Now that I’ve finished slagging off Doctor Who, I resume my habit of having no discernible topic! There’s a mishmash of potentially spoilery Punisher, Gotham, & Aquaman musings below. But first let’s chat about Mysterio again because the time is finally ripe!
The start of Chris Chibnall’s Doctor Who tenure wasn’t my cup of tea. Rather than being a fluke, it turns out “The Woman Who Fell To Earth” was in line with how the rest of his his first series/season would go. I felt both RTD & Moffat overstayed their welcomes as showrunners, but not in their debut seasons! After a string of blogs discussing things I’m excited to recommend like Gotham’s swansong, writing this one felt like a chore. I kept putting it off because writing it was a bummer. A comprehensive essay of how Doctor Who squandered fantastic opportunities is no fun. Lots of SPOILERS for the latest season follow.
I will concede the Pting was cute.
This may be my most punctual review ever as I had nearly a month’s head-start to get it done! In December I attended “Meanwhile, Back in Gotham: Preview Screening and Discussion” at The Paley Center. The last time I went to an advance screening of a season premiere it was for Doctor Who season six (in reboot numbering), & I got Steven Moffat to sign my sonic screwdriver. (PHRASING!) This time I was unable to obtain any autographs & it cost more, but I did avoid stress induced vomiting connecting to writing a monograph whilst waiting on line for hours. So I’m counting it as a success!
The two times I’ve attended NYCC, the Gotham panels were always on another day. Last year’s didn’t even announce there’d be one until the week before when all the tickets were sold out. With the series ending, this Paley Center event seemed like my last opportunity to see them. They finished filming literally the day before. I feared the entire cast would be executed after the finale wrapped (That’s what they do for TV shows. The trend of reviving long dead shows is due to conceal a spate of zombieosis.), yet they did not fall into a pit of fire or revolving blades beneath the stage. This cast has excellent camaraderie, although I’ll never be able to tell whether it’s genuine or the thespians are contractually obligated to keep up appearances. It’s pretty surreal to hear them discuss how they’re all suddenly unemployed.
Aquaman, Aquaman, does whatever water can! I was predisposed to liking Aquaman, but I didn’t expect the movie to be tailored specifically to me! Jack & Andrew on the The Wages of Cinema collaboreview can corroborate that it is a legitimutantly enjoyable comic book movie! OUTRAGEOUS!
Dive below for Davy Jones’s locker of SPOILERS!
Whoever bet Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse would be reviewed before Aquaman gets paid! We’ve got another The Wages of Cinema collaboreview for you! (Wifely-Duties Korey gave my blog one of its finest pull quotes: “I like it when I read it.”) In a nutshell, everybody should see this movie in the cinema! (That goes double for former co-host Andrew, who insisted I see Spider-Man: Homecoming despite my ambivalence only to declare he wasn’t interested in this one.) You get to choose whether before or after reading the rest of this piece!
This Elseworlds crossover does double duty as the midseason finales for The Flash, Supergirl, & Arrow. As befits the Freaky Friday conceit, the typical airing day of the shows have been scrambled. Fortunately The Flash had its 100th episode last week so it won’t have to celebrate that too, unlike the Arrow third of Invasion! Although this year’s crossover is missing its Legends of Tomorrow component, I’ll still be discussing “Legends of To-Meow-Meow” below. If I make any errors in my SPOILERIFIC review, it’s because reality got warped again.
December dawns with the demise of Daredevil! Hot on the heels of the cancellations of Luke Cage & Iron Fist, Netflix destroyed the writers’ room’s dreams of a fourth season. Now I’m extra mad Bullseye didn’t have his own costume & Stilt-Man’s foreshadowing never came to fruition! (Tumblr is probably dying of self-inflicted wounds too, which reassures me that being too lazy to make a Tumblr was a wise move.) So Jessica Jones season three & Punisher season two look to be the end of the line for this hallway-battling venture, unless Netflix mercifully greenlights another season of The Defenders to tie up all the loose ends. Let’s belabor this point whilst awaiting coming attractions for the next Avengers! At least Captain Marvel marketing is punctual.
