Daredevil

    Back when Netflix announced that they would be doing a bunch of Marvel properties, culminating in a Defenders series, I was happy to see Daredevil would kick it off.  I'm not as excited for the other ones.  I don't know much about Jessica Jones.  Luke Cage seems like a good fit, and Iron Fist might be kind of fun.  But Daredevil is the only one of them I was genuinely excited about.
    What I want is Moon Knight.  And I would rather see a Spider-Man series than another movie for him.  The Death of Jean DeWolff?  That would be a fantastic crossover story.

     So I was excited, but I didn't have specific hopes in mind.

     I was happy to see that the episodes are typically around a solid hour long.  The running time, combined with the structure of a season on Netflix, gives the show an unrushed quality.  There are character scenes that rely on compelling delivery, particularly with Fisk.  It's luxurious.

     I've watched the series twice now.  It's just as good the second time through.

    I have a few complaints.

    1.  The color palette.  It's usually appropriate for the series, but it isn't conducive to watching it.  I had to watch it in a darkened room at night in order to tell what was happening in the darker scenes.  The tinting for annoying over time.
    2.  The hand-held camera approach.  This was the weirdest thing, since the action is normally really well done.  It's choreographed well.  Some of the camera work is fantastic, gliding the camera in close quarters, timing the action around it perfectly.  Then... during stretches of dialogue, the camera would stay mostly stationary, but move around a bit.  I didn't mind this at first.  It usually depends on where you focus your eyes, but it became more annoying the second time through.
     3.  There is one plot decision that really bothered me.  I can't say much about it, since it involved a character dying that I didn't expect to get killed off.  They are fairly important in the long run, and I don't know how well they thought that through.


     The action is great.  The biggest problem with it is that the greatest action sequence happens in the second episode, and I don't see how any other ones will top it.
    There are plenty of tiny easter eggs for Marvel fans, but none of them are really important to following the story.
    The Kingpin came out as a much more fantastic character than he's been in the comics.  My appreciation for the performance increased over time.

The Wonder Years: Good, bad, and worse than you remember

     I wasn't a fan of The Wonder Years as I was growing up.  I was aware of the show, but it never seemed that interesting to me.  There were two things that bothered me about it.  First, Winnie seemed so undesirable that I wondered what the audience saw in her.  Second, the extremely long pauses as the voiceover went and Kevin looked weird.
     Thanks to Netflix, I've watched the entire series.

     The series started off pretty well.  The first season and a half is pretty good.  Relationships fluctuate, some character is developed for the father, Jack, and a few conflicts are set up.  There are a few misses, but the show is generally interesting enough.  Then it settles into a groove, and the show gets really boring.
     There are still bigger developments, like Winnie moving across town.  Kevin moves from Junior High to High School.  Kevin's sister graduates and moves away.  Kevin gets his license.  As big as these events are supposed to be, they wind up feeling small.  Storylines are limited in scope, so a single episode is devoted to Kevin getting his license.  Then he has it, and there's nothing else to say.  As the series wore on, I was much more annoyed at some of the lack of world-building.  There's an episode where Kevin plays soccer.  Once that episode is done with, there's no mention of it, and the story vanishes into the mist.  It was inconsequential.
      This leads to one of the other, bigger problems.  Character development seems to be missing from most of the series.  There was a small amount of it at the beginning, but after that, the characters just fell into a routine of being the exact same people they have always been.  The exception to this is that during the last season, there was a surprising amount of character development, allowing them to change and grow, and interact in new ways.  Wayne became a good person, at least briefly.  Winnie started to behave badly occasionally.
       I realized that I don't care about Kevin.  The show is not about the development of this character, it's about the audience reconnecting with the experience of being young.  But without a character to care about, when he goes through a situation you can't identify with, what reason is there to watch?  This really hit me during an episode titled Hero.
     The high school basketball team is on a hot streak.  Their star player has his locker next to Kevin, and they talk occasionally.  Kevin feels like he's a little important to the guy.  Kevin gets really caught up in a bit of hero-worship, attending all of the games, praising the guy, etc.  Kevin neglects his studies in order to attend a game.  Jack decides to go along with him.  They enjoy the first half, then Jack offers some observations, which turn out to be correct - the opposing team will pressure the player now that they know he's the key.  Kevin flips out at his dad.  Afterward, Kevin approaches the star player, and tries to console him.  The star player gets angry at Kevin.  Then Kevin and Jack go to a diner, where Kevin gives some voiceover narration that indicates that Jack is really a hero.
      There is nothing about this episode that I can identify with.  The ending of it feels nonsensical.  The premise of it seems like an effort at a bromance that I don't understand.  When you combine these problems with Kevin's blank slate of a personality, I have no idea what the appeal of the show is.

      And even though Kevin seems to have no personality, he also doesn't have much of an arc at any point in the series.  Even though he's supposed to learn life lessons all the time, he never adjusts his behavior as a result of it.

      Kevin is weirdly amoral most of the time.  He has a dedication to Winnie... except when he doesn't.  He regularly just leaves to flirt with other girls.  He dates many other girls, and he typically treats them badly.  The one time he makes an effort to do the right thing (early on, with Becky Slater) he gets punched.
      Kevin's bad behavior rarely comes back to him.  At one point, he decides to drive off to see the girl he had a summer romance with.  He talks with Winnie at the start of the episode, then still decides to go pursue this summer romance girl.  During the last episode or two, Winnie makes reference to this, which is the closest he comes to having to take responsibility for his actions.

     Maybe the problem is that the whole show is told from Kevin's perspective, so he doesn't seem to learn much about his parents.

     If I'm forced to, I can remember general ideas that were covered in the show, but now that I've been done watching it for about a month, the whole thing has faded.

    Sadly, it's not a great show, but it was a great transition.  It established more storytelling tools that have remained important.  It created an elastic reality before that was a popular thing.

The Wonder Years - 3x20 - Goodbye

Another episode focusing on Kevin's issues with math class.
Most of the episode centers around Kevin's imaginary relationship with his math teacher, Mr. Collins.  He feels closer to the teacher, and like the teacher should appreciate him more, because Kevin pulled himself together and works hard and gets mostly Cs on his work.

I mostly got As and Bs during school.  (I did worse in French though)  But I identify with Kevin, since I didn't put that much effort into school, and it was always a shock when I ran into something that required effort.

Like most episodes, most of the drama is created by Kevin being strange and unreasonable, and having really strange difficulties with communicating.  He winds up being taught after school by the teacher in preparation for a midterm.

Mr. Collins is one of the strangest teachers the show has used.  His performance is inscrutable.  He rarely gives anything like a reaction.  It's kind of frustrating.

The big development comes when Mr. Collins is unable to continue teaching Kevin after school, because of an "appointment."  Kevin gets angry, and he retaliates against Mr. Collins by filling in wise-ass answers on his midterm test.  Mr. Collins is disappointed.
When they return to school after the weekend, Kevin tries to find Mr. Collins, and is told that he actually died that morning.  He had been unwell.

Naturally, Kevin feels terrible.

It's revealed that Mr. Collins had thrown out Kevin's wise-ass test, so he has an opportunity to redo the test seriously.  A last gesture of good faith from Mr. Collins.

There are two things that bother me.  First, the technical one.  Wouldn't the vice principal - filling in for Mr. Collins - feel like it wasn't quite fair to give Kevin the same test twice and take his second score?
The other thing is that this requires Mr. Collins to be just as immature as Kevin.  He's too concerned about sharing information about himself with Kevin, when it would have been perfectly fine for him to say "Sorry I can't really teach you after school - I'm kind of sick, and I have some doctors appointments."  That goes over much better than the enigmatic "I have an appointment."

It's also hard to say that Mr. Collins actually cares for his students.  I know this is a trivial thing, but he should be a little more moved by Kevin's effort.

I had a math teacher in high school who was a real jerk.  He was humorless, he was mean with his comments (I still have a homework assignment where he called me 'lazy').  He seemed to really hate his work.
I had heard a meathead talking about him, about how he went to him for some help with math, and that changed his entire attitude.  The teacher was tired of not seeing effort in the classroom.

Darknet

This show was suggested by Netflix, since I tend to watch just about any horror I can, and I especially like horror anthology shows.

And holy cow, it's probably one of the best - if not the best horror anthology I've seen.

Production values are strong.  The stories are polished.  One of the weaknesses that many of the older horror anthologies have is that they tend to rely on lots of exposition.  This show rarely does anything like that.  Almost everything is shown.

Each episode is usually woven together from a few stories.  Usually the stories connect in some way, sometimes they don't.  The connections aren't obvious either.  They play around with chronology as well.

Performances are generally good.  I haven't noticed anyone that was actually bad.

As I was watching it, I was thinking it would be really great to have a little more crossover between episodes.  Then in the last episode - they do this.  They bring back a bunch of characters from the earlier episodes.

The sense of horror is a little different.  It's an unpredictable show.  Usually there's at least one twist, sometimes more, but I don't know how much material I actually found scary.  Of course, I don't know how much I find anything scary now.

I'm very, very impressed with this show, and I hope it gets picked up for a second season.  As long as they can keep the quality and structure intact.

R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour

I love horror anthology shows.  I really love 'em.  I used to watch Tales from the Darkside, and I remember that my dad didn't have a problem with it.  (He did have a problem with the movie though, because there was some cursing.  It never occurred to me how strange that was.)

     Anyway, I gave R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour a chance, since it was available for free on Netflix.  I figured it would be kind of like Are You Afraid of the Dark?  I had tried revisiting that show, and it really didn't age well.  It was just too lighthearted, too wacky, and not enough material that seemed like it could legitimately creep kids out.  Plus, it was aimed too squarely at kids, while also making kids look like idiots.  That's always a problem.

     I was pleased to find that The Haunting Hour was generally really good.  Really good.  Like any anthology, there are a few misses, but I'm very happy with this show.  Episodes are usually paced well, they involve some fairly creepy stuff.  They don't shy away from bleak endings, and I really love that.

     In addition, the acting quality is actually pretty good.  It's hard to find child actors that aren't annoying.

    To make things better... the budget is good!  It's not spectacular, but the effects work is fairly good, and the direction does a great job of working around effects.

    Notable episodes...
From the first season...

The Perfect Brother - A kid's perfect brother starts breaking down, and is revealed to be a robot.  Then things get weirder.  A dark ending, and I like that they were willing to go that far.

Catching Cold - A jerk of a kid becomes obsessed with locating a specific ice cream truck that carries some spectacular ice cream.  Another dark ending, but he earned it.

Afraid of Clowns - The obligatory clown episode.  An ending I didn't quite anticipate.

The Dead Body - A kid finds a friend willing to stand up to some bullies.  The friend pushes things further than the other kid is willing to go.

From the second season...

Flight - A kid on an airplane is convinced that a lady is the grim reaper.  This episode isn't actually that great, but it plays like a Twilight Zone.  It's much more introspective than I expect from a show aimed at kids.

Sick - A kid is home, sick.  Things get very strange, and it isn't clear if it's just his illness, or if he's actually dealing with a monster in the house.  A surprisingly puzzling episode.

Mascot - Two kids want to get a better mascot for their school, and attempt to fire the existing one.  This is weird, and memorable for the great design of the mascot.  It's also got a really dark ending.

Scarecrow - A rural girl accepts a scarecrow from a weird guy, leading to much weirder things.  This is a very dark story.  By the end, it seems like it could have been adapted from a Stephen King story.

The Return of Lilly D - A continuation of what happens to the evil doll that appeared in the first episodes of this series.  This is really remarkable.  It's rare that an anthology series creates an internal continuity, but they did this well.  There's a recurring character, but what's most interesting is that they made a story that stands by itself, but is also enriched by knowing the first episodes.


     I can't say that the show is always great, but they do an excellent job of making a horror series for kids that doesn't pander.  The show tackles concerns of younger kids very well, while also treating them respectfully.  I'm really happy with this series, and I look forward to watching more episodes.  Hopefully, Netflix will get around to adding the third season soon.

Winnie Cooper of The Wonder Years

     The Wonder Years was aired at the right time for my young tastes.  It started airing around 1987, when I would have been six, and ran for six seasons, meaning that I would have been twelve when it ended.  This is a really good thing for someone who was younger than the main character.  The same way that most high school dramas mostly appeal to middle school students, this would have guided me through my formative years.

     But I never got into the show.  The little bits of exposure that I had to it were awkward.  I don't know if I saw any complete episodes.  I mostly remembered one thing about the show.

     Fred Savage staring kind of blankly as a voiceover talked.  Then a line would be stammered out.

     What bothered me about this was that Kevin - as a character - was just so incredibly awkward, he defied normalcy, which flew in the face of the premise.  As a 6th and 7th grader, I was able to hold conversations with members of the opposite sex.  Kevin was able to have two-sentence exchanges with them, with massive pauses between each line.

     That was the main reason I didn't like the show.  The other reason was Winnie Cooper.

     In the past, my impression of her was that she didn't do anything.  She existed as a long-term love interest for Kevin, but I couldn't recall any personality that she had.


     I've gone back, and I've started watching The Wonder Years on Netflix, from the beginning.  I just finished the first episode of the second season.
      I'll ignore my thoughts on the writing, on the series itself, structure, characters, jokes... this is just about Winnie.

     Winnie is a blank slate for the audience.  She simultaneously exudes braininess, cuteness, beauty, attainability, and in-attainability.  She remains passive throughout most of these episodes, except for the end of this one I just watched, which also marks the first time that she and Kevin had a non-awkward exchange.
      Winnie has a habit of not actually doing much of anything.  She often has a blank expression (pictured above).  The only time she doesn't is when she's interacting with people in the background.

     When I say that Winnie is a blank slate, I mean that she seems to exist as a reflection whatever traits the audience wants to see.  I don't know how I feel about this.  She doesn't have a distinct personality in the show.  She rarely expresses any emotion at all.  I'm wondering how much this changes later on.

Wonder Woman

    I’ve never read a single Wonder Woman comic.  That said, I had no expectations going in.  I knew she had super strength, a lasso, and some bullet-deflecting bracelets.
    This is TERRIBLE TV.
    There are technical issues, and I actually liked seeing those.  The fight sequence at the end doesn’t have all of the effects work done on the lasso, and most of the wirework is still visible.  I actually found that much more endearing, and I felt like that made me appreciate the effort much more.
    Where the episode fails is in making a hero.  Let’s start at the beginning.
    We open the episode on a kid getting an acceptance letter from a college.  He and his family are happy.  Then the kid’s eyes start bleeding.  They call an ambulance.
    Then we go to a city.  Wonder Woman is chasing some guy through the streets.  We hear police reports that suggest that the guy is running at superhuman speeds.  Wonder Woman catches him.  While he’s on the ground, she injects him with something.  Police show up, ask that she hand him over.  She sneers, and complains that if she hands him over, he’ll just lawyer up.  She reluctantly hands him over, pushing the guy across the ground to the police.

    So our introduction to the character indicates that she doesn’t believe in the justice system, she believes in administering justice on her own, and that she’s unfriendly.  (At least, that’s what the sneer communicated to me.)

    Over the course of the story, Wonder Woman goes to a hospital to question the guy that she caught at the beginning of the episode.  She TORTURES HIM.  She actually causes pain for a guy who is already incapacitated in the hospital.  Afterwards, a cop reiterates that she JUST TORTURED INFORMATION OUT OF THE GUY.  Wonder Woman doesn’t see anything wrong with this.
    At the end of the episode, there’s the big finish battle.  She defeats a bunch of musclebound goons.  The action is okay, but not anything too special.  Toward the end of the fight, she reaches a hallway.  She fights one goon as a security guard is firing shots at her.  She deflects bullets with her bracelets.  She defeats the goon, then throws a metal pipe at the security guard… IMPALING HIM AGAINST THE DOOR BEHIND HIM… THROUGH THE NECK!
    She actually throws the metal pipe through his neck!

    There are lesser problems.  There’s an effort made to put a feminist edge on the character, which makes sense.  She spends some time during a meeting complaining about how busty they made an action figure of her.  She acknowledges that she is well-endowed, but complains about it regardless.
    This would be okay… except that there are two issues.  First, her subordinate points out that she approved the design.  She denies this.  This is sloppy writing.  It’s a he-said she-said argument, but I’m inclined to believe that she would have approved the design before it went into production.  It’s her company.  The other problem is that they establish earlier in the episode that Wonder Woman exists to be merchandised.  She funds her crime fighting through her merchandising.  Come on.

    These are complaints I have about male heroes as well.  I don’t think a show that focused on Rorschach could work, since he’s too brutal, and I can’t agree with his actions.