I am massively late with this review but I am finishing the season soon.
Not a lot happened in this episode but some important backstory is revealed. I still really enjoyed it. The series is doing a good job of filling in a lot of the blanks the comic never did. We move closer to the apocalypse by a day. Two more episodes remain in the season.
Spoiler thoughts below the cut Continue reading ““The Umbrella Academy” Episode Eight Thoughts”
The longer Black Mirror goes on the less it has to say about technology. Ideas from previous seasons are being recycled more and more. The show needs to move beyond “people use technology too much and that’s bad”.
Having said that, I still found these new episodes fun to watch. The
“Striking Tigers” Rating 2.5/5
Infidelity the episode. Except for the immersive VR this is a story that could be told with WOW or Everquest or even just Facebook. The new technology doesn’t create these behaviors it just enables it. You could tell this same story in 1910 with telephones. The cross-gender element was really underexplored along with the fact that they could have been any character but just choose the same ones each time.
“Striking Tigers” is one of the weakest episodes of the series. Only its actors save the uninspired plot from being unwatchable. Anthony Mackie and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II sell their friendship and romance incredibly.
“Smithereens” Rating 4.5/5
This is my favorite episode of the season. Set in present day, it is a dramatic thriller about addictive social media, big tech company overreach, and survivor guilt. There is an undercurrent of “social media bad” but the episode is more about unintended (and intended) effects of social media rather than a simple denouncement of such.
I don’t want to say too much about the plot because while there are no major twists the story unfolds beat to beat rather nicely.
“Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” Rating 3/5
“Virtual actors/singers and who controls the rights” to them is not a bad premise for an episode but the side plot of toy copies and the one superfan mudded the waters. I think “Waldo Moment” from season two did the premise better.
I was surprised a little bit by the episode’s plot. I was expecting the Ashley Too to malfunction and become malicious or manipulative. Unlike most other episodes with a copied consciousness, there isn’t a lot of handwringing about what to do with the copy and she is simply allowed to continue to exist.
This episode has a happy light-hearted ending and while it isn’t not my favorite episode it was the perfect way to end the season of what is normally a pretty depressing series. I’m not saying every season should end with a happy ending but it was nice to not feel soul crushed when going to sleep.
Final Thoughts
Overall season five is about average for Black Mirror. Some repeated premises, but good to excellent acting and with the exception of “Striking Vipers” solid stories.
I started today off very lazily. After drifting in and out of sleep for a couple of hours, I got up around 4 pm. (Note: I normally sleep between 6 am and 2 pm.) I put a small load of clothing to wash before heading to shower. After my shower, I set the clothes to dry and I started browsing tumblr and Facebook.
The day before I had checked online to see which showings of Endgame were sold out. Most of the early evening showings were but the later ones were still available. I didn’t want to go out to the theater so late at night and have to walk home at an even later time. I had figured that I would have to decide before 8 pm in order to have time to get to the theater and get in before I was forced into a side seat in the front.
Just before 6 pm, I received a phone call from work asking if I was okay. I replied that it was my day off, wasn’t it? Guess what, it wasn’t. I was given the option of not coming in because it was a fairly slow day and my position, jewelry counter, isn’t strictly essential. I decided to go in and recover what few hours I could. So I rushed about to change into work clothes and hurried to the bus stop. I just managed to catch the 6 pm bus.
After getting to work, I started thinking about going to see Endgame afterward. My store is in the mall which is right next to the theater. The latest showing was about an hour after we would be getting off work, giving me plenty of time to get a good seat. On the con side, I had not eaten before rushing off to work and there was nowhere besides the theater and their inflated prices to get a passable meal.
I flip-flopped several times over the course of a few hours until I committed to seeing the movie tonight. My plan was to fortify myself with a root beer and snickers bar from the break room vending machines.
As I rounded the corner of the mall I saw the theater parking was full and overflowing into nearby mall parking. I nearly walked straight home but I had committed myself to this course of action no matter how foolish (but harmless) it was. A line hugging the side of the theater again tested my resolve. Were these people in line to buy tickets? Was the line to an earlier showing this long? Once closer to the theater I saw the line was constrained by a pair of retractable queue poles and not nearly as long as I had feared.
After buying my ticket, I joined the line I had seen on my approach. Not long after the line was moved inside to the short maze next to the ticket taker station. A police officer walked from end to end informing people this was the line for the 11 pm 3D showing of Endgame. I was seeing the 11 pm 2D showing of Endgame. I inquired about the line for the 2D showing and was directed to a line that had at most twenty other people. My fears of getting a bad seat disappeared.
About thirty minutes into the movie I started to feel a headache beginning to wrap itself across my forehead. Watching a movie in a theater, in general, has a chance of triggering a headache in me but combined with not having eaten an actual meal since the day before it was almost a certainty. I used some simple relaxation and pain management skills to push the headache aside for most of the movie.
Even with a mild headache and an empty stomach, I quite enjoyed the movie. It’s not perfect but nothing could be. For better or worse the Infinity Stones Saga is over and I’m mostly content with the ending we have been given.
Rating 4/5
Yesterday, I went to see Us. Normally I don’t go in for horror and it’s kinda out of season but after sleeping on Get Out I knew I had to see Us in the theater.
I left the theater feeling unsettled. I walked outside and around the side of the theater into bright sunlight to record some quick thoughts. I accidentally ended up standing in front of the Us movie poster while recording. When I got back inside I was still feeling off. I didn’t really recover until the pre-roll for Shazam started an hour later. If I hadn’t gone to see Shazam, I don’t know how long it might have taken for me to recover.
Despite ending the film unsettled there were a few scenes that made me laugh. There was a tumblr post about how Jordan Peele has made the transition from comedy to horror. It pointed out that humor and horror are about building tension and the difference is how you release that tension. You can see this in many Key & Peele sketches that zig-zag between the two.
In Us, the bits of comedy never took away from the horror. The film didn’t linger in the comedy; it hit those beats and continued on. I do wonder if the comedy didn’t enhance the horror. Did those fleeting moments of mirth provide needed contrast to the near constant dread?
Some elements of the film, doppelgangers or clones, memories, personhood, are things that I often think about. I’ve touched upon them in some of my writing but not in a horror format. In a way, this film was made to scare me.
Rating 5/5
Spoiler thoughts under the cut Continue reading “Us – Reaction Post”
Paper Girls is a comic series written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Cliff Chiang.
Go read Paper Girls right now. Don’t stop to read a preview or synopsis. Just go right now.
I somehow decided to read this series, without knowing anything about it beforehand, over the past couple of days. One of my podcasts just did an episode on it, which I haven’t listen to, but I don’t think that was the actual cause. I must have seen the name somewhere else as well but again without finding out anything about the plot or characters. It feels like my mind was wiped after I was convinced to read the series.
The titular paper girls are four teenage girls who deliver newspapers. The year is 1988. Something Strange happens to them. #scifi #surreal #mind bending
Early Spoiler: #time travel
Plot: Okay so the four girls end up on a time-traveling adventure due to two time-traveling factions from the future.
The time travel element is super well written. There are three or four timelines weaving among themselves that we see from the perspective of the paper girls as they try to get home.
There are knights riding pterodactyls. Clones. Lots of time travel movie references. Surreal dreams. Interesting looks at 2016 and 2000 from a 1988 perspective. Lot’s of good ‘80s nostalgia and perspective. Overall the series is a metaphor for current vs future generations conflict.
The girls are so great. Diverse racial, religion-wise, and sexually. They’re smart and brave and care for each other and stick together.
Listen you may be thinking by now this sounds like “Stranger Things with girls” and you’ll probably be thinking that until issue five when the time travel shenanigans things really start to kick off. That’s when you will realize Stranger Things is “Paper Girls with boys but not as good”. Stranger Things wishes it was half as good as Paper Girls.
I just flipped back through the first few issues to write the previous paragraph and I saw things that connect to stuff in like issue 25-26. I’ve only just binged the series. I didn’t even try to decipher the future language (there’s a partial key in issue 15ish) that is used throughout the series. There are layers to this story that I haven’t started to peel.
I don’t know why you’re still read this go read Paper Girls. Issues 1-27 are out now and the series ends with issue 30 so now is a pretty good time to get caught up.
And here’s a little taste of issue 1 under the cut:
Continue reading “I just read Paper Girls and so should you”
Something I’ve tried to do over the years is to let go of my expectations when I see a movie. It’s hard to do this at times and today I failed a little bit. I let the hype of “The First Woman Led” Marvel movie get to me. I felt a little underwhelmed by the final fight but I realized I was expecting an earth-shattering battle when that wasn’t what the movie was building to or made sense in the MCU history.
Also, this time between Infinity War and Endgame has been full of anticipation for the conclusion of the story started in Infinity War. A lot of people, myself including, are desperate for any hint of what is coming. Captain Marvel is not Avengers 3.5 nor is it the super secret history of the MCU.
Captain Marvel is not the greatest Marvel movie and it shouldn’t have to be. It is a fun movie that introduces a character we could (should) have met years ago. It has great acting and a good story. And it has Goose the cat. Brie Larson emotes in subtle but powerful ways. Samuel L. Jackson brings a bit of humor as her sidekick.
I liked the ’90s setting and didn’t feel like it was forced or over the top. There was one scene that is set to a certain song that is very on the nose but it plays almost in the background. I would have liked to hear the song blasted over the action instead.
The CGI de-aging of Fury and Coulson looked good but I do have mild faceblindness however I have heard other reviewers also say they looked fine.
One final thing. As the Marvel logo began to play, I was internally wishing they would do the older style Marvel Studios logo with images from the character’s comics. Then I saw this was not the new standard logo. Instead of characters from the MCU movies, images of Stan Lee began popping up along with clips of his movie cameos. And then it ended with a simple “Thank you, Stan.” Nearly got my waterworks going. His actual cameo in the movie is inspired but I won’t spoil it.
Rating: 3.5/5
Quick review:
I watched ep6 “The Day That Wasn’t” and then rolled right into ep7 “The Day That Was”. These two episodes should be seen together. They compliment each other perfectly.
I have a feeling that some people aren’t going to like them or suggest that they should have been cut down to one episode. I haven’t looked up reviews or recaps of any of the episodes so I don’t know yet. I tend to like the oddball episodes like these two. I also liked the episode of Stranger Things in season two where Eleven has a side adventure.
Spoiler thoughts under the read more:
Continue reading “The Umbrella Academy Episodes 6 & 7 Thoughts”
I’ve been putting off watching this episode until I could also devote time to writing up a review. I’m going to work on finishing up the season fairly soon.
Quick Review:
Episode Five, the halfway mark of the season but it doesn’t feel like the end of an arc. I guess from watching the Netflix Marvel shows I was expecting something big to happen and change the status quo. There was a big confrontation between the bad guys and the good guys, main plot threads converged, and some secrets were hinted at but it isn’t the sudden big change that happens in a lot of other shows at the mid-season. Everything that happened has been slowly been building over the last five episodes like a well-made rube goldberg machine.
This is my favorite episode so far because events are paying off in satisfying manners.
Spoiler thoughts under the read more:
Continue reading ““The Umbrella Academy” Episode Five Thoughts”
Quick review:
Separate plotlines are beginning to bump into each other. More backstory reveals for Luther and Klaus. Overall I like the way backstory is being rationed out as each character moves in and out of the spotlight. Some might find it frustrating though.
We’re almost halfway through the season and I feel like the pacing of the plot has been slow but steady. There haven’t been any episodes yet that I would skip on a rewatch.
Spoiler thoughts under the read more:
Continue reading ““The Umbrella Academy” Episode Four Thoughts”
Quick review:
Not a lot of plot advancement in this episode. The series is fleshing out the characters nicely though. I feel more for these versions than I did for the comic versions.
Spoiler thoughts under the read more:
Continue reading ““The Umbrella Academy” Episode Three Thoughts”