Weekly Streaming Recap: Week of July 15th, 2022

Ms. Marvel Season Finale (Disney+): A little context is needed to understand the change that has happened to Ms. Marvel’s origin between this show and the comic. In the mid-2010s, Marvel was not exactly in the mutant, Fantastic Four, or Spider-adjacent character business because Marvel Studios did not have the cinematic rights to these characters. The X-Men and Fantastic Four were at Fox and Spider-Man and his pantheon of characters were licensed off to Sony. Since this time, Disney has acquired Fox, thus regaining those characters, and entered into a coproduction deal with Sony to make Spider-Man movies. During the era where these deals were not made, Marvel Comics put characters that were not licensed to Marvel Studios on the back burner, resulting in events like The Death of Wolverine, Secret Wars 2,
and Civil War 2. One other side effect is that the Inhumans got a major push because, despite Marvel Studios owning the rights, there was not a particularly robust fanbase for those characters.

This is all important because the finale of Ms. Marvel
changes her origin to make her not an Inhuman but instead a mutant. There has been a considerable outcry among “fans” who were critical of her creation, critical of the fact that she’s Muslim and that is an important part of her character (they must be unfamiliar with Daredevil as a character considering his entire character is “Catholic”), critical of her being an Inhuman, critical of her powers being too similar to Mr. Fantastic in the comics, critical of her powers being changed for the show, and now are critical about the fact that she is a Mutant, not an Inhuman. Two points on this, one, this is a subset of a fanbase that will never be appeased so it would be best to just ignore them, and two Ms. Marvel and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are, as John Boyega of the Sequel Trilogy of Star Wars put it, not a documentary. Changes from the source are fine and it will be interesting to see how Kamala meshes with the impending X-Men as well as the cosmic heroes she is going to be teaming up with in The Marvels next July. Also, on a final note, G. Willow Wilson who created Kamala Khan, said the character was intended to be a Mutant from her inception.

All that said, the finale is great even if the turn that Kamala’s parents make from being unwilling to let her go to AvengersCon earlier this season to allowing her to costume up and be a masked superhero in Jersey City, feels a little rushed, even if her mom has her brother tag along as a chaperone.

The Anarchists Episode 2 (HBOMax): Like most ideologies as they grow, the form of Anarchism that took root in Acapulco had a schism of sorts in this episode. Anarchism in the form it is shown, loved the idea of cryptocurrency such as bitcoin for its ability to potentially destabilize the existing power structure (in the documentary they do use a lot of pretty overt antisemitic coding in explaining this so viewers should just be aware of that). At the same time, cryptocurrency was starting to take the world by storm and the tech industry took advantage of the fact that Anarchists were using it widely to push their own legitimacy. This perceived coup was what caused a split in the Anarchists who were living there into two separate conferences.

Edge of the Earth Episode 1 (HBOMax): This documentary series follows action sports athletes who strive to try the hardest courses on the planet in their field. In the first episode, skiers go to one of the most dangerous mountains on the planet to ski down it. The beautiful landscape shots of almost alien parts of the planet make it worth a view to begin with but the human-interest stories at the core of the show make it must-see television. If someone was or is a fan of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryan Gumbel, this is a show they should definitely check out.

The Rehearsal Episode 1 (HBOMax): Viewers may be familiar with Nathan Fielder’s prior work Nathan For You after one episode made national headlines when he rebranded a coffee shop as “Dumb Starbucks” in an effort to get more customers for said coffee shop. His new show takes the same brand of cringe-based comedy as he comedically debases himself for a laugh but puts it into a totally new paradigm. In The Rehearsal, Fielder helps someone deal with an issue in their life by setting up an exact recreation of what will happen with a borderline insane level of fidelity so the person with the issue can see every possible outcome and prepare for every eventuality. It is a surreally hilarious comedy and is worth a watch.

The Future Of… (Netflix): Futurism is something that is always worth a look at. While The Future Of… may not take into consideration the governmental or business or social challenges that will undoubtedly plague a lot of the innovations they lay out, but it is nice to view a vision of the future that is not apocalyptic. The ideas explained in the show do have basis in reality and, because the show is mostly family friendly, could be an important tool to help inspire the next generation of innovators (or science fiction writers). The show covers a little of everything in twenty-minute bites like health, interactions with dogs, meat, construction and urban layout, and even online dating.