I have been watching the Olympic Games for most of my life, ever since I was a kid. As a child, I was caught up in the pageantry and Olympic spirit. As an adult, I’m more aware of the politics involved, and the corruption, sportwashing, and other human rights issues that so often mar the games. However, I keep waiting, as even if the games themselves don’t live up to the spirit, I still kinda believe in the dream. So, how about this year’s Games?
Read moreTV Review: Twin Peaks: The Return
The end of Twin Peaks’ second season had Laura Palmer tell us she’d see us again in 25 years, before leaving the Real Cooper trapped in the Black Lodge, and BOB wearing Cooper’s body. The film, Fire Walk With Me, provided more details about the background, including Laura Palmer’s last days, but left Cooper’s fate horrifyingly up in the air. We weren’t to get answers for another 25 years of real time. Twin Peaks: The Return serves as a farewell to the world of the series and its characters, as David Lynch’s (somewhat unintentional) final work, and a bit of a commentary on how the world (and television) has changed in the last quarter-century.
Read moreTV Series Review: Twin Peaks (Seasons 1 & 2)
When I wrote my review of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, I made some allusions to Twin Peaks in that review, as I was in the process of watching it. Well, now I’ve finished watching the first two seasons, so now is as good a time as any to give my thoughts.
Read moreLegend of Vox Machina Season 2: TV Review
The first season of Legend of Vox Machina left off on a significant cliffhanger – Vox Machina had overcome the Briarwoods and liberated Whitestone – and had succeeded at their first major act of deliberate heroism. However, the Chroma Conclave were literally on the doorstep. Season 2 kicks off the start of the Chroma Conclave arc.
Read moreMoon Knight: TV Review
These past few Marvel TV series have been generally alright. I checked out of What If with the zombies’ episode (as I’m generally wholly done with Zombies with a small handful of exceptions), but otherwise have enjoyed the MCU TV series. So, Moon Knight, starring Oscar Isaac, has recently concluded, and I figure I should give my thoughts on that. There will be some spoilers below the cut.
Read moreLegend of Vox Machina: Season 1 Review
Season 1 of the Critical Role animated series, Legend of Vox Machina, has finished airing on Amazon Prime, and I have seen all of it. So, I’d like to give my thoughts – in the interest of full disclosure, I did back the series on Kickstarter.
Read moreBook of Boba Fett: TV Series Review
The Book of Boba Fett, when it was set up at the conclusion of the second season of The Mandalorian, was intriguing. The lead-in was setting up the idea of Boba Fett becoming the new crime boss of Tatooine. The final product, however, has left many underwhelmed, and it’s worth talking about why.
Read moreHawkeye (Season 1): TV Review
The next installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has wrapped on Television, this time with a solo(-ish) series focused on Clint Barton/Hawkeye, and introducing the character of Kate Bishop/Hawkeye II to the MCU, all set around Christmas in New York City. There will be some discussion of spoilers from Avengers: Endgame and Black Widow, both of which are also spoiled over the course of the show.
Read moreThoughts on the MST3K Season 13 Picks
This past week, during the MST3K Turkey Day Marathon, they announced all 13 of the films that would be riffed on MST3K Season 13, which I backed on Kickstarter. I have a few thoughts on the picks.
Read moreThe Mandalorian: Seasons 1 & 2
A while back I finished watching the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, and as I’ve finally finished with my (written) recaps of the Knightfall Saga, it’s time to get my feet wet again in Star Wars.
Read moreTV Review: Loki Season 1
To continue with my staying on top of the MCU, it’s time to give my thoughts on the first season of Loki.
Read moreWandaVision and Falcon & The Winter Soldier: Vlog Review
This time I’m taking a look at the two previous MCU TV series from Disney+ in advance of next month’s release of Loki. Part 1 will be covering WandaVision, and Part 2 will be covering Falcon & The Winter Soldier.
Read moreFalcon and the Winter Soldier: TV Review
If WandaVision was an experiment within an experiment, Falcon and the Winter Soldier is a much more conventional limited TV series. It’s still very much a MCU work, with the higher budgets that come with a show like this. However, if you were expecting some more standard superheroic action, this is certainly the show for that. That said, this is, when all is said and done, a show in the vein of the Captain America movies, and like Cap’s comics counterpart, while all comics are political to some degree, Captain America comes to the table planning to be overtly political, with things to say, so to really discuss this show, I’m going to have to say upfront, I’m going to have to get into spoilers – starting below the cut.
Read moreWandaVision: TV Review
WandaVision is the first part of Marvel’s new initiative for incorporating TV series into the MCU. Rather than the long ongoing series like Agents of Shield, or more street-level series that are superheroic but smaller in scope than the Netflix series, these are more limited series that are more limited in scope, while also involving some of the actual Avengers. In the case of WandaVision, they’re also starting off with a series that is considerably more experimental in style and far more personal in tone than the main films.
There will be spoilers below the cot.
Read moreTinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: TV Review
A long time back I reviewed Smiley’s People. At the time I’d seen the previous series – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – but I’d never gotten around to reviewing it. With the show having come out on Blu-Ray and being available through Netflix on-disk, and having seen the film a while back, I figured it was about time to revisit it.
Read moreThunderbolt Fantasy Season 1: TV Series Review
There have been varying attempts in the past to tell dramatic and mature stories with puppets. The works of Gerry Anderson are great examples of this. Well, it turns out there’s a tradition of these kind of stories in Taiwan and china, through glove puppetry. We got a real great example of this a few years ago with the Taiwanese and Japanese co-production, Thunderbolt Fantasy.
Read moreTV Review: Star Wars Rebels – Season 3
In addition to taking a look at the Legends Continuity of the Expanded Universe, I’m continuing my look at the modern continuity of the Star Wars Universe with the third season of Rebels. Read more
TV Review: Star Wars Rebels – Season 2
Continuing with my asides from my reviews of the Star Wars Legends universe, I’ve finished watching Season 2 of Star Wars Rebels, and would like to give my thoughts. Read more
Anime Review: Mushibugyo
Mushibugyo is a series that has a real issue with tonal whiplash. There are anime series that have mixed creepy elements and comedy with tremendous effect – Ghost Hunt is an anime series adapted from a light novel with some strong comedy elements, which doesn’t overlook the creepier and more horrific elements of the narrative, with a well done escalation into further horror.
Mushibugyo doesn’t do that. Mushibugyo starts off with super-colorful characters, an over-enthusiastic and incredibly dense shonen protagonist, and numerous fanservice jokes, but which also contains some surprisingly horrific elements created to the show’s primary menace. Read more
Anime Review: Fate/Stay Night – Unlimited Blade Works (2014-15)
Fate/Stay Night, as a visual novel, had a several routes the player could take through the game. The original F/SN anime adapted the Fate route, with the inclusion of some elements of the Unlimited Blade Works route, with varying degrees of success. After Ufotable’s successful adaptation of Gen Urobuchi’s novel, Fate/Zero, there was question of what it would look like if they were to adapt one of the routes of the game, and in particular the Unlimited Blade Works route in its entirety. Two years ago, we got that adaptation. Read more
TV Review: Star Wars Rebels – Season 1
This is a bit of an aside from my read-through of the Expanded Universe. In addition to reading Truce at Bakura, I’ve also been watching Star Wars Rebels. Having just completed season 1, I wanted to give my thoughts. Read more
TV Series Review: The Story of Film – An Odyssey
This time I’m doing a meta-review, a review of a critical analysis of film – “The Story of Film: An Odyssey” written and directed by Mark Cousins. Read more
Prisoners of Gravity Review
This week I’m taking a look at the Canadian Science Fiction newsmagzine series Prisoners of Gravity.
DVD Review – Bones Season 3
Crime Dramas tend to be serialized, unless they’re not. Yes, that sounds incredibly silly, but it’s generally true. The majority of crime dramas, whether of the soap opera variety or the serialized drama take the Dragnet/Law & Order tack of one case per episode, and it’s wrapped up at the end. Starting in the late 90s we finally started seeing much more serialized procedurals which would stretch a case out over several episodes, to a whole season, to even multiple seasons – with the most notable example of this being Homicide: Life on the Street.
Why am I bringing thus up with a Forensic Detective series that I’ve already reviewed the first two seasons of? Well, that’s because the first two seasons stayed in the standard episodic vein. This season, however, shifts gear to our first serial storyline. Specifically, the case of the cannibal, secret-society hating serial killer the Gormogon. This review will contain some spoilers. This is your warning. Read more