I literally just got around to watching the latter half of Scream Queens season 2 that aired back around Thanksgiving.
I do love this show but it was always going to be a struggle after the epic first season. They did their best here by moving from the college to a hospital and bringing on some fresh blood but it didn't quite live up to expectations. Better luck next season.I watched the entirety of The Librarians season 3 in about two days.
This year brought a new villain --Apep, god of chaos-- and new, dangerous choices between science and magic for the team. Honestly, this is an adorably quirky show and I feel like it'll always be one step away from getting cancelled so I just enjoy it while it lasts.I finally started watching Stranger Things, thanks to Tom and Hollie, who refuse to let me slip into pop culture unfamiliarity. I'm only up to episode 4, though, so no spoilers!
So far, I completely understand what all the hype is about. It's an intriguing mix of weirdness and heart. Like Twin Peaks meets The Goonies. I'd like to keep watching it with my friends, but I understand scheduling conflicts.Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has broken their fourth season into different story arcs. The first half was Ghost Rider and the second half is Life Model Decoy or LMD.
Basically, they're totally ripping off two excellent movies with this second half: Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Matrix. New episodes come back in April and better have a satisfactory conclusion to justify this blatant cribbing. A lot of people hate on AoS, but at least they're consistently trying to broaden out the Marvel world.Unlike Blindspot season two, where they're just going to rehash the entire first season but now it's a dude with no memory.
Not that dude. If you have the good sense not to watch this show, let me break it down for you. In season one, Jane Doe (Jamie Alexander) was dumped naked in Times Square covered in tattoos and with no memory. The season involved her working with the FBI to decipher each tattoo, leading to various plots and scandals as she tried to solve crime and recover her identity. By season two, we've learned that her real name is Remy and she's a terrorist (seriously) who was adopted from a Fight Club-styled orphanage with her brother, Roman (Luke Mitchell) by a mysterious woman named Shepherd (Michelle Hurd) who has a bone to pick with the entire US government. Remy dosed Roman with the same amnesia drug that she got and wash, rinse, repeat. And if you're thinking "God, did NBC really decide to go with Romulus and Remus knockoff names for their main characters?" the answer is I know, right?! Ugh.I am mostly done with Marvel's Iron Fist on Netflix.
There are some issues with it, yes, but I don't know that it deserves an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. I'd put it at about the same level as season 2 of Daredevil. Danny Rand (Finn Jones) was presumed dead at age 10 when the plane he was on with his parents crashed in the Himalayas. Danny survived and was taken in by the monks of Kunlun, a mystical place in an alternate dimension only accessible every fifteen years. While he was waiting for Earth to become available again, Danny trained incessantly to become a living weapon, the Immortal Iron Fist, able to channel his qi into amazing feats of strength. His mission in life is to eradicate the evil organization known as the Hand, conveniently located in Midtown Manhattan using his father's company, Rand Enterprises, as a cover to bring in synthetic heroin. Most people have taken exception to the idea of a blond, blue-eyed white guy appropriating Asian culture. This is a concern, overall, in the entertainment industry where Asian American actors are very underrepresented. I do think that Marvel and Netflix missed an opportunity to show more diversity but they chose to go with the representation presented in the source comics. Okay. That's a style choice. My problem with the show is that the character just isn't that interesting. For a 25-year-old man who's been steeped in Buddhist meditations and the discipline of kung fu for a decade, he's shockingly impulsive and childlike. It makes him frustrating to watch, especially when he finally starts confronting the poisonously evil Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho).
The best thing about this show, however, are the amazing female characters. Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) is a total badass, Joy Meechum (Jessica Stroup) is an ice queen but impossible to dislike, Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) is the glue holding all four Defenders together, and Madame Gao is pure evil wrapped in this tiny old lady body. Also, possibly immortal and in possession of telekinetic powers. #goals
Back on regular network TV, I sped through the first five episodes of NBC's Powerless, a workplace comedy about dealing with the collateral damage of a superhero-filled world.
It's a fun, forgettable little show set in Wayne Security, a failing division of Wayne Enterprises. Emily (Vanessa Hudgens) has moved to Charm City to be head of Research and Development and try to motivate the cynical engineers with her boundless optimism, while trying to mitigate interference from her boss, Van Wayne (Alan Tudyk), cousin to the more famous Bruce, who desperately wants them to develop a product that will get him promoted to the Gotham City office. It's a nice, light popcorn show and it's got Alan Tudyk and a ton of DC references.Last but not least is CW's Riverdale, the soapy, steamy update of perennial comic characters Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead.
If I'm honest, this sounded like the worst idea for a TV show ever, but it's actually kind of amazing. Part of it is because it's the CW so they've hired the hottest young people available and then have them barely dressed. God bless them. The other part is that they've made it a murder mystery full of snappy repartee and dark, hinted at secrets. And musical numbers! This could wind up being the best new show of 2017 but I'm only two episodes in and I haven't even started watching Legion on FX.
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