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TV Review: Stumptown S1E1 Forget It Dex, It’s Stumptown

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Cobie Smulders in Stumptown

Dex Parios tries to stay out of trouble while working as a private investigator in Portland, Oregon. Stumptown is based on the comic series by Greg Rucka, Matt Southworth, and Justin Greenwood. Rucka is given writing credits and al three have producing credits.

Starring Cobie Smulders as Dex Parios, Stumptown establishes the character as flawed in so many ways. The series gives us a likable character who’s at the same time an asshole. But, what the series intelligently does is adds to the character’s depth slowly as the first episode unfolds.

We learn about Dex’s PTSD, her caring side when it comes to her brother, and her loyalty in many ways. The series allows the viewer to connect the dots and only verbalize it when another character might.

The episode also delivers a solid whodunnit. There’s some twists and turns that some may easily figure out but it reveals itself well. Then there’s the humor of it all. Small jokes like a broken cassette or the car not starting adds depth and laughs. Smulders delivers laughs with a deadpan delivery.

The comic focus on a crime story with each arc with some great characterization. The show does what it needs to as far as giving us hour-long crime stories. So far so good with that.

The supporting cast is fantastic with Jake Johnson as her friend and sounding board Grey McConnell. Michael Ealy is a welcome addition as Detective Miles Hoffman, and Camryn Manheim is a welcome surprise as Lieutenant Cosgrove. Then there’s Cole Sibus as Ansel Parios, Dex’s brother with Down Syndrome who helps add a heart to the cold Dex.

The show too does a solid job of spotlighting indigenous characters in the first episode and hopefully beyond. Tantoo Cardinal as Sue Lynn Blackbird stands out as the head of a casino and mother of Dex’s former love interest. In the comic, Dex is bisexual and while that’s not apparent in the first episode, Smulders has said it’s something in the show. So, that’s a nervous wait and see.

The first episode of Stumptown is a solid start that captures the feel of the comic and shows what having the original creative team involved can lead to. In some ways, it’s a by the book detective show but it has a lot of personality to it and delivers an entertaining hour. It stands out as one of the best new shows of the television season.

Overall Rating: 8.5

Stumptown Gets its First Trailer from ABC

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Based on the Stumptown graphic novel series by Greg Rucka, Matt Southworth, and Justin Greenwood , follows Dex Parios (Cobie Smulders) as a strong, assertive, and sharp-witted army veteran with a complicated love life, gambling debt, and a brother to take care of in Portland, Oregon. Her military intelligence skills make her a great P.I., but her unapologetic style puts her in the firing line of hardcore criminals and not quite in alliance with the police.

Coming to ABC.

Cobie Smulder’s Stumptown Goes to Series at ABC Based on Greg Rucka, Matt Southworth, and Justin Greenwood’s comic

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Cobie Smulders Stumptown

ABC has announced that it has picked up Stumptown adapting the comic series and starring Cobie Smulders. The drama is based on the comic series by Greg Rucka, Matt Southworth, and Justin Greenwood.

The series is about Dex Parios who’s an army vet with a complicated life, some gambling issues, and a brother she takes care of in Portland, Orgeon. She’s uses her military skills as a P.I. to make a living.

The series also stars Tantoo Cardinal as Sue Lynn Blackbird, Cole Sibus as Ansel Parios, Adrian Martinez as Tookie, Camryn Manheim as Lieutenant Cosgrove, and Michael Ealy as Det. Miles Hoffman.

Rucka, Southwort, and Greenwood will all executive produce with Jason Richman writing and and also being an executive producer. Ruben Fleischer and David Bernard are executive producers as well with James Griffith directing the pilot.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is Renewed for Season 7

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Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will return Summer 2019 ABC President Channing Dungey announced today. This is before season 6 has aired which will happen in early 2019 for a shortened 13 episode run. It’s unknown what the length of the seventh season will be. With the launch of Disney+, Disney’s digital service, it was expected the ratings challenged show would switch to that platform from Disney owned ABC.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.stars Ming-Na Wen, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker, Elizabeth Henstridge, Henry Simmons, Natalia Cordova-Buckley and Jeff Ward.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. was co-created by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen, who also serve as executive producers along with Jeffrey Bell and Jeph Loeb.

ABC Cancels Roseanne After Racist Tweet

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After delivering a season that made it the number one scripted show on television and getting a season renewal, ABC has cancelled Roseanne after a racist Tweet from star Roseanne Barr.

In the Tweet, Roseanne said that former President Obama staffer Valerie Jarrett was not only a member of the Muslim Brotherhood but also called her an “ape,” a common racist term for Black individuals.

Roseanne apologized and said she was deleting her Twitter account but it was still live as of this report. She did delete the Tweet about Jarrett.

Barr was condemned by Sara Gilbert who returned to the show along with the original cast and Wanda Sykes, a producer on the show, quit. Beyond Sykes, it’s unknown if any other cast members or staff quit or threatened to.

Roseanne has embraced alt-right/Trump politics in recent years and has run for President. She regularly Tweets conspiracy theories and very questionable statements. The Roseanne revival embraced the right-wing turn with the Conners revealed to be Trump supporters. The show’s return often dove into questionable statements and stories skirting the line in taste with many socio-political topics. The original, while dealing with similar topics, was not as overtly political in who the Conners supported and focused on the day to day of their living in white collar America.

Channing Dungey, president, ABC Entertainment said in a statement:

Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show.

While ABC had no issue with Roseanne‘s dealing with hot button political issues while the channel also reportedly refused to air an episode of Black-ish where kneeling in protest was discussed.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is Renewed for a Sixth Season

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After speculation, ABC has announced that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting a sixth season. The season will be truncated to 13 episodes instead of the normal 22.

While the ratings for the current season haven’t been stellar, the series does well on DVR playback/on demand and solid in the international market.

The season finale for the current season is this Friday at 9pm ET on ABC.

Coulson’s life or death is the challenge the team finds themselves in, as the wrong decision will cause the destruction of Earth!

TV Review: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S5E1 Orientation Part One & Part Two

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Coulson and the team find themselves stranded on a mysterious ship in outer space.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. kicks off its fifth season with a game changing opening in a two episode debut. As the fourth season wrapped up we saw that the Agents were no longer on Earth and were aboard a ship of some sort. Where are they? How did this happen? Some of those answers are found in the two episodes in what might be the strongest debut of any season.

Lets start with the story.

The team is disconnected, separated, and have no idea where they are. They need to figure out what’s happened and the episode is mostly them doing exactly that. It all flows nicely and through it all we’re introduced to the situation, the goal, and who the villains are. But the bigger question is, are they really the villains? This season feels like a tough one when it comes to that with a slightly more ambiguous situation.

But, what’s truly impressive is the twist that’s revealed as to exactly what the situation is. It’s not what I expected at all and there’s so much mystery left to figure out, not to mention how it all ties together with the rest of the live action Marvel universe.

The characters too are great. There’s some amazing lines by Mac and it’s clear that the writers are having fun with the genre and situation they’re all in. There’s some jokes about the situation, about some tropes, it’s just fun.

The story is solid and the production value has increased as well. The special fx look like the budget is higher and there’s a focus on the visuals. The aliens too look solid fitting well into the existing Marvel movie universe. It’s interesting and the only downside is that there’s a lot of darkness so it’s hard at times to tell exactly what’s going on. It’s good and forces you to pay more attention but it’s a downside too.

The two episodes together make for the strongest debut of any season so far. The characterizations are great, action is is solid, and special fx are improved. Hopefully this isn’t a fluke and what we can expect for the season going forward.

Overall Score: 9.45

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