[9.5/10] An impressive outing, if only because Spider-Man: TAS is often such a light and breezy show. Sure, tensions run high at times, but Spider-Man’s pleas tend to feel more overdramatic than piercing, and the four-color world means mortal threats lack a certain weight. I don’t mean that as a knock. Spider-Man is a bright, comic book-y show and that “survive an explosion, go on a date, and then the repeat the whole thing next week” quality is a feature, not a bug.
But it makes it stand out when the stakes are genuinely high and the tone is genuinely dark as in this episode. You have Spider-Man facing an enemy who is not only deranged, but who knows his secret identity. You have Peter Parker watching the woman he loves be killed (such as can be shown on a Saturday morning cartoon). You have him at the end of his rope with fighting crime, and Madame Webb, and all the costs he has to pay with meager, if any rewards, for being a hero. It’s intense, and fraught, and serious in a way this show hasn’t really been in the past.
I would want Spider-Man: TAS to attempt this sort of thing every week (frankly, I’m not sure the show has the capacity to do that and do it well), but for a season finale, with everything on the line, John Semper & Co. stepped up and delivered the series’ best episode.
That comes down to a few things, but one of the biggest of them is Norman Osborn/Green Goblin as a threat. He’s a unique villain because he has beefs with both Spider-Man and Peter Parker, and knows enough to act on them, between Spidey’s tangles with the Goblin and Peter “stealing” Mary Jane from Harry. Moreso than any twilight combat, the dinner table scene with Norman hinting at Peter’s secret identity in front of all his friends and acquaintances creates a real tension, the sense that Norman knows how to hit Spider-Man where he lives.
Of course, that’s literally true as well. The scene where the Goblin threatens Aunt May as the same kind of tension given the season finale-infused sense that the show might pull the trigger on some major threats here. Part of the essential struggle of Spider-Man is balancing the difficulties of his life as Spider-Man with the difficulties of his life as Peter Parker, and here those two lives and challenges collide in terrible fashion.
Norman Osborn is also a fantastically unnerving presence in this one. I couldn’t help but think of the killer from Twin Peaks, which, given the proximity in time, may have been a direct inspiration. The push and pull between Norman and The Goblin -- between wild, manic glee and brief moments of regretful lucidity -- call to mind the same push and pull in David Lynch’s T.V. claim to fame. The way Norman plays it cool but sinister in his home, with just an edge of something being wrong, or goes full on cackling mad when confronted despite pleas from the real man inside to be saved feels cut from the same cloth.
It also leads to a hell of a confrontation. Spider-Man fighting the Green Goblin over the Brooklyn Bridge has a pretty hallowed history in Spidey lore, but even without knowing the character’s past as prologue, the show does a fine job of showing Spider-Man being bested by Goblin only to crawl back and surprise his adversary in the skies above the East River. Between the portal-maker and Spider-Man having to both fight the Goblin and protect Mary Jane, there’s both a creativity to the skirmish and also real stakes.
And Peter gets angry in this one. So often, even when Spidey is facing unwinnable odds or supposed to be heady to hang up his spurs, he’s still the same old wise-cracking, resilient web-head we know and love. Here, there is a fury, a sense of being fed up of all of this, that comes through in the actor’s performance. Goblin is right that Peter doesn't have any witty comebacks in the midst of this fight. The situation is too dire, too personal, for him to be anything but a desperate, seething ball of fury as he goes after the Goblin and, at one point, is even willing to die himself if he can take out Osborn at the same time. It all sends a signal to the audience that this is not the run of the mill villain fight, and it heightens the atmosphere considerably.
It also makes it matter when Spider-Man chooses to try to save Norman Osborn rather than let him die. He’s lost the woman he loves, is devastated and furious at the costs he’s bourne as Spider-Man, and has every reason to just watch his adversary perish. Instead he tries (though fails) to rescue him, showing that even in the hardest of times, Spider-Man’s inner nobility wins out. His distress and the anger in the performance give weight and meaning to that choice.
They also make it all the more impressive when the episode basically ends on that note. When we leave this season, Osborn is gone but has wreaked havoc in every part of Peter’s life, Mary Jane is (for all intents and purposes) dead, and Spider-Man has told off Madame Webb in emphatic terms. That’s a pretty down note to end a season on.
But it’s also a good one. So much of this show has been about friendly neighborhood Spider-Man hitting momentary setbacks but inevitably bouncing back within an episode or two. That’s true to the nature of both comics books and weekly T.V. shows, where the status quo has to be restored so that more adventures are possible.
But here, Spider-Man: TAS has the courage to let what is ostensibly a kids show close out this chapter of its narrative with Spider-Man emerging victorious, but only at a tremendous cost, that makes him wonder if it’s even worth it to be Spider-Man. With great power comes great responsibility, but with great responsibility can also come great losses.
That’s heavy, but meaty stuff, that gives Peter Parker a hard lesson in maturity that cuts through some of the outsized fun the show’s had this season to deliver its best exploration of the ethos of heroing in general and Spider-Man’s struggle in particular. It’s the series’ best episode and a fine way to close out the best season of the show so far.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2018-05-15T17:54:27Z
[9.5/10] An impressive outing, if only because Spider-Man: TAS is often such a light and breezy show. Sure, tensions run high at times, but Spider-Man’s pleas tend to feel more overdramatic than piercing, and the four-color world means mortal threats lack a certain weight. I don’t mean that as a knock. Spider-Man is a bright, comic book-y show and that “survive an explosion, go on a date, and then the repeat the whole thing next week” quality is a feature, not a bug.
But it makes it stand out when the stakes are genuinely high and the tone is genuinely dark as in this episode. You have Spider-Man facing an enemy who is not only deranged, but who knows his secret identity. You have Peter Parker watching the woman he loves be killed (such as can be shown on a Saturday morning cartoon). You have him at the end of his rope with fighting crime, and Madame Webb, and all the costs he has to pay with meager, if any rewards, for being a hero. It’s intense, and fraught, and serious in a way this show hasn’t really been in the past.
I would want Spider-Man: TAS to attempt this sort of thing every week (frankly, I’m not sure the show has the capacity to do that and do it well), but for a season finale, with everything on the line, John Semper & Co. stepped up and delivered the series’ best episode.
That comes down to a few things, but one of the biggest of them is Norman Osborn/Green Goblin as a threat. He’s a unique villain because he has beefs with both Spider-Man and Peter Parker, and knows enough to act on them, between Spidey’s tangles with the Goblin and Peter “stealing” Mary Jane from Harry. Moreso than any twilight combat, the dinner table scene with Norman hinting at Peter’s secret identity in front of all his friends and acquaintances creates a real tension, the sense that Norman knows how to hit Spider-Man where he lives.
Of course, that’s literally true as well. The scene where the Goblin threatens Aunt May as the same kind of tension given the season finale-infused sense that the show might pull the trigger on some major threats here. Part of the essential struggle of Spider-Man is balancing the difficulties of his life as Spider-Man with the difficulties of his life as Peter Parker, and here those two lives and challenges collide in terrible fashion.
Norman Osborn is also a fantastically unnerving presence in this one. I couldn’t help but think of the killer from Twin Peaks, which, given the proximity in time, may have been a direct inspiration. The push and pull between Norman and The Goblin -- between wild, manic glee and brief moments of regretful lucidity -- call to mind the same push and pull in David Lynch’s T.V. claim to fame. The way Norman plays it cool but sinister in his home, with just an edge of something being wrong, or goes full on cackling mad when confronted despite pleas from the real man inside to be saved feels cut from the same cloth.
It also leads to a hell of a confrontation. Spider-Man fighting the Green Goblin over the Brooklyn Bridge has a pretty hallowed history in Spidey lore, but even without knowing the character’s past as prologue, the show does a fine job of showing Spider-Man being bested by Goblin only to crawl back and surprise his adversary in the skies above the East River. Between the portal-maker and Spider-Man having to both fight the Goblin and protect Mary Jane, there’s both a creativity to the skirmish and also real stakes.
And Peter gets angry in this one. So often, even when Spidey is facing unwinnable odds or supposed to be heady to hang up his spurs, he’s still the same old wise-cracking, resilient web-head we know and love. Here, there is a fury, a sense of being fed up of all of this, that comes through in the actor’s performance. Goblin is right that Peter doesn't have any witty comebacks in the midst of this fight. The situation is too dire, too personal, for him to be anything but a desperate, seething ball of fury as he goes after the Goblin and, at one point, is even willing to die himself if he can take out Osborn at the same time. It all sends a signal to the audience that this is not the run of the mill villain fight, and it heightens the atmosphere considerably.
It also makes it matter when Spider-Man chooses to try to save Norman Osborn rather than let him die. He’s lost the woman he loves, is devastated and furious at the costs he’s bourne as Spider-Man, and has every reason to just watch his adversary perish. Instead he tries (though fails) to rescue him, showing that even in the hardest of times, Spider-Man’s inner nobility wins out. His distress and the anger in the performance give weight and meaning to that choice.
They also make it all the more impressive when the episode basically ends on that note. When we leave this season, Osborn is gone but has wreaked havoc in every part of Peter’s life, Mary Jane is (for all intents and purposes) dead, and Spider-Man has told off Madame Webb in emphatic terms. That’s a pretty down note to end a season on.
But it’s also a good one. So much of this show has been about friendly neighborhood Spider-Man hitting momentary setbacks but inevitably bouncing back within an episode or two. That’s true to the nature of both comics books and weekly T.V. shows, where the status quo has to be restored so that more adventures are possible.
But here, Spider-Man: TAS has the courage to let what is ostensibly a kids show close out this chapter of its narrative with Spider-Man emerging victorious, but only at a tremendous cost, that makes him wonder if it’s even worth it to be Spider-Man. With great power comes great responsibility, but with great responsibility can also come great losses.
That’s heavy, but meaty stuff, that gives Peter Parker a hard lesson in maturity that cuts through some of the outsized fun the show’s had this season to deliver its best exploration of the ethos of heroing in general and Spider-Man’s struggle in particular. It’s the series’ best episode and a fine way to close out the best season of the show so far.