Operation Shuri is a fun idea for an episode, let down by the last few minutes. Up until a single baffling conversation, I was on board with the storyline. Wakanda being so far ahead of most places with their technology, culture, education, etc. is one of the reasons the Black Panther movies are so interesting.
Battle of the Bands is basically a standard cartoon episode. After the main antagonist left the planet in Heart of Iron, I suspected things would turn out like this. And, frankly, this is better. I like it a lot more.
Heart of Iron partially reverses the downward slide after the abysmal Chasing Ghosts. It’s not as good as Initiation, but at least the plot setups actually go somewhere. It doesn’t feel like scenes are wasting the viewer’s time.
Marvel Rising: Chasing Ghosts is terrible. I don’t like being this negative, but wow, is this the worst of the Marvel Rising projects I’ve watched. As a follow-up to Initiation, it’s just baffling how poorly everything was handled.
Marvel Rising: Initiation is one of the short, like micro short, series that are set in the same universe as the Secret Warriors movie. Kamala and Squirrel Girl are there. Patriot is there.
It was difficult limiting this to only ten favorite articles. Ultimately, it boiled down to a quirk of memory. Which ones, upon looking through the year, evoked the strongest memories, the most potent feelings.
Last year, I took a look at some of my favorite and least favorite pieces of media I reviewed for 2022.
The Church on Ruby Road marks the beginning of Ncuti Gatwa’s tenure as the Doctor, and while the episode was a mixed bag, Ncuti did such a good job.
The Giggle marks the end of Doctor Who’s trilogy of specials, and, like each one, I enjoyed it a lot and found a core issue. This one is perhaps the most flattering flaw on paper, though, even if I consider Wild Blue Yonder to be the stronger episode overall. Simply put, The Giggle is too short—way, way too short.
If Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder had been a novelization, it would be in my top ten favorite Doctor Who stories across any season, with any Doctor. Full stop. I love it when Doctor Who leans into horror and the weirder side of the universe.
Almost all “speculative” fiction is fantasy fiction. Horror is fantasy. Most science fiction is science fantasy or just fantasy with some aesthetic changes. Superhero fiction is fantasy fiction. Time travel stories are fantasy.
Doctor Who: The Star Beast marks the return of so many things. The return of Russell T. Davies as showrunner. The return of David Tennant as the 14th Doctor. And a continuation of Catherine Tate’s Donna Noble story that had originally ended in a tragic mindwipe after she helped save the universe.
