A Couple of MCU Re-Reviews From 2021

One of the most common themes running through our re-watching of old films has been the comment, 'I don't/didn't remember that.'  That might have more to do with not having seen whatever film we were watching for 30 years, but it's increasingly becoming more common with films less than five years old. I came up with a theory for that - other than our advancing years - while watching the second of the two films up for review. It's the sense of expectation, especially with the Marvel Cinematic Universe films; I am expecting to be thoroughly entertained and blown away by yet another Marvel MCU Winner. Or to phrase it better, my expectations aren't met because I don't really know what I expected. Therefore on second viewing I'm watching it from the point of view where I've seen it, I know what happens (vaguely) therefore I'm watching without any sense of expectation, I'm watching it simply as a film. It has surprising results with critiques.

We decided, at the wife's request, to rewatch Black Widow the other night and it turned out to be a pretty decent film, far better than my original review suggested. It had a story, that was contextualised well; it answered some unanswered questions and was pretty much an action movie from the word go. It's pacing is what makes it a film worthy of grouping with the Captain America films and much of the first couple of phases of the MCU. In fact, had this film been released in, say, 2016 it would have been a blockbuster. 

There's a little too much of the jokey Russians and it underplays the utter horror of the abuse that young Black Widows endured just so that the villain - played badly by Ray Winstone - could get his kicks. It's also a little contrived, but that fits with the story and the timeline quite well and rounds off a circle quite nicely. The set pieces are dynamic and full of fun and even if the conclusion feels a little tame compared to the preceding 20 minutes, it was a fitting 'finale' for Natasha.

I'm not sure that Florence Pugh has the presence and persona to carry off being the new Black Widow; but she's a worthy addition to this film (and the universe) showing a range of acting skills that have propelled her high in the acting world and Rachel Weiss and David Harbour are interesting, if flawed, support. This film obviously ties into the Hawkeye TV series, by virtue of the post credit scene, which, in my opinion could have been handled better (the post credit scene not the TV show).

Marvel seems to do two types of film now - Mission Impossible styled Earth-based thrillers and cosmic spectacles; the former tend to be the better received by the general viewing public [Obviously the Spider-Man films fit into a slightly different slot, but they're not strictly MCU films] and the interlinked nature of them - moving forwards - is what drives the franchise; this film suffers from something the comics also suffered from - the untold story from the past tended to be a 'fill in' issue, regardless of who was creating it.

Overall, Black Widow is a quality MCU film let down by timing, which had a lot to do with Covid but can't be used as an excuse; this simply should have been earlier in the franchise's life.

Which brings us nicely to something that could have been introduced much later in the franchise's life but the lure of Chinese money hastened its arrival, I'm in no doubt. It had been almost a year since we first watched Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Gold Rings, so more of it was familiar; looking back on past blogs I realised that it has the ignominy of being the only MCU film I haven't properly reviewed. I gave it a six line 'review' of sorts in a Pop Culture from last November.

It's an odd film in many ways; its main purpose, at times, is to hoover up some of the loose ends from other films - the Abomination's reappearance (considerably less eloquent than his subsequent appearances in She Hulk), the return of Trevor Slattery - in one of the most contrived shoo-ins to essentially dismiss the entire plot of Iron Man 3 - and what Wong had been doing (given that he would become extremely prominent over the last couple years this makes perfect sense). That's probably being unfair, the loose ends were obviously shoehorned in to tie the film to the MCU, but it's the thing that sticks.

The opening 40 minutes is cracking fun; Marvel does this kind of thing extremely well - the rollercoaster opener and that is only let down by the back story explainer, which appears to be an homage to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, especially given Michelle Yeoh managed to get herself cast in this. Then it all gets a bit silly; I'm all for worldbuilding by the MCU, but Marvel appears to be worlds building, adding extra layers that literally overcrowd a shared universe that was progressing nicely at walking pace and now seems to have gone into light speed in its need to introduce more and more stuff to muddy satisfyingly murky waters. 

There is genuine chemistry between Shang-Chi and his oldest friend Katy (played by Awkwafina surprisingly well and without too much goofiness), but after that it all gets a bit superficial; even Shaun's sister's back story seemed a little convenient, which didn't escape Awkwafina in an almost 4th wall moment. Then we enter Ta Lo - the mythical kingdom of cute manga creatures and belligerent peaceniks - and it swaps a decent romp for monstrous silliness, dragons and other things that make this film less than it could have been.

It's disappointing because this film has some excellent parts, but it also feels... a bit fake, a bit forced into the schedules to tap unclaimed markets rather than expand the oeuvre.

I was never a fan of Shang-Chi in the 1970s, despite having a cracking award-winning creative team working on it for a long time, but I never really got Kung Fu with David Carradine either and wasn't a big fan of Bruce Lee or those genre of films; so expecting me to fall for this kind of film was always going to be unlikely; the fact that Shang-Chi existed inside but was very much outside the Marvel Comics Universe was a really good reason not to read it and while I have no idea what has happened to the comics character in the last 25 years since I stopped reading comics regularly, trying to force him into the superhero world seems a wee bit desperate and you could argue that this film could have existed as a Marvel film but without added MCU baggage; it might have worked better. Shang-Chi also didn't have a sidekick and his dad was Fu Manchu and, if I remember correctly, often references to Sax Rohmer for inspiration and use of certain characters, but the last time I read a Master of Kung Fu comic was about 1980.

Simu Liu is a slightly unorthodox Shang-Chi, who was originally modelled on Bruce Lee, and he's a genuinely likeable actor/character; his superficiality isn't at all like he was in the comics, where you imagined he did everything from eat to shit with gritted teeth and a brow full of sweat, but the MCU isn't really doing earnest is it? Even Daredevil's recent (re) appearance felt like a comedic Marvel Comics mid 1970s guest appearance, completely out of character for the character. I mean, I read DD for 30 years, Matt Murdock rarely if ever smiles. 

The Pokémon aspect is also new and while some of the 'monsters' were okay, they were let down by poor visual effects and a cuteness that seemed misplaced. I enjoyed it more second time around, but it's never going to rank anything but low on a list of MCU films.

Modern Culture: Bump & Grind

There's this theory going round comics fandom, or so I'm told, which pretty much confirms everything I've been saying about the MCU for the last four years - with no heavyweight heroes everything else suffers. I have stated quite firmly that by 2030 Marvel will have brought back Captain America, Iron Man and the Black Widow - they might have been recast with new actors, but these iconic characters will return, because the MCU struggles without them. Hence why the MCU/Disney+ has made a few announcements recently that won't raise that many eyebrows.

This news - including the introduction of the Red Hulk and bringing Thunderbolt Ross back, despite William Hurt being dead, to become the Marvel character I know nothing about at all, is one of a number of things designed to bring back what the franchise has lost in the last 3 years (although I fail to see what this particular character brings to the party apart from a lot of Hulk stories I'm glad I never read).

Rumours also suggest Robert Downey Jr will be back - probably as an AI version of Tony Stark for the recently re-announced Armor Wars, which is no longer a TV series and now a full-on Iron Man film sequel and, of course, everybody and their brother has been pointing at Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman's two minute video telling us that Deadpool 3 will feature Jackman as Wolverine, yet again. Make no mistake, this is the MCU realising it's stopped working properly. 

That said, while many fans (and MCU execs) reel from the dreadful reviews that the new Thor film and the She-Hulk series have got, maybe part of the problem is pinning hopes on things like this and allowing something as fantastic as Werewolf By Night slip under the radar. I've seen very little promotional material about this absolutely monstrous bit of hokum and that's a real tragedy. 

Speaking of weres and wolves...

Werewolf By Night isn't the WBN I remembered as a kid (there ain't much left that is). Lead character Jack [Russell] is now Mexican rather than a rebellious blonde Yankee teenager and is covered in strange hieroglyphs. Gael Garcia Bernal plays him in a very peripheral, yet oddly central role for the entire 50 minute show.

With one exception, no one else in this one-off meant anything to me, although it did look like many of the supporting cast might be recognisable to some people. It starts as play on the old The Deadly Game idea, where hunters chase the marked 'prey' and whoever bags him wins the prize. The prize in this case is the Bloodstone - once owned by Ulysses Bloodstone [who first appeared in Marvel Presents #1 courtesy of John Warner, Mike Vosburg and Bob McLeod and in the next issue of the same comic with art by Sonny Trinidad. Any subsequent appearances passed me by] and originally promised to his daughter Elsa, but now up for grabs to any monster hunter because of some un-explained falling out between father and daughter.

This group of infamous monster hunters are tasked with retrieving the Bloodstone, now stuck to the hide of a nightmarish hell beast, but in reality it's more about all these monster hunters killing each other off first and that's where Jack and Elsa enter the picture. Jack is there for a different reason and Elsa is there because she wants the Bloodstone, as it is rightfully hers and she doesn't want any of the others to have it either, but she's not into all the killing. Jack isn't interested in the Bloodstone, he wants to free and save the monster who is being used as bait...

I have to admit to a genuine 'squee' moment when I realised that the 'monster' in question was actually the Man-Thing - a character who was both prominent to me in the 1970s and personal to me because it was the first Marvel comic book I started collecting from #1, so seeing 'Manny' or 'Ted' as he's now known, looking utterly splendid and doing what he does best - setting fire to scared people - was always going to make this A BIG WINNER in my house.

When we finally get to meet the Werewolf it's 35 minutes into a 50 minute show and we're not talking American Werewolf in London styled transformations, more an homage to both the genre this comes from - comics - and the werewolf WBN was always based on - Lon Chaney Jr's Wolfman. Jack saves the day, doesn't eat Elsa and disappears into the night, leaving Ms Bloodstone with the jewel and her mother to deal with. Fortunately, Elsa had been very kind to Ted earlier in the show, so he returned and burned the mother to a crisp - the end!

Except, there's an epilogue featuring Ted making Jack a cup of coffee as they camp out near the swamps and continue their quest to free kind monsters from human harm. It simply says we're heading for Legion of Monsters territory and that can't be a bad thing really given how compact and excellent this was and especially as they got all the special effects in this bang on. Man-Thing has never looked as good (at least not since Mike Ploog drew him).

As one friend said, 'It's just lovely.' And it is (despite being more violent than anything the MCU has ever done). 

***

It seems I might have been wrong about some of my predictions for She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, such as the Hulk returning or it being any good. I have a friend who thinks this series has been delightful, I'm now of the opinion that this person simply likes or dislikes things other people think are shit or good to be different.

I'm kind of speechless about the season finale and that's not because I've jumped on the bandwagon of all the other haters out there, it's because the series, as a whole, was humourless rubbish with no real plot, no general direction and was full of half-arsed, barely recognisable supporting characters with no interest. It was not very good and anyone who tells you differently is a wind-up merchant.

The 4th wall twist - which isn't funny either - is that She-Hulk: Attorney At Law is a TV show in the MCU overseen by 'Kevin', who is depicted as an AI robot and is really in charge of the script-writing/plot of She-Hulk (and all other MCU product), it has supplied a ludicrous plot with a ridiculous ending which Jen doesn't agree with and it has no concept of how to rejuvenate or improve the show. Oddly enough and slightly ironically, this happens around the same time as the real Kevin Feige, who really is in charge. made some announcements in an attempt to try to rejuvenate the entire franchise and allay peoples fears that everything has lost its direction and they're just throwing shit at a fan. It's so Meta it's laughable but not in any positive ways at all.

This review is now almost as boring as the last seven episodes. I really expected something - in general - to happen, but even Bruce's unexpected return with son in tow felt manufactured, rushed and I expect we're going to see a film - probably for that slot in 2024 when the now delayed Blade was due - possibly called... Hulks (with at least four of the buggers crowding the screen). 

Marvel has some big problems creatively and the trailers for Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever have done nothing to make me think they know how to solve those problems...

***

Before I leave Marvel alone for a few months, I saw recently there's an extended version of Spider-Man: No Way Home available! That's extra reasons for me to never watch this awful movie again.

***

While everything seemingly got turned to shit for Galadriel and the knights of Numenor in the penultimate episode of season one of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, it was the Harfoots who felt the full force of just about everything despite would-be Gandalf rescuing the fruit trees, and that included pissing off wood elves by seemingly just existing.  

This series has suffered from many viewers simply not caring about the characters; this is worldbuilding but without characters who you care about; they're all arrogant, pompous and self-interested, the attempt at Game of Thrones style politics doesn't seem to be able to click in the same way, maybe because there is already so much speculation and interpretation of all of Tolkien's works. Oh and the acting is woefully inadequate considering the money thrown at it.

Anyhow, the finale kicks off with the attempted twist that the stranger hitching along with the Harfoots might actually be Sauron and we don't shake that feeling until the real Sauron reveals himself in what could easily have been a twist had it not actually been signposting it, cleverly and without fanfare, since episode #1. The finale wasn't about battles as such - although there's a fair one between the man I think we can all call Gandalf and the triumvirate of unpleasantness attempting to turn him to the dark side.

It was borderline all right. It was very boring at times but it looked fabulous. That doesn't cut the mustard in television in 2022 and something has to change for the second season or this will go down as a colossal failure, whatever happens I really don't think I'll be bothering with it again.

***

A departure from my usual review fodder would be Simon Reeve's Americas which has been on BBC2 for the last 5 weeks, but also available on iPlayer as an entire entity. I'm aware this hardly falls into any of the categories I usually review, but we're big fans of Reeve and over the years we've turned each episode of his travelogue into a game - how many times will Simon say 'Bloody hell' each episode (it was 1-1 for this series; the wife guessed 2 in the first episode and I guessed 2 in the final one; not guessing the exact number wins no points) and occasionally 'flipping heck', if the mood takes us.

For those of you who've never seen his travelogues; Reeve travels around the world and each episode usually has him juxtaposition something impressive about a country with something scary, violent or unlawful and he often looks at the plight of the poorest or least advantageous in society. For every exotic animal or fabulous region he visits it's always counterbalanced by something rotten at the core.

I expect there will be another series of his adventures, but I also think he's pretty much been everywhere, so unless he starts to retrace his steps or go to the same places but different parts, I'm trying to make a list of places he hasn't been to and coming up relatively short. There was also something emotionally final about the last scenes as he rolled through Tierra Del Fuego, so we shall wait and see. If you've never seen it, you should; it's great documentary TV. 

*** 

The Old Man has been some of best TV I've seen all year - a geriatric action series in the vein of Homeland but a lot less convoluted, but no less complicated. It has been full of plausible twists and implausible turns, but it has been a rollercoaster of a 7-part mini-series with both Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow ripping up the sets.  

However, I'm really disappointed that it's going to have a second series. It really felt as though it was simply going to be a tight and taut 7-part thriller, but it soon became obvious halfway through episode 7 that we were not going to get a conclusion, despite all the cards now being on the table and all secrets revealed. Obviously, I'm now hoping that season 2 wraps it up and calls it a day, because I don't think this is something that has very long legs.

***

A quick mention for The Walking Dead. It's still there, slowly lurching towards an 'ending'. 

***

House of the Dragon has come on leaps and bounds from its shaky start of looking like a desperate prequel. The episode before the penultimate episode was one of the grimmest in GOT history; not because it was violent or relentlessly horrible; it was just dark with the feeling of foreboding running through it like words in a stick of rock. Lots of false smile, horrific and horrified faces, failed politics and Machiavellian deceit revolving around Paddy Considine's final appearances.

The King is dead! Long live the... oh... ah... King? Alsiante - the queen - announces to her father Otto Hightower that Viscerys's last words were that Aegon should be king and not Rhaenyrs, who he had always said would be queen. This potboiler for the finale, sets in motion events that will, you feel, be quite catastrophic for one side of this merry dance.

Expect dragon versus dragon battles with Aemond possibly holding the key. But that will have to wait until next time. This has been a considerably more enjoyable series than it probably deserved to be because it has kept to a relatively singular narrative. I expect season two will be worth the wait.

***

Next time: The finale of House of the Dragon and the final outing for Jodie Whitaker as Doctor Who. Plus it might be time to catch up with things I've put off as we enter the barren period before Christmas.

Modern Culture: Sharp Knives?

We're still a week away from the finale of She-Hulk: Attorney At Law and what was a fantastic opening gambit has quickly descended into something I'm trying hard to ignore. I'm a late bloomer in the 'I hate MCU TV' brigade... No, really. I'm far less critical of it than I am the movies and a couple of my friends positively feel let down by the output of the TV franchise. I didn't like Moon Knight but most of the other live action series have been enjoyable space filler and you might recall I was positively buzzing about Shulkie when she first appeared, but... it's just so facile and trite and I know trite seems like an inappropriate description given how 'original' the premise appears to be but despite the fresh 'feel', the fourth wall breaking and the metacomedy aspects, by the time we got half way through the series it just felt overplayed, unoriginal and just a little silly... and not in a good way.

In the space of a few weeks my liking for this show has evaporated completely and while I'm aware this is predominantly a comedy even the [slightly] sinister 'government lab' trying to extract some blood from Jen no longer feels like it has anything to do with this series and more to do with helping set up an apparent World War Hulk 'film'? I mean, why else has Bruce left Earth again if it's not to simply get him off planet allowing Marvel to bring him back after Phase 4 (is it 4 or are we now in 5?) and possibly a new story arc. 

I like the Hulk; it's a longstanding thing, but I gave up reading the book in 2002. I have problems with the idea of Red Hulks, sons of Hulk, armies of Hulks... I kind of struggled with the idea of She Hulk and still to this day feel it was more a copyright necessity than through any artistic merit, but I'm not going to get bogged down with Marvel minutiae because there's other woeful TV out there waiting to be reviewed. 

That said, the 'therapy' episode with Tim Roth camping it up as Emile Blonsky (who is obviously up to something, but not necessarily nefarious) trying to get super powered misfits to understand their position in life was entertaining and kind of explains the basic premise of the series, which in case you need it explaining is about a woman trying to come to terms with the changes in her life. The main problem with the comedy is it isn't very funny and the problem with the drama is there isn't enough. I'm also beginning to wonder if the Netflix Daredevil series' belonged to another variant MCU because DD's much-heralded appearance featured the yellow and red costume he never wore in his own shows and his ability to be considerably more 'superheroic' than the aforementioned shows. This goes hand-in-hand with Kingpin's appearance in the Hawkeye series, seeming to be less influential but considerably more [physically] powerful.

In the penultimate episode (of what I thought was a 13, but is in fact a 9-part series), everything goes Hulk Smash in the final scenes and it stops being a comedy. This was counterbalanced by the knowledge that Matt Murdock shagged Jen Walters. This show has a 5/10 rating on IMDB - I wonder if Marvel/Disney care?

***

The Bear is a clever, sometimes brilliant, 8 part Hulu/Disney+ series I touched on briefly last time out. It stars the sublime Jeremy Allen White as a top Michelin starred chef who gives it all up to run the family sandwich shop driven into the ground by his addict (and deceased) brother with (no) help from his cousin Richie. It is fantastic TV. 

It is between 19* and 45 minutes an episode. It is relentless, noisy, brash and in your face, probably very much like how a busy kitchen is like at peak service. It has masterfully teased most of the stories of the main characters out without ever feeling it was being used as a set up and because White's Carmine seems like an extension of his Lip character from Shameless (US) and as the show is set in Chicago (where Shameless was set) there are lots of elements of Paul Abbott's brilliant show flirting and skirting around the edges. It's great TV with excellent characters and some absolute wankers; I've heard it's getting a second season, I expect that will be different and the same.

* The focus of that 19 minute episode might sound like I'm annexing it with She-Hulk as theft masquerading as TV, but the point of the 19 minute episode (18 mins and 40odd seconds to be precise) is that it was taken in one shot. It is one continuous scene with no breaks and it starts off fractious and ends up volcanic - you experience the tension and the stress being ratcheted up in real time culminating in a scene you'll have been expecting since episode 2. It is mind-blowingly good TV and felt like it was an hour and not less than 20 minutes. The wife said, 'you don't really want it to be more than half an hour, it's so in your face!'

I'd like to think we got the jump of the press with this one because now many of the broadsheets and websites are heralding this as breakout, brilliant TV and are trumpeting the skills of JAW; a fact we knew all about, long ago.

***

Brassic isn't clever and is often brilliant. It wants to be a slapstick version of This Is England and essentially that is what Joe Gilgun's lead character Vinnie is morphing into; his skinhead persona in Shane Meadows' masterworks. It also owes a lot to Shameless and is probably made really good by the occasional appearances of Dominic West as Vinnie's pot smoking psychiatrist. But it is fun and likeable and you don't need a degree to understand it. 

The penultimate episode of the latest series is an incredible heart-wrenching story giving proper souls to our main protagonists, even if it actually makes little or no sense when put under scrutiny and the series finale is really a set up for season five and the gang's confrontation with the Madonna brothers (two more characters that unbelievably appear to carry some weight in the vaguely criminal world everyone exists in). I kind of hope season five will be the last one, but that's because some series go on far longer than they should. 

One stand out feature of season four is the extensive use of Tommo, the gang's rather sexually ambiguous weirdo. Played by Ryan Sampson, who has appeared in numerous TV UK shows since his debut in Wire in the Blood in 2003 (a series I've always thought should be the name of the sequel to The Thing but obviously isn't...) and perhaps the show's writers and producers realised they had a real treat on their hands, especially as other main cast members have all drifted into the background to a certain degree, especially Damien Molony's Dylan, who has almost become peripheral to the entire series.

***

We're heading into the final stages of season one of the longest titled series of all time, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and while it has proved to be better than I anticipated, it's still largely struggling to have engaging characters that you care about. Episode six was full on battle episode with twists and turns and absolutely no feeling of peril or actual bother about any of them. It feels like stories by numbers and that is terribly outdated in the 21st century.

***

The Old Man is quite extraordinary. We've just started it - watched the first episode - and we're hooked already. Jeff Bridges plays - presumably - an ex-black ops agent for the US govt. who has been 'on the run' for 40 years avoiding his former 'keepers' and trying to have a wife and a family. When we join the action, his wife has died, his daughter is a voice on the telephone and Bridges looks and acts like he's the most paranoid person in the world. Then, of course, you realise they really are out to get him. They've known where he is for a while and now they want him back - whether it's to answer for the questionable things he did or as some kind of US bargaining chip with a high powered Afghani war lord we don't know. All we do know is that semi-retired Assistant Director of the FBI - John Lithgow - has been brought out of retirement to oversee the capture of Bridges and the two of them have a long history, to the point where Lithgow makes Bridges an offer, which unfortunately isn't taken up, leaving us in a proper cat and mouse situation (although who is the cat and who is the mouse has yet to be decided). 

The main problem for Bridges character is he's in his 70s, he has old men's problems and the world has moved so fast around him he's not really on the same wavelength as the Powers That Be. This is part of the intrigue, because he isn't a 21st century boy, he's relying on skills that are no longer relied on.

However, by episode two you start to realise that this isn't just a by-the-numbers spies out of retirement gig; our two main protagonists have form and much of that form wants to remain hidden. Bridges' Chase is linked to the wrong Afghani warlord, who now wants his revenge for something Chase did 40 years ago and he wants it so bad he's cashing in all his lucky US govt chips. However, this isn't just an old geezers revenge story; it's clear that the FBI were involved in something the CIA usually specialises in and Chase - an ex FBI agent - went rogue to fight on the side of the Mujahedeen and managed to not only escape Afghanistan but hide himself and his Afghani wife away for 35 years. Oh and is Chase now suffering from dementia?

***

Brad Pitt's Bullet Train felt like a substandard Matthew Vaughn attempt at making a Quentin Tarrantino film badly. The wife liked it, but I found it all a bit too OTT, a little too contrived and very annoying in places.

***

Did something we've so far resisted and watched one of those Star Wars spin-offs - Andor. Fell asleep during it so many times I didn't understand what I was watching by the end; not going there again.

***

House of the Dragon has jumped 10 years in time and sadly that means we've lost some of the cast to different actors. It is relentlessly miserable TV and has more dislikeable characters than its parent show. The change in cast felt a little jarring and it needed certain scenes just so you realised who these 'new' people were. The story has also moved on and allegiances have changed and schemes are still being hatched. The problem I now have is unlike the LOTR spin-off I'd started to like all the characters and now I have to re-like them with new actors and that hasn't happened; I really liked Milly Allcock, I'm not sure about Emma Darcy. The jump feels like it's gone too far.

Recent episodes have tried valiantly to equal dramatic events in GOT but they were so... subtle, I almost missed them. This show suffers from two major things - poor lighting and far too much mumbling. Mumble TV has been in the news a lot in the last few years, but in HotD it seems to be rife and gives the need to constantly rewind because neither of us had a clue what was said. As far as the intrigue goes, it's up there with its big sister show for twists and turns - something the LotR show could really do with and by the end of episode 6 much of what you expected to happen is finally happening, it's just the kids have a habit of throwing a spanner in the works and these Valyrian children all hate each other with the same passion as their parents. What is transpiring might have been largely predicted with close scrutiny of previous episodes, but it's still been much more fun getting to where we are than most of the last five series of Game of Thrones, which always felt like a TV version of the ultimate prick tease; which failed to deliver when required to actually not tease any more.

***

The second season finale of [the much despised] Resident Alien kind of jumped the shark with an episode that seemed a little from out of left field with snippets of interviews interjected throughout of peoples experiences of aliens or abductions.

In case anyone cares; Harry decides to stay on Earth and save it from the Greys. The agent of the Greys takes a job as deputy at Patience PD, while Harry gives himself up to the army to meet and enlist the help of Linda Hamilton's shallow and facile general. Some things are quite excellent, like when Darcy discovers Harry's secret and other things like they've been welded onto the plot over the last two weeks - the mayor's sleepwalking was always going to be ... alien in nature.

I may tune in for season 3 just to see if Asta's arse can get any bigger.

***

Guess what's back for the last time? Yes, the original Walking Dead enters its final furlong as AMC attempts to wring the last life out of this brain-fogging and banal zombie series. Nothing really gets you going any more; there isn't really a story that's compelling and all the best actors have left. It is 2022's V but with more money and less lizards...

The two-part season 'opener'/'closer' is about the beginning of the downfall of the Commonwealth, an oddly, dysfunctional conglomerate of people that we know live life like there's no zombie apocalypse, have a class system that is deeply offensive and, as with many things in this series, never explains how a settlement of thousands of people manage to have many of the luxuries of pre-apocalypse times. Who is growing all the food? Who is making all the clothes? Who is manufacturing all the stuff they need from repairing faulty stuff to creating things like bullets, fuel and all that funky armour the Commonwealth deck their police force out in. 

I think my main problem with all the zombie/dead series since its inception is the fact that once organised how do they survive? I did a blog once that suggested a series focusing on farming successes or failures or the quest for the perfect location to set up home (on a hill, near a water source, with its own generator or solar/wind powered energy) wouldn't really make interesting TV, but given that the alternative has failed repeatedly for five years to produce interesting TV, maybe it was a direction to go in?

***

Before I get onto my favourite bugbear, I would like to take a moment to remember my old chum Roger Balfour, who died at the end of September. I met Roger when I wasn't really into comics (I'd fallen out of love with them for the first time) and he was all over them like a rash. His exuberance and love for the medium was always like an insurmountable wave that you rode rather than fought against and he embraced superheroes on TV and in film like a long lost family member and seemed to simply be happy to be alive while these things were actually happening.

He will be missed, even though I don't think I'd seen him in the flesh in the last 20 years and ironically, the last thing he went to the cinema to see was the latest Thor film; he loved the God of Thunder. I hope they've got a really good cinema wherever his wondrous soul ends up...

Anyhoo... I want to chuck an idea at you regarding the last film review I did. Thor: Love & Thunder is a really awful film in many ways. Scratch the surface and it's simply a mess and unbelievably facile and superficial; it makes you wonder how and why Marvel allowed it to be released in that form.

It's like there's some disgruntled employees who feel the same way because within a week or so of the film starting its streaming life, two or three 'deleted' scenes have surfaced that suggests the story must have been going in a completely different and far more logical direction and paints Russell Crowe's Zeus as a benevolent but flawed god who is gracious, humble and an addition to the MCU. So why the hell did they completely go the other way with that horrendous and pointless OmniCity segment?

Had Thor, Jane and co arrived in Olympus, possibly had a run in with Hercules and eventually left with Zeus's thunderbolt and his blessing a lot of the bad feeling about this film might never have happened.  Also much of what they were trying to achieve could still have been done and in a completely plausible way. If you get the chance, go on You Tube and search the Love and Thunder deleted scenes and see for yourself. 

Next time: conclusions of series and we cast our gaze into the abyss that's likely to be TV this autumn.