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Titans Season 4 Episode 4 (HBOMax): There is an eerie similarity between the fourth season of Titans and the fourth season of Arrow. Season four of Arrow was by far the worst of the show’s eight year run and delved into a more occult/magic villain. Titans is doing something similar and has somewhat skidded in quality. It’s not as bad as season four, or even the back half of season three of Arrow, however it is harder to keep interest in the story since it seems to be meandering without properly defining the threat.
Andor Episode 11 (Disney+): This episode feels like simultaneously a moment to take a breath before the finale and a lot of filling in the blanks to set up where the finale is going. Despite going into the episode without knowing where the finale would end up, it seems pretty clear that we are about to see (to paraphrase Poe Dameron from the sequel trilogy) the spark that’s going to light the fire of the rebellion in a conflict on Ferrix. It’s smart that this show is going the route where Cassian does not know a trap is waiting for him anyway on Ferrix when he arrives because nothing is more cliché than a hero walking into a trap, not caring about the repercussions, especially when it would be incredibly out of character for him to do so.
Smile (Paramount+): The second highest grossing horror movie of the year makes its way to streaming this week. It is a serviceable movie that is similar to other movies like It Follows or The Ring about a curse that must be passed to another person before it kills you, however it does not do anything new or unique to make it stand out from other films like it.
Where the Crawdads Sing (Netflix): Where The Crawdads Sing is not a great movie. There is non-sequential storytelling that makes the movie feel disjointed, it doesn’t feel like the stakes are real, and the end of the movie does not match with the rest of the plot. For a full review, click here.
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Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1 Episodes 17-21 (Netflix): As has been done in the past, this last section is going to be used this week to look back on the work of someone who passed this week. Jason David Frank who played Tommy Oliver died this past weekend at the age of 49 and leaves behind a massive body of work, however most audiences are familiar with him through his work on Power Rangers. Episodes 17-21 of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, a five-part mini-arc called “Green With Evil” served as the initial introduction of Tommy as the Green Ranger where he started out as an agent of the antagonistic Rita Repulsa before eventually turning on her and joining the team in an arc designed to teach kids that they can move past what they’ve done and they can always get a new start, even if they’ve done something wrong. From there he would become a franchise mainstay and fan favorite, appearing in Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, the original Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Movie, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, Power Rangers Dino Thunder in the early 2000s, and appeared in a guest capacity in Power Rangers: Super Megaforce, Power Rangers: Wild Force, Power Rangers: Super Ninja Steel and the 2017 Power Rangers movie.
