able to discuss AoS in the upcoming weeks, especially the end of July and the beginning of August, but what can’t be cured, must be endured, right?.. And Disney in general is in a similarly confused place, seeing how it is has driven itself in a difficult situation with those remakes of its old classics, rather than making genuinely new movies, as it has done in MCU and SW. At least Spider-Man has returned to his roots, faced his fears, and became a hero after trying to avoid it, just as Simba did in his movie. Hakuna matata!

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

S.H.I.E.L.D., Good Samaritan - Nov 2

Now then. Since the 4^th season of AoS has begun, the already low-level audience decreased by somewhere between 25 and 30 (maybe even 35) percent. Why?

One of the issues is the ‘recycling’ – and I am not just talking about how this version of Robbie Reyes seems to becoming a redeemed/redeemable version of Grant Ward, with Gabe playing the role of Thomas… and where is Thomas Ward nowadays? He is gone, as yet another sign of disrespect of the cast towards the characters. You do not see anything like that on ‘Killjoys, or ‘Blindspot’, or any of ‘Arrowverse’s’ DC TV shows, even though they are all different in regards to their format.

This disrespect is another problem of AoS – not just of the cast towards its’ characters, but towards other shows – especially ‘Agent Carter’, (AC): the Ghost Rider plotline has been heavily borrowed from AC S2, down to Isodyne and Roxxon, and – zero matter, (or whatever it is called), which infests people and turns them either into ghosts (Dr. Wilkes on AC, Lucy Bower and her posse on AoS), or into something else (Madame Masque on AC, Ely Morrow on AoS).

 Of course, there is also the issue of the occult – so far, everything in AoS S4 can still be explained by science, unlike the upcoming ‘Dr. Strange’ movie, where the point is clearly that everything CANNOT be explained by science, so – no tie-in? AoS did it in S1, but not since then. Why? Who knows?

Well, a PARTIAL reason is that there is a lot of tension behind the scenes that we do not know off – Luke’s departure has been taken with clear ill grace, and as for Hayley Atwell, (she played agent Carter in question)? So far, she is happy to star on a mystery drama show that has nothing to do with Marvel, but as I had written in the past, AC was beginning to be just as good a show as AoS was, so losing it probably hit MCU hard, so – more hard feelings?.. At the very least, there is idea scavenging, (rather than recycling) between AoS and the now-defunct AC, which just is not professional, not really.

Add to that the recycled idea of redemption, (and why they couldn’t do it with Grant, anyways?) and…a possible conflict between Chloe Bennet (Skye/Daisy) and some of the writers? The point is that Chloe was very firm that there wasn’t going to be any romance between her character and Robbie the Ghost Rider, (Gabrielle Luna), yet it doesn’t stop the writers to have the two characters continuously interact in a ‘slow-burn’ way, (and Gabe, Robbie’s brother, is right there in the midst of it). I don’t know how AoS will resolve this without either making Chloe into a liar, (which is bad), or just have any relationship between Robbie and Daisy just fizzle out, and-

It is not as bad as making Chloe into a liar would be, but it is still bad. Once Ely is dealt with, why should Robbie then stick around? Yes, a romantic relationship with Daisy is not, or will not be, the ONLY reason for him to do that, but it would certainly make things simpler – for the show. Otherwise…Robbie and Gabe will stay for the rest of the season (another 16 episodes, maybe?), say, and then they are gone?

…Well, the Reyes' brothers are recurring characters, not part of the main cast. But again, in this case, what next? There are rumors of a separate Ghost Rider TV series in the future, but where does the Ghost Rider’s eventual departure leave AoS? In the previous seasons, S.H.I.E.L.D. could always count on Hydra, (and especially Grant), to move things along; now they cannot. They got the Watchdogs, but the Watchdogs themselves come along as half-fleshed – perfect cannon fodder, but nothing else. (Yet). Hellfire/J.T. James? Does anyone know where the actor who plays him, (Whitehead), stands with AoS? Moreover, he is yet another variation of an ‘irredeemable’ character, someone like Grant or Kara, so this probably does not sit well with some audience members – after his re-appearance in S4, the show’s ratings have continued to drop…

Where does this leave AoS? In a potential conflict between cast and writers, in a dead end that heavily requires the Ghost Rider to remain and join the main team to get out, with few original ideas left, (apparently), oh, and a gape-worthy reference to SW – either Coulson IS like Han Solo, or isn’t.

Considering that Han Solo DIED in SW7, how exactly does this statement/comparison made by Jeffrey Mace, (the new director), becomes a good idea? Yes, the second half of S3 was full of the ‘guessing game’ of who will die from Hive, just as Han had died from his son, but this is S4 now, so the guessing game is over? On the other hand, will Robbie die while killing his uncle Ely? Does anyone have an idea?

That said, in a certain way SW is appropriate in regards to the AoS – just like S4 of AoS, SW7 relied way too heavily on the past movies to make itself work – the new, upcoming films are supposedly going to be more original than SW7 was. As for SW7, this reliance on the past did not undo it, as it did to the new Ghostbusters (the 2016 film as opposed to the 1984 one), but it still damaged the film somewhat, just as the same reliance is damaging the AoS.

Therefore, this perhaps is the reason why AoS is failing – because its’ originality is transforming into something else – or perhaps it is just failing. The fact that now AoS is taking a hiatus until the end of November does not help either – it certainly did not help LG. Until it returns…it will be missed…by an increasingly decreasing audience

S.H.I.E.L.D., Lockup - Oct 25

All right. As it was seen, S4 of AoS has hit its’ stride…by staying away, (well, trying to), from the previous seasons, especially 2 and 3. Yes, this is repetition, but, despite all of AoS’s successes, its’ ratings are still falling. Why?

A show can fail for various reasons. AFO (‘Animal Face-Off’) failed because it was repetitive: while seeing various CGI models of animals fight each other on TV is fun, AFO, sadly, made it repetitive, and so it ended after just 12 episodes (1 season).

‘Deadliest Warrior’ (DW) has failed for a different reason – it was subjective. For example, look at ‘Theodore Roosevelt vs. Lawrence of Arabia’ episode in S3. Among the weapons, the show put the American 1896 Krag Carbine against the British Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Rifle (or Lee-Enfield Mk III). The two ‘mid-range weapons’ were tied, but the truth is that the Lee-Enfield had actually won, percentage-wise, and what’s more, one of the reasons as to why the Krag vanished into the depths of history is because while it HAD been used in the U.S. invasion of Cuba, and other wars (including WWI, albeit to a limited extent), it was unwieldy and slow to load, which became a very important factor in WWI and beyond. Yet, DW did not mention any of this, and it did do its’ best to downplay the Lee-Enfield instead, numbers or no numbers.

(This was actually another problem of DW – either the experts, the show hosts, were correct when assigning the advantage to one weapon or another, and in that case, the numbers/percentages served no real purpose. Alternatively, the numbers/percentages were correct, and in this case, the experts were no experts, but some blokes who did not know a better rifle if it shot them in the ass. Given that Robert Daly, one of the show’s stars in 2011 claimed to be a former Green Beret, but in reality he was not…yeah, DW had many problems. Period.)

Then again, we also have ‘Ancients Behaving Badly’ and ‘The Secret Life Of-‘, which ended after a single season because, not unlike AFO, they had a limited amount of info/resources that they could use – but we’re talking about TV documentary shows, and how about fictive ones?

Aye, they are trickier than the documentary shows. ‘Lost Girl’, which suffered from a chronic revision of its’ backstory and mythology, ended after 5 seasons, possibly because it became unpopular enough. ‘Primeval’ and its spin-off, ‘Primeval: New World’ ended because the company that made them, Impossible Pictures, (IP), went bankrupt, and frankly was clearly suited to running short series, such as ‘Walking with…’ documentary series, or even documentary films. OUAT (‘Once Upon a Time’) continues to air, as do various DC TV series of the CW channel. ‘Legends of Tomorrow’, (LoT) for example, suffer from a weak plot in S2 (S1 was better – so far), yet they are not doing any worse than AoS does. Why is AoS in trouble?

Again, this is not unique. The aforementioned LoT is not doing so hot itself, now that ‘Timeless’, a sci-fi (time travel) series is being aired, (and it isn’t affiliated with Marvel or DC comics). It needs to step up on its’ game…and maybe it has.

So has AoS, for that matter. It, along with the rest of MCU, has gotten rid of Hydra, which has been causing problems ever since it appeared in CA: TWS and spread to AoS and ‘Agent Carter’, sort of. If you look at such sites as Tumblr, people are STILL arguing and fighting over Hydra, whether or not it is Nazi or just fascist, and the various opinions don’t get along, but…for the fact that none of them appreciate AoS, (and Marvel in general), getting involved with Hydra – for different reasons, again, but anti-AoS and anti-Marvel.

The same went for Grant Ward – people either loved him or hated him, and fought with each other, and generally were anti-AoS in regards to the show’s treatment of the man. Why AoS made the situation so bad – they could have turned him back into a hero, (as they probably planned at first post-S1), or killed him off back in S2, or just redeemed him, as they did with Cal at the end of S2. Instead, they kept him on as a villain, (and in the second half of S3, they replaced him with Hive, sort of), and this diminished their fanbase further.

This, of course, was a more generic problem – AoS didn’t appear to respect its’ characters, (still doesn’t – just look at J.T. James/Hellfire), and that put it at a disadvantage in regards to other shows, (‘Killjoys’, ‘Dark Matter’, ‘Quantico’, ‘Blindspot’, etc.). And to make matters worse, there was a mass exodus of actors at the end of S2, too.

There were other shows who suffered this sort of problem – ‘Primeval’, for example, and LG, at the last season, but AoS S2 finale turned it into a killfest, which was too much of a good thing at best, and just a killfest at worst. They were able to get over it by the second half of S3, when Luke Mitchell, (Lincoln Campbell), left the show, turning S3, (and especially its first episode), into some sort of a mockery of itself. Karma being what it is, so far Lincoln was mentioned twice and shown (on a photo) once, period. He may have been once an integral part of the show, but now – no.

This, kind of, brings us to ‘Lockup’ the episode. It was a solidly made and delivered episode. On one hand, Daisy has to handle her own demons, on the other – so does Robbie, on the third – Simmons has to help the new director to deal with the senator who is connected to the Watchdogs on one hand, and is friendly with the new director proper on the other. It is a solid piece of planning, there are no particular plotholes, though there are faint echoes of the second half of S2, especially before the bloodbath/exodus of actors at its’ finale. But-?

There is no ‘but’, in fact. The show has begun to deliver, but it just may be too late. It has developed a reputation during the runs of S2 and S3, and it will not fix it anytime soon, especially since it is also trying to incorporate some of the previous seasons’ elements, such as the Watchdogs. We don’t know much about them, save that they are like the Guardians of Humanity or Quarrymen, or some other fictional rip-off of the KKK…which is probably how AoS (and the rest of MCU?) likes it. Hydra came with too much baggage, especially from real life, so now the show is trying to go the other way and it succeeds. Only the viewers don’t care about this sort of thing anymore, in fact, they are probably busy watching other shows, period, so it’s a case of ‘too little too late’ on top of everything else.

Anything else? No, not really. AoS is caught between going with its’ old plan, which includes Daisy, and the other InHumans, and the Watchdogs, and the new plan with the Ghost Rider, and his uncle, and the ghosts and the evil book that ISN’T the Necronomicon, really. (Though I am sure that Lovecraft would have disagreed). It is doing a decent job of balancing the two plans, so for now it is going forwards in a good way.

Hopefully, it will continue to do so in the future too. 

Killjoys, S2 - September 3

...’Killjoys’, S2, has come to an end. Now what?

Well, AoS is coming back soon; ‘Blindspot’ and other earlier 2016 shows are coming back; now shows are coming forth – but ‘Killjoys’ did earn a special mention for several reasons…

First, the show – accidentally, no doubt, showed that evil does not have to be grand and complex, as AoS, and AC, and the rest of the MCU franchise have shown. The ‘Company’, which was something of a big bad in the first two seasons, (but especially in S2) is faceless and doesn’t have any humane characteristics: Jelco is a jerk, but he is also a petty jerk, who enjoys kicking on the weak, but doesn’t appear to be ready and willing to stand up to the strong. The rest of the Company probably is not any better. Yes, they want to contaminate others with the plasma so that they would become immortal workers for the Company and possibly for the Nine royal families, (how the two power groups interact is not certain), but there is no grandeur, no glory, just the rich who want to get richer via the poor. Meet the pre-WWI, maybe even the pre-WWII capitalism (read ‘Native Son’, would you?).

The Nine royal families? They are largely represented by Delle Seyah Kendry (the ‘Seyah’ is apparently something of a title in the Killjoys universe) who kills Pawter after the latter resigns; Pawter’s death was unnecessary, on one hand, and on the other Pawter died for the sake of people of old Westerly (maybe ‘Killjoys’ are trying to channel Whedon’s ‘Firefly’, who knows?) not because of some political crap. For Delle, politics are everything, therefore, when John probably killed her in S2 finale, she got what she deserved – in an empty, dirty alley without anyone. But…

One of the flaws of ‘Killjoys’ (it is an enjoyable show, just not without flaws) is its’ lack of back history, so to speak. Often, it seems to unroll with one episode or another, and this ‘unveiling’ is not consistent. Consequently, the odds are that that is the reason why the evil in the show was so petty and all that that ‘pettiness’ entails – the crew of ‘Killjoys’ probably just cannot afford to go in-depth – at least not yet. With just 10 episodes a season and a very small cast (3 main characters, 5 or 6 recurring ones, and now two of them, Pawter and Khlyen, are dead for good) they really cannot go all-out, not how AoS does (at least once every season so far).

As I may have written before, this seems to be a problem with Michelle Lovretta, as ‘Lost Girl’ had its own issues with backstory – it constantly shifted from Celtic, to Norse, to Greek. Now, ‘Killjoys’ appear to avoid this by avoiding the backstory save for the absolute minimum – the Killjoys need a universe to in, a coherent universe to exist in, and the show did its best to deliver, trying to utilize variety to compensate the lack of an extensive backstory. It did not really work in S1, so in S2 there is more backstory, (especially concerning Khlyen, his own biological daughter and the plasma) and less variety. As the result, the S2 of ‘Killjoys’ is more interesting and intriguing to watch; perhaps the upcoming S3 will be even better?

And then there was the cameo of Rick Howland, who used to play Mr. Trick the Blood King on ‘Lost Girl’. True, ‘Lost Girl’ stars tend to appear on other shows – Ksenia Solo has appeared on ‘Orphan Black’; Zoe Palmer – on ‘Dark Matter’. They made it work there, so perhaps Rick will re-appear on ‘Killjoys’ in the future?..

So: Killjoys are continuing to pull their shit together. Now we will have to wait and see if Aos, ‘Blindspot’, and the other shows will continue to deliver as well. Later days, everyone!

AFO: Anaconda vs. jaguar - August 20

Let us temporarily get back to AFO. For a change, we will talk about the ‘Anaconda vs. jaguar’ episode.

Firstly, spoilers: the anaconda won. Second: what about it?

Now, there was some outrage about the reptile winning, in part because in real life it is usually the other way around, jaguars kill and eat anacondas instead, and-

Okay, again – the show was called ‘Animal Face-Off’, where the better fighter won, rather than the best killer. Fine. Let us assume that that was the anaconda, rather than the jaguar, and move on. What was next?

Nothing, actually. Yes, the jaguar’s defeat was discussed, yes, the anaconda’s victory was condemned, but that was it. People tend to get quite passionate over the fights of tigers and lions, for example, but over fights of jaguars and anacondas? Not so much. AFO intended to entertain, not just to educate, but in the end, it failed to do so. JFC, (to say nothing of ‘Monster Bug Wars’), had its’ own flaws, but it also had some variety, making it into a relatively exciting TV series to follow and to watch.

AFO, on the other hand, was also an exciting TV show to watch, but it followed a single scenario – a one-on-one face-off between two various animals. This sort of thing can work, (especially if CGI is good enough, and in the recent past, when AFO was aired, people were not as fussy when it came to computer graphics on screen), and it did work – for 12 episodes of AFO, after which the show ended.

…The same thing can be said of JFC – it also lasted for 12 episodes/1 season despite its’ greater variety and the more exciting subject – dinosaurs! JFC, however, lacked the professionalism of AFO, and it was not as educational as the older show, as I probably have mentioned before. Since the History Channel were JFC was aired tends not to show such entertainment in the first place, and because Mr. Blasing, who got the JFC to run, had his own issues, (but not all of the right credentials), JFC was cancelled, and by now – buried.

AFO didn’t appear to have a credential problem, but by the time that the ‘Anaconda vs. Jaguar’ episode was aired, it probably had trouble holding/recapturing the attention of its’ fans. This particular episode was different from, say, the ‘Lion vs. Crocodile’ episode, but only in details, so while some viewers were angry that the anaconda won (and/or the jaguar lost) the others were just uninterested (rather than unimpressed) and bored!

This is not restricted to documentary TV programs; just look at such pieces of fiction as AoS or ‘Killjoys’! However, I have talked about AoS a lot, including its’ latest attempts to be ‘mysterious’ while being ‘cute’ about it, (ever since the last episodes of S3), whereas ‘Killjoys’…

‘Killjoys’ aren’t bad, though compared to Michelle Lovretta’s previous TV show – ‘Lost Girl’ – they are much more tame and straightforward. On the plus side, they seem to have fewer problems with their backstory…probably because it is straightforward, again – the Killjoys are trying to stop the Company (yes, it is really called thus) from domineering Westerly with an all-around wall, (complete with a roof), while trying to figure out where Dutch’s ex-mentor Kline is planning to do regarding alien centipedes and their plasma that makes humans almost immortal. Overall, it may be a somewhat simple plot, (the Company of no name is bordering on a bad joke), but with just 10 episodes per season there is no time to be complex, and there is plenty of character development too, alongside plot development.

‘Lost Girl’ was a more complex, more tangled, and (currently) more rounded TV show out of the two, but it suffered from a major background instability. AoS had to change itself when it decided to integrate Hunter and Morse – and then it (possibly) went off tangent, and outright failed – to launch ‘Marvel’s Most Wanted’ TV series, to keep Mitchell as part of the cast, with that stupid shoehorn S3 premiere episode – the list goes on, but most importantly? AoS sort jammed S2 and S3 together and there were unnecessary character deaths’ all around, especially at the end of S2.

And ‘Lost Girl’? It did something similar – it constantly changed its’ back-story around, from Celtic to Norse to Greek without going anywhere in particular, especially after S1. The Garuda in S2 was a decent villain, but after this? It all went downhill; the quasi-Greek gods in S5 just do not deserve a mention and the fact that Bo’s father was Hades, (not that Aoife was anything like Persephone) is just sad.

In the long run, ‘Lost Girl’ didn’t know where it was going, and how it was going to get there, and the fact that it lumped any folklore character as a ‘Fae’ – it all contributed to the show going downhill and ending with a whimper, however it would rather pretend to be a bang. Michelle Lovretta just wasn’t very discreet or discerning when it came to her sources, and it case of ‘Killjoys’ the sources are largely MCU – the aforementioned AoS, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ as well…

Back to AoS? There are rumors of an Avenger coming to AoS – AoS is taking its’ cues from the rest of Marvel Cinematic Universe; MCU is dipping into the occult via ‘Dr. Strange’ movie? AoS is doing the same with the Ghost Rider; only there were Ghost Rider films in the past, (but not part of MCU, apparently), so now it’s a different Ghost Rider than the traditional Johnny Blaze…

That said, the variety that I have been talking about? AoS is trying to develop it, somewhat, now that Hydra is gone…supposedly, but right now it is gone…and AoS in particular has no major villain to fight against. (This lack of a major villain caused problems for ‘Lost Girl’ too, BTW, and as for ‘Primeval’…) There are rumors of Cal/Mr. Hyde/Daisy’s father returning to the show in S4, but we will have to wait to see if that is true, and besides, in S2, Cal was more of a morally ambiguous, even sympathetic character than an evil one…

Moreover, AFO? AoS is trying to have some variety – it has to, now that Hydra is gone (supposedly, but for the moment? It is gone). AFO did not, as it was written before. Hence, why it is gone, while in the long run, it had been a good show. The special ‘sperm whale vs. giant squid’ episode came too late and could not fix anything.

LG: God opens a Window - Dec 28

And so, lo and behold, another episode of LG has occurred. One could expect it to be called excellent, but sadly, this is not so.

Let us start with the main plot line. A young Fae comes to town, pursued by a Hunter, and turns out to be not just a shifter, (LG stand-in for the more mundane werewolves), but also Dyson’s son that he did not know that he had. Fair enough; Dyson offers to take Mark in, but he refuses, so Dyson instead kills the Hunter who had been stalking Mark and killing anyone that came close to him. What is wrong this picture?

Everything. Firstly, it clashes with the LG canon that had been established in the previous seasons; in this case it is S2, when it was shown that Dyson had problems of committing to Bo because of his earlier love to Ciara, a Fae woman that conveniently appeared in modern Toronto during the same season, and got killed by the Garuda at the end of it. Dyson’s unrequited love for Ciara and a more casual relationship with Mark’s mother just are not very compatible. 

True, there had been other shows that had problems with continuity; Primeval of IP was notorious for it, Sinbad – or rather the version made also by IP – had such problems too; but even Primeval messed mostly with its’ characters, not the plotline and continuity itself. LG does, or rather – it had started too back in S4, and since then it developed problems that were not there initially...

Back to LG. This particular episode had Dyson act OOC as well, when he killed the Hunter. True, he did it to protect his son, but it is still jarring, especially since he had Vex to help him as well. 

Vex deserves a mention of his own, since this is the episode when both he and the Morrighan have returned to LG. Vex, in particular, had returned from England, and no one’s really happy to see him, due to his involvement with the late Massimo the druid. Vex, of course, is unrepentant, and will not back down even before Dyson, even though the latter is the stronger Fae out of the two. That, and the fact that Vex just cannot shut up, almost resulted in the Mesmer getting shot, but almost doesn’t count, so now it seems that Dyson have gotten himself a new sidekick instead...and it is a dark Fae. (Vex was always dark, do not forget it.)  This, in conjunction with Dyson almost killing Vex as well as actually killing his son’s stalker, makes Dyson a ripe candidate for joining the dark side ala Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader style.

As for Mark himself...he just does not appear to fit in very well with the rest of the crew. There is no one in his age bracket, for a start. If Kenzi was still around, it would be different, but now there is just Tamsin, and Tamsin still does not fit in Kenzi’s role, or mold, very well – a minor plotline of this episode is that the two of them argue about various aspects of their professional relationship all the time. 

Bo, of course, sleeps with Mark, because he subconsciously reminds her of Dyson, among other reasons. This, of course, creates a nice awkward scene at the end of the episode, when Dyson praises Bo for being a good big sister to Mark...yeah, when Bo was a big sister to anyone? Well, maybe Kenzi, but Mark is not Kenzi, though he may be filling her role, if Tamsin will not cut it...

Finally, there is Lauren, and her frenemy relationship with Evony the Morrighan. Firstly, her attempts at a British accent are truly cringeworthy, whether on purpose or not... Secondly, why exactly would she want to cure Evony? She turned her into a human in the first place in order to get revenge on all Fae in general so why the sudden change of heart? 

Then, thirdly, we learn that Evony has married...either a human or a Fae, but also a man, rather than a woman, who does not really know about Evony’s Fae past either. And finally, because Lauren appears to be at least unmotivated to create any sort of a cure for Evony’s humanity, Evony left some sort of a thingamajig with some sort of a monster inside in Lauren’s lab as a motivator. Considering that S4 showed that Lauren can resourceful and ruthless herself, a mere monster, small enough to fit into a large box, probably won’t be much of a challenge...unless LG S5 will disregard all of her character developments from S4 as well – we’ll just have to wait and see.

So: Dyson has found and lost his son, (who may or may not stick around), Vex is back, Evony is back and is at loggerheads with Lauren once more, Bo and Tamsin are still working things out, and, oh yes, Trick is still the acting Ash, while Amanda Walsh’s character appears to be killing people with lightning now, the same lightning that manifested when Dyson put three different parts of a tattoo into one, a fancy-looking triangle of a sort. What will of this amount to? We will find out next week, most likely!

S.H.I.E.L.D., March 11 - Yes Men

A minor LG-related trivia note: before Rainer was the name to one of the guest characters of S4, it was the name of a one-episode villain back in S2 – a sign that between 3^rd and 4^th seasons LG underwent some change in management, not just in mythology – but couldn’t they have checked the names? Joe-Bob obviously wasn’t going to cut it, but being caught like this with Rainer? Embarrassing! 

Now, back to S.H.I.E.L.D. The brave and courageous S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have encountered lady Sif (pronounced lady Shif half the time during the episode). And they also met Lorelei – Sif”s archnemesis, ones supposes: the episode does not divulge, but there is history between the two Asgardian ladies, and it was a painful one, emotionally, if not physically: as far as sword prowess goes, Lorelei was no match for Sif. 

Norse speaking aliens’ aside, the team has undergone some new developments. For a start, Simmons has actually spoken up to Coulson, reminding him, perhaps, that she had a greater duty beyond even loyalty to him as the team leader. Also, the Fitz & Simmons duo had split up during this episode – this is important, because in earlier episodes, such as “Seeds”, the duo was almost like peas in a pod. In “Yes Men”, however, they were not – a minor detail, but an important one.

The duo of May & Ward, on the other hand, has mostly stopped existing: May, apparently, cannot forgive Ward for being unable to break from Lorelei’s spell, even though Sif warned her about it. Yet perhaps May just used Lorelei as an excuse to push Ward away: after all, she is spying on Coulson and/or Skye and/or other members of the team for the sake of Fury or some other party. Considering that “Agents” (as a show) are based on mutual trust and cooperation May’s actions imply that she may have fallen into the dark side – cue the March of the Empire...

On the other hand, Coulson and Skye have fallen into something, encountered something different as well – they may not be thinking of striking against S.H.I.E.L.D. yet, but they clearly are not going to be following the party line precisely. Between then, May doing that double-agent action, and Simmons involving Coulson in the discussion of greater good vs. more regular good, the titular team just may be spiting up along several lines.

Ward...this was not his best episode: he fell under Lorelei’s thrall and beat up May, for whom he has actual feelings – at least for now. When May’s own flaws will be revealed, it may be harder to figure out just where Ward’s feelings for May lie. In truth, of course, Whedon may have planned something like this from the start: the relationship between Ward and May was mainly physical without any in-depth bonding; May may have it with Coulson instead, but as this episode showed, that has its’ own problems. And yes, no relationship can survive based on physical attraction alone. And yes, May is proud of her skills and does not take kindly to being beaten (both literally and physically), and pride is a sin (one of the seven originals), which makes her a flawed character (and a good guy), but still, this is not probably the time to go into in-depth characters study either. 

Oh, and Fitz? Sadly, he was mostly the comic relief for this episode. So was Simmons, but she, at least, had that confrontation with Coulson by the end of the episode that was more serious than funny. Skye too was mostly in the background for this episode – but then again, she had not quite recovered from the events in “T.R.A.C.K.S.”, so that is reasonable.

In short, May has all but broken up with Ward and revealed her inner darkness, Coulson and Skye are about to go on a crusade for light and justice, Simmons may got onto her own crusade and recruit Fitz for the ride (they are a duo, after all) and Ward was charmed and enchanted by Lorelei. Oh, and we had a tie-in with the Thor movie series too. Cool.

Lost Girl, Feb 16 - Dark Horse

And so, the last episode of S4 of LG had arrived, and it was good! Was it great, however? Sadly no, and here are the reasons why.

For one thing, the series’ characters did not appear to come and go into nowhere as they did in the previous episode. Mind you, “Origin” and “Dark Horse” were shaped to be a two-parter, even though the series did not acknowledge this for some reason. “Dark Horse” continues directly from where “Origins” ended, including the mention of Rosette. Frankly, it is not surprising that Bo was not surprised – after her misadventures with the crows, more of late Rainer’s treacherous minions, she was subconsciously expected Rosette not to be any different from them.

Why Rainer’s late? Because the druid killed him. LG tried to make him sound like Tolkien’s Gollum at one point, but he came across more like BtVS Warren Mears from S6, including invulnerability and insanity. And yes, it worked, even if he and Lauren just flickered from location to location, and why did he take Lauren? One may think because the Morrighan, his mother, commanded him to, but the latter not only helped Bo and Lauren to stop (and kill) him, but she also spent a good amount of time at Trick’s getting drunk. Yes, that was a break in the tension, but also a break in the plot, and it gave no good excuse as to why the druid just took Lauren almost everywhere – yes, he was lonely, but not in that manner, sadly.

On the other hand, Bo did kill him at the end, distracting and tricking him long enough for Lauren to steal the twig of Zamora and destroy it, making the druid vulnerable and mortal. Comment: Hale is not the last of Zamora, back in S2 he had a father and a sister...who had not been seen since. Interhouse warfare, maybe? 

This is beside the point, however: Hale is dead, the druid is dead, Vex has apparently fled to London (but all of S4 is famous by not having all of the LG characters in its’ episodes) and Kenzi has self-sacrificed herself to save the world. One can guess that Ksenia Solo (Kenzi), just as K.C. Collins (Hale) and maybe Paul Amos (Vex) had had enough of LG and decided to leave. Fair enough; IP’s Primeval, for example, was notorious for the cast changes; and the already-mentioned BtVS changed its cast a lot since S3, actually.

In any case, Vex went to London, Hale went stabbed from behind, and Kenzi went through self-sacrifice, dying to prevent Bo’s father, the titular Dark Horse, from coming into the world. It was wonderfully done, but Kenzi/Ksenia’s parting smile was supposed to be kindly, understanding and forgiving – instead it was slightly serpentine and creepy. Ah well, that happens; Kenzi still died, and Tamsin took her to Valhalla.

And yes, Valhalla (and Hel) was discussed previously, but firstly, “Dark Horse” once more showed it a) with vaguely Christian connotations (a Norse Valkyrie is not a Christian angel) and b) with one of its entrances in a Toronto seedy alley. That is just weird.

Also Dyson carried Tamsin away from the gates of Valhalla (they took Kenzi’s corpse in, but did not accept Tamsin herself?) bridal-style. Since one of LG’s trademarks is the tangled love interests between the main characters, we are seeing the beginnings of a new love triangle, especially since Lauren may be dropping out of the old one and taking care of the Morrighan/Evonie for now.

Sigh. The last love interest of Lauren’s that was not Bo was the waitress (Crystal) at the beginning of S4 – and she probably ended up made into sushi or burgers by the Dark Fae. The Morrighan is doomed. 

Finally, Mr. Trick. It was very noble of him to come to aid of Team Bo at the end of this episode, but he also was the new Ash, or the substitute Ash, or something. He could have at least tried to get some of the Light Fae to help save the world, but instead he spent his time with the Morrighan and Vex with mixed results. Does he even take his new job seriously, or has he quit with the death of the Una Mens? If so, then the Fae world may start to experience anarchy, and Bo is subconsciously already ready to step in.

To elaborate: S4 has changed the Fae society by adding the Una Mens, who apparently were beyond the Fae council as shown by lord Blackthorn back in S2. Bo, with Rainer’s help, killed the Una Mens, and was later acknowledged as Queen by Dyson, Tamsin, possibly Lauren – she is the granddaughter of a King, so the title is hers by blood too. And with Una Mens gone, a Queen just might be the right person/entity to take charge of everyone, especially since the scriptwriters, including Michelle Lovretta, has largely forgotten about the council from S2 by now, so what happens next is anyone’s guess.

So: Kenzi and Hale are gone, Vex may also be gone, after being mostly a semi-convenient plot device from time to time, Lauren may’ve found herself a new girlfriend, Bo, Dyson and Tamsin may be forming a new triangle, and Trick has told Bo the circumstances of her conception. That, incidentally, raises the question of when did this happen and how – if Bo’s father is trapped in another direction, how he was able to conceive Bo? And if he is not trapped, then the whole season 4 just does not make sense – and this is why “Dark Horse”, just like “Origins”, is a good episode, but not a great one.