TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., season 6

TV #35 of 2019:

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., season 6

With its future still uncertain at the time, the previous season of Marvel’s sci-fi spy show ended in such a way that it could have functioned as a series finale if necessary. Instead, the program got renewed for two final outings, leaving this first one to undo that tidy resolution and figure out what happens next. That’s a tough situation for the writers, and although I sympathize, I’m not blown away by their solution.

Characters coming back from the dead in some form isn’t new for comic-book properties (or even this one in particular), but the eventual explanation here feels pretty weak, and there isn’t enough other cool stuff going on to distract from it, even with the seasonal episode count reduced from the occasionally wheel-spinning 22 of years past to a theoretically more propulsive 13. We’re still a long way from the blandness that started this show, and the core team members have such a rich history at this point that they can easily provide a compelling anchor regardless — as best demonstrated in the standout FitzSimmons adventure 6×6 Inescapable — but this is overall not S.H.I.E.L.D.’s finest hour.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

Book #185 of 2019:

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials #3)

Author Philip Pullman takes some odd plotting shortcuts in this trilogy’s conclusion — like offering practically no motivation for a pivotal trip to the world of the dead — and it’s easy to see how his populating a traditional Christian theology with corrupt angels and a decrepit, lying God could be unacceptably profane to a certain type of reader. (Here, finally, the series earns its reputation as the anti-Narnia of children’s fantasy literature!) Yet these issues are at least given the weighty consideration missing from their introduction in the previous volume, and the writer brings a great nuance to his exploration of the themes of innocence, sin, and dogma that have lingered in the subtext of these novels all along.

It’s also just an action-packed and imaginative piece of speculative fiction, building toward an iconic sendoff to some wonderful characters. Although not as tight a storyline as the original book, it inherits that rich worldbuilding palette of dæmons and panserbjørne, here expanded to include comforting harbingers of death, gentle elephant beings on wheeled seed pods, and small faerie folk on dragonfly steeds. As a whole it’s a work that offers much to any audience, and a welcome return to form for this narrative after a more meandering transition in the middle.

This book: ★★★★☆

Overall series: ★★★★☆

Book ranking: 1 > 3 > 2

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Book Review: The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz

Book #184 of 2019:

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz (Hawthorne #2)

I’m still not sold on the metafictional conceit of this mystery series, which places its author as a Watson-type narrator to the investigations of a supposed Holmes-like acquaintance. This second novel continues that detective’s odious streak as well: it’s true that Anthony Horowitz the character objects to Hawthorne’s racism and homophobia, but it’s still Anthony Horowitz the writer who has crafted him that way in the first place. These issues might matter less if the central case were more compelling, but it’s a fairly typical murder plot with a few too many coincidences, which tends to highlight the other weaknesses of the story. I don’t know if I’ll continue with any further sequels.

★★☆☆☆

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Book Review: What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte

Book #183 of 2019:

What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte

A short but interesting pushback against J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy and the outsized footprint it has gained in popular culture as an explanation for how Donald Trump won the presidency. Historian Elizabeth Catte, a fellow native of Appalachia, details how the region is far more nuanced than the monolithic downtrodden conservative white culture it’s depicted as in Elegy and countless pieces of ‘Trump Heartland’ journalism. Most towns there have sizable minority populations, the local concerns don’t always map well onto a liberal-to-conservative continuum, and many residents saw no reason to even vote (for either major political party) in the 2016 election. The author also seeks to understand why her home is the only majority-Republican area mythologized and othered to this degree, such that the prototypical Trump voter is often imagined as a blue-collar white man from coal country rather than any of the many other demographics around America who elected him.

The prose doesn’t sing like Vance’s, and I do still find value in his work as a memoir of his own family experiences. But this book is an important, fact-driven counter to any impulse of elevating it as the single Appalachian narrative.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

Book #182 of 2019:

She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey

Overall, this is a riveting firsthand account of Pulitzer-winning investigative journalism in the style of All the President’s Men, told by the New York Times reporters who broke the news of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexually abusive behavior in October 2017. Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey walk readers through the difficulties in holding such a powerful man accountable for his actions, from the influence he wielded to try and squash their story to the challenge of identifying victims and corroborating their statements to the reluctance of those women to make their accusations on the record. Both the passion of these authors for justice and the care they took in building an airtight case are clear on every page.

The final quarter of the book shifts to detailing the allegations that surfaced during Brett Kavanaugh’s 2018 Supreme Court nomination, and although that’s certainly a related topic, it nevertheless seems odd to include given that the authors were not as personally involved in its uncovering or reporting. Still, the whole volume is well worth the read for the insights into the early #MeToo movement along with its limitations.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: Turbulence by David Szalay

Book #181 of 2019:

Turbulence by David Szalay

I think I like the idea of this book more than the execution. It’s a quick read told over a dozen chapters, each focusing on a minor figure from the one before, who either has recently taken a flight or will be taking one soon. These character sketches are generally effective, but they’re so short they feel more like snapshots than fully-fledged stories. It’s a good reminder that everyone in our lives has depths of their own, and that we are connected in small ways we’ll never know to people all over the globe. Yet it doesn’t add up to much, in the end.

★★★☆☆

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Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Movie #9 of 2019:

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

These tentpole Marvel movies are tricky to review individually, because each one is so intertwined with both the past and the future of the franchise. Case in point: everyone knew that this latest Avengers flick would find some way of walking back the unfathomable calamity of the previous one — given the subsequent titles that had already been announced, if nothing else — even though we remained unclear on the exact mechanism and plot beats along the way. And in that context, I do think “the Snap” was a dud for the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large, as there ended up being no movies or TV episodes set during that apocalyptic time. (What’s the point of even having a “cinematic universe” linking your various media properties if you don’t follow through on having major events reverberate across them?)

Taken as its own story, however, Endgame is pretty fun. It accomplishes its anticipated reversal through some good old-fashioned time travel, revisiting key moments from the last decade of this series Back-to-the-Future-Part-II-style. The rules for how that works are not quite internally consistent, but for the most part the film speeds along breezily enough with that signature Marvel wit that it’s hard to really notice. Could the narrative have been tightened up from an indulgent three-hour runtime? Absolutely. But as the close to several long-running arcs and a sendoff to some beloved heroes, it capably delivers. Bring on whatever’s next.

★★★★☆

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Book Review: City of Dragons by Robin Hobb

Book #180 of 2019:

City of Dragons by Robin Hobb (The Rain Wild Chronicles #3)

Fantasy author Robin Hobb can effortlessly spin out a tale, but this quartet remains one of the weakest elements within her larger Realm of the Elderlings saga. Although this third volume is at least more action-packed than those before (and more concerned with shading in some further worldbuilding details), it still doesn’t have much of an arc to either its plot or any of its individual character journeys. I appreciate that the novel checks in on so many developing situations rather than just sticking to the placid river journey of book two, but the sub-series continues to lack the dramatic tension and personal stakes of this writer at her best.

★★★☆☆

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Book Review: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

Book #179 of 2019:

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

An interesting pop psychology book, putting forward the argument that training in multiple skill domains yields more breakthrough successes than narrowly focusing on proficiency in a single field. From musicians who play several instruments to students who declare a late major to teams of interdisciplinary researchers to workers who switch career paths, author David Epstein brings in countless examples of a specialist approach generating poorer results than one encompassing distinct vectors of experience. In his analysis, generalists are better situated to make intuitive connections and more sensitive to potential errors than their counterparts with a thinner scope of expertise and an accompanying predilection for groupthink.

I’m not sure I’m entirely convinced by this account, and the writing doesn’t blow me away, but it’s a provocative idea that I hadn’t really considered in that way before.

★★★★☆

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