aklingus’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
All right, watched all nine episodes, a few thoughts:
1. I’m a latchkey kid who has spent his life watching everything from The Honeymooners to Community, so I can safely say the TV tropes stuff is what I enjoyed the most. Like, I truly dug the first two episodes even while other people were twiddling their thumbs - big dumb broad humor jokes, goofy plot misunderstandings, and playing to the rafters are right in my wheelhouse. Shame all the storyline stuff kept getting in the way.
2. To that end, the more MCU content comes out, the more I enjoy the bits where the superheroes are just hanging out and goofing around - it’s why the Thor’s hammer scene is the only part of Age of Ultron that holds up, or why the Guardians movies are IMO easier watches than anything except the really good MCU movies. There’s a lot to mine out of just having these characters bounce off each other, and I wish these things would lean more on that than on having one CGI creation hurl itself at another CGI creation.
3. Finale stuff that bothered me: why did the SWORD people stay themselves when Wanda repaired the breach in her Westview control to save her family? Why did the evil guy try to shoot a kid? Where did Primer Paint Vision go after his self-actualization? Who was the person Monica said she was going to meet with?
4. Elizabeth Olsen was truly very good in this, and seemed to greatly enjoy leading us through sixty odd years of television history, which leads to one of the blessing/curse deals with the MCU - having good actors in the major and supporting roles means a baseline quality always miles above even some shit like the Affleck Daredevil, but also means a hard ceiling that can never be punctured (not even by, like, Black Panther) where you’re wondering what Lizzie Olsen or RDJ would be doing if they weren’t locked in to a decade of green screens.
5. Now that the series is over, the structure of this show is really strange - an entire episode given to things that might have been better parceled out earlier (Wanda’s journey to Westview), the SWORD business happening maybe a bit too soon, that sort of thing. If anything else, they should’ve made this ten episodes and really given the parallel storylines room to breathe outside the TV parodies, and maybe squeezed in a Seinfeld or Friends dealie just for fun. Not like they don’t have the money for it!
Final thoughts: yeah, I didn’t hate it or nothing. Very funny all the “it’s Lynchian” folks have scurried for the portholes, but it was a fine time and it’s always nice to see Kat Dennings get work. I will say I had Zappa’s “I’m The Slime” stuck in my head half the time I was watching this.
aklingus liked these reviews
' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_0c01e08a-6ab5-475f-b8d0-37f877a9bb10" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-0c01e08a-6ab5-475f-b8d0-37f877a9bb10'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div -tile300x250 -alignleft -bottommargin'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'med_rect_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-0c01e08a-6ab5-475f-b8d0-37f877a9bb10'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-0c01e08a-6ab5-475f-b8d0-37f877a9bb10'));
' ].join(''); if ( adsScript && adsScript === 'bandsintown' && adsPlatforms && ((window.isIOS && adsPlatforms.indexOf("iOS") >= 0) || (window.isAndroid && adsPlatforms.indexOf("Android") >= 0)) && adsLocations && adsMode && ( (adsMode === 'include' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) >= 0) || (adsMode === 'exclude' && adsLocations.indexOf(window.adsLocation) == -1) ) ) { var opts = { artist: "", song: "", adunit_id: 100005950, div_id: "cf_async_2ca16db7-c4ce-401b-987b-7734ae82921e" }; adUnit.id = opts.div_id; if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } var c=function(){cf.showAsyncAd(opts)};if(typeof window.cf !== 'undefined')c();else{cf_async=!0;var r=document.createElement("script"),s=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];r.async=!0;r.src="//srv.tunefindforfans.com/fruits/apricots.js";r.readyState?r.onreadystatechange=function(){if("loaded"==r.readyState||"complete"==r.readyState)r.onreadystatechange=null,c()}:r.onload=c;s.parentNode.insertBefore(r,s)}; } else { adUnit.id = 'pw-2ca16db7-c4ce-401b-987b-7734ae82921e'; adUnit.className = 'pw-div'; adUnit.setAttribute('data-pw-' + (renderMobile ? 'mobi' : 'desk'), 'sky_btf'); if (target) { target.insertAdjacentElement('beforeend', adUnit); } else { tag.insertAdjacentElement('afterend', adUnit); } window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => { adUnit.insertAdjacentHTML('afterend', kicker); window.ramp.que.push(function () { window.ramp.addTag('pw-2ca16db7-c4ce-401b-987b-7734ae82921e'); }); }, { once: true }); } } tag.remove(); })(document.getElementById('script-2ca16db7-c4ce-401b-987b-7734ae82921e'));
