Coming Distractions - The Latest Movie and TV Reviews

• Peter Serafinowicz as The Tick
• Griffin Newman as Arthur Everest
• Valorie Curry as Dot Everest
• Brendan Hines as Superian
• Jackie Earle Haley as The Terror
• Yara Martinez as Ms. Lint
• Scott Speiser as Overkill
• Michael Cerveris as Ramses IV
• Bryan Greenberg as Derek
• Alan Tudyk as the voice of Dangerboat

This episode of Coming Distractions is focused on Amazon's newest show "The Tick," based on the popular spoof comic series, as well as, the popular 1990s cartoon that was on Fox. The Tick tells the tale of a New York based superhero by the same name who's eccentric nature runs head on with Arthur, a mild mannered accountant, who gets caught up in the superhero antics sort of by accident.

The Tick and Arthur team up to take down goofball villains such as Ms. Lint and Ramses IV all the while on the hunt for The Terror. The series pokes fun at the superhero genre while also never taking itself particularly serious.

If you are a fan of the original comic series, the 90s cartoon, or the superhero genre this series might be a perfect treat when your beloved genre gets a bit too self-important.

Video of this review: https://youtu.be/VriMIMiMfzA

Cast:

• Peter Serafinowicz as The Tick

In 2015, Marvel and Netflix started us down this path with the first season of Daredevil starring Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil. From there we've had series focusing on Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Coulter), and most recently Iron Fist (Finn Jones). These shows have now finally brought together 4 unlikely personalities to team up Avengers style to take on a larger threat.

The show is a departure from the four solo series by only being 8 episodes instead of their standard 13. This allows for the telling of a slightly tighter story but also puts some constraints on what the show can do in such a limited time frame.

The team takes on a woman named Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) who controls the evil organization, The Hand. She along with Elektra (Elodie Yung) aka The Black Sky work to further goals while trying to destroy New York City in the process.

There are things that worked incredibly well in the series, such as Luke and Danny's budding friendship, but the series is also plagued by rushed writing and lack of quality action beats for certain characters. A valiant effort from Marvel Television, but improvements can be and should be made going forward.

This review has a SPOILER section that is clearly stated for those who have not watched the season in its entirety. Spoilers begin at 14:55.

Jay and Micah sit down to discuss season 1 of Netflix's latest original series, Friends from College. Starring Keegan-Michael Key, Cobie Smulders, Fred Savage, Nat Faxon, Annie Parisse, Jae Suh Park, and Billy Eichner.

The show follows seven friends who went to Harvard together that are in their late 30s/early 40s reuniting as their paths cross in New York City. Old relationships rekindle, while others have never died. A mixture of "comedies of life" moments well balanced with serious issues of leaving your late breaking adult adolescence for the eventual slide into what should be your calming 40s.

The show features characters who are all incredibly terrible and selfish people but have endearing qualities once you dig into the meat of what they represent. There are issues of infidelity, career changes, gaining maturity, relationship prioritizing, trying to have kids (IVF), and balancing all of that on top of the drudges of life.

Video version of the review: https://youtu.be/DAwhE3wtL_8