Category: tv

I’m calling it Season 2, I don’t care. Disenchantment’s not going to be the one to usher in the era of “parts.” If that sounds like a bitter way to start a review, it’s because I am bitter. Season 1 didn’t exactly leave me with high hopes, and Season 2 is even rockier. At this point, the team might as well scrap it and start over with a new Groening idea. Disenchantment just doesn’t do character work or humor or narrative payoff very well. The major cliffhanger in Season 1 is quickly resolved in Season 2, leading into a series of status quo episodes, only for the season to end on a major cliffhanger again. Is Disenchantment trying to be more story-driven, or is it a cartoonish sitcom? A year later, it still feels like they don’t know what they want to do with this show.

What further suggests this may be the case is the penultimate episode going full steampunk. That episode left a really bad taste in my mouth, because the technology came out of nowhere. You can’t spend 18 episodes laying the groundwork for a medieval fantasy and then suddenly introduce airplanes and guns. If the joke is that Dreamland is “behind the times,” that could work given a slower introduction to the bigger steampunk world. The way it’s presented, though, feels more like the team’s rushing to get to a point where they can start making more Futurama-like jokes. It’s kind of sad when a show realizes it can’t live up to its predecessors. Disenchantment may have failed to take advantage of its fantasy motif, but shifting to sci-fi isn’t the right direction.

Without streaming services like Netflix, would anyone else have even take a chance on a Dark Crystal TV show? A 3D-animated version, maybe, but puppetry is a hard sell. I’ll admit, there were times when the limitations of the puppets were… problematic. Every fight or battle was somewhat anticlimactic, because there’s only so much you can do smashing puppets together. The Skeksis, for instance, are supposed to be intimidating monsters that all other creatures cower before, but their gangly arms and bulky bodies suggest otherwise. You kinda have to envision that everything in this world is “puppety” by nature and Gelflings are as weak as their literal rubber skin lets on.

I say this, though, as someone who really admires and appreciates puppetry and grew up on so many Jim Henson staples. When the characters aren’t fighting, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the visuals and world building. The practical effects and animatronics are top-notch and add some much-needed realness to the fantasy and mythos that computer graphics probably couldn’t have achieved. I know, I know, you can’t make a fantasy world anymore without some computer graphics, and The Dark Crystal isn’t immune. But those moments of modern special effects do more to highlight just how grounded and tangible the puppets feel in comparison.

With all that said, is the story even any good? Truth be told, I haven’t seen the original Dark Crystal movie since I was a kid and don’t remember it that fondly. This being a prequel, though, you don’t have to be a long-time fan to know what’s going on. If anything, movie foreknowledge is a disservice. The world in the Dark Crystal movie is grim. The entire time I was watching the new TV show, I kept thinking, “How can they pull off a happy ending?” The events in Season 1 are interesting and get you really caring about many characters big and small, but I’m worried another season or two will have to undo it all to fit into the larger puzzle.

When I watched the first season of Mindhunter, it was with zero expectation or knowledge about what it was other than it had to do with serial killers. It took several episodes to hook me, too many honestly. Once it hit its stride, it became quite compelling. With the second season, we hit the ground running with it starting right where the last season left off. The dynamics between the main characters become more fleshed out and believable. Each of them has a unique and valuable point of view that showcases their individual intelligence and fallibility. I  related to all of them even when they take their turn to be assholes. Oddly enough, Tench was my favorite character this season. The supporting cast all does a great job, as well. I really want to see more of Barney, Greg, and Nance.

The real reason to watch is for the incredibly fascinating (I’ve no idea how accurate) portrayals of the serial killers. We meet some well-knowns like Manson and Son of Sam and lesser-knowns that have equally interesting scenes like the Candy Man’s accomplice. The second season spends a lot of time in Atlanta searching for the Atlanta Monster. This makes the second half of the season drag, but it gives us time to digest Tench’s personal life and boy does he have some shit to deal with. We’re still only teased with BTK and at the rate they’re going, at least one more season before that becomes the focus. If Mindhunter keeps doing what it doing though, I’ll be there.

I watched the boys and thought it was great. I’ve let it sit for a week to really gather my thoughts on it, and I just don’t have much negative to say. The acting, the writing, the casting, the quality of the special effects, were all great. My favorite part is the meta-commentary and awareness of hero worship in the movie industry. In this world, not only are all the super heroes real, they also star in their very own VCU (Vought Cinematic Universe). The people of The Boys universe are every bit as obsessed and tired of super hero franchises as we are (more so in Butcher’s case), but the heroes aren’t just actors. It was interesting and it is kind of a sick burn on our reality when you think about it. Even as someone who has watched almost every super hero movie (most multiple times), I too enjoy entertainment that isn’t about paying attention to overwrought plot lines and locations/abilities of OmniMcguffins.

The setting of The Boys feels very current and deals with many of the political issues we face right now. The push for fascism disguised as safety is a very old tale, but one that feels more relevant to me now than ever. The main superhero’s name is Homelander, I mean, it’s pretty on the nose. I really enjoyed the hell out of the series, and it takes on themes of sexual assault, elite class, corporate control, and even what is and isn’t “right” are pretty ageless. There is even a scene that shows racism is only as deep as the money.  The show continued to surprise to the end, and I loved not knowing what was going to happen. I also think everyone was cast really well. It’s my favorite Karl Urban role since Dredd and Elisabeth Shue just acts the hell out her scenes. In fact, all the main actors all have good chemistry in their scenes and its a compliment that other than Urban and Simon Pegg, I couldn’t immediately place any of the cast in other things I had seen. Being able to watch a show this well-done without the baggage of a Hemsworth, Johannsen, or Affleck, meant I could just pay attention to the show. A real ensemble effort instead of one actor doing all the heavy lifting.  The Boys won’t change your life, but it is refreshing and I’m eager for season 2.

I never did see the original Hanna film. After watching the new Amazon series, though, I have a feeling this works better as a two-hour story versus an eight-hour one. TV is usually a great medium to really get to know the characters, but at the end of Hanna, I still didn’t know much about anyone. It doesn’t help that our main protagonist, Hanna, is a robotic blank slate. While that’s arguably the whole point of the show, such an alien-like, fish-out-of-water individual really only works if there are good supporting characters surrounding her. That’s why the few scenes with teenage Sophie are probably among the best and most interesting. Hanna is a terrible teenager, of course, but Sophie plays off of that really well.

Unfortunately, everyone else in the show is pretty bland. There’s potential for a profound dynamic between Hanna and her adoptive father, but the two of them keep getting split up and dillydally in their own adventures. Both characters are fairly unlikable, anyway. Hanna and her dad constantly lie and use people and get others killed. The only reason we have to root for them is that we’re told Marissa Wiegler is much, much worse. But Wiegler spends so much time alternating between being a threat and a non-threat that she’s really just a distraction more than anything. I’m sure they have big things in store for her in Season 2, though, but I shouldn’t have to sit through another eight hours to feel satisfied with a story that could have been told in two.

This is everything a second season should be. The production value feels higher, the jokes are funnier, the pace is more engaging, there’s a bigger cast of characters to get to know, and they seem to have settled on a more PG-13ish tone. The show still has room to grow, of course, but it’s getting pretty close to perfect. I really liked Arthur in Season 2 and how he’s fully embraced being a hero, just… frustrated that he doesn’t actually have super powers. So it’s kind of strange that he wears the suit for the majority of the season but rarely uses any of its features. I guess there wasn’t room in the budget for a lot of flying. This season seemed more about demonstrating Arthur’s soft skills, since The Tick pretty much has the hard skills covered. But their chemistry is great, and the show is smart enough to feature them together a lot.

Where the season falters is in its lack of a unifying threat for the majority of it. With The Terror on ice and Ms. Lint questioning her morality, we don’t have a central villain to root against. Some are teased but then quickly become non-issues. Overkill and Dot eventually uncover a villain of sorts on their own, but I don’t think this benefited from being a separate side quest. Overkill is funny when he has to put up with The Tick, not when he’s brooding alongside Dot. And Dot… oh, Dot… Why’d they go and give her super powers?! It seems like everyone on this show is super now… except for Arthur. Maybe that’s the point. But I felt Dot was more interesting as a normal human, where she and Arthur could help anchor this otherwise zany world of comic book characters.