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.
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Thursday, March 26, 2015
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
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.
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.
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