And that’s a wrap for Season 1 of “Rings of Power”

A beautifully crafted, long, slow simmer of Tolkien’s Second Age.

Definite Spoilers for S.1 and the Season Finale

Rings of Power Season 1 is a wrap. Since my original review, two eps in, has my opinion changed?

It’s a show that has been simultaneously wonderful, intriguing, and maddening. Let’s break it down.

The Bad — Too Much Time On Their Hands

Rings of Power - Tree Blight — Viewers, unlike Elves, are not immortal.

By having a “guarantee” for five seasons, it felt like a certain sense of time pressure was lifted from the creators. That “we have to get pulses pounding so that they will renew us!” gave way to “We have all the time in the world, so let’s not be hasty!” The result? Tons of slo-mo, so many lingering looks, and …

… well, to paraphrase Emperor Joseph from Amadeus, “Too many notes.” Or, rather, too many stories, too many characters. Lindon, Eregion, Khazad-dûm, Numenor, the Southlands, the Greenwoods … the Elves, the Dwarves, the Humans of Numenor, the Humans of the Southlands, the Harfoots (and not to mention the Orcs) …

Rings of Power - Durin — Sorry to leave you hanging, guys.

Stories came and went, and the viewer never knew what they’d manage to wedge into a given episode. Remarkably enough, even the Big Season Finale just left some of them dangling in the dark, not even giving us a passing look to acknowledge them. The family conflict in Moria. The fate of Bronwyn and the Southlanders. Well, folks, we hope we remember you when we do a quick catch-up whenever Season 2 rolls around.

And I’ll add into the “Bad” the delay to S.2. Given that the first season (even with COVID) took 18 months to produce, and that they just started filing S.2 this month, I expect we won’t see anything more until early 2024. Which is … damn. Even the LotR movies kicked out reliably across three Christmas seasons.

The Good — Gorgeous and Occasionally Clever

Rings of Power - Stranger Things — Stranger Things

That said, the last handful of episodes really did start paying off all the long, loooong passages in the beginning, and the finale split story between the Stranger/Harfoots and Elves/Rings was awesome. (Yeah, the Numenorean bits were fine, too, but very much played third fiddle to the overall episode.)

Indeed, given how slowly things had been moving, I didn’t think we’d get to actual Ring Forging until next season. Instead, it fit in quite neatly here (even though, honestly, if Sauron hadn’t acted, he might have done away with the elves altogether, at least in this world’s setup).

Rings of Power - Numenor — I would watch this show just for the visuals.

Which, thinking of all that forging stuff, causes me to consider the elvish forging equipment, which makes me think of the visual worldbuilding here, and what even its biggest critics have had to admit: this show is drop-dead gorgeous. Numenor and the Numenoreans are design wonders, evocative of what the West (Gondor) eventually turns out to, but with rich overlays of ancient Middle Eastern tones and artistry. Exquisite.

There were also, by the end of the episodes, fine setups for S.2 — we are off to visit Rhun (which is a massive blank canvas, so the Middle-Earth pedants will lose some traction), and Numenorean politics is about to heat up, esp. with Miriel blinded (and so unable to use the Palantir up the attic), and the whole “Only old-fashioned race-traitors like the elves” sentiment simmering under the surface. Speaking of whom, not sure what the elves will be doing, aside from maybe arguing over who gets to wear the Three (Gil-Galad might have something to say about that, as he did in the original), and clearly there’s more to come about the internecine struggle amongst the dwarves, even if it wasn’t even acknowledged in the finale..

The Okay

This saga takes fairly significant liberties with the original material. Even if you acknowledge that they could only play with the Appendices of LotR, not the actual Silmarillion, we have tremendous time compressions and lumping together of storylines across the Second Age to show that the story itself is clearly being altered.

But to that extent (and to the end of having a single coherent show, not an anthology across those 3,400 years of Second Age), I think they did pretty well. Sure, they ended up with Galadriel basically walking, sailing, and galloping from one end of the western world to the other (I almost expected to see her riding a horse through a landscape, that would then open up after her passage to reveal our favorite Harfoots hidden from her eyes), but it all turned out … pretty okay.

Rings of Power - three rings — Three Rings. Why three? Now we know.

Did it all make sense? Sometimes. Usually. The finessing around Sauron’s reveal and the forging of the Three, for example, was very neatly done.

On the other hand, the idea that rerouting a big reservoir of water across twenty miles of earthen tunnels to pour into a volcano’s caldera to create a massive explosion and pyroclastic flow that destroys the landscape but doesn’t kill everyone nearby, so as to create a “nuclear winter” localized landscape and weather system, perfect for orcs … well, that’s just silly, but it’s beautifully set up and executed and it beats any story Tolkien gave us about the founding of Mordor, and it’s a goddamned story about elves and orcs, so I can live with it.

Rings of Power - Two Trees — I mean, WARS have been fought over trees in this mythos.

I’m slightly less sanguine about the plague on the Tree and the origin of mithril and all of that — except, again, it replaced centuries of kingdom-building and elvish (and dwarvish) politics. A big goofy, but within parameters (especially given how arboreal health seems elsewhere in canonical Tolkien to be so damned portentous).

So, yeah, the books talk about the Istari arriving by boat from the West, greeted by Cirdan (who gives his elven-ring to Gandalf), and all of that a thousand years into the Third Age, not falling from the sky thousands of years earlier. But … whatevs, it kept people guessing and doesn’t effectively change the dynamic. (And despite utter confidence that that’s Gandalf there in the burlap robe, for a variety of reasons, I’m holding out hope that it’s actually Saruman. Or maybe one of those Blue Wizards who actually traveled to the east …)

Rings of Power - Galadriel Warrior Princess — Canon or not, I enjoyed Galadriel, Warrior Princess

As to whether Galadriel was a warrior princess … again, it works here, even if it’s not quite what our known background info would suggest. Again, adaptation, and, let’s face it, with the pacing problems the show had, having a damask-robed slow-motion Galadriel looking somber the whole time as she walked from grove to grove would be … damned boring.

In Sum

Rings of Power - Harfoots — Safe travels and fair roads until we meet again.

Overall, it’s not quite as Peter Jackson-mesmerizing as I had hoped, and it suffered from too much material presented too slowly, but I would much rather have watched Rings of Power than to have never seen it. I hope, eventually, to enjoy at least another season of it.

So that’s a wrap on “She-Hulk” …

Some fine, fun, comic book action and self-mockery, but never really finding it’s spot.

Spoilers for She-Hulk ep. 9

Watched the S.1 finale for She-Hulk tonight. As mentioned before, at length, I love this character, and I really looked forward to an MCU comedy that capture that light-hearted, highly meta, but underlying dramatic creation I’ve come to love.

Ultimately, I got something that didn’t lean into its 4th Wall meta until the finale, then did so to excess, while at the same time trying to be a rom-com lawyer show, with a zany cast and so many situations to be comedic about.

And, fundamentally, I’m not a standard sitcom kind of guy. And this felt soooooo standard.

So, bottom line, I was disappointed by She-Hulk, but it was moderately entertaining, and I appreciated its willingness to drag in big and little MCU characters. There was humor I did like, but so much must popped rather than banged.

I’m reluctant to get too critical, because there’s been from pre-Episode 1, a contingent of “Ugh, strong woman bad, can’t we get more Punisher?” viewers out there. Many of whom then morphed into “How dare Matt Murdock smile, let alone sleep with a skank like Jen?” crew. And, I assume, those same folk were cheering for the Intelligentsia at the early climax of the show, and actively wishing that Zack Snyder were directing this.

And none of that has any resemblance to my reasons for being a skosh disappointed. Even though I don’t regret having spent any time watching the series.

I thought the rather heavy-handed “K.E.V.I.N.” sequence was … well, yeah, heavy-handed. It should have been funnier, and it wasn’t, and it was frustrating.

On the other hand, the opening titles, riffing off the classic Incredible Hulk TV show, was delightful. Bravo.

I’d love to see She-Hulk come back in the MCU. Despite the solo aspects, Jen can work in a straight drama, too. And I’d be happy to see an S.2 of She-Hulk, maybe with a different writing vision.

Jen Walters — and She-Hulk — are great characters. Here’s to more of them, better executed, in the MCU.

I have to confess, I’m not enjoying “She-Hulk” as much as I wanted to

And I definitely wanted to.

I wanted to enjoy the current She-Hulk series on Disney+ a lot, boiling down to two reasons:

Always fun.
I really like the character in the comics, esp. in incarnations where there’s humor involved (i.e., starting with John Byrne’s famous run). I wanted something that captured that fun.
There was a lot of early criticism of the show, far too much of which boiled down to “Powerful female character? Ugh! Gimme more Punisher!” The first episode’s monologue about the problems/risks that women professionals have — a sentiment that every woman professional I’ve talked with about it agreed with — were met with scorn and derision and disbelief from much the same criticizing audience. I wanted this show to be a real hit just to show those yahoos off.

Unfortunately, we’ve ended up with a show that is … okay. Not horrible. Not great. The humor, including the fourth wall bits, feels kind of awkward, with maybe one good laugh an episode. The action sequences are so-so. The CG feels definitely budget. The courtroom bits are mostly more mildly funny humor. The characters are walking bundles of tropes. The storylines are kind of silly and clunky.

As I said to my wife last week, if this were a non-super-hero show, or even a non-MCU show, I would probably have stopped watching by now.

I’m not sure where the problem is. The actors, including star Tatiana Maslany, seem like they should be good. Writing? Directly? Something is just not clicking, leaving me with an amusing, but not uproarious, interesting but not gripping, legal dramedy in spandex.

Worse, at a time when the MCU really needs to be stocking up its bag of heroes for the next Phase, the so-so nature of She-Hulk makes her being part of that action less and less likely.

Here’s hoping they pull something big out of the bag in the last 4 of 9 episodes. If not … well, I don’t regret the time I’ve spent watching it, but I don’t see myself watching it again.

TV Review: “The Rings of Power” (2022) (two episodes in)

It’s a show that wasn’t needed, but it’s a show I’m enjoying so far.

All right, here’s the Number One Question that is burning in the heart of every fanboi out there: Was this series absolutely necessary?

No. Of course not. No TV series is “absolutely necessary.” And, honestly having lived in Prof. Tolkien’s head for nearly half a century, I can say that I would have survived if we had never gotten a visual study of the Second Age (as adapted and time-compressed for television).

That said …

I’m enjoying it

I enjoyed the first two episodes of “The Rings of Power.” The adaptations for “Let’s put all the exciting stuff of the Second Age into a single cast of characters that isn’t all-elvish, kind of like Tolkien did for the Third Age” are, so far, fine. I like the characters introduced, both known and unknown. And the FX were quite suited for a billion dollar investment/adaptation.

I can easily be a pedantic purist. But I also tend to accept what is presented to me and evaluate it for what it is, not against some Platonic ideal of the True Tolkien Story. Given the number of renditions of the tales that Tolkien himself did, that seems like a wise starting place.

The status quo we begin with is fascinating, and highlights something that LotR fans usually forget: the Elves are just as culturally flawed and personally prone to error as any random Human, Dwarf, or Halfling. In LotR, we focus on the top-tier Elvish Elders (Elrond, Galadriel, and, yeah, ~~Mr. Galadriel~~ Celeborn), or on the Elvish Super-Hero, Legolas.

But the First (especially) and Second Ages are full of Elves making horrible, monstrous, myth-making and realm-dooming mistakes of vanity and hubris and obsession. RoP gives us those Elves (including, ironically, Elrond and Galadriel), driven by their passions, their griefs over the First Age conflicts, their prejudices, their obsessions, their flaws.

That some of them (Galadriel) are correct in their concerns is not important. That they are not all spouting off profundities and hand-washing, mournful platitudes is.

I am quite satisfied by what we have seen so far, even if we have literally burned through 25% of S.1’s episodes in still setting up the situation. The show has a five year plan (they know precisely what the final scene will be), though only two seasons have been purchased.

Threads

There are a lot of threads in the air. Here are a few:

Rings of Power Players — I’m not altogether certain, after two episodes, that we have actually met all these people.

Galadriel

Those who know their G-elf lore know that Galadriel was kind of a crazy rebel in the First Age and (OMG THE FIRST AGE IMAGES OMG) she is still now obsessive over the threat of Sauron. (And, yeah, she’s right, but is right in a wrong way.) Who has rescued her and boytoy Harbrand from the ocean (my bet is it’s Numenorean folk, kicking off that whole part of the storyline)? What will Gil-Galad’s reaction be when he discovers that Galadriel has given a hard pass on his “gift” of return to Valinor? How does she end up getting one of the Three Rings for Elven-Kings under the Sky?

Valinor

In the canonical Tolkien, the Elves rebelled in heading off to Middle-Earth from Valinor, in sort of a Garden of Eden sort of thing, in angry pursuit of Melkor/Morgoth and the Silmarils. And, as I recall, those Noldor Elves were originally banned from returning for their presumption of leaving it in the first place. I don’t know the specific moment that Elves were allowed to go back (let alone the non-Noldors), but having it show up here as a “gift” that the Elven High King can grant is … interesting.

Elrond

Elrond is part of one of the two cases that are mentioned elsewhere in Ep. 1 of Elf/Human — the son of Eärendil and Elwing. Born in the First Age alongside a twin brother Elros. At the end of the First Age, both brothers were given a choice as to what heritage they would become. Elros chose Human and was the first king of Numenor. Elrond chose Elf, and stuck around for a lot longer.

I almost thought they were going to refer to that early on when there was the “Yeah, you’re not an elf-lord” thing going on. I hope they eventually make it clearer, because it’s a key part of what makes Elrond who he is, and also really informs his attitude toward his daughter Arwen hooking up with the Human (and distant descendent through the lines of Numenor) Aragorn.

I don’t mind Elrond being an aspirational flunky for Gil-Galad, because he was. I don’t mind the difference between LotR Elrond and RoP Elrond because it’s three thousand years ago. Galadriel had mellowed. Elrond has gotten cranky. So be it.

Durin

I trust that, unlike in Pulp Fiction, we’ll see what’s in the box that Durin and his dad look into. My assumption is that it is some of the first mithril mined by the Dwarves, which will in turn prompt them to delve too deeply and unwisely. Will we see the unveiling of Durin’s Bane (the Balrog of Khazad-Dum) during the course of this series? I am absolutely certain we will.

I loved the “living” Khazad-Dum, by the bye.

Nori (and the Stranger)

So the Harfoots fit okay into the origins of Hobbits that Tolkien gave us, and their elusiveness reminds me of his discussion of how, in the Fourth Age (of Man) they gradually faded into the background, invisible from our sight. Nori as the rebel who wants to see the world amidst the village that wants to stay secret and safe is not a new trope, but it’s done well here, with her friend/foil Poppy giving us the conflict externally that a book might do internally.

Of course, the key with Nori is her finding and caring for the Stranger. Who is he?

Sauron (as a falling Lucifer from the skies, I guess) is an obvious and ironic guess — esp. after the whole firefly stunt and its aftermath — in which case, wanna bet that those constellations are visible in, say, Mordor?

But almost as likely is that we’re seeing one of the first Istari — the Wizards — sent down from the heavens. Yeah, the timing doesn’t fit with Tolkien’s canon, and the Istari showed up from Valinor at the Grey Havens, but we already know that dramatic license is being taken, so why not?

Of course, if it’s an Istar, then as the (presumed) first, it would be Saruman. And, as my son said, it would all be worth it in order to see Saruman eat a snail.

But if it were Gandalf, that would explain his fondness for Hobbits all these centuries later.

I am eager to learn (or to see how long they drag out the uncertainty).

Arondir and Bronwyn

So there are a lot of folk who see racism in some of Tolkien’s work. And, yeah, when he deals repeatedly with purity of white bloodlines, literally describes Orcs as a “Mongol race,” and has various Arabic and African humans ally themselves with the Super Bad Guy, that argument (about a Brit who was born and lived as a kid in South Africa) is not too difficult to make.

But Tolkien also talked about conflict between the different races/species in Middle-Earth. The most famous was the conflict between Elves and Dwarves, but the disdain of the Elves for Humans was also there: short-lived, vain mortals who were easily corruptible in exchange for promises of power.

It is absolutely believable that the Elves would maintain an active watch and suppression of Humans who had allied with Morgoth in the First Age. And absolutely believable that those Humans multiple generations on would resent that.

The delicate balancing act of racism in fantasy is that (a) it presupposes actual separate races/species in the fantasy world, which is a legit thought exercise but also mirrors historic racist tropes that different human “races” are similarly distinct — that Whites vs Blacks vs Yellows vs Reds are a real a thing as Humans vs Elves vs Dwarves vs Hobbits.

(The same thing comes up in science fiction, as multiple species interact.)

I don’t know that Arondir and Bronwyn’s relationship is believable, to the extent that we really haven’t seen much of what led to it or what it actually is in the present. But it’s a completely legit thing to play with in this world.

Oh, yeah, diversity

When nobody cares about the ethnic background of actors in an adaptation of a fantasy like this, that will be the proper time to say, “Oh, all Elves are white, and all Dwarves are white, and all important Humans are white, and probably all Halflings are white” and stage that as an experimental art film.

Until then, I really don’t care.

In sum …

I’m enjoying RoP, even as it sets up multiple storylines that have taken at least two (and likely even three) of eight episodes to start progressing. I am curious to see where they are going. They have not presented me with anything that I cannot deal with, and I really want to see what they do next.

I watched all the Obi-Wan Kenobi backstory so you don’t have to

By which I mean the “First Trilogy,” which remains a mostly awful thing.

I’m enjoying the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series on Disney+, so I thought (since I had some spare time) I’d watch the “First Trilogy” films, to get the background story that leads into this new story.

(And, yes, there’s a ton of stuff in “Clone Wars” that adds to all that, which I have also watched in the past, and heartily recommend, but did not rewatch the several seasons of which for this purpose. Sorry).

Episode 1: The Phantom Menace

My current Review on Letterboxd – 3/5 stars

Obi-Wan notes: Ewan McGregor’s first turn as a Padawan learner under Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn. The relationship and banter between the two of them are a big part of the positives to this film. Obi-Wan is is young and brash and confident, but with some justification — he’s a fierce fighter (he does eventually defeat Darth Maul), a powerful assistant to Qui-Gon, and an insightful observer.

In the end, Obi-Wan is on his own — and has sworn to his dying master that he will take on Anakin Skywalker as his apprentice. It’s a role he has no training to take on, being barely promoted to full Jedi himself.

Episode 2: Attack of the Clones

My current review on Letterboxd – 2/5 stars

Obi-Wan notes: It’s ten years later, and Anakin, ripped from his mother, has grown into a sulky teenager. Obi-Wan, sporting a sage beard, has grown into an old fuddy-duddy. The bubbly, defiant, independent Padawan under the rebellious master Qui-Gon is now conservative, chiding, fretful, and domineering teacher.

When on his own — investigating Kamino, fighting Jango, checking out Geonosis — he’s a strong character. Fighting with Anakin against Dooku, he’s heroic. But every time he interacts with Anakin, any attempts to the bantering camaraderie that he had with Qui-Gon is awkward and forced.

Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith

My current review on Letterboxd – 2.5 / 5 stars

Obi-Wan notes: Obi-Wan gets to watch it all fall apart — the Republic falling into tyranny, the Jedi Order is destroyed through its own arrogance, and his Padawan apprentice turns into the monster assassin of the Sith emperor.

And, in the end, he realizes his own failure — and that of the Jedi. He/they failed to see Palpatine’s plot, they failed to protect the Republic, they failed to protect the Younglings — and they failed to see how Anakin was falling from grace. It’s (rightfully) gut-wrenching for him, and the final battle he has with Anakin is no victory on his part, but a cap on the tragedy he’s overseen.

“You were my brother! I loved you!”

And that’s the final indictment, as he failed as both master and as brother, not fully embracing either role, because he got bulldozed into trying to be both when he was too young to figure it out.

And while he takes on a final assignment at the end of the film, watching over Luke, the OWK series shows he’s been more than a bit traumatized by the whole thing. Which adds an interesting twist to the series.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is arguably the most interesting and heroic character of the First Trilogy, and he was definitely my favorite character in The Clone Wars. I love that they’ve given him a dedicated series, and I am definitely eager to see what comes next.

TV Review: “The Book of Boba Fett” (2021-22)

The lovely parts are far greater than the muddled, poorly-structured whole.

So … The Book of Boba Fett.

Sigh.

YES THERE ARE SPOILERS HERE FOR THE SERIES, AND BITS AND BOBS OF THE FINALE. YOU SHOULD WATCH IT FIRST (YES, YOU SHOULD, EVEN IF IT HAS SOME SIGNIFICANT FLAWS).

This was a marvelous, stirring, my-younger-fanboy-would-disbelieve-we’d-ever-see-it collection of incredibly cool, thoughtful, interesting, thrilling, exciting, lore-filled, great bits and ideas …

… that were greater than the eventual sum of their parts.

To start bluntly, dramatic pacing on this show was for shit. Backflashes and presentflashes and huge sidequests and where-the-hell-is-the-titular-character chunks of story dominated the whole series. Loading down the saga with backstory and exposition can be done … but it has to pay off. And inserting massive peripheral tales that have nothing to do with the core narrative would rightfully have any writing group pulling out the torches and flensing knives.

Hey, know that graph of how a novel is structured? Essentially a cascading series of rising actions, ending in a big climax and then a denouement?

This series was just a constant stream of static.

Slow moments. Fast moments. Small moments. Big moments. All thrown into a blender with no actual pacing, aside from the Disney+ “The final episode will be full of pew-pew-pew action.”

And even in that final episode, which was, to be sure, mostly the huge blow-out action sequence that people were looking for …

… we get interrupted mid-stream by an extended sequence of gratuitous Groguness.

Yeah, things are getting unbearably tense in Mos Espa … so let’s break for several minutes of cute Grogu action!

… the titular character, master of a dozen deadly weapons, spends much of his time during the big action sequences not doing much more than hanging with a (beautifully rendered) CGI figure, yanking on chains.

… the denouement is an utterly flat collection of much of the cast, and then some meaningless Mando stuff, and then a mid-credit scene of a supporting character with supporting character and ROLL REST OG CREDITS.

cobb vanth boba fett finale — Honestly, I didn’t recognize him on first watch.

Whu–?

(Okay, I’ll give a shout-out to the secondary characters. The Mod gang. The Gamorreans. The Freetowners. Krrsantan. The Mayor. The Mayor’s Chief of Staff. They were all finely done. But they weren’t the real focus of series, even if I’d have loved to see more of them.)

We ended up in this series spending so much time with fun stuff and cool stuff and interesting stuff and backstory stuff and lore stuff and fan service stuff that … it feels like they forgot it was supposed to maybe … be a story … nay, a book … a book of … well, let’s grab a name at random, say … Boba Fett.

I honestly don’t know if they decided halfway through the plotting that they had run out of ideas and therefore threw in a bunch of other stuff (Sarlacc! Mando! Grogu! Cad Bane!), or if there was never a story to begin with, or if this was a way of sneaking in a Season 2.5 of The Mandalorian past the Disney overseers … but …

Really, truly, the idea of …

a bounty hunter, the coolest bounty hunter (and bodyguard and button man) ever, deciding they didn’t want to work for stupid, short-sighted, inept, venal bosses any more, but wanted to become their own boss, a boss unto themselves, building something that was theirs, and in the process learned the challenges, perils, pitfalls, challenges, seduction, and ultimately oblige of power …

… that is an awesome story. And that’s what the trailer promised us.

boba fett concept art — Boba Fett, and the uneasy head that wears the crown

And that’s what … we got a watered-down half-a-story of, mixed up with a cloudy brew of guest figures, parallel stories, and fan-cruft.

Heck, imagine the difference if we took all that irrelevant Mandalorian time and added in some internal conflict to the Boba Fett story.

For example, Fennec Shand repeatedly bumps heads (if lightly) with Boba Fett about taking a more forceful, bloody, and criminal course of being a mob boss. Hey, Spice is profitable! That could have given us some real conflict. Is she going to argue when he says, “No”? Is she going to consider her options? Is she going to set up a side gig? Is she going to (even seem to) consider betraying him? Will the Pykes approach her, thinking she’s a weak link? Will she show she’s her own person … and ultimately make the right choice for her own reasons?

Nope. A kick-ass character and great actress, she just spends most of her time in the series giving us recaps of the situation (overlapping the “Previously” intros), nodding politely to Boba’s orders, and then being a deus ex assassin at key moments. A huge waste.

Or consider, if you wanted to drag the Mandalorian into the mix (which his own series laid the groundwork for), we could create some dramatic tension from that. Does Din Djarin really support Boba Fett’s ends (or his understanding of Boba’s ends) or is he supporting Boba, reluctantly, out of a sense honor? How far does that go? Does he protest Boba’s course? Does he actually show that possible internal conflict? Conversely, does Boba Fett really trust him? Does his see how his own sense of honor/obligation lines up to Mando’s? What do these two characters have in common, and where do they have differences, and how can we let that actually drive some drama between them?

Nope. Instead, we get “I am Lawful Neutral, so I will follow your orders to the death.” “Dude, you really believe that?” “It is the Way.” Ho-hum.

“Because they’re cousins … identical cousins …”

Hell, as far as that goes, even Boba Fett, the titular character, after getting a burst of character growth in the extended Tuskan flashbacks (very nicely done) … spends most of the series in an enlightened mob boss state. From the time in the present when he sits on Jabba’s throne to the end of the show … he doesn’t actually seem to grow or change. He’s the “I am the boss. I will rule with respect. I will protect my people” guy. He doesn’t get any internal conflicts, he doesn’t clash with anyone but obvious enemies, he doesn’t question his course. He just cruises along. His only challenge is a bit of naivete as to what it takes to run a city as a mob boss. That’s the only internal “conflict” he faces. Which is … a bit boring.

character conflict and growth — Boba really doesn’t tick any of these boxes.

While the Mando 2.5 miniseries bits were a huge gimping disruption, I did enjoy them for themselves. Playing with the Darksaber (when it could do things); running into Luke, and Ahsoka, and Grogu; learning that Luke is, yeah, just like we learn in the third trilogy, going to be a Jedi dick of a teacher … all of that was informative and fun. It was all great.

And it was totally inappropriate to this series. It had nothing to do with Boba Fett. It had nothing to do with the overall gang war of Mos Espa. It was simply a bridge to (we assume) the desired starting point of Season 3 of The Mandalorian.

(It also led to some of the worst telegraphing. “Oh, hey, I, the Mandalorian, am now flying around in a Naboo starfighter, but the little dome area where an astromech droid used to go is now just an empty dome, so very, very empty, I wonder what will ever fill it …?”)

boba fett grogu naboo starfighter — I’m shocked, SHOCKED, to find Grogu here!

Sigh.

This series really could have been so much more. So many of the elements are beautiful. The Tuskan sequences were lovely and meaningful both for Boba and for Star Wars lore. (What? The Tuskans aren’t just blood-thirsty, superstitious wogs? Mind-blown!) So many of the figures used — the Pykes, Krssantin, Cad Bane, even call-outs to Mando bits like Cobb Vanth and Mos Pelgo and Peli Motto — were neat in and of themselves, and could have all fit into a rich Boba-focused narrative saga.

For that matter, Boba’s part of the story could have been about the conflicts he felt, his personal urges toward violence, what he learned from his time with the Tuskans, how that intersected with his vengeful motivations dating back to his father’s death, and how those drives still did (and, to his realization, didn’t) apply to the present … maybe his growing uncertainty about his reasons for taking on the role of daimyo of Mos Espa, and how that ultimately translated into his taking on responsibility for the lives of the people there.

But the show decided, for whatever reason, to try to do too much, and too little, to show some lovely lore, and to short-circuit the character growth … and ultimately turned out to be a fun-to-watch, frustrating-to-contemplate, disappointment.

I don’t regret watching any individual element, really. But I definitely consider the series, the Book, as a whole … a fail.

book of boba fett — Cool, but disappointing.

B5 Rewatch: 5×06 “Strange Relations”

Bester is here for the Teeps, and Lochley’s secret is finally revealed.

A-Plot: The past finally catches up with Byron and his Telepath ~~gang~~ ~~cult~~ commune, as EarthGov sends Psi Corps bloodhounds, led by Bester to apprehend them as criminals and send them back. With Sheridan trying to play nice with Alliance members (like Earth), and Lochley not having any legitimate reason to stop them (and, further, having previously had not-horrible interactions with Bester), there seems to be little way to stop it from happening.

Well, except for Lyta Alexander, who’s been helping ~~steal~~ liberate drugs for the Teeps, and whom Byron continues to woo to join his ~~cult~~ commune. She’s not your average telepath, having had her powers goosed by Kosh waaaay in the past. And, indeed, she manages to stop Bester and his goon squad at least once — but cannot reliably do so, especially when he gets his requested support from station security.

Fortunately, after Bester has captured all the teeps and is going to head back to Earth with them, Lochley pulls a deus ex bureaucratica, using a new medical regulation (from Franklin, with the toner still damp) that requires thorough examination and quarantine of any folk who have been in Unknown Space, like the vagrant teeps have been, before being allowed back on Earth. That frustrates the hell out of Bester, but assuming he still has an ally in Lochley, he’s willing to come back in sixty days to pick them up.

Lochley, in turn, while not carrying the animus against Bester that Sheridan and Garibaldi do, isn’t by any means a fan, and it’s clear that while she can’t “let” the Teeps escape B5 before Bester’s return, she will not be at all disappointed if they find a way to do so.

Babylon 5 5x06 Strange Relations - lyta close up — Sad, lonely, isolated Lyta is sad, lonely, and isolated.

But while the Telepath plot here gets solved by Lochley, it’s really Lyta’s story, and there’s a lot of heartbreaking moments as Lyta watch the teeps run down and captured, one by one, and Byron tells her he’s turning himself in to be with them, even if it means his likely death. You can see the increasing isolation she’s under — cut off from Kosh, not a member of the Corps (despite still wearing a badge), not a member of the command team any more (and relegated to sneaking station supplies to the Teeps), but also not a member of the Teep ~~cult~~ colony. In every scene, it grows more and more painful …

Until, at the very end, as Byron is reunited with his ~~cult~~ family, and they all sit around and sing a slightly creepy song about love and harmony and finding “a better place” …

And we will all come together in a better place
A better place than this
My love will guide you
My love will hold you
My love will show you the way
There will come a tomorrow
Where we’re free from our sorrows
And our love will show us the way
We are sister and brother
And we will all come together in a better place
A better place than this …

… she takes off her Psi Corps badge and, a bit uncomfortably, goes to Byron’s side.

This will not end well.

And it shouldn’t. Zack is already on the record thinking that Byron is going to be trouble, not because of telepath prejudice (he and Lyta had a thing going on at one point, remember?) but because Byron is so clearly aiming to be a martyr. Byron himself is clearly about one batch of Kool Aid from a self-inflicted tragedy. The guy is just so plainly manipulative that it’s terrifying seeing Lyta sucked into his orbit.

Some reviews try to complain that Byron and his ~~cult~~ band of merry teeps are being forced on us as heroes. I disagree, at least so far to date: I don’t trust the guy, even if he’s as sincere as a saint.

B-Plot: The Mystery of Lochley is Revealed! Delenn chats with Lochley, having been given the skinny by Sheridan the previous night, though nothing specific gets said. Lochley’s a bit peeved that Sheridan didn’t warn her, but also feels vaguely apologetic to Delenn. Meanwhile, Garibaldi is hanging out around the corner, taking notes.

But not for long, since in short order he’s in the brig, having stormed into Lochley’s office to punch Bester in the snoot — understandable (even to Lochley), but not to be allowed (even if she has to threaten the security team she summoned before they lay hands on their former boss).

In short order, she and Zack discover Garibaldi has been riffling through Lochley’s personnel files on the computer, so she goes down to his cell (quite a nice and sizeable room, to be sure) to hash it out — which annoyingly turns into Lochley answering all of Garibaldi’s questions.

She explains her chumminess with Bester from a past experience where he took out a rogue telepath who had killed two of her people (who had found out he was using his telepathy to win at gambling). And she explains that Sheridan chose her because it would be politically valuable to have an EarthForce officer who was on the “other side” in the war, but one he could trust both not to stab him in the back, disagree with him when needed, and back him up likewise.

As to how Sheridan would know that …

LOCHLEY: We met fresh out of Officer Training School. We hit it off, fell crazy in love, got married, realized we’d made a terrible mistake, fell crazy out of love, and split up. You see, in a relationship. you gotta take turns being in charge, but, we both wanted to be in charge all the time. We had arguments that could peel paint off the wall.

They remained friends and respectful of one another and knew they could trust one another.

It almost feels a little anticlimactic, esp. since the scene feels rushed and info-dumpy, and Lochley’s spilling all the beans that Garibaldi asked for comes across more as weak than reasonable.

(It also feels … unrealistic. None of her records — or his — indicate her marriage to Sheridan? The press — directly or via politicians and partisans in EarthGov — haven’t learned about this? It’s a kind of clever idea, but it makes no sense.)

Other Bits and Bobs: Londo is shifting into the next phase of his life, preparing to return to Centauri Prime to support the ailing Regent, and anticipating becoming Emperor — the prospect of which he’s increasingly melancholy and pessimistic about.

Things get a bit more exciting when the Centauri cruiser he’s supposed to be on is destroyed in an obvious assassination attempt. Delenn and G’kar are concerned over Londo’s safety, so Delenn decides he needs a non-Centauri bodyguard — and that G’kar is the perfect choice. The Narn is initially taken aback, but the idea of his being a necessary part of the Centauri court tickles his funny-bone, and by the end Londo and G’kar are heading off the Centauri homeworld, bickering about who gets the aisle seat.

Meanwhile, the criminally-underused Franklin is given by ~~the writer~~ the Alliance a new side gig: research head for medical care of Alliance species, with an emphasis on diseases and the like that can jump to other species. It’s actually a good tie-in to some of his original research (which he dumped when he learned that EarthForce was going to use it for bio-weapons). And it means he’ll get more opportunities to do something in the show than hang out in MedLab and look distressed.

Meanwhile: So JMS briefly belonged to a religious cult/commune when he was in his early 20s, after escaping an extremely abusive and isolating household. A lot of that experience feeds into the Byron / Lyta / Telepath saga — Byron as charismatic leader, the group behavior, even the song they sing.

babylon 5 5x06 Strange Relations - byron homecoming — No, nothing at all creepy or cult-like here.

And knowing that makes it clear that there will be no happy ending here, for anyone — we know that Psi Corps is awful, and Bester a nasty piece of work, but in his own way Byron is as manipulative as the Psi Cop, and his band of teeps is as much a trap as the Corps.

Babylon 5 5x06 Strange Relations - byron — The only question with someone like Byron is how many of his followers he’ll take down with him.

I can’t let a Bester episode go by without commenting on Bester. He is his usual maddening self — gentile and oh-so-pleasant sharing jokes and tea with Lochley, snarky and smirking whenever he knows he has the upper hand (and wants to rub it in), and, at a few moments, almost desperately eager in wanting to take Byron in and being told he can’t (yet).

Babylon 5 5x06 Strange Relations - bester — Don’t you (like Garibaldi) just want to punch this guy?

Bester is not Walter Koenig’s most famous role, but it should be, and any time he’s in an episode, like this one, it’s a treat.

Most Dramatic Moment: Despite the reeeeeally annoying (and creepy song), there’s a lovely moment from the director, John C Flinn, where Lyta approaches the Teep colony, and sees them with their candles and their singing and their camaraderie and family … through a plastic grid, separate and shut away from them and emphasizing for the final moment how cut-off and alone she is …

Babylon 5 5x06 Strange Relations - lyta on the outside looking in — Lyta, on the outside, looking in.

Most Amusing Moment: Lochley realizing that, with all the other things that have been going on, she’s forgotten to order Garibaldi released from holding.

LOCHLEY: I also have this nagging feeling that I’m forgetting something.
CORWIN: I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Good night, Captain.
LOCHLEY: Good night, Lieutenant. [beat] Oh no! [into link] Lochley to security.
SECURITY: [over link] Security here.
GARIBALDI: [over link] I said, let me the hell out of here! [Sound of something getting thrown]
LOCHLEY: You can release Mr. Garibaldi now.
GARIBALDI: [over link] About time.

Honorable mention to most of the dialog between Sheridan and Lochley. She still feels stiff with the other characters — trying to be the hard-ass Ivanova type in a way that Tracey Scoggins just cannot pull off with her perfect makeup and hair — but her banter with Sheridan is almost always loaded with gems that are delivered neatly.

SHERIDAN: I’m caught in a web of my own good intentions.
LOCHLEY: Well, the road to hell is paved with them, sir.
SHERIDAN: I know, but why does it have to go through this office?

Or, as Lochley’s explaining why, legally, she has to cooperate with Bester:

LOCHLEY: How am I doing do far?
SHERIDAN: Annoyingly logical.
LOCHLEY: Thank you.
SHERIDAN: It wasn’t a compliment.

Most Arc-ish Moment: Londo has a chat with Zack. The security chief doesn’t understand why Londo is moping about — being emperor sounds like a sweet gig. But Londo has forebodings, both from Centauri premonitions about the future, and from family history — he will be the second Mollari to be emperor, and that one ended badly, too.

babylon 5 5x06 Strange Relations - londo and zack — “This is where it begins to go bad for all of us.”

Knowing what’s coming, he’s not wrong. But even on first watch, it was easy to remember the threads — Londo’s premonition of his death at G’kar’s hands, the flash-forward Sheridan had about him and Delenn being held captive by the Centauri, and, of course, the creepy Shadow stuff going on in the palace.

Yeah, this is where it all starts to go bad for Londo … and everyone in his orbit.

Overall Rating: 4.3 of 5.0 — After two episodes that were largely filler (entertaining in their own way, but still not really progressing anything), we finally get some plot movement around the Telepaths, the Alliance, and an array of personal stories. It’s the best episode of the season so far.

(Rating History)

Other Resources for this episode:

Lurker’s Guide
Babylon Project Wiki
IMDb
AV Club (covers eps 6-10 of the season)
TV Tropes
Sci-Fi Musings (home of the little videos in so many of these reviews I’ve done)
Sundry Thoughts

Previous episode: 5×05 “Learning Curve”

Next episode: 5×07 “Secrets of the Soul” – Hot telepath sex, not-so-hot telepath origins, and aliens who are (gasp) keeping secrets

Reposted on Pluspora.

B5 Rewatch: 5×05 “Learning Curve”

Wherein we learn more about being a Ranger, none of which is pleasant

A-Plot: A delegation from the Rangers goes from Minbar to B5 to chat with Delenn, the Entil-zha. Two of them are older gents, instructors — Turval, from the religious caste, and Durhan, of the warrior caste — and they bring with them two trainees, Tannier from the religious and Rathenn from the warriors.

Along the way, they get entangled with a new gang boss in DownBelow, Trace. The New Boss has Big Plans, and he’s doing some demonstration killings to show people who’s in charge.

Babylon 5 5x05 Learning Curve - Trace — Bullying Gang Boss Leader is a Bully

Unfortunately (for all concerned), recruit Tannier gets involved in one of Trace’s incidents — and ends up being seriously curb-stomped as another demonstration. That leads to Delenn taking the whole matter away from Zack and station security, and handling it via the Rangers. “Those who harmed him,” she tells Lochley, “now have power over him. He must take back that power, or he will never be whole again.”

Tannier, barely back on his feet, is given a chance to duke it out solo with an increasingly panicked New Boss. The recruit ends up taking the guy apart, resolving both the New Boss problem and giving Tannier back the self-respect and self-control he’ll need as a Ranger.

DURHAN: Where is your fear now, Tannier?
TANNIER: Gone, Master.
TURVAL: And what do you feel? Anger? Do you feel triumphant? Happiness? Joy?
TANNIER: Pity.
DURHAN: Why?
TANNIER: Because this is all he will ever have and all he will ever know. Because his name will be swallowed by silence. Forgotten. His name belongs to no one.
TURVAL: And who does your name belong to? History? The world?
TANNIER: No. It belongs to me.

And then we get some neat little bows, and Security moves in to clean up the mess.

Babylon 5 5x05 Learning Curve - post fight bow — “Don’t mind me, I just beat up this dude who beat me up.”

There’s a lot of this that seems to play well, if a bit preachy. On reflection, it does make the Rangers seem a bit more, um, cult-like, and with a fondness for violence as a way of resolving problems. That is, in part, their remit, but it’s also an extension of, as Garibaldi later comments, Minbari inability to back down from a righteous fight.

That these are the guys who are running interstellar security and espionage for the Alliance is both comforting and uncomfortable.

B-Plot: The Mystery of Lochley Continues! Garibaldi is obsessing over the station’s new captain, her past, and which side she fought on in the Civil War.

This leads to a blow-up between the two (with a very uncomfortable Zack sitting by), where Lochley ends up not-confessing that, yeah, she was loyal to Earthforce, because she believed in the chain of command, she wanted to keep her crew safe, and she wasn’t ordered to do something she couldn’t in good conscience do.

LOCHLEY: I am a soldier, Mr. Garibaldi, and as such my vocabulary is rather limited. I only really understand three words: loyalty, duty, honor. If I did it your way, one of those would have to go … and then the other two would become meaningless. Just like this conversation. Good day.

That hardly satisfies Garibaldi, esp. since it reinforces the question of why Sheridan would have picked her for the job.

(Parenthetical note: some poor direction or editing here: In some parts of the scene, the crowd in the cafeteria is definitely hanging on every word Lochley says as she and Garibaldi get into it, complete with applause when she leaves; but in the main shot when she’s saying it, everyone in the background is just chit-chatting amongst themselves.)

While the scene is a little clumsy and rushed, it’s a solid, legitimate argument against what Sheridan & Co. did. JMS plays fair with both sides — which is fine, now, but back actually during the Civil War, a lot of comments were made that “just obeying orders” or “the military can’t set political policy” were treated as weaselly, if not evil. Turning around and treating Lochley’s “as long as I don’t get ask to commit war crimes, it’s not my place to interfere” as something we want to hear our protagonist saying needs a little bit more explanation at this point.

In a later scene, Lochley mentions something in passing that Delenn picks up on as indicating that she’s known Sheridan in the past. And the final scene of the episode has Delenn and Sheridan in bed that night, discussing the matter (or having discussed the matter) — with Delenn on the far side of the mattress, her back turned to him …

DELENN: I’m going to pretend that you were going to tell me this sooner or later.
SHERIDAN: I was just looking for the right time.
DELENN: Ten seconds after you thought of it would have been good.
SHERIDAN: Yeah. Yeah, maybe so.

What “this” is will remain a mystery until next episode.

Other Bits and Bobs: Garibaldi is beginning to work with Byron’s telepaths, though they seem unenthused (or perhaps just disdainful of Garibaldi and the other nats).

He’s also beginning to butt heads with Zack. There’s still a mentor/mentee and even old friends aspect to their relationship, but Garibaldi doesn’t want to listen to Zack, and there are hints here that he’s accessing station security info that Zack doesn’t approve of.

Meanwhile: This episode has one of the rare cases of an actor who played two significant (and not heavily made-up) characters: Turhan Bey, who not only plays the Religious Caste Ranger Instructor Turval here, but back in S.2 played the Centauri Emperor Turhan. This was his last credited role before his death a few years later.

In the script book, JMS recounts how a lot of this episode was driven by the curb-stomping he received when he was young, and at a time when he just got booted out of the cult he’d fallen into. A lot of the “face your fear” stuff here seems to come from this incident, even if Joe never got a chance to beat the shit out of his attacker while his colleagues stood around and applauded.

(His letting the remaining anger about that incident drive this episode is one of the reasons he feels it’s so weak.)

Most Dramatic Moment: Yeah, probably Lochley’s “Loyalty, Duty, Honor” speech to Garibaldi.

Honorable Mention to the cool dismantling of the retreating gang as they seek to escape their level of DownBelow, with thugs being picked off from the front and rear and dragged into the shadows by the Rangers. Not only is it creepy, but when the (mostly Minbari) Rangers in the shadows finally become visible in the dim down-lighting, they look positively satanic.

(The whole incident is scary — while the Mora’Dum, the “Application of Terror,” is meant to be about a Ranger overcoming their own terror, Trace, the New Boss, is clearly terrified by the whole matter, too.)

Most Amusing Moment: Gotta be the final scene there between Sheridan and Delenn.

Babylon 5 5x05 Learning Curve - Sheridan and Delenn — Sheridan faces the No Win Scenario

Honorary Mention to: One of the new cross-species Ranger recruits is a Pak’ma’ra — who refuses to learn new languages, and whose dietary habits make it difficult to house him with the other Rangers.

Delenn figures out that the ubiquity of the Pakmara (and the fact that nobody wants to pay any attention to them) makes them perfect couriers for the Rangers, turning lemons into lemonade.

Most Arc-ish Moment: This episode is 98% arc-free, but there is one intriguing moment where Delenn and Turval are chatting, and he mentions how Lennier, now at Ranger Camp (though unseen in the episode) is not tackling training in a healthy fashion, driving himself to the breaking point.

Delenn, of course, knows why, but it’s not like she can talk much about it. She just asks Turval to watch over him.

It might have made this episode a lot better — and a lot more on-point — if we’d gotten Lennier rather than Tennier as one of the visiting apprentice Rangers.

Overall Rating: 3.5 of 5.0 — This episode is … kind of a waste of time, in an otherwise crowded season. There’s some minor progress on side fronts, but with Londo, G’kar, and the Telepaths all MIA, there’s just not that much there there, though what’s there is entertaining. It’s hardly a bad episode in and of itself — it just feels like an unnecessary one. Its problem is strategic (where it shows up in the series and what it does there) more than tactical (the show itself).

That’s not just my opinion. JMS has commented, “There are some stories you tell that you look back at later and wonder, what the hell was I thinking?” Between not having a core-character-focused story (after the previous not-a-core-character-focused story), and using yet another interchangeable violent crime guy trying to take over the gangs, Joe opines he would just as soon this episode vanish softly and silently away.

(Rating History)

Other Resources for this episode:

Lurker’s Guide
Babylon Project Wiki
IMDb
AV Club (covers eps 1-5 of the season)
TV Tropes
Sci-Fi Musings (home of the little videos in so many of these reviews I’ve done)
Sundry Thoughts

Previous episode: 5×04 “A View from the Gallery”

Next episode: 5×06 “Strange Relations” – Telepaths! Psi-Corps! Assassinations! Divorces! Finally, some chewy arc bits!

Reposted on Pluspora.

B5 Rewatch: 5×04 “A View from the Gallery”

An unusual slice-of-life episode, as epic events and characters are observed by … B5 janitors

A-Plot: The focus in this episode are the two floating maintenance workers, Mack and Bo. The former is salt-of-the-earth building super, always with a wry quip about the little guy. The latter is also grounded, but has a little bit bigger perspective.

Over the course of the episode they have chances to observe — and comment to each other about — each of the major characters, and their relationships. It’s actually feels still part of the TNT reintroduction of the series, since there’s both a lot of show and a lot of tell.

Beyond observation, there are two parts of this plot. First, there’s the sense that the little guys (like Mack and Bo) never get paid attention to by the big guys. They’re the set changers in a kabuki play, invisible except when someone has a complaint. On the flip side, there’s also the idea that the little guys look for something more consequential than their work life. Bo, in particular, envies the snazzy Star Fury pilots out there, dogfighting their ways to glory.

So Byron (whilst they’re hunkering down with the teeps in Brown Sector) links Bo up to one of the pilots — initially terrifying, then exciting, then …

Babylon 5 5x04 View Gallery - Bo as pilot — Bo suddenly seeing himself as a Starfury pilot

The vision is interrupted — but it’s a taste of a life he never had, never really grasped, making him both more respectful of the pilots and more glad of the role he gets to play on a daily basis.

A third aspect to this part of the plot is that, even as we see the little guys both feeling rare bits of appreciation and even a little adventure, we also get to observe how they see through the facade of heroism, up-close. Delenn and Sheridan’s love. Lochley’s fierceness. Franklin’s pain. G’Kar and Londo’s ties that bind. The telepaths’ humanity. It feel a bit stagey at times, but it still manages to work.

B-Plot: There’s a fleet of evil aliens looking to invade B5’s sector — let’s call them the McGuffins, because in the end who they are and what motivates them isn’t important, and they’ll never be seen again. Anyway, the station knows they’re on the way because of the Gaim. B5 has to give them, at the least, a bloody nose to teach them not to move along to another sector.

Lochley is facing her first big military challenge. B5 is a formidable force, but with the White Star fleet away (see last episode), they’re vulnerable.

Sheridan is facing the reality of not being in charge of the station any longer, but still wanting to see Delenn protected. Delenn, on the other hand, isn’t going to be the damsel locked in the tower for protection.

Garibaldi is fighting for his job, having both gotten the initial Gaim intel, but also missing out on some key strengths of the bad guys. He’s also paranoid about Lochley, trying to pin down on what side she fought during the Civil War.

Franklin is prepping for the big battle, to receive casualties both from B5 and the attacking aliens. When Bo asks why he’s willing to save aliens there to kill them, he exposits some backstory about how his own father (who visited the station in 2×10 “GROPOS”) had his life saved by an enemy doctor, inspiring Franklin to go into medicine himself.

Londo and G’Kar are in shelter, bickering, but also giving us a few glimpses at themselves through their origins. G’Kar grew up in bomb shelters, barely protected from the Centauri bombings, always eventually coming back out into the sun. Londo, on the other hand, was always saddled with layers of noble duty — he never grew up, as G’Kar put it, only grew old.

(That insight will inform the rest of the season, as G’Kar blossoms in the sunlight of freedom, and Londo becomes ever more burdened by his destiny and his duty. More on this below.)

Byron is protecting and honing his people, quoting Shakespeare (again), but still being moved enough by humanity to help Bo make the connection he’s looking for.

Ultimately, the McGuffins are defeated, thanks to a deus ex White Star return of the fleet to trounce them. The command crew are wearied but satisfied with their jobs. Sheridan and Delenn can bill and coo. And Franklin gets stuck signing the death certificates.

The B-plot, in the end, isn’t meaningful, except to advance its entwined A-plot. It would have been nice to have thrown in some plot development in what’s been a slow start to a busy season, but …

Other Bits and Bobs:

Meanwhile: JMS has noted that Mack was modeled somewhat after Harlan Ellison, who had been pestering him the entire series about doing an episode from the perspective of “the little people.” Ellison gets a story credit on this episode.

Most Dramatic Moment: Franklin, having already talked about his desire to go out and find any lives he save after the battle … ends up the episode tagging corpses overflowing out into the hallways.

Babylon 5 5x04 View Gallery - Franklin morgue — You think Mack and Bo have it tough?

As Mack starts saying in complaint to Bo, “They get all the glory, we get all the mess. Well, maybe not all the mess.”

Most Amusing Moment: Mack and Bo exchange any number of amusing quips, not even counting their interactions with the series protagonists, but the best has to come as Londo and G’Kar, after lengthy bickering, kvetching, and kvelling, wander off …

Londo: [uncomfortably] I think I will see how things are going out there.
G’Kar: I’ll go too. Good idea.
Londo: What, are you afraid I won’t come back, G’Kar?
G’Kar: No, afraid you will. [They walk off.]
Mack: [to Bo] So, how long you figure they’ve been married?

Amusing, but insightful. The two are bound, if not by oaths of love, by deeper strands of destiny and personality. There are times when it seems that B5 is actually a show about those two aliens, and, even if it’s not true, it’s still close to being so.

Honorable mention to Delenn arguing Mack and Bo out of escorting her to an escape pod at Sheridan’s orders. It may be Sinclair who studied from the Jesuits, but he instilled some of that into the Minbari generations ago, and Delenn has learned her lesson well.

Most Arc-ish Moment: Much of this episode is throw-away regarding arc, but the interaction between Londo and G’Kar and their mutual childhoods is both foundational and predictive of where things are going for the two of them.

G’Kar: Ah, that explains a great deal.
Londo: Really? And what exactly does it explain, G’Kar?
G’Kar: I spent my years in one shelter after another, but sooner or later, I was able to leave the shelter and walk out into the daylight. You do not have that luxury. You carry your shelter with you. Every day. You did not grow up, you grew old.

Babylon 5 5x04 View Gallery - Mack Bo reading — Mack and Bo in the raid shelter, enjoying some time off.

Overall Rating: 4.1 of 5.0 –My son, who’s always had a love-hate relationship with (his dad forcing him to watch) B5, opined, as the credits rolled, that he’d be happy to watch B5 in the future if every ep was like this.

I think this comes mainly from that human, non-epic, un-pompous note to it. Even though some of the dialog from JMS feels a bit — elaborate and heavy, even from Mac and Bo — it’s still much more of a grounded episode, reflecting not just the legendary heroes (and villains), but the little guys who get whipped up into their wakes.

We’ve seen B5 from other perspectives in the past — but that was the news media, friendly and un-. Mack and Bo, even if a bit too precious and wise at times, still give us an everyman’s perspective on life on B5 that’s too often missing in the sturm und drang of galaxy-shaking drama.

(Rating History)

Other Resources for this episode:

Lurker’s Guide
Babylon Project Wiki
IMDb
AV Club (covers eps 1-5 of the season)
TV Tropes
Sci-Fi Musings (home of the little videos in so many of these reviews I’ve done)
Sundry Thoughts

Previous episode: 5×03 “The Paragon of Animals”

Next episode: 5×05 “Learning Curve” – No janitors, just Ranger trainees, going toe-to-toe with a new gangster chief on B5. Oooookay.

Reposted on Pluspora.

TV Review: “Endgame”

A short-lived show about an agoraphobic Russian chessmaster who solves murders. As one does.

The “arrogant and eccentric asshole genius who solves crimes” trope is an ancient one (hey, Sherlock!), and “… but never leaves his house” is also a sizeable subcategory (think Nero Wolfe, among many others). Endgame fits pretty neatly into that setup, but is sufficiently charming and innovative to have deserved a longer run than it got.

Running on Canadian TV 2011-12, it’s the story of Arkady Balagan, an ex-pat Russian chessmaster living as a hermit in a Vancouver luxury hotel, unable to leave after witnessing the fiery killing of his fiancee, Rosemary, in front of the place. Unable to travel for competition purses, and not earning enough money from pay-to-play chess games with the hoi-polloi, Arkady backs into a career as an amateur solver of mysteries (usually murders), using his analytical skills, his ability to read opponents, his talent at visualization, and just plain old being the smartest guy in the room. Being a melancholic Russian who drinks a lot apparently doesn’t hurt, either.

Since he can’t leave the Huxley hotel (and since they can plausibly set only so many murders inside of the place), he ends up making use of the usual varied band of helpers as legmen, on- and off-premises: the game theory grad student who’s willing to be paid in games with the master, the bartender at the hotel who serves him so much booze, the savvy immigrant housekeeping staffer, the sister of his fiancee Pippa (who’s usually pursuing leads about Rosemary’s murder), and, occasionally, the obnoxious head of hotel security who’d actually love to throw him out on his ass.

This is not deeply original TV, nor the most innovatively-written thing you might watch, but it does quite a nice job of the tropes it uses. Chess lends itself to the plots in various clever ways. Arkady’s visualized puzzling things out (where he steps into the scenes he’s speculating about) is fun. And the mysteries (most, but not all, of them about murder) are pretty well written.

Shawn Doyle as Arkady does great Russian, and plays the bored, entitled, asshole eccentric in quite the entertaining fashion. The supporting players all do nicely with what they’re given, and most of them get some time in the plot spotlight over the course of the 13 episodes.

The weakest part of Endgame is, ironically, the motivating force behind Arkady’s dilemma: the mysterious daylight murder of his fiancee. This is a key element in the early episodes, with Arkady certain (to the point of alienating folk) that it was a KGB hit on him, because he’s donated so much money to pro-democracy movements in Russia, but as the season wends on, Arkady seems less and less invested in the murder, even as the plot being revealed around it gets bigger, hitting a flashpoint in the last episode. The contrast is confusing, and muddies what should have been a much more solid through-line to the series.

Endgame ran on Showcase TV in Canada, but didn’t do well ratings-wise and was canceled. It was rerun by Hulu, with hopes that it might do well enough to warrant a second season, but no go. It’s currently viewable at Imdb.com TV (through Amazon Prime), though it can take a while to find, as any search for “Endgame” keeps pulling up some stupid superhero flick.

Overall, I thought it worth the time I invested into watching through it. It reminded me, a bit, of the much more successful US series The Mentalist (the eccenric, unlikeable, genius, outsider crime-solver driven a bit nuts by the murder of his beloved). I do wish we’d had a chance to see more of Endgame, but I enjoyed what we got.

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TV Review: Invincible, Season 1 (2021)

This bloody take on four-color teen heroes is even better, and bloodier, on-screen.

Yeah, there are spoilers here. Sorry. TL;DR: Bloody, but good.

I was a big follower of Robert Kirkman’s Invincible from Day 1 to its conclusion, and I have a complete set of the graphic novels. So I was both looking forward to, and prepared for, the animated series airing on Amazon Prime.

Sort of.

On one level, Invincible is the tale of a high school kid who finally inherits the super-powers he expected from his dad, a Superman-type called Omni-Man. The tale is full of teen angst, learning capabilities, trying to mature, dealing with girlfriends and best friends and having to duck out (yet again) to save the world. It’s conventional in a lot of ways, but well done for all that.

Mark Grayson and his fellow students — It’s like Riverdale, only with super-powers

The other level is a darker story, of nothing being what it seems. The various other heroes we meet are full of egos, short tempers, and bad personalities. The Global Defense Agency, run by Cecil Stedman, is big picture enough that it engages in sketchy behavior to maintain world order. And, after a relatively idyllic first episode of Mark gaining and learning about his powers, training with his dad, and getting both a costume and a code name …

… his father, Omni-Man, ambushes and kills the Justice League-esque Guardians of the Globe.

And not in a “ha-ha, secret death gas that quietly and cleanly makes them softly collapse” kind of way. It’s a bloody, brutal, flesh-crunching, ichor-spattering, dismembering sort of battle. Superman taking out the Justice League, any way he can. Which Kirkman’s original comic did, but which has a greater impact in animation than on the still page.

Invincible - Omni-Man — Omni-Man has a bad day

That sets the tone for Invincible — a lot of “normal” comic book action, but, when violence occurs, a brutality that is hypothetically realistic (what would it look like if Superman punched someone in the face with all his strength?) but also shocking in its gore factor.

This is a comic book series not for kids. R-rated, at the very least.

That said, it all works, at least for me. The tension between that juxtaposition, the mystery of why Omni-Man killed those super-heroes, and if, and how, his guilt will be unveiled, and what that will mean for his marriage and to his son, Mark — that’s hanging over the season like a sword, and when it finally drops, it is utterly a game-changer, and about has violent as you can imagine a fight between a really pissed-off Superman and an equally angry Superboy could be.

The show all also a rare opportunity for a creator — Robert Kirkman (of Walking Dead fame) — to collaborate on redoing a major opus of his for a new medium and to clean up and improve his story. Which he actually does. As I got into the series, I went back and reread those early graphic novels. Kirkman maintains all the dramatic beats and characters and challenges, but he largely improves on them, tightens them up, makes them work as a coherent tale. Distractions get trimmed. Core development gets better focus. Time frames are accelerated/compressed. Some ethnic diversity gets introduced in some key roles (on screen and in the voice work). It’s overall a better tale in this retelling.

Invincible - Amber — Mark’s sometimes-girlfriend Amber gets recast to add diversity. She’s also rewritten as a better, stronger character.

Invincible is not for everyone. My sainted wife dealt with the series gamely until the final installment. Graphic super-hero violence is on display — not gratuitously, nor incessantly, but, like real-world violence (and this is sort of the point) slamming onto the scene just when you least expect it. Kirkman wants to address what it means when someone throws a bus full of people, or demolishes a building, or what happens when an alien invasion lands downtown and those aren’t convenient “disintegrators” they’re wielding.

Invincible trying to save people — And not all stories have happy endings.

But he also wants to give us coming of age tales, teens with power figuring out what those abilities mean, how they should or shouldn’t use them, and why, and what sort of codes of morality they’re going to adopt as they get faced with life-and-death decisions. Mark, as Invincible, is the focus here, but there’s a large cast, and everyone has moral and ethical dilemmas they have to face.

Invincible cast — Some of the (large) cast of Invincible. Kirkman does great names.

The animation, from Korea, is top-notch, and very much in line with the original artwork by Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker. The voice talent is good (even if some of the casting doesn’t altogether work for me), and the story fully engaged me, even knowing where things were leading.

Invincible comic art — Invincible and Atom Eve, comic art

Invincible and Atom Eve animated — Invincible and Atom Eve, animated. They did a great job with the clean style from the comics (except that Eve’s chest logo usually looked like it was a Venus symbol with an X on it, not with an electron cloud).

Looking forward to Season 2. If you have Amazon Prime, and don’t mind some impactful (but meaningful) gore, it’s highly recommended. Rating:

Invincible — For all the pain and angst, the joy Mark has while flying is always a great thing to see.

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“Revolution of the Daleks” was Daleks, but not at all Revolutionary

A great Doctor is hampered by a mediocre writer/showrunner.

Watched the Doctor Who ~~Christmas~~ New Years Special last night, and was once again reminded (after the long hiatus since the previous series) how much I like the characters/actors in the current iteration, but how little I’m engaged by the plots they are written into in the Chibnall era.

(I’ll try to minimize the spoilers here, beyond what’s been clearly visible in the episode title and very available press materials.)

So, up front, I continue to love Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor — she’s bright, caring, distracted, passionate, haunted. Whittaker is doing a brilliant job with her, and I’m quite sad at the rumors she’s leaving after the next series.

The supporting cast — the Doctor’s “fam” + Cap’n Jack Harkness — are also great here. They are sometimes pushed through some clunky dialog, but it’s been a great, unconventional team.

So that’s the good news.

The bad news is that showrunner Chris Chibnall, after (with some decent justification, but with mediocre substitutes) intentionally benching the Doctor’s class rogue’s gallery during Thirteen’s first series, then completely (and audaciously, but clumsily) rewriting Time Lord and Doctor history in the second series, here gives us The Number One Most Hackneyed Plot in Doctor Who History: a Dalek invasion.

He does so with a few twists, but, ultimately, it’s too derivative and just not well executed, hampered by cartoonishly stupid human villains and too-easily-manipulated alien villains. The most interesting element — the continuing Dalek debate about purity vs. survival — gets far too short shrift, in favor of pyrotechnics and mass slaughter of Brits.

(Also, given that the Daleks have invaded Earth multiple times in the past, and are well-known in government circles — why does nobody raise an eyebrow when they are “introduced” here? Or even give a lampshading, “Here we go again” comment? Answer: lazy writing.)

It’s overall a mediocre outing, which is nigh-unforgiveable given the many months we’ve been without our Doctor fix. There are some good moments — the Doctor’s life as a prisoner of the Judoon, discussions of what being in the Doctor’s circle of friends really means, lots of good character interaction — but the present action is little more than a Monster of the Week tale, and even the character work depended on too much backstory detail that the viewers needed to be forcibly reminded of.

Ah, well — the next series is theoretically showing up sometime in 2021. I look forward to more of Thirteen while we’ve got her.

Holding the police to a higher, older standard

Dragnet and Adam-12 were an LAPD-blessed ideals of what cops should be (even if the real cops weren’t).

Jack Webb was politically conservative. His police shows — Dragnet (1967-70), Adam-12 (1968-75) — were profoundly pro-police. They got production assistance from (and gave thanks/credits to) the Los Angeles Police Department, which, in the 60s-70s was billy-club conservative, too.

But, for all that, the shows were an expression of the ideal of “Protect and Serve.” They were, yes, propaganda for the LAPD as to what they wanted to be seen as, but, as such, they were aspirational. And I imprinted on them as what cops should be — not what they were, but what they thought they ought to be.

Dealing with the public for these 60s-70s cops was never easy. Sometimes it was just goofy civilians causing our heroes grief. Sometimes it was folk — good or bad — who were suspicious or disdainful of cops. Sometimes it was dangerous.

Through it all, our protagonists always maintained that public service, “To Protect and Serve” attitude. Even in the face of danger, known or possible, they were by the book, because that’s what made them policemen, not vigilantes.

The shows often touched on how the police regulated themselves, and it was fascinating. They dealt with rules. With procedures. Sometimes scary. Sometimes complex. Sometimes even unfair from a cop’s eye. But that was how it was — that’s what was needed to make cops, like Caesar’s wife, “beyond reproach.”

And the shows did deal with things like police brutality, or even police shootings, as when Friday himself was accused of an unjustified killing in Dragnet. “I thought maybe he had a gun” wasn’t treated as sufficient to get Friday off. “I was in fear of my life” wasn’t an excuse for using a firearm. Proving the other guy shot first was necessary for Friday to keep his job.

Dragnet - The Shooting Board (1967) — Spoilers, sweetie.

Or when Kent McCord, who went on to play Reed on Adam-12, played a cop accused of armed robbery. Friday gives a famous speech about how rough the life of a cop is, but how that’s what he signed up for and is glad he has.

The shows were unapologetically pro-police — but not because police were a special tribe, or uber-warriors, or beyond reproach, but because they were portrayed as dedicated, upright people of duty and honor, and because they policed their own.

There were no police union reps keeping accused cops from being questioned for days. No training films about kill-or-be-killed. No politicians nudge-and-winking abusive behavior against the out groups. No thin blue line of tribal silence when a cop did something illegal.

Civilians weren’t seen as potential threats until proven innocent. Racial prejudice was deemed profoundly unworthy of a protector of all the people. Choke holds and kneeling on someone’s neck would be unthinkable. Kitting up in paramilitary uniforms would have drawn a sneer and a snarky reference to military dictatorships.

Adam-12 - Shotgun, vs military gear — When things got *really* serious, they pulled out the shotgun, not the multi-million dollar army surplus tank.

Police were made out to be heroes in these shows because their actions, their ideals, their adherence to duty even dealing with disrespect, stress, frustration, judicial coddling of crooks, was beyond reproach. They were heroes, not in a Hollywood action sort of mold, gunning down the bad guys, but because they had a moral and ethical code and they stuck to it, no matter how difficult. And if anyone stumbled, or questioned that code, the wise elders (Friday, Malloy) stomped on them. Hard. Because being a cop was a trust — and betraying that trust, in any way, hurt everyone.

And for all that Webb was politically conservative, he and his police officers held no truck with racism or authoritarianism. It was way too close to WW2 for that lesson to have been forgotten.

Sure, it wasn’t a realistic portrayal of how the LAPD actually was, let alone is. But it did portray the ideal of what cops should be, with the aid and abetting of an actual police department.

Which brings us to today. Friday and Malloy (and Gannon and Reed) would all have been sorely tempted to take Derek Chauvin and his three buddies into an alley and thrash them within an inch of their lives, all the while lecturing them in Webbian tones as to how they had profoundly betrayed everything that made police better than thugs.

But they wouldn’t have. They would instead have stepped up and slapped the cuffs on. If they had witnessed George Floyd’s killing, and been unable to intervene, they would have been the first to testify as to what they’d seen. Because they would know, in every bone of their bodies, that bad cops are worse than the worst criminals. Because they corrupt the body politic, they destroy trust in our institutions, they make us all less free, less secure, less protected. Because they are traitors to their badges, and profoundly wrong.

It is, I confess, arguably silly to use TV characters as exemplars of how the police should behave. Ditto for, when I see cops acting a certain way or doing certain things, judging them against Reed and Malloy, or Friday and Gannon. What would Joe do?

Dragnet - Joe Friday — It would probably involve some speechifying

But these were characters crafted by a man who believed in what the police should be, with the input and guidance of a police department who were willing to put that vision forward as what they strove to at least appear as (even if they fell far below that level). So it’s no less silly than simply shrugging and saying “The cops are always right.”

The Jack Webb shows are myths, if highly detailed ones — and myths always carry truths worth looking at. So I’d rather have a Joe Friday running the Minneapolis PD than its current administration (let alone its loathsome police union leader, Bob Kroll). There would doubtless be policy directions he took I wouldn’t agree with. But he’d also approach the job as a public service, where his goal is to protect and serve the people of the city, not the cops that work there. Where the ideal of being the weary but noble protectors of the people, not their “dominators,” would flower.

Popular Television That We (Mostly) Don’t Watch

For all that TV seems to be on, there are a lot of things we don’t watch.

This one is inspired by Les, who posted his version over here.

You never realize how much/little TV you watch until you fill this out. Put a ✔ by the shows you have watched more than 10 episodes of. How about you?

1. Grey’s Anatomy:
2. Stranger Things:
3. The Vampire Diaries:
4. The Walking Dead:
5. Fear The Walking Dead:
6. Dexter:
7. American Horror Story:
8. Orange is the New Black:
9. A Million Little Things:
10. This is Us:
11. The Simpsons: ✔ – I’ve never been a regular viewer, but have certainly watched more than 10 over the years.
12. New Amsterdam:
13. Manifest:
14. How To Get Away With Murder:
15. Breaking Bad:
16. Sons of Anarchy:
17. Scandal:
18. Riverdale:
19. The Good Doctor:
20. House of Cards:
21. Once Upon a Time:
22. House: ✔
23. True Detective:
24. Dr. Pimple Popper:
25. Power:
26. Empire:
27. One Tree Hill:
28. Supernatural:
29. Family Guy:
30. Santa Clarita Diet:
31. Shameless:
32. Pretty Little Liars:
33. Secret Life of an American Teenager:
34. Bones:
35. Criminal Minds:
36. The 100:
37. Chicago Fire:
38. Chicago Med:
39. The Resident:
40. Game of Thrones:
41. The Big Bang Theory: ✔ – we watched multiple seasons on DVD, but eventually stopped long before it ended.
42. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia:
43. Lost:
44. The Sopranos:
45. NCIS:
46. NCIS Los Angeles:
47. NCIS New Orleans:
48. Law & Order SVU:
49. Gossip Girl:
50. How I Met Your Mother:
51. Blue Bloods:
52. Two Broke Girls:
53. The Office:
54. Blacklist:
55. Full House:
56. Fuller House:
57. Downton Abbey:
58. Hawaii Five-O: ✔ – this was only ever me, not Margie. Dropped after 3 seasons or so.
59. Big Mouth:
60. Last Man Standing:
61. Six Feet Under:
62. Wentworth:
63. Friends:
64. That 70s Show:
65. Girlfriends Guide to Divorce:
66. Heartland:
67. All-American:
68. Greek:
69. Yellowstone:
70. Better Call Saul:
71. You:
72. Rescue Me:
73. Scrubs:
74. Community:
75. Letter Kenney :
76. Kitchen Nightmares : ✔
77. The Masked Singer:
78. Robot Chicken:
79. Vikings:
80. Mind Hunters:
81. New Girl:
82. The Good Place:
83. Black Mirror:
83. Lucifer: ✔
84. Peaky Blinders:
85. iZombie: ✔ – we dropped this after a couple of seasons.
86. Parks and Rec:
87. Brooklyn 99:
88. Handmaid’s Tale:
89. Modern Family:
90. Smallville: ✔ – probably at least 10 in aggregate over the course of the series.
91. Seinfeld:
92. Gilmore Girls:
93. Charmed:
94. Private Practice:
95. Lost Girl:
96. True Blood:
97. Roswell:
98. Haven:
99. Mad Men:
100. Arrow: ✔ – and most of the CW Berlantiverse shows at one point or another, though the only one we still actively watch is Legends of Tomorrow.

A few comments:

That is a very weird list. Some of the shows are new, some old, some I’ve never heard of before. There are a number of them I watched an ep or two of before deciding it wasn’t my (or Margie’s) cuppa.
I watch even fewer mainstream-pop (or however you would categorize the above list) shows Les does, evidently.
Things we do pretty regularly watch, beyond what’s listed above: Rachel Maddow Show, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Supermarket Stakeout, The Profit, Miracle Workers, Forged in Fire, The Rookie, LEGO Masters, Legends of Tomorrow, Worst Cooks in America, Doctor Who (when it returns), Columbo (reruns). Occasionally we’ll run American Ninja Warrior, Shark Tank, or Beat Bobby Flay. That’s the current, rather sad, list, and it contains a lot more “reality” TV than I’d expected.

The Last Coming of “Preacher”

Seth Rogan’s adaptation of the irreverent comic had great moments, but never quite gelled.

We finally finished (a couple of months after the fact) AMC’s TV adaptation of Garth Ennis’ comic book series, Preacher.

Preacher s1 — The central trio, back in Season 1

Long story short, the 4-season adaptation is a bit of a hot mess, full of many great moments (quite a few of them, but by no means all, lifted or adapted from the original), but as a coherent story it suffers even more than the original.

Ennis wrote an odd but moving (and arguably insightful) paean to America, using hyperbolic sex and violence and iconoclastic religion to provide a old-style Western romance in modern clothing. Written in 3-6 issue arcs (to allow for trade paperback collection), the tale sometimes felt fragmented, but still progressed along narrative about Jesse Custer, his lethal girlfriend Tulip, and their vampiric and right bastard friend Cassidy.

Seth Rogan (Executive Producer) and company faced an insane challenge to mirror the scope and over-the-topness of the original, coupled with, well, the need to maintain a budget (which, for example, dictated keeping kinda-sorta to a single setting per season).

Preacher steve dillon — The central trio, as drawn by comic book artist Steve Dillon

The result a show that felt like a lot of great parts, cut-and-pasted together — plotlines that meandered, events and narratives that seemed locked into a given season without following through (or following through only weakly) in subsequent seasons, characters that came and went or faded in and out, just …

Preacher eugene — Eugene “Arseface” Root, acted heroically by Ian Colletti

Well, it didn’t keep me from enjoying what I was watching. The music/sound, the cinematography, and, in particular, the actors were all great. Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, and Joe Gilgun owned the roles of Jesse, Tulip, and Cassidy (and kudos to Negga who genuinely made me forget the comic book Tulip was a blond white woman). Graham McTavish as the Saint of Killers, Pip Torrens as Starr, and (massive makeup-sympathy shout-out to) Ian Colletti as Eugene … the casting was all just excellent.

The parts were solid, but the whole … well, in the end, it was never quite clear what the TV series Preacher was about. The perils of absolute power, the dangers of hubris, the negligence (if not malignity) of God, the perversity of the universe, the power of friendship … there’s a palpable effort to make it all seem coherent and meaningful in the last episode, drawing in bits from the original (and some great scenes), but by then it’s too late.

Which is a reason why, though I’ve read the graphic novel series a half-dozen times, I won’t be re-watching the TV series any time soon. It was a fine experience while it lasted, and on an episode-by-episode basis, full of talent and imagination, but it never quite made it as a coherent story.

A tip of the hat, though. I’d have considered the series unmakeable. That we got something as good as this should be considered a triumph for the company. I wish it had been better, but I can imagine so many ways it could have been worse.

TV Review: “Good Omens” (2019)

Gaiman has kept his word to Pratchett to make this a production to be proud of.

Finished up this evening the Amazon Prime adaptation of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman’s delightful novel of the Apocalypse, Good Omens.

Gaiman had committed to Pratchett that it would be adapted to TV, but only if it could be done well. He kept his commitment. We all had tremendous fun watching it.
I have no idea how well it will play for folk who have never read the book (an activity I can heartily recommend). (James has only gotten 2/3 of the way through, but he enjoyed it, beginning to end.)
As someone who has (multiple times, and as a prelude to watching the series), I found the translation between media — what was taken away, what was added, what was de-emphasized, what was focused on, what was changed — to work pretty damned nicely. The novel is heavily laden with interior voice and backstory and trivia, which is a delight to read, but a challenge (met) to render on television. Making it more, but by no mean solely, about Aziraphale and Crowley, is part of what makes it click for a TV setting.
A special shout-out to having the nerve to include the final set of lines in the promos for the series. And they are even more delightful in context.
Michael Sheen and David Tennant are Aziraphale and Crowley. Brilliant.
I don’t agree with all the decisions for visualization, voices, or character design … but it feels a very English production for all that, and it’s a delight.

Ooooh, a “Stumptown” TV series!

A great non-super-hero crime genre comic book is coming to TV this fall.

Oooh. Love "Stumptown" and love Cobie Smulders, so this might get me watching network TV this fall. https://t.co/OoMSIvdMob #Stumptown
— ***Dave Hill (@Three_Star_Dave) May 9, 2019

Oooh. Love “Stumptown” and love Cobie Smulders, so this might get me watching network TV this fall. https://t.co/OoMSIvdMob #Stumptown

“Stumptown” is a great comic series by Greg Rucka (with able realistic art by Matthew Southworth, sort of a Portland-based noir detective tale. I’m tickled pink that it’s been picked up as a TV series. Here’s hoping ABC does it justice.

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Previously, on “Lucifer” …

We’re ready for the show’s return in a few weeks.

This show became one of my family’s favorites. It’s hardly Citizen Kane, but it’s an entertaining supernatural police procedural, cop dramedy, will-they-won’t-they romance, and while we enjoy the cast as a whole, Tom Ellis is, frankly, superb as the Devil with a Confused Heart of Gold-Tone Alloy.

The show, very loosely based on the DC Vertigo title of the same name, was canceled on Fox after three seasons, but a campaign by fans and the producers got it picked up for a new season on Netflix (starting 8 May). Looking forward to it.

excuse me, do you have a moment to talk about our dark lord and savior? #lucifer pic.twitter.com/EEHIkrTk2a
— Lucifer (@LuciferNetflix) April 19, 2019

The trailer in the tweet above gives a setup for the show, for those who haven’t seen it. (And, no, for those worried, the show doesn’t promote Satanism, any more than Hercules: The Legendary Journeys promoted paganism.)

RIP, Georgia Engel

The actress played Georgette Franklin on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”.

While she did a lot more in her career than play the lovable, caring, ditzy blonde Georgette Franklin (eventually Georgette Baxter) on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, that’s the role I remember her in. Georgette was everyone’s friend, soft-spoken, gentle, kind, seemingly not too bright, but with a steel core when it came to protecting her friends and values. Georgette was both an object of fun on the show, but also part of its heart, and Engle played her delightfully.

georgette franklin - georgia engel — Georgia as Georgette

Thanks, ma’am, for many hours of great entertainment.

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Welcome to the Second Age of Middle-earth …

If Amazon’s Middle-earth series is going to be set in the Second Age …

Well, that really doesn’t narrow it down much. It’s a bit like saying, “We’re setting a series here on Earth, somewhere between King Tut and the modern era.” That’s sort of hard to build a coherent narrative around.

That said, there are two major story arcs taking place in Middle-Earth after Morgoth (Sauron’s former boss and a much more powerful dude than Sauron ever was) is defeated at the end of the First Age. The first is creation of the island of Númenor and the rise of the race of Men living there (who are sternly warned by the Powers that Be that they can do whatever they want, as long as they don’t sail west out of sight of their island, toward the Undying Lands, and you know how that story is going to end).

The other thing going on during this vast 3500-or-so years is Sauron, having survived the fall of his boss Morgoth …

a. … becoming an advisor and friend to the Elves, and advising one of them on how to craft some nifty Rings of Power, and, through charm and wit and a bit of black magic, cutting himself in on that Ring action: forging the One Ring that has power over the ones the Elves have, as well as others he then hands out like candy (“The first powerful mind-controlling artifact is free!”) to lords of the Dwarves and Men.

b. taking over Middle-Earth, except for some areas of resistance by Elves and Dwarves, but then being defeated by the prideful Men of Númenor and taken captive.

c. As a captive, becoming an advisor and friend to Ar-Pharazôn, the King of Númenor. Sauron’s the one who whispers in his ear that all those injunctions against sailing West are “Sad!” and “Unfair!” and “Fake Curses!” This leads to the inevitable Númenórean expedition to conquer the West, which in turn leads to Númenor being sunk Atlantis-style and only some of the Men who were “the Faithful” getting to flee to Middle-earth proper, there founding the kingdoms of Gondor and Arnor.

d. Having survived the drowning of Númenor, eventually launching a new war on the Elves and Men, leading to a Last Alliance between those races, which leads to the defeat of Sauron — for a time — while the One Ring is lost — for a time. And that’s the end of the Second Age.

Some of this may sound familiar …

(The Third Age which follows is basically a slow diminishment of the Elves and Dwarves and even the Men, in part through their own doing, in part from the actions of the rings, in part as guerilla warfare by a slowly recovering Sauron. The northern Man kingdom of Arnor is destroyed by Ringwraith action, the southern of Gondor is ground down by action coming out of Morder, the Dwarves suffer setbacks in Moria and Erebor, the Elves start booking trips to the Uttermost West, and so then we get the whole Lord of the Rings saga.)

So there’s definitely stuff — over thousands of years — that you could build a multi-season story around. The rise of Númenor , Sauron shenanigans, the forging of the Rings, the fall of Númenor … depending on how much they want to butt up against that Peter Jackson prologue, they could go all the way to that Last Alliance.

If you go over that long a period, you have very few characters that are around that whole time — Sauron, certainly, and the Elves. No humans, though, which means either zeroing in on a particular time frame within that period, or having an evolving cast.

The only other candidates might be the Istari, the wizards — but canonically they don’t get sent to Middle-Earth until the Third Age. Still, as Maiar, lesser angels, one or more of them could still show up in some role. It’ll give the purists fits, but that’s almost inevitable anyway.

You could zero in on one particular period, at the end of the age: the fall of Númenor, the founding of Gondor and Arnor, the Last Alliance of Men and Elves, the fall of Sauron. There are humans whose lives span that period. But that gets squarely into Peter Jackson-adjacent territory chronologically and narratively (“Oh, look, yet another Elves & Men vs. Sauron saga”).

Sadly, despite the desires of the article author below, it’s highly unlikely we’re going to see Cate Blanchett or Hugo Weaving reprise their elvish roles for an Amazon TV series. But the geek in me looks forward to debates over “who’s the better Galadriel?” and the like, so it’s all good.

Or, so I hope.

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