[7.2/10] Coldstone is a ridiculous character. He looks like the lovechild of a condiment tray and a toaster. For someone who’s supposed to be a cyborg abomination, he scans as just another quasi-robotic being in a genre full of them. More than anything, you can feel the toyeticness dripping off the character, a mysterious eighth gargoyle, conveniently introduced via flashback in this very episode, to act as a potential wildcard in the proceedings.
Despite all that, I actually really like the character. It’s an old trope to have the villain mislead a new player into thinking the heroes are the real bad guys, only for that person to have a change of heart once they actually confront the good guys. It works for Coldstone though, someone brainwashed to believe that Goliath betrayed him and their kind, only to realize that with so few of his comrades left, even Coldstone cannot resist the Gargoyles’ inborn need to protect their own. His choosing good is admirable and a little tragic, even if the show uses stock beats and hammers Hudson’s mantra about breathing and protecting home a little too hard.
I also like how the idea extends to Goliath and company finding their purpose in the 20th century. When I described this show to my wife, she mentioned that it’s not crazy for Xanatos and others to have concerns about random creatures acting as vigilantes in their city. I explained that they really just wanted to be left alone and live their lives, but I don’t know how long this series could sustain that. They’d always be hunted, but you need a story engine, a reason for them to seek out villains on a weekly basis and have adventures.
The show comes up with a good answer here. Goliath marries the ideal of protecting your home and connects it with the “look after your community” ideals of the police. There’s problems with that too, and I don’t expect this children's show from 1994 to take too much of a critical look at policing in New York City. But taken at a high level, marrying Goliath’s impulse to defend his home and Elisa’s duties to protect and serve, resulting in our heroes choosing to see Manhattan as a whole as their new home and protect human and gargoyle alike is a good place to land.
That said, I wasn’t crazy about the big rumble in this one. The fights weren’t terribly inspiring, the villains’ motives and objectives seemed to change on a dime, and the whole “Let’s start fighting in Times Square and then end up on the (mysteriously empty) Brooklyn Bridge” routine is pretty cheesy.
On the whole though, this is a solid finale for the show’s first season. I don’t know if this initial batch of episodes ever flew higher than its five-part opening. But I can still appreciate its early successes, introducing the main heroes and villains, setting up the key relationships, and forging a way forward for Goliath and his friends as the show wears on. On to season 2!
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-06-27T20:43:22Z
[7.2/10] Coldstone is a ridiculous character. He looks like the lovechild of a condiment tray and a toaster. For someone who’s supposed to be a cyborg abomination, he scans as just another quasi-robotic being in a genre full of them. More than anything, you can feel the toyeticness dripping off the character, a mysterious eighth gargoyle, conveniently introduced via flashback in this very episode, to act as a potential wildcard in the proceedings.
Despite all that, I actually really like the character. It’s an old trope to have the villain mislead a new player into thinking the heroes are the real bad guys, only for that person to have a change of heart once they actually confront the good guys. It works for Coldstone though, someone brainwashed to believe that Goliath betrayed him and their kind, only to realize that with so few of his comrades left, even Coldstone cannot resist the Gargoyles’ inborn need to protect their own. His choosing good is admirable and a little tragic, even if the show uses stock beats and hammers Hudson’s mantra about breathing and protecting home a little too hard.
I also like how the idea extends to Goliath and company finding their purpose in the 20th century. When I described this show to my wife, she mentioned that it’s not crazy for Xanatos and others to have concerns about random creatures acting as vigilantes in their city. I explained that they really just wanted to be left alone and live their lives, but I don’t know how long this series could sustain that. They’d always be hunted, but you need a story engine, a reason for them to seek out villains on a weekly basis and have adventures.
The show comes up with a good answer here. Goliath marries the ideal of protecting your home and connects it with the “look after your community” ideals of the police. There’s problems with that too, and I don’t expect this children's show from 1994 to take too much of a critical look at policing in New York City. But taken at a high level, marrying Goliath’s impulse to defend his home and Elisa’s duties to protect and serve, resulting in our heroes choosing to see Manhattan as a whole as their new home and protect human and gargoyle alike is a good place to land.
That said, I wasn’t crazy about the big rumble in this one. The fights weren’t terribly inspiring, the villains’ motives and objectives seemed to change on a dime, and the whole “Let’s start fighting in Times Square and then end up on the (mysteriously empty) Brooklyn Bridge” routine is pretty cheesy.
On the whole though, this is a solid finale for the show’s first season. I don’t know if this initial batch of episodes ever flew higher than its five-part opening. But I can still appreciate its early successes, introducing the main heroes and villains, setting up the key relationships, and forging a way forward for Goliath and his friends as the show wears on. On to season 2!