Enterprise Flashback: The Shipment

The Xindi story arc on Star Trek: Enterprise was inspired by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. But it being Star Trek, with inspiration also coming from the franchise's core moral code, some nuance surrounding the enemy was called for. "The Shipment" was a big step in providing that.

The Enterprise travels to the planet where the Xindi are refining fuel for their planet-killing weapon. Yet even as they have an opportunity to strike a blow against their enemy, they learn that not all Xindi are their enemy. A local scientist they capture knows nothing of humans, and is appalled to learn that his work is being co-opted for a genocidal purpose.

"Not all Xindi" might seem like a simplistic message, but at the time this episode first aired -- 2003, as the United States lashed out in all directions in response to 9/11 -- it's one that really needed highlighting. (And it's sadly an "evergreen" message that bears repeating.) The Xindi Gralik Durr is an interesting character. He's not a straightforward analog for an Oppenheimer; he's much farther down the chain of people whose life's work unknowingly feeds a war machine. And it feels like classic Star Trek in all the best ways that when he learns the hard truth, he quickly reforms and wants to make amends.

But despite Gralik Durr's nobility, he remains a rather shallow character. There isn't much sense of what he risks by helping Archer and company, nor hint of whether and how his "resistance" might continue once Enterprise takes off. And he isn't the only thin character in the episode. Even though the MACO Major Hayes reappears (again played by TV "that guy" Steven Culp), the episode doesn't devote any time to fleshing him out either -- or even having him contribute meaningfully to the mission by his presence.

Instead, time that could have bulked up character is given to odd world-building details, dropped in as if by a dungeon master who is really disappointed his players didn't more naturally come across all this background work he put in. By that I mean: why is it important that there was a sixth, now-extinct Xindi species? We don't need proof of the Xindi's genocidal proclivities; this whole story arc kicked off with that. We don't need reminding that Xindi sub-species don't get along with each other; episodes regularly start with mustache-twirling meetings of the Xindi's Evil League of Evil (including this episode). Why is a whole subplot devoted to tinkering with a captured Xindi hand weapon? It's novel and weird, I guess, that the gun is "slug worm operated," but it isn't clear there will be any impending ramifications to this knowledge in the plot at large.

It also feels a bit odd to me that the entire climax of the episode revolves around a plan to "tag" this new shipment of fuel in a way that Enterprise will be able to track... only to have that tracking fail the moment the shipment leaves this planet. Sure, sometimes plans fail, and that's bound to happen a few times over the course of a 24-episode story arc. But it undermines Gralik Durr's decision to help if that help amounts to little. And it's weird that Archer is the one to sneak aboard the Xindi ship to plant the tracker (as opposed to Reed or Hayes, also there with him on the planet).

Other observation:

• This episode must have come up short in the edit. I say this because it begins with a "previously on" clip package to orient you to the Xindi arc, for the first time this season. And while that does sound useful in principle, this package is a weird assembly of that telepathic alien hitting on Hoshi, as though the only important detail viewers need to watch this episode is "how we found out about this planet." (Which Reed actually answers anyway, in a bit of early exposition.) Why not remind us where the hand weapon came from that's the focus of the B plot?

I feel like the instincts of this episode to provide nuance to the Xindi are good. The specific message, that some Xindi are horrified by the actions of their leaders, is better still. But I find the execution a bit lacking. I give "The Shipment" a B-.

Enterprise Flashback: Exile

Star Trek will sometimes build an episode from the trappings of other story genres, reshaping them in a science-fiction mold. I was not a fan of the time Star Trek: The Next Generation took a run at Gothic romance... though enough time had passed that you can't blame them for trying again with Enterprise's "Exile."

Hoshi Sato is contacted telepathically by a reclusive alien who claims he can help the crew learn more about the Xindi. In exchange, he asks that she stay with him in his mountaintop castle as he works... though he intends to convince her to make that arrangement permanent. Meanwhile, Enterprise proceeds separately to a nearby sector where they may have located another of the mysterious spheres -- and learning more about it could be the key to understanding the region's strange anomalies.

"Exile" isn't just any old Gothic romance; it's rather specifically Beauty and the Beast. Tarquin, the "beast" of this story, is a monstrous figure who has been made an outcast. His abilities are tied to a strange artifact. Our female protagonist sees the potential for good in him... even though she stays in his secluded castle against her will. He gives her a book to get into her good graces. I find it all such an extreme one-to-one for Beauty and the Beast that the story suffers at all the points it can't follow the same plotting.

Because Hoshi is a main character on a television series, she can't actually fall in love with this guy, and certainly can't stay with him in the end. So the writers have to manufacture a reason they can't be together... and they land on making Tarquin terrible: a creep at best, a sexual predator at worst. His actions can easy be read as deception (he does not initially let her see his true appearance), gaslighting (he poses as people she knows, making her question reality), coercion (he tries to isolate her emotionally and physically from her friends), and assault (he reads her mind without permission). Plus, he's a serial offender; he wants to make Hoshi his fifth "companion."

Points to Hoshi for standing her ground, realizing when she's being tricked, and figuring out how to threaten him back to win her freedom. (And points to the writers for never really having her be tempted by his "offer.") But there's also no real story arc here for either character -- neither the "learning to see past the surface" moral of Beauty and the Beast, nor any substitute either. There's no hint that either one of them is going to be changed in the future for having encountered the other.

The B plot has its moments. The visual effects of the Enterprise hull liquefying and exploding are well executed. Archer and Trip nearly losing their ride while they're exploring the sphere is a fun scene. The revelation that the Delphic Expanse was artificially created feels like an intriguing twist -- even as the concurrent revelation that there may be 50 spheres or more suggests that our heroes still have a long way to go in solving their problems.

Other observations:

• In the opening scene, Hoshi's bathroom is weirdly laid out specifically for the camera. Only in TV land would a mirror NOT be positioned directly above a sink.

• In an episode featuring a villain who gaslights Hoshi, it's not great that both Reed and Phlox initially tell her she's probably imagining things.

• When Tarquin asks for an artifact important to the Xindi upon which to focus his telepathic abilities, it's a good thing we've already seen the proof that he is telepathic. That sounds like straight-up con artist stuff.

• The marginalizing of Travis Mayweather continues. In this episode, he's replaced at the helm in arbitrary scenes with a speechless, no-name pilot... even though there are other scenes where he does appear. also without saying a word.

• While Tarquin's telepathic powers are well established, it's completely unexplained what technology he possesses to actually threaten Enterprise at the end of the episode.

While Hoshi sticks up for herself in this episode, it's hardly what I'd call a "good Hoshi episode." Good moments for the Xindi arc overall are muddied with the pervasive ick factor of the alien Tarquin. Overall, I give "Exile" a C+.

Wild Assertions

The current entertainment pipeline often sees movies passing from theaters to streaming in a matter of weeks -- so even when you fall behind, you don't fall that far behind. But occasionally, we get a reminder of "the old days," when it would take many months for a movie to become watchable at home. I had almost forgotten that I wanted to watch the animated film The Wild Robot when it finally showed up on a streaming service.

The movie from DreamWorks Animation is based on the first of a series of children's books of the same title. In it, a robot abandoned in the wilderness comes online on an uninhabited island. In trying to fulfill her purpose to help, she befriends the local creatures, becomes mother to an orphaned goose... and ultimately attracts the attention of less-nurturing forces.

I enjoyed the movie overall, though I fear that praising it is going to come off as a series of backhanded compliments. For instance, one thing I really appreciated about The Wild Robot is how it doesn't try to push the boundaries of animation. These days, it seems like every animated movie is built around trying to pioneer some new way of rendering the most realistic animation you've ever seen. And while there is some clear effort put into the environments of this film (particularly in the extended forest fire sequence at the climax of the story), the character animation is refreshingly more simple.

I think this choice was perhaps forced on the production in at least two ways. One is that it's all based on a picture book. The movie is not trying to emulate the art directly -- it's not that basic. But I think those illustrations probably served as a reminder to streamline and simplify wherever possible. Secondly, I think all the talking animals of this story blocked off the possibility of too much hyper-realism -- at the same time that an abundance of pre-existing "talking animals movies" blocked off other ways you could have presented the characters. In order to chart its own course, distinct from Disney, Pixar, what-have-you, the movie needed to embrace a simpler animation style.

The story is sweet, with a few nice moments where the sentiment lands well. It is not the product of the well-oiled story machine that was Pixar in its heyday, nor Disney in its... though neither are Pixar and Disney themselves these days. The Wild Robot has some lovely things to say about found families, environmentalism, and more -- and that feels "good enough" even if it doesn't feel sharp enough to really tug on your emotions throughout.

The voice casting is the area where I can most unreservedly shine a spotlight. Lupita Nyong'o stars as the title character, deftly walking the tightrope of lending emotion to an ostensibly emotionless character. Surrounding her are Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Matt Berry, Ving Rhames, Mark Hamill, and Catherine O'Hara -- a deep bench of wonderful voices who lend pathos, comic relief, and texture to the world of the story.

Ultimately, I'd give The Wild Robot a B. That's not "can't miss" viewing, but I think it is good enough that just about anyone would find something to like in it, and find it worth the time.

Enterprise Flashback: Impulse

When Enterprise set up the idea of the Delphic Expanse, teasing us with the strange things that might happen there, they hit the audience with two specific "ghost stories" to sell the spookiness of the place: that the crew of one ship was turned inside out, and that an entire Vulcan crew was driven insane. Being a network show, they were never going to follow up and show us more about that first idea. But the second one takes center stage in "Impulse."

The Enterprise encounters a dense asteroid field, full of an element that can be used to protect the ship from the hazards of the Expanse. But as the crew makes plans to mine it, they discover a Vulcan ship adrift deep inside the field. When a team boards the ship, they find the entire crew compromised by an affliction that has turned them into rage-fueled monsters... a condition which begins to affect T'Pol.

"Impulse" is a straight-up horror episode, featuring Vulcan zombies. Boiled down that simply, it sounds pretty hokey -- though it's actually better than that, thanks in large part to the series' consistently high production values. Veteran Star Trek director David Livingston really leans into the stylistic shift, working with the production team to establish moody lighting, over-exposed film, arch camera angles, lots of fog, and superb makeup to give us a zombie story that legitimately honors the genre.

I do find myself wishing that there had been something a little more distinct about the fact that these are Vulcan zombies, some kind of Star Trek spin on the classic trope. (We don't even get that they're strong zombies, as they should be compared to the humans.) It's possible that what I'm really feeling is fatigue over the parade of zombie television in the decades since this episode was made. But if all this episode is going to do is "play the hits," it at least does so well -- zombies staggering inexorably toward the camera, clawing as people escape up a ladder, protruding through a barely-opened door... and all set against the ticking clock of an "infected" person slowly being turned. The episode even ends with "one last jump scare" as T'Pol has a nightmare about what she's been through.

But a huge measure of the tension is undercut by the "24 hours earlier" trope tacked on at the beginning of the episode. "Impulse" doesn't begin with the creeping dread of finding the Vulcan ship drifting in the asteroids; it begins with T'Pol already succumbing to zombie-ism, teasing us with the threat that she might die screaming on Phlox's Sickbay bed. (Jolene Blalock acts her ass off, full-on screaming into the camera... before we awkwardly smash cut to "it's been a long roooooad.....")

We know T'Pol isn't going to die here. But the show's insistence on teasing us with this schmuck bait compromises so many other aspects of the episode. We don't know the "zombie rules" going into this situation, but by showing us that teaser, we've been told that only T'Pol is at risk of "being turned"; we lose any tension that the humans on the mission might be threatened by "zombie bite." We've also seen exactly how bad T'Pol is going to get before arriving in Sickbay, which ultimately deflates any tension over how long the team might be trapped aboard the Vulcan ship. I'm hard-pressed to think of any horror movie that uses a flashback structure, and I'm pretty sure this is why: it just undercuts everything the genre is trying to do.

At this point, it's become comical how much this series hates several of its own characters. Travis Mayweather is involved (barely) in the B-plot about mining ore from an asteroid, but there's no possible justification for why he -- their best pilot -- didn't fly the shuttle to the Vulcan ship. (We just can't have him getting anywhere near the A-plot.) And just when you think nothing more can be said or shown about Reed's ineptitude as a tactical officer: Archer saves his life in a hand-to-hand fight with a zombie, and then later messes up "hotwiring" a console on the Vulcan ship, locking them out and angering T'Pol.

While I praised the horror-specific aspects of the production, I should still highlight that this episode is also good in many of the ways the series typically excels. We get the visuals of a super-dense and dangerous-looking asteroid field, a transporter accident that fuses rocks into the walls and floor, a shuttle crash on an asteroid, lingering shuttle damage, and a huge ship explosion. There's also multiple solid action sequences that involve fist fights, shoot-outs, crawling and climbing, and scurrying across a narrow beam over a chasm. Once again, this show does action well -- even if that unfortunate "24 hours earlier" tease has deflated much of the tension from it.

Other observations:

• This episode is something of an inversion of the earlier "Strange New World." There, an "infection" turned the humans against T'Pol; here, one turns T'Pol against the humans.

• For the larger Xindi story arc, we learn that the very ore which can protect the ship from the anomalies of the Expanse is toxic to Vulcans. T'Pol says Archer should leave her behind and protect the ship, but Archer says he can't save humanity by losing what makes him human. That would have been a better line if the Xindi arc hadn't taken Archer as far down the "Jack Bauer road" as it already has.

• As much as I hate the use of the "24 hours earlier" trope, they at least have the good sense not to repeat the same scenes when the flashbacks catch us back up to where the story began. 

• On movie night, Phlox once again talks during the film. (I guess the writers aren't willing to count him completely out of the "worst character on Enterprise" contest, despite the stiff competition.) T'Pol once again has a perfectly Vulcan way to shush hum.

I really love how Enterprise went for a horror movie here, and how far the behind-the-scenes team went to realize that vision. I'm disappointed in how much the writers let them down with a poor script structure and a lack of any "Trek-specific" spin on the zombie trope. Overall, I give "Impulse" a B-.

Enterprise Flashback: Rajiin

The first two seasons of Enterprise ran for 26 episodes. The third season dropped to 24 (one more reason I think they were chasing the hit show starring Kiefer Sutherland), but that's still a huge amount of story to provide for their long story arc about the Xindi. So much that inevitably, a few episodes were going to feel like "filler." That's where I'd put "Rajiin."

Enterprise travels to an alien market, where they buy information on how to synthesize a rare mineral that could protect the ship from the anomalies of the Expanse. While there, they rescue a woman from being sold into slavery. It appears she may have some information about the Xindi... but it fact, she is an undercover operative, working for the Xindi to gather intel on the humans.

The "bookends" of this episode expose for me why I think it's mostly filler. We check in again on the "evil Xindi war council," bickering some more about their Earth-destroying weapon. It's not that the planet killer won't work; it's just that (only four episodes into the season) it's taking too long. So we're told right out of the gate that everything that's going to happen in this episode is in service of a "plan B," something by definition that's new, unrelated to the ongoing story, and isn't likely to be a thing going forward. So twice now, these villainous scenes with the Xindi have not only failed to deliver anything more than generic mustache twirling, they've actively undermined the build of interest in the plot to come.

That plot looks like it's going to be classic Star Trek (I'm talking original series), with the captain finding an alien woman who seems attracted to him. It's a nice subversion to make Rajiin a super-spy who takes full-body medical scans with her hands and is out to manipulate them all. But then the subversion quickly falls into predictable Enterprise patterns: she's gotta have an overtly sexual encounter with everyone she meets -- Hoshi, a security guard, and of course T'Pol -- which feels extra icky, in that it plays out like yet another sexually-coded assault on her. (Don't "worry," there's reciprocal ick when she's captured, thrown in the brig, and Archer manhandles Rajiin for information.)

None of this plan makes much sense, when you scratch beneath the surface. Did embedding Rajiin aboard Enterprise all hinge on them happening to come to that particular alien bazaar, and happening to have a run-in with that slave trader? The whole goal here -- getting body scans of humans -- highlights the fact that at the end of the day, the Xindi don't really know much about humans. Did they know that human morality would include feeling sympathy for enslaved people? How did they know about the "honeypot" cliche? You don't have to try reasoning through any of this for long, though; the episode culminates in a big firefight in which Reptilian Xindi board the ship and blast everything in sight (with an admittedly cool-looking weapon) to retrieve their operative. 

Aside from that big concluding action scene, though, Enterprise is not up to its usual standards when it comes to production. The alien bazaar is a disappointment, cobbled together with stuff from the prop closet, and not even supported by music of any kind (neither diegetic nor conventional score; it's weirdly quiet). Slow motion (a rarity in Star Trek) is used not once, but twice -- and is incredibly awkward both times.

Other observations:

• The massage scenes continue, as Enterprise writers continue to play out the idea that every backrub eventually leads to sex. (They "hang a lantern on it" this time, by having Trip and T'Pol talk about how people are gossiping... but that's still exactly where this story is going.)

• It's a fun moment when the crew trades a suitcase of spices to an alien in exchange for information. That alien is a particularly gross creation (in a fun way), as all he wants to do with the spices is sniff them and sneeze.

The extended action sequence at the end of this episode -- the big shoot-out aboard Enterprise -- is well-executed. Pretty much everything else about this episode is dull time-filler, a way to feature the Xindi story without actually progressing the Xindi story. I give "Rajiin" a C+.

Something Fishy

Now that I've blogged about the bird-watching game Wingspan and its dragon-themed spin-off Wyrmspan, I'm caught up to talk about its latest spinoff, the fish-themed Finspan.

Like its predecessors, Finspan is an engine-building game in which you play cards with hopefully complementary abilities, building up the resources to play even more cards... hoping in the end to score more points than the other players. As you would expect, the gameplay is generally quite similar despite some cosmetic differences.

You once again play your cards in three lines -- though Finspan cosmetically twists this 90 degrees by having you play in columns (representing ocean depth) rather than rows. You once again can use your turn to survey all your cards in one line (this time, "diving" past them) to collect any repeating benefits they award. And you have a limited number of turns to work with in the game -- this time, 24 split evenly across four rounds.

Finspan makes a few adjustments that are not simply cosmetic. While all three games have eggs you spend to play new creatures, these actually hatch into tokens which then can be moved around your ocean. Movement itself is a "resource" of a sort, because if you can join three young together in one spot, they form a school that doubles the number of points they're worth at the end of the game.

Unlike Wingspan and Wyrmspan, Finspan eliminates the concept of "food types" that are used to play new cards. It's a curious choice that on the one hand makes the game simpler by eliminating multiple resources the players must accumulate and plan around. On the other hand, it removes some flavor that might make the game a bit more accessible to inexperienced gamers, removing concrete concepts like berries, grubs, and grains (for birds; meat, milk, and others for dragons) and abstracting them -- to play new fish, you just discard other cards, or eggs, or young.

Finspan also makes the "combo-building" nature of these games more explicit by dividing each of the three columns into three zones: shallow, mid, and deep. When your diver descends in a column, you get a specific bonus in each zone simply for having any fish there (regardless of whether it has a power of its own you can trigger). It gives players something to shoot for independent of what the cards say they do: spread out across the different depths of your ocean to maximize your rewards.

Because of the streamlining of food and highlighting of combo-building, many experienced gamers have rallied around the idea that Finspan is the "simplest" of the Span family of games. I'd say the difference is subtle, if real at all; Mandy Patinkin would probably still have a hard time learning Finspan. And I really don't find the game in any way "less satisfying" to play. (Not that I always prefer more challenging games anyway.)

In fact, I certainly prefer Finspan to Wyrmspan, in part because of how it highlights that theme can really matter in a game. In my review of the dragon version, I commented that collecting fictional dragons wasn't nearly as compelling to me as reading factoids about actual birds (especially because in Wyrmspan, while they wrote a mountain of fictional information about the fictional dragons, they didn't bother to actually print any of it on the cards). Finspan brings us back to the real world, and once again each card features an intriguing little factoid about a fish you may or may not have ever heard of. It cements for me that in the Span games, the real-world themes are a significant part of the appeal to me.

Where I've called Wingpsan maybe an A- or B+, and Wyrmspan maybe a B or B+, I feel that Finspan ought to slot solidly in the middle. Call it a B+, no "maybe" about it. It's quite possible that no gamer's collection needs to include all three. But it's just as possible that a fan of any one of them might want to check out the others.

Enterprise Flashback: Extinction

Season three of Star Trek: Enterprise promised an ongoing, single plotline, built around an allegory of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But episode three of the season, "Extinction," was a big hint about what the season would really look like.

When Enterprise explores an alien planet, several crewmembers are exposed to a virus that mutates them into an alien species. As they pursue an innate primal instinct to find their "home," Enterprise tries to cure them... while trying to keep a third party from killing the team to prevent the spread of the contagion.

Here's the dirty secret of Enterprise season three: it isn't actually all connected. This is the first of many  episodes that center on the crew dealing with a one-off sci-fi problem. Previously, the classic Star Trek model would begin with a captain's log that went something like: "Starfleet sent us to do this thing, and so here we are to do the thing. I sure hope nothing unexpected happens!" It takes only the tiniest rewrite of that monologue to instead say: "Our hunt for the Xindi has led us here, and we're going to investigate. I sure hope nothing unexpected happens!" Here, the Macguffin of the Xindi database from the previous episode serves as the grease to get this week's plot machine in motion. But is that really connected? Certainly not in the way we think of modern serialized television. But not even -- I'd submit -- in the way of more serialized shows of the time (such as 24, the show I'm increasingly convinced Enterprise was trying to emulate).

All that surely sounds like I'm complaining... and I suppose I am -- just not in the way you might think. I'm fine with Star Trek continuing to be a show of one-off adventures. Deep Space Nine ended with a serialized, 10-episode arc, but had earned that by slowly building up recurring characters and story threads over seven seasons. Outside of that, I'm not sure that season-long story arcs is what Star Trek is built to do best (and Discovery might have been the show that later went on to prove that). But bottom line, whether Enterprise has or hasn't begun a single, long narrative isn't itself the issue.

The issue for me is that the writers of Enterprise seem to be thinking that the Xindi arc is a bold new way to reset the series. "Extinction" demonstrates that the show hasn't really changed at all. And that is the problem for me. Enterprise needs to develop its characters into more three-dimensional people. (Making the human characters likeable in any way would be a plus.) Bending a little away from mindless action and more toward provocative ideas wouldn't hurt, either. Nothing baked into the Xindi arc addresses any of that, and so to me, the change isn't likely to actually boost the show.

"Extinction" reinforces these feelings by being another truly mediocre outing, making three in a row to start the new season. The idea of mutating crewmembers is a bit stale to begin with -- it's been done several other times on Star Trek (once featuring this episode's director, LeVar Burton). None of those past episodes was especially good, either. That probably makes the writers think there's room to "get it right this time." I'd say maybe they're not taking the hint.

They try to tweak the idea a little this time around. The "de-evolved" characters have their own alien language. (We quickly learn it, of course). Previously unavailable visual effects are employed to show Archer's internal organs mutating inside his body, and the strange shift in his vision. (But these look pretty hokey.) We learn this mutation was purposefully created to try to perpetuate a dying species. (That nugget is interesting, but doesn't change much about the course of the story.) Ultimately, the episode feels quite familiar.

So it falls on the actors to make any kind of meal of this. Perhaps because Linda Park and Dominic Keating are so rarely given anything to do on this show, they really try to feast and leave no crumbs -- especially, Park, who really leans (sometimes literally) into the animal posture of Hoshi's alien version. Scott Bakula also really "commits to the bit." Collectively, the three keep this from seeming as silly as it could have, but can't hoist the episode on their shoulders alone into something solid.

Other observations:

• I guess there is a bit of season 3 continuity I haven't properly credited: Trip is still getting late night back rubs from T'Pol. (Sigh.)

• Even as an alien, Reed sucks at his job. You'd think he'd be a better fighter than Archer, but in a fight for food, Reed quickly capitulates.

• Aliens arrive to keep this virus from spreading off world. They tell Enterprise: "Your vessel is under quarantine. Prepare to be boarded." I don't think they understand what "quarantine" means.

"Extinction" really poses an almost-impossible acting challenge to three of the series regulars. Even as I can acknowledge the unfairness of that, I can't pretend the episode is "good" just because they give it their best effort. I grade it a C+.

Here We Go: Again

A new Marvel television series (Ironheart) begins this week. So I suppose it's time I blog some thoughts about the last Marvel show, before I fall behind.

Daredevil: Born Again was the fittingly titled revival of Netflix's Daredevil series, and in particular the return of two actors widely appreciated in two comic book roles: Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock and Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk. Over a 9-episode season, Born Again tracked the fallout when Fisk was elected mayor of New York, and began cracking down on vilgilante activity... at just the moment when Matt chose voluntarily to hang up his Daredevil suit and pursue justice under the law.

I found Daredevil: Born Again to be a very uneven season of television. A lot of that begins with the high bar set by the original 3 seasons of the Netflix show. That series skillfully blended thoughtful storytelling, great acting, top-notch action, and stylish cinematography in an appealing cocktail only surpassed by Jessica Jones in that stable of Marvel shows.

Born Again does try to put the same principles front and center. The story is very much inspired by the real-world moment we find ourselves in, following what happens when an utterly corrupt criminal is able to seize the levers of political power. The consequences seem only slightly exaggerated for the comic book genre... and arguably seems less so with every passing day as we all live with a real-world political figure behaving in increasingly cartoon-villain-ish ways.

The great acting is still intact -- largely because most of the hard work on casting was done for the original Netflix show. Daredevil: Born Again reportedly underwent a lot of creative turmoil behind the scenes, some of that having to do with actually recasting a few key characters before ultimately throwing out the footage to bring back the original actors. However rocky the road was, it ended in the right place with the return of Cox, D'Onofrio, Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa, Wilson Bethel as Poindexter, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen, Elden Henson as Foggy, and more. Plus, a number of new additions to the cast also fit in exactly as they should.

The action remains top-notch, as is the way its filmed. The very first episode starts out with an elaborate "single take" action sequence designed to one-up the original series' well-known "hallway fight," and that ambition extends throughout the season, to an all-out brawl involving a dozen fighters in a sequence of the season finale.

But the whole is less than the sum of the parts here. One problem is the extent to which Daredevil: Born Again wants to be all about the second act of the classic "hero's journey," namely, the "call to action." The hero in that classic story format often refuses the call to action, and that is the story of season one of Daredevil: Born Again -- Matt Murdock trying to hang up the cowl and do things "the right way." That may be honest and honorable, but it's not what you've come to see when watching a show like this. It's not called "Matt Murdock: Born Again," and there are countless excellent legal dramas I could go watch if that's what I was in the mood for. Simply: there's not nearly enough Daredevil in this Daredevil show. And "Daredevil" isn't the only character that gets sidelined for the sake of this story. Some characters that were central (at least in mind) to why the original Daredevil series worked are massively sidelined here. 

Put even more directly -- this new season starts with a terrible story development, and essentially ends on one too. In the beginning, the show treats characters badly by writing them out of the action. At the conclusion of the 8th episode, the show treats Matt Murdock badly by having him make a truly bizarre choice (that even he can't explain in the last episode), purely just to keep the plot going for longer.

But there are some inspired moments along the way. The specter of a serial killer hangs over part of the season, and adds a creepiness to the tale. A bank heist episode in the middle of the season -- a near total one-off, disconnected from the ongoing plot -- is far and away the most fun episode of the batch. 

I'd give the season overall a B-. In total I was slightly positive on it, though really it just made me miss the original Daredevil series. I would probably have been facing a tough choice whether or not to continue with season two when it arrives... except that they upped the ante by promising the return of Jessica Jones (who, as I noted, led the best of the defunct Netflix Marvel series). So alright... you got me. Just... be better next time?

Enterprise Flashback: Anomaly

Having set out to tell a season-long story in its third year, Star Trek: Enterprise may have been feeling pressured to convince the audience they could sustain one narrative for that long. Maybe even the writers needed to convince themselves, by dumping enough toys out from the toy box to play with for 24 episodes. I feel some thinking like this explains the disjointed, overstuffed episode "Anomaly."

When Enterprise is partially disabled by the spatial anomalies of the Delphic Expanse, pirates swoop in and steal valuable equipment and supplies. The hunt to recover what was taken leads them to a large and mysterious sphere, hidden inside a powerful cloaking field. But how far will Archer go to reclaim the losses?

"Anomaly" zigs and zags from one thing to the next, never really committing to being about any particular thing. In the beginning, the episode seems to want to fulfill the promise of its title, by focusing on the strange phenomena in this region of space. We've seen tastes of how weird the Expanse can be, but now matters escalate with distorted walls and floors, pockets of zero gravity, and a truly odd incident in the mess hall where all the food suddenly flies to the ceiling. (And it looks like a large part of that scene was accomplished with practical, in-camera effects. Well done!)

But I guess there just isn't enough juice to squeeze from the anomalies alone -- at least, not when our heroes aren't meant to solve their problems by the end of the episode. So in short order, Enterprise comes up on a derelict ship that's been raided by pirates... and then are set upon by the pirates themselves. After some fun action that sees shoot-outs, Trip crawling over the warp engine, and fun use of the electrical arcs that always spring from malfunctioning Star Trek devices, the episode has taken an abrupt turn.

Suddenly, we're in the middle of an episode that feels rather derivative of Voyager's "The Void": our heroes are trapped in a region of space and low on supplies. But to change things up, our captain here is not determined to stay true to ideals of friendship and cooperation. Instead, Jonathan Archer descends into darkness as he tortures a prisoner to get information on his pirate buddies.

No doubt the writers are angling to show us a new Archer. Once again with this season, I imagine they're taking inspiration from 24, whose protagonist famously stops at nothing for the "greater good." But Archer has been a bumbling boy scout for two seasons. Even though he's been in the Expanse already for at least 6 weeks (with another 6 week journey before that just to get there), it's been just two episodes of screen time. With an entire season still ahead in which we could track Archer's journey of moral compromise, I feel like we're rushing to it too quickly here without earning it.

Whether you're on board for this grittier Archer or not, you barely have time to settle in before the episode shifts again. Enterprise discovers this ancient sphere, and the crew wonders what its relationship might be to the region's strange anomalies. But we're not in the mode of exploration and mystery for long; soon enough, the ship is in a dogfight with pirates as they try to hack the enemy's systems and download information on the Xindi. It is a return to action, something this series is generally good at... but the Macguffin of the Xindi database is yet another thread woven into an already-full episode.

Other observations:

• Travis Mayweather is really a glorified extra on the show now. At one point, T'Pol talks about him by name, and he just nods and walks away without saying a word.

• Reed telling Trip not to be "so cynical" is pretty rich, given the fatalistic reactions we've seen from Reed in tight spots before.

"Anomaly" is just all over the place. Its about spatial distortions... no, pirates... no, Archer's darkness... no, this weird Death Star thingie... no, a Xindi database! And it doesn't stay with any one of those things long enough to coalesce into something interesting. I give it a C+.

Life Sentences

Through multiple series on Netflix, I've become a fan of writer-director Mike Flanagan. Author Stephen King has become a fan too. Flanagan's adaptation of King's Gerald's Game -- thought to be an unadaptable book -- was so creatively successful that King allowed him to film a sequel to The Shining that even acknowledged the existence of the Stanley Kubrick movie that King despises.

Every now and then, usually in one of his novella collections, Stephen King offers up a story outside the borders of the horror genre for which he his known. When they're adapted into movies (as all his writing inevitably is), they often garner more acclaim than than the horror films; The Green Mile was Oscar-nominated, Stand By Me is widely loved, and The Shawshank Redemption (according to the users of IMDb) remains "the best movie ever made."

That's a long wind-up, but it's all to say that I was really interested in what Mike Flanagan, who has won me over with his work in horror, could do with a non-horror story from the "master of horror." That new movie is The Life of Chuck.

Part of the reason for the long wind-up is that I feel like I can't actually say much about the movie itself. The Life of Chuck isn't exactly a story that turns on a "twist," but I do feel like the more you know about it going in, the more of the essence of it would already be dribbling away. Suffice it to say that the title is not a misdirection. It really is the story of the life of one Chuck Krantz, divided formally into a three-act structure... but with the three acts presented in reverse order. It touches on many emotions and themes along the way, but is primarily a story about finding the joy amid hardship and loss.

Anyone who has watched those Mike Flanagan projects I linked to in my intro will know that he likes to work with the same actors again and again, always picking up new performers along the way, but staying fiercely loyal to his "repertory company." The Life of Chuck is no exception; you'll see Flanagan staples like Kate Siegel, Samantha Sloyan, and Rahul Kohli. Relative Flanagan newcomer Mark Hamill gets an especially juicy role in the last half ("act one") of the movie.

But The Life of Chuck brings many other people to the mix -- many of whom it would be great to see integrated into the "company" -- including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay, Carl Lumbly, and Matthew Lillard. Mia Sara, who had formally retired from acting, came back to work with Flanagan. A huge child talent has been brought to film in Benjamin Pajak. You get exquisite narration from Nick Offerman. And other recognizable faces are happy to turn up just for one fun scene, people like David Dastmalchian and Harvey Guillén.

And of course, you get Tom Hiddleston in the title role. Interestingly, the sprawling nature of the story -- incorporating dozens of characters and spanning many decades -- means that Hiddleston actually isn't in that much of the film. But it all absolutely turns on his performance. One scene in particular, at the very heart of the movie, is very much the make-or-break moment for the entire story. Together with scene partners Annalise Basso and Taylor Gordon, Hiddleston musters all his considerable charisma into a completely physical performance that encapsulates everything the story is about.

I enjoyed The Life of Chuck very much... though I would not say it's without faults. By the time the entire narrative has been revealed, it's unclear why the opening of the story ("act three") needed to go on quite as long as it did. I'm also not sure whether that one key scene in the middle, good as it is, can alone sell you on the notion of an entire life lived to the fullest. Still, I did find the movie joyful and uplifting. And the sprawling (and excellent) cast alone feels like reason enough to give it a try. I give The Life of Chuck a B+.

Enterprise Flashback: The Xindi

Season three marked several changes for Star Trek: Enterprise -- most notably the beginning of a season-long story arc with the episode "The Xindi."

Weeks into their exploration of the Delphic Expanse, Enterprise seems no closer to locating the mysterious Xindi who attacked Earth. Now they have a lead that a Xindi might be imprisoned on a nearby mining colony. But to get information from him, they might need to stage a prison break.

As we get into season three, we'll see whether the Xindi arc really changed this series that much. But two other notable changes with this episode suggest to me that this effort to reform this series and increase ratings was misguided and no more than skin deep.

First, the show officially changes its title at this point, from simply Enterprise to Star Trek: Enterprise. When the series was created, a bunch of suits made the call that somehow the name "Star Trek" was an albatross around the show, an off-putting moniker that might keep the masses from tuning in for their more action-oriented (and sexy!) science fiction show. Now, suits decided that not calling it Star Trek was dragging it down, as though there were hordes of Star Trek fans out there who either didn't know this was a Star Trek show, or who would somehow come back and try it again now that the words "Star Trek" were officially in the name. Regardless, this is all changing the wrapping paper on the same gift.

We also get the "Yacht Rock"-ification of the already-atrocious main title theme. Having dealt with complains about "Faith of the Heart" for two years, the Powers That Be decided the way to "fix it" was to give it a bouncier remix with a furiously strummed guitar and a splash of percussion. In a vacuum, personal taste could easily lead you to find this version better or worse -- but in the context of the show, it feels undeniably worse to me. A key problem of "Faith of the Heart" is how terribly it butts up against whatever tension-filled teaser the series is trying to set up each episode. This Xindi story arc, by its nature, sought to raise the stakes every episode, but now the contrast with the theme song was even worse, smash cutting from action and tension to something you'd find right around 100 on the FM dial in every major radio market of the time.

In this day and age, though, both those changes are easily swept away by the "Skip Intro" button. So enough of that, let's talk about "The Xindi" as a start to the new season. It's... not great either.

If the concern was that Enterprise (excuse me -- Star Trek: Enterprise) was only appealing to a dwindling audience, it's wild how much this episode doubles down on all the same stuff it's been doing, stuff that presumably drove away others who had sampled the show. T'Pol now has catsuits in multiple colors! We've escalated from lubing up in the decon chamber to back rubs and shirtless boob-cupping, masquerading as "sleep aid" meditation!

Also, they are definitely trying to chase the success of 24. Not only have they embarked on a season-long story arc, but they've added a heaping dose of Jack Bauer to their character recipes -- both Trip and Archer have different moments in this episode bordering on the "who do you work for?!" style torture that was one of 24's signatures. And things are grittier throughout, with plot points involving a severed finger, crawling through sewage, and air ducts with fireballs.

But it seems the series still fails to recognize what the best or most interesting thing is about any given episode. Here -- to me, anyway -- it feels like the fun revelation is that the Xindi aren't a single species, but five different species with factional conflict among themselves. Except that the way the script is structured, that isn't a revelation. The episode opens with a conference that just shows us all the Xindi right out of the gate. So when Phlox later discovers there might be two Xindi species, akin to Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal ancestors on Earth, it just falls flat. And all for what? To bookend the episode with the most cliche of villain monologuing?

Or how about giving the MACOs some compelling scenes, if you're trying to make such a big deal out of a new military force being here? Despite the presence of two significant TV stars -- one recognizable at the time (Steven Culp) and one on the cusp of fame (Daniel Dae Kim), the MACOs really don't do much. They're part of a big action sequence at the end, but Enterprise has staged many good ones over its two years, and this one doesn't feel like anything special. About all that's different for the presence of the MACOs is that Reed is even more annoying than usual in this episode, whining about how they're taking his job. (Maybe if he'd been doing his job with any skill whatsoever, they wouldn't be there in the first place)

Other observations:

• Two of the Xindi species are rendered in CG. The aquatic ones look pretty good -- helped by the fact that they don't have to be on camera at the same time as actors in sci-fi makeup. The insectoid Xindi, on the other hand, have problems with lighting, and don't quite seem to be believably in the space.

• Boy, the exposition explaining the new "command center" is super awkward. Archer has a pretty awful "as you all know" speech about it, as the camera tracks him all the way around the room to show off the set.

I feel like "The Xindi" kicks off this season in a rather lackluster way. Filled with mindless action and laughably gratuitous sex appeal, it promises nothing new the show hasn't already been doing. I give it a C+. But of course, it really is just setting the table. Perhaps the meal yet to come will be better...?

Now With More Pirates!

Years ago, I wrote about the board game Maracaibo -- a beast of a game from designer Alexander Pfister that ultimately proved to be too much for my gaming group. But it has a fair amount in common with another game we enjoy more, Great Western Trail, and so I always remained open to revisiting it.

I still haven't done that. But I have now played the game's spin-off, Pirates of Maracaibo.

Pirates of Maracaibo keeps many of the same core elements of Maracaibo -- you sail around the Caribbean, gather treasure, upgrade your ships, and tromp through the jungle, all trying to amass the most points. But the game board has been replaced with a deck of cards that are arranged on the table like a map, with new cards dealt to replace the ones scooped up by players as you go.

I was interested in Pirates of Maracaibo because it seemed like it might be a simpler version of Maracaibo. Having now played it a few times, I'm really not sure that it is. It feels like some element of every major theme or mechanic in the original game is present somewhere in the spin-off. There's just a lot to understand before you can start the first game. And that probably all makes sense -- if somebody truly wants an "easier Maracaibo," then Great Western Trail exists.

But Pirates of Maracaibo does play faster than its "big brother." It shaves about a quarter of the run time off the Maracaibo experience. Maybe Maracaibo fans who have played that game many times would point to some critical change that the Pirates version is lacking, some element that justifies the longer run time. Or maybe you just like playing longer games -- some groups do. But for me, it's nothing but a good thing that a substantially similar game has been released in a smaller package.

Still, Pirates of Maraciabo is very much a gamers' game. I'm not going to bring any new people to the hobby with it, nor will I convince any people who haven't liked Alexander Pfister's other designs that they'll enjoy this one. (Even if this time, two other co-designers are credited: Ralph Bienert and Ryan Hendrickson.) It all comes down to what my same group thinks of this game versus the others. It's clear that Pirates of Maracaibo isn't a big enough hit to displace another game we're already playing. Whether we like it enough to put it into rotation with the others? That remains to be seen. For now, I'd give Pirates of Maracaibo a B.

Enterprise Flashback: The Expanse

With their ratings falling short of those set by Star Trek: Voyager, the writers of Enterprise decided they needed to do something flashy to grab (or re-grab) viewers. Perhaps inspired by shows like 24, they decided that the upcoming third season of the show would feature a season-long story arc. They laid the groundwork for it with their season two finale, "The Expanse."

When an alien ship attacks Earth, killing millions (including Trip's sister), Enterprise is recalled to Earth to take part in the investigation and plan next steps. While en route, the Suliban show up to bring Archer to meet their mysterious benefactor from the future. He reveals that the attack was the work of the Xindi, a race receiving help from rivals in the Temporal Cold War, to preemptively prevent the future destruction of their planet by humans. Enterprise is then dispatched to the home space of the Xindi, a strange "expanse" of weird phenomena. Their mission: to locate the Xindi and prevent a subsequent, even more massive attack. But stalking them to their destination is the Klingon Duras, looking for revenge on Archer.

There is a lot going on in this episode -- so much that reportedly 10 minutes of additional footage was cut entirely. This one episode has to spin down the stories being left behind -- the Temporal Cold War and Klingon skirmishes -- and set up something that hopefully fans would talk about all summer, bringing people to the show when it returned in the fall. Certainly, they've come up with a hell of a teaser: a strange sphere showing up and carving a canyon through Florida with an orbital laser. (It makes for another awkward smash cut to the show's jarring theme song. They really ought to consider getting a new one for the next season. Wink wink.)

The Xindi attack is not subtly inspired by the then-quite-recent 9/11 terrorist attacks -- and as such, the writing and acting is all rather grounded and realistic. We see the unfolding of news, with estimates of the deaths being revised upward again and again. We watch the characters grapple with their own feelings about what's happened. We see that some of these prequel characters aren't taking this in what other Star Treks would show as the "Starfleet way"; they're going to be out for revenge. Still, the emotions feel rushed to me. I think you really feel that 10 minutes of cut footage -- not for the subplots excised entirely (such as one reportedly involving Archer's Earthbound girlfriend), but in how truncated the remaining scenes feel.

But then, the emotions aren't the point as far as the series is concerned. This is a bid to revitalize the show -- and in retrospect, knowing that it would only last two more seasons (and become the first Star Trek in nearly two decades not to run seven years), you can see just how desperate a bid it was. They've got to throw in every possible hook about this "Delphic Expanse" that they can, to bring you back next season. A ghost story about a ship whose crew got turned inside out? Spooky footage of a Vulcan crew going insane? Mention of the more conventional soldiers Enterprise is bringing with them? New weapons the ship will be carrying? Aren't you excited?!

Well... kind of. I mean, I understand why that's the focus. But again, other parts of the story get shorted because of it. It's strange that they even put on the table the idea that some crew members might elect not to go to the Expanse when they ultimately don't explore the matter at all. (Apparently, Hoshi's feelings on that in particular was another one of the subplots cut completely for time.) T'Pol being recalled by the Vulcan High Command, only for her to give up her commission to stay with Enterprise, similarly doesn't amount to much -- not when they've played the "T'Pol might be leaving" card at least twice before.

It's weird to me that the biggest action of the episode isn't about the Expanse or the Xindi. Instead of showing us a taste of what they hope will excite us next season, the big set piece is a battle between Enterprise and the Klingons. It's staged well enough, and the visual effects look great. But it also kind of undermines the notion that the show will be reinvigorated by this new story line; here's the action they so crave to show us, and it has nothing to do with what's being set up for next season.

Other observations:

• This whole "test attack on Earth" is good for setting up a story, but terrible in its internal logic. The Xindi could have tested that weapon anywhere. Why do it on Earth itself, warning humanity that you plan to destroy the whole planet? 

• I cannot believe we're still playing T'Pol as skeptical about time travel after everything she and Enterprise have been through. It's not logical.

• ...though it's fun that other Vulcans are still "non-believers." I like the scene where a Vulcan psychologist covertly tries to test Archer's sanity.

• When Trip and Reed visit the Xindi damage in Florida, the canyon carved by their weapon looks pretty good. The two stiff CG characters we see "walking" up to the edge in the wide shot look terrible -- really undermining the somber tone the scene is going for.

There are good parts of "The Expanse." Some are even tantalizing in the way the writers hope. But the overstuffing of the episode undermines its effectiveness. I give it a B-.

And with that, season two of Enterprise comes to a close. Overall, I think it's a small step down in quality from season one. But it would have been a much bigger step had things not really picked up near the end of the season. Almost all my choices for the top five episodes of season two come from the last handful of episodes: "The Breach," "Regeneration," "Carbon Creek," "Judgment," and "Cogenitor."

Next up, season three: the show gets an official title change, a revised theme song, and embarks on a year-long story arc. 

Enterprise Flashback: Bounty

As Enterprise was drawing near the end of season two and about to kick off a new ongoing storyline, it first wanted to address an existing storyline: Archer's relationship with the Klingons. That was at the center of "Bounty."

Archer is captured by a Tellarite bounty hunter, who means to deliver him to the Klingons. Meanwhile, a virus triggers early pon farr in T'Pol, who is trapped in the decon chamber with Phlox and quickly losing her emotional control.

Archer hasn't exactly excelled at diplomacy through two seasons of Enterprise, so I do like the idea of putting him in a situation where essentially must use diplomacy -- persuading a morally-conflicted bounty hunter to release him. Guest star Jordan Lund is a good scene partner for Scott Bakula, in the role of the bounty hunter Skalaar. The character is well-drawn, with clear doubts about what he is doing, and equally clear determination to ignore those doubts to achieve his own ambitions.

All of that makes it a bit of a weird choice for the character to be a Tellarite. The pig-faced race from the original series was, like Andorians, a nearly blank slate that Enterprise could put their prequel stamp on and flesh out. But I feel that before building to a more well-rounded and realistic alien race, the writers ought to have begun with the few established touchstones: Tellarites are not just literally pig-headed; they're stubborn, belligerent, and gruff in demeanor too. Skalaar is none of those things: friendly, empathetic, and thoughtful. And I feel like it would be a lot easier to accept this atypical Tellarite if Enterprise had thus far spent any time showing us typical Tellarites.

If the writers aren't following up on any established Tellarite story, though, they are following up on their ongoing Klingon story. This is a good development in my book, as early Klingon episodes of Enterprise had left relations with them in entirely too good a place. I'm much more into this prequel paving the road to the conflict we would "later" see in the original series.

Speaking of Klingons, we get the actor behind one of the most famous Klingons (Gowron) in this episode... playing a different alien. There's no mistaking the voice and eyes of Robert O'Reilly as the character Kago. My only question is why his role is so small, particularly when Enterprise has now demonstrated itself more than willing to bring in veteran Trek actors to be on the show. He does at least make a meal of the quirky bit part.

As for the B plot? After the original Star Trek made pon farr famous, any follow-up series with a Vulcan character is eventually going to do its version. And appropriately, Roxann Dawson directs this episode, since her character B'Elanna was at the center of Voyager's bonus pon farr episode. Who better to sensitively guide Jolene Blalock through some objectively embarrassing writhing and flirting and panting and grinding and everything in between? Still, there's something lurid to her performing all this that didn't seem to be the focus when it was Leonard Nimoy or Tim Russ doing it, you know? The "stripped down inside the decon chamber" element of it all doesn't help. (Though they try to come off as "equal opportunity" by putting Phlox in that situation for the first time.)

Still, Blalock commits to the bit, so it doesn't come off as silly as it could have. And I think it helps that John Billingsley is her scene partner for most of the episode. I've often commented on his strong acting on the show. Here, he wisely avoids the expected "comedic" take on having to rebuff the advances of a chemically-altered friend, instead playing someone caring and sympathetic. (Once she escapes, the brief scene in which she comes onto Malcolm Reed is icky in all the ways the rest of the episode could have been.) I feel like the trio of Blalock and Billingsley in front of the camera, with Dawson behind it, keeps a story that could go so wrong mostly on the rails.

Other observation:

• Phlox again mentions Denobulan medical ethics when bluffing T'Pol, reminding us that his people don't believe in treating a patient against their will. While I do still love that conceit, if it keeps coming up only in situations where Phlox going to violate that rule, aren't we basically painting him as an unethical person?

"Bounty" isn't doing anything particularly novel with its main storyline, so I'll call it a decent-but-shaky B-. In a sense, it's the final episode of this version of Enterprise -- the next episode is the season two finale, which sets up the new "season-long story arc" phase of the series.

Presence, Accounted For

My favorite movie so far in 2025 had been Black Bag, director Steven Soderbergh slick spy thriller in a tight 90-minute package. When I wrote about it, I mentioned that it was the second of two brisk films Soderbergh released just weeks apart. (And both written by David Koepp.) I've now been able to catch up with the other one, Presence.

This is story of the Payne family -- Rebekah and Chris, and their teenage children Tyler and Chloe. Rebekah seems to be caught up in some sort of white collar crime. Chloe is mourning the recent death of a close friend. Tyler is acting out in mean-spirited ways, as Chris struggles to get him back on track. But all these struggles seem smaller than the ghostly presence living in the house they've just moved into. As its existence becomes undeniable, Chloe becomes convinced it's her dead friend Nadia, and means them well. But that may not extend to Chloe's new boyfriend Ryan.

While that synopsis captures the bullet points of the narrative, it leaves out the most distinct element of Presence: the way the ghostly entity of the story is portrayed. The ghost is the camera. Everything unfolds exclusively from the POV of the spirit. Yes, this means that I was "taken in" and watched another "gimmick movie," after noting that the last several movies I watched that similarly revolved around a stylistic conceit were all underwhelming. Needless to say, I was willing to take a chance on Soderbergh (and Koepp) -- and I was glad I did.

For the most part, the movie doesn't want to be caught showing the audience how hard all this was to pull off. It has a conventional scene structure, cutting to black for moments to indicate the passage of time. There aren't really any overly hokey moments where action is weirdly staged for the camera's benefit. And the gimmick serves a point -- the audience can derive a lot about the thoughts and feelings of the "presence" simply by the things it chooses to look at.

But make no mistake, this would have been quite a challenge to film. Everything unfolds in the space of a real house, with Soderbergh handling the camera himself since there was no way to hide a large film crew. Each scene is an unbroken single take (a "one-er"). Sometimes this is straight-forward enough, but several major sequences of the movie last five minutes or longer, crossing between rooms, going up and down stairs, or positioning things in just the right way to support a visual effect.

This all demands a high degree of very technical acting from the cast, all while they still work to give emotionally grounded performances. And reportedly, they did it all in a mere 11-day shooting schedule. So hats off to Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday -- the core family -- and West Mulholland, Julia Fox, Natalie Woolams-Torres, and Lucas Papaelias, rounding out almost everyone else you see in the movie. No one is really given a moment to submit for Oscar consideration (not that the Academy gives much consideration to horror movies anyway)... but nearly all of them have a theater-like moment where they have to convey a powerful emotion on the spot, regardless of the artifice of the real-world situation. This cast pulled me into the story.

And it's a truly interesting story, in that it's a classic horror "slow burn." To me, it's kind of wild that a movie under 90 minutes could be a slow burn -- there's no time to take it slow. But you go through all the expected phases trying to understand the situation and its ramifications. There are character subplots and arcs, and an appropriately satisfying conclusion. If I were to be down on one aspect of the story, it's that they kind of hide information from you to preserve an upcoming "twist ending." I felt that as soon as one vital piece of knowledge was dropped about halfway through the movie, the conclusion of the story felt obvious. But I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing. The story proceeds to its correct and inevitable conclusion, given what has unfolded so far -- and by that point I was more than invested enough to enjoy the rest of the journey.

I give Presence an A-. The pairing of Steven Soderbergh and David Koepp really served up a one-two punch to start 2025, and are basically the mark to beat for me for good movies in the months left to go.

Platonic -- Ideal?

Those familiar with Apple TV+ shows have been talking about Seth Rogen's recent satire, The Studio. But in my pile of countless shows (that I'll never claw my way to the top of), I've only recently finished the Apple TV+ show he made before that, Platonic.

Sylvia and Will were life-long friends who drifted apart after Will's marriage. But years later, Will is getting divorced, and the two find themselves back in each others' lives. That may prove a challenge to everyone around them, as each finds themselves at a major crossroads in life: Sylvia is considering a return to the office after years as a stay-at-home mother, and Will is clashing more and more with his business partners at his craft brewery. Plus... the two aren't an entirely good influence on each other.

Platonic is a reunion of sorts for the team that made the comedy movie Neighbors. My review of that movie was mixed, though I did note the comedic prowess of Rose Byrne. Here she is again, cutting it up with scene partner Seth Rogen -- and the two make for a solid comedy duo. Nicholas Stoller, director of Neighbors, clearly recognizes this. He's co-creator of Platonic (with Francesca Delbanco), and I would imagine made it with them in mind.

The very premise of the show helps get around a question I raised about another recent rom-com TV show, Nobody Wants This. Funny as that show is, I noted that it's constantly "the middle act" of a romantic comedy -- a series of misunderstandings that threaten the lead couple's ongoing relationship. Platonic tells you right in the title what the relationship of this lead couple is. Others around Sylvia and Will may question it at times, but they don't, and neither should the audience. There's no "will they, won't they." This is two "bros" that happen to be of the opposite sex, having each others' backs in one moment and putting the other up to terrible things the next.

Unsurprisingly, with the show all about those two, you're not going to like it at all if you don't like the banter between Rogen and Byrne. For me, it works. Each meets the other halfway from (what I perceive to be) their usual points on the comedy-drama continuum. There are other good performances on the show; they're just very much not the focus of the storytelling. A few that I particularly enjoyed: Luke Macfarlane as Sylvia's husband Charlie, who gets perhaps two or three episodes of the 10 to really be silly himself; Carla Gallo as Sylvia's friend Katie, who almost drunkenly lobs one-liners with razor precision; and Vinny Thomas as Omar, an employee at Will's brewery, who absolutely shines in what's really the smallest of parts.

Platonic tells a satisfyingly complete story in 10 episodes, and since Seth Rogen did go on to make another television show after it, you'd think that would be that. Think again! Later this year, the show is set to air a second season. I for one think that could be interesting without "stretching the taffy" -- it's easy enough to imagine that life-long friends will just keep getting into new hijinks. I give season one of Platonic a B+.

Enterprise Flashback: First Flight

One of the foundational stories about the real world space program was Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Enterprise took on a fictional version of that history with "First Flight."

Enterprise receives word from Earth that test pilot A.G. Robinson has died -- news that hits Archer and Trip especially hard, as they worked with him on the Warp 5 engine project years ago. When Archer and T'Pol leave in a shuttlepod to prove the existence of a massive dark matter nebula, Archer passes the time by recounting his time with Robinson in the early days of that test program.

This episode is trying very hard to be The Right Stuff, positioning the Warp 5 program as an analog for the real world Mercury space program. We get dangerous tests, the competition to be first, down time at the local astronaut bar... all the hallmarks.

In the way this gives us some backstory on Archer and Trip, it works very well. I've never been particularly impressed by Archer's captaining, but these flashbacks show us an even greener version to drive home his progress. He has to wrestle with his feelings about his own father, designer of the engine. He must learn to be a more rounded person. We watch his rival Robinson become a friend. And we see why Archer is so bonded to Trip in the present, as all three men go rogue to prove the engine works.

What doesn't quite work for me is this arbitrary competition about being first to travel Warp 2. In the episode, they reference Buzz Aldrin being the second man on the moon, and how people only remember the first thing Neil Armstrong said there. The implication is that breaking Warp 2 will be a milestone to be remembered forever. But that's plainly ridiculous, as the goal of the program is to quickly proceed to Warp 3, 4, and ultimately 5. They're all working as though they're going to be Chuck Yeager, breaking the sound barrier. In reality, they're all jockeying to be the first person to travel Mach 2. (Anybody? I had to Google. A. Scott Crossfield.) If the writers weren't caught up trying to emulate The Right Stuff, they might have realized they had a more appropriate competition already baked right into the story. The flashbacks end with Archer being tapped to command Starfleet's first high warp exploration vessel. That's the path to lasting fame.

Another problem with mimicking The Right Stuff this directly is that some of the antiquated 1960s values come along for the ride. The whole idea that some bartender is going to marry the first guy who can guess the future baby name she has picked out feels sexist and icky. The bar fight that breaks out feels ridiculously over the top -- way more testosterone-fueled than even these prequel-Trek characters ever act.

But there are bright spots in the writing too. The "wrapper" story of T'Pol and Archer's exploration doesn't have to actually do much, yet it cleverly maps a struggle to prove something in the present to a struggle to prove something in the past. It gives T'Pol a chance to demonstrate the empathy she's developed, as she encourages Archer to tell the tale. And it all rather cheekily revolves around a plan to bomb stuff for science.

Guest star Keith Carradine is kind of a "big get" for this episode, and does have some of the swagger you want to see in a trope-tastic test pilot character. He does seem maybe a little old for the role, though. (Though I suppose, alongside a "supposed to be a decade younger" Scott Bakula, it works.)

Other observations:

• This episode gives us another mention of "Mount McKinley." The last time that happened, I noted that the mountain was now called Denali. Since then, some would have us believe it's McKinley again.

• Once again, Star Trek falls flat portraying a bar on screen. This astronaut bar plays the worst tunes, sounding like elevator music in one scene and "on hold" music in the next.

• They solve their warp engine problems by changing their intermix ratio. Trek nerd alert, but the franchise has already established that there's only one workable matter-antimatter ratio -- 1:1. (Though I suppose if they hadn't learned that yet, no wonder they were blowing themselves up.)

• But speaking of franchise history... they've said that Mayweather grew up on a cargo freighter, and that it traveled at warp 2. This episode would have us believe that only around 10 years ago, warp 2 was broken for the first time. Then a whole fleet of cargo ships was rolled out... and then quickly outdated. And that that tiny sliver of time is what Mayweather is talking about when he thinks of "growing up."

• Great production design on the Warp 2 test ship. It looks plausibly like the "fighter jet" evolution of the ship Cochrane flew in First Contact.

I do ultimately appreciate how much this episode puts the focus on characters, and I like how it puts a sci-fi twist on a real world story. But I feel the metaphor is clunky, and that there isn't really a good handle on the future history being laid down. I give "First Flight" a B.

Friendly Advice

In my recent talk about season two of Andor, I complained about the way it was released on Disney+: multiple episodes dropping every week, forcing you to binge to stay ahead of spoilers. But earlier in the year, Disney+ released another series in exactly the same manner... and I was very glad not to have played their bingeing game.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is an animated series about... well, it's right there in the title. With the "Spider-verse" movies and the MCU's current multiverse efforts setting ample precedent for alternate universes in general and alternate Spider-mans (Spider-men?) in particular, this series was free to uncouple from all the backstory baggage and tell a simpler story.

It tells that story using a fun animation style. (The Spider-verse set the precedent for changing that up too.) It's made to look like a comic book in motion, with characters drawn in the style of the earliest appearances of the character in the 1960s. Bringing that style into 3D is a tightrope act that could go wrong at any moment, but it really looks great here.

The 10 episodes of season one do a great job covering young Peter Parker's efforts at learning how to be a hero without getting bogged down too long in "yet another origin story" that no one really needs to see. But even more impressive to me is the writing of the characters around Peter. In particular, there's an entire subplot about high school football captain Lonnie Lincoln that really shouldn't work for how long it takes to connect to the larger narrative. It's an unexpectedly earnest look at peer pressure, gang violence, privilege, and more -- and kind of turns out to be one of the best aspects of the season.

The show has a great cast. If you're a fan of another Marvel animated show, What If...?, they've brought over Hudson Thames to continue voicing Spider-man here. Then they surround him with cartoon voice-over royalty (Kari Wahlgren as Aunt May), outstanding actors with distinct voices (Colman Domingo as Norman Osborn), actors who would normally be on camera adopting unrecognizable mannerisms (Hugh Dancy as Otto Octavius), and more. There are some fun guest stars too.

Because I didn't feel compelled to watch Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man as fast as they were releasing it, I enjoyed the fast-paced half-hour episodes much more. Overall, I'd give the first season a B+. Word is that season two is on the way next year, and a season three is in development, and I'll certainly be looking forward to it.

Enterprise Flashback: Regeneration

Star Trek: The Next Generation invented the Borg, and knew enough to use their menacing creation sparingly to keep them dangerous and special. Star Trek: Voyager resisted showing the Borg for a few seasons... before beginning to feature them so often that they no longer felt like such a threat. But at least with the Star Trek franchise moving on from Voyager to a prequel, that would be the last we'd see of the Borg, right?

Wrong! Behold, "Regeneration."

Researchers on Earth have discovered wreckage from an alien ship frozen in the Arctic on Earth, including its frozen, cybernetically-enhanced occupants. When Starfleet loses contact with the researchers and an alien ship departs for deep space, Enterprise is called to intercept. Soon, they come into conflict with an enemy that not only threatens the ship, but -- through a strange co-opting of biology -- the crew itself.

The original introduction of the Borg was a tantalizing moment in a mixed bag season of The Next Generation because, as Q summed up nicely: "you're out of your league." That was a feeling largely preserved in that Enterprise's subsequent encounters with the zombie-analog nemesis. But the more often you stop a supposedly "unstoppable" foe, the less it feels like an actual accomplishment -- which is exactly what happened throughout the run of Star Trek: Voyager.

Still, Enterprise tries with this episode to get back to the heart of what makes the Borg scary. It's not a prequel to the rest of Star Trek so much as a sequel to the movie First Contact. And while there are a lot of winks and nods to an audience who knows a lot more than the characters do about what they face, the episode manages not to feel like pure fan service.

If anything, I'd say it feels like a horror movie -- more so perhaps than any other Borg episode. Some of that is the "The Thing"-like vibes immediately invoked by the Arctic-bound (and Enterprise-less) first act. But we also get it in the many horror tropes lovingly deployed through the episode: characters with "the smart idea" ignored by the rest of their group, the "ghost story" energy of Archer recounting Zefram Cochrane's tales of aliens like this, the frightening whispers that Phlox hears when he is partially assimilated(!), and his insistence that his friends should kill him before letting him turn into a monster.

The episode is also good about portraying this as a real first contact with the Borg. When Archer is forced to kill a few Borg, there's a moment where he's understandably distraught at having taken lives; he hasn't yet learned that he's living in a zombie movie. It's only later, when he encounters an assimilated Arctic researcher aboard the Borg vessel, that he truly realizes the nature of what he's up against.

This is another triumph for Enterprise's production departments. Voyager already paved the way for achieving the movie budget Borg of First Contact on a television budget and schedule. Enterprise does that and more, adding the extended opening sequences in the Arctic. The snow storm was obviously done on a sound stage, but it still looks remarkably credible. (Perhaps the least realistic part is that the actors don't seem nearly cold enough in their physicality.) Phlox gets a wonderful compound makeup of his usual Denobulan features, gradually being necrotized by Borg implants. There are good FX shots of Enterprise control panels being Borgified, a fairly well done moment of ejecting some Borg into space, and a satisfying ship explosion in the final showdown.

But even if this episode does make the Borg feel scarier than Voyager usually managed, let's be clear: they're still very much "de-fanged" in this episode. They have to be for the Enterprise to ever defeat them. The trademark Borg personal shielding seems to take longer to kick in than usual. It seems easier to get up close for hand-to-hand combat (and hose pulling) than it has before. And of course, Phlox manages too easily to find a cure for assimilation (albeit a painful one).

Other observations:

• The fan service isn't just about Borg. Phlox mentions Bynars as another alien race that engages in cybernetic implantation.

• In dozens of appearances, the Borg have always "introduced" themselves with "we are the Borg." Surprise, surprise -- here they skip straight to "you will be assimilated," to avoid giving their name to the future history books.

• The Borg seem to move a lot more deliberately than usual in this episode. If the Borg are zombies, these are almost "fast zombies."

I feel like Enterprise did a better job with the Borg than Star Trek: Voyager usually did. Still, there's not as much drama in watching a struggle against a defanged opponent. I give "Regeneration" a B.