Frezno's Comics Challenge: May 2024 (Unflattening)

We're back at it again with the Comics Challenge, but this time is even wilder than usual. Having gotten a good third of a year to get adjusted to the mysterious world of comics critique, getting used to the medium's strengths in conveying intriguing narratives, we are now thrown straight into the deep end. Nick Sousanis's Unflattening is not a traditional comic by any measure of the word. There is no fictional narrative to summarize here. No, Unflattening is an honest to God Harvard dissertation on the very nature of perspective, sight, and human understanding delivered to you in the form of a comic. It's the kind of thing I can't just sum up, either succinctly or without brevity. Much like my analysis of Twin Peaks, my back is against the wall in trying to analyze it. Such adversity leads to strength, though. Let's tackle this thing as best as I can, and come to the start of an understanding from it.

New Doctor Who Season 1 First Impressions: Episode 4 (73 Yards)

I want to apologize to Steven Moffat right now for thinking that the reaction to Boom was divisive, because Jesus.

If ever there was an episode of this show that split opinion between realists and formalists, this is the one. From a realist sense, 73 Yards is an absolute dealbreaker of a nonsense episode. A bunch of mysterious and horrible shit happens to Ruby over these 45 minutes, and none of it is given any explicit explanation. You do not get a succinct piece of technobabble where Ncuti Gatwa says OH RUBY A QUANTUM LIMITATION BUBBLE WAS AROUND YOU breathlessly with great charm to soothe your queries. You do not even get any sort of handwave that says "Oh wow, it was magic, really shouldn't have done that salt thing huh?". Shit happens, it all gets cancelled out at the end due to some sort of loop, and we move on without ever knowing the specifics of what or why. From a realist stance, it's an absolute dealbreaker. Things must happen in the television program for good and clearly defined reasons, the logistics of which all make enough sense in the end to cohere. There can be a wiggle room of ambiguity, but there must be at least an attempt at definition. As an example, think of the episode Midnight. The antagonistic force in that story is never truly defined or explained, but there are enough rules and logic in play for us to understand how this creature possesses and takes over, and how its mirroring works when it latches on to a new target.

New Doctor Who Season 1 First Impressions: Episode 3 (Boom)

Let's get it out of the way immediately: There can be no measure of "objectivity" when it comes to this first impression. This is the return of Steven Moffat to the show after 6 1/2 years, and that is absolutely monumental to my sense of self and my internal landscape. Moffat's run was peak Doctor Who for me, particularly during the Peter Capaldi years. Not only that, but it was both reading and writing critique and analysis of it that I honed myself into the me you're reading right now. Suffice to say, I would not be who I was without the words and thoughts of Steven Moffat on this time travel show. The significance of this to me cannot be understated, and it bolds and underlines anything I have to say about Boom before a single word gets typed. With all that being said, Boom is (pun unintended) an absolute banger of an episode, and I don't want to wait any longer so let me launch right into it.

The Dark Heart Of America, Pumping Putrefied Pastels (Miami Vice) [Part 4]

(Continued from Part 3)

The first episode of the arc is even called 
"Mirror Image", for Christ's sakes.

Dovetailing between the end of Season 4 and the beginning of Season 5 is a three-episode story arc which brings about the threatened narrative collapse after Crockett shot and killed Hackman. The infamous "Burnett Arc" begins in the very next episode, and sees Crockett caught in a boat explosion while undercover and suffering from amnesia. He's reconstructed and healed by criminal underworld doctors, and they think he's Sonny Burnett, and as such so does he. It's the ultimate Nietzschean nightmare as one of our leads has fallen to the side of the shadows, becoming a terrifying and effective criminal mastermind who easily slots into the world of drug smuggling and rising up the ranks in the organization, killing those who would oppose him. The only hint of otherwise are the flashes of random memory he gets, and the hazy dreams of another life, a good man on the other side of the mirror pounding against the glass and begging to be let out. Eventually his memory comes back, and Crockett must now grapple with what he did as hearings and therapy sessions and other consequences force him to face the monster that he became.

The Dark Heart Of America, Pumping Putrefied Pastels (Miami Vice) [Part 3]

(Continued from Part 2) 

The trouble, for Miami Vice, begins with a two-parter at its exact midpoint called "Down For The Count". It's a boxing themed episode, focusing on the criminal underworld aspect of boxing promoters and an up-and-coming fighter named Bobby Sykes who Vice wish to use in their sting. Notably objecting to this plan is Larry Zito, who thinks Bobby is a good kid who shouldn't get mixed up in the miserable world of crime that they call home. This is some of the most compelling drama John Diehl has been given as Zito in the whole series; most of the time he's spent it in a van with his buddy Stan Switek as the comic relief surveillance guys. There's a reason why Zito gets so much focus this time around, as as you watch you can feel it creeping up on you as the tension builds during Bobby's big match. At first the tension is for Bobby, but then it shifts and you realize what the show is doing. It can't be stopped, and then it happens.

He wouldn't want us to mourn unnecessarily.

Larry Zito is dead. Killed by an embolism, his body is found by his partner Stan. Stan softly cradles the limp frame of his partner and best friend as Part 1 ends, the shocking midseason finale and sudden loss of one of our own. It's a very moving scene to view, and I'm sure it surprised many a viewer back in the 80's. Wait. Wait, what's this? When I tap the frame of this moment, I hear an crack... Oh. Oh, I see. All of this drama is utterly hollow. Part 2 of Down For The Count, save some dramatics from Michael Talbott over the death of his partner, is business as usual Miami Vice. It is the empty shell of a monumental moment, the shock cliffhanger having done its job as we go back to relative normal. There are several things wrong with this, but let's first of all deal with the fact that it doesn't have any weight to it. In fact, after I first watched the episode, I realized that you could have swapped Zito with Bobby Sykes as the one who dies at the end of part 1 and very little would have to change. For the departure of a series regular, that's just disappointing.

No, Larry Zito's death echoes with an emptiness and cynicism that just doesn't sit right. It came about because John Diehl felt underutilized and wanted to expand his acting horizons. The response to him wishing to leave was killing Zito off, a cynical kneejerk reaction in itself, but they hardly do anything with it! For all that the moment of cradling Zito's body is moving, the way his loss is dealt with is a toxic concoction. It's as if you combined the deaths of Tasha Yar and Adric: all the unimaginative thinking of "Well, they want to leave the show, how do we write them off-- KILL THEM", and all of the safety of killing off one of your less-utilized characters, relishing in the drama for a few moments, and then moving on as quick as you can without giving a single fuck. At least the death of Tasha Yar was something of a shameful sin that TNG had to deal with later with stuff like "Yesterday's Enterprise" and Commander Sela. This? This is nothing. Two and a half years and we get one sad hug and that's it. 

It gets worse though. Entering Season 4 is like a slap in the face with a wet fish. For one, Don Johnson has a mullet now for some reason lost to the mists of 1987. For another, Season 4 is peppered with more than a few instances of absolutely gonzo episodes that practically define the term "jump the shark". I would be remiss if I didn't mention the triptych of "The Big Thaw", "Missing Hours", and "The Cows Of October". These episodes of this serious crime drama are about a cryogenically frozen reggae singer, James Brown and alien abductions, and black market bull semen. I am making absolutely none of that up. There's another plotline that happens over Season 4 which a lot of Miami Vice fans dismiss as being just as hokey and ridiculous as all of the stuff I just mentioned. Unlike those, however, this is something I took fairly seriously and at face value. Strap in. It's time to talk about Caitlin Davies.

At about the one-third point of Season 4 is the episode "Like A Hurricane". The plot is fairly standard: Crockett is assigned to be a bodyguard for famous singer Caitlin Davies, and you get a pretty straightforward play-by-play of the enemies to lovers trope. They don't like each other, they bicker, but then they get into danger and they grow an affection for each other and fall in love. Yeah, it's pretty stock, but Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston are going to make a shitload of money from it half a decade after this show airs so there must be something to it. Caitlin is played by actual Scottish singer Sheena Easton (who I know best as having done the theme tune to the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, underrated as far as Bond films go) and I find her accent just lovely. She's nice. Wait a minute, though, we're watching Miami Vice. We know how this goes. Every time Crockett or someone else finds a love interest, something bad happens to break it apart because of the endless loneliness of being a Vice cop. There's nothing to suggest that Caitlin is secretly a criminal who will betray Crockett, so the only logical conclusion is that she'll be killed at the end of the episode and it'll be really sad.

That does not happen. In fact, by episode's end the romance is such a whirlwind that Crockett and Caitlin are planning to get married. Okay, they're really milking this, but surely something bad happens at the wedding? It does not. The episode ends with them in married bliss. Far from being wholesome and soothing, this struck fear into my very soul. The only reason Caitlin lives through this episode is because a far worse fate is awaiting her. The Sword of Dickwolfocles is hanging overhead, threatening to strike at any moment as the arc progresses. Regrettably, I must let it hang there as well, because I want to talk about Caitlin and her reception. As I said, the wider Miami Vice fanbase looks upon this arc with incredulity and disbelief. It's been put on "worst parts of Miami Vice lists", there's been mocking scorn about it, and it's up there with "James Brown is an alien" as a piece of the show's history to be scoffed at.

Contrarian time: I like Caitlin. It could be just my accepting the arc at face value, as I've done with other first-time views of shows before, but there is one particular thing that resonated with me. Crockett and Caitlin are like-minded, both of them being denizens of the night who live in the lonely hours of the soul. While Crockett is up late dealing with the criminal underworld by moonlight, Caitlin is up late performing or songwriting. There's a certain performative nature to being a songstress and going up on stage, and it mirrors Crockett's split where he has to perform as Sonny Burnett the criminal mastermind. It's this aspect of their relationship that I like. More to the point, I think Caitlin being a singer just speaks to that part of me from 2019/2020 who was obsessed with that punching girl anime about singing and songs expressing a desire for empathy and understanding. I just think they're cute together. I don't need to be agreed with, just understood on this.

Like a certain impossible girl, Caitlin has many threats and possible exits afforded to her. She's jealous and worried when Crockett offers himself as bait for a video dating service that has a serial killing problem. Then there's a whole incident involving some tabloid reporter looking into Caitlin's new boyfriend and discovering the illicit dealings of Sonny Burnett, reporting to the world that CAITLIN DAVIES IS DATING A FUCKING COCAINE FIEND. We're even threatened with her record producers plotting to end her life over money, and it looks for all the world like that will be her grim exit. She lives through it, but there's a poignant and sad scene where she's leaving their home to the song "Don't Dream It's Over". Hearing the first bars of that song as I saw Caitlin with luggage made my heart catch in my throat. I thought Caitlin was leaving him after all of that, and that would be her sad end. It would have been bittersweet, but you know what? It would have been way better than what we got.

Literal target on her back from Hackman's scope.
You can't make it up.

In the penultimate episode of Season 4, "Deliver Us From Evil", the Sword Of Dickwolfocles finally falls. Caitlin Davies returns to the show after an absence, and is killed on stage. Her fate is all but sealed when, earlier in the episode, she touches her stomach. The implications are obvious and the consequences horrendous. Caitlin Davies and her unborn child have been killed. Worse than killed. Let's just call it what it is. Fridged. That's what all this was building to. Ripping the happiness from Sonny Crockett to focus on his pain, as the show so often does. It is the worst thing to happen to him thus far, and the consequences are going to tear him apart, but I'm not done ripping into this. We have to talk about Caitlin's killer, and how he was allowed to commit this heinous act. We have to talk about Frank Hackman.

Back in Season 3, right before Larry Zito got killed, is an episode called "Forgive Us Our Debts". It may well be my least favorite episode of the show. It could have been great, but it's sort of like that 13th Doctor episode about Space Amazon: a pretty good episode that seems to be leading to one message which swerves in the complete opposite direction in the name of a twist. The gist of the episode is that Crockett has to clear the name of death row inmate Frank Hackman. Everyone around him is telling him that it's not worth it, that Hackman is criminal scum, and that criminals deserve the full punishment of the law and the death penalty. In particular there's a DA running for office whose whole stance is being pro-death penalty who is Crockett's main ideological opposition in the show. We're naturally siding with Crockett here, and with empathy and kindness. Crockett works hard, follows his leads, gets to the Governor at the last second and pardons Hackman. He's done it.

And then the last-minute twist is revealed. Hackman totally did it. He tricked Crockett into clearing his name, and he gets to get away and commit God knows how many more crimes. All that empathy and good will is subsumed by this ultra-conservative rot as the episode's takeaway becomes clear. ALL THOSE NAYSAYERS WERE RIGHT! LOOK WHAT YOUR PRECIOUS KINDNESS TO A CRIMINAL GOT YOU! SHOW NO MERCY TO CRIMINAL SCUM AND EXECUTE THEM ON THE SPOT! THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS NOT GUILTY! THEY'RE ALL JUST TRYING TO TRICK YOU TO GET OUT AND DO MORE CRIMES! It's a terrible fucking message, and I was seething at the episode's conclusion. It's even worse knowing that Hackman's revenge is to fridge Caitlin. Now that moment of empathy for criminals is framed even worse. Crockett showing mercy and not becoming Judge fucking Dredd has led to the death of his wife and unborn child. A broken man on the edge, lamenting his loss and the weakness that led to it, can only do one thing. A foot raises. It moves forward. It comes down on the other side of the dividing line that is the Dark Night Of The Soul.

The fall of Sonny Crockett has begun.

(Continued in Part 4)

The Dark Heart Of America, Pumping Putrefied Pastels (Miami Vice) [Part 2]

(Continued from Part 1)

As mentioned previously, we are in precipitous territory when it comes to Seasons 3 to 5. It can be tempting and reductive to put everything that is to come at the feet of Dick Wolf, he of Law and Order superfame. This would be incorrect, but it's not hard to see how the correlation was made: Dick Wolf joins the show, and then slowly everything begins to change. The aesthetic of the show changes as the mid-1980s become the late 1980s, and the famous "no earth tones" rule for the color palette and fashion is broken. In addition, there's just a general darkening of the proceedings that can be felt, and it gets worse and worse as time goes on. All of these things are correct, but one is not the cause of the other and I'll prove it to you. To do so, it's important to quantify just what gets emphasized in these years. Grab your shovel, because we're about to unearth some real putrefied shit from the ground here.

The Dark Heart Of America, Pumping Putrefied Pastels (Miami Vice) [Part 1]

Last summer, when I did my 10th anniversary post discussing the history of this blog, I described the period from 2022 to the present day as "The Mellowed Out Brevity Years". That was and is a fitting term for them, but with the completion of the show we're discussing today I have another name for this period of personal growth and critical analysis. For now, we can call it "The Dark Heart Of America Arc". In Quantum Leap, our hero Sam Beckett plunged through time and space and encountered countless ordinary American lives, but also all the evils within the history of the country: bigotry and racism and sexism and so many other untold horrors. In Twin Peaks, what seems like an ordinary murder mystery where the most popular girl in school is killed transmutes into this pan-dimensional oddity where time and space are nonlinear and the evil of the world crossed through a crack in the split of the atom. One's a coincidence and two's a mirroring, but three's a pattern. Let's talk about the pattern. Let's talk about Miami Vice.

New Doctor Who Season 1 First Impressions: Episode 2 (The Devil's Chord)

So! The shoe's on the other foot now, as we got a double header over the weekend for the new Doctor Who. 90 minutes of time and space adventure, and it's good to boot. Amazing, right? Having made sure that all the gen alphas and people with Disney+ subscriptions curiously clicking understand what this whole Doctor Who thing is all about, the show can now go absolutely wild again. Make no mistake, The Devil's Chord is completely wild and barmy in all the right ways. I absolutely want to launch into it and get out of this introductory paragraph, but I am once again stalling for time just long enough to give the opener some body. It's one of my reliable gimmicks from my writing bag of tricks, and it worked because we're here now. Let's talk about this shit.

New Doctor Who Season 1 First Impressions: Episode 1 (Space Babies)

We're back, folks. We are so back. But then, we already knew that. It's hard to recall the hazy memories of late 2023, when Doctor Who returned in its 60th blitz and was actually pretty damn good. It was, though. Then Christmas happened, I had a bunch of chocolate, and I got to watch Ncuti Gatwa embrace fantasy and magic with a smile. It was also pretty damn good. Well, here we are. It's May and we have begun the first series of the New Doctor Who. Call it whatever you like. Season 14, Season 40 for all I care, but I'm going to call it New Doctor Who Season 1. It's back, it's airing, and we even get a double treat as we got two at once. Isn't that nice? Sure, it means a little extra work for me, but the hell with it. I'll enjoy myself. We can talk about that second one tomorrow, but for now let's plunge into this new refreshed era with some good old fashioned critique. Let's talk about Space Babies.

Frezno's Comics Challenge: April 2024 (The Many Deaths Of Laila Starr)

God damn. These comics just keep getting better and better, and we're only a third of the way through the year. There's a real kinetic energy to these books, and even though I'm still an amateur comics critic I can still see it. I haven't been delving into things like panel composition on the page, unless it's been especially chaotic like with Of Thunder And Lightning, but I am just out here living and vibing. Living and vibing is as good a way as any to segue into The Many Deaths Of Laila Starr, so let us just stop stalling and dive right into it because this book did impress me a great deal based on its vibes and its musings.