Archive | August, 2015

Battlestar Galactica Season 4, Episodes 10-12 Review

18 Aug

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EPISODE 10: “Revelations”

This show is incredibly good at standoffs, but it falters a bit when it comes to payoffs. After all, as great of a series as this is, it’s been in a holding pattern for a while now, unable to fully allow real shit to go down because there were always more episodes to make. Now that we’re moving into the final 10 episodes of the final season, however, it makes room for a status quo shakeup, for a cliffhanger that feels less like a cheap “Watch the next episode!” plea and more like an intriguing “What happens next?” question.

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Show Me a Hero “Parts 1 & 2” Review

16 Aug

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“I’m just tired.”

The topic is certainly not what you’d think of as “conventional television”, but the show’s underlying themes are still very much playing out in today’s society. This is a miniseries rooted in our nation’s history, a slow burn exploration of the broken political systems running our cities into the ground. It’s a meditation on fear and greed and class and corruption, and although these first two hours are weakened by the initially disparate natures of many of the storylines, they will inevitably come together to (hopefully) deliver something challenging, moving, and necessary.

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Hannibal “…And the Beast from the Sea” Review (3×11)

15 Aug

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“Save yourself. Kill them all.”

“…And the Beast from the Sea” revolves around fear, around that all-encompassing, claustrophobic emotion that breeds resentment and separation and a desire for change. Hannibal Lecter is a master manipulator of those emotions, a constant voice in Dolarhyde’s mind advising and controlling him: “Don’t let fear leech your strength.” His Devil status is represented in this episode when we see his face above Dolarhyde’s shoulder, and we see him as both conscience and temptation, concerned human and callous monster. Hannibal’s playing off of Dolarhyde’s fear about “[giving Reba] the dragon”, and after he tells him that he “can always toss the dragon to someone else”, he sits back and watches his design unfold before him. And later on, whatever care he may actually exhibit toward Dolarhyde–with his “sympathetic ear”–is a two-pronged attack: in the ultimate dick move, he drops a “They’re listening” as Jack and Alana are listening, and it’s a moment that solidifies my love for how big of an asshole Hannibal is.

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Battlestar Galactica Season 4, Episodes 7-9 Review

15 Aug

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EPISODE 7: “GUESS WHAT’S COMING TO DINNER?”

The series as a whole constantly deals with the question of whether or not the Cylons should be considered humans, but “Guess What’s Coming to Dinner?” narrows the focus to the concept of mortality. “For our existence to hold any value, it must end,” Natalie tells the Quorum. “To live meaningful lives, we must die and not return. Mortality is the one thing that makes you whole.” The Resurrection Ship is a big factor when it comes to the Cylon identity debate, so it’s interesting to see these Cylons delve into the idea of mortality. Of course, even though Natalie reaches out and gives this speech, it doesn’t mean she’s free from the ongoing struggle between human and Cylon. Eventually, she gets several bullets right in the chest, and the irony is thick as we see the life rapidly draining from her body.

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Rectify “The Source” Review (3×06)

14 Aug

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“I want to give it my best shot. It’s all I can do, right?”

It’s oftentimes difficult to accept a situation that’s less than ideal. When things don’t work out in life the way you’d envisioned, it’s completely normal to feel some bitterness, some resentment, some disappointment. It’s understandable why you might become stuck in the past, trying to make broken relationships work and trying to fix a kitchen that also happen to be a really big symbol for your life. It is in that broken pile of hopes and dreams that Rectify extracts the true beauty in life’s smallest, yet most precious, moments. It is there that we find the essence of this wonderful show.

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Mr. Robot “eps1.7_wh1ter0se.m4v” Review (1×08)

12 Aug

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“Do I even exist?”

The “Who is Mr. Robot?” question has lingered over the show since the very first episode, constantly toying with our minds and making its way into myriad interactions. And that’s a lot of what the show is about: the human mind itself and how it functions, how it forgets, how it distracts, how it frightens. In this episode, there are several huge bombshells dropped about Elliot Alderson’s mind, and we gain more insight into a pained, yet fascinating, character as a result. It’s the most intriguing and well-crafted hour of the series thus far, and it kicks things into high gear before the final two episodes of season one.

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Battlestar Galactica Season 4, Episodes 4-6 Review

12 Aug

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EPISODE 4: ESCAPE VELOCITY

Let’s get this out of the way right now: “No, we are not going to talk about the fragile body of Gaius frakking Baltar!” is the funniest line ever uttered in this show. It singlehandedly makes a repetitive and dull storyline fairly tolerable, and it is perfectly played by Michael Hogan. I say repetitive and dull because it’s the show trying to turn a bunch of high concept visuals into a compelling story, when it would do well by simply focusing on the character aspect of the story. That’s why the Tyrol storyline is more compelling here. The ideas of guilt, the past, and identity all intersect in a fantastic scene between Tyrol and Adama at the bar, and Aaron Douglas does a great job of conveying the conflict brewing in his mind.

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True Detective “Omega Station” Review (2×08)

9 Aug

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“We deserve a better world.”

Season two of True Detective seems to counter season one’s final line: “If you ask me, the light’s winning.” Yes, the story’s being told, Paul gets his own highway, and a new child is born, but there’s a cloud of darkness still hanging over these characters’ corrupt world. The cycle’s just going to continue in this city, beating people down into the dirt as others jostle for position in the ladder of society, and what this finale wants to make clear is that people who deserve a better world may not necessarily get one. What matters is how you deal with what’s placed in front of you, how you stay true to yourself and what you care about, how you can possibly avoid getting caught up in the wave of darkness.

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Hannibal “And the Woman Clothed in Sun” Review (3×10)

8 Aug

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“Extreme acts of cruelty require a high level of empathy. The next time you have an instinct to help someone, you might consider crushing them instead.”

“And the Woman Clothed in the Sun” takes a look at the mind of the individual and at the ways our subjective experiences inform our actions and perspectives, our empathy or compassion or lack of either. During a lecture at the beginning of the hour, Bedelia says the following: “What we take for granted about our sense of self–everything we see, everything we remember–is nothing more than a construct of the mind.” This construct idea is something we’ve seen play out with Will and Hannibal before, and we continue to see it develop throughout this episode with Bedelia. During her talks with Will, we hear a back and forth, a push and pull; for example, whenever Will poses an idea, it’s met with a lob straight back at him, a differing perspective on the same thought. Very little in this Hannibal world seems concrete because so much of it exists in the perpetually changing mind, a location where there exists “the alchemy of lies and truths”.

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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart “Series Finale” Review

7 Aug

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“Rather than saying goodbye or goodnight, I’m just going to say: I’m going to go get a drink. And I’m sure I’ll see you guys before I leave.”

Jon Stewart signed off on the night of the first GOP primary debate, an event filled to the brim with the “bullshit” he went on about near the end of his show (he was channeling George Carlin there). And that, to me, was one of the main draws of The Daily Show: its ability to intelligently evaluate and criticize the bullshit in our society, to trust its audience to recognize it when it popped up around us. Stewart was there for 16 years to point a lot of it out, but as he made clear last night, it was all just a part of an ongoing conversation. He’ll move on and we’ll move on, but informative discourse in our country will–and must–go on. He’s like a teacher and a friend and a parent saying “Go free, children. Be careful.”

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