Once again, waiting to have all the episodes was the good choice, not only because I prefer to watch stuff at my own rhythm, not only because if there’s a bad episode I didn’t wait a week for it and I don’t have to wait a week for the next one, but also because, after reading people’s hate on it for a month and a half, the expectations are so low that I end up having fun. Also, in this specific case, there’s the fact that in the meantime I watched Barbie, so every time I saw the bad guy (who, to be fair, gives a decent performance) I thought of the dumb Ken from the movie. Anyway, Secret Invasion is another case of wasted potential: there’s a great bunch of actors, the premise was solid and it could have been Marvel’s Andor. But if you wanna make Andor, you need to write and direct the shit out of it and here those duties were clearly given to a bunch of Ikea cupboards. That being said, I kind of enjoyed it, because actors manage to squeeze some fun from it (Olivia Colman is the queen of the world, Ben Mendelsohn is her vice), because seeing the Super Skrull was entertaining, because - as is par for the course with Marvel - there’s a couple of very good scenes you can hang on to tell yourself you didn’t waste five hours of your life. Which in this case are the conversation between Jackson and Mendelsohn on the train, all of Colman’s scenes and the whole conjugal Fury stuff (the best episode is centered on that).
Like season 1 but spicier. Badum-tsch.
A couple of weeks ago I was scrolling on Netflix, Rick and Morty suddenly appeared, I remembered that season 4 left me a bit unimpressed but kinda won me beck with last few episodes, I saw that season 6 was already there, I started watching season 5, I thought it started a bit weak but it grew quite rapidly and in the end I had fun, with some laughs here and there. I guess one day I will watch season 6. Should I? Can you feel the meh in what I just wrote? Maybe I’m tired of it? Who knows?
Ahsoka reminded me that I can still fave fun with classic Star Wars and I can still enjoy a full (mini)series that wants to do that. Considering I’ve been watching recent “classic Star Wars” shows only because I felt I had to do it and I watched them while hanging clothes as a survival technique, I’d say it’s an upgrade. Apparently, I don’t need every Star Wars show to be written by Tony Gilroy. To be fair, I think I prefer Andor, but it’s good to know I still like big space adventures, crazy costumes, Jedis acting cool, well choreographed fights, good actors that manage to not be ridiculous while saying ridiculous stuff, epic and touching scenes scored with those three or four themes that I’ve been loving since I was a kid. Also, I admire how they unabashedly decided to create a direct sequel to something that a huge chunk of their current audience probably never watched, but also the smart way in which it’s full of small details that make sense and tell you an interesting, different story depending on if you watched the animated shows, the movies, The Mandalorian, this or that. It’s not perfect, it could easily have been a shorter and leaner thing, maybe even a two hour movie, but when it works it’s quite good and there’s a couple of fights that really made me excited in a way that hasn’t happened since that thing with the red dudes in The Last Jedi. So, I liked it.
This season feels a bit samey but it’s fine, not all comedies can be constantly forward moving and shapeshifting like The Good Place did. Plus, I just want to spend more time with those characters and I got that. Also, there’s Meryl Streep: she’s like a goddes amongst mortals, so much greater than any other actor in the show but also never stealing the scene, always making everyone else better. What a beast.
Idris Elba on a hijacked plane? I’m in! Also, the plot twist: he is not a superhero, not a secret agent, not a soldier, not a cop, not even a boxer, a martial arts expert, someone who learned how to fight at the school of hard knocks. But he does have a superpower: the art of negotiation. And he will use it to defeat (?) the terrorists. Hijack doesn’t have high TV drama ambitions and it’s not a masterpiece, but it’s got tempo, thrills, fun, all the stuff you want from something like this. It kinda reminded me of 24, not in terms of structure, clearly not because of the main character, but in its general vibe.
Gen V avoids the risk of being a lacklustre spin-off by changing the point of view: here we have some still (relatively) naive and (relatively) innocent youngsters who happen to live in the shitty and bloody world of The Boys. And what we get is a show that feels temathically in sync with its mother series but finds its own identity, generating some emotional punch and even being quite smart in how it connects to the other show. I’m not sure I loved the season finale, more or less in the same way I’m not sure I love the season finales of The Boys.
This is basically five episodes of people running aroung looking for MacGuffins and ignoring everything that made season one great (the characters) because they have to explain the mechanics of the multiverse (which I don’t give a fuck about - the mechanics, the multiverse is fine, I guess). Sophia Di Martino barely registers her presence; Owen Wilson has got the best emotional moment of the season in the finale but basically nothing else to do; Jonathan Majors is funny, the scene in which he opens the big door for the first time is really funny and Timely kinda has a decent arc but now he’s gone; Tom Hiddleston does his best. There’s some nice moments, Benson and Moorehead inject some visual creativity that was the biggest thing lacking from season 1, the final episode is really good, the ending works but… I don’t know…
I love Raylan Givens so here I immediately felt at home, even though it took a couple of episodes to really get going. It’s not the best Justified season out there by a long shot, but it’s better than season one and five, thanks to good writing, humour, tension, dialogues and actors. Also, Boyd Holbrook is a great villain, with a very Justifiedy sendoff. Sure, he’s no Boyd, Limehouse or Mags and Dickie Bennett, but who is?
I watched it without knowing it was gonna be the final season and what a trip it was to realize it during the finale. I kinda have the feeling they crammed too much in here because they had more stories to tell, but who knows. And anyway, the flipside is that it will not become a repetitive mess in seasons 4 and 5, I guess. Anyway, I think it manages to close all the relevant arcs in a nice way, while also serving us a healthy dose of an against the type Zooey Deschanel and with a beautyful bottle episode right before the end, that boasts a tragically sweet and sour summation of the Rubin family ensemble.
Lots of cliches, almost everything goes as you would expect but still this works very well, because it does everything very well. The acting cast is almost perfect, great acting and more than believable singing/playing (which is of course quite important). The four main actresses ooze charisma, are really, really good and they also are stunningly beautiful. The songs are maybe not masterpieces but they work, they feel like what the story is telling you they are (which is big: most movies and TV shows about invented art have the problem that when they show you the art it sucks). Writing and directing are also quite goood (James Ponsoldt I love you): there’s passion, honest emotions even when it’s predictable, great attention to details in human relationships and when it actually surprises you it hits so hard. A masterpiece it is not, but it’s a great show.
My thoughts while watching episode 1:
- this is visually charming;
- how much did they spend for the cast?;
- mh, actually, visually, I like it less than I thought;
- oh, so it's a super super loyal adaptation of the comicbook? No, wait, someone told me there's a twist;
- jeez, keeping the dialogues exactly as they were in the comicbook is not a great idea. They are meant to be read, they feel really stiff in a visual medium;
- this is incredibly boring;
- oh, so that's the twist. I kike it. OK, you have my curiosity.
My thoughts while watching episode 2:
- this is incredibly boring;
- what? We are still at minute 15? Fuck it, I'm giving up, there's no point, I'm literally falling asleep.
Now, this clearly is a superficial judgment and I'm sure that if I insisted and watched the rest of it I wouldn't hate it but I'm at a point in my life where if I'm watching a TV show, I'm incredibly bored and I think the best case scenario is "I didn't hate it", well, I can invest my time in something else.
I avoided it for months because I kinda always assume that any Netflix show is uselessy overlong and boring, but then I decided to trust other people and watch it. And it’s amazing! The road rage premise taken to extremes is quite fun until the end but under that there’s an amazingly intense tale about (1) how fucked up we are, (2) life as (children of) immigrants and (3) how much it sucks to live in the USA. Great actors, amazing writing, a crazy but heartfelt ending… I hope they don’t make more seasons. Side note: Lee Sung Jin and Jake Schreier created, wrote and directed (with other people, of course) this show and are now working on Thunderbolts. And I realize that ten years ago I would have thought “Great, they seem perfect!”, five years ago I would have thought “I’d prefer they do their stuff but I’m happy to see good creators work on those movies”, now I think “No, please, someone must save them!” Sigh.
They put this up one episode a day and I loved that. Every day there was a new episode, they were short, I enjoyed watching them because I like the visual style and I liked how they homaged movie classics. But no, really: one at a day, short, 30 minutes, that’s cool, do that, don’t do weekly hours, do daily 30 minutes, of everything, seriously. Worst part was that they had to make some interconnected narrative with the final two episodes and I couldn’t care less.
A beautiful season and also a fascinating left turn in which they basically say “Look, we can explore slightly different genres and it doesn’t feel forced at all, because we have great characters, great actors and a versatile show.” And it’s very well made. I love it.
The lack of shame from Marvel is amazing: they said Echo was gonna be completely autonomous and what they meant is the first episode is a long summary of two other TV shows. Meh. Ironically, the new stuff in that first episode (the action sequence and Kingpin doing what any parent wants to do at least once a week by kicking that guy’s ass) is probably the best part of the whole show. Meh. The rest is the usual Marvel fare: a good cast, some interesting themes and ideas, at least one more fun action sequence, but the constant feeling that (1) a couple of hours would have been enough and (2) it’s more interested in making you want to watch other stuff than in not making you regret watching this stuff.
I still haven’t watched the season finale because reasons but I want to take advantage of my psychotic social sharing backlog to say that when in January I found out there were some new episodes on Disney+ and we watched them, well… That Stickbird/Navigator/Dragon trifecta is such powerful stuff, in how it’s full of imagination and visually experimental but also in how incredibly funny and at the same time moving it is. I already said this, many times, and I will never stop: Bluey is the best show on TV. And it’s been the best show on TV for quite a while.
