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mattwelteree
Reviews
Stargirl: Frenemies - Chapter Thirteen: The Reckoning (2022)
Feels like a real comic book with heart!
The season finale of Stargirl is a moment by moment page turner! Each character, each battle, each reveal is worth watching. Like a good comic series, you want to turn back the pages and relook at the panels and see what you missed.
One strength of this episode is that it goes through many emotional moments where characters realize what other people mean to them. All the loose threads, all the threads between the different characters lives come together. One of my favorites is when an arrow hits Icicle. I expected to see Artemis, but it turns out to be Courtney's mom. It is a poignant moment because the person who trained her was none other than Artemis' mom, Tigress who was killed by Icicle. (Oh and no matter what you cannot miss Artemis' appearance!)
The strings really come together in the end thanks to Courtney and her mom. Her belief in herself turns the tide of the battle. Her belief in others changes each of the characters lives. Perhaps one of the most touching scenes is when Courtney gives the Gambler's daughter her dad's letter and expresses to her how much he loved her. The artists who created this scene made a splashpage of this scene that is so full of details it makes you to look at it over and over and even hang it on the fridge.
Kudos should also go to costumers who have really hit on how superheroes personalities are reflected in there secret identy's wardrobe, from Beth's kooky crafty homespun wear to Pat's man who works with his hands guy.
Music in this episode was spot on!
The only drawback I find in this episode is that it has cancelled. Though I'm sure that if I adapted Stargirl's attitude I could see a positive in it being cancelled. Yes there is one. Like the Sci-Fi show Firefly, it will only leave its fans saying, "It was so good. Why do the networks always have to cancel the really good ones?"
Gags The Clown (2018)
Funny, spooky and Green Bay!
This is one of the few spooky movies I have seen and though it was made in 2018 it now, in 2022, rings more true than ever. Genius is how the movie even dares to poke fun at itself. Genius how multiple stories by a diversity of residents all come together and are blown apart. And if you want to see what Green Bay is like just watch places the places. Residents will recognize places like the Broadway District, the Bellin building, the tunnels under the old Larson Cannery, and the Adams street parking ramp. Lighting on some scenes especially the police checking out the wedding catering site, is fabulous!
Stargirl: Frenemies - Chapter One: The Murder (2022)
Like a comic book
What makes this new season episode great is that it is like a comic book. Scenes like Starman in the clouds look like a panel from a comic book. The character development of all the players is like a comic book. The sets all have moods and details like comic books. And it has foreshadowing of other characters drawn just outside of the panel, lurking in the shadows, doing things you can only speculate on.
If you can see any part of this episode, watch the opening sequence. It really establishes the town as a character. It is red white and blue and as wholesome as the Home Style flour that a little old lady carries in her grocery bag.
The Flash: Funeral for a Friend (2022)
Comic book death of a character episode
While the episode doesn't have the action that the previous episode, it does share one thing with real comic books - the fallout issue of how the death of a character affects each team member and the the team as a whole.
Like in X-men #138 and in Watchmen #1, each character deals with the death of their teammate in their own way - Barry takes action, Iris finds heart, Chester and Allegra argue, Mark goes on an embarrassing drunken bender and Caitlyn is in denial. Just when each character thinks they have honored Frost, another character makes them realize there is an even better thing they could do.
I wish Cisco would have shown up.
It's also interesting to see how the camera hides Panabaker's pregnancy.
Superman & Lois: Bizarros in a Bizarro World (2022)
Just like a comic book
SPOILERS: This is the first episode I have seen of series to actually look and feel like a comic book. Like Watchmen, It jumps from time period to time period and perspective to perspective. There are a few little jokes here and there (the president and the pet on the counter, but this Bizarro world is more serious, and it does not linger romantically on feelings and understanding. It is a nightmare on a frenzied roller coaster ride that keeps getting worse and worse. Kudos especially goes to the detail that Bizarro world is made for the small screen. Not only is Bizarro world a cube, it also has a cubed atmosphere and a cubed sun. Like a comic book it has a color palette like X-men's Cyclop's POV. The Kent Farmhouse is drawn with painstaking detail to be the opposite of it's real world counterpart. The house is filthy, dishes aren't done, cupboards are in disrepair, mail is piled up and it needs a ton of painting outside. This episode is full of Easter eggs. If it were a real comic it would be one of the best Bizarro issues ever.
The Twilight Zone: Ring-A-Ding Girl (1963)
This episode always makes me cry
I don't want to give anything away about this episode. I think it is a marvelous piece of storytelling and filming. I recommend watching this episode without reading anymore summaries or reviews.
The thing that this episode contains more than anything else is heart. Other episodes come close. "A Pitch for the Angels" comes close but still comes off as a little schmaltzy.
And of course there is the twist... this one will leave you reeling for days.