Tiring Adventures - Friday Video Distractions with Mike Norton

 

    Another busy week, which contributed to less viewing time -- though likely still far more than I probably should be doing given all that needs to be done. A balanced life continues to elude me. On the other hand, I believe I made a few good choices, including going with activities when I felt best suited

to them instead of being a slave to conventional hours. If I let myself do it, I can get so much more done if I roll with it at 2, 3, 4 or so in the morning rather than force myself to sleep for fear it'll leave me wrung out during normal business hours. The reality is that I'm going to feel a bit wrung out and closer to useless then anyway, but I'll feel more relieved, and consequently operate better for knowing I've already accomplished several things. Several mental notes have already informed me that when my schedule is fully my own, an ideal day will likely involve a siesta.
     I've also spent some time reconnecting with a friend - another, oddly much-needed, reminder of how much this past year and my mismanagement of it has stolen. So, more good than bad in the balance even if my head's likely to be lolling around noon.
    As a follow-up to last week's post, I did want to note a few things:

    Netflix's sci-fi with a horror bent film Synchronic was a good and interesting time. An interesting core concept involving the nature and perception of time, in this case something unlocked by a designer drug, and tapping the old theme of the pineal gland as a skull-buried third eye. Buried in there is also a subtext about aspects of perception that are generally lost along with youth. It's also gotten me to add a reminder to look at the other works of co-directors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson -- but not in the time I have to work with this week.
    The second episode of The Nevers (HBO, Sunday nights) continued to satisfactorily build that universe. We mostly get to spend more time with some of the characters we met in the first episode, and so find more of this Victorian landscape illuminated as we also get to see a little past the exteriors.
    The debut of Kate Winslet vehicle miniseries Mare of Easttown (also HBO) drew me in to the insular microcosm of that small, Pennsylvania town, introducing the main players and providing the story-necessary death.
     A light item that still had its entertaining qualities is the 2020 Drew Barrymore vehilce The Stand-In, currently streaming on Netflix. In it, Drew plays a dual role as Candy Black, a long in the tooth, highly successful, pratfalling, tedious catchphrase-reciting, comedienne with substance abuse problems, and Paula, a seemingly humble wanna be actress who has narrowed her career to the comfort zone of being Candy's stand-in.

     Having watched the film, and subsequently seen what's set many viewers grumbling, if you're going to watch it don't approach is as a comedy. It's ultimately more of a drama about goals and identity, with comedic elements. Also, face it: If you've watched the trailer I'm reasonably assured you don't have any expectations of finding high art nor the centerpiece for a cinema class. Similarly, don't approach it with a chip on your shoulder, because it's far from a flawless bit of plotting, and the story will come apart in your hands if you grip it and give a moderate shake.
     Fair warning, the remainder of this week's piece is focused on comics-to-screen adaptations. Doubtless, some find them irredeemably juvenile, while others have likely been turned off by their seeming ubiquity (arguably true) and sameness (considerably less true.) Our tastes are our own, of course, and these are above all else intended to be entertainments. If one's not entertained, then it's in the best interests of all to move along in peace.

     My sixth anniversary, first-time rewatch of the first season of Daredevil (Netflix) mentioned last week remained satisfying, as each episode drew me into the next. My experience continued to be that it was even better than I remembered, and that's in no small part due to this time not having my nostalgic, inner child constantly fighting every (generally story-improving) change they'd made to the patchwork of comics stories being adapted. As mentioned, it was substantially a pair of parallel origin arcs as Matt Murdoch (Charlie Cox) fully realized his alter ego of Daredevil, and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) embraced his true role as New York's Kingpin of crime. For all the grousing that some (too many) fans did as the show rolled out about it not moving quickly enough to suit them, when the full Daredevil persona appears in the season finale there was some degree of let-down because it was working so well without the costume. On the other hand, we'd been given ample reason to see that he needed the added protection, and it's part of the evolution of that timeline that the public was primed to see and accept a costume by that point.
     This led to my smoothly rolling into the next item on that Netflix Marvel series timeline, the first season of Jessica Jones.

     My experience there was much as with the revisit of Daredevil inasmuch that it was something I enjoyed the first time but did so even more with this second viewing over five years later. Unlike Daredevil, this series' titular, private detective, antihero is a 21st century creation, and so lacked the nostalgic drag I was feeling with Matt Murdock and friends' adaptations. Jessica's story is one centered on a character steeped in PTSD from more than one event in her life, and it's important to give the story a chance to reveal that. Too much early character judgement is unwise, and as I look back on the series experience and what some others had to say about it at the time, I know that many were as impatient with this series as they were with elements of Daredevil. It's necessary to take the time to learn more about Jessica's history, see past the damage, and in a fashion completely suitable for this character that is a process that takes much of the season. From my perspective it's all worth it. As ever, your mileage will be your own.

     The series also brings us a version of Luke Cage (played by Mike Colter), a comics character with roots going back to 1972 -- the era of "Blacksploitation" vehicles, and so a line of comics material that requires considerable scrubbing and sorting to bring the character, fully formed, into a 21st century debut- unless one were aiming for a comedy.
     Luke got two seasons of his own show on Netflix, along with some guest-star spots and being part of the Defenders series, where they were all gathered. (Side note: Colter's currently a core cast member on the CBS supernatural horror mystery series Evil (CBS), which had its short (13 episode) debut season fall 2019 into January 2020, and season two is expected sometime this year. (Season one can be found on either Netflix or Paramount+.) I discussed Evil's first season in a post this past October.

     Jessica Jones' first season also includes David Tennant (likely best known as the 10th Doctor in the Doctor Who series, or as the lead detective character in Broadchurch), getting to chew up the scenery as the season's main villain, Kilgrave - a name choice several characters have no shortage of sport with as the series rolls out. Here's a comics character going back to 1964, as an early Daredevil opponent -- a man whose ability is to be able to command anyone to do anything, no matter how reckless or self-destructive.
     For any readers who are familiar with the comics side of all this, trust me -- I know I'm leaving volumes out, but these blog pieces are intended for more general consumption. As it is, the nerdy fan particle concentration in here has already driven some of the few reader who came here in the first place to drop their eyes another few paragraphs to see if I get to anything else this week.
     More recent word is that several of the actors and associated roles from these series will soon be folded into the current, larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, with the caveat being that when we meet them there we should expect these to be fresh introductions. That is to say, they won't be straight carry-overs from these series, and that it would be unwise for viewers to treat the Netflix Marvel series as canon. We're to consider these shows as other versions of the characters, from similar parts of the multiverse. To any extent that exact details carry over, they'll let us know.
     In the months to come, we expect to see Charlie Cox appear as some version of Matt Murdock in this December's Spider-man: No Way Home, and we may catch a glimpse of D'Onofrio as Wilson

Fisk in the Hawkeye series (Disney+) due out later this year, with more time in the spotlight once a character introduced there (Echo) gets her own series a bit later on. Jon Bernthal (Frank Castle/Punisher) and Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones) are also each rumored to have appearances lined up in as yet unnamed Disney+ shows now that that pandemic-delayed engine is roaring back to life.
     Me, I'm just happy all over again to have lived long enough to be in a world where the concept of the multiverse has become so mainstream. I don't need to be a gatekeeper for any of it, though I'm only too happy to discuss the details with anyone who's interested in the details.
     The Marvel Netflix shows were stretching exercises of sorts, with a blend of raunchier, bloodier details and themes than would be presented in the increasingly seamless flow of Marvel Studios material produced for the big screen and the small, all of which will end up on Disney+. Regardless of any long-term deal Disney/Marvel has with Netflix regarding those shows, they'll never end up on Disney + because they pierce the PG-13 upper limits for that streaming platform.

     Riding out this theme, today sees the season finale for Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a 6-part, Disney+ series I've been solidly enjoying week to week.
     Based on the first five episodes I'm satisfied that they've continued to bring us versions of the characters that are superior to the long-stewed versions from the comics, which had their origins so many years ago and passed through so many creators and editors often grubby hands. While I personally know at least one fan who would vehemently disagree with me, I'm comfortable that we're getting versions of Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes, John Walker, and Baron Helmut Zemo who are superior- well-rounded and more interesting - to the comic book versions. Similarly, this show is one involving questions of legacy and representation, and I can't help but have my own speculations and expectations as to how some elements will come out by the end of this week's episode. Regardless of how they turn it by the end I'm reasonably assured that they're giving us a better, more thoughtful and well-measured turn than comics readers received.
     Next week... I've currently no idea.
     In the meantime, continue to take care -- line up a vaccination if you haven't and you can (I have my second Pfizer shot mid-next week) -- and come back to see if I've dug up anything of interest. - Mike