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at the time i didn't understand you're claiming it was a slow burn and i still dontI think I said it was a slow burn, which it was. By the end it was fine. Not great.
But you might be right about the second part. So far, these are no match for The Boys, Stranger Things, Mandalorian, and Cobra Kai and are just okay like Umbrella Academy
and I'll give you 'The Boys' - that show is consistently pitch perfect - like The Expanse, if it wasn't a genre show, it would be considered an alltime great (that being said, parodies are typically easier stories to create bc the source material does a lot of the work)
i'm not sure what criteria i would use to put either Stranger Things or MCU ahead of the other
MCU shows are almost diametrically counter to Mandalorian - MCU is trying to build from the most successful movie franchise of all time - Mandalorian is the next work in a franchise DESPERATE for a modicum of quality - and while it's good, fan's relief is what carries it forward and makes it easier to overlook some of the unforced errors of plot and execution that occurs - it also leans heavily on homage
Cobra Kai is a big nostalgic, fun mess - it mostly works because William Zabka is carrying most of the emotional weight - without him grounding the show with some real emotional poignancy, it's probably a CW show
not even going to bother with the Umbrella comparison
i do wonder if you're not chafing a bit at Marvel saying, 'hey let's reexamine some of the 'problematic' elements of our stories and the culture at large'