No. 63 - Special Jumbo Television Issue
3 television shows take the spotlight this week. A revival of a cult classic animated comedy, the grand finale of one of my favorite shows, & a wild search for the Holy Grail! Also: Marvel movie.
The Poison Drips Through
After another exciting season of surprises, schemes, and iconic insults, Succession airs its final episode this Sunday. The HBO show has enjoyed rave reviews this season exploring the interpersonal relationship of its characters as they manage the emotional and professional repercussions of a family tragedy. The show has always done well making these extremely wealthy and abusive characters relatable through their tumultuous emotional states. The show seemingly denigrates the fact that they wield such power and influence, but never implies that their traumas and feelings are anything but tragic. Still, it is always fun to watch their power plays against each other, whether they succeed, fizzle, or explosively backfire, and predict who is going to end up on top (one of my favorite joys of this season is checking out Hunter Harris’s Substack for her weekly rankings of the Succession characters.)
The central question of the show, as its title suggests, is who will inherit Logan Roy’s (Brian Cox) role of CEO at Waystar Royco, a media conglomerate similar to Fox. His four children, Connor (Alan Ruck), Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Roman (Kieran Culkin), and Shiv (Sarah Snook) all vie for a piece of the pie and command different strategies to secure the seat. After four seasons, it looks like we will have a concrete answer in finale, but that’s the least of many viewers concerns. Logan’s family, employees, and colleagues are all complex emotional figures that constantly inflict professional and personal harm to each other. This season in particular has been especially rough considering it is the last season. Words spoken now have a feeling of finality as if they will never be taken back. I’m less worried about who will be the successor, but who will be okay. Who will survive with their humanity intact?
It is advised that if you are not caught up with the latest season of Succession, then you should not read this if you care about spoilers.
Since Logan Roy’s death, three of his children have become obsessed with his vacant seat. They crave his power and mourn his absence. Kendall’s eulogy in last week’s episode compare Logan’s influence on the world to an omniscient and powerful god. Still, he is a dead god whose wrath was apparently a comfort to Roman who has spent the past few episodes emotionally self-flagellating with reminders of his late father whenever he feels he has failed. If not himself, then taking out his anger on others like Logan would have. Even Shiv is imploding her already tumultuous relationship with Tom, the father of her unborn child, seemingly as a release for her personal failures.
The thing is, even though it appears that Kendall, Roman, and Shiv are morphing into different versions of Logan, their abusive ways were always present and are only now magnified in their grief. Kendall has been a comically absent father throughout the show (I think Kendall suddenly struck in the middle of his mother’s wedding late into Season 3 exclaiming “Where are my kids?”), Roman has always been a petulant brat, and Shiv has never treated Tom with dignity or respect. All these attributes were present in Logan and instead of embracing anyone shut everyone out unless he needed them.
Frighteningly enough, I suspect Kendall is the most likely to take the chair alone at the end of the show. “One head, one crown” Kendall suggested to his longtime ally Frank, but as the saying goes, heavy is the head that wears the crown. Succession has always positioned itself akin to a Shakespearean tragedy and, in tragedies, one tends to get what they want, but with consequences. Kendall was seemingly promised the crown at the very beginning of the show, constantly refused it by his father throughout, and even posthumously taunted by his father in his will (crossed out or underlined?) Only now that Kendall has embraced his father’s worst tendencies and sacrificing his heart does he appear capable to take the seat for himself.
Still, even more tragic would be if it was all for nothing. Kendall kicks Roman while he’s down, betrays Shiv, forsakes his kids, abandons his morals to back a fascist for the highest office in the country, and transforms into the most monstrous version of himself for nothing. He doesn’t get the top spot and became the foul thing he detested for no reward.
So who knows. Maybe Greg will take the top spot tonight.
Succession’s final episode airs tonight on MAX (formally HBO Max)
Believe it or Not
A nun and a cowboy seek the Holy Grail in hopes of destroying an omniscient AI. Sounds like the set up to a really bad joke or some crazy pulp story. Mrs. Davis, the show I just described, is neither of those things. Yes, it is funny, weird, and crazy, but it is really an exploration of belief. Not just religious belief either.
In the world of Mrs. Davis, an algorithm is developed that is so advanced and helpful that it becomes a crutch for most of the world. Nearly everyone has this AI, colloquially known as Mrs. Davis, speaking in their ear guiding them through life. While many see this guidance as guidance an purpose, others do not find it as altruistic. It dispels the mystique of games like poker, the surprise of stage magicians, and even shakes the world of religion. All these things lead Sister Simone (Betty Gilpin) and Wiley (Jake McDorman) to seek the destruction of Mrs. Davis.
The show is a silly pastiche of genres and influences. It incorporates magical realism as well as dystopic science fiction to fashion a comedic jaunt across the world. Simone and Wiley’s globe-trotting adventure for the Grail takes them to an underground bunker filled with meathead jocks, a conspiracy laden Vatican, and even a remote island populated solely by a rocket scientist and his cat. These disparate settings and tones show just how nonsensical the world is. The first episode offers consistent whiplash that one finds themselves questioning what the hell is going on in this absurd show. In absurdist thought, when one realizes life is absurd they either turn to suicide, acceptance, or faith. In Mrs. Davis, a large swath of the population puts their faith in Mrs. Davis and Sister Simone keeps hers in Jesus. Wiley knows the world is absurd and his arc is mainly figuring out where to turn.
A primary concern the show has is what to believe in. As the show goes on it becomes clear that it isn’t a dichotomy between Mrs. Davis and faith in religion. Sister Simone and her fellow adventurers are confronted with the fact that they may accept help and guidance, but the more important quandary of whether or not they can make the right decisions on their own. Some may see devotion to a higher power, whether it be a computer or a god, as giving up control of your life. Mrs. Davis empathizes with that thought, but confronts it too. Obeying and choosing to do something are different and, ultimately, Mrs. Davis suggests that no matter which one you do you must believe in it.
Mrs Davis wrapped up last week, but every episode is available for streaming on Peacock.
Attack of the Clones
Way way back in 2002, showrunners Bill Lawerence (creator of Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and Cougar Town), and Phil Lord and Chris Miller (the minds behind The Lego Movie, the 21 Jump Street movies, The After Party, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) created what would become a cult classic animated series; Clone High. The show followed the clones of historical figures as they navigated high school. Its cast, Abraham “Abe” Lincoln (Will Forte), Joan of Arc (Nicole Sullivan), Mahatma Gandhi (Michael McDonald), Cleopatra (Christa Miller), and John F. Kennedy (show co-creator Chris Miller), are put in wacky situations meant to be outlandish parodies of the teen drama shows that were so in vogue in the 90s and early aughts. The show, while met with controversy for its depiction of Gandhi’s teenage clone who acted as buffoonish sidekick to Abe, had a lasting legacy for its absurd and irreverent humor, clever writing, and unique art style. Despite only running for one season, the show’s influence can be tracked by its visual influence on cartoons like the popular Total Drama series. Even though many regarded the original 13 episodes in high regard there hadn’t been plans to revive the show until 20 years later.
Only the first two episodes of this new iteration of Clone High have been released on MAX (formally known as HBO Max) and, even though things pick up for the clones right where they left off (cryogenically frozen in a meat locker on prom night), there are some changes. Gandhi has been written off the show, an element made conspicuous in the first episode by frequent acknowledgements of his absence, Cleopatra has been recast with Iranian-American actress Mitra Jouhari, and many new faces have joined the cast. Frida Kahlo (Vicci Martinez), Harriet Tubman (Ayo Edebiri), Confucius (Kelvin Yu), and Christopher “Topher Bus” Columbus (Neil Casey) transition the newly unfrozen clones into the the 2020s with their knowledge of new technology and the shift in culture to be more politically correct.
So far, the show has the difficult challenge of establishing the new status quo by familiarizing audiences with the new clones while meaningfully continuing the original casts' storylines and the original show’s comedic sensibilities. This proves hard with the crowded cast of new clones (Cleo is barely present in the first two episodes) and changing social mores. While the original show started each episode claiming it was a “very special episode” whilst remaining completely irreverent, this new series starts with an acknowledgement that a lot of the irreverent humor of the original show doesn’t work as well in today’s cultural climate by focusing the a lot of the episode on “cancel culture” making it feel like an actual “very special episode.” It’s not inventive territory (Futurama’s upcoming revival has an episode about this very subject) and it was probably best done in Lord & Miller’s 21 Jump Street (2012) when Channing Tatum’s character realizes being an irreverent bully doesn’t make friends today.
By the second episode though, this new Clone High seems to have found some footing by focusing the episode less on stage setting and “topical” issues and more on doing ridiculous spins classic teenage activities and drama. Characters like Frida and Harriet become less of figureheads for social justice and more like vessels for cartoony teenage shenanigans and Topher is changed from a cautionary tale on cancel culture and into a caricature of a chronically online loser. With sight gags becoming more abundant, surrealistic jaunts through the teenagers’ psyches returning, and the feelings of being a high schooler being exaggerated to comic proportions, the second episode feels much more like the original series, save for the fact that this revival seems to include much more bloody violence than before.
I’m still entering this new season with trepidation, but my fears of the show being bad are more or less quelled at this point. Clone High has made its return and its newly redone theme song by Tommy Walter of the Abandoned Pools (who also composed the score for the new season) feels like a warm hug from a long lost friend.
New episodes of Clone High can be seen on MAX (formally known as HBO Max) every Thursday.
The Last Track
Over the course of James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy films (and, to an extent, in his Suicide Squad film) Gunn curated group of rogues, misfits and broken people, explored what made them broken, and gave them a found family to fit into. Since his second Guardians film, Gunn has embraced his background in bizarre, horrific, and schlocky background in genre filmmaking and has made his films uniquely his. Off-beat humor, goopy splatters of ooze, tentacles, eclectic jukebox soundtrack, and over-the-top action have become staples of his work, but so has a deep empathy for the strange and deranged protagonists of his films. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 may be his weirdest and most emotional adventure yet. Filled to burst with crazy creatures and environments that don’t detract from the strong emotional beats between The Guardians.
In Guardians 3, Starlord (Christ Pratt), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Nebula (Karen Gillian), Drax (Dave Bautista), and Groot (Vin Diesel) become in conflict with The High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) who aims to create the perfect society of life forms through cruel biological experimentation and destroy everything that doesn’t fit his vision. In broad strokes, this is not an unfamiliar motivation for a Guardians antagonist. Ronan the Accuser in Guardians of the Galaxy was a religious zealot who wished to purge the universe of those who did not fit into his ideology (in other words, heretics) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2’s Ego the Living Planet plans involved him spreading his seed across the universe in an effort to turn the universe into his likeness and establish complete control over it. Clearly, The Guardians of the Galaxy do not fit into any of their molds, even on a surface level. They have a talking tree on their team. Even their soundtrack is eclectic. It is their discrete uniqueness, their bizarre nature, and creative individuality that leads them to victory each time. These are not spoilers. This is a superhero movie, they win.
James Gunn displays so much affection for bizarre creatures designs and total weirdos throughout his oeuvre that one can help but see a movie where a motley crew goes up against an evil organization that seeks to create “perfection” through uniformity informed, in part, by Gunn’s experience with Marvel. As I wrote in 2021 about his film The Suicide Squad, control seems to be a major theme running through Gunn’s work.
“Exercising unwilling control over anyone, whether it be through blackmail, captivity, military might, or alien mind control breeds anger and resentment…Only one character, the empanada filled and fascistic Peacemaker (John Cena), willingly gives up his agency to blindly (and violently) follow the orders of his US government masters and the film does not regard this Boy Scout behavior fondly. The ability to live one’s life freely, no matter how coarse, boorish, or goofy one is, is the sweetest freedom.”
Individual expression is something that The High Evolutionary seeks from his creations on Counter-Earth (at one point, they are referred to IP, intellectual property), but putting them through a tried formula just results in a bland imitation of life on Earth. Only Rocket, his most prized creation, was able to create and imagine unique things. One could see the parallels of Disney-Marvel’s tried and true “Marvel Formula” forced on artists, but cherishing James Gunn’s idiosyncratic vision. Without their tight control on him, he was able to create three of Marvel’s best features and, with any hope, continue to in his role as co-chairmen and co-CEO of DC Studios.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3 is in theaters now.
Stray Observations
I recently watched all four movies that director Tarsem Singh and Academy Award winning costume designer Eiko Ishioka collaborated on; The Cell (2000), The Fall (2006), Immortals (2011), and Mirror Mirror (2012). All four films were great explorations into human imagination and legend. While The Cell and The Fall delved directly into the minds of characters (quite literally with The Cell) and the stories we tell ourselves, Singh and Ishioka explore the stories that have been told for centuries with the Greek mythology spin in Immortals and the Snow White remix in Mirror Mirror. What these films have more in common are just the beauty of these works. Between the intricate and lavish costume designs by Ishioka and Singh’s artistic vision, all four of these films rise beyond any script issues they may have to be great artistic achievements.
The New Yorker published an intriguing article by Melissa Febos that covers Claire Dederer’s latest memoir, Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma. The book asks the age old question, “Can I love the art but hate the artist?” but from a deeply personal point of view. What if some of this art shaped who you are? Febos empathizes with Dederer’s situation and goes over her relationships with various monstrous artists throughout the article. It is a fascinating read and I am not one to tell anyone what art they should feel comfortable ingesting, but this does seem like a question worth reckoning with. You can read the article here.
Happened across Thomas Flight’s video essay “Why Do Movies Feel So Different Now?” and it totally blew my mind. It goes over the evolution of storytelling in film through the lens of modernism, post-modernism, and metamodernism. It is extraordinarily informative essay.
There’s a new trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie that gives more plot details and a sense of the comedic tone of the film. As I said a few issues back, this looks like an enormously fun romp. Gosling’s Ken looks to be a career highlight and, according the the all-star track list for the soundtrack, he will be performing a song titled “I’m Just Ken”. Incredible. You can watch the trailer below.
Thanks for reading! Just a monster of an issue this week. Remember to share and subscribe!