What TV show did you last watch a season of on DVD/Blu-ray?

Episode 1

It starts with Luke Wilson, who is playing the part of Pat Dugan (sidekick to the superhero Starman), and a big action scene which I'm guessing is what got so many people 'hooked' during this first episode. However, after seeing how they shoot these big 'one-shot' action sequences (or 'oners') in other things, and how they're actually just lots of bits and pieces stitched together, I can't say it 'wowed' me like it probably did others. It was visually interesting, I'll give it that (the house lit up with green reminded me of The Haunted Mansion film that I haven't even watched, but I always associate green lit-up houses with it). I'm surprised so many people loved the scene since these seem to be the same people who complain about the 'overuse' of CGI, and to me this just seemed like one big CGI-fest. It also got a bit ridiculous with Pat expositioning each character's name as they appeared. Anyway, Starman gets stabbed and uses his dying breath to make abundantly clear to Pat that he should NOT be the next/new Starman and that it should be someone else. And this is where Pat became my favourite character, because I automatically felt sorry for him. Evidently he's been a loyal sidekick to this jerk and all he can do as he dies is basically tell poor Pat he's not good enough to be Starman (multiple times). Honestly, Pat should've sped up his passing just for that. 

We then meet the show's lead/heroine, Courtney Whitmore, and...she's the typical moody teen. I kept reading comments from people saying how this part was so "well cast" and that the actress managed to make the role 'charming'/'endearing' or whatever. I have to say...I didn't see any evidence of that. To me, she was just like every other moody teen character ever, and I didn't find her very likable at all. Her not being nice to Pat, despite him only being nice to her, probably contributed to my dislike. I particularly hated her in the scene where she was texting on her phone in the car as Pat was trying to have a proper heartfelt conversation with her and then she obnoxiously interrupted him to say "I'm talking to someone." - at that point I wished Pat had taken her phone off her and chucked it out the window, before informing her "No, actually, you aren't 'talking'...you're typing. There's a difference. I'm trying to talk to you and you're being rude to me for no reason." (alas, Pat was too good a person to tell her off for her crappy attitude). This was not a good start to the character I should've immediately liked.

Courtney wasn't the only annoying one, though. Her step-brother (and Pat's son), Mike, was incredibly obnoxious as well. There's also this weird thing with the actor where he looks and sounds like a more mature person who has been shrunk down to kid-size. It's really odd/off-putting. On the plus side, at least we got Amy Smart as Courtney's mother, Barbara (not sure how Courtney turned out the way she did since her mother actually seems nice/decent). It's weird having another (different) character named Barbara in a comic book series so soon after Gotham. Courtney was friendlier to the students she was stuck at a table with during school lunchtime than she was with Pat...though they’re moody to her (how do you like it, Courtney?). They all seem to be the typical clichéd high school characters. When the teacher laid hands on Courtney and dragged her away after she caused an accident, all I could think was "You wouldn't be able to get away with doing that now." (and not just because of COVID). 

Once Courtney eventually discovered Starman's magic stick (apparently called 'the Cosmic Staff'), I found myself immediately liking it more than Courtney. It was more endearing, for one thing, plus it appeared to interact with her like Doctor Strange’s Cloak of Levitation did with him in the MCU. It takes her flying and pretty soon she’s using it as a gymnastics pole. Later, after she lets the air out of the tires on some bully's car, she fights them and it seemed to be the Staff that was doing most of the work. Sure, she's got a gymnastics background, but I don't think that automatically makes her know a thing about fighting...though apparently it does. Lucky the Staff knows what it's doing, but that means you can't really chalk up her winning to her being a great fighter - it's the Staff that's the fighter, she's just going along for the ride (mostly). She also blows up a car using the Staff - so it's taken no time at all for Courtney to gain her 'super power' (ie. the Staff), learn how to fight (except it's the Staff making her be able to fight) and cause destruction (DCEU Superman would be so proud). 

So, after briefly showing a 'lighter' side as she had fun with the Staff, she's back to bitchy mode, giving Pat shit for his sidekick name (Stripesy) and has already moved onto blackmailing him into letting her go out superheroing (otherwise she'll tell her mum about this whole secret superhero sidekick gig he's been keeping from her). What a brat. We're treated to LOTS of exposition. The episode ends with the reveal that Pat has a giant robot (I thought it was basically a Transformer, since it seemed to resemble his classic car he drives). For a first episode, like I said at the start^, this wasn't quite the show I was expecting. I didn't know I'd find so many main characters (including the show's lead) so damn annoying. The only ones I really liked were Pat and the Cosmic Staff (and when you like a weapon better than the character who wields it...you know something isn't right with that character/her characterization). 

Episode 2

Pat shows some questionable judgment in allowing Courtney to ride on the back of his giant robot that also apparently flies. It was kind of funny he had no problem with her doing that after telling her how dangerous everything else she'd been doing was. I guess since the Staff can also fly, he's counting on it saving her if she fell off. She's still not nice to him, which continues to irk me since he's only looking out for her. She does, however, pretend to get along with him...but keeps making out he’s lame (this is the thanks he gets for trying to protect her). Adding to the Pile On Pat Party is the exercise trainer douchebag who keeps telling Pat how weak he is, etc.

We discover the guy Barbara works for is one of the main supervillains, Icicle. Another supervillain called Brainwave, who can get into people's heads, should be able to get what he wants easily...but for some reason can't. He finds out who Stargirl is surprisingly early on (which can only mean one thing - he's going to get amnesia). 

Adding to her destruction of cars, Courtney proceeds to destroy every sewing machine at school in her attempt to alter Starman's costume (which she stole) and make it her own (I saw people complain about Batwoman using Batman's stuff and making it her own...but they have no problem with Stargirl doing the same thing?). Why does she just assume it's okay for her to be cutting up his costume? Do lots of people destroy property of someone they don't even know simply because that person's deceased? With little experience, she becomes an expert with the Staff (which can be chalked up to mainly the Staff, I'm assuming). 

Together Courtney and Pat (in his giant robot) take on Brainwave (though Pat's robot fist-shooting trick doesn’t work). Later, Courtney comes up with 'S.TR.I.P.E.' (which is clunky as all hell in how she thinks of it) and Brainwave, who had his head zapped by the Staff, is rather predictably in a coma and likely going to forget the secret identity of Stargirl which he'd learned. 

I take it we're meant to find Courtney giving Pat a hard time about his sidekick name being Stripesy 'funny' or whatever, but I personally don't. It's just another put-down he has to deal with that he seems to be getting from nearly everybody (Courtney, his son, his exercise trainer, Starman himself last episode). Speaking of, Courtney (who thinks Starman is her father, but Pat keeps telling her he isn't) shouldn't just be attacking Pat's sidekick name. If she thinks 'Stripesy' is lame, what about Starman? It's not exactly a name that'll put fear into the hearts of criminals either. 

I liked the music used in the episode. And Pat's car.

Episode 3

So we get a flashback to Icicle, who already had his powers, his wife dies telling him to destroy whoever gets in his way of making the country a better place (and she seemed so decent to start with). Hey, at least her dying words are more motivational than what Starman gave Pat. Speaking of motivation, Icicle in the 'present' is trying to motivate the magician dude supervillain to use his Harry Potter-looking wand better than he has been. Points to the actor playing Icicle for managing to utter the words "Brainwave is in a coma." with a straight face. His son is a guy with emo hair named Cameron who Courtney talks to at one point. This was in between her trying to be nice to Yolanda (who's one of the moody teens from the table Courtney gets stuck with at lunchtime), after she'd just discovered the word 'slut' on her locker, but gets her offer of friendship REJECTED (not nice having someone knock you back when you're just trying to be nice, IS IT COURTNEY?). I've already grown to dislike basically everyone at that school. Seems all the girls are moody bitches or annoying, while all the guys are jerks except for Son of Magician Dude, Joey, who is actually decent. Too bad he can't do his magic card trick successfully. Courtney continues to show she's nicer to people at school than she is to Pat by playing along despite Joey's ineptitude and gets him applause from other students. 

It soon becomes clear to me that Courtney’s step-bro is even more annoying/obnoxious than her, as all he wants to do is eat junk food. It was weird that his dad took it off him but then gave him $20 to buy anything (won't he just go buy what he was eating? In which case...what a waste of money). Mike really crosses the line when he disses Pat's choice in music. And if you want to eat only junk food, so be it, but don't go feeding it to the poor dog, you lazy jerk! That can't possibly be good for him. It's obviously meant to be 'funny', but I just call it negligence. 

Icicle's got the hots for Barbara, Courtney keeps ignoring Pat (yes, just keep making me not-like you, Courtney) and every time Pat takes Courtney flying on his giant robot I think about how it must be freezing high up at airplane level in the sky (especially at nighttime). He shows her the JSA lair...and I wonder how that owl's still alive/has anyone been feeding it? I thought it was sad when he said the owl was waiting for Dr. Mid-Nite (considering he ain't comin' back). I noticed the old-style Flash costume (as was worn in the 'Arrowverse' show, The Flash).

It was disappointing/sad that Son of Magician Dude died after Stargirl confronted and fought Icicle (seriously, show? You off the one actually likeable student from that school?). At least Pat managed to save the school bus with his giant robot (so, how about easing up on poking fun at him, Courtney?). Magician Dude obviously knows Icicle was behind his son's death but then inexplicably goes to confront him and doesn't even use his Harry Potter wand against him! Instead he just stands there and gets his stupid self frozen/killed. 

Adding to Courtney's list of crimes, she's now stealing stuff from the JSA lair (but apologises to the owl. Hey, how about feeding it? That might help). Biggest 'WTF?': the pink pen that snickers mischievously.

Episode 4

Apparently Yolanda wasn’t always such a moody teen. A 'three months ago' flashback shows she was once actually happy and smiled in an almost dream-like sunshiny montage (it could've been a dream sequence, it seemed so unnatural). Unfortunately, Cindy the head bitch at school didn't like her. Supplying her with the ammunition she needs to destroy Yolanda's happy life, she sees Henry (the jerky jock whose car Courtney blew up in the first episode) has nude photos Yolanda sent him of herself (since they're together) and when she's up in front of the whole school about to give a speech, Cindy has (I guess) hacked Henry's phone and sent the photos to everyone else's phone. This explains why, next time we see Yolanda, she has herself so covered up. She blames Henry for what happened, but I'm not sure why she doesn't automatically think Cindy was behind it and go confront her. I mean, it's pretty obvious. Who's someone who had a grudge against her all this time? Hmmm. Her parents aren't much better than everyone at school, since they treat Yolanda like she's a criminal and are super-strict with her. 

After numerous attempts to befriend Yolanda and getting REJECTED, Courtney finally decides to share everything with her. Nevermind Pat's warnings or that she's running the risk of this person telling the wrong sorts of people. No, she just does it without a second thought. Then again, she doesn't seem the type to really think things through carefully or give much consideration to the consequences of her actions. Luckily for Courtney, Yolanda isn't a dodgy type who's going to use this knowledge of all these secrets against her. The Wildcat costume she's given (quit just taking superheroes' costumes and making them your own/giving them to other people, Courtney! They're not your property! Geez) is all baggy until she puts the mask on and then it magically becomes form-fitting. It also supplies her with powers. So, like Courtney and the Staff, all of Yolanda's powers she has aren't actually her own, they're just given to her by the costume. Sure, she can box...but just like Courtney knows gymnastics, knowing boxing doesn't automatically make you an expert in all styles of fighting, I wouldn't have thought. 

When Courtney was arguing with the Staff, I thought to myself she should listen to it more often. Yolanda shows she's somewhat smarter than Courtney, who was about to shut off the power to the hospital and that would've proven fatal to people on life support if Yolanda hadn't said anything. Glasses girl (who was the only non-moody one from the table they all sit at during lunchtime at school) sees them doing their superhero thing (great job keeping yourselves hidden, guys!). I find it mildly amusing that when Courtney rides the Staff through the sky, she rides it sidesaddle (looking slightly witch-esque). 

Meanwhile, Pat finds out Wife of Magician Dude is moving (can't really blame her, since she's lost both her kid and husband within such a short time of each other). When he sees the black cat and magic stuff she's got in the car, I would've thought he'd figure out what the deal was...yet he doesn't. Pat makes eggs for Courtney which she doesn't eat (that always annoys me in American shows. They make these great breakfasts for their ungrateful kids and they're barely ever eaten. What a waste! At least give your food to hobos if you're not going to eat it, brats!) and his son is still nothing but an annoying junk food-eater. The toaster gets trashed when Yolanda tries out the Wildcat costume's claws on it. I don't know, maybe find something unimportant to test your new friend's powers out on next time, Courtney?

Somewhat surprisingly, Yolanda tells Courtney she has to figure out how to be 'herself' first and can't be Wildcat (I say 'surprisingly' because most people would jump at the chance to be a superhero...even if most of the 'super' is supplied by the costume you're wearing). The first non-predictable thing to happen was Yolanda delivering a big speech to her jerk family and it not working (whereas typically in these types of shows, big speeches usually seem to work). Despite saying she didn't want it, Courtney drops off the Wildcat costume through Yolanda's bedroom window, leaving it with a note about how she can’t do this alone. 

At the end, Pat finds the cat Wife of Magician Dude was leaving with has ended up at a junkyard he’s been going to for parts for his giant robot. The car she and the cat were leaving in looks trashed. I guess she's dead now too? Wow, that family got wiped out in no time. My biggest concern, though, was who's feeding the cat (and also the owl at the JSA lair)?

Episode 5

Glasses girl (Beth) stalks Courtney and Yolanda while they talk out loud about JSA stuff in middle of the hall at school (seriously, guys, you're the worst secret-keepers ever), she goes over to Courtney's house when she isn't there and Barbara says she can wait in the living room for Courtney to get back, but then she goes upstairs into Courtney's room without permission and just stands there in the bedroom of someone she hardly knows. Talk about an invasion of privacy. I mean, who does this sort of thing (other than burglars and creepy stalkers)? As if going into Courtney's bedroom UNINVITED isn't bad enough, she then helps herself to Dr. Mid-Nite's goggles and, of course, they supply her with a 'power' (in a manner of speaking): information. This is one of the things bothering me about this show - all these characters are practically just being given their 'super powers' through various objects and they don't even have to work to get them. They're not earning them, they're just handed them (or, in Beth's case, they steal them). She just takes them with her, clearly not giving it a second thought. For someone who seemed the 'friendliest' of the lunchtime table crowd, she's clearly got no qualms about theft. Not so much a 'friend' after all. Friends don't steal from other friends, Beth! 

I was surprised to learn that Magician Dude's actual supervillain name was 'The Wizard' since he certainly looked more like a magician. There's also another supervillain called 'The Fiddler' who, as you'd expect, plays the fiddle (and Courtney gives Pat shit for 'Stripesy'? 'The Wizard' is lame, not to mention inaccurate, and 'The Fiddler' is laughable). I feel so sorry for Pat - no one eats his lovely breakfasts he makes! They don't deserve him or the food he puts on their table.

Episode 6

Artemis is a girl at school who is aggressive at sports and has even more aggressive parents who off the coach for benching their daughter despite the fact that she was in the wrong for punching a fellow footballer. The father of aggressive girl is also Pat’s exercise trainer who constantly puts him down even though he’s far from being in terrible shape for someone his age. The only thing the mother did that I liked was her telling littering Col. Sanders to pick up the rubbish he purposely dropped on the ground.

Courtney now has her ‘team’ that is made up of herself (gymnastics = fighting skills?), Yolanda (she boxes...but can suddenly do all sorts of fighting?), Rick/Hourman (who gains his power from an hourglass he wears around his neck which grants him super strength for only one hour. So, yet another ‘superhero’ is only ‘super’ thanks to a magical object, and as far as I know he didn’t have any fighting skills prior to getting this power...yet having super strength means you also gain knowledge on how to put it to effective use? I guess all you need to know when you have super strength is how to punch) and Beth who STOLE Dr. Mid-Nite's goggles from Courtney's house and whose 'superpower' seems to be basically what Sigourney Weaver's character did in the movie Galaxy Quest (1999) - ie. repeating everything said by the ship's computer - except that it's the Dr. Mid-Nite goggles telling her stuff that she just repeats. That's it, that's all she does. Literally ANYONE could wear them and do that. Even lamer is the fact that she makes ‘friends’ with the goggles, naming them 'Chuck' - which is appropriate, I guess, since every time she talks to them/about them like they're a person makes me want to . I've seen the 'character type' Beth is in numerous shows and the trick to getting it right is making them endearing instead of annoying. Unfortunately, this attempt is all the latter and none of the former. Adding to the list of things that make Beth annoying, she just blurts out the name 'Stargirl' at school, as well as 'JSA', etc.

All of Courtney's so-called 'friends' refuse to give the stuff back that makes them 'special' after Courtney is warned by Pat they’d be in danger and she asks for it all back. Hey, newsflash, jerks - it wasn't yours to begin with! I'd been liking Yolanda slightly more up until that point, after she'd thanked Courtney for choosing her. This sense of entitlement from her (as well as the other two), though, made me dislike her again. When Courtney finally did give them back the stuff (not that they really deserved it after how they'd been acting/treating her), I thought those two supervillain parents Tigress and Sportsmaster (seriously, Sportsmaster? Stripesy is looking less lame by comparison with every new superhero/supervillain name that's introduced) must've been pretty lame if they couldn’t even take out four kids. Though I'd really wanted to see them get their arses handed to them for being so reckless as to take on two supervillains when they'd only had minimal fight training (and in the case of Rick and Beth, no fight training whatsoever). Further evidence of how utterly useless Beth was without the goggles could be seen when they had to point out to her the fire extinguisher that was right in front of her to use in helping Yolanda against Tigress. Luckily for them, Pat arrives in his giant robot to save their stupid selves. I forget who said it (I think it might've been Rick), but one of them had badmouthed Pat earlier, asking what use he was to Starman and wondering why he kept Pat around - well, I hope they apologised after this. 

Although I wasn't fussed on Courtney's character, I would've still preferred to see her and Yolanda as a duo for a while before these other ones were added to their 'team'. The only enjoyable parts I found were earlier with the Staff hiding under Courtney's bed when she was caught by Pat with all the stuff she'd taken from the JSA lair and after the big fight when Courtney was venting to Pat about her new 'team' not listening to her and he was saying how he could understand her frustrations with them not listening to her despite trying to keep them safe (obviously referencing himself trying to do the same thing with her), but she just wasn't getting it...not until the very end, anyway.

Poor Amy Smart, getting stuck with a thankless 'B plot' (maybe even 'C plot') involving Pat's annoying son and a stupid chocolate volcano. Ugh. This, combined with the new additions to the JSA Next Generation 'team', made for a pretty blah episode. It's not a good sign when I cared more about the Staff getting injured by the explosive hockey puck than I did about any of the kids being in 'danger'. 

Episode 7

The episode begins with Courtney greeting the Staff after opening its crate, Rick carving something into a tree (not sure what that was about), Yolanda boxing and almost hugging the Wildcat costume...and if that wasn't annoying enough, lastly we're subjected to Beth singing and dancing while wearing the goggles and evidently she is spending WAY too much time with them. I'd say she's become addicted. Seek help, Beth. She still hasn't learned a damn thing about discretion, since she practically yells out 'JSA' in the school hallway. I'm not sure why Courtney just lets this stupidity slide since it could easily lead to any of them being found out by a supervillain or supervillain's offspring. Beth is not 'cute' or 'funny', she's acting foolishly and it makes her a liability to the 'team' (if one can even call it that). Meanwhile, Cindy is a bitch to everyone - Courtney, her boyfriend, that janitor hanging around the school, and especially her poor stepmother who is clearly afraid of her. 

She just strolls into the supervillains' lair, being her bratty self, kills minions (they must dread it whenever she enters the lair, since she gets away with literal murder) and has a typical moody teen argument with her supervillain dad who's dressed in green (complete with a hood over his head). She's not the only immature one, though. Barbara is jealous of Pat spending time with Courtney (they use a cover story of him teaching her to drive) and Mike is jealous of Courtney spending time with his dad. Why is it every kid in this show is annoying and the only decent one (Joey) got killed off? Cindy loses her 'friend'/minion at school because she’s sick of Cindy's bitchiness, so then she decides to be nice (well, 'nice' for her) to Courtney and asks if she wants to hang out. My immediate thought was "Why the hell WOULD she?" given all the nastiness Cindy spouted to everyone. "NOPE!" is what Courtney's response should've been, but for some reason she agrees...that is until a guy (I think it was Cameron, son of Icicle) asks her out and she ditches Cindy's bitchy arse to instead go to a dance with the guy. So Cindy's fake 'niceness' disappears as suddenly as it appeared to begin with and she's back to full-on bitch mode. 

At the dance, she has on a costume (but no mask - WHY??) and fights Stargirl, getting her face burned by the Staff in the process (though it heals). The Staff, proving it's the MVP of the JSA Next Generation 'team', finds Pat and leads him to Courtney who's had her arse handed to her by Cindy. He yells out Courtney's name...which doesn't seem so wise, since surely Cindy heard it. WHY does no one care about keeping their secret identities, you know, a secret?? Courtney could also change her hair or something to make it less obvious. The episode ends with the school janitor recognising 'Stripesy'. 

Episode 8

The first thing we see is Pat seemingly going for a joyride and then crashing his Buick, which I thought was a weird place to start, given how the last episode ended. Turns out he did it on purpose as part of his cover story to explain Courtney's injuries to her mother (after having her arse beaten last episode by Cindy). The fact that he was willing to sacrifice his pride and joy - the Buick - just to add authenticity to his cover story shows how good Pat is to Courtney, since she keeps telling him she doesn't want him to reveal the truth to Barbara. Unfortunately, not even the Staff seems to respect him, since he tries to chat with it about keeping Courtney safe and it doesn't respond to what he's saying in any way. 

Cindy’s dad threatens to take off his hood (which I guess is the supervillain equivalent of threatening a child with no dinner before bed), thus making his bitchy daughter finally listen to him when he tells her to go to her room. The Trio of Uselessness want to go to Cindy’s place to do some investigating or something. Pat arrives and pretends to be Beth's dad when Cindy's stepmother answers the door. The 'joke' of him having to explain they're not biologically related - is that even needed nowadays? Isn't it a given that even if a child doesn't look like one parent, they could always look like their other parent? And if they look like neither parent, doesn't it go without saying that they're most likely adopted? It was an attempt at 'humour', but like any 'humourous' moment involving Beth, it falls completely flat. As does her cheerleader cover story. Every time she puts the goggles on, I think "ANYONE could do that!". Honestly, she should just give them to Pat. It'd give him something to use when he's not inside his giant robot. Further showing she's a liability to the 'team', she doesn't listen to the others when they tell her to get out. The other two prepare to go in after her, Yolanda even has the Wildcat costume on in broad daylight where anyone could see her in it and once again Pat saves their arses by stalling Cindy's stepmother so Beth can get her stupid arse out of there. He also has to point out to Yolanda not to wear the Wildcat costume during the daytime. Honestly, all of these 'superheroes' are too stupid to be in the superhero business at all. Without Pat's levelheadedness, they'd be screwed.

Cindy comes to Courtney’s room, pretending to see how she's doing/apologise for how she was after Courtney ditched her to go to a dance with a guy. There's one funny moment where Cindy, who appears to have brought Courtney balloons to make her feel better after her 'car accident', just purposely lets them go instead of handing them to her. Courtney's reaction was what made it funny.





Cindy then proceeds to eat the chocolates she brought, spitting out the ones she doesn't like and giving them to Courtney - just when you think she can't be a worse human being. Before leaving, she reveals she knows Courtney is Stargirl (see, Courtney? A hair change wouldn't have gone astray) and says she’s gonna off her friends (you see me complaining? Go ahead, Cindy. It'd be the first useful thing you've done). After Pat's chat with it earlier, the Staff doesn't want Courtney to go after Cindy (so apparently it was listening to what Pat said after all), but then it relents. 

Henry, the son of Brainwave, who’s telepathic/telekinetic powers were starting to manifest earlier (it was very Harry Osborne from Spider-Man 2, as he discovered his dad's costume - it's even green too) has his powers explode after he’s trying to understand what’s going on during the fight between the girls, sending the two of them flying. He hears Courtney's thoughts and vice versa. FINALLY, an interesting development. 

Evidently I didn't think much of Episode 9...since I didn't even bother to jot down any notes for it. So, moving onto Episode 10 (which actually was interesting).

We see how Pat and Barbara first met via flashback which cuts back to the Staff dropping and Barbara's shock at seeing it (which is how last episode ended). Courtney tries to explain, Barbara automatically leaps to the conclusion it is Pat's fault and blames him (adding her to the ever-growing list of characters I don't like on this show), Courtney defends him (albeit briefly. She could've continued to defend him even after her mother tried to silence her) and it sucks for Pat that Barbara goes straight to asking about the car crash. He admits it was a cover story and she kicks him out of the house. He tries to have a heartfelt talk with his annoying son, who eventually decides to go with him, but says not to get all mushy or whatever.

Henry learns the truth about his father. Courtney tells the Staff to get back in its crate when it wants to go out but her mum won’t let her. It goes anyway and stupidly allows Icicle to freeze it by getting too close to him (I thought the Staff was smarter than that. Up until now it'd proven to be more intelligent than any of the kids. I guess their stupidity must've rubbed off on it). Henry tells Courtney about this, she learns that they're cousins (because Henry's mum was the sister of Courtney's father, apparently) and immediately gives him an enthusiastic hug which he responds to awkwardly (it was one of the rare moments where I liked Courtney and it was a nice scene between the two of them). 





I was somewhat enjoying the episode until the Trio of Uselessness came into it. They don’t trust Henry and Yolanda says she’s not Courtney’s friend anymore despite Courtney choosing her to be in the 'team' and giving her the Wildcat costume and everything else she did for her as well as the other two. They’d all be nothing without Courtney and the stuff she gave them. They go after the bad guys and Cindy, who's no less a bitch even when she's locked up, yelling out to her dad that they're there, giving them away. She pathetically begs her dad to let her be the one to kill Courtney. Courtney fights Cindy's dad, Yolanda shows off impressive ninja moves (that I'm not sure how she picked up just from boxing) when fighting his slow-moving zombie minions, we finally see his dragon face he threatened to show to Cindy previously and both Courtney and Yolanda's reactions can be summed up as  . 

Rick/Hourman wants to kill Solomon Grundy, who’s locked up, because he killed his parents. Beth, as usual, is useless without the goggles which aren't working. Brainwave is up and about and after seemingly being decent (as far as Henry could tell) earlier on, he is back to his usual bad self. Henry manages to get all the others to safety and then gets killed by his father. This was quite disappointing, as Henry proved this episode to be the most interesting one of the entire group. There was so much potential with his character and the show just wasted it by offing him. First Joey, now Henry - what is it with this show killing off the wrong kids? For crap's sack, off the useless ones instead! They're all pretty useless in their lame attempts to help him. For someone who started out just seeming like the typical jerky jock, I was surprised to see Henry develop into one of the more 'complex' characters in the show. I think it really was a big misstep to kill him off. You're not doing yourself any favours here, show. 

Episode 11

It begins with sword clashing/battle sounds. The janitor from the school is weird about horses. Courtney’s jerk father returns. Barbara seems to have adjusted to learning of superheroes/supervillains rather quickly. Pat owes Courtney the biggest "I told you so!" ever since she learns her dad wasn’t Starman - which is what he's been telling her ever since she found the Staff. Speaking of, the Staff won’t work for her all of a sudden. Suddenly her 'friends' are all 'with' her after being against her last episode. We get the most minimal acknowledgement of Henry dying with a memorial for him near the end (how is nobody questioning all these parent/kid/teacher deaths from the school? They're dropping like flies).

Courtney's jerk father, who gave her one of two pendants he got, wants hers back and claims he just needs to make some money so they can be a family again or some such. In reality, he's just the typical deadbeat dad who is only pretending to bond with his daughter because he needs money for his own selfish reasons. Thankfully, Pat exists and he punches the jerk (I think him saying that Barbara "still looks good but not as good as when I had her" was the final straw for Pat). Honestly, Pat isn't just the best parent in the show, but he's pretty much the best character too - aside from the Staff, which starts working for Courtney again at the end after she asks both Pat and her mother to join her. I noticed the two of them had to shield their eyes from the blinding gold light of the Staff as it came to life again...yet it didn't burn out Courtney's retinas as she stared right into it up close (I guess because it likes her).

Episode 12

Mike, being his usual annoying self, gets so mad at Pat leaving him out of things/not telling him stuff he has a hissy fit and storms off as Pat is just about to tell/show him everything. Sportsmaster and Tigress attack, there's a fight, and they lose (worst. supervillains. ever). Mike finally does the first useful thing he's ever done by sticking a drill into Sportsmaster's back. Since the supervillains know who they are/where they live now, Courtney's family decides it's time to move. Annoyingly, everyone else joins them as well including the Trio of Uselessness and the school janitor (who was apparently a superhero called the 'Shining Knight'. Seriously, why does 'Stripesy' get all the insults and not all these other lame superhero/supervillain names?). Honestly, the only one I was worried about was the dog (but he eventually appears, which was a relief). 

I thought when Pat's giant robot suddenly appeared, it was going to be Sportsmaster inside of it since Pat only seemed to give him one whack and that was it. We didn't even see him tie the guy up or anything. It would've served them all right if it had been the bad guys. They really left a lot of loose ends when they decided to nick off. So, turns out the supervillains' plan is to zombify all the adults (complete with stupid looks on their faces) and make them think differently (in an effort to make a 'better America' or whatever), but ones who fight it end up dying. Pat, who is among the zombified adults, punches at Courtney with his giant robot's hand and that ends the episode. I felt this ending didn't justify silent end credits (usually such things are reserved for episodes that end with a significant character's death or such). It felt wasted here and had no impact at all, I thought.

Episode 13

So, I only remember about half of what happened in this season final. I recall Yolanda killing zombies except for one, who turns out to be Henry...except it isn't really (disappointingly). It's actually Brainwave pretending to be his son, but Yolanda (showing that she's got more brains than both Rick and Beth put together) works out he's not Henry when he asks her "Where are your friends?" and she immediately slashes his throat (just as well she was 100% sure it wasn't really Henry), saying that "they were Henry's friends too" as Brainwave presumably/hopefully dies choking on his own blood. When Courtney meets up with her, Yolanda says she knows what she did was 'wrong' but she did it anyway. It was a neat moment...so long as you don't think about it for too long, since what seemed like only minutes earlier she was giving Rick a speech about how killing is 'wrong' when he wanted to off Solomon Grundy (who we finally get to see...and he's basically a CGI grey Hulk). I don't mind the hypocrisy too much in this instance, though, since Brainwave was a murderer and needed to be put down. Grundy, though, turned out to just be a big wuss once it looked like Rick was going to off him...but then decided against it because he saw him cowering and let him go. Interesting reversal with Yolanda and Rick doing the opposite of what they set out to do. 

Beth FINALLY does something useful by figuring out what was blocking the signal in the tunnel, Icicle destroys the goggles and freeze-zaps Beth (but doesn't, I don't know...freeze her entirely and actually kill his enemy like he kept saying he was going to do). Icicle has Courtney's mum on top of a building. When Pat appeared (seriously, he saves SO many people's butts in this show), I thought for sure he was going to die fighting Icicle. I figured they'd both fall from the building or something. Instead, Courtney and Icicle fall, Yolanda saves Courtney but Icicle gets shattered by a truck plowing into him driven by...Mike. Ugh. I guess he, like Beth, finally did something actually USEFUL...but still...ugh. He wants to be on the 'team' and all I can think is "Please, NO." (and it's morbidly amusing how the parents are just brushing aside the fact that both Yolanda and Mike have straight-up murdered a couple of adults. Sure, they were supervillains and I'm not "Supervillain lives matter!" or anything...but I just hope they don't later give speeches about how killing is 'wrong' when they seemed rather cool with it here). 

I don't think I could've rolled my eyes any further than I did at Beth being so broken up about the death of her boyfriend the goggles, saying how it wasn't an 'it', it was a 'him' .  They say goodbye to janitor/knight guy and the episode seems to end with Cindy finding what appears to be a black diamond and then a magician guy (another one?) appears, making the supervillains' painting of themselves in their lair disappear. If he came from a black diamond, I wonder if there's someone trapped inside that pink pen that we haven't seen hide nor hair from since, I think, the third episode.

The last 10 minutes of the episode felt like filler. It's Christmas, everyone's happy (I was expecting/hoping Courtney would call Pat 'dad'...but no such luck, sadly), Courtney flies to a water tower and sits on it, Pat's giant robot joins her, then they fly off again (seemed rather pointless). The very last thing we see is Starman knocking on the door of Courtney's old house, alive and well, looking for Pat. And so it begins! A character thought dead, brought back to life. Careful, show, it's a slippery slope once you start bringing characters back from the dead. You don't want to wind up like all those other shows where death lost all meaning and became a joke.

Final thoughts

For a show that most people seemed to be praising, I was expecting 'more'. I didn't realise I was going to have to be putting up with a whole 'team' of not-that-super superheroes. Especially annoying ones. I thought it was mostly going to be Courtney, Yolanda and Pat. Honestly, they could lose the other two and not be any worse off for it (Pat's giant robot can supply the 'strength' and as I said before, he could wear the goggles). While I wasn't that fond of Courtney in the beginning, she actually became one of the less annoying characters by the end. I was glad she came to care more about Pat (though she's still got a ways to go in the 'respecting' him department). In case it wasn't clear, Pat was the character I found the least annoying (along with the Staff, of course). Luke Wilson just made him so likeable. He also seems to be the only character with any common sense at all. I hope they don't ever end up offing him (as seems to be the way with father/mentor figures in superhero shows and movies), as I'm not sure I'd be able to tolerate the rest without him around.

Out of the Trio of Uselessness, I'd say probably Yolanda was the least annoying. There were times I didn't like her, but other times where I didn't mind her. Plus, like with Courtney, she actually had some pretty decent fighting skills (nevermind how she picked them up). Rick just seemed to be someone who angered easily and was a jerk a lot of the time, though he did have his moments of being decent. I don't really have anything positive to say about Beth. I dread having to put up with her for the rest of the show. Same goes for Mike. Barbara was okay, I guess, but didn't really have anything to do (a waste of Amy Smart).

The adult villains were alright for one season, but I would've gotten sick of them continuing on for another, so I'm glad they were offed...though some of them I would've liked to see stick around longer than they did, such as Magician Dude and his wife. I was also interested to see if their son would have followed in his father's footsteps eventually, so it was a big disappointment he barely got any development at all. Same goes for Henry. What a waste of character with so much potential. Yet Cindy, who seems to just be bitchy and want to kill Courtney (with very little depth to her), gets to live/continue on into next season.

They certainly spared no expense on effects, but none of those distracted me from all the things I didn't like about the show. While I liked some aspects of it, overall I wasn't as impressed by it as most people seemed to be. I don't think I'll be rushing out to buy Season 2 whenever it's eventually released here on DVD/Blu-ray.

I thought I recognised the actress playing the lead role of Kristen Bouchard from somewhere, and then discovered she played a role in Season 2 of Westworld (she was William's daughter). I was bummed that she didn't last long on that show, so it was a nice surprise to see her here. I quickly grew to like her character, as she seemed able to handle herself when it came to the various creeps/psychos she encountered...including a demon named George who paid her a visit in her dreams and cut her finger off with a knife.




I liked that she was proven to be smart, as she stuck a sign on her ceiling which she could use to test whether she was dreaming or not (the working theory being you can't read text in a dream). Some seemed to find the demon creepy, while others found him funny - I don't think this was unintentional. I believe he was supposed to be both disconcerting and morbidly amusing. So, Kristen's character was off to a good start by showing she wasn't just going to be a victim and would push back against all those who tried to intimidate/scare her.  At the same time, she wasn't infallible. She could be shaken on occasion and made mistakes, but on the whole I thought she was a pretty strong character. I was so glad to get to see more of Katja Herbers here, after being introduced to her via Westworld. I thought she gave an excellent performance throughout the season and I was happy to see that she wasn't just the typical 'nonbeliever' type of character. She did seem at least open to listening to others' perspectives/beliefs and I was especially glad we got to see some humour from her too (as so often it seems these types of characters are written as mostly humourless/dull/boring). We got to see her making jokes, getting high (loving fireflies in the process) and even singing. 




Her greatest moment in the season, though, had to be in the second-to-last episode when she put Michael Emerson's Leland Townsend in his place when he attempted to do the typical villain threatening thing. It was such a marvelous takedown, and everything women-haters like him need to forced to hear. It was just so satisfying watching her verbally eviscerate this scumbag who thought he was so tough/scary/intimidating. He really should've learned his lesson after that time she cut him with a knife. Threatening to kill her family? He was a fool and paid for his foolishness. It was a cheer-worthy moment from Kristen and made me love her even more than I already did. She had some really good lines sprinkled throughout the season. It's nice to have another female lead character on TV who I enjoy watching and can cheer on whenever she has a 'win'. 

Some have criticised her parenting skills when it comes to her four kids she lives at home by herself with, but I thought she was doing the best she could. I mean, she was doing her job to earn money to keep them all fed and a roof over their heads, suddenly got fired and was unable to repay her student loans, then got offered this new job involving investigating 'evil', had an unreliable mother that she counted on to help out with the kids (but instead caused many problems), and not to mention all these psychos gunning for her on top of all the other weird crap she was dealing with. And, honestly, although her kids tended to speaking LOUDLY and over each other, they're nothing compared to the ones that live in my street. At least her daughters were forming sentences, whereas in my street all I hear is random nonsensical screaming which you would think meant they were getting murdered or something...but that's not in fact the case. The ones in my street just shriek random noises and it drives me to insanity since it's ALL THE TIME and EVERY DAY. Compared to them, Kristen's kids were pretty tolerable (which I found surprising, since most times I hate kids in shows/movies). However, it took me a while to tell them apart. I still haven't learned all their names yet, but eventually I started thinking of them as 'the oldest one', 'the youngest one', Lexie (hey, at least I learned ONE of their names!) and 'the other one'. I was shocked that I actually became rather engrossed with what was going on with them in some of the episodes, such as...

Episode 4 - 'Rose390'. This was the one with the 'Augmented Reality' goggles. I enjoyed the creepy atmosphere the episode set up with them exploring these goggles their grandmother had bought them as presents (because she couldn't remember when their birthdays were). Naturally, there was a creepy young girl in the game and other violent/scary things. Normally I don't care about kid characters being in peril, as I know more often than not they'll be safe, but this show did a good job of actually making their scenes in the AR tense and unsettling. Then there was the humour of the 'Bunny Hopp' option and it creating bunnies everywhere. I appreciated the show actually putting some effort into creating an eerie atmosphere during this episode (other shows I watched, which used to put the same amount of effort in, gave up on that a long time ago). This continued with the next episode.




Episode 5 - 'October 31'. This was obviously designed to air during Halloween (I'm assuming), since that was when it took place. Again, there was a creepy atmosphere set up during this episode, as it involved an 'unpopular' girl, claiming to be Brenda, coming over to join Kristen's daughters who they didn't really know/like. She kept a mask on the whole time, asked the girls a 'hypothetical' question of how they would go about killing their mother (the youngest one's answer? "With kisses!"), told a freaky story about a girl being locked in her room and getting burned by the fire her parents lit because she couldn't escape and then took the girls to a cemetery where she made the youngest one get into an empty grave.




Although, like others, I was curious about how badly scarred she looked under that mask, I actually thought it was a good move on the show's part to not in fact show her face (all we saw was her start to lift the mask, as she revealed herself to the girls in the cemetery). Usually one's imagination can conjure up scarier things than any prosthetics or CGI could create, and I felt that was the case here. The actress who played the part of Not!Brenda was really good in the role, I thought, as she didn't try to go overboard with the creepy-sounding voice of hers. She actually sounded almost normal, but also sounded quite a bit older/more mature than the other girls too and that's what made her unsettling. She managed to be very freaky even with her face covered the entire time (except for the end, of course, where she freely roamed the streets, scaring passersby, after she'd freaked out Kristen's kids. That laugh of hers after she'd given a couple of random kids a fright was especially good). 

Sadly, I found the next batch of episodes after these^ two weren't quite as freaky. Sure, there were some freaky moments (the ghoul baby from the episode 8 was pretty nightmare-inducing, and kudos to the show for going with a nasty-looking puppet rather than CGI. It was much more effective), but nothing really came close to matching the unsettling atmosphere from episodes 4 & 5, I thought. The closest was episode 10, which involved an annoyingly catchy song getting stuck in people's heads and them constantly singing/humming it uncontrollably (leading to scissors-in-ears in an effort to make it stop).




Good luck getting THAT^ out of your head once you've heard it (whoever made up that tune is truly evil). I applaud the show for managing to make something as mundane as people constantly singing/humming a tune into something freaky (the best time to watch this show is at night with all the lights turned off. Really adds to the atmosphere). While what we actually saw was unnerving enough, I found what made this show so effective was it got you thinking about what might/could happen. The whole episode I was feeling tense about what sorts of things were going to happen as a result of this song no one could get out of their heads. I find the best sorts of 'horror' are the stuff that leaves you uneasy after you've finished watching. That's what I liked so much about this series - that it left you with a feeling of uneasiness. No, it may not have been 'super scary' as such, but it was at least unsettling (and certainly made more of an effort than a lot of supposed 'horror' shows do). 

Regarding the other characters of the show - Mike Colter, who I knew from The Good Wife and playing Luke Cage in Season 1 of Jessica Jones (I never did see his own show), was more likable here than he was in either of those shows, I thought. The fact that he got to actually smile and have some lighthearted moments here and there contributed to that. I really enjoyed his chemistry/dynamic with Katja Herbers as Kristen. I thought they played well off each other and I liked that they weren't just the typical 'believer'/'nonbeliever' pairing. They managed to set their characters and their dynamic apart from what had come before, making them feel different. There was the expected 'sexual tension' between them, but the show didn't force it, which I was grateful for. It felt like it developed naturally and wasn't rushed. Some shows move things along too fast with characters developing feelings for each other and then getting together, but I didn't find that here. I liked that they could have some fun with each other, make jokes, etc.

I also liked that Colter's character of David Acosta was a priest-in-training and that we got at least one Catholic character on this show who wasn't presented in a negative way (as so many characters in shows tend to be nowadays). His character was presented as someone who, although he believed in God, didn't force his beliefs onto Kristen (or others). He was open-minded, patient and understanding of others' beliefs (or non-beliefs), which made him a decent person. If he had a 'flaw', it was that he struggled with drug addiction and used drugs to 'enhance' his visions. His character certainly was having a rough time in the last few episodes of the show, as he got stabbed, then in the following episode a nasty nurse was preventing him from outing her murderousness by keeping him drugged, and after he finally escaped that madness, in the next episode he got knocked out and chained up in a basement by an unhinged woman (that's what he gets for doing snooping when he was ill-prepared for handling the situation). I was SO glad the passerby with the dog, who investigated the cries for help, managed to get away unscathed (I was especially relieved that the dog lived, as animals never fare well in horror shows/movies. I'm still wondering what happened to the cat that found its way into Kristen's house that she was not fond of and swore to take care of in the Mafia sense). I wasn't so fussed on him being lured away from Kristen by other guest characters who were introduced. I feel he's at his strongest when he's in scenes with her and...

The other character who makes up the third part of the main trio, Ben Shakir, played by Aasif Mandvi (who I thought looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't really remember from anything). At first I wasn't sure what to make of his character, as he seemed to be not particularly friendly to Kristen. However, over the course of the season Ben showed that he actually had a lot of heart and came to befriend Kristen (even exchanging Christmas presents with her at the end of the season). He already had a working relationship with David, so Kristen was someone he had to get to know/get used to. It was fun seeing him interact with her kids, as he spoke to them in an adult way without being a jerk. The fact they came to know him as 'Men the Magnificent' showed just how close they grew. I hope we will get to see more interaction between him and Kristen in the next season, as I liked their dynamic just as much as the Kristen/David dynamic. I was a bit frustrated when they weren't together as a trio as much later in the season, as I liked them interacting together. The only 'downside' to his character was the relationship he got into with a weird woman that believed she had a ghost sister attached to her side...or something. That was just WTF-level weirdness and felt rather unnecessary. 

The main antagonist of the show, Leland Townsend (not his real name, as we came to learn), was played by Michael Emerson who I knew mainly as Benjamin Linus from Lost, but had seen in a few other things. I never did watch Person of Interest, though I did watch the first episode of a mini-series he was in prior to this...and only the first episode, as it was so dull/boring I didn't make it any further than that. Thankfully, he moved onto a much better role here. Though his character was loathsome and I was so happy to see Kristen threatening him in return (for his threatening her and her family), as well as her epic verbal smackdown of him, I did at least find him interesting. For a while, anyway. He seemed to be making it his mission to torment Kristen and also influence other random people to do evil acts. I particularly wanted him dead when he was encouraging an incel to be like his fellow incels. The kid tried asking out a girl at a coffee shop (in a really bad way), was rejected (but in a nice way) and thought she needed to 'ay' for her rejection of him. Naturally, Leland latched onto the kid and played into his incel beliefs, blaming women for everything and thinking they needed to be punished, etc. Having to sit through all that garbage they were spouting was pretty difficult, but in the end the incel (who Leland had basically given an arsenal to) shot his own fool self in the head and couldn't go and massacre a bunch of innocents like Leland had planned for him to do. Just as well incels are idiots/incompetent. I enjoyed watching Leland throw a hissy fit after his plan fell apart. After Kristen took him down a few pegs in the second-last episode, we were then treated to the sight of him having a therapy session at the end of the episode with a goat man (quite possibly Beelzebub). On the one hand, you could take what was presented at face value and think the show was getting pretty 'out there' by having a goat man...but given that it liked to make you question whether these 'other-worldly' things were real or not, you could also view it as just Leland seeing the goat man in his mind. 

This show did get pretty weird at times, but I felt it didn't verge into the 'too weird' category. Sometimes shows feel the need to get SO bizarre that they just become nonsensical, but here I was able to 'get' what was going on most of the time. Even though there was some pretty strange stuff including the bed Leland and Kristen's mother, Sheryl (who hooked up with Leland against her daughter's wishes), catching fire as they were getting it on. Speaking of Sheryl...it was rather difficult to not wish her character dead, since Kristen went to such lengths to assure her he was a BAD DUDE, yet her mother just ignored everything she said. Add to that the fact she was a pretty crap babysitter and, no, she wasn't winning any Mother of the Year awards - that's for sure. One could possibly excuse her behaviour after having slept with Leland as him now having some sort of control over her or making her act evil...but everything *before* that was all her, and she had no such excuse. It was tough watching her choose Satan's minion over her own daughter and grandkids. I hope she gets an exorcism or whatever she needs to get back to being less loathsome next season. 

Speaking of exorcisms, it's possible Kristen's going to be needing one next season as well, considering that not only did we see her approaching goat man in a cornfield (as part of David's vision he was having), but also the fact that back in reality a cross burned her hand (which was established earlier in the episode as meaning a person was possessed). Add to this the fact that she seemed intent on killing the murderer guy who was released from prison (the same one from the premiere episode of the season, when she experienced her first encounter with 'evil'), and it certainly looked like she was going to go after him with a tool used for climbing mountains (which both she and her husband do), plus the blood on her leg which she told Ben to forget about after wiping it away...it doesn't bode well.




I did like the start of the season final, where she was prepared for the nasty visitors she had in her dreams. First, there was the murderer guy who she visited in prison and whacked with a chair before he could leap across the table and strangle her like he did in the season's first episode. Then there was George, who she stabbed before he could stab her (or cut off anymore fingers). I loved the fact that she was so over her dreams/nightmares tormenting her and was ready for them. What she wasn't ready for, however, was the goat man to also make an appearance. 

I recognised some other actors in the show such as Kurt Fuller (Zachariah from Supernatural - he didn't seem to do a whole lot in this show until towards the end of the season when he came in handy) and Kristen Connolly (from the movie The Cabin in the Woods and the TV series Zoo - which I have yet to watch the third and final season of on DVD even though I bought it ages ago, because the show really isn't very good at all. Thankfully, she was served better on this show in her limited amount of screentime than she ever was on that show). The guy who played Kristen's husband, Andy, who took a while to make an appearance on the show (and thus people believed he was dead) was an Australian actor I recognised (even if I hadn't really watched him in anything much). Andy appeared decent, as he seemingly took care of Rose390 (we later learned the guy who was behind that creepy girl in the AR was some burly bearded bloke. Ben also helped with outing that creeper), offered to take care of the kids so Kristen could go mountain climbing again and even made a deal (as part of his new belief in Buddhism) to save his youngest daughter during an emergency operation she had to have, promising his life in exchange for her. One 'flaw' he had, though, was believing Kristen was involved with Ben (of all people), as he had gotten talk of Ben and David mixed up from what his kids told him and thought Kristen was getting a bit 'close' to Ben. His obviously jealousy over this misunderstanding wasn't a good look, but I expect his deal will result in him not being around for long next season. 

Regarding next season...I just watched the promo for it and it's unexpectedly amusing and foreboding at the same time (foreboding because of all the things they're talking about, amusing due to Aasif Mandvi's providing sound effects. And Katja Herbers sure knows how to scream). THIS is how you do a promo for a new season of a show when all the actors can't be in the same place. .