Wolf King is the worst show I’ve seen in a long time. It clearly wants to be like Avatar: The Last Airbender (even having a knock-off “my cabbages” joke), but it starts off terrible, predictable, and shoddy, and doesn’t rise all that far from that.
“The Past is The Past” is both an ending I’d want from a show, and way off from what I expected for this show specifically. Or any Marvel show, really.
“Karma’s a Glitch” has the pacing and progression of a movie, and I loved that about it. The series has been building up for so long that just having a bunch of classic superhero moments chained together was deeply satisfying.
I was so concerned during the first half of “Bad Magic.” Nothing seemed to be happening. Riri was sitting in her trauma, and getting increasingly paranoid, but I was genuinely worried that nothing would push the plot forward until the next episode.
“We in Danger, Girl,” could best be described as the consequences episode. Many, many plotlines set up over the last two episodes are all collapsing in. Basically, nothing is going right for the characters—and it was the perfect choice for this show.
“Reality Check” is—drum roll please—a great episode of Revival. Perhaps the first even good episode of Revival. It actually flowed properly and felt like it was utilizing the interesting questions at the heart of its premise while maintaining solid, cohesive plotlines. I wasn’t frustrated; I wasn’t thrown off. The episodic and the serialized nature of this story are finally working in harmony.
“Straight to Hell” is exactly the kind of finale I would want from this show if I had speculated one from the beginning. All the pieces of the puzzle slam together in a violent, intense, dramatic crescendo. And—amazingly—without absolutely ruining the storyline’s gravitas by wrapping things up too fast or forcing everything back into the status quo. I’ll say it again in the final paragraph, but this is quite the way to get people hyped for the next season. I am hyped for the next season. I cannot imagine how they’ll continue this storyline—or what it might do to the broader MCU canon.
“Will the Real Natalie Please Stand Up?” is a terrible continuation of Ironheart. It has a lot of fun moments. It highlights both the fun science fiction concepts it’s playing with—and, to a lesser extent, magical concepts—while giving us an action-packed, CGI-packed heist scene. But it also, jarringly, has the same “convenience” factor to its narrative that plagued “Bring Me Home,” but to a much, much, much worse degree.
Ironheart’s first episode, “Take Me Home,” is one of the best opening Marvel episodes I can recall in terms of engagement. You get basically everything you need to attach to the story and get excited to see where it goes. Unlike Daredevil: Born Again, the plot is starting right away, no slightly non-sequitur hook required. There’s superhero-type stuff happening from the jump.
Let’s go back into the powder keg of possible issues that is Revival with the next episode, “Keeping Up Appearances.” And I am happy to say that this episode doesn’t turn into what I expected. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have issues; it’s just not the episodic structure I assumed a show like this would default to. It’s remaining an ongoing drama.
Revival has kind of a bad first episode in a lot of ways, but does reveal how a good premise can carry an audience through the initial setup. And that one big, showy premise can give rise to several core questions/concepts that are so intriguing, and open so many doors for seasons of storytelling that it’s hard not to want to see what could happen next.
Hello Tomorrow! is perhaps one of the most unique sci-fi shows to come out in a long time. It’s got such an odd combination of factors that somehow come together to deliver an engaging drama and mystery revolving around a big, central question. But, unlike a lot of other dramas, there’s no hero. This is a show where almost everyone is a scam artist—though some of them don’t actually know they’re running a scam.
