After a psychop killed one of his best friends, Matt dropped his pointed cowl, set aside his billy club and stopped being Daredevil.

“A line was crossed,” he tells someone. “I felt like I lost the privilege. And despite the good that I was doing, I was causing damage.”

Matt still fights the good fight, of course—just not quite as literally. As a lawyer, he defends those he believes to be innocent. He does his own little part to battle New York City corruption. And he still promises to keep an eye on Wilson Fisk … the city’s newly elected mayor.

And Fisk? He, too, has changed. Or so he says.

He’s no longer that brutally cruel criminal mastermind known as Kingpin. “A rich man, by his very nature, is self-serving,” he says. “A mayor serves his city.” And he has promised the voters, and himself, that he’ll serve them the best that he can. He’s done earning blood money. He’s through killing his enemies. And his longtime enmity with Daredevil? Perhaps the two can finally bury the hatchet—somewhere else besides each other’s heads.

“I’m not that man anymore,” Fisk swears to Matt.

But change is hard. Especially if part of you doesn’t really want to change.

The Devil You Know …

The new title sequence for Daredevil: Born Again features a series of crumbling statues, which fits: It’s not long before cracks in the facades of these “changed” men begin to show.

Fisk may want to improve New York. His voters would certainly like to believe so, and they’re all too willing to push aside his blood-red past and put their faith in his no-nonsense, can-do spirit.

But that past has generated its share of skeptics, too—Matt Murdock among them. “Why can I not shake the feeling that you’re trying to game the system?” he tells Fisk. And when those skeptics stand in the way of Fisk’s idea of progress, it’s easy to slip into some bad habits: a threat here, a bribe there, and a little blood just might grease the wheels of progress. Fisk has always been able to get his way, after all. And he’s never been one to worry much about bruised egos … or broken bones.

Matt has his own issues. He’d love to follow the rule of law—which, as a lawyer, he’s determined to make work for his clients. But sometimes those rules can be twisted. The law can be bent. Sometimes, the bad guys wear badges, and the good guys have nowhere to turn—except to an outside-the-law vigilante like Daredevil.

Matt and Fisk believe they’re polar opposites of each other. But they share more than they’d care to admit. And what they share, in Born Again, grows a bit more: Heather Glenn is Matt’s new girlfriend—and Wilson Fisk’s marriage counselor.

Small world.

The Road to Hell’s Kitchen

Around the time that the Avengers were tangling with the AI monstrosity Ultron and Ant-Man was fighting Yellowjacket on a toy train, a different sort of Marvel superhero started stalking the mean streets of Hell’s Kitchen—and the boulevards of Netflix.

Netflix’s Daredevil was grim, gritty and rated TV-MA—the equivalent of an R-rating in the world of movies. Blood was spattered. Curse words were hurled. Was the show good? Aesthetically, yes, and it brought in a welcome element of faith. (Matt Murdock’s Catholicism is a critical part of his character, and a bulwark of his no-kill ethos.) But the three-season story arc was brutal, too, and hardly the stuff that families could watch together.

Netflix closed out the series in 2018, turning the rights over to Disney—the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s corporate overlord. And while Daredevil (played engagingly by Charlie Cox) has showed up in some MCU properties since, Daredevil: Born Again marks his return as a true front-line superhero.

And the show is a return to form—for good and ill.

Born Again feels more like Matt Reeves’ The Batman than the MCU’s Avengers: There are no multiversal or extraterrestrial threats—just a lot of crime, corruption and Kingpin to deal with. The show is aimed at adults who like multilayered storytelling and complex characters.

But it is, of course, more “adult” in other ways, too.

Bad language, including f- and s-words, is strong and pervasive. Despite Matt’s Catholicism (which, in the early episodes, at least, seems a bit downplayed by Disney), the character has no inhibitions about diving into bed with someone else if the opportunity strikes.

And speaking of striking … wow, is this show violent.

Daredevil may not kill. But sometimes he seems to skate by that scruple on a technicality. He’ll break bones, crush skulls and shed an incredible amount of blood in bringing his foes his own painful form of “justice.” And while Wilson Fisk is playing nice in the early going of this series, you just know that’s not going to last. The people who die here might feel like they got off easy.

Matt Murdock may think he’s changed. Wilson Fisk may think he’s changed. But Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again? It feels much the same as its Netflix predecessor—if not a bit bloodier. And for families who trust Disney to give them family friendly fare, that’s hardly a welcome return.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out. )

The post Daredevil: Born Again appeared first on Plugged In.

Twenty years ago, a brilliant scientist named Stephen Holstrom founded Logorhythms in pursuit of “digital immortality.” He discovered a way to scan a person’s brain and upload it to a virtual network, storing their consciousness as an “Uploaded Intelligence,” or “UI.” If you’re scanned as a UI, your physical body dies, but you can live forever in the digital world.

Holstrom died before his vision could be fully realized, but Logarhythms persisted, using somewhat shady methods to further their research.

Of course, none of this matters to 14-year-old Maddie Kim – until she starts receiving text messages from her father, who’s been dead—physically, at least—for two years.

Now a UI, he’s escaped from Logorhythms’ control.

Maddie’s not the only one making life-altering discoveries. Brilliant, troubled teenager Caspian Keyes has started to realize that nothing about his life is what it seems. His “parents” are undercover spies, his girlfriend is a hired actress, and he himself was created by Logorhythms to crack the secret of autonomous UIs. This revelation rocks his world – and it leads him right into Maddie’s path.

Together, Maddie and Caspian start unraveling the conspiracy surrounding Logorhythms’ work, and it becomes increasingly clear that these UIs could change—or destroy–the entire world as they know it.

LIFE, ARTIFICIALLY

Of the many controversial topics circling today’s culture, few are more hotly debated than artificial intelligence. Is it pushing us into a new era of technology? Is it leading to the ascension of robot overlords? The issue of AI goes hand-in-hand with discussions of creativity, individuality, and what it means to be human in the first place.

Pantheon touches on all these subjects and more. Don’t be fooled by the animation; there are plenty of mature ethical conundrums raised here. Is technology subject to us, or are we subject to it? At what point does it become unethical to cheat death? And what, exactly, makes a person a person?

Of course, you won’t find explicit biblical truth at the center of these questions, but that doesn’t mean Pantheon doesn’t occasionally hit the mark. When Caspian tries to convince Maddie that making a fully sentient UI would create “virtual gods,” she protests: “You can’t just keep making copies of people. That’s not what a person is.” It’s not exactly “made in the image of God,” but it’s at least on the right track.

Don’t let the animation fool you into thinking Pantheon is kid-friendly, either. It’s certainly not as explicit as other adult animation offerings, but language is still fairly frequent, as well as violence and some upsetting content. For instance: Maddie is bullied at school and told to end her own life. Caspian’s “father” is emotionally and physically abusive to his “wife,” though we find out it’s an act to force Caspian into maturity. Teenagers constantly find themselves in danger, sometimes at the hands of adults. Between all of that and the brain surgery required to turn people into UIs, a generally ominous aura persists throughout the series.

Pantheon asks some compelling questions about the nature of humanity and our relationship with technology, though not always with biblical truth as the goal. Still, it’s encouraging that even when Scripture is all but ignored, we still circle back to one of its most central messages: Human life is unique and valuable, and nothing, not even the most powerful of technology, can ever replace it.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)

The post Pantheon appeared first on Plugged In.

These issues are relatively new, to be honest. Mark Grayson has always gotten along pretty well with his pops, Nolan. And, like most kids, he always wanted to grow up to be just like his dad.

But ever since he was 7 years old, Mark knew that he’d have bigger shoes to fill than most. While Nolan may simply look like a heavily muscled, mustachioed, middle-aged father, he’s actually the alien Omni-Man, Earth’s sworn protector. In a world filled with superheroes, Omni-Man is its most super—incredibly strong, really fast and nigh invulnerable. Oh, and of course, he can fly.

As 17-year-old Mark’s just beginning to develop and learn about his own matching powers, his famous father is acting pretty … weird. Like, murderously weird.

Seems like they’re overdue for a father-son chat.

It’s Botherin’ Time!

It’s not as if Mark doesn’t have enough on his teenage plate already. He’s in college now, and it’s pretty difficult to make a class schedule work when villains don’t exactly wait for you to get out of class.

Oh, there’s also that big thing about Mark’s father having his own Viltrumite agenda. He wanted to conquer Earth for the Viltrumite Empire, and he wanted Mark to join him in that goal. Mark, of course, being half-human, wasn’t too keen on the idea. And after a devastating battle, his father took one look at his mostly dead son and realized that maybe he did care a little about humans, more than he’d like to admit.

That was before Nolan took off into space. Since then, he’s sired a child, Oliver, with another alien race, one who eventually ended up under the care of Mark’s mother, Debbie. And at the accelerated rate he’s growing, it’s not long before he gains his powers and wants to fight alongside his big brother, too.

Is that all? No, it never is.

That’s because even if Nolan is questioning is commitment to the Viltrumite goal, the rest of his people don’t exactly take no for an answer. They’ll come back in full force.

And if Mark has trouble fighting one Viltrumite … how about a whole attack force of them?

Uck, Uck, and Away!

We live in an age besotted with superheroes, so perhaps it’s no surprise that we might have more revisionist superhero stories than straightforward good-doers on the telly these days. From HBO’s Watchmen to Amazon Prime’s own The Boys, television has plenty of dark, satirical, incredibly problematic superhero stories to choose from.

Invincible resides in an interesting cubbyhole in the classroom of superhero revisionism. As an animated show, it can feel lighter and more true to the genre at times. (Emphasize the words at times in that sentence, if you will.). It can feel even a bit ludicrously whimsical, even—like The Tick, perhaps. When Omni-Man took Mark to pick out his very first super suit, I immediately thought of Edna from The Incredibles.

And from what I know of Invincible’s source material (a series of comics created by Robert Kirkman and Cory Walker from Image Comics Universe), the story has more on its mind than just dissecting the genre; it may seek to tell its own gritty and even aspirational tale of fall and redemption, infused with some of the dynamics of Greek tragedy.

But, yowza, does this show go dark. And red.

The carnage here is pretty extreme. Heads are crushed. Guts are strewn. Blood is shed by the bucket. You might think that the show’s animated imagery would lessen the impact of all that gore. But for me, at least, it actually made it worse. Ink can still give more detail than even the best CGI can, if not the same realism.

Sexual content is inescapable, too, from tight, almost nude-appearing costumes to characters talking about behind-the-bedroom-door exploits. LGBT characters take center stage. Language can be quite colored, as well, including f-words.

Invincible sports a pretty amazing cast of voices behind the characters, from Oscar-winners (J.K. Simmons as Omni-Man) and A-list comedians (Seth Rogen) to the great voice actor Mark Hamill himself (yes, that Mark Hamill).

This story seems to be heading toward some interesting places. But to get there, you’ll have to stomach some pretty grotesque content. That’s a journey I’m not willing to take. And for many, Invincible might be—or perhaps should be—unwatchable.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)

The post Invincible appeared first on Plugged In.

His name is Peter Parker. He was bitten by a radioactive spider. And for the last few months, he’s been the one and only Spider-Man.

The elements are the same. The details, however, are where you’ll see that things are very much different.

Because in this timeline, Peter Parker never got to attend Midtown High; that school got shut down following damage from a fight between Doctor Strange and an alien symbiote.

Because of that, Peter Parker never met MJ or Ned or any of the other characters in the Tom Holland Spidey universe. And that’s why he swung a different direction to get to school. That’s how he ended up saving Harry Osborn from a group of muggers.

So, when he returns home, it’s not Mr. Tony Stark whom he finds chatting with his Aunt May in the living room; it’s Norman Osborn, looking to offer Peter an internship at Oscorp Industries.

Yes, that’s quite different from the stories we know. But for all those differences, you can still count on one thing: Peter Parker is still your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Not Everything Sticks

Sure, Captain America “can do this all day,” but it’s Spider-Man who doesn’t have an issue returning to the limelight, over and over.

Since 2000, the character’s gotten 10 feature-length films and six shows as the main character. And with more in development, the web-slinging teenage vigilante shows no signs of slowing down.

Enter his seventh show since 2000, the animated Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which places Peter under the mentorship of the villain Norman Osborn. And fans of Marvel will likewise immediately recognize the names of other heroes and villains who appear in the show, such as Nico Minoru, Lonnie Lincoln and Jeanne Foucault. In fact, the roster of comic characters in this show provides Spider-Man with a hefty number of potential opponents he’ll eventually have to fight.

It’s no problem for Spider-Man, since he’ll swing a fist just as easily as he’ll swing on a web. And if you’re interested in watching a Spider-Man entry, you probably expect to see some violence (PG, this time). But in case you aren’t up to date on some of the other characters, Peter’s newest best friend, Nico Minoru, is openly bisexual. And should she follow the route of the comics, we’ll see her soon develop into a powerful sorceress.

Lastly, despite the PG rating, viewers should note that light language is used, including “h—,” “a–” and misuses of God’s name.

And because of those things, not everything in this show will be as friendly as a neighborhood Spider-Man.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)

The post Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man appeared first on Plugged In.

At face value, you might conclude that Ranmaru simply loves his gig. But Ranmaru is hiding a secret.

He’s a vampire.

And a 15-year-old boy named Rihito is the real reason Ranmaru is staying at the bathhouse.

Ten years ago, Ranmaru collapsed outside of the Koi Bathhouse on the brink of death. Though initially frightened, 5-year-old Rihito eventually invited Ranmaru into the bathhouse to stay. And Rihito’s innocence and purity immediately mesmerized Ranmaru.

You see, the vampire has a particular—ahem—taste when it comes to humans. And Ranmaru finds pure, virgin, 18-year-old boys particularly delectable. So Ranmaru devised a plan: He will work at the Koi Bathhouse until Rihito’s 18^th birthday. Then he’ll indulge in Rihito’s blood.  

It’s been a decade since Ranmaru first met Rihito, and things are pretty much the same. Sure, Rihito is 15 now, but he’s still the same innocent kid as before.

But that innocence is threatened when Rihito starts high school.

On the first day of school, Rihito falls in love with a girl in his class, and Ranmaru realizes his plans could unravel. So, Ranmaru vows to protect Rihito’s virginity until his 18^th birthday.

Then, he’ll have his reward.  

Bloodsucker

Based on the Japanese manga series Baban Baban Ban Vampire by Hiromasa Okujima, Netflix’s new anime series Babanba Banban Vampire contains some bloodcurdling content.

For one, Ranmaru frequently acts according to his violent vampire nature. Some scenes feature him biting into the necks and shoulders of various characters, who bleed as they painfully pass away. Additionally, Ranmaru’s desire throughout the series is to drink Rihito’s blood. Sometimes, Ranmaru is almost overcome by this desire, and he thinks, “I could drink him dry right this moment.”

As you might’ve guessed, even more troubling than Ranmaru’s vampiric desires are the sexual suggestions that underscore these longings. Ranmaru explains his blood-drinking preferences by saying, “I only settle for 18-year-old virgin boys.” Ranmaru’s statement seems to refer to more than his culinary taste in humans.

For example, when Ranmaru thinks about Rihito’s purity, he sometimes experiences physical arousal. Ranmaru also looks longingly at Rihito’s unclothed body—which viewers do see—as he bathes in the bathhouse. And the overall relationship between the 450-year-old vampire and the 15-year-old boy appears alarmingly intimate. Additionally, Ranmaru reveals that one of his ex-lovers was another man, for whom he expressed his love by biting his flesh and drinking his blood.

Adding to the sexual undertones of the series are frequent scenes featuring animated nudity. Apart from some bare backsides, nothing critical is seen, but the show is animated in such a way that critical features are barely hidden. (Readers of this review should note, however, that much of the nudity is due to the show’s setting in a traditional, single-gendered Japanese bathhouse, or sento, in which complete nudity would be considered acceptable—and not at all sexual.)

Additionally, while the show’s narration is entirely in Japanese, its subtitles employ harsh profanity, including the f-word, “h—” and misuses of God’s name. And of course, since the show features a vampire protagonist, there are references to Ranmaru’s superhuman abilities and talismanic forces. 

If you’re looking for a family-friendly animated show about vampires, I’m inclined to suggest Hotel Transylvania instead of this Netflix anime. After all, Babanba Banban Vampire probably contains far too much disturbing sexual content, nudity and profanity to suit your family.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)

The post Babanba Banban Vampire appeared first on Plugged In.

For most of us, the line between work and the rest of our lives can get pretty blurry these days. We bring work home with us. We bring home to work with us. Telecommuting from the dinner table, texting the boss from the kid’s soccer game, running spreadsheets through our mind at breakfast. COVID didn’t help, certainly. But let’s be honest: Those lines were blurring long before we were going to work on Zoom.

(And if your job is, like, watching television shows? Well, don’t even get me started.)

But have no fear! You can separate your job from home! You can do your work and have a life, too!

All you need is just a bit of irreversible brain surgery, and you’ll never bring work home with you again.

Office Displace

Admittedly, the severance procedure is still pretty rare (even in this Apple TV+ world) and freighted with controversy. But for Mark Scout, the procedure was welcome. His wife died not long ago, and he was—is—consumed with grief. But instead of suffering 24 hours a day, he suffers for 16, give or take. For eight hours at work, Mark doesn’t know he was a husband, much less a widower. For that eight hours, he can lose himself in macrodata refinement at Lumon Industries.

Mark’s supportive sister, Devon, has her doubts about the procedure. “I just feel like forgetting about her for eight hours a day isn’t the same thing as healing,” she says. But Mark’s happy with his decision. Or, at least, he thinks he is.

Admittedly, it’s not overly stimulating work for his “innie.” But it’s important work—and so sensitive that only people who have been severed are allowed to do it. And again, it’s better than the alternative. Why, Mark just got a promotion—one that he might be inclined to brag about to his sister.

If, y’know, he knew he got one. Because the surgery works the other way, too: Mark has no memory of his work once he leaves each day.

But while Mark claims to be happy with his choice, he’s beginning to suspect that something strange is afoot—or, rather, something even stranger.

Mark received that promotion only after his innie’s best friend, Petey, left Lumon under rather mysterious circumstances. So when Petey sidles up to Mark at a local bar—outside work—and re-introduces himself, Mark realizes that if this “Petey” is telling the truth, perhaps the severance procedure isn’t quite so permanent as they thought.

“Nothing down there is what they say,” Petey tells Mark, and he encourages Mark to follow up. And Mark surely will. But what doors will he unlock? What secrets will he uncover? And will Mark ever be the same again?

Stark and Wrecks

Apple TV+’s Severance is directed by comedian Ben Stiller and stars Adam Scott, perhaps best known for his work on the sitcom Parks & Recreation. But don’t let that pedigree fool you: It’s classified as a thriller, and what laughs it offers are more of the dark, broody, sepulchral kind. Indeed, showrunner Dan Erickson says that the series was born from his own office-bound, repetitive-task misery.

At one point, Erickson remembers thinking, “Man, I wish I could just totally not experience the next eight hours. I wish I could disassociate and just have it be 5 and suddenly I’m going home,” according to Apple Insider.

The result of Erickson’s workplace doldrums resulted in this masterclass in office-bound malaise. Secular reviewers are calling the show “unnerving,” “engrossing” and sometimes, “brilliant.” Severance boasts a 100% “freshness” rating on Rotten Tomatoes thus far.

And indeed, Severance hits the bullseye it seeks to hit: It turns repetitive drudgery into edgy unease. It’s simultaneously taut and ludicrous, grief-stricken and creepy. If it was a work of art, it’d be an M.C. Escher sketch with an assist from Edvard Munch’s The Scream. If it was an urban legend, it’d be Slenderman with a smile painted on.

With Apple TV+ stringing the hour-long episodes in weekly fashion, it’s hard to say where this TV-MA rated show might swing. We see a flashback of the severance procedure, but we also watch as a man is brutally murdered by a woman wielding a bat. One episode in Season One gives a much-warranted warning for a depiction of suicide—an act which sparks conversations about whether the attempt (she survives) should be classified as suicide or homicide since the woman was trying to send her “outie” a very strong message regarding her thoughts on severance.

A bit of office romance (both traditional and same-sex) causes controversy, too. Indeed, characters hear on the news that a woman’s innie became pregnant in a workplace romance that her outie had no knowledge of and certainly didn’t consent to. But given the office setting, we don’t see tons of skin.

Severance comes with a fair bit of language—including f- and s-words. Mark drinks heavily outside the office. And because of its curious, existential setup, some spiritual themes can be in the offing, too. The innies only exist in the world at work, so many both inside and outside believe severance to be a form of slavery. Elsewhere, innies protest the idea of retirement since that life event effectively ends their existence. But do innies even qualify as people? That’s what the world is still debating.

Tonally, the show comes with other cautions. This is not a nice show—one that you flip on mindlessly that helps you forget about your own difficult workday. Severance takes you on an unsettling ride—one with few thrilling loops and dips, but the strange turns may make you feel a little queasy anyway.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)

The post Severance appeared first on Plugged In.

That’s why the Belmonts are still stuck in the vampire-slaying business centuries after Trevor Belmont of Castlevania fame cut the head off Dracula himself. And in 1792, Richter Belmont is caught in the middle of the French Revolution, using the family’s favorite whip to literally crack some heads off vampire bodies.

But what’s most notable is that whereas Richter used to only kill one vampire every couple of months or so, now he’s killing two or three a week—and rising. It almost seems as if the vampires are multiplying faster than Richter can kill them. But turns out, this uptick in bloodsucker activity can be pinned to a soon-to-be fulfilled prophecy.

One helpful vampire gives him the news just before Richter administers the killing blow:

“Before the moon is full, the Vampire Messiah will come—the ‘Devourer of Light,’ who will eat the sun.”

Going Batty

Any vampire who can eat the sun is bad news. Vampires burn quicker in sunlight than someone as white as me does. But as for this Vampire Messiah (a countess named Erzsebet Bathery), well, she presents her own spiritual issues for families to fight.

Notwithstanding the whole “we’re going to drink your blood” issue, Erzsebet is said to have munched her fangs into Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of war, which, according to Egyptian mythology, is descended from the sun god, Ra. Well, Erzsebet/Sekhmet is tired of all that sun, and she’s ready to do whatever it takes to quench the burning ball. And when someone makes a passive reference to Christianity, a representative for Erzsebet scoffs.

“Not that Messiah,” she says. “The real one.”

Fortunately for us, there’s a nearby monastery whose abbot should surely stand against such blasphemy and villainy, right? Hah. You couldn’t be more wrong. Don’t you know that those Christians are just, like, the worst? Yeah, they go around oppressing everyone they can find, so it’s no surprise when the abbot is a fanatical evildoer, too. Sure, he’s still opposed to this whole Vampire Messiah thing. That’s why he’s been using black magic to create “night creatures,” demonic entities serving him in an attempt to squash the vampire threat. In his eyes, he must take on the role of Judas Iscariot—that is, to betray his friends and faith in order for salvation to occur.

Noc-turn Your TV Off

The irony of both Castlevania and Nocturne is that, despite being centered on perhaps the most Catholic-based game ever made, it sure holds a grudge against the Christian faith. We noted as such in our review of the previous TV series, and little has changed in this sequel series.

The show almost seeps with its disdain for its central protagonist’s Christian background, and it instead elevates many pagan beliefs as more noble and heroic.

We’re not disregarding some of the atrocities that some within the Church have done. The history of the Christian Church is complex, and it often falls short of what it should be. But Nocturne condemns the religion along with the people, making a viewing feel a bit like a show writer’s personal grudges slipped into the final draft. As for us, the evil religious man is a tired and uninspired trope.

And like its predecessor, Nocturne is filled with bloody violence and bad words. F-words and s-words sully the dialogue, and plenty people and vampires alike are slain in extreme splashes of blood. In addition to those issues, viewers will also have to deal with a few homosexual relationships, including when two nude male characters have their critical bits obscured. And a nearly nude demonic woman makes an appearance as well.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out. )

The post Castlevania: Nocturne appeared first on Plugged In.

Add in some supernatural fog, and you’ve got yourself some real problems.

High Pressure System

Granted, this is not a problem that most oil rigs have to deal with. Fog? Yes. Supernatural fog? Not so much.

Turns out that all that fog (and the tremors … and the tsunami) are all caused by an ancient underwater entity whom the crew’s taken to calling “the Ancestor.” It’s a sentient being seemingly responsible for continuing life on Earth following extinction events. And the Ancestor is none too pleased with all the ocean-floor drilling and scraping humans have been doing.

What’s increasingly clear to Rose Mason, a representative for the rig’s corporate muckety-mucks, is that the Ancestor is sending deadly warnings to them—warnings that, if ignored, may just end up with humanity itself going extinct.

It’s a message that many crew members recognize. Unfortunately for all humanity, some merely see the warnings as threats—the kind that could warrant a retaliatory strike.

I can’t wait to see how well that works out for them.

Mist the Mark

The Rig, an original series from Prime Video, serves as both a psychological and supernatural drama. Sure, there’s something mysterious at work in the milk-thick mist. But the tensions on the rig aren’t so mysterious. With no way to call for help and no one apparently coming, the platform’s scared, angry characters get scareder and angrier. Is all the bad behavior fueled by whatever’s at work in the mist? Or is that just an excuse—a fog itself that covers over the workers’ own base instincts?

One thing’s for sure: The show’s makers have little excuse for the content we see and the language we hear.

We see far more blood than oil aboard the Kinloch Bravo—sometimes splashing against walls, sometimes squirting from open wounds. And the language can be as extreme as a North Sea storm, blustering with f- and s-words. There’s even a touch of romance on the rig: Two main characters share more than deck space with each other, a gay couple emerges into the plot, and one lesbian worker longs to reunite with her wife back home.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)

The post The Rig appeared first on Plugged In.

Strictly speaking, the starship kinda stole them.

Oh, sure, they found the thing in a place they weren’t supposed to be and well after they should’ve been home eating dinner. But one thing led to another, and wouldn’t you know it, the spacecraft lifted off, kids in tow, and immediately flew into hyperspace.

Now the children are lost in space aboard what seems like a pirate ship, with only a cantankerous droid (SM-33) and an untrustworthy adult to help them.

And that untrustworthy adult? He might not be very helpful at all.

Don’t Touch Anything

The adult introduces himself as Jod Na Nawood. And Wim, the excitable kid who found the spaceship in the first place, is sure the guy’s a Jedi. He can make things float! He can send guards scurrying the other way!

But Fern, Wim’s frienemy who somehow is now the ship’s captain, thinks “Jod” is as much a Jedi as the critter who lives in SM-33’s eye socket. He’s up to something. She’s sure of it.

And a little suspicion might be called for. See, the four kids (Fern, Wim, the calculating KB and the blue-skinned Neel) come from At Attin. And that’s pretty intriguing, even if the children don’t realize it. For the kids, At Attin’s just about as pleasantly milquetoast a planet as can be found. All their parents work as analysts. Safety droids make sure everyone does what they’re supposed to do.

Boring.

But here’s the thing: The rest of the galaxy has assumed for years that At Attin was nothing more than a myth—like El Dorado or Shangri-La. And like those mysterious earthly realms, At Attin is supposedly home to an unimaginable treasure.

Jod—or whatever his name is—could use a spot of treasure. Who couldn’t? The kids just want to go home. For now, their paths align nicely. But for how long?

A Reasonably Positive Force

Disney+ has had, shall we say, an uneven history with its Star Wars shows. The Mandalorian and Andor? Pretty great. The Book of Boba Fett? Not so much.

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew has its issues, which we’ll get into. But as a straight-up show, it’s a blast.

If Andor gave us a political, shades-of-gray drama that showed us how rich and layered a Star Wars drama can be, Skeleton Crew is just flat-out fun. It’s been called Goonies in space, and honestly, that feels just about right. The first episode feels like something pulled straight out of Steven Spielberg’s bag, had the director lived in a galaxy far, far away. If Andor is Star Wars for adults, Skeleton Crew is made, gleefully, for kids. Or for kids at heart.

But that said, parents need to be mindful of some potential issues that also snuck on board.

As is the case with most Star Wars stories, viewers will be exposed to plenty of violence. None of it is particularly bloody or gory, of course, but quite a few characters (humans and humanish-creatures) get beaten up and knocked out. The threat of danger and death lurks around the dark side of every planet, it seems.

We should also note that KB apparently has two worried moms—though, given they’re halfway across the galaxy from our main players, they seem to be rather tertiary characters. We hear the occasional profanity. The Force is a powerful, potent element. Bodily functions can mess the mix, too. And, of course, our pre-pubescent heroes would’ve been safe at home had they just listened to their parents.

We certainly can’t minimize any of those issues. And yes, it’s still early in the show’s run. But compared to the grim, grimy galaxy of Andor or the murky, problematic environs of The Acolyte, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew feels like a welcome, if relative, return to form.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out. )

The post Star Wars: Skeleton Crew appeared first on Plugged In.

The idea was this: In exchange for their freedom (or at least a reduced sentence), the convicts would save the world from whichever god-like superhuman showed up next.

And it worked … sort of.

You see, Waller didn’t care much what actually happened to the cons. Hence the team’s nickname. And after more than a few of them perished in the line of duty—not to mention Waller’s own daughter exposing her mother’s dirty deeds—Congress disbanded Task Force X, informing Waller that she was no longer allowed to use humans in her supernatural Earth-defense schemes.

Well, that’s no problem for Waller. She just won’t use humans. She’ll use monsters.

She Did the Monster Mash-Up

Waller “recruits”—let’s be honest, she’s enslaving these guys—a team of superpowered monsters for her newly formed Task Force M (as in Monster).

Frankenstein and his Bride are first on the list. And the only thing they’re worse at than saving people is saving their “marriage.” Next up, Dr. Phosphorus is a radioactive skeleton. Sure, he used to be human, but now he’s more of an undead timebomb. Nina Mazursky, meanwhile, is an aquatic humanoid who was taught to talk by her scientist creator. And GI Robot fought Nazis in World War II, though his programming seems to be flawed since it can’t always accurately identify members of the Third Reich. Finally, nobody’s really sure what the Weasel’s deal is, but they really should’ve housetrained him before taking him on a mission.

And since Waller can’t trust any of these nonhuman agents, leading the Commandos is human soldier Rick Flag, Sr. It’s true, his son died while working for Waller; but either because of his naïve loyalty or Waller’s cleverly crafted lies, Flag Sr. is working for her anyway.

Waller’s track record doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence in the project. But since there’s an Amazonian sorceress named Circe terrorizing a United States ally on her mission to conquer Themyscira (Wonder Woman’s home), there aren’t really any other options at this point.

Creature Comforts?

Creature Commandos is the first offering from the new DC Universe (DCU), a sort of reboot of the DC Extended Universe, created by James Gunn and Peter Safran. The first chapter of this cinematic universe (which will include a series of films and TV shows featuring heroes and villains from DC Comics) is titled “Gods and Monsters.”

That title right there may be enough to give some families pause. But if Creature Commandos is any indication of what’s to come, I’m truly worried for the DCU.

This TV-MA show includes animated sex, nudity and lots and lots of graphic violence. You’d have to be 17 to see this in theaters without an accompanying adult. Not that it’s pretending otherwise. The series’ trailer shows viewers as much.

Language is another problem, with several uses of the f-word, among other profanities. And of course, there’s the whole premise of godlike, superpowered beings trying to destroy the world.

In short, DC’s Creature Commandos isn’t something to gather round the television to watch. And again, if this is what we can expect in the DCU shows and films to come, probably better to steer clear of those, too.

(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)

The post Creature Commandos appeared first on Plugged In.