Daily Archives: May 21, 2016

Grimm <> Season 5

TV

Overall, a much better season over last year. They covered a lot of ground, both literally and figurativly. The last three or four episodes in particular really ramped things up. Most of the subplots were good and worked out well with everyone getting a chance to take the spotlight. Grimm is a really creative show. The cases they come up with to deviate from the main story arc are interesting and make the Scooby Doo teamwork aspect of the show work well. The main cast is a really tight crew of characters (shades of Buffy the Vampire Slayer).

Juliette was made interesting and she didn’t dominate the season which I think was a smart decision (she gets the most character arcs than anyone). Trusty Hank got a love interest for awhile and got ride shotgun with Nick in just about every major event. I really liked the trip Nick and Monroe took to some treasure hunting. A lot of fun to watch and that whole segment brought one

Trusty Hank got a love interest for awhile and got ride shotgun with Nick in just about every major event. Wu remains another great sidekick and they put him through some hard stuff. I liked what they did with him, but he looks terrible when he’s transformed. One of the worst SFX on the show.

I really liked the trip Nick and Monroe took to some treasure hunting. A lot of fun to watch and that whole segment brought one long standing puzzle with the keys to an end and introduced a new powerful totem to the series. Monroe and Rosalee are cornerstones to this series and I liked the background work they did for them (especially Rosalee’s ex, Tony) and they have a big future ahead of them

Trubel went away for a bit found a greater purpose working at HW and it was great when she came back. In fact, the HW was one of my favorite additions to the show. Really liked Juliette and Trubel being brought in to work for Meisner. He helped fill a much-needed Grimm ally position.

Renard took quite the turn in the later episodes and I’m not too happy with it. While the set up and the ultimatum for him to switch sides was given a lot of time, when he does switch it felt really sudden. I think it’s because they changed his personality to becomes much sleazier than he ever has before (being so aggressive with Adalind was really pushing it).

Speaking of Adalind, her motherly instincts were put to the test. Bringing back Diana added a big wild card as she’s an incredibly powerful young girl. Now that Adalind is now part of her life, will she be able to keep her from being a full blown monster?

I liked the season finale quite a bit, had some satisfying confrontations and the body count on both sides is a lasting one. Black Claw was in the shadows for most of the season, but they came out to make some serious moves at the end. More or less a draw with that cliff hanger ending.

The show has been given a truncated season 6 order so there might not be much time left for Grimm. So far it’s going to be 13 episodes (down from 22), I just hope that the creators get to do what they want. Will it just be a shorter season with more to follow? Will they get more episodes if they need it for the season? Will they only get 13 to end the series? I guess it’ll take the summer for them to find out. I hope they don’t get cut off at the knees by being forced to rush a finale to the series. The Black Claw is a global movement so there could be a lot (outside of Portland especially) to explore.

Captain America: Civil War

Movies

Cap3

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is my favorite Marvel movie and Civil War looked to be the one to unseat it. While I think it’ll take some more time and a few more viewings to make that definitive decision, it’s hard to come out of this movie without a smile on your face.

A lot of smart choices were made for Civil War. They tweaked the set up from the comic book to fit what’s been happening in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and made all the right character moves to make the split amongst the Avengers understandable. Much of what didn’t work in Batman v Superman works in this (there are a lot of similar themes in both films).

There are a ton of characters in this movie and they all get their moment to shine. That’s probably the most impressive part of the movie. We get every on screen Avenger aside from Thor and Hulk along with a few new comers. Black Panther, a character that I think very few people knew before this, gets an amazing introduction and story arc. Chadwick Boseman is perfect and this is going to send his career into the stratosphere. He’s my favorite addition (and it sounds like that’s a constant remark from others I’ve heard/read) to the franchise and the stage is set for him to take off in his own movie in a few years. Ant-Man and Spiderman get fun extended cameos and I even liked seeing Hawkeye! They found a great use for him!

There are so many great moments it’s hard to think of them all. While the crux of the movie is very serious, they also bring funny character bits and interactions to ease up on the gas peddle from time to time. It’s all held together by a terrific cast who showed up to give this movie their all. RDJ and Chris Evans lead this movie and their work in every scene (especially with each other) is commendable. Really well written, there is some fantastic dialog that elevates many scenes to greatness (Stark at the Parker apartment is a great example).

Along with the great acting, we get some of the best action sequences in the entire Marvel catalog. There are many of them, all with different settings, varied match-ups, and ridiculous destruction. The big fight at the airport will be talked about for years to come.

The complaints I do have are more or less nitpicks. Vision disappears for most of the airport fight to the point where it’s almost like the writers forgot they had him there at the start.

The villain of the movie, Zemo, isn’t much of one (in terms of evil doing anyway). He has little on-screen presence and is more or less just a guy that pops up. He’s another boring MCU villain (one of the biggest knocks against Marvel since they started this in 2008). He concocts a convoluted plan to tear apart the Avengers from the inside that requires a lot of coincidences to make his plan work. They smartly rationalize his plan as he does say he knows he’d never be able to exact his revenge on these guys head on (he’s got a fantastic scene with Black Panther that brings everything to a really satisfying conclusion). His motivation makes sense and they do enough legwork to make it believable. The divine intervention angle is easier to accept (for me anyway) considering that Joker’s plan(s) in The Dark Knight requires just as much sheer luck (if not more) to work as well and that movie rules. It’s also a nice change of pace that Zemo’s plan wasn’t an end of the world doomsday scenario. Making it smaller in scope (while still maintaining the action) and personal was really smart. It’s a great counter step to the events of Avengers 2 (I really liked how they say the floating island rescue was far from successful. The general consensus was that the scene was a direct response to the destruction in Man of Steel. The admission that the Avengers aren’t perfect is humanizing and more believable).

The movie is also a little bit long. Spiderman and Ant-Man aren’t necessary to the movie. You could take them out of the fight and the movie would still work. Plus, Tony Stark bringing in a (literal) kid to fight with him makes his argument for the Sokovia Accords hypocritical. Considering Tony Stark causes just about every problem, that’s not too shocking. But the way Spiderman and Ant-Man are used (and introduced) is fantastic. They are both really entertaining so it’s hard to make this a valid complaint. The movie is otherwise really well paced, there’s no wasted time.

While I hoped they’d take the damage to the team further, the ending does indicate big changes for the future which I think is needed to keep things interesting. Everything that doesn’t “work” on the surface is followed through so well that it diminishes those complaints to little more than a shoulder shrug. Years of planning converged in Civil War and it’s an impressive feat. Congrats to everyone involved in making this come to life.

Orphan Black S4E06

TV

The Scandal of Altruism

Just passed the halfway point of Season 4 and I think they might have delivered one of the best episodes of the entire series. Easily the best this season at any rate.

More went down this week than I can really cover because answers to questions that started in the series premiere were answered (and I don’t think fans should know what happens beforehand). A ton of lore and a tremendous amount of characters intersected in some incredible ways. I can’t see a single Orphan Black fan not doing backflips after watching this. Some serious writing was done for this episode with major reveals and major moments with massive impact for the rest of the show. If I didn’t know any  better I’d be calling this a brilliant season finale but there are four more episodes to go.

I’m so impressed with this episode from start to finish. Brilliantly paced, a ton of stuff happens and there are some really striking visuals. I don’t know how or if they’ll top this one anytime soon, but I can’t wait for next week. Serious losses to the Clone Club, I’m not sure what their next play is going to be but the playing field as certainly changed. I think some old enemies will be switching sides to take down the new cut-throat villain.