The Chair - August 23

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about… ‘The Chair’ for a change; the change here is that it is not a Marvel show, and so I doubt that it will take us long to talk about it either.

Is ‘The Chair’ any good? Frankly, to me, it was reminiscent of the ‘Over the Moon’ movie, and not just because Ms. Sandra Oh was featured in both productions: in ‘The Chair’, she is the main character, and in ‘Over the Moon’, she is the stepmother (to be) of the main character instead. No, the similarity here is that both works are well-done, solid, fun to watch, and – instantly forgettable.

No, this isn’t Ms. Oh’s fault; in ‘Over the Moon’, her role is episodic, more or less, while in ‘The Chair’… in ‘The Chair’ her character is depicted, (by her), not unlike her character in ‘Killing Eve’ – a harried Asian or Asian-American woman; I cannot help but feel that that is Ms. Oh’s default character setting, or at least – her best one; when she deviates from it – say, in ‘The Chair’, it just isn’t the same.

…To elaborate, ‘The Chair’ is not bad, it just cannot decide if it wants to be a comedy, a drama, or something else entirely. Yes, it tackles serious issues…that it undercuts with various comedic moments – from example, Ms. Oh’s character falling off her chair, (visual pun intended, no doubt). Ha-ha, hilarious, and it rather undercuts the show’s main message of racial, sexual, and age equality.

It is also reminiscent of the upcoming ‘Cinderella’ movie, the Camilla Cabello movie, one where Cinderella’s dream is not to marry the prince, but to open her own dress shop, for a start. Personally, I think that it has the potential to be a truly good movie, but the humor – seen already in the trailer, for example – is clearly extra here; for example, a mouse turned human claims that he cannot keep his balance without his tail, ha-ha. How funny and completely unconnected to the movie’s main message…but where were we?

…Pretty much where ‘The Chair’ has went: it could have been a serious drama dealing with some serious issues… or it could have been a comedy show, maybe even a rom-com… or it could have been something like ‘Bob Hearts Abishola’, which is a rather touching romantic interracial ‘comedy’ show…notably naïve, but it works… but ‘The Chair’ is none of that; rather, it is a well-delivered mess that is well-loved by the critics. Well, the critics have also loved ‘The Suicide Squad’-2021, and we can see for ourselves that that isn’t enough for the audiences to love it; the same, and more, can be said for the ‘Over the Moon’ Netflix film, which was also panned – a lot – by the critics and the like – and which has also disappeared without a trace into Lethe, the river of Oblivion. ‘The Chair’, it seems, is destined for the same fate; the fact that Netflix tends not to release various clips of its’ shows, movies, and the like doesn’t help either – the promoters often don’t have a lot of material to work with, and people these days are still rather frugal with their monies and may not invest it, as well as their time, into a relative unknown such as ‘The Chair’. That is that.

…And that is also the end of our discussion for ‘The Chair’…at least for its’ 1^st season. This is it for now; see you all soon!

S.H.I.E.L.D., 'The Return' - May 9

…And so, agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. have returned to RL by AoS’ standards. What did they find there?

Robotic clones of Anton Ivanov, the supposed Superior, but so far everyone calls him ‘the Russian’ instead – apparently even by AoS’ own standards, calling him ‘the Superior’ is simply too ridiculous. Plus, while it is tempting to see his enormous, if not limitless, supply of clones as a homage to SW and its’ clone troopers, in reality AoS already did something like this in S3 already, with the character of Alisha, an InHuman woman with precisely this power – multiple bodies. AoS is back to recycling ideas; Anton is Alisha, while Aida (Mk III?) is Hive, with Fitz taking over from Simmons. Aida is Hive as he should have been – the epitome of the InHumans and their powers, and not just some monster with regenerative powers that ate people…oh wait. At S2 finale, Jiaying was revealing to be some sort of a fraudulent monster that remained forever young by consuming other people, and not just ordinary humans, but also other InHumans. The S2 finale put AoS ‘out of whack’, and it may be that only now they have caught-up with their intended schedule… We will just have to wait and see as to what will happen next.

…Well, yes, we already know some things – namely that Robbie Reyes the Ghost Rider, (or a Ghost Rider, look at MCU wiki for clarifications), is coming back for the S4 finale. We also know that Mack is still in the framework and Yo-Yo went in to save him. Only, the last we see of Yo-Yo in ‘The Return’/ the first we see of her in the framework, is that she was stuck in a framework Hydra’s torture chair with the building burning down around her. This raises the possibility that we will see another ‘Slingshot’ (i.e., Yo-Yo) AoS TV episode or webisode in the future, centered around her and Mack, (obviously). Maybe Tripp and Ward will be around for the ride, too.

However, while Yo-Yo certainly deserves more time to herself and Mack (and Hope), and having Tripp and Ward stick around some more in AoS is also fun, this plot move takes her and Mack out of circulation in any AoS episodes that take place in RL, allowing AoS to jiggle between them and the rest of the team, and Robbie. Yeah, I still think that there is some idea of the Ghost Rider pairing up with Quake in the works – it was probably being worked in the original story arc of S4, when Robbie, and his brother, were introduced properly to MCU and AoS and S.H.I.E.L.D. (in the story). But again, AoS has plot issues that are being resolved only now, (hopefully), and after the misadventure with Mitchell, people are probably reluctant to pair Chloe (Daisy) with anyone, and there is the matter of budget – will AoS be able to handle Luna (Robbie) on top of NCB (Yo-Yo) and everyone else? We will probably learn as to what will happen after the S4 finale, in some special news article/podcast of MCU.

In other news, FOX and Marvel will be releasing yet another Marvel-based show, ‘The Gifted’, about an ordinary family whose children are revealed to be mutants, and who now will have to deal with that and avoid any trouble from the authorities and etc. Sadly, there even is not a proper trailer, so we do not know if the story takes place in the ‘Legion’-verse, (which is also ran by FOX and Marvel, rather than ABC, as AoS is), or what. We will just have to wait and see as to how this situation will play out.

So, this is it for ‘The Return’ – it is a solid, straightforward and suitable episode of AoS. Will it be enough to bring new fans over to AoS even as the show counts down to the S4 finale? We will see.