“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.
Tales of the Underworld didn’t stick the landing. The second part—the Cad Bane part—is not nearly as good as Asajj’s section. The action isn’t as interesting, dynamic, or even as intense. Lightsaber fights are just way cooler than blaster standoffs unless you try really, really hard. And they clearly didn’t.
Like the previous “Tales” miniseries for Star Wars, Tales of the Underworld is not actually one narrative. It’s multiple stories bundled together under one theme. And because of that, I decided it would work better to review them separately. The first three episodes are for Asajj Ventress, and the last three episodes are for Cad Bane.
“Isle of Joy” is a fantastic episode. I am consistently enjoying the constant use of parallels between Fisk and Daredevil, and this time, it’s about love lives. It’s about interpersonal drama. How much of their “real” selves do they let through? How do others deal with them when they do?
Comparing the first three episodes of Murderbot to All Systems Red is a game of pros and cons. As a “fan” of the book series, I was obviously waiting for certain scenes and anticipating how well someone could play SecUnit, but the actual viewing experience was me going “that was good” followed swiftly by disappointment—and on and on it went.
“Art for Art’s Sake” is so settled into what I want from a gritty superhero show that it paradoxically doesn’t give me as much to talk about. The plotlines are converging, interacting, cracking open one another in ways I mostly expected.
Yes, finally! “Excessive Force” explodes with all the pent-up energy that this series has been waiting to use. It sets up the stakes and the dominoes so aggressively that there was never any question that Matt would become Daredevil, once again.
“With Interest” finally gives us a superhero episode. I said last review that I wanted the pot to boil over, and it basically did. Daredevil locks in, even if the mask hasn’t come on. I hadn’t expected the episode to break the seal being a very trope-heavy, classic superhero scenario, but, hey, it was a ton of fun.
