The Sopranos Season 3

If I remember right, this is the fan favorite season of the series. A ton of great stuff goes down. Livia dies of a stroke sending things off on a different course (she originally had a big role in this season, but it obviously had to change). The feds start getting aggressive with their case by bugging Tony’s house. Christoper gets made. but he’s still driven up walls by Paulie. Richie is a complete nightmare and Jackie Jr. doesn’t listen to Tony’s warnings. That ties into Meadow’s continued presence of being an obnoxious brat (and AJ is just a dummy, I wish they made him a more interesting character). Carmela has her ups and downs, interesting seeing her go to therapy with Tony and sneaking off on her own. Despite everything she knows and chooses to ignore, it’s more or less her fear of God that keeps her next to her husband. Tony lands himself another lunatic mistress and fights her threats back with his own. This is the season with the infamous “Pine Barrons” episode where Christopher and Paulie run around the woods with a Russian. As I’ve mentioned before, these two are the greatest and this whole ordeal is genius and so well acted. Michael Imperioli has so many great lines and reactions he needs a life-size trophy of Christopher wearing the outfit in this scene to immortalize his achievement. David Chase still gets a lot of crap for making the Russian just disappear and for good reason. It’s a loose thread that could have and should have been avoided (simply having them find their car after Tony and Bobby find them would have solved it. And it’s such a ripe angle to go into for season 4 if he did make it out).

Spartacus

Watched the entire series in about a month, just as good as I remember it. With 39 episodes of tight plotting, I never got bored. One of the most intense (and dramatic) shows around, it’s some ride. They successfully made it through a major actor change from Andy Whitfield to Liam McIntyre and bring something new and interesting to each season. More sex, violence and betrayal than you can shake a stick at, Spartacus is like few other shows.  The final season, War of the Damned, is much bigger in scope than the previous 3 seasons combined. “War” is putting it mildly, no one gets out unscathed. WotD does get carried away with itself sometimes. Off putting direction choices with “Matrix” like spins and awkward cutting mar the usual outstanding fight choreography and stunt work. Overuse of slow motion where regular speed would have worked just fine. The amount of battle cries also borders on the absurd, I’m thinking Manu Bennett got paid extra for it. One big change I noticed is Vengence and especially War of the Damned use a lot less CG blood. It’s mostly old school throat appliances with fire extinguisher like geysers of corn syrup and food coloring. It was a lot of fun coming back to this series, I’ll do it again in a few years.

The Bastard Executioner

I’m tapping out. I started watching the latest episode and turned it off about 20 minutes in. It’s just not keeping me interested, so I’m going to move on.

Just 3 episodes into Season 2 and Gotham has significantly stepped up its game and series mythos with “The Last Laugh.” Jerome has been revealed, through death, to be the prot0-Joker.

A legend left to grow in the cracks of Gotham city has been left behind in a rather brilliant way. Theo Galavan pulled off a long con setting up Jerome as the terror of Gotham only to swoop in to take him out and become the city’s hero. Jerome’s shocked response and final pose perfectly foreshadowing his impact on the city and Bruce Wayne’s future.

Easily the best episode of the series, let’s hope they can keep the momentum going.

You  can always rely on The Strain to hook you up in the mean and nasty vampire department. The Master rooted himself into NYC like the nasty parasite he is despite all of Abraham and company’s hard work (where is that damn Lumen!?).

Lots of fun stuff this made it a treat to watch each week. The cast is rather large, but everyone got to play a part. The pull of Eldritch on The Master to get the respect he so desperately thought he was due. Eph and Nora’s work to make a bioweapon against the vamps along with Fet and Dutch’s help in beating back the vampire hordes. I think Fet and Dutch are my favorite characters, they were often given the best material. I like them as a couple, they’re good when they apart and I even liked the love triangle (poor Dutch, she just can’t pick ’em). Her kidnapping was probably the most intense and suspenseful part of the whole season. Really cool segment with some of the strongest direction of the season.

While Gus has always been more of a side (yet important) character, I liked how he was interwoven throughout and not only got a great friend to roll with but came in strong at the end. The battle with The Master and The Ancients got some good back story and exposure — along with Abe and Eichorst. Speaking of Eichorst, my number 2 behind Fet, he’s such an intimidating character. Love Richard Sammel’s work, I think he can give Christoph Waltz a run for his money. He had a lot of setbacks this season, despite throwing his weight around a lot. His confrontations with Vaun (what’s up, Blade), The Master skipping him in favor of a young nobody. That was a major slight, which I think will come up again.

I even came around to Zach as he smartened up after undead mom showed up at HQ, but he had to ruin that in the finale. His dumb ass made for a tragic end, but the writers figured out how to make it pretty bad ass.

Overall, a great season and the set ups for next year are really strong. Now the wait begins for Season 3!

Chalk one up on the board for a successful spin-off show! The Walking Dead has never been more popular so when I first heard about Fear, it sounded rather greedy. The intent was to look at the outbreak from a different angle, which I think was largely accomplished.

With the new Los Angeles settings and resetting the clock to the beginning of the outbreak, the show feels quite a bit different from its mother program. The main cast is average people, no apparent heroes who know how to use a gun or sweep a room right off the bat. I think the most skilled in emergency situations is Liza, who is almost a nurse. Family is a big part of the show and thankfully none of the kids are obnoxious or stupid. Everyone is in the dark about what’s happening, so there’s a lot of “what’s going on?” and parents hiding the truth the best they can. The only character I didn’t like is Victor Strand who is more or less a mystery. They cram him in there near the end and set him up as a smooth talker with a weird speech pattern. He feels like the biggest show “character” out of everyone.

I like the angle of the show, how it handles the outbreak in a city setting. It’s not immediate chaos, but a slower build. Certain professions (cops and healthcare) know something weird is going first. Then, public disturbances occur. With cell phones all over the place, footage hits the net and it looks like police brutality. The public spin kicks into full effect with internet chatter sweeping over everything. The fear comes from the unknown, seeing something wrong but not knowing what it is. Is the public being told what’s really going on? Is there more to be worried about? Mobs start hitting the street and then military occupation rolls in. The Walking Dead is more about the threat of a person than a shambling monster, which is explored very well in Fear.

I like having 6 episodes of this leading up to the new season of TWD. It’s a good companion piece, a refreshing perspective that is different enough to warrant its existence. I wonder if having many more episodes at a time would diminish it. Keep the arc tight to 6-8 episodes to avoid any stretches to kill time and make it feel more urgent. I think the best way to end Fear would be to get surviving cast members into TWD sometime in the future. Not sure how they’d do that as TWD is something like 3 years into the outbreak, but it would be a cool link if done right.

Gotham is back and off to a fun start. Word is Season 2 is going to be much more serialized, with no “villain of the week” type episodes.

Looks like we’re going from mob war to psychopath’s run amok with a man named Galavan. Breaking out a few crazies from Arkham (including Jim Gordon’s somehow even hotter, now ex-girlfriend, Barbara, and Jerome, who must be the guy who will become the Joker) the streets of Gotham have a lot to worry about. I’m a huge fan of Cameron Monaghan from his work as Ian in Shameless and he’s really hamming it up here. Sure the Joker is very animated and he’s found a good laugh for him, but I’m not entirely sold on his performance yet. A lot of crazy attacks in just the second episode, I can only imagine what’s planned for the rest of the season. It’s a rather violent show despite them not showing everything. Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock are going to be put through the ringer,

Meanwhile, Bruce made it into his father’s secret room with Alfred’s help and Lucius Fox has been brought into the fold in a clever way. The seeds of Batman are growing right in front of us now.

I enjoyed the first season, as uneven as it was. I think the show runners learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t and “Rise of the Villains” should be vast improvement overall.

With Sons of Anarchy wrapped last year, creator Kurt Sutter moved on to a much different time and place for his next project. Set in Whales in the 14th century, Wilkin Brattle is a knight in King Edward III service. Barely surviving through a war time attack, he vows a more honest, less bloody life. A few years later he finds himself swinging a blad again in the name of rebellion. A divine messenger vists him, putting him on a ritous path for his people as an imposter, a bastard executioner.

Kurt Sutter is the sole reason I checked out this show. Promos seemed alright, I typically like this time period and I have a good amount of faith put into whatever Sutter does. The premiere was 2 episodes and it took about an hour for the show to really start. One of the slowest and arjuest pilots I’ve ever sat through, it took me 3 sittings to get through it all. Half the time I was wondering where the show was going and hoping it would just hurry up and get on with it. It’s really the last moments of the first episode where things start coming together.

Second episode is quite a bit better. The title of the show is explained, your familiar with many of the characters and the pace is much better. There’s a healthy mix of love, politics and faith at work that’s just starting to show, so there should be much more than people getting stabbed to death. The cast is really good  (impressed with Katey Sagal, her role demands a lot to not be a disaster) and the production values are great too. The action scenes so far have been shot better than SOA.

While it was a rough start, I think I’m glad I stuck with it and I want to know where it goes from here. Seems to be the ideal DVR show.

Haven’t watched any movies in a while as I’m invested in TV shows (old and new) just as the fall season is about to start.

I’m on to season 3 of The Sopranos now. Season 2 was as good as I remember it. A lot went down in both of Tony’s families. He more or less stays on the same level with his therapist and the blackouts keep coming.  Christopher tries to get his foot into Hollywood (with a few cameos) and the stock market and both don’t go too well by pulling in some dummies into the fold. Richie does everything to be a pain in the ass by trying to swing his (non-existent) weight around. He also attracts Christopher’s dummies making for more drama. Tony’s older sister, Janice, is the all-star addition to the season. She’s  a typhoon of a character, just like her mother. Hook her up with Richie and that’s basically a walking heart attack for Tony. Running a gambling ring has many pitfalls, Big Pussy comes back and goes away after walking the line for far too long. Season 2 has it all with mob and family life (looking at you Uncle Junior) constantly crashing together.

I saw that the entire 4 season run of Spartacus is on Netflix, so that enticed me to watch it in chronological order (2,1,3,4). I’ve watched season 1 and 2 more than once, but it’s been awhile. I have one episode left before going to season 3 and I forgot how intense Spartacus is. Everything they do, they do to the extreme. The violence, the gore, the sex, the language (which is actually the tamest with the creative Roman era cursing, it’s rather funny). It’s an unapologetic show and it’s so much fun. The political maneuverings of Batiatus to raise his house into the upper-class realm of the political elite. The back stabbing, the love triangles, the secrets, and the blood-soaked sand of vengeance. Some of the most memorable characters: Crixus, Gannicus, Ashur, Lucretia, Ilithyia, and Oenomaus just to name a few. One of the first shows to use CG blood (and extensive CG sets), it’s interesting to see the show lean on CG gore at first, then pull it back for much more prominent practical blood (300 is clearly an inspiration for the show, but as it goes on, Spartacus finds it’s own visual voice). Some of the best fight scenes in TV or film can be seen in this series (many of the stuntmen and fight coordinators went on to do Daredevil on Netflix). I haven’t watched season 3 or 4 since they aired and while I’m looking forward to it, I know I’m going to miss the late Andy Whitfield all over again.

A lot of the weaker cast members are gone from Face Off, so we’re getting to see some consistently great work now. This week a gantlet of 3 challenges was introduced. which I really liked. Each tested something different and the person with the lowest score at the end was let go. Nice twist of the formula.

The addition of letting the canvas who is voted to have the worst tattoo of the week on Ink Master is really just a way to make someone feel bad. Not a fan, it doesn’t add anything worth while to the show. I like this cast a lot, this week’s departure was a real surprise, it’s just about anyone’s game still with about 4 episodes left.

Fear the Walking Dead and The Strain both remain strong. I’m sensing a major death in The Strain very soon.

South Park returned last night and no one does social commentary as well as Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has graced us with our presence and I could not be happier. Colbert has kept a lot of what made The Report so great and I think everyone is on board with it. The set looks amazing, the bits are hilarious and the interviews of some of the biggest names on the planet have been fantastic (let’s keep that shmuck Uber CEO off of TV please). I think Colbert and his crew are going to dominate late night for some time to come.

The Fall TV season comes back in full force next week, so there is a lot to look forward to very soon. I have The Bastard Executioner on my DVR which I plan on getting to this weekend. Till then, stay frosty.

This week has seen many summer shows sign off and last night was the season finale of the best new show of the year. An all killer, no filler, 10 episode run introduced us to Mr. Robot and Elliot Alderson that took many people by surprise.

Here’s the synopsis from IMDB, since I won’t be able to make it any more succinct than this:

Follows a young computer programmer who suffers from social anxiety disorder and forms connections through hacking. He’s recruited by a mysterious anarchist, who calls himself Mr. Robot.

Elliot suffers from a lot more than social anxiety disorder, I can say that right off the bat. Played brilliantly by Rami Malek, he is the main character and the narrator for the viewer. He brings you into his world, grabs you right from the opening scene with his staunch ethics, brilliant technical know-how and ability to sniff out what isn’t right. But then the other hook of the show appears. The audience is left to sniff out what isn’t right about Elliot. Things don’t seem…right. Elliot is clearly not the most level headed person and with each intense moment and interaction what’s true and what isn’t is constantly up for debate.

The show owes much to Chuck Palahniuk, but there are enough new and interesting character and story developments that make Mr. Robot not feel like a Fight Club rip-off. I consider it an homage to a past great to give us a different and modern take on our society.

Going beyond the brilliant writing (I love Elliot’s inner monologs), the craftsmanship of Mr. Robot is what makes it stand out so much. The soundtrack is Quentin Tarantino levels of perfect down to making each title card at the opening of each episode a striking moment. What’s shown to the audience is meticulously thought out and beautiful, someone has to get at least an Emmy nomination for directing. It’s subtle, there are hints all over the place in every episode, it lets you think about things without beating you over the head. Things that seem odd makes sense when the other shoe drops. The cast makes all of this possible, from the aforementioned Rami Malek to Christian Slater, who gets to finally show off how great he is again. I love that all the female characters are strong too, everyone gets a chance to make their mark in important ways.

I’ve been very vague about what goes on in Mr. Robot because I want people who have never heard of it, to go in fresh. It’s the best to go into and out of it that way. There are massive spoilers out there, so do yourself a solid and avoid them as best as you can. Watch and discuss it with others, remarking on all the things you pick up on and see if you can figure out what’s going to happen, it’s a blast. I loved the finale, it was super intense and went in a direction I didn’t see. I don’t think I’ve been so in love with a show since I first saw Breaking Bad. I love Elliot, I can’t wait to see what Sam Esmail has in store for us next.

…is it a coincidence Esmail is Email with an ‘s’ snuck in there? Hmmm…