"Batman: The Long Halloween: Part Two" Review (Spoilers)
Also reviews for the latest episode of Stargirl, the season finale of Superman & Lois, the latest episode of Titans, the first two episodes of the new season of Star Trek: Lower Deck, the latest episodes of Marvel's What If...?, Monsters At Work, Chip 'N' Dale: Park Life, and The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse, the new Disney+ cartoons How To Stay At Home, and the latest episodes of American Dad, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and the novel Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?.
Batman: The Long Halloween: Part Two
After an amazing Part One I expected to like that very much. But I didn't. At least nowhere NEAR as much as Part 1.
It starts off promising with a very interesting opening title sequence. But I did not like the resolution of the mystery. The culprit was right, the outcome was not.
When Holiday shows up and kills Moroni in front of Two-Face I knew it was Gilda. Why? Because Gordon says that sometimes leads don't pan out. I say, sometimes they do. The clues all led to the killer living at Harvey's house. If it wasn't Harvey, that hardly puts them back at square one. I am a bit frustrated Gilda was not the focus of the investigation after that. I know that's not how mysteries work, but as far as I was concerned, the Holiday Killer not being Harvey meant it was Gilda. Is Batman The World's Greatest Detective or not? Not hardly. At least not yet.
The thing that upsets me is that Batman let her go at the end. I don't know if he did it as a favor to Harvey or what, but I find that idea utterly obscene. I'm guessing it's from the comic because only a comic book would do something that appalling. I guess the movie was true to it, but it sucked. Either the rules apply to everybody or they don't. If Bruce is setting unfair standards for which murderers to bring in and which to let slide based on personal favors, he's no better than his rotten parents.
Speaking of which, I'm going to bring this up in every Batman project going forward. I'm not sure if I have already, but it's about time I did if I haven't. The murders of the Waynes have gotten intolerable. It is played the eff out. There is no new angle they can give it. They need to stop showing it while that is. I find it tiresome and boring, which is NOT what that moment should ever be. It has completely lost whatever power it used to hold over me. And I'm going to repeat and repeat this specific complaint going forward. And I bet I'll have to complain about it a LOT. DC just can't stop with it.
The Flash and Green Arrow tag was neither here or there so I didn't like it.
As far as culprits go, that was a solid mystery. As far as story resolutions go, it kind of sucked. ***.
DC Showcase: Blue Beetle
The first thing I wanted this Vintage Saturday Morning Parody to do is be G-rated the entire way through. There are a couple of subversive things that wouldn't pass muster in the 1960's, but this entire thing could air on Cartoon Network and Boomerang today with no problems.
And why the heck not? Nobody actually demanded all of the DC Showcase shorts be PG-13. Why CAN'T they do a kid-friendly one? I think this actually goes for the movie line too, but that's an entirely different argument that I don't feel like getting into right now.
I have always loved the phrase "It's the ginchiest." Good to hear it here. Somebody lend me their comb.
The Question knowing it's Ted, and Ted ridiculously trying to pretend it isn't was great, as was the Question sort of being a little bit annoyed with the fact that he has to explain he didn't get to the answer because he's an amazing detective, but because it's obvious.
Do you know would have been neat? Booster Gold! But I understand only wanting to spotlight the Charlton stuff for this one.
That was great. *****.
Injustice Sneak Peek
It looks interesting but I am very glad it's Elseworlds.
Also, Jim Krieg continues to be insane. ****.
Stargirl "Summer School: Chapter Two"
Much better than last week.
I like Jenny. She's square. Square characters get a bad rap but I think they're cool.
The fact that Courtney doesn't like her instantly is one of the reasons I don't actually like Courtney. She always makes things a bigger drama than they need to be. It's getting tiring.
Shade, huh? Love the hat.
The idea that Jenny is an actual Lantern is interesting. I wonder where they are going with it.
Back on track after an underwhelming premiere. ****.
Superman & Lois "Last Sons Of Krypton"
The episode was solid for about three quarters of the way through. And as it was going I said to myself, "Because the show is already great, I will accept a solid finale. It doesn't need to be earth-shattering or amazing for me to like it." And then the scene with Lois and Jordan happened, and the finale was amazing anyways. It didn't need to be. But the show refused to let me down.
Season 2 frightens the hell out of me. I could not stand a Berlanti sophomore slump for this specific show. I love it too much.
Superman's interview with Chrissy was great, and shows why the dude makes great copy. He tells her (correctly, I might add) that he can't control if the situation makes people fear Kryptonians, and even him. But he says it was Smallville that saved themselves, and that they'll come out of this stronger than ever. What a great dude. THAT'S why he's Superman. The powers are secondary to that.
Season 2 scares me so much that I almost wish the show had been canceled. But that specific cliffhanger is so freaking messy I am still dying to see how it plays out.
And yeah, that's a messy-ass ending. I understand entirely why John wanted to leave, but Nat showing up means they are gonna have to stick around for awhile if only to straighten things out. It is totally and subversively this show that the cliffhanger doesn't involved DC Comics lore, or Season 2 supervillain set-up. It returns to the family dynamic. Because that's the actual important thing in the series.
I freaking love this show. Berlanti BETTER take care of it next year. I am not kidding. I will be livid if he doesn't. ****1/2.
Titans "Blackfire"
Unimpressed.
Dick's plan totally sucked. Per usual. What a loser. I liked the bit with the net though.
Jason told Crane everything? What a mess. I honestly think Crane needs to die at this point. Him knowing that secret will cause nothing but grief.
Also for the record, and to the show's discredit, learning Crane is somehow the "Mastermind" doesn't make Jason actions make any more sense. They are still bordering on ridiculous.
Remind me again why Starfire freed Blackfire. What was the brilliant idea there supposed to be?
This show is just hot garbage. **1/2.
Star Trek: Lower Decks "Strange Energies"
The is the first time we've seen the Cardassians in the modern era (even if they were only holograms). Also pretty sure a Jem'Hadar ship was in the mix. That should have told us right away it wasn't real (besides Boimler claiming to be a hologram).
The story was only okay but I liked the references to Gary Mitchell.
Riker's appearance at the end was a nice surprise.
Decent opener. ***1/2.
Star Trek: Lower Decks "Kayshon, His Eyes Open"
That was pretty awesome. I love that there is now a Tamaranian in Starfleet.
Boimler describing the Titan as a bunch of action-packed serialized adventures is a very nice dig at Star Trek: Discovery. As a sci-fi show, Discovery is pretty great. As a Star Trek show, it's all wrong.
For one thing it is nowhere NEAR as slavish to the continuity as this is. Riker actually brings up "Night Bird" which is like the deepest Next Gen cut ever. I also like that Thomas Riker is mentioned. I hope the franchise does something new with that character. It never sat right with me that he went to a Cardassian prison camp and we never heard from him again.
The Titan crew making fun of the string quartet on the Enterprise-D is a fair way to say that as flawed as Discovery is as far as Star Trek goes, Next Generation and the earlier shows weren't at all perfect in portraying humanity. That string quartet stuff was outright insufferable, and I appreciated it getting rightfully dragged here.
Boimler's double sucking up by deciding to go by William now is absolutely brilliant. That was pretty much his best career move ever.
It's cool that it DOES look like the Pakleds are going to be the Big Bads of the series. I loved that idea last year and I'm glad it hasn't been forgotten.
Really great episode. ****1/2.
Marvel's What If...? "What If... T'Challa Became A Starlord?"
So I like this show now. Like a LOT.
They should have made THIS the premiere episode. Last week simply does not compare to how awesome this was.
I love that Korath is bright and sunny and a Starlord fanboy. This episode made me think a LOT less of Peter Quill. Not only because of that, but with somebody like T'Challa in his place he was able to reform not only Yondu (which admittedly is not a stretch) but freaking Thanos! He simply talked the mad Titan out of his plan. I love that. The Universe is measurably better with T'Challa out there in it. Drax's family is alive too which hints that Peter sucking made the Universe even worse than we suspected.
I also love how silly this version of the Collector is, and Nebula also seems to have gained a sense of humor, as well as a full head of hair. And the stuff with Howard the Duck was a real treat. It was nice to see the character done well for once.
No surprise the episode was dedicated the Boseman. My thought is that they should dedicate ALL the T'Challa episodes to him.
Man, after the disaster of Black Panther's Quest, it is SO nice to see an animated T'Challa I am allowed to love and root for. I don't think the either of the recent Avengers cartoons (especially Avengers Assemble, but Earth's Mightiest Heroes was guilty of it a bit too) get enough flack for how unlikable they made Black Panther for contrast to everyone else. By the time Black Panther's Quest came along the character was outright insufferable. There is a reason Boseman was beloved in the role.
Considering Djimon Hounsou used to PLAY Black Panther himself, it must have been really fun to play off Boseman. I suspect that is the specific reason Korath had an surprisingly huge role. Also, Hounsou NEVER gets cast in silly roles, so playing Korvath this way must have been REALLY fun for him.
I don't know if the show is gonna be doing sequel episodes to the various Universes, but if they do, I wanna see what happens with Peter and Ego. Very curious about that.
I loved that episode. *****.
Monsters At Work "Little Monsters"
Those little monsters sure are cute. My favorites are the orange slug that rides the doors and the little pink girl with one eye.
Talia seems pretty sharp. The ending with her mom was pretty cool.
And of course there are production babies in the end credits.
I liked Mike's slow realization that he is in fact the goofball and that Sulley just let him prattle on until he realized it.
Good to see Adorable again.
Good episode. ****.
Chip 'N' Dale: Park Life "A Nut You Can't Refuse / Chipmunks Away / Ruff Justice"
A Nut You Can't Refuse:
Chip got mobbed up! ***1/2.
Chipmunks Away:
I was a little bored with this one. **1/2.
Ruff Justice:
Can we call this one CHiPS and Dale? Chip and Dale sure are cute.
Stuffed Panda Bear backpacks aren't actually illegal. But this episode suggests why maybe they should be.
I like putting the kitten app on the phone with the rest of the suckling kittens actually worked.
Funny cartoon. ****.
Episode Overall: ***1/2.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "Untold Treasure"
Oh my God! This one actually had a plot!
And about time Peg-Leg Pete was used as a pirate. Although his leg was a hook here.
I loved Mickey and Minnie's unfriendly rivalry because it is so far outside of every other Mickey and Minnie relationship we've ever seen. The parting of the ways at the end was similarly refreshing and unusual, and if you ask me perfectly sets up a sequel to the episode.
I really liked it. ****1/2.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "Disappearing Act"
So sweet that gave me cavities.
Magic is an admittedly alluring profession, but I've always found card tricks the least interesting thing about it. Can't understand why that's the thing that's driven Mickey wild.
I love that Mickey is properly mad that the dude sold him a buck fifty wand for twenty dollars. Mickey is pissed for the correct reasons.
All the cameos from the Disney Feature magical characters were wonderful, especially because they seemed to be more drawn in the classical art style rather than the Rudish art style. That all brings me back.
Cute. ****.
How To Stay At Home "How To Wear A Mask"
I love the classic style music.
Before you scoff at pandemic How To Goofy cartoons, remember that those old cartoons in the 1950's and 60's always seemed to try to keep up with modern fads and trends. It is perfectly natural for these cartoons to do that coming back. Same deal with "How To Hook Up Your Home Theater". That's how the How To cartoons have always worked. ****.
How To Stay At Home "Learning To Cook"
The Narrator never does Goofy any favors.
Surprised Goofy found the dish at the end edible. But he IS Goofy. ***1/2.
Home To Stay At Home "Binge Watching"
Ooo! Ooo! I know this one!
And the Narrator is doing it wrong. You CAN take breaks from binging. Whenever you freaking want to for however long you want! That's why binging is great. It's entirely at your own leisure, and not at the demand of the network's scheduling. You don't HAVE to watch everything in one sitting. But the fact that you CAN is why the freedom of binging is so great.
The Narrator knows nothing about binging. ***.
American Dad! "Dr. Sunderson's SunSuckers"
Really, Hayley needs to stop investing time with Roger. Frankly, ALL the family needs to stop doing that.
The ending with Stan revealing he's the culprit to no-one was pleasurably weird.
Love the return of End Of Days Lewis.
Jeff was great in the episode. That guy will do anything Hayley tells him to.
Funny episode, but not quite great. ***1/2.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Blue Flu"
Holt saying "This is a very frustrating conversation," was like the truest thing he ever said. Him turning it around on John McGinley at the end was sublime comedy.
Honestly? I would have preferred it if it HAD been a decimal point. The idea of Jake losing $2000 over THAT is hilarious.
I love how much Hitchcock and Scully love each other.
Covid is the elephant in the room for the episode, and I'm unhappy it wasn't mentioned. Of course that would make things not funny, but I'm thinking this specific plotline probably would have done better to have happened in an earlier season.
I love that Holt is amazed and alarmed people thought he was trying to be cool with the trident thing. Is that why he's failing? Hilarious.
Regardless, the episode was great, if only for Holt's profane insult. Even if we weren't allowed to hear what it was on broadcast television. ****.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Balancing"
Yeah, I don't like the idea that Holt sent a penis pic even if he was drunk. It's out of character.
My favorite bit in the episode is in the teaser, which isn't a shocker considering how great this show's teasers are. But I loved it especially when Terry tells Jake that maybe he doesn't have an arch-nemesis because he solves all his cases. Jake sits in stunned silence from a few long seconds, and gives him the dirtiest of looks, and says "That's a really effed up thing to say to me." He can't even joke about it, he's so mad. I loved it.
But I was not cool with the Holt stuff at all. ***.
Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf
This is SORT of a reboot of first book. I wouldn't call it canon to the movie, but it sort of fits if you squint your eyes. The original book is acknowledged as a dream had by Jessica which ended with Roger alive in the shower. Gary K. Wolf knows the right jokes to tell about retcons.
I thought most of it turned out right, although I would have explicitly given the Toon Tonic to Jo at the end.
Unlike the first book, there are some things I didn't like. There is some definite homophobia in the book. Not nearly as the level of cringe as Bill and Ted, but "Nancy" and "Queen" still hit my ear wrong, whether the book is set in 1947 or not. The other problem with the book is that I don't agree with the conclusions raised about Toon Tonic, especially in a day and age where being transgender has become accepted by much of society. Eddie bemoans that if Toons could become human and vice versa, you'd never be able to tell them apart. Ferd makes a third of a human's salary for doing the same job as a human. Explain to me what's wrong with leveling that specific playing field.
The mystery was fine, and I liked and was amused by the romance between Eddie and Jo, and I especially liked that it turned out Jessica was faithful the entire time and Baby Herman was alive. Which is another reason the "here we go again" cliffhangers were kind of annoying.
Roger becoming human for awhile and then becoming a father was very cool. I also really dug his friendship with Clark Gable. They wound up hitting it off and liking each other, and I thought that was cool.
Like the first book, the wrap-up addresses the idea that there was a secondary killer / Little Bad mucking things up. Instead of being Roger (who also almost dies twice in the novel) it's Eddie's third brother Freddy. And the hows and whys there sort of break my heart. I don't agree with Eddie or Wolf about Toon Tonic. But I see why Eddie hates what's become of his broken brother.
To be brutally honest, it's not as good as the first book. On the other hand, I liked the characters a lot more (except for maybe Baby Herman). Roger is not a murderous heel and Jessica is not a scumbag so that's nice. But I had some ethical concerns about some of the issues raised in the book, and a lot of the terms used in the book were insensitive, somewhat bigoted, and dated. It was good, but not great. ***1/2.
Batman: The Long Halloween: Part Two
After an amazing Part One I expected to like that very much. But I didn't. At least nowhere NEAR as much as Part 1.
It starts off promising with a very interesting opening title sequence. But I did not like the resolution of the mystery. The culprit was right, the outcome was not.
When Holiday shows up and kills Moroni in front of Two-Face I knew it was Gilda. Why? Because Gordon says that sometimes leads don't pan out. I say, sometimes they do. The clues all led to the killer living at Harvey's house. If it wasn't Harvey, that hardly puts them back at square one. I am a bit frustrated Gilda was not the focus of the investigation after that. I know that's not how mysteries work, but as far as I was concerned, the Holiday Killer not being Harvey meant it was Gilda. Is Batman The World's Greatest Detective or not? Not hardly. At least not yet.
The thing that upsets me is that Batman let her go at the end. I don't know if he did it as a favor to Harvey or what, but I find that idea utterly obscene. I'm guessing it's from the comic because only a comic book would do something that appalling. I guess the movie was true to it, but it sucked. Either the rules apply to everybody or they don't. If Bruce is setting unfair standards for which murderers to bring in and which to let slide based on personal favors, he's no better than his rotten parents.
Speaking of which, I'm going to bring this up in every Batman project going forward. I'm not sure if I have already, but it's about time I did if I haven't. The murders of the Waynes have gotten intolerable. It is played the eff out. There is no new angle they can give it. They need to stop showing it while that is. I find it tiresome and boring, which is NOT what that moment should ever be. It has completely lost whatever power it used to hold over me. And I'm going to repeat and repeat this specific complaint going forward. And I bet I'll have to complain about it a LOT. DC just can't stop with it.
The Flash and Green Arrow tag was neither here or there so I didn't like it.
As far as culprits go, that was a solid mystery. As far as story resolutions go, it kind of sucked. ***.
DC Showcase: Blue Beetle
The first thing I wanted this Vintage Saturday Morning Parody to do is be G-rated the entire way through. There are a couple of subversive things that wouldn't pass muster in the 1960's, but this entire thing could air on Cartoon Network and Boomerang today with no problems.
And why the heck not? Nobody actually demanded all of the DC Showcase shorts be PG-13. Why CAN'T they do a kid-friendly one? I think this actually goes for the movie line too, but that's an entirely different argument that I don't feel like getting into right now.
I have always loved the phrase "It's the ginchiest." Good to hear it here. Somebody lend me their comb.
The Question knowing it's Ted, and Ted ridiculously trying to pretend it isn't was great, as was the Question sort of being a little bit annoyed with the fact that he has to explain he didn't get to the answer because he's an amazing detective, but because it's obvious.
Do you know would have been neat? Booster Gold! But I understand only wanting to spotlight the Charlton stuff for this one.
That was great. *****.
Injustice Sneak Peek
It looks interesting but I am very glad it's Elseworlds.
Also, Jim Krieg continues to be insane. ****.
Stargirl "Summer School: Chapter Two"
Much better than last week.
I like Jenny. She's square. Square characters get a bad rap but I think they're cool.
The fact that Courtney doesn't like her instantly is one of the reasons I don't actually like Courtney. She always makes things a bigger drama than they need to be. It's getting tiring.
Shade, huh? Love the hat.
The idea that Jenny is an actual Lantern is interesting. I wonder where they are going with it.
Back on track after an underwhelming premiere. ****.
Superman & Lois "Last Sons Of Krypton"
The episode was solid for about three quarters of the way through. And as it was going I said to myself, "Because the show is already great, I will accept a solid finale. It doesn't need to be earth-shattering or amazing for me to like it." And then the scene with Lois and Jordan happened, and the finale was amazing anyways. It didn't need to be. But the show refused to let me down.
Season 2 frightens the hell out of me. I could not stand a Berlanti sophomore slump for this specific show. I love it too much.
Superman's interview with Chrissy was great, and shows why the dude makes great copy. He tells her (correctly, I might add) that he can't control if the situation makes people fear Kryptonians, and even him. But he says it was Smallville that saved themselves, and that they'll come out of this stronger than ever. What a great dude. THAT'S why he's Superman. The powers are secondary to that.
Season 2 scares me so much that I almost wish the show had been canceled. But that specific cliffhanger is so freaking messy I am still dying to see how it plays out.
And yeah, that's a messy-ass ending. I understand entirely why John wanted to leave, but Nat showing up means they are gonna have to stick around for awhile if only to straighten things out. It is totally and subversively this show that the cliffhanger doesn't involved DC Comics lore, or Season 2 supervillain set-up. It returns to the family dynamic. Because that's the actual important thing in the series.
I freaking love this show. Berlanti BETTER take care of it next year. I am not kidding. I will be livid if he doesn't. ****1/2.
Titans "Blackfire"
Unimpressed.
Dick's plan totally sucked. Per usual. What a loser. I liked the bit with the net though.
Jason told Crane everything? What a mess. I honestly think Crane needs to die at this point. Him knowing that secret will cause nothing but grief.
Also for the record, and to the show's discredit, learning Crane is somehow the "Mastermind" doesn't make Jason actions make any more sense. They are still bordering on ridiculous.
Remind me again why Starfire freed Blackfire. What was the brilliant idea there supposed to be?
This show is just hot garbage. **1/2.
Star Trek: Lower Decks "Strange Energies"
The is the first time we've seen the Cardassians in the modern era (even if they were only holograms). Also pretty sure a Jem'Hadar ship was in the mix. That should have told us right away it wasn't real (besides Boimler claiming to be a hologram).
The story was only okay but I liked the references to Gary Mitchell.
Riker's appearance at the end was a nice surprise.
Decent opener. ***1/2.
Star Trek: Lower Decks "Kayshon, His Eyes Open"
That was pretty awesome. I love that there is now a Tamaranian in Starfleet.
Boimler describing the Titan as a bunch of action-packed serialized adventures is a very nice dig at Star Trek: Discovery. As a sci-fi show, Discovery is pretty great. As a Star Trek show, it's all wrong.
For one thing it is nowhere NEAR as slavish to the continuity as this is. Riker actually brings up "Night Bird" which is like the deepest Next Gen cut ever. I also like that Thomas Riker is mentioned. I hope the franchise does something new with that character. It never sat right with me that he went to a Cardassian prison camp and we never heard from him again.
The Titan crew making fun of the string quartet on the Enterprise-D is a fair way to say that as flawed as Discovery is as far as Star Trek goes, Next Generation and the earlier shows weren't at all perfect in portraying humanity. That string quartet stuff was outright insufferable, and I appreciated it getting rightfully dragged here.
Boimler's double sucking up by deciding to go by William now is absolutely brilliant. That was pretty much his best career move ever.
It's cool that it DOES look like the Pakleds are going to be the Big Bads of the series. I loved that idea last year and I'm glad it hasn't been forgotten.
Really great episode. ****1/2.
Marvel's What If...? "What If... T'Challa Became A Starlord?"
So I like this show now. Like a LOT.
They should have made THIS the premiere episode. Last week simply does not compare to how awesome this was.
I love that Korath is bright and sunny and a Starlord fanboy. This episode made me think a LOT less of Peter Quill. Not only because of that, but with somebody like T'Challa in his place he was able to reform not only Yondu (which admittedly is not a stretch) but freaking Thanos! He simply talked the mad Titan out of his plan. I love that. The Universe is measurably better with T'Challa out there in it. Drax's family is alive too which hints that Peter sucking made the Universe even worse than we suspected.
I also love how silly this version of the Collector is, and Nebula also seems to have gained a sense of humor, as well as a full head of hair. And the stuff with Howard the Duck was a real treat. It was nice to see the character done well for once.
No surprise the episode was dedicated the Boseman. My thought is that they should dedicate ALL the T'Challa episodes to him.
Man, after the disaster of Black Panther's Quest, it is SO nice to see an animated T'Challa I am allowed to love and root for. I don't think the either of the recent Avengers cartoons (especially Avengers Assemble, but Earth's Mightiest Heroes was guilty of it a bit too) get enough flack for how unlikable they made Black Panther for contrast to everyone else. By the time Black Panther's Quest came along the character was outright insufferable. There is a reason Boseman was beloved in the role.
Considering Djimon Hounsou used to PLAY Black Panther himself, it must have been really fun to play off Boseman. I suspect that is the specific reason Korath had an surprisingly huge role. Also, Hounsou NEVER gets cast in silly roles, so playing Korvath this way must have been REALLY fun for him.
I don't know if the show is gonna be doing sequel episodes to the various Universes, but if they do, I wanna see what happens with Peter and Ego. Very curious about that.
I loved that episode. *****.
Monsters At Work "Little Monsters"
Those little monsters sure are cute. My favorites are the orange slug that rides the doors and the little pink girl with one eye.
Talia seems pretty sharp. The ending with her mom was pretty cool.
And of course there are production babies in the end credits.
I liked Mike's slow realization that he is in fact the goofball and that Sulley just let him prattle on until he realized it.
Good to see Adorable again.
Good episode. ****.
Chip 'N' Dale: Park Life "A Nut You Can't Refuse / Chipmunks Away / Ruff Justice"
A Nut You Can't Refuse:
Chip got mobbed up! ***1/2.
Chipmunks Away:
I was a little bored with this one. **1/2.
Ruff Justice:
Can we call this one CHiPS and Dale? Chip and Dale sure are cute.
Stuffed Panda Bear backpacks aren't actually illegal. But this episode suggests why maybe they should be.
I like putting the kitten app on the phone with the rest of the suckling kittens actually worked.
Funny cartoon. ****.
Episode Overall: ***1/2.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "Untold Treasure"
Oh my God! This one actually had a plot!
And about time Peg-Leg Pete was used as a pirate. Although his leg was a hook here.
I loved Mickey and Minnie's unfriendly rivalry because it is so far outside of every other Mickey and Minnie relationship we've ever seen. The parting of the ways at the end was similarly refreshing and unusual, and if you ask me perfectly sets up a sequel to the episode.
I really liked it. ****1/2.
The Wonderful World Of Mickey Mouse "Disappearing Act"
So sweet that gave me cavities.
Magic is an admittedly alluring profession, but I've always found card tricks the least interesting thing about it. Can't understand why that's the thing that's driven Mickey wild.
I love that Mickey is properly mad that the dude sold him a buck fifty wand for twenty dollars. Mickey is pissed for the correct reasons.
All the cameos from the Disney Feature magical characters were wonderful, especially because they seemed to be more drawn in the classical art style rather than the Rudish art style. That all brings me back.
Cute. ****.
How To Stay At Home "How To Wear A Mask"
I love the classic style music.
Before you scoff at pandemic How To Goofy cartoons, remember that those old cartoons in the 1950's and 60's always seemed to try to keep up with modern fads and trends. It is perfectly natural for these cartoons to do that coming back. Same deal with "How To Hook Up Your Home Theater". That's how the How To cartoons have always worked. ****.
How To Stay At Home "Learning To Cook"
The Narrator never does Goofy any favors.
Surprised Goofy found the dish at the end edible. But he IS Goofy. ***1/2.
Home To Stay At Home "Binge Watching"
Ooo! Ooo! I know this one!
And the Narrator is doing it wrong. You CAN take breaks from binging. Whenever you freaking want to for however long you want! That's why binging is great. It's entirely at your own leisure, and not at the demand of the network's scheduling. You don't HAVE to watch everything in one sitting. But the fact that you CAN is why the freedom of binging is so great.
The Narrator knows nothing about binging. ***.
American Dad! "Dr. Sunderson's SunSuckers"
Really, Hayley needs to stop investing time with Roger. Frankly, ALL the family needs to stop doing that.
The ending with Stan revealing he's the culprit to no-one was pleasurably weird.
Love the return of End Of Days Lewis.
Jeff was great in the episode. That guy will do anything Hayley tells him to.
Funny episode, but not quite great. ***1/2.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Blue Flu"
Holt saying "This is a very frustrating conversation," was like the truest thing he ever said. Him turning it around on John McGinley at the end was sublime comedy.
Honestly? I would have preferred it if it HAD been a decimal point. The idea of Jake losing $2000 over THAT is hilarious.
I love how much Hitchcock and Scully love each other.
Covid is the elephant in the room for the episode, and I'm unhappy it wasn't mentioned. Of course that would make things not funny, but I'm thinking this specific plotline probably would have done better to have happened in an earlier season.
I love that Holt is amazed and alarmed people thought he was trying to be cool with the trident thing. Is that why he's failing? Hilarious.
Regardless, the episode was great, if only for Holt's profane insult. Even if we weren't allowed to hear what it was on broadcast television. ****.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine "Balancing"
Yeah, I don't like the idea that Holt sent a penis pic even if he was drunk. It's out of character.
My favorite bit in the episode is in the teaser, which isn't a shocker considering how great this show's teasers are. But I loved it especially when Terry tells Jake that maybe he doesn't have an arch-nemesis because he solves all his cases. Jake sits in stunned silence from a few long seconds, and gives him the dirtiest of looks, and says "That's a really effed up thing to say to me." He can't even joke about it, he's so mad. I loved it.
But I was not cool with the Holt stuff at all. ***.
Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf
This is SORT of a reboot of first book. I wouldn't call it canon to the movie, but it sort of fits if you squint your eyes. The original book is acknowledged as a dream had by Jessica which ended with Roger alive in the shower. Gary K. Wolf knows the right jokes to tell about retcons.
I thought most of it turned out right, although I would have explicitly given the Toon Tonic to Jo at the end.
Unlike the first book, there are some things I didn't like. There is some definite homophobia in the book. Not nearly as the level of cringe as Bill and Ted, but "Nancy" and "Queen" still hit my ear wrong, whether the book is set in 1947 or not. The other problem with the book is that I don't agree with the conclusions raised about Toon Tonic, especially in a day and age where being transgender has become accepted by much of society. Eddie bemoans that if Toons could become human and vice versa, you'd never be able to tell them apart. Ferd makes a third of a human's salary for doing the same job as a human. Explain to me what's wrong with leveling that specific playing field.
The mystery was fine, and I liked and was amused by the romance between Eddie and Jo, and I especially liked that it turned out Jessica was faithful the entire time and Baby Herman was alive. Which is another reason the "here we go again" cliffhangers were kind of annoying.
Roger becoming human for awhile and then becoming a father was very cool. I also really dug his friendship with Clark Gable. They wound up hitting it off and liking each other, and I thought that was cool.
Like the first book, the wrap-up addresses the idea that there was a secondary killer / Little Bad mucking things up. Instead of being Roger (who also almost dies twice in the novel) it's Eddie's third brother Freddy. And the hows and whys there sort of break my heart. I don't agree with Eddie or Wolf about Toon Tonic. But I see why Eddie hates what's become of his broken brother.
To be brutally honest, it's not as good as the first book. On the other hand, I liked the characters a lot more (except for maybe Baby Herman). Roger is not a murderous heel and Jessica is not a scumbag so that's nice. But I had some ethical concerns about some of the issues raised in the book, and a lot of the terms used in the book were insensitive, somewhat bigoted, and dated. It was good, but not great. ***1/2.