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.
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).
She-Hulk confirms the recent trend of MCU TV shows being consistently committed to the bit, instead of being something fresh and original for twenty minutes before going back to the usual stuff. Which doesn't necessarily mean they are good but is something I really appreciate. I almost hated the first episode because it was everything I hoped the show wouldn't be, even though it did that in a nicer than usual way. But after that it only grows in quality and commitment. And every time it has a chance to steer towards the usual MCU fare (like with that guest star) it doesn't. The final episode makes the whole thing super explicit and jokes on that tendency, so that's also very good. Overall it's a good show, consistently funny, with good actors and an amazing Tatiana Maslany. That being said, it's fine, with nice ideas, very good moments and I like how it puts its themes front and center, but it's not even remotely comparable to stuff like Fleabag (an explicit inspiration) or The Good Place (which I think had a similar vibe). But I don't expect that quality level from MCU stuff, so I got no problem with it. Ah, of course my favourite episode are the ones some people don't like because they are too much "bottled up", like the wedding one. By the way, I don't think they actually are bottle episodes: they are necessary in the development of the storyline but whatever.
Bluey is an amazing show, that makes me and my daughter laugh so hard with its montypythonesque humour but also moves me so much with its approach to family dynamics. Basically, every episodes generates moisture, whether because I'm pissing myself or I'm almost crying. It is so realistic in its absurdity, so creative, full of attention to detail (I love how it uses the tails of its canine characters to express their emotions), always really smart in how it treats characters of all ages, giving them agency, personality, intentions. Sweet, lovely, sarcastic, irresistible in how it characterizes the parents who get bored/tired and in how realistic it is even in the most crazy situation. Sadly, on Disney+ it's censored quite a bit, I guess based on America's tastes, so we cannot see a pony pooping because I guess it's too much (what the hell?) or you cannot have a kid asking about how babies end up in mommy's belly because... because? ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4E2s9KhM6w ). Even "better": there's no Dad Baby episode (I found it on torrent and we laughed so hard while watching it) because - OH MY GOD - dad plays with the girls faking a pregnancy and "giving birth" in the garden with the help of a neighbour. But we cannot see that. Because of course we can have decades of Disney movies in which the message is you solve the problem by killing someone but god forbid talking about how babies are made, kids asking questions about that and parents having to answer. Oh, I love the australian accents. <3
This may be my favourite MCU show and in my top three post Endgame things. I loved how commited it was to the bit: a teen comedy that tackles specific themes from beginning to end, even when it has to show more superhero stuff (which is perfectly integrated in the general tone). So it's not the usual "let's promise something that will be there for 20 minutes and we will then spend three hours doing crossovers with other stuff. Which also means that when the crossovers come they work better because they don't feel out of place (and even when they are kinda out of place they are not annoying, because it's just a small homage, a dialogue in the final minutes, that kind of stuff). It's not perfect but it's really good and it's really good at doing the thing it's trying to do. It's not like Hawkeye, which felt like an A.I. was desperatyely trying to write a Shane Black script. The visual style, the directing, everything works and feels contextualized. Iman Vellani is so charming and the whole cast is really lovely. Generally speaking, it maybe doesn't reach the highs of Wandavision (but it also doesn't plummet to its lows) and it's not as consistent as Loki, but I really really liked it, I had fun, it even genuinely moved me here and there.
I'm sure the "two volumes" format worked in terms of buzz and post production but that month of waiting, hype, chatting and watching trailer is, I think, part of the reason why the ending didn't move me as much as it could have. I was too focused on that, on guessing deaths, on the wait, and even though I had lots of fun, something didn't click for me. And I found a confirmation of that when I rewatched some scenes and found them more emotional on a second viewing. So I really think I would have enjoyed this so much more if I had the two final episodes ready two watch a day or two after the seventh. I guess I will never know.
That being said, I still think it's the best season after the first one, I still think the ending of episode four is one of the best moments of all Stranger Things (and that may also be part of a problem, because after such a high in the middle, you wait for something as powerful to come, and it doesn't), I still think that the longer episodes are not a problem because sure, they could have cut something here and there but it was always very enjoyable and in fact the length helped them to give dignity to all storylines, like it happened in season one and didn't really happen in two and three.
The new bad guy really works, even though he looks ridiculous and his info dumps can be quite annoying. The cast is amazing as always and the Duffers confirmed their talent in introducing characters that I don't really care for at first sight but I end up loving. It happens at least three times here, in very different and successful ways.
And of course the point, as usual for Stranger Things, is in how good the characters are and how well they are used. They are amazing, with great chemistry, really well written. Even in its worst moments, this show is always great with characters and relationships. And every episodes has got two or three amazing moments of comedy, drama, sweetness, beautiful interactions that are the engine of Stranger Things. Because they are the reason to watch it.
But it really is time to end it: the seams are visible, there's so much repetition and a huge risk of having emotions deflated by predictability. It kinda happened for me here with how it ended, I have to say.
Hope they don't miss the landing. They never did in season finales, but a series final is a different and tougher beast.
Watching Obi-Wan Kenobi after seeing everybody get angry about it for weeks, I kinda expected it would rob my house and harass my family. In the end, i found it less boring than The Book of Boba-Fett. Now, "less boring than The Book of Boba-Fett" is not a great compliment but, I mean, this is the usual Disney+ mediocre shit that's got a few really good ideas but lets them go to waste because it doesn't want/doesn't know how to develop them and it dilutes in six hours of TV a story that (maybe) didn't deserve more than a two hours movie. Also, I'm not sure about which creative decision I find more astonishing between (1) "let's throw away the script about Obi-Wan protecting Luke because it's too much like The Mandalorian and use a script about Obi-Wan protecting Leia instead" and (2) "finding narrative tension in a story about a protagonist and an antagonist who aren't really in danger is hard, so let's focus on putting in danger a third character who also cannot really be in danger and having a fourth character who only wants to kill one of those three characters (who cannot die)". And let's shoot ourselves in the foot, while we're at it. Then of course, even starting from that, you still can do good stuff if you can write in a way that creates narrative tension based on deep characterization, relationships, character's journey, developing those ideas that, I repeat, are there but, as usual, don't have any depth. Or maybe you can save the show with a spectacular visual approach, great action, those kinds of things. And sure, there are some good moments but mostly this is a show with amazing production values wasted on a visual and narrative approach that feels twenty years old. Which also makes me think that these shows are starting to really feel very flat and samey in terms of looks and I'm wondering if the celebrated StageCraft is the guilty party in that.
All that being said, I didn't find it particularly worse than the usual mediocre silly pop stuff that we get on Disney+. You know what didn't help? It being released while Stranger Things, Ms. Marvel and The Boys were reminding us that you can do silly pop stuff that is not even remotely perfect but has got so much more personality and/or ideas and/or interesting visual stuff.
1 & 2 were interesting but kinda dull, 3 & 5 were very, very good, 4 was amazing, 6 was quite good despite the 15 minutes exposition monologue by Jonathan Majors (who makes it tolerable by hamming it up to a hundred... and anyway, they had to do it, since they had decided to hide him for five episodes). Overall, even though Wandavision still has got some of the best ideas and scenes, Loki was the best and most consistent Marvel TV show, with nice characters and interesting storylines. I loved being with those three weirdos, I thought the romance was bizarre and cute and I can't wait to see Majors going wild in season 2. Also, they did what I feared they would do with the ending but it actually worked very well, much more than I expected, because its' first of all a season ending that introduces the villain for season 2, and only on a secondary reading it's also the setup for other MCU stuff. What I feared is that this would only be a setup for the movies, kinda like a longer version of the Thanos stinger in Avengers 1, but no, it's a proper season ending that also works as an MCU stinger. Which is how it should always be. And it made me excited for things to come more than most MCU stingers.
