11.22.63

I've been lazy. And distracted. But mostly lazy. You've probably noticed the lack of updates, and that's the unfortunate result of my laziness. The fortunate answer is that I have awesome friends who are also awesome writers and who love to watch television. So please enjoy this beautifully written guest-post from Trisha, covering the mini-series, 11.22.63, based on the Stephen King novel and brought to you by executive producer, J.J. Abrams. --Maggie Cats

There is nothing like the fixation of a kid.  I think parents today can agree with that when they are watching Frozen for the n-teenth time, or trying to wash an article of clothing that has been worn every day for a month.  This graduates into boy bands, which for my generation meant head-sized buttons of various members of New Kids on the Block pinned all over jean jackets and vests.  I think my parents could have only dreamed of something so normal, but instead they got me.

My childhood obsession was the Kennedy assassination.  I was a weird kid.

Those who know me as a weird adult are probably not that surprised.  My dad was a bit of an enabler for this, talking theories, letting me stay up past my bedtime to finish cable channel documentaries, buying me books, planning a family trip to Dallas; my mom spent a few years perpetually rolling her eyes, which she still does every time I bring it up.  So when it comes to Kennedy assassination fiction and non-fiction, books, TV shows, movies (JFK twice in the theatre), I am fairly well versed in the genre, and always excited to add to my random “expertise.”

Full disclosure: if I had known 11.22.63 was a book, I would have read it first.  I missed that memo though, so here I go, even though the book is always, always better (except for 50 Shades of Grey).

In 2016, in Lisbon, Maine, Jake Epping (James Franco) enters a TARDIS in the closet of his friend’s diner that transports him back to October 21, 1960.  The episode is called Rabbit Hole, but I prefer thinking that the Doctor and the TARDIS are somehow camping in the diner closet as opposed to a late white rabbit. Call it a personal preference.

Jake's friend, the always brilliant Chris Cooper, explains the rules: no matter how much time you spend in the past, only two minutes pass in 2016.  And every time you enter the TARDIS you go back to October 21, 1960, and everything you did during the prior visit resets.  Chris Cooper wanted to stop the Kennedy assassination, which would somehow butterfly to no Vietnam War and a more perfect union today.
This explanation was a little tenuous to me, but I do not have the personal demons of a Vietnam veteran.

For spoilery reasons Chris Cooper cannot complete this mission, and implores Jake to continue on with all of the information he gathered during his prior visits to the past.  Jake, fresh off signing his divorce papers and burying his dad, acquiesces.

The past brings us James Franco sans scruffy goatee, so I already like it.  The first few scenes were so typically Franco that I had flashbacks to Never Been Kissed and Whatever It Takes (holy crap, James Franco was in Never Been Kissed!--MC), and not in a good way. Jake makes his way to Dallas to start positioning for changing the future/past, but as Chris Cooper warned, the past doesn’t like to be changed.  It strikes back in minor, and then major ways, and a shattered Jake finds himself reassessing his mission, and the potential tragedies of the next three years as he works towards this end.

I love the ambiance of Stephen King’s writing, and that shows like Haven (a personal favorite) and 11.22.63 work to bring that slight, surreal tinge to the screen, the not-quite-normal undercurrent that keeps you fully concentrating on the minute details, because who knows when they may reappear.  This isn’t an on-in-the-background show, especially in the first two episodes, which detour away from the plot that the previews promote.

In the second episode Jake finds himself positioned to right a wrong from his 2016 life, and his interactions surrounding this decision drive his character forward, but not the Kennedy story.  James Franco gives an amazing performance, especially when he is listening to others.  I am not a huge Franco fan, but in this setting his perfectly practiced micro-expressions are spot on.  At first during this episode I was tempted to call it a throwaway, and if I wasn’t so excited about Dallas, November 1963, I might have turned it off.

But the supporting cast performances are worth the entire watch, and the ending reveals a Jake much better equipped to move forward; even though it might not be his decision alone to do so.

Since Jake is in the past, Chris Cooper is confined to flash-backs (flash-forwards?).  He is so good that I always want more, and to see him outside of his tour guide role.  Josh Duhamel is more successful than Franco at ditching his high school hunk past and is genuinely creepy, albeit with perfect hair.  Credits list T.R. Knight who has not appeared yet, but I’m hopeful and eager for a Franco interaction.  Franco is best in this series when he is confronted with people whose motivations he is trying to process.

I’m writing this while starting Episode 3, which is still set in 1960.  I’m waiting for the time jump which I assume is coming, as there are only 8 episodes.  I’m waiting for the introduction of the historical characters that I know, and the conspiracy theories I love to debate.  I’m waiting for Chris Cooper to reappear in the past, though that is completely against the rules of the TARDIS.  I will keep watching until the end, and right now it is for more than just seeing Stephen King’s take on Oswald, the grassy knoll, and the assassination conspiracies, though that definitely helps.  Right now I’m eager for more interaction with new characters, and hopefully old ones, and a main character whose decisions surprise me.  That doesn’t happen often.

The first five episodes of 11.22.63 are streaming on Hulu.  A new episode is available every Monday.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow

DC Comics continues their domination of prime time with another show on the CW (from the same team that brought you Arrow and The Flash): DC's Legends of Tomorrow. In a nutshell: a group of B-side characters from other shows are brought together by a time-traveler from the future to defeat the Big Bad Guy who is bent on world domination. Does the show hold together? Guest-blogger, Karen, has the answer. --Maggie Cats 

I sat down to watch the newest foray into the DC-verse with a little trepidation...I'm WAY behind on both Arrow and The Flash. Will I be able to keep up with who is who? Will it make sense? Will I be hopelessly lost? (SPOILER...maybe).

During the first episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow, I was bombarded with characters, back stories, and information. Of course, every time Arthur Darvill, from Doctor Who, is on screen I squeal with fan girlish delight. I love the fact he has stepped up to captain his own TARDIS...er, Waverider. But sadly, I could not keep all the other characters straight in this first hour of the pilot. Some I know from previous exposure, but many just sort of fade into their archetypical obscurity.

Umm...that's a lot of legends. 

Here's what I actually got:

White Canary - Tortured, sad assassin, previously dead, needs a good mission give her life meaning.

Bad guy thieves (who are quite entertaining but thus far sadly nameless for me) - want to steal antiquities and are easy to catch.

Weird, merged fire hero - old guy + young guy = fiery hero? Old guy wants to have adventures, young guy really liked when he was, thank-you-very-much.

Hawkman and Hawkgirl - Reincarnated lovers who fight Vandal Savage, the Big Bad, again and again. Hawkman is way more up to speed, with his past lives, though meeting her son apparently jolts some of Hawkgirl's memories. Apparently they had a son in a past life. Wonder how many children they left behind, lifetime after lifetime of battles and deaths?

The Atom - It's Ant Man! Only it's not. And he's really smart! But nobody takes him seriously. He's kind of a big kid needing affection and attention. Well, this is going to end badly.

Rip Hunter - It's Doctor Rory! Man, I love Arrthur Darvill. He plays tormented but good intentioned so well!
Vandal Savage - The bad guy. Who we are TOLD is awful and terrible and we even see him DO awful things but he....falls terribly flat. Where's the menace? Where's the savagery? He seems so calm and not scary. Maybe I've been spoiled, but I want some terror with my eternal evil menace. Maybe he needs some good theme music, like Darth Vader.

Watch out! HE HAS A BIG STICK! And a sweet beard.

In the first hour we meet our hero team and have our first trip through time! In which we go to the 1970s. Woo. Big whoop. The team finds the man who can track Vandal Savage, who we learn is in fact Hawkgirl and Hawkman's son from their previous lifetime! And we learn some of their backstory. (Not enough, alas, to make them three dimensional characters yet.)

Meanwhile, we learn that JUST LIKE THE DOCTOR, this time traveler ALSO stole his ship!! Only instead of just sort of shaking their heads and collectively deciding "Time Lords will be Time Lords", his bosses send Boba Fett...er...Chronos to stop him. Chronos manages to hurt the ship and fatally wound Dr. Hawkson...surprise! You cannot change the past that easily, Hawkcouple. The trusty team ends up stuck in the time vortex or whatever they're calling it on this show while Rip makes repairs.

We also discover, along with the team, that Rip tricked them all into this gig because Savage savagely murdered his wife and son (at the beginning of the show) and none of them, not one, are legends....at least not yet. Instead, Rip plucked them from a place of relative obscurity in history as their absence (meaning, in case they die horribly) would not disrupt the timeline. Way harsh, Rip.

Legends, ASSEMBLE. Oh, wait....

I enjoyed this hour of television, but I can't say I'm enamored with Legends of Tomorrow. At least not yet. I'll give it 3 more episodes to really hook me. There are so many characters, I feel I need more time to get to know them. And the time travel better get more exotic, pronto! Because 1970s? Really?!

3.5/5 stars

DC's Legends of Tomorrow airs Thursday nights at 8:00 on the CW. You can catch the two-part pilot on CW's website.

Mad Men: Obergruppenführer edition

Guest-poster and Amazon Prime subscriber Zach is here to tell you all about Man in the High Castle. Ever imagine what would have happened if the Axis won WWII? Amazon has you covered. --Maggie Cats

Truth is, I’ve been waiting for Amazon’s adaptation of Man in the High Castle for some time; it’s one of my favorite books, and I’ve been hearing about it’s expertly crafted dystopian sci-fi world since September. 

The plot in two sentences: In this world, Germany got the atomic bomb first, and used it on Washington, DC, ending WWII and dividing up the United States into the occupied “Greater Nazi Reich” and the Japanese puppet state, Pacific States of America. The series brings us in during the early 1960s, focusing on the capitals of each of these states, New York and San Francisco. 



The two main characters are Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos), who's trying to figure out exactly what her newly deceased sister was wrapped up in, and Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank), a Nazi double agent posing as a resistance fighter. 

Will you like it? If you like lush, gorgeous detail, and the intersection of 1960s culture and consumerism colliding with Nazi/Japanese domination, then yeah. The series provides a rich crop of easter eggs and clever visual asides and it's clear the show creators really thought through this alternate universe. I found myself pausing and rewinding constantly, checking out small amusements such as a little boy reading a copy of the kid’s magazine, “Ranger Reich.”

Also, rocket planes are a thing.

Beyond the detail though, is a near-constant gripping drama, with the only lull spent in an early episode in Canon City, a “wild-west” located in the neutral zone of the Rocky Mountains, the last refuge for outcasts (elderly, albinos, Jews, etc.) who would be institutionalized or exterminated in either state.

Drama’s not your thing? Then enjoy the rich secondary characters (who sometimes outshine the leads). Let your stomach get queasy when you find yourself essentially agreeing with the family values espoused by the Rockwellian Smith family, the paterfamilias being a strict but kind husband and father, but also the head of the SS for the Greater Nazi Reich with a prevalence for sadism. Revel in the fascinating social commentary on race and gender--at one point our lead characters are led through a “white dancers only” fetish strip club, run by the Yakuza. The series seems tailored for us to examine our own America through our glimpse at this fictional world.

For me, the only downside to this adaptation is that the eerie version of “Edelweiss” featured in the opening credits is my new nightmare fuel. Here’s hoping it can be yours too.

Man in the High Castle is on Amazon.com, and is free to Amazon Prime members. All episodes are available for streaming Nov. 20th, 2015.

Golan the Insatiable

How long did it take for me to get my boyfriend to write for the TV blog? Only about 6 months. I think I showed remarkable restraint! Please enjoy this offering about the new FOX cartoon series, Golan the Insatiable. --Maggie Cats

Golan the Insatiable is not your typical cartoon. Sure, there are the usual trappings of a family sitcom: A cozy Midwest town. An adorable precocious preteen daughter. Her older, more… shall we say “worldly” sister. Their single mom just trying to hold everything together.

This probably sounds familiar, but the title character, Golan the Insatiable, turns the premise on its head when he crash lands from an interdimensional portal and takes up residence in the family’s suburban home. A renegade demon lord exiled into a humdrum middle-American existence, he plots with the younger daughter Dylan to wreak havoc and return to his home.

Golan started out on the web, then became part of a cartoon anthology series, and has most recently segued into its own legit 30-minute animated series airing on Sunday nights. The fantastically imaginative concept started out as a series of short journal-style entries by Joshua “Worm” Miller on the web forum “Something Awful” between 2010 and 2012.

The journal features the earliest iteration of the characters, and the plot focuses mostly on Golan himself and the differences between his life in his Dungeons & Dragons-esque nightmare-dimension called “Gkruool” versus the USA everytown of Oak Grove, Minnesota. There are interesting distinctions between this rough and offensive early version and its later, tamer TV reiterations--most notably the Barbarian character “Yor” who is also stranded in our dimension. He’s loved by the citizens of Oak Grove just as universally as Golan is despised.

Golan evolved into a 2013 short series as part of Fox’s ADHD TV programming block alongside similarly adult animated shows like High School USA and Axe Cop. Miller himself voiced several characters, including Golan, but when the network scrapped the programming block, it seemed the adventures of Golan, Dylan (his preteen acolyte), and the Beekler family would also be over. While that wasn’t the case, the question is whether it should have been.

For just when it seemed like Golan had gone the way of the dodo, FOX instead conjured it back to life as part of its Sunday night animation lineup. The new Golan has undergone some changes--the Beekler family now consists only of single Mom Carole (sorry, affable loser Dad, Richard!), and daughters Dylan and Alexis. While Carole probably still writes erotic fan fiction about Golan, the Godlord’s perviness towards teen Alexis has been expunged from the plot--mostly likely deemed too objectionable by network producers.

For a 30 year-old, I watch a heck of a lot of animation. In this country, the medium has been relegated mostly to an “age ghetto” to use tvtropes.org terminology, or the lowest common denominator. It’s no surprise then with each reiteration, Golan the Insatiable has become less edgy, more appealing to a wider audience, longer, and dumber. The Fox network execs are probably pushing Family Guy-style frat humor since that seems to be what “the people” want...or is it just what they think we want? In any event, the latest version of Golan now features Rob Riggle, former correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, as a more bro-tastic bratty Golan. In essence, Golan has become American Dad. Just, you know, a demon.

Demons have feelings too.

The concept has undergone some positive changes too -- Dylan, originally a teenage boy in Miller’s writing, has transformed into a goth elementary-schooler (voiced in the latest version by the immensely talented Aubrey Plaza of Parks and Recreation and Grumpy Cat fame). Most characters, such as the town Mayor or Keith Knudsen, Dylan’s sister’s boyfriend, get much more characterization in this new revision. Also, with the negative continuity of the show, the horrors that Golan and Dylan inflict on the small community are reset at the beginning of each new episode (so it’s okay if Dylan or Golan bludgeon 5th grade bully McKenzie B. to death, right?).

Finally, though being the tamest version of the Godlord himself, the new Golan occasionally works entertaining feats of Gkruoolian magic with humorous results -- he breathes life into a backpack in the pilot, for example, or in the third episode creates a “shamunculous”, a monster that feeds on shame.

Nevertheless, the latest episodes of the show are mere shadows of the stronger, edgier, and more tightly-written episodes from the ADHD version and the web series that spawned it. Let this be a lesson to the fanboys and girls of America -- be careful when asking for your favorite shows to come back on the air, you might just get what you wish for. And it will be transformed into a shamunculous.


Golan the Insatiable airs Sunday evenings on Fox at 9:30 p.m. EST. You can also catch all four aired episodes on the FOX website.

Sense8

For your reading pleasure, here is a guest post from Mac about the Netflix original series, Sense8. I have heard a bit about it, but mostly I just sit around wondering how to pronounce the title. But after reading Mac's review, I don't think it's worth devoting any more brain power to this or any other question related to the show. --Maggie Cats

Sense8 is a Netflix Original directed by the Wachowskis (of The Matrix Trilogy fame). It's definitely the show for you if you like your social commentary like I like my pancakes... flat and chopped up into bite-sized pieces.

It's billed as a show about eight strangers forcibly connected mind to mind. None of this matters very much in the show. An honest billing would be, "this is a thin metaphor for the fact that life would be better if we were all in each other's heads."

The eight characters vacillate rapidly between three different states; the first is a nonchalance in the middle of what they assume to be incredibly vivid hallucinations of the lives of people around the planet. The second is panicking because they earlier experienced a hallucination. And the third is just kinda going about their business, completely ignoring the fact that they've been hallucinating on-and-off for days now.

The actual interaction between characters is incredibly minimal, and typically done more for a gag or a "hey isn't this a head trip" rather than anything which might advance what little story there is. We are flat-out told that there is some sort of shadowy organization that wants to chop up all of their brains, but that's most of what we know by now. Only one of the characters so far seems actually affected by this worldwide manhunt, even though another character should be on their radar. Seven of the eight have not the first idea what is happening to them; the last one has been told some stuff, but not very much, and how much he believes and understands is even less.

So in essence, it's eight different, pointless little stories being told all around the globe, filled with ham-fisted representations, like an entire police department that refers to one of their own number literally as a traitor for saving the life of a black kid. No joke, a black cop uses the actual word "traitor" to describe a patrol cop who found a wounded black teenager and brought him to a hospital.

 

 In their defense, the show IS set in Chicago.

 

With eight almost entirely unrelated stories to get through, very few of which have any impact on the tie-the-show-together story, no one story actually progresses very far during any particular episode. I have so far slogged through five episodes, and near as I can tell two whole days have passed on this planet. Beyond which, even inside each story, plot progresses at Dragon Ball Z pace. One young man lives in Nairobi. At one point he is walked at gunpoint from his own van to someone else's. No dialogue is spoken. No important clues are revealed in the background. Nothing happens but four men walking in a line. It takes five of his own scenes, cross-cut amongst scenes of the other seven main characters, for him to travel from van to van, so basically that's half an episode.

 

 His walking is over nine thousand.

 

I'm not myself a fan of letting shows play in the background while I do other things, but the literal only way I can recommend this show is if you simply need white noise to fill your home. I guess if you occasionally get calls from Rachel Maddow accusing you of being too liberal, you're prolly the target audience for their flagrantly masturbatory progressive propaganda, but I myself am left of center and I think they went way too far with their world of "everyone who disagrees with me is evil." 

 

I hesitate to say something is bad just because I don't like it, and I try to be tolerant of people who just want to sit there having their own beliefs reinforced. However, as far as I'm concerned there's a line, like the difference between Renaissance art and pornography, and you cross that line once you start demonizing your enemies. Saying "every gay person is wonderful" is a little flat, but technically not objectionable. Saying "literally every cop wants all black people dead" is too far.

And the Asian chick is a martial arts master. Because of course she is.

Grey's Anatomy. Master Storytelling or Cheap Emotional Manipulation?

The glory days of Grey's Anatomy are behind us, but just to show she still has it, show-runner Shonda Rimes pulled out all the stops and killed a major character in a recent episode. All of a sudden, Grey's is back in the news and guest-poster, Priya, has something to say about it. Spoilers below! --Maggie Cats

It's been a few days and I'm still thinking of the latest Grey's Anatomy. Specifically, how Shonda Rhimes set us up. For those of you who haven't been watching lately the show has essentially been your regular run of BIG DRAMATIC incidents and quiet character development and movement. But since January the show has been slowly filling fans with dread as it takes us on a more-than-usual roller coaster ride of emotion.

First of all after the following paragraph there is going to be a giant SPOILER. Consider yourself warned.

Now, I know I don't really have to justify why I keep watching Grey's Anatomy but I feel like I should for just a moment. I really love the characters. Even when the show was at its worst (seasons 4-6) it was a bit of eye candy and silliness wrapped in a generally well written package. It was unafraid to be ridiculous and heart-wrenching with week to week medical stories.

But I digress. Here's the spoiler. McDreamy is dead and since January, Shonda Rhimes and company have been priming fans for maximum trauma.

Act One: Remind us that McDreamy is not perfect. Derek Shepherd has a giant ego. He has an opportunity to work in DC for the President and doesn't care that Meredith's career is in Seattle. So after a fight he goes. In his absence (where we literally don't see him for about four episodes) Meredith kicks ass. She is an awesome doctor, a really good one. Focused, driven and smart. She can do this. She has a streak of saving all her patients.

But she knows that she's better with him and when she calls to tell him so another woman answers the phone.

Act Two: Create doubt, that is once a cheater always a cheater? Shonda reminds us of where things all started. McDreamy the married man picking up Meredith in a bar. Who was the woman on the phone? We obsess with Meredith until we find out the truth -- he did not cheat. He was lonely, and another woman hit on him and he stopped it. He didn't want anything but his family. Elation. Shonda did not go down the cliche road! Everything is ok!

Act Three: Derek Shepherd is a changed man. But wait, weren't we just suspecting him of cheating and being unsupportive? Audience turn your heads to the right. Derek wants to connect with his fellow doctors, and be a good brother by bestowing sage advice to his sister. He also does not need to be in charge. Audience turn your heads to the left. He and Meredith have some moments. Then he gets in a car and drives to the airport for a final meeting in DC.

Act Four: Deny. Deny. Deny. There is an entire episode where Shonda reminds us what she's put these people through. The trauma, the horror. The awfulness. PTSD after a massive plane crash comes in that reminds everyone about the time when they were all in a horrible plane crash and two people died (Meredith's half sister and McSteamy, Mark Sloane). Remember when this show was lightness and fun angst? All the while Meredith has a sinking feeling that something is wrong since Derek is not answering his phone and never made it to DC. Something is very wrong and the episode ends with flashing cop lights on a windowpane.

We should have known better.

The Final Act: McDreamy the Hero. McDreamy the brain dead neurosurgeon. What happened? Derek Shepherd was a hero. He is calm and deliberate. He saves four lives after a car crash on a windy coastal road. (Huge sigh of relief, everyone is alive!) Then as he gets ready to drive away, he reaches down to pick up his phone (in the middle of turning the car around, in case you didn't know distracted driving is BAD) and WHAM is hit by a semitruck.

We then have to watch slowly and agonizingly as he realizes he has bad doctors and becomes brain dead. Meredith has to come in and take him off life support. But don't worry guys. In Rhimes' set up we know that Meredith is a fighter, she will survive this. We've seen death on this show before, and know that the show can go on without him. But should we have to? Whiplash sucks, and I'll be a monkey's uncle if we weren't set up to feel this in the worst possible way. So I ask again. Masterful Storytelling or Cheap Emotional Manipulation?

I will, whether immediately or at some point down the line, finish out the series. Though I may take a break to finish Mad Men before the finale (TV time is a valuable commodity these days). But when I do, I won't be able to look back at the series as a whole with satisfaction. Nope. Rather it'll be filled with a little bitterness. I guess we should have known better, but seriously? Just end it already.

Daredevil

Time for another guest post! Isn't it nice that we here at TV Sluts have such nice friends who are willing to write posts for us when we are feeling lazy...I mean "when life gets hectic and we don't have as much time to watch television as we would like." Yeah. That's it. Anyway, this review of Netflix's Daredevil comes courtesy of new guest writer, Ben. Ben really knows his stuff so sit back, relax, and enjoy his thoughts on the new Daredevil!

I must admit, Daredevil is not my favorite superhero.

In my mind, his one-sentence description is, “he’s blind...but he’s not.” Thankfully, Netflix's version of the character is about more than that.

The show switches between a CW's Arrow-style origin story for Daredevil, finding him just as he starts his vigilante career, and a Sopranos-style treatment of the tribulations of Wilson Fisk (known in the comics as “the Kingpin”), criminal mastermind and tortured soul.

I will warn you, this Daredevil takes place in the “all Marvel TV/movies must be in the same continuity” universe. For the most part, this is less intrusive than Agents of SHIELD’s tie-ins to both Thor and Captain America.  But, in episode seven, there’s a character introduced that you last saw in the Jennifer Garner Electra movie, one who was related to all the super-magic martial arts ridiculousness. You  will spend the entire episode saying to yourself, “no, Marvel and Netflix, don’t screw this up! You’re doing Arrow better than Arrow is, don’t introduce the hokiest of the comic book continuity!” It turns out the new character is only meant to establish how Daredevil, a.k.a. Matt Murdock, can parkour kung-fu despite being blind, because “his father was a boxer” is not really an explanation. I am happy to report that the next episode goes back to Daredevil being awesome.

On the Daredevil side, Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock does a great job at being the right mix of clever, insanely driven, and internally tortured; a series of conversations between Murdock and a local parish priest about morality end up more revealing and less contrived than they might in a lesser show.
 Murdock’s not yet the superhero he will become, dressing for most of the show in a black getup that evokes Cary Elwes from The Princess Bride and having more of a general goal of fighting crime than any sort of plan.

Watching Daredevil (and his non-super friends) struggle as tiny individuals against the systemic rot and insensitivity of the show’s New York City is one of my favorite aspects of the show’s writing. The writers seem to be influenced by recent news about police and the media, where the police can justify all but the dirtiest killings and the media will still believe whoever the police say is the bad guy, even (or especially) when the police are corrupt.

Even if Daredevil successfully ends the current crime lord’s reign of terror, this Hell’s Kitchen is a place where the next could spring up to fill the vacuum unless something changes, and the deterrent effect of a blind practitioner of parkour kung-fu might not be enough. That said, there are still tiny victories in each person saved, and the show does make one feel them.

On Kingpin’s side, we are given the most vulnerable portrait of a real super villain perhaps ever to appear in superhero media. Wilson Fisk remains a gorilla-strong master of the underworld, but we learn that he still sees himself as the friendless fat kid on the block and he has nearly no game with the ladies. Sometimes, the viewer wonders, “how did you manage to get this crime lord thing together, Wilson, between the social awkwardness and the red-out rages?”

I think this is a factor, though, of seeing the show as a superhero show first; we don’t like to think that Victor Von Doom engages in Tony Soprano introspection, because then it kind of sucks that Reed Richards and his family totally ruin the plan. I ended up wanting Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk - even though the character basically looks and sounds like D’Onofrio’s Law & Order: Criminal Intent character crossed with Gorilla Grodd - to outsmart and outwit his way to success, even when he ordered the death of a little old lady just to taunt Daredevil out of hiding.

Fun fact: D'Onfrio has already played Thor.

And to briefly address critical gender theory -- for the record, this show passes the “Bechdel Test” only because, in one episode, there’s one scene where two women talk about landlord and tenant law. For the most part, this is a show where there is at most one woman with a speaking role in a scene at a time. Which is to say: don’t expect significant thoughts about feminism from Daredevil.

Final notes:

1.  Deborah Ann Woll, who plays Karen Page, looks way too much like she did on True Blood. I expected her to up and bite a guy while having sex with him; only mildly disappointed that she doesn’t. Her character is more interesting than at first glance, though; don’t write her off.

2.  There is a crime boss named Madam Gao. She is basically a cute Chinese grandmother package of coiled menace. All new crime TV shows should hire Wai Ching Ho to be adorably elderly and threatening.

3.  It’s not quite Game of Thrones, but Daredevil is willing to kill some characters you think are recurring at moments you find completely unexpected.

4.  Everyone seems to pick the same spot in Brooklyn with the beautiful Manhattan skyline to have outdoor conferences. It’s a great spot; I went to a wedding in that part of Brooklyn once and you do not get sick of the view. But I do notice when it gets reused for a show about Hell’s Kitchen, which is on the other side of the East River.

Thanks for Chris Pratt

It's been gone for a while, but it's always a good time to think back fondly on the gang from Parks and Rec, right? Guest-poster, Priya, has graciously allowed me to share a tv-themed post from her blog, This is What Comes Next. Enjoy and treat yo self!

"When we worked here together we fought, scratched, and clawed to make people’s lives a tiny bit better. That’s what public service is all about. Small incremental change every day. Teddy Roosevelt once said ‘far and away the best prize that life has to offer is a chance to work hard at work worth doing.’ And I would add what makes work worth doing is getting to do it with people you love.” — Leslie Knope

 

Yesterday we said goodbye to the loveable crew from Pawnee, Indiana and I literally got more emotional than I thought I would. And so, in the spirit of farewell, I pulled together my favorite things, moments, and thoughts from Pawnee, Indiana (with some helpful suggestions from my friends on Twitter and Facebook).

1. Leslie Knope. Though she started out a caricature, a female version of Michael Scott, she quickly grew into the dedicated, loyal, and intelligent person that you can’t help but identify with. Leslie wants everyone to be happy, and her enthusiasm was mostly infectious. While she taught us a lot of lessons one of her biggest legacies will be Galentine’s day. The day before Valentine’s Day where ladies celebrate ladies.

 

2. History at the local level. I will be the first to admit that Parks and Rec lovingly mocked the protectors of history, but as with most stories there was always a teensy bit of truth.

“We need better less-offensive history.” In Season 2, Episode 9 The Camel, we get a closer look at 1930s murals in the Pawnee Town Hall. This mural called the “Spirit of Pawnee” depicted stereotypes of various ethnicities in an incredibly offensive manner. At first glance the episode seemed to advocate for change, to remove the offensive images as an acknowledgment of their racism — but in the end the mural remained with only a name change “The Diversity Express” underscoring the ridiculousness and awfulness of the images depicted.

I thought the intervening mural competition did highlight how people connect to place. Asking the questions with hilarious results: how would you depict the place where you live? What story would you tell? The show was always great at highlighting this connection.

Another example: In the most recent season Leslie worked to create a National Park in Pawnee. Granted she tried to create it in a completely non-reality based way, but the sentiment remained. What I appreciated about that storyline was how she convinced the corporation, Gryzzl, to adopt a run-down part of town and to revitalize a neighborhood that was falling apart. It was a key part of the plan to convince them to rehab existing building stock instead of starting a new. My preservation heart forgave them for the earlier flaw and accepted it in the spirit in which the story was told.

Other history moments?

The time Leslie tried to save a Gazebo at a historic house and chained herself to a fence. [Season 2, 94 Meetings] “History is important. You can’t just go around changing everything all the time. Otherwise the next thing you’ll know they’ll be painting the white house, not white.”

Then she tried to change outdated laws in Season 5 and was met by a history buff who wanted to keep a tradition alive.

Or when they visited a historic house museum with fake objects. These moments may have made me shake my head, but they also made me smile.

3. Moments. Hysterical moments. Burt Macklin, Waffles, Jerry or is it Gary? April’s weirdness. Ron’s hidden gold, Tammy, Rent a Swag, TREAT YOURSELF.

4. Literally. My co-worker who shall not be named does a great Chris Traeger impression. As much as I loved Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn. Rob Lowe as Traeger on Parks and Rec? Perfect. As for my co-worker? I will always have that day at the office where she performed a full, playing all the characters, interpretation, of this scene. It’s a classic.

5. Little Sebastian. That tiny horse pulled at heart strings. He brought people together. So much of this town’s identity was wrapped up in strange festivals, rivalries with Eagleton, and bizarre relationship with its past. Sebastian exemplified how, in the end, the strange trip was all about making the community better, even with all the challenges.

Up in horsey heaven, here’s the thing
You trade your legs for angels wings
 And once we’ve all said good-bye
You take a running leap and you learn to fly

Bye Bye Li’l Sebastian
Miss you in the saddest fashion
 Bye Bye Li’l Sebastian
You’re 5000 candles in the wind

So Bye bye Parks and Rec. There won’t be anything quite like you, ever again.

Please and thank you.

The Strain

My friend, GeekNomad, and I are both fans of Guillermo del Toro's The Strain Trilogy of books (though she liked it better than I did). When I heard that FX was turning the books into a television series, I wasn't sure if it was a good idea. Did we really need another series about vampires? The books explored a different and frankly, darker, outcome of the vampirism-as-virus genre, but I wasn't sure how that would translate to a network television series. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if it worked out that well. Here to fill you in on the good and bad of FX's newest drama series is our new guest poster, GeekNomad!

A caveat before we begin: I loved the book The Strain. It has that kind of slow, sinister creep that makes you turn on all the lights in your house while you’re reading.

Like his more famous work, Pan’s Labyrinth, Guillermo del Toro’s horror/vampire/we’reallgonnadie trilogy started out with a seemingly straightforward, if depressing premise (plane full of dead people on a JFK tarmac, girl and mother in the clutches of a sadistic fascist) and spun a web to pull you in. Slowly. Carefully.

He let’s you think that everything might turn out ok...and then slowly it unravels. And you learn about the heart. The history. The creeping terror.

The TV version has opted to forego the slow descent into horror for the tried and true approach - gore and noise. And a really daft voiceover on the intro and finale. Rather than let the audience lean forward slowly in their seats as they’re sucked into the story, the director grabs us and tries to force us to pay attention, to care. It doesn’t necessarily work, which is a great disappointment.

From FX:

The Strain is a high concept thriller that tells the story of "Dr. Ephraim Goodweather," the head of the Center for Disease Control Canary Team in New York City. He and his team are called upon to investigate a mysterious viral outbreak with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism. As the strain spreads, Eph, his team, and an assembly of everyday New Yorkers, wage war for the fate of humanity itself.

The TV version opens onto the interior of the doomed plane. Following a distracting and hokey voiceover regarding the power of love, we follow a nice, capable flight attendant (she talks to a child and speaks French, naturally) to the back of the plane, where her hysterical colleague tells her there’s something living in the plane (of course there is, you’re in a horror show). Disbelief, followed by loud screaming ensues as something makes its way out from the storage by force. Yelling, screaming, and cut.

Boring.

The book starts differently, with a horror story told to Setrakian ("Professor Abraham Setrakian is a dedicated (and perhaps fanatical) vampire hunter for over six decades. He is an expert on vampire biology and destruction, and recruits Eph to his cause." --Maggie Cats) by his grandmother, and a snippet of the black box recording. No screams. No loud bangs. Just a quiet, sinister creep. Why the show couldn’t have started there, with the next scene, of the air traffic controllers realizing something is horribly wrong, is beyond me. To borrow from the book, “...she had a fleeting yet palpable sensation of standing in the presence of a dragon-like beast. A sleeping dragon only pretending to be asleep, yet capable, at any moment of opening its eyes and its terrible mouth...And she understood it then, unequivocally: something in there was going to eat her...” Suspense, not violence.

It would have worked.

And then the scene with Setrakian and the thugs, followed by Setrakian and his weak heart. The thugs, yes, and necessary for later. But the heart? Why take all the mystery out of it? Putting that out in the first episode is like laying your cards on the table in Las Vegas. The book waited, before drawing us in to Setrakian’s hidden world behind the storefront. Let him keep a little mystery for goodness’ sake.

Some of the scenes are good - Dr. Goodweather pwning the other acronym agencies and securing first rights onto the plane, Setrakian pwning the thugs... But it just feels a little rushed, like the director wanted to hurry us to the next scene where they spoil things for the rest of the book. Hurry up and get to the power hungry guy with the dialysis machine. Hurry up and get to the ATC guy getting eaten/pounded by the Dementor. No suspense. Shock, not horror.

No seriously, the vampire is THIS big.

But all that said, I’ll keep watching. I feel like I owe it to the books. The story itself is good. The acting is spot on. Corey Stoll does a fantastic job, with hair this time, of the good but flawed guy trying to do his best in a bad situation.

Thankfully, unlike his House of Cards character, you think he might have a chance at it. Sean Astin/Samwise Gamgee, proves to be a bit less trustworthy than his Hobbity past, which is refreshing, though, again, draw it out a little, damnit. I keep expecting Setrakian to carry around a red-eyed cat instead of a cane sword, but that’s hardly his fault. The acting by the lead women has been good, if limited, and I could do without the tropes of the naughty librarian/scientist (glasses on = work, glasses off = let’s talk about our relationship) and the unfeeling/distant wife.

I’m just hoping that the director will drink less coffee, give his audience a bit more credit, and slow the heck down. Give me suspense. Give me horror. Give me nightmares.

The Strain airs Sundays at 10:00PM EST on FX.  The first episode is available for viewing on the FX website.

You'll see a lot of similarities between these vampires and those of del Toro's Blade 2. Mostly that they are really really gross.

Under The Dome

Chickens! Cows! And my other farm animal friends! Peanut EmandEm is back for another guest post, this time about Under the Dome. Take it away, Em!

I hate to admit this, but I broke my own cardinal rule when it comes to Under the Dome.  You know the one I’m talking about, “ALWAYS read the book BEFORE you see the TV show or movie based on the book”.  Honestly, I’ve been pretty good lately.  I finished The Hunger Games series before I saw the first movie and I finished The Leftovers just in time for its HBO premier on Sunday, but for some reason I always drop the ball when it comes to Stephen King.  It’s not that I don’t like his books, because I do, but I can count on one hand the number that I’ve read before seeing them produced.  I guess it stems from my childhood.  After seeing The Shining, how could you not devour every other Stephen King story made into a movie?  And to be totally honest, I wasn’t much of a reader as a kid.  So now you know where I’m coming from as I sit awaiting the start of the second season of Under the Dome.  Yes, yes. I’ve had a year. So, I hang my head as I type this…I still haven’t read the book.

My favorite part of season one was that the producers blew the mass majority of their special effects budget on that ridiculous cow.  At least I hope they did since they showed it EVERY episode.  As the dome is dropped over Chester’s Mill, families were separated, strangers are trapped homeless in a unknown community, a truck crashes into an invisible barrier killing the passengers and a cow is cleaved in twain:

Mooove over writer’s room, I got this.  Who needs plot enhancing dialogue?

No seriously, I was getting a bit teary for the loved ones who have lost and then bam; a computer generated cow is grotesquely sliced in half in all its bloody glory.  Then, as if that weren't enough, they showed it every week during the “last week on Under the Dome” sequence.  They were going to get their CG money’s worth, by God. 

      Hey, you can even buy the t-shirt!

Vindication!  It’s only the credits and already my self-worth is through the roof.  Stephen King wrote the premier episode of season two.  Although I haven’t read the book, at least I have seen an episode written by the author.  That’s got to count for something…right?

AP Edit: Totes.

Season 2 opens exactly where we left off, with Barbie about to be hanged from the gallows in the center of town.  Big Jim is urging Junior to pull the level which he finally refuses to do.  We’ll see how long this lasts.  Junior’s major storyline last year was his inner turmoil about whether or not he had to do what his father told him to.  Most often, he bent to his father’s whim.  I can only hope that this season we will see him finally stand up to Big Jim.

Cow.

Just as Barbie is about to be hanged, the dome begins emitting a high pitched sound and attracts all metallic objects near the proximity of the dome.  I actually like the idea of the dome disarming the people of Chester’s Mill.  Big Jim’s gun is whisked away first.  How will he ever control everyone now? 

Soon after, we learn from our newest character (Rebecca, the local high school science teacher), that the dome is pulsing “like a pregnant woman’s contractions”.  Wow, thanks for the visual, CBS.  That’s the best analogy we could come up with?

I’m pulsing like a large, city sized dome!

Unfortunately our dear friend -- and only cool headed law enforcement officer in Chester’s Mill -- is presumably killed while trying to free Barbie, who is trapped by his handcuffs to the magnetic dome.  I say presumably because after we see the truck (with Linda in its path) slam into the dome, no one bothers to check on her.  Maybe she jumped out of the way in the nick of time or maybe she slid under the truck Indiana Jones style.  OK, she probably didn’t, but we’ll never know because Big Jim, Junior, and Barbie all barely react to her death. Instead, they take off to continue their fight for control of Chester’s Mill.

                   Wow, the dome is starting to look like my collection of refrigerator magnets.                   \

           

Barbie and Julia are finally reunited.  At the end of the first season Julia learns that it was Barbie that killed her husband.  She must not have been very into that dude because she forgives Barbie the instant they see each other and we are treated to their first kiss of the season.  Even Barbie agrees with us, “I didn’t think it would be that easy.”  Ouch. ,Sorry Julia, you may be the monarch, but he sure has your number.

Will no one mourn my death?

 Ah, Under the Dome, welcome back. I have missed you in all of your cheesy glory!  I can only imagine what next week has in store for us Domers!  Thank you Stephen King for writing something that I can appreciate as it was meant to be…on the screen!

Oh Julia, you’re so easy.  Wait, what did you say?

Under the Dome airs Mondays at 10 p.m. on CBS.  Full episodes available for download at the Apple app store and on Google play. 

'Nother cow.

HIMYM Finale

I watched the first two seasons of How I Met Your Mother, but then had to give it up because it conflicted with too many other shows that were higher on my priority list. But I've stayed aware of the plot developments and have followed the...shall we say, vocal, reactions to the finale. Personally, I thought it sounded like the perfect ending, but that's clearly not the only opinion on the subject. Reporting from the ground (and the eye of the hurricane) is TV Slut guest-poster Priya, who puts it all in perspective. --Maggie Cats

It's not entirely unexpected that following the How I Met Your Mother finale that the internet, as my roommate stated, exploded. Like the LOST finale, people tended to gravitate towards the "we're good with it" to "virulent hatred" sides of the spectrum.

So the question is "was the finale a betrayal or...wait for it...the natural end to a the story Ted has been telling us all along?" For nine years we've been teased with glimpses of this elusive woman: A heel, a yellow umbrella, a classroom. The entire series lurched towards this one fact: that the show would end when Ted found his soulmate.

Of course in the intervening years we got to know 'the gang:' Marshall, Lilly, Barney, and Robin. We knew pretty early on that any of Ted's previous relationships, including the one with Robin were doomed, she was after all 'Aunt' Robin. We believed the premise and the implied promise. The show would end with the mother. We knew how it would all end.

Let's detour for a moment. For me this show was about more than just that final one hour we got this Monday. I told another one of my roommates that for nine years once a week I've had 20 minutes of joy. A show that made me laugh and surprised me with songs (Nothing Suit's me Like a Suit!) and slap bets; Crazy-Hot Scales, and Marshmallow adorableness; DOWISATREPLA, Cockamouse, and Challenge Accepted!

Granted it wasn't a perfect show--its terrible lack of main character diversity and that horrible Arcadian storyline--but I loved each character as they transitioned from point to point in their lives.

So when the credits rolled on the finale on Monday I was satisfied.True the storytelling for this season could have gone differently. I wish that Robin and Barney's wedding which lasted the whole season, had not resulted in us seeing their three years marriage over in a blink of an eye. But I think the finale highlighted what made this show important.

The gang. The big moments.

The idea that life is messy and that while one day matters and can go on forever, we might not always be in each other's lives as we change and grow.

Don't get me wrong, I think the fact that Ted finally meets Tracy (the mother) only to lose her to illness after seven years is tragic and maybe emotionally manipulative, but as this wonderful piece from the AV club says it wasn't the mother in How I Met Your Mother that mattered it was the How. (Also read: Slate on HIMYM)

So I was ok that Barney, despite trying for three years, really only changed with unexpected fatherhood, and that Marshall and Lilly dealt with life's trials through continued domesticity.

I have ALL THE FEELS.

But this story is about the mother right? And the LOST passengers were never in purgatory. In both cases we were never really lied to.

In the final moments of the finale, Ted's kids point out to their father that it's Robin who he still loves, and can still have. And I'll take a moment to acknowledge that after almost a decade of a revolving-door Ted-Robin relationship that finally ended with him letting her go just episodes ago; to have them end up together nearly twenty-five years later is frustrating for some. But after twenty-five years, after Robin lived her dream of traveling, and Ted had his kids -- the two reasons why they couldn't make it work--it's nice that they had a chance to try and be happy again.

So six years after losing Tracy, Ted steals a blue french horn and with deliberate symmetry, reminiscent of John Cusack's boom box, holds it up for Robin to see. It's a big moment.

It was romantic...-ish. I mean, at the end of the day, it's still a big blue french horn, right?

Let's close with this: In thinking about the end we can choose option "A:"

Lilly: "So what is this all just over now?"

Robin: "It doesn't have to be a sad thing."

Or Option "B:"

Lilly: "Oh god this is too real, Marshall's next."

Whatever the final decision, "Let's Go to the Mall, Today!