For this show’s that’s pretty happy.
Absolutely, pretty obviously so to me. There are at least a few parallels to goings-on in the show and things happening in the real-world.
I’ve absolutely loved this season so far. The show is so good at just being irreverent and fun and “going there” without being frivolous or silly. I mean, they literally tried out the “Antman crawls up Thanos’s butthole and expands” thing for crying out loud, and it fit the story perfectly.
And props to Anthony Starr… Homelander is an incredible villain. Every facial tic is just riveting.
The one big hole I see so far is that it makes no sense (that I can think of) for Frenchie not to have any protection against Nina. He’s a more-or-less legitimate above-the-boards employee of the CIA, isn’t he? How much reach does Nina really have? (I’m not saying it’s implausible that he would still be afraid of her, but this should at least be addressed…)
Also, I do think “Homelander basically submitted to Stan Edgar and seemed genuinely intimidated by him” needs a bit more addressing. Did Edgar never have any hold over him at all? Was it all just one massive bluff where as long as Edgar sufficiently radiated confidence and that was what Homelander was used to, he went along with it?
It was homelanders desperate need for a daddy figure that kept him in check, and Victoria’s head explodey power that gave Edgar his confidence.
I wouldn’t say “bluff”, but it was one long psychological con job. Edgar and Vaught basically raised Homelander form a baby, and deliberately engineered a mental state in which he thought he was never good enough to be able to stand up to them. Remember all his weird mommy issues from season one? It’s all of a part.
Homelander’s TV interview about the explosion in Manhattan was extremely Trumpesque too - denying any link with far-right groups, but happy to tacitly accept their conspiracy gossip about ‘false flags’ as the likely truth.
The satirizing of the scary right wing stuff is very well done, it’s not so super obvious an ham handed that they bonk you over the head with it, but it’s obvious and realistic. It makes sense that Homelander, someone desperately craving approval (a vulnerable narcissist) and born into power and never had a chance/had to develop the maturity to understand the world is a pretty good parallel for Trump. He’s not dumb, but the parallels make a lot of sense. Really, this show is well-written in general and doesn’t get enough credit for it because it also has over the top action and shock humor.
Anthony Starr is doing an incredible job and doesn’t get enough hype as being really menacing. He’s transitioned from someone who was evil but needy and moslty under control to someone realizing he doesn’t have anything to fear from anyone and just feeling just how evil he can be.
Off-topic: the name “Anthony Starr” just sounds like a superhero alias.
Dammit. Missed the edit window.
“Antony” is his name. Not “Anthony.”
Preacher has conditioned me to see the surname Starr as villainous.
Ringo doesn’t cancel that out?
The wifebeater? No, I don’t think so.
There’s also a Marvel supervillain with that last name.
And no one ever really taught Homelander how to fight, did they? Of course, how would you do that? And he’d likely never see the need to learn how.
A lot of the problems Homelander caused in Season 1 were due to the fact that he doesn’t have even the smallest bit of tactical nous. Obviously laser-eyeing the hijackers and simultaneously destroying the control systems of the plane he was meant to by saving is the biggest example, but there were a couple of other similar incidents I think: see problem, laser eye, job done, someone else clean up the mess.
It’s like the thing this season about Payback being utter liabilities in an actual battle - if you only care about yourself and you don’t believe you’re in danger, why would you even try to get better at fighting?
Or if you think you’re already the bees knees. Not that Soldier Boy was using any incredible skills, but then he’s likely quite rusty.
Also known as “Fearless” Fosdick syndrome. He’ll get the bad guy in the end, while doing serious harm to victims and bystanders.
I thought this episode (and this season in general) was great. The orgy was hilarious. The big fight was genuinely exciting, and unpredictable (something usually lacking in MCU movies/shows, much as I enjoy them). A-Train’s end of arc (presumably?) was touching and reasonably well earned.
One thing that seemed bizarre was Kumiko not being dead after all that punching. Or are we presumably meant to assume she in fact still has some remnant of her powers?
It was weird, not that I think getting punched in an injury would necessarily kill you but she took those punches like they were doing nothing at all. She clearly does not have her powers as she still had minor cuts and injuries everywhere, and those would have healed first if she had any power left. She also did not behave like someone who was very seriously injured either though.
Seems odd that everybody isn’t more paranoid about Homelander watching them and listening in with his super hearing. Sometimes Annie will like just duck around the corner of her trailer and call Hughie on a pretty sensitive matter.
I alluded to this in an earlier post when I said that an upcoming episode title was the title of a notorious arc in the comic book. Needless to say it was very different in the comics. Spoilered in case anyone doesn’t want to know:
In the show it was a seedy orgy populated by third-string supes.
In the comics, Herogasm is an annual gala event held on a sprawling first-class resort on a remote Pacific island.
Every year, in the comics, the Seven announces that a universe-destroying threat is imminent and all the world’s supes are needed to go fight it.
Then, every last supe in the world—heroes and villains alike—head off together for several weeks of debauchery, mostly sex, but also drugs and alcohol, as well as other normal stuff like hot tubbing and black tie awards galas.
They invite some number of non-supe politicians and stuff to curry favor and make deals.