"Watership Down" Miniseries Review (Spoilers)
Also reviews for the first three episodes of Star Trek: Short Treks, and the finale of DC Super Hero Girls.
Watership Down "The Journey"
I was like "I don't remember Bigwig dying in the books" and of course it turns out he doesn't. But the snare was a pretty tense moment.
Martin Rosen is a producer on this. Appropriate.
I love the rabbit insisting the carrot wasn't good so he could have the whole thing for himself. But he wasn't fooling anyone.
Good first part. ****1/2.
Watership Down "The Raid"
Bluebell liked it better when he was a liability.
I love the gross bird Kehaar played by Peter Capaldi. He along with Bluebell are two of the only funny characters.
Getting good. I haven't read the book in ages, but I remembered that I loved it. This is living up to it. ****1/2.
Watership Down "The Escape"
General Woundwort is such a creeper. He is so repulsive.
He's interesting in that I always pictured him as fat and intimidating in my head because he's so huge, but that he's like a snowplow in endurance, rather than a fighter himself like Bigwig. I pictured him being so powerful because you could throw anything at him and he wouldn't budge, but that he was also a bit immobile because he was so fat. This version of Woundwort is actually huge, and scary in the proper way. He's not a fat Sheikh guarding a harem in this like he seemed in the book and the first movie. He's quick and a good fighter himself. There's a reason he's in charge and everyone else is afraid of him.
This was a good and exciting episode. I was on the edge of my seat. ****.
Watership Down "The Siege"
That was amazing. Seriously great stuff. I love Kehaar saving the day at the beginning, and the fight between Woundwort and Bigwig was epic. Holly's death was devastating, and I really liked the end of Fiver revealing he had been saved by the cat and spared by the little girl. And Fiver saying goodbye to Hazel because he knew he was going to die and go off with the El-Ahrairah at the end was amazing too.
I wish the miniseries had delved a little deeper into the mythology of El-Ahrairah. I also didn't quite understand the home movie footage at the beginning of the episode. But all in all, this was a great miniseries and amazing finale. *****.
Star Trek: Short Treks "Runaway"
This short reminded me why I missed Star Trek on TV more than Discovery ever did, at least during its first season.
But I was a little shocked, pleasurably so, that Tilly's first instinct upon meeting a violent and potentially dangerous alien was to tell it not to be afraid, and try to communicate with it. And I realize that not only was that Star Trek's default most weeks, but that it's the only franchise specifically like that. John Crichton from Farscape was that way too, but not only was he the only other example I can think of, but he was the only example of that on that show too. Curiosity and trying to make peace with new lifeforms is the default mode for Star Trek heroes. And that is completely refreshing, and why I loved the franchise in the first place. It's the fact that Discovery stepped away from that which is why my feelings on the first season were a bit lukewarm. But this is how Star Trek is supposed to be. ****.
Star Trek: Short Treks "Calypso"
That was wonderful. That being said, it was also corny and cheesy, and gives easy fire to critics of Star Trek. I literally groaned upon the shuttlecraft being named "Funny Face". But it strikes me that people who would object to that enjoyable level of schmaltz are the actual ones with the problems. I can't even declare it a guilty pleasure because that would imply there would be guilt involved in enjoying this. And that's not what I was feeling, as corny as it was.
I just want to know what happened to Discovery's crew. Hopefully this is an upcoming mystery to solve (most likely involving time travel) but this strikes me as very similar to Dollhouse's "Epitaph One" in using an unrelated story to excite viewers for an upcoming potentially disastrous future.
What IS Betty Boop? Good question.
I love the notion of Craft asking the last time anyone did anything for Zora and she replies that it's never come up before. And you know what? Maybe it should have.
I love Zora and Craft's love story, and I agree with Craft that he was doing something wrong. When Zora's all, "I'm not alive," He calls her a liar, and he's right. Both Data and the EMH were considered alive, and each was far less developed emotionally and personality-wise than she was. And I love that the episode uses characters we've never seen or will likely ever see again to raise the question of what being human actually means, which is another essential Star Trek theme. I am a bit amused that so far the Short Treks have been far better than Discovery. *****.
Star Trek: Short Treks "The Brightest Star"
I can't pretend this was great (I can take or leave Saru) but it definitely answered some burning questions for me. And for a show that doesn't seem to care too much about the canon (at least in season 1) is definitely smoothed things over a bit.
One of the biggest complaints, of course, is that we've never met a Kelpian before, and we never even heard of them in the Next Gen / DS9 era. And the reason for that is that they are a stubbornly pre-warp civilization that is nowhere NEAR close to making genuine first contact. It is unprecedented that a member of a pre-warp society is allowed to join Starfleet (that's never happened on any other Star Trek series) but the short actually pointed out it was unusual and the hoops Georgiou jumped through to make it happen.
Honestly, I had expected something like this from Enterprise to explain why we had never heard of Denobulons, or Xindi, or Subilan before that. But that show wasn't smart enough to do that in the four seasons it aired before it was canceled. It strikes me as a good sign that this show is trying to plug these specific potential holes this early on. This suggests this season's producers are trying to make sure Season 2 won't be the canon mess Season 1 was, which is a very good thing. ***1/2.
DC Super Hero Girls "My So-Called Anti-Life"
That was terrible. I mean Darkseid goes to a high school to solve the Anti-Life Equation? And Harley Quinn solves it accidentally by carrying the 1? Absolutely terrible.
You know you are watching a badly written cartoon when a character says "You're a genius!" and the other person replies "I am? I mean, of course I am!" That wasn't even acceptable to me in the 1980's. I'm certainly not going to tolerate it in 2018.
This show is so bad. Hopefully Lauren Faust's upcoming take will be better. 0.
Watership Down "The Journey"
I was like "I don't remember Bigwig dying in the books" and of course it turns out he doesn't. But the snare was a pretty tense moment.
Martin Rosen is a producer on this. Appropriate.
I love the rabbit insisting the carrot wasn't good so he could have the whole thing for himself. But he wasn't fooling anyone.
Good first part. ****1/2.
Watership Down "The Raid"
Bluebell liked it better when he was a liability.
I love the gross bird Kehaar played by Peter Capaldi. He along with Bluebell are two of the only funny characters.
Getting good. I haven't read the book in ages, but I remembered that I loved it. This is living up to it. ****1/2.
Watership Down "The Escape"
General Woundwort is such a creeper. He is so repulsive.
He's interesting in that I always pictured him as fat and intimidating in my head because he's so huge, but that he's like a snowplow in endurance, rather than a fighter himself like Bigwig. I pictured him being so powerful because you could throw anything at him and he wouldn't budge, but that he was also a bit immobile because he was so fat. This version of Woundwort is actually huge, and scary in the proper way. He's not a fat Sheikh guarding a harem in this like he seemed in the book and the first movie. He's quick and a good fighter himself. There's a reason he's in charge and everyone else is afraid of him.
This was a good and exciting episode. I was on the edge of my seat. ****.
Watership Down "The Siege"
That was amazing. Seriously great stuff. I love Kehaar saving the day at the beginning, and the fight between Woundwort and Bigwig was epic. Holly's death was devastating, and I really liked the end of Fiver revealing he had been saved by the cat and spared by the little girl. And Fiver saying goodbye to Hazel because he knew he was going to die and go off with the El-Ahrairah at the end was amazing too.
I wish the miniseries had delved a little deeper into the mythology of El-Ahrairah. I also didn't quite understand the home movie footage at the beginning of the episode. But all in all, this was a great miniseries and amazing finale. *****.
Star Trek: Short Treks "Runaway"
This short reminded me why I missed Star Trek on TV more than Discovery ever did, at least during its first season.
But I was a little shocked, pleasurably so, that Tilly's first instinct upon meeting a violent and potentially dangerous alien was to tell it not to be afraid, and try to communicate with it. And I realize that not only was that Star Trek's default most weeks, but that it's the only franchise specifically like that. John Crichton from Farscape was that way too, but not only was he the only other example I can think of, but he was the only example of that on that show too. Curiosity and trying to make peace with new lifeforms is the default mode for Star Trek heroes. And that is completely refreshing, and why I loved the franchise in the first place. It's the fact that Discovery stepped away from that which is why my feelings on the first season were a bit lukewarm. But this is how Star Trek is supposed to be. ****.
Star Trek: Short Treks "Calypso"
That was wonderful. That being said, it was also corny and cheesy, and gives easy fire to critics of Star Trek. I literally groaned upon the shuttlecraft being named "Funny Face". But it strikes me that people who would object to that enjoyable level of schmaltz are the actual ones with the problems. I can't even declare it a guilty pleasure because that would imply there would be guilt involved in enjoying this. And that's not what I was feeling, as corny as it was.
I just want to know what happened to Discovery's crew. Hopefully this is an upcoming mystery to solve (most likely involving time travel) but this strikes me as very similar to Dollhouse's "Epitaph One" in using an unrelated story to excite viewers for an upcoming potentially disastrous future.
What IS Betty Boop? Good question.
I love the notion of Craft asking the last time anyone did anything for Zora and she replies that it's never come up before. And you know what? Maybe it should have.
I love Zora and Craft's love story, and I agree with Craft that he was doing something wrong. When Zora's all, "I'm not alive," He calls her a liar, and he's right. Both Data and the EMH were considered alive, and each was far less developed emotionally and personality-wise than she was. And I love that the episode uses characters we've never seen or will likely ever see again to raise the question of what being human actually means, which is another essential Star Trek theme. I am a bit amused that so far the Short Treks have been far better than Discovery. *****.
Star Trek: Short Treks "The Brightest Star"
I can't pretend this was great (I can take or leave Saru) but it definitely answered some burning questions for me. And for a show that doesn't seem to care too much about the canon (at least in season 1) is definitely smoothed things over a bit.
One of the biggest complaints, of course, is that we've never met a Kelpian before, and we never even heard of them in the Next Gen / DS9 era. And the reason for that is that they are a stubbornly pre-warp civilization that is nowhere NEAR close to making genuine first contact. It is unprecedented that a member of a pre-warp society is allowed to join Starfleet (that's never happened on any other Star Trek series) but the short actually pointed out it was unusual and the hoops Georgiou jumped through to make it happen.
Honestly, I had expected something like this from Enterprise to explain why we had never heard of Denobulons, or Xindi, or Subilan before that. But that show wasn't smart enough to do that in the four seasons it aired before it was canceled. It strikes me as a good sign that this show is trying to plug these specific potential holes this early on. This suggests this season's producers are trying to make sure Season 2 won't be the canon mess Season 1 was, which is a very good thing. ***1/2.
DC Super Hero Girls "My So-Called Anti-Life"
That was terrible. I mean Darkseid goes to a high school to solve the Anti-Life Equation? And Harley Quinn solves it accidentally by carrying the 1? Absolutely terrible.
You know you are watching a badly written cartoon when a character says "You're a genius!" and the other person replies "I am? I mean, of course I am!" That wasn't even acceptable to me in the 1980's. I'm certainly not going to tolerate it in 2018.
This show is so bad. Hopefully Lauren Faust's upcoming take will be better. 0.