Watched season 1 of
Riverdale, a CW/Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa adaptation of Archie Comics. Premise: Victoria Lodge (Camila Mendes) moves to the seemingly wholesome town of Riverdale, making friends with Archie (KJ Apa) and Betty (Lili Reinhart) among others. However it soon becomes clear there are darker issues within the town....
Not read the Archie comics and it put my sister off watching it for awhile due to their image has 1950's, very cleancut and so on, we ended up having to impose a "no talking during" rule as we tended to have a lot we wanted to discuss the show. The show does mix 50's style with modern in clothing and behaviour, usually mixing well but not always (and tried too hard with Victoria's modern buzzwords in early episodes). It also has a murder mystery which allows it to try to push at dark heart of Riverdale so mixing up the cleancut kids with modern troubles.
We were hooked in the first episode, a likeable Archie, Betty's love for him, Veronica's style, Betty's gay best friend Kevin (Casey Cott), there was real chemistry between characters, a sense of humour we enjoyed. There was a sense the show wasn't always certain of what it wanted to do, changing things as it went on and chopping changing romances with mixed effect, some worked really well and others didn't
Main four characters (Archie, Betty, Verinco and Jughead (Cole Sprouse)) are well done but side characters are mixed: Kevin just about enough but fades out, Cheryl (Madelaine Petsch) relies more on flair and the murder mystery then depth, the pussycats barely in it, some adults are really well done but sometimes only after a big twist involving them and sometimes barely done at all.
The big mystery? It worked in providing side storylines but when episodes became mystery centred rather then relationship centred, they tended to be the worst episodes. Some twists didn't work becuase the relevant character isn't built up enough though some good twists, is an element of the children getting away with stuff they shouldn't or being a bit too successful once or twice but mystery gets stronger in the end phase.
Look forward to season 2
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Watched Marvel/Netflix team up
The Defenders where Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist team up against the Hand for eight episodes. It is trying to combine four groups+new baddie in eight episodes, spends first two gently pushing their heroes into meeting each other but going through five stories in those two episodes leads everything bitty and unfulfilling. They also do work to rehabilitate Danny Rand, showing Finn Jones has got better at fighting now with more training, working to make him less of a complete idiot to decent effect.
When they did unite the team, the main 4 were the strong point, some good banter, building relations and partnerships that might benefit the other shows. Jessica Jones style of humour didn't work as well as it did in Jessica Jones and they couldn't go indepth on her, Luke Cage had some different angles from others and had no relationship with Iron Fist who comes across as the... youngster of the group, Daredevil comes across really well. However the side characters didn't benefit from this, one set
pretty much vanish once meet up happens, the others don't quite click as script feels forced and trying to make emotional moments happen so what should have been big moments felt clunky. Misty possibly the only exception from this issue. Was excitement when Sigourney Weaver was cast as the big bad but she lacks memorability, usually they really build into the baddies and that has led to some great big bads but her development time gets squeezed, there are themes that could have been intresting but not enough time. There other issues with the baddies
Overall it was... fine. Nice enough humour, some likeable exchanges, some good action but too many ruined by poor lighting, some nice twists. I prefer the 13 episode shows where they can concentrate on the character, their friends and the big bad, where they have more time and less characters to juggle but this was nice.
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Watched second of season of
Preacher. This one saw some religious groups offended and yeah, there are three ways this season could reasonably offend
. Preacher comics as I understand has always had an element of controversy in their depiction of religion but I think the show justifies what they do for storyline and world building. That doesn't mean it isn't legitimate for others to go "sorry, crosses line for me"
It starts really strongly, Jesse, Tulip and Cassidy on a road trip so changes of scenery, good pace, the style of humour very much still there and shining
, the characters dynamics quickly restablished, very effective use of the big bad to provide tension and good action scenes. There is also a very moving strand in episode 2
.
Alas after the first two episodes, it goes downhill. It settles down in one place
which doesn't have to be a bad thing, first season used location and characters in the town well, season 2 has one episode showing a festive event and then doesn't use the location at all. They could be anywhere in the world for all it matters and it focuses very much on the group of three rather then people around them. Problem is, they aren't very intresting. There are four strands:
1) Jesse. The main figure, the main adventure. Unless Jesse is the the most part a bore and a jerk whose stuff might have an intresting moment now and again but tends to drag the episode down. Gets straight rather then inventive action scenes but those are poor. I have no reason to care about the Preacher or to like him or to warm.
2) Tulip. Tends to give life to an episode due to Ruth Negga's charismatic and energetic performance, has some fun adventures and attitude but during end phase, her story runs out of steam and gets repetitive. 3) Cassidy. Initially he is very much sidelined and the show misses his humour but he gradually grows into the show with a very intresting storyline with good emotional punch, it's ending doesn't land but the journey was worth it. 4)
had real potential and there are moments where it exploits the chance to be inventive, to world build but each time this theme (only every now and again), it always runs out of steam within the episode, that it never quite has enough.
The show isn't bad at this point, there are moments of amusement, good character stuff, inventive idea's but too much that doesn't work so things feel slow, episodes fine but not shining at best. It gets stronger near the end as Cassidy's storyline starts to build and they bring in the big bads
. They touched upon the baddies earlier in season but they keep it mostly in background till end when it introduces the main big bad. Apparently they are some of the big bads of the comics and those who read the comics seem to like the portrayal, the "background to big bad" episode is one of the best episodes of the two seasons as a lot of fun and most scenes they are in are strong.
Why do the baddies lift the show? The lead figure is charismatic, intelligent, a sense of the strange about him that fits the show, ruthless. The support baddies work well, one nice but incompetent, the other able but with a crush (which they use rarely but well) on the baddie but both could do a bit more building up. They work becuase they fit into the tone of the show, it allows for humour, happily embraces a bit of the strange. There is a sense of threat as they are skilled, ruthless figures, have lots of power and have success, the world building around them is intresting. Yet it also balances out by they have failures, they make misjudgements or sometimes poor luck and the show has fun with them when things go wrong.