Sorry that it’s been over a week since part one, but I’ve been preoccupied with catching up on the new summer TV (especially Stranger Things), so here’s my take on a few more shows that have started-up/resumed recently.

Stranger Things

Though I had loved the last season a lot, I confess that I wasn’t as excited as most fans for the return of Stranger Things. It’d been so long that I had forgotten a lot of what happened (thank goodness for some helpful synopsis videos on Netflix and Youtube that brought me back up to speed). The characters are still living through the aftermath of last season’s finale (so that brings it all back to mind as well). In particular, Max has become withdrawn and moody, reliving the nightmare of watching her stepbrother Billy being killed, and having to talk to the school counsellor about it. Joyce (Winona Ryder), Jonathan, Will, and Eleven moved to a new town under false identities, so we see them in their new lives. On top of that, we find out what happened to Hopper (but no spoilers on that here).

As much as I love this show, there were a few reasons in the first episodes that kept me from completely binge-watching. First, I didn’t love what has happening with El and Will. In their new school, not only were they having trouble fitting in, El was getting seriously bullied. As the episodes went on, there was even more bullying (or at least more bully-type characters) in Hawkins as well. The worst part was that these bullies were not the well-rounded redeemable kind, like Steve from season one or even Billy in season three. Instead, they just seem like two-dimensional, popular-crowd, teenage psychos. I always hate storylines where big adventures get blocked by mundane, real-world problems like getting arrested by the police, or misguided people trying to step on our heroes. The bullying slowed my pace down to a single episode per session (until the other plots really started to kick in and I couldn’t hold back anymore). However, as I gave these bully characters some thought, I remembered that they are a classic 80s-movie trope, and I kind of accepted them a bit more as an homage. The other thing that got to me was that the horror-factor seems amped-up this time around. Admittedly, we had lots of gross monsters already, and they were truly vicious, with lots of squelchy, bloody deaths. But this season, there has been more demonic, Freddy-Krueger-style horror — largely due to the new enemy and how he/it kills. By the end of the first episode, there was a classic levitate-to-the-ceiling, bones-crunched, limbs-mangled, eyes-burnt/gouged, brain-squelched death that was pure horror, and it happened again and again in the next few episodes. I’m amazed me that tween viewers are OK with it. Even middle-aged me could not take it–more reason for me to slow down. I’m obviously not a big horror fan (though I still did recognize a cool cameo from actor Robert Englund — Freddy Krueger himself).

Nevertheless, before long, Stranger Things did its magic: the gang split up to investigate what was killing kids in Hawkins, how it was connected to the Upside Down, and how they could defeat it. As happened each season, I was totally hooked. I still love the classic, fun characters: the dynamic duo of Dustin and Steve is the best; and the new pairing of wannabe-journalist Nancy with Robin (ice cream shop girl from last season) was great. While new character, Eddie (metalhead, D&D master) was OK, I really enjoyed the character of Argyle–the long-haired, stoner buddy of Will’s brother Jonathan, played by Eduardo Franco (not an actor I had noticed before, even though I had watched American Vandal). His lovably clueless personality was a total riot. Lastly, there is a lot of flashing back to El’s backstory. By the mid-season finale, we get to learn how all the major events across the series so far are connected. It’s pretty incredible and hopefully means that there was a plan all along. I have watched through the exciting seven-episode half-season and can’t wait until the conclusion in a few weeks.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

The other big series of the past weeks has been the latest in the Star Wars universe, telling the story of former Jedi master, Obi-Wan Kenobi (still played by Ewan Macgregor on the small screen) as he hides out on Tatooine, after the end of the prequel trilogies (and before the events of the original Star Wars movie begin). We see his slavish routine labouring namelessly at some kind of carrion-meat harvesting job, and it doesn’t really make sense to me that this is his life now. However, things click more once we see that Inquisitors (who are kind of like Sith minions) are hunting the remaining scattered Jedi (apparently at the direction of Sith Lord, Darth Vader). As cool as that kind of plot would be, Kenobi being in hiding (or on the run from) the Inquisitors is only part of the story and the main story so far seems to be centre around young Leia Organa. When the rambunctious young princess is kidnapped, Bail Organa (played again by a too-old-looking Jimmy Smits) comes to Kenobi for help rescuing her (thus falling into the most obvious trap set by the Inquisitors to draw him out). While the production values of the show are top-notch, and the show seems to fit in nicely as an offshoot of the movies (not to mention getting a fun cameo from another Disney employee, Kumail Nanjiani, in a perfectly-suited role), I have so far been disappointed with the story. I don’t know if it’s a curse of the franchise, or maybe an intentional characteristic, but it feels like Star Wars is constantly retelling stories that have been told again and again. I’m not sure why we don’t get something exciting and different from Kenobi’s story rather than another adventure in babysitting. I mean, obviously The Mandalorian spent the majority of its time with Din Djarin taking care of “Baby Yoda” Grogu. If you watched the animated show The Bad Batch, a bunch of clone troopers had to watch out for a young female clone named Omega. I don’t think I need to see another adult say to a kid “You stay here”, knowing that he/she will not obey and jeopardize everyone’s safety by getting into trouble. It’s already bad enough that there aren’t any life-and-death stakes here, since we know that all the significant characters survive to be in the movies — we even know where they end up.

Many of us were also lured to this series with the promise of Vader confrontations — so significant that they got Hayden Christensen back to play him (and even James Earl Jones back to do the voice!). Sadly, so far I haven’t seen much to make that worthwhile. Vader seems only interested in simple revenge, and it’s a wonder how come these events are playing out 10 years after the end of the trilogy. The simpleness of this storyline makes it feel kind of trivial — shouldn’t Vader be too busy with Empire business? Instead of a clash of titans, this feels like more of a hobby (as if someone has emailed him the name of a collectibles shop where a rare Pokemon card is available for him to complete his set). Here’s hoping that the show will pick up as we approach the end, otherwise I’m really not sure why this series was necessary.

The Orville

I am not a big fan of The Orville, so even though I love sci-fi, I was not really anticipating its long-delayed return. This third season is subtitled “New Horizons”, but I don’t exactly understand why as it’s not really much different. In the premiere, the story deals with the events of the last season finale where Isaac, a robotic crew member from a race known as the Kaylon, betrayed the rest of the ship and sided with his home world as they declared war on the Union (i.e. everyone else) — at least until he had a “change of heart” and saved them. As I watched this season’s premiere, I struggled to put my finger on why I have never appreciated The Orville, unable to shake the feeling that it’s a weak Star Trek knock-off. At first I thought it was just that the generous use of humour and jokes seemed to undercut and trivialize the drama (making it feel like no one takes thing seriously, which makes it hard to buy this as a starship crew). However, in this first episode I also realized that I find the characters are written pretty superficially. They seem immature and high-schoolish (even when they are dealing with heavy, grown-up issues). For some reason, Isaac has been kept on the Orville (What Union HR rep thought that would be a good idea?) and the rest of the crew cannot seem to get past his betrayal and sort of hate him. That kind of response is reasonable (and frankly, I’m not sure why that was not often addressed on Star Trek after a crew member turned on the rest of the ship, since it happened more than once). But I’m irked by the scene that shows this. A bunch of crew members are eating in the mess hall and when Isaac approaches, they invite him to sit with them only to then simultaneously get up and leave. Afterward, one crew member sits back down in apparent apology, luring Isaac back only to recount the story of how her best friend was killed by the Kaylon, and how she will never forgive him for his betrayal. Seriously? Why don’t they just post nasty messages on his insta feed or shoot spit balls at the back of his head when he goes up to the write answers on the board at the front of class? It’s so ridiculous. Anyway, it’s not just that the characters feel juvenile, but the scripts seem to want to follow the tradition of using sci-fi as a metaphor to comment on our current world, but they aren’t done very well. They don’t seem thought out and often come up with simplistic and cliche answers. The acting on this show is generally quite weak as well. One of the better actors on the series is Penny Johnson Jerald (who plays the ship’s doctor), but her character is kind of lame and inconsistent as well. I can’t believe that during an outbreak on the ship that was turning humans into spider-people she ran out of the medical lab to track down her young sons when they seemed to have left their quarters! Anyway, I don’t know how much longer I’ll continue watching this series. I keep wanting it to get better and live up to its potential as a Star Trek clone, but it just doesn’t live up to that legacy (especially when Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is out there showing it up).

Prehistoric Planet

Unfortunately, apart from Ted Lasso, I still haven’t found another series to help me get my money’s worth from Apple TV+. Nevertheless, Prehistoric Planet is a very impressive show that makes me feel a little more justified. This series basically combines a high-calibre nature show, like Planet Earth, with a dinosaur show, like Walking With Dinoaurs. The end result is super-impressive. I don’t know if the entire thing is created within the computer (in which case, not only are the creature animations impeccable, but the natural environments are flawlessly simulated) or some combination of real-world footage with CG dinosaurs inserted digitally. Either way, the illusion that dinosaurs roamed the Earth — and that camera crew could film them — is amazing. (Apologies for all the superlatives, but you really have to watch to see how impressive this show is.) It was also great to see various kinds of creatures that we don’t see as much of in other series, including a lot of underwater ones (and a delightfully weird duck-faced one). The cherry on top is that the show has the venerable David Attenborough to reprise his role as the narrator of all the Planet Earth shows. His voiceovers really put the polish on the effect of making this feel like a true nature show. Unfortunately, that’s also part of the problem. As I watched the various flocks of bird-like dinosaurs nesting on a cliff, or the predator-type dinosaurs fighting with their teeth, it felt like I’d seen it all before. It made me wonder why I wasn’t watching a show about sharks or birds or lions instead, since those are alive now. That would have been actual filmed footage rather than simulations (albeit very realistic simulations). I don’t know if I have been corrupted by the Jurassic Park movies, or spoiled by regular nature shows (which I enjoy very much), but unfortunately after my eyes stopped bulging from being impressed by the artistry of the effects, I wanted something more thrilling and more extraordinary from the “plot” of the show itself. Maybe that’s too much to ask out of artificially simulated creatures

That’s a few more shows that I’ve caught up on, but I am well aware that I’m behind with starting The Boys, and the new Marvel show, Ms. Marvel — there’s too much TV, I tell ya! So I’ll get to them next week — hopefully before it’s time to finish off the season of Stranger Things!