3 Short Paragraphs: Overlord

2018, Julius Avery (Son of a Gun) -- download

"World War II with zombies" is a rather disingenuous tagline for such a fun, robust period supernatural movie, but that is how I heard most people describe it. But, it worked I guess, as I did look forward to it, as all the buzz was positive and I am still a fan of well made zombie flicks. Little did I expect something more along the lines of dark magic fueled Nazi super weapons that could have been plots in Hellboy comics or the Wolfenstein video game series!

Its D-Day and a squad of surviving American soldiers land in the forests of France with a job to perform -- destroy a radio tower that will interfere with the allied attack. The opening footage in the plane establishes our main characters, chosen from the few who survive the plane's destruction and subsequent chaotic parachute jump. After Band of Brothers can we expect anything less? Once on the ground, the small squad led by seasoned Corporal Ford (Wyatt Russel; Kurt's son) make their way to the French village where the tower is, only to find out that the town has been emptied, its strong folk dragged to the church compound for nefarious reasons.

The movie focuses its energies on Boyce (Jovan Adepo; The Leftovers), the green but moral centre. I like that he is black, for his endeavours to do the right thing not being immediately accepted speak of the time and the challenges. I like when movies, which I have always chosen to be my explorative vehicle for race, gender and equality conversations, chose to quietly tackle these power dynamics we still face, but in genre settings where we still get to punch Nazis and shoot up arcane powered walking dead. To be honest, I never wanted to call these enemies zombies because they are more the reanimated dead through alchemy and magic.

3 Short Paragraphs: Bumblebee

The Man on the Bicycle leans on the handlebars. His sweat pours and drips off his face. He has a desire to just relax, to fall off the bike into the blackness below. It would be so easy to give in, to stop fighting, to let each and every one of these screens just blink out. No one would miss them. He could finally just ... rest.

But to his right, he sees another light interrupt his quiet darkness. Another door has opened in the column from which his bike & contraption extends. He own bike vibrates and shudders as he sees another cyclist extending on a telescoping support mechanism.

Is that someone else? Some also forced to pedal for his life, to constantly work for it, and reflect on every aspect of his life? Or.... is... it him ?!? The other cyclist's screens begin to flicker on, some different, some the same, but not even that additional illumination allows to see whether the new cyclist is a reflection of himself from another time & viewpoint, or just another trapped soul.

He begins to pedal again.

2018, Travis Knight (Kubo & the Two Strings) -- download

This movie is described by many as "the best Transformers movie". Considering what they are comparing it to, the much maligned but well-profiting Michael Bay movies, that should not be hard, right? But this movie, that comes from the same window into that Hasbro universe, if only slight left of centre, is really not all that much better than those "original" movies. If I happened to be a fan of the original toys, which I was not because they came about in my teens (so before I was old enough to get back into toys), I would probably love this movie. Or if I was 14. But man, again, it was terrible but in many ways so different from the Bay-splosion movies.

This movie is meant to be the light teen drama flick that the original completely failed at, when it tossed in Megan Fox. And in that the movie succeeds. Hailee Steinfield is absolutely delightful as awkward, mopey Charlie, and her nerd neighbour Memo reflects well off her cocky confidence. But the movie not only wants the nostalgia feel of an 80s movie, but also attach itself to the current love of 80s music. The problem therein lies is its misunderstanding of the music of the age. Charlie is still mourning the death of her father, and has become a fan of the alternative music of the age: The Smiths, the Cure, punk, British-wave, etc. And it reflects in the set dressing of her clothing and bedroom. BUT the background music is all the annoying Top 40 music that will be used to sell a soundtrack, all the music a kid like her would have hated. And I know, because I was kind of that kid.

You could think of this movie as a reboot of the Transformers series. It throws the accepted history of the other movies to the wind and begins again, ignoring that Bumblebee had arrived on Earth much earlier and having him crash into the planet to meet Charlie. The movie, in fact, begins with a prologue on Cybertron as the Autobots and Decepticons fight for their home planet. So, if they have not yet ever been to Earth, then WHY DO THEY HAVE CAR AND PLANE AND GHETTO BLASTER SHAPES ?? The Bay-splosion movies at least established that these transforming bots scanned the local technology in order to hide amidst it, but these guys were popular 80s vehicles long before they bumped into them on Earth. Makes no sense. But if I was a toy fan, that wouldn't matter, as they are a much more accurate representation (less spikey) of the original toys. And I guess that is all that matters?

3+1 Short Paragraphs: Bad Times at the El Royale

2018, Drew Goddard (The Cabin in the Woods) -- download

Speaking of Drew Goddard (well not really, but he was silently referenced in the last post) here we get the highly anticipated, well really, not-even-aware it was coming out, follow-up to his completely loved first film. Drew is more a producer, but considering his company (the Buffy crowd) and Cabin I am right there with anything he wants to create. That said, I am surprised I had not heard wind of it coming out, and thankful for Roman (coworker, film maker) for bringing it to my attention.

Of note, this post probably should have been a I Saw This!! ("feature wherein Graig or David attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago") but I actually deleted most of the material (twice!) that would have been relegated to that kind of post, during my ... absence. And yet, this movie resides in that same "not quite remembered" portion of my brainpan. I blame stress and stress related distraction.

Now, even without Drew's name being attached, this movie was right down my dark alley. It is a 1960s pseudo noir more hard-boiled film with ensemble cast of loosely connected stories, all intertwining together until it comes to a fiery end. We have the old priest, a lounge singer, a pair of sisters on the run from a cult, a travelling salesman and the night manager of an off-season (i.e. empty), straddling the border (Nevada/California) hotel. For the most part, it's a box story, as long as you extend the box to the entire hotel.

The movie is jam packed with ideas and characters and imagery and plot pieces, the story being a petri dish for thoughts about America in the late 60s. So many things look good and sound good and there some aspects of the movie that are just incredible examples of a craftsman. But the trouble with it is that we are led to believe it's all leading somewhere spectacular, while instead Goddard just burns it all down around us. Maybe it is a metaphor for America right now, in that after the glorious redemption that rose out of the 60s, with America seeking to make right with its past, we are now just all watching that burn down? Either way, despite not being satisfied with how it all ended, I just loved watching him do his thing.

3 Short Paragraphs: You Might Be the Killer

2018, Brett Simmons (Animal) -- Shudder

A couple of years ago Chuck Wendig (author, Zer0es)) and Sam Sykes (author, Aeons' Gate series) wrote an epic Twitter conversation that went viral. The format was Sam, a new camp counsellor, was reaching out to his friend Chuck on how to deal with a murder spree at his camp. Through the pithy back n forth inherent in Twitter, they explored and subverted the tropes of the summer camp slasher movies. It was kind of brilliant and right down my dark, dead end alley.

And then someone decided to make a movie about it, starring Fran Kranz (Cabin in the Woods) and Alyson Hannigan (BtVS) as Sam and Chuck, respectively. Kranz gets to be Sam the (now) seasoned camp counsellor and Alyson is Chuck, who works at a local popculture store -- you know, those places that have evolved out of the neighbourhood comic store, selling all sorts of genre collectibles, games and comics. She's the horror trope expert being sought advice from. Someone is killing all of Sam's fellow camp counsellors, and he is not sure what to do. There is also the issue of his headaches and that he is covered in blood.

This is a fun little movie, about par with much of the genre it is exploring. Being all meta like, it is more chuckle worthy than scary, but it still is able to pull a good amount of tension and anticipation from what should be a pretty straight forward story. Without giving too much away, we end up not really sure if we should root for Sam (the idiot who put on the evil mask) or let him become the "victim" of the Final Girl. Given that I am treating horror-focused streaming service Shudder like my corner video store, where spending $3.99 for an OK movie was fine & dandy, I was happy with the movie even if it was not revolutionary.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

2018, Coen Bros (No Country for Old Men) -- Netflix

When this movie hit Netflix, I was already deeply embedded in Old West milieu, having been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 since my birthday, a video game that is best described as Grand Theft Auto in the Old West, but much more immersive. Thus, this movie and all its lovingly depicted westerns tropes was like slipping sugar cubes to my horse. Or would that be "being slipped sugar cubes by my horse" ? No, that's just weird. Anwayz, it was sweet and made me smile.

Being an anthology, each vignette explores and up-ends common story types and tropes of standard western movies. Some are funny, some are chilling and some are tragic... scratch that, they are all rather tragic in their own way.  Most are original stories written by the Coens, while two are based on Jack London story and a short story by Stuart Edward White, an American author who wrote out-doorsy fiction (hunting, survival, guns) in the early 20th century.

I don't really want to summarize each but we get a tale of a singing cowboy, that smacks of 30s serials; we get a prospector story, a tale of settlers heading west, a vision of Old West entertainment, a bank robbery, and finally a chilling stage coach ride. Each story grabbed something I remember from all those westerns, even the ones I only flicked past, channel surfing on Saturday afternoons. About the only thing missing was a scene shot in those famous California rocks, yes the big leaning ones where they also shot original series Star Trek.

The joy of watching a Coen Bros movie is watching craftsmen at work. The script is always so them in the writing and in the dialogue ("pan shot!!"). The characters are often quirky, which I love, but every actor just seems so deeply absorbed in their role. Take Tim Blake Nelson, not the prettiest man, but I completely believe him as the singing cowboy in the opening piece. Generally, in the original serials this one inspired, those men were square jawed, handsome devils but Nelson is so immersed as cheerful singing gunslinger, I couldn't help but accept it. The Coens make me believe.

Of particular note to me were the segments "The Gal Who Got Rattled" and "All Gold Canyon". It was the dialogue and the performances that did it for me; the conversations between Billy Knap and Ms. Longabaugh so polite and filled with propriety, in the former, and in the latter, the prospector played by Tom Waits talking to himself and his soon to be discovered gold.

I have recently completed RDR2 and I cannot help but still compare this movie to it. A world emersed video game, with primary story but tons of side stories, gives you a lot of vignettes from which to build the greater world your character inhabits. Some are straight forward, revenge, redemption, hunting, skill advancement while others are just solely quirky story telling. I cannot help now but wish the Coens would have written some of the segments of the game and furthered my enjoyment of it.

Double Dose: Soderbergh

(New Feature: Double Dose is two films from the same director, writer or star...pretty simple.  Today, a couple of non-theatrical releases from Steven Soderbergh).

Behind the Candelabra (2013, HBO)
High Flying Bird (2019, Netflix)


BEHIND THE CANDELABRA

It's hard to believe in the 2010s that an elaborate production about the life of a very famous person starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon would have trouble finding theatrical distribution and be relegated to "TV movie" status by debuting as a prestige picture on HBO.  It did remarkably well in that relegation, though, gaining an audience of 3.5 million in its first night of airings and it won 14 Emmys (including outstanding mini-series or movie, best actor in mini-series or movie and best director), and counted 2 Golden Globes among its many other accolades. 

Liberace was indeed a very famous human being up until his death in 1987.  He was a larger than life character who lived his life as opulently as the richest of Middle Eastern royalty.  He was a piano virtuoso, a phenom that impressed with his skills and wowed with his showmanship for over five decades.  But as a celebrity in his time, homosexuality was just not an option, it was a career ender, and though living a very gay private life, he fought the image very publicly.  It's only been in recent years, perhaps since 2013 that out performers aren't being singularly pigeonholed or outright ostracized, and not to say that Behind the Candelabra had anything to do with that, but it certainly explored the topic of sexuality and celebrity like few other productions of this scale had.

The narrative thrust of the film is the relationship between Liberace (Michael Douglas, absolutely inhabiting the role) and Scott Thorson (Matt Damon) for six years starting in 1977.  It never dances around their sexuality, and Lee (as Liberace was known to his friends and lovers) was a hungry predator, welcoming the young, taut Scott into his fold after but a glance when introduced by mutual friend Bob Black (Scott Backula).

Scott was about 40 years Lee's junior, and shortly after their introduction there was an obvious moment where Lee's current concubine/protege knew he was on his way out, sending daggers Scott's way knowing he was about to be replaced with a younger model.  Lee wore his sexuality like heavy baggage.  In public he disavowed any inference that he was anything but the straightest of strait, dining with other prime female showpersons like Charo for aesthetics, but in private he voraciously romanced younger men and consumed porn.  He didn't care to venture into public except for his performances, instead keeping a sheltered life within his various ornate homesteads.  He had a whole support network to keep his dalliances secret, and to feed him a new supply of conquests.

Scott did not mind being a kept man, at first, having been overwhelmingly wowed and dazzled by Liberace as any member of the public would be, but also taken into his confidence and learning to love the man under all the glitz and glamor.  Lee's egocentricity and vanity was far from subtle and certainly problematic.  He even had Scott undergo plastic surgery to look like a younger version of himself (his prior protege whom we fleetingly see in the opening of the film too bore somewhat of a similiarity).  Scott's love had him willingly go along with such a bizarre plan, but in the process he becomes addicted to prescription and illicit drugs prescribed by the plastic surgeon (played by scene stealing Rob Lowe in an outrageously ghoulish performance).

But Lee's avoidance of the public life meant Scott was too kept, and too stir crazy.  He had few friends beyond his drug dealers, and had no identity of his own.  As tensions raised in the house (Lee was very disapproving of Scott's drug habits), Lee's eyes started to wander, and soon Scott was in the position of the dagger-throwing boyfriend on the outs, seeing Lee flirting heavily with a new stage dancer opening for his show.   The circular nature was incredibly well handled.

Soderbergh's attention to detail, his reverence and affection for the subjects, while also maintaining a critical eye are all at play.  This is a tragic love story as well as a love letter.  The closing moments at Lee's funeral, and Scott's vision of Liberace's departing performance is a genuinely beautiful tribute to a marvelous performer and flawed man, and also acts as the final bow for famed composer Marvin Hamlisch.  Douglas commits to the role like no other I've seen him in.  He's always been a solid actor, but this was another level (had this film had a theatrical release he no doubt would have won best actor, but he'll settle for the Emmy and Golden Globes he received).  Damon was quite good, however he's easily 20 years too old for the role, and the miscasting is its own problem.  The lack of gay voices in the actual telling of the film is another.  In spite of that lack of representation, the film was still given a GLAAD media award and Soderbergh seemed to take other pains in ensuring that he was not working in cliches or exploitation.

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HIGH FLYING BIRD

This is the type of sports movie I get into, one that deals with the money and politics of it, the game beyond the game. It's set in the world of sports agents, where Andre Holland plays a man with his back against the wall trying to rep his clients during an NBA lockout. Nobody is getting paid and the shortsighted, monetary-focussed agency he works for is utterly disinterested in spending any more on their clients until the lockout has resolved. Likewise they look at Holland and don't see his value, what he brings to the table that's any different from anyone else. What they don't realize -- but his disgruntled friend and agency lawyer Sonja Sohn keenly observes -- is he's 20 steps ahead of everyone. Even though the film puts that right out there, the masterstroke here is it still gives you plenty of opportunity to doubt Holland and his plan.  But in seeing it come to fruition -- with some devious manipulation and a hip-to-his-playbook accomplice in Zazie Beetz (who is NOT his assistant anymore) -- is a work of beauty.

The film is, in a way, a heist movie, with Soderbergh flexing his Oceans series muscles to present a much different type of scam. The script is ludicrously sharp, the actors are all so game for what's in play (the dynamics of this cast are so good), and the deftness of putting a spotlight on systemic racial exploitation in sports sparks a necessary conversation we don't hear enough of.  Like Behind the Candelabra, Soderbergh has an empathy and astuteness towards situations that may not be of his own experience, but he has no problem conveying with authenticity.

If the film sags a little, it's in Soderbergh's experimentation with shooting the film only with iPhones, which is in stark contrast to the stylishness of his Liberace biopic.  At times he captures some gorgeous shots (acting as his own cinematographer in pseudonym) but there's a samey-ness to them, particularly the wide angles largely employed that seem more like restrictions of the filming medium than deliberate choices.  Soderbergh has always been an experimenter, and this, his second feature shooting exclusively with iPhones suffers slightly for it.

Soderbergh's name will bring people to the film, but buried in a glut of Netflix releases with little promotion, this is going to unjustly fly under the radar of most people.  Hopefully word of mouth will propel this to more people's recommended lists.

Netflicked and Serialized

Titans Season 1  (11 episodes)
Russian Doll Season 1 (8 episodes)
Umbrella Academy Season 1 (10 episodes)

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TITANS 

In 1982 Marv Wolfman and George Perez revamped the Teen Titans concept -- that of a club for superhero sidekicks -- into one of the decade's most popular titles.  The New Teen Titans title didn't just stick with established sidekicks, it also introduced new characters... instant fan favourites like Cyborg, Raven and Starfire.  The series was a full-blown drama about coming out of the shadows of more famous heroes, finding one's own identity, dealing with feeling like an outsider or freak, and more interpersonal squabbles.  It wasn't Degrassi, but it was certainly inspired by the trend of adult soap operatic TV of the era (Dallas, Falcon Crest, Dynasty) and predated the teen soap operatic of Beverly Hills 90210 and 21 Jump Street by at least a few years.  For over a decade in Wolfman's hands the Titans saw various teammates get killed, married, and retire, and they got older, dropping the "Teen" and just becoming "Titans".  As they aged, they introduced a new generation of heroes into their midst, who became Young Justice.  Aging legacy heroes like Dick Grayson, Wally West and Donna Troy would on new identities, making room for new teen sidekicks to take on roles like Robin, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl.

This then, is the very awkward template for Titans, DC's inaugural show for their content platform, DC Universe.  Rather than starting at zero, the series establishes that characters like Robin, Wonder Girl, Hawk and Dove have all been operating as vigilantes for some time, in a world certainly not devoid nor unaware of its superheroes.  However, Dick Grayson has fled Gotham for Detroit and ditched his "R" crest for a detective's shield.  The darker impulses of his mentor were seeping in too deep and so he rejected the heroes life.  But the heroes life comes calling anyway when he meets Rachel, a girl with even darker impulses and powers that manifest as a result.  She's on the run from a cult of abductors, as well as on a journey of self discovery.  Along they way they meet Gar, a kid with green hair who can turn into a green tiger, and eventually their paths cross with Kory, an amnesiac looking for clues to her own past, which seems to have ties to Rachel as well.  Also, Kory can unleash very destructive bolt of energy from her body.

As they come together, a band of misfits with the one shared goal of keeping Rachel safe, they start to uncover some truths about themselves.  In each one's case, there's trauma and tragedy (and in some cases, guilt) that they're burying, that threatens to consume them.  This is even more evident in the story of Hawk and Dove -- Hank Hall and Dawn Granger -- friends of Dick's from his crimefighting days.  Hank's need to bust heads is a way to focus his pent-up rage into something good, and it's Dawn's calm and compassion that keeps him from self destructing altogether, but Hank's lack of discipline is starting to take its toll.  Robin's reappearance into their lives with Rachel in tow is full of good intentions, if ill executed.  We also meet ex-Wonder Girl Donna Troy and the new Robin, Jason Todd, each having a different profound effect on Dick's mindstate... though certainly not even close to providing any resolutions for him.

After the infamous "Fuck Batman" trailer, I had put my expectations in check for this series, and as such, came out pleasantly surprised.  That "Fuck Batman" scene, even in context, just feels like a series that's trying its god-damnedest to be "mature", and there are more than a handful of moments throughout (so much digital blood spatter in the fight sequences) that scream "trying too hard".  But it's not, actually.  The series establishes its tone quite well by the third episode, and is unapologetic for it.  It's a teen/sidekick/superhero story designed for an audience who is already familiar with teen/sidekick/superhero stories.  It's not dumbing anything down and it's not playing nice for a young audience.  It wants its heroes to be scarred and it wants you to see the role the life they lead has on scarring them, and likewise how the scarring in their life has led them into the roles they play.  Titan's greatest triumph is its focus on characters and understanding them. 

Even by the finale there's still a sense that the show is finding its footing, determining what it wants to be. Does it want to be more like the classic 80's comics, does it want to be more like an Arrow-verse show, or does it want to fit with the Snyder-verse DCEU?  It kind of hopscotches across all three, not yet finding the comfortable middle ground, possibly forgetting (or not yet knowing) that it will be the precursor to three other live action series on the DC Universe streaming platform (followed by Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, and Stargirl).  With Director Brad Anderson (The Machinist, Session 9, Fringe) set the tone with the pilot episode, giving the series a certain movie-quality aesthetic to it, with exquisitely lush lighting and impeccably tailored costumes and wardrobes, plus they spent some serious money on the soundtrack.  The fight choreography and stunt work isn't quite up to cinematic standards (or eve Arrow's standards, which has set such a high bar for hand-to-hand fight choreography on TV that Titans can't quite reach) and the injection of digital blood spatter is a completely unnecessary nuisance.

A far as the characters go, they a bit off brand from their comics and animated precursors.  Dick Grayson isn't as charmingly good natured, Gar Logan isn't the fun-loving goofball (and he only transforms into a green tiger, perhaps the aspect of the show that perturbs me the most), Rachel is on-point (if de-aged), and Starfire is more the warrior of the comics than the sweetly naive alien of the cartoons.  Hawk and Dove are bang on point (even if I don't remember Hank and Dawn being in a relationship in the comics, it really works here), as is Jason Todd, and Donna's arrival made me very happy (a most assured representation of this character).  The only thing that is clear with the main cast is they are all suffering to different degrees with PTSD, and although the show never explicitly calls it out, the effects of their abilities, histories and lifestyles have a brutal, grinding down effect. While I wish there was more costumed villains, and more in-costume action, this was a thoroughly engrossing, pleasantly surprising adaptation, of which I'm greatly looking forward to more.

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RUSSIAN DOLL

There are a few TV shows that hit me in the gut so hard, the knock the breath right out of me.  But rather than being an assault, it's a psychosomatic reaction to falling in love with a work of goddamned art.  The golden age of television has given us recently a few of these types of productions: The Good Place, Atlanta, Fargo, Legion, Rick and Morty... and now Russian Doll.

The trope of living the same day over, or dying and starting again has become a genre of storytelling all its own.  Groundhog's Day popularized it, but it's now a trope used in sci-fi (Arq, Edge of Tomorrow) and horror (Happy Death Day) on the regular, and in TV shows seemingly all the time (in the past year Flash, Legends of Tomorrow and Star Trek: Discovery have all used this cyclical convention and I'm sure there's many more examples, probably a whole list or two somewhere).  As much as I love this convention, and am always game for watching one play out, I have to admit that Russian Doll's look far and away has had the greatest impact. 

It's Nadia's (Natasha Lyonne) birthday party, hosted by her best friends.  She's a little drunk, perhaps a little stoned, and perhaps a little depressed.  She goes home with a guy she doesn't find too distasteful and goes about her day.  Then she gets hit by a car and dies, only to awaken back at her birthday party at her friend's place.  Is she just way too stoned? Is this some kind of joke? Is she going crazy?  When she dies again, and returns to the same bathroom at the same time, it's clear that none of these thoughts are accurate.

So what is it.  What is the significance of all this?  It seems that no matter her actions, Nadia dies and comes back to the same time.  But the details aren't always exactly the same, some elements seem different, or missing, and the story seems to get more and more contained, like a matryoshka, the doll inside a doll gets smaller, the details less refined, until there's no more dolls to crack open, just a small figure left exposed like a raw nerve.  It belongs back in the comfort of its ever expanding surroundings but how to get back?  And is it truly alone?

This is a dark comedy, with co-creators Lyonne and Amy Pohler injecting some very specific personality elements into the characters and their environment. Nadia is careless to a fault, she's shut down, guarded, defensive and sardonic.  She has an unrealistically pessimistic view of the world and her life, but what has the world given her to change that viewpoint?  It seems almost intentional then that the friends she has are more carefree and cheerful, and the relationship she most desired was with a good man (a loving father) doing a bad thing (having an affair).  It's an old cliche that New York tends to be its own character in any production that shoots there, and it holds here, but the NYC the show captures is so very specific to the world Nadia rolls in, and extends herself to.  I can't say that the story would play out differently in, say, Minneapolis, but it definitely would not feel the same.

There's a reflective, meditative element to Russian Doll.  Amidst the etherial dark humour and Nadia's search for cosmic meaning for these turns of events, she starts exploring the larger world around her.  In Groundhog's Day the point was for Bill Murray to lose his ego and to become a decent man worthy of wooing Andie MacDowell (the counter-arguement to the film's narrative is how thinly played MacDowell's character is, given that she meets Murray's character at most a day before and while Murray has thousands of days to learn to love her, she has maybe 36 hours, half of which are taken up by him being an asshole), here Nadia's quest isn't nearly as clear.  Is this a case of live, die, repeat, or is it a case that her consciousness is traversing dimensions?  Or is it some form of purgatory?  The philosophical implications aren't ignored, and in some respects shares a sensibility with the contemplative The Good Place, and like The Good Place it's the personal journey that comes to the forefront.  It's not that Nadia becomes a different, better person like Murray's character does in G'hog's Day but instead she comes to just accept herself, understand herself.  But that's not the only key, and to say more is major spoiler territory and the precise point where the show spins from engaging delight to must-consume-it-all engrossing.  The show is meticulous in its detailing, with seemingly meaningless details having greater importance later on, revealing themselves like bombshells upon rewatch (and some details requiring an eagle eye to capture...but it shows the genuine love the creators had in making the show).

All told it plays out like a roughly 4-hour movie (give or take) as much as episodic television, with a doozy of a cliffhanger ending.  There's a promise of three seasons to tell the full story and I cannot wait. 

(David's take on Russian Doll)

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UMBRELLA ACADEMY

With the announcement of a Disney Streaming service back in 2017, Netflix was keenly aware that its time using Marvel properties to draw viewers to its service was coming to an end.  Despite the absolute glut of superhero programming on TV (Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Agents of SHIELD, Krypton, Gotham, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Punisher, The Tick, Runaways, Cloak and Dagger, Legion, The Gifted, Titans and no doubt more that I'm forgetting all had new episodes air in 2018) on top of a dozen or more superhero films per year, the fatigue does not seem to be setting in.  As such Netflix went on the prowl for new superhero properties to call its own, and not share with DC or Marvel.  They signed a deal with Mark Millar for his existing original properties as well as stake in creation of new ones, and they found Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba's Umbrella Academy, an earnest reimagining of/homage to classic X-Men that set the comics world alight for a year or two then faded away.

I recall enjoying the comics, but that's about it.  The experience of watching the Umbrella Academy on Netflix was an all-new one.  Occasionally I would have a flashback to a specific image, such as Luther's simian form on the moon, but the story was all new to me, full of surprises, and a few obvious hunches.

The first three episodes are absolutely cracking with energy, so full of wild ideas rippling with potential and possibilities.  The key conceit is that 43 children were spontaneously born on the same day at the same time around the world nearly 30 years ago to mothers who were no pregnant prior. Professor Reginald Hargreevs, a famed explorer and wealthy eccentric, decided to try and adopt/collect these children, winding up with 7 of them in his family.  Hargreevs was not a loving father, instead more keenly interested in the children as sociological experiments and, upon discovering most of them had special abilities, tools for his own purposes, training them to be superheroes and celebrities, all except Number 7, Vanya, whom he convinces is not special.

A decade or more after the family fractured following the death of Ben and disappearance of Number 5, the remaining estranged siblings gather together for the Professor's funeral, reopening old wounds and inflicting new ones.  Raised by a cold, uncaring, authoritarian paternal figure, a robot mom and an intelligent talking chimp companion, these children are not the picture of mental health.  When Number 5 returns, from a post apocalyptic future he's hoping to avoid (the fact that he's not sure what has happened means there's a mystery to solve first), it provides a ticking clock structure to the narrative that raises the stakes, but also means, at ten episodes, there's aspects which feel laborious in the wake of the countdown to disaster.

I forgot this is what they look like in the comics

The show thrives on the family dynamics, the contentious and acrimonious relationship between most siblings.  Luther was Number 1, meant to be the leader following in his fathers shadow, but feels ashamed that the team fell apart, as well as ashamed of his body which was mutated by his father in an attempt to save is life after a disastrous mission.  Diego was Number 2, a master of knives. Impulsive and aggressive, he maintained the vigilante lifestyle after the band broke up.  Number 3, Allison, became a superstar model and actress, and a mother, but her ability to manipulate people with whispers broke her new family up when her husband learned she used her skill on their daughter.  Number 4, Clive, is able to see and hear the dead, but the dead, being everywhere nearly drive him mad, so he turned to drugs instead to quiet the voices.  The only one he regularly sees now is Ben (Number 6).  Vanya, the one without powers, is the one most lost without her family, and also the one most hindered by them.  Told she's not special, and believing it, she lives demurely and quietly, wishing to break out but too fettered by doubt to do anything about it.  She also wrote a tell-all book about the family which set everyone against her, despite it being a cry to be closer to them.

Number 5 meanwhile, returns from the future where he had lived into his late-50's, in the form of the 12-year-old boy who had left.  He's a teleporter, obviously with the ability to time-jump, but uncontrollably.  His life in the wasteland of the future had an impact, and the trauma creeps out in the unlikeliest of ways.  He also wound up recruited to be an assassin for a bureau who maintains the order of the timeline, and having just defected, he is chased by Cha-Cha and Hazel.  Cha-Cha is a dedicated assassin, while Hazel feels underappreciated by his employers, as his benefits ebb and his well-being compromised.

Any scenes with Number 5, Clive, Hazel or Cha-Cha feel vital, full of vigor and enthusiasm (Hazel, despite being a brutal killer, becomes perhaps the most endearing character in the series).  The sub-plots around Luther and Allison's romance and trauma unfold nicely and with meaning.  Diego has a hard time connecting with his siblings, and his stand-offishness also pushes against the audience after a while, but his conceding to being part of the family is one of the show's more triumphant moments.  It's mostly during Vanya's story where there's drag.  It's not that the arc is bad, but there's a predictable element there that seems to take forever to come to fruition.  The finale is pretty huge, leaving a cliffhanger ending that makes one very curious as to how the next season will possibly play out.

To coincide with the release on Netflix, Way and Ba have returned with a third volume of their comic series, likely because the first two volumes don't provide enough material for an ongoing tv series, as well Way and Ba certainly had more stories to tell in the universe but were sidelined by other projects.  As a replacement for the Nextflix Marvel superhero series, honestly, this is a pretty drastic improvement.  Building one's own world, playing by its own rules, rather than having to live up to the expectations of both comic book histories and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, gives this series more storytelling freedom and leads to less disappointment.