Last Week in Pop Culture #31

With the official 2013-2014 TV season drawing to a close last week, and with me (mostly) caught up on the show I comment on regularly, as well as another looming work trip threatening to throw off my regular schedule once again, this will be the last regularly scheduled "Last Week in Pop Culture" post. I reserve the right to drop one in periodically, if there's something of note I'd like to talk about, but I won't have one up (nearly) every Saturday going forward.

However, I am hoping to resurrect my Retro Reviews of The Simpsons sometime soon (once I get back into the groove after my trip and give myself a little break). So look for those again shortly! 

And, of course, I've still got three X-aminations posts a week to do, plus all my stuff at Sound on Sight and Capeless Crusader, and Dr. Bitz has three more Game of Thrones reviews to do, so you won't be lacking for content from us this summer, regardless!  

Around the Web
Just one additional post this week, my weekly Market Maven column from Monday. 

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Not bad. It wasn't the greatest X-Men film, but it was entertaining, well-constructed, well-acted. The Sentinels were handled well, most of the action scenes were top notch, and kudos for wiping out most of The Last Stand. In the middle of the pack, but near the top (I'd still put X2 and First Class above it, for sure).

Last Week in Pop Culture #30

Around the Web
I have a bunch of new and old X-Men stuff up in honor of Days of Future Past; check it all out here.

Also, this week's Market Maven column, as well as a column looking at April's sales numbers, can be found here and here. 

Once Upon a Time: Kansas

Knowing full well going in that a two-hour finale remained, I was fully expecting the other shoe to drop as soon as things started to go well in the fight against Zelena (not unlike how Pan's seeming defeat two episodes before the mid-winter break presaged the reveal that he switched places with Henry). The only problem was whatever it is that happened was way too unclear to be much of a cliffhanger. Was that Zelena? Her magic, operating on its own? Was her death part of the spell, something that wouldn't be triggered until she was "killed"? Bottom line: you want your cliffhangers to make the audience go "whoa!", not "huh?"

Last Week in Pop Culture #29

Around the Web
My first Market Maven column for Capeless Crusader went up this week, a new weekly column I'll be writing that looks at each week's batch of comic releases. Look for it every Monday, and eventually I'll  have some other columns up on Capeless Crusader as well. And if you like what you read, be sure to like the site's Facebook page as well.

As for Sound on Sight, this week I reviewed the first issue of my boy Cyclops' first solo series, a fun little space pirate-y story starring the time-lost version of the character (not the present day cranky Magneto-esque version). 

And hey, just because it's been awhile since I'm mentioned it, don't forget about Saved by the Bell Reviewed, the podcast co-hosted by me and Dr. Bitz. New episodes come out every week, and this week's is a doozy!

Last Week in Pop Culture #28

Around the Web
This week, I review 24 Underground #1, the first issue of a new series intended to bridge the gap between the previous final season of 24 and the new "limited event series" debuting in early May. Unfortunately, it's all very routine.

Later this week, I'll also have a couple Spider-Man posts on Sound on Sight to tie-in with the release of Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Once Upon a Time: Bleeding Through

I'm not sure how the reveal of this backstory gels with the events of Cora's big backstory episode "The Miller's Daughter", from last season, but I'm finding it hard to care.

I'm also not sure how Zelena could have learned all this from the Wizard, either. Like, the broad strokes, sure, but not some of these details.

So who created the tornado that carried Zelena to Oz? Are are supposed to infer that she did it herself, unintentionally, as a baby?

It's kinda gross that Cora, having lost out on the opportunity to marry Prince Leopold, never gave up and later threw her daughter at the now-king Leopold.

I should have realized that Gold would be the brains in Zelena's Oz-inspired spell. He's the only one on the show using one regularly.

Emma's glee at getting better at magic was genuinely amusing, as was Hook calling it bad form to mess with a man's hook.

Last Week in Pop Culture #27

The Simpsons: Days of Future Future

Future-set episodes (which have now occurred often enough to be their own thing) on this show are usually pretty good, because they allow the writers to put the character into new and different situations they can't use when everyone is perpetually stuck at the same age. That said, this was one of the weaker future episodes, mainly because the "it was all in your head" twist undercuts the arcs made by the characters within that dream. Bart still comes out the other end having gotten over Genda, but what about everyone else?

Also, the whole "cloning Homer" gag seemed pointless. It wasn't that funny to begin with, then it ultimately amounted to nothing when the end result was Homer getting uploaded into a computer. They could have skipped the clones and just started there and the episode would have been all the better. The repeated funerals for Homer's clones seemed ridiculous. Why wouldn't you stop having funerals after a while, and why would anyone keep going even if you did? 

Last Week in Pop Culture #26

Around the Web 
One new review from me at Sound on Sight, for Nightcrawler #1, possibly the best new Chris Claremont comic I've read in years.

Also, and far more importantly, Monday sees the launch of the much-teased Saved by the Bell Reviewed podcast, co-hosted by me and Dr. Bitz, as well as Portland cartoonists Carolyn Main and Ryan Alexander-Tanner (Ryan, the driving force behind this project, is of course the mad genius behind the wonderful Full House Reviewed blog as well). You'll be able to download the first episode on Monday from our Tumblr site, and if you haven't already, be sure to like our Facebook page and follow the show on Twitter @sbtb_reviewed.

(And, as long as I'm asking you to like Facebook pages, if you enjoy my writing for Sound on Sight, then be sure to like their Facebook page as well).

Finally, if you're heading out to the comic shop this weekend or poking around on the newly-acquired-by-Amazon Comixology, check out Shutter #1 from Image Comics. It's about a futuristic female Indiana Jones, and features a backup story written and drawn by Ryan. 

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

A really solid follow-up to the first film (which I think is a bit underrated these days), which made the most of its 70s conspiracy thriller vibe and did an effective job of servicing everyone in its rather large cast (this was probably the best Black Widow film yet, right?). If anything, the titular Winter Soldier was the most marginalized element of the movie - there wasn't much of a reason for him to be the one leading the Hydra/SHIELD strike team other than his connection to Cap, and the real impact of that seems to have been left for a future film.  

Last Week in Pop Culture #25

Around the Web 
This week, I contributed another article to Sound on Sight's "Greatest TV Pilots", this time for The Wonder Years. You can read it here. Also, I did a new "To Better Know A Hero" post on Falcon, which you can read here.

Bob's Burgers: The Kids Rob a Train
Anytime Regular Size Rudy shows up, you know a good time will be had by all.

Once Upon a Time: Quiet Minds

Full disclosure: I watched this episode immediately after the HIMYM finale, so I may have missed some important details as a result of the loud, rage-induced ringing in my ears at the time.

I'm a little unclear as to why Neal had to die. I get that he and Rumpelstiltskin were one now, so that only one or the other could be dominate at any given time, but I'm not sure why Neal had to die to let Rumpel out to tell Emma about Zelena. Couldn't they have just let Rumpel reassert himself briefly?

Last Week in Pop Culture #24

Around the Web 
Two reviews from me at Sound on Sight this week, as I wrap up a pair of crossovers: The X-Files Conspiracy #2 and Guardians of the Galaxy #13.

Also, I slightly tweaked and updated by To Better Know A Hero post on Captain American, which you can find here.

The Simpson: The War of Art 

This wasn't the funniest or most groundbreaking episode, but I'll give it credit for being relatively original plot-wise, covering some ground it hasn't covered before, which is a pretty rare accomplishment here in the 25th season.

Last Week in Pop Culture #23

Around the Web

This week, I've got a slightly revised and updated version of my To Better Know a Hero post on Black Widow up on Sound on Sight. Check it out before you see Captain America: Winter Solider.

The Simpsons: The Winter of His Discontent

This felt like the warmed up leftovers of two plots (Homer embraces the lifestyle of the elderly, Bart is befriend by Nelson after helping him out) from two previous episodes ("The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons" and "The Haw-Hawed Couple"), with an extended parody of The Warriors tagged onto the end.

Last Week in Pop Culture #22

Around the Web
Two more reviews from me at Sound on Sight: the penultimate chapter of the "X-Files Conspiracy" crossover, and the penultimate chapter of "Trial of Jean Grey". It was a penultimate week, apparently.

Also, as some of you may have seen on twitter, this week Dr. Bitz and I began recording the Saved By the Bell Reviewed podcast, along with Billy Superstar of the Full House Reviewed blog and Portland artist Carolyn Main.

We're still a few weeks away from going live (we want to get a few under our belt and work out the kinks before we start posting), but you can be sure I'll pimp the hell out of it here once it goes up. In the meantime, you can follow the show on twitter @sbtb_reviewed, and check out our under-construction tumblr here.  

The Simpsons: The Man Who Grew Too Much

Always nice to see a Sideshow Bob episode centered around something other than Bob trying to kill Bart. But let's not pretend the act one reveal of Sideshow Bob is at all shocking when Fox has been pimping his appearance in commercials all week.

Last Week in Pop Culture #20

Around the Web
One review from me up on Sound on Sight this week, covering the still-not-as-fun-as-it-should-be next chapter in IDW's X-Files Conspiracy crossover, this time featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The first trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy hit the internet this week, and if you haven't checked it out, do so. As I said on Twitter, I'm an easy mark when it comes to trailers, but this got me even more excited for the movie, especially for Chris Pratt's take on Starlord. This movie will be a tough sell, even to the millions who have embraced stuff like Iron Man and the Avengers, but the trailer seems to suggest the filmmakers are aware of this, and doing their best to make sure everyone knows what to expect from the movie. 

Also, in perhaps the most WTF news of late, NBC announced that it is rebooting Heroes as a 13-episode "event series" in 2015. Alan Sepinwall does a good job laying out just why this seems like such a bad idea here, though he overlooks one key component: in addition to all its other problems, Heroes under Tim Kring was pathologically incapable of showing any exciting action sequences, at one point literally confining a fight that was the climax of a season to a locked room and showing the audience a character watching the fight through a keyhole rather than the fight itself.

All of which is to say that while a Heroes reboot in and of itself may not be a terrible idea (in terms of doing something with the concept of "ordinary people with extraordinary abilities" while trying to get some juice from the brand name), putting Kring back in charge seems especially stupid. That said, I'll probably still watch it, just to see how awful it is (what the kids these days call "hate watching").

Last Week in Pop Culture #19

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This week, I've got one review up for Sound on Sight, looking at All New X-Men #23, the third part of the "Trial of Jean Grey" crossover, as well as a feature on Cyclops and Jean Grey, part of February's "Best Comic Book Romances" theme. 

Once Upon a Time: The New Neverland

One of the benefits to moving the action back to Storybrooke, even though the whole Pan storyline hasn't completed, is that it gives us a chance to see the characters decompress while they think the threat is over, something that rarely happens.

It was genuinely kind of sad that nobody cared Regina came back, and I'm glad Snow wasn't a bitch about it and stuck up for her. 

I'm also glad Emma knew fairly early that something was wrong with Henry - obviously, with only two episodes left, they couldn't drag this out very long, but that works to the show's advantage.

I'm still confused about the Hipster Darlings...like, they were once younger than Wendy, right? So now they're older than her (since she's been in timeless Neverland), but they're not *that* much older. Why not? Whatever. That's probably the last we'll see of them. 

How awesome would it be if Henry had gotten stuck in Pan's body so that Jared Gilmore was done playing Henry? 

I've seen better animated figures than Medusa in video games. From 1995.

Last Week in Pop Culture #17

Around the Web 
Just one piece for Sound on Sight from me this week, a review of Guardians of the Galaxy #11, the second first part of the "Trial of Jean Grey" crossover, which you can find here.

It was announced this week that Jeremy Irons has been cast as Alfred and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor in the still-untitled sequel to Man of Steel (the one that will feature Ben Affleck as Batman). I like the casting, particularly Eisenberg. His Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network was already pretty Luthor-esque, and his casting suggests they're setting up Luthor as a tech-savvy media mogul type, which is a sensible modern interpretation of the character that still fits his roots, one which Eisenberg should nail.

That said, this is still a movie that is going to feature Batman and Wonder Woman (along with Alfred and Luthor and lord knows who else) as well as a Superman who did nothing to help the thousands (if not millions) of innocent people who died in the last movie and expressed zero remorse over that fact, so it's tough to get too excited about this casting, because even if Eisenberg kills it, he's still probably going to be in a mess of a movie. 

Far more importantly than all that, this week my good friend, fellow blogger and frequent commenter Sarah announced on her blog that she's signed with a literary agent. Cue the fanfare! As any fellow aspiring novelists knows, landing an agent is A BIG DEAL, the key step in getting your book published and becoming rich and famous and never having to do anything but write ever again, and I couldn't be happier for her. Rest assured, once her first book (which I've read, and is pretty effing fantastic) is available for purchase, I'll be pimping the hell out of it here, so no one'll miss out on a chance to buy it.

Last Week in Pop Culture #16

Around the 'Net
You can find my review of All New X-Men #22, the first part of the "Trial of Jean Grey" crossover, for Sound on Sight here, and my review of X-Files Conspiracy: Ghostbusters #1 here. 

Once Upon a Time: Think Lovely Thoughts.

How dumb is Henry? Wouldn't it be awesome if he was just dead now, and we were done with his character? 

I'm fine with the idea of Peter Pan being Rumplestiltskin's dad (they were obviously connected somehow), but the reveal would have been more effective if, once again, it didn't occur in the same episode in which we first meet Rumple's dad. And also if his desire for immortality/childhood had been more firmly established prior to their arrival in Neverland, whereas before then, he just seemed kinda shifty and irresponsible.

That said, I really like the idea that Neverland is just some place Pan dreamed up as a child before eventually going there to rule it, and the casting department once again outdid themselves in casting Rumple's dad and young Rumple.

Last Week in Pop Culture #15

The Golden Globes

As hosts, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler killed it once again.  We're hosting for the second time because this is Hollywood, and if something kind of works, they'll just keep doing it until everyone hates it'

Nobody in the TV world takes the TV Golden Globes very seriously (because the HFPA really doesn't), but it was still nice to see Amy Poehler win for her work on Parks and Recreation, making the HFPA the only major awarding body to recognize that excellent show.

Very surprised by both Andy Samberg's and Brooklyn Nine-Nine's wins. I mean, I like that show, it's steadily improving and I'm glad that these wins should (hopefully) lock it in for a second season, but I don't think it's the best comedy on TV right now, even amongst the other Globe nominees (that would be Parks and Rec).

Someone needs to work on the seating chart for next year. I think *I* could have gotten from my couch to the podium faster than some of the winners.

Last Week in Pop Culture #14

It's been a couple weeks without much new TV, but things came roaring back this week, and I used that time off to catch up on a few things, and even finish one particular rewatch. 

The Simpsons: Steal This Episode

One of the funnier episodes of the season (bot the FBI's zeal to go after internet pirates and most of the Hollywood stuff had me laughing consistently), and one that wisely acknowledges it's tackling an issue with no easy answers. That said, this episode felt, at times like a retread of earlier episodes (in more specific ways than usual): I'm fairly certain Homer has gone on a rage-filled tirade brought on by all the pre-show junk at movie theaters before, and the whole "pirating movies" thing felt like a rehash of the classic "stealing cable" episode from season two, which just made Lisa's relative lack of involvement in this episode stick out. 

Last Week in Pop Culture #8

My stupid DVR failed to record Top Chef for whatever reason, so we'll have to talk about that next week. In the meantime, here's some stuff my DVR managed to record properly. 

The Simpsons: YOLO

Pleasant and amusing, if not terribly funny (though there were some good lines on the fringes). But while Lisa's manipulation of her classmates was pretty great, I'm not sure why she ever thought the whole honor code thing would work (nor why it ultimately did). Sure, she got Nelson to sign a pledge, but since when does Nelson give a crap about signing a pledge? Wouldn't he just go back to cheating immediately, pledge or not, even if he was tattled on by goody goodies like Martin or Milhouse (ditto Bart, Dolph, Kearney, etc.)?

Last Week in Pop Culture #7

The Simpsons: Four Regrettings and a Funeral

Look, you can either be structurally clever, or really funny (or, ideally, both). This episode tried to do both and succeed at neither.

In case you're wondering, Fox was supposed to air "Bart the Lover" in the 6:30 slot, in remembrance of Marcia Wallace, but apparently had issues getting the episode back from syndication, so they aired "The Ned-liest Catch" instead, making Bart's sad chalkboard message that opened "Four Regrettings and a Funeral" the best tribute of the night. 

Last Week in Pop Culture #5

Once Upon a Time: Quite a Common Fairy

Considering this is ABC/Disney we're talking about, that was a pretty surprising admission of Mulan's feelings for Aurora, wasn't it? I mean, it wasn't like they came right out and said it, but the subtext was darn near text for two characters ostensibly based on stars of animated Disney films.

Henry's line about his family having a thing about apples was pretty great, and as much as Henry often bugs me, I have to give him credit for actually trying to shoot Pan instead of play along (as much as we knew Pan wouldn't get hit).

And while it only portends more focus on Henry, I do like the idea that he is significant because he's the child of parents born of the greatest light and the greatest darkness. But I'm a sucker for stuff like that. 

Last Week in Pop Culture #3

The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXIV

The much-ballyhooed opening, directed by Guillermo Del Toro, was easily the best part of the episode. Which isn't to disparage the rest of the episode, which was decent. The middle segment, in which Bart's head is affixed to Lisa's body, was pretty awful though, and displayed none of the usual wit or imagination present in the Treehouse episodes. The first segment was amusing and featured tons of clever word play even while it wasn't tremendously funny, while the third segment, my favorite of the bunch, was a pretty decent Freaks parody and featured some of the episode's strongest gags. Not the funniest episode (Treehouse or otherwise), but the opening and first & third segments were mostly clever, imaginative and fun.