Idiot Boxing: The Good Place, seasons 1 and 2 (2017-2018); Castlevania, seasons 1 and 2 (2017, 2018)

The Good Place, seasons 1 and 2 (2017-2018)

A really fun, often smart show that exhibits plenty of sly and absurd humor. My wife and I jumped on this train just a little late and barely missed the third season, but we were glad to have discovered it while it's still in the middle of its run.

The show follows Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) as she awakens in a strange place, sitting face-to-face with Michael (Ted Danson). Michael informs Eleanor that she has died and is now in "the good place," (a rather non-specific term for the general idea of an idyllic after-life existence, or "heaven" to some of us). This is all fine and good to Eleanor, except that she is sure that there has been some mistake, seeing as how she had been far from a "good" person during her life on Earth. As she meets more and more other amazing people, including her "soul mate" Chidi (William Jackson Harper), she grows ever-more terrified of being discovered and sent to "the bad place."

It is tempting to say more about the plot, but one of the great strengths of the show is its unexpected plot turns and how it reveals everything to the viewers. As such, I'll leave any further description alone.

The dynamics between Eleanor and Michael shift several
times through the first season, allowing Ted Danson and
Kristen Bell to show off the varieties of their comedy chops.

The show does a brilliant job of having an absolute blast with concepts about life after death and what constitutes people's "heaven" and "hell." And the creativity behind the mythology is as impressive as it is fascinating. The writers clearly have plenty of fun working with the hierarchy of everything, revealing the greater workings of the fantasy world which they've created. There are plenty of fun sight gags to go along with the characters and dialog, and the cast all seem to revel in embracing the often strange tones and shifts which they must portray. As the circumstances change wildly around them, the six primary characters are buffeted about, creating for some surprising and hilarious reactions.

The cast is phenomenal. Bell and Danson are well-established actors. For me, though, the two great revelations are William Jackson Harper as Chidi and D'Arcy Carden as Janet, the artificial intelligence informational system in The Good Place. And there are even some recurring characters who just nail their often-specific roles with hilarious precision. Jama Williamson as Val and Jason Mantzoukas as Derek come to mind, but they're hardly alone. All of these comedy acting pros bring an already-great script to its best comedy life.

I've only just read that the show runners have stated that the fourth season will be the last, as they would rather tell their original story and conclude it there, instead of dragging it out for other motivations. This will likely be for the best, though it will be a shame to say goodbye to such a clever, funny show as this.

Count Vlad Tepes "Dracula." The show does a decent job of
making the classic horror character a bit sympathetic, but
spends way too much time in the second season on his
underlings and their selfish plots.

Castlevania, seasons 1 and 2 (2017, 2018)

A made-for-Netflix adaptation based on the immensely popular, three-decades-old video game series. I found it to be modestly entertaining, but no more.

I've been a fairly avid video-gamer for most of my life. Despite this, I never feel the need to watch TV or film adaptations of games, as they have a horrible track record. The only reason I watched Castlevania was that it is written by highly creative and talented comic book writer Warren Ellis, whose work from the 1990s I read and enjoyed quite a lot. And given that the first season was composed of a very manageable four 25-minute episodes, it seemed like a small initial commitment.

The first season was fairly compelling. Taking narrative elements from the video game mythology, which itself borrows heavily from classic horror literature such as Bram Stoker's Dracula and other noted vampire tales, Castlevania begins its focus on Dracula (Graham McTavish) himself. In roughly the 15th century, the immensely powerful and mostly reclusive Vlad "The Impaler" Tepes - a.k.a. "Dracula" - is approached by a young woman, Lisa, hoping to learn arcane medical arts from the intimidating alpha vampire. Though it may seem so, this is not an unusual request, as Dracula is actually a highly learned creature who has amassed vast troves of literature and knowledge on human health and medicine. Lisa and the count soon fall in love, and even marry. Tragedy strikes, however, when Lisa is one day taken and burned for a witch by the regional religious zealots. When Dracula returns and learns of his, he vows to destroy all of mankind as a blight on the earth.

The first season briskly tells the tale of how a handful of talented fighters come together in a desperate attempt to thwart Dracula and his hordes of dark, supernatural monsters from obliterating humankind. Primarily, the sorceress Sypha (Alejandra Raynoso) tracks down the legendary monster hunter Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage), whom she finds in a drunken, cynical stupor in a remote tavern. Once convinced to lend his skills to the fight, Trevor and Sypha help humans take a small stand against the forces of darkness, and they literally unearth a mysterious and powerful ally in the fight - a vampire named Alucard (James Callis) who has his own reasons for seeking Dracula's demise.

That first season served as an entertaining teaser for the larger story, and it embraced its "mature content" label by not holding back with the animated violence, rough language, and occasionally deeper themes around religion and the darkness inherent in human beings.

Sypha, Trevor, and Alucard. The first season suggested some
really intriguing possibilities for this trio of monster hunters,
but only a few of them were realized through the 2nd season.

The second season changed focus a bit, spending a great deal of time on the machinations in and between Dracula's monstrous forces. We meet and follow the schemes between his most powerful lieutenants and the "architects" who animate the horrific creatures that make up his armies. Frankly, I found these storylines mostly dull, often wishing the tale to turn back to Sypha, Trevor, and Alucard. However, even when the show did focus on that heroic trio, the pace was often rather slow and meandering, seeming to want to build relationships and rapport between them, but never coming together or feeling as organic as it could have.

There were a few interesting action sequences, and some funny moments, courtesy of Warren Ellis's sly, dark wit. But by the end of the second season, I really had no desire to see any more from this series. A third season has been confirmed, but I won't be bothering with it. I found the show to be decent, but there are just too many excellent television shows out there for me to spend any time with something that I only find "decent." 

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. 

Idiot Boxing: Arrested Development Rewatch + Season 5 Review

A poster for the original - and still the best - season.

This didn't go the way I was hoping.

Like a fair number of people back in 2004, I was oh-so-slightly late to the Arrested Development party. I distinctly remember seeing the preview commercials on Fox, before the show aired in fall of 2003, but ignored it as probably another Fox misfire. Several months into the show's first season, though, more than a few TV-loving friends were passionately recommending the show to me. Before I knew it, the first season had wrapped up, but I was able to snap up the DVD collection immediately upon its release and catch up. No sooner had I fallen in love with the show than there were whispers about its potential cancellation. As it has done with more than one great show (Firefly, for example), Fox completely fumbled a true TV gem, let it sputter, and then die after a mere two-and-a-half seasons.

The show was given a second life in 2013 when, seven years after its cancellation, a long-hoped for fourth season was released by Netflix. The show then went dormant yet again. When I noticed that a fifth season was just released earlier this year, my wife and I decided to go back and give the series a full rewatch.

The First Four Seasons, 2003 to 2013

My feelings about this show's progression seem to reflect the general opinion about them: absolute brilliance that lost a fair amount of its luster in the third and fourth seasons.

The first two seasons of the show were, and still are, some of the greatest TV comedy of all time. The sharpness of the writing and the truly unique structure and feel of the entire show have not lost a bit of their magic since the initial run between 2003 and 2005. As during my original viewing, I found the writing and the cast so outstanding that I found myself changing my mind about which character was the best several times. The entire cast was so locked into what the writers were going for that it's still astounding to this day.

The cancellation-shortened third season was obviously where a few cracks started to show. As with nearly every "zany" TV show, there seems to be an imperceptible, razor-thin line that separates "hilariously zany" from "silly and unfunny." Most of the third season stays on the right side of that line, but most of the entire Little Britain storyline was simply too goofy, despite Charlize Theron's solid comedic performance at Rita. Thankfully, that particular arc ran its course by the middle of the season. Unfortunately, the masterminds at Fox decided to completely cancel the show shortly after that - a fact which the brilliant writers on the show hilariously worked into the show's plot.

The show's resurrection on Netflix seven years later in 2013 was a mixed bag. My wife and I watched it almost immediately upon its full release at that time, and apparently felt similar to much of the viewing public: while still bearing a decent amount of the original run's humor, and managing to bring back every single member of the original main cast, the structure of the season was bafflingly convoluted, spinning multiple overlapping stories that often doubled back over on another and never hitting a real stride in terms of clear narrative. Netflix recently did a "Remix" version of this season, which I had hoped would re-edit the season into a more coherent form, but I was disappointed to find that it was at least as frustrating, leaning far too heavily on an insane amount of Ron Howard's narrative exposition to try and keep the various story threads together. The real shame is that, when the tale settles down from its dizzying structure, it's still pretty damn funny. The characters and actors are usually still great, and the dialogue is often as sharp as it ever was. But this season is often an exercise in frustration, with the muddled organization just getting in the way of what have always been the show's real strengths.

I can respect the writers' swinging for the fences and trying something new with this season, but it seems that their reach exceeded their grasp here. It's a bit baffling, given that they could have used the 7-year gap to do so much more than just try to clumsily fill in all of the characters' backstories in the intervening years. It seems like it was a perfect opportunity to re-introduce the family into a completely new scenario. In the first two-and-a-half seasons, the greater arc revolved around George Senior's treason/embezzlement scam. Why not whip up a completely new scandal or dilemma around which to have the narcissistic and greedy Bluth family orbit and stumble? This is the type of thing that I was hoping for when hearing about a fifth season:

Tobias Funke - always the butt of a million jokes - continues
to roam far beyond the "funny" line and into the realm of
idiotically ridiculous. Other elements of the show follow suit.

Season 5 (2018)

Not wanting to let a classic-but-short-lived-show go out on a flat note, Netflix returned five years after the letdown 4th season to bring back the Bluth family, with every single primary cast member from the original seasons joining in. The tale basically picks up very shortly after the 4th season ended, with the various Bluth family members scrambling to claim or plunder any assets they can in the wake of Lucille Austero's supposed death. We see a continuation of the weird friction between Michael and George-Michael, and the typically selfish and idiotic schemes by their family members. Many of these seem to revolve around and come back to a new setting - a beach-side home once owned by Michael and his long-dead wife.

Full disclosure now - my wife and I didn't even make it through the modest 8-episode season. Five episodes in, we simply abandoned it in order to watch other, more reliably entertaining shows. That should probably tell you all you need to know. But if you're curious as to why...

It all boils down to the show shockingly continuing the weakest elements of the 3rd and 4th seasons. The writers and show runners seemed unable to ratchet back the dizzying pace and zaniness to that oh-so-difficult-to-master balance found in the first two seasons. Yes, there are funny moments in season 5, but they are surprisingly few and far between, given the immensely talented cast. The contrivances were just too far-fetched most times, with too many oddities stacking on top of each other, thus dampening any comedic effect. But I guess this is the fate of virtually every "silly" TV comedy. When the initial premise and general tone of the humor is so very zany from the jump, the only direction it can go is "zanier." And that wears itself out each and every time, with the over-the-top oddities being the "too much salt" that spoils the dish. Such seems to be the case with Arrested Development.

At least we'll always have those first two magical seasons. 

Idiot Boxing: Aggretsuko, season 1 (2018); GLOW, season 2 (2018)

The usually demure, cute red panda Retsuko, screaming out
her work frustrations at her favorite karaoke parlor. The
lyrics can be hilariously straightforward.

Aggretsuko, season 1 (2018)

A delightfully playful, satirical take on single working life in Japan, with a hilarious dash of cathartic rage.

Aggretsuko's first season is comprised of ten 15-minute episodes. They follow Retsuko, red panda in a Japan populated by anthropomorphic animals of all varieties: gorillas, dogs, cats, lizards, and dozens of others. Retsuko herself is a low-level accountant in a typically hierarchical large Japanese company. As a 25-year old woman in the still rigidly-structured Japanese corporate culture, the quite and cute little accountant has to deal with her bosses foisting unfair workloads on her, as well as the typical under-estimations of her skills and value to the company. Though the cultural pressures prevent Retsuko from speaking up and complaining, she finds release in frequently going alone to karaoke bars and belting out loud, obnoxious death metal songs. Here, she can scream her lungs out to exorcise the demons which she can't release in public.

The show is not much of a commitment, and my wife and I found it consistently hilarious. I actually lived and worked in Japan for two years, though not in a large city and not for a large company like Retsuko. Still, one only needs a passing knowledge of traditional Japanese business culture and gender roles to see the humor in the show. Retsuko's quest for professional satisfaction and a boyfriend are fairly universal desires. And the show creator and writer - known only by the mononym "Rarecho" - has an excellent sense of balancing certain characters' restrained anger with the more eruptive moments of fury. On its surface, this animated show has the kawaii (cute) exterior one would expect from anime (the show is produced by the Sanryo company, which is responsible for the ultra-cute Hello Kitty line of products). This seemingly harmless veneer covers up the very real angst felt by Retsuko and several of her friends and coworkers.

I'm looking forward to the second season, set to release sometime in 2019.

The "Gorgeous Ladies" will have to face more than a few new
challenges as they try to build momentum for their fledging
show. And garish costumes can only help so much.

GLOW, season 2 (2018)

Season two of GLOW - the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling - continues and even improves upon many of the strengths of the initial one.

At the end of season one, the GLOW wrestlers have shown just enough success to justify getting their own set, a season's worth of shows, and a prime TV slot. Of course, scripting and performing a wrestling show can be much easier than it seems. While the ladies had gotten their wrestling and acting skills up to a respectable level, they now find themselves having to ratchet up the intensity. Show runner and director Sam Silva (Marc Maron) is just as on edge and irritable as ever, and he goes on a power trip to ensure that he maintains control over the show. He also limits how many matches will be on each episode, forcing the women to up their creativity and boldness with their wrestling moves. On top of that, several of the women are dealing with personal issues outside of the ring, including divorce, overly zealous fandom, and losing the respect of family members due to their negatively-stereotyped wrestling characters.

This second season went right to the places that I was hoping at the end of the first. With all of the primary players now know, the new season is able to dig deeper into several of the women's personal lives. Of course, we see more of the tense dynamic between Ruth (Alison Brie) and Debbie (Betty Gilpin), which is paced and told very well. In addition, we have a very thoughtful episode focused on Tamee (Kia Stevens) as she reckons with her controversial wrestling character "Welfare Queen." There is also a solid story arc with Sam and his newly-discovered daughter, Justine (Britt Baron), who had been a hopeful wrestler in the previous season. All of these stories are balanced and work together extremely well, with just the right balance of drama and humor. Through the season, I didn't feel that there was a single moment or storyline that didn't serve either a comedic or narrative purpose - a flaw than plenty of other Netflix shows haven't been able to avoid (I'm looking at you, Marvel Netflix shows).

Anyone not familiar with the show is of course best served to watch from the very beginning. With a very manageable twenty episodes of roughly 25 minutes each, it's no great commitment to get the full story. And it's a story that's worth it. 

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. 

Idiot Boxing: Stranger Things, season 2 (2017); Rick and Morty, season 1 (2013)

Who ya gonna call? The show wears its blatant love for
1980s pop culture nostalgia on its sleeve, without it ever
feeling purely gratuitous or exploitative.

Stranger Things, season 2 (2017)

I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of this great little TV show/love letter to 1980s Spielberg-esque, PG-13 adventure/horror shows. I found the sophomore season satisfying enough, but one that wasn't quite as dazzling or well-constructed as the first season.

At the end of the first season, Will was saved by his three faithful friends from a dark dimension which they had termed "The Upside-Down," a world where some strange type of plant monster seemed to be attempting to break into our own world. Although Will had been pulled out of The Upside-Down, he brought back some tadpole-looking lifeform, which escapes. The young girl, "Eleven" or "Elle," who had inadvertently been responsible for the rift, and Will's subsequent rescue, has gone missing.

In this new season, we fast forward just about ten months, nearing Halloween. The four main boys are mostly trying to live their lives normally, though Will occasionally is visited by strange episodes during which he feels that he is seeing back into The Upside-Down. Not only that, but he sees and feels the presence of a massive, shadowy creature looming over everything. We learn that he's been seeing doctors brought in by the military agency responsible for the troubles during the previous year. We also learn that Elle has been hiding out in Sheriff Jim Hopper's remote cabin in the woods near  town. As Elle fight the urge to leave the cabin, Mike, Will, and the other boys who had become her friends work to deal with another round of odd occurrences that spring up around Will's visions and a reptilian lifeform that Justin discovers rummaging through his trashcans. All of these elements come together as the shadow creature from the Upside-Down slowly tries to break into our world.

Between both seasons of the show, there hadn't been any
episode that felt out of place. That is, until episode 7 of this
second season. The writing, characters, pacing and plot were
oddly out of whack in this lone departure from Hawkins.

This second season was fun and entertaining, though maybe not quite as much as the first. The fantasy/adventure elements are still there and done very well, though there isn't a lot that is new. So much of the fun of the first season was discovering and learning about the world and the bizarre situations. This second season really just continues the same story, with a few flourishes, rather than offering much that will truly pique our curiosity. It doesn't help that a few elements smack just a bit of a lack of creativity, such as Will scribbling out his massive visions and having the drawings sprawled out all throughout his house. This little supernatural art project is a tad too similar to the iconic (and brilliant) "Christmas lights" communication system in season one. This is just one a few plot elements that perhaps drew a little too heavily from strengths of the first season.

The characters are still great, and I thought the show did a very nice job dealing with the boys' and girls' budding adolescence. We learn more about Dustin and Lucas, and their somewhat rivalry over the new girl at school, the tomboy Max. I did find Max's older brother, Billy, to be an over-the-top "bad boy" who bordered on caricature much of the time. But the adults are still solid, even if their personal story arcs don't show any particular amount of personal growth.

For the most part, the pacing of the tale was good. Oddly, though the seventh episode seemed highly unnecessary, and featured some rather poor dialogue and acting by Linnea Berthelsen, who plays Kali. I understand the point that Elle needed to rebel a bit and deal with her anger, but this episode seemed clunky and far less entertaining or compelling than those that take place back in Hawkins. It was an odd outlier in a show that had been very tight, and even added an episode to this season.

This was still a good show, and I'll likely tune in for the next season. However, the magic of watching that first season wasn't completely there this time.

We hardly know much about Rick or Morty before we have
Rick convincing his grandson to stuff a couple of alien plant
pods into his rectal cavity in an effort to sneak them past
intergalactic transportation security officers. This gives you
some idea of the tone and humor of the show.

Rick and Morty, season 1 (2013)

It's been quite some time since I found a show that made me laugh so hard, so consistently as Rick and Morty.

This was a show that had always been at the top of the "Recommended" list on my Hulu page, but I didn't give it a thought until a close friend with very similar tastes recently sang its praises to me. Roughly ten minutes into the pilot episode, I was completely hooked. By the end of the episode, I was literally in tears from laughing.

This animated show, which airs during the Cartoon Network's late-night Adult Swim hours follows the wild adventures of the title characters. Rick is an inconceivably brilliant scientist who is able to use his inventions to jump between galaxies, alternate dimensions, and other bizarre realms outside of the perception of most mortals. He often brings his none-too-bright, 14-year-old grandson on his far-flung and often extremely dangerous escapades. These might include shrinking Morty down to microscopic size and injecting him into a transient, in order to resolve problems in an amusement park inside the bum's body. Or it could involve the two working their way through a series of Matrix-like world simulations to evade an alien race seeking Rick's powerful technology. The plots are often extremely brisk, multi-layered, and place the odd pair in bizarre scenarios that only an LSD-addled sci-fi savant could dream up. The entire premise is a dream for any fan of science-fiction and fantasy action/adventure books, movies, and TV shows, and the writers are consistently razor sharp.

The episode with the Mr. Meeseekses (the blue guys) is a
perfect example of how one of Rick's genius inventions gets
horribly misused by his family. Things, of course, go completely
bonkers and those Meeseeks aren't smiling by episode's end.

Then there are the characters Rick and Morty themselves. Rick is clearly a misanthropic, borderline sociopath. He also happens to be a high-functioning alcoholic. Basically, he's what Doc Brown from the Back to Future movies would be if Brown had been a hundred times smarter, thoroughly unconcerned with humanity, and a complete booze bag. He makes the perfect comedy companion for Morty, his endearingly dim and frustrated grandson. There is something oddly sweet about Rick's dependence on Morty's presence on so many of his insane and highly dangerous forays into the far reaches of space and alternate realities.

The final episode of this first season was a great one, wherein Morty's teenage sister Summer and Rick decide to throw their own parties at the same time in the family house, when their parents are away. In the 24-minute episode, we're treated to a hilarious array of teen angst and back-biting happening right along with the gonzo gathering of Rick's various inter-dimensional associates, all of whom are looking to get drunk, high, or whatever it is that aliens and beings from other dimensions do to enter altered states of mind. It's a great representation of so much of what is great about the show: brilliant science-fiction gags, a boatload of events told at a somehow accessible pace, and a few sprinkles of heart here and there.

So I have now quickly become a major fan of this show. I've already dived right into season 2, a review of which is sure to be coming before too long. 

Idiot Boxing: The Deuce, season 1 (2017); Daredevil, season 2 (2016) rewatch

The Deuce, season 1 (2017)

HBO gets really down an dirty with this one, deciding to do a series focused on the beginnings and growth of the modern pornography film industry in the early 1970s.

It took until a little ways into the second episode to fully grab me, but I'm now hooked. I suppose this should have surprised me, given that it took me about three or four episodes to completely fall in love with Simon and Pelecanos's earlier HBO project, The Wire. These guys know how to craft a tale with the long game in mind. They won't introduce or completely reveal all of the fascinating aspects of great characters in the initial episode. Rather, they spread them out as they slowly weave a larger story.

That story is not for the prudish. This first season follows several denizens of Manhattan's Times Square distrcit, which was nothing like the garish, Disneyfied, laser light show tourist trap of today. Back then, it was as seedy a place as they come, where the sex trade was there for the seeing and taking. Pimps and prostitutes roamed the streets. Stores peddling sex books, viewings or short, softcore pornography, and even short porn films (which was actually illegal then) were huddled next to movie theaters offering pornographic films. In The Deuce (the name refers to the "two" in 42nd Street, and the general area where it crosses between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan), we follow several of the people who live and work in this shady area, including several prostitutes, a few cops, and a handful of people who work in or frequent some of the bars. The primary characters in this first season are the twin brothers Vincent and Frank, the individualist prostitute "Candy," and the bright, liberated NYU dropout Abby. Vincent opens a bar in The Deuce, backed by a mafia lieutenant who takes a liking to him. Abby, after trying and failing to forge her own way outside of the college setting, ends up working at Vincent's bar, and Candy is an aging but extremely savvy hooker who is exhausted by her occupation and seeking a way out of the trade. All of their lives begin to change when certain morality codes are loosened, allowing for the creation of massage parlors (which are actually bordellos) and pornographic films. This all leads to a sort of legitimacy for the sex trade that had not existed before, in turn altering the perceptions of nearly everyone involved.

Inside the Hi-Hat, the closest thing that we have to an anchor
in the sleazy surroundings of the pre-glitz Times Square of the
early 1970s. The Hi-Hat a bit of a dive, to be sure, but it
becomes cozy by the end of the 8-episode first season.

Similar to my experience watching The Wire, The Deuce took a couple of episodes to become fully engaging. When it did, though, it really did. Yes, it's on the very salacious topic of the early days of the modern porn industry. Still, there is nothing titillating about what we see in this show. Sure, there is nudity aplenty, as we see the various sex workers ply their trades, but it is all very businesslike, often very seedy, and sometimes even disturbing and dangerous. And it is fascinating. The truth is, whether one wants to admit it or not, that pornography is a massive industry, both in the U.S. and throughout the world. The Deuce offers some insight into the lives of people on the front lines of this commercial juggernaut, and how their sexuality is turned into a commodity - a commodity that is at first essentially illegal, but gradually becomes more and more legitimate and socially acceptable. Simply learning about the system of heirarchy at work, between the prostitutes, their pimps, the police, and even politicians and mafiosi, bears all of the intrigue of learning the inner-workings of any fringe or criminal trade. This is why stories about the rises and falls of drug runners and bootleggers have always been fascinating, and it's why the film Boogie Nights was so compelling. They offer us a view into worlds that most of us know exist, and which reflect our more secretive desires, even if we ouselves may not be driven to partake in the ways that the characters on screen do.

Beyond the subject matter, the production values of the show are as good as it gets. This will probably come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the show creators' previous works, and The Deuce lives up to their reputations. The writing and acting are excellent, with Maggie Gylenhall (also a producer of the show) being a standout who is likely to be nominated for various awards. And lest one think that a show about the porn industry will have a strongly male slant, the creators took great care to have women involved as much as possible, with half of the episodes directed by top-shelf female directors. The balance shows, as we get plenty of well-balanced characters of both genders, and the subject of social views on homosexuality are an apparent theme.

The overall tone of the show is rather dark, not unlike The Wire. But also like that earlier masterpiece, is it liberally cut with moments of humor. Both intentionally and unintentionally, many of the characters here are funny people. In true New York City fashion, humor is a way to deal with bad situations, and there are plenty of them to be found in The Deuce.

I don't know if the subject matter of The Deuce will ever allow it to reach the heights of popularity of other gritty, big city series like The Wire, but I'll certainly be eager for future seasons.

Jon Bernthal's portrayal as the Punisher, and that character's
progression, are the strongest part of this season. His counter-
point to the slightly-better adjusted Matt Murdock is a solid
element in the first two-thirds of this season.

Daredevil, season 2 (2016) rewatch

Nothing leads one into a nice, solid binge of TV watching quite like getting a stomach infection that lays you up at home for a few days. Such was my situation recently. With the forthcoming Netflix series The Punisher set for imminent release, I had the urge to go back and give a second viewing to his introduction in the Marvel Cinematic Universe during the second season of Daredevil. You can find my original review here, if you're interested, so I'm going to keep this semi-review to a few revised thoughts and new observations.

Surprisingly, I actually enjoyed this second viewing more than the first. After re-reading my original review, I still feel the same about nearly every aspect, though the weak points didn't strike me as being quite so annoying this second time through:

The Punisher story is still just as good, and I actually didn't mind the slow pace of the courtroom drama as much this time, probably since I knew it was coming. It speaks to Jon Bernthal's presence that I still loved watching every scene he was in, as he portrayed this complex character. The relationship be forms with Karen Page is excellent, though I still wish the show had more overtly connected Karen's desire to find the good in Frank with her own guilt over killing a man, as shown in season one.

The Elektra storyline follows a pretty satisfying arc, in
general, but the hate/love relationship with Matt still feels
rather forced and begs a few too many questions for me. 

The Elektra storyline still didn't fully strike home for me, though it wasn't as frustrating this time. I did buy into their earlier relationship just a bit more, but I still found Matt's rekindled love for her rather forced. It's very clear that he knows that she is a sadistic murderer, to the point that he literally tells her how he saw the pleasure on her face when she killed people. And yet, he somehow still has some passion for her? I suppose that I could take this as a part of himself that wishes he could just kill people whom he found guilty and even perhaps enjoy it, rather than feel so much guilt. Yet the show doesn't lay out those dots to connect terribly well. I will also say that I wasn't as annoyed with Elodie Young this time through. I never had a problem with her acting, but that I didn't buy her as a world-class assassin and fighter. In doing some research, it turns out that Young has studied karate for many years; however, she has also studied dance equally as long. To me, she still moves more like a dancer than a combatant who can take out hordes of bigger, stronger thugs and ninja.

This second season probably suffered a little bit from being a bridge to future shows. While it is self-contained enough to mostly stand on its own, there is certainly a "Punisher 0.5" and even a bit of "Defenders 0.5" feel to it. When taken with The Defenders, it makes a nice piece. And it looks like The Punisher, due in the middle of November, should be solid. 

Idiot Boxing: The Defenders (2017); Ballers, season 2 (2016)

The Defenders (2017)

One of Netflix's better offerings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), even if it misses the mark in a few areas.

In the first Avengers-style team up of the Netflix Marvel characters, The Defenders brings together the four grittier heroes introduced on the streaming service - Matt Murdock (a.k.a. Daredevil), Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand (a.k.a. the Iron Fist). Each one is a hero is his or her own way, but they all have demons lurking in their closets. All four are residents of New York City, where the nefarious and shadowy organization The Hand has been secretly exerting control for centuries. The four of them, each in their own ways, comes across The Hand's plot to essentially level New York in order to obtain a mysterious, magical substance from beneath the city's surface. Reluctantly, the quartet band together to stop The Hand, including their deadliest weapon - the assassin Black Sky, who happens to be Murdock's former lover, Elektra Natchios.

I found that The Defenders got many of the necessary elements right. The story finally fills in several details about The Hand and their dark plots which had been teased in the Daredevil and Iron Fist series. We finally learn more about the vicious and diminutive Madame Gao, the presumed dead Bakuto, and the other three "Fingers," who together with Gao and Bakuto make up The Hand's leadership. The show also brings to a conclusion story lines which were left dangling at the end of Daredevil's second season and Iron Fist's first. In fact, The Defenders can very much be considered Daredevil season 2.5. Unfortunately, the show also further highlights some major shortcomings in the first season of Iron Fist, making that entire season feel more like a lame, overly long prequel that one could dub The Defenders season 0.5. All the same, the eight episodes of The Defenders move things along at a good pace, bringing in each of the New York heroes in his or her turn and joining them together quite organically. Once this fully happens, in episode 3, the story clicks along at a satisfying pace that has sometimes been lacking in the other 13-episode, single-hero shows.

Another Netflix Marvel show, another hallway full of hench-
men get beat to hell. This was one of several strong action
sequences in the show - something sorely lacking in its
virtual prequel, Iron Fist.

In addition to the general story and pacing being solid, I found that the characters were handled fairly well. I felt that Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones were written particularly well, feeling very much like the engaging characters who they've been in their solo shows. Oddly, Luke Cage wasn't quite as consistent as I had hoped. He's generally struck me as the deep and silent type, based on the first season of his show earlier this year. While he is often just that in The Defenders, there are moments when he seems a bit more rattled or even unreasonable than he should be. At this point in the MCU, where aliens have attacked several times and other world-threatening forces have arisen and been defeated by god-like superheroes, nobody should be surprised when they are told that organizations like The Hand exist and are trying to exert control over entire megacities. And yet, the writers decided to try and make Luke Cage the skeptic of the group, although he has been shown to be an exceptionally aware and intelligent man in his previous shows. And then there's Danny Rand, the "Immortal" Iron Fist. While he is handled better in The Defenders, he is still by far the least interesting or fleshed out of the quartet. The writers still don't seem to know exactly how to handle him: is he a ferociously angry young man out solely for vengeance? Is he an easy-going, cohesive force who casually throws back Chinese food while the forces of evil gather outside of their hideout? Is he a naive but wise Zen master? They haven't figured this out, though there are some intriguing options for what to do with his character.

The action was some of the best we've seen in the Netflix MCU shows. I can't say it was ever quite on par with some of the best sequences from Daredevil or even a few from Luke Cage, but there are some really fun segments that show off the different abilities and styles of the four heroes. They even worked in a few entertaining "cross-ability" maneuvers, such as Jessica Jones throwing a thug towards Cage, to have him clothesline the poor bastard two feet into the ground.. It was also fun to see Luke Cage simply "tank" hails of oncoming gunfire, while Murdock or Rand literally use his massive frame for shelter before emerging to unleash some vicious martial artistry. Coming on the heels of the woefully tepid fight scenes of Iron Fist, seeing The Defenders get mostly back on track was a relief. I do wish that some of the sequences were better lit and made less use of hyper-quick editing cuts, to let us enjoy the action a bit more, but I found it more than passable.

The Defenders was a success, in my eyes. It juggled several distinct elements and fused them in ways that didn't feel overly forced, and it put together an entertaining tale that was well-suited for an 8-episode series. While it is certainly not terribly accessible to those who haven't seen most or all of the other previous Netflix MCU shows, it should satisfy nearly all fans who have seen and enjoyed them.

Ballers, season 2 (2016)

I had gotten halfway through this season when I grew frustrated and stopped watching for a few months. Fortunately, after I had gone back to it, I found that the show righted the ship fairly well and turned in an enjoyable second season that fans itching for a mature sports show can appreciate.

At the end of the first season, former NFL player-turned-aspiring financial advisor to pro athletes Spencer Strasmore (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) and his partner Joe had managed to save a few key clients from slipping away, all while they were seriously considering the risky proposition of setting out to start their own company. Though Spencer's business dealings mostly fall back into line, his health issues continue to be problematic - he dodged one bullet by having a CT scan on his brain turn up negative, but his hip is causing him greater and greater discomfort, leading to higher and more furtive use of prescription painkillers.

These victories and demons follow Spencer into season two, which jumps forward a little less than a year after the first season. Spencer's roster of athletes is still relatively small, including dynamic and quixotic characters like Ricky Jerret and Vernon Littlefield. Spencer and Joe also roll the dice on a very talented but massively abrasive NFL prospect, Travis Mack. All the while, several nasty skeletons from Spencer's playing days' closet are laid bare when he tries to take down a powerful rival in the pro athlete financial advising business. By the end of the season, Spencer is broken down in several ways, clinging to a few shreds of hope that he can have some sort of post-playing days career.

As stated above, I had actually been worried about this show after the first few episodes, as it seemed like it was turning into little more than a showcase for lifestyles of the fictional rich and famous, and celebrity athlete cameos. However, once I went back to it, I was glad to see that the season's arc went back to the drama surrounding Spencer's pride, his injuries, and his desperate attempts to keep several massive egos in check, including his own. The final episode features a straightforward speech given by a tattered, bedraggled Spencer, which actually has some power to it.

A beaten-down Joe and Spencer take stock after dropping
several of the balls they'd been juggling, then going on a
bender. The show's at its best when these guys fail and end
up showing some vulnerability.

I have enjoyed how this show truly has stuck to the off-the-field aspects of professional sports, rather than going the typical route of building each season around a corresponding sports season. That latter approach always leans heavily on the ready-made drama of a player or team's attempts to succeed at their chosen sport. Ballers, in contrast, looks almost exclusively at how such athletes may succeed or fail in any and every other aspect of their lives, be it personal or financial. No, it doesn't do it with the gravity of a well-made documentary, but it's still a unique blend of fun and drama that scratches the itch of anyone who is into sports and the industries built around them.

I can't say that Ballers is an earth-shattering, must-see show for anyone. It is, however, a fun little foray into a vibrant world, with as charismatic and capable a ring-leader as one could imagine in Dwayne Johnson. It's a great lead-in to the upcoming football season, to be sure. I've already dived right into the current season, the show's third.