Watching as the current season gets spread out in order to try and have something for the coming weeks has been interesting, but it’s also disheartening – and entirely understandable – as planned spring finales were adjusted to launch the next season in the fall. That’s made for some awkward finales for a few shows I’m sure. but in this time of the coronavirus, it’s the smallest of worries but something tangible that you can latch onto and work with amid the bigger worries. And sometimes that’s a good coping mechanism for many.
Our weekly show reviews at the moment, going into the summer, is just of Harley Quinn with its second season. We wrapped up pieces for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, See, The Mandalorian, and the very enjoyable Star Trek: Picard during their broadcast/streaming runs.
Keeping to my intent of just watching one a day and not binging, I did finish through on the fifth season of Queer Eye this past week and once again the whole thing just felt inspirational. While getting to see the stories of other people and their lives and experiences, it was engaging to watch as we see the pressures so many put on ourselves and how we keep ourselves from feeling connected when it’s what we really want. There’s some really hard material here, such as the family where the husband is dealing with ALS and is alive a lot longer than expected already, to the fishmonger and his family where generational/immigrant tensions come to play. So much of it gets you to reflect on the things you’re holding yourself to from your younger days or things your parents placed on you and the need to readjust or shake them off completely. I’m always hopeful for more.
I had started the Love Life series on HBO Max when it debuted a couple of weeks ago and this week saw the final four episodes of the ten-episode run come out. The show proved very popular and instead of a weekly run they did them in batches to build some retaining audiences. The show continued to move forward well as it explored her life over several years and close to a decade, I believe. We had a really hard bottle episode focusing on her relationship with her mother and some extended time with her best friend who was spiraling after not committing to a relationship with her boyfriend who wanted to “grow up” and do more adult things. Watching Darby’s life turn to a focus on work and herself was engaging even with the challenges she faced and having a kind of payoff at the end in meeting the right person – but knowing that like everything else it’ll have its challenges – was perfect.
With the second season of Umbrella Academy coming up in July, I spent the last two weeks or so rewatching it for me but enjoying watching my eldest watch it for the first time as the combination of college and work kept her from it last year. It was a lot of fun the second time around as you know the basics of what’s going to happen and the key moments, but I really appreciated some of the character interactions more this time around knowing their arcs but also really enjoying the soundtrack to it even more since I knew where the pieces lead to. It’s definitely a fun and slickly produced show but one that I still think needed just a bit more tightening and not quite so much introspective time.
Taking a few days off after the end of season three, we’re now getting into season four of Star Wars Rebels. The foundations are solid and it’s just barreling forward to deal with the coming together of the Rebellion and the growing threat the Empire poses as it takes them seriously. But we also learn more of how Mandalore has been locked down and civil war rages there, which will tie into The Mandalorian. Speaking of which, the latest Gallery episode on Disney+ was a delight as it focused on the sound and score of the series. Showing how they went into their own sound for it, the challenges of it, and the fact that the composer for it was Ryan Coogler’s roommate at UCS just delighted me.
I’ll say it again, Maul has every single of the best lightsaber fights in the entire animated/live-action portions of the franchise.
