Favorite Characters: J’onn J’onnz (Supergirl)

I’ve decided to stop opening each post with #IStayHomeFor statements. At this point, it’s plenty clear that we’re all staying home for everyone, including ourselves.

I’ve been rewatching the early seasons of Supergirl lately (in other words, get ready for plenty more Supergirl-related posts in the coming months!), and I’m reminded anew of how much I love J’onn. I still do, of course, but he’s been less prominent over the last season or so, and rewatching season 1 brought everything flooding back (J’onn-related spoilers.)

We’re introduced to J’onn J’onnz as Hank Henshaw, the brusque, no-nonsense director of the DEO who perpetually butts heads with Kara when she first teams up with them. Right from the end of the first episode, though, we’re let in on a secret: Hank is an alien in disguise. It’s Alex who first learns the truth, and he reveals himself to her as J’onn J’onnz, the last son of Mars.

A lone survivor of genocide against the Green Martians, J’onn has been hiding out on Earth for hundreds of years, and thanks to his shapeshifting abilities, he’s spent the last decade as Hank Henshaw, using that identity to watch over the Danvers sisters as he promised Alex’s father years ago. When J’onn first reveals himself to Alex, it’s when he’s backed into a corner and doesn’t really have any way out, and for a long time, that’s how J’onn treats his true self, as a secret to be guarded at all costs. He realizes that the government won’t be thrilled to find out its extrajudicial organization dealing with alien threats is run by an alien in disguise, and he knows that the fame and adoration Kara receives as Supergirl is due in part to her good fortune to look human. In his natural Martian form, J’onn is more threatening to the human eye.

True to form, J’onn only “comes out” publically as Martian in a desperate bid to save Kara at a critical moment. He’s a guarded man who protects his secrets and his past, but his honor means even more to him, and he’s not about to fail in his promise to Jeremiah to keep his daughters safe; if outing himself and bringing the suspicion of the government/public down on him is the only way to do, he doesn’t even hesitate. It’s an act that also demonstrates how much love he’s grown to have for Kara and Alex, protecting them as he could not protect his own daughters so long ago.

J’onn is smart and tactical, and he leads with integrity and a desire to protect those who cannot protect themselves. That’s not to say he doesn’t have shortcomings, and he’s probably harshest on himself than anyone else. At different times, he’s struggled with the anger inside him, and when he gets to the point where he sees that it’s driving him beyond his control, he makes the bold decision to step back from the DEO, instead setting up shop for himself to investigate crimes against aliens who are afraid to take their issues to the police.

I’ll be honest – I think the show has had a hard time incorporating J’onn well since he left the DEO, and the “Martian Angel Investigations” thing has never really born as much fruit as I’d like it to. I love the idea of it, and it feels like a great fit for J’onn as he tries to walk the path of peace, doing good in the world without violence, but it’s wound up being more of an afterthought in the series. I’m glad that Alex has partnered up with J’onn now in the back half of season 5, because I’m hoping we’ll get more alien-P.I. plots for J’onn when he has another regular to share investigation scenes with.

Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Tegan Jovanka (Doctor Who)

Today, I’m staying home for Peter Capaldi.

Tegan’s a strong all-purpose companion. She doesn’t have the combat skills of Leela or River or the genius of Zoe or Romana, but she’s great classic-companion material. She’s smart, resourceful, bold, and determined. She can always be relied on to do what needs to be done, even if she hasn’t always figured out what that is yet. Here are five great moments of Tegan getting things done (spoilers.)

Navigating the Data Bank (Series 19, Episode 1 – “Castrovalva:  Episode 1”)

The start of Tegan and Nyssa’s beautiful friendship. The Doctor has just regenerated, the TARDIS is in flight, and Tegan and Nyssa don’t know how to stop it before they crash into something. Tegan discovers the TARDIS data bank, which they think they can use to help them, but they don’t know if to navigate the system. Tegan’s sudden flash of inspiration is a stretch worthy of a House episode (she’s musing on the word “if” and comes up with the idea to type I-F for “index file,”) but it gets the job done; she and Nyssa are able to access the data bank and figure out what they need to. (Side note: I get that this whole thing is actually trumped up by the Master via Adric, but Tegan’s determination and creativity in a crisis isn’t, so this moment absolutely counts.)

Playing Dumb (Series 19, Episode 14 – “The Visitation:  Episode 2”)

I talked about this for Adric’s Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments, but it bears repeating. When Tegan and Adric are captured by the Terileptils, she leads the way on being wonderfully-uncooperative prisoners. Pressed for intel on the Doctor, she makes silly speculations about his origins, and she brushes off the charge that she’s wearing clothes made of non-contemporary fabrics, referring the Terileptil to her tailor. Later on, when Adric tells him about the TARDIS, she adds in that the two of them are “vital” crew members that need to be kept alive if the Terileptil ever wants to know how it works. Oh, and when he calls her stupid, she witheringly replies, “That’s not a very original observation.” The best companions know how to be cool under pressure in critical moments, and Tegan has that down!

Suspecting Mawdryn (Series 20, Episode 11 – “Mawdryn Undead:  Episode 3”)

When Mawdryn tries to pass himself off as the newly-regenerated Doctor, Nyssa is unsure and the Brigadier feels obligated to give him the benefit of the doubt. Tegan, though, is the most suspicious of the three. Even though she ultimately goes along with the others, she’s the one digging in her heels and poking holes in Mawdryn’s story. She points out that the last time the Doctor regenerated, he still looked human (well, Time Lord) afterwards, and when Mawdryn is eager to leave the TARDIS and return to the downed ship, she demands to know why. Her instincts are right on here.

Distracting the Tractators (Series 21, Episode 9 – “Frontios:  Episode 3”)

Tegan and the Doctor, separately, come across the Tractators who’ve immobilized Norna in some kind of psychic gravity beam (just go with it.) Seeing one another from a distance, the Doctor warns Tegan to keep out of sight, but he’s spotted himself and caught in the same beam. Tegan, not one to leave people in danger, throws her lamp in amongst the Tractators and smashes it on the ground, creating a burst of light that distracts them long enough to disrupt the beam and free the Doctor and Norna.

Recognizing the False Archer (Series 21, Episode 11 – “Resurrection of the Daleks:  Episode 1”)

Col. Archer is taken by Lytton’s men and replaced by a fake. When the false Archer returns, Tegan is the one who recognizes that it isn’t the same man, noticing that the fake is wearing a gun belt when the real Archer gave his to the Doctor. I’m all about companions using their shrewd observation skills to identify dangers.

News Satire Roundup: April 19th-April 23rd

Today, I’m staying home for Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

I’m going to try doing something a little different with News Satire Roundup. It seems like I always wind up spending most of my posts summarizing the episodes’ stories rather than talking about how I felt about them. So today, I’m going to try using more of a list format and focus more on highlighting my favorite parts.

Sunday, April 19

·       Main story – COVID-19 misinformation

o   I loved the description of Rush Limbaugh as a man “who definitely has a room in his basement his housekeeper isn’t allowed to enter”

o   Some awesome rebuttals to the right-wing media hosts deliberately touting misinformation (that note about Fox News practicing social distancing even as their coverage insisted the virus was “the flu,” yeesh) – I especially liked this one, re: anecdotal evidence about hydroxychlorquine, “Yes, anecdotally, you did get to work on time. That doesn’t mean everybody did, or even most people. It just means you did.”

o   Great point about Trump being both the subject and the target of Fox News’s misinformation campaign

·       And Now This – All-Coronavirus Inside Edition

·       Wendy Williams

o   It was an easy laugh, but I loved John calling for his 28 cats – my favorite was “Daniel Craig the cat”

Monday, April 20

·       Ray of Sunshine – training dogs to smell COVID-19, San Francisco students might all get A’s for the year, David Attenborough teaching virtual geography classes in the U.K.

o   I laughed at, “Your dog will smell that you have coronavirus, and your cat will be there to eat you when you die!”

o   The fake clip of David Attenborough getting all salty over bats was great – “Look at them, just flying around like they didn’t do shit…”

·       Headlines – Negative oil prices, NYC “snitch” line to report social-distancing violators, small business relief loans

o   OMG, the bit about white women’s glee over calling the cops for social-distancing violators! “Hello, Verizon? I’m gonna need all the unlimited data!”

o   Of course chain restaurants and places like Harvard were snatching up money meant for small businesses, of course they were :shakes head:

·       Main story – Anti-quarantine protestors

o   As with Last Week Tonight, we covered how it’s not just that these people are out protesting, risking their health and likely prolonging the very thing they’re protesting as a result. It’s that people in power are egging them on

o   Good response to Dr. Phil – “First of all, your ‘360,000 swimming pool deaths’ is off by about 357,000. Second, you’re not in danger of drowning if your neighbor goes swimming!”

o   Seriously, Trump’s administration puts out guidelines for the process of states to reopen gradually, and then Trump spends the weekend cheering for the prote"stors agitating to open things back up immediately? Great analogy to Trump being a football coach who berates the team for the field goal he told them to go for

·       Interview – New Jersey governor Phil Murphy

o   How many times do governors have to say, “The supplies for the level of testing we’re going to need just aren’t there,” before the administration gets it? Trump can’t get his economic rebound without it

·       Interview – NBA player Stephen Curry

o   It’s great to see how many public figures are using both their money/resources and their platform for good right now

Tuesday, April 21

·       Ray of Sunshine – Zoom chats with farm animals, virtual weddings, “Code Rocky”

o   I laughed at Trevor’s warning about marrying anyone during quarantine – “I spent most of last week in a relationship with a bottle of Purell!”

o   I loved a hospital discharging recovered COVID-19 patients with the Rocky theme playing in the background

·       Headlines – Kim Jong-un surgery, Nairobi’s governor includes Hennessy in quarantine food packages, Germany previews door-to-door testing

o   The Weekend at Bernie’s footage to “prove” Kim Jong-un’s good health cracked me up

o   Trevor killed me describing the Nairobi governor’s fashion sense, especially “the most ‘Florida Man’ of Kenya” and “the last king of NASCAR”

o   Good dark humor on the German police knocking on doors for COVID-19 testing – “We’re just here to test the purity of your blood- oh mein gott, that doesn’t sound good either…”

·       Main story – governors make steps to reopen their states while Trump moves to close the country to all immigration

o   I’m with Trevor – who is even immigrating right now?

o   Classy showing from the Fox News host who was suddenly worried about whether or not she’ll be able to keep her au pair. As Trevor noted, she’s fun with Trump’s policies hurting people until they affect her

·       Correspondent piece (Jordan) – interview with a survivalist

o   So-so piece. I chuckled at Jordan working out by lifting various things in his apartment

·       Interview – Rise founder Amanda Nguyen

o   Good on the show for drawing attention to domestic abuse survivors who are may be trapped in quarantine with their abuser right now

o   Rise’s work to create secret signals for grocery store workers and pharmacists to use with survivors was really cool

Wednesday, April 23

·       Interview – New York governor Andrew Cuomo

o   The whole episode was the interview – I think the last time Trevor did that was when he interviewed Obama

o   It was sobering when he talked about how direct the correlation is between the rise and fall of people not social distancing with the rise and fall in hospitalizations

o   I think all the governors Trevor has interviewed have understandably played politics when answering questions about Trump. I appreciated Cuomo freely admitting that Trump doesn’t like him, and I liked that he stressed the importance of working with Trump anyway, saying, “[COVID-19] is bigger than we are”

o   My favorite part was Cuomo’s response when Trevor asked why he chose to be so open and direct in his discourse with New Yorkers. Admitting he knew he ultimately couldn’t force a city of 19 million people to do what he told them to, he recognized that his plan “was dependent on New Yorkers buying in,” and that required being straight with them

Thursday, April 24

·       Ray of Sunshine – IKEA Swedish meatballs recipe, Banksy strikes his own bathroom, a news gaffe over a recovered COVID-19 patient

o   It was an easy joke, but I laughed at Trevor wondering what to do with the “extra screws” from his meatballs

·       Headlines – COVID-19 hit the U.S. far earlier than previously thought, cancellations of the National Spelling and Oktoberfest

o   I liked the bit that we’ll eventually get the coronavirus’s full “origin story” a la Joker

o   Good point on the loss for those spelling bee kids, especially since those skills don’t come in handy anywhere else – “I’m having a heart attack! Is anyone a doctor?” “No, but I can spell ‘defibrillator’!”

·       Main story – Chaos in the Trump administration

o   Whether or not he was lying, “I’ve never heard of the guy” is a terrible response to the abrupt firing of the lead scientist working towards a vaccine

o   I loved Trevor arguing that Trump should have plenty of time to get work done if he’s so bored he’s resorted to baseball reruns – “Baseball is boring as it’s happening! Watching reruns is like watching paint dry through a PowerPoint presentation!”

·       Correspondent piece (Roy) – making a quarantine cocktail

o   Stanley Tucci Roy is not

o   I liked, “I’m not sure white people should be saying ‘negroni,’ but it’s Stanley Tucci, so I’ll allow it”

·       Interview – R&B stars Keith “Babyface” Edmonds & Teddy Riley

o   The two guys’ history with one another and affection for each other’s music really shone through. I liked that

o   I think Trevor always does a nice job balancing things when he interviews more than one guest at a time, and you could tell interviewing two people over video-chat required extra care