Idiot Boxing, MCU TV shows edition: Cloak & Dagger, season 2 (2019); Jessica Jones, season 3 (2019) Agents of SHIELD, season 6 (2019)

Cloak & Dagger, season 2

I’m growing more wary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s TV shows, and season two of Cloak & Dagger illustrates most of the reasons why.

The first season of Cloak & Dagger introduced two fairly compelling characters, in a novel setting for the MCU, and threw them into a story with more than a little potential. Tandy Bowen (“Dagger”) and Tyrone Johnson (“Cloak”) had been granted bizarre, connected powers after a freak accident which took the lives of both Tandy’s father and Tyrone’s older brother. By that initial season’s end, they had discovered each other and the basic natures of their powers, although there were still plenty of questions to be answered.

Season two sees Tyrone hiding from the law after being framed for murder in season one, with Tandy helping him while also trying to help her mother and others recover from abuses of various kinds, including self-inflicted. While these two deal with their issues, frightening character Andre Deschaine emerges. Deschaine is a formerly-great jazz trumpeter who mysteriously lost his ability to play while trying to tap into a sort of metaphysical “zone” while playing one night. This event also caused Deschaine to start experiencing head-splitting headaches, but it also gave him the ability to seek out and find relief in the pain of others. The sinister part is that in order to find the relief from his own pain, Deschaine must force other people to maintain and sometimes relive their own pain.

I give the show credit for trying different elements and tackling some very uncomfortable subjects, from personal loss to abuse of some very disturbing types. And the very nature of the super powers in the show is more enigmatic than any other MCU film or TV show out there. The abilities to tap into other people’s hopes, fears, and pain lend themselves to more emotional stories, which is a rather bold move for a genre predicated on muscled-up characters usually hitting each other very hard in order to get their points across. By going a different route, Cloak & Dagger walks along its own path in the ever-expanding MCU.

Just one of many "minimalist" sets that would indicate that
the budget of the show is incredibly limited. While it works
at times, eventually it becomes a visual bore.

That said, my enthusiasm in watching the show never rose much above being moderately engaged. Part of this is the rather bland visuals of the show. Like all other MCU shows outside of Agents of SHIELD and Runaways, Cloak & Dagger is often dark, dull, and just plain monotonous in its aesthetic. I don’t need all of my shows to be flashy, but a bit of variety in the color palette and settings would be nice. I chalk this up to what I assume is a rather limited budget, which is somewhat shocking considering how much money the MCU as a whole rakes in these days.

My other issues stem from something not as connected to budget – the writing and pacing. Though the show will have some decent verbal exchanges and deal with some compelling topics, it never feels very crisp or engaging. This is even more obvious when the pace is unnecessarily drawn out over more episodes than the script can fill. Like the more mediocre MCU offerings on Netflix like Luke Cage and Iron Fist, Cloak & Dagger was using at least 25% more air time than the story or characters required. The result of all this is that I often found myself multi-taking on my phone or laptop while the episodes played in the background. This is something I’ve almost never done when watching consistently stronger shows like Daredevil or Agents of SHIELD.

To this point, I’ve been a rabid MCU completionist. I’ve made a point of watching every MCU film and TV show. I even forced myself to sit through the entire, insufferably poor Inhumans series, if that gives you an idea of my dedication. But I think I’m at a crossroads. Now that we’ve had more than a few middle-of-the road MCU TV shows released, and with more and more new shows in the works, I may have to give up the ghost and start getting more selective. If I do, Cloak & Dagger may end up on the scrap heap of my watch list. It’s not a bad TV show; but these days, there’s simply too much excellent television out there and too little time for a person to bother with anything but shows with they feel compelled, rather than obliged, to watch.


Jessica Jones, season 3 (2019)

And so ends the MCU's partnership with Netflix. It was actually a decent ending, if not one that ended on an especially spectacular note.

Trish and Jessica's relationship becomes even more focal and
strained in this, the final season of not only this series, but the
entire MCU's set of shows on Netflix.

At the end of the second season, we had seen Jessica's recently-discovered mother killed by Jessica's adopted sister Trish. It was a twisted tale, as Jessica's mother was super-powered but also murderously unhinged, all leaving a severe wedge between the two sisters.

This final season sees Jessica and Trish alternately working with and against each other, now that Trish has discovered that, thanks to subjecting herself to an experiment, she has supernatural speed and agility. She begins to use these powers to enact vigilante justice in the area - something that Jessica sees as a horrible mistake. These become secondary considerations, however, when they both become the target of an unusually intelligent serial killer who has a special sort of hatred for super-powered individuals, seeing them as "cheaters" who have circumvented the hard work of normal humans.

This season was decent enough. I actually found it stronger than season two, which was a bit more meandering. Season three brought back a bit more of the noir detective elements and the creepy tension seen in the first season, when Jones squared off against Kilgrave. This season also has some fairly creative twists in plot and character development, most notably with how Trish evolves (or devolves, one could argue).

This season's nemesis, Sallinger. He carries through the self-
important, homicidal psychopath role well enough, even if his
overall logic doesn't completely hold up to close scrutiny.

But still, the show follows in the footsteps of many of its MCU Netflix brethren in feeling under-funded, a bit dull at times, and lacking in any really game-changing elements. Even before this season, I had long grown tired of Jeri Hogarth and her "self-absorbed, controlling" lawyer routine. I felt that way too much of this season's time was spent on her and her selfish, utterly predictable machinations. Sure, they did tie into the main plot, but I think that this was more contrived and forced than because the plot actually demanded it. The character has never really changed from the moment they introduced her years ago, aside from her getting a crippling disease, and predictable characters are just boring. Neighbor Malcolm's story is a bit more interesting, as he does go through some actual development, but it's only so engaging.

The villain, Sallinger, certainly feels menacing and despicable enough, thanks to a strong performance by Jeremy Bobb. But I don't know that his entire "your powers make you a cheater" motivation completely stands up, especially for such an intelligent character. Still, there is a certain cat-and-mouse game reminiscent of the early seasons of Dexter that keeps things compelling. It helps that the show doesn't pull any punches when it comes to getting pitch dark in terms of tone, and having some unexpected consequences for a couple of regular characters.

This finale of Jessica Jones and the MCU's foray on Netflix wasn't as grand as one would hope. Among all of the seasons of all of the shows, it is certainly among the better half. But it didn't leave me feeling as if I'm going to be missing much. Perhaps the characters will be picked up and get another chance on Hulu or some other streaming service. If so, I hope they make some positive tweaks to a set of shows that often had several strong elements but very rarely pulled everything together to make the best shows that they could.


Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., season 6 (2019)

Another fun season from the very first, and easily most consistent, MCU TV show out there.

This season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (AoS) picks up with Daisy "Quake" Johnson and a small unit searching space for Fitz, who was left adrift at the end of the previous season. Meanwhile, back on Earth, Mack and the rest of the team face down a mysterious group who materialize from out of nowhere and begin tracking down and killing humans, seemingly at random. The real kicker is that their leader, a man who goes only by "Sarge," looks exactly like the now-deceased Phil Coulson.

The crew is back, with many of them still traipsing through
deep space, still picking up the pieces of last season. 

As always, AoS remains a heavily plot-driven show, and season 6 is no different. It keeps viewers off-balance with some fun narrative curve-balls, and this season in particular does a great job of tying plot elements together, not just within this season but even going back to some of the show's earliest seasons. For fans like me, who prize continuity as the glue that holds a fantasy universe together, I've always appreciated AoS's efforts in this department. And the story itself is another rollicking adventure, with a few solid cliff-hangers and revelations. My one gripe is that the show flirted just a tad too closely to reusing its favorite overall plot device - the "enemy among us" trope, whereby the team discovers that one of its members is actually an impostor or a traitor of some sort. It was done a tad differently this season, and only in a couple of the final few episodes, but it smacked just a bit of being a worn-out idea. On the plus side, this season was a shortened 13 episodes, which suits it well. While it had done a good job in seasons two through five of using the full 22-episode format, it's nice to get a tighter, leaner viewing schedule, which keeps things moving along.

The show has also always been as much about the characters and their relationships as the plot, although I personally don't think that these have always been as strong or as compelling as they could be. Frankly, as much as I've loved the arc of Simmons and Fitz, I was really glad that the "pursue him/her across the galaxy" nerd romance finally reached its end (for now). Ever since Simmons got hurtled across the universe back at the end of season 4, the two were constantly separated by distance, making for the low-hanging fruit of "connected and driven by love" romance angle. With the end of the series coming soon, it was past time that all of that wrapped itself up. Regardless, Iain de Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge are still the best actors on the entire show, just as they have been since the beginning. Leave it to the Brits, eh?

As far as the other characters? They were mostly fine. Of the remaining primary team, Ming-Na Wen as Melinda May is the strongest and most interesting of the group, and Chloe Bennet has been solid as the ever-stronger Daisy "Quake" Johnson. But frankly, I've never completely bought into the relationship between Mack and Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez. I've always found Mack a relatively boring character (although he's had some of the best lines in the show's history), and I've never sensed any real chemistry between the two characters. Like the previous season, I was actually excited for a moment towards the end, as I thought that something immensely dramatic was going to happen to one or both of them, only to have the show take the safe route once again. There was also Deke, Fitz and Simmons's grandson from the apocalyptic future explored in the previous season. Deke is supposed to be a humorous goof, obviously, but I found him more annoying than any sort of charming. Alas, he seems to be here to stay through the bitter end.

Carry-over from last season, Deke. He's meant mostly as
comic relief, but I actually found the character annoying and
almost completely disposable.

It was announced that this season is to be the show's penultimate, which feels about right. As the MCU films only grow in size and scope, it raises a few too many questions about its smaller shows, especially one in the middle ground like AoS. The team has often dealt with global extinction-level crises, which more and more begs the question, "Why the hell aren't they calling the Avengers in on this? Or at least Scarlet Witch or someone who can lend a friggin' hand?" And if Daisy is powerful enough to annihilate massive swaths of land, perhaps even the entire planet, why isn't she an Avenger herself?

Rumor has it that MCU chief Kevin Feige will be overseeing a shift in how MCU TV shows are dealt with in terms of their connection to the films, which is needed. Regardless of what the moves are going forward, I expect a fun finale next year from a show that paved the way and weathered a few storms.

New Release! Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)

No Spoilers, sort of (there are some big ones from Avengers: Endgame, for the seven Earthlings who haven't seen that movie yet)

Director: Jon Watts

The Marvel Cinematic Universe just keeps the hits coming, much to the delight of fans like me and the deep chagrin of those who see superhero movies as a blight on the cinematic landscape. Far from Home only solidifies Disney and Marvel's death grip on the blockbuster scene, as it offers yet another blast of a fantasy/action film that points the massive MCU towards its future after the landscape-altering mammoth movie Avengers: Endgame from two months prior. And while it certainly relies on several previous MCU films to convey its fullest effects, it is also a genuinely fun film on its many smaller, more intimate levels.

Picking up roughly eight months after half of the galaxy's living beings have been returned from the "Death Snap" of Thanos, as chronicled in Endgame, Peter Parker and several of his classmates are finishing up their five-year-delayed junior year of high school with a trip to Europe. Unbeknownst to nearly any of his friends, Peter is also dealing with the weight of the loss of his mentor, Tony "Iron Man" Stark. As he is dealing with the pull between the looming responsibilities that Stark bestowed upon him and his desire to live a normal teenager's life, a strange new threat arises in the form of massive elemental creatures attacking various cities around the globe. Attempting to deal with this threat is a newcomer to the superhero game - Quentin Beck, a man who explains that he is from an alternate, parallel universe which was destroyed by the same elemental monsters which threaten to do the same to Peter's earth.

Far from Home was wonderfully entertaining. Maintaining the vibe and buoyancy of the first film, Homecoming, this is definitely one of the most touching, down-to-earth films in the MCU. It's much more in tune with the small-scale charm of Ant-Man than the rollicking, ensemble-cast smash-ups of Avengers: Age of Ultron or even the Guardians of the Galaxy films. I find Tom Holland to be the best Peter Parker yet, no disrespect to Toby McGuire or Andrew Garfield, who did well in their turns as the web-slinger. But Holland brings all of the sweetness, awkwardness, and acrobatics to the role that one could ask. It also helps that the film once again offers a fantastic supporting cast. From Samuel L. Jackson to Jake Gyllenhaal, to the many lesser-known but highly capable talents like Jacob Batalon as best friend Nick or Zandaya as clever love interest MJ, there's not one character who feels out of place or doesn't bring some good laughs.

The story itself is another strong one - maybe one of the better ones in the MCU, in terms of taking some fun turns and offering a few new directions for the Parker character. If one is familiar with the comic books (I was a massive Spider-Man fan when I was younger) or recent cartoons, then certain revelations in the plot will be far less surprising. But even for someone like me, who could mostly see them coming, it is impressive to see how the writers pulled it off. The visual effects, like all MCU movies, are top-notch. More importantly, they are actually used to great effect in two particular sequences, the details of which I will refrain from offering, just to keep from spoiling anything.

Nick Fury's presence highlights the double-edged sword of
a shared film universe: you can bring back great characters
and tell longer and more complex stories, but it stunts
each individual movie's ability to be its own story.

The one criticism I can level at Far from Home is essentially the same one that we can level at every MCU movie, to varying degrees, since the films started building their "shared universe" in earnest, way back in Iron Man 2 in 2010. One cannot fully enjoy this movie without having seen several of the earlier movies in the MCU. If you haven't, then several characters, important and minor, will feel bafflingly enigmatic. If you don't know the full story of Happy Hogan from the Iron Man films or Nick Fury and Maria Hill from a good half-dozen MCU movies, then you'll certainly have a "late to the party" feeling. And no really good movie should do that to its viewers. Devoted fans like me love the inter-connectedness of the MCU, but it ultimately kills the chances that they will ever be able to do a truly stand-alone movie again.

This movie will definitely please fans of the MCU, just as it will please fans of Spider-Man who aren't as dedicated to the 23-films-and-counting sprawl of the MCU. Much more casual fans will likely be entertained by the spectacle and the humor of the movie, but they should expect to be confused by characters and plot threads that have been developed in earlier movies. 

New Release with No Spoilers: Avengers: Endgame (2019)

No Spoilers Here - Read Away!

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo

What a titanic piece of work, and one that takes more than a few risks. That is why it is a highly impressive follow-up to last year's Infinity War, and a wonderfully fitting final chapter to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) first decade of blockbuster movie domination.

Before getting into my general thoughts, I should point out that Endgame, like its predecessor Infinity War, is not a friendly film for those unfamiliar with the seminal films of the MCU. For the last few years, the MCU has been better described as a large-scale film series rather than a group of individual films which take place in the same "universe". While a viewer certainly doesn't need to have seen all 21 of the previous MCU films, seeing at least a half dozen specific ones will provide far greater context for the events in Endgame. My personal recommendations for the highly recommended "homework" films would be:

Iron Man
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers
Thor: The Dark World
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: Civil War
The Avengers: Infinity War
Ant-Man and The Wasp

There are a few other films that one could watch in order to fully understand some of the lesser plot points and gags in Endgame, but the nine listed above will give one a very solid foundation upon which to enjoy the new movie without feeling lost.

This being the "no spoiler" section, I cannot dive into the plot points except to state that Endgame spends a fair bit of time dealing with the fallout of Thanos's "snap" from Infinity War, with which he used the Infinity Gauntlet to literally annihilate half of the population of the known universe at the end of the previous film. The surviving superheroes grapple with the unfathomable loss just like everyone else - with varying degrees of success and failure. Some eventually move on. Others wallow in sad states of guilt and loss. Eventually, a possible and highly risky form of salvation is presented and those heroes left behind pull themselves together to try and enact it in an effort to bring back the countless numbers of people lost.

One of the movie's many strengths is seeing who among the
survivors ends up teaming together in the name of the new
mission laid out by Endgame.

Perhaps the thing that stands out to me about Endgame is just how different the pace and tone are, compared to Infinity War. That previous movie had an extremely brisk pace and plenty of action, right from the jump. Endgame takes a much different approach, using nearly all of the first act (which clocks in at nearly an hour) in a somber mood, looking at the familiar characters dealing with their grief and some still searching for solutions. It's not without humor, to be sure, but the moments of levity are fewer and further between than any MCU film I can recall. For a dedicated fan of the MCU like myself, however, this was a very welcome and all-but-necessary shift, coming on the heels of such a wild and devastating end to Infinity War. Viewers not familiar with the main characters' backstories are likely to be bored by the slower pace, but such is always the case when one picks up a series in its final chapter. Once the second act begins, though, things pick up quite briskly.

The second act of the movie was a very fun one, despite being the most obvious form of fan service in the entire 22-film MCU. This is not to say that it felt contrived or pandering. It actually does make complete sense within the plot of the movie, all while offering real fanboys and fangirls tons of "wink wink, nudge nudge" moments for about an hour, as we recall the many, many details from earlier movies referenced in this part of the epic film. It all culminates in scenes teased, suggested, and hoped for based on Infinity War - a third-act battle sequence of huge proportions and featuring just about every major and secondary character from the 21 previous MCU movies. And as they've done with their three previous MCU movies, the Russos show that they know how to do immensely entertaining, large-scale action.

I don't think it's giving anything away to mention that time travel plays more than a small role in this movie (how else did we think the surviving Avengers might seek to undo Thanos's galactic genocide?). As with any story that uses time travel as a device, the plot can get messy and confusing if one thinks too much about it. Endgame doesn't get too bogged down in the weeds on this, which is probably for the best, but it does raise certain questions that I'm yet to come up with answers to, despite mulling them over for a good 48 hours after watching the movie. There are also a few other unresolved plot threads that may give you an un-scratchable itch, but there's nothing that torpedoes the main thrust of the story.

The other aspect at the heart of this film is the characters. Like the narrative, the Russos throw us more than a couple of curve balls here, presenting some heroes as totally shattered emotionally (and not always the ones you expect) while others remain staunchly dedicated to the seemingly futile search for a way to bring everyone back. It is during these inner struggles that it helps to know about the characters since knowing about their past motivations and relationships with each other adds greatly to the emotional impact of the entire movie, especially the first and second acts. And for fans who have enjoyed the emotional heart of this series going back to the earliest seminal movies Iron Man and Captain America: The First Avenger, the ending should be immensely satisfying.

***Since writing the above, I've seen the film an additional two times and thoroughly enjoyed its full length all three times. Of course, I'm a tremendous fan of this series, but it speaks very highly of such a long film that even a dedicated fan can gain so much enjoyment from it.

Spoiler Section - Beware!!!

So let's get into this thing a little more. I could probably write a 20,000-word rabbit hole piece about so many specific details and how I loved or disliked them, but I'll stick to a few of the larger points.

The time travel. Let's get this out of the way. As a plot device to resolve the devastation unleashed in Infinity War, it was a necessary evil. But evil it still was. Yes, it provides a great reason for our heroes to go back and revisit moments chronicled in several earlier films in the series, and do so in some wonderfully entertaining ways. But still, when one thinks about it all for more than a few moments, it all falls apart rather quickly. If 2014 Thanos, along with his army and Gamorah and Nebula, jumps ahead to 2023 to confront the Avengers and gets annihilated, then you've now obliterated all of the things that Thanos (and his army and daughters) did up to and after Guardians of the Galaxy. That has a lot of massive impacts, the most obvious of which is that Thanos is now no longer around to kick of the Infinity War story. On a smaller scale, Steve Rogers going back and staying in the 1940s to live out his life with Peggy Carter (a wonderfully satisfying moment of closure) leaves a ton of unanswerable questions about their relationship, such as why Peggy doesn't ackowledge him as her husband back in The Winter Soldier. And on and on the questions go, leading to a completely shattered continuity. That's by far my biggest issue with this movie. Again, though, it was probably a necessary evil, given exactly what had happened previously.

My other gripes are much smaller and easily shrugged off. The final battle is highly enjoyable, though I could have done without the high amount of posing and the cringe-worthy "She'll have help," up-with-women moment towards the end. Don't get me wrong - I love the women characters in the MCU, and I love seeing them kick ass, whether individually or together. But that moment felt so contrived that it broke my enjoyment of the battle. Oh, and why does anyone, including Peter Parker or anyone else, think that Captain Marvel needs any help to get through a few score foot soldiers? Did they not just see her single-handedly bring down Thanos's immense warship by flying through it in about 10 seconds flat? Those and a few other things had me rolling my eyes a bit, but again - easily shrugged off.

What impressed me the most is how the plot defied my expectations. As I do with all blockbuster movies which I'm eager to see, I completely blocked out any trailers or other information about the movie. That way, it could reveal itself to me upon my first viewing. Endgame rewarded that approach. Having a handful of the remaining Avengers rather quickly track down Thanos and execute him was not something I saw coming, nor was the five year jump in the narrative. And then there was fat Thor, Black Widow's sacrifice, and Steve Rogers electing to go back and reclaim the life he lost in 1945. I really do feel like the writers took some real risks with this story. They could very well have done a full two-and-a-half hour "let's go get Thanos" story, but they elected to focus more on dealing with loss and fighting to undo a horrendous tragedy rather than focus more on a revenge tale. I think this made the movie a great counter-balance and follow-up to Infinity War, which was a very fast-paced film heavily emphasizing action/adventure elements over emotional touchstones.

The curious thing now is the question of where the MCU goes from this point. It was a bold stroke to move the entire universe five years into the future, which threatens to really jerk with the continuity that many of us MCU nerds cherish. The threat of dangling time threads aside, I'm still completely on board with what may come. Right now, there are only a few "known" movies planned, but details are extremely slim. I do hope to see at least one more movie featuring the "Asguardians of the Galaxy," as Portly Thor referred to them. That team-up has a dizzying amount of entertainment potential. 

New Release, with Spoiler-Free first section! Captain Marvel (2019)

Spoiler-Free Section. Read Away!

Directors: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck

A somewhat flawed but enjoyable entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), for those of us who have been enjoying the fantasy action/adventure provided by the Marvel Studios juggernaut franchise.

Since this is the spoiler-free section of my review, I'll stick to only the broad narrative strokes. During the mid-1990s by Earth reckoning and on a distant planet, a young woman known as Vers (pronounced "Veerz," and played by Brie Larson) is completing her training as a rescue force for the local Kree, a humanoid race of aliens who are at war with the shape-shifting Skrulls. Vers is sent with her small platoon to rescue a prominent Kree from the clutches of the Skrulls on a remote planet. The mission goes sideways, and Vers finds soon herself crashed on Earth, followed by several Skrulls. As Vers seeks to complete her now-altered mission, serious questions about her own identity begin to emerge, including several possible connections to the planet on which she now finds herself.

Captain Marvel is the twenty-first film in the MCU, the blockbuster movie juggernaut franchise which shows no signs of slowing down. While it is the first movie released since last spring's immense, cliff-hanging Avengers: Infinity War, this film does not seek to continue that movie's rather shocking ending. Rather, it goes backwards into the MCU timeline roughly 25 years, in order to introduce a new character into the film world's mythos. It's a peculiar tactic, and one that smacks a bit of a reaction to the tremendous success of the wildly successful, girl-powered smash hit Wonder Woman from two years ago. Regardless, Captain Marvel tells its own rather unique tale, and has plenty of fun doing it.

The film has a few clear strengths. One is how the overall story takes a few worthy plot twists unlike any that I'd seen in an MCU flick to this point. One in particular sets it apart from its MCU brethren, imbuing the tale with a certain depth and heart that one might not see coming. I also found the humor to be solid. Tapping into some Guardians of the Galaxy-style comedy, as well as the incomparable skills of Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn, I found myself laughing out loud plenty of times, mostly at quick one-liners or comic situations. The other strength I found was that the movie offered a satisfying, smash-bang ending to the third act - something which I wasn't sure was coming or not. All of these added up to a movie which was satisfying, if not quite among the very best MCU movies.

So what keeps it back? One is that the pace of the narrative is often a tad too brisk. The location-jumping keeps the story moving, to be sure, but it also makes it very difficult to settle in and get much of a sense of place. Related to this is that, due to the structure of the narrative, we only get to know Vers so well. There are some interesting revelations about her and her background, but much of it is given in rapid-fire, five-second flashbacks, leaving us with only a rough grip on who she truly is as a person. There seems to be a lot of potential to have more fun with her, and I hope she gets a follow-up movie to prove it, but in somewhat breaking the mold on the "superhero origin movie," we don't have as complete a sense of the protagonist's entire mental makeup. On top of these elements, there are more than a few unanswered questions (sometimes read "plot holes") raised by the planet-jumping tale. Some of them are small-scale and easily brushed aside, while others are larger ones with greater implications for the MCU as a whole.

Because I'm a bit of an MCU junkie, I'll almost certainly go out and see this movie on the big screen again within the next few weeks, as part of my buildup to the release of Avengers: Endgame in late April. Fans of the MCU will hardly be disappointed by this one, even if, like me, they don't put it among the very best that Marvel has offered. Those who are not fans of the MCU are not likely to be won over by Captain Marvel, but they will probably find at least a bit of entertainment to go with a few pleasant surprises.

For the most part, the presence of a young Nick
Fury is a major asset to the film. It does, however,
raise a few not-so-easy to answer questions.

Spoiler Section - You've Been Warned

A few specific dislikes and likes about the movie:

While I loved seeing a young Nick Fury in action, I simply can't shake off the serious questions that his experiences in Captain Marvel raise. If the man had literally come face-to-face with hostile (and not-so-hostile) aliens, why does Fury act like Thor's arrival in the Norse prince's eponymous 2010 film is the thing that spurs him to action, as chronicled in The Avengers? And if Captain Marvel is only meant to be called in case of "emergency," why the hell didn't Fury hit that pager button when Loki attacked New York in 2012? Or when Ultron tried to drop a meteor on the planet in 2015? If those aren't emergency situations, then what is?! These and other, smaller, questions of continuity irk my brain a little bit, even if they aren't deal breakers.

To build on my earlier thoughts on the lack of solid character development with Carol Danvers, I really wish we had been able to get a few more extended looks into her life as an Air Force pilot before being abducted by Yon-Rogg. I certainly understood what the filmmakers were going for, first giving us glimpses of Danvers's past failures in life, followed later by the moments in which she "got up" from those failures. But I feel as if her story would have been deepened with even one or two longer sequences in which we viewers could sink our teeth, seeing exactly how she conducted herself when confronted with her own failure or even the glass ceiling of male chauvinism and bald-faced misogyny.

On to things that I enjoyed.

I absolutely loved how much fun Nick Fury was in this movie. Thanks to both good comic writing and Jackson's penchant for knowing exactly how to deliver lines, I laughed more at his scenes and dialog than any character in the movie. He wasn't alone, as Brie Larson and the brilliant Ben Mendelsohn add some good laughs as well, but Jackson was solid gold in this picture. It was well past time that he and the Fury character got more screen time in a single picture, having always playing support roles in the past, and Captain Marvel did not fumble the ball here.

This is Goose. Goose provides more than a little humor in 
Captain Marvel, and actually has more than one moment that
winds up being significant to MCU continuity.

The twist with the Skrulls was great. It wasn't a massive, world-changing twist, but it was nice to see a Marvel movie actually go with some slight-of-hand. In fact, this was the best twist since the "Mandarin" twist back in Iron Man 3 (I know some people hated that plot point, but I loved it). The overwhelming majority of MCU movies have laid out the villain very early and set up a very clear "good vs. evil," straight-line confrontation from which the plot doesn't deviate. Captain Marvel goes another direction, and is better for it.

Watching a fully powered-up Captain Marvel wreck shop at the end of the movie was pretty damn fun. If an action movie is going to focus on an immensely powerful character, it had better do some entertaining things involving that character putting on an awesome display of might. Watching Marvel single-handedly take down Kree warships and stare down Ronan the Accuser ranks among some of the more badass moments in the MCU, along with Thor going lightning mode in Ragnarok, The Hulk going berserk in The Avengers, and similar moments that had me thinking, "Oh, hell yeah!"

It looks like the Captain will be a virtual deus ex machina in the forthcoming Avengers: Endgame, and will seemingly be Earth's serious heavy hitter for the foreseeable future, as her powers seem to put her on par with the likes of Thor and other insanely powerful alien beings. We'll see just how they handle her in the future, but I'm on board. 

Idiot Boxing: F is for Family, season 2 (2017); Brockmire, season 2 (2018); Runaways, season 2 (2018)

No longer the primary bread-winner, Frank has to adopt
some new roles within his family, including taking part in his
daughter's troop meetings. He doesn't take to it very well.

F is for Family, season 2 (2017)

An animated show that improves upon its solid first season and may be on its way to becoming a rather unique entry into the canon of excellent animated U.S. TV shows.

The first 10-episode season of F is for Family introduced us to the Murphy family, who are based on actor and comedian Bill Burr's own Irish-American family during Burr's childhood in 1973. The show focuses mostly on the father, Frank, a hard-working father of three who is thoroughly locked into the narrow perspectives typical of men in that era. To Frank, the concept of the nuclear family, where the man works and the woman stays home to raise the kids, is the only structure. But while Frank has the semblance of this "perfect" situation, he is a man with a hair-trigger temper, often set off by his disappointments in his kids and his own professional shortcomings. The first season actually had a legitimate, well-crafted arc to it, with Frank's already-agitated world getting further up-ended when he first loses his job at the local airport. This is all exacerbated when his wife, Sue, decides to get a job of her own.

Season 2 continues the story line, with Frank now working a reliable but menial job delivering concession sundries around town, while Sue tries to work her way up through a Tupperware-like company dominated by ultra-chauvinistic men. This second season takes the strengths of the first one, hones them a bit further, and goes deeper into the most unique thing about the series - the need for Frank to accept how his family and the world are changing around him. After losing his job at the airport, he's had to swallow his considerable pride and take a job delivering vending machine concessions. As he muddles through this existential crisis, Sue continues to put together a bit of a career in plastic-ware, though the misogyny continues to run thick. All the while, their three kids try to find their way through a gantlet of bullies, academic failure, and society's expectations for women.

I must confess that I had taken a breather from this show after watching the first three episodes, but I really got into it once I returned and finished the second season. It appears that the writers are actually making a very conscious effort to do something that very few animated series do - have the characters actually develop. Over the first 22 episodes, each of the five family members, and even a few of their friends and neighbors, seem to learn a few things. No, none of them comes anywhere close to evolving into a fully "healthy" person (where's the humor in that?), but they lurch or are pushed there in noticeable ways. And for anyone who has a sense of what typical life was like in the U.S. in the early and mid-1970s, you know just how many cultural shifts were happening. Watching the disillusioned and easily-enraged Frank deal with all of this is certainly hilarious, but it also provides some reasonably compelling drama between the laughs.

I'll soon be tuning into the third season, which was released not long ago on Netflix. I hope the show continues down the path laid out so far, as it has developed something of its own place in a landscape awash with animated series which can be uproariously funny but wherein there is little to no continuity or character growth.

The ever-responsible Charles drags the ever-intoxicated Jim
out of another drunken sinkhole. This image is a solid
metaphor for much of their relationship.

Brockmire, season 2 (2018)

A surprisingly strong follow-up season to a show that has impressed me simply by building on what could have been a one-note premise which could have grown very old very quickly.

At the end of the show's initial 8-episode season, the ferociously addicted Jim Brockmire had been offered a broadcasting gig for the minor league Crawdaddy's in New Orleans - a job which he promptly accepted, leaving behind the lowly Frackers of the burnt-out burg of Morristown, Pennsylvania. The second season picks up well into Brockmire's first season with the Crawdaddy's, where he has been doing fine work despite regularly indulging in nearly every vice known to mankind. The only thing that keeps him in any financial security is the management of Charles, the young man who was his assistant in Morristown. Brockmire experiences a bit of a hiccup in his dream of returning to the big leagues again when he is pitted against fellow broadcaster Raj, a handsome young man of Indian descent who, while knowing little about sports, knows exactly how to pander to his audience to raise his popularity and brand.

This season was just as funny as satisfying as the first, as we get a bit more insight into Brockmire's and Charles's backgrounds. We see Jim deal with the death of his father, and Charles have to confront his highly self-involved family. We get the addition of several new supporting characters, as well as heavy doses of the pitch black humor that set the first season apart.

The only reason I would steer anyone away from this show is that Jim Brockmire is a thoroughly depraved individual, and the show doesn't shy away from exhibiting him at his drug- and booze-drenched worst. People who find no humor in addiction will likely find no humor in this show, despite the fact that it is far from any sort of endorsement for substance abuse. For my part, I was glad to learn that the show has been renewed for both a third and fourth season.

The Runaways, plus one. The members of the crew tend to take
turns making poor decisions, which is something one would
expect from a group of teenagers from wealthy families.

Runaways, season 2 (2018)

A Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV show that continues the tone and quality of its first season, even if the longer episode run more clearly exposes its weaknesses.

The ten episodes of season two still see the six titular runaways hiding from their parents while they attempt to learn the secrets of Jonah - the man, or creature, that is at the center of nearly all of their horrible crimes. The Runaways make various sorties from their hideout in a buried, secret old mansion just outside of L.A., and they learn more about their own mysterious powers and themselves as people.

The strongest part of the show is the plot. The story behind Jonah and his long relationship with the Runaways' parents is unfolded well, and there are more than a few curious twists to the story. The nature of his own amazing abilities is also compelling enough to carry the season fairly well. There was also one very intriguing connection to the greater MCU raised towards the end of this season's run. In fact, it is by far the question that I most want to know the answer to.

I did find myself tiring of the interpersonal drama, although I do realize that this is a show aimed more at viewers between ages 11 and 18. Beyond that, though, the dialog and scenarios can sometimes feel a bit contrived to achieve more dramatic effect. And there are some plot holes that rear their heads as the story moves along, both within the story's internal logic and in the show's greater place in the MCU.

I'm undecided as to whether I'll tune in for the third season, which is likely to happen. Like nearly every other MCU show, it is decent enough for a dedicated fan of the franchise to enjoy on some level. However, with more shows coming, I sense that I will likely be drawing a line soon. Shows geared towards younger viewers, such as Runaways, the worthy Cloak and Dagger, and maybe the forthcoming Disney+ shows scheduled to come out later in 2019 may be on the chopping block. There are only so many hours in the day, and there is only so much TV I have the time or desire to watch. The Runaways could be a casualty of those realities. 

Idiot Boxing, MCU on Netflix: Daredevil, season 3 (2018); The Punisher, season 2 (2019)

In season 3, we see Matt ditch the red suit for a while and go
back to the original, "blind, black-clad ninja" getup. It's
still one of the coolest alternative superhero costumes.

Daredevil, season 3 (2019)

Another Netflix MCU series that has some clear strengths, but suffers from the same flaws that every Netflix MCU show has shown, to varying degrees.

Last we saw Matt Murdock, he was miraculously found alive in a mysterious location, following his apparent death at the end of The Defenders series. There, he had fought against and with his lady-love, psychotic ninja assassin Elektra Natchios, until they were seemingly buried under tons of rubble.

But Murdock was dragged free. He was taken to his neighborhood Catholic church and nursed back to health, but he has now lost his purpose in life, both as a criminal defense lawyer and as a vigilante neighborhood protector. Not only that, but his supernaturally-heightened senses seem to be horribly dulled. As he works his way through his lack of powers and personal focus, Wilson "The Kingpin" Fisk uses nefarious machinations and intimidation to secure his release from prison. He then launches an all-out assault on the reputations of the people who put him in prison in the first place - Matt Murdock, Karen Paige, and Foggy Nelson. One of Fisk's key chess pieces is Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, a homicidal FBI special forces operative with supernatural hand-eye coordination. His skills make him lethal with any sort of projectile weapon or firearm. The psychologically fragile Poindexter is cunningly recruited by Fisk to masquerade as Daredevil, sullying the name of Murdock's alter ego as he slaughters anyone whom Fisk sees as a threat.

The broad strokes of this season were pretty good, and the connection between Fisk and Poindexter was an interesting one. Probably the most entertaining aspect of the season was how Poindexter was handled in the action scenes. His character, known as "Bullseye" in the source comic books, was always a fascinating counter-point villain to Daredevil. Although not possessed of classic "super powers," his heightened abilities to aim and kill with any object made for interesting parallels with Murdock's abilities. And the writers of this season put together a feasible backstory for Poindexter, making him compelling and terrifying in appropriate balance.

The other solid story component was the tale of compromised FBI agent Ray Nadeem, whose internal struggle as to how to cross the tightrope along which he walks gives the overall narrative a decent grounding at times. Although this story element isn't as consistently compelling as it probably could have been, it was an original enough addition to the Daredevil TV mythology to feel somewhat fresh.

Unfortunately, I found most of the other elements of the season to be rather mediocre. The most obvious is the still-tepid handling of Daredevil's primary nemesis, The Kingpin. The writers have, from the first season of the show back in 2015, seemed hell-bent on digging deep into the psyche of Wilson Fisk. This has led them to offer several flashbacks into his childhood, and give us many slow, ponderous scenes between him and his love, Vanessa. The problem is that the "romance" between Fisk and Vanessa never once feels fully formed or developed. I've always had the sense that the writers spend too much time subtly hinting at some deeper connection between the two, without adequately explaining it. All we have really gotten is that Vanessa likes a strong, powerful man, and Fisk loves her for not judging him. But the way their scenes are labored and drawn out, you would think that they were the MacBeths. But never does the writing get anywhere near the depth or subtlety that it seems to hint at. There is very much a "hint and suggest endlessly, but don't show or tell" coyness about it, but I never felt as if the substance was there to back it up.

Don't let the red suit fool you here. Under the Daredevil suit
is Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, a psychotic killer whose hyper
OCD grants him freakish hand-eye coordination, which in
turn makes any simple object lethal in his hands.

I also found the story arcs involving Foggy and Karen rather forgettable. In fact, there's an entire episode dedicated to Karen's backstory thrust right in towards the end of the season (episode 10 out of 13). Sure, it helps us get into some of Karen's motivation, but it really gut-punched a lot of the momentum that the story had been building to that point. And the takeaway was something that could probably have been done in half the time.

And these last points illustrate yet again one of the greatest flaws of the entire Netflix MCU - the writers have still not figured out how to write a full 13 episodes of compelling, focused story. Between all of its shows, going back to 2015, there have now been eleven different seasons, with nine of them being comprised of 13 episodes (only Iron Fist's second season and the lone season of The Defenders were shorter). And not one of them has felt like it merited that many episodes. The closest any seasons have gotten were the first seasons of both Daredevil and Jessica Jones, but even those felt a tad bloated. What took them 13 episodes probably could have been done in 11 or even as few as nine or ten. Other seasons and other shows were even more notably thin, with some seasons having only 6 or 7 episodes of quality material stretched over far too many chapters. Season three of Daredevil continues this unfortunate trend, feeling as if at least two or three episodes could  have been trimmed away, leaving a tighter, more focused season.

All that said, I mostly enjoyed it. There was a satisfying amount of action, which was often well done. The show even swung for the fences on the now-established "long shot" that each season has done. In this season, we are given an amazingly long, continuous shot that begins with Matt going into the prison where Fisk had been held, then seeing things gradually devolve into an all-out brawl in which Murdock has to fight his way out. It's an impressive sequence, and one of many that keep the tension in the show at appropriate levels.

As I write this, the fate of Daredevil and all the Netflix MCU shows is known - they have all been officially cancelled. However, I doubt that this will be the last we see of some of its better entries, which includes "The Man Without Fear." My hope is that if it gets picked up elsewhere, that network sees fit to make the necessary changes to elevate this and the other MCU shows to greater heights - something which has often seemed tantalizingly possible yet has never been fully realized.


The Punisher, season 2 (2019)

I found this season to be quite solid, if not as consistent as the first season.

Frank "The Punisher" Castle gets back to the bloody work of
avenging those whom he sees as needing it. That, and of
scratching the itch of his own unquenchable bloodlust.

Although it wasn't official, the second season of The Punisher was all but a dead man walking before it even aired. Prior to its January release, three of its Netflix MCU brethren series, including the popular Daredevil, had officially been cancelled. Still, I was excited for this season, as I found the first season to be among the very best of the Netflix MCU seasons, only behind the first seasons of Daredevil and Jessica Jones. At the end of that season, Frank "The Punisher" Castle had exacted his revenge on those responsible for the brutal murders of his wife and two children, leaving only his former friend-turned-enemy Billy Russo alive. Russo was left with a destroyed criminal network and a face ravaged by broken glass. Castle himself was given a clean slate by the U.S. government and set free under the promise that he never surface under his own name again.

Fast forward several months, and Frank, going by the alias Pete Castiglioni, is drifting through the country, minding his own business. But when he steps in to help a young woman, Amy, in distress in a bar in rural Michigan, he gets sucked into a violent struggle between some powerful forces. Frank;s attempt to keep Amy out of harm's way soon takes him back to New York City, where his ultimate nemesis and former best friend Billy Russo escapes the hospital where he has been recovering from severe facial trauma and amnesia. As Billy returns to his violent ways, he and Frank begin another bloody dance towards each other, as other outside forces hone in on all of them.

While I understand some viewers' and critics' issues with season 2, I thought that it did far more correctly than it did incorrectly.

The Punisher character was introduced back in the mid-1970s, in the comic "The Amazing Spider-Man." Right from his creation, Frank Castle was one of the darkest, most troubling characters in the Marvel Universe. In the mold of "Dirty" Harry Callahan, he was essentially a murderer who had some semblance of a code, executing people who most of us would agree were as close to pure evil as a person could be. This still never changes the facts that such characters are, still, murderers who only seem capable of dealing with violent people in even more violent ways. Handling such a character can be tricky, as trying to make them more palatable to a broader audience takes away exactly what makes them compelling. Conversely, some writers can swing too far the other way, making the characters ultra-violent and the stories B-grade, grindhouse fare. This is how we end up with adaptations like Punisher: War Zone.

One of the many, many thugs who comes at Castle, only to
end up on the losing end. And with the preternaturally skilled
killer, that only ends one way.

As with the first season, the show-runners for the Netflix version have done excellent work looking at Frank Castle as a very believable, and very disturbing person. The second season digs deeper into the fact that Frank is, and has always been, a violent killing machine. Just as his arch-nemesis and former friend Billy Russo has been, and just as newcomer John Pilgrim seemingly has always been. These three characters are soaked in blood, which they all seem to realize is their natural place. The season does a solid, if slightly incomplete, job of juxtaposing the three men as the narrative progresses, illustrating that Frank is only slightly less terrifying than the other two. It is rather compelling to note how each man's bloodthirsty nature is often subsumed by other aspects of their character. With Pilgrim, it is his religion. With Russo, it is his narcissism and materialism. And with Frank, it is his code and notion that he is protecting or avenging innocent people.

A show about such dark and violent people must, of course, offer grisly action, and The Punisher delivers again. I found many of the sequences very well done, having the grit, ferocity, and intensity that one would hope for. While there aren't quite as many creatively-choreographed scenarios as the first season, there are still more than a few clever set-ups, fist fights, and shootouts. The season finale actually features a few of the best of the entire season, which is what one would hope for.

This season was not without its weaknesses, though. The initial setup is, inexplicably, completely random. Even with dozens of reasons that dangerous people might be looking for Frank Castle, it's sheer chance that puts him in contact with Amy, kicking off the entire season story. And there is the inevitable lull in the middle episodes, where the pace languishes for about 4 episodes. On an aesthetic front, the makeup job which turns the previously-handsome Bill Russo into "Jigsaw" is laughably lame. In the comics, the character is horrifically scarred, but in this TV show, it looks like something you could do with a $25 Halloween makeup kit. And the twisted romance between Russo and his psychiatrist Floriana Lima always feels awkwardly contrived. While it was nice of the writers not to lean on strong characters from the past, I was hoping to see Micro for much of the season, to no avail.

Fortunately, the weaknesses mostly emerge in the middle of the season, and the show comes to a strong finish in its final four or five episodes. Marvel was smart to allow show-runner Steve Lightfoot plenty of freedom to make Frank Castle as dark and disturbing as he should be. In many ways, the character is a dark reflection of the violent impulses that course through the veins of American culture and society, and it's worth considering his troubling appeal not unlike the way we should do with the many "Dirty" Harry Callahan characters which have been popular over the years. 

New Release! Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) [Spoiler-Free Review]

I feel that it's highly appropriate that this
poster has Hope "The Wasp" van Dyne
front and center. In many ways, she owns
parts of this movie as much, or more, than
the Scott Lang character.

No Spoilers! Read On!!

Director: Peyton Reed

A light and entertaining follow-up to the original Ant-Man, and a drastically peppy apertif to the massively epic and ultimately grim Avengers: Infinity War from just a couple of months prior.

In the grand-scale Infinity War movie from this spring, which included nearly every single hero and villain from the ever-expanding, 18-film Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), there were only a couple of conspicuous absences. One of them was Scott Lang, a.k.a. "Ant-Man," (Paul Rudd) the cat burglar-turned-techno-hero who had last been seen in a massive underwater prison towards the end of 2016's Captain America: Civil War. At the start of this movie, we get the full explanation of where Lang has been for the last couple of years, right up to a few days before the events of Infinity War.

In short, Lang's now rather quiet life is interrupted by a strange experience which puts him back in contact with Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter, Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Hank and Hope have been hiding from the law, secretly pursuing a lead to Hank's wife, the long-presumed dead Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. "The Wasp." In their quest to see if Janet is still, indeed, alive they must dodge not only the federal authorities, but also contend with a mysterious figure known as "Ghost," (Hannah John-Kamen) as well as the greedy, amoral capitalist Sonny Burch (Walton Goggins).

This movie was very much in keeping with the original. It's light and fun, with more than a few really entertaining uses of movie magic to illustrate the shrinking and growing powers of Dr. Pym's astonishing technologies. Since the first movie was originally under the helm of Edgar Wright, I was never how much of the original I enjoyed because of Wright's ideas, rather than Peyton Reed, who was brought into oversee the actual film once Wright stepped away. I was pleased to see that, in this sequel, the humor and more personal scale are all still very much alive. This second film actually offers a little more of the fun back-and-forth between the smart-ass Lang and the cantankerous Hank. With Paul Rudd's instinct for comic timing paired with Michael Douglass's overall acting chops, it works like magic.

Blessedly, Luis is back. Even more blessedly, the writers
avoided the pitfall of overdoing a good thing. They used the
hilarious supporting character in just the right doses.

This is a good place to mention just how much I've grown to love Evangeline Lilly in these movies. Her portrayal of Hope Van Dyne was a real highlight of the first film for me, even though she was relegated to a support role who never got to show off her real fighting skills. In Ant-Man and the Wasp, though, she all but completely takes over. Her proficiency with the Pym particle technology, merely hinted at in the first movie, is now on full display. In short, she kicks serious ass. And unlike one or two of the other women who have been cast in MCU hero or villain roles, I completely buy Lilly as a tough-as-nails fighter.

All the other enjoyable elements of the first film are there. Fun supporting characters like the ever-affable Luis and others are used to good effect, without ever being overused. The plot moves along at a good pace, and the action never grows dull. The litmus test here is my wife, who tends to grow bored quickly with most movie action, but admitted that she actually found most of the action in this movie engaging and enjoyable. This was a testament to the creativity of the visual artists behind the movie.

Like the first Ant-Man, this is not a superhero movie that is going to redefine the genre or maybe even win over anyone who is categorically opposed to such films. It is, however, a fun popcorn movie that is blessedly self-contained. Even those who haven't seen most of the other MCU movies can jump right in and enjoy it, with only the first film being a suggested prerequisite. 

Idiot Boxing: Westworld season 2 (2018); Luke Cage season 2 (2018)

Maeve is one of a few of the "women" of Westworld who flex
their new-found muscles and freedom in season 2. 

Westworld, season 2 (2018)

I have no doubt that this season probably lost a certain number of the fans that it garnered in its first season. I wasn't one of those lost, and I loved this second season.

In the final bloodbath episode of season one, we see a certain number of the Westworld park's hosts (the artificial humans) become self aware and kick off a full-scale uprising. The real ignition point is Dolores's (Evan Rachel Wood) very public execution of park co-founder and co-creator Ford (Anthony Hopkins), all of which Ford himself had very meticulously orchestrated. Along with Dolores, the host Maeve (Thandie Newton) has become self-aware and even upgraded herself to allow certain freedoms and abilities - freedoms and abilities which she plans to use to find her daughter somewhere in the vast Westworld landscape. Roaming around in all of this is William "The Man in Black" (Ed Harris), the owner of the entire park who is madly searching for some mysterious finding which Ford has teased him with for decades.

Season two follows these threads in a very measured way, with Dolores and Maeve mustering allies, and William fighting through now-deadly hosts while on his obsessive quest to beat Ford at whatever game he feels the now-dead genius had created. Unlike the first season, it soon becomes apparent within the first episode or two that we are not in a linear narrative. There are flashbacks galore, as we start to learn things about Dolores's and the park's origins that deepen the mysteries surrounding the place which ostensibly is a massive, violent Disneyworld for adults to play out their wildest fantasies. These back stories are presented in parallel with the more "modern" tale, which is a skillful technique that show creators Nolan and Joy have used to great effect. This second season is no different. While this non-linear method seems to frustrate some viewers, I've always enjoyed the puzzle being presented in such fashion, as it can be stimulating to keep an eye out for little details that serve as narrative connectors and small revelations which build into greater ones.

Akecheta. Episode 8, which sees all of the bizarre changes in
the park from his very unique and touching perspective, was
my favorite of the season.

Aside from the twisting narrative, another element which probably led to some viewer frustration had to do with the character perspectives. At this point in the story, we are mostly following the hosts. For most of the first season, especially the first five or so episodes, it was all about the human guests and the revelation of the park itself. In this season, now that all of those basics have been established, the show delves much deeper into the cerebral, speculative fiction elements which had gained steam towards first season's end. We dig into the minds and natures of Dolores and Maeve, which is interesting enough. And the Bernard host is an entire mess of conflicts all by himself. But perhaps my favorite episode was focused solely on a character who only had a few brief cameos in season one - the Native American Akecheta (played brilliantly by Zahn McClarnon). This episode spins several things on their heads, and actually provides a certain emotional depth to the hosts which I had felt was slipping away a bit, even with Maeve's heart-felt quest to find her "daughter."

The season did have what I found to be a bit of a lull around episodes four and five, which brought Maeve and her crew into the neighboring park of Samurai World. Despite having a ton of potential and offering a few interesting scenes and characters, this little part of the story felt as if it took a bit too long to work through and ultimately didn't have a great impact on the overall tale. Fortunately, this came and went by the mid-point of the season. After that, I found that everything picked up, built, and resolved itself nicely.

So another good season. Apparently, a third is on the way, though not for another 18 months or more. That's fine with me. I look forward to re-watching the entire labyrinthine story again before getting the next chapter, which looks to further expand upon what has come before.

Misty Knight and Luke, ready to bring some justice to the
streets of Harlem once again.

Luke Cage, season 2 (2018)

Like much of its Netflix MCU brethren, season two of Luke Cage suffers a bit in a few areas, but is a solid entry into the canon. This is thanks to a compelling villain and a strong finish.

Following on the heels of its first season and the subsequent Defenders mini-series, season two of Luke Cage picks up with Harlem's bulletproof protector trying to settle into his role as neighborhood celebrity. As he deals with efforts to monetize his fame, a new threat emerges, as the mysterious Jamaican John "Bushmaster" McIver arrived in Harlem with a vicious streak and a mission of vengeance against Mariah Stokes/Dillard, the dirty politician much to blame for the first season's problems. As Mariah and her right-hand man Hernan "Shades" Alavarez seek to divest from the criminal underworld, Bushmaster start to make his presence known, using rather violent tactics and his own inexplicably enhanced strength and healing abilities, to go along with immense martial arts prowess. As this deadly islander hones in on Mariah and Shades, leading to escalating bloodshed in Harlem, Luke Cage inevitably gets involved.

As with nearly every Netflix MCU show thus far, this season of Luke Cage has a solid premise, several highly workable pieces in terms of character and plot, and some excellent acting. The main weakness is that it felt like about 7 or 8 good episodes worth of material stretched out over a 13-episode season. This led to a fair amount of overly drawn out and repetitive story loops that took much too long to progress, most of them involving characters trying to suss out their identities. The two most obvious were Misty Knight and Mariah Stokes/Dillard. By episode 9 or 10, they lock in, but for nearly the entire middle section of the season, the two storylines seem to flounder in ways that are sometimes dull and sometimes inorganic or illogical. They do come around, fortunately, by season's end.

The other weakness to me was dialogue which was inconsistent, which I felt in turn affected the performances of nearly all of the primary actors at times. There are no doubt some fun and tense exchanges between the several strong and fairly dynamic characters in this series, but more than a few of the conversations felt forced or clunky at times. It seemed as if the writers occasionally started with the idea of giving certain characters their "speech" or "preach" moments, and then shoehorned them into scenes, regardless of whether it fit the context or natural speech patterns established for the character.

Arguably the best aspect of season 2 was Bushmaster as one
of the primary villains. Mustafa Shakir's portrayal of the
lethal, vengeance-obsessed Jamaican was brilliant.

Those gripes aside, I liked the season. John Colter still makes a great Cage, and the returning cast from the previous season brought everything they had, especially Alfre Woodard as Mariah. Even when I wasn't crazy about how she was being written in certain scenes, Woodard acted the hell out of each and every one of them. And Mustafa Shakir and the imposing Bushmaster was a revelation for me. The towering Harlem native radiates all of the physical strength and burning rage demanded of his vengeance-obsessed character. And as his story is revealed over the season, Shakir shows some versatility to adapt to the story's demands. It helped that he does the Jamaican accent (not an easy one to pull off at all) so well that I initially thought that he might be native to that island, and he seemed to do many of the stunts and fight sequences himself. Bushmaster ended up being one of the best and most well-rounded arch villains in any of the MCU TV shows to date.

After pointing out the pacing problems in the middle of the season, I would be remiss not to say that the final few episodes of the run saved it from being an overall tepid one. After some rather slow and meandering plotting, all of the primary and secondary storylines come together quite well at the end. I was actually quite satisfied with how nearly every major character's arc concluded and where they ended up. The one exception was that of Matilda "Tilda" Stokes/Johnson. Hers was, throughout the season, a tale that never seemed to figure out what really made her who she was. There are several moments when it seems as if she's resolved something inside of her, only to reverse course not long after, for reasons that are not always clear. Her aside, I found the final two episodes of the season highly enjoyable, and this generally speaks well of a show.

So I'm on board for another season, which I imagine will be forthcoming. I do, however, repeat a familiar refrain - Netflix really needs to figure out how to fill out a 13-episode season; something they still haven't managed to do in 5 different MCU shows, across 8 different seasons. Either that, or go with 8-episode seasons, like they did with The Defenders.