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Ahsoka Episode 4 (Disney+): Another week, another seemingly obligatory lore dump because this show is like a 300-level undergraduate class with the amount of required reading to understand what is going on. In Star Wars: Rebels (spoilers for that show if one is in the process of catching up), this broad concept was introduced called the World Between Worlds which is a physical space within the force where all of space and time happens at the same time. In the episode of Rebels it debuted, this was illustrated by having voices from the various movies that happened before and after (including voice cameos from Rey and Kylo Ren) and was used so Ezra could save Ahsoka from death during a fight against Darth Vader. To be clear, it’s not time travel in a conventional sense, it is time travel in a similar method to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban where someone can’t change the past but if someone travels through time, their impact would be felt during the normal series of events. That said, the Anakin who appears could be anything from a Force ghost akin to those seen throughout the movies so far, he could be the physical Anakin from around Revenge of the Sith (based on his outfit), or it could be a manifestation of the god from Mortis who is coming to mess with Ahsoka (which will be addressed next week if that’s the direction this goes, otherwise it’s irrelevant).
Fionna and Cake Episodes 3 and 4 (Max): The idea of the universe that Fionna and Cake live in being trapped in the Ice King’s head that then went back to being mundane and having the magic removed after the events of the finale of Adventure Time is fairly interesting and expands the existing lore into new and interesting directions. One of the great strengths of this show is how it is growing into new places and expanding in new directions while not retconning anything in any major way. Even ideas like the waves of time emanating from Prismo’s cube at the center of the multiverse were set up back in the finale of season four of the original show almost a decade ago. For a very simple explanation of how the multiverse in this show works, watch the finale of season four (The Lich) and the premiere of season five (two episodes, Finn the Human/Jake the Dog)
Harley Quinn Season 4 Episode 9 (Max): One of the real strengths of this show over the course of it’s run has been the Harley/Joker dynamic and just how much of an abusive and obsessive partner Joker is in that relationship. This latest episode gets to bring that back to the forefront and allows for the real cruelty of Joker to come to the front. The reveal of Harley being confirmed to be the killer of Nightwing is not exactly the biggest reveal, but the emotion of that really hits home when compounded with everything else in the episode.
Wheel of Time Season 2 Episode 4 (Amazon Prime): Ending shows in the middle of an ongoing season on a “will a main character die?” cliffhanger is lazy and just kind of witless. It kills any sort of tension from episode to episode because obviously they’re not killing off a protagonist midway through a season and they’re not doing it to cap off an episode going into the next week. All it does is communicate to the viewer what the next episode will be about, which is dealing with the aftermath of a mortal injury.
This Week In Theaters:
A Haunting In Venice: The only major release this week is Kenneth Branagh’s latest Agatha Christie adaptation with A Haunting in Venice. These movies have been serviceable at best with massive casts, this time starring Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, and Michelle Yeoh alongside Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot and his ridiculous mustache.
Last Week At The Box Office:
The Nun 2: $32.6 Million
The Equalizer 3: $12.1 Million
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3: $10.0 Million
Jawan: $6.2 Million
Barbie: $5.9 Million
Programming Notes:
Yet another frivolous marketing decision has come out of Warner Brothers with time running out until Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is released, a new trailer (the first trailer) is coming out on Thursday. They had a few great opportunities to release this trailer including the week Meg 2: The Trench came out, the week Blue Beetle came out, the week The Flash came out, or even last week before The Nun 2 came out but they’re waiting until the last possible second to market this movie for whatever reason. Either way, the trailer is coming Thursday and the amount of notice they are giving indicates that they are hoping that someone else releases a new trailer that same day to cover up any impending bad press.
