Derick McDuff

The third in the “Minions” spinoff franchise, and seventh overall “Despicable Me” film, takes its yellow protagonists and puts them in the Golden Era of Cinema. Arriving in Hollywood in 1927, this collection of minions, notably a separate group from the ones that would eventually would eventually work for Gru, become silent film stars. Thanks to the directorial ambitions of a particularly creative minion, James, the movie is also filled with Ray Harryhausen-style monster movie tropes.

There is a long history mixing the western and sci-fi genres, to the point that the “space western” has become a film category of its own. The vast uncivilized reaches of space can be a perfect stand in for the old and lawless American west. “Supergirl” is set in this final frontier, its title character drawing parallels with the gunslinging heroes of those films. Like them, she’s a drifter who has made her way to the lawless fringes of civilization.

If we apply the traditional three-act structure to a season of television, then My Adventures With Superman has brought Act 1 of its third season to a delightful but ominous end. Over the first two episodes, we have established our world and our heroes’ places in it. We have established their emotional stakes: what they want, and what they fear to lose.