Handling the penultimate episode of a season can be tricky. On one hand, you have a show like BoJack Horseman, where the second to last episode is often soul-crushing and sometimes the true climax of the entire season. On the other hand, you have............this. This week, Cloak & Dagger gives us an exercise in how not to do a penultimate episode. After a few weeks of good work, it all come crashing back down to earth, in an episode that falls into the age old trap of "telling, not showing".
Let's talk about the framing device for "Back Breaker", in which Delgado, the priest who apparently teaches as well, takes his class through a prototypical hero's journey. In a lot of ways, this is the show directly talking to the audience, explaining each action and every story beat of the episode. I don't think I've ever hated any framing device as much as I hated this. Any good TV show has nuance, the ability to trust the audience to decipher its message and understand each scene and line of dialogue. What Cloak & Dagger has done well in its debut season is keeping with that nuance, making the characters feel human rather than cardboard cut-outs. But it seems like they totally forgot about that in this episode. Why bother to have meaningful story progression and character development when you can just shove a formula down our throats? This show seems to pride itself on being the alternative, something different from your average superhero show you can probably find on The CW. In this episode, they literally tell you, from the start, that they're changing their message, and doing the exact same thing so many others have done before, and done better. And following a formula is actually not the end of the world. Just don't shove it done our throat, and pretend to be clever. Maybe I'm too upset about something that wasn't a huge part of the overall episode, but it's lazy storytelling, and they're so much better than this.
It doesn't help that "Back Breaker" is literally trying to throw all character development down the toilet. Tandy's back to being a thief, Tyrone's releasing pent-up anger and Connors is back to terrorizing anyone and everyone. The idea of having characters regress is bad enough, but it's made worse by how blatant it is. I don't need to see Tandy stealing people's hopes, I don't need to see Tyrone beating the sh** out of a bully. I can understand the general message even when it's more subtle, I promise you. I will give some credit that even though the idea of this episode is completely stupid, it's execution is quite good. The acting remains solid, and the final ten minutes or so finally started to connect. The twin cliffhangers were quite intriguing, with Tyrone framed for murdering Fuchs and Tandy forced to try and save her mother from the Roxxon assassin. So ultimately, I guess this episode was a success. I'm ready for the finale, and my anger towards this episode has mostly abated. I just wish the journey could've been smoother.
5/10
I realize that I skipped out on quite a few important events, but I didn't want to make the review too long. Evita is now aware that Tandy and Tyrone are the "divine pairing", Liam has skipped town with Tandy's cash, there's another explosion at Roxxon and Tyrone even had a nice chat with his mother. I apologize if this review felt more like a rant, but I won't apologize for letting my feelings be known. Stuff like this just annoys the hell out of me, but it's easy and it's lazy. Sometimes I hold myself and other people to too high of a standard, but that's just who I am. I hope that's at least some part understandable. See you in the finale.
Let's talk about the framing device for "Back Breaker", in which Delgado, the priest who apparently teaches as well, takes his class through a prototypical hero's journey. In a lot of ways, this is the show directly talking to the audience, explaining each action and every story beat of the episode. I don't think I've ever hated any framing device as much as I hated this. Any good TV show has nuance, the ability to trust the audience to decipher its message and understand each scene and line of dialogue. What Cloak & Dagger has done well in its debut season is keeping with that nuance, making the characters feel human rather than cardboard cut-outs. But it seems like they totally forgot about that in this episode. Why bother to have meaningful story progression and character development when you can just shove a formula down our throats? This show seems to pride itself on being the alternative, something different from your average superhero show you can probably find on The CW. In this episode, they literally tell you, from the start, that they're changing their message, and doing the exact same thing so many others have done before, and done better. And following a formula is actually not the end of the world. Just don't shove it done our throat, and pretend to be clever. Maybe I'm too upset about something that wasn't a huge part of the overall episode, but it's lazy storytelling, and they're so much better than this.
It doesn't help that "Back Breaker" is literally trying to throw all character development down the toilet. Tandy's back to being a thief, Tyrone's releasing pent-up anger and Connors is back to terrorizing anyone and everyone. The idea of having characters regress is bad enough, but it's made worse by how blatant it is. I don't need to see Tandy stealing people's hopes, I don't need to see Tyrone beating the sh** out of a bully. I can understand the general message even when it's more subtle, I promise you. I will give some credit that even though the idea of this episode is completely stupid, it's execution is quite good. The acting remains solid, and the final ten minutes or so finally started to connect. The twin cliffhangers were quite intriguing, with Tyrone framed for murdering Fuchs and Tandy forced to try and save her mother from the Roxxon assassin. So ultimately, I guess this episode was a success. I'm ready for the finale, and my anger towards this episode has mostly abated. I just wish the journey could've been smoother.
5/10
I realize that I skipped out on quite a few important events, but I didn't want to make the review too long. Evita is now aware that Tandy and Tyrone are the "divine pairing", Liam has skipped town with Tandy's cash, there's another explosion at Roxxon and Tyrone even had a nice chat with his mother. I apologize if this review felt more like a rant, but I won't apologize for letting my feelings be known. Stuff like this just annoys the hell out of me, but it's easy and it's lazy. Sometimes I hold myself and other people to too high of a standard, but that's just who I am. I hope that's at least some part understandable. See you in the finale.
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