Plot development and character development abound in the latest episode of Steven Universe. When it rains, it pours. Spoiler warning: don't read ahead if you don't want 'When It Rains' spoiled for you.
Let's get this out of the way: CUTE MOMENTS. This week's superb CUTE MOMENTS include (but is not limited to) Garnet's declaration of love (OH MY GOD SO CUTE), Peridot's fear of thunder and rain, and Steven and Peridot's hand-holding.
Steven and Peridot's relationship continues to build in what is unusually a more-or-less direct continuation of last week's episode, 'Catch and Release'. Steven is so unbelievably sweet and patient and encouraging with Peridot, it just makes me happy to know that there is such a positive role model on the kids' television.
Let's take a minute here to appreciate the use of composition and space in Steven Universe. Steven Universe is not afraid to have big open spaces framing the characters off-centre, observing the compositionary rule of thirds. It creates some really stunningly beautiful images. And then it does this stuff to show and build and develop character relationships. When Steven and Peridot were enemies, they take up the full screen, they face one another, there's a difference in there sizes and stances. Now, they stand at the same height, close to one another, facing the same direction, sharing only a section of the screen, the rest giving way to the environment around them. They're closer as characters. Their relationship to one another is different and their relationship to their environment is different.
As mentioned, there's a lot of plot development in this episode. We find out what the cluster is - turns out my guess last week was correct, albeit I said hundreds when it turns out to be MILLIONS - and learn more about the fusion experiments. Peridot begins working with the Crytal Gems too, which I LOVE. I am a sucker for foes becoming friends, a trope which is a major contributor to my love for Power Rangers and Digimon and Buffy. Whether Peridot will truly become a friend remains to be seen, but considering how the last couple episodes have built up Steven and Peridot's relationship I would expect the Gems to give Peridot at chance to redeem herself, much as Lapis did.
'When It Rains' gets a huge thumbs up from me. Like I said, I'm a sucker for villain redemption arcs and together with 'Catch and Release', this episode has some really tight, beautiful character moments. The action scene towards the end feels a little off - both in terms of tone following the rest of the episode and production value - but it's perhaps a necessary consequence of such short episode lengths and doesn't reduce the quality of the episode for me.
It's that time of the year again when the house is filled with the pitter-patter of comic book-inspired television. Already I'm being kept up at night by superhero programming crying out to be burped and changed and streamed.
It's been tricky keeping up with comic book television over the past couple weeks and with upcoming premieres, so we're undergoing a little bit of a change of how we cover these shows. Welcome to the first installment of a new weekly column rounding up spoiler-free reviews of each week's comic book television, replacing our full-length reviews. The eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the premiere installment is arriving on a Monday, but future round-ups will be arriving every Friday here on Hello, Robots!
Gotham
Gotham was lucky enough to be the first, last, and only comic book-inspired TV programme to be treated to a full-length review before we retired the format, for its season two premiere, 'Damned If You Do'. Episode two is titled 'Knock, Knock'.
The Maniax! I love me a team-up, especially a supervillain team-up. This episode we see the Maniax working together (mostly) to cause trouble for Gotham, and so I thought this would be a good opportunity to run through its members: Jerome Valeska is obviously our Joker analogue, and Cameron Monaghan delivers a fantastic performance as the would-be clown prince of crime that shines much as Robin Lord Taylor's season one performance as The Penguin did. Barbara Kean is Jim Gordon's old flame, based on the comic book character of the same name who is mother to Barbara Gordon Jr (a.k.a. Batgirl) and James Gordon Jr (they're not very creative with names) and never became criminally insane, to my knowledge. Aaron Helzinger is based on Batman bad guy Amygdala, whose removed amygdala grants him super strength and super rage. Robert Greenwood and Arnold Dobkins round out our five, but neither are based on existing DC characters. The team itself is also an original creation, as is the team's benefactor Theo Galavan, although some reckon his true identity is yet to be revealed (myself included). His sister is loosely based on supervillain Tigress, whilst the would-be sixth member of the Maniax seen last episode was Richard Sionis, based on Black Mask, a.k.a. Roman Sionis.
I feel warmer about this episode than I did the last - the scenes with the Maniax were pretty exciting and Jerome in particular is a delight to watch. I continue to find Jim Gordon's and Bruce Wayne's scenes the least interesting, however, but I found the latter redeemed by the return of Lucius Fox and the exchange between Fox and Alfred. And after his limited appearance in the season premiere, it was surprising not to see the Penguin in this episode, especially considering what a fan favourite of season one he was.
Rating: 7/10
'Knock, Knock' was broadcast in the US on Monday 28th September. Episode three, 'The Last Laugh', will be broadcast in the US on Monday 5th October. Season two of Gotham will not be arriving in the UK until 2016.
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
And Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is back! It's no secret that I am a HUGE Marvel fan, so it should come as no surprise that I love Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., even if it is a pain to type. It got off to a wobbly start in season one but quickly found its feet, and I'm pleased to report that the season three premiere 'Laws of Nature' has me really excited about the new season.
Three important new characters are introduced in this episode: the new inhuman Joey Gutierrez and ATCU Director Rosalind Price are both original creations as far as I can tell, but the inhuman bad guy is existing comic book character Lash. His general goals in the comic books have been to recruit strong new inhumans and wipe out those he feels don't deserve to have undergone terrigenesis (the thing that gives them powers). Lash's appearance is impressively spot-on for his comic book counterpart in this episode, and his powers seem roughly similar too - he can absorb and convert energy into different types of energy. Comic book writer Charles Soule described his powers thus: "Let's say someone's running at him — that's kinetic energy. Lash can change all of that into heat — and whoosh! — the other guy goes up in flames." Visually, Lash is a very strong villain, but he's not quite BIG bad material, so it's pretty likely that somebody else is pulling the strings.
Daisy (Daisy! Skye is officially now Daisy Johnson!) using her powers and really taking charge as a fully fledged agent was great. I'm not fully sold on Joey yet, but I am thrilled to see the introduction of a Latino AND gay character. Yay representation! ATCU gets set up as 'the new S.H.I.E.L.D.' and wisely decide not to feature any periods in their initialism name, and I really enjoyed Phil's altercation with ATCU's leader Rosalind. A lot is set up in this episode, but it never looses momentum and does a good job of keeping the action up throughout.
The standout action for me was with Fitz. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't afraid to blur the line between the smart/support characters and the action/physical characters, and whilst there's been similar moments for Fitz in the past two seasons, this is a standout moment of badass for the fan favourite. Which only serves to underline the heartbreak to come.
Rating: 8/10
'Laws of Nature' was broadcast in the US on Tuesday 29th September. Episode two, 'Purpose in the Machine', will be broadcast in the US on Tuesday 6th October. There is no UK air date yet for season three of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but it is expected to arrive this autumn.
Heroes Reborn
The premiere of Heroes Reborn with episodes one and two back-to-back unfortunately passed us by here at Hello Robots towers, partly due to the difficulty of keeping tabs on US air dates from here in the UK, but we're all caught up now and ready to bring you our thoughts.
If you're not familiar with Heroes, here's the rundown. First off, I love Heroes. Second off, Heroes is not based on a comic book. It does, however, draw heavily on comic book tropes, none more so than in season one which featured art by actual comic book artist Tim Sale. Season one was hugely celebrated. It was full of mystery and excitement and great visual effects depicting the really cool powers of the really interesting characters. Seasons two to four continued the story, but the storyline got increasingly complicated and retconned and the show got decreasingly interesting and exciting. We lost a lot of mystery and gained too many characters. This is generally universally acknowledged and I love Heroes in spite of much of the last couple of seasons. Don't get me wrong, there was still a bunch to like, but it certainly lost its magic.
Now, five years since Heroes ended, it's back with Heroes Reborn. It promised to bring back the mystery that everybody loved about season one, to take away the confusion and get back to great characters and cool powers. I was pretty excited, to say the least.
So did Heroes Reborn achieve it? Ehh, kind of.
The start is promising, but it's difficult to get away from the lore in a universe so steeped in it. Everytime an old character or story-thing appeared or was referenced - which was a lot more frequently than I expected - I was simultaneously excited to see something I recognised and jarred by their total lack of introduction. Wait a minute, where is that character? What was she doing? How did we leave him? These are synapses I haven't stretched for five years, and I actually find myself hoping this is only a problem for returning fans of the show and not new viewers. Heroes Reborn just struggles to get away from the confusion Heroes was rife with, and without a single compelling threat or mystery uniting the different storylines it's just difficult to get away with.
There are some fun moments; I like Tommy's teen romance storyline and I was pleased to see the grown-up Molly Walker to have undergone some real character changes since we last saw her. The depiction of the computer game environment in Miko's scenes is just plain embarassing, however.
Rating: 5/10
Episodes one and two, 'Brave New World' and 'Odessa', were broadcast in the US on Thursday 24th September. Episode three, 'Under the Mask', was broadcast in the US on Thursday 1st October. Episode four, 'The Needs of the Many', will be broadcast in the US on Thursday 8th October. Heroes Reborn has not yet been picked up for broadcast in UK.
Other News
Coming up this week is the return of three more comic book-inspired television programmes starting with the return of iZombie, the detective show/loose adaptation of the Vertigo comic book by the same name, entering its second season on Tuesday 6th. Unfortunately, iZombie's first season is yet to be picked up for broadcast in the UK, never mind its second season.
Also on Tuesday 6th, we have the US season two premiere of The Flash, followed by the US season four premiere of Arrow on Wednesday 7th. Both shows based on DC comics characters and set in the same universe will be broadcast in the UK the following week on Sky One.
Further off in the distance, Supergirl premieres in the US on 26th October but has yet to be picked up for broadcast in the UK. Marvel's Jessica Jones will be released on Netflix internationally on 20th November, but in the meantime two new teaser trailers were released last week:
Got any tips or recommendations of anymore television we should be watching? Let us know in the comments below, or let us know what you think of any of the TV programmes we discussed today.
Tickets and passes for Manchester Animation Festival became on sale today. MAF will be filled with guest speakers, workshops, masterclasses, retrospectives, panel discussions, and feature screenings over the 17th, 18th, and 19th November at HOME Manchester.
Tickets for individual screenings and events range from £6 to £12, day passes are £40, whilst passes for the full festival are £85. Concessions on the ticket prices are available for students, people aged 60+, those with a registered disability, and those who are registered unemployed or claiming Jobseekers Allowance.
A new Doctor Who spin-off by the BBC has been announced. The spin-off will be aimed at teenagers and will be written by young adult fiction author Patrick Ness, pictured below.
The series, titled 'Class', will be set in a school in modern London but be filmed in and around Cardiff like Doctor Who itself. Class will consist of eight 45-minute episodes and will air on BBC Three in 2016.
I'm astounded and thrilled to be entering the Doctor Who universe, which is as vast as time and space itself. There's so much room there for all kinds of amazing stories and to work with [Doctor Who writer] Steven Moffat and [producer] Brian Minchin to find a place to tell one of my own has been an absolute joy. I can't wait for people to meet the heroes of Class, to meet the all-new villains and aliens, to remember that the horrors of the darkest corners of existence are just about on par with having to pass your A-levels.
Previous Doctor Who spin-offs include Torchwood, aimed at adult audiences and The Sarah Jane Adventures, aimed at younger audiences. Doctor Who Confidential and Torchwood Declassified were behind-the-scenes spin-offs that were also broadcast on BBC Three. Class will be the first spin-off aimed at teenage audiences, as well as the first new spin-off of the Moffat-era of Doctor Who.
What are you hoping to see in Class? It's pretty likely that the Doctor himself will turn up at some point, as he did in The Sarah Jane Adventures. I'm hoping to see the premise for Class set up in Doctor Who itself. Being set in a London school, it seems quite possible that the series could feature Coal Hill School, which the Doctor's granddaughter Susan attended and where Clara Oswald teaches. Jenna Coleman departs Doctor Who at the end of the current series - could it be becuase Clara Oswald wants to focus on a teaching career, leading into Class?
Finally, what do you think of the title Class? I'm not totally convinced by it, but I may warm up to it yet. Class doesn't air until 2016 so we may see a title change yet. Discuss it in the comments below and we'll get a conversation started!
A new trailer for Marvel's Jessica Jones dropped yesterday. In the brand new teaser trailer, we catch a glimpse of Krysten Ritter as the titular superhero post-bar brawl.
In the comics, Jessica Jones is a former superhero with super strength, durability, and the ability to fly. It's still unclear exactly how much of the character will translate to screen, but from the way she taps the jukebox, I'm willing to bet she retains her super strength.
The entire series will drop on Netflix on 20th November. In the meantime, you can watch the previous teaser trailer and learn more about the Marvel's Jessica Joneshere and catch up on Marvel's Daredevil on Netflix here.
