Archive | June, 2015

Battlestar Galactica “Maelstrom”/ “The Son Also Rises” Review (3×17/3×18)

15 Jun

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EPISODE 17-“MAELSTROM”

Well, that was surprising. I know she will be back, but I’m not entirely sure how this will play out over the remainder of the series; I have a feeling we’re going to get a ton of spiritual “destiny” stuff, which I’m not too enthused about. As a piece of drama, though “Maelstrom” is wonderful: beautifully directed and acted, and deeply affecting at the same time. Katee Sackhoff anchors the episode, and even though it’s not the sendoff you might expect for a major character like her, it works better than you might expect.

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Battlestar Galactica Season 3, Episodes 13-16 Review

15 Jun

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EPISODE 13: “Taking A Break From All Your Worries”

This is essentially two episodes in one, but the writers attempt to spin it so that the two storylines are connected somehow through some *Clever Editing*. However, the reality is that the Love Quadrangle of Assholes drags down the more interesting Baltar interrogation plot, which utilizes people like Roslin and Adama and Gaeta well while on the other side of the divide, Lee and Starbuck and Dualla and Anders are floundering. So, there’s predictably not much to say on the Quadrangle, but there are some interesting scenes with Baltar. The standout is Roslin as we’ve never seen her before, flying into a rage at the man to get him to talk; part of it is a bluff, but part of it is the buildup of so much pain and suffering amongst her people on New Caprica. She has someone to blame, and he gets all of her anger.

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Penny Dreadful “Little Scorpion” Review (2×07)

15 Jun

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“All of those things that mark you when you’re young, that make you who you are…you never escape them.”

Seeing as a lot of Penny Dreadful is structured around the idea of identity, it comes as no surprise that “Little Scorpion” is concerned with who we are as people, particularly the dark sides of ourselves that stay with us forever. It’s represented physically by the way Vanessa is possessed by a demon–by “monsters inside”–but it also has a deep emotional aspect that forms its foundation in the complicated histories of these characters. In this episode, it’s also symbolized by the storm that rages after a few days of apparent happiness and fun, and it’s nicely summed up by the way Vanessa describes the thunder, lightning, and rain: “primordial…every bit of civilization gone, and everything true coming out”.

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Game of Thrones “Mother’s Mercy” Review (5×10)

15 Jun

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“Mother’s Mercy” is filled with mid-scene cuts, jumping around from mini cliffhanger to mini cliffhanger as it attempts to close out its fifth season in a satisfying manner. It’s a way to bridge the gap between one season and the next, but it’s also a stylistic choice that serves to highlight the uncertainty of the characters’ positions–and the franchise as a whole, to be honest–at the moment. In this land full of power struggles and violence and torture, there’s no telling when an empire can come crashing down in an instant, when a character can be reduced to nothing more than a sack of flash, when your own families can turn on you. It’s an intriguing world to watch, but at the same time, it’s certainly a bit overwhelming.

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Orphan Black “Insolvent Phantom of Tomorrow” Review (3×09)

14 Jun

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“I am a mother now. I walk a different path.”

Even though it features quite a few major revelations, season three’s penultimate episode isn’t as meaty of an hour as the show’s last few installments. It’s still a twisty-turny 42 minutes, but it doesn’t quite possess the propulsive plot that drove episode six or the pure emotion that drove episode seven; it lies in a middle ground of sorts, never quite gelling, but still delivering a thoroughly entertaining set-up for next week’s season finale.

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Orange Is the New Black “Mother’s Day” Review (3×01)

12 Jun

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“These are complicated ladies in a complicated place.”

Perhaps no other line sums up the Litchfield inmates’ situation better than this one. The thing about jail is that it’s viewed as a monotonous cycle, as day in and day out of orange jumpsuits and sullen faces, as a homogeneous blob of people who are isolated from society. And to be honest, that’s true. However, what this show is conveying is the underlying humanity oftentimes overlooked when we talk about jail, the fact that these inmates are complicated individuals who feel the same emotions we do, who have pasts and lives and futures cut short by the walls of Litchfield. Yes, they committed crimes, but that doesn’t rob them of their stories.

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Hannibal “Primavera” Review (3×02)

11 Jun

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“I forgive you.”

Usually, friendships don’t last after you get stabbed in the gut by that supposed friend. Alas, this is Hannibal, and it comes as no surprise that the show is continuing to delve into the twisted, yet romantic, relationship between Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham, into the mutual fascination that drives much of the characterization in the series. Essentially, the episode plays out as a raging conflict within Will Graham’s mind: can he forgive Hannibal for what he did? Or, was that fateful night in “Mizumono” the dissolution of their relationship?

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Battlestar Galactica Season 3, Episodes 10-12 Review

11 Jun

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The Algae Planet Arc

EPISODES COVERED: “The Passage” (3×10), “The Eye of Jupiter” (3×11), “Rapture” (3×12)

This show is still entirely capable of crafting compelling, entertaining stories, but the foundation for those stories is oftentimes so flimsy that you can’t help but feel a bit disappointed. Take “The Passage”‘, for example, which pulls an entire backstory for Kat out of thin air–not to mention the food shortage as well–just in time for her to die of radiation poisoning. It’s a “Hero” concept all over again, and that only happened two episodes ago.

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Battlestar Galactica “Unfinished Business” Review (3×09)

10 Jun

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Extended Version

“Unfinished Business” has the appearance of a bag of jumbled ideas, but when you reach in, you somehow pull out an affecting episode with moving performances and a narrative structure that serves the bottle episode feel quite well. To be honest, the show’s been more miss than hit when it attempts to play with structure, but the way this episode handles the location shifts is more effective than we’ve seen in the past.

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Battlestar Galactica “A Measure of Salvation”/ “Hero” Review (3×07/3×08)

10 Jun

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EPISODE 7: “A Measure of Salvation”

Battlestar Galactica is once again tackling a large moral question and using it to structure an episode, and what we see in “A Measure of Salvation” is a discussion about whether or not to carry out genocide of the Cylon race, whether you’re on one side or the other of the age-old Cylons-as-machines dilemma.

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