Of superheroes and dragon shows

[selenak]

A few shorter reviews of marathoned shows in recent weeks:

Moon Knight: Starring Oscar Isaacs in more than one role, to put it unspoilery. He's not quite on a Tatiana Maslany level, but pretty good, and like her has excellent chemistry with himself. I also thought Marvel does a bit better by Egyptian mythology than it does with the Norse gods. Starting the series with Stephen, not Marc, as the entry point was a clever choice, as was the twist on Layla knowing all about Marc's superhero life and shares it with the personal life being the one he has trouble sharing with her and keeps secrets about, due to his backstory trauma. (Which is the reverse of the classic set up of superheroes and their significant others.) In terms of the tiny subgenre "superhero who is truly mentally ill", it's not as original and weird as Legion, but then Legion nearly lost itself into style over substance in the second season and barely managed the turnaround and landing in the third, whereas Moon Night from beginning to end (? - there could be more seasons, but the story told in this one works self contained) remains coherent and focused (despite also creating the disoriented pov the main character(s) have when blacking out and before they manage to remain aware while the other personality take over/front). Fully committing to the animal look as far as the Egyptian gods are concerned was also a bold choice which between Khonshu's skeleton beak and Tawaret's hippo ears paid off gloriously.

Werewolf by Night: affectionate homage to Universal and Hammer horror movies, mostly, though not exclusively in black and white. Made me miss Being Human (the UK version).

House of the Dragon: I think I dropped out from Game of Thrones around the fifth season or thereabouts (or was it the fourth? I honestly can't renember), but word of mouth about this one was mostly good, so I thought, why not? Well, I was entertained. If Martin had originally been inspired by the Wars of the Roses for Song of Ice and Fire, then this one clearly is his take on the Anarchy, i.e. Empress Maude vs King Stephen, though the role of Stephen seems to be divided between several characters. (King Viserys has the decent man, not a good King personality which definitely could not be said of Maude's father Henry II, but of her opponent, cousin Stephen; Alicent has the "we used to be friends" part of the Stephen and Maude relationship (in most versions I know); and Alicent's children the throne rivalry, though of course they also work as equivalents for Eustace the useless.) Also, Rhaenyra's two marriages are extremely different from Maude's. Of course, the Rhaenyra/Daemon relationship was everyone's big selling point when advertising the show to me, and as canon incest goes, it's a good pairing. I will say that Rhaenyra and Alicent still have cornered the most emotional intensity for me, but then I am a sucker for "we used to be friends" if done right. Lastly, instead of sexposition, this series offers full on childbirth trauma, graphically so, but I am a veteran of many a Call the Midwife season, so you don't scare me, House of the Dragon! The Midwives of Poplar have seen it all.

Comments

[chelseagirl]

And now, because of your "we used to be friends" I have the Veronica Mars theme song by the Dandy Warhols running through my head. That's not a bad thing, by the way!

[selenak]

Good to know. :)

[lightofdaye]

I enjoyed Moon Knight at the time but it seems to have slipped right out my brain again once it was done. A lot of the D+ shows seem to be like that. No sticking power.

[selenak]

Obviously it's too close for me to say something as to whether those shows I watched in the last month will stay with me, but thinking back, I can't say much of WandaVision or Loki has remained with me from the previous year, no.