Ms. Marvel, 'Destinied' - June 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks: we got one heatwave coming after another, with intermediary thunderstorms to make life more interesting, apparently. Hence, let us talk about ‘Destined’, the episode 1x03 of ‘Ms. Marvel’.

What can be said about it? That finally, after reaching the half-mark of the ‘Ms. Marvel’ S1, we got some excitement here. First, Kamala’s brother got married, and we got a beautiful depiction of an ethnic Islamic marriage…before the Damage Control goons gatecrashed it. This time, though, they seem to be going after Kareem and his mother, who are associated, or simply are, the Clandestine, or the djinn. Pause.

So, in real life, the djinn are a part of Islamic – or proto-Islamic – mythology; their role isn’t too different from the various demons and such in the Christian mythos; they were blamed for everything bad and unknown and mysterious, their shapes were often poorly defined – there are even some version of the djinn who are more akin to the doppelgangers/evil twins of the modern Western mythology; and the Quran mentions them, but not necessarily in a good way, either. Also, you can call them genies or jinn instead, and they often weren’t as nice as they were in Disney’s ‘Aladdin’; in the ‘original’, ‘1001 nights’ ‘Aladdin’ the jinn or the djinn were really powerful entities, able to destroy cities and armies, and built palaces, and to take them across the world…basically, compared to mortals, the djinn are almost all-powerful, but the forces of the Lord, (or Allah), can route them, if necessary.

…And none of this applies to the djinn ‘depicted’ in ‘Ms. Marvel’, aka Kareem and his mother, whose relationship with Kamala has become more ambiguous by now. Rather, the ‘djinn’, or the Clandestine of MCU seem to be surrogate InHumans, and I got nothing new to comment about that here, because of predictability. In Marvel Comics, Kamala ‘Ms. Marvel’ Khan was an InHuman, and was regularly associated with them, even though she never was a part of Black Bolt and Medusa’s court, and she has her own storyline; separate from the InHumans’ main one – usually. There are always crossovers, you know!..

In MCU, there are InHumans, actually, but because their TV series was insipid, nowadays MCU pretends that they never existed, a fact further enhanced by the fact that AoS was a clusterfuck, and has already been largely replaced by S.W.O.R.D., as well as by Damage Control. Hence, we got surrogate S.H.I.E.L.D. chasing surrogate InHumans, because despite all of the proclamations that MCU’s ‘Ms. Marvel’ is original, in reality it is just a rehashed version of the comics, because Disney has problems with original – just look at the ‘Lightyear’ movie: while it isn’t bad, neither it is truly great.

…And the same can be said about the ‘Obi-Wan’ series; I was not going to talk about it, but, since it has finished, I might as well – the show’s predictable: Obi-Wan got his shite together and kicked Vader’s ass, while Reba’s storyline was also neatly wrapped-up. Sadly, while Obi-Wan has won a clear and a decisive moral victory, he did not kill Vader; since Vader has become Palpatine’s chief enforcer by now, (though yes, technically, he is Palpatine’s apprentice – but does anyone believe that?), his death would’ve caused a major butterfly effect… so ‘Obi-Wan’ the TV series doesn’t kill Vader, and everything from now on till the events in ‘The New Hope’ will be (mostly) canon. Did I mention that Disney has a problem with originality? Well, it does, and in case of ‘Ms. Marvel’, it is also in denial, both regarding originality and the quality of ‘Ms. Marvel’ it is rather trite and unoriginal, but it is also beautifully depicted, complete with the ethnic angle: hooray for that!

…Otherwise, however, this is it for now. ‘Ms. Marvel’ S1 is halfway done; we will just have to wait and see as to what will happen next. See you all soon!

 

Sinbad, ep 8 - Aug 26

Today was one of the least inspired Sinbad episodes that mainly consisted of Anwar feeling good/self-important.

To recapitulate. The previous episode not only got rid of Akbari for good, it also exposes Anwar as a fraud, and not a real doctor, right before Rina. His attempt to rescue her too failed, though it was the thought that counted, as Rina told him. Either way, Anwar needed a confidence boost, and he got it in the person of a goddess, named Kuji. A deity of what she is, exactly, is another question, and one that is not answered in this episode. A goddess of intelligentsia, perhaps, or of second chances, or of boxes - the choices are limitless.

...However, if Kuji is a goddess of second chances (for the lack of a better word), then she does it in a strange way: she had her minions (or whatever) kill everyone except for Anwar, who proves his courage and loyalty to himself and everyone else is revealed to be alive. Way to go Kuji. (Sarcam).

Here, incidentally, lies the reason - well, one of the reasons - why the show's ratings have been falling. If "Sinbad" is an action show, like "Hercules" or "Xena" for example, then it shouldn't have so many twists in the end that aim at the audience's heart and brain. If "Sinbad" isn't an action show, then all of these oriental trappings are just pointless and distracting and the show could as well be occurring in Elfland, (as the travels of Odysseus took place) as in the Middle East. The show's calling card is its connection to Middle East, and here it is not shown, other than in the setting of Basra. Abdul Fahim (from ep. 3) didn't look anything like an Abdul Fahim, but rather some sort of a basketball player off the court with some weird eye shadow (WTF?). And the show's audience recognizes this, and responds by the dropping ratings. Very depressing. Still, this is an "Impossible Pictures" production, which means - outside of "Primeval" - the odds of this show being a one-season wonder are quite high. The odds that this season will end on an open note, but the show will not appear ever again - especially with "Primeval: New World" looming on the horizon - are also quite high. I would say that it's a pity, but after this episode... not so much. Oh well, to each his own.

PS: Kuji may claim to be a deity, but between the box and her trickster nature I still say that she's a djinn (in the Arabian folklore they were more like the demons and the fey than Disney's Alladin shows them to be), who has just decided that Anwar and co. are going to be her new best friends slash toys - not a good place to be, not exactly. There were bad djinn, and mischievous, and some pretty nasty ones. Still, after this episode, I say that Anwar and co. may deserve such a fate. At least the next episode may be bringing Taryn - and Nala - back. We'll see.