[7.7/10] I haven’t commented on Dr. Octopus very much so far, despite him being a pretty consistent part of the show. To be frank, I was just waiting for him to get his spotlight episode, to show off in fuller form what we’ve gotten in dribs and drabs thus far. And I’m glad I did, because while some of the motivation is rushed, this version of Doc Ock makes for a stellar villain.
Hats off, for what feels like the millionth time for me, to Tom Kenny, who does amazing work in making Dr. Octopus really click as a creepy antagonist. Recasting Doc Ock as a shut-in, who’s potentially lost the use of his regular limbs, and resents being treated as a freak by the likes of Norman Osborn gives him a superb horror movie quality that Kenny’s performance accentuates perfectly.
There’s also a lot of great visual elements to Doc Ock finally stepping into the limelight here. Whether it’s a cool setpiece on a rollercoaster, inside a funhouse, or in the depths of the good doctor’s underwater lair, the show made the most of the villain’s dark-tinged vibe and his multi-armed menace. At the same time, the opening whirlwind bit was well-animated too.
The episode wasn’t perfect. For one thing, the menace of Doc Ock was undecut by this episode’s underwhelming cutaway gags (especially the referee one). I’m on record as enjoying many of those gags, but I wish the show were more selective about deploying them, since it really screwed with the tone of the better confrontations this one.
And once again, we get a solid but pretty basic thematic arc here. I appreciate the yin and yang of Nick Fury and Doc Ock both spying on Spidey in their own way. But it feels like Peter’s learned the same lesson five times in this show already -- that he can’t go it alone. The stakes are bigger when he’s trapped with this psychopath that the show takes seriously, and has to make life or death decisions, but it’s still pretty rudimentary, even if the final scene where he apoligizes to Fury is well done.
Overall, the unnerving quality of this interpretation of Doc Ock carries the day here, with a study but not overwhelming arc beneath it, but also some of the show’s best visuals in the many-limbed super battle.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2018-11-10T03:01:37Z
[7.7/10] I haven’t commented on Dr. Octopus very much so far, despite him being a pretty consistent part of the show. To be frank, I was just waiting for him to get his spotlight episode, to show off in fuller form what we’ve gotten in dribs and drabs thus far. And I’m glad I did, because while some of the motivation is rushed, this version of Doc Ock makes for a stellar villain.
Hats off, for what feels like the millionth time for me, to Tom Kenny, who does amazing work in making Dr. Octopus really click as a creepy antagonist. Recasting Doc Ock as a shut-in, who’s potentially lost the use of his regular limbs, and resents being treated as a freak by the likes of Norman Osborn gives him a superb horror movie quality that Kenny’s performance accentuates perfectly.
There’s also a lot of great visual elements to Doc Ock finally stepping into the limelight here. Whether it’s a cool setpiece on a rollercoaster, inside a funhouse, or in the depths of the good doctor’s underwater lair, the show made the most of the villain’s dark-tinged vibe and his multi-armed menace. At the same time, the opening whirlwind bit was well-animated too.
The episode wasn’t perfect. For one thing, the menace of Doc Ock was undecut by this episode’s underwhelming cutaway gags (especially the referee one). I’m on record as enjoying many of those gags, but I wish the show were more selective about deploying them, since it really screwed with the tone of the better confrontations this one.
And once again, we get a solid but pretty basic thematic arc here. I appreciate the yin and yang of Nick Fury and Doc Ock both spying on Spidey in their own way. But it feels like Peter’s learned the same lesson five times in this show already -- that he can’t go it alone. The stakes are bigger when he’s trapped with this psychopath that the show takes seriously, and has to make life or death decisions, but it’s still pretty rudimentary, even if the final scene where he apoligizes to Fury is well done.
Overall, the unnerving quality of this interpretation of Doc Ock carries the day here, with a study but not overwhelming arc beneath it, but also some of the show’s best visuals in the many-limbed super battle.