#episode reviews | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mdhwrites · 10 months

Text

My Adventures With Superman Episode 3 Review: A Welcome Chance to Breathe

Non-Spoiler short version: If the first two episodes were a bit rushed and bursting at the seams, this one takes a couple steps back, takes a deep breath in and then strides into right where it should be with confidence. The humor is on point, characterization continues to be really strong, the foreshadowing is good for what’s coming later and the final line has SO MANY IMPLICATIONS that have me excited for where it might go. Also, if anyone was worried the romance wasn’t going to matter, well, I would say this episode puts it to bed that they understand that good romance also plays into character growth and the like and means a push and pull in things which has me increasingly excited to see more of Lois and Clark. Both as individuals and together. Also, has the best Superman fight yet so far I’d say so just very good all around.

Now time for the spoilers!

I’m actually going to work backwards from the ending because it’s a cliffhanger to me that really helps explain how Lois behaves in this episode. After all, I kept going “LOIS NO!” as I watched. Not in a bad way but in a comedic “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” fashion. After all, she lies, steals and tricks even Clark during this episode which does mean she’s having a push and pull with the lesson she learned in the first episode but...

Well, the major goal for the team in this episode is to get an interview with Superman. Even when they technically swap cases to the ‘Inter-Gang’ one, the villains for this episode, Lois is actually using it to just get put in danger so Superman will come rescue them and she can spring an interview on him. She didn’t let Clark in on the plan, though neither told Jimmy. She also never actually gets in the way of the investigation or the like and is doing good work, just for questionable reasons. Also, when this is revealed and Jimmy says it was what they did with Livewire (I also love the idea that Jimmy is going to probably end up naming like at least 50% of the Rogue’s Gallery), we get the great line out of Clark of “THAT WAS ON PURPOSE!?” Poor... Poor Clark.

And potentially poor Lois. Her last line, the last major line in the episode, is “He’s a liar.” She gets her interview after all and Clark is honest. He’s figuring himself out, figuring out his powers, etc. like that. The closest to a lie is not being willing to give a name but she technically didn’t ask for one. Then he says he’s just here to help the people of Metropolis and asks “Isn’t that what matters?”

Well... The first episode brought up whether or not Lois was doing these cases for the people... or for herself. Well, the Superman case is technically not useful to the people. They may want more information but aren’t the crimes going on more pressing if your focus is actually on the people? That’s what makes the first episode justified. It’s kind of what makes her lying and stealing justified too... But not so much the fact that she’s still trying to trap Superman who’s just doing good. Like she pointed out in the first episode: “He wouldn’t have helped me otherwise! Not like he did with the lady and the bib... Or with me and Flip... Or when he brought donuts for everyone!”

It’s starting to build the impression that Lois’ real point of contrast with Clark is that if Clark is optimistic and will always save everyone... Lois is pessimistic but will do what she can anyways. She expects people to be selfish. To look out for themselves. To do whatever they have to to get ahead. She’s taking this same mindset to journalism and it’s blinding her from the people in front of her who are genuinely just good.

But this doesn’t mean she’s a bad person and a little gray morality next to Clark’s white morality is a good thing. She still won’t hurt people and Superman actually states that why he was willing to do the interview was that when he told Lois and Jimmy to go, they stuck around and helped people because Lois’ true nature is still good. She still puts others in front of her... But she’s willing to bend the rules if she thinks it won’t hurt anyone and will help her. That’s not terrible but she needs to be doing it for the right reasons and it’ll be interesting to see the push and pull on this.

If it seems like I’m spending a lot of time on this, it’s actually not because the rest of the episode isn’t interesting but that it’s what matters most to me. I LIVE for characters and interesting hooks like these are my lifeblood. But that doesn’t mean just a good cast playing well off of each other doesn’t work well too, such as the Inter-Gang.

Inter-Gang is three people, Roughhouse, Mist and... I never quite caught their leaders codename and I can’t remember her actual name. They’re good low level criminals though to show that the stolen tech that Livewire got sent to the rest of the thieves in Metropolis is going to be a major player in the problems being caused, at least for now. They use each others real names when doing crimes, they’re generally not good at what they do but they’re also tired of being mocked which makes them prime tinder to misuse and abuse experimental tech, such as the freeze ray they use that then jams and then goes into hyper drive when they smash it with strength gauntlets.

Edit: The leader is the apparently the eventual super villain “Silver Banshee” and thank you to the person who let me know!

And while I got it wrong, I thought he was gaining X-Ray vision this episode, the foreshadowing to Superman’s heat vision and that being what saves the day is done well. His powers are developing now that he’s actually using them and embracing them so he keeps having moments where his eyes go blue and then red, first the color connected to his adrenaline state and then specifically the laser eyes. This gives him a headache and he stumbles a bit but then it moves on until he’s almost frozen, the leader of the gang screams for help after her tech won’t save her and BAM! LASER EYES!

It’s keeping to the show’s formula so far, including having a vision at the same time like when he saved Livewire, but that’s okay for now. We’re still in the early days and the addition of new powers will help keep solutions fresh. Frankly, if this is how the show is going to be in general... Cool. I’m here for it. It’s a good start to what to expect the majority of the season to probably look like and it’s funny, exciting and smooth.

And that includes the animation. There was maybe one time I thought something looked a little clunky but it came off as a deliberate choice for the moment, rather than a mistake or something that needed another pass. Otherwise, the animation was nice and clean and the fight against the Inter-Gang was still short, not as short as Supes versus Livewire though, but satisfying and looked really good, putting one of my big fears from the first two episodes to rest: That this animation studio was going to struggle to do Superman fights well. We already know they can do stuff like Slade versus Livewire well, this is the same team that did Korra after all, but Superman and his flight, and his brute strength, is a very different beast to tackle.

But I have been given good reason to trust in the animation team now just as much as I’m trusting the writers so I’m definitely looking forward to next week.

===========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#my adventures with superman #Lois Lane #Episode Reviews #Positive #Superman #Clark Kent

22 notes · View notes

jemstarearrings · 1 year

Photo

S01E09: The World Hunger Shindig

The World Hunger Shindig is the first episode of the series that breaks the continuity and starts being episodic. Naturally that makes it perfect for one of the dull “Charity Good!” episodes where the moral of the story pretty much boils down to “If you’re a Good Person™ and Do Charity™ just like JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS™, you are Good!™ The MISFITS™ are Bad™ because they DON’T Do Charity!™

I know it’s a product of its time, kind of like how cartoons in the 90s had episodes about recycling, but that doesn’t make it any less boring.

The plot is pretty common for a Jem episode; the Holograms are doing a charity concert, the Misfits want to take their place for The Wrong Reason™, so Eric hires Zipper to bump the Holograms off. This doesn’t work, the Holograms end up succeeding anyway, and the Misfits gain nothing. Oh, and there’s a Beatles reference:

Forget about “Paul Is Dead,” we’ve got “Kimber is Pink!”

The most intriguing part of this episode, to me, was the reveal from Pizzazz that she knew Sean Harrison before he was famous.

This actually lends a little more depth to Pizzazz’s hate-boner for the Holograms. If they turned my old flame into a wuss who didn’t even want to hear my music, I’d be pretty bitter about it too.

Speaking of men having personality shifts, I just want to mention that Rio is a piece of shit in this episode as usual.

Backstage at the Shindig when Kimber's trying to get help, Rio sits there and pouts about how none of the other Holograms have talked to him, especially not Jerrica, "MY GIRLFRIEND!!"

Except when Jerrica spent time with him at the welcome party at the ranch, and when Jerrica wanted him to come with them to ride horses and he decided he’d go set up a stage for ten hours (of course after seeming bummed Jem wasn’t there, only Jerrica, his girlfriend.)

The absolute gaslighting gall of this man. He’s literally the only one who’s kept himself from the girls aside from the ONE time they can’t answer a phone call because they just got hit by a goddamn car and knocked out of a hayride. For all the “good” messages this show tries to send with having the characters be literal white saviors, there are just as many bad ones where Jerrica stays with Rio despite the 500 red flags he puts out every hour

(Aja and Shana can be Asian and black saviors respectively, but that doesn’t change how cringe it is for this candy-colored pop band to fly over a barren African savannah in a thresher and magically grow tons of food for the poor Africans.)

Aside from my nitpicking, this episode really doesn’t have any massive glaring flaws. There are some great uses of holograms (especially when Synergy announces them at the concert just in the nick of time,) but the two “We Are The World”-type songs and the really common plot just don’t do it for me. The cool Misfits song in the middle even has a gross sound effect over top of it, so I’m giving this one a C. Totally average.

Pizzazz's reckless driving earns her a year in jail and $2,500 in fines, BUT, this case is interesting. This is the first time in the series when there's more than one person in the car during a bout of reckless driving, and we all know what that means:

So Pizzazz, Roxy, Stormer, AND Sean Harrison are all charged! This leads to a total of 4 years in jail and $10,000 in fines.

Meanwhile, Eric conspired twice with Zipper to abduct and falsely imprison the Holograms AND to commit charity fraud. Doing the math, this earns the two together about $500,000 in fines and about 3 years in jail.

Grand Total: $510,000 in fines and 7 years in jail! On the bright side, maybe Sean Harrison will get some of his grittier personality back while behind bars? :P

#episode reviews #jem #jath #jem and the holograms #pink kimber

26 notes · View notes

thewonderofanime · 9 months

Text

My Happy Marriage - Episode 3 Review: Our First Date

If you needed some cuteness to forget about Miyo’s trash family, this episode of My Happy Marriage does just that. Filled with the excitement of a first date and the slow happenings of love, it was a treat to sit back and enjoy. Let’s Go on a Date As Miyo and Kiyoka are having dinner, he invites her to town with him to go shopping. He tells her to wear the furisode she wore the day of her…

View On WordPress

#anime reviews #episode reviews #my happy marriage #my happy marriage anime #Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon

8 notes · View notes

autoassembly · 3 months

Text

Episode Review: Beast Wars S01 Ep13 "Dark Designs"

It’s been a while since I looked back at Beast Wars, my all-time favourite of all the Transformers shows. So picking up from where I left off last time, it’s back to the first season and Episode 13 as I take a closer look at “Dark Designs”… Dark Designs – Synopsis Dark Designs, written by Ian Weir, starts off with a typical beginning for an episode of the series. The Maximals are off searching…

View On WordPress

#Beast Wars #Dark Designs #Episode Reviews #Reviews

2 notes · View notes

flower-boi16 · 9 months

Text

My Powerpuff Girls Season 1 Episode Reviews

So recently I finished watching all six seasons of the original Powerpuff Girls, so I decided to do a season review series where I review every single episode and rate them out of 10. So without further ado...let's begin

Episode 1A: Monkey See Doggy Doo

This is the first episode of the series (in airing order that is), and it is a pretty good episode. Mojo takes an artifact and uses it to turn the entire world into dogs, and of course, the girls go stop him. As a first episode, it does a good job of introducing us to the series and its characters, like the girls and Mojo.

This is a good episode, not amazing or anything but it succeeds as being an opener to not just the season but the whole series. This episode gets a 7/10.

Episode 1B: Mommy Fearest

The professor falls in love with a woman named Ima, and once he brings her home she grounds and bans the girls from going outside, but it's later revealed that she's one of the main villains of the series; Sedusa, and, she grounds the girls so they can't catch her committing crimes. This episode is fine, it does a good job of introducing us to another one of the series' villains, but there's one part that gets me to lower this episode's score.

That's the scene where after the girls go out to fight crime Ima/Sedusa gets mad at them and when the professor comes she goes and plays the victim card by saying that the girls disrespected her to go and fight crime, keyword is, fight crime, meaning she is mad at them for fighting crime and stopping bad guys. Shouldn't this seem a little sus to the professor? He knows that the girls are supposed to fight crime and stop bad guys, that's their job, so shouldn't he say that the girls are supposed to fight crime? But no, instead he believes Ima and grounds the girls.

Ya, that's enough for me to lower the score a bit, but this episode still is a good introduction to Sedusa, so I'll give this episode a 6/10.

Episode 2A: Insect Inside

The town is being attacked by a bunch of cockroaches lead by a cockroach in what looks like a giant robot suit and the girls need to stop them. This episode is famous for that one joke where the Mayor calls the girls and Bubbles says hi and then hangs up the phone and then the mayor calls again, which is the best joke of the episode imo. This episode got some good humor in it, and the action sequence with the girls vs the giant roach is entertaining to watch. Don't have much to say about this episode other than it being an 8/10.

Episode 2B: Powerpuff Bluff

Three criminals disguise themselves as the powerpuff girls to rob stuff and get out of jail while the real powerpuff girls are sent to jail. I barely have anything to say about this one other than it's decently entertaining, 8/10.

Episode 3A: Octi Evil

Blossom and Buttercup are having a conflict with each other and HIM takes advantage of this by possessing Bubbles' plush toy Octi and making Bubbles do things he tells her to do in order to make the conflict between Blossom and Buttercup worse. This episode is a good introduction to HIM, this show's version of Satan, and the fight at the end of the episode is pretty entertaining to watch. 7/10

Episode 3B: Geshundfight

The Amobea boys stand in the rain too long and they end up getting sick which spreads a sickness across the town. This episode is a good introduction to the Amobea boys, and the plot is decently creative. 7/10

Episode 4A: Buttercrush

Buttercup gets a crush on Ace (the leader of the gangreen gang). This episode is a good introduction to the Gangreen Gang, and, like the other episodes, is entertaining to watch. 7/10

Episode 4B: Fuzzy Logic

Fuzzy Lumpkins goes insane after a squirrel goes on his property and rampages over Townsville. Good introduction to Fuzzy Lumpkins and the episode has some great jokes about him almost killing animals that get on his property as well as some other good jokes and the ending fight scene is good. 8/10

Episode 5A: Boogie Frights

The boogie man blocks out the sun so he and his goons could dance in Townsville. This episode's got a star wars reference in it and it manages to be a good reference while also not feeling forced, I like that. I also do like the creative twist on the Boogie man with him literally Boogeing, and the ending fight is both a good star wars reference and a great fight in general. 8/10

Episode 5B: Abracadaver

A dead magician named Al luison comes back from the dead as a zombie named Abracadaver to haunt the people of Townsville. I remember that I saw a clip of this episode on youtube when I was young and I actually got scared while watching it, this episode, in general, is one of the darker episodes of the series imo, like, the premise is that a dead guy comes back as a zombie and the episode has extremely creepy imagery. This episode got a creative and interesting premise and is very entertaining to watch. Buuuuuuut there's one thing that bugs me about this episode and that's the ending, it's a massive Ass Pull. Like, Blossom is thrown into the spikey crusher thing and it looks all hope is lost but...then it's revealed that Blossom and Abracadver switched places or something??? Ya, the resolution brings this episode down for me but it's still great. 8/10

Episode 6A: Telephonies

The Gangreen Gang do a bunch of prank calls and then they prank call the mayor and end up taking over his office and then they go and prank call the powerpuff girls and they end up going and beating up the villains. Don't have much to say about this one other than this is one of the funniest episodes in the series, it's got great comedy all around. 8/10

Episode 6B: Tough Love

Him mind controls the entire town to hate the powerpuff girls. This episode defiantly an iconic one, it's a pretty decent episode, the concept is creative and the episode is pretty entertaining. Don't have much to say about this one. 7/10

Episode 7A: Major Competition

A new superhero named Major Glory comes to Townsville and starts overshadowing the girls, only for it to be revealed that he is orchestrating the disasters himself just to make himself look cool. This episode is...fine, it's not that memoroble or anything but it's pretty decent. 7/10

Episode 7B: Mr. Mojo's Rising

Mojo reveals his shared history with the professor and makes him give him superpowers via chemical X. This episode gave us some good information on the creation of the PPG's and the fight with Mojo using superpowers against the girls was great. 8/10

Episode 8A: Paste Makes Waste

A paste-eating kid named Elmer accidentally swallows a radioactive fly and turns him into a gaint paste monster. This episode...exists ig. It's just painfully forgettable and most of season 1's episodes are more memorable than this. Not bad, but pretty average. 6/10

Episode 8B: Ice Sore

It's a very hot day on Townsville, but luckily Blossom discovers she has ice powers. This episode was fun, it was neat to see Blossom's new power and the final fight sequence, like most of the other episodes, is solid. 8/10

Episode 9A: Bubblevicious

Bubbles gets tired of always being known as the cute and soft one so she decides to go hardcore. I don't have much to say on this one, it's pretty good and that one joke where the dog begs for mecry is still the best joke of the series, change my mind lol. 8/10

Episode 9B: The Bare Facts

The Mayor gets kidnapped by Mojo Jojo and after the PPG's save them they each tell their own different versions of what happened. This episode is one of my favorites due to it being extremely funny with some great jokes. We also get to see different art styles for each of the girls stories, Blossom with the normal art style but with a pink filter over it, Buttercup with a green art style with some dark shading, and Bubbles with crayon drawings. Overall this is one of my favorite episodes of the season, 9/10.

Episode 10A: Cat Man Do

The girls adopt the cat of an evil supervillain they defeated earlier in the episode, but the cat is actually evil and is mind-controlling the professor to do his bidding. This is another one of my favorite episodes of not just season 1 but the whole show, I like the creative concept with an evil cat taking control of its owner and the final fight in the end was great. 10/10

Episode 10B: Impeach Fuzz

Fuzzy Lumpkins becomes the mayor. This episode is fun, I like the final battle at the end and getting to see the mayor become a badass for one episode was neat. 8/10

Episode 11A: Just Another Manic Mojo

This is another one of my favorite episodes of the season. The girls lose their ball in Mojo's place and Mojo uses this as an opportunity to try and kill them only for it to fail in the most hilarious ways. This is another one of those episodes I like purely for the jokes, this one had me laughing a lot. Easily one of my favorites of both season 1 and the whole show. 10/10

Episode 12: The Rowdyruff Boys

Mojo Jojo creates the Rowdyruff boys in order to defeat the Powerpuff girls. The concept of Mojo creating male and evil versions of the powerpuff girls is a great idea and the episode executes this perfectly, I love all the action sequences we get here with the girls fighting against the boys, this is some of the best action in the show for me. 10/10

Episode 13: Uh Oh Dynamo

The professor creates a robot mech for the girls to in called the Dynamo. Like the last episode, the best part of this one is the action, kaiju-like battle with the girls vs the balloon monster was exciting to watch. 9/10

Conclusion & Overall thoughts on season 1

This was a great first season to the show. It mostly focused on introducing many of the recurring villains of the series, and all the episodes do a great job at introducing us to each villain while also being good episodes on they're own as well. This season had many good or great episodes in it, my favorites of this season were Just Another Manic Mojo, The Rowdyruff Boys, and Cat Man Do. Overall, season 1 is a great introduction to the series.

Score Average: 7.8/10

Season 1 score: 8/10.

So, those were my reviews of each episode of the first season OG Powerpuff Girls. I hope you enjoyed reading this and I'll get to work on the season 2 reviews very soon. But for now...bye!

#the powerpuff girls #ppg #episode reviews #the powerpuff girls season 1

1 note · View note

sharperthewriter · 2 years

Text

Episode 29 - Grudge Match

Plot: Kim and Ron try to find a stolen robot from the Middleton Space Center. Ron tries to impress a new girl.

Rides: none

MHS Readerboards: none

Favorite Lines:

Ron: Hey, Dr. P! What's the new toy? Kim's Dad: Not a toy, Ronald, the most powerful electromagnet in North America. Full spectrum, synchrotronic flux-denser. Isn't it cool? Ron: Maybe science has gone too far.

Ron: Who is this? Finn: Vivien, my ex-lab partner.

Kim: Why ex? Finn: She couldn't keep up. I had to let her go.

Kim: So, a bunch of tech-geeks gets together to watch robots fight? Larry: It's glorious!

Ron: It sounds like the factory revolt in Beyond Omega VII.

Kim: What are you doing? Ron: She almost saw us. Kim: Who? Ron: Zita. Kim: So? Ron: ( Sighs ) See it through her eyes, Kim. You, me... Boy, girl.

Kim: Yeah, so? Ron: Seemingly coming out of a date movie together. Kim: You and me... on a date?!

Oliver: I'm all about danger. Watch! Vivien: Oliver, calm down! Finn: Hello, Vivien.

Vivien: Finn.

Finn: Kim Possible, thank goodness you're here! Call security. Kim: I will and you'll give back the robot you stole. You staged the whole theft to hide the fact you never developed a thinking robot. You're not good enough scientist. Finn: So, what? I've got the reputation. I've got the robot. You stay away.

Strengths: The action scenes, Zita, and Ron.

Weakness: The third act.

Final Score: 7.5 Nacos out of 10

#episode 29 #kim possible #grudge match #vivian porter #finn #mr possible #ron stoppable #zita flores #rufus #wade #episode reviews

2 notes · View notes

wheredoievenstart · 2 years

Text

Where Do I Even Start: Sawbones

Start with: “38. Sawbones: Medical Cannibalism”*

Why THAT Episode?

‘Medical Cannibalism’ may sound gross and scary, but it actually happened! They didn’t eat, um, ‘fresh’ people, though - they ate mummies. YEAH. MUMMIES! Why did they do it, you may ask? Well, that’s exactly why you should listen to this episode!

This episode follows the typical format of their episodes, and they’ve found their flow by this episode (they find their flow earlier than this episode). Plus, the topic is so intriguing that it will get you interested in the show itself!

Asterisk * time! Their episodes are all self-contained (maybe there’s the odd multiple-part topic, and there are repeating segments), so you can scroll through the titles and really pick whatever interests you! You can also always start with their first episode, “1. Sawbones: Trepanation.”

So, the recommendations are: “38. Sawbones: Medical Cannibalism,” whichever episode sounds intriguing, and “1. Sawbones: Trepanation.”

What Is The Podcast About?

Sawbones is a medical history podcast meant to entertain, hosted by Sydnee McElroy (an actual medical doctor) and her husband Justin McElroy (not an actual medical doctor). Sydnee presents a topic and the research she’s done on it by telling Justin about what she’s found; Justin serves mainly as the comic relief, playing the dunce to Sydnee’s expertise. Again, it’s meant to entertain the audience - it should not be used for medical advice/opinion, and you always have to allow for human error (although Sydnee goes to great lengths to research each topic).

The podcast trends towards the comedic and the historical - they try to cover strange or funny medical trends from the past. However, they do go into modern fads and some more serious topics, addressing the fads with humor and the serious topics with gravity.

Why Should I Listen To It?

This is another McElroy podcast from the Maximum Fun network, so if you listen to any of the other McElroy podcasts (MBMBAM, The Adventure Zone, Shmanners, Wonderful!, and others) then you’ll like this one! Sydnee also hosts another podcast with her sisters called Still Buffering - so if you like that one, try Sawbones, too (and vice versa)!

If you aren’t familiar with the podcasts previously mentioned, then you should listen to this if you enjoy funny and/or serious history topics. Most people who enjoy history podcasts in general will also enjoy Sawbones!

~Happy listening!~

4 notes · View notes

part5of4podcast · 15 days

Text

Review of Ep.01 - The Origins & Boston Deserved Better 2024

Thanks for the review, Q&A is open on our Spotify do feel free to drop us a line.

Can't wait to showcase the next episode to folks!

#only friends boston #bostonnick #neo trai #episode reviews #part 5 of 4 #season 1

0 notes

trashyshrew · 4 months

Text

#critical role #cr2 #shadowgast #essek thelyss #caleb widogast #reflecting on my 2023 art journey has me reviewing some old drafts #and throwing it back this thursday to a time when i would actually render things #also... wizards #now maybe i'll finally go watch the m9 reunion episode #and you know... campaign 3?#😅😅😅

2K notes · View notes

allieinarden · 14 days

Text

I think in the back of my mind I always thought Phineas and Ferb used the term “evil scientist” instead of the more classic “mad scientist” out of not wanting to stigmatize the mentally ill or something, but in retrospect, clearly it’s because the main characters are themselves mad scientists and Doofenshmirtz and his ilk only differ from them by being evil.

#Phineas and Ferb #I saw someone writing up “today’s” PnF episode and almost had a heart attack thinking they’d dropped the revival while I wasn’t looking #it was just an ongoing review series

830 notes · View notes

mdhwrites · 10 months

Text

Arcane Episode 1 Review: A Playground Indeed

I have a LOT to talk about with this because Arcane is an amazing beast even in just its first episode so I’m splitting it up into parts so if you want to skip something, look for the bold text.

1. A Distinction to Be Made (Preamble in how I see this show)

2. Welcome to The Playground (Overall impression and tone)

3. A Crew to Run With (Side Characters)

4. Our Champions (Main Characters)

5. The Personality of Animation

A Distinction to Be Made

So I often worry with shows I’ve heard literally nothing bad that the hype is going to get to me. I’ll be primed to be harsh on it because my brain is hoping to see what other people see in it. It’s just a problem with my brain.

This was not one of those times because this series is already living up to its reputation... Though I’ll actually be critical first in saying that that’s not surprising. I don’t know if this is commonly true for Netflix series but a lot of people are going to judge this against Saturday Morning cartoons or normal broadcast stuff.

That opening sequence with Vander, Vi and Powder tells you this isn’t the same case. It is a confident choice to start so somber, to build pure atmosphere for the sort of hell that used to be this place to contrast it later against the struggling but surviving Lanes that we see later. It’s also one you’d NEVER get out of pretty much anything for broadcast television and dripping with enough money in five minutes to fund probably an entire episode of something like Amphibia.

It is prestige television like something like the Walking Dead so I’m going to try and not compare it to other things like The Owl House, Danny Phantom, etc. like that. It clearly is meant to be hard serialized, more serious, more impressive, etc. like that. I also don’t say this to knock it but it’s an important distinction versus a lot of its peers... Because it’s animated.

Anyone who comes to Arcane wanting a fun, PG-13 animated show is possibly going to be turned away just like those who hear it’s animated but serious might get turned away too. Luckily for me, I’m here for both sides so this pilot was FUCKING AWESOME.

Welcome to the Playground

Now I did compare it to prestige television but I want to start with the fact that unlike your Game of Thrones or Walking Deads, this first episode’s title lives up to it. This is a blast, in more ways than one. The overall energy, after the dreariness of the beginning, is a mix of excitement, tension and energy which is EXACTLY what it should be for an episode introducing us to young criminals trying to stretch their wings and find their place.

I’m trying to stick to this part being overall impression though so I won’t get into too many specifics. Part of what sells all of this though is the breath through the world of Piltover and the Lanes. The dynamic is nothing new but the episode is happy to really showcase each part’s different wonders as well as their dangers, despite how little time we get in Piltover. It makes the contrasts all the stronger and the threats all the more real.

But it never abandons wonder to wallow. This is what allows it to frankly keep up a positive feeling throughout the first episode. That things will workout, even as set backs and issues come up. This was just one bad job after all. What’s the worst that can happen?

Which I know enough to have had a rock forming in my stomach as the show began making it clearer and clearer that there was never a way for this job to go right. Even without light spoilers though, you can tell. It is curdling the sweet, warm milk that it’s trying to lull you to sleep with. That for as tough as Vi is, as capable her crew and how dominant Vander is over his domain, things are turning.

But the show is wise enough to wait. It has things to introduce after all like:

A Crew to Run With

So I won’t actually get into Vi and Powder yet, despite knowing them to be the main characters. Frankly, I think the fact that I can make this section at all though is a VERY good thing. The fact that this isn’t going to be just one line for these guys is even better.

Vi’s two friends are great. They feel like a play on the big dumb guy and small smart guy but they don’t play it entirely straight. The larger guy isn’t just a fat joke like one might expect or a liability because of his weight. Instead, they acknowledge the fact that vikings had very similar builds so while there’s a small touch of him just obliterating a cupcake, you know he puts in the work to at least mostly work it off. He is also the muscle and strength of the crew, alongside the heart. He appears to probably be about as capable as Vi in a fight but not nearly as ruthless. He frankly doesn’t seem to have the stomach to go quite as hard as Vi, nor the drive needed to be the leader, though the caution to be a great advisor.

The rogue of their party has his charm too. Not as good in a fight but more squirrely and scrappy. He’s also got more skills than the others, things that make him more invaluable and that has gone STRAIGHT to his head. He doesn’t see his fuck ups after all or his weaknesses because he always is justified on the team because he’s the one who can actually work the gadgets they need. He does need one proper kick in the ass to get his head on straight but he’s young and pride and ego are all too common for kids.

Vander might have one of the best introductions I’ve ever seen. “Don’t threaten the one who poors the drinks” is such a great line and honestly, the whole exchange is incredible. He is never actually nice to the traders beyond asking if they need anything but the VA does an incredible job delivering threats and joking barbs in such a way that it takes a while for you to realize just how upset he is with these two. When he says “You’ll get used to it” is when the sweetness drops as he makes it clear that this is how it works. You either leave or... get used to it.

It only gets more interesting though as we see him with the kids and especially Vi. You can see the contrast of the man who lived a life that led to him wearing iron gauntlets and beating an enforcer’s face in and the change required for him to now have a family and run the lanes as its boss. He’s not exactly a criminal lord but he can’t live by our sort of morality. The sort of morality that says one blown up building is enough to start a crusade, but he also can’t be so cutthroat as to sell out his own kind, especially his own kin.

A lot of others get good moments, like us learning Ekko is inventive and smart, or just the incredible impression that the villain leaves in his limited time, but nothing I can say too much of at the moment. I do love the fact that even accidental information does push the villain to show sympathy... But only with veiled sympathy. It’s a good way to show the act he might put up to get people to be loyal to him but also the wheels within wheels that he’s turning so as to be ready for whatever is to come.

Our Champions

Just the one shot of them overlooking the Lanes would tell you that these are your main characters: Powder and Vi. Even if you don’t know they’re Legends, you could tell these two and their relationship is going to be a major part of this, though the theme song does spoil that some too, at least once the timeskip that is to come happens.

The two simply have both too distinct of designs and too much importance to each other while not having any of the death flags someone like Vander might (though to its credit, I actually don’t know if Vander is about to bite it and the show hasn’t been too blunt on if that will or won’t happen.) With that said, anyone who thought Powder was the innocent set up to die... I wouldn’t blame them.

Powder is not bad but she suffers from writing that happens a lot with younger characters. Because she is less skilled and able than the rest, the episode centers a LOOOOT of what’s happening with her around that conflict. Pretty much all of the dialogue with her is about how she has a lot of growing left to do before she’s on par with those older than her. It could get a little tedious but I found it mostly fine but that has to do a lot more with Vi and Powder together than Powder by herself.

Not to say Powder doesn’t do right by herself regardless. Her inventiveness is well documented, her frustrations with those inventions but also her love for them is too. One can easily note that when she talks about them not working, she doesn’t discard them or even stop making them. It implies that she blames herself, not her tools which is VERY dangerous for an inventor that young because it means one of the biggest hurdles to learning is gone already. It effectively guarantees that she’ll only get better because she’s ready to get better.

She contrasts well as a more innocent figure though because while she’s willing to effectively make a grenade, it’s only when push comes to shove. It’s not her first instinct and you could absolutely imagine a different timeline where she grows up in a place less violent and so her gadgets wouldn’t be geared towards violence. It’s also just good to show that it does take time in this world for the innocence in someone to be crushed. That it’s not so cruel and scary so as to make someone like her unable to function.

It does cause a bit of a manic pixie feeling from her but it’s reigned in well by the lack of energy she has. She’s still mostly quiet as someone who doesn’t fight or isn’t ready for danger needs to be ready to hide. Again, she contrasts well with almost every other character we see.

This is especially true with Vi. Vi doesn’t talk a lot without a point. She definitely has gang leader energy to her and not in a bad way. She is working to be like her adopted father someday where she’s ready to run everything. This is both in her gruff attitude and her fists... But also in the kindness she’s learned from Vander.

She has a well of kindness and wisdom that is beyond her years. Frankly, it’s easy to see why the other kids look up to her and it’s not just because she can kick ass. She has a confidence that is infectious so when she says she believes you’re ready, you think it too. She’s also able to connect and make her point clear, whether it be through kindness to her sister or roughness to the dumbass on her team.

She really does save the wallowing that could be with Powder. The fact that the two are genuinely open to each other stops a misunderstanding plot and let it actually lead to a really sweet moment about bad days that just hit so well. But... This isn’t her only side. The other side I connect all too well with as someone who got told he was mature for his age.

An anger. This belief that if you are more mature, so smart and so talented, that you ought to be better. Ought to be somewhere other than where you are. You shouldn’t have to deal with fools or scraps or watch the popular kids get to break the rules that always feel so suffocating to you. That anger is starting to form in Vi and it could easily get out of control.

It actually makes a fun parallel to the angry enforcer who gets in Vander’s face. That man very much so looks at the people here, people he sees as skirting the rules and hurting others, and wants an excuse to do something about it. Meanwhile, Vi sees the topsiders ignoring their plight, feigned ignorance making them as culpable to their problems as if they were punching them in the face themselves and wants to do something about it. Wants to release that anger somehow. She doesn’t have the tools or smarts to do it yet though, which makes her sister’s potential all the scarier.

The Personality of Animation

The last thing I want to touch on is just the fact that the animation for this is SO GOOD. This is absolutely one of those shows where you could turn off the volume and still get much of the point of what’s going on. The expressions are incredible, from the big ticket emotions to subtle acting moments that would be hard for even the best actors to pull off and that is not easy for an animator to replicate. Just body language is incredibly on point though, like how Vi sits when Vander wants to talk. Literally the way she sits just screams “I know what you’re going to say so get it over with” because she doesn’t want this talk and thinks it’s going to be pointless because she’s a dumb tweenager who thinks she’s got the world figured out.

In general, EVERYTHING is dripping with personality like this. No two people do something in quite the same way. There is so much care and attention to detail that you really only get with movie animation nowadays, and not even every movie, even from big studios. Not all of them are paying this much attention. A lot of the personality I got the characters came from design and actions and what you can just read on their face and it’s just really impressive.

The fact that it’s BEAUTIFUL while doing this is just the cherry on top. It’s also more grounded and more adult than most kid’s shows in its writing and animation without losing the fun of animation. Honestly, and I know some might disagree with me on this, I’d love it if people took this as a sign that you don’t have to be boring in order to be more adult when it comes to animation. I see trailers for shows like “Fired on Mars” and sure, it looks like it could be fun... But it also LOOKS boring as hell. Like yep, I sure have seen this sort of stiff adult animation a bunch of times.

The fact that Arcane is so ALIVE with its animation is a just a fucking treat, though part of that is absolutely because Riot has the money to back this thing up. They’re not making these as cash grabs so they’re going to make sure that if everything else fails, the animation doesn’t.

And man... They’ve had well over a decade to refine these characters, regions, world, concepts, etc. and I’m really happy that despite their genre of games not demanding it, they don’t seem to have been sitting on their hands. You can tell this is the sort of project that can only be realized so well by having both confidence and polish that takes just a lot, and I mean a LOOOT of time.

And frankly, I feel a bit bad that I hadn’t given it my own time sooner. Hopefully it keeps ticking on as strongly as this first forty minutes.

===========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#Arcane #Episode Reviews #Welcome to the Playground

11 notes · View notes

jemstarearrings · 2 years

Photo

S01E05 "The Battle of The Bands"

It's the conclusion to the first five episodes and the pilot arc, and you can tell they ran out of animation budget two episodes ago. The timing was off throughout the episode, a lot of animation was reused and stiff, and who can forget this classic:

Despite that, Episode 5 has probably the coolest use of holograms ever. The Holograms tricking Zipper and his men over and over was the greatest subterfuge I've seen in a while, and the part where the ACTUAL non-hologram police show up and the lackey treats them like they're fake is hilarious.

It does stretch the suspension of disbelief how Zipper and his men don't immediately wonder how all of this is happening, and there's something to be noted about Jerrica's disappearance from the time they leave Starlight Mansion to the time Jem projects Jerrica backstage from the battle, but I'm going to justify it with "everyone in the 80s was on drugs." Or at the very least, there was enough hairspray in the air that it basically did the same thing.

However, I can refuse to over-scrutinize something when it at least gives me something cool and interesting to watch, and this episode does just that. That’s why, despite a lot of the flaws of the series present here, I’m giving it an A.

I swear I won’t give every episode an A, these are just genuinely good episodes

Zipper trespasses at the Starlight Drive-in. This is the least of his crimes thus far so I'm giving him just 3 months in jail and a $500 fine.

Eric kidnaps Ashley as a hostage, and the Misfits lock her in a trunk that's almost crushed. The immediate threat to her life and the hostage situation turn this into a first-degree kidnapping charge, getting all four of them a life sentence in prison!

Zipper, meanwhile, doesn't technically kidnap Jem and the Holograms but does hold them prisoner under the drive-in, which constitutes false imprisonment. Zipper gets 3 years in prison and a fine of $25,000.

Eric, as if trying to add more crimes before a timer runs out, tries to steal the Rockin' Roadster during Jem's performance at the battle of the bands. Just like the video game, it’s grand theft auto! The cost of the Roadster changes the punishment, so assuming a brand new gold-plated topless roadster with a custom hood ornament is above $100,000, Eric gets 15 years in prison and a $25,000 fine. (Man, a lot of crimes come in multiples of 25k, right?)

Right at the end of the episode and out of nowhere, Eric slaps Jerrica in the face. Battery! This is so minor, though, I'm letting Eric off easy with a fine of $75.

Total Charge: 4 life sentences, 18 years, and 3 months in jail, and $50,575 in fines.

It’s also worth noting at this point that most of the crimes the Misfits and their crew commit are felonies, making ALL of these characters legal felons. This means, among other things, the Misfits and their crew can no longer:

Vote

Serve on a jury

Travel abroad

Own or operate firearms

Be teachers, cops, childcare professionals, military service members, or run for office

Apply for federal or state grants, live in public housing, or get welfare benefits

And if they apply for a normal job, employers are legally allowed to discriminate against them for being felons when they see the background checks. It's a damn good thing Eric has lawyers and Pizzazz's dad is rich, because even after just the first episode, these girls are screwed with a capital fucked (pardon my french!)

The next episode reviews will be the Starbright trilogy! How exciting!! I can’t wait to finally watch the first real episodes after the series was greenlit. The animation’s going to be so much better....

#episode reviews #jem #jath #jem and the holograms

37 notes · View notes