Transcription

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  hello ladies and gentlemen welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and this is the review of the world premiere episode of dc studios lanterns which premiered on hbo and hbo max sunday august the 16th how is everybody doing out there welcome to the show everyone this was a highly anticipated show by me because i'm a big fan of green lantern i love that comic run of this character not only hal jordan but also john stewart and to have them both in a tv show live action tv show i was guns a blazing man i was ready to go geared up uh anticipating this show ever since they announced it the other reason would be because dc needs a win they need a win in a big way they're they're fresh off of the hills from licking their wounds from the supergirl uh bomb at the box office even though i didn't think it was a bad movie but it wasn't great and they're they're kind of they're kind of in the dumpster right now. So they need something to kind of get everybody back on board with this DC universe that James Gunn is creating over there. So I was highly anticipating this show. The show stars Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre as Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart, respectively. This is the third television show in the DC universe. And another good thing that kind of drew me into this, this wasn't going to be your standard comic book superhero show. You know, punchy punchy fly uniforms and costumes and all the other good stuff. It was more grounded. They promised us that this was going to be kind of a true detective feel. A detective story set in the Lantern Corps. and You know, I'm there for that because, once again, another favorite of mine is True Detective. Love that series. Going back to when Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrison kicked it all off. Most recently with Jodie Foster, Dark Country. I loved detective element of that show. I'm big on that and very... very well put together show and so if they were going to follow that trope and have it set in a superhero world i'm all for blending genres you know that's the only way you're going to keep the superhero genre fresh you know that's the only way you can avoid superhero fatigue and you know the showrunners here with chris monday and damon liddinoff who look depending on who you ask david litanoff is not the greatest you know going back to loss yeah loss was good and then it wasn't you know uh he also wrote uh prometheus which the vast majority of people couldn't stand he's just i wouldn't say he's off and on he's more off than he is on. because i like watchmen you know the hbo series uh watchmen i enjoyed that but i i did acknowledge those fans of the watchmen comics or that that graphic novel upset with that show because it didn't follow that formula you know but and it was all over the place i can acknowledge all that but for me personally i'm enjoyed it for what it was you know it wasn't the greatest thing on earth but it was entertaining and that's all i wanted at the end of the day that brings me to lanterns this first episode i must say deeply enjoyed i am so in on this show it was you needed this first episode to work in order to hook me in and hook everybody else in of course to give it a chance and So far so good. This show I thought was funny. It was funnier than I thought it would be. And not just goofy funny. It's not goofy funny. It's just funny. It had funny moments. The banter between Hal Jordan and Jon Stewart was great. The chemistry, first and foremost. The chemistry with Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre. mwah the chef's kiss those two were born to play these roles i mean they were born to be on screen together i love the back and forth because these were these are two completely different characters especially if you follow the comic iterations of these characters two completely different characters and to have them on the screen together uh how would that dynamic work and you needed two actors that knew what they were doing and can actually convince you that they are green lanterns that they're walking around earth with these superpowers well a superpower ring because they're normal they're human they're they're not superman they you know they're not wonder woman they don't they're not aliens and uh greek goddesses they are human beings like me and you they just so happen to have this ring well there's one ring between the two of them which is another great dynamic with hal jordan uh being the one to train uh john stewart here i'm for it and john stewart being this military guy you know his father was in the military very reserved very calculated and focused and a hal jordan an older hal jordan who really just flies by the seat of his plans you know he he he just does what he wants you know carefree and to have those two different dynamics try to work together i i think so far we we're we've been treated to something really special here i will give it this as far as a negative and this was my only negative but it's a big negative a very big negative on this show this the episode ends the episode ends is a time jump is a 10 year time jump the the series is set in 2016 so okay we're set in 2016 10 years ago this event happened in nebraska where they're going to investigate Apparently there's aliens involved. Nobody believes that it's aliens except for Kyle Chandler or Hal Jordan, I should say. And they're there to investigate this small town thing. And this leads to a mystery, a murder mystery that for all of us detective story fans, true detective fans, Slow Horses, if you ever watch that show, really good show. All that. those elements are there and i'm like okay they're gonna slowly roll out this mystery and how uh uh the lanterns are gonna solve it and what what what's next around the corner who's who because this show has already promised us and this isn't a spoiler it was in the trailer that uh uh man hunters are going to appear on this show and man hunters if you don't know if you're not into the Comics are shapeshift. so they could be walking amongst us and we don't know this and so that's there so who's who who is who who is real who is whatever and at the end of the episode we get a time jump to 2026 and hal jordan's dead and that just killed all the allure because up to that point this was an awesome show i was so impressed with the show still impressed it that didn't deter me enough to whereas i'm not watching it but what it did do it took away my guessing what's next element out of the show i don't i don't feel hal jordan is going to be in any peril throughout this this season you know when we go I guess this nonlinear storytelling that we're going to be telling here because, you know, it opens up another mystery. Who murdered Hal Jordan here? Or is that Hal Jordan? You know, because that could be another mystery. But it opens up a lot of things here that I don't, I just don't like that. You know, nonlinear storytelling is fine if it works. You know, if it works properly, if it's used properly. Um. And it could. This could pay off. But I wasn't expecting that on the first episode. You know what I'm saying? And it just sucked all the air out of the balloon because it was firing on all cylinders. The chemistry between Kyle Chandler and Aaron Pierre were great. All of the other actors, the supporting actors in this small town, when you had Kelly, McDonald, uh oh man i can't forget i keep forgetting his name uh he he shows up is garrett something i can't remember his last name but he's great uh uh jason ritter uh and others i i'm i'm blanking on their names but the supporting cast was great you know and i liked how that dynamic was working i loved the small town feel of it all it felt real and authentic and grounded all of this was working the mystery was working the reveal of the alien was working all everything worked it was a perfect episode and then that happened you know right at the end and i'm like why why did you waste that that was a perfect moment i mean you could have saved that and that could have been the story for next season you know what i'm saying it didn't have to happen this soon i already went into this season or went into this this series believing that hal jordan was going to die because if you knew the comics that's pretty much how john stewart became the green lantern so that wasn't a shock none of that that it didn't shock me but the thing was we're telling this story this particular story and it takes all of the allure away from it and i hope i'm just hoping that it doesn't damage my enjoyment of the show now i'm gonna go full naive i'm gonna go full uh uh uh just blanking it out of my head and pretend it didn't happen and i'm gonna pretend like it didn't happen and go for like they know what they're doing i'm confident they know what they're doing And let's see how it all plays out. Like I said before, this could be a red herring. This could be a swerve. Maybe that wasn't Hal Jordan. Because when Jon Stewart checked him for the ring, he didn't have the ring. And so, hey, maybe that's something else. Maybe that's one of the mind hunters. I don't know. I don't know. I guess I have to continue to watch to see. But that's part of the mystery. That is part of the mystery. And to be fair, True Detective kind of did the same thing, you know, with their nonlinear storytelling. But at least that first season I know did for sure. But it worked. The way they did it worked. It didn't kill the main character in the first episode. And then we had to bounce back, you know. So, we'll see. We'll see how this all plays out. But I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Other than that, I really thought this was great. I loved the writing. I loved the acting. I loved the directing here. And I mentioned Slow Horses. The director of this episode is one of the directors on Slow Horses. So, that was... pretty uh that was pretty smart on their end to keep that vibe going so i'm all in on that the mystery has me intrigued how they're going to uncover this big cover-up and everything else uh i am fully all invested in this show let's see let's see if my worries can be put to rest as we continue to watch this first season of lanterns but you let me know is it me am i tripping maybe maybe maybe i'm reading into this too much i think i think maybe my elevate my my uh uh uh expectations were elevated super high and that just let me down in that in those final two to three minutes of the episode. Maybe. Maybe. But hey. then let me know let me know i need you to talk me off the ledge maybe maybe you see it differently maybe you see well kevin you don't understand you know you're an idiot this is the reason why it's such as such as such and now i'll hey i'm open to that i'm open to listen i'm open to learn how can you let me know subscribe to the kbradionetwork.com website where you can be updated on all episodes that's dropping. on this network as well as previous episodes that we have on the show don't forget about youtube subscribe to the kb radio network channel and like this video while you're there don't forget about the five stars the reviews and sharing this show if you're listening on apple podcast spotify our heart radio wherever you are currently listening to the concession stand here on the KB Radio Network. Everybody. thank you for joining me for this review of the premiere episode of dc studios lanterns want you all to know that i love you continue to love everyone and until we speak again you all be blessed