RBdreams

Brightburn is an origin story, as they are called when a superhero’s story is told upon his/her first landing to Earth or introduction to earthlings.

In this case, we are not talking about a potential hero, but a sociopath quick to anger. He is also gifted with super intelligence, strength, levitation, and a little fire spouting.

It begins with a young couple getting romantic in the moonlight when their interlude is interrupted by a loud crash. That crash would be their future son’s space craft landing in their back field. Fast forward 10 years and we see a gifted and talented boy not yet ready to take on the world until he is denied by his adopted dad to carry home a gun gifted to him by his uncle. Then he becomes as angry as a gun nut at a Beto O'Rourke rally. 

This is the first peak into the volatile nature that is Brandon Breyer. In addition to an exaggerated sense of self worth coupled with disappointment in others, we learn he takes rejection badly when he  severely injures a fellow classmate. He reminds me of Billy Mummy’s character in the Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life” where everyone knows if they aren’t nice to him, they may end up in the corn field, and most every adult in this film does. 

Season 3 opens with most of Gilead believing baby Nicole was stolen by the murdering Emily, AKA Ofglen. The truth is June, now Ofjoseph,  was able to get her out with the help of Commander Lawrence, Martha Rita, and of course Emily. Meanwhile, Aunt Lydia is recovering from the attack on her by Emily. We also learn there are pockets of resistance landing blows to the theocracy in Chicago and troops are sent there including June's once love interest Nick. He has very little to do in this season. He is turned away by the Swedish, who are acting as negotiators between Gilead and Canada, for not being a reliable source of information regarding Gilead’s arsenal.. Apparently, Nick was a leading crusader in the early days of Gilead, unbeknownst to June and the rest of us!

When the "eyes" of Gilead learn the whereabouts of baby Nicole, June is made to set up a meeting between Mrs. Waterford and June’s husband Louis, who now has possession of Nicole. This also prompts the Waterfords to embark on an effort to get Nicole back and June is forced into helping them by traveling with them to Washington to meet some powerful pols including Commander Winslow (played by Christopher Meloni). This allows the audience to see beyond the community in which June lives. It has its own horrors including the handmaid's mouths being bound shut with rings and made to wear tight fitting mouth coverings to keep them silent.This episode titled "Household" was one of the best episodes of the season and illustrates how extreme a theocracy could get to a western audience.

We also see life in Canada through the eyes of Emily, who is still adjusting to life outside Gilead. Her relationship with her ex and son is left hanging in the air at the end of the season. And June is back home having to contend with her new pregnant walking partner Ofmatthew, a self-righteous busy body assigned by Aunt Lydia to keep an eye on her partner. And she does this at the expense of a poor unwitting Martha who is hanged for helping June pay a visit to her stolen daughter’s day school.This leads to more drama and tension in the season and comes to fruition when, after enduring the cold and harsh treatment from the other handmaid's, Ofmatthew goes a little berserk in the Loaves and Fishes food mart and ends up getting shot by guards. June, who is herself going a little mad, revels in the choas until she is forced to spend Ofmatthew’s hospital stay and delivery with her. It was during this time when June comes to the realization that she may never see her daughter Hannah again, but decides to come up with a plan to get as many stolen children out of Gilead as possible.

The rest of the season involves planning for the children's escape from Gilead and the side story of the Waterfords trying to get Nicole back. The highlight of the season was Fred's arrest at the border for war crimes including enslavement and rape. This episode titled “Liars” was also one of the best of season 3 and very intense in that it included June and Commander Winslow having a face to face meeting at Jezabel’s as June was executing her plans for the children. We also had the much anticipated Aunt Lydia backstory which reveals her to be a valuable tool and zealot in the newly forming regime.

One major disappointment is the character of Jospeph Lawrence, played by Bradley Whitford. In some episodes, he seems suited to his position as the economics genius and comfortable in his skin, taking as much liberty in his own personal freedom as possible. Why he selects handmaid’s to live in his home when his wife suffers from manic depression and sever moods swings and isn’t mentally fit to raise a baby isn’t explained. He doesn’t even perform the “ceremony” until Fred Waterford, being jealous of June’s new position, makes sure that the ceremony is actually being performed by having a doctor examine June afterward, much to the distress of Mrs. Lawrence. After Elenor’s suicide, episode 12 ends on an ominous note, giving us the audience the impression that perhaps Joseph suspects June of being involved in her death. The season finale wraps up without a hint of that!

The season ended in a cliffhanger involving the fate of the handmaid's who aided in the plan, especially June who ended up with a gunshot wound for her trouble.

This season was a mix of epic triumph, character arcs coming to completion, others missing the mark, and some disappointing turn of events.

First, I really enjoyed the first two episodes. They were more like a two-parter with most of the banter between characters taking place at Winterfell. Lena Heady (as Cersei) didn’t have a lot of screen time this season since most of the focus was on preparing for the battle with the white walkers and the Knight King.

Speaking of which, viewers also complained the entire episode was too dark. To me, that was low on the list of what went wrong with the episode. The battle strategy at the beginning was ridiculous. The Dothraki were the first line of defense. The red witch comes out of nowhere and lights up their sickles but what does that do if they were not carrying dragon glass, the weapon of choice for destroying the undead? Second, why were the Unsullied in front of the burning trench and not behind it protecting the castle? And Ayra the one killing the Knight King? Jon Snow seemed destined for that task since it was part of his character arc. And how did Samwell survive yet Jorah die?

The other problem was the season wasn’t long enough to allow more character development for Danaerys. Her descent into madness seemed too quick. It may have been part of her arc, but it could have been handled without seeming rushed. The battle at King’s Landing was even more rushed, with Drogon evading and destroying a multitude of scorpions, allowing him and his queen to turn the city into smoldering rubble.

Some scenes in the final episode seemed like fan service, particularly Samwell presenting Tyrion with the “Song of Ice and Fire” a chronicle of happenings since the fall of King Rober, not to mention the entire small council. Putting the greedy Bronn on it as Master of Coin is a recipe for disaster. 

The high point was having the remaining Stark children becoming free agents and having a satisfying end to their stories--Sansa becoming Queen of Winterfell, Ayra going to see what’s beyond the west, Jon going beyond the wall to see what’s up north, .. while many viewers felt the writing had gone south.

Recently finished season 2 of The Punisher on Netflix.

I don’t think it was as good as the first season, but still provided plenty of surprises and the usual brutality that would plummet the ordinary individual into oblivion--but not our anti-hero Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal).

He was given a new chance at life via the FBI in exchange for information. But his life as a boring transient comes to a halt when he rescues a young woman from an attack by a special ops fighting force. Then it becomes a chase from a religious nut job, who is handy with a gun and brass knuckles, hot on their trail. Played by Josh Stewart, his character is one of the more interesting aspects of the season.

Each episode follows Castle and his damsel on their journey as the storyline gets sidetracked by Frank’s old pal and nemesis Billy Russo. We meet up with Russo recovering from a fractured skull and several cuts to his face in a mental ward. He is haunted by nightmares of a skull like figure coming at him but can’t remember who is behind it. With the aid of a psychiatrist he slowly pieces together what transpired as the two develop a relationship that crosses the boundaries of professionalism.

There is also an appearance by Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) who upon examination of a crime scene, informs Castle that he is not responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians caught up in a sting against Russo and his thieving army of groupies.

It has not been announced yet whether or not the series will be back for a 3rd season. Given the sudden cancellation of Daredevil, it is unlikely.