Discuss and Rate the Last Thing You Watched (non-movies)
- Thread starter Hawki
- Start date
I don't want to sound cynical, but I feel that has been the case with literally every single Star Wars production since Force Awakens to the point I'm fairly sure it's paid promotion.
To get anything remotely believable, you have to navigate between obvious marketing singing the praises of everything on one side, and all the "go woke go broke" cultists one the other side, that will try to shout down everything that dares giving a non white or non male actor a speaking role
If you wanna hear my opinion, Solo, a few years ago, really set the standard for the average level of quality for every live action Star Wars production that followed. Disregarding Rise of Skywalker, which was a downright comical travesty, and based on having seen two seasons of Mandalorian and bits and pieces of Boba Fett and Obi Wan the current state of Star Wars for me amounts to "too much" and "not good enough".
Mind you, nothing since Episode 9 has been downright bad, but neither has anything been remotely good enough to justify just how much of it they're filling Disney+ with. I'm sure this is in part my personal bias speaking, but of all the Disney Star Wars live action productions, only Rogue One and Episode 8 felt like real movies made by real people to me. Genuinely, it's jarring to rewatch them with the hindsight of what came out of the series since and see just how much actual effort Edwards and Johnson put into them. They aren't even especially good, but they feel like projects that had actual "writers" and "directors" that "gave a shit".
Everything else was just... fluff. It fills time and space but it had worthwhile moments the way an empty warehouse might have a stray cat in it.
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Yet the animated productions either get better reception from audiences and critics most of the time. I find it ironic really. The constant production of all these shows on an assembly line is why I have not bothered watching any of the live action stuff (Marvel suffering from the exact same issue). For all of Disney's talk about not wanting to make the same mistakes as the old EU/Legends material, they sure as hell don't mind doing it themselves when it's convenient. They've been making that same mistake, because they never had a plan to begin with, and only had money in mind.
Disappointing to hear about Andor. I gave up on Star Wars but was going to check it out. I still might, of course, almost certainly the first couple episodes but if it's just bleh then I won't care.
Meanwhile on my end...
Cyberpunk Endgerunners, ep 1 & 2
Yeah, it's pretty cool. I am NOT an anime guy, but when I saw it's 10 short episodes and people were comparing it to Arcane, I jumped on board and glad I'm in. It's just.. fun. A reminder of how easy or simple it is to make a decent show- it's a standard "hero's journey" trope in the world of the Cyberpunk game. That's it, no endless chatter about bullshit or references to fanservice (at least not that I know of, I never even played the game). Just action and conflict and drama, and it doesn't have endless smirking quips.
This show and Arcane have made me realize that while I don't like anime per se, I do like some things that are inspired by it, or are a very light version of it. I guess kind of the way I feel about avant gard jazz or black metal- I can't actually deal with the pure uncut stuff, but it's nice when other artists take what they need from it.
Meanwhile on my end...
Cyberpunk Endgerunners, ep 1 & 2
Yeah, it's pretty cool. I am NOT an anime guy, but when I saw it's 10 short episodes and people were comparing it to Arcane, I jumped on board and glad I'm in. It's just.. fun. A reminder of how easy or simple it is to make a decent show- it's a standard "hero's journey" trope in the world of the Cyberpunk game. That's it, no endless chatter about bullshit or references to fanservice (at least not that I know of, I never even played the game). Just action and conflict and drama, and it doesn't have endless smirking quips.
This show and Arcane have made me realize that while I don't like anime per se, I do like some things that are inspired by it, or are a very light version of it. I guess kind of the way I feel about avant gard jazz or black metal- I can't actually deal with the pure uncut stuff, but it's nice when other artists take what they need from it.
She-Hulk
So I have kind of fallen off of the MCU bandwagon recently. Phase 4 has been a bit of a dud. Most of the movies weren't great. Most of the TV shows weren't great. Other than Shang-Chi, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and WandaVision, the whole the whole phase has kind of fallen on its face out of sheer mediocrity, or worse. And She-Hulk appears to the the literal face of this disappointment.
And yet, She-Hulk has been the best MCU thing this year.
Honestly. Im not joking.
Its light. It doesn't take itself too seriously. Its funny. Each episode has its own (mostly) self contained plot, so the show doesn't feel like it is spinning its wheels for another week. It is the only show that I can actually see running for a few seasons. It is genuinely a fun show, and I actually look forward to it each week.
Sure, the CGI could probably use some work, but at least I could actually stomach the show, unlike Moon Knight, which (literally) bored me to sleep.
Its just kind of funny scrolling through YouTube and seeing video essay after video essay bemoaning Marvel's recent catalogue of films and TV shows, and seeing She-Hulk's face plastered on each of the thumbnails. Again, despite the fact that her show has actually been one of the few good ones.
So I have kind of fallen off of the MCU bandwagon recently. Phase 4 has been a bit of a dud. Most of the movies weren't great. Most of the TV shows weren't great. Other than Shang-Chi, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and WandaVision, the whole the whole phase has kind of fallen on its face out of sheer mediocrity, or worse. And She-Hulk appears to the the literal face of this disappointment.
And yet, She-Hulk has been the best MCU thing this year.
Honestly. Im not joking.
Its light. It doesn't take itself too seriously. Its funny. Each episode has its own (mostly) self contained plot, so the show doesn't feel like it is spinning its wheels for another week. It is the only show that I can actually see running for a few seasons. It is genuinely a fun show, and I actually look forward to it each week.
Sure, the CGI could probably use some work, but at least I could actually stomach the show, unlike Moon Knight, which (literally) bored me to sleep.
Its just kind of funny scrolling through YouTube and seeing video essay after video essay bemoaning Marvel's recent catalogue of films and TV shows, and seeing She-Hulk's face plastered on each of the thumbnails. Again, despite the fact that her show has actually been one of the few good ones.
Netflix's Resident Evil
So a bit of a disclaimer on this one: I have no attachment to the source material. I have only ever played the demos for 5 and 7, and I have also watched a couple of the Milla Jovovich movies (though I appreciate that those weren't particularly well liked, either). So maybe that explains why I wasn't immediately nausiated by this show.
But to be honest, I actually quite liked it. I've seen much worse shows, many of which have gone on for multiple seasons, and dare I say it, I am actually quite disappointed that this got cancelled.
A few things that I liked? I really liked the concept of the Then/Now timelines. Lance Reddick was great (Bert is a treasure and needs to be protected at all costs). The CGI for the monsters was honestly really impressive. And it was honestly just fun, when it wanted to be.
The tone, though, was honestly all over the place. Sometimes it wants to be a serious drama, and at others it is beyond goofey (see above). It is really quite difficult to put a label on what this show was trying to be, but I did ultimately find it to be enjoyable.
As for the Before/Now timelines, I think the Before timeline was the better of the two, even though it was a bit weird with the highschool drama angle to it, and all of the teen angst. The Now timeline did obviously have the better setpieces, with it being a zombie apocolypse, and all, but I don't think it was nearly as interesting, because Jade was mostly on her own, or with one-off characters. I would have been interested to see where a lot of the characters ended up, or how they got to be where we saw them in the Now timeline, but I guess that will never happen.
And I think this is something that I am kind of frustrated with, because obviously this show isn't going to continue, but you would think that when a show is on a knife's edge between getting multiple seasons, or getting cancelled after one, they would try to tell a mostly self-contained story, instead of leaving every plot thread on a cliffhanger that might never get resolved. I mean, case in point, the Before timeline doesn't even outright begin the outbreak by the last episode.
Ah well, another failed videogame adaption for the pile, then.
So a bit of a disclaimer on this one: I have no attachment to the source material. I have only ever played the demos for 5 and 7, and I have also watched a couple of the Milla Jovovich movies (though I appreciate that those weren't particularly well liked, either). So maybe that explains why I wasn't immediately nausiated by this show.
But to be honest, I actually quite liked it. I've seen much worse shows, many of which have gone on for multiple seasons, and dare I say it, I am actually quite disappointed that this got cancelled.
A few things that I liked? I really liked the concept of the Then/Now timelines. Lance Reddick was great (Bert is a treasure and needs to be protected at all costs). The CGI for the monsters was honestly really impressive. And it was honestly just fun, when it wanted to be.
The tone, though, was honestly all over the place. Sometimes it wants to be a serious drama, and at others it is beyond goofey (see above). It is really quite difficult to put a label on what this show was trying to be, but I did ultimately find it to be enjoyable.
As for the Before/Now timelines, I think the Before timeline was the better of the two, even though it was a bit weird with the highschool drama angle to it, and all of the teen angst. The Now timeline did obviously have the better setpieces, with it being a zombie apocolypse, and all, but I don't think it was nearly as interesting, because Jade was mostly on her own, or with one-off characters. I would have been interested to see where a lot of the characters ended up, or how they got to be where we saw them in the Now timeline, but I guess that will never happen.
And I think this is something that I am kind of frustrated with, because obviously this show isn't going to continue, but you would think that when a show is on a knife's edge between getting multiple seasons, or getting cancelled after one, they would try to tell a mostly self-contained story, instead of leaving every plot thread on a cliffhanger that might never get resolved. I mean, case in point, the Before timeline doesn't even outright begin the outbreak by the last episode.
Ah well, another failed videogame adaption for the pile, then.
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I hope to do my own review of the show at some point, but while I'm here:
And yeah, about never seeing how things turned out. Obviously a season 2 will never happen, but I'd love to see something like a comic series or whatnot.
Rest assured, if we're judging this as an adaptation, it's terrible, even worse than the Anderson films. It's a case of "pluck out names, use them for new stories/concepts."
Ditto.
You want fun? I'll give you fun!
Yeah, weirdly enough, I found the "Before" timeline more interesting on average than the "Now" timeline. I think in part because I've seen plenty of zombie apocalypse stuff (and The Walking Dead is still the high water mark for that, least as far as TV series go), whereas the "Then" timeline is more unique. Doesn't always work (e.g. the episode "Home Movies" really drags things out), but it was interesting to see things slowly develop.
And yeah, about never seeing how things turned out. Obviously a season 2 will never happen, but I'd love to see something like a comic series or whatnot.
Ah, so it perfectly replicates the tone of Rogue One then.
God, Star Wars is such a pathetic pile of corporate sludge now. It'd be funny if it wasn't... -no, actually it is just funny. Really, really funny.
Mike (Hulu): Good / Great
Biopic about the rise, fall, further fall, furthest fall, and rise of world-renown heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson.
Man, that was a rough watch. As someone who grew up with Tyson and watched his prolific career in the world of professional boxing in awe, I had no idea the demons he struggled with. He's played as a remorseful yet sympathetic antagonist in his own life, admitting an inability to love anyone, first and foremost himself. The guy went through a lot, from childhood to seemingly yesterday. The series doesn't excuse his actions, but it explains them as well as they can be explained. Tyson is someone so emotionally and mentally damaged, that one wonders how he held it together at all.
That said, I could have done without the 4th wall breaks. Not a fan of them in serious cinematic outings. Tell me the story without telling me you're telling me a story; let the drama speak for itself so I can absorb the content without constant reminder that it's "your" perspective of a largely (and ostensibly) true story of your life.
Overall a good series that provides a lot of insight into one of sports' most iconic antiheroes. And fun fact, Tyson is portrayed by my girlfriend's ex-coworker's son, Trevante Rhodes. He made his debut in 2016's Moonlight which garnered quite a bit of praise. He is an amazing Tyson if the lisp is overplayed at times making his dialogue a bit hard to understand from time to time.
Biopic about the rise, fall, further fall, furthest fall, and rise of world-renown heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson.
Man, that was a rough watch. As someone who grew up with Tyson and watched his prolific career in the world of professional boxing in awe, I had no idea the demons he struggled with. He's played as a remorseful yet sympathetic antagonist in his own life, admitting an inability to love anyone, first and foremost himself. The guy went through a lot, from childhood to seemingly yesterday. The series doesn't excuse his actions, but it explains them as well as they can be explained. Tyson is someone so emotionally and mentally damaged, that one wonders how he held it together at all.
That said, I could have done without the 4th wall breaks. Not a fan of them in serious cinematic outings. Tell me the story without telling me you're telling me a story; let the drama speak for itself so I can absorb the content without constant reminder that it's "your" perspective of a largely (and ostensibly) true story of your life.
Overall a good series that provides a lot of insight into one of sports' most iconic antiheroes. And fun fact, Tyson is portrayed by my girlfriend's ex-coworker's son, Trevante Rhodes. He made his debut in 2016's Moonlight which garnered quite a bit of praise. He is an amazing Tyson if the lisp is overplayed at times making his dialogue a bit hard to understand from time to time.
This is a genuine question, not meant as a dig or insult, here. Why are you (singular and as a collective) so fascinated, nearly obsessed, with pre-OT and Old Republic era Star Wars? It seems like everything recent (tv and movies) other than the sequel trilogy has direct ties to those time periods and I just do not get the fixation.
Yeah I'm with you.
Generally I like to have one "serious" show that is 40-60 mins, and one "light" show that is < 30 mins. This usually is post-dinner, before bed entertainment for wife and I.
She-Hulk is a perfect candidate for the latter.
If I were to hazard a guess, I would say that it is because the people who grew up with the prequel trilogy are now in their 20s and 30s, and now represent a massive portion of the Star Wars community, and probably one of the biggest demographics overall, now.
Obviously the prequel trilogy got a lot of negative criticism, and most of it was rightfully deserved, but they still hold a special place in the hearts of those who grew up with them, as their Star Wars.
For me, the prequel era is my favourite. I would argue that it is a great story, poorly told. I love the politics, I love the secrecy and the sabotage, and I really love Order 66, and the transition from the Republic to the Empire. It is just a shame that the films weren't great - but im happy to see that this period, and these events, are being explored in other Star Wars media.
As for the Old Republic era, it is important to note that Disney's High Republic era, and the older Old Republic era aren't the same thing. I don't think that the Old Republic is canon anymore, and the High Republic is its replacement.
I think Disney came up with it, because they want to keep on doing novels and other Extended Universe stuff, but the Sequel Era isn't exactly very popular.
The Old Republic still exists in the current canon, just not specifically the BioWare games. As in, the term "Old Republic"/"Old Republic era" is used to describe that period of the Republic's history, and from a glance at its Wookiepedia page, it appears that some of the generalities have been carried over. The High Republic, on the other hand, is the period 200 years before Ep. 1 - there's no overlap between the two in terms of timeline. Conceptually, the High Republic could be called Disney's replacement for the Old Republic, but it doesn't do so literally.
My problem with the prequel era is that focusing so heavily on it muddies the waters and adds further to the many inconsistencies with the OT.
If the prequels and their associated content were to be declared an alternate timeline from the originals and sequels, I’d have less of a problem and it would straighten out a lot of the continuity snarls.
Such as?
Wait, so you want the prequels to be declared AU, but you're fine with the sequels being in continuity with the OT? The sequel trilogy that arguably makes the entire OT a waste of time, and when it isn't doing that, is repeating its plot beats?
Each to their own of course, but while I'm happy to say that the prequel films had flaws, the prequel era is at least its own thing, well fleshed out, with a tone and setting that's distinct from the OT. The same can't be said for the sequel trilogy. Depending on how you define the "sequel era," there's arguably some distinct stuff around (I've enjoyed some of the EU stuff for this era), but ultimately, it's repeating a lot of what came before.
Relatively minor things really.
Like Yoda not being Obi-Wan’s master for one, why Leia’s ship was being pursued in the opening shot of the first movie, Leia remembering her mother, all of the Jedi, Sith and Inquisitors crowding the galaxy when there were only two Jedi left in the OT.
The sequel trilogy only makes the OT a “waste of time” in the same way World War II made World War I a waste of time.
The First Order coming to power did not undo the accomplishments of the Rebellion. Both Death Stars are still destroyed, the Empire still lost and countless world’s were freed.
The Emperor clone-bodysnatching his way back from death does not undo Vader throwing his wrinkled ass down a bottomless shaft and earning a redemption
Plenty of sequels and franchises re-use plot beats and don’t get reamed as bad as the sequel trilogy.
She-hulk Episode 6 is the worst one yet, and I say this as someone who actually likes the show. The wedding setup was awfully boring, but the B plot managed to piss me off. If you're going to do a lawyer show, DO A LAWYER SHOW.
Also managed to get in the first episode of Andor. Like everyone else said, its great that the show looks and feels like some actual fucking effort was put into it. But my God was it slow, no wonder they put out a multiple episode premiere like Kenobi.
Also managed to get in the first episode of Andor. Like everyone else said, its great that the show looks and feels like some actual fucking effort was put into it. But my God was it slow, no wonder they put out a multiple episode premiere like Kenobi.
Most of those I agree with, though I'm not sure how Leia being pursued is a discrepency.
Um, WWI kinda WAS a waste of time, so...
There's two ways we can look at this - the in-universe viewpoint, and the storytelling viewpoint.
From the in-universe standpoint, well, yes, taking down the Empire was an achievement, but how long did that achievement last? About thirty years before the New Republic is destroyed, the New Jedi Order is destroyed, the First Order rises, the Resistance fights against them, etc. The achievements of the Rebellion are kind of rendered null by the sequel trilogy, because the Empire still re-emerges, the Republic is destroyed, the Jedi don't return, etc.
From a storytelling standpoint, it's even worse. In part because of the above, but add to that is the repetition of plot beats (TFA is practically New Hope 2.0), but it undermines Vader's sacrifice since Palpy survives. And it does it even worse, becuase in Return, there's emotional impact to Vader giving his life to save his son. Rise of Skywalker's idea of gravitas is to simply have Rey reflect lightning into Palpy, so...gravitas?
Well, yeah, but Star Wars is one of the biggest IPs on the planet, so of course it's going to attract more attention, for better or worse.
But I'll also use that point to make another - Disney spent 4 billion dollars buying the Star Wars IP. They had the budget to do anything. They had as much time as they wanted to make the sequel trilogy. And what did they make? A trilogy that's at war with itself, that clearly isn't thought out, that's aping the original trilogy from plot, to aesthetic.
Edit: In case anyone's wondering, looking at Disney's handling of the Star Wars IP as a whole, there's actually a lot of stuff I do like, and this includes EU material for the sequel era. But looking at the sequel trilogy as a whole...yeah. Obviously franchises have re-used plot beats, but I've never seen a trilogy try to 'counter' itself with subsequent installments. Regardless as to how you feel about the individual films, we have TFA (plays it safe, lots like it, lots don't), TLJ (takes risks, splits the fanbase down the middle), then RoS (tries to wheel back TLJ, pleases no-one).
Cobra Kai: Season 4 (5/5)
To be frank, this is more of a 4.5/5, but screw it, I'm ranking up. So yes, this is probably the best season I've seen so far (for the record, the ranking is 4>3>1>2) - it's absolutely astounding how each season has been "pretty damn good" at worst, excellent at best, and how consistent the whole series has been. Season 4 certainly isn't perfect, but overall, it's great.
I'm not going to do a standard review (not that I always do that anyway), but I'm just going to post a collection of thoughts. So on that note:
-Kenny really strikes me as a wasted character, and at best (or worst?), a character who mainly exists to further other characters. On his own, the journey of "bullied kid joins Cobra Kai and becomes a bully himself" is a journey that's already been done in this series, so I'm not sure why he's here...unless I factor in other developments. Robby takes Kenny under his wing, but Kenny turns out as a thug, so sucks for Robby I guess. And it gives Antonio something to do, but again, these are developments for other characters, not so much Kenny himself.
-Speaking of Antonio, it's kind of weird, if refreshing, to have him have a more major role in the series, and I think it's done well, especially when Daniel finally loses his shit with him.
-Terry Silver...okay, quick divergence, I saw some of Karate Kid III way back in the day, but barely remember any of it, so while I'm aware of Silver by reputation, I can't comment on him too much as a character up until now. Watching him in this season by itself however, I think Silver's a fascinating character.
On one hand, Silver's clearly not a good person, but maybe this is just me, but I think the series kind of leaves it up in the air as to where the rot is triggered, so to speak. Because early on, he wants nothing to do with Kreese, but Kreese's visit triggers PTSD, so he ends up joining Cobra Kai. Throughout the entire season, Silver's portrayed as being the more amicable, generous, even caring sensei of Cobra Kai, yet clearly there's a darker, even sadistic side to him, such as when he beats up Johnny, Stringray, and frames Kreese for the latter. The question is, and I'd be curious what other people think, did Silver plan to usurp Cobra Kai from the ouset, or did he just get tired of Kreese pulling rank? Because the latter is actually my take. My reading is that Silver, at least initially, was genuinely remorseful for what he did in the third film, and did, at least initially, come back to help Kreese out and recover some of his old mojo, but as the season goes on, his worst instincts come to the surface, and considering how Kreese treats him some of the time, his resentment isn't really without a basis.
Or, alternatively, Silver is meant to be taken as being a pure sociopath and nothing more, but hey, character layers make for delicious cake.
-Speaking of Kreese, again what's interesting is that Kreese seems to go in the opposite direction - mellowing out, becoming less aggressive, he even seems to be genuinely sorry towards Johnny for the events of the first movie, and their falling out in this series. Unlike Silver, I'm not entirely sure what drives this shift, but if I had to guess, it's down to two things:
a) Since Cobra Kai, Eagle Fang, and Miyagi-Do have a "no fighting before the tournament" thing going on, Kreese can't let loose the dogs of war, and by containing his students, has to contain himself.
b) Kreese sees how Silver attacks Johnny, and has a "oh shit" moment.
Kreese isn't as complex as Silver, but it's still solid character development.
-So, Season 4 did what Season 2 and 3 never could, and made me actually sympathetic towards Tori, and make her kind of, sort of, possibly, likable. Well done, season 4. Well done. Also Sam's becoming a bit of a bully herself.
-Johnny's attempted recruiting of female students...yeah, I was outright laughing in this section. Especially when he has to "speak woke" to recruit Piper. Well done, Johnny, I feel ya.
-I really like Devon as a character, even if she doesn't get enough screentime...sort of. I say "sort of," because on the question of not getting enough screentime, you could apply that criticism to any number of the teen characters within the dojos - I can throw out the names "Chris" or "Kenny" for instance, and I'd be surprised if no-one had to look up who they were. Still, Devon makes an impression and I wish we got more of her. That said, why does she join Eagle Fang when a much better stocked Cobra Kai dojo exists? I mean, Piper ends up joining Cobra Kai even after agreeing to join Eagle Fang, and given that Cobra Kai gets to train in an actual dojo (among other things), it's not hard to see why. I guess part of the reason why I'd like to have seen more of Devon is that she'd slot in with a 'female trinity' among Sam and Tory, plus she reminds me of Artemis from Stargirl (make of that what you will), but meh.
-Come to the two-part finale, and I honestly think we've got the best fights in the series. Which would be reason to celebrate by itself, but there's also the solid character development with it, such as Danny and Johnny maybe finally reconciling, and seeing the worth in each other's styles, and how you can visually see the changes when Sam alternates between Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang. Her fight with Tory is excellent, but I'll also give special mention to Eli vs. Robby, which, on a purely visual level, might be the best fight in the entire series. I kid you not, when Eli flips back up, I literally exclaimed "holy shit," and whispered as such when I rewatched the fight on YouTube. Heck, they even do a song sequence with the minor fights via montage, and it's still awesome.
So, yeah. Absolutely awesome season - probably the best one in the series so far. If I had to rank them, it would go 4>3>1>2, but at worst, all these seasons are still good. It's nothing short of incredible that the IP was able to be revived the way it was, but that the quality is as consistent as well.
Neat.
To be frank, this is more of a 4.5/5, but screw it, I'm ranking up. So yes, this is probably the best season I've seen so far (for the record, the ranking is 4>3>1>2) - it's absolutely astounding how each season has been "pretty damn good" at worst, excellent at best, and how consistent the whole series has been. Season 4 certainly isn't perfect, but overall, it's great.
I'm not going to do a standard review (not that I always do that anyway), but I'm just going to post a collection of thoughts. So on that note:
-Kenny really strikes me as a wasted character, and at best (or worst?), a character who mainly exists to further other characters. On his own, the journey of "bullied kid joins Cobra Kai and becomes a bully himself" is a journey that's already been done in this series, so I'm not sure why he's here...unless I factor in other developments. Robby takes Kenny under his wing, but Kenny turns out as a thug, so sucks for Robby I guess. And it gives Antonio something to do, but again, these are developments for other characters, not so much Kenny himself.
-Speaking of Antonio, it's kind of weird, if refreshing, to have him have a more major role in the series, and I think it's done well, especially when Daniel finally loses his shit with him.
-Terry Silver...okay, quick divergence, I saw some of Karate Kid III way back in the day, but barely remember any of it, so while I'm aware of Silver by reputation, I can't comment on him too much as a character up until now. Watching him in this season by itself however, I think Silver's a fascinating character.
On one hand, Silver's clearly not a good person, but maybe this is just me, but I think the series kind of leaves it up in the air as to where the rot is triggered, so to speak. Because early on, he wants nothing to do with Kreese, but Kreese's visit triggers PTSD, so he ends up joining Cobra Kai. Throughout the entire season, Silver's portrayed as being the more amicable, generous, even caring sensei of Cobra Kai, yet clearly there's a darker, even sadistic side to him, such as when he beats up Johnny, Stringray, and frames Kreese for the latter. The question is, and I'd be curious what other people think, did Silver plan to usurp Cobra Kai from the ouset, or did he just get tired of Kreese pulling rank? Because the latter is actually my take. My reading is that Silver, at least initially, was genuinely remorseful for what he did in the third film, and did, at least initially, come back to help Kreese out and recover some of his old mojo, but as the season goes on, his worst instincts come to the surface, and considering how Kreese treats him some of the time, his resentment isn't really without a basis.
Or, alternatively, Silver is meant to be taken as being a pure sociopath and nothing more, but hey, character layers make for delicious cake.
-Speaking of Kreese, again what's interesting is that Kreese seems to go in the opposite direction - mellowing out, becoming less aggressive, he even seems to be genuinely sorry towards Johnny for the events of the first movie, and their falling out in this series. Unlike Silver, I'm not entirely sure what drives this shift, but if I had to guess, it's down to two things:
a) Since Cobra Kai, Eagle Fang, and Miyagi-Do have a "no fighting before the tournament" thing going on, Kreese can't let loose the dogs of war, and by containing his students, has to contain himself.
b) Kreese sees how Silver attacks Johnny, and has a "oh shit" moment.
Kreese isn't as complex as Silver, but it's still solid character development.
-So, Season 4 did what Season 2 and 3 never could, and made me actually sympathetic towards Tori, and make her kind of, sort of, possibly, likable. Well done, season 4. Well done. Also Sam's becoming a bit of a bully herself.
-Johnny's attempted recruiting of female students...yeah, I was outright laughing in this section. Especially when he has to "speak woke" to recruit Piper. Well done, Johnny, I feel ya.
-I really like Devon as a character, even if she doesn't get enough screentime...sort of. I say "sort of," because on the question of not getting enough screentime, you could apply that criticism to any number of the teen characters within the dojos - I can throw out the names "Chris" or "Kenny" for instance, and I'd be surprised if no-one had to look up who they were. Still, Devon makes an impression and I wish we got more of her. That said, why does she join Eagle Fang when a much better stocked Cobra Kai dojo exists? I mean, Piper ends up joining Cobra Kai even after agreeing to join Eagle Fang, and given that Cobra Kai gets to train in an actual dojo (among other things), it's not hard to see why. I guess part of the reason why I'd like to have seen more of Devon is that she'd slot in with a 'female trinity' among Sam and Tory, plus she reminds me of Artemis from Stargirl (make of that what you will), but meh.
-Come to the two-part finale, and I honestly think we've got the best fights in the series. Which would be reason to celebrate by itself, but there's also the solid character development with it, such as Danny and Johnny maybe finally reconciling, and seeing the worth in each other's styles, and how you can visually see the changes when Sam alternates between Miyagi Do and Eagle Fang. Her fight with Tory is excellent, but I'll also give special mention to Eli vs. Robby, which, on a purely visual level, might be the best fight in the entire series. I kid you not, when Eli flips back up, I literally exclaimed "holy shit," and whispered as such when I rewatched the fight on YouTube. Heck, they even do a song sequence with the minor fights via montage, and it's still awesome.
So, yeah. Absolutely awesome season - probably the best one in the series so far. If I had to rank them, it would go 4>3>1>2, but at worst, all these seasons are still good. It's nothing short of incredible that the IP was able to be revived the way it was, but that the quality is as consistent as well.
Neat.
Parts of its are still canon: an episode of Mandalorian takes place on Typhon, which was the starting zone for all Jedi characters in the Old Republic MMO and home of the Jedi Temple and Council - Satele Shan series or bust! - and some episodes of the Clone Wars made mention of Korriban/Moriband (pick a fucking name guys!) which is the homeworld of the Sith Empire.