Will Low

Well. For all its problems, Willow is still better than Rings of Power. I'm still enjoying the cast and their chemistry with each other. I wonder if they're improvising at all. Young and old, the cast are all terrific, playing off each other. There's more going on in the catty dialogue between Willow and Boorman than in the tired plot device about Willow's visions and questionable magical abilities.

It's kind of funny watching this, Angel, and Wednesday--all three shows have a character who's occasionally overcome by a vision to move the plot forward.

The action sequences on Willow are just as bad as the ones on Rings of Power but at least Willow has the excuse of a low budget. But the scene at the beginning of last night's episode was a new low. Heavily edited shots of the actors swinging swords very slowly concludes with Willow using . . . a smoke bomb? It's really unclear. He does something and then there's smoke everywhere and then the bad guys have gotten away with Elora. It's really confusing.

The worst part of the episode was these two ladies Elora runs into in the forest:

I know the show is low budget but good grief. It looks like the costume department just took things off the rack in a Wal-Mart. It's true, the original Willow wasn't a hardcore recreation of mediaeval Europe but most people have a certain instinct for what should fly in a mediaeval fantasy and what shouldn't. This doesn't.

I've since learned the taller one is an actress called Hannah Waddingham, apparently a big Broadway star. That explains why her appearance felt utterly pointless otherwise. Is she wearing denim? It might be a kind of flannel made to look like denim.

Anyway, somehow I still want to see the next episode.

Twitter Sonnet #1648

Returning worms discover warmer dirt.
A pocket clung across the normal hip.
A nerveless wall could yet be badly hurt.
Recalling clouds they float across the dip.
Required fights were ever just the same.
A tired hall was squishy socks combined.
She asked the movie orc to give a name.
Admired horns adorned the maid of Rhein.
The bacon beckons far across the sea.
An ocean pig demurely charted fate.
Behind a veil of smoke, the scene's a C.
The modern shirt I saw was seventh rate.
Construction paper broke the stack of gold.
An open can of worms is never old.