Helstrom Season 1 Review

If you have not yet seen season 1 of Helstrom on HULU, stop here because SPOILERS are ahead! 

Photo: Instagram

I will preface this review by stating that I have not read the Helstrom comics. However, I have watched the other, more obscure, standalone Marvel TV shows like The Runaways and Cloak and Dagger, but Helstrom left a lot to be desired; it felt like a poor man’s Supernatural. There were even two recurring actors from Supernatural on the show!

My biggest gripe is that the show and lore only appeared to have one main protection against demons and that was the Keeper medallion, which only kept a demon at bay for about an hour. I can hold a downtown parking space for longer than that. The demons also all seemed to have the ability of telekinesis and that felt like way too much power for them to possess. Speaking of possession, one scratch could turn a human into a demon’s sock puppet, and exorcising the demon released it back (into the atmosphere?) instead of banishing it back down to hell.

The solution? Lock up possessed humans to be slowly tortured from the inside out by their uninvited, demonic guests. Yikes.

On top of an already dark and dreary color palette for the show, things felt quite hopeless. Any glint of remaining hope was snuffed out when devout novitiate Gabriella became the unwilling mother to a demon. Poor Gabby. She was possessed, forced into nonconsensual sex, impregnated, and had to give birth with no epidural or support. Damion then wanted her to forget all the bad and be happy with their new “family”. Yeah, that’s a no from me, dawg. What that woman needed was legit psychological aid; what she found, however, was a new purpose with the Blood – archenemies to the Helstroms. Earlier in the show, Damion callously reiterated to Gabriella that she had knocked on the door that opened to the demonic reality of the world. Now he was sweetly asking her to be Soccer Mom #1 to their demon baby. If this show gets a season 2, I look forward to Gabby stabbing Damion at some point with the dark dagger and shouting, “Knock on this, sucka!”

There were, still, two main highlights in the show for me:

1. Ana Helstrom (Sydney Lemmon) coming through with the chic, 5’10 fashion that mirrored Gal Gadot’s Diana Prince (Wonder Woman). Those bayangs gotta go, though...

2. A diverse cast which included, not one but, two Black leads. If you know me you know I am all about representation in TV and movies and I felt that here. They were quality roles where the actors were crucial to the plot and not just sidekicks marred by insulting, racial stereotypes.

All in all I spent one day binging a series I knew nothing about and wanted to give a chance. The fact that it has a place somewhere in the Marvel Cinematic Universe only crossed my mind during the intro. As a standalone show, if it gets a season 2, I would like to see it expound on demon hunting and Papa Helstrom. 5/10

What did you think? Let me know in the comments!

DC Comics: Past, Present, and Future

In DC Comic’s effort to get on the above par level of Marvel Comics’ billion dollar success of The Avengers and individual CBM hero movies, a Justice League movie is being slated for a 2017 release. Unfortunately, DC has ridden so long and hard on the success and hype of the Dark Knight series, with only the recent addition of a Man of Steel film, that the likelihood that a Justice League movie won’t just be a jumbled, rushed mess is slim. Marvel’s formula was smooth and well executed:

·         Marvel broke down its film plans into 3 phases
·         Individual hero movies were released that built up back/origin stories
·         The movies connect with one another through scenes, characters or bonus footage
·         The Avengers are then able to reasonably assemble for the good of the human race

Unless DC is planning on releasing some individual hero movies between now and 2017, the characters will appear lost and the audience will consequently be lost. By that time, 2 Avengers movies will have come out putting all eyes and immense pressure on the success of a Justice League film. To speed up the process (no Flash pun intended) DC may want to consider tag teaming some of its characters together like Wonder Woman and Aquaman; reboot Green Lantern and team him up with Martian Manhunter. They’re bound to bump into each other out in space anyway. An Aquaman pilot episode was created on the heels of the character’s appearance on Smalllville, but that didn’t pan out. Barry Allen's Flash is also set to make an appearance on the CW's Arrow which will hopefully then zoom straight into his own origin story series. This would be the second Flash series to grace the TV airways since 1990s CBS series starring John Wesley Shipp. A Wonder Woman TV series saw the light of day from 1975-1979 starring Lynda Carter, but plans for a 2011 reboot starring G.I. Joe Retaliation’s Adrianne Palicki fell through when NBC opted not to buy the series. A pilot episode was made which television critic Alan Sepinwall described as "embarrassing ... [I]t was all I had feared, and more". There are talks that Wonder Woman will also appear on Arrow, have her own CW show entitled Amazon, and have her own Warner Bros’ live-action film. The Newsroom actress Olivia Munn expressed desire in the cinematic role of Wonder Woman but felt that her Chinese-American heritage would be a hindrance in her casting; along with her competition with other A-list, more well-known actresses. Honestly, though John Carter wasn’t a box office hit, I thought that Lynn Collins’ portrayal of Dejah Thoris was wonderful. I think she would be the perfect Wonder Woman.

However, there is often a toss-up of whether a movie starring and revolving around a woman warrior prevails successfully at the box office.

The Good:
·         Kill Bill
·         Underworld
·         Resident Evil
·         Alien
·         Tomb Raider

The Bad:
·         Ultraviolet
·         Aeon Flux
·         Sucker Punch
·         Elektra

As you can see, Milla Jovovich struck gold with the Resident Evil series but flatlined with Ultraviolet. Sometimes an equally commanding male counterpart is included as in Batman Returns with the sassy minx, Catwoman and Terminator 2: Judgment Day with Sarah Connor. I hope to see a Wonder Woman live-action film because I think, with the right writers and director, it could be truly awesome. It would also be a good intro and transition for the character into the Justice League. I’d hate to see a JL movie where the heroes all just kind of bump into each other (on Earth most likely) and ask, “Hey, so do you want to team up and save the world?”