No prologue! It's Tuesday, dammit! Let's touch those TV bases!
Spider-Noir stars Nicolas Cage and is a live action series on Prime based on a Spider-Man operating in 1930's New York City.
The character appeared in the animated Spider-Verse movies but there is a key difference for this live action series.
In Spider-Noir, the Spider is Ben Reilly, not Peter Parker. (Ben Reilly is a significant name in Spider-Man history.)
While Prime dropped all the episodes at once, Andrea and I are taking our time watching these episodes one at a time. There's a LOT going on here and I think each episode needs to be fully experienced and not trudged through like a Bataan death march.*
*It's a World War II reference. I'm an old person.
The series picks up where the Spider has been missing for awhile. Private eye Ben Reilly has elected to give up the power and the responsibility of being the Spider. A woman done him wrong by getting killed and the Spider was unable to save her.
Basically NYC is under the grip of crime boss Finn Byrne, also known as Silvermane. But someone is gunning for him, using enforcers with super powers. Somehow Ben Reilly gets ensnared in this twisted plot with Silvermane's thugs posing a threat to Ben and his long suffering secretary Janet.
Reluctantly, to take the heat off of Janet and redirect Silvermane's fire away from Ben, our aging private eye once more dons the mantle of... The Spider.
Nicolas Cage is great in this role, building on the grim gravelly demeanor of the jaded, cynical private detective but with a sharp, acerbic wit. Cage echoes Humphrey Bogart's detective characters from The Big Sleep and The Matlese Falcon.
By the way, Spider-Noir comes in two flavors, in black & white or in color. Andrea and I are watching this in B&W and this is how I would recommend experiencing this series.
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Andrea and I finished off Stranger Things: Tales from '85 a few weeks ago. It's an animated series that takes place between season 2 and 3 of Stranger Things.
The kids....Eleven, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Will, and Max... are kids once more.
The voices are NOT provided by anyone from the original cast.
Our 6 young adventurers are joined by a seventh, Nikki, the new kid in town. Nikki is kind of tall for her age and she has a sharp, sarcastic wit. She's also a whiz at building things out of other things.
She's a perfect addition to our team.
And the team needs all the help it can get. Hawkins is under attack.
During the school's winter break, strange plant creatures are attacking the town. The source of the vine monsters is unknown.
Escapees from the Upside Down?
Freakish experiments from the Hawkins National Laboratory on the loose?
Solving the mystery of what these creatures are, how they came to be and how to stop drives the narrative for the season.
Between El's powers and Nikki's kick ass home made weapons, these crazy kids go out and kick some monster ass.
Stranger Things: Tales from '85 has a brighter look and a lighter tone than it's parent series. This is definitely a more family friendly look at the strange and dangerous nature of life in Hawkins.
The producers hoped to capture the feel of a 1980's cartoon show and to that end, they succeed.
Sometimes the dialogue is a bit after school special stilted with peans to the importance of friendship and whatnot.
And the voice acting veers less towards natural cadences and more towards Saturday morning cartoon artifice. And whoever the hell was voicing Dustin Henderson, does he need to shout everything he says?
Despite the day-glo polish of animation designed to appeal to kids, Stranger Things: Tales from '85 does manage to channel the sinister spark of the original series.
Some negative trolls have dismissed Stranger Things: Tales from '85 as a cynical nostalgia grab for people who don't want to let Stranger Things go.
If you like the original show, there is enough in Stranger Things: Tales from '85 that you will recognize and hopefully like. But show has a unique voice and style that elevates this beyond being a mere retread.
And that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
Next week: TV shows return.
The 3rd season of My Adventures With Superman launches.
Interview With A Vampire is back as The Vampire Lestat.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.
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