KJ

Arrowverse update: I suppose I should just get used to the idea that I mostly won't watch Batwoman or Supergirl the night it airs, so these updates will always be for the week previous. ( Some details )

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World: I saw the first movie of this series in theaters and enjoyed it a ton. The second movie we watched at home and liked it well enough, and I feel similarly about this one: not earth-shaking, but fun, and pretty. But my word was it ever heteronormative, with all the business about the dragons pairing off, and how Hiccup and Astrid need to do their duty and get married, and all the business with Toothless and the light fury (I kept thinking about this Tumblr post about all the problems with her design), and Snotlout flirting obnoxiously with Hiccup's mom and getting rewarded for his efforts. It makes me tired, Internet. So tired. Still, I did enjoy it, and how could I not be heart-warmed by that ending?

El Camino: I have all kinds of conflicted feelings about Breaking Bad as a show and as a fandom, but still there was no way I was missing this movie about the further adventures of Jesse Pinkman. In many ways, Jesse was the heart of that show, so although I was mostly okay with how the series finale left him (let's be honest, I'm pretty sure I shed a tear or two), I appreciated getting closure on his story. I wonder if there will be more Breaking Bad movies? I'll tell you what: I'd watch the heck out of a movie about Skyler.

Arrowverse: I caught up on Saturday! I focused mainly on The Flash and Arrow, but I also watched the final two episodes of Supergirl and Legends just so the finales could be fresh in my mind (although it turns out that Legends isn't back on until January). The shared world feels like it's starting to fall apart, though. Every single issue that the Earth-1 shows were facing had implications on a global scale: ( spoilers for all )

Good thing I finished when I did, because it's season premiere week for three of the shows... I haven't decided whether I'm going to write up every single episode as I watch it, but for at least these premieres I think I will, and see how it goes with time and having interesting things to say.

Batwoman series premiere: It became quickly clear that, as an origin story, the pilot goes back in time, prior to when we first met Kate Kane in the 2018 Elseworlds crossover. Overall I suppose this choice makes sense, although it would've been nice to see a CW show take a break from the origin story character introduction. I also wonder how the show will manage to catch up to the Crisis timeframe while also dealing with the potential antagonists introduced in Elseworlds. I guess what I'm saying is that the overall narrative has bitten off quite a lot, and only time will tell whether it's capable of chewing. Big picture aside, the pilot was fine -- it set up what it needed to set up, introduced who it needed to introduce, and left me curious to see what comes next. Not brilliance, but then none of the other CW pilots were, either.

Supergirl S5 premiere: "Pants!"

( Okay I do have more to say than that. )

Late Night: Not perfect, but delightful in many respects. I'll watch Emma Thompson in pretty much anything, and she did not disappoint at all. Mindy Kaling is clearly drawing on her own experiences with being the only woman and/or person of color in the room, and both the script and her performance pulled out many incisive moments. She and Emma Thompson also had excellent chemistry, and that alone could have carried the movie, but they didn't depend on that -- I liked most of the other performances, too, especially Reid Scott as the dudebro who wanted Mindy's job to go his younger brother, and then their relationship grows into one of respect, mostly due to his own personal growth. I felt like neither Mindy's character nor Emma's was forced to gently shepherd him along; instead, he figured it out by himself. I agree with most reviewers that the third act twist was neither necessary nor helpful, but in general I would recommend this one for sure.

Ad Astra: How can a movie about a daring space rescue be this boring? Normally I'm fine with Brad Pitt as an actor, but he gets nothing to work with here: a lifeless script, the science is ridiculous, he makes some decisions that no reasonable human could possibly understand, there's almost no one interesting to play off of, and there are too many closeups where he just sits there and emotes. No intentional humor, the action scenes are more ridiculous than gripping, and not even the tremendous visuals can save it. I even liked Interstellar better than this, and you don't want to get me started on all the problems I have with that. It baffles me that it's gotten such high critical praise.

Arrowverse: I'm a little more than halfway through the most recent seasons of Arrow and The Flash, and now that I'm past the crossover I think I'll stop watching Legends and Supergirl since I've only got about a week left to catch up. ( Spoilers for both shows. )

Basically, just an Arrowverse check-in this week -- I'm about a season and a half from catching up, new seasons start in just about a month, and I'd really like to get there in time.

I've watched about a season in the last two weeks, which puts me around halfway through Arrow S6, The Flash S4, and Legends S3. I'm so glad we seem to be finished with Oliver's flashback storyline -- I got *really* impatient with the Russia business, especially. This season's drama with the team is pretty compelling, although I do wonder how many times Oliver is going to have to re-learn these lessons about not lying to the people he cares about. I'm not sure about the decision to put both Oliver and Barry in legal peril during the same timeframe, especially as it seems fairly obvious that neither one is going to spend the rest of his life in prison. I've now seen the "Crisis on Earth-X" crossover storyline three times (once when it initially airs, once when I was watching Legends, and again last weekend), and it all makes a lot more sense now that I'm actually familiar with all the players and their backstories. (The interaction between Sara Lance and Earth-X Quentin, especially, carried a lot more punch. But I still don't quite understand why Barry and Iris invited Mick Rory to their wedding.)

Overpowered villains continue to be an issue, in all three shows (maybe Legends a little less so). Prometheus in Arrow S5 was a big issue in this respect, and DeVoe in Flash S4 even more so. In comparison, Cayden James is better balanced, with Felicity as his obvious foil (and it seems inevitable that he would be played by Michael Emerson -- and with the Legends big bad of this season played by John Noble, not to mention Tony Todd voicing Zoom on Flash a couple of seasons ago, it's like a greatest hits casting of spec fic actors. Hey, does it bother anyone else that Tony Todd and Michael Dorn were both VAs for masked villains that were ultimately played by stock photos of white dude actors? Overall, the Arrowverse shows have decently diverse casts, especially as compared to some other superhero properties, but now I'm wondering if this is A Problem). A good villain is a challenge for the heroes, but it's not so fun to watch people lose and lose and lose only to pull out a win at the last second. There should be some progress, some steps forward, over the span of the season. I feel like Supergirl hits this balance better than the other shows in this 'verse, at least so far.

One other interesting comparison point among these shows is the relationships. I like how solid and stable they've made Barry and Iris, especially when you put them up against Oliver and Felicity, and yet I'm still invested in and enjoying the ship. Who says that steady relationships have to be boring? In fact, I've yet to find myself mad at any of the ships in any of these three shows (unlike Kara/Mon El, the least interesting ship in the history of uninteresting ships, and the fact that two whole seasons of Supergirl are devoted to it is something I will never entirely forgive).

No post last week because I was traveling, but that doesn't mean I was completely away from media! Yay, iPads and hotel room wifi.

Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace: A Critical Role one-shot GM'd by Taliesin Jaffe. I was always fascinated by the Crystal Palace -- if I could go back in time and visit only one building I've studied that no longer exists, that would be high on the list. And although I'm not particularly a fan of Lovecraft-style horror, I did play one Call of Cthulhu campaign back in the day (I chose the author archetype, then bemused the Keeper by making my character a writer of books on organic gardening rather than something more typically horrific), and I'll trust Taliesin to tell me pretty much any story. This tale was suitably entertaining, entrancing, and horrifying without being over the top. I also appreciated how Taliesin called out Lovecraft's problematic ("to say the least") history while encouraging people to look for the value in cosmic horror as a genre. Finally, the costumes and props are stunning. The video can be watched here.

Jane the Virgin, Season 5: I've actually been watching this more or less as it airs. It's now finished, and I'm really quite happy with how it ended. One of the things I've always loved about this show is how well it functions as both a telenovela and a commentary on telenovelas, and the finale might be the perfect example of this. ( Spoilers through the finale -- although if you're more familiar with telenovela conventions than I was, they might not really be spoilers. )

Arrow, Seasons 3 & 4: I liked the resolution to S3, but S4 got a little bit tiring with the overpowered villains. All of the Arrowverse shows suffer a little bit from "the heroes are hopelessly outgunned by the villain until the very last minute" syndrome, but Darke is a distinct step up from most other past antagonists in that regard.

The Flash, Seasons 1 & 2: I've also watched the first few episodes of Season 3, and I have to say, the effects of time travel are so frustratingly inconsistent, the show gets difficult to follow. ( Spoilers for S1 and S2 finales as well as the opening of S3 )

Okay, so we're doing this. And I have some questions. I'm now up to Season 3 of Arrow, which is when other shows start appearing. I've found this exhaustive list, which is every episode of every series in chronological order, and while I do have a completionist streak, the idea of tackling the exhaustive list is, well, exhausting. I've watched the first two episodes of Flash S1 and Arrow S3, alternating them as the list suggests.

( Two questions: )

Any thoughts are welcome. :) Thanks!

Supergirl, Season 4: As previously mentioned, I finished the season early in the week, but I feel I should have more to say about it than bouncing about a new ship (although I will say it's exciting to have a new ship -- it's been awhile since I've been drawn into one quite so strongly). ( Cut for spoilers )

I was a little surprised to discover that Kara/Lena is the juggernaut ship for this fandom, but maybe I shouldn't have been because it's the exact friend/enemy dynamic that fandom so often loves, with the bonus hidden identity angst. It's nice to see an f/f ship taking over a fandom, even if it's not my cup of tea (and Nia/Brainy is so often a background ship that it can be hard to find a fic for my own pairing!).

Arrow, Season One: After finishing Supergirl and tearing myself away from rewatching certain scenes multiple times, I came to the reluctant realization that between this, enjoying the annual crossovers, my June binge of Legends of Tomorrow, and how excited I am for Batwoman, I need to just give in and watch the rest of the Arrowverse already. I'm now about halfway through the first season of the originator show, and it's... not terrible, although I look forward to the shift I know is coming, where Oliver has more of a team behind him and Felicity (whom I already know I love from the crossovers) becomes more of a major character. I honestly don't know if I would have stuck with this if I'd started watching when it was new. I'll be glad when this season is done and I can start alternating it with The Flash, which I've heard is more entertaining right out the gate. I do enjoy seeing the very early groundwork being laid for some aspects of Legends.

The Lego Batman Move: This was a rewatch for me -- I saw it in theaters. But we are one of the million or so households that still gets DVDs from Netflix (actually we switched to Blu-Ray a little while ago), and T will often ask for movies that we've already seen and enjoyed. Although it doesn't quite match the surprising awesomeness of the first Lego Movie, it's a lot of fun and might actually be my favorite Batman film, given its focus on the Batfamily and the ways in which Batman is better when he has a team.