What TV time I’ve had to myself has been used watching these three picks below. First off is the recent Disney+ show, Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord. The boys haven’t gotten to Star Wars yet, and I doubt Andy will like seeing a horned nutjob slice people. Next is Phantom 2040, a long-forgotten show I have been slowly watching on Amazon Prime. Finally, there’s Under the Dome, a TV adaptation of a Stephen King book. Me and Liz were binging this, but it took quite a while to do so with all the crying and sleepy kids.
Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord
Shadow Lord is a 10-episode series released on Disney+ about a couple of months ago. I think I heard about it years ago, but when that first trailer hit with Sam Witwer’s soothing voice, I was in. The show takes place a year after Revenge of the Sith and the end of Clone Wars where we last left Maul. Maul and his cohorts shack up on Janix, a planet that hasn’t been touched by the Empire yet. As he’s trying to amass power and get revenge, he’s being hunted by Commissioner Gordon– I mean, Brander Lawson of the Janix police force. Also, we have a rogue Jedi and apprentice Eeko-dio Daki and Devon Izara) hiding out on the planet. Maul takes an interest in Devon’s darker tendencies. All of this is interrupted by someone contacting the Empire which leaves everybody screwed.
Now, this was good! If anyone has been disappointed by Star Wars’ recent entries, they should be more than whelmed by this. We see Maul return in all his Sith ways. If you’re wondering if they’re trying to lessen his dark tendencies, be relieved that he’s still got that “Sith” in him. Even though we know how his story ends, seeing him try to amass power in the Empire era is nice. I also liked a lot of the other characters we got here like Lawson, Master Daki, and Devon. I especially liked how Devon was kind of split between the light and dark. I’m curious where she’ll end up in the universe.
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| Hmm... who could make all of these guys freak out? Just watch the show. |
The first half of the show takes some time to get going, but when some familiar Force wielders show up, it’s on. The first half with Maul basically playing a Gotham supervillain was fun though. Seriously, I got some Dark Knight vibes from the show for a bit with Lawson as Commissioner Gordon and the rogue Jedi as Batman and Robin. The animation was smooth as it has always been with the Clone Wars style. The fights are so crisp and clean. I’m surprised that this animation style has lasted so long and still feels fresh. Other than it taking some time to get going, Maul's crew being okay cannon fodder, and the fact that we only get 10 episodes, this is Star Wars at its best. See it if you haven’t.
Phantom 2040
Phantom 2040 was released in syndication back in 1994.I saw that it was all on Amazon Prime, so I decided to make a watch of it. Before this, I found a couple of episodes on VHS years ago at Movie Gallery, so this was really my first viewing of the show in totality. The show takes place in the far, far future of 2040… we ain’t too far from that, aren’t we? It follows Kit Walker Jr. as he takes on the family tradition and becomes the 24th Phantom. War has decimated the world, and in its wake, Metropia, a massive technological city run by mega-corporations, was born. Kit and his allies face Maximum Inc., an evil corporation headed by the Madisons, as they try to ruin what’s left of the natural world and take it for themselves.
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| I wouldn't have been surprised of Aeon Flux herself popped up on the show at some point. |
This was a fun watch. I really didn’t remember the VHS I saw way back in the 90’s, so this was all new to me. Even though the show had a short run (35 episodes), it had a lot going for it. I did recognize a couple of names behind the production team like Judith and Garfield Reeves Stevens, two writers who have been involved with Star Trek. It also involves Peter Chung, the creator of Aeon Flux, and you can tell with the designs and animation. The show also has a lot of recognizable voices like Ron Pearlman, Mark Hammill, Jeff Bennett, J.D. Hall, and Roscoe Lee Jr., and Iona Morris. A couple of others who don’t have a lot of voice credits are Scott Valentine, Leah Ramine, and Margot Kidder. Yes, we got Lois Lane in the house, and she’s playing the big baddie.
I liked most of the characters here. I’ll get to Kit a little later, but he was fine as the Phantom. Most of his allies like Guran, Sagan, Cairo, and Heisenberg were cool for the most part. Our villains were a mess in probably the best way though. Rebecca Madison and her son, Maxwell Jr., are literally nuts. Junior is probably more so since he has a weird attachment to his cat, Baudelaire. Graft, their cybernetic henchman, was somewhat cool mainly because he was voiced by Ron Pearlman.
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| What a happy family... |
The stories and overall tone for the show were good. The writers were going for something like Batman: The Animated Series, X-Men, and Gargoyles. The plots were mature enough for kids and fans of the Phantom to get into. The stories would broach some subjects like the environment, emergence of AI, and annoying people in the media. The designs from Peter Chung were cool and brought an odd look to the show. The animation was good but not too dynamic. The music was okay, but I did like the theme song.
I don’t have too many problems with the show itself. I will say that the show didn’t feel too engaging at times especially when it comes to Kit Walker himself. I liked him, but he just wasn’t that interesting of a character. Honestly, some of his allies and even his villains seemed more interesting. The Madisons and Graft were constantly on each other’s necks. Some plots would kind of get recycled a bit. Also, while I like that the show got to end their story, it was so rushed. Most of those last episodes felt like that. Other than those things, this was a fine show.
Under the Dome
Finally, Under the Dome aired on CBS in 2012 and lasted for three seasons. It’s based on the Stephen King book of the same name. I thought this might be a good watch for me and Liz, so we gave it a try. After finishing it, I can at least say that it was quality time for us to see how wild this show got. It takes place in a small Maine town called Chester’s Mill which is a given since this is a King adaptation. One day, a powerful, invisible dome surrounds the town and traps everyone inside. The whole show revolves around the survivors trying to stay alive, keeping from killing each other, and finding a way out.
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| I think this is the moment they realized their show is coming to an end. |
This… was not a good show. I think Liz got a little more enjoyment than I did, but even she was getting annoyed by the end especially with a certain bald idiot. Even though the show fell off the rails into an oncoming train, it started out well enough. The idea of these people trapped in this impenetrable dome was interesting and did remind me of other survival shows like the Walking Dead and Lost. Seeing the townspeople come together and face different challenges mostly worked. You’ll usually get the “butting of heads” as they call it with our mains. You’ll also get a lot of death especially at the hands of one person: “Big” Jim Rennie (Dean Norris). Seriously, you’ll love to hate him.
The characters are a mixed bunch. You’ll like them and then hate them in almost one breath. That’s how haphazard the writing eventually got. I did have some favorites though. We have our leads like Dale Barbara (Mike Vogel), Julia (Rachelle Lefvre), Joe (Colin Ford), and Angie (Britt Robertson). Even though Big Jim was such a god-awful person, Dean Norris did his best to make the character fun at least. As for the rest, they were a mixture of “eh” to “why the hell did you do that”. I’m looking at you, “Junior”, Rebecca, Phil, and probably a few others I can’t name. All I can say is this with Jim and Junior: Like father, like son. The acting wasn’t also that good though that could've been due to the writing.
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| You're gonna love to hate these two. Seriously, the Rennie family all sorts of jacked up! |
While I liked Season 1, the wheels started to come off towards the end of the season and on into Season 2. Jim really started to grate on me and rack up a body count. The plots got weirder with the dome going all wacky, cool characters needlessly dying, and “the dead rising from the grave.” After that point, it’s all silly. Also, these people were losing their minds over being locked in this dome for 2 weeks… Weeks. It’s like logic and any sort of smarts left the dome. Even characters I liked started to act somewhat dumb. The dome’s doing weird stuff which could be interesting if everyone wasn’t so idiotic.
As for Season 3, that’s where it got one-part dumb and one-part fun. I saw Marg Helgenberger show up to infodump and explain what the writers probably made up during those binge parties. I also thought to myself “Is this Tommyknockers? This is Tommyknockers, ain’t it!”. Turns out that Marg was one of the leads from the TV adaption of Tommyknockers, so I wasn’t far off. It even ends in a way where even if they got more seasons, I probably would’ve bowed out. I heard that the book is supposedly better, so I may try to finish that long, long book. As for the show, it’s a dumb but sometimes fun trip. I wouldn’t recommend it, but you might get more out of it than I did.
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In the end, two out of three good shows aren’t bad. With how good Star Wars animation is, I can see the Maul show lasting a while unless Disney pulls the plug. If you are a Phantom fan (I’m more of a casual fan), check 2040 out. It may tide you over until we get something else involving the purple-clade hero. As for Under the Dome, proceed with caution. You may be cussing out the TV screen because of some of these dome survivors. Anyway, that’s all I got. Until then, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.
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