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matt_zimmerAlso reviews for the latest episodes of Family Guy, The Great North, and Common Side Effects, and the novel Sunrise On The Reaping.
Daredevil: Born Again "With Interest"
I thought it was pretty darn great. Seeing Yusuf Khan was kind of a adorable.
If you are inclined to talk shit about the episode for essentially having zip to do with the larger Fisk or Daredevil arcs I want to suggest perhaps you don't really understand how TV is SUPPOSED to work. Because all of the previous Marvel shit? NOT how TV is supposed to work. TV is not a six hour movie divided into six one hour parts. ACTUAL television, that Marvel seems now interested in breaking into (if their newfound discoveries of both showrunners and Series Bibles holds) involves cases of the week. The fact that current television stubbornly refuses to do this is not simply because television is amazing and doesn't like dicking us around anymore. Far from it. Television is as terrible as ever, and if anything dicks us around more today than it ever has. It's because modern television is on this weird kick to pretend to be anything other than television, which strikes me as a weird goal for ANY show in the medium to strive for, much less damn near all of them. But this weird belief among expensive genre shows on streaming hasn't remotely improved television's quality. This specific episode was pretty damn great. What that mindset has done is make viewers spoiled and unable to appreciate smaller-scale stories, even when they are amazing. Which means MANY viewers will not understand how and why this episode is great. Because it's structured like great television instead of epic mini-movie making. Many viewers don't understand the former is the thing they should want, and the latter the thing that tends to make shit worse.
I mean, that's why there were 2 episodes this week, right? Disney+ got nervous about this one, and thought its "lack of momentum" would make viewers unhappy. Instead of actually appreciating they were watching the best episode so far. What pisses me off is I don't even know if Disney was wrong. They would have been ten or fifteen years ago. But fans have become a lot more demanding and spoiled in the meantime. It strikes me as a legit fear now. I would have loved that to stand on its own for one week. But Disney didn't trust the viewers to appreciate it. And I can't say their distrust is misplaced.
The hostage negotiator Kim seems to have a wry sense of humor and the least believable thing in the episode is this card would ever be stuck for a joke.
I'm annoyed that once they're alone the crooks pull off their masks. Because that is done for the AUDIENCE'S benefit, not their own. Shit like that is why even great television sucks deep down. By definition, television simply refuses to stop sucking.
I love that the lead crook is smart enough to say he's not letting Matt go because he pities him. It's because he doesn't LIKE him, and senses he's trouble! What do you know? He right! But I've never seen that specific moment in a fictional hostage scenario previously, and I'm thinking we probably should have before this.
This was television. As a rule, I HATE television. But television, as awful as it is, can sometimes be great, which is why I watch it to begin with. This was great television. *****.
Daredevil: Born Again "Excessive Force"
Finally in costume again.
I laughed at Fisk suggesting because a serial killer was discovered by sanitation workers instead of the cops, a reassessment of protocols might be necessary. That bit cracked me up.
Heather's whole torpid thing about masks at the beginning is why I actually hate superhero shit, and why I refuse to take it seriously. And I feel sorry for anyone who does.
Jack Duquesne, the smarmy French guy with the mustache from Hawkeye? Weird Marvel synergy, but okay.
Not loving Muse, but I'm not supposed to, so at least that's working as intended. ***1/2.
Family Guy "Dog Is My Co-Pilot"
This episode is basically 22 minutes of showing why Quagmire is right to dislike Brian.
The Herbert joke of the moaning in the background went too far. The producers claim that Herbert is supposedly funny because he is too old and feeble to actually hurt anymore. Aside from that idea being bullshit because child porn hurts kids no matter WHO consumes it, that specific joke just made it so the character couldn't even work under that false premise. The character needs to go.
The Jack Ryan show starring the guy who used to smirk on The Office. I sort of have troubling taking John Krasinki seriously as a dramatic actor too (and with a beard). I liked them saying he looked like a guy who stopped combing his hair halfway through.
Pete Davidson's secret? Calling women back immediately. It's not that hard, guys.
Loved the Calliou series finale. Only trouble is I believe that sociopath is in for a far worse ending than Tony Soprano.
Call him Pete. MR. Portnoy is the guy on his court documents. He didn't voice himself because they couldn't take the shots at him they did if he did.
A lot of it was problematic, even if some of the individual jokes worked. **1/2.
The Great North "Can't Hardly Debate Adventure"
That episode was a gem.
This season has been mostly terrible, but that was excellent. Frankly, it's the first Aunt Dirt episode I've ever liked. It was her chaos being used for a good cause which was the difference. I love the judge admitting that last round was underwhelming and next year they were gonna have to create rules for audience behavior. Dirt's final "arguments" are so great because she isn't actually taking a position. She's winning a fight. That's it. And that's all she really needed.
Beef and Wolf's "Whoa!" stuff was less successful, but not bad. I was shocked to hear that Wolf was 22. It would make me feel worse if somebody as dumb as him were older, but I never got the sense he was that young before. Weird.
The episode was the show at its best. I am not foolish enough to think this is a turning point for the season, but I DO happen to like good episodes for being good. *****.
Common Side Effects "Cliff's Edge"
Honestly? I didn't like it. Too many complications at once, and I have a hard time buying Marshall would EVER trust Hildy after what she's done. I don't trust Frances either, but Hildy is unethical, toxic, and crazy.
How dumb is he for walking up the side of a cliff with her? Him doing something that dumb makes me sympathize with him a lot less.
Liked them changing up the main titles.
And the hallucinations ARE an important problems and might be where the show's title, and maybe even long-term plot is headed.
I kind of am digging Rick's nuanced approach. He's wrong, but he's reachable. I'm rooting for him and Frances more than I am Marshall and Hildy. Marshall saying he and Frances could have compromised was right.
Super disappointed in Harrington. I mentioned there were too many complications. Part of the reason I say that is this added one actually felt out of character and a complication for the sake of one. I hate those and I especially hate when they are at the expense of consistency in a character I happen to like.
Not on-board this week. **.
Sunrise On The Reaping by Suzanne Collins
It's amazing what 2 pages can do. We'll get to that.
I remember looking upon The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes with skepticism. Any Hunger Games prequel novels are bound to be disappointments. Not just because we know the ending, and the characters' fates are fixed. But since they all need to end BEFORE Katniss Everdeen takes down the Capitol, it's always gonna be an unsatisfying bummer ending.
She made it work with Songbirds And Snakes, as that was an origin story for President Snow, and his unhappy ending there satisfied the reader very much.
But detailing Haymitch Abernathy's victory in the second Quarter Quell and how he became the broken person he was? This wouldn't end well.
I was half-right. We'll get to those 2 pages soon. Honest.
I think it's interesting the book is told in the first person by Haymitch. Why? I've noticed this about a LOT of authors who use first person, and whether it's Judy Blume or Stephen King, the technique usually makes the narrator in question a full-on surrogate for the writer. Most of Blume and King's first person protagonists seem to speak with Blume and King's voice, and regardless of gender are usually variations on their own perspectives. Say what you will about this book, Haymitch's voice is entirely different that Katniss Everdeen's. And the differences are both stark and interesting.
To start off with the contrast between his normalcy at the beginning of the story and Katniss' weirdly defensive and insane behavior during the first 3 books says, yeah, Katniss wasn't operating under some sort of supernatural wisdom. She truly was that damaged the entire time. The events of this book damage Haymitch just as badly, but he starts off the book as a normal kid with a decent life (all things considered).
And some of the turns the book takes make Catching Fire and Mockingjay all the more rewarding in hindsight. Like Haymitch was on the ground floor of this rebellion from the start, even before Katniss was sent to the Games. He makes all sort of connections here, including with Beetee, Wiress, and Mags, and yes, Plutarch Heavensbee. Not sure if Plutarch can be entirely trusted at this stage of the game, but he's in it for the long haul, you know? I trust him more than Haymitch does.
I like that Haymitch likes Effie Trinket until she says the games are for the Greater Good. Yes, as much empathy as this character often reveals, she has always been this tactless and clueless.
But as the book goes on it throws ridiculous tragedy upon tragedy to Haymitch, and it all starts feeling a bit ridiculous, and at some point even unintentionally comical, especially with the later chapters leaning so heavily into Poe's The Raven. Each time the prose is interrupted for that poem I keep wishing Collins would focus on her own damn story. Ultimately, it seemed the inherent curse of doing a Hunger Games prequel was finally gonna backfire on Collins.
And then there is the 2 page Epilogue detailing events decades later, suggesting Haymitch HAS finally found a family in Katniss and Peeta Mellark, and they DID in fact stop the reaping after all. Is this a desperate move on Collins' end for satisfying closure in a premise where none is possible? I would think probably. Does it still work and make me forgive almost everything else? Yup.
If those last two pages didn't exist the book's grade would limp along to either 2 and half or 3 stars. I feel like I can give it 3 and half now. But the truth is it doesn't entirely work anyways. ***1/2.
Daredevil: Born Again "With Interest"
I thought it was pretty darn great. Seeing Yusuf Khan was kind of a adorable.
If you are inclined to talk shit about the episode for essentially having zip to do with the larger Fisk or Daredevil arcs I want to suggest perhaps you don't really understand how TV is SUPPOSED to work. Because all of the previous Marvel shit? NOT how TV is supposed to work. TV is not a six hour movie divided into six one hour parts. ACTUAL television, that Marvel seems now interested in breaking into (if their newfound discoveries of both showrunners and Series Bibles holds) involves cases of the week. The fact that current television stubbornly refuses to do this is not simply because television is amazing and doesn't like dicking us around anymore. Far from it. Television is as terrible as ever, and if anything dicks us around more today than it ever has. It's because modern television is on this weird kick to pretend to be anything other than television, which strikes me as a weird goal for ANY show in the medium to strive for, much less damn near all of them. But this weird belief among expensive genre shows on streaming hasn't remotely improved television's quality. This specific episode was pretty damn great. What that mindset has done is make viewers spoiled and unable to appreciate smaller-scale stories, even when they are amazing. Which means MANY viewers will not understand how and why this episode is great. Because it's structured like great television instead of epic mini-movie making. Many viewers don't understand the former is the thing they should want, and the latter the thing that tends to make shit worse.
I mean, that's why there were 2 episodes this week, right? Disney+ got nervous about this one, and thought its "lack of momentum" would make viewers unhappy. Instead of actually appreciating they were watching the best episode so far. What pisses me off is I don't even know if Disney was wrong. They would have been ten or fifteen years ago. But fans have become a lot more demanding and spoiled in the meantime. It strikes me as a legit fear now. I would have loved that to stand on its own for one week. But Disney didn't trust the viewers to appreciate it. And I can't say their distrust is misplaced.
The hostage negotiator Kim seems to have a wry sense of humor and the least believable thing in the episode is this card would ever be stuck for a joke.
I'm annoyed that once they're alone the crooks pull off their masks. Because that is done for the AUDIENCE'S benefit, not their own. Shit like that is why even great television sucks deep down. By definition, television simply refuses to stop sucking.
I love that the lead crook is smart enough to say he's not letting Matt go because he pities him. It's because he doesn't LIKE him, and senses he's trouble! What do you know? He right! But I've never seen that specific moment in a fictional hostage scenario previously, and I'm thinking we probably should have before this.
This was television. As a rule, I HATE television. But television, as awful as it is, can sometimes be great, which is why I watch it to begin with. This was great television. *****.
Daredevil: Born Again "Excessive Force"
Finally in costume again.
I laughed at Fisk suggesting because a serial killer was discovered by sanitation workers instead of the cops, a reassessment of protocols might be necessary. That bit cracked me up.
Heather's whole torpid thing about masks at the beginning is why I actually hate superhero shit, and why I refuse to take it seriously. And I feel sorry for anyone who does.
Jack Duquesne, the smarmy French guy with the mustache from Hawkeye? Weird Marvel synergy, but okay.
Not loving Muse, but I'm not supposed to, so at least that's working as intended. ***1/2.
Family Guy "Dog Is My Co-Pilot"
This episode is basically 22 minutes of showing why Quagmire is right to dislike Brian.
The Herbert joke of the moaning in the background went too far. The producers claim that Herbert is supposedly funny because he is too old and feeble to actually hurt anymore. Aside from that idea being bullshit because child porn hurts kids no matter WHO consumes it, that specific joke just made it so the character couldn't even work under that false premise. The character needs to go.
The Jack Ryan show starring the guy who used to smirk on The Office. I sort of have troubling taking John Krasinki seriously as a dramatic actor too (and with a beard). I liked them saying he looked like a guy who stopped combing his hair halfway through.
Pete Davidson's secret? Calling women back immediately. It's not that hard, guys.
Loved the Calliou series finale. Only trouble is I believe that sociopath is in for a far worse ending than Tony Soprano.
Call him Pete. MR. Portnoy is the guy on his court documents. He didn't voice himself because they couldn't take the shots at him they did if he did.
A lot of it was problematic, even if some of the individual jokes worked. **1/2.
The Great North "Can't Hardly Debate Adventure"
That episode was a gem.
This season has been mostly terrible, but that was excellent. Frankly, it's the first Aunt Dirt episode I've ever liked. It was her chaos being used for a good cause which was the difference. I love the judge admitting that last round was underwhelming and next year they were gonna have to create rules for audience behavior. Dirt's final "arguments" are so great because she isn't actually taking a position. She's winning a fight. That's it. And that's all she really needed.
Beef and Wolf's "Whoa!" stuff was less successful, but not bad. I was shocked to hear that Wolf was 22. It would make me feel worse if somebody as dumb as him were older, but I never got the sense he was that young before. Weird.
The episode was the show at its best. I am not foolish enough to think this is a turning point for the season, but I DO happen to like good episodes for being good. *****.
Common Side Effects "Cliff's Edge"
Honestly? I didn't like it. Too many complications at once, and I have a hard time buying Marshall would EVER trust Hildy after what she's done. I don't trust Frances either, but Hildy is unethical, toxic, and crazy.
How dumb is he for walking up the side of a cliff with her? Him doing something that dumb makes me sympathize with him a lot less.
Liked them changing up the main titles.
And the hallucinations ARE an important problems and might be where the show's title, and maybe even long-term plot is headed.
I kind of am digging Rick's nuanced approach. He's wrong, but he's reachable. I'm rooting for him and Frances more than I am Marshall and Hildy. Marshall saying he and Frances could have compromised was right.
Super disappointed in Harrington. I mentioned there were too many complications. Part of the reason I say that is this added one actually felt out of character and a complication for the sake of one. I hate those and I especially hate when they are at the expense of consistency in a character I happen to like.
Not on-board this week. **.
Sunrise On The Reaping by Suzanne Collins
It's amazing what 2 pages can do. We'll get to that.
I remember looking upon The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes with skepticism. Any Hunger Games prequel novels are bound to be disappointments. Not just because we know the ending, and the characters' fates are fixed. But since they all need to end BEFORE Katniss Everdeen takes down the Capitol, it's always gonna be an unsatisfying bummer ending.
She made it work with Songbirds And Snakes, as that was an origin story for President Snow, and his unhappy ending there satisfied the reader very much.
But detailing Haymitch Abernathy's victory in the second Quarter Quell and how he became the broken person he was? This wouldn't end well.
I was half-right. We'll get to those 2 pages soon. Honest.
I think it's interesting the book is told in the first person by Haymitch. Why? I've noticed this about a LOT of authors who use first person, and whether it's Judy Blume or Stephen King, the technique usually makes the narrator in question a full-on surrogate for the writer. Most of Blume and King's first person protagonists seem to speak with Blume and King's voice, and regardless of gender are usually variations on their own perspectives. Say what you will about this book, Haymitch's voice is entirely different that Katniss Everdeen's. And the differences are both stark and interesting.
To start off with the contrast between his normalcy at the beginning of the story and Katniss' weirdly defensive and insane behavior during the first 3 books says, yeah, Katniss wasn't operating under some sort of supernatural wisdom. She truly was that damaged the entire time. The events of this book damage Haymitch just as badly, but he starts off the book as a normal kid with a decent life (all things considered).
And some of the turns the book takes make Catching Fire and Mockingjay all the more rewarding in hindsight. Like Haymitch was on the ground floor of this rebellion from the start, even before Katniss was sent to the Games. He makes all sort of connections here, including with Beetee, Wiress, and Mags, and yes, Plutarch Heavensbee. Not sure if Plutarch can be entirely trusted at this stage of the game, but he's in it for the long haul, you know? I trust him more than Haymitch does.
I like that Haymitch likes Effie Trinket until she says the games are for the Greater Good. Yes, as much empathy as this character often reveals, she has always been this tactless and clueless.
But as the book goes on it throws ridiculous tragedy upon tragedy to Haymitch, and it all starts feeling a bit ridiculous, and at some point even unintentionally comical, especially with the later chapters leaning so heavily into Poe's The Raven. Each time the prose is interrupted for that poem I keep wishing Collins would focus on her own damn story. Ultimately, it seemed the inherent curse of doing a Hunger Games prequel was finally gonna backfire on Collins.
And then there is the 2 page Epilogue detailing events decades later, suggesting Haymitch HAS finally found a family in Katniss and Peeta Mellark, and they DID in fact stop the reaping after all. Is this a desperate move on Collins' end for satisfying closure in a premise where none is possible? I would think probably. Does it still work and make me forgive almost everything else? Yup.
If those last two pages didn't exist the book's grade would limp along to either 2 and half or 3 stars. I feel like I can give it 3 and half now. But the truth is it doesn't entirely work anyways. ***1/2.
