What's Happening On Television These Days? (Part 1)

Tweet It has been a really long time since I've done a serious 'entertainment' post. On a blog that prides itself on writing about sports and entertainment, you would think something like this would be written more often. In my defense, there really has not been anything interesting to write about entertainment-wise, since breaking bad ended. Yes, there have been a few movies that have come out but are you really going to care about our reviews when you have websites like collider, rottentomatoes, and IMDB? I thought so. Luckily for you (all six of you that care about my TV opinions), there has been a flood of watchable shows on television recently, well... maybe not a flood, but enough to give me material to write about. So without further ado, here is a mini rundown of some shows that I have been watching. There maybe some minor spoilers ahead so be careful.

Dexter

With Dexter seasons you just know. Seasons one, two, and four were good; the other seasons either sucked or were very forgettable (with season 6 being being just mediocre at best). This season, I am happy to say, falls in the 'good' category, at least so far. I wont get too much into it as I am considering doing full out reviews for the rest of the Dexter season, but I will point out some things that I like about this season. In no particular order, here are the things that are making this season click, presented in note form:

-The main villain is actually pretty interesting

Who would have thought that Isaac would make for a really decent 'main' bad guy? He is smart, ruthless,and the king of some weird human exploitation empire. He already found out that Dexter killed one of his henchmen (and we are not even at episode four yet), and who ever the actor is that is playing him, is doing a really good job. We have not had a villain this interesting in Dexter since season four (the trinity killer), which was easily the best season, so these are all good things!

-The supporting characters actually have things to do

Whereas in past Dexter seasons, particularly the brutal third season, LaGuerta, Quinn, and company had really dull and useless side-plots (usually culminating in personal problems and self-rediscovery) this season there is actually *gasp* development! LaGuerta actually acts like a police officer and starts investigating a Dexter mistake (a forgotten blood slide) which is leading her to re-opening the 'Bay-Harbor Butcher' investigation. This is a genuinely interesting side-plot that does not make you groan when it comes up. Louis was shaping up to be an interesting character (more on him in the future), Quinn's story-line is just asking for trouble. For the first time in a really long time, Dexter episodes are complete and not just 20 minutes of content you care about with the rest being fast-forwarded.

-The story is developing at a good pace

A lot of people who watch the show complained that the second episode of the season was a major disappointment. In some sense they had a point. The episode did not really have much action and focused more on the characters and their development. So why did I still enjoy it? Because unlike other seasons' this was actually interesting. It is fun watching a story grow into something bigger (a simple 'Dexter' kill that leads to Ukrainian mob bosses coming to Miami for example).

That is all I will choose to comment on at this time about Dexter, as you can see, I will probably write about the show a lot more.

Arrow

Based on the popular DC comics character "Green Arrow" This is a new show on the CW (think Smallville) that takes a darker and more gritty approach to a super hero story (I know, I know shocking). To be fair, the original story is pretty dark in itself so this is not much of a reach at all, in fact, it works really well. For those of you who don't know: "Green Arrow" is the super-hero identity of one Oliver Queen (Bruce Wayne without the dead parents). There are a lot of variations to his origin so I will keep it basic. Essentially, Queen is left for dead in the middle of the Ocean, betrayed by the same men who betrayed his father, he washes up on an island and has to learn how to survive. For five long years he hunts, builds arrows, and forages on the unknown island until he notices a ship and promptly signals to be rescued. The experience on the island changed him vastly. No longer will he squander his wealth on partying, but will instead seek to avenge his father by bringing an end to the corruption of Star City (basically Gotham). Sounds cool right? Here is a trailer if you aren't convinced.

The best part? The writers have promised that other DC universe characters (Batman, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern to name a few) will be making appearances in the show and will probably be significant parts of the story. For now I am definitely in on arrow.

So this took up a lot more space than I initially imagined, so I will make this a 2-part feature! I will leave you with this clip from South Park that just screams awesome.

The Best Simpsons Episodes of All Time

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Before you get to reading this, please understand that making a top 10 or even a top 20 list of Simpsons episodes is an impossible task.  What we plan to do over the next little while, is to just write about some episodes that fall in our 'best of' lists and then we may arbitrarily rank them later.  Obviously we will miss some as we will stop when we get to 15 but don't worry, there will be a whole article devoted to the omissions (and even then someone will probably point to an episode that will make all of us say "WOW we missed that one?!").  Anyways, I have the honor of leading us off, and the episode I will open with is: "You only move twice" from season 8.  One of the fun things about doing this is that we get to re-watch the best episodes but also notice some things; for example: when I went on Wikipedia to do some research for this episode I noticed just how many good episodes there were in season 8.  Don't be surprised if this is not the only time an episode from this season is featured.

"You only move twice" (or more commonly known as the 'Hank Scorpio' episode) was one of the first ones that came to my mind for this list.  Forget about the great story and the great premise, this is one of the funnier episodes the show has ever done (more on this in a bit).  But first I managed to found an abridged version of the episode on YouTube, watch it, its less than 3 minutes and captures most of what made the episode great.

Aside from Homer finding both a job and a boss he loves, the fact that Hank Scorpio doubles as a super-villain was awesome.  As a result we got to see some nice parodies, the best one being Homer tackling a James Bond figure and receiving praise from his favorite boss.  Even the scenes of the rest of the family struggling to adjust to their new home were mildly entertaining, and considering the fact that they were the worst scenes should tell you how good this episode is.

What really stands out in this episode (other than the 'wow that's so cool' factor) is the humor.  From the very beginning we are treated to Ned pointing out that Homer still has all of his things that he 'borrowed' and is putting them in the moving van (how much would it suck if Homer was your neighbor?).  Realistically, Homer and Ned scenes are great no matter what the context.  We then got a lot of Hank Scorpio; it would take way too long to talk about all of his funny bits but the 'trust game' he does with Homer is excellent.  At the end of the episode we learn that Hank managed to take over the East coast and he gives Homer the Denver Broncos to help fulfill Homer's dream of eventually owning the Dallas Cowboys.  It's times like this that I openly wonder why Simpsons writers don't write some episodes that continue the plots of old ones.  I think they only did that once (who shot Mr. Burns-and if you think it wont be on this list then you really don't watch the Simpsons) and it was brilliant, they could easily trot out 3 seasons worth of material like this.  But I guess that is part of what makes the show great, allowing us to imagine where things went once the credits rolled.  Hopefully you enjoyed reading this as much I did writing it, but then again any excuse to watch classic Simpsons episodes is a good one.  Look for Jovan or Luka to follow up to this article soon, I am looking forward to them.







Leave a comment of your favorite Simpsons episodes and follow me on Twitter @ Daki_4 if you like the work.

Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 8: "Hermanos" Review

Tweet As always, this review may contain spoilers so if you do not wish to have anything ruined please stop reading now and come back after you have seen the episode.

Breaking bad is having a stretch of episodes that makes me openly question the fact that there are people out there who do not watch this show.  It amazes me sometimes that this show can sustain such a streak of quality episodes, even deep into season 4.  The only other show that I recall doing this is the Wire (which is also the best show of all time).  'Hermanos' features a lot of story lines and manages to flow very well.  I will discuss the smaller ones first, then the big ones after.

To begin, we have Saul dropping off Jesse's money to Andrea who has now moved in to a quality neighborhood with a nice house.  In breaking bad every scene is important and no scenes are wasted, which means that Andrea still has a role to play in the series and I am curious to see what it is.  On the Skyler front, we see her vacuum-sealing the stacks of money from Walter's earnings and concealing them with clothes, the money winds up underneath their house.  This is the first episode in a while that Skyler has not been a prominent part of and it was a little refreshing, don't expect it to last.  Finally, we got to see the immediate resolution of Hank's investigation on Gus.  As some of us feared, Gus turned out to be well prepared for the questioning and law enforcement sided with him over Hank.  At the way things are unfolding, Hank really is an awesome character and I really hope he catches his guy(s) at the end.

This brings us to our key plot developments.  Firstly, Hank is deciding to go with his intuition and enlists Walter to help him plant a GPS tracker on Gustavo's car.  There are a few tense moments where I wondered if Gus would decide to just get rid of Hank, but thankfully he does not plan on doing anything...yet.  It was interesting that Mike showed concern saying that they cannot fight the Cartel and Hank at the same time, so how they do decide to handle it should be some good television.  The second development is that Walt discovered that Jesse is now closer to Gus than he originally thought.  This is key because we know what a panic-struck Walter White is capable of.  How Walt will respond to this discovery remains to be seen but again, we know it will be good (at least for the viewers, not so much for the other characters).  We saw some of his ruthlessness when he was getting his scan, where he essentially told the guy that was with him that he was a pussy.  I have spent enough time praising the acting on this show so I wont waste anymore time, but really, the acting is incredible by Bryan Cranston, I cannot see anyone else in this role anymore.  There was one final development that was in this episode and as always, the best comes last; the story of Gus.  This is the first time we learned a bit about the man's past, where he came from, how he came to own a restaurant, and why he despises the Mexican cartel.  I wont talk about the scene too much, but after seeing it I do not feel bad for Hector (the old man with the bell) even slightly.  I will say that Gus's line at the end of the episode "Look at me" gave me chills.  Can not wait for the next episode.

Overall rating for this episode 9.4/10
Best Scene: 'Hermanos' Gustavo's past


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Breaking Bad Season 4 Episode 7: "Problem Dog" Review

Tweet These reviews may contain spoilers so please do not read them before having seen the episode if you do not want to be spoiled.

Let me break down how I watched the last 20 minutes of this episode: in disbelief.  Every season has 'that episode'  the one you point to and say "yeah, that episode was really good" and nobody really disagrees. 'Problem Dog' is that episode (at least so far).  I legitimately could not move for a couple of minutes after it ended, I just could not process what I had seen.  Now that i have calmed down a bit I will try to write rationally about my thoughts on this masterpiece of an episode.

We started off with a really dark scene of Jesse playing a zombie killing game, but each time he killed a zombie he just saw Gale's head jerk back.  Clearly he is still recovering from the guilt, and we can see this clearly.  The scene itself was shot beautifully, it had no talking and minimal movement yet it perfectly conveyed what Jesse was going through still.  The expensive car Walter bought for Jr. last episode is quickly burned away... literally.  After joy riding in it and getting it stuck on his way to return it, Walter decides just to burn the thing!  Not the smartest thinking on his part and Saul managed to get him off free (if free is $52000).  Other than a slightly emptier pocket, Walter came to the conclusion that the only person who can get close enough to Gus to kill him is Jesse.  Jesse did not need much convincing and agrees to do it with our time tested method (ironically, their go to method, or the 'best way' is 0/2 so far) of poison, which Walter created in the lab in a spot out of the view of the camera.  Jesse hides the poison into one of his cigarettes and vows to poison Gus at the first chance he gets.  It was kind of nice to see Walter and Jesse scheming together again, but there is some awkwardness to it now that was not there before.  Maybe Walt's B.S. has finally caught up to Jesse, maybe Jesse no longer wants to be Walter's hit-man, the truth is we can't know.  Skyler's only involvement in this episode was to complain about how they can not launder 7.5mil (Walter's drug salary) in one year, not her brightest episode, but she has had her fair share of screen time this season, any more in this episode, it would have received a lower score from me.

Marvel gets it does Sony? (Part 1)

Tweet This 2-part article looks at the direction of  Spider-man and the mistakes Sony has made with the character. I am by no means an authority on the topic, but I know enough to voice my opinion, especially when the future of my favorite hero is at stake.

Many of you who read this will have probably seen, or at least heard of the spider-man movies.  The movies that were put out were financially successful, and two out of the three were really good movies (the third being the odd one out).  Given this information you would assume that a fourth installment was well on its way.  However, Sony (the company with the rights to spider-man) announced that they will be re-booting the franchise in 2012 with a new director, new story, and a new cast.  Sony pictures has attributed this re-boot to the resignation of director Sam Raimi, who resigned because he felt that he could not meet the company's deadline without sacrificing artistic integrity.  So why did Sony simply not hire a director that could meet the deadline?  They had a full cast, writers, and producers yet, they decide to re-boot everything because the director resigned?  Surely a movie with such a famous character (in an era of great interest in super hero movies) would draw many good directors to the project.  More importantly, why did Sony decide to scrap what they've done so far and start over?  There are many answers to these questions, and many reasons for them, I choose to believe the one that makes the most sense to me as a devoted spider-man fan.  Sony screwed up. Badly.  They brought the films to a point where it did not make sense to continue the storyline.  Don't believe me?  Just look at the ideas they were coming up with:
(entry taken from Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man_in_film )

"that Anne Hathaway would play Felicia Hardy, though she would not have transformed into the Black Cat as in the comics. Instead, Raimi's Felicia was expected to become a brand-new superpowered figure called the Vulturess."

The Vultress? It's like they are trying to piss off the fans.

Furthermore, with Marvel Studios putting out great movie after great movie,the pressure was on Sony to make a truly classic spider-man film, something that they could not accomplish by continuing the mess they created.  In this mini series I will break down exactly why Sony could not continue the story they wove, where I think Sony made critical mistakes, how they can correct them, and what this ultimately means for spider-man.

I will preface my breakdown with a bit of my own background on the topic.  I am a big fan of super hero movies, super hero TV shows, and super hero comics. I do not particularly favor Marvel Comics over DC comics, I am just a sucker for cool heroes.  One of my favorite characters in the comics world is Spider-man.  I have read a fair amount of the comic (including the 'Amazing', 'Spectacular', 'Web of Spider-man', and 'friendly neighborhood' series).  I watched the much loved 90's cartoon, and all three of the movies.  In addition, I watched another (more recent) cartoon about spider-man titled: 'Spectacular Spider-man'.  I begin my critique of Sony's handling of spider-man with this particular television show, which will be part one of this series.