Resident Alien (2021) s02e13 – Harry, a Parent

If “Resident Alien” keeps bringing Sarah Podemski back as a regular recurring, she needs to have some kind of name credit. Podemski plays Kayla, one of Sara Tommy’s cousins (or not); regardless, they’re both Native and interested in historical and cultural preservation, which is why Podemski’s important to Meredith Garretson’s new subplot. She and husband Levi Fiehler are at odds over the new resort, and he’s putting his foot down in a macho display, impressing no one.

Podemski figures in late in the episode, after the action moves to Alice Wetterlund’s skiing qualifier. She’s been getting antsy since last episode, taking too many painkillers, and being crappy to new boyfriend Justin Rain. She’s running low on painkillers and wants Alan Tudyk to give her injections at the race. Tudyk doesn’t want to help her, but she threatens not to give him churros, so he agrees.

But before Tudyk can juice Wetterlund before a competition, he and Sara Tomko have to go track down her mother, whose address appears in a first act deus ex machina for that very back-burnered subplot.

Then Elizabeth Bowen’s trying to get Corey Reynolds to stay in small mountain town Colorado and not move back to Washington D.C., even though he hasn’t asked dad Alvin Sanders for permission.

The main plot is Wetterlund’s competition, with Tomko’s parenting arc the main subplot. It ties into Tudyk’s newly revealed backstory subplot, which the episode otherwise ignores—intentionally, Tudyk’s not interested in it, not when he still doesn’t know the identity of the invading aliens. Garretson’s continuing problems with Fiehler (who’s more amusing when he’s unsympathetic, which I’d forgotten) and Reynolds’s moving plans pack the rest of the episode. It’s very full. There are at least two subplots the show’s ignoring this episode.

There’s also a big-name guest star in the opening titles. If you miss the credit, it’s a fantastic surprise; the scene’s set up on at least two layers, to be a surprise, so foreshadowing with the credit’s too bad. But even if you see the credit and are waiting for someone to arrive… it’s still awesome.

Some great acting from Tudyk, Reynolds, and Tomko. Gary Farmer’s got a devastating moment or two. Wetterlund does okay; it’s not an easy part this episode because she’s being self-destructive. Garretson’s better when Fiehler’s being a twerp too.

It’s not what I was expecting—“Alien” introduced a bombshell at the end of the last episode, didn’t do anything with it, and dropped another one here. They’ve got three episodes left, which might be enough to resolve some things, but they’ll have to get moving.

Thank goodness they’ve got the third season renewal already.

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022, Taika Waititi)

Thor: Love and Thunder ends like all Thor movies, promising the next one will—finally—deliver on the promise. The first movie follow-up fumbled when co-star Natalie Portman didn’t rate an Avengers 1 gig, the second movie when Portman didn’t rate an Avengers 2 gig, the third movie had Avengers 3 entirely upend it (with Portman not bothering coming back). Well, she’s back for Love and Thunder and given how she’s got such a lousy arc, it won’t be a surprise if she’s gone for good this time.

Of course, they didn’t stop messing with Chris Hemsworth’s character arc—which now apparently wraps back around to the first movie, only not really—with the latest Avengers. The most recent one sent Hemsworth off with The Guardians of the Galaxy, who barely show up in Love and Thunder. Chris Pratt gets the most lines, but the others seem like they showed up for a couple hours, plus and minus the makeup chair. They’re just around long enough for Hemsworth to head back to Earth, having found himself between Avengers 4 and this one.

Only not really, because when he gets back to Earth, he discovers Portman has the power of Thor. She’s been superheroing it up on Earth; only we don’t see any of it. Once Hemsworth’s back in the movie, Portman’s downgraded to a girlfriend part. Worse, she’s demoted to an ex-girlfriend whose emotional experience isn’t part of the story. And their reuniting arc is all about them getting back together.

Shame she’s only Thor because Hemsworth made his old hammer promise to look after her, which includes after it got broken in Thor 3 and Portman ingloriously got cancer at the beginning of this movie. It’s got to be really hard on the character, whose single bit of character development—besides Kat Dennings coming back for a cameo—is flashbacks to the character’s mom dying of cancer. It doesn’t even rise to middling soap opera; Love and Thunder could give a shit about Portman.

To be entirely fair, it’s unclear what Love and Thunder does give a shit about. Special guest star villain Christian Bale, who starts the movie in an apparent homage to the beginning of Star Trek V, which is a flex, is potentially compelling, but once the film spends any time with him, it’s clear he’s… just as dangerous as Josh Brolin in the Avengers movies. So, why doesn’t Bale get a fourteen-movie arc or whatever.

The film’s very wishy-washy on the Marvel movies’ gods—with Russell Crowe showing up for a Zeus cameo (leading to the film’s most successful moment, as long as you stick around long enough)—but they don’t do jack shit for their worshippers. They like it that way just fine, thank you very much. Bale’s mad his daughter died in a desert while his god had an oasis nearby and didn’t intercede.

Conveniently, Bale then finds the power to kill all the gods in the universe, pretty quickly going after Tessa Thompson and the Asgardians living on Earth. Specifically their children. He kidnaps their children and puts them in a spider cage on an asteroid in a black and white universe.

Kieron L. Dyer plays the lead kid, son of now-dead Idris Elba, who can communicate across the universe with Hemsworth. Given where Love and Thunder ends up, there ought to be an arc for Dyer and Hemsworth. There’s not. There’s barely an arc for Hemsworth and Portman.

Actually, given the end of the movie, it seems like Dyer could’ve been the film’s protagonist or at least jockeying for the spot. He doesn’t. Despite Love and Thunder having a Guns N’ Roses-heavy soundtrack and Dyer being a new, enthusiastic Guns N’ Roses fan, the two things are unconnected.

Director Waititi narrates the film in his role as Hemsworth’s CGI sidekick. The film’s more successful in summary than in scene, which isn’t great.

There are some iffy effects throughout—Waititi’s got these vaguely boring intergalactic settings (not sure who thought black and white universe was the way to go with an outer space fight)—but the finale’s got some fantastic visualizing of a tough Marvel Comics character to visualize realistically.

They get away with it, on Portman and Bale’s professional competency and Hemsworth’s easy charm. And the setup for next time is beyond cloying and trendy; they’ll finally do a great one. Promise.

Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s02e02 – The Way We Were

First things first, “Kevin”’s not grungy, it’s bitchin’, and I’m a dirty bird for worrying otherwise. Secondly, it really feels like they had these first two episodes of the season and picked the wrong place to cut between them. This episode addresses and resolves most of the problems with the first episode. It also gives guest star Jamie Denbo a full arc. One of the show’s first completed arcs; well, arcs not achieved with a fatality.

But this episode’s got the season one follow-up to Annie Murphy and lover Brian Howe. It’s got more with Candice Coke and Mary Hollis Inboden’s relationship. It lets Alex Bonifer be a person separate from Eric Petersen’s sitcom existence. All the things. Including Murphy and Denbo having a subplot involving a shady private investigator played by Tommy Buck. It’s the episode setting up season two.

Murphy’s got a plan—faking her own death to escape now famous Petersen—but can’t tell anyone but Inboden about it. Meanwhile, Bonifer wants to tell Petersen about Murphy trying to kill him, but he’s having flashbacks to his breakthrough to reality, and we have no idea how he’s experiencing those memories, which is one of the show’s nicest flexes this season so far.

Petersen’s plot this episode involves a TV interview about his new “Wild Dude” persona. He needs his cool Red Sox cap so he makes Bonifer his assistant and sends him off to the storage unit.

Murphy’s just found out about the same storage unit, where Petersen’s hidden their valuables after surviving last season’s break-in (and, you know, attempted murder).

The Petersen plot comes into the episode late—which also makes it seem like they just split the first two episodes in the wrong place—and is fairly self-contained, though it does give Murphy some character development away from her regular costars.

There’s some particularly strong acting this episode from Inboden, but also Coke, with their new relationship already navigating some rough patches. It doesn’t help Bonifer’s loitering around the house, plotting against Murphy, but only when he’s not wandering around incoherently.

And, Murphy, of course, is fantastic.

Lots of stressors on everyone. Lots of complicated drama and performances. A fair amount of sitcom observations in how Petersen abuses “best friend” Bonifer, who’s now able to start recognizing it. So good.

I think I just forgot I didn’t have to worry about this show.

My Life Is Murder (2019) s03e01 – It Takes Two

Between “My Life Is Murder” season one and season two, lead Lucy Lawless moved the production from Australia to New Zealand, which meant significant life changes for her character. Her sidekick, Ebony Vagulans, came over to help her out, and the show’s second season had a gentle plot about Lawless moving back home.

And then the overarching mystery became whether Lawless was knocking boots with police department contact Rawiri Jobe, something last season’s finale seemed to answer in the affirmative. But it might be possible they have slumber parties when Vagulans is out of town (she and Lawless are still living together). This episode makes their status no clearer, though they do get some charming sequences together.

Without a hook, “Murder”’s new season feels like another episode of the procedural, same as it ever was. No discernable time has passed; “Murder”’s one of those shows of the early twenties set in an alternate universe without Covid-19.

Or is New Zealand just over it because they took it seriously.

The mystery this episode—besides whether or not Jobe and Lawless are canoodling—involves murdered dance instructor Mikaela Rüegg. Jobe’s supposed to arrest local computer programmer and weird nerd Daniel Musgrove, but he thinks there’s something up with the dance school. Lawless, bringing hunky but also seemingly platonic pal Joseph Naufahu along as her dance partner, discovers the dance students are a high drama lot.

There’s sexy instructor Adam Fiorentino, his star student, Kimberley Crossman, a skeevy married guy, Mike Mongue, and then Fiorentino’s mysterious mom, Jennifer Ward-Lealand. The episode neatly lays out the suspects and paces Lawless’s various discoveries quite well. It’s a tidy mystery, script credit to Malinna Liang.

There are some excellent dance sequences, whether the stars or their doubles and the eventual solution’s both a stretch and not. The episode lays the foundation; it just does it subtly as opposed to everything else.

Lawless is still an excellent lead, Vagulans a fine Watson (who gets very little to do other than hack every computer in Auckland). Musgrove ends up being good, and it’s nice having more Naufahu.

“Murder” might be familiar, but it’s a very sturdy familiar.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e02 – Superhuman Law

This episode runs an incredibly (no pun) brief twenty-two minutes. There are end credits and a mid-credits sequence (which belongs in the episode proper) but also a long re-cap, so twenty-two minutes. Sitcom-length. Only “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” doesn’t feel like a sitcom. It does at times, and it’s definitely a comedy, but it needs space to stretch.

There’s also the on-release versus binging viewing experience. Waiting week after week for truncated episodes—this episode finishes up the pilot responsibilities of last episode and then sets up next episode; if “She-Hulk” was always supposed to be sitcom-length, it’s concerning. But, binging, it’ll probably run great. Depending on how the second half of the season goes.

The pilot wrap-up involves Tatiana Maslany losing her job for saving the jury’s lives as She-Hulk and not being able to find another lawyer gig. She has to put up with shit from her loser cousin Nicholas Cirillo at a family dinner where Mark Linn-Baker plays Maslany’s dad.

Linn-Baker’s a muted stunt cast, with mom Tess Malis Kincaid then not a stunt cast, which is… peculiar. They should’ve done Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt.

Anyway, pretty soon, the rest of the pilot’s over, and Steve Coulter offers Maslany a job so the show can fulfill its title.

Coulter doesn’t want human Maslany working for him; he wants She-Hulk Maslany working for him. While Maslany does get to bring sidekick Ginger Gonzaga along (who has zero character so far, another side effect of the sitcom-length), the other deal-breaker is her first case: she needs to defend Tim Roth. Roth’s been in prison since the first Incredible Hulk movie (the only Incredible Hulk movie) fourteen years ago. It’s nice to see Roth get to have fun in the role since he didn’t in the movie so much.

Maslany doesn’t want to represent Roth because he tried to kill her cousin in that movie, back when he was Edward Norton. Mark Ruffalo has a brief scene explaining he doesn’t care about the Incredible Hulk movie, it’s Universal, anyway, and he was a different person back then—the first time the MCU has acknowledged the recasting. Though wouldn’t Ed Norton just be a variant? #BringBackEdwardNortonYouCowards

Anyway.

It’s a good episode, Maslany continues to be great and just what the MCU needed in 2012, but damn, it’s too short.

Resident Alien (2021) s02e12 – The Alien Within

“Resident Alien” takes a big turn this episode. No spoilers, but it will make some casting interesting down the line. I also don’t know if it’s original to the show or from the comic book; I never made it “this far” into the comic, though I got pretty far, so it’d be towards the end of the series.

And there are only four more episodes left, so it would appear the initial “Resident Alien” arc is wrapping up. They’re renewed for a third season, but they didn’t have it when they plotted out this season. Or maybe even filmed it.

In other words, we’re in an endgame.

There are some context-free hints throughout the episode, preparing for the big finale reveal. They’re hints at something else, teases of something else. The big switcheroo at the end changes everything about the show for everyone, characters and viewers alike. It’s a big swing, one they can hopefully pull off.

It also comes after a hilarious Alan Tudyk and Sara Tomko scene where he’s trying to explain his personal texting abbreviations to her, which gives a wonderful glimpse at their virtual friendship.

The episode’s got a “hometown” theme for everyone but Tudyk as mayor Levi Fiehler unveils his proposed resort to the citizenry. There’s not much enthusiasm, particularly from Tomko and Alice Wetterlund, who heckle him during the presentation. It takes until the end of the episode to figure out why, when Tomko and Wetterlund organize a Halloween girl’s night out for the regular and regular guest-starring female cast.

It’s a nice character development subplot.

Tudyk spends the episode trying to find the alien baby, teaming up with nemesis Gracelyn Awad Rinke for a hilarious buddy action subplot. Rinke’s smarter than Tudyk in all the crucial ways; she knows it too and frequently reminds him of his failings.

Meanwhile, Judah Prehn actually finds the missing alien baby. He has to reason with it while parents Fiehler and Meredith Garretson try to convince everyone their Sonny and Cher couples’ costumes are cool.

Then “[People] in Black” Alex Barima and Linda Hamilton are up to no good. It’s a well-balanced, packed episode with lots of subplot and main plot development, with some character stuff filtered in.

For example, Corey Reynolds is not in the main plot, but he’s got at least three great scenes in the episode, two of which have character work. One of them is just hilarious.

It’s an outstanding episode, especially given the massive twist.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) s01e01 – A Normal Amount of Rage

It’s too bad the special effects weren’t affordable in 2013 because “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” seems like it could’ve changed the outcome of the early Marvel Studios TV offerings if they’d been able to make it happen. The show’s fun, easy, and accessible, with lead Tatiana Maslany providing just the right combination of snark and exasperation as she finds herself stuck in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The show adopts the comic’s fourth wall breaking, which—it immediately shows—should’ve long been a standard in superhero movies and TV. The episode starts with Maslany doing boring lawyer stuff with her able assistant Ginger Gonzaga and the shitty white male second chair, Drew Matthews. Gonzaga comments about She-Hulk, leading to Maslany breaking the wall and giving us the flashback origin.

Maslany is Mark Ruffalo’s cousin, which will explain why they share the strange genetic mutation (get it, mutation, get it) to allow them to turn gramma radiation overdoses into golly green giants and not disintegrate into flesh soup. It’s important because, after an unexpected alien spaceship crashes into them while they’re on a bonding car trip, Maslany gets exposed to Ruffalo’s blood and immediately hulks out.

The comic origin involves mobsters. The show’s origin has Ruffalo trying to mansplain Hulking to Maslany in a tropical paradise and getting shown up, scene after scene, to comic effect. Sometimes with action-comedy, special effects set pieces.

The special effects on Ruffalo Hulk are really impressive. Unfortunately, the special effects on Maslany She-Hulk aren’t. She-Hulk isn’t running any scenes yet, but hopefully, they get better. I’m assuming they won’t. At least, not for a few years until Disney+ updates them on the sly.

There’s a lot of humor, including making Brodie Bruce jokes about a particularly well-butted superhero friend of Ruffalo. Ruffalo’s quite good this time out; he’s doing an Uncle Hulk thing, the latest Dad Avenger, but they give him post-Avengers: Endgame material. Timeline-wise, he’s finally getting his hand healed after his Snap.

Good direction from Kat Coiro. Maslany’s a delightful lead. “She-Hulk” sure seems like it ought to be swell, though this episode doesn’t give away anything about the subsequent series. It’s very much an origin story pilot episode.

But, again, sure seems like they’ve got this one figured out.

Kevin Can F**k Himself (2021) s02e01 – Mrs. McRoberts Is Dead

“Kevin Can F’’k Himself” picks up right where the show played chicken with renewal at the end of last season. Dopey sitcom sidekick Alex Bonifer discovered his sister, Mary Hollis Inboden, and his best friend’s wife, Annie Murphy, were planning on killing his best bro. So he broke character and tried strangling Murphy; Inboden smacked him down, pulling Bonifer into the “real” world.

This episode’s primarily about what to do with Bonifer, who at the very least plans on telling best pal Eric Petersen what he heard. Simultaneously, Petersen and his dad, Brian Howe, are planning Petersen’s political career. It starts with a city council appointment, but after Howe gets the idea for some public access commercials, who knows what could happen. Especially as Murphy gets involved, trying to keep Petersen from any chance at office.

Having Bonifer tied up in the basement while plotting, Inboden slowly decides she can’t trust Murphy to consider her considerations enough, not with Bonifer a potential witness. Plus, Bonifer’s (sometimes unintentionally) working on his captors. He tries to convince Inboden she can’t trust Murphy, but then with Murphy, they have some frank discussions about Petersen’s character and behavior.

Since they’re estranged—Murphy interfering with Petersen’s political plot, which is often way funnier with bad jokes than it ought to be—Murphy and Inboden have time for subplots with other people. Inboden’s got cop girlfriend Candice Coke hanging around, and Murphy falls back to hanging out with Jamie Denbo’s depressed, devastated housewife.

As a season premiere, the episode’s okay but little more. Anne Dokoza’s direction’s excellent, and the acting’s great, but it’s muddled overall. It hints at season two plot lines—they’re done after this one, which means someday “Kevin” will be a sixteen-episode marathon without a significant break. But there’s nothing concrete. This episode’s plot lines get things set for later, without establishing later.

The Bonifer resolution is incredibly underwhelming after all the build-up last season.

Hopefully it’s just an uneasy restart and nothing significant; the acting’s fantastic from Murphy, Inboden, and Petersen, so it’s still fine. But I’d assumed they knew what they were doing with last season’s cliffhanger; it appears maybe not so much, which isn’t unconcerning, but also it’s just the first episode back, so uneasy restart. Hopefully. I love this show and don’t want to lose it.

The Prometheite (2022)

Prometheite

The Prometheite is a spiritual remake of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. It’s not an adaptation or even a reimagining. Creator Ari S. Mulch breaks apart pieces of the novel and general Frankenstein pop culture lore, examines and considers them, then reconfigures some for use, some for discarding. So The Prometheite is entirely its own piece, albeit wholly dependent on Big Frank.

Mulch also adapts the original novel’s narrative layers, duplicating most of Shelley’s original layer shifts. Violet to “The Creature” to Violet to “Creature” to Violet to “The Creature.” I mean, there’s no sea captain, but the moves are all very beautifully executed. Mulch figures out a new way to present them, mixing text and image to create visual pacing in the way only comics can.

Violet is the Frankenstein (Victor to Violet, but not Frankenstein) analog. She’s an anatomy student surrounded by dumb, sexist men who escaped to university after convincing her parents trying to marry her off wasn’t worth the trouble. Not long after arriving, Violet’s pal, Henry Clerval, introduces Violet to his sister, Aveline. Aveline and Violet form a fast, deep friendship, while Violet immediately develops deeper, socially impossible feelings for Aveline.

The courtship scenes, which include a very tense poetry reading from Aveline, are where Mulch immediately distinguishes Prometheite. Frankenstein is unromantic. When Victor resurrects Elizabeth, he’s not bringing back his love interest; he’s bringing back his possession. Regardless of mature devotion, Victor grew up thinking Elizabeth belonged to him.

And we never see the Victor and Elizabeth courtship. Not even in the movies, really; because he’s marrying his little sister.

Anyway.

Violet is not interested in marrying her parents’ ward, she’s interested in Aveline, and just when it appears Aveline’s ready to act on her mutual feelings… she falls seriously ill. And her parents won’t let Violet visit her.

Aveline’s death scene turns out to be Mulch’s next great sequence. Prometheite’s about a hundred pages, and sometimes Mulch will spend beau coup pages on a scene. Four to six pages, building tension, focusing on some character detail. It’s often exquisite.

The tragic romance overshadows the next bit, where a grieving Violet discovers she has the means and will to attempt to resurrect Aveline. There are a lot of unanswered questions about Violet’s medical science, even for a Frankenstein. I think Frankenweenie gets more into the details.

Suffice it to say, the experiment’s a success and Aveline’s resurrection. She just happens to have some stitches she can never have out, and she’s not allowed to leave the house. Ever.

At this point in Prometheite, the comic entirely diverges from Frankenstein for a long while. Except in how Mulch tells the story, which quickly shifts to Aveline’s perspective, just like the Creature narrating in Big Frank. Everything’s such a change—it’s a macabre romance, with Aveline worrying about rotting and Violet getting madder about her science.

The action builds to a major confrontation, probably the act two break, and then it’s back to Frankenstein for the finish. However, when it turns out Mulch is going to do a repeated Frankenstein nod for the ending, it’s a surprise. Prometheite had gotten out on its own so much it didn’t seem like Mulch would bring it back.

The ending works. It’s a devastating, depressing love story.

Mulch’s art is good. Lots of great work on expressions; Prometheite is lots of talking heads and reaction shots.

The comic gets more impressive the more you think about it. It’s a good, engaging read, but backtracking through Mulch’s plotting and pacing, The Prometheite reveals itself quite superior.

Resident Alien (2021) s02e11 – The Weight

Besides one to two songs too many—seriously, “Resident Alien,” but your composer to work—the show’s entirely back on track after last episode. There are some considerable plot developments, but everything’s through a character development lens. The show does continue to adjust plot trajectories, however, as sheriff’s deputy Elizabeth Bowen takes it on herself to figure out what’s going on with the (now dead) hit men come to town.

Her boss, Corey Reynolds, and the neighboring town’s detective, Nicola Correia-Damude, are also on the case, but they’re a little too busy making eyes at each other. Early in the episode, Bowen puts her foot down about her work not being recognized, which changes the dynamic from how last episode left things. It also helps making Correia-Damude and Reynolds’s flirting likable. Reynolds is occasionally played entirely for a boob, and while he’s great at it, it doesn’t seem to endear him to Correia-Damude. This episode works at making him endearing to her and vice versa.

So it’s up to Bowen to actually get to the bottom of things, bringing in Sara Tomko to help. Tomko’s got extra time on her hands because she’s not hanging out with Alan Tudyk since discovering he tried to mind wipe her memory of killing a bad guy to save Tudyk. Tomko’s got a fantastic arc this episode, involving an old friend who knows nothing about her secrets, Bowen, an old friend who knows some of the secrets but not the alien one, Alice Wetterlund, and the dad who knows it all, Gary Farmer. It’s lovely, with some great work from Tomko and Farmer.

Wetterlund then also gets her own character development arc. As she makes life changes for her (offscreen) boyfriend, it turns out she might not have gotten the skiing bug entirely out of her system.

Meanwhile, Tudyk’s got a combination comedy and character development arc with kid Judah Prehn. Prehn and best friend Gracelyn Awad Rinke have a big secret: Rinke’s fostering the alien baby, now in human form, played by Kesler Talbot. Tudyk’s looking for the baby and enlists Prehn’s aid. It’s a funny arc, which also ties into Prehn’s parents, Levi Fiedler and Meredith Garretson, and their arc.

Not a lot for Rinke to do this episode, but fantastic when she gets material. Also outstanding are Diana Bang and Jenna Lamia, who both get a spotlight scene.

The script’s credited to Zach Cannon, his first writing credit on the show. It’s a really good script. Nice direction from Warren P. Sonoda. Some great Tudyk scenes, too, obviously. The episode’s exceptionally well-balanced.

Just got two or three too many bland country pop songs in it.