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matt_zimmerAlso reviews for the season finale of Superman & Lois and the series finale of Gotham Knights.
Secret Invasion "Promises"
Last week I sort of had a "wait and see" mentality, but I can now clearly see this isn't working. I mean, it's still early, and it COULD technically turn things around. But it won't. I can safely predict that. Pretty damn unlikely if you ask me.
I don't know WHAT the Hell they've done to Samuel L Jackson. Fury is played both damaged and understated now, which wrecks the entire appeal of Jackson hamming it up in the role. When he says "I'm Nick Fury, even when I'm out, I'm in," you should cheer. But it's the first type of line like that he's said on the series, so I cringe instead. Fury didn't make me believe he believed that. And I would understand making Fury quieter and more contemplative. On somebody's else's airtime. On his own damn show? It's inexcusable.
You forgot how old Jackson and Fury are until he reveals he lived through segregation. The characters in the MCU actually age in real time. Which is interesting.
That cheery British torturer woman alarms me. What frightens me most is that even though she appears to be on our side against the bad Skrulls, I am still certain she's a bad guy. I don't like much about the show. But it's refusal to take black and white stands about these kind of people is interesting.
Another Fury complaint. I can't believe he ordered Talos out of his traincar. Fury, Talos is the ONE ally you have left you cannot afford to alienate. You can lose Rhodey, you are still you. But pushing away the only shot humanity has, especially when it would actually simplify his life and his relationship with her daughter to betray you? That's crazy.
I thought it was interesting that when the show used Fury try to get solidarity for him and Rhodey for both being black men with power, for Rhodey to declare his power included firing those of their peer group not measuring up. I don't know if it feels like something a black man would say to another black man, which is why I'm iffy on it. But at least Rhodey is owning the fact that he's a d-word. I'll give him that much.
Fury is married to a Skrull? He must know. It would be more dramatically interesting if he did at any rate.
Are you like me? Do you not only dislike this show, but most of the projects, TV and film, in the current MCU? Do you think Kevin Feige has lost his touch? Do you want to commiserate over how much he sucks and what a failure he is?
Look elsewhere for that shoulder to cry on. Yes, I hate almost currently everything in the MCU right now. But I refuse to talk smack about Feige. It's amazing the whole thing held together for as long as it did. THAT is an accomplishment and nobody can take Endgame away from him The problem is there is too much stuff by too many different people now. No quality control. Too many cooks, so to speak. And I could blame Feige for that, but we got a string of awesome movies for awhile there, and just because the movies suck now doesn't stop the earlier movies from being awesome. I'd call that a win.
This isn't working. **1/2.
Superman & Lois "What Kills You Only Makes You Stronger"
Wow, it is a GOOD thing the show has been renewed. If it hadn't been, I would have been furious.
And just for the record, I still wasn't crazy about the episode. I loved the creepiness of the moment of Luthor essentially begging Bizarro to let him kill him, but most of the rest of the episode left me cold.
Did Sam NEED to have been catfished by a Luthor associate? Was it necessary? Usually I appreciate the show because it allows us the nice moments. It broke it's contract with me about that when doing that.
When Lana and John had sex, the first thing that popped into my mind is that if I were John I would have been mad. She popped all the buttons on his shirt and ruined it. I'm sorry, that's not sexy, that's rude. Because Lana could get away with that behavior with a worse looking fella, but John's kinda a dreamboat. I would have been pissed were I him.
Jordan remains on thin ice to me.
Clark and Lois' love scene was nice but I don't feel like it resolved too much of the self-consciousness she was feeling over losing her breasts. Yes, Clarks accepts her and still thinks she beautiful. But for women with cancer who lose their breasts, it's also about how everyone else sees them too. Loved ones being loving is not a surprise. I hope in Season 4 Lois is still nervous about this thing. Whatever this episode was, that was NOT any sort of acceptable "resolution" to that at all.
Discussions of abortion are between the lines of Kyle asking if Chrissy "wants" this. After Dobbs, abortion rights are hanging by a thread in Kansas currently, but they are still hanging.
I guess I'm just not down with turning Bizarro into Doomsday. It's not like the Doomsday parallels weren't teased in his very first appearance, so it at least fits the canon. But it feels... dumb, and too pat, and wrecking a previously interesting character to turn him into an uninteresting one. Sigh.
Not a fan of this finale. A bit of a disappointment. **1/2.
Gotham Knights "Night Of The Owls"
That could have ended worse.
The kids cleared their names and Two-Face was born. But you KNOW the producers saw the writing on the wall the entire time, right? DC could not have possibly been less supportive to this show. It being canceled is not the surprise. It actually being on the bubble and its cancelation not a foregone conclusion is the shocking thing, and probably only happened because the show was both solid in quality and cheap to make. Still, the producers HAD to know this was coming, so despite resolving the main tension, ANY cliffhanger is annoying.
I haven't seen Charles Measure in anything in a few years. He used to be all over my genre shows, usually playing the most annoying character. Either it's been longer than I remember seeing him, or he's aged terribly. I only know it's him because his name was in the credits.
Underwhelming as hell Two-Face origin, which is to be expected when Batman is absent. But I didn't like it coming now because part of me wanted Duela to bring our Harvey back, even if it wasn't permanent. I believed what he was saying too, which makes this whole thing that much worse. I would have loved Duela having a father even for a little while. It was sweet.
The make-up job is great but I do not see how it could have been financially viable to use that level of VFX on the bared teeth for a series regular. The show is notoriously cheap. Maybe the show was actually canceled because the CW knew they'd have to pay out the nose for Two-Face motion capture and decided cancelation was cheaper. I hate 2023 by the way. Thought that beared mentioning.
Learning Turner's parents were assassins who got themselves killed on the job is a perfect resolution to the idea that Batman killed his parents. He didn't. He parents were just such monsters they practically killed themselves.
I love the solidarity and friendship between Colin and the cop he's been using as a go-between undercover all season, and whose life he finally saved as himself. The hug was rewarding to me.
The dire choice of the bombs is very reminiscent of the Joker pulling a similar dilemma in The Dark Knight. Events in Gotham aren't always parallel with each other, but they still often rhyme.
I don't think the cops believed anything the kids were saying until Brody spoke up. I think he was the only one with ANY credibility left, and that turned the tide. A buncha Talons turning the station into a slaughterhouse also perhaps pointed towards the kids' innocence.
It was a solid episode. Not a great Two-Face origin. And the cliffhanger was annoying. But I don't wash my hands of the show the way the finale of Naomi made me do. Not bad. ***1/2.
Secret Invasion "Promises"
Last week I sort of had a "wait and see" mentality, but I can now clearly see this isn't working. I mean, it's still early, and it COULD technically turn things around. But it won't. I can safely predict that. Pretty damn unlikely if you ask me.
I don't know WHAT the Hell they've done to Samuel L Jackson. Fury is played both damaged and understated now, which wrecks the entire appeal of Jackson hamming it up in the role. When he says "I'm Nick Fury, even when I'm out, I'm in," you should cheer. But it's the first type of line like that he's said on the series, so I cringe instead. Fury didn't make me believe he believed that. And I would understand making Fury quieter and more contemplative. On somebody's else's airtime. On his own damn show? It's inexcusable.
You forgot how old Jackson and Fury are until he reveals he lived through segregation. The characters in the MCU actually age in real time. Which is interesting.
That cheery British torturer woman alarms me. What frightens me most is that even though she appears to be on our side against the bad Skrulls, I am still certain she's a bad guy. I don't like much about the show. But it's refusal to take black and white stands about these kind of people is interesting.
Another Fury complaint. I can't believe he ordered Talos out of his traincar. Fury, Talos is the ONE ally you have left you cannot afford to alienate. You can lose Rhodey, you are still you. But pushing away the only shot humanity has, especially when it would actually simplify his life and his relationship with her daughter to betray you? That's crazy.
I thought it was interesting that when the show used Fury try to get solidarity for him and Rhodey for both being black men with power, for Rhodey to declare his power included firing those of their peer group not measuring up. I don't know if it feels like something a black man would say to another black man, which is why I'm iffy on it. But at least Rhodey is owning the fact that he's a d-word. I'll give him that much.
Fury is married to a Skrull? He must know. It would be more dramatically interesting if he did at any rate.
Are you like me? Do you not only dislike this show, but most of the projects, TV and film, in the current MCU? Do you think Kevin Feige has lost his touch? Do you want to commiserate over how much he sucks and what a failure he is?
Look elsewhere for that shoulder to cry on. Yes, I hate almost currently everything in the MCU right now. But I refuse to talk smack about Feige. It's amazing the whole thing held together for as long as it did. THAT is an accomplishment and nobody can take Endgame away from him The problem is there is too much stuff by too many different people now. No quality control. Too many cooks, so to speak. And I could blame Feige for that, but we got a string of awesome movies for awhile there, and just because the movies suck now doesn't stop the earlier movies from being awesome. I'd call that a win.
This isn't working. **1/2.
Superman & Lois "What Kills You Only Makes You Stronger"
Wow, it is a GOOD thing the show has been renewed. If it hadn't been, I would have been furious.
And just for the record, I still wasn't crazy about the episode. I loved the creepiness of the moment of Luthor essentially begging Bizarro to let him kill him, but most of the rest of the episode left me cold.
Did Sam NEED to have been catfished by a Luthor associate? Was it necessary? Usually I appreciate the show because it allows us the nice moments. It broke it's contract with me about that when doing that.
When Lana and John had sex, the first thing that popped into my mind is that if I were John I would have been mad. She popped all the buttons on his shirt and ruined it. I'm sorry, that's not sexy, that's rude. Because Lana could get away with that behavior with a worse looking fella, but John's kinda a dreamboat. I would have been pissed were I him.
Jordan remains on thin ice to me.
Clark and Lois' love scene was nice but I don't feel like it resolved too much of the self-consciousness she was feeling over losing her breasts. Yes, Clarks accepts her and still thinks she beautiful. But for women with cancer who lose their breasts, it's also about how everyone else sees them too. Loved ones being loving is not a surprise. I hope in Season 4 Lois is still nervous about this thing. Whatever this episode was, that was NOT any sort of acceptable "resolution" to that at all.
Discussions of abortion are between the lines of Kyle asking if Chrissy "wants" this. After Dobbs, abortion rights are hanging by a thread in Kansas currently, but they are still hanging.
I guess I'm just not down with turning Bizarro into Doomsday. It's not like the Doomsday parallels weren't teased in his very first appearance, so it at least fits the canon. But it feels... dumb, and too pat, and wrecking a previously interesting character to turn him into an uninteresting one. Sigh.
Not a fan of this finale. A bit of a disappointment. **1/2.
Gotham Knights "Night Of The Owls"
That could have ended worse.
The kids cleared their names and Two-Face was born. But you KNOW the producers saw the writing on the wall the entire time, right? DC could not have possibly been less supportive to this show. It being canceled is not the surprise. It actually being on the bubble and its cancelation not a foregone conclusion is the shocking thing, and probably only happened because the show was both solid in quality and cheap to make. Still, the producers HAD to know this was coming, so despite resolving the main tension, ANY cliffhanger is annoying.
I haven't seen Charles Measure in anything in a few years. He used to be all over my genre shows, usually playing the most annoying character. Either it's been longer than I remember seeing him, or he's aged terribly. I only know it's him because his name was in the credits.
Underwhelming as hell Two-Face origin, which is to be expected when Batman is absent. But I didn't like it coming now because part of me wanted Duela to bring our Harvey back, even if it wasn't permanent. I believed what he was saying too, which makes this whole thing that much worse. I would have loved Duela having a father even for a little while. It was sweet.
The make-up job is great but I do not see how it could have been financially viable to use that level of VFX on the bared teeth for a series regular. The show is notoriously cheap. Maybe the show was actually canceled because the CW knew they'd have to pay out the nose for Two-Face motion capture and decided cancelation was cheaper. I hate 2023 by the way. Thought that beared mentioning.
Learning Turner's parents were assassins who got themselves killed on the job is a perfect resolution to the idea that Batman killed his parents. He didn't. He parents were just such monsters they practically killed themselves.
I love the solidarity and friendship between Colin and the cop he's been using as a go-between undercover all season, and whose life he finally saved as himself. The hug was rewarding to me.
The dire choice of the bombs is very reminiscent of the Joker pulling a similar dilemma in The Dark Knight. Events in Gotham aren't always parallel with each other, but they still often rhyme.
I don't think the cops believed anything the kids were saying until Brody spoke up. I think he was the only one with ANY credibility left, and that turned the tide. A buncha Talons turning the station into a slaughterhouse also perhaps pointed towards the kids' innocence.
It was a solid episode. Not a great Two-Face origin. And the cliffhanger was annoying. But I don't wash my hands of the show the way the finale of Naomi made me do. Not bad. ***1/2.
