SuperBob (2015)

I rewatched the whole of Ted Lasso recently, which brought all those feels rushing back. When I finished the series again, I was itching for more, especially from Brett Goldstein. I decided to check about this superhero mockumentary rom-com he wrote and starred in. Loved it.

Bob Kenner, an awkward postman from South London, is the world’s only superhero. He got his powers when a meteor struck Earth, and now he saves lives while punching in and out for the Ministry of Defense. When a U.S. senator starts agitating about Bob being a dangerous weapon, his boss Theresa commissions a documentary to show the public he’s just a regular guy. The camera crew follows him around Peckham for a day in the life of a superhero.

In terms of the superhero media landscape, this would’ve come out the same year as Age of Ultron and Ant-Man, and Civil War followed a year later. At any rate, people weren’t constantly talking about “superhero fatigue” back then, and there was space to make an amusingly low-budget superhero comedy.

The film displays Goldstein’s savvy in balancing multiple genres. He has a clear understanding of how superhero films, mockumentaries, and rom-coms all work, and he blends the three in interesting ways. At first, the film feels like it’s going to be entertaining but a little flimsy, but over the course of its short run-time it shows off its heart and demonstrates some keener insight into the themes it’s playing around with.

At the center of everything, of course, we have Bob himself. Goldstein is an awkward delight in the lead role, even if the cringe humor gets a bit overwhelming for me at times. Bob is an unlikely leading man, for both a superhero film and a rom-com. The documentary reveals that he hasn’t lost his down-to-earth good nature or his nebbish timidness. He cheerily shows the camera crew around his neighborhood, then gets roped into standing in line to collect a package for one of his neighbors. He’s befuddled by having received bills from two different gas companies and realizes he doesn’t know which one is actually his. He’s thrilled to be going on his first date since his pre-superhero days, and he has no idea that she spent the first six months of their acquaintance pointedly waiting for him to ask her out before giving up and doing it herself.

Bob is a caring, well-meaning guy, but he can come on either too strong or not strongly enough. He’s good at saving people who are in trouble, but he’s staggeringly bad at social interactions where he has to think on his feet. Bureaucracy and red tape hves been holding him back, not just from doing everything he wants to do as a hero, but from being who he wants to be as a person. A big theme of the film is him learning to stand up for that.

Side note: there’s one scene where Bob blurts out a couple really sexist lines. As with a lot of his why am I still talking??? moments, it starts with him being really flustered and just gets worse as he tries to dig himself out of it. But understandably, these lines are still very hurtful to the character they’re directed at, and I wanted to mention it.

Catherine Tate does a nice, fairly understated job as Theresa. It’s evident that she cares about Bob and likes him, even as he can be a rather exasperating asset to handle and she’s dictating most of what he does. I really like Bob’s cleaner Dorris, played by Natalia Tena (Osha from Game of Thrones.) While her characterization definitely leans into “sexy Latina” tropes at time, we also see how smart, assertive, and compassionate she is. I didn’t recognize Laura Haddock, who plays Bob’s date June, but IMDb tells me she was Peter’s mom in Guardians of the Galaxy. The film also features David Harewood (J’onn Jonzz!) as a news anchor who pops up throughout the story.

Warnings

Language (including sexist insults,) a bit of violence, and thematic elements.

A Little TLC(w): The New Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre: Season 1, Episode 14 (1986)

*Episode premise spoilers, and a few spoilers from earlier in the season.*

Okay, I know that I only started A Little TLC(w) reviews for this show a few episodes ago, but as someone who’s been watching since episode 1, believe me when I say this series has such puzzling pacing. As of episode 14, over fifteen years have gone by since the start of the show, so we’re objectively dealing with a huge stretch of time here. And yet, within the story, it still feels like so much is happening so fast. You can get whiplash sometimes from the dramatic turn of events, and then you remember that Master Zhang is at least 105 by now. Wild.

In the last episode, a number of poisoned martial artists were sent to Dr. Hu as a test, and they were put in that position by a nefarious old woman known as Granny Golden Flower. Now, having dodged the dilemma she set to him, Hu is anxious to outrun her before she comes for him. In other news, a disgraced former member of Ermei Sect is offered an opportunity to prove herself but is handed an impossible choice, and Zhang Wuji is sent on a dangerous journey that tests his beliefs.

Some nice martial arts stuff here. There’s a good standoff between the women of Ermei Sect and Granny Golden Flower, and Zhang Wuji’s adventures throw him in the path of some skilled and desperate fighters. Also, the Heaven Sword makes an appearance! While everyone has been clamoring over the whereabouts of the Dragon Sabre, the prophecy foretelling its immense power warns that only the Heaven Sword can defeat it. I wonder if we’ll see the same sort of “watch the sword change hands” three card monte as we’ve seen with the Dragon Sabre, or if this one will prove even more elusive.

Ji Xiaofu was once a devoted disciple of Ermei Sect and betrothed to one of the Wudang brothers. But after she was seduced, abducted, and assaulted by a rogue, she spent years trying to hide her out-of-wedlock child from her sisters and her shifu. Eventually, she broke off her engagement and left the sect to spend more time with her daughter, but now, her secrets are out in the open. To put it mildly, this goes very badly for her—she’s blamed for someone else’s sins, and while she’s given the chance to return to her mistress’s good graces, the price she demands of Miss Ji is painfully high.

Zhang Wuji has his hand in a bit of everything today. He assists Dr. Hu, tangles with Granny Golden Flower, and provides help to Miss Ji and her daughter Buhui, the latter of which sends him on a cross-country journey. He encounters people driven lawless by famine, tells a comforting lie to ease someone’s pain, and learns that the study of poisons can be just as useful as the study of medicine. He’s got a lot going on.

There are a few things of note here. I really like Zhang Wuji’s scenes with Granny Golden Flower. Wuji is definitely a better martial artist than Wai Siu-bo ever was on The Duke of Mount Deer, but he’s also young and she’s a shrewd master with a talented apprentice. Wuji knows he can’t beat her, but he stands tall anyway. When she presses him for information about the Dragon Sabre, on pain of death, he replies, “My parent chose to commit suicide instead of revealing the whereabouts of their friend. Do you think I will betray my parent?” What I like about Tony Leung Chiu-wai’s performance here is that Wuji isn’t really being brash or defiant here. He says it more simply, more softly. He doesn’t claim to be brave, but he won’t be moved. It's a nice choice, and the understated nature of it somehow makes it stand out even more to me.

This goes along with Zhang Wuji’s extreme goodness, which I talked about last week. We see it on display in other ways here, like the immense lengths he goes to to protect Buhui. But we also see him confronting moral dilemmas and realizing things are less black-and-white than he might want them to be. What does he do when the necessary choice isn’t a blameless one? Does making the best of bad options soil his integrity, and where is the line on these matters? Wuji searches for the answers to this himself, but he also witnesses where other people draw that line, object lessons as he considers what he will or will not do. But while this is a major theme of Wuji’s story in this episode, it’s not really signposted or belabored. Rather, Leung shows it to us through Wuji’s slight reactions, the subtle shifts he experiences during his various adventures.

Asexual Sighting: Sarah Owens a.k.a. O (Sex Education)

*O-related spoilers.*

In season 2 of Sex Education, the show introduces an asexual character named Florence. She’s only in a few episodes, and the one story where she’s featured is about her learning about asexuality and coming to realize that she’s ace. I don’t say any of that to sell Florence short—I think the show does a pretty lovely job with her spotlight episode. But she is a minor character in the grand scheme of things.

In season 4, though, we meet another asexual character, O. She gets a lot more focus, a lot more characterization, and multiple stories that aren’t just about her sexuality. It’s great to see the show introduce a second ace character and feature them more heavily, and really, it’s kind of neat that O has nothing to do with Florence. I think this might be the first show I’ve seen with more than one unrelated ace character—for instance, on BoJack Horseman, they bring in first Yolanda and later Maude as potential girlfriends for Todd. I like that O isn’t created specifically as an asexual friend/confidante for Florence, and that they don’t come as a matched set. (Of course, Florence is no longer on the show by season 4.)

Anyway, long-winded introductions aside, let’s talk about O! When we first meet her, it’s as a rival for Otis. After Moordale loses its funding and closes down, Otis, along with a number of his classmates, head to Cavendish for their final year of sixth form. Otis is eager to start a new sex therapy clinic there, but he’s taken aback when he learns that Cavendish already has a student counselor to help classmates with their relationship and sex problems. O has an inviting office, an organized appointment schedule managed electronically, and snacks on hand for her clients. She has an online presence where she gives tutorials for teens about different sex-related topics.

In short, Otis sees her as an immediate threat. He at first assumes she’s just drawing students in with her amenities, but it quickly becomes clear that she knows her stuff just as well as he does. As Otis and O realize the school isn’t big enough for two student counselors, they embark on a contentious election campaign to decide which one of them can stay on. It’s at their pre-election debate that Otis, with Ruby’s help, reveals some dirt they dug up on O, the revelation that she’s ghosted multiple students in previous relationships.

That’s how it comes out that O is asexual. She explains, “I really enjoyed the friendships of the people I ghosted, I really did. But when it started to move into something more intimate, I just—I felt really overwhelmed and uncomfortable.” O is a slick character, one who curates her image and reputation very carefully, and she spends much of the season easily beating the awkward, socially clumsy Otis in the court of public opinion. This might be the biggest example of the season—O comes out of the debate as the brave young woman who stood up and told the student body who she really is, while Otis is the jerk who outed her (unintentionally, as he knew about the ghosting but not her sexuality.)

I like that O is conniving and kind of two-faced, that she puts on a very polished face to the world and uses that to get one over on other people. It doesn’t make her a “likable” character, but it makes her a compelling one, and I like how we see that her experience with her aceness is informed by those aspects of her. O finally tells Otis the full story when the two of them get stuck in a lift together. She admits, “I’d already started feeling like something wasn’t normal. The other girls were talking about boys and kisses and crushes and…. There was so much pressure to behave a particular way.” In fact, it’s her asexuality, coupled with her desperate desire to fit in, that led her down the path of becoming a sex therapist in the first place. She became driven to learn as much as she could about sex/relationships, in an attempt to “pretend to be like everyone else,” and once she realized how useful her knowledge could be to other teens, she started her online channel and in-person clinic.

However, while sex therapy gains O respect online and at school, and students eagerly sign up for sessions with her so they can get help, her success winds up trapping her in a position where she feels like she can’t come out. “I mean, who wants to have sex advice from someone who doesn’t have sex?” she remarks. O is very proficient at creating the image she wants people to have of her, even if it means stepping on others to do so, but the end result is a lonely one.

Again, she’s a really interesting character. She has her sympathetic side, but that doesn’t negate the harmful things she does to other characters, and I like watching someone who’s so focused on ger own goals wind up shortchanging herself in another crucial way. Further points to the show for including some smaller details about the asexual community. O uses the actual word “ace,” which doesn’t get a lot of play on TV, and I love the fact that she wears a black ring, a popular symbol in the ace community. It’s the little things that make a difference!

Oh, and I mentioned this in my Other Doctor Lives reviews, but O is played by Thaddea Graham, who I loved as Bel during the Flux storyline of Doctor Who. Score!