Catching up on various shows
Apr. 21st, 2025 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakDaredevil Reborn: overall, good finale. I'm not shipping anyone on this show (or its predecessor), but I was amused, given that Luke Cage managed to make "coffee" a synonym for sex back in the Netflix day for all the Marvel shows, that Frank expressed the wish for coffee with both Matt and Karen. (Not at the same time.) On a more serious note, the finale evidently went for an Empire Strikes Back vibe in that the season ends with the villain triumphant but the heroes rallying, taking comfort with each other and determined to fight on and reverse this, and I do think it was the right choice because a last minute victory over Fisk would have felt unearned. At the same time, as with the season opener, I can't help but feel that something which is as far as I know a decades old idea - Kingpin as Mayor of New York able to corrupt or bend or scare most people into transforming the city into his personal fiefdom - hits differently in this day and age. Yes, they shot this show long before this year (and even reshot it long before most recent events), but watching old school politician Sheila throwing Gallo to the dogs because she wants to save and ingratiate herself with Fisk, watching Danny the Fisk fanboy revel in his new power and bring all the council members to heel because none of them is willing to stand up (since Team Fisk either has dirt on them, or they are that spineless), watching the cops shoot people, then declare them vigilantes, it's impossible not to think of Current Events. In the US and elsewhere.
If I have one critique, it's that the finale and the episode before that highlighted that the Reborn series did not manage to create its own OCs on the heroic side to rival those of the Netflix era. I like Kirsten and Cherry well enough, but they did not get nearly enough narrative depth. Never mind comparisonsn to Karen now - of course, three seasons in, Karen has more backstory and layers - let's compare them, and Heather, to a character the Netflix show only introduced in its third and final season, i.e. a character who really did not have more screen time than they did, to wit: Maggie. And Maggie had way, way more instant characterisation and emotional impact. Yes, I know that Daredevil Reborn had to cope with essentially being two shows, the one originally created which then got a massive overhaul and reshoot by the oriiginal Netflix team, and for this, it was pretty well made, but it's still noticeable that the most impactful character unique to Daredevil Reborn so far is the villain's new sidekick, played by Gandolflini Jr., and that all the big characters the audience gets really inveested in are from the Netflix show.
Wheel of Time S3 finale: speaking of Empire Strikes Back vibes... Though in this case just in one plot line. Okay, two, technically. (The second one being Team Elayne, Matt, Min and Nyneave not gaining what they wanted to, but what Nynayve did get was so important that I hesitate to equate this with the goings on at the White Tower.) This, too, is based on a book series written many years ago, and was shot way back when yours truly hoped the world would be less insane in 2025 than it actually is, but can't help but feel extremely on point with its depiction of a de facto coup by barely legal means. The season opens and closes in a depiction of the Aes Sedai fighting each other, only in the finale it's worse because the show made it a point of telling us Elaida is not Black Aja, nor are those following her, this can't be explained by some Dark Overlord's influence, it's sheer ruthlessness and ambition. Not that we don't see Siuan make mistakes - as in, not explaining her actions in time when she really should have done but relying on authority to push them through - but Elaida casting her as a dark friend was still so over the top that it did feel exactly like the kind of insane rhethoric employed today, and the brutality of Siuan's trial and then execution showcasing the terrifying power ofthe President the Amalyn Seat without checks and balances, in the hands of someone not caring about any of them, really hit home. That, and Sophie Okenodo is aweosme at giving defiant last speeches.
Elsewhere, I liked how the Rand-Lanfear-Moraine-Egwene plot threads resolved themselves. Having osmosed that the books have the whole Lanfear thing be extremely one sided, I thought the show made a more interesting narrative choice in letting Rand have actual feelings for Lanfear, who manages to fuck up her second chance all on her own by the petty cruelty she just can't do without re: Egwene. This is way more interesting in terms of hero/villain pairings than "he's just not into you". And I liked that a) Moraine had counted on this and was willling to let Lanfear committ mental torture to get this result, and b) Rand figured out Moraine had, understood why, and saw and appreciated her for the first time in all her complicated messy glory as his ally. Oh, and Moraine winning her fight against Lanfear out of sheer pain and rage when she feels Siuan's death from half across the world was awesome, too.
Doctor Who ?.02: amusingly weird, technically impressive, everyone looks gorgeous in their costumes. But Fourth Wall Breaking stories are not really my thing, and so I can't say I loved it.
If I have one critique, it's that the finale and the episode before that highlighted that the Reborn series did not manage to create its own OCs on the heroic side to rival those of the Netflix era. I like Kirsten and Cherry well enough, but they did not get nearly enough narrative depth. Never mind comparisonsn to Karen now - of course, three seasons in, Karen has more backstory and layers - let's compare them, and Heather, to a character the Netflix show only introduced in its third and final season, i.e. a character who really did not have more screen time than they did, to wit: Maggie. And Maggie had way, way more instant characterisation and emotional impact. Yes, I know that Daredevil Reborn had to cope with essentially being two shows, the one originally created which then got a massive overhaul and reshoot by the oriiginal Netflix team, and for this, it was pretty well made, but it's still noticeable that the most impactful character unique to Daredevil Reborn so far is the villain's new sidekick, played by Gandolflini Jr., and that all the big characters the audience gets really inveested in are from the Netflix show.
Wheel of Time S3 finale: speaking of Empire Strikes Back vibes... Though in this case just in one plot line. Okay, two, technically. (The second one being Team Elayne, Matt, Min and Nyneave not gaining what they wanted to, but what Nynayve did get was so important that I hesitate to equate this with the goings on at the White Tower.) This, too, is based on a book series written many years ago, and was shot way back when yours truly hoped the world would be less insane in 2025 than it actually is, but can't help but feel extremely on point with its depiction of a de facto coup by barely legal means. The season opens and closes in a depiction of the Aes Sedai fighting each other, only in the finale it's worse because the show made it a point of telling us Elaida is not Black Aja, nor are those following her, this can't be explained by some Dark Overlord's influence, it's sheer ruthlessness and ambition. Not that we don't see Siuan make mistakes - as in, not explaining her actions in time when she really should have done but relying on authority to push them through - but Elaida casting her as a dark friend was still so over the top that it did feel exactly like the kind of insane rhethoric employed today, and the brutality of Siuan's trial and then execution showcasing the terrifying power of
Elsewhere, I liked how the Rand-Lanfear-Moraine-Egwene plot threads resolved themselves. Having osmosed that the books have the whole Lanfear thing be extremely one sided, I thought the show made a more interesting narrative choice in letting Rand have actual feelings for Lanfear, who manages to fuck up her second chance all on her own by the petty cruelty she just can't do without re: Egwene. This is way more interesting in terms of hero/villain pairings than "he's just not into you". And I liked that a) Moraine had counted on this and was willling to let Lanfear committ mental torture to get this result, and b) Rand figured out Moraine had, understood why, and saw and appreciated her for the first time in all her complicated messy glory as his ally. Oh, and Moraine winning her fight against Lanfear out of sheer pain and rage when she feels Siuan's death from half across the world was awesome, too.
Doctor Who ?.02: amusingly weird, technically impressive, everyone looks gorgeous in their costumes. But Fourth Wall Breaking stories are not really my thing, and so I can't say I loved it.
