Series Review
I'm tired.
Maybe I'm too critical, or perhaps I should give up on the MCU? The MCU fatigue is real this time, and it's getting old. No, this series isn't bad, and neither was WandaVision. But with each new MCU release, the more I'm pushed to the brink. I used to love this franchise, can you believe it? I loved all the movies, and I gave my money to the box office as reluctantly as any other MCU stan. Now, I'm tired. I'm tired of the same old stories, with their important messages, but poor storytelling.
Falcon begins by giving up the shield to the Smithsonian (museum), unknowingly handing the Captain America mantle to Walker. After Walker snaps, he reconsiders his decision. So, he talks to Isaiah Bradley (a black Super Soldier who the government rejected as Captain America), who tells him he won't make it, and becomes Captain America soon after. Was there any revelation here? What did Sam learn? He just went through a training montage, and then he was ready. What a relatable challenge that he went through that I can apply to real life! I just gotta ignore the haters, ya'll!
In some of these movies, the "character arcs" go like this: I want to do this, I face opposition, the opposition turns out to be wrong because..., I'm right, and I win. No one learns anything; all it says is that you're always right, and people who tell you otherwise are wrong. That's an empowering message, but has Marvel's writers stopped to consider that their audience might be the villains instead of the heroes; what if they're the opposition, and they're just wrong, instead of the heroes who are always right?
But this show does a lot I admire; a darker, grittier tone, better action (than some recent stuff), important themes and attempts at character arcs/development. Whew, I'm still tired, though.
As Cosmonaut Marcus writes,
"It was whatever." — Cosmonaut Marcus (https://twitter.com/CosmonautMarcus/status/1385534378239987712)
SCORE: 6/10
[strike]She was great on Hawkeye next to JRenner. She's no longer that kid from then but a woman 3 years down the line and no Renner... very much wondering how this series will end up to be.[/strike] Here's hoping it wont be another endless woke virus promotion.
EDIT1: I expected this series to be about Hawkeyes sidekick Kate. But its about the bad lieutenant Maya. My mistake.
Quite disappointing.
EDIT:2 So after having seen the first 2 episodes of season 1 (I doubt there will be a season 2), it's not as messed up woke as I was worried for it to become.
But..... maybe that would even have been better than this crap. The whole series just stinks.
I really wonder what the whole plan was with this season. It looks like they had some specific story in mind, recorded everything. Probably some scenes were not done yet during the whole writers and actors strikes
And then in post-editing someone totally re-wrote the story.
There are loads of flashbacks or supporting scenes that seem to be about native americans and their roots and customs as a sort of documentary, which in some ways is better developed than the main story itself.
Frankly I dont like the Maya character. Maya her endless frowning / angry face gets old quickly. She has only 1 possible expression on her face: angry. There is hardly anything else coming out of her.
I guess acting of being a deaf person who is angry about life is probably difficult to do antything else than this, but her whole attitude gets old fast. No matter who she has near her or whom she communicates with. Endless negativity and anger and violence.
I dont like several of the other characters either. Plus I find the way most of the native americans are being protraid borderline racist. All of them seem to be either stupid, over-weight(fat), or criminal or so stuck in the traditional ways that they are just plain silly.
And a lot of what we see just doesnt make sense.
You dont go driving a motorcycle hundred of kilometers/miles with a bullet still stuck in your chest.
I am considering rating this series on the same level as Iron Fist. Not sure if to be above or below. I guess below is impossible. So let's say its halve a step better than Iron First. Although the storyline of Iron Fist at least made sense (mostly). Hm.
Anyway. It's poo. Dont bother. There's much better stuff out there than this s h i t.
It tries to spin too many plates, and it fails in every sense of the word.
Just for comparison, take a look at Wandavision.
That show consists of 2 storylines, namely inside of Westview and outside of Westview, and both of those storylines belong to the same plot.
Then take a look at this show:
- There’s the stuff with Karli and the flag smashers
- Then there’s all the stuff with John Walker and his storyline as replacement Cap
- It also wants to act as a Civil War sequel by picking up Zemo’s storyline and the Wakandans chasing after him.
- Let’s not forget about Sharon Carter and the stuff in Madripoor
- Oh yeah, there’s also a very ham-fisted and tacked on plotline regarding how Cap was supposed to be black
- And finally you have all of the personal stuff of Sam and Bucky, which also includes the therapist and Sam’s sister
I dare anyone to summarize the plot of this show in a few sentences, you simply won’t be able to because it’s so incoherent.
That’s not even to mention how dumb and poorly thought out this show as a whole is.
It wouldn’t be such a problem if it took itself less seriously, but no, it wants to make a point about how world leaders aren’t uniting us. It wants to talk about what it means to be black in America.
Do I need to remind anyone: this is a show where our 2 ‘heroes’ broke a criminal mastermind out of prison in return for ... intel.
It’s a show that thinks it’s morally justified to have the protagonist throw terrorists out of planes, and then have that exact same character confront someone else about the implications of killing.
And so on, and so on, even to the smallest things.
There’s this scene in the final episode, where a random UN employee just hands Bucky her phone and she’s like: “here’s Karli, she wants to talk to you”. Like, how did she get that phone number? Why didn’t you just write a direct confrontation between Karli and Bucky? They were already in the same building.
There are two things that keep it watchable: Kari Skogland’s direction is very good (loved the first action set piece) and the acting, for the most part, is solid. Erin Kellyman is by far the weakest link, and she lacks any kind of real presence as a terrorist leader. Wyatt Russell, Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan do a lot of the heavy lifting, and I can’t wait to see where they take those characters next.
4/10
Lupin and Squid Game are both good examples of social media hype being inversely proportional to the actual substance and quality of a show. I was driven to watch both shows due to them being consistently hyped on social media. Both are mediocre compared to other shows available to stream. Congratulations to the Netflix social media team for two viral marketing campaigns.
So what's wrong with Lupin? Glaring plot holes. Ridiculous story lines. Copious amounts of unnecessary virtue-signalling. I mean, there's an episode where the main character makes a switch with an inmate inside a prison during a visit. Are we to believe that this was possible because all black people look the same to white prison wardens? You have to be a brainwashed leftist lunatic to write up a story arc like that.
Then there are all these detectives who keep running into the main character again and again without an arrest. I mean the guys face is plastered all over the wall inside their situation room. Come on! That's just lazy story telling. Now what? the police force is so "woke" that they look the other way when they see a black criminal? :rolling_eyes:
This show is a parody of itself as well, because all the criminals and villains portrayed in it are either black or ethnic minorities. Minorities from a French perspective. If I migrate to France, I'll be an ethnic minority too, in case you're wondering (as in not-white). Then there's the scene where a younger version of the main character steals a violin for his white girlfriend, because the white violin shop owner refused to rent it to them. Yeah! he taught a lesson to that old white dude.... By living up to the stereotype?! Who wrote this garbage? :rofl:
I enjoyed the pilot episode the most, it's all downhill from there. This show uses a similar soundtrack and cues as Sherlock Holmes to manipulate the viewer into believing that we are viewing something of the same calibre. We certainly are not. I assure you.
