It’s a full week in TV, both episodes and news, giving us our first marathon episode in long time. First up, Noel and Kate talk through their week in TV, starting with comedy and reality, including the finale of Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas, DuckTales, SYTYCD, and RuPaul’s Drag Race. Next up are the genre offerings, including Luke Cage season two, the finale of Supergirl, the midseason finale of Into the Badlands, and a frustrating Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger. We round up the week’s TV with the dramas, including a standout Claws, a Christmas-themed Pose, and interestingly intersecting episodes of Dietland and The Bold Type. Afterwards, it’s time for a return to kind TV with a deep dive on the second season of Netflix’s Queer Eye.
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Season Spotlight: Queer Eye Season 2 (2:05:33)
Our Week in Comedy and Reality
Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas finale (31:51)
DuckTales (40:38)
SYTYCD (45:17)
RuPaul’s Drag Race (48:19)
Our Week in Genre
Luke Cage Season 2 (1:04:17)
Supergirl finale (1:07:40)
Into the Badlands midseason finale (1:17:06)
Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger (1:19:32)
Our Week in Drama
Claws (1:28:59)
Pose (1:42:17)
Dietland (1:44:05)
The Bold Type (1:50:12)
Music Featured: “Covergirl” by RuPaul as featured on SYTYCD for Laganja Estranja’s audition; Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor, K. 626, no. 3: Sequentia: Rex Tremendae, as performed by the Wiener Singverein, Rudolf Scholz, and Helmuth Froschauer; “I Get Around” by The Beach Boys
Articles Mentioned: Candice Frederick’s piece at The Week about this week’s Claws; E. Oliver Whitney’s piece at ScreenCrush about Skyler’s season two episode of Queer Eye
Errata: The midseason finale of Into the Badlands is titled, “Leopard Catches Cloud,” not “Chamber of Shadows.” The Televerse regrets the error!
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Hey Kate and Noel!
It was so weird seeing that fight between Tyrone and Tandy with him telling her to kill herself. I was waiting for a sign of regret on his face wondering if he should apologize for saying that. But it never happened.
And when Tandy jumped into the lake, all chained up, my first reaction was “Uh oh, Kate and Noel won’t like that.” I kept thinking about that scene on and off for a few days. Especially in the context of what Tyrone said earlier and why it wasn’t working for me (apart from the obvious).
And I found two reasons: First of all, it didn’t work for me because it didn’t fit Tandy’s character. Yes, losing a resourceful ally and possible nice boyfriend to her mother in Greg plus witnessing his murder is a horrible thing. But the second she decided to help Greg there was this glimmer of determination. And she never seemed that depressed. Bitter and cynical, yes. But depressed to the point of self-harm? I don’t know…
The second thing was: I was waiting for Tyrone to save her. Not because she is a damsel in distress and needs a knight in shining armor. But because it would have been an acknowledgement that what he said to her was wrong and that deep down he knows that.
I also didn’t like the vibe I got with him and Evita making out in the dark room. Maybe it was the way it was framed but in that moment, to me, it felt like he was using her to push the thoughts of his falling out with Tandy to the side.
That brings us to episode 5 which I just saw [SPOILERS]:
While I enjoyed the episode a lot during the watch, parts of it fall apart for me when I take a step back and think about it. Like Tandy showing up at Tyrone’s private high school like they didn’t have a huge fight the night before and she didn’t just attempted suicide. It was implied that her motivation wasn’t to die but to put herself in harms way so that her powers would be triggered. And I can understand that. I still wished there had been some kind of sign/warning for the viewers that that were her intentions.
Also the whole Det. O’Reilly arc is kind of strange. She just started there after moving there from Harlem (LUKE CAGE BABY!) and now she’s not only investigating a vice detective but also mentioning conspiracy theories to some guy sitting at the next desk (who did look a lot like the uniform with whom she hooked up earlier)? That seems very dangerous. AND WTF is up with casually doing hard drugs to get on Connor’s good side? This stuff is addictive AF and you shouldn’t show someone using it like Aspirin.
Also a few developments are a bit on the nose to put it mildly: The bad guy even in his hopes killing people? The very clunky foreshadowing with the expensive watch on Billy’s wrist?
Enough nagging, here’s what really worked for me:
Tyrone and Evita! <3 (Even though them sleeping together happened really quick IMO).
The way Tandy's and Tyrone's powers are intertwined is amazing, makes a lot of sense and offers plenty of possibilities for drama and friction later on.
Two women talking and one of them making a joke about the Bechdel test 😀
The general pacing.
One last thing: I would like to know your thoughts about Evita as a character. Apart from her family connection to voodoo (and her aunt 3D-printing voodoo dolls of guys her niece potentially will date) and her "really seeing" Tyrone, I feel like we need to learn more about her. And soon. Otherwise she will feel only like a pretty girl our (male) hero kind of has crush on.
I am not sure Tyrone feels as much for her as she does feel for him. I fear she is just built up as a chess piece Connor's can eventually use against Tyrone once the latter has more control over his powers. Or a an obstacle Tandy and Tyrone have to overcome before they can become an item later down the road. Maybe it's just me having read the Wikipedia article and knowing too much. But I will be watching that closely.
I really like Evita and Tyrone together!