Like the determined team we know Vox Machina to be, Prime Video’s animated adventure returns with just as much bravado as its scrappy heroes, delivering another action-packed season with a charm that is impossible to resist (though you can certainly try).
Agatha feels accessible and unique, offering a spooky, fun Halloween-season romp sure to keep you on the edge of your seat week after week. Just four episodes in, this series has a clearer identity than almost all of its predecessors, and fantastically utilizes the medium and its talented players to craft an engaging, funny, smart, sexy, singular show.
While Season 3 spit the trio apart as they each got pulled in their own directions, this season finds them stronger than ever. As they work together to solve this case, they bounce back and forth in hilarious and zany ways, allowing Martin, Short, and Gomez to really thrive beside one another. And they continue to elevate the series’ newest additions as well.
The performances continue to be fun and playful, especially Quaid’s adorably awkward Superman, and the animation sequences are still incredibly well-done. In watching the beginning of this second season, it’s hard not to think the same thought I had the first time around: this is truly the best future for the Man of Steel.
Last season, Original Sin dared to bring a still-warm franchise back from the dead, and Summer School continues to prove that this campy, bloody teen drama has so many more scares and secrets left in its tank (hopefully for many more seasons to come).
While it is a triumph in its writing and pacing, it’s the performances that truly carry this series. Gladstone and Keough are phenomenal, especially as their characters reconnect and drift apart; Panjabi is a true force as a mother at her wits’ end. But while the heavy hitters (perhaps expectedly) give tour de force performances, it’s the exceptional outings from the young cast that make this series shine.
It’s still annoying to watch an entire season of TV and feel absolutely zero closure for every minute twist and head-spinning plot that just unraveled over 10 hour-long episodes. But even in its flaws, Palm Royale is still a hell of a good time, and a sudsy, campy series to carry us through the spring TV season.
More than anything, Apples Never Fall is just downright disappointing. With grand promises of f—ked up family secrets and over-the-top drama, Apples Never Fall fails to deliver on either front, resulting in a mystery thriller that barely heats to a simmer, let alone boils hot enough to justify its overlong binge.
More than anything, Echo still feels like the product of a broken MCU TV system (and in some ways, it feels a little bit like just another stepping stone to rope Daredevil and Kingpin into this universe), but the risks it does take and the connections Maya does make ultimately elevate this series.
Even with its corny dialogue and predictable beats, Wild Cards is still an extremely enjoyable time, especially if you have been missing the kind of breezy, easy-viewing shows networks like USA and The CW of olde once provided.
