Henry's World

For much of its first season, Cloak & Dagger has mostly refused to accept its status as a superhero show. Subverting expectations has led to plenty of strong, nuanced episodes, as well as plenty of weak ones, bogged down by needless philosophical debates and little action. In the finale, all nuance and subtlety are thrown out the window, and I think this show is better for it. For the first half, "Colony Collapse" starts slow, mostly working off what we saw last week. Tandy and Mina join together to battle the "terrors", before Mina becomes infected. Also, Tyrone and O'Reilly are arrested, and try and work together to escape. The police station comes under attack, and that allows Tyrone to do the unexpected, saving the people who are framing him for murder. None of this is particularly enthralling, but it's all necessary to set up the second act, which is the whole reason for the episode and show's existence. After working apart, Tandy and Tyr...

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 m...

Only on one show could you combine hauntings, confessions, domestic violence, dead bodies in freezers and pancakes. It's Cloak & Dagger time, and it's getting spooky! "Ghost Stories" is centered around the eighth anniversary of the night that both Billy and Nathan Bowen's deaths, and plays off a lot of New Orleans mystique. To start off with, we've got Tyrone, who's finally using his Cloak powers to full effectiveness. He's continuing to pursue Connors, and has some help from Detective O'Reilly, who is getting closer with Fuchs, a fellow cop. O'Reilly can clearly see that Connors is struggling with Billy's death, and Tyrone uses that to his advantage, deciding to try to get a confession out of him, Tell-Tale Heart style. This is perhaps the coolest the character has looked, and it's genuinely terrifying. You can't convince me that you wouldn't confess to anything as a teenager in a cloak fades in and out of existence....

Look, this show is not perfect. In fact, I'm not even certain it can be considered good. And this episode was far from perfect as well. The main plot wasn't exactly original, the dialogue still annoys me and the action, while it was good to have some, was far too brief. But I'll be damned if anyone says this show doesn't have heart. Cloak & Dagger genuinely cares about its characters, and really wants to make you care too. With episodes like this one, it's pretty difficult not to. "Lotus Eaters" is entirely centered around one A-plot, which may not be the smartest narrative decision but does make it easy for me to review. Tandy and Tyrone, which we're back to calling him, enter the mind of Mina's father, Ivan, to try and revive him from his coma. From here, we're treated to a classic time loop, as Ivan cannot remember anything before the rig explosion. This is the type of plot that a lot of shows and movies have used to success in th...

Slowly but steadily, this show is improving, week by week. Cloak & Dagger's first season has been rocky at best, but there's a certain charm to it that makes it easy to watch. The dialogue is clunky and the action is almost nonexistent, but the acting is phenomenal, especially in this episode. I liked the core of "Funhouse Mirros", and it's the best this show has looked so far. Both character's stories this week are defined by the idea of what they could have been, had their respective tragedies not occurred. Tandy spends this episode attempting to get close to Mina Hess, the Roxxon engineer who was shown in the last episode. She's got a certain charm to her that makes this storyline fun, although I had a lot of trouble believing she was an actual scientist. Mina has a lot of parallels with Tandy, from her relationship with her father to her drive towards her goals, but she seems like she has more of an interest in making the world a better plac...

You know things are getting serious when the Princeton offense is in the title, and even more serious when a basketball invades a party. Seriously, you guys didn't have a beachball to toss around while chanting for CM Punk? F***ing amateurs. Let's start with Tyrone, who still kinds feels like he's off in B-plot land. After a conversation with Detective O'Reilly, Tyrone focuses his attention on the state championship game, with his story taking a bit of a lighter tone. Of course, he also ends up discovering that one of Billy's old friends is partners in the drug trade with Detective Connors, because this show is bleak. He's also progressing his relationship with Evita, and I'll give them a less than zero percent chance of surviving the next few episodes. After noticing some racial/social injustice during the game, Tyrone throws the game, almost literally, showing that he does have a sense of honor. His powers also run haywire throughout, causing all ki...

Hey, the two main characters actually spend some time together this week. Hooray! I mean, their conversation did end with one of them daring the other to kill herself, but it's progress. But damn, this show is dark, and getting even darker. Picking up where last week left off, we see Tandy and Tyrone having their first proper conversation, in the church where Tandy takes drugs and chills in a hoodie. In a unique twist, this whole conversation is a framing device for the entire episode, with splices of the conversation popping up here and there through the hour. Right from the start, the chemistry between these two is obvious, and the amount of time the show has spent setting the two characters up pays off. There's some enjoyable banter back and forth, and some nice references to their first meeting, but you can tell that there's a bit more of a bond forming. Tandy and Tyrone have found a connection in each other, someone who understands their pain and feels just as l...

We return for a second week of Cloak & Dagger with the third episode, "Stained Glass". Good news, we're actually getting some interaction between the two main characters! Bad news, the episode is still heavily centered around visions and scenes in different dimensions, with plenty of seemingly needless filler. But hey, it's a start. Picking off where episode two ended, we see Tyrone almost murders Tandy, which is the most American Dad start to a relationship ever. I'm still not sure how this teleportation thing works or what the rules are, so if somebody could fill me in, that would be much appreciated. The two leads are unfortunately still mostly on their own, but there's a least a tangible connection between their stories this week. Tandy pays a visit to her mother, who still doesn't seem to give a sh** about her, and discovers that a detective is investigating her attempted rape/light dagger stabbing. Meanwhile, Tyrone is involved in voodoo r...

As always, I'm constantly looking for new content for my blog, so I decided to check out Marvel's newest superhero series, "Cloak & Dagger". Covering a show from the very start is quite nice, since I won't have to worry about trying to give any backstory to new viewers. So let's just dive right in. Since I'm covering two episodes in one post, I'm going to be a bit brief in my discussion for each one. Let's start with "First Light" , the pilot episode of the series. One of the frequent criticisms I saw for the show in the advance screenings was the pacing, how long it took the show to find its feet. That's definitely something I noticed in this episode; a few scenes can drag, and it was a little difficult for me to maintain interest throughout. Ultimately, the success of this show will depend less on writing and overall direction, and more on the likability of their two main characters, Tandy Bowen/Dagger and Tyrone Johnson/Clo...