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selenakAside from being RL busy and getting the daily horror show from the US like everyone else, I did watch a couple of fictiional things. My collected reviews:
Zero Day (Miniseries, Netflix): solidly suspenseful, but ultimately fails at what it wants to be, i.e. a 70s style political thriller. Not least because it was to be a political thriller without taking a stand in rl politics. Also, there are a couple of moments where you glimpse what could have been a really good work of fiction but then the narrative swerves from what it has seemingly set up to a far less interesting turn. Starring Robert de Niro as retired President George Mullen, the last President, we're told, to command bi partisan respect. When there is a cyber attack that shuts down all online traffic on every device in the US for a solid minute, with a threat of more to come, he's put in charge of a commission to investigate the causes. Said commission is given even more extra powers and habeas corpus suspensions than the Patriot Act after 9/11, and the reason why George Mullen gets appointed by his successor, who is black and female and played by Angela Bassett, is because only he is trusted to not abuse those powers. Other players include an evil tech billionaire (female), a slimy Mr. Speaker (male), George's estranged daughter, a Congresswoman, and an populist influencer who has Tucker Carlson's mannerisms but a pseudo left wing vocabulary. No party affiliations are mentioned for anyone, but it's pretty obvious the Speaker is supposed to be Republican and George's daughter a liberal Democrat. Emphasis on "supposed", because like I said, the miniseries shies away from any actual politics. We're told, repeatedly, that the country is deeply divided and nothing can be done anymore, but no one ever mentions issues the country is divided about. There are the usual red herrings while George investigates - and like I said, technically the miniseries is solidly suspenseful, and de Niro is good in the part - but each time the show could rise above avarage, there are these frustrating turns. For example: Like I said, the pilot makes a big deal out of how only George Mullen is trusted not to abuse those extra powers. And then the revolting populist influencer specifically targets him in his posts and broadcasts, and George - through some misleads by the bad guys - jumps at the chance to have him arrested. Having earlier refused to allow "enhanced interrogation", i.e. torture on other suspects, he gives into the mixture of stress and intense dislike and okays torturing the revolting influencer. It just so happens the guy really doesn't know anything, so not only has George gone against his own morals for nothing, he now looks like a villain himself to the public not because of the influences propaganda but for what he actually did. So far so good (in terms of storytelling) - except that the show then moves on to other things and never lets George truly confront what he did beyond letting the guy go. I kept waiting for the show to dive into the fact the premise both the sympathetic supporting character and George himself believed in - that he had to take the job because he wouldn't abuse those powers - was wrong, and what that did to George, but no.
Or: George starts to realise he's at times hallucinating or misremembering. This had the chance for a terrific paranoid suspense thriller / character plot - how much of what we see through George's eyes is real, what can he believe to be true, how can he find out what's up if he can't trust his own perceptions - complete with timely and contemporary "should I excuse myself because of old age, but on the other hand, who then will have that job and this terrible power?" question, but no, instead, the show turns this into a subplot about a neurological weapon which most likely caused this for George.
But what really pushed it from "suspenseful with flaws" into "failed" territory for me was the ending Not too surprisingly, the evil tech billionaire was the one who made the Zero Day attack technically possible, but there are people behind her. The people behind her aren't just the slimy Speaker but also George's estranged daughter plus some other Congresspeople "from both sides of the aisle". So far, so film noir. But wait for their motivations. What made George's daughter trust her political enemy the Speaker and sign on to Cyber terrorism? Why, it's the wish to unite the country and the idea that the commission - which the Speaker thought would be headed by him before the Angela Bassett President who is most certainly not Kamala Harris appointed most certainly not Joe Biden Robert de Niro - would use its powers to "cut througth the red tape" and "do what's necessary" to get the country on the right track again, and then all problems would be fixed. And while the Speaker is clearly supposed to use that just as an excuse for a power grab, we're meant to believe the daughter truly thought that. Leaving aside of why on earth she would trust a guy who didn't a single scene in this miniseries to indicate he could be trusted in anything - why would she think the problems America is having can be fixed by an almighty commission? Would the commission fix the ever wider gap in wealth? Health Care? Gun control? Climate change? You know, the issues actual liberals care about? How could it do that when meant to investigate who was behind the attack? This just made no sense. If the daughter had been presented as a villain after personal power, with interchangable creeds, fine. But she was supposed to be genuine. (And repentant, alone among the conspirators.) In conclusion, you can skip this one, despite some fine actors present.
Paradise (First season, Disney + outside of the US which is where I am, Hulu inside the US): Now we're talking. This one, otoh, does everything right. It's not just suspenseful, it's twisty, with lots of interesting characters whose motivations make sense. And excellent actors, including Sterling K. Brown in the lead, James Marsden as the second most important male role, Julianne Nicholson in the most important female role and Sarah Shahi. If you're unspoiled, which I was, the pilot first makes you believe it's just a murder mystery (it opens with a dead body, so that's no spoiler) with some political trappings since the murdered man is a (former?) President, and our lead part of the team of Secret Agents responsible for his security and inevitably both an investigator and a suspect. But before the pilot is over, the first of many great twist lands, because the setting is revealed: no, we're not in some idyllic town where the President has retired after his term of office, we're really in (American) humanity's last hide out after some apocalyptic event has happened. So the questions for the seasons aren't just: Who killed Cal Bradford (the President, played by James Marsden wo might start out dead but is very present via flashback a la Lily in the first season of Veronica Mars) and "what made the relationship between Cal and Xavier Collins (our hero, played by Sterling Brown) go from close to broken?" , but "what happened to the world, how did we end up here?" And more questions pop up through the season as some are answered. The mixture of twists and reveals is handled just right. Whle Xavier remains the lead throughout, the way the episodes give the central spotlight to a different character in addition to him in each episode, thus introducing the ensemble who each have their own stories and motivations reminded me a bit of Lost. As did the way the interlocking stories sometimes return to the same scene(s) from different povs.
Now, this series when it tackles politics doesn't shy away of actually going deeper than just "we're so divided, but surely a patriotic speech and an outside threat will fix it". Here, too, we have a shady female tech billionaire. (Btw, I'm not complaining that we get tech sisters instead of tech bros in those thrillers. The women might be evil, but they are far more human and interesting than You Know W'ho. Well, Samantha aka Sinatra is, not so much the lady in "Zero Day". The reason why Sam(antha) is code named "Sinatra" is because of a cruel but not inaccurate joke Cal's (also billionaire) father made, telling his son "you think you're Dean Martin, but you're not, you're just Peter Lawford, only in the Rat Pack because of who you're related to". Sinatra is the one with the actual power in the top hierarchy, but while she's the season's main antagonist (not the killer, though), we also get an entire episode focused on her early on (second or third episode, I think), learning her backstory and what made her who she is. This series gets the difference between explaining and excusing so very right, it's awesome. And each time I was afraid it would go for the easy way out - as when I was afraid we'd hear that no, the world didn't go through a catastrophe caused by environmental reasons, it was all nuclear war, but no, this was NOT the case it didn't. And everyone was so human, including those with limited screentime.
Sterling K. Brown delivered a fantastic lead performance, and there wasn't a weak link in the cast, including the younger actors. And the last but one episode where we finally saw how the world ended was better than most apocalyptic blockbusters I know, not least because of this character humanity. It was the anti cliché in so many ways - Cal (special shout out to James Marsden, taking a part which could easily been hissable - whether his "functioning alcoholic son of a rich man forced into politics by Dad" makes him more Dubya or JFK is up to you, but he's the antithesis of either the heroic square jawed President or the evil authoritarian President of movie lore, with us first being introduced to his weakness and then learning about his strengths) choosing not to go with the patriotic, optimistic speech but with the truth so everyone could at least spend the end with their loved ones (which was both good and terrible, as it predictably enhanced the panic even further), staffers at the White House who weren't going to be taken into the secret hideout begging for at least their children to be evacuated - and the special effects were used sparingly and therefore all the more chillingly (the gigantic tsunami wave first announced via a terrible sound wave, and then darkness). And Brecht would have approved of the question of "who build this city" (as in, literally, not, who ordered it being built) being instrumental to the solution. And despite the post apocalyptic genre, as many examples of people following their better nature as there was of people following their worst. In conclusion: this one is a must.
Daredevil: Born Again (episodes 1 + 2): Which technically is a first season, except it's not, it's a fourth season of the Netflix show, now produced by the House of Mouse. Now as opposed to Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, Matt Murdoch and friends actually finished their Netflix show in a better place than where they started from, with the Netflix showing having used its third season for a reconciliation arc, so I was in two minds when I heard about this sequel. Because a state of happiness does not Daredevil drama make, so it was a given things woiuld have to get worse again. Otoh I was delighted by the Matt cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home and his turning up in She-Hulk, and also liked The Other Guy's (to put only vaguely spoilery) appearances in Hawkeye and Echo, so concluded I was in the market for this now show.
Overall, it looks very promising, though I wasn't wrong about the state of happiness where we left our heroes not lasting. In fact, it doesn't last beyond the teaser. RIP Foggy. If one of them had to get fridged, I would have gone with Foggy over Karen, too, because of gender baggage, and Karen in the wake of this moving to San Francisco was a far better way to remove her than killing her off as well if the show wanted to surround Matt with a new ensemble. Also, yes, Foggy getting murdered would be a plausiible event to push Matt to (try to) kill someone, thereby doing something he can't forgive himself for which in turn makes him attempt to go cold turkey on being Daredevil and living the solely attorney life again. (Mind you, as with the original show, I think the show very much wants to have its cake and eat it when it comes to on the one hand making a big deal out of Matt (usually) drawing the line at killing people but otoh letting him be so violent in his fights that any semblance to realism would demand most people he fights to die or at least be crippled for life. Letting Dex/Bullseye survive Matt throwing him off a roof felt like chickening out as well, but only half so, because intention matters, and Matt and the narrative are both very clear on the fact Matt fully intended to kill him in that moment.
I do appreciate the show doesn't just let Matt repeat his early s3 arc but shows him still trying to help people (legally) instead of withdrawing from the world altogether in the wake of the tragedy, and I do like his new law partner Kirsten and new tentative love interest Heather. But of course the fellow lead of this show is neither of them, it's good old Wilson Fisk, back from the Maya experience (which is referenced in this show) of being defeated by his beloved protege and the way she got to his abused inner child. Now a decade ago when last we were introduced to Netflix Daredevil, I could not have suspended my disbelief in the premise of Fisk, someone New Yorkers knew to have been a rich criminal responsible for deaths and mayhem and blackmail and ruining people's lives, to be democratically voted into (their) highest office, but the joke's on me and all of us, isn't it - and the show actually works with that. At one point, Matt says if Kingpin actually gets democratically elected, then maybe New York has the mayor it deserves (I get that) but is immediately called out by the person he talks to on the cynicism of this remark (because it's not just those voters who will suffer from the results, it will be everyone). Also, just to make it clear: I do not want to slander Wilson Fisk/Kingpin as played by Vincent d'Onofrio by implying he resembles real life figures beyond that. He actually is an interesting human being who combines being a ruthless criminal with the capacity to care for a select few other people (Vanessa, the late Wesley and Maya, to be precise).
Speaking of Vanessa: I can't make up my mind about whether her and Fisk finding their time apart when she was running the business while he was first recovering from being shot by Maya and then from being reconnected to his original trauma by Maya has estranged them is legitimate or a big con the two of them are running because, as Fisk says in their original reunion, there can be no connection between him and the business if he's to succeed as Mayor. I could see either happening. But since the show leans into Fisk and Matt as each other's counterparts, and Matt's attempt to be lawyer only in the aftermath of Foggy's death and his attempt to kill Dex in revenge is real, I'm pretty sure at least Fisk's wish to be a legitimate Mayor (instead of a crime boss only posing as Mayor) is also real. (Of course, being Fisk, he's already used his tried and true black mail via family members on Police Chief Gallo the momemt Gallo refused to accept him the legal way.)
Police corruption (not just for noble reasons such as threatened family members but because of wanting to deal out violence without any pesky constraints and lording it over anyone perceived as not bowing to them) continues as a theme from the first three seasons, and thus Matt ends up defending a client framed by corrupt cops again. And hearing the call to righteous violence, as we knew he would. I do appreciate this is happening in the pursuit of lawyerly justice for his client clashing with the evil lethal intentions of corrupt cops, and there's not a scene like the one in (Raimi) Spider-Man 2 where Peter actually walks away from seeing someone getting beat up when he's temporarily trying to quit being Spider-man, as if he couldn't help as Peter Parker as well, because Matt does know he can help as Matt Murdoch and does - it's the fact that once he fights, he can never limit himself to pure defense that's the trouble.
Lastly: given the callouts to not just the Punisher (who was in the trailer, so I know Frank Castle will show up) but also to Spider-Man when Fisk lists the New York vigilantes he wants the city to be without, I do hope for a Peter cameo later on, returning the favour from No Way Home. But not as much as I want a Jessica Jones cameo, though I'm pretty sure I won't get it, at least not this season.
Zero Day (Miniseries, Netflix): solidly suspenseful, but ultimately fails at what it wants to be, i.e. a 70s style political thriller. Not least because it was to be a political thriller without taking a stand in rl politics. Also, there are a couple of moments where you glimpse what could have been a really good work of fiction but then the narrative swerves from what it has seemingly set up to a far less interesting turn. Starring Robert de Niro as retired President George Mullen, the last President, we're told, to command bi partisan respect. When there is a cyber attack that shuts down all online traffic on every device in the US for a solid minute, with a threat of more to come, he's put in charge of a commission to investigate the causes. Said commission is given even more extra powers and habeas corpus suspensions than the Patriot Act after 9/11, and the reason why George Mullen gets appointed by his successor, who is black and female and played by Angela Bassett, is because only he is trusted to not abuse those powers. Other players include an evil tech billionaire (female), a slimy Mr. Speaker (male), George's estranged daughter, a Congresswoman, and an populist influencer who has Tucker Carlson's mannerisms but a pseudo left wing vocabulary. No party affiliations are mentioned for anyone, but it's pretty obvious the Speaker is supposed to be Republican and George's daughter a liberal Democrat. Emphasis on "supposed", because like I said, the miniseries shies away from any actual politics. We're told, repeatedly, that the country is deeply divided and nothing can be done anymore, but no one ever mentions issues the country is divided about. There are the usual red herrings while George investigates - and like I said, technically the miniseries is solidly suspenseful, and de Niro is good in the part - but each time the show could rise above avarage, there are these frustrating turns. For example: Like I said, the pilot makes a big deal out of how only George Mullen is trusted not to abuse those extra powers. And then the revolting populist influencer specifically targets him in his posts and broadcasts, and George - through some misleads by the bad guys - jumps at the chance to have him arrested. Having earlier refused to allow "enhanced interrogation", i.e. torture on other suspects, he gives into the mixture of stress and intense dislike and okays torturing the revolting influencer. It just so happens the guy really doesn't know anything, so not only has George gone against his own morals for nothing, he now looks like a villain himself to the public not because of the influences propaganda but for what he actually did. So far so good (in terms of storytelling) - except that the show then moves on to other things and never lets George truly confront what he did beyond letting the guy go. I kept waiting for the show to dive into the fact the premise both the sympathetic supporting character and George himself believed in - that he had to take the job because he wouldn't abuse those powers - was wrong, and what that did to George, but no.
Or: George starts to realise he's at times hallucinating or misremembering. This had the chance for a terrific paranoid suspense thriller / character plot - how much of what we see through George's eyes is real, what can he believe to be true, how can he find out what's up if he can't trust his own perceptions - complete with timely and contemporary "should I excuse myself because of old age, but on the other hand, who then will have that job and this terrible power?" question, but no, instead, the show turns this into a subplot about a neurological weapon which most likely caused this for George.
But what really pushed it from "suspenseful with flaws" into "failed" territory for me was the ending Not too surprisingly, the evil tech billionaire was the one who made the Zero Day attack technically possible, but there are people behind her. The people behind her aren't just the slimy Speaker but also George's estranged daughter plus some other Congresspeople "from both sides of the aisle". So far, so film noir. But wait for their motivations. What made George's daughter trust her political enemy the Speaker and sign on to Cyber terrorism? Why, it's the wish to unite the country and the idea that the commission - which the Speaker thought would be headed by him before the Angela Bassett President who is most certainly not Kamala Harris appointed most certainly not Joe Biden Robert de Niro - would use its powers to "cut througth the red tape" and "do what's necessary" to get the country on the right track again, and then all problems would be fixed. And while the Speaker is clearly supposed to use that just as an excuse for a power grab, we're meant to believe the daughter truly thought that. Leaving aside of why on earth she would trust a guy who didn't a single scene in this miniseries to indicate he could be trusted in anything - why would she think the problems America is having can be fixed by an almighty commission? Would the commission fix the ever wider gap in wealth? Health Care? Gun control? Climate change? You know, the issues actual liberals care about? How could it do that when meant to investigate who was behind the attack? This just made no sense. If the daughter had been presented as a villain after personal power, with interchangable creeds, fine. But she was supposed to be genuine. (And repentant, alone among the conspirators.) In conclusion, you can skip this one, despite some fine actors present.
Paradise (First season, Disney + outside of the US which is where I am, Hulu inside the US): Now we're talking. This one, otoh, does everything right. It's not just suspenseful, it's twisty, with lots of interesting characters whose motivations make sense. And excellent actors, including Sterling K. Brown in the lead, James Marsden as the second most important male role, Julianne Nicholson in the most important female role and Sarah Shahi. If you're unspoiled, which I was, the pilot first makes you believe it's just a murder mystery (it opens with a dead body, so that's no spoiler) with some political trappings since the murdered man is a (former?) President, and our lead part of the team of Secret Agents responsible for his security and inevitably both an investigator and a suspect. But before the pilot is over, the first of many great twist lands, because the setting is revealed: no, we're not in some idyllic town where the President has retired after his term of office, we're really in (American) humanity's last hide out after some apocalyptic event has happened. So the questions for the seasons aren't just: Who killed Cal Bradford (the President, played by James Marsden wo might start out dead but is very present via flashback a la Lily in the first season of Veronica Mars) and "what made the relationship between Cal and Xavier Collins (our hero, played by Sterling Brown) go from close to broken?" , but "what happened to the world, how did we end up here?" And more questions pop up through the season as some are answered. The mixture of twists and reveals is handled just right. Whle Xavier remains the lead throughout, the way the episodes give the central spotlight to a different character in addition to him in each episode, thus introducing the ensemble who each have their own stories and motivations reminded me a bit of Lost. As did the way the interlocking stories sometimes return to the same scene(s) from different povs.
Now, this series when it tackles politics doesn't shy away of actually going deeper than just "we're so divided, but surely a patriotic speech and an outside threat will fix it". Here, too, we have a shady female tech billionaire. (Btw, I'm not complaining that we get tech sisters instead of tech bros in those thrillers. The women might be evil, but they are far more human and interesting than You Know W'ho. Well, Samantha aka Sinatra is, not so much the lady in "Zero Day". The reason why Sam(antha) is code named "Sinatra" is because of a cruel but not inaccurate joke Cal's (also billionaire) father made, telling his son "you think you're Dean Martin, but you're not, you're just Peter Lawford, only in the Rat Pack because of who you're related to". Sinatra is the one with the actual power in the top hierarchy, but while she's the season's main antagonist (not the killer, though), we also get an entire episode focused on her early on (second or third episode, I think), learning her backstory and what made her who she is. This series gets the difference between explaining and excusing so very right, it's awesome. And each time I was afraid it would go for the easy way out - as when I was afraid we'd hear that no, the world didn't go through a catastrophe caused by environmental reasons, it was all nuclear war, but no, this was NOT the case it didn't. And everyone was so human, including those with limited screentime.
Sterling K. Brown delivered a fantastic lead performance, and there wasn't a weak link in the cast, including the younger actors. And the last but one episode where we finally saw how the world ended was better than most apocalyptic blockbusters I know, not least because of this character humanity. It was the anti cliché in so many ways - Cal (special shout out to James Marsden, taking a part which could easily been hissable - whether his "functioning alcoholic son of a rich man forced into politics by Dad" makes him more Dubya or JFK is up to you, but he's the antithesis of either the heroic square jawed President or the evil authoritarian President of movie lore, with us first being introduced to his weakness and then learning about his strengths) choosing not to go with the patriotic, optimistic speech but with the truth so everyone could at least spend the end with their loved ones (which was both good and terrible, as it predictably enhanced the panic even further), staffers at the White House who weren't going to be taken into the secret hideout begging for at least their children to be evacuated - and the special effects were used sparingly and therefore all the more chillingly (the gigantic tsunami wave first announced via a terrible sound wave, and then darkness). And Brecht would have approved of the question of "who build this city" (as in, literally, not, who ordered it being built) being instrumental to the solution. And despite the post apocalyptic genre, as many examples of people following their better nature as there was of people following their worst. In conclusion: this one is a must.
Daredevil: Born Again (episodes 1 + 2): Which technically is a first season, except it's not, it's a fourth season of the Netflix show, now produced by the House of Mouse. Now as opposed to Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, Matt Murdoch and friends actually finished their Netflix show in a better place than where they started from, with the Netflix showing having used its third season for a reconciliation arc, so I was in two minds when I heard about this sequel. Because a state of happiness does not Daredevil drama make, so it was a given things woiuld have to get worse again. Otoh I was delighted by the Matt cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home and his turning up in She-Hulk, and also liked The Other Guy's (to put only vaguely spoilery) appearances in Hawkeye and Echo, so concluded I was in the market for this now show.
Overall, it looks very promising, though I wasn't wrong about the state of happiness where we left our heroes not lasting. In fact, it doesn't last beyond the teaser. RIP Foggy. If one of them had to get fridged, I would have gone with Foggy over Karen, too, because of gender baggage, and Karen in the wake of this moving to San Francisco was a far better way to remove her than killing her off as well if the show wanted to surround Matt with a new ensemble. Also, yes, Foggy getting murdered would be a plausiible event to push Matt to (try to) kill someone, thereby doing something he can't forgive himself for which in turn makes him attempt to go cold turkey on being Daredevil and living the solely attorney life again. (Mind you, as with the original show, I think the show very much wants to have its cake and eat it when it comes to on the one hand making a big deal out of Matt (usually) drawing the line at killing people but otoh letting him be so violent in his fights that any semblance to realism would demand most people he fights to die or at least be crippled for life. Letting Dex/Bullseye survive Matt throwing him off a roof felt like chickening out as well, but only half so, because intention matters, and Matt and the narrative are both very clear on the fact Matt fully intended to kill him in that moment.
I do appreciate the show doesn't just let Matt repeat his early s3 arc but shows him still trying to help people (legally) instead of withdrawing from the world altogether in the wake of the tragedy, and I do like his new law partner Kirsten and new tentative love interest Heather. But of course the fellow lead of this show is neither of them, it's good old Wilson Fisk, back from the Maya experience (which is referenced in this show) of being defeated by his beloved protege and the way she got to his abused inner child. Now a decade ago when last we were introduced to Netflix Daredevil, I could not have suspended my disbelief in the premise of Fisk, someone New Yorkers knew to have been a rich criminal responsible for deaths and mayhem and blackmail and ruining people's lives, to be democratically voted into (their) highest office, but the joke's on me and all of us, isn't it - and the show actually works with that. At one point, Matt says if Kingpin actually gets democratically elected, then maybe New York has the mayor it deserves (I get that) but is immediately called out by the person he talks to on the cynicism of this remark (because it's not just those voters who will suffer from the results, it will be everyone). Also, just to make it clear: I do not want to slander Wilson Fisk/Kingpin as played by Vincent d'Onofrio by implying he resembles real life figures beyond that. He actually is an interesting human being who combines being a ruthless criminal with the capacity to care for a select few other people (Vanessa, the late Wesley and Maya, to be precise).
Speaking of Vanessa: I can't make up my mind about whether her and Fisk finding their time apart when she was running the business while he was first recovering from being shot by Maya and then from being reconnected to his original trauma by Maya has estranged them is legitimate or a big con the two of them are running because, as Fisk says in their original reunion, there can be no connection between him and the business if he's to succeed as Mayor. I could see either happening. But since the show leans into Fisk and Matt as each other's counterparts, and Matt's attempt to be lawyer only in the aftermath of Foggy's death and his attempt to kill Dex in revenge is real, I'm pretty sure at least Fisk's wish to be a legitimate Mayor (instead of a crime boss only posing as Mayor) is also real. (Of course, being Fisk, he's already used his tried and true black mail via family members on Police Chief Gallo the momemt Gallo refused to accept him the legal way.)
Police corruption (not just for noble reasons such as threatened family members but because of wanting to deal out violence without any pesky constraints and lording it over anyone perceived as not bowing to them) continues as a theme from the first three seasons, and thus Matt ends up defending a client framed by corrupt cops again. And hearing the call to righteous violence, as we knew he would. I do appreciate this is happening in the pursuit of lawyerly justice for his client clashing with the evil lethal intentions of corrupt cops, and there's not a scene like the one in (Raimi) Spider-Man 2 where Peter actually walks away from seeing someone getting beat up when he's temporarily trying to quit being Spider-man, as if he couldn't help as Peter Parker as well, because Matt does know he can help as Matt Murdoch and does - it's the fact that once he fights, he can never limit himself to pure defense that's the trouble.
Lastly: given the callouts to not just the Punisher (who was in the trailer, so I know Frank Castle will show up) but also to Spider-Man when Fisk lists the New York vigilantes he wants the city to be without, I do hope for a Peter cameo later on, returning the favour from No Way Home. But not as much as I want a Jessica Jones cameo, though I'm pretty sure I won't get it, at least not this season.
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Date: 2025-03-05 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-03-05 05:25 pm (UTC)Also: good shirts. ;) I thought of you.
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Date: 2025-03-05 05:28 pm (UTC)I'll get on it, thanks for the tip!
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Date: 2025-04-06 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-07 01:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-07 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-04-07 02:14 pm (UTC)Then again, hence my feelings being mixed, not all adverserial, this season was really well done, and for all its flaws, I loved Lost which could change its scale and premise and still continue. So who knows?
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Date: 2025-04-07 10:12 pm (UTC)