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It took three years for the emotions to settle. In the meantime, I watched all of Supergirl and Superman & Lois. But now I'm quite curious about how the series managed to continue with the new Batwoman played by Javicia Leslie. The problem (or advantage, depending on how you look at it) is the fact that the new wearer of the costume and mask, Ryan Wilder, is a completely new character. She was created specifically for the situation in the series after the main actress, Ruby Rose, decided not to continue. Ruby Rose ended her DC career prematurely due to a spinal injury, which is understandable, and I hope she continues her work in much safer conditions in the future. The creators were left with a situation where all the supporting characters remained in place, and the new heroine was a girl who had been unlucky in life. Ryan Wilder has a lot of baggage - false accusations, months spent in prison, a childhood spent in foster homes, and several traumas. From this, you can piece together a motivation for doing good, especially if the girl knows martial arts. Surprisingly, the series is still running well in its second season. It's still quite dark compared to other DC shows on CW, but that's definitely not a minus. Alice has an interesting new side story, and the only real disappointment is that Ryan Wilder practically doesn't exist in the comics (she appears in a few panels in "Batgirl #50/2020," "DC Essential Graphic Novels 2021," "Batman: Urban Legends #5/2021," "DC Pride 2021," "Earth-Prime 2023"... her only coherent story is in the "Earth-Prime 2022" miniseries, which isn't much). But a solo title of Batwoman hasn't been published since 2018, so there's really nothing to address here. She simply shone in the era of The New 52 and then merged with the others in the Bat universe.

The new series started off excellently. I even quite quickly accepted the new Jonathan (Michael Bishop), although I had gotten used to Jordan Elsass over the last two seasons, of course. However, the main storyline with cancer doesn't strike me as that great; it's only excellent in terms of the ambiguous triangle of who is whose (non)friend. The young characters are as authentically pathetic as always, and in the Steele household, there's the classic Shakespearean drama akin to "Romeo and Juliet"... Anyway, it's still a good show, and I don't regret the time invested in it.

It was seemingly inevitable for the idea of Ransom Riggs to merge with Tim Burton's imagination. The series dedicated to Miss Peregrine is based on a collection of specific photographs that evoke many associations in people, and that's why Riggs' publisher suggested that he complement these photographs with a specific story. At that time, Burton was slowly reevaluating his permanent team and retained only Eva Green from Dark Shadows. The result is a rejuvenated Burton in a fantasy style, less authorial, and more responsive to the changing tastes of contemporary youth. Yes, some elements wink at the once-famous "Burton-touch," but this time it's more Burton in the service of Riggs, although we briefly encounter the classic California suburb and shrubs shaped like dinosaurs reminiscent of the clumsy Edward Scissorhands. It's not a loss, but it's a compromise. I preferred Big Eyes more because it was truly a step forward, not to the side.

The World of Strawberry Shortcake is pure charm. This phenomenon started as a series of holiday cards and greetings with typical illustrations of a little cook in a puffy skirt. In the 80s, along with Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake was among the most popular cartoons for preschool children, who then moved on to He-Man and She-Ra. To this day, new animations are still being produced, along with toys and souvenirs, of course.

I discovered the disco queen, Donna Summer, in the movie Spinning Gold. This extraordinary singer, whose American career was preceded by one in West Germany, has a story that practically wrote itself, requiring only the presentation of all its elements. As a child, she was bullied and bore a scar from barbed wire on her face for life. At the end of the hippie era, she became the face of the German production of the musical Hair and experienced liberating times as one of the few black women in Munich. She married Helmuth Sommer and had her first daughter with him. After their divorce, she entered a golden era with that incredible erotic hit, which in its full version lasted 17 minutes. The rest is just the classic ups and downs: domestic violence, a duet with Barbra Streisand, and a new marriage... If this isn't material for a full-length documentary, then nothing is.

An Australian high school drama. Over a few years, they produced 209 episodes, which is incredible by today's standards. The show was a follow-up to the film The Heartbreak Kid, which didn't manage to connect in the Czech Republic. As different classes and groups of kids rotated through, the series depicted a wide range of issues that generally relate to teen life. Although Sydney's suburbs were quite different from our post-revolution reality, the series earned a reputation for realism, especially compared to the glamorous lives of the wealthy youth in Beverly Hills 90210. The multicultural issues were new to us at the time, but everything else was completely understandable because growing up is essentially the same story worldwide. Years later, Netflix continued the series with a new generation in Heartbreak High.

Edward Scissorhands is the essential meeting of Tim Burton with Danny Elfman, Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder, and Vincent Price. The basic story comes from classic Burtonian settings, combining caricatured American suburbs and the gothic dark world from the monster studios of Universal and Hammer. It is kind, loving, gentle, mysterious, and fairy tale-like. Roughly exactly what the dreams of a little boy could be, who once transformed Frankenstein into Frankenweenie. The pop culture influence of Edward is illustrated, among others, by the existence of a comic book Judge Dredd/Edward Scissorhands parody (Garth Ennis, Dermot Power).

One of those iconic 90s movies by Tim Burton, which I completely missed back in the golden era of VHS tapes and video rental stores. Looking back, it's obviously fun, but it's still just an adaptation of trading cards from the Topps company that never quite stepped out of its shadow. Some ideas and casting choices are indeed genius, but the whole thing drags. The micro stories of Lisa Marie, Danny DeVito, and Sarah Jessica Parker are excellent, but the best of all is the grandma played by the famous Hitchcockian actress Sylvia Sidney.

#15 DCEU. The final film of DC Extended Universe is the Aquaman sequel. The film runs smoothly, following the classic concept of a buddy movie, in which the main enemies from the first film become partners under the influence of circumstances, and together they fight against a new enemy. This is something absolutely ideal for a feel-good audience experience. Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson have charisma to spare, the underwater world is very attractive to look at, and it's nice to perceive all the architectural ideas and fauna and flora. Something like this is always an interesting challenge for filmmakers, after all, the concept of Atlantis has been tempting for processing since ancient times. It must have been a feast for the eyes in the movie theater. Of course, I would have enjoyed more space for Amber Heard, Nicole Kidman, Temuera Morrison and Dolph Lundgren, but considering how long we waited for the film, the final form is more than decent. The first film was devoted to the duo Aquaman/Mera, the second one is about the duo Aquaman/Orm.

A very weak, generic genre film. A group of young adults are trapped in a spider's web along with the entire residential building due to one single mistake. In the place I watched it, they really tried hard and placed artificial spider webs and spiders, but that's pretty much all that can be remembered positively about it.