Spider-Man: TNAS "Tight Squeeze" Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

MTV will air two episodes of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series tonight beginning at 10pm (ET), including this one!


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Episode #6 - Tight Squeeze
Original Airdate - July 25th, 2003

When Pterodax take Empire 1 hostage, they demand only one thing - Spider-Man. With Peter trapped inside with the hostages how will Spidey save the hostages without revealing his secret identity?

Comments?

[Mister Intensity]

Tight Squeeze was the stronger of the two episodes this week, no thanks to the lame Eurotrash villains. What made this episode was the interactions between Peter and Indira. Their conversations were natural and relaxed without the melodrama that intrudes almost every Peter and MJ interaction. These two actually have chemistry and come off as two kids with common interests who connect upon their first meeting. I'm glad that this wasn't Indira's only appearance because she is too good of a character to be a throwaway character for one episode. This episode also features the classic, villain wants the hero but the hero can't show up because he is one of the hostages in his secret identity. A classic bit but Peter's way out of it wasn't believable. Someone had to question his excuses like how could disappear this hostage situation without anyone noticing or shouldn't the cameraman felt something pulling him down, etc.? This episode had a weak story but introduced some nice occupational subplots and introduced a possible love interest for Peter. In two episodes, Indira has already shown more personality than MJ has shown in six.

Head Over Heels suffered from "Batman Beyond Season Two Syndrome," an uninteresting story about one of Peter's schoolmates who happens to encounter Spider-Man as well. The only real highlight of this episode was Peter's brief conversation with Indira. It's funny how he exposed more of himself to Indira than to the girl he's been smittened with for years. Too bad MJ. rather than Indira, has to be in every episode because she really does suck the life out of many of the scenes she's in. MJ was right, she did come off as Peter's stalker.

About Max Dillion, while I understand this show doesn't have a story arc in the conventional sense, the episodes should be aired in an order that indicates the passage of time. Any episode with Max should be aired before he becomes Electro. And if he was intended to be a recurring role as a guy who is never taken seriously, his transformation into Electro would be that much more dramatic if the viewers got to at least recognize and acknowledge Max Dillion and his role before the transformation. While strict order doesn't always need to be followed in a show such as this, relative order should be observed to increase the dramatic impact if something should happen to a recurring charcter. B:TAS didn't air its earliest episodes in anything resembling production order but they did air the episodes featuring Harvey Dent first before airing episodes featuring Two-Face, maintaining a sense of time even though episodic continuity wasn't strict at all. While episodic continuity doesn't seem strict in this series, some events clearly take place before others and that should be observed.

This series need stronger storylines overall. I also think this should embrace the fact that it is an animated cartoon instead of a feature film crammed into a half-hour that looks like an animated cartoon. Both mediums speak different languages but Spider-Man wants to be a feature film masquerading as a cartoon instead of a cartoon.

Mister Intensity

[slackermonkey]

I'm a little late with my reviews this week (as if mine make much difference one way or the other :p) but I'll have to keep them short this time for various reasons. I'll do them in list form.

Episode #1.04 - "Tight Squeeze"
- Pterodax was lame, nothing we haven't seen before.
- Story was typical and by-the-numbers. Bendis really needs to write more episodes than just half the pilot.
- Indy was an interesting character, kinda annoyed me at the beginning but she grew on me.
- Glad to see some hints at a Peter/MJ relationship, which seemed to have been abandoned in the transition from movie to cartoon.
Final Rating - B-

I was so excited to see this show when it first started going, but I've begun to lose faith in it. It's possible it has that first season loser syndrome that Justice League and many shows have, but at least some stuff in JL grabbed me. Nothing here really does. What's irritating is that all it needs is some stronger stories with more substance, dialogue with a bit more polish, and a few more character moments... nothing major like a completely different approach or a visual overhaul (at least, IMO).

I don't think I'll be holding to my ratings for the first four episodes, since after repeated viewings this show's faults have begun to sink in slowly but surely. Hopefully this show will get a second season and come back much stronger, then it'll really kick some ass.

[Spidey2099]

Sort of off-topic, but because it was on during the commercial break, did anyone catch the promo for the mtv video awards? It was narrated by Kevin Conroy. It was really hard to tell if it was him at first, especially with the silly line of, "Look at that cloud...it kinda looks...like a bunny rabbit." :D

Anyway, I missed the beginning of the first episode, missed the last of the second, so I have to catch up. So far, the best of all six so far is the Lizard episode. The others are terrible.

I will say that the animation isn't as bad as Max Steel (that was animated by Mainframe too, right?), and the lips are actually in synch with the voices! :eek:

Spidey, however, looks like an action figure. :shrug:

[Nightwing]

Nothing bad or MTVish/Pop-cultureish happened in these two episodes that I haven't commented on already, so that just means I was left mostly indifferent, borderlining on being bored.

However, the terrorist episode went down well. I liked it, and even though the theme of adding characters to a character's universe is cliched because this particular one doesn't need them, I think the interraction Peter had with that other girl went well also.

And as I am most likely the only obsessed Buffy the vampire Slayer fan in this thread, I'll also mention the two Buffy-related happenings that I saw in these two episodes. I was surprised to recognize the voice of the leading terrorist in Tight Squeeze to be James Marsters, Spike from Buffy.

And in Head Over Heels, Peter described his new wacko lab partner to Mary Jane as having "a lab partner from Sunnydale," which is Buffy's home town, as well as a pop-culture reference to remind the viewers where this show is stealing it's mainstream character movement theme from (Buffy, Smallville, etc). :p

That second episode really has to be burned. I really wasn't fond of it at all, but the first one was good. They sure do a great job with animation and direction the majority of the time. It can really get you into it once in a while.

[czyznyck99]

These two episode reeks of cliches, and that only adds to the problems with the episode order. The first had no point, and the second was typical psycho-girl fare. This version of Spiderman is relatively weak compared to its predecessors.

Later.

[Johnny Blaque]

And as I am most likely the only obsessed Buffy the vampire Slayer fan in this thread, I'll also mention the two Buffy-related happenings that I saw in these two episodes. I was surprised to recognize the voice of the leading terrorist in Tight Squeeze to be James Marsters, Spike from Buffy.



I knew it was him! Didn't get to see the credits though, thanks for confirming! :)

Now, the first episode was alright but I really liked the second! The whole plot and everything was great! I really liked the psycho Christina for some reason. it was one of the better eps so far in my mind.

Now with the Max thing, did they actually say his name? I can't remember if they did or didn't; if they didn't, then it might be a case of just using the same character model again(like they did for "Damaged Spidey" in the first two epidoes that aired 2 weeks ago.), if they did mention his name...somebody got some s'plainin' to doooo...

[Jowy Blight]

"Tight Squeeze"

The episode was alright, I guess. The story was fine at the begining, but it seemed to fall flat at the end. It was nice to see for once that the villian didn't die or have a false death, which was kinda starting to bother me. Indy was a rather interesting character, much better then the current MJ. Is it just me, or is Peter using his spider powers a bit too lax? Anyone could have seen that leap he made, as well as him using his webbing to stop the cameraman from standing up. There have been a few other incidents as well in other episodes, I wouldn't be suprised if someone finds him out this way. Anyway, it was a decent episode.

Rating- C

[SNS]

I missed these episodes, when will they reair?

[Spider-Man]

YTV aired "Tight Squeeze" and I thought it was one of the better ones that they've done so far. The only real problem I had was with the new Indy character, who came off as incredibly annoying. She does provide an interesting foil in the Peter/MJ situation, but I wish she was toned down just a bit. The villians were very one-dimensional, but they served their purpose. They provided some great action sequences and some alright dialogue.

Was anyone else weirded out by JJJ's voice actor? I'm so used to hearing Asner doing ol' JJJ.

[Cyclops]

I saw this episodes ages ago, but better late than never, right? I agree that he was a bit flimsy with his secret identity. Especially when he webbed the guy infront of him to sit down, and also when he just jumped away from the crowd, when anyone could've seen him. That was very sloppy, and poorly done. This guy's not gonna keep a secret identity for too long if he keeps being so careless with his abilities.