Young Justice – “Earthlings”
“This is usually when we start playing charades.”
Are we going to have go through the evolution of Young Justice all over again? I really have no desire to do that, but yet here we are with a rather unbalanced episode that hints are the show’s stronger-ish elements but is mostly the blandly generic stuff I thought the show had moved away from (Sigh. Giant mecha tanks).
As a result, “Earthlings” isn’t a terribly compelling episode. While “Happy New Year” benefited from the craziness of the time skip to distract from any particularly lacking elements, this episode has no where to hide.
The inter-galactic stuff is something I’m not sure I’ve completely accepted yet, though considering it’s the big thing for this season, I suppose I had better. It just feels so big for the team, regardless of how much they’ve grown in terms of numbers. And while the show hasn’t shied away from using the big villains against the team, mostly well (Luthor, in particular), tasking with covert alien invasion work seems above their paygrade, and reasonable threat level.
So Beast Boy, M’gann, and Conner head to Rann with Adam Strange (who I know nothing about, so if someone can recommend a nice collected edition, I’m all ears) to, it turns out, shut down a key Krolotean staging ground to Earth. This should be fairly exciting, but the episode just doesn’t make it as compelling as it should be, I feel. I’m not sure, exactly, what’s missing from the equation. Maybe it was that damn tank chase that did me, but it just didn’t feel very fresh or engaging.
On a bit of an upside, the second half of the episode is a more compelling character piece, perhaps something the episode would’ve been better served mixing more fluidly than seeming to segregate each of these beats. The interplay between M’gann and Beast Boy had an pleasant air of familiarity to it that indicates that, when the show tries, it can do a lot to make strong character moments. Sure, Beast Boy’s flash to his mom’s death (orchestra by Queen Bee) was a little sudden (I thought it was a mental attack by the Kroloteans at first), but both Danica McKellar and Logan Grove sound natural together here that it’s a minor quibble.
With Conner and Alanna, we get hints about what led to the break-up, though he remains rather opaque about the reasons. Certainly, I imagine, M’gann’s willingness to psychically lobotomize a Krolotean may represent a growing darkness in M’gann’s nature, her white Martian self, that Conner wasn’t willing to handle. Other issues, emotional availability and maturity may have been at play as well.
This little nugget is certainly helpful in the start of piecing together the events of that time skip, and while I’m still not crazy about it, it’s success my depend on how well they organically implement these occasions to share the information. This is a decent enough start.
DC Nation – World’s Funniest: I think we’re seeing diminishing returns here. While I enjoyed Superman describing himself as “not a sporty guy” (he does do running), lots of the other stuff just didn’t land. Sad.
FINAL THOUGHTS
- “And Miss Martian is…Martian.”
- Strange reciting “Jabberwocky” and other bits of Lewis Carroll was amusing, and probably the liveliest performance I’ve ever heard from Michael Trucco.
- “Basically, if it looks pretty, don’t touch it.”
- “Kid, you may change my mind about monkeys yet.”
- Don’t know what it was like for you, but during a commercial break, I got an ad for Fruity Pebbles followed by a Diabetes Care Club commercial. I was amused.
- May 6, 2012
- Noel
- Episode Review
- Young Justice
