Once again, the animators taking Every. Single. Live-action. Producer. To. School.
Real blackout darkness without making the show difficult to watch. Every light source and shadow in this episode was premeditated. Even when characters were completely hidden by shadows, I could still see what was going on on a nine-year-old LCD. The entire episode took place on an island experiencing total overcast and yet everything still looked beautiful and colorful.
If a genie suddenly told me I had three wishes, my first wish might actually be that every human values and respects the ability to competently frame and light a scene!
As for the actual story... Asajj Ventress, Kraken Whisperer.
The way Ventress was so casually (re)introduced, and the way she relates to the Batchers was a real left-field play and I really liked it. And they finally said "Midi-chlorians" after being so cheeky for so long with M-count this, M-count that. Just say the word. It's not cursed or anything.
Another thing I really liked is how Crosshair gave Ventress his hand. Good Crosshair, you're LEARNING!
Omega's journey is about to get very heavy, and we are now at the half-way point for the final season. This whole series has been one bar higher than the animated Star Wars that came before, and this season has been so focused and devoid of any distractions. I'm so conflicted that this is the end, but I'm so pleased that this isn't the end for Filoni's animated Star Wars.
(I'm still holding my breath for a complete remaster of the original Clone Wars series using the current version of their animation engine.)
Wow they WENT for it with this finale and I’m so happy they did. The extent of that 4th wall break was not expected but so original and creative that it was so fun. I love how the MCU was able to literally criticize themselves in their own show with Jen talking about marvel finales and then take this finale in a different direction. And the Kevin bit was very clever and funny. This was honestly probably the funniest episode for me as I laughed out loud several times. And I love how the trolls online in real life are literally the villains in the show lmao. The writers knew how a subset of people would hate on the show for stupid reasons so it just used them as it’s villain which is so smart and hilarious but also makes it feel more real and relatable. Also Pug trying to blend in with Intelligencia was really funny and I love his character. And of course that ending scene got me so hype and I can’t wait for WWH. I’ve had my issues with the show but this finale was perfectly in line with the themes and style of the show and elevated the series for me. One of the best MCU Disney+ finales and might be the best.
I think this episode was one of the better ones even if you take away Daredevil from it, but what Charlie Cox brings with this character honestly just elevates everything he touches. Seeing him back finally got me so hype and I was eating up every single scene with him. I think this was a great first significant appearance for him in the MCU and they did a good job of keeping him the same but adding just a little bit of levity to fit with the tone of the MCU, and I honestly think it worked great for his character in this context. As someone who is in love with the Daredevil Netflix show, I am beyond hyped to have Charlie Cox back and can not wait until we get more of him. Also when the Daredevil theme started playing I lost it. But now putting the Daredevil stuff aside, this episode still manages to be one of the best of the series and watching the ending scene with She-Hulk FINALLY encountering an actual threat and watching her lose her anger was so cathartic. It’s the crisis and challenge her character has so desperately needed. Although she has been on a sound internal character arc in this show it’s great to see her finally face an outward threat and not be on top of things for once. I just wish this would have happened earlier in the season, since now they have to rush the true villain and conflict into one 30 minute episode and it’s going to be seriously underdeveloped, which has been a major issue for a lot of the MCU Disney+ shows. All in all though, the contained story in this episode was one of the best ones of the show and Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock and Daredevil elevated the entire episode.
A solid season finale. Im glad the gang were able to defeat the cow together, even without Murn. And man, ngl I felt that for a second Peacemaker would switch teams and follow Goff in their goal to reshape humanity by any means necessary. Also, I loved the fight choreagraphy this episode, with Loeta, Chris, and Vig killing all the aliens on the field, and mandid Leota pull of some badass stuff with how she handled the Cow using the torpedo helmet. Also we cat forget about Economos, with him going undercover to drop the sonic boom helmet into the barn full of butterflies and the cow. Also it was sweet that Leota and Chris made up again, even tho what she did was really shitty, Leota is a great friend for Chris. And man,im glad Emilia survived, man was I worried seeing her like that on the field and w/a butterfly almost entering her. Also, man Leota is the goat for exposing all the secrets to the public, completelty revealing the truth about this government and her mom to the public. I really hope there isnt a season two, this completetly wrapped up the show in a nice way and I really enyoed this contained story.
Another enjoyable episode of Peacemaker. Man, August just keeps getting worse and worse, both as a person and father for Chris, only using Chris for his own benefits, making him into this murderer from childhood, and not actually wanting a relationship or showing any ounce of love for his son, it completetly makes sense why Chris is such a broken person. Man, I also feel bad about Chris losing his brother like that, its clearly tramautizing seeing how he died, and now knowing that he may be responsible must be eating him up inside, especially cause it seemed like Chris' brother was the only real family Chris had. Also, man Vigilante, although insane, it a loyal and great friend for Peacemaker, and ngl I wish Chris would star appreciating Peacemaker more, considering how much Vigilante is trying to build a friendship with him, I completetly support Vigilante being pissed at him for seemingly not caring about him being tortured. Also man, even after all the shit Peacemaker's dad had put him through, and the repeated tiimes August had made clear he hates Chris. Also, I loved seeing Vigilante beat up all the gang members in prison after breaking into prison, after beign manipulated by leota, to kill August. And damn, looks like Clemson was a butterfly after all, now im really interetsed aon why he's so steadfast in killing his of people. Also loved the fight between the judo guy and peacemaker, wonder what he wouldve finihsind saying. Also, looks like Chris doesnt trust the crew quite as much as he lets on, pretty smart pretending he killed the butterfly but actually keeping it, especially after what we laerned about clemson.
Another great episode... seemed like it only ran for 15min.
Loved the fake out of the silencer... classic! People who haven't got firearms knowledge would get sucked in to that, just like in reality those unknowledgeable in firearms think that AR-15's sold in the US are military grade 'Auto Rifles', they are not... they only have similar cosmetic styling as an auto firearm.
Similarly why did Russo do what he did? In situations like that there would be an unknown time frame when he and the girl would be flanked. If there was only one or two shooters you could stay in the one place. I'm not sure if he is, or is not,... we shall see.
And why did Reacher stand in the middle calling out the boss? Because he'd already got rid of the shooters and now he was calling out the desk bound dumbass boss who is Not a shooter. And he had some idea where he was.
If you have situational awareness and some understanding of tactical, it would all make sense. Some may nit-pik otherwise but Reacher is a show that shows off the expertise in the writing of the show and that's why it's such a great show, and Season 3 is already in pre-production.
[7.6/10] A lot to like in this one. Kamala getting a new lease on life after receiving her powers is a cool thing. Her newly confident strut through the halls of high school, cute romance with new kid Kamran, and chance to use her powers for good on purpose instead of by accident make this a nice coming out part for Kamala as a hero and more self-actualized young individual.
I’m also a fan of the hints that there’s a familial angle to her powers that the bangle unlocks, rather than creates. The hints that Kamala’s grandmother was similarly powered, via old family legends, the potential ways in which that hurt or caused problems for her great grandmother, and the shame and dismissal Kamala’s mom feels about the whole thing makes for a strong intergenerational angle to the mystery of Kamala’s abilities.
It’s also nice to see Nakia fleshed out a bit more. Her running for the board of her Mosque to try to rectify some of the seixsm there is a nice engine for the subplot and character beat to help give her more shading. Her writerly but effective speech about being too white for some and too ethnic for others, while ultimately just wanting to be herself, is all kinds of endearing. And the shenanigans with her and Kamala identifying the various power groups and their community with a plan to win them over to their side is fun.
I enjoyed Kamala’s flirtation with Kamran. Obviously, there’s some extra intrigue by the end here with the reveal that Kamran knows she’s “Night Light” and his mom seems to have insights into her powers. But it’s also just plain adorable seeing her sing and daydream and gush over the fact that the cute boy likes her. There’s a poetic irony to the fact that Kamala is bucking up against the expectations of her culture and community a bit, but finds herself drawn to somebody else who is of it and understands it, making it easier for her to connect, much to the chagrin of poor Bruno.
The closing adventure is a nice beat to end on. What I appreciate about this show is, in large part, it could work without the superhero stuff. There’s a lot to enjoy about simply seeing how a young Pakistani-American girl navigates her family and the different communities she’s a part of. But it does the superhero stuff well. The montage where Kamala trains to figure out her powers shows how tender footed yet determined she is about all this. And a poor kid dangling from a high windowsill is a good first rescue for her, showing how she can help, but also how these visions or bits of cosmic interference pose risks when he’s in the middle of her masked adventuring. There’s a lot to unpack there.
Last but not least, I’m also intrigued at the hints we get for what the government agents are doing in pursuing Kamala as an enhanced individual. Roping Zoe into it makes for a nice way to have the thing Kamala’s jealous of turn into a liability, and the racial profiling that takes place (and the male agent’s reaction to it) adds subtext to the pursuit.
Overall, another strong outing for the show, that still has a clear voice and plenty of flavor and texture that makes it enjoyable and unique on a scene-to-scene basis.
[7.1/10] Pick an ending, am I right? First it’s having to remove the soul stone from Mega-Ultron. Then it’s removing all the stones. Then it’s getting them in the infinity smasher. Then it’s using Hawkeye’s Zola arrow on Ultron. Then it’s Zola and Killmonger having an uber showdown. Then it’s Cosmic Dr. Strange trapping them in a pocket universe. Then it’s The Watcher having planned it all this way from the beginning.
It’s a little exhausting, making it feel like we didn’t really build to any of this, but rather, it just happened by fiat. The best you can say is that The Watcher picked these folks knowing the progression and so saw the parts they would play, but it’s not especially clear how and why this was the necessary path or that these were the necessary people to walk it.
(As an aside, why Gamora? I know there was one episode of What If? that didn’t get made because of COVID and other timing constraints. Was it hers?)
Still, some of the interactions are fun. Thor-as-Sterling-Archer is still a hoot, and his happy-go-lucky dopeyness around the other “Guardians of the Multiverse” made me laugh. I also loved the bond between Captain Carter and Black Widow. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is one of the MCU’s better films, and I wouldn’t want to trade it, but this finale definitely made me want to see more adventures of Peggy and Natasha as a team.
And there’s some solid emotional stuff here. Cosmic Strange getting a little redemption after his early mishap is a nice beat. The stinger with Captain Carter getting to see her lost love again much as Steve did is a nice touch too. And I like Black Widow returning to the Avengers-less timeline from episode 3, finding a new home and place to belong, with that being the abiding moral of the series. The overall themes and character beats work well.
It’s just the big climactic battle -- which in fairness, is most of the episode -- that falls flat for me. There’s some cool visual moments, mostly in the way of Cosmic Dr. Strange channeling the dark forces with some multicolored splendor and turns into a tentacle monster. For the most part, though, it’s just a bunch of undifferentiated fireworks and fisticuffs without even the imaginative fun of The Watcher and Ultron’s smash-tour through the multiverse. It wasn’t bad by any means, but nothing we haven’t seen before, without any new twists or wrinkles to set it apart despite the advantages of working in an animated medium.
Overall, I still enjoyed What If? quite a bit as an entertaining lark. The anthology format is a good one for a comic book universe, and several of the remixes were inventive and clever. It’s just the attempt to put them all together, and leave several of the stories unfinished so that they could be concluded in the grand finale, that I’d count as a misfire.
Continuing to confirm my theory that everything involving Wakanda is leagues above everything else in the MCU, this is a big improvement over last week's disappointing outing, even if the show continues having problems pacing itself. This is a big concept to do in 30 minutes - one that involves literally removing one of the MCU's biggest characters from the equation entirely - and while it does a great job in setting the stage, once the stage is set, it just... stops. This is a shame too cause the concepts explored here are really cool and fascinating, and like some prior episodes clearly needed more time to breathe.
Still, the good stuff is damn good here. Killmonger is one of the MCU's best villains and here we get another glimpse into just how good his planning, manipulation, and intelligence is. And just like in Black Panther, you can't help but root for him despite his obvious lust for power here, even if it's with extremely noble intentions. I do wish we got a more interesting, longer conversation between him and Rhodey about their differences in ideology, but the short runtime is once again to blame there. Still though, enjoyed this quite a bit.
That was an interesting episode for sure.
First things first, what the hell happened to the animation? After stepping up the game last episode, this one took a serious nosedive in quality up the point where some movements and facial expressions just look motionless and ugly. Disney has a huge budget for this show, make use of it.
Again, many former (and current) MCU actors return to voice their characters, with notable exceptions of Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Liv Tyler and Brie Larson.
The replacements did a solid job, especially since their parts where not that big, with the unfortunate exception of Lake Bell, who tried her best impression of Johansson but made Natasha come off as robotic and emotionless (didn’t Laura Bailey, who can do no wrong voice her in Ultimate Spider-Man? How about that instead?)
The concept was interesting. What if the Avengers where killed off one by one before even coming together? What other options would Fury have?
The snippets of the OG Avengers were something to say the least. Most of their deaths felt (unintentionally?) funny and the episode didn’t really seem to know what tone to aim for. Or maybe by focusing mostly on Nick Fury they took the more emotional element out of purpose. Who knows? I believe that could have been made clearer.
Loki is the best part of this episode, because he is Loki and always the best part in anything he shows up in. It was fantastic seeing him as a respected leader among Asgardians, leading his people, fighting our main villain and wrecking absolute havoc on Earth in the most dramatic way possible to avenge his brother. He is Loki, of course he goes over the top.
I admit, despite Loki being awesome and the concept being interesting, I almost rated this episode down, if it weren’t for the twist villain in the end.
I should have seen this coming and it makes so much sense in retrospective, but in the moment it caught me off guard. Tragic and well-executed, it actually deserved more attention.
In other news, it was nice seeing Betty Ross again and since she plays such a huge part in Bruce‘s life, I‘m still puzzled Marvel never brought her back before (either with Liv Tyler or another recast).
Some funny tidbits are actually delivered by Coulson and his man crush on Thor and his overall gorgeousness. And his password.
It’s a solid episode. Definitely better than the mostly dull first one, but not nearly as great as the second one.
"He's dead." — Black Widow
Natasha just killed Tony Stark
Fury: "They look like they're from Earth?"
Coulson: "Maybe Middle-earth?"
Loki: "We are not allies."
Fury: "Then let me help you."Uh... Fury... that's how this works
Coulson: [Sighs] "Hashtag-Steve-Steve-Steve-I-heart-Steve-0-7-0-4."
Same.
Fury: "I'm not the only Avenger left."
Ouch, that hurt
Best one yet? Best one yet.
This one is the most interesting by far. Like, while Captain Carter hits the same beats as TFA and T'Challa's is original, I like this one because of its scale. It meets all the Avengers and kills them all! Like, that's an insane number of changes compared to the "sacred timeline". Anyway, this show is getting better with each episode.
7/10
This episode wasn't as good as
the second episode but this was
definitely better than the first episode.
This one was so
Interesting and well thoughtout
especially using the first two
Phase 1 movies as a base to launch this
Alternate reality story off of.
Hank really?.....hank, well that
was an anticlimax,
I was hoping for something
much much more,
What makes me laugh is the Marvel
Fandom came out with this idea
way back in 2019 with
"Avengers EndGame" we we're all
Saying including myself why
Scott (Ant-Man) didn't do this
to "Thanos" go up his ass,or Mouth or
In his ear/nose and take him out
from the inside.
So personally I felt like I'd already seen
this story from all the long talks about
this concept back in the day with the
Marvel Fandom, (come on writers
you've got to give us better than
something we've already
dreamed of).
I get why the reason Thor died with a single arrow is because at that time he was on earth and not worthy he was made mortal,
just good old fashion flesh and blood just like in the movie Thor 1 so this was very believable
that he was taken out with a single arrow to the heart. That being said this wasn't that bad of an episode till the end but it certainly was better than episode 1 but nowhere in the league of episode 2 which is the best so far.
This finale episode is a mildly amusing Star-Wars'ed homage to The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, even down to the plot, although in this case I see Thrawn as "The Lion" (a more devilish one this time instead of CS Lewis' god-like one), "The Jedi" (and Huyang) being all the kids heroically running around trying to save the galaxy, obviously Morgan Elsbeth was "The Witch", and finally "The Wardrobe" was the conduit back into the 'real world / known galaxy'. There were various other parallels in concept as well.
It also had a very "The Empire Strikes Back" vibe, in that the the 'rebels' have effectively lost the battle (but not the war) with Thrawn and his Empirical ambitions, and have been left very much on the back foot, unable to prevent another all-out war. Again, it would seem that "the only hope" lies with one young Jedi Knight (Ezra, aka D'Artagnan) and a hugely compromised, and still woefully complacent, New Republic, who will effectively be the new Rebel Alliance. The differences this time round will be that there will be (if The Three Musketeers make it home in time) four highly skilled (sort of) Jedi Knights and (hopefully) a fully reunited Mandalorian army to back them up. There may still be other former Jedi Knights who will come out of hiding to aid the fight, if necessary, perhaps even Luke Skywalker. This is all conjecture at this point of course, as this finale has left all of these balls very high in the air, along with whatever nefarious plans that Baylan Skoll and Shin Hati are separately plotting in the unsuspecting galaxy in which they find themselves.
Overall, I felt that this finale was pretty good, apart from the plethora of unanswered questions that have been present through much of this first season, and there were some shockingly low-quality scenes. Thrawn knew that the platoon of troopers were basically just lambs to the slaughter that wouldn't slow Ashoka and crew down for long. That's fairly standard Star Wars stuff, but how in the name of Luke Skywalker did three lightsabre-wielding, Force-strong Knights manage to kill the entire platoon without having dismembered/beheaded a single one, especially given that such battles have previously resulted in an entire stack of severed hands/arms/heads? This seemed like a convenient plot contrivance so that it didn't lessen the impact of them all rising from the floor to fight again. The undead troopers initially seemed like a good idea, but was sadly a very wasted opportunity. The Night Sisters could surely have infused a generous dose of anger, speed and relentlessness into them, but all they really seemed to be were just standard troopers brought back to life, exactly as they were (apart from the green glow) as nothing more than another pointless delaying tactic. If they had been more zombie-like - in a fast, nasty, formidable way like in 28 Days Later, not the stereotypical 1960's style slow, lumbering, stupid zombies like in The Walking Dead - they would at least have appeared to be more scary, and a genuine threat to the Knights. Another thing that seemed too convenient was Sabine's swift enhancement of her Force manipulation abilities. Perhaps the genuine threats to life (her own and then Ezra's) helped her to focus her mind to be able to make the leap from not even being able to pull a coffee cup towards her, to being able to Force-push Ezra, mid-Force-leap, into the Star Destroyer. Convenient, but at least credible, unlike the whole trooper thing.
Thrawn was very good in this, masterfully maintaining his cool, calm and patient exterior whilst clearly seething at the predictable incompetence of his forces - especially the Night Sisters - in their efforts to stop Ashoka, Sabine and Ezra from getting close to him, and accepting minor tactical losses in the pursuit of his primary goal . I'd forgotten until he spoke directly to her that he and Ashoka had never actually faced off against one another. His likening of her to Anakin - her Master - was both complimentary and insightful. What would it take/how easy would it be for her to fall to The Dark Side, just like Anakin did? That maybe throws another ball into the air - will this somehow happen or not? Probably just an attempt at a bit of psychological manipulation, but it throws the possibility out there.
This whole season appears to have been about very complex plot and character building in preparation for either a second season or a whopper of a film. This is fine by me, but please don't keep us all waiting for too long...
In the time between episode 7 and episode 8 I learned a few things. I learned that there were only eight episodes, instead of nine. I also learned that this wasn't the end of the story. There's a full-blown movie planned involving Thrawn, and the Ahsoka series might also get a second season. So my mind immediately jumped to "what if Thrawn wins?"
That was the missing piece of the puzzle. How could they possibly wrap everything up in a satisfying way if there's only one episode left? They weren't planning to. They weren't setting everything up for the finale, they were setting everything up for the next part of the larger story.
This would have been a disappointing finale. Instead it was a great cliffhanger (apologies to Ezra).
Absolutely no time was wasted in this episode, but nothing was rushed either. Right down to Lars taking three-second breaths between sentences. Every story beat got to take its time while still going from one, click, to, click, another without a pause or slump anywhere in the episode.
I was so happy to watch Ezra build a new lightsaber. And one that pays homage to his late Master. I was listening to someone theorize that Ezra was secretly possessed by an evil that also wanted to leave the planet, or that his dark side inclinations seen in Rebels would resurface, but no. The blue blade of justice it is. Seeing Ezra, Sabine, and Ahsoka all lined up with their sabers out felt a bit like a return to form for Star Wars as a franchise. Ahsoka duel-weilding, Sabine switching between saber and blasters, and Ezra assisting with Force pulls and pushes made them an excellent team. I just hope we get to see them fighting together again.
"Jedi. Together. Strong."
Because once they get separated, everything starts to fall apart. Ahsoka was able to beat Morgan through sheer (little f) force of will. By the time Sabine and Ezra take out those... WTF are those things?? The Night Troopers were apparently still alive, until the Nightsisters revived them, but the Deathtroopers were... dead already. After they kill the DoubleDeathTroopers:tm: the only way to follow Thrawn is for them to split up as well. Leaving Sabine and Ahsoka trapped on Peridea, while Ezra returned to the known galaxy for a super brief, bittersweet reunion with Hera and Chopper. Thrawn has returned. I hope Mon Mothma took Hera seriously when she said to prepare for the worst.
The fight with Morgan was excellent. She was genuinely dangerous even before her baptism by dark magic and evil sword (ACTUAL SWORDPLAY IN STAR WARS!!). I REALLY hope Ahsoka keeps that Dathomirian blade to make up for losing one of her beautiful, white lightsabers. Alternatively, the fight with all the Night Troopers, especially after they got reincarnated, was Rebels-style comical. Both very different fights, both very enjoyable. Both emblematic of Star Wars.
I really respect how capable Thrawn is. He was always very smart about things, but this time we actually get to see those smarts pay off. 'The chances of the Jedi stopping us now are almost impossible... we should prepare for a ground assault immediately.' Yep. And you were still a hair away from losing everything despite that preparedness. Good thing Thrawn is so smart, because his troopers are so fucking stupid. Staring at things for several seconds before firing like it's the first time they've ever seen a starship or a Jedi. Okay, maybe that one is actually true. But still! I'm glad Enoch is still around, because I want to see more of him... and I want to see him fight. It should have been Enoch instead those Deathtroopers against Sabine and Ezra. But have the fight end in a stalemate so we could have at least gotten a taste of what's to come.
All in all, this was not the episode I thought it would be and I'm glad it wasn't. Because there is so much more to do with this storyline. We didn't see Baylan or Shin until the very end. Neither of them said a word, but their current positions are very clear. Shin rallied the renegades in the wastelands behind her and her good boy, and Baylan found male statues on the Nightsister planet that point to a beacon on a far-off mountaintop. It's a shame about Ray Stevenson, but I really hope they recast Baylan anyways - the clues surrounding his solo journey suggest a story that Filoni has been building up for decades. I needs it!
Ahsoka brought back the mysticism of Star Wars that the franchise has been sorely missing for some time now. The original hook that drew people to Star Wars in the first place, that made it famous in the first place. The light versus the dark - the importance of the Force (to all beings). And using all the lore that has been built up since then to express it. Here's to much, MUCH more of this kind of storytelling in Star Wars.
May the Force be with you, Ray.
Getting Part Three vibes again. A sense of "That's it?" when the episode closes coupled with the realization that pieces have been moved into position and the plot has been set up for some bigger thing that's about to happen.
I was confused and then delighted by Ezra's whole attitude. He's doing a kind of "Jesus in the wilderness" thing and seems to have a very different connection to the Force than he did when we last saw him. The way he moved when he fought looked like something was moving him. Lightsabers? Ain't nobody got time for that.
As short as this episode was, we got see a lot of different class pair-ups at the end. Baylan vs Ahsoka was power vs power; This time their dual ended in a stalemate. Sabine vs Shin was cunning vs fury; This time Shin didn't underestimate Sabine, but Sabine still held her ground. Ezra vs Shin was wisdom vs fury; The first time Ezra had to fight in a long time, and it showed. "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is bruised and spongy." And Ahsoka vs Shin was balance vs fury; The thing that shook Shin the most was that Ahsoka wasn't angry at her. Shin comes from a time after the fall of the Jedi Order and I don't think she's ever had to face someone properly trained in the Jedi arts before.
The time spent with everyone else was pithy and just served to put them in their place for the finale. The scene on Coruscant was almost useless (of course Hera would be excused and protected for abusing her powers as a General), but Filoni does know how to force a grin out of me with a very unexpected C-3PO cameo. Apparently 3PO was having a spinal malfunction that day. I did appreciate the Gideon past-tense name drop which cements exactly when Ahsoka takes place against the third season of The Mandalorian (release order = chronological order).
Again, solid content, but nothing special... not yet at least. There's no question that Filoni is just putting runners on the bases to tee things up for a grand slam (baseball metaphor). It's what he always does. By now, even the lay viewer should understand that. Maybe it won't be exactly what I personally dream it could be, but good money says it'll be worthwhile. If you're still not sold on this series, or harboring discontent just because Disney's name is attached to Star Wars now, take advice from the wise, old star whales and fuck off to somewhere else.
[7.7/10] I was so pleasantly surprised by this! I didn’t really know what to expect, with this being Marvel Studios’ first foray into animation and the high concept premise of the show. But I really enjoyed what we got.
For a while, I expected that this was really just going to be the plot of Captain America: The First Avenger except with Peggy slotted in rather than Steve. And that would still have been perfectly fun! Watching this show hit the same beats of that film, except with small but significant difference thanks to Captain Carter being in the role rather than Steve Rogers would have been worthwhile on its own.
For one thing, I like how this episode, as Agent Carter did, focuses on how even with her accomplsuhments, Peggy faces discrimination because of her gender. Of all the people for the MCU to bring back, it’s funny that it’s Bradley Whitford’s returning from the all-but forgotten Agent Carter one-shot. But he makes sense as someone who always thought too little of Peggy, stepping into a leadership role after Col. Phillips is shot, and creating an internal impediment.
To the same end, I like how the episode flips the dynamic with Peggy and Steve, but tshowing how they still understood one another and would bond with one another, even if their situations were changed. The two still falling in love, only to have Peggy making the heroic civilization-saving sacrifice play instead, is still heart-rending, and a nice sign that even as major things change, some things stay the same.
But I also liked the places where this episode goes off the reservation! Howard Stark building a proto-Iron Man suit for Steve Rogers called “The Hydra Stomper”? Yes please! Captain Carter saving Bucky, thereby avoiding the Winter Soldier situation (at least with him)? Hell yes. Her finding the tesseract and bringing it back to the good guys on an early mission? Awesome!
The further along the plot of First Avenger that this episode gets, the more it diverges and makes its own rules and own story, and I really appreciated that. Her team’s attack on Red Skull’s stronghold made for a rolokcing conclusion. I don’t know who Red Skull’s “champion” was. (Hive? A Chithuri?) But watching Peggy fight a giant squid monster while the Howling Commandos rescue Steve made for a killer conclusion.
I was especially impressed by the fight sequences here. I have to admit that I had some reticence about the cell-shaded graphics. In truth, the vocal tracks didn’t always sink perfectly. But the action was surprisingly fluid and well-staged. The show uses the freedom of animation to add greater flow to Captain Carter’s badassery, and some of the combat has a more impressionsitic style that makes it top tier MCU fisticuffs. Even the use of lighting and color in these fights stand out. Going into What If...? my biggest concern was the visuals, but they came through like gangbusters.
Overall, this was an exciting start to this new show and raised my expectations for What If...? to be more than a shiny lark, and instead be a meaningful exploration of what these changes in the path might look like.
Not gonna lie. Last week’s episode ending left a very weird taste in my mouth. I really thought this show, which up until now was pretty fucking good, was about to shot itself in the foot, not with a simple hand gun but with a .50 caliber (just so you understand the damage).
However, this episode turned out to be an incredible achievement for the cinematic industry. It is astonishing that the writers were able to pull this off and that the director who was able to bring it to life.
Every character got the depth they needed for an epic conclusion and the not linear storytelling fit so well with the cinematography of the show but the clear winners of the episode were Jon and the Causal Loop (which I’m a big fan of in fiction).
Jon is supposed to be this ultimate god who lives throughout the entirety of the universe and that just happens to have lost the touch with human emotions. Yet, he seemed so easy to empathize with. Not relatable, that definitely not but I really did empathize with is non-existential crisis and the lengths he went to be someone again. To matter again even if that means dying stop existing.
The way this episode changed Jon and Angela was already more than enough to satisfy me. However, I honestly didn’t saw that the Casual Loop coming.
This kind of loop is (probably) the most famous in fiction but also the harder to pull off in order to leave a long last impression in the viewer. Why it works here is the because 1) the episode is told in a non-linear way, creating a sense of disorder and order in your brain and 2) because Jon just keeps mention the future, present and past as one single point (including the “tunnel”). If he never used is powers (or at least not to the necessary extent) the reveal that a Causal Loop exists would’ve crumbled right when it was created.
Thanks to the way this episode was structure everything I saw hit me in the perfect tone and the Angela-Grandad Causal Loop is like my 2nd favorite now. I don’t know, I also love the one from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (which is 3rd; the 1st one is unbeatable btw).
The only things I didn’t like: Jon’s blue CGI (kind of :/) and probably the acknowledgment of the Causal Loop so suddenly but either way, that was nothing compared to the great things it did.
[8.5/10] The original Watchmen comic was originally supposed to be mainly plot-focused, and only six issues long. But then when the order was extended to twelve, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons decided to fill that extra space with deeper dives into the characters, explorations of their backstories and motivations that would add dimension to the world and the ultimate conflict, without requiring the creators to pad out the plot with needless filler. And while it’s a decision born of format in some ways, it also made that graphic novel what it is -- a piece that doesn't just race headlong into its breathless mystery plot, but which crafted some of pop culture’s most rich and enduring figures.
So it’s nice to see HBO’s Watchmen following that same tack to some degree. “Little Fear of Lightning” does have its major revelations -- like the fact that, somewhat predictably, Senator Keane is involved with the Seventh Kavalry (and apparently so was Sheriff Crawford). It has big time plot developments, like Looking Glass effectively turning in Angela to the feds. And it adds some major pieces to the lore, like the fact that the U.S. government knew that the squid was a hoax and perpetuated the myth for the good social and political effects it had. There’s far more foundation-shaking events in this episode thanin the previous one.
Still, it is, first and foremost, a character story, one that digs into Looking Glass in an incisive, and ultimately heartbreaking way. In the prior episode, Laurie gave her assessment of vigilantes as people who decide to embark upon this way of life as a response to trauma, with their personas reflecting that trauma in some way. From that seed, “Little Fear” proves her right, at least for Looking Glass, whose choice of mask, and efforts as a policeman, are a direct reflection of his foundational trauma, one that just so happens to be “11/2” a.k.a. the giant squid attack on New York.
(As an aside, I love the detail that for however much this version of history differs from our own thanks to Dr. Manhattan and so on, Steven Spielberg is still an Oscar-winning director, who still made a famous prestige picture in the 1990s that still features a little girl in a red coat. Apparently some parts of our cultural past are just immutable.)
It’s noteworthy that Looking Glass is basically the Rorschach of this series, and yet it in an inverse way to the Moore/Gibbons original. He is morally exacting (although, ironically, against the very people inspired by Rorschach). He is lonely and essentially friendless. He is driven by a defining, awakening experience. He has a distinctive, inscrutable mask. And his childhood warped him a little bit, albeit on the side of having been overly repressed rather than exposed to a “den of sin” like Rorschach was. If the thematic ties weren’t enough, “Little Fear” shows Wade eating cold beans for good measure.
The ultimate irony of the episode, then, is that the thing that rattles the foundations of Wade’s world is the thing that Rorschach ended up working so hard to figure out and expose. After a lifetime of a near-crippling phobia due to the squid attack, after a career of priding himself on being able to discern truth from falsehood, he learns that the event that has effectively defined his life is a hoax, one hidden by the government and the people you work for. It’s a truth championed by the people Looking Glass has been hunting and written off as a conspiracy theory by the people nominally on his side.
Imagine what it would be like to have all of those pillars of your beliefs, your fears, your life, come crumbling down? Tim Blake Nelson absolutely sells the glass-shattering shock of that moment, of Wade’s sad, resigned little life, or his warm chances for human connection turned into a trap. For one episode, Lindelof and company focus on two questions: what is the effect a trauma like the squid attack would have on a person, and what would it do to their psyche to learn it was all a lie? By centering that story on one man, focusing on his personal struggles and bewilderment when the rug is pulled out from under him, Watchmen delivers arguably its most impactful and introspective episode yet.
It’s especially engaging to see the subtle ways that one seminal event directed the rest of Wade’s life. The cold open at a New Jersey carnival initially grabs you with the peculiarity of what’s going on. There’s a subtle ominousness to it (though that may just be leftover vibes from Us). And then it compounds a moment of humiliation and self-hatred with a moment of unimaginable tragedy. The big scream is a little much, but it’s easy to understand how a moment like this would burrow within Wade and effect everything else he does.
The episode plays that thought out nicely. The event itself causes him to live in isolation and run thousands of “drills” in the event of another extra-dimensional attack. Him being saved by the hall of mirrors at the carnival leads not only to his distinctive mask, but to a “reflectine”-lined baseball cap to keep psychic waves away. And the regrettable instance of his first romantic encounter being one where the girl was just toying with him to leave him embarrassed and humiliated is implied to have ruined his ability to trust another person in relationships. The episode underlines this all a little hard, but it’s strong writing that lets us come to understand Wade better.
So when he’s tricked by one more woman who uses affection as a lure for a different agenda (Deadwood’s Paula Malcomson!), when he realizes that the squid that he’s been living in fear of for four decades was a fabrication, when he sees once more that the people he’s been working for are working with the enemy, he rightfully doesn't know which way is up anymore.
“Little Fear” builds to his decision to turn in Angela, but it’s less focused on that than in the epiphany and internal sense of turmoil and lostness that would let such a steadfast person be able to make that decision in the first place. By putting the plot mostly on pause for an episode, and channeling the story through Looking Glass, Watchmen manages to advance both character and story more effectively than it could any other way.
(As an aside, I didn’t have a good space there to talk about Veidt’s latest escapade, but I’m intrigued by him both figuring his way out of his gilded cage, if only for a moment, making a plea for help, and truly and firmly running afoul of “The Game Warden” whose god has left him. I assume Veidt is on a planet full of life that Dr. Manhattan created? Who knows! And who knows who might be coming to save him!)
[7.5/10] It’s frickin’ Anakin! Look, I fully admit that, as a teaser at least, this is total empty fanservice. It’s the kind of thing I tend to rail against. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t gasp a little when I realized that Ahsoka had washed up in the World Between Worlds. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a touch giddy to hear Anakin call his former apprentice “Snips.” I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t joyful to see AAhsoska turn around, say “Master?” and see none other than Sky Guy standing before her.
Is it completely and utterly cheap? My god yes. But it also totally worked on me, so I’m loath to complain.
Oh yeah, and there’s a bunch of other major happenings too. Our good guy force-users go toe-to-toe with the bad guy force-users. Huyang gets into some fisticuffs of his own. Ahsoka sort of dies. (Presumably she’s just out temporarily and will pop back to life once she goes on a spirit quest with Anakin). Sabine switches sides (again, at least temporarily/a little). Hera and Phoenix Squadron come to help. Morgan Elsbeth and her allies (seemingly) successfully launch themselves into the Unknown Regions. For folks who’ve been complaining about pace, some big deal shit goes down here.
But here’s my favorite part of it all -- a philosophical disagreement between Ahsoka and Sabine. If it comes to it, Ahsoka wants to destroy the map. Better to prevent Thrawn from returning and reigniting the war. But Sabine is unwilling to give up their only chance to potentially save Ezra, even if it means potentially allowing a villain to come back. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s a debate between fighting what we hate and saving what we love.
You can see both sides of it. For Ahsoka, who saw the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, the commitment to stopping a formidable opponent like Thrawn from restarting it all is unquestioned. For Sabine, whose only family is Ezra, the possibility of stranding him and both being alone forever is unthinkable. There’s no easy answers, and how each feels is based on who they are, which makes the disagreement between them feel legitimate.
What’s more, we find out that Sabine’s family on Mandalore, whom we met back in Rebels, perished sometime between then and now. It’s easy to guess that they were obliterated in Moff Gideon’s assault. But regardless of the exact details, Baylan perceives that, at a minimum,, Sabine feels that it happened because Ahsoka didn’t trust her. The show has hinted at what caused a falling out between them, but this is the first time we’ve come to understand the root of why.
Not for nothing, I liked Baylan a lot here. His intentions are still rather cryptic, something that frustrated me about the antagonist in the Obi-Wan show. But he’s a legitimate foe for Ahsoka, one who paints her with the same brush as her former master, has lost his faith in the Jedi, and who seems to genuinely believe that unleashing the evil of Thrawn will somehow be for the greater good. Maybe it’s the writing. Maybe it’s just Ray Stevenson’s presence. But whatever the reason, he’s one of the cooler bad guys we’ve had in a while.
These are also some top notch lightsaber fights here. The weakest of them is Sabine vs. Shin, but even there, you have some intrigue that comes from the “Mandalorian tactics vs. Jedi tactics” showdown. Something about the unsteadiness but indefatigable quality of Sabine in the fight against a superior foe made me think of the ending to The Force Awakens.
But both of Ahsoka’s fights are pretty darn cool. I love the Raiders of the Lost Ark quality of Ahsoka’s fight with Marrok, where he goes wild with his Inquisitor blade, only to get sliced by Ahsoka with a single slash. Plus what the hell is he! The mist escaping from his suit with an odd shriek just raises more questions!
The piece de resistance, though, is the fight between Ahsoka and Baylan. There’s a level of control, a steady mastery between them that’s evident which makes their skirmish aces. It’s not the frantic slinging of blades, but rather a more controlled duel, that steadily devolves into wilder tactics as the stalemate becomes shaky, and the goal to retrieve the map becomes more important. The intervention of both these masters’ apprentices hits the right notes, and provides an excuse for why Ahsoka is bested.
The most fascinating part may be the way Baylan talks down Sabine from destroying the map. There is a very Palpatine quality to his temptation of Lady Wren, right down to a meaningful utterance of “Do it.” like Palpy, he plays on the emotional wants of his quarry, manipulating her based on her attachment to Ezra in a way that gives the bad guys the key to achieving their goal, so long as she can come along for the ride and perhaps save her dear friend in the process. Much of the show to date has been a battle for Sabine’s soul in one form or another, and seeing this latest shift marks a major, probably regrettable, but certainly understandable turning point for her.
Otherwise, it’s nice to see Ahsoka pulling the trigger on some big things after three episodes of setup. The confrontation between Hera (in the Ghost, no less!) and Phoenix Squadron versus Morgan’s massive hyperspace launcher comes with cool visuals, and young Jacen giving us the closest thing we get to an “I have a bad feeling about this.” Major shit goes down, and it’s easy to salivate over what comes next.
First and foremost though, it means a reunion, however temporary, between Ahsoka and Anakin, presumably with advice on training a recalcitrant apprentice, an earned return to the world of the living, and stars willing, some measure of peace and certainty in where to go next.
[9.1/10] Jean Smart is a revelation. Her Laurie Blake has a Dr. House-like aura, far from the semi-naive young woman following in her mother’s footsteps, she is the uber-competent, seen-it-all, as cynical as she is capable representative of the old guard. “She Was Killed by Space Junk” puts a lot on Laurie’s shoulders, and a lot on Smart’s shoulders, and the result is Watchmen’s best episode yet.
What makes the character's entrance work is that she is both a bridge to the original Watchmen story in the most direct way yet, but also someone who can offer a different perspective on the main story of this new series. So far, despite our sojourns to visit Veidt and the occasional flashback to Germany, this series has treated Tulsa as the whole world, with all of the events, political intrigue, unrest, and character having their lives orbit this one community and its larger tensions.
Bringing in Laurie Blake, the daughter of the original Silk Spectre and The Comedian and the head of the FBI’s anti-vigilante task force, as the feds’ representative to investigate Sheriff Crawford’s death, helps pull back our perspective a bit.
We see someone who treats Keane Jr. (who, I’m a little ashamed to admit, I just now realized is likely the son of the author of the original anti-superhero act) with contempt for his ambition and politicking rather than admiration and respect. We see someone who cuts through the protective veneer that the Tulsa police force has erected around itself, quickly getting secret identities, “racist detectors”, and closed ranks local communities in and intuitive, almost causal way. And we see someone who casts explicit doubt on masked cops being any different than the masks vigilantes she’s developed a sincere contempt for over the years.
So much of Watchmen’s early going has been steeped in Angela’s perspective on this community, on the threat the police are responding to, and on its major players. By filtering this now-familiar world through Laurie’s perspective, someone who comes with the authority of being an original Watchmen lead character out-of-universe and her family history in it, it gives the whole situation a different spin. Like the feds descending on a town with very specific power balances and investigating a ground-shaking murder in Twin Peaks, Laurie and her junior associate arriving in Tulsa gives us one more reason to question the rightness of what’s going here, on either side of the thin blue line.
In a much more direct sense, we’re left to wonder what’s going on either side of Adiran Veidt’s property. To be frank, “She Was Killed by Space Junk” more or less stops dead in the middle to check in with him. We see our most tactile outing with “the smartest man in the world” yet, watching as he draws up blueprints, sews and severs, and eventually creates a suit for one of his automatons to “explore the great beyond.’ That is, until, the experiment fails and his efforts to rectify it leave him running afoul of “The Game Warden.”
That leads me to my (admittedly somewhat out there theory): What if Ozymandias is on Mars? What if Veidt’s “captivity” as described in the letter, is him being transported somewhere by Dr. Manhattan, the erstwhile game warden, so as not to be subject to any threats or investigations on Earth. And now, Veidt is trying to test the limits of his gilded cage and see if he can make it out of his enclosure. There’s a bizarre, separateness to every part of Veidt’s story so far, something that seems itching for a big reveal to let everything fall into place, and that’s the best stab I can make at it so far.
But apart from my grand theorizing, Veidt’s interlude still seems like a detour from the major story of the episode in the from of Laurie arriving in Tulsa, sizing up Angela, and proving herself a formidable presence in the town and in the series. Part of how the show establishes that is with some of its best action sequences and most taught moments of tension.
That comes in the early scene, where Laurie smokes out a Batman-esque masked adventurer by tipping him off to a bank robbery, having her team be the bank robbers, and then springing the trap on him. It’s a great way to establish Laurie’s take-no-crap bona fides, her ability to get into the heads of the vigilantes, and her brutal sense of justice with her willingness to shoot the target in the back (with the implication that she didn’t necessarily know his body armor would stop the bullet).
And you see it at Sheriff Crawford’s funeral, where a member of the Seventh Kavalry (explicitly made a Klan equivalent in the text), tries to hold Senator Keane Jr. hostage with a suicide vest he claims is connected to his heart. Laurie doesn't hesitate, just grabs the ankle-holstered gun she snuck in and pops the guy in the head, with the bullet inches away from the senator. Turns out the hostage-taker was telling the truth, and Angela has to drag his corpse into the grave and push Crawford’s coffin on top of it to stifle the explosion. It’s a hell of a set piece, showing the two women’s capabilities when they work together, even if their exchange later in the episode shows them at odd.
But it also shows Laurie in line with someone unexpected -- her father. The woman we meet decades after the events of the original comic has taken her father’s surname, and with it, his worldview. Like her dad, she now works for the government, calling masked adventurers “jokes” and does the bidding of the FBI. Like her dad, she thinks all of the noble-minded vigilanteism is bullshit. And like her dad, she’s seen too much, done too much, lost too much, that to be anything but caustic would be too painful.
That’s why the piece de resistance of “She Was Killed by Space Junk” is the frame element of the episode, where Laurie tells a joke (well, technically two jokes) to Dr. Manhattan through a box that’s theoretically sending the message to him on Mars. It sums up her nihilism, where no matter whether you’ve done good, done bad, or don’t recognize the distinction, everyone’s going to hell anyway, so you may as well act accordingly.
Her tears on the phone, her final laugh at the absurdity of the car that falls out of the sky, signify the ascendance of someone who still remembers falling in love with Jon Osterman, who still laments that Dan Dreiberg is (apparently) in jail, and who has assumed the mantle of The Comedian, in deed if not in name. The original Watchmen was about the toll that a life of masked adventuring would actually take on the heroes we so admired in the comics pages. “She Was Killed by Space Junk”, then, is about the toll the events of Watchmen would take on the people who lived through it. Through the character of Laurie, and Smart’s tremendous performance, we see The Comedian’s legacy rearing its ugly head, long after the man himself, and the events his death spurred, have been laid to rest.
I was unprepared. Even with all the praise it's been getting I was completely unprepared for the excellence that is Watchmen from the very first episode. Lately I've been watching Andromeda season 2 which is cheesy scifi that doesn't pretend to be anything else. I've been toggling between Evil and Prodigal Son neither of which in the maybe 13 episodes I've seen of them total can match what Watchmen has done in one episode.
I've read that this takes place after the events of the comics and although I have read the comics, I'm not comics-nerd enough to have memorized enough to be able to really confirm that in this single episode. I'm sure there are all sorts of Easter eggs that I'm missing. What I do see is an alternate history that does the same world building that Watchmen did. For all the talk about the Black Wall street scene it didn't feel as big as I expected it to be which is fine because it does give me an anchor point historically.
The jump to the present is when things really start to kick off though. The police wear masks. Some of these are uniform and some of them are customized giving some of them the appearance of being superheroes. But there's not a lot said about them. Squid rain from the sky regularly which was the 2nd strongest hint I saw linking the timeline to the narrative of the Moore books. The other of course being a multipart documentary the final part of which is about to air in the timeline of the show.
Regina King ... wow. I liked Regina King. I've liked her since 227. I've loved her in other roles Boyz in the Hood, Miss Congeniality 2, Jerry Maguire and plenty of other roles. All over the place in terms of character and she's a delight in all of them. Andrew Howard as Red Scare was equally surprising. I recognize him as the Russian gangster from the many roles in which he plays a Russian gangster including Limitless. Louis Gossett Jr is barely recognizable but I'm glad to see him. Don Johnson was pretty solid as the police chief. There's a great scene in The Legend of Korra where Korra is falling from an airship and rather than find a way to land safely Lin Beifong grabs her and uses her momentum to launch Korra back into the fight. It's a small scene that show Korra can be trusted and is valuable in a fight. There's also a scene where Angela has to go meet someone dangerous and she gives a gun to her husband to shoot anyone who isn't her and he accept it and her leaving alone without challenge and it's also an interesting scene that shows Angela is not to be played with.
The action is actually relatively light in this episode but you don't miss it because the narrative is so compelling. Just trying to figure out what's going on and how we got here is enough to ride for at least 3 episodes but I doubt Watchmen will keep us waiting this long.
Trauma and abuse brought forth into physical form. Marc Spector isn't so much broken as he is simply been through hell and back, and Steven Grant is his coping mechanism, his way of allowing himself some peace in a world that seems to hate him. Asylum seeks to understand, not to fix; Marc's problems aren't gone by the end of the episode, simply that he has come to terms with his reality and has begun his search for "balance" in a way.
Moon Knight is strong in the same way that WandaVision was in that it takes these grand superhero operatics and seeks to use that as a tool to explore various ideas and the human condition, and while WandaVision is firmly cemented in grief, this show is more concerned with the complicated origins of mental illness. This is probably the darkest the mainline MCU has gotten (this isn't counting the Netflix shows of course) and while there was a fear that it wouldn't work with the rest of the universe it not only fits right in but also manages to carve out it's own identity - it still feels like it's own thing which is an impressive feat considering how entrenched much of the MCU is together. Easily my favourite episode of the show thus far.
Easily my favourite episode so far of the bunch, continuing the show's trek of slowly becoming quite possibly my favourite of the Disney+ shows - that is if it can keep this momentum going into the final act of the show. But as it stands, this is a great piece of supernatural goodness that's very much up my alley in terms of what I wanted to see from the show from the beginning. It's delightfully spooky and the vibes of Tomb Raider are all over this thing in a good way. And the chemistry of Oscar Isaac and May Calamawy really takes off in this episode as well, making a bizarre yet compelling love triangle actually work in the long run.
But it's the last 10 minutes where Moon Knight finally reveals it's trump card, and suddenly the entire series is flipped on it's head in a damn good way. Answers are likely coming sooner or later, but as somebody who intimately familiar with the Jeff Lemire run from 2016 I can safely say that the show is heading into really dark, uncharted territory if they manage to pull this off. The cinematography change here too, from the shakier, grittier parts of the "real world" to the more clean and sophisticated style of the new one really puts into perspective how things have changed for Marc and Steven, and the final reveal is both wonderfully odd and genuinely hilarious. Fantastic stuff!
[7.7/10] Hell of an ending, huh? While I don’t buy that Marc and/or Steven is actually in a mental institution, I appreciate the show going all “Normal Again” with this. It’s a mindscrew of a finish, one that keeps the audience off-balance in wondering whether everything that's happened so far is just in Marc’s head or if he’s somewhere in his own subconscious, or the Egyptian realm of the dead, puzzling this out.
I like the chance to speculate and wonder, but I also just appreciate the mood of the thing. There’s that Keyser Soze-esque realization as Marc looks around the room, wondering if all that he’s experienced is the product of an (incredibly faithful low-budget production) of an adventuring archeologist movie, his fellow inmates, and the Egyptian-themed decor on the walls. Moon Knight has already been something of a reflection of a (highly Holywood-ized vision of) multiple personality syndrome. Making that possibility more literal is a treat in the door it opens up.
Speaking of which, there’s an odd sort of catharsis to Marc opening up a sarcophagus, finding Steven inside, and then hugging his doppelganger. The prospect of another personality lurking there in another fancy coffin is intriguing. And a talking hippo-like god adds to the trippy vibe of this whole thing.
Honestly, the production design and aesthetic may be my favorite part of this series. Moreso than a lot of MCU productions, there’s some truly imaginative cinematography (see: Marc’s fade into nothingness that transitions from a close-up to a flashlight in the movie), really cool lighting (candle flickers and the griminess of the tomb contrasted with the bright light of the mental hospital), and creative framings (the way the tomb ghoul lurks at the edges of the frame before it’s revealed). This feels like a 1990s blockbuster in many ways, and a little more diversity and attention to detail in the visual presentation befits that.
Likewise, I enjoyed when this turned into an out-and-out horror movie. Steven and Layla having to evade the tomb ghoul was downright terrifying. The way it moved, clicked, grasped from the shadows added a pure sense of terror to the proceedings. As weak as I’ve found a lot of the action thus far, “The Tomb” did suspense and horror very well, with the sequence of the ghoul attacking Layla above the chasm being particularly frightening.
I’ll confess that I’m less invested in the character drama here. Harrow’s tempter routine is still good, but when he does it every episode, it starts to get a little tiresome. The reveal that Marc was involved in the murder of Layla’s father is a bit contrived, even if you can write it off as the reason that he and Layla met, not a random coincidence. The acting is uniformly good here. Oscar Isaac does an amazing job all around. May Calamawy drives home the emotion of her affection, fear, and fury. And Ethan Hawke is just as good as a condescending psychiatrist as he is as a Big Bad. But as cute as the courtship between Steven and Layla is, the other personal issues spilling out aren’t quite as compelling.
Still, this is basically a dark-tinged Indiana Jones adventure or riff on The Mummy, and on that measure, it works. Some of the logistics are a little silly, like the eye maze. On the whole, though, the metes and bounds of the quest are well-defined, and we understand what Layla and Steven are looking for, why it matters, and what an ostensible nobody like Steven has to contribute to the effort.
Some of the individual scenes do drag. Every once in a while the sort of genericness of the adventure story takes over. But fun bits like Steven having to reach into the mummified mouth of ALexander the Great(!) to retrieve Ahmet’s vessel, or cute banter between him and Layla, or the head-trip that is the way this one closes up elevates this one and makes it feel distinctive within the MCU framework.
Unsure if this is my favourite episode (Episode 2 is hard to beat) but I love me some good treasure hunting. Marvel has pitched Moon Knight multiple times as Indiana Jones meets superheroes meets psychological thriller and this episode makes good on that promise while also keeping it's story focused on the internal struggles of Marc and Steven. In a nice change of pace, Marc is at the center of most of this and while Steven is still the heart of the series you get a lot of great character stuff for Marc here, particularly in regards to his relationship with Layla.
Egyptian mythology in general has always been some of my cup of tea so seeing the show dive headfirst into it as much as it can is pretty great, particularly in the council scene which is just great stuff. The ending with Khonshu and the stars is one of the most visually stunning sequences on the show so far and while the implications of it have yet to be fully revealed, it does set the stage for some fun tomb raiding - which, might I add, is the reason why I was so excited for this show to begin with. Fantastic stuff once again!
The most anticipated show in the SWU is finally there. Of course, every new show is the most anticipated but Ahsoka still is something special. There will be lovers and haters of that I'm sure. Right now I take the middle ground.
I like the look and the fact that it is basically the continuation of Rebels which I absolutely love. Therefore I'm thrilled to see all the characters in live action finally. The beginning with the crawl text gave me a bit of goosebumps I have to admit. I think the story has potential and I place my faith once again in Filoni to make this right. After all Ahsoka is his baby.
Of course we get a lot of character introduction in the pilot and I'm already regretting not having watched Rebels again as I'm sure I missed some easter eggs along the way.
From a neutral standpoint I'd say this was a "7" all day long. It had it's moments and it's flaws especially towards the end it became very predictable. And once more someone will survive a lightsaber stab. But because of the aforementioned connection to Rebels (you can call it fan-service if you like) I decided to go with "8".
[7.5/10] Ahsoka feels right. The vistas of Lothal feel of a piece with their animated rendition. The characters seem like themselves despite shifts in the performer and the medium. Their relationships feel genuine even though much has changed in the five years since we’ve seen them together.
Maybe that shouldn’t be a big surprise with Dave Filoni, impresario of the animated corner of Star Wars, both writing and directing “Master and Apprentice”, the series premiere. He is the title character’s co-creator and caretaker. He is the creator of Star Wars: Rebels, the show that Ahsoka is most clearly indebted to. And he is, for many, the keeper of the flame when it comes to the Galaxy Far Far Away.
But it was my biggest fear for this show. More than the plot, more than the lore, more than the latest chapter in the life of my favorite character in all of Star Wars, my concern was that translating all these characters, and their little corner of the universe, to live action and a different cast and a different era of the franchise would make everything feel wrong. Instead, we’re right at home. The rest is gravy.
And the gravy is good. Because these are not the colorful, if intense, adventures of the Ghost crew fans saw before. This is, or should be, a period of triumph for the onetime Rebels. They won! The Empire is torn asunder! Lothal is led with grace and a touch of wry sarcasm by Governor Azadi, with none other than Clancy Brown reprising the role! Huyang the lightsaber-crafting droid is still around and has most of his original parts!
Nonetheless, our heroes are hung up on old battles and older wounds. Ahsoka Tano is on a quest to track down Grand Admiral Thrawn, who hunted the Spectres in Rebels. Sabine Wren can’t bask in the afterglow of victory as a hero when she’s still mourning Ezra Bridger. And the two warriors have some lingering bad blood with one another after an attempt to become master and apprentice, true to the title, went wrong somewhere along the way.
With that, the first installment of Ahsoka is a surprisingly moody and meditative affair, one that works well for Star Wars. Sure, there's still a couple of crackerjack lightsaber fights to keep the casual fans engaged. But much of this one is focused on familiar characters reflecting on what’s been lost, what’s been broken, and what’s hard to fix. The end of Rebels was triumphant, but came with costs. To linger on those costs, and the new damage that's accumulated in their wake, is a bold choice from Filoni and company.
So is the decision to focus on Sabine here. Don’t get me wrong, Ahsoka has the chance to shine in the first installment of the show that bears her name. Her steady reclamation of a map to Thrawn, badass hack-and-slash on some interfering bounty droids, and freighted reunions with Hera and her former protege all vindicate why fans have latched onto the character. For her part, Rosario Dawson has settled into the role, bringing a certain solemnity that befits a more wizened and confident master, but also that subtle twinkle that Ashley Eckstei brings to the role.
And yet, the first outing for Ahsoka spends more time with Sabine’s perspective. It establishes her as a badass who’d rather rock her speeder with anti-authoritarian style than be honored for her heroics. It shows her grieving a lost comrade whose sacrifice still haunts her. It teases out an emotional distance and rebelliousness between her and her former mentor. And it closes with her using her artist’s eye to solve the puzzle du jour, and defend herself against a fearsome new enemy.
This is her hour, and while Sabine is older, more introverted, all the more wounded than the Mandalorian tagger fans met almost a decade ago, this opening salvo for the series is better for it.
My only qualms are with the threat du jour. Yet another Jedi not only survived the initial Jedi Purge, but has made it to the post-Return of the Jedi era without arousing the suspicions of Palpatine, Vader, Yoda, or Obi-Wan. Ray Stevenson brings a steady and quietly menacing air to Baylan Skoll, the former Jedi turned apparent mercenary, but there's enough rogue force-wielders running around already, thank you very much.
His apprentice holds her own against New Republic forces and Ahsoka’s own former apprentice, but is shrouded in mystery. She goes unidentified, which, in Star Wars land, means she’s secretly someone important (a version of Mara Jade from the “Legends” continuity?) or related to someone important (the child of, oh, let’s say Ventress). And I’m tired of such mystery boxes.
Throw in the fact that Morgan Elsbet, Ahsoka’s source and prisoner, turns out to be a Nightsister, and you have worrying signs that the series’ antagonists will be rehashing old material rather than moving the ball forward. The obvious “We just killed a major character! No for real you guys!” fakeout cliffhanger ending doesn’t inspire much confidence on that front either.
Nonetheless, what kept me invested in Rebels, and frankly all of Star Wars, despite plenty of questionable narrative choices, is the characters. The prospect of Ahsoka trying to train a non force-sensitive Mandalorian in the ways of the Jedi, or at least her brand of them, is a bold and fascinating choice.
But even more fascinating is two people who once believed in one another, having fallen apart, drifting back together over the chance to save someone they both care about. “Master and Apprentice” embraces, rather than shying away from, the sort of lived-in relationships that made the prior series so impactful in the past, and the broken bonds that make these reunions feel fragile, painful, and more than a little bitter in the present.
I am here for Hera the general trying to patch things up between old friends. I am here for Sabine holding onto her rebellious streak but carrying scars from what went wrong, in the Battle of Lothal and in her attempts to learn the ways of the Jedi. And I am here for Ahsoka, once the apprentice without a master, now the master without an apprentice, here to snuff out the embers of the last war and reclaim what was lost within it.
They all feel right. The rest can figure itself out.
Still absolutely in love with this one. Marvel Studios' overall output on Disney+ so far as been exceptional but Moon Knight so far is up there with Loki as some of their best work. Most of this is due to how creative it's camerawork is and how it tries to find the duality in nearly every shot. Steven's, and by extension Marc's, own struggles with DID throughout these two episodes is one of a battle of control while also a need to understand; everybody believes him to be broken and battered but he isn't, this is just who he, or they, are.
Plus it's just a damn good time. Even at it's worst Marvel is one of the better blockbuster studios right now which has been made abundantly clear, and beyond the great character work and stellar cinematography there is also a really great balance of tone here. It's just silly enough to recognize that Moon Knight is, on the record, a somewhat goofy idea premise for a character while also genuinely looking at him and taking him seriously. It's a great mix of the more modern, psychological takes of the character but also embracing the goofiness of the 80s in full force.
I'm really looking forward to this show as someone whose going into this completely blind. The first episode was really interesting, with our main character, Steven Grant, being this British merchandise seller at an Ancient Egypt Museum, who has these huge gaps of memory loss throughout his daily life, and whose not really respected by anybody.
I liked how they showed how Steven's struggling with feeling like he's completely skipped huge gaps of time, with him constantly questioning where he is, what he did, and what he's said, and with Steven even wearing an ankle bracelet attached to his bed to stop himself from "sleepwalking"
I also cant wait to learn more about this Marc persona trapped inside Steven Grant, it seems like he's another person living inside Steven, with his disembodied voice warning Steven not to dig deeper into Marc and telling Steven what to do, and with Marc staring back at Steven in the mirror telling Steven to give up control. It seems like this Marc dude is a mercenary character, and he's been the one taking control of Steven while he's dormant, and has now stole this ancient Egyptian scarab from the Kummit deity. And, from Steven's breif call with Layla, it seems Marc has been doing his mercenary stuff for months within Steven's body.
I enjoyed the "fight scenes" of today's episode, I love the sounds effects when Marc took over Steven's body during the car chase and initial fight between Marc and the cult of Kummit. Although, I would like to actually see the fights between Marc and those cult members. I'm also looking forward to seeing more of the cult leader character, whose seemingly a messenger for Kummit, the god who judges people as good or evil, and enacts justice accordingly.
I'm also curious about who that scarecrow deity thing was that was ominously following Steven, and what its relationship is to him, or possibly Marc. Also, I really enjoyed the reveal of Moon Knight at the end, with Steven actually talking with Marc through the mirror and then giving up his body to Marc, with Marc then brutally killing the dog-like creature chasing them who was sent by the cult leader.
It's becoming a broken record to say that "Marvel makes damn great stuff" but Moon Knight is yet another strong entry in their catalogue if this first episode is anything to go by. And unlike the prior shows, it presents a new interesting challenge for the MCU in it's relatively standalone status. This is the first of their shows to be about a wholly new character unconnected to any prior entry even tangentially, and because of that there is a chance for them to do something really different and new here. Of course, they are more then up to the challenge as Moon Knight's pilot is downright excellent in setting up the world view of our lead character. Most of this is due to Oscar Isaac's wonderful performance as he balances the camp, somewhat over the top aspects of the premise with the more serious and genuine portrayal of DID with ease.
But the real treat comes in how it's presented on screen. Mirrors and reflections are everywhere, and the fractured mental state of our hero is clearly the main focus here over big action sequences. In fact, while there are action scenes here, they are brief and quick, and cut out with very little time to process what the hell just happened. The brutality is mostly implied here compared to out right shown (do not expect Marvel Netflix levels of violence here, those hoping for that will be disappointed) but it still manages to be on the much darker end of the MCU as it should be. Pretty much excellent across the board and a fantastic start.
