I'm in the middle of season 2 but I just wanted to call attention to this truly excellent show. It's animated... sorta? It's short. It's about a young woman who is experiencing both some mental issues and time travel paradoxes and a sort of dead father played by Bob Odenkirk and her relationship to her Mexican-American identity. It's... a lot, it's a whole thing, it's truly unique and excellent and highly recommended and on Amazon Prime.
Finished The Sandman, and the final 4 episodes really were pretty tepid. The characters, the plot, the execution... it kinda pales to the previous episodes. Also, what the actual fuck was with that effect in the final scene, the Azazel scene? Jesus H. Christ, did that look like some Nickelodeon sitcom CGI. Oof.
Overall the show was very good, but could not stick its final half. Episodes 1, 4, and 6 being the best.
Agree with Jack and others that while this show is still entertaining as heck, it's time to wrap it up. It certainly ended on a note for some characters that is suggesting this to be the case.
Much has been said about how gruesome this season was and, yeah, it sure was, really bordering on old Peter Jackson horror comedy stuff with just squishy red human bits all over the place. But I like it! This show can do no wrong in my book, it's just so cathartic.
That goes for the political commentary as well. Political content cannot be subtle, not after Celebrity Apprentice became president. Homelander is literally quoting Trump and George W Bush and it's heavy-handed and blunt and overbearing and it is the only way to do it at this point otherwise alt-right douchenozzles will take it seriously and turn The Boys into Pepe.
Watched Episode 7 and 8 of The Sandman. I find the actress who plays Rose Walker not that great. So far pretty much every acting performance has been terrific, but she's really not making much of an impact for how important her character is.
I think the only ones that haven't worked for me are Jenna Coleman and Patton Oswald. Neither are bad but I think I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the Clara Seasons of Dr. Who because Clara annoyed the fuck out of me and just made me fucking quit the show(granted I was always starting to get tired of it, she was just the final straw) while Patton Oswald I just can't hear him and not think Patton Oswald in a CGI bird suit.
I think the only ones that haven't worked for me are Jenna Coleman and Patton Oswald. Neither are bad but I think I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the Clara Seasons of Dr. Who because Clara annoyed the fuck out of me and just made me fucking quit the show(granted I was always starting to get tired of it, she was just the final straw) while Patton Oswald I just can't hear him and not think Patton Oswald in a CGI bird suit.
Never saw Dr. Who, so that wasn't a problem for me. I liked her well enough. And yeah, Patton Oswald is just Patton Oswald. Thankfully he's just a side character.
By the way, is it me or did this show enter into some Game of Thrones territory with its need to show characters having sex a whole bunch? This is mainly aimed at Corinthian. I mean, the guy doesn't appear to have one iota of interest in sex, what with being a literal inhuman murderer, yet the show has him get busy twice seemingly for the heck of it. Kinda weird.
Anyone who's seen my Arrowverse season rankings will know that I didn't think much of the first two seasons of Black Lightning, and anyone who's seen my reviews will know why. Indeed, alongside The Flash Seasaon 7, they're in the category of "bad." So it wasn't with much enthusiasm that I borrowed season 3.
Well, turns out that season 3 is better than what came before, and actually ends up in "good" territory. Not "great," but "good." Frankly, I'm as surprised as you are, but I'm going to just put up some points as to why that is, and why all that, the series still isn't "great."
-There's much more focus in this season, with the ASA occupying Freeland due to metas, with the Markovians wanting them for their own meta army. Yeah, sure, it's as silly as you expect, and when the Markovians invade, I'm left to ask what the US Armed Forces are doing when all these gunfights are occurring, but whatever.
-Action scenes are a mixed bag, and like the first two seasons, anything involving Black Lightning/Jefferson Pierce himself is outright anemic, bar a few exceptions. I kid you not, one "fight" is him and some commando guy shooting lighting at each other for just a few seconds, before commando guy gives out because he doesn't have a suit that can take the voltage. In contrast, anything that involves hand-to-hand combat is actually pretty decent, such as Anissa or Khalil.
-Like mutants in Marvel, metahumans in the DC Universe are a silly metaphor for "marginalized groups," but if the writers are insisting on trying, this is at least a better attempt at metaphor than others. I mean, we have something that's literally called "the Underground Railroad," as metahumans are smuggled out of Freeland, with Anissa using the moniker of "Blackbird" (I doubt that's an actual blackbirding reference, maybe it's something else?), but it kind of works better here? Sort of? It works better than the Flash's attempts, so there's that. Speaking of which:
-This isn't really the season's fault, but it grinds to a halt mid-way to lead into the Crisis crossover, then continues on as if nothing had happened. But the thing is, it's actually kind of weakened by being forced into the Arrowverse, because it requires you to believe that Freeland is being treated as this meta hotspot, while ignoring the fact that Central City has been THE meta hotspot since Flash season 1. So the Markovians and ASA are ignoring Central City because...reasons?
-Speaking of iffy references, there's Gravedigger, who not only comes off as a riff on Captain America/Isiah Bradly (WWII, supersoldier, experimentation, etc.), but is apparently the first meta in the setting, which makes some claims in the Flash questionable. That said, Painkiller is...okay, as villains go. On one hand, he has a power to command people to do whatever he says, including killing themselves, yet he only seems to use said power as the plot demands. Similarly, he only really comes into the fore at the end. On the other hand, his motivations make sense, as does his anger at the US government, and while the show never misses a chance to reference Martin Luther King (never Malcolm X, make up your minds as to why), given the context, it actually sort of works. In all the Arrowverse's attempts at being political, this is actually one of the better attempts.
-Odele's pretty decent as "evil government agent," though I can't help but wonder why the ASA isn't ARGUS? Granted, Waller's dead by now (least in the original timeline), but meh.
-So, the whole schtick is that the ASA are a bunch of dicks, which causes people to fight back against the dicks, but being dicks against dicks means that the ASA is ill prepared to fight against the Markovians, who are even bigger dicks. It sort of acknowledges this, but only "sort of." Also, why doesn't the ASA transport its meta prisoners out of Freeland, to somewhere more secure?
-So, the police are the good guys here. Huh. Not complaining, but hardly woke, is it?
-Poor Jefferson.
-So, Jen's probably the best character in the season, and is pretty much outright stated to be Black Lightning 2.0, having all of her dad's powers, but is "better." Um, okay? Also, can't help but notice that all of the Pierces testify at the end, with Jefferson and his two daughters in costume, yet are alongside Lyn, and are walking out together, so anyone with half a brain should be able to look up Lyn, note that she has a husband and two daughters, and put two and two together. Then again, the ASA knows Pierce's identity the entire time, and never really does anything about it, so hey, what do I know?
Anyway, yeah. Good, but not great. First third is okay, drags in the second third, last third elevates things.
Ranking:
27) The Flash: Season 7
26) Black Lightning: Season 2
25) Black Lightning: Season 1
24) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 6
23) The Flash: Season 5
22) Arrow: Season 3
21) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 3
20) The Flash: Season 4
19) The Flash: Season 6
18) Stargirl: Season 2
17) The Flash: Season 3
16) Supergirl: Season 1
15) Arrow: Season 5
14) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 1
13) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 2
12) Arrow: Season 6
11) Supergirl: Season 2
10) The Flash: Season 1
9) The Flash: Season 2
8) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 5
7) Superman and Lois: Season 1
6) Black Lightning: Season 3
5) Arrow: Season 4
4) Legends of Tomorrow: Season 4
3) Stargirl: Season 1
2) Arrow: Season 2
1) Arrow: Season 1
A lot of those questions are answered by Pre-crisis they were separate universes, and post crisis they never put any effort into restructuring the shows to be more consistent in the new single universe.
El Internado Las Cumbres / The boarding school Las Cumbres season 1
(Note the show is available dubbed into different languages Amazon just didn't bother putting up regional dubbed trailers only subbed ones)
Rating: 6/10
Thoughts in a Tagline: A brilliant demonstration in tension building, the problem being not getting to the payoff / release point. This is tropey horror ideas done in a shockingly almost serious high brow horror way but not losing the B movie horror tropes elements that to some make them seem uncouth or unsophisticated, (yes this is a long tagline).
Premise:
Las Cumbres is a boarding school for the worst / seen as most dysfunctional kids (well 16 - 18 year olds) out there that society and other schools and in many cases even their parents have given up as. This is their last shot. The school has a very strict set of rules and creative & nasty punishments for students who choose to break the school rules or just cross certain teachers. It's connected to a Monastery where monks there see it as their duty in life to be the army of god fighting against and every on guard against the devil. The monastery having been build there on the alleged site of a Satan worshipping cult who sold their soles to the devil to protect themselves from the black plague.
Add to this mix:
A monk who has lost his faith after an exorcism went badly wrong.
A researching looking into the special properties of unique species of local plants of fauna.
4 students with a plan to break out of the school
A girl at the school with no memory of her life before waking up at the school, no memory of her father the head governor of the school or the accident she was in that apparently killed her mother.
Thoughts:
Honestly it's really nice that Amazon has partnered with what I believe is a Spanish TV company or production company for a few shows with this one being a sort of reboot of a series previously done by the company (don't worry there's basically no connection beyond 1 Easter egg apparently). Based on the trailer for the previous incarnation of the show they really have put Amazon's money to good use and produced something pretty incredible in terms of visuals, the shots used and just the story telling.
Oh BTW It's dubbed into English, if at times that English and the English of the subtitles disagree on quite what words were used)
The Shows biggest problem is it build and builds and builds the tension and the season 1 ending doesn't give a release to that tension, in fact it pushes it up higher building up he mysteries and the twists and in the end we only get about 1 minor reveal in the main plotline and 1 subplot resolved which also completes one characters story in the show. Everything else is left up in the air and unexplained (presumably something season 2 will address a bit more as season 1 has set so much up).
This is kind of Skins does high brow arthouse horror and it's great when it's firing on all cylinders.
To avoid too many spoilers it's a show that through subversion of expectation (expectations the show itself sets up) it really makes you root for characters who may have more to their stories of how and why they ended up at the boarding school than you're initially told.
It's also does a good job of fleshing out the main characters and even quite a few side characters that are quite diverse but aren't defined by one characteristic obvious diversity trait.
E.G. One of the main characters is almost entirely deaf and reliant on hearing aids. This has some plot relevance in that it means they can lip read. They're also shown as very determined and loyal but also quick to get irritated sometimes.
Another character is gay but he's very much no some flaming queen stereotype, he's just gay and is generally the joker of the bunch. when he's with them on screen and he's a side character.
Same with one of the villainous characters actually, he's just not a joker he's the complete opposite of one.
(Watch the trailer 2 of those I've just mentioned are in there see if you can guess which ones are which)
El Internado Las Cumbres / The boarding school Las Cumbres season 2
Thought's Tagline: Everything you think you know is a lie
Premise / Plot:
Without spoiling too much the fallout from season 1 echos through the school from the riot that happened to the actions people took Las Cumbres is now more cruel to students to try and prevent a 2nd riot happening with more demanding physical training and more demoralising conditions. This season reveals some of the members of the Crows Nest (they finally seem to have settled on that as the cult's name) and has people begin some of the hunt for the legendary Drago Musca a lost set of book containing knowledge that even today hasn't get been discovered.
Thoughts:
Man the subversion of expectations continues in a way that to say much more would be a huge spoiler but everything you thought you knew is wrong with the series having a lot more big reveals including at last the identity of who is killing off girls in the woods and what the purpose of the deaths was. There are still plenty of questions left by the end and a few more horrifying twists.
It was okay. It's been a long time since I've read the comics so I don't remember too much, but weirdly the first episode is both extremely faithful, yet somehow feels wrong for the comic. There's clearly big money behind it, but I feel that may have sacrificed some of its uniqueness and - being a real hipster douche here - gone for more mainstream appeal. It feels awfully Hollywood-ized with its booming score and lavish special effects. Granted, you do need the latter for the stranger sequences from the comics, but a bit more restraint would have gone a long way there. I think I'd have liked the episode way more if they'd cut out the opening montage where Dream essentially gives a tourist video introduction of himself, and also the scene where he interrupts the Corinthian. That would have given the episode a way more mysterious feel instead of just straight up explaining everything.
But I think the biggest disappointment here is how Dream looks. The comic version is one of the simplest yet most effective character designs ever. Even a decent cosplayer could easily replicate it extremely faithfully. But here he's just some pasty dude. There's nothing of the mysterious, eldritch, uncanny valley-esque presence of the comic version here. Least you could have gotten is some special contact lenses so he doesn't look like a 20-something goth at a convention.
Eh, bit of a middling start, but I'm still interested.
Never saw Dr. Who, so that wasn't a problem for me. I liked her well enough. And yeah, Patton Oswald is just Patton Oswald. Thankfully he's just a side character.
By the way, is it me or did this show enter into some Game of Thrones territory with its need to show characters having sex a whole bunch? This is mainly aimed at Corinthian. I mean, the guy doesn't appear to have one iota of interest in sex, what with being a literal inhuman murderer, yet the show has him get busy twice seemingly for the heck of it. Kinda weird.
Yeah, now that you mention it, I don't get the Corthian scene either. IIRC from the comic, he's a nightmare to whom sex is a concept he has no interest in so why the fuck he's having a quicky with some guy he just met is a bit wierd. Also raises the question of wouldn't having sex with an eye eating nightmare be fucking traumatic and not 'Want to go again?'. On a lesser note, wouldn't it be wierd to have a quickie with some guy you just met who doesn't take off his sunglasses during sex even when otherwise nude? And why does a nightmare with teeth where his eyes would be even need a penis anyway? Am I overthinking this?
Yeah, that scene is just wierd all over and not needed. And don't get me wrong, I like the portrayal here. The actor pulls off the character very well. This is a script/directing issue.
I finally got around to starting Sandman. So far I'm enjoying it. It has its flaws, but they are mostly cosmetic. So far I'd say it is easily the best project based on a DC property since The Dark Knight. So that's what, everything since 2008... yeah. That's about right. And frankly not a very high bar to clear. Might be my expectations showing. Trying to adapt Neil Gaiman... I'm never really expecting a lot because that can't be easy. And Goyer was involved. That generally means something has a slim chance to be really good, but usually turns out to be a MASSIVE failure. So far, this has been pretty good.
A League Of Their Own (Amazon Prime Original Series): Deceipt / Great
Based (cringingly) off of the beloved classic 1992 dramady of the same name, a ragtag group of women during the WWII era vie to create and sustain a baseball league in lieu of the men's league that has been suspended as many of those players are overseas fighting in the war. They face adversity, doubt, lack of investment and general lack of interest until they start to produce a product befitting that which the people had come to expect from America's past time. "Interpersonal" relationship betwixt players play a heavy role in this outing however, and there is a, I dunno, side story(?) that intertwines with that of the Rockford Peaches (central team of the story, same as the film) about a young black woman denied access to the league despite her innate talent, and her struggles with coming to terms with pressures from her mother, friends and society to conform and face harsh realities.
They really should have just called this series "A League Of Non-Black Lesbians." The fact that the coopted the title, word for word, of a classic family-friendly dramady only to lean so heavily on themes of sex, sexuality and racism feels disingenuous and tonally dissonant to the source material. It'd be like if they came out with a "Forrest Gump" series, and each episode followed Gump's adventures that inexorably led him into the gay part of town: 'Those men were very friendly. They were all danc-ing and hug-ging and kiss-ing. One of those nice men even tried to stick his fingers between my but-tox... that's all I have to say about that."
They literally ripped the flesh from the 1992 film, and Frankenstein'd a "new" lesbian empowerment agenda onto its bones. Seriously, NO characters are fleshed out save for those who turn out to be lesbian; every other member of the Peaches is ambient noise save for the one neurotic girl who, while highly intelligent, spends her waking hours in fear and one point, even "suspects" the most blatantly homosexual member of the team might be a lesbian, and is afraid it might be contagious.
This could have been perfectly serviceable as a series unrelated to the '92 film, but I guarantee it roped in a lot of people (like myself) not expecting what they were giving out. Hell, they even managed to shoehorn in the famous "there's no crying in baseball!" line for good measure... right before they cut away to two women making out.
TL;DR? If you're expecting to sate some 30-year-old nostalgia like I was, don't bother.
So, we're back the Cereal Convention, which is basically a con for serial killers. Aside from being messed up as shit, it basically carries forward a problem from the comics that annoyed me. So you have a hundred of so serial killers at a hotel, going into panels and speaking OPENLY about the terrible shit they do, People can walk in and out of these rooms, murders are occuring, people are getting chased down the halls of the hotel by murderous pedophiles and.....literally nobody seems to notice or care. This hotel apparently has no cameras or staff, yet a kid can wander into a room where a murder is taking place because the door isn't locked. I'm kinda baffled not one of these serial killers has police surveillance on them leading them to the whole rotten bunch(which would be a fucking jackpot for law enforcement to bust), but I'll pass over it.
It's actually even more baffling then the comics because this is in 2021/2022 where everyone and their dog has cell phone cameras yet nobody is around to notice....hey, shit is going down in this hotel and the fact some of these fuckers can't be bothered to restrain their vile impulses for like 2 fucking days makes me wonder how LITERALLY NOBODY NOTICES!
A League Of Their Own (Amazon Prime Original Series): Deceipt / Great
Based (cringingly) off of the beloved classic 1992 dramady of the same name, a ragtag group of women during the WWII era vie to create and sustain a baseball league in lieu of the men's league that has been suspended as many of those players are overseas fighting in the war. They face adversity, doubt, lack of investment and general lack of interest until they start to produce a product befitting that which the people had come to expect from America's past time. "Interpersonal" relationship betwixt players play a heavy role in this outing however, and there is a, I dunno, side story(?) that intertwines with that of the Rockford Peaches (central team of the story, same as the film) about a young black woman denied access to the league despite her innate talent, and her struggles with coming to terms with pressures from her mother, friends and society to conform and face harsh realities.
They really should have just called this series "A League Of Non-Black Lesbians." The fact that the coopted the title, word for word, of a classic family-friendly dramady only to lean so heavily on themes of sex, sexuality and racism feels disingenuous and tonally dissonant to the source material. It'd be like if they came out with a "Forrest Gump" series, and each episode followed Gump's adventures that inexorably led him into the gay part of town: 'Those men were very friendly. They were all danc-ing and hug-ging and kiss-ing. One of those nice men even tried to stick his fingers between my but-tox... that's all I have to say about that."
They literally ripped the flesh from the 1992 film, and Frankenstein'd a "new" lesbian empowerment agenda onto its bones. Seriously, NO characters are fleshed out save for those who turn out to be lesbian; every other member of the Peaches is ambient noise save for the one neurotic girl who, while highly intelligent, spends her waking hours in fear and one point, even "suspects" the most blatantly homosexual member of the team might be a lesbian, and is afraid it might be contagious.
This could have been perfectly serviceable as a series unrelated to the '92 film, but I guarantee it roped in a lot of people (like myself) not expecting what they were giving out. Hell, they even managed to shoehorn in the famous "there's no crying in baseball!" line for good measure... right before they cut away to two women making out.
TL;DR? If you're expecting to sate some 30-year-old nostalgia like I was, don't bother.
I think a review I read said it best, the biggest problem with the show and the thing is fails to live up to from the movie is the fun. It's good to take things seriously that were serious things and not gloss over them but there comes a point where you're trying to hard to much and need to let off the gas a bit. The writer of that review was really impressed with the casting but felt that it doesn't use the full potential of its actors for the smaller moments.
Was a movie I watched a lot as a kid thanks to my mother and sisters loving the movie so it sucks to hear the show is a bit too "try hard". Though it seems like it's at least a decent to good show, just not delivering on everything it could.
"Better Call Saul" AMC (Watched on youtube tv) A +
What a series.
The polar opposite of one of my all time favorite shows, "Breaking Bad".
Breaking Bad is about a good man that circumstances result in him becoming a monster. Funny monster as we root for him and things go as well for him by the end as I suppose they could go. Better Call Saul, a prequel/sequel to BB is about a lawyer who cannot stop being who he is, regardless of circumstances. He is Walter White's opposite. By the end, Saul, insanely pleas down charges that should get him 130 years of hard time to 7 years club fed... and then throws it all away.
I think a review I read said it best, the biggest problem with the show and the thing is fails to live up to from the movie is the fun. It's good to take things seriously that were serious things and not gloss over them but there comes a point where you're trying to hard to much and need to let off the gas a bit. The writer of that review was really impressed with the casting but felt that it doesn't use the full potential of its actors for the smaller moments.
Was a movie I watched a lot as a kid thanks to my mother and sisters loving the movie so it sucks to hear the show is a bit too "try hard". Though it seems like it's at least a decent to good show, just not delivering on everything it could.
This is true, yet another reason it is undeserving to carry the name so casually. This series is not fun. It has more than its fair share of moments of levity, but none of them as fun or as frequent as to call the series on the whole a "dramady." Hell, even baseball seems to take a backseat to their plot for most of the time; the on-field scenes probably comprise maybe 15 minutes of the ~8-hour run time? The rest of it is women asking "can we go somewhere and talk?" where they inexorably admit feelings of confusion or consternation if "can we talk" is not an outright euphemism for "let's got somewhere and make out."
As for the casting, for what they ultimately did, I say it was serviceable, but nothing stellar. Most of the major plot moments are so contrived as to be ham-fisted, so the actors find themselves clawing their way through ham salad as to be taken seriously.
As I said, as it's own show, unrelated to the film it "sourced" itself from, this is fine. Not my personal cup of tea, but fine. But calling it "A League Of Their Own" with tongue firmly OUT of cheek was dishonest.
"Better Call Saul" AMC (Watched on youtube tv) A +
What a series.
The polar opposite of one of my all time favorite shows, "Breaking Bad".
Breaking Bad is about a good man that circumstances result in him becoming a monster. Funny monster as we root for him and things go as well for him by the end as I suppose they could go. Better Call Saul, a prequel/sequel to BB is about a lawyer who cannot stop being who he is, regardless of circumstances. He is Walter White's opposite. By the end, Saul, insanely pleas down charges that should get him 130 years of hard time to 7 years club fed... and then throws it all away.
Yeah it was a bit of a rug puller for sure, but ultimately a satisfying conclusion. I’m guessing after they told him about Kim he had a gut check of sorts, but I have to wonder how his story about Hamlin would have compared to hers before that (the ice cream pot sweetener).
The pay off lies in the irony of him knowing when he’s been beaten, and decides his one last trick up his sleeve is coming clean at his own expense.
Yeah it was a bit of a rug puller for sure, but ultimately a satisfying conclusion. I’m guessing after they told him about Kim he had a gut check of sorts, but I have to wonder how his story about Hamlin would have compared to hers before that (the ice cream pot sweetener).
The pay off lies in the irony of him knowing when he’s been beaten, and decides his one last trick up his sleeve is coming clean at his own expense.
I think he also realizes he largely ruined Kim's life. She's trying to pick up the pieces and he knows if he is released in only 7 years, he has plenty of time to hurt the woman he really cares for again, so he makes certain he is not getting out anytime soon.
I think he also realizes he largely ruined Kim's life. She's trying to pick up the pieces and he knows if he is released in only 7 years, he has plenty of time to hurt the woman he really cares for again, so he makes certain he is not getting out anytime soon.
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