What I Have Been Watching: Back to the TV - Pt B

What I Have Been (or Am) Watching is from The Domein of Toast, he (i) admittedly spending too much (almost all?) time in front of the TV. Kent's not stepping on toests but yeah, he (me) has a piles of TV shows in progress and maybe doesn't have has too much to say about it.

Pt. A is here.

A handfull of one-(or couple)-episoders.

Citadel, 2023, Amazon Prime

The TV is very very heavy with Spy TV this year, and I thought this would be the one that would stand out, adding a bit of Mission Impossible glitz to all the by-the-books British & American style thrillers. It has the sex appeal and sexy sexy people. It has a MacGuffin in a briefcase and even neat names for Good Guys vs Bad Guys (Citadel vs Manticore; wouldn't it be neat if a show just used two random D&D monsters as the agency names? Owlbear vs Illithid?) but whether it will stand out for me, or not, is yet to be determined because.... well, ep01 did not catch me.

Annnnd, how is that only a week and a bit since I watched the first episode, and I don't recall very much about it, at all ? I remember a fight on a train, and sexy Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and a jump forward to a memory deficit Richard Madden (he doesn't remember what happened on the train, nor who he actually is), and that's... it. I am thinking I may have fallen asleep and will have to rewatch ep1. 

The Power, 2023, Amazon Prime

Heroes from a feminist viewpoint -- it's shameful that in 2023, we are still so far away from basic, accepted by all, equal rights, to the point we have to use angry, superhero media to express the point. Or maybe in this current era of the back-treading of such rights, this show is even more needed? 

The show begins with many viewpoints focusing on the emergence of a (super)power exhibited by a subset of young girls - an electrical power. There are abused orphan Allie (Halle Bush, debut) and Seattle highschooler Jos (Auli'i Cravalho, Moana) in the US, Roxy (Ria Zmitrowicz, Mr. Selfridge) the gangster's daughter in the UK, and aspiring [not girl] reporter/YouTuber Tunde (Toheeb Jimoh, Ted Lasso) in Nigeria, who observes it happening to the girls in his town. The worldly viewpoints create the setting as a global event, literally Girl Power metaphor come to life.

It's pretty easy to see that the show will be about the ostracization of these young girls for having an ability few (want to) understand but only see as dangerous. Oh, it can be very dangerous, but I have a feeling the electrical power is just the stepping stone towards something else. Hopefully it treads more than the political statement, and gives itself room to breathe.

Wolf Pack, 2023, Paramount+

We did three episodes and this was a big a nope from me.

I had recalled this from last year as the next (big) thing for Sara Michelle Gellar (Buffy-verse) as a werewolf hunter, but only recently remembered it had already aired. I grabbed three episodes. It starts strong enough, maybe even impressively, in a massive wildfire threatening a small northern California town. Tree line burns, animals are panicking and a school bus full of kids is trapped on a jammed road. There is a stampede, and the kids are caught in it. It is a brutal, bloody, deadly encounter full of smoke and panic and ... something else hiding in the smoke, grabbing kids, biting a few, slaughtering others. But my first hint of the lunacy (pun intended) should have been recognized, when the best reaction to the terrible situation would have been GET BACK ON THE BUS. The kids weren't hiding from the fire, but from the stampede. And yet they ran around like panicking rodents. The rest of the two episodes had me yelling at the screen for all the Why Are You Doing That's.

Plot. Two of the kids are bitten during the stampede -- Blake (Bella Shepard, A Girl Named Jo) and Everett (Armani Jackson, Chad); Blake runs off because she has a shitty family situation and runs from everything, and Everett ends up in the hospital where his quickly healing injuries cause his family to give We Are Disappointed With You face, despite him being COVERED IN BLOOD. So yeah, the kids are bitten/infected, but heal quickly (look, Blake's acne healed as well, so now she's hot) and are confused about the changes happening to their bodies... groan, even I cannot continue on that usual metaphor. But wait! There are more hot teens! The Briggs twins are werewolfs too, but THEY were born that way. And that night of the fire, is also Full Moonish. There is lots of Not Talking About It (a TV trope I loathe) and shitty cops (seriously, these are possessed-by-evil-aliens level bad cops) doing weird shit (seriously, you are arson investigators, so why do you need three full squad cars to apprehend a teenager boy for QUESTIONING), giant CGI werewolf lurking in the shadows and bushes (like, downtown, where he should be very fucking obvious) and lots of horny horny teens being awkward, and horny. Well, at least the gay kid is not awkward. Just horny.

I won't be watching any more episodes, so I won't find out whether SMG is actually just a terrible arson investigator or actually a werewolf hunter who (badly) pretends to be investigating arson. Also, do they actually investigate arson during massive burn-down-towns wildfires?

What's up with that poster? Based on the few episodes I have seen, the kids are the stars, not SMG.

Silo, 2023, AppleTV+

Based on a popular post-apocalyptic novel series (Wool) that I absolutely loved. but for some reason, this show isn't doing it for me. It should have hooked me with one episode, and maybe if I hadn't read the series, I would be? I really don't get it. It's totally PA and with a grimy, rust-punk aesthetic that I should totally dig, but... it's not grabbing me, despite being very faithful to the source material. 

That paragraph was very... bipolar. And, me responding with Other Voice immediately after not so much? 

So, it's The Dark Future. People (whoever is left) live in a massive, multi-levelled silo underground. They produce food, water, electricity, raise animals on grass covered levels, and have ancient machinery that provides for everything, as long as it's kept in good repair. There was a rather big, impactful rebellion some years ago which destroyed much of the electronic archives, so they don't know what happened to stick them inside a silo, nor what is outside that keeps them trapped inside. BUT they know, via scripture level statements, that nobody goes outside, but to wipe clean the lenses that show them the wasteland outside. And nobody does that unless they profess they want to go outside, and that is the most heinous crime. Ask to go outside, and you WILL go outside. And die.

We start when the very popular Sheriff (David Oyelowo, Selma) asks to go outside. He confesses that he has been thinking about it since his wife did so years before. So then we get another even older flashback of her going outside, after getting mixed up in a conspiracy about ancient tech and ancient knowledge that they are not allowed to know. That is what inspires her to go outside. And kills her.

We are then left with an Engineer, the extremely valuable people who Keep The Lights On and she is now investigating what the Sheriff learned, and what he learned from his wife. And that's where I left off, despite the Engineer being Rebecca Ferguson (Dune) who I should be willing to watch in anything. And just might be. Not sure yet. Just not compelled. Yet.

Can someone explain to me, Why? It's PA, its Rebecca Ferguson, its rust-punk, all things I love. Why is it not grabbing me?

Hello Tomorrow! 2023, Apple TV+

Again, this should have hooked me, and it kind of did with the setting, which I absolutely love (retro-futurism) but ... it is so .... bleak?

I have this story inside my head, a story in the world of The Jetsons, but set below those houses and apartment buildings in the clouds. A grimy world that is set below the shiny plastic and robot housemaids and flying cars. This show is sort of set in that grimier world of retro-futurism, where the future was supposed to be flying cars, and living on the moon, and Optimism.

But it isn't.

Jack Billings sells dreams, dreams of a house (time share?) on the moon, in a subdivision where everything is provided for you. Given that most retro-futurism is set in that 50s-ish era when suburbs were being touted as the Only Way To Live, this clicks. Except, its all a lie. Billings may be brilliant at what he does, with a loyal crew of sales people who actually believes his bullshit, but he knows better, and during the off scenes, we see the impact. Add to the mix the now grown son he abandoned and ... wow, this is weighty. Like the bullshit story Jack is selling his chumps, I felt I was sold a bullshit story about flying cars and robots that take out the garbage, when I ended up getting a sad story about sad people doing sad things. Of course, that is the point, but...

And yet, the narrator said, he still felt compelled to continue watching it... someday.

True Lies, 2023, CBS

As I was saying, TV is heavy with the spies this year. I remember being fond of the original movie. Well, not the original original movie but the Arnie & Jamie Lee Curtis movie from 1994, which was based on a French film. So, Spy Guy living a double life, until his wife finds out.

New series by Matt Nix, who did one of our fav shows Burn Notice!! And it stars Ginger Gonzaga whom we loved in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law! We should love it! And yet, we don't. Its a big ol nope from me. Its just incredibly low-brow, low-effort TV making. All the jokes fall flat, most of the characters are cereal box cardboard thin and the plots are cookie cutter. 

FUBAR, 2023, Netflix

Meanwhile, its almost like this show was made in spite of the previous show. For one thing, it actually stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Luke Brunner, in essentially the exact same plot as before, except with a twist (a tweest!). This time he's retiring from his international spy activity, to return home to his seemingly idyllic family life. Except its not. He's actually divorced from his wife, and is deluded enough to think he can win her back. But at least he will have his perfect daughter who adores him, right? Riiiiight?

During his retirement party, he is re-activated and sent to Guyana; the son of a cartel lord he murdered decades ago has returned to pick up where his Evil Druglord father left off. Even after Brunner funded the kid's comfy life, feeling guilty for having deceived them and left him fatherless. So, off to Guyana Brunner goes, only to find out that someone else has been previously embedded in the drug lord / arms dealer's compound -- his daughter, who has pulled a True Lies on Brunner! She's also a spy, and didn't know her dad had been one, but was recruited by the CIA who didn't bother informing Luke. Lies all around! SNAFU !

I mean fubar.

Where the other show falls entirely flat, this actually had me chuckling a number of times. For one, its entirely inappropriate, dropping f-bombs everywhere, and dripping blood whenever it can. The humour, especially from Luke's support team is on point, while actually double-downing on the quickly revealed toxic, dysfunctional family esthetic that should be there in all shows with this plot. We only watched one episode, but I will probably watch the rest, even if no one else likes it.

3 Short Paragraphs: Asking For It

2020, Eamon O'Rourke (debut) -- download

OK, let's get this out of the way. It's really weird that a write-up about a movie with a group of women standing up, violently, to people transgressing against them abusing them, or male scumbags in general, is somewhat marred by reading about the director assaulting someone a trans woman in a bar in Brooklyn. Somewhat, in that the confrontation is only being played out on Twitter, and while the director has apologized to her, he also has his people running damage control. Its also weird that this movie stars Ezra Miller, as an incel MRA scumbag, while he runs around being a scumbag himself.

Small town girl Joey (Kiersey Clemons, Sweetheart) is date raped by a college friend, and is left to suffer alone, unable to share with anyone close to her. As she works her small diner in a post-traumatic haze, she's approached by Regina (Alexandra Shipp, X-Men Apocalypse), who shows her a world where she can feel safe again, and maybe even get some revenge. Not so much legal justice, but plain out violent revenge. Add to the story a rabid "men's right activist" (i.e. raging misogynist; Miller) and a trafficking ring that thinks its untouchable (run by a small town's police force) and you get a flick that harkens back to the 70s revenge porn / girl power schlock fests.

This movie was butchered by the critics. And with some good reason. Its character depiction is amateurish, as they are more just motivations and reactions than people. But considering the violent fare I am watching these days, that is par for the course. Also, a white man helming a movie about women of colour reacting to the apathy of the patriarchy is just a wee bit exploitive, again somewhat harkening back to the 70s. And yet, with as much as the cast had to work with, they did give some genuine performances which left me appreciating it.

What I Have Been Watching: The Chosen Few (Pt1)

What I Have Been Watching is the admitted state of me spending too much time in front of the TV, especially during 2020 the Extended Version. But this time, I don't even barely attempt to tell you EVERYTHING I have been watching or we would be here all day.

The Nevers S1, HBO -- download

Why do our heroes have to fall? Or more likely, why do our heroes have to be human, and once more, with more precision, why do typical humans have to be such utter shites. Joss Whedon was a guy to be respected, in ages past, when he created shows that not only established a whole generation of pith, but also highlighted & empowered young women. Too bad he decided that he was owed something from those women, given the number of stories that have come out in the Post Buffy Years, about him being quite the prick. At first, I was an apologist: it was just the era, there was some sour grapes involved, at least he is not as bad as the rest. But really, that was my own hangups. The thing is, no matter what place in the power structure you have, you shouldn't be abusing it.

But does shitty artists means shitty art? Sometimes. At the very least, it should make it so that they have to work even harder to regain back that trust and respect. Alas, I don't think he is going to get there, as I suspect he doesn't really feel like a Bad Guy. I think he feels more like someone who got caught. And yet, I was still looking forward to The Nevers, his new HBO series about women with powers in Victorian England. And committing to being conflicted, I was also somewhat glad when he departed it, claiming "exhaustion". If you are tired of being called out for being a shitty person, too fucking bad.

Whedon aside, the show was rather enjoyable, if not revolutionary. And a cut above the vast number of supernatural Victorian era shows out there.

For a reason unbeknownst to the people of London, there is a spontaneous emergence of "powers" among the disenfranchised of the city, mostly women, but not all. Amalia True leads a small cadre of these women, having gathered them in a sort of orphanage, one sponsored by a wealthy widow and her meek brother. Meanwhile, to add to the misery, one of the Touched has proven to be a psychopath, which further taints the city's already lacking trust of them. People already distrust the different but if they are women or foreigners...

The season explores how they got their powers, a conspiracy in the shadows that is kidnapping Touched, the British governments utter distrust of them and a hunt for Maladie, the psychopath. All the while we are learning that True is not as true as she claims, nor are some others. In typical pithy Whedon fashion, characters are charming, complex and funny in their own ways. I completely fell for the steampunky inventor Penance Adair (Ann Skelly, Vikings), and her shy Irish accent. But what really shone was angry, dangerous, boiling beneath the surface Amalia True (Laura Donnelly, Outlander). The rest of the cast each has their charms, and oft get a chance to shine. And once again, in true Whedon fashion, the end of the season reveals something we kind of knew had to be revealed, but was done so in a unfathomable manner, much like the whole sudden jump to the future of the now painfully troublesome Dollhouse.

Jupiter's Legacy S1, Netflix

Speaking of creators that a lot of people do not like, the first series on Netflix from Millarworld (now that he sold the imprint to Netflix) is the adaptation of somewhat critically acclaimed Jupiter's Legacy, another in the many reworking of the Superman mythic figure such as Invincible and Homelander from The Boys. 

In the comic world, and yeah big ol SPOILER ALERT, a league of justice extolling superheroes is broken apart when their children murder them. Well, really just The Utopian and his wife, Lady Liberty. They are presented as overbearing, controlling entities that demand far too much of the next generation of superheroes, which leads to their demise. But then we learn it was all a manipulation at the hands of one of their own. The comic is rather short, and was followed by a few unsatisfying sequels.

The TV series is even less satisfying, in that they wanted to stretch out the whole introduction story into an entire season. And boy, does it get stretched out, taffy strung between two wide spread arms, stretched. But not as tasty. Not that the story is inherently bad, nor is the acting or production values, but OMG backstory filler! 

We learn that The Utopian, his brother and some close companions, emerged from the trauma of The Great Depression with superpowers (by way of a mysterious magical/alien island), powers that they controlled very closely, keeping a tight rein on how they would influence the world. Oh, they could have taken over, they could have influenced world politics, but Sheldon (Utopian) wants to gently guide the world to make its own better decisions, with their league, their Union of Justice to set the example. It starts off well enough...

But it has failed. By the time the 21st century spins around (the age much more slowly) their kids are drug addicts and hedonists, the products of terrible parenting and many are fame obsessed, in particular Sheldon's kids. The comic came out almost 10 years ago, and maybe this would have been shocking and enlightening then, but this rendition of "gritty superheroes" is just ... tiring. I am sure they wanted to do a mirror reflection of the Marvel movies, but it all seemed so forced, but without the "OMG shocking!" of The Boys. 

But it has failed. The series was cancelled soon after S1 being released on Netflix, and it makes me wonder whether the network is second-guessing what they got from Millarworld.

3 Short Paragraphs: Charlie's Angels

2019, Elizabeth Banks (Pitch Perfect 2) -- download

Why did I watch this movie? Why did I make the actual effort and download this movie? Let's be honest here. Why do any of these movies get made? Sorry, let me be less facetious as there are many reasons female centric light action movies get made, but that was not my point. We could say I wouldn't be expected to see this movie, for as Elizabeth Banks (who acted, produced, wrote and directed the movie) puts it, men don't go see women do action movies. But again, honestly I didn't know she did the movie until I saw the credits role, and against honestly, that wouldn't have swayed me one way or another. But we can probably agree I do actually gravitate to female oriented action flicks, whether they be created to please men (which I honestly thought was the reason for this one), or agnostic to gender and social implications. But why did I see this movie? Well, because of pretty young women in exotic locales doing action movie tropes. I wasn't expecting John Wick just some distraction and I got it.

Banks takes the previous elements of the franchise and turns them on their head. The Townsend Agency is now more than a California based PI firm, but an international organization with ... well, I really have no idea what's its agenda was, but it was altruistic and extremely well funded. The original Bosley (retconned to be Patrick Stewart in all versions of the franchise) is now Bosley 001 and all his supporting counterparts, including Elizabeth Banks' character are also Bosleys. The women of the org are the Angels. Right off the bat you see she wrote the movie to focus on how men just underestimate what women are capable of. Well Not All Men but most, and the Townsend Agency takes advantage of this in the field. It was a decent focus, having them be All Sexy All the Time as a role not as a weakness. The problem is that the message is too much a cartoon hammer to the head, instead of nuanced. but for a rare moment when we are presented with a woman who runs a smuggling ring of goods women in Turkey cannot access easily, such as birth control and pregnancy tests.

Alas, the movie matches (at least my) expectations in being a dumb action flick. The Red Herring is a magical technological doohickey that is supposed to provide cheap limitless power to the world, but the Bad Guys just want to use it to assassinate people. Once they actually show how difficult it is to implement, the Bad Guys should have realized it was more feasible to just go back to shooting people. Besides limitless power could do pretty well in Evil Lairs. But to be honest (cuz, in this post, it was all I could be) I rather liked the angels -- even Kristen Stewart in a role that could have been Miley Cyrus, was not as annoying as she usually is -- she actually looked like she was having some fun. It was definitely light and action packed, but if Banks wanted to do a proper movie to reboot the franchise and make her name (since McG didn't do so well at it) I would have gone for grittier, more Jason Bourne and made a serious statement on the seriously evil incel / 4chan anti-women movements out there.

3 Short Paragraphs: Peppermint

2018, Pierre Morel (Taken) -- download

A female led revenge flick by the director of Taken; sounds like the perfect candidate for one of the topics we considered for the re-engineering of this blog into a podcast, a boozy podcast. But I admit, I was rather boozy when I committed to this (re)direction, so I am not sure I am so taken with it now... pun intended. BUT, the topic -- the female empowerment movie in the post female-empowerment era was a fun idea. What? WTF did I mean by post female-empowerment? I mean, in the era when old white men are getting to define what female-empowerment is; back in those days it just meant angry women with a gun, which is basically what this movie is. We hope we are moving into an era where women can get to define what the term means and whether a movie is of it. I doubt we are.

Anywayz, Jennifer Garner is a woman whose family is gunned down in front of her, daughter included. Gunning down the husband is always fine, but once you kill kids, all the cards are off the table. I am not sure what that term means, but they always use it. Not only does she identify and testify but everyone believes her, and knows she is correct -- open and shut case. But dirty judges (and cops and...) get the case tossed out by throwing her anti-psychotic medication in her face. And when it happens, she does go psychotic and is dragged away literally kicking & screaming. Who wouldn't. But she escapes her captors (the state) and disappears.

Years later, lithe Jennifer Garner has returned from overseas where she learned to fight & kill. She begins killing off the members of the cartel who slew her family, while hiding out in an abandoned car on Skid Row. Yeah the famous one, which turns out is not just a term coined by Hollywood but a real place in LA. Things escalate until she confronts the cartel leader and gets to kill him. Yes, the movie is that boring, with only the barest hints of what it probably wanted to be.

3 Short Paragraphs: Captain Marvel

2019, Anna Boden / Ryan Fleck (Sugar) -- cinema

Finally out to see a movie in the theatre and finally a movie where my eye(s) cooperate and I can properly enjoy (i.e. focus) on the screen. I can also say that the best time to see a movie is 4:30pm on a work day; the dullards are at a minimal. So, what I got was exactly the experience I wanted -- another MCU movie with Sam Jackson and a surprisingly delightful Brie Larson. Larson is one of those Hollywood starlets who, by choice likely, is not in any spotlight. What's the last movie you can say you saw her in? I can only remember Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. But after this flick, yeah she has made her mark on my brain. The smirk! The squint! I say outright that those subtle affectations of emotion are about to be a thing.

"Nevertheless, she persisted," was my greatest takeaway from this movie. As an MCU movie, is definitely middle of the road. Doesn't every MCU fan rate the flicks? This is above Thor and Doctor Strange for me, but just below Ant Man and the Wasp. But what stood out for me, and what had me enjoying every scene thoroughly was the mark it was making for lone female superheroes. Carol Danvers is the epitome of every young woman who got knocked down but got back up again. And there was nothing wrong with the heavy handed use of that statement. She moves through the movie in an unflappable manner, a strong heroic figure who knows exactly what she is doing even when exposed to the deceit of her past and an ever-shifting line of belief in her peers. On a power scale, she is definitely going to be next to Thor, and she is finally the MCU's powered flyer with proper blasts of energy.

As Kent mentioned (over there...) the movie does have an issue in what plot its trying to follow, but I didn't really think it mattered. At least not to me. This is an establishing movie, a plot device to wedge her into Endgame and I am alright with that. At least it's not just another pure origin story, which we are probably all tired of. If I had any problem of the movie, it was more to do with the shoe-horning of the cosmic aspects. The Kree Empire is still pretty relevant when Guardians of the Galaxy begins so then what happens between the end of this movie and when that one picks up? A lot should have happened, but... But, I still got a movie I really enjoyed despite my lack of popcorn -- low carb diets suck.

31 Days of Halloween 2017: The Autopsy of Jane Doe

2016, André Øvredal (Troll Hunter) -- download

We loved Troll Hunter.  Probably more in fond recollection than in review, but still I respect the guy for doing it. We should see a couple more of his movies, but this one turned out to be a respectful entry, if a little lazy in the ending.

Tommy and Austin run the local small town morgue & coroner's office, out of an old family home. With typical setup, we get the pair finishing an autopsy with father Tommy explaining to his son Austin that they don't do the investigating, they just collect the information and present it to the authorities. Tommy (Brian Cox) is the venerable expert; his son Tommy (Emile Hirsch) is catching on, but really, he just wants to leave the job, move on with his girlfriend to a new life.

And then they wheel in Jane Doe, who was found in the basement of a murdered local family. The family looked like they may have killed each other, but Jane is a mystery. Her body is pristine, clean and unblemished but... has to have been in the basement for a while. So, WTF.

Jane is a naked anomaly, and Øvredal really plays up the alluring nature of her beautiful nude body. Yeah, he is fucking with us. The best part of the movie is as they perform the autopsy, inspecting a body that should just not be in the state it is, confounding all of Tommy's attempt to determine cause and time of death.

Once they  determine she must be a witch, and possibly one that was killed and branded during the Salem era witch trials, things get more familiar. Spooky things happen, the pair getting cut off from the outside and they accept that the supernatural is involved. There doesn't seem to be any motivating factors to the witch, but they try and appease her, with no success ending in a completely... unsatisfying manner, but one that is meant to lead to sequels, probably origin stories, as things go these days.

I Saw This!! What I Have Been Watching (PT C)

Pt. A, B can be found there.

I Saw This (double exclamation point) is our feature wherein Graig or David attempt to write about a bunch of stuff they watched some time ago and meant to write about but just never got around to doing so. But we can't not write cuz that would be bad, very bad.  Y'know, three types of aliens invading your world, bad.

So, back from three abandoned shows to three more completed seasons. If I was blogging about these while they were running, it wouldn't be an entry of I Saw This!!

Before we roll into the latest SyFy Channel genre series with a lone female kicking ass, i.e. Van Helsing (disappointgly not based on the Hugh Jackman movie), let's go back and talk about season one of another lone female kicking monster ass. Amusingly enough, both are descendant based, gender bent (kinda) heroic shows.

Wynonna Earp, 2016, SyFy -- download

Based on a comic book, which I only know from some atrocious covers, Wynonna Earp is a descendent of Wyatt Earp, the American lawman who had the Shootout at the OK Corral. But we only heard half the story; those fallen to Wyatt's peacmaker returned in generations after, as demon possessed people.  Someone, a descendant of Wyatt, as to re-kill them with The Peacemaker. There is also something about them being contained within a western triangle.

Wynonna's returns to Purgatory after an extended absence and resumes her role as the town pariah. Years ago her older sister was kidnapped and her dad killed, all in front of her; by said demons. She was institutionalized. She comes home only to find out that all the "delusions" she had as a teenager (not that long ago, really) were real and there are demons in Purgatory. Aaaand she is quickly recruited by a current day lawman, a Black Badge -- an agency that combines cross-border (FBI/RCMP) enforcement of supernatural crimes. Something is up, and he is here to make sure the demons don't escape their magical confinement.

In the genre range, that goes from Asylum (Z Nation) all the way  up to Firefly, this show is a little bit above middling, smacking of Canadian scifi shows (shot in Alberta) but having more heart than most of them do. At that heart is the relationship between Wynonna and her sister Waverly.  As well, there is the antagonistic relationship between them and chief demon Bobo Del Rey, played by my fav Canadian bad guy Michael Eklund. The rest of the cast, unfortunately including Black Badge Dolls (it took me five episodes to hear his name correctly), are so generic it hurts.

The series tries to milk the demon of the week but does so weakly. It shines when it focuses on its primary story. Sure the demons are back again, but this time they are organized by Bobo (yes, stupid name, but he used to pretend to be Waverly's imaginary friend) and witches are involved. Some sort of End of Days conspiracy is at play. Again, the weakest story link was the whole Black Badge element which is badly attempting some X-Files shadowy backstory.

Outcast, 2016, Cinemax -- download

On the other end of the spectrum is the incredible, spectacular, the second best thing I watched this year past -- Robert Kirkman's Outcast. Kirkman is the creator behind The Walking Dead and this is his new story, about demonic possession and a coming apocalypse. But just calling it demonic possession is doing it so much injustice. This is a deeply nuanced story, which had me sitting up straight in my seat once I realized what they were doing.

At the core of the story lay Reverend Anderson, a small (incredibly grotty) town preacher known for a successful exorcism years ago, and Kyle Barnes (holy crap, Patrick Fugit, the kid from Almost Famous), the now grown son of the exorcised. Kyle has his own dark recent past, which has forced him back to Rome and the abandoned home of his childhood. The Reverend has been milking his own pride at exorcism and continues them. Nobody asks why such a small, one horse town has so many possessions.

When Kyle returns it not only stirs up a lot of emotions, but also sheds some light on the demonic possession situation. The good Reverend was never successful at the exorcisms, in fact the only time he actually did get rid of a demon, it was due to Kyle -- blood & tears, when in contact with the possessed, causes horrific expelling reactions. The Reverend learns that many of his "successes" were just demons pulling the wool over his eyes. And he begins to come unhinged. That slow realization, the turn around from a confident man to a stumbling, ranting pariah was incredible.

As for the possessions, it has all the attributes of an alien invasion. For one, the black goo at the heart of it, highlighted in the opening credits (with incredible music by Trent Reznor collaborator Atticus Ross) which reveals more with each watching, is very X-Files. And then there is the creepy man-in-black leader of the demons, played by Brent Spiner. He is a man who has come to terms with the demon inside him, a pact having been made, an agreement that benefits the two.

And furthest out in the already-done series is S2 Daredevil.

(Uh, where's my review of S1 ?)

Daredevil Season 2, 2016, Netflix -- Netflix 

I guess I didn't do a post about season one, but let me just say... it... was... incredible. The Marvel cinematic universe was barely touched upon, and it wasn't needed, in this microcosmic story set in NY's Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood where blind lawyer Matt Murdock decides to put his extreme martial arts training to use defending his town from the enigmatic, powerful Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin. If I remember anything about the first season, it was the powerful fights -- heavy hitting, heart pounding, bone crunching, chest heaving, exhausting fights. Conversely the connections between the mains: Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson and Karen Page, had more heart than almost anything on TV. I loved the season, but for the weak final episode, something Marvel TV seems to repeat.

Season Two begins with a heat wave. Foggy Nelson is still pissed at Matt for revealing he is the masked vigilante in town. Matt is also majorly letting the lawyer side of his life slide, and their agency is hurting. Karen seems to be doing most of the heavy lifting. The void left in Fisk's absence has been filled by the gangs, but someone is voiding them -- The Punisher. Thus appears the core question asked this season; how far should you go as a vigilante? How far is too far?

Jon Bernthal as The Punisher is the best of the many sordid versions of Frank Castle to be seen on the screen (Dolph Lundgren, Ray Stevenson and my fav Thomas Jane) and the only to actually take on the rather broken soul he is. His tragic history is dug up by Karen, who again proves she is much more than any man in the show cares to notice, and makes us care for an ultra violent man, so much more so than Suicide Squad did.

Meanwhile Matt is dealing with his own connection to the end goal of every vigilante -- to stop criminals. He was trained by Stick to be a weapon, an ultimate weapon. And his ex-girlfriend, Elektra Natchios (mmmm nachos) has returned to remind Matt of how he was supposed to turn out. But from Matt, she wants her own redemption.

Again the season moved towards a weak ending, one that is probably going to connect to in greater detail to the larger Marvel cinematic universe -- magic and Iron Fist and Dr. Strange.

3 Short Paragraphs: Mean Girls

2004, Mark Waters (Mr. Popper's Penguins) -- Netflix

Yup, we watched a decade old teen girl comedy. Because I hadn't seen it, because I was a John Waters fan in the day, because I was curious to look back on Lyndsay Lohan before she self-immolated.  And Rachel McAdams as the Bad Guy.... ok, bad girl. I imagine, that for some generations, not seeing this movie was like my generation not seeing Heathers. And it's a lot of fun! Co-written by Tina Fey, it is smart, witty and downright horrid at times. No, it's not Easy A or 10 Things I Hate About You level of smart fun but it joins that collection well. And no, I do not have a section of teen girl comedies on my shelf; I am just well versed. Ahem.

Lyndsay plays Cady, new arrival at school from Africa, where she was home schooled. Which means she gets stuck hanging out with the weird kids Damian and Janis. But they have a plan; insert Cady into the clique-y Plastics, become popular and then destroy the Plastics from within. But Cady becomes enamoured with the nice clothes, the popularity and power and has to be taught a lesson of her own.

This is Lyndsay post-adolescence but before the weird years. The weirder thing is that my collective conscience memory has her doing the Miley Cyrus child TV star thing, but no, she really got her start as a young teen in the remake of Freaky Friday. So, I am not sure how she was so quickly able to fall down while Cyrus continues the path of successful post-kid-star weirdness. Amanda Bynes followed Lyndsay's path, as I predicted, yet Bieber seems to be recovering. Next up, Ariana Grande who is being well monitored, despite the donut incident. What is with my obsessive desire to see teen stars fall but not all of them?  I don't know.

We Agree: Batman v Superman

2016, Zack Snyder (Sucker Punch) -- cinema

p.s. I shouldn't have to tell you but I spoil the fuck out of this movie.

Aargh.

I didn't intend on starting this post before finishing a couple of others, but the voices kept on growling from the back of my mind. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of watching this movie. I see what Zack was trying to accomplish. I feel with him the emotions he wanted to uncover while dealing with these characters. I understand the epic nature of gods vs man that he wanted to show us. But then all the other bits of the movie immediately came back to haunt me, and they are just so annoying.

As Kent said, it's not a bad experience, but it's not a good movie.

You heard me complain before, but I was upset at the destruction and collateral damage in Man of Steel. But after I heard it was just a plot device to move towards this movie, I understood it and even slightly applauded it. Like the Nolan Batman movies had to slay major characters and affect major parts of Gotham, in order to set us up for the weary, angry, bitter Batman, Snyder is setting us up for the motivations of this movie. Heavy handed and obvious, but well setup. We need the superman to protect us from the greater threats, but at what cost? Like the Doctor Who theme, in that he is always there when the worst happens to Earth, but is he to blame? No, if he hadn't been there, it would have been much much worse. I get that if Superman had let his attention waver from Zod for even a bit, more would have died. Despite my love of the grimdark, I prefer my Superman to surprise us with his heroism.

But it sets up this movie wonderfully.

Superman continues his bid to be the protector of the planet, to be the hero the planet needs. But he is presented with so much distrust. There are protestors who don't trust the alien, there are even placard waving fundies who cannot trust the man who could be a god. I guess they believe the metaphor more than their faith? And there is Bruce Wayne, who lost his entire tower in Metropolis from an errant laser eyed glance. From Superman? Zod? Who knows, but it cut his tower in half. Bruce Wayne protected his employees like they were his second family, and as a man who was dealing with all the shit on his own (in his cape & cowl) being helpless was too much for an already very broken man. You see, by the time Superman shows up to fight Zod and his machinery, Bruce Wayne is already the broken man, still hung up on the death of his parents (Maggie and Neegan!) and taking it out on the criminal underground of Gotham. Superman becomes the new focus of this wrath, albeit through impotent rage.

The whole "setting up Superman" bit via an attack in the African desert is ludicrous. One event in a war torn country is silly. And the accusations wouldn't take much to defuse considering the actual murdery stuff was done by the government of that nation, not even related to Superman's intervention. The only thing I can consider is that Lex Luthor's skilled control of the media is capable of washing away facts and only presenting what he needs to further instill hostility against Superman. It just could have been better written.

So, broken Batman wants, needs to go up against Superman. But I don't actually get his motivations. Sure he blames the flying man's arrogance for causing so much wanton damage, but does he actually believe the alien needs to die for it? I am not convinced. I know he is having his prophetic dreams of alternate world Superman comic plots, but kill him? I suppose that is why this is a gatling gun toting Batman, killing mooks in the scores.  So, steal the kryptonite, make the gas bombs & spear, beef up so you can wear the anti-Superman armour and... well, everything else is manipulated by Lex Luthor so I am not sure what Batman's next move was supposed to be.

That. Lex Luthor in this movie is great, but he's just Joker Jr. He's giggly, he's a little mad but he's smart and very very rich. Still not sure why he wants Superman dead. Big Bad Guy playbook, I guess. But he's his own red herring.

And then the Justice League inserts. While I love every scene with Gal Gadot in it, it was entirely unnecessary to the movie. OK OK, DC has to pull a Marvel and have a team movie with some early on build up. But why not just play off what is already there? Use the Supergirl angle, use the references to aliens and other metahumans being there already. No real need for Lex to be investigating. Just have all the pawns already in play, just not connected.

And the Martha vs Martha bit. A great element if noticed by a non-comic viewer but twist of it is just stupid. Superman will fly in every time Lois gets frowned at. But he lets his mother get kidnapped?!?! Oh for the love of flying fuck. He could have listened for her, flown in a breeze and wrapped her quickly in his cloak faster than any Batman could have. Whatever.

Its funny how I can spend so much time ragging on a movie that I rather enjoyed while I was in the theatre. Remember, I am the guy who likes Sucker Punch so I can stomach Snyder's bad story telling if I can get along with the visuals and the style. But the bad bits in this movie are nagging, annoying and interrupt my fun. Despite so, I loved the look of this movie.

Batman is incredible, easily the best Batman of all the movie portrayals. Even the nods to the other movies is fun, almost like Batman from an alternate universe who has to chase bad guys under city overpasses in his wall smashing batcar. The line, "We've always been criminals...." made me shiver; this Batman accepts what he is. The fight scenes are straight out of the Arkham video games, full of bone crunching hits and high dexterity jumps.

The Doomsday battle just looks good. But the little script tweaks made me hurt my left eye rolling at it. The Gotham waterfront is entirely abandoned. Groan. The island Doomsday hits after falling from space is lifeless. Gee, what a cheesy way for the movie to not have the collateral damage of the first. I think it would have been better if Batman was forced to drag Doomsday back to the last known location of the spear despite the deaths he knows it will cause. Make him understand Superman's plight. Put them on equal footing. But Wonder Woman is incredible. Slash slash and her own Captain America shield.

The movie ends with the Death of Superman, even providing us the black cellophane baggie for the comic. It had to end that way. Though obviously, we could just toss him back into space to revive him, the funeral and monument are note perfect. I felt moved. But it's not like we don't know he'll be back.

Like I will be back for the next movie.

I Saw This!! What I Have Been Watching (Pt. 6)

In this new trend of "leaking" things early, I am surprised I did not give the first episode of this alternate history series a brilliant review.  Brilliance on part of the show, not the review. Anywayz, I loved the first episode of this PK Dick story adaptation about a world where the Nazis won WWII, along with the Japanese. The Americans entered into the war too late for Europe, which in turn allowed the atomic bomb to fall into the Nazi hands. The war ended when they dropped it on Washington DC. We enter the story in the early 60s, a generation into America living as an occupied country -- Nazis controlling the east coast, Japanese the west coast with a neutral freezone (but still not America) in the Rockies.

This is an uncomfortable show to watch. Sure, we are still deeply seated in accepting Nazi Germans as bad guys (with no argument of them being so, but they are so deeply embedded in our forefront Bad Guy brain, more so than any other historical force) but the Japanese are generally considered decent, hardworking if a bit pervy these days. But in this world, both cultures are dominating, ruthless and downright scary. But the Nazis come out on top for the Bad.

The story focuses on two young people: Juliana, in San Francisco, whose sister is killed as a resistance agent and Joe, in NYC, a truck driver for the resistance. Both are quickly caught up in a conspiracy involving movie reels from The Man in the High Tower, the leader of the resistance. These reels show an alternate history where the Allies won the war -- our history.

The uncomfortable part is watching the show depict societal norms, even more upsetting than some we already had in the 60s. Joe drives his truck west, through a light snow fall, that is not snow. They are burning the old, the infirm and the insane. Just good population control for the Nazis. And in San Francisco, Juliana's boyfriend is detained & tortured, his Jewish ancestry used as leverage to have him confess to a conspiracy he knows nothing about. His sister and her children sit in a nearby room, a room with gas vents. He knows this. A generation under an occupation and most just ... accept it.

I love alternate histories, where you get to explore all the little bits of change. You can postulate how bad things can get, and how things could have just been different. And of course, you can comment on how some people just accept the world as it is, no matter how horrible it gets. Ahem America, we are all talking to you.

Time to binge watch the rest of the season.

Doctor Who started a trend, well at least in North American eyes -- maybe the Brits have been doing it for ages?  It is the Xmas special. No, not like us, where we have a themed Xmas episode, but a single episode that stands alone from the other stories, usually why the show is inbetween seasons or on a long hiatus. A tasty snippet while we wait.

The Abominable Bride is the first such for Sherlock. It picks up the continuity from last season, in that plane. But really, it takes place in the mind of Sherlock, in the Victorian era, giving us Sherlock and Holmes in their original timeline.

Hee! As a fan of the original books, I loved revisiting that setting.

But it doesn't stop there, as they twist and turn, mixing the stories together with a bit of breaking the 4th wall. As Sherlock investigates a mystery of a bride returned from the dead, he uncovers a rather odd conspiracy of .... feminists?

This episode was for the fans, as it just dives into the characters and their playful interaction with each other. The juxtaposition of 19th century versions vs the current ones, the contradictions and the ever presence ghost of Moriarty. The mystery is just a canvas unto which the characters paint themselves. Great fun! And yet, we are still connecting seasons together, considering how things went last season.

And from great fun to great-gawds-this-is-terrible we get Shadowhunters. This is the TV adaptation of the YA chicks-with-knives genre book series. Yes, the one that had a failed movie franchise attempt starring Phil Collins daughter Lily. Chicks with knives? You know, those books in the store that have a girl in tight, dark clothes usually with tattoos (often a tribal tramp stamp), a sword or dagger and she gets mixed up in Urban Fantasy, usually vampires.

The Mortal Instruments, as the books were called, is about a group of attractive, counter culture youth descended from Angel blood, who are charged with protecting the human world from Demons, and other monsterish creatures. Great idea. No idea about the execution, but boy does it lend itself to a CW style TV show. These shows practically are born on this station. But this one comes from Freeform, formally ABC Family, which might explain why it is so so so terrible.

The main character Clary is coming of age and bumps into Shadowhunters (the pretty kids in leather an abs who fight demons) in a nightclub. Before she can drag out her true history from her mother, the woman is attacked and taken. Clary is left piecing together the story by stalking to Shadowhunters back to their CSI style lair (lots of glowing set pieces, monitors and equipment) and learning of her heritage.

Help me find my mother! Help me find out who I am! Tell me what a Mortal Cup is! These are the strained cries of Clary as she goes from pretty highschooler in jeans and tees to Shadowhunter in short skirts and leather. Its not much of a transition for she looks ridiculous in the outfit, which is not surprising because she got it from a girl who seems to want to look like Vampirella in a pair of tight leather pants. Like the original movie, the boys put and argue over Clary not wanting to get wrapped up in her anguish but knowing they must.

The Vampire Diaries does it better. And yet I have watched a couple of more episodes, not to see if it got better but to see if the incredibly terrible was a fluke, a bad first episode. Nope. Stinker. Not even "I'm on a horse!" Isaiah Mustafa can raise it from the filthy floor.

The most annoying thing about the whole show, movie and book series is that it stole MY idea for a d20 Modern campaign that was also called Shadowhunters, stole its idea from Buffy but used the template of Angel blooded vs Demon blooded. Mine was better. But still had a chick with a dagger nee sword.

Tomorrowland

2015, Brad Bird (Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Incredibles) -- download / netflix

Fuck it. I have/had to rewatch this to fully remember it. Which is neither here nor there, just a statement of time, not of fondness, because I rather liked it, despite it lacking in many areas.

Of note: I initially typed The Impossibles, which I guess would be a version where a family makes up  the Impossible Mission force. I'd watch that.

Retro future. The idea of The Future as seen through the eyes of people behind us. Rocketships with port holes & bright colours. Vacations on the moon and space suits with fishbowls as helmets. Personal jetpacks. Robot butlers. Raygun Gothic design choices, as William Gibson penned it.

I love this aspect of pop culture, though strangely enough not so enamoured with its most popular iteration -- steampunk. I don't dislike Steampunk, I just don't care for it as much as I thought I would. It may be more the steampunks themselves, as I find myself rather dismissive of their dressup as a fashion choice. Getting old, get off my lawn.

Anywayz, love retrofuturism. Still love rockets and laser guns and jetpacks. And the idea of a future that would be enhanced and improved by technology indistinguishable from magic. Focus on improved. We should be vacationing on the moon by now, or more accurately, I should be reading with envy, about people's trips to the moon. I still am yet to take a proper vacation.

We are briefly introduced to the retrofuture Tomorrowland when young Frank Walker talks his way into the 1964 World's Fair to showcase his jetpack. While dismissed quickly because it only mostly works, he catches the eye of a young girl who gives him a pin and some instructions. The pin triggers his entry, from the Disneyland Small World pavilion, because this movie is the latest adaptation of a Disneyland ride, in case you didn't know, to Tomorrowland. Athena, the young girl, thinks he really belongs here. Aaaaand fade.

Casey Newton, played by Britt Robertson (who has previously been a witch in The Secret Circle) is the daughter of an engineer watching his time at NASA wind down. His last job is to participate in the dismantling of a launch facility. Casey is doing her best to delay that by sabotaging the deconstruction equipment. Her dad is not impressed. But someone is; a young girl observing Casey's actions slips her a little pin of a stylized capital T (the same one Athena gave Frank 40 years before, and yep Athena is the same girl, but not at all aged) and when Casey touches it, poof, she is in Tomorrowland. Well, she can see Tomorrowland.

OK ReWatching as it just showed up on Netflix. Being reminded of actually how much of this movie I love.

Casey is given a time limit to see into Tomorrowland, but is desperate to know more. That takes her to Texas, to a retro collectibles store. Once she confronts the salesfolk in the store, she is drawn into the odd conspiracy behind Tomorrowland, which Athena desperately wants her involved in, and the legacy of Frank Walker and his time there.

My gawds, I love that store and the evil robots who run it. There is Keegan-Michael Key (i love that name) as the paunchy bellied, be-dre(a)ded nerd but actually evil robot. Once Casey escapes their clutches, with the help of superheroic roboto girl, we meet some REAL evil robots. Brad Birds movies might feel very very PG but he always reminds us of the stakes, as the smiling evil robots dust the bystanders.

The movie is like a ride. With brief pauses for some comedic drama, it jumps from bouncing, exploding, running, riding and flying all over the place. Clooney is incredible as the older Frank, a disillusioned, cranky old coot (though its hard to take him seriously as a "coot"; its Clooney!) who was kicked out of Tomorrowland when things started going odd there.  Britt is wonderful as the equally cranky, but doubly optimistic young girl who is the destined Last Hope for Tomorrowland... and our world. I am not completely onboard with the destiny idea but I love the idea how boundless optimism can affect the world in the greatest of ways. Its Brad Bird after all, and he is all about the feels.

Frank's house, the quiet countryhouse with all the hidden tech, is why I love Brad Bird's mind. Frank was kicked out of Tomorrowland but that didn't make him any less the genius, just a whole lot more cynical.  I get that. The movie is so much about losing your dreams, giving into apathy and mundanity. The world needs as many dreamers as it can.

There are little details that define why I like Bird's direction so much. When Casey steps on Frank's doorstep demanding his attention, he has a non-lethal countermeasure that blasts you off the stoop with sound or air. It tosses you ass over tea kettle, and when she lands ten feet away you are not so much as hurt, as intimidated. It just looked so.... appropriate. Frank's not a bad guy, just a guy who gave up.

P.S. Also have to mention --- the Eiffel Tower is a launch platform for a Tesla Rocket. Of course it is, why didn't I see that before ?!?!?

The only problem is once they actually get to Tomorrowland.... then the movie seems to fall kind of flat, with a destiny to be fulfilled, worlds to save and hand wringing bad guys to be defeated. Third acts are often set in bigger worlds, wider sets, larger ideas, but I didn't fall into it the way I hoped I would. And yet, I am not completely sure where I would have taken it myself.

Part of why I didn't like the third and final act was that Tomorrowland seemed to be empty. If evil Governor Nix was allowing Earth to be destroyed so Tomorrowland could prosper. But where are all the people? Tomorrowland 2015 is all dusty and dirty, empty and silent. Why? Some details would have been nice.

Frank and Casey are set up against Governor Nix, an ageless meglomaniac who has been broadcasting the apocalypse into the minds of we on Earth. I guess I am one of those who Frank complains about it, because in the preachy dialogue where he outlines why he gave up, I am highlighted. I am one of those guys who sees the end of the world coming, and buys into the packaged, pop culture versions of it. Gamma World, Mad Max, po-ap Teen Fiction, etc. I love that shit. But I also get how seeing that as our only future is not exactly life affirming.  It is up to people like Casey to help us out, a teenager who still has boundless affection for the world and what we can become. Now, if the tech of Tomorrowland can just help her help the world along.

I Saw This!! What I Have Been Watching (Pt. 4)

For each post I put into this long running "What I Have Been Watching" I remember another show I completed in the past year or so, since I "regularly" updated what I was watching on TV. Some are things I have been watching forever, like Supernatural and some are astounding shows I am surprised I never covered, such as Humans.

But, for now, let's cover a couple of One Episode(s).

Colony, not the, is the new alien invasion show over on USA Network, starring Josh Holloway. This guy is good and deserves something stable, but he keeps getting put into sub-standard genre attempts. This one could be a good one, but I doubt it, as it had quite the lackluster first episode. Lackluster is actually pretty standard these days, as I am not sure what standard TV premieres now hold themselves to. Not everyone can have the wow factor of Mr. Robot had in their first.

The trend right now is to leak, or more accurately, show early. So, while I am still the downloader, this was not a under-the-table thing but fully supported by the producers. They are still figuring out the whole digital age thing.

Josh is an ex-military guy trying to survive in the oppressive post-invasion regime. Things are not horrible Falling Skies alien invasion bad, but more an Orwellian, occupation state. Some foodstuffs seem scarce and there are curfews and stories of the disappeared, but generally people live their day to days. When the aliens came, sections of the world (well, at least LA as its the only part of the world of which we know) were subdivided behind massive walls. And people are rarely allowed to pass from one to the other. Anyone who was in a section when the aliens came, has to stay -- Josh and his wife have lost their youngest son and Josh is obsessed with finding him. He doesn't get involved with the resistance (of course, there is a resistance) but he is using them to make headway into the other zone, to hunt for his son. And things go wrong.

Josh is caught and given an ultimatum --- help the puppet human leaders find the resistance and get his son back. Or take the fall for an attack and be disappeared along with all his remaining family. Seems like an easy decision to me, for you can accomplish more alive than you can thrown away in a hole. But his wife is upset, pissed he has agreed to be a collaborator. She has her own more personal reasons.

The drama was pretty standard fare, and the world being built reminded me very much of the original V series, but that may just be the whole LA vibe. We don't know who the aliens are, what they want or how things are going go, so there is lots left to explore. But I will leave it up to a couple of more episodes before I decide.

The Magicians (and the the is correct this time) is the adaptation of the popular series of books by Lev Grossman, another of the books that all my fantasy reading friends have commented about on Facebook but I never got around to reading, nor even finding much about. I believe it was compared to as the 'adult Harry Potter' but that is probably disingenuous.

So, there is another world of magic just out of our sight. Its not so much as hidden but highly managed so average muggles don't see it. Quentin Coldwater is nerd boy who doesn't fit in, has the perfectly lovely best friend whom he isn't sleeping with (but probably wants to), and an unhealthy obsession with some magic filled books from his childhood -- think Narnia.

Paths cross and suddenly he is made aware he has magic potential. And he has to write an entrance exam into Brakebills College, the Hogwarts of upstate New York? I assume it's on the same location as the Xavier School for the Gifted in this reality. He gets in, his friend doesn't, she gets depressed while he stresses out from studying.

The first episode was very very unbalanced. It was done as if they wanted to get quickly past the whole introduction of magic school idea and quickly into the Potter-esque plot of Quentin being the kid destined to fight the returning evil. We are given clues of how hard learning magic is, but never actually experience the difficulty, just Quentin twisting up his nose and whining while others around him seem to play with magic as a past time, very easily. And there was something very CW channel about all the kids, all being very stylish and very sexy, even the nerd girl was stunning and put her outfits together perfectly. Quentin himself was not so much as nerdy, as he was Brooklyn alterna-kid, ever so stylishly awkward.

I will watch the series if but for enough episodes to see where it is going. And two thumbs up on the number of pairs of thigh high socks. I hope they are a sign of their return to fashion.

So, from urban fantasy to straight up classic fantasy. The Sword of Shannara was the followup book for all Lord of the Rings fans to read.  It was Tolkien-light, borrowing most of the fellowship tropes but creating its own world that became very very popular in its own right. I believe I never got much past book... 3 ? I don't remember but I am sure I have one of those boxed sets of paperbacks on my shelf, from back in the day when those were a thing for Xmas gifts.

The Shannara Chronicles is that adaptation of the series come to TV, very loosely and not starting with the first book but with the latter two. We are following Wil Ohmsford and Elven princess Amberle as they try and stop the magical Elven tree from dying, releasing demons back into the world. They are being assisted by ancient druid Alanon, the patron saint of family drug recovery.

One thing I remember in reading the books was my annoyance at the merging of post-apocalypse science fiction with fantasy. I have always been perturbed by the blending of the genres, except when done from a pulp perspective, such as John Carter. But this show is going to just throw in with the current popularity of teen po-ap fiction and litter the visual countryside with fallen Seattle Needles and ruined buildings leaning against each other. And trolls that wear gas masks and armor made from.... street signs? How very Gamma World.

If The Magicians can be mocked for their pretty characters, then people are going to giggle at the Elves of this world. But for me, its always been the perfect way to depict the unearthly beauty of Elves -- make them 20sumthin super models. How else can you depict perfect beauty unless they are cast ever lovely, ever made up and always in the perfect clothes and of the perfect (??) weight? So, the Elves play out well for me, if they are a bit teen angsty.

Its a by the numbers low man against the evil magic of the world story, and not whatsoever the fellowship of the first book, so no LotR comparisons of yet. The lovely eared Elves are there, no Dwarves of yet and the only real monster was the demon lord Dagda Mor, and a few of his minions. Alanon was great, another perfect rendition of a character I would play in D&D. I will definitely be returning for more, but as for quality?  No, not really there. This is purely genre fodder for me.

Amusing note. I watched it on CTV which so very obviously blurred out the implied nudity from a couple of scenes. Marmy missed it, so she downloaded from the MTV source, and yes, the ever so faint hint of nudity was there --- making it ever so obviously blurred on Canadian TV. Ain't that the opposite.

What I Am Watching: The Leftovers, The Strain, Witches of East End

From level of intensity, lightest to heaviest, I am watching all three of these in chunks as downloading tends to lend itself to, one episode here, another couple there.

Witches of East End is something we knew about but never even attempted to see. Who needs another CW level show, young beautiful people mixed up in magic and myth. Surprisingly its not related to the The Witches of East Wick, which I keep on forgetting and having to edit out. It actually borrows more from Practical Magic (book and movie with Sandra Bullock) than it does the movie with three witches and and roguish Devil, which became its own terrible TV show back in 2009. It is about familial magic and the bonds between people. And love triangles. And sex. And some tenuous connection to Norse mythos.

Based on a popular novel by someone more attuned to YA fiction, the first episode actually is pretty decent. Love triangles, quirky dialogue, and fun magic. The dialogue was actually charming, no not Charmed charming more Buffy charming. OK, that was a lame attempt at a segue but, BUT, there is a reason we call this show "the next boobie show". You see, in our household, we refer to TV shows that I mostly watch for ... certain features, as "boobie shows".  First there was Charmed and then there was Ghost Whisperer and now there is this one. Yes, Jenna Dewan-Tatum (Mrs. Magic Mike) has such lovely eyes; no really! They really are gorgeous. But where was I? Oh yeah, dialogue. They go for quirky, amusing quips and comments that are actually meant as dialogue between characters, not just for the audience. And I love that. So, it actually made me perk up while watching it (shaddup you) and interested enough to watch the coming episodes.

And that is where things begin to flop. Plot holes, terrible story lines, truncated time (meet someone, fall in love, watch him die, get over him -- all in three days), randomalia and emotional yoyo-s make me cringe and/or giggle almost every episode. This has become a wander-out-of-the-room type of show for me, as "plots" lose me and those eyes are not enough to keep me interested. We have had them told about their mystical powers, broken the love triangle for a new hate triangle, met new lovers, watched said lovers die, talked about long lost family members, have said family members instantly show up, etc. Basically all the attributes of a show that is dependent on a room full of writers trying to contribute something, anything. It ends up being all so random.

And let's not talk about the weird hentai tentacle porn/rape sub-plot.

Meanwhile, I knew I was going to enjoy The Strain.

Not only am I a fan of Guillermo del Toro but I have read and enjoyed the book series (show is adaptation) he wrote with Chuck Hogan. I never really get how co-writing works, but I usually assume one person has the bulk of the plot in mind and the other does the majority of the heavy lifting, the actual work of writing. Either way, it still felt like something del Toro would write. Its a vampire story but in the three novels, it goes from plague story (infection spreading) to zombie (a few survivors surrounded by the walking dead) to post-apocalypse (a world now changed for the worse) story. Its down all of my alleys. Which sounds dirtier than it is.

The show is being shot here in Toronto so I am a little ashamed with myself for not trying to be an extra. But you know, that whole lose job-looking for work-new job dominated my life this year. But it is still fun watching last winter's footage appear everywhere in the show, even when they are a bit obvious wandering into a building with ROM banners behind them. Toronto has a feel to it, that lends itself well to Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs that play heavily in the story.

I am enjoying it, but I am also a bit perturbed. It is following the book pretty damn well, but adapting to TV as well. But, it is not doing the serial story very well. Unless you intend on making a "mini series" (do they exist anymore?) you have to establish some sort of self-contained episodic story telling. This, well, it just plays one episode into the next. Each episode, for better for worse, is just leading to something big and each episode only gives us a bit more of what is going to happen. That can be a bit annoying, but for the fact that each episode is still pretty well done, with the gore and the monsters and the balance of the varied cast.

And this is how I like my vampires, horrific and monstrous.

Now, speaking of horrific, we have the deep seated pain and grief of The Leftovers. In this series, a Rapture style event has happened and 2% of the world just ... disappeared. Men, women, children and infants were there one moment and gone the next. No explanation, none ever found. It is three years later and the world is still recovering, the world still with its open wound, its loss and the ramifications of such a wide affecting event.

I found the show very heavy and difficult in the first few episodes. Everyone is living with some aspect of the event, whether they lost someone or they are involved in dealing with the messes left behind. Chief Garvey is our main character, who lost a wife to one of the cults that emerged after the event. His daughter suffers the loss of her mother, the change in the world around her and an awareness of how damaged her father has become. Everyone is just so much in pain, sometimes the show is almost unbearable. Grief, heavy and palpable as I have never seen it depicted before.

But the show expands, with intertwining stories about the cults, the infrastructure that has emerged in the aftermath (everyone can make a buck), the way everyone is dealing or not dealing and the pregnant anticipation that this cannot be the only event. What do the cults hope to accomplish? Who is the Dog Hunter? Why does Garvey black out? Can Holy Wayne actually hug the pain out of you? It is Lost comparable in often giving more mysteries then it ever hopes to answer.

But for me, its a story tellers tangible way of depicting unexplainable upset. Everyone seems to be left in this unending state of disarray, never completely understanding why they are the way they are. Some have good reasons, such as losing their entire families, while others are just absorbing the peripheral grief of the event. But everyone is affected, everyone is dealing. I often feel our entire world exhibits this now, all the time, with so much intangible stress around us, from world events, from the guilt of plenty, from family, from just living. This takes this feeling many people have and wraps it around an inexplicable event.

3 Short Paragraphs: Frozen

2013, Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee -- download

Delete delete delete. Enough introspection! This is a Disney animated princess movie, for gawd's sake Toasty! Its the one that spawned that irri... catchy song that all the kids and coworkers are singing! It has a talking snowman voiced by not-Jonah Hill !  It stars Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars herself) and Idina Menzel (the rival for the princess from Enchanted and the actual singing voice of the character) and solidifies (pun intended) the trend that princesses do not need princes to be fulfilled. But yeah, you all saw it and I am just getting around to it, long after Marmy watched it and after it has been growing stale in our Downloads folder.

In the past, Marmy and I would have been into seeing this movie on its first week, in the cinema. We were part of the resurrection of the Disney animation moment. We saw them all, bought them all and she (with me joining occasionally) re-watching them all on a regular, constant basis. That was the VHS days when Disney had its very smart, back-into-the-vault, lucrative business model of selling and re-releasing the expensive tapes. I was even briefly part of the after-market of finding and reselling these movies, often for vast markup.  Mulan was the last one we made a concerted effort to see cinema-wize, we did see Rapunzel and rather enjoyed it actually, and we were rather disappointed with Brave.  I guess we shall have to see what comes next to determine if we have ended our run of princess cinema viewing.

So, don't like musicals, tired of princesses and already annoyed by the song. So, what did I watch this movie for? World Building!! You have a northern kingdom, obviously wealthy, with a great port but imposing, towering mountains behind it. Part of the plot is someone trying to establish trade relations with the kingdom, so they must have something worth selling. Wood? Fish? Mining? And like all faery tale kingdoms, it seems focused on a single village surrounding a castle. Where is the rest of the kingdom? What is out there? Is this one island in a chain of islands that feed the wealth of its hereditary rulers? And what about the magic? Obviously the fae folk have a place in this world, so is she also of fae blood? Perhaps this kingdom is a last vestige of elfen magic in an increasingly mundane world? Perhaps that was the wealth their southern neighbours were hoping to buy into? Alas, I am always left to my own devices when pondering these dilemmas. Maybe, someday, someone will release a coffee table book about a faery tale movie that answers all these nagging questions.

P.S. Kent's view was less chilly than mine, pun intended.