“Royal Dragon” had a lot of talking in it. It seems like they’re trying to make up for that in “Take Shelter.” The Hand is on the move and has a lot of good organization behind them. Our heroes have barely met and aren’t getting along as well as you’d hope for the good guys. Talk about going in with a handicap.
Finally brought together in “Worst Behavior,” the four heroes spend most of “Royal Dragon” together. The title refers to a Chinese restaurant they hide out in, despite the workers’ various protests. The four of them storming in ignoring the poor workers is a good bit of the beginning of the episode, and makes for some good comic relief.
The Defenders finally work on actually getting together in episode 3, “Worst Behavior.” Unlike last episode, I don’t see a direct tie in for the title, aside from the fact that many of them are not exactly doing everything they should be. But there were some great scenes that made a comic book geek’s heart…
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.”
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