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The Winchesters: Hang On to Your Life (2023)
Ah, the Magic of Richard Speight!
The episode wasn't much other than Speight. Samuel recovers from what was basically a small cut on his chest, there's a drinking game where someone chugs whenever Ada is mentioned, Latika and Carlos investigate a case. We get to see a little more of Samuel... and then he leaves. We find out a little more about Carlos' background, but other than giving him and Latika a little more background (I liked Latika's "Black Sabbath" yell), there wasn't a lot of development. Did any viewer really think Carlos was going to pick Jericho, or anyone else, to die? Or that Carlos would get killed?
Okay, Loki thought that. And the last half, when Loki stepped out from behind the curtain so to speak, was what made the episode probably the best one so far. Speight gave Loki, the "monster of the week" some personality in what has been lacking in the show's monsters so far. Even the bit at the beginning was very... Speight-ish, as he warms his hands over Brock's burning corpse.
There were some other good bits. The whole bit where Loki is teleporting around while offering Carlos "the deal" was nicely choreographer. There was some loose ends: they didn't make it very clear Jericho's hands were damaged, which kinda dulled that plot point. Loki bringing the mirror to the club and leaving it on the table seemed kinda vague. And Loki swapping with Mary was very convenient and left the puzzle of where Mary was when Loki was impersonating her. But the whole fight to Elton John's "Saturday Night is for Fighting" was good.
The climax was a bit weak just because it was predictable as I noted earlier. As is who spared Carlos and trapped Loki. Odin? God? Somebody else? Bu the show did pretty well as both a prequel to Speight's 'Supernatural' character (who next? A younger Crowley?) and keeping the balls in the air. Nothing really moved forward, other than the bit about the mystery man in the background of one of Samuel's photos. The Mary/Samuel/Millie thing was necessary from a storyline standpoint, but it wasn't that exciting to watch.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Leverage: Redemption: The Belly of the Beast Job (2023)
Not Unexpected
It's the second season of a reboot. Of course the writers and the production staff are going to try something different. As I noted in a review way back, there's not much else to do with the show. Otherwise it follows a particular formula, and they have to follow it. So they either change the formula for an episode, or it's same-old same-old.
As far as the one-off formula, the episode isn't bad. Emily Hall makes a plucky protagonist, with Julian Silver as her plucky IT sidekick. The appearances from the regulars were usually amusing: I liked Eliot' grin as he took over for the front desk security guard, and Parker is always a hoot whether she's doing her disappearing act at the juncture box (along with her cart), or her fake-video over-the-top acting on how to crack a safe, or just dropping out of the ceiling to lend Jenna a hand when Jenna's back is turned.
The singing bit, just to give Aleyse Shannon a spotlight, was okay. Shouldn't she be covertly helping Keith? Sophie was okay, and the Noah Wyle "lumberduke" bit seemed to exist to a) give Wyle another in his endless opportunities to ham it up, and b) take a few shots at Hallmark.
And... I'm not quite clear from an in-universe point of view why the main crew is so big on keeping their help a secret. I guess they're trying to test how well will the civilians do on their own. But then why help them? That doesn't seem like much of a test. It's not like it's some big secret: if Jenna and Keith do join up with Leverage International, they'll eventually find out who the founders are, and that the founders (well, three of them) helped them out. If that happened to me, I'd be more offended than anything. TV reality, I guess.
That's why Harry and Breanna's roles made a bit more sense. Harry doesn't interact with the Dynamic Duo at all, and Breanna has a walk-on and walk-off bit. The funniest parts were Harry's over-the-top impersonation of a "lumberduke", and Jenna's failed attempt to appeal to Carol's conscience.
So the entire plot seems more there to justify doing a "different story" then because it makes internal sense. And if you think about it hard, it doesn't make much sense ("Why was the main team playing secret?"). But it was entertaining in the moment.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Quantum Leap: Paging Dr. Song (2023)
Okay, I Was Hard on QL in my Previous Reviews...
...but then again I wasn't. I get that the new show is trying to carve its own mythology, and build a team of Project members around Ben. And give him an observer who is his fiancee, and there's some big conspiracy/mystery, and so on and so on.
And I won't say any of those are bad, or that the production staff is doing those bad. It's about what I'd expect out of 2033-2023 television.
But...
It's not 'Quantum Leap'. It's more like 'Timeless' from a few years ago. Anyone remember that? The secret conspiracy, and the 2020-type relationships, and such are more like 'Timeless' than 'Quantum Leap' And I can dig that: I _liked_ 'Timeless'. But if the production crew of this show want to do 'Timeless 2', then _do_ 'Timeleas 2'. Don't call it 'Quantum Leap', and try to weld on the 80s show with Bakula and Stockwell, onto what they want to do.
This 'Quantum Leap' feels like the production staff is clunkily welding on the stuff from the old show, onto their new show. But they'd rather be doing 'Timeless 2', or 'Doctor Who' or all of the above, whatever timey-wimeyness they have in mind.
One thing that takes me out of... Quantum Leapiness every time I watch the new show is that... everything has to be narratively related. Last week Addison finds out Ben has been keeping secrets from him, and Ben keeps secrets from Carly until Addison tells him not to. This week Ben has to decide whether to tell people the truth, while Addison is figuratively sitting on his shoulder telling him to do so after he lied to her.
Say what you will about the original QL, it's fractured non-continuity storytelling meant that each adventure with Sam Beckett, the writers didn't have to weave something from the project's present into Sam's current time and storyline because there wasn't a "present" storyline. I think that freed up the old QL and Bakula to just tell stories. The new QL doesn't have that freedom: it's committing itself and half the screen time to telling the present-day conspiracy/mystery story. Instead of Ben, we get Jenn and Janis in a room talking and drinking.
Yeah, that's 2020 storytelling. And that's fine. If the new QL production story wanted to tell me the story they want to tell me, I'd watch it on its own. But it's like they don't have faith in their own story, so they had to bring in the old Q: its basic concept, its title, and its little "nods to history". At least the history of the original.
What about this week's episode. It was... okay. I liked Francois Chou, one of those "Hey, It's That Guy!" actors. Stan Shaw was good, and Eugene Byrd got to play the rather generic big bad administrator of the episode. Tiffany Smith didn't have much to do, and overall it seems like a generic "hospital story" like you'd see on 'ER'. It just didn't seem to amount to much.
In the old QL, they often focused on little victories, like Ben helping an elderly pool player, and playing the piano while he did. That's part of what I miss: Sam just hanging out and having _fun_. Ben never gets a chance to do that. He immediately lands in the middle of a crisis, goes into crisis mode, and pretty much stays in that mode. The new QL doesn't have the sense of awe and mystery. Yeah, I know Ben and Sam only leap mostly in their own timelines. But even then, Bakula always managed to find the wonder in time travel. Lee, not so much. Maybe that's because half the storyline is taken up with the mystery/conspiracy. It's the half we'd get of Ben just being... Ben.
Or take 'Doctor Who'. The Doctor has _fun_ traveling around in time. Ben, not so much. He's grim, grim, grim.
And an episode without Mason Alexander Park is like a day without sunshine. :)
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Quantum Leap: Fellow Travelers (2023)
Aha That's The Issue I Have with the Reboot!
I was watching this episode, and was wondering, "Why isn't Ben singing?" And that to me is the essence is the issue of why I am not quite enthralled with the new version.
The story is happening to someone else. Not always, but I think the stronger episodes are the ones where Ben is trying to help the person he's in, or a single person he grows close to, not someone his person is next to. "Travelers" is a good example. In the original series, Sam would have leaped into Carly, and Sam would be singing, and Sam would be trying to figure out who is trying to kill Carly.
Here, Ben is a bodyguard. He's dealing with his own issues, and Addison is giving him a hard time. And a couple of times they cut away to Jenn and Janis in Belize. Guess what? I and from the reviews and comments at the time, folks didn't watch the original series to watch Sam, Al, and the QL team unravel the mystery of why Sam Leaped. He did it to help people. Even after he put Al's life right, he kept Leaping to help people.
Ben by comparison is kinda selfish. He Leaps to help Addison, in the future presumably. The rest of the team is trying to unravel a mystery. Sure, Ben helps people along the way, but that seems more incidental than anything. "Collateral help" rather than "collateral damage", if you will. Sure Ben wouldn't hinder people's lives because it's American TV and he's a hero and whatever or whoever is Leaping him is putting him in the way of people that need help. But at least I get the impression that Ben would do whatever he needs to to make his next Leap, so he can build up momentum to help Addison. If he had to hinder someone's life to Leap, he'd do that.
That's the difference between Scott Bakula and Raymond Lee, and the earlier writers and the modern-day ones. The earlier writers had... well, heart, for lack of a better term. And Bakula wasn't necessarily a better actor, but he was a more versatile one. He could play a singer, and a woman, or a teenager, or an old man. Lee plays a bodyguard, or a bounty hunter, and he does it well. But it doesn't require a lot of versatility, or varying talent, or whatever.
As far as this episode, it was okay. I've never been a big fan of Deborah Ann Wahl, on 'Daredevil' or 'Punisher' or whatever. So she didn't do much for me here. It seemed like very much a by-the-numbers plot. There were some parts that seemed kinda ironic (like Trevor loving the woman he was using, and being separated from her for using her), but the writers didn't really spend any time on that. And while the real killer was briefly spotlighted, my thoughts were kinda "Who??" rather than "Of course it was them!", when I got the impression the production staff was aiming for more the latter.
There's also a few other differences. In the original if Sam wasn't Carly, he would have become romantically involved with Carly. But in the new version, Ben can't "cheat" with a female guest star of the week. Kinda puts a damper on things. How about a story where Ben has to become romantically involved with someone so he can Leap. And all Addison can do is sit around and observe. But I don't get the idea the production staff is going to go that route. And it's American TV, so making the protagonist essentially a bigamist... nah.
I've seen both versions of QL, and I like the original one better. If you like the newer one, more power to you. Me, if they wanted to do a time-travel show, then they should have done their own and not glom onto something else.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do yout hink?
Titans: Lex Luthor (2022)
There's Good News and Bad News
Good news? Titus Welliver is probably the best onscreen portrayal of Lex Luthor. And this is coming from someone who _likes_ Jon Cryer on 'Supergirl'. He's subtle, doesn't overplay the bald card, and is less the maniacal cackling supervillain of a Cryer or Hackman. I would consider Clancy Brown from the animated series as Welliver's as the closest, but Brown only did voice work. Welliver captures both the physical appearance and the voice, as well as the personality in general.
The script helps, as Lex isn't going up Superman for once but his pitting his wits and manipulating his "creation", Connor. Taking Superman off the board for an off-world mission seems kinda cheap, but it gives writer Richard Hatem the opportunity to put Lex up against someone other than his arch-nemesis, so it works out as a plot.
I also liked Lex sparring with Kory. Not only was Lex calmly eating while Kory beats his way through his security guards. But there was also the two of them chatting about Komand'r taking the throne of Tamaran, and Lex trying to get a rise out of Kory. Not only does she not rise to the bait, but she masterfully turns it around on Lex.
The bad news is that since Lex gets taken out like a chump, presumably we won't get to see Welliver as Lex again. Never say never, I suppose. Lex could have had a contingency plan, or we could see him in a flashback.
The overall bad news is that the rest of the plot, with Sebastian and Ms. Bennett and Azarath in general, is kind of muddles. We aren't given any reason to be involved with Sebastian. Sebastian runs a taxidermy shop and creates video games and has a big presentation coming up. Bennett helps Lex and then he kicks her to the curb.
Okay, this presumably will make more sense in future episodes. But I'm not watching those episodes, I'm watching this one. I want a reason to be interested in all of this _now_. World-building is great, but not at the expense of character development and an interesting story.
The Gar thing, with him getting a new outfit and a display of his abilities and his vision of the Tree of Skulls, is a good example of how they made the character interesting now and built a story. I just wish Hatem has put as much effort into Sebastian or Bennett. Like or don't like Jonathan Crane last year, at least the writing team put some effort into him on an episode-by-episode basis last year. I think he and Jason tended to jump motivation-wise from episode to episode, but at least the effort was there. This episode, not so much with Sebastian and Bennett.
The Titans themselves finally displayed why they consider themselves a _family_. I kinda miss Donna and Hawk, and where the heck is Dawn and Ravager? But I suppose seeing the core six members hanging around and being the core so that they don't keep rotating in and out is good. More Kory and Gar and Rachel and Connor isn't a bad thing. Moving the show to background, and ditching Jason, lets the production staff focus more on the team. The characters mentioned above all seemed peripheral last season to Nightwing and Jason and Crane and Gotham.
The integration of Kory (Lex's interest in her) and Gar (his visions of the Tree and the... Red?) is a good example. Last year we never really got much of the rest of the team because most of it was about Dick and Jason.
But that's just my opinion. I could be wrong. What do you think?
Kolchak: The Night Stalker: The Youth Killer (1975)
Come for the Humor
"The Youth Killer" isn't particularly horrifying, although it has some horrible scenes. Everything with Cathy Lee Crosby in particular isn't... good. The scenes with her aren't good. For starters, Ms. Crosby isn't Greek looking. I suppose there could be something made of this (Helen having plastic surgery to match the "look" of the times), but there isn't. Helen of Troy running a computer dating service is a good idea, but nothing is ever made of how someone from millennia ago has adopted to modern times.
There's no threat to Kolchak. Helen doesn't threaten him, although she makes some noises about Hecate taking Kolchak as a sacrifice. But as he noted, he's hardly perfect so Hecate wouldn't take him anyway. For that matter, Hecate demands perfect sacrifices. But she isn't aware that Cubby of the glass eye was "without flaw" until Kolchak points it out. What was Hecate doing the rest of the time? Would she have accepted the imperfect sacrifice if Kolchak hadn't pointed it out?
The episode is funny, though, which is its primary redeeming quality. Darren McGavin wheels and deals his way through the episode. It's hard to take him, or the threat, seriously, but McGavin's spirit is infectious. He never takes anything too seriously, which undermines the "seriousness" of the threat. But McGavin is fun to watch. The INS scenes are fun to watch, and Ruth McDevitt as Miss Emily is fun to watch. She's much more understated than in "Horror in the Heights" with her comments on the elderly. Jack Grinnage doesn't have much to do, but his dainty sipping from a tea cup seems oddly in character.
And Simon Oakland as Vincenzo is oddly amusing. Whether it's his demands for Kolchak's article, his health obsession, and his gesture as he talks about the merits of Vitamin E, his every bit in the opening office scene is a winner.
McGavin's reactions are priceless, particularly to guest stars Freeman, Hickman, Fiedler, and Demosthanes. Hickman does well as a late-series run of cops that are more than aggressive jerks, as is McGavin's reaction: "Where have you been all my life? There's slapstick, like the mayonnaise bit on Kolchak's hand, and McGavin's growing exasperation with it as he tries to pick up a phone and later help Vincenzo up.
As is Kolchak's general reaction to the dating scene. You'd think Tony would know better after "The Werewolf": Kolchak is not the reporter you want to send on swinging single stories. Kolchak's reaction to the sales pitches from Bella and Helen are also good. And Demothanes/Kaz's little interjections are weird but amusing: whether he's talking about college girls when he was a professor, is arguing out of nowhere with the conventioneer about the largest hotel in the world, or how he got a kid's head out of an iron fence with mayonnaise, are all just skewed enough to give some characterization to a minor character without going overboard.
So like I said, come for the humor, not for the horror. But "Night Stalker" often jumped the line between humor and horror. The late series often went more for the former than the latter.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What's your opinion?
Stargirl: Frenemies - Chapter Thirteen: The Reckoning (2022)
Only A Few Mediocre Moments in an Excellent Finale
Overall, an excellent but too-soon end to the show.
So-so spots first. The choreography in the junkyard scene was good, but... rather poorly lit and filmed. I wish we had seen more of what was going on. When you could make out what was going on, it was very good. Like the Starman vs. STRIPE fight. Not only was it very... super-powered, but it had the personal stakes going for it. Even when Pat was in the cockpit of STRIPE punching buttons, you could tell that there was some anguish going on.
The Shiv vs. Ultra-Humanite battle was okay. I'm not sure the writers really built up the whole "Jakeem is in love with Cindy" thing, and we never got a resolution to it. He declared his love for her and then... nothing.
I also wasn't clear: why was Rick apologizing to Beth's parents? Did I miss the part where he snapped at them? The bit with him welcoming Grundy's resurrection was also weak sauce. Grundy's "death" was barely a footnote in the third season, and was pretty much lost in the back half. So Grundy coming back to life didn't really have much impact.
They didn't really "save" Sylvester, and his ending being stuck in a jar, reliving the last moments of his "life", was a bit of a downer. I know the coda said he was saved, but it was an example I touch on below of telling instead of showing. Yes, I know they couldn't have done anything else with the show's relatively abrupt cancellation. But it still stuck out like a sore thumb.
And finally, although it was unavoidable and as I noted above, the last few scenes had that "Oops, we just got told we were cancelled vibe to it." Like the ending as the JSA Museum. Let's bring in Jonathan Cake in a set we probably had sitting around gathering dust since season 1. It was a _good_ scene, don't get me wrong. Cake was always a MVP on the show when they could get him on, and he perfectly captured the smirky anti-hero charm of the characters from the latter comic books. I just would have rather seen the ten years later JSA, then hear someone talking about them. But needs be as the devil must, I suppose.
So much for the mediocre stuff. The good stuff was... well, everything else. From Joel McHale's villain turn, to Pat fighting for his life and to avenge his fallen partner, to Courtney coming to everyone's rescue, it was all good. I liked Sofus and Lily kicking butt, showing that even senior citizens had some mad fighting skills. And we briefly had three generations of Mahkents fighting the JSA. Even if Lily's villainous turn wasn't very well supported.
The Mike/biological mother resolution was nice, but it seemed to come out of nowhere. How did they get her to Blue Valley? I take it Alicia Witt wasn't the actress who played the same character when Sylvester was going around the country and met her. They were the same character, right?
Amy Smart was another MVP, both with her scene when Mike calls her "Mom", and earlier when she avenged her friend Paula. It was almost worth having the Crock parents killed off both to give Barbara her chance to avenge Paula, and later when Artemis killed her parents' killer in particularly gruesome fashion. Although Sportsmaster had flammable hockey pucks?!?
Beth got to do the pacifist superhero bit. Yolanda got to tell the truth to her mother. Only Rick seemed underserved as a character. Brec Barrenger and Luke Wilson were the strongest characters, and had a lot going on. Not only with their father/daughter relationship, which always seemed "real", but with their personal issue. Pat with his old partner's relationship, and Courtney dealing with the collapse and then rebuilding of her team and her life.
And Courtney got her boyfriend back, and got to deliver Gambler's letter to his daughter. The former seemed to me very YAF, and another example of how the ending got rushed by the cancellation. One scene Cameron is leaving, but then a couple of scenes later, he's back. Having her find Becky also seemed very rushed.
We'll never get to see how Helix, and Keith David as Mr. Bones, panned out. Oh well, at least we get Mr. David on 'Leverage: Redemption' this week.
And the 10 years later ending was... well, perfect in the moment. Yes, it seemed tacked on, but what could they do? Having Cake give the wrap-up, and then Shipp showing up as Flash pays tribute to the 90s Flash, the soon-to-be-gone modern Flash, and Shipp's previous appearance on 'Stargirl'. It had little Geoff Johns moments, like the mentions of Sand, Damage, and Icicle. Another cute moment when Flash accidentally cuts the table in half and Shade's exasperated response. And finally, Shade saying the adventures are never over as he's called into action as a JSA member. Overall, a fitting conclusion to the series.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Kolchak: The Night Stalker: Legacy of Terror (1975)
Surprisingly Good Late-Run Episode
Although the back half of the Kolchak series is usually dismissed, it's more that it pales in comparison from the first half. While the first half is average to excellent, the second half has a few real clunkers dragging it down ("Primal Scream", "The Youth Killer", "The Sentry") and the stronger episodes are either strong for reasons other than the monsters and horror (Captain Rausch in "The Knightly Murders"), or weren't as commonly known because they were taken out of syndication for the compilation movies. "Legacy of Terror" is the latter.
"Legacy" is surprisingly well-researched. It's nothing you couldn't find out from Wikipedia in 2022, but it shows an impressive amount of research for 1975. Writer Arthur Rowe neatly wraps the 52-year old Aztec cycle in with the modern-day 1975 sensibilities. There is some updating, like Pepe's three assistant for the three traditional Aztec attendants/priestesses. Kolchak piecing it together from bits and bobs is well done.
Weak points are the entire cult, which disappears at the end when the mummy takes center stage. The cultists just run off after Pepe at the end. One of them is Andrews, the head of the hotel chain. He gets short shrift. Kolchak suggests to Vincenzo earlier that psychosis runs in the Andrews family. So is Andrews a psychotic that is carrying out the family tradition? The original "Andrews" kept alive through supernatural means? Something else? Presumably that's Andrews at the end overseeing Pepe's sacrifice: I don't know actor Carlos Romero enough to know if the oldest head priest without dialogue is him. It seems like Andrew and the cult should get more attention from the story than they do.
Another flaw is Pepe. Erik Estrada is good in an earlier role, but we really don't see enough of him to know why he decides to throw it away and bolt. Kolchak gives him a few words about how the cult might not honor their bargain with Pepe, and Pepe... runs. I like Kolchak's bemusement with Pepe, both in the office scene earlier where the reporter seems to think there's some weird blackmail going on. And later in the locker room where Kolchak preys on Pepe's doubts. But we never see enough of Pepe to learn that he has doubts to be preyed on.
McGavin as Kolchak is good, as always. I like his admission that "I lie a lot" in voiceover. I like his weird bit about how an EMT wants to x-ray Kolchak for a concussion and Kolchak talks about dark secrets and evil plans, the Kolchak/Vincenzo scenes are always good, Kolchak using psychology on Pepe to convince him to run, and Kolchak's tumble down the stairs at the end looks both realistic and painful and McGavin does both.
There are some weird directorial flourishes and cuts that are just... weird. Kolchak is pounding on the door to be let out of the storage room, and then the police are hauling him to Tillie's office. The mummy at the end is apparently of the teleporting variety. However, Director McDougall captures the eeriness of the whole thing pretty well: with both the cultists leaping out of nowhere and killing their victims in relatively public modern-day surroundings (the cultists charging into Timmins' hotel room, and swarming Lyons), and their taking over a sports arena for their final sacrifice.
Like "Bad Medicine", the idea of transplanting baddies into a modern-day setting (a cliff-dwelling Indian in an abandoned skyscraper; a modern day Aztec cult using a sports arena as their sacrificial pyramid) is very... Kolchakish. The transplanting of the Aztec "perfect victim" into a modern setting is also nicely done.
Overall, "Legacy" is more good than bad. It tends to cut a few corners, but that's more because of the cut-short runtime than anything else. The story is good, the performances by both the regulars and the guests are good, and the directorial flourishes are mostly good. Just the corner-cutting and the final nature of the story keep it from being a classic. Kolchak "wins" because his watch is running slow. Umm, huh?
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The Ray Bradbury Theater: To the Chicago Abyss (1989)
I Rarely Give A Show or Movie a Ten
But "To the Chicago Abyss" earns it from me. Primarily because it lives up to the title of the show. It's Ray Bradbury through and through. Not every episode of the series lived up to the prose of Bradbury. Some just weren't suited to TV, some were too interested in trying to overcome the limitation of the practically non-existence budget, and some of Bradbury's short stories just didn't make much sense. At least to me: your mileage may vary.
But when Bradbury was clicking on all cylinders, he clicks. There are other episodes, like "The Pedestrian", where you're listening to Bradbury's poetry. "Abyss" is another. I've never been substantially impressed with Harold Gould, but he hits it out of the park here which is basically him standing there and telling a bunch of people why he remembers and fights for the mediocre. The "Old Man" (I could see Darren McGavin in the role: shades of "A Christmas Story") is no one special: he's just an old man who has a gift for remembering the past. As even he admits, neither he nor what he remembers is anything special. But that's how you take down the rich, the powerful, the "experts".
In 'Leverage", the team take down the rich and powerful. But a) they're super-talented, and b) they're confrontational. The Old Man in "Abyss" is neither. He's just a nobody, but he can inspire because the past speaks through him. He doesn't confront the rich and powerful, or their representatives: he runs rather than fights. All he does is speak for the past. But oh does he speak.
The episode falls entirely on Gould's shoulders. Neil Munro is good, as he is in pretty much everything he is. I like his near-tearful telling the Old Man that he can't remember, and that's why he took the Old Man in. But that's pretty much small change. It all comes down to Gould, and his "Old Man". The episode couldn't function without him, and it's a credit to Gould that it does.
But to quote from "A Sound of Thunder", oh, how do I do go on. Watch the episode yourself if you can, and see what I mean,.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. Watch it, and tell us what you think.
The Time Tunnel: Merlin the Magician (1967)
Wotan Conquers the Britons!
It's Vincent Beck! Voldar in 'Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'! His sneering, creepy voice haunts my nightmares, and if you squint you can make out that he looks like Voldar. Yes, Beck appears in many TV shows in the 60s and 70s. But he's very Voldar-ish here.
The rest of the episode is very... Irwin Allenish. Merlin blips in out and does things in flashes of lightning, in typical Irwin Allen TV style. It's the same not-so-special effects you see in all of Allen's show, and I guess he expects us to be as thrilled with hackneyed camera tricks and smoke pots as he is. We're not.
Otherwise, the episode is typical 'Time Tunnel' fare. Doug and Tony run around a lot. See Doug and Tony run. Run, Doug and Tony, run! That's when they're not getting into sword fights, or there's stock footage from old historical movies. In this case, the 1954 'Prince Valiant'. In the present, Ann is the typical 60s female, Ray is a skeptic for no particular reason (after 27 episodes he finds "magic" hard to believe?), and General Kirk is very patronizing.
Christopher Cary as Merlin isn't bad, and I like the idea of him using the Time Tunnel to his own ends. If 'Time Tunnel' were more sophisticated, the idea of another time traveler (or whatever Merlin is supposed to be) hijacking the Tunnel for his own use might be interesting. As it is, it's just grist for another Irwin Allen production.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
American Horror Story: Requiem 1981/1987: Part 2 (2022)
Unreviewable Episode This Season
I commented on another review that the episode (and show) was pretty much unreviewable. The same with Season 11 of AHS, but for different reasons. If you like or disliked the season, it seems to boil down to whether you "got" the metaphoric approach and the approach to AIDS or not.
Speaking as someone who has watched the show for 11 seasons now, and who has lost friends to AIDS, I'm going to try to review the season for what is. And that is... not good.
I got the metaphors, and the approach to AIDS. The cinematography was so-so (were they trying to replicate Patrick's blindness from episode 9?) and they seemed to intermingle characters who were so busy being metaphors that Murphy & Falchuk didn't develop them or their backgrounds. Why was Henry in Sam's... dream? Nightmare? Hallucination? Did they even know each other? At least Sam and Theo knew each other: see episode 9 among others.
I got the same impression with Adam and Hannah earlier in the season. They were just walking down the street and talking about how Adam had impregnated Hannah. I... guess the two met when Adam went to the clinic. Why did Hannah choose him as the father of her child? Or why did she want to be the carrier of his baby? Who knows? Who cares?
Who was Kathy supposed to be? I guess a metaphor for Bette Midler in the 80s, but so what? What was the point of the scenes where she was with an impersonator auditioning to sing for her?
In 'Fire Island', why were Theo and Adam staying with Gino and Patrick? I get that Adam and Gino met at the Native, but does a working relationship really mean you want to have them share a rental with you? And why and how did they get a rental? Was it a rental?
Who or what were the deer boys? I guess they were former photographic subjects of Theo's. But then why did they appear in Sam's... whatever the heck it was?
Most importantly, what happened to Henry? Denis O'Hare gave arguably the best of his performances on AHS. Henry was the most interesting character of Season 11, as an older gay hitman, which isn't something you see anywhere in moves or TVs. Like him or hate him, he was unique. He deserved better than being quietly disposed of off-screen without explanation, only to be seen as inexplicably a part of Sam's death visions. Ditto for Fran. Sure, her character wasn't unique. But she just...vanishes.
And what about Big Daddy? He seemed to be the biggest change when the premise changed in the middle of the season, like Adam and Hannah suddenly being a couple. I think Big Daddy was originally a supernatural presence, and then he became a metaphor. Wait a minute, he firebombed a gay club? A metaphor firebombed a club and put bunch of gay men in the hospital? Wha?
About the time Whitely got disposed of, the wind went out of the season's sails, like Murphy & Falchuk had nothing more to say after they killed the Mai Tai Killer off. It's like they gave up and said, "We don't know how to end this, let's make it a bunch of artsy-fartsy metaphors."
Speaking of ending, it's a good thing they ended it after five double-episode nights. I don't think the season could have survived a full ten-episode season. All the cracks in the season, particularly the post-Whitely ones, could be glossed over in the compressed season. If it had run ten weeks, I think the viewership would have died way, way off.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Leverage: Redemption: The Debutante Job (2022)
It's Leverage, What Can You Say?
The chemistry between the actors is still good (including relative newcomers Wyle and Shannon), the scripts are still pretty tight, the jobs are still entertaining, the rich and powerful still get taken down. It's like the show never left. Which in a sense, it didn't, so no surprises there.
I think Wyle is better as the "fixer" than Hutton as the "mastermind". I'm not impressed with the dynamic between Harry and Sophie, which seems more like "the new guy has to fill in for the old guy romantically, since he's taking his place otherwise". It still feels like Nate is coming back and Harry is just filling his spot. Which presumably is impossible, since Nate is dead. I do like how Sophie is more of the team leader, even though she's the "grifter".
Is Shannon better than Hodge? Hard to tell, since they pretty much fill the same role on the team. Does Breanna really do anything different than Hardison did? Sure, she's a "maker", but she seems to spend more of her time doing what Hardison did. As such, I wish they'd stop bringing Hardison (and Hodge) back. I can accept that he's gone for reasons that the production staff has no control over. So is Hutton. But it seems like the production staff just can't led Hodge go. Okay, he's gone. I could accept that if the production staff would. It just seems like Hodge blows Shannon out of the water each time that they're sharing screentime together, or even when Hodge is on his own (like the opening sequence).
Or in other words, I'd like Breanna more if I didn't keep expecting Hardison to stick his head around the corner and yell "surprise!" It seems like it's cutting her off, and not giving her time to fully develop as a character knowing she could be "replaced" by her predecessor at any time.
Christian Kane is still Eliot, and Beth Reisgraf is still Parker. I suppose Gina Bellman is still Sophie. I like her more when she's her old self and not trying to be the team leader. She's not bad as team leader: I just think Sophie works better in a subordinate role.
It just seems like Redemption is review-proof. If you liked the original run, you're not going to dislike Redemption. If you didn't like the show, why are you watching or reading this review? If you didn't like it, you still won't. If you do, you do. I do.
Nothing has changed, Leverage is still just like it was originally was. They haven't really come up with a multi-arc villain yet, like Latimer or Chaos. Maybe they will with Redemption: it took time for them to develop, too. Redemption is very much "fire and forget". Do we really expect Pietr to show up again? Do we want him to?
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The Ray Bradbury Theater: A Sound of Thunder (1989)
Still Packs A (Thunderous) Punch
Bradbury's short story is the best suited of all his stories to the series format. There's a few things that are glossed over, but basically the 30-minute format works well for Bradbury's writing. There's no need to develop Eckles and Travis: they're archetypes, not real people. Bradbury was always best at dealing with archetypes. Yes, he could do well-developed characters, but mostly in his long-form stories like "Something Wicked...". "Sound" neither requires not has well-developed characters in the original story, and we don't get them here.
As such, Kiel Martin and John Bach are both good at playing those archetypes. Bach is the jaded hunter who has seen it all, and Martin is the cocky hunter who gets in over his head and is ultimately a coward.
The special effects with the dinosaur and the spinning time sphere are a tad outdated and/or cheap, but the special effects aren't the point of the story, unlike the later full-length movie which missed the mark on almost every aspect imaginable. Go in the past, change it, and watch the repercussions echo through history. Some of the dialogue is very Bradbury-esque, and delivered effectively by Bach. It's the kind of timey-wimeyness that shows like 'Doctor Who' and 'Quantum Leap' (the new ones) could learn from.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The Ray Bradbury Theater: Downwind from Gettysburg (1992)
Not Sure What It's Trying to Say, But It Says It Well
I suppose that's what you should expect from a story based on Bradbury's works. As noted the animatronic Lincoln and the reliance on historical accuracy isn't the greatest. But that's not really the point, either.
The story is about one man's obsession, and how some people will go to any lengths for notoriety. The only reason the story falls flat is because it's a 30-minute story. Like many of the series' episodes, it would have done better if it had 60 minutes to "breathe". We really don't get much of a feel for Bayes or Booth. Why is Bayes so obsessed with Lincoln? It's hinted that his family grew up on the stories of Bayes' great grandfather being witness to Lincoln "in the flesh".
But Bayes is never really fleshed out. The performance by Hesseman is good, particularly since I've never been that impressed with him in his few roles. He just isn't given much to work with here. Ditto for Robert Joy as Booth. Or Booth II, if you prefer. Booth wants notoriety. But why? What is Booth outside of the story, in real life? Is he a failed actor, or a nobody in some other job? Or just some basement-dwelling nobody who grabs his one chance for infamy? Who knows?
So the performances are good, particularly Bayes' anger at Booth, and Booth's shock and surprise when he learns he's not going to get the notoriety he craves. But it's all locked up inside a low budget passion play. There is some good commentary about one man's obsession, and the desire for fame at any cost and Bayes realizing how he can deprive Booth of it. Although his plan doesn't seem that solid. The entire audience saw Booth "kill" Lincoln, and the guards heard the entire thing. None of them are going to say anything? Fat chance.
But in the moment, the episode is good. It's just that like most of the series' episodes, and Bradbury in general, it's more about capturing a tone and a theme, than telling a well-rounded story. But hey, that's Bradbury all over, and what makes him such a great writer.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Quantum Leap: Stand by Ben (2022)
Good, and Then Mediocre. And What Price the Future?
The episode itself was fine, at least the part in the past. The troubled teen part was interesting. The teen camp run by jerks was not original, but the three kids with Ben were all interesting, and well acted, and there was just enough drama to keep things interesting.
Although it was kind of amusing that Ringer and Sullivan found the cabin with no problem, when the owner (wherever they were) was off the grid. So they just stopped living off the grid and... moved away, leaving a cabin full of supplies there. And the camp councilors knew about it? All righty.
And I think the production staff has got more of a handle on Ben being a Leaper, and setting right what once has gone wrong. I liked Addison at the end telling us how each teen was affected by Ben's actions. I know she's done that in the past seven episodes, but the episode focusing on just the three teens brought it home in a way that, say, Ben saving the wife and son during the earthquake (with the earthquake aftermath upstaging everything) didn't quite land.
The downside was the "present" situation. We get Jenn having angst about her relationship with her father. And... so what? It gave Magic a chance to give Jenn a pep talk. But I bet and hope we never see the father. Because that will just take the focus off Ben and the Leap, and more on the present team's personal problems.
Maybe it's just me, but I find these little jaunts to the present in the middle of Ben's adventures kind of jarring. I want to spend more time with the kids, because they're interesting. Or have the family drama with Emily and Jason (in "What a Disaster!") developed. Rather than see more stuff about things like Jenn's relationship with her father. It's not just jarring compared to the original QL, but it's kind of disruptive on the Leaps when they switch away to the present just when Ben's Leap is building up steam.
I did like Ian snapping in the middle of the lockdown, with his both trying to reverse the lockdown and monitor the Leap.
As far as the big revelations, well, we are getting a second season of the series. So... yay!?
We also find out why Ben has been Leaping. Sort of. And it doesn't make much sense with what we're presented. Why does it have to be a secret? And why is Janis helping Ben? She wants to get Sam back, not save Addison. As far as we know of, she doesn't give two figs about Addison. Will saving Addison get Sam back? I suppose they could come up with a storyline that might tie it together, but it seems very "Because we said so" on the production staff's part.
I suppose there's some prohibition on changing time to benefit yourself and/or your girlfriend. Although why? If you're going to have time travel, use it constructively. Sure, you could change history and I could see it all leading to a recursive loop. Who went back and saved Addison, if history was changed so no one had to go back and save Addison? But that seems more timey-wimey than an American network show. Or even non-American ones: 'Doctor Who' ignores those kinds of paradoxes most of the time.
Also from the end of the original series, I kinda got the impression that Sam didn't want to be "saved". What if Janis finds Sam and tries to bring him back. Even if she succeeds, wouldn't that undo any good that Sam has done, or could do? What if Janis goes back and stops Sam from getting into the quantum accelerator? Sam basically reunited Al and Beth, so Janis could be born. If Janis stops him from the onset, she's never born. So who stops Sam?
Alternately, Ben is trying to build momentum to Leap into the future. So does he save Addison, and Janis recovers Sam, in the future?
Deep philosophical musings, I know. But that's what you get when you go down the rabbit hole of temporal theory. And I don't get the impression the production staff want to dive that deep into temporal casualty. Heck, they don't seem that interested in exploring some of the stuff they brought up, like Ben leaping into the past beyond his own timeline. It all adds up to a lot of "Huh?s" if they don't explore it, but also a lot of confusion.
But I could be wrong. It's been known to happen. :)
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The Saint: The Well Meaning Mayor (1963)
Small Town Corruption, She Wrote
The episode starts a bit slow, and Simon seems a bit of a big fish in a small pond when he starts doing stuff halfway into the episodes. The guy who commits crimes and cons on the Riviera doesn't seem to fit in very well with this small town tale of politics and corruption in a small English town. Even though it doesn't seem that small: look at the crowd (or at least the stock footage) gathered outside of Purdell's house when he gives his acceptance speech. I've seen Biden campaigns with more people. :)
The first half of the episode is basically George Hackett making wild accusations, and getting shot down. Over and over again. Once it gets rolling, the episode isn't half bad. I do like the knockdown fight between Simon and Purdell in Purdell's office.
It helps that the story has a twist which I'll admit, I didn't see coming. *spoiler* Purdell is the guilty party. *spoiler* I'm not sure I buy Simon's reasoning for why he realized Purdell is the cad, and Purdell is more the suspect because he's the only character in the episode that gets significant screen time. The other council members are pretty much non entities until the party at Purdell's, and even then I don't think any of them get names. So I suppose that leaves Purdell, Molly, Jack, or Dr. Yates.
A pity, because Leslie Sands as Purdell is a decent screen presence as the offended mayor who is actually the baddie. I particularly liked Purdell and Simon fighting it out, and then Simon apologizing and Purdell accepting. The mayor doesn't really get any motivation for his crimes, or why he's going to turn to murder. Other than "Mo Money" and implied greed. I also like how Sands turns on the evil when he's confronting Simon in the girder structure. He cracks a bit more easily than I would have preferred when Simon threatens to drop him. Also I'm not sure that a confession under duress, when there's no other witnesses, would hold up in court. But hey, it's 60s TV and British.
It's also a very modest con, and Angus the contractor is awfully cooperative. Yes, Simon has a reputation. But is an honest man really that willing to help him. Like Purdell's confession, it seems awfully convenient to move the story to a conclusion.
The rest of the cast is competent and inoffensive. Sands is the MVP, and I wouldn't have minded him coming back as a member of the League of Simon Haters. But alas, not was such to be.
I also like how the episode plays against the trope of the bluff, honest foreman (Purdell was a former coal foreman, or somesuch) who is a honest type. He isn't, which makes the story much more than it should have been.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Kolchak: The Night Stalker: The Trevi Collection (1975)
Good Late-Run Episode
"The Trevi Collection" is a gem among the late-run episodes, which usually have a bad rep because by that time in the series, the production staff knew ABC was planning to cancel the show. Like "The Knightly Murders", this episode is an underrated gem.
Most of it is that the series gives the evil a talking, walking persona. Usually the series gave us personality-less, untalking monsters like the Ripper, the zombie, the vampire, the diablero, the pelemafait, and so on. And Tom Skerritt as Robert Palmer was a wooden dummy by comparison to Angelique. So Lara Parker is a delight, albeit a hammy one, as a "monster´ who actually interacts with Kolchak.
Part of it is that the "monster" does more than just kill everyone in some straightforward pattern or another. It's not much of plan, but Madelaine, schemes, plots, plans, and lays a trail of false clues to put Kolchak off the scent. Kolchak not only has to figure out the pattern and the monster's vulnerability, but figure out how he's being bamboozled by Madelaine.
Part of it is writer Rudolph Borchert, who weaves all of this together along with the series humor. Scenes like Kolchak negotiating with the legbreakers, and his grabbing his money from the cult as he runs out the door, are pleasantly light. And for once we get Kolchak doing an actual story on the mob with the Mob, which is only loosely tied to the primary story, showing why he probably managed to keep his job.
Part of it is the hammy guest cast. You have the main villain, but also Foch and Koppell.
What doesn't help is the rather confusing showdown. So does Kolchak have the mojo bag or doesn't he? First he has it, then a dummy sweeps it away, then he grabs it, then they swarm him and he has to grab it. And what was the point of him dunking Madelaine? It doesn't seem to impact her powers, whatever they are, although presumably she's powerless. And what are her powers? She can animate dummies and cars, but only if she has prep time? Or not, or what?
Also, the animated mannequins aren't very convincing. Either when they've being moved by a below-the camera dolly, or when stunt women pile on Kolchak.
Overall, I'd rate the episode fairly high, for the factors above. It's a good episode in the series' later run, when it was winding down, like "Chopper" and "Knightly Murders". It's not one of the great ones, partly because it lacks an authority figure like Siska or Rausch. But overall it's a keeper.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Quantum Leap: O Ye of Little Faith (2022)
Happy Halloween, Ladies
There were some odd episodes, and the series still seems oddly rushed. How long did it take the original series to do a Halloween episode? Three seasons. Here we get it in seven episodes. The Depression Era setting seemed kind of unnecessary, as it added nothing to the story. Sure, it was backstory for why Charles and Percival were broke, but they could have done that in practically any era. I also guess that Ben leaping beyond his own timeline is old hat by now, that they don't even bother commenting on it.
There were also a few plotholes that seemed a minor bother. What if Ben hadn't drank the drugged gin? And shouldn't that have told him who the killer was right away? Did someone else offer him a gin? And I suppose it can be put down to the power of suggestion, but it was convenient that Ben had the same hallucination of a demon that Daisy did. And didn't he see some supernatural-ish stuff before he drank the gin?
Okay, as some reviewers noted, the supernatural stuff before Ben drank the gin was "real". But if that was the case, then why did it stop. Did the Devil or the nybbuk or whatever decide Ben had enough on his plate and just pulled up stakes?
And where was Ernie Hudson? Heck, where was Walter Perez? Did I miss Richard Martinez somewhere?
None of this interfered with the episode, though. I wasn't totally surprised that they opted for a totally rational explanation. It is 2022, after all. Unless you're doing shows that are totally supernatural (hello, 'Winchesters'), showing real demons and thus their counterpart, God, is verboten. But it kinda worked to see Ben as a priest and at the same time questioning his rational "faith". And talking to Davenport in a mirror.
For once, they cut out the project backup staff and mostly stuck with Ben, and the episode was better for it. It wasn't great shakes as a story, but it gave Raymond Lee more of a chance to act as he was the focus of the story. This mean we didn't get anything of Ernie Hudson, and the 1920s (??) supporting cast were no great shakes except for Kerri Medders. It seemed very Agatha Christie-ish, along with a bit of 'The Exorcist' tossed in.
Don't get me wrong: I _liked_ the episode. Medders brought a very 'Joan of Arc' quality to her role when she was the human, and was very demonic when she was growling and chuckling. And Lee got to strut his stuff. I liked the supernatural stuff, even if it didn't make much sense (see above). Overall, I'd say this episode is a keeper.
One other thing that kinda bugs me is how the production staff is welded to the original concept so much. Ben is a woman, Ben is a teenager (going by next week), Ben encounters something supernatural on Halloween, Ben calls his living parent and breaks into tears, Ben is an Old West type, Ben meets an evil Leaper. That's why in part I keep comparing it to the original show. Why not have Ben leap into a nonbinary? Or leap into a female teenage girl? The "what if we trigger the future" thing is a start, and so is the leaped into the past beyond his own timeline, but the writers seem to have forgotten those and didn't make a big thing out of them when they happened. Have Ben Leap into a younger version of one of the team: have him leap into a young Ian and cover the team leaping and the nonbinary at the same time. The thrill of "discovery" that the original QL had ("Sam's a woman!" "Sam's a chimpanzee!" "Sam is Lee Harvey Oswald!") just isn't there.
Yes, it seems somewhat contradictory that I'm telling the new QL to go off from its predecessor, but use examples from the old QL. But it should make itself its own using the old QL as examples, instead of carbon-copying it practically lockstep.
And if the excuse is, "We don't want to rush it," strike while the iron is hot. The ratings and reviews aren't that great, Ql may not last long enough to get a second season and strike out on its own. Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Quantum Leap: What a Disaster! (2022)
Better, But It Still Lacks the Magic (if not Magic)
I thought this was the best of the series so far, as it gave the supporting characters some personality: I liked Magic's "It's magic" when he found Martinez's face, and Jenn is growing on me. Raymond Lee got to do a little more acting, as Ben remembered his mother and then tried to call her. Caitlin Bassett didn't have much to do this episode except look moved by all of Ben's revelations. I did like her and Jenn bonding at the end.
My main issue is that the "magic" just isn't there. It may be unfair to compare Lee to Bakula, but NBC and Bellisario brought on the comparisons by doing a remake. If they don't want to be compared to the original show, then come up with their own idea for time travel.
Also, it seems like story elements are being dropped. Janis Calvacci was a big part of the first couple of episodes, and then she disappeared. What was she going to do with all of Ziggy's predictive powers? Who knows? Who cares? The team certainly doesn't seem to care, or even remember.
We essentially wasted an episode on the congresswoman last episode, in a storyline that went nowhere. Now we get Martinez as an Evil Leaper of sorts. I like some of the timey-whimeyness involved, which Ian kinda gaslights by noting that they may have set in motion the whole series of events that leads Martinez to become the Evil Leaper. I suspect that'll get dropped, too, since the show doesn't seem interested in exploring some of the subplots it brings up. Ziggy's quantum predictiveness? What quantum preditiveness?
Ditto for Martinez potentially being from the Project's future. That's some hardcore timey-whimey, but it just seems tossed in as an afterthought, and the show hasn't demonstrated any gift for exploring those afterthoughts. But rather tosses them aside.
Part of it that the show is still moving too fast. Granted, Sam calling a parent happened in the pilot episode of the original, too. So Ben doing it in the sixth episode isn't that fast in comparison. But Bakula had a gift for making the heartfelt anguish feel... earned. In a way that Lee doesn't. I also liked Al more than I like Addison. Sorry, Addison fans.
We're six episodes in, and the team is about halfway to figuring out what the Evil Leaper is up to. They never figured that out in the original series.
As far as taking the episode by itself, I did like it. I particularly liked how the earthquake was an impetus, but it wasn't a main part of the episode. More of a backdrop to the whole Ben-John-Naomi-Jason thing Although maybe Ben should learn to just keep his mouth shut instead of demonstrating his ignorance of things the person whose body he's in would know. I also think the amnesia kinda hurts the show. We're six episodes in, and Ben might as well not have amnesia given how he manages to remember things like his childhood. And not just the traumatic event with his mother, but the fact he didn't know his father. The episode was more of a focus on a personal relationship, in a way that last week's episode wasn't. This week was about Ben trying to patch up the relationship between a mother and son. Last week it was... Ben saving a 19th century Old West town from outlaws.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The Guardians of Justice: You Can Own the Word "Justice" (2022)
It's the Style, Stupid
I'd say the animated "style" of 'Guardians' is an acquired taste. And here on the fourth of seven episodes, I'd say I got used to the taste. I'm still not a big fan of certain scenes. Knight Hawk... captures? Drugs? Black Bow and Blue Scream, and we get scenes of them on The Phil Hart Show, as guests. That seems like an odd flashback to have, as part of an interrogation, or a drug hallucination, or whatever it is.
Or when Knight Hawk comes back from Atlantis, and shakes animated drops of water off of himself? What, couldn't they afford real water? Yes, the animated water is easier to see. But they've been using people and dogs shaking off water in movies and TV shows for decades without a problem? Why does 'Guardians' go with animated drops of water? Who know?
And a lot of time4s the production staff seems to use animation as a low-budget alternative to FX. Like when Speed and Awesome Man go on a date, and end up fighting a giant blob. Because, hey, why do a FX when you can animate the whole thing?
The latter is what I mean about 'Guardians' being an acquired taste. If you go in expecting big-budget movie or TV show FX, you're going to be disappointed by what you get with 'Guardians'. I just find it amusing that they do higher-budget FXs, like Laura's gun with projecting cylinders or whatever the heck they are? They can't afford real water, but they can afford a hoity-toity gun?
As for the plot itself, it has its highs and lows. I'm still not a fan of Derek Mears, who demonstrates why he should stick to monster roles. But I like Sharni Vinson as The Speed, and the bit between Knight Hawk and Little Wing where the latter impulsive hugs his mentor after Knight Hawk gives him a pep talk is surprisingly touching.
I like how this episode got back to "the investigation", and it was the first time we got a feel for the Guardians besides Knight Hawk. And Golden Goddess, who is curiously absent. And Denise Richards does something besides rant and rave on Zoom.
We also didn't get the political parody/comedy that we got last episode, which is good. The show really isn't good at that. Stick to the dark vision of superheroes like they did this episode, and get use to the FX or lack thereof.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The Guardians of Justice: Shame Is a Lower Vibration than Anger (2022)
I'm Still Fascinated ByThis Show
'Guardians of Justice' is basically an alternate version of 'Watchmen". The world is hurling toward nuclear war, and there are hidden subtexts of homosexuality that become not-so-hidden in the first few minutes of this episode. Facts that are hidden become not-so-hidden, and characters that have been relatively minor suddenly became major: Ozymandias and Mind Master. They both even have the same basic purple color scheme. And Speed is basically doing a Rorschach.
Maybe it's the obsession with nuclear war that gives the show an 80s/Watchmen feel. Nuclear war and trigger-happy American presidents just aren't that big a thing in 2022. Unless you think "nuclear Armageddon" Biden is trigger-happy. Your mileage may vary on that one. Ditto for hiding that you're gay, which isn't as a big thing in the 2020s as it was in the 1980s.
I'm still bemused by the production staff's chutzpah of using animation and video game effects to cover for the fact that they can't afford actual FX. Need hundreds of mind-controlled people swarm Awesome Man. Hey, switch to animation. This makes a bit odd that the animated Awesome Man is much more impressive than Derek Mears as the live-action Awesome Man.
Basically the show is just people standing in rooms talking to each other, and animated sequences. With the occasional Speed special effects of her speeding around and taking out Knight Hawk's soldiers in Quicksilver-like sequences. Sometime they'll have a battle, like last week's fight between Golden Goddess and Awesome Man. Even then it's just two people standing around, with some screensaver-style special effects in the background. I'm sure they're most expensive than that, but they _look_ like screensavers. Which I guess is a deliberate choice by the production staff, when they can apparently afford better. Like with Speed's speed FX. So I guess it's a stylistic choice, to separate 'Guardians' from the Marvel and DC productions.
Ditto with Mortal Kombat stuff like combat hit point bars and declarations of "Finish Him!" and "Brutality!" Again, I guess it's just stylistic, and I suppose it livens things up in a way that slo-mo didn't in the Watchmen movie.
The whole thing with Speed is strange, because apparently the production team had some love for the character and dedicated a lot of the budget to her. She appears practically as much as Knight Hawk. But they alternate between some decent FX, claymation, and video game effects with her. Huh?
The episode mostly focuses on Knight Hawk, Speed, and the previously-mostly-unseen Mind Master. It does them all justice, although I'm not quite sure how Marvelous Man wiped Knight Hawk's memories so the latter doesn't remember forming his brainwashed army _after_ Marvelous Man died. Have they just been in a holding pattern while Knight Hawk has been conducting his investigation. How did Knight Hawk forget things _after_ Marvelous Man died? A lot of it seems like papering over plot holes to get the story that the writers wanted.
Sharni Vinson makes a charismatic heroic presence, although it doesn't look like she's got a lot of screen time in American productions. Or Australian ones, come to that. That's a pity, I'd pay good money to see her as a superhero in something a bit more high-profile. Ditto for RJ Mitte as Mind Master. Although he's shown up a bit more in American TV. He definitely deserves a bit more attention than he gets in "Guardians'.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The Guardians of Justice: Proximity to Power Corrupts More than Power Itself (2022)
Does Anybody Else Find It Ironic?
Okay, there don't seem to be that many people that went through all seven episodes. But still...
If the original 'Watchmen' was a deconstruction of superhero TV tropes, with a "What impact would superheroes other than vigilantes, and one blue guy with omnipotent powers, have on the real world?". Then 'Guardians' takes the approach of' "What if the Justice League existed in the 'Watchmen' universe"? So it's basically a deconstruction of a deconstruction. :)
If you get rid of the expies and the gender swaps... if you made Batman even more of a jerk, and had him weaponize Captain Marvel, And had Barry Allen investigating. And turned Black Canary and Green Arrow into drug addicts. And had Aquaman have an affair with Lois Lane, and not much else Then you'd have a decent Otherworlds story.
Okay, there's Superman as Marvelous Man. But like 'Watchmen' and Comedian, Marvelous Man's apparent suicide is more of a red herring then anything. Sure, it's starts everything in motion, but other than the homosexual subtext (which becomes pretty much text around ep. 6), and drag out the plot, his suicide doesn't _do_ anything. At least Comedian more-or-less let himself be killed once he realized the enormity of what he was up against. MM, not so much.
Or to put it another way, if not for Knight Hawk's induced amnesia, how short would the series be? Rewrite episodes 1 and 6, eliminate 2-5, and Bob's your uncle. It's only a mystery because Knight Hawk forgot he knew the solution.
As for the episode itself, most of it is taken up by Speed fighting... well, everything. Since either as style or a low budget or both, it's mostly done as Claymation and video game side-scrolling. After six episodes, you either accept this or you've probably abandoned ship. Count me in the former. There are a couple of weird shots, like a distant planet with a face. Which... I guess represents the coming force of destruction.
None of this is really explained, which is the major flaw in the story. Speed is drained of her power, but she reconnects to the Fast Force and she's as fast as she ever was. Didn't Awesome Man say she would be weaker in space? Not here, she isn't. And how does Knight Hawk plan to fight off the coming menace with human soldiers. Even if the world were unified, how much good would it do against, say, Galactus? He'd take one look at the hundreds of soldiers arrayed against him and say, "Num. Send. More. Soldiers." President Nukem isn't particularly mentally stable, and it's not clear if nuclear missiles would stop this galactic force in any cases. You don't need unity, you need power.
It seems like the most effective forces against any intergalactic threat would be... Speed and Awesome Man. By the end of the story, Knight Hawk has engineered Speed's death at Awesome Man's hands. That seems like the worst way to get Awesome Man on his side. That leaves Golden Goddess, who from what little we see of her, doesn't have much of an interest in humanity, much less saving it. I suppose Black Bow could shoot a few arrows at the threat.
There's also stuff that comes out of left field. Like Little Wing being revealed as Awesome Man. Umm, foreshadowing? Galacron doesn't come across as a world-uniting threat, just because we never see him except in some of the show's goofier animated sequences. Ditto with the art style making the cast all look fat. What was the point of that? I didn't mind the animation, but that particular style was a step too far.
Okay, I suppose the production staff did some half-ass hinting that Little Wing was Awesome Man. In an earlier episode we saw Little Wing doing... something with his chest glowing with power. And Knight Hawk called Awesome Man a "good soldier". Any the bedtime story Knight Hawk told Little Wing about how Guardians should never fall in love might have been precautionary. But then... Little Wing turned into Awesome Man to talk to Knight Hawk. Why? If you look at it sideways it might work. But not really.
So 'Guardians' doesn't really change at the end. It still uses cheap-looking graphics to disguise a lack of budget as style choices. Or maybe it's style; Claymation isn't that cheap. And an odd Watchmen-parody. Or pastiche. Or deconstruction. Or whatever you want to call it. It's not bad. But it's not the height of televisual art, either.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Quantum Leap: Salvation or Bust (2022)
Mild Mild Mess
Yep, just when you think they couldn't do a more sanitized version of the 1870s, they went and did it. What's funny is that in-show they talked about how violent and "realistic " the 1870s were, but this version was probably more 2022-ish than anything. I guess Salvation is supposed to be a sanctuary for the outcasts, but part of the problem is that we only see two "outcasts": Frankie and Henry.
So basically the version of the Old West seen here is just as sanitized as the one in old TV westerns. Which kinda defeats what seems to be half the purpose of the 1879 scenes.
Also we get Hollywood pacifism. Insofar as Ben keeps talking very loudly about how he's a pacifist. But when it comes time to telling McDonough that he won't shoot him, but Henry will, it doesn't seem very principled of Ben. Also the fact that Ben talks about how they shouldn't kill the outlaws because they need the bounty. Shouldn't they not kill them because, oh, killing is bad? I suppose Ben could be talking about the reward money to appeal to the townspeople who aren't as pacifistic as him. But then he's not standing up for his principles. Which tends to undermine the whole pacifism thing.
So that all seems to undermine Ben. Mostly his pacifism is played for laughs ("Ooh, look I can't shoot a gun. A lot"), to bring drama to the episode, and just because it's 2022 and we can't have the protagonist shooting people.
The present-day stuff with the congresswoman didn't seem to serve much purpose except as timefiller, either. She shows up, she puts the project in peril, Magic appeals to her, and she leaves. End of subplot. We did get to find out a little more about Jenn, who I barely recognized at first. And I liked Addison's "Yes, ma'am" exchange. Ian's change in clothing was a bit jarring, though. Why the change?
The bit about the second Leaper was interesting. Although not surprising. As I noted in one of my earlier reviews, QL is very 2022 TV. So of course we get some evil opposition. The original QL held off on an Evil Leaper until the last season. But it also held off on the main character leaping beyond his own timeline, and look where we are after five episodes. It's all rush rush rush.
Overall, there didn't seem much point to sending Ben back to 1879. Beyond a reaction shot or three at the horizon beyond, it just seemed like another everyday leap for Ben. As much as any Leap can be "everyday". Yes, it had an Old West setting and some Old West tropes like a nasty outlaw and (off-screen) rail barons. But it didn't seem they take advantage of the time period or play it up. The original QL's "The Last Gunfighter" did the whole thing better, and it was set in the present day.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The Guardians of Justice: Anubis and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Nukem (2022)
Let's Take a Step Back
This episode features little attention on the Guardians and focuses primarily on Knight Hawk and the nuclear war that hovers on the horizon, as Nukem and Anubis prepare to face off, metaphorically.
And I'm not sure what Christopher Judge (who appears to be having a ball) is parodying as President Nukem. Real subtle name, guys. He's a bit too over the top of Reagan. Trump, maybe, but a) Trump never threatened nuclear war, and b) it's 2022, production staff. Trump left office in 2020. So... Nukem is a parody of Biden? No, not really. Obama? They're both presidents of color, but Nukem isn't Obama, either. Bush Jr. He hasn't been in office for a while, either. The show is like a relic of the 80s in that manner, too, and all over the place. I guess he's a generic parody of a Republican president, but Biden is the one overseeing the world coming to the brink of "nuclear apocalypse" (Biden's words, not mine). And Nukem is a POC, which we kept being told by Democrats that only Democrats support. So the parody element is all over the map.
But it's nice to see Christopher Judge getting work. And it's interesting watching him play a character who is a 180 from Teal'c.
The rest is a twisted take on Batman and his wards, with a new short-lived version of Spider-Man tossed in. And this is the first time where the animation style takes me out of the show. Sepia Spider has this animated spider-like creature (mostly) on his back. Are we actually seeing it as part of the character? It is just an animated feature. Ditto with some of the other animation choices. Knight Hawk spits and coughs, and we get the words "Spit" and "Cough" in word balloons sort of. The terrorists that get beat up have cartoon eyes, and Orsted has a bull's head. This isn't flashbacks or descriptions by an off-screen speaker: this is all on-screen and happening in real-time.
Not only that, but the animated spider keeps us from seeing some of the fight choreography. And it does weird stuff like begging a terrorist not to kill Sepia Spider. The heck?
Red Talon is some odd parody of... something. He looks more like Winter Soldier, and his origin is more Dick Grayson than Jason Todd/Red Hood. Little Wing has some kind of superpower, I think. His chest flares with flames, he has the resources to get flown to Anubis' HQ, and he jumps from a few thousand feet and lands unharmed. What is he?
Like I said, superheroics are just background noise in this episode, which focuses on the threat of nuclear war and Knight Hawk and his former wards. But it's all very blurry and hard to tell what's going on, and the animation style actually clashes with the action for the first time.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
The Guardians of Justice (2022)
Anyone Remember Guardians of the North?
That's what Guardians of Justice reminds me of, what with the seemingly low budget (the heroes in both don't look very... heroic), and cheesy action sequences and dialogue.
What I like about GoJ is that the production staff has a lot of... well, heart, for lack of a better word. Or respect for the source material. When I'm watching the show, I can envision Superman, and Batman, and Flash, and Spider Man, and all of the expies. More than any other show or movie, with the exception of the Netflix superhero street-level heroes like Daredevil and Luke Cage, the heroes feel like the ones they're emulating from the comic books.
I wouldn't mind seeing Adi Shankar and his team cut loose on a DC or Marvel production. I don't think they'd get hired. DC is going all dark and gritty, and Marvel is going all light and bantering, when they're not going all-heroic. Tony Stark going from drunk (but not too drunk) narcissist to heroic wisecracking worldsaver is not like the semi-authoritarian jerk of the comics. Hulk is a comedy figure, rather than the semi-vicious animal born of child-beating like he is in the comics. Batman in the movies isn't nearly the semi-authoritarian "My way or the highway" jerk of the comics, or like Knight Hawk is here.
So Knight Hawk can treat his teammates like dirt, in a way that DC would never let Batman be like in the movies. They're worried about franchising, but the production staff here doesn't need to worry about the continuing adventures of Knight Hawk. So they can play up his anti-team tendencies and his poor mentorship (like with Red Talon) in a way that DC's movie wing can never do with "their" Batman. Which is why Knight Hawk is closer to the comic books Batman than the movie versions are.
I also like the whole "Who Killed Marvelous Man?" story they're going with, and how his lost impact the world in an ongoing and continual way, both with the Guardians and Anubis. GoJ is like Watchmen in a way, but GoJ expies known DC characters, while Watchmen the comic had to settle for expy for third-strong characters of a purchased property. And the movie was even further from the source material.
So overall I like GoJ not as much for what it is, but what it represents. It goes big, it just doesn't have the budget or the access to the source material that it deserves. But it's why I like it.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?