iCarly: iObject Lewbert

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Several old faces from Carly’s past return in an effort to end her web show.

My, my how do you go from a first episode that by all accounts was very good and pushed the show as a whole forward to this? Quite frankly, this second episode might be one of the worst of the revival.

The most egregious thing is just how badly this episode wants to milk nostalgia, bringing back all of these old familiar faces to try and sue Carly, played by Miranda Cosgrove, thereby forcing in member berries in a way that couldn’t be more blatant. The court trial simply serves as a means to be like oh remember this person from this episode? Remember?

Moreover, this is only added to by the worst ending of an episode of iCarly possibly ever, whereby when it looks like Carly might have to face some consequences for her past misdeeds Spencer, played by Jerry Trainor, just buys her way out. The reason why this sucks is because it could have been an actual emotional moment which could have led to some character development for Carly or at the very least a shift in perspective, but no.

Additionally, this episode forces in a Harper, played by Laci Mosley, and Millicent, played by Jaidyn Triplett, side-plot that is the definition of time wasting. It goes nowhere and undoes a lot of the great Harper work the first episode does, reducing her back into the loud, obnoxious stereotype.

Overall, a sorry state of an episode made worse by the fact it followed such a good one.

Pros.

A few funny jokes

It is watchable

Cons.

The nostalgia baiting

The terrible ending and message of it

Reducing Harper back into a stereotype

Seemingly doing it best to stop any kind of character development

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Moon Knight: The Friendly Type

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Moon Knight, played by Oscar Isaac, travels to Egypt to stop Arthur Harrow’s evil plan but loses the favour of the Gods.

So for the most part I thought this was a good episode, however I did have one major issue with the episode, but first to the good.

I really enjoyed the ending of this episode wherein Khonsu, voiced by F. Murray Abraham, gave Stephen the power to turn back the night sky, I thought it was visually very interesting and also that it sets up a lot of tantalising possibilities for both the Moon Knight show as well as work the wider MCU.

I also thought the big battle sequence was really well done. I liked seeing Mr Knight make another appearance even if it was only brief and I applaud the show for once again pushing the violence and the gore. It is still for the most part fairly family friendly but it is on track to break bad if it keeps this tone, maybe other darker shows like a Punisher or a Ghost Rider would be able to take things even further.

However, my big negative for this episode was the court room scene wherein the various different Egyptian gods spoke to Marc. My main issues was that this scene which should have been very big and vey epic felt small and underwhelming, when they started talking about mental illness and safe spaces I really rolled my eyes, it didn’t feel like a meeting of the Gods but rather a counselling session.

Overall a weaker episode to the ones before it but still fairly good, hopefully the show will actually give us Jake Lockley in the next episode and stop teasing us constantly.

Pros.

Mr Knight

The violence

The ending

Cons.

The constant teasing for Lockley

The courtroom scene didn’t feel very epic at all

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Human Resources Season 1: The Desperate Phallus

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A Big Mouth spin-off centred around the various different types of monsters that appear across the show.

I thought this show was considerably weaker than Big Mouth in quite a few ways, but still maintained enough charm to be watchable.

My main criticism of this show would be that if anything it is a little too over the top, like yes within Big Mouth there are a number of out there elements, but it never goes as far as seeing two dicks fight each other, or a full on orgy, both of which feature in this show as it crosses over into bad taste at times.

Moreover, the monsters themselves are in no way as interesting as the kids from Big Mouth, perhaps it is because they lose the relatability factor that the kids of the show have, or perhaps it is because they are demystified to a point whereby you know too much about them. Regardless of which it is you can’t shake the feeling that the characters just aren’t as good here.

I don’t think it is all bad as there are still some funny jokes, and Maury, voiced by Nick Kroll, is just as loveable as ever. However, Maury is given somewhat of a back seat here and therein lies another problem of the show it feels the need to force in a lot of new characters most of which just feel bland, I’m looking at you Emmy, voiced by Aidy Bryant.

Overall, an okay stand in for Big Mouth in the off season but nowhere close to being on the same level.

Pros.

Maury

Connie

A few good jokes

Cons.

A lot of bland new characters

It goes too far with the gross out, to the point of desperation

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iCarly: iGuess Everyone Just Hates Me Now

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

After the events of the first season’s finale Carly, played by Miranda Cosgrove, is facing an ice queen image online and so in order to combat it decides to fake date Freddy, played by Nathan Kress, to show that she can indeed love.

I thought that this was a strong start to the second season, it was an episode that was firing on all cylinders and that advanced the Carly/ Freddie will they won’t they romance sub-plot somewhat. Admittedly, in the latter regard it is all just a tease and those of us who want to see Carly and Freddie get together for real will have to wait a while longer, though they do share some sweet scenes here.

I also enjoyed that this episode humanised Harper, played by Laci Mosely, and gave her more of a dramatic arc, which was a nice change of pace from the very over the top, loud and brash way she is often presented. I thought her brief scene with Double Dutch, played by Poppy Liu was both sad as well as a little touching, it got me a little misty I won’t lie.

The only reason I haven’t given this episode full marks is because I found the humour a little dumb at times, such as when asked to throw a grown up mature party Spencer, played by Jerry Trainor, puts together a funeral- albeit unknowingly. This joke bothered me because Spencer is supposed to be a grown man, who moves in the art world so him being unknowing and unable to put together a sophisticated party seems stupid and the visual joke doesn’t land.

Overall, a strong return for the series only let down by a few iffy jokes.

Pros.

Carly and Freddy

Giving Harper an emotional arc

It follows on nicely from last season

The ice queen recurring segment

Cons.

Spenser was really quite dumbed-down here

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Moon Knight: Summon The Suit

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Steven Grant, played by Oscar Isaac continues to learn about his other persona Marc Spectre, also played by Isaac, as well as their commitment to Khonshu, voiced by F. Murray Abraham.

This episode was a lot slower than the first, which was a negative for me but not hugely so. Mainly, the purpose of this episode is to set the stage and explain the series exposition for those unfamiliar, as such we learn of Steven/Marc’s death and rebirth at the hands of Khonshu, we learn about Marc’s wife Layla, played by May Calamawy, and about Arthur Harrow’s, played by Ethan Hawke, ultimate goal.

I think the highlight of this episode was the Steven/ Arthur conversation wherein Harrow can accurately guess what Khonshu is saying throughout and it is revealed that he used to be Khonshu’s avatar before Marc/Steven. I thought this whole sequence was both fun and also surprisingly tense, Hawke is really doing a good job in the villain role.

The introduction of Mr Knight, one of the various different persona’s of Moon Knight, was a mixed bag. On the one hand the look was fairly comics accurate and I like that he has been included, however, I don’t like how inept and jokey he is presented as being, as this is a far cry from the comics, though I will not judge the depiction just yet as it might get better as the series goes on.

Overall, a necessary episode to set up the world and things to come, if not the most exciting.

Pros.

Hawke

Isaac

More Khonshu

The comic accurate look of Mr Knight

Cons.

The slow pace

Making Mr Knight into somewhat of a joke

A lot of exposition

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Halo: Unbound

1/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

One of the worst second episodes to a show I have ever seen. This will be my last time reviewing this show.

Where to begin…. The thing I had the biggest issue with was the fact that this episode let all the air out of the balloon in terms of the momentum the first episode set up and greatly slowed down the pace. I wasn’t expecting all that much from this second episode, especially after the mixed bag that the first episode was, but I was at least expecting it to not be dull, sadly that is too much to hope for.

Moreover, though last week I said I didn’t really care that this show completely ignored the games and the pre-established lore, well things changed here. Midway through the episode I realised that this show has the exact same problem as Netflix’s Witcher series, it takes character names and the franchise name but it makes something unrecognisable out of it. By all intents and purposes, this is just a deeply generic science fiction show with the Halo name slapped over it.

Further in that vein, Master Chief, played by Pablo Schreiber, is taking off his helmet so much here that you forget he even is Chief at times and think you are following a new if entirely forgettable character, but no.

I won’t even start on what they are doing with Cortana, but I will say yikes.

Overall a huge miss for Paramount +.

Pros.

Pablo Schreiber is really trying and deserves far better than this mess.

Cons.

This isn’t Halo

Master Chief constantly taking his helmet off

Cortana

The pacing

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Moon Knight: The Goldfish Problem

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Moon Knight, played by Oscar Isaac, makes his MCU debut.

I will preface this by saying comics-wise I am a huge Moon Knight fan, the Warren Ellis run on the character from a few years ago was fantastic, as such I have been very excited for this series. The first episode met my expectations for it, but struggled to exceed them as like many others have said this first episode was a lot of fun but it wasn’t perfect.

I enjoyed the fact that this episode felt like it had a different age rating from the rest of the MCU in that it actually allowed things to be gory or frightening and didn’t have to make everything so that it would appeal to audiences of all ages, this gave me some hope for characters like Ghost Rider and Punisher in the MCU.

Moreover, of what we have seen so far I appreciated Isaac’s performance, I know for some this accent is a little fake or grating, personally, though it may be a little confused, I didn’t find it off putting. Furthermore, I thought Isaac was good in his role as Stephen Grant, even though it is not comics accurate.

My one criticism of the episode would be that despite the mature tone of other parts of it the episode still forced in some of the MCU’s brand of ‘humour’ which didn’t land for me and instead often took me out of it. I hope as things get more serious we get less of it, but I know I am probably just wasting my breath.

Overall, a very promising start that looks set to make up for the short comings of other Disney + shows like Hawkeye.

Pros.

The blood and gore

Isaac

A fresh story in the MCU

It feels like how I would imagine Moon Knight from the comics

Cons.

Less humour please

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Halo: Contact

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Master Chief, played by Pablo Schreiber, breaks into TV.

This first episode was a mixed bag for me, certainly not as good as I was hoping it would be, but also not as bad as some out there would have you believe, simply by existing this won’t destroy all copies of the games and novels and won’t forever change the Halo universe for the worse.

My main issue with this show was how much like The Mandalorian it felt, straight down to the stoic lead taking on a younger sidekick who then forces them to confront their views on life; doesn’t sound much like Halo does it? In many ways Master Chief is side-lined, with Kwan, played by Yerin Ha, being the real lead, if this continues to be the case throughout the series I doubt I’ll make it till the end.

I also did not like how the show seems more interested in rebellion against the UNSC, then it does with the war against the Covenant, but hey only one can stand in as a thinly vailed comment on real world injustice right? We all know every show that comes out now has to feature it in some way, escapism is dead.

Chief taking off his helmet for quite a long stretch near the end doesn’t really bother me too much, neither does the fact that this show spits all over the series lore as I was not particularly invested in the property before watching this.

The things I did enjoy about it were twofold. Firstly, I appreciated the fact that this series actually looks like it had some money spent on it, yes I am looking at you Cad Bane in The Book Of Boba Fett, by that I mean this series boasts some fairly well done visuals and the effects mostly hold up across this first episode.

Secondly, this opening chapter featured some nice well shot action which I also enjoyed, hopefully as the series goes on we will get more of that.

Overall, a redeemable if troubled start.

Pros.

The action

The effects

Schreiber

Cons.

Side-lining Chief

Copying the Mandalorian

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The Afterparty: Everyone Hates High School Reunions

4.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A high school reunion takes a turn for the macabre as one of the attendees is found dead.

I thought this was a great series, one of the best I have seen in a while. It totally nails most of what it is going for and delivers laughs, shocks and sweet moments fairly on the regular.

I enjoyed the format and thought the idea of having each person’s story be told through a different genre formatting was a really interesting idea that let the show play around with a lot, it also helped keep the show feeling fresh.

I thought the whole cast was strong and each had their own moment to shine over the course of the series. It really is a testament to what a talented and committed cast can achieve. Moreover, this series also features Jamie Demetriou which as a fan of Stath Lets Flats is a big win for me: I thought his character of Walt was frequently a scene stealer.

I thought the mystery as a whole was well done and thought out as it proved my predictions for who the killer was to be inaccurate and surprised me with its reveal, which again is a tick for me.

Overall, one of the best shows on Apple TV for sure.

Pros.

It is funny

It has a good mystery

The cast are all really good

It plays around with different genres and formats

Demetriou

Cons.

Whilst the wrap up reveal was good it felt a little convenient in places.

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Peacemaker: It’s Cow Or Never

4.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The season finale sees Peacemaker, played by John Cena, and the gang go on one final do or die mission to defeat the butterflies.

This may have been one of the strongest seasons of TV I have seen in a long time, for the most part the series was pretty great, there were a couple of mistakes and slips here or there but widely it was near perfect, this is quite rare.

I thought the finale was able to deliver on everything it was setting up, it gave us crazy action and sweet character moments in just the right amount, whilst also teasing out some unresolved issues for season 2, I am glad the show is giving itself a reason to keep Robert Patrick around.

My one downside would be that the episode feels a little rushed and could have done with being about half an hour longer, I just feel like if it had some extra time could have really nailed every single emotional moment and given us more time during the big fight scene.

Overall, a damn near perfect season finale, season 2 has big shoes to fill.

Pros.

Cena

The emotions

The battle

The use of the theme song

The set up

Cons.

It could have done with more time

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