And were back!!! Season 3! For those of you living under a rock, The League is a weekly, 30 minute comedy on FX that follows 5 friends try to balance their personal and professional lives with their love, I mean obsession – fantasy football. Each season we follow the guys weekly on their quest to make it to, and win their fantasy football league championship game, the Shiva Bowl.
Continue reading The League: Season 3 Premiere Bitches – “The Lockout” Review
What. The. Shit.
Those three words could pretty much define this pilot episode. There has been a lot of build up for American Horror Story whether through our site or the other entertainment sites. Whether it be from the co-creators of Glee, Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy, that it has awesome Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton in it, or that the pilot was supposed to be one of the most creepy and well made in recent years. So with October in full swing, it is time to see how this series will stack up and live up to the height. After viewing the pilot, so far so good. Obviously do not proceed if you do not want spoilers. I will not give away too much but still, this is a review after all.
The pilot begins with a flashback to 1978 as we look to see a girl with down syndrome standing in front a house staring at it as two red-headed jackass twins come in with evil intentions of redecorating the interior with baseball bats. Naturally, the girl tells them they are going to die in there but details. Let’s just say that the boys get their comeuppance. Let us also note that the tone of this is pitch perfect. The way the sound and music plays into setting scenes and how the camera almost stalks its way towards the people really has this creepy vibe that adds to the atmosphere. You never feel comfortable viewing this but that’s what makes this pilot as a whole great. You are always on edge because this is not a cookie cutter pilot. There is no predictability and it definitely will suck you in.
Moving on, we advance to the present time where Connie Britton is treated at a doctor’s office months after a traumatic miscarriage only to come home to find her husband Dylan McDermott “burying his sorrows” into some other girl. Afterwards, we see the somewhat jaded couple take themselves and their daughter to Los Angeles in search of a new life.
We see the troubles still remain in all them as the episode moves on. Daughter does not fit in and is a cutter, husband is still pretty selfish oblivious to everyone else’s thoughts and ideas, and the wife is still broken.
Oh by the way, that house in ’78? That’s their new home. That creepy girl? Yeah, she just told Coach’s wife (I still have to get used to not calling her that) that she’s going to die. Also, Jessica Lange is a bitch.
Speaking of great actresses, what a great cast. You have Jessica Lange coming in giving off the right kind of kooky neighbor with a bit of unforgiving bitch slapped on for good measure. The supporting characters are great as well and the family shines as they each convey their demons with enough subtlety to where it does not feel overdramatic yet enough to show that the horror is truly what they are going through internally and obviously externally.
Throw in a creepy maid, burn victims, school bullies and one messed up kid patient and I think this will be a good show to watch. I do question how long this will all last because let’s face it, most horror movies over 90 minutes tend to wear out its welcome. FX is the perfect network for this show however because they are able to push the boundaries further than what the traditional networks can do. The writing is sharp and the pacing, while a big off-kilter, works brilliantly.
I am curious where they take this and with that, I will go 4 grizzlies out of 5. I saw way too much of McDermott’s ass to give it a perfect score.
This week we focus on the worst of this season’s storylines – Juice being half-black. Is this really an issue? I understand that it might not be openly endorsed by the club, but it’s not like Happy or the members of the Tuscon charter are white as rice or anything. They’ve worked with Black and Mexican gangs, I can’t see the Sheriff outing him as being worse than stealing drugs from the cartel. Oh, by the way, Juice steals a brick. Hence the title.
Continue reading Sons of Anarchy: Season 4, Episode 5 – ‘Brick’ Review
Sunday night we saw the 2nd to last episode of the season, and despite the ending, it was still the calm before the storm, and overall, not a great episode. As we start we see the fallout of Walt’s actions last week. The DEA has been warned of a threat on Hank’s life and the whole family is being put into protective custody. The whole family minus Walt, who is holed up in his house with a gun waiting to be executed.
While in protective custody, Hank convincing Gomey to take a look at the laundry, to which Steve begrudgingly agrees. While there Gomez has no idea that Pinkman is right below him cooking meth. Gus’ laundry disguise for the meth lab worked perfectly despite Hank’s insistence – they found nothing.
The biggest development however is the way in which Gus decides to deal with Walt. Since Jessie won’t ok the hit, Gus has to figure a way to change Jessie’s mind. One method is to make Jessie think it’s his own idea, which is why Brock suddenly gets sick. It becomes apparent pretty quickly that Brock has been poisoned with RICIN!!! DUN DUH!!!
Pinkman freaks out, and think back to his earlier conversation with Saul, deduces (incorrectly) that Walt is responsible. This is the desired effect Gus was shooting for and Jessie heads over to Walt’s. Once there he easily obtains Walt’s gun and confronts him for (not actually) poisoning Brock.
Once Jessie calms down, Walt is able to convince him Gus must be responsible for the ricin, and they plot to finally handle Gus once and for all. So the plan is that Jessie will skip the cook and wait at the hospital, luring Gus there. This works perfectly. While Gus is inside, Walt wires Gus’ dorkmobile to explode. Problem is, Gus, as usual, is a few steps ahead of the game, and does not re-enter his car.
So Gus’ apparent 6th sense has saved his live. This is how the episode ends, with Walt utterly defeated again. Like I said, I didn’t think the was a great episode, but that is in no way an indication that I thought it sucked, it’s just simply further setup for this upcoming Sunday night. I’d say 3/5.
As for what’s in store this week, I think Hank is gonna get to play hero again. I was kind of hoping Gus would just kill Walt’s whole family and then we could see Walt explode and rampage his way through the organization. Also, I’ll be curious to see what kind of role, if any, Mike plays in the finale…
“I don’t want hamburgers coming out of MY butt!”
This episode was absolutely fantastic and hilarious. They addressed the big events of the previous episode, which I like. I am used to The Simpsons starting over every episode.
I am extraordinarily excited about the fact that they made fun of the word “Aspergers“. I have thought about that every time I heard it. Although it is nothing to make fun of… it really is.
In this episode, Stan is diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, as he continues seeing everything as shit. Stan goes to a group for Asperger’s patients, which is actually a group for cynics. They claim that everything really IS shit, and aliens are sending out brain waves to humans so that they think that everything is normal, ala They Live. During all of this, Cartman discovers that by putting hamburgers in his ass, he can make them irresistibly delicious, and starts a hamburger business.
The group of cynics gives Stan a glass of Jameson, and Stan sees the world as normal, and once again, thinks Adam Sandler is funny. (For the record, I love Adam Sandler.)
Continue reading South Park: Season 15, Episode 8 “Ass Burgers” Review
Arrested Development is an anomaly of sorts. I’ve never seen a show talked about so little while it was on, and then so much after it was canceled. Simply put – the show was great, and like so many great shows, it garnered no widespread appreciation until it was gone. Despite letter writing and widespread begging by the small, but loyal fan base, FOX canceled the show midway through its 3rd season.
Continue reading ‘Arrested Development’ and It’s Much Deserved Return
Grizzly Bomb 