'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 1: 'The Fury of Iron Fist'

 

It's finally time to dive into the next chapter of the MCU.  We come to the second season of a show spotlighting one of the MCU's most revered heroes, both in and out of universe, the immortal Iron Fist.  That's right, fan-favorite Danny Rand is back.

Honestly, I didn't hate the first season as much as everyone else did.  Still, you can see an uptick in quality just in this episode alone.  Danny is written well here.  A lot of emphasis is put on his easy-going and personable demeanor, which was always one of his stronger attributes.

It works especially well with his scenes with Colleen.  Given the focus that their relationship has in the episode, it's definitely an asset. 

Speaking of Colleen, it seems she's retiring from crime fighting.  Danny, for his part, encourages her to jump back into the fray and fight alongside him again, but after what happened to Misty, she'd rather help people in other ways.  It's not really a surprise that she ends up partaking in the episode's climactic fight, though she seems disappointed about it rather than reinvigorated, so we'll see if she gets pulled back in or if that was just a one-off.

I do have to give credit to the mooks this episode.  Usually, they're just beat down fodder, but they actually hold their own pretty well all things considered. 

It was a little amusing that this episode sets up the idea of Danny attempting to stop a gang war.  That was literally the plot of the last show (that Danny himself had appeared in no less).  I guess you need something that can hold a candle to the Hand, but still.

On that note, the Hand is directly reference as having a....hand in what's happening now.  In another parallel to "Luke Cage", Danny surmises that the Hand was keeping the city's other gangs in check (much like Mariah.)  With them gone, it's created a power vacuum with multiple groups vying for new power and influence.  You have to wonder if Danny will call Luke in to help broker a treaty as he did once he acquired Mariah's club.   It would be strange if his newfound position wasn't at least mentioned in some capacity.

To the show's credit, it does seem like other factors besides just another gang war will come into play.  Joy Meachum and Davos return and begin to set a plan in motion to get what they believe is to be their retribution.  It's been a long time since I saw the show's first season, so I couldn't really remember off the top of my head why Joy had beef.  I didn't remember Davos' name at first, but I did at least remember his general jist.

He already resented Danny before, but the fall of K'un L'un did not help things...at all.  Even the fact that Danny destroyed (or at least helped destroy) the Chaste's nemesis does little to convince Davos that Danny is the rightful bearer of the fist.

Joy, for her part, does waver a bit when Danny is genuinely kind and supportive of her in one of the episode's early scenes. She still commits to the revenge plan, but it is another example of how much better Danny is used here than he has been in the past.

All in all, this was a solid start.  The episode was well paced, the character moments worked, and there was enough solid action to satisfy viewers on that front as well.  We'll see if the show can use the momentum to its advantage.

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'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 4, Episode 15: 'Terms of Service'

 

The season reaches its penultimate episode and Neron begins to make his power play.  Interestingly, it isn't Earth so much that he's interested in.  No, he plans to take over hell.  Admittedly, he does this by taking human souls, so its splitting hairs, but still.

He intends to do so by revealing the existence of magical creatures to create fear and prompt people to download an app where surrendering their soul is included in the fine print of the terms of service. I do have to wonder how effective this would be in the Arrowverse.  First of all, the skepticism seemed arbitrary given what this world has already seen, and wouldn't the array of heroes be a factor in keeping people safe? 

Also, the plan loses points for being the same one Morgaine LeFaye used on "Runaways".  Heck, even the "no one reads the terms of service" joke was already done elsewhere. 

To the episode's credit though, that does become something of a theme as characters end up taking bargains that end up biting them due to technicalities.

John Constantine, of all people, falls victim to this when he makes a deal with the lords of Hell to retrieve Ray's soul.  They manage to turn the tables on him not once, but twice.  It does help make up for the fact that, as much was made about how so many demons would be gunning for John's head, we only see a couple make any sort of attempt to exact revenge.  Hell (ba dum tish,) one of the demons actually seems to be on friendly terms with John.

More impressive, though, is the fairy godmother's manipulation of Nora.  While Tabitha does still swear loyalty to Neron, she does go out of her way to help Nora on several occasions.  She says it is because she feels a kinship.  The two do have some similarities in background.  It appeared to give the godmother a bit more layers.  You'd think that the reveal that the whole thing was a con would be a disappointing step backwards, but it was brilliantly done.

Gary was an interesting wild card.  He is in better spirits, but he still longs to be accepted by the group.  Thus, he uses the fairy godmother to cast wishes that would help enable that goal.  Tabitha, of course, wants him to be more vengeful, but that just isn't Gary.  He even lets the heroes know this outright. He does still repeatedly screw things up for the team, but in his defense, there's no way he could have known about certain goings on so a lot of it comes off as more accidental.   In some instances, he even legitimately means well.  Him sending Nora to hell is met with her calling him a dick, but he did explicitly say that his intent was for her to help John retrieve Ray.  

While the Legends' initial attempts to placate him come off as forced, they do seem to make the effort to be nicer to him.  I did find it odd that nobody tried to play the inspirational hero speech card during the whole ordeal, though.  Sara kinda does it late in the episode, but I'd think that trying to play that sooner might have gotten some results.  It might not have, but you'd think they would have tried.

Overall, this episode was OK.  It had some good gags and there was decent character progression on more than a few fronts as well as a few twists here and there.  It should make for an interesting season finale.

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'Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero' Movie Review

 

I missed out on seeing the first two "Dragon Ball Z" movies in theaters due to financial woes; still haven't seen them now that I mention it.  When "Broly" hit, things were better on the fiscal front, but the release was limited and wasn't showing at my local theater.  Thus, I had to wait for it to arrive on DVD to be able to watch it. Finally, comes "Super Hero" the latest entry in the "Dragon Ball Super" franchise.  With a stronger fiscal position, a wider release, and an appropriate work schedule, I resolved to see this one in theaters.

I'm glad I did, as I enjoyed the film a lot. It manages to bring a healthy dose of lighthearted humor, character growth, and big action to the table.  There are times where Dragon Ball has gone too far into "gag" humor territory and it ended up being detrimental, but the humor here is more character and dialogue driven.  It's more effective and allows the humor to exist without undercutting the imposing threat.

I know that one of the big concerns was the new animation style.  This one went almost fully CG and the initial response wasn't positive.  There are a few jarring bits here and there, but honestly, you don't even notice it after a while.  The opening credits sequence where we're following Magenta's car as he goes to approach Dr. Hedo, as well as the appearances of Goku and Vegeta, are really the only bits where the animation takes you out of the movie.

Speaking of Magenta and Dr. Hedo, they act as the antagonists of the film.  Magenta, being the son of an adversary that Goku faced in his youth, has rebuilt an empire in secret and is intent on enacting a plan to get revenge and take over the world.  As such, he recruits Dr. Hedo, who is also the descendant of a prior Goku enemy.  

The two actually form a unique dynamic.  Magenta carries himself like a crime boss and his negotiation with Hedo is an early highlight for the film.  Both parties plan on exploiting the other for their own purposes, both know that the other is trying to use them, and an alliance of sorts still manages to be formed anyway.

Of course, "villain" doesn't exactly apply to Dr. Hedo.  He's not good, but he does have a genuine love for superheroes and when Magenta tasks him with building super-bots capable of taking on our heroes, he naturally creates them with hero personas.  This may seem paradoxical, but Hedo (and thus, the androids, called "Gammas") are under the impression that Goku and the gang are enemies of Earth.

There was some amusing propaganda at play, and Magenta does use Goku's extra-terrestrial origins to his advantage.  It was a little surprising to see Hedo react with shock at the idea of aliens.  Wasn't Vegeta and Nappa's "invasion" public knowledge?  I guess he's just out of the loop.

In any event, the Gammas themselves are quite memorable.  I would have liked to see more of them in all honesty.  While they are the "enemy" for the first portion of the film, you can tell that they are heroes.  They're aghast at the idea of harming a child and don't hesitate to come to the Z-fighters' aid when the "final boss" of the film is released.  

This film really allowed the secondary characters to shine.  Not only does Piccolo take center stage (and do a great job of it) but characters who had been sidelined for years actually get to jump into the fray.  Even Krillin contributes in meaningful ways.  I'm a big fan of Goku and Vegeta but having them step into the background for a bit actually worked wonders.  

As is expected of "Dragon Ball" the final fight is something to behold.  In a lot of ways, I think it was better than the Broly fight.  Not in terms of animation, in that regard, Broly wins, but this upped the ante by having multiple fighters working in unison.  It also avoided the burnout that the Broly showdown caused by injecting bits of humor and character progression to keep things from getting one note. 

The film is chock full of call backs. They're a lot more subtle than some of the ones we saw in the main anime, which was welcome.  If you're a longtime fan, there are all kinds of nods and allusions to earlier material.  Oddly enough, no mention of Gohan's stint as the great Saiyaman.  You'd think that when Gamma 1 alluded to himself as a genuine superhero that Gohan would have at least invoked that as a way to clear things up.

Even so, both Gohan and Piccolo do a good job of attempting to diplomatically deal with the Gammas as the fight progresses.

The soundtrack is OK.  The main theme fits the "hero" thing, and it works in the scenes where it is used but compared to some of the tracks we heard in both "Broly" and the main anime, it can feel a little lackluster.  

The movie did leave me wanting more.  You could see that as a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it.  As I said, would have liked to see more of the Gammas, or more of the two antagonists scheming against each other.  Having Tien, Yamcha, and 17 also show up for the final fight would have been cool, but I guess that's more actors and more animation.  Bulma did say that she got everyone on Earth, does that mean that they're in space?  Is that the next movie?  I guess the implication is that she only had so much time or couldn't track down everybody, but I kind of like my idea better.

All in all, though, I really had a lot of fun with this.  I recommend it.  Oh, and stay through the credits, there is a stinger that is worth watching as well.

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'Luke Cage' Season 2, Episode 13: 'They Reminisce Over You'

 

The season, and alas, the series comes to an end.  On the plus side, it ends on a high note, delivering an entertaining and compelling conclusion to the proceedings.

At first, I thought that the episode would focus on the trial of Mariah, but that was only the beginning.  She does get to deliver a good speech about the role that she plays in Harlem when trying to get the judge to reconsider bail at her arraignment.  It turns out that she was Harlem's "Guild of Calamitous Intent", bringing a sort of order to the city's crime element.  She even makes a subtle nod to "A Few Good Men" in the process. Sure enough, with her gone, things do start to get crazier and more violent, as various gangs try to swoop in on the now open turf.

Admittedly, this assertion is somewhat undercut by the fact that she herself was starting to break the "rules" of the "game", but it did make for some fascinating plot development.

While Mariah spends the rest of the episode in prison (awaiting her trial), she still plays a pretty significant role in the plot.  She not only mirrors Fisk in asserting her dominance in the prison, but also shows herself to be a power player by having her own people taken out, lest they follow in Shades' footsteps and turn snitch.  

A lot of the episode's highlights feature Mariah in some capacity.  She has some great scenes with Shades, Tilda, and even Luke.  

Luke's arc here is...weird.  They really want to sell the idea that Luke now has to become the thing he hates, but I don't really buy it.  Even with Mariah leaving him the club, everybody acts like he has to become a gangster. DW abandons him and tells him to take his superhero activity elsewhere. Mariah herself clearly states that her intent in doing this is to draw him to the dark side, as it were.  

The thing is, though, he could make it a legitimate business, and the fact that he removed the Biggie poster and replaced it with something else does show that he intends to change things.  

Yes, the episode also shows him meeting with a mafia don to "broker a deal", but even that "deal" was more of a "this territory is under my protection, stay the hell out" than it was anything crime related.  I mean, the Doctor tells enemy aliens that all the time.

Sure enough, when Misty confronts him, Luke does say that crime is on the decline and that he is in the process of steering things in the right direction.  He even tells Misty that he's counting on her to keep him honest in his goings on here.  That doesn't really sound like somebody who is turning heel.  Nevertheless, that "Godfather" nod was a nice touch.

Overall, this was a solid ending.  It managed to balance action, drama, character, and even threw in a few bits of humor in there for good measure.  That's what you like to see; not just from a finale, but from any episode in general.

It's kind of a shame that the show didn't get a third season as there were plenty of seeds planted for another arc.  Who knows, maybe Luke will make a return to the MCU.  It does seem like Disney is working to better integrate the earlier shows into the bigger picture, but we'll see how things play out.

For now, though, it's kind of good to check another show off the list.  Up next, the second season of everybody's favorite hero, Iron Fist.

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'Luke Cage' Season 2, Episode 12: 'Can't Front On Me'

 

We come to the series' penultimate episode.  You'd think that things would be ramping up, but the episode is surprisingly slow.  

Some of it is justified.  Luke, for example, is torn as he doesn't know which horse to back.  Both Bushmaster and Mariah present their own threats to Harlem.  He considers just sitting it out, but that doesn't end up being an option.  Even if Mariah didn't throw the big free concert to bring in potential collateral damage from her showdown with Bushmaster, I have a hard time buying that he'd just let him kill her.

Heck, Mariah herself directly says as much when the two have a brief palaver early in the episode.  It's one of the episode's stronger scenes.  There's mutual disdain, but Mariah also gets chances to taunt her adversary and even toss him a measure of respect, though he doesn't really care for it.

He does briefly team up with Bushmaster to take down one of Mariah's drug lairs.  The show had teased the idea of the two being "brethren" more than once, so this was a good way to pay that off.  It was a good action beat.  I actually thought it popped more than the Luke/Danny raid.  The choreography was more impressive, and Bushmaster was something of a wild card.  He hits Luke once (though it seems to be more of Bushmaster acting on impulse) and Luke has to stop more than once to keep Bushmaster from killing their opponents.  

A lot of the episode is devoted to Shades offering his confession to Misty.  It's mostly recalling events from the show.  You can see it as a nice refresher, or as padding.  Credit where it's due, though, Theo Rossi does a great job with it.  The big poop eating grin he has as he's talking about what he did at various points is pretty priceless.  We also see how much Mariah's actions affected him, as all that goes away when he talks about what happened at the restaurant.

Things do converge in the episode's final half, as everybody convenes at Harlem's Paradise, each with their own goals and objectives.  It was here where the episode picked up and really saved itself.  Misty brings Shades there so that he can acquire her gun to be used as evidence, Bushmaster goes to finally take out Mariah after being spurred by Tilda, and Luke goes to keep people from getting hurt.

With an amped up does of Nightshade, Bushmaster is able to regain some of his physical menace that he had before.  I thought that the show provided a good enough reason not to have Danny participate in any attack on the gangster, but seeing Bushmaster here, yeah, the Iron Fist would have come in handy.  Despite this, the final "Bushmaster vs. Everybody" brawl was a lot of fun.  It was exciting, tense, and memorable.  It really delivered as far as climaxes go.

The whole "will Luke kill Bushmaster" thing was a weak element, though.  Why didn't he just put the guy in a sleeper hold or knock him out?  Just letting him go was pretty dumb.  It does leave something for the final episode to address, but the point still stands.

The closing bit with Mariah getting arrested was pretty cathartic.  She's convinced that it won't stick, and Luke isn't sold either, but for now, it was satisfying to see.  I did also smirk a bit when she referred to herself as a "millionaire philanthropist".  It's pure coincidence in universe, but that is one of Tony Stark's more memorable lines, so I have to think that the writers did that on purpose.

Compared to prior episodes, this is a bit of a step down.  Once it kicked into gear, though, it managed to deliver some solid entertainment.  

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'Luke Cage' Season 2, Episode 11: 'The Creator'

 

In the aftermath of Mariah's retaliatory strike against Bushmaster's family, it is discovered that there was a survivor.  

While there is a window of time where Mariah is unaware, it is short lived as Karen Page gets wind of it and makes it public knowledge.  What's funny is she doesn't even appear in the episode.  On the one hand, the continuity nod is nice, but you really have to wonder what she was thinking.  

Sure enough, Shades is dispatched to tie up that loose end. While the last episode strongly implied Shades being shaken by the attack, this episode makes it quite clear that he was not OK with what happened there.  It's to the point where he can't even bring himself to pull the trigger when he does finally find her and have her dead to rights.

He's one of several characters who point out to Mariah that she is breaking the "rules" of street crime. In addition to the ruthless attack, her newfound desire to start trafficking heroin into Harlem is called out both by another drug dealer and by hallucinations of Mariah's grandmother and granduncle, who like Don Corleone, vehemently opposed drug dealing being a part of their operation.  It's a little jarring, as a couple of episodes ago, she was building a free clinic; now she wants to bring in heroin.  

It's a pretty drastic turnaround, but it does seem like Mariah is losing her marbles.  Even the aforementioned hallucinations make a point to say that she's working through some issues.   

Alfre Woodard continues her performance streak here.  Her scenes make for some of the episode's standout moments.  Her final confrontation with Shades is especially memorable.  Not only is that scene a highlight in and of itself, but it leads to another shocking bit where he willingly turns himself in to police custody if it means helping take Mariah down.  The other underling who walked also goes to Luke with a similar pitch.  It seems like everybody has Mariah in their sights now.

Ironically enough, Bushmaster doesn't.  He is still recovering and when you see him, you can tell that he was in no shape to take on the Heroes for Hire.  It's a close call, but more Nightshade manages to do the trick, though Tilda does tell him that the process damaged his organs and he's living on borrowed time.  

This, coupled with seeing the wreckage at the restaurant is enough to convince him to just walk away.  He does have a solid scene with Luke, where he genuinely thanks Harlem's hero for keeping his aunt safe and the two discuss ideologies. The repeated comparisons between the two were a little on the nose, but Bushmaster does once again state that the two could have been close under different circumstances.  After Jessica Jones and Punisher did the whole hero-villain similarity thing back-to-back, I guess doing it a third time in a row was a bit of a stretch.  

The episode also features some flashbacks that detail Bushmaster's origins.  A lot of it is just showing us things we were told, but it flowed well.  It was interesting seeing the previous Stokes family in action and we do get a brief cameo from Cornell.  It didn't take up the whole episode, but it added a little bit of extra flavor to the proceedings.

  This was a very solid episode.  There were plenty of great character moments and instances of progression.  The status quo was shaken up on several fronts and it does seem like things are reaching the endgame.  I'm guessing the next episode will be the final confrontation with the finale acting as a denouement, but I'll just have to watch and find out.

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'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 4, Episode 14: 'Nip/Stuck'

 

As the show is wont to do, this episode juggles several subplots.  It's a hit or miss approach, but it works here.  While having episodes with a focus on one central plot is nice, I don't think any of the plots here really warrant a full episode.  

The closest would probably be Constantine's plot.  It probably gets the most focus, but I think it had just the right amount of time.  I'm not sure what else you could have done to extend that if the goal was to create a more focused episode.  It does give Constantine a clear arc, as he realizes that he's not quite the bloody bastard he always said he was. 

His identical ancestor on the other hand...not so much.  To be fair, you can't fault him for thinking that John had some nefarious intent.  An identical stranger comes out of nowhere and invites you to combat an evil force, you can see where King Konstantyn might get the wrong idea.  It isn't much of a redeeming factor, given how he operates, but it is something of a bone.

The attempted coup of the time bureau could have had potential to do more, but it is largely relegated to the backburner.  It would have been harder to keep the reveal about the nature of Gary's new demeanor a secret. 

Oddly enough, the reasoning is surprisingly superficial.  Neron having the resources of the bureau at his disposal could have been a serious thing, but it's strongly implied that the maneuver was just a way to keep them from pulling the other Legends from their predicament.

To his credit, though, Neron does a great job of playing the team and getting them to do just what he wants in order to achieve his desired goal.  To wit, he is able to retrieve Tabitha, who is revealed to be the fairy godmother from earlier in the season.  We thought her refusal to help John was due to fear of confronting a much bigger fish, but it turns out that she and Neron are....quite close.

It's an unorthodox, but still interesting alliance.  What their plans are now remains to be seen, though Gary still seems to be with them.  Sure, his demonic nipple is removed, but it seems like he's still on board with team Neron given how things wrapped up.  

The third and final sub-plot centers on the remaining Legends trapping themselves under ice after a botched attempt to take out Neron with the ship's weapons.  Sara does start to pick up on the idea that something is amiss with their situation, but the impulsive Mick gives the order to fire; and thus, the team is trapped under hundreds of feet of ice with no apparent means of escape.

It's uneventful, but it does provide a healthy dose of character development to make up for it.  Sara and Mick have a falling out that seems out of left field at first, but actually does make sense.  Both are right in their criticisms of the other.  The writers never directly depicted it before, but it does seem like these issues have been lurking under the surface for some time.

It does lead to some introspection, as well as reminiscing.  It is weird to think that Mick and Sara are the last of the original legends.  Similar thing happened on "Grey's Anatomy".  It's a weird trend in longer running shows.  

The events do reinforce the bond between the characters (both the pair and the team as a whole) and affirms their status as a family. 

Overall, this was a pretty well-balanced episode.  It had some humor, but it didn't go over the top.  There were stakes, as well as character and plot progression, and it did set things up as we move closer to the end of the season.  

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