Transcript

Taylor: Hey there listeners, welcome back to Sisters Assembled, and happy holidays to everyone. This is our last episode of 2023. Crazy to think that we are now doing our third annual look at the year that’s passed and the year that’s coming. And I know I’m super excited to kind of do a little bit of a year in review and also take a peek at what we’ll be covering next year. So without further ado, we’re going to jump right into it and I’m going to let Katie kick it off with our 2023 movies.

Katie: I’m excited to do this because I love the good rankings every time we do them. They’re so much fun. I think the best way to do this is we’ll just go through our list and we can kind of talk about, I don’t know, we’ll talk about how crazy they may or may not be in comparison to each other and just maybe a little explanation on why we did the order we did. So, as Taylor nicely teed up for us, movies for 2023. In the first place, I put Across the Spider-Verse, we are including Sony, if that didn’t give that away. I mean, I don’t think you can beat Across the Spider-Verse, in my opinion. It was just so good, so that’s number one for me. Then I had Guardians of the Galaxy number three, Volume Three. Then I had The Marvels, and I don’t think it surprises anyone that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania came in last for me for this year. 

Taylor: So again, this year, I feel like the last couple of years we’ve been pretty much in sync when it comes to the movies. I feel the same way. Top spot, without a doubt, was Across the Spider-Verse. I can tell you from the entire months of June through July that soundtrack was everything that I listened to and the soundtrack of an entire couple months of my life. So that was a fantastic film and I’m so excited for the next one, but we’ll get to that in a little bit. Then, of course, Guardians 3, The Marvels and Quantumania. You know, I think those middle two very solid, didn’t dislike them. I didn’t dislike Quantumania either, but it just doesn’t hold up, especially against something like Across the Spider-Verse. But even against the other two films of the year, definitely just didn’t have the same level of depth, the same level of, I don’t know, excitement around it even. I don’t know, it just didn’t land for me. I think a lot of people feel the same way. Not a bad movie, definitely not the worst movie. I mean, Iron Man 3 is always going to take that spot for me, but you know that one I just got to keep it at the bottom spot for me this year.

Katie: Yeah, I think my biggest thing that I always just want to not like be like, oh, I got clarify, but you kind of said it when you were doing your explanation is like one for me, Across the Spider-Verse is very high on that list, and I don’t want to say a lot separates between Guardians and The Marvels, but there’s enough of a jump. As far as then those middle two, they were solid. They were really, really good movies but I want to emphasize there’s a huge, huge jump for me, at least between The Marvels and Quantumania. I think if you took Quantumania off this list, it’d be really hard for me to say one, two, three other than being like, well, Spider-Verse was still better, but they were all such good movies in my opinion. Quantumania, it’s like Thor: Love and Thunder from last year. It just like immediately plummeted to the bottom of my list. I was like, I don’t even need to think about which one is going in last place.

Taylor: Yeah, the only, I think redeeming well, I would say the biggest redeeming quality that Quantumania has, because I don’t want to just completely crap all over it, at the end of the year and end the year on a bad note when it comes to it. I will say it opened a lot of doors, that’s why we spent so many episodes talking about the things that come out of it, which I think is great. I’m super excited knowing now that we’re getting the Young Avengers and so much of our conversation about the Young Avengers earlier this year stemmed from watching this film, so I love that about it. But again, to your point, serious drop off between The Marvels and Quantumania. I don’t care what anybody says about box office and all that B.S. with that conversation around The Marvels and it being the lowest grossing Marvel movie of all time. I think that’s such an unfair conversation. So I don’t even want to justify that by saying, you know, they’re close because The Marvels and Quantumania both didn’t do great. There is a serious drop off. Do not compare The Marvels and Quantumania in terms of quality. They are in completely different ballpark’s. There is a clear top three and a clear loser. I’m sorry Quantumania, but a clear loser and that’s just the reality.

Katie: No, honestly, that’s exactly how I feel so that’s why I wanted to clarify. I was like, yeah, they’re one through four on this list, but if I could put other numbers just as blanks in between, I would. That’s what I want to say. But we’re going to move on to the shows. I think if you’ve listened to this podcast long enough, I think there’s going to be a shock that hits you when I go through my list in a second here, but I do want to first clarify. As of this recording, we have only been able to watch one episode of What If? So, unfortunately, Season Two of What If? is kind of hard to decide on because we really haven’t seen any of it. So that being said, I did put it last only because I haven’t seen it in its full to feel like I can judge it fairly. And then I did put Secret Invasion second, and I know that’s really hard for me to say because I think Loki Season Two and Secret Invasion both, in my opinion, flubbed their endings really bad. But I thought one through five were really good, so it actually was a kind of a hard decision for me to decide which one I was going to put first, but then I remembered how much I hated what they did with the Super Skrulls in the final episode. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, I can’t put that as my top show. So actually, Loki Season Two took the cake for me and it went into my top spot for 2023 guys.

Taylor: Well, yet another category you and I are completely aligned. 

Katie: Oh no.

Taylor: I know. I do have a slightly different reasoning, I think for a Secret Invasion going second over or under Loki. But I’ll start with Loki and just actually let me start with Loki and Secret Invasion together, because to your point, we haven’t seen enough of What If? What we’ve seen so far, if anything, you know, if this is like anything, what we’re going to see for the rest of the season and we have episodes even better, I could actually see this easily taking the top spot. The reason being, I didn’t actually really love either one of these series because or the live action series, I should clarify because to your point, neither one of them stuck the landing. If you had stopped me at Episode Four of Loki and Episode Five of Secret Invasion, I would have told you this is one of the best years of Marvel Television we’ve had in the new era since Endgame. Obviously, we didn’t have shows back then, but since we started having the shows, they were really solid through four and five respectively. But the endings left such a bad taste in my mouth for both of them that I honestly couldn’t decide which one I liked more, because I dislike both of them so much. Then what did kind of put me over the edge for Loki was the fact that Secret Invasion, which is such a major moment in the comics, was reduced to this six episode thing that really didn’t even tell a true anything to the scale of what it should be. the true story of Secret Invasion. And to me, it’s a missed opportunity, and it’s a loss of a storyline that we’ll probably never revisit and that could have been so much bigger and so much better. Instead, we got a completely I don’t even know the word for it, but a completely taken out version where we lost all of the meat, all of the excitement, and 90% of the characters should be involved, just partially because of rights, and partially because half of the characters are dead already. So it just it to me, I can’t. Secret Invasion just was such a miss for me that it was going to be low anyway. I mean, I have What If? lower because there’s not enough to your point to talk about yet. I mean, realistically, in nine days, Secret Invasion is probably going to be my lowest.

Katie: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I’d probably have to be inclined to agree there. Mainly because if What If? Season Two is anything like Season One, it’s definitely going to go higher just because, I mean, the concept of the show is a slam dunk as far as I’m concerned, regardless of whether or not I think all the topics of this season are my favorite, because I definitely think if I look back on Season One and granted again, we haven’t seen the rest of Season Two. But if I’m kind of comparing the names of the episodes to even Season One’s names, I’m still going to show preferential treatment towards Season One. I do like those storylines more. There are more things I would like to see, and I know we are seeing some of those, such as Marvel Zombies like that’s going to happen, which I’m super happy about because that was like arguably one of my favorite episodes. But yeah, I mean, you make some great points about Secret Invasion. There was just a lot and I think what hurt me with Secret Invasion was it was doing so well that when it just fell the way it did in Episode Six, like, I think the difference between that and Loki Season Two is I could still see where we got at the end of the day. I didn’t love it, but I got there. I understood the story. I thought there were parts that I was like, eh, I feel like this could have been done better and I think storyline wise, there were maybe scenes that could have helped move certain things along better. But at the end of the day, it still wrapped up a series or a season. I don’t really know what they did to Secret Invasion, but they were like, here’s everything in one episode. And I know that was a big concern we had going into it. We were like, there’s a lot of plot threads that need to be wrapped up in one episode, like, what is the timing of this show? And so I definitely think that one struggled and like I said, I’m sorry, thats Super Skrull thing? Absolutely not, I cannot get past that to this day. The CGI of Drax’s arm on Amelia Clark haunts me in my dreams or my nightmares, quite honestly, because that is where they belong. I just can’t get past that. And then Loki, I think what finally put it on top, beyond the complaints of Secret Invasion, was what it opened. Because at the end of the day, it was much more prominent to the bigger MCU, and the effects of it are so much more prominent that I was like, maybe I didn’t love it, but it did something very important for us and I have to acknowledge that. So that’s why I ended up at one. But if you asked 2021 me that, or if you told 2021 me that Loki Season Two would be floating at the top of my show list for 2023, I would absolutely be out of my chair, on the floor, dead.

Taylor: Yeah, it was surprising to hear you say that. I was surprised that we agreed on that. I think you did bring up a really, really good point, though, about Secret Invasion and something that I didn’t mention in mine, but definitely something I agree with is the idea that it existed and then didn’t actually have an impact on anything. You know, Kate and I were talking even right after seeing The Marvels, because I had seen a tweet where someone was like, yeah, you basically don’t need to have seen Secret Invasion to understand The Marvels. There’s no impact there. And sure there are some small things about why Nick Fury is where he is and all this stuff. Blah blah, blah, blah, blah, the the new Skrull colony and things like that. But those are small details, things that if you’re not really as into it as maybe we are or you as listeners are, you’re not going to pick up on it and you’re not going to care. To understand the actual gist of the movie, you didn’t need to see Secret Invasion, and thus far, I’ve yet to see anything in the MCU, either now or on the slate, that really is a direct ramification of Secret Invasion. So why did we have six episodes other than to enjoy Samuel L. Jackson for six episodes, which, don’t get me wrong, is a strong reason to make a television show but other than that, what was the point? I’m still don’t have the answer to that question.

Katie: Well, and what’s interesting is, I actually relatively recently, I don’t remember if it was on Threads or on Twitter, but the guy who plays President Ritson was like, I’d love to return to that role. I feel like I left and there’s still like things to fill in and I’m like, so there is no plan as of right now to have him back as President Ritson after the ending of that show. So to your point, it’s like, what’s the future here? There isn’t a lot that I’m thinking currently will play a role because I’m like, I’m really not worried about a Skrull invasion right now, personally. I mean, we don’t even have Kang anymore, so I don’t really know where this is all going to go. I don’t know, I think that was like I said, that was the end of it for me, that was a nail in the coffin I think to at least be like at least one of the shows opened up everything I think for the MCU. The other one just kind of existed and I’m not I’m not against a show that isn’t for the MCU. I’m thinking Moon Knight as a great example. It didn’t affect the MCU, but man, was it an entertaining show and you could say what you want but I enjoyed that show like no other. So I think when you’re trying to pick between two shows who, as you said, aren’t really amazing in the long run when you look at, you know, did they go six for six? No, not in our opinion. Well, what are the nitpicky differences? Loki did something for the MCU. Secret invasion kind of just existed, and didn’t really add much to storylines.

Taylor: Yeah, definitely. I couldn’t agree more. I do before we hop into 2024, I want to get your opinion on 2023 overall. Where does it stack up against some of our other years?

Katie: Oh, okay, you had me so angry for a second because I in my list, had initially listed them all together and like ranked them TV and movie together in one list and where they would fall. And then I deleted it because right before recording you said we were doing it that way. So I was like, if you just asked me that after I got rid of that list, I’m going to be so mad at you. Oof, okay, I’m going to be honest, it’s not first. 

Taylor: Oh, no.

Katie: I’m going to say that it’s not first. I would actually put 2021 as first. I’m sorry you’re not beating WandaVision, Falcon and Winter Soldier. Even the original Loki I mean.

Taylor: Hello, No Way Home?

Katie: They did come out of the gate swinging. Yeah, yeah, they came out of the gate swinging. And I’m not going to lie about that. Hawkeye, was that year.

Taylor: Shang-Chi.

Katie: Yeah. Oh.

Taylor: Even Black Widow, not a bad movie.

Katie: Stop it. I totally forgot about Black Widow. No, you’re not beating 2021.

Taylor: 2021 was a stacked year.

Katie: Yeah. Thinking of 2022, we had MoM, which is like I only like now for one reason. We had Moon Knight.

Taylor: Love and Thunder.

Katie: Oh, yeah. Wakanda Forever though was really good.

Taylor: That really did bring up the average. It really did.

Katie: Yeah. What other shows?

Taylor: Ms. Marvel, our girl.

Katie: Okay.

Taylor: She-Hulk. Which was, you know.

Katie: What If? Season One.

Taylor: No, that was 2021. 2021 man, I mean, I don’t know if in, alright, you got to take away Phases One through Three because I think, you know, I don’t want to stir this pot, but I think everybody agrees that kind of One through Three is probably better than what we’ve been getting because of the amount that we’ve been getting and the quality has been suffering. I don’t want to get too far into that because a lot of people will get angry. But I think we can probably all agree on that general premise so we’re going to ignore those. But 2021 overall, say what you will, I think very solid.

Katie: Yeah I agree. So going through what we’ve listed I’m actually going to keep them in the order they came out. I’m going to keep them with the years that they came out one, two and three. Because I think 20 21 to me hit it out of the park. Of course I have my complains about Loki Season One, but otherwise, I mean, I can’t really complain about anything else that came out that year, it was really good. 2022 there were a few. I mean, like I said, the initial reactions, to MoM was just like, no, no, no, no, no. So I think there were definitely quite a few on there that I was like, they were enjoyable. I wouldn’t say they were my absolute favorite if I ranked all of them at once and then 2023, I think the movies are actually what saved any opinion of 2023. Not saying the shows were a complete trash, but I will say like, I think I give more credit to the movies in 2023 than the shows.

Taylor: Yeah, I have the same exact ranking. I think over the years the quality has suffered and gone down pretty markedly. I don’t again want to be one of those people who’s like the MCU you is dropping off. Look, we all know that the moviegoing experience in 2023 was not nearly as enjoyable as it was in 17, 18, 19. We get it, okay? I’m not trying to say that Marvel’s, like, headed for the grave, let’s not be alarmist here. But is there objectively worse content coming out now than there was four years ago? Yes, it just is what it is. But I do think that they’re righting the ship. You know, there’s a lot of changes being made. I do think that there were definitely redeeming things in 2023. Across the Spider-Verse was fantastic. Guardians was still good. Like, let’s not forget good movie. The Marvels, let people say what they will, a good movie. There’s really only one true, true mulligan of this year. Now the shows are a different story. The show’s not my fave across the board. Maybe What If? can help bring up the average, but the shows were not great.

Katie: Well, and let’s just say some of it with the shows and I will be the first to admit it is and we’ve said this before, and this is why I think I hate Loki Season One so much is because when you don’t finish the show strong and again, this is our opinion. I know there are people who like, absolutely love the ending. I’m not one of them, Taylor is not one of them. But when you don’t finish a show strong, all I can think about is that you didn’t finish the show strong. If you had flubbed the whole first two episodes, but three through six were amazing. I wouldn’t even remember the first two episodes weren’t that great because I’d be so worried about how great the last bit of it was. So unfortunately, it’s just it comes down to that, and I actually know there were people who complained about, I want to say Falcon and Winter Soldier’s first episode when that first came out. But like, let’s talk about that now because nobody is because at the end of the day, it had an amazing ending and episodes, I mean, personally, I loved it all, but Episodes Two through Five were great. Sorry, Two through Six and Six was just absolutely amazing, so you don’t talk about it. Same with WandaVision, where the first two episodes really slow and no one knew what was going on. Yes, I will say it, I love it, but I can’t watch the first two episodes anymore. I can’t get through them. I don’t care though, because the rest of the seven were amazing. So unfortunately it is almost that recency bias of the last few episodes or the last episode of the show, if it’s not done well, that’s what you remember. It is what it is at the end of the day, 2023, eh, not our best year.

Taylor: Yeah, but we do have a new year coming up. So hopefully we can bring up the average as they say. I know it’s a little bit of a lighter year in terms of live action straight up full MCU stuff. So we are going to dive into there’s a lot of Sonyverse movies coming out next year.

Katie: Yeah, because it’s like a light MCU year, but it’s a very heavy Sony year. So actually as of right now, we have ten properties coming out next year.

Taylor: Yeah so you’re going to be hearing a lot of us doing actual new content, not deep dives like we have been. We’re not gonna have as much time for that next year, which could be a good thing. But I’m just gonna dive right into my rankings for the movies.

Katie: Oh, and I know we differ because I saw Taylor’s list before this. We differ a good bit, actually. 

Taylor: Well, this is good, this is good. I’m gonna jump in and say that we are assuming that Beyond the Spider-Verse is coming out next year. Do I think it’s going to hit the March date? We all know it’s not going to hit the March date that it was originally slated to come out, but they’re working on it. I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere. So I do think that by the end of next year it is going to come out. I’m moving under that assumption. So I’m going to say that without a doubt, Beyond the Spider-Verse is my most anticipated movie of the year. I walked out of Across the Spider-Verse, and all I could think about was, thank God I only have to wait nine months. Now, unfortunately, for so many reasons, that’s not the reality, but I am so incredibly excited for that movie. The way the second one ended on that huge cliffhanger man, I can’t wait for it. My next one of course, I would be remiss if I did anything other than the final, not the final, the only MCU movie coming out next year, which is, of course, Deadpool 3. We’ve all seen the self images coming out. It looks like it’s going to be absolutely bonkers. So Deadpool 3 is my number two, followed by Venom 3. I know Venom 2 wasn’t the greatest, but the first one was pretty solid, and I think the thing I’m most excited about when it comes to Venom is the fact that he’s the one character who’s truly crossed over into our MCU. We all remember it at the end of No Way Home. So and there was crossover another time, I think in a different movie, I don’t know. I get all the end credits mixed up now, but Venom has been in our universe, right? That part I don’t have a question about, I remember all that clearly. So I think that’s why I’m most excited, because he to me is the best bridge character into our MCU proper. And then for me, I think it’s Madame Web, probably because we’ve seen the trailer. It’s the next one to come out in terms of movies overall. The cast itself is pretty stacked, Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Emma Roberts, Ben from Parks and Rec, whose real name is currently escaping me but he’s great, so I think it has a great cast. It’s a Sony film, so take it with a grain of salt, but it could be interesting. I like the idea behind it. I think the character is fascinating, so I’m excited for that one. And then my last is Kraven the Hunter. Not because I dislike Kraven, but I’m not excited about another anti-hero film when it really should just be a villain. I also am really frustrated by the fact that Aaron Taylor-Johnson is playing another character when in the Multiverse, the character with his face is already dead, so it just brings up a lot of things for me where things don’t make sense. That’s why it’s got to be lowest, because of the implications of having his face on another character, and I can’t get over it and I won’t get over it, and that’s why it’s my last one.

Katie: So what’s so interesting about this is we don’t have a single one that’s in the same spot. 

Taylor: Really? 

Katie: Yeah, really. And I kind of vaguely remember that one from looking at your list. But as you were going through them, I was like, wow, no, like we don’t have any that are together. So to start off, I put Deadpool 3 first, not even because it’s the only MCU movie coming out or like Marvel in general, movie coming out next year. But just because, I mean, I think we rest a lot on Deadpool 3 at this point. It was one of the ones from the jump when we were kind of breaking down what movies are going to affect the Multiverse that was on the list, and it’s one of the last few confirmed left. So I think there’s a lot that can happen in this movie. And, I mean, it’s a fourth wall breaking movie, and when you have the Multiverse, that’s just like a different level of anything goes in this movie. So I’m most excited about that one. Then I have Beyond the Spider-Verse, enough said. I’m also very excited to finish out this trilogy and to see where this takes us, because anything could happen and maybe it leads us right to a live action Miles Morales, like we don’t know. So I’m very excited about that one.

Taylor: From your lips to God’s ears, that’s all I’m going to say.

Katie: I know, I know, I knew as soon as I was saying that you would like to hear it. Then I put for number three, which I think you’re not going to expect, but I picked Kraven the Hunter.

Taylor: No 100% I expected that. Girl, you’re an Aaron Taylor-Johnson girl to your core. There is no way he was going to go last for you. I knew as soon as I was saying last and your eyebrows were going up, I was like, she has him in third for sure, or at least higher up than I do.

Katie: Yeah, I mean, I am an Aaron Taylor-Johnson girly, but and some of that’s because to be fair, since Age of Ultron was the first Marvel movie I went and saw in theaters and like, began everything, the twins are like the love of my life. And so anything him or Lizzie, whatever they’re in, I’m like, fully support, 100%. Am I ecstatic about it? No, but does he look amazing? Yes. So I am just kind of going with the flow on this one. I really don’t know what to expect because to your point, it looks to be an anti-hero like Venom. Who knows? I don’t know what’s going to come from it, but it’s an interesting character and I actually am really excited that they’re trying it out, because we don’t really get a lot of Kraven the Hunter stuff, except for in like the shows when we were younger and that’s all I thought of when the movie came out. So I was like, I don’t know, I’m kind of excited about this so that is number three for me. Speaking of Venom, he comes in fourth. I just can’t get past how badly they messed up Carnage who, like, absolutely haunted my nightmares when I was little and so that really threw me off. And the only redeeming quality for Venom 2 for me was the end credits scene where I screamed my head off seeing Tom Holland’s Peter Parker on their TV screen.

Taylor: That’s what it was then. I knew there was another end credits somewhere and I couldn’t remember what movie was from.

Katie: I literally was at my school movie theater, and I couldn’t sit with my friends because we’d gotten there too late, and it wasn’t one of those ones where you had like, assigned seating. So I was alone, and I like the whole theater erupted so loudly that I was screaming at the top of my lungs, and I was not the loudest one there, like, it was insane. And so that is, you kind of were saying it too, he’s the only character that’s been in in between so far. And he did leave a piece of his symbiote just hanging out in our MCU. So I’m excited in that realm, but it’s definitely not like top of the list and then Madame Web goes last for me. I don’t really know what the movie’s about, if I’m being honest. I watched this trailer actually multiple times. I really like Sydney Sweeney because I’ve seen her in a couple different things. So I was excited when I saw her in this, and I’m excited for the direction I think it could take. I’m not really sure what the movie’s going to do. I’m not really sure what I’m going to watch, and I’m not really sure if or what the bigger ramifications of this film could be, because Sony doesn’t really know what they’re doing with their own Spider-Verse. They just keep making movies and then like, connect random parts, like when they brought Morbius in and then that whole thing. So I don’t really think Sony has a plan so that’s why I’m a little worried about this movie specifically. It could be a lot of nothing so that’s why it’s last for me. 

Taylor: That’s fair. We really do not have a single one in common for 2024, so keep up with us next year. Make sure that you listen to our 2024 recap and see if we are aligned on how they actually turn out because going into the year, when it comes to movies, we are not seeing eye to eye over here.

Katie: I feel like we always tend and this is why it’s sometimes really frustrating because we always say we’re going into episodes that we’re like, oh, we’re gonna have such a good debate because, like, we’re not on the same page, and then we end up watching an episode or watching the movie and we’re like, actually, we feel the exact same way about it. And so I feel like we start the year different and then we end the year on the exact same page, because when we watch it, we are like fully aligned.

Taylor: That’s true. I think we have the same general taste in movies. But I also think because we’re looking for the exact same things, I think our criteria is similar when we’re actually evaluating a piece versus what’s the hype for us because there’s so much that can go into hype, right? Like favorite characters and I hate anything that complicates the Multiverse. Clearly, things like that when it comes to Kraven the Hunter are hard for me. Whereas you’re just like Multiverse, whose she? Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Katie: My man.

Taylor: Yeah, like there’s just different things that we’re excited about when it comes to hype. But when we’re actually sitting down and analyzing a film or a TV show, we’re looking for the exact same things. And that’s why I think we tend to come together when it comes to a post analysis, whereas our pre analysis is a total free for all based on personal preference.

Katie: Yeah, 100%. I mean at the end of the day, like I could walk out of Kraven the Hunter be like, that was the biggest load of crap I’ve ever watched in my life. And as much as I love Aaron Taylor-Johnson, it does not matter. If I had to muscle through his mustache in Bullet Train, I will muscle through Kraven the Hunter. It’s just what’s going to happen. 

Taylor: You gotta do what you gotta do. 

Katie: Exactly.

Taylor: Moving right along to our last category of this preview of 2024 is the shows. So I’m going to go ahead and kick us off because it’s an interesting year when it comes to shows. It’s actually pretty heavy when you look at all of it across the different mediums. We have five shows coming out, two live action and then three animation. If you guys have been listening to the show for any length of time, you know that I personally am much more of a live action fan than I am animation. So it’s going to shock nobody that the two live action shows are my top two, starting with Echo. You guys know I have been so excited for anything related to Daredevil, so definitely excited for this show. He’s clearly in it. We’ve seen him in all the trailers and everything or the one trailer that’s come out and I just can’t wait. I guess maybe there’s more trailers, I don’t know, whatever. Anyway, I’m so excited. Everything that’s come out has looked amazing. I like that we’re really getting back to that super gritty, I mean, kind of violent, not gonna lie look, that we had in a lot of the Netflix shows. That wasn’t my vibe when I first started them, I was like, I hate this but then I really got into it and I was like, oh yes, let’s go back. So I like that we’re bringing that vibe back, and I am excited that we’re going to get to something that’s really street level. I like that it’s the first under the Spotlight banner and really going to focus on characters. I know we’re not going to get a lot of wider MCU ramifications coming out of it, but I just think it’s going to be a really grounded, really realistic show where we’ve been up in space and we’ve been dealing with the Multiverse, and I think it’s just going to be a little bit of a breath of fresh air. On the contrary, the next live action show of the year, or the only other live action show of the year is Agatha Darkhold Diaries, which is not at all grounded and definitely going to be magical. Again, it being live action is automatically going to put it above any sort of animation for me. Not to mention, I mean, we’ve talked about Agatha in previous episodes, she’s potentially going to have a much bigger role moving forward. We know that Wiccan is going to be in the show. We don’t know much about the actual synopsis of the show or what it’s going to be about, but I do think there’s an opportunity to really move quite a few plotlines forward. We’ve seen that magic is going to be incredibly important to the MCU moving forward. It’s not an accident that our good friend Wong has been in pretty much 90% of the properties since we’ve gotten back from the Endgame era.

Katie: He’s been missing lately.

Taylor: Yeah, you know, maybe that’s why 2023 struggled.

Katie: Yeah, because he was in like, everything from 2021, 2022.

Taylor: I know so you know maybe there’s your recipe for success. Just put a little Wong and then we’re good.

Katie: Correct.

Taylor: But I say all that to say magic is increasing becoming more important. It’s increasingly tying to the Multiverse and the wider storylines that we’re telling there. So I think we’re going to open up a lot of interesting possibilities and opportunities coming out of that show. Also we’ve talked about it in the past, Kathryn Hahn is the bomb, o excited to see her reprise her role as Agatha and kill it exactly like she did in WandaVision. Now we’re moving into the animated shows. My number one of the three is Eyes of Wakanda. I think anytime we get to spend time with them is great. I actually didn’t read the synopsis of this show, so I’m not 100% sure what it’s about but take me to Wakanda any day and I’ll be a happy, happy lady, so, Eyes of Wakanda it is. Then of course, for so many nostalgic reasons, X-Men ‘97. I mean childhood core memory unlocked. Let’s do it. I’m excited, especially now coming out of The Marvels, having seen a glimpse at our or a I don’t want to say ours yet, because that’s the definitive, at a X-Men team. Let’s bring in some more X-Men. I mean, it’s clearly coming, it’s clearly time. We’re like ten years ahead of schedule, let’s do it. And last but not least, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. All right, sure, I don’t know, this one’s weird to me. I still don’t understand why it’s even happening. Also, I’m just like a 90s early 2000 Spider-Man animated show kid, this is just like, I don’t need this, I don’t know, I don’t mean to be rude, like, but we’ve got Tom Holland out here. Why are we making animated shows? We’ve got Tom Holland, just like, do what everybody really wants, put him back in the suit, write a good movie, Spider-Man 4, that’s why you made the ending of the third one the way you did. I don’t need this. I’m sorry, I just don’t, so that’s my last one.

Katie: Okay, well, we only have one that’s in the same spot, and I’m kind of curious. I kind of want you to guess which one do you think it is? Just say which property you think is in the same spot.

Taylor: Eyes of Wakanda. 

Katie: Okay, I’m neither going to confirm or deny. I’m going to go through my list and you’ll know.

Taylor: I thought you were going to tell me right away, now I have to wait? That’s annoying.

Katie: Yeah, you have to wait. Okay, first and I couldn’t remember if you called it its full name or not, but if you did, you might have said it wrong, because I think the name changed again. Is the Agatha show, which I now think is Agatha All Along.

Taylor: I literally looked at an article from like two weeks ago. It changed the last two weeks again?

Katie: Yes. Yeah, I’m almost like literally this is now its fourth name. If this is a fully confirmed name, that is what’s been going around is now it’s Agatha All Along, I don’t know.

Taylor: I really was like, let me get a super recent article because I don’t have all the right information. Are you serious?

Katie: Yeah. It like just happened or it’s just been floating around within the past, like week.

Taylor: Marvel, commit to a name.

Katie: Listen, I was really committed to House of Harkness. It was really fun to say, so I enjoyed that. Although I do see the draw to Agatha All Along. That makes sense, I get it.

Taylor: I mean, I get why they had to move away from Darkhold Diaries, considering it doesn’t exist anywhere in the Multiverse anymore, so I’m not really sure why that was even on the table.

Katie: 

Yeah, especially because I was on the table still when like, MoM already happened and I was like, that’s not right, but go off. So that is number one for me. That shouldn’t be too much of a shock because I absolutely loved WandaVision, and obviously I love my favorite character, Scarlet Witch. So anything that brings me close to that world I’m all here for. Again, as Taylor said, Kathryn Hahn, you can’t beat her, you just can’t. She’s so great and in this role, she’s even better. I then, for the same reasons, for nostalgia reasons, had X-Men ‘97 second. I don’t have an issue with live action versus animation, so my list is a little more mixed.

Taylor: I don’t have an issue, I just have a very distinct preference.

Katie: I don’t have the preference. 

Taylor: All right, that’s fair.

Katie: I prefer anything really. I mean, like it depends. Sometimes the What If? animation gets me a little like I feel like I’m like, I don’t know, I feel like so much is happening and I cannot absorb the colors and there’s just like a lot of weird texture ideas, but I still enjoy it. So I put X-Men 97. I mean, you can’t go wrong if you go back to the basics, right? So I’m pretty excited about that one. Then I put Echo as three. I’m not not excited for Echo, I’m not excited for Echo. I think I’m stuck in the middle. So she’s stuck in the middle. I don’t really know what to expect from the show. I have not yet watched the Daredevil Netflix series, mainly because Taylor described one scene to me and I was like, oh, that seems a little gory and I normally don’t mind gore, but like, it seemed a little much for me.

Taylor: For those of you who have seen the show, it’s like in Episode Three when he puts the man’s head through a spike and it just stays on the head on the spike for like a solid minute. Yeah, it’s that scene.

Katie: Yeah, I just like general gore is fine. I just I can’t physically watch like, I’m very squeamish when it comes to that stuff. I can’t even get shots guys, I’m getting better with that, I’m not gonna lie. But this is just like, not my thing, the gore. I’m excited for it but like, it depends on how gory. So yeah, I don’t know what to expect. I am ready to go back to street level 100% like that is where I think I thrive. As you can see, some of my favorite heroes from forever are like the OG Street level heroes, so I’m ready for that. I then put Eyes of Wakanda fourth. I did read a synopsis and I forgot the synopsis, but I don’t know, I’m like, I’m excited for it, but I don’t, I guess it’s one of those that I really am not sure what I’m expecting from the show. What parts it’s going to play, it kind of feels like What If? initially when we were like, is this affecting the MCU? Is this just kind of for fun? Like, what is this to everything? And that’s what I feel like Eyes of Wakanda is. I don’t really know yet. Like, is it filling in gaps? I’m not sure. So it’s a little lower on my list. And then I also put, this is the only one we had similar, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man at number five for the same reasons. Do we need it? No. I’ve watched Andrew and Toby get bit by their respective spiders. I really don’t feel like I need the like, this is how I found out I was Spider-Man freshman year story of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man in animated form. It doesn’t really feel needed to me personally, but it could be really good. I’m not going to write it off. It just isn’t one that I’m totally drawn to for right now.

Taylor: And did they change the premise of that show?

Katie: I don’t know if it’s changed or if they just changed the name. I mean, it was supposed to initially be about like pretty much him getting his powers and everything. But yeah, I don’t know, them changing it to Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man just makes me think of like the one we grew up with from the 90s.

Taylor: Which it’s never, ever going to be that good because that is a seminal, like part of our childhood so leave it alone.

Katie: No Venom haunts us to this day.

Taylor: Stop. I hear the song and I’m immediately triggered but also no lie, that show was the first thing I ever watched when I got Disney Plus on the day that it came out, I was like, yes, let me get it.

Katie: Shut up, because I did too. That was one, I don’t know if it was the first thing, but it was one of the first shows I watched and my roommate was like, are you watching an animated Spider-Man show? And I was like, I am, and it is from my childhood, so you can walk out but anyway, it is so good.

Taylor: When I found out that show was on there, I was like, there’s nothing else I want to watch on here. I wasn’t into Star Wars at the time yet. Obviously you all know that has since changed, but they were not releasing any of the Marvel shows. This is pre-pandemic, so it was more of like a preemptive, I’m just going to get this streaming service. But then I was like, oh, this makes it worth it. I think I’ve only ever watched one episode, but just knowing it’s there is enough for me, and obviously now it’s worth it. But, you know, at the time I was like, yes, bring me back to the things that make me happy.

Katie: No, I’m glad we had the exact same experience because I literally got it and, well, we shared it, you got it and we were sharing it and I was like, I didn’t realize I really am not drawn to a lot of Disney shows and movies, like, I’m not going to go out of my way. I remember watching The Little Mermaid after all these years because I used to love Ariel, and I like watch that and I was like, maybe I’ll watch all the OG Princess movies because I don’t even know if I’ve seen them all like it just I had zero attraction to Disney Plus initially. But I saw this and I was like, oh, I’m watching this in a heartbeat.

Taylor: It’s just core memory 100%.

Katie: 100%.

Taylor: Well, I think with that listing and our differences there, we are going to call that a wrap on our review of 2023 and how we felt about all the movies and shows. Spoiler alert it was all the same between the two of us and all the things that we’re excited for in 2024, which we have quite a few differences. So definitely stick with us as we cover all of these ten properties coming out next year. It’s going to be busy, busy, busy bees over here.

Katie: And I can guarantee you every single one of them is going to overlap.

Taylor: Please, why would you put that in the universe?

Katie: Because I don’t even need to put it in the universe. That’s just the curse of Marvel and Sony movies and shows.

Taylor: Well, anyway, now that Kates given us bad vibes, we’re going to end this episode before she says anything else is going to make me angry. So definitely remember to subscribe on your podcast platform of choice as we cover hopefully these non-overlapping shows and movies next year. Check out our website where you can find links to all of our socials and the show itself, and also support the show on the homepage if you would be so inclined.

Katie: Go ahead and follow us on Twitter at SisAssembledPod and Instagram and Threads at SistersAssembled to keep up with the show and us, because we’re always doing something fun or crazy, or just I don’t know, stupid really. But go and give us a follow, Taylor’s laughing at me. Go and give us a follow on any of those platforms so you can keep up with us. And we are wrapping up. This is it. This is the end of the 2023 season of Marvel and Sisters Assembled, but we will be back in 2024 with the What If? Season Two full reactions to all nine episodes. Of course, in the meantime, we are doing episode by episode tiny baby reactions on our Instagram and they’re being posted everywhere. So, whatever platform you’re following us on, you’ll see them, keep up with us. Make sure you guys are watching them and watching all of the What If? episodes as they come out, because this is kind of fun to have like episode by episode thing. So keep up with Marvel, keep up with us because Marvel just blew your mind, so let’s talk about it.