Category Archives: TV

The Walking Dead: 3.02 – “Sick” Review

October 25, 2012 Michelle L. Mattock Leave a comment

Yes, it has been a few days since the episode “Sick” aired on AMC. You can’t blame us for the late posting! I am from Detroit, so we are very caught up in our whole being in the world series thing.

Now then… let’s get to it! This episode took me by surprise for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, there has been some character development. For one brief instance, I liked Carol’s character. I know… I was surprised too. She is always so damn useless and unimpressive. When I see her, I yawn. However, in this episode, Carol levels up. She has been trained by Hershel to assist with Lori’s medical needs when she delivers the baby, so she is helping with Hershel’s lost limb situation. She also kills a female walker to practice performing a Caesarean section when Lori goes into labor. For about one small second, Carol, I liked you.

T-Dog also got slightly more badass! Usually, T-Dog’s job is to stand around and exist. In this episode, T-Dog gets chatty when the fellas confront the other survivors. T-Dog can be quite the cool character!

Oh yes, the others! The five prisoners who survived the attack on the prison were brought out of the cafeteria, where they had been eating, sleeping, defecating and apparently working out since the walkers started appearing. The cafeteria had massive amounts of food for the group, which Rick agreed to split with the five in exchange for helping them clear out another cell block for the possibly dangerous group to stay in.

Big Tiny started off as my favorite of the new guys. Unfortunately, he couldn’t handle the reality of the situation when he got scratched by a walker. The crazy Mexican convict bashed Big Tiny’s brains in, but not just enough to kill him; the psycho obliterated him. When I saw this, I knew he was going to die, and he got taken care of after he tossed a walker at Rick.

Now we have 3 of the 5 prisoners left. The little guy with the bat runs off and is PRESUMED dead, but since when do they kill people off-screen on this show? The other 2 are moved into another cell block and told to stay out of the way.

Hershel remains alive, not a walker, although the very dimwitted Lori gave him mouth to mouth and I panicked because he looked like he might attack her. I am glad that he is alive, however if he had died I would understand. Here is what I keep thinking about… Hershel now has 1 and a half legs, a baby is about to be born, and Lori (if she survives giving birth) will be out of commission for a bit. Having a baby with no drugs or modern medicine…imagine that! I am in pain just thinking about it. Good thing Carl never stays where he’s told…

While my mind would be full of how to survive, Lori’s is full of her need for Rick to talk to her about their relationship. Boring! My thoughts: She should wait it out! He doesn’t necessarily have any other options, I mean, the world is full of the undead and a possible few stragglers. He will stop thinking with his brain one day, and start thinking with his genitalia. And we all know she’s good for that! *wink*

This week was very exciting, however I feel like the prisoners were taken care of very quickly. The Hispanic guy could have been a great villain! I liked the character development, even if it was subtle.

4/5 Grizzlies

Arrow: John Barrowman and the Huntress?

October 24, 2012 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

Click here for a brief/not so brief recap of the first two episodes of the CW’s new show, Arrow.

So, what’s in Arrow’s future? Well first off, thankfully there is a longer future as the CW, wisely, just gave Arrow a full season order. As is common, they’d initially gotten a 13 episode order, but now it’s for a full 22. The pilot had 4.14 million watching making it the most watched since The Vampire Diaries. Not only that but the second episode brought in 3.5 million- not too shabby. If numbers continue even close to these, I don’t think anyone will be surprised if they announce they are renewing it for a second season here in a couple of months.

Continue reading Arrow: John Barrowman and the Huntress? →

CW’s ‘Arrow’ – 2 Episode Review: “Pilot & Honor Thy Father”

October 24, 2012 Amanda Broyles 1 Comment

Ever since Smallville went off the air, I haven’t turned on the CW at all. I’ve watched Supernatural, but that’s all been off of Netflix and up until this summer I was pretty certain I wouldn’t watch CW again. For the most part I’m just not a fan of their shows. Well, with the new show Arrow, that has all changed.

It was actually because of Smallville that I tuned into Arrow in the first place. Way back in season 8 they introduced Justin Hartley as the Green Arrow with this (you’ll have to click on it because there was no embedding, sorry). Now, I’m a DC girl and have been a Green Arrow fan for quite some time and I remember thinking when I saw that episode, “hmmmm, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone play the Green Arrow before.” For good reason, you see, Justin Hartley was actually the first ever live action Green Arrow and Stephen Amell is now the second. Not a bad little brotherhood to be in.

Actually brotherhood might be stretching it a little, they are more like cousins. Very close cousins, sure, but cousins all the same.

The pilot (I’m going to say pilot here but it’s more likely that because I’m going to quickly discuss both episodes, they are just going to go back and forth) starts off with a hooded man, who could either be homeless or a castaway. We learn quickly that he is of the castaway variety and he’s been lost on this island for five years. That lines up all right with Green Arrow canon but then Oliver Queen heads home to Star City, I’m sorry, to Starling City and meets up with his mom (what?), Moira Queen (played by the incredible Susanna Thompson, (Queen Rose it is so nice to have you back on my TV) and his sister (double what??), Thea (Willa Holland). Oh, and his best friend is Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell). Yes, I said his best friend. Surely they will have Tommy become Merlyn before too long, right?

As if all that wasn’t enough, Oliver has an ex-fiance named Laurel (CW go-to-girl Katie Cassidy) who Oliver was cheating on with her sister (Dinah, I mean Laurel, has a sister?) who accompanied Oliver and his father Robert (Jamey Sheridan) on the yacht trip that ended up being the last trip she and Robert ever took and the one that landed Oliver on the island.

Oh and biggest “did you just see that?” moment for me was right here:

Was Deathstroke on the island? What happened to him? Surely Arrow didn’t kill him? Right? Especially since pictures have been released of him from a future episode, but were they flashbacks? So many questions that I would like answers to!

So yes, there is a lot involved right off the bat that doesn’t stick to the traditional Green Arrow story but luckily Arrow still works. After we’ve met everyone, including Oliver’s new bodyguard John Diggle (David Ramsey) and the lawman, Detective Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne, a man I would watch do anything) the pilot goes into setting up Oliver as Arrow. While catching up with his old friend Tommy, they are both attacked and drugged by masked men. They then interrogate Oliver over what his father told him. Thing is, Daddy dearest sort of offed himself in the life raft before he could tell his boy anything beyond “I failed our city and I was not the only one.”

And there, friends and neighbors, is Arrow’s motivation. He is going to return to Starling City with a book his father had in his pants (that Oliver fished out after his father had been dead for an amount of time that seems to be between rigor mortis ending and decomp fully setting in, which is nasty) and now has a list of those people who Oliver’s father feels was part of the ruining of his hometown.

He sets himself up a pretty nice “Arrow Cave” in an abandoned factory his father used to own. I’m not going to lie, there are some definite upsides to this show and they don’t have a lot to do with the plot.

Laurel is a lawyer who works at the nicest legal aid office in the entire universe. With the prettiest people. In the pilot she is suing Adam Hunt, coincidentally, a man listed on Oliver’s list. Arrow goes into what I like to call “Christopher Nolan’s image of Batman” mode and voila, all of Laurel’s clients have a shit ton of money thanks to one of Arrow’s “trick” arrows, this one apparently can do something with computers. In the second episode we got to see China White, the first of what appears to be many planned DC villains scheduled (last I saw so far they have Deathstroke, Deadshot, The Huntress [more of a hero], and the Royal Flush Gang) to appear on the show.

We did find out why they chose to have Oliver’s mom be alive, as she apparently is either a baddie herself or is closely related to the mystery baddie. Oooohhhhh, intrigue!

The first two episodes were great, but left a lot of questions unanswered. Biggest one; where’s Roy Harper? In the pilot, Oliver calls his sister Speedy very quickly in passing. Surely they aren’t ditching Roy Harper and having Thea be Speedy, right? On one hand I’m sort of okay with it, I like watching sibling relationships but at the same time, I like Roy Harper and would like to see him on the show.

And how does John Diggle factor into all of this? He already suspects that Oliver isn’t the asshole party boy that he’s pretending to be. So how long until Oliver lets him in on the act? Speaking of, why is Laurel pretending to be this damsel in distress? Hello woman, you are supposed to be the Black Canary, so get your shit together and find some black spandex pronto.

Another question. How on earth did Oliver become this martial arts master who can shoot a bow and arrow with the best of them all whilst being stranded alone on a supposedly deserted island? Oh, and where did he learn to speak Russian and Mandarin? Was there a copy of the Rosetta Stone left there by a previous castaway?

That question might have been answered at the end of the second episode with the appearance of a man in a green hood, who has incredible aim with a bow and arrow. Is this who taught Oliver the skills he would later use to clean up Starling City? Time (and perhaps the next few episodes) will only tell.

One last one, then I’ll move on. Ummm… what exactly is this substance Oliver is smearing on his face in lieu of a mask? It obviously isn’t something that permanent as he was able to remove it rather quickly to get back to the party. Inquiring minds want to know.

If I was forced to pick one thing that annoyed me about the show so far, it would be it’s at times blatant rip off of Batman Begins. I get that they are trying to go for that darker feel to the show but swinging the bad guy from the rafters? Having Laurel be an almost carbon copy of Rachel Dawes? I really hope they put an end to that and find their own voice. Otherwise all you’ll hear about is people comparing it to the movie, which would be disappointing.

So there’s the first two episodes in a nutshell. Join me in tuning into the CW on Wednesday nights at 8 eastern and then we’ll meet up back here and discuss.

Let’s just say, we better be discussing this guy turning bad here pretty soon or I’m going to be miffed.

Boardwalk Empire: 3.06 – “Ging Gang Goolie”

October 23, 2012 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

So last week was quite the action packed episode. More so the last fiveish minutes. We were reminded that there was a political struggle going on still with the Senate hearing thing. Margaret is about fresh out of patience with Nucky. The same Nucky who is bound and determined to be Billie Kent’s savior even though she neither needs, nor wants one. Rothstein is not a man to be messed with, at all. And Gyp’s a freak; a freak who apparently has nine lives.

This week? Ugh, where to begin.

Oh how about with thepoint in the show I nearly threw something at my TV? Seriously Gillian? What the hell is wrong with you? I mean, really? REALLY?

Run Roger McAllister of Evansville, Indiana… RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!

Read my lips woman: You. Need. Psychiatric. Help. There’s really no other words for this crap. Just blech. Dear writers, I implore you, find a way to kill her off. Please. I’ll be your best friend.

I’m sort of torn on the political/legal stuff. On one hand, it’s entertaining in a “you have to keep up with the story” kind of way. But on the other hand, I’ve watched this show from the beginning and am a rather intelligent being, but damn if I can’t keep everyone straight there. Who is paying who? Who is double crossing who? Answer: Means is double crossing Remus. Actually, Means is double crossing anyone if given the right amount of money. What a guy.

I stick with it because even though I can’t remember where they are, time wise, right now, I’m fairly certain President Harding is going to leave on his cross country trip and subsequently die here soon. Not going to lie, I’m really looking forward to seeing if the writers have Harding die of a heart attack or if they are going to go into the conspiracy theory side of things.

Best part of all is Nucky’s run in with the law (thank you Harry Daugherty) when he went to pay his $5 fee. Of course, he doesn’t have anything less than a hundred! Who do these people think he is? Some schlub making five cases of whiskey in his basement? Come on now, let’s not be foolish.

I take it back, while the $5 thing was amusing, best part of all that was that Esther Randolph has returned! A little sad given that she’s now stuck in night court after completely shitting the bed on the Nucky thing. But hey, what’s this? Nucky wants to join forces with Ms. Randolph, Esq.? Nothing bad could come of this. I’m pretty sure of it.

Teddy Thompson. I’m calling it now, this kid is going to grow up and become a serial killer. Just a feeling I have. He carries around kerosene and matches, he fakes having polio when he knows his mom is freaking out about it due to his sister lying in the hospital stricken with polio. He sleeps with a knife under his pillow. Teddy is one dead cat away from appearing on an episode of Criminal Minds.

If I had the time, I’d go back and watch every episode to see how many times Margaret answered the phone and got good news. Homegirl (I apologize) needs to stop answering the phone. This week’s phone call involved the four words no one ever wants to hear; “We need to talk”.

What were you wanting to talk about Margaret?

This?

Or maybe this?

Ah, screw all that. I’m sure you just wanted to talk about these guys who, trivia moment, were like the Beanie Babies of their time. I hope I live long enough to see a high school with a Beanie Baby mascot.

So Margaret knows about “we need to talk” but apparently she’s not familiar with “people with bad marriages to a bootlegging gangster probably shouldn’t go about schtupping the previously mentioned gangster’s right hand man in the greenhouse with it’s glass walls”. Just a thought.

For me, the entire episode might as well have consisted of horses dancing to Lady Gaga because it was nothing compared to the return of Richard Harrow!

Awww, young(er) Richard had a puppy. I just want to hug and him kiss and snuggle with his beautiful face. I’m talking about the dog.

Richard was the best part of the night for many reasons. One; he’s been missing for a disturbingly long time. Two; he’s just fabulous. Three- he might have gone and gotten himself a girl. How cute is he?

This could be the perfect start to a relationship. You don’t have to worry about meeting her dad because you already helped his drunken ass out of a bar after he got the crap beat out of him in a brawl. Poets write of things like this.

I’m hoping Julia Sagorski sticks around because she busted out one of my favorite idioms, “don’t take any wooden nickels“, which is basically a cool way of saying “hey, be careful”.

Given how slow and boring and bad this episode was, I’m hoping it’s just setting up for some more entertaining ones down the pike. There was no Chicago, no New York (not really, Lucky trying to peddle dope in Gillian’s whorehouse doesn’t count), and no Chalky White. If there hadn’t been the significant showing of Richard Harrow, this episode would have been ranked closer to two bears rather than the three and a half I’m going with.

I’ll leave you with this. There is no way on earth this was not intentional. No way at all.

On to next week!

Cinemax Pilot Review: Hunted

October 22, 2012 Chris Tansuche Leave a comment

Cinemax has been re-branding themselves as a network with an edge. It’s like the Spike TV of the premium channels now in case you need action, babes, and more action. They have partnered with the BBC in order to deliver a brand new series to the screen called Hunted starring Melissa George of In Treatment and 30 Days of Night fame. It has international locations, action, conspiracy, suspense and sexiness in the form of its lead actress. Cinemax has been targeting the demographic of those intrigued with beautiful scenery and people blowing some crap up in the same vein of another action series on air, Strike Back, so they decided to pursue this new angle. They succeed in establishing this world of backstabbing and the private sector of espionage in the pilot, even if it feels inconsistent with the pacing. However, the appeal of Melissa George and her team behind her spy kept me anxious to see what will happen next.

Hunted comes from the mind of Frank Spotnitz, who was a writer and producer of the cult hit X-Files. Melissa George plays Sam Hunter, a spy who works for a private security team where morals can also be for hire. She’s excellent at what she does and approaches her job with a vigor and efficiency reserved for the James Bonds and Jack Bauers of the world. However, after a recent job, she was ambushed, shot in the stomach and left for dead. This turns out to be tragic news as she was pregnant at the time. We pick her up a year later, conditioning and training herself physically and mentally to return to her former job. We get flashbacks showing previous trauma from her childhood in bits and pieces and how it may affect her own journey back from the dead. Once she feels back up to the task, she makes her way back to Byzantium, her old agency. However, she does so with the knowledge of weeding out the only people who knew where she could have been ambushed. She has been keeping tabs on them this whole time, looking for revenge for her loss and fall from grace in hopes of finding the truth. She has her eye on everyone and obviously monitoring the movements and possible alternative motives of those that work in a spy agency is an arduous task.

Other people at Byzantium include her behind closed doors boss, Rupert Keel (Stephen Dillane, lately of Game of Thrones), who is suspicious of a mole in his agency coincidentally when she resurfaces. Deacon Crane, (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje of Oz and Lost fame) is her field agent boss who also expresses doubts about her return to work but they both receive an important assignment and need her help. Her co-workers are also shocked in her return to action, most especially Aidan Marsh (Adam Rayner), who was her boyfriend at the time of her (and his child’s) ambush. However, this assignment takes precedence as she must infiltrate a powerful family headed by Jack Turner (Patrick Malahide), who has a paranoid nature to any outside party and obviously is a threat to the client who hired Byzantium to find out what he is up to. It’s up to Sam to get back in the saddle and get down to business, while also keeping an eye on her own back as her support team could contain the person who wanted to remove her from the picture only a year earlier.

There are a lot of things to explain in the pilot and obviously there must be a lot of exposition in trying to set up Sam’s identity and inner focus on why she does what she does. Sometimes this tends to keep things at a slow pace because you are being fed so much information that it can become overwhelming and stops the pace so the audience can catch up. Hopefully the next episodes can establish a quicker jump into the story because there is a lot intrigue to be had in the story. Spy stories can be tricky in where it might be difficult to root for one party over another because of the moral ambiguity that comes with the job but Spotnitz, who wrote the pilot, does a good job in letting everyone chime in without alienating the audience from the star and still not beat us over the head with her inner turmoil. With his expertise in conspiracies and who-should-you-trust back and forths, Spotnitz is great in making sure everyone looks like a friend and enemy at the same time.

The cast also comes through in a big way. George is terrific (I honestly thought the Australian actress was American until I looked her profile up on IMDB for this review) and provides depth to a character that is shrouded in so much secrecy, another actress might have come off as vacant in her blank stares. However, George can flip the switch on being cold and calculated, to elated and happy, to full of vengeance, all in one episode. I’m excited to see what she does with her work on here as she plays femme fatale and wounded extremely well. I look forward to see where her Kill Bill-esque journey goes. The supporting cast is good with Dillane and Akinnuoye-Agbaje standing out in their roles as the brains and technical expertise of their business. Playing a spy can be difficult because they must be able to play around emotions that can be taken in several different ways in order to mask the real person inside and this cast leads the way in letting us in, while leaving enough gray area to keep us guessing who has secondary intentions. Also props for them finding the awesomely named Blank-Faced Man (Scott Handy) because his creepiness and accuracy with a needle in his hand will be the talking point of this episode.

The photography of the pilot is great as it takes us to Tangier, the English countryside, and London and captures the international intrigue of a spy movie, most notably the Bourne movies. There always is a purpose with each shot in establishing action and letting the imagery become another character to enhance the mood and sell the story. The action choreography is decent, even though with the Bourne series being an inspiration, it suffers from shaky cam action way too much as feels disjointed to where the action comes off as unwatchable at times because it cuts away after every move in order to disorient the audience, only in a way not intended. As I said before, I look forward to see how they use the actors and environments and how they blend into these spy games.

This series has the potential to be good and as long as they do not linger and keep the pacing sharp, this could be a hit for Cinemax. Keep an eye on Melissa George and the cast because they sell the pilot and series. I look forward to see where they take this story and build on the momentum of the pilot. Keep the intrigue up and the action fast and you got yourselves a new action, thriller series the fall has been lacking on television.

SNL: 38.5 – Bruno Mars

October 21, 2012 Amanda Broyles 1 Comment

I enjoyed last week so much that when I saw it was Bruno Mars hosting this week I feared he would be the valley to Christina Applegate’s peak. I don’t know if it’s just due to the polyurethane fumes I’ve been huffing all week (I’m painting/sealing things, I don’t have a drug problem) but I was pleasantly surprised.

But screw Bruno Mars because this happened!

Aidy Bryant finally had more than one line! Then one of her lines was the “LIVE” announcement and I was just so excited! And then we didn’t hardly see her or frankly hardly any of the women folk of the cast but hey, it’s the little things in life.

The cold open was the most recent presidential debate and it was fabulous. The mic drop was definitely the highlight. I’ll admit that I actually never watch the real debates so in my world, this really could have happened. I usually prefer things in my world so that’s what I’m going with.

Of course it is always fun when some of the best SNL hosts make a random appearance, this week it was Tom Hanks, sporting his mustache for Saving Mr. Banks, a movie I am big time looking forward to.

Shock of the night was when Bruno Mars sang his opening monologue. Yea, I know, I was just as stunned as everyone else. I did like how he mentioned Justin Timberlake. I can’t imagine a double duty host that doesn’t immediately think of Justin Timberlake and their disappointment that they won’t be as good as him. I’m just waiting for the day that Timberlake announces that he has decided to abandon his movie career and become a full-time SNL cast member. That would be a nice day.

If you haven’t seen the Brad Pitt Chanel commercial, here you go.

Now you realize that Taran Killam’s recurring bit all night with the random Brad Pitt commercials was not that far off the mark. I mean seriously, that had to be filmed and edited and then someone had to see it and still give it the go ahead. I’m thinking there are a lot of drugs being used over in the Chanel advertising camp these days. If your perfume commercial stands out as particularly odd in a world of already extremely random and nonsensical perfume commercials, then congratulations, you have a non-winner.

Let’s not kid ourselves though- those Doritos tacos are rather good.

Haters with Sunny Taylor Tomkins featuring Bobby Moynihan’s legs was up next and I was forced to admit that perhaps Bruno Mars actually could make it through the show. The sketch itself was completely pointless but hey, they can’t all be high concept. It was fun for fun’s sake and spawned what might be new go to catchphrase. I like to switch them out every once in a while, keeps things fresh.

You know I’m just gonna say it- Bruno Mars doesn’t make an ugly lady/teenage girl. I wouldn’t go so far as to say he makes an attractive young woman but not ugly. Bravo sir, bravo.

Next was Pandora Intern and while it appears the rest of the internet loved this sketch, I thought it was a bit meh. Best parts for me was when Bruno Mars grabbed Jason Sudeikis’ hand to do the Michael Jackson lean and of course all three guys just happened to have a Michael Jackson glove on them.

The most the Pandora sketch accomplished was get this song stuck in my yet again. Love George Watsky but damn it this song drives me nuts when it’s stuck on a loop in my brain.

The prerecorded Sad Mouse was probably my favorite of the night. It was funny in that really sad kind of way. I did laugh at the sign behind Jason Sudeikis that read “Don’t get arrested, we won’t bail you out!” For the briefest moments of time I got a job wearing a Statue of Liberty outfit for a tax preparer’s office and they tell you that if you do something to get in trouble, you are on your own.

Thanks to my time in the Statue of Liberty outfit, I always wave to sign spinners, and mascots, and people in sandwich boards, and people in costumes. I would have surely waved to the Sad Mouse.

Hey surprise – Bruno Mars was the musical guest!

Weekend Update featured perhaps one of the best recurring characters in recent memory. It was none other than Stefon. The best part of Stefon is apparently they do not let him see the script until he sees it on the teleprompters which explains his reaction that often ends up in him breaking. This week was no different. To his defense though, I think a lot of people would have a hard time not laughing at the Jewish Dracula named Sidney Applebaum. I mean come on. And Slimer? Too funny.

We went from the hilarious Stefon to the sometimes laborious Maryville Brothers. Best part was when Tom Hanks with his Walt Disney mustache attempts to robot grope Vanessa McBrayer (after starting off the season in almost every sketch she has been persona non grata these last two weeks).

The Wilderness Lodge was just weird. That’s about all I can say. There’s just something about an ass raping Yeti that makes me not want to like a sketch, not sure what. As for the Under Underground Records “Donkey Punch the Ballot” well Ass Dan is back and then dead again and seriously that is all SNL is going to do with the comedy gold that is “Binders full of Women”? Come on, I expected a lot more than that. Of course as a former debate nerd I did get a hearty laugh out of the debate between Linkin Park and Buster Douglas. Heh, that’s good.

Overall, much better than I had expected. It certainly could have been better but hey, you can’t win ’em all.

Next week is a repeat of the premiere but then on November 3rd, get excited folks because holy crap funny man himself, Louie C.K. is hosting and I’m really hoping that means an appearance by Amy Poehler. Not gonna lie, that would make my day/week. Fun is entertaining as well so here’s hoping for an all around good episode.

Until next time!

Grizzly Bomb