Sunday Service

Make Villains Bad Again

Sunday’s finale episode of Lauren LeFranc’s The Penguin hero villain landed its ending. I sat famished with glee and grotesque anger as Colin Farrell’s Oz Cobb waltzed into Gotham infamy with his “mother” by his side. The bum-legged foot soldier, who we found ourselves proclaiming as a “man of the people,” was nothing more than a sociopathic narcissist and the best foil on TV in years. A villain’s villain. Downright cruel, feral, and dementedly goal-oriented. And I wouldn’t have hit any other way.

In the era of recent prestige television, audiences were made to sympathize with a bad guy to understand their motivations. This quickly devolved into creating an antihero. The Sopranos. Breaking Bad. It even happens a lot in comic book lore. Agatha Harkness almost had this shading, and Harley Quinn has received the treatment prominently in several projects, which is fine as her character experiences heroic streaks. And she was a victim of toxic MANipulation, so we root for her to break free. But the same circle can’t fit every square peg, or we end up with folks misinterpreting a work’s message completely (see: The Boys).

The series works because LeFranc and Matt Reeves understood the assignment, sticking to Oz’s nature. Yes, society handed him a sad hand, and he accurately defines the cruel imbalance of capitalism in Gotham. But those things do not validate his sadistic streak of cruel and unusual punishment he bestowed on foes, friends, and family.

We don’t have to debilitate an antagonist’s villainy for audiences to get them. The universality lies in the grey areas of being human. Antiheroes are nice, but deliver a false sense of security and hope, especially when actual monsters exist in the real world.

Two Thumbs Up For Aldis Hodge’s Cross

Thursday, Prime Video released Ben Watkins’ Cross, a new series adaptation of James Patterson’s Alex Cross. Starring Aldis Hodge the eight-episode first season is a fresh story placing the legendary homicide detective and forensic psychologist against a sadistic serial killer. Audiences are guaranteed a solid cat-and-mouse action thriller, with strong performances from Hodge, Ryan Eggold, and the series’ supporting cast.

What makes the series stand out from its previous iterations — all film versions of the book character — is its maneuvering of a post-Black Lives Matters America. The series addresses issues between the Black community and police head-on, a detail that may not have been as prominent in the books or films. It also acknowledges the Blackness of the setting, Washington, D.C. The local business and culture are always present, being a character itself.

Check out season one of Cross on Prime and stay tuned for the already greenlit second season.

Arcane: Sister Act 2

Netflix’s Arcane dropped the second act of its nine-episode season yesterday. Picking up a while after Caitlyn’s ascension to head dictator of Piltover, our sisters are leading very different lives. Jinx has become a benevolent heroine figure for the underground as the various factions unite under her blue braids. Meanwhile, brokenhearted Vi descends into a life of isolation, her fists earning her keep as a prized cage fighter. Soon, the two estranged siblings will find each other again to reconcile the pains of their past.

As they work to patch their severed worlds, two individuals — Mel and Jayce — battle alchemy. The last we saw Ambessa’s daughter, she was captured by the Black Rose entity. And Jayce disappeared beneath the Hexcore’s magic, Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness style.

Meanwhile, another player returns to the city unrest to toss his flavor of chaos into the cauldron for reasons unknown.

The second act raises the stakes with the emotional tide ebbing and flowing relentlessly. Heimerdinger said every action has a reaction, and in grand Arcane fashion, viewers are left stunned by the close of the sixth episode.

The final act of Arcane: League of Legends arrives November 23.

Trailers

Sterling K. Brown reunites with This Is Us scribe Dan Fogelman for the political conspiracy drama, Paradise. Brown plays a White House secret serviceman who comes under suspicion after he finds the president, James Marsden, dead. Julianne Nicholson is featured in the series coming January. 25.

Not to be outdone, Colman Domingo finds himself in a similar space for Netflix’s The Madness. Domingo is Muncie Daniels, a political pundit who finds himself framed for the murder of a notorious white supremacist. As he flees to prove his innocence, he uncovers a sinister plot and parts of himself in the shadows. The Madness arrives on November 28.

Marvel finishes the year with the third and final season of What If…? December 22 begins the final watch of the MCU’s animated multiverse, all eerily witnessed by Jeffery Wright’s The Watcher. We can expect Sam Wilson to lead the Avengers in a mech suit, Howard the Duck to break for an adventure, and the X-Men officially appear in a full-fledged project.

Coming Attractions

• While the reviews have been mixed, I plan to check out The Penguin’s replacement, Dune: Prophecy tonight at 9 p.m. on HBO.

• Theaters are hoping for a big bank as Wicked and Gladiator II arrive Friday; for those inside Netflix’s The Piano Lesson is scheduled to arrive.