We All Need To Take A Break...
…self included at times. Have some episode recaps.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 1.10 “Moon Girl’s Day Off”
Moon Girl gets a wee bit overscheduled and pulls a sickie. Claims she can’t do the photo shoot and sends Casey instead. It’s just a photo shoot, right?
The shenanigans that ensue are hilarious. And Moon Girl ends up really hurting herself rescuing Casey (she’s all healed, miraculously, by next episode).
Devil Dinosaur is particularly fun in this one, trying to protect Casey, who isn’t exactly equipped for superheroics. Gotta love the beastie.
Still a bit heavy handed, though.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 1.11 “Like Mother, Like Moon Girl”
There had to be a gentrification episode. Poor Lunella, she just lacks the experience to identify Karens, any gender, when she encounters them. (But anyone who invents a device to make the neighbor’s dog bark silently is a Karen. Learn that lesson, Moon Girl).
It was inevitable they’d hit this topic given where it’s set. Oh, and she almost tells her mom.
Almost.
But she’s afraid mom won’t let her superhero anymore…
Retro Review: Quantum Leap 2.13 “Another Mother”
Oh man. This episode is just so bad. For once, it’s not Sam struggling to portray a woman…he does a better than average job.
It’s the strong feeling I have that nobody in the writer’s room has ever met…a child. Have none of them kids? Younger siblings? Were any of them kids?
All three of the kids (5, 11, 15) come over as older than they are. The five-year-old is far too articulate (although the little actor seemed to be having fun).
Oh, and the five-year-old asks what a dwarf is. That seals it. They’ve never met children…or at least not little American girls.
It’s a shame. The plot is very good and Dean Stockwell is on form, but the kids were so unconvincing I struggled through it. (It is amusing that the little kid can see Sam…and Al…)
Review: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 1.12 “Today, I am a Woman”
It wasn’t clear until this episode (12) that Casey is Jewish…or perhaps I hadn’t quite realized. (Now she looks a bit like a J.A.P. but I love her anyway). This episode focuses on that…it’s her Bat Mitzvah and she’s determined to shine, influence, and throw the best party.
Lunella offers to show up as Moon Girl to help. It works, until the influencer turns out to be a supervillain bent on stealing all of her gear!
Oh, and until Devil eats the bagel buffet. Annoying. I want a bagel and lox now…
Review: Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 1.13 “Devil on her Shoulder”
Devil wants to go watch a monster movie about a giant green dinosaur, but he won’t fit in the movie theater. When he finds out Lunella and Casey are going…FOMO!
So Lunella shrinks him to human size for the day, paints him green (so he looks like a green dinosaur cosplay) and they go see the movie…and a bunch of other things. Unfortunately, he’s still too big for the ball pit. So he goes and gets more of the shrinking tincture and winds up…shrinking and shrinking.
Worth watching just for the musical number with the Devil Dinosaur band. Also, he IS adorable chibi.
(Obviously the giant green dino is Godzilla with the cereal numbers filed off and his opponent is Kong. Guess who ends up buddies).
Retro Review: Quantum Leap 2.14 “All Americans”
Except for not understanding immigration law (and most Americans don’t), this is a good episode. Sam ends up in the body of a high school football player…and plays football a bit too well for a nerd, but I’ll give it to them.
His goal is to stop his teammate…and best friend…from throwing the game to appease his landlord, and throwing away his future.
It actually ends up going past that point. This episode is, plain and simple, sweet. Adorably so, in fact. They’re so cute together…and I don’t mean the football players!
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 1.14 “Coney Island, Baby!”
Guess who’s afraid of amusement parks. With reason…although you would think somebody would have rescued Lunella-let from the haunted house.
(Between you and me, I hate haunted houses. With a passion. They don’t scare me, they just piss me off).
Worth watching for Devil Dinosaur and the hot dog eating contest. Otherwise felt like a filler episode before the two part season finale.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 1.15 and 1.16 “OMG”
No, not a profanity. OMG stands for “Original Moon Girl” and…it’s Mimi! Why didn’t I twig to this? The two parter is full superheroics (with the typical musical numbers) as Mimi and Lunella face off against…Mimi’s former research partner.
Who is mad because white people took credit for their invention. Let’s blame the white people. It’s almost always our fault.
The device that got Lunella a dinosaur is now about to be used to trigger a full blown invasion of monsters he only thinks he can control…and the season ends with Lunella in another dimension.
We all know who’s going to rescue her, though, so it’s all okay.
On to season 2!
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.1 “The Great Beyond-er”
Actually, that thing about The Beyonder rescuing Lunella? It turns into a mutual rescue after they land on…well. He tries to take her to his favorite resort planet only to find out 1. It’s been trashed and 2. He’s mortal there. Oops!
The humor here comes from the Beyonder trying to deal with not having powers…and experiencing being mortal. Which Lunella also finds rather hilarious except for the not being able to leave thing.
Eventually, they do, and the Beyonder ricochets back off into the galaxy.
No After School Special!
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.2 “Suit Up!”
Her suit got ruined in the last adventure. Mimi calls on her old mad scientist buddies to help Lunella make a new one. But she’s having some confidence issues and wants layers on layers of armor.
Which, of course, works as well as you would expect.
CW: Scorpion. CW: GIANT scorpion. Yeah, that’s the episode bad guy. I almost felt sorry for it.
At the end she gets the new suit she actually deserves. But does she come out to her family?
(The parallel with coming out as queer is a tiny bit heavy handed, but probably not too much for kids).
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.3 “The Belly of the Beast”
Casey gives Moon Girl an unsolicited lair makeover. This goes about as well as you would expect…and ends in a massive fight, in part because Casey is playing the same earworm song over and over. Sorry, Casey, I’m on Lunella’s side on this one.
I’m going to have to listen to something else to get that song out of my head. The upshot is Devil swallows a goo grenade that, if it goes off, will turn him into “Jurassic juice.”
Casey and Lunella shrink down to get it out. And poor Devil can’t move…even when there’s ice cream outside.
He resisted ice cream.
Devil Dinosaur resisted ice cream.
Of course, they make up, but that song…make…it…go…away. Is that a content warning?
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.4 “Ride or Die”
This episode tackles something remarkably sophisticated for a kids’ show…ban the box. I mean, they don’t use the slogan, but…
Moon Girl finally catches a notorious thief and calls SHIELD to take her into custody (because the regular cops don’t stand a prayer holding supervillains).
SHIELD asks her to bring her to the precinct, but there’s a snag…the finale of That Show is on. Casey and Devil go back promising not to watch it (Devil, of course, can’t keep this promise. Apparently it takes the threat of being turned into Jurassic Juice to get delayed gratification into the T-Rex).
Fagan…sorry Lady Bullseye…Quick Whip’s former boss is after her. Seems she’s trying to get out of a life of crime…and back into her dream of culinary school.
Yeah, this is about hiring ex-felons. Which is a really important issue I’m surprised…pleasantly…to see a kids’ show address.
Season 2 is, so far, light years better than season 1.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 2.5 “Kid Kree”
Lunella finds a friend who can actually keep up with her. Unfortunately, he’s actually this poor Kree kid sent to Earth to capture a superhero (he picks Moon Girl) to prove to his dad that he’s worth being called “son.”
Eww. We’ve met that parent. Some of us had that parent. The one who wants to turn their kid into an extension of their own ambitions. Sometimes under the guise of “Giving you the opportunities I never had, dear.”
Often, these are very well meaning parents who just struggle with their child having different skills, aptitudes, and interests.
The ending was a bit too pat, dad was a bit too abusive to suddenly come around like that, but I see where they were going for.
Great musical numbers with flying equations. Although personally, I’m kinda glad Kid Kree left. The baby mad scientists were scaring me.
Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur 1.6 “Wish-Tar”
The rink gets a retro arcade machine that fake-grants wishes. The Beyonder possesses it and starts granting everyone’s wishes.
Which Lunella uses to try and, uh, keep up with the Joneses. Lu, you do you not everyone else. You aren’t one to follow trends.
It all blows up, almost literally, when she wishes for a bad piano for a pop star…and the Beyonder misunderstands her slang. Oops.
It’s fun, but drifts back into the heavy handed.