Quarantine Control #106: The Wild World of Healers in Shadows
It’s tough to even look at the news, despite it being a necessity to do so to stay informed. (Not staying informed is another issue.) It’s necessary for checking up on the war, the recent incident in New York City (to put it lightly), and, notable for this post, the newest info in the perpetual COVID-19 pandemic. It would be nice if you didn’t have to look at it long enough to see that cases are rising in many states again, and that yet another new variant has manifested. Stay safe, and watch out for the invincible and invisible virus.
Geoffrey Barnes
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
Source: HBO Max
Episodes: 1 movie (the sequel to the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film)
Something particularly wonderful about Sherlock Holmes is the sheer number of works which provide different interpretations of the character and author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s interpretation of late 19th century London. Chances are, one interpretation tends to be someone’s favorite, typically the first one they absorbed. It’s the 2009 movie’s interpretation became my favorite after seeing it years ago, as someone who dodged too many Sherlock Holmes stories in my youth. It’s not like I’ve seen that much since then either, and I might have a hard time convincing anyone that I enjoyed the first movie so much after putting off watching the successor for so long. After the announcement that two — two — spinoffs are coming to HBO Max, it was finally time to get around to the sequel, A Game of Shadows, available on the very same service.
A Game of Shadows picks off right where the first one ended, with the eccentric-yet-largely wise Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) returning with assistant Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) to unravel a new case. The story begins with Holmes investigating and subsequently being thrown into the mystery involving several bombings occurring around London, which appear to be linked to a group of extremists. The identity of the central villain behind it all is readily apparent for anyone who’s watched (or played) any kind of mystery show or movie in the past. The fun comes in Holmes and Watson unraveling the reason why these incidents started and have continued to occur, and proving the allegations to the public and Scotland Yard.
The movie, like its predecessor, provides a sold mixture of comedy and serious content, with transitions between the two rarely feeling awkward. The central drama early in the movie, for instance, involves Watson’s reluctance to tackle a new mystery at the particular moment due to an impending marriage. This results in the ceremony and particularly the new couple’s getaway plans being disrupted in humorous ways, though mixed with a battle against villains who are serious about keeping their plans under wraps and wanting Holmes and all of his cohorts dead. It’s tough to describe all this without making the synopsis sound basic as all hell, but it’s fun to watch unfold.
Helping to make it enjoyable to watch is how the movie is more action-packed than its predecessor. A Game of Shadows doesn’t have as many moments that focus on Holmes and Watson intently unraveling the mystery through careful investigation as the previous film, instead favoring more fights and chases that Holmes and Watson cleverly find their way out of. I’m making this sound a little like a complaint, but this doesn’t hurt the story the producers wanted to tell. This, in fact, didn’t involve the producers taking many liberties with the source material either, considering the short stories this movie was an adaptation of were similarly more action-packed compared to Doyle’s other stories.
That said, the mystery itself in A Game of Shadows isn’t quite as involving as the previous movie’s, though this isn’t due to the increase in action. Character development for the new characters, all deeply involved in the mystery, aren’t as well written. In addition to Downey Jr. (whose performance is good enough that I can overlook the fact that he isn’t British) and Owen, actors like Jared Harris, Noomi Rapace, and Stephen Fry (returning as Holmes’ brother Mycroft Holmes) seriously help make the film digestible despite the script issues. The movie, on a similar note, looks sublime, with great art direction that captures the dark and rustic feel of London and a few other comparatively minor locations as they would have resembled in the late 19th century.
A Game of Shadows is a fun time, but it helps to go in not expecting more than that. In my personal case, stumbling into watching this movie so late, more than a decade after its original release, should make the already-long wait for the next film and the spinoffs feel better. There are plenty of other Sherlock Holmes works out there across a variety of mediums, including a recent game detailing the character’s origin and even Enola Holmes, but it seriously helps when these movies have the budget and star power to help create the look better than other works and their spinoffs can.
Joseph Daniels
How was everyone’s week of rest? Were you able to get any, and feed your inner feline? I hope so. If not, at least the weekend is coming up and purr-haps you’ll be able to get a bit of rest then.
If you count each day as a brand new episode, Vladimir Putin’s attempted invasion of Ukraine has reached a milestone fifty episodes. I remember when video was broadcast of Russian tanks rolling down the road, ready to steamroll their way to victory over the corpses of the Ukrainian people and I thought, “Well, this is it. If nothing can be done about this, Ukraine and their people are doomed.”
In the weeks since, it’s become clear that Russia did not send their top men into war. If anything, their soldiers show about the same level of competence as the Keystone Cops. Those scary tanks everyone saw on the news on day one of the invasion? Many of them are in the hands of the Ukrainian people now. It seems that if the Russian army were playing a tactical RPG like Valkyria Chronicles or Front Mission, they’d probably lose during the tutorial level on easy mode. In fact, nearly every day, among all the stories of Russia deliberately bombing civilian targets and evacuation corridors, there come stories of Ukranian soldiers defying and defeating “superior” Russian forces. Perhaps that’s why Russia’s targeting civilians. They know they have no chance if they try to fight actual soldiers in battle.
If you’ve ever wondered how someone like Vladimir Putin holds onto power in Russia, Netflix has you covered.
How To Become A Tyrant (2021)
Source: Netflix
Episodes: 6
Here is a history lesson framed as a how to guide on what to do in order to become a tyrant, narrated by Peter Dinklage. Do you want to be the next Saddam Hussein or Omar Gaddafi? How hungry for power are you? Here’s some good news: if you have the stomach for it, you can follow the steps outlined in this series to seize and hold onto your country’s top job. With this knowledge, I could become the biggest tyrant Canada has ever seen, and at the very end, it’s even stated that anyone can be a tyrant.
I don’t agree, though. I don’t have the charisma for it, but it’s true that you never know who might become a tyrant. In the United States in 2016, no one ever thought that Donald Trump would be a serious contender for the job of the President of the United States and then he was successfully elected and he spent four years following much of what episodes one and four outlined. Even though he’s no longer the President, people still parrot his lies like the useful idiots they are.
The series doesn’t mention him at all, but anyone who’d paid attention from 2016 to 2020 and even well into 2021 can see how much of what Trump has done is outlined in the show’s playbook. You could even consider the January 6, 2021 failed insurrection to be Trump’s Beer Hall Putsch, except that he was never arrested or charged for it, because people these days are very allergic to making people like Trump face the consequences of their actions, especially when people like Trump have successful misinformation campaigns at their disposal muddying the waters. See also Vladimir Putin’s current attempt to take over Ukraine.
Putin isn’t mentioned in the series either, by the way. In fact, the series seems to want to focus mainly on historical figures already long dead rather than talking about people currently in charge. I don’t know if this is because they want to avoid legal trouble or some other, more fatal retaliation from the world’s current dictators, but it’s interesting that the episode focusing on the Kim Dynasty in North Korea spends what seems to be as little time as possible on Kim Jong-un, instead focusing on the deceased members of the dynasty and what they did to keep a firm grasp on power. They even avoid mentioning Kim Jong-un until it is literally unavoidable, what with the death of Kim Jong-il.
Believe it or not, there is tiger content in How To Become A Tyrant. A tiger is illustrated for a brief moment in episode 6. I would recommend, though, not to come for the tiger. Come for the history lecture. It’s very enlightening.
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This week, I also tried out some brand new shows on Crunchyroll. The new Spring season of anime is in full swing, and some of these new shows include:
Healer Girl (2022)
I’ve been pretty critical of anything trying to resemble a musical ever since Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure tried to be one and failed. Oh, it had songs, but you can’t just have your characters sing once in a while and call it a success. Just because you have songs doesn’t make you a musical. For example, a Coldplay concert isn’t a musical. A Darren Hayes concert isn’t a musical. Final Fantasy X-2 isn’t a musical. Where Rhapsody failed is in thinking that all they need to do is have the characters sing every once in a while and it would work. But many of the songs feel more like obligations than anything that actually advances the plot or says anything meaningful about the characters. I think it’s because the lyrics are so sparse. One song contains a total of six unique lines, eight total:
We are the fearless pirates (Pirates!)
We are the most amazing pirates (Pirates!)
We hunt for sunken treasure in the ocean (Ocean!)
When we get sunburn we put on lotion (Lotion!)
This is the life of the pirates
The stars will guide our way
We are the fearless pirates (Pirates!)
We are the most amazing pirates
It also didn’t help that most of the songs sucked. So when I began watching Healer Girl and I started feeling the same vibes as a musical, I thought about Rhapsody and settled in to see which side of it this anime would fall. Would it be better or merely on par?
It helps that the song the main character sings at the start of the episode is good. If there’s one thing you can say about idol anime, it’s that they usually try to make sure the songs are good. I say usually because the idol group in Kemono Friends could’ve used a better song, but I think that series wasn’t trying to light the pop charts on fire.
Then comes the opening theme, which is fantastic. It’s going to be hard to find a better opening theme, not just during the Spring 2022 season, but during the entirety of the year. The last time I heard an opening theme this good was Carole & Tuesday, and even then, I think Healer Girl’s theme is better than both of theirs. I’ve always been quite fond of Disney animated musicals like The Little Mermaid, Oliver & Company, Robin Hood, Encanto and so on, and Healer Girl’s theme song “Feel You, Heal You” has that Disney kind of vibe to it.
The plot of the anime is that, if you think of medicine as being neatly divided into two types, Western and Eastern, there’s a third separate type that involves singing to sort of cast healing magic on someone. If a knee is scraped, it can be made better with a song. Pregnancy cramps can be eased with a song, too.
The main character, Kana Fujii, is in training to become one of this new kind of Healer, along with several of her friends. Right now, with only two episodes out, it looks like the stakes for this series are very low. It feels like a medical drama, but not like shows such as House or The Good Doctor. Instead, it’s got that same slice of life feel that you get from anime such as Flying Witch, Monster Girl Doctor and Restaurant to Another World. If you want to watch something light and fluffy, Healer Girl has the potential to be one of the breakout successes of the season.
Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs (2022)
Speaking of shows with only two episodes so far, here’s another isekai adventure where the main character finds himself inside a video game inspired world, in a kind of similar vein as In Another World With My Smartphone.
The isekai’d is Leon Fou Bartfort, a Salaryman and quite a piece of shit person who got strong armed into playing the newest dating sim by his sister, who is just as much a piece of shit as he is. She wants to know the ending of the game, but is apparently too entitled to play it herself, look it up on YouTube or watch someone play it on Twitch. He dies after taking a fall down a flight of stairs due to how wobbly and weak he is from hunger. This is why you don’t let a video game distract you from taking care of yourself. I am, right now, eating a meal I made as I type this. You really do have to take care of yourself. If you have the means to make and eat something, do it. Nothing is worth starving yourself. No game, no television show, nothing. Leon let himself starve while playing a video game and he suffered the consequences.
Leon is actually the character’s name in the game’s world, presumably it wasn’t his name in ours. With a new name has seemingly come a better attitude, but we’re only two episodes in, and it feels like he’s always skirting the border between a new and better personality and his old one.
In the game’s world, women have a lot more power than men, and seem to like lording it over them. The only men who can make their own way are royalty and men with money, and so to get out of an arranged marriage with an ugly trollop of a woman, he uses his knowledge of the game world to go on a three month trip to find not only the pay to win airship he bought during his original playthrough of the game, but most of the game’s hidden riches as well.
He must’ve been quite the attentive gamer, even for a game he didn’t like, because with his knowledge of the game, he could’ve easily written an article at least as detailed as my Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest retrospective articles.
With the obscene amount of wealth he was able to find, he gets out of the arranged marriage and enrolls in the game’s academy, and this is when the anime truly starts. Leon begins the game’s story in episode two of the anime, but something’s different, something’s wrong. The role of the game’s protagonist, Olivia, has seemingly been replaced with an original character. I say “seemingly” because this new character is perfectly acting out Olivia’s part, freeing Olivia up to interact with Leon. Because she’s no longer acting out the part originally assigned to her, apparently Leon likes her better now because he defends her from bullies and goes with her into the game’s tutorial dungeon.
And… this is as far as I’ve gotten so far, since there are only two episodes released. The show airs on Sundays, so I have to wait a couple days to find out what happens next. But if the second episode’s final shot is any indication, Olivia’s replacement in the game’s plot, Marie, has a sinister secret she’s hiding.
I’ll confess, I was ready to drop this anime based on the cold opening to episode one, but if you can get past that, the series improves vastly. In fact, the whole of episode one should be seen as a prologue, with the true start of the series being its second episode. That’s where the overall plot begins.
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The Chinese Year of the Tiger continues this week with another feline documentary.
Wild Cats of India (2019)
Source: Disney+
Episodes: 2
Tiger content: Yes, among other felines
Wild Cats of India is two National Geographic documentaries presented as one short series. The first episode follows Sandesh Kadur as he attempts (and succeeds) to film India’s small cat population. The country’s big cats receive the spotlight in the second episode, but without the framing device of someone trying to catch them all on camera.
It’s amazing how many felines there are in just one country. The first episode alone features many different species of cat, so many that there isn’t enough time to focus on any one in particular, and I feel like this is par for the course when it comes to smaller cats. Bigger cats like cheetahs, lions and tigers often get their own documentaries, and the more widely known smaller cats like the lynx will occasionally be the subject of a couple, but cats like the Pallas’s cat often have to share the spotlight with other smaller cats. Over the course of the first episode, Kadur was constantly moving from one location to another, checking off species of cats as if he were filling a Bingo card or crossing them off a bucket list. As much as my focus is often on the tiger, especially for Quarantine Control’s Chinese Year of the Tiger section, I feel like an excellent feline documentary would spend an episode each on several of the smaller cats. India alone has plenty, but this would potentially extend out to cover other smaller cats around the world.
The second episode is different enough from the first that I can’t help but wonder if they are indeed just two separate documentaries that National Geographic made and then decided to group together after they were already filmed and edited. They even originally aired several months apart.
It feels like not having a host, so to speak, means the second episode can focus more on the big cats, giving them that little bit extra screen time. Given that I felt like Russia’s Wild Tiger focused a bit too much on humans, this suits me just fine.
I could easily just sit here all day watching big cat documentaries. Maybe I should. See you next week!
Only one city in the US has fully reinstated its mask mandate, though the CDC also extended it for federal transportation organizations. You know what this means, right? The anti-mandate morons, some of the biggest dummies around, are about to come back in full force. They’re the last thing we need right now, and most people don’t agree with their agenda. But they’re not going to let a lack of popularity stop them.
About The Author
dcstaff
The collective will of the Damage Control staff combined into a single article.
