#Season 1 plot is the chip discovery

[khryptid]

Do you ever think about how fucking FUNNY it would’ve been to have a post-war restoration Jedi and clone show?!?

No Skywalker drama and trauma, just top of the line shenanigans and wholesome goodness

[dukeofriven]

The Mercy of Quality: SNW Season 1 Finale in Review

Finally saw the S1 finale of Strange New Worlds, and other than not liking the actor who played James Kirk[1], it's probably one of the handful of episodes from the season that I'd say is genuinely firing on all cylinders. I didn't much like the previous Aliens riff episode—it's a bad fit for Star Trek (you just had a whole episode about not killing kids but now its okay to kill these kids because they're aggressive and violent and not cute and having adorable line reads of technobabble? The Devil in the Dark is right there, you guys), and killing Hemmer is just the most breathtakingly bone-headed decision possible (let's kill off our only disabled actor!)—but the actual script, from a craft standpoint, is really good. Other than a very awkward reference to station wagons early in the episode[2], it avoids the pitfalls of so many previous scripts, with its too-contemporary dialogue and over-reliance on Whedonesque quippery: the script treats the circumstances with the gravity they deserve without ever dragging it too far into Grim and Gritty Serious Prestige TV tripe (see: Discovery Season 1), and the finale continues that trend. Everyone is allowed to act like a grown-up and a professional: Ortegas especially gets to shine this episode because Melissa Navia's exclamations are sharp and on-point: she's not just cracking jokes on the bridge like the class clown who can't help themselves, she's got worthwhile things to say, and it makes sense for her character in the moment to be unable to keep herself from saying them. Equally, when Pike rightly slaps her down for it—this is not the time and place, lieutenant—it restores to him a sense of authority NuTrek has often undermined: in trying to make him the nicest, most genial, easy-going captain in Starfleet he often fails to get the chance to look and sound like a captain, someone who, when the chips are down, can take command. Anson Mount gets to show qualities other than charm or brooding-on-the-future frowning: he sings this episode, it's great.

Not every SNW episode should be serious—arguable the best episode of the season was Spock Amok—but every episode should sound and feel like the 23rd century, and this episode brought a level of professionalism and—for lack of a better word—dignity back to the cast. It lets them be and sound like the Starfleet officers they are, without sacrificing the personalities the show has done so much to shape over the course of the season—the dynamic, funny, interesting people we know them to be (in fact this is where the fairly-flat Kirk… well, mostly falls flat)/[3] It didn't have moments that took me out of the script, and I got all sorts of gushy over Future Pike's hybrid-alt-future-semi-TWK uniform. (The TWK-TUC uniforms are still Trek’s classiest, along with the Insurrection-onwards white dress uniforms I so adore).

Also, more importantly, I’ve already written at-length about SNW's inability to pick a lane when it comes to canon: too loose with canon for the fans who love that sort of thing, not loose enough to not feel crushed by the weight of it. Additionally, in some sense the S1 finale is just a retread of plot points that felt solved already: Pike coming to terms with his future. We- we did this already. We solved it. But that doesn’t really bother me, because this episode does it better than those episodes before it: for the first time, SNW meaningfully makes a case for why SNW-one-day-becoming-TOS matters, why it shouldn’t drop canon and run off and do its own thing like I often feel it should. Why it’s a good thing that Pike not change his fate. Without ever placing us in TOS, it reminds us repeatedly that the stories told in TOS have value, that there’s more than just cardboard sets and dated hair. That’s there’s more to caring about TOS than just blind fan nostalgia for a thing they like and remember fondly. That Balance of Terror isn't just a TV show with member berries in it: it has a message worth hearing—that, no matter Pike’s qualities as a person, the universe is better with a reality where Kirk makes that fateful rendezvous. That the universe is better with a Spock who goes on to mind-meld with V’ger and the space whales, so that one day there will be a universe for the TNG crew to run around in, Voyager to soar over ice planets, and Deep Space Nine to ask the difficult questions about paradise. In its own way its a gentle rebuke to Abrams’s Kelvinverse’s central conceit: yes, you can take the TOS cast and send them down a whole new path in life, changing their fates±but maybe that’s not worth doing. Maybe their original fates, warts and all, are worth preserving, even if that means that Pike has a countdown timer over his head. Certain aspects of what is to come are avoidable, but shouldn’t be avoided.

I don’t know if I fully agree with it: as I’ve said elsewhere, knowing the flatter, one-dimensional characters Uhura and Chapel become in TOS isn’t great. The TOS ‘future’ is deeply flawed for some of these people it ways far more ignoble than Pike’s heroic sacrifice.

But I appreciate it. I like it. And it really made the case for what SNW can be at its best—it made me want to watch SNW season 2, because I know what the show can be at its best, and hope and pray it will be.

(Also, as addendum, the ending really drove home something someone else noted: Rebecca Romijn’s performance as Number One was one of few good things to emerge from the tattered corpse of Disco Season 2. She also has a truly excellent Short Trek: I was so excited to see her in SNW. And yet she’s barely in it? She sits out whole episodes, all-but cameos in others, has no presence in the finale until the last scene. Where the hell was she? Was there some Covid problems like Tis Notara on Discovery? It was so bizarre - where the heck was the cold, unemotional, controlled Number One of one of the best Short Treks? WHERE DID SHE GO?}

[1] hard shoes to fill, mind, but he really lacks any kind of strong screen presence—he's just kind of some guy, y'know? He's not bad, but he's just… a guy. If you don't feel like your actor playing Kirk counted lines so that he had the most, if you don't feel like he did everything to get all the camera time, steal every scene, it just doesn't feel right. I'm not even joking, it's an attitude - 'I am always the most important person in the scene' and the actor doesn't bring that.

[2] I don't care how folksy and old-fashioned Pike is supposed to be, it's like if I said of a group outing ''welp, time to get the chaise and four'—I'd be being deliberately, obnoxiously abstruse, and 'piling the kids in the station wagon' is a phrase that's already feels extinct in 2023, along with the station wagon. It beggars belief that this phrase is going to survive into the 23rd century. No. No! The writer's just making Pike into their own dad - they're getting 'cute'. Stop that.

[3] To commend the season as a whole, the show did marvelous work in really, truly building an ensemble. Imagine trying to do that fantasy episode with the Disco cast: you don't have enough named crewmemebers with pre-established personalities to make it work. Heck, they visit the mirror universe multiple times and you're left going, 'oh no, not evil that guy! And that girl is evil too, huh. So is that person. And is… is that someone we know, or just a background extra. Who is Bryce? Do we know a Bryce? Sounds like he should be running a surf shop, not serving in Evil Starfleet.'

[odanurr87]

My thoughts on... Altered Carbon

Apologies for not posting this review earlier but a few things happened during the week, one of which was the Farewell episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm and I simply couldn’t not play it right away. Also, as you may have noticed by now, I hadn’t written up this review yet. I’ll try to keep this brief.

Overall, Altered Carbon is a series I enjoyed a great deal due to several factors, the first of which is its length. Much like British TV shows, Altered Carbon’s first season is short, comprised only of ten episodes, what’s good because it doesn’t dilute the narrative and keeps the momentum going. I’ve lost count of how many filler episodes there are in any given American TV show and I’ve often pondered how much better something like, say, The Flash would be if it were given half the number of episodes to tell a story. Not to mention there are only so many times I can be invested in Barry having to defeat yet another evil speedster. Altered Carbon is given 10 hours to make this work and I believe it succeeds.

The second factor that immediately appealed to me was the blend between sci-fi and crime thriller ala Blade Runner (probably leaning more towards 2049 than the original). The main protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs, is introduced to us as a mercenary on the run who is later hired as a private eye to look into a murder given his... colourful background. The investigation is certainly eventful and well-paced although it doesn’t do as good of a job as other murder mysteries, such as Poirot, or Miss Marple, in involving the audience and trying to get them to play detective themselves. By the time Kovacs decided to gather everyone in the traditional “room scene” I had few concrete reasons to suspect any of them for the murder but Takeshi managed to paint a colourful picture as was, indeed, the intention. 

Perhaps this is compounded by the fact that, in Altered Carbon’s universe, the body is just a shell (wink wink), a sleeve, a skin that can be worn by anyone, what makes it difficult to guess who may be using a person’s sleeve at any given time, a fact that Altered Carbon takes advantage of throughout the series. This leads to a number of plot threads that introduce new characters and potential allies of Takeshi, such as Kristin Ortega (played by Martha Higareda), a police officer who’s aware of Takeshi’s colourful past and decides to keep tabs on him; and Vernon Elliot (played by Ato Essandoh), a former medic in the Tac Marines who initially becomes a prime suspect in Takeshi’s investigation. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Poe (played by Chris Conner), the Raven hotel’s Artificial Intelligence who takes on the appearance of, you guessed it, Edgar Allan Poe and sees himself as Takeshi’s partner in crime. If only. Poe’s introduction in episode 1 is probably the best in the series (certainly the funniest and a tad creepy as well) and I hope he returns in an eventual sequel.

Poe, one of the best supporting characters.

Since we’re talking cast I should mention a few other names that are tied to Takeshi’s past but for that I need to paint you a picture of the setting. As I mentioned earlier, in this alternate future, humanity has unlocked the means to live forever by storing their consciousness in a chip called a “stack.” In so doing however, humanity has paved the way for further differentiation of the classes, where the rich and powerful can practically live forever in the best and most alluring sleeves while the lower classes either die or often get placed in the cheapest bodies they can afford. At one point, a group of rebels called Envoys decided to rise against this system and tried to put an end to immortality. Needless to say, it did not go well for them and the series explores the events that led to their downfall alongside the murder mystery. In fact, Takeshi was the sole surviving member of their group and he was put on ice for a couple hundred of years. You can imagine he was none too thrilled about being brought back to solve the murder of an immortal, as he embodies everything Takeshi fought against.

Takeshi Kovacs, meet the new Takeshi Kovacs.

This segways nicely into an interesting discussion point as Altered Carbon’s main protagonist is played by two actors (three actually, as he’s briefly played by Byron Mann in the beginning as the above picture shows): Will Yun Lee, during his Envoy days; and Joel Kinnaman (whom you may recognize from Suicide Squad), during the murder investigation. Personally, I liked both their performances and I even felt, at times, that I could see Lee’s Takeshi in Kinnaman’s performance, what is no mean feat. Connecting the two is Quellcrist Falconer (played by Renée Elise Goldsberry), the smart and fearless leader of the Envoys and, incidentally, Takeshi’s love interest. I absolutely loved her interactions with Takeshi, be them past or present. Indeed, Altered Carbon successfully weaves and balances the Envoy storyline with the murder mystery in a way reminiscent of how Arrow used to balance Oliver’s past in the island and his day-to-day as a vigilante in Star City. Some, if not all, of the best moments in the series involve these two in some form or another. Quell is always present in Takeshi’s thoughts, even in death, and her wisdom helps him out of many a tight spot. It’s a rather beautiful, if tragic, love story and I’m a sucker for those. The ending of the series perfectly sets up the sequel playing to Quellcrist’s theme, undoubtedly the most emotional of the music tracks in the series and my personal favourite (sadly, it’s not a part of the OST). Since I mentioned music, I must admit Altered Carbon has some badass scenes that are perfectly enhanced by tracks like PJ Harvey’s “The Wicked Tongue.” Is the soundtrack worth listening to on its own? My first answer would be “no” but let me get back to you on that.

Quell is my favourite supporting character and I hope we see more of her in a sequel.

There are a few other positives and negatives I could mention about the show but I’ll do so in the spoilers section of this post. In general lines, the murder mystery is relegated to a second place after a certain point in the series as it switches to the heist genre once the criminal mastermind has been identified (perhaps somewhat sooner than I would’ve liked in retrospect). The reveal came as a bit of a surprise, even when it really shouldn’t have. Personally, I found the conclusion to the investigation more disappointing than the culprit’s identity as a few things line up rather too conveniently. 

The series has also been, to an extent, criticized for its somewhat gratuitous depictions of gore and nudity but, to be fair, it’s nothing we haven’t seen in Game of Thrones before, a series that, if I remember correctly, was praised for that very same fact not too long ago (even though I always felt this was done for the shock value and to attract viewers). However, at least the nudity doesn’t seem too out of place in Altered Carbon when you consider most of the universe’s richer denizens see their bodies, their sleeves, as a sign of their power and would probably waste no opportunity to show off (indeed, one such scene transpires between Takeshi and Miriam Bancroft). Still, I believe the series would work just as well if there was less of it.

Overall, Altered Carbon is a series I would heartily recommend to any fan of science fiction and murder mysteries, not to mention it has a solid romance story between Takeshi and Quell (and maybe between Takeshi and the beautiful Kristin Ortega, you’ll just have to see!). I’m a bit puzzled by the critics’ tepid, if not outright dismissive, reception of this series, but for a while now I’ve had the feeling that critics have become increasingly out of touch with what people look for in entertainment. Their professionalism in analyzing or critiquing a film or a series has, sadly, become more and more influenced by their biases and agendas (be those political or otherwise), as recent releases like Ghostbusters or The Last Jedi would suggest (or the different reception to The Orville vs. Star Trek Discovery insofar TV shows are concerned). In fact, James Raney over at YouTube makes an interesting comparison between reviews for Netflix’s Bright and Disney’s The Last Jedi, highlighting the lack of consistency when reviewing one of the other (you can watch his video here). Erik Kain from Forbes also wrote an article about a month ago arguing some critics didn’t do their due diligence when reviewing Altered Carbon (you can read his article here). Is the takeaway here that I should start watching everything the critics review badly? I should hope not.

With that said, let’s dive into spoiler territory.

I didn’t like the character of Lizzie, Vernon’s daughter. I thought Poe’s therapy took way too long and was meant entirely to have her show up in the last episode to save her parents through Kovacs’ levels of badassery in an outfit that felt out of place, if not out of character. Not to mention she hints at being able to see the future, something that comes entirely out of the left field and certainly adds nothing to this series but perhaps it’s setup for the sequel. It’s also rather convenient that she has the single, most damning, piece of evidence for Takeshi to round up his investigation, something you will probably guess early on and that the show will do its utmost to make you forget (or you will have solved at least half of the puzzle).

Much criticism has also been directed at the character of Reileen Kawahara (played by Dichen Lachman; did I mention the women in this show are all absolutely gorgeous?), Takeshi’s sister. As you can undoubtedly guess, she’s the evil mastermind behind everything that’s going on to the point she even has her version of Oddjob (that’s from James Bond’s Goldfinger in case you didn’t know) to run interference and murder everyone that gets in her way. I personally liked how Lachman played the character as I felt she was very attached to her brother (maybe too much so), to the point I truly believed she was sincere about wanting him back at her side, the two of them against the world, even if it was also crystal clear everyone else was utterly expendable to her. In hindsight, perhaps the flashbacks don’t accurately convey this bond as Takeshi and Reileen have little time to reconnect, after being separated since childhood, before they’re recruited into the Envoys, but Reileen certainly comes across as (overly) protective of her big brother from that point onwards. Props to Joel Kinnaman also as Reileen’s and Takeshi’s last scene aboard the “Head in the Clouds,” is especially poignant as you can see how neither truly wants to harm the other and it tears Takeshi (and the viewer) apart when he finally pulls the trigger and end his sister’s life. As the resort plunges from the skies to its inevitable doom, Takeshi ignores Ortega’s pleas to escape with her and resolves to stay with his little sister to the very end.

Please find a way to reunite brother and sister in a sequel! It’s so sad we spent so little time with her before she was outed as the villain.

I think that about covers it. As you may have noticed, I’ve taken a liking to several of the supporting characters in the show. Sadly, all of these end up dead but I’ve learned not to take death for granted in a sci-fi show, especially one where there a technology exists that can backup a person’s consciousness. Let me add here that I also liked Ortega’s busybody character but I feel her arc was well-rounded at the end of the series so I don’t think it’s necessary for us to see her again in the sequel, but maybe Takeshi will run into Elias Ryker one day? That would be fun to watch.

What did you make of Altered Carbon? Who was your favourite character? Who would you bring back? Also, with the introduction of sleeves, this show could potentially go on for as long as it wants (or has enough material), similarly to Doctor Who. Will Yun Lee could certainly reprise his role as Takeshi Kovacs or perhaps he could be played by someone else. The ending takes every precaution not give away any hint as to his ethnicity, to the point his new sleeve is even wearing gloves. Who would you like to see play Takeshi Kovacs in a sequel?

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 1 Review: Aftermath

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This Star Wars: The Bad Batch review contains spoilers.

The Bad Batch Episode 1

During the opening scene of The Bad Batch, the new animated series set during the rise of the Empire, the The Clone Wars logo burns away. At once blatant marketing and a promise of something new, the logo neatly explains what The Bad Batch is.

As Jennifer Corbett (producer and head writer) and Brad Rau (producer) said during a press junket ahead of the May 4 premiere, this show is a spiritual successor and also a direct sequel to The Clone Wars. The beginning of the new show draws from the epic scale of The Clone Wars‘ series finale (and the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy which it parallels). But while the action and heart are all there on paper, stock characters and a too-straightforward plot drag down the 70-minute premiere.

The five characters of the Bad Batch, lead by elite clone Hunter, never quite fit in. Like many other aspects of technology in Star Wars, cloning isn’t an exact science, and Clone Force 99 are “deviant” or “defective” depending on who’s talking, but they’re very good at their jobs of fighting on behalf of the Republic. But when the Republic transitions to the Empire, they’re immediately asked to start doing messier jobs, such as hunting down human rebels, whereas they’d usually fight droids. As you’d expect, the clones swap sides and, of course, end up having to fight their way out of their home base. A young girl clone named Omega helps them out, and the stage is set for the rest of the season, which will have at least 14 episodes.

Star Wars guru Dave Filoni is joined by Star Wars Resistance writer Jennifer Corbett on the creative side. Her pedigree in delivering stories for the Sequel-era animated show, and her experience in the U.S. Navy, make her an ideal guide for this war story. As military science fiction, The Bad Batch is serviceable, with the creative action and silly one-liners typical of The Clone Wars. The franchise’s approach to animation is always improving, which in this first long episode manifests mostly in impressive snow and a fun depth of field effect. The sharp corners of armor contrast nicely against soft, blurred lights in the out-of-focus backgrounds.

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

As far as plot goes, it’s pretty simple, leaving me to want to dig into some of the more weighty sections but not sure whether they’re actually statements. The Bad Batch see the other clones turn on the Jedi during Order 66, but for the same reason their other “defects” make them stronger, the inhibitor chips that should brainwash them according to the Emperor’s wishes don’t work. They choose to let the Jedi in their vicinity live. Future-Grand Moff Tarkin sees their rebelliousness as a good chance to prove the Clone Army is no longer effective. After all, conscripts would apparently be cheaper. But after the Batch uncover Tarkin’s true colors, they defect for good.

It’s cool to see this transition happening. What do clones become after the war? It’s a question hardcore Star Wars fans might leap to answer (they don’t all become stormtroopers, and not all stormtroopers are clones) but we haven’t seen it so directly on screen before. It’ll be nice if The Bad Batch addresses some of the practical questions around that.

Meanwhile, Tarkin’s clearly willing to shed civilian blood in a way the Jedi generals weren’t, replacing the clones bred for war with human volunteers. Like many other Star Wars stories set during the Prequel era, the Batch’s choice presents a moral decision with no right answers. The “good” choice here would be to maintain a status quo in which tens of thousands of people are born solely to fight wars with droids, which, while technically enemy soldiers, are also sapient. And while I can generally get lost in the military camaraderie fantasy here, the fact that other clones don’t like them makes what exactly the Bad Batch is fighting for even more muddled. Maybe this is about giving this squad a new cause they believe in outside of the definitely-bad Empire.

Or maybe the fact that it’s hard to tell the Republic’s policies from the Empire’s is the point. This is how the Republic fell after all: gradually.

The strongest character beats involve the characters learning to trust each other in new ways. Team leader Hunter’s superpowers are “enhanced senses,” although that isn’t really on display much. He begins to distrust team sniper Crosshair when Crosshair becomes over-eager to follow their grim mission by the book. Their arguments were most compelling before the inhibitor chip was introduced: while I know it fits with the lore, it defangs the story a little to have the main antagonist’s motivation be “he was brainwashed,” and I was a little unsure of how much the show was willing to either pin blame on him or absolve him of it. Either way, we haven’t seen the last of Crosshair.

The Bad Batch can’t even trust the Kaminoans, their creators and stewards of their beloved home. The one who shows this the best is team heavy Wrecker. His tendency to scream about blowing stuff up I generally find more annoying than funny, but toward the middle of the extended episode he adds pathos without getting away from this broad characterization. Wrecker isn’t programmed, he insists. He likes what he likes. His determination to hold on to a sense of himself as a person with free will feels like the real stakes of the show. It’s a section of the episode that quickly jumps back into goofy, fun action, but for a moment gets at something more serious and scary. Wrecker’s determination to hold on to his individuality shows exactly what Tarkin hates most about the clones. Ironically, in Tarkin’s estimation, he needs stormtroopers that can be even more tractable.

Unfortunately, the moments most important to this theme are undercut by repeating information the audience already knows. If you’ve watched The Clone Wars, you probably know about Fives’ discovery of the inhibitor chips and how Ahsoka helped Rex remove his. But moments like the one above sell the fact that the clones would be shocked to learn the truth about their new Empire.

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The brand new member of the group is Omega, a young teenage clone introduced as both audience surrogate and mystery. (She’s also a particularly noticeable example of how the Empire is whitewashing the clones — those further from the Jango Fett template have lighter skin.) She’s a big fan of the Bad Batch because, like them, she’s an altered clone. It’s implied that she’s never really been able to make friends with other humans before, so it makes sense she’d latch on to the other unique clones in her orbit. Her fondness for them sometimes reads like a script for how much the audience is supposed to be fawning over the headliners, but the show never quite really shows the world from her perspective. Nevertheless, I think it’s overall a less jarring introduction than Ahsoka’s, who became a great character as she got more involved with the rest of the saga. It’s a “wait and see” with Omega as well.

I am a bit wary the series might be hurrying to repeat the sleight-of-hand pulled with Rey, presenting a character as both a point of view and a mystery at the same time. The first two episodes provided for review hint something bigger is going on with Omega, and how grounded that thing might be might determine whether it works. It’s become a bit tiring to use “who is this character?” as a jumping-off point rather than providing an answer in the first place and building from there.

As far as connecting to other Star Wars characters we do have answers for, The Bad Batch instantly announces that this will be a cameo-heavy episode, and…that’s okay? Now that they’re not being as coy about it as Rebels was, it’s a lot of fun to see Saw Gerrera and a young Kanan Jarrus. (Even if the latter cameo does instantly contradict the Kanan backstory comic released by Marvel a few years ago.)

When the Bad Batch were introduced in The Clone Wars I found them boring, their action figure-ready powers not any more compelling than the clones and Jedi we already had. They still seem a strange choice for headliners when characters like Ahsoka are operating at the same time. More so than The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch feels like a deep cut, a completionist tale that may struggle to hold fans. While comparisons between the avuncular Batch and Omega’s relationships with Din Djarin and Grogu are inevitable, this is no The Mandalorian in terms of either content or accessibility.

The post Star Wars: The Bad Batch Episode 1 Review: Aftermath appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[woodface]

Supergirl S2: United we stand, divided we fall (aka Strong Together)

The past few days I've heard several people tell me that they have or are considering to stop watching Supergirl and just enjoying the gifsets that tumblr throws at them. I can't say I'm surprised, but it does sadden me at how much the show has changed. It's a shame because I know people still enjoy the characters and (most of) their relationships. I think we all know why, but it's Sunday and if you know me, I tend to ramble on Sunday. I've been meaning to give a review of the first half of the second season and now seems as good a time as any.

Now, Supergirl has been all but a perfect show. Season 1 had its flaws: the writing was wonky in places, throwing characterisation overboard to fit the plot and the pacing of the season was terrible. There was something there, however, that had many of us turning in. (More than an amazing cast.) Supergirl was a story of hope. It was a story centred around the women in the show and their journey of becoming heroes. It was a story about found family and how after losing everything, it is still possible to heal when you open your heart for the people around you. At the heart of the show were Kara, Alex and J'onn. The three people who formed the core of the show and who despite the conflict thrown at them, were always there for each other. Stronger together.

When the show changed channels, we all saw the writings on the walls. We all held our breaths as marketing didn't seem to realise what it was that made people tune in. While the second season started a little shakily, by the third episode I was appeased. The show was still there, the Danvers sisters were fighting side by side, still being each other's back up and then… 

I miss the old days where ships were a thing that happened in the background. When subtext was what had us rooted to our screens, or what we could easily ignore when we aren't interested. Romance has been the bane of this season. But Jara, I hear you say, romance was present even in season one. You're right, and it was a tad embarrassing how many men the show threw at Kara, but it also always went back to the heart of the show. Take the finale. James and Kara get their screen time, but when the action is going, when the chips were down, it was the found family that ran through everything. The show told us how much Kara cared about everyone in her own unique way. It was J'onn who walked out with Kara to defend this earth that had become his new home. It was Kara who struggled to say goodbye to Alex, and Alex who refused to give her up. Where movies and other shows would have focussed on the romance, this show put family at its heart. Romance was secondary. Kara was learning to become Kara Zor-El before anything else. Being a girlfriend was second or third. 

Much has changed since then, and nothing was more painful to me than seeing the last episode and having Kara say she always has to fight alone. She's almost desperate to have Mon-El become a superhero was so she would have someone with powers fighting at her side, conveniently forgetting that J'onn had always been there, that Alex will fly into space or jump to an alien planet to get her back. In that one sentence, the show summarised exactly what has been wrong with its second season: romance is no longer second place. It has become first place and found family is taking a backseat to everything else. 

It took them ten episodes to give us a decent moment between Kara, Alex and J'onn. You could argue that this is natural, that conflict keeps things interesting and we'll get there in the end. I have no doubt that we'll see glimpses of our found alien family, but this used to be the glue that held everything together. Stronger together has been hollowed out as Kara, Alex and J'onn are isolated in their own stories and their lines seldom cross. 

The Danvers sisters rarely get moments together, and when they do, it's generally to talk about the romance. Alex is no longer Kara's mentor. They don't hit the training mats anymore, and while they're still supportive and the actors make certain that we see their bond, the show is no longer putting it central to its story telling. 

Kara has become isolated, her actions more and more fuelled by protecting Mon-El and getting him to become the hero she thinks he should be. While this could be an interesting take, after all, it might be evidence of Kara struggling to go back to not having Clark there, this is not what it's about. It's not Kara's struggle, but it is Mon-El's. That in itself wouldn't be so bad if only Kara did have her own storyline, but she doesn't. We don't see Kara growing as a superhero, she's trampling in place and getting isolated as the show puts her in function of Mon-El. Meanwhile James is learning to be a superhero as well, which in a way removes how Winn and James would be what reminded Kara what it was like to be human. 

Now, CatCo has always grated on me so I admit that I was glad to hear Cat Grant was gone. I was hoping her removal would mean that the show would have an easier time to balance out Kara's plot. The division between the DEO and CatCo was always superficial to me and diluted storylines where it shouldn't have. Episode 3 to me is the best example at how well the lesser attention to CatCo works. Sadly, TPTB seem to enjoy juggling too many storylines at once and we're still getting too much plot crammed into one. I keep being reminded of @racethewind10's mantra: this show needs to pick character over plot. My hope was that less CatCo would help with this, but so many new characters have been added, each with their own separate storyline that it hasn't happened. Character moments are so rushed and hamfisted in its delivery, it's almost painful to watch. 

While the plot was suffering in season 1 as well, we got some amazing character moments. I'm thinking of Kara facing the robber without her powers, Alex screaming and begging at Kara to come back to her, Alex and Kara supporting J'onn as his past comes back to haunt him. There were so many strong moments that were truly moving, but season two has had very little… The few we did have were tied to Alex and her journey of self-discovery. They were delivered between Kara and Alex. 

The difference between how Kara and James were treated versus how Kara and Mon-El is treated is huge, where James was always a player in Kara's story, this isn't the case now. Never mind how the change in romance was handled. I actually could completely understand when Kara broke up with James. Her realisation that she needed to find herself first fitted well. I bought it and could actually applaud it. However, that character moment (one of the last Kara was allowed) was completely retconned when TPTB decided to throw Kara at the next available guy that crossed her path. 

How can we believe that after barely any time between her breakup, Kara who had no other character development whatsoever, can suddenly come back and be interested in Mon-El. Such is life? Perhaps, sometimes loves hits us at the most awkward moments, but the way Kara has been treating him like a little brother (or a replacement for Kal-El) to suddenly this arc where Kara is only fighting for him and can only think of Mon-El as her backup when the going gets tough… It comes out of nowhere and is completely out of character for the girl who would always turn to her found family and would live by the creed of Stronger Together. 

It's true that Kara has been isolated, however. J'onn is a bit in a world of his own and Alex has her own romance story that has been monopolising her time, and here lies the rub. I don't want to make light of the importance of Alex's character development (at least she has some). Representation matters and the message the show is sending with Alex is powerful and so much needed. I want to look beyond this for a moment, however, because this has been another key part of how the show has changed. 

Alex's romance is not a natural development within the show. We all knew Alex was gay without needing to be told, but the show runners decided to treat this as a completely new discovery. That in itself should not be a problem, but they brought in a completely new character who has no other purpose to fill than to be Alex's love interest. As a series regular, this is problematic because Maggie had no natural place within the storyline. She's a cop and has no ties to anyone else. To make this work, TPTB changed the universe of our show (I'm sure there's more it than that, but it does seem to be a part of it). Maggie knows about aliens, has been friendly towards them all her life and has a job at the NCPD handling said aliens. That's the common ground the worked into the show to have Maggie and Alex meet. 

However, in order for them to continue meeting, they had to come up with ways to have Maggie show up. So what happened is that Alex and Maggie got their own plot, separate from everyone else's. Kara would get drawn in occasionally (because you really can't separate those two completely), but for the most part, Maggie's only point of contact with anyone else is Alex. Furthermore, to have an excuse to have Maggie around, the role of the DEO has been lessened and with it, J'onn's role as well. Now imagine if the show had used Lucy or Vasquez and given a more natural progression for Alex's self-discovery, where the romance would fit right into the main plot and not water down the importance of the DEO. 

Instead Alex gets her own storylines while Kara and the others have their own. While I love seeing a different side to Alex, it means that she was effectively replaced in the main Kara storyline by either Winn (when it involves science) or James and Mon-El when it comes to fighting scenes. Alex's relationship with J'onn got watered down as she no longer was there for much of the big plots, and Alex no longer is Kara's main backup. Yes, there's been exceptions, but this is a trend where the men replace Alex as our kicking ass human hero. 

After all, James is now the human who gets to beat up bad guys and wants to make the world a better place. M'gann and Kara have had a stronger bond with J'onn than Alex does. Danvers sister moments are replaced by Alex hanging out with Maggie. While this might balance out as Alex's sexuality becomes a simple fact rather than a huge revelation, I'm not confident that we're going to return there. After all, Mon-El has been slowly taking over Alex's role when it comes to Kara. Alex was always the one with one foot in reality, evening Kara's goodness and innocence out. (Remember her threatening Lord.) Slowly the show has been pushing Mon-El to take that position because Alex is too tied up in being in love. 

Don't get me wrong, I love seeing Alex happy. I love that we got such a positive storyline on television. I love the moments when Kara gets to be supportive of Alex. I want Alex to actually think of herself for once, but that does not negate the fact that it's another part that has the glue of our show crumbling down. 

Alex's romance story has effectively removed her from the main plot where she used to be at the centre with Kara. Do you remember how many times they'd end up fighting and checking in at the middle of the fight to make sure the other is okay? We've had so little of these moments because Alex basically rarely gets to be there anymore as the side characters take up her space. 

The show has screwed itself over by bringing in too many new characters and wanting to tell too many stories at once (the latter is an old issue that's gotten worse). They've separated the main three characters from each other and have removed what was the heart of the show. It's still there, but less so and the moments that we should see are rushed or simply don't happen because a romance scene gets precedence over them now. 

Supergirl is simply not the same show anymore. Kara was a different superhero. Not only because she's a woman, but because she knew she shouldn't do this alone. Because she had her friends around her, her found family, which kept her going and saw her through. She was working through so much pain and suffering, but she managed to hold on to her kindness. 

Supergirl was a show about Kara, but they're trying to turn it into an ensemble show where the female heroes are defined by their romance stories and the men learn how to be heroes. That's not the show I signed up for. That's not the show I fell in love with. I am disappointed and saddened any time I see those pictures of all those little girls excited to meet Melissa Benoist, to meet Supergirl. I am saddened because they deserve better and so do we.

[albinohare]

Back to basics: Offshore sailing by celestial navigation alone

Navigating by sun and star in the electronic age is a big challenge. Andy Schell describes a voyage of discovery

Star sights need a visible horizon, which you only get at dawn and dusk. Photo: 59 North

I have tattoos of a rooster and a pig on my feet. They’re meant to protect me from sinking. I have a nautical star on my forearm, so I can always find my way home. I wear red pants at boat shows and lectures. I have a passion for the traditions of the sea.

Celestial navigation tops them, with its blend of romantic art and practical science. Since I first read Bernard Moitessier’s book The Long Way, long before ever going offshore myself, I’ve wanted to cross an ocean using only sun and stars as my guide.

In the spring of 2017, sailing north from the BVIs to Bermuda with the ARC Europe fleet, we raised the stakes – we’d sail the route on our Swan 48 Isbjörn navigating entirely by celestial means. We wanted to see if we could do it.

Isbjörn carries electronic equipment, but the crew revelled in navigating by the stars. Photo: 59 North

I first learned celestial navigation ten years ago from John Kretschmer at a workshop he hosted at his home in Fort Lauderdale. John is the reason I pursued a career on the ocean. He’s well known to most sailors in America and made history in 1984 when he sailed a Contessa 32 called Gigi from New York to San Francisco the ‘wrong way’ round Cape Horn, an adventure that is immortalised in his book Cape Horn to Starboard. The very day that Gigi rounded the Horn, 25 January 1984, was the day I was born.

During the weekend workshop I got to practise taking morning sun sights on the beach with the old Freiberger sextant that John had used to navigate around the Horn on that famous voyage.

John described celestial navigation in romantic terms, explaining it in a way that made it as inspiring as it was understandable. Here was someone who spoke my language, the language of the great sailing romantics like Moitessier and Sterling Hayden. John made celestial bigger than just navigating for, after all, the likelihood of a modern day sailor actually needing celestial is effectively nil.

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Time is everything

“Has the boat motion really settled down a lot or am I just feeling better?” Tom, one of our crew, asked on the second morning of the passage north from Tortola.

He and Cheryl had the watch and were at the helm while the crew was gathered in the cockpit for the day’s noon sight. I led the process while eating a bag of corn chips in an effort to stave off the early-passage mal de mer. Thane had the sextant and Mike was note-taker and timekeeper.

“Is it the 8th? What’s today?” asked Cheryl. “It’s the 7th today, isn’t it? Or no, it is the 8th,” I replied, not so confidently.

Isbjörn is a particularly well-travelled S&S Swan 48. Photo: Tim Wright

Normally on an ocean passage the days really don’t matter. Not so when you’re using celestial navigation. A four-second error on the time you took the sight equates to a one-mile mistake in determining the sun’s geographic position. Time is everything.

Isbjörn had departed Tortola with the ARC Europe fleet and we’d initially sailed west down Sir Francis Drake channel, rounding Jost van Dyke to starboard and pointing the bow for Bermuda. The boat galloped north at first, carrying the easterly trades on a rhythmic swell under hazy skies. Our dead-reckoning plot was easy to keep track of as Isbjörn beam-reached up the rhumb line, full sail flying, at eight knots.

At just shy of 1,000 miles, the passage to Bermuda is long enough to find your sea legs, but short enough to forego that 5 o’clock cocktail without regret. The Gosling’s Family Reserve in Bermuda is worth waiting for anyway.

Photo: Isbjörn Sailing

But the Trades faltered sooner than we all wanted them to. Through the winter in the Caribbean, Mia and I had got so accustomed to sailing in 20 knots of breeze with small sails that it felt rather odd when we first sailed into an area off the coast of northern Florida more affected by continental weather than the tradewinds and lost the breeze for the first time in months. A weak cold front passed overhead and suddenly Isbjörn was on port tack.

Secret GPS positions

We had to eliminate the nearly-impossible-to-avoid GPS inputs while still maintaining some semblance of safety. The old Garmin chartplotter’s GPS antenna had given up the ghost, so we didn’t have to worry about that, or the VHF, which was integrated to it.

We had an AIS app on the iPad that allowed us to see targets around us and their CPAs, streamed wirelessly from the built-in Vesper XB8000 transceiver, but that would hide our own position. We had a paper passage chart, bound copies of the Nautical Almanac and the Sight Reduction Tables for Air Navigation.

Mia would keep a secret GPS record in a separate logbook in case of emergency. Ironically, friends and family following the rally from afar would know our position more accurately than we would through our YB tracker.

Thane had signed up for the passage in spite of the celestial navigation part of it, not because of it. He was an experienced offshore sailor, having sailed across the Atlantic westabout, double-handed with his wife, Brenda, on their Bavaria 37.

“Holy smokes, this is so cool!” he exclaimed the first time he managed to grab an evening twilight star sight.

Getting a reliable sight from the sun is tricky when it’s hazy or overcast. Photo: 59 North

The sun had only just sunk beneath the horizon to port. The western sky was painted an array of pinks, yellows and oranges, while overhead blue faded to black as night approached to starboard. If you looked hard enough, you could just make out the evening’s first stars. We were in that ethereal slice in time photographers call the magic hour and navigators call civil twilight.

Thane had used the ‘no scope, two eyes open’ approach on that first star sight that Moitessier had used on Joshua. ‘I felt that I was becoming an expert in taking star sights since I discovered that it can be done without the telescope, keeping both eyes open,’ Bernard Moitessier wrote in his book Cape Horn: The Logical Route.

‘In this way, a star can be brought down to the horizon because the latter can be seen quite clearly with both eyes open. It is impossible to do this properly while looking through the telescope where the horizon always looks hopelessly blurred. In my innocence, I thought I was the first to discover this method…’

During our one-day crash course in Tortola, I’d described to the crew this method in theory. With one sight that evening, on the rolling deck of a boat at sea where the accuracy of his sight had real-life consequences, Thane had instantly and enthusiastically bridged the gap to celestial in practice, experiencing the same joy of discovery that Moitessier had uncovered and written about some 50 years earlier. ‘Even the best navigators are not quite sure where they’re going until they get there, and then they’re still not sure!’

Sextant sights provide the raw data – you then have to try to work out where you are. Photo: 59 North

Breadcrumbs in the wood

Traditionally, navigation was about keeping a detailed record of where you’d been in order to plot a course to where you’d like to go. Hansel and Gretel knew how to navigate – the breadcrumbs-in-the-forest trick was the fairytale version of dead reckoning.

Navigation was rooted in superstition. Never did a sailor tempt fate by arrogantly declaring they were sailing ‘to’ a faraway port; it was always ‘towards’. This thinking contained equal doses of humility and flexibility that the modern navigator ignores at their peril.

Teaching celestial navigation in a modern context, then, involves filtering fundamental concepts through a particular lens. Take latitude, for example. It’s derived by taking a north-south cross-section of the earth and extending lines from the centre outwards, like spokes on a bicycle wheel.

AIS app on an iPad provides information on other vessels. Photo: 59 North

Where those spokes intersect the surface of the earth creates a given line of latitude, which is drawn on the earth’s surface around the world horizontally. The degrees between lines of latitude on the surface are actually the angle between those bicycle spokes.

Nautical miles on the surface of the earth, then, correspond to those angles. Everyone knows that one minute of latitude is equal to one nautical mile, and that 60 of these make one degree of latitude. But have you ever stopped to think how far a nautical mile is on the moon? Or on Jupiter?

A nautical mile on another planet is still derived in exactly the same way, but it’s the body’s circumference that determines the actual geographic distance of it on the surface of that body. A statute, or land mile, is contrived. A nautical mile is an elegant expression of geometry.

Dive a little deeper. The distance on the surface of the earth from 0° to 231⁄2° North, for example, is 60×23.5 or 1,410 nautical miles. It’s also 1,410 nautical miles from the moon’s equator to 231⁄2° north on the moon, but the distance as measured in feet or metres is much shorter because the moon isn’t nearly as big.

That 23 1⁄2° North, by the way, is the Tropic of Cancer. The Tropic of Capricorn, conversely, lies at 23 1⁄2° South. Those aren’t just made-up boundaries: the geographic tropics are de fined naturally by the limits of the movement north and south of the sun’s declination throughout the year as it traces a sine curve from season to season, due to the tilt of the earth.

The other half of the sun’s geographic position (GP) – longitude, or Greenwich Hour Angle (GHA) in celestial parlance – is directly convertible with time and changes by the second. The sun’s GP travels westabout through 360°, right around the earth, in 24 hours, or 15° per hour.

Logically, then, I can predict the sun’s GHA in my head if I know the time in Greenwich, 1400 UT, for example, would put the sun about 030°. GHA, unlike longitude, is measured through 360°; the sun can never travel east, after all.

In simplified terms, when we take a sextant altitude of the sun we’re creating a right angle triangle between it, the earth’s surface at the GP, and ourselves. Grade school geometry tells us that the two angles in a right-angled triangle must equal 90°.

Celestial navigation is very much a team effort – one crew member takes a noonsight while another notes the figures

So, the complement to the altitude projects an angle from the sun onto the surface of the earth which, just like in the latitude example above, can be converted to nautical miles. After accounting for the sun’s declination north or south, depending on the season, this is precisely how we get our latitude from a noon sight.

A single sextant sight produces a giant circle of position, with the complement to our sextant altitude describing the radius of the circle, the GP at its centre. If we had a large enough chart, and an accurate way to take a compass bearing towards the GP, you could plot this using the simplest of fixes, bearing and range, to pinpoint a position on that circle. Alas, we have neither.

So, in a nutshell, modern celestial using the Sight Reduction Tables for Air Navigation (Pub. 249 in the US), allows us to compare the sextant reading from our unknown location at a known moment in time, with a sextant reading from a known location that’s somewhere in our neck of the woods, called the ‘assumed position’, and plot the difference on a chart, producing a single line of position that just so happens to be a tangent to that larger circle of position… Deep breath!

In reality, none of this is important to the modern GPS navigator. But – and here’s why I love teaching celestial navigation so much – these Eureka moments about geography and geometry and the basic understanding the fundamentals of celestial makes everyone a better navigator, whether you actually ever pickup a sextant or not.

The ocean felt deserted. There were no other boats to be seen, and no more flying fish. No dolphins. Nothing but the routine.

I don’t stand a watch on our Isbjörn passages, instead maintaining a more traditional captain’s role, overseeing the big picture and forever on-call should the crew need me on deck. Again, I’m modelling Moitessier.

He wrote once that when the weather is nice and things are going well, the captain can sleep for 36 hours if he wants. On the other hand, when the weather is bad, and stress high, the captain must remain at the helm indefinitely.

When things are good, I’ll often take half of Mia’s nighttime watch. There’s something about being alone in the cockpit at night. It’s precisely why I go ocean sailing.

Sunrise and moonset

I relieved Mia pre-dawn at 0400 and settled in for my two hours outside while the crew slept. Firmly into the mid-latitudes, and after another clearing frontal passage, the sky had lost all its Caribbean moisture and haze, replaced by a clarity in the air rarely seen ashore.

The glimmer in the east came early that morning. In opposition, the full moon casually and simultaneously sank lower on the horizon. I couldn’t decide where to focus my attention; I wanted to witness that first glimpse of the sun piercing the eastern horizon, but didn’t want to miss Mr Moon dipping ever lower in the west.

Isbjörn sailed on a northerly zephyr and an oily sea, forcing me to concentrate on the helm in order to maintain her momentum, but distracting me from that beautiful sunrise and moonset. It was very fine light-air sailing, but there were troubles with celestial. Where were we?

We’d forgotten to account for the apparent altitude when taking the noon sight the day before, a correction to the sextant angle that’s applied to account for the refraction of the sun’s ray’s in the atmosphere. The log read 581 miles sailed since leaving Tortola when I wrote in the logbook on the morning of 10 May, our fourth day at sea. It had been overcast the day before, so difficult to take any sun sights, and the ones we did get were off.

Photo: Isbjörn Sailing

To boot, we’d gone 12 hours overnight, sailing well east of the rhumb line, close-hauled on a light northerly, which didn’t allow us to lay the course.

Non-sailors assume celestial is about navigating by the stars, at night. It’s not, of course – star sights do the job, but you need a visible horizon, which only happens at dusk and dawn. So it’s down to Mr Sun, who guides you most of the way, and on cloudy days Mr Sun is hard to find. You��re always sailing blind at night.

No matter. At 0300 on the morning of 12 May, just before the dawn of our sixth day at sea, Gibb’s Hill Light on the south-west corner of Bermuda hove into view right where we expected it to. The log read 838 miles sailed.

Accurate enough

Celestial navigation had gotten Isbjörn to Bermuda, legitimately, and with a crew of amateur sailors, two of whom had only just learned the methods literally the day before departure. I’d always wondered if we could do it, and now I know.

It’s certainly not a practical, efficient means, by anyone’s reckoning. They say that ‘close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades’. And in celestial navigation.

Andy’s tattoos reflect his love of nautical tradition

The interesting part is that, without a GPS, we never really knew how accurate our sights were, and we still don’t. In the end Gibb’s Hill Light appeared where we expected it to. Our sextant sights, DR plots and LOP reductions were accurate enough to get us there successfully.

Nobody cared whether our individual LOPs throughout the trip were within two miles of our GPS position or ten, and the crew enjoyed stargazing at night, quickly forgetting the chartplotter gazing we’re all so used to.

Not unlike Heisenberg’s famous principle, perhaps the most profound irony of modern navigation is that the closer we get to perfect GPS accuracy, the farther we get from ever knowing where we truly are.

About the author

Andy Schell and his wife, Mia Karlsson, sail 10,000 miles per year on their S&S Swan 48 Isbjörn, taking paying crew on ocean passages in the Atlantic, Arctic and worldwide. Andy also hosts the On the Wind sailing podcast on his website (59-north.com) featuring interviews with well-known sailors from around the world.

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Things to do this week in Toronto

What's happening in Toronto Oct. 29-Nov. 2, 2018

MONDAY, OCT. 29

The Haunted Walk Experience at Black Creek Pioneer Village: Explore the supernatural side of Toronto’s historic pioneer village after dark.

One Dumb Guy and Two Kids in the Hall: Bruce McCulloch and Scott Thompson of legendary sketch troupe The Kids in the Hall sit down for a conversation with Paul Myers, author of the new book The Kids in the Hall: One Dumb Guy.

Free Concert with the Elmer Iseler Singers: Canada's Elmer Iseler Singers perform with The Agincourt Madrigal Singers and The Agincourt Singers.

Maria Thereza Alves: Recipes for Resistance: Acclaimed international artist Maria Thereza Alves speaks at OCAD.

Tom&Sawyer Haunted House for Dogs: Dress your pet up for this terrier-fying Halloween experience.

Balfolk Toronto Weekly Dance and Jam: Dance social folk dances to live music, including fiddles, accordions and hurdy-gurdies at Drom Taberna.

The Best of The Second City: An unforgettable night of classic and original sketch comedy.

What Makes It Great? Schumann's Piano Quintet: Go behind the music as Rob Kapilow breaks down classical pieces.

Black and White Fright: An exhibition of original art celebrating classic horror of the silver screen at Liberty Arts Gallery and Shop.

TUESDAY, OCT. 30

Phantom of the Opera 1925

The Paris Opera House is haunted by a mysterious figure-never seen but whispered stories of dread and fear are all around. When will he strike next?

ALSO ON TUESDAY

Spider-Man: Legend and Legacy: Join comic book giants Chip Zdarsky and Adam Kubert as they unpack the history of Spider-Man in popular culture.

Halloween Thriller Workout: Get a workout in as darkness falls across the land. Great prep for fleeing the zombie apocalypse.

Relentless Rewind: Enjoy all the retro tracks you need to dance the night away at Boutique Bar.

Zombie Halloween SMASH: Experience virtual reality as you and your friends take on an undead horde.

Ski for The Duke Launch Party: Get in the mood for The Duke of Devon's Ski Day.

Hot Breath Karaoke: Ridiculous game show style karaoke at The Handlebar.

ICAN Ban the Bomb: A denuclearization talk with founding chair of International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN-2017 Nobel Peace Prize), Dr. Tilman Ruff .

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 31

Legends of Horror at Casa Loma

Walk the Casa Loma grounds and come face-to-face with theatrical recreations of classic horror monsters.

ALSO ON WEDNESDAY

Check out our list of fun and scary events on Halloween night in Toronto

Asylum at Rebel: Dress up for a massive Halloween night party at Rebel night club. Cash prizes for best costumes.

True Murder Tales: Making Halloween Scary Again: Three of Canada’s most intense crime writers regale you with true tales of murder in a 19th century building.

Halloween on Church: Head down to the Church/Wellesley Village for the biggest and queerest Halloween block party in Toronto.

Frankenstein Movie Viewing: Catch the classic horror film at a free screening at the Toronto Reference Library.

Willowdale Group of Artists Annual Fall Art Show: Check out works from some of Canada's finest professional and amateur painters.

Fall Antique & Vintage Glass Lovers' Show: See beautiful vintage glass items dating back to the 1800s.

THURSDAY, NOV. 1

Etobicoke Jazz Festival

Catch some fantastic jazz acts at this festival, which runs through Nov. 4.

ALSO ON THURSDAY

Vusi Mahlasela: South African singer/songwriter Vusi Mahlasela brings his bring his unique blend of traditional African music, soul and blues to Toronto

Oklahoma!: Scarborough Village Theatre presents this popular play by Rodgers and Hammerstein.

The Purple Party: Childhood Cancer Canada's signature fundraising event features food, fun and inspirational speeches from cancer survivors.

Holocaust Education Week: Dr. Ruth Westheimer, renowned sex therapist and Holocaust survivor, will be the keynote speaker at the opening night event for Holocaust Education Week.

Best of Scarborough Food Tour: Scarborough has been called "the best ethnic food suburb in the world" by renowned food writer and economist Tyler Cowen. Find out why.

Free Action/Crime/Thriller Short Film Festival: See great short action and thriller films at the Carlton Cinema.

Uncork Untap Unwind: Enjoy great food and drinks and live music at this fundraising gala for the West Park Healthcare Centre.

LiterASIAN Toronto: A new festival celebrating Asian Canadian writing.

FRIDAY, NOV. 2

Royal Agricultural Winter Fair

Enjoy 10 days of world-class livestock and horticultural competition, dining and culinary experiences, shopping, entertainment and the country's best horse show.

ALSO ON FRIDAY

Anybody For Murder: The Village Players stage a comedy-thriller full of plotting, scheming, twists and turns.

Celine Dion Dance Party: If you've got wings to fly to know that you're alive, this dance party is for you.

A Night of String Quartets: Alice Hong, Alexis Meschter, Maxime Despax and Christopher Hwang perform an evening of songs for string quartets.

They Might Be Giants: The duo behind "Boss of Me" and "Birdhouse in Your Soul" hit the Phoenix Concert Theatre.

Urban Ravine Symposium: Explore, Restore and Celebrate: Learn the ins and outs of wildlife restoration at this event at Toronto Botanical Gardens.

Northwood: Chris Antonik and Ashley Belmer: An acoustic tour with acclaimed blues artists Chris Antonik and partner Ashley Belmer.

ONGOING

Bat Out of Hell

Bat Out of Hell brings to life the legendary anthems of Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf, in a thrilling production that combines the magic of a musical with the immense energy of rock 'n' roll. At the Ed Mirvish Theatre until Nov. 4.

Forgotten Genius: This exhibit is devoted to the story of Philo T. Farnsworth (1906-1971), the man who revolutionized television and changed the future of communications on earth. On until April 15 at MZTV Museum of Television.

Now You See Her: In an insurrectionary outburst of original music, words and movement, six characters in Now You See Her explore some of the diverse ways women fade from sight in our culture. At Buddies in Bad Times Theatre until Nov. 4.

Come From Away: Come From Away tells the true story of the week of Sept. 11, when 38 planes from around the world landed in Gander, Newfoundland, and changed the lives of the passengers and locals alike. Extended through Dec. 19.

Theory: A thrilling play in which an online discussion group leads to a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse. Through Nov. 25.

Legends of Horror 2018: Check out this one-hour walking tour featuring an immersive theatrical interpretation of all of the classic horror figures at Casa Loma's lower gardens and castles tunnels. The event closes Oct. 31.

The Original Haunted Walk of Toronto: Ghosts, graveyards, hangings and haunts. Hear some of the most spine-tingling ghost stories from the earliest days of the city.

Premium Original Haunted Walk of Toronto: This classic city tour features many of Toronto’s best ghost stories.

The Haunted Walk Experience: Explore the supernatural side of Toronto’s historic Black Creek Pioneer Village.

Campus Secrets and Spectres: Check out the haunted spots at the University of Toronto until Nov. 3.

Ghosts and Spirits of the Distillery: With tales of gruesome accidents, the perilous world of whiskey-making & the explosive War of 1812, you’ll quickly see why this area is one of Toronto’s most haunted spots.

The Nether: A serpentine crime drama and haunting sci-fi thriller, The Nether explores the consequences of living out one’s private dreams at Coal Mine Theatre. Oct. 7-Nov. 4.

Manolo Blahnik: The Art of Shoes: An intimate exhibition that features works spanning 45 years by Manolo Blahnik, one of the most prolific fashion and footwear designers. May 16 to Jan. 6, 2019.

Fairland Funhouse: A group of imaginative musicians and visual artists have transformed a 1950s grocery store into a two-storey adventure world of art, music, and discovery. Through Nov. 2.

Stanley Cup 125th Anniversary Tribute: Get hands-on access to the Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup, aka the original Stanley Cup through Nov. 16.

Emperors and Jewels Exhibition: The Aga Khan Museum hosts the Canadian premiere of the Emperors and Jewels exhibition with a rare glimpse at princely jewelled adornments on loan from Kuwait’s al-Sabah Collection through Nov. 5.

Best of Scarborough Food Tour: Discover some of Scarborough's hidden culinary gems on a one of a kind food tour.

Through a Web Darkly: Sex and Death in the World of Spiders: The Royal Ontario Museum explores the lives and loves of some of the world’s most notorious spiders. Through to Jan. 6, 2019.

Saturday Farmers' Market at Evergreen Brick Works: Shop for fresh, seasonal food and meet your local farmers, chefs and food producers every Saturday until November.

The Best is Yet to Come Undone: The Second City brings its latest hilarious revue to the stage. Runs through the end of year.

This article “ Things to do this week in Toronto “ was originally seen on toronto.com by Whatson

Naturopath Toronto - Dr. Amauri Caversan

[hottytoddynews]

We’ve gotten used to the Christmas holiday season beginning around Halloween, but how often has Halloween thriller season begun the week after Labor Day? As the studios and moviemakers have learned, there’s a huge audience for horror. If you are skeptical, look at the grosses for new latest in Tyler Perry’s Madea franchise. Major record-breaking!

For the longest time, producers/studios would grind out assembly-line horror, capitalizing on mindless or copycat sequels of original hits that would make you groan, “Been there, seen it.” But even the usual suspects have come around; and there seems to be a newbie at the game: Blumhouse Productions, which this season could be crowned Prince of Horror.

You might say that horror season began way before Halloween — even in February. That’s when Get Out! (Blumhouse Productions/Universal), featuring Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener, Allison Williams (TV’s Girls) and young Brit Daniel Kaluuya (TV’s Babylon; upcoming Watership Down mini-series based on Richard Adams novel) hit cineplexes. It wasn’t a cookie-cutter, standard-issue thriller, but smart and well made – and had a sense of humor. It also offered a thoughtful look at the race issues making headlines.

Young Anglo woman (Williams) invites Afro-American young man (Kaluuya) for a meet-the-parents getaway, where he finds the family overly accommodating — an effort to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship. As the weekend progresses, disturbing discoveries come to a head and lead him to a truth he never could have imagined. Something different, yes? And, going even further, it was R-rated. That usually can be the death knell to a film pitched for teens, the catalyst for a film’s opening weekend. They came, whether accompanied by an adult or with fake I.D.s. A film budgeted at a minuscule $5 million has raked in over $175.5 million. 

Jeepers Creepers III (Infinity/Screen Media) quickly followed. Set between the first and second film, it was quickly obvious it was in the lesser category. Sergeant Tubbs (Brandon Smith) went about attempting to learn the secrets and identify of Creeper (Jonathan Breck), the monster terrorizes a local farming community. Lovely Trisha (Gina Phillips) was sort of pushed aside for the introduction of Gaylen Brandon (Meg Foster (TVs Pretty Little Liars and Ravenswood), stealing the film, as someone with a history with the Creeper. It didn’t help. Initial audiences were bored, word-of-mouth was a downer. Made for $18 million, it grossed a paltry $2.3 million (JC1 exploded at the box office with sales of $35.7 million). Maybe the gross will rise – a bit – with the DVDs’ December release.

Oscar nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh, Bella Thorne (Boo!: A Madea Halloween; TV’s Famous in Love, Big Love), Thomas Mann (Kong: Skull Island), and Kurtwood Smith (TV’s That 70s Show) weren’t enough to turn the lack of horror in Amityville: The Awakening (Blumhouse Productions/Dimension/TWC) into a silk purse. After a two-year shelf life, it was comatose (like Belle‘s twin brother) on arrival.

Then Came September   

“When you are a kid you think the world revolves around you, that you’ll always be protected, care for. Then, one day: a friend goes missing.” The opening words of It (New Line/Warner Bros./RatPac-Dune Entertainment), the cinema adaptation of the 1990 three-hour mini-series based on Stephen King’s terrifying best-seller, leads audiences on a thrill ride as satisfying as any on a mega coaster. The plot line involves kids of a small town, rumored to be cursed, disappearing in bloody spades. A gang of seven, led by Richie (Finn Wolfhard, Mikie on Stranger Things), united by their horrifying and strange encounters with the evil Pennywise the Clown (Bill Skarsgård), mount their bikes determined to kill “It.” Been there, seen it? But, even with parallels to Stand By Me, The Goonies, and TV’s Stranger Things, it rises to the occasion. Here, though much condensed, it’s all about bonding and the paranormal, but the paranormal’s never been quite like this: Atmosphere (that haunted house; and especially the horrific finale, which even tops David Lean’s in The Third Man), piercing score by Benjamin Wallfisch (Blade Runner 2049, Annabelle: Creation, Hidden Figures), jump-scare sound effects, and, best of all, the brotherly-love kiss to bring back the living dead. Argentine Andy Muschietti (2013 horror thriller Mama) is set to helm the 2019 sequel.

Oddly, with a cast of youngsters, the film’s R-rated for violence and, something you don’t hear often, F words cascading out of the mouths of babes. That hasn’t stopped it from blockbuster status – grossing $179 million in less than two months, ($189.5 million worldwide) on a budget of $35 million.  Reminder: whether pouring cats and dogs or not, on Jackson Street or any other, never look deep into those corner drains!

Happy Death Day (Blumhouse Productions/Universal Pictures) is a dark comedy mystery horror thriller borrowing lavishly from the classic Groundhog Day. On her birthday, teenager Tree (excellent Jessica Rothe) concludes that it will be her last one. That is, IF she can figure out who her killer is. To do that, she relives the day over and over – dying in a different way on each one. No way you’ll snooze, as you get sucked in even before the film begins [You’ll see]. Keep a keen eye on Tree. Christopher Landon (Disturbia, Paranormal Activity) knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat. Shooting in New Orleans’ Garden District, home to the streetcar and fabled mansions, adds tons of atmosphere.

In Boo 2: A Madea Halloween (Tyler Perry Company/Lionsgate) Madea, Bam, and Hattie venture to a haunted campground where they end up running for their lives from a boogeyman, goblins, and monsters, goblins, and the boogeyman are unleashed. Perry has an audience for his sometimes amateurish movies that  segue between embarrassing and somewhat funny. He comes up with great ideas and one has to be envious of his multi-talents and following. In his films, he  plays a lot of characters – some, such as Madea, much better than others. Maybe the mistake is in doing it all: writing, directing, and co-producing.  Boo! 2. But the film shot out of the gate October 20 and astonished the industry selling performances out. Budgeted at $25 milion, it has already grossed $35.5 million. Boo! 2 became an instant hit. Budgeted at $25 million, it’s close to exceeding that in just over a week.

Jigsaw (Serendipity Productions/Lionsgate) is the eighth title in the Saw franchise, which became a popular slasher series with face-cringing, spine tingling twists to the serial killer saga and a look at the day’s social mores. Then it ended, until this past weekend when it’s been reborn in hopes of bringing in more moola. As bodies drop everywhere – each with gruesome demise that fit Jigsaw’s style, police find themselves chasing the ghost of a man presumed dead for over a decade (Tobin Bell), and become embroiled in a new cat and mouse game. Is Jiggy/John Kramer back? Is this a copy cat? Or  are they falling into a trap set by another monster? The story is told in such a fast pace that there’s little time for character development. However, it gets props for the show-stopping, head-rolling finale. The film got a knife in its back from critics and moviegoers. One reviewer’s assessment: “Watching Jigsaw is a dumb, ugly waste of energy.”

There Was Another Horror at the Weekend Box Office

Suburbicon (Paramount/Dark Castle/Black Bear Pictures) – It had the cache of George Clooney as director when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival, but was received with a few boos. Conceived by Joel and Ethan Coen (remember their 2016 misfire Hail, Caesar!, about a tough Hollywood studio “fixer”), Clooney (a Hail, Caesar! co-star), and Grant Heslov (co-writer, Matt Damon’s Best Picture Argo), is a racially-charged farce that “draws parallels between the U.S.’ ugly past and the situation today.” Damon, Julianne Moore, and Oscar Isaac, Summer of 1959, are in an Eden to raise a family: an idyllic community with affordable homes and manicured lawns. However, tranquility changes to disturbing reality in the town’s s dark underbelly of betrayal, deceit, and violence [including flaming Confederate flags]. Come critics went “Huh?” and “Huh!” The often kind Rotten Tomatoes wrote: “It’s A Raisin in the Sun Meets The Donna Reed Show. Only occasionally does an image strike a lyrical blow and yield the creepy effect Clooney is aiming for.” Worse, audiences weren’t camping overnight to be the first at box offices. Maybe it will develop a cult following.

At Home 24/7 Horror and Halloween Fright Fest  

Is this not the best time of year to revisit famous Halloween spook with everything from zombies and slashers to séances and lots of screams? There’s so much horror to enjoy spread on the couch with a beer or soda and chips and dip. Can anything top the original Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, Hitch’s Psycho, Kubrick’s The Shining [Where’s Jack? Bring him back!]? Maybe a bit of Poltergeist; or some Stephen King? How about Halloween, The Fog, Christine or anything by John Carpenter, because he knows how to scare your pants off? There’s Wes Craven’s bad ole Freddy in  Nightmare on Elm Street; or the original Saw; contemporary grand guignol of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?; and any season of American Horror Story – because Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuck know how to creep you out. Then, there’s family-friendly “horror” in Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein/Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde/The Invisible Man.

3-D is having a much-longer shelf life than expected. For a great at-home theatrical experience, check out the Blu-ray 3-D edition of the edge-of-your-cushioned-seat 1953 blockbuster House of Wax [Warner Home Entertainment, SRP $40]. Vincent Price, so fantastic playing madmen, is perfect casting for demented Professor Henry Jarrod. The Technicolor, pre-digital 3-D two-projector image realignment, and sound track have been meticulously remastered with a 4K scan. Don’t spill your popcorn as you experience one of the most incredible horror flick finales. Beware: You can’t escape the flames!

If your dream is a near lifetime of at-home horror, get 50 Horror  Classics (Mill Creek Entertainment; 3,743 minutes/12 discs; $15.65 on Amazon). The massive set contains some classics – keep in mind the majority are from the 30s and 40s and most, if not all, fall into Public Domain, so they haven’t been remastered: The Ape (Boris Karloff), Bluebeard (John Carradine), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (John Barrymore, Silent), Allan Dwan’s comic romp The Gorilla (Ritz Brothers, Bela Lugosi), William Castle’s The House on Haunted Hill (Vincent Price),

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Lon Chaney, Silent), Roger Corman’s  Little Shop of Horrors (Jack Nicholson),  Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Murnau’s Nosferatu (Max Schreck, Silent), The Phantom of the Opera (Lon Chaney, Silent), and, among numerous others, White Zombie (Lugosi).

Universal Studios’ horror period produced first-rate thrillers. Six have been remastered for Blu-ray for Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection (Universal Home Entertainment; eight discs/710 minutes; $45 on Amazon): James Whale’s  Bride of Frankenstein (Elsa Lancaster, Karloff, Colin Clive) – many feel this sequel surpasses its predecessor, Tod Browning’s Dracula (Lugosi) – note how the mood is set with a lack of score, Whale’s Frankenstein (Karloff, Clive, Mae Clark), The Invisible Man (Claude Rains) – with humor to offset the horror, The Mummy (Karloff), and The Wolfman (Lon Chaney Jr.). There’s bonus material galore, including an alternate Dracula score by Philip Glass, performed by the Kronos Quartet.

Ellis Nassour is an Ole Miss alum and noted arts journalist and author who recently donated an ever-growing exhibition of performing arts history to the University of Mississippi. He is the author of the best-selling Patsy Cline biography, Honky Tonk Angel, as well as the hit musical revue, Always, Patsy Cline. He can be reached at ENassour@aol.com. 

The post Halloween Cinema Treats That Keep on Giving appeared first on HottyToddy.com.

[clim-hazzar-d-blog]

Does 2017 have the best gaming lineup in history?

2017 Is still in its infancy but with the amount of hype surrounding many of the titles in this years lineup, I began to wonder if I could remember another time when I was this amped for video games. There are of course, plenty in fact but I wanted to know if this was the most anticipated year of gaming for me. What’s up everyone, First thanks for sharing a small piece of my world, also this is my first post so hopefully you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. Alright, so what’s the deal here? Basically I need to know If this year has the best gaming lineup we’ve ever seen. I need to know because of the innate need we as humans have to constantly validate our intellectual importance. In other words I-don’t-work-for-Game-Informer but-I-like-video-games-too...sniffle. Anyway, the only way to really accomplish this as we all know is to cable news it up on Facebook, but since I’m not nearly smart enough for that I decided to just compare all of the releases from past years. Simple right?  

“But Clem this is your first piece, is your opinion even worth listening to?” Well...Is it illegal to cage pregnant pigs in Florida? The answer to both of those questions  is yes, because of a whole slew of information I think I put in my Bio…maybe. As for the thing with the pig your guess is as good as mine. [ insert Link about best years in gaming history] Condescending mysterious quotes guy had a really good point however, I mean even after earning my stripes in gaming by playing video games before both the  Xbox and Playstation were around I felt like maybe I should should start with something I could more easily defend as a valid opinion.  Then I remembered that Final Fantasy VII Is slated to released this year and how huge a deal this is in the community which I’ve belonged to my entire life, so I told Condescending mysterious quotes guy to go fuck himself.

Outside of a few articles that weren’t particularly recent I wasn’t able to find much written about the topic, so my research consisted largely of going to wikipedia. Which even after just an hour or so had overcomplicated my thought process’ enough to satisfy me with the information I was looking for. Since I was gaming throughout most of the 30 years or so I’m considering for this article, I felt that what I did look up and the effort I put into this piece was justified. Having said that the sheer amount of things there were to consider began to get a bit overwhelming and started to chip at the integrity of my not wanting to be bias. A few of my thoughts however, did make it into my decision making process. Factors such as games that came out during the launch of a new console, and anything from before perhaps the fourth generation of consoles, did not get much consideration because many early games from the 80’s were either directly associated with the industry moving forward and making new discoveries, or largely indistinguishable from other games that came out during similar times. This appeared to devalue my point as many of these years can be seen as redundant as far as the gaming industry is concerned.

Now that I have hopefully shown you that I’ve put forth some form of effort into making this as objective as I could, we can start talking about some of the things I am more excited about...for instance THE ENTIRE POINT OF MY ARTICLE! It can’t be overstated enough how huge a year in gaming we have ahead of us in 2017. On top of all of the games slated to be released this season (barring any delays from any of the more anticipated titles) a few games have already delivered in groundbreaking ways, such as Horizon: Zero Dawn; the visually stunning dino hunter and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; which launched alongside the Nintendo Switch. We live in a time where it is really difficult for games to stand out and gain Legendary status [insert super sayain god], with the frequency and variety we get from games today It’s easy to develop Non Life Changing Game Syndrome or NLCGS for short. NLCGS shouldn’t be taken lightly as it may result in serious side effects such as being trapped playing the last seven years of Call of Duty games exclusively and the less common but more severe case of leaving videogames completely. All jokes aside the remake of FFVII is easily the most anticipated game of this year and quite frankly the last 20 years. For fear of sounding like too much of a fanboy and because…well... Climhazzard I will leave it at that.

“Yea but Clem, Zelda is always going to have its fans, and Final Fantasy is essentially just a remake?” Condescending Mysterious Quotes guy has made another fair yet premature point. Luckily I didn’t empty my magazine, because this year has some of the most intriguing gaming concepts I have seen in a little while like For Honor, which possesses the ability to be both incredibly unique and vaguely familiar making for a truly engaging experience. Honestly guys the list is packed with juggernauts…Red Dead Redemption gets a sequel, Kratos Is a Viking, Resident Evil 7 fully utilizing VR, Kratos Is a Viking, Gran Turismo coming out with like its 7th game, and with Kratos being a viking now, what’s not to like about this year in gaming.

Now, I said I did some and I managed to narrow wikipedia’s list to a few years; 1996-98 (specifically 98), and 2000. The late 90’s into present day is what I believe to be the golden age of gaming and considering how quickly technology advanced during those few years it’s easy to feel like that was an inevitability, but during this time we also observed the gaming industry take a huge step towards earning its place in the humanities. Games began to have longer deeper plots, music scores became more elaborate by adding soundtracks composed by orchestras where before the only option really was 8-16 bit chiptunes and tones.

Years 1996-1999 are where many of us remember spending our most formative years playing games like Pokemon Red and Blue, Final Fantasy 7, and everything that came out in 1998. If I weren’t advocating for 2017 I think 1998 would be the Greatest year for gaming, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, Tenchu, Marvel vs Capcom, and Goldeneye were all released that year and If you can remember anything other than playing those games in 98 than you are doing a hell of a lot better at keeping track of your life than I am thats for sure. Choosing the turn of the century  was a no brainer considering that’s the year the #1 selling game console of all time was released. I don’t have to tell you what console that is right...RIGHT?

Anyway, The rest of the 2000’s were a little more difficult for me to pick through than any of the previous years because we really saw the gaming industry start to blur the lines of what is and Is not considered gaming, which is to say that there are many more things that make one a gamer than not. With the mobile game movement and more and more  video game related art, though not necessarily involving any game playing, made it difficult for me to judge these years by the same standards. This year really stands out the most to me in this era of games, yea there are a few really great standouts scattered here and there, but because there are so many more games released in a calendar year many of which are frankly not very good ( a factor that made choosing even more complicated), few years have lineups that even come close to some of the aforementioned years, 2017 at least has the potential to be seen as the best year in gaming. Coupled with everything that is happening with VR this year 2017 looks be a sexy wikipedia page.

Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed my piece...if you did or didn’t feel free to let me know. I’d like to see more opinions on this topic and hear how people go about defending their choices...and remember that Quarter-Circle Forward Punch is always Hadoken.