The Umbrella Academy (season 3)

 The Umbrella Academy is cool. I mean, really cool. The characters are so different and well developed. The story is clever and well written. The production and editing are great.

It doesn't try too hard.

There's a lot to see if you look and listen.

After Elliot Page announced his transition following season 2, I wondered how they might handle that. Would there even be a season 3? Would they recast Vanya? or write her out? No. No, they didn't. They rewrote the script to transition Vanya to Viktor. Genius. After all, the Vanya character was indirectly transitioning via the body of Elliot Page in season 2 anyway... so it's not a plot swerve at all. Good writing.

And each season has at least one seismic shift: season one was all about the emergence of the White Violin; season 2 was the coup at the commission (and Lila) and WW3; now season 3 is the apocalypse of all time and the umbrellas being ursurped by the sparrows.

 So there is always a lot to see. Often you have to just wait and see how things develop. There are a few red herrings. But it is never dull. It's always a great ride and the pay-off is always great... then confusing. Each season ends with "OK!... wait... what?"

Before watching season 3 I went back over seasons 1 and 2. They rewatch really well. Which is never a given, for shows that have a lot of surprises. But there is so much to this show, and the characters are so great, that even when you know what is going to happen (and I had forgotten a fair bit) it is still exciting and fun to watch again. If there is a season 4 then I will be watching 1-3 again ahead of it!

Ms Marvel (Disney+)

 I always knew that at some point I would probably be too old to enjoy new Marvel material. But I thought it would happen gradually, across the board. Instead it looks likely, in the near futture at least,  that there will be a mix of shows that I like and don't like.

That's because after liking pretty much everything in the MCU since the start (and the X-Men and Fantastic Four movies that Fox produced) I have hit something that just didn't grab me - Ms Marvel.

It's a character that I was aware of from comics, but only superficially. So I can't say whether the material is on-canon or not. That's not the problem. It's a youth show... there are clearly youth in-jokes that I don't get.

As such, not a lot happened in this show for me. It's all about the Pakistani youth culture in the USA. Which I know nothing about. It goes into historical detail. The British are the villains... oh, hang on, no... they were the villains until the Djinn. 

The vibe is more Scooby Doo than Captain Marvel. Maybe Disney+ should age-rate these shows in future so that adults don't waste their time watching shows intended mainly for kids?

Stranger Things (season 4 volume 2)

 I wont get into the argument about whether splitting a "season" into two volumes makes sense. The end of volume 1 was an enjoyably constructed revelation and volume 2 continues on from there. Perhaps a bigger question is whether all these episodes needed to be quite so long?

Because, for all the time spent, I was disappointed in the final episodes. After all the time spent getting Hopper out of the Russian prison, he just broke back in again to kill the monsters. That was it, that's why he was there. He had to kill the monsters to weaken Vecna... a bit. Maybe it didn't even matter at all because Eleven seemed to kick his ass pretty easily anyway.

When it suited.

So, when Eleven appears in Max's mind to confront Vecna she beats him easily... then he beats her back easily... then her boyfriend says "I love you" and "fight"... and then she can beat him easily again. But just late enough for Max to die for a while... just long enough for the 4 gates to open and the clock to chime. Then she can bring Max back to life again. Well, an empty coma anyway; and she has broken arms and legs and is blind. So, it didn't work out so great for Max. Or Eddie, who didn't seem to need to die either, really; especially when the insane basketball team get taken out of the game.

Given how long it took to build to this "final" battle; it was a rubbish battle. I was really hoping for some insights into why Vecna and Eleven were so powerful compared to the other specials and why Eleven was ultimately stronger than Vecna. Maybe we get that in the final season? But this part didn't make sense - the trio were supposed to kill Vecna while he was defenseless in Max's mind... but he woke up before they killed him... and a couple of Molotov cocktails and a shotgun are enough? Clearly not... he's still "alive", right? (yes, just wait 2 days)

This was a long season and yet the ending felt so rushed. Vecna's down! Yay! Or not... he says it's just the begining. There's an "earthquake", people die, oh no the upside down is leaking into our world.

Oh, and in case you missed it, Vecna was the Mindflayer thing all along. He did all that other stuff before he realised he only had to kill 4 people to open up a gateway between worlds and turn all the flowers grey.

In summary. The episodes were too long. The pacing was a bit ropey. Some of the set-ups for the final season were very clumsy. Still pleny to enjoy, but I hope the final season is structured better.