Weekly Streaming Recap: Week of September 30th, 2022

She-Hulk: Attorney At Law Episode 7 (Disney+): For the first time during the run of this show, there is an issue from a storytelling perspective. The episode itself is great, and Jenn spending a lot of time with Abomination in his retreat is hilarious, however at the same time having this episode back-to-back with the wedding episode last week feels kind of off. The wedding episode would have been better off being much earlier in the season when the show introduces Jenn’s insecurities that come with the She-Hulk alter ego conflicting with both dating and her family life. It would also spread out the Titania aspects a little more cleanly and also provide for a little additional time for Josh to actually develop so the emotional impact of his actions in the episode hit a little harder.

Rings of Power Episode 6 (Amazon Prime): The problem with this episode is that it very clearly feels like the calm before the storm that will be the final two episodes. It is unique that in this very black-and-white view of good and evil that Middle Earth has, there is the moment of the inspirational speech that is traditionally reserved for what’s going on with the heroes instead of the villains. Is it a stronger episode than episode five, which is a good move going into the final two episodes. That said, viewers should keep in mind this show was picked up to series by Amazon with a multiple-season order so they should be aware of the fact that the season may not end as cleanly as one would anticipate.

House of the Dragon Episode 7 (HBOMax): It’s worth noting that for a show (and its predecessor) that regularly features dismemberment, some of the most uncomfortable gore sequences happen in this episode between the Targaryen wedding customs and other views of the handling of wounds and things of that nature. These sequences can even rival some of the scenes from Crimes of the Future from earlier this year, just in terms of the severe discomfort they cause. That said, the show has to stop introducing characters just to kill them off. This prevents the viewer from forming an emotional attachment, while also taking away the ability for them to do so in the future because they’ll assume they have a short shelf life.

Andor Episode 4 (Disney+): The look at the politics on Coruscant during the age of the Empire is definitely something different and interesting for the show, going down to the look and feel of what places viewers already know from the prequels. Mon Mothma has very quickly become an MVP of the show, with her plots taking over as the most interesting aspects. It is also worth noting that a number of characters have appeared on the Imperial side of things (or at minimum the antagonistic side) that are spending a lot of time interpreting and looking for strange patterns. Considering this show takes place five years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and roughly around the same time as the first few seasons of Star Wars Rebels, it is very possible that Grand Admiral Thrawn shows up because there still has not been a clear overriding face to the Empire to be the antagonistic force. There hasn’t been a Darth Vader or Commander Krennic or someone to throw all the force around stopping, and Thrawn and the crew of the Chimaera have not yet been dispatched to the Lothal System to deal with Ezra Bridger, Hera Syndulla, and the rest of the cast of Rebels yet and it is also after dealing with an Imperial double agent who was syphoning off materials from the Death Star in Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn: Treason. Side note: nice shoutout to Star Wars: The Force Unleashed with Galen Marek’s Sith Stalker armor appearing in this episode.

You May Have Missed:

Steam Next Fest (Steam): This week marks yet another Steam Next Fest event, running from October 3rd through October 10th. For those who don’t know, Steam Next Fest is an event held by PC games distributor Valve across the Steam platform to showcase the upcoming games that independent developers have coming. A ton of new and upcoming games will have developer livestreams to show off what’s coming, as well as demos players can install and try out. Of note, included is Hello Neighbor 2, a sequel to 2017’s stealth horror hit game Hello Neighbor from developer tinyBuild.

On a final note: Marvel’s Werewolf by Night will be debuting on Friday, October 7th on Disney+ and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law will have it’s eighth episode as scheduled on Thursday, October 6th. Also debuting this week is Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler
this Friday on HBOMax with the first three episodes.