It has been a long minute since I last posted, but I admit I’ve been feeling a bit of entertainment ennui. Most of my favourite franchises have been so mediocre and underwhelming. A lot of hype in the fandoms has been around how they appear to have gone “woke”, and that being the problem. I think it’s not so much the woke agenda that’s messing things up, but that the agenda is getting in the way of having good writing. I’ve been catching up with all of my genre TV staples, but because of this creative laziness, they are just not really as thrilling as they once were. I’m sadly not eager to tune in to the next episode (I don’t even know which day new episodes show up for viewing). In the streaming age, it’s pretty much death not to have people dying to stream each new ep – viewers are definitely not going to stumble upon them as they channel-surf.

In any case, I have made it through the latest offerings from the various sci-fi TV franchises (my definition of franchise is that you’ve had at least two series in a shared universe). Some of them have completed their seasons or series a while ago. At least I can talk about what is good and what is meh about each of them. If you haven’t watched them yourself, this might help you decide if you want to cross that barrier of ennui and click play.

Star Trek:Discovery

Discovery’s is the most recent series finale that I’ve seen (its season barely stretching later than Young Sheldon, whose finale I surprisingly found far more satisfying). The last season was all about the chase (based on a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode actually titled “The Chase”) to acquire the technology of The Progenitors, who literally seeded life in the Star Trek galaxy, leading to the creation of humans, Klingons, Vulcans, etc. The Discovery crew (though mostly Captain Michael Burnham) led the quest across various planets, looking to assemble clues left by 800-year-ago scientists who found the technology and hid it away until someone who was worthy to complete their quests would find it again. Though Raiders of the Lost Ark style action was promised, most of the episodes were cluttered with CW-style characters ‘coming to terms’ with various emotional issues instead. I guess I should have expected as much after last season’s finale gave us so-called aliens from beyond the galactic barrier who communicated using emotions that were exactly the same as the Discovery crew’s own emotions. Also included was the melodrama of a Bonnie-and-Clyde-style pair of freelance antagonists who were neck-and-neck with Discovery throughout the whole season (Were they also worthy? Hardly. So how were they passing all the tests?) Bottom line is that while this final season of Discovery had some slick-looking action set pieces, the overall story and writing seemed much weaker than it should have been–especially the series finale, which ended on a disappointing conclusion and then proceeded to draw out the ending interminably (see also Lord of the Rings). And do you know what Burnham did after she acquired (You knew she would get it!) the Progenitors’ technology? Well, I’m not going to reveal that, but if you watched the second season and what happened with the Sphere data, you can probably guess. While Discovery reignited the Star Trek TV franchise, I am hoping that the remaining two series and future plans for more will diverge into a universe of better sci-fi, better writing and far more engaging story-telling.

X-Men ’97

Marvel’s MCU did have another series, called Echo, which I totally avoided after reviews suggested it was pretty bad. In stark contrast, all the early reviews of this series reviving X-Men: The Animated Series from the 90s, were awesome, so I was not going to miss it. Ironically, I was not a staunch watcher of the OG series (and I’m too old to have “grown up” on it). I’m not even sure I have seen all the episodes. I always thought that the animation was subpar (even back in the 90s) and made the X-Men (my favourite comic book team) look even cheesier than they should. This revival series tries to stay true to the flavour of the 90s animation (so that was not a choice I would have made) and while it doesn’t look bad, without nostalgia-coloured glasses it is far worse than the animation from the What If? Series. Everyone praises the show for really going all-in on the storylines. While the regular MCU takes its sweet time adapting a comic-book storyline, and often dilutes a lot of the over-the-top elements that made the original story good, X-Men ‘97 ravenously gobbles up story arcs to cram into its brief episode count. (As I understand it, the original 90s series was the same way.) Nevertheless, I’ll take that over the MCU’s tame approach because I like to see all the crazy super stuff on screen. Apart from the look, one more problem I have with this series is that the characters are so broad and their dialogue is too quippy. People seem to give credit for the more comic-accurate characterization, but I feel that characters like Wolverine, Rogue, Storm and Nightcrawler are far more cartoonish (and bombastic) than any of their cinematic adaptations have been. This is something that they could have improved upon from the original 90s series. Shows like Avatar the Last Airbender and many other anime-adjacent series have proven that you can appeal to kids even with more well-written and complex characters. So again I have to blame the Hollywood ethos of focusing on other things over good writing. Since there is more of this series to come, I’m hoping that things will improve in the future. It will also be interesting to see if this series evolves as it converges with the arrival of the X-Men in the live-action, mainline MCU.

Star Wars: The Acolyte

There have only been three episodes of The Acolyte, but I have already heard so much chatter about how this is pure woke agenda, and how this show will be the doom of Star Wars. Though I don’t agree fully with those sentiments, I also don’t care to argue against them, either. The Acolyte is supposed to be a pre-prequel series set in the age of the “old republic” made famous by Star Wars video games. I am not familiar with this other time period in Star Wars, but I cannot tell the difference between the context of this series versus any current series such as The Mandalorian. Granted, there are more Jedis around, and they apparently have more authority beyond their own organization. However, people still wear the same kind of beige and brown clothing, they still fly around in spaceships and land on one-city planets. There are still a wide variety of alien species living together (so I don’t understand why they need to cast predominantly non-Whites and women in order to maintain the idea of diversity), and people still use droids in regular life. It was great to see Squid Game lead Lee Jung-jae starring as Jedi Master Sol, who is tasked with chasing after a force-sensitive assassin who is murdering Jedi. What starts out as a kind of mystery cat-and-mouse quickly changes into a story about overcoming the emotional effects of past trauma (and how it can perhaps turn you into a Jedi-assassinating villain).

I can understand some of the criticisms of this series and how it is rewriting or circumventing a lot of Star Wars canon in service of a specific agenda, but again I want to say that it’s how the agenda has perhaps distracted the creators of the show from putting out something creative and well-written that is the true crime. While the show keeps giving away its mysteries and answering its own questions, it also becomes quite preposterous – wait until you see who really caused the big incident that led to the aforementioned trauma. It is implausible and doesn’t even really make much sense. Again, the big budgets have allowed for a pretty good looking show. Also, there are some nice action and fight scenes (though I have seen better in true martial arts movies). Unfortunately, after the first couple of episodes where I was willing to forgive some poorly thought-out scripts and silly plot holes, the third episode doubled-down with some seriously ridiculous world-building and characterization, not to mention cringey dialogue. If things don’t improve, I fear this will definitely be a potential franchise-ender for Star Wars, which is sad because this is one of the few projects without ties to the original trilogy in some way (in fact they apparently intentionally cut ties with George Lucas’s creation). While I wish they had been more true and consistent with the original Star Wars universe, I am glad that they are branching way out, story-wise. Too bad it is taking a nosedive in quality and engagement.

Doctor Who

The tragedy of “new Who” began in the previous seasons, where the Doctor regenerated into a version of the character played by Jodie Whittaker – not that there’s anything wrong with that. Even before the super-controversial retcon of the Doctor’s own origin, I had already stopped watching the series because I found it kind of dull and didn’t really enjoy Whittaker’s take (her onscreen personality) on the character. Even the companions, of which she had several, were a mixed bag, and I felt like they chose the least interesting one when they focused more on Yaz over the others. So when previous hit showrunner Russell T. Davies returned, I was back on board (the TARDIS) and eager to get back to some fully engaging adventures with the Doctor. Even more exciting was anticipation of David Tennant returning to the role of the Doctor for a couple of special episodes to usher in Davies’s second era. Unfortunately those specials were arguably terrible. Beginning with the obviously super-woke “The Star Beast” episode, everything people had been saying about their fears for the future of the franchise (especially now that the BBC had partnered with Disney to produce it) was apparently confirmed. Jump forward to this current season (a new season one) with a new Doctor (played by Ncuti Gatwa) and I have mixed feelings after watching all but one episode (the finale has yet to air). Nothing against the actor himself, but I think he’s poorly cast as the Doctor. While it’s probably the whole point, but it seems like some of his identity points (i.e. his being a young, gay, Black man) are more likely why he was chosen, so they could really go in a different direction with the character. Sadly, I find that he doesn’t really feel like a mere reincarnation of the Doctor, but kind of someone new and different. To that end, I am more engaged when the episodes bring familiar elements back to their stories, and also when the new Doctor is barely on the scene. In fact, my favourite episode is called “73 Yards” and the Doctor is removed from the story almost immediately.

This season is also pretty light on sci-fi (which is difficult to say about a show that starts off with time travel as a core premise, but that’s really a large portion of the sci-fi). Instead it does more with magical, god-beings. In the lead up special, “The Giggle”, Neil Patrick Harris guest starred as The Toymaker, a pretty by-the-book trickster god with seemingly limitless reality-altering abilities. In the season’s second episode, “The Devil’s Chord” one of the Toymaker’s children, named The Maestro, showed up for a similar kind of encounter. Plus there are goblins and faerie circles, etc. I love me some magic, and frankly I love chaotic god-beings as well, so I should be lapping up this season’s episodes and proclaiming it the best ever. However, again they’re just not as well-written as some of the best of the series so far. Maybe the reason for starting as a new season one was that the creators wanted us to give the show a blank slate and not compare it to past episodes (similar to the 2005 reboot). But with all the continuity, and the specials as transition, it’s difficult. Except maybe the premiere episode, “Space Babies” – who pitched “Let’s make a Doctor Who version of “Look Who’s Talking”’ and thought it would be good?), each episode of this season gets me going, but then there are parts where I think “Wait a sec, that doesn’t make sense” or “Hang on, why do they do that now?” and it’s just distracting and keeps them all from being anything better than mediocre. It will be sad to look back on this season and find it only memorable for all the hype surrounding it rather than the thrill of the actual episodes.

In conclusion, in an age of sad reboots and tired revivals, these beloved genre franchises are keeping things alive. However, none of them are hitting balls out of the park, in my opinion. Currently I am also on the cusp of watching the continuation of a couple of other franchises, namely The Boys and House of the Dragon (aka Game of Thrones), so I’ll see if these other two can do a better job. Between us, I’m a bit tired or the utterly dark tone of The Boys, which feels like it’s rehashing the same depressing conflict and the same bleak scenarios every season. Also, I felt House of the Dragon was too narrowly focused on the Targaryens where OG Game of Thrones had a wide gamut of story arcs for me to enjoy. AITA? Should I be treasuring these new TV efforts for what they’re worth rather than constantly looking to past glories and asking “Why can’t you be more like them?”? I will keep watching, as I am more than happy to be proven wrong.