simianfriday

This special / movie / show (whatever you want to call it) is decently entertaining and interesting - but not really all that funny. There are some laughs for sure, but don't expect this to have you chuckling all the time. For the most part these four are just sitting around talking shop with each other - asking things like what it means to be funny, what makes a joke funny, why can some comics get away with jokes other comics can't? Etc etc. It's a really interesting and sometimes funny look behind the curtain of the comedic world and well worth the watch if that sounds cool to you.

However, I will say Ricky Gervais seemed entirely out of place - almost like he was interviewing the others rather than being a part of the conversation. The whole time I was watching I got the sense that Seinfeld, Rock, and CK barely knew anything about Gervais at all (Seinfeld even mispronounced Gervais' last name twice). Each of them talked about their history doing comedy, each of them remembered bits the others had done, each of them had interesting things to say about one another's career - each of them, that is, other than Gervais. It really felt like none of the other guys had any real familiarity with Gervais' work at all. That said, Gervais did ask some interesting questions that kept the conversation moving which is why he came off more like he was interviewing the three of them the whole time. Interestingly, I see he has an executive producer credit on this while the others do not - which just makes me feel more like he was the organizer of this whole thing and serving as the "host" of sorts in a weird way.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is 100% Grade-A decent.

That's it. It's decent.

There's nothing obviously bad about it that I can point to - but there's also nothing particularly great about it either. This is very much a run of the mill superhero movie that is competent in every way but never truly fantastic in any way. It's a good time, you probably won't be disappointed if you see it, but don't expect this to reignite your love of the MCU.

Let me start by saying this show is nowhere near as bad as some of the reviews would lead you to believe - but that doesn't mean it's good. It most certainly is not. While it's nowhere near the worst thing Marvel has done (looking at you, Secret Invasion), it's definitely in the bottom tier.

First off let's get the good stuff out of the way. I think the casting is on point for almost everyone in the show. Of particular note are Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams (the people saying she can't act are being wildly hyperbolic or worse), Anthony Ramos is great as Parker / The Hood, Regan Aliyah is absolutely adorable as Zelma, and Sacha Baron Cohen is phenomenal as... well, as the uh... the part he plays - let's just leave it at that. The rest of the supporting cast is decent to good - I wouldn't say any of them were bad.

I quite liked *some* of what they tried to do with this show. Riri is a morally grey character and they try to have her walk the line between what's right and wrong throughout the series right up until the very end - this... sometimes works, but mostly doesn't. Not because it's not a good idea, and not because Dominique Thorne isn't a capable actress, but because the writing just isn't up to snuff.

The plot is just full of issues that are never addressed at all. For example, Riri quite literally steals the Iron suit from her school in the first episode - they shut off the suit remotely and she later gets it working again... but why didn't they ever send the cops to her house to collect it? Why did they just shut it off remotely and then just... let her have it? Furthermore, when heists start happening around town involving a crew that includes a member with an Iron suit - why on earth didn't they *IMMEDIATELY* question Riri about this? There was a brief moment I thought they would, when two cops showed up at her apartment, but no, that turned out to be only tangentially related and they still didn't suspect her at all despite her being the most conspicuous criminal in history. Look, I know the Chicago PD isn't known for being particularly good at their jobs - but COME ON!

This is where the show really falls apart for me - the writing is all over the place, trying to do way too much in so few episodes. The story constantly takes shortcuts that really undermine the character development they're trying so hard to convey. It culminates in a meeting between Riri and Sacha Baron Cohen's character, a meeting which is undermined by the repeated shortcuts the story has taken up to that point. Because of all of that, nothing - and I mean *NOTHING* - in this story feels earned. This is 100% a problem with the writers and the script though - this is *NOT* a problem with the actors who are only doing the best they can with terrible material.

Also, just as an aside here... but please hire some writers that know how to write dialog for young black people. Most of the dialog in this show sounds like it was written by a bunch of white dudes who grew up watching Buffy and writing bad fan-fic for it.

This show is not good and is really only the sort of thing you should watch if you are a die-hard MCU fan that wants to remain current on everything going on in the MCU. For casual fans though, this is one of the easiest shows to pass on.