DW: SS vs. Viet Cong - March 27

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so I felt nostalgic and pulled out the good old ‘Deadliest Warrior’ (DW) out of the storage. For today, I chose the ‘Waffen Nazi SS vs. Viet Cong’ episode, and did not regret it.

…Well, no, I did not regret it in a manner of speaking. This is a controversial episode on a matter of layers. First, the DW team chose to stack the odds in the SS’s favor, as strange as that may sound: rather than some version of AKM, the Viet Cong team here used a MAT-49 submachine gun; I may or may not have written about this earlier, (way earlier), but this was the only time this weapon – or any version of it – was used on this show; whenever else the Viet Cong would appear – as NPCs – they would wield AKM firearms instead.

Second, this was not an episode suggested by any member of the DW main crew – rather there were suggestions that one of the background members of the staff had suggested it, which opens either a realm of possibilities or an assortment of problems or maybe both.

Finally, the DW team was able to depict the final confrontation thusly, that it appeared to be a team of American G.I. is facing off against the Viet Cong, not the SS. That also makes sense, since the American government and society have views regarding the SS and the Nazi regime, so the team SS winning this face-off was unexpected, and may have been one of the secondary factors/reasons as to why the DW show went under, for as I may have written before, (much earlier), DW show had plenty of good points – pity that they haven’t helped the show survive… Anything else?

People showed me an official episode of the new ‘Kiya’ cartoon series. On some level, it is a ‘PJ Masks’ variant with one important difference – and no, it isn’t the musical elements; ‘PJ Masks’ can be overwhelming themselves without it – it is the presence of adults/grown-ups/parents in the show – somehow, their presence keeps ‘Kiya’ grounded and relatively more realistic than the ‘PJ Masks’ are – but ‘PJ Masks’ don’t care about realism, remember?

…In other PJ-related news, the show… still has not gotten its’ act together, it seems. On one hand, there are promo images that show the characters, and especially the main villains, are getting an upgrade and are going against the heroes, in the style of the 1990s’ X-Men cartoon, (remember it? A classic!), while on the other the show tended to have its’ characters pull its’ punches, especially when it comes to physical violence, because It Is A Show for Children! As such, rumors have it that the characters new and old will spend more time getting over their internal issues than fighting ‘external’ bad guys. As I have mentioned before, so far there is no concrete evidence that the ‘night-time bad guys’ are actually real and not figments of the PJ Masks’ imagination. This would make the PJ Masks just a trio of really lonely kids who actually have to imagine people who would interact with them…but I’ve written about this before, and don’t want to get back to it again. Instead, what next?

Nothing, except that the ‘PJ Masks’ show seems to have gotten itself into a corner and is aware of it – the show stalled its’ new release since the beginning of 2023; the first episodes are supposed to be aired starting April 19, 2023, but so far there’s no information as to what they will be about and etc. Clearly, the franchise has ran into problems. Anything else?

Regrettably, no. ‘Kiya’ in itself is not that great; the music content has gone past saturation point and sometimes it makes it hard to make out what its’ characters are saying, but, hey, the children love it. They also appear to like ‘PJ Masks’ as well, of course, but that is children – their tastes are very different from the grown-ups’, but that is another story.

See you all soon!

FH: Medjai - July 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks; sometimes it sucks so badly, that you cannot sleep at night, but just lie there and wonder – just what are you doing, and where are you going, and where, and when, are you going to stop and get out of the groove – and go on from there to where?.. On a more lighter side, the ‘For Honour’ (FH) game has introduced the new character – the Medjai.

…Oh yes, undoubtedly, the Medjai – or rather, the Medjay, were a real-life organization, actually: first, they were a tribal group from Nubia, (a region located alongside the Nile river), and later on – something of a police organization during the existence of Ancient Egypt – something that the second incarnation of the ‘Mummy’ franchise used quite a bit. Yay?

Well, maybe – the Anubis-based armor used by FH’s Medjai clearly comes from that franchise, (as opposed to the aborted Tom Cruise one, eh?), as does this warrior’s double-axe, (double battle-axe, maybe)? There’s nothing original about the new guy, put otherwise, and what’s more, whereas its’ predecessors were taken – at least – from the now-defunct ‘Deadliest Warrior’ (DW) franchise, the Medjai doesn’t even have that – this is fiction at its’ purest. Ouch!

Finally, we return to MM for one last time – somehow we forgot to comment that MCU’s version KK is a mutant instead. Fancy that! In the original comics, MM was an InHuman instead, so now we got a flat-out switcharoo! Yay! Just kidding, but this is also one of the factors as to why the MM finale was about as bad as AoS’ had been – it is just flat-out incompatible with the rest of the show, just as AoS’ had been. However, AoS’ problems aside, in MM, the finale has rubbed-out the rest of the season – pause.

Let me start again. Throughout the first season of her show, KK was introduced and developed not as a mutant, or an InHuman, or some other Gifted, but as her own person, an independent and competent young woman, who has her own thing, and who does her own thing too. Great! She was also shown to have both her own allies and enemies, which is also wonderful – and then came the final scene, and all of this was flat-out removed, as not only Kamala was revealed to be ‘something else’ instead – i.e. a mutant, regardless whether a regular or an irregular one – but she has also found herself in an entirely different, non-connected situation from what she’d experienced so far…

…Something similar has happened to the Scarlet Witch too, in fact. Throughout WV, she has grown and changed as a character, and at the series’ finale, she actually began to return to her superhero roots – and then came the ‘Dr. Strange 2’ film, and all of that got thrown out of the window, with Wanda being reduced to someone not unlike the Wicked Queen from Disney’s original ‘Snow White’ animated movie. There is a reason as to why people are accusing Disney/MCU of mistreating their female characters, and this is a part of it. I do not know what will happen to Kamala next, has she just switched places with Carol Danvers, or if the two of them have switched their minds instead, but I really hope that she will get a better hand than the one that Wanda has received…

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

FH: Zhanhu - Nov 5

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. In this particular instance, it happened because I myself messed up, and take about 90% of the fault upon me, fairly and squarely. The other 10 go to other people, but this is a hollow consolation for something that is undeniably your fault. Of course, your loving family will make everything to make you feel worse, but that is another story entirely, let us talk about something else.

The movies? The latest ‘Terminator’ film appears to have flopped, though personally, I found it to be rather enjoyable instead – not everything has to have a deeper meaning, no matter what some moviemakers say, but that is real life for you. It sucks on so many levels.

…Also, today was Election Day, and the U.S. state propaganda went into overdrive to educate people about voting, about voting machines, and about the evil Putin. Sigh. This is not how the States will defeat the new incarnation of the evil empire, they need to get their shit together first, and decide, whether the Donald will go or stay, for example. Until they begin to be cohesive, Putin will not have to do anything at all – the American government will do everything for him (and anyone else) instead. Period.

Let us talk about the latest FH character instead – a Wu Lin named Sun Da, and he is a Zhanhu. Regrettably, I have no idea as to what this means; i.e., it is a word from Chinese language, but so far, the searches lead either back to the FH proper, or to de-facto dead ends. On one search, Zhanhu was related to an ethnic Chinese name of some monkey species, (which is irrelevant to this discussion, sadly); in another, it was some sort of a local curiosity in a Chinese town; not very inspiring results, to be frank, but it’s par per course for FH – in this case, they took some exotic-sounding word and adapted it for their own uses. Bravo as always, I suppose.

…However, the new character’s trademark weapon – the Changdao – has proportionally more information about it. Like the Nodachi of Kensei from the Samurai faction, it is a two-handed single-edged long sword. Another oversized saber, really, but this one was used in the post-Medieval China, from the Ming to the Qing dynasties. A bigger cousin of the dao, it was used in elite infantry units, often against enemy cavalry, such as the Mongols. It will be interesting to see how Zhanhu and the Changdao will measure against Kensei and the Nodachi – when compared to the Nodachi, the Changdao had a shallower curve, especially in the real life. In FH? Who knows, and since we are not fully ready to return to real life, let us mention the DW – a S2 episode, ‘Ming Warriors vs. French Musketeers’, the dao was appropriately enough, the short-range weapon of the Ming Warriors; it was less effective than the Musketeers’ rapier & main gauche combo by a considerable margin… but this was still a less prejudiced and a more professional episode than the S3 starter, ‘George Washington vs. Napoleon Bonaparte’ episode. Probably because DW did not have some sort of a stake in ‘Warriors vs. Musketeers’ episode, unlike the S3 premiere episode instead.

What is next? Like the older four characters of the Wu Lin faction, Sun Da has no mask or some other façade/visage as many other characters in the other three factions. It can be played as either a male or a female, but that is not new either – the same story went down since the initial 12 characters, so no shock here either. Put frankly, when FH is forced to do something truly original, they make less of a confusion than when they try to outsource, as they did with the Zealot, for example. However, good for them with Zhanhu! (Real life still sucks though – my weekend was a clusterfuck, period, but this is a different story altogether).

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

AFO: Cougar vs. grey wolf - Sep 20

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. In case of Canada’s current PM, Justin Trudeau, this is because he has worn blackface/brownface in the past, and now it came back to bite him in the ass. The photos really show him in an unflattering light, but are they causing him to lose?

Well, if he loses, those photos will certainly be one of the reasons, but not the only one. As compared to the U.S., where each new presidential election is a bigger show than the lost one, (a tendency that became really obvious since Bill Clinton became impeached), Canadian elections… are not. Maybe it is because Canada is still subjected to the U.K., whose queen (or king) can always interfere, overtly or covertly, unlike the U.S., which is its’ own, independent country, but another reason is that Canada and its’ politicians tend not to blame anyone else when things go wrong in their lives; Hell, Trudeau has already apologized for those photos and this approach seems to be working – certainly, at least some people are turning onto Mr. Scheer for failing to apologize in his turn – it happens. Where were we?

Oh yes, someone has pointed out that when in the past I was doing my going-through of the AFO episode list, I forgot to cover the ‘cougar vs. wolf’ episode, so I might as well do it for closure…

Right. So, in one corner we had the cougar, (also known as puma and mountain lion), and in the other – the grey wolf. (As opposed to its’ more ambiguous cousin the red wolf, I suppose). The grey wolf lost. Why?

…Because the wolf is not an individualistic fighter, but a team one. ‘The Velvet Claw’ series and the companion book are somewhat outdated by 2019, especially when it comes to taxonomy of carnivores, but they are correct in that the cats are individualistic fighters, and the dogs are not. The puma, the lynx, the tiger, and the domestic cat have their differences, but even at a first glance a complete amateur of zoology/biology will I.D. them as relatives, and their lifestyles are very similar too. The only outliers among the cat clan are the African lions and the African cheetahs, (for a while, there were lions and cheetahs in Asia too, but now the cheetahs seem to be extinct there, and the lions are doing barely better. Sad, this is), because they do live in social groups – the cheetahs in family coalitions, the lions are more derived. Why this is so, is another question, but for now let us focus on the fact that the wild cats, small and big, tend to be solitary. And dogs?

This is where it gets blurry. Actually, most wild dog species are solitary, behaving as, say, the red fox does – we’re talking small carnivores that live on their own or in family groups; some of them, such as the raccoon dog of Far East, (initially), and the maned wolf of South America, can look very exotic, but their lifestyles are similar. And then there are the pack hunters.

Who are they? They are the domestic dog, the wolf, (grey and red), the coyote, the jackals, also – the African wild dog, and the dhole of Asia. This is it, right?

…No, because there’s also the bush dog of South America; proportionally, it may be related closest to the aforementioned maned wolf, but whereas the maned wolf looks like a wolf, or a dog, on stilts, the bush dog looks like a mix between a basset hound and an otter; it doesn’t even bark, more like chirps and squeaks, and it can swim and attack its’ prey items in water, as well as on land. A very atypical dog, but then again, South America has plenty of atypical carnivores, period – but we digress.

Such outliers as the bush dog aside, most pack hunting dogs look the same – streamlined, long-legged, long-muzzled, big-eared and long-tailed… built not for strength, but for speed and endurance. These carnivores evolved to act in a pack, overwhelming their prey through numbers, and using their jaws to tear and rip it to pieces, sometimes even eating it while the prey animal is still alive. They are hunters rather than fighters, especially when it comes to other carnivores, such as big cats and bears, although when it comes to dominance fights within the packs…they are ritualized, actually, and usually are resolved through shows of strength… and then…

Well, there is a video clip on YouTube that shows a wolf pack taking down a coyote. While externally wolves and coyotes are similar, wolves are larger and bulkier than coyotes are… although now scientists know that they do interbreed with each other as well as the domestic dog species, creating such animals as the eastern wolf, the eastern coyote, and the red wolf. The last species may actually be a species, having evolved into taxonomic and biological independence from both grey wolves and coyotes, but we digress. Wolves have evolved to function within a social unit – their pack, with which they bring down their prey items, from rabbits and hares to white-tailed deer, elk, and even the American bison. On their own, wolves are not very effective, as compared to the great cats and bears.

…Now a puma, technically, is not a ‘great cat’ – it is a ‘small cat’: it cannot roar, it can mew like a domestic cat, (or a bobcat), does, and while the jaguar, (can be twice as heavy as the puma) dominates the parts of the New World in which it lives, the puma does not. It can break even with an American black bear, (sometimes), but a grizzly (or brown) bear overpowers it more often than not, and the same goes for the jaguar, (which is unquestionably the bigger and more powerful animal of the two), and even wolf packs. Pause. ‘Packs’ is the key word here. A wolf pack can stand up not just to the puma, but also to the American black bear, (the grizzly/brown bear is a tougher question to answer), but a solitary wolf is no match for even the puma – which is precisely what has happened down in the CGI simulation of that AFO episode. While the rest of the carnivores are a mixed bag, (though, again, the ‘jaguar vs anaconda’ episode was something else), solitary pack hunters, (it even sounds as an oxymoron), are fair game and just are not… up to their best game, (pardon the tautology here), when facing-off with anyone by themselves. The grey wolf just couldn’t win by itself, especially against a mountain lion, which might be small and light by ‘great cat’ standards, but it still packs a punch well above its’ weight. The ‘puma vs. grey wolf’ episode was actually good, because it was honest and straightforward – whatever else you can say about AFO, at least there weren’t any inconsistences and partisanship as there was, (sort of), in DW, but that is another story…

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

Forged in Fire - Sep 8

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Especially if you are that person who had died from vaping recently – then you have proved to be the equal to the opossum that I have talked about last time, as it is also dead. Ouch. Real life sucks, and then there is TV. Yes, it cannot compare to real life tragedies, such as the ones experienced in the Atlantic, but regardless…

So, let us talk about ‘Forged in Fire’. A friend of mine recommended it to me, seeing how it gone down for a while now and I have never watched it; they claimed that ‘it was as the Deadliest Warrior had been’, (DW). I liked DW back then, and so I watched the sword of Attila episode. And?

And yes, ‘Forged’ is reminiscent of DW, sort of. It is also reminiscent (in my personal opinion) of AFO (‘Animal Face-Off’) and ‘Chopped’, of all things, (namely a cooking show). Where to start?

Like the cooking shows that I have watched, on and off, over the years, FIF has four contestants, three judges, and a host. Except that instead of chefs, cooks, or what else have you, you got bladesmiths, competing in the quality of their blades and bladed weapons. Details? Well, yes, just as the fact that to make the titular weapon – the sword of Attila in this case – they get not several hours, but several days: four on today’s episode. They are secondary, and do not diminish from the show’s enjoyment – or the lack of it.

Where does AFO come in? Like FIF, it had included making models and replicas, though in AFO’s case it was more of casts of skulls and paws and claws of big cats, bears, and so on. Then those models would be tested as well, though not on human replicas. Then again, today’s episode of FIF has also featured horse skulls, and one of the final contestants’ swords failed, it fell out of the handle or was broken, so that is it, game over. He went home and his rival got the 10 000-dollar prize. Yay!

…And yes, those replicas – horse skulls, armor suits (cuirasses, I think), and what else have you is what reminded me of DW, fair enough. It just… it is not my show. The cooking shows… yes, I do not watch them regularly either, not like AoS, or AC, for comparison, and FIF is a variant of them. Yes, the details are different… no, the premise is different, and the details are largely the same, so that may be it. I do not know; maybe FIF is actually a great show, and I just find it boring; I certainly did not find FTB show boring, and it was on the same channel – the Canadian History channel – as FIF is. Therefore, maybe the issue is with me instead. Does anyone has any opinion on this, then? I am ready to listen.

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

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. 

S.H.I.E.L.D., Parting Shot - March 22

And so, we say apparently good-bye to Lance Hunter and Bobbi Morse in 'Parting Shot'. What can be said about it?

It is a purposefully oppressive episode, very heavy on the Russian - language. I'm not going to go into this too much: back in 2009, 'Deadliest Warrior' aired an episode where the Soviet/Russian Spetsnaz had defeated the U.S. Green Berets fair and square, something that had haunted this show for the rest of its' existence (DW went off air in 2011 after going on for 3 seasons, cough). The Russians are as good as the Americans are, and to make them bogey-men (the ones that aren't Hydra, perhaps) for AoS is cheap, especially for the show's writers and co.

One may point out that something similar is going on in the comics of the AoS franchise, where the agents are about to lock horns with the uncanny Avengers, but the two sides of AoS franchise are different - the comic version of agents attempts/pretends to be firmly integrated into the rest of Marvel world from the start ('Perfect Bullets' story arc), while the TV version...not so much. None of the Avengers movie cast has appeared on the show since S1, and even then it were Fury and Hill, so they don't quite count. One could argue that Bobbi is the Mockingbird, and as such she is something of an Avenger herself, only she isn't. Yes, the sites, (or at least some of them) are calling her Mockingbird, but this never has happened on the show.

No, it is unlikely that this is because of the entire Kara Palamas arc of S2, where Bobbi had sold her out to Hydra, 'forgot' to rescue her, and didn't even apologize to her in the end - and then Grant killed her by accident, ha-ha, and AoS has done its best forget about her: 'Parting Shot', in the last scene, depicted Malick's daughter - the appropriate love interest for Hive or Werner von Strucker, whoever will win her in the end... if the show doesn't kill her in a future episode first. Either way, Kara's fate and death rests on Bobbi's head as much as on Grant's or Melinda and Lance's - Bobbi may not be a villain as Whitehall was, for example, but neither is she a hero as the Mockingbird is supposed to be.

...That said, the odds are coming down from the financial aspects of the real life's side of the show: last week's episode had THE LOWEST ratings yet and so far it is uncertain how the show will recover. Make no mistake, it will - sort of: there had been cases in the previous seasons when one episode or another made an overly low, or high, rating as opposed to the episodes before and after it, but never so sharply or so low, even considering that overall the ratings of S3 AoS episodes were going even lower already. The S2 two-bit finale was already low, and many of S3 episodes are lower than it was. Yes, there is a promise of an AoS S4 season in the talks, but there was also talk of a Lance-and-Bobbi spinoff in the wind, ever since S2 beginning, and so far there is nothing concrete. Now the groundwork had been laid, of course, (with a pun for a title of the episode, too), but there are no signs of a spin-off coming forth; in fact it may be that the producers have made a Grant-and-Kara thing for Lance and Bobbi, treating them differently/separately from the rest of the cast instead for the rest of S3.

This brings us to finances: with Mack and Lincoln joining the regular cast since the end of S2, the cast has expanded to 10 people as the regular cast, who need to be paid, which means less money to go around. And since the ratings are dropping, as is the show's overall popularity, means that there is less money to go around too. Odds are that Nick and Adrienne are going is because AoS cannot afford their salaries. Ouch, but last week's episode had no Mack in it (for no reason), this episode had no Lincoln (he was in Cocoon, apparently), so clearly the entire AoS team is having problems keeping everyone balanced here with 10 main characters and guest/recurring characters as well. So now they're pruning the fat, and Kara Palamas got some karma payback for her and for Grant all the same. Coulson is going to get his too - Hive and his up-and-coming new girlfriend (is she supposed to be an analogue of Sin or someone like that) are going to make certain of it...in a matter of weeks, since the second part of AoS S3 takes place in 3 months, and the month of March is almost gone, too.

As for the episode itself...it's oppressive, it's purposefully oppressive, and it is associated with Russia for that purpose. This time, the agents stopped the Prime Minister from being assassinated by a Russian InHuman general...only Russia is a funny country: it is run by a tsar (nowadays they call 'em presidents instead, as a part of suckering the West), so the Prime Minister is worth diddly-squat here. If AoS is trying to earn sponsor points by adhering to the U.S. sense of apple pie and patriotism they could go for political accuracy rather than subtlety. 

And yes, this can backfire. The already mentioned 'Deadliest Warrior' had done its best to appeal to the American patriotism in the last two seasons of its show, especially in S3, with its kick-ass presidents, George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt. Guess what, it still didn't fully work: the U.S. Rangers defeated the North Korean special forces by only half a percent, (and considering the West's opinion of North Korea, talk about a double-ouch), and the show got cancelled after they did a season finale 'Vampires vs. Zombies'. That episode ran largely against the show's established M.O., and DW went out on a Halloween special that didn't even take place on Halloween. And as for AoS...

As for AoS, if 'Parting Shot' was truly the end of Hunter and Morse at least for the rest of S3, this means that the viewers who were watching the show primarily for their characters will stop watching it, likely, which means ANOTHER ratings drop, something that AoS cannot afford now more than ever. Not everyone liked Hunter and Morse, most likely, due to the Kara plotline, but replacing them with new characters (Slingshot? Manifold?) who may or may not be just recurring isn't the best idea too. Hell, they kept Grant/Hive on the show past S2 for the viewers, because honestly, it would've been more humane to have him go through T.A.H.I.T.I. and live on in Mexico or elsewhere with Kara. It would've been more humane for Kara too. But if Maya Stojan could just be easily dropped from the show, Brett not so much, so instead more character assassination and now Hive. Hail Hydra!

...And then there's the entire 'Agent Carter' situation: she and Sousa and co. are precisely dealing with the Russians/Communists/the Leviathan rather than Hydra (at least in the first 2 seasons). How will this episode mesh with the future seasons of AC? So far AoS is splitting the MCU rather than integrating it, so this again makes it less popular with its audience, which means fewer ratings - and it has nothing to do with Phil killing Grant back in 2015, however Whedon and the others are trying to pretend otherwise. 

So, a tense, overwhelming, oppressive episode, complete with terrific acting from the actors - and some very incorrect political/patriotic imagery. I hope that 'Parting Shot's' ratings will be higher than the last week's episode, but am not betting on it.

Twilight Sparkle vs. Godless Communism

And so, the fifth season of MLP: FIM is coming upon us in 2015. Already, a trailer has been released (in a manner of speaking). In it, Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her team are about to face-off with... the Godless Communism.

Well, no, it will not be denounced directly as that, not on a children’s show, but otherwise... In the trailer, the Elements will come to another pony settlement, whose inhabitants have given away their cutie marks (marks of their individualities) in favor of monotony – the sign of equality (two parallel black bars). They all behave distinctly brainwashed too, even in the trailer, so whatever this town may stand for, it isn’t democracy; and the fact that it is run by a mayor Marx (who is probably a villain – or one of them – of the episode), it probably doesn’t stand for  Nazism either (not on this occasion). 

What can be said? Yes, propaganda is an appropriate federal tool for the USA as well as for any other country, and yes, since the third team of president Putin the relationship between the RF, the EU and the USA have become strained, so some anti-communism slathering is just what the politicians have ordered. But!

Firstly of all, the US is supposed to be better than Them. Do Americans really have to drum the concept of “individuality good, indistinction bad” as such an early age? What, or rather – whom do they expect to raise with such an approach? A variant breed of Orwell’s sheep? “Four legs good, two legs bad”. No, wait – “four legs good, two legs better”! Yeah, that did not work as expected, but that is the only way indoctrination works, whether it is done by the Russian state, the American, or some private company, firm or sect. 

And second, lately the propaganda war is not being waged too successfully by the US. Setting aside the already-established fact that the individualistic Americans tend not react in a positive way when the American government tells them what to do directly – they go and begin to act in a clearly contrary manner – the thing is that lately the American propaganda didn’t work all that well.

As an example, Deadliest Warrior (DW) tried its best to present the States as unbeatable ever since their S1 episode had the American Green Berets lose to the Russian Spetznaz. Naturally, the Americans became upset, and by S3 DW did its best to show the Americans as unbeatable. The result?

A series of rather crude propaganda pieces, and not very successful either – i.e. NKSOF was defeated by the US Rangers only by 0.5%. 0.5%! Keep in mind, that this was some time before the end of 2014, when in connection with “The Interview” movie North Korea had almost put the global community in its place. Ouch!

Needless to say, DW did not fare so good – it was cancelled after the 3^rd season and has not been renewed. Oh sure, the various games that were inspired by it still hang around – if you like playing a bloke fighting other blokes to establish their hierarchy that is the game for you; and if not, there’s always Deadliest Battle, where Rogue fights Wonder Woman, Batman – Captain America, and Gaara – Toph. No political subtext there, no indeed!..

Getting back to propaganda, that discrepancy with reality has plagued the American world for quite a while now. The Punisher and Rambo can kick Vietnamese arse in films and comics as much as they want – in real life the Vietnam War was lost by the USA. DW – that was already discussed above; “The Interview” – that did backfire on Sony very badly, and it was only some real-life Western backbone that the rest of the world was not hit as well; and now – MLP: FIM. Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the elements vs. the Godless Communism in its’ child-friendly incarnation. Ayn Rand and her novella Anthem are spinning in her grave, most likely.

Sigh. On the theme of propaganda, Anthem was a fine piece, completely detached from reality and dedicated to fighting the evils of indistinction in the name of godly individuality and ego. It did not use any colorful ponies to get its point across. It was not trying to adapt to the current global situation either, unlike “The Last Ship” the TV series (the original novel is something). Twilight Sparkle? With the beginning of S5 of MLP: FIM, you just might have been had.

On the theme of MLP: FIM villains. In the first three/four seasons, the elements of the stable and unchanging Equestria fought and defeated villains who were much more malleable: Nightmare Moon, who could turn into fog or other ponies; Discord, who is pretty much protean in shape; Chrysalis and her Changelings, who made change or metamorphosis into their trademark power; and Sombra, who alternated between a unicorn stallion and a cloud of darkness. See the theme? The arrival of Tirek shook that up, and so yes, Twilight Sparkle’s upcoming battle with Godless Communism, Equestria-style, is also a change – now we will only have to see if it is for better or worse.

End

Discovery Channel: Zombie Cats, and cats that are not zombies

I have re-watched the “Man-Eating Zombie Cats” last night. It could be considered a waste of time, but I have watched “Hit & Miss” mini-series, and was in the mood for something different, something simpler than the high-strung and high-notched criminal drama that “Hit & Miss” is. “Zombie Cats” did not disappoint.

What can be said about this special? I have mentioned it in the past, when I was discussing AP’s ‘monster specials’ in general detail, but this time I should describe “Zombie Cats” in some greater details: this special is not so much as non-scientific, as it is just lousy.

The concept in and of itself is not that poor, just poorly delivered and poorly developed: the canine distemper virus (basically, a form of the disease known as rabies) has infested the great cats, causing them to lose fear of people and begin to attack them. (Curiously, the smaller felines, like the domestic cats, have their own strain of the rabies instead.) Even on this level, this statement is undercut, as the humans’ encroachment on the great cats’ habitat is mentioned very often on one hand, and the whole topic of cats being infected with rabies is not being fully developed – it does not go much beyond what I have said already. Structurally, “Zombie Cats” consists largely of several enacted episodes of people (and their dogs) encountering large felines – cougars, leopards, tigers, etc – with various outcomes, intermeshed with much shorter statements about the distemper virus and the encroachment on the cats’ habitat. These various parts do not mesh together very well, and combined they make “Zombie Cats” sound like a very poor version of the now cancelled “MonsterQuest” series (a series not without its own problems, but quite coherent), and not a horror/monster special.

Secondly, the zombie aspect was actually undercut by the whole canine distemper virus angle. Animals with this strain of disease – dogs, great cats, racoons, weasels, etc – do not behave like zombies; by now the modern media has created a certain idea of zombie: it is either an undead corpse, animated by magic, or... still a corpse, animated by a virus or something similar; various shows, such as “Lost Tapes,” “Deadliest Warrior”, and, of course, “The Walking Dead” series have perpetuated this image far and wide. A single zombie is not a threat; it is just a shambling corpse, hungry for brains (and other fleshy part of the living) that it seeks out without any strategy or tactics: it just shambles on and on in a straight line, and while a crowd of zombies can eventually tear down any obstacle (such as a door), a canny and adaptable human can escape them by climbing a tree or a similar landmark, for a zombie can’t climb, and they generally aren’t smart enough to even look upwards or to the side.

Conversely, the great cats in the “Man-Eating Zombie Cats” did all that; they behaved the way that the normal great cats do, albeit ones thrust into abnormal, urban, man-made habitats. Naturally, tragedies occur at a regular basis. But the rabies, or canine distemper, virus had nothing to do with it; all of the animals featured in this show were quite healthy. The rabies does not make animals into zombies; it may force them to act slow and stupid (to human eye, at any rate) on occasion, but they are still quite capable of fast attacks – this is what makes rabid dogs, racoons and similar creatures so dangerous.

Either way, “Man-Eating Zombie Cats” is not about real life; it even is not convincing pretending that there is anything real. Some other specials, like the ones about the mermaids or Megalodon, have a healthy dose of reality; “Zombie Cats” do not. Instead, it is something of a “MonsterQuest” imitation and unsuccessful one – and that why it fails.

S.H.I.E.L.D., Sep 24 - pilot

Sometimes the television is a parallel world to the real one. Sometimes it meshes almost perfectly with the real world, and sometimes it is seen so fragile, so detached, so out of it that it is simply sad. Case in point – the premiere of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” made by Joss Whedon himself with Marvel’s™ support. 

What can be said about this show? “Agents” are heavily tied into the “Avengers”-universe, almost to the point of spamming and/or product promoting. Fair enough, Marvel™ is one the one paying the piper, live with it.

The characters are well designed...to a point of being a cliche. Agents Phil and Maria are agents Phil and Maria from the movie and the rest of them? Grant Ward has all the personality of a CIA agent from Deadliest Warrior (a show on Spike) and Melinda May lacks even that; agents Fitz and Simmons (FitzSimmons, ha-ha) are your typical semi-idealistic intellectuals, bringing forth high level tech and whatnot. You can almost taste the chemistry (the one that is used in volcano school projects) Connor and Abby from “Primeval” were done in the same style and much better. As for Skye... she sounds inane and is, of course, a hacking genius, perfect to fit into the agency’s new sky fortress (a trademark of Marvel’s™ comics). 

Does that make the show bad? No: first of all this is the first episode of a brand-new series, so it is far too early to make a judgement about the show’s quality. What I want to point out is how the “Agents” fall flat against the reality. The show is supposed to be grounded in reality, that is the trick: J. August Richards makes a wonderful performance of an ordinary man (an “everyman” if you will) who gains extraordinary powers for a price (there is always a price) and has to learn that having those powers does not necessarily means that there will be a difference; it’s what inside that counts. And inside, of course, is the all-American spunk and apple pie, as opposed to Russia, which is supposedly as corrupt as the security camera files that the S.H.I.E.L.D. first acquired from the destroyed lab. Oh boy. Cue real life.

While in the Marvel™-land America is wonderful, it is the superpower and the stronghold of democracy and great people of all races, in real-life the States have been diplomatically outmaneuvered by Russia into not invading Syria as they did with Egypt, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan for example; the Navy Yard had been invaded by Aaron Alexis with or without accomplices and Kenya’s mall hostages was worse. Cue imagination.

Well, not exactly. Cue a Democratic senator, who, when Putin went out to criticize the American government, wrote him a ‘scathing’ letter that basically suggested that since the States are a superpower Putin should put up and shut up. That showed him.

Or not. Putin’s government gets similar letters from Russians and other ethnic groups (often from quite important public people) on a rather relative basis and all they amounted was are didly and squat. The good senator’s letter (you can find it on PolicyMic) was met with the same fate from Putin. From karma, on the other hand... several days later Aaron Alexis took over the Navy Yard, showing to the world that America is not that formidable and the Kenya terrorist attack was worse. The good senator’s letter had many good points: Putin really is ‘living’ in a glasshouse; his government is as corrupt as in any banana republic...but Obama’s government had not done anything about it, other than the occasional criticism, indicating that they don’t have issues with it. In this case they should put up and shut up when Putin occasionally criticizes them: this just the price they pay for keeping Putin in power.

On top of this, the good senator’s approach – ‘put up or shut up, for we’re a democratic superpower’ – is also is not very democratic. One of the aspects of democracy is the freedom of speech, which means that Putin has at least some sort of a theoretical right to speak his mind, for that is how democracy works and when the good senator (who is from the Democrats as for as political parties go) tells him to shut up, this isn’t very democratic either; needless to say, when PolicyMic put this letter onto their site, the comments weren’t very encouraging for the senator, mainly it was “pot calling kettle black” and similar phrases.

But what does this mean to the “Agents”? Mainly that they are selling America’s power and might – everyday superheroes, “everyman” and “everywoman” who fly around in their amazing airplanes and flying cars righting wrongs and saving the day. Joss Whedon is an amazing and experienced director and scriptwriter (he, in part, wrote the pilot of the show) and the actors do what they must do: show how the Americans kick ass using various high-tech gadgets. The trick is to see just how much the show will jar with the real life and if “Agents” will avoid turning into a propaganda vessel. I, however, certainly know that I will continue to watch them simply to enjoy them and to follow their adventures.