I've watched hundreds of films since, and have viewed seven series'. Even when my first free three months were up, I stayed on Disney+. I've decided I'm going to continue using it until The Owl House reaches its end. Then after that streaming service cancelation, I may go back to Netflix, because I'm a cheapskate like that.
For my final blogpost of 2022, I will talk about the TV shows I saw on Disney+, in the order I subsequently viewed them. It would take far too long to list the films watched, even my favourites. So an easy, breezy TV discussion it is, to close the year out.
Disney+ Shows
Ms. Marvel - This, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and the Black Panther movies are the most diverse the MCU has to offer. I hadn't seen any of the other MCU series' before Ms. Marvel (it's all too much, and I want to have a life), but thankfully I didn't need to. It helped that I was already familiar with everything to do with it from the comics.
It is a fun little miniseries about Pakistani Muslim American teenager Kamala Khan, who is a major superhero dork (Marvel heroes are a real fact of life in the universe this fanfic writer and artist inhabits, making everything doubly fun, doubly nerdy, doubly pop culture heavy), and who gains superpowers herself. It's cute, as well as diverse and educational - that's the takeaway from Ms. Marvel.
I also like that Kamala's parents are more likeable and less stereotypical than in the comics. They're real, three-dimensional people, and slight spoiler but I don't care, they learn of Kamala's identity as a superhero, and they accept and support her! They keep their memories, to boot! Suck it, Marvel comics!
However, the miniseries is rushed and a little nonsensical towards the end, and it is too short at six episodes. The dealbreaker: it ends on a massive cliffhanger, and you are expected to watch another, separate MCU series in the future for the continuation of Ms.Marvel's storyline. Yeah, no thanks.
I know your game, Marvel Studios, and I am done with you.
Runaways, season 1 - Very meh.
I wanted to see Runaways for Nico Minoru, and while she and the other Runaway kids are good, in reality they're barely in their own show! Far too much time is spent on the villain parents.
I understand: it is done to make the audience sympathise more with them than what is given to them in the comics, and it gives them further development and characterisation in the first season before the shit hits the fan.
However, I think that the main reason it is done is because the writers were more comfortable writing adults than teenagers, and because the adults were better and more experienced actors and so were easier to work with. But it's not what the audience wants from Runaways!
I wanted to see cool superpowered kids; I don't care about the evil, been-there-done-that TV adult characters. Some of them don't deserve sympathy. The kids don't even run away - they don't become the titular Runaways - until the last episode - that's ten episodes in!
I was done at season 1, I'm afraid, being both bored and frustrated with the show. I also didn't like where they were going with an LBGTQ character, and the main (and only) LBGTQ couple.
Gravity Falls - A fun, creative and immersive spooky mystery cartoon. It is easy to see why it is so popular and influential. It's charming, and never fails to be entertaining, with an unforgettable cast of characters.
Not one of my personal favourites, for a few reasons - actually more than that; for a 2012 product it contains its problematic elements and head tilting moments - but I still recommend anyone seeing Gravity Falls at least once; see if they don't find it addictive and rewatchable. I wouldn't say no to rewatching it.
Amphibia - It starts off directionless, unfocused and slow - the first season is 80% filler, and is very episodic and slice-of-life - but I kept going, and my word, Amphibia has to be one of THE most bingeable shows ever made. I was hooked and excited to find out more with each episode.
The characters are so endearingly flawed and well developed - the character development is the key to this cartoon's success; as well as its magical worldbuilding and boundless creativity. Its storylines are surprising and unpredictable, even shocking. The first season's finale, up to the third and final season and the entire series finale, is an emotional roller coaster. It's a breathtaking journey. The second season is the best.
It really goes to show how far animation "for kids" has come in our modern era. It's not just about comedy anymore: story and characters are prioritised first. Animation creators' passion and care are being put forward, placed front and center, and their shows are shining as a result.
Sure, a few things in Amphibia annoy me and make me want to tear my hair out, but in general, I kind of love Amphibia; and as many people know by now, I am not easy to please. In fact I love it so much I bought the companion book, Marcy's Journal - A Guide to Amphibia, my review of which can be read here.
At the heart of everything in the series is the complicated, growing friendship bond between Anne Boonchuy, Sasha Waybright, and Marcy Wu. They are very flawed characters, coming to terms with their individual issues and insecurities, and how those affect others, but they are only thirteen, and they have a lot more growing to do. Heck, Anne, the protagonist and who-cares-if-she's-a-Mary-Sue-that-does-not-actually-apply-here-shut-up-and-have-fun-watching-her ultimate heroine, is like a Thai teenage girl Homer Simpson, and I mean that in the best way possible.
Amphibia is also one of the few pieces of media I've seen which is aware of the existence of, and explicitly deals with, toxic friendships. Despite this, all three young girls end up coming out on top, and I adore each of them equally, for their (mostly) careful growth and development. In this sense, they are realistic, because of their flaws: all this is in spite of the Isekai fantasy setting, the action heroics, and the Magical Girl/Super Saiyan homage (yeah, it moves on from the froggy slice-of-life show it was for the majority of its first season).
A Super Saiyan homage and action with young teen girls! It's everything I've ever wanted in a cartoon!
Anne, Sasha and Marcy are not to be dismissed as merely cartoon characters. I love everyone in Amphibia, and I love the people who made it. Hm. Maybe I will rewatch it soon, and drink up its bingey, addictive flavour again.
Epic fantasy and complex female friendships FTW!
Phineas and Ferb - Something I missed during the dark era of animation (the mid-to-late 2000s) in every channel, not just Disney, and which I did not bother with (I was well into my anime phase by then).
Girl am I glad to have finally caught up with it. Not only do I now understand the memes surrounding Phineas and Ferb, but I got to binge it and experience it whole (movies and specials included) as the fun, creative, and hugely funny series it is.
It is also reason no. 2467 why I don't trust anyone who says they don't like musicals - every eleven-minute episode contains two or more musical numbers, and practically every one of them is a bop. So creative and enjoyable, and the passion put into it by the creators is loud and clear.
Additionally, Phineas and Ferb utilises celebrity voices - both regular and cameo - far better than The Simpsons ever did.
Recommended? Certainly.
The Owl House - Still great. Still a favourite.
Beautiful, tantalising, wondrously creative, emotional, subversive, self-aware, sensitive, kind, lovely, delightful, and very, very funny. Luz Noceda and Amity Blight are currently the best, and cutest, LBGTQ+ couple on TV.
The Legend of Korra walked (so did Amphibia, to an extent, even when it wasn't explicit) so The Owl House could run. LBGTQ+ goodness - enbies included - yes, enbies, plural - regardless of Disney's overall intent, and despite its shifting and failing reluctance and drawbacks (mainly in making the series too short and releasing episodes and seasons in parts, and sporadically). You can't stop progress, Disney.
I can't wait for the ending, the completion of The Owl House.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law - Yeah, no.
While I understand what it was trying to do - pay homage to John Byrne's fourth wall breaking era of She-Hulk comics in the eighties and early nineties - She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is a mess.
You may never find a more ardent defender and champion of female-led media than me, no matter how generally shat upon by the internet it very often is, mostly because of typical misogyny. But as much as I loathe to agree with popular consensus in a world which still desperately needs more female-led films and TV, even I can't defend the She-Hulk TV series. In this area, I suck as a lawyer as much as Shulkie in the series does.
It is almost depressingly bad, with how unfunny, random, and just plain packed it is with wasted potential. I was cringing hard from the first episode, and it doesn't get any better from there. It is not a feminist superheroine show - hard to believe it came out this year! - for it actually posits that the absolute worst thing a woman can be is single in her thirties.
Wow. Thanks, Marvel Studios. I feel so seen. And respected.
And of course straight women are the default and center of attention; it is the MCU, after all.
It's like a sitcom, an especially bad sitcom, and I hate most sitcoms anyway, so it was doomed from the start for me. It doesn't only fail at comedy, but action, as well, which barely exists. Hell, the title is only, like, 30% true: there is hardly any lawyering and courtroom scenes in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. SO MUCH TIME IS SPENT ON JENNIFER WALTERS' BORING LOVE LIFE. TO THE POINT WHERE AN ENTIRE EPISODE IS DEDICATED TO HER DOING NOTHING BUT CONSTANTLY CHECKING HER PHONE AFTER SHE IS GHOSTED! YOU'RE A LAWYER AND A HULK - GET SOME DIGNITY, WOMAN! NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR DATING AND SEXCAPADES!
She and others are always drinking and getting drunk, too. How thrilling. How exciting. I am so engaged.
There is no structure, no plan, no real ending!
She-Hulk is the cheapest thing the MCU has ever done (I can tell even though I have seen two out of eight+ of its series', it is that bad), which is madness - insanity I say! - when the MCU is the most financially successful media franchise globally, dammit (rivalled only by video game companies). That a studio raking in billions and billions in profit would put out a product this stingy and insultingly crap just goes to show how much of a fucked up con and a load of bollocks capitalism is.
Even though She-Hulk: Attorney at Law was, as far as I can tell, mostly if not wholly written by women, it nonetheless feels like it was manned by focus group tested thirteen-year-old boys in the early 2010s.
On top of it all, while the show is nine episodes long, upon thinking back and reflecting on it, it feels like it only contains three episodes. So utterly devoid of substance it is.
I want to forget about it, now and forever. What a waste of time and potential.
I adore She-Hulk! She's one of my favourite superheroines in Marvel comics. Why was she treated in such a demeaning, undermining, sexist, stupid, childish and humdrum manner by the MCU?!
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law made me be officially done with the MCU, and Marvel as a whole. I. Am. Done. I quit. Sayonara. Auf Wiedersehen. Bye.
Happy New Year, everyone. I love you all.
For a further send off to cap off 2022, here are the links to my Worst Books list, and my Best Books list.
I also just remembered that next year - January, unless I'm mistaken - marks the tenth anniversary of my Artemis Crescent - Fantasy Feminist blog! Ten years since I started book blogging!
Wonder how I'll celebrate it...
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