matt_zimmer | "Echo" Season Reviews (Spoilers) (Reply)

Also reviews for the latest episodes of Fargo, and Night Court.

Echo "Chafa"

First off, it's a little better than the Netflix stuff. That was my major concern. I HATE the Netflix stuff and this has a different feel to it. It's dark, but the tone isn't as MEAN as the Netflix stuff could be. Maybe that's not the right word. But it's a little easier for me to take.

That being said, it's a little boring. Am I wrong?

Daredevil is in this! Neat!

Withholding final judgment on the series as a whole until I've seen everything. The first episode was not bad. ***.

Echo "Lowak"

Still a little dull, but Skully and Biscuits are kind of funny. I like Henry too.

I also like that there's a main title.

Pretty good. ***.

Echo "Tuklo"

Good episode, great cliffhanger.

I'm loving Zane so far. Vicky's fatal mistake is believing he can play with the big boys.

Love that Henry is now all in.

Really good episode. ****.

Echo "Taloa"

Ugh. The hammer. Daredevil on Netflix is canon. Damn.

I do believe Fisk cares for her, but Maya is right that if he truly did he'd learn to sign. The fact that he couldn't be bothered is telling.

Is Maya a monster? Maybe. But she sure as hell didn't sign off on the interpreter being killed.

Speaking of which, seeing the thing with the ice cream man at the beginning made me realize I totally forgot this version of Fisk was bug-fudge crazy.

Is was good. But not great. Also I want to pretend Netflix didn't exist, and this episode isn't letting me. ***1/2.

Echo "Maya"

For a series Marvel and Disney+ washed their hands of, and practically burned off, I'm a little surprised at how effective it was, especially compared to other Marvel Studios TV stuff. It's not technically the best Marvel Studios show, but it's better than every Netflix show because it FEELS like Marvel Studios. I recognize the tone. The ending is hopeful, not bleak. In hindsight I believe the TV-MA rating was just a gimmick. There were a couple of violent scenes that wouldn't pass muster on broadcast TV, but everything could have easily be done on a TV-14 rating. Hannibal, for example, has done far worse.

Fisk finally admits he killed her father. It's amazing she forgives him and tries to heal him instead.

I'm not going to pretend that was amazing and perfect. But considering this is the show Marvel Studios seemed ambivalent about, and the fact that it went through so much trouble during production, says it should be a lot worse than it is. Okay, so I won't pretend my expectations weren't actually low, and I might be going easy on it because of that. But maybe Disney+'s expectations were too low too. It's actually pretty good. ****1/2.

Fargo "The Useless Hand"

Munch saving Dot at the end was the biggest, most pleasant surprise of the season. But it makes sense. Roy Tillman has done nothing this season but turn everybody against him. "The enemy of my enemy."

The tide turns indeed. Roy is screwed next week and I'm here for it.

Dot's phone call to Lorraine will probably go down as one of the high points of the season. Lorraine calling her her daughter for the first time ever was huge.

Gator IS pretty useless. He should have taken Dot's offer to escape a couple of weeks ago.

This has been my favorite season of the show so far. Dot is the best character they've ever done. ****1/2.

Night Court "Form Fetish"

Some nice silliness cannot hide that the show is super dumb. I mean the old show was too but it was made in the 1980's. You'd think the writers would have higher standards these days.

If you want to point out to me that audiences probably don't either, then you've got me there. ***1/2.