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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Rectify “The Future” Review (3×05)

7 Aug

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“What’s there to miss?”

“The future.”

Since the beginning of the series, these characters have been in a bit of a standstill, caught in the shadow of the past and uncertain about what the future holds. At the same time, though, the rest of the world hasn’t slowed down along with them, and as stated in this episode, “time gets away from you as you get older.” There’s a palpable sense of frustration throughout the show, frustration that years and years have been spent to try to resolve a case, disappointment that certain things haven’t been experienced and accomplished and tried. And yet, even amidst the dark times, this show can also be one of the most optimistic on television (as I’ve said many times before).

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Mr. Robot “eps1.6_v1ew-s0urce.flv” Review (1×07)

5 Aug

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“Find someone to be your honest self with. Bullshit.”

There’s no doubt that we hide a lot from the outside world, that we close ourselves off to an extent in hopes of presenting a likable front to the people around us. This hour is an examination of those hidden secrets, those private moments that we hope others will never find, and it’s all represented physically by the imagined signs the AllSafe employees are wearing (certainly another interesting visual for a series that never seems to run out of them). What I’d also like to point out, though, is the following question posed by Elliot: “Would people really want to see?” It might be interesting for a bit to know everyone’s deepest secrets, but this is far from the stuff that gossipers like to waste their time talking about. This is humanity, and it can be ugly.

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True Detective “Black Maps and Motel Rooms” Review (2×07)

2 Aug

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“Black Maps and Motel Rooms” is the most riveting hour of the season so far, one that snaps into focus exactly why we were taken through certain stories over the past six episodes. It doesn’t quite forgive all of the pacing problems of the season, but it certainly ramps things up all on its own, setting up what will hopefully be a fantastic season finale next week. There are still quite a few things to wrap up plot-wise, but at this point in the story, the characters are at their most interesting because they’re at their most desperate, their most cornered. They’re at a fork in the road, and they have to decide whether to “follow the rules” or to attempt to get out. “Don’t fight what you can’t change” and “stick to what you know” might be easy statements to buy into, but maybe they were put onto Earth for something more than that. Maybe, in perhaps the bleakest hour of the season so far, we can also find the most understanding of who these people are, of who they were meant to be.

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Battlestar Galactica Season 4, Episodes 1-3 Review

2 Aug

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EPISODE 1: “HE THAT BELIEVETH IN ME”

“If my brother had climbed out of that cockpit, would it matter if he were a Cylon…if he always had been? When all is said and done, would that really change how we feel about him?”

With the reveal of the Final Five, the ideas of loyalty and identity become even more muddled. The series has tackled myriad questions about humanity in relation to the Cylons, but now, it’s clear that those questions are going to get even tougher; now, even a Cylon hater like Colonel Tigh is going to have to grapple with his own self-concept, and he’s intending to fight against himself at any cost. And of course, everyone’s wondering whether Starbuck’s a Cylon or not, and the reintroduction of her character is extremely well done in this episode. It begins with a stunning and marvelously crafted opening sequence, and it ends with a tense standoff between her and Roslin (followed by a stupid “To be continued”, as is the show’s staple).

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Hannibal “And the Woman Clothed with the Sun…” Review (3×09)

1 Aug

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“Like you, Will, he needs a family to escape what’s inside of him.” 

These Hannibal families are far from your conventional television families, but what this episode wants to make clear is that these are still relationships built on love and need and connection. Whether we’re talking about Will-Molly or Hannibal-Abigail or Margot-Alana or Will-Hannibal or even Dolarhyde-Reba, the one constant always seems to be the need for some type of family, some type of connection. And as Hannibal mentions to Abigail: “Every family loves differently. Every love is unique.” Even if your form of love consists of some nice throat-slashing and stabbing and murderous intent, there’s still familial instinct to be found beneath the blood.

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