Tag: Disney+

There is New Super Hero Stuff to Watch

When Disney+ launched WandaVision a couple of months ago I asked my step son if he would watch it with me. He said yes. Jen joined in too. We watched every episode together. The show aired (aired? Streamed) on Fridays and every other Friday he was at his dad’s house. On those weeks we either waited until he came back to our house the following Wednesday, or he snuck over at some point during the weekend and we watched the new episode then.

I asked him about doing the same for the new series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which debuts today. He said no. He wants to watch the first episode from dad’s house and he said we should watch it too so we can talk about it on Wednesday. 99% of me thinks, bummer. The other 1% of me thinks, bummer but at least I don’t have to wait until Wednesday.

The word on the street is that the first few episodes are really good. I hope the scuttlebutt is accurate.

Meanwhile, I am a a smidge more than halfway through the Snyder Cut. It’s one four hour stream, but it is broken into segments and I’ve been able to watch a segment or two here and there over the last 32 hours or so. I don’t know if it’s better or worse than the theatrical release. It’s more or less the same, just with lots, lots more stuff. It is much less confusing. Everything that has happened so far makes a lot more sense than it did in the first cut. I am having a really hard time forgiving Ezra Miller for The Stand though. Like… every time The Flash is on the screen I just want to slap him for being so bad in The Stand. Bad, Ezra Miller. Bad, bad, Ezra Miller.

Two More Random Things

It’s one of those days, kids.

  • I’m on my lunch break. I just ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a little snack pack of Pringles. Mmm, mmm, good. Often during lunch I will peruse Google News, or the Twitter, and catch up on any interesting stories of the day. I can’t do that today. Why? Our plan to watch the season (series?) finale of WandaVision is to do so after work while we eat dinner. That means for the next 4-5 hours I have to be in full on, hyper vigilant, spoiler avoidance mode. The Twitter and The Google News are both riddled with WandaVision spoilers right now and that’s why I am writing this post and not reading up on the world. No Spoilers!
  • Take a look at the top of the page. Go on, I’ll wait. See it? I changed the title of the page and the little headline blurby thingie. The last time I did that I brought back my original Blogger title. This time I am bringing back my first wordpress.com title. Why? Because I am really old and I’m out of ideas. My brain is creatively empty. Hell, just listen to my RPM album. Empty. The headline blurby thing is also for a previous blog though I cannot recall exactly when, where, or what it was. It was something about the cat taking over the world so this is close enough.

I wonder what stupid, pointless, unoriginal thing I’ll write next?

NO SPOILERS!

TV and Stuff

There’s a new episode of WandaVision out. I haven’t watched it. Hopefully later tonight. We’ll see how the time works out.

I just finished my pointless rewatch of The Flash. That show comes back soon. The Walking Dead comes back soon. There’s a new Superman show on CW that premiers this week. That could hold us over until Supergirl comes back, but the idea of Superman as a dad to two teenagers… I don’t know about that. Batwoman is back, but they are already rebooting and it’s only season two. Season one was okay, but was it good enough to justify coming back after rebooting? I don’t know. I haven’t watched any of season two yet. That might be a clue as to how interested I am.

What shows should I hyper focus on for the next stretch of Covid lockdown?

I heard Resident Alien was good. I might check that out. I never got around to the second season of Altered Carbon, so that’s a possibility. I hear The Expanse and Snowpiercer are good. Handmaid’s Tale is a possibility. I was afraid to watch that during Trump because it felt too close to home. It still does, but maybe I should try it? Ozark? Breaking Bad? Lost? Mindhunter?

I don’t know… WandaVision, The Flash, and The Walking Dead (along with Falcon and Winter Soldier, once WandaVision ends) are a lot. They should be enough. They don’t give me the option of putting it on Netflix and letting it run all day while I do other things though. Unless I start The Walking Dead from the beginning, the way I just did with The Flash. Maybe.

Maybe I’ll just put The Mandalorian on and let it run on a loop 24 hours a day. That’ll work.

The Worst Part of Telecommuting

Telecommuting is pretty great. You get to work from home. It’s nice. Covid-19 has put us onto a nine-months-and-counting telecommuting streak, but it’s cool. No traffic. Jeans and sneakers. Able to have dinner with my family every night. Sweet.

There’s only one downside. I’m dealing with it right now.

My wife is on the other side of the house getting caught up on The Mandalorian. She’s down to the last couple of episodes in season one.

The downside of telecommuting is I can hear the TV in the distance but I can’t sit and watch it with her.

I would really like to go watch it with her. I cannot though. I must work. This is the way. Damn it.

So Much Star Wars

I’m a few days late for this, but I’ve been reading up on some of the new Star Wars projects that Disney and Lucasfilm announced the other day. There is little to no info on most of them, so there’s not much to say, but here are a few thoughts.

Rogue Squadron. A stand alone movie that sounds like it’s probably related to the old video games and is directed by Patty Jenkins. Umm… TAKE MY MONEY!

An as yet untitled and still unwritten Taika Waititi film. No info at all. Thor Ragnarok was wonderful, but after seeing Jojo Rabbit, Lucasfilm can TAKE MY MONEY!!

Obi-Wan Kenobie. A Disney+ series staring Ewan McGregor AND Hayden Christensen returning as Darth Vader? I am more excited about this than all of the others. Imagine… if this is good it could erase a lot of the bad feelings left over from the prequels. Then again, it might require some serious retconing of the events leading up to A New Hope. I’m a little scared about that, but if it works it could be incredible. In short, TAKE MY MONEY!!!

Ahsoka. After about 6000 episodes of the Clone Wars and Rebels, our favorite animated Jedi Padawan finally made the leap to live action in The Mandalorian a few weeks ago and Rosario Dawsom absolutely nailed it. TAKE MY MONEY!!!!

Rangers of the New Republic. A story that parallels The Mandalorian. I wonder if it will center on the two X-Wing pilots we’ve seen this season. No clue, but TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!

Lando. Enough said, TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!

Andor. This one is interesting. A Cassian Andor based spin off of Rogue One. I didn’t think I would be interested in this, and it’s been rumored (at least) for quite a while. Now that I see it spelled out, and knowing that it just went into production a few weeks ago, I realize I really want to see this. TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!!

The Acolyte. We know it’s going to be a mystery series that will take us back to the High Republic. All good stuff. Then add that it’s coming from the creator of the Netflix show Russian Doll and this becomes really exciting (Russian Doll is fantastic, go watch it). TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!!!

The Bad Batch, Visions and A Droid Story. Eh. Given the wildly spectacular success of The Mandalorian, I think my patience with animated Star Wars is pretty much run out. I’ll probably watch them, but mostly just because they will exist.

In summation allow me to make this blanket statement to the folks at Disney, Lucasfilm, and Disney+: TAKE MY MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Mandalorian: How Good is it Really?

No spoilers.

I just watched the new episode of The Mandalorian and it’s lead me to ask a rhetorical question of the universe.

Is this show really as good as I think it is, or am I just such a complete Star Wars fanatic that it appears fantastic to me when it’s actually less than stellar?

I think we’ve had six episodes in season two. With the exception of episode two, I have finished each viewing thinking to myself something along the lines of, well they’ll never top this one. The second episode was excellent but probably not better than the first. Three through six just kept one upping the awesome. Some of it is formula; Mando goes to someone for help and they say sure, but you have to do this quest for me first. The season has felt like an old TV western about the traveling gun fighter. The Lone Ranger with a cooler mask. There have been call backs and cameos the likes of which we never expected. The action sequences and special effects are movie quality and the story we’re following is gripping. Even given how good the first season was, I can’t believe how good season two has been.

But has it been that good, really? Speaking as a lifelong Star Wars fanboy, is my reaction to the quality of the show accurate or is it so colored by 40+ years of fandom that I can’t see the Endor forest for the trees?

My one complaint is still that the episodes tend to run really short. This week’s was less than 30 minutes. That doesn’t take away from anything, but it does leave me wanting more.

Just watch it. I may not be 100% objective, but I think it’s pretty close to perfect.