'Dragon Ball Super' episode 92: 'Emergency Development! The Incomplete Ten Members!'

As established last episode, Buu has fallen asleep and won't wake up for at least two months.  Suffice it to say, this is a problem as he was the tenth member for the team and having nine fighters won't cut it.

It's a fairly slim plot hook, but it does manage to build up tension as the clock is ticking and the universe is on the line.

Much like last episode, this one jumps around to give us glimpses into the other universes.  It's good to see them, but as this episode doesn't have the "high priest talks to Zen-O" back drop, it ends up being jumpier.  It also becomes a detriment as there are some universes that haven't been established.  Just seeing the kais and gods of destruction isn't really enough to determine where we are just yet.  Even just a little text card or narration would have gone a long way.  Thankfully, the dialogue addresses this, but it could have been smoother.

We do check in on universes 6 and 11 again, but we also see universe 3 as they literally assemble their warriors.  Said fighters will be robots that are custom designed to stay in the ring with such assets as claws and suction cups to keep them in the ring.  They talk as if the fighters can hang outside of the ring, climb back in, and not get disqualified; but I don't think it works that way.  I guess the claws and suction cups can still be used on the ground to keep the fighters in the ring, but if they're banking on being able to climb back into the ring after being knocked out, they might be in for a rude awakening.

Universe 11 provides an endearing moment as Toppo and the general are concerned about who is going to act as the universe's protector while they're gone.  Even though the scene is brief, it goes a long way to show how these characters are heroes through and through.  Fortunately, they have a team of young rookie recruits who are willing to step up.  It's like "Dragon Ball" meets "Young Justice".

I think for most, though, the real show stealer is going to be the universe 6 segment, where Cabba trains Caulifla in the ways of becoming a super saiyan.  A part of me wants to say that she learned a bit too quickly (though her transformation doesn't come without some struggle,) but Cabba, Goten, and Trunks didn't seem to have any trouble so that just seems to be the way of things now.

Some might also be disappointed that it upstages Kale, who was heavily hyped as the one to don the title of first female super saiyan.  She's still clearly going to turn anyway, so I guess it doesn't hurt to have two.  It'll be interesting to see how Caulifla reacts when she sees her shy protege take things to a completely different level.

Back on universe 7, the team gets dealt another blow as Goku's bluff about a prize is revealed by Gohan and Piccolo, as are the true stakes of the tournament.  To Goku's credit, he does offer to pay anybody out of his own pocket, though Vegeta points out that Chichi controls the finances.

Goku does, rather politely, ask Bulma, but she refuses.  Well, initially anyway.  She does eventually cave, though it is pocket change to her family.  Of course, it was kind of superfluous as Beerus threatened to kill anyone who backed out anyway.

This still leaves the team one short.  The easy solution would have been to toss Buu into the hyperbolic time chamber, but Vegeta, master strategist that he is, blew it up again while training.  So much for that plan.

Thankfully (?) Beerus' ranting gives Goku an idea: recruit Frieza to be their tenth.  It's unclear if this is just a red herring or if this is a legit substitution, but I'm hoping it's the prior.  Besides the fact that Frieza can't be trusted, it seemed like Buu was a better asset.  His power set is more versatile and at the very least, he can act as the team tank/meat shield, taking the hard hits and shrugging them off to keep the less powerful fighters on their feet.  Of course, this could amount to nothing, so it's hard to really weigh in at this point.

All in all, this episode was OK.  It was nice to see the other universes and flesh them out more before the big showdown, but covering so many leads to very little plot progression on any given front.  At the very least, we do get our first female super saiyan and everyone is up to speed regarding the tournament, so there are some highlights to be had.

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'Iron Fist' episode 12: 'Bar the Big Boss'

The show comes to its penultimate episode and, as one would hope, it ends up being a rather strong entry that provides a good deal of momentum for the final entry.

I'd kind of forgotten where Ward was, but the episode's opening makes for a nice refresher as he is strapped down to a gurney, hallucinating.

He does try to bribe the nurse to let him go, but it doesn't work.  I have to figure it's because his bribe was so small. I mean, come on, a year's salary.  You're a Meachum, you should at least offer her a million; that would have improved his chances significantly.  Instead, all he can do is thrash angrily.  Is that such a good idea when you have an IV in your vein?  I can't imagine that would end well.

In any event, this makes it rather easy for Bakuto to make Ward an offer.  Under normal circumstances, Ward would be an idiot for considering this.  Alas, he doesn't really have any options and his sister is in danger.

Of course, Bakuto alters the terms of the deal, but that's neither here nor there.

It does lead to some great stand off scenes.  First, we have Ward trying to bring his sister out at gunpoint before the Hand arrive to make the situation worse.

Considering how boring the Meachums were at the start of the series, it really is impressive how engaging these scenes are.  Ward's deteriorating mental state makes him far more interesting, and the fact that he's trying to protect his family gives him a level of sympathy that he rarely developed before.  Joy, for her part, is happy to be spending time with her father again and doesn't seem too keen on turning him over to the Hand.  Given what we know, it is the better option, but you understand why she would be reluctant and she does make a valiant effort to reunite the family peacefully.

The Hand's arrival makes for a hostage scenario.  While Ward does cooperate, Bakuto still shoots Joy as a way to force Danny's hand.

Wasn't the whole point of the online robbery to draw Bakuto out so that Danny could take them out?  It just seems weird that Bakuto did exactly what they wanted him to, but they were still caught with their pants down.  They really should have done a better job preparing before embarking on this plan.

Things aren't faring much better on other fronts as Davos and Colleen are now at odds.  The two almost come to blows on more than one occasion, though credit to Danny, he does his best to act as mediator.

It leads to a drastic shift in Davos' characterization.  He's much angrier and antagonistic here than he was before.  You can kind of understand why, but it still seems like a drastic shift.  Had he shown up a few episodes earlier, they could have built up to this a bit more.  It's true, we saw the bond he and Danny had, and the hint of resentment was there.  It just needed more time to simmer before it hit a full boil.

They do put aside their differences long enough to confront the Hand in another hallway fight.  You'd think that this would be tiresome, but I thought this one was well done.  The room was well lit and there was a lot more room for people to maneuver.  The fact that multiple heroes and villains were facing off in one big brawl also gave it something to separate it from its predecessors.

I would have loved to see a 3 on 1 fight as Colleen, Danny, and Davos take on Bakuto, but alas, we fall into the "honorable combat" trap, leaving Colleen to fight him solo.  I guess it makes sense, as she has the closest connection to the guy, but it is weird to see Davos, who was insisting that Danny go after the Hand with more gusto, suddenly stop him and say that its her fight.

It's a solid fight, but ultimately Colleen ends up victorious, though this puts them in the prisoner's dilemma.  It would have been nice to see that argument play out, though I can't fault Davos for taking the initiative and ending it....or did he?

Do the people of K'un L'un know about the Hand's resurrection deal?  They seem shocked at first when Bakuto disappears, but then Danny notes that the Hand can do that.  I'm not sure whether Davos should have known and altered his kill method accordingly or Danny should have just made sure the job was done once Davos made what was believed to be the killing blow.   Either way, it wasn't their best moment.

We're treated to a third fight as Davos faces off against Danny for abandoning K'un L'un.  It's a solid fight, though it's another illustration of how Davos' arc didn't have enough room to breathe.  We needed to see Danny brush off Davos more than we did to justify his violent rage.

At the very least, it leaves Danny down an ally and we get an ominous warning about how Danny's choice is going to have grave consequences.  With only one episode left, I have a feeling that's what the show's second season will cover.

All in all, this was a strong episode.  It had a nice balance of character driven material and action sequences.  It was engaging throughout and it leaves Danny and Colleen in an interesting dilemma as the credits start to roll.  I'm looking forward to seeing how this all wraps up.

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'Iron Fist' episode 11: 'Lead Horse Back to Stable'

Judging by this episode's title, and what we heard at the end of last episode, you might be expecting the focus of this episode to be on Danny getting his chi back.  To wit, Davos does once again suggest that they return to K'un L'un in order to achieve this goal.  It doesn't happen.  In some ways, that's probably the smarter move.  If Danny had gotten his chi back in the next episode, it probably would not have gone over well.  Better to let that tension hold for a while to make his return that much more impressive.

It was nice to see Danny address the point I made in that he is supposed to fight the Hand and the Hand are here, ergo, he should stay.  This could have been a great "both sides have valid points" issue, except it seems like Danny will be able to get his chi back on his own through meditation and focus, which admittedly undercuts Davos' point significantly.

To his credit, Davos has other reasons for wanting to bring Danny back to K'un L'un.  It really made him the stand out character, as his motivations and personality seemed to take center stage.  The fact that he developed such strong dynamics with both Danny and Claire also helped make a dialogue heavy episode much more engaging.

His relationship with Danny is...complicated to say the least.  The two are clearly close friends and that brotherhood is shown in spades, but we also see some resentment on Davos' part.  Not only does he take a cue from Vegeta in thinking that Danny stole his birthright, but he's also resentful for being abandoned.  It's both personal, but his point about leaving K'un L'un defenseless is also cause for consideration.

It also brings to light Danny's reasons for leaving.  It's a bit anti-climactic, but it does provide an answer after leaving that question lingering so long after Gao first asked him.

While Danny doesn't return, we do get a brief glimpse of K'un L'un.  Given that it is supposed to exist in another dimension, you might be expecting something more, but all we get is a snowy mountain.  It's consistent with what little we saw, but you can't help but be disappointed.  I guess budget was an issue, but you're still left wishing there was more there there.

This also becomes a problem when we learn that Danny had to fight a dragon to become the Iron Fist.  That would have been really cool to see.  Sure, it would have been CGI and it probably wouldn't have been of the highest quality, but that's the sort of thing that people were likely hoping to see when they heard that Iron Fist was getting a show.

On a brighter front, Colleen also gets some development.  She starts off trying to plead her case to Danny to no avail.  While she doesn't approve of Danny getting wounded, she does try to point out that her branch of the Hand has been doing a lot of good.

It should come as no surprise that Bakuto's branch (if it even ever was separate at all) is just as nefarious, even going so far as to try and drain Colleen's blood in a similar manner that we saw back in "Daredevil".  Suffice it to say, she's not really a fan anymore.  Her students don't seem too fond of her either.  At least she's out of that "girl without a country" phase she was in when both Danny and Bakuto had ostracized her for her apparent disloyalty.

On the one hand, showing that the bad guys are bad guys is probably for the best, especially considering they are the big bads for the upcoming "Defenders".  On the other, it could have made for some interesting tension had things been more in the morally grey area.

Speaking of morally grey, the Meachums also contribute to the plot, with Harold hatching a plan to use their company connections to effectively defund Bakuto's sect.  Not only is this a strike in its own right, but Harold goes on to enlist Danny and Davos to confront them when they eventually seek retribution.

The grey comes in when Joy realizes that the aim is to kill Bakuto.  You can understand why she'd be appalled, but given who they're up against, simple arresting may not be sufficient.  The Hand is well connected and, if for some reason that's not enough, they can just send a swarm of ninjas to break Bakuto out.

In any event, Harold's decreasing mental state forces her to go along with the plan.  By and large the scenes the two share are actually quite nice.  The two are bonding and connecting, but the show hasn't forgotten Harold's short fuse, which is good to see, but it does add some tension to their scenes.

While the episode is light on action and doesn't even really move the plot forward, the character moments are strong enough and frequent enough that the episode doesn't come off as a total dud.  It may be a strange way to go given that there are only two more episodes left, but for what it was, it was decent.  Though, we really could have done without the "calm the eff down" line.  If you can't say the f-word, just say "calm the hell down".  It would have flowed so much better.

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'Dragon Ball Super' episode 91: 'Which Universe Will Survive!? The Strongest Warriors are Gathering!!'

Technical difficulties forced me to take an unscheduled haitus, but we're back and we've got some catching up to do.  As such, let's dive into this week's episode of "Dragon Ball Super".

After last week's action heavy episode that largely fell flat, this one takes a quieter approach that ends up being much more entertaining.  It's true, we don't really get the strategy session that the last episode teased, but what we see here is still pretty interesting in its own right.

Instead, this episode gives us brief glimpses of how the other universes are faring in their efforts to put teams together.  Prior episodes have taken brief detours, but this one puts the other universes in much greater focus.  A part of me thinks that it would have been better to have done this gradually since the multiverse was established, but this manages to do a lot with very little time.  It even does it rather well.

Not only does it allow for characters like Hit, Frost, Toppo, and Basil to return, but it also allows us to get a brief glimpse into universes that we haven't seen yet, namely universe 2, where a young girl shows her fighting prowess by mixing "Sailor Moon" with..."Care Bears"?..It works surprisingly well both in and out of universe.

The strategy talk isn't completely forgotten, though.  The elder Kai does offer to unlock Goku's potential to its fullest, but alas time constraints prevent that from being a viable option.  Thus, he settles for training with Whis in the gravity room  Oddly, the hyperbolic time chamber never comes up.

Speaking of, Vegeta goes there to train.  It makes sense and, frankly, I'm surprised it's taken this long for somebody to put it to use.  I did find it odd that Vegeta is intent on being the one to defeat Goku in the tournament.  They are on the same team and while besting his rival may be satisfying, it seems like a really bad tactic to take in this instance.  Although, he doesn't know about the whole universes being destroyed thing, so that helps justify it somewhat.  

Gohan, for his part, surmises that the center of the ring will be the best position to minimize the risk of being knocked out of bounds.  Supreme Kai responds by noting that others will likely come to the same conclusion, making it very difficult territory to claim and hold.

The most impressive strategic showing comes from Roshi, who goes to Yamcha's house.  This does add a new take on the "Yamcha thinks he's going to be asked" running gag as it appears that characters are going out of their way to unintentionally taunt him about the fact that he's not a member.  In Roshi's defense, his reason for being there is legit.  He wants Puar to take the form of an attractive young woman.  He knows that his perverted nature is his biggest weakness and he wants to build up a tolerance so that he doesn't lose control in the tournament.

It's largely played for laughs, as he ends up chasing the transformed Puar around the room, but it does show an interesting level of foresight on his part.  Who knows, this could even lead to some character evolution.  Sure, him being a dirty old man is funny, but how long can that gag keep going?  Seeing him grow would be nice to see.

I do wonder why Oolong didn't just flat out say "no" when Yamcha asked if he was ever going to be offered to join the team.  I know Yamcha's the butt monkey, but this seems like it's pushing it.  Even an "I doubt it" would have done more to gently let him know what's up.

Although, with Buu falling asleep and being unable to wake up, there is another slot that gives him some hope.

This latter fact makes for the episode cliffhanger as time is running out and they need a full roster.  It did make for a nice gag as Beerus tells Goku to bring him along to wake Buu up before going on a tirade about how fed up he is with the creature.  He thinks that Goku is waiting for him, only to turn around and find that Goku had left.

All in all, this was a strong episode.  It moved the plot along and it managed to give us glimpses into several universes in one swoop.  Having the high priest explaining things to the dual omni-kings made for a nice backdrop as it allowed the episode to segue from one universe to the next without making the episode feel jumpy and disjointed.  The humor worked well and it seemed like each character was given something to do, even if they were only given a brief scene.  It was a difficult juggling act, but this episode pulled it off as well as one could hope.

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'Dragon Ball Super' episode 90: 'See The Wall That Must Be Passed! Goku vs. Gohan'

Is there a better way to commemorate Mother's Day than with an episode of "Dragon Ball Super"?  I highly doubt it.

With Gohan's training reaching its end, it's time for Gohan to test his mettle against his old man to see how his magical powers fare against the powers of the gods.

It starts off as a 2 on 2 battle with Tien and Piccolo teaming with Goku and Gohan respectively.  Sadly, not much is done with this as Tien is unable to do much against the Saiyans and while Piccolo uses one powerful attack (which he spends most of the match charging up,) it doesn't end up doing much in the grand scheme of things.  Goku does say he barely held it off, so it could come in handy in the tournament, but it wasn't quite the game changer Piccolo might have hoped it was.

I'm torn on Tien.  On the one hand, it would have been nice to see him get a better showing.  On the other, the show has been criticized recently for suddenly powering everybody up so that they can keep up with Goku and Vegeta.  Having one character who didn't get such a boost is a little refreshing to see in its own weird way.  Then again, he's been training this whole time, so you'd think that even if he ultimately lost that he'd fare better than Krillin did.  Hopefully, he's able to contribute more effectively come tournament time.

When the sparring match ends up destroying the makeshift ring, Tien and Piccolo bow out, but Goku and Gohan decide to continue the fight one on one, as Gohan wants to test his full strength against his dad's.

Gohan's full mystic power is able to fare pretty well against Goku in his super saiyan 2 form.  It's a pretty even draw, but once Goku brings out the blue/kaioken form, the fight is ended quite promptly.  Judging by the look on his face, Goku is still impressed.  The two do have some nice bonding moments peppered throughout the episode.

Goku does note the oddity of Gohan not going super saiyan, but Gohan responds by saying that he wants to explore the mystic power and see what heights to which that can bring him.  It does give him something unique that helps him stand out from all of the other super saiyans on the show. I still feel like blending the two is the way to go, though.

Much like with many of the preceding episodes, this one takes a detour to another universe, this time to universe 10.  It turns out that Gowasu is having trouble coming up with ideas for contestants.  After the whole Zamasu debacle, he doesn't really trust his judgment.

Thankfully, Rumshii (universe 10's pink elephant god of destruction) has taken care of the matter.  We're only given the name of the team leader, Murichim.  The rest remain cloaked.  Going by dialogue, it seems like Rumshii put his focus on brute strength.  Thus, we can conclude that they are similar to their leader in build and personality.  It makes you wonder how far they're going to make it in the more tactics focused fight.

Sadly, this episode didn't do it for me.  It really put all of its eggs in the Goku vs Gohan basket.  The fight was well animated and well edited, but it never pulled me in the way previous fights had.  The fact that there are no stakes probably hurt.  On top of that, we have two Masako Nozawa voiced characters fighting, which means we have two of the same "atatatatatatatatatatat!!!" and "hhhhrrrraaaaahhhhh!!!" yells going at the same time.  They do it a lot and it becomes grating really fast.

It would have been nice to see the 2 on 2 aspect played up more.  It would have made for better tournament preparation (considering how important teamwork is going to be) and would have added some variety to the fight.

Next episode hints at a strategy session.  That should be interesting to see.  Granted, it'll be difficult, given that they don't know what they're up against, but seeing how the team partners up and what formations they create will be cool to see.

According to the narration, there's about 4 and a half hours left until the tournament.  Considering how long 5 minutes took in Z, we really have no idea how many episodes that's going to be.

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'Attack on Titan' episode 21: 'Crushing Blow: The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission part 5'

With the female titan having transformed back into a human, now under the guise of a scout, I was expecting this episode to play with that paranoia.  Have the human pick off people one by one as the scouts realize that anyone among them could be the enemy.  Alas, that doesn't play out here.

Instead, the mole doesn't even bother with the cover and returns to the female titan form that we had seen prior.  It does make for a great "oh crap" moment, but it still seems like a missed opportunity.

Thus, once again, the group finds themselves being pursued.  Eren contemplates transforming, but has the "trust yourself or us" card pulled on him by the others again, as the team insists that they'll hold it off while he rushes back to HQ.  It's very much a rehash, but at least this episode is quicker about it.  On top of that, Eren knows that the team can handle themselves, so he has a much easier time of agreeing.

I do still find it odd that they just expect him to trust them explicitly when he really has little reason to.  The fact that they don't trust him at all also makes the whole setup seem a little disingenuous.

It's a moot point as Eren agrees.  His faith appears to be rewarded as, unlike the other scouts, this team is able to put the female titan on the defensive and actually land some devastating hits.  They blind her and begin slicing at her extremities in order to incapacitate it.  As the titan does have a healing ability, the team knows that they have to work fast.

Alas, it isn't enough, and the titan is able to turn the tables in pretty brutal fashion.  I was thinking that the monster was getting taken down anticlimactically.  It was especially odd as there wasn't really anything that this group was doing that others hadn't tried before to no avail.  Thankfully, the criticism addresses itself as, ultimately, this group really didn't do any better than those that had come before.

Suffice it to say, Eren doesn't take this well.  With no one to protest, Eren transforms and the two titans duke it out.  It's a fairly fast paced fight, but Eren is still able to internally monologue about his survivor's guilt and how it was a mistake not to transform.  You can understand his logic, but given the way the fight goes, it may have been a moot point.

As to the fight itself, I'm ambivalent.  As said before, it's fast and seeing two big monsters throw down is quite entertaining.  Still, neither side lands a hit.  The female titan is fast enough to dodge all of Titan-Eren's attacks and the female titan doesn't really go on the offensive a whole lot.  The only injuries Eren sustains are due to his fists hitting things when the female titan dodges his punches.  As well directed and choreographed as the fight is, it feels hollow because nothing much of substance actually happens for a significant chunk of it.

Ultimately, Eren loses and ends up getting eaten.  Like the fight itself, one can be of two minds on this.  One, the show already had this happen, so it's not like we're going to fall for it again.  To the episode's credit, though, it does have Mikasa witness the whole thing and conclude that Eren is still alive.  She's still shocked and angry at what she saw, but at least we all know (both in and out of universe) that Eren can and will come back.

Even if there was no casualty in the fight per se, it still doesn't bode well.  Eren's titan form was supposed to be the nuclear option or the godzilla threshold.  If the female titan can beat that as easily as she did, than the remnants of humanity have a real problem and no viable solution.

Mikasa makes a valiant effort to get her friend back, but the titan's defenses are still too effective.  To her credit, though, she fared just as well as Levi's team, only with the good fortune to have Levi pull her back before things could go awry.

The two do continue their pursuit from a distance as they do still plan on getting Eren back.  Levi just wants to bide his time as the titan seems to be exhausting itself.  It makes sense, as tough as it is, the titan has had a rough go of it as of late.  It would make sense that it could only withstand so much.  It gives the heroes a small nugget of hope despite the terrible odds right now.

All in all, the episode worked, but it still feels like it could have been more.  It's a shame that they completely wasted the potential of having a psychopath lurking and stalking the team.  That made for a great cliffhanger and it would have been a nice way to change things up, but what we see here works well enough.  The titan fight was also simultaneously entertaining and disappointing.  Having either of the two monsters actually land a couple of hits probably would have helped.  The episode did still manage to keep me entertained and engaged throughout, though, so I can't say that it was a total bust.




















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'Iron Fist' episode 10: 'Black Tiger Steals Heart'

As shocking as this may sound, we don't have any trailers to talk about.  As such, we're just going to cover another episode of "Iron Fist" instead.

Much like he did in the second episode, Danny finds himself waking up in an unfamiliar institution.  Credit where it's due, though, this compound is much more hospitable than the insane asylum.  This compound is where Colleen grew up and where she was mentored by Bakuto.  Not only do they offer Danny food and shelter, but Bakuto even shows Danny a way to recharge his chi.  I thought time usually handled that, though I suppose this speeds up the process.

The episode really plays up the cult-like element of this particular institution.  The way Bakuto carries himself is very much like your typical charismatic cult leader.  His talk about finding lost souls and giving them a sense of purpose and family really seals the deal.  Even Danny makes the comparison and, oddly, Bakuto doesn't really make any sort of counter-argument.

The modus operandi is actually very much akin to how the Foot clan were presented in the first "Ninja Turtles" movie.  I suppose it's fitting, given who this organization actually is.  You kind of figured it was the case, but Madame Gao revealing that this is a stronghold for the Hand still makes for a solid reveal.  Of course, Wai Ching Ho's screen presence may have helped contribute to that.

She's only in one scene, but man, Gao just owns every minute of it.  I know I've brought this up before, but she's such a great villain, I love it.

I'm not sure how to feel about Colleen's assertion that Gao is just a rogue agent leading a splinter group.   An organization called "the hand" having multiple factions does make sense.  On the other hand (pun not intended, honestly) it seems like the Hand has enough organizations working against it that fighting among itself seems like a waste of resources.  Of course, this could just be the line of BS that they sell to the students so that they don't come off as nefarious, so it could be entirely moot.

At the very least, it seems like Bakuto is making some sort of play for power.  He does imprison Gao and meets with Harold to say that he will be working with him in Gao's stead.

Of course, none of this matters to Danny.  Colleen does try to plead with him to no avail.  You'd think that this would mark some sort of heel turn, but even with Colleen's affiliation, you can tell that she is sincere.  She genuinely believes that the organization is doing good.  Considering the front that is put up and the way they took her in, you can understand why she'd give them the benefit of the doubt.  The fact that she decides to help Danny and Davos (now revealed to be an old friend from K'un L'un) escape in the end shows that, no, the whole thing wasn't an elaborate set up to lure him in.

The episode does provide some great fight set pieces.  Alas, they often fall into the trap of being dimly lit.  The parts we see are good, and it never goes completely pitch black, but it would still be nice to have a fight in a fully illuminated area for a change.

Danny and Bakuto face off in a fairly even one on one fight.  Considering how Bakuto has had to explain Danny's own abilities to him, I expected Danny to lose.  He held his own fairly well, though, so good on him.

He and Davos are also able to fend off an army of Hand members both in another hallway fight and again outside the gates.  Even when Danny discovers that he can't access his chi anymore, the two still manage to dominate the fight.  I'd say it undercuts the menace of the organization, but this does seem to be an academy of sorts, so having them easily defeat a group of students makes it more justifiable.

Speaking of Danny not having his power anymore, it does raise some questions.  Bakuto says that Danny's anger and confusion are blocking his chi, but he's gotten mad before and had no problem.  Honestly, I figured that the form that Bakuto taught him to recharge was in actuality a chi blocker.  I think that would have been the better way to go.  It seems like a stronger rationale and it would have added a nice bit of underhanded tactics to Bakuto's resume.  Also, remember when Danny said that getting hurt helped him find his focus?  Yeah, that never came up either.

Either way, the episode ends with Davos trying to convince Danny to return to K'un L'un, both to get his mojo back and to once again take up his place as guardian of K'un L'un.  While Davos does raise some fair points, he is oddly dismissive of the fact that the Hand are in New York.  Danny's purpose is to fight the Hand, the Hand are here; thus his place is here, right?  It's weird.

I have to admit, though, it'll be nice to finally see K'un L'un.  We've only gotten glimpses, a bona fide visit will allow us to get a much better idea of where Danny came from.

Oh, right, stuff happened with the Meachums too.  It does take up a good chunk of the episode, but it was mixed.  There were some meaningful bits between the now reunited father and daughter, but there was also a lot that fell flat.

As far as overall plot development, Harold seems to have his own plans in dealing with the Hand, but he also helps secure his children's place at Rand by killing one of the board members.

To her credit, Joy suspects foul play, but when she asks if Harold had the man killed, he can honestly say no...because he did it himself.  In most works, the semantic loophole abuse goes the other way around, so that was a clever little subversion.

Harold also seems to finally be stepping into the "villain" role.  His short fuse was on display again with Joy, but he also seemed to enjoy taunting the board member before he put a bullet in the man's brain.  Viewers finally got to see what they've been hoping to see since they saw David Wenham's name in the opening credits, as he does come off as quite menacing.  It's just a shame that there are only a handful of episodes left to see it.

All in all, this episode was a mixed bag.  There was some decent character development, the action was solid, and the plot does advance on many fronts.  Still, it did feel like it dragged at points and some of the dialogue did get really clunky.

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'The Mist' TV Series Second Trailer Reaction

And the trailers just keep coming.  Not to be outdone by the second trailer for 'IT', Spike released another teaser for its upcoming television adaptation of 'The Mist'.  Should I expect new trailers for 'The Defenders' and 'The Dark Tower' as well?  At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised.

As to this trailer in particular, it's a mixed bag.  It falls into the "jumpy" trap, but I think it does a better job of building up tension than when the first trailer or the second 'IT' trailer used a similar tactic in their respective latter halves.  At the same time, it would be nice if the trailer would stay focused on one thing for more than three seconds.

The thing that stands out the most here is the gore.  There is quite a bit of it on display. The original short story and the film weren't exactly lighthearted romps, but it does seem like they're trying a bit too hard.  The effects do look decent, so there is that, at least.

Still no monsters.  We do see some weird stuff, but there's no hint of otherworldly creatures.  Again, it seems like the mist is going to be driving people crazy.  I mean, I guess that's a way to go, but it seems like a completely independent story in its own right, as opposed to an adaptation of an already existing story.

Where the second 'IT' trailer shined by showing the characters, this one does very little of that.  There are some scenes that mirror the film, so you can kind of get a better idea of who's who.  Still, there's not a whole lot on that front that is particularly impressive, outside of the actress playing who I assume is Mrs. Carmody.  

Alas, this trailer doesn't give us a whole lot to work with in any capacity.  Its structure doesn't allow for us to get an idea of how the show will fare, either good or bad.  All we really got from this was violence and a continued lack of monsters.





You can see my reaction to the first trailer here.
















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'IT' (2017 Movie) Second Trailer Reaction

There are a lot of trailers coming out this month.  As the various release dates get closer, it makes sense, but still.  Not too long after the initial trailer for the upcoming "IT" adaptation, we get a second one that, I believe, first aired during the MTV movie awards.

It's a solid trailer.  This one puts more emphasis on the Loser's Club itself and the bond between them.  Considering how integral that is to the story, it's good to see that it is getting the right amount of focus.  This trailer also gives us a better display of their personalities.  Even though names aren't used, people who have read the book will be able to tell who's who just by the way they carry themselves.  I think that's a good sign about how well this cast captures the characters of this particular tome.

Because of that, the tunnel scene really is the crown jewel of the trailer.  The opening montage is OK and I'll get into the later stuff...later, but seeing the kids bickering was where the trailer really showed what this film adaptation was going to bring to the table.

Pennywise himself takes a back seat for a majority of the trailer, but the human monsters that populate Derry are given more focus in his stead.

Much like the trailer for the upcoming "Mist" TV series, I think that the first half of the trailer is stronger than the second.  Everything past the balloon bursting kinda fell flat for me.  It falls into the same trap of just randomly cutting to things thinking that it will create a sense of tension.  The musical accompaniment isn't as strong as the atmospheric piece that played in the trailer's opening moments and that final shot of Pennywise looks more doofy than scary.

There's quite a lot to like here, so I encourage cautious optimism on this one.  At the very least, you can tell that the people behind it care and put a lot of effort into bringing this one to life.  I'm looking forward to finally checking it out when it hits theaters later this year.



You can read my reaction to the first trailer here.




















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'Dragon Ball Super' episode 89: 'An Unknown Beauty Appears! The Tenshin Style Dojo's Mystery'

While Gohan and Piccolo train, Goku goes to Roshi's to recruit his old mentor.  Conveniently enough, he's at Tien's dojo, allowing Goku to ask the last two contenders in one stop.  Some might roll their eyes at the convenience, but I liked it.

Not surprisingly, Tien initially declines the offer to join.  It would be a great way for him to continue his training, but he isn't willing to abandon his students.  Unlike with 17, Goku doesn't have anyone he can offer to have fill in.  Tien isn't interested in money, so it seems like Goku's in a pickle.

That matter has to get tabled, though, as the dojo is besieged by a young girl who carries a grudge against Tien.  She poses as a potential student, who Tien intially rejects due to her superficial motivation, but it isn't long before she drops her cover altogether.

I was convinced that she went the episode nameless, but according to the Wiki, it's Yurin.  It was likely mentioned once, but no one actually seems to refer to her by name, so it isn't that important in the grand scheme of things.

As to what her grudge is, it is eventually revealed that she challenged Tien to a fight years ago and he essentially snubbed her.  Since then, she's been carrying a grudge, even going so far as to learn witchcraft so that she can brainwash his students into wreaking havoc in order to discredit him.

What I'd like to know is whether this actually transpired over the course of the original "Dragon Ball"series.  I really hope it did.  I think it makes the episode a lot stronger having that actual tie to continuity.  Even if she were just a one-off character who appeared in a brief scene, it makes the plot stronger to have actually seen it.  Otherwise, she's essentially just some random person who just showed up.

Her motives are lampshaded, but I could see it as part of the warrior/honor mindset.  While Yurin has some menacing moments, she also carries herself like a child throwing a tantrum at many points as well.  It's a good way to balance out a legitimate threat (albeit one of smaller scale) and some humorous elements.

You'd think that this would be an episode to showcase Tien's abilities, but oddly enough, it's Roshi who steals the show.  Not only does he bring a lot of the humor by unintentionally thwarting Yurin's efforts by being the dirty old horndog that he is, but he also gets to shine in the action department.  He no sells Yurin's physical attacks,  bests Tien and holds his own against a base-form Goku when Yurin uses her abilities to brainwash him and turn him against his allies.

Goku does eventually put the old man down with a kamehameha, but he does note that Roshi has been training and seems eager for a rematch later on down the line.  It was nice to see Goku not resort to going into his blue form.  Having Roshi hold his own against Goku really was testament enough to show that he's still in the game.

Yurin swears to keep training so that she can ultimately settle the score, but Tien manages to assuage her (for now anyway) by offering to train her.  It seems holding a grudge is a worthy enough reason to join his elite institution.  To be fair, Tien does point out that her intentions are less than noble, but at least her desire to become better is legitimate.

With the town in ruins, Tien does ultimately agree to join the team so that he can pay for the damages his brainwashed students caused.  Upon hearing about the money, Roshi quickly agrees as well.

Granted, we knew they would, but I'm glad that they kept it to a single "one and done" adventure.  I was figuring this would have been another 2 part episode, and I'm not sure there was enough meat to carry this out for another 23 minutes.

The episode also gives us a brief detour to universe 6, where Cabba continues his efforts to persuade Caulifla to join.  She's initially reluctant, but she too joins after seeing Cabba's super saiyan form and being told that she can become even stronger.

That on it's own is all well and good, I suppose, but the scene is more important in that it confirms my theory that this girl is not the legendary super saiyan.  We do clearly see the girl shown in promotional materials in the crowd.  It's quite possible that Caulifla will become a super saiyan in her own right, but she won't be the first female to hit that particular landmark.

All in all, this was a solid episode.  It moved things along quite quickly and gave us a nice one off villain.  It balanced humor and tension rather nicely and didn't string things along unnecessarily.  It's good to finally have the team assembled.  Now we can focus on continued training and more planning sessions before the tournament finally kicks off.

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'The Defenders' TV Series Trailer Reaction

So, not only did the trailer for the Dark Tower movie drop, but we also got an official trailer for the upcoming "Defenders" series over on Netflix.  While I don't plan to discuss every trailer that comes out, I've been talking about the MCU Netflix shows long enough that I think doing this falls under the previously established content umbrella.  Is it weird to do two trailer reactions in one day? A little, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

Where the Dark Tower wavered between "OK" and "Good", this one was flat out fantastic.  Now, you could try to chalk this response up to the fact that I've been excited for this series for some time.  Thus, the hype and propensity for excitement is greater.  Maybe, but were the other trailer mind-blowing, I'm pretty sure I would have stated it to be such.

As it is, it's funny that the Dark Tower trailer tried to use the tagline "In a world of superheroes, there is only one gunslinger" considering that the superhero trailer ended up being the stronger of the two.

Having "Come As You Are" playing over the whole thing was a nice touch.  It helped tie back to the original teaser and actually worked as a solid accompaniment to what we saw.

It was great to see all of these characters finally start bumping into each other.  Having Matt as Jessica's attorney makes sense, though I thought he would end up representing Luke.  He still might, but that might be pushing it.  

The Luke/Danny dynamic also looks interesting.  I know a lot of people are tired of the "hero vs hero" thing, but given the circumstances we see presented, the two coming to blows is understandable.  Plus, it gives both heroes a crowning moment as Luke decks Danny before Danny responds by channeling his chi and showing how the power of the Iron Fist fares against a...man of power?  Because he's called Power Man on occasion....Anyway, while I don't read the comics, I do know that those two are close friends so it will be interesting to see that develop on screen.

At the very least, Luke's response to Danny's "introduction" is priceless.

Really, the banter all around is pretty strong.  Considering that these shows are meant to be darker, some might find it out of place, but a little levity always helps.  Heck, even the other shows weren't completely devoid of humor, so it might not be as jarring as you would originally think.

There is a lot of "so what do you do?" and "what's the deal with that power?"  From an in-universe in-character perspective, I get it, though I do hope the show doesn't get too bogged down in recapping all of that.

I'm also a little disappointed we don't see Matt don the red armor.  We do see him look at it at least.  I'm guessing his getting back into the vigilante game will be his arc, culminating with him once again becoming the devil of Hell's Kitchen, but it would have been nice to see, regardless.

Some might also roll their eyes at the fact that Stick goes through a very trailer friendly rundown of the team members.  It makes sense in context, and I can understand the logic, but considering both "The Avengers" and "Legends of Tomorrow" used a similar mechanic, it might not be as effective as it was in the past.

Going back to the positives, the action sequences were very impressive.  You'd think that being five shows in, that fight sequences would start to lose their luster.  This was one of the criticisms for "Iron Fist", but this show is really stepping up the game.

We already knew that Stick was going to play a part, what with him delivering the "You think the four of you can save New York?" line, but he gets some good lines in here too.  It'll be interesting to see how he interacts with Danny, given that the two have had a common enemy.

As said before, this was a very enjoyable taste of what's to come.  I'm really looking forward to seeing this series hit Netflix.

















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'The Dark Tower' movie trailer reaction

After being teased yesterday, the first official trailer for "The Dark Tower" hit the internet.  I think a lot of people were curious just how this series was supposed to be adapted.  Even if you were to go with the "movie for each book" approach, that's still a lot of content to cover.  There were also certain plot points that wouldn't translate well to screen.

From the look of the trailer, this is going to be streamlined, which is probably for the best.  I'm not sure how many movies are being planned.  There was talk of doing a TV series to go alongside the movies, but I don't think anything really came of that, at least not yet.

It looks like this movie is going to draw from the first two books.  Considering "Drawing of the Three" is a much stronger entry, that does make sense, as it will hook the viewers right off the bat.  There's no mention of Eddie or Susannah, but again, this is just the first movie.  

As to faithfulness to the source material (which admittedly isn't as relevant as usual considering the approach they took with this movie,) I think the biggest change is the fact that Jake is not only aware of the tower and the multiverse, but seems to take an active role in seeking Roland out.  I suppose it saves the exposition dumps, though at the same time, it did seem like some of the conversations fell into that trap.

It also seems like there are only going to be two worlds, as opposed to an infinite multiverse.  It fits in with the streamlining goal, though I think at this point, people wouldn't have that hard a time grasping the concept.  Even taking that into account, Jake's line about billions of people being killed seems like a gross underestimation of casualties.  Then again, there could only be a handful of inhabited planets (like in Dragon Ball Super) so maybe he's not that far off the mark?

Elba looks like he's going to be a solid Roland.  That's not really a surprise, though.  It was nice to see him rapidly load his gun.  That was a trick that I wasn't sure would translate well to screen, but they did about as good a job with that as you could ask.

On the other side, McConaughey looks like he's having a lot of fun playing the villain.  Some people were skeptical of this casting choice, but I was always on board with it.  That's going to be really entertaining to watch.

It is a bit strange that the trailer is structured in such a way that it looks like this is Jake's story.  I can understand the logic of him being the audience identifier, but it might still raise some eyebrows.

All in all, I thought the trailer was solid.  I wasn't blown away, but it offered a pretty good glimpse into what we'll see without walking us through the entire plot.  It looks like we'll get some impressive confrontations between the two leads and the scope is well established.

We've even got a release date, August 4.  It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

















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