5/5/2023 0 Comments Jupiter hell skidrowTo be fair, however, I haven't seen much of the CW shows everything on that channel is too much of an insipid soap opera to sit through for very long, and I was able to finish, albeit bored out of my wits in doing so, season one of "Jupiter's Legacy," so maybe it's a little better. Nope, everything here is exceedingly simplistic, based as it as around every corner on clichés and tropes and where characters aren't developed beyond their position on a no-killing code. And, the alternating aspect ratio to distinguish past and present is pointless-seemingly there only because the show runners thought audiences might be too stupid to keep track of the time jumping otherwise. Poverty-row, white-wig-equals-old ageing make-up and hairstyling. Young adults whining to their parents about being born and the parents in return whining that their adult offspring don't do what they want them to do. Characters reiterating the same arguments at the same high-pitch intensity ad infinitum. "Jupiter's Legacy" is almost CW, or the so-called "Arrowverse," levels of bad despite its airing on Netflix, home already of the decent superhero series "The Umbrella Academy," as well as the defunct Marvel Defenders universe. This first season was basically just a origin story with a few side plots. This series is nothing like the boys, forget any comparison to that series besides superpowered people. Give the series a go but put your suspension of disbelief on 9000% for some of the poor writing mistakes and gaps in explaining the story, if you're not up for that. I love old Scifi so I can look past mediocre CGI. To me what elevates the series is the story. Some parts were very jarring and didnt feel like smooth story telling. One moment you're building a repor with a character through development and then bam thrown back into the 30's, then 1 min later bam back in current day. The editing style between 30's and current day was poorly done. Good source material, but it looked like some poor writing might drag it down. In my opinion it was about what I expected. Not sure why there would be hype behind this series after airing. Also, the show took a negative turn in the final episodes, and unfortunately, it appears to be heading in a very nihilistic direction that will undermine the essence of the show's original positive ethos. They also failed to explain exactly who gifted the heroes with their powers, or why they did it, something that is rather unpardonable for an origin story that is supposed to clear up mysteries, not create them. Granted, those visions did eventually lead to a major development in the origin story, but the producers made the audience suffer through them for far too long before getting to the point. It became increasingly more surrealistic, seemingly obsessed with disturbing visions and hallucinations. But about halfway through, the show took a turn for the worse. And it also managed to maintain a sense of ethics and a code of honor for Utopian, rather than simply promoting the idea that all superheroes are essentially just supervillains in disguise. While it included more mature and violent situations than the usual superhero movie, it managed to avoid the gross excesses of recent super-anti-hero shows like "The Boys" or "Invincible", which often wallow in sickening gore simply because they can. But I managed to look past that glaring misstep, and I actually enjoyed the series - at least the first half of it. But it's possible to create a character with white hair who doesn't look like a Skid Row bum or a degenerate department store Santa Claus. I have nothing against the idea of an aged superhero, in fact, it is rather novel. Honestly, my initial problem with this series was the look of the main superhero, "Utopian", whose matted, long, white hair and scraggly beard makes him look like some hostile homeless person in bad pajamas. Whether they stumbled on the 'right', I guess we'll see - if there's another season. Seems like they haven't got that good a grasp on it but it's compelling when things go right. Overall, I find it more interesting than The Boys, as far as alternate supers stories go. It begins as interesting and then after a while you want things to clip along and they really don't. The problem for me is that as soon as it sets the themes up, it then plateaus for a while, going into a backstory that again, feels overwritten. Paired with the generational gap between supers parents and children, it actually is pretty interesting when it focuses on that stuff. What I found compelling was the contrast and disillusionment between modern day and market crash 20s of America. And then the entire arc of the season is overwritten at parts. The overall aesthetic is a bit baffling, both high budget but with Battelstar, it still looks low budget sometimes? It's very weird.
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