What I Have Been Watching: The Chosen Few (Pt3)

What I Have Been Watching is the admitted state of me spending too much time in front of the TV, especially during 2020 the Extended Version. But this time, I don't even barely attempt to tell you EVERYTHING I have been watching or we would be here all day. 

Pt1 is here. Pt 2 is there. 

Lucifer, S5, Netflix

I watch Lucifer now because Marmy watches Lucifer, and because I still like some of the characters & the actors playing them. But, as a show, it has devolved into a series of fandom-churning ludicrous memes. The show is now basically fanfic come to life, and despite its charms (which are plenty) it more annoys me than anything. But I have no issue with, "I am going to bed, you keep watching" types of shows.

I don't have the energy nor investment to do a proper series recap, but here is what I got, without explaining the premise. You can read my One Episode for that. 

Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis, Miranda) and Detective Decker (Lauren German, Hawaii Five-O) whom he just calls Detective (oh FFS call her by her name, you wanker) have been fighting crime and introducing the world to a host of celestials for a few seasons now. They moved through pretty much all the angels, some bad, some good but all of them arrogant as fuck. One by one the humans in their lives became aware of the divinities in their midst, usually with annoyingly understated reactions, once they get past the initial trauma. 

Mrs. God (Tricia Helfer, Burn Notice), who had been banished to Hell for supporting Lucifer's rebellion, pops back to Earth, inhabits a human body for a time and causes tons of havoc. Her time on Earth ends tragically. Detective Dan "Douche" Espinosa (Kevin Alejandro, Arrow) rightfully despises Lucifer for always being such a prick to him, an annoying gag that never seems to bother anyone but Dan, and me. Dan can be a douche but he doesn't deserve that level of Hellish (pun intended) treatment. Dr. Linda (Rachael Harris, Suits) begins as Lucifer's therapist, has an affair with Lucy's brother Amenadiel (DB Woodside, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and they end up having a baby, Heaven's first half-angel progeny. Lucy's sidekick and bodyguard demon Mazikeen (Lesley-Ann Brandt, The Librarians) is jealous (of everyone) and behaves badly most of the time -- she is a demon afterall. Eve (Inbar Lavi, The Last Ship) shows up for a short season, giving Maze some hope at a happy future. Detective Decker learns who Lucifer really is, AND why she was born (to be Lucifer's foil) and it doesn't go down well. Cain (Tom Welling, Smallville) makes an appearance as a Bad Guy pretending to be a Good Guy. All the while, the show does a meagre attempt at being a police procedural with Lucifer as the consultant who helps Decker, while seducing suspects with his Devilish wiles. This is classic genre TV, but trades making sense for being cute.

This season was about God, Lucy's dad, coming down to Earth. Played by Dennis Haysbert, best known for selling insurance on TV, who has a really good voice which makes him a respectable Voice of God. God is tired of Heaven and Creation and a bit distracted, so he comes to Earth to make amends to his children, with all the usual antics of an utterly dysfunctional family. Lucy despises Dad, which has been a gimmick since season one. As the All Powerful, he just seems ... odd. Sure, this whole show has been about Biblical figures coming to Earth like so many fish (and loaves) out of water (or wine) acting more like humans in need of a lot of therapy (thus Doctor Linda), but having the most powerful being in the Universe acting like a clueless father figure was just ... too much for me. Eventually his real agenda, giving up Heaven, is revealed, and Lucifer ends up going to war against a bunch of the arch-angels, and his twin brother Michael, for the right to claim the throne of Heaven. Lucy wins, Decker accepts that they will step away from Earth and Maze accepts rulership of Hell, along side Eve.

It was an incredibly weak season, but so many have been. The stand-outs for me were the terrible things happening, such as Ella Lopez (Aimee Garcia, Dexter), the lone human on the crew still not being informed of what was going on (she is not in on the premise) all the while professing her strong Christian roots and being somewhat disillusioned because of the disruptions God on Earth is causing. Also, God visits a bit of Godly Wrath upon Dan (after all, Dan slept with his wife) who is also a good Christian, by obliterating him, and then resurrecting him. Dan is, of course, traumatized, and to add insult to injury, the show fucking KILLS HIM and banishes him to HELL because he still feels guilt over some of his past actions. That had me yelling at the screen like my grandmother. If there ever was a reason for Lucy to take the Throne in the Silver City, it was to save Dan. But no, we need some more torturous drama (literal considering Hell) for next season. Oh, and they tortured us by having a song & dance episode, which should have been grand considering Tom Ellis is quite the performer. No, it was terrible. So, so terrible.

And yet, I will again return for this season.

Sweet Tooth, Netflix

Meanwhile, I was not expecting to like Sweet Tooth so much. I had middling feelings about the comic, and went back to binge it, again, with pretty much the same results. But the series, done by Jim Mickle (Stake Land) was surprisingly full of heart. Of course, it is a PoAp series full of horrible situations and horrible people, but it diverged enough from the comic to focus on the Good in people, on people choosing to do better when presented with the worst.

Sweet Tooth, the character, is born into a world suffering a pandemic. He is born with the horns and ears of a deer. MANY more children are born human-animal hybrids with no explanation and the collapsing world doesn't allow them to find out why. Gus, or Sweet Tooth, is brought to the wilderness of a national park by his father, to hide him from those who would blame the pandemic on the strange children being born. As Gus comes into adolescence, his father dies, forcing him to leave his safe little home and enter the dangerous outside world. Gus has one goal -- find his mother, whom he knows only from a photo.

So, PoAp Road Story --- I am in. 

Along the way, we encounter Good People, Bad People and more hybrids, and learn more about the pandemic that ended civilization and hints of the role the hybrids played in it. Gus is portrayer unabashedly optimistic despite everything thrown at him. His protector, Big Man, is an ex-football player who hides that he was once one of the Bad Guys. He, at first wants nothing to do with Gus, but given the kid's perseverance, he more ends up tagging along for the ride, eventually becoming his greatest protector.

The show is so beautifully shot, we sometimes forget the world has ended all around them. Mickle loves his world building, and presents a place of colour and sublime state that has had time to grow back. Of course, the darkest aspects of human nature abide, but there is always a message of hope and Good underlying all the episodes. There are only 8 of them, so a lot of story has to be jammed into them, which of course is all leading to a cliffhanger conclusion, for season two. 

I am in.

[Kent wasn't sure]

Loki, Disney+

This was the first of the three Disney Marvel series that I was unabashedly into. Everything about it hit all the right notes with me, with very little disgruntles. Until the last episode.

So, Loki is dead, right? Neck cracked by Thanos, right? Right. But this is the multiverse and that Loki we saw in End Game, the one who grabbed the tesseract? Well, this is show is about him. But wait, you ask, isn't that the same Loki who later gets his neck snapped? If Steve restores the timeline, as he said he would, things should shift back to what they were, right? Well, technically Steve only returned the infinity stones to their original locations in the timeline; any reverberations in the timeline are left there. And THAT is the premise of our show, folks! 

Almost immediately after escaping, this variant version of Loki is taken by the TVA (no, not the Quebec TV station) - the Time Variance Authority. Their job is to prune variations in the timelines, retaining the integrity of the "sacred timeline", the prime timeline. So... no multiverse. Multiverse bad. Why? Because three mystical entities called the Time-Keepers said so. And this wonderfully Terry Gilliam-ish organization exists to do their will, which essentially comes down to obliterating variances and alternate timeliness. But not before they are assigned an advocate and given a sham-trial.

Loki is assigned Mobius M Mobius (Owen Wilson, ) who tries to convince the rest of the TVA that this Loki can help them with another issue -- someone is killing their agents as they pop around other timelines trying to prune and minimize damage to the sacred timeline. But first Mobius has to convince Loki to do it.

The charm of this show all weighs on the shoulders of Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson, and they carry the weight amazingly. Humour, deceit, anger, arrogance, regret, glorious purpose, [smarm, cattiness, wickedness, vainglory; to steal from Kent's writeup] etc. -- all the various aspects of Loki's makeup play out as the two spar verbally with each other. Meanwhile Moebius is armed with the history of having faced off against many many Loki's previously, including the one that is causing all the issues for the TVA. He comes off as somewhat naïve but he is anything but. If he has one failing it is that he has faith - faith in the TVA, faith in his best friend Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu MBatha-Raw, Doctor Who) and faith in what Loki can become. Afterall he has seen the entire timeline of Original Loki, right down to his death.

Like Kent said, you would think the show would be mostly a chase series. But almost immediately, Loki Variant actually bumps into the adversary, who turns out to be another Loki (duh) but this one is Sylvie, a female Loki. And she was treated very badly by the TVA, and is taking revenge on them. Loki Variant wants to do right by her, but also has his own agenda (of course) but actually ends up caring that he betrays Moebius.

I was entirely on board, with all the romping about, in timelines, and variant Loki lives, and the mystery that was the TVA. Until the end. I am still not sure what to do with that episode. It was all exposition and Next Season plot building, but I barely got how it tied into the rest of the show. As a climax, it was anti for me. As a cliffhanger, it just left me... hanging. But I will forgive the show, as we were given not only Richard E Grant as "Classic Loki" but also Gator Loki, which makes no sense at all, but is glorious nonetheless !

I loved this series.