#s1 and 2 are extremely good. like it's literally leverage

[augustheart]

i'm sorry but if you didn't like leverage redemption prior to season three that is a skill issue on your part. go rewatch the belly of the beast job and think about what you've done

[unforth]

Fandoms I'll write for (in vaguely alphabetical order):

Fandoms in Bold are those I'm currently most interested in/active in/invested in/wanting to write.

2ha (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun)

Babylon 5

Check Please

Disney (almost any of movies, including Pixar; I'm familiar with but won't write for most Disney Jr titles, too)

Doctor Who (9th and 10th Doctor specifically)

DMBJ (books 1 - 6, UN, TLTR)

The Elenium (book series by David Eddings)

Fake

Final Fantasy 7, 9, 10, or 12 (esp. 12)

Firefly

Fushigi Yuugi

Golden Stage

Guardian (show or book)

Gundam W

Hercules

Horatio Hornblower (BBC 90s show version)

Jane Austen (all except Northanger Abbey)

Leverage

Love Nikki

MCU (movies only, have seen most of them; Deadpool also okay, and non-MCU Spiderman; haven't seen Venom)

Miraculous Ladybug (but I've only seen 2.5 seasons)

The Muppets (esp. the original show and movies)

MXTX Fandoms (MDZS, TGCF, SVSSS)

Psych

Rurouni Kenshin

Sherlock Holmes (books or Jeremy Brett version)

Slayers

Star Trek (ToS, TNG or DS9)

Star Wars (movies only, excluding Solo)

Supernatural

Those Years in Quest of Honor Mine

Thousand Autumns

Tokyo Babylon

Voltron

Wheel of Time (I've read through...11? and seen part of s1)

The Witcher (I've only seen s1)

Word of Honor (including Qiye)

Xanth (mostly Bink generation)

Xena

Yuri on Ice

Note 1: I am NO LONGER WRITING HARRY POTTER FIC I'm sorry I tried to separate the fandom from the author but she's just being so awful that I can't in good conscience be involved in anything related.

Note 2: I haven't been "actively" in a lot of these fandoms for many years, and so I can't promise to remember every canon character or event, but I'm always willing to try, especially if it's only for a ficlet.

Otherwise, if it's not on the list, you can still always try. I'm old. I've been a fan of a lot of things over the years.

I am a multishipper and tend to be open to anything except incest and villain x hero (ie Samifer in SPN, Xuexiao in MDZS) - no judgement, you do you, I'm a pro-shipper, I just don't want to write that stuff. But, if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of what I will and won't write for each, I tried to make a semi-exhaustive list. (read more)

I'll write most ships, and honestly, you can always try me on anything - you won't offend me, I just may opt not to write it. Fandoms are in vaguely alphabetical order.

A few general notes:

I will virtually never write incest (as in literal blood relatives - adoption, raised together, known each other since childhood, none of that is incest) EXCEPT for twincest (idk brains are weird I can brain it for twins, I think because somethingsomething power dynamics)

I don't write RPS except for Yizhan.

Generally, I don't like shipping villains, especially villains x heroes, and especially if the villain committed extreme violence and/or sexual violence and/or massive mental manipulation against the hero in question. (I know that their relationship can be super different in AUs or if events diverge I'm just not personally comfortable with it anyway. See again: brains are weird).

I usually avoid intergenerational shipping (for example, a parent and their kid's friend) because, again, somethingsomething power dynamics.

I'll write underage, but again, I sometimes have power dynamic concerns, and I tend to prefer not to write CANON underage (like, I'll age up or age down characters, but if they're underage in canon I'm often less comfortable with it.)

Other than that - I'll try almost anything. This is NOT a list of what I ship, but instead a list of what I don't ship for any given fandom:

* 2ha: fuck Shi Mei. Not literally of course, but I really ain’t out here shipping Shi Mei with literally fucking anyone. Other than that I think I’m mostly game? Though I don’t remember some of the side characters that well, there were just too many names in that one big reveal about Xue what’s-his-name and Luo something-or-other.

* Check Please: I basically only write Zimbits. I’d try other things, especially with Shitty, but no Kent Parson at all please.

* DMBJ: I haven’t seen Mystic 9 yet so I don’t know those characters and can’t write for them yet; stick to folks in UN and TLTR and I’m probably good for most stuff? Except Wu Sanxing, and the villains, big ol’ nope. I'm also part-way through Sha Hai, and I can write those characters (not Wang Can, haven't met him yet) but again I'd rather avoid intergenerational ships.

* Guardian: I see Chuguo more familial/brotherly, and I haven’t really thought about other ships but idk try me? It’s fun to experiment.

* Leverage: anyone in the team x anyone else in the team, I’m game.

* MCU: No HTP, and I'd really rather avoid most of the villains, but I'm open to basically any hero x any hero. I do ship Thorki.

* MDZS: no Xuexiao or really any Xue Yang ships (though I think I’d be okay with Xueyu). No Lancest, Niecest, Wencest, or Jiangcest. I’m a little reluctant on most Jin Guangyao ships too tho I’ll do 3zun and variations there on. As I mentioned, intergenerational stuff often makes me uncomfortable so tend to avoid older folks x juniors but I’ll ship the juniors together and depending on the ship I’d probably be willing to try?

* SPN: no Wincest or Samifer or Lucifer x anyone. I tend not to ship villains in general. I prefer a ship with either Dean or Cas or both but I’m open to Sam ships too.

* Star Trek: No Gul Dukat or Kai Winn. They should suffer alone. No Voyager or later series, I just haven’t seen them so I don’t know the characters. Other than that...idk try me? I haven't written much shippy stuff for Star Trek so I don't have many strong opinions yet.

* Star Wars: mostly I ship JediStormPilotRose and permutations there of but idk I’d try other just about anything other than villains and LukeLeia. I am not familiar with Clone Wars or the Mandolarian and have only seen the movies (not Solo).

* SVSSS: other than family/relatives (like Tiankang jun x Luo Binghe) I can’t really think of any no’s? Im especially a proponent of Shen Qingqiu/Yuan harem rights. I’d rather not write Shen Jiu or Original Luo Binghe but…eh, I’m open.

* TGCF: …I kinda don’t get Qiurong but I’d be willing to try? But otherwise I think I’m good. I’d even be willing to do Bai Wuxiang ships as long as it’s understood it’s gonna be dark as fuck. No Xianle cousins as a ship. I think I’d struggle with Qi Rong in general but I’d give it a go. No Shicest.

* Thousand Autumns: until I reread and get a better sense of the side characters I’m pretty Yanshen only.

* Voltron: I don't ship Lance with anyone, mostly because his fandom led me to hate him. I also don't really get Lotor ships. I'm mostly interested in Keith, Allura, and Shiro.

* Word of Honor: note I haven’t read TYK yet, but I’m open to virtually anything I guess? I’d prefer no Zhang Chengling x older folks. I favor Caoxiang, Wenzhou and Wenzhouyi. I've also read Qiye; I can't really think of any solid nos for that except maybe Helian Pei, Helian Qi, and/or Helian Zhou x like...anyone. Fuck those guys in no fun ways.

* Yuri in Ice: I don’t really like Otayuri, Yuri’s just too young for me to personally be comfortable shipping him. But the older folks I’m pretty open to multishipping them.

(if you're wondering about ship restrictions for fandoms not listed here just drop me an ask; I just thought these were the ones people were most likely to care about/I was most interested in writing in general).

[july-19th-club]

do i actually particularly value your opinion on media or do we just have the same birthday? i guess we'll never know! but you steered me well on soc so: i tried watching the first episode of leverage but i could not get into it because 1. gender and 2. it seemed like it was being silly when it should have been serious and serious when it should have been silly. do you have takes on this? is there a later episode i should have tried for my first go? whats the recipe for enjoying leverage

honestly unless you’re REALLY into the specific genre of ‘underproduced corporate thrillers from the early-mid aughts’ then you’re *not* gonna enjoy the leverage premier enough to be interested in the rest of the show, but you, zezander, are in luck because this ask has functioned as a sleeper phrase that triggers the release of the July’s Leverage Greatest Hits List, which i will herewith paste below. i’ve only listed episodes i think are really worth slowing down and enjoying, and i’ve included a few notes with each one as to why i think it’s worth the time; note that s1 was not released in the same order as it was aired so the order you watch it in literally does not matter at all except for the finale. without further ado:

SEASON ONE:

The Miracle Job (the first episode where things really have a rhythm; nate backstory that doesn’t suck eggs)

The Stork Job (strong parker/hardison ep.)

The Wedding Job (CHEESY - but extremely fun)

The Juror #6 Job (one of my personal favorites because i love a good trial bit)

The First David Job & The Second David Job (two-parter & v. good; maggie is here)

SEASON TWO:

The Order 23 Job (funny and fucking weird as hell)

The Fairy Godparents Job (another funny one & surprisingly touching)

The Three Days of the Hunter Job (god this one is weird. I love it)

The Two Live Crew Job (rival heist crew; sexy)

The Lost Heir Job (TARA! introduces one of my favorite characters)

The Bottle Job (the gold standard for bottle episodes and simple cons you can run at home)

The Future Job (STRONG parker ep. about fake psychics) 

and honestly at this point just finish out the season it’s plottier but still good + i love jeri ryan

SEASON THREE:

The Reunion Job (another sneaky parker/hardison ep.)

The Inside Job (clever escape episode; not really a heist)

The Scheherazade Job (the hardison’s unearthly violin solo episode)

The Studio Job (lots of people really like this episode and it’s good, I just don’t watch it often because i don't really like country music. Alona Tal is in it tho and i love her)

The Rashomon Job (told in flashbacks from each character’s perspective; very clever)

The King George Job (hardison hacks history; his arms look great in that tank top)

The Morning After Job (a very clever con)

The San Lorenzo Job (OH this fucking episode. It’s just very well put-together and Goran Visnjc is the big bad he’s all throughout the season really. sophie SHINES)

SEASON FOUR:

The Long Way Down Job (emotional parker/eliot ep; features extreme winter mountaineering)

The Van Gogh Job (fan favorite; hardison & parker play star-crossed lovers in wwii)

The Hot Potato Job (fun roleswap ep. for sophie)

The Grave Danger Job (emotional hardison/parker ep.)

The Queen’s Gambit Job (incredibly clever sterling episode, good parker/hardison content)

The Experimental Job (this one is good but it’s a Lot for me; i’m not sure why that is tho. premise: the team infiltrates a psychological experiment, requiring hardison to go undercover as a frat boy and eliot as one of the experiment ‘volunteers’)

The Office Job (fan favorite; heist shot like the office; just a fucking bucket of fun. The Sandwich(™) is here)

The Girl’s/Boy’s Nights Out Jobs (two-parter - the team splits up for extracurriculars; return of tara and harley)

The Gold Job (hardison runs the con roleswap ep.; some good parker/hardison/eliot)

The Last Dam Job (lots of old recurring characters in this one, incl. Tara and Mr Quinn)

SEASON FIVE:

The French Connection Job (eliot goes undercover as a chef; eliot ensues)

The Gimme A K Street Job (extremely clever episode about cheerleading)

The D.B. Cooper Job (another good flashback-starring-the-team ep. a la the van gogh episode)

The Broken Wing Job (bottle episode *man punching stage* TWO)

The Rundown Job (thee ot3 episode; lots of good parker/hardison/eliot stuff; biological warfare) 

The Frameup Job (the last sophie’s art theft adventures job & quite fun)

The White Rabbit Job (team confronts the ethics of pulling off the world’s toughest con)

The Long Goodbye Job (series finale, emotional and also quite good)

as you can see, i really like season four, and i’ll be the first to admit that the show has a slow start. but there are gems all throughout and i hope this helps break it down/give you a starting point! 

[reactingtosomething]

Kris Reacts to The Defenders (cont’d)

"For Whatever It’s Worth, I’m Glad You’re Here.”

Find my off-the-cuff mini-Reactions to the first five episodes of The Defenders here. A full-sized Reaction with some others may be forthcoming later in the week. SPOILERS AFTER THE JUMP for the rest of the season. Some non-spoilery, mostly Daredevil-related thoughts first.

I feel even more strongly than before that to get very much out of The Defenders, you really should watch both seasons of Daredevil. There are for sure lots of quality Jessica-Luke moments, don’t get me wrong, and in the unlikely event that your favorite Defender show is Iron Fist, Colleen Wing gets a surprising amount to do. But the most important non-Defender characters, including significant villains, are from Daredevil’s supporting cast.

I love Matt Murdock (although not as much as Caroline loves Matt Murdock), but he has got to stop referring to New York (or is it just Hell’s Kitchen, or Manhattan? I’ve never been sure) as “my city.” Especially when Daredevil never really gave us a sense of what either the Kitchen in particular or NYC in general means to him. In fact, I’d love a moratorium on all superheroes referring to “My City,” especially if we rarely see them interacting with the people and places of “their” cities in meaningful, specific civilian capacities. The bar here is set by Luke Cage, which in two episodes does more to flesh out Harlem than the entirety of either Daredevil or Jessica Jones (which are otherwise the best entries in the Defenders series) did for Hell’s Kitchen.

The Defenders shares a composer, John Paesano, with Daredevil. This is not surprising, as these shows also share showrunners, Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez (who were producer-writers under Drew Goddard and later Steven DeKnight in Daredevil s1). What is surprising is how much I like the music in these shows. It’s pretty melody-light, and vaguely “atmospheric,” and there’s a lot of repetitive percussion, which all taken together is generally a style that annoys me. But what usually annoys me about that style is that it’s intended to blend into the background, to not really be noticed at all. And Paesano’s music, while it isn’t always super prominent in the sound mix or anything, uses simple but still hummable leitmotifs that -- even if in your experience their overall impression is to blend in -- can be recognized as very Of This Show. In other words, unlike many movies that have melody-light or even effectively melody-less scores, often with aggressive percussion, things scored by Paesano actually have musical identities (including Mass Effect: Andromeda, whose musical identity is probably the second-best thing about it, after combat).

Take the first music we hear in season 2 of Daredevil, “The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen”:

At first this seems like it’s just gonna be generic chasing-and-punching music, from literally any post-Bourne action franchise, but around 1:14, the ostinato that’s the backbone of the title theme kicks in. It’s much faster than in the titles, but instantly recognizable. Even if you don’t consciously recognize it in the moment, you probably feel a distinctly Daredevil vibe. It goes away again for a bit as the action of the scene ends, but returns as we see Matt (relatively) clearly for the first time in the season, a devil perched on a chapel.

This music from the climactic fight of the s2 finale, “They Have Nothing Now,” is another good example, riffing on both the ostinato and the main melody that starts about 18 seconds into the title theme.

Contrast this with the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, which do have a melodic instrumental theme, but which you almost certainly don’t associate with the movies or the characters. Partly this is because it’s just OK, but mostly it’s because what anyone remembers about those soundtracks are the needle drops of the Awesome Mixes. Don’t get me wrong, the Awesome Mixes are cool and all. But they also consist of music that most people would not specifically or exclusively associate with Guardians. Weirdly, the same composer worked on Atomic Blonde, which takes a similar approach to its music. This always seems to me like a missed opportunity. It’s like your movie or your show is somehow incomplete. What is Star Wars without John Williams? Or Batman: The Animated Series without Shirley Walker, 30 Rock without Jeff Richmond, Battlestar Galactica without Bear McCreary, Game of Thrones without Ramin Djawadi? What is Wonder Woman’s No Man’s Land without “No Man’s Land”? 

Anyway, all this to say that I’m a weirdo who REALLY LOVES A LOT that when a character briefly plays an instrument late in The Defenders, what they play is the show’s simple, vaguely Danny Elfman-esque title theme, rather than some overused classical piece.

Moving on... spoilers below!

There’s a lot about The Defenders that doesn’t work, and we’ll get to some of it. But unexpectedly, what’s stuck with me -- perhaps its single greatest achievement -- is that after the shitshow of his solo series, it renders Danny Rand pretty likable. Or at least, much easier to empathize with, much more often, than in Iron Fist.

In episode 6 when he’s tied up and Luke is babysitting, Luke (sarcastically) asks him to recount again the story of how he earned the Iron Fist by punching a dragon in the heart. Danny has a very bad sarcasm radar, and complies, and Luke has to remind him that he doesn’t give a shit or even really believe him (EVEN AFTER ALL THE WEIRD SHIT THAT’S HAPPENED). And Danny gives this sigh that back in Iron Fist I probably would’ve found petulant and childish. It does still feel, for lack of a better word, very young here. But I also found myself honestly feeling bad for the guy. He’s trying so hard, and in episode 4 he was the only one who (this is crucial) like the audience was rooting for the team to be a team, yet everyone keeps treating him like an annoying little sibling. Also, he’s telling the truth, he’s been telling the truth since he got back to New York (admittedly in the least persuasive ways possible at the start of Iron Fist), and since he got back to New York almost no one has believed him. And finally there comes the one guy in The Defenders who doesn’t have to believe Danny because he knows that Danny’s telling the truth: Stick. But then Stick is the one who wants to take Danny off the board at the top of episode 6, pulling the rug out from under him just when it seemed he had an all-in ally and even a potential mentor (something he realized he still needed very badly late in Iron Fist). This can’t be a fun place.

So that sigh actually carried some decent emotional weight for me. All the more because Luke immediately realized he’d genuinely hurt Danny’s feelings, and not just “get over yourself, you privileged white boy” feelings but “this is a central part of his identity that I’m mocking mercilessly” feelings.

Now, to be clear, Danny is an annoying little sibling. But Iron Fist never really recognized this, because it wanted Danny to be an imposing, menacing badass when what it needed him to be -- what The Defenders makes him -- is sweetly goofy and eager-to-please, a puppy who just happens to also be a trained killing machine. Danny’s the kind of guy that the cast of Leverage would call “adorable” with equal parts condescension and fondness, the kind of guy about whom you might say “bless his heart” and actually kind of mean it.

It should surprise no one who knows me well that despite all of the above, I Extremely Approve of Elektra pretty easily outclassing Danny in their fight at the end of episode 7, Iron Fist or no Iron Fist. 

But as Caroline mentions in her thoughts on her Patreon (and as she discussed in her Daredevil s2 reviews), it’s never super clear what it means for Elektra to be “the Black Sky.” For that matter it’s still unclear (though more deliberately) what the full potential extent of Danny’s Iron Fist powers is. And I think The Defenders could’ve gotten a lot more mileage out of parallels between Danny and Elektra as “living weapons.”

In general I’d hoped, perhaps foolishly, for a lot more from Elektra than we got. I didn’t have any problems with the acting, to be clear; I’m basically in love with Elodie Yung, entirely on the strength of her absurdly charismatic performance in Daredevil. But because Elektra doesn’t come back to life with her memories, Yung has to spend most of The Defenders keeping that charisma locked away, until a Plot Twist (Elektra killing Alexandra!) that I’m not convinced entirely works. I went along with it wholeheartedly anyway because it meant Yung got to unleash her full powers again. Or it would’ve been her full powers, if there’d been a lot more time to flesh out exactly what and who Elektra 3.0 is. 

We get a complete-ish answer by the end of the show, when it becomes clear that Elektra not only has her memories of Matt back but is still in love with him. But this is a character whose main challenge in her first life was that she was never permitted to figure out for herself what she wanted to do with that life, and “hijack the Hand’s plan to return to K’un Lun, and more importantly become immortal” -- though immortality certainly makes sense as a thing Elektra would want -- doesn’t come close to concretely addressing the ultimately relatable existential crisis (what is my place in the world?) that she faced in Daredevil. 

Sigourney Weaver is able to sell a desire for immortality as Alexandra Reid’s overriding concern because we meet her getting a (vaguely defined) terminal disease diagnosis, and because we spend a lot of time with Alexandra dwelling on her physical fragility and on her concerns about legacy. Yung’s Elektra doesn’t have that way in, and the writers don’t have the time or space in the last act of the season to do more than gesture broadly at Elektra’s desire to finally decide her own destiny. I think the reason this doesn’t land as well as it ought to is that it’s framed as a Villain Monologue, delivered to Danny, a character with whom she doesn’t have history. She doesn’t have this conversation with Stick (she just stabs him), and worse, she doesn’t really have it with Matt outside the chaos of a fight scene, though at least they get that last (?) kiss.

There’s a lot of lazy dialogue in The Defenders, especially in the finale, though thankfully these actors for whom we have a lot of banked affection just about pull it off. The last line of the cold open -- Luke’s “let’s go do something crazy” -- is... just kind of there? Which is a weird choice for the first big punctuation mark in the climactic chapter of this crossover event. He could’ve said that at basically any other point of the show; this should have been a line he could only say at this moment. 

Trish’s “Jess is a good friend speech” to Karen is not great. It’s not awful, either, but it’s not all that specific: Jess doesn’t do any of the things most of us in the real world ask our friends to do, “but when it comes to the real stuff, the stuff that’ll last forever...” What is that stuff? That Trish is interrupted by Malcolm and Foggy with some Bad News feels a little like the writers just didn’t know how to finish that sentence. How exactly are Matt and Jessica good friends? Yeah yeah yeah, they save your life, cool, standard superhero. But what’s the last time Matt in particular was 100 percent emotionally there for you? I do remember Jess and Trish’s friendship being my favorite part of Jessica Jones, but it’s been almost two years and some details would’ve been nice. 

Actively bad is the exchange that ends this scene: “That was the epicenter.” “Of what?” “Everything.” That’s just -- come on. That’s nowhere near as profound as it seems to want to be. That Midland was the epicenter of the earthquake is PLENTY to convey to the others that “ohhhhh that WASN’T a natural earthquake and shit’s about to go down.” In the abstract, “EVERYTHING” may sound more important than “the earthquake.” But the latter was a major inciting incident of The Defenders, and because none of these characters actually knows all of the other pieces the Defenders themselves are concerned with, the specificity of the earthquake is what should have been prized.

(In general, though, I did love that Karen and Trish got a scene together.) 

Luckily the best lines -- or at least, the best line readings -- of the episode come in the scene immediately afterward:

JESS: If you’d told me a week ago that I’d be here, with you two, about to blow up some building and fight ninjas to save New York... LUKE: (sigh) MATT: (chuckle) For whatever it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here. JESS: What? MATT: No, circumstances could be better, I’m just saying, you know -- I’m glad we found each other. LUKE: I’m not hugging you. MATT: (resigned sigh) JESS: You guys ready or what? LUKE: No. MATT: ...No. JESS: Sounds about right.

The sheer endearing-ness and tonal perfection of this moment is hard to convey in writing. Charlie Cox’s delivery of Matt’s “No” in particular is just terrifically world-weary. The other thing I need to say about this scene is that I identify a weird amount with Matt’s series-long resistance to the team culminating in a belated moment of emotional openness, only for him to be met with the realization that the emotional availability of others doesn’t work on his schedule. 

It’s possible I’m reading way too much into this. After all, I also identify with Luke’s resistance to hugging it out.

(My favorite dialogue in the show is probably still the “Are those pork?”-through-“God, you’re weird” exchange of episode 4.)

Another dialogue thing that stood out to me in the finale was the repeated trope of The Moment I Saw You.

Elektra, to Matt: “We’re together. Something I’ve wanted since I first laid eyes on you.”

Claire, to Foggy, about Matt: “But there was no talking him down. He had his mind made up the day I met him.”

This isn’t remotely unique to The Defenders, but it is a trope I tend to find annoying. I don’t think I believe in love at first sight, is probably part of my problem here, and I guess I get it if your mileage varies on that particular account. But it also feels lazy that it happens twice in a relatively narrow span of time, and about the same character, no less. Arguably more importantly, this is -- I know I lean on variations of this word a lot -- such an unspecific thing to say, in a show that had SO MUCH specificity at its disposal in the solo series. Why “since I first laid eyes on you” rather than a callback to something Matt said that night, or to their Sexy Sparring Session? Why “the day I met him” rather than a reference to Claire stitching Matt back together, or finding Matt in a literal dumpster?

(I liked that Claire and Foggy got an “our mutual friend” scene, but as others have said, it’s super weird that Claire and Matt never had a moment.)

There’s probably also something to say here about destiny and purpose, which ties into Elektra and Danny, and into the formation of the team itself, but again the show didn’t really make the time for that. I'm absolutely not suggesting that they needed 13 episodes -- I just don’t think they really managed their time well -- but with so many characters to serve, maybe 10 would’ve been interesting? To give Elektra a more robust arc post-Alexandra, if nothing else?

(About Alexandra -- I read some reviews to the effect that Sigourney Weaver held the first few episodes of The Defenders together through sheer force of will and Sigourney Weaver-ness, but I did not feel that way at all. I mean I thought she was very good, but the writing mostly wasn’t deep or clever enough for her to take the character of Alex anywhere near the level of Cottonmouth or Kilgrave or Wilson Fisk, and I think this “Sigourney Weaver is the best thing about The Defenders” take was mostly wishful projection on the part of people who know her corpus much better than I do. I’ve seen Alien but not Aliens; #sorrynotsorry.)

I did love that both in the premiere and the finale, Luke got to call back to Pop’s “Forward” mantra, without repeating the full “Forward always, always forward.” It was a nice way to show that Pop’s philosophy is thoroughly a part of him now, and that -- unlike Jessica, the person he’s with for the second callback -- he’s really deliberately thinking about his future.

I also liked, or wanted to like, that Jessica said maybe they could get coffee, but I wasn’t entirely sure what was intended by this. See, in Luke Cage, “coffee” turns out to be a euphemism Luke uses for sex, or at least a one-night stand.  But he’s with Claire now, which may be a reason he doesn’t deliver the established winking response from his own show: “I don’t drink coffee.” (Misty said it to him back then; he replied, “Neither do I.” I don’t think Luke not drinking coffee was a thing in Jessica Jones, and even if it was, it would totally be in character for Jess not to remember.) Apart from the lack of a callback response, my uncertainty comes from “we should get coffee” almost inevitably meaning, in my experience, “we are definitely not going to make the effort to get coffee,” even if we’re both totally sincere about wanting to catch up, which seems like a relatable social phenomenon Jess would snark about. 

To backtrack a bit -- that big fight scene in episode 7, against Gao and Bakuto and Murakami? It was... not shot well. Way too claustrophobic, and at least by the high standards of Daredevil, way too choppily edited. Most of the fights in The Defenders were underwhelming -- really missed Philip Silvera’s work -- but that one in particular stood out as a mess. (Caroline remarked that it’s a shame the fighting styles of the team aren’t better differentiated, at least in the show’s latter half; this is particularly true for Matt and Danny. It’s interesting that although Finn Jones is overall much better at the action here than he was in Iron Fist, the fights in The Defenders do lose a fair bit of the wushu character that previously distinguished his hand techniques, at least, from Matt’s.)

Anyway, I could probably say more -- I’m particularly sorry I haven’t done justice to the Jessica-Luke dynamic, or to the Daughters of the Dragon -- but I’ve lost most semblance of a train of thought here, so I’ll stop. I do recommend checking out all of Caroline's Random Thoughts, and, as always, the episode reviews over at The AV Club. (As of this writing the AVC is currently on episode 5.)

Though I did want a lot more from The Defenders in a lot of ways, as with the pretty strange and uneven Age of Ultron it was still a lot of fun to spend time with these characters, both alone and together. This was very much a show that did not manage to be more than the sum of its parts, but at least many of those parts were very pleasant. And frankly, I’m glad the run of episodes 6 through 8 was the last thing I watched this weekend, rather than the trainwreck (Tormund banter, zombie burning, and Dany’s winter wardrobe notwithstanding) that was this season’s penultimate episode of Game of Thrones.

I’m also cautiously optimistic about the possibility of a Luke Cage-Iron Fist team-up show, and to a lesser extent even -- I can’t believe I’m gonna say this -- the next solo season of Iron Fist (which will have a new showrunner -- Scott Buck is helming Inhumans, something about which I have strong feelings that we just can’t get into right now -- and add Simone Missick’s Misty Knight to its roster). If that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what is.

[cwdcshows]

Batwoman - S1 E1 - Pilot

Alright, now or never.... Here we go..... Wait, how the fuck old is Batman in the present day, that he was already active when Kate was a kid?  So Gotham is so dependent on Batman that they're so desperate to fill the void when he's no longer around (because fuck Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl or the Birds of Prey) that they'd rather have a private security firm instead of, I don't know, making the police department in Gotham better?  How is private security supposed to be any better or less susceptible to corruption, like the GCPD is supposed to be?  A private entity is literally in it for the money, unless it's inexplicably "not-for-profit" - which I suppose it might have to be, since otherwise where would the funding come from?  Kate just says her dad started a private firm, not that he's generously financing free access to such security, but even if he were, what would make his agents immune for the same problems the actual authorities are plagued with in Gotham?  Bruce had any number of factors going in his favor, starting with the fact that he had more money than God, so what could a criminal offer him that didn't already have or could get if he wanted it; not to mention the whole morality thing, combined with the concealed identity, meaning he was literally beyond approach - if you can't be found, no one can offer you a bribe to look the other way.  They also don't know how to find those you love in order to use them as leverage; which was a major reason he concealed his identity.

"Batman gave up on us." Fuck you, you ungrateful bastards.  Either he's dead, which all things considered I kind of hope he is, because if nothing else the Birds of Prey series from 17 years ago (dear God, it's been 17 years??) already used the idea of Batman simply walking away from Gotham.  But even if he didn't, this shit hole city can't seem to just appreciate of whatever strides he made during the time he was active, that he has to get dragged for "abandoning them;" because they apparently can't go unsupervised and everything went to the hell moment he turned his back. If I were Batman, assuming he's not dead, I'd show up at this ceremony just to be like, "Yeah, let me help turn that off - that signal's not a right, it's a privilege; and you guys abused it." And then just slow walk through the crowd, flipping everybody off. "Kate.  It's Mary....Your step-sister?" "Mary, our parents have been married for over a decade.  I know who you are." But the audience doesn't and the writers don't know how to convey things to the audience through anything less than heavy handed expositional dialog, because they think we have the attention span of a two year old.   Wait, what?  You had to travel the fucking world, training with all sort of combat and survival specialists in order to join the private security agency your own fucking father owns and commands?  I mean, I get wanting to avoid accusations of nepotism, but seriously, do all the Crows agents go through that sort of preparation?  Because that seems kind of extreme for such a niche job.  Especially seeing how easily all of those Crows agents get their asses handed to them by seemingly run of the mill street thugs; including the top agent who as it turns out is Kate's old flame.  So a lot of fucking good their training was. Where exactly was she training, that she's already back in Gotham before her father is finished with the briefing about Sophie's capture?   Also, how is surveillance "non-existent"?  I know they took out the cameras focused on the event, which a)how, but more important, there was nothing, no surveillance of any kind in or around the area?  I feel like that should have warranted a stronger response from the head of a fucking citywide security firm so bent on filling Batman's shoes. I'm genuinely curious which "Academy" Sophie and Kate were attending.  I know in the comics they were actually in the army, and the guy who finds them is wearing fatigues, but is this supposed to actually be the military?  Is it the Crows?  Something else?  Don't Ask, Don't Tell was repealed in 2010 and effective since 2011 - which, wow, I can't believe it's been nearly a decade already - so are we to believe that this flashback is taking place more than 10 years ago?  Or is it's a general fraternization thing they're taking issue with? Come on, you can't have it both ways; you can't suggest that Bruce played the billionaire playboy routine to the hilt so much that Kate's dad thinks he a complete disgrace; yet such an integral businessman that his absence lead to the collapse of Wayne Enterprises and its corporate headquarters in Gotham shuttering its doors. Bruce had his mother's peals framed in his office?  That's just weird. So the building is boarded up, the furniture is covered; yet they have a full time security guard working out of a high tech office with a retinal scan - but just the one guy, working in the city that's become a total hell hole since Batman disappeared; because apparently it's vital to look out for squatters and watch the furniture collect dust, but not so important as to commit more than one person to do it at a time..... Why the fuck would any password at Wayne Enterprises be just "Alfred"?  It might as well be fucking Guest.

Why does a place that's literally boarded its doors have access to anything of value to this case, that the Crows don't have access to?  Didn't the one Crows agent say surveillance was "non-existent"?  What sort of useless security firm wouldn't try to find anyone else's surveillance to supplement their own in a situation like this? .....What???  There's a woman from the Crows missing, a woman Kate is known to have a past with (especially by Mary.  You know, her step-sister) and they decide to throw Kate a surprise party. Kate, the woman who was God only knows where until she heard about Sophie being taken hostage; and only came back to Gotham when she did because of that? Do people under 40 still keep boxes of photos, let alone dirty photos that were ostensibly more than ten years ago? How was Kate not qualified for the Crows?  She lasted at least as long and arguably longer than all of the other Crane operatives. That's a lame-ass locking/unlocking mechanism to access your secret vigilante auxiliary lair....  Like that's something the cleaning staff could accidentally trip.

Of all the cases, Bruce had a....what is it....murder board?  Case board?  Whatever.  All about the accident the accident with Kate's mom and sister? No. Dear God, if crime is that bad in Gotham that you need that kind of security at an outdoor fucking movie, just move.  Leave and burn the city on the ground. A bigger issue I have with this scene is the scope relative to everything else.  I've actually helped organize a few outdoor movies for my hometown of about 7000+ people.  We were lucky to get 20 people to come out for it, but the real point is that this looks like an event being put on in a relatively small to medium sized town; hell, they mentioned earlier that the mayor had some kind of say in whether or not it was happening.  Glossing over yet another example of how bad things are if there's concern about allowing a moderately size public function to go on outdoors at night.  This sort of an event looks like it should be a blip on the radar in a sprawling city like Gotham.  It's basically meant to be DC's answer to New  York City.  There should be 5-10 other things of equal importance or public interest going on at the same time; and probably a few other things of a higher profile than people watching Grease 2 in the park. "I don't like that building.  Who's covering it?" "Dobson, sir." "And no one else?" "No, sir." "I'm sure one person in an entire open structure I have tactical concerns about will perfectly fine patrolling that space alone.  It's not like we're under threat of attack by an enemy we've recently encountered who's kicked the ass of several of our agents simultaneously and took one of them hostage.  And we've thoroughly vetted Dobson, right?" "Were you saying something, sir?" "What?  Oh, no.  Just looking forward to seeing Michelle Pfiefer in tonight's movie.  I need a c-o-o-l r-i-d-e-r....."

The Crows security sucks.  Gotham would probably safe under the protection of Paul Blart. That seems to have taken zero effort to tailor Bruce's custom made Batman suit to fit Kate; and my only assumption is that Bruce is actually very petite. Oh my God, Alice is Kate's sister? Whoever could have seen that coming..... :|