Trying to describe "Tales From the Loop," the new science-fiction series from Amazon Prime, it's easy to draw comparisons to other genre media. The core concepts are familiar - mysterious devices allow people to travel through time, body-swap, create artificial life forms, etc. However, we rarely see these stories told quite like this. Instead of action spectacle or queasy horror, "Tale From the Loop" uses its concepts for meditative humanist melodrama. It's slow paced and introspective to the point where many viewers will find it tedious - "The Twilight Zone" by way of "The Leftovers." However, it captures a certain mood of melancholy and wonder that is very rare to see in current sci-fi. I found myself drawing connections to the more contemplative episodes of "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and Ray Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine."
Created and written by Nathaniel Halpern, and based on the books and paintings of Simon Stålenhag, "Tales From the Loop" takes place in the town of Mercer, Ohio, some time in the early '80s. It's an alternate universe, where we see robots and massive, ominous infrastructure all over the landscape, often standing in stark contrast to the scenes of nostalgic, small town American life. The show is set up in an anthology format of interconnected stories. Many of them center around the Willard family. Paterfamilias Russ (Jonathan Pryce) is the creator of the Loop, an underground facility responsible for all the technical wonders we see throughout the show. His son George (Paul Schneider) and George's wife Loretta (Rebecca Hall) are both employed there, and it's expected their teenage son Jakob (Daniel Zohlgadri) and younger son Cole (Duncan Joiner) will follow in their footsteps. We also spend some time with Jakob's friend Danny Jansson (Tyler Barnhardt) and his family - father Ed (Dan Bakkedahl), mother Kate (Lauren Weedman), and younger sister Beth (Alessandra de Sa Pereira). Other key characters include a security guard, Gaddis (Ato Essandoh), and a girl named May (Nicole Law) who is good with machines.
What initially got me interested in the show was it's roster of accomplished directors - including Mark Romanek, Jodie Foster, Andrew Stanton, Ti West, Charlie McDowell, and So Yong Kim. It also features a delicate, moody score from Philip Glass and Paul Leonard-Morgan, helping to sustain the show's very particular, quiet atmosphere. "Tales From the Loop" is not always quiet, with some of its stories involving wilderness survival, robot battles, and misadventures in home security. However, the pacing here is much slower than the average genre show, and much more intensely focused in the characters' emotional lives. The purpose and function of the Loop isn't the point of the show - in fact, nobody ever really talks about what goes on there. Most of the stories involve characters accidentally coming across pieces of tech detritus or abandoned projects that somehow still retain certain reality-bending properties. The origins are never explained. It's what the characters decide to do with these phenomena, or how they are affected by them, that the show's creators are interested in.
So, encountering a canister that freezes time helps illuminate the faults of a girl who embarks on a bittersweet romance. And the episode where a grieving technician buys a towering mecha is really about the man's paranoia and feelings of loss of control. The metaphors and allegories aren't subtle, and sometimes the style is laid on awfully thick, but I like the show's commitment to telling these very human, very existential stories. And while the show wants viewers to think and engage with the material, it mostly wants them to feel and empathize with the protagonists - their loneliness, guilt, regret, and yearning. I found the most affecting stories are the ones where the fantastical elements simply create a profound change, and then the characters are left to grapple with consequences as best they can.
"Tales From the Loop" is a gorgeous series, and often feels like it's pushing back against the visual status quo of years of cyberpunk and dystopian futures. The community is very Small Town, surrounded by woods and nature and plenty of open spaces. All the tech we see, even the impossible stuff, tends to look very clunky, industrial, and retro-futurist. I was struck by '80s anime influences in the design more than once. It's a beautiful show, with high production values and a lot of thoughtful cinematography. The performances are mostly good, though there are some weaker actors among the kids. The writing, however, is consistently impressive. The worldbuilding is slow, but methodical, and does a good job of knowing how much information to relay, and what viewers can puzzle out by themselves.
This is not a show for everyone, but I appreciate its novelty and its ambitions. It's a show about reflection rather than action, and for those who connect with it, it'll be a difficult one to forget.
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Monday, July 13, 2020
Saturday, July 11, 2020
Why Did I Watch "Tiger King?"
I don't know if I've ever seen a piece of pop culture so immediately, and unexpectedly embraced by the mainstream media as Netflix's true crime documentary "Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness." It feels like right about when everything got locked down because of Covid-19, I started seeing references to Joe Exotic and jokes about Carole Baskin's missing husband everywhere.
So, I went and watched the full seven hour miniseries, about Joe Exotic and the other eccentrics who maintain menageries of exotic pets, notably those obsessed with big cats like lions and tigers. Joe is, frankly, a charismatic scumbag, running a sketchy private zoo in Oklahoma that he's recruited a gang of misfits to help maintain. Throughout the series, he exploits and mistreats everyone around him, including his beloved cats. He's also a massive narcissist and attention-seeker, which makes him very entertaining to watch. Joe cultivates a wild persona - redneck, gay, polygamist, gun-toting showman. We watch him constantly filming himself, hoping to become a country music singer, a reality star or a politician. He also proves to be dangerously unstable, keeping up a feud with conservationist Carole Baskin for years, before finally hiring someone to kill her.
Carole, of course, is no angel. The show's third episode is devoted to the suspicious disappearance of her millionaire husband. And there are plenty of other reprobates on the show. Doc Antle, another big cat collector and Joe's mentor, essentially runs a sex cult. Jeff Lowe, a swinger and businessman, is a shady felon and probable swindler. Joe's crew of drug addicts, amputees, and weirdos are alternately alarming and endearing. However, none of these people, and none of their animals, are as fascinating as Joe Exotic - real name Joe Schreibvogel. Episode after episode, it's one outrageous thing after another. He gets hitched to two men at the same time. He runs for president, then governor, with a Wal-Mart manager running his campaigns. He devotes episodes of his internet show to all the ways he'd like to kill Carole Baskin. Predictably, his zookeeping career, personal life, and legal troubles all blow up by the final episode.
Netflix has distributed a lot of these true crime documentary series, in the wake of "Making a Murderer." "Tiger KIng" follows roughly the same format, except there's so much more concentrated crazy. I don't think it's put together all that well - the episode actually detailing what Joe did to land himself in prison feels rushed and the sequence of events is difficult to follow. There's a lot of selective editing going on, and plenty of convenient omissions. The subject matter, however, is irresistible. This nutty subculture of big cat enthusiasts, and all of these colorful, larger-than-life personalities, are impossible to oversell. Everything from the depiction of heinous animal trafficking to little details like Joe's husband's tattoos are prime stranger-than-fiction material. It doesn't remotely surprise me that there are already feature film adaptations in the works.
"Tiger King" falls squarely into the category of trashy reality television like "Honey Boo Boo" and "Jersey Shore." This time around, however, there's no pretending that everyone involved isn't a walking disaster. The documentary format and true crime framing might give it a few more respectable bona fides, but the creators are well aware that anyone watching is there to gawk at Joe Exotic, who was already a minor celebrity in Oklahoma because of his political aspirations. There are a few nods toward supporting conservation efforts and doing better by the big cats featured in the show, but this takes a backseat to the constant drama being played up by the series - often with the full support of its subjects.
And watching the American public embrace "Tiger King" has left me with very mixed feelings. Joe Exotic is getting his fifteen minutes of fame. Carole Baskin is getting vilified, largely because she makes for an easy antagonist and scapegoat. If the series were edited to be seen from her point of view, it would be very different and probably not so successful. "Tiger King" perfectly reflects certain uncomfortable parts of the American psyche that love a good freak show, and while I don't regret watching it, it's left me wondering exactly why I jumped on the bandwagon too.
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Thursday, July 9, 2020
The 2020 Blackface Post
In the wake of the recent protests and the gains made by the Black Lives Matter movement, there's been a major reexamination of media content standards related to depictions of race. It started with the retirement of Aunt Jemima, and quickly swept through other parts of the cultural landscape. Several prominent pieces of media have been affected. The most high profile one may have been the temporary removal of "Gone With the Wind" from various online platforms so that a notice about historically insensitive portrayals of black people could be tacked on to the beginning. However, more under the radar has been the quiet removal of several television episodes with instances of blackface.
Examples include episodes of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," "30 Rock," "The Office," "Scrubs," "Community," and even an episode of "The Golden Girls," where the ill-timed application of a facial treatment causes an embarrassing misunderstanding. The Brits have taken down episodes of "The League of Gentlemen," "Little Britain," and "Come Fly With Me," while Australian comic Chris Lilley has seen several of his specials pulled by Netflix. From what I've been able to tell, none of the instances of blackface jokes in the American shows contain the traditional usage of blackface - generally understood to be using blackface to disparage and present a caricatured image of African Americans. It looks like blackface, even if it's not punching down, and even if it's not technically blackface at all, is now totally verboten.
And, frankly, this is a little worrying. The older, problematic forms of blackface mostly disappeared in the US by the end of the forties (a few unfortunate Shakespeare adaptations notwithstanding), but it was still considered okay in a satirical context as long as it followed certain rules. First, the butt of the joke couldn't be African-Americans. Usually, the target was either the deluded/desperate white person wearing the blackface, or ignorant white people who were somehow fooled by the ridiculous application of blackface. The best example of the former is Robert Downey Jr.'s character in "Tropic Thunder," a pompous Australian method actor. Examples of the latter include "Silver Streak," "Trading Places," and "Krippendorf's Tribe." Second, just to be safe, you always want an African American actor in close proximity to emphasize that the blackface was absolutely not okay, and to drop lines like "What do *you* mean, 'you people'?"
The television episodes currently being benched mostly follow those rules. The "Community" joke, for instance, involves a Chinese character who paints himself completely black to play a Dark Elf in a Dungeons and Dragons game. Both an African American character, Shirley, and an old white guy character, Pierce, mistakenly think he's in blackface, and their reactions drive home the point that blackface in any situation is not okay. The appearance of blackface in "The Office" was meant to criticize the continued use of the blackface Zwarte Piet character in the Netherlands. "Always Sunny" toes it closest to the line, having several episodes that feature outrageous ethnic stereotypes, and the blackface is used for their spoofs of the "Lethal Weapon" franchise. The joke is that all the characters are horrible reprobates, and would be the type to argue in favor of blackface.
And yet, while you can make plenty of defenses and excuses for the use of blackface in these shows, in the end I'm not convinced that it outweighs the potential harms. There are always going to be those ignoramuses out there who don't understand the nuances or misinterpret the joke entirely. From the reactions and discussions involving some of the talent that created these shows, clearly not everyone was comfortable with using blackface to begin with. Most of these shows use blackface for shock value more than anything, and aren't great at addressing the race issues that they stir up. Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" and a very unsubtle episode of "Gimme a Break" are the only pieces of media that I can remember that have taken the trouble to show the actual harm that blackface does. And yes, in 2020 the harm is still very real.
I love "Community," and I'm not going to be bothered much if we lose the blackface joke. A couple of edits should take care of most of the affected shows. However, there are episodes of "Always Sunny" and "30 Rock" where the blackface is more central to the plots, and their loss will be harder on their fans - though you can still buy the episodes individually through the usual channels. Maybe this will be temporary, and maybe it won't. Maybe there will be more disclaimers. I find it interesting that only sitcoms seem to be affected so far. The "Mad Men" episode featuring Roger Sterling in blackface is still in circulation. The deeply troubling '80s blackface comedy "Soul Man" is still available to rent on Amazon Prime.
Clearly, though, this isn't the end of it. We're already seeing backlash and push back, and I don't think the media reevaluations are anywhere near done yet. Stay tuned.
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Tuesday, July 7, 2020
Reenergizing "Emma."
Autumn de Wilde has long been a beloved name in music videos, design, and photography. So it's no wonder that her feature film debut looks drop dead gorgeous. It's the latest version of Jane Austen's "Emma," and Austen has never looked quite this lovely, with an emphasis on colorful fashion, ornate set design, and eye-catching architecture. Austen's language remains unchanged, and period details are kept largely intact, but there's no denying that there's a modern attitude to the new "Emma.," which comes on the heels of Greta Gerwig's similarly vibrant "Little Women."
Our heroine Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a Regency era, unmarried young woman who has a terrible habit of meddling with other people's lives. She befriends a girl named Harriet (Mia Goth) of unknown parentage, and hopes to match her up with the vicar, Mr. Elton (Josh O'Connor). Emma is herself interested in the mysterious Frank Weston (Callum Turner), who seems more interested in Emma's rival Jane Fairfax (Amber Anderson). Emma's father (Bill Nighy) lets her do as she likes, but family friend George Knigtley (Johnny Flynn) strongly disapproves of Emma's irresponsible ways.
Of the previous film adaptations of "Emma," I've seen both the Gwyneth Paltrow version and, of course, Amy Heckerling's "Clueless." This one is my favorite, for this particular set of performances and for de Wilde's aesthetic choices. Anya Taylor-Joy's Emma isn't as likeable as her predecessors, her faults more evident and her prejudices put in sharper relief. However, this makes her a better comic figure, and her eventual redemption feels more substantial. I like that in spite of all their splendid trappings, the characters are all portrayed as a little silly and risible. Emma's father is a hypochondriac and neurotic who spends a lot of time combating drafts. Neighbor Miss Bates (Miranda Hart) isn't just a bore, but an emphatic oversharer of tedious gossip. Emma herself is no exception, often the perfect portrait of oblivious privilege.
At the same time, Emma remains an irresistible heroine, a girl with the best of intentions who wants to use her position for the benefit of her friends. She bungles her way through romantic misunderstandings with all the horrified awkwardness of any teenage girl, and there's something so endearing about how she manages to magnify every emotional response - she's genuinely crushed when she realizes that she's hurt other people's feelings. Anya Taylor-Joy channels so much sincerity in her performance that she keeps Emma sympathetic even when she's at her most petty, and her rehabilitation is very satisfying to see play out. A lot of credit should also go to Mia Goth and Johnny Flynn as her most frequent scene partners - Goth in particular is a great comic foil, and it's nice to see her in such a significant role.
But while the actors are fun, the bonnets are to die for. The wardrobe and hair folks achieve some feats of costuming and coiffure that are just magnificent. It's total eye candy for anyone who enjoys a little pastel period spectacle. And these elements are all leaned on heavily for characterization too - witness the unbearable Mrs. Elton (Tanya Reynolds) in her brusque orange dress, or Miss Bates in all those giant lace neck ruffs. You can actually get a good bead on where Emma is emotionally throughout the film by looking at the state of her angelic blonde ringlets.
The architecture and the landscapes are also mighty impressive, and I have to say that it's nice to have a film where it makes sense why everyone keeps talking about each other's houses and estates. These people have portrait galleries! Cloister halls! Lawns for miles! I couldn't keep my eyes off the furniture and the statuary. Even the church looks colorful and glamorous. So if one has no interest in the story of "Emma," I suspect that the style is enough to keep the attention of any viewer all by itself.
In short, I can't believe this is Autumn de Wilde's first go as a feature director. She absolutely must come back and give us her versions of everything else in the Austen canon, and then whatever the hell else she wants. Because, good grief, she's too good at this not to keep directing more films.
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Our heroine Emma Woodhouse (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a Regency era, unmarried young woman who has a terrible habit of meddling with other people's lives. She befriends a girl named Harriet (Mia Goth) of unknown parentage, and hopes to match her up with the vicar, Mr. Elton (Josh O'Connor). Emma is herself interested in the mysterious Frank Weston (Callum Turner), who seems more interested in Emma's rival Jane Fairfax (Amber Anderson). Emma's father (Bill Nighy) lets her do as she likes, but family friend George Knigtley (Johnny Flynn) strongly disapproves of Emma's irresponsible ways.
Of the previous film adaptations of "Emma," I've seen both the Gwyneth Paltrow version and, of course, Amy Heckerling's "Clueless." This one is my favorite, for this particular set of performances and for de Wilde's aesthetic choices. Anya Taylor-Joy's Emma isn't as likeable as her predecessors, her faults more evident and her prejudices put in sharper relief. However, this makes her a better comic figure, and her eventual redemption feels more substantial. I like that in spite of all their splendid trappings, the characters are all portrayed as a little silly and risible. Emma's father is a hypochondriac and neurotic who spends a lot of time combating drafts. Neighbor Miss Bates (Miranda Hart) isn't just a bore, but an emphatic oversharer of tedious gossip. Emma herself is no exception, often the perfect portrait of oblivious privilege.
At the same time, Emma remains an irresistible heroine, a girl with the best of intentions who wants to use her position for the benefit of her friends. She bungles her way through romantic misunderstandings with all the horrified awkwardness of any teenage girl, and there's something so endearing about how she manages to magnify every emotional response - she's genuinely crushed when she realizes that she's hurt other people's feelings. Anya Taylor-Joy channels so much sincerity in her performance that she keeps Emma sympathetic even when she's at her most petty, and her rehabilitation is very satisfying to see play out. A lot of credit should also go to Mia Goth and Johnny Flynn as her most frequent scene partners - Goth in particular is a great comic foil, and it's nice to see her in such a significant role.
But while the actors are fun, the bonnets are to die for. The wardrobe and hair folks achieve some feats of costuming and coiffure that are just magnificent. It's total eye candy for anyone who enjoys a little pastel period spectacle. And these elements are all leaned on heavily for characterization too - witness the unbearable Mrs. Elton (Tanya Reynolds) in her brusque orange dress, or Miss Bates in all those giant lace neck ruffs. You can actually get a good bead on where Emma is emotionally throughout the film by looking at the state of her angelic blonde ringlets.
The architecture and the landscapes are also mighty impressive, and I have to say that it's nice to have a film where it makes sense why everyone keeps talking about each other's houses and estates. These people have portrait galleries! Cloister halls! Lawns for miles! I couldn't keep my eyes off the furniture and the statuary. Even the church looks colorful and glamorous. So if one has no interest in the story of "Emma," I suspect that the style is enough to keep the attention of any viewer all by itself.
In short, I can't believe this is Autumn de Wilde's first go as a feature director. She absolutely must come back and give us her versions of everything else in the Austen canon, and then whatever the hell else she wants. Because, good grief, she's too good at this not to keep directing more films.
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Sunday, July 5, 2020
My Top Ten Episodes of "Legion"
I talked myself out of writing a Top Ten list back when "Legion" ended, because there are less than thirty episodes. However, the more I look back on the show, the more I feel that was a mistake. So here's my belated list of favorite episodes from the wildest piece of superhero media we've seen yet.
Chapter 1 - The premiere is a wonderful introduction into the fractured mind of David Haller. We get the first glimpses of his past, but most of the episode is spent on David's relationship with Syd at the Clockworks psychiatric hospital. I love the reveal that David and Syd are actually both mutants in the "X-men" universe, and what their powers are. And that Bollywood style dance sequence is just the right amount of beautifully bizarre.
Chapter 5 - I love the illusory moments of happiness where David and Syd get to interact normally in the little haven that he creates for them. Alas, it comes at a price, including David singing a creepy rendition of "Rainbow Connection," with creepy banjo accompaniment, naturally. We also see more bits and pieces about David's past and abilities being revealed as the villains close in, finally culminating in a fun cliffhanger at the end of the hour.
Chapter 7 - A lot of reveals happen in this episode, notably the chalkboard animations that show us some of David's family history with the Shadow King. There's also the black and white noir sequence, the slow motion Ravel's "Bolero" sequence, more fun in the ice cube on the astral plane, and the Eye finally gets himself squished. Hiro Murai, better known for "Atlanta" and his work with Childish Gambino, directed this episode.
Chapter 9 - The second season opener introduces a whole new slew of weird concepts, from a virus causing paralysis and chattering teeth, to the bizarre Amiral Fukyama and his Vermilion, to a future version of Syd delivering warnings to David. There's also a dance battle, because why wouldn't there be? However, my favorite of this year's new bits is the Narrator, voiced by Jon Hamm, who hosts disturbing educational interludes.
Chapter 12 - We finally get some backstory about Sydney, as David is forced to experience her memories over and older again, including some pretty disturbing episodes. It's also a nice reevaluation of their relationship so far, especially in light of where this season ultimately takes both of them. David may be deeply screwed up, but so is Syd, and in a completely different way. Some of the content is a little disturbing, but it's necessary stuff.
Chapter 13 - One of the things I love about this show is that it's able to pull off some really good twists. My favorite, and one of the most traumatizing in the series, is when it explains how Lenny managed to get a hold of a physical body. This depends entirely on the viewers having forgotten about a major character from the first season, which isn't too difficult because David has totally forgotten about that person too by this point.
Chapter 15 - This is the most action-oriented episode of the show in a while, with David hunting down the ghastly "delusions" that have been set loose on Division 3 by Farouk. It also has some of the biggest pieces of foreshadowing as to how the season is going to play out, with David's power increasing and his attitude toward Syd and other characters. It's David at his most heroic, and ironically also David at his most arrogant and troubling.
Chapter 19 - The second season finale sees the great confrontation between David and the Amahl Farouk finally happen, which is also an amazing musical sequence with animated flourishes. However, it's what happens after the clash that really pays off what everything else in this season has been building up to. David being an unreliable narrator who has been manipulating things in his favor is just the tip of the astral iceberg.
Chapter 20 - The third season opens with a new status quo - David and his hippie-like cultists hiding out, being pursued by Syd and Division 3. Into the mix comes a new character, Switch, who is as metaphysically offbeat as anyone else in the show, but a much snazzier dresser. And then there's the time travel, previously an interesting little conundrum hanging over David's head, and now set to be a much bigger part of this season.
Chapter 23 - The Daniel Kwan directed mixed media phantasmagoria displays the effects of David and Switch meddling with the timeline. Various characters experience time looping, time disappearing, speeding up, or standing still. The freaky time demons are amazing to see in action, and there's a superb fake-out involving "The Shield." This is my pick for the best episode of the series, a great example of the show's creators pushing boundaries.
---
Chapter 1 - The premiere is a wonderful introduction into the fractured mind of David Haller. We get the first glimpses of his past, but most of the episode is spent on David's relationship with Syd at the Clockworks psychiatric hospital. I love the reveal that David and Syd are actually both mutants in the "X-men" universe, and what their powers are. And that Bollywood style dance sequence is just the right amount of beautifully bizarre.
Chapter 5 - I love the illusory moments of happiness where David and Syd get to interact normally in the little haven that he creates for them. Alas, it comes at a price, including David singing a creepy rendition of "Rainbow Connection," with creepy banjo accompaniment, naturally. We also see more bits and pieces about David's past and abilities being revealed as the villains close in, finally culminating in a fun cliffhanger at the end of the hour.
Chapter 7 - A lot of reveals happen in this episode, notably the chalkboard animations that show us some of David's family history with the Shadow King. There's also the black and white noir sequence, the slow motion Ravel's "Bolero" sequence, more fun in the ice cube on the astral plane, and the Eye finally gets himself squished. Hiro Murai, better known for "Atlanta" and his work with Childish Gambino, directed this episode.
Chapter 9 - The second season opener introduces a whole new slew of weird concepts, from a virus causing paralysis and chattering teeth, to the bizarre Amiral Fukyama and his Vermilion, to a future version of Syd delivering warnings to David. There's also a dance battle, because why wouldn't there be? However, my favorite of this year's new bits is the Narrator, voiced by Jon Hamm, who hosts disturbing educational interludes.
Chapter 12 - We finally get some backstory about Sydney, as David is forced to experience her memories over and older again, including some pretty disturbing episodes. It's also a nice reevaluation of their relationship so far, especially in light of where this season ultimately takes both of them. David may be deeply screwed up, but so is Syd, and in a completely different way. Some of the content is a little disturbing, but it's necessary stuff.
Chapter 13 - One of the things I love about this show is that it's able to pull off some really good twists. My favorite, and one of the most traumatizing in the series, is when it explains how Lenny managed to get a hold of a physical body. This depends entirely on the viewers having forgotten about a major character from the first season, which isn't too difficult because David has totally forgotten about that person too by this point.
Chapter 15 - This is the most action-oriented episode of the show in a while, with David hunting down the ghastly "delusions" that have been set loose on Division 3 by Farouk. It also has some of the biggest pieces of foreshadowing as to how the season is going to play out, with David's power increasing and his attitude toward Syd and other characters. It's David at his most heroic, and ironically also David at his most arrogant and troubling.
Chapter 19 - The second season finale sees the great confrontation between David and the Amahl Farouk finally happen, which is also an amazing musical sequence with animated flourishes. However, it's what happens after the clash that really pays off what everything else in this season has been building up to. David being an unreliable narrator who has been manipulating things in his favor is just the tip of the astral iceberg.
Chapter 20 - The third season opens with a new status quo - David and his hippie-like cultists hiding out, being pursued by Syd and Division 3. Into the mix comes a new character, Switch, who is as metaphysically offbeat as anyone else in the show, but a much snazzier dresser. And then there's the time travel, previously an interesting little conundrum hanging over David's head, and now set to be a much bigger part of this season.
Chapter 23 - The Daniel Kwan directed mixed media phantasmagoria displays the effects of David and Switch meddling with the timeline. Various characters experience time looping, time disappearing, speeding up, or standing still. The freaky time demons are amazing to see in action, and there's a superb fake-out involving "The Shield." This is my pick for the best episode of the series, a great example of the show's creators pushing boundaries.
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Friday, July 3, 2020
"Steven Universe Future" Says Goodbye
After the "Steven Universe" movie aired last year, I thought that there would be a long break before we would see any kind of follow-up. I didn't realize that a sequel series, "Steven Universe Future," was already airing until the final episodes hit Cartoon Network in March. Comprised of twenty ten-minute episodes, "Future" follows the further adventures of Steven Universe, now a sixteen year-old with a driver's license. There's a new theme song, updated graphics, and a boost in animation quality. How is Steven coping with his new powers and life in the wake of saving the universe? Spoiler: he's kinda not.
Everything starts out just peachy with Steven helping to run a school at Little Homeworld, dedicated to restoring shattered Gems and getting them situated with life on Earth. However, the lives of everyone around him are changing rapidly and Steven now has to face a lot of emotional issues that he's been trying to ignore or suppress for too long. Gradually, the stress and anxiety build until Steven is a nervous wreck - a nervous wreck with a lot of power that he's not great at controlling. This comes on very gradually with Steven spending several episodes catching up with his friends first - individual adventures are devoted to Pearl, Garnet, Lapis, Peridot, Jasper, and others. However, once the heavy emotional episodes hit, like Steven discovering several of his friends have made big life changes, or realizing some hard truths about his parents, those hits tend to compound.
Because of its limited scope and the way it's been set up to deliver payoff after payoff to so many of the franchise's story arcs, "Future" really is a must for any fan of "Steven Universe." There's very little filler to speak of, a terrific ongoing set of dilemmas, and plenty of new monsters, fusions, and songs to enjoy. There are a few new characters, and a stealth cameo by Jemaine Clement too. I'm glad that I wrote up my Top Ten list of favorite episodes for "Steven Universe" before watching "Future," because I could have made an entire Top Ten list for "Future" by itself. There's another fabulously traumatic Pearl episode, and a very insightful Greg episode, and one with several members of the Beach City crowd that's awfully bittersweet.
What I've always appreciated most about "Steven Universe" is that it's willing to tackle feelings and emotions so directly, and does a great job of finding fantasy metaphors for difficult situations and growing pains. "Future" finally addresses a lot of the big issues related to Steven's mental and emotional health that have been stewing since the very beginning. He's got a lot of trauma and baggage to work through, and his self-sacrificing nature can actually be harmful - especially when he's run out of enemies to fight and problems to fix. The Big Bad of "Future" is Steven, or rather the unhealthy habits that he's fallen into trying to cope with his extraordinary life as a superpowered half-gem, half-human revolutionary.
Even more importantly, "Future" doesn't solve all of Steven's problems after the big climax and final episode. There's a very distinct end point and resolution, but it's clearly just a first step in Steven's journey to wherever he's going next. The same is true for all of the characters, and if I have any bone to pick with the show, it's that we didn't get more time with my favorites, like Peridot. (Still no fusion, after all this?) And that's perfectly okay because "Future" isn't about redeeming another gem or fighting another outside threat. We get visits and updates on what all the show's regulars are doing, but in the end "Steven Universe Future" is all about Steven.
I'm really going to miss the show. It broke a lot of boundaries and achieved a lot of firsts, but what I love about "Steven Universe" is that it made a case for empathy and understanding over cynicism and aggression whenever it could. There's still a lot of places where the characters could go, but I'm happy with the show ending here. Honestly, it's twenty episodes more than I expected we were going to get, and I'm grateful that everybody got a chance to say goodbye.
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Everything starts out just peachy with Steven helping to run a school at Little Homeworld, dedicated to restoring shattered Gems and getting them situated with life on Earth. However, the lives of everyone around him are changing rapidly and Steven now has to face a lot of emotional issues that he's been trying to ignore or suppress for too long. Gradually, the stress and anxiety build until Steven is a nervous wreck - a nervous wreck with a lot of power that he's not great at controlling. This comes on very gradually with Steven spending several episodes catching up with his friends first - individual adventures are devoted to Pearl, Garnet, Lapis, Peridot, Jasper, and others. However, once the heavy emotional episodes hit, like Steven discovering several of his friends have made big life changes, or realizing some hard truths about his parents, those hits tend to compound.
Because of its limited scope and the way it's been set up to deliver payoff after payoff to so many of the franchise's story arcs, "Future" really is a must for any fan of "Steven Universe." There's very little filler to speak of, a terrific ongoing set of dilemmas, and plenty of new monsters, fusions, and songs to enjoy. There are a few new characters, and a stealth cameo by Jemaine Clement too. I'm glad that I wrote up my Top Ten list of favorite episodes for "Steven Universe" before watching "Future," because I could have made an entire Top Ten list for "Future" by itself. There's another fabulously traumatic Pearl episode, and a very insightful Greg episode, and one with several members of the Beach City crowd that's awfully bittersweet.
What I've always appreciated most about "Steven Universe" is that it's willing to tackle feelings and emotions so directly, and does a great job of finding fantasy metaphors for difficult situations and growing pains. "Future" finally addresses a lot of the big issues related to Steven's mental and emotional health that have been stewing since the very beginning. He's got a lot of trauma and baggage to work through, and his self-sacrificing nature can actually be harmful - especially when he's run out of enemies to fight and problems to fix. The Big Bad of "Future" is Steven, or rather the unhealthy habits that he's fallen into trying to cope with his extraordinary life as a superpowered half-gem, half-human revolutionary.
Even more importantly, "Future" doesn't solve all of Steven's problems after the big climax and final episode. There's a very distinct end point and resolution, but it's clearly just a first step in Steven's journey to wherever he's going next. The same is true for all of the characters, and if I have any bone to pick with the show, it's that we didn't get more time with my favorites, like Peridot. (Still no fusion, after all this?) And that's perfectly okay because "Future" isn't about redeeming another gem or fighting another outside threat. We get visits and updates on what all the show's regulars are doing, but in the end "Steven Universe Future" is all about Steven.
I'm really going to miss the show. It broke a lot of boundaries and achieved a lot of firsts, but what I love about "Steven Universe" is that it made a case for empathy and understanding over cynicism and aggression whenever it could. There's still a lot of places where the characters could go, but I'm happy with the show ending here. Honestly, it's twenty episodes more than I expected we were going to get, and I'm grateful that everybody got a chance to say goodbye.
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Wednesday, July 1, 2020
"Star Trek: Picard," Year One
The general rule for "Star Trek" series is that the first season is always something of a mess, trying to work out all the character dynamics and fix inevitable issues with a new format. This is true of "Star Trek: Picard," which is the first "Star Trek" series built around a specific character rather than a place or vessel. It's also very emphatically a sequel to "Star Trek: the Next Generation," bringing back many familiar characters who have been absent from our screens since the '90s. It takes a while, but retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) eventually ends up as the leader of a starship crew again, on an unlikely mission to help an old friend.
Largely written by Michael Chabon and Akiva Goldsmith, "Picard" starts out with our hero stewing in retirement at his family vineyard, when he's contacted by a young woman named Dahj (Isa Briones) with a mysterious past and origins. This leads Picard to becoming involved in the search and rescue of Dahj's sister Soji (also Briones), who is being targeted by the Romulan Tal Shiar for reasons unknown. Picard recruits Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill), former Starfleet officer Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), a black market pilot, Chris Rios (Santiago Cabrera), and an old Romulan ally, Elnor (Evan Evagor), to aid in his cause. Opposing them are Narek (Harry Treadaway) and Narissa (Peyton List), Romulan spies who are pretending to work with Starfleet on a secret reclamation project.
The writing, frankly, is all over the place. The individual characters are pretty decent, but they're run through a very contrived series of events that jump from planet to planet, and crisis to crisis to untangle the kind of classic "Trek" conflict that could have been handled in a single episode, and without resorting to a whiz-bang, shoot-em-up ending. However, "Picard" isn't really interested in plot as much as it is with exploring how the familiar "Trek" universe has changed since we last saw it in 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis," and what some of our old friends have been up to. It's also much less elegant in tone and approach. Like "Discovery," there's a moderate amount of cursing, the Federation is often engaging in morally compromised actions, and there are a lot more sketchy corners of the universe on display. Picard is operating outside of the Federation for most of this adventure, so he's working with a cast of more colorful fringe characters - wayward Raffi, charming ruffian Rios, and refugee Elnor.
And this is all very entertaining. Stewart is noticeably older and more frail, but his Picard is still wonderfully charismatic and easy to root for. The new characters are a motley bunch and don't initially come across very well, but once you get to spend time with them and get to know them, they emerge as a noble and good-hearted bunch. They're ultimately all familiar types, but very "Star Trek" - an eager doctor, a noble alien warrior, a scruffy pilot, and a lost android searching for identity. And some of the performances are excellent, notably Allison Pill as the complicated Jurati, and Santiago Cabrera as Rios - and multiple hologram versions of Rios, each with his own different accent and persona. If "Picard" had been a typical starship-based show, it likely would have avoided a lot of its messy narrative issues. Most of the trouble seems to come from trying to sustain a serialized story over ten installments. There's also a significant amount of screentime given over to Soji, whose story runs parallel to Picard's for several episodes. She gets better as the series rolls along, but the first few shows with her and the Romulans are pretty rough.
"Picard" strikes me as a good premise with wildly uneven execution, and a lot of potential for better down the road. Significant time and resources were spent making the world of "Picard" look impressive, which would have been better spent tightening up the scripting. There's an awful lot of reliance on spectacle over thoughtful problem solving, making "Picard" feel more like a "Trek" film than a series. I think it's absolutely worth a watch if you're a '90s "Trek" fan like I am, because all the callbacks and nostalgic bits are handled very nicely. The writers lay on the sentiment a little thick, but it feels earned and appropriate. And while the show has its share of dodgy dialogue, subpar performances, terrible cheats, and plot holes, it also delivers some memorable high points and a measure of emotional closure that "Nemesis" never gave us.
Oh, and minor spoiler, but "Voyager" fans should also definitely take a look.
---
Largely written by Michael Chabon and Akiva Goldsmith, "Picard" starts out with our hero stewing in retirement at his family vineyard, when he's contacted by a young woman named Dahj (Isa Briones) with a mysterious past and origins. This leads Picard to becoming involved in the search and rescue of Dahj's sister Soji (also Briones), who is being targeted by the Romulan Tal Shiar for reasons unknown. Picard recruits Dr. Jurati (Alison Pill), former Starfleet officer Raffi Musiker (Michelle Hurd), a black market pilot, Chris Rios (Santiago Cabrera), and an old Romulan ally, Elnor (Evan Evagor), to aid in his cause. Opposing them are Narek (Harry Treadaway) and Narissa (Peyton List), Romulan spies who are pretending to work with Starfleet on a secret reclamation project.
The writing, frankly, is all over the place. The individual characters are pretty decent, but they're run through a very contrived series of events that jump from planet to planet, and crisis to crisis to untangle the kind of classic "Trek" conflict that could have been handled in a single episode, and without resorting to a whiz-bang, shoot-em-up ending. However, "Picard" isn't really interested in plot as much as it is with exploring how the familiar "Trek" universe has changed since we last saw it in 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis," and what some of our old friends have been up to. It's also much less elegant in tone and approach. Like "Discovery," there's a moderate amount of cursing, the Federation is often engaging in morally compromised actions, and there are a lot more sketchy corners of the universe on display. Picard is operating outside of the Federation for most of this adventure, so he's working with a cast of more colorful fringe characters - wayward Raffi, charming ruffian Rios, and refugee Elnor.
And this is all very entertaining. Stewart is noticeably older and more frail, but his Picard is still wonderfully charismatic and easy to root for. The new characters are a motley bunch and don't initially come across very well, but once you get to spend time with them and get to know them, they emerge as a noble and good-hearted bunch. They're ultimately all familiar types, but very "Star Trek" - an eager doctor, a noble alien warrior, a scruffy pilot, and a lost android searching for identity. And some of the performances are excellent, notably Allison Pill as the complicated Jurati, and Santiago Cabrera as Rios - and multiple hologram versions of Rios, each with his own different accent and persona. If "Picard" had been a typical starship-based show, it likely would have avoided a lot of its messy narrative issues. Most of the trouble seems to come from trying to sustain a serialized story over ten installments. There's also a significant amount of screentime given over to Soji, whose story runs parallel to Picard's for several episodes. She gets better as the series rolls along, but the first few shows with her and the Romulans are pretty rough.
"Picard" strikes me as a good premise with wildly uneven execution, and a lot of potential for better down the road. Significant time and resources were spent making the world of "Picard" look impressive, which would have been better spent tightening up the scripting. There's an awful lot of reliance on spectacle over thoughtful problem solving, making "Picard" feel more like a "Trek" film than a series. I think it's absolutely worth a watch if you're a '90s "Trek" fan like I am, because all the callbacks and nostalgic bits are handled very nicely. The writers lay on the sentiment a little thick, but it feels earned and appropriate. And while the show has its share of dodgy dialogue, subpar performances, terrible cheats, and plot holes, it also delivers some memorable high points and a measure of emotional closure that "Nemesis" never gave us.
Oh, and minor spoiler, but "Voyager" fans should also definitely take a look.
---
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