Monsters of Television

“Please help us. You’re our Avatar, too.”

Well then.

I’ve been dinging the show (ever so lightly) for its not demonstrating any oppression of non-benders. Sure, the council is comprised entirely of benders, as is the police force, but since the show hasn’t completely explored those as issues for non-benders, and Amon’s speeches have never leaned too heavily on the idea that the lawmakers and law enforcers are benders (though it seems like a ripe avenue for speechifying).

But with “When Extremes Meet” we finally get to see some of that oppression, all in the name of safety (of a select few)!, begin to play out. And it’s genuinely exciting and horrifying with small moments that sell the notion of oppression that the series hasn’t made a convincing case of until now.   Read more »

“You’ve just seen that unattainable object speed by, just out of reach. Because they do that, don’t they? Beautiful things.”

These two are really into hands.

Ah, remember the halcyon days when Pete had even some tattered shreds of redeeming qualities? Did those days ever exist?

Pete’s cartoonish villainy aside (seriously, when the facial hair boom of the ’70s hits, he’s the only one that’s going to be sporting a Snidely Whiplash), the title of this episode harkens back to last season’s “The Beautiful Girls.” While we don’t have Ms. Blankenship (God rest her soul), Dr Faye (understandably), and Sally Draper (not understandably), we focus on the women at SCDP that represent the “mistress,” literally and figuratively, and catch up with some of the ladies we last saw in positions of upward mobility. And they still are. Depending on how you look at it.

And sometimes that filter has to be pretty disgusting to see it.

Did I mention that Pete is the living worst? Because he is.

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“Oh, really? Would you have felt the need to justify an all-male squad for a mission?”

I rather liked “Beneath” but that could have entirely been because Batgirl figured prominently into it.

The episode isn’t too busy, balancing only two plots with each other, plots that do tie into together, so the episode has a solid footing on which both plots can be executed without feeling disparate. It also isn’t overly convoluted or inserts action sequences for the sake of action sequences. Instead, it stages a really nice set piece at the end that feels earned and exciting.

It’s a nice change of pace for the show, even if I do feel like we’re about to rehash some plot points from another show.
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“I won’t lounge here in luxury while evil triumphs!”

I’m still not likely to return to routinely writing about Green Lantern: The Animated Series when its second season starts, but it’s nice to go out on a high note.

“Homecoming” manages to achieve a very nice balance of its plots, both to this specific episode and paying off the season-long Red Lantern threat. It has solid action, some decent humor, and seems to indicate, at least I hope, that the next season may be a little more Earth-bound (though I doubt it).

I’d actually go so far as to say that it is likely the best episode the series has released. Read more »

“All this life is pain.”

I’m going to try and let go of the complaint about the time skip as much as I can. It’s here to stay, and we all know it’s short-circuiting the show’s character development, so hammering the show on this front is just going to get tiring. Unless a particularly egregious exploitation of the time skip occurs (which I don’t think is likely to happen since “Salvage” answers most of the lingering character questions), I’m not likely to mention it again.

 That being said, the time skip’s implementation here isn’t as bad as has been in previous instances (Aqualad, the M’gann and Conner break-up), and I’m generally okay with the results it (well, not ALL of it, but that’s for after the jump). My bigger issue is that we’re just repeating a lot of what happened last season in whatever this new plan is. Read more »

“I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’ if we get out of here.”

As predicted, the Maelstrom and Lighthouse provided with some attractive looking set-pieces in a perfectly acceptable action-heavy episode (with some pleasant cutaways to Saint Walker beginning his journey). But as we close in on the end of the first season (the next episode is the season finale), I think I’m about done writing about Green Lantern: The Animated Series.

I know I should probably be announcing that next week (and the finale will be covered, of course), but since this episode is pretty much what the show does well at this point (slick looking action sequences with solid Razer one-liners), I don’t see much reason to hold back on that. I’ll likely continue to watch the show beyond the first season finale, but not sure it’ll be back on the blog unless there’s a particularly compelling (negatively or positively) episode. Read more »

“You can’t be afraid to mix it up sometimes.”

Damn you, Daniel Dae Kim! You turned out to be Gavin Park and not Jin Kwon!

Anyway, apart from my feelings of voice casting betrayal, “The Aftermath” offers a bit of place setting for the remainder of the season after Amon’s big showcase at the pro-bending final. But it kind of zips by, too. Perhaps it was just my mood, but I felt like the episode was a little disjointed between the “Sato-mobile racing!” and “Law & Order: Republic City.” The two halves didn’t quite fit for me, and I generally preferred the second half to the lighter first half (though Bolin and Pabu still manage to slay me).

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Or how Community will be your new Sugar Ray

Oh noooooooooooo!

I promise this won’t be another blog post about the rise and fall of Dan Harmon or one that bemoans the death of greatness at the hands of an industry that can’t appreciate talent or one that demands Dan Harmon be installed as supreme leader of Must-See TV or I WILL BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND. We here at Monsters of Television tend to have a more sober approach to television scandals and news (sometimes to our own Google-Analytical demise, see the low statistics for our thoughts on Girls) and the same will be said for a look at the changing of the guard on one of our favorite shows. I won’t speak for Noel (I’m sure he’ll have his own addendum or companion piece [dissenting opinion?] if this doesn’t line up precisely with his thoughts) but here’s my take on everything, based on the last twenty-four hours of the Twitter news cycle.

It’ll be fine. It won’t be the same. But it’ll be — fine.

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Toonami was a programming block on Cartoon Network the started in 1997. Airing in the afternoons, no doubt modeled after (and to compete with) The Disney Afternoon block, the block was retooled in July of 1999 and began airing as the Toonami Midnight Run on Saturday nights starting at midnight. From there on, it was 6 hours of anime and the block’s host T.O.M., a 3D CGI robot voiced by Steve Blum (known for his work as Spike in the dub for Cowboy Bebop).

Really? "Bitches"? Sigh.

The Midnight Run programming block was dropped after a little less than a year (around March 2000 or so) and was retool with multiple shows airing during its block during the afternoons and then Saturday evenings, mostly anime but some American animation as well before finally being shut down in 2008.

The Midnight Run block was arguably the most popular iteration of Toonami. It laid the groundwork for its ancestor, the wildly successful Adult Swim, with its use of bumps and interstitials between commercials and the shows, and speaking to the audience though those (Adult Swim would, of course, engage in a more minimalist approach). A case could be made for Toonami popularizing anime in the United States (I wouldn’t argue it was the only thing, but probably a contributing factor), which in turn was assisted by Adult Swim’s early emphasis on anime, before they started producing their own program.

On April 1 of this year, Adult Swim was suddenly reprogrammed and it was Toonami Midnight Run again. (You can see all the bumps and interstitials here). And then on May 16, the return of Toonami was announced for May 26.

But why in the world is it even coming back? Read more »

“This is a lock of my hair.”
[with cautious affection] “Creepy.”

So I thought this entry was going to waaaaaaaay too long, but it’s in fact going to be relatively short. This isn’t because the episode are bad — they aren’t — but that there’s nothing particular bonkers about them (well, “Digital Estate Planning” is bonkers, but I’ll talk about it). They’re just solid, well-balanced episodes of Community, episodes that demonstrate what this show does well: lots of laughs, risk-taking, and generally satisfactory character moments.

I’m going to take just a moment to address “Digital Estate Planning” on its own, and then the other two episodes work well enough as a unit.

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