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Andor Episode 9 (Disney+): This week’s episode of Andor may very well be the best hour of television this year, a claim not made lightly since it has only been a few months since “The Sound of Her Wings” from The Sandman on Netflix. Cassian is still in prison in this episode and is working out an escape plan. He continually tries to get Kino Loy (Andy Serkis) to give the information that he knows about the guards in the facility but never has any success since Kino only has a little bit of time left on his sentence and feels the Empire is treating him well. Over the course of the episode, and keep in mind it’s an hour and the time is split with a subplot about Mon Mothma trying to gain support in the Senate for reigning in the Empire’s power, Kino slowly comes to terms with the fact that he is probably never getting out of the prison and, without going too deeply into spoilers, provides Andor with the information he needs. This is the episode that someone should watch if they are on the fence about watching this show because it perfectly sums up what makes this show unique from the rest of the Star Wars universe, specifically that which is offered on Disney+.
The Peripheral Episodes 1-4 (Amazon Prime): The Peripheral gets off to a really slow start. Not in terms of action or immersing the viewer in the world, in terms of actually kicking the story into gear and moving into what the show will be over the course of its run. The twist over what the “virtual world” actually is takes too long to be revealed and there is no indication for the viewer before that point that it is meant to be anything but a video game world, so it does not have the proper impact that it should and just feels like a late reveal that should have come out either much earlier or much later as a twist that changes Flynne’s view of the world. This misplay just alters the pacing in an awkward way and throws off the whole show from there on.
Titans Season 4 Episodes 1 and 2 (HBOMax): If one is unfamiliar with the world of Titans, the recap of the show is very helpful. The Earth that Titans takes place on (Earth-9 in the post-crisis Arrowverse) has a world very deeply populated by various DC heroes and villains including Batman and Superman. Season four begins with Lex Luthor wanting to meet with Connor Kent/Superboy because he was created with a mixture of Kal-El and Lex’s DNA. The best praise the show can earn is that Titus Welliver’s Lex Luthor follows on Jon Cryer’s Lex Luthor from Supergirl
as the most comics-accurate portrayal of the character’s motivations on screen. Titans is leaning more into the occult this season with characters like Brother Blood and Mother Mayhem taking centerstage in what is sure to be a deep exploration of the weirder side of DC’s mythos.
Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler Episode 7 (HBOMax): It’s cool that the show is moving this slowly and answering no questions as it moves into the home stretch of episodes. It just feels like it is meandering towards the finale without any real sense of urgency making the show just drag at this point.
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Black Panther (Disney+): With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opening this Friday, it is worth looking back at the first solo movie for the character. Some of the effects don’t hold up as well as they should have and the plot is a little complex, however strong performances from the late Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan make the movie an enjoyable viewing experience. It is certainly an interesting approach to tell the origin story of T’Challa in this way so it doesn’t feel like a rethread of an origin story. At the end of the day, Chadwick Boseman’s performance defined the character but hopefully his passing is not the end of the character’s journey, though how they handle it in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will define that going forward.
