Weekly Streaming Recap: Week of September 2nd, 2022

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 3 (Disney+): This episode feels like what the show should have been from the beginning and the first two episodes feel like a lot of unnecessary set-up in retrospect. The short runtimes of the episodes are definitely harming overall enjoyment of the show because additional time to flesh out both the a-plot and the b-plot of the episode would have made the show funnier. The other issue is, the idea of the District Attorney that Jenn worked with in the first two episodes being catfished by a light-elf posing as Megan Thee Stallion is a great idea for a subplot, however the cathartic release that Jenn has on the stand testifying “on his behalf” feels like something that one would typically see later in a show’s run and not in the third episode, specifically because it feels like the majority of his misbehavior is then being exposited to the viewer, rather than laying bare his nonsense in the open.

House of the Dragon Episode 3 (HBOMax): It is weird that a time jump is necessary after two episodes and could be indicative of larger problems with the show going forward but, as those problems arise, that will be further addressed if needed later. The idea of the time-jump isn’t inherently bad but the fact that it jumps to something that then requires additional information to be explained after spending two hours in a world already established does not make a ton of sense. At least now there is a little more of the wider world which will service the story better and Matt Smith’s Daemon is continuing to be one of the better characters on the show.

The Rings of Power Episodes 1 and 2 (Amazon Prime): There are a lot of complaints regarding discontinuity between this show and some of the broader works of Tolkien like The Silmarillion. To be clear, the show netted 25 million viewers in its opening weekend and The Silmarillion
has sold over one million copies so, even if one takes into consideration the use of libraries or reading friends copies, it is unlikely that this incredibly vocal contingent crowing about discontinuities are all people who read the ancillary materials and know specifically what went wrong and where.

That said, the show is not terrible as a vocal subset of the fanbase has been claiming. Rings of Power is set in the distant past of Middle Earth and follows Galadriel and Elrond as they try to stop the rising tide of evil in the form of Sauron. The show is perfectly ok over the first two episodes and that’s fine. It doesn’t have to be the greatest show ever and it is not as abysmally terrible as the number of negative reviews on Google would imply. At the end of the day, there is a bit of a tonal disconnect between the role that Amazon Studios wants the show to fill within the network (their high-fantasy Game of Thrones-like show that would drive ratings) and what Lord of the Rings inherently is. Lord of the Rings has a relatively simple black-and-white morality that they are trying to push a level of political intrigue and family in-fighting into a world that it does not mesh into properly.

Harley Quinn Episode 8 (HBOMax): Going back to the tried-and-true formula of going into someone’s memory to get key information, this episode brings back Doctor Psycho (now hosting a Frasier-like podcast) to send Harley, King Shark, Poison Ivy, and Clayface into Bruce Wayne’s memories. The flip of the script where Bruce Wayne is now a supervillain-type character is a great idea and all the homages to Batman: The Animated Series land very well.

Rick and Morty Season 6 Premiere (Adult Swim app): Because of how streaming makes everything simultaneously more convenient and infinitely less convenient, to watch Rick and Morty, one would have to download the Adult Swim app and watch it there. Why it’s not on HBOMax or Hulu probably has something to do with rights but whatever, this is the way things are now. It’s the same as the CW being on the CW app rather than on Hulu or HBOMax. Anyway, this season gets off to a quick start and has more of a sense of a season long arc than the previous season with an episode that blends comedy and heartfelt moments as Rick, Morty, and Jerry are sent off to their original universes and have to make their way back home. New episodes premiere on Sundays at 11 PM.