Face the Beast - Sep 7

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Just ask the dead opossum I came across the other day – it clearly wasn’t dead via road kill, but died after tangling with some bigger animal, and it was a fairly large opossum – about the size of an average house cat or bigger. I do not know just what would have attacked such an animal – probably a red fox or even a coyote, but regardless, the opossum is dead. The world won’t be quite the same after its’ passing. Now, onto the TV land.

Well, speaking of animals, I watched ‘Face the Beast’ miniseries today, and I must admit, it was good. It involved a couple of scientists/investigators… well, investigating various infamous animal attacks in human history: First, the saltwater crocodile attack on the Ramree islands, and then the sharks on the Hispaniola shipwreck. And you know what? It was good.

It has been a while since we’ve talked about AFO and its’ episodes, which had featured CGI versions as well as robot replicas of crocodiles and sharks, (as well as various other animals), and for a certain reason, ‘Face the Beast’ brought it back: sure, there was plenty of excitement and entertainment, but there was data collecting and at least some educational factors as well. Unlike whatever is going down on Animal Planet these days, the History channel in Canada tries to be educational too; whether it really succeeds is another story entirely, but it tries. In the first part, the FTB team actually ended up capturing a saltwater crocodile to rescue a village on the Ramree island, (it’s located in the Indian ocean, if anyone cares); in the second, they did a series of experiments, and proved that, you know, sharks are smarter than how they are credited to be, plus they can communicate with each other via their bioelectricity, I say. Go team FTB! …Pity that it is only a two-parter, but it works.

What it works about? In both parts, the FTB crew proved, that under a right combination, normally shy animals – yes, crocodiles and sharks are shy, especially if they have plenty of space to maneuver around humans – can become man-eaters and as such deadly dangerous, pun intended. Yes, it is not quite clear if FTB research will help avoid such scenarios in the future, but it is not the show’s concern, so there. The show’s primary role is to entertain us, its’ audience, and it quite succeeds here. Anything else?

BA has defeated SW in tennis. It is real life, not TV, so go team Canada! Not every Canadian’s life sucks, as it did for the opossum that I have come across, (remember that guy?). Life sucks, but you can feel proud for your country, this is what I am saying here.

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

Captain Marvel I - Sep 18

So, to sum it up. The lousy week is over. In the future, there are many weeks like that one – my life sucks, as I am repeatedly reminded by it, but conversely, lives of many other people suck even worse; those caught in the path of the now-gone hurricane Florence, for example, or those who work for SeWi in the world of tennis – they aren’t enjoying themselves either, so everything, (and everyone?), is relative…

Onto more pleasant things? I can now give life the finger – for the moment, life is good, so there is that. There’s also the new ‘Captain Marvel’ video trailer, and-

And it is something else – purposefully so, but still. It appears to be focused on the life and times of the titular character, who – before she became a superhero – was an Air Force pilot; it was apparently her dream, metaphorically speaking. Or is it allegorically? Regardless, the trailer shows that she was a resilient, tough, determined girl and became an even more resilient, tough, determined woman by the time that the events of the movie will appear. Good for her, though the choppy delivery of that statement could have used some work.

In other news, there are brief glances of younger Fury and Coulson, of Kree and Skrull aliens appearing on screen. Sadly, they are there only for appearances – in this trailer – and do not really contribute to it at all. I hope that this state of things will change in the future, however. Anything else?

‘Venom’ the movie is coming on October 5, this year, so there is that. ‘Iron Fist’ S2 has come and gone, (metaphorically speaking), so bully for it. Carol Danvers rocked her trailer in any of her superhero suits, so it will be interesting to see her properly in her film. It will be good to see Nick and Phil too, though. A: IW film showed Fury and Hill to be those among the dusted, while AoS’ S5 had Phil finally retire, with May, due to a number of factors, especially – his failing health. It is possible that he and May will be back in AoS’ S6 (or any future seasons, that is still possible), but for Gregg who plays him, and for MCU, ‘Captain Marvel’ movie has priority…

…This would be a good time and place to discuss the ‘Me Too’ developments back in the real world, but the mood is not right. Yes, there is already officially admitted backlash to the movement, but talking about it feels rather like kicking an ailing horse now, so maybe we will talk about it – or something else – at another time instead.

…So, this is it for this time; see you all soon!

Iron Fist S2 - Sep 11

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. My upcoming week promises to be rather bad, so I actually cannot wait for next week’s Monday, because it will give me a reprieve. Go me. My life sucks. I hate it.

…Of course, on the other hand, there is the first-rate tennis player SeWi, who has it worse. To recap, she lost her match against her fellow tennis player N. Osaka, and apparently turned upon the game’s umpire when things did not go her way – and lost her temper. As a result, she is now fined almost 20 grand, (as I have heard), the tennis officials are backing the umpire, (so she now might need to apologize – or not), and there already are some rather crude and unpleasant caricatures of her, too, damaging her reputation further. Yeah, and she cannot blame her bad decision of D.C. and the president Donald either. Poor her. Really.

Mind you, as much as I believe that SeWi is in the wrong here, it must be admitted that the caricatures, (there were at least two different ones), were completely unnecessary, and probably made the already bad business worse. SeWi and her people are probably doing their best at damage control, and the caricatures are making their job harder. One may hate SeWi, (though why? She is not a politician, at least), but still, to go at her deliberately is not a good thing. Hate leads to the dark side, the Jedi said, and they should know: the SW/Disney merger was apparently completely in the dark, it remained in the dark regarding the SW fanbase, and now the merger became successful at alienating that fanbase: some of its’ members honestly do hate it, and will probably abandon it, a new cartoon series or not.

This brings us to another merger – that of Netflix/Marvel. More precisely, ‘Iron Fist’ S2 was aired. How did it go?

It worked. The Netflix/Marvel combo took criticisms of ‘Iron Fist’ S1 and did their best to fix them. So far, it seems that their strategy is to take an ever-increasing amount of ‘Iron Fist’ comic elements and introduce them to ‘Iron Fist’ in particular (and maybe to ‘The Defenders’ in general). Yay?

Very much so. This is, after all, what all of the Marvel shows are about – to give their audiences the Marvel experience that the various comics (and novels) cannot. Otherwise, what is the point? There are plenty of non-Marvel TV shows, (some are not even in related to DC or other comic universes either), so to counter them a Marvel show, (TV, online, etc.,) has to use, well, Marvel elements. Moreover, it worked. Go them.

Anything else? Not really. ‘Iron Fist’ S2 shows that the Netflix/Marvel shows are diversifying and are going beyond the NYC city limits, at least partially. ‘Iron Fist’, the comic and the online series, for better or for worse, is caught between USA and Asia, and it needs to balance between these two landmasses to succeed.

…One may ask, if ‘Luke Cage’ is not similarly caught between USA and Africa. It is not – ‘Luke Cage’ is solidly Afro-American, with the emphasis on American, and while he – and Misty Knight, and a few others – can always come to Africa, especially to Wakanda, on request of their good friend king T’Challa aka the Black Panther, their homeland is still USA. (Seriously, this is what happened in one ‘Black Panther’ comic series: at one point in time a group of super-villains, including – a version of the Fenris twins, tried to take over Wakanda by fermenting internal political unrest, so the Black Panther realized: this is bigger than me and my family, and so he got his posse, which included Ororo/Storm, Misty Knight, and – Luke Cage, aside from other characters, and defeated the villains…eventually).

…Yes indeed ‘The Gifted’ S2 is returning to TV on Tuesday, September 25^th. I must admit - this is good news, and the current trailer is already exciting; the lines are drawn: the Mutant Underground vs. the Hellfire Club and Lorna is, potentially, the wild card. Magneto was never a member of the Hellfire Club, the Cuckoos have lied to get Lorna in, and if she ever finds out, the results will be explosive: Magneto was powerful, but never subtle, and Lorna seems to have inherited that. She will not be happy to have been lied to, that is for sure.

On the other hand, ‘The Gifted’ S2 trailers seem to imply that the Hellfire Club will undergo some sort of an W&H (from AtS) moment, which involves an internal coup. If done right, it will be a game changer, but to do that, ‘the old guard’ who will be killed off should be established first, otherwise the coup’s impact will be diminished.

…Yes, this all takes place in different Marvel universes: ‘The Gifted’ takes place in a separate universe – Earth-TRN674, while ‘Iron Fist’ – on Earth-199999. I have no life, (but this week, and especially the weekend still suck). Of course, it would make a cool crossover, but we will have to wait for someone to write it, so for now, we have to watch ‘Iron Fist’, and wait for ‘The Gifted’ S2, and also – for ‘Daredevil’ S3, which is also in the works. Unlike ‘Iron Fist’, ‘Daredevil’ so far takes places only in NYC, so for now, ‘The Defenders’ focus will be shifting back to NYC, leaving the rest of the world for the Avengers or whoever.

Yes, it does not appear that Thanos’ cosmic snap has affected the Netflix corner of MCU, (and as it was hinted at ‘C&D’ S1 finale, ‘Rands’ & ‘Starks’ share the universe – and Roxxon, and ‘C&D’ are also a part of that universe. However, some kinks are still needed to be worked out – so good luck with that.

This is it for now, see you all soon.