TV shows are awesome

[Sparky Prime]

Loki season 2

I'm conflicted on this season. I liked the overall story, but the time travel and multiverse stuff felt messy and inconsistent. And the writers never attempted to explain any of that. Like, Loki's time slipping is pointed out to be impossible in the TVA, and the character's essentially just pass it off by saying "that's weird". I mean, any explanation would have just been technobabble nonsense, but not to even attempt to justify it after making a big deal that it's impossible? That's just lazy writing to me.

[Sparky Prime]

I've been watching the live action Netflix Avatar the Last Airbender series. So far I've only watched 4 of the 8 episodes. I enjoyed the first two episodes. The 3rd and 4th... not so much. Being only 8 episodes, they've compressed a lot of plot elements from various episodes of the cartoon together. It worked well enough for the first two episodes, given a lot of was they compressed was background stuff they explored through several episodes of season 1 of the cartoon. So we basically get the whole story of the start of the war and Aang running away when he learns he's the Avatar, ending up in the iceberg right off the bat. But starting with episode 3, they start putting together plots that had nothing to do with each other. Some of it kinda works, and most of it doesn't. Such as, the Freedom Fighters and the Mechanist living in Omashu. It works in that the Freedom Fighters target the Mechanist, who they'd obviously see as a threat for handing over plans to the Fire Nation. But how is the Mechanist being blackmailed by the Fire Nation? The whole point of him making the deal with the Fire Nation in the cartoon is that they had no such protection at the Northern Air Temple. Well Fire Nation spies are all over the city... somehow. The writers never really explain it, they just have Zhao say they have a way. If they can do that, why haven't they just taken the city already? They sorta forget about the war balloon plot. I mean, I guess they can bring it up again at some point, and they kinda will have to, but it looses the pay off when they don't show the Fire Nation getting their hands on it here. So the plot kinda falls apart. Oh, and really surprising, they throw in some of The Cave of Two Lovers, a season 2 episode from the cartoon, into episode 4 of this show, which was completely out of place here, nor did I like the changes they made to it. Frankly, I think they threw it in more for fanservice since fans love the Secret Tunnel song so much, and they didn't even do that justice.

So I dunno... I still need to finish the season. I think it's better than the live action movie they did years ago so far, but it's still not as good as the original cartoon.

[Sparky Prime]

Continuing Netflix's Avatar The Last Airbender...

I was not a fan of many of the changes they made in episodes 5 and 6... It starts out as Hei Bai's story, but shortly after we see Hei Bai (in dark spirit form), the kids become lost in the fog of lost souls (nice reference to the Legend of Korra) and end up meeting Koh. Oh, and Sokka has done the ice dodging ritual before his father left to fight in the war... And did a pretty bad job of it apparently, so he overheard his father said he's disappointed in him. Exact opposite of everything in the cartoon. Anyway, at this point Hei Bai's part in the story get dropped. Aang does plant a seed, but without actually seeing it pacify Hei Bai, it felt like an empty gesture. Anyway... Aang, running away from Koh, stumbles upon Gyatso in the spirit world. I'm guessing that he's like Iroh in LoK, given he explains to Aang he chose to live in the spirit world following his death. Not sure if I like this change or not. It feels a little cheap for Gyatso to tell Aang there's nothing he could have done against the Fire Benders, rather than Aang to learn how to forgive himself for running away. At any rate, he tells Aang he needs to go talk to Roku about Koh. They completely neutered the Avatar Roku plot. It was way too easy for Aang to talk to Roku and they've also removed Roku informing Aang about Sozin's comet. Instead, he tells Aang about a totem he stole from Koh. And rather than Roku taking over to help Aang get out, June captures Aang. For some reason, they have June flirting with Iroh. I'm guessing they didn't want the old man hitting on the younger woman, but it's odd to flip it like this.

Episode 7 and 8 reaches the Northern Water Tribe. Still have Master Pakku's sexism, but they've cut out that he had been betrothed to Katara's and Sokka's grandmother. So it's just the fact that the women all want to help defend their home that helps convince him to change. Zhao having been to Wan Shi Tong's Library is cut out. Apparently the Fire sage's had all the information he needed about the moon and ocean spirits. They have a prototype war balloon to get them to the spirit oasis as well. Which would work... except we never saw the Fire Nation spies in Omashu get those plans. The Freedom Fighters stole it first. Aang merging with the ocean spirit is implied to be something he can't come back from... but it plays out mostly the same as it did in the cartoon. Once the moon spirit is restored, the ocean spirit separates from Aang. In the aftermath, turns out the siege of the north was just a distraction so the Fire Nation could capture Omashu, and Sozin's Comet is on its way...

It was just announced today that this series has been greenlit for season 2 and 3. Hopefully they tighten up the writing. I think it started out strong, but when it came to condensing different plots, it got extremely rough. I've left a lot out they changed. It would take too long to point out everything, because they really changed a lot in order to condense the story, but also make it somewhat different from the cartoon. Some of the changes are ok, but most of them I don't think the writers thought out completely... Sometimes they contradict themselves. I'm surprised that they included some stuff from the later seasons, and even Legend of Korra, but left out some important details from the season they were supposed to be adapting first and foremost. The more I think about it... the more problems I come up with. It certainly is better than the M. Night Shyamalan movie, but it's still far below what a live action adaptation of this series should be.

[andersonh1]

#RIPDoctorWho. Although in my opinion they had already killed this show, they're just putting bullets into the corpse now.

[Sparky Prime]

X-Men '97

I grew up watching the original series on Fox Kids so I was intrigued when they announced they'd be reviving it on Disney+. And they really went to some lengths to make it seem like a continuation of the original. I'm surprised they got the majority of the voice actors back to reprise their roles. Some of them sound a little different being about 30 years later, but still, it's great that they were able to get them back. Animation uses modern techniques, which took me a little getting used to after re-watching some of the original episodes. It's a lot more crisp and clean, which is good, just a little odd when going from the original to the new series.

Much like the original series, primarily they'd adapting storylines from the comics. And some of the stories they did this season...The censors with Fox Kids wouldn't have allowed back in the day, so this series is a bit more mature than the original. We got to see the X-Men line up change a little bit as the season progressed, which is great. That's something I always wanted to see in the original, a few other X-Men characters being part of the team for more than just an episode or two. We also got to see some different costumes. Which felt a little odd seeing some of them in their 80's costumes for a 90's storyline, but there was a reason for it in the story which was a nice touch.

I had some issues with the fight sequence in the season finale, and some of the early episodes of the season felt a little rushed, but for the most part, I think they did a great job with this first season.

[Sparky Prime]

Agatha All Along

I've really been enjoying this mini-series.

Spoiler

The first episode was a bit slow. They were going for a bit of Wandavision, showing Agatha trapped within a television show setting illusion where Wanda left her at the end of that series. It just dragged on a little too long for my taste, since that was Wandavision's thing, it's not what this series is about. Once she was freed from the illusion though, the show quickly picked up the pace. Actually, I find myself wishing some of these episodes were longer.

I really liked the dynamics of the Witches coven they put together to travel the Witches Road. Them being forced to work together to complete the trials has been fun. Little disappointed they've seemingly killed them all off. Seeing how easily Agatha survived, I'm guessing we haven't seen the last of them either.

This week's episode, I was happy to see the origin story for Billy Kaplan/William Maximoff. They'd kept his identity secret up until this point, although most has already guessed who he was. Wiccan is one of my favorite characters, but the comic book origin never really made much sense to me. In the comics, after Mephisto tried and failed to claim their souls, William and Tommy were reincarnated as newborns with two different random families. Yet, they were also still somehow Wanda's twins. Years later, Vision somehow identified them as potential replacement Avengers. I get this explanation is based on magic, but that just never worked for me. In this series, after Wanda's illusion over Westview collapsed, the Kaplan family was in a car accident. Billy Kaplan sadly dies, but this gives William Maximoff's soul a place to go. I like this explanation much more than the comic. It's also an effective way to explain the recasting. So now, 3 years later, he's trying to find out what happened to Tommy's soul, and believes the Witches Road will allow him to find his brother.

There's still a couple episodes left which I'm interested in seeing where they take it, given the twists and turns they've already. I'd have to say its also one of the better Marvel TV series. Which is fitting, because I'd also really liked Wandavision, which this directly follows up.

[Sparky Prime]

Agatha All Along (finale)

Spoiler

Glad to see the apparent deaths of everyone I mentioned in the previous post wasn't their end... More or less. Interesting they had Jen Kale survive and fly away. Seems to imply she may turn up again in the future. I'm surprised that Aubrey Plaza's character turned out to be Death, seeing as they had avoided Death having a physical manifestation prior to this. I'd glad they held off on something like that for something like this series though. I don't think it would have played well on top of everything else going on in Infinity War and Endgame. But I think it works for this series based in witchcraft.

I liked whole Witches Road thing turned out to be a manifestation of Billy's powers, similar to the illusion Wanda created over Westview.

Surprised that they didn't explain how/why Agatha got the Darkhold, since the story about her getting it in exchange for her son's life turned out to be false. Also surprised she sticks around as a ghost, and will be serving as a literal spirit guide for Billy.

Glad to see the scene with Billy's parents concerned with him having been missing for two days. I was hoping we'd get something with his boyfriend as well, but

I like the idea that Tommy's spirit had remained... unbound I guess, and that Billy had to help him find a new body, being the magic one of the two. How that played out though was... intense. Didn't exactly get an answer to Billy's question as to whether or not he was inadvertently causing the situation just so that Tommy could have a new body. Guessing they'll come up later.

Loved that we got to see Joe Locke in a super hero costume. Didn't think we'd actually get to see that in this series, even for as short a sequence it was.

As I said in my previous post, I really enjoyed this series. I'm hoping we see some follow ups to the loose ends this series had soon. I'm very curious to see where they take these characters from here.

[Sparky Prime]

Getting around to watching season 3 of What if...?

I still haven't watched the final two episodes, but already I can't say that I've enjoyed this season as much as the previous 2. This season, they really decided to go crazy with the plots. Which, on the one hand I do appreciate them getting further away from variations of MCU plots. I just think they over did it with some truly crazy stories. Like in one episode, Howard the Duck and Darcy Lewis get married and have a child together. The episode is actually pretty entertaining, with them trying to protect their egg from pretty much everyone in the universe. But the concept is just... why Howard and Darcy?

Spoiler

About half way through this season, The Watcher starts to lament that some universes always have a bad ending and he's unable to interfere... until he decides to risk the consequences and starts to interfere in some small way that allows the heroes to prevail. I'm sure, like the previous seasons, somehow all of these episodes will play a role for the finale, but I think this season would have been better if he'd been doing this in every episode.

Edit:
Finally finished the series....

Spoiler

Captain Carter and Kahhori have kept doing the multiversal Avengers thing since season 2 apparently. They don't have an official name but at one point they are dismissively referred to as Exiles, which is a reference to the comic book team. They've added an adult version of Byrdie (Howard and Darcy's kid) and Storm with the power of Thor to their team. Very cool hearing Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm in this series, and nice to see the X-Men getting a bit of representation in this series. Anyway, they quickly determine Watcher is in trouble when the shards from his observatory nearly falls on them. Unable to get to him themselves, they get the help of a Infinity Ultron variant (who, after eliminating all life in his universe, has decided he made a mistake) and Carter is captured by the Eminence.

Infinity Ultron sacrifices himself to buy the Watcher and... Exiles (for lack of anything else to call them) time to get away. Watcher gives them all the power of the Watchers to fight back. The three Watchers combines their abilities to erase them all (including their variants) from existence, but Carter somehow overcomes them and transports the group to Strange Supreme's universe. Since he embodies this universe following the events of season 2, he's able to suppress the Watchers abilities, giving them the chance to talk about the honor of watching over life. Back in Watcher's observatory, Storm, Kahhori and Byrdie ponder what became of Carter as they repair her shield.

This season was certainly... different. I can see why it was criticized more harshly than the other seasons. I'd say I still enjoyed it overall but it did seem like it wasn't as well put together and a bit rushed. I'm surprised they didn't tie in more characters/events from earlier in this season into the finale, as they'd done in the previous seasons. I'm disappointed the team at the end were only 4 characters, two of which we hadn't really seen before. I'm a little mixed that they sort of brought back Infinity Ultron and Supreme Strange yet again. Being the finale of the series, it makes for some nice symmetry. But on the other hand... I wish they had moved away from these characters.

[Sparky Prime]

A new Avatarverse animated series has been officially announced... Avatar: Seven Havens.

According to the release, this series will be after Korra caused a "devastating cataclysm" that nearly destroyed the world of Avatar, leaving the survivors with seven strongholds. The new Avatar is an Earthbending girl who has a long lost twin (this twin is apparently mistaken to be the Avatar because they have "similar powers"), and are hunted by human and spirits alike for whatever Korra did. But the Avatar is the world's only hope for survival.

I'm guessing that the new Avatar's twin is the spirit of Vaatu reborn like Raava, and similarly has been reincarnated as a human. If so, I really like that idea. The concept of the Avatar being two spirits who exist as a yin-yang to each other fascinates me. I hope they don't make the twin inherently evil like Vaatu was though. I mean, Vaatu being the spirit of darkness and chaos makes him an obvious choice to be a villain, but that was something I didn't like in LoK... The concept of yin-yang, neither should be inherently good or evil, they are two parts of a whole that balance each other out. Which is ordinarily a big theme in the Avatar shows, so I'm not sure why they didn't go that route with Vaatu and Raava in LoK.

I'm not a fan of Korra being responsible for a cataclysm that nearly destroys the world. Her story was pretty rough on her character to begin with, so I don't like them making her the villain in the eyes of the people. I hope they aren't vilifying her because of the criticism some of the fan base has for her and her series, as I've seen some suggesting. Also hope this is just a situation where Korra got blamed for something that wasn't actually her fault and the new Avatar has to set the record straight.

Not sure how I feel about the Avatar world being split into these seven havens. I liked how they had been developing the world of the Avatar, and this completely changes all of that by isolating them into just seven groups. But on the other hand, it could also be interesting to see how these survivors may be divided and develop differently from one another.

So... Much remains to be seen of this new series yet obviously. It sounds like it will be a very different take on the Avatar world though.

[Sparky Prime]

The Dragon Prince (Mystery of Aaravos)

This is an animated series on Netflix that began in 2018, and wrapped up its final (7th) season at the end of last year. Because Dragon Prince's co-creator, Aaron Ehasz, was the head writer for Avatar The Last Airbender, it's a sort of spiritual successor to Avatar in terms of characters and themes. There's even a few in-jokes referencing Avatar. Plus, they got Jack DeSena, the voice of Sokka, as Prince Callum. But while Avatar is more inspired by Asian cultures, Dragon Prince is more medieval European.

The basic premise is that the series follows a group of kids, each with unique skills. Prince Callum, an aspiring mage. Prince Ezran, Callum's younger half brother who can talk to animals and is next in line to be King of their kingdom. Rayla, a Moonshadow Elf assassin. And eventually Zym (his full name being Azymondias), the titular dragon prince. The first story arc (the first 3 seasons) involves the kids on a quest to save Zym's egg, help his egg hatch and reunite him with his mother. The second story arc (season 4-7) added the Mystery of Aaravos subtitle and jumps forward two years. The focus of the show becomes more about the politics of the world at this point. Aaravos, who was secretly pulling the strings from his prison in the first 3 seasons, takes a more active role as the heroes become aware of him.

I just finished season 7 this week.

Spoiler

I've seen a lot of people say they didn't really like the direction the show took from season 4 on. I still enjoyed it personally, but it did seem to loose some of its charm at that point. I was disappointed in season 7 though. I guess the creators would have liked to do one more story arc, but since Netflix hasn't greenlit it, season 7 is the de facto end. But, it felt rushed to me, like they were trying to wrap up as much of the story as they could, and left a lot of unanswered questions. Like, Aaravos is revealed to be sort of immortal. His physical body can be killed, but as a Startouch Elf, he will just return when his stars realign. So he is killed, but he gloats he'll be back in 7 years, so they'll have to deal with him again when he returns. Callum had an alternate plan to trap Aaravos's soul, but it would have required black magic. Earlier, Callum had done a ritual to cleanse his soul from his earlier uses of black magic, but it was explained if he attempted it again, he'd be totally corrupted. So... he starts the spell but isn't able to finish. It leaves him with a white streak of hair, a sign of dark magic use, but it's not clear what that means for the character. Way back at the beginning of the series, King Harrow was thought to have been killed, but the kids learn at the very end his soul may have swapped with that of a pet bird which has since gone missing... The series ends with a team leaving to locate the bird, so that remains open ended. Which ironically is sort of like the fate of Zuko's mom in Avatar.

Given Netflix's track record, if they haven't renewed it by now, I doubt it'll get any more seasons. Which is disappointing. I would have liked this series to have a more satisfying ending than we got.