TV & Movies

The final season of The Boys was disappointing. It concludes the story in a sensible manner but with lackluster execution. The series feels a bit lost on what this season should be other than the final confrontation with Homelander. More than ever, the series relies on satire for humor and gore for impact. These, however, have diminishing returns. The satire of political affairs feels very on the nose this time. Admittedly, The Boys never was subtle, but after four seasons, it really is tiring....

The feeling left by Season 2 of Frieren is that nothing really happened. This is not true, but the break of momentum from Season 1 is strongly felt. After a thrilling ending of the first season with the first class mage exam, the second season returns to the episodic travel and odd jobs. You cannot have Frieren without the episodic travel as it is essential to worldbuilding and character development. However, the narrative works better when these episodes are paired with more focused arcs, as the lighthearted nature of the travel reinforces the high stakes of those conflicts....

The fourth season of Invincible feels different from the previous ones. The series is determined to raise the stakes and focus on the Viltrumite War. To achieve this, the episodic nature of the first half is put aside, and a more focused arc is presented in the second half of the season. To this end, this new structure works. The Viltrumites stop feeling like a random, occasional threat and become the main antagonists of the series....