thePopcornExplorer

I can't tell you how much I missed a thought provoking show like this, I truly love a well written piece of mystery Sci-Fi and Severance came to save the last years of TV.

The concept itself was truly engaging to me, creating a split personality between your work and life self and the ramifications of that decision, the possibilities to explore this are really exciting.

I have to commend a few things; first the concept obviously but most importantly the execution of it specially in season 1. The cinematography, the locations, the set design, everything creates an odd, uncomfortable and mysterious atmosphere, add a bit of weirdness and you get yourself a world filled with original lore, not an easy task to accomplish when so many have succeeded on doing the same for years almost exhausting the entertainment industry.

Then the acting, I mean there's no shortage of great performances all around, some of course are more prominent than others but generally speaking everyone is outstanding and filled their role perfectly.

The first season is highly addictive with a perfect pace, a lot of mysterious slowly being unraveled culminating in a fantastic cliff hanger with a pinch of comedy here and there perfectly matching the tone of the show.

It was a 10/10 for me no doubt, however season 2 made a few narrative decisions that had me a bit hesitant. To point some of them out; some sub-plots get overlooked (Petey, Irvin on later episodes and the whole re-integration part), the explanation for the goats is really basic and underwhelming and while I can understand the concept for the main plot point in season 2 (Cold Harbor) I am a bit skeptical in regards as two how and why those two got themselves in that position, specially her (hope this makes sense without giving up spoilers).

I didn't became a huge fan of the last scene of the season 2 finale but I have an open mind and I can in a way understand the characters and the writers decision for that, when you write such a complex and well crafted season 1 it will be tough to follow up on that, I've seen that happening many times, however I still liked the season and I left some room in my mind to allow the creativity team behind the show to impress us on the coming seasons, I guess my full opinion will depend on how they will drive the series from now on, I got enough sorrow from Westworld, I hope Severance doesn't follow the same faith!

At this point I have no wrong ideas about Marvel, with the exception of a really short number of projects you need to expect mediocrity or simply don't watch them at all.

I was going to give Marvel the same approach I gave to DC couple movies back: giving up on them; but even me, the casual not so hardcore fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe I still found a lot of them entertaining and some even really great! So while I was planning on not watching this one, I found myself in one of those lazy days without much to watch so I just turned off my brain and gave it a go.

Nothing much to share, but here are the checkmarks for this super hero movie:

• Cheesy humor that hasn't changed in the last 15 years - check;
• Some solid performances, others that makes you question the casting team - check;
• A predictable basic plot with an outcome you see from the start of the movie, adding to the fact that they spoil a lot of the important parts of the movies in trailers and marketing campaigns - check;
• Question yourself as to why the thousands of existing heroes in New York are always missing when a crisis that threatens the world unfolds - check;
• Picking up old timers and old movie elements for fan service, but poorly made taking in consideration that only Spider-Man No Way Home managed to do this across all Marvel franchise - check;

So there you go, at least the visual effects were solid and the pace as well, which seems basic but having watched recent movies from Marvel this was an improvement.

I am curious about the Thunderbolts but I'll try to manage my expectations.

I can't tell you how much I was anticipating this show, to this day, the original Daredevil series on Netflix is for me the best series / movie that came out of Marvel - the realism, the complex yet grounded plot, the amazing set of characters and the depths in which the show explores each one, the way they portray the concept of being a hero, the atmosphere, the fight scenes.... you get it, it is peak television.

I know the reason for its cancelation was purely boreoarctic, Disney acquiring the rights to Marvel forced a premature ending, when it was in its full potential still.

I was sad but it's one of those situations where it's not about the quality or lack of audience, it's corporations being corporations, we have to come to peace that art is a business now as well (it has been for a while) so we can make our voices be heard and sometimes it works, as it did for Daredevil.

That leads me to the joy of Daredevil: Born Again, they did what a lot of us thought was already out of reach, they didn't simply bring the character back, they brought the actors, they brought the storyline and I was hoping that they would also bring the same tone and the same atmosphere that made me fall in love with the original.

Now let me talk about this show in specific, in all honesty it didn't start great for me, for starters the show felt really frenetic, completely different from the calm and realistic depiction of the original, there was a lot happening, the camera movement was really odd and off putting and in the first moments they kill off one of the main characters that brought so much to this show just like that..? It wasn't about killing the character it was about the timing of it.. we haven't seen this person in a really long time we didn't have yet time to get our heads back to this universe and it gets wiped off like that...?

The introduction of CGI is not a really good decision as well, it's not to prevalent fortunately because it wasn't used that well, I always loved that the original show kept it to a minimum and also as a last critic, some casting choices (the mayor's right-hand man and one of Matt's colleagues, the former police officer, have some questionable acting skills).

I struggled with the first couple episodes can't lie, but it wasn't all bad, the characters themselves felt they never left, the depictions are on point, the acting is great so I was seeing a reminiscence of the original show coming together slowly.

As the show progressed it was clear that they were slowly but surely getting back on track, the realistic fight scenes, the plot, the atmosphere, the themes, the inner struggles, the dark tone it might not be as impactful as the original but it got close.

The last two episodes are really good, they made a good connection between the start of the season and where it goes from here, I can't lie, I had a really great time seeing this new story while reminiscing on the good old original show.

I don't think it's quite at the same level, but from what I saw from the later episodes it's getting there... they underused Karen and Frank Castle, I do hope this changes on the upcoming season, can't wait!