Which in this case is pretty impressive, because it looks really hard. Screenwriters I am absolutely sure look back longingly to the good old days when any continuity from one episode to the next beyond "yeah, Gilligan still shares a tent with the Skipper and there's still seven castaways on the island" would have been a shock to the system. Multiple story arcs of varying lengths overlapping through a full season of episodes, and beyond, ramps up the difficulty really fast.
I remember being blown away when Star Trek: The Next Generation picked up seemingly-forgotten plot threads, such as when Sela appeared, building on the events of "Yesterday's Enterprise" more than a full season later. That was some next-level [stuff].
Finished Iron Fist S2. Really not a lot of substance there. The Netflix end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn't have been the poorer for this to not have been made.
Finished Iron Fist S2. Really not a lot of substance there. The Netflix end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe wouldn't have been the poorer for this to not have been made.
Yeah, I mostly agree. In the end, it was a "soft reboot", but it took its sweet freakin' time getting there. The second half of the season was a big improvement, so anybody thinking about watching it, don't quit after the first 3 or 4 episodes, even though you might want to. That awkward dinner scene in episode 3 made me want to jump out a window. I wouldn't recommend this series to anyone who isn't a hardcore nerd, but I didn't hate it. All of the characters saw tremendous improvements over season 1, and I think the ending sets up an even better season 3, if they get renewed. It also sets up Daughters of the Dragon and/or a version of Heroes for Hire.
If they don't get renewed, they will have wasted two seasons of everyone's time and all the potential for a really cool Iron Fist series. I really don't understand why the writers are so skittish about just making a slam-bang, kung fu action series. I mean, for Christ's sake, it's like they've never read a comic book or watched any Hong Kong action movies; or worse, they did, and they didn't like them. Jessica Henwick at least seemed to be into it. There was one moment in particular, when she was fighting the Crane Sisters, she smiled like Colleen had forgotten how much fun this all is. Something in the way she held her hands reminded me of Bruce Lee.
There was a little detail from the first season of Daredevil that this series has either forgotten or chosen to ignore, which bummed me out a little bit:
Spoiler:
Madame Gao's heroin packets were printed with the logo of the Steel Serpent. A website journalist asked the Daredevil showrunner whether Gao might be Crane Mother, and he could neither confirm nor deny. In the comics, Crane Mother was Steel Serpent's patron, and gave Davos his power after he lost his bid to become the Iron Fist. (In the comics, Kun-Lun is one of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, and each city has its own champion: Iron Fist, Steel Serpent, Fat Cobra, Prince of Orphans, Bride of Nine Spiders, Dog Brother Number 1, and Tiger's Beautiful Daughter, as of The Immortal Iron Fist series.)
The character they name-dropped at the very end is from The Immortal Iron Fist series of 8-10 years ago, and the last scene is an homage to that character.
Spoiler:
In the comics, Orson Randall was a World War I veteran who was the Iron Fist in the 1920s. He could channel his chi through his pistols, as Danny did in that final scene in the bar in Hokkaido. When I saw the corpse that Davos used for his Steel Serpent ritual, I assumed that was Randall, but then the guy in the Japanese bar said he worked for Randall.
If you're curious, the story of "The Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay" is told in The Immortal Iron Fist #7.
There is a Mary Walker in the comics, but she's so different it's basically not the same character. In the comics, Mary is a mutant with dissociative identity disorder. Her alter, "Typhoid Mary", has telekinesis and pyrokinesis, and worked as an assassin for Wilson Fisk, among others. She mostly fought Daredevil. She once attacked Matt Murdock - I don't think she knew he was Daredevil - and he was rescued by Jessica Jones. I don't think she ever fought Iron Fist in the comics. She has a third alter named "Bloody Mary." This was in the Daredevil series by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev from about 15 years ago (which I recommend, fwiw). I'm not sure what's happened with the character since then.
I totally drifted from the X-Men movies, until I saw Logan recently.
Elizabeth "Bitsie" Tulloch has been cast as Lois Lane for the CW's annual crossover mini-series. I've never seen her in anything, but I think she looks the part. She's 37, 5'6" (Tyler Hoechlin is 31, 6'0") and she was in Grimm, which I never watched. Cautiously optimistic.
Captain Marvel Trailer is out. It looks good to me, though I have a tiny concern that Brie Larson might not fit the superhero role. The way she delivers her lines in the trailer seemed a bit flat to me.
I don't know anything about this actress. She seems to have appeared out of nowhere. So I can't say anything about how she fits the role without seeing the movie.
There is a Mary Walker in the comics, but she's so different it's basically not the same character. In the comics, Mary is a mutant with dissociative identity disorder. Her alter, "Typhoid Mary", has telekinesis and pyrokinesis, and worked as an assassin for Wilson Fisk, among others. She mostly fought Daredevil. She once attacked Matt Murdock - I don't think she knew he was Daredevil - and he was rescued by Jessica Jones. I don't think she ever fought Iron Fist in the comics. She has a third alter named "Bloody Mary." This was in the Daredevil series by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev from about 15 years ago (which I recommend, fwiw). I'm not sure what's happened with the character since then.
Captain Marvel Trailer is out. It looks good to me, though I have a tiny concern that Brie Larson might not fit the superhero role. The way she delivers her lines in the trailer seemed a bit flat to me.
I know what you mean. Her voice, just in this trailer, sounds very small to me. otoh, I've questioned about 80% of Marvel's casting decisions, and I think I can count on one hand the times they've fumbled the ball.
I don't know anything about this actress. She seems to have appeared out of nowhere. So I can't say anything about how she fits the role without seeing the movie.
She won an Oscar for Room. Short Term 12 was her breakout role, to my mind, but she's been acting for a long time. I haven't seen her in very much, though. She was in the last King Kong movie, and I don't remember thinking that she was bad, or miscast. Frankly, I don't remember much about that movie, except that I watched it.
I've never read Deadpool or X-Force. I think the first movie was the first time I'd ever seen anything of him.
Season 2 of The Gifted premieres next Tuesday. I read somewhere that it will introduce The Morlocks and The Purifiers, to make the mutant civil war a 'quadrille.' This show is on the gloomier, X-Men end of the street, about people with super-powers rather than about superheroes, if you follow me (Berlanti's CW shows are on the other end, being about superheroes, whether they have powers or not). I probably wouldn't bother recommending it to anyone who isn't already on board with that type of thing, but for the purposes of this thread, I think it's worth giving a go, if you haven't already.
So Disney wants to fill out its streaming service with Marvel series featuring supporting characters. First up, Loki and The Scarlet Witch will each get their own "mini-series." Intriguingly, they've got Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Olsen on board. It's still very early days, so no word on writers or directors or other cast members. Supposedly they want to do as many of these series as they can, so Don Cheadle, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, and Jeremy Renner could each get their own series, if they're interested. I'd love to see Gabriel Luna as Ghostrider again, and they gave us a couple of supporting characters in his appearance on Agents of SHIELD - his little brother and the guy he works for at the garage - almost like they were doing a "back-door pilot." Heck, even if they limit themselves to characters that have already appeared in the MCU, there are probably a ton of interesting possibilities. What about a revival of Agent Carter, or a Howling Commandos show set in Occupied Europe, with Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, J.J. Field, and Kenneth Choi?
It's a little early to start getting hyped for season 3 of Daredevil - I think there's still been no release date announced - but ah, screw it...
The Facebook page that features this poster also says "Job 30:26": When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness. (That's the King James version.)
I know what you mean. Her voice, just in this trailer, sounds very small to me. otoh, I've questioned about 80% of Marvel's casting decisions, and I think I can count on one hand the times they've fumbled the ball.
Oh yeah, Marvel, at least the MCU movies, has earned enough goodwill at this point that I trust what they are doing. I'm going to see it before I cast a final judgement on it. And like you said, Larson has an Oscar and they don't just hand those out to anyone.
A fascinating flock of actresses is circling Birds of Prey. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, and Janelle Monae for Black Canary; Margaret Qualley, Christine Millioti ("USS Callister" in Black Mirror), and Mary Elizabeth Winstead for The Huntress, and Justina Machado and Roberta Colindrez for Renee Montoya. I don't know Qualley or Colindrez, but the rest intrigue me.
Quite the opposite of the magical casting for MCU series and movies, anything with the DC stamp on it is automatically subject to a degree of skepticism from me. Still, I like a lot of these names.
I watched the first ep of the 2nd season of The Gifted, and I could hardly get through it. There's not a lot this Fall that's getting me excited, but it wouldn't take much to draw me away from this show. It's not terrible, it's just... eh. If I wanted to be optimistic, I'd point out that this was kind of a "soft pilot" episode, as they change the show's direction. They move past Polaris' pregnancy very quickly, for example (that birth scene really had me fidgeting and looking at the clock, though, sheesh...).
I looked at my DVR settings on my low budget two channel DVR and saw that even though there are only two recording in the Tuesday at eight time slot right now there will be three once the new season starts for The Flash. So, record the first episode of The Gifted and then make a decision, or acknowledge that The Gifted demonstrated absolutely nothing in season one to indicate it has any shot at all? I killed the recording and can't say I foresee any regrets.
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