We are getting closer and closer to Matt Murdock resuming his crusade as the Man Without Fear. After the death of White Tiger at the episode’s end last week, this week Matt is facing a lot of struggles.
Matt wants justice for Hector, and this leads him throughout the episode. He comforted Hector’s niece, who came wanting to see her uncle. Matt would not let her. Groundwork being set for the niece to assume the mantel of White Tiger, as she does in the comics.
Matt’s new case is a tough one. His client insists that he get probation, despite this being a multiple offense. Of course, it was just stealing caramel corn. These scenes between these two were quite powerful and, you could tell, spoke to Matt. Oh, and the client, who was on tape stealing the caramel corn, asked if it could have been Skrulls. LOL!
Matt went to see Frank Castle, aka Punisher, after he found a bullet with the skull on the casing. We all knew Frank had not been the one to shoot Hector, but Frank did not seem to anxious to come out of his bunker to help Matt out. The scene with these two was the best scenes of the show so far, and that is saying something considering how strong the acting has been so far.
We also saw Wilson Fisk struggling with his instincts. He does not seem to fit in the role of the mayor very well. Certainly Adam, the man who Vanessa had an affair with, would agree as Fisk has him locked up in a cage.
And… watching Fisk desperately trying to keep himself in control as this group of children sang to him (terribly, by the way) was funny, as was Fisk’s rapid departure after the first song.
Two-part episode next week. I have a feeling we’ll see the costume make its full return.
After adding The Leftovers to the watchlist at EYG, I came across What We Do in the Shadows on Disney +. I loved the Taika Waititi written/directed movie that this was based on, and it was another show that I have heard many praises about, so I decided to add this to The Leftovers and The X-Files rotation.
What We Do in the Shadows currently has six season and 61 episodes.
What a hoot this show was. The story is there are four vampires living together in Staten Island and there is a documentary crew filming their every day lives. The vampires are Nandor the Relentless, Lazlo and Nadja, who are married, and Colin Robinson, the energy vampire. There is also Nandor’s familiar, Guillermo, who served Nandor for ten years.
The writing of the dialogue of this pilot episode was fantastic, with such a clever spin on the idea of vampires and building upon the movie. It was a hilarious episode, where I laughed out loud multiple times. You can definitely feel the Taika Waititi flavor of the show, as he did direct the episode. The pilot was written by Jemaine Clement, who co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in the original movie with Taika Waititi.
I am curious to see if this series can maintain this level of humor and creativity over a long run of episodes. I can see this being a show where the story runs dry after awhile. It is an intriguing set up and I want to see where they take it from here.
I needed some more TV shows to watch. Of course, I have a bunch of shows that I watch during the week, such as Daredevil: Born Again, The White Lotus and Yellowjackets. However, with the rewatch/new watch shows, I have finished Battlestar Galactica, Bates Motel, Dark Matter and others leaving me just The X-Files to watch. I decided it was time to dip into the queue and see what series I could add to the X-Files.
I have been interested in The Leftovers for awhile now. I have heard positive word of mouth about the series, and it did not hurt that it was from Damon Lindelof, one of the driving forces behind LOST, my favorite show of all time.
The Leftovers has been on my MAX list for awhile now and I thought this was the perfect time to start this show.
My first thoughts was that the Russo Brothers must have taken inspiration from this show for Avengers: Endgame, because there were so many early episode similarities. The disappearance of the people from the earth right down to the THREE YEARS LATER that came on the screen. (Yes, Endgame was FIVE YEARS LATER, but that is semantics).
The world we were being introduced to had that same grim feel that Endgame had in its first moments where we see the post blip. This was with only 2% of the population of earth disappearing. I can’t imagine how that would feel, when people you know were just gone, with no explanation. Avengers: Endgame could blame Thanos. Where were the answers for these people?
The pilot began to introduce us to characters, and getting to know a large ensemble is a challenging task. This show did it very well as I was engaged with everyone as the episode progressed. There were plenty of mysteries and untold stories that will be revealed, I’m sure. The trauma from everyone in this town was obvious.
There are three seasons of The Leftovers with 28 episodes overall. There were several moments in the pilot that caused me to shout out. I am sure that this will live up to the hype.
Agent Doggett is still in search of Agent Mulder, as he said he would do when we first met him, and his investigation brought him to a strange town with a bizarre creature. A creature that turned out to be more moral than the people of the town.
Tracking Agent Mulder’s cell phone, Doggett finds his was to Squamash, Pennsylvania. With his investigation, he discovered that Mulder had submitted some false reports the day prior to his abduction.
We had seen a mysterious figure enter a house with a married couple and shoot someone that was there. We soon learn the man who shot those three bullets was Agent Mulder. It all felt bizarre, and it seemed very out of character for Mulder, something that Skinner pointed out to Doggett.
The story wound up being about a “soul eater” and the town knew about it, keeping it as property to help save the sick and dying. This was apparently the reason that Mulder had sought out the soul eater. Mulder was dying from a brain disease and he came looking for the healing of the soul eater. When he found him, he realized how much pain the soul eater was in, and Mulder’s shooting of it was meant to euthanize it. The soul eater would survive and drag itself out of its grave.
It was a shocking moment in the episode when Doggett is shot from behind by the sheriff’s men, who want to keep the soul eater for themselves, and died. The soul eater had escaped and saved Doggett by taking Doggett’s death for itself.
One would think that an experience like this would have turned Doggett into a believer, shaking that skeptic tag that he had worn in season eight so far, but I guess he is too hard headed to be changed.
There was no Scully in this episode and it marked the basic return to the screen of David Duchovny, though only in flashbacks and memories.
Sam Rockwell showed up in Bangkok as Rick’s friend. He brought him a gun and a story about what led him to be ten months sober, and that story was about as unexpectantly shocking as anything on the episode.
It felt like something horrific was going to happen the whole episode.
In the end, most of these stories felt as if they were in a holding pattern. It felt as if something was going to happen that was tragic, but it never did.
I am still most invested in Belinda and her worries over Greg/Gary, which leads to a night of passion for her.
I’m not sure what the trio of blondes and the Russians story was. I was not a fan of the party boat with the Ratliff boys. Timothy Ratliff’s suicidal feelings are interesting, and Parker Posey is always fun.
At this point, I am not sure what is going on and I am not sure where this season is heading. I do like these characters, but I just feel as if nothing of substance has happened and I am waiting for it to kick into gear.
The new Netflix series Adolescence was a British crime drama that really packed a punch.
It was a four episode limited series that explored the story of a 13-year old boy accused of murdering a female classmate and the effects that this had on the boy, his family and others at school.
The third episode was the most stunning of the four, as it featured the boy Jamie Miller and Psychologist Briony Ariston having a session where she was trying to assess Jamie’s understanding of the case. This hour of TV was as thrilling and anxiety-ridden as you will ever see, with two amazing performances from these two actors, who spent nearly the entire time alone in a room. Owen Cooper played Jamie, and Erin Doherty played Briony.
The four episodes are shot in a one take (although there are a few moments where there are hidden cuts in the filming). It was an amazing accomplishment of acting and staging of a TV program to make this one take even remotely possible.
The show was created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham. Graham also starred as Eddie Miller, the father of Jamie. His performance in episode four was all kinds of heartbreaking, ranging from anger to total rage to regret and grief. The show did not shy away from the after-effects on the family, showing how the parents were forever damaged by their son’s actions.
The show uses the term incel, which is a mostly online subculture of men who are unable to find a girlfriend and who use this as an excuse to blame women for it. It is a type of misogynistic tendency that has been more active in the last few years. The show name dropped Andrew Tate during one episode.
Owen Cooper was exceptional as the Jamie Miller. His performance was both emotional and chilling. I wanted to believe his denials right up until the fourth episode when he calls his dad, on his father’s 50th birthday, to tell him that he had decided to plead guilty. Even after Jamie nearly admitted that he had done it in episode three and the implication that they had him on CCTV footage actually stabbing the girl, I wanted to believe that there was going to be a twist. I wanted to believe that there was something else going on. In the end, it was exactly what it looked like the whole time.
This was a devastating four episodes of TV, with unbelievable performances from everybody and a plot that was absolutely gripping and crushingly real. It is not an easy watch, but it is a powerful one.
What do you expect for a budget of $320 million? A good movie?
The Electric State, based on a 2018 graphic novel, is one of the most expensive Netflix movies ever made, and to be fair, you can see the money on the screen with some tremendous special effects. However, there is not much of anything else in the film and it just lacked any kind of heart, any type of spark.
Joe and Anthony Russo directed the film, reteaming with writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely from their MCU days. They worked together on Captain America: Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Those are classic Marvel films. This one is not those.
According to IMDB, “With humans isolated in their VR helmets and a continuing battle against a strange breed of monstruous drones in the wake of a technological meltdown, a teenage girl named Michelle and a robot travel the West Coast of the U.S in search of the girl’s missing brother.“
One thing for sure, this movie has an astounding cast. Starring Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt, the film also featured either live action or voice over performances from Stanley Tucci, Woody Norman, Woody Harrelson, Alan Tudyk, Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter, Tuc Watkins, Giancarlo Esposito, Ke Huy Quan, Colman Domingo, Anthony Mackie, Hank Azaria, Rob Gronkowski, Brian Cox, Jenny Slate, Greg Cromer, and Kurt Loder.
Despite the loaded cast, this movie was a slog, taking pieces that we have seen from other films and mashing them together into a lesser contraption.
I immediately was pulled out when one of the characters was Mister Peanut. Yes, Mister Peanut from Planters. The character design of the robots, almost all of the robots, was so childish and cartoonish that I had no connection to them at all.
The biggest problem with that is that the robots did not fit with the tone being set up in this movie. Had this been a satire or a straight up action/comedy, maybe these robots would have worked, but this movie tried to be a serious film with sprinkling of humor throughout, and it did not work. Had this movie really embraced the ridiculousness of the film, it might have been a much better movie.
While there is a great cast, there is not any characters with any depth to them at all. They are all, with the possible exception of Millie Bobby Brown, one-dimensional characters that lack any real development through the film. Chris Pratt played the same character that he has played in many different movies. How are you supposed to give character development to Mister Peanut?
Electric State missed the mark badly. It had a chance to do something new and different, but slipped back into the most cliched story you could expect and just could not nail the tone. It tried to be too many different things and failed at all of them. A real disappointment. Hope the Russos do a better job with Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars over the next few years.
I enjoyed this episode because it felt a little different than some of the others.
One of the biggest reasons I liked this one so much is that there was less of the war time action involved. Don’t misunderstand me. I think the war action has been great in the series so far, but a little less in this episode fits with the narrative and allows for character growth for several characters. Would I have wanted the same amount of action in the previous episodes? No, I would not, but this gives a bit of a different look.
The POV of this episode was heavily featured by Private Webster, who had been with Easy Company during D-Day and other early offensives, but had missed Bastogne since he was recovering in the hospital. However, when he returned, Easy Company had been through the ringer in Bastogne and Webster found them considerably different than he remembered.
The company did not accept Webster’s return easily either. Since he missed Bastogne, they saw him now as nothing more than a replacement and they shunned him.
We also met a new character named Lt. Jones, fresh out of West Point. He was another character the hardened soldiers had a difficult time connecting to and Jones was desperate for experience in battle as the war did seem to be slowly coming to an end.
A dangerous patrol was sent out across the rover to attempt to capture some German prisoners that they could gather info from. The mission was not well received by Easy Company since the soldiers were beginning to believe that they might make it out of the war alive.
The character development included Sgt. Malarky, who had lost most of his friends at Bastogne and was extremely burned out. Webster was able to convince the brass to give Malarky this mission off because he needed the time.
After coming back from the mission with only one casualty, Lt. Col. Sink ordered the men to return for another patrol. This one would be more dangerous since they would have to go further into the city. Captain Winters met with the men and basically told them to get a good nights sleep and then report to him in the morning that they had completed the mission but were unable to attain any more German prisoners. Winters took the unneeded order and made a judgment call about the viability and importance of it. He weighed the lives of his men ahead of any miniscule benefits that might come from executing the patrol.
The end of the episode indicated that Easy Company would be soon heading into Germany.
I can’t believe the ending of Yellowjackets this week.
Of course, the rest of the episode was thrilling too.
So many things:
Natalie killed Ben after he begged her to do it.
Callie gave Shauna the DAT tape that was left for her
“Testing, testing, one two three. Oh, my god. What is this?”- this was on the tape, the voice, unknown at this time. There were also the whooping and howling on the tape.
Adult Misty continued her investigation and came across Lisa.
Lisa told Misty she saw Tai with Lottie on the day she died.
Tai sat up in bed in what seemed to be a cold-blooded trance, spooking Van
Young Shauna is going to be the new ruler
They force Natalie to carve up Ben’s body for the feast.
Misty gets a DNA report from skin under dead Lottie’s nails
However, that final scene was the one that shocked me completely. Two people just walked into the campsite while the girls were howling and screaming. Oh, and eating Coach Ben. The man exclaimed WTF when he spotted ben’s decapitated head near him.
Who are these people? Where did they come from? Are they the voices on the tape? If so, how did this tape come into existence? Things really took a giant leap forward.
We are just a couple of days from St. Patrick’s Day, so here is an early greeting for everyone to have fun and stay safe.
I finally picked up 20 Degrees Past Rigor #1 off eBay this week, but I have not yet read it. I had issues #2 and #3 already and I was waiting on #1, but it was a hard book to track down. I finally broke down and dropped some $ on eBay to get the book to me. We’ll see if it is worth the time.
Here are the other books this week:
X-Men #13. “Gods and Monsters” Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Netho Diaz. Cover art was done by Ryan Stegman & Marte Gracia. The X-Manhunt storyline continues as the X-Men battle a mind controlled Storm in an attempt to get Charles Xavier back in custody.
Redcoat #10. Creators are Geoff Johns and Bryan Hitch. Hitch and Brad Anderson did the cover art. Simon Pure’s travels bring him into a meeting with Annie Oakley. The trick shot artist and the Redcoat put on a display of shooting and then need to help some people in trouble. Simon revealed some of his deep-seeded doubts to Annie.
All-New Venom #4. Written by Al Ewing and art by Carlos Gomez. Adam Kubert & Laura Martin did the cover art. Well, Rick Jones was revealed this issue to be the Sleeper Agent, seemingly eliminating him from the possible suspect list for the All-New Venom. With Madame Masque in this issue fighting against Venom, does this mean that Robbie Robertson is the one remaining possibility or does Marvel have a swerve coming? We are supposed to find out next issue.
West Coast Avengers #3-4. Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Danny Kim. I missed these two issues so I had to get caught up. I got one on eBay and the other was backordered at Comic World for me. Ironically enough, I missed West Coast Avengers #5 that was released this week. It’s coming next week for me (Thanks Todd).
Darkwing Duck #1. Written by Daniel Kibblesmith and drawn by Ted Brandt and Ro Stein. Variant cover B art was done by Mark Bagley (Bronze Medalist). I saw an interview with Daniel Kibblesmith a few months ago on YouTube talking about this project and it intrigued me. I like Kibblesmith and I think Dynamite has been doing some excellent books of late so I wanted to give this a try. I enjoyed the book for the most part.
Amazing Spider-Man #69. “Acceptable Losses.” Written by Joe Kelly and penciled by Ed McGuinness. Cover art was done by McGuinness, Cliff Rathburn & Marcio Menyz. Peter Parker is back among the living thanks to Cyra’s change of heart. She helped him turn into the Spider-Juggernaut???? One more issue of this volume before a reboot for Amazing Spider-Man.
How I Became a Shoplifter #1. Written by Tom Breyfogle and art by Daniel Hillyard. I picked up issues #2, 3 of this in the bag sale last weekend, so I ordered issue one on eBay. I received a notice form eBay that the issues (I got all three versions of issue #1’s cover) had been delivered, but they were nowhere to be found at my house. I checked the tracking and it said that it had been delivered to Manchester, CT. This was, of course, nowhere near my house in Iowa. I contacted the seller at eBay and he responded that sometimes they scan the address incorrectly and that I should be patient and give it a few days. He promised that he would make sure I got my order even if he had to resend the issues. A few days later, the package arrived at my doorstep. I was grateful for the communication by the eBay seller, ih8jocks1692.
Deadpool #12. “Pools of Blood.” Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Andrea DiVito. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. The Deadpool/Miles Morales team up/face off continued in this issue with Miles coming face to face with Princess.
X-Factor #8. “The Summers of Days Past.” Written by Mark Russell and art by Bob Quinn. Greg Land & Frank D’Armata did the cover art. The Legacy numbered 300 issue of X-Factor featured a battle between the X-Men and X-Factor over the custody of Charles Xavier. Xavier seems to be causing all kinds of trouble lately as X-Manhunt gives us chapter 5.
Power Man: Timeless #2. “No Time at All.” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and art by Bernard King. Ario Anindito did the cover art. Luke Cage and Aeon have a massive cosmic battle and Power Man shows off his Hulk-side. Oh and… hey there Apocalypse. How have you been?
Phoenix #9. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Alessandro Miracolo. Variant cover art was done by Todd Nauck & Rachelle Rosenberg. Newly powered up and new costumed Jean Grey as the Phoenix is in search of Adani. Nova and Rocket Raccoon guest star.
Absolute Superman #5. “Ad Astra Per Aspera.” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Rafa Sandoval. Sandoval and Ulises Arreola did the cover art (Gold Medalist). We see the flashback to the death of Krypton and how young (but not baby) Kal-El wound up on the earth.
Batman: Dark Patterns #4. “The Voice of the Tower Part 1” Written by Dan Watters with art and cover art by Hayden Sherman (Silver Medalist). This issue reminded me of the movie Dredd from 2012, except for the weird ending with the building looking to be alive. Not sure what this issue was. It was odd from the start.
Green Hornet Miss Fury #3. Written by Alex Segura and Henry Barajas with art by Federico Sorressa. Cover art was done by Francesco Francavilla. Silver Shrike is causing trouble and he has place Kato into all kinds of danger. This noir style book continues to be excellent.
In Hell We Fight #5. Written by John Layman and drawn by Jok. This was another book I picked up on eBay to complete a run of books I got in the bag sale last weekend. I enjoyed this book as it reminded me some of Hazmat Hotel.
Sister Imperator #1. Written by Corinna Bechko and art by Puste. Cover art was done by Mikael Eriksson. This is a series listed as from the world of Ghost, which I do not know what that is. However, this does seem to be the origin of the titular character and it was an interesting and tragic story. Dark Horse has been solid this last year or so.
Namor #8. “The Wrath and the Splendor.” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Paul Davidson & Alex Lins. Cover art was done by Alexander Lozano. The new Namor series wrapped up with Namor taking control of the throne of Atlantis only to make some major, sweeping changes to it. I have enjoyed this Jason Aaron penned series considerably and I would welcome more undersea adventures from him with Namor.
The Nine Lives of Salem #1. Written by Cullen Bunn and art was done by Dan Schoening and Ben Galvan. Cover art was Dan Schoening & Matt Herms. Salem the cat from Sabrina the Teenage Witch has his own one shot in the Archie Comics company. It was fun and fits right in with the other recent books with feline and/or canine lead characters.
Nick Fury vs. Fin Fang Foom #1. Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Elena Casagrande. Cover art was done by Gary Frank and Alex Sinclair. This was a pre-WWII story with Nick Fury attempting to clear the Chinese skies of the “cloud” that turned out to be the dragon Fin Fang Foom. These strange Marvel team ups have been fun and I like seeing Fin Fang Foom featured prominently.
Geiger #12. Written by Geoff Johns and penciled by Gary Frank. Gary Frank & Brad Anderson did the cover art. The Glowing Woman is trying to help out Geiger to control his powers. However, what is her true motivation? Not sure.
Hellhunters #4. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Adam Gorham. Declan Shalvey did the variant cover B. Zarathos provided a bit of a power boost for the Hellhunters. Logan, in particular, looks really cool with his horns and his flaming claws.
Iron Man #6. “The Insurgent Iron Man.” Written by Spencer Ackerman and drawn by Julius Ohta. Cover art was done by Yasmine Putri. Tony Stark is plotting to take down Doctor Doom… by supplying Doctor Doom with Stark weapons. Huh? This felt like a political thriller with the intrigue of spy action. I am not sure that things are going to go well for Tony.
Other books this week: The Moon is Following Us #7, Transformers #18, Void Rivals #17, Napalm Lullaby #9, and Warm Fusion #2.
I do love the Looney Tunes. However, to be fair, Bugs Bunny is my favorite character. I was wearing my Bugs Bunny shirt when I went to see the new WB Animation movie The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. I knew that Daffy Duck and Porky Pig were the leads of the flick, but I was still hoping for a Bugs Bunny cameo. Unfortunately that did not happen.
Despite the disappointment over the lack of the rascally rabbit, I had fun with the feature-length animated film. There were some moments that I did not love, but, for the most part, this was a good time and the Looney Tunes remain a classic cartoon.
According to IMDB, “Porky and Daffy, the classic animated odd couple, turn into unlikely heroes when their antics at the local bubble gum factory uncover a secret alien mind control plot. Against all odds, the two are determined to save their town (and the world!)…that is if they don’t drive each other crazy in the process.”
The early years with Daffy and Porky being raised by Farmer Jim were wonderful. The way the movie presented Farmer Jim was something special. I found every minute of Farmer Jim to be hilarious, and the different animation style on the character was perfect.
The film really is of two parts. The first part is dealing with the dangerous chewing gum, and the second part switches things up and has to deal with a planet wide emergency, both situations featured Daffy and Porky smack dab in the middle.
The voice acting was solid from a group of voice over actors that may not be known names, but who had plenty of experience to bring great work. They include Eric Bauza (both Porky and Daffy), Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol, Fred Tatasciore, Laraine Newman, Wayne Knight, Ruth Clampett, Kimberly Brooks, Keith Ferguson, and Peter Browngardt.
The Looney Tunes certainly have a place in today’s animated films and this should show that. I want Bugs Bunny next time, though.
The new action/comedy Novocaine was released this week starring The Boys star Jack Quaid. Quaid played a character that could not feel any pain and winds up in the middle of a bank robbery.
This movie was extremely violent and Jack Quaid does a wonderful job as our lead protagonist. It was impressive how much you could relate to Quaid’s character Nate Caine considering he had this ability to not feel any pain. Everything that Nate said made sense to me and I could understand why he made the choices that he made.
Amber Midthunder played Nate’s love interest, Sherry. They had great chemistry in the film and you could believe that Nate goes to the extremes that he does when Sherry gets snatched by the bank robbers.
There were some truly brutal moments in the film, bad enough that some of them reminded me of the animated Invincible, and if you know anything about that show, you know that it is very gory and bloody. Novocaine seemed to take inspiration with some of the things that they did to Nate or the others in the cast.
It was funny several times when Nate would be injured and he would not feel anything. This is a SPOILER if you have not seen the trailers, but Jack took a swinging spiked ball to the back and just looked at it and said what was that. I t was funny.
Some parts of the story require suspension of disbelief, but I do not have a problem with that when you have a character who can not feel pain. The writers used this in several very interesting ways, in ways that I never would have thought about.
Jacob Batalon, who played Ned in the MCU Spider-Man movies, played Nate’s online gamer buddy, and, though he spent much of the time in the movie on the phone where we do not see him, his presence is welcome and his comedic timing is excellent. He worked very well with Jack Quaid despite not sharing much screentime together.
Novocaine was an enjoyable film with plenty of comedy and plenty of violent action. It feels a little long, but there are many great moments inside of the 110 minutes.
I thought some of the blood was scaled back overall in season three. They used the blood better in season three in my opinion. Still brutal and gory, but less gratuitous.
That all changed in the finale. Wow was this bloody and violent. I loved it.
I have to say that I think the third season was so much better than the second season, which I stopped watching half way through. I just was not interested in this. I was not sure if I wanted to continue watching into season three.
I am glad I decided to watch season three.
The Invincible vs. Conquest battle was just unbelievable. I really thought Eve had bit the big one. I am glad she did not. Apparently Eve’s special gives some details, but I have not watched that.
I am not happy that Conquest’s body was kept by Cecil as a way to find information. This is absolutely a massive mistake and will bite him in the butt before too long.
The series of troubles coming for season four was long and I did not know any of them.
And how long will the humans put up with being killed as collateral damage? There were a bunch of human causalities in this episode.
I did enjoy this season way more than season two. It was on par with the first season. Hopefully, this will continue to be top quality.
It is time for the EYG Comic Covers of the Week. To be fair, this week did not have the number of contenders as last week did, but there were a few solid choices outside the medalist. One of them was actually released last week.
Bronze Medalist
Darkwing Duck #1
Variant Cover B art by Mark Bagley
Darkwing Duck has his own Dynamite book and he has a classic Spider-Man artist handling a variant cover. This cover has some epic Darkwing Duck action in front of a cityscape. The big full moon and the bolts of electricity help make this stand out.
Silver Medalist
Batman: Dark Patterns #4
Cover art by Hayden Sherman
Love this image of a ginormous Batman wrapping his cape around this building, red skies in the background and yet another big, full moon. This is very much of a visual image that speaks on the power of Batman.
Gold Medalist
Absolute Superman #5
Cover art by Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola
It is another powerful image on the cover of a DC book that earns the gold medal. The flames and the explosions around Superman are just epic and his glowing red hands stand out of the fire. All surrounding the S-insignia. Amazing. Congrats to DC for a strong week of covers.
So I have mixed feelings about this episode of the X-Files.
On one hand, I really liked the way Scully responded in this episode. It has been one of the questions I have had about the season 8 episodes. Scully has been doing the believer part, replacing Mulder and Doggett took the role of skeptic. It felt as if Scully really switched places quickly, without any trouble. Here, two things finally happened.
First, they mentioned Mulder’s name again. I am not sure when he was last mentioned, which felt weird for such an important character. Secondly, Scully admitted that she had been struggling to see things the way Mulder did and that she was not having much success. Both of these truths have been long time coming, and I assume it means that the writers are trying to put Mulder’s name back into the show because David Duchovny would be returning soon.
As for the other side of this episode, I have to say that the monster-of-the-week here, what was referenced as a fakir, was laughable in appearance and would climb into its victim’s body though his butt. Looking at the Wikipedia entry, the antagonist was being dubbed “Butt Munch” by a critic and “Butt Genie” by fans. Gurdeep Roy, aka Deep Roy, was a noted stuntman who wound up playing the fakir in the episode and he made me laugh immediately. Whereas I think it was intended to be creepy, the creature was silly.
That was a major drawback immediately, and the whole butt stuff did not help that out. I am not sure they ever really gave a motive for what the fakir was doing, or why he was killing those people that he was killing. Why he went after the boys in the end is unclear, unless it was just a response to them being able to see him.
The entire story, except for the Scully character parts, was a joke and lacked any real tension. Gillian Anderson brought her best in the episode and made some great material out of the weakness.
