A bit over six years ago I wrote down of which TV shows I’ve seen more than one season, many of them more than half and often enough 90-100% of a show. Back then it added up to 247 shows.
Now I’ve checked again and noticed that I’ve missed shows back then (e.g. Alias and Community). Also a lot more current shows have added the ranks as well as older stuff I’ve only just discovered.
This new list contains 86 more shows and brings the total up to 333.
And on the very bottom are shows that started just this year and have not yet filled the “one season” quota.
I’m currently on a vacation at home – or as it called now: staycation – and on Monday I had lunch at one of my favourite Italian restaurants (Actually, it’s an Italian deli that also serves warm food and it’s soo good!). Upon driving home in the early afternoon I thought to myself: what a wonderful world what now to do with the rest of the afternoon. And it just so happened that I drove past a local movie theatre. So at 3 in the afternoon on a Monday I decided to check out what was playing (I had a decent enough idea going in though). And what have you: At 3.15 an airing of Thor: Ragnarok. And at 6.00 an airing of Justice League. Quick calculation: Is Thor done when JL starts? Probably. OK, so both tickets were bought. Both movies were in German dubbing because watching O-Ton as we call it would have required a bit more planning (not every theatre shows them and only on specific times).
At the Thor airing we were three people in the theatre. A mom with her kid and I. Which is not suprising considering it was the afternoon of a regular workday in week 4 of the movie. Justice League at 6pm was also only watched by six people (including myself) in week 2 at a bit more accessible time.
Then two days later I had also caught up with the episodes of Supergirl, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow to watch the big crossover event (Arrow being the fourth show to cross). And so I watched Crisis on Earth-X.
And here’s what I thought about all of them:
Thor: Ragnarok
Plot: Thor’s long-lost sister Hella comes back and wants to destroy Asgard. Thor gets banished to an intergalactice waste disposal and has to find his way back.
I liked the first Thor movie. I don’t remember much about the second one. But nor do I remember much about the second and third Iron Man movies. To be honest, I don’t remember much about any MCU movie that doesn’t have Loki in it, except maybe for the Norton Hulk movie.
That’s one of the issues of the Marvel movies. They are great fun while you watch them (and that’s where and how they make their money) but they are not for the ages. They’re like a good rollercoaster ride. You remember the thrill but you don’t remember the details.
The same will be true for Ragnarok. The villain was once again pretty forgettable and to be perfectly honest not really needed at all for the movie. Because the best parts of the movie took place on the waste planet. Especially all the interactions with Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster (Gamemaster? Whatever.).
I did have a problem with the jokes. Not any one in particular, most of them were at least amusing. More with the frequency of them. Sometimes this felt like it tried to be a laugh-track comedy were every sentence had to have a punchline. IMHO, that was a bit too much. In this regard I loved the more sporadic approach of the first movie where he’d just randomly smash his glass after he’d emptied it, praising the brew within.
As for CGI, Marvel has this part down. Although I could have sworn that the Hulk looked different than before, even a bit smaller. This nagged at me for a bit. Also, I noticed that for the sake of the plot the pathway to the Bifröst was changed, especially what’s supposed to be – or not be – under it.
I loved that Thor wised up for once and predicted Loki’s inevitable betrayal. When I saw that scene, the opening scene of Firefly sprung to my mind:
When I saw Karl Urban, I just thought: You’re in this, too? Considering how small his part was, it was astounding – or depressing depending on the point of view – how much more developed his character was in comparison to Hella’s. And at least he had a part to play in comparison to the disposal of the Warriors Three.
All in all it was once again an enjoyable ride but again no deeper meaning to be gained from it.
Synopsis: Clark and Bizarro-Clark are still fighting and they break the dam in the process. This nearly drowns Lois, Chloe, Lionel and Lex but all are saved one way or another. Only Chloe is declared dead in the hospital but mysteriously rises from the dead. With Bizarro, everything is in reverse mode: Kryptonite is his power source but the yellow sun is his weakness.
My Opinion: Clark defeated him a bit too easy for my taste, especially since Bizarro was just juiced up with a huge amount of Kryptonite and also because one didn’t see what the Martian Manhunter did with him. But at least there are a lot of puzzles left to be resolved, e.g. the new female arrival, Chloe’s abilities, Lex’s newfound enlightenment and Lionel’s disappearance.
Kara
Synopsis: She’s been in stasis for 18 years. Her ship lay on the bottom of the reservoir lake until it was emptied due to the battle. She is Kara, Kal-El’s cousin and also a member of the house of El. And now she has to learn that her home planet is destroyed and that Kal-El is no small child anymore. And the military has her ship and if they manage to open it, it will self-destruct with the force of a nuclear bomb.
My Opinion: Now he’s not alone anymore. I’ve only seen a few episodes of this season and I have no idea how it will turn out, but I am aware of the fact that Kara will become Supergirl in the Superman mythology.
But I hated to see how they stomped over Chloe just to push Lois. That seemed unfair.
Fierce
Synopsis: Lana’s back in town – and not so dead as she was presumed to be. Clark is more than happy to see her, but his life has also changed. He has to teach Kara how to “blend in” with the Humans and she does this by entering the “Miss Sweet Corn” beauty pageant.
My Opinion: This was a funny episode to watch. I loved the character “Kara” from the start. She’s such a good counterpart to Clark. He needs to see that there are other ways than his own (a lesson Green Arrow also tried to teach him).
But I am still missing the “theme of the season”. Since the fourth season it has always been clear from the start what the season would be about. Isobel, Zod, the Zoners. I don’t believe that it will be a “Kara season” but I have yet to see anything else coming up.
Cure
Synopsis: A FotW who should be in Belle Reve reappears in Smallville and claims to be healed. Unfortunately she can’t remember anything since the time she became infected. Chloe doesn’t see that as a story but as a means to “cure” her, too. But the doctor isn’t who he appears to be.
My Opinion: Great appearance of Dean Cain who was Clark Kent/Superman in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, a show that I also watched until it was cancelled.
What I didn’t like was the fact that the Martian Manhunter has become Clark’s “waste disposal”. The writers have found an easy way out of any kind of plot without needing to think about it. Read more
Synopsis: Clark hides out in Metropolis under the alias “Kal” and has become a criminal in order to finance his lifestyle. The Kents have to sell the farm, they and Lana are still looking for him. There’s one person who knows where he is but she’s promised him not to reveal it. Meanwhile Lex “lives” on a tropical island with some other guy and tries to get off it.
My Opinion: Great continuation of the story. Though I haven’t understood why Jonathan and Pete didn’t try to knock him out with Kryptonite. Ok, they did that last time but that proved to be successful. I understand that using the same plot twice is uncreative, yet if it were for real I doubt that they wouldn’t have tried it again.
I also liked Michael’s performance on the island, he did a better job than Tom Hanks (What a boring movie!).
Phoenix
Synopsis: Both Clark and Lex return to Smallville and both have to deal with what happened lateley. That means that Lex has to straighten out what really happened on that plane and if his wife had anything to do with it. And Clark has to deal with a Metropolis crime boss who threatens his parents and he has to apologize to a whole lot of people.
My Opinion: It was a good conlusion to this four-parter. Unfortunately it ends with Clark’s break-up with Lana against her expressed wish and he is retreating into his shell again.
I liked to see Rutger Hauer in the role of the crime boss, if it were for me, it could have lasted longer than these two episodes but unfortunately he had to share the fate of bad guys who know Clark’s secret.
Extinction
Synopsis: A “meteor freak” attacks Lana in the school pool and a secret vigilante shoots him to death. He has killed before and his next target is Lex whom he believes to be a meteor freak, too. Clark can save Lex once again but that makes him also a target. Unfortunately the shooter has found Clark’s Achilles’ heel and he uses Kryptonite bullets.
My Opinion: I liked the theme of the episode: Are all meteor-infected people murderous freaks? If I were in Clark’s position I wouldn’t have told her (Lana) my secret either. Her point of view at the begin of the episode was quite firm and although she said that she wouldn’t mind if Clark were bullet-proof (i.e. a meteor freak), I wouldn’t be sure that she really wouldn’t mind. This topic will surface again, especially in one of the key episodes of the fourth season: Pariah.
I also liked the Eastwood-y way he protected himself from the bullets and put Lana’s mind at rest (at least for a while).
Slumber
Synopsis: Clark has the weirdest day: He somehow can fly, he skinny-dips with Lana, Lex finds out his secret and a young girl is chased by a mysteriously hooded figure in the woods and disappears into the ground. But then he awakes, after he’s been asleep for 36 hours. He learns that new neighbours have moved into Lana’s old house and that there’s a young girl in a coma.
My Opinion: I wonder what insurance company insures the Kent’s truck and what garage does the repairing. It had been in several very heavy crashes and was even blown up. Maybe they just like the brand and the colour. 😉
I liked the episode because it had a different angle than usual. Read more
Howard the Duck (1986)
