TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews

This has some things in common with the Birds of Prey Or The Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn. For one thing it's about women of various ages who have experienced hardship and though at least some of them may be trying to do the right thing they definitely do make mistakes and don't always treat others all that well. It doesn't go as far with those aspects on account of the age rating but I'm really glad that it does go there. It is unapologetic about these women without pretending like none of them purposefully do evil and can help normalize depictions like this we have to get away from this ridiculous notion that while a man like this in fiction is complex a woman is just unlikable both can be the former quality. The fact that this centers on a coven allows some commentary both on how women are viewed and treated as well as celebrating witch culture. Something that has been propagandized against for as long as it's existed by insecure, petty people who supported the Patriarchy even as it took from all of us because they would rather brutally kill people than have to change their ways for the better. This manages to smoothly fit in a lot of different aspects of Wicca and it fits really well because that was a form of early feminism. There aren't very many males as major characters, much less regulars. Really there's only one that falls into that last category and he is openly gay. And talented YouTuber Jesse Gender has done a very credible trans allegory reading. This one has not been made for the macho dude bros who will have to go cry about it in their pile of about a century's worth of filmed media that is primarily or even exclusively made to cater to them. This goes further with LGBTQ+ content than anything else in continuity in the MCU so far. It is unashamed and feels completely inobtrusive. Other aspects where it pushes it include the horror. While it does remain at an age rating of PG-13 it takes advantage of how far that has been pushed in recent years including by other entries in this franchise and does some of that itself. Some of what is in this has never been in one of the films or even in other recent stuff that pushes towards it like Werewolf by Night Moon Knight and parts of Wandavision, it's parent. Being that this was made by the same people it's very clear that they learned a lot from making that and seeing the response to it. This goes for significantly less in the way of mystery. I think for both of these it works really well the decision they made but it does also feel like they regretted pushing it as far as they ultimately did, since some people became obsessed and struggled with that which is genuinely sad and I hope everyone like that got the help they needed. This is easily the one that goes the furthest in stuff like atmosphere parts go without the quips and even when they do appear, they're morbid. It feels like a 90s story in this subgenre, something like The Craft or Charmed. There's also several different types of supernatural dread explored here, all of them fitting. It is not the most violent, understandable since one of the aforementioned literally features a lycanthrope. Several episodes have a fairly similar setup but there's enough variety that it never even risks getting tedious. In Agatha we have our first villain protagonist in this universe. We already knew that she kills her kind for power. This one helps explain why and humanize her quite a bit without feeling like they've taken away her edge. And while I won't give away if she does grow into at least somewhat of a better person, she definitely does start out just as bad and shows a massive reluctance to improve. She still doesn't have her magic back and getting it is now her primary objective. Everyone like her that she meets already knows about her and has no intention of allowing her to betray them as she usually does. She has a messy relationship with her toxic ex Rio and I can't put into words how well Aubrey Plaza slots in here. Honestly, I have no idea how she hasn't only been playing roles like this. With her we also get the most erotic material. Obviously given that you have to be 14 years of age or older they can only push it so far so a lot of it is implied but they certainly do include and push it. This is the third year in a row that they've done a Disney Plus exclusive that celebrates Halloween. And I hope they keep going because there is so much in the comics that they could use for these. It does continue to struggle with antagonists. This features a group called The Salem 7 who are out to kill the group that we follow. They are underutilized and lack development. I am appreciative of the intensely creepy appearances and actions but like so many of these Marvel adaptations they lack the depth of some of the most beloved DC ones and that did not have to be the case. The opening episode is one of the strongest and this remains at a very high level until we reach the two part finale, which while it has some incredible stuff it does struggle to stick the landing so that trend remains. I do believe that one day they'll be able to overcome this but I think they may need to take a good hard look at how they're approaching the shows because so far it is just about every single one of them. Loki might be the only real exception so far. And if that only had one season it wouldn't be, not remotely, not at all. 8/10.

This is set 100 years before the Phantom Menace thus showing us something we haven't seen outside of Legends. As someone who is deeply interested in seeing post Jedi fiction I grew to hope that this can help get us there from at first being slightly annoyed that it's going to focus so much on them. There's really not enough entries in this franchise yet that simply are not about them at all. Thankfully this one does make a lot of really smart decisions. It acknowledges what has been explored in analysis for a while now: they're kind of a cult. Like, they are a religious minority who take in children and resent criticism from the outside. And this explores the ramifications of them being both that and really powerful at this point in the timeline. Where Attack of the Clones dips its toes in Noir this dives in deep. Most major characters have some shade of gray to them neither entirely good or evil despite how clear-cut that used to be. Essentially the order is going around like more or less corrupt cops which does of course sometimes lead to consequences which is what this is about. And it does all this without stretching canon past the breaking point, something I personally wouldn't be completely against but it is a good idea to be careful not to go too far. An argument can be made that there's a few too many characters. Some of them could have been combined without really losing anything since they tend to act as a unit anyway. And certainly not that many of them are dynamic. They're not even all interesting individually. With that said this does have some of the best I've seen in recent SW. A diverse cast is a win in and of itself but I do appreciate that they also take advantage of the many options it opens up. We see that even as there is all this integration to this police force the fundamental flaws of it continue to cause major issues just like in real life. And that's not the only place where they're able to explore the way certain things affect minorities differently than members of the majority. I can't go into more detail as I want to keep this spoiler free but they did a fantastic job I'll leave it at that. This takes major inspiration from the wuxia genre with choreography that looks right out of them. If not one of the originals at least one of the Americanized versions. Seriously, this has some of the best lightsaber action we've ever seen. And I really appreciate how this continues the recent trend of trying to make it distinct and unique after it ended up so samey and tedious in the prequel trilogy. I understand from people who've read the books that some of what we get here was actually described there. And yet this is the first time we see it outside of those despite how incredibly cool it is. I submit this after all of season 1 has aired and it is unclear if there will be a follow-up. This does definitely want that and there's some deeply compelling plot threads that would make for incredible viewing if handled just right. And I think they have it in them based on what we've gotten from them so far. It is important to note that by the end of the current finale this does resolve the major things that it really needed to. If we never get more of this we can deduce how we get from here to TPM whilst this really enriched the experience. At the very start we're presented with a mystery and it is not the only one featured here. But by the end we have enough of the answer that it doesn't feel like they've been wasting our time. The special effects are almost always impeccable; there's a little bit of CG that isn't completely convincing. There's a good mix of visual and practical. The other action scenes tend to be good although occasionally you realize that a sequence was just there because there was an expectation of it it doesn't necessarily accomplish anything or have a proper impact. Which can of course lead to them feeling as inconsequential as some of them are. There's also a little bit too much repetition. We really don't need to see that many ships crashing on planets only for people to emerge and have to trek. Nearly everyone delivers amazing acting. Really the only ones that do not are the literal children. And I am not going to spend a long time criticizing that. It's really a failure of the people around them. We can't expect kids to be able to properly deliver the way we do from grown-ups. Amandla Stenberg and Carrie-Anne Moss are standouts as always. I'm so glad the latter continues to get work there's entirely too many her age who are just discarded despite still being incredibly talented. This and Jessica Jones really show the depth of her talent in a way that the Matrix quadrilogy do not. The pacing does sometimes have issues. I do not think that the writers would have chosen to split this into eight episodes. That feels like a mandate. I'm not saying you can skip any as it is but there's at least two that feel slightly padded. Sometimes it doesn't feel like very much progress is being made. It doesn't spend as long as the book of Boba Fett on flashbacks. However, an argument can be made that it's still at least a little too much. It's completely devoid of the repetition of Obi-Wan Kenobi(it couldn't be more obvious that that was originally meant as one movie and they had to make it twice as long) and delayed gratification of Ahsoka. It is not quite as complex as Andor. Recommended to fans. Ignore the bigots, and I don't only mean for this. 8/10.

This could easily be your entry point into this entire franchise. Sure that would mean that there are certain things you would see coming in some of the other parts. But at the end of the day that is true of most of these. You honestly don't even need to have watched the back door pilot which I'm very happy was successful. I mean I'm sure they would have loved to make more Martinez sisters stuff but ultimately those just didn't quite catch on. That's too bad. This does not focus really heavily on Jedi which I'm quite relieved to find. I mean I get it they are some of the most fun of this Galaxy. And certainly we're not going to see them not get a lot of attention any time soon, between Visions, Tales and Adventures. I really take issue with those who look at this and say that it's just the Clone Wars again. Really? The only comparison is the art style and that does make a lot of sense since one led to the other. This is actually entirely unlike all other official stories set in this world. It focuses on a group of mercenaries who are genetically almost entirely the same and for a significant chunk of it do not fight for a specific ideology. Rather they're just staying alive and they're willing to do some very ethically questionable things in order to do so. It's great to see such a different take, especially considering that a lot of the most interesting beings in this universe have always been the ones who do things that we of course do not consider acceptable in the real world. The action is propulsive, varied and gets quite creative, using every single thing that you can do in one of these. The ensemble does sometimes suffer from the characters being overly simplified. I've seen others compare some of them to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with Hunter being like Leonardo, Crosshair being like Raphael, Wrecker being like Michelangelo, and Tech being like Donatello. And it's absolutely true. I get it they were taking risks and other places. Disney is extremely averse to those. This was probably the compromise. It's still annoying. Some people really take issue with Omega, who is confirmed early on to also be a clone which does technically make her transgender. Can we not pretend like that's some impossible idea? The LGBTQ+ community exists in the real world. Space travel, at least on this scale, intermingling with aliens and all this stuff, does not. I mean maybe some people are willing to accept the latter and not the former simply because they grew up on these but that's all the more reason to bring in new elements. We need to increase empathy. This actually came out at the exact right time with a lot of legislation being proposed and some of it even passed to punish them for even existing, promoting torture of them. It's not as though what they are accused of never happens in any way, but it tends to be in the other direction. There's a lot of cases of cis-het doctors performing unnecessary surgeries on intersex people in order to make them conform which has caused a lot of harm. Some people insist that Omega is a Mary Sue, despite the fact that she's absolutely the least egregious example in all of Star Wars, if she qualifies, at all, and I really don't think she does, including of the rest of The Bad Batch themselves. Unlike them, everything she excels at, it's because there's a good reason for her to. She learned it, she practiced, she does not go through this never making mistakes. Rather, her naivety and insistence on sympathizing with almost every one she encounters gets her into trouble. Not everybody just magically likes her. The voice acting is incredible; the fact that Dee Bradley Baker can change what he sounds like this much... I mean we already knew that he had significant range for how he makes the different main clones that we had seen before this sound, but still. I am very relieved that they did not try to push this to last longer than it made sense to; I acknowledge that some feel that it was at least a little too long and certainly some of the last bit does end up not always justifying its length. Like every other SW animated show that has more than two entire seasons, it has a proper ending and it doesn't go on for so long that it ends up just becoming unbearable as is otherwise common for American TV. This continues the trend that we basically need to look outside of live action to see this kind of thing done with a lot of vivid color rather than it being largely toned down as we see so much in comic book adaptations. I continue to love a lot of those but I do hope one day people will remember that one of the things we loved about reading those were the strong visuals. The various cameos here are handled well and it introduces us to a lot of new personalities that I look forward to seeing pop up elsewhere. I'm really glad that for some of this, they varied the lengths of the episodes a lot, because some of them absolutely would not have worked if they did not. This does do the thing that other recent ones do where they basically apologize for a lack of explanation elsewhere. Which I maintain is some of the least interesting content. With that said they handle it quite well and manage to make it interesting. I'm sure it plays better for those who don't yet realize because they haven't watched the movie that it's trying to help make more sense than for those of us who roll our eyes at the decision to treat that as worthwhile. Recommended to fans of these. 8/10.