"The Straight Story" Review (Spoilers)
Also reviews for the latest episodes of Black Lightning, The Flash, Superman & Lois, Teen Titans Go!, DuckTales, Bless The Harts, The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, Family Guy, Transformers: Rescue Bot Academy, and Power Rangers Dino Fury, and the final issue of Batman: The Adventures Continue.
The Straight Story
I was very curious about this one. I think the title of the film is a bit of an in-joke. It's the only David Lynch movie played completely straight. No nudity and gore. No horrific visuals and nightmare fuel. No dreamlike imagery and confusing mysteries. No supernatural elements. But I have to say it's instantly recognizable as a David Lynch film. I'm not saying I would have guessed who directed it sans credits, but I wouldn't have been surprised at all. Lynch is a director who believes very much in repeating himself in his filmmaking, and there were definite Lynch tropes in the film.
Trope the first: Quirky characters. The film is unusual for Lynch in that it does contain "normal" people and people who are realistic. But there's definitely a share of Lynch-style oddballs.
Trope the second: Lynch loves, LOVES focusing the camera on mundane things such as machinery and outdoor vistas because he believes they are visually interesting in their own right. Check and double-check for this film. And how.
Trope the third: No, there are no headwounds or a person waking up with a new identity. But I automatically recognized the woman who hit the deer. Lynch will often have a random woman show up in the middle of the picture screaming her head off about a subject the protagonist does care about, and her rant sounds absolutely deranged out of context. Lynch has never been exactly progressive when it comes to female representation and I instantly recognized the loudmouthed shrew.
Trope the fourth: An unsatisfying and ambiguous ending right when you wanted questions answered. Classic Lynch to do that to us.
Other random thoughts:
While I definitely recognized this as a David Lynch film, there is literally no other Walt Disney Picture like this. It's so outside of the canon, I'm shocked they bought the picture to begin with.
It's rated G. Bad rating, and show exactly how bogus MPAA ratings are. Lynch wanted the G-rating and the organization gave it to him despite there being family TV show cursing ("h*ll" and "d*mn"), discussions about PSTD involving war and death, drinking, a LOT of smoking, and an unwed pregnant runaway. All of these things are handled tastefully, and are not the least bit offensive. But this is where parental guidance is supposed to come in. There is literally not a single controversial thing in Frozen and that got a PG rating. I think this film getting the G shows the MPAA is broken and always has been.
To be blunt and honest, a lot of the film bored me. I think the real selling point of the movie is when Alvin is sitting down and having heart-to-heart conversations with people he meets on the road. But because the film is absent Lynch's usual bag of tricks, when I'm not drinking in the amazing performances by Richard Farnsworth and the people he talks to, I'm a little antsy. You are not allowed to discuss this in award winning films by prestige directors. But it's also a real problem for me in most award winning films, at least at certain points.
Seeing Everett McGill made me smile. That guy sure doesn't get cast in much outside of Lynch stuff. Just Silver Bullet and The People Under The Stairs. He owes the entire rest of his career to Lynch.
I'm not going to give this the perfect grade the critics insist I should. But it moved me in a lot of places, and it's the biggest Lynch piece I've seen for people just sitting down and talking, which I think is a very underrated method of exploring drama. ****.
Theatrical Trailer: Interesting trailer in that it sold the movie exactly as it is, which not every trailer does (especially trailers for Disney movies). ****.
Black Lightning "The Book Of Ruin: Chapter One: Picking Up The Pieces"
Is this a permanent recast? Because considering it's the last season it probably doesn't need to be.
While I do agree with Gambi that what happened to Jen isn't Jefferson's fault, as far as the blame game goes, it's more his fault than Lynn's. And this is someone who thinks Lynn is a terrible mother. This specific thing would not have happened were Jefferson not distracted with nonsense. And yeah, it's been a year. At this point, it's nonsense.
Tobias offers an unkind opinion about white people. The truth is Tobias doesn't actually like ANYBODY. He's not just a self-loathing black man who hates all other black men for his loathing. He's a self-loathing human being who hates all other human beings for his loathing.
VERY curious where Lala and Black Lightning are going. It seemed to me that he and Black Lightning made the truce with him Destiny lied about. And frankly I think that will be a more beneficial alliance for both parties than Lady Eve could ever be.
Why is Lady Eve still a player on this show? Jill Scott has been entirely absent this season. If they can no longer contract her to appear, they should just write her out of the show.
I'll tell you what Anissa picked up from Lynn: She's an absolute terrible spouse. Both her and Lynn made steps forward tonight by both being able to recognize that fact.
I wound up liking it more than I thought I would. ***1/2.
The Flash "The Speed Of Thought"
That was a very interesting episode. I liked it very much.
When the speed thought power was announced a lot of people thought it would have been good to have against the Thinker. But the problem with the Thinker was that the writers weren't smart or talented enough to write a smart character for Flash to defeat. It was bad writing that defeated the Thinker, and that would have happened with or without the speed thought power.
All in on the resurrection of Earth-1 Wells. Yeah, part of me is disappointed that we wasted last week's awesome goodbye episode on a fake-out, but this should be very interesting.
Barry's idea of a distraction was beyond cold-blooded. I dispute it was efficient as well.
I found it interesting that Cisco claims he never would have taken part in a vote to save either Iris or Camilla and Singh. It's interesting because it's probably true. But as far as I'm concerned, it's not definitely true. Yes, Barry misjudged how Iris would react to the idea of being saved solo. But when Barry ran the simulation in his head about the vote, I saw nothing out of character from either Cisco, Frost, or Allegra. What I'm saying is that I'd like to believe Cisco is right, and that he would have insisted on finding a way to save them all. But the scenario Barry had in his head seemed entirely credible to me, which is cool.
Speaking of which, I loved the effects of Frost with speed powers. One of my biggest regrets of the show is that in season one it was the Arrowverse show that was a visual feast and overloaded the viewer on amazing special effects. In later seasons they stepped back from that (I assume the budget was reduced) and basically picked their battles, usually saving up for the one or two Grodd or King Shark episodes per year. It was cool seeing a CGI spectacle in the episode. I miss that aspect of the show.
Pretty great episode in my mind. ****.
Superman & Lois "The Perks Of Not Being A Wallflower"
A little light on the superheroics this week, so I was a little bored.
Jonathan is the best brother ever. I love his telling Clark that Jordan was making friends and being happy. Clark with the assistant coach hat on also tells us he's the world's biggest dork. As Clark Kent should be.
I have spent the last two weeks hating Kyle, and tonight I came to the unpleasant realization that I don't much like Lana either. I am very glad they gave her that scene with Sarah at the end because she would have been insufferable without it.
All right but nothing special. ***.
Teen Titans Go! "Just A Little Patience...Yeah...Yeah"
I suppose that was all right. But I did not write the episode. I would have gone an entirely different direction if I had. The Matthew McConaughey stuff is suitably ludicrous (And why is his blood purple? Is he a Klingon?) but I would have definitely bared the premise down to the essentials, and not done so many weird ideas. And Baby Robin is why the show is the third worst thing since child molesters and people who talk in the theater.
No. Here is the correct moral for the episode. Robin tries to teach the Titans patience... And the moral turns into Robin completely losing his patience and his sanity over their refusal to get it because they are so infuriatingly dumb. That's all the premise they needed. Maybe they felt they couldn't stretch that idea for 11 minutes? They've stretched much worse ideas that long before. There could have been a O Henry style irony built into the entire script and Robin's moral arc, but they wanted to make fun of those dumb car commercials instead. Granted, that commercials are dumb, and the slams they took were funny, but I think the show was missing the forest for the trees when deciding what to spoof in the episode. **1/2.
Teen Titans Go! "Villains In A Van Getting Gelato"
This is a consistent and irresistible theme on the show: The Titans are actually the villains and the criminals are their innocent victims. It's something subversive about the show I've always liked.
Is this the first episode to explicitly reference Brain and Mallah's messed up romance from the comics? It must have been, because I definitely would have noticed it before this.
Noting the Titans speak like they were written by middle-aged writers is the show taking a good dig at themselves. It's also another solid explanation to how the dumb Titans seem to be the experts on mundane subjects like loans and finance they are.
The Cesar Romero Gelato is for villains who prefer their gelato boring, lame, and unfunny. The first famous interpretation of the gelato that most kids grew up with was in fact the very worst. Romero's Joker never being funny always bothered me because Batman 66 was supposed to be the comedy Batman show. Which had the only unfunny Joker. I don't get why Romero and his stupid painted over mustache had any fans at all. He was the worst in every respect.
Boy, that review got off track quickly, didn't it? But Romero was the dude who stomped all over MY old gelato place and now I have no place to rant about it. ****.
Teen Titans Go! "I Am Chair"
Whenever the Titans die it's because the writers were stuck for an ending. That's not great.
This episode brought up an interesting point. Nobody ever really BUYS massage chairs, do they? They are prohibitively expensive, but have you ever heard of a rich dude actually owning one? Besides, their relaxation quotient is about a tenth of a hot tub, although they are admittedly easier to find space for.
Another real gripe of mine the episode noticed. Why do the elevators at Malls go so slow? This goes for the elevators that aren't glass too. The regular elevator at my local mall takes forever to switch floors. And despite my mall being only two floors, no matter if I catch it on the top or the bottom, and even if it's empty, it never appears to be on the same floor as I am when I press the button. It is very conspicuous how badly that elevator works and seeing this made me realize I'm not crazy and it's not just me. Mall elevators apparently suck everywhere. Good to know.
Honestly, that went nowhere. Which is probably why the Titans had to die to begin with. **1/2.
Teen Titans Go! "Bumgorf"
Random stupidity and inanities and an unsatisfying ending. So par for the course.
For the record, Raven's story was the best.
But the ep was a dud. *1/2.
DuckTales "The Life And Crimes Of Scrooge McDuck!"
Normally if I don't like something I'm able to pretty easily verbalize why. Not this week. That just hit me wrong. Mostly because Scrooge's actions are unforgivable and the episode seems to forgive him anyways. "The Empire Builder From Calisota" had a similarly dark interpretation of Scrooge. But he suffered for it. Taking responsibility is not the same thing as justice. Repentance does not equal redemption. It never did.
And all Louie cares about is the money. Again. Tell me again about this character's development. I could use a good laugh.
Urgh. I'm probably explaining all this wrong. I just didn't like it. *1/2.
DuckTales Chibi Tiny Tales "Dime And Dash"
I still don't like the animation in these shorts. *1/2.
Bless The Harts "The Dogchurian Candidate"
So, yeah, I've given up on the show. I'll still watch it until its inevitable cancelation this year, but if it does get a third season, I'm out.
I came to realize that Betty Hart is probably one of the very worst characters on television. And what bothers me most is that her destructiveness and ignorance is played for laughs. It's not funny. It's horrible.
And I'll tell you why I hate Greenville. It's not because they are dumb enough to accept the idea of a dog mayor. Granted, that's awful enough. No, but what bothers me is that a dog mayor IS actually a reasonable sounding alternative to the hot mess that is Webb. And that should never be true.
If and when I do stop watching the show, I am going to greatly miss Violet. She is often amused at Betty antics, but things got so bad here that she's back to being the refreshing moral center she was in the early episodes (when I liked her best). And as it pointed out, it's unfair Wayne can vote and she can't. I DO love and value Violet very much. I just wish she existed on a less horrible show.
Man, that was tough to watch. I hate King Of The Hill. But I don't think it ever elicited quite as negative a reaction in a single week as that just did. Because at least Peggy being horrible and stupid is usually the problem and the point most weeks. Betty's insanity is portrayed as silly shenanigans instead, which just appalling. Man, that wasn't fun. 0.
The Simpsons "Yokel Hero"
Perhaps you've wondered why after 31 and a half seasons, the show never did a Cletus spotlight. That! That's why! That was awful.
So Apu has been rightly fired, and Hank Azaria's Ebonics have finally been frowned upon enough by the producers to actually cast black actors for black characters. Why does Cletus pass muster again? I'm not saying the level of hurt his message conveys is as damaging as Apu. But the entire reason for the joke and the character is actually exactly as ill-intentioned as Apu is.
This is literally the first role Albert Brooks has ever done for The Simpsons where I didn't laugh once at his riffs. Whatever he once had, he's lost it. I also am annoyed in an episode where Finding Nemo is actually mentioned and A Brooks guest stars, they created a stand-in for Ellen DeGeneres instead of hiring Ellen to play herself. Granted, I don't think she would have permitted herself to be attached to jokes that mean. Which means the jokes were actually too mean and inappropriate. Ellen DeGeneres does NOT deserve that level of shade thrown at her. Family Guy always makes her look annoying and insufferable, but the stand-in on this show is outright sinister which is bizarre. I don't get, understand, or appreciate the hateful message. I'm annoyed at Family Guy's Ellen jokes, but they're just jokes. This sounds like the writers hate Ellen. Which is weird because she's actually been kind enough to do the show before.
This episode was a mess from top to bottom. 0.
Bob's Burgers "An Incon-wheelie-ent Truth"
A bit of a stretch as far an episode titles go.
Linda wanting to keep lying past all point of reason is why I don't much like the character. She's stupid and she wants stupid things.
I appreciate Louise telling Gayle she should keep talking and she wanted to hear what she had to say. Because that was the very first time I wanted that too.
The beginning of the episode proves that the show does NOT animate characters walking towards the camera well. BARELY better than South Park. That's how bad it is at it.
Not terrible, which somehow made it the best Fox Toon tonight. ***.
Family Guy "PeTerminator"
That ending made absolutely no sense.
And the Giant Chicken isn't actually dead. Because of course he isn't.
This isn't Big Mouth. You aren't going to see everything. Which begs the question of what happens to the episode if there is ever an uncensored DVD release.
Stewie borrowed the return pad from Rick And Morty because they borrowed plenty of stuff from them. Touche.
I really like that joke. And it shows why Al Jean is an inferior instigator to Seth MacFarlane. Family Guy's joke at Rick And Morty is good natured. There is a playfulness attached to the way Stewie matter-of-factly says that compared to a wanted poster for Peter Griffin on The Simpsons for the crime of plagiarism. Also, perhaps this needs to go without saying but I will, because Jean isn't a very subtle writer: But the Rick and Morty poke here was funnier than any shot The Simpsons EVER took at Family Guy. Literally all of them. This is speaking as someone who thinks The Simpsons is superior to Family Guy in almost every way. But their sanctimonious Family Guy slams are the one thing about the show that always, ALWAYS make me uniformly cringe. As far as slamming celebrities go, nobody is meaner than MacFarlane. As far as poking the competition goes however, he does it just right. I mean the show has taken some seriously mean-spirited shots at Bob's Burgers, but because H Jon Benjamin is present for most of them, they're funny instead. For somebody it appears a large portion of the adult animation industry hates reflexively, MacFarlane is surprisingly measured when going after his peers. There must be a lesson in there somewhere. But Jean always seems to resist seeing them for what they are. He misread the Apu thing, he misread the Michael Jackson thing, and I'm thinking he's been wrong about Family Guy this entire time too.
Did I mention the ending sucked though? Honestly, I can like a joke or two in the episode, it doesn't mean I didn't feel like the episode fell apart. Things just basically devolved into utter nonsense by the end of that. Normally nonsense is good in a comedy. In a time travel spoof? Probably an ill-advised place for it.
Awful week for Fox toons that Bob's Burgers won for simply not being terrible. Meh. **1/2.
Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy "The Empty City"
Truthfully not bad. The Titan reveal was kind of cool and Heatwave saying he knew what he said was a good joke.
Did they change Hoist's actor?
The last joke was stupid but I won't hold it against everything else. ***.
Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy "First Responder"
Who the frell is this Wes and why should I care?
Bumblebee's design looks weird.
I think they changed Wedge's actor too.
Not great. *1/2.
Power Rangers: Dino Fury "Lost Signal"
That was bland and dumb, but it's blandness and dumbness didn't actually wind up offending me, so I'll call that a win.
I'll tell you what I liked: Ollie proving the b.s. psychic was a fraud the way he did. But in reality, if she were any sort of real conwoman she would have immediately seen that bluff for what it was. That's how cold reading works in the first place. Ollie's deception was NOT subtle. That's something a fake psychic would automatically notice.
Dear me, expecting real-world human reactions from characters in Power Rangers? What has gotten into me? ***1/2.
Batman: The Adventures Continue "Secret Santa"
Not great, but it's at least the best one of the issues released.
Shameless HBO Max shout-out.
Liked the happy ending for Wesker.
Lots of cameos from characters from the Harley Quinn cartoon.
Liked Robin's disgusted reaction to Batman giving Wesker socks for Christmas. Socks?! SOCKS?! He's a freaking billionaire! Even his birthday gift to Superman of cash in the Fortress of Solitude on JLU was better.
All right / pretty good. ****.
The Straight Story
I was very curious about this one. I think the title of the film is a bit of an in-joke. It's the only David Lynch movie played completely straight. No nudity and gore. No horrific visuals and nightmare fuel. No dreamlike imagery and confusing mysteries. No supernatural elements. But I have to say it's instantly recognizable as a David Lynch film. I'm not saying I would have guessed who directed it sans credits, but I wouldn't have been surprised at all. Lynch is a director who believes very much in repeating himself in his filmmaking, and there were definite Lynch tropes in the film.
Trope the first: Quirky characters. The film is unusual for Lynch in that it does contain "normal" people and people who are realistic. But there's definitely a share of Lynch-style oddballs.
Trope the second: Lynch loves, LOVES focusing the camera on mundane things such as machinery and outdoor vistas because he believes they are visually interesting in their own right. Check and double-check for this film. And how.
Trope the third: No, there are no headwounds or a person waking up with a new identity. But I automatically recognized the woman who hit the deer. Lynch will often have a random woman show up in the middle of the picture screaming her head off about a subject the protagonist does care about, and her rant sounds absolutely deranged out of context. Lynch has never been exactly progressive when it comes to female representation and I instantly recognized the loudmouthed shrew.
Trope the fourth: An unsatisfying and ambiguous ending right when you wanted questions answered. Classic Lynch to do that to us.
Other random thoughts:
While I definitely recognized this as a David Lynch film, there is literally no other Walt Disney Picture like this. It's so outside of the canon, I'm shocked they bought the picture to begin with.
It's rated G. Bad rating, and show exactly how bogus MPAA ratings are. Lynch wanted the G-rating and the organization gave it to him despite there being family TV show cursing ("h*ll" and "d*mn"), discussions about PSTD involving war and death, drinking, a LOT of smoking, and an unwed pregnant runaway. All of these things are handled tastefully, and are not the least bit offensive. But this is where parental guidance is supposed to come in. There is literally not a single controversial thing in Frozen and that got a PG rating. I think this film getting the G shows the MPAA is broken and always has been.
To be blunt and honest, a lot of the film bored me. I think the real selling point of the movie is when Alvin is sitting down and having heart-to-heart conversations with people he meets on the road. But because the film is absent Lynch's usual bag of tricks, when I'm not drinking in the amazing performances by Richard Farnsworth and the people he talks to, I'm a little antsy. You are not allowed to discuss this in award winning films by prestige directors. But it's also a real problem for me in most award winning films, at least at certain points.
Seeing Everett McGill made me smile. That guy sure doesn't get cast in much outside of Lynch stuff. Just Silver Bullet and The People Under The Stairs. He owes the entire rest of his career to Lynch.
I'm not going to give this the perfect grade the critics insist I should. But it moved me in a lot of places, and it's the biggest Lynch piece I've seen for people just sitting down and talking, which I think is a very underrated method of exploring drama. ****.
Theatrical Trailer: Interesting trailer in that it sold the movie exactly as it is, which not every trailer does (especially trailers for Disney movies). ****.
Black Lightning "The Book Of Ruin: Chapter One: Picking Up The Pieces"
Is this a permanent recast? Because considering it's the last season it probably doesn't need to be.
While I do agree with Gambi that what happened to Jen isn't Jefferson's fault, as far as the blame game goes, it's more his fault than Lynn's. And this is someone who thinks Lynn is a terrible mother. This specific thing would not have happened were Jefferson not distracted with nonsense. And yeah, it's been a year. At this point, it's nonsense.
Tobias offers an unkind opinion about white people. The truth is Tobias doesn't actually like ANYBODY. He's not just a self-loathing black man who hates all other black men for his loathing. He's a self-loathing human being who hates all other human beings for his loathing.
VERY curious where Lala and Black Lightning are going. It seemed to me that he and Black Lightning made the truce with him Destiny lied about. And frankly I think that will be a more beneficial alliance for both parties than Lady Eve could ever be.
Why is Lady Eve still a player on this show? Jill Scott has been entirely absent this season. If they can no longer contract her to appear, they should just write her out of the show.
I'll tell you what Anissa picked up from Lynn: She's an absolute terrible spouse. Both her and Lynn made steps forward tonight by both being able to recognize that fact.
I wound up liking it more than I thought I would. ***1/2.
The Flash "The Speed Of Thought"
That was a very interesting episode. I liked it very much.
When the speed thought power was announced a lot of people thought it would have been good to have against the Thinker. But the problem with the Thinker was that the writers weren't smart or talented enough to write a smart character for Flash to defeat. It was bad writing that defeated the Thinker, and that would have happened with or without the speed thought power.
All in on the resurrection of Earth-1 Wells. Yeah, part of me is disappointed that we wasted last week's awesome goodbye episode on a fake-out, but this should be very interesting.
Barry's idea of a distraction was beyond cold-blooded. I dispute it was efficient as well.
I found it interesting that Cisco claims he never would have taken part in a vote to save either Iris or Camilla and Singh. It's interesting because it's probably true. But as far as I'm concerned, it's not definitely true. Yes, Barry misjudged how Iris would react to the idea of being saved solo. But when Barry ran the simulation in his head about the vote, I saw nothing out of character from either Cisco, Frost, or Allegra. What I'm saying is that I'd like to believe Cisco is right, and that he would have insisted on finding a way to save them all. But the scenario Barry had in his head seemed entirely credible to me, which is cool.
Speaking of which, I loved the effects of Frost with speed powers. One of my biggest regrets of the show is that in season one it was the Arrowverse show that was a visual feast and overloaded the viewer on amazing special effects. In later seasons they stepped back from that (I assume the budget was reduced) and basically picked their battles, usually saving up for the one or two Grodd or King Shark episodes per year. It was cool seeing a CGI spectacle in the episode. I miss that aspect of the show.
Pretty great episode in my mind. ****.
Superman & Lois "The Perks Of Not Being A Wallflower"
A little light on the superheroics this week, so I was a little bored.
Jonathan is the best brother ever. I love his telling Clark that Jordan was making friends and being happy. Clark with the assistant coach hat on also tells us he's the world's biggest dork. As Clark Kent should be.
I have spent the last two weeks hating Kyle, and tonight I came to the unpleasant realization that I don't much like Lana either. I am very glad they gave her that scene with Sarah at the end because she would have been insufferable without it.
All right but nothing special. ***.
Teen Titans Go! "Just A Little Patience...Yeah...Yeah"
I suppose that was all right. But I did not write the episode. I would have gone an entirely different direction if I had. The Matthew McConaughey stuff is suitably ludicrous (And why is his blood purple? Is he a Klingon?) but I would have definitely bared the premise down to the essentials, and not done so many weird ideas. And Baby Robin is why the show is the third worst thing since child molesters and people who talk in the theater.
No. Here is the correct moral for the episode. Robin tries to teach the Titans patience... And the moral turns into Robin completely losing his patience and his sanity over their refusal to get it because they are so infuriatingly dumb. That's all the premise they needed. Maybe they felt they couldn't stretch that idea for 11 minutes? They've stretched much worse ideas that long before. There could have been a O Henry style irony built into the entire script and Robin's moral arc, but they wanted to make fun of those dumb car commercials instead. Granted, that commercials are dumb, and the slams they took were funny, but I think the show was missing the forest for the trees when deciding what to spoof in the episode. **1/2.
Teen Titans Go! "Villains In A Van Getting Gelato"
This is a consistent and irresistible theme on the show: The Titans are actually the villains and the criminals are their innocent victims. It's something subversive about the show I've always liked.
Is this the first episode to explicitly reference Brain and Mallah's messed up romance from the comics? It must have been, because I definitely would have noticed it before this.
Noting the Titans speak like they were written by middle-aged writers is the show taking a good dig at themselves. It's also another solid explanation to how the dumb Titans seem to be the experts on mundane subjects like loans and finance they are.
The Cesar Romero Gelato is for villains who prefer their gelato boring, lame, and unfunny. The first famous interpretation of the gelato that most kids grew up with was in fact the very worst. Romero's Joker never being funny always bothered me because Batman 66 was supposed to be the comedy Batman show. Which had the only unfunny Joker. I don't get why Romero and his stupid painted over mustache had any fans at all. He was the worst in every respect.
Boy, that review got off track quickly, didn't it? But Romero was the dude who stomped all over MY old gelato place and now I have no place to rant about it. ****.
Teen Titans Go! "I Am Chair"
Whenever the Titans die it's because the writers were stuck for an ending. That's not great.
This episode brought up an interesting point. Nobody ever really BUYS massage chairs, do they? They are prohibitively expensive, but have you ever heard of a rich dude actually owning one? Besides, their relaxation quotient is about a tenth of a hot tub, although they are admittedly easier to find space for.
Another real gripe of mine the episode noticed. Why do the elevators at Malls go so slow? This goes for the elevators that aren't glass too. The regular elevator at my local mall takes forever to switch floors. And despite my mall being only two floors, no matter if I catch it on the top or the bottom, and even if it's empty, it never appears to be on the same floor as I am when I press the button. It is very conspicuous how badly that elevator works and seeing this made me realize I'm not crazy and it's not just me. Mall elevators apparently suck everywhere. Good to know.
Honestly, that went nowhere. Which is probably why the Titans had to die to begin with. **1/2.
Teen Titans Go! "Bumgorf"
Random stupidity and inanities and an unsatisfying ending. So par for the course.
For the record, Raven's story was the best.
But the ep was a dud. *1/2.
DuckTales "The Life And Crimes Of Scrooge McDuck!"
Normally if I don't like something I'm able to pretty easily verbalize why. Not this week. That just hit me wrong. Mostly because Scrooge's actions are unforgivable and the episode seems to forgive him anyways. "The Empire Builder From Calisota" had a similarly dark interpretation of Scrooge. But he suffered for it. Taking responsibility is not the same thing as justice. Repentance does not equal redemption. It never did.
And all Louie cares about is the money. Again. Tell me again about this character's development. I could use a good laugh.
Urgh. I'm probably explaining all this wrong. I just didn't like it. *1/2.
DuckTales Chibi Tiny Tales "Dime And Dash"
I still don't like the animation in these shorts. *1/2.
Bless The Harts "The Dogchurian Candidate"
So, yeah, I've given up on the show. I'll still watch it until its inevitable cancelation this year, but if it does get a third season, I'm out.
I came to realize that Betty Hart is probably one of the very worst characters on television. And what bothers me most is that her destructiveness and ignorance is played for laughs. It's not funny. It's horrible.
And I'll tell you why I hate Greenville. It's not because they are dumb enough to accept the idea of a dog mayor. Granted, that's awful enough. No, but what bothers me is that a dog mayor IS actually a reasonable sounding alternative to the hot mess that is Webb. And that should never be true.
If and when I do stop watching the show, I am going to greatly miss Violet. She is often amused at Betty antics, but things got so bad here that she's back to being the refreshing moral center she was in the early episodes (when I liked her best). And as it pointed out, it's unfair Wayne can vote and she can't. I DO love and value Violet very much. I just wish she existed on a less horrible show.
Man, that was tough to watch. I hate King Of The Hill. But I don't think it ever elicited quite as negative a reaction in a single week as that just did. Because at least Peggy being horrible and stupid is usually the problem and the point most weeks. Betty's insanity is portrayed as silly shenanigans instead, which just appalling. Man, that wasn't fun. 0.
The Simpsons "Yokel Hero"
Perhaps you've wondered why after 31 and a half seasons, the show never did a Cletus spotlight. That! That's why! That was awful.
So Apu has been rightly fired, and Hank Azaria's Ebonics have finally been frowned upon enough by the producers to actually cast black actors for black characters. Why does Cletus pass muster again? I'm not saying the level of hurt his message conveys is as damaging as Apu. But the entire reason for the joke and the character is actually exactly as ill-intentioned as Apu is.
This is literally the first role Albert Brooks has ever done for The Simpsons where I didn't laugh once at his riffs. Whatever he once had, he's lost it. I also am annoyed in an episode where Finding Nemo is actually mentioned and A Brooks guest stars, they created a stand-in for Ellen DeGeneres instead of hiring Ellen to play herself. Granted, I don't think she would have permitted herself to be attached to jokes that mean. Which means the jokes were actually too mean and inappropriate. Ellen DeGeneres does NOT deserve that level of shade thrown at her. Family Guy always makes her look annoying and insufferable, but the stand-in on this show is outright sinister which is bizarre. I don't get, understand, or appreciate the hateful message. I'm annoyed at Family Guy's Ellen jokes, but they're just jokes. This sounds like the writers hate Ellen. Which is weird because she's actually been kind enough to do the show before.
This episode was a mess from top to bottom. 0.
Bob's Burgers "An Incon-wheelie-ent Truth"
A bit of a stretch as far an episode titles go.
Linda wanting to keep lying past all point of reason is why I don't much like the character. She's stupid and she wants stupid things.
I appreciate Louise telling Gayle she should keep talking and she wanted to hear what she had to say. Because that was the very first time I wanted that too.
The beginning of the episode proves that the show does NOT animate characters walking towards the camera well. BARELY better than South Park. That's how bad it is at it.
Not terrible, which somehow made it the best Fox Toon tonight. ***.
Family Guy "PeTerminator"
That ending made absolutely no sense.
And the Giant Chicken isn't actually dead. Because of course he isn't.
This isn't Big Mouth. You aren't going to see everything. Which begs the question of what happens to the episode if there is ever an uncensored DVD release.
Stewie borrowed the return pad from Rick And Morty because they borrowed plenty of stuff from them. Touche.
I really like that joke. And it shows why Al Jean is an inferior instigator to Seth MacFarlane. Family Guy's joke at Rick And Morty is good natured. There is a playfulness attached to the way Stewie matter-of-factly says that compared to a wanted poster for Peter Griffin on The Simpsons for the crime of plagiarism. Also, perhaps this needs to go without saying but I will, because Jean isn't a very subtle writer: But the Rick and Morty poke here was funnier than any shot The Simpsons EVER took at Family Guy. Literally all of them. This is speaking as someone who thinks The Simpsons is superior to Family Guy in almost every way. But their sanctimonious Family Guy slams are the one thing about the show that always, ALWAYS make me uniformly cringe. As far as slamming celebrities go, nobody is meaner than MacFarlane. As far as poking the competition goes however, he does it just right. I mean the show has taken some seriously mean-spirited shots at Bob's Burgers, but because H Jon Benjamin is present for most of them, they're funny instead. For somebody it appears a large portion of the adult animation industry hates reflexively, MacFarlane is surprisingly measured when going after his peers. There must be a lesson in there somewhere. But Jean always seems to resist seeing them for what they are. He misread the Apu thing, he misread the Michael Jackson thing, and I'm thinking he's been wrong about Family Guy this entire time too.
Did I mention the ending sucked though? Honestly, I can like a joke or two in the episode, it doesn't mean I didn't feel like the episode fell apart. Things just basically devolved into utter nonsense by the end of that. Normally nonsense is good in a comedy. In a time travel spoof? Probably an ill-advised place for it.
Awful week for Fox toons that Bob's Burgers won for simply not being terrible. Meh. **1/2.
Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy "The Empty City"
Truthfully not bad. The Titan reveal was kind of cool and Heatwave saying he knew what he said was a good joke.
Did they change Hoist's actor?
The last joke was stupid but I won't hold it against everything else. ***.
Transformers: Rescue Bots Academy "First Responder"
Who the frell is this Wes and why should I care?
Bumblebee's design looks weird.
I think they changed Wedge's actor too.
Not great. *1/2.
Power Rangers: Dino Fury "Lost Signal"
That was bland and dumb, but it's blandness and dumbness didn't actually wind up offending me, so I'll call that a win.
I'll tell you what I liked: Ollie proving the b.s. psychic was a fraud the way he did. But in reality, if she were any sort of real conwoman she would have immediately seen that bluff for what it was. That's how cold reading works in the first place. Ollie's deception was NOT subtle. That's something a fake psychic would automatically notice.
Dear me, expecting real-world human reactions from characters in Power Rangers? What has gotten into me? ***1/2.
Batman: The Adventures Continue "Secret Santa"
Not great, but it's at least the best one of the issues released.
Shameless HBO Max shout-out.
Liked the happy ending for Wesker.
Lots of cameos from characters from the Harley Quinn cartoon.
Liked Robin's disgusted reaction to Batman giving Wesker socks for Christmas. Socks?! SOCKS?! He's a freaking billionaire! Even his birthday gift to Superman of cash in the Fortress of Solitude on JLU was better.
All right / pretty good. ****.