“…I, for one, am grateful a disembodied Chumbawamba has brought us all back together.”
–Cliff Steele
While our Summer Reviews often dig quite far into the sands of time for cinematic treasure, the final weekend of June, 2019, brings us a recent, brilliant bit of media: The Doom Patrol, Season One.
Spider-man will swing in here at the start of next week. Tomorrow, we may even get a review of Yesterday. In the meantime, a crazed corner of the DC-verse awaits:
Actually, it’s June on the line.
The Handmaid’s Tale reminds us that some people should never be trusted.
If we can look up from that new game on our phones long enough for TV, we get Legion back for the last season. Elsewhere, Handmaid and Swamp Thing don’t give us descriptions, again, while Sherlock and Joan work with a tech billionaire to start pre-crime. The SHIELD Agents are are continuing their trip home.
[All synopses (and titles) from Trakt.tv or IMDB below the cut, except when there really aren’t any. (If a show’s synopsis is a spoiler to you, do not click More…)]
Jessica Jones’s third season lacks the power of her earlier outings. They’ve reduced the budget, and the R-Rated content has been toned down, though not removed entirely.
Nevertheless, the cast remains strong, the humor, frequently sharp, the storytelling, intriguing, the villains worthwhile, and the themes, disturbingly relevant.
We reviewed the first two episodes here.
Commander Lawrence offers June a Sophian Choice, June uses her position to subvert Gilead, Emily reunites with her family, Luke and Moira have Nichole baptized, and Aunt Lydia grows increasingly unhinged.
Is Aunt Lydia crying because she feels shame that she lost control? Or because she knows she will lose what power she has? The elite and privileged classes of a society might accept the brutality and injustice that benefit them– but God help the person who forces them to see these things.
After a slow lead up to Father’s Day, the next weeks leads us back down just as slowly. The Handmaid’s Tale gives us a description almost as detailed as Swamp Thing, Krypton gives us Lobo. Elementary gives us Odin, but not that Odin. SHIELD focuses on the reunion of Fitz and Simmons. Next week, Legion joins Jessica Jones in giving us a third and final season.
[All synopses (and titles) from Trakt.tv or IMDB below the cut, except when there really aren’t any. (If a show’s synopsis is a spoiler to you, do not click More…)]
Jessica Jones’s third season—and the final Marvel season for Netflix—dropped today. We’re reviewing the first two episodes now, and the rest of the season next weekend.
Season Three lacks the strong start of the first two seasons, but it reunites an impressive cast. Perhaps because it’s the final season, or because Disney wants to inspire hope that they will reuse the Netflix characters when they regain rights in a couple of years, we’re reminded that, yes, Jessica and company exist in the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Hand-Maid’s Tale begins a very different third season, as June finds her place in Lawrence’s household and with the growing rebellion.
The scenes in Toronto’s “Little America” and the news from Chicago remind us that Gilead occupies only one part of a politically-fragmented, disaster-ravaged North America.
Now that you have weathered the dry spell of the last two weeks, this week you get the return of SHIELD, while supergrandpa returns on Krypton for their second season. Handmaid’s Tale and Swamp Thing each give us new episodes, but don’t give us any descriptions or even episode titles. Elementary continues the hunt for their friend’s would-be killer. If that isn’t enough, we get the final season of Jessica Jones. The trailer tells us she will be going up against Foolkiller this season.
[All synopses (and titles) from Trakt.tv or IMDB below the cut, except when there really aren’t any. (If a show’s synopsis is a spoiler to you, do not click More…)]
The revived Twilight Zone brings it first season to a curious and confusing conclusion.