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Shôgun: The Abyss of Life (2024)
Incredible Episode
While it has felt like the entire season to this point has been the proverbial "calm before the storm", "The Abyss of Life" truly was the silent calamity before the storm of storms we'll see in the final two episodes. But what a beautiful, tragic, heart wrenching silence it was.
The entire series up to this point has been pretty stellar - well acted, well written, and poignant as all hell - but this episode embodies exceptionally what it is about Shogun that makes it so... exceptional. Shogun, on its face, is a show about power, which it is, but more subtly is a show about power over - power over others, power over oneself, power over life and death, power over one's fate; or, really, powerlessness over all of the above. In the context of the story, there are machinations larger and more powerful than any one person, even Toranaga (as Hiramatsu showed), that would make even the most powerfully resolute fold like a towel. In the context of the metaphysical introspection that Shogun ponders, we are all powerless over something and, whatever it is and however it may manifest for us individually, accepting our place is the only rational approach. But as much as this series broaches our powerlessness, it also broaches how powerful we can be when fate bears us down like a ten-ton anchor. Toranaga, for all his scheming and apparent willingness to wade into the overwhelming current of fate, might be the most powerfully defiant of the fate laid out for him.
But this show is much more than a meta commentary on the designs of concepts residing in the furthest reaches of human philosophy, it is a visual masterpiece that often uses hushed and drab tones to underscore the dire and damned situation our main cast finds themselves. Subtly framed shots that capture the (emotional and spiritual) distance between those depicted are a wonderful touch of the masterful cinematography that ties together beautifully this masterwork of television. Every element is perfectly crafted and laid out to build the environment and tension and intrigue that elevate this work to the very highest echelons of the canon of television and cinema altogether. This episode is a marked moment for how powerful television can be and solidifies Shogun, for me, as one of the greatest shows of all time. I cannot wait to finish this incredible visual story. 9.5/10.
Road House (2024)
Not It
I can't really say what this movie was about or what is was made for. Perhaps it was in the editing, maybe the writing, maybe the directing, or maybe it was in everything it just felt like nothing was there, nothing of substance. I always like to give movies like this a try, movies that really straddle the line between popcorn thrills, sincere storytelling, and complete garbage. Usually if you have enough of the former two, the latter will sort of become part of the charm. The best example for me is Unstoppable, the movie about the runaway train. The premise is extremely straightforward, so there's very little sincere storytelling to go off of, but when it does (the taking of the mantle by the new generation) it actually gives it just enough credence to warrant its existence, also the popcorn thrills and the sprinkling in of complete and utter garbage really make that movie one of the most enjoyable and entertaining watches I've ever had. This movie, on the other hand, forced in some very pointless storytelling, some decent popcorn thrills, and was mainly just complete and utter garbage, so much to the point where that's really all the movie was. Edgy shots galore, pointless characters who make the messy plot feel even more convoluted, unnecessary and hackneyed character motivations, rehashed tropes that were not approached in a fun or inventive manner, no satisfying or meaningful resolution, and, to top it all off, hints at another entry in this movie's universe. Admiteddly, I haven't seen (nor have any interest in seeing) the original, but, from what some of the other reviews mention, a lot of cheesy nostalgia-bait that neither pays homage well nor feels natural and well-placed. So, for basically every metric that exists to mark what makes a piece of cinema bad, this one hits all of them. A loveless homunculus retreading tired, old ground of a project that really has no single element that warrants its existence other than Jake Gyllenhaal's performance, which, while still great, was even a bit ham-fisted for his standards (as one of the best talents of the current generation). Even then, I've definitely seen far worse, so with respect to Jake's care and performance I can't say this project was entirely without any consideration or effort., it's just that even if you give Michelangelo a pile of feces to sculpt with, and he sculpts a masterpiece with it, it's still a pile of feces. That's how I'd categorize Jake's performance in this movie, he did the best with what he had, but even that still couldn't remove the movie from the fact that it's a steaming pile of feces. But. Again, far worse, less enjoyable movies exist; even if the basal majority is better, far, far worse exists. 3.5/10.
Masters of the Air (2024)
Generally Quite Good
After the first couple episodes I was pretty hesitant to continue with the series. It felt like a poorly hashed out, over dramatized Band of Brothers, which is one of the best shows of all time. So, the bar was high, sure, but not so that you couldn't tell a similar, respectable story about the American airmen of WWII, but it didn't really feel too much like that, not until the final half of the show. The pacing of the entire series does feel a bit odd, however, as the Americans were only in the war for a few years (and, yes, much to the point of a lot of these reviews, slandered the Brits who were fighting much longer, in an unnecessary exchange that was meant to develop characters which felt like getting soggy wet bread thrown in your face) so, we jump through time quite a bit (around 3 years in 9 episodes) with little indication that time has progressed by months at a time, until we end up in late 1944/early 1945 in the final episode, at which point the timeline becomes less convoluted but also less consistent with the rest of the show's pacing. Which is important, and which its predecessor succeeded at marvelously, because this is a historical drama with real events and real people that can't be conflated with nonsensical fictional musings else it completely removes the media from any sincerity it might have had. Which was the case in some of the earlier episodes, but as the story progressed and the notion that quite a few of these characters that are being played up as important suddenly vanish for perhaps good, lends itself to the reality of war. Which is where war films are at their inherent best, because war is bad and playing it up as some sort of glamorous and heroic endeavor is abjectly antithetical to the reality these types of shows and movies aim to capture. This is simple stuff, so it shouldn't even be mentioned, especially over 20 years after Band of Brothers and over 50 years (90 since the original original) after All Quiet on the Western Front demonstrated what it means to tell these stories honestly. Ultimately, I feel this show did accomplish that feat, but it wasn't until the latter half that it really honed in on the realism and avoided the tedious, fabricated melodrama that riddle Apple TV shows. I feel like this series is worth the watch, it definitely takes its time getting there, but it succeeds, and succeeds well when it does. 7.5/10.
Rick and Morty: Unmortricken (2023)
Mixed Feelings
There's a lot to say about an episode like this. My biggest concern is after building this storyline up over 6 seasons (5, really, if you don't include the 5th or 6th seasons, which didn't include anything from this storyline), actually, the first episode that featured this storyline will have aired 10 years ago in less than six months - a decade long story told through a sporadic episodes of an animated television show - they kind of threw everything together at once.
In the vast catalog (this was the 66th episode) of Rick and Morty, the "Evil Morty" and Rick-genesis episodes have been consistently near the show's pinnacle (arguably THE pinnacle), and thinking back on them it's hard not to separate where those episodes fit in with my life. And I don't mean to sound corny here, Rick and Morty is mostly a decent show, but some of the episodes were pretty heavy, hit hard and became staple episodes of a show I really liked for a good while, so in a way I feel they became part of that repertoire of ~art~ that I connected with that embodies a part of who I am. And that's not to say, "Oh I loved Rick and Morty so much, it's my entire personality and it's all what I'm about," or anything like that, but a certain bohemian-esque quality that is the throughline of Rick's character, how the show winds around a Kafkaesque, belligerent narrative based on the actions of someone who has respect for themself but finds it impossible to care about themself and put that respect to good use, felt poignant and relatable to the point where good dramatic and character-building moments throughout the show were not only easy to connect with but resonated well emotionally and made me feel like this show was speaking to or capturing something I relate to in a way not much else does or had done nearly as well. And I think that was the sentiment of a lot of the fans, I mean, the ability of this program to attract some of the most eclectic, but impressive cast of celebrities (and which ones, too) speaks to how well the show was able to convey its over-the-top humanity and humor, and so the episodes that spoke the most for the depths of emotion and intrigue they could bring are certainly ones that I hold in regard and almost every "Evil Morty" and Rick-genesis episode is in that echelon.
Now, my concern isn't necessarily that they continued to tell that/those storyline(s), and told it succinctly, which they did, and they did it well, but that with the weight a decade-long storyline has to it, it feels that there may have been an overly breakneck pace to how such a momentous, important segment of that storyline unfolded. It felt like they were overeager to wrap that story up, of course there is certainly room for continuity, but I don't see the rest of the season (though hopefully another episode or two) covering more of this storyline, at least not in any sort of brokered or significant way. We may get a "depressed Rick" follow-up storyline, but I don't imagine we'll get an episode as narratively kinetic as this, for this storyline. And to be fair, it is effectively the main storyline, so I understand their desire to spread it out as to pad out the remainder of the next 3 and a half seasons. That is, of course, if they still intend make that many seasons, which I don't see why they should considering how badly tainted and mid this season has been so far.
This brings me to my next concern, which is an existential or perhaps hyperbolic concern, in that this show has been tainted by the entire Justin Roiland situation. Now, I know that the reins of the story (though not necessarily the storyboarding and the script) have been firmly held by Dan Harmon, basically from the outset, but these are Justin Roiland's character's, this is Justin Roiland's concept, and this is Justin Roiland's universe, so to truly separate the show from him and conversely enjoy it as a piece on its own, it's been hard to do. Not even overlooking the voice acting (which can be similarly hard to do at times, as it was so consistent for 6 years to suddenly change can make it feel like they're different characters entirely), there is a definite shift in tone for how the show is handled. It feels a little more hollow than it did last season, and that may be chalked up to creative decline, but it feels like the beats are so "this is what a funny Rick and Morty joke would sound like" and not just "funny Rick and Morty joke", it's like we're getting a rendition of performance that feels like a tribute band routinely plucking notes that aren't their own, trying to embody people that they aren't, not trying to add to the essence of the original with their own, just rote mimicry. And the story may be there, and it may be fresh, and I could maybe see some stellar writing justifying another season, but I don't even know if I could watch any more of it knowing they're going to keep up this Weekend at Bernie's charade for another three (four or five, really) years, to finish off the promised 10-season-run. At this point the writing would need to return to and surpass the average seasons 2-3 level writing to keep me on that long, and I don't know if they can turn it around THAT much.
Don't get me wrong, this episode was great. It was well paced, impactful, and narratively satisfying, but they had this one in their pocket for years now, and I realistically don't see them pulling off another episode like this, with consistency, for three more years. Because, at this point, it's just a question of why. Why continue this tainted series that feels hollow and is consistently subpar (with a consistently lowering par) for another three seasons? This is their chance to redeem the show's reputation, and so far only this episode and the last episode were by any stretch worthy of maintaining this show beyond wrapping up the narrative. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I'll at least ride this season out (unless there are any incest baby episodes, then I really will have to pull the proverbial plug on my commitment to watching this once beloved show).
All-in-all, I wish I could say this episode made me hopeful for that, but honestly, I have to say the fact that it felt like this narrative was so abrupt and overly breakneck (hinting that they might want to wrap that thread up before further driving the show off a cliff), might have inspired the opposite effect. But just for this one, I am glad we got one more really good Rick and Morty episode. Even if the new voices throw you off, it's a must-watch for any longtime or once upon a time fan of the show. It felt very much like classic Rick and Morty and we got to see two of the best storylines in the entire series converge and find some resolution. 9/10.
Hijack: Brace Brace Brace (2023)
Satisfying Conclusion
Hijack was a pretty messy ride. I won't feign to understand ATC protocol or lie and say that this entire sequence seemed entirely plausible (from the first moment of the hijacking, the pilot, with almost 100% certainly, would have not opened the door to the cockpit) but, suspending my disbelief, as is standard when watching a television show, ad infinitum, I definitely bought the premise. "Everyone has something liable to be hijacked" was the motif surrounding everyone's motivations, everyone acted as intended because they were held hostage in someway or another. It was the throughline of every bit of plot momentum, and it carried it far enough that, however inane or unbelievable the story became, I was able to stay on the ride for what it was. And I enjoyed it.
Certainly some moments and characters carried the series further than others, but all-in-all, the suspense and tension were nonstop, and the sparse moments of levity were always followed by an even greater level of dread. It absolutely culminated with the final two episodes. The direness of having your captors potentially start wiping out you and your fellow captees was finally met with the uprising that had been brewing and hinted at since the first episode, only for the escalation to reach new heights, as it were, with the introduction of a new hijacker and their murdering of the pilot. It flowed together very well with the hastening pace over the course of the first six episodes. But with the ultimate endgame scenario for any hijacking finally arriving - a plane will eventually either crash or land - the stakes had reached their paramount and were handled extremely well in both the direction of the episode and the writing.
Unfortunately, I would argue that the journey is cut somewhat short as the fallout of this excursion would be a satisfying watch as well, but it's an understandable route the showrunner's took with the series beginning and ending within a few minutes of the flight. It's an good gripe to have as the show had focused quite heavily on the auxiliary characters that their import grew to such a point as inspiring an interest in them. For a show whose cast is centered very heavily around a handful of characters, it speaks to the writing that other characters are actually exciting enough to warrant any level of intrigue beyond their singular role therein.
That's not to say the writing of this series was particularly of note, in fact, it was pretty generic all things considered. It was likewise fairly tropey for a series of this nature, but niche and singularly inventive enough that it felt like a fresh bit of television. It was also at least written well enough that the cast were able to turn the spectacle into one worth watching and following, as it ultimately was rather satisfying. Maybe it's just because I'm such a huge fan of Idris, but I quite enjoyed my time with this series, and with this episode. 8.5/10. Hijack: 7/10.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Solid, but not Exceptional
Admittedly, I saw the first two Mission Impossible films in theatres as a very young kid, never saw the third, and was pleasantly surprised with the previous three each stepping toward legitimate film territory, leaving its turbulent past as popcorn action behind. I felt Rogue Nation and Fallout were the two outstanding peaks of the series, which stood out as great films beyond the genre of action. So, my expectations (which I always hedge, no matter how excited I am for something) were relatively high for Dead Reckoning: Part One. To say they were met would be an understatement. I didn't particularly expect, however, that it would surpass Rogue Nation or Fallout, which I do not believe it did, but I thoroughly enjoyed this installment. It set the stakes remarkably well, aroused some hearty laughs, had incredibly choreographed action sequences (maybe not John Wick incredible, but definitely some of the best outside of that series), the acting was great, all around just an exceptional action movie. But not an exceptional film.
The biggest issue, for me, was not necessarily that it was very long, but I felt some of the length was needless bloating, There is a whole story to tell of which we have been given the first half but goodness me if this didn't feel like it already could have been split into two movies. Again, not an incredible ding in this era of binge watching where 8 hours of television can be worth more than a couple hours of a movie, but if it's going to be 3 hours it should at least feel like it's warranted. And it's not really that it doesn't feel warranted, it just feels like there were moments, sequences, plotlines that were unnecessarily long that overall amounted to an unnecessarily long film. It's the same gripe I have with The Dark Knight and Fast X. If you're already splitting this story up into parts, it really doesn't make much sense to have each part be overly long.
Beyond that, I do feel like it maybe this film returned the series to its roots a bit more than it needed to, certainly no problem with some homage, but this is a nearly 30-year-old series that set the standard for modern action tropes that I don't necessarily believe need returning to, as I found the highlights were the new ground it tread, of which there was more than enough to negate the tired feeling of the retreading.
Beyond all of that, though, is one of the best action movies of all-time and one of the best movies this year. It has me craving the conclusion, which I think says the most about it when it's the 7th part of a film series. 8/10.
Ted Lasso: Mom City (2023)
Finally Back on Track
Ted Lasso was pretty stellar the entire first two seasons. Certainly had some very high highs, extremely raw and human moments. This entire season has felt extremely and unnecessarily expository, but the bad kind of expository, the kind that feels like it's meandering to make a point and doesn't. The fact of television is every episode is meant to build its own tension and reach a resolution, all in contribution to the ultimate resolution at the end of the season. Of course, this season will end and the writers will return in a year (or however long with the writing strike going on) with a new perspective and new ideas to continue the story. This season, Nate's departure, Zava, Keeley and Colin were the focus on which the writers decided to center the story, and, while there certainly have been good, enjoyable moments, many of them felt lost in the convolution of their own premises. We want these character's to succeed, they're compelling, but it just felt like the show had to step away from its core focus (Ted overcoming his trauma and helping his team grow) because they simply didn't have the material to continue that story long or well enough.
It certainly happens with many TV series, it's not necessarily something in which I find great dismay, the show had already given us a lot of great moments and stories that being rather middling, while unfortunate, doesn't necessarily mar the entire series. At no point did I think, like "junipertreez", that this show was "the pits", or that it had fallen off entirely. Was it great? No, not really, but it definitely wasn't bad either, at least not bad enough to warrant dropping it or having my opinion of it completely tarnished. It certainly didn't feel as cheesy and hokey as "Shrinking" did for all but the final episode, but it did feel like it was heading in that direction. This episode, for me, felt like the series realigning with what makes it good and set up the season finale extremely well.
The featuring of family and how it explained the baggage that's passed down generationally felt a lot more authentic than the show has all season. It was a welcomed return to form. Beyond that, a lot of other plotlines have resolved or begun to resolve rather neatly and it makes me hopeful that the season finale will wrap things up perfectly and hopefully leave enough room for the next (and possibly final) season. 8.5/10.
Vinland Saga: Way Home (2023)
Heartbreaking "Calm" Before the Storm
What this show excels at is finding the humanity within its characters and displacing it in the face of inhuman situations. Gardar's story is very much about a man who, in trying to reclaim his life, sacrifices his humanity. He doesn't care who or what gets in his way, even death would fail to stop him. It's a very harrowing story that showcases a lot of what people do in objectifying others - at the end of the day everyone is a human being and can only be so flexible. Gardar, who had lost everything and was flagellated into being a submissive slave, had been carved away at psychologically to the point where his ego had imploded, and, in the face of years of both being denied the things that made him human and overwhelming oppression, lost his sensibility. Ultimately, this is grounds for his psychological inflection point where, even as a subservient slave who would reel at the thought of doing wrong, the fleeting thought of "what-if" passed through his mind and, being as dehumanized as he was, acted on impulse that this was his moment to reclaim everything.
Unfortunately for Gardar, the one thing slave owners love more than slaves is paying other people to make sure their slaves stay enslaved, so when these peoples' proverbial money faucet shuts off, it is no question that they will hunt down the man who turned it off to the ends of the earth. Also unfortunately for Gardar, the person at the other side of this relenting is being watched over by an equally dehumanized man, but also a man who has gained something to protect over the years.
The collision of these two forces, and those caught in their wake was a great conclusion to an already fascinating story, but the fallout was highlight. Arnheid, who had also lost everything, was treated more or less well as a slave, and could not comprehend the depths to which Gardar had sunk, tried to reason with him only to catalyze the collision. Unfortunately for her, Gardar was dead the moment he retaliated and had sacrificed his humanity in the process. However, her actions were not entirely futile as ultimately she and Gardar were able to find closure in their loss. However, that closure came with some of the most heartbreaking moments of the series to date.
What is equally notable, however, is that this sequence of events directly coincides with Ketil and Canute's affair, and the sudden loss and the shock and awe of this botched escape attempt will have dire consequences for the readiness of the farm when Canute unleashes his forces to requisition Ketil's farm. In that sense, this "calm" before the storm was more like a tornado before a hurricane. While the destruction may have been great, it was relatively isolated and of a relatively contained scale, Canute's arrival will bring with it the true calamity this season has been building toward. A truly profound setup that incidentally has both Einar and Thorfinn taking the reigns of their destiny in a major way. Where they end up within the greater ensuing chaos will be a spectacular, I'm sure, but this encounter has already made the journey extremely satisfying and poignant. I am very much looking forward to what comes next. 9.5/10.
Succession: Rehearsal (2023)
Incredible Episode
This show is about a lot more than a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate, the family drama is generally where the heights of the show lie. This episode was the perfect mix of both the business and family elements in a way that is usually a culminative moment at the end of the season. Here we actually see a major breaking point for the characters unfold two episodes in. The way it was portrayed was perfect for the characters. In some way, all of Logan's children have been damaged by his ambitions, in a similar way, all of his children feel a unique need and have a unique approach to dealing with that damage. For Kendall and Shiv, that is being him, even more, being the better Logan. For Roman, it is seeking his approval and feeling like he is seen by Logan. For Connor, it is just a mending of what he sees is a broken family that disabuses each other through conceit and deceit, but can actually love each other if they take off their masks and their gloves and treat each other as family. Logan, himself, feels that his children's impetus is misguided and wants them to recognize that he cares for them as a father but his ways and means are the correct ones and that they are too incompetent and unrefined to actually get to where he is and handle what he believes he is capable of.
The reality is, however, that in the context of this family, they are all incompetent, Logan is just the least maligned by his own feelings towards his family, not by a lot, but certainly the least (at least of the family who actually are trying to run the business). And this incompetence leads all of them to make hasty and irrational choices, and the consequences of these choices tend to result in making hastier and more irrational choices, and so on. It's a spinning mess where the family is maligning themselves by maligning each other, and the only one who recognizes that is Connor.
This episode approaches that dynamic in a very bitter manner, and to great affect. Every poor choice made on all of the characters' belhaves, ultimately leads to a great conflict of melodrama and poising. Without saying too much, the conflict itself resolves absolutely for all of the characters and none of the characters. The setup for the rest of the season is fantastic. The setup for the conflict within the episode was also fantastic. This episode feels like the final major stepping stone between where the show started and where it will ultimately head by the end of the season/series. I cannot wait.
All-in-all, this episode was everything that makes Succession such a compelling watch, and even moreso more often than not. It didn't quite reach the levels of calamity the show has in the past, but the tension its brewing and the misplaced feelings that are driving the characters were all highlighted excellently and proved to be an extremely enjoyable experience. 9/10.
Lucky Hank: Pilot (2023)
Charming Enough
Not exactly sure what I was expecting for an AMC show starring two AMC alum who haven't exactly made major waves outside their respective major AMC roles. I guess it confirms the diversity of their acting (although I'm not exactly sure who was questioning it), but moreover it actually worked as a presentable show, with a solid premise and solid promise. I look forward to seeing how it develops. I like both of the lead roles and their performers (secretly have the biggest crush on both of them, too.) It was well directed, the main cast has some of my extended list of actors/actresses I enjoy. Not much else to say other than it was good enough to pique my interest and I am looking forward to watching it weekly. 7.5/10.
The Whale (2022)
Visceral but Hollow
This film is an adaptation of a play, so there were bound to be some restraints on the breadth of its spectacle. It becomes immediately apparent that this film was made as a stage adaptation, not a cinematic reimagining. That's fine and all, there are definitely a solid share of movies that have very narrow parameters in terms of the set and cast, but that it still felt like a stage production greatly diminished what of its effect it could have accomplished. Theatre, for the most part, is intended as a means of visually telling a character story. It counters the spectacle of the world-at-large by instead studying the spectacle of character. What we have in much of cinema today is a continuation of that ideal, but the feat of cinema is that anything that people can see or imagine be filmed or animated - it is a widening of the horizon of theatrical storytelling from a singular frame to seeing as far as the mind can take you, in real-time. It's why filmmakers, including Aronofsky, are so revered as magicians who can create a medium that embodies the imagination. Visual storytellers who combine set and acting and music and sounds to create a tangible embodiment of the story they want to tell. It's as close as we can get right now to experiencing a story other than actually living it. So when it feels like I'm watching something that takes a step back and operates more in the vein of theatre, it feels hollow.
That's not to say that I haven't been moved by theatrical productions in the past, the element of watching real actors on a stage in the same room as you adds a lot to the overall effect. The Whale does not have that. In fact, I'd say it feels overly caught up in that it is an adaptation of a stage production, and while it wants to create an experience with being a film that Aronofsky is talented at making, it ultimately loses itself somewhere in the middle.
Now, I'm someone who is extremely generous when it comes to viewing art. Contrivance is generally the main element that bothers me when it comes to how critical I want to be when watching a piece of cinema or listening to music, etc. The more authentic something is, the harder it is for me to actively notice a piece art being contrived, both in the nature of authenticity but also the level of immersion achieved by the piece. Pi, for example, was very immersive because it was very authentic in its telling of its story. The same could be said of Black Swan and The Wrestler. As far as authentic cinematic storytelling goes, it's hard to find those films overly contrived, or lose the feeling of immersion because they feel inauthentic. Noah, on the other hand, feels a lot more like Hollywood shenanigans and like someone who was given a budget that they weren't used to trying to make as big a spectacle as possible. Big budget films don't have to be overly spectacular, they often are, but when they are, they often fail at being authentic. So, Aronofsky has shown that he can make something that isn't the most authentic filmmaking, and in The Whale, I'd be remiss if I didn't admit that a lot of the movie felt contrived; kept me from feeling appropriately immersed, especially for a film that is supposed to be an adaptation of a stage production, which, again, is a study of the spectacle of character.
To be contrived here really diminishes the overall quality of the film. The material the film is based on is moving, but not particularly so that it deserves to be adapted to film. Which is fine, that becomes the responsibility of those involved in the creation of the film, but especially the director's and the actors' responsibility. For the most part, the acting was fine. The side characters felt believable, but, and quite unfortunately, when one performance shines through as exceptional, it really puts a burden on the other performers to keep up, which was not possible. Brendan Fraser became the other actors' white whale while they were trying to create characters that neither had enough life to them to begin with (thanks in part to some lackluster dialog and general characterization), nor had the panache to warrant space next to the main character. It was a story about his relationship with himself and with the other characters, not about their relationships with him, and the performance Brendan Fraser gave was one that didn't even afford the other actors the room to develop and perform their roles well enough to even be compared to his. Of course, comparing a single apple with a cart of cabbages - able to be made into months' worth of food - is futile, but the apple is still an adequate and enjoyable portion of food. Likewise, Brendan Fraser's performance really exists like a cart of cabbage in that there's a lot of it kind of stinks (not the performance but the character, and I'd imagine Brendan Fraser after getting out of the body suit every day).
Charlie is kind of a rotten character - not of his own accord, necessarily, but definitely his lack of self-love makes it harder to empathize with him trying to love someone else. It's certainly relatable, but is very frustrating, and makes for a difficult time watching his arc transpire. That's fine, that doesn't necessarily diminish the quality of the film, but it just made it less enjoyable to watch at moments. Truly, Brendan Fraser's ability to bring this character to life is remarkable. Performance of the decade so far, and I really can't wait to se him explore these more authentic, human characters who give him room to shine and who he can paint in his own light.
So, unfortunately, the sum of its parts is greater than the whole. I watched this movie to see Brendan Fraser's performance and to watch the new Aronofsky film. Brendan Fraser absolutely delivered, but it wasn't enough to make this film stand on its own merit. Aronofsky didn't exactly fall short, but he didn't exactly score what should have been a pretty easy home run either and ended up stuck in that middle ground of being more or less fine. If this movie cast someone else as Charlie and they gave a performance on par with the rest of the cast, I'd have given it around a 5, but it wasn't. Brendan Fraser absolutely killed it, so the visceral enjoyment of his performance absolutely elevated it quite a few steps. 6.5/10.
One Piece: Wan pîsu: Clutch! A Demon Incarnate, Robin! (2022)
Was waiting for this one to be animated
Just to put into perspective the atrocious pacing of One Piece as of late, chapter 1000 was animated into episode 1014, we are now on chapter 1021, 30 episodes (not including the two "specials we got") later. Each chapter is 16 pages without the cover, give or take. That's almost an episode and a half for each chapter. Some anime cover the manga with 4-5 chapters covered in a single episode. If we're lookingly solely at content covered in each episode, One Piece is by far one of the worst anime for making filler, we could honestly say that 2 of every 3 episodes is actual content, and the third is filler, that puts one piece at some 30% filler. And don't get me wrong, I think the trade-off is acceptable since we are getting a new ~canon~ episode every week, but I'd honestly rather have filler episodes every so often simply because it's getting hard to watch and One Pace isn't able to put the episodes out every week, just from a purely logistical standpoint, it wouldn't even make sense to put an episode out every week when each episode contains 10-12/16 pages of the related chapter, so I'm kind of forced to stick with it.
Then again, every couple of months or so, we get an episode where the source material is good enough that, even with the bad pacing, it's worth its salt in the content it covers alone. I could make that case for a lot of the chapters, but honestly, Onigashima is already a bloated mess and we're not even 2/3 of the way through it a year and a half later, when it took the manga in little over 2 years, so we're basically getting six months of filler in an already long and, quite frankly, sloppy raid. It's certainly no Alabasta, and even by Dressrosa standards, which focused WAYYY too much on less than intriguing moments/characters, not that it was bad (at all, quite great, really), but it wasn't as concise as it could have been, and Onigashima is like that on steroids (or Mink medicine). And here's the thing, Oda isn't perfect, he wrote a lot of characters for Wano and these are characters that are cool enough, but, do they ~really~ enhance a story that's already 1000 chapters long at this point, over 25 years in the running? Looking at like Batman or an American comic series, these super long ones at least have divisions, it's not like a trove of new characters are introduced every week and we need to know and keep track of who they are for 30 years. And even though Oda has slowed down, and we're not getting a flood of new characters introduced to us every chapter like we were in Dressrosa and have been in Wano, Oda isn't focusing on only the characters essential to the story, and that makes for a grindier experience. This isn't Enies Lobby or Marineford where there's still a BUNCH of story left to reveal, we're basically in the end game and it feels like we have to care about these random characters who will be inconsequential very soon. This is all to say that when a chapter and episode like this come along, it really breathes new life into an increasingly tedious experience. Again, this isn't at all to say that what Oda is putting out and what we're getting (when we get it) with the anime is bad, even though I wouldn't call Wano my favorite arc, it's absolutely nowhere near Long Ring Long Land, it's just already not superb and we're getting it bogged down in the anime with 33% filler every episode.
So when an episode like this comes along, I really enjoy it. Robin is one of my favorite characters and Oda really made her character arc flourish in this interaction. In fact, Sanji, Robin, and Luffy have all gotten really great exposition in Wano, and this is one of the chapters I think does the most in that respect. Needless to say, I was very excited to see it animated, and even though there was a good amount of sluggishness to what was 12 pages covered in the manga, it was a great adaptation. One of the better episodes we've gotten in awhile, at least of the ones that are sluggish and aren't really produced (like a lot of Roof Piece has been). I get that, too, from Toei's standpoint, they want to throw their money at the hype, especially Luffy's and Zoro's hype, so I'm assuming those fights will get the treatment as well. All in all, when Toei does One Piece right, it's incredible, and there are quite a few chapters coming up (I say coming up, but realistically, it'll be another year before the rest of Wano is animated), so if they do right by those chapters, there's a lot to look forward to even in the middling anime. Because I do prefer seeing Luffy and the Straw Hats, and all the rest of my favorite characters animated with voice and a great soundtrack behind it, it makes the experience feel more personable and more alive. Don't get me wrong, Oda is a great Mangaka and the manga is exceptional, even as a black and white, literary experience, it's definitely one of the better manga out there.
All that I can really say about this episode that I haven't been getting at with the rest of the post is that they gave Robin the exposition she deserves, and even if it was kinda goofy at times, it was still a badass sequence and they did a good job with it. 8.5/10.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Alloyed (2022)
Honestly the first episode I didn't particularly enjoy
The hate for this show is pretty misplaced, generally speaking. Hating it for having fictional beings is absolutely laughable. Hating it because this rendition of unpublished source material from Tolkien and his son is understandable, but really unwarranted. This is a show that is based on Peter Jackson's LotR trilogy, which is based on the books, using material from the Silmarillion as a reference, but unable to use it as source as the Tolkien estate (Christopher Tolkien, specifically) felt even the original Jackson trilogy was an "evisceration" of the source material by pandering to young adult men, fans of the action genre (I agree). So, if you want a reason to dislike this show for not being true to the source material, be mad at Peter Jackson for giving leaving the Tolkien estate with distaste after sensationalizing the novels.
That said, viewing this series through an objective cinematic lens as a standalone series, untied to any works of fiction other than the films, it's quite difficult to call this show "good", but I definitely have a harder time calling this show "bad". The fact of the matter is that there is a hokey, phoniness to the way the story is told. The MCU and Star Wars sequel trilogy (with the exception of The Last Jedi) are both recent, popular examples that also embody this folly. A good story doesn't need to tell you when to cry or laugh, the viewer picks up on the emotional cues by seeing how the actions affect the characters and will cry or laugh as a result, but bad story telling explains how the characters feel and telegraph to the audience how they should respond in turn. It may be my biggest gripe with modern cinema. I absolutely get more enjoyment out of a film or television show that presupposes the audience is at least a somewhat intelligent and somewhat emotionally intelligent, not babies who need everything explained to them or cartoonish levels of telegraphing to evoke a measured response. It's like these huge films and TV shows are written and filmed in front of focus groups or by an AI that assumes the cognition of the audience is equivalent to an adolescent. It's true that films or TV shows that give zero context or insight into the intended response are also harder to enjoy - nobody goes to the theatre particularly excited to see cinema that plays like an abstract painting with no insight given to the audience. There is such a thing as "too avant garde", but that's really beside the point. The point is The Rings of Power is rather guilty of telegraphing exactly what feelings should be evoked by the audience, and that makes it less enjoyable for me.
This episode was particularly guilty of that, and, without saying too much, it also fails on a narrative level as well. We are already aware (assuming no relevant knowledge of the characters existed before viewing the show), of who certain referenced characters are and what their purpose is within the bigger picture, but we're constantly getting hit with narrative "twists" that humanize these (even in the context of just this show) otherworldly characters. I guess since Shyamalan, having huge narrative twists that make absolutely no sense within the context of the plot is cool? Well, it's not, it's bad writing and only people who are emotionally stunted would think these are meaningful, shocking twists. If I broke my arm and had a cast on for 6 months, the entire time causing myself stress and strain in not being able to use my dominant hand, gaining literally nothing other than an itchy arm, then after 6 months I suddenly revealed that it wasn't broken, I was just doing a bit, that would be extremely silly and nobody would take me seriously. That's what's happening with the narrative here. It's simply bad.
Beyond that, the cinematography and visuals are solid as usual. Nothing special, but definitely nothing bad. Even with the "shocking twists" that the showrunners are throwing at us, it's still developing pretty well towards its conclusion, that I think the "bigger picture" of the narrative will eventually mitigate the bad storytelling.
Overall, it ends up being subpar for what this show's given so far, I'd even say it was worse than the previous episode, which also wasn't "bad", but it was definitely more middling and boring than the rest of the show. 5.5/10.
One Piece: Wan pîsu: Straw Hat Luffy! The Man Who Will Become the King of the Pirates! (2022)
Top Notch
Late to the party, I actually just rewatched this episode for the first time since it aired. I would normally write a review right after but in light of the manga I was kind of just watching it to experience the hype, but now that it's been awhile and I felt like somewhat revisiting this part of the story I figured I'd compile my thoughts now.
This is a magnificent episode of anime, and perhaps the best episode of One Piece. It's an adaptation of the 1000th chapter of the same name. I'd say panel for frame, this is one of the very limited number of episodes (relative to the whole) that actually surpass the quality of the manga. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal since every chapter up until the timeskip was a little more raw - less polished and less stylized - than it has been since, so the anime really didn't have too high a bar to surpass, but because the One Piece has been released on a shoestring budget for almost the entire 25 years its been airing, it hardly managed maybe a dozen or so episodes superior to the source. Lately, Toei has been extremely generous with the bigger chapters, and for good reason. Not that there haven't been dozens of chapters that merit a bigger budget and higher production value, but One Piece has grown considerably in popularity in the West over the past handful of years (and continues its trajectory in growing popularity still), so throwing a bone to a larger audience can only stand to benefit Toei. Which, for fans, means that it can only get better to watch from here, or so I'd like to say, but of course due to the release schedule of the Manga, it's impossible to make 1:1 adaptations and still release ~48 episodes a year. All that is to say that this is one of the episodes they really gave the production team carte blanche with the budget, which of course paid off tremendously with the adapted chapter being one of the highlights of the raid so far.
Yamato may be a divisive, polarizing character, but displaying that thread between the old generation's essence and the new generation's drive to usher in a new era worked very well in the narrative. Likewise, Ace, being central to Luffy's character was great to have as well, after all it's probably one of the last times we'll see him have a genuine flashback (not just a callback). But the real movement began with Luffy's arrival. It was a beautiful transition from the exposition of Oden's journal expressing faith in the new generation and Luffy bursting forth to capitulate that faith. He rose, unwavering in the face of the old generation and their hold on the world. He took in the hopes of his friends (who were built on their faith in Oden), and shut down the old generation with his strongest punch (in gear first at least), and with it announced to the last remaining pillars of the old world that he is going to surpass them and become the king of the pirates. While it's the way the episodes tend to end in the anime, this time he said it in the manga, so it wasn't just anime flair.
It worked as the perfect symbol of Luffy's journey so far. He's finally made it to the point where he can face the legends of the world and actually have reasonable faith in himself. He didn't falter and he's contending for the top, and he's contending with the ones at the top. The perfect episode with which to go balls to the wall, and the perfect chapter to truly represent the journey so far.
This episode was both a work of art visually, narratively, and symbolically. 10/10.
Better Call Saul: Waterworks (2022)
Brilliantly Executed, But...
I don't know if it's just me or what, but watching these past few episodes, I'm pretty unenthusiastic about where it's heading going into the final episode. I knew this was basically the only route they had left: addressing Gene, filling in any tiny blanks they had left, doing the cool cameos and whatnot, but I'm just not really riveted by the direction its heading. Jeff and Gene made a good combo and their schemes were fun, but I'm just not really all that interested either way.
And this isn't a comment on the quality of the writing or the execution thereof, but I just don't feel the same pull with Gene's story that I did with the Chuck or Howard or Lalo storylines, and this is after I was really moved by the season openings based around Gene. I don't think it's possible for them to fumble the series finale (and close the book on the BrBa universe) in any meaningful way, but I'm just not as enthralled about going into it as I had hoped I would be.
Again, not a comment on the actual quality of the show, but this episode was pretty much make or break for me with the Gene storyline, if it didn't pull me in, in at least some way, I would feel at least somewhat let down. I do. This isn't really the fault of the showrunners. Everything in the story pre-BrBa has been, in my opinion, better than the story it precedes, but now that we've categorically reached the final stretch, which is the only final stretch there was for this show, I don't know that they really have a whole lot of room left to actually make a meaningful statement the way some of the storylines I mentioned before do. It's not that they necessarily wrote themselves into a corner, it's just that the final pieces of the puzzle they have left to reveal are not shaping up to be particularly riveting. As I've said, this might just be me, because from an execution standpoint, I don't think they've made finer episodes, at least not in a way that really feels like the mold was broken so handily that it's remarkable on its own (i.e. The music sequences like the inflatable tube man one), so on that front, there are really no complaints. This is the Breaking Bad universe at its peak filmmaking, no doubt.
I just don't see, based on this episode, that I can really feel like the series' conclusion was greater than the sum of its parts, which is kind of what I was hoping for with the Gene storyline. There was so much tension in the seasonal cold-opens the entire way that just a single episode worth of Jimmy being Jimmy being Gene being Saul kind of killed that tension. I honestly feel no emotional attachment to him at this point, if he were to die in a shootout at the beginning of the next episode, I wouldn't care. I do, however, care about Kim, whose story is still unresolved. If they can reconcile well Gene's story with Kim's, then I can see there being a lot to love about the series finale. After all, this series has been a sort of convoluted romance between Kim and Jimmy, how they really made each other truer versions of themselves (perhaps worse off for it). But it'd have to be perfectly executed from a narrative standpoint, because, at this point, it doesn't seem natural for Kim and Jimmy to cross paths again, at least not in a way that legitimately pits them together beyond perhaps Kim coaxing Jimmy into surrender or something to that effect.
But we'll see. As far as this episode is concerned, there were great moments all around, some truly hilarious moments and some truly heartbreaking ones, but to say it moved me meaningfully, I cannot. Well-executed or no, I can't in good faith give something an exceptional score if it fails to truly jar or rend or uplift. 8/10.
Westworld: Metanoia (2022)
Complete 180
I wrote in a previous review (episode 4, I believe) that this season had actually used the mess of the past two seasons (mainly 3) as a good groundwork for the new plotline the show runners had been setting up. It's hard to say they didn't have this entire thread built up, but based on the way things played out in the last season, it definitely feels like they felt the pressure of the looming chopping block and went back to the drawing board to completely take on this new season from scratch. Regardless of how they went about conceiving the main story this season, they definitely addressed their shortcomings in the execution this season.
Not only have the twists been unexpected enough that I had little idea of where the overall story was heading, but from a narrative standpoint, they haven't been throwaway, shock-value twists, they've actually benefited the plot (except, maybe, the twist at the end of this episode, but that remains to be seen) in a way that doesn't feel convoluted or gimmicky. In the end, it feels like the twists have capitulated what was (at least in season 1) a thrilling chess match between the park's creators, William and Robert, back into play. However, the game seems to have a lot of promoted pawns and new pieces with nonstandard move sets. That is to say, the stakes have been raised by incorporating more and more powerful pieces, and the variety of outcomes have increased by incorporating pieces that make the play much more unpredictable.
It's an enormous shift in the quality of writing between the seasons and even one significant enough to truly reintegrate Westworld into the canon of compelling television. What's more, here, in (what I believe is) the penultimate episode of the season, many of plotlines come to a head and feel like they are leading to (if not have already met) satisfying conclusions. It might be enough that even the weaker plot lines (Frankie, "Christina", e.g.) were still strong enough on their own that they had already been at least as well written as the better elements of season 3, but that they actually worked towards an even more tantalizing situation already puts this season leaps and bounds above its most recent predecessor, further, that it has proven them worthy of having stuck around and given them due attention.
As to whether or not that will ultimately be the case and that what's been built throughout the season will have a successful payoff remains to be seen, but at least it's been worthy enough of making the first 7 episodes worth watching, and this episode is no exception (perhaps even moreso than any other episode so far this season). Despite any shortcomings I may have felt regarding the final revelation of the episode and perhaps the overall execution of some of the action sequences (which says a lot about a show that basically built itself around flashy action sequences), I still feel this episode delivered on what has been a promising 180 in quality of storytelling and introduction of tantalizing twists. 8.5/10.
The Rehearsal: Scion (2022)
Nathan Fielder is a Sociopath
And I love it. The entire premise of The Rehearsal has been made abundantly clear: to compromise real life situations with the element of foresight. Most people tend to react with a consistent degree of certainty to various situations, no one is going to go completely "off-script" in most situations/encounters. This is where Nathan thrives, it's been the driving force of his career since On Your Side - reading and measuring peoples' responses to whatever he throws at them and responding in turn with his own flavor of improvisation. In The Rehearsal, that improvisation is made to be as little as humanly possible and the situations he enters as rehearsed as possible.
It's the kind of meta-humanity that made the highs of Nathan For You so high (throwing as many curveballs at people to see how they respond and Nathan fine tuning each successive throw to be as ridiculously unexpected as possible). Here, a lot of the guesswork is taken out by Nathan's sociopathic rehearsals. Of course, people aren't machines and will never react with 100% certainty as expected, but insights into Nathan's method show just how far he's willing to go to get that certainty as close to 100% as possible. The show is all the better for it.
I feel this (and maybe the next one or two) episode was definitely setting up for a greater payoff than what was shown at the end (it's obviously going to be a multi-episode "rehearsal") it's just a matter of how much doing will go into the next however many parts to see what exactly the payoff is (as with Kor the payoff was both his confession and Nathan's "confession".) I'm hopeful, but can see how this episode suffered as it focused more on laying ground than anything else. However, the main cast (not the actors or Nathan) had a lot of flavor that made what we've seen in this "rehearsal" enjoyable enough. Most of the laughs came from Nathan's interactions and discipline as a "straight man" (hard to use that term when this isn't a sitcom), but there were definitely moments, as with the previous episode, where the comedy comes from peoples' idiosyncrasies and self-aggrandizement - it seems that the prerequisite for being featured in one of Nathan's shows is the person needs to believe, for whatever reason, that they are somehow cut from a different cloth than any other human, and these "characters" certainly had that.
Beyond that, I will obviously remain hopeful because I don't believe Nathan's ever missed, it is just a matter of how hard he will go in subsequent parts that will determine more the quality of this episode (it certainly would have been nice to see it all at once, but I understand the concerns with an endeavor this grand taking place in a single episode). Also surprising was the length, the last episode clocked it around 50 minutes, so I was expecting the same of this, but it seems The Rehearsal will be a half-hour presentation. Not the biggest loss, but it just means we're going to get less cumulative Nathan being a sociopath than I had hoped. I like the endeavor, I think there is a lot to explore there, but this being the episode that lays out the premise of this "rehearsal" more than anything kept it from being as funny as it likely will be in the coming episodes. 7.5/10.
Westworld: Generation Loss (2022)
Back on Track
While season 1 is a bit overrated (in my opinion), as it was certainly quality, the majority of it was build up to the final couple episodes which had tremendous payoff that really created a tantalizing mystery. I feel they've sort of forsaken that obscurity for "action and drama" over the past couple seasons. Certainly there is action and drama when it excels, but sacrificing what made the show succeed in the first place was a bold move that really didn't payoff.
Until now. The story has set itself up, using the prior seasons, as a means of creating a scenario that is steeped in that same mystery and gravity that made the climax of the first season and the aftermath (when it wasn't just pandering nonsense) of the second season work so well. I feel that most of season 2 and 3's missteps have been addressed in the storytelling and delivery we've seen so far. Yes, there still are those ~edgy~ moments, but that's part of the show's "flare" (like-it-or-not) and only became a problem, for me, personally, when they sacrificed the substance of the writing for the flashy action sequences. Beyond that, and something that has me concerned (as I do feel the first two episodes were more reconciling with the poor writing of season 3 than anything and bridged the story between what was and what it's leading towards) is I don't know how they will manage the pace as they have revealed quite a bit by this episode, but there are still quite a few episodes left. That said, the least I can say, with those concerns in mind, is these two episodes have at least partially redeemed this show and if they manage to keep up the quality, I think will redeem itself entirely if not make it worthy again of the praise it received in its heyday.
The episode itself was filled with calamity, something managed very well over the past couple episodes. With the reveals they've made so far with this episode, it makes some of the more superfluous scenes of the past few episodes make sense, and also alludes to a greater underlying narrative. Again, I'm not entirely confident they can keep it up and make it worth it after they really dropped the ball with the bulk of the past two seasons, but what we've had in the past two episodes has been compelling enough to make me hopeful they can manage (with some degree of forgiveness in the consistency) throughout the remainder of the season.
Beyond that, the reintroduction of Bernard as well as giving Maeve and Caleb an Odyssey of their own is very welcomed. Bernard had always been the doormat, nuisance character that routinely felt like his presence was getting in the way of the more important narrative shifts, but rebuilding his character as some sort of sage has really made his storyline more riveting, which I was shocked at the revelation of his venture towards the end of the episode. It felt like it came together well with a lot of the other narratives we've been sort of scrambling to make sense of in the context of the bigger picture this season.
All-in-all, I'm impressed, if not hopeful, for what the season has brought so far and what it can potentially give through the remainder. Ultimately, it remains to be seen, but I felt compelled enough to write this review. This episode was solid enough that I felt like I should share my thoughts, and in the context of the rest of the series (for which I have never written a review) I'll have to acknowledge as quality I'm glad to watch. 8.5/10.
The Rehearsal: Orange Juice, No Pulp (2022)
Nathan's Shows Are like Kaufman on DMT
It's hard to call Nathan Fielder a comedian because his statements are less often punchlines than they are psychic barbs, poignant reflections of the human psyche. What Nathan brings to television is so much more than some funny jokes or bits; he constructs labyrinthian schemes to test his subjects' and audience's gall - at times, what he puts his subjects through is very hard to watch - revealing in us what he reveals with his schemes, be they hard-truths about the shallowness of our interactions, or the deceptions we use to fool ourselves into believing everything is normal. What his shows offers on-top of off-the-wall, intricate worlds of his imagination, and hilarious interactions with "characters" too outlandish to be fake, is a chasm of introspection.
I hadn't seen the trailer for this show, only a handful of teaser images, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. With Nathan For You, I felt his best 'skits' were those where he truly pushed the boundaries of what people would put up with as legitimate (like the lawyer), but certainly his best work was in "Finding Frances" which delved into the humanity of someone who often cast aside his humanity to get a leg up. It was a humbling experience to watch someone who put on such a façade so often break down their walls and just be relentlessly themselves. Which, in showing his respect to Bill's humanity, Nathan, too peeled away the façade he himself wore throughout the whole of Nathan For You. With The Rehearsal, what lies beneath that façade remains exposed and Nathan is himself, relentlessly, a hilarious person who is masterful at dancing around the typical social cues and truly testing peoples' ability to adapt to whatever psychosocial darts he throws at them. It's truly a spectacle to behold, as the discomfort is intended to stir within the viewer a deeper sense of calamity than what is presented at first glance. The further he drills into the uncomfortable, anxious, tepid underscore of social interaction, the more harrowing it is to watch because it makes the viewer imagine themselves being forced into such an unwinnable situation. Unwinnable in that there is no leaving that conversation feeling like a normal conversation was had, that none of the words were right, that the lens of self-consciousness we feel in high-stress social interactions is bearing witness to every crevice of our being and the spotlight is shining so brightly on us there is nothing, nowhere to hide.
Faced with this unpredictable untenability is what makes his interactions so enthralling, and here he has incorporated that into the very fiber of his endeavor with The Rehearsal. It says a lot that the man who thrives on unpredictability has channeled it so profoundly in this show that is literally about removing the unpredictability from social interaction that the predicted is still unpredictable.
This episode was a rollercoaster, but the entire ride was being in the front seat on that climb to first drop, teetering towards what has to be the launch. Roughly 90% of this episode was that feeling of upheaval before the ride actually starts and you start hitting those loops and curves. What is universally seen as the worst part of the ride on a rollercoaster was painstakingly crafted here to truly make that launch so much more than it actually is. "
The journey was the destination" is only half-true here. Because the journey was a tantalizing beauty, but they payoff was impeccable, which, to be completely fair isn't entirely Nathan's doing. Because this show is "unscripted" by nature, having the payoff actually be payoff and work within the context of the situation Nathan constructs his world, it's actually not something Nathan himself could control, even if he adjusts every variable he can to be in his favor.
What the rest of this show will look like, we may have some pretty solid guesses after this episode, but I highly doubt we'll be able to predict even 1% of the lunacy we're set to behold, and I'm very excited. Moreso because the first episode of Nathan's first official self-driven foray since Nathan For You was so fantastically executed that I now have faith with some degree of certainty that the he's just getting started and what lies ahead is going to be worth every second. 9.5/10.
Better Call Saul: Plan and Execution (2022)
Gould and Gilliagan Outdo Themselves
In the months to come, where Better Call Saul cements itself into the echelon of truly remarkable television shows, this will be one of the episodes pointed to as evidence of the show's greatness. For a "midseason finale", compared to really the only episode that makes sense, "Gliding Over All", this episode is by far the more impactful. The revelation Hank makes at the end of the episode, indeed as with "Plan and Execution" is indeed one that shifts the canvas sideways and completely changes the course of what has been building for four and a half seasons (or five and a half in this episode's case.)
Truly remarkable how something of such levity turned into the headstone that would contain the souls of Jimmy and Kim. Indeed, what was revealed to be their deceit was something that did relatively little harm, but it culminated with a "wrong place, wrong time" scenario whose harm is now immeasurable. The implications this has on the overall tone and writing of Better Call Saul are immense, but it, at the very least, has turned the entire atmosphere into one of morose and taints some of the brighter more congenial moments with a mar of doom. Truly an episode that will, for me at least, keep me from watching the series through such rose-colored glasses that knowing the harrowing outcome of some of these jovial plotlines glues them to the inevitable.
The beauty of Chuck's character is that his attitude and outlook made his death one of calloused exaltation (he indubitably dug his own grave by building the inescapable or perhaps insurmountable walls of isolation that would eventually drive him mad). Not much sympathy is felt for Chuck because he shunned the very world that allowed him his success, the world where Jimmys were allowed their guise, where his peers didn't revere him as a monolith, where his anxieties were tied to his career and not to dealing with the fallout of purposefully maligning his brother. Chuck loved Jimmy, but it was in denying this and failing to see that room exists in this world for Jimmy's antics and that he could even be bested by them should he take them on head-to-head. Chuck very well could have remained at the top if he accepted Jimmy for who he was in the world of law, but he believed that if Jimmy is able to operate in his field it delegitimizes all of the effort and honor and esteem Chuck saw in himself as he saw in the law. By always holding Jimmy to a lower standard, he was able to keep his mind and heart at ease that Jimmy couldn't amount to anything, and it was in this that Chuck saw Jimmy finding success as an afront to his own self-image. If Jimmy could do it, it made Chuck less. What he failed to realize, however, is that sleezy shyster Saul Goodman, if anything made the legal austerity of Chuck McGill that much more legitimate. In a way, having someone like Saul Goodman to undermine and manipulate the sanctity of the law made someone whose earnest diligence and ethical mastery of the law a testament to how prodigious they really were. So, him personally exalting Jimmy of pedigree and using Jimmy's love to lambast this point, effectively forced him to refuse the world of its empathy and drown in a pool of self-pity. It is hard to pity a man whose existence is marked by self-pity, and ultimately when one pities themselves so much they eventually reach the point where it becomes impossible even for oneself to pity themselves, and thus Chuck's story came to a satisfying end.
I won't say why that parallels this episode outright, to avoid spoilers, but to those who watched it, and understand the implication, it should be noted that this sentiment is not shared in light of this episode. It's a good sentiment to have when the main characters are the authors of the disasters in their story, so missing that sentiment after this episode makes it truly a tough pill to swallow.
As far as the episode as a whole went, however, there were moments of cinematographic genius (or stupidity), particularly in the earlier sequences, which really showcase just how much fun this show must be to make for the entire cast and crew. The pacing was stupendous, and I don't think I've felt this season much malaise to knowing how little time was left in the episode, but this episode could have been an hour longer and I would have no complaints. Every second of this episode was thrilling, and every development truly gunning for that endgame importance. With this episode we enter the final stages of the serious, and with this episode, I am, for the first time, extremely nervous how it will play out for Kim and Jimmy (particularly Kim, as we know Jimmy at least survives beyond Breaking Bad.) I'm also left wondering when they season cold opens intersect with the main story as there is very little (roughly 5-7 hours) of screentime left for the series and how those last handful of hours will play out is as big a mystery to me as this universe has ever presented. Surely we all knew Walt would eventually keep from maintaining his façade (technically, he only maintained it for the better part of two seasons until Skyler figured it out), and that it wouldn't end well for many of the actors involved, but only knowing that Jimmy, Mike, and Gus make it to Breaking Bad still leaves a lot of time for everyone else to eat the dust.
Overall, very impressed with this episode and how it weaves into the bigger picture. Still shocked. 10/10.
One Piece: Wan pîsu: Nami Surrenders?! Ulti's Fierce Headbutt! (2022)
Luffy Will Be the Pirate King
Great episode for being mostly exposition. Though we're getting close to some major moments, it's clear Toei is really trying to make these episodes cover as little plot as possible so when we do get those major moments there will be very little in the name of stalling. Seeing as they've stalled enough to get 13 chapters behind when they were close to 8 at one point (around the Oden flashback), I'm hoping it's the case that those important chapters are fit into single episodes and not paced out over 2 or 3.
Wu-Tang: An American Saga: Protect Ya Neck (2021)
Finally
The episode we've all been waiting for. The real beginning of the Wu-Tang Clan. Seeing RZA work his magic on one of the breakthrough tracks of all Hip hop in "Protect Ya Neck" was truly a sight to behold. Beyond that, the fantastic casting and acting makes this episode feel so perfectly like we, the audience, were inside both the minds of the members and both studios. It may be a bit before Wu-Tang really takes off in their dominance of East Coast Hip hop, and certainly some continued trials and tribulations lie ahead, but indeed this was the episode (and song) that actually solidified who the Wu-Tang Clan is and was done very faithfully to the creative process that I am actually impressed both critically and as a creator of art and music myself. I don't doubt that this episode (and series altogether) may someday (even someday soon) be shown in a music production class.
A truly resounding win for the series as a whole and a great piece of musical cinema as well: 9.5/10.
Banana Fish: The Catcher in the Rye (2018)
Beautiful
This will work as my review for the whole series and will be kept short and sweet. Ash is an extremely tragic character whose development is what the series is about. For better or worse, his relationship with Eiji fundamentally challenged his self-worth. The end result of both the series and the episode is seeing someone deal with their deep trauma and learn to let down their guard. Tragic, beautiful, heartbreaking and heartwarming, Ash's story is one that reflects on real feelings and real relationships to tell something much deeper than just the story itself.
9/10, an incredible and breathtaking series that has quickly and easily made its way onto my all-time favorites list.
Rick and Morty: Rickmurai Jack (2021)
Best of the Season, One of the Series's Best
This season continued the downward trajectory of the season 4. I saw a review for an earlier episode (believe it was the incest baby one, which was tremendously bad) comparing R&M as of late to Family Guy - one note bits for an obnoxious plot that serves the series very little, if at all. It seems as though many of the episodes this season fell into that category save for the first couple and last few, which were relatively on par with the far three seasons.
And though season 4 did bring us some great moments (namely "The Vat of Acid Episode", the same could be said for it as well. Seasons 2 and 3 are undoubtedly peak R&M as it were, great internal storylines that are worth referencing later on (such as the memory tubes). No real misses, even "The ABCs of Beth, the lowest rated episode until the Dragon episode, was of at least the low-end of the standard we've come to expect. All this is to say that with the series consistently hitting low marks as of late, these last few episodes and particularly this episode salvaged an otherwise bad season.
What makes this episode particularly noteworthy are the callbacks to the Evil Morty story line ("Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind", "The Rickshank Redemption", and "The Ricklantis Mixup"), as well as the linear continuation of the "Forgetting Sarick Mortshall", which, for what it's worth, while it was a hilarious end to the plot thread of the previous episode, which played a significant role in the overall character and plot development of the series and episodes, maybe ate up a bit too much of the runtime making the (real) finale and bulk of the episode feel a bit rushed.
Furthermore the revelations re: Evil Morty were immensely satisfying. Albeit, while EM's intentions were certainly selfish (and their conclusions doubly gruesome), they were legitimately earnest and likewise honorable. Without going too far into them, it seems like the path our (as the audience) Morty was going down and, although he may have made some moves in these past two episodes to allude that he won't, it may still be an endgame mentality that besets him towards the end of the canon storyline. These facets made an otherwise enjoyable episode extremely interesting and gratifying to fans of the lore.
Which brings me to my final point, which is again more of a meta-analysis than a review of the episode itself, that it is often these lore-heavy episodes that truly stand in the highest echelon of quality content. That said, having been given the general understanding that the main plot line is (apparently) largely planned out and episodes like these seem to occur once (twice ~kind of~ in season 3 episode one when Rick crashes the federation prison into the Citadel if Ricks) every other season it leads me to believe that the linear plot line itself is pretty short and we'll need episodes like "Morty's Mindblowers" and "The Vat of Acid Episode" to really underscore the contextual relationship between Rick and Morty to lay the groundwork for episodes like this. Which leads me to two conclusions about the future of the series: either episodes like this and the contextual episodes mentioned above become the mainstay, or we will end up with continuously bad, progressively worse seasons. It seems like the latter is mire likely as the former would significantly cut down on the episode count of each season. However it works, I will likely only watch the episodes that fall into the category of the former conclusion/scenario, unless there is a huge step-up in quality and return to form in the coming seasons. That remains to be seen.
What can be said for now is this episode was fantastic (pacing issues aside) and I am very much excited to continue down this storyline. 9/10.
The Suicide Squad (2021)
A Welcome Return to Form for the Superhero Genre
Suicide Squad (2016) was a dismal showing, which honestly worked better as a comedy, but encapsulated everything wrong with the genre at the time: shallow popcorn flicks focused on action and gore. The real issue with it was that it tried to present itself as something deeper than a shallow popcorn flick focused on action and gore.
What is The Suicide Squad (2021) if not a shallow popcorn flick focused on action and gore? Not much, but it didn't take itself over-seriously, it didn't try to be more than what it presented itself as: a (somewhat) feel-good, action-heavy popcorn flick. It suffered no rebuke and is all the better for it.
Since The Dark Knight (2008), superhero films have been playing a balancing act between grit, drama, comedy, and action; the latest few Marvel installments are a perfect distillation of that. Infinity War (2018) and Endgame (2019) were canonically overproduced distillations of a miasma of emotional dogwhistles offering very little in the way of legitimate substance, and, of course, they took themselves way too seriously. The most substantive aspects of The Suicide Squad were the action and the humor. The action was about as tasteful as a Superhero movie can provide - Superhero action in live action films is often spectacle over aesthetic: tawdry displays of CG explosions offering the audience no real emotional or intellectual emoluments; spectacle for the sake of spectacle. The Suicide Squad didn't suffer that pittance and the action sequences were immensely gratifying (following the stylistic blueprint laid out by 300 (2006)). Likewise, the humor put forth in The Suicide Squad was largely tasteful in the face of a rise in edgy humor and toilet humor (Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018) are great examples within the Superhero genre), in fact almost all of the jokes landed and relied mainly on self-relevance.
What we, the audience, were ultimately left with was a largely unserious, gut-busting, action-heavy popcorn flick, which is as Superhero films should be, lest they fully commit themselves to the stylistic (as, I imagine, The Batman (2022) will, much like The Dark Knight and Batman Begins (2005) did).
As I see it, there are only 2 modes a Superhero movie should earnestly operate: the mode of deep grit and societal statement (a la Watchmen (comics)), or the mode of unabashed entertainment. Blurring those lines leads to shallow, hokey, and outright tropey spectacle-heavy self-parodies. In this sense, Endgame and The Dark Knight Rises (2012) are some of the least accomplished Superhero movies within the genre, while movies like Iron Man (2008), The Dark Knight, The Avengers (2012), Black Panther 2018), and now The Suicide Squad are some of the more accomplished movies within the genre.
All-in-all, The Suicide Squad was a revelatory return to form for a genre that as been diluted and disillusioned by the tropes that have been markers for success (surface-level emotional depth, over the top spectacular action, irrelevant tie-ins to modern societal happenings, and shallow characters who exist merely plot devices necessary for said action). It was a very welcomed shallow popcorn flick focused on action and gore. In a sense it took everything that makes Superhero movies stale and unexciting and breathed into them fresh life, it really did itself justice by shamelessly diving headfirst into the pit of tropes and came ahead a stronger piece for of it.
7/10, better than most of late, but still a typical Superohero movie.