Having had some unexpected free time, I've finished some odds and ends that piled up over the lockdowns (which were, working on supply chain b2c transport systems, a tad stressful).
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., season 7: Well, it was a time travel season, so not all of the plot makes sense, but that also was not the aim. Much like with the preceeding sixth season, it is clear that the series was finished with season five, and every episode afterwards was just everyone having fun. Clearly where the writers of WandaVision got some ideas from, as Coulson and the crew travel through the decades in what is probably best described as a balls-to-the-wall whacky adventure. The title cards of the episodes match the theme it conveys. As far as the cast goes, Joel Stoffer and Clark Gregg, as per usual, totally own every scene they're in.
Two of the absolute highlight of the season is an 80ies splatter episode with killer robots with Knight Rider sound effects and red running lights. One of them runs around and yells EXTERMINATE. It is titled The Totally Excellent Adventures of Mack and The D and features Clark Gregg as Max Headroom (it does make sense in context) and Deke becoming a pop star by writing 80ies hits before they actually came out. It's filled to the brim with fun 80ies allusions without it ever feeling obnoxious, but that is perhaps just my eternal infatuation with the decade I lived though my early childhood.
Where's my Deke Squad cover album? Hello, Marvel! Come on.
Like I said, this is just everyone having fun, at least until the final episode, which is probably one of the better series endings I've ever watched - it is arguably even better than what was probably intended as the series ending at the end of season five.
Said it before, still stand by it, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is easily my favorite Marvel outing. Outside of the weaker first half of the first season (so, not recommended for anyone who cannot look past middling first introductions, or has problems with "Asian Mary Sue ladies" in a universe populated with Thor, Iron Man, Ghost Rider, sentient Androids, killer robots, super soldiers... well, you get my drift) this is just the perfect mixture of mystery, action and character interactions. It does feature the occasional pacing issue, but which series running for seven season does not?
As always, Phil Coulson remains the best character in the MCU.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, episodes nine and ten:
Found myself not caring for either. The ninth episode, which is trying to be Alien(s) in Star Trek using the otherwise comical Gorn from TOS exemplifies the difference between what is actually a fairly decent nuTrek show and actual Star Trek. Arena makes a point beyond "Gorn bad", this here does not. In a way this is really similar to that one episode where someone tries to kidnap a child to prevent it from doing something that is necessary, which then just happens, with Captain Pike trying to stop it.
An actual Trek series would have had a morality debate in that episode, and a more modern Trek show would include a request for asylum instead of an attempted kidnapping. Alas, actual Star Trek is as dead as the horse I'm beating here, so I'll just leave it at that. Yes, it was the best nuTrek series to date. It might actually be the best first season of any Star Trek show, if it actually was Star Trek, not nuTrek with a less obnoxious coat of paint thrown over it, and all the pandering in the series? No, sorry, can't stand it. It's perhaps not as bad as it appeared, but such things are highly subjective after all. La'An Noonien-Singh? You might actually be a nice character, but with that name you go into the same trash bin as Noonien Soong's great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather and his identical looking son from Picard.
The tenth episode is just a "what if?" alternate timeline exploration of The Balance of Terror. Kyouma Hououin would call Pike weak for giving up so easily. Well, that's how you end up with a saved Krisu in one series, and a soon to be mutilated Pike in another. Or whatever. Who cares.
**
One new thing, Star Trek: Picard, season three, episode five. I was already a lot more negative towards what was basically an unneeded The Next Generation style Wrath of Khan remake (like I said, I have no idea how Mike and Rich can be so positive about this, outside of perhaps being grateful that Star Trek: Picard makes one not wanting to gouge one's eyes out, but that's clearly not a bar I am comfortable with setting for any Star Trek series) than others, and this episode just seals the deal further. Good thing this is finally over after this season.