#So funny how the episode reviews were longer this time

[unforeseen-idiot]

Shovelwarewolf Season 2 Review

Shovelwarewolf Season 2 Electric boogaloo, or the season where stuff finally goes down. I love that the story and production value jump in quality with each other in this season.

Sonic 06: Great episode to open with, we meet Susan (who definitely knows more than they're letting on), a cool season theme, acknowledgement (however brief) of the whole arm thing, and an Escape From the City parody, what's not to love.

Goldeneye: Solid episode, I think it has some of SWW's best one liners (Hell's Angels, The Mafia, GAMESTOP!). I learned to never insult Judy Dench, and that I should probably watch a James Bond movie.

Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Another fine episode, Ivan mimicking the glitch was pretty funny. I don't have a whole lot to say about this episode so I'll just write here that Ivan and Susan have a great banter, and that Susan was just a great addition to begin with, but I'll get to that later. Oh and Test Your Patience was a good capper on the episode.

Duke Nukem: Just getting this out of the way, this game is pure trash but SWW's reactions are too funny. I also like the character development at the beginning with Ivan and Susan, she really was just the only one who was nice to him. Also I don't know why this occurs to me, but the company described the next game as, "A console with a Zelda game" I just remembered that the Switch came out with Breath of the Wild in the same year as this season, I don't know how that's relevant, I just thought it was cool.

Legend of Zelda Wand of Gamelon: Oho what an episode, great gameplay, great story, and great one liners. Susan got to be really cool in this episode, which leads me to believe that she definitely planned this in advance and the therapist bit was an act (she went from running from the room during a transformation to bursting in and rescuing Ivan/SWW without batting an eye in the same day, no way that just happened). I also just love this game's stupid clips and the SWW one liners to go with them: "(Recorder noise) THANKS, (same recorder noise) THANKS...FOR NOTHING" "You've killed me, GOOD. Dang, that's savage, who knew Zelda was such an OG" and "Link gave them to me. GASP! YOU KNOW LINK, LIKE OMG" such good writing. and The Shovelwarewolf's a Running is amazing.

Home Alone: Finally we've reached the finale, pretty great all things considered. First I just want to acknowledge this little scene from Death's narration, "With the help of his therapist" while panning on cool bada** Susan, just funny to me. I'd also like to acknowledge Ivan's TV playing AJ and Nate's weird Spider-Man and Batman Save Christmas Movie, wish they'd finish that someday it looked cool. I love the Home Alone parody for the cool ways it adapts the theme, like the Gamecube trap. Santa just having 180 in terms of character and going on a full fledged villain arc is so hilarious. The game itself is weirdly a cool take on a Home Alone game, like most licensed games at the time would take tons of liberties with the source material but this one was pretty accurate, even if it still sucked. Susan got to be cool again, but at the cost of a very forlorn scene. Oh boy now we get to meet our dude Biffalo Bub, simultaneously RE's most stupid but also most realistically scary villain. That silent clip montage at the end still unsettles me.

Music Rating:

Season 2 Opening: One of the best, that opening bass riff is still so mesmerizing. And the violins, and the soft piano, and the synth, oh so good. This opening feels a lot like a triumphant return for the character.

Season 2 Transformation: Conversely this variation of the transformation doesn't really do it for me. I like the way it closes I guess, but I just don't love it. It also has this weird repeating note that just bores into my skull.

SHOVELWAREWOLF! (Test Your Patience): Pretty good parody, I love the recap of the games he's played so far (except Goldeneye for some reason).

Shovelwarewolf's a-Runnin': Great parody, it introduced me to the Werewolves of London. I love it's use in the show and the vocals.

This is My Safehouse: Great composition for the Home Alone episode. Seriously AJ really flexed his composing powers here. The synth is really great, I love the little incorporation of the transformation theme.

Sleigh-Riding Sleazebag: Not much to say on the song other than the title, and it's use of random Christmas carols, but evil.

Couch Gag: I love this gag, Ivan dubbing over game footage is so funny. Like the last one it makes me think of him being so bored he just does stuff like this to pass the time. This time I'm happy he didn't have one for Wand of Gamelon, I feel like the dialogue in that game stand on its own.

The season is so good. It gave us a great SWW mask, a great character in the form of Susan, and excellent story development. And it only gets better from here. In addition, while others have described it better than me, this season has interesting symbolism in obsession and trauma.

[hopepaigeturner]

Hope's Review of S3: Benedict Bridgerton

Again…a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. But first...

PANSEXUAL BENEDICT? WE GOT PANSEXUAL BENEDICT? (She screeches at her 2020 self who wrote an entire story around that premise then had to fundamentally rewrite it to make ‘canon’). They delivered?!?

And just as before, I liked moments:

“Love is not finite” speech from Eloise—finally some emotional labour from the boy.

His contribution in the club scenes with Will, Colin, and John Stirling.

I actually liked Tilley. The actress really sold their banter and her personality. Also it merely confirms once again that Benedict likes a bossy girl with convictions. *COUGH* Sophie Beckett*COUGH*

The dinner scene where he stumbled over the question about his art. I think all the acting worked really well.

Again Luke T’s acting is really nuanced and detailed with micro expressions and gestures. He really sold scenes, e.g. when he was talking to Tilley about Paul. Kissing Colin? Perfection! All his gestures and background acting once again were golden.

While I felt the swing scene was a little tacked on, I like when he said “There she is..” when Eloise said she wished to change the world. I think it’s a lovely moment to show how Benedict understands Eloise. He knows she just needed time and space to work it out and return.

However, I do feel that the writing this season, like Benedict himself, felt…lost. No real coherency, no real consistency from prior seasons.

While it was awesome to get pansexual Benedict, if that was the ending then why not have him build a relationship with another man rather than Tilley? While Benedict does sleep around his track record has not been casual--he typically takes one mistress each season, and one that he has a genuine connection with.

If you want to give a storyline justice, have more than one conversation with Paul to show why he’s attracted to Paul. Why stuff it all into one episode? Why make it focus solely on sex?

There are numerous hints about him being the next season. And from that perspective I don’t think this storyline really contributed to that.

E.g. I don’t think we’ve really explored the whole ‘second son thing’ at all.

For me there was a lack of consistency about him & emotional labour. Where was his relationship moments with his siblings? With Francesca?

Apart from one dinner scene we do not get any mention about art. No comment from family about it. No comment from himself. No deflection or even topic arising. And maybe people say the dinner scene is enough, but we literally see no reaction from Benedict after having his heart crushed last season.

All I’m worried about is that they might unveil all this complexity about Benedict (e.g. second son thing) and viewers are gonna be like. Where did that come from?

And it would have been so easy to add this stuff in-literally just an expression or a sentence.

E.g. Second son thing.

Take the scene in Will's club when they're passing around the drink. And Colin says "Are you not the happiest you've been [being adrift]". While Benedict's reaction is funny, I would have loved the camera to linger just a moment longer and show the smile slip. He says this is the happiest, but in actuality?

A couple sentences, even a joke from him or a family member, about him handling the estates. Being the ‘backup’ while Kanthony goes on holiday.

In that convo with Paul and Tilley in bed, why not have Paul crack a joke about second sons?

E.g. Emotional labour.

Why not have him have a chat with Francesca about John. Or a chat with Francesca before her debut. Or hey? Maybe just actually have him interact with his family? The moments when he did were so good!

E.g. Art & Art School

Have Anthony ask about art school, have someone make a comment. And have Benedict just brush it off—his smile a little larger than his usual ones… (and have it in an early episode). Not only would this show how Benedict does not like getting into conflict. Not only does it hint at the pain about art school that will be delved into during his season. But it also shows the front he puts up with his family.

Literally. One. line. One extra exchange.

If you’ve got time for countless other subplots, you’ve got time for a small exchange to help set up your next lead.

But all in all, I’m not fully despairing. I’m just wary for next season. And in the meantime? I've got two years to finish An Offer from an Avid Reader so I'll just lose myself in that.

And do you know what pansexual Benedict also means? A bonus?

Solidifies my head canon of Sophie and Benedict being the artsy, bohemian couple that hosts soirees for all their friends of varying classes and sexualities. Using all that privilege and hoarded Bridgerton wealth to create a refuge for their friends.

[starlightseraph]

doctor who series/season review that no one asked for!

overall this series was an 7/10 for me. the plots were mostly good, the characters were lovely. the dialogue was occasion corny, but this is doctor who we’re taking about.

- the special was alright, not great but still enjoyable.

- “space babies” was weird as hell, but not terrible.

- “the devil’s chord” was good, funny, and with a compelling villain. i think it might’ve been resolved a bit too easily, but still, i really liked it.

- “boom” was great, i have like two very minor quibbles with the pacing but they’re so tiny that it’s easy to ignore.

- “73 yards” was amazing, but i do feel like they set up a lot of plot threads that never came to much later in the series.

- “dot and bubble” was also amazing, very well done.

- “rogue” was great, basically the only issue i had with it was that one line. you know the one i’m taking about. i need rogue to come back, he and the doctor have amazing chemistry. as someone who’s not a fan, the incessant bridgerton references were mildly annoying, but i know that many of my fellow gen z people love it, so i’ll give ruby a pass for that.

- “the legend of ruby sunday” was so good, i was incredibly excited to see how all the overarching mysteries throughout the season would connect. it was probably because that episode was so good that “the empire of death” was so disappointing. the pacing was off, the resolution was odd, and so much was left unexplained (assuming, of course, that there isn’t some larger, longer-running conspiracy that we have yet to see the full picture of, but that seems unlikely atm, except for more involvement of mrs flood).

i only have one issue with the series as a whole, which was that we didn’t see much relationship development. i guess there wasn’t time because this series was so short, but i go crazy for doctor-companion bonding. scenes where they’re just sitting around, talking about life and the universe and everything are my favourites. i recently rewatched “the impossible planet” and “the satan pit”, and the doctor/rose dynamic is wonderful when they just talk. the six month time gap from the special to the first episode is probably when the doctor and ruby got to know each other, and i would have loved to see it.

[mx-piggy]

I really missed writing Hulurama reviews. I had no idea that a new episode was out until Wednesday, and I was too sick to want to watch and review it until today. I'm really looking forward to writing these reviews again, and I'm hoping to start working on my Hulurama review and ranking that I'll post to my website at some point. For now, here's my review for The One Amigo. Spoilers ahead!

I think it worked well enough as a season premier. I definitely preferred The Impossible Stream as an episode and as a season premier, because I found Impossible Stream a lot funnier overall. But, I think I preferred this episode's social commentary a lot more just because I found it funny, whilst with Impossible Stream it was the same old tired commentary about streaming services, from what I can remember. I'm not overly knowledgeable about NFTs, but I did find most of the episode's jokes about them to be quite funny

I think my enjoyment of this episode exceeded its objective quality.

I found it to be quite sweet, with Bender getting to spend time with his family and with the Planet Express crew caring enough about him to do a museum heist to steal back his NFT and hopefully make him feel better.

The solid humour elevated this episode enough for me to make me like it.

That said, I do think that narratively it was kind of a mess. As far as Bender has a crisis episodes go, this one is probably one of the weakest. The set-up of Bender's crisis felt quite poorly justified, and overall the Bender's family plotline and NFT plotline, for me at least, didn't link very well together. I understood what they were going for. That said, I think a 'Bender finds his family' story should have been set up with a more explicit 'Bender wishes he has a family' set up. I'm glad they didn't just abandon the NFT thing once Bender went to Mexico and that they actually did more with it throughout the episode, but, again, I think that there must have been a better way to set up this Bender story. At the very least, I think that having the NFT story actually carry on throughout the episode was better than doing the Family Guy thing where there'll be 7 minutes of Peter having a falcon or something, and it sets up the rest of the episode but has no actual significance to the story.

Additionally, I didn't think the story was given the weight it warranted. Bender finding his family is so significant, but it never felt like that the episode understood that. I was fully expecting the reveal that this wasn't Bender's actual family with how little weight this was treated with, but nope. It struck me as odd that Bender was so emotionally unaffected by his cousin's betrayal. I think that the only way they can salvage this is to do a follow-up episode, but, at the same time, I think it'd be a bit weird for them to follow up this episode when a lot of us are expecting follow ups to episodes earlier in the show (like how Children of a Lesser Bog followed up Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch).

I think that this had the opportunity to be a good Bender crisis episode, but it missed the mark for me. Fry's family stories and Leela's family stories are typically really emotionally effective (Luck of the Fryrish, Leela's Homeworld), but this one just wasn't, when I think it really should have been. For what it is, though, I think it's alright, a solid 6 or 6.5/10 episode.

There were things about this episode I appreciated. The setting was interesting, and I like that Hulurama is giving us new and unique settings for episodes. Despite thinking that the NFT story and the Bender's family story didn't connect well, I did enjoy the museum heist as a fun little subplot. Seeing more of Amy's kids was really fun, and I hope to see more of them this season. I loved that Fry was at the table drawing with the kids. Leela's line 'thanks for springing us from the joint, kids' was so fucking funny to me. The return of the Fing-Longer was fun. I loved that we saw iterations of Bender from episodes past in the gallery of NFTs, like the gold version of him we see in the Farnsworth Parabox, or the knight version we see of him in Bender's Game.

I wouldn't say I was disappointed by this episode. I enjoyed it for what it was (i.e. a fun little Bender episode with a fun little subplot with the other guys), but I am a little frustrated about how it wasn't what it could have been (i.e. an emotionally resonant character episode). With this episode falling flat in that respect, I'm hoping that we end up getting some emotionally resonant episodes this season like we did last season, and that we get some good character episodes like we did last season. Honestly, though, this is a pretty mid episode and I still had a good time with it overall, so suffice it to say it takes a lot for me to dislike a Futurama episode. I just like seeing more of my little guys, I guess. But, I'm also prepared to find out that I'm the one person who liked this episode (it's a familiar experience for me lmao).

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts about the episode, so feel free to comment or reblog with your opinion!

[marvel-starwarsfangirl]

Ep. 10 "Identity Crisis" and Ep. 11 "Point of No Return" Review

Oh wow guys, those two episodes were rough. Definitely went places I didn't expect, but I was overall satisfied. It makes me hate the Empire and Hemlock even more though. Hemlock is such a twisted and sick man. He's right up there with Tarkin and Palpatine for most disturbing Imperial imo.

Anyways, let's dive in! Per usual, spoilers below

I wasn't expecting Emerie as a focus tbh. However, it was actually pretty interesting. Ever since we met her in season 2, the mystery around her and her purpose have been kept in the background. But I must say, getting to see her POV and her conflict between her loyalties to Hemlock and compassion for others was neat. The way she clearly connects to children and thinks back to her own childhood definitely raises questions for the future. I strongly believe that Emerie is going turn against Hemlock in a final act to save Omega at the cost of her own life. After seeing the children being experimented upon, she was clearly horrified. Emerie also has shown concern for both Crosshair and Omega, with the latter being extra special to her.

Speaking of the children, that was absolutely sickening and heartbreaking to watch. Cad Bane is back in his abduction era, oh yes. (He and Todo act like an old married couple and it’ll never not be funny to me). My heart shattered when both Eva and Jax stated all they wanted to go home. The dark truth is that they never will. Unless Omega and the boys successfully free everyone from Tantiss, then those kids will forever remain prisoners. It just makes me hate Hemlock even more. The children are definitely instrumental in Emerie's change of heart and I think she was meant to be created for the same reason Omega was. However, she failed for some reason. We'll get more lore soon no doubt.

I also found Tarkin's line about Hemlock stealing all the funding to be humorous. It'd be so funny if Hemlock just made the Empire flat out broke.

And yes, it was finally Pabuover. We all knew it was coming, even the Marauder's destruction. However, I do understand some people not feeling as impacted by it because it was in the trailer. Nevertheless, it was still hard to watch. Freaking Cid once again sold the Batch out. That woman better be stuck in a deep, dark hole for all the trouble she caused. Because of her, a beautiful, little family and a lovely island were destroyed. That being said, I'm glad the way they found Pabu was through looking at Phee's recent travel history instead of the "Crosshair sleeper agent" theory. It would've made no sense if that theory was correct because the Empire took their sweet time tracking him if that was the case.

Seeing the Batch say goodbye to Pabu was sad. Omega putting Lula and Tech's goggles in the Archium symbolizes her leaving her childhood behind imo. She can no longer truly be a kid anymore. Pabu was that safe space. However, it is no longer.

It's truly the Batch's darkest hour aside from "Plan 99." Their ship is gone, Wrecker was knocked out, Hunter had a rough landing, Omega is captured, and Crosshair missed...

I had a feeling Omega was going to give herself up, but to see Crosshair miss such a crucial shot, a shot which would've led the Batch straight to Tantiss, was brutal. He's never going to forgive himself. And how will he explain this to Hunter and Wrecker? Cross went along with Omega's plan and now there trust in him will waver. And the look on his face when he pleads with her to not go through with the plan broke me. That man loves her with every fiber of his being. I swear, Jennifer will be hearing from me soon. Omega doesn’t even know he missed which will also be devastating (but it opens the door for Emerie to save the day).

I knew a moment like that could happen, but to see it hit different. Crosshair had no choice. He was being shot at and out of time. It was now or never. I sincerely hope that he and Hunter don’t argue for the majority of the next episode. Ideally, Hunter will recognize that Cross was backed into a corner and that he what he needs is therapy and hugs, not more yelling.

(Also, why did Crosshair’s imperial theme play for like two seconds? Was it warning us about the shot?)

And then there’s CX-2. Man he’s hard to get rid of, isn’t he? I am so convinced he’s Tech at this point. It was his word choice that clued me in. But with 4 episodes to go, I wonder how they’re going to pull this reveal off, especially if it is Tech. We’ll see.

Btw, I’m so glad they didn’t kill Batcher. The dog is very important you know.

That’s all for now! See yall next week and we can cry some more!

[thecomicsnexus]

SWAMP THING #69-75

FEB - AUG 1988 By Rick Veitch , Brett Ewins, Alfredo Alcala, Tatjana Wood, John Costanza, Dave McKean, Tom Yeates, John Totleben, and Mike Kaluta.

After refusing to destroy his successor, Swamp Thing accidentally puts his world at risk. Now with the help of John Constantine, he will need to find a new soul for the sprout, and finally retire to live with Abby.

SCORE: 9

The only thing stopping this review from being a 10 is the very complex lore that is starting to make the book very dense. Especially if you come back to the back after a long break. And it's not just the lore, it's also how long these stories are running.

In any case, reading these issues was very refreshing. It was back when stories, no matter how serialized they were, still had a good sense of pacing. And Rick Veitch made sure to give you something back for your money every month.

To me the best episode of this batch was the one with the plane accidents. Looking for a successor for Swampy, John Constantine does all kinds of risky things, just to be able to single out a person who was about to die who was somewhat related to Alec Holland.

But this Gary Holland immediately realizes he is about to die, and every single moment of his last day is plagues with bad omens. Still, John has no other choice but to get in the plane that was about to crash, just to save the world. John survives the plane crash, but then find out that Swampy found the souls of the plane crash and helped move on to the afterlife (he was unaware of John's plan). It was so dark and funny, that it really reminded me of Vertigo comics (or perhaps the average Alan Grant story).

The next episode had also a very creative narrative device. With the panel orientation being taken over by the line of captions, making every page with the character, technically a maze.

These are all very thought-provoking stories with a lot of poetry in the art itself.

But I have to repeat myself here. The great moments were possible thanks to the super long arc, which doesn't even end with issue #75. However, I felt it was the right time to finish the binge. I already knew that Abby was going to try to be a mother, so it didn't come as a surprise.

And here's another thing that's going to make this story even longer. It will crossover with Hellblazer. And I am not sure how much it will matter for the book, but Invasion will also tie in with this book.

Nevertheless, I'll take that small flaw (same problem the Legion books always have), in favor of stories like these.

[tacharie]

VERY LATE REVIEW ON EPISODE 8 WOW.

HEY GUYS SO SO SORRY IVE BEEN LATE BUT IM HERE… ROGHT BEFORE EPISODE 9 😭😭😭. guys but for realsies I don’t really have much to say for episode 8 cause I mostly forgot what happened. TIME TO BRING OUT THE SCREENSHOTS. As always, spoilers ahead of you have not already read Tokyo Debunker Episode 8, and these were written in the order of my reactions, so you will be seeing how my reactions progress. There will be no more spoiler warning ahead of this soooo pls don’t blame me DANKE :3

ohhhhhh ok ok I see this and I’m kinda not liking it!! They’re pretty and all but like… I hate auctions cause it’s like geez louise. I’ve read so many zombie manwhas where they start selling people at auctions and it makes me so uncomfortable now that I see auctions.

ANYWAYS staring off strong with my boy RITSU!! I haven’t seen you in forever my lizard looking friend what’s happening !!!

this bitch is no longer my friend. WHAT ARE YOU BEING SO MEAN FOR DO YOU NOT REMEMBER THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF US TURNING INTO AN ANOMALY LIKE DANG. Like Ik you’re all head first into work or whatever but geez Louise, part of being a lawyer is being empathetic to understand how to get evidence from witnesses dumb dumb.

why is this LOSER. Not listening to my glorious queen. Just because it don’t follow the charts does NOT mean that it isn’t plausible like cmon think logical here. Also, when he’s like getting mad at Taiga without actually talking to him, I can just see him shaking his fist in the air lmao. Moving on from him… ROMEO CALLED US :3!!

HAIIII ROMEO MY NEW FAVORITE OF SINOSTRA WHATS POPPING!!! Also, NEW FACE!! NEW FACE FROM ROMEO I THINK. He has an angry one all the time last time, but now this one is more like… concerned?? Idk MOVING ON!! Also, I’m starting to like Romeo and I really want to know his lore for now. Cause look at this:

Like who is doing this to you BBG!!! I kinda feel bad for him he’s js a lil guy sometimes :(

(NOT IN LIKE THE FANON MIDORIYA WAY BUT IN LIKE A he’s very pitiful sometimes)

Also dang what is with this tension between Taiga and Romeo bruh. Like they’re legit acting like exes. I DONT SHIP THEM DONT GET ME WRONG. But like… there was DEFINITELY SOMETHING. Especially since Taiga remembers his name/nickname.

Yuri and Jiro :(!!! I MISSED YOU TWOO HAIIIII!!! Guys they’re so cute lmao Yuri getting worried like a friend awwwwww… though I’m pretty sure it’s because Jiro is still his subject. ARGHH OMG 😭💕 “I was only there cause I was looking for you” AWWWWWWW THATS SO SWEET!! The whole vomiting scene was so funny and silly and cute of them I hope we see them more!!

WOAHHHHHHHHHH!!! AWOOGA HELLO 😍😍😍!!! GUYS THEY LOOK SO PRETTAYYYYY!! Dang Romeo hand selected them, no surprise there. They’re sooooo cute AND THE MC AHHHHHH SHES SO SILLY 😭😭💕💕💕!!!

“try not to be discreet” immediately grabs Taiga’s ear. Oh wow. Also Imma need Taiga to STOP WOTH THE KITTEN TALK. IVE HAD IT 😡😡. ITS NOT FUNNY ANYMORE!

WHAT. NO. NONONONONONONONONO PLEASEEEEEEE SPARE ME WHY ME 😭😭😭. WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE HAVE TO SHARE A ROOM WITH THESE THREE LUNATICS. BRUH TAIGA’S PROBABLY LIKE A SLEEP BITER. UH UH I REFUSE 😡. You guys are rich aren’t you?? Can’t we have separate rooms pretty please. Also besides from sharing, I don’t like the idea of staying overnight. Cause they told us nothing!! We ain’t got toothbrush, deodorant, NADA. It’s gotta REEK in there.

Ok so… Romeo knowing the password is not rubbing me the right way. I hate it actually. Romeo please don’t be TOO sketch!!! Please please please I BEGGGG!! Also woah… I don’t like how it looks!! Like the AI is so obvious with this one PLEASEEE INVEST IN A BACKGROUND ARTIST. It’s not that difficult I promise you. The music is hella nice tho MEAH MWAH LOVELYYYY!! Also if you screen record a video with the background, you can see they added a shaky effect which was cool!!

alright Romeo. How’s you come up with the name. Guys he might actually be in some dark shit uh oh. Chat I think my fav sinostra character is cooked. Taiga pointing that out makes js confirms my suspicions. Like guys. Sighs. Also, I highly doubt Gojo teacher is gonna bail us out of this one taiga 🙁… he’s … NOT THAT GREAT!!

Ok so we split up anddddd… Taiga went to a bar. Naturally. RITSU, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM. Like, I know he’s not personally insulting anyone, but like getting compared to Romeo is bad?? I mean, I guess they’re kinda opposites so IG!! Gulping down Taiga’s drink is WILD LMAOOO 😭😭.

ok moving onto their little exploration, Taiga, leaves his three blind mice looking glasses alone. It’s actually kinda cute that Ritsu is so sweet for his mom. ALSO HOURS??? FOR GLASSES?? I thought I was indecisive geez man. And oh!! They found the mask right? NOT TAIGA SUGGESTING THEY GANK THEM WHAT 😭 WHY IS HE SHOOTONG THE PLACE UP HELLO?? WHY DID HE SHOW RITSU TO WHACK THINGS WITH HIS BOOK OMG 😭.. IM DEADDDD.

alrighty now our side. Romeo and queeny let’s gooo!!! Romeo scamming some guy is actually crazy lmao. But like, he knew this guy?? Then why is this guy acting like he doesn’t know Romeo? That’s … STRANGE!! Anyways, AHHHH THAT ONE ART OF HIM HOLDING THE PAINTING WAS EVERYTHING :(!! So sweet so cute!! Other than the fact he scammed someone but I digress!!!

“There’s only a handful of people in this world that know the true vale of things.” Such an odd sentence to add, that’s more of an inner dialogue thing but he said it aloud. Maybe he meant smth else by it but like IM NOT THAT DETECTIVY GUYS!!

Romeo please leave my Boy Yuri alone 😭😭. They got that little man stressing fr. But I wanted to point out a few things from their conversation:

-“ Someone’s gotten cocky” (Romeo to Yuri) The word gotten changed the entire meaning of THSI sentence. They knew each other before… from Frostheim maybe?? Cause we know both of them have personal beef from frost heim, maybe they both transferred but were once close back then. Sounds kinda cliche but. Further evidence: “I remember when you ran off crying to the grubby old lab, now you’re playing king of the castle?” So maybe not together, but just what kind of connection did they have? Maybe Romeo was a bully :(

BUT WAIT !! THERES MORE!!! “ha ha. Fine words coming from a has-been like you. Why, I hardly hear anyone speak of you these days. I suppose your accomplishments were only possible before you relinquished your brand name. Oh, I suppose it’s more accurate ‘before it was stolen from you?’ “. … WOW!! Ok!!! So yeah Romeo was popular, he was .. maybe forced out of Frostheim because of his family situation… or maybe bullied out of it. With Romeo, a lot of times someone mentions something being stolen from him, which is probably why he’s so obsessed with wealth. Their relationship is so strange, I need to raise their affinities to see more lore.

Aw yeah, my queen got the lobster and pasta she deserved for her dinner!! I’m so glad that we don’t have to sleep with each other bro like legit JUMPING FOR JOY 😆😆😆!!!

Aw shucks Romeo is being shady once more ; “ Just relax by your little fireplace and I’ll bring you a nice souvenir. I’ll bring you back that mask so don’t forget our deal.” PROFESSOR HYDE. IK ITS YOU. WTF ARE YOU UP TO. Why does he want that mask, why does he need a mask, is he doing this against Darkwick or for them? Guys I need answers like urgently.

Oh no. It’s Taiga. Everyone smile and wave. Bruh why is he talking to us like he don’t know us m. It’s us, your kitty patootie. YEAHHHH HE RECOGNIZED US!! PROGRESS GUYS!! Omg wait he might actually remember the train… HE DID !! HE DID YES 😭😭!! TAIGA YOU ARE THE GOAT MY GLORIOUS KING TAIGA. Wait but he forgot where the monster went. Man… can’t do nothing fr 🙁. Uh oh :3 Romeo caught us!! DAMN TAIGA BEING SO MEAN FOR WHAT. “We were just talking about how gross you sound buttering someone up” like dang. We think that, not say that. What power does Gojo teacher hold to control Romeo so easily… I don’t get it :(.

phew day 2, auction day!! Taiga sleeping in the ceremony is so real. WHY IS HE SO READY TO SHOOT EVERYBODY GEEZ. Oh!! Romeo comes busting in… AHHHHHH MY GLORIOUS QUEEN MC IN THE BACKGROUND SUCH A CUTIE. Oh he actually started shooting ok!!! Awesome!!! OH WHAT THE… THEYRE ALL GLITCHING. RUN MC TUN. DONT LET THE OTHERS SLACK YOU!!

Ok so they got to the exit, and they won’t let us out… AWESOME. JUST AWESOME. Bruh Taiga is going on some riddle shit JS TELL US PLEASEEEEE. Bruh. Romeo. My guy. My pall. WHY TF DID YOU HAVE SO MUCH TREASURE 😭😭😭. WHY WOULD YOU THROW IT RIGHT AT RITSU. RITSUUUUU GET YO ASS HOME!! Oh wait his stigma nvm. He’s chilling. That panel of Ritsu saying his stigma goes hard though.

AWWWWW THEIR DIRT COVERED FACES ARE SO CUTE!!! AHHH I LOVE IT!! Too bad about the mask and Romeo’s treasure but we chilling. OH WAIT NVM TAIGA GOT THE MASK!! YAYAYYAYAY!! Romeo looks so happy aw 😭. Oh.. OH!!! ARE THEY ABOUT TO KISS?? WHAT HAOPENED IT ZOOMED IN ONTO ROMEO’S LIPS WHAT HAPPENDD.

Oh we’re back at the Diner with Ritsu. WAIT CAN WE SEE OUR BOY REN :3??? BRUH WHAT. TAIGA ATE THE FUCKING MASK??? HUH??? Another probation is actually crazy dang…

Oh shit Taiga and Hyde. “Lay off Lulu” AWWWWWW HE CARES ABOUT HIS FRIEND. AWWWWW!!! Bruh Hyde is actually pissing me off bro tf you mean “The stage is nearly set” FOR WHAT??? FOR WHAT PURPOSE??? Guys 😭

ok so that’s that. Uhhhhh I might have skipped a few parts but this is merely going off on the deleted screenshots I took the time I read it. The only thing I do remember is what I was thinking on each scene. Honestly, not much was given in this one for like DARKWICK lore, except for the fact they work with underground connections as well as governmental. That’s actually so wild how powerful they are. I’m actually so excited to see more of Ritsu’s emotional side, and Romeo/ Taiga’s backstory, not just tightened but their personal ones too. Still don’t have Taiga’s unique magic womp womp :(. Hyde… is freaking me out a bit too. And nothing has been explained about why Hyde called Sho for a “special mission”. It doesn’t look like he’s gonna be a part of the next chapter too, so it’s making sho SUPPERRRR SUS rn. But anyways I hoped you enjoyed and I will make another one of these VERY soon for Episode 9 :3!! Ciao , until next chapter!!

[thatseventiesbitch]

That '90s Show Part 2 Review

Overall, I'm giving Part 2 4.5 Stars out of 5!!!! I completely loved it, and thought it was an improvement from last season. I am now all the more excited for part 3, given what I know is still coming. 😜

If you're interested, here's my real-time reactions thread from Twitter (pinned to the top of my bio).

Stay tuned for my breakdown (warning: there be spoilers here):

The Good

The H U M O R continues to be the brightest spot for me. This is a genuinely funny show - I laughed out loud (okay, closer to howled if we're being honest) several times. It feels similar (though not identical) to T70S' brand of humor. I can tell it was made by the same people. This season, like last, Ozzie was my main man and had the one-liners that sent me the most but I can say the same for Jay, Gwen, Nate, and Leia too. And Bob. Oh hell, all of them! I'm sure I'll be reblogging my favorite moments for months to come while we wait for part 3!

The C H A R A C T E R D E V E L O P M E N T is the other shining star for me. The first season was limited (disappointing?) in this regard - to be fair, they only had 10 episodes to introduce us to a whole new handful of characters and make us care about them, and they mostly did. But this season brought the depth I was looking for - and we're only halfway through! 🤯 We learn more about Jay's playboy past, and see how he's actively working to grow and change and do his relationship with Leia differently. Ozzie is humanized when he has his heart broken - and his friends are there to pick up the pieces 💔. Nate struggles with his feelings and relationship with Nikki all season, and by the end of episode 8 he seems to be grappling with still having real feelings for her that he can't move on from. Nikki's pregnancy scare really affected her, and not in the way one would necessarily expect. She ended part 2 feeling lost and unsure of her direction, or what she truly wants (and not her parents), for the first time in her life. Gwen's storylines were perhaps my favorite of all (I'm a big Gwen stan, okay?). I was impressed that they decided to 'go there' with the racism plot, and even more impressed at the frank conversation she had at the end of the episode with her white (and well-intentioned, but bumbling) mom. Was it perfect and resolved? No. I think that was kind of the point. Not to mention her navigating her first real feelings and her relationship (?) with Cole. And Leia, my lovely Leia - she is learning about communication, forgiveness, honesty - all with the gentle guidance of her family and her friends. And that's not to mention Red and Kitty, who had sweet, plot-driving storylines of their own. I loved their realization that they like their rut - but loved even more when Red was inspired to live every day like it's his last and pushed through his fears to go to Paris with Kitty 🥰. This longer season has afforded more 'filler-like' episodes for us to just hang out with the characters, and get to know them more intimately. What are their wants, fears, insecurities, innermost thoughts? We are getting there. We are really getting there. Let's see what 8 more episodes will bring!

BOB! Bob gets his own point, because I enjoyed him so much (and seeing him and Red eventually come together to be overprotective grandpas 🤣. I laughed so much at his relationship with Leia, how they were just chilling in the basement, how he wanted all the teen gos. And Gwen's "What the heck, do you tell your grandpas everything?" 😂

DONNA! I adore Donna Pinciotti (Forman?), always have, and I adore her even more in the '90s than I thought possible. I love seeing her as a mom and her relationship with Leia. More pls.

This season felt more '90s to me! They incorporated more '90s references and brought back the regular fantasy sequences that always set the original apart. Off the top of my head, I loved: Kitty's Carmen Electra fantasy/nightmare (😂), Leia's Lisa Loeb fantasy (🤣), the Macarena (that shit was e v e r y w h e r e in the mid-90s, man), the Mentos commercial, Jay and Silent Bob (Kevin Smith cameo!!! also, Leo's son???) and all of Kitty's '90s slang that she picked up from the kids at school 😂👏🏻

The guest stars! Mitch and The Angel returned from T70S, and I am a big Will Forte/that era of SNL stan so I thoroughly enjoyed his appearance, too (and know he's been involved on the OG series on the writing/production side).

Red's trains (callback to season 1 of T70S - whoa!!) 🥰

I thought they struck a good balance this season between those heartfelt, 'very special episode'-type moments that '90s sitcoms were infamous for, without actually being too sickly-sweet, ala a Full House or Girl Meets World type moment. Donna and Leia's interaction in Nikki's bedroom regarding the voicemail comes to mind, as well as the is-Nikki-pregnant storyline and Nikki and Nate's celebratory dance at the end 🤣.

Which reminds me - I thought Nikki and Nate's storyline was intriguing. I have always been sort of a fan of their relationship - I don't think it's as bad as some others seem to - but remain unconvinced that they're 'meant to be' or endgame or whatever. But I enjoyed watching them navigate their break-up this season and then reluctantly find their ways back to each other, though. We'll see where it goes in part 3!

I immediately noted (and was pleased!) that there was a Laurie mention and a Midge mention this season. Both very off-hand, but it was something I was curious about. Who will be next? Betsy Kelso? 😮

The Bad

For me, ngl, Topher Grace's (Eric) absence was really felt. It is definitely the kids' show now and a substantial storyline isn't one I'd ever expect, but gosh I missed him from the family scenes at the beginning (both those with Red & Kitty, and those with Donna & Leia). The silver lining is how the other characters continue to reference him - almost in every episode, really - and so we still learn things about him and his relationships to his wife, daughter, and parents through these mentions from other characters. There will always be a part of me that is crossing my fingers for another Eric appearance, though, and I think there always will be.

Kitty's characterization as an overbearing mother was overdone. To be fair, this isn't a deviation from the original show. This is how she was often written towards the end of T70S - overbearing, possessive of Eric, lashing out at Donna or feeling in competition with her. It was done for laughs, but it wasn't particularly funny to me (and never was) 🤷‍♀️.

Not enough Geia content for my 'shipper heart 😩. We got one boob touch 😂, and it is clear that Leia still prioritizes her friendship with Gwen above all else (I lol'ed when she worried Gwen was in jail and that she would have to commit a crime to join her) but I want more, damn it! Part 2 solidified for me that Geia is never going to be anything more than a crack!ship. 😰

Which reminds me - Jay and Leia are kind of 'meh' for me. They're fine, I don't dislike them together, and I do like how we're seeing them both learn and grow through their relationship but... it just inspires kind of lukewarm feelings, I guess.

There wasn't a lot of Sherri in part 2. I love Sherri. Hope to see more of her in the next part.

The Ugly

I am pleased to say that I can't think of anything!!! Fez was absent (although they didn't directly reference their break-up, Sherri is clearly single and on the prowl all season) but I didn't miss him (🤭). Ditto to Kelso and Jackie - although we did get one reference to Jay's dad and the Kelso family heirloom (aka porn). I would say the ugliest part is that I now have to wait until October for part 3!!!

[forktutwtt]

How tf is Futurama literally exactly the same in every conceivable way after 10 years. EXACTLY the same. Like no time has passed at all. It’s insanely impressive how consistent this show is.

Here’s my longer review:

LIGHT SPOILERS

It’s amazing. I would not notice a shred of difference without the knowledge this is 10 years later (beside the fact they reference the show being cancelled like they always do). Nothing has changed.

Legitimately the most notable change was that Hermes voice sounds slightly off (still obviously the same guy but he’s probably just older). He had like 4 lines though so it’s hard to say it’s really a change.

I loved the way the episode acknowledges the time passing and the previous episode in terms of overall status quo changing plot. It makes sense while still placing it in July 3023 and that’s cool. Although the episode’s plot was resolved in a very silly way that makes it kinda hard to buy, the jokes were consistently funny (especially the professor), the events were creative and escalated well, and plots concluding oddly is pretty on track for this show. Which leads to my last point.

Literally all my problems with the episode are the same I have with the rest of the series. For example, although they explicitly show the events of the previous finale, after the reset they do not acknowledge Fry and Leela’s relationship directly. Other characters still act as though they’re dating though. I’d say that’s weird and disappointing but frankly that’s what the show’s been doing for 26 years: barely focusing on the relationship and keeping in the background unless it’s the focus. They seriously dedicated themselves to making it EXACTLY the same. No improvements and no losses in quality of any kind.

Amy even had all the bad jokes! That’s how you know it’s the same old Futurama.

Overall, I’m shocked this exists and I love the comeback so far.

[radioluminescentoblivion]

Hazbin Hotel: The Corruption of Creativity. Part 1

1. Introduction

Hello everyone, I normally don’t make huge posts like these, but I thought it would be important to make this review and discussion about the latest animated show on Amazon Prime, Hazbin Hotel, and the people behind the scenes who worked on the show, mostly the show creator Vivziepop. Back in 2019 when I first watched the animated pilot of Hazbin Hotel, I was interested to see how this show, if picked up, would go about with its story. Like many people who were still fans of Vivziepop’s work, I wanted to see this show become a good adult animated series. In fact, as the production was going on behind closed doors, I supported viv and her work via Patreon for a time and bought some merch from Sharkrobot.com to help fund her endeavors—I even still have my Angel Dust t-shirt and Hazbin Hotel poster in a black picture frame. 

2. Personal Fan Origins

Though I wasn’t an og follower of viv back in her older days on DeviantArt, I was introduced to her work around 2014-2015, that’s when I originally saw her fan-animated Kesha Die Young music video and since then I became a fan of her work and was obsessed with her means of creating very expressive and stylistic characters. Vivziepop was the artist who not only introduced me to the furry community, she was also a big inspiration for my artwork and still is to some extent now, had it not been for her, I don’t think I would’ve been in the position I’m in now to make art or it would’ve taken me much longer than where I started. 

But as much as I was a casual fan of her work, I was also a skeptic of her as a person over time. Primarily due to how she would be overly defensive towards criticism, radiate a toxic personality on others and friends of hers, and how she would intentionally and unintentionally weaponize her audience against those that landed on her blacklist. These traits would only become more apparent over time, but I like many others had the mindset of “separating the art from the artist” And while there is some validity to be made on that notion, it makes it all the harder when the person intentionally makes the art inseparable from who they are or they’re still active or alive and will constantly change their position or view on things. I know there’s a much deeper discussion to be had about this notion and how relevant it actually is, but for the sake of this post, I won’t dive into it that much. 

Watching Helluva Boss in 2019 onward would prove to be a conflicting experience since the first time watching the first season wasn’t as bad, some episodes had some strong character development, decent action scenes, and enjoyable songs. 2, 5, and 6 were some of my favorites in the series, but around season 2 episode 4, I was losing interest and I began to see the cracks in the show and noticed that the charm had dwindled going into the second season. Episode 6 was where I stopped which is funny because the last episode (at least currently) was episode 7 which I didn’t even bother to give any attention to because I didn’t like the show much anymore: The characters were losing whatever charm they had originally, making the characters I did like lose that vibe I enjoyed and those I didn’t like before I just didn’t care or it made it all the worse, the pacing didn’t get any better as the show was always going so quickly but rarely having time to sit down and digest even when there were scenes that had those moments, and for a show that would have differing times from 10-30 minutes, it made it all the more rushed, the stories were all over the place in a way I had no fun engaging with or could get behind, sometimes plot points like D.H.O.R.K.S’s evidence of demons would be revealed but never brought up again or have the same impact on the show, and some of the songs were forgettable (though I did enjoy Cotton Candy).

After I stopped giving HB a watch I decided to be patient and wait for when Hazbin Hotel would drop, and on January 18th, 2024, the first episode would drop to present the new show to the world.

3. Hazbin Hotel Review (Spoilers, Obviously)

Summary - 

Hazbin Hotel is an adult animated series about the daughter of Lucifer named Charlie Morning Star, a demon princess seeking to rehabilitate sinners in a less violent way to combat overpopulation in hell. Along the way, she manages to get support from the enigmatic radio demon named Alastor who helps Charlie and Vaggie bring in sinners in an attempt to redeem their souls for a price while trying to be as cooperative as she can with the odds stacked against her. 

When I first watched the premiere of the show, I wasn’t really blown away or impressed by it, which isn’t a bad thing since not a lot of shows have a strong start with their early episodes in the season. Where it did get interesting however was around 4-6 when it started to focus more on character development and give some time for the main cast to shine and maintain some consistency with the story, though this has its limits. There were also some decent songs, some funny dialogue, and even some sprinkling of action around the end. Unfortunately, in the later episodes, it started to fall back to where the show lost its touch. So let me get around to the pros and cons of Hazbin Hotel:

The Good -

As someone who felt burnt out from Helluva Boss, this is an improvement as far as comparing viv’s older work goes, which is a slight benefit. 

Performances are great as far as voices go, especially when you have people like Keith Davids in your line up, though I would be a little more positive on the casting choices if it didn’t also come at the cost of the old cast, I genuinely believe they should’ve been given additional voice roles if not main ones for the show, so that sucks. 

Songs can be hit or miss in this show, with More Than Anything (both the first and reprise) and Loser Baby being the better examples and the rest not sticking out to me as much, either because I don’t think they had as much impact or they felt out of left field. I think it would’ve been better to not have every episode with a song number unless it was a grand introduction to something (i.e. Poison, Loser Baby, More Than Anything). Though I don’t expect this to be a popular opinion so whatever

The visuals are fairly competent with few to no issues that caught my eye, my only critique would be that due to how fast everything feels it can be hard to follow what's all happening, not to mention having the background and background characters look as eye-catching as the main cast can throw people off of where they should put their focus on. It's not as terrible enough where I loathe it, but it could make some contrast of who/what you should pay more attention to. 

The Bad -

The story loses track of the main premise of Charlie trying to redeem sinners and her relationship with Vaggie. The side plots don’t interest me as much aside from Angel Dust and Husk having some empathy for each other slowly through the series, and the other main cast aren’t nearly explored as much. Idk the best way to describe it, but it seems that most of the focus of the side characters isn’t where it should be (the hotel’s residents) and more so on those outside the hotel, which I think would’ve worked better in the second season rather than just the first. If season one was just focusing on the residents, Charlie and Vaggie more than the other characters, I wouldn’t mind that. I think the only exceptions to this would be the hell overlords discovery of how to fight back and Lucifer helping Charlie with the hotel. But back to the main cast, Charlie and Vaggie’s moments of romance and bonding seem few and far between, which sucks since this is supposed to be about them right? RIGHT?! The potential is just wasted.

Not every song is needed or has a place in every episode, though that could be because I wasn’t feeling them as strongly compared to the ones mentioned. Not much else to say there that hasn’t already been said.

Characters don’t appeal to me as much aside from Niffty and Sir Pentious (they’re the best) and unfortunately, the characters I should care about don’t get enough time to shine due to how this show is hastily paced—which leads me to my next negative.

Pacing is absolutely atrocious, for episodes that last 30 minutes, it feels like everything has happened yet also little has happened in such a short period of time (which is insane to me) Viv has had pacing issues in the past with her work which is concerning to me, mostly because she wasn’t always this speedy with her series, there were times she had more breathing room for her older works for instances like the Son of 666 and Timber, even the short Bad Luck Jack (which I liked) suffered from this in ways. Idk what exactly happened, but it seems like viv’s workflow has just gotten worse over time, and her artistic magic, patience, etc has just vanished.

Jokes? For what attempt of humor was there, it was very little. Once in a while, there was a joke that stuck the landing or made me chuckle, such as Charlie and Alastor swearing unexpectedly, only because it’s so out of left-field you wouldn’t expect it, so the joke works. Or when Niffty and Sir Pentious act their usual awkward selves in front of others. But everything else is just not funny to me because the majority of the humor is either sex or profanity jokes that don’t have that great of build-up or go for something more than just “haha adult words” which ironically makes it more juvenile than adult. I don’t mind stupid humor, but make it funny and not because you want to say “fuck” for the sake of it. Even if it’s just for casual talk, it's overly excessive. It doesn’t hurt to find humor in other ways even if those don’t land either, it's better than just resorting to profanity and sex.

Additional Comments -

When it comes to Vivziepop’s older works, it’s better than Helluva Boss but weaker than her shorts or animated music videos (fan-made or original), the strongest elements within the series lie within the hump of the season and fall short from the beginning and end. Though as annoying as that is, it pales in comparison to the other elements in the show. 

Heaven’s methods of carrying out exterminations every year to dissuade the populace of hell from rebelling is just a very dumb thing to do when there are so many other ways to shatter the morale of a persecuted people or nation without lifting a single sword that would’ve been better implemented and create a larger divide between heaven and hell and less costly as well. Perhaps this is just to further showcase how arrogant and incompetent Heaven is, but I have my doubts on that. 

Alastor as a manipulative radio host works well between Charlie and Vaggie, though I wish they wouldn’t have explained his ties to the disappearances of hell’s overlords so soon, it just takes away from his mysterious nature as this eldritch being. That part to me would’ve worked later on. (Yeah, I’m also aware they did something similar in the pilot too, which brings up another issue I have) 

Continuity between the pilot and the first episode is pretty murky, it doesn’t help matters when the plot of the pilot and the series episodes get collaged in so haphazardly. If I never heard of Hazbin Hotel or Vivziepop’s work before, I’d kinda be thrown off a bit and try my best to catch up on what’s going on. I don’t expect an expose of how everything works, but an organic flow of how things come together would’ve been nice. For instance: the pilot itself feels more like an episode one than the actual episode 1 of the first season. I know the point of the pilot isn’t as strict in its rules, since it's supposed to sell an idea to a network or distributor. Hell, The Amazing Digital Circus does something similar to how Hazbin Hotel does with presenting a first-episode introduction into the world and characters, only it does it far better and it hasn’t even gotten its first episode out yet, but I don’t want to compare apples to oranges on two different shows. The point is, the first episode should’ve had a better flow to it or at least maintained something more consistent like the pilot did. 

But by far the most glaring problem in the show isn’t part of the show itself believe it or not. But to keep this short, I’ll leave that for part 2. 

4. End of Part 1 

Originally when I watched the series I gave this a 7/10 on IMDB because I came at this from a perspective of how I would judge the work based on viv’s prior craft, this gave it a point above Helluva Boss, primarily with pacing, and direction of what it should be about and where to focus the story and characters. That being said, I was being very generous and didn’t also factor in on how it stood on its own two feet, and to be honest? It's not that good. For the first season of a new adult animated show, it’s too rushed, and not fleshed out enough in areas where it needs to be, The majority of the characters I have little interest or investment in, and despite having its moments, it's not enough to keep me hooked to know what happens within the next season. 

This would bring it down to 1 point for that to a 6/10, I know some fans would put the blame on Amazon, A24, or Bento, but here’s the thing, other shows have had episodes with similar limited space and time to tell their stories yet do a far more superior job in doing so than this, from what I understand, Amazon seems pretty open for a studio big or small to do as they please with what resources they have to get out what they can regardless of the restraint of episodes to be made, thereby making studios try their best to work harder on making a show work with such little episodes, so I see this mostly as a personal thing with viv and her team than just amazon. 

Now I would just leave it at that and move on, but I’m afraid this is where things get more muddy and grim.

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

I find myself questioning why I'm still bothered and how I let it get to me the lack of nuance in fandom discourse. Especially with K-Pop and everything I've witnessed in the last 3 years. The bigger the fandom, the less chances for it to be cohesive and attract a specific demographic able to participate in a certain high level of discourse.

I remember a few years back I was lurking in the Black Sails community here on tumblr. I was usually someone who would read the weekly reviews to tv episodes and that would be enough. In the case of that series, it didn't feel enough because to me, the reviewers were missing or ignoring the complexity of that show. And to my surprise (although it shouldn't), the fandom on tumblr was one of the best I had the chance to observe. There was dedication, yes, but more than that, smart people were writing these amazing essays and analysis worth of getting published in established journals. Well beyond a simple review. They were media literate, which is something that gets lost more and more as time passes.

Of course I don't expect that same thing in a fandom like Army. They can barely be compared. Army is way, way larger. It covers a wide demographic which is good and bad simultaneously. Theoretically, there's a place for everyone, regardless of their identity/background. So in cases like that, people tend to choose their own corner, subsection depending on where they fit and their interest. Perhaps a teenager is more likely to spend time on tiktok making edits and looking at clips, without following each and every type of content out there. Because they don't have to. Fans using weverse are also their own category that exhibit a specific type of mentality. Twitter and tumblr are places that offer the platform for a more discussion-type of engagement, with twitter taking the first place.

So, we find our community and that's supposed to allow fans to live in harmony. I know, funny. It's never like that because we like to peak and invite ourselves in other spaces. And the places can easily become echo chambers. But what is interesting to note is observing what the fandom deems as an echo chamber. A solo stan account or a shipper is an echo chamber, but an account focused on the group as a whole and only their achievements and updates is not. It doesn't matter that the user feigns ignorance when confronted with weird hashtags trending because they had no idea. They curate their experience. It's perfectly valid, but the danger of creating/becoming part of echo chambers happens to all of us, regardless of our type of engagement. The longer we sit comfortably in our corner, talking to people who are of the same opinion as ours, the greater the risk.

Nevertheless, there is still this need of showing one's superiority based on the type of subsection of the fandom we are part of. Which automatically fails because it shows our ignorance and getting to what I wanted to talk about, the incapability of engaging in a nuanced discussion. Of course this is not something that we should expect from everyone. Like I said, we need to know our "audience". I won't go to the weverse/IG pages wanting to talk about Asian fetishization in kpop fandoms. It would be pointless. But we do touch on those types of topics on twitter and tumblr. Which is why I don't find it completely absurd to have expectations.

Shipping within the fandom has once again been under fire today, more than usual. And it showed, as each and every time, that there is simply no bridge, no way of finding a common language, of willingness to have that nuanced conversation without resorting to generalized statements. The result of that usually creates more harm, divides the communities even more and sweeps under the rug the normalization of a specific type of shippers who transform mentions of sexual assault into a weapon to attack and offend. As serious as this is for people who are not online 24/7 in fandoms, it has indeed become the norm for those who are part of it. So then why we ignore it? Why do we generalize it instead of addressing the exact person or community who does it regularly? Because it's the crazy part of the fandom and those who are not part of it consider themselves to be better than others. Feeling superior is the ultimate goal. In a fandom of millions, we all try to differentiate ourselves in one way or another. And that leads to our fandom identity and automatically our position towards issues within the larger community. Being for or against, wanting to engage or not, is sending a message. It's always more about us than the people or content we talk about.

I know I haven't touched on 1% of what this topic should cover, but these are just some thoughts. We can't all be the smartest and better than everyone else when we are completely fixated in some beliefs that come to exist based on how much we want to use our intelectual abilities or simply refuse to.

[romancomicsblog]

Harley Quinn adjusts to the status quo while still maintaining most of its charm - REVIEW Season 4 Ep 1-3

*Spoilers for all of the Harley Quinn show*

Harley Quinn is a show that continues to impress me with its swings and devotion to beloved characters. I would say this is one of if not my favorite DC Universe. You can have fun portrayals of classic characters that feel authentic, and you can have the Joker become the Mayor.

Going into season 4, I was a bit skeptical about the idea of Harley joining the Bat-Family. The concept itself is fun, but the Bat Family, particularly Barbara and Nightwing, have not been my favorite interpretations of the characters.

Don't get me wrong, I love Harvey Guillén, but this Nightwing is too uptight. And Batgirl remains too fangirly for my taste. Nonetheless, having Harley trying to figure out Batting and having a day out with Alfred was probably my favorite episode.

"I wish a bitch would try" from Alfred likely got the biggest laugh from me. It is rather unfortunate to me that Alfred will not be a part of that story any longer, as he get imprisoned at the end of episode 2.

So far the Bat Fam/Harley parts of each episode has been the main draw for me. Harley trying to figure out the superhero game while likely making fun of superheroes has comedic potential.

I really like that the central struggle of the season is Harley & Ivy needing to figure out the new work life balance. I think a lesser show would've had them break up for Harley even considering being a hero, or have both of them become heroes.

Now we have two coinciding stories that will eventually have to come to a head: The Bat Family vs The Legion of Doom.

While many of the Ivy jokes in the workplace were funny, I do think Ivy needed more characters to bounce off of. I think pairing Ivy with Nora Fries is an excellent choice. While it took me a while, I have taken a liking to Nora. The idea of Mr. Freeze's beloved wife being a real asshole and incredibly obnoxious gets funnier and funnier to me by the season.

Bringing in King Shark in IT and doing more with Bane to flesh out her entourage seems like a winning strategy. I'm sure in time the Ivy storyline will draw me in more.

Also introduced in these episodes is Talia Al Ghul, who I assume will be the big bad of the season. I like her having a foot in both Ivy and Harley's world, manipulating both the Bat Family and Ivy for her own ends.

Also just the bit of her not knowing how old her son is or how to raise a child kills me.

While some fan favorites are missed for me, like Batman and Joker, what I really miss is the group dynamic. King Shark is off having kids, Clayface is now working in Vegas, and with Harley and Ivy both working their new jobs, the show feels very split.

I fell in love with the show due to these unlikeable secondary characters becoming a villainous crew. I hope the all join forces once again somehow. But narratively, I understand why there's a split.

Overall, I think this season has a lot of potential and had a solid start. While I wasn't as drawn in as I have been before, I think there's definitely a lot of room for this to wow me. And if there's anything I've learned from three seasons and a Valentine's Day special of Harley Quinn, it's trust the writers, sit back and relax. The show is in good hands.

Thank you for reading! If you'd like to support me, you can follow me on my socials here!

[agentnico]

Ted - Season 1 (2024) review

Look, it’s a live-action Family Guy. Let’s not even sugarcoat that fact.

Plot: It's 1993, and Ted the bear's moment of fame has passed. He's living back home with his best friend, John Bennett, and his family. While Ted may be a lousy influence on John, he's a loyal pal who will go out on a limb for friendship.

The Ted movies are enjoyable if a tad forgettable pieces of comedic crudeness. Also they haven’t aged the best, so I was quite apprehensive when I heard that they were making a prequel streaming series based on the property. Originally I was not even planning on watching it, however upon its release on the streaming service Peacock, which by the way has anyone even heard of Peacock?? I swear there are so many streaming services around now that it’s hard to keep up with them all. That Weird Al movie that came out a year ago was on something called Roku. Still have no clue what the fudge is Roku! Can’t we just get these streaming companies to bundle up into one and give us all the content on one singular platform? Now is that too much to ask!? Apparently so. Regardless, with that rant aside, let’s talk about the Ted show.

Indeed it’s a surprise that the Ted series is actually kind of good! It’s a throwback to the 90s American sitcoms, with the show focusing on not only the bear but also on his family living in the suburbs. And each family members gets up to their amusing antics every episode, and though none of it breaks any new comedic ground, I must say this was a very enjoyable and easy watch. For one, this show is actually funny. From the ridiculous scenarios that occur, with Ted and John smoking weed for the first time, to their dad wishing upon a star and bringing his toy truck to life who becomes a Republican racist, to John going to buy a condom at a supermarket where an overly nice shop assistant helps him to pick what kind only to turn out to be a creep who runs away as soon as another shop assistant appears. Look, it’s all ridiculous and stupid, but for the most part a lot of the jokes land.

Also, it’s so easy for the teddy bear to steal the show, and of course Seth Macfarlane is on top form riffing and throwing insulting one-liners left and right, and there’s also so much physical and slapstick comedy that comes from the bear’s movements, from how he runs to the way he stares at people with emotionless eyes. The teddy is great, and also even though he’s crude, he never became tiresome or annoying, whereas in the movies he did get a tad repetitive. However the human characters also get enough development and focus that you warm up to the entire family. The kid that plays John was actually spot on with his Mark Wahlberg impression, nailing the accent, but also as a whole he did a great job having to act mostly next to CGI character. His chemistry with the bear was very good, and you felt their friendly camaraderie. As for the parents, the mum was hilarious as the innocently nice housekeeper who was super naive about everything, and the dad at first came off annoying and selfish, but as the show progressed you warmed up to him too due to the solid writing. Then Giorgia Whigham rounds up the cast as the rebellious cousin who disagrees with the old-school beliefs of the family, but also ends up being a key support to each character.

In terms of the negatives, for a show that’s billed as a sitcom, the episodes were way too long. The premiere alone was 50 mins, and then rest ranged around the 40 minute mark, and so pacing did drag at times. Especially when certain jokes were stretched out longer than they should be, they really should have been kept to around 20 mins. Aside of the pacing issues, this was a solid comedy show.

Ted by no means reinvents the comedic genre, however it’s truly an amusing show that will have you smiling throughout, and turns out to be way better than it had any right to be. Also the special effects on the bear are also really impressive. He really does look like a real talking bear, and the movements were all fluid and well done. So yep, Ted is a win. Here’s hoping for a second season!

Overall score: 7/10

[commenter2]

"Cabin Fever" review

Here is my review on episode 4 of Murder Drones. A camping, slasher flick themed episode! Let’s see if Uzi and the other will survive.

Again Glitch Productions, please make a longer intro theme.

Now at first I wondered why the Drones would think bringing a bunch of teen Drones to the surface is a good idea given how dangerous it is for them, when I realized that they only know of the 3 Disassembly Drones and since Uzi killed J, and N and V are good (or controlled in V’s case) logically there really isn’t anything for them to be afraid of about the surface…until J 2.0, Tessa, and potentially other Disassembly Drones appear, likely in this episode.

Given their robots, the idea of vehicles being animal like makes a bit of sense while still being funny. Does that make the pods N and the other DDs came in birds XD

So these must be the new cannon fodder I MEAN characters for the episode. We have a stoner, female nerd, the jock/bully and his girlfriend, and the self-centered jerk. I wonder how they will change as the series goes on…XD

THAD AND LIZZY ARE HOLDING HANDS! BLASPHAMY! Though I do see it adding tension to the love triangle/quadrangle ideas I’ve talked about in the past.

Uzi’s backpack has wings, making her a bit like a Disassembly Drone. Foreshadowing? :3

Uzi’s mom is strangely happy about the core blowing up. Also what Khan said seems to confirm my theory from my last episode review about how this 3rd drone type was able to blend in with the Worker Drones.

Khan: Your mom was a catch!

Uzi.EXE has stopped working XD

Khan’s room has various door designs XD

If the idea of Khan immediately proposing to Uzi’s mom after she told him to make doors doesn’t become canon, we should boycott the show!

This singularity thing will be cool to learn about later. One quick prediction I have is that it’s some kind of electrical hive mind system that connects all machinery, and it’s a part of robots like Uzi and others. It also seems to give them visions. That or some kind of BATDR like vibe given some of the drawings.

If you can ignore the the cool S drawings (a difficult challenge, I know) you'll noticed that Khan is 3 for 3 of being a better father then he was in the pilot.

Seeing the teacher wearing a stereotypical tropical outfit may seem odd given its snowing, but I bet this kind of weather is pleasant for robots trying to relax. Same with the nerd robot making a cross symbol but Uzi did mention a robo Jesus in the pilot.

We better get camp counselor N and V plushies in the future!

WOAH! Poor robot guy. I feel bad for whoever has to tell his parents.

The book the nerd girl is carrying is called “Final Girl” XD

Nice to see Thad and Lizzy being nice to N and V WAIT DID Lizzy just pickpocket the dead drone’s watch!

Sad to see how the others are scared of Uzi to a point they would befriend robots that were killing them some time ago, or seconds in V case.

Cool to see that Uzi seems to have gotten use to her powers.

At 4:51 you can see that mystery human girl from N’s dream from episode 2.

It is funny seeing the other drones trying to use the canoes on a frozen lake and again having fun with N and V given they use to be afraid of them.

Since we haven’t seen N or V overheat yet, but see Uzi and Doll do so (more Uzi) does this mean the 3rd drone type overheat faster?

Bitch move V, scratching Uzi’s screen..face..whatever. It’s a good thing Uzi can heal herselWAIT A MINUTE!!!

A green bug! AND IT “TALKS”. It also seems to think Uzi is her mom. This plus how it seems to be a key to a lab, makes me wonder what the future of this series holds.

Even in the distant future audio to text features still suck.

Doll is back.

Where is Thad in the crowd?

Uzi has the power to turn inorganic matter into living things! This is some big Internecion Cube shit here. Fitting since Murder Drones and Internecion Cube are both made by Liam Vicker. It also seems to give us the main reason why the DDs are there, as robots like those could be very dangerous if they were to attack humanity. Heck Uzi seems to have caused a big problem without even trying! Also that thing she made looks like that image in the pile of papers near the dead drone where she found the green bug.

Now we get to the slasher stereotypes, starting with the couple going somewhere to make out.

Uzi is turning! Also totally called the backpack as foreshadowing!

While N is trying to turn on the computer, you can see a pair of red eyes (likely Dolls) behind him!

From analyzing the visions N sees, it looks like a robot went rouge and ate something organic, a severed organic arm was being held on by some lab equipment, and a giant black hole (likely the singularity) is near a house that looks like the one from N’s dream and the season 1 trailer. This gives me a small theory but more on that at the end.

Uzi’s unpopularity actually saved her from being exposed to the others. It would be funny if it wasn’t a bit sad.

Wait is Uzi’s tail organic? IT IS, and she has human arms on her wings! This is a nice change for the usual DD design and it reminds me of what J’s backup systems did in episode 2. This gives me hope that we will see different designed DDs later on in the series like I have been hoping will happen for some time now.

Lizzy is sassy even on the verge of death XD

The freefalling scene is a great moment. We get to see N’s caring side as well as some good Uzi X N content.

V is jealous :3. Please writers, gives us a love quadrangle. I mean if you can make me want to see one (and I usually hate that trope) then it has to be good.

Oh…Lizzy is alive…that’s good, I guess.

V likes the idea of being a diva.

So vehicles aren’t animals, there just hot-wired and when it acts up, they need to be treated like animals.

There’s Thad! I was wondering what happened to him.

It’s interesting to see V cover for Uzi. It also makes me wonder if at some point, because of V’s actions, the drone society will try and kick out N and V (maybe Uzi as well) for all the killings V have done…. Only for them to want them back when J and the other new DDs appear.

Uzi and N technically held hands!

Can’t wait to see what is on that tape. Actually Zombie Drones sounds like another nod to Internecion Cube.

That was an intense episode, as all slasher films are. I mean we now learn that if Uzi loses control she turns into a monster and why it seems the DDs were sent to the planet, we have a new “character/plot device" in the form of the robotic bug, N stumbling upon a tape that will likely explain everything, and we see V being jealous of how close Uzi and N are which I think could make her start to remember his life before she became a DD.

Only time will tell on what will happen next but I have some new theories based on what we saw.

After seeing Uzi’s ability to turn inorganic things into organic, I have this new theory that Doll is the mystery human girl we saw in this episode. See there was this old theory that went over the possibility of the drones being originally human or used human parts and something like this seems to be true, especially after seeing the lab machinery holding a human body part in N's visions. Maybe Doll’s mother was originally that girl in the flashback who use to own J, V, and N but died which made her father want her back as a robot. However, the inorganic and organic components resulted in their dangerous powers and had to be taken out, but failed and the the girl was able to escape where she had a robot daughter of her own AKA Doll. Also after seeing Uzi turn inorganic into organic matter, maybe Doll could do something similar but on a bigger scale as she could make herself look very much like a human.

I also have this theory that whatever gives Uzi and Doll their powers, its being used slightly for the DD’s. I mean thinking back to episode 2, that heart thing that came out of J gives me a similar vibe to the techno-organic substance Uzi was making in the episode. For all we know after the exoplanet incident, the tech behind it was perfected on Earth and they gave it to N and the other DDs to give them a fighting chance against the 3rd kind of drones. It would explain how they can make all those weapons and regenerate quickly.

What did you think of the episode? What did you like about it and do you have any theories of your own about the series?

[cate-deriana]

Answer the Questions and Tag 5 Fanfic Authors

@pfirsichspritzer Thank you so much for the tag, it was so a lot of fun and I had to really think about my answers.

1 . How did you get into writing fanfiction?

In my case it's a funny question actually, because the first thing I've ever written was a fanfiction. But that was long before I even knew what fanfiction was or that it existed, simply because I was about eight or nine and wrote something about Digimon Adventure on my dad's computer. So I did it long before I knew that was actually a thing.

2. How many fandoms have you written in?

About five or six I think, but sometimes it was really only one story. Oh, and I also did some crossovers (fandoms not included in the above count).

3. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Ok, let me do the math... as I started with eight/nine it's now about 24 years... is this real? Omg, I'm old, haha. Though there were always years in between were life got in the way and I didn't write anything.

4. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

I'd like to say it's write, but it's definitely read. Also, I think you can only really become better and know what a certain fandom likes and wants to read, if you read a lot.

5. What is one way you’ve improved as a writer?

Honestly I can't really pinpoint that exactly. I think it's really a matter of progress over a long period of time. Reading helps, of course, immensely. But also (as cliché as that might sound) life experience. Actually I always liked to incorporate personal side stories into my fanfictions. And I think I am not taking the same things as overly serious as now, I'm a lot calmer now.

6. What’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

Can't really spontaneously name a topic, but as I am over-invested in always getting characters as close to the original as possible so the story feels "real" I once re-watched countless of episodes of a certain anime to make a chart in excel on how character x adresses character y, z and so on... It was a lot of work.

7. What’s your favorite type of comment to receive on your work?

I like every simple little 'I liked your story' or just an emoji or the longer ones equally. But I once got a review for a story were I tried to make sense of an anime's ending and I really poured my heart into that one and the reviewer commented with 'you relieved my heart'. It still makes me so happy.

8. What’s the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

The most niche think I've ever done was more the way I wrote a story. I decided on about 30 random sentences before starting and while writing threw a dice to determine which sentence I had to use right at that point in the story. It was so much fun, I recommend to try that out, it's a great challenge.

9. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

Real and believable romance and intimacy.

10. What is the easiest type?

Stories that are funny just in order to be funny and nothing more.

11. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

On the computer. Has always been that way, I am not fast enough for my brain to do it on paper, though I write down ideas in my notebook. I'm (nearly) always carrying something to write on. My best writing times had been evenings mostly, but I can write anytime I am in the mood or really force myself to do it - setting a timer for an hour has really helped me a lot recently.

12. What is something you’ve been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

A really cool fighting scene, preferably with swords.

13. What made you choose your username?

It's the name of a character I originally designed for myself, to represent myself (like an avatar you could say). Deriana comes from browsing an atlas. It's a great way to come up with names. I just use whatever city, river or whatever sounds nice to me and alter the word a little.

I've no idea who has been tagged already, but I'll try. If you've already done this please just ignore me :D @worldofkaeos @ariadnekurosaki @eudociacovert @womaninwinter @photorose11

[stereogeekspodcast]

[Transcript] Season 3, Episode 2. The Marvels Review

The Stereo Geeks review The Marvels, and they really enjoyed it!

Listen to the episode on Spotify.

We are The Stereo Geeks Podcast, and we're back.

Well, hopefully for a longer time than last time.

It was a sort of impromptu goodbye last time, because life got in the way.

You know, we are doing this podcast for fun.

I'm Mon, I'm a pop culture writer.

I write for Women Write About Comics.

You can also find me on HuffPost and tor.com.

Hello, I'm Ron.

I'm a marketer by day, pop culture writer by night.

I am an editor and writer for Women Write About Comics.

We got to see The Marvels at a press screening, and I have to say, we enjoyed it.

We were looking forward to it, and we had a good time.

Exactly, exactly.

For all the people worrying about the Marvel phase five properties, well, this was a good one.

It hasn't really been a very good year for Marvel.

For Marvel, let's just say that.

Yeah.

But this last bit with Loki season two and with The Marvels, it's given me some hope.

So let's just get into it.

So The Marvels, it takes off from the end of Miss Marvel, the TV show that came out last year.

The main character is Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers.

We last saw her properly in action in Avengers Endgame.

She's been name dropped ever since as well, and we did see her in What If, but that's a different version.

We find out what she's been up to when we're back in this film.

We also have Kamala Khan, Miss Marvel, whose escapades were seen during her TV show.

Her story takes place in New Jersey.

And then rounding it up is Captain Monica Rambeau, who we saw as a little girl in the first Captain Marvel movie.

And then we saw her as an adult in WandaVision.

So she has lived a life, an interesting life, especially post blip.

She's been really coming to terms with what happened to her, what happened to her life and her family.

So we do get all those touch points as well.

If you haven't seen all of these movies and properties and TV shows, everything is explained in this movie.

It's like they kinda assumed that a lot of people wouldn't have watched these TV shows and films, which is really sad, but in a way at least you have the context so you don't have to go through, I don't know, 15 years of Marvel stuff and even more reading up and research.

So I really like that about this film.

So the story kind of has three different settings.

We've got Jersey City with Ms. Marvel in it.

We've got Intergalactic Space with Captain Marvel, and we've got the SABER space station where Nick Fury is basically running the show and Captain Monica Rambeau is the person who takes care of everything.

And then we meet our antagonist, Durban, who is basically the leader of the Kree now.

Lots of things have happened since Captain Marvel took their evil AI down.

Darben has a score to settle.

Darben is played by Zawe Ashton.

This is her debut in the MCU.

And while she's on her mission, she doesn't realize that Captain Marvel, Captain Monica Rambeau and Kamala Khan all get sucked into her mission because of quantum entanglement.

I don't know what the actual term is.

I'm sure they mentioned it a few times, but quantum is the favorite word in the MCU.

So we're just going to use that anyway.

So suddenly these three find themselves in each other's lives.

Well, it's great for Ms.

Marvel, but for Monica and Carol, well, there's some history there.

So it's very interesting.

There's an emotional angle in there as well.

Not only do they have to deal with each other, they now have to deal with a new antagonist, the end of the world, the end of the galaxy, typical Marvel stuff.

Right, so what did we really like about this film?

It is really funny.

Exactly.

I did not expect to laugh that hard.

And like every scene, there is something really hilarious happening.

I love how whenever there is a comedic moment to take, this film just goes for it.

And they're like, you know what?

The actors have great chemistry.

They're really funny.

They're just riffing off each other.

Let's just let them do it.

I really quite enjoyed that.

I think Marvel has this habit of bringing in humor just to undercut really tense moments.

This film doesn't do that.

Yeah, I really like that because it just is funny.

For being funny's sake, it leans into that.

It leans into the weirder parts of it as well.

It's very sci-fi.

It's funny because like with Loki and The Marvels, I feel like they've really leaned into the sci-fi aspect of the storytelling and that's really worked for it.

We were just chatting one of the other day that almost all the properties this year for Marvel have really had very sci-fi heavy elements.

Marvel in general does have that aspect, but it's been more about action and adventure rather than sci-fi, but now it's really leaned into that, which is good.

But then with Ant-Man and The Wasp, Quantumania, as well as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.3, I feel like they leaned into the wrong aspects of sci-fi.

I agree.

Quantumania was not good and Guardians of the Galaxy, I think tonally, it was so off for Marvel, it did not work.

I also think it didn't do the characters justice.

Obviously, there's a lot of concern going into the Marvels.

We have a new director and writing team, and I thought, oh no, maybe they won't understand these characters either.

Thankfully, they didn't do that.

And one of the things is that, yes, these characters can be funny, but they're not jokes.

And I really liked that they went with that.

What I really appreciated about this film, and I think you get a feeling of that from the very first scene, is that it leans into the vibe of what these characters have already been.

When Ms. Marvel is on screen, we get the essence of her show, which was very comic book-y and light and fun.

When Captain Marvel is on screen, then you have the very sci-fi elements.

And for Monica Rambeau, you get the more grounded, this is a person from Earth who is now in space kind of thing.

So it gets a lot of those aspects right, because it knows that the characters are the most important part of this film.

Yes, the story is interesting and it's fun.

And there are a couple of very fascinating sci-fi things that they do, which I was like, oh, okay, that was unexpected and also hilarious.

But the characters are why we came here.

We've seen these three women across the franchise.

Now we get to see them together.

It's the ultimate Marvel team up that fans have been waiting for, especially, let's just put it out there, female fans.

We haven't had very many female characters who get to lead the franchise, especially in Marvel, which has, what, 20 plus properties now.

It's taken a really long time.

The whole brouhaha around Captain Marvel's movie coming out was like they were doing something so out there.

I'm like, really?

A lady is leading a superhero film and that is a huge thing.

Exactly.

Now we have The Marvels, which has basically built on everything that Captain Marvel and WandaVision and Ms. Marvel has done before.

And Wakanda Forever.

Would have been fun if there was a Wakanda connection, but sadly, no.

But this film doesn't have all the burdens that comes with being the first woman led superhero movie in the Marvel franchise.

Just not like that.

It's just a movie with superheroes having fun.

Exactly.

I really like that it's not trying to break the mold because in a way, having so many female characters at the center is breaking the mold, which is ridiculous to say, but unfortunately we still live in that world.

It's just trying to have fun.

And I think I really like that.

This is escapist cinema.

And I think oftentimes superhero cinema forgets that.

So I like that about this film.

It doesn't have to be perfect.

And I think that it's really quite close to being perfect as a very simple Marvel story.

I don't know what people will be expecting from it.

I think it's just have fun.

That's it.

That is a good goal to have for a film.

Even the emotional beats, they work within the setting of the film itself and they don't like drag them on.

It has to be there because otherwise, why would we be invested in these characters?

It also doesn't tank the vibes.

Exactly.

When it's funny, it's funny. When it's emotional, it's emotional.

Got that balance right, which made it a lot more fun to watch.

And I think the other thing that I have mentioned in my review for WWAC is the editing was really crisp.

The pandemic has impacted the way people edit films.

There have been so many movies I've seen over the last couple of years that just feel like the scene dragged on too long or the cut was just too abrupt.

And I was just like, oh, we had this moment and you moved away.

I don't feel like the Marvels made those mistakes at all.

Yeah, I mean, there were probably three points which I think could have been re-edited a little bit tighter or a little bit more emphasis on the right places.

But again, those are tiny nitpicks for a film that is really tight, really crisp, really a brisk 105 minutes.

I feel like it's exactly the amount of time you need for the story, especially in a time when every movie has to be two hours long.

I honestly feel they could have added a few more minutes.

There is a significant incident in the past, which I really feel like they needed to flesh out a little bit more.

It doesn't mean that you don't actually understand what's happening in the film.

It just gets it across really quick.

I feel like this movie knows what's come before and that there's an audience who knows this universe quite well and understands the formula.

So when they do give us something that we may know what the outcome will be, maybe slightly predictable, they're like, there's no point belaboring that point.

We know what's gonna happen, but we want you to live with the characters in this moment.

Let's just let it play out.

And if it takes a long time, fine.

If it takes a shorter time, fine.

I honestly could have done with certain scenes being dragged out a little bit more.

The three actors have so much chemistry, like they could have ripped off each other for maybe five, 10 minutes more.

But the director, Nia DeCosta, was very clear about wanting this film to be under two hours. And that's what she made.

So fine.

Even if I wanted the moments to drag on, she did it.

That's the way we've got it.

That's fine with me.

Yeah, I'll also mention that we have read that Nia DeCosta may not have got her final vision in the end product.

I don't know what her vision would have been.

That being said, despite studio interference, this is a good film.

It does what it says on the tin, which is that it brings these amazing superhero characters to the fore.

It gives us a lot of story, gives us a lot of plot, action scenes.

The effects are much better than in quantumania, if you're worrying about that.

That's a low bar.

I thought the space scenes were really captivating.

I love space anyway, and on a big screen, it's gorgeous to look at, but there were a couple of shots where I was like, hmm, that looks very different from what we've seen before.

And that's saying something, considering the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy and Infinity War and Endgame have a lot of scenes in space.

I feel like the Marvels really enjoyed the setting of space and putting these characters in space.

Of course, Captain Marvel is used to it.

Monica is an astronaut, but Ms.

Marvel's journeys in space are particularly fun to watch in this film.

Yeah, and let's not forget the supporting characters.

There's Nick Fury.

He's carrying the franchise at this moment.

Exactly, exactly.

That being said, I think he would be one of the aberrations with the characters.

Not to say Samuel L.

Jackson isn't brilliant.

He's so good.

I think this is one of his most fun, exciting performances in the MCU, simply because he seems to be enjoying himself.

He seems to be enjoying riffing off these different actors.

But where does this version of Nick Fury fit within the story of Nick Fury?

I have no idea.

We've just seen Secret Invasion.

The man we see in The Marvels is nothing like the man we see in Secret Invasion.

When did the story happen?

I have no idea.

It just doesn't make sense.

That was a very confusing part of the film for me.

So I felt when I was watching The Marvels that the Nick Fury we see in this film is supposed to be for audiences who haven't watched Secret Invasion.

I don't know if Marvel realized that Secret Invasion wasn't going to do as well as they hoped because people did not take to it at all.

There were a lot of things I really enjoyed about Secret Invasion.

I mean, Samuel L.

Jackson's acting is great, but Nick Fury, the character was all over the place.

There were so many dropped story beats.

There were things that were happening that just didn't make any sense.

It didn't flow from anything.

And what we kept hearing was, this is gonna lead directly into the Marvels, so you need to watch Secret Invasion.

But there is no connection at all.

This Nick Fury is super chill.

He has not gone through the events of Secret Invasion.

That's what I'm thinking.

Yeah, that's exactly how you feel.

And it's come to a point where maybe they've realized you don't have to watch and consume all of Marvel to enjoy any of the Marvels.

That being said, what's the point of having an expansive universe if they don't sort of tie into each other?

Well, that's the thing, because the Marvels does have a few cameos that directly link to other franchises within the MCU.

And that's great.

But at the same time, it does feel like it's aimed at audiences that don't want to watch the previous Marvel movies.

And I'm very confused about that particular aspect of it, because with Loki, with Ant-Man, with the Guardians of the Galaxy, there's a heavy emphasis on, you have to have seen everything that came before.

Is there a reason why the Marvels is not getting the same treatment?

It's an interesting point, and I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

In one way, that means a lot of people can go into the Marvels gold.

That means new audiences, audiences who've been kind of afraid of the vastness of the MCU, they can actually be introduced to these characters, enjoy these characters, which is especially important for a film that has, you know, a white female lead, a black female lead, a South Asian female lead.

You're getting those audiences, those communities in there.

That's great.

But very interestingly, The Marvels, which has these female leads, is the one film where Marvel goes in thinking, yeah, nobody's ever watched any of this other stuff before, so we might as well put in the context or just keep it completely separate, standalone from all the other properties.

I don't know the thinking behind that.

Is it good?

Is it bad?

We can only tell if this movie is a success, box office success, and also has a legacy.

That's the important part.

But we're already seeing people complain about some aspects of it, which again, you can enjoy this film, you can nitpick, you can have critiques about the story, the directing, the editing, et cetera.

So far, I haven't seen that much of the misogyny that came across with Captain Marvel, which is good.

Maybe they've learnt their lesson, but I do feel like there is still a kind of thinking for a lot of folks where it's like, if it's not perfect, it's bad, we should never do it again.

I agree.

I'm hoping that things get better.

Mostly I've seen very positive reviews.

I feel like Marvel and Disney are relying heavily on word of mouth from press screenings and things because there hasn't been as much marketing for The Marvels.

It's been the usual, oh, we've got trailer, we've got a new trailer, we've got a new trailer.

Okay, what about other stuff?

It doesn't help that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes had to be on all this while.

They fortunately have finally been resolved, yay.

That's happened just as we were recording, but here's hoping it stays that way and the strikes are resolved.

Right, the Saga After deal is tentative still, so I'm hoping that everything will be finalized soon.

But yes, maybe it would have made a huge difference if the actors were there to promote the film, but I don't see why that should be a problem.

I don't think so either.

I'm really excited that this film came out.

I'm really excited that it came out good and fun and enjoyable.

I do think it's a family film that everyone can enjoy.

Yes, you can enjoy it if you've never seen a Marvel film before, which is great, which is really important.

One of the most fun parts of this film, and I think which will appeal to a wider audience, an audience that has been left out a lot in superhero and genre fare, are the Khan family.

So Kamala Khan, she has her mom, her dad and her brother.

And surprisingly, they have a much larger role in this film than I expected.

I really thought they'd be like in one scene in the beginning and we'd never see them again.

But no, they are recurring throughout the story.

I really appreciated this film, just wanting the Khan family to experience all this absolute insanity.

And you know what?

At the end of the day, yes, Kamala has powers and Ms. Marvel is Jersey City's new hero, but her family are just like regular people who are just trying to live their lives.

And I like the comedy that comes from being the family of a superhero who is very young, very impressionable and a huge fan of somebody that she's actually meeting.

And the film just riffs on that.

It just has so much fun with their scenes.

And I was just very delighted to see them appear again and again in the movie.

And there was some really fun, relatable South Asian moments that happened in this film and I was just like, yes, this is exactly how South Asian family would act.

It was very, very amusing.

There was a South Asian person at the screening with us and she was really feeling it.

There were a few moments that, honestly, that's like pointing at the screen, hooting with laughter, slapping your knee kind of funny, because we've seen it happen before.

It's relatable.

It resonates.

It's good.

But also it doesn't demonize the family, even when they're being like overbearing and overconcerned.

It's okay.

That's understandable.

Kamala's a teen, you know?

Obviously her family is gonna worry about her.

It doesn't demonize them.

It doesn't make them a joke.

They're not just comic relief.

The thing is everybody is comic relief in this film.

So that's the good thing.

Everyone's funny.

Everybody has these moments.

So I really appreciated that, that they're a normal family.

They just do things which, when you're not Kamala Khan having to deal with it, is very funny.

Exactly, and what I really liked about the Khan family's involvement in the Marvels was that it harkens back to the comics.

After a while, Kamala's family does get involved in her adventures and not always because they want to, but some of their adventures, even the ones out in space, they do get involved in those and they're always very supportive and they understand why she has to do what she has to do.

That doesn't change the fact that they're very worried about their daughter or sister and this one really enjoyed that aspect of it.

There was a comic book that I had read, which was not written by a South Asian person and in that comic, not gonna name who it was.

This doesn't sound good.

It wasn't because I was reading it and this person had just completely misunderstood the relationship that Kamala has with her parents.

And yes, there's teenage angst and everything. Everybody goes through that, that's fine.

But there was such a very obviously racist element to, oh, her Muslim parents are being like this because they are Muslim.

And this film does not do that.

It doesn't do that.

It's just like, this is a family who loves their child and they're worried about her, but they also know why she has to go fight the universe.

So yeah, I mean, it's a small thing, but it's actually kind of big considering what's happening in the world right now.

And we need that kind of positivity.

If it's not obvious yet, we highly recommend this film.

You have to go watch it, enjoy it.

I'm not gonna say, go watch it on the biggest screen.

Honestly, it's up to you, but I would highly recommend watching it.

We want more films like this.

We want more films with inclusive, diverse representative cast.

We want the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be fun and good quality.

Exactly, like it used to be.

Phase five has been not great.

And there is hope now.

I'm really excited for what The Marvels is saying about what's gonna happen in the future of the MCU, what's gonna happen with these characters.

And you know what?

If you just want an hour and 45 minutes of laughter and joy, this is it.

This is your movie for the fall.

Go ahead and see it.

Thanks, and that's all from us for this episode.

And hopefully you will hear from us again very soon, unless life gets in the way.

Don't quote me on it.

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