Tag Archives: disney

Skeleton Crew S1 E6

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Zero Friends Again”

Happy New Year!

I paused my annual tradition of watching Infinity War and Endgame New Years Eve until midnight to watch tonight new episode of Skeleton Crew. That should tell you how much I have been enjoying this show. It was a nice little break between the big Avengers movie (as of right now, Endgame has just started)

Our four young heroes went down a chute and slid away from Jod, who was in the process of betraying them last episode. This put Wim, Neel, Fern and KB tried to decide what they were going to do now. It led to them splitting apart into pairs after a bit of a childish argument. The show does a tremendous job of reminding us how these characters are kids.

Meanwhile, Jod is trying to avoid being sentenced and sent out the air lock by telling the story of At Attin. He tried to encourage the other pirates that he could provide an unending treasure.

The group of kids got back together and there was an exciting action scene to end the show as they flew their ship off the planet, with KB having the coordinates to At Attin in her head.

Skeleton Crew has been a great show with a ton of fun to it since episode one. We have our protagonists clearly shown for now and Jod is absolutely the antagonist. Two more episodes remain as they are on their way home.

Skeleton Crew S1 E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“You Have a lot to Learn about Pirates”

With Christmas in the middle of the week and no school because of Christmas break, my mind gets mixed up. I was focused on a lot of different things, and I did not think about Skeleton Crew having a new episode last night. In fact, with Doctor Who coming up and a list of other things I wanted to watch, I would not have thought about Skeleton Crew had I not seen mktoon (aka Michael Vogel of the Geek Buddies) post a message on X about how Skeleton Crew is always great.

Once I saw this Tweet (or whatever they are called now), this show jumped to the head of the list for the day.

What a great episode. Things are really moving forward quickly, including the ultimate betrayal of Jod.

This show does a great job of keeping these characters kids and showing us that they are still kids. The scene of the pillow fight on the bed was a perfect example of showing these characters as children. Many times children characters do not act like children characters. In Skeleton Crew, these kids are kids.

Jod taking over the captain’s role was a huge betrayal to the kids, who were as brave as they could be, but were in way over their heads. When Wim stepped up with a lightsaber, I believed that we were going to get something magical, but with him holding the lightsaber in the wrong direction, things did not go well. I guess Wim was lucky he did not cut off part of his body.

Jod and SM-33 are together now, as the kids escaped from Jod through a specific tunnel. This scene was right out of Goonies, with the kids finding the treasure of One-Eyed Willy. There are also booty traps (Boobie traps… that’s what I said, booty traps).

Skeleton Crew is one of the most entertaining Star Wars shows in a long time and it really had that Star Wars vibe to it this week. With the two groups now separated, and people chasing after Jod, who continues to be called by different names, the show is flying into the second half of the season in a positive way.

2024 Year in Review: The Anna Devane Kick Ass Female of the Year Award

Posted on by

Anna Devane was one of my favorite characters on General Hospital mainly because she was an agent for the WSB and she could kick the butt of anyone messing with her. I loved that and so, in honor of the awesome Anna Devane, this is the kick ass female award.

We have ten females who kicked plenty of ass in their individual places. Some are comic characters, some are TV/movie characters and we even have a professional wrestler.

The Anna Devane Kick Ass Female Award

Previous winners:  Rey (Star Wars), Mockingbird (Marvel Comics), Wonder Woman (DCEU), The Shirewolves, Captain Marvel, Kamala Harris, Wanda Maximoff, Pearl, Dorothy “Dot” Lyon (Fargo season five)

Top 10 Kick Ass Females of 2024

#10. Liz Danvers (True Detective: Night Country). Jodie Foster brought a bad ass female to the snowy world of Alaska. She had all kinds of troubles, but you just knew she would find her way thorugh.

#9. Anora (Anora). Mikey Madison was a force of nature as the titular character in this movie from 2024. She was a tornado dealing with the Russians and she was more than a handful.

#8. Black Canary (Black Canary: The Best of the Best). The new DC series featured the writing of Tom King and Black Canary in a tournament with Lady Shiva to discover the best hand-to-hand fighter in the universe.

#7. Zatanna (Zatanna: Bring Down the House). A flashback series showed us how Zatanna came into her own as a member of the Justice League.

#6. Laura (Deadpool & Wolverine, Laura Kinney: Wolverine, NYX). Laura, X-23, returned in the Void during the awesome cameo reveals, but she played a major part with Logan in the movie. It was a real feel good moment… and she sliced Juggernaut’s feet off. Ooooooh. We could extend this one to the comics too as X-23 is known as Wolverine and has her own series, plus a role in NYX.

#5. Storm (X-Men ’97, Storm). It was a big year for Storm. She was a major character in X-Men ’97, she joined the Avengers in Marvel Comics, and she got her own series. Marvel has big plans for Ororo Munroe.

#4. Rhea Ripley (WWE). Rhea “Bloody” Ripley! The Eradicator. One of the biggest stars in the WWE, Rhea took a huge step in her character development when she became a face when her boyfriend Dominic Mysterio turned on her and left her. Rhea is a superstar.

#3. Abigail (Abigail). Alishia Weir brought a serious kick ass girl, a ballerina vampire who has been feeding for centuries. Abigail dominated the film and was incredibly fun.

#2. Elphaba (Wicked). She almost won this award this year and she may be a leading candidate for next year. Elphaba became more and more powerful as the film progressed and the whole “Defying Gravity” sequence at the end of the film was amazing!

And the winner of the Anna Devane Kick Ass Female of the Year Award is…

#1. Agatha Harkness (Agatha All Along, What If…?, Marvel Comics)

It was Agatha all along. Played by the wondrous Kathryn Hahn, Agatha Harkness has risen from a lesser Marvel Comics character to a superstar. After her star turn in WandaVision in 2020, Agatha returned in this year’s surprise hit Agatha All Along on Disney +. Meanwhile, in the comics, Marvel returned Agatha to the young status, making her much closer to Kathryn Hahn. She was in the best episode of What If…? so far co-starring with Kingo. Agatha is one witch whose world is at her fingertips. Down, Down, Down the road… Down the Witches Road…

Mufasa: The Lion King

Posted on by

When the 2019 Lion King “live-action” remake broke the billion dollar club at the box office, you should have known that we were getting something more. My guess is that Mufasa: The Lion King will not be the same kind of demand.

Mufasa: The Lion King from Disney came out this weekend. The film was directed by Barry Jenkins and featured a “live-action” cast of CGI animals in a CGI generated African land. How this could be considered a “live-action” film is up for an argument.

Unfortunately, I did not like the 2019 remake of the Lion King and I am not a huge fan of this new film either. I do think that this film is better than the 2019 version. Specifically because this film does a better job of avoiding the uncanny valley of the 2019 film. Those lion characters in 2019 did not show us any emotion on their faces at all, lacking any ability to emote, making them all seem very distant from the audience. That is considerably better with this movie.

In fact, the strength of Mufasa: The Lion King is easily the CGI. This film looks absolutely gorgeous and it has some of the most realistic artwork that you are ever going to see in a film. In fact, I could see people claiming that some of these animals were real and not contrived on an artist’s board.

I did have some major issues with Mufasa: The Lion King, most notably that there was not much new in the story. It was basically the origin story of Mufasa and Scar as the two lions went on an adventure and met other characters from the original Lion King. Not much else.

There was a devise used to tell the story with Rafiki (John Kani) telling the story to Simba’s daughter Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter), Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogan) which was a total waste of time. Nothing that happened in this framing device was funny or worth taking away from the main story.

I also thought that the sound mixing was horrendous. Perhaps this is the theater I was in, but I had trouble hearing a lot of the dialogue because the music in the background was playing so loudly or dominating the moment of the scene. Speaking of the music, I did not find any of the songs interesting or song that I would remember later. Even the songs written by Lin-Manuel Miranda were unremarkable. They were fine when watching it, but there is not one song that I can recall as of this minute.

Mufasa: The Lion King had its moments for sure. It is a stunning accomplishment of visual arts, but there just seems to be little else that makes this an important story to tell. While it is not a waste of time, it is anything but a great movie.

2.8 stars

Skeleton Crew S1 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Can’t Say I Remember No At Attin”

The fun adventures of the Skeleton Crew moved on as the crew arrived at the coordinates given to them last week by Kh’ymm, only to discover that they had not arrived at At Attin.

Turned out that this was one of the other planets that was spoken about as the Jewels of the Old Republic. According to Kh’ymm last week, the Jewels of the Old Republic was a “group of planets of wonder kept hidden for their protection.” Apparently, At Attin was the only one that was saved and remained hidden.

The planet they landed on was very much like At Attin, only war torn and devastated, with the battling factions on the land.

Honestly, this felt a little rushed. I did like the use of Neel in this episode with Hayna, the daughter of the rebel force’s leader Beef. This did feel like it could have been two episodes and really mined this setting as a source.

However, we did find out much more about SM 33 and his backstory, and why he couldn’t “say I remember At Attin.” He repeated that several times through the episode and when he nearly went crazy, that scene was quite intense and scary.

This was Neel’s episode though as he came through big time in several moments. Fern was having a crisis of confidence as their attempts to find coordinates to At Attin.

The end of the episode came very suddenly and felt odd. Overall, I thought it was an entertaining thirty plus minutes, but it did seem cramped into the time frame. I would have liked more of an expansion of what we got.

Skeleton Crew S1 E1, E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“This Could Be a Real Adventure”

“Way, Way Out Past the Barrier”

I usually do not do write ups on the Star Wars Disney + shows. The main reason is that I do not like that many of these shows. I do consider myself a Star Wars fan, but I have not been a fan of several of these shows, and a few I have not even watched (such as Ahsoka). However, the 1980s Goonies/Amblin feel this show provided made me intrigued.

Disney + dropped the first two episodes of this new series last night and I loved it. This was such a fun series and it absolutely captured that 1980s kid adventure movies.

In fact, one of the first things I noticed was the great music used. That music completely made me feel like we were watching an Amblin movie, but it also gave me the feel of Star Wars. The music was a wonderful blend between the two types of films.

I thought all of the kids did a great job. I was a big fan of Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers) as our main protagonist, and I enjoyed Fern (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) a ton as well. The little elephant character, Neel (Robert Timothy Smith) was fun too. I liked him very much. He made a great companion to Wim.

Jude Law showed up at the last scene of the second episode, bringing an interesting storyline with him.

I loved the mystery circulating around the kids’ home planet, At Attin, a planet that it seemed that the rest of the Star Wars universe believed this planet was just a myth. What is this central mystery? It has me intrigued for sure.

I am excited about the Skeleton Crew. I can’t wait to continue watching this series next Tuesday.

Moana 2

Posted on by

The sequel to the hit Disney animated movie Moana, Moana 2 came out today with every indication that it is going to be a huge hit for Disney.

According to IMDB, “After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced.“

Moana 2 is a perfectly fine movie. I thought this had a lot of positives to it. I just would say that it does not reach the level of the original, and that is okay.

The biggest issue was that you could absolutely tell that Lin Manuel Miranda was not involved in this new film. His music was some of the best parts of the original Moana, but these songs in Moana 2 are, at best, passable. There were even a few of the times when the lyrics of the songs were weak.

Dwayne Johnson and Aulii Cravalho are great voicing their characters. They are definitely the strength of the film. The story of Moana heading out trying to find other groups of people was solid and made sense.

I’m not sure how much I loved the secondary characters that were brought aboard Moana’s crew. They were kind of annoying at times, but it was okay. I did enjoy the wrap up of the movie and the third act felt better than the first couple of acts.

Of course, the film looks incredible. The animation is beautiful and the designs of the film were sensational. The storms were amazing and looked fantastic.

I thought Moana 2 was a fun movie, but it was not terrific. It was definitely enjoyable overall. I did not think it matched the original, and the songs were not memorable. Moana 2 was good enough.

3.4 stars

MCU Disney + Series, Ranked

Posted on by

With the recent conclusion of Marvel Television’s Agatha All Along on Disney +, I thought it was a good time to rank the Marvel projects on the streaming service.

I chose to include the two specials along with the series for this list. I also included the animated shows that appeared on the platform since the debut of WandaVision. I took the two series that had a second season, Loki and What If…?, and I kept them together instead of ranking Loki season one and Loki season two separately.

That gives me a total of fifteen shows.

Of course, these are my opinions and art is subjective. Perhaps you have a different list and that is fine. Everyone has a right to their thoughts.

So… here we go.

#15. Secret Invasion. This is easily the show in the last position on this list. I have never disliked an MCU project as much as I disliked Secret Invasion. This show started okay, but the story just did not work despite such a strong cast. The finale of this show was perhaps the worst finale of any Marvel show and I feel as if they just want to forget this ever happened. In what could have been so great, Secret Invasion was a colossal disappointment.

#14. I Am Groot. These little animated shorts actually also had two seasons and they were fun. They were slight and unimportant to the overall MCU, but they were fun to watch and Groot is always an enjoyable character to watch.

#13. Echo. Some people disliked this show, but I thought it was pretty decent. I definitely like Echo here more than I did in Hawkeye, as she was the weakest part of that show. However, some of the scene involving Kingpin were awesome and Echo brought a corner of the MCU into the light. This was the only MCU series to drop all episodes at once in a binge format.

#12. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Another show that has its share of haters, but I enjoyed it a great bit. I loved the weird finale where She-Hulk destroyed the fourth wall. The Daredevil episode was a highlight. The origin episode that kicked off the series was a lot of fun with cousin Bruce. Tatiana Maslany was excellent as Jen Walters, I don’t care what the internet says.

#11. Falcon & Winter Soldier. The second of the MCU Disney + series suffered from the pandemic as it caused a chunk of the story to be re-written. What we got was a lot of fun and kept us involved in Sam and Bucky’s bromance the whole time. There were some epic action scenes in this show and the moment when John Walker used the shield to decapitate a villain was a chill-inducing moment.

#10. Guardians Christmas Special. The first of the specials, which was the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special that was the bridge between the end of Endgame and Guardians Vol. 3. We learned Mantis was Peter’s sister. We learned the Guardians were the new owners of Knowhere. And we kidnapped Kevin Bacon. There were a lot of laughs and some truly warm moments between characters that we loved.

#9. What If…? Two seasons of some really great episodes. I personally loved the Doctor Strange episode from season one, the 1602 episode, the Guardians of the Multiverse crossover, the Christmas Die Hard episode with Happy, the Blade Runner-like Nebula episode, the new character Kahhori, and Zombies! The Watcher is an awesome narrator and gets involved at times too. Great animation and some wonderful writing.

#8. Werewolf by Night. The second special on the list is a wonderful tribute to the old time Universal Monsters movies as this episode is mostly in black and white. I actually have never watched the color version as I felt that was unneeded. Including Man-Thing, aka Ted, was a great use of a character we probably never expected we’d get in the MCU. The aura of the episode was so well done and the transformation of Jack Russell to the Werewolf by Night was cinematic. Excellent special.

#7. Hawkeye. This is a great series, bringing back Clint Barton while introducing Kate Bishop into the MCU. It also dealt with Natasha Romanoff’s death as her sister, Yelena came to kill Clint. The series focused on Clint’s background as Nomad and how that tied into the life of Echo. It reintroduced Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin to the MCU. While some disliked the way Fisk was brought in, I did not have that issue. Hawkeye was a wonderful Christmas series with some of the best action in all the MCU Disney + series.

#6. Moon Knight. I think Moon Knight episode 5 is one of the best episodes of Marvel television ever. It was as emotional as you are going to get. The finale was a bit of a step down with the giant slugfest going on, which brought this down a couple of steps. Oscar Isaac gave a thrilling and outstanding performances in this series as the multiple personalities of Moon Knight.

#5. Ms. Marvel. The super hero stuff of Ms. Marvel was the weakest part of the show (except the finale, which I loved). There is no doubt the strength of this series was Kamala Khan and the Khan family. The family dynamic of this series was unlike anything we had gotten before. It was emotional, caring, loving, funny and charming as could be. It was also some of the most creative imagery of any MCU show. If the villains were a little stronger, this could have been even higher. Plus, we have our first MCU mutant.

#4. X-Men ’97. Speaking of mutants, there is no way that a sequel to a series that ended in the mid-90s was going to be anything special. However, we could see immediately that this show was going to be more than we ever thought it would be. This show did Cyclops right (unlike any of the live action versions). And Remember It with Gambit was, arguably, the best single episode of MCU TV on Disney +, animation or live action.

#3. Agatha All Along. The latest MCU series was so great, but no one thought this was needed. It was a secondary character from WandaVision and a group of other characters that were unknown. And it was wonderful. It was full of twists and turns and some exceptional acting. Again, I would say episode seven of this series could be considered one of the best episodes of Marvel TV ever. Kathryn Hahn is amazing here and the introduction of “Teen” was unbelievable.

#2. Loki. Two seasons in, Loki was amazing. I love Tom Hiddleston and his chemistry with Owen Wilson, who played Morbius, was off the chart. The show was funny, dramatic and enjoyable. The writing was extra wonderful as things truly felt planned out over the years. Loki’s end as the God of Stories was something I never thought I would see. That finale and episode four of season two were some of the best episodes ever. I almost had Loki at number one, but it was just slightly behind.

#1. WandaVision. The first is still the best. One of the most original series ever. The whole sitcom stuff in the first few episodes made us all wonder what the heck was going on. Then, things became more sinister than you would expect. People were speculating week to week, bringing into question if our expectations were the real problem. Yes, there was no Mephisto. Or Reed Richards. And Pietro turned out to be Ralph Bohner. We all had our own theories, but the show was driven by the magnificent performances and chemistry of Elizabeth Olson and Paul Bettany, as well as Kathryn Hahn. Some complained about the finale, but I do think that this was about our own expectations. WandaVision has set the bar very high and no Disney + series have been able to reach it… yet.

Agatha All Along S1 E8, E9

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Follow Me My Friend/To Glory at the End”

“Maiden Mother Crone”

I’m not crying. You’re crying.

Wow, what a finale. Two long episodes of Agatha All Along that brought some serious emotion and dropped all the answers.

Let’s start with episode 8. Holy crap… what a powerful episode. We discover so much and we get a massive showdown between Agatha and Rio. Billy flying in in his Wiccan outfit was so epic.

This entire time, I was never sure about what was going to happen, and that is a great thing. That confrontation ending with Agatha’s death, sacrificing herself for Billy (though she would later deny it).

Billy returned to William’s room and figured out that the Witches’ Road was created from his mind. This was a theory that I had heard, and it really was clear going back into William’s room.

Then, episode nine, Kathryn Hahn was just astounding. Her performance as a witch who would lose her child to death was heartbreaking. Seeing the origin of “The Ballad of the Witches’ Road” was fun. We also meet Nicholas, Agatha’s son, and we learn that she did not trade him for the Darkholde, as the rumors indicated. It seemed as if Nicholas had something wrong with him and was going to die in childbirth, bit Rio gave her some time because of their relationship.

I’m not sure how I feel about Agatha the ghost at the very end, but I did like Billy and ghost Agatha heading off to search for Tommy.

It was great to see Jenn pull herself out of the ground just outside of Westview with her powers back. Agatha being the witch who bind her made sense. It was nice one of the coven survived.

This was one of my absolutely favorite Marvel series on Disney +. I do not think it reaches WandaVision or Loki levels but it very well may be #3. What an entertaining and well written and acted show.

Agatha All Along E7

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Death’s Hand in Mine”

God that was good.

This show has no right to be as epic as it is.

This episode is my favorite one so far. It is so expertly written that I was absolutely enthralled with every minute of it.

I was so glad when Lilia and Jennifer turned up alive and not dead in the mud. I celebrated their life although I held my breath as the implications of the episode looked to see one of their ends. Sadly, Lilia was falling at the end.

I love a good use of tarot cards and this was spectacular.

Patti LuPone gave us an amazing performance in this episode as Lilia bounced around time and we learned where every one of her blurts over the first six episodes came from and to what they referred. The lay out was so perfect that it all fell into a beautiful place, like a puzzle piece in a jigsaw puzzle.

The episode also confirmed the identity of Rio, as played by Audrey Plaza. She is Death, the corporal form of death. In the comics, they call her Lady Death and she has had affairs with Thanos and Deadpool. Here, they look to be dropping the Lady part and just calling her Death. Agatha saying that she liked the “bad boys” was hilarious.

Kathryn Hahn was hilarious throughout the episode, from her bickering with Billy to her smart remarks directed to the others in the coven.

The whole Disney costuming, from the Wicked Witch of the West (whom Agatha claimed was based on her…LOL) to Maleficent (with Billy’s cheekbones) were spot on.

I am really going to miss Lilia and the grand diva, Patti LuPone on this show. Agatha All Along has one more week with a double episode and this could legitimately find its way into the top five Marvel Disney + series of all time. Who would have thought that?

Agatha All Along E6

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Familiar By Thy Side”

After last week’s big reveal at the episode’s end, I figured this week would be the back story of Billy Maximoff. And I was right.

I loved this episode. We went back and discovered how Wanda’s mind reading son wound up in a teenager’s body.

I had heard this speculation before. How the car accident that was reported earlier in the series, and was the back drop to the credits when Joe Locke’s name was up, would be tied to Billy’s resurrection (or rebirth?).

That car crash they shot was spectacular.

The crash came because Billy Kaplan’s parents, from Eastview, were distracted by the Anomaly created by Wanda was disappearing. I felt bad for the Kaplans but their son was gone. When he died in that car crash, Bill Maximoff took over the body. This is a decent origin for the Teen in the MCU considering how messy Wiccan’s Marvel Comics origin is.

We also get a special guest star… everyone’s favorite… Ralph Boner! Ralph Boner was the albatross around the neck of WandaVision. When he turned out to NOT be Pietro Maximoff from the X-Men universe, that was universally hated. However, we all still love Evan Peters and having him back is always welcomed. Ralph’s appearance was a little inconsistent here. I wish they had chosen a tone and stuck with it instead of trying to do both the fearful/intense tone and the funny/silly tone. Still, it was great to see him.

The discussion between Agatha and Billy at the end was really some great writing. Interestingly, no Aubrey Plaza. Where was she? I also hope the others in the coven are not gone for good. I know they are involved in other aspects, but I hope it is not just in flashbacks.

Three more episodes. One next week and then two on Halloween eve.

Agatha All Along E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Darkest Hour/Wake Thy Power”

This was a fairly short episode, but it was really impactful.

Alice, RIP. I think there is something more going on here though as Agatha’s trial turned deadly with the ghost of Agatha’s mother leading to Agatha draining the energy from Alice.

Dressed as a sleep over, this had a lot of the scenes from a trailer, specifically a possessed Agatha doing the backwards spider walk that you see in a lot of horror movies.

They were on the Ouija board and Kathryn Hahn dropped a fantastic Mrs. Hart/Sharon Davis imitation. That was hilarious. Maybe a little mean too…

After Agatha killed Alice (which Agatha certainly seemed shaken by), Teen was very angry and he reacted in a violent way. He seemingly tossed Agatha and the others into the mud and they sunk away.

Even more significant, Agatha said to Teen that he was just like his mother. Then, after he dispatched of the coven, we see Teen with a purple crown that resembled that of the Scarlet Witch.

We all suspected that Teen was somehow tied to Billy, Wanda’s created son from WandaVision, but the show has been tempting us by making Teen Agatha’s son Nicholas. Apparently, Nicholas was part of the Ouija board thing too. We are just past the halfway point of the series and this felt like a significant hint that he is Billy Maximoff.

And during this entire Teen-Agatha trouble, there was no sign of Rio. Aubrey Plaza has been rumored to be Death, which was mentioned in the Ouija session. What part is she playing in all this?

Lots of questions:

  • Is Alice really dead?
  • Who is Teen? Is he Billy, Wanda’s son?
  • What is Agatha’s responsibility in all this?
  • What happened when they were sucked into the mud?
  • Nicholas Scratch is doing what?
  • Is Aubrey Plaza Death?

I wish this episode was longer. It felt too short. What we got was great though.

Agatha All Along E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

After all of these years, it has finally OFFICIALLY happened…

Mephisto confirmed.

Jennifer Kale confirmed Mephisto with a name drop during the second week of Agatha All Along and the mere mention of his name freaked me out. After so many weeks in WandaVision with the belief that Marvel’s head demon/devil was behind everything, this was just a slight mention by one of Agatha’s coven. And it was everything.

Then, sadly, my expectation came to fruition as poor Sharon Davis, aka Mrs. Hart, died during the first trial on the Witches’ Road. If this is truly the last we’ll see of Mrs. Hart, then I, for one, will miss her tremendously. Debra Jo Rupp got limited scenes in this show, but every one she got was amazing. She stole every moment and she brought such a wonderful humor. She will truly be missed. Here’s hopin’ that once the trip down the road ends, she will be back in Westview tending those flowers.

Boy, this show is absolutely showing Agatha to be a selfish and uncaring witch. She is our protagonist, but it feels clear that she had not reformed her wicked ways. The show also hinted at the rumor that Agatha gave up her child for the Darkhold. Then, we all thought at first that Teen would turn out to be Billy, Wanda’s child who would become Wiccan, but is he Nicholas Scratch, Agatha’s son instead? Again, the show certainly teased at that too.

I am thoroughly engaged with the rest of the coven too, especially Patti LuPone’s Lilia Calderu. The delusions she faced while poisoned were fascinating and mysterious. She is my favorite character outside of Agatha and Teen. I look forward to learning more about her as we continue down the Witches’ Road.

No sign of Aubrey Plaza this episode, but I expect her to arrive soon with the untimely death of Sharon (How cold was Agatha’s ‘Who’s Sharon?’ comment at the end?).

This has been completely entertaining so far. Can’t wait for next week.

Agatha All Along E1, E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Seekest Thou The Road”

“Circle Sewn with Fate / Unlock Thy Hidden Gate”

The last live-action Marvel Television show was Secret Invasion. It was such a letdown that one has to wonder what was going on. The animated X-Men ’97 was brilliant, and that led us to the beginning of the spin-off of WandaVision, called Agatha All Along.

Agatha Harkness was the big bad in WandaVision and Wanda left her trapped in her Agnus character. That was three years ago and it seems that Agnus has found herself inside a police procedural.

The Agnus of Westview section of the first show was awesome, clearly a take on the Mare of Easttown series from HBO. However, the arrival of Aubrey Plaza and Joe Locke helped break Agatha out of the trance cast upon her by the now deceased (?) Wanda.

Agatha still has no power, but Joe Locke, who seems to be unable to say his name or any specifics about him, wants Agatha to lead him down the Witches’ Road.

The mystery of “Teen,” which is what Agatha begins calling Joe is one of the biggest of the early part of the show. We comic fans believe that we know who he is… Billy Kaplan, aka Wiccan. In the comics, Wiccan was one of Wanda Maximoff’s children (or so I think… this is a really convoluted piece of Marvel history). Could this be Billy from WandaVision? Who or what is preventing Agatha from hearing his name?

The second episode had Agatha and Teen recruiting other witches to put together a coven so they could open the door to the Witches’ Road. Patti LuPone, Ali Ahn, Sasheer Zamata are three of the witches that they recruited. Agatha also brought in Debra Jo Rupp, reprising her role from WandaVision in a brilliant piece of casting. Debra Jo played Mrs. Hart in WandaVision, but is actually named Sharon Davis and not a witch. Her part in the show was absolutely hilarious.

The group of them wound up singing “The Ballad of the Witches Road” in Agatha’s basement. This was an amazing song and it sounded awesome. Sharon’s line “Am I supposed to know this song” was just tremendous.

The cast is fantastic. I loved how this started off. Some may claim that it was too slow of a build, but I disagree. I was fully engaged from the first, as Agnus was investigating the death of a mysterious woman (sure being hinted as it being Wanda Maximoff).

The show had a very scary tone as the coven started to head down the road. In particular, the arrival of the Salem Seven was some of the creepiest moments of the first two episodes. I expect these are the witches we see Agatha betray and kill in WandaVision.

Agatha All Along has a vibe of The Wizard of Oz as well as plenty of Easter eggs from WandaVision. Several supporting cast members from that show appeared here.

I can’t wait to see where the Witches’ Road will lead us. Agatha All Along seemed to be a lot of fun and the perfect show to watch during the spooky season.

A Disturbance in the Force (2023)

Posted on by

June 24, 2024

A Long, Long Time Ago… in a Galaxy far away… Well, maybe not that far away.

Few fandoms are as currently as toxic as the Star Wars fandom. Not to put down the entire group of people for the divisiveness of some, but there is no denying that Star Wars fans lean towards hyperbole. One only needs to look at the discourse surrounding the new Disney + series, The Acolyte, to understand it.

However, the Star Wars universe had something once that is both beloved and reviled unlike anything else. It was something that George Lucas himself wanted to see banished from the canon of his creation. It was something that Star Wars fans desperately tried to see for decades… a badge of honor among those who truly called themselves Star Wars aficionados.

The Star Wars Holiday Special.

So today’s June Swoon focused in on a documentary from Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak all about the creation of and response to on of the most infamous TV specials of all fandom.

Between the release of Star Wars and Empire Strikes back, the CBS network wanted a Star Wars special to broadcast over the holiday season and they turned it into a variety show, featuring Chewbacca’s family as well as Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman and Art Carney. It aired once and then disappeared, only to be seen by those who could find a bootleg copy.

This documentary included clips of all of the Star Wars performers, including Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher with their thoughts on the special. Harrison Ford’s responses are always the most entertaining as he is clearly hoping the special would disappear forever.

There were also interviews of a ton of famous people in the geek community giving their comments and thoughts on the special including such notable stars as Kevin Smith, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Bobcat Goldthwait, Seth Green, Paul Scheer, Donny Osmond, Gilbert Gottfried, and Patton Oswalt. There were a lot of interviews with people involved in the creation of the special including Bruce Vilanch, Mick Garris, Bob Mackie among others.

Though the doc certainly says that this special was bad, there was items included that show how some people, particular those who may have seen the special as a child, loved the show. Jon Favreau is an unapologetic fan of the special and they showed how he included Easter eggs from it in The Mandalorian. The clips from the animated section of the special was shown as the first place we saw Boba Fett.

The documentary was very funny and gave real opinions of people who were desperate at the time for content in the Star Wars community. One wonders what the fandom today would do if something like the Star Wars Holiday Special were to be released on Disney +. The review bombing that would happen would be generational.

All Star Wars fans should be looking for this documentary, which I rented on Amazon Prime. If you are interested in how something like this able to be created, you should check this out. It was highly entertaining and an easy watch.