“A New You” is, ultimately, a familiar trope played mostly as expected. But it’s also somehow a lot bleaker in its implications and uses the multi-media format of The Magnus Protocol to add subtle storytelling. This may be my favorite use of the “social media post” format.
Batman: Caped Crusader is incredible. A throwback that doesn’t seem redundant. Each episode of the first three introduces us back to one of the classic villains and manages to set up even more of them without detracting from the immaculate pacing. Somehow, these half-hour episodes are more engaging, better written, and feel more thoughtful than most one-hour episodes of a show I’ve seen.
It’s been a few weeks since I reviewed another episode of The Magnus Protocol and I’m so glad that “Mixed Signals” is the one I returned to. This episode is fantastic, and it’s mainly due to such an interesting, novel, and evocative horror concept.
Empire of Death has weird pacing, a rushed ending for its conflict, and tries to pretend unrelated moments from the season actually reincorporate into the plot. But I didn’t hate watching it. Little sci-fi and fantasy ideas sprinkled throughout are interesting—and I’m glad that the episode finally explains Susan Triad.
“The Legend of Ruby Sunday” is the first part of a two-parter. We spend a lot of time being given mysteries, and then most of them are resolved at the end of the episode, or in the next one titled “The Empire of Death.” It’s not a stand-alone adventure by any stretch.
“Breaking Ground” is another exposition episode, mainly serving to establish a few more pieces of information about the “Protocol” that we’ve heard so much about. This doesn’t make it a bad episode—or even a mediocre one—just that it doesn’t have much in the way of a self-contained story. It doesn’t have the time to build to much tension.
The Luminous Dead is perhaps one of the hardest reviews I’ve done in a long time. The nature of the work has clashed with my usual operations.
“Rogue” is a fun enough episode that could’ve been better with more time. Or, ideally, being split into a few different episodes. The pacing, storytelling, and character motivations suffer because we need to have four separate stories interlocking with each other.
“Dot and Bubble” is maybe my favorite episode of the new season so far. Yes, it does rely on a tired critique of people overusing cell phones for its whole premise to work, I won’t deny that—but, if you can accept that slightly cringey idea, this is one of the most poignant, emotionally devastating, and interesting episodes we’ve gotten since “Wild Blue Yonder.”
“73 Yards” is a confusing episode. I’ll admit that immediately. I did not fully understand the plot of it. The inclusion of supernatural elements might have something to do with that, but the conclusion and middle section left me uncertain of even the magic’s rules.
“Slow Time Between the Stars” has almost no plot. And that’s perfectly fine. If you try to read it expecting a plot—or really even conflict—to arise, then you’ll be disappointed. This is pure idea-based science fiction. It’s continuous interesting ideas. That’s it.
“Boom” is an episode that is clearly trying to be as morbid and macabre as possible. The story’s insistence on bleak moments, casual character death, and tragedy is so frequent it’s almost overplayed. I can’t believe I’m calling for the horror to be toned down—but here we are.
