#but honestly? the energy from HBO Max is THERE

[applestede]

Wow, at least SOMEONE knows how to release a trailer during Pride Month

[eyra]

Well, I just watched the first episode of Conversations with friends, and would have kept binge watching it the whole night if the rest of the episodes were available to watch on HBO Max, but alas they are not. So instead I turn to you to vent a little and also thank you and sympathise with your mood. I can totally relate with the idea of this series becoming my whole personality. I have felt quite painfully reflected on Frances social awkwardness, her shy and unsure eye movements showing her inner thinking when she is with other people as in what the fuck do normal (non introvert) people in social settings! Her waiting at the end of the play to talk with the actor but chickening out as in who would want to talk to me when they have other (better, more fun) options? I think it is the first time I see this type of personality on TV, even if it is a kinda niche artsy show, and I feel seen! But also I lack the cool clothing and effortlessly elegant waifish body type, so worse. Well, this is probably a lot more pestering from a mutual than you deserve, so I’ll stop. Thanks! And I’ll retreat quietly to my corner, posting anonymously of course, because why would you want to know that it is me who send this when I am no one.

As this is an AMA, I’d say: can you see yourself writing a marauder fanfic based on the topic? At the same time I am conflicted because I have loved the female powered energy in the fic, but I am an evil sinner that prefers mlm.

I feel you. The whole time I’m watching I’m like “Frances my love WHAT are you doing” whilst simultaneously knowing that I’d probably be making the exact same choices. Well, maybe not all of them. But we all do dumb stuff sometimes.

It’s funny, I’ve read the reviews and it doesn’t seem to have been terribly well-received and certainly doesn’t have the acclaim that Normal People did but I honestly preferred it - I was transfixed from beginning to end.

I’d love to write a marauders fic with a similar tone, but perhaps with more sympathetic characters… most of the people in CwF are insufferable and I mean that as a compliment to the author. I hated them and yet could not look away.

[necronymie]

Meet the Writers of gen:LOCK Season 2 Panel Summary

Summary under the cut because this shit is LONG

There's a fun ad before the panel about how attractive MBJ is

“We may be lesbians, but we’re not blind!”

Moderated by Dorian Parks, editor in chief of Geeks of Color

Panel starts with a thank-you to HBO Max for facilitating the production of Season 2, as well as other RT shows.

Panel members include:

Daniel Dominguez: Head writer of s2

Maasai Singleton: Writer’s assistant, wrote a few episodes

Evan Narcisse: Staff writer, wrote on s1 as well

Kristle Peluso: Staff writer

Gavin Hignight: Staff writer

How did the writer’s room come together?

Dan and Evan are old friends

Kristle and Dan were introduced by a common friend/coworker

Dan and Gavin also knew each other before working together

Maasai was the only person who Dan did not know previously

To Evan: How has your journey as a writer informed your writing choices

He began as a critic, and that has made a big impact

He now pays much attention to the impact of a show’s message

To Dan: what made you want to write for GL?

He's been writing his whole life, as cheesy as that is

His first novella was written at 6 years old and it was a rip off of Nightmare on Elm Street

It was 7 pages of a woman turning into a cockroach

Kristle jokes that it's his best work to date

They joke that s2 is 8 episodes of a woman turning into a cockroach in the shower.

(Honestly I’d still watch it)

What drew him to GL: its this wonderful diverse cast telling a meaningful story about giant robot battles.

To Maasai: How was this as a start into the industry?

“We just vibed.”

“We would always say, there's mindshare in GL, and there's mindshare between the writers!”

Everyone cries at that

His first script was amazing, according to the rest of the writers

Daniel talks about how incredible Maasai is

Maasai and Kristle talk about how creative a leader Daniel is

The writers talk about how insane some of the pitches for s2 were, and how the environment in the writers room was very accepting of the more outlandish ideas

“At the end of the day, our job is about being vulnerable, because that's what storytelling is”

What inspired you and made you want to write?

Gavin has always been writing

Evan is an old school comichead; he's always been a reader, and for the bulk of his career, he was a journalist and critic. 

Helping create the worlds he used to analyze is fascinating

Daniel jokes how Evan is going to get a kick out of the terrible reddit thread that will come from s2

Kristle remembers in second grade when she wrote a comedy for class and a kid laughed so hard that he fell out of his chair, and that made her realize that words have power. 

She was a journalist and worked in marketing for a while (she hated it)

Especially as a woman, its very exciting working in a male-dominated industry

How do you guys feel about how inclusive the writers room is, and how did that affect the writing?

It was very intentional. No one can better tell the stories of these people than the writers who understand their struggles

Hollywood has been dominated by a monoculture of writers

Dan jokes that he is “the whitest Mexican-American that you've ever met”

Our writers room needs to look like the people whose stories we’re telling

There was a good amount of religious diversity in the room, and that shaded the story in various ways

Its implied that the above comment has a lot to do with the storyline of s2

Dan kept running around the table and yelling “Where is your god now?”

Evan recalls how Dan made the team pull apart the DNA of s1 to construct s2

What do you think the turning point of inclusivity came?

Never. It still hasn't happened

Shame is an incredibly powerful weapon, and that is what forces the people in charge to change

Evan talks about how media like the Black Panther movie definitely inspire writers and creators to create more inclusive media.

gL is a part of the movement, but the wave hasn't crashed yet

Dan talks about how lucrative inclusive media is

“Do it for the money, if not the people!”

We don't just want to see ourselves in protagonists, we want to see other people, we want to see other viewpoints, experience other experiences

“I personally don't know what it's like to pilot a giant mech, but-” “you don't?”

Looking for a common ground like this important for the storyline of s2. This struggle and this attempt of unity through looking into each other's minds is a key theme.

Maasai brings up that diversity is good because you need conflict in a story. Our character's diversity drives their character arcs, and forces them to change. They make each other think differently, literally and metaphorically

The conflicts that we see in s2, both micro and macro, the seeds are all there in s1, the camera is just pulled out to see the larger picture. 

Evan jokingly “spoils” that there is war in season 2

What media inspired s2? Did you draw from any specific influences?

Gavin says that he focused on the horror of the technology. How does this technology affect those who use it?

Dan talks about how Gavin made him think more about how terrifying gL is, made him question his own humanity.

They drew from so many influences from youtube video essays to Shakespeare

They ripped off even more of Tempest in s2

Kristle talks about keeping the hope in the disaster that is s2

She says that s2 has many parallels with 2020 and the pandemic, some explicit, some not

Evan always worked remotely; that prepared the room to work from home when the pandemic struck

Evan says that he was inspired by writers who focused on how prejudices perpetuate over centuries, and how humanity changes the world

Evan has always tried to emphasize the mutual responsibility humanity has to care for each other, and the past year has made him put more energy behind that message.

Dan talks about how s2 tries to make people ask themselves if humanity is even capable of fixing our mistakes

“We got big robots, man!” “its dope!”

Can you spoil anything about s2 before the panel ends?

In GL, in the future, the only restaurant left is Taco Bell

Chase has some heavy stuff ahead of him.

[stewblog]

GODZILLA VS. KONG

What do you want out of a movie where a gigantic ape with a magic axe goes toe-to-toe with a nuclear-powered lizard? How you answer this question is the key to whether or not you will experience maximum enjoyment from a movie like “Godzilla vs. Kong”.

I’ve never been one to advocate the “just turn off your brain and have fun” approach to movie watching. I think every movie should actively try to engage its audience in some meaningful way beyond (pun intended) lizard-brained mindless spectacle. But we do not live in that world, and when a movie comes along that doesn’t even attempt to provide even a fortune cookie’s worth of thematic depth or meaning and instead focuses purely on going hard into the paint for MONKEY PUNCH LIZARD … well, I honestly have to respect it.

And boy does it go hard.

Maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t seen a movie on the big screen in nearly a full year. It was, admittedly, a near-overwhelming experience seeing these gigantic mythological creatures duke it out in an image size taller than my house. But the impact of each instance of Godzilla and King Kong coming to blows felt at an echelon above most blockbuster spectacle of late.

City-annihilating, CGI destruction-fests are absolutely nothing new, and the advances in technology make literally anything possible and even believable now. Following in the footsteps of 2014’s “Godzilla,” “Kong: Skull Island” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” the action in “Godzilla vs. Kong” has a weight to it that simply cannot exist when the subjects in focus are sized as mere mortals. Director Adam Wingard manages to deliver a sense of immersion to the mayhem here that I found overall lacking in many of the previous films. It feels more personal, in a way, which is an odd thing to say about a movie like this.

Though perhaps it shouldn’t be all that odd. After all, Kong is back at the forefront once more and this version of the great ape has always felt like more of a character than Godzilla in his most recent appearances. By design and, in some ways, necessity, Godzilla is more of a force of nature, an event to behold and survive rather than anything one could possibly begin to identify with. But there’s a humanity to Kong that’s evoked both in Skull Island and here that you can’t help but attach to, even if you’re firmly on #TeamGodzilla.

As such, throwing Kong face- (and fist) first into an all-out, no-holds-barred brawl for titan supremacy makes the proceedings feel much more interesting than the shodowns in “Godzilla” ‘14 or “King of the Monsters,” all of which felt more detached. There’s no way or reason to invest in who won in those films since at the end, it’s still an uncontrollable monster that comes out on top. But by giving us someone to root for with Kong now in the mix makes the battles feel more dangerous and meaningful, in a way.

If you’re wondering why I haven’t talked about the plot or even the set up, well, that’s because there’s barely anything resembling as such.

We pick things up a couple years after Godzilla became reigning kaiju champion and the titular king of the monsters upon ripping Ghidora asunder. Humanity seems to have accepted its status as, at best, observers of Godzilla, ostensibly under his protection from any remaining so-called Titans. However, after he destroys a research plant for the mega-corporation Apex, Godzilla is deemed an imminent threat and Kong is brought out of hiding as a possible means to stop him.

There are other machinations involving Hollow Earth Theory, mystical power sources, etc. and the humans who get tangled up in all of it, but none of it matters. And I don’t mean that in a metaphorical sense. I mean that you could (and probably should) cut out everything involving Madison (Millie Bobbie Brown), her father (Kyle Chandler) and the two conspiracy nuts who follow her around out of the movie entirely and nothing of value or importance would be lost. In fact, it’d only help make the movie get to the good stuff faster.

The human presence in these movies has largely been a hindrance, but it’s frankly astonishing just how useless and pointless 80 percent of the humans in this movie are. Either the movie got edited to shreds in post-production, or the script writers simply had no idea what to do with any of the returning characters. Either way, congratulations to Lance Reddick for managing to get mid-tier billing for only saying a single line.

Thankfully though, as bafflingly awful as the humans are, it didn’t dampen my enjoyment or enthusiasm an ounce. Wingard delivers in spades the thing for which you paid your admission (or HBO Max subscription). The action leading up to it is overall excellent, including the first big brawl, but by the time we get to the neon-drenched battle in Hong Kong, the movie is positively vibrating with energy and it gets released in what is easily my favorite giant monster showdown of recent memory. I cackled like a madman so loudly on multiple occasions during this fight that I elicited stares from my fellow theater-goers.

Obviously this is not a perfect movie, but it is perfect at delivering what I wanted out of it and at a volume and tenor at which I wanted. Having been unable to watch movies in a theater for a year, I’m not sure I could have asked for much more.

[ollyarchive]

Olly Alexander Is Done With Shame

Like the character he plays in “It’s a Sin,” the actor and singer struggled with being gay. Now, he tells the world everything.

By Anna Leszkiewicz

Feb. 19, 2021Updated 9:22 a.m. ET

LONDON — When Olly Alexander burst into tears shooting a scene of “It’s a Sin,” no one was very surprised.

Making the show, which came to HBO Max on Thursday and follows a group of friends embracing the gay culture of ’80s London under the shadow of AIDS, was emotional for many of the cast and crew — and Alexander is as comfortable showing his vulnerabilities as the character he plays, Ritchie, is at deflecting them.

“I was a complete mess after the first take,” Alexander, 30, said in a recent video interview. “I was sobbing.” Peter Hoar, the director of “It’s a Sin,” paused filming.

The scene in question, which comes after Ritchie and his friends are arrested protesting the British government’s inaction on AIDS, is one of many in the show that explore how the epidemic devastated gay men’s lives.

When we meet Ritchie, he is an impishly confident but naïve 18-year-old who has just moved to London, with dreams of becoming an actor. Alexander also moved to the capital from rural England at 18 and scored his first movie role, but today he is better known as the lead singer of the band Years & Years. “It’s a Sin” is his first acting gig in six years.

Years & Years’s music often explores the relationship between desire and shame, and is heavily influenced by ’80s bands like Pet Shop Boys. (“It’s a Sin” takes its title from that group’s song of the same name.) So when Alexander heard Russell T Davies, the show’s creator, was interested in him for the lead role, the opportunity “made poetic sense,” Alexander said.

In an interview, Davies said the show was “cast gay as gay, which is my policy.” For Ritchie, he added, he wanted an out actor who already had a big profile in Britain. “That almost narrows it down to a field of one,” he said. “It was the simplest audition of my life.”

Alexander’s arch performance as Ritchie suggests that the character’s ambition and bravado are reactions to fear and self-loathing. “I realized straight away, ‘Oh, I know who Ritchie is,’” Alexander said. “He’s trying to get onstage and shine and dazzle: I’ve done that.”

But whereas Ritchie masks his vulnerabilities, Alexander has spoken frankly in interviews and onstage with the band about his experiences of bulimia, anxiety, self-harm and depression.

“I’ve said just everything about myself,” he said. “My life is kind of out there now.”

Alexander grew up in Gloucestershire, in western England, where his mother founded a local music festival. His father, an aspiring musician, worked in amusement parks.

It was a creative household, Alexander said, but his father had mental health problems and substance abuse issues that led to a difficult atmosphere at home. When he was 14, his parents separated; he’d only seen his father a handful of times since, he said.

School was an even more fraught environment, and Alexander experienced homophobic bullying from age 9. “I had long blond hair, and I acted quite feminine,” he said. “That made me a target. And kids can be so cruel.”

As Alexander recalled his younger self, he started to cry. It took many years until he could look back at the child he was with compassion, he said. “But that’s the biggest thing I’ve tried to do,” he added. The impact of his childhood is something he’s still processing in weekly therapy, he said.

When Alexander’s high school classmates went to college, he moved to East London and became a jobbing actor while babysitting and waiting tables. A pale, skinny teenager with a nest of tight curls, he landed roles as the tuberculosis-ridden younger brother of Ben Whishaw’s Keats in the film “Bright Star,” and an anguished drug user in Gaspar Noé’s trippy art movie “Enter the Void.”

Alexander had been living in London for a couple of years when he met his Years & Years bandmates, Mikey Goldsworthy and Emre Türkmen. Though they started out making high-minded, Radiohead-inspired electronic music, Alexander pushed the band toward synth-pop, with big, melodramatic choruses full of longing.

In 2015, the band’s exhilarating but anguished song “King” — about the strange thrill of being treated badly in a relationship — reached No. 1 on the British singles chart, and its debut album, “Communion,” topped the album charts, too.

“His songs are his life,” said the producer Mark Ralph, who has worked with Years & Years from the band’s earliest days “If you want to know what’s gone on in Olly’s life, then you just read all his lyrics.”

“Love takes its toll on me,” Alexander sings in “Sanctify,” a song about a secret liaison with a straight man. “And I won’t, and I won’t, and I won’t be ashamed.”

When the band performed the song at the Glastonbury Festival in 2016, soon after the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., a rainbow-clad Alexander told the crowd, “I’m here, I’m queer, and, yes, sometimes I’m afraid.” But, he added, “I am never ashamed, because I am proud of who I am.”

The speech caught the interest of TV producers, and, in 2017, he fronted a BBC documentary called “Olly Alexander: Growing Up Gay.” In it, he returns to his family home and leafs through teenage diaries full of references to bulimia and self-harm. On camera, he tells his mother about the bullying at school for the first time: Through tears, they discuss how it led him to mental health problems in his teenage years.

“It’s a lot to ask someone to bare their soul on national television,” said Vicki Cooper, the TV movie’s director. “But those difficult conversations created the best moments in the film.”

That documentary, and Alexander’s openness about his own mental health, mean he gets a lot of messages on social media from fans who are struggling themselves. He used to try to respond to them, he said, but the quantity has become impossible to keep up with.

Through those messages, though, Alexander had “seen a really emotionally vulnerable side to a lot of people,” he said. “That’s a precious thing, actually.”

Alexander had also been humbled by the positive response to “It’s a Sin” in Britain, he said. The show broke records for the streaming service All4, where it aired, with 6.5 million streams.

“It’s a Sin” first appeared on All4 during National H.I.V. Testing Week; on social media, the show’s cast encouraged viewers to get tested. The Terrence Higgins Trust, an H.I.V. nonprofit, said that the number of people taking tests through their service had almost quadrupled in the weeks afterward.

“People living with H.I.V. now can live normal, healthy lives: It’s so important to get that message out,” Alexander said, adding that treatments for the virus had transformed since the ’80s. “I’m really grateful that these conversations are happening, because, honestly, lots of people really didn’t know what was going on in this period of history. They’re shocked to learn about it now.”

That era is also having an influence on Alexander’s music. He is currently recording new material with Years & Years, inspired by the ’80s dance anthems of the “It’s a Sin” soundtrack and beyond: Donna Summer, New Order, Pet Shop Boys.

“During the pandemic, I wanted to listen to super upbeat club music that made me dance around,” he said. “I found myself wanting to create the fantasy and the energy that I haven’t necessarily been experiencing.”

As well as working on new music, Alexander said he had spent the lockdowns in England watching “Real Housewives” episodes, and playing Animal Crossing. “I used to be so, so driven,” he said, but now he was putting less pressure on himself.

He was happy, he added, to think back on what he’d already achieved, and how much has changed since he was a little boy who wished he wasn’t gay.

“I’ve kept a diary since I was 13 years old,” he said. “Sometimes I look at it and think I can tell this kid: ‘You’re going to do amazing things. You’re going to get to where you are now. It’s OK. You got this.’”

Hugo Yangüela contributed additional camera operating for photographs.

[popculturebuffet]

Close Enough Season 2 Review! or Josh Murders About 10 People

It's been hard to put into words just how wonderful a surprise this season getting released this month was. For starters before JG Quintel announced it last year shortly after season 1, I honestly was convinced season 2 wasn't happened. Do NOT get me wrong, Season 1 of Close Enough was one of the best parts of last year: It was funny, had a lot of heart, a great voice cast, and a great cast of characters that was throughly likeable and broke sitcom stereotypes, having a doofy husband and more straight laced wife with layers who clearly love and respect each other and BOTH can be prone to taking things too far instead of JUST Josh screwing up. Add in two great fellow leads Bridgette and Alex played by two of my faviorite va's, Kimiko Glen and Jason Mantzokus, whose name I finally learned how to spell, an adorable daughter and neat but out of focus neighbors and supors pearle and randy, and the show was just damn near perfect and felt like an improvement on regular show, taking the same humor and animation style but to an older cast and audience with more nuanced and likeable characters, and far more character development per episode. I wanted to see where the show would go.. but I was convinced given the show was leftover inventory from an animation block that never happened held over to give HBO Max some content it'd be canceled after one season, because I can't have nice things. But....

And very happily so: JG Quintel revealed the show had been picked up for season 2 not long after season 1 dropped, having listned to fans. As it turns out though they hadn't.. they just had a ton of faith in the show as I got ANOTHER bombshell earlier this month. While the show had showed up on the schedule for this month late in January, with no release date on said schedule, I wasn't 100% sure the show was coming back this month or that it wasn't just an error. But once again, I was wrong, it was earth all along, and they merely saved it for the press release for their adult animation lineup: alongside the huge and welcome bombshell they were the ones picking up the Clone High reboot and for two seasons, Close enough not only got two more seasons publicly announced, but fimrly revealed season 2 launched February 25th. LIke they likely had with infinity train the show was quitely picked up for another season, and they simply waited to announce it till the right time. Though unlike infinity train, they had faith in it to become a big hit and while they SHOULD HAVE with infinity train and should've accepted it was already a big hit simply not with the target demographic, it's still nice to see that after all it went through Close Enough not only got renewed but is now the network's flagship adult animated show, closely tied with harley quinn, and will likely go on as long as it wants to.

So naturally given I reviewed all of season 1 in the hopes i'td get renewed, I was happy to make room for season 2 and continue covering it and over the moon it was happening so soon. However I'm doing things diffrently this time: instead of flooding the tag with individual longform reviews, i'm reviewing the season all one go, to see if this format could work for me as I have tons of other shows i'd love to cover in this format that are either heavily comedic like say the Great North, regular show or the simpsons and thus dont' lend themselves to riffing as much and leave me less to do per episode, or more seralized shows like she ra or ones that are entirely complete like Steven Universe or Gravity falls that I could cover alone but this format could help expidite covering. Gravity Falls is also one of my patreon stretch goals if your instrested as is a whole lot of ducktales stuff, link on my blog. It also works with my much larger workload with a much tighter schedule, 6 reviews a week with a flex day in case I get behind so everything comes out as good as it posisbly can be, versus my original method of...

TLDR: One big post with smaller reviews each episode and an overall coverage of what changed this season and how good it is as a whole. We good? Good, then join me under the cut for some delightful sentient presents, couch ghosts, and jim fucking crunch as we get close enough to the heart.

I will never get tired of that image. I want it blown up and put on a banner at my funeral. But death plans aside let's get into the season

Slight Tweaks to a Great Formula: Given it's slice of life format based largely around likeable multi layered characters in comedic absurdity, not a lot has changed nor did it need to. What has are just simple tweaks to make things even better. For starters a natural result of getting to the episodes now produced directly for the 11 minute format means the pacing is much focused, subbing in full subplots for the occasional runner instead, and often only using what characters the episode needs. It will use the main five often, but the lack of subplots for the most part allows stronger focus on one or two characters to give the stories added weight and nuance and often laughs. While i'll always love season 1, this allows for much tighter stories and allows for everyone to get some major screen time instead of mostly Josh and Emily in season 1. It does mean we sadly get less of my boy Alex per episode but it's a sacrifice i'm willing to make if it means the show can grow and take more risks and evolve naturally. Though the former probably wasn't help by two of his three episodes being kinda weak, but i'll get to that.

The other noticeable change is Pearle and Randy. While they were promoted as main characters, even getting profiles along with the rest, they were in practice recurring characters in season 1, showing up pretty frequently but with only one starring episode for Randy and none for Pearle. And givne Pearle has an interesting backstory as a cop who likely had to put up with a LOT being a black woman officer, as well as raising a white redneck, while also being hilarious and having a fun energy to her, I felt they kinda wasted her in season 1.

Here though? Both have been bumped up to main cast proper, getting two focus episodes a piece (compared to the other main adults each getting three, some of those shared, and Candace getting one, hopefully more in the future as it was really good, along with, to my delight, mr.cambell also getting one), appearing far more in supporting roles and generally showing up with the main group a lot more. They still don't hang out with our loveable family all the time, but it makes sense as they have their own apartment and stuff to deal with, but it feels far more like their part of the main group. The show always treated them like this mine, but showing up more makes their friendships with their tenants feel more genuine, as it feels like their part of their lives more, whlie having their own to deal with we get to see now.

So while the series didn't change much, as I said it didn't need to and all of this is stuff is the kind of thing I wanted, especially Pearle getting a larger role and Randy being fleshed out from a dollar store version of muscle man into his own similar but difference character, and i'm happy to have it. So now i've talked about how the seasons' changed, let's talk about the episodes themselves. Grab a snack this is going to take a bit.

The Episodes!:

Josh Gets Shredded: 

Our premier and honestly it's a solid one with a singular premise on poking fun at gym culture, though in a nice twist Jim Crunch, the guy who runs the Gym Josh ends up going to to strengthen his core to play with Candace and whose voiced wonderfully by Kevin Michael Richardson is a genuinely good guy and there's no horrifying twist with him. He just wants Josh to get ripped and dosen't know his training is keeping josh from candace. IT's a simple setup of a father doing something for his daughter but getting distracted by it and while not new it works well here and we get plenty of fun gym jokes, including an exchange from Jim and Josh when Josh wants to become an "absolute unit", which in this case ends up meaning turning into the hulk but with the glowing firey eyes of an angry god, feels like it came straight out of the hockey bros from letterkenny, which is a good feeling to have. There's also a nice setup with Candace wanting to play king kong with Josh due to seeing it in class (Specially the Peter Jackson remake, also Candace knows who jack black is which I buy because of who her daddy is. I wouldn’t be surprised if Josh had Saving Silverman on a loop for several days until emily threw it out the window like a frisbee. ), which kicks off the whole thing.. and ends with ultra instinct hulk josh taking her to the top of a building and swatting away helicopters. It’s more of an average episode for the series and the runner about Emily being REALLY hot for buff josh comes off as a weaker version of the plot from family guy where Lois likes a thinner peter, apart from one inspired bit where in order to talk to him about candace without getting distracted, Emily pours an entire bag of ice down her pants.. and subtly after Josh talks about becoming an absolute unit, it’s gone nad rather than animation I like to believe it melted. Still a decent start to a great season. 

Meet the Frackers: A Randy Spotlight episode and unlike his season one episode rather than be a subplot in another episode it’s a full episode about him. And the starting incident is great as the gang gets their ancestry results back from costco, with Emily and Bridgette having ancestors in Guadalajara and Kiyoto.. and Josh being white (”Can you believe it?”). Alex coming from a long line of creeps is also pretty funny, those are his actual results by the way. 

But what the episodes truly about is Randy finding out his parents are alive in Malibu after Pearle claimed they were dead when he was a kid. She had a very good reason though: Randy’s parents were serial gas thieves, and Pearle nearly caught them one night with the two chucking him at her to escape. And to her credit Pearle TRIED to reach out to them once they ended up in jail for their crimes.. but they again chucked him at her which is hilarious. She simply didn’t want him to feel abandoned. He instead feels betrayed. 

His parents are hilariously white trash and played by two faviorite va’s of mine, David Kochner and Wendy Malick, who i’m happy is finally playing a lead roll on Owl House. They drink redneck maragretihas and eat mcribs (As Randy puts it “God’s favorite sandwich!”) every day and still steal gas, just legally now as frackers. Naturally though the two are still assholes and soon use a carnival as a cover to illegally frack and it’s up to Randy an dhis real mom to stop them> It’s a touching story with Randy genuinely wanting to hlep his mom, though I feel it would’ve been more interesting if Randy’s parents hadn’t been scum an dhe had to genuinely deal with having three parents now. Still it was worth it for some great lines from Malick and Kochner , so it works. Decent ep. 

Sauceface: Now we come to both one of the best eps of the season, and the series so far, and one of it’s most unique as it stars Candace and dosen’t feature the other main cast hardly at all, only Emily who kicks things off by, in a great bit, breaking Candace’s illusion their rich as “they live in a castle with alex and bridgette”, with her slowly realizing “Were poor”. Which is just a very kid thing to think that your parents are rich when they very much aren’t. 

But the episode really is a crime boss parody story, as the title would imply as Candace and her best friend start selling hot sauce, which is banned from the school due to it’s political correctness having gone mad and it being offensive to “sensitive palates” (They’ve also banned general tso’s chicken for mitlarialism and everything bagels for being “too much”). This leads where you’d expect: Candace getting drunk with power and forgetting why theys tarted, wet willies, and an art room brawl, all leading to candace’s friend getting pinched and candace having to use the money to buy Mr. Cambell a pelaton to get him off their backs, which leads to this lovely exchange “YOur letting them off just because they bought you a present?” “This is a 2000 dollar bike”. We also get the subtle reveal Mr. Cambell is gay which given how straight the main cast is, is nice.  But this was a great one with too many good gags to mention, a great setup, a great rolling stones song played during the montage I do not know the name of, and I hope we get other candace advnetures at her school in the future, because this was a real delight. Again one of the best episodes of the season. 

The House Guest From Hell: Speaking of best episodes, this is probably the best pairing of episodes yet, as both are standouts of the season. 

Emily’s old friend Becca drops back into her life, to everyone’s annoyance as Becca is an utter leech who constantly take advantage of Emily’s lack of boundaries with her to constantly talk about whatever drama she’s wrapped herself in and mooch off her. Josh and Bridgette want her to set firm boundaries, but Emily fails to and instead only gets Becca to set boundaries with her boyfriend.. which leads to her moving into the apartment temporarily, and annoying the hell out of everyone. Becca is a great character, being that asshole in the most over the top and annoying way possible, to the point she takes alex’s room, watches tv on a loop and doesn’t seem to realize Emily is married (Despite being part of her bridal party), or that candace is Emily’s daughter and not a tiny butler (Which Candace assumes is a game. )

Naturally for this show things escalate hilariously as Emily finds out she’s pregnant when she tries to throw her out and the pregnancy is escalated.. and we soon find out it’s because the pregnancy is demonic: She has Hecate as her dula (And Alex naturally asks if she’s single, get it guy get it), needs goats hoves, locusts and the blood of the innocent (Which is the only item that trips josh up who hopes they can get it at costco, which made me have to pause as I could not stop laughing). This would be funny enough. .but what takes it into making this episode a classic is when Emily tricks her boyfriend Luke over he’s unsurprisingly a devil.. but also a hilariously over the top douchebag dudebro played by Beck  Bennet, who it’s not only nice to see outside of ducktales, but is also just totally game. Luke is so odious it wraps around to being funny, to the point he unsurprisingly hits on Bridgette while his girlfriend is in labor, messily makes out with her and they try to move in, though thankfully Emily cathartically screams Becca out midbirth. Also they end up going to hell, with Luke getting there by doing donuts. Yes really. This episode is a treasure and does the series schitck of taking a relatable problem and escalating it to perfection. 

Joint Break:

Another unsurprisingly good one, as Pearle deals with the fact that despite her decades of service, the force’s health plan doesn’t cover her needed hip surgery after she slides over a car wrong (Which also leads to a great riff on the old csi Miami parody). She then finds herself between her oath as an officer and her needs for help as she befriends a gang of saucy old women at water aerobics who are also bank robbers and want to cut her in. And they provide a tempting offer, getting what their owed and ti feels like a genuine dilemma, even if Pearle ends up siding with the police, not that she should. It’s also full of great bits of the old lady gang weaponizing stereotypes about old people, with the three of them dawning classic old lady getups to fool an officer, and having one of them i a walker slowly cross the street to stop an armored truck. Fun stuff helped by their leader being voiced by Jane Lynch, continuing this season’s red hot guest star streak, not that the series has ever been light on them (They got David Hasselhoff and weird al in season 1, so yeah), but this season ramps up the good guest voices to the point there’s one per episode almost. 

Cyber Matrix: This one’s okay though the setup is good. Unsurprisingly given both his dale gribble-esque penchant for conspiracies and his hipster holier than thou ways, Alex has never had a smart phone, and has a very old flip hone that’s horrifc to look at and naturally gets destroyed, leading to him getting addicted to the thing.. and this being the show it is fusing with it. What makes this one is the climax, as the rest of the main group scramble to take out the cell tower so Alex’s phone doesn’t upload him to the cloud while Josha nd Alex open everything they can to slow her down. The result is the phone hacking Emily’s and ordering packages, task rabbits to punch her inthe face (With randy taking it so they can go) and outright hijacking a car in a clever chase. The ending though does sink this as suddenly their in veirutal reality again and it just feels weird given the series, while not really using continuity much so far, dosne’t have negavite continuity punch out endings outside of this one ep and I hope this dosen’t happen again. Otheriwse a decent one if sadly not one of Alex’s best and he equally sadly onlyg ets one truly great episode this season, compared to having a good chunk of the best plots last season. Still you can’t win em all and i’m sure my boy will return to form and said great episode, which we’ll get to soon, certainly shows they didn’t loose their touch. They just fumbled a bit and that’s okay. 

Haunted Couch: Balancing that out is the fact that Bridgette, who didn’t get nearly as many good eps as Alex or as much focus as the rest, gets some great episodes this season with this one being my out and out favorite as it fleshes her out more and has some really great gags. Josh brings in a street couch (And he and Emily’s argument over it is great including him using the fact she forced them to get a savings account as leverage somehow), just as Bridgette is in emotional turmoil over her latest boyfriend suddenly ghosting her. 

Naturally she ends up falling for a REAL ghost, a french couch designer who had a habit of cheating on his lovers, died for it by one of their hands, and his soul ended up bound to the couch. Naturally hea nd Bridgette hit it off and we get a LOT of good stuff in a montage as the two take the couch everywhere, and her friends, minus Alex who surprisingly rather than being jealous, simply dosen’t like the fact there’s a ghost in the house technically haunting them which surprisingly goes nowhere, are happy for her and like him after the initial shock wears off, though Josh still wants to sit on the couch. He and Bridgette even have really good sex using Randy’s body, with him being a willing vesel for Marcus. And i’d just like to point out that an intensely weird comedy show that also has a sentient present, bob vila with saw hands, and dude bro satan in this very season, 2/3 of those to come.. STILL did this better than wonder woman 87, as they actually asked someone to let the ghost of the couple use his body so they could fuck, and he gave full consent to it. And no I sitll haven’t let that go, it was a very bad plotline with nightmarish implications and the fact close enough did it better in a joke, they also have the song from ghost in the background by the by, than a big budget movie from the same company, is a really large bilboard saying:

But while the episode was thoroughly interesting and funny.. it’s what happens next that makes it one of the series best. While the series is amazing at comedy, it’s the character growth slid in between it that makes it so awesome and this episode is a great example. Bridgette turns cold towards Marcus as it’s clear he’s serious, and he’s even moved a tooth brush in. She gets more and more hostile until eventually Marcus calls her on it, and prevents her from leaving with a vortex of furniture.. which could’ve gone bad very quick but instead just means she has to face him.. and is hit with a rather painful relization when he asks “Do you what me to, how you say, ghost you?” (She explained the concept earlier). She says no.. but quickly a series of flashbacks puts the previous breakup in context as the guy she was seeing asked to leave a toothbrush, a  simple escalation and she got real nasty real quick without saying what the problem was. We see more of this with a previous boyfriend and hilaroiusly one before that guy who not only had a toothbrush in a ringbox but was also in a hot air ballon she casually cuts the anchors too and has float away. Which does mean Bridgette probably killed a man but that’s one compared to josh’s 10 this season. Yes, 10. We’ll get to that. 

Point is she realizes “oh shit i’m the dick”, and has a genuine talk with Marcus, realizing why: “You know how women feign being submissive because society’s taught them to so they don’t get raped or murdered or kidnapped?” “Oui”, best bit of the episode and damn if it ain’t horribly true. But due to tha Bridgette simply got terrible quick to scare guys off when she really just wanted to break it off instead of take things further and breaks it off with marcus.. and is surprised and relieved when he doesn’t want a big fight and takes it acceptably, Marcus having grown from his past of being a women using cad and genuinely wanting to treat them better. For once Bridget gets to have an emotionally mature breakup with someone, and while you could say her relationship with alex is like that, it’s very clear from an upcoming episode it wasn’t a very clean break at first and while their amicable now their marriage was a hot volcano of arguments. This allos Marcus to pass.. if also destroying the couch to Josh’s misery. An instant classic and one of the season’s highlights and one that really fleshes Bridgette out a bit by giving another reason for her relationships not working besides alex that fits the character perfectly and has her grow from it. 

Also just a quick sidenote, this episode vaguely reminded me of the Nightmare Time, theater troupe team starkid’s zoomcast I highly recommend set in their hatchetfield multiverse, episode “Jane’s a Car” , which is about a man’s wife possessing his car and also involves an object. Both are very diffrent mind you, Jane’s a Car ends up way more depressing, but its’ stil la story involving ghost fucking though Bridgette found a vesel instead of straight up fucking a couch the way tom went to town on that car. It also involves the lead’s perosnal issues, if far more severe in Jane’s a Car’s case, reflected by their relationship with a ghost. I mean it is a stretch but these are the weird connectoins my brain makes and I mostly bring it up because an  upcoming episode in the season goes from kind of similar but only to me to very similar, and a very fun concidence that these two episodes existed in the same year, especially since this happened last year with this show and Ducktales. But first josh doing a murder on some people. 

Man Up:

Okay for starters the title man up reminds me of this short lived abc sitcom I never saw but given it was about three guys tapping into their “inner man” it sounds like aresnic somehow took the sentient form of a tv show. This actual poster for it not only proves the point but why it lasted one season if not why the hell I remembered this existed at all despite never seeing it, not recognizing anyone in it and not wanting anything to do with it. 

Given I have 8 more episodes to go after this one, I do not have time to disect all the way that poster is a waking nightmare, though i’d love to, and instead i’m going to talk abotu the episode itself. The intro is funny enough, with the Ramierz-Singletons going to a bank for Candace’s first bank account, the Bank of Hollywood. An alien seemingly attacks, it turns out to be a promotional stunt with high budget effects a great gag in of itself, but Josh runs out on his family.  Naturally he’s horribly rattled by this, and wants to be a better dad, a John McClane type. So two things: I now want a crossover with this show and brooklyn nine nine along with the hatchefield one in my head and the regular show one most fans want. And the second is that John wasn’t the best dad or husband, and both the original film, the sequel josh saw, and the fourth film all spell this out. The fifth does too but I feel if I wish hard enough a good day to die hard will just spontaneously cease to exist and we’ll all be happier that way. 

So Pearle agrees to help him, and we get a fun training montage, with Josh protecting a candace made of eggs Alex made, because of course he did, and an emily made of the same because of course he did, and get punched in the junk by randy in a dog costume, as you do. He actually feels tough and is ready for phase 2, pearle hitting him with something unexpectdly.

Instead what he thinks is Phase 2 is actually a die hard style hyjacking of Emily’s company christmas party, which josh misses due to being in the bathroom after panickily running into corn. As a result.. we get josh killing about 8-10 people not realizing it’s not a simulation but not really caring about that part when it’s revealed. Which granted it is in self defense but he still kills a LOT of people this episode, and I will be forever haunted by the fact that stringbean can REALLY do some murders. Seriously who knew JOSH had it in him. That is terrifying to comprehend. Naturally after he john mclanes his way up, he finds out it wasn’t a simulation panics but instead of running away runs the hans gruber knockoff, whose sadly not very entertaining out of the building and onto some exploding corn, saving the day, earning his family’s respect and cemnting himself as a badass. The reveal of what the text actually was is just.. perfect as it’s just a bat on a string with Alex saying “he’s totally going to shit”. The perfect capper to good ep only hampred by hans being really weak.. seriously he just has a weird sentence sturcture tha’ts hte joke. They can do better. Otherwise a good die hard parody. John would be proud. 

Handy:

Another decent one not a standout but it has a truly astounding bit. Randy finds out, after going to Guy Fieri’s flavor diaster for Pearle, that she hired another handyman and he’s not good at his job as as he puts it “I’m going to do what troubled young men have done for years : i’m going to sea!”. Which is funny enough but leads to him stranded on a desert island, hallucinating and then meeting his idols in handy manning who may or may not be hallucinations: Bob Vila, The Ikea Mascot (Who speaks only in pictures and is a fun gag despite never having seen him before this episode) and my favorite tim the tool man taylor, whose tie is constantly pointed up for some reason and who amazingly only speaks in grunts. I didn’t know I needed this so thank you close enough. We also get the three helping with bob turning his hands into buzzsaws, ikea man creating nails and screws and Tim using his head as a tool. All accurate to their original shows and in ikea man’s case brocures. Really good adaptation. But through this he discovers the clog the guy is trying to fix at the house is loadbearing and rushes home to save the house, leading to a fun actoin scene and a weird version of the celebration from the end of return of the jedi, complete with force ghosts. So we also get a tim taylor force ghost which I did not know I needed and as much as that show makes my stomach churn I badly hope shows up in the finale of last man standing. A decent one and givne how I keep sayin ga decent episode over and over you can kinda see why I didn’t review all these. LIke season 1 I simply don’t have a full review in me for every single one of these episodes. We’re now at the halfway mark, only 8 more to go, I envy the dead, let’s do this. 

Birthdaze: This was the episode most heavily promoted in the trailer and for good reason as it’s the best of the season. Also relatable as while not having kids I do get how Kids Birthday parties feel and how they often end up weirdly close together. In this case both coalse as Josh and Emily have three birthdays in one weekend, their friends Emily’s friend Trish from “Cool Moms”, who is so far some of the only continuity the series has, but a nice sign it has it, and that we could see Jim Crunch (who rose from the grave after an utterly wonderful funeral) or Dog Boy again. Or this episode’s standout gifty. But we’ll get to that in a second.  So Josh and Emily well intentiondly decide to throw a party for the parents at the same time as Candace’s.. but end up neglecting Candace. While their idea is good, to reward the other parents for having to sit through so many parties, putting it at the same time was a horrible idea as giving a bunch of pent up people with low alcohol tolerance booze ends up resulting in drunken antics and them heckling the magicain... and given the world we’re in, that’s a horrible mistake as he makes the children disappear to a world of perptual brithday parties and forces JOsh and Emily to follow him if they want their child back.  What results is an utter delightly as we meet the wonderful and incomprable Gifty, a giant living present who works iwth the magician, named sardini, and is voiced by Kate Miccuci, heart eyes> Just.. evey bit with gifty is great, from her genuinely being animated and looking like a muppet, to her casually going demonic to explain if the kids stay too long they forget parents, to as seen up top playing a pipe organ that is apparently made of gold plated clown bones, and her best bit, which I posted on this very blog, where she assures the trapped kids if JOsh and Emily fail their final test, they’ll get to live of nutricious necco wafers before vomiting a giant cloud of them at the poor children. Those things are gross and we now knwo it’s because they come from a giant present’s stomach. 

We get a great montage before most of that of our heroes treking through a weird and awesome birthday landscape with too many good parts to mentoin, before finding Sardini who puts them through tests before they can get candace back.. and one of those are you human image tests via the ball from phantasm. As gifty puts it “We have to make sure your not a bot”. But the tests, about candaces faviorite things, help the two realize she liked them because they did it together, and a final talk with candace, as the final test has her ask why theyd idn’t want to spend time with her, with the two warmly apologizing and explaning why they did it but that they went too far. Candace reconclies with her parent,s the kids and our heroes go home, and Sardini finds himself sad no one stayed.. but at least he has gifty... and then start making love to her “Unwrap me!” which is far and away the best gag in the season’s best episode by a mile. 

Time Hooch:

Now to talk about two things I hinted at earlier: The only good Alex episode this season and the one that vaugely resembles one of the Nightmare Time episodes. And while their two very diffrent stories with very diffrent outcomes and only one of them involves this guy

And suprisingly it’s NOT close enough that has the eldtrich horrifying goat monster with a goofy cartoon voice who says things like “I’m coming for your ass Teddy Bear!” But both are stories about a sketchy (mildly for alex, entirely for Ted) middle aged man who feels one moment is where his life went wrong then accidently time travels after drinking 80 tons of liquor and decides to use said time travel to save a relationship, and fails at it in some fashion.  There’s even a jaunt to a distopian future with robots and cyborgs. So while it’s not 1:1, alex is far more sympathetic than Ted, Time Bastard is dark horror comedy, and it again dosen’t involve a horrifying goat man suprisingly enough, it’s till way too many happy coincidences for me to outright ignore. Also check out nightmare time and especially the musicals it spun off from The Guy Who Didn’t LIke Musicals and Black Friday. It’s good stuff. But I couldn’t help but make the comparison, or now imagine Alex, Ted and Professor Hidgens as some weird diasterious power trio. This is how my brain works now. 

But to the episode itself it’s just great from start to finish: Bridgette finds out while rumaging for an old photo in an old box of their stuff that Alex never signed the divorce papers. Turns out he was hoping they’d get back together.. and while not doing it and not telling her was a VERY selfish and horrible action.. you still sympathize with him. He hoped things would work out and they’d get back together, and given they had some close calls with that in season 1, to the point I shipped them, you can see where his sprig of hope came from. But with this he’s realized there probably isn’t any hope and drinks some old moonshine he and Josh made in college.  Said moonshine was from a recipie in an old blues record, the titular time hooch that true to form, allows them to travel back in time. And since he was thinking of when he thought the relationship truly hit it’s breakig point, when Bridgette at a sandwitch of his and he’d said in the heat of it he wished he’d never met her, they end up there and Alex tries to use it to help. Also Jason’s delivery of Alex saying what the recipie was “rye, barely, a dead man’s pocket watch, mixed under a full moon (Laughs) okay we probably should’ve seen this coming.  

Naturally here’s where it really gets intresting. As you’d probably guess, our heroes are the ones who made the sandwitch disappear and in desperation, alex kidnaps his past self before he can say the fatal words> We also get another spectacular bit where all past alex needs from alex to know he’s really him from the future is what year he was born (1982), meaning he’s defintely older than the rest of the cast. Though I wouldn’t be suprised if he was held back.. like at all. Look i’m not thinking too hard into it this is also a story about whiskey based time travel. 

But with that said intresting part takes hold as Josh’s past self reminds him of another fight that made things tense for a while.. and you can see where this goes. Alex keeps going back, and back, and back and back and back and back and back... and back, to try and stop the one fight, only to find a bigger one, leading to a montage.. to the point he ends up at the start of the relationship, the day they met at a college bar. The younger Alex’s have decided screw it it was always wrong, let’s end the relationship. 

We also get more of Alex’s backstory as it turns out he’s at a community college rather than UCLA, where he used to teach because of his own dumb actions: He met bridgette, let her enroll in his class and didn’t try to convince her to take another one. Don’t get me wrong the decade age gap and power dynamics are iffy.. but it’s not as bad as it could be. They met before the class, and it comes off more as both being too stupid or too horny to realize how her being in his class came off before it was too late. She got with him entirely on his merits, and yes he has some trust me.  Case in point.. Alex realizes a few things. The first is that no amount of time travel can save his relationship. They fought all the time clearly, and there were inherent problems. It’s also clear just from the series itself that while they have chemistry their just not that compatible as people. Bridgette is obessed with image, social media, and herself while Alex just two episodes ago called phones the downfall of society and likes feeling superior to the exact kind of person bridgette is. They have chemistry but sometimes it’s jut not enough. You have to have some common ground or your going to fall in a big hole. It’s honestly feels like a much more tolerable and realistic version of Leonard and Penny from the Big Bang Theory. And yes I know that show’s not the most popular with my core audience, nerds, and I bring it up because mom’s been watching it a lately, and any time I see Leonard and Penny on screen it annoys me into a tizzy as the two just have NO REASON to be together other than boning, and even then he’s apparently not a good partner so why then. They have nothing in common and she mocks and belittles him all the fucking time, mocking his hobbies, finding his job boring, and mocking him as a person. And not sharing hobbies or finding his job intresting would be fine, and still work but it’s the constant teasing about it that comes off far more vitrolic than probably intended that just makes me hope for a divorce. Here it’s not only much milder but they did actually get a divorce because their just diffrnet people and i’m not mad the ship was sunk. It was done in a poetic way. 

And part of that poetry is Alex realizing that as doomed as things ended up being, via a very sweet montage of their time together.. he realizes he can’t loose this all together. That sure he’d gain a lot and porbably woudlnt’ be living in a closet, but he’d loose all the good times, and he’d loose a friend. His marriage wasn’t so bad he wants to erase it it just ended and that happens. Naturally the other alex’s don’t feel that way but Alex stops them.. Josh is too drunk at this point to help, and ends up creating a time vortex. The vortex sends our heroes home, where Alex realizes his mistake and apologizes for it to bridgette and signs the papers in front of her.  As for the Alexs we get a horrifying and hilarous gag as, given they’ve all commented each other is handsome.. start having an orgy, and are later found in amber and their dna is used to create our alex apparently. How does that work?

Point is this episode.. is a masterwork. It’s emotoinal, hilarious, and really good character work, with Alex having a really stellar arc that shades him in and putts a final button in his and bridgettes relationship. And having seen many ships I like end horribly, it’s nice to have one end in a satsifying way like this. Also we see Alex in his borat thong, and i’d just like to point out how funny I find it that the same year they made a borat joke, specifically on it being from a decade or two ago, we ended up getting a second Borat movie. Very niceeee. 

World’s Greatest Teacher: This one was alright. On the bright side we got a Mr.Cambell episode! I”ve loved the guy since first meeting him in 100% no stress day, it was the first episode and that hasn’t changed and he’s always a bright spot when he shows up. So an episode about him dealing with a rival teacher, MS. Lake a twice a week music teacher gunning for his job and his students love sounded made for me. In practice he gets a bit too petty to be symapthetic which takes things down a peg, even if it turns out  Ms. Lake really is coming for his ass Teddy Bear, but it has enough good gags to help it still be a fun episode.

The biggest one and the biggest reason I sitll like the episode is Timothy’s coffe mug for world’s greatest teacher.. which naturally comes to life, possibly as a psychotic break possibly for real because of the show this is, and starts speaking in the dulcet tones of keith david. ANd i’ve made no secret I love and am thirsty for Keith David on this blog and never will, and having him voice an abusive fowl mouthed coffee mug  is something I dind’t know I need but boy did I always need it my entire life. Yes even as a baby. It’s just glorious every time he shows up. The climax is also great as the two teachers end up bonding over the greatest love of all and george micheal after Candace invites River to a part sh’esd having for her tooth coming out, and end up becoming frinemies, a nice solution i was glad to see. Even if i’ll miss evil keith david coffee mug. Rest in power my dude. 

Where’d You Go, Bridgette? The second major Bridgette episode of the season and like “Haunted Couch” this one’s an instant classic. After realizing Bridgtte’s already out of control addition to her phone has gotten even worse, Pearle confinscates it and takes her to detox. This leads to two great plots; Bridgette going into withdrawl, complete with an inspired nightmare sequence about her aps and missing her friends death because she was on her phone and the rest of the cast thinking sh’es been kidnapped because she’s not on social media, which while stupid is DELIGHTFULLY stupid and makes some sense given how glued to her phone she is. They end up calling a true crime podcast over, two egosticial college girls who quickly blame them for it despite it making no sense and their fans torm the apartment, and don’t belivie it when bridgette actually shows up.. It takes an inspired speech from Bridgette, whose developed as a person and after actually tasting a late for the first time sees how good they are, and Pearle posting that speech online to dismiss them and our heroes are saved. It’s an utterly amazing plot from josh being excited about the mob attacking them, to Pearle revealing part of the reason she’s so dedicated to helping bridgette is due to her own weird addiction to six flags, which is just so oddly specific I love it. 

The Erotic Awakening of A.P. Lapearle This one STARTED well, with Alex reading his viking erotic to everyone, and not getting that Candace maybe shouldn’t be there, only for Pearle to be the only one to actually enjoy it and be inspired by her enjoyment of his work to submit it to a publisher. The publisher ends up making a valid point that women want erotic fantasy from someone they can feel safe by and alex is well.. alex, so he suggests using pearle as a front. it goes how you’d expect: he wants actual credit, the publisher slowly pushes him out, she regrets it, they fight an army of fans and make them vomit with alex reading the book.. standard stuff. It’s just not very funny or a great insight into either characters, and is easily the weakest episode of the season.. though the next one gave it close compettition. 

Men Rock!

This one was a chore to sit through, and is only ahead of the last one because it has some really good josh bits and musical numbers which is more than the last one gave me so hey. In a nutshell Emily is on the verge of quitting her and Bridgette’s music careers as she feels they’ll never be famous only for their latest song Men Rock!, an ironic title for a sarcastic song poking fun at a bunch of toxic masculinty bs that is a good song, has hit it HUGE in a fictonal foreign dicatroship and get invited to go, reclutantly agreeing. If you haven’t seen the ep, you can still guess how this goes: say it with me THEY TOOK IT AT FACE VALUE. So our heroines have to help inspire the repressed women and inspire a bloody cou, helped by josh finding some improisoned femisinists in a bathroom. They also gain a fan. it has a few good gags, mostly Candace trying to remind her dad to help her find a place to pee after he keeps getting sidetracked by being taken back by Emily’s sucess. I’ts just a very bad, very predictable episode with very obvious misogyn is bad jokes. And misgoyny IS bad but other shows, paticuarlly tuca and bertie with one early episode, have tackeld this topic better. This episode did not. Last one. 

Secret Horse:

This one in stark contrast is one of the series best and an utter joy to watch. On a bad day for the whole apartment with some santa anna winds, an adorable, poofy mained utterly precious horse gets free and ends up at the apartment. Thus we get a vingettte episode, as the horse has a delightful adventure with each of our main 7, and each up tot he last try and hide the horse badly only for the horse to suddenly sprout up and help their mood.

I do love a good vinegtte episode, with two of my faviorite simpsons episodes being 22 short films about springfiled (Minus kirk dragging MIlhouse away from the bathroom, fuck you you balding asshat, it makes the episode hard to watch) ,and trilogy of error, and this is a classic example of it as we get some fun adventures fro each of the housemates: Candace plays with the horse, adorably so, Josh finds it in the garage as his car breaks down and takes them on an install with him, even stuffing them into a suit and we get a great bit of the horse getting fed sugarcubes and josh money. Brigette gets help living in the now instead of posting about it all the time.

My faviorite comes next as Alex needs new patches for his suit but obviouslyc n’t afford them so he takes the ponyt ot he track.. to help him pick which horses to bet on. It’s just such an inherntly funny idea, especially since it works, and really the horse is just hilarious wherever it ends up. It next helps randy win a skating contest, we get a touching story as Pearle misses her old tragically dead horse partner and uses our boy as a subtitute and finlaly we get emily who needs help relaxing and while she naturally calls animal control she hangs up as she falls for hte horse. The group all fight over the horse in the end, the horse leaves and they let it go home, wonder if it was a hallucination and it whizes on thier car. Overall a really great finale and a wonderful note to go out on. 

Overall Ranking I’ve decided eveyr time I do one of these, or a post season wrapup of a show i’ve covered every episode of the season to rank them from best to worst sooo

Birthdaze Time Hooch Haunted Couch Secret Horse Where’d You Go Bridgette? Sauce face Houseguest  From Hell Joint Break Josh Gets Shredded World’s Greatest Teacher Meet the Frackers Handy Man Up Cyber Matrix Men Rock!  The Erotic Awakening of A.P. Lapearle

And i’d like to note that outside of the bottom two hear.. I enjoyed ALL of these. WHich leads to

Final Thoughts; This season was excellent. It had everything the first season had the heart, the character and the utterly great sense of humor, and fine tuned it to be a well oiled machine I could hardly stop laughing at and with tons of great character stuff. Before it had the potetial to surpass regular show but now it has as despite having a few dud episodes itself, as is intievitble in any show, now, they still aren’t as bad as a lot of RS’s early misteps. And Regular SHow as a FANTASTIC show and really stuck the landing, so i’m only saying this is even better and can only go up from here. And even if it stays about the same quality wise, that won’t be a bad place to be. This season was near damn perfect, i’ll probably watch it again and again, and I can’t wait to devour more and given the current tragectory probably will this year. And I couldn’t be more excited.

If you like this blog follow for more reviews, become a patreon to help reach stretch goals or comission a review outright, details for the latter two on my blog. And i’ll see you at the next rainbow. 

[subspace]

GODZILLA VS. KONG

What do you want out of a movie where a gigantic ape with a magic axe goes toe-to-toe with a nuclear-powered lizard? How you answer this question is the key to whether or not you will experience maximum enjoyment from a movie like "Godzilla vs. Kong".

I’ve never been one to advocate the “just turn off your brain and have fun” approach to movie watching. I think every movie should actively try to engage its audience in some meaningful way beyond (pun intended) lizard-brained mindless spectacle. But we do not live in that world, and when a movie comes along that doesn’t even attempt to provide even a fortune cookie’s worth of thematic depth or meaning and instead focuses purely on going hard into the paint for MONKEY PUNCH LIZARD … well, I honestly have to respect it. 

And boy does it go hard. 

Maybe it’s the fact that I haven’t seen a movie on the big screen in nearly a full year. It was, admittedly, a near-overwhelming experience seeing these gigantic mythological creatures duke it out in an image size taller than my house. But the impact of each instance of Godzilla and King Kong coming to blows felt at an echelon above most blockbuster spectacle of late. 

City-annihilating, CGI destruction-fests are absolutely nothing new, and the advances in technology make literally anything possible and even believable now. Following in the footsteps of 2014’s “Godzilla,” “Kong: Skull Island” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” the action in "Godzilla vs. Kong" has a weight to it that simply cannot exist when the subjects in focus are sized as mere mortals. Director Adam Wingard manages to deliver a sense of immersion to the mayhem here that I found overall lacking in many of the previous films. It feels more personal, in a way, which is an odd thing to say about a movie like this. 

Though perhaps it shouldn’t be all that odd. After all, Kong is back at the forefront once more and this version of the great ape has always felt like more of a character than Godzilla in his most recent appearances. By design and, in some ways, necessity, Godzilla is more of a force of nature, an event to behold and survive rather than anything one could possibly begin to identify with. But there’s a humanity to Kong that’s evoked both in Skull Island and here that you can’t help but attach to, even if you’re firmly on #TeamGodzilla. 

As such, throwing Kong face- (and fist) first into an all-out, no-holds-barred brawl for titan supremacy makes the proceedings feel much more interesting than the shodowns in “Godzilla” ‘14 or “King of the Monsters,” all of which felt more detached. There’s no way or reason to invest in who won in those films since at the end, it’s still an uncontrollable monster that comes out on top. But by giving us someone to root for with Kong now in the mix makes the battles feel more dangerous and meaningful, in a way. 

If you’re wondering why I haven’t talked about the plot or even the set up, well, that’s because there’s barely anything resembling as such. 

We pick things up a couple years after Godzilla became reigning kaiju champion and the titular king of the monsters upon ripping Ghidora asunder. Humanity seems to have accepted its status as, at best, observers of Godzilla, ostensibly under his protection from any remaining so-called Titans. However, after he destroys a research plant for the mega-corporation Apex, Godzilla is deemed an imminent threat and Kong is brought out of hiding as a possible means to stop him. 

There are other machinations involving Hollow Earth Theory, mystical power sources, etc. and the humans who get tangled up in all of it, but none of it matters. And I don’t mean that in a metaphorical sense. I mean that you could (and probably should) cut out everything involving Madison (Millie Bobbie Brown), her father (Kyle Chandler) and the two conspiracy nuts who follow her around out of the movie entirely and nothing of value or importance would be lost. In fact, it’d only help make the movie get to the good stuff faster. 

The human presence in these movies has largely been a hindrance, but it’s frankly astonishing just how useless and pointless 80 percent of the humans in this movie are. Either the movie got edited to shreds in post-production, or the script writers simply had no idea what to do with any of the returning characters. Either way, congratulations to Lance Reddick for managing to get mid-tier billing for only saying a single line. 

Thankfully though, as bafflingly awful as the humans are, it didn’t dampen my enjoyment or enthusiasm an ounce. Wingard delivers in spades the thing for which you paid your admission (or HBO Max subscription). The action leading up to it is overall excellent, including the first big brawl, but by the time we get to the neon-drenched battle in Hong Kong, the movie is positively vibrating with energy and it gets released in what is easily my favorite giant monster showdown of recent memory. I cackled like a madman so loudly on multiple occasions during this fight that I elicited stares from my fellow theater-goers. 

Obviously this is not a perfect movie, but it is perfect at delivering what I wanted out of it and at a volume and tenor at which I wanted. Having been unable to watch movies in a theater for a year, I’m not sure I could have asked for much more. 

[homosexualslug]

Sam Questions, made by @gaysuperhell and tagged by @blahdose(gaysuperhell this is the best tumblr questionnaire I have ever seen thank u for ur service) - Sibling status (younger, middle, older, only child)*

*TECHNICALLY oldest but was raised separately so I have only child energy - How long have you been stanning Sam for: Honestly since I started watching 2007/S3ish, I always vibed with Sam more than Dean. Nowadays I'm a SPN Ladies stan first and equal parts Cas and Sam stan second, Dean is just the most fun to psychoanalyze - Favorite SPN Season, but if the only criteria was Sam’s hair: SEASON EIGHT! It's so lush and beautiful and POWERFUL! Sometimes I just stare at it instead of paying attention to whatever's happening! - Favorite Sam-centric episode: Mystery Spot is still a fave because of him, boy really went through the spectrum of human emotion in those 50 minutes. Runner-ups: After School Special, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Just My Imagination (I have a soft spot for young Sam lore) -Favorite Sam era: Season 4! He is no longer baby, he want power! But only because he thinks he's saving the world! Also, can't call it a whole arc but the taste we got of Samwitch throughout S13-S15 makes yearn for more. -Favorite song you would/have put in a Sam playlist: Don't have a Sam playlist but do have a very Sam-esque OC so tie between "Bottom of the Deep Blue Sea" by Missio, "Dark Speed" by Failure, and "Undefeated" by Incubus with honorable mention to Marina's "Bubblegum Bitch"

-Any ships you may like to mention: Saileen since Day 1, SamRuby (yeah yeah I know but look), Samwena (enjoy them as platonic mentor/mentee too), Sastiel (also enjoy as chaotic besties but damn if they wouldn't have been healthier for each other), Sam and Max Banes had potential - If you could steal one thing from Sam’s wardrobe, it would be: Purple dog shirt or the Hoodie™️ from 15x06 - You must have some intense headcanons you need to talk about, tell me one Sam hc that drives you insane: Stealing from HBO SPN - that Sam's a health nut because fruits/veggies don't have salt and won't make his throat burn because demon blood! - Complete the sentence: If Sam cishet, then WHY....: queer allegory about being kicked out by his dad and having something wrong with him? HMMM - Favorite unhinged Sam moment: Outside of all of Season 4 I'd also say 1) exorcising a half-dozen demons at once in My Bloody Valentine 2) third act of Mystery Spot and 3) literally shooting GOD - Tell me something about the HBO Sam that lives in your brain: Salt allergy, reflex whispering "christo" to see if hurts, angel healing makes him sick, etc. - Biggest injustice Supernatural commited against Sam (be as brief or as ranty as you desire): Boy oh boy 1) Ignoring most of his post-S7 trauma (Gadreel, BMOL torture, Lucifer, losing the hunters, etc) because the writers relied on him bouncing back faster than Dean 2) Never letting him know THE Voicemail was fake! 3) Blurry Wife because the misogyny of it all is so 2005 4) Being blamed for the apocalypse, being soulless, stopping hunting, etc. 5) The fact that Lucifer came back so many times and he didn't get to kill him ONCE as a treat

Also this is more @ the fandom, but how much Sam get ignored when talking about parenting Jack! Sam, who nurtured him and showed him kindness from Day 1! Who taught him how to use his abilities! Who didn't become what Lucifer wanted him to be and only wanted the same for Jack! - Oh no, the writers forgot to give Jess a personality! Now it’s up to you. Tell me, what was Jess like: True crime fan, super competitive at board games, got into law to help the little man, bisexual

- And finally, just say something about him that makes you smile ♥ : That he believes no one is truly beyond saving! That you can always choose to be a better person! That you decide who you are, no one else! Also, the fact that I got my first Bisexual Haircut as an excuse to cosplay him (thank u sam for being part of my queer journey)

Tagging @leydhawk @justsayingit @fangurl and any other Sam fans who follow me!

[movienotesbyzawmer]

April 6: Rocky

I have learned that the six Rocky movies (so all of the Rocky ones but not the Creed movies) are available on HBO Max. I was looking for a new watch-and-take-notes-and-post-the-notes project, so yo. Check it.

I've seen all six of these movies. I saw most of this one in the theater, like, back then! I was terribly terribly young! Maybe 7. I remember my friend Greg really wanted to see it, but our parents wouldn't let us. So we had them drop us off to see Capricorn One, but Greg made us sneak in to watch Rocky instead. He was so excited about it he wanted to play-punch afterward, but it hurt and I didn't like play-punch. I also didn't care about the movie. You know what movie is decent, though? Capricorn One. Although the supporting performance from O.J. Simpson might throw ya.

Anyway, since its release the reputation of this movie has remained very strong. It won Best Picture in an extremely competitive year. It is very much the Rocky Balboa of that year's awards contenders! But I'm pretty sure I'm going to be watching this first movie and admiring its scrappiness, then watching the subsequent ones and rolling my eyes at their formulaic-ness.

The opening fanfare sets the atmosphere really awesomely actually.

Oh also I don't care at all for boxing. And yet it seems like the idea of it is good drama fodder, I mean the idea of a sport of just two people punching each other until one of them is the winner at that.

So the first scene is a boxing match in a little church somewhere. Some people are in attendance who apparently like to pass the time watching punching. Rocky is bloody and hangdog. After the fight, which Rocky won, both fighters convalesce next to each other in a back room, kind of indifferently. But we have learned that punch-sport is a part of Christian life.

Rocky walks home through the gritty streets, past his friends who sing rudimentary a capella music on a street corner. They should work on the complexity of their harmonies.

Rocky is home and his home is gritty also. Atmosphere. He has a tank with animals in it. I cannot tell what the animals are. He talks to them. Personality.

He has a mirror he looks at and the mirror is decorated with pictures of Young Sylvester Stallone. They are totally pictures of him as a boy and young man. But Sylvester Stallone was not in character as Rocky Balboa when he took those pictures. It is a little jarring.

At the pet store the next day we are introduced to Adrian. That is the spelling, I checked. She is very very very shy-acting. The director told her to act shy, and she was like OH I'M GOING TO MEET AND EXCEED THOSE EXPECTATIONS.

Rocky's next stop is The Docks. I am surprised that Philadelphia has a dock area with such large ships, but I guess that's real. But I'm also surprised that he's there on the business of being the muscle for a loan shark. I didn't remember about that side of Rocky's complex, complex personality.

That scene just ended with a very 80s-teen-movie moment; a fellow thug rolled down his window and bullyingly yelled, "so long, meatbag!" We feel so bad that Rocky doesn't have the respect of his coworkers in the loan shark gang.

After getting dressed down by his gangster colleagues, he then goes to his gym and there's this whole thing about how the coach guy is so sick of Rocky's boxing mediocrity that they gave someone else his locker. It seems like that wouldn't happen. On his way out, the other boxer taunts him by saying he's pumped to be in receipt of Rocky's locker which is a very fine locker. We saw it, though. It was just a locker.

Adrian again. Broad caricature of an introverted person. I don't buy it maybe. Then a scene in a bar and the conversation with the bartender is also dumb fakey acting.

He later came upon a bunch of jerks on a corner, but among them was an awkward teenage girl that he knows. He makes her leave with him and tries to give him avuncular advice, but that scene ends with her telling him, "screw you creepo!" The exposition of this movie has a very opaque strategy.

0:30:00 - A scene with Apollo Creed does some more very unnatural exposition, setting up the premise that some local underdog is going to get a chance to fight him. This doesn't seem like an acclaimed movie. This seems like a scene in a cheap romance movie where the Handsome Man confesses to his best friend that what he's really looking for in a woman is someone not so pretty.

AC is flipping through a straight-up book, looking for a good boxer to fight on January 1, 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial. I'm a little "wha?" about some of this. He chooses Rocky Balboa because of his catchy "Italian Stallion" nickname and remember because Columbus was Italian so

Rocky and Adrian go on a date. It's Thanksgiving but that happens anyway. It does not bristle with romantic energy. It reeks of social obligations. It seems like the beginning of the kind of loveless relationship your grandparents began in the 1940s in their dustbowl-decimated agrarian community.

They are back at his little shithole apartment and he is a persistent man and I do not root for this relationship.

Things escalated kind of quickly. Rocky got invited to an agent guy's fancy office and offered a chance to fight for the World Heavyweight Championship. The next scene, everyone knows about it and he's on TV. He seems like a dumb lug. How can he possibly succeed. Good job contrasting his character with the big celebrity, though.

Burges Meredith is oddly appealing as this surly, pirate-talking boxer-coach-manager guy. He comes to Rocky's apartment sucking up, and Rocky isn't receptive, I'm pretty much buying BM's different emotions, and Rocky's.

1:11:24 - Pretty sure my friend and I talked a lot about this scene when we saw it back then, he fills a glass with raw eggs and drinks it up. All one shot, baby.

This scene with Paulie, Adrian's brother who is Rocky's friend, I don't like. Paulie is a bad friend. That scene ends with Rocky beating up pig carcasses. They should have just had that part.

His hands are bloody when he punches the meat things. That's his blood, right? That's not like animal flesh?

We just had a very melodramatic scene with Rocky and Adrian and Pauly, and Pauly just went nuts. This time, at least, Rocky and Adrian react to him the way you'd think people normally would.

1:30:55 - Famous training montage. I think as this movie series progresses these montages get more stylish. As it is, it's going for just a rousing moment of "he seems confident as he trains", as the music pumps you up with the profound lyrics, "trying hard now" and "getting strong now".

They have actually explained almost nothing about the specifics of boxing. I realize that now as Rocky says "no one has ever gone the distance with Creed". Which I think means something about going all 15 rounds, right? But the point is that I haven't had to hear much about stuff like that, and I honestly don't mind that.

1:44:30 - Ew, some actually kind of bad stock footage of the crowd at the fight. Oh, but then a cameo by actual Joe Frazier, probably.

As the fight begins I gotta say I have been effectively made to root for this underdog hero. I've been indifferent to most of the movie so far, and I'm indifferent to boxing, but ferrealz I'm excited to watch this fight.

It's cinematic with lots of angles that you don't see when you're watching actual fights (I assume), but also the actual fight-acting by Stallone and Carl Weathers seems like they're getting it right. That can't be easy, right? I mean, it's punching! Faces!

1:54:11 - Oh shit I remember this ahhhhhh his eye his eye, his EYE is swollen shut and he tells them to cut it open! That, like, what? He's going to go back out and fight with his eyelid literally slashed open WHAT

They weren't even that careful doing that slice

I thought they would be relying more on the commentators as narrators to tell us what to feel, but it's really all the cinematic storytelling that is getting it done.

But the aftermath of the fight is like opera, everyone is passionate and yelling and it doesn't work on me as well as it must for most people. I don't even exactly get what the outcome of the fight is (partly because I don't understand boxing). But that's the point, at least a little bit; in the heat of passion he just wants to tell Adrian that he loves her. That works well for this movie. And the way it just ends in that swirl of excitement, no denouement, it's really effective.

So overall there are lots of things about this movie that I don't care for, but there are some things to appreciate. It's not a fancy movie, but it seems like they did a particularly good job with the final boxing match feeling like exciting movie drama while also seeming like authentic boxing. As if I know anything about authentic boxing.

I don't agree that it should have won Best Picture over Network, All the President's Men, and Taxi Driver.

One last observation: looking back, I'm pretty sure that scene with the teenage girl is a result of the observation that the movie greatly lacks females.

(next: Rocky II)

[officialotakudome]

New Post has been published on Otaku Dome | The Latest News In Anime, Manga, Gaming, Tech, and Geek Culture

New Post has been published on https://otakudome.com/mortal-kombat-2021-review/

Mortal Kombat (2021) Review

Mortal Kombat is back in live-action with the beginning of a planned franchise of films. Following a slightly altered storyline to the lore new character Cole Young is a descendant of legendary warrior Hanzo Hasashi. Upon coming into contact with an old clan enemy he is forced into the Mortal Kombat tournament with the Earth and his family at stake.

 Mortal Kombat is a 2021 video game film, it is produced by New Line Cinema and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is in theaters now and HBO Max until May 23.

Editor’s Note: Near complete to complete spoilers for Mortal Kombat and potential spoilers for the source material may be present in this review.

Mortal Kombat pays respect to it’s deep lore.

Video game movies are making a wild comeback and the latest among them is Mortal Kombat. While the film follows most of the plot of the video game it also inserts additional lore and characters. On the surface this isn’t too much of a problem in of itself. However it more often than not feels like the film chickens out of said originality midway through. 

Historic characters take a backseat to new ones.

THE GOOD: Mortal Kombat opens with the historic war between Scorpion & Sub-Zero’s families in 1400s Japan. Sub-Zero kills Hanzo Hasashi’s wife and son leading to a battle in which the former wins. As Hanzo dies Raiden retrieves his surviving child in an effort to preserve the Hasashi bloodline for the future of Earth realm. The film then cuts to Cole Young, a family man and former MMA World Champion. Now he’s fighting in smaller independent circuits where he routinely loses. After his latest fight Jax introduces himself to Cole questioning his decision to fight in underground MMA scenes. While out with his family Cole is attacked by a very much alive Sub-Zero. Who has become much stronger since we last saw him. 

Jax saves Cole and his wife & daughter and informs him of the truth of the Dragon imagery on his chest. He allows Cole and his family to escape while telling them to find Sonya Blade who has more details. As Cole & his family leave Jax fights Sub-Zero, but is easily beaten to near death with his arms severed. Cole sends his family off to a cabin as he meets Sonya. Sonya who has captured Kano (a black market criminal for hire) reveals to Cole that the symbol is an invitation to Mortal Kombat a deadly tournament with worlds at stake. She also states that Kano earned his invitation by luck killing the previous invitee. The three are attacked by Syzoth, but Kano kills him with Cole and Sonya’s help.

The trio travel to Raiden’s temple where Liu Kang awaits. He explains that the Mortal Kombat is an ancient tournament where control over worlds were put on the line. With each world having a team of Champions defending them. He introduces them to Kung Lao who like Liu is also an Earth realm Champion. Liu Kang tells the others that they need to train to unlock their unique power which will aide Earth realm. Sonya and Cole are reunited with Jax who’s healing from his injuries. During dinner a hostile Kano unlocks his power after being egged on by Kung Lao. 

Raiden expresses doubt for the Champions being successful and Cole who’s worried for his family gets sent home. Returning to the cabin his family was held up in he’s suddenly attacked by Goro one of Outrealm’s Champions. Meanwhile, Shang Tsung the leader of Outrealm arrives at Raiden’s temple with several of his Champions. Including Sub-Zero, Milenna, Nitara, Reiko, and Kabal. Kano betrays Earth realm joining Outrealm and fights Sonya. She & Jax unlock their powers during battle with the former defeating Kano. Kung Lao kills Nitara with his hidden blade hat and Cole after unlocking his power kills Goro returning to the temple. Raiden reveals that Cole is a descendant of the Hasashi family angering Tsung & Sub-Zero. 

Kung Lao sacrifices himself to save Cole as Raiden teleports Earth’s Champions to a safe zone. Cole suggests a plan in which Outrealm and Earth have a pre-tournament. Outrealm’s Champions are killed and Cole & Sub-Zero face each other at the MMA gym which Sub-Zero has incased in frost including his kidnapped family. Cole’s blood resurrects Hasashi who now goes by the moniker of Scorpion & they work together to defeat and kill Sub-Zero. Scorpion leaves telling Cole to keep their bloodline safe. Shang Tsung vows revenge taking the corpses of his warriors back to Outrealm. Raiden states that he is gathering more Champions for Earth and tasks Cole with finding Hollywood actor Johnny Cage. 

Josh Lawson’s Kano is a scene stealer & it’s one of the film’s biggest issues.

The action of Mortal Kombat is some of the coolest you’ll see this. I may be reaching a bit, but there were times when the normal hand-to-hand combat reminded me of some of the fights in films like The Raid. I didn’t mind Cole’s character it made sense for the movie’s direction. Cole being an MMA expert was a nice modern touch up for the martial arts aspect of the franchise. The special effects were excellently done too. You know how these lower budgeted type of films tend to have CGI that looks noticeably like CGI (aka bad)? Even at a budget of $50 Million, of which I can only imagine went to the CG I never really saw any of it that just looked awful or wonky. Except for maybe a single instance with Syzoth. It’d have been easier to just use a humanoid ninja version of Syzoth honestly. 

The story is fine, I like the idea of the unique powers having a backstory instead of just existing. That’s a neat layer that adds some sense into the world. Granted, it’s not necessary to do so, but the fact that they did it is kind of appreciated. And yes Kano ruled in this movie. His quips and jokes were almost always on. I do feel bad for most of the cast who felt like they were playing catch up with Lawson’s energy. I also have to commend the writers for going out of their way to feature Scorpion & Sub-Zero’s backstories. They were spread across several games and it was done fairly well here for a two hour film. 

All the Mortal Kombat gore you can handle and then some.

THE BAD: Mortal Kombat some some good ideas, but it seems the movie loses confidence in itself quit a bit. For example, I mentioned earlier that I like Cole in the sense that him existing doesn’t bother me. However, Cole’s character direction kind of falls flat. Like him being there is cool, but there’s literally no reason why his role couldn’t have been given to Scorpion or Johnny Cage like in the original film. The former probably would have made for a much better movie honestly. Lawson as mentioned is awesome here, but it gets to the point where he completely outclasses the rest of the cast. And it really makes them look bad and dry. I also feel I have to say this respectfully as a fan of the source. I don’t like the idea of turning Liu Kang and Kung Lao who are arguably the main characters of the first handful of the games background characters. They could have given Jax’s role of informing Cole about the legend of Mortal Kombat to Liu, and they oddly do in the second act. It was also weird for the film to be called Mortal Kombat, but not feature the actual tournament. They do some makeshift pseudo-tournament. 

Mortal Kombat is a decent video game movie that still has time to be a great one.

OBERALL THOUGHTS: While on the surface Mortal Kombat is probably what you’d expect from most video game films there is a lot to like about it. It follows the story closely enough even with the original direction effecting it. The action, fighting, and special effects are strong and well done. Unfortunately, the film suffers from unbalanced character direction and the impact said original story has on the future of this reboot’s franchise intentions. If the issues can be looked on in earnest I think Mortal Kombat has a genuine shot of being a good video game movie franchise. And I say that, because we’re undoubtedly getting at least one sequel. Otaku Dome gives Mortal Kombat a 70 out of 100.

[ezekialmcadams]

2018 In Review

So, another year has passed.

ANYONE else felt this year just flew by like a rocket? I remember when I was a kid, my parents or other adults always spoke of the furious passage of time as an adult, but, HOLY FIRE ROASTED TROUTS!, it felt that I sneezed and I’m already at the end of the year. It didn’t help that this year was a garbage fire.

I was pretty disappointed in myself this year. I set some pretty lofty goals, and unfortunately, I fell short on every single one.

BOOKS

I only read SIX BOOKS out of my 100 book Challenge on Goodreads. Some might think this was a big undertaking but I’m a pretty voracious reader, and last year I exceeded my list reading sixty books. So excluding comics and graphic novels,

This is what I read

1)End of an Era by Robert J. Sawyer

2)A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline D’Engel

3)Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolfe

4)Twin Peaks: A Final Dossier by Mark Frost

5)The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

I had a few books that I’m still reading

Congo by Michael Crichton

Red Raptor by Robert T. Bakker

Sphere by Michael Crichton

The Serpent’s Secret by Sayantani DasGupta

Firebrand (Steeplejack Series) by A.J. Hartley

What Happened by Hilary Rodham Clinton

Aquaman: 75 Year Celebration by DC Comics

Green Arrow: 75 Year History by DC Comics

Ghostbusters: Ultimate Visual History by Daniel Wallace

I’m pretty disappointed in myself in not reading as much, but, honestly, I just didn’t have the energy this year. Every time I would start reading, my mind would wander with e5ith anxious thoughts or life stuff and I LOVE reading and don’t really want to sleepwalk through reading. I want to enjoy and be immersed into whatever reading, so instead I put the books down :(

Next year, I’ll hopefully do better.

TV

I had a very overwhelming list of TV series that I either wanted to watch for work, entertainment or just to keep up with Peak TV and pop culture.I planned to watch all of my unwatched series on Netflix, so I could write an article on the overwhelming dump of Netflix original content. I fell short. Here is a list of all the tv, from everything I was watching weekly, to the series I had started but haven’t finished, unwatched series, upcoming series I’m interested in and everything I finished.

  2018 in TV            

MONDAY

Manifest (Eight episodes left)

TUESDAY

WEDNESDAY

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee

Queen Sugar: Season 2 (Fourteen episodes left)

UnREAL: Season 4 (Nine episodes left)

THURSDAY

The Good Place: Season 3 (Three episodes left)

Murphy Brown: Season 11 (Three episodes left)

FRIDAY

SUNDAY

Escape at Dannemora (Three episodes left)

STARTED BUT HAVEN’T FINISHED

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Seven episodes left)

Snowfall (Nine episodes left)

I’m Dying Up Here (Nine episodes left)

Top of the Lake: Season 2 (Five episodes left)

Anne with an E (Six episodes left)

This Is Us (Seventeen episodes left)

The Handmaid’s Tale (Nine episodes left)

The Mist: Season 1 (Nine episodes left)

Guerilla: Miniseries (Five episodes left)

Jamestown (Seven episodes left)

Ghosted (Eight episodes left)

The Mayor (Ten episodes left)

Alias Grace (Five episodes left)

Tin Star (Nine episodes left)

Hard Sun (Five episodes left)

Britannia (Eight episodes left)

The Deuce (Seven episodes left)

Everything Sucks (Nine episodes left)

Altered Carbon (Nine episodes left)

Dark (Nine episodes left)

Mosaic (Five episodes left)

Rise AKA Drama High (Nine episodes left)

The Crossing (Six episodes left)

The Looming Tower (Nine episodes left)

The Terror (Nine episodes left)

Into the Badlands (Two Seasons left)

Killing Eve (Seven episodes left)

Marco Polo (Seven episodes left)

White Famous (Nine episodes left)

Reverie (Five episodes left)

Sharp Objects (Six episodes left)

The Outpost (Nine episodes left)

Cloak and Dagger (Nine episodes left)

Who is America (Six episodes left)

Bobcat Goldthait’s Misfts and Monsters (Seven episodes left)

Sacred Lies (Two episodes left)

Strange Angel (Nine episodes left)

Succession (Nine episodes left)

Insatiable (Twelve episodes left)

Kidding (Nine episodes left)

$1 (Nine episodes left)

The Purge (Nine episodes left)

Jack Ryan (Nine episodes left)

The First (Seven episodes left)

Into The Dark (Eleven episodes left)

God Friended Me (Sixteen episodes left)

Tell Me A Story (Nine episodes left)

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (Ten episodes left)

The Kominsky Method (Six episodes left)

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: Season 2 (Six episodes left)

Titans (Eleven episodes left)

Dirty John (Six episodes left)

NightFlyers (Nine episodes left)

Preacher: Season 3 (Nine episodes left)

In Search Of (2018) (Nine episodes left)

Absentia (Nine episodes left)

Yellowstone (Eight episodes left)

UNWATCHED TV SHOWS

Daredevil: Season 1 & 2 (Netflix)

Sense8 (Netflix)

Narcos (Netflix)

Love (Netflix)

Haters Back Off (Netflix)

The Crown (Netflix)

Ronja The Robber’s Daughter (Amazon)

GirlBOSS (Netflix)

Dear White People (Netflix)

The Keepers (Netflix)

Outcast: Season 2 (Cinemax)

Gypsy (Netflix)

Friends From College (Netflix)

Ozark (Netflix)

Mr. Mercedes (Audience)

Atypical (Netflix)

The Disappearance (CTV)

Mindhunter (Netflix)

Frankie Drake Mysteries (CBC)

Godless (Netflix)

The Indian Detective (CTV) - Nov 23 2017

Greenhouse Academy (Netflix)

Grace and Frankie: Season 4 (Netflix)

The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 4 Part 1 (Netflix)

Lost in Space (Netflix)

Stranger Things: Season 2 (Netflix)

Jessica Jones: Season 2 (Netflix)

The Rain (Netflix) - May 4 2018

Impulse (YouTube Premimum) - June 6 2018

The Hollow (Netflix) - June 8 2018

Treehouse Detectives  (Netflix) - June 8 2018

Two Sentence Horror Stories (Stage13) - Oct 2017

Queen Sugar: Season 3

The Dragon Prince (Netflix) - Sept 14 2018

Origin (YouTube Premium) - Nov 14 2018

Queen America (Facebook Watch) - Nov 21 2018

UPCOMING

Carnival Row (Amazon) - 2019

They Can’t Kill Us All (AMC)

Heist 88 (FX)

Blood and Treasure (CBS) - 2019

The Underground Railroad (Amazon)

Messiah (Netflix) - 2019

Kaos (Netflix)

Away - Mars Drama (Netflix)

Lovecraft Country (HBO) - 2019

Motherland (Freeform)

See (Apple)

Northern Rescue (CBC Gem/Netflix) - March 1 2019

Search Party: Season 3 - 2019

Are You Sleeping? (Apple)

NOS4A2 (AMC)

Another Life (Netflix)

Gen: LOCK (Rooster Teeth) - 2019

Diablo Animated Series (Netflix)

Avatar Last Airbender Live Action (Netflix)

The I-Land (Netflix)

October Faction (Netflix)

Warrior Nun (Netflix)

Hamelins (Netflix) - 2019

Sunshine Scouts (Netflix)  

The Passage (Fox)

Dark Cargo (YouTube Premium)

Barkskins (Nat Geo) - 2019

The Outsider (HBO) - 2019

Coroner (CBC) - Jan 6 2019

Cavendish (CBC) - Jan 8 2019

Unspeakable (Limited Series) (CBC) - Jan 9 2019

Deadly Class (SyFy) - Jan 16 2019

Black Monday (Showtime) - Jan 20 2019

Street Legal 2019 Revival (CBC) - March 4 2019

Diggstown (CBC) - March 6 2019

FINISHED

Ghost Wars: Season 1 - Finished Jan 7 2018

Van Helsing: Season 2 - Finished Jan 8 2018

Marvel’s Runaways: Season 1 - Finished Jan 9 2018

American Vandal: Season 1 - Finished Jan 24 2018

The Good Place: Season 2 - Finished Feb 1 2018

One Day at A Time: Season 1 - Finished Feb 10 2018

Star Trek: Discovery: Season 1 - Finished Feb 11 2018

One Day At A Time: Season 2 - Finished Feb 21 2018

SeaQuest DSV:Season 1 - Finished March 11 2018

Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block: Season 3 - Finished March 17 2018

Gargoyles: Season 1 - Finished March 30 2018

Max Headroom Pilot - April 3 2018

Prey Pilot - April 3 2018

Karen Sisco Pilot - April 4 2018

Wolf Lake Pilot - April 4 2018

The Magicians: Season 3 - Finished April 6 2018

Santa Clarita Diet: Season 2 - Finished April 24 2018

Black Lightning: Season 1 - Finished May 17 2018

Timeless; Season 2 - Finished May 19 2018

UnREAL: Season 3 - Finished May 19 2018

Superstition: Season 1 - Finished May 20 2018

Sien AKA The Deep: Season 1 - Finished May 23 2018

iZombie: Season 4 - Finished May 29 2018

The Americans: Season 6 - Finished May 31` 2019

Legion: Season 2 - Finished June 18 2018

Supergirl: Season 3 - Finished June 19 2018

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 3 - Finished June 24 2018

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 3 - Finished June 24 2018

Star Trek: Voyager: Season 3 - Finished June 24 2018

Westworld: Season 2 - Finished June 24 2017

The Expanse: Season 3 - Finished July 15 2018

Star Trek: The Next Generation:  Season 4 - Finished Aug 10 2018

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 4 - Finished Aug 10 2018

Star Trek: Voyager: Season 4 - Finished Aug 10 2018

Clarissa Explains It All Pilot - Aug 12 2018

Orange Is The New Black: Season 6 - Finished Aug 26 2018

Big Mouth: Season 1 - Finished Aug 31 2018

Cobra Kai: Season 1 - Finished Sept 2 2018

The Path: Season 3 - Finished Sept 6 2018

Freakish: Season 2 - Finished Sept 8 2018

SMILF: Season 1 - Finished Sept 9 2018

Castle Rock: Season 1 - Finished Sept 13 2018

Barry: Season 1 - Finished Sept 20 2018

Lodge 49: Season 1 - Finished Sept 21 2018

American Vandal: Season 2 - Finished Sept 22 2018

13 Reasons Why: Season 1 - Finished Sept 26 2018

Wynonna Earp: Season 3 - Finished Sept 30 2018

13 Reasons Why: Season 2 - Finished Oct 5 2018

The Haunting of Hill House: Season 1 - Finished Oct 13 2018

Light As a Feather: Season 1 - Finished Oct 14 2018

A Discovery of Witches: Season 1 - Finished Nov 5 2018

YOU: Season 1 - Finished Nov 12 2018

Lore: Season 2 - Finished Nov 12 2018

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Season 1 - Finished Nov 23 2018

Castlevania: Season 2 - Finished Nov 28 2018

Doctor Who: Season 11 - Finished Dec 11 2018

Preacher: Season 2 - Finished Dec 15 2018

VIDEO GAMES

This year, I intended to play more videogames, and while I finished Firewatch, which turned out to be one of my favourite games of the last decade and a great first person adventure game to boot, I again, bought many games I never finished including Stardew Valley, The Adventures of Willy Beamish, Inherit the Earth, Lighthouse: The Dark Being and Bioshock.

Many other games including personal faves, Maniac Mansion, Grim Fandango, Curse of Monkey Island, Escape from Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge: Remastered Edition I bought but either haven’t had the time or interest to replay.

Others such as Shivers, Ecco The Dolphin, The Dagger of Amon Ra: A Laura Bow Mystery, and Broken Sword, I just didn’t have the energy to start.

I’m hoping next year to at least finish five games.

EZEKIEL CONFRONTS CHALLNGE

If you’ve been following me on social media, you know this year, I really want to dig down and confront fears or personal biases on things I deemed embarrassing or nerdy such as conventions, D&D, Magic:TG, WOW (World of Warcraft) and rewatching all of the Star Trek series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, as well as watching series such as SeaQuest:DSV, Battlestar Galactica and Babylon 5 for the first time.

Ezekiel Watches Star Trek

I really ENJOYED rewatching Star Trek. It was such a big part of my early childhood watching TNG  with my parents and I LOVED DS9 and enjoyed Voyager, so getting to go back was such a delight and reignited my love for these series and made me want to proudly wear them as a source of pride rather then a blemish of embarrassment., I’m sad I wasn’t able to watch all seven series of each of the three series, but I’m halfway done  Season 5 on TNG, DS9 and Voyager that hopefully I can finish all series by the end of Jan 2019.

Ezekiel Watches SeaQuest, Battlestar and Babylon 5

I never watched SeaQuest DSV as a kid, despite my LOVE of the ocean and exploration, again due to embarrassment and wanting to be cool. I’ve watched the first season, there are three in total, and despite a few problematic areas *cough* poorly written female characters *cough* I really liked the potential of the series and a few of the characters.

With both Battlesar and Babylon 5, I only watched the Pilots of both series and while I enjoyed them, I didn’t have nearly enough a sample to know if I’ll enjoy them. Hoping to watch more of each as well as finish the last two seasons of SeaQuest next year.

Ezekiel Plays WOW

I’ve never played WOW (or had any interest). For a decade, my two younger siblings have tried to bully me into playing but it wasn’t until my friend, Kelly, started playing with her husband, that I wanted to share something that had become important to her. I don’t know I’d continue if Kelly stopped playing but so far I’m enjoying myself. I didn’t expect to enjoy (mainly it’s Kelly), she’s an EXCELLENT guide and is very good with going slow with me and teaching me about the world and its rules and not making me feel stupid or a burden.

PERSONAL GOALS

This year was my hard, my debut novel that was supposed to get published this past November, had an issue with my publisher and now its release is TBA, I feel like a failure, and my main priority of 2019 is getting the novel that I’ve worked on for five years PUBLISHED!

I wanted to lose twenty five pounds and start working out more to feel better, less sluggish and work on my mental health.. In this area, I succeeded, lost the weight I needed, and walked 3 km every day from May to late September. I need to work out more but I don’t feel as bad that didn’t happen.

I didn’t write as much as I wanted both for work and personal. I didn’t have as much published pieces as I’ve had in previous years. A lot of it was that my mental health was low throughout the year, and I had too many days off due to feeling depleted and exhausted .

I also didn’t work on the short stories much that I want to compile in a short story anthology that I want to self publish on Amazon and E Book. Again, I just need to push myself and write every day like I used to.

That being said, I’m really excited to go into the New Year and do better :)

BEST OF 2018

Two awesome things happened this year, I got my cat, Cheriden that was a rescue from my friend’s parent’s acreage, and he’s honestly the best part of my life right now. I had a cat, Sneaky, who was a tabby, when I was little but I’ve always wanted an animal that was a companion, that would come for snuggles and follow me around.  Cheriden was made for me, sometimes he’s too needy but he’s improved the quality of my life so much.

in 2005, I found a website, Isle of Coloden that was run by Kelly, who seemed just as weird as me and I admired her for her openness when blogging was such a new thing for me, I always thought she was a cool, and pathetic as it sounds, wanted to be her friend..  Last December, my ex, suggested I tell her how much she helped me through a difficult time in my life, when I had lost my girlfriend, I was initially reluctant but I did and Kelly and I started  chatting, she is now a co-host on my pod, Pop! Fishbowl, has helped me with WOW and I’m so glad to have such a caring, unique, opinionated person in my life.

For Christmas, she surprised me and bought me the first two seasons of Disney’s Gargoyles (Pretty much the complete series IGNORE Season 3!!!), which was such a delightful, thoughtful gift that came during a very tumultuous stressful week

and today I was again surprised to see I always made her best of 2018 list :) Shut up, I’m not smiling, YOU ARE! :) XD

TO 2019, AND BEYOND

Going into the New Year, I want to get my book published, figure out my two book deal so I get started on the next two that make up the trilogy, continue walking/working out both physically and mentally, finish my tv list, read at least 50 books and try to get short stories published in journals/magazines as well as play five video games.

In regards onto my website, Culture Gecko, I want to work on more local pieces in both Saskatoon and my other home, Vancouver. Interview local art7ist7s, business owners, report on news and current events. 

Fingers crossed, you guys!

[samdukewieland]

Stuck Inside Media Diary Week 8

Something that’s been nice about going back through Mad Men has been re-reading/re-visiting old Sepinwall recaps on the episodes. I read him religiously throughout high school and college, amongst others, but have since drifted from the recap on shows, for no good reason. Probably because there’s generally a podcast I can just listen to rather than read something (jock at heart-sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). This supposed to be a lesson in “go back and experience stuff from your high school years?” man, I don’t know; the venn diagram of things I did in high school and the things I do now is not small (or is it not big? What’s the best way to convey a lot of similarities with a venn diagram, size-wise). 

Sunday, May 10 (Mother’s Day)

The Third Man, Reed 1949

I was not super digging this while I was watching, it was late when I started watching it and it’s not slow exactly, but I was real curious how egg-zacktly Orson Wells was going to fit into the picture. Mysteries! I tells ya. Anyway, I’ve been stewing in it and realized, “huh, I think I actually like this movie quite a bit.” I think the Britishness, while not in your face, was secretly chipping away at my brain, already war-torn by tiredhead and then having a second wave of dry, British storytelling. Pretty good li’l picture (you could say that about movies in the 40′s-this isn’t uncommon).

Top Chef, Season 17 episode 4

This was done in an attempt to help my mom catch back up with Top Chef, which somewhat moved the needle, but I don’t think an episode (on her end) has been watched since. Mother’s Day: ruined.

Mad Men, “Tea Leaves”

My mom also watched this one with me, only because she just happened to be in the room. Her biggest hurdle with this show and her refusal to watch it is based solely on the fact that phones are ringing “all the time” and that “no one ever answers them.” Hard to refute it. She seemed mildly entertained by this episode, considering she had close to zero context for what was going on, thought that it was Ginsburg’s debut episode played some part into that. Pretty disorienting episode to be thrown into, what with the whole....Fat Betty thing (I was going to say “elephant in the room of Betty” but that just seemed cruel and trying too hard to try and be clever. An interesting, though ultimately aimless direction to take Betty this season and everyone involved kind of knows it.

The Last Dance, Parts 7 & 8

That this was the penultimate week of new Jordan doc created an unusual energy around the episodes, which were exciting in their own right as they went over his father’s murder, his baseball career and returning to basketball. But the thing that induced the most goosebumps was the “cliffhanger” (I am a moron) showdown between the Bulls and Pacers. 

Monday, May 11

Icarus, Fogel 2017 [as of now this is available on Netflix]

Kinda nice going into a documentary knowing hints of what it’s about and trying to figure out when it transitions to being about “X” but then you slowly realize you misremembered that information your friend Tommy told you and are surprised that it becomes about the Russian state (very possible I am misusing that term; just trying to sound smarter than I actually am). I don’t watch or know enough about documentaries to confidently state what’s a good one and what’s a great one-I think this one received some kind of critical backlash after it won Best Documentary, which happens. There’s definitely an intellectual superiority to saying you think less of a documentary that either wins that award or a lot of people like (in this case, both!). It’s engaging and accessible (another thing snobs hate) and has a misdirect that doesn’t blind side you; I don’t even care about the Olympics, but I felt sucked in.

Monty Python: Almost The Truth (Lawyers Cut), “The Much Funnier Second Episode - The Parrot Sketch - Flying Circus Included”

This one had more focus on the influence Flying Circus had on writers/comedians who were watching it at the time as kids (primarily). Lotta dudes. I can not stress how there are few things less appealing than hearing Russell Brand describing why Monty Python was funny (this was very much made in 2009).

Mad Men, “Mystery Date”

Some more Sopranos karaoke, though constructed a little bit better this time. This is also the episode that decides to flesh out Dawn (Don’s secretary, a joke that is never not funny) a little bit more, however Mad Men only does this when there’s “something to be said” about being black, which didn’t look great in 2012 and *flips through pages of notes* nope, still doesn’t look good here either. I suppose an argument you could bring up that is awfully flimsy is that they didn’t want to paint themselves into a Nikki and Paulo situation, in terms of never actually caring about digging deeper into Dawn’s story. I dunno man, I’m not trying to cast stones here.

Tuesday, May 12

The Taking Of Pelham One, Two, Three, Sargent 1974

What a white whale this movie’s been for me and brother, it feels good to have finally caught it. It’s insanely cool to go into a movie not knowing that it’s the 1974 version of Inside Man with a little bit of Dog Day Afternoon spliced in (pre-DDA mind you). This movie is packed with so many sarcastic assholes all working together in the same place, I loved it! I loved this movie! Cataloged in my brain as a Stop-Down-And-Watch if it’s on cable. However, my biggest gripe here is that Walter Matthau’s character is named “Zach,” a name that has never once been mistook for Walter Matthau’s; like there’s no way that they had Matthau casted before they came up with his name.

Mad Men, “Signal 30″

Beginning of the end of having any remote kind of sympathy for Pete Campbell. Hitting on high schoolers and shit. He wants so badly to be what he considers to be the best version of himself and will never be there.

Parks And Recreation, “The Set-Up”

Don’t know what it was about this particular viewing, but it landed better than it ever has this time around. Usually when I watch it, Arnett is so distracting and a much different energy than the show has created, but I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as hard watching this one as I did on this Tuesday morning. 

Wednesday, May 13

California Split, Altman 1974 [as of now this is available on Prime]

Hell yeh. Another movie I’ve been trying to see for a couple of years now, but feels nearly impossible to come across or find (note: to be fair, I have never checked to rent digitally, because I just don’t do that really ever, feels weird I don’t know why) and I found out on Tuesday night that it was put on Amazon Prime almost unceremoniously. I am by no means a gambler, so I have no idea if this is a good gambling movie, but it’s an incredible relationship and addiction movie. My introduction to Elliott Gould was Ocean’s Eleven where he is the opposite and still the same as the characters he played in the 70′s. The man has a debilitating incapacity to be effortlessly cool, even in a movie that he co-stars in with George Segal. I loved this movie.

Mad Men, “Far Away Places”, “At The Codfish Bowl”, “Lady Lazurus”

A great highlight of Don realizing he’s made a huge mistake marrying a 26-year-old. A great highlight of Roger Sterling is great with kids (and their grandmothers!). A great highlight of “Tomorrow Never Knows” fucking rules and uh, maybe wondering if Alexis Bledel is good? (certainly Rory Gilmore is good and it might’ve just been a “choice” to play this character so wooden, especially with what we know comes later on in the season)

Thursday, May 14

Cape Fear, Scorsese 1991

Apparently Spielberg was supposed to do this originally, but thought it was too violent and threw it over to Marty to get Schindler’s back from him (imagine trading those properties amongst yer friends-incredible). What’s real strange here is that he did’t give this to De Palma (I guess because it would’ve been in the wake of Bonfire), but it doesn’t really matter because Marty just goes and makes his version of a De Palma movie. It’s weird! However, when I wasn’t thinking about all of those things and being amazed at how much overt gore there was (overt for a Scorsese movie), I was shocked at the music I associate most with Sidewhow Bob (hold for Gilbert & Sullivan) is actually Max Cady’s music; like I knew that it was just Cape Fear but I had no idea it was just Cape Fear. 

Mad Men, “Dark Shadows”

Can’t go a season without a Don is actually Dick Whitman story/episode. That’s about it.

Friday, May 15

Becoming Mike Nichols, McGarth 2016 [as of now this is available on HBO]

This saved me a lot of time in the long run, should I ever read that new(ish) biography on Mike Nichols. It’s a pretty cut and dry interview focused purely on the prologue of Mike Nichols’s career, that’s a lot more interesting if you’re a theatre kid who doesn’t despise theatre kids (you know the type). Honestly, I was most engaged once Jack O’Brien pivoted towards his directing career outside of the theatre. Also gonna expose my ass here and say I didn’t realize Elaine May was that Elaine May-might’ve been a better interview if it was between two people who’re on equal level rather than a guy trying to kiss Mike Nichols’s and a bunch of theatre kids’ asses.

Mad Men, “Christmas Waltz”

This episode only exists to help punctuate how awful the next episode is, but damn if it’s not weirdly great. The Paul/Harry reunion was such a weird reunion, but only because it reminds you of how much time has passed since the beginning of this show (1960) to when it takes place now (1966); the total shift in aesthetic and thinking is massive, but it never feels shoehorned in.

Top Chef, Season 17 episode 9

Colicchio is pretty adamant about not having past challenges affect the decision of the current week’s choice in terms of sending someone home, but Melissa probably should’ve gone home this week if that were the case. They obviously weren’t going to after kicking Kevin off last week and Malarkey making the least offensive dish of the bottom 3. Melissa’s a front runner, same as Kevin was and you can’t have a competition where Malarkey is on but two frontrunners are kicked off back-to-back weeks (even if it was Kevin falling on his sword). Love Lee Anne, been with her since season 1 and hate to see her go, but she’s bigger than Top Chef-this is a loss that doesn’t make me think less of her.

Saturday, May 16

Notes On An American Film Director At Work, Mekas 2008 [as of now this is available on Vimeo]

I don’t know what to call this, honestly. It’s a videos of Martin Scorsese directing The Departed and it’s kind of fascinating. There are no sit down interviews, but snippets of conversations that you’re just thrown into the middle of. It could be that I just love him so much, but it was reaffirming to see that he (appears to be) is like a genuinely nice person. I don’t read about behind the scenes/making of’s, but I don’t really think he’s got any kind of reputation for being some kind of tyrant on set and this proves it (if he needs that proof for any kind of reason). It is one of those things though where watching actors, uh, act feels kina silly-apologies to Leo DiCaprio.

Mad Men, “The Other Woman”, “Commissions And Fees”, “The Phantom” [season 5 finale], “The Doorway” [season 6 premier], “Collaborators”

An incredibly harrowing stretch of episodes for Mad Men, maybe the best set-up for a finale the show has. The awfulness of the position they thrust Joan into and that Don is the only clear objector to this, be it that he only cares enough about the company is heartbreaking. Christina Hendricks wears so much disappointment and contempt on her face so well and that what happens is sandwiched between those interactions with Don is incredible. And awful. As is Lane’s suicide in the office (I still remember watching this episode for the first time when it aired and it’s as depressing now all these years later as it was back then; Lane and Bodie are probably my top-2 most upsetting television deaths that come to mind). Though it all seems worth it, despite how depressing it might be, for that scene between Peggy and Don where she resigns, an incredible parallel to Megan’s. I’m glad it wasn’t, but if they wanted to series wrap on Peggy there, they could’ve and it would’ve felt so incredibly earned, which you can see through both of those characters trying their hardest to choke down tears through a conversation smothered in so much understood in the unsaid. Now welcome, Bob Benson! (for the life of me, I can’t figure out if they introduce Bob like this intentionally, because it’s so fucking funny in how out of synch it is with everything else going on in the show)

Apocalypse Now, Coppola 1979 [as of now this is available on HBO]

It was either during my sophomore or junior year of high school when I became absolutely enamored with trying to watch this movie. I had built it up to such great heights in my head for whatever reason (I was very concerned with appearing knowledgeable about things like “important movies” and that this didn’t win best picture whatever year it was nominated fueled that fire even more ((I was also very concerned with being outraged over something like this)). I vaguely remember squeezing it in on a school night, but didn’t try and sneak it upstairs to my room to watch, like I tried to get this almost 3½ hour movie in under a reasonable bed time for a high schooler (I definitely didn’t have one, but I remember getting kind of dirty looks around the house if I was still hanging out past 10:30). So it was basically self-inflicted homework at that point, so I remember saying that I liked it, but I don’t know if I honestly believed it. And then that just gets all shaken up in your dumb high school brain that’s already trying it’s best to be super contrarian that you start believing that Apocalypse Now maybe sucks or at the very least isn’t as good as Hearts Of Darkness (a movie you won’t see for another 8 years). I had not watched this movie in its entirety since high school, and I knew all the big beats going into re-watching this, but it might as well have been that I had never seen it before. Man. I was a dumb as hell high schooler. This movie is electric and looks beautiful and I’m so glad that I never watched it all before this and decided to revisit it and I’m now furious at myself for letting the opportunity pass to not see it in theatres when it was remastered last year. 

The Adventures Of Tintin, Spielberg 2011 [as of now this is available on Netflix]

I was reading the oral history of Fury Road earlier that day and it got me really jonsing to watch Fury Road. For my mental health’s sake, I decided to not double feature Apocalypse Now and Fury Road, but rather Apocalypse Now and The Adventures Of Tintin. People of a certain generation really hate this movie and I kind of get it, but this movie rules. There’s maybe two sequences in it that I’d feel unashamed for putting up in the Spielberg Hall Of Fame.

[rbeatz]

HOTT New Artist: Bradley Allan

Bradley Allan has been on a roll lately. We’ve featured his “Calm Waters” remix and “Whatever I Want” remix. His remixes have uplifting melodic elements, tasteful bass, and dynamic percussion arrangements that take your energy on a feel good story.

His just released his  NEW remix of Arizona’s “Ocean Away,” and this is certainly one of Brad’s lower energy, beautiful pieces. His percussion through the track has trap and future bass elements, while the other elements keep that folk-pop feel that we love from the original.

A bit over two weeks ago, he released another remix of Whethan – Savage (feat. Flux Pavilion & MAX). We honestly like this one MORE than the original (probably our style), but Bradley builds the instrumentation around MAX’s strong vocals so well. The melody seems to continue throughout, and it WORKS because of his dynamic percussion arrangement.

Both of these are below.

His arrangement is fluid and percussion is on point.

Bradley Allan is a Los Angeles based Music Producer / Songwriter / Engineer. Bradley Allan is also half of the Future Bass / Trap collective NEO NOIR with producer Greg Ogan. Collectively his credits include Nicki Minaj, Shontelle, Mya, Nikki Flores, Brooke Williams, Jacky Greco, BRKLYN & others. His music has also been synced across all major networks as well as numerous cable networks such as HBO, MTV, VH1, NBC & on shows such as XFactor, The Olympics, etc.

Watch for NEO NOIR’s debut release on Trap Nations Lowly Palace label top of April 2017…we’re expecting some good things to come out of the two professional producers.

from rBeatz.com http://ift.tt/2lxxibI