After the set up and surprise earthquake in episode 1, the Defenders leap into their second episode, “Mean Right Hook.” After seeing as many trailers as I had, I was pretty sure I knew what the title referred to, and it looks like I was right. They’re continuing their slow build as the characters’ stories are being drawn together.
Netflix and Marvel Studios have been collaborating for a while now, giving us some great shows. We’ve seen two seasons of Daredevil, and one each of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist. Now, just as the solo heroes came together to form the Avengers in the Marvel movies, the Netflix characters are uniting as the Defenders. Also along for the ride are much of the supporting cast from the individual shows, and the enigmatic Madame Gao, as well as Claire Temple, the only character to appear in all four series so far. I’m presuming that if you’re watching/interested in Defenders, you’ve seen the shows that came before it, so I’m not explaining every reference.
It’s a great time to be a hero-geek. There are more and more shows, and most of them are pretty damn good. I keep hearing a few people fretting about “hero fatigue,” but I certainly don’t have it, and, judging from the box office for Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, a lot of other people don’t, either. The Marvel Cinematic Universe is fantastic, with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok coming this year. I’m a lot less impressed with the DC Expanded Universe (although I’m one of the few that apparently enjoyed Suicide Squad), but I was pleasantly surprised by Wonder Woman.
IZombie comes to the end of their season with, “Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part 2.” That kind of makes me wonder if next season will open with Part 3, but maybe that’s just me. Things don’t go really well for anyone, and they definitely do a major change in the status quo by the time they’re done. Next season is going to be a completely different show. There will be at least some spoilers below, so be warned.
Liv and her friends started this season after all the other hero shows, so it makes sense they’d be wrapping up later. The two part season finale of iZombie, “Looking for Mr. Goodbrain, Part One,” starts tightening up a lot of the various dangling plot threads that have been lurking around all season and in recent episodes. Things are getting interesting for the zombies of Seattle and their friends.
Usually, iZombie doesn’t pick off where they left off, leaving some space between their cases. That’s not the case with “Conspiracy Weary,” as events with Harley Johns and his band of conspiracy theorists (who actually happen to be more or less right in spite of themselves) rush ahead. Harley and Ravi have a talk which…
The side-effects from the various brains Liv eats are often entertaining, and sometimes cringe-worthy. This week they kick in strong and get more disruptive than usual. But at least we get to see a cast member I kind of liked come back in “Return of the Dead Guy.”
Gotham’s third season wraps with a double header, “Destiny Calling,” and “Heavydirtysoul.” The two episodes bring a lot of forces into play and leave us remarkably few cliffhangers, but bring a lot of things together. And there’s a surprise reveal at the end about one of the characters. So, yeah, beware, there will be some…
Liv confuses being a Dungeon Master with Jazz Hands…. This week’s iZombie gets into the world of role playing games. I suspect most of the interests Liv has touched on were done in exaggerated fashion, and I’m sure that annoyed the various people who are parts of those worlds. Speaking as a gamer, I’ll say…
Things ramp up for the poor citizens of Gotham in “Heroes Rise: Pretty Hate Machine.” The show opens with yet another gathering of the Court of Owls. Bruce’s nameless friend takes the council to task for killing the Waynes. Their response is that Thomas Wayne stood against the Court, although he doesn’t have an answer…
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