Andrew Bloom

VIP

9

[5.5/10] I’m going to be frank. I really struggled not t o zone out during this one. The Savage Land business has a snowball’s chance next to Pyro of keeping my attention for some reason. It doesn’t help that when the episode isn’t the usual energy beam blasts with a few dinosaurs mixed in, it’s stentorian-voiced rock gods giving convoluted exposition about their evil plans.

There isn’t much to this one. I do still like the througline of Storm being a force to be reckoned with who hides a surprising amount of power between her staid and poised demeanor. The business about Sauron being a pawn of Gorak and his villainous ploy is pretty dull and Storm’s “I have to stop Gorak from poisoning the land” routine stumbles as well.

The only vaguely attention-grabbing thing is the use of the group’s powers. Rogue trying to help use Sauron’s powers to stop and out of control Storm has the intrigue of how all these uniquely powerful people will interact with one another. In the same vein, Sauron trying to power-suck Rogue and having their powers cancel each other out is an interesting tack. And as silly as it is to watch a giant were-pterodactyl fight a giant loinclothed stone man, the mega-battle is at least something out of the norm.

Overall, this duology has been a real dud, but mainly in the “stuff is happening, but little of it is interesting” way, rather than the “actively bad” sort of way.

[6.1/10] About halfway through this episode, Rogue says, “I had my fill of Savage Land the first time.” And girl, same.

But here we are, back again, fighting dinosaurs with dudes who wear loincloths for some reason. Why two creative teams thought it’d be a good fit for the X-Men to temporarily relocate to a Tarzan-like land for a while is beyond me, but here we are anyway.

The twist this time is that Sauron, the pterodactyl-looking dude who antagonized xavier and Magneto before, is, in fact, some kind of wer-edinosaur who can revert to his human form when he goes without “mutant energy” for long enough. Or something? Even in human form, he still craves mutant energy, so he’s also kind of a vampire. WHatever. He’s not very interesting. The show tries to do a “good man trapped in a curse” thing, but the performance is so over-the-top, and the storytelling is so shallow that nothing really comes of it.

There’s a little more intrigue in the idea of Storm constantly having to hold her back, but this experience unleashing her full power. They kind of already did this with Jean recently, but it’s an interesting idea for one of the more centered members of the team, and the one I’m most interested to see followed-up on in part 2.

Otherwise, this is largely just a bunch of indifferent clashes. It’s neat to see our heroes confront Sauron in central park. (Though I had a laugh from Beat throwing a coat over ROgue’s head and riding her like a rocket into the paddle boats.) The subsequent battle on Pterodactyls in the skies above the Savage Land isn’t much better than the usual skirmishes despite involving flying lizards.

Plus, we get a tease for some new enemy. All of the people are suddenly worshiping a big tribal head that used to be considered a myth, but has recently been generating adherents. hHat includes some sorceress type who seems to be using Sauron and Storm for her (read: Gorak’s) purposes. It’ mostly just plot machinery, and watching some vaguely-tribal witch type go back and forth with Olmec of Legend of the Hidden Temple doesn’t do much for me.

Overall, I wasn’t looking forward to this duology when I saw the title, and the execution here, while largely inoffensive, has done little to dissuade me from that concern in part one.

[5.0/10] I feel like there’s some joke here I'm not getting. Something about the cross pollination between samurai archetypes, gunslinger archetypes, and spaceman archetypes that have been flowing between the U.S. and Japan for decades, I think? But it doesn’t quite land, and for what feels like a pretty explicitly comedy episode, I don’t think I so much as chucked at this one.

Part of it is that the big gag seems to be that Spike and Andy, the showboating rich kid cowboy bounty hunter, get on one another's nerves because they're so much alike. But other than having a palette-swapped character design, they don’t really seem anything alike? Maybe that's the joke? I have no idea.

The only genuinely funny part in this is the Teddy Bear Bomber, who goes to Batman ‘66 villain-like extremes to pull off his elaborate, political ploys, only to go ignored by the bounty hunters who’d rather scrap with one another. His efforts to be taken seriously and never having a chance to explain his motives is mildly amusing.

But that's about it for this one. When Spike and Andy finally do square off on the rooftop, the animation itself is quite good. There’s a bit of a Looney Tunes quality to their tet-a-tet. Once again, the show excels with the flow and movement of bodies, especially in the context provides for a little extra exaggeration. But otherwise, this is a pretty tepid outing for the show.

[5.4/10] Why is Feng Shui any sillier than the other nigh-magical elements in Cowboy Bebop? I can’t tell you. We have people who’ve been frozen for decades, people who maybe can’t die, assassins who float on the air like they’re made of nothing, kids who stay kids forever, etc. etc. etc. If you can grant all of those things, you should be able to grant this.

But something about somebody using the “energies” of the heavens, earth, and humanity to maneuver people into place at key moments just comes off silly to me. I don’t buy that sort of pseudoscience, and it makes it hard for me to get into this episode, even if Jet plays the voice of skepticism at times.

This is basically doing The Da Vinci Code before the The Da Vinci Code, with a Feng Shui twist, and I’m not really into it. Mixing a noir mystery setup with a puzzle-solving scavenger hunt isn’t my jam. And the recurring bits about there being some awkward-ish romantic thing between Jet and a woman acknowledged in the show as too young for him is pretty uncomfortable.

There is a bit of juice in the warp field dogfight that ensues, but why, for the love of god, are the secondary antagonists here the syndicate version of the Blues Brothers?

More to the point, there’s something to the idea of Meifa wondering why her dad wasn’t around, and seemed to ignore her, only to find out that he was in with the bad guys and wanted to protect her. That's a solid enough turn in the narrative, and there's poignance in him setting this path so that he can say goodbye. But it’s too little too late.

Overall, a definite low light in the season thus far.

[5.0/10[ I gotta be honest. I watched this episode this morning, and I still barely remember it. I tw as that forgettable. I didn’t like the first Mojo episode, so chances are I wasn’t going to like this one either. But man, this whole thing was just boring.

Longshot popping up is fine, I guess. But the writers completely hammer home the fact that Wolverine doesn’t trust him and Jubilee idolizes him. Logan’s mistrust is over the top for no real reason. And Jubilee’s admiration never really goes anywhere.

The gladiator battles hosted by Mojo are stock and dull. It’s the same X-Men vs. Goons fights we’ve seen a million times by now, with nothing but Mojo’s irksome commentary to distinguish them. (I did get a kick out of him calling Spiral a “pile of armpits”, so credit where it’s due.) There’s at least some minor payoff to the random enmity between Wolverine and Longshot when Longshot does the usual hero thing and Logan recognizes his goodness from it. But it’s thin gruel.

Overall, this is a reheated sequel to an already poor episode, with shallow characterizations, and little to show for it beyond revealing a guest character’s backstory. Something tells me we’ll see Longshot and Mojo and Spiral again, but good lord, I’m not looking forward to it.

[6.1/10] With everything else going on in this already overstuffed storyline, did we really need to inject Cucops’ space dad into this? Even if you didn't have the strained “I am your father” detail here, adding yet another side in the conflict between the Emperor’s goons and Lilandra’s rebels is an unnecessary complication. Great, Corsair hates the Emperor because he killed his wife. Ii get it. But this storyline could already use more time to actually expand on who these characters are and what they want and why they’re in conflict. Instead, the writers seem to want to tack on more and more pot until the whole arc simply topples over.

The rest of this is fine, if not really satisfying. We get a bunch more space goons who are friends and foes that get essentially no introduction before the X-Men are throwing punches and energy beams at them as usual. The plot to assassinate the Emperor has a bit of juice to it since the X-Men are trying to locate Cyclops at the same time. The ensuing battles, in both space and in hand-to-hand combat, have little to show for them beyond Beast, Wolverine, and Rogue holding a door open for escape.

I can’t even say I’m enticed by the prospect of the Emperor gaining the powers of the encom crystal for a theoretically epic battle against Phoenix. He’s such a non-entity of a bad guy, with no shading beyond the usual cackling goofiness. The idea that Phoenix needs to recharge in order to face him gives her some feet of clay that helps make her a more reasonable character. (And how quickly has Gladiator fallen on the power scale?)

Mostly though, apart from how convoluted this one comes off, everything about this part of the story seems off-brand. I don’t want to slate X-Men for taking big swings, but these characters don’t make a ton of sense in the cosmic part of the Marvel Universe. This continues to feel like off-brand Star Wars with the mutants shoehorned in, and it leaves me disappointed with one of the X-Men’s signature storylines.

[5.0/10] My biggest problem with “The Night Before Christmas” is fairly simple. I don’t really care about James and Helen as a couple; this Xmas special doesn’t give me much reason to, and by god, there’s a lot of the two of them in it.

That's all a big issue when this post-finale finale practically hinges on the viewer being as invested in the pairing as they seem to be. On-screen chemistry can be a slippery thing. For whatever reason, despite the occasional bout of goo goo eyes between them, I’ve just never felt that smoldering attraction between Helen and James. The show’s tried to generate it with meaningful looks alone. And while that can work sometimes (the 2009 Persuasion adaptation made a meal out of the idea), the two performers just don’t click enough to accomplish that challenging feat.

More to the point, the episode hasn’t done much more to show us why they belong together. They haven't shared that many scenes together. We haven't seen much in the way of banter between them, or gestures that show mutual care and comfort, or other shared moments that suggest the two of them would make a good duo, separate and apart from whether they ever get together romantically. We know that James has been nursing a crush, and that maybe the attraction is mutual, but the show has spent surprisingly little time partnering the two of them if it wanted to suggest more.

Maybe this is a simple failing of the shorter season model. It’s hard not flash back to The Office’s Jim and Pam with all of this, a T.V. romance that follows similar rhythms. This may be blasphemy, but I was much more invested in Jim and Pam’s forbidden romance on the U.S. version of the show than Tim and Dawn’s in the U.K. version. The reason is simple -- the former got to develop over more time, so we had more chances to see their friendship blossom, the forbidden elements of it chasten them, to let the fallout of various choices resonate. I still liked the Tim and Dawn pairing, but it felt less developed by comparison.

James/Helen is the same idea, only worse. Helen just got engaged. We barely know the contours of her relationship with Hugh and only know a little bit more about her relationship with James. There’s no sense of the two of them wanting something but feeling pulled by the inertia of life, or how they grow closer at a time that's romantically inconvenient (to say the least) for Helen, or anything. It’s just a boom: engagement, flirtation, wedding called off.

And they sell it in such a hokey and uncomfortable way. The two of them working together to help and save a dog who’s having puppies is pretty standard shtick for this show, so I’m not apt to grouse too much for it. But the show delivers it all in such a hamfisted, overblown way that it’s hard to be moved by the event. At least it sells that they can do great and touching things together, which is pretty much the first time we’ve gotten to see that.

But goodness, I am put off by the show’s attempt to use the “love is undeniable” message from a story about an interracial couple who overcame prejudice in the 1890s, of all things, to bolster the undercooked romance between James and Helen. You can see what they’re going for here, with a “love conquers all” moral. But reducing something as challenging and inspiring as a husband and wife who faced down bigotry to be together to a nudge for two generic sops whose only obstacle is Neville Longbottom feels tone deaf at best. Nevermind the fact that the husband and wife read like tertiary theater character cliches who only speak in homespun nonsense and writerly monologues that lay the point on thicker than molasses.

Suffice it to say, I didn’t care about the impropriety of James and Helen spending the time together. I didn’t care about James sitting at a literal crossroads, which laid the symbolism on even thicker. And I didn’t care about Helen leaving Hugh at the altar with James returning to win her hand, or at least start something else. The only moment in all of this that truly moved me was Helen’s father telling her that she doesn’t have to do anything for him, a perceptive dad’s worry that his child might do something to make herself unhappy on his account. But otherwise, the backbone of this special was the Helen and James romance, and it was cracked and almost broken from the start.

But everything else in the episode is...pretty good? That's what’s tricky about the All Creatures Xmas Special. The non-Herriot material is solid at worst and great at best, but there’s a much smaller quantity of it.

Again, chemistry is a mercurial thing, but I buy Siegfried and Dorothy ten times more than I do James and Helen despite the former couple only receiving a fraction of the screen time. Dorothy’s smiley gaze and care for Mrs. Hall, and Siegfried’s torturous awkwardness and teary-eyed sincerity about trying to love again after the death of his wife makes for a pairing that sings. The duo’s “What would the old Siegfried do?” conversation is a bit corny, but the acting and affection sells it.

In the opposite terms, I generally like Tristan’s story here except for the romantic element. Tristan helping Maggie the bartender’s young companion (Little brother? Nephew? Cousin?) to tell the truth about a sick donkey who ate mistletoe is pretty standard yuletide pablum. But Tristan talking about the “magic mask” his brother gave him to help when he was shy or afraid of the young lad, and showing his aptitude with people and compassion for animals, even when he struggles with book-learnin’, shows his potential in the field.

I don’t know why they have to then turn around and use it as a reason to stick him and Maggie back together. This show’s barely made it to seven episodes, do we have to pair everyone off already? But up to that point, it’s a nice subplot that helps underscore the parental and fraternal love between Tristan and Siegfried. To that end, I’m intrigued by Siegfried telling Tristan that he passed his vet exam when, in actuality, he failed. There’s a lot to unpack there, but it’s a big choice that has a lot of storytelling potential.

My favorite storyline in this one though is Mrs. Hall’s son not coming for Xmas despite an assurance he would and Mrs. Hall’s prodigious excitement, paired with the otherwise prickly Siegfried showing extra care and concern for her during such a challenging time. The actress who plays Mrs. Hall shows the enthusiasm that curdles into steady cracking brilliantly, and the power of an unsentimental chap being kind and compassionate when it counts most isn’t lost on me.

Overall, the Helen/James portion of this special is a dumpster fire, and there’s a high proportion of it in this episode. But what’s left is pretty darn good!

[7.4/10] Another fun episode. This one’s a bit more disjointed than some fo the others, but it’s still entertaining and enjoyable on a scene-by-scene basis.

The A-story, about Luz, Willow, and Gus having a witchy sleepover gone awry, is good stuff. The episode does a good job of combining a very relatable trope -- kids gathering against their caretakers’ wishes and getting up to some mischief -- with a very fantastical issue -- a house springing legs and running afoul of some demon hunters.

You sympathize with Luz for wanting to do this cool thing with her friends and not disappoint them after all of them are excluded from the cool kids’ collective. But you also get to enjoy the magical lunacy of a home sprouting big bird legs and marching down the countryside.

The resolution is strong. There’s a lot of humor to be had from the group
S one-liners and the back-and-forth with the demon hunters. The power of friendship and cleverness leading the trio of misfits to success is nice. Most of all though, I like seeing Luz support her friend, reassuring Willow that she’ll be there for her no matter what, unlike Amity who used to be friends with Willow before ditching ehr when Amity got powers and Willow didn’t The fact that the support allows Willow to again be a plant magic superstar and the three of them working together to set things right is all to the good.

The B-story is a little less availing, but not bad. Eda running out of her curse-neutralizing potion and needing to restock at the sketchier “Night Market” sets up a good premise. The whole gambling problem thing comes a bit out of nowhere, but we’re still getting to know the character. At the very least, it sets up a nice metaphor that Eda herself is “the wildcard” to where even a crafty hustler can’t get one over on her.

All that said, I got a big kick out of Tibbles, the adorable but conniving owner of the potion stand who tries to hustle and eventually capture Eda. The combination of his upper crusty and chipper bearing, with his Machiavellian ways makes for a distinctive antagonist.

I do enjoy the way the two stories lightly come together in the end. Luzs house march crushing the stand of Tibbles maks for a random but enjoyable solution to Eda and King's problem. Eda making the three kids clean the house as punishment while remarking that Luz has real power is a good tease. Hooty has more to do here and is, well, a hoot. And I like that in the end, the misfit trio get one over on the mean girls by making it big on “pentstagram” for their antics.

Overall, this one doesn’t quite soar like a couple prior episodes, but it’s a solid meld of human and magical problems, with some neat new character introductions and details as well.

[7.0/10] This is a wacky comedy episode, which tends not to be my jam as much. There’s a decent emotional throughline here, with Tristan wanting a check for his college tuition and Seigfried being torn about whether giving it to him would be encouraging his little brother or just indulging him.

But for the most part this is just silly antics with Mrs. Pomfrey’s dog, Tricki, being overweight. The gags about Tristan lazing about at the same time Tricki is, or the gimmicks Tristan must employ to get the little pudgy fluffball moving are pretty broad. I don’t mind comic relief episodes now and then, but this is pretty sitcom-y stuff.

That said, there’s dribs and drabs of more compelling things. Mrs. Hall getting a letter returned to sender that she’d meant for her son, and it clearly wounding her a bit, has meat to it. Along with pampered Tricki being a metaphor for Tristan, the growling big dog whose bark is worse than his bite seems like a metaphor for Siegfried. And the pair of them each overcoming their fears to treat the pup that means the world to a WWI veteran is something.

The rest of this feels like piece-moving though. We get some tired, teasing interactions between James and Helen over a less-than-amorous bull. (Another bit of broad comedy.) They at least resolve things amicably between Herriot and Hugh, but then we introduce Helen’s pugnacious father. By the same token, Siegfried deciding to tutor Tristan himself rather than send him off to college seems less an object lesson in not spoiling someone you love and more a cheap excuse to keep Tristan on the show, but whatever.

Overall, this one is largely amiable enough, but unlike Mrs. Hall’s roast beef dinner, is largely lacking in real meat.

[6.6/10] I’m always game to learn more about Wolverine’s past, but this one doesn’t have much going for it. Likewise, I know that Lady Deathstrike is a big deal in X-Men, but delivering some never-before-seen backstory where Logan has an ostensibly deep connection to her, despite having never mentioned her or given the audience a glimpse of her before now makes her presence and deep connection to Wolverine feel tacked on.

Don’t get me started on the cheesiness of her connection to Logan. Wolverine has a long lost girlfriend whom he knew from his days in Japan? That totally works, even if it feels a bit spackled into the show’s continuity. But the twist that she's the daughter of the scientist who gave Wolverine his adamantium claws creates a small universe problem and feels awfully contrived.

If the storytelling in the present was better, I might not mind so much. But Lady Deathstrike does nothing but yell about revenge and taunt Wolvie in a way that lacks any more realistic humanity. The story of her blaming Wolvie for her father’s death, and then becoming a cyborg comes off as silly. I know that's an unfair criticism to level at a fantastical show, but it’s hard to take all of this seriously nonetheless.

The rest of this is no less goofy. Lady Deathstroke’s cyborg goons are pretty hilariously over-muscled gonks, especially the one with a tank for a torso. The Morlocks are basically made props for this other story, which diminishes them from their admittedly weak feature episode in season 1. And the fights here are nothing to write home about, with a bunch of the usual slashing and energy blasts without much to show for it.

I do appreciate the goal and the tease of an alien predator. Xavier getting a charge from Lady Deathstrike setting off the ship’s defenses and trying to warn our heroes sells the urgency and terror of whatever’s contained within that vessel. And at the very least, Lady Deathstrike needing Wolverine to get through the ship’s wall gives everyone a goal to orient around. Though Gambit and Jubilee don’t have much to do here, and they’re pretty blase about letting the Morlocks stay trapped in the bad guys’ net thingies.

Overall, not the most auspicious start ot the season, but the introduction of someone else important from Logan’s past, and the introduction of an alien presence do bode well for what X-Men has in store.

[5.3/10] I don’t give a damn about the Savage Land whatsoever. It’s so corny. There’s no character to it. It’s nothing but random plot happenings with ridiculous characters who have silly voices and sillier designs. Brainchild? Are you kidding me? And pairing Xavier and Magneto up with a second-rate Tarzan (with the nearly anagrammed name of “Ka-Zar”) does nothing for me either.

I’m sure this is all from the comics, as X-Men has been pretty faithful on that front. But the writers of this show had a choice of what to adapt and what not to,. This all plays like the stupidest, most cornball outing of the show yet, and it’s hard to be invested in it.

Likewise, I’m tired of the show playing coy with Mr. Sinister’s motivations. If you want to make a big deal out of him pursuing our heroes, particularly Scott and Jean, then we need more than, “I want to make some super mutants who are my slaves.” The lure of Morph’s split personality (represented well with his clever Jekyll and Hyde performance) remains worthy material, but it takes a backseat to a standard scrap with Sinsiter’s goon and Jean as the damsel in distress.

There’s something mildly worth hanging onto about Xavier trying to resist Sauron’s mind control rays by focusing on the found family that he cares for. But it’s thin gruel.

Overall, this is a bunch of forgettable fights with a bunch of ridiculous characters. Not an auspicious lead-in to the season finale.

[4.7/10] This was...bizarre. I normally like high concept episodes. I tend to really like meta episodes. But this one felt too scattershot and shallow to do much for me. An episode about forcing the X-Men into television while we’re watching a television show about the X-Men could be a recipe for hilarity, commentary, and maybe even insight. Instead, we get this aimless showbiz pastiche led by a grating character with little to show for it.

What the hell is Mojo? As a send-up of network executives he’s pretty toothless, and vaguely antisemetic in his use of Yiddish. The character’s tone and vibe play like a warmed over Jim Carrey impression. And the design is downright grotesque, which hey, can be a good thing. I like animators swinging for the fences. But this tepid critique of television execs personified was annoying at best.

The entire thing is pretty stupid. Sending the X-Men into other genres and turning them into action-y romps could be a blast. Instead we get a mild sort of Miami Vice spoof, a weird mash-up of Star Wars and Alien, and a theoretical I Dream of Jeannie parody that just becomes another big fight. There’s some neat cameos from the likes of Punisher, but otherwise, these are flavorless destinations for a premise where the sky’s the limit.

I guess it’s mildly amusing that Longshot, the actor who plays a fictional hero in one of Mojo’s existing shows, acts to help the X_Men not out of altruism, but to get his show and time slot back. Even then, it subjects us to so much of Mojo’s annoying antics. And Jean’s realization that it’s TV and so can be affected by her powers seems pretty facile.

The T.V. critique itself is pretty hollow. Again, Mojo is a stock exec type, so even made into an interdimensional slug, there’s not much doing there. There’s nothing by way of spoof or commentary in the show’s that X-Men mildly attempts to spoof here. And even Mojo’s comments about audiences just wanting love, hate, action, and romance seems like the shallowest dig at how networks build T.V. shows.

Overall, this is worse than a bad episode. It’s one that has a neat idea and a chance to go a little wild in a format-bender, and instead gives us an uninteresting dud.

(Oh, and the Savage Land stuff continues to be pretty dumb. Now we have a Pterodactyl Man with mind control powers using them on a 1940s buxom jungle lass. Yeesh.)

[7.0/10] Here again, it’s nice to have X-Men focusing mostly on one individual story. But I just wasn’t super interested in that story. Everything here is fine. Taking a detour to an Eastern European nation that broke off from the USSR and getting into a battle between Colossus and Omega Red is a solid enough idea. It doesn't amount to much though.

Maybe it’s because the conflict is pretty generic. I’m sure this played like a much bigger deal just a few years after the fall of the Berlin wall. But having an unfrozen Russian super soldier who wants to crush the new civilian leadership and restore the empire comes off a little silly three decades later. There’s some mildly interesting tension between the coup leaders just wanting to overthrow the current government of Russia and its former client states relatively bloodlessly, while Omega Red wants to stomp his bootheel on the neck of anyone and everyone. But it’s pretty thin, and Dark Star is a bg nothing of a character.

Colossus doesn't get much either. About the only noteworthy thing about him here is that he faced prejudice for being a mutant where he came from too, which helps show the anti-mutant prejudice is a global, not a local thing. But him rescuing his little sister and trying to go n a crusade to protect his old country has little in the way of depth to it.

I do like the X-Men focus here. Jubilee trying to take that initiative and help out gives her some extra spunk. We find out that Wolverine's been in action for at least twenty-five years, when he fought Omega Red to a freezing point (with a blink-and-you’ll miss it Captain America appearance!). And I like the clever solution of Storm refreezing him by using her weather powers.

I’m still a bit nonplussed by the goings on in the Savage Land. I suppose there’s something unique about Xavier and Magneto having to get by without their powers. But Magneot luring a dinosaur to get wiped out by a geyser is pretty silly.

Overall, this episode has the right approach, but cant make too much from its Russia-adjacent jaunt.

[7.5/10] I like these episodes so much more when there’s focus! We basically have an A-story, a B-story, and a tease for the next episode here, both of which . Thus far, most X-Men shows have had a little bit of everything, which is cool in its way, but can also leave them feeling a bit scattered.

But this one is comparatively straightforward. In the A-story, Storm and Rogue travel to Africa in order to investigate a disturbance that's affecting Storm’s godson, MjNari. There’s a strong idea at the core of this one, of members of a tight knit family being willing to do anything they can for one another. When Storm was a child, she was haunted by a malevolent force called The Shadow King, and Professor X helped banish it. But now it’s broken out and is trying to gain leverage over her again by possessing her godson. The lengths she’s wiling to go to save and protect MjNari reveals the depth of her feelings in a way that's easy to relate to despite the melodrama of the series.

This one gives us a fair bit of backstory on Storm. We learn she was an orphan, that she was taken in by a community and became one of them, that she helped raise a child as a second mother, and that like so many of the X-Men, she got help from Xavier to overcome the things that were challenging her as a mutant.

So she tries to do the same for MjNari. He too is a mutant, with super speed and vision into the astral plane. While these are gifts, they also make him a target for the Shadow king. It takes Storm offering herself up as a host for the Shadow King to save MjNari, over Rogue’s strenuous objections. Rogue tries to save Storm even when Storm’s possessed, and Storm tries to spare Rogue from the Shadow King’s evil machinations.

And while there’s a fair amount of convenient magic involved, the three of them banishing the Shadow King back into the astral plane through the same tear he came out of is a nicely clockwork solution. That's especially true since it requires MjNari to rise to the occasion, racing through the plane, and getting help from his second mom to make it out. There’s a camaraderie, a teamwork, a mutual sacrifice that elevates this one.

And it lends itself to the other theme of the episode -- that Xavier or not, the X-Men are carrying on his legacy in their hearts and minds. I’m not sure that I bought Xavier was really gone even when I was in elementary school. But even so, it’s heartening to see Storm and Wolverine affirm through their words and through their actions that the spirit and mission he’s left them with will survive him, and that they’ll show the same kindness and altruism to others that he showed them.

That includes Morph. It’s really cool watching Wolvie hunt down his shapeshifting old buddy in the hopes of helping him recover from what’s troubling him. By the same token, I love seeing Morph taunt Wolverine psychologically with the visages of Jean or other foes or even Wolvie himself, since Morph knows he can't do much to Wolverine physically. I’ll say this for Morph. In a show full of loud villains with generic plans, Morph is pretty darn clever as an antagonist, and it makes him my favorite foil so far.

But the point, even though Morph gets away, is that Wolverine wants to help him however he can. It’s what the Professor would want, and the principles he’s instilled in his pupils are more important than the man himself.

Speaking of which, I’m a little skeptical of the tease for the next episode. I vaguely remember the Savage Lands from other Marvel shows, and recall it as a sort of silly concept. But comic book-y goofiness or not, all the death fakeouts are starting to get a bit tiresome, so we’ll see how things go when Charles and Magneto end up inevitably unscathed despite the waterfall plunge the show leaves us with.

Overall, a much more focused and improved hour than even many of the best episodes off the show thus far can offer.

[6.8/10] I didn’t like this one as much as the first part of the duology. While part one set up a bunch of interesting ideas for the season to explore, part two basically knocks them down al too easily.

Morph is messing with the X-Men? And he poses as Professor X with claims that a neural ray is making members of the team act strangely? That's okay, Wolverine literally sniffs him out, and the problem is effectively solved. Jubilee’s been kidnapped by anti-mutant terrorists? That's okay. Wolverine can just show up, beat them up, and get out of dodge without issue. Some literally sinister dude is plotting against the world? That's alright, our heroes can just show up on his island and beat up his interchangeable and lightly uncomfortable goons.

There’s just not much to this one. The conflicts are solved too easily, the new characters (including Mr. Sinister) aren’t especially interesting, and the premise of Jean and Cyclops’ honeymoon being disrupted isn’t enough to carry the day.

The one exception here is Morph. I love how shattered Wolverine is by his return. I love Cyclops trying to help him understand why he did what he did. I love Morph being torn between one side of him that resnets the X-Men for abandoning him and one that longs for reunion. Hell, I even love Morph being clever enough to tell Jubilee to blast both him and Wolverine when he’s disguised to foil the old “Which one should I shoot?” trick. The notion of an embittered but conflicted teammate floating around out there is my favorite part of this.

But Mr. Sinister is a bit of a dud. His look is cool enough. But his “I‘ve been watching you Scott and Jean and now I’m going to breed you or whatever to make a race of super mutant slaves” is cornball survival stuff. He doesn’t have enough of a distinguishing angle from the likes of Apocalypse, and his goons veer between being silly and being vaguely offensive.

The tease for Xavier and Magneto getting duped and caught in an avalanche has some intrigue, but on the whole, this is a letdown after the excitement of the season premiere.

[7.2/10] This one’s a bit less engaging than the first two episodes, but still good. As with “Witches Before Wizards”, this one’s a bit of a deconstruction of the “magical school” tropes, showing that even if The Owl House is playing in those same spaces, it’s not going to be beholden to the usual beats those types of stories hit.

There’s also some good psychological material here. Eda views schooling with its rote memorization and busy work to be contrary to the real ins and outs of becoming a witch, which helps add to her outcast “bad girl” cred. Whereas Luz feels too unstructured, and is enamored by the more traditional school environment.

Of course, in the end da at least sees that there’s some good kids in the school,a dn Luz realizes that there’s dangers to being present in the magic academy and Eda knows what she’s talking about. It’s simple but effective. And Eda being proud of Luz for getting banned is a funny beat.

Honestly, this episode seems more pointed toward world-building and establishing characters than it does story. But I don’t really mind! We meet Willow, a “half-witch” who’s forced to take one subject by her parents when she actually excels in another. We meet Amity, the traditional “top student” who resents and looks down on Willow for her underachievement. And we meet Gus, a human enthusiast who’s sharp enough to recognize what Luz really is. That detail along with the intriguingly designed Principal Bump and a funky series of professors, helps populate the world of the show.

The school itself is inviting in that off-kilter Owl House way. The abomination lessons are amusing, the lockers are a laugh, and Willow’s tree-based escape plan is exciting visually.

The B-story didn’t do much for me though. Eda and King wagering over whether King can raise a little slug with positive reinforcements is pretty underbaked, and doesn’t have a ton of laughs. But it’s fine at worst.

Overall, a bit of a downgrade from the first couple of episodes, but a nice one to help viewers get to know the world and tone of the show in these early days.

[7.6/10] The first episode of The Owl House wheres its themes on its sleeve. It’s okay to be different. It’s okay to be unique. And we weirdos need to stick together. Is that a groundbreaking notion? Not for crusty old adults like me. But it’s a perfect message to send to a new generation of kids, still finding themselves in a world that doesn’t have much time for the goofy, off-kilter, and otherwise atypical members of our society. And I am here for it.

I’m also here for the way the show dramatizes that idea in the early going. The notion of young Luz, who likes doing funky taxidermy and editing together fancams and imagining herself in fantasy stories, finds herself stumbling into one of them, makes for a hell of a premise. The idea that in the real world, she’s so quirky that she’s about to be sent to “reality check” summer camp to make her more boring and normal, creates both real world stakes and a parallel to the “conformatorium” in the Boiling Isles. And most of all, it’s neat to spend time in this world of weirdos, where the myths and stories that humanity comes up with stem from the oddities of this realm leaking through.

The show makes for a nice introduction to what I take to be its main players. Luz is a reatble young woman, a little off-kilter in her bearing, but fun and noble at heart. The Owl Lady has a bit of a conman’s charm, with the sense of ulterior motives but also the air of a mentor who’s used to being her own abnormal self in a world that also wants to punish her for it. And King is a hilarious little sidekick, making grand proclamations and threats that belie his “cute little dude” status.

This is where I confess that I’m coming to The Owl House with the idea that it’s at least partly as a spiritual successor to the superlative Gravity Falls. So it’s nice to hear Alex Hirsch’s voice as the little demon cat, and as the owl-y doorknocker, and to see his influence on the general humor and vibe of this show. I have every confidence that Dana Terrace led the way here, but there’s also something familiar from this community of endearing weirdos behind the scenes that makes the place feel like home instantly.

(As an aside, I don’t know if there’s any crossover, but the Boiling Isles also feel a touch like the “anything goes” world from Adventure Time, which is a feature, not a bug.)

Otherwise, this one spins things out nicely. The mission to retrieve a Burger Queen crown, the attempt to free other captives who are imprisoned both by bars and by rejection, and Luz’s choice to stand-up for her fellow weirdos rather than leave when she can get out of dodge all invite you into this story and this world from the jump. There’s a lot of fun off-the-wall twists like King’s “crown of power” turning out to be a cardboard fast food hat, and the malevolent warden just wanting to date the Owl Lady. Likewise, there’s some wonderful design and animation moments, like the utterly creepy Warden or the inventive magical battle our heroes have with him.

On the whole though, “A Lying Witch and a Warden” sets The Owl House up nicely. It works as a neat individual adventure. It works as a cool introduction to this world. It works as a strong setup for more adventures to come as Luz moves into the titular abode to learn how to be a witch. And it works as a reassuring message to the past-and-present weird kids on the other side of the screen -- you are valid, you are not alone, and there’s strength in oddball numbers.

[7.4/10] This is another episode that's a bit too narratively busy for my tastes. But it has a certain plot structure that helps. You have four separate groups trying to find Dr. Adler -- Rogue on the one hand, Avalanche & Pyro on the other, Cable lurking around as well, and Professor X and Moira McTaggert bringing up the rear. (And that's before you get to Cyclops and Jean showing up.) Mixing and matching them makes the episode a little jumbled, but the fact that they’re all roughly after the same thing helps provide at least a little focus to this one.

What I appreciate about this episode though is the focus it puts on Rogue. The advent of a supposed cure creates some existential questions for the X-Men. Mutants are ostracized for being different. The ones we know can largely pass in regular society, but the Morlochs can't, and not every mutation is easy to live with. The question over whether to embrace the prospect of a cure not only raises interesting questions about the pros and cons of these gifts, but dovetails nicely with real life questions about disabilities, and whether it’s right to want to cure things that have people lead different, but no less worthy lives.

Rogue is a good focal point for that. It’s easier for Wolverine and Storm to declare that they’d never give up being mutants because their powers give them nothing but benefits. (That’s an oversimplification, but you know what I mean.) For Rogue though, hers means she can't ever get physically close with someone, can't feel physical affection, without hurting the ones she loves. You can understand why she would seriously consider giving up her strength and flight if it meant she could experience close contact again. (And our chance to see her unfortunate first kiss in a show-don’t-tell flashback drives that point home.)

The show takes that idea seriously, even as it makes things a little overblown pr the aries’ usual high volume emotional setting. But she has a good arc here: asking for Dr. adler’s help, getting involved in the cody of errors that comes from all these people looking for the same person, and coming to decide that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks when her powers allow her to save Jean’s life, and she realizes the good she can do and the person she’s become worth holding onto, even if it comes with challenges. I like that idea a lot.

The rest of this is largely plot machinations, but I can appreciate most of this. I dig that Cable’s still around, going after Dr. Adler because he created the collars that allowed Trask and Gyrich to imprison the mutants on Genosha. Avalanche and Pyro looking to become Apocalypse’s goons is straightforward, and the pair are fairly generic, but they make for decently colorful intermediate obstacles for the good guys, which is about all you can ask for from low-level mooks. Xavier and Moira trying to get to the bottom of Adler’s research and cure isn’t bad either.

I’ll confess that I find the introductions for Apocalypse and Mystique a little underwhelming given what significant roles they play in the typical X-Men stories. I mean really, Apocalypse trying to get his hands on a machine that makes mutants into his slaves is pretty mild superhero stuff, rather than Big Bad shit. But he does have a visually-striking look, and the notion of Mystique killing off the real scientist and taking his place is a nice entree to her powers.

Plus hey, the debut of Angel! He too is a good stand-in for the mutants who have gifts and resources, but for whom the visible parts of their mutations create challenges in romance and other aspects of their life. If I recall correctly, he’ll cross paths with our heroes and Apocalypse again, so it’s nice to plant the seeds for that here.

Otherwise, I like the homage to “Nightmare at 20,000 feet” from The Twilight Zone with Rogue. And Rogue interacting with Mystique and Cyclops interacting with Cable has a certain cachet that I wonder if the show will follow-up on down the line.

Overall, this one is a bit too overstuffed, like several X-Men episodes so far, but the Rogue material is good, and what this seems to be setting up for later on gives it some extra oomph.

[6.0/10] South Park gets points for some mild cleverness in this one. The idea of ending an episode about the use of ChatGPT with an ending ostensibly written by ChatGPT itself is an amusingly recursive way to go out. And regardless of who it comes from, I like the notion of AI needing to be open and contributed to by all, rather than controlled by a select few out to monetize it.

But otherwise, this is a fairly rudderless episode without much to say. The premise of boyfriends using ChatGPT to write attentive notes to their girlfriends is mildly amusing, and the same of teachers using ChatGPT to grade papers written by ChatGPT. But the show never finds much of a deeper point to all of this. Yes, there’s some comic irony and hypocrisy involved, in true South Park style, but for the most part the show is just pointing to the program and saying “This exists” rather than layering on more of an insight and critique.

I’ll admit to getting a laugh out of the ending that is either genuinely penned by ChatGPT or just done in a similarly robotic style by Trey Parker. But the diviner character was pretty weak, and the show seemed to feel more need to explain AI services than poke fun at them.

Overall, this one is perfectly fine and does have some built in commentary in its half-ironic use of AI by the show’s writer himself, but is otherwise missing the extra bite and incisiveness that elevate the best South Park outings.

[7.6/10] This one feels pretty plainly like a rip-off of Ridley Scott’s Alien. But you know what? I really like Alien. There are worse plots and atmospheres for a science-fiction story to borrow, I tell you. Which is a long walk to say that I enjoyed this one.

We’ve seen Cowboy Bebop adopt several moods and tones to this point, but I don’t think we’ve seen straight horror like this before. Some difficult-to-see goop monster, marauding through the ship and inflicting its venomous bite on the crew one at a time ratchets up the tension with each victim who falls to it. Watching it strike slowly and steadily, as we see from the creature’s perspective, until Spike realizes what’s up and starts hunting the thing, gives you that slasher movie vibe that Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic had.

The philosophical double-speak from Jet and Faye doesn’t do much for me, but the escalating number of victims of the little blob creature does. (Plus poor Ein! Saddest moment in the episode!)

Spike’s crusade to get it makes for some of the cooler sequences in the show. Again, there’s plenty of Alien homages between the flamethrower and the airlock sequence. But I’m particularly impressed at how the show manages to make the forgone conclusion of him blasting the offending source of the goop off the ship into a suspenseful race against time and will as Spike tries to complete the process before he passes out. The cuts and direction really sell the tenuousness of his position here.

Plus this may be the funniest conclusion to any Cowboy Bebop episode. The fact that this whole rigamarole started because Jet left something in the fridge for too long is low key hilarious. Hell, even Annoying Ed inadvertently saving the day with her sleep eating, by mistaking the little blog for pudding, makes for an amusing capper.

But the piece de resistance here is the closing ballet number. Something about watching the dilapidated fridge spewing sparkles as it spins through the cosmos, with cuts to the balletic grace of the goop ball’s weightless victims left in their element is one of the most striking bits of imagery we’ve seen so far. I hope it’s one of the more iconic parts of this show’s long tail.

Overall, if you’re going to steal, steal from the best and put your own spin on it. “Toys in the Attic” does that and more.

[7.3/10] I’ve mentioned before that I get tired of South Park defaulting to “It was a grand conspiracy the whole time” plotting. But I don’t know. Something about the low stakes of Americans continuing to use toilet paper, and the specificity of making this a parody of JFK, made this one click into place for me. Not to be too grandiose about it, but this felt more like a classic South Park episodes, taking something mundane in an absurd direction rather than spoofing the news of the week.

Honestly, there’s something kind of adorable about Randy blowing his money on a fancy toilet and getting so excited about it that he invites his friends and neighbors over just so they can use the bidet. The music, the singing along while defecating, the angry proctologist are all just loony enough to tickle my funny bone.

The JFK-inspired conspiracy material is amusing enough too. I like Stan dealing with the blowback of his father’s extravagance and Jimmy giving him some not so subtle warnings about it. The comic escalation works here given the silliness of the central premise and Randy’s haughtiness over the mere fact of having a fancy john.

This one is not without its drawbacks though. I don’t know why we need a racist depiction of Japanese people, but I suppose that's nothing new from South Park. And I have my qualms about whether the conspiracy indeed will look at this as confirmation that big whatever is holding back the truth from them.

On the whole, though, the goodness of this crusade and shadowy conspiracy over something as simple as whether Ammercians use bidets or not is worth more than a few laughs. Something tells me Matt and Trey used a fancy toilet overseas and had such a Randy-esque life-changing epiphany over it that they decided to make an episode about it. Whatever the reason, I’ll take more low stakes silliness like this from the show.

[7.1/10] I’ll admit that I was a little leery about this one. But I thought it did an admirable job of delving into how stereotypes and antisemitism can divide and hurt people, with bad actors causing harm by spreading bullshit even when the people involved know it’s not true. There’s some nuance and humanity there, which isn’t always something latter day South Park can capture.

The show takes sufficient aim at Kanye’s break through all of this. I’ll confess that I’d mostly forgotten about Carmtan’s “Cupid Me”, but that was an amusing means to poke fun at the rapper-turned-nut-turned-antisemite. The bits about him masking his hatred in religious fervor, his “Just trying to help” attitude sliding quickly into Nazism, and badly needing to take his meds are all on target.

And somewhat surprisingly, there’s some good laughs here. South Park has a mixed record when it comes to humor involving Jewish stereotypes. But people treating Kyle specifically like he runs Hollywood, and doing everything from pitching him movies about a guy with guns for hands to complaining about the Lord of the Rings prequels is an amusing bit. The comic irony of him eloquently explaining the problem with stereotypes about Hollywood, to where they decide to put him in charge of it, makes for a very funny capper to the whole thing. (And even the credits have some fun with the idea.)

Overall, this isn’t the knockout punch of humor or insight South Park might have been able to deliver in its glory years. But its takes are on point; the laughs are there, and it brings more complexity to the issues and the effect a rise in bigotry has on individuals than I might have expected.

[5.7/10 on a post-classic Simpsons scale] This is one of those episodes that's doubly frustrating because the bones of a decent episode are there. Ned accidentally sidling up to the mob? There’s a lot of comic potential in the “nice meets vice” setup. An emotional undercurrent of Ned feeling lonely and needing camaraderie after the loss of his wives? That could be strong material! And there’s even a couple good jokes here! I especially got a kick out of the cutaway gag of Ned describing his sons as purveyors of mischief and mayhem, only for us to see them sitting quietly and blankly as always. Plus the bit of Ned trying to put out the fire on his car with his flame-packed fire extinguisher is an absurd laugh to be sure.

In short, you could do a lot with the foundation of this episode. And instead they do next to nothing!

The mob entanglement doesn’t amount to much because they play everything far too cartoony and exaggerated. Ned seems like a complete idiot for not catching on sooner, and the jokes about how close they come to spilling the beans are awful. The twist about Ned turning state’s evidence comes out of nowhere, and the idea of him wearing a wire under his mustache is too silly to take even remotely seriously, even if they set it up earlier in the episode.

More to the point, I just don’t buy the relationship between Ned and Fat Tony. Some of the plot stuff should be forgivable because we care about the solace Ned finds in this new friendship and sense of belonging. But there’s no human core to it, so the sense of betrayal on either side of the equation doesn’t really matter.

Worse yet, 80% of the jokes here are just plain terrible. Oh my god, the extended bit about how stupid Homer is was just endless and painfully unfunny. Again, some of the other failings here might be worth excusing if you were laughing the whole time, but this episode is a comedy graveyard.

As someone who’s enjoyed many of the iconic mob movies and shows, I did enjoy the little homages. (It’s nice to see Satriale’s from The Sopranos in the Simpsons universe.) That said, Harry Shearer sounded off in his vocal tone for Ned the whole episode, which was distracting. Lastly, it’s never a good sign when the extended couch gag is the best part of the episode, but the stop-motion tale of Homer getting trapped in the world of the couch, done by the Robot Chicken crew, was a cute little interlude.

Overall, this is a low light of the season to date, and one that disappoints all the more for the good ingredients it had to work with.

[8.0/10] Dexter and Harrison bond. Dexter is open with his son. He’s honest about who he is and what he’s done. It makes Harrison feel less alone. It lets him know that there’s someone who understands. It makes Dexter feel less alone too. He can share this part of his life with someone, not have to hold back the part of himself that he hides from the rest of the world. He can provide space to his child. And he can even be admired for what he does, in the way he’d always wanted. He might even have a protege.

Oh wait. That...uh...might not be good?

That's the thought I’m left with after what is pretty easily the best episode of this season. One of the issues that the original run of Dexter tiptoed around but never fully confronted is that, as well meaning as Harry was, this might not have been the best path for Dexter. He had troubles. He had an addiction he couldn't kick. Even observing the code meant he and anyone close to him was in constant danger.

Deb represents that idea. As the voice in Dx’s head, she’s a reminder that there was collateral damage, the kind that gave Harrison the same kind of Dark Passenger Dexter himself struggled with. Bringing him into this committing him to this life in some way shape or form, is a comfort for Harrison as a way to deal with those dark feelings, but it’s also sentencing him to live the same complicated, morally fraught, and often-tragic life that Dexter has.

So when we see him coming together with Harrison, father and s on finally bonding, it feels wholesome and heartening. But the deeper Dexter brings Harrison into his other life, the more disconcerting it is, the more it starts to feel like corruption rather than comfort. I don’t know quite what to do with that, but as with the best stories in Dexter, it’s nice to see the show playing in those gray areas.

And hey, we even get a little bit of classic Dexter-ing! Watching him take down a child-murder clown is, perhaps, a little pandering. But it’s still a nice sop for old fans to see Dex redoing the old routine, even as Deb pokes her head in to make sure he doesn’t scar Harrison with too much too fast.

Even with that worry, it’s nice to see the two of them having honest conversations. Dexter doesn't hold back, gradually sharing the key details with his son, and answering tough questions honestly when asked. The prospect of them teaming up, becoming father-son vigilantes for the people who fall through the cracks, is a heartening one for both parent and child. Harrison only sees the good his dad does in this, the innocent people spared through his actions. It’s the kind of appreciation Dexter, he of the “Dark Defender” has always secretly wanted.

And hey, who better as their first victim than Kurt Caldwell, the man responsible for scads of murders? I’ll admit, I grew tired of his war with Dex pretty quickly. But I appreciate the guts it takes for the show to basically clear out the conflict now. Kurt burning down Dexter’s cabin,while Dex and Harrison expose him as the Runaway Killer, makes for a satisfying climax to their little dance. Harrison’s involvement seals the deal on the way Kurt had been dividing them, whereas here, his death is a unifying factor.

Kurt’s hallway of creepy preserved corpses is unnerving in a Return to Oz sort of way. The reveal that Molly Park becomes one o f his victims after all is a suitable shock. And we do get a little more psychological explanation from him. In his mind, he was sparing them the fate of being a runaway, believing that death and preservation is preferable to the sorts of things his father would subject these sorts of young women to. I have no idea whether that sort of idea is psychologically sound as a serial killer’s rationale, but it’s good enough for an outsized television show, and plays into the daddy issues that are the prime motif for New Blood.

What I’m curious about is whether Harrison is assuaged or disturbed by his father’s deeds in the end. The blood spatter from Kirk sends him into a minor panic attack and PTSD flashback to the Trinity Killer’s slaying of Rita. As much as he seems enthused at the idea of his dad “taking out the trash” and is excited to have someone who understands what he’s going through, there’s a sense that the reality of it is disquieting to Harrison, in ways he can't quite express. I’m admittedly hopeful that despite his dark passenger, his father’s actions are too much for him, more than he wants, in a way that might spare him his life.

That might be the difference. When Kurt talks to Dexter while strapped down on his table, they too have a certain understanding. Dexter accuses Kurt of not doing this for altruistic reasons, but rather because he loves the power, the control. Debherelf says that Dex loves this. As much a s Dexter talks in terms of being a force for good and taming an addiction, the truth i s that he g ets a thrill from his. He enjoys it, needs iti in a way that isn’t healthy.

Harrison doesn’t have the same reaction. He has something he can't control within him but maybe his damage isn’t so deep yet, or not so channeled into a fix, that he can be reclaimed. Who knows, but I love the show exploring his and tying up the conflict with Kurt in a far more satisfying fashion than I’d anticipated.

Hell, I even enjoyed Angela’s continuing investigation into Dexter. While the last episode felt tedious since she was tying together clues the audience already knew about, this is more fascinating because she knows, or at least suspects the truth, but has to pretend to be mostly fine around Dexter. I’ve given the actress some grief here, so credit where it’s due. Julia Jones does a great job of conveying someone who is trying to put up a front of normalcy, but is deeply questioning the person she’s let into her home and her life on the inside. That's a more interesting note for the actress and the character, as Angela starts putting the last of the puzzle pieces together.

That includes the truth that Dexter killed Matt Caldwell. Harrison knows now too, and giving the finale over to Angela potentially exposing Dexter, rather than a final standoff with Kurt, is a canny choice. It gives room for the show to surprise us and creates a broader threat to the life Dexter’s built in the decade since he left Miami rather than just a threat to his physical well-being with another bad guy. I’m here for it, and for once, genuinely curious to see where things land.

All-in-all, this was the crescendo of the season, and one that capitalizes on the great work done to set up the relationship between Dexter and Harrison, gives Kurt a satisfying send-off and revenge, and sets up an intriguing showdown between Dexter and someone he seemed to love for the finale.

[7.1/10] Ahmed Best’s character from this show unexpectedly bursting onto the scene in The Mandalorian made me break down and watch an episode of this. And you know what? It’s cute. I am definitely not the target audience for it. But there are a lot worse ideas out there than reskinning a Legends of the Hidden Temple-style gameshow with the trappings of Star Wars. The premise that fueled those old Nickelodeon shows is still good today.

Throwing in tidbits like the contestants having to leap for meiloorun fruit or remember stories about Jedi masters, or build their lightsabers adds enough franchise iconography to give it some flavor. Plus, between having the actor behind Jar Jar, the voice of Darth Maul, and Frank Oz himself lending their talents to the show, it has more legitimacy and franchise star power behind it than I might have expected.

I don’t tend to review game shows, so it’s hard for me to be too incisive here. But I’ll say that the sets looked impressive and the contests looked fun. If this show was on when I was ten year old, I would have given my left arm to be on it, which is a good sign. That said, the rules of the various competitions were pretty confusing even for a grown-up, and particularly in the first challenge, the editing was choppy to where they clearly had to voice over what was happening since it was hard for an adult to keep up, let alone a child. Then again, maybe a kid would just enjoy the excitement of competition without focusing too much on how, exactly, one team manages to do better than another.

The one part of the competition I really like is the lure of the dark side in the titular challenge in the Jedi Temple. Most of this game show could lose the official Star Wars branding and not lose anything. The mix of obstacle course, knowledge challenges, and physical competition are all standards for the genre. Hell, the friendly host with the goofy non-human sidekick is even a familiar dynamic.

But the suggestion that you can take shortcuts via the dark side, but it will result in consequences later, is not just a neat in-game mechanic; it’s pure Star Wars. That's the essence of the dark side -- taking the easy path now with unexpected hardships to come because of it down the line. Distilling that into a part of the game, and making it something kids can understand, is the cleverest and canniest choice the show’s creators made.

Otherwise, it does stand out how much this feels like an advertisement for Galaxy’s Edge. The holocrons, the lightsabers, even the voice of Yoda once the building of the saber is complete, scans like a deliberate play toward the theme park where visitors can purchase similar doodads and have a similar experience. The knowledge section seems fabricated in the same terms as the Smuggler’s Run ride. I dunno. Star Wars has been a corporate synergy-fueled merchandise machine for ages, so it’s churlish to complain now, but something about it sits uneasy with me.

All of that said, if I had little ones in the target age group, I’d still be happy for them to watch this, and I can easily imagine my ten-year-old self thinking it was the coolest thing ever. So kudos to the creative team for suckering in a crusty old grown-up to watch and appreciate their newfangled throwback game show.

[6.0/10] I find Edward pretty annoying, which doesn’t bode well since she seems to be joining the cast. The tone of voice, the speaking in third person, the inane dialogue all get her off on the wrong foot for me. I can see the appeal of having an eccentric hacker as part of the show’s milieu, and her ability to commandeer ships is neat. But between the goofy 1990s on hackers, and her status as a cheesy superfan of the Bebop crew, color me leery of more time spent with “Radical Ed” on my screen.

The episode itself is alright otherwise. Once again, the art shines, as the dogfight through a laser grid in orbit around Earth was kinetic and riveting. SPeaking of which, I think my favorite part of Cowboy Bebop so far is the world-building. It’s neat learning that the Earth was messed up by some sort of “gate incident” fifty years ago, that there’s people who live under the surface there now, and that other humans across the galaxy look down on Earthlings with a bit of derision. I find myself a little lukewarm on the stories and characters of this show, but I still like the setting.

There’s a few other cool things. The sequence of Jet pounding the pavement and getting a series of fish tales about Edward is well done. The notion of a lonely A.I. embedded in an old weather/spy satellite is an intriguing one, that feels like something Star Trek might have done (and kind of did with Nomad). And Spike deciding that hackers are no fun, but piloting manually through a laser onslaught is fun makes for a nice character beat.

All of that said, I’m continually put off at how over-the-top the male gaze is with regard to Faye. Maybe I would have had my eyes pop out of my skull like a Tex Avery cartoon if I’d watched this as a teenager. But for a character they want the audience to take at least a semi-seriously, despite how she’s portrayed like a brat (sorry, “woman with attitude”), they could stop framing the shots for maximum ogling. It’s low-key embarrassing.

Overall, there’s merit to the premise here, but the new addition to the case makes me wary of the mix aboard the ship going forward.

[6.2/10] For the most part, this is fine. With this special, Matt and Trey find a clever way to meld social commentary on increasing drought conditions and water rights with the proliferation of streaming services. The problem is that they don’t go much beyond that. Every time Stan or Butter talks about providing boats (read: content) for “streaming” services that provide literal water, the double-meaning gets a little less clever. And while it was pleasant enough when South Park brought back Al Gore and Manbearpig for a mea culpa, the monster feels awkwardly shoehorned into a story centered on the actual effects of climate change. The metaphors here are sharp enough, but run out of gas quickly.

Plus, it’s a long outstanding complaint from South Park fans that, by god, not everything needs to turn into some crazy conspiracy theory. Again, while I get a kick out of the continuity nod of bringing back Pipi from the water park, him being in control of a vast urine-centric network of operators there to take advantage of the water crisis is a pretty tiresome conclusion from this show.

Likewise, I’m pretty tired of Randy as a character overall. Using him to comment on the rise of the term “Karen” is fine, I guess. But it doesn’t amount to much, and the show doesn’t have anything to say on the topic that hasn’t been said a dozen times elsewhere.

That said, there’s a couple of solid parts that boost this one. For one, it’s interesting to see Matt & Trey, of all folks, come out on what seems like the side of conservation. It’s never been their jam, and maybe I’m overreading. But the closing musical montage about people overusing water was, frankly, pretty chilling, so kudos on that.

What’s more, I found myself enjoying the Cartman story, against all odds. Ever since the dog-whisperer episode, it's been a little thrilling to see Lianne stand up to her son. The absurdity of him trying to get out of his hotdog hut and into something “coo” by convincing his mom to get breast implants to lure a rich stepdad is amusing enough. But the real peak here is the way he (seemingly innocently!) gets his friends to contribute monetarily so they can afford his mom’s “surgery.” Cartman going too far, yet again, but having to live with the consequences since his mom won’t placate him, and his friends are just now realizing what the funds he asked for were really intended for, is a good comic setup.

Overall, this one is perfectly watchable, and has a handful of laughs, but ends up a bit disappointing given how quickly the cleverness of the combined water rights/streaming service commentary starts to fade.

[7.4/10] Well, V.T. is officially my favorite character in the show, and I hope she comes back. From her being a no-nonsense long haul trucker, to her stepping in to defend a poor waitress being harassed by a group of good-for-nothings, to her toting around an adorable anti-grav-friendly cat named Zeroes, she is the coolest thing the series has offered so far.

But the major set piece here is good too! Spike, Faye, and V.T. working together to hunt down their latest quarry, a Rick Moranis-esque unassuming bounty hunter named Decker, and having to break out of an old mine when the hunt goes awry, makes some cool sequences. The other two coaching Faye through how to set off the explosives Decker was carrying so they can make a throughway is appropriately tense. And Spike doing more zero gravity balletics, with a few close calls and some clever shooting to get him back to V.T.’s waiting hand, makes for a good routine.

I still find Faye pretty tiresome. She’s got some peak “Men Writing Women” qualities that I don’t love, between being overly sexualized and embodying some cheap stereotypes at the same time. But honestly, having a character like V.T. helps a little, to show that Cowboy Bebop isn’t as limited in the spectrum of female characters it can present.

Otherwise, there’s not much to it. It’s a pretty straightforward hunt that's mainly notable for introducing such a cool new player to the mix. The throughline of V.T. winning money by having people guess her name is a neat little bit. Spike figuring it out via her locket, containing a picture of her with her husband, is a solid payoff. I like how her spouse being a dead bounty hunter explains her reflexive disdain for the profession, and Spike giving up the money he won out of recognition for her loss is one of the more decent things he’s done to date.

Overall, a straightforward episode, but one that's elevated by V.T.’s presence in the proceedings.

[7.7/10] No full review for this one, since I watched this while helping wrangle some tykes and other distractions. But this was a lot of fun! It’s a worthy successor to Who Framed Roger Rabbit with its blend of massive animated crossover charm, a chance to poke fun at showbiz, some solid character work amid the lunacy, and a clever mystery plot that ties into the toon-pitfalls of the day.

Andy Samberg and John Mulaney do great work in the title roles, bringing the laughs with their delivery alone. And the writers come up with a fun world, full of amusing spins on the animated stars of yesteryear in a fractured Hollywood setting. The mystery itself is a tad predictable, but has a few good twists here and there, and the partnership and dynamic between Chip and Dale, with conflicts to overcome and friendships to mend, is a winning spine to build the rest of the story on.

I was particularly impressed by the medium-blending on this one. The different style animated and live action characters feel totally right with one another, with everything from cel-shaded toons to CGI abominations to claymation stars to puppets inhabiting the same world in a believable fashion. The film’s action sequences have extra oomph with the mix of styles and aesthetics.

I also enjoy the main idea of Peter Pan having grown up and trying to turn old toons into “bootlegs” for the money. There’s some thematic resonance there which lines up neatly with the “faded star of old” vibe of Chip and Dale trying to save their friend and relive some former glory in the process. As you’d expect, there’s plenty of postmodern meta humor to go around here with all the references, but it’s a feature, not a bug.

Overall, this one deserves a full watch to catch not just all the fun easter eggs, but also to appreciate the story and themes in full bloom. Even for a distracted watcher, though, this one carries on the spirit of Who Framed Roger Rabbit nicely, with winking homages to animated stars and situations new and old, in a way that shows plain affection for the cartoon phases of yesterday and today, while still finding ways to skewer and have fun with it all.