Emmy Catch-Up: Cobra Kai

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. Last year, I started watching the entire season of each show to get a better idea of the quality I missed, and I’ve decided to continue that this year.

Cobra Kai: Season 3, Episode 1 “Aftermath” (B)

I had for some reason never seen this show before, missing its pilot back in May 2018 for whatever reason. Right before the Emmy nominations, I decided to watch that first episode just for a sense of what the show was like, and though it didn’t earn a lot of nominations, it did score one in the top category, which means I’m officially on board for season three. The previously on segment was quite intense, with a whole lot of karate and some vicious feuds among teenagers that felt even more intense than the rivalry between Johnny and Daniel. Not much has changed since that first episode with Johnny being covered in blood and always trying to pick a fight that he can’t win, but things have gotten much more serious with his son apparently missing after landing another student in the hospital, and Samantha was apparently involved in an equally violent scuffle. I’m eager to see what it’s like for Johnny and Daniel to spend time together as they go looking for Robby in the hopes of finding him before the police do, and I’m sure it won’t be an entirely pleasant experience. I’ll have to pay attention to context clues to truly understand what else is happening with the other characters, but Daniel saying that they shouldn’t do the “Footloose” equivalent of banning karate was an important point, both because it will never work and also because it’s an outdated concept that doesn’t embrace the positives of the art. This show will take some getting into, but I’m not all that unhappy about starting to watch it.

What I’m Watching: People of Earth

People of Earth: Season 2, Episode 6 “Aftermath” (B+)

I definitely didn’t realize that Ozzie was supposed to be dead, though I guess he did utter “Trust...Walsh” as what appeared to be his last words. I’m just surprised that Wyatt Cenac would leave the show - not that it couldn’t survive without him, more just that he’s a great part of it. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like he’s actually going anywhere, since the sudden reanimation of Kurt has inspired Walsh to do the same thing with his late friend, even though there hasn’t been any time to determine if there are lasting effects of such a revival that could be detrimental to one’s physical or mental health. While the humans on Earth are busy grieving through bickering about who should be able to take care of Ozzie’s fish and cursing at the aliens within earshot of a children’s birthday party, the aliens up on the ship are getting ready for a good old-fashioned mutiny, led by Walsh and eagerly supported by Jeff, who was not at all happy to learn that Eric really hates him. I enjoyed seeing Walsh and Jeff interact with the former trying to have secretive conversations, something the latter clearly didn’t comprehend. Agent Saunders put on a show like he doesn’t believe Agent Foster, but his follow-up call to the Assessor demonstrates that he does, and the members of Star-Crossed are now in more danger than before. Gerry being hypnotized by the moon thanks to the box is equally disconcerting, especially since we don’t know what mission he’s ultimately meant to carry out.

Pilot Review: Aftermath

Aftermath (Syfy)
Premiered September 27 at 10pm

I thought that “The Exorcist” was going to be the disturbing horror series that I wasn’t going to watch at all. I didn’t expect that from a show billed exclusively as sci-fi from the network of the same name, but it turns out that this new show is a huge letdown. It’s possible that there are just too many shows on the air that deal with a post-apocalyptic world, and therefore the standards of what can be expected are much higher. Part of the problem here is that there was an onslaught of scientific and meteorological inconsistencies hitting all at once, and most of the characters barely seemed fazed by it at all. James Tupper’s patriarch is all about religion, and after fleeing some suspicious characters in a Prius, he got to act shocked every time he found out that the family owned a gun when he should have been far more horrified by what was happening to those they had to shoot. I’m not sure who wants to watch a show about “skinwalkers” and how that constitutes as science fiction, and the family’s reaction when Brianna got snatched up by a random flying guy was laughable. The guard telling the family that they had orders to shoot anyone with blood in their mouth on sight was hardly calming, and the governmental attitude towards this inexplicable global crisis is both aggressive and foolhardy. This show doesn’t know what it wants to be, and the post-apocalyptic drama is such a common phenomenon these days that just focusing on the “aftermath” of some event isn’t enough to substantiate a series. I don’t need to see someone cleaning a windshield with a severed head, ever. I’m definitely out.

How will it work as a series? The meteor hitting at the end of the episode was bad news, and something tells me that an inordinate amount of time will be spent on reuniting the family that was so close to being back together. Anyone who has watched “The Walking Dead” can probably predict what comes next, and these characters aren’t nearly as intriguing.
How long will it last? I wasn’t able to find any helpful data on either ratings or reviews, but my suspicion is that this may have been designed as an event series but it’s probably just the kind of show that Syfy wants to see succeed. A second season is possible, but I’ll need to know more before I predict anything.

Pilot grade: D-

What I’m Watching: Nikita

Nikita: Season 3, Episode 8 “Aftermath” (C+)

I’m becoming less and less enamored with this show as time goes on. With Amanda appearing only sporadically, this show definitely doesn’t have a specific direction in which it’s headed, instead spotlighting different former Division baddies who just don’t feel like giving up. Liam was, as expected, completely intent on taking out as many people as possible and executing his mission with maximum collateral damage. Yet it didn’t take much to take him down, just some carefully-planned choreography, as Ryan described it, which for some reason merited applause from everyone at Division. Some of Liam’s lines were just silly, like “What’s the first rule of cleaning? Before it gets clean, it gets very messy?” and Nikita’s response to one of his statements later was equally hilarious: “He only missed because I cut off his hand.” Michael’s new electronic hand, though it seemed cool, didn’t pan out as it should have, and it seems only to have caused more problems for everyone. Ryan clearly wanted to bench him, and that’s something that won’t sit well with Michael. Snapping at Nikita and telling her that she’s helped enough was not a positive development, and Michael realizing that his anger triggers his hand just led to plenty of destruction, mostly of Division property. Alex not being in the field means that they’re down some of their best people, and Owen doesn’t seem to want to be involved more than he already is. I think it might be time for me to stop watching this show, or, at the very least, stop reviewing it.