Topic: The TV Show Thread

@JohnnyShoulder not being a fan of comedy (I like funny stuff... but the stuff I generally find funny isn't comedy I guess) so I don't think I've seen him in anything before. As far as this goes though, I think he's great. Hopefully, I havent over-sold it too much for you.

On the apple tv subject, season 1 of Servant blew the missus and I away... we really can't wait for season 2 to finish so we can binge it all in one weekend. We also thoroughly enjoyed Defending Jacob, there is the occasional leap of logic (which usually really grates on me) but it's just so well made and we'll acted that it was an enjoyable show.

Also, being a huge fan of the almighty edge Lord himself Ronald D. Moore (this one's for you @RogerRoger 😉) I'm excited to watch For All Mankind... that looks right up my street.

@colonelkilgore finally someone else watching Servant. We binged season 1 and then just went straight into 2. I still have no idea where this is all going. Show's amusing though, in a dark way obviously.

@zupertramp it’s so good isn’t it. I’m actually considering rewatching season 1 again (we watched it originally Jan 2020) just so I’m clear on exactly where we are at the start of season 2. It’s so dark, twisted and disturbing... 3 things which always tickle my pickle but also so well written and well acted. It’s a true hidden (from the masses) gem.

@colonelkilgore yeah that's a fairly big gap. I don't think it's too terribly necessary though. Especially since they have those recaps, like most shows, at the beginning of the episodes. Don't let me stop you though either.

As far as the acting, it's funny, Can't Hardly Wait is one of my all time favorite "teen" movies and it still took me several episodes of Servant to recognize one of the actors. Some of it is she's just older but also she plays her part so well. Like a different person entirely.

Also is it just me or am I the only one convinced that Toby Kebbell is a long list Jonas Brother?

@colonelkilgore Thanks for the namecheck up there. Here's some obligatory condemnation.

In all seriousness, however, I hope you enjoy his new show!

I’m going to reserve my WandaVision finale thoughts until other people finish it/binge the whole thing. Interesting how many fan theories were wrong though 😂

@nessisonett Re: WandaVision ep 9 - brilliant ending! Bittersweet in all the right ways with hope for a family reunion down the way. Sounds like Talos is going to make a reappearance down the road too, he was one of my favourite characters from Captain Marvel! Also Ralph Bohner - "hehe, Bohner" 😂. Hopefully he makes a reappearance some day too!

It's weird, I didn't really enjoy the Agatha Harkness late game reveal. It reminded me too much of John Harrison - Khan Noonien Singh reveal in Star Trek into Darkness. I think it's a bit dumb to keep something a secret in the narrative when the implications up to that point are so blaringly obvious. May have been handled better if her character lost the annoying interfering smugness of her Agnes iteration up to that point but she didn't. She's probably up there with Ultron as my least favourite MCU villains, there's probably a handful of villains of the week from Agents of Shield in there too but I'd struggle to remember any.

On the other hand, I very much enjoyed the Ralph Bohner reveal. It's probably up there with the Mandarin/Trevor Slattery reveal from Iron Man 3. I know I'm weird because I love Iron Man 3 but it is awesome. Maybe these kinds of reveal work better for me when the expectation is subverted in the case of Ralph and Trevor as opposed to confirmed in the case of Agatha/Khan.

@ralphdibny Lmao, having some issues with the spoiler tags which is irritating me as it usually works.

@ralphdibny I honestly didn’t like the ending. At all. See, I hated the Mandarin reveal in Iron Man 3 and it was mostly due to that terrible fake-out (and other glaring problems) that make it my least favourite MCU movie. The Pietro reveal reminded me of that in a bad way, with the bonus issue of not being contained within the narrative. If somebody wasn’t aware of Evan Peters previously playing Quicksilver then the entire crux of the character in this portrayal makes zero sense. He appears, doesn’t act like MCU Pietro at all and then is revealed to be a random person controlled by Agatha. Why would Wanda believe him without the knowledge that the audience has about the X-verse? Why does the random person chosen by Agatha act like X-verse Pietro despite that universe not existing within the MCU and him not being Pietro at all? He’s not even similar enough to MCU Pietro for it to be written off as Agatha not entirely being aware of that version’s personality.

Plus, the twins were an exciting prospect going forward given that Cassie Lang, Kate Bishop and Kamala Khan exist within the MCU. And Hulkling could realistically be introduced in Secret Invasion. It’s such a missed opportunity to just reset everything to pre-WandaVision. Especially considering Monica has powers due to the Hex’s influence yet they haven’t been taken away when she left the Hex. There was too much built up to be all crammed into that last episode, they could have easily done another two and given the characters more time. I just feel they’ve kinda squandered what was a very good set-up by rushing towards the end. Agatha honestly didn’t even do anything as the ‘big bad’. She was a threat for about 5 seconds until the extremely signposted runes appeared, which was even teased in the ‘previously on WandaVision’ bit at the start. There was no grand plan, no real reason for her manipulation, no exposition about the wider witch community. She just wanted Wanda’s power for herself which is a bit clichéd and could have surely been achieved without the entire situation getting out of hand. Too many questions and plot holes, not enough actual answers. Considering there will be no second season and these characters won’t be seen again for years, it’s a bit annoying.

@nessisonett interesting to read your thoughts on it! I do wonder if like Trevor Slattery, there will be some follow up to Peter/Ralph. Slattery obviously had the short film Hail to the King (I think it was called) and I believe the "true" Mandarin will be featured in the Shang-Chi movie, maybe Slattery will make an appearance there as well. There does seem to be some opportunity for follow up on the Peter/Ralph mystery with the upcoming Dr. Strange and Spider-Man films even if it is just an indirect explanation rather than a follow up on the character himself.

Assuming you are up to date (as far as Crisis on Infinite Earths at least) with the Arrowverse, I wonder if any multiverse hijinks (assuming the promotional mentions of the multiverse haven't been similar red herrings) will be handled similarly in the MCU as they were in the Arrowverse. They have multiple actors playing the same character across universes as well as one character being played by multiple actors. This is a long with a healthy dose of cross universe character-swap shenanigans like The Atom's cousin "looking a lot" like Supergirl which may make sense as Brandon Routh played both the Atom and Returns-Earth's Superman. This will probably get a bit confusing with the MCU as they like to keep things simple for the casual audience so we may not see anything like this at all. Having said that, if a viewer has stuck with it for twentysomething movies then maybe they are ready for it. It does seem like the gates are open now that the so called "Infinity Saga" is over so maybe the multiverse concept is the only way to top that.

Back to WandaVision, I do agree to some extent about the narrative reset, I wonder if this will be a trend going forward with these limited series. Like with the pre-Disney+ TV shows, they never liked to do anything that would have to be referenced in the films with more than a passing comment or quick cameo. I wonder if it will be the same with the Disney+ shows. Having said that, this show couldn't have had a happy ending without there being a disastrous follow up. Wanda did too much bad stuff to have her cake and eat it. Maybe the resets won't happen in every show but perhaps the stakes will never be high enough for a casual movie goer to get confused when they walk into a cinema one day having never subscribed to Disney+.

I really don't think this will be the last we see of Tommy and Billy. There is at least a Vision out there, even if he is suffering an identity crisis. A quick bit of scarlet witch chaos magic will restore all of that, I am sure! It may be a year or years away before we get any follow up but the MCU does have a habit of following up in surprising ways - Incredible Hulk's Thunderbolt Ross is evidence of this. Honestly though, you've probably got many years of life ahead of you, I think what you want to see in these films and shows will definitely make it onto the screen some day! In the first wave of Marvel films, I remember being frustrated by certain story choices - the Galactus cloud, Weapon XI/Barakapool, Gwen Stacey being the follow up girlfriend to Mary Jane etc. But having seen 3 Spider-Man reboots, a soft reboot of the X-Men Universe and the MCU turn up since, I almost feel silly for being frustrated at the time but who could have known that superhero films and TV shows would take off the way they did and here we are 10-15 years later with new adaptations that diverge in some ways and are more faithful in others! At the time, I guess I thought these would be the "definitive" and only adaptations so I wanted them to be perfect but time has proved me wrong in that regard. In retrospect, I have massively enjoyed the last 20 years of super hero films and TV, faults and all!