Monsters of Television

“I believe I have outgrown the name Aqualad. And anything resembling regret.”

Pardon me while I try not to get my hopes up too much.

Probably for the first time since “Usual Suspects” did I really enjoy and legitimately like an episode of Young Justice. I mean, sure, there’s the Mal-Karen thing in Ivy Town, but it was just more of a narrative contrivance that didn’t do much to undermine the otherwise strong episode that legitimately raises the stakes of the invasion storyline (even though I still think it’s pretty of muddled as a whole). Read more »

“What is it you really want? Revenge, or satisfaction?”

Young Justice is back. Yaaaay?

I kid. Sort of. I actually rather enjoyed “Satisfaction” (some issues aside). At this point in the season, and thanks in large part to the hiatus, I’ve managed to internalize and (somewhat) accept the time skip and the myriad of problems it ended up creating for the series. Read more »

“There’s no static on a psychic link!”

Sorry if you were hankering for a post about last week’s Flash-tacular episode. Between Impulse (my exposure is limited to last week’s episode and the current Teen Titans comic, and in both cases I don’t really like Bart) and time travel (an unnecessary attempt to raise the stakes for characters we barely know/haven’t developed a relationship with) I didn’t have much to say about the episode that I didn’t just say in a few words.

“Depths” on the other hand does offer something to talk about, whether we like it or not, and perhaps serves as a minor corrective to the issue of not knowing/haven’t developed a relationship phrase I used above (though I’m sure that a nuclear apocalypse isn’t going to happen, so it’s still unnecessary stake raising), though I’m not sure how much I even care now. Read more »

“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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“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 »

“A little less fangirl, a little more Wonder Girl.”

So here’s the thing. I knew about some of the  big reveal, which I’ll discuss after the jump (as it’s really the only big thing worth discussing out of this episode), before this episode even aired. One of the downsides of ancillary media (or, you know, the creator of the show telling us about it on his Web site) is that you can get a little spoiled. And that’s fine, it comes with the territory.

But along the lines of M’gann’s turn to gray side of the Force (as it were) and the break-up with Conner, “Alienated” uses the time skip to short circuit what would’ve been interesting and engaging storytelling and this time uses it for shock and wow factor, that leans too heavily on the ‘tell’ instead of the ‘show.’

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“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. Read more »

“Soft gig, huh?”

I was out of town this weekend, so I missed all my Saturday morning shows. I was fully content, when I arrived home very tired after 6ish hours in a car to get around to these shows after I watched and wrote about The Good Wife finale (which I missed as well). But I received a Twitter DM from someone else who watches Young Justice with the following: “And with one episode, any excitement and interest I had in Young Justice evaporated completely…” (he followed up with “Furious” today).

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I am no longer interested (I am less excited) in Young Justice; I am interested in so far as they explain some things, but “Happy New Year” is a decidedly frustrating episode, and I can’t help but feel that it is in part motivated by a desire to sell some new toys. Read more »

“Cold-hard science, and a little misdirection, and now you champions of stagnation have become our agents of change.”

I’m letting the first season finale of Young Justice (don’t worry, the season 2 premiere is next week, in a prime example of the silly programming practices that mark kids program scheduling) off the hook a bit since the episode that preceded it have been good. This episode, on the other hand, is kind of a lacking, and feels more like an epilogue than a finale to the season.

And it’s not only the kind of “Meh” approach to the season’s previous events that the episode attempts to conclude, but that that the major throwdown between heroes and their sidekicks isn’t as exciting as it may have been (though, understandably so from a narrative standpoint since the team is outnumbered and outgunned (BUT THEY’VE ALSO TAKEN DOWN AMAZO).

Oh, and there’s more Roy silliness. Read more »

“I am shrubbery, I am not grass. What am I?”
“I am bush.”

Well damn.

Perhaps its the generally low expectations I’ve had of the show, but “Usual Suspects” really snuck up on me and gave me a nice wallop of an episode. It wasn’t only the narrative fake-out they did for the final act (which was really well-executed) or even the mole reveal (which I do have problems with, but at least that plot is over), but just the general brisk confidence of the episode, even as it introduced Rocket to the team (the show often stumbles when introducing a new team member).

For once I’m quite optimistic about the show’s future. Read more »