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Andor Season 1 Finale (Disney+): Andor manages to completely stick the landing with an episode that shows the Galactic Civil War equivalent of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The speech by Maarva from beyond the grave to kick everything off is some of Star Wars at its best and the chaos of the battle is so well shot that it feels dangerous for everyone involved. The only criticism is that the way that Mon Mothma’s story is wrapped up feels like its entirely to set up what’s going to happen in the next season and hopefully it does not go as obvious as it seems it will. This season is strengthened by the lack of overt ties to the rest of the Star Wars universe, however if The Mandalorian is any indication, one should probably expect a certain Twi’lek and the crew of her ship to show up next year. This show manages to wrap up a lackluster year for Star Wars with what is hands down the best show that they have done in live action.
The Santa Clauses Episode 3 (Disney+): This show is six episodes long. Each episode is a half hour. Do they honestly expect viewers to think there wasn’t an hour of footage that could have been cut from this fiasco to make it fit theatrically? Why are the effects so bad? In fact, why are the effects notably worse than the effects from The Santa Clause 2
in 2002 or The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause in 2006? Why is Peyton Manning being given an extended cameo that just gets less funny the longer it goes on? Nothing about this show works on any level, especially considering that Simon obviously has ulterior motives for taking the job but no one realizes it.
Titans Season 4 Episode 5 (HBOMax): This is an excellent opportunity to talk about power scaling in superhero media. Power scaling is when the characters of the show should have abilities that are somewhat complementary to each other, namely that people should be all around the same area so they can all have something to do in a narrative arc. The side characters in The Flash all are designed to be around the same level as Barry and the villains are scaled up where everyone can have some role in finishing an arc. Titans is kind of a textbook example of what not to do in this case where the powers are so all over the place that characters like Superboy, Raven, or Starfire have to be the baseline leaving characters like Nightwing on the back burner. If one is going to make an ensemble superhero show and they are going to scale the powers so weirdly and move towards the occult, at least come up with something to keep everyone involved. At least the show seems to be moving towards the end of its arc by giving Mother Mayhem what she wants but it’s just boring along the way.
Nope (Peacock): Jordan Peele’s latest movie is still as scary as the previous entries, however it is closer to 1950s science fiction movies than it is to a modern horror movie. It has some of the best shot night exterior shots of any movie and the characters are all fun to spend time with. While one of the subplots may not entwine as nicely as it should have, the movie works well enough where it is worth a watch. For a full review, click here.
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Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 1 (Disney+): With season two coming in a little over a month, it is a great time to catch up with the first season of The Bad Batch. Spinning-off from The Clone Wars, specifically a multi-episode arc in the final season, this series follows a team of clones who were all specifically designed to be high-end commandos who do not have their programming kick in during Order 66. The show does an excellent job of showcasing the transition from the Republic to the Empire in the immediate aftermath of Revenge of the Sith, showcasing what happened to the Confederate systems in revolt after Anakin killed all the Separatist leaders on Mustafar, and explains why the Empire decides to move from a clone army to an army of conscripts. It is an excellent expansion of what has happened in Andor this season in this way.
