Skye’s Thoughts

Ah, another Wednesday. Time for more Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man! In my opinion, this episode laid out interesting future story threads. While I was intrigued by the ideas in the previous episodes, I mentioned that it didn’t feel like they were progressing. Now, everything is falling into place.

In fact, so much happened in this episode that it’s difficult to cover in one post. Just a heads-up: Spoilers. Lonnie’s connection with the 110 Gang catches up with his everyday life. School is getting difficult for Peter, Pearl, and Nico. Especially after Nico found out Peter’s secret. Thanks, Harry. There’s more to Norman than what’s on the surface after Spider-Man’s encounter with Daredevil (hence the episode title). And Mac Gargan’s Gang has tracked down the 110’s hideout while getting outfitted with Octavius tech. Yeah. That’s a lot.

If I had to nitpick anything, the show’s feeling overcrowded. Sure, each of these developments makes me want to keep watching, but there are a lot of them for one episode. I can see why these episodes are 30 minutes. Despite longer episodes, will it be possible to give each of these story threads the attention they need?

I mentioned in the past that it felt like the show was looking for excuses to keep audiences watching. By throwing in major developments at the end of episodes, it seemed like the show was desperate for viewers. What I like about these new developments is that, after the buildup of the previous plot threads, it feels like they’re starting to amount to something. That’s where I give leeway.

Of course, there’s still time for this show to either wow me or disappoint me (I hope it’s the former), but let’s throw it over to Season before I start rambling.

Season’s Take

For me, “Duel with the Devil” didn’t feel overcrowded so much as expecting to have a long run with the dozens of characters. I mean, it’s Spider-Man. They’re likely going to get several seasons out of this show. Spider-Man also has a large rogues gallery. If this show is taking notes from Harley Quinn, they’re going to explore many of Spidey’s rogues.

That said, I do like the time the show takes to pull in smaller Spider-Man villains as part of the main cast. As someone more familiar with the prolific Spider-Man villains, it’s nice to see something different. The show progressed naturally with this episode having a lot of rising action regarding relationships between the characters and themselves. We saw a bit of doubt in previous episodes, but “Duel With the Devil” brought that doubt to the forefront.

The way it is now, the show is somewhat predictable. We know Norman Osborn is going to be the Green Goblin at some point and we already saw Lonnie get his nickname as Tombstone. Nico will likely become Sister Grimm or The Gloom. I really hope they go with the latter. Harry’s a bit of a wild card. I’m curious to see who he chooses once the inevitable Green Goblin/Spider-Man showdown occurs. If I’m wrong about my predictions in future episodes, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Thank you for reading. If you’d like to dive deeper into Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, follow this link for episodes 6, 7, and 8’s Secrets (Easter Eggs).