We Agree: Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

2026, Jon Favreau (Chef) -- download

Kent.

OK, here I go back into blockbuster land, as they begin popping up on my pirate sites. Oh, did I say that out loud?

In 2019 Favreau did what no one was truly expecting -- got a live-action "Star Wars" TV show off the ground, and made it good. Actually, great. It came out at the end of a series of very divisive theatrical movies, and I include The Rise of Skywalker. This is the first proper movie since that series of, arguably failures, ended. And it was a box-office flop. I never saw it in the cinema, but my forays into those dark abodes are no longer an indicator of anything.

Kent says it well.

I enjoyed the movie... but... I enjoyed the movie like I would enjoy binge watching a season of The Mandalorian, and that's kind of the experience the film brings. It doesn’t feel right.

I watched this for the first time, at home, on the TV, and yet I feel that somewhat of a let-down feeling. As I am wont to say, it's fine. But in only saying that, I am once again kind of pissed off. While I understood I never held the spin-off movies to the same level, what I wanted from this was for Favreau and Filoni to translate their special love of "Star Wars" from the small-screen to the Big Screen experience. I didn't get that; I just got a ... longer episode with more budget?

My mind was a bit muddled coming into this movie. Having just come off some relatively recent rewatches of Ahsoka and Obi-Wan, as well currently ongoing rewatches of Ep. VII and VIII, my brain is lost in the time stream. As I understand it, we are coming into this story post-Ep. VI, just after the events in Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew. So, the New Republic is still in control, the First Order hasn't visibly risen yet, and yet remnants of the Empire are still everywhere. And so, the New Republic has tasked The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal, Wonder Woman 1984; Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder), and his side-kick Grogu, with hunting down these remnants. 

The movie opened with a bounty. Its a snow planet, or at the very least, the place on the planet in the mountains, with snow. Imperial walkers, snow troopers, colluding Imperial warlord and toadies. Its all fun and exciting, but then we swing to the opening credits and .... huh. Sure, I like Ludwig Göransson as much as the next person, and his score is probably most exciting "Star Wars" music since the original movie, but this overly bombastic version, meant for a cinema with big speakers, does not fit well with the "American base in the Vietnam war" style opening. By itself, the scene is wonderful, but they should have saved the big sounds score for... the end? I am thinking the score should have been a more sly version, low key and anticipatory.

Why are planets in "Star Wars" always a single biome?

Bounty Hunters are always "bring em in alive, or bring em in dead, I still get paid" and that is pissing off Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver, Alien), who needs the intel a living "Imp" can provide. And yet, despite her annoyance, she coaxes Mando into another job, offering him a newly refurbed Razor Crest, since his last one was blown to smithereens. The problem is that he will have to work with the Hutts, particularly The Twins, who took over Jabba's demesne after his death, and while Boba still rules on Tatooine as Daimyo. The Twins want Mando to rescue Rotta (Jeremy Allen White, The Bear), Jabba's son, from a crime boss named Coin. You might recall that Rotta was known to Ahsoka as "Stinky".

This was my first hint that maybe my super duo might not translate well to the Big Screen, even if I am watching on the Small Screen. The mismatched score, the smaller stakes. Sure, other (cinematic) movies do small stakes all the time, but this is "Star Wars" and following a successful stint on TV, I wanted Big Stakes, not just the rescue of a previously referenced side character, with some complications in tow. Maybe I wanted a gateway into the next (previous) trilogy? Grumblings of the First Order? Shadowy foreshadowing? Some big success for The Rebels-turned-New-Republic-Policing?

But again, what I did get was fine and all. 

Fun things. The transposition of the original movie's holochess into "real life" was smirk inducing, but also... weird? Are these monsters/beasts or are they people? I mean, one was wearing a vest, but some were pretty horrific looking. Also, that whole town was really really well designed, visually. Can't wait for a food influencer to recreate the sandwich Mando was about to be served. 

And the practical effects / stop motion segment as Grogu and the Anzellans (once again, all voiced by Shirley Henderson, Okja) band together to rescue Mando. I swear, I could see the strings on their tiny ship. And the fight between Mando and mega-droids was very very Ray Harryhausen. A whole lot of fun, but also.... jarring and out of place.

Less enthused. The Grogu sitting around in his mud hut (not Hutt) waiting for Mando to heal. Its like they needed to fill a required allotment of Grogu being cute. Also, by now, Mando knows he's not a pet, knows he's not a "child" so.... what's with all the pet / toddler references? The time that had to pass for Mando to get better should have had more impact.

If I had seen this in the cinema, I am no longer convinced if I would have been less annoyed, having had a Big Screen Experience, no matter the film's satisfaction level (remember, we "enjoyed" watching Madam Webb and The Flash), or more annoyed, given expectations vs reality. I am much more annoyed by the box office turnout, and the impact it will have on future Favreau / Filoni projects.

KWIF: Supergirl (+2)

KWIF=Kent's Week in Film.

This Week:
Supergirl (2026, d. Craig Gillespie - in theatre)
They Will Kill You (2026, d. Kirill Sokolov - crave)
We're All Going to the World's Fair (2021, d. Jane Schoenbrun - blu-ray)

When it comes to a superhero movie my longtime habit has been to go in feeling totally optimistic, hopeful, and rooting for its success. I want to be entertained, I want to see the comics characters I know brought to life, and I want other's to feel inspired.  I love comics. I love movies. I want this marriage to work.

I even felt this way going into the dregs of the 1990s like the Shaquille O'Neal-starring Steel and batnippled Batman and Robin all the way to modern lumps like Vin Diesel's Bloodshot or the Rock's superhero vanity project, Black Adam, and virtually everything in-between (and outside of)...  I just want the movie to do justice in bringing these things I like (or love, or even have no emotional connection to) to the cinema. Even if a comic book movie is not financially successful, then I'm happy to take the moral victory if it's a valiant adaptation of the character or story.

This is all to say that I went into Supergirl absolutely ready to champion it, to stand behind it and prop it up, even as critical feedback at large called it middling and muddy. I'm rooting for the James Gunn-led DC universe to succeed, and absolutely loved his Superman last year, so I was ready for another surprise triumph (especially having read the source material Supergirl was being adapted from...more on that later). 

It was once true that a nerd's tolerance for nerd shit tends to be much higher than your average film critic, but these days so many film critics have their nerd bona fides to back their opinions up that it's harder to just outright dismiss their commentary. Even without external critical voices, I have my own internal critical voice now, one that I have a hard time shutting off.

Supergirl opens with a montage of a girl and her dog. Kara Zor-El (Millie Alcock) and her pup Krypto are planet-hopping and bar-hopping for Kara's 23rd birthday. Getting wasted, making messes, just whooping it up to numb the traumatic memories that haunt her. Cousin Clark calls, wishing her the best, but can't hide his concern. Meanwhile Ruthye (Eve Ridley) witnesses the senseless death of her family at the hands of ruthless (no pun intended) brigands. Ruthye picks herself up, dusts herself off, and goes looking for someone who will help her avenge the death of her family. Kara's plastered in a bar on Ruthye's red-sun-baked planet (meaning her powers are waning), dancing to Wet Leg's "Catch These Fists" (piped into the space jukebox via a vintage ipod) when Ruthye announces herself and her intentions, only to be bowled over by some unsavoury dudes, and Kara needing to step in. Ruthye starts following Kara, imploring her to help her, but it's only after Krypto is poisoned by the Brigands as they steal Kara's ship (where did she get a spaceship from anyway?) that Kara and Ruthye's objectives align and adventure awaits them.

The first act of Supergirl, for the most part, is pretty solid. There are a fair amount of needledrops, some superb alien make-up work and special effects, and a largely agreeable and unique sequence aboard a space coach bus. There's life and vitality to this first act that ebbs slowly away as the film progresses past it. It's not a James Gunn film, so it doesn't have his sensibilities, but it almost feels like Craig Gillespie wanted the first act to parrot the James Gunn thing. It's moderately successful, but it's absolutely clear from the first two fight sequences that Gillespie is not comfortable or confident with such sequences and they are neither clean nor easy to follow, and both are quite poorly lit (it's also quite possible that the theatre I was in was dimming their projector, the whole film seemed overly dark). The quality of the action sequences only diminish from there.

The story in Supergirl comes from Tom King and Bilquis Evely's comic-book mini-series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which was King's sci-fi/superhero take on True Grit, but in a episodic format. This film, then, is a copy of a copy, translated from one medium to another and back again, and the degradation in fidelity is palpable. Having watched the Coen Bros. take on True Grit recently, it's a virtual masterpiece that even a dimmed copy should still wind up being somewhat good, possibly even great. While Supergirl isn't outright bad, I struggle to call it good. It's fine. It's a movie.

What last year's Superman had was spirit and humour -- as does True Grit -- but Supergirl lacks these, abandoning much of its humour quickly into the film and never quite finding its spirit. True Grit's tale, especially in the Coens' hands, relies completely on how the characters engage one another. Kara is Rooster Cogburn here, while Ruthye is Mattie, and even though Alcock does the work to make Kara seem like she's been through the wringer and having a tough time coming out the other side, the bond between these two characters doesn't ever get satisfactorily forged, at least not on screen. In True Grit the Coens got a lot of mileage out of Hailee Steinfeld's Mattie, for her primness and eloquence and impression of maturity, that is highlighted against Rooster's inebriated brusqueness ... something that is attempted here with Ridley's Ruthie against Alcock's Kara, but, it's not the focus of the script, so many meaningful things get lost along the way. The lightness of the contrast is lost.

The third member of the True Grit team dynamic was the virtuous lawman La Bouef, and I get the in-name-only joke of substituting bounty hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa) in here, but those are two very different archetypes, and, frankly, Lobo feels kind of shoehorned in here. There's not really any meaningful engagement between Lobo and Kara, and the relationship between Lobo and Ruthye happens largely off screen. The need for set pieces (kind of ugly and muddy setpieces at that) takes the place of having these three characters sit and talk and drink and get to know each other around a (space) campfire. (Momoa's Lobo feels like Momoa doing a Beetlejuice impression... it's fine, but there's no character definition in the script).

The film also falls into repetitive patterns that become quite tiring by the third crest and fall. Kara tells Ruthye to stay behind and be safe only for her not to listen and for Kara (or someone) to have to help her as she gets in over her head.  Or Supergirl loses her powers (instantly) only to gain them back instantly, time and time again. I get it, the Supers are so over-powered that they need such mechanisms to make them vunlerable, but it's the abruptness and repetitiveness that both bother me. The powers should diminish slowly over time, a ticking clock mechanism, while a hail mary recharge may not bring them back full throttle it should always be enough. It's the writings of someone who hasn't spent enough time with the Super-family to understand this.

The main villain is head brigand Krem of the Yellow Hills (Matthias Schoenaerts), and he's kind of what everyone's chasing, the maguffin of the comic book, but here they half-heartedly try to develop him into a vile killer who does so for pleasure, and Schoenaerts tries to inject life into the character, but this character, really, should be largely unseen. The less of him, the better. And then the script adds in the fact that the brigands are a men-only club, who kidnap young (it should be noted, human) women to bear them children. It's a play right out of Mad Max:Fury Road but without consulting someone like Eve Ensler to tell them whether they should or not.

As a result, the young girl slave trade casts a pretty bleak pall over an already strapped-for-joy movie. It wallows in the trauma of Kara having lost her family (conveyed in a series of flashbacks that grind the film to a dead halt -- flashbacks are in the comics but handled very differently) and Ruthye's same-but-not experience (in spite of them both having these traumas, the film still isn't able to bond them very well on screen...there's, like, one moment where Kara, silently, realizes this).  Had the film not sidelined Krypto, there would have a been a comic relief chaos agent to make this whole pill easier to swallow. I realize he's also sidelined in the comic and his sidelining is the impetus for Kara to go on this journey in the first place, but comic books have years of character history to draw on and an established universe to traverse, while this film needs to create it all from whole cloth. They could have found something else to trigger Kara and keep Krypto in the picture. 

I wanted to love Supergirl.  As is, I don't really even like it. I do really like this iteration of the character, the attitude that Alcock portrays very well, but the film doesn't serve her too well. I came out of Supergirl feeling like I barely understand this character after spending two hours with her. At the end of the film, Kara returns to Earth, to Metropolis, uncertain of her place in the universe, but ready to find out. Yeah, that's a starting point, not an ending.

---

[Warning: spoilers within]

They Will Kill You starts with Asia Reaves (Zazie Beetz) and her little sister fleeing from an abusive stepfather. He catches up to them quickly, and Asia shoots him. The cops arrive, Asia runs, leaving her sister behind. Conceptually it's a pretty heavy, if quite brief, opening sequence that doesn't make the audience wait long to get to the point.

Asia got caught and served 10 years in prison for the attempted murder of her father, but has felt nothing but guilt over leaving her sister behind. Asia's hired a private investigator to track her sister down, he points her to the Virgil, a New York 9-storey high rise for the wealthy, where her sister was hired as a cleaner, but it has a reputation as being a place where people disappear. There is definitely insinuations of class and race disparities, and the rich being raised up on the the backs of the poor, which all sounds rather heady as subject matter.

And yet, this is just the place setting. This film really doesn't waste its time. It's only about 15 minutes before the first fight sequence happens, and it doesn't let up from there. Whatever inference of social commentary the opening few minutes might have suggested, for the most part they are pushed aside so that we can have a rollicking good time as Asia navigates the Victor's many hallways, passageways, tunnels and shafts, fending off it's blood-hungry elites.

Asia take a job with a fake ID to get into the Virgil, and instantly meets some of the fake-smile bearing residents, the head of services Mrs. Woodhouse (Patricia Arquette), and getting a very short tour of the servants quarters on the first floor. She senses she's being watched, so she secures her door. A masked behemoth finds his way into her room regardless and attempts to attack her... only Asia is prepare to fight back. Four more assailants find their way in and Asia defends herself, armed with a sawed off shotgun and a sword. 

When Asia lops off Tom Felton's head, the arterial spray is like a lawn sprinkler, just all directions everywhere. The fight with the remaining assailants is heated and brutal and bloody and very creative. Asia's taking her lumps, but she's surprisingly a warrior, and ready to take everyone on.

There are definite shades of Kill Bill here, not just in the fighting, but in the style, the edits, the pastiche, the title cards and flashbacks. And yet, it's not Tarantino-esque, because this plays as an even greater ode to Sam Raimi. 

The elite of the Victor are immortal devil worshippers who can't truly be killed. They will resurrect and reform if even a flake of skin remains. In one of the film's many incredible sequences, Asia is crawling through a between-floor tunnel system and encounters Sharon (Heather Graham) whose head she lopped off earlier in the film. After a scuffle, Asia blows Sharon's head off, and, moments later the headless body starts charging towards her (just grasping, but unable to see, hear or properly sense Asia's whereabouts). Eventually Asia finds her way to an upward shaft, but doesn't notice Sharon's eyeball, using the optic nerve like a flagella to propel itself through the tunnels to track her. Somehow Sharon's headless body is still receiving the intel, and attempts to charades the information back to the other elites. It's absolutely ridiculous and obscenely delightful. Just as the whole film is.

Much like a Bruce Campbell in an Evil Dead, Zazie Beetz keeps taking her lumps, but also keeps fighting back. She fights for herself, and she fights for her sister, but mostly, she's fighting for our entertainment. The film culminates with Asia fighting Mrs. Woodhouse with a devil-possessed giant boar's head Voltron-ed her own. Just insane, but delirously entertaining.

There's not a tremendous amount of story or character development here, there's no need for it. This is just a wicked fight movie that's having a good time going to comedic extremes, and I'm here for it.

---

It would be easy to mistake We're All Going to the World's Fair, which was released in 2021, as a COVID-era production. It's a small film that follows its protagonist, 16-year-old Casey, as she lives her life online, participating in "the World's Fair Challenge".  It's a social media trend that, according to other (in-world, off-brand youtube) streamers, changes you in unexpected ways. Casey films herself strolling around her town, talking to the camera about the changes she's feeling, the disconnecting from herself, the violent and or self-harmful impulses she's feeling. We see Casey dancing alone, or playing baseball by herself. We see her exploring the barn late at night, looking at her father's gun (we're talking an assault weapon here, not a hunting rifle or handgun), and eventually settling on the barn couch, watching not-youtube on the big screen, when a video autoplays a message that is directly for her. It features a still of Casey's face, distorted and melty, alternating with a hastily scribble warning that she is in trouble, and she needs to reach out. 

Jane Shoenbrun's I Saw The TV Glow was my favourite film of 2024, an exploration of how media can impact one's sense of identity, and an powerful closeted trans-allegory disguised as a horror film. This, their first feature shows they definitely have a grasp, and maybe even a penchant for media-identity related storytelling (their third film, this year's Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma looks to be yet another, different and provocative take on this dynamic).  We see Casey not just through her videos, but also as she's making her videos, and when she's not making her videos she's engaging with other "World's Fair" content.

Schenbrun has fun building out the online world of "the World's Fair Challenge", some disturbing content from creators describing (or showing) how the Challenge has changed them. It's almost like an infection, but the symptoms differ from person to person.

The aforementioned warning comes from "JLB", and Casey decides to Skype with this stranger. JLB expresses that they're concerned about them, and asks Casey to just keep making more videos. The film's greatest move comes following this call that ends the first act, switching us over to JLB's perspective for a period of time. He is a thin, bald middle-aged man with a very hang-dog expression, and we just don't know what his deal is. He lives in a very big house, so he's obviously successful at whatever he does, or did, but he primarily hangs out and sleeps in what looks like a teenager's bedroom. There are pictures in the house but we never clearly see them. We don't know if JLB lost a kid to this "Challenge" or if he's just an online creeper, or if he's just a lonely guy looking to platonically connect with someone who also appears lonely, or if he's a psycho who has murdered the family in this home and is now operating out of it. He does spend a lot of time disseminating Casey's content though.

Beyond Casey's video in which we see her wander through a crowd at a New Year's celebration, we never see her with people. Her father, we're only aware of him because he yelled at her once (for listening to something loudly at 3am), but there's a half insinuation that she's scared of him...or avoiding him...or both. But there's so much Schoenbrun doesn't show us here that everything is up for interpretation, right through to the finale where the rug isn't so much as pulled out from under us but the fog is lifted.  

The events of the movie are recontextualized, but the question is...does it make a difference? However we view Casey, isn't the end result that she's lonely, sad, and perhaps depressed? 

"The World's Fair Challenge" is Schoenbrun interpreting the Creepypasta realm of online horror storytelling through collaboration, the realm that bore such fruits as Backrooms and The Slender Man and Channel Zero, but through a very grounded, human, individualistic lens. It very much feels like Schoenbrun is asking "is this how I would be if this type of communal storytelling was available to me when I was a sad, awkward, lonely teenager", and I feel very much the same way, that the whole Creepypasta thing would have been totally for me had I grown up in a different time.

It's eerie how much ...World's Fair is in sync with what pandemic living felt like (according to Schonebrun, it finished filming March 1, 2020) but it's not an intentional pandemic allegory. It's message is not bound by time, as a result, it is a story of loneliness, and the horror here (if you can call it that...it's more just a slow, simmering dread), is equally grounded in sadness and the truly unknowable strangers of the internet.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

 2026, d. Jon Favreau - in theatre

Has there ever been a TV show that had a theatrical movie continuing its character's journeys where the movie was effectively self-contained and new-audience accessible, plus felt like a proper movie and also did very well at the box office? (Like, I know the Sex and the City films and the Downton Abbey films were pretty big commercial hits, but were they accessible for new audiences? And the Firefly continuation Serenity was perhaps the most accessible, but it failed to draw much of a new audience).

I bring this up, because coming out of The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first Star Wars movie to hit theatres in 7 years, my brain was wracked with thoughts trying to figure out what was the dividing line between a TV show and a movie. With this film, the line is so blurry as to be almost imperceptible as a line.

In 2019, when The Mandalorian hit tv screens, and the first notes of (3-time Oscar winner) Ludwig Göransson's Morricone-inspired score whistled out, shivers went up my spine. We were finally getting live action Star Wars on our TV, and money was being spent so as to make it cinematic quality. The line was already starting to blur. And between three seasons of The Mandalorian, and other shows like The Book of Boba Fett, The Acolyte, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, and Skeleton Crew, within 7 years live-action Star Wars on our TV screens had eclipsed the runtime of all the theatrical Star Wars feature films released over almost 50 years.

Disney needed Star Wars and Marvel to launch and hook subscribers to its Disney+ service, and it worked, but at the same time, the rapid expansion of the franchise(s) diluted both of them, fatiguing the audience on the MCU, and also losing their nerve when it came to making new Star Wars for the big screen. So many Star Wars movie projects were announced that never materialized - a new trilogy from Rian Johnson, a trilogy from the Game of Thrones guys, a Kathryn Bigelow Top Gun-but-with-X-Wings movie, a Boba Fett film, an Obi-Wan film, something from Taika Waititi and so many more.

That a cinematic sequel to The Mandalorian would be the first return to the big screen for Star Wars (with billion-dollar filmmaker and creator of the titular Mandalorian Jon Favreau at the helm) seemed like such a safe bet, that it made sense why Disney would choose that path. The only problem is it's too safe of a bet that it's not all that exciting.

Leading up to The Mandalorian and Grogu's release I failed to muster any real energy for the film. The trailers were fine but revealed nothing about the plot, and, frankly, looked like more of the same from the TV show...a show I loved, need I remind you. 

If you're of a certain age, you will know what it's like to sit in a theatre, have that 20th Century Fox fanfare blast at you, the screen go dark, and the title card "A Long Time Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away..." hit your eyes, and the jarring horn blast of John Williams' legendary score punch you so hard in the gut that you uncontrollably yelp with surprise and excitement. Any time you watch a Star Wars film, that horn blast will transport you back to the theatre and raise that uncontrollable sense of excitement.

Unfortunately Göransson's The Mandalorian and Grogu theme, as amazing as it is, when the pulsating duh-dunn kicks in, well...it transports me back to sitting in front of my TV screen in 2019 (and, even more unfortunately, the pandemic-era seasons of the show). This is not something you want out of the theatrical experience, to be reminded of sitting in front of your TV. And I coudn't shake that feeling through The Mandalorian and Grogu's 2 hour and 14 minute run-time.

I enjoyed the movie... but... I enjoyed the movie like I would enjoy binge watching a season of The Mandalorian, and that's kind of the experience the film brings. It doesn’t feel right.

It's a very segmented movie, one that feels episodic not cinematic, even though it is telling one complete story.

The film opens with a big action sequence prologue, sort of James Bond-style (credit to critic Alonso Duralde for pointing out the somewhat Bond-ian nature of this film), that finds Din Djarin and his baby-Yoda adopted (50-year-old) son Grogu hunting down an Imperial warlord on an ice planet. It starts out like scenes that we've seen in The Mandalorian before, Mando moving through the shadows, exterminating Stormtroopers with ruthless efficiency, but it escalates into something fairly big, with Mando taking on a trio of AT-ATs.

And throughout the fim, yes, there are elements that felt intimately familiar, and not too dissimilar to what we saw on TV, but there were also the flourishes that announced itself as a big-screen motion feature, such as the Mandalorian entering the head of the Imperial Walker and navigating his way into the back of it, eliminating all the imperials within in heated gunplay and fighting, and then retreating back out through the head, all in a one-shot. For a Star Wars nerd like me, moving through the interior of an AT-AT is just something I've been wanting to see most of my life. Things like that make the galaxy of Star Wars feel that much more tangible.

Mando is now an contracted agent for the New Republic, with Sigourney Weaver as handler of his assignments. His new assignment is to meet with the siblings of deceased crime lord Jabba the Hutt. They alone seem to hold the whereabouts of a specific Imperial warlord that fallen off the radar. We get to see swampy Nal Hutta, the home planet of the Hutts, as well as the structures they live in and the gross living conditions they have.  the tour into the belly of the Hutt twins' "palace" borders on stomach-churning...all that writhing ("mommy, what are the slug-people doing?" "They're just eating dear.")l. One longs for the arid dryness of Tattoine. At least the sand looked clean.

The Hutts will give Mando the information he seeks, but first he must rescue their nephew, Jabba's son, Rotta the Hutt. He "fell into a bad crowd" and has been taken captive on a remote planet outside the New Republic's jurisdicion. There he finds Rotta is a champion pit-fighter, and if you've ever wondered what a jacked-up Hutt looks like, well wonder no more. Rotta, I'm guessing by design, looks like a beefcaked version of Jabba from the Star Wars: A New Hope Special Edition, where the CGI Jabba looked nothing like the Jabba from Return of the Jedi.

I won't step through all the beats of the film but lest to say, Mando frees Rotta, gets the Targeted imperial warlord, and returns home with his little green boy to relax. And that's the half-way point. But he's crossed the Hutts and they want their revenge. This time Mando gets kidnapped by a bounty hunter, and it's up to Grogu and some tiny friends (the Anzellans, a diminutive race that were the only good thing to come out of The Rise of Skywalker) to rescue him.

There's surprisingly, a long quiet stretch in this third act that is far from boring, but also far from feeling like a big Star Wars feature film. This kind of quiet interlude isn't necessarily unwelcome or by default un-cinematic, but it feels like a moment The Mandalorian TV show would permit itself in an 8-episode season versus slowing the pace of a feature film down to a crawl for 20 minutes.  Once this sequence resolves, it's a propulsive escalation back into Star Wars feature film territory, and despite my glee at many moments of this it just never quite felt big enough.

Star Wars films are space opera. There's "fate of the galaxy" at stake in every one of them, even Solo to some degree. But The Mandalorian and Grogu is contained, constrained. There's only "the job" and while "the job" gets complicated, and then backfires on our hero, there's little more else to it. This isn't a personal quest for Din Djarin or Grogu, and so there's no real arc for these characters. Where our heroes are at the beginning is where our heroes are at the end, except Grogu, I guess, has proven himself a bit more resourceful than we thought (they definitely leveled up the Grogu puppetry here, to an impressive extent)

It's an incredibly small cast for a Star Wars film, with Mando and Grogu, Mando's mission buddy Zeb Orrelios, Sigourney Weaver's Ward, the Hutt twins, Embo the bounty hunter, the Blofeld-esque warlord (Jonny Coyne), the Anzellans (all voiced magnificently by Shirley Henderson), a food vendor capably voiced by Martin Scorsese, and a kindly catfish-man Grogu meets in the swamp. 

My muted anticipation for The Mandalorian and Grogu had me hoping it would find some space operatic reason to exist. Something large and consequential in the lore of the Galaxy to make for a worthy big screen entry. At the same time I worried that the logic of a bounty hunter being part some sweeping space opera would put the character out of place. I also worried that a Mandalorian movie would get too lost in Star Wars lore, especially given that Zeb is a main character from the Star Wars: Rebels cartoon, Embo is a featured character from The Clone Wars series, the Hutt Twins first appeared in The Book of Boba Fett (a cold shiver went up my spine a the thought of Boba Fett cropping up in this movie, which he mercifully does not), and Rotta the Hutt's first appearance was in The Clone Wars animated movie that kicked off the series.  Thankfully, none of these characters requires any prior familiarity to enjoy their appearance here, there is that.

Overall The Mandalorian and Grogu looks pretty good. It looks big budget, certainly bigger budget than the TV show, for which the Volume digital backdrop was created and used heavily. Having just watched Mortal Kombat II, a very Volume-dependent film, I couldn't detect any obvious volume usage here.  The limits to Volume use on the various Star Wars TV shows seems lifted here, and it's nice to see characters move through much larger spaces (or even confined spaces that seem like sets, not digital backdrops).

Göransson is one of my favourite film and television score composers working today. He typically brings a lot of creativity and innovation to his scores, experimenting with sounds but to the benefit of whats on screen. His scoring for The Mandalorian tv show was integral to that show's success, to the point that I feel the third season of the series, though it has its faults in story structure, is mainly let down by Göransson's absence. His return here, then, is very welcome, and yet, unfortunately, it doesn't feel like trademark Göransson . It's rehashing the themes from the show and he doesn't seem to have escalated the sounds to something grander, although there are stadout segments where Göransson does shine, mostly when he deviates from the style of music he's otherwise been working with.

In the end I think that there was no winning with this film. Despite being quite entertaining, it doesn't go big enough to feel like the Star Wars cinematic experience we know, and therefore can't do much but disappoint. I can't help but think that, perhaps, the decision to bring the series to the big screen was the wrong choice for Star Wars' return to cinemas.

What I Have Been Watching: A Catchup Post

I said many times recently that I am not currently writing about TV. As my brain is powered on whim, I decided to write "watching" post, but not in the adopted Kent Method (1-1-1) but just my old catchup kind of post where I write a paragraph or two on shows I recently watched, or I am currently watching. Its a blather-on kind of post. It will skip ones from way back when.

Dropping stubs; to be filled out.

9-1-1, Season 8, Disney+

We used to download this show as it came up, but eventually our dedication to the show waned, so we now just wait for it to appear on Disney+, where they are actually dropping weekly episodes. They just finished off Season 8. 

Given I am not using the 1-1-1 format, I will just blather on a bit. 

This was the season they killed off not just a main character, but the main character -- Captain Bobby Nash. In a two part episode about a crazy epidemiologist who releases a mutant virus, and infects some members of the team, Bobby sacrifices himself to save one -- Chimney. There's no fake out, no walk back with a miraculous cure. He dies, horribly, quickly. And it tears apart the people present. This show has always been good at trauma, less the people they are supposed to be saving, and more the members of the 118 Station House. I mean, this year, 911 Operator Maddie Han had her throat slashed by a serial killer who had kidnapped her. But she survived, unlike every other throat slashing on TV which is played out as insta-death. But the show is silly and melodramatic and over the top and near-deaths are the norm. Real Death is not and it was really really tragic. 

Also, on a less traumatic note, the hunky hunk Buck came out as Bi; oh wait, that was last season. Also, yes there was a season opening episode about bees.

Andor, Season 2, Disney+

Likely the best thing I watched in the past year. Definitely the opposite of the last show given it is smart, well written and deftly paced. Never has there been a show which successfully had me rooting for the Bad Guy, and not in an ironic way, but growing to actually like them. Begrudgingly, grumpily so. Not entirely, and not for the usual quippy Buffy-Spike reasons, but because they are played as such strong characters with strong motivations. But they remain the Bad Guy. And I commend the show for having them remain a Bad Guy until the very end, not shoe-horning in some redemption arc, despite giving us openings. Such. Good. Writing.

The tailoring of this season through 3 episode arcs that cover one year's period, counting down to Cassian Andor leaving the rebel base, to begin the movie Rogue One, was brilliant. Utterly brilliant. It allowed build up, in degrees, and also resolution, in degrees. It also allowed us to fill in some details, build out the characters, establish some utterly engrossing moral dilemmas and sum up some things that just had to be summed up. More precisely: the establishment of Yavin as the Rebel Base, the rise and fall of "necessary evil" Luthen Rael, the rise and fall of aforementioned Bad Guys Syril Karn & Edra Meero, 

Doctor Who, Season 2, Disney+

I am still kind of annoyed at the rebranding of this as a new series (i.e. the 'season 2' component) and also somewhat disappointed that Ruby Sunday only truly lasted one season as the main companion. While I really like Belinda Chandra as a companion, I just haven't really warmed to the season. Just nothing stands out, at all. I watch, I mildly enjoy and then I burp, and its gone. 

The show definitely continues the "piss off the anti-woke folks" being more gay, more brash statements than any other series, which is kind of gleeful unto itself. The episodes which were blatant send-up's on incel rhetoric were a hoot. And, they have been having some fun extending the pantheon related storyline from "first" season, but I am just ... not invested.

Doctor Odyssey, Season 1, Disney+

I wanted to watch this for two reasons: I have an odd fascination with alternative cruise ships, i.e. the more akin to classic, smaller ships than they mega-ships run by companies (ironically) like Disney -- see Death and Other Details. And because it seemed it would be in the vein of 9-1-1 with a "situation of the week" wherein the mains have to deal with something dramatic and tense. Alas, it more devolved into personal politics, which I am not adverse to in theory, but the whole love-triangle (full blown, let's have a threesome triangle stuff, between a "boss" and co-workers) between the mains just had me rolling my eyes.

I have just stopped watching.

Murderbot, Season 1, Apple TV / Download

Based on a scifi book series I just started reading ("just started" at my snail pace and attention span means I read the first book over a year ago) and enjoyed. But for some reason, they have positioned the TV show as a straight up comedy, something I did not attach to how the free-willed cyborg behaved in the books.

A Security Unit, a cyborg that is more weapon/tool than person, is assigned to a hippy-dippy group of scientists. Unbeknownst to them, this SecUnit has devised a way to break their "governor module", the device that keeps them from thinking for themselves. But it, and it most definitely identifies as "it", doesn't want to be found out, so it has to play the part. Exceeeept, its doing weird, more human things.

Two thoughts, as not much has happened two episodes (30 minute-r type episodes) in, but: since "it" is played by Alexander Skarsgård, it will soon, inadvertently become "he". And when reading the books, I somehow identified it as she. And I really like that they "let" David Dastmalchian display his vitiligo. Not overtly, but at least its not all covered up.

The Bondsman, Season 1, Amazon

Horror/Comedy show about a hillbilly bail-bondsman who is murdered by his ex-wife's new criminal boyfriend, and then is kicked out of Hell to act as a demon-related bounty hunter, for Hell. Its a long line in ?killing demons for Hell" shows we have watched, and weirdly enough, they are almost comedic in tone.

Kevin Bacon, who plays main Hub Halloran, is ten years older than me!! Jeezus the guy looks good for over 60. And he just moves well, considering its an action role and he's likely playing a guy in his 40s.

The show itself unfortunately dials down some of the stock elements of these shows. He has a handler, who helps him "identify" the types of demons he is hunting, but really, other than it presenting some flair for the demons, it doesn't play much into his interactions with them. Most of the drama of the show plays up his dysfunctional family situation, and the reasons he went to Hell in the first place. 

It was not bad, but I doubt it will get renewed.

MobLand, Season 1, download

This is another Guy Ritchie series, right? Its very dialogue heavy violence heavy in the Richie-an style. It covers an Irish mob family syndicate in London who get broiled in a war with another family syndicate after their shit grandson murders another shit grandson. Tom Hardy tags along as the unflappable fixer for the main family.

But alas, no, it's not direct Guy Ritchie, just has him in to direct an episode or two. 

It has just started and horrible people are doing horrible things to each other, but I am convinced that the matron of the Harrigan family, Maeve played by Helen Mirren, is plotting to bring down her own family just for the spite of it.

Poker Face, Season 2, download

Yay! Charlie's back! 

When season one ended, she had finally met up with her nemesis, mob boss Sterling Foster Sr, who had had his mook Cliff chasing her all season, pretty much a year's worth of bad hotels, bad food and near misses. But he finally caught her and sat her down in front of Foster. But the year had softened him to the ideal Charlie represented. What got her in trouble in the first place was the cluster-fucked deal Foster's son tried to strong-arm her into, using her lie-detecting ability to con high-roller gamblers. Foster Sr offers Charlie the same deal; except Cliff has turned on his boss, likely due to  the shit job he had been on for a year, and kills Foster. Cliff tries to frame Charlie for it, but fails.

Season Two starts with Charlie being offered the same deal by Beatrix Hasp, a boss of one of the "five families", but Charlie turns her down, and is on the run again. The first few episodes play out like a speedy version of season one, with Charlie solving a murder, and then running from mob goons with guns. BUT pulling an Andor out of their butt, they end that chase quickly having Hasp turn informant on the mob. Now Charlie, having become used to the idea of stopping in town to town on her windy-bendy trip around the US, solving murders, continues the ideal.

They have changed showrunner for this season, and the quick opener sum-up was a surprise. Time will tell whether we enjoy this season as much as the first.

The Last of Us, Season 2, download

The popular, critically acclaimed mushroom-zombie series based on a video game returns and actually does the shocking thing that the sequel game, that the season is based on, did -- killing its main character! Well, one of them. I was shocked that they took the second game, which pissed off the fan-base for the first game to the n-th degree, and are following it pretty much verbatim. Not having finished the second game, it will eventually diverge from my memory, but having played out the primary element, with heart-wrenching results, they seem just as invested in legitimacy.

Ellie has aged, Ellie has come out, Ellie is very very VERY angry. With the murder of Joel, the season quickly shifts from her being an annoying teenager with daddy issues to a Quest for Vengeance. It leads them west to a Seattle where a war is being waged, a war into which Ellie and Dina blunder.

This season is going to be all about the moral dilemma of violent response. Joel killed each and every Firefly because he couldn't sacrifice Ellie for the "greater good". After the death of his daughter he devolved into Not a Good Man, and during his travels with Ellie, he gained some of his pre-apocalypse viewpoint back. But the ruthless murders come with their own consequences. Not only does Ellie, when she eventually finds out, find it hard to forgive him, to believe he was that man, but also the children of those Firefly leaders he killed finally, many years later, put two and two together, and lay the blame squarely on his shoulders. And they track him down, and they most brutally kill him in front of Ellie. They leave Ellie and Dina alive with that memory.

Ellie understands what they have done, and why they have done it. But in a mirroring of Joel's choices, she sets out with Dina, against the wishes of all in their community, to find and murder Joel's killers. The same kind of vengeance for the same kind of reasons. The daughter becomes the father. 

Just like the game's release itself, the season is pissing off, or at least it is fueling the unhinged rage that anti-woke Internet has for.... well, pretty much anyone who is not a straight, white male. I know the Angry Internet has awoken significantly in the past decade or so, when they used to hide in the 4Chan holes to only share with each other, but part of me still wonders/hopes is the online rage is fabricated (to a degree) by foreign/local parties that just want to foment disruption. An unstable world is easier to control, and we do know how much this utter clusterfuck of a situation down south (of Canada) is about controlling the utterly stupid masses. I am just so fucking tired of it all. Can't we just enjoy something good because it is well done, instead of finding ways to bring it down? If anything, the review bombing will not stop the people who enjoy it from being the people who enjoy it.

Watching: The Acolyte S1

2024, Disney

I really should have more thoughts about this series, but... I don't. I even ended up delaying the watch-through for a few weeks. I guess I am just not as Star War-sian as Kent is, these days. Or maybe its just that I continue to really not give a flying fuck about Jedi. That said, my delay in watching was reflective of the general audience, so even if you ignore the toxic fanboy outcry, the show still didn't draw in a lot.

What 100.  In a galaxy long long ago, approximately 100 years before the start of the prequels, a young woman is killing Jedi. After a brief investigation they arrest ... her twin sister. But wasn't her sister dead, killed as a child when a small group of Jedi came to their planet to save them from Witches? Also, who is the mysterious darthy guy in the helmet with a red light sabre? What really happened on the witch planet? What exactly did the Jedi do that makes her want them all dead?

1 Great. Not Dark, not Light but gray, so very very gray. Even if you didn't enjoy the characters, the actors, the setting or ... anything (?) you can at least appreciate that the entire season (now entire series) was about things not being cut & dry, not being just Light and Dark. Osha begins as our heroine, our nice twin, our good twin but as truths are revealed, as options and choices are offered, she ... changes. 

1 Good. Its Star Wars, so any bit of world building on the screen is fine by me. I love the idea that despite there being fewer visible droids in the series, they state loudly that jobs such as Osha's are generally not done by living beings but legally relegated to droids. Also, her name is Osha, a long running joke about how "their" presence is lacking in the Star Wars universe, and considering she's doing a job considered unsafe for the living... snicker. Also, chair droid pilots ! 

1 Bad. You know, there wasn't anything in particular I didn't enjoy about it. I found everything to be just serviceable. It was fine. The performances were fine. The story was fine. But nothing grabbed me, nothing wow-ed me, nothing made me go "ooooo".

1-1-1 KsMIRT: no room for June

K'sMIRT is Kent's Month in Reviewing Television, where each month (or mebbe twice each month?!?) I step through the TV series I completed watching each month in the 1 Great-1 Good-1 Bad format.  These are shows I finished (or was finished with) in the past few weeks two months. 

This Month:
Star Wars: The Acolyte Season 1(?) - Disney+ (8 episodes)
The Bear Season 3 - Disney+ (10 episodes)
Derry Girls Seasons 1-2 - Netflix (12 episodes)
Resident Alien Season 3 - CTV Sci-Fi/SyFy

I have, in recent months, been very reluctant to start watching any new TV series. The commitment to watching 5, 10 or 20 hours seems wildly unappealing to me now. The 2023 writers and actors strikes finally took its toll and new show starts this spring and summer have been at, like, a quarter volume of what they were a year ago. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as there has been too much content being cranked out since the streaming wars began in 2019. But with less choice, it also seems like we're being left to contend with the dregs. I know that's not true, but sometimes it's hard to escape the feeling. 

On a personal side, there's been a lot of sadness and tragedy this year, a lot of stress and a few changes that have occupied my brain space. I don't think I'm terribly receptive to long-form, dour murder shows (Natalie Portman's new Lady in the Lake looks good but I'm not able to psych myself up to watch it) and all the nerdy fantasy/sci-fi stuff like House of Dragons, Interview with a Vampire, Silo I already passed on last year and really don't feel like playing catch up.

My preference is easy, fluffy distraction. I can watch Taskmaster all day every day in all its many forms (I'm about ready for a full rewatch), I have gotten really into the Olympics after a few days of not paying any attention (all the beauty and the bloodshed), and we thought a binge watch of nearly 100 episodes of the old G.I. Joe cartoon was a smashing idea (and it was).  These are the shows that I've watched over the past two months (except Resident Alien which I watched months ago, but thought it was just on a  break, only to learn the season was indeed only 8 episodes long).

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Star Wars: The Acolyte Season 1 

The What 100: 100 years before The Phantom Menace, in the age of the High Republic, child-of-force witches Mae is out for revenge on the Jedi for what happened to her and her coven in the past. Her twin sister, Osha, was taken (some might say rescued, but some might be wrong) by the Jedi and trained, only to leave the order for a quiet mechanic's life. Osha's former master, Sol, brings her back into the fold on the hunt for Mae, only to discover there's an even darker force pulling her strings and to find the Jedi have a dark secret of their own....

(1 Great): Lee Jung-jae as Jedi Master Sol delivers an incredible performance. He carries himself with wisdom and gravitas, while also being compassionate and caring. He is everything a Jedi Master should be, and yet he harbours a secret, a secret he's been keeping from Osha for years, and it's only in Mae's return does it come to the surface. [Mild spoiler] In the revelation of his secret, and the secret shared by all the Jedi Mae and her dark master have killed, it's not that we see Sol as an evil person, but a truly complex man who made an error or two in judgement and rationalized his actions to himself. Lee Jung-jae's performance throughout the show (which he learned English for) is so endearing that even when he reveals everything you can't help but feel for him, even with what we know. His tormented confession, when the wracking pain and guilt he's suppressing come to the surface, his tortured questioning of his own belief in the validity of his actions... it's a powerful, powerful moment that sticks with me.

(1 Good): There's a lot of good in this good show, but I will state that there are a couple of pivots this show makes that really surprised and delighted me.  The first is in the fourth episode that is largely one big fight. Mae and her dark master take on a squad of Jedi and, despite the constrained surroundings on a more limited TVstreaming budget, it's a very epic lightsaber fight, and it's pretty well executed. Again, a limited TVstreaming budget means it's not perhaps cinematic, but it's choreographed very well, it's shot well enough but it's the editing, cutting between different events happening at once which sells it all so well. Plus, some things happen that I really wasn't expecting.

(1 Bad): I'm still wrestling with how I feel about how the show was structured. Episodes 3 and 7 were both flashback episodes, telling the story of the Jedi's encounter with Mae and Osha's coven from two different points of view. These flashbacks are the full episode and interrupt the narrative flow of the main story.  These are total "show-not-tell" moments, and is the instigating incident that spirals into the events of the series, but I can't help but wonder if they would have been better served scattered throughout the series, ala Lost's flashbacks.  As well, the choice to not sustain any true mystery (beyond Sol's guilty deeds) was a clever decision, but at a certain point, I was saying to myself "oh, we're not going to tease this out either"? Like, is Osha the killer, no, by the end of the first episode we know it's her twin Mae. Who is Mae's dark master? Exactly who we think it is and it doesn't take long to figure it out. And more

Meta: I wanted to make the "bad" the discourse around this show, but that's really the "meta" of it all, and doesn't represent the quality of the show at all. There are, loosely considered, four camps to Star Wars: (1) toxic "fanboys" of the alt-right variety who think a universe full of fishmen, bug people and Wookies should for some reason not include people of any skin tone other than pale, and are very loud about it on the internet, (2) old-heads who think Star Wars=Luke, Han, and Leia and anything else is an unforgivable violation worth being angry over, (3) actual Star Wars fans who just like seeing new Star Wars (some who are more forgiving of quality than others), (4) the general populace who just watch Star Wars sometimes and have little to no ongoing investment in it.  Star Wars has thankfully given up on trying to appeal to the first group, as they should. At a certain point they will have to move past appealing to the second group, because the actors are either old or dead, and recasting has proven to be a quagmire. So Star Wars is left with the rest, which, frankly, is not insignificant, but it requires a difficult balance between appealing to the nerds who really want to dive into the shit the universe has to offer, and keeping things accessible and simple enough that the casual viewer can join.

I think The Acolyte did very well at striving for an appealing, character-based story that could satisfy both the fan and the general public.  The setting of the High Republic era has been "fans-only" terrain since it started appearing in books and comics a few years ago, but bringing it to live action brings this whole new style and type of Jedi-as-space-cops era to the public at large. I like the reinvisioning of Star Wars technology but 100 years earlier. There are less droids around, and the ones there are seem more simplistic. The space ships are bulkier and seem slower, but I really like the designs the show presents even if none stick particularly large in memory.  The story starting sort of as a murder mystery, or police procedural was an interesting and smart way to rope an audience in. I would love a Jedi-driven "Law & Order in space" type procedural, but I get why the investment is too high for an "of-the-week" type show like that.

I liked the show quite a bit. I spent much of the series paying attention to the structure trying to determine if it was a series or a mini-series, and I'm still not certain. It definitely concludes its story premise, but it also sets up more character things and universe building. If it's a mini-series, then a sequel mini-series is definitely needed. If it's ongoing, then season 2 has to be a hard pivot in terms of tone and structure, given the resolutions. Or, it's entirely possible it all just gets picked up into books and comics and doesn't see any more live action, which would be a shame. This series seemed like an affirmed middle finger to the trolls, and I would like that to continue.

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The Bear Season 3

The What 100: The Bear, the restaurant, is up and running. But as busy as they are, it's not a success...yet. Carmy struggles with what he's given up to make the restaurant a success, and can't tell which of the lessons he learned as an up-and-coming chef are the ones he needs in his kitchen. He's also warring with Ritchie, while remaining unaware that Sydney is feeling overshadowed and is contemplating her long-term commitment. Sugar is stressed trying to hold the back-end together while very, very pregnant, and Uncle Jimmy is threatening to pull the plug if the big review from the Tribune they know is coming is bad. Tina is trying to bring something more to her role, while Marcus reels from his mother's passing. Things get tense, like...always.

(1 Great): This third season of the show is perhaps its most assured, and yet also its weakest (we'll get to why shortly), but it never stops being compelling.  This cast is nothing short of phenomenal every episode, and you never know who will be the episode's MVP because they're (almost) all capable (I don't know that Matty Matheson or Ricky Staffieri as the Fak brothers are going to capture MVP status, despite being reliably great comic relief [your mileage on the Faks may vary, but I enjoyed them always]). The winner of the season though is, once again, Jamie Lee Curtis as Carmy and Sugar's mom Donna. Her appearance in last season's flashback episode "Fishes" was probably the best performance on TV last year and bound to get Jamie Lee halfway to her EGOT, and she's just as great in this season's "Ice Chips", where Sugar, suddenly in labor, can't get hold of anyone else. What we know of Donna is reflected in every mention of her in the show. She is a difficult person with mental health issues that have traumatized her children, so she's obviously the most terrible choice for Sugar to call, except there's always more to someone besides their disability... and "Ice Chips" is triumphantly heartwarming while constantly heartbreaking at the same time. 

(1 Good): The opening episode of the season, "Tomorrow", is not dialogue free, but it might as well be a silent film. It's a montage running across 37 minutes that takes cuts between past and present, showing the fallout of season 2's finale, and vignettes of Carmy's entire career as a chef.  It's all mood, all vibes, accompanied by the tranquil-yet-haunting tones of Nine Inch Nails' "Together" (which is yet another reminder of just how built Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are for soundtrack work). It's tormented and beautiful, and one of the most unexpected episodes of TV that reminds us the golden age might be over but there's still going to be great television. 

(1 Bad): I'm still not certain whether this was Season 3 or the first half of Season 3. Reports seem to conflict one another. But either case, presenting these ten episodes, in the manner they did, with the ending as it played out ...well, it was frustrating. The season sets up a lot, and resolves none, other than Sugar's pregnancy. We do have a lot better understanding of the characters (we get a wonderful flashback episode focusing on Tina and how she wound up at the Original Beef, assuredly directed by Ayo Edibiri) but it comes at the expense of progress. To leave the show where it did, with nearly every plot thread dangling was a bit of a slap in the face to the audience and then telling us "you like that". It's sadistic.  Episodes 6 and 9, particularly, feel like filler episodes, even though they're not. They're more like catch-up episodes with more workplace engagement from the whole cast, bringing everyone together where the episodes in between feel more singularly or individual-focused.

Meta: I am an anxious person. It's not crippling, but it's always there and it does sometimes make it very hard to get through the day. The Bear is a show about opening and operating a high end restaurant which comes with a lot of pressure and stress, and it conveys that very well. Too well. It's triggering. It sets my anxiety off each episode, to varying degrees. But it's beautiful because it's intent is not just triggering the anxiety in the audience, but examining the effects of anxiety, trauma, grief, and other psychological impacts on its characters, showing both the triumphs in working past these issues, and the failures in succumbing to them or not being able to see past them.  It's a show, I hope, that is ultimately about healing, about learning to grow, about resilience, about self-discovery, about coping, and about acceptance of self and others. There are hints throughout that it's the journey it wants to be on, but it is a character-driven show and not everyone is able to move past or through their issues.  We shall see, but the journey has been worth it so far.

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Derry Girls Season 1-2
The What 100: Set in Derry, Northern Ireland, the show follows four teen girls and one teen boy as they navigate their family, their all-girls catholic high school, and The Troubles in the mid-1990s. It's a comedy. 

(1 Great): Siobhán McSweeney plays Sister George Michael (like Arrested Development, the name is George Michael, but there's no joke there beyond it just being her name), the headmistress of the all-girls Catholic School who seems to downright loathe everything she has to do and everyone she has to deal with. She has no patience, and no filter. Her inside thoughts are always outside and she doesn't really seem to care. At first she appears to be the stern headmistress that everyone's rightfully afraid of, but it becomes quite evident that she's not bitter and angry, she's just over all of it and doesn't even want to have to deal with any of it. She's prtty cool, for a nun. She is the Fonzie of the series, not really humanized to a great degree, just a comedy-generating machine that never seems to fail.

(1 Good): The best joke of the series is part of the set up of the show. Best friends Erin, Claire, Michelle and Erin's cousin Orla are saddled with Michelle's English-raised cousin James after his mother gets a divorce, returns from London to Derry, only to promptly turn around, and leave James behind. James, being raised (and sounding) English in Northern Ireland is basically walking with a huge target on his back, and so, in order to keep the poor boy safe, he's sent to the his cousin's all-girls Catholic school instead of the usual all-boys one. And they don't have a boys bathroom. The Derry Girls clique he's by default fallen into, at least for the first season, mock him senselessly, being utterly dismissive of anything his English-sounding voice has to say, and actor Dylan Llewellyn has the best resting perplexed face.

(1 Bad): The season length of Derry Girls is only 6 episodes so it's unfortunate when they use one of these precious slots for retreads of tired comedy tropes like an Irish-Asian student transferring to their school to be fetishized by the girls as an outsider they need to take in (it would be different if the girl, from Donegal, after all the well-intentioned-but-still-micro-aggressions she faced, wound up as part of the ongoing cast, but no she's off the show by the end of the episode), or  the fake out of one of the titular Girls leaving the show only to triumphantly return at the end of the episode.  

The show is at its best when its using its settings - the Catholic school, The Troubles, Northern Ireland, the 1990s - to do things that are unique to those settings. The Catholic school does a lot of charity things which sees the Girls get competitive with other girls and each other, or when they have an exchange where refugees from Chernobyl come to stay with them for a brief stint.  Learning about the Protestant "Orange Walks" and finding the cast attempting to evacuate Derry while the riotous celebration takes place, only to find an IRA lad in the boot of the car outside the city... what other show is going to find the comedy there? And using the time period to have the girls run away to see a Take That concert in Belfast, or to welcome Bill Clinton to town with knock-off American flags sold by their thrifty convenience store clerk, the show generally use its settings to pretty great effect.

Meta: My wife loves Derry Girls, and has watched through the series a number of times.  She implored that I should watch it, and that I would enjoy it. She's not wrong. I don't think I've slipped into the same rabid love for it that she has, but I do find it charming and the cast are all pretty great. Saoirse-Monica Jackson who plays the lead character Erin has one of the best reactionary faces on television (which she's also putting to great use in The Decameron at the moment). The Rick-and-Jerry-like relationship between Erin's dad Gerry (Tommy Tiernan) and Grandfather Joe (Ian McElhinney) is a never-fail dynamic (even when Gerry does something wonderful, Joe is right there to cut him off at the knees). Erin's cousin Orla (Louisa Harland) is a complete space cadet, but so is her mother (Kathy Kiera Clarke) so she comes by it honestly (I'm not sure how seven people live comfortably in that house either). And the show has the cutest baby who delivers some of the wildest reaction shots which I know are completely happenstance but, just wonderful when they happen. It could be 20 different babies for all I know. I'm not paying that close attention.

As a huge old fan of Father Ted, I love all the Catholic jokes in here that are absolutely inspired by the 90s show. It's not as irreverent as Father Ted overall, but it's certainly finding that space of being loving, critical, and absurd about all the Catholic ...stuff.

While I still have 7 episodes of season 3 to watch, it's sometimes bizarre to me how UK/Irish sitcom seasons are sooo short, especially when they're so successful, like this one. I'm always surprised that when they're so huge that the second or third seasons aren't at least double the length.  As stands, Derry Girls is only 19 episodes long in total, which isn't even as many episodes as one season of The Office or Seinfeld, yet is probably just as beloved in the UK/Ireland as those shows are Stateside.

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Resident Alien Season 3

The What 100: Harry and Asta have learned that the Grey Aliens are secretly colonizing the Earth and have been diligently working at shaping the ecology to be more habitable to them (ultimately making it inhospitable to humans). Despite working with the black ops alien-tracking division of the military, Harry keeps this from them. Meanwhile, one of the Grays goes on a date with Asta. D'arcy faces her demons. Ben and Kate are both victims of repeated abductions (Kate having had her baby stolen and mindwiped into forgetting she was even pregnant), but as they each become aware of their history, they hide it from one another...and when Harry finds out, he typically manipulative. Liv begins exploring her own history with UFOs, and Buck finds, and loses, love...as does Harry.

(1 Great): As always, Alan Tudyk's Harry Vanderspeigle is a non-stop, gut busting comedy machine. His now willful ignorance of societal norms, his ridiculous turns-of-phrases, and his general selfishness and pettiness are a non-stop delight. He could easily be a detestable character, given his traits, but portrayed by Tudyk as a simpleton give him all the leeway (despite the fact that he's kind of a genius in other ways). 

(1 Good): Finally Ben (Levi Fiehler) and Kate (Meredith Garretson) aren't the most unnecessary characters on the show (this is not to critique the performances in the past, just the use of the characters). Up until this season, any time the show has focused on their story, it's been tedium, making me scream "get back to Harry!" But now that they are intricately tied to the plot, their abductions not just causing them grief, but also being used by Harry for his own devices, these two characters have real purpose beyond just being the parents of the kid who can see through alien disguises. I'm happy they now have purpose.

(1 Bad): Speaking of the kid-who-can-see-through-alien-disguises, Max (Judah Prehn) sort of gets the short shrift this season, with his best friend Sahar (Gracelyn Awad Rinke) leaves town in the first episode (she does come back in the last episode) and Max is left to mostly his own devices. The childish sparring that Harry gets into with Max is never tiresome, and it's sorely missed this season Max's journey finds him picking up a thread from the prior series as the new Alien Hunter, which seems an absurd thing for a pre-teen (teen?) to take on, especially alone.  Sahar is dearly missed

Meta: It's true, I've spent nearly four months wondering when Resident Alien will return with the rest of its third season, especially since the second season was broken into two disparate parts of 8 episodes each with a large gap in between. You can understand my confusion. 

While being an hour long sci-fi show, it's still largely a comedy. It's more of a comedy than The Bear, that's for sure. Like Letterkenny or Parks and Recreation it's a show that has built up a whole town of supporting characters that recur every so often, and I think shows like this are so inviting, because it feels like a community. When we're at the diner, there's Asta's dad or if we're at D'arcy's bar we're bound to run into party girl Judy or at the clinic where grumpy nurse Ellen works, or even seeing Buck's beloved French bulldog Cletus.  It's all part of the fabric that just seems to sprawl outside of the town with the real Harry Vaderspiegel's estranged wife and daughter, or Harry's alien child, or the regular members of Linda Hamilton's black ops squad. This season even gives Harry a bird-alien girlfriend (their bizarre mating habits put on uncomfortable display).  I love the expansive cast, it's always a joy to see characters return (there's a surprise reappearance or two this season). I also love the continued inclusiveness of Native America culture as a prominent part of the show's experience, and it seems to be tying some of the cosmic nature of the show into spirituality, which was genuinely unexpected, but impactful. 

Ready for more.

The Dark Year: Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

2017, Rian Johnson (Knives Out) -- Disney

Because we never have enough projects in this Blog, I am creating one of my own, wherein I indulge my desire to rewatch a movie (because sometimes a rewatch is easier than absorbing a new movie) but also fill in a blank left by the Great Hiatus of 2018, i.e. The Dark Year. It will be more interesting to me to see what I will be willing to rewatch, than see what I missed writing about.

OK, I admit, I don't remember if I saw this in the cinema. I know I didn't see Episode VII in theatre, and I know the original post for this one would have been eaten by the Great Hiatus. But at least I wrote about Episode IX, which I did see in the cinema. I recently did a "click click click fuck it" rewatch of the entire trilogy, so I might as well use that as an opportunity to fill in another gap.

This is the contentious movie that I absolutely, unabashedly loved, primarily to spite the haters. I loved that Johnson decided to dispense with fan expectations and do something that was ... different. Luke (Mark Hamill, The Fall of the House of Usher) begins as a cranky old man yelling at clouds, and definitely not the hero the previous movies set him up to be. Despite their Big Win against the New First Order the Bad Guys are not gone, and pretty much destroy what is left of this rebellion. We also follow pseudo-cowardly Finn on a side quest where we see war profiting is alive & well, even with the old Empire gone; the one percent is always gonna one percent. And we also see Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac, X-Men: Apocalypse), hero of hero tropes, get dressed down for ignoring the cost of his melodramatic heroic actions. These are all things that pissed so so SO many fans off, and that's not even taking into account the toxic whingers.

Of note, I finally understood why there was still a Resistance if the Empire was long gone. Since there was now a New Republic, I guess it didn't take too long for them to become once again mired in politics and red tape, which then allowed for the rise of the First Order. So, the Resistance rises as a privately funded army to stand against its return, because, well the New Republic isn't helping deal with them. There must have been an "Andor" style raising of sympathy and funds going on, though more likely out in public view. 

And then they all died.

Now, a handful of rewatches later, I am less sure of my love. I still love the emotional reaction the movie gives me, the "let me see something different" craving satisfied to the n-th degree. I guess I am now seeing the movies as a trilogy and the abrupt turn of face between the second and the third kind of bothers me. If you take The Force Awakens on its own, ignoring the critical panning of it as a "remake of Ep4" and consider a longer story was going to be at play, then Johnson derailed that. I personally think he did so, so that his Star Wars would definitely not be about retreading previously covered ground, but be entirely something new and unexpected. And it was that; you already said that. The problem is that he pretty much torpedoed everything Abrams had set up, and the subsequent fallout led to another torpedoing for the third.

I am not sure I support how it ended up.

Meh. You are just parroting Kent's concerns, because before he brought them up, you didn't consider them.

But, the things I still love, independently, without letting myself be bothered about "wholes".

That Rey (Daisy Ridley, The Marsh King's Daughter) is the children of nobody. If just that had been let to play out, that they had let the derailing of her setup in the first movie, that they had let her become a spontaneous emergence in The Force. Wasn't Anakin supposed to have been such a thing? Or was Shmi also connected to some distant force wielder from the distant past, instead of pseudo Mary Mother of Christ figure. If they had just let that play out...

That there is a good reason the First Order was "allowed" to rise. The New Republic, like all republics of past, is ruled by money and those who control the money. And there is good money in selling weapons to both sides, as long as there are sides to contend with.

Poe's actions, and his final self revelation that maybe he shouldn't always be running off half-cocked to "save the day" caring only if he survives. Maybe sometimes escaping intact is worth more than making some grand action, like taking down a dreadnought star destroyer. 

The battle on Crait. That is, for me, the most Star Wars this trilogy got. Sure, despite what I said earlier, it does smack of The Empire Strikes Back but Johnson obviously liked the scene and it just looks good. The arrival of Luke, and one of the best light sabre duels ever depicted, is incredible. And the wee little details of this battle that should give it away immediately that Luke Ain't There, but doesn't diminish what is going on, at all.

Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran, Monsterland). I loved her character, that she saw things as they were, for real. I wanted to see her rise in the ranks, to become the face of the New Resistance, one that would stand up to even what the New Republic had become, to be a real force of change, that came from nothing. Instead, well we know what the toxic fanbase did.

In the end, I still love this movie, but I also would like to be able to peek into the other timeline, where JJ Abrams original trilogy intent was played out, where we didn't get the massive backlash, and subsequently a "righting of the ship" for the third movie. It all just seems so discordant now, and I can only enjoy as individual flicks.

So sayeth Kent.

3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver

2024, Zach Snyder (Suckerpunch) -- Netflix

Did I rewatch Part One before watching this? Nope.

And surprisingly, though likely mood is to blame for this, but I really didn't enjoy this one. I guess that means I kind of sort of maybe enjoyed myself watching the first one? Part Two just irritated me, and mostly for all the reasons the first one should have.

Quick recap: The Seven Samurai in space. That's it. That's all you get. Except that the Good Guys think they have defeated the Bad Guy and return to the small village, hoping to find peace. That delusion lasts about ten seconds.

So, before i get into it, I just need to get this out. Why is the movie sub-titled as The Scargiver? Yes, its because people are now calling Kora (Sofia Boutella, Star Trek Beyond) such, but why?!?! You would assume she was given the moniker after she betrayed her adopted father during his coup, maybe .... giving him a big ol nasty scar? But nope, its because the Bad Guy, Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein, Game of Thrones; oh wait; BOTH Daario Naharis actors are in these movies?!?!? tee hee!!) who she initially assumes is dead, is resurrected by the Space Nazi Priest Scientists and chooses to leave a scar. But that happened like, ten minutes ago, not long enough to establish a legendary label.

It is this first minor, admittedly quibbley detail that gives me a hint that Snyder kind of rushed through this part, tweaking the fuck out of it for some unknown reason. Its not like there can be any Purple Suit futzing with his vision, as anyone who would now give Snyder gobs of money to make his petulant Star Wars replacement must be entirely onboard with it? So, did he get bored between one and two? Did he just not feel satisfied with the response to the first movie, and just want to rush this one to completion, and move on?

I don't have answers; just frustration.

So, given The Seven Samurai we know that the gathered weirdo vagabond heroes have to prepare the village for the attack by the Bad Guy and his forces. The Bad Guys want grain, cuz, reasons. I am still not convinced they would commit this much effort to one small moon, for grain. If they need food, why not just resort to their SOP which is taking over entire worlds? I am sure if they just resisted the urge to bomb the planet into dust there would be plenty of food for the taking. But, no, need excuse for Seven Samurai ripoff, so ... grain laden moon Veldt. 

And training, lots of training. It always strikes me as odd in these training sequences, where they have a limited number of weapons and ammo, but use up a fuck ton of said ammo shooting at badly made dummies or bottles, so at least one straw sucking village can prove an aptitude with a big gun. At least the movie removes the "go to Providence and buy more weapons, and hire thugs" element by saying, "the Bad Guy will return in ... five days!!"

Five Days. That's how long they have before the Bad Guys return to the moon, for their grain. The trope requires us to speed run the grain harvest -- at least this movie is built upon the movie that established most of these kinds of tropes. I won't dig into whether Kora and Friends have been gone long enough for the grain to actually have grown while they were gone. The dusty fields were just being plowed in the last movie. But no, they need to condense weeks, if not months or harvesting all those fields spread all the way to the horizon, into THREE DAYS. And then leave two days to the training sequence and DIGGING TUNNELS. Also, they feel a need to mill the grain into flour. The whole point of actually getting the grain out of the fields is to build a barrier between the village and the Bad Guy's guns. Not a physical barrier but a, "If you need this grain so badly, we dare you to destroy our village from orbit!!"

So, being the movie that it is, and we have collected a bunch of weirdos to defend the village, they feel a need to explain them to us. So each character gets a flashback moment. General Titus (Djimon Hounsou, Seventh Son) betrayed the Space Nazis and his own men were blown up in front of him, as punishment. Nemesis (Bae Doona, The Silent Sea) came from a peaceful village whose people had a dark past (that's different, not her dark past but her entire village's) and she cuts off her arms so they can be replaced with murdery robot arms that can weird the lightsabre replacement lazer sword. Tarak (Staz Nair, Game of Thrones), despite never wearing a shirt, does not come from a Conan the Barbarian primitive world but was quite the floppy hat wearing dandy, until his people all died. And Milius (Elise Duffy, debut) was just another victim of the Space Nazis, no real big backstory, but that she was saved by The Rebels -- the same rebels that was the whole point of the first movie, but who (well, those that chose to come to Kora's assistance) were all killed in the first movie; all but Milius. And that's the bunch of weirdos. The backstories, albeit standard-fare Snyder pretty-to-watch, are boring AF.

I guess that is what irritated me most about the movie. As it has to rely heavily on the format we have seen time and time again, it does nothing really interesting or new with the plot structure or tropes. And the plot holes and plot blunders just pile up, one after the other. 

For example, Nemesis is supposed to be the ultimate in bad-ass warriors, using swords when everyone has brought a gun to the fight. But she has one fight, gloriously (*extreme eye roll*) defending the village's elderly and children and women (?!?!?) against a small force of blue lazersword wielding Bad Guys. Sure, this Bad Guy force gets a name, implying they are likely an elite force, but there are about five of them. She kills a bunch but dies. One battle. Swords. Dead Bad Ass. And let's ignore that there is no fucking good reason the women of the village are holed up in there, and you can clearly see in the final scene of that fight, that there are a few young, not children, strapping lads hiding out in the barn. 

For example, the Bad Guys have spider tanks. They drop a bunch of them on the battlefield at the beginning. The farmers destroy one with a rocket launcher (do they? or was that a drop ship?) and Jimmy the Robot (WTF is up with that stupid name) destroys one, during his extremely brief appearance that entirely undermines his cool establishing scenes in the first movie. But the movie forgets the rest of the spider tanks exist until the final WAH HOO (!!!) Millennium Falcon scene when The Rebels finally appear and bomb the shit out of the remaining spider tanks. I guess they were just out standing in the fields, awaiting orders.

But there is one fun sequence, when Kora and Gunnar (Michiel Huisman, Game of Thrones) sneak onto the Big Ship to blow it up from within. Her presence is detected so that leads to another stand-off between Kora and the now resurrected Admiral Noble. She plants her bombs, they go off, but Noble intercepts her before they escape, so the battle in the crashing ship is pretty cool. It is after the destruction of this dreadnought that The Rebels arrive to just do a mop up, fly by, and yet it is considered a saving grace scene.

I don't have any strong, definitive reason why this part, as in Part Two, the entire movie, bugged the stuffing out of me, while the admittedly terrible first part got two (enjoyed) watchings from me. Maybe I like establishing stories better than closing ones? Or maybe I need a ReWatch (shudder) in order to get a better read?

That said, while it has not been stated out loud, this movie did setup either a third part, or more likely, a spin off series that is totally not going to be a Seven Samurai ripoff. I wonder whether we will even see that, as we still have to get some extended, super duper, R rated, Snyder Cuts. Yay?